AN: There is another chapter coming next to wrap things up in Part One, as this one is actually the second half of the original Chapter 9 (I decided to make a split here for reader's ease).

Chapter 10

Take-Down

Gordon immediately reached out for his face, trying to put off the flames which had suddenly engulfed his nose. "What the—?!"

With his attention turned elsewhere, he let go of his three captives. Blossom and Donnie hovered away, but Huan on the other hand did not stay up in the air. She fell as soon as Gordon let go of her.

Blossom was about to fly down to her when she realised she needed to understand what had just happened, so she quickly shouted an order. "Donnie, fetch Huan and bring her away from Gordon!"

Donnie didn't reply but he nonetheless dashed after the falling puff, which was enough for the pink puff. Flying away from the General, who was partially blinded by the eyebeam blast and was currently shouting insults while walking in random directions, she looked towards the direction from which Gordon had been struck. She had a guess about who had done it.

The mutated soldiers around them had forgotten about her or even Donnie and Huan, since there were trying to gun down the other two flying puffs, green and orange coloured streaks zigzagging around them. Buttercup and Nuru!

"Buttercup!" Blossom moved towards them to get closer to the fight. Buttercup responded from the distance while still fighting the two flying mutated beings, "Yeah, Bloss, how about we deal with these guys before we talk?!"

She agreed. They needed to take care of all of them all before they could fully focus on Gordon, and there were also—

Wait. Where were Huan's siblings?

"So, you finally made it then!" the General's voice boomed. "That is just about perfect, I'll be able to destroy you all in one go!"

Gordon had managed to finally free his face from the fire problem, and he immediately began walking towards Buttercup and Nuru. Blossom, her resolve unexpectedly growing thanks to the arrival of her sister and Nuru, flew in front of him, blocking his path alone.

"No, you aren't going to destroy us, Gordon! You are the one going down!" she fired back. She was not going to let him take her or the others aback again! Even if facing Gordon alone was basically suicide.

She just needed to keep him busy for a few moments…

Gordon's eyes glowed green again as he glared at her. "We'll see about that, infra-human."

Bubbles had to try her best to hold herself from barging into the battle, but Buttercup hadn't just been adamant about it. She had also made her promise to stay away from the fight until her sister and Nuru had sorted things out.

It wasn't really something she could argue with, not once she saw what had become of General Gordon, at least. Nuru was naively excited for the upcoming challenge, but Buttercup and Bubbles both had shivered at the sight.

It was simply too dangerous for her… so she waited in the shadows of the wreckages that by now filled the garage's floor, hiding from the sight of the enhanced soldiers who were trying to beat Nuru and Buttercup with numbers. She was disturbed by their lack of communication, only grunting after a kick or punch, but never talking, never screaming, never uttering a word. Even if their faces were ruined… they had to have been people at some point.

'Focus Bubbles!' she mentally told herself. 'Keep down and—'

She heard a cry. It was almost imperceptible in the commotion caused by the fight, but she could discern it pretty well… a weak, desperate cry of help. It was in Chinese, and it was from a boy.

Bubbles hovered towards the source of the call without a second thought. It was something letting the others do the dirty work, but she wasn't going to let someone in need of help at the mercy of these monsters!

And in fact, what she found was… chilling. A group of six enhanced soldiers held three children captive. A girl with purple eyes was on her knees, pleading in Chinese but being ignored by the soldiers who were focused on the two boys. The one with purple eyes thrashed, uttering obscenities, while the one with lime ones cried out for help, weaker and weaker. Every one of them looked on the verge of passing out, in fact. The two boys were on the ground, held down by four soldiers, two for each of them. The lime-eyed boy was currently getting beaten up by one of the soldiers, the reason unknown. A fifth one held the girl at gunpoint, while the sixth checked the surroundings. They were hiding behind a crushed truck, out of the view of the other puffs.

Bubbles felt her leg injury pulse, but she ignored it. Charging up her eyes, she hovered in plain sight and shot an eyebeam at the soldier who was aiming at the girl with a gun, knocking him away. The other five soldiers immediately forgot about the children and four charged after her, while a fifth one drew out a pistol. Bubbles recognised the canister on the barrel, it was an enhanced weapon.

She ignored it for the moment and prepared a punch for the incoming mutants. The first one was thrown into the air by the force of her fist, while the second and third one where knocked down in a single hit by her powerful punches. But the fourth one managed to land a hit before she could hit it back, connecting with her face.

Bubbles whimpered but managed to hold her hands up to block the second punch, then tried to kick the soldier away with her good leg. But the thing that used to be human simply caught her injured, bloody leg in its grip.

