A/N
I'm back with the (much?) anticipated sequel to We Are the Lights! If you have not done so, I encourage you to read the first part of the trilogy for the background on Bliss and the three original superhumans appearing in this story. I will continue to post updates on Saturdays but they might not be weekly after a certain point. Comments are always appreciated. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Enemy of My Enemy

Listless.

That was how Brick felt in the wake of what happened at the Morbucks lab. There was a lot he should be doing but he just couldn't find the motivation to act until he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Powerpuffs were actually safe with Professor Newtronium's "baby girls". Why had they busted the Puffs out? What were they doing right now? Where in the world were they? As soon as he returned to his own house Brick tried tapping any and all sources on file for information, but there was no word about superhumans other than the Puffs and Ruffs. He should have accepted those dossiers instead of looking down his nose at Newtronium, then he'd have an idea of who they were dealing with. His arrogance was the cause of every problem he currently faced.

He should've just asked, one simple question: "Max, why do you want these investors out of the picture?" Armed with the answer Brick would've proceeded as normal, the past year unfolding exactly as it had, only he'd stop when he realized he didn't want the Puffs to fall into Max's hands. He would've rescinded the contract and returned the first half of the payment, no hard feelings. He would've gone to Mexico with Blossom and spent quality time with her. Seen her on the first day of school and made a stupid joke about deciding to compete with her for valedictorian. He would've asked her to go with him to Homecoming, and come up with all kinds of activities they could participate in throughout the year, and maybe she'd invite him and his brothers to Christmas at her home again. When the new semester rolled around he would've chosen classes she was also taking so they could study together, and at the end of the year he'd ask her to be his date to Prom since he knew how to dance with her better than anyone else.

But none of that ever had a chance at coming to pass. The choices Brick made were irrevocable.

His brothers always referred to him as "the man with the plan" but for once he was completely clueless. All he wanted was to find out whether or not the Powerpuff Girls were safe. After that he was done, omitting himself from their lives so he'd never inadvertently hurt them again. Brick had been designed to be a villain; it was in his DNA to harm people. If he hadn't denied his own nature, none of this would have happened. Dragging Butch and Boomer all over the globe, making more enemies than they could count, ending up back in Townsville, meeting the Puffs again, befriending them, falling in love…

No wait, that last thing didn't apply to Brick. If he had fallen in love with Blossom he wouldn't be able to live with himself right now, although his current state could hardly be considered "living". Days had passed since the incident but he wasn't sure how many. He didn't eat, sleep, do laundry or shower or anything that might make him miss being contacted by Une and Tvaer. He assumed it'd be via phone since the network was secure so he never set it down, the Nervo practically fusing with his hand. His eyes twitched from staring at the screen so much. It was when his calendar read Friday the 13th that someone finally reached out to him.

"Holy hell, it smells like something died in here."

"Brick, where the fuck are ya?!"

Make that two someones.

His brothers found him in bed upstairs. "Don't tell me you've been lying here for the past week!" Boomer exclaimed, although the malodorous abode indicated just that.

"People have been askin' 'bout you at school, Bro," Butch said.

Brick rolled over to face them. "Why are you still going to school? What's the point?"

"Better'n mopin' around like this," he returned.

"I'm not moping, I'm being attentive."

"You're being gross." Boomer wrinkled his nose. "Seriously, take a shower. I'm gonna throw your clothes in the wash."

Brick leapt to his feet. "Don't touch my stuff! Do I invade your loft and start going through your things?!"

"No, but I started doing my own laundry before either of you. And I don't currently smell like a month-old gym bag." Boomer gave Butch a nod and began gathering garments strewn across the floor. Butch swept Brick over his shoulder and carried him into the bathroom.

He landed on his posterior in the bathtub where a cascade of cold water shocked his system. His teeth chattered before it warmed up, then he shoved his unruly short hair out of his face, glaring upward. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"It's for your own good," Butch said, folding his arms. "Get clean and then start packin' your shit for when those girls call. We wanna be ready to leave as soon as they do."

How dare his younger brothers barge in on him unannounced, manhandle him, and boss him around. Who did they think they were?!

Brick's anger ebbed after a few minutes. He stood, throwing his now-soaked T-shirt and sweatpants over the curtain before dispensing a liberal amount of shampoo into his palm. How had he let himself fall into such a sorry state? He was supposed to be the leader, the one taking care of his siblings. God, he'd been selfish. He'd lost a friend, sure, but Boomer and Butch had lost girls they loved. He couldn't imagine what that must feel like.

Butch was rummaging around the kitchen when Brick came downstairs, proffering a box of protein bars. "Looks like you've lost a few pounds already. Eat."

Boomer returned from the laundry room. "I guess we'll hold off on the packing since you don't have any clean clothes. But you're still coming with us to school."

