CHAPTER III: WHO AM I?

The midday atmosphere around the neighborhood that housed the Utonium dwelling hadn't shifted much from that morning, baring the sun rising a little further west.

Inside the house, in the laboratory basement, a man was working at a white desk. He was a tall man, dressed in a white lab coat, with a prominently square chin and forehead. He hummed in a cheerful manner as he picked up a beaker containing a liquid.

'Professor?' A voice made the man cease his humming, looking up. At the top of the staircase, the door leading to the lab had creaked open. Grasping the side as she leaned around it was Blossom, looking anxious, with her equally uneasy sisters floating behind her.

'Girls!' Professor dropped his utensils, pacing forward as a smile appeared on his face. He met the girls at the staircase's bottom, catching them out of the air into a brief embrace. All three girls giggled as Professor smiled, unaware that their giggles seemed marginally forced.

'Took care of that distress call quick, didn't you?' said Professor. The girls' eyes snapped back open, their smiles lowering a little. 'I told you you'd still be needed!' The girls' eyes glanced sideways, not meeting the Professor's or each other's.

'Uh… yeah…' said Blossom slowly. While Professor was correct in that their concern from that morning seemed insignificant now, it was not for the reason he assumed.

Ending their brief embrace, Professor turned back around to desk to continue working, while the girls floated back a little to give him some space.

'Soon as I'm done this, we can fire up the training lab,' commented Professor over his shoulder, picking up his flask again.

'That's okay, Professor,' said Buttercup in an uncharacteristically quiet manner, her gaze dropping to the floor, 'I don't feel like fighting.'

'Not fighting?' Professor let out a low chuckle as he held his flask up, squinting at what capacity level the liquid inside resided at. 'Buttercup, are you all right?'

Buttercup snapped back up, as though breaking out of a reverie that still remained thereafter. 'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine,' she said, loosely watching Professor's actions. 'I just…'

'See, Professor,' said Blossom, stepping in as Buttercup trailed off again, 'we were fighting this monster.'

'Nothing too dangerous!' interrupted Bubbles, who up until then had been floating by her sister's side silently. 'We had it under control.'

'Yeah?' said Professor, his attention now held by a second flask of a different liquid he had in his other hand.

'And then,' continued Blossom, leaning an inch or two closer, 'we were about to punch it, and, uh, we had this vision.' Just as Blossom finished her statement, Buttercup, who had been quiet for a few moments, regained herself.

'I think we saw an alien, and…' Buttercup paused briefly, trying to find the right words. 'A black liquid, in a pod.'

Professor, who had been midway through pouring one flask into another, started a little. 'Alien?' Though he didn't change his task, his previously lowered eyes raised up, as did his head. 'Black liquid? A pod?'

'Um, Professor?' Bubbles' query fell on deaf ears, as while Professor continued his task, he was now stuttering inconsistently. The girls' gaze trailed off to their right, and suddenly stopped.

On a counter to the size, there were several conical flasks lined up, all housing a night black liquid, and all sporting labels that read 'Chemical X.'

Slowly, the girls looked back to the Professor, who was still mumbling illogically as he continued pouring. All three girls looked to the side, sighing silently, bracing themselves for a hard thing to say. Finally, they spoke, drifting forward a little.

'Where did we come from?'

This statement was enough to make Professor stop his task, his eyes widening. As the girls floated there, waiting for a response, he cautiously lowered the flasks down, before turning around to the girls', putting his hands together as he looked at them.

'Well, you see, girls',' began the Professor, maintaining eye contact whilst still darting the odd fugitive glance to the side, the girls' complete attention focused on him as he answered the query that had left him so stunned, 'I took sugar, spice, and everything nice, mixed them together…'

'Professor,' groaned Buttercup, clasping her hand on her eyes as she clenched them shut, 'we know that!' Snapping them open, she lowered her hand down. 'That's not what we meant!'

The somewhat stern look on Professor's face melted away as his shoulders sagged. 'I know…' he said out of the corner of his mouth, though they still caught it. He looked back up, having only tailed off fleetingly. 'I think it's time I told you something I should have told you a long time ago.' He clenched his hands closer, leaning forward enough to close the distance between the girls and him.

The girls were uneasy enough to dart their eyes down briefly before replying. 'Okay…' Professor moved closer, speaking up.