She shrieked as a sudden bolt of pain ran through her spine. Attempting to get away, Bubbles managed to plant the shoe of her good leg into the soldier's face, which was ruined even further as a result, while also forcing him to back off. She grabbed on him, mustering what remained of her energy wavering to fling him away, but a projectile hit her in the chest. It ricocheted off her body, but it nevertheless charred her skin, causing her to drop down to the ground, letting the soldier go.

The mutant, still standing, proceeded to block her down, a foot on her chest and hands on both of her hands. In other circumstances Bubbles would've been easily able to free herself and dispatch the monster, but by now she had depleted her energy, and the pain in her leg was unbearable. She thought she heard screams in the distance, but she wasn't sure, as her sight had become blurry.

She looked up just in time to see the second soldier appear in her view behind the one holding her, the pistol still in his hand. He cocked the handgun and aimed at her leg. She could see eyes in its ruined face, but they were without a hint of emotion.

Then, something yellow ran into them, kicking them away.

As soon as she was free, Bubbles sat up and clutched her leg again, the pain preventing her from reasoning. She cried out, tears streaming down her face, as she tried pitifully to dull the pain down.

She didn't know how much time passed before she heard Donnie's voice. "Bubbles! Bubbles!"

Hands grabbed her face and forced her to look at the European boy. "Listen to me! I need you!"

"I… I-I can't!" Bubbles stammered out. "I can't hold it anymore!"

"Bubbles, I…" Donnie groaned, then looked elsewhere. By then, Bubbles had enough distraction to look around: the soldiers she had downed were still on the floor, some of them had started to mysteriously emit smoke out of their bodies, along with the ones who were about to punish her. The three children she'd tried to save were huddled together, and they weren't alone.

Huan lied on the ground. Her dress had splotches of blood staining it, and her eyes were closed. The children were in the process of arguing with each other—the girl was still crying while the boys shouted at each other, one gesticulating towards her and Donnie.

She could understand every word they said.

"They caused this! They did this to our sister!"

"They are trying to save us, you idiot! Can't you listen for just one second, Li, they are not the enemy!"

"Please, guys… please, stop fighting!"

"I'm going to kill them, to kill them all for what they did! I'm sick of everyone, I'm sick of this world! I-I want this to stop! JUST STOP!"

Donnie sighed, ignorant to what was going on, then looked up to regard Bubbles again, when she noticed her eyes were fixed on the argument. It took him a second to realise that she could in fact understand them, but that didn't stop him from speaking up.

"Bubbles, listen…" Donnie said. Bubbles turned hastily towards him. "I know it's painful, but I need you. Blossom, Buttercup and Nuru can't hold Gordon off alone, he caught us twice and he almost killed Huan the second time. I need to go help them to beat that freak… do you understand me?"

"…I do," Bubbles hated not being able to be there for her sisters, for Donnie and even Nuru. But she simply couldn't fight properly… these mutated soldiers had showed as much.

"Watch over Huan and her siblings while we fight him. I don't know if there are more of these things hiding in the junk here, but if you need any help, call us out. We'll hear you. Got it?"

Bubbles' eyes fell back on the four children nearby. By now the boy who had lashed out the most, the one with purple eyes, had started crying as well.

Her leg be darned. She was going to do something about this.

"I'll do it, Donnie… I'll try."

Donnie smiled weakly. "I'm sure you don't need to try, Bubbles. I trust you."

He shot up in the air and darted towards the monster General ahead, leaving her alone with Huan and the three puffs that were her siblings.

Her leg kept pulsing, and Bubbles couldn't stop her eyes from getting wet due to the pain. But she still forced herself to hover up, since there was no way she was walking with her wound and moved towards the siblings.

When they finally realised she had come to them, Li put himself between Bubbles and the other siblings. Ai and Hui didn't join him, but they still put their hands protectively over Huan.

Bubbles closed her eyes and took in a breath. For the sake of them… she needed not to cry, so she pictured herself in a situation analogue to this one, but much less grim. No mutated soldiers looking out to get them, no giant monster wanting to capture them and annihilate them, and no fighting noises in the background.

It was just her, meeting Huan's siblings for the first time…

Well, that was another complex matter to deal with if she had to be honest.

Bubbles opened her eyes and smiled as she hovered down, carefully making sure her leg didn't touch the concrete floor. The siblings studied her as she moved.

Then, she greeted them. "Hello! My name is Bubbles," she said in perfect Chinese.

Saying that Hui, Li and Ai were surprised was an understatement.

Buttercup groaned as she massaged her head. She believed that the Professor had months ago talked to her about concussions and how, despite her being superpowered, she was still vulnerable to them when she was fighting giant monsters.

