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Chapter 3

A New Nemesis

Brick had been thinking about many different things during his fast and uncontrolled flight towards the ground. Many of those thoughts in fact were not so gentle comments about the four heroes who were currently making him and his brothers have a very bad time.

The red ruff crashed with a loud noise and when the dust was cleared away by the wind, he found himself lying on the umpteenth crater.

He quickly stood up, cleaned his long sleeved shirt from the grass, and fired an extremely furious glare at the responsible of his last encounter with the earth.

Blossom did not do anything but smirk in response. She was really loving every moment of this, wasn't she? He would have gone and met her right away to give her a lesson about her behaviour, if it wasn't for the guy who was at that moment floating right at her side. The yellow eyed boy was by now wearing a neutral expression, but Brick had no doubts about the fact that he was liking this as well.

Jerk.

But jerk or non-jerk, he had underestimated him, and so did Boomer and Butch, who were currently busy keeping Buttercup and Bubbles under control. As soon as the girls had joined the battle, the European guy had showed an ability in teamwork Brick had been sincerely surprised of. His different powers let him do things the girls couldn't do, and with their combined strengths they were easily able to take out the numerous attacks the Rowdyruffs had directed towards them.

If he didn't someway change tactics, soon his two brothers would have been left alone against the four puffs. And that wasn't something he was looking forward to.

Therefore, he at first floated upwards watching his two adversaries. Then, he dashed in the opposite direction, towards the other four combatants.

Donnie and Blossom were initially taken aback by Brick's move, but soon they zapped away in hot pursuit. But the red ruff had still a good advantage over them.

Instead of joining the brawl the greens and the blues were currently fighting in, Brick flew over them shouting an order, "BOOMER, BUTCH, MOVE!"

The blue and green ruff immediately left their counterparts and followed their leader. Buttercup and Bubbles began following their prey almost instantly, and in a few seconds the group pursuing the ruffs increased in number. Their speed was so high that in less than a minute they were far from Ultrapolis' suburbs: soon the first treetops of the fir forests began to substitute lone farms and roads.

"Any ideas, Brick?" Boomer timidly asked in mid-flight. He was definitely worried about the situation at hand.

"I'M THINKING!" Brick rudely shouted back, his brows knitted into a nervous face.

"This ain't good…" Butch muttered. Unfortunately, the green ruff's phrase had the effect to jinx it: something had approached them quietly and they did not catch what it was until it detonated right behind them, releasing a light blue explosion.

The Rowdyruff Boys were all thrown away by the shockwave and sent flying randomly again. They fell deep into the conifer forest under the branch cover, too stunned to rebel against gravity.

When Brick finally regained control of his body, he found himself submerged by the undergrowth of the woods. He freed himself from the sea of bushes and leaves and controlled around, only to find his brothers in a similar situation. Whatever that thing was, it hurt.

"Butch, when we're finished with this, you're soo going to get it…" Brick growled.

Butch did not have the chance to retort with an insult like he wanted.

"That's it! You have nowhere to hide! Surrender NOW!"

The ruffs raised their heads only to find the obvious. The four heroes were hovering twenty meters or so above them. Their circular formation blocked every possible plan of escape.

They had got them.

But surrendering to the puffs? Surrendering to the dimwit boy? Surrendering to Blossom? Heck no!

"We're not surrendering to anyone, Blossom. You did not catch us before and you won't catch us today, even with the help of your sissy friend there!"

"We shall see, Brick," Blossom replied before making a move with her right arm. The Powerpuffs begain their descend towards them, while Donnie remained motionless above them. With the idiot up there, the ruffs would surely be intercepted if they tried to make a retreat.

Dang, Brick couldn't help but think. He clenched his fists, or at least did something similar with his fingerless hands, and gritted his teeth.

"Guys, you sure it's not a good idea to surrender?" Boomer said.

"Getting yourself captured and closed in jail is no fun, Boomer," Butch explained, rolling his eyes, but still keeping the puffs under his sight, "and besides, we would have to go under a trial, which is boring. So just wait and try not to get yourself knocked out for more than three seconds."

