VILLAINS
FIVE PAST TEN
It has been many, many years since I have been affected by Chemical X. 16 and a bit, actually. While I was only technically 17, having been a baby chimpanzee on that faithful day, my aging speed had been tripled from it, so I had aged 48 years in the space of 16 human years. As I have almost elapsed what, according to several doctors, bore signs to my species' maximum age limit (50, and that was in captivity) I know my time is coming and that I won't have much more. 10 hours at most, probably more like eight. And I know I don't want to spend it mourning over my imminent removal from this world.
So I have made a decision. While I wait for a certain person very close to me to return from his duties, I will reminisce over all the important details of my life. From Chemical X to now. And I know that none of it was in vain. For while I myself have not been able to achieve world domination, I have left behind someone who will, and who is already well into said task.
My son, Jojo Junior.
Formerly Buttercup Utonium.
I'm assuming you know of the origin of the Powerpuff Girls. "Sugar, spice and everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create the Perfect Little Girl. But Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction – Chemical X. Thus, the Powerpuff Girls were born! Using their ultra superpowers, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil!"
Mostly true. The only mistake in that nutshell description was that it wasn't Utonium who added C-X (even for me, repeating the word Chemical that many times in a sentence becomes boring. Imagine that!). It was me, Mojo Jojo. Or as I was known then, Jojo. I cannot actually remember the events transpiring around that, other than after knocking in the C-X, I peered dangerously close to the concoction. Enough for it to affect me when it exploded.
After I woke up, I had changed completely. While previously, I was a bog-standard one year-old chimpanzee, now I looked much older. My skin was a sickly green, and my body hair was much thicker. My skin felt mutated, and most importantly, my scientifically mutated brain stuck out of the top of my head. Now, this seemed a curse at first, but later it became a blessing.
Once I had come to grips enough to find a grip on the ground, I stood up. Being in the darkness in a secluded corner, I was not noticed as I observed what was happening in front of me. Utonium was sitting on the ground, looking up happily at three fast moving figures above his head. Ordinarily, I would have paid particular interest to the fact that they were flying, or that they left colored trails behind them. But I was more drawn to the figures themselves. All looking about five, all with Mary Janes, and simple dresses colored black and another color, with this other color varying between each one
The first had long fiery red hair, with a horn-shaped red bow on top of her head. Her eyes were pink, as was the other color of her dress. While I did not learn their names until much later, I was not surprised upon learning that she had been named Blossom.
The second had blond hair in pigtails. Her eyes were blue, same as her dress' second color. While I only found out her name to be Bubbles later, I could already tell that she was the most innocent of the three, at least at first glance.
The third and final one was the most curious. Physically, she wasn't a big variation on the other two, having short black hair ending in two short flips, with her eyes and dress primarily green. It was what was on the inside that made a difference. While I could not make out much else, there was something about her that seemed different. Although they were all born as girls, in terms of personality, if Blossom was half-girl half-boy, and Bubbles was a girl without question, then this one, Buttercup, was a boy on the inside.
I'm getting off the point. As I stood there, watching, I felt strangely lonely. Something inside me swelled up. I longed for a family, but I knew I was not going to get it here. While I later turned out to be somewhat mistaken regarding that decision, it was correct about three of the four individuals there.
Once they were gone, I had snuck out and taken to the streets. This part of the story is dull, other than the fact that I concocted a plan for revenge against humanity, but even that original plan is minuscule compared to what happened more recently in my life. After all, these events did transpire 16 years ago.
Despite using some makeshift clothes I found in the dumpster, along with a paper bag to cover my head and a torn scarf wrapped around my neck that trailed behind me a little, I felt really cold as I lay in one of many cardboard boxes located near a mall. It was night time, and the rain had started only seconds ago. I was perfectly ready to lie down to sleep, when I heard several screams nearby.
Against my better judgment at the time, I made my way out into the dripping water from the sky. Hoisting my way onto a low roof on the side of the mall, I made my way to the opposite edge. Down below were the three girls, surrounded by four pale green-skinned teenage hooligans that called themselves the Gangreen Gang. There was a tall male in a jacket with shades; a skinny tank-topped one with a small brown had tipped backwards, a caveman-like colossus with red hair that covered his eye, and a small Hispanic midget even shorter then me. As the girls stood there in fear, the fifth member, a grotesque hunchback, landed a few feet away from them. His raspberry blowing made all three girls yell in fear.
