Chapter 01: Blossom in Exile

The world has become a gloomy place, especially the area around the city of Townsville. While our heroes the Power Puff Girls were in their second year of middle school, thousands to hundreds of thousands of vents containing Chemical X suddenly exploded changing the face of the world for eternity. Cities and towns worked fast to erect walls to keep their citizens and homes safe from corruption. This also caused a rise in crime, putting our heroes on their toes wherever they go. The Mayor soon had to choose an advisor to aid him with decisions in this time of strife.

Of the election, Lion D. Abrams was chosen for the position with an outstanding 80% of the cities votes compared to his four competitors. His long golden hair resembling a mane with a beard to complete the "lion" look, yet it went well with his dignified suit outfit. His very first act as advisor was to suggest the Villain Banishment Act, to keep the city clean of the filth that is crime. They would accomplish this by, as it states, banishing convicted felons guilty of Class II crimes such as manslaughter to the wastes beyond the wall. The Mayor wasn't okay with it, but at the time the pros were alarmingly higher than the cons. So reluctantly, he signed the bill, and it was put into action immediately. Several high class villains that the Power Puff Girls had fought in the past were banished to the wasteland beyond. They didn't like it one bit, but a law was a law.

The years went on as more laws were passed to crack down on criminals. Townsville was seeing a record low in crime with Lion advising Mr. Mayor. The citizens couldn't get enough of Lion and his dedication to justice. The Power Puff Girls hotline began ringing less and less as they grew from pre-teens, to teenagers, to grown women living in their own homes with their own lives. The darkest time would come one rainy day in early January… Blossom was convicted of first degree murder… her victim… the mayor. She roared and hollered that she was framed, but the court proved otherwise with fingerprints, hair, and eye witnesses of her entering his office. Even the professor couldn't believe it, and Blossom was in tears pleading that she was innocent.

At the Criminal Disarm Facility, they used Mojo Jojo's design for a way to extract the Chemical X power from the Power Puff Girls to strip Blossom of her powers. Afterward she went through the full criminal conviction process before being loaded onto a hover freighter to go over the wall to the wastes. She was escorted by her sisters and Advisor Abrams. Once they exited the vehicle, Abrams opened a book.

"As Advisor to Townsville, Blossom Plutonium, for the crime of first degree murder you are hereby stripped of your hero title and banished for eternity." Abrams read from the book before closing it.

"Bubbles… Buttercup… you don't seriously think I did it do you?" Blossom pleaded.

"Sorry Blossom… you can't argue with evidence." Buttercup sighed taking the handcuffs off of her.

Her sisters hugged her one last time before entering the vehicle to return to the city. Blossom fell to her knees watching them leave as the wind blew. In the vehicle, Abrams seemed to be thinking. He then turned to Buttercup with a grin on his face.

"I had a program to propose to the mayor… but now with his death, I'll be forced to take his position as his advisor. I'd like to make you the chief of a new line of law enforcement, Buttercup." Abrams spoke, and Buttercup turned to face him.

"What is it?" she asked.

"A program to use Chemical X to our advantage, despite the fact we work so hard to keep contamination to a low." Abrams grinned.

Back in the wasteland, Blossom had begun walking. The cold wasteland quickly wore on her. Without her powers, Blossom couldn't even see as far as she once could. Her hearing was that of a normal person. She'd never felt so helpless before, and loathed the fate she now faced. Days seemed to go by as she walked and the harsh climate weathered her clothing. She hadn't known what starving and dehydration was until now either. After six days of walking, her legs gave in and she lost consciousness. She expected death to take her at any second, but in her sleep she felt herself being dragged. She managed to muster one eye open, but her vision was blurry so she couldn't make out who was dragging her.

"Do we HAVE to take her? She's the reason we're out here." a woman's voice asked.

"Oh, but if we save her… she'll have no choice but to help… BECAUSE SHE'LL OWE US HER LIFE!" a very distinctive voice replied.

"Fine, but if the first thing she does is punch you in the nose don't come crying to me." the woman's voice sassed.

Blossom lost consciousness again after that, but felt herself being nursed. When she finally had the strength to regain consciousness she found herself in a makeshift infirmary. A lot of the equipment in the room looked to have been lifted from the caravans that distribute merchandise, equipment, and other items between the cities. A door opened and HIM came into view making Blossom panic a bit to find her wrists held by shackles to the bed.

"Oh, do calm down, Blossom… you aren't in any danger…" HIM assured her.

"Where am I?" Blossom asked still shaking.

"You're in Junk Town… where all the banished villains reside…" HIM replied with a grin.

"I'm surprised that I'm still alive if that's true." Blossom commented.

