I had heard his scream even though it had sounded a huge distance away. I couldn't tell what direction it had come from so I had to resort to the next best option. I headed back to the rendezvous point. It took a long time (or perhaps, it felt long because I was getting impatient since my brother was kidnapped) before the girls showed up but Boomer didn't return at all.

After we found out that they had gotten Butch out, we immediately rushed over to Buttercup. Initially, Buttercup was lying in wait for their arrival. If our plan had succeeded and we managed to drive them out with Butch, she was supposed to launch an attack to rescue him. However, it seemed like they got him out two hours before we attacked after being able to foresee our actions. I probably wasn't skilled enough and I might have made my presence known when I managed to hack in.

I guess I had a long way to go.

"Do you think they got him as well?" Bubbles asked worriedly.

"Butch was screaming. I couldn't make out his words but I think I heard him saying, 'Don't hurt him,' at some point in time," Blossom said thoughtfully. "Boomer was nearest to me so I guessed that was why I could hear it clearer than the rest of you could."

"Well, then, it's settled," I said, zooming off in the direction that had been allocated to Boomer. I didn't have to search for long before I came across a metal cabin. But before I could fly at it, Blossom grabbed my arm and pulled me back, pointing towards the distance.

"Look, they're coming," she said.

"So what?" I snapped, pulling my arm away. "You girls keep them away. I'll go in and rescue the two of them."

"You're insane! Boomer couldn't fight them off. What makes you think you can?" Buttercup replied.

"He's dumb and weak! Of course I can!"

"Hey! Boomer isn't dumb and weak!" Bubbles cried out. "You're going to get your ass kicked in there."

"Shut up! My brothers are in there! I have no time to deal with this!" I yelled. I was starting to lose my cool completely. The thought of Butch being tortured and Boomer possibly ending up the same way was enough to throw my mind into disarray. All I wanted was to murder the man responsible for it.

"Let him go. We'll deal with these outside," Blossom murmured. "But Brick, I'm telling you what you told me. Stay safe. Don't die on me now." She flashed me a slight smile and I nodded, leaving them and flying over to the cottage.

I landed outside and opened the door slowly. There was no trace of anyone in the cottage at all. I calmed my raging mind down and tried to think logically. If anyone was holding a prisoner in their house, the prisoner would have to be in the basement and the attic. I walked past the flight of stairs and opened the door I found there, finding myself facing another flight of stairs that was leading into complete darkness. I slowly walked down the stairs, letting my eyes get accustomed to the dark.

I heard them before I saw them. At the sound of them calling my name, I turned my head, seeing both of them bounded up. Butch was chained to the wall, with his hands stretched out above his head. Boomer was on the ground, tied up. I jumped off the stairs and ran over to them.

"Brick, you came!" Butch gasped, his eyes wide open in the purest joy I had ever seen.

"Are the two of you okay?" I asked, moving over to Butch to unchain him. I grabbed the metal cuffs and tugged at them hard enough till the broke. Butch slumped to the ground, rubbing his wrists one after another.

"My leg's too bad for me to walk," Butch replied. "Boomer is—"

"I'm fine," Boomer cut in, staring at Butch instructively. "They didn't do anything to me. All they did was paralyse me. I should be fine soon."

"Yeah, they didn't do anything to him…"

I knew my brothers well enough to know when they were lying but I held my tongue, not keen on prodding any further. As curious as I was over Boomer's experience, there was surely a reason why Boomer was hiding it from me and more importantly, I had to get them out. Fretting over what had happened wouldn't help me at all.

"We're flying out," I announced as I untied Boomer's hands.

"We can't," Butch replied. "The walls are too strong for even us to bust through."

I stood up and walked to the end of the room, slamming my fist against the wall. A sharp pain shot through my entire arm but there was not a single dent on the wall at all. Butch was right, it seemed.

At that moment, the light turned on and I looked up at the door. The man from the video was standing at the top of the stairs with his hands in his pockets. He grinned widely at me.

