Brand new one-shot coming your way, dear readers. This time, it's a sequel (Gasp! Haven't done one of those yet!) to a Powerpuff Girls story I submitted a couple years back. Highly recommend you read that one before you dive into this one. Otherwise, enjoy!

Disclaimer: The Powerpuff Girls is a trademark of Craig McCracken and Cartoon Network. Any similarities between this and other works submitted to this site is purely coincidental.

The city of Townsville. September 2011. With the evening sun having long since set, the streets were blanketed by a tender silence, broken only by the chirping of crickets and the occasional vroom of a passing automobile. Only a handful of nocturnals can be seen and heard walking the near-empty avenues.

Within the dark of an average alleyway, a hushed two-way dialogue too permeates the silence; a duo converses as brick and concrete enclose them. The first of the two was a man – well into his 30s, stout in physique, and quite clearly balding. The second's form was better concealed by the dark, but from its voice alone, it was undoubtedly a female.

She speaks to the fellow through grinning lips and in a seductive tone. "Now…" she begins in a low, enticing volume, "…be a dear and tell me what I want to know, okay?"

As though under a spell, the man returns the temptress's smile as any and all willpower vanishes from his eyes. "…Anything you want, gorgeous…" drones the spellbound Townsviller.

"Good boy… Do you know where Rose Walker, Aqua Fontana, and Midori Kondo live?"

"…No…"

"Oh, poo," the woman whines as she pouts. "How about places in town where they hang out? Where they go to school?"

"…Townsville…High…"

"Hehehe. That's all I need to know." The woman brings her hand up to the man's face, stroking his broad, stubble-covered chin affectionately. "You deserve a reward for being so helpful…"

Expecting a kiss, the man closes his eyes and puckers his lips.

But the temptress clearly had a much different reward in mind, as evidenced by her shifting from alluring smile to malicious grin.

The hand that strokes the man's chin moves away for but a moment before returning to wrap its fingers tightly around his neck. Looking forward to a sweet-tasting kiss just seconds earlier, the man with the receding hairline was now gasping for air, struggling to break free of the woman's grip. As he's lifted off the ground, he kicks his legs at the air wildly, all the while attempting to pry the woman's claw-like fingers off.

Below him, the temptress only stares amusedly, eyes devoid of all sanity. "Hah… Hahaha… Looking a little pale there, buddy…" says she, trading in her seductive tone from before with a psychotic one. "Huh? What's that? 'Not tight enough', you say? Well, we should fix that. Indeed we should…!"

True to her word, the woman's grip on the man's windpipe grows even tighter, despite his best efforts to free himself. He starts to lose all sensation in his extremities. His attempts at forming words would only come out as incoherent, raspy groans. Before long, the woman standing before him appeared to be nothing more than a large blur.

…A single dull snap was all it took.

Saying nothing else, the woman immediately lets go of the man's neck, allowing his now dead form to drop onto the cold ground below. Her malevolent smile thins, and she appears to regain her composure. Casually turning her back on the man she'd just killed, she leaves the alleyway and steps into the soft light cast by the gibbous moon.

Though the dark of the night still kept most distinguishing features hidden, the temptress had the build of a teenage girl no older than 16.

She crosses the street to a black car parked at a nearby street corner, walking around to the front passenger side door and climbing inside. Without so much as turning to the person in the driver's seat, she softly speaks. "…Townsville High School."

"…I'll make the arrangements," the driver responds with, bringing his hand up to turn the key in the ignition. The engine starts up, and the car pulls away from the curb.

The young woman riding shotgun would not meet the driver's eye even once for the entirety of the car ride. She simply gazed straight ahead, mumbling quietly to herself. "Rose… Aqua… Midori… Kill… Must kill… Kill them… Kill them all… KILL… KILL…"

Project Powerpuff: Twisted Sister

The days leading up to the start of the new school year would be largely uneventful save for the hordes of high school students dashing across Townsville to take advantage of back-to-school sales and complete summer homework assignments at the last minute (as was their tendency). The first 8:00 bell of the semester seemed equal parts uplifting and disheartening for those with last-day-of-summer blues.

As if it were any other school day, super-powered teens Rose, Aqua, and Midori – known to their many devotees as the Powerpuff Girls – glide down from the skies above and gently land at the school's front steps to the sight of their schoolmates flocking into the building two-by-two. Close friends and crazed fans alike were present to wave hello, but considering the girls had been living in Townsville for over a year now, the excitement had abated a noticeable degree. A more than welcome change; to the girls, it meant they had a place in Townsville other than serving as its protectors. They came to be seen as true citizens. They belonged.

Perhaps the most prevalent role that Rose, Aqua, and Midori found themselves settling into was that of family. Just as they'd come to think of Professor Utonium as a father figure, they'd come to think of each other as blood sisters.

…In every possible sense of the term.

While the three loved each other dearly, bickering became the norm in the Utonium household, and more often than not, Rose found herself playing mediator for Aqua and Midori's squabbles. This particular morning was none the different.

"I'm serious, Aqua," the raven-haired Midori starts at her younger sibling, "if you don't get rid of that stupid alarm clock, I'm gonna chuck it into the Pacific."

The youngest of the Powerpuffs responds with a defiant sticking out of her tongue. "You're just jealous 'cuz it's cuter than yours is!", she adds.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's why," Midori sarcastically hisses, looking away for a moment.

With a frustrated sigh, Rose finally chimes in, directing the elder Midori first. "Would you settle down, Midori? You're being juvenile. It's just harmless merchandise for an equally harmless TV show."

"But do I have to hear the theme song every single morning?" Midori presses her palms to her head as though in agony. "It's driving me insane!"

Rose was unconvinced. "Now you're just being overdramatic…"

Just then, an exclamation of "¡AY, MIERDA!" just within earshot is enough to draw the three's attention elsewhere.