'I…' began Professor apprehensively, 'might have, kind of, f…' Professor halted mid-word, as though his throat was stuck, which it was, though only with hesitation. 'F…' Now Professor was literally frozen. His eyes vibrated, followed by his mouth, and his face, until he finally spat out the end of the gut-wrenching sentence.

'Found Chemical X.'

The girls were stunned, their eyes frozen.

Buttercup was the first to recover. 'I knew it,' she said, to no one in particular.

'You knew?' His previous hesitation defunct, Professor was back to speaking at a normal rate. 'Buttercup, who told you?'

'No one!' interjected Blossom, gesturing in surprise. 'Come on, don't you think we noticed your reluctance to talk about how you made it?'

'But if you girls knew,' responded Professor at a rapid rate, 'why didn't you say so?'

'Why didn't you say so?' responded Buttercup loudly, her distinct brashness almost shining through. She relented afterwards, while Blossom sighed, looking to her left. It was Bubbles who spoke up next.

'How'd it get here, Dad?' said Bubbles softly and sweetly, though still with enough seriousness in her voice regarding the question. 'Where did it come from?' The girls' eyes widened marginally, their longing for the answer as clear as crystal.

Professor hesitated, before he turned around to the counter that housed the Chemical X flasks, leaning down, and pulling something out from underneath it, placing in on the floor in front of the girls.

It was a small pod, only about big enough for one of the girls' heads to fit inside. Yet what stood out was how eccentric it looked. It had sleek metallic curves, and a pristine glass finish about the opening hatch, though it's age was obvious. The girls floated down to a foot above the floor, staring, spellbound, at it.

'It was… several years ago,' began Professor, as Buttercup reached out a hand, brushing it against the pod. 'In a South American Jungle…'

'…I was on a college trip with my fellow budding scientists.'

A younger Professor, wearing green-tinted clothing more then suitable for thick foliage, sporting a shade hat, a hiking backpack, and carrying a map in one hand, pushed his way through the dense flora, while keeping one eye on the map. He pushed a large leaf aside – and stopped.

'I had wandered off during break, intending to examine rare plants in a field.' Professor was on the outer edge of a clearing, which would have been unremarkable were it not for the fact that most of the field was charred and black, smoking. In the center lay an equally scorched capsule, only half as tall as Professor himself. The lid to this capsule was seriously dented, only one bottom hinge still holding it up. As Professor crept closer, the lid gave way and fell forward –

'But, there were no plants.' Inside the dark-coated capsule lay the odd pod, with the liquid it contained sloshing here and there, sounding just as dense as it looked. 'Just a pod full of a black substance.'

An anxious look spread across all layers of his face, Professor crept closer, lowering his hands, with some trepidation, into the capsule. He pulled them back, the pod now clasped between them. As puzzled as ever, he gazed at it in wonder. As it sloshed, for just a fraction of a second, the liquid seemed to form a shape, but it was gone before Professor could catch it.

'Until then, I hadn't made any discoveries of my own.' Professor glanced over his shoulder, as though he thought he was being watched, but the clearing was deserted.

Looking back to the pod, he seemed to reach a decision. Placing his backpack down, he rapidly zipped it open, and placed the pod inside.

In a science lab, the pod was wired up to high-tech scanning equipment, and that equipment to a computer. Professor looked at the pod, and typed quickly on the keyboard.

'The energy levels were much higher then anything I'd ever seen.' Various bars on Professor's monitor shot up, way past the screen's height. 'It astounded me.' Professor looked back to the pod, perplexed.

'And… even then, there was something even more inexplicable about it.' Again, for only a moment, the black liquid formed a familiar silhouette, hovering above the rest of the substance inside the pod, before it tumbled back down. 'It almost seemed to… radiate life.' Professor stared, too transfixed to even move.

'After two years of secret analysis, I understood how it worked.' Now, there were other spherical containers that housed more of the black liquid. They were all sloshing about too. 'I was able to make more.'

Yet, though they were sloshing about, they seemed much dimmer then the first. Professor looked to the side, where the pod containing the first batch of the liquid lay. 'But they were, somehow, less powerful then the first.'

This time, as it sloshed, the shape was visible for just a moment – an almost-spherical circle, only slightly squashed, with a relatively small body and neck below it.

'I published my work, claiming it as my own, naming it Chemical X.' Now a newspaper was present, displaying, in large, bold letters: PROFESSOR UTONIUM UNVEILS NEW CHEMICAL. LEAD SCIENTISTS ASTOUNDED.

