Red Crown: What's up, readers. I am sorry it took so long to update. I had a bad case of writer's block and a ton of school work. Not a good combination for a fanfiction author.

I was also looking at my story traffic section and was amazed at how many countries the Power Puff Girls has gone to. I thought it was only an American cartoon, but now I see we have people that watch it in Australia, Canada, the UK, Brazil, Norway, Peru, Spain, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Thailand, Ireland, the Netherlands, Argentina, Bulgaria, Denmark, the Philippines, Colombia, Romania, Finland, India, Mexico, Austria, Singapore, India, Italy, Israel, the Northern Mariana Islands, Sweden, Puerto Rico, Belize, the Bahamas, Barbados, and a few other countries. I was surprised. So I would just like to give a nice "hello" from the good'ol state of California in the USA to all you readers that live around the world.

I hope you enjoy this chapter.


CHAPTER NINE: "Tomb Raiders"

Meanwhile at the Utonium Chateau…

"Girls, come see this! It's urgent!"

Buttercup and Bubbles left their homework and raced up the stairs to find their leader and sister on her computer with an internet window open.

"What is it?" asked Bubbles.

"The police finally emailed me about the robbery last night. I showed them the picture that Bubbles made of the tiny object that they were trying to steal. They said that some archeologist named Henry Stanford had discovered it for a certain collector. Stanford discovered it somewhere in South America. Here is his website," the leader of the Power Puff Girls said as she opened a new internet window.

The webpage was written in Spanish. "Bubbles could you read this please?" asked Blossom

"Cee," Bubbles said before starting. "Me nombre es Stanford…"

"In English." Buttercup corrected with a scowl.

"Sorry." She then started again. "My name is Stanford. The year is 1979. I have been in South America for five years searching for something that should have never been created in this world: a key to a gate filled with horrible things. My search started in Egypt with ancient hieroglyphics. There is where I discovered its existence."

Next to the text was an image of a man, which they guessed was Stanford, standing in front of an Egyptian pyramid with a large damaged Sphinx that had a scar over its left eye behind it. He was holding a tablet of ancient stone with hieroglyphics covering the front. A gasp escaped the mouths of the girls as they saw that one of hieroglyphs was a large red creature with yellow eyes, a small black beard, and large crab claws. It could be non-other than Him. In one of his claws was something that looked more like a black box with three arms that each held a ring with a jewel centered in it.

Bubbles continued. "The engravings in the ancient Egyptian stone point to four locations: One in Rome, another in South America, one in Egypt, and a last one in China. Due to the current conflict between Egypt and Israel I have decided to leave Egypt and start my search in South America." At that moment Blossom remembered that the Yom Kippur War started in 1978 when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. A lot of people fled the country at that time because of the war.

"After five years of searching I have uncovered the first piece of the Key. It was well protected by the natives, but after much struggle I negotiated a trade with them. The natives were currently at war with another tribe and were in dire need of food and weapons. I have plenty of money that I inherited from my parents and purchased such things to exchange for the piece of the key."

Next to his words was a picture of the piece of the key. It was then that the Power Puff Girls recognized it as the same object that they caught the masked thieves trying to steal. It was a silver ring with a sapphire magically suspended in the center of it.

Bubbles read the next paragraph. "However, I asked them where they found the key and to my surprise they pointed me to an ancient Aztec pyramid. There on a series of tablets I found another peculiar series of writings that describe the Key and its purpose."

As Blossom scrolled down another set of ancient writing was shown. Inscribed on the walls of the Aztec Pyramid were a set of Aztec writing symbols. The girls were shocked to find another drawing of a creature with large crab claws that barred a striking resemblance to Him. In his claw was the strange object once again.

"Whatever was behind the gate that this key opens, the Aztecs saw it once. It was only referred to as 'The Destroyer.' One of their historians could only describe it with this image."

Blossom shuddered as she saw the next stone tablet. It had the image of a human skull with angry eye sockets, long pointy teeth, and four horns carved into it. It looked just like the one in her dream. Merely looking at it sent shivers down her spine and brought back the memory of the fear she felt during the nightmare.

