Chapter 21 – Friend or Foe? I Just Don't Know

At exactly 1600 hours Blossom Utonium marched out to Training Ground Beta, geared up and ready to go. Bubbles trailed behind her, double checking her equipment and securing the gunny sack of precious cargo to her back.

As she and her sister arrived at the Training Ground, Blossom was pleased to see all twenty members of the ATA Squad were standing at attention and waiting for orders. It was a good omen in her book; a disciplined force was a successful force. She had initially briefed them on the raid less than an hour ago but it made no difference to them. They were ready to be deployed at any moment. They weren't called the best for nothing.

Mitch stood at ease in front of the lined up soldiers, watching her and Bubbles as they approached. She offered Mitch a nod and inspected the troops one last time. None of them seemed nervous; a palpable excitement was there however. Hopefully that wouldn't lead to over zealousness in the field. She knew what Buttercup was like when that happened, had she passed any of that on to her troops?

Oh God, she hoped not.

"Everything prepped and ready Lieutenant?" She asked as she turned back to Mitch.

He offered her a nod. "Yes Ma'am, all armed up and ready to move out on your orders."

"Any last updates from the OR?"

"Operation Room tells me things are still pretty much the same. They'll have four scouts ready and waiting to brief us when we get there."

Blossom nodded lightly while making sure her radio was properly attached to her belt, it was the sixth time she had checked but one could never be too cautious. Which is why she had also triple checked her pistol and ammo clips during the walk over from the Quartermasters Office. Nothing wrong with that either…

Okay, she'd admit it….she was nervous. More than nervous really. This was their first raid. The first raid. One of many she hoped, but it was really all up to this one to kick things off. If it went badly now…oh that didn't bode well to think about.

"I think we're all ready to go Blossom."

The redhead looked at her sister's smiling face and steeled her nerve. The plan was set, the troops knew their parts, and she had five contingency plans in case things went wrong. It was all up to luck now. With a quick, imperceptible breath she turned towards the squad and called out in a clear, strong voice "Move out!"

Night had fully fallen by the time the raid team exited the tunnels and navigated the darkened streets towards their target. Up ahead stood a small base that functioned as a resupply center for Simian convoys and patrols. One would think it would be heavily guarded since it was a supply base, but if you did, you'd be wrong.

"This is really it? That's the base we're hitting? I could boost Jimmy here over the walls in less than thirty seconds. Man, this is going to be a breeze." Mitch laughed lightly as he stared at their lack luster target. A few of the other men muttered their agreements and scoffed at the puny defenses around the base.

Blossom fought the urge to roll her eyes; cockiness was not something she needed at the moment. Yes, they were a highly skilled commando squad but still. "Just because it doesn't appear dangerous doesn't mean it isn't. A bullet can still kill you, no matter who fires it."

That shut the group up quick. Mitch sent her an apologetic look before ordering his men to form a perimeter and do a weapons check. It was almost like a flip of a coin the way their moods changed. One moment they were mocking their enemy, light hearted as little girls, the next they were hard faced men and women ready to do battle. It was a bit disconcerting to Blossom, but maybe that was because she rarely participated in battles like this first hand.

Whatever the case, she pushed it out of her mind as four shadows detached themselves from the surrounding alley ways and came up to meet her group. Bubbles and Mitch joined her on either side as the scouts offered her their salutes.

Blossom threw a quick salute of her own. "What's the latest news?"

"Almost the same as a few hours ago General." One of them spoke up. "No signs of Collectors or patrols in the area. The only protection this supply base has is its garrison of troops. From our count there are maybe sixty to eighty personnel inside, it's hard to tell in the darkness but we all agree that less than half of those are actual trained Simian troops. The rest are mostly clerks and workers to move the supplies."

The redhead nodded at the brief and bit her lip. "How's their morale?"

Another scout scoffed lightly. "A skittish as a turkey on Thanksgiving day. They're nervous but alert, made sneaking harder than usual. You can be sure they've heard of the attack last night and are wondering if the big bad boogie man is coming for them next. Won't they be in for a surprise?" He finished with a malicious smile.

"Indeed, we wouldn't want to disappoint them after all." Blossom muttered as she considered the base. "How tall are those walls?"

The first scout shrugged. "Barely top eight feet, could probably boost a man over it."

"Perfect. If there's nothing else to report I want you four to run a two mile perimeter check. Notify me if any reinforcements or patrols are headed our way. I don't want to be surprised and flanked during a fire fight."

The group of scouts nodded and gave her a round of salutes before they wandered off conversing amongst themselves, discussing who would cover what area and the like.