"Why?" Brick really didn't see the point.

"So we can tell Miss Keane what's up."

Oh, right; their entire grade probably wondered what happened to the Girls. Once again Brick was so selfish he hadn't realized there were people who cared about them just as much as or even more than him, including… "Professor Utonium. We should speak with him, too." Boomer nodded. Good plan.

Miss Keane looked relieved to see the three of them. "Nice to have you back, Brick," she remarked, "although it appears you're not equipped to attend classes."

Boomer shook his head. "We're gonna be gone for a while, Miss Keane."

"Got some personal business to take care of," Butch added.

"We're not sure when we'll return, so I guess… we're withdrawing for the time being," Brick finished.

"I see." She consulted her computer. "As long as you re-enroll before your twenty-first birthday, you can still graduate."

That was news to them. "Really? We can come back?"

"Certainly." Miss Keane smiled warmly. "The same goes for the Girls. Be sure to tell them, won't you?"

Brick nodded. "We will."

"And bring them home safe. I want to hand out diplomas to all six of you."

Boomer beamed and Butch tossed a wave over his shoulder, but a lump had formed in Brick's throat that made it impossible to say anything until they reached the Utonium residence, ringing the doorbell. "Boys… what are you doing here?" the Professor inquired. He looked so tired, his red eyes lined with wrinkles and his facial hair scruffy. Coffee stains dotted his grey tee.

"We just wanted to inform you that we're going to try our best to bring the Girls back to you," Brick replied. "We have a lead on who rescued them from the facility."

"Ah…" The Professor stepped aside. "Why don't you come in so we can talk?" They claimed the living room sofa as the man rubbed his beard. "Give me a minute to make myself presentable."

"No worries, Prof," Butch said. "Brick was in worse shape than you this mornin'."

He smiled ruefully and went upstairs, returning in slightly cleaner condition. The Professor sank into his armchair, sighing. "So, you three were in that subterranean lab when Une and Tvaer arrived?"

"They almost blew us up," Boomer answered.

"What do you know about them?" Brick pressed, then added, "Any information would help."

"Not all that much, I'm afraid. I did meet them twice, first when they were the equivalent of seven years old, then twelve. I wasn't thrilled when Joan told me that she had experimented on the human genome with Chemical W, but admittedly I was curious. Her children are… special. Their powers aren't like yours or my Girls'. They're a bit more… insidious, which was why Joan wanted to keep them in her lab. I told her it was wrong but she didn't listen, and Maximilian Morbucks ended up abusing them. After the media caught wind of the existence of superpowered children, our own Scientific Discovery Council put them under lock and key. They escaped custody seventeen years ago and no one has found any trace of them since."

Well, that was disconcerting. "How were the Girls taken?" Brick wanted to know. "It must've happened after senior orientation."

The Professor rubbed his brow and closed his eyes, opening them to regard the Ruffs with unexpected determination. "As we were getting ready for dinner, people from Morbucks' private army showed up at our door with weaponized Antidote X. It's called Antix now and it's being marketed as a hot new hallucinogen. There's also Chemix which has mutagenic effects on ordinary people. If you're going to prevent that man from reclaiming the Girls you'll most likely encounter his Clarent mercenaries wielding both against you, but the latter should be harmless."

Boomer and Brick looked grim to hear that ammunition now existed that could actually harm them, but Butch was unperturbed. It'd be boring if the fight were too easy. As they made to leave he withdrew a fob from his pocket and handed it to the Professor. "Here's the key to my Porsche. Would you mind takin' care of it while I'm gone?"

The man blinked, stunned, yet accepted. "Sure thing, kiddo, but where is it?"

"Address is on the slip inside. Thanks, Prof!" Butch joined his brothers in the sky.

"You're ridiculous," Boomer commented.

"What? I want my car to be in good hands! It can't just sit in the garage the whole time, it needs to be driven."

"Like it's a pet you have to exercise?"

"Exactly!"

Brick flew to his house on instinct, deep in thought and unaware his brothers had followed him until they landed on the deck. "Aren't you going back to your own homes?"

"Nope! We're crashin' with you till it's time to leave," Butch asserted.

"Why do you think we brought our field bags?" Boomer rhetorically asked.

"I didn't notice," Brick mumbled. But now that he was actually taking stock of the situation, he realized he had forgotten to do something. He promised to update Dexter on the whereabouts of the Puffs, texting him a thorough yet concise message. As an afterthought, he added that he was going to bring them home to Townsville, and Dexter replied I know you three can do it. He had more faith in Brick than Brick did.

