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Chapter 9

The Dragon Fights

General Gordon didn't waste time as he rushed forward to catch the puffs in mid-air. He was surprisingly fast given his newly gained size, but the three flying kids avoided him easily since he still had to cross the distance, and they darted in three different directions while carrying the siblings with them. Blossom in particular headed upwards, closer to the chamber's ceiling. The monster's footsteps boomed below her, the asphalt cracking under his feet.

Gordon didn't give them the chance to regroup. He turned around and fixed his eyes, now bright green and glowing with rage, on Donnie, the closest of the puffs who was still carrying Hui. He growled beastly and rushed at them, his claws opening and ready to strike.

"HUI!" Huan shouted from afar. Before Blossom could even try to do something about Gordon's move, she saw something light green suddenly exploding from Huan's position. On a closer look… she realised she was using eyebeams!

The blast hit Gordon on the back. It apparently didn't do much, but it had to hurt since he stumbled, one hand reaching on its back as he growled. He was going too fast to keep control of himself and ended up falling down on his chest, skidding on the pavement and crashing into multiple vehicles. They were mere toys compared to him, either getting crushed down or pushed away, but it nonetheless bought time for Donnie to get away from him.

Blossom flew down to get back together with the rest of the group. Gordon was already standing back up—they didn't have much time before he would attack again.

So, she decided not to ask Huan about her powers. First, they needed a plan.

"Guys, listen!" Blossom shouted. "No matter what happens, do not let him catch you! He can easily hurt you if he gets you… you must not let him get close!"

"You… how do you know that?" Huan questioned, her face showing worry.

"I… I've already seen this already… and when I underestimated it, I made a mistake," Blossom explained, looking back at Gordon.

Memories resurfaced, but she pushed them back down. She glanced at Ai, who she was still carrying. The poor girl was sobbing quietly, her cries muffled into Blossom's chest. She couldn't imagine how scared she was… she didn't need the past to haunt her and distract her from the problem at hand.

"I'll explain when the time comes. Right now, we need to beat Gordon once and for all. And… we can't do that while we're carrying your siblings, Huan."

The lime puff's eyes widened. "You… you can't suggest…!?"

Blossom frowned, knowing what she was referring to. "W-we have no choice. He'll eventually get us if we just keep flying away. I know this is hard, but we just need a place to—"

Gordon's cry interrupted her, the General roaring inhumanly. Blossom turned around just in time to see him on his feet, turned towards them.

"You will not leave this place alive, infra-humans!"

He began walking, slowly, towards them. He veered and twitched as if he was about to rush at any moment, but he didn't run right away, as if he was waiting for the right moment, or letting them make the first move.

It was happening too fast. As hard as she tried, Blossom couldn't come up with a good plan right now.

As she was about to call out for her companions to fall back, Donnie spoke up. "I'll handle this for now."

Blossom turned at him with surprise. Even Huan was looking at the boy with confusion.

Donnie simply floated up to her, still carrying Hui. "Think you can handle Hui as well for a bit, Blossom?"

"I-I think I can."

He nodded, then patted his passenger on the shoulder. The boy had his eyes closed, hiding his own emotions, and when he opened them Donnie simply made a sign with his head at Blossom.

"Get them somewhere safe," he said, handing the boy over. Blossom had to pat Ai reassuringly before she dared to open her eyes and realised what they were doing. They moved around a bit awkwardly while trying to find a good enough position, and in the end both Hui and Ai were gripping on Blossom's sides with the help of her arms sustaining their weight. It wasn't comfortable for anyone involved, but Blossom's super-strength meant it was a non-problem begin with.

"I'll buy you some time," the boy added.

"Donnie… I don't think this is a good idea. You don't know what mutations like that one do to people… Gordon just has to catch you," Blossom tried to protest weakly.

"You aren't the only one that has dealt with these mutated monsters in the past," Donnie replied. "Even if it isn't the same, if this is not like Doctor Porter did… even if this is W, and not Y, or even X… I still know that these mutations bring far more power than even the looks tell…"

He sighed. "I will just try to hold him off. Join me back once you've hidden them somewhere safe, Blossom."