Blossom took a deep breath and held back a smile. Things were going exactly how she had wanted so far, that meant the plan her and Bubbles came up with was still on. She turned to the blonde and looked her in the eye.

"This is as good a chance we're going to get; the plan is officially a go. You got the explosives correct?"

Bubbles hummed her affirmation as she wrapped her black bandana around the bright blonde of her hair. To regular eyes that, along with the black smudges covering her face, made it appear as if her eyes were floating on their own. Two pools of sky hovering in the darkness. Blossom hoped that wouldn't cause a problem for her baby sister. She should have realized that would happen back at base. Ugh, too late to change that now.

"Alright, we'll give you five minutes to get into position before we start the assault, remember, when you're done get out of the base and light the signal flare. I'll pull the detonation switch when I see it."

"I got it Bloss, how much time do I have once you start the assault?" Bubbles asked as she finished straightening her belongings.

The Red Puff offered her a one shoulder shrug. "I'm not quite sure. Twenty minutes at the most, we might be able to squeeze out a few more but I wouldn't push it. Any extra minute we delay is another minute for reinforcements to arrive."

The blonde whistled lightly through her teeth. "Not a lot of time is it? Oh well, I'll make it work somehow." She gripped the straps of her gunny sack tightly. "I'd best be off then, see you guys in a half an hour hopefully."

As she turned to go, Blossom reached out and grabbed her arm. Bubbles looked back at her in confusion. "Listen, only go for the most vital areas you can find okay? If you can't get to someplace without being seen then forget about it. I don't want you risking yourself for a better target. We have enough explosives in that pack to damage the base no matter where you place them."

"Okay, I got it General." Bubbles gave her one last smile and a shot off a salute before turning and jogging into the darkness towards the enemy base.

Blossom let loose a shaky breath as she watched her go; a nervous feeling welled up in the pit of her stomach.

Even though the idea of sending the blonde into the base to booby trap it with explosives had been a joint collaboration between the both of them, Blossom didn't like it. If there had been any other way that would offer them as much bang for the buck she would have taken it. Unfortunately, this was the best plan they could come up with in less than ten hours.

They couldn't commit to a full out assault on their own without something else to throw into the mix. Her troops might have been extremely proficient and the Simian troops might be severely incompetent on multiple levels but they were still greatly outnumbered. There were going to be casualties no doubt, but she needed as many of her troops alive at the end of this encounter as she could. This offered the best way to do that.

Still, she would have preferred another plan, maybe with a few more days of scouting…Ugh, thoughts like that would get her nowhere and right now she had to focus. Really focus. This was her moment and she had lives on her hands, it was time to get down to business.

"You think it's still a good idea to be sending her out alone like that?" Mitch asked as he waved in the direction the blonde disappeared in.

"Honestly? No…" Was the only thing Blossom said before she turned and walked towards her squad of waiting soldiers. She heard Mitch let out an apprehensive sigh before he followed after her.

"What's done is done Lieutenant. Now come on, let's get into position. We have a distraction to start."

Bubbles suppressed a shiver as the cold autumn wind blew around her, leeching away her warmth as it found the small gaps through her clothes. A particularly vicious gust sent a chill straight down her spine.

Brrr, sometimes she hated living on the east coast. Autumn was supposed to be pleasantly temperate not downright chilly!

Pulling the zipper of jacket up to her chin, she spotted a structure looming up ahead. Well, looming wasn't exactly the right word. It should have been looming by all accounts seeing as it was a perimeter wall but unfortunately the best it could manage was maybe kinda tall. At least it'd be easier to climb over.

The blonde slowed down her jog to a measured pace and carefully approached the wall. She stepped as quietly as possible in the darkness, keeping her eyes peeled and her ears primed for any sounds. They could have had a perimeter guard that the scouts missed.

Except they didn't. Bubbles stood close by the wall and waited for thirty seconds but nothing happened. No guards walked by, no sound came from the top of the wall…it was dead silent.

Huh.

Deciding not to question her luck, Bubbles hitched up the gunny sack to make sure it was secure before taking a few steps back and rushing towards the wall. She jumped straight up and pushed up off it towards the ledge, easily managing to grab hold of it with her fingertips.

Again she took a few seconds to wait silently. It was hard to do when you were holding a majority of your body weight by your finger alone but Bubbles managed it admirably. When nothing stood out to her she pulled herself up and over the wall, landing in a deep crouch on the other side.