Gordon may not have been as big as some of the hulking creatures of Monster Isle, but he sure hit as hard.

She pushed herself out of the hole into the wall which she was in, stretching her back as to test it out. Nothing broken… good.

Now, to make sure the General knew that she was mad at him…

Buttercup flew towards him, kicking herself into high speed. No mutated soldiers tried to shoot at her or stop her, as she and Nuru had managed to take down basically all of them. They were all but a nuisance, even somewhat disappointing for her, but the puffs had already a far more preoccupying enemy to deal with and the two had moved fast to join Blossom in her fight.

When Donnie also got in the fray, they were able to keep the general at bay, but as Buttercup had learned, one distraction was still enough to receive an hit. She was not going to repeat that mistake twice…

Blossom, Nuru and Donnie swarmed around the General, who swung his claws out in an attempt to catch them. He looked like a man suddenly having a tantrum due too many flies bothering him, and like flies the puffs were fast enough to evade his hands. The General was able to handle Blossom and Donnie alone, but with Nuru and Buttercup added to the picture he seemed to be having a harder time, forcing him to stay on the defensive.

"Aaagh! Die already!" he let out with an angry shout.

Buttercup gritted her teeth and shot towards him. Blossom, Nuru and Donnie flew out just in time as the General, too focused in only the three of them, ended up distracted enough to not notice the incoming green beam. Buttercup struck into his gut with a war cry, fist first. She was so fast that she distinctly felt the skin of the General gave in. As disgusting as it was, she didn't let that stop her, simply conceding a gag to herself.

Extracting her fist from the wound, Buttercup flew up to the disoriented general and started to punch his face. As small as she was compared to him, her punches were strong enough to at least cause pain, making him step back. And just as he was about to get her from behind, an ice breath gust entrapped his hands in a block of ice. He easily broke free, only to feel his arms blocked by two grips pulling them down. Plus, his chest tentacles also got sliced off by eyebeams.

All of that while getting punched in the face.

"Don't. You. Dare. Touch. My. Sisters. Or. My. Friends. AGAIN!" The final word was highlighted by a kick right on Gordon's nose. The other three puffs let him go after that, as Gordon, battered and bleeding, stumbled back slowly.

Buttercup, Blossom, Donnie and Nuru hovered in the air side by side as they waited for the General to fall down. Yet, Gordon did not tumble on the floor like they expected. He grinned slowly as he gained his equilibrium back.

"Do you little wretches… think it was going to be that easy?" he growled. He extended his arms out, and suddenly every cut on his body closed itself off, the bulging bruises disappeared in a second, and the tentacles regrew again. "I am invincible, infra-humans. 'W' powers me, more than it does for your flail bodies!"

"He's gone mad, isn't he…?" Buttercup commented lowly.

"Seems like it," Donnie nodded. "I… don't think he's going to bail anytime soon. But there's four of us now! We got to be able to beat him back!"

Nuru scoffed. "He is weak!" he proclaimed, matter-of-factly.

"Guys, focus!" Blossom cried out. Buttercup and the others looked at her, and she suddenly realised how tense her sister was. Blossom was sweating, her eyes were narrowed yet gave away her nervousness… her fear. Just what had happened before she, Nuru and Bubbles got here?

"Gordon can still take us aback if we let him do it!" she affirmed. "Try to keep your eyes peeled while you fight. We must all attack him at the same time! Got it?"

Nuru nodded weakly, but there was no time to make sure he did understand it. Donnie nodded without discussing, while Buttercup looked back at the General, who by now had launched himself into a full-on villain monologue. 'W' did indeed fuel him… it even went to his head apparently.

"Got it, Bloss. Lead the way."

Blossom sighed, then dashed away, followed by Buttercup and their two companions. Gordon spotted them immediately and rushed towards them in response, hands forward ready to either catch them or slice them.

"Buttercup, with me! Eyebeams!" Blossom cried out an order, and Buttercup respected her sister's wish, flying to her side and charging up her eyes with red flaring energy. Both her and Blossom fired at Gordon, who used his hands to block the attack.

But as that happened, Nuru and Donnie were already above the two Powerpuff Girls. Donnie had an energy grenade who he flung at Gordon's face without notice, whereas Nuru went for a classic beat-up approach by rushing at his face.

The grenade blinded Gordon, thus clearing the way out for Nuru to start another face-first beatdown. He'd have started a flurry similar to Buttercup's own, but a mutated fist came to halt it abruptly, slamming him away from Gordon and into a nearby truck wreckage. But Buttercup and Blossom were already on him and started swarming around, shooting eyebeams wildly.

"Just. Give. Up!" Buttercup shouted.