"Oh, I quite literally had to beat Mojo with a bat to keep him from strangling you in your sleep… AS MUCH AS I'D HAVE LOVED TO DO THAT MYSELF!" HIM threatened.

"So why keep me alive?" Blossom asked.

"Simple… we all have to help each other out here, or else we'll all die. I'm sure even you know that something's off with that advisor… it's a little convenient that it was recently changed so that the advisor would succeed the mayor in the event of their death… ISN'T IT?!" HIM hinted.

"So you're saying he killed the mayor?" Blossom asked.

"Not directly… and it's impossible to mimic you girls enough that it'd fool anyone convincingly. Even we're stumped on how you were framed so perfectly without having actually committed the crime." HIM replied.

"You believe me?" Blossom asked in shock.

"Darling, you've punched and kicked us all enough times to know you wouldn't kill anyone no matter how evil they are…" HIM chuckled.

"I'm going on a limb and guessing there's terms and conditions to me being allowed to stay here." Blossom sighed.

"Very insightful… how it works in Junk Town is simple. You scratch our backs… WE SCRATCH YOURS. Complete favors… and there'll be a very special reward in store for you…" HIM explained.

"Like what?" Blossom asked, and HIM suddenly stabbed her arm with a syringe full of Chemical X.

Blossom's body gleefully accepted the syringe's injection. She gasped breathing heavily as it visibly coursed through her veins. It seemed to reinvigorate her body as she easily broke the shackles holding her. She sat up yanking the syringe from her arm tossing it aside. Her wound bled for a second, but then it sealed up. She'd seemed to calm down as well.

"T-That… what was that…?" Blossom asked trembling.

"What we call an X-High… only for your body it restores a bit of your original power. With a dose that small, I'd say about 1.5% of your original power is back, and your hyperactive healing has reactivated at a very diminished rate. Small wounds like getting a shot will heal in seconds… but I'd assume that larger injuries will take longer than that." HIM replied with a sadistic grin.

"I get it… I help you all… I eventually get back to 100%." Blossom reasoned rubbing where she was injected.

"First thing's first… I refuse to have you running around in those raggedy clothes you had on. So I've brought something of my own design… that I'm sure will look… FAMILIAR." HIM grinned placing a suitcase on the gurney with her.

Blossom opened it to find an outfit inside. Dark brown boots made for all kinds of terrain with white socks designed to be perfect for all kinds of weather, black pants seemingly made of a thick otherworldly material despite being lightweight, brown fingerless gloves that go to the forearm with buckles to stay on, a short-sleeved hot pink short-dress made from Kevlar material bearing a large black belt on the waist, and a bright red bow. HIM pulled a curtain over so she could change in privacy. The outfit was like a glove, and reminded her of when she was still considered a hero. Then she noticed a logo on the belt reading "Lu-C-Fer Wastelander".

"Lu-C-Fer? How'd you get your hands on a brand like this? Isn't it ridiculously expensive?" Blossom asked.

"Not when you ARE Lu-C-Fer , darling." HIM chuckled.

"You're behind that brand? Literal fights break out in the holiday season over these outfits." Blossom gasped.

"Yes, well, the brand is called that for a reason… because it was meant to cause fights over its durable yet fashionable appearance…" HIM laughed.

HIM then led Blossom through the upper area of Junk Town. Blossom couldn't believe that they'd actually managed to build a town out of the junk and cliffs they'd found. They then arrived in a shop where the Gangreen Gang seemed to be running the place. All of them weren't too happy to see Blossom, of course.

"Is it ready?" HIM asked Ace, who was at the counter.

"Dunno… still iffy on helpin' a Power Puff…" Ace sighed, and then HIM grabbed him by the shirt glaring into his eyes.

"I ASKED YOU… IS IT READY?" HIM growled.

"Y-Yeah, yeah, it's ready… Snake, the weapon…" Ace stuttered in fear, and Snake slid a black case to them.

"Well Blossom… open it…" HIM urged.

Blossom opened it and immediately backed up. Inside was a weapon similar in shape to a shotgun. It had an odd magazine attached with blue energy pulsing through it. It was longer than her forearm, and the case also had three extra magazines. Blossom was horrified at the sight of it. This weapon was a high-level contraband Psycho weapon, using Psychonic Crystals for ammunition. It wasn't a manufactured model, which meant that it was modified or built from parts they'd stolen.

"Well, not going to try it out? Read her the specifications, Grubber." Ace ordered, and Grubber contorted himself to stand upright.

"The AX-19 Scatter Cannon is normally powered by diamond with lasers refracting 100 times before being focused out to trigger an ion crystal to go volatile firing over a five-foot blast radius ahead of the user. We have modified it to use Psychonic Crystals for a 70% increase in lethality with an increased blast radius of five-feet to ten. It also holds twenty ion crystals instead of the usual ten." Grubber explained before reverting to normal.