A huge group of stacked crates hid her as she dropped down and created a nice little area for her to get her bearings. Luck was definitely on her side, she couldn't have picked a better place to drop in if she tried. The blonde smiled lightly to herself as she looked around her surroundings.

A few hundred meters to her left lay the base's entrance gate and to her right were several squat, long buildings. Those had to be the warehouses they stored supplies in between transport.

That was her target.

Bubbles tiptoed along the crates towards the warehouses and kept an eye out for any base personnel along the way. There weren't many that she could see, but those she did were nothing special. Simple workers and clerks were scattered around moving about their work, checking the contents of nearby crates and moving them to and fro. It reminded her of how the Resistance base she lived in looked like.

That thought unsettled her a little…okay more than a little. She obviously knew there would be some similarities, they were both bases after all, but she thought there would only be a few things like that.

She had always thought that going into a Simian base would be a horrible experience, like she expected them to be hanging dead children outside the walls or something. After all she had heard about Mojo Jojo in the past couple of months it wouldn't have surprised her in the least. And everything Buttercup had ever told her about the bases they raided in the Amazon and Congo seemed to support those ideas.

But there were no dead children here, no mutilated bodies or POWs being tortured. It was exceedingly normal actually. That's what disconcerted her the most. It reminded her like home.

And if this wasn't a terrible fortress of sorrow and misery…then did that mean the people here were like the people back at the home base?

The blonde leaned out from around her cover and observed her enemy.

A few of the workers were struggling to lift a crate into a nearby truck, a clerk was checking things off on his clipboard, even the few guards around the area were normal looking; simply standing around looking bored out of their minds. It kinda reminded her of Gil the sentry guard.

These were regular people going about their jobs. They had hopes and dreams, they laughed and cried just like everybody else. Just like her and her sisters…and she was about to plant ten explosive charges that would blow all that into oblivion.

Oh this bad, she should stop this line of thought before…dang nabit!

Too late.

Doubts had already begun broiling in the back of her mind as she stole back behind the crates. Ohh, she couldn't do this, not now! Not on this mission. Feeling sorry for the enemy was nearly treason for crying out loud.

'Come on Bubbles! You need to focus on the mission. These are the enemy! Not your friends and family! They may act like them and have loved ones of their own and probably children…whose fathers you are going kill….and-'

Bubbles cut off her line of thought before it could trail on any further. Oh, damn her conscience!

She took a breath and peeked around the area once more. Nothing had changed; the attack on the gates hadn't started yet. Thank the Maker for that. She couldn't be stuck here when it happened; she needed to be doing the task Blossom had given her.

That thought spurred her to her feet and towards the warehouse once more. She may have been battling with her conscience but at least she was moving in the right direction now. She couldn't let Blossom down, not when she was counting on her. Mitch and the others were too, heck the whole base pretty much was.

Those thoughts gave her some ground in her inner battle, a bit of perspective at least. While Buttercup always said, and she knew it was true, that she had a bleeding heart, she still knew where her loyalties laid. With her comrades, her friends, her family.

Even if going through with her mission would make her feel like the slime on someone's boot…she would do it. That's who she was, when she gave her word she saw it through. A Powerpuff never breaks a promise.

The blonde nodded to herself and looked up just in time to catch herself and crouch down behind a stray stack of tires. The Simian worker that she nearly walked right into raised his head and blinked curiously around when he heard the noise she made.

Bubbles held her breath as he peered around the darkness. He stood that way for a few seconds before shrugging softly to himself and continuing on his merry way. The Blue Puff blew out a small relieved sigh.

Whoo, that had been close! Oh man, she couldn't believe she had just made the most rookie mistake in the book. Pay attention to your surroundings! How many times had that been drilled into her head during training? Stupid! She had nearly compromised the entire mission with her silly morale dilemma. Not that moral dilemmas were silly in the slightest, but having one in the middle of a VERY important mission certainly qualified as such.

Almost caught because of her wandering mind. She would never forgive herself if that happened, and it very well could still happen actually. In fact, she was doing it again! Why was she standing around when there was a mission to be done?! She needed to get moving, time was steadily ticking away.

The blonde set off at a quicker pace than she thought was safe but that was the least on her mind at the moment. The attack on the gate could happen at any second and she needed to be at those warehouses when it did.

Even at her less than stealthy pace, she managed to easily avoid any more wandering workers or guards. Thankfully they were really lax in their observation skills, maybe because they felt secure inside their base? Whatever it was, it made sneaking around a cake walk.

Although definitely a plus, Bubbles had been expecting a lot more of a challenge than this. Buttercup had always been telling her of how fierce and deadly these Simian troops were. She could have done without the gory details on most of the accounts but it was Buttercup, that would be like asking a penguin to stop being adorable and fluffy.

