Reuploaded: Apparently I clicked the wrong file and it uploaded the previous chapter instead. I have rectified the mistake and have uploaded the appropriate chapter once more. Sorry for the inconvenience caused.
Chapter 26: Foxfire
[Fort Marks, Townsville: 12.00am]
BRRRRBBRBBBRRRRRRRRRR!
Several distinctive loud fart-like noises echoed in the air and several explosions were heard immediately before the sound of the passing jets flew past Butch and Bubbles. As Butch watched the skies, the sight of four twin-engine straight wing jet aircraft flew past them with the shark-like mouth painted on the nose of the aircraft housing a large rotary cannon firing upon the enemy. The aircraft fires several missiles at the enemy before banking hard to the left and the roaring engines protested as the ground exploding from the cluster bombs. As the ground explodes, another four more of the same aircraft fired upon the enemy with their large rotary cannons as they strafed the battlefield. The shock waves of the bombs and the cannons pounding the ground reverberates in Butch's and Bubbles' body. The aircrafts descended down from the night skies to wreak righteous fury upon the enemies like holy crosses from a wrathful divine god, .
"What are those?!" Bubbles screamed out loud.
Butch recognized those aircraft making those beautiful explosions and strafing the enemy. First flown in 10th May 1972, and introduced into the United States Air Force in March 1977 with seven hundred and sixteen of the aircraft build, the vehicle was designed to house what is perhaps the most devastating gun ever inserted into an aircraft; the 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger rotary cannon with the ability to rain depleted uranium shells against targets with a firing rate of 3,900 rounds per minute giving its weapon a distinctive fart-like noise when it fired, and this ridiculous firepower is further augmented by a plethora of guided weapons and unguided weapons for close air support. During its first operational deployment, it was credited with destroying approximately 900 tanks, 2,000 non-armored military vehicles and 1,200 artillery pieces. It is known by many names; 'Warthog', 'Devil's Cross', but Butch calles it the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.
"So...awesome..." Butch shed a tear at the sheer awe-inspiring sight of his favorite planes in action.
"Butch, are you alright?" Bubbles realized that the black-haired teenager is making a squealing sound as he watches the aircraft blasting the enemy positions. The air is soon alight with firing towards the sky by various projectiles, and the battlefield is now truly alive.
"I can die happy now if I can now grab on both your tits and be enveloped in Blossom's legs and arms, and my groin being sat on by Buttercup's fine ass as I watch this happening." Butch smiled and wiped his eyes. Suddenly Butch's face was met with a loud slap that caused his face to slam into Bubbles' protective barrier, shocking him further. Bubbles is visibly angry at the verbal violation of her sisters and herself and she covers her chest away from the man. But then Bubbles realized that the whipping filaments had stopped assaulting the shield. She looked at Butch, who had also realized the same thing and she detached the defensive barrier away to hover around her back in the orbit of an electric ring. She saw the many-limbed Candyman is now protecting himself in a ball made out of his own strands of silk as several cannon fire are bombarding him, while the Russian is now firing his spikes up in the air against the flying aircraft.
"We need to get to the defenders fast!" Bubbles noticed the opportunity and immediately flew towards the base defenders, and Butch trailed shortly after. As they both landed in the defender's parameter, the men and women of the military base are now cheering as several more A-10 Thunderbolts are entering into the fray, dropping their bombs and firing their cannons. Suddenly, everyone hears several distinctive 'whop whop' noises and as they looked up in the air, several twin-engined transport helicopters with a single four-bladed rotor and a single four-bladed tail rotor amd several much larger tandem-rotored helicopters soon lands in front of the defenders. As the sliding door opens, several soldiers are jumping out from the helicopters and take defensive positions around the defenders while several more helicopters are now heading out towards the enemy lines.
"I never thought I would love to see the sight of Black Hawks and Chinooks landing right before me." Major Ghiradelli said as one of the newly-arrived troopers walks towards the major. The soldier is a man in full military garb, with his face covered with a baraclava. The man salutes, and the white-haired major salutes back. However, the major's face turned from a face of relief to disbelief when the man opens his mouth.
