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Chapter 3

Calls for Help

'This is… awkward.'

Bubbles normally never felt awkward around people, as much foreign, stranger or unknown as they could be. As long as people were not blatantly rude with her, she was open to spend time with everyone, and as much surprising as it was to see him appear in Townsville, Nuru was no exception to this rule.

Yet, here they were, sitting on the edge of half-built skyscraper that was named after the Mayor. The old man had somewhat convinced the entire city that it was alright to have an entire building dedicated to him, but Bubbles knew that both her and the rest of the citizens were just letting him have some fun. The Mayor was a good man all in all, if only a little naïve, so there was no opposition towards his latest weird request. It was just the nth majestic tower in the already large skyline of the city, after all.

The Mayor was not the cause of the tension that was bugging Bubbles at the moment, though. More than a hundreds meters away from the construction yard below them, the four of them were waiting for the arrival of Donnie and the… second stranger, keeping their eyes fixed on the horizon. Bubbles didn't fail to notice that, while Nuru was mostly confused by the whole ordeal, her sisters were far from feeling comfortable. Buttercup was continuing to grumble under his breath, trying to come up with a logical explanation to the events unfolding, and Blossom had not been saying a single word since they arrived here. It was… awkward, to sit between Nuru and them, as if she was a buffer state between two opposite nations that were on the verge of war.

She made a mental note to try and discuss with them about everything that was going on, but before she could try to start a conversation to ease the atmosphere, Blossom finally spoke up.

"They're here," she simply said, standing up-right. Her sisters did the same, as Nuru once again smiled, apparently excited to see the new arrivals. They could all already watch the yellow beam in the distance, coming nearer and nearer towards them.

And following it right behind there was a second beam, a light-green coloured one. Bubbles would've probably called it 'lime' if she had to choose a specific colour, but she wasn't sure… as much as she already knew it, the sight of the second new arrival was more than enough to leave her impressed.

Buttercup scratched her eyes. "…I still can't believe this is happening."

"Try not to start a fight," Blossom warned. "We first need to make sure what's the deal with both Nuru and Donnie's guest before jumping to conclusions."

Nuru turned towards Blossom at the mention of his name, but his face showed that he had not understood a single word. Bubbles quickly translated for him, and he nodded. She had to admit that Nuru had been quite patient with the girls, despite their wary behaviour towards him. He had been letting them take all the time they needed and he had not protested once against their decisions.

That was nice, in her opinion. And she hoped her sisters thought the same.

Soon, the newcomers arrived. Donnie landed in front of them, and the Powerpuff Girls couldn't help but smile as he said, "Hello, girls!"

In normal circumstances, the greetings would have continued with more salutations, 'how are you?' and possibly hugs much to Buttercup's chagrin, but this was far from being a normal day. Donnie smiled back, but his face remained nonetheless firm as the one accompanying him landed by his side.

Bubbles didn't know exactly what to expect, so she tried to keep an open mind as she took in the image. The second super-powered being was very different from Nuru: she was a girl with black hair, as dark as Buttercup's, cut short to be just a little longer than the boy's accompanying her, and it was kept in place by a coloured hairclip with a flower decoration. Her clothes were identical to the Powerpuff Girls' ones: what really stood out though was the shape of her eyes. They were still larger than the mean and brightly lime-coloured just like her clothes, but they were narrower than the Girls', Donnie's or even Nuru's ones. Almost… almond shaped.

"Girls… this is Huan," Donnie introduced her without further hesitation. Huan raised her hand to wave at the girls timidly: Bubbles could already see that, as much tense as the others were, she was just as nervous as them if not more.

"Uh… hello…" the girl said. "I… nice to meet you. Thank you. Uur… for accepting to meet me."

"Well, you're welcome," Blossom said. "We're the Powerpuff Girls. My name is Blossom, and these are my sisters Bubbles and Buttercup."

Bubbles smiled warmly while Buttercup weakly nodded. "And… well, this is Nuru. The super-powered guy who showed up today in Townsville just like you did in Ultrapolis."

Donnie tilted his head as he looked at Nuru, his eyes as wide as Buttercup's were the first time he had seen him. Huan's reaction was more or less the same, but she visibly tried to keep her composure.

"So, uh, Donnie…" Blossom continued to talk, giving a suspicious look to Huan, "do you have anything to say about her?"

"Not much more than what I told you before," Donnie explained. "She's showed up in Ultrapolis' Town Hall, apparently. You can imagine my surprise when the Mayor called me for an urgent matter and I came into his office only to find her."

"Well, not as much surprised as we were," Buttercup said. "Dude's here had beaten up Fuzzy Lumpkins all by himself before we could even come to stop him."