'And… that day when I was mixing sugar, spice, and everything nice…' Professor stirred a vat happily with a stirrer, while a chimpanzee leapt it's way across the lab floor towards him. Professor continued to stir his concoction, unaware of the approaching simian.

The chimpanzee, Jojo, shoved Professor, knocking his stirrer into a nearby glass flask, containing a black liquid.

'It was the original batch that got added.' Jojo peered over the vat, now bubbling a dangerous, foreboding pink – and all went black.

'Then I saw you girls, with your powers.' An astounded Professor watched as Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, fresh with their powers, zapped around their presents, giggling happily. A tearfully joyful smile plastered his face.

'I knew a part of you, even apart from your powers, had come from that first batch.' Bubbles, holding a stuffed purple octopus, kissed Professor on the cheek before floating up. Professor was briefly frozen, before the joyful smile returned. 'And then I made a decision that would change my life forever.

'To continue my scientific studies on chemicals.' The girls, as one, used their eyebeams to break the crust off of a stack of toast, where it all collected at the stack's base.

'And to raise you as my own girls.' Professor came up, carrying a tray of snacks, and completely covered in jam and peanut butter. The girls covered their mouths in surprise as he stopped before them, opening his eyes.

'And from that moment on, both my studies and my life…'

'…Have been that much purer,' finished Professor, stroking the pod's surface softly as he reminisced. He was at knee level, while the girls sat in front of him, Buttercup holding the pod with her sisters beside her.

'And, girls, that's how you came to be,' said Professor. His anecdote finished, he slowed up, drawing in something of a few breaths. Sniffling just a little, he looked to the side, as though shielding himself from the girls' gazes.

'That's it?' Buttercup stared, stunned, Blossom and Bubbles looking as equally stunned beside her. It couldn't have been clearer that they now felt even more baffled then before. 'That can't be it,' she said frantically. 'There's gotta be more, Professor!'

'Well,' said Professor, looking back to the girls, his reminiscing smile suddenly back, 'there was the time I used Chemical X to power my Power Prof suit! Drained it by the day too…' he added in an afterthought, gazing off.

Just as soon, he looked back to the girls, and stopped suddenly upon seeing their faces.

The girls all looked confused. Bubbles had her eyelids drawn, as though thinking. Blossom seemed lost for words. But Buttercup, in the middle, still clutching the pod, looked the most affected, her gaze drifting downwards again, her normal gusto far removed from her face. The aspect of their past they had never before considered was now prominent, but they were no closer to knowing more about it.

'Oh Buttercup, girls,' said the Professor slowly, bending closer as he spoke sincerely to them. Whatever hesitation he had encountered in recounting the story to them had been shelved of favor of understanding about their predicament. 'Your tale may not have such a happy beginning, but look at it now!' He smiled happily at them, not just to help cheer them up, but also because he felt obliged to do so. 'You've got me, you've got your powers, and you've got each other!'

'We know,' said Blossom in a truthful tone that still hinted at other unsaid statements. 'We just have so many questions.'

'Like how did we ever fit in this tiny pod?' said Buttercup, raising the space pod up and down.

'Why did we cover you with jam?' said Bubbles sweetly, though with confusion.

Professor held their gaze, his slightly strained smile faltering a little. The girls kept staring, their eyes furrowing just a bit, otherwise remaining still.

'And who am I?' said Buttercup, Bubbles and Blossom together, all three to different levels of longing, though they were all longing nonetheless.

Longing for the answer.

And so were they, though not for the same answer.

Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos stared forward, loose worry etched in the aging lines of their alien skin. Slowly, their pupils and eyestalks lowered, looking to their feet.

Clotho's pink hand moved slowly over a small bowl in front of her, while her eyes focused rapt, yet relaxed, attention on the dish.

Atropos' green hand followed suit, sweeping over the bowl with a little more force then her graceful companion. Her eyes concentrated too.

Lachesis did the same, her blue hand coming from the bowl's other side, the sleeve of her robe shuffling. Her eyeballs also focused.

The three Fates were kneeling in the Grand Room between two majestic pillars. They were all looking at the bowl in front of Clotho, Lachesis from her right and Atropos from her left. They remained still, keeping tranquil, yet tense, attentiveness on the dish.