"Sergeant Lewinski of the 1st Calvary Division reporting sir! Sir, we need you to evacuate your remaining troopers on these choppers! We've got approximately thirty minutes before we send in several Tomahawks to destroy the other enemy units!" The man's clipped response is tinted with a sense of desperation that is obvious for all. The silver-haired major swings his arm out in a gesture of protest as he answered the sergeant back.
"What do you mean we have to evacuate! Your men just bombarded them to kingdom come!" As he said that, several of the helicopters were sliced into pieces out of the sky while several of the planes are blown out of the skies. From the horizon, several Candymen are now storming at the reinforcements in the front lines while the two special Candymen are bringing down whatever it is that is being thrown at them.
"Correction sir; we're buying time. We've not got much time, Major! We can only hold out so much! Hurry!" As the man cries out, one of the helicopters in front of them is stabbed by a bony spike before exploding in a spectacular fashion bringing down several men around the helicopter. The major understood the significance of the situation and immediately gave the command to pull out.
"Alright people, load the injured on the Chinooks and those that can still fight, provide covering fire for those loading the injured! move it!" The major's command is loyd and clear and the men moved into action. As the soldiers loaded the injured onboard the Chinook helicopters first, Bubbles knew that they needed more time.
"Butch, we need to get back in there to buy these people more time! I'll-"
"Blondie, you don't have to ask; I want payback against that hedgehog!" Butch immediately speeds off towards the raging battlefield once more, and Bubbles sighed at the blood knight. Several gunfire soon flies past the defenders.
"We need the zone to be cleared before we can take them out!" Captain Miyagi screamed out loud, and immediately Bubbles started firing her eyebeams at the general location where the incoming fire is coming from. With a continuous eyebeam, she sweeps the area and silenced several of the firing enemies by slicing their weapons in half.
"Hurry get on the chopper!" Bubbles shouted as she continuously suppresses the hostile forces with her eye beam. The other defenders took the chance and started to load the injured on the helicopter while Sergeant Lewinski's men provided covering fire. As each Chinook helicopter slowly lifts off from the base, the forces in the base knew that the situation is as dire as the sergeant have said. Reports are coming in from every front that the enemy forces is slowly being reinforced and their numbers increasing despite the fact that the base is essentially out in the middle of nowhere.
"Alright that is the last of the injured out! Move the non-essentials personnel on the other Chinooks now! Tank crews, fire all your rounds until you run out! Once that is done, get out and fry the vehicles the best you can! Anyone that ran out of ammo please get on the Chinooks as well! Move! Move! Move!" As the orders are being relayed, Bubbles is slowly tiring out from the continuous use of her powers. But Bubbles know that if she stop now these men and women will not be able to escape the base alive. It was then that she saw the clouds above them started to gather, and Bubbles knew that trouble is on its way.
Butch is trying to seek the special Candymen that are leading the enemy forces, but all he could find are the normal Candymen. As they pounced on him, Butch neutralizes them the fastest way he could. With precise strikes on all their vital organs, Butch easily defeats them as he wades past them. As they writhed in pain over the blows to their vitals,Butch knew that the tide of battle is turning against the defenders. Butch is now seeing new tanks and infantry are now flooding in and causing mayhem among the new helicopter-borne forces. Butch wondered how did they even reinforce themselves despite not seeing any airborne drops nor any external forces storming the base. It just seem that these forces are appearing out of nowhere and just flooding into the rapidly weakening defenses. Even with the A-10 support and the air cavalry,they are just buying time for them. If the enemies are flooding the base as just distractions, as Brick and Boomer theorized, it is not expedient as there is too much resources being allocated to this base.
What's going on in their minds, Butch asked as he watched the skies above him started to light up from the lightning above him. But the color of the lightning caught Butch's eye; they are crimson red in color. The crimson lightning courses through the clouds like a pulsing blood-filled artery, lighting the clouds red like a malign portent. The dark moonless sky immediately turned a dark crimson, causing the whole battlefield to be illuminated in red. Butch knew that the situation had gone from bad to worse.