Several yards across the school hallway, they take notice of a teenage girl standing before a row of lockers, tugging forcefully at a padlock. The spectacle earns the attention of a small handful of students, but nothing particularly deserving of ridicule. "Just my luck!" the girl cries in her state of crisis. "First day at the new school, and I have a locker malfunction!"

"You alright?"

The teenage girl spins to her 8 o'clock and finds an inquisitive Rose, Aqua, and Midori standing there. She heaves a sigh and brushes a lock of brown hair out of her eyes in embarrassment. "No worries. Nothing a little discipline and elbow grease can't fix."

"If you're having trouble…"

"I dunno. Is it considered social faux pas to cry for help on your first day?"

Rose has a short chuckle as she steps up. "I'm more than happy to. What's the combination?"

"32-17-20."

"…Argh. No dice. Locking mechanism must be warped or something. Where'd you buy it?"

"The student supply store."

"That explains a lot," Midori interjects with. "People 'round here – they buy the locks from the supply store, misuse 'em, and sell 'em back for a few lousy bucks at the end of the term. …One side, 'Red'." Rose moves away from the locker as told, giving Midori room to take a hold of the lock and – with a firm downward motion of her forearm – break it in an instant. Midori Kondo: the human bolt cutter. "There. Problem solved."

The brunette was in awe of Midori's strength for a good five seconds before reacting verbally. "W-Wow. Someone's been drinking their leche, huh? Guess it's name-brand padlocks for me." Settling for carrying her books and belongings by hand, the girl holds them close to her chest and finally introduces herself. "Thanks for the help. I'm Violeta. Violeta Cruz. Papá and I just moved out here from Puerto Rico."

"Nice to meet you," Rose greets. "I'm Rose. These are my sisters Midori and Aqua."

"Hi!"

"'Sup?"

"And on behalf of everyone here at Townsville High, I bid you a warm 'bienvenida'."

"Hahaha! ¡Gracia, chiquita!" At that moment, the 8:05 late bell sounds, cutting the friendly meet regrettably short. With a firm grasp of her books, Violeta turns to walk away. "Whoops! I guess that's my cue. I'd better get to homeroom. See ya later, girls! Find me in the cafeteria at lunch, okay?"

Upon bidding their new friend a temporary farewell, Rose, Aqua, and Midori head toward their own homeroom. Finally speaking up, littlest Powerpuff Aqua says, "I like her. She seems nice."

"Yeah, I'm sure you two'll have loads of fun talking about ponies and friendship and colors and all that noise."

"Oh, for God's sake, Midori, give it a rest!"

The few hours that followed would too pass by uneventfully, and much to the relief of Rose and Aqua, Midori's ranting and raving fit would eventually subside. Perhaps the thought of getting her fill of chicken fingers was a convincing distraction. Whatever the case, Rose and Aqua's ears were spared further verbal torture.

The clock strikes 12:00 noon, and a sizeable portion of the student populace floods the cafeteria. The hungry-eyed Midori was almost always at the forefront of the lunch rush crowd – one of the many advantages of having superhuman speed.

While their eldest sister helps herself to the cafeteria food, Rose and Aqua look around for their new friend Violeta. "…Hey, I see her!" says Aqua excitedly, directing Rose's attention to the far east end.

There, the new girl could be seen regaling a number of fellow freshmen with tales of her old life growing up in Puerto Rico. By the looks on the listeners' faces, they seemed deeply invested in her stories. Violeta had wasted no time at all fitting in.

As Rose and Aqua are impressed by this, Midori walks over holding a tray of foodstuffs. "Wow," starts the black-haired girl with her mouthful, "new girl works fast, doesn't she? Heh. Can't wait to see the look on Tabitha's face."

"C'mon. Let's go see what they're talking about over there."

"…Here's me at Palmas Del Mar in Humacao", Violeta continues, holding up a picture of herself at a Puerto Rican beach resort. "The waves were great that day."

"Oh, what a cute swimsuit!" observes one of the sophomore girls standing close by. "Wish I had one like that!"

"It was a blast! But poor papá got sunburned bad. All week long, I had to deal with him screaming '¡Válgame Dios!'"

The Powerpuffs make their entrance in time for a laugh to be shared amongst the group. "Sounds like you guys are having fun over here," Rose comments.

"Hey, new BFFs!" Violeta calls to the three, almost leaping from her seat. "You're just in time. Check out all the cool places I've been to over summer break."

Aqua takes a small bundle of photos from Violeta and quickly glances over them with Rose. Most of them were of Violeta and an older man posing before landmarks and tourist attractions in Puerto Rico and Florida. She leafs through the pictures with wide-eyed curiosity.

"Is this your dad?" Rose inquires, referring to the man in much of the photos.

"Mm-hmm. That's mi papá. He calls me his 'conejita' – his 'little bunny'."

A collective "Awww…" fills that corner of the cafeteria.

Another fellow student makes a query. "How come your mom isn't in any of these, Violeta?"

"…" Violeta goes momentarily silent and lowers her gaze. "Mamá, she… She died when I was little. In a car accident. It's just me and papá now."

The new girl gained the sympathy of everyone around her in a heartbeat. Some were even on the verge of tears.

"H-Hey now! I didn't come to Townsville to be felt sorry for! I don't wanna be a one-girl soap opera!"

Midori couldn't help but feel unnerved by this scene. She anxiously turns to her sisters. "…Am I the only one kinda weirded out by all this…?"

"What do you mean?" asks a puzzled Aqua.

"What do I mean? I mean, 'Little Miss Perfect' over here went from being a complete nobody to 'Miss Townsville High' in half a school day."

"Some people are just naturally charismatic, Midori."

"Well, nothing about this looks 'natural' to me," she finishes, folding her arms over her chest.

Members of the school football team enter the cafeteria then, and the straw that broke Midori's back comes when Violeta meets the eye of one Mitch Mitchelson. He waves over to her, and she returns his wave with a similar gesture, albeit flirtily.

"Hey!" Midori barks at the brunette. "What was that? You and Mitch know each other?"