Anyway, the point was that these troops here were a lot different than what Buttercup had told her. It was like an entirely different set of people, hard to believe they were a part of the same army. She guessed it just went to show how much location and circumstances changed people.

In no time at all Bubbles emerged from the alley ways and came upon her targets, three huge warehouses stood in front of her. There were a few guards milling around the entrances, talking to each other nonchalantly. The workers on the other hand, were running around like their pants were on fire. They must have had a lot of work to do, poor guys.

NO! None of that, no feeling sorry. Mission, she was here on a mission.

Mission, mission, mission.

Bubbles averted her gaze from the people in the area and instead focused on the warehouses themselves. They weren't much to look at, simple buildings that stretched probably twenty five meters long and ten meters wide.

She had no idea as to what they housed, but if she were to guess mostly food, ammunition, and miscellaneous supplies. Things that the home base could have used…hmmmm.

That idea had some merit actually. Who said she couldn't do a bit of scavenging while she placed the charges? It wasn't like they were going to be missed after the explosives went off.

With that extra goal in her mind, Bubbles moved on to the most prominent of her problems…how to get in?

It didn't look like there were any windows in the buildings and the only entrance points she could see were the ones covered with guards. That was no bueno. How could she sneak by those guys? They might have been half blind but they weren't that blind as to not notice someone walking right by them.

As Bubbles frowned at the buildings, her conveniently forgotten pre-planned miracle arrived right on schedule. The peaceful stillness of the night was abruptly shattered as gunfire ripped through the air. All of the base personnel that she could see froze for the briefest of moments, and then the shouts began.

Her five minutes were up, the assault was on.

Blossom's ambush achieved the desired effects as the guards in the area called out to the workers and then ran towards the gates, leaving warehouses completely undefended.

Well, that solved that problem nicely. Now all she had to do was sneak pass the confused workers and begin planting her charges. Bubbles picked out the closest warehouse to her position and began her mission.

Peeking inside, she noticed that it was empty. Not one worker or clerk was in the space, only crates and a few vehicles. Another unexpected surprise and one she was grateful for. The blonde slipped inside and began scanning for the best place to put her packages.

Hmm, she could always place them evenly along the walls, to make sure they destroyed the entire warehouse. How powerful were they anyway? That probably was something she should have asked Quartermaster Nicholas when he gave them to her. Crubby Muffins.

As it stood now, she had ten charges and three warehouses, soooo three charges for each warehouse and one left over to put where she pleased. Maybe she should put one in the front, one in the back, and one in the middle of each building? Yeah, that could work.

Bubbles slid off her gunny sack and retrieved her first charge. As she got to work setting the charges around the building she made note of the crates and their markings: Food in that one, Ammo in that one, oh! Uniforms in that one over there. All of those things could be very worthwhile. She was definitely going to try and sneak something out with her.

'Only if I have time left of course.' She reminded herself as the sounds of gunfire doubled outside.

The Simian troops must have finally started retaliating. Oh, she hoped Blossom and Mitch were doing alright. Well Mitch, she was sure, was probably fine. He had been doing dangerous stuff like this since he was fifteen but Blossom…she wasn't quite as experience in a firefight as the rest of them were.

Hopefully their surprise attack would keep the enemy troops off balance enough to push the odds in their favor, but there were an awful lot of them…

With a renewed sense of urgency, Bubbles set off to the next warehouse with charges in hand.

Blossom popped up from behind her cover, a blown out window of some convenient store, and fired off a few well-placed shots with her pistol. She saw the Simian the troop crumple to the ground before she ducked back down.

Now normally Blossom wasn't one to curse and she berated Buttercup every times she did, but she was starting to see where her sister had developed the filthy habit.

"Dammit." The redhead muttered as return fire rained dust and debris over her, a deadly stream of heated lead passing just inches above her head.

A crackle passed through her radio before Mitch's familiar voice garbled through. "General? Do you copy?"

Blossom ducked down some more and pulled the radio from her belt. "I hear you Lieutenant. Sit Rep."

The whine of gunfire caused another burst of crackling from the radios speakers, cutting off the first half of Mitch's reply. "-pinned. We've got another two men down. Looks like more of the Monkeys are gathering at the gate."

Blossom peeked up over her cover and immediately pulled back to avoid being pumped full of lead.

"Astute observation Lieutenant. I can't get a good look at the gate, how many Monkeys?"