The Ruffs spent their whole Saturday making sure they were prepared to deal with whatever came next. Traveling was a given so they gathered passports and currency. They made sure payments would still get made during their absence with the help of automatic withdrawals. They visited a storage unit where their tactical gear had been transferred from the conex; if they were going up against Antix bullets it would at least be prudent to wear body armor. "Comms check," Butch spoke into his long-range headset. "You read me, Blue Angel?"

"Roger that, Green Machine. Do you read, Red Leader?"

"Roger." They reconvened at their unit, locked it back up, and returned to Brick's bungalow where they sat and continued to wait.

Boomer awoke early the following morning, too anxiety-ridden about seeing Bubbles again to sleep soundly. She had come right up to the glass divider and would have embraced him, he was certain. She knew it wasn't his fault for putting her in that awful place. She regarded him with hope, not hate, not like he'd betrayed her. Blossom's words still stung, though; the Ruffs had sold them out because they themselves were sellouts. But not anymore, never again. Maybe Brick didn't have a plan but Boomer did, and it was to tear down Max's entire empire, leaving him destitute and then imprisoned for… crimes against humanity or something. He didn't care, he just wanted the entitled fuck to die alone with nothing.

He played a mobile game on silent until his stomach growled for food, then he raided Brick's kitchen. Unfortunately there were a lot of singular ingredients and not many pre-made meals. Why did he have to be so into cooking? Boomer found and peeled a tangerine, paying no attention to his Nervo until he tried resuming the game only to be met with a black screen. Pressing the side buttons did nothing. Then, on a whim, he checked his brothers' phones and they too were blacked out. "What's going on?" he questioned aloud.

"Voice recognition confirmed," said the virtual assistant. "Reboot sequence initiated."

He left his chair to shake his siblings awake. "Brick! Butch! Get up, our phones are doing something weird!" The former was instantly alert, the latter a bit slower to react. There was now a blinking hyphen in the lower right corner of Boomer's screen.

"Is it broken?" Brick inquired, starting a little when his virtual assistant repeated the same "reboot sequence initiated" line.

"Whas 'appenin'?" Butch asked through a yawn.

"Voice recognition failed," said his Nervo.

He glared at it. "Didn't I turn your annoyin' ass off?"

"Voice recognition confirmed."

Butch leaned over the counter, waiting until his screen also had a blinking white line in the corner. "Looks busted to me, Bro."

"I don't think so," Brick mused. "This resembles PC command prompt." As if those were the magic words, text and symbols began filling each screen at an alarming rate, growing dense with gibberish. The holographic projection lenses flickered and three different images appeared, portraits of strangers. Except two of them had names. "It's you…" Brick breathed in awe and relief. "Une and Tvaer. You contacted us like you said." His faith in humanity had been fractionally restored.

"Of course we did," the aqua-haired girl replied. The Ruffs saw and heard her clearly as if she stood on the other side of a window. "I never say anything I don't mean."

"Why are you letting him call you by those names?" It was a boy who demanded this. His tattooed skin was a deep beige tone. He had a square jaw, sharp cheekbones, and gleaming golden irises. His dark brown hair was styled into a messy mohawk and his face was decorated with a variety of piercings.

"We did not give them our real names," said the pale girl. She was almost preternaturally pretty, like a…

"Are you an elf?" Boomer blurted, and she blinked her upturned silver eyes at him before laughing like a fairy or pixie might, soft and clear.

"Bubbles said the exact same thing!" she tittered.

"You have her? Where is she? And her sisters? Where are you?"

The boy raised a hand. "Calm down. I didn't reprogram your Nervos for shits and giggles. Let's get the formalities out of the way." He breathed deeply. "Hi, I'm Beaux. These are my sisters Bliss and Belle. No need to introduce yourselves, we already know everything about you. What we don't know is if you can be trusted."

"Says the dude who hacked our phones," Butch quipped.

"What I did is so far beyond hacking I doubt your feeble mind could comprehend it." Bliss shot him a stern look. "Right, sorry, I'm not supposed to antagonize you."

"Doin' a great job so far."

Bliss interjected before her brother could retort again. "Belle and I retrieved the Powerpuff Girls from that underground facility for reasons we'd like to discuss with you in person. We're sending coordinates to your Nervos."

The three strangers blipped off, and although their phones seemed to be in working order again, Brick was wary. Inputting the coordinates to the holographic map revealed an unexpected destination: Singapore. The Boys gathered their bags and flew in a low formation across the Pacific. Although they generally didn't give a fuck about violating international airspace, especially Brick, it seemed wise to stay under the radar now. They spotted a vacant cove, landing on the beach. "How did we never come here before?" Boomer asked, admiring their tropical surroundings.

"First time for everything." Brick studied his Nervo secure in its armband. "It seems those three are located at the harbor. If we cut through this jungle we'll reach the eastern shore."