"Hehehe. I bumped into him outside my algebra class and we got to talking. Isn't he cute?"

To the temperamental green-eyed Powerpuff, Violeta's acknowledgement of Mitch as 'cute' was taken as a direct challenge. "Aim your goo-goo eyes elsewhere, girly! Mitch is MY boyfriend!"

Put off-guard by this revelation, Violeta rises from her seat and brings her hands up in defense. "Whoa, sorry. I didn't know he was taken. I'll back off, I promise."

She didn't know? Mitch didn't immediately tell her he had a girlfriend? Midori was more ill at ease than ever.

"Um… Okay then. I'll, uh… I'll be right back." Backing out as gracefully as she possibly could, Violeta turns away from the group and heads toward the nearest ladies' room…

…while Midori is treated to the disturbing feeling that comes with having over 20 disparaging eyes stare daggers at her. She answers their glares with only a defensive "…What?"

Upon making it into the girls' bathroom, Violeta rushes to the sink and sets her purse down. She was short of breath and her brow was damp with sweat, in spite of the short distance between the cafeteria and the bathroom. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she notices abnormal black veins sprouting across her neck and forearms. "I used too much of it that time…!" Reaching into her purse, Violeta fishes out a syringe and a test tube with black liquid inside. Using the syringe, she frantically extracts the liquid from the tube and injects it into herself. The black veins start to vanish almost instantaneously, and Violeta found she could breathe easier. She heaves a sigh of relief and looks back to her reflection. The purple eyes staring back at her weren't the same eyes she looked at her schoolmates with. These eyes were cold, emotionless, bereft of humanity.

These eyes would see the Powerpuff Girls dead by day's end.

…Later that afternoon, elsewhere in Townsville, just within the city limits, an assembly of police cars borders the now closed-off alleyway where a man had been killed just a couple nights prior. One officer takes photographs of the body while two others ward off passersby with the standard lines of 'move along' and 'nothing to see here'.

A fourth patrol car pulls up to the scene shortly, and out emerges a police detective. With hands pocketed, he passes through the small crowd, ducks under the yellow tape, and approaches the medical examiner. He glances down at the body for a second before removing his sunglasses to meet the examiner's eye. "What do we got?", he starts.

"Crushed trachea. Strangled before his neck was snapped. Judging by rigor and decomposition, he's been here at least 30 hours."

"We got an ID?"

"Ben Gallagher. Owned a flower shop just up the block. …By the way, Detective…"

"Yeah?"

"I noticed something…strange about the body while I was examining it."

"Strange how?"

"Well, take a look at the sides of his neck. See these imprints? Made by the killer's fingers when they strangled him. But look closely – four imprints on one side, one on the other. See where I'm going with this?"

"You're saying the killer strangled him to death with one hand? Who the hell's strong enough to do that…?"

Before the hardened detective could ponder on this further however, the radios in the patrol cars suddenly come alive with indistinct police chatter. The detective reaches for the portable radio at his belt to hear it more clearly.

"–burglary in progress, Lumina's Jewelry Outlet, West 5th and Main. All units in the vicinity, respond…"

"…Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

Cut back to our adolescent heroines in red, green, and blue as they walk home from school – an odd change of pace – alongside their new friend Violeta Cruz. The brown-haired señorita was unable to contain her excitement over the news that her walking companions were the Powerpuff Girls. "Let me get this straight!" Violeta continues in frenzied giddiness. "You guys are real-life superheroes? With actual superpowers and everything?"

After a whole year of living in Townsville, Rose had almost forgotten how it felt to be idolized by a fanatic. She blushes a little and rubs the back of her head in embarrassment. "Hehehe… Uh-huh."

The fangirl-like gleam in Violeta's eyes was unmistakable. "¡Muéstrame! Show me!"

"Uh… Okay, sure. Boy, where do we start?"

"Ooh! Ooh! I know, I know!" Following Aqua's eager squeal, she dashes into a nearby pet store and returns moments later with a canary perched on her finger. "Check this out!"

"Oh, this is gonna be good," Midori remarks, about to laugh.

"Say hello, little birdie," Aqua says to the pocket-sized avian, prompting it to chirp softly in Violeta's direction. "He says he likes your shirt."

"Heh. Thanks, little guy. I like your…feathers?"

The cream-haired Powerpuff translates Violeta's compliment to 'birdinese', and the canary sings a pleased tweet in reply. "Hee-hee! He says 'thank you'!"

"Wow, so you can talk to birds?"

"Birds, dogs, kitty cats, chipmunks – all kinds of animals."

"Cool…"

"That's nothing!" boasts Rose. "Watch this!" The redhead steps up to a store window, takes a deep breath, and exhales a breath of freezing air that coats the window with a thin sheet of ice. The show-off follows this by hovering a few feet off the ground and using her finger to spell out 'Violeta' in the ice in large cursive. "Ta-da!"

"Ice breath and flying! Awesome!"

Midori simply watches in mild amusement as her sisters flaunt their abilities for the Townsville newcomer as well as her openmouthed reactions to such abilities. She had an innocence about her that made Midori reevaluate her initial opinions about her. "…Hmm?" Just then, a twitch in Midori's ears; the sound of blaring police sirens brings her focus westward. From down the street races a dark-blue car at speeds well over the limit permissible by law. In hot pursuit was a trio of squad cars from which came the aforementioned sirens. From the backseat of the car in front, two masked men rain upon the pursuant squad cars with automatic gunfire. "…Girls?"

"…Right," answers Aqua, already aware of what Midori was going to say. She hands the canary to Violeta.

Rose instructs their superpowerless friend to… "Stay here, okay? We'll be right back." …before facing Aqua and Midori. "Let's do it, girls!"

The blue and green Powerpuffs nod in response, and the three take off together down the street.