Knowing the girls would make my plan that much easier, I seized a nearby trashcan lid. I took aim just as the hunchback, Grubber, drew close to them. Putting as much power into it as I could, I let it go. First it knocked Grubber clean onto the ground, putting surprise into the rest of the gang before it bounced off of a wall and took Snake out. Then it rebounded off several boxes, hitting Big Billy straight in the head. The height that it was at sent it spiraling down towards Ace, clubbing him to the ground. It sprang off the deserted truck straight at Arturo, hitting the railing behind him and ramming him onto the ground by his head.
Finally, the lid was coming towards the girls, but it thankfully bounced off of the ground, soaring over them back towards me. I caught it cleanly from the air, lowering my arm down. Only a second passed before lightning flashed, illuminating my eyes and pointed ears. Blossom made to say thanks, but I took off running back towards my hideout box. I could hear them following me, as that was my plan, but I still made it priority to get out of the rain, and to hide my physical looks.
I watched as they drew closer, looking around curiously. It took only a small period of time before they noticed me, and came up, even though they could not make me out. Blossom asked me what my name was, saying hers. Buttercup and Bubbles stated theirs too. I told them to go away, to not look at me. To be fair, at the time, I had only being affected by the C-X three days previously. Blossom said that they only wanted to thank me, and Buttercup remarked how cool the thing with the trashcan lid was, further supported by Bubbles. What stood out was Buttercup's attitude. It was hard to believe at the time that we would ever work together...
"No please," I moaned back, the rain coming down all around them, "I dare not listen. For I have been lashed by harsh tongues for too long! Alas, my little ones, I did not rock. For I, Jojo am... a monster." Lightning illuminated my face and pink eyes again, further heightening the tension of the scene. Blossom passed it off, saying I was no monster, that monsters were evil. At the time, I did not truly understand the concept of evil, so I did not feel evil at all. Buttercup stated anyone who did what I had just done couldn't be evil, followed by Bubbles saying that I was just dirty.
"Please, you're just trying to make me feel better," I groaned again. "But my pain is not for you to understand. Besides how could you? For you are pure and innocent, and most certainly loved." They briefly glanced at each other, and I could tell that they did not feel loved then. While Blossom and Bubbles certainly did later, it was questionable whether Buttercup did for the next ten years. "How could you know what it is to be cast out into a world that only offers misery? How could you know what it's like for people to fear and despise you for the very things that make you special?" They looked down at their feet, clearly feeling just the way that I did at the time. "Because you don't fit in. Because you are... a freak!" I took that opportunity to reveal myself to them, whipping the bag off of my repulsive head. They stared at me for several seconds, looking very disgruntled, before Blossom said they were freaks too, and they rose up into the air.
"What amazing powers!" I remarked. Even though I had already seen them before, they were still quite something to behold. Blossom responded by saying they were terrible. "I bet everyone hates them." Buttercup roughly agreed with this statement. "And they hate you too." Bubbles sadly confirmed this. I turned away from them, my lip trembling from the same reasons.
"I am in the same boat," I mumbled, wiping away a tear as I pointed at my extending head. "This brain is full of brilliant ideas." I sniffled, both from the cold and from my story. "But will anyone listen? No. Nothing in this gray matters. So what's the point?" I slopped my way back into the box, shaking rain off my back as I did so. Almost instantly, I heard them floating back down onto the lower rim of the box, facing my behind. Bubbles said something about people being mad because they didn't understand, while Blossom said if they were given time, they would understand my specialness. But it was Buttercup's statement that made the difference.
"Yeah," she said, "you just gotta believe in yourself." I think that was what solidified it for me. What Blossom and Bubbles said didn't yield fruit for me, but Buttercup's sentence did. I think it was then that I sensed something different in her. Ever since then, whenever the Powerpuff Girls associated with me, it was usually Blossom who seemed to be the one that even talked to me at all, with Bubbles sometimes, and Buttercup rarely. Perhaps that was why people were surprised when we went together. Not me. The other two meant nothing from that day forward. But she did. Or should I say he, since nothing about Buttercup was female except for her sexual organs.
The directly proceeding events were rather simple. I said that my greatest plan was the Help-The-Town-And-Make-It-A-Better-Place Machine. I overrode their hesitation and took them under my wing to make it. Of course I had no intention to make anything of the sort, but there was no need to tell them that. Once it was complete, an observatory atop the volcano in the middle of Townsville Central Park, I gave them a special surprise; a trip to the zoo. While we were there, I used a special camera to implant tiny transporting devices on all the monkeys in the Primate Plaza section of the zoo.
Following the girls' departure later that day, saying that tomorrow was the day that everything would fall into place, I took command of the main machine. Teleporting all the monkeys there, I injected them with quantities of C-X, turning them smart just like myself. I was under the impression that they were my family. I was wrong.