"You must be Brick, the oldest one, right? My name's Dr Thomson, head scientist of Project X," he said. "Well, you must have figured that out by now, Mr Genius Hacker." Although the name he gave me sounded a lot like a compliment, it felt more like a mockery.

"You bastard. You'll pay for what you did to Butch," I scowled.

"Will I?" he wondered and he swung his arm. Anticipating some sort of attack, I dodged, narrowly evading a dark he shot out of his pistol. He looked at the gun and sighed, dropping it on the ground. "What a waste. That was my last dart."

"Well then, let's fight this Rowdyruff style, shall we?" I replied with a smirk, cracking my knuckles.

He jumped sideways off the entire flight of stairs, landing in front of my gracefully. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and I prepared to defend an attack. However, instead of tossing anything at me, he swung his fist against himself and I realized that he was holding onto a syringe with a black liquid inside.

Hold it, was that Chemical X?

"Idiot! That amount is toxic for a mere human!" I cried out.

"Do you really think so? I have been working on this for years. Naturally, I'd have invented a serum compatible for me," he sneered, dropping the empty syringe onto the ground. He cracked his neck, holding his clenched fists out in front of him. "Come at me."

I didn't need another prompt and I flew at him, swinging my fist at his face. Dr Thomson brought his arm up to block his face. With his other hand, he punched me in my stomach. It wasn't an ordinary punch. Rather, it was much stronger than any punch I had ever taken before. Even Blossom's and Buttercup's were weaker. It took me a moment to reorient myself from the unexpected punch and during that period, Dr Thomson had picked up the dart and ran over to me. He kicked my by my side and I fell on my back. Dr Thomson straddled me before I could counterattack and he tried to stab the dart into me, stopping him in his movements.

"What's the matter? Don't you want to join your brothers as my lovely specimens?" he asked.

"Fuck you," I spat.

I didn't fully understand the serum he had taken but he seemed to be getting stronger as time went on. The dart was getting closer to my face. I gritted my teeth, wondering if I should use my eyebeam. But then again, what if he is able to somehow reflect it with his new abilities?

Suddenly, his weight was lifted off me. The dart dropped on my face and I sat up, taking it in my hands. Boomer was standing in front of him, breathing hard. He was slightly hunched and it seemed like it took a lot of effort from him just to even take a step.

"Like I'd let anything happen to Brick…" Boomer snarled. He sounded a lot scarier than he ever had and for a moment, even I was taken aback.

"You bitch," Dr Thomson sighed, standing up. "You caught me by surprise." He lunged at Boomer, grabbing him by his neck. His back was facing me. It was my only chance. I flew at him as fast as I could, jumping onto him and stabbing the dart into in neck.

Dr Thomson dropped Boomer onto the ground and tried to grab me. It was already too late, unless he had another syringe of his serum, which he didn't, thankfully. I flew off him as he spun around. He rushed at me, throwing another punch, which was much slower than the initial one. I evaded the punch, grabbed onto his arm and threw him on the ground. He struggled to get up but when he was partway up, he collapsed onto the ground.

"It's working," I heard Boomer murmur. "Paralysis."

I looked at my two brothers. Boomer was seated, holding onto his neck as he panted. Butch was partially sprawled on the floor, as if he had been pulling himself forward and towards Boomer. His broken leg was stretched out at an odd angle. I gritted my teeth, hating the doctor for doing that to them and hating myself for allowing it to happened. I hadn't been able to protect or save them but nothing was going to stop me from avenging them.

"No one escapes doing that to my brothers," I growled, picking him up from his collar. "Look here, the only people allow to hit my bros are the girls and I. Someone as puny and inconsequential as you should cower at the sight of us. I'm going to make sure that you pay. I'll make you feel every ounce of pain you had made my brothers go through."