"…" The left-behind Violeta watches in awe as the Powerpuff Girls fly off. Once they're out of her field of vision, her smile curls downward, and she takes on a deadpan expression. The canary in her hands picks up on Violeta's radical change in demeanor and flutters away. Brushing some of her hair aside, she begins speaking monotonously into an earpiece. "…Status?"

"I've located their home address," says the person on the other end of the receiver. "Beginning observation of John Utonium. You?"

"Phase 2 complete. I've gained their trust and assessed some of their powers. Commencing phase 3: direct engagement and neutralization."

"Negative. Continue observing and interacting with them. Make sure they can't put up much of a fight."

Violeta's demeanor changes again; she bares her teeth in a wicked grin. "Yeah, that sounds kinda boring. I like it better when they put up a fight…!"

"'X-5', stick to the mission. 'X-5'? Subject 'X-5', answer me!"

The bipolar brunette promptly removes her earpiece and crushes it within her fist. "Now… Time to party!"

Some time into the high-speed chase across Townsville, the police break off pursuit in favor of letting the Powerpuff Girls deal with the fleeing thieves. The two men in the backseat of the car fire upon them with assault rifles, but their bullets hit little else than the clouds in the sky. Rather than drag this on further, Midori rockets to the ground a few meters ahead of the vehicle. Before the driver could react, the car crashes into the green-themed Powerpuff like crashing into a brick wall, and the three culprits come flying out through the windshield. As the men in masks muse over their misfortune, two TVPD officers arrive to take them into custody. Another day, another crime foiled – such was the life that Rose, Aqua, and Midori now led.

"Okay," starts scarlet-haired Rose to her fellow Powerpuffs, "now that that's over, let's get back to Violeta before–"

At that very moment, cutting Rose off midsentence, a petite figure drops down from the sky and crashes onto the robbers' getaway car, wrecking it beyond all hope of repair. The girls leap away from the wreckage, waiting for the dust to clear away so they can meet this new challenger face-to-face.

The figure steps through the dust cloud to meet the girls' gaze. To their utter shock, there stood the new girl of Townsville High School, Violeta Cruz. "Heeeeeeere's BUNNY!"

Reasonably dumbstruck by this at first, Aqua was first to speak. "V-Violeta…!"

Violeta has a short cackle at their expense. "Good, good. That's totally the level of surprise I was going for."

"Violeta," Rose starts hesitantly, "…did you just–?"

"–Drop 80 feet out of the sky and look badass while doing it? You're damn right I did." For her next trick, Violeta lifts the car's remains up over her head and hurls it at the girls. "Catch!"

At the last second, the girls duck down as the wrecked vehicle flies over and crashes to their rear. "S-She's… She's got superpowers!" Aqua observes.

Rose grits her teeth at such a discovery, as she knew full well what it meant. "…Project X…!"

The chestnut-haired lunatic begins walking toward the girls as she cracks her knuckles. "Well… I'm itching to go, so do I have a volunteer? Or can I pick and choose?"

"She wants to fight us?"

"No doubt sent by Dr. Kepler to eliminate us."

"Oh, yeah? Well, to hell with that! If 'Little Miss Perfect' wants a fight, I say we give her one!"

"No, Midori. We're not fighting. She's a pawn of Project X like we almost were. She may not be consciously aware of what she's doing."

"HEY!" Violeta shouts to the three conversing amongst themselves. "No talking while class is in session!" Since no one in the group exhibited a willingness to fight, she makes the first move: launching off the ground and into Aqua.

"Aqua!"

As Violeta drives Aqua backward, Aqua retaliates impulsively with a whirling kick to Violeta's side, sending her flying into a building. Realizing what she'd done, the young blonde quickly shows remorse. "Oh, gosh! I'm so sorry, Violeta!"

Violeta shortly recovers with a dismissive laugh. "Well, well. Little Aqua's not so little after all. That makes things a LOT more interesting!" She shoots forward a second time.

Aqua brings her arms up to defend…

…while Midori swoops in and catches Violeta's flying fist in her palm.

"!"

Then, with an aggressive uppercut to the jaw, she launches Violeta skyward.

"Midori, stop!"

"'Stop'? Are you nuts? She'll kill us if we don't defend ourselves!"

"But–! WATCH OUT!"

The eldest Powerpuff's eyes shoot up just in time to see Violeta dive down at her. The force of her descent sends Midori straight into the ground, leaving a two-feet-deep crater in the road.

With Midori out of commission, the deranged Violeta turns to Aqua. "So, 'Aqua Doolittle'," she mocks, "whatcha gonna do? Sic a bunch of Rottweilers on me?"

"Grrrr…" More out of desperation than of anger, Aqua throws her strongest punch…

…which Violeta catches effortlessly. "Oh, please!" the brunette sneers, reacting with a punch of her own that sends the blonde careening through a glass store window. "…Two down," Violeta mutters under her breath as her eyes slowly shift toward an unmoving Rose several meters away. "Awww… You're still wrapping your head around it, aren't you? That the cool new friend you made today is grinding your sisters' asses into paste? It's an eye-opener, I know."

"…Tch!" Rose steels herself. Mercy was no longer an option. She makes ready to fight…until a figure to her rear takes a firm hold of the back of her head… "!" …and shoves her face into the asphalt. "Argh!" Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Violeta standing above her. So fast, Rose thought. Such speed was beyond even the Powerpuff Girls' capability. "H-How did you…?"

The look in Violeta's eyes was that of pure madness. She'd completely lost herself in the thrill of battle. "HAHAHAHAHA! Come on, is that all you've got? This isn't even remotely fun!"

As she keeps Rose pinned, a thoroughly incensed Midori crawls out of the crater Violeta left her in. "Alright, that's it! Time to put this bunny to sleep!" She rises to her feet and prepares to jump to Rose's rescue, but something holds her back by the arms and prevents her from doing so. "H-Hey, what the…!" Midori turns her head back to see who had her restrained and goes wide-eyed to find…a second Violeta. "…What the hell…?"

"Hahaha! That's great! Each of your reactions is more priceless than the last!"