Next morning, after donning one of many new suits the girls had helped me make, consisting of a blue uniform, white boots and gloves, a purple cape, special belt and a glass helmet for my protruding brain, I woke up the monkeys. Letting them out of their cages, I let them out of the observatory and upon Townsville. While they tormented the civilians, I made my way to Townsville Hall, and just as the girls arrived with Utonium, I proclaimed that I couldn't have done it without them. Naturally, the civilians hated them more than ever. Even Utonium distrusted them at that point. Cursed and dejected, they blasted off into space.
Although I was certain that I had won, all the monkeys then proclaimed themselves to be the true ruler. Ojo Tango, Rocko Socko, Baboon Kaboom, the Go-Go Patrol, Hota Wota, Cha-Ching, Cha-Ching, the Doot Da Doot Da Doot Doos, Hacha Chacha, Blah-Blah Blah-Blah, Killa Drilla, Bonzo Bango, Rolo Ovo, Cruncha Muncha, Wacko Smacko, Pappy Wappy, and so many more that I do not even remember the names of all of them. I decided to go ahead and choke Utonium, seeing as he was one of the biggest banes of my existence. I might have been doing it for ever until a beaten-up Cha-Ching landed in front of us. Realizing the girls had returned and found out just what their powers could really do, and that they would find me through all the other monkeys, I retreated to my observatory with Utonium as hostage.
When the girls finally caught up, I threatened to break his neck, allowing me to pump what was left of the C-X into myself. Growing into a giant, I tried to restate power, but the Girls engaged in battle with me. I almost won, but they eventually triumphed over me, proclaiming that I alone was the true monster that day. Falling on some Antidote X, I returned to normal size, although I retained the effects of the first batch.
And thus, the rivalry between the Powerpuff Girls and myself was born.
Everyone knows how our battles went for perhaps the first five or so years. Robo Jojo this, cunning trick that. I grew tired of the repetitive outcomes of our encounters. Every time was always the same, ending in defeat, demise or some other form of punishment!
As the years passed, though, I began to notice a certain change in the girls. While Blossom's and Bubbles' personalities merely grew from what they previously were, Buttercup began to change. She seemed more abrupt, angered and easily provoked. This was most often demonstrated whenever she and Blossom broke into a fight, which was usually fixed by Bubbles. Although I tried to take advantage of this numerous times, they always emerged victorious in the end. Even so, it curiously intrigued me. Were the Powerpuffs growing further apart? Was Buttercup becoming a grouch? I also noticed how, by age 10, she did not seem as popular among the townspeople as the other two.
It was at that point that I began to speculate about my relation to them. Since they were created from ingredients, Utonium was not their biological father. But since I was the one who added the C-X, I suppose that I was the closest thing to Buttercup's biological father. It was just a theory, nothing more, but it was in my mind every day since then. At first I was alarmed that we could possibly be connected, but I grew more relaxed with it over time.
Time, however, was not on my side. By then I was reaching middle-life. My skin was starting to wrinkle, I was no longer as physically adept in martial arts, and flecks of white and gray started appearing in my body hair. Eventually, after several humiliating defeats, I was forced to semi-retire from villainy. Well, only physically. I usually did it with machines and other technology that I controlled from afar. As such, I rarely saw the girls in person from that day forth. I only saw them via telescope.
Only days after this, though, odd events transpired. One morning, after the boy doing the paper round had dropped the newspaper on my doorstep, I noticed a rather interesting article on the front page of the paper.
"POWERPUFF GIRL BUTTERCUP MAIMED IN ROBBERY ATTEMPT"
Sitting down on the couch, I read it quickly. From a press statement by witnesses, and some answered questions from Blossom and Bubbles, I got the gist of the story. They had been stopping some robbers at the Townsville Museum of Rare Artifacts when two crooks splattered Buttercup with some highly corrosive acid. Blossom had left to stop the crooks, leaving Buttercup in pain and agony for several minutes before Bubbles helped her with some water.
"'She appeared in real pain, like a knife was cutting her,' said Bubbles when asked for comments. 'The Professor's still taking care of her.'
'Well, obviously busting the bad guys came first,' admitted a dejected Blossom shortly after. 'But we'll do whatever we can to make Buttercup feel better.'
I almost snorted at this. Even though I did not really care much, I considered it really selfish of Blossom to put some jewels ahead of her own sister. These were very interesting events indeed...