He turned around and dashed away without further words, right towards Gordon, whose steps echoed in the chamber.

Huan was silent, unable to comment on what had just happened. Her brother Li, who she was still carrying, was also quiet for once.

Blossom looked at her for a moment. She felt Ai shuddering on her side, her grip tightening.

Again… there was no time to waste.

"Huan, with me."

The beast Gordon grinned, exposing his sharp, newly formed teeth. He opened its claws, ready to trap Donnie into his grasp.

Except, Donnie had created a force field beforehand, shielding his entire body. When he reached Gordon and the mutant General tried to catch him, it effectively felt like trying to catch a cannonball shot at him.

Gordon was unable to stop Donnie as the field simply repelled his hand away, painfully, but the boy didn't slow down, flying at full speed and eventually ramming into Gordon's chest, right where the chest tentacles were attached. Green-ish blood spluttered as he crushed one of them, while Gordon himself was knocked back, disoriented for a moment by the impact.

He flew up, letting the shield disperse, and reached Gordon's head level. Just as the general was about to recover, Donnie kicked him twice on his cheeks, and ended the combo with a single punch right on the nose.

The giant mutant stumbled back, reaching out for his nose with one hand. He looked pitiful, but it only lasted for a second.

Donnie sensed something, and before he could realise what was going on Gordon's free hand came at him with a fist. He was literally swatted away like a fly, sent flying down into the chamber and ending up on a series of parked trucks. He went right through them.

"You filthy little insect…" Gordon growled under his breath. He walked up to where Donnie had ended up with the intent to finish him off, but Donnie flew up and away before he could reach him. In fact, he had something glowing yellow on his hand.

Having had it with the pleasantries, Gordon let out a roar and ran after him, as Donnie flew backwards and threw the energy grenade. Instead of trying to avoid it, the generally swatted the thing away. It detonated right on Gordon's palm, but the General seemed unaffected by it.

Donnie kept flying away, charging up more energy grenades. As hard as he tried to throw them at the General, Gordon learnt fast how to shrug them off, even if his hands became muddier with his own mutated blood as the explosion scorched his palms. For all intents and purposed, he looked unscathed sans for the one injured chest tentacle.

At the tenth grenade, Donnie began sweating. He was spending energy, so he needed a way to break the fight and buy himself and the girls more time. Thus, he moved his hands in front of himself, while still moving, and the blurry, transparent silhouette of a new force field began forming.

He focused for a moment, as the blurry field started to change in shape. Then, he kicked his feet back, halting his flight in an instant, and he dashed away towards Gordon for a second encounter.

Gordon growled and raised a hand into a fist, expecting Donnie to go for a second attempt at his initial ramming attack. On the other hand, Donnie didn't try to ram into Gordon head on—instead, he flew down, towards his feet.

The beast raised a foot mid-run with the goal to try and crush the puff. The boy didn't try to evade the hit, but pulled the field right above himself, just as Gordon's foot arrived to squash him.

However, the foot didn't even touch Donnie; in fact, it didn't even touch the floor. The field Donnie had created had taken the form of a flat, expanded surface, slightly tilted down, and extremely slippery. Gordon's foot slid right over it, sending it in the air due to sheer momentum.

Gordon let out a cry of surprise, immediately losing control, but he nevertheless pushed his arms backwards as his body fell once again. He managed to touch the floor with his claws before, and gripped on it, cutting into the asphalt and concrete like cheese. He then let his body pivot on his own arms with a surprising display of dexterity.

However, he was vulnerable, and as Gordon was doing this, he suddenly saw a yellow energy grenade coming at his face. It exploded, both blinding and burning him, and he eventually lost his grip, falling down once again on his back.

Donnie flew over him, charging up another energy grenade on his hand. This one was light blue in colour, as he wanted to do as much damage as possible before the general could get up.

Yet, he had underestimated him, as the apparently uncontrollable tentacles on Gordon's chest suddenly shot up at him. They were as fast as a projectile, and before Donnie could even understand what was going on, they trapped him in their grasp.

Grenade included.

It detonated by itself upon touching the foreign things catching Donnie. The tentacles were blown to shreds, but Donnie himself was blasted away too. This time he was sent into a wall, crashing into concrete.

