Chapter 1. Memories and Intruders

Tifa's eyes shot open without hesitation. She rolled over in her soft bed waking up to the sun's rays rushing into the north side window of her bedroom. She slowly sat up trying to stretch out the morning aches and tossed the sheets off of her before rubbing her eyes as she gave a big yawn to the new day. She had the same dream she had been having for several weeks: a beautiful figure fell from the heavens during the night. But her dream never went further and gave her no answer to the identity of the girl.

Tifa sighed from the routine and turned to look at the other side of her messy room with clothes on the beige carpet and pictures scattered all across her old desk by her bed. She leaned over and scanned the pictures which she had brought out of boxes in her closet –whose sliding door remained open- the night before, wanting to reminisce since her school year had recently started. Tifa smiled at the five children she saw in one after she brushed other pictures away.

Four little girls and a little boy smiled at the camera with an abnormally large tree house behind them with pieces of odd structures like a plane and ship build into it: the ideal and dreamt up result of any child. They would have been viewed as normal with their toy guns in their hands and the armor-made of baseball catchers' gear- over their chests with the letters K, N, and D scribbled on them. Tifa saw her old self with pigtails and braces, and she was happy that she grew out of them and grew into a more mature body. The girl to her left with a subtle smile had long, light brown hair running down her back and wore thick, yellow-framed glasses over her blue eyes. Younger Tifa was wrapping her free arm around the girl while the two girls to her right squeezed into the frame.

A blonde girl was on the other side of Tifa smirking with her shining hazel eyes as her ponytail revealed its messy self on her shoulder. The fourth girl who was naturally tan was sticking her tongue out and had long, fiery, red hair that match her piercing green eyes. The head could only be seen of the boy who squeezed in between Tifa and the blonde girl. The boy's blonde hair matched the other girl's, but his was shaggy and unkempt like his crooked teeth. He was the only boy in the group, but he fit in with the girls even when he had to deal with them when signs of puberty started to hit: signs that were marking the end to their group and life in the tree house.

Tifa found herself frowning instead of smiling for the friends she once had. The blonde children and the redhead were in her past. Tifa would do anything to get it back, but she knew she had to be mature and think of the future; or that was what her father always said. She closed her eyes, let out a deep breath and turned her head away from the pictures glad she was still best friends with the brunette.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the poster of the lost heroine smiling down on her from the opposite blue wall. As Tifa did every time she saw anything to do with the Powerpuff girl, she gave out a small sigh of grief and knew her day would not be a happy one.

"Oh Buttercup, where could you be?" She asked in denial. Deep inside, she felt that Buttercup had fallen, and she did not know how to deal with the end of one of the heroines that saved her life once before. Tifa searched inside her mind to the memory of that significant day.

"Alright kids," Tifa's teacher yelled from the classroom door. Her teacher was attractive with her short black hair and her motherly attitude. "Only fifteen minutes. If anyone is late, they will get a star taken away from their name on the board."

Tifa and her friend had their backs to their kindergarten teacher as they hurried to play outside on the green grass and jungle gym. The yard was not very big, but to the tikes it was a whole new world that they would always cherish in their memories.

"That means you too, Tiffany," her teacher told her with her hands on her hips.

"Yes, Ms. Keane," five year old Tifa echoed without looking back at her teacher.

"Eek," Tifa's petite friend squeaked, "I can't lose another star. Tiffy, you have can't be late again. When you're late, I'm late."

"Then don't follow me, Violet," five year old Tifa responded as she fixed her pigtails. Violet hung onto Tifa's arm as if Tifa were her older sister and tried hiding her face in her long hair when they passed a boy on the swing.

"What , Vee?" Tifa mumbled. "Do you like him? Like like him?"

"No!" Violet screeched loudly and flushed which radiated from her light skin. "He just throws things at me all the time and laughs like a meanie."

"He just doesn't know how you can be the most bestest friend in the whole big world," Tifa smiled at her, and they happily skipped over to a group of children in the grassy area.

"Are the Powerpuff girls going to play?" Tifa eagerly wiggled as she looked around for them.

"No!" One of the small boys said as his overgrown tooth hung out of his mouth. "They always win when they're it." His lisp did not help him try and look as bitter as his eyes did.

"That's not very nice," Violet scolded but the other children were too happy to agree with the boy.

"I'll be it then," Tifa held her chin high the way her mother did. The children agreed but remained nervous because Tifa was one of the fastest children in the class.

She hurried to the fence and hid her face in her hands as she counted to twenty which she was very proud of achieving. She rested her forehead on her arm as she saw the suburban houses on the other side reminding her of home.

"Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen...twenty! Ready or not here I-" She did not finish. Tifa froze as she saw the tall figure block her view of the houses. She looked up and dropped her arms to her side as she saw the wicked eyes with a menacing smile below its sharp nose on its pink face. It was Him, one of the Powerpuff girls' enemies who had supernatural powers. The big rosy colored smile jumped across the fence in its thick boots and grabbed Tifa by the collar as she flung her small arms and legs in every direction, but the five year old was easily lifted by Him's claw.

"Let go!" Tifa cried. "I'll get you, I swear!" Tears ran down Tifa's face as she yelled for her life seeing that the children in the playground were running away into the classroom for their own, but Violet stood still and fearful in the sand of the jungle gym as if she were hypnotized.

"Let her go!" A sweet voice yelled. Bubbles had her hands on her hips as her sisters stood on each side of her while they got into their fighting positions across the playground.

"Now that I got your attention," said the evil mouth of Him in that spine tingling voice, "it's time for me to..." and the villain went on with one of the same evil villain plots, keeping Tifa as prisoner. "I'll let this little girl go if you puffs agree with me. This girl will simply be the first victim. If you do not agree to stop fighting crime, I will go after all the little children of Townsville."

"We will never make a deal with the devil," Buttercup yelled with pride as she joined her sister's side. The Powerpuff girls were too smart for Him. Six arms were much stronger than Him's only free claw. Blossom raced to throw punches at Him in a mere second. Buttercup flew her way to the other side of Him, and the punches flew in a blur that Tifa could hardly remember. However, Violet remembered seeing small balls of pink and green flying around the tall pink demon.

Tifa remembered feeling the soft hands of Bubbles take her from the grasp of Him, and she flew in the air. In Bubbles arms, she never felt so free in her short life. She immediately fell in love with the sensation of the thrill. After giggling and wiggling with excitement which made Bubbles laugh, Tifa looked down at the fight Blossom and Buttercup were winning against Him, all the while fighting the odd sensation of vertigo.

"Don't worry," Bubbles said sweetly, "you're safe now." Tifa didn't have an ounce of fear in her anymore as she smiled down to the fight below them. The battle didn't last a minute, and she saw the figure of Him run away crying in the horrible claws and cursing out the girls. Tifa felt Bubbles descend and her feet were suddenly on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Blossom asked with her motherly tone. All Tifa could do was smile at the three amazing heroines in gratitude as Violet hurried to her best friend's side while Ms. Keane ran out of the class to make sure her students were safe.

From that day, Tifa never lived a moment without thinking about the Powerpuff girls. She dreamed of becoming one although she was already in a hero organization, and she cheered every time she saw them fly across the air leaving the rainbow trail in the clear blue skies as they sought to fight for justice.

Again, Tifa sighed while she looked at the poster of Buttercup in her room. She was now a teenager in high school as were the Powerpuff girls, and a day never went by where Tifa wanted to be like them. She got up from her bed and made her way to her sliding closet. She dared not look in the mirrored closet wall for she knew she would see tangled hair and a messy face.

Tifa got ready in a blue blouse that had a black design of a flower on the left side of the chest and a white skirt that fell an inch above her knees. She made sure the measurements were right or else she would be forced to change into gym shorts by the principal. She twirled around to get a view from each angle as she inched her head to see every part of her feeling more confident to confront the mirror. Vanity was one of her problems however modest she was about her image.

After smiling at herself and brushing her brown hair with her hands and placing them on her shoulders, she made her way downstairs and looked around for her parents in the conjoining living room and kitchen. The silence confirmed their absence. Thinking that they had left for work early, she groaned with laziness and distaste knowing she had to make her own breakfast. She had to serve herself cereal.

As she drank the last of the milk with a drops trailing down her chin, she put the bowl in the sink and looked out the window to the front lawn after wiping her chin with a washcloth. As odd as her neighbors were, they acted like she had never seen them before. Something was going on in the suburbs of Pokey Oaks which was directly east of Townsville. She saw the neighbors out in the streets looking up at the sky while they anxiously talked to each other; some who had despised each other dared to speak as if they were sudden friends. Tifa scoffed knowing that her neighbors were being nosy although she was accustomed to it.

She made her way from the white kitchen to the living room which was openly linked with a wide counter being the only divider. After sliding her feet through the thin off-white rug with spots of stains here and there, Tifa slipped her feet into the blue slip-ons she left at the foot of the couch the night before. As she slumped onto the midnight blue couch -which needed to be replaced and was as old as she was- she waited for her friend to knock on the door at any minute. With a sigh, she patted around for the remote control which would always escape beneath the cushions. She flipped through channels avoiding the news stations which were interrupting almost every channel.