Midori shifts her weight, grabs hold of the duplicate's arm, and flips her over her shoulder, and slams her harshly onto the ground. Then, with the intent of flattening the duplicate's face into a pancake, Midori thrusts her closed fist downward, only to connect it with the concrete at her feet; the second Violeta had vanished into thin air. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!"

To the rear of the frustrated teen, a third Violeta zooms in, but is quickly knocked aside when Aqua reenters the fray. "What's happening?" she asks.

"I think our adrenaline-spewing friend here can make copies of herself!"

"¡Exactamente!" shout a grand total of five Violeta duplicates as they materialize around Midori and Aqua. "Muy bien, Midori! You get a gold star!"

With her face still glued to the ground, Rose watches helplessly as her sisters go 2-on-5 against several Violeta clones. "Girls…!" She bares her fangs at their original standing over her. "Why are you doing this…?"

"'Why'? That's like asking why a dog chases its tail! 'Cuz it's fun!"

It was no use. Trying to get through to this particular persona of Violeta's was a wasted effort.

Suddenly, an opening presents itself: a twinge in Violeta's head. "Agh!" The black veins on her neck and arms resurface, and her power to maintain her duplicates wanes.

Rose jumps at this window of opportunity without hesitation. She trips Violeta up with her feet and kicks her high into the sky. Leaping to her heels next, she kicks off the ground and takes off after her. She curls her fingers into a tight fist and goes in for the kill…!

But then, a shift in Violeta's demeanor – she looks down at Rose with frightened orbs. Eyes that the redhead came to know. "Rose…?"

Rose gasps. She wavers.

"Big mistake!" The madness assumes control once again, and Violeta punches cruelly at Rose's stomach.

"Gah!" As she reels from the body blow and coughs up blood…

…Violeta clasps her hands together and slams Rose's back, sending her plummeting into the concrete below. Unfortunately, just like earlier that day, the girl's breath was becoming labored, and the black veins were coming in in greater quantity. "Shit! …HEY!" calls she to her copies below. "Wrap it up, would you?"

Realizing they were on a timetable, the Violeta duplicates change gears. The battle-weary Aqua and Midori are pinned to the ground as Rose was, held down by their arms and legs. "Argh! Get the hell off o' me!" the raven-haired Powerpuff growls.

As four of the duplicates hold them down, the fifth duplicate kneels in with a pair of syringes in hand. Unlike the black liquid Violeta had injected into herself, this chemical solution reserved for the pinned Powerpuffs was red in color and runny in texture. Violeta Clone #5 proceeds to jab these needles into Aqua and Midori's necks and inject them with the solution.

"Agh! Dammit, for the last time, get…the hell…OFF!" With the deepest reserves of her super-strength, Midori slams the clone holding her arms into the one holding her legs and knocks out #5 with a sharp roundhouse kick.

Aqua, on the other hand, goes with a classic: incapacitating the two clones restraining her with a piercing sonic scream. As they shield their ears from the noise, Aqua's whirling split kick knocks them aside. "Rose!"

The two Powerpuffs run up to tend to their downed middle sibling. Rose picks herself up out of the street debris in a daze. "Ugh…"

"Easy, 'Red'," Midori whispers, lending her a hand up.

"Ah… Thanks. …Watch yourselves, girls. Who knows how many times over she can duplicate herself? Could very well be the three of us against an army of a hundred."

"Oh, what the–? She's turning tail!"

Rose and Aqua glance upward and, true to Midori's outburst, discover 'Bunny' fleeing into the city. Whether she was beating a retreat or goading them into following her was uncertain, but the Powerpuff Girls would opt to pursue regardless. "Come on!"

The three take off after Violeta together, but a brief bout of vertigo causes Midori to lose altitude and return to ground level.

"You okay?" Aqua calls out to her.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Just…a little dizzy." Dismissing it as a fluke, the 17-year-old rejoins her younger sisters in the air.

In an effort to throw them off her trail, Violeta splits off into three duplicates of herself, and each of those duplicates would split off a second time into two. Having six Violetas to track down instead of one, the girls spread their forces out, each one of them in pursuit of a single duplicate. An inefficient tactic to be sure, but the situation allowed for few options and little deliberation on said options.

As the Powerpuff Girls chase down what may well be phantoms, the original Violeta meets with a tall man in a black suit at a rendezvous point. There, she takes several vials of the black liquid from him and guzzles it down greedily. Upon tossing the empty glass vials aside, she wipes the jet-black water from her lips and catches her breath. The black veins lining her skin disappear again.

The man in the suit – Violeta's 'handler' – reprimands, "I told you to stick to the mission. Your recklessness is gonna end up compromising us both if you–"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Violeta snaps. "No one tells me what to do, okay? You can take your mission and shove it up your–!"

"X-5 obedience program, override. Codeword: 'Orphan'."

The fire in Violeta's eyes is snuffed out by her handler's command. Her robotic, expressionless persona had returned. "…Acknowledged."

"…Kepler warned me you were…unstable. Just now realizing what he truly meant. Status?"

"Two shots administered."

"Alright, we'll finish up here and–"

"There you are!" an aside voice shouts from down the block. Rose Walker approaches the two in a swift walk. "GIRLS, I FOUND HER!" the redhead yells to the sky, and within seconds her sisters arrive by air, eager for Round 2.

"Finish them. Now," Violeta's handler directs, turning to walk away.

"Understood."

"Wait, come back here!" Aqua flies forward in an attempt to stop the man from leaving. But shortly after taking flight, her vision blurs. Like seeing the world through a nearsighted person's eyes. "Ah! Can't…see straight!"

The distraction this causes the young blonde gives Violeta ample opening to intercept her flight and smack her down to earth.

The downed Aqua shakes this off and hops back up, challenging the hollow-eyed brunette in hand-to-hand combat. She throws punch after punch and kick after kick, but practically all of her hits would miss, and those that didn't had little force behind them; Violeta barely flinches, and pretty soon Aqua goes down a second time.