"T-This is a highly illegal weapon…" Blossom pointed out.

"Listen, Power Puff, out here it's kill or be killed. All that hero crap won't do you any good out here. We made this for you because HIM asked us to. So you're gonna run errands for us if you want any new weapons. Trust me, this is a peashooter compared to what we can really make." Ace growled.

"Do I have to use it…?" Blossom asked.

"Well, you don't have your old powers or strength. The land isn't safe at all, fraught with dangerous monsters and bandits banished from other cities and towns. We do what we must to survive. So if you're going to earn more Chemical X, you don't get the luxury of choice." HIM told Blossom while strapping the holster to her putting the gun in it.

"I… I didn't know it was this bad out here…" Blossom sighed.

"Well now you get to experience this hard life with us." Billy growled.

"Down, big guy. We need her, she needs us. That's why she's the errand girl for everyone." Ace scolded him.

Blossom spent a while exploring the town as she evaluated her situation. The town wasn't perfect, and some areas needed repairs from some sort of animal attack. She could see just how much they were struggling. It made her think back to living in Townsville. Compared to the hardships these villains were faced with, she was living the good life. They'd even taken in people from other cities and towns who had nowhere to go. Seeing their children be so scrawny from starvation made her sick to her stomach. This was wrong… the Villain Banishment Act was too cruel, and needed to be repealed.

Blossom made her choice after seeing the town's denizens and their struggle. She hated the idea of guns, but to restore herself to her former power and make things right by these people she'd take aim and fire to complete whatever jobs she was given. So she went to see her oldest nemesis first… Mojo Jojo. His workshop was on the higher end of the cliffs. Once she got there he seemed very unhappy to see her.

"What do you want, Blossom…?" Mojo growled.

"HIM's passed the word around I assume, so you know why I'm here." Blossom scoffed.

"I don't see why I should leave my troubles to you." Mojo scoffed back.

"You can choose to let the past stop us from working together, or you can give me jobs so I can get back to normal faster and get that banishment bill repealed." Blossom sassed.

"Grr, fine! You will get one job and one job only to prove that you are trustworthy of jobs from me, Mojo JOJO! I have Harvest Drones in the Ion Mine a few miles out of town. Whenever I have a shipment to bring to the Gangreen Gang, it gets attacked by Spike Hounds before it even gets loaded onto the truck. They feed on Ion Crystals, and they just keep attacking the drones. I need them dealt with! By dealt with I mean destroyed! Understood?!" Mojo ranted.

"Got it. Now how do I get there without dying of thirst and starvation?" Blossom asked.

"Go see Princess in the garage. She has all the engineering know-how." Mojo replied, and off Blossom went.

Blossom was dreading this encounter. The last time she'd put Princess away it was in a less than flattering way. She arrived at the garage and saw legs wearing a mechanic jumper underneath a vehicle. Blossom was nervous, but still she called to her making her comically hit her head on the vehicle before wheeling herself out from under it.

"Power Puff… it would be you that bothers me when I'm busy." Princess growled rubbing her forehead.

"I need a vehicle to take care of a job Mojo gave me." Blossom explained.

"Just why should I give you the keys to one of my cars?" Princess growled getting in her face.

"We have to help each other out. I scratch your backs you scratch mine. That's what HIM said." Blossom replied.

"You're lucky that's true." Princess scoffed sticking car keys in her hand, but then she clenched Blossom's hand around it making it jab into her palm.

"T-That kind of hurts…" Blossom told her grimacing a bit.

"I'd BETTER get it back in one piece, or so help me Power Puff you will BEG to be dead… I just repaired this car after Fuzzy Lumpkins decided to test the suspension, so I had better not have to do anything other than change the tires and refuel it when you get back." Princess growled pointing to a dune buggy vehicle that appeared to be armed with machine guns and was equipped with a roll cage.

Blossom got in turning the vehicle on as the garage gate opened showing the wasteland beyond. Blossom shifted gear and took off into the distance. How hard could it be to take out some monsters? She wasn't used to using a gun for this kind of work, and even then she usually let them live. It'd take some getting used to, but whether she liked it or not Ace was right… in the new world, it was kill or be killed. Blossom made use of the goggles in the buggy's glove box to keep the dust out of her eyes. She was no longer a Power Puff Girl… but an Exiled, and she'd have to change her mindset to that if she was going to prove her innocence.

In Townsville at the same time, Buttercup was promoted to Chief of the X-Guard, a force of elite trained soldiers boasting enhancements exoskeletons to make it easier to maintain order. Buttercup didn't have time to miss her sister, because even with the laws, there was a new criminal on the loose… a crime boss named Ocean.

End Chapter 01