Tifa smiled when she found a channel broadcasting the reality show of her favorite heroines, the Powerpuff girls. "Playing with the Puffs" was filmed by a camera crew who had a rough time following the girls on their adventures, but they had been used to it after they had been filming the girls since they were in middle school. Tifa had not had many encounters with the girls since kindergarten, because as a result of her rescue, their father pulled them out of school and homeschooled them. Tifa felt it was her fault, but villains had constantly relied on attacking the school children to get to the girls.

Tifa took a glance at the clock and tapped her foot, and her silent wish was granted when she heard a knock on the door. Her friend let herself in as was routine and smiled at Tifa. "Morning, Tiffy," she greeted with soft tone that one would never believe could ever get angry.

"Amazing morning, Violet," Tifa sarcastically replied as she shot a sideways smile at her. Violet smirked and shook her head at her bored best friend. The glasses-wearing Violet was in the past and the teenage girl wore contacts and had her long hair in a single, long pigtail. Violet had not filled out as much as Tifa did as the years went by, but she was taller and her cheeks were more defined and her head was less round then Tifa's who was secretly jealous about her friend's attributes. Though Violet was not as curvy, she was constantly told she could make it as a model.

Violet's yellow skirt matched her sleeveless yellow top, and she held out her arms that were in long white gloves. "Like the look?" She quietly asked Tifa, eager for her approval.

"It's cute," Tifa genuinely smiled to hide her mixed emotions of her life. She did not want to hurt Violet's feelings.

Violet sighed as she informed Tifa, "The neighbors are being weird again. Something's happening down the street, so that means everyone needs to know and act likes it's their business too. Maybe it was 'cuz of that light last night. Probably just something bad a villain did. But of course the neighbors feel like they have every right to preach about it but not enough of a right to help. "

"Typical," Tifa chimed as she stood up and stretched. "And you know what else is typical?" She asked as she hurried to the stairs.

"What?" Violet loudly yelled from the living room after Tifa ran upstairs and into her room.

Tifa hurried to her bedside and grabbed her light blue backpack with a patch of the Powerpuff girls sewed over the Jansport logo and the letters K, N, and D written big in red marker below the patch. She snatched the books from her dresser, put them in her bag, zipped it up and strolled down the stairs, skipping the last two.

"I had that same dream," she sourly told Violet.

"Are you sure you didn't see it in a movie? It's too cliché," murmured Violet who was standing with the remote in her gloved hand but didn't take her eyes off the television.

"I'm sure it had to do with what they were saying on the news a few weeks ago," Tifa insisted as she made her way to Violet.

"All people saw was a bright flash that must have been due to one of those heroes or villains. Probably the same thing with last night" Violet gaped at Tifa with an eyebrow raised. "There was nobody left from the light, okay Miss Delusional?" Violet stood up with a smirk and Tifa smiled back. "I wanna check what the weather will be like before we leave."

"Let's just check outside," Tifa suggest as she left her bag on the couch, walked to the door and opened it to feel the cool air slide in. She looked straight ahead to the west and saw the skyscrapers of Downtown behind the suburban homes as they tried their best to fight the polluted air to provide a faded view of their technological beauty. She ignored the rowdy voices of her neighbors who were hurrying into their houses and packing their belongings. Tifa didn't bother looking at the sky for the weather felt perfect.

When Tifa looked to her left, she noticed the garage door was left open and empty. She wondered why her parents left it open on their way to work at City Hall. "Tifa!" Her thoughts were interrupted by Violet's loud voice from inside. "Tifa, hurry. I think you need to see this!" Violet shrieked with panic.

Tifa curiously frowned and hurried into the living room. Violet was on her feet and had her frantic eyes glued to the television. Tifa saw the reason for her fear.

The girls stood watching a female news reporter addressing the nation with a stern posture that was flickering with fear despite her neat kept hair and dress suit. "– have breaking news," the reporter stated in a hoarse voice, "It has been confirmed that aliens have started to attack us from the planet that has come into our galaxy. For now, it is farther than the moon, but it has caused scientists from around the globe to solve the riddle for its quick path. It's moving…"

"What?" Tifa asked with skepticism and hands on her hips. Her eyebrows had never been lower. "Are they sure Ben Tennyson can't handle it? Doesn't his grandfather work with those space agents called the Plumbers?"

"I don't know," Violet whispered without looking away from the television, "Maybe the Plumbers can't handle this…they are supposed to be a secret organization after all, so they probably can't reveal everything."

"No one knows why they are attacking," the reporter continued, "but the President, the United Nations and other leaders of the world are coming together to stop this invasion."

"You're kidding?" Tifa asked out loud with her lips slightly apart, but the shock hadn't sunk in yet. How many times was their city in danger? But why was this time so different? Was it because it was worldwide?