"You… you really thought you could overcome me, infra-human, all by yourself?" General Gordon said as he stood up. The dead tentacles literally fell down from his chest, and with a grunt Gordon forced new ones to take their place, sprouting out of his chest as if it was nothing. "We've studied 'W' for long… no, I've even studied it myself. I learnt its capabilities, and I discovered its true potential. I know what I am able to do now, in this form… but you. You are not even close to what these chemicals are truly capable of. You are just a child with some picturesque powers."

His steps boomed in the chamber as he walked towards Donnie, who had just managed to get himself out of the hole in the wall. There was a trail of blood coming down of his mouth and he was panting heavily.

Gordon's form towered over him, even from a distance. "And like a mere child, you will die unable to fight back."

He raised a hand and extended the claws out, his eyes glowing green. Before he could make a move while Donnie was still trying to recover, though, something hit him on his back. Again.

He let out a groan of annoyance and looked back. In the distance, Blossom and Huan hovered in the air, staring him down.

"You are next!" he shouted, rushing at them without notice, forgetting about Donnie. The girls were expecting this, as they flew in two opposite directions.

Blossom had instructed Huan on the next tactic, and it had worked, as Gordon looked at them both, wasting a second deciding who to follow first. He eventually turned towards Huan, running after her.

It was Blossom's cue. The plan she had come up with had two alternatives, and it was time to execute the one where the General decided to chase off Huan. She halted in mid-flight and followed Gordon as he pursued the lime puff. The general progressively became more animalistic as he ran, kicking over vehicles without care in the subterranean garage as he yelled.

"Pathetic little worm. I should've killed you a long time ago!" he shouted, before taking a leap in an attempt to gain on Huan. The girl had been looking behind her the entire time, though, so she only needed to change direction to avoid Gordon. However, as the general came down, she didn't notice that he was holding something.

A moment later, there was a flying armoured car coming at Huan, and it was too fast. It hit her head on and slammed into her before pushing her down towards the concrete pavement. The car crumbled under the strength of its own momentum and immediately caught fire, hiding Huan behind a rapidly growing cloud of smoke and flames.

Blossom winced but forced herself not to call her name. She had to stick to the plan, and Gordon was still distracted, landing down before moving over to Huan's position. So, she only needed to fly behind him and take in a long breath.

"What the—" Gordon turned around only to be welcomed by a gust of icy breath. Blossom blew for six seconds straight before she lost her breath, and when she was done Gordon's entire upper body was covered in ice. Only his legs had been spared, and his face was frozen into a surprised, yet angry grimace.

"Huan!" Blossom finally let herself say the name of the girl out loud, flying beyond the frozen general to view the crash site. The car was basically a burning wreck at this point, but Huan had already abandoned it, flying away from the wreckage. The girl looked alright, if only slightly battered, from the distance, and was already moving towards her by the time they saw each other.

"Huan, let's regroup, we can't keep this up. We need to—AACK!" A mutated, cold hand closed on Blossom, just as she heard the shattering of ice.

"I expected better from you, B-Blossom… I can't believe you thought his would s-stop me!" Gordon roared through his chattering teeth, using his free hand to break himself out of the remaining parts of his brief ice prison. Other than the stutter he'd gained due to the short experience with very low temperatures, he looked unharmed… again.

No matter what they tried, it just didn't look like they were able to put a dent on his skin, let alone actually knock him out.

And now, Blossom was right where she didn't want her and the others to end up in the first place: closed into the grasp of the mutated giant. Gordon moved her up to his face.

"You just won't be able to defeat me, Blossom Utonium," he hissed. "Not when 'W' is able to grant me powers that you and your kind, you infra-humans, just weren't built for… 'W', and all the other substances. You have only one function in my eyes, to produce more of them and let us make actual use of the energy they hold."

The grip around Blossom tightened.

"And you are no more part of that picture," Gordon growled. He reached with his other hand and moved it towards Blossom's head, claws out. Things were happening so fast that the girl just didn't have the time to digest what was going on, but it was clear that Gordon's intentions weren't the best ones for her well-being.