Boomer stuck out his tongue at his brother, who was too much focused on the puffs to care. Brick wasn't even listening to their bickering.

There must be a way to defeat the puffs. There must be! We… we could-…

Brick's line of thought was suddenly stopped when something bright happened in front of him. Immediately he did not seeing anything different from pure white.

"ARGH!" Boomer screamed in surprise.

"The heck is this?! I can't see anything!" Butch cursed out loud.

Brick would have said something even more vulgar, but he stopped himself when he heard voices above him.

"Blossom, Buttercup! I can't see anything!"

"Fall back!"

"Darn it!"

Whatever type of flashbang detonation had blinded the ruffs, it had had the same effects on the puffs, so there was still hope to get out of there. Now, if only he could recover his vision before the girls did…

When the white colour finally began to fade, Brick was met by a wall of grey particles. Apparently the responsible of the dazzling explosion had decided to thrown in some smoke bombs just in case.

Brick frowned. He couldn't see anything through the smoke screen, not even using his supervision. Whatever type of fume it was, it was made to be extremely thick and hard to see through. There was only one way to find his brothers.

He sighed before calling up, "Boomer! Butch!"

"We're here, Brick! We're arriving!" Butch's voice answered. In no time the two remaining ruffs met him.

"Any idea what's going on?" the green ruff inquired.

"No, but I'm not going to question it until it helps us. C'mon, let's get out of-"

"ROWDYRUFF BOYS!"

The voice, while electronic and disturbed by interferences, was impossible not to be recognized.

"Mojo?" Brick didn't see this coming even in the worst of his expectations.

"Yes, it is I, Mojo Jojo, who is currently not there, as you can see," Mojo Jojo's voice informed as the silhouette of a flying drone appeared in front of the Rowdyruffs, "and I'm here to get all of you out of this particularly delicate situation!"

"Umph, like we need your help, Mojo. We're not following you, period!" Brick snarled, Butch and Boomer nodding in unison. They all just wanted to go home, even if their current home was the nth house they had shooed the owner from.

"Mmmh, so you just want to go on yourselves, while the Powerpuff Girls and the boy known as Donnie are in the surroundings, outnumbering you?" the drone emitted, the eye of the camera staring at them.

Brick put an hand on his forefront. He hated it when Mojo was right.

"Alright, alright. Lead the way, but no funny things!" Brick struggled to say. He would have sworn that he saw the monkey grinning behind the camera's lent.

"Good to see your neurons are still functional. You'll soon come to know what a superior being as me is doing in Europe, while I…"

"Yeah yeah, Mojo, whatever…" Butch cut down the sentence. The camera rotated to face the green ruff, something that could be interpreted as annoyance, but the drone remained silent. Therefore, the ruffs and the drone soon left the area, oblivious to what was going on inside the mist.


…"Fall back!" Blossom shouted as he instinctively brought an hand in front of her in an attempt to protect herself, the other too busy in covering her blinded eyes.

"Darn it! Darn it!" Buttercup roared, not happy to see her sight stolen from her. Bubbles was in a similar situation, as she was trying to reach forward in order to prevent herself from colliding with the tree branches around them. None of them was able to see where the others ones were.

"Girls! Donnie! Get down, towards the ground! We can't afford being separated!" Blossom shouted as she began descending without exactly knowing where she was going, while praying that her sisters and her friend had followed her suggestion.

Soon, her mary janes touched the sparse grass of the undergrowth, and she was surprised to see the vision already returning to her eyes. To her dismay, however, she found that whatever, or whoever, had caused the flash explosion had decided to throw in a smoke screen as well. Not even her supervision could work, the dust was too thick.

"Bubbles! Butter-!" Blossom began calling, but she was cut off.

"Hang on, leader girl!" Buttercup's voice boomed, and a second later the shadow of the green puff appeared through the fog.

"Where's Bubbles? And Donnie?" Blossom instinctively said when she saw that the brunette was alone.