Bubbles continued to read on. "After I traveled to South America, I mailed the jewel home to my brother, who owns a fairly secured jewelry shop. I actually bought the piece myself and will have it shipped to me in Egypt where I will have the search for the next piece of the key after the Israeli-Egyptian conflict settles down. I made the purchase and just need to have a date set."

Abruptly the journal stopped and there was no more to read.

"So the jewel is a small part of an ancient key to something horrible called 'The Destroyer' and it looks like Him is somehow involved in this," said Blossom. As she continued to think it was then that she wondered exactly how old Him was. Even when they grew up as teenagers he had never seemed to age a day. It was possible that he was as old as the earth was, maybe even older.

"I don't get it. If Stanford made the payment and was ready to ship the Jewel to himself in Egypt, why was the jewel still in the shop when the thieves broke in. The jewel was there since 1978 and we saw it there yesterday and the Yom Kippur War has been over for a long time," the lead puff said thinking out loud.

"Maybe something happened to him," said Buttercup. "Something bad."

"This is getting kind of creepy. I don't like scary stories," said Bubbles.

Blossom immediately began to scroll up the page and found the pictures of Egypt. She began to search for clues and scan the photo of Egypt. She saw the pyramid and the sphinx and immediately her mind remembered a photo from her history book. She got up and grabbed her history book and found the desired page. It showed the exact same image. What made it distinct was the sphinx. There was no other sphinx in Egypt that had a scar over the left eye. Her history book said that the pyramid was dedicated to Seth, the ancient Egyptian equivalent of Satan.

She immediately got back on her computer and her sisters watched in amazement as she quickly began to search for the Pyramid. Within a few moments she had the location on a Yahoo Satellite map.

"There is where he found the tablet!" she said with joy. "I'm betting that the next piece to the key is in there as well. We'll need to go get it. Girls, how much homework do you have?"

"Very little," Buttercup said.

"Done," said Bubbles.

"Good, then we'll go tonight," Blossom insisted with a smirk.

"Wait, I'm still grounded remember," the green puff said with a scowl.

"I'll ask the professor to make an exception for you just this once."


Meanwhile in Egypt…

It was midnight in Egypt. All around were nothing but dunes of sand. The boys landed in front of the pyramid, clad in their black clothing and equipment. Right after their feet hit the ground Butch gave a loud belch. Boomer and Brick looked at their brother with amazement in their eyes.

"That was a juicy one, Butch," complemented the leader.

"Egyptian food actually isn't that bad. The scorpions were a little too stringy though," the green-eyed ruffian said with a smirk.

"Yeah," agreed Boomer.

Brick began walking toward the pyramid and searched for an entrance. There was no entrance in or around the pyramid. He decided to look at the sphinx. There was a small trap door near the sphinx's chest. It looked like it had already been dug up by an somebody that had arrived earlier. Brick looked down the trap door and donned his night vision goggles. He saw a stairway that went down and curved in the direction of the pyramid. He motioned for his brothers to follow and began to walk down the stairway.

The stairway went flat and they began walking on level floor not too long after entering the dark tunnel. They came to a halt when the passage way stopped at a set of double doors. Engraved on the doors was an image of two jewels, they looked just like the jewels that they had stolen earlier. The lead ruff looked to his left and noticed a stone in the wall with the faded image of a scorpion on it. On the floor at the foot of the door was a set of hieroglyphics.

"Boomer, read this," said Brick.

Similar to Bubbles' ability to speak Spanish and talk to animals, Boomer had the ability to read ancient hieroglyphics of any era or country.

"Death awaits those who enter," Boomer read aloud. "This place must be rigged with booby traps."

"Yeah right," arrogantly said Butch, "What's the worst that could happen to us?"

Brick kicked down the doors using his brute strength to open the way for him and his brothers. "Be on your guard, boys. I haven't read too much on ancient booby traps, but one thing I do know for certain is that they were very creative and deadly."

Behind the door was a long corridor with many pillars that formed a walkway. It was too dark even for their night vision goggles to see into. Attached to the sides of the pillars was a set of torches that had yet to be lit. The boys lifted their goggles and quickly blasted each one with their laser vision and they were set ablaze to light up the whole area. Lots of ancient Egyptian writing and pictures covered the walls. They continued down the corridor cautiously, while Boomer was busy reading the writing.