'Well?' snarled Him, glaring from a few feet away. 'Are you going to see where the Elemotos are, or are you just going to strain your sockets?' The Fates slowly looked up, not having reacted otherwise.

'Fortune telling is an art,' said Lachesis, her voice communicating a sweetness not shared by her sisters. 'You cannot rush it.'

'Are you not worried about your precious Elemotos?' said Him quickly, standing up and towering above the Fates, his voice just as high as he was. 'Do you hags want them gone?'

'Better missing, then doing you bidding,' replied Atropos after a very brief pause, smirking out of the corner of her mouth. While Lachesis and Clotho held similar expressions, Him held the complete opposite.

'Well, whether you like it or not,' rasped Him brutally, moving closer with each phrase, 'you seers are going to tell me where they are, or you can kiss your robes goodbye!' His eyes and mouth were glaring so hard it was questionable whether they would be able to bend back to normal.

Still undisturbed, Clotho's two eyeballs kept contact with Him's, before they lowered, her hands protruding from her sleeves and picking up the bowl. Lachesis and Atropos observed with their leader.

'I see… a large shape…' As the tallest seer spoke, Him moved closer, looking at the dish with the three sisters, highly intrigued.

'A large shape,' said Atropos gracefully, looking up from the bowl to Him's torso. 'Full of – anger.' Her hand grasped around a piece of pink fluff on his tulle, plucking it out. Him reacted, glaring at the green Fate.

'How dare you!' snarled Him, looking from the gap in his tulle back to Atropos. 'That took me months to perfect!' Atropos smirked, letting the pink fluff fall and deposit in the dish, which was back on the floor.

'Along with just a little defiance,' added in Lachesis, holding her forefinger and thumb within an inch, her voice again a high pitch.

'You call that fortune telling?' Him retreated a foot away, out of their reach, yet still glaring. 'Anyone can see that's happening right –'

'Now?' interrupted all there weird sisters, all locking eyes with Him.

He remained still, his eyes curving yet again, a sinister glare piercing their skin, to little effect.

'Now is what matters,' said Clotho, glancing back yet again to the dish in front of her black cloak. Her hand lowered again, this time grasping something in it. Her eyes snapped up as she continued speaking. 'But, if you really wish to know…' She swept her hand over the bowl, scattering powder into it –

On contact, the powder ignited, sparking smoke rising from the bowl. Him watched with bated breath, as the room took on a darker shade, his face illuminated from the bright wisps.

All three Fates moved their hands up, almost as though they were guiding the red smoke, which was beginning to form distinct shapes.

'Many years ago, when young our kings were,' said Clotho, the smoke having taken the shape of the three Elemotos. 'They decided to go, and place a failsafe sure…' In verse with the rhyming words that the pink-skinned Fate was saying, all three royal leaders moved their arms upward gesturing to the sky. Curling his mouth, Him raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

'Cast a spell on planets, they did so here,' continued Lachesis. The smoke had already reformed into several circles of varying sizes, dotted against a dark background. 'Such that during each elemental ceremony, once a year…' On cue, the worlds in the vision all sparkled, now under some sort of spell. Him's eyes widened in excitement, though he didn't move otherwise.

'The planetoids would align, and with much mist,' said Atropos, picking up from her blue sister. The alien planets were already moving into a single, solid line, and a beam moved downwards from them, the smoke twisting and reforming. 'Our kings would shine brightly, for all to witness.' The Elemotos were back in smoke form again, glowing and sparkling very brightly, looking proud even though only their red silhouettes were identifiable.

'Yes…' screeched Him, leaning back up in delight. 'Yes!' His vocals were reaching their highest level yet, as he leaned back in maniacal delight. 'Oh, Yes!'

The smoke suddenly started shifting and twisting. Him noticed this midway through opening his mouth, and stopped short, blinking confusingly. The smoke spiraled inwards, stopping in the shape of a tall figure with outstretched arms.

'A demon…' said Clotho slowly. Him was stunned, his pupils frozen as he stared, transfixed. The figure in the wisps pushed in on itself, the red hues turning darker as they changed color. '…Is vanquished by a warrior enhanced with a powerful chemical.' The smoke had changed to a solid black that still glowed, molded into a spherical drop that was vibrating slightly, not lingering perfectly still.

'Nothing has changed.' The combination of Atropos' words and what was happening was enough to make Him tremble back, a spasm of fear flickering across his illuminated face.