"I hoped you would tell me, Red. No idea…" Buttercup replied, her gaze never leaving her surroundings. She was obviously expecting an attack any moment, and Blossom had to admit she had every right to do it. No one could tell what, or who, could have caused this change in the situation, and why it did.

"Okay, let's move and find them then," she ordered. Buttercup nodded, and together the two girls began moving, floating a feet away from the ground in complete silence, one watching the other's back. Soon the two puffs realized that the smoke, while abnormally thick, was failing to remain dense over time. It was a windy day, and soon the breezes began to slowly clear the air, thus increasing the girls' field of view.

"Bubbles! Donnie!" Blossom continued to call up, as remains of the smoke screen were still preventing her from giving a full check of the surroundings. No one answered back, and for what were two minutes but the girls felt like hours nothing happened.

That was, until they heard a noise. The sound of metal colliding with a human skull.

Blossom and Buttercup didn't even have to tell each other what they were going to do. The two girls went off like a shot towards the source of the sound. Whatever had caused it didn't have realistically the time to get out of the way before the arrival of the puffs.

When an human form began to be almost visible in front of them, however, the two girls took different routes of action. Blossom stopped, and she would have told her sister to do the same if she had the time.

Buttercup was however of another idea: she wasn't letting the surprise factor fade away so easily, and her speed did not lower of any unit. Thus, she disappeared into the fog and with a war cry charged at the figure.

Blossom cringed when she heard again the same, exact sound from before, only louder and definitely nearer. She braced herself and resisted the urge to come to the help of her sister, even with the sound of a tree log cracking under an impact. That was mainly due to the fact that the stranger had decided to move right towards her, finally revealing himself.

Blossom glared at the man who was now standing in front of her. The male adult looked much older than Professor Utonium. Wrinkles all over his face and a cover of grey hair left no doubts about his age… apparently. The girl would have given him no less than sixty years old. He wore an extremely simple lab coat which was shorter than the one used by her creator, fact that revealed a pair of black working trousers. He was wearing a pair of glasses as well, an extremely old model without temples.

He did not look dangerous for the Powerpuff Girl, not at all. But there were other characteristics that she had failed to notice with her initial analysis, things that put her on guard about him despite its weak appearance.

It was not possible to see his human-flesh hands and feet. In place of the first two, he had what appeared to be robotic-looking appendixes made out of steel which resembled in every way to a human hand. The feet had someway got a similar treatment as the man was wearing what looked like shining metal boots. There was no way to tell if those things were covering his hands and feet or if they were in place of them.

Blossom tensed when she saw the man move one of his robotic hands. The appendix made a sound easily recognizable as the screeching of metal against metal, but other than that the movement and articulation of the hand were perfectly natural. He then simply fixed his glasses, no doubt in order to get a better look at the girl.

That was when she looked at him right into his eyes. She didn't find hatred, or hostility… nothing of the emotions she was used to feel when she looked at her enemies. His gaze was completely and utterly neutral, like she didn't even exist in the world.

"Hello," the man began, astonishing the redhead even more with apparent good manners and a tone compatible with his expression. His voice was rough, as the one of someone who had seen too much in his life: "I'm sorry for what I've just done. Still, know that when you follow your path, there are obstacles that have to be surpassed, whatever the cost is. Your sisters were an obstacle in my path, and I sincerely hope you won't be as foolish as they were."

That said, the man turned his back to Blossom and began walking away, without further explanations.

"Hey!" the powerpuff leader called in annoyance, "What did you do to my sisters? Who are you? What do you want with-?"

She stopped in mid-sentence when she noticed that the right arm of the man was currently enveloped around something. She immediately recognized the colour of the hair.

"Donnie! Leave him alone!" Blossom shouted with a commanding tone, but the walking man did not slow down. She was left with no choice: she had to go and stop him… she couldn't just let him get away with Donnie!

Blossom flew up a little bit before charging at the scientist-looking human. She prepared herself for everything the man could have prepared for her.

But she was not prepared for what he ultimately did.

