Chapter 4: The Weight of It All
The City of Townsville Suburbs. The House.
30 NOV 1988. 0754.
Lighting his pipe, Professor Utonium bit on it and inhaled. He was looking out at the driveway, the streets. It was snowing, and the front lawn was almost completely covered. His eyes wandered down the streets, at his neighbors' houses. He saw an unmarked van, innocuously WHITE with shaded windows. He didn't need to go up to the van and bang on the cab window to know who was inside. It was the Chief of Security's men, and they'd inched closer to The House, to the girls. Thinking back, he could recall seeing the van a few days ago. It was likely that they'd been there for just as long. He could only pray that the Chief of Security was there to protect the Girls, as promised, and not for anything else.
It was the start of the Girls' second week. Professor Utonium could only hope that their innocence would remain intact throughout. The way the Organization Chief was rushing him, it seemed as if he was bent on scarring the Girls as quickly as he could.
The Professor sighed, and headed up the stairs gingerly, as if he was in pain, and into the Girls' room. He was exhausted, as usual. He had pulled a late-night shift, preparing paperwork and forms for the test ahead; squeezing in his own research on the bizarre nature of Chemical X - with the little time he had. He went nowhere real. He couldn't even remember when he'd passed out, and the next thing he knew, he had woken up on his desk in cold sweat.
The day was spent learning as usual, but deep in his heart, he knew what the day was going to be far, at least as far as the Organization was concerned. The first test would be held today, and although he was excited to see the extent of his Girls' strength, he knew that it would be like opening Pandora's Box - it would be the first of many things he would be doing to the Girls, and the Organization would just demand more and more, until…
In the Girls' room, Blossom was drawing with Bubbles while Buttercup was left alone with her hoarded toys.
"Kitty… Kitty… Cute kitty," Bubbles was able to enunciate the few words she knew as she rendered a rather unconvincing cat with too long a body and legs that were too thick. It was all in black - thanks to Chief of Logistics Wiggums, who thought that black crayons was all they ever needed.
"Bubbles, look this!" Blossom said excitedly as she held up a picture she drew of the family: Professor Utonium and them. It attracted the attention of the professor, and he came to look as well. It consisted largely of stick figures, but the shape of the hair gave away who was who. Blossom was drawn with with a crayon, Bubbles had a white teddy bear while Buttercup had her toy train. The professor was the biggest stick figure, with his clipboard.
It reminded Utonium that someone was missing from the table. He turned around. "Buttercup, why don't you come here and draw with us?"
Buttercup was still frowning and seated on the floor, this time in a WHITE t-shirt and light green pants. She was wheeling an abstract WHITE toy truck left and right. She shook her head. She appeared a little upset… At something. 'Perhaps the incident before?' Professor Utonium thought. "Come on, Buttercup, be a sport," he then turned to Blossom and Bubbles. "You forgive her, right?" The two girls nodded vigorously, with excited eyes staring at Buttercup, who, despite it all, they recognized as their sister, one of them.
"Okay…" Buttercup relented, and walked over, depositing herself on an empty stool. All she would draw was her train and various other vehicles.
Later at night, an hour after dinner, Professor Utonium led the Girls down the stairs, this time without carrying them. Cautiously, as if the stairs would just collapse or swallow them up, the Girls formed a chain and descended step by step, in order of: Utonium, Blossom, Bubbles then Buttercup. Looking back at the Girls while going down the stairs, the Professor saw that Blossom appeared excited, Bubbles afraid while Buttercup determined. Eventually, they made it down, and it was a minor victory to underscore what was to come.
They had to go down another flight of stairs, this time leading down into the laboratory. Professor Utonium shepherded them to the lab door, which was essentially a small blast door, airtight with hydraulic seals behind, and opened it. There was a second door behind it, forming an airlock - the work of the doomsday prepper who came before them - which the Professor got them through as well. Then there was the stairs, another set of intimidating stairs!
Bubbles cried, begging to be held while Blossom and Buttercup moaned.
"Oh alright, come here, you poor thing," Professor Utonium said as he picked up Bubbles, feeling himself more poor than her, as his back erupted in pain after that. The blue-eyed girl wrapped her arms and legs around him as he took Blossom by a hand and led them down once more.
The hum of supercomputers became apparent. This was where the Chief of Logistics excelled at his job. He had given him a lab almost as well-equipped as a regular lab in an Organization outpost, if only a little smaller. It had everything he needed, including a wide, open space contained within bulletproof shock glass for tests to be conducted. That was where Utonium led the girls to next.
Putting down Bubbles, he got on one knee, getting to her level. "Girls, do you know why we're down here?"
Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup looked at each other in puzzlement.
"To play?" Blossom guessed. Professor Utonium smiled.
"Oh, it can be fun, but listen," Professor Utonium said. "You Girls are special, you know that? You're all smart, and strong; perfect angels."
All the three girls did was to smile at him.
"We'll play a game to see how strong you three are!" The Professor proclaimed, changing his tactic mid-conversation. Building up excitement; it worked the last time.
"Yay!" the Girls cheered at the thought of playing another game, and it was all the more fun as it was in a different place, with different colours and shapes and other things. The supercomputers in the lab resembled giant toys to them - but before they could touch it, the Professor led them into the test area.
In the test area, the floor was white and the lighting very bright, making clear what sat in a row across the area. There was a series of cubes with handles on opposing sides, each one bigger than the last. They were ordered in yesterday. Labels denoted their weight, but the girls could not understand what they mean: 50lbs/22.68kg, 100lbs/45.36kg, 150lbs/68.04kg, 200lbs/90.72kg, 250lbs/113.40kg.
Looking at the weights he ordered himself, Professor Utonium did not expect any of the girls to be able to carry beyond 100lbs. He remembered the trials of earlier predecessors of Chemical X: most of the subjects of those trials did not have enhanced strength, and he had learned not to expect too much.