Bubbles had already explained to Nuru who the guy he had fought with was, so once the name 'Fuzzy' was mentioned he immediately put himself in a sort of victory pose, hands on his hips and straight back, grinning widely. Bubbles failed to stifle a giggle, and even Donnie couldn't help but smile weakly. "Well, you're tough then, I'll give you that," he said, trying to break the ice.

Nuru answered, but unfortunately all Donnie heard was gibberish. "He doesn't know a word of English, unfortunately," Blossom explained.

"I can translate though," Bubbles added. "It's not the best, but at least we can talk with him… if you want to talk with him to get to know him I will—"

"Which is why we need to get to the matter at hand now," Blossom continued. She fired a hard glare towards Bubbles, to which she responded with an offended gaze.

She had a hunch that, despite Buttercup being the more vocal sister, Blossom was the one that was disturbed the most by the current situation. If anything, that scene with the Professor had to mean something…

"We need to know about both Nuru and Huan… where they come from, why they've come here, and such," she said. "We need to make sure that they're not a threat. So, Huan…"

Huan bit her lip once Blossom's gaze shifted on her. "Can you understand what I say? Most of it, at least?"

"Yes… not every word, but I can get the basic meaning."

"Good. You may as well start, if Nuru is not against it. Is he?"

With a little help from Bubbles, Nuru said that it was alright and that he was as curious as the rest of them to hear what Huan had to say. So, the girl started to speak, with the other five kids listening carefully (and Bubbles translating the best she could).

"So… I'm from China," Huan began. "I've come here because I need your help… uh… my siblings are in trouble."

Buttercup couldn't hold it inside. "What?! You have siblings?!" she yelled.

Huan relented a little to the green puff's outburst. "Uh, yes… I do. I have two brothers named Ai and Li, and a sister named Hui."

"Holy cow…" Donnie spluttered. "I… I did not expect that."

Blossom did not comment, but from looking at her face Bubbles could tell she was fighting hard the need to do so. "I… understand."

Huan closed her eyes as she frowned. "I… I've escaped from the place where we lived in. It's a… I don't know, but they were keeping us there, even if we didn't want to stay there."

"Wait, wait, wait. A prison, you say?" Buttercup said.

"A… prison? I guess?" Huan confirmed without confidence. "It was not something under the state's control. I know that because I listened the guards talk about the state more than once, either in your language or in Chinese."

"English? That explains how you've learned it, but why were there even Chinese talking English?"

"They were not all Chinese," Huan corrected. "Most of them were Westerners, at least that is how the Chinese called them. I guess… Americans?"

"So, you're telling us that you and your siblings have been kept under custody in China against your will by a group of people that were mostly American… in China. Huan… you have to forgive me, but that's a bit unlikely," Donnie said. "I'm sorry. I can't help but be dubious… I've already had enough bad experiences in the past with super-powered girls."

Bubbles tried to add in her two cents after discussing with Nuru for a few moments once she saw that Huan was getting more and more nervous with the reactions of Blossom, Buttercup and Donnie. "Huan, I do believe you, but I want to know something… how did you and your brothers and sister even end up being captured? Who did create you, anyway?"

Unfortunately, her question had the exact opposite effect as Huan's eyes started to wet. "I… I don't know…"

Buttercup and Donnie raised their eyebrows as Bubbles brought a hand to her mouth. "…how?" Blossom said slowly.

"I don't know!" Huan repeated, this time raising her voice. "I want to know, but I can't, no one of us could! I just remember seeing some right in front of me, then feeling pain all over my body, and when we finally woke up, we were already in the building with the Americans keeping their darn guns aimed at us! And they wouldn't leave us alone, and they kept asking us to do stuff for them and getting blood samples and threatening us and testing us and I couldn't, I cannot…!"

"Hey, hey! Calm down," Bubbles said. She immediately came towards the girl and grabbed her hand without asking for permission from any of the other bystanders. "We're here to help, it's all right… I'm sorry, I didn't want to make you angry."

Huan looked at Bubbles as if she was a ghost. "I… I didn't want to…" she blabbered, before ultimately breaking down and throwing herself at Bubbles, hugging her and crying. Bubbles did her best not to tear up herself and simply accepted her, patting her back as Huan whimpered.

Nuru knew better than to interrupt them, so he waited patiently without a word, while the remaining puffs were left speechless.

"What the heck… I need to breathe for a moment… jeez," Buttercup said, walking away a few steps and taking in a few long breaths. "…wow."