However, there was a 'thud', and Gordon let out a grunt. Still holding Blossom, he turned around, and found himself face to face with Huan.

"You!" he screamed and immediately reached out to catch her as well, but instead Huan attacked first. Her eyes brightened up, and a pair of lime-coloured eyebeams shot away at Gordon's face, one of the managing to strike one of his eyes.

Gordon howled in pain, loosening the grip on Blossom just enough to let her actually move. She pushed the fingers away and kicked into flight, shooting out of his grip before he could recompose and take hold of her again.

Yet, almost as soon as she'd freed herself, Blossom heard a scream, and when she turned around, she saw Huan falling down. Red trails flew nearby in the air, while Gordon flailed one hand with claws out while protecting his face with the other, stomping around.

'Oh, no!'

She flew up to her, Gordon a mere afterthought in her mind. For some reason, the thought of Huan getting injured struck a chord, and she found herself literally rushing so fast she was able to get to her and catch her body before she could collide with the floor.

After that, she floated downwards, making sure to hold Huan still. The girl was in a state of shock and, despite not having passed out, she didn't look like she was aware of what was going on.

Gordon had managed to strike a wound on her, alright. There were three gashes running down her body, one on her face, right on her right cheek, while the latter two ran on her chest to side to side, cutting through her dress as well as the skin below. There was blood, but at that point Blossom had seen enough combat in her life that it was the last of her problems. The cuts were deep, and that was the real issue.

They finally landed, and Blossom carefully placed Huan down. "Huan, can you hear me?"

The girl turned hastily towards her, her eyes wide open as if she believed whoever was holding her was going to finish her off. "B-Blossom! I… I d-don't…" her eyelids closed for a moment.

"Huan, everything is going to be all right, I'll deal with it. But you cannot leave me!" Blossom said, thinking quickly. "You n-need to get back to your siblings. You can't help us out now. Get back to them and stay out of sight."

"But… but h-he's gonna—" Huan coughed. "B-Blossom, it hurts…"

'It always does…'

There was a specific subset of pain that Blossom thought used to be exclusive of her and her sisters, but they realised was also shared by Donnie… Once Huan and Nuru appeared, she'd guessed that it was sadly valid for them as well: when you lived your whole life being neigh invulnerable, actually getting injured thanks to the likes of Duranium or due to fights with monsters mutated by the same thing who gave you your powers, was a wholly different experience… and it always tested the resolve of any of them. And she knew Huan may not have been at her full strength yet, due to the previous exposition to the Anti-W gas used by Gordon's soldiers.

"Huan, look at me. You can still push through, I know you can," she said, putting a hand over Huan's shoulder. "Get out of here and keep your siblings out of trouble. Call us out if you need help. Me and Donnie will deal with Gordon."

"You aren't going to deal with anyone."

There was a shadow over them. When they looked up, Gordon was already raising a foot. "You are going to die, and that's final!"

The foot came down, and for a moment Blossom thought they were done for. But there was a yellow streak that suddenly appeared and crashed into Gordon's leg, derailing the path of the foot, which ended up crashing a mere five meters away from Huan and Blossom. Blossom, thinking quickly, grabbed Huan and flew out of the way, while Gordon crowed in pain.

Donnie didn't stop and steered his flight path in order to collide with Gordon's other leg. He was fast enough to catch the mutant monster off-guard, so he managed to strike another painful hit. Once again, Gordon fell down, cracking asphalt and concrete alike in the otherwise ruined chamber.

Donnie decided to move away from Gordon, following Blossom and Huan. She stopped to let him get back to her as she let Huan go. She hovered with some difficulty, but at least she was still able to fly.

"Go, Huan! Go!" Blossom cried. "Me and Donnie will end this!"

Huan looked at the two at them with a look that was a mix of reverence, and sadness. She held a hand to her chest, trying to keep her wound in check, though she couldn't really do much, and she winced again.

"Please… stay alive…" she let out, before hovering downwards, away from them.

"I hope you have a plan, Blossom, because that guy is harder than the freaking Ultrapolis lizard monster," Donnie grunted. Blossom looked at Gordon, who was already on his feet.