Gordon simply grinned, then he suddenly jerked down, putting his hands on the floor. Before the puffs could realise what he was doing, he used them to literally spring himself out of the way… ramming into Donnie in the process, who was above him looking for a cue to attack himself.

"Oh no you don't!" Buttercup shot away, as Blossom cried out Donnie's name. She flew after Gordon just as he finished his short flight on a nearby wall, crashing into it. The giant garage trembled with a quake, the damage seemingly starting to take its toll. It was a wonder it was still up by now considering the collapse that had happened previously.

He already had Donnie in his grip. As soon as he spotted Buttercup, he shouted a threat. "Move closer or I'll reduce your friend to dust and—" an eyebeam on the face silenced him, something he had not expected.

"Shut. UP!" Buttercup flew enough fast to land on Gordon's already battered face before he could do anything, and she decided to fight dirty, putting a punch into his eye. Gordon let out a guttural cry of pain, not expecting such a direct assault, and it was enough to force him to let Donnie go, who flew away hastily.

"You little skunk of a girl! I'll turn you into a slave! I'll drain youuntil you are nothing but a skeleton, and then I'll kill you!" Gordon covered his injured eye with a hand, while the other eye glared with the eerie green glow at the puff.

Buttercup hovered in front of him, defiant. "You are free to try. But I assure you, it won't be easy."

"Gordon… you have lost, face it,"Donnie added as he got closer to Buttercup. "You can't beat all the four of us together."

"Yeah! You're ended!" Nuru tweeted, appearing by Buttercup's side.

Blossom appeared right behind Buttercup and got beside her. "This has to end, Gordon, one way or another. You… you don't have to do this."

Gordon let out a dry laugh, though he ended up in a coughing fit. Suddenly, he didn't look as powerful as he did fifteen minutes ago. "Stupid little girl. You really think I'd even consider throwing away my plans? My whole life has led to this moment, to this goal…" he looked around.

And suddenly, he saw them. His belongings… lying somewhere in the distance. They were hidden for most of the battle, but from his position slammed into the wall, he could see them now, along with another infra-human.

"…and I won't let you take that away from me," he concluded, before rushing forward. He swung his claws out, forcing the puffs to fly out of the way, then he kept running forward.

It took some moments for the others to register what the General had seen and planned to do.

"HUAN!"

"BUBBLES!"

"Stay back!" Bubbles uttered in Chinese once she realised the General had seen them. She hovered up in the air, ignoring the pain in her leg.

"B-but…!" Ai tried to protest.

"It'll be all right, but you have to stay behind me, guys! Please trust me!"

Ai didn't dare say another word, and so did Hui and Li. Whether they did because they trusted her or because they were powerless to do otherwise, she wasn't sure, but she was thankful regardless.

Bubbles took in a long breath but braced regardless as she saw the General running in her direction.

She didn't know what she could do, but as she heard her sisters cry out her name, she knew she needed to at least try to slow him down. She wasn't going to let the evil General touch Huan and her siblings again.

Well… she thought she would do, because she felt a presence beside her, and when she moved her eyes to look, she was startled to see who was there.

"H-Huan!?"

She was out cold just mere moments ago! How could she—

Gordon's shout cut her off. "You will be the first one to die!" he proclaimed, heavy steps still booming in the large chamber as he ran at them. Behind him the four puffs flew in desperate pursuit. "You left my grasp once, vessel. I won't make the same mistake twice!"

Bubbles didn't even have the time to retort or even think of a reply. Huan hovered forward, putting herself between her and the General.

"Huan, what are you doing?! Y-You… he's gonna hurt you!"

"He w-won't hurt anyone else," she let out weakly, almost whispered. She extended a hand forward, and Bubbles saw particles dancing around her arm. What was she doing?

Then, it suddenly clicked with her. The collapse in the headquarters building from outside… it had started from the inside… maybe…?

She found herself hovering back, much to her surprise. No, she wasn't going to leave her alone facing the incoming General. Even if… she didn't know what she was going to do, what was going to happen. She was not going to let her do this alone!

Bubbles placed herself beside her. Huan didn't even glance at her, her eyes were clenched shut as the particles around her arm vibrated and moved, becoming denser and denser as the seconds ticked by.

When she reopened her eyelids, Bubbles saw that her eyes glowed with a luminescent light green, much close to the lime colour of her dress and her irises.

Her gaze was plastered at the General, who leapt with his claws open up in the air, his trajectory clearly going to end over them. "Die!"

"DIE!" Huan cried back, and suddenly, the particles expanded outwards in all directions, creating a cloud of energy that enveloped both her and Bubbles. The Powerpuff Girl didn't feel anything before the thing left them and shot towards the General, capturing his hands first.