Sadly, Midori wouldn't fare much better. Violeta catches the very first punch she throws and proceeds to jab at her arm, breaking it. "AAH!" A follow-up hook kick, and Midori hits the ground hard. She tries to stand back up, but finds her legs were being insubordinate and was unable to stand. What's more, the pain in her broken arm was excruciating. Why wasn't the bone healing?

"Midori! Aqua!" Rose was horrified to see her fellow Powerpuffs go down so quickly. Violeta didn't even need to duplicate. "!" Her eyes go wide with terror as Violeta walks up to the fallen Aqua with the apparent intention of dealing the finishing blow. "Leave her alone!" shrieks Rose, flying in at high speed to punch Violeta clear across the block and into a brick wall.

"R-Rose…?" Aqua's voice was frail and panicky.

Rose kneels down at Aqua's side. She was trembling and grasping at her own face. "I'm here, sis. What's wrong?"

As Aqua opens her eyes, the cerulean blue in them is seen to have gone partially gray. "I… I can't see! E-Everything's dark and blurry and…!"

Can't see? Aqua had gone blind again?

A few feet behind Rose, Midori is heard screaming her head off. She rolls around on the gravelly street, clenching her arm in pain. "Dammit!" she screams through her tears. "Why does it hurt so damn bad?"

In unbearable pain and unable to stand up? It was as though the two girls had never been treated with Element X. Rose sets Aqua down gently and angrily confronts Violeta. "What did you do to them?"

Despite bruises and dislocations suffered from the redhead's surprise attack, Violeta approaches casually. "Effects of Dr. Johann Kepler's 'X Vaccine'," she flatly explains.

"'X Vaccine'…?"

"Research done by Dr. Johann Kepler and Project X to reverse-engineer the chemical compound known as 'Element X' have led to the synthesis of another chemical compound designed to react with Element X and neutralize its effects on the human body. Dr. Kepler has given this chemical compound the designation 'X Vaccine'."

"Neutralize its effects on…? You took away my sisters' powers? You took away the thing that rid them of their afflictions in the first place!"

Violeta's signature shit-eating grin was back with a vengeance. "…Problem?"

"Why, you…!"

"Oh, don't worry your cute little head there, 'Rosa'," the sadistic Puerto Rican taunts, revealing a third syringe. "You'll be squirming in agony beneath my boot soon enough. I got a shot of the X Vaccine here with your name on it." Violeta suddenly shoots forward to administer the shot. "THIS WON'T HURT A BIT!"

Rose wasn't completely helpless however. With a deep breath and a vigorous exhale, she encases the encroaching Violeta in a thick slab of ice, leaving only her head and left hand (clutching the needle) unfrozen. With this accomplished, Rose seizes the needle for her own.

"…Lucky shot…"

Rose pockets the syringe and picks up Aqua and Midori's feeble bodies – Aqua in her arms, Midori on piggyback. "…" She meets Violeta's eye once more before departing for home, taking extra care not to drop either of her sisters.

"H-Hey! Where are you going? You can't just leave! We're not done! Get back down here, you scared little bitch! Come back and fight!"

…A short while later, at the Utonium household, Rose and John Utonium tend to the debilitated Aqua and Midori as the sun starts to set. Rose places Midori's broken arm in a sling, while the Professor examines Aqua's eyes. "You say," he begins to Rose, "their powers disappeared after being injected with this…'X Vaccine'?"

Rose replies, "Uh-huh. Then their disabilities came back."

"…Then my worst fear has come to pass – Project X is still active. And that swine Kepler is still conducting his heinous experiments under the pretense of 'helping mankind'."

"But how'd they manage to create more Element X so quickly? Didn't the original batch take years to synthesize?"

Utonium clenches his teeth in seething anger and pounds his fist at the wall. "He must've backed up all of Project X's data somehow! I should've seen this coming! This is a disaster!"

"Professor, please! Isn't there anything you can do? Look, I have the shot of X Vaccine that was meant for me right here! Can't you…repurpose it or something? So that it does the opposite of what it's supposed to do and give Aqua and Midori their powers back?"

A remorseful sigh escapes Utonium's parted lips. "I'm sorry, Rose. I wasn't on the original team that synthesized the Element X in the first place. I…wouldn't even know where to start."

As she lay at the Professor's side, Aqua reaches out anxiously for a warm hand. "Professor…?"

Utonium takes Aqua's hand into his. "It's okay, Aqua. I'm right here."

Rose looks down briefly at the solution-filled needle in her palm… "…Tch!" …before shattering it against the wall and letting the crimson fluid trickle down the wallpaper. "Maybe you don't… But I do…!" she states, making for the front door.

"Rose? Where are you going?"

"To find Violeta and get her to fix this. And if she refuses…I'll make her."

…Meanwhile, on the far outskirts of the city, not far from the reconstruction site of the Great Oaks Bridge, a figure sits alone atop a rock crag that overlooks Townsville Bay. "Come on… Come on…!" it whimpers. Upon closer inspection, the entity – Violeta Cruz – is seen injecting herself with yet more Element X. The coarse black veins lining her supple form pale slightly, but they don't vanish completely as they once did, which she notices through a compact mirror. The Element X was slowly losing its effectiveness. "What's happening to me…?"

"VIOLETA!"

"!" The despairing brunette turns around to find a fuming Rose hovering a few meters behind. In kind, Violeta rises to her feet and pushes lightly off the ground, hovering at Rose's level. At her sides, her tightly-wound fists quiver. She half-expected Rose to throw the first punch…but it never came. The ginger-haired Powerpuff only stares intently at her. "…W-Well?" Violeta yells at her opponent. "We gonna do this or not?"

Rose's eyes remain fixed. Violeta's 'other self' clearly wasn't in control for the moment. If ever was there a golden opportunity to strike, this was it. And yet, Rose still didn't move. "You hurt us today, Violeta," she starts. "You pretended to be friends with us so you could get close and learn our secrets. You took away my sisters' powers and left them bedridden. You have no idea how badly I want to hurt you back. …But I can't."