"We… we need more time," she mused. "We got to be making a lot of noise, right? If that's so, the others should already be coming to help us out…"

Donnie nodded, deciding not to question her. She mentally thanked him for that…

…since she didn't want to think about the possibility that Buttercup and Bubbles got captured in a similar manner to how she and Donnie did along with Huan.

She shook her head. No use having negative thoughts! She needed to focus, and now all it mattered was taking down—

"I admit you are harder to actually kill that I expected at first…" Gordon said. His voice was guttural, but it was the first time it displayed a semblance of humanity. "Infra-humans… this is how hard you are then, when you are at the peak of your powers. Hell…"

He closed his eyes. "I didn't think I would need this, but you leave me no choice."

He raised a hand to his mouth, put two fingers into it and blew out, generating a loud whistle. Donnie and Blossom readied themselves, expecting platoons of soldiers to come at them from all directions, coming through all the entrances of the giant vehicle warehouse.

Instead, what happened was that, from the same entrance where Gordon had first come from, a much smaller than expected group of soldiers ran into the room. And immediately, Blossom knew that something was wrong.

These guys were taller… much taller than any other soldier she'd seen in this facility, for starters. They wore strange, grey coloured uniforms very much unlike the more professional clothes used by the actual guards they had faced, and some of them were completely unarmed.

As they came closer, Blossom realised that they were not normal people at all. Their skin… was greenish and raspy. For some reason the image reminded her of the Gangreen Gang, but thought better of it. The Gangreens were weird teenagers whose origin was still a mystery to the Powerpuff Girls, but they were still reasonably normal.

The faces of these… things, they were garbled and almost unrecognisable as human. It gave Blossom bad memories of mutated hellish beings from not so long, and she knew that Donnie had to have made the same connection as well.

"Consider yourself lucky for the chance of helping with the combat test of the first batch of soldiers enhanced by 'W'," Gordon explained. "They may not be perfect…"

Some of the soldiers hovered in the air, to the shock of Blossom.

"…but they'll do the job."

The flying soldiers darted towards them at high speed. Blossom shook her head, refocusing.

"We need to take them down before Gordon decides to join in the fray!" Blossom said. Donnie nodded and without delay the two flew in the direction of the group of flying soldiers.

A soldier, its eyes glowing green just like Gordon's, targeted Blossom, raising a fist—she just now realised that it was wearing brass knuckles on his hands. Blossom decided to answer with a fist of her own, giving her full strength into it.

When the two collided, Blossom expected to be evenly matched—but on the other hand, her fist went right through. The brass knuckles were standard steel, unable to hold her off, and the fist of the soldier simply… gave out. Her own punch went forward after basically disintegrating the opponent's hand, colliding with the soldiers' head, and for a moment Blossom thought she was going to accidentally behead it.

But the man was simply flung high in the air before falling down, knocked out in a single hit.

Before she could recompose herself and even check if the thing was still alive, a fist hit her in the face, sending her rotating in the air. Another soldier had attacked her, and there were another two behind it. It was clear for Blossom that she was going to neutralise them one by one before they could overwhelm her with numbers, so she sped into action.

First, her eyes lighted up and she shot an eyebeam at them. The soldiers evaded the hit and one of them rushed at Blossom, fists ready, but the girl simply prepared herself for the attack. The mutated being emitted a low growl and tried to punch her multiple times, but Blossom was simply too fast for him. Apparently, Gordon wasn't kidding when he said they weren't prefect.

It took one punch in the gut to incapacitate the soldier, who fell down. The other two, untouched by their comrade's defeat, went together to get Blossom, but the girl rushed at them in retaliation, kicking one and punching the other. They blocked her and were able to hold the hits at first, but then Blossom shot another eyebeam at one of them, who croaked painfully. She kicked it down, then turned towards the other and grabbed its fist before it could connect with her. The soldier tried to free itself, but Blossom's grip wouldn't budge.

She narrowed her eyes, ready to throw him away, but a bullet grazed her arm. She let out a sudden yelp, retracting her arm and letting the man go, who promptly retreated in the air.

'The soldiers who didn't fly to us!' Blossom realised quickly. She looked down and sure enough, there were guns pointed at her. Enhanced bullets, no doubt.