The fear I saw in his eyes only repulsed me further and I slammed his head against the wall with a yell. I wasn't enough to kill him but it knocked him out. It was a bother but I didn't care. I just wanted to see blood. I wanted to see blood that was spilt by my hands.

"I'll kill you," I sniggered, grabbing him by his head again, digging my fingers into his head as I contemplated crushing his skull.

"That's enough, Brick."

I turned at the voice and saw the girls. Blossom was shaking her head. I frowned at her but I dropped him nonetheless.

"Screw off, Pinky. I'm going to kill him," I snapped.

Blossom blinked and furrowed her brows. "You haven't called me that in a long time."

"Huh?"

"Let him go, Brick," she said, clenching her fists. "If you kill him, then I will have to fight you."

"Fight me? Go ahead, Pinky. Have you forgotten who I am? We were meant to kill each other," I laughed. I didn't know what got into me. All I knew was that I wanted to see blood. I wanted to kill and at that point in time, it suddenly didn't matter who I killed anymore. I was just so angry. I didn't care if it was the man who hurt my brothers or if it was the girl who had been helping me. Someone— anyone— had to die.

"Hey, Brick, what's wrong?" Bubbles asked.

"That's it. We're pounding him into a pulp!" Buttercup growled.

"Stay back. Get Boomer and Butch out of here. I'll deal with him," Blossom replied, holding a hand out in front of Buttercup.

I didn't watch as the girls helped my brothers out. My eyes remained on Blossom, who was walking closer to me. "Snap out of it, Brick," she instructed. "Let him go."

"Huh? What're you talking about, you little bitch? Have you forgotten what he did to my brothers?"

"So killing him is the answer?" she asked.

"It sure is!" I snapped.

"Killing is never the answer, Brick!" Blossom cried out.

"Didn't seem that way when you killed me all those years ago," I sneered with a smirk. Blossom's eyes widened and the next thing I knew, she had slapped me hard across my face.

"You think killing him will solve anything? It won't!" Blossom screamed at me. "If you kill him, you'll get arrested. You'll prove to the world that there is a need for this experiment. Even if this guy is gone, someone else will replace him. Just look at how many people there are working for him. More than two-thirds of them probably support his cause. Don't you realize it, Brick? If this happens, you'll end up in Butch's place. They'll do those things to you!"

Blossom made sense and I was calming down. But at the same time, I was still very much pissed and Blossom could see that in my eyes.

"If you're arrested, there'll be no one to save you from them, Brick. Butch will be recovering and Boomer is not strong enough to go on his own. If you kill him, I can't help you either," Blossom continued. "If you kill him… we'll go back to being enemies… You can't possible want that, can you?"

Before something bad happens, you should tell her everything.

I gritted my teeth as Emily's words surfaced in my mind. Blossom walked forward and took my hand in hers, standing on her tiptoes to give me a brief kiss. She cupped my face and stared at me with a soothing smile.

"You've done enough, Brick. You saved your brothers. They're fine now," she whispered. "Let it go, okay?"

I could tell that Blossom was going to be stubborn till the end. I lightly pushed past her and started walking up the stairs. "Whatever is fine with me," I muttered.

I returned upstairs. Buttercup and Bubbles had helped my brothers into the living room. Bubbles had her arms around Boomer, crying into his shoulder as Boomer patted her head, looking at me in embarrassment. Buttercup was helping Butch out with his leg. She had placed a wooden plant beneath him and was wrapping a bandage around to keep it in place. I walked over and sat beside Butch.

"Where's Blossom?" Buttercup asked.

"I left that bastard to her," I murmured in reply, tugging on my cap.

"So you didn't kill him."

"I didn't," I replied, reaching over to ruffle Butch's hair. "Sorry, man."

Butch shook his head. "If you had killed him, they'd have arrested you and… they'd do this to you." He was looking down, his hands on his lap with clenched fists.

"They wouldn't dare to touch me. I'd teach them a lesson," I boasted, hoping to cheer him up.