"Huh?"

"I keep telling myself you only did all that as a puppet of Project X. You didn't know what you were doing. And even if you did, even if your actions were of your own free will… I can't raise my hand against a friend."

"A 'friend'? We've only known each other for one day! You barely know me at all!"

"I know enough. I know you like to read romance novels. I know you like to surf at the beach. I know you'd do almost anything for a slice of flan de vainilla. And I know you miss your mother and love your dad with all your heart."

"Rose…"

"Please, Violeta. We don't have to do this. We don't have to fight. I don't want to hurt you."

"…" Violeta hides her eyes beneath her locks of hair. "I know you don't…" she quietly says…

…just before the madness takes hold. "…But I really wanna hurt YOU!"

"!"

Her amethyst orbs filled with bloodlust, Violeta speeds through the air toward Rose, throwing a blindingly fast series of punches and kicks. To the best of her ability, Rose repels her opponent's blows but was unable to return with any of her own. When an opening finally presents itself, she thrusts at Violeta's chest with her palm, driving her backward. Before she could take a breather, Violeta comes at her again with extraordinarily short recovery time. With a shoulder dislocation and a chop to the neck, Rose knocks Violeta aside again, but is ambushed by her yet again from the right side. The fight would drag out like this for the next several minutes, and it became increasingly apparent that Rose's enemy wasn't limited to just one. Over the course of the fight, Violeta had been repeatedly duplicating herself so as to wear Rose down. A gathering of over ten Violetas encircle the weary Powerpuff Girl.

"Aw, Rosa, what's the matter?" the Violetas taunt, feigning sympathy. "You're looking a little winded. Must be awfully hard fighting all by your lonesome. You need to take five?"

Rose says nothing as she tries to catch her breath.

"No last words? In that case–! Argh!" Just then, the original Violeta experiences piercing pain caused by the black veins, and her copies start to shift in and out of tangibility. "Dammit…! Why so soon…?"

"V-Violeta? What's the matter?"

"None of your business!" she barks. Unable to maintain her duplicates, the original Violeta faces Rose alone. "Fine, whatever! Can't make copies or take your powers away, so I'll have to settle with beating you to death with my bare hands!"

Too fatigued to fight back, Rose is forced to endure an unrelenting succession of punches across the face and jaw and knees to the chest. It was a sight that, under different circumstances, Aqua would've shielded her eyes from and Midori would've stepped in to intervene. With a firm grip on the weak redhead's collar, Violeta lays into Rose's face with her knuckles, cackling all the while. "Come on!" she shrieks. "I know you've got more fight in you than this! Fight back! Do it already!"

Rose only gives Violeta a look of pity.

"…Don't look at me like that…" Violeta belts Rose across the face yet again. "Dammit, don't you look at me like that!"

The battered Powerpuff spits up blood and looks at Violeta again, surprised to find tears trickling down her cheeks.

"…ARGH!" Forcibly shoving Rose aside, Violeta looks away, sounding as if something other than the black veins were causing her anguish. "Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT! Why'd you have to be so nice, huh? This would've been so much easier if you were one of those stuck-up 'queen bee' types!"

Rose wipes the blood from her nose. "What are you talking about?"

"This would've been the easiest mission ever – an in-and-out thing. No big deal. But then I had to go and like you! All because you're so damn sweet and everything!"

"Violeta, if you don't want to do this, why are you?"

"'Cuz if I don't, I'm pretty much signing my own death warrant!"

"…"

"…By now, you've probably realized that I'm not…all there," the chestnut-haired girl explains, referring to her other personas while she was in control. "You see, I grew up in an orphanage in Puerto Rico 'til I was about seven."

"Orphanage? But your dad–"

"–Died in the same car accident that killed mi mamá. I have no immediate family. …Anyways, I guess I was pretty shy when I was little – at least that's what my foster parents tell me. The other kids at the orphanage used to pick on me all the time: calling me names, pulling my hair, ripping up my stuffed toys. That's when…the 'other me' first surfaced. I attacked this one kid – little older than me, kinda chubby. Ended up breaking his arm."

"…Multiple personalities…?"

"It was pretty quiet at first – only came out once in a while to blow off some steam, you know? But around junior high, it started coming out more often, to the point where I constantly got into fights at school, kept getting suspended, and couldn't focus on schoolwork. Plus, the meds I was on were working less and less. I couldn't go into high school like that; I'd have been expelled by the end of the first week."

"…So you were sought out by Project X."

"I thought they could fix me, make this 'other me' go away forever. She was ruining my life! But something went…wrong. Not only did the 'other me' not go away, but she was more aggressive than ever. I…I think I actually killed a few people…!"

"!"

"Plus, I gotta keep taking doses of Element X or else this happens." She directs Rose's attention to the black veins on her body. "I know Project X is just using me, but I can't go against them, Rose! I'm a meltdown waiting to happen!"

"Then come with me to Professor Utonium! He can help you, just like he helped us!"

The destabilizing girl shakes her head vehemently at this. "It wouldn't do any good. The Element X isn't working like it should anymore. …I think…this is the end for me."

"No, Violeta, don't say that! Let us help you! We can fight Kepler and Project X together!"

"Right now, the only thing I'm fighting is my other self from taking over again!" Violeta tries her hardest to maintain dominance over her other personas. Glancing down, she notices the black veins had reached her hands and were now fracturing the surface of her skin. Realizing this truly was her end, Violeta reaches into her pocket, pulls out a small metal compartment, and tosses it into Rose's hands. "…Take this. It's the last bit of Element X I have. Use it to help your sisters. Call it…the one nice thing I did for the only real friends I ever had."

"Wait, what are you about to–?" Rose's approach is deterred when a pair of Violeta duplicates holds her arms back.