The man did not turn to face Blossom until the very last moment. The speed with which he rotated his body was inhuman, something Blossom believed to be exclusive to puffs. Inhuman was also the speed of the fist that arrived to greet her forehead. There was no time to react, and the metal collided with her cranium at the max of its strength.

At first, Blossom had thought that her superpowers would have protected her from this attack, but she was wrong. The sheer force of the punch was completely out of parameter: she was sent flying back, alright, but her vision instantly became blurry and an extremely painful headache began to torment her head.

Thus, when she landed far away from where the man was located, Blossom did not immediately get up to fight. She was dazzled, astonished and stunned at the same time. She wasn't even sure if she had passed out or not.

Soon, the headache began to lessen its grip, and Blossom could make out something in front of her. Unfortunately, it was the face of the man himself.

She instinctively moved back only to find herself pinned. A metallic boot blocked her feet and therefore every possibility of movement. Too stunned to put up some type of resistance, she remained motionless lying on the ground. Trapped.

"Humph," the man hummed before smiling. Not an evil smile, mind you. It was an amused smile, like he found all of this kind of funny.

"You may have your chance to fight, Blossom Utonium, as people like to call you," the scientist continued, "but that may not happen now. It is not expected to happen in my plans, and when something isn't in my plans, it won't happen, period."

The man stood up, as he was bending over her. He still had Donnie, who was definitely knocked out, firm under his arm; "Do not get yourself in my way again. If I'll ever need your presence, I'll tell you. If you fail to listen to my words… trust me, you'll regret it."

That said, the main suddenly attacked and another metal fist landed a hit, this time directly on Blossom's face. If the first one had caused her to be out of commission for half a minute, this second strike had the effect to make her black out on contact.


Blossom?

Blossom!

"Blossom! Wake up! C'mon, leader girl!"

Slowly, Blossom made her return to the world of the living. She opened her eyes only to close them back due to the excessive brightness of the light. "…Buttercup?" she whispered, "are you all right?".

"Yeah, it's me, and Bubbles is with me," the brunette informed, "we have a stinking headache, but apart from that we're okay."

"What about you, Blossom?" Bubbles said worriedly, "can you stand up?"

Blossom tried to at least sit up, and she was pleased to discover that her muscles were working and her skeleton was still in one piece. She stood up before eventually recovering her sight.

Her sisters had both an hand over their foreheads, but other than that, they seemed okay.

"I'm fine… I think…" Blossom said. She wasn't convinced about it herself, given the fact that she felt like one hundres of vans frantically going around in her head, but she resisted the urge to soothe her head. There was a metallic taste in her mouth as well.

"You know we have a whole lot of questions to ask, do you?" Buttercup stated matter-of-factly.

"I've thought so. What about the Rowdyruffs?" the redhead began.

"Disappeared," Bubbles answered, "no clue on where they've gone."

"I bet the crybabies have left just when the flash thing blinded us. Losers…" Buttercup muttered.

"Speaking of 'flash thing', what happened to you two?" Blossom asked.

"Bubbles does not remember anything but seeing pure white. She must have been knocked out before she could even see something through the smoke. As for me, well, you should have seen it yourself. Do you remember?"

"…I do." Blossom said, frowning as she struggled to recover her momentarily distorted memories," ...I remember him, too…"

"Who? The one who attacked us?"

"Yes, Buttercup. Some type of scientist, I think… he was extremely strong and fast, I don't know how he was able to do that… he said to not mess with his plans, or something like that."

"Well, for me, he has just secured a visit by myself. I've a score to settle with the man now.."

"Wait, Buttercup. I'm missing something important.. but I do not remember…"

Suddenly, Blossom gasped. In her mind, a detailed image of the scientist appeared. However, it was not his face nor its appearance to startle Blossom. It was the form of the young boy that was kept under his arm.

"Donnie!"

"What?" Bubbles and Buttercup said at the same time, puzzled.

"He's kidnapped Donnie! I remember now!"