"He wanted to make me watch him torture you and Boomer," Butch continued. Obviously, my attempt had failed. "I was… so scared, Brick…"

His voice was a mere whisper. Buttercup got up and walked away, saying something about going to check on Blossom. Bubbles got the hint as well and she left Boomer and followed after Buttercup. Boomer walked over and sat at Butch's other side.

"Everything's going to be okay," Boomer murmured, placing an arm around Butch. I mimicked his actions, holding Butch close to the both of us.

Butch shook his head. "I'm fine, you guys," he said. His voice cracked and it was enough to tell us that he wasn't fine and that he was merely covering up.

"It's okay to cry, Butch," Boomer murmured. "It's alright. No one's going to judge you."

"I'm not going to—"

His words were cut off as I placed my hand over his eyes. "Cry, idiot. Just cry," I instructed. And with that, the toughest among the three of us broke down, breaking my heart completely as I realized, once again, that somehow, if I had done something differently at some point in time, maybe, it wouldn't have happened.

Before something bad happens, you should tell her everything.

That was it, wasn't it, Em? This all happened because I was a coward who was to scared to come clean to my brothers.

When the girls entered the room again, they had called the police over to deal with Dr Thomson. We personally flew Butch to the hospital, where, under Dr Smith's care, he was administered some Chemical X before being wheeled into the operating theatre. Dr Smith had nodded at me before he went in and I knew that even despite his grudge against us, he could be trusted. He did save my life, after all.

"Brick, I know you'd want to be here with Butch but the operation is going to take hours. We need to meet the President," Blossom said.

"Wait, what? The President?" I gasped.

"Yes, the President. My request for an audience with him was immediately approved," she replied.

"You mean the President of the United States? Come on, Blossom. I'm not going there," I whined.

"You were the one who found the data," she snapped. "Take some responsibility."

And that was how I ended up walking into the White House with my ex-nemesis. The place was heavily guarded and I could see some guards carrying weapons that resembled those used in the facility we infiltrated. We entered the office and sat on the couch that was present. The President remained at his desk. It was not only after all his guards had left did he get up.

"Care for a drink? Coffee? Tea?" he offered.

"No thank you, Mr President, we'd like to come straight to the point," Blossom said. "As you already know, I'm Blossom and this is Brick."

"Yes, an honourable superhero and a notorious criminal," he replied. Blossom flashed me a warning glare and I slumped my shoulders, focusing my eyes on his shoes to reduce all my temptation of punching him in the face.

"With all due respect, Mr President, Brick isn't a criminal," Blossom said.

"More importantly," I sighed, looking up at him. I ignored my urge to toss something at his face and forced out a smile. "We're here concerning Project X."

"I see," the President replied, walking over and sitting back down on the couch. "I understand why you feel so strongly against it, seeing as it affects your… kind… but it is for a noble cause."

"I understand where you're coming from. You can use superhumans in wars and it'll solve much of the controversies over sending troops out to war," Blossom said. "But the approach is unacceptable."

I pulled out my thumbdrive and held it in front of him. "This here has every single experiment related to Project X, where you have used homeless orphans in attempting to develop superhumans. When they emerge as unsuccessful mutants, they are left into the woods to fend for themselves. The woods consist of more creatures than we had ever encountered. No one made it out alive," I said, leaning backwards and crossing my legs. "It also contains my brother's tortures as well as the special services awarded to him in his cell when he was under your custody."

"So? What do you want me to do?" the President asked.

"The Project… shut it down," Blossom replied.

"And why should I listen to you?" he asked, pulling out a gun and pointing it at the two of us. "I'll just shoot you're here and obtain that thumbdrive."

"What are you? An idiot?" I wondered aloud, pulling out my prepared cellphone. I tapped on the screen and a countdown appeared, starting at thirty minutes. "Before we infiltrated the facility, I had already pre-set everything. When we were there, I had transferred everything into my laptop. Now, in thirty minutes' time, my computer would start to upload every single data online for the whole world to see. You'll be answerable to the International Court, to the media and to your people. With this, you definitely won't be obtaining a second term as well and you might very well be assassinated."