Immediately, the General cried out, retracting his claws as he let out painful growls. Bubbles, thinking fast, went to catch Huan, who was barely awake at this point, and tried her best to move out of the way. The monster Gordon simply fell down, crashing with his full weight on the floor.

By then, the other four puffs had reached them, with Blossom and Buttercup quickly closing on Bubbles while Nuru and Donnie flew forward, putting themselves between the lying, writhing form of Gordon and Huan's siblings, who were still on the ground nearby and vulnerable.

Once she knew that everyone was safe and all right, Bubbles looked at the General. Growling and shouting, he tried to get up on his knees, and suddenly showed his hands out, which he'd kept hidden below his own chest for the entire time.

His hands were no more. In their place was an indistinguishable blob of partially liquefied muscles and bones, or it least looked like it. Bubbles suddenly felt herself with the urgent need to throw up.

"What did you do!? W-What did you do, you little monster!?" the General cried out, with a shrill tone very out-of-character for him. He yelled again, and suddenly, new, fresh hands sprouted out of the blob, regenerated as if it was nothing.

Only to crumble down again, pieces falling out. No matter how many times the Gordon desperately tried to regenerate, the hands immediately disintegrated.

At some point, his growls became weaker, and in the end, he let out a final shout before crumbling down, his hands still fizzing. His energy wasn't infinite, after all, and regenerating evidently had taken a toll on him.

But it didn't end there yet. Before any of the puffs could comment, the cloud of lime energy climbed up Gordon's arms, quickly causing them to melt down as well.

"Wait… that thing Huan did is still going?" Donnie said in alarm.

Bubbles' eyes widened. She had been holding Huan the entire time, and when she looked at her she realised that Huan had her eyes still half-open, still glowing, and still looking at the General. Her face was fixed into a hard grimace, her teeth gritted, but her frown was incredibly stoic.

"Huan! This is enough, it's over!" Bubbles cried.

Huan apparently didn't pay any attention to Bubbles' words. Her eyes didn't move away from the General.

"Huan, you're going to kill at this rate!" she said louder.

"He deserves to DIE!" Huan suddenly shouted. She hovered out of Bubbles' grasp while pushing her away, but her flight was unstable and erratic. Buttercup flew up to her, in order to help her stabilise. Blossom, Donnie and Nuru were dazed, either shocked or too surprised to intervene at first.

"No one deserves to die!" Bubbles retorted back. "Even if he's a bad guy!"

"He's EVIL!" Huan's eyes glowed as she yelled. "He created us just to use us, he wanted to keep us alive only to cause of pain for our entire life! I won't ever, EVER forgive him!"

"You don't have to forgive him, Huan."

It was Buttercup who said that. Huan glanced at her for a moment, considering whether to shove her off as well.

"Huan, some bad guys… are just too bad. They don't want to change; they don't want to do anything to correct their mistakes. They are just… evil, and no one is going to ask you to forgive what this guy or forget what he's done or planned to do. But… taking his life won't change anything. He's down for the count," Buttercup elaborated.

"Killing a beaten enemy… is not good…" Nuru managed to say. He was clearly distressed by the events as well.

"He won't stand up anytime soon, Huan," Donnie added. "By now his entire army is in disarray, and once they realise their General has been captured, the company he guides will also cease to exist."

"I won't…!" Huan shook her head. "I won't have peace u-until he's alive!"

"Huan," Blossom spoke firmly, finally flying up to Huan. "We won't let him go just like that. We will keep him under our eye, get his own Antidote to undo what W did to him. It worked for Mojo Jojo, somewhat, so we know it'll work for him as well. Then, we'll make sure he pays for his crimes. We won't leave until this is all sorted out Huan… we won't leave you or your siblings alone by yourselves! But now… you have to stop this."

"Please, Huan…" Bubbles said again. She closed on to the girl, whose eyes jumped from one puff to the other. "Let him go. Ai, Li and Hui are safe! You're safe! We did it! There's no need to fight anymore!"

Huan looked at her. Bubbles felt like her eyes were basically going through her skin as she glared, feeling her hatred coursing through her glance.

Then, she let out a small whimper. Her eyes dimmed down, and when Bubbles looked at Gordon, his arms were basically gone, but the energy cloud had disappeared.

"I-I… I…" Huan couldn't finish her sentence as she collapsed on Buttercup's arms, passing out.

The remaining five awake puffs looked at each other for a few seconds, as suddenly the chamber had become silent.

"Everybody's all right?" Blossom said.

The others nodded or grunted affirmatively.

"Then… it's really over."