"Oh, no!" Bubbles cried. Buttercup, too shocked at first to open her mouth, finally replied, "Darn… that's a good reason to get moving now!"

"For once I agree Buttercup. I don't know if he has anything to do with the boys, but this man has definitely caused the rest of this: he distracted us in order to take us out and capture Donnie with ease. We have to get to know who the guy is and what he wants with us and Donnie!"

"Well, apart from the fact that his punches are hard, there's not much we know about him…" Buttercup commented.

"I don't know… if he's anything like what Blossom said, he cannot have passed by unnoticed in Ultrapolis. Just like everyone knows Mojo at Townsville…" Bubbles supposed.

Blossom thought about it for some seconds before replying, "But Mojo attacks Townsville basically every week, and we don't know if this man does the same towards Ultrapolis… Donnie has never told us anything about him. Let's go first to visit Katja and tell her what happened: she deserves it after all. Then, we will try to see if there's anyone in this city who knows about him. Move it!"

With the next actions decided, the Powerpuff Girls flew away and dashed towards Ultrapolis at full speed. They couldn't fathom what had happened to Donnie, and for all they knew every second wasted could have been crucial.


Donnie suddenly woke up, floating in the air. The last thing he remembered was being blinded by an absurdly bright light, but after that everything was black. Somehow, the memory seemed to be compatible at first with was he seeing at the moment, as something very bright was currently preventing him to watch correctly around.

Soon, his superpowered eyes began to settle to the new environment. When Donnie finally managed to keep at least semi-opened them, a voice greeted him.

"Well, well, well, if this isn't a déjà vu!"

Donnie felt the air being sucked away from its lungs. This voice… he remembered it. But… impossible!

He forced himself to get an image of what was in front of him, and he didn't like what he found.

He was closed into a cage made out of bright energy bars… again. And again, Mojo Jojo, the archenemy of his friends, was smiling at him from the other side.

"Don't worry, my friend. This time, things are going to work out differently for both us. That is to say that this time, I, Mojo Jojo, will prevail over the pathetic brats you call friends. Nothing will stop me from getting rid of the Powerpuff Girls once and for all!"

"No!" Donnie shouted in anger: he had stopped being a crybaby long time ago. He had changed, and he wouldn't have let the monkey put him in despair again. "I'm not going to let you do that! I'll stop you!"

"To be fair, Mojo Jojo doesn't want to have anything to do with you, Donnie…" a voice interjected, surprising both the villain and the hero.

The chimpanzee hastily turned and launched an annoyed glare at the source of the disturbance. Seconds after, the figure of a man appeared at his side. It was the same one who had attacked the girls.

"He's only interested in the destruction of the Powerpuff Girls, as I've promised him that what I'm going to do with you will most probably have the same effect on your person," the man continued with a neutral, almost teaching tone.

Donnie didn't let his guard down. He wasn't going to let some simple words frighten him: "Who are you? What do you want from me?"

"That's something you're going to know soon, but not now. For now, you'll be satisfied to know that I was the one who captured you and brought you here. My colleague here helped me with the building of this cage who, as he told me, appears to be extremely effective on keeping your kind under custody."

Donnie glared at the scientist. He was already feeling bad emotions towards the guy, even if he didn't know who he was. There was something off about him… but, in any case, if he was willing to team up with Mojo Jojo, he couldn't be any good.

"You know what? I don't care what the heck you're going to do, with or without the monkey. I'm still going to stop you both at any cost!" Donnie retorted, ignoring Mojo as he protested about being addressed as a mere monkey.

The man stared at him, ignoring himself the shouts of his angry companion. Then, he smiled.

"You should care, if I were you. Nevertheless, you are right, you should know of a way to call your jailor."

He kneeled down and stared at Donnie right into his eyes. And no matter how hard he tried to not do it and despite the scientist's glasses, the boy made unconsciously a step back. An idea had just appeared in his mind, an idea that had the effect to surprise and scare him at the same time.

The scientist's next words unfortunately confirmed his thoughts.

"You shall refer to me as… Doctor Porter."