The blue ruff seemed curious. "These walls tell a story. I think it's about the pieces we're collecting," he said as he scanned through the ancient images.

"Boomer, I want you to stay here and translate everything into English. Butch, we'll go get the next piece," Brick ordered before he continued down the corridor. As ordered, Boomer pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and began to take pictures of all the hieroglyphs in order. He then pulled out a pen and notepad and began to translate. The ancient writing on the walls had nothing to do with the mission; however, the leader of the Rowdy Ruff Boys was curious. His boss rarely had any value for anything, not even human lives. "Why would this object be so valuable to Him?" he wondered.

Brick and Butch continued down the corridor until they came to another door. These doors were made of bronze and large in size, rivaling that of a telephone pole. At the center was a lock. Butch easily broke off the lock and opened the doors.

The two saw a set of torches and set them ablaze with laser vision. Inside was a tomb that was filled with chests. Near the back and centered in the room was a large sarcophagus which belonged to a pharaoh. It was made of solid gold. The sarcophagus was made to resemble the man inside so it had the face of a man and the design of his body carved into its forefront. The hands were holding something close to his heart. Brick looked at the heart and saw that it was exactly what he was looking for: the bronze ring with the emerald in the center of it.

It was then that the two rowdy ruffs noticed a corpse laying on the ground right in front of them. The man looked like he was dressed for a safari hunt. Brick could tell that the body was old, but not nearly as old as the pyramid was. The flesh had decayed away and the bones were the only thing that remained. He had died with a pen and book in hand and a backpack on his back.

"What happened to him?" asked Butch as he took a step near the body. However right where his foot landed a square piece of the floor began to sink into the ground.

Brick saw this and immediately pulled him back by the shirt of his collar. Exactly one second later the air infront of them was peppered with venomous darts that came out of holes in the wall to the left of them.

"Apparently he didn't watch his step," laughed Brick.

Butch merely scowled and continued on with his bother a little more cautiously.

They both floated over the man's body and the possible traps on the floor to reach the sarcophagus. Brick looked at the jewel closely and began thinking of a way to pull it out carefully. He wondered if there was some sort of trap this might trigger if he did it wrong. To his surprise his brother walked right over to it and carelessly jerked it out of the mummy's heart without any concern.

"Butch, watch it! You might activate a trap!" Brick said.

Butch realized that he wasn't thinking and merely said, "Oops."

Just then the ground beneath them began to shake. A loud rumbling could be heard throughout the dark underground ruins that they were in.

"See what I mean?" Brick said to his brother.

Suddenly an unknown force began to close the doors, attempting to trap the boys in the tomb. The two brothers bolted out of the doorway seconds before it shut and went on to find Boomer.

"Are you finished?" Brick asked his brother.

"Yeah, I got it all right here," he answered and stuffed the notepad in his sac.

Together all three zoomed out of the ruins and made it outside. The earth was still shaking as dunes of sand began to shift. Slowly it began to dissipate. Suddenly they heard several foot steps of something large coming their way. The boys turned around and saw a large monster before them. Its body was made of stone and it had the body of a lion and head of a man with a pharaoh head set on it. It was then that Brick recognized it as the Sphinx. It was alive.

It took one large swipe at them with its paw. The boys each leaped back and dodged the move.

Butch leaped up and gave a jump kick to its face. It impacted right on the nose and shattered a good portion of the rock off its head. The loud sound of stone breaking filled the night air. Boomer quickly punched the legs. The force of his blow broke the leg off completely and forced the stone beast to collapse on the ground with its three remaining legs. The mere force of its massive body smashing into the ground caused a minor earth quake. Brick flew high, then shot straight down and brought his elbow to bear. He slammed into the neck of the creature and its body crumbled under his might. The head rolled right off the shoulders.

The boys each landed back on the ground and stood ready to continue the fight should the creature get up. The stone beast never moved again.

"All too easy," said Brick with a smug smirk.

Just then they heard three feminine voices behind them. "Not so fast, bad guys!"

Red Crown: Remember to review if you want me to update.