It was amazing how the minutes seemed to drag on for hours when you were in the middle of a death or life situation. It was agonizing waiting the long moments for Mitch's reply, especially when the reminder of death was zooming barely inches above her.

"By my count, I'd say thirty five or so."

"And our forces so far?"

"Four men down, that leaves you, me, and sixteen men in fighting condition. "

Blossom chewed on her lip as the gunfire above her finally died down.

Only four men down so far, that was a lot better than she had thought she'd have at this point. The opening attack had been devastating for the Simian troops, which had been expected. Her men had taken out the entire guard contingent at the gates in a matter of seconds.

It was as more of the base's troops began to respond to the attack that the situation devolved. She and her troops had been able to pick off the first few one by one but as the amount of men continued to grow it soon overwhelmed them. They simply didn't have the man power.

Their easy slaughter turned into a gritty gunfight with both sides bunkering down into whatever cover they could find and firing uselessly at each other until one of them gave up…or was decimated.

She really wished Bubbles would hurry up.

"Alright Mitch, keep the pressure up." She checked her watch. "Bubs should be done within the next twelve minutes or so."

"Roger that."

Blossom reclipped the radio back onto her belt and rose to fire off a few shots as she moved to different cover. Another enemy troop collapsed under her iron sights and attracted the attention of a few more. She slid behind a counter as the return fire came at her.

Ugh, this was taking forever. How could her force effectively fight when they could barely get a shot out? It was like some messed up waiting game, one side waiting for the other side to reload and shooting at them when they did, and then a repeat for the opposite side. Over and over and over again.

How could Buttercup stand this?

She hated monotony, but she loved battle. Maybe it was the rush of adrenaline and the fact that at any moment you could die? Blossom herself wasn't enjoying it one bit but her sister…well she was always the weirder one out of the three. She wouldn't put it past her to have some crazy fetish as an adrenaline junky.

Oh if only Buttercup was here right now. She probably would have an idea to counter the enemy troop's offensive, something to help push them back. Unfortunately, Buttercup wasn't here and couldn't help. That had been her decision and now she was facing the consequences.

The redhead shook the thought from her mind, she was the in the middle of a fire fight for goodness sake. She popped up again and fired a few shots off before ducking down.

At this rate it was only a matter of minutes before Blossom and her troops would have to retreat, enemy reinforcements could have been on their way right now.

She checked her watch once more, nine minutes…that was it. Nine minutes, not long at all. She had spent more time writing mission reports than that. Of course minutes seemed to fly when writing mission reports, not so with battles.

'Oh this is going to be a long wait.' Blossom thought to herself as she fired blindly over the counter.

Bubbles needed to hurry up, plant the charges, and light the signal flare. Then they could gather up their injured, fire the charges, and sneak the hell out of here.

Her musings were broken as another series of bullets started whipping above her head.

If they survived that long of course.

A/N: Chapter 21! The raid begins! So yeah, this was a fun chapter to write, I've done a few small battles so far but nothing big like a raid so tell me what you think of it so far. The battles are only going to get bigger from here on out. As for Blossom's and Bubbles' attitude, I wanted to give them a humanized view of battle. Both of them are pretty green when it comes to actual combat and I thought that would give them some doubts and such. What do you guys think?

Now for my favorite part! Review Recognition!

Scourge: Thanks mate! You're always so supportive :D I appreciate it greatly! We'll be finishing off the raid in the next chapter and depending how well I do with writing this week, I might just post another mid week update... :D We'll see!

bitternessbitesback: Thank you for the kind words! I'm super happy that you like the character development. That was my main goal in writing this story. There is a lot of good material on this site but I always felt that people rush their characters when it comes to writing PPG fics. I wanted to present an alternative that did the opposite. It might drag a little, but I think it sets up nicely for when we get into the meatier parts of the story. Anyways, thanks for the review!

Lily975: Thank you so much for the two reviews! You didn't have to do it but I'm glad you did :D To answer your question, we'll see a Rowdyruff pop in the chapter after next. It'll be a good one, I promise! Hope your end of the year tests went well!

The Cynic: Thanks! I'm glad it sucked you in! I tend to like a lot of in depth story telling but I do go over board sometimes, its good to know that I'm keeping a good balance between the two. I appreciate all the kind words and I hope you enjoy the next few chapters! We are getting close to some major developments! Hehehe, and yes, Boomer will need to sort his feelings out. He might need a little help though...

Next Chapter: It's up to Bubbles to knuckle down and get those charges set...or Blossom and her troops will be sitting ducks. Can the blonde fight past her hesitancy to finish in time? You know what they say...finish with a BANG!