Violeta turns her back to Rose and starts floating away. "Later, chiquita. Tell Aqua and Midori… I'm sorry."

"Violeta, no! Come back!"

Once she was a reasonable distance away from the city, Violeta succumbs to the intense pain, clenching her stomach. Pieces of her skin begin breaking away and crumbling into ash. "Thank you, Rose…for letting the last decision I ever make…be one I make myself…!" When the pain becomes too much for the girl to bear, she screams a hellish scream to the evening sky, and the energy that had built up within her body ignites…!

…Rose watches in unmoving horror as Violeta Cruz's body is consumed in a sphere of white explosive light. When the clones at her sides disappear as a consequence of this, she flies up into the cloud of dust to find any remnant of her friend that might've endured the explosion. Into her hands lands a charred lavender scrunchie, undeniably Violeta's. The mere sight of the decorative hair tie brings Rose to tears. "…Violeta…" she snivels through her soft sobbing.

…Soon after Rose's return home with the Element X, Professor Utonium fills a needle with the fluid and holds it up to a desk lamp light. "Hmmm… This Element X seems different than what we administered to you girls at the Facility. More…concentrated, it looks like. As if they had the proper resources to create it, but they did so in a hurry. It would explain why Violeta was so unstable."

Rose, with over half of her face bandaged up, stands at his side. "Is it safe to give it to Aqua and Midori then?"

"Don't worry. It wasn't the Element X that made Violeta unstable; I'd surmise it's because she was a 'rush job'." Utonium shifts his weight and injects Midori with the Element X. "In fact, if what you just told me is accurate, the Element X was the only thing holding her together. …The poor thing."

"…" As thoughts of Violeta occupy her, Rose moves toward the window and watches the sun go down all the way. Her vision shifts downward ever slowly, and her eyes happen upon a black car parked across the street. Photographic memory assured the scarlet-haired girl the car belonged to no one living on this block. In the front seat of the vehicle, Rose barely makes out the silhouette of a man speaking into a cell phone. She cracks open the window a little and lets her supersonic hearing do the rest.

"'X-5' has been eliminated… Yes… Yes, sir… Understood. Returning immediately."

"…Tch!"

As soon as he hangs up, the man in the black car fastens his seatbelt and prepares to start the engine. "…!" But the sight of Rose standing in front of the car causes him to drop his keys. "…"

Rose walks over to the driver's side and tears the car door completely off of its hinges.

The man goes cold from dread as Rose proceeds to drag him out of the car and pin him against the car's side. He comes face-to-face with both the teenaged superhero and Professor Utonium.

Rose immediately recognizes the man as the person Violeta was with earlier that afternoon – her assigned handler. "…You're with Project X, aren't you?" she asks the man straight-out.

Fearing for his life, the man answers, "Y-Yes. Is… Is Subject 'X-5' really–?"

"Don't…call her that."

"…"

Utonium chimes in. "The Project X Facility in the Mojave Desert – is it still there?"

"…All official Project X resources and personnel have been moved to an undisclosed location."

"Well, un-undisclose it!" Rose demands.

"…I'd sooner die than do that."

"As much as I'd love to oblige you," the redhead starts again threateningly, "we have a message for your boss Dr. Kepler. Tell him if it's a war he wants, he's got one. And the Powerpuff Girls don't plan on losing."

"P.S.," Utonium adds, "John Utonium sends his regards. And his condolences."

Rose relaxes her grip on the man's lapel, and he frantically hops back into his automobile, taking off down the street just as the streetlights start to come on.

Rose and the professor watch silently as the vehicle falls out of view, turning to each other once it does. The surrogate father places a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. With this declaration of war, who knew what would happen next, what Project X had in store for them? All the same, just as the Powerpuff Girls have committed to preserving Townsville's safety, so too will they commit to preserving the life they've made in it.

And no crazed masterminds – human or otherwise – will get in the way of that.

"O.M.G.! A cliffhanger! Whatever will happen next?"

Yes, I know this story ends on kind of a 'cliffhangery' note, but I dunno. I think it works more in its favor than to its detriment. And before you ask, I currently don't have plans to follow this up with another sequel (one-shot or otherwise). Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Who knows?

Anyway, a few footnotes regarding this story:

(1) I know I'm gonna get backlash over this, so I want to be perfectly clear: I do not in any way hate My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I've seen a small handful of episodes, so believe me when I say I think it's a pretty decent program. The characters are well-developed, the writing is clever, and the lessons it teaches are relevant without being cliché. That said, would I pass up a chance to poke fun at it and its fan base? Hell no. Those guys are weird, and I'll put up with none of their shenanigans. (Incidentally, I wanted to add a scene where Rose and Aqua find out Midori owns a Rainbow Dash plushy, but couldn't shoehorn it in anywhere. Oh, well.)

(2) My version of Bunny could be seen as an amalgam of the original Bunny, Sedusa, and Robin Snyder (introduced in the episode "Super Friends"). It's not what I was going for at first, but I feel it helped push the whole multiple-personalities angle. Furthermore, she's shown to have FOUR personalities here…

– Her original, which she meets the Powerpuff Girls with
– A seductress, which she lures Ben Gallagher into the alleyway with
– A violent psycho, which she fights the girls with, and
– An emotionless follower of directions, which she talks to her handler with

…and displays two unique superpowers: self-duplication (obviously) and pheromone manipulation (which she uses to seduce Ben Gallagher and become popular really fast at school).

(3) The 'X Vaccine' shown here is based on the original show's 'Antidote X', in case that was unclear.

(4) When Violeta speaks the line "…Problem?", she's totally making a trollface. LOL

(5) Violeta's death scene was originally planned to play out differently, but since this story is based on "Twisted Sister", I wanted it to end similarly to the way "Twisted Sister" ended – with a huge explosion.

And that's about it. Hope you enjoyed this little peek into the minefield that is my mind. Until the next story.

…And would it kill you to leave a review? You never call! You never write! I'm so lonely!