Countless atmospheric ghost light descended upon the base like snow droplets from the red clouds above, each ghost light glowing in a yellowish-white light with a red fiery core, and hovered a few feet above the ground. A pillar of pure white light descends down from the heavens, the contrast of the white light splitting through the red-hued environment and landing right in front of the black-haired teenager. As Butch was watching the skies above him, he was suddenly hit by several of the flaming ghost fires. A pink mist envelops the boy's body and as it entered into his nose and his ears, his jade green eyes have a tint of reddish-pink glow.
"BUTCH!" Butch immediately turned towards the source of the voice and she saw Butch a few feet away from her, with her plasma orbs surrounding her. The pigtailed girl watches as Butch's eyes are now glowing with a combination of dark green and pink flames. It was then that a figure descended down from the heavens above within the column of light. The descending figure is a female with waist-length braided brunette hair with a khaki beret on her head. Her sleeveless dark blue sweater top reveals her slender but toned hands and her stomach, and a long baggy desert-schemed fatigued cargo pants that sag slightly with combat boots completes her image. As Butch watched the figure descent, his mind blanked out at the shock of seeing the descending figure. Realizing that the enemy is before her, she rather do what Buttercup always do when faced with a new mysterious threat. Bubbles launches one of her orbs towards the woman. Instinctively, the teenage boy came between the speeding orb and the woman and he was hit by the plasma at the shoulder causing a great amount of shock. However, Butch is not affected significantly by Bubble's attack, and Butch's eyes immediately frown before his eyes glowed with rage.
"Butch! What are you doing!? That's the enemy!" Bubbles's voice fell on deaf ears and Butch immediately roared before speeding towards Bubbles and throwing out several punches. Bubbles was taken aback by Butch's attacks as she dodges each and every hit, and Bubbles knew that something is wrong with Butch. His punches are all aiming for her vitals or joints of her limbs, but at the same time they are more reckless than what she saw just now. She noticed that the woman is now walking away from the scene, with a sad smile on her face. She wanted to stop the braided woman, but every time she tried to disengage, Butch will close in on her. Bubbles realized that she does not have the time to entertain the enthralled Rowdyruff Boy.
Sorry Butch, looks like I have to stop you first before I get to her, Bubbles said to herself and charged her orbs to the maximum. She immediately hits him with all her orbs and the orbs started coursing the overwhelming current into the young man, causing his body to glow for a few seconds. The raven-haired teenager immediately collapsed on the ground and as Bubbles saw his smoking body, she hoped that she did not cause any permanent damage to him. After all, she had never used this ability before on a person of Butch's durability and resilience. As she chased after the woman, she realized that the woman is very light on her feet and she is navigating through the battlefield like it is an open area.
"Wait!" Bubbles shouted and shot her eye beams at the woman. The woman now looks back at the Powerpuff Girl and the braided woman's bright sky-blue eyes turned into frosty icy-cold blue ones and her milk-like complexion turned show-white. Her eyes slowly flowed with red tears forming claw-like marks from her eyes down her cheek and her hair glowed with a dim red light and as the intensity of the glow grew, turning the scorched umber color of her brunette hair to a blood-like crimson. From the base of her coccyx nine white brush-like tail grew and spread out around her like tendrils of the sun, each as long as her arm. As her colored attire slowly turned to snow-white, a floating white lantern with a bright red flame within glowing with a malicious light materializes above her head. Several of the floating flames immediately rains down on the eye beam and blew up, negating the beams entirely.
Suddenly, Bubbles realized that she is now moving at the opposite direction, with her right view and left view being inverted and she is running in the skies upside down while the surface is now above her. The sudden confusion caused the Powerpuff Girl to stop and as she looked left, she noticed that her head is now turning right instead. Bubbles is visibly shaken by this sudden change in her perceptions and as she turn backwards in a clockwise movement to see where she is in relative to the situation, she noticed that she is turning forward in a counter-clockwise position. The impossible motions of her body is utterly disorienting and her senses are being overloaded by the 'unnatural' state. Suddenly Bubbles noticed that her right arm was being cut by something, but it is her left arm that is bleeding instead.