And before she could take another decision, another fist connected with her cheek, and this time it drew blood from her mouth. Blossom, suddenly irate due to the nth sudden interruption, looked at the remaining flying being and blew another ice breath gust at it. The soldier was encapsulated in a block of ice and fell down like a brick. Then, she dashed up in the sky, just in time to evade another burst of bullets from hitting her. The soldier below kept shooting, but once again, despite possibly enhanced senses, Blossom was too fast for them to hit her.

There was something that was enough fast to catch her, though, and that was Gordon's hand. It came from nowhere, so focused she was in keeping the mutated soldiers at bay, that she didn't even notice the General approaching until it was too late… and again, she found herself caught in his grip.

But this time, she felt another individual beside her in the hand. Donnie. He'd been caught as well.

They were alone.

"Enough!" the General shouted. The soldiers stopped shooting and moving. The only ones who were still standing were the ones who weren't capable of flight, who regrouped fast. Blossom realised that the ones she and Donnie had beaten… were not standing up again. Their bodies were… emitting some kind of smoke, and…

"Stand by," the General said, before moving the two puffs up to his face.

Donnie and Blossom tried with all of their might to break free, without results. "You are both caught," he stated matter-of-factly, "and the other worms won't be able to help you now. Though, I wonder… do you think I am stupid, Blossom and Donnie?"

He gestured towards the damaged garage. "I am General Damian Gordon and have years of experience you mere kids wouldn't even dream of. And as a General, I still have to get the bigger picture to take the best decision for my company."

Someone screamed. Blossom's eyes widened. "HUAN!"

More screams and cries. It came from… the office. The one on a side of the vehicle storehouse, where she'd hidden Li, Hui and Ai. By now she knew Huan had also found her way there.

So did Gordon's inhuman henchmen.

More soldiers emerged from the debris around them. It took her some moments to realise that what Gordon had sent at them was a mere distracting force he used to divert their attention away from both him… and the Chinese puffs. And sure enough, a full group of enhanced men appeared, dragging the four puffs along with them.

Ai, Li and Hui were too weak to even put up a fight. Li uttered insults in Chinese the whole way through, while Ai cried, as if she was begging to be let go. Hui on the other hand was silent.

As for Huan, there were four soldiers keeping her at bay. And doing so badly, as she kept pushing and trying to get away from their grip. But every time she tried, she relented after a wince and a yelp, one Blossom guessed was due to her wound. She was still bleeding!

"At least… I may be able to conserve my vessels," Gordon mused. "But you two… you two are dead."

"We are not your vessels! You don't own us!"

Gordon eyed the puff who had dared to speak up. He kept Donnie and Blossom in his grip but knelt down, glaring at Huan as the four mutated beings held her down. "Why do you think so? I was the one responsible for your creation after all. Without me, you wouldn't even be alive."

"I don't care!" Huan replied. "I don't care what you did or why you did it! I won't let you touch my siblings!" she looked at Blossom and Donnie. "I won't let you touch my friends!"

"How quaint," Gordon commented. "You even managed to make some friends? That has to be fixed."

He gestured at the mutated soldiers. "Let her go."

The things respected the order without hesitation, but before Huan could even try to do anything Gordon snatched her with his free hand.

"And by that I of course mean I am going to kill you first," he concluded. "You have become far too unpredictable for a vessel, 'Huan'. And you are of no use to me like this."

He made sure to put Blossom and Donnie in a position where they were fully able to watch Huan, then he started to tighten his grip on her. He closed his fist, the veins on his mutated, giant hand pulsing as he visibly exerted himself.

Huan screamed, and Blossom could distinctly hear the noise of something snapping.

"No! Stop it!" she cried out, trying once again to get free.

"You freak, what are you doing!?" Donnie shouted, mirroring her thoughts and actions.

Their efforts went without effect, and Gordon ignored them. "They said you infra-humans have excellent healing powers. I wonder… how much I'll have to break you before you die."

He once again pulled more strength into the hand crushing Huan. "Let's test it, shall we?"

The answer to that was a blast of red-coloured eyebeams hitting him square in the face.