"This is way more complex than I thought," Donnie said, walking beside Blossom. "I guessed she had a problem of sorts bothering her, she had been this tense the entire time since I met her, but I had no idea she was keeping… this inside. Man…"

Blossom frowned. "Four new superpowered beings… and that if we take Nuru doesn't have a few surprises as well. And then this…"

"Not bad?"

Blossom and Donnie whirled around to look at Nuru quizzically, who simply shrugged. At that point, Bubbles, still hugging Huan, spoke up, first in Nuru's language to tell him that he still had a lot to learn to talk with them, but he was making progress. Then, she looked at the others.

"Guys… I don't think she's lying. She can't be faking this up… this is real pain she's feeling," Bubbles said. "We have to help her and her siblings… she's come all the way up to Europe to find Donnie, and then again to come here. Whatever they're doing in China, they're up to no good."

Blossom thought about it a little before nodding. "You're right. We still, uh… need to find out more about whoever did this and how they were created, still, but we have to do something about her siblings."

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Buttercup said, earning a hard glare from both Blossom and Bubbles. "Hey, don't look at me that way! I mean that at this point I'm expecting everything. If what she's said it's true, who's to say that what she doesn't know is even more… weird?"

"…right," Blossom said, turning her face back to Huan. The girl had stopped crying, and she finally separated herself from Bubbles. Her warm smile was doing its job in calming the Chinese girl down.

"Huan…" Donnie said, scratching his head. "Sorry about not believing you."

"No… no problem," Huan answered. "I… I do understand your fear."

"I wanted to ask you if you can tell us anything more that could help us… just whatever you think could be useful to know before we get there… only if you feel like it, of course."

Huan nodded. "I don't know much about them… Li told me he's heard one of them talking about someone named 'Gordon', but other than that they were very careful in keeping their mouths shuts when we were around. Actually… when I escaped, the only reason I managed to find you was because one of them once mentioned some kind of failure, and a name: Porter."

Donnie almost jumped in the air, and he momentarily forgot about keeping his cool. "Porter?! As if, Doctor Porter!?"

"Huh-uh, I think so. I didn't understand much, but after leaving I looked up the name and discovered about you and Ultrapolis."

"If that guy is connected with them, then I agree that it's evil we're dealing with…" Buttercup said.

Huan looked at the others one by one as she passed an arm over her eyes. "We need your help. I promised them I would go back… but I can't do this alone. I'm sorry… but I just can't…"

"You don't have to worry about it. We're going to help you, Huan," Bubbles said, putting a hand over her shoulder. "We will get your siblings out and give a lesson to the bad guys who hurt you."

Huan smiled weakly.

"I too!"

All faces turned towards Nuru. He was smiling once again, but there was also determination in his eyes. He still needed to exchange a few words with Bubbles to explain himself. "He says he wants to help Huan as well, guys."

Blossom wasn't fully sure how to take that. Huan seemed sincere, but Nuru was still a matter left to interpretation. "Why? He said he needs our help as well, didn't he?"

"Yeah, what he's saying is that he's got problems as well, but that they can wait and are not as urgent as Huan's. He doesn't mind."

Blossom looked at Nuru once again, trying to study him, but Nuru did not cower under her gaze. She thought about it for a little, weighing her options, before sighing.

"I guess he should come anyway. We can't really let him stay here by himself…"

After hearing the translation, Nuru clapped his hands and repeated one word three times. "'thank you', that's what he's saying," said Bubbles. "He's grateful we're giving him a chance."

"Tell him 'thank you' for me, too, if you can…" Huan said. "I… I don't even know what to say… I'll repay all of you, somehow."

Before Buttercup's eyes could turn into dollar signs, Blossom cut it short. "Don't mention it. That's what the Powerpuff Girls do."

The green puff grumbled under his breath but nodded, as Bubbles said, "We're here to help anyone who needs so."

"And believe me, Huan…" Donnie added, gesturing towards the girls. "Speaking from personal experience: you couldn't have chosen better help."

Huan took in the view as the Powerpuff Girls, with Donnie on one side and Nuru on the other, all smiled. It finally dawned on her that she was no more alone, but there were six of them now.

Another tear ran down her cheek as her thoughts went back to the ones she had to leave behind.

'I am coming, guys… hold on, just a little longer…'

"So…" Buttercup said, crossing her hands. "When are we leaving to pay a little visit to the baddies in Asia?"

Blossom thought deeply for a few seconds, holding her chin with one hand while resting the elbow on the other arm.

"We'll tell who needs to know and prepare the little we need," she decided eventually, "then we'll leave today. Come on girls… and guys," she said, correcting herself at the last moment.

"It's time to roll out!"