"Up and down, left and right, front and back...everything is inverted. The same goes for where you are looking at and where you are cut, mon petit fille." Bubbles heard the voice of the woman, but somehow it appears that her voice is coming from everywhere. Bubbles could not help but to form her barriers around her to protect herself.
"Well, well, well. Very good instinct, mon petit fille." The voice complimented her, and Bubbles turn around in a convulted way to finally face the vixen-like woman. The woman is now upside-down and Bubbles is unsure how she is doing this. She wondered if this is an illusion or if this is something far more sinister. As the woman takes her steps forward, she noticed that the woman is now walking upwards towards Bubbles' location. Bubbles tried to move back, but she moved forward instead and Bubbles' vision, actions and thought are so mismatched that it affected her equilibrium, causing her to experience a complex mix of vertigo, confusion, disorientation and nausea.
"But there is no use against Maleperduis, as your body is accustomed to fighting. Your body, mind and your reflexes will riot at the pandemonium, and you will succumb to the power. Ananse, would you be so kind as to entertain her for me?" Bubbles immediately noticed that the tall-lanky multiple-armed man is now standing behind her and suddenly her barrier was engulfed by web. Immediately she was flung around and as her barriers hits multiple surfaces, she rocked violently within the web.
Bubbles knew that she is in trouble.
Butch wakes up to find himself lying down on the ground. He wondered how did he come down to the ground, and his body ache with uncontrollable spasms as he tried to get up. It appeared that he was electrocuted, but by whom? The last thing he could remember is that he saw an impossible sight and his mind blanked out. He is clueless as to what this impossible sight is, but he knew that it is enough to bring him down. His eyes adjusted itself from the blurriness of his vision and he soon found out that something is wrong. Something is very wrong.
He finds himself staring at an inverted world, with the images of things being inverted to such an extent that when he raised his right arm to touch his face, his left arm is raised instead. He wipes the blood from his mouth with his left arm, but it is his right arm that had the bloodstained marks instead. As he looked at the new sky which by right would be the ground below him, he wondered if this is happening because he had suffered a concussion. Suddenly several of the Candymen are now charging at him, and Butch attempts to punch the brutes, but suddenly found himself being hit by invisible blows to his own abdomen. Realizing that his sense of sight is confusing him in this messed up world, he decided to retreat. Instead he find himself moving forward towards his attackers and they gave him no mercy. The blows from the monsters are heavy and concentrated and Butch felt his body was trying to puke out the food he had ate prior to the fight. His instincts screamed to move in a certain direction, but his body is moving against his instincts, causing him to be hit by the blows of the Candymen.
Freaking hell, Butch said to himself as he realized that his primary means of fighting is essentially neutralized. His instincts had served him over the years, but it has never betrayed him before. Butch flies upwards to try and get way but he realized that something is very off. No, he thought, everything is off. Suddenly his body was gashed all over by several hundred cuts and he falls down towards the sky where he just came from. Suddenly his face is now slammed down before he was flung around like a rag doll. However despite this beating, Butch felt a sensation on his leg; a grab.
"Gotcha." Butch said confidently as he spins his body in a violent spin, forcing the brute to spin along with him. Butch slams his opponent down on the ground with a crater-inducing blow. The brutish Candymen lets go of his leg and Butch falls up to the sky. Butch realized that he may have to take some drastic action for him to be able to strike back at these opponents. Suddenly he felt a blow to his neck and his chin was blown up pointing towards the sky. The left body blows that he experienced soon became right side-liver blows and any straight right jabs become left straights.
"Found you little boy. We need to fight good." Butch catches the voice of the Russian bear-like mountain of muscle, and he saw the heavily muscled bear-like monster standing below him with a snarling smile.