The next time a monster attacked Townsville, I watched the fight through my telescope. It was a rather interesting battle, I will say. Unlike previous similar occasions, the Powerpuff Girls did not cooperate with each other completely. Well, Blossom and Bubbles worked together, & Buttercup worked with Bubbles, but neither Blossom nor Buttercup even acknowledged the presence of each other, instead opting to do it on their own. Because of this, by the time the monster was defeated and had retreated to Monster Isle, more damage had been caused than usual. Afterwards, Buttercup soared away, Bubbles following her. Blossom went off in the direction of their home.
I deactivated the telescope and sat down in the couch in the main room of the observatory, thinking. Although I tried to focus on Buttercup while the fight was going on, I did not manage to get a clear glance of her. I did notice, though, that she wore her hoodie's sleeves fully down on her arms, and that the hood was tightly wrapped around her face. It was almost as though she was trying to shield herself form been seen due to embarrassment from the accident. Or perhaps she had been facially disfigured? Either way, I somehow found myself committing fewer crimes after that. Strange, isn't it?
That was four and a half years ago. The Powerpuff Girls were fifteen, drawing close to sixteen, and I was no closer to world domination. While I was only biologically 11, I was more like 38 years for a Chimpanzee, which would be the 60's for a human. I hadn't done any evil acts in many weeks, and found myself resorting to wasting my life in front of the television, despite the limited comforts it offered to a mutated simian.
Perhaps my time of villainy was drawing to a close, I thought. If this was truly the way my life was going to end, then I was clearly not going to reach any closer to my goal. Without someone to take over the goal for me, I would never be able to make the world suffer the way I suffered. Without an heir, I was doomed. I had been thinking more and more about Buttercup lately, but it was very slim that she would be slipping towards evil. True, she and her sisters were not the direct kin that they once were, but that didn't mean she was going to become a villain, not by a long stretch. Even though she did seem to possess certain anger that I actually somewhat admired, my theory was still just that, a theory.
That fateful morning, I woke up rather late, having been thinking well into the night. After a rather simple breakfast, toast with egg and two pieces of bacon, I turned on the TV to the local news station, wondering if there would be anything on there that would capture my interest. What actually appeared on the television screen shocked me completely.
"We're just getting word that the high school in which the famed Powerpuff Girls attend, experienced quite a scare when one of the Puffs, the green eyed Buttercup, always known for her awkwardness and dark appearance, began to shout death threats, proceeded to blow up the cafeteria, and lastly claimed responsibility for the murder of a local boy named Mitch Mitchelson! More with Rita Rodriguez live at the scene!" There was footage of a damaged section of the cafeteria, along with several scared students and staff. Even though I would have pondered this really quickly ordinarily, I was interrupted by a knock on the door. Grunting to myself, I heaved my way towards it. Still with the remote in hand, I opened it, expecting it to be a fellow villain from the Villains' Council, probably Fuzzy Lumpkins or the Gangreen Gang, or maybe even one of the Amoeba Boys.
Upon wrenching the door open, however, I was surprised to find myself facing someone I did not recognize. Like most humans, this person was taller than me, as I've been stuck at four and a half feet for seven years. They were wearing a simple jeans and a hoodie, with a backpack. The person's face had scars all around the right eye, with most of it formed into a V shape. At first I thought it was the paper boy, alert to the fact that I had been passing him fake money, but now I was rather uncertain who it was. Something inside me told me it was Buttercup, but I dismissed that notion. On the rare occasions we had seen each other, she had been just as vicious as her sisters towards me, so what was the odds she would be here, even if she had just murdered someone and thrown a temper at the school?
"Who are you?" I finally demanded.
"It's me," said the person, letting the backpack drop onto the steel floor that we were on, just after the long, long stairs. "Buttercup."
This is quite a departure in style for me. Not only is this my first PG-13 rated fic (well, not yet, but it will be by later chapters), it's also my first fic that isn't canon with my own, wasn't thought up of by me and is also much darker then my usual style of writing (partly as I'm trying to make this feel like it was written by Villain's author). This is, of course, because it's inspired and based off of Villain, one of the best fics in this whole fandom. Go read Yay Ninja Bob's amazing story if you haven't already, although you don't need to to enjoy this, not by a long shot. While I am getting it written rather quickly, I cannot guarantee that the story will get finished. I know there isn't a huge amount of you that like Mojo a lot, but please just give this fic a chance. It won't kill you, right? And anyone who liked Villain should like this a lot too.
This is a throwback to the golden days of the Powerpuff Girls fandom (2007-2009). Bar the first half of the chapter, and some added sections in future chapters, this is entirely based off of Yay Ninja Bob's story. I hope you get as much out of this story as I did writing it. Please enjoy.