It was gone as soon as it had come. Glaring, he wheeled his claw back, an energy orb forming from nowhere. He thrust his arm forward rapidly, the diminutive pulse making contact with the presaging dish, smashing it. He finished by swiping his arm around, the resulting wind dispersing of the dark smoke. As it trailed away, the room's lighting reverting to normal, the Fates were revealed to be gazing, unconcerned, at the scorch mark at their feet where the pulse has connected. Only when a black boot connected loudly with the ground did they gaze their stalks up, curious simpers spread on their faces.

'That's impossible,' smiled Him, glaring assuredly at them. He let his eyes curve, a low snarl bursting to escape. 'You're fooling yourselves.' He turned away in a confident huff.

'No, it's not,' sniggered Lachesis, as the three Fates stood up. Lachesis' cute simper had a certain familiarity about it. 'They're not fooled.' All three sisters jerked their heads to the side as she spoke.

'Who?' Him turned around. He was not waiting long, for the unmistakable sound of cackling was suddenly audible. The Fates turned towards the Grand Room's large twin doors, smug smirks daubed on their alien heads.

The doors burst open, almost snapping off their hinges. Why was instantly clear: floating forward were the Rowdyruff Boys, laughing and cackling like miscreants. Visible in the atrium behind was the partly marred slime robot and the two atomic vats they had salvaged.

'That was the best fight I've had in ages!' guffawed Butch, vibrating in a hyper manner even aside from floating forward with his brothers.

'Yeah,' said Brick with a high childlike sneer, 'we don't need no black chemical in us like The Powerpuff girls!'

'What!?' Him whipped around the instant Brick's words escaped his lips, leaping towards them. Before they could even react, he had caught all three in one claw, slamming them on the ground, his claw pinning them down. The boys groaned in shock, trying to free themselves, but they stopped short when they looked up.

A look of total fury mixed with mingled outrage was on Him's face, a leer of pure terror sending chills into even the boys. 'What did you say about a black chemical?' snarled Him, every syllable making the boys recoil even more.

Though restrained, Brick was quick to answer. Nervousness trickled over him, and he was even sweating a little. 'Well, eh,' said Brick hastily, 'we weren't created with Chemical X, but those girls were!' Him leaned closer, his hold tightening a little.

'Yeah,' added in Boomer apprehensively, squeezed up against his brother, 'we don't have any in us, only those girls do!'

'You brats never told me about this?!' Him spoke with a slow growl. The rage at his discovery that something familiar to him had been present all along, and he had encountered it many times, couldn't have been any clearer. 'You're lying!'

'Even with their short attention spans,' interrupted Clotho's graceful voice, the Fates standing beside them, 'they are not blinded from the truth.' Atropos' hand ruffled Butch's hair out of nowhere, making the rough Rowdyruff Boy snarl at the green skinned Fate, before remembering the predicament he was in. Atropos seemed amused by Butch's reaction. Clotho looked from the boys up to Him. 'Why… are your eyes so?' Her sisters followed her, linking eyes with the fiend. Him was speechless, his mouth slightly open.

His hesitation vanished as he glared at the boys. He lashed his claw up, shoving the boys out of his grasp and floating away. The boys gasped, Butch shaking, not in a hyperactive way, but full of fear. Boomer was rubbing his neck, a slow wheeze escaping from his mouth. And Brick looked the most afraid of all, arms clutching his chest, his eyes wobbling with alarm not normally seen. All this went unnoticed by Him, who was chortling again, his haughty look back.

'So some of it survived,' said Him, clenching his claws together, looking away from the Fates. 'That changes nothing!' He chortled to the side.

'No, said Clotho slyly, her eyelids lowered, as were Lachesis' and Atropos'. Her mouth curved into a smug grin. 'But the existence of those girls does.'

Him's eyes widened slightly, though his mouth did the opposite. He stopped short, looking off and up, an evil smile appearing. 'Then I shall render them null and void… forever.'

He might have continued gazing confidently for a while, had his jacket not shifted. Whipping his head around, he was quick to see that the Fates were right behind him, and Atropos was plucking more tulle from the hemline.

'Back off, you witches!' snarled Him highly, wrenching the end from Atropos' grasp, and scattering a lot of the pink fluff here and there.

Approximate Chapter Running Time: 17:27-23:42 (NTSC); 16:45-22:45 (PAL)

Next Chapter Title: An Odd Family