He punches the green-eyed teenager in the stomach with his bony protrusions from his arm and the teenage boy's back is blown by the explosion. As the blows of the spiked bear-like monstrosity connected with Butch's body, the explosion resulting from the warhead exploding is felt and seen from the opposite part of his body. Butch tried to catch the punches but the wrong arm came out and instead the blows are directed at Butch's joints and vulnerable parts. With a chopping right, Butch was paradoxically launched into the air and he drags on in the air for a while before stopping. As the boy looks down, he realized that disoriented senses and his severe injuries from the explosions and the mysterious electric shock sensation had essentially shut down his body. The only thing keeping him up is his sheer willpower, and right now even that feels like it is failing in light of this particular disorienting world and his paralyzed body. Butch felt the blood coming out from his mouth, and as he coughed, he realized that several of his internal organs are now damaged. For once in his life he felt like he could die from a battle.
"Medved, we are moving." From behind the bear-porcupine like abberation, a slender Asian woman with bright crimson skin clad in a high collared jacket covering half her face appeared with an annoyed expression. The newly arrived figure combed her fair short and messy golden blonde hair with five braided locks running down her back with her hands . As he saw the figure walks towards his opponent, his opponent hissed with disappointment. As the bear-like monstrosity turned around, the slender Asian woman looks at Butch with disinterested eyes. She walks up to him and suddenly Butch's view returned to normal. With her long slender legs, the new arrival kicks Butch down, and steps on his jaw breaking it. Butch howled in pain and as his eyes glared up her long, slender and shapely leg and he realized that if his situation is not so pathetic for him he would be enjoying looking up a woman's legs.
"Fennec, did you get what you are looking for?" Butch could not see who the person is talking to, but he was taken aback when he heard the voice that replied the Asian woman.
"Yes. Time to pull back everything. We do not want to lose everything here." The voice is a voice that Butch remembered from long ago, from the times when he was in the Syrian deserts. The voice that told him of humanity and kindness. The voice that sternly warned him to not be an idiot in the battlefield. The voice that soothe his anguished heart. The voice that he had grown to love. The voice that was lost all those years ago. The voice of Renee Delacroix. However the Frenchwoman is entirely white with only crimson eyes and hair and a lantern with a sinister red glow within floating above her head.
"I am already ahead of you, Fennec." The Asian woman that is stepping on Butch's jaw commented with a sigh, and the skies above them slowly fades from a crimson red to being black once more. As the darkness covers the surroundings once more like a blanket to accompany the sudden silence that descents upon the battlefield in this moonless night.
"Good. Distraction as it may, this place does have its special merits. We got all the information we need, and we showed the world our might." The voice of the woman speaking to the one stepping on his head is as cold as ice, and Butch clearly do not remember her voice to be so cold and calculative. He clearly remembered her voice to be kind and filled with life, not this heartless and soulless tone.
"So what do I do with the one under my foot?" There is a long pause from the other participant in the conversation, before an expression of disappointment flashed in the blonde woman's voice. The foot lifts off from Butch's jaw and as the woman above him gently pushes his face with her foot to face the owner of the voice, his mind went into shock once more. Butch wanted to call her name but his broken jaw is preventing him from saying a response. The braided Frenchwoman squats down beside the fallen Rowydyruff Boys and gives the teenager a warm but sad smile. As she touches Butch's jaw with her hands and then her palms, her eyes are shedding streams of blood-like liquid down her eyes, giving her the expression of crying in scarlet. Butch saw the woman looking at him with her crimson eyes and his emotions are now swirling within him like a turbulent storm. The woman and the Rowdyruff Boy are now staring at each other, eye to eye. The figure touches Butch's cheek, sensing the coldness of her fingers from his cheeks.
"Petit Verde, you've grown so big." The woman's voice ringed into Butch's ears, and immediately his eyes started to water. His mind remembered that her touch used to be warm and nurturing. As he looks at her arms, he noticed that there were grooves and vents on parts of the arm that once was flesh, and he knew that they are prosthetic arms. His mind registered where the prosthetic stop and her arms begin. His mind immediately flashes back into the memory of the last time he saw her, and he is soon paralyzed by the memory of her dying in front of him, bleeding out as red tears runs downs from her glass-like eyes down her face. Suddenly the woman gently brought his head up to her chest in a nurturing embrace, and Butch can now feel the warmth of her body. His eyes are now flowing with tears and his emotions are now overpowering him, as she whispered into his ear.