"I first thought it was a hoax," Violet unconvincingly told her. "But it's on every channel and look at what they are showing. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was reported to have been attacked by some green pod that fell from the sky late last night. They also showed one of them in Sector V, and you could see the Kids Next Door tree house in the background. They said they have footage of children fighting off aliens at the tree house with help of that genius boy, a guy who drives that car robot, and the Powerpuff girls!"

Tifa's eyes widened as she heard what was happening. She knew about the Kids Next Door, because she and Violet were operatives in the secret child organization who fought the evil acts of adults. The picture Tifa had looked at in her room was a moment of her team during their last days in the organization. When it came to retiring due to their teenage age, she and Violet were some of the rare few chosen to not be decommissioned and lose their memory of the organization. It was bittersweet to have their friends lose their precious memories of their adventures, but only those mature enough kept theirs in case puberty and the teenage years caused them to hate children and turn against them.

Tifa's other three friends were not fortunate enough to have been chosen and immediately lost touch with her and Violet. The boy's fate was most unfortunate, because he chose to betray the organization and join their enemies, the Teen Ninjas. The Ninja's manipulation led the boy to believe that Tifa and the others did not care for him, and he believed them.

"We have to go to Sector V," Tifa said. It was a place of her past and she hoped it was also in her future.

"Look Tifa, look!" Violet pointed up at the screen and Tifa saw the peculiar star. Her mouth dropped as she saw the bright green star in the dark sky that was recorded the previous night. The station showed footage from all around the world how the star reflected its clear visibility. The green star rested above the Eiffel Tower of Paris, watching over the skyscrapers of New York City, and radiating green light over a city in Greece.

Tifa had to see it for herself. She wasted no time hurrying outside and onto the lawn. With the water of mourning dew on her sandals, she looked up trying to find the star. West over the city? No. South over the ocean? No. East toward the deserts? No. North? Her eyes couldn't blink and her heart stopped beating. She couldn't say a word when she saw it in the northern sky. The big star was bright and clearly visible despite the bright blue sky.

Tifa's mind was too preoccupied to notice the thundering sound of multiple green pods cut through the air above the neighborhood, but she did feel the floor shake from the countless crash landings. She heard the screaming not too long after looking around at the smoke climbing in the air behind houses in the distance.

"What on Earth?" Tifa gasped as she left her mouth hang open. "This can't be happening…"

The screams of people filled the streets as they tried hurrying into their houses, but it wasn't the pods that they had to fear but what came out of them. Tifa's mind ran into confusion as she slowly made her way into the streets in an attempt to help anyone she could, but she found herself simply twirling around in circles to witness the chaos.

As her vision blurred from spinning, she noticed a green figure from down the street pass her eyes. She turned back around and stopped at the view of the eerie creature. Green blobs as big as house pets bounced down the street with red eyes and attacked any human they saw. They looked like mere heads bouncing on the pavement, but their eyes were evil enough to convince Tifa of their purpose.

Her heart started racing as the screams intensified; adult and child. Tifa's heart dropped when she heard a scream from behind. She quickly turned around to see Violet fighting off aliens that had snuck into her house, and Violet was doing a very good job in combat; punching the blobs that left green matter on her white gloves. An eerie bubbly sound from behind Tifa made her bones chill.

Tifa turned back around to see a green alien gather objects and trash in her neighbor's garbage cans. The green blob had begun disintegrating and fusing with the objects, but Tifa's confused mind could only watch as the blob sprouted metallic wings and trashy body with legs growing beneath it. The alien looked like a wasp and it looked directly into her eyes with its own red ones.

Tifa could not be foolish, and she turned on her heels and bolted for her lawn. The view of her doorway got closer with Violet kicking aliens beyond it, but Violet could not match the aliens for one tackled her from behind, and she tumbled to the floor behind the couch and out of Tifa's sight.

"Violet, no!" Tifa shrieked with a hand out to her.

Tifa did not make it to her house. She felt claws grab her from her arms, and she was lifted from the ground the way she was by Him back in kindergarten. She half expected and hoped to see Bubbles carrying her, but it was the alien wasp carrying her higher into the blue sky as the screams of the ground began to fade away.

"No, let me go!" She screamed and strained her lungs, but unlike the day back in kindergarten and due to those years in the Kids Next Door, Tifa knew martial arts like Violet. Tifa grunted as she lifted her legs and wrapped herself around the wasp. She was upside down and again she enjoyed the thrill of the sky, but her legs were wrapped around the wasp's wings and it was unable to fly any higher.

They both started falling down to the ground, but the wasp was not letting go of her arms for its one true goal was to kill any human even if it destroyed itself. Tifa braced herself for the impact, and she closed her eyes shut and felt the wind pass around her body. She started to hear the screams of the people in the streets again and they were louder than before. She felt it was the end for her, and she felt the tears swell in her eyes at the thought of what she would miss, but she knew she would soon be with Buttercup.