"What a load of crap," the President laughed. "I'll stop that." He picked up his phone and I merely chuckled in response.

"Dummy," I sighed, bring my hands to my head as I lifted my legs onto the table. "It took Blossom and I fifteen minutes to fly here. Your men here won't be able to get there in time. There is no military base within an hour drive radius of where my computer is. Plus, there's the issue of having to find my computer as well. Well, you and I know that it's in Townsville but where in Townsville?"

"You bastard…"

"Even if you manage to find its location, your safest bet is to rely on the police to make it there in time. But despite the fact that I am not the best technician around, Townsville's police is much too stupid an organization to take me on. Let's say they find the laptop in five minutes. Even so, when they attempt to stop the upload, they'll witness the atrocities committed under Project X. This is an issue you have painstakingly hidden from the public, which includes them. I wonder what'll happen."

The President pocketed his gun, frowning at us. "What is your proposal?"

"End the project," Blossom repeated.

"While you're at it, maybe you should compensate my brother as well," I said calmly. "He has suffered severe physical and emotional trauma."

"Very well," he murmured.

"We'd like some confirmation," Blossom replied. "If you do not do as we say, this data goes straight online as well as to the United Nations. Despite how big an influence you may have in the UN, regardless of anything, actions have to be taken due to the severity of this."

"The two of you…" he murmured, "used to be enemies, right?"

"That's right," Blossom replied.

The President walked over to his desk and sat down. "It should have remained that way. The two of you together make a rather deadly pair."

Blossom and I left the place and flew back to the hospital. The operation was still going on. I threw myself on a chair and sighed.

"Aren't you going to stop the upload?" Blossom asked.

"No, I didn't even set up anything. It was all a lie," I replied, stretching. I pulled out my phone and stopped the timer. "This is an ordinary countdown timer. I'm not good enough to be able to pull off such a plan."

"So what if he had shot anyway and taken the thumbdrive? Everything would be in vain!" Blossom argued.

"Relax, I brought an empty thumbdrive along," I informed her. "I already copied the data into various drives. Also, I had uploaded it online as well. It's currently just private. One way or another, even if we died, someone would have found out about the data. Once it's out, they will have to shut Project X down anyway."

"Wow, you really thought it through, huh?" she giggled, sitting beside me.

I shrugged and leaned back into my chair. Now that everything was calm, I could think properly and the images and memories that began running through my head didn't make me smile. However, thinking about it, I started piecing the puzzle together, surfacing some forgotten memories.

"I remember now," I murmured. "Emily's words had triggered them. HIM didn't tell me his plan but I know what his aim is— ultimate despair. He obtains power from others' sorrow and suffering. He wants a world where Evil reigns with an iron fist, where everyone is unhappy. He just wants to bring despair onto us all."

"So that's it, huh?" Blossom murmured thoughtfully. "HIM is a supernatural being or superior origins than us. We can beat him up every time he appears but we can't kill him. He's too powerful. He's eternal and so is his influence. However, now that we know his aim, we can stop him before he puts any plans into action. Then again, he's stronger now. He can summon demons he never could before…"

"I have a hunch. Maybe those aren't demons. He plays with people's minds. When he sent them out, all of you were too focused on saving me. You weren't thinking straight," I pointed out. "Those might have been illusions."

"I see…" Blossom jumped up to her feet and looked over at me, smiling. "Let's not be too gloomy, okay? We succeeded in putting a stop to Project X and saving your brother. Let's go celebrate, okay? Boomer and Bubbles are probably out there somewhere."

Blossom held out her hand and I took it, letting her pull me up.

I'm really sleepy so I'm not going to say much. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please do leave a review everyone!~ xoxo