"I hope you understand Butch, as this is for the sake of a pure and azure world." The braided brunette lifts his face off her chest and looks at him with bright burning crimson eyes with a sad smile. Butch's jade eyes are now watching her with bewilderment, before she kissed him on the forehead. The warmth of her lips touching his forehead is all it takes for Butch to finally start screaming, wanting answers from the resurrected woman. The woman looks at him with blood-soaked sclerae and red irises as she puts him down on the ground once more, and shakes her head before she walks away. Suddenly he felt his limbs were penetrated by something large and sharp, and the green-eyed Rowdyruff Boy screamed in pain despite his broken jaw as all his limbs are pierced by bony protrusions.
"That would keep boy in place. Now we need to get to girl." The tall bear-like monster like being said in his thick hoarse accent as he rips away his face to reveal a square jawed man with half of his face burned. Butch can only scream in anger and pain as the group of people walk away from him.
"Are you sure that you want to leave him alive? " The blonde Asian said monotonously, but her eyes are showing great concern.
"Consider this my last time of showing mercy towards the Rowdyruff Boy. The next time I see him, he will be dead." The woman with the scarred cheek said to the aquamarine-eyed Asian woman. The Asian shrugged, knowing that it is best to not challenge the fox less she wants to be outfoxed. After a few moments of walking they soon come face to face with their spider-like comrade, perching on one of the destroyed tanks. As Fennec's eyes trailed to finally spot the Powerpuff Girl, the many-limbed man speaks out.
"She tough... manage to withstand being swung round like a club before passing out. Yuh guys come just as me finish me 'work'." The man commended his opponent, and his voice beaming with pride at having defeated a strong opponent.
"Time to go. Him wants the boys and girls alive." Fennec said, and the six-eyed man nods his head.
"I no more web. Need to go anyway." The man rises from his perch and each one of the individuals are engulfed in a reddish-pink fog and vanished mysteriously as the winds in which they came from.
[Fort Marks, Townsville: 12.45am]
"They're all gone...no traces of the enemy's fallen at all. Only the vehicle wrecks" Lieutenant Valencia said in disbelief as she leads her team across the broken battlefield of Fort Marks. The sudden phenomenon that could only be described as supernatural in nature had delayed the Tomahawk missile strike from being launched into the base, but as soon as the phenomenon is gone the enemy forces have vanished into thin air. The call was made back to stop the missile strike, and the survivors of the battle are now scouring the battlefield for their fallen and any sign of the Powerpuff Girl and the mysterious superhuman teenage boy that accompanied her. If it is not for their efforts, they would not be able able to see the light on another day.
"I've found the boy!" Someone shouted, and Lieutenant Valencia rushed over towards the scene and to her utter horror the poor boy was impaled by four bony protrusions at all his limbs. He appeared to be fading in and out of consciousness and immediately a medical crew with stretchers rushed to the teenager's side and try to get him out from his cruel predicament.
"Those animals..." The Hispanic woman looks at the severely injured teenager with her hazel eyes.
Her attention was taken away from the teenage boy when several more of her men called her out. As she heard what her men have to say, her eyes opened wide and she rushed up the mountain of rubble. Several of the rocks and debris almost made her lost her balance, but her desire to move towards the top propelled her onward. She climbed up the rubble and as she reaches the top, she was greeted by a cruel sight.
A bloodied individual was dangling from a pole with arms outstretched, forming a macabre image of a cross as the figure was hung over the wrist. The torn attire and of the figure revealed several bruises and deep cuts flowing with darkened blood. As Lieutenant Valencia climbs down from the rubble to reach the figure, she realized that a tablet was dangling from the neck of the figure like a signboard. The lieutenant slowly walks towards the figure, and as the blood drops down on the ground, she covered her mouth in shock.
"No..." Lieutenant Valencia gasped in horror, as she confirmed the identity of the body hanging above her. As the rest of her men came down, their faces are also in a state of shock as they slowly recognized it. The only thing that would allow people to ascertain the identity of the bloodied individual are the figure's ragged twin blonde pigtails.