Once in the midst of civilization they earned a few odd looks but were otherwise ignored, dutifully following the arrow on the map to a two-story building. All the windows were of the blackout variety and the roof supported an impressive assortment of cables, antenna, and satellite dishes. As they stood there studying the exterior the mail slot suddenly transformed into a biometric interface. "You have to provide handprint and retinal scans before we allow you inside," came Beaux's voice through the speaker. "You first, Boomer." He shot his eldest brother an uncertain glance but received a nod, placing his palm on a screen and then staring at a flickering light. Butch went next and Brick was last. "Thanks for your cooperation. The door's open now."

They weren't sure what to expect, half anticipating the whole thing to be a trap. In the very center of the vast space was a large circular desk covered in monitors and flanked by two servers attached to water cooling units, a mass of cords dangling from the ceiling. Strangely there were no keyboards, mice, or other peripherals. To the right was some kind of medical station with an exam table, overhead lights, rolling cabinets, and a giant capsule Brick suspected might be an MRI machine. Behind that section was a 3D printer and digital drafting table. The entire left third of the first floor was basically Butch's dream home gym complete with a boxing ring.

"Done gawking at our stuff yet?" Beaux, Bliss, and Belle stood a ways away, fanned out to prevent the Ruffs from getting farther inside should they try anything sketchy.

"You're the ones who invited us," Boomer pointed out.

"Doesn't mean you won't attack us," Bliss countered. "But since you were wondering, the Powerpuff Girls aren't here."

Belle raised her hands and took careful steps forward. "We did not lure you here in an attempt to harm you. This is the truest place we have to a home. We would like it very much if it remained intact."

"And we'd like it very much if you told us what you did with the Puffs," Brick returned. It bothered him slightly that Belle had an inch on him, yet she was so willowy he could probably incapacitate her without exerting much super strength, like breaking a porcelain doll.

Bliss came to stand beside her sister. "They're staying at a hotel nearby. We treated them with Chemical X and told them you were coming. They weren't exactly thrilled about that."

"We still want… we need to talk to them," Brick asserted.

"You'll get the chance, but first we have to be sure we can trust you." Bliss's violet gaze swept over the Boys. She was also tall, at least six feet, exuding the confidence and authority of a natural leader. Beaux was the shortest person there, shorter than Bubbles and her five-foot-five stature, but the way he looked at the Ruffs made them feel small. "We know Newtronium propositioned you to find us and return us to captivity. Did you accept her offer?"

Brick's brow furrowed. "Of course not. After you grabbed the Girls we wanted nothing to do with her."

"We left her under that chunk o' concrete," Butch said.

One corner of Bliss's mouth turned up, and she received a little nod from Belle. "What was she going to give you in exchange for finding us?"

Boomer shrugged. "Info about that new Chemix and Antix stuff, but Professor Utonium told us for free."

"Right, Morbucks weaponized it just like he did with the W compounds," Beaux explained. "They're marketed under the names 'Kew' and 'Dow'. Like Chemical X, Chemical W doesn't affect us but is harmful to regular people. If it enters the bloodstream it causes brain aneurysms." He turned halfway toward the computer monitors. "Want to see what Chemix does to people? It's really nasty."

"Not before dinner, Beaux," Belle chided, her narrow nose scrunching. She then smiled kindly at the Ruffs. "Would you like to join us?"

"For dinner?" Brick clarified. "I thought you didn't trust us."

"Past tense," Bliss assured. "Now that we're positive you came here of your own free will and not at Newtronium's behest, there are some things we'd like to talk about." The Boys finally set down their bags and trailed the trio up a set of metal stairs along the back wall.

At the top, Beaux raised a hand to stop them. "No shoes allowed."

"Seriously?" Butch griped. Combat boots weren't exactly the easiest thing to slip on and off.

"The outside world is seriously disgusting. Shoes off."

Their boots joined an assortment of casual footwear. The second floor of the building consisted of the living quarters which were divided into four bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a large kitchen, and a living room. The carpet was white, the walls blue-grey, and there was enough décor and bric-a-brac to make it seem like a perfectly average family called it home. "Did you build this place yourselves?" Brick wondered.

"Indeed," Beaux answered. "It was more efficient to combine our personal residence with our workspace in lieu of traveling to and from apartments. If someone deduced who we really were, they could've caught us off-guard."

"We tried living separately for a while, but it didn't feel right," Bliss said. "We were the only ones we could trust." She indicated the dining table. "Sit, if you want." Boomer did so but Brick and Butch remained standing, scoping out the place some more.

"What're you making?" Boomer inquired. Whatever was cooking smelled delicious.

"It is called laksa." Belle tossed them a nervous look. "You are not allergic to anything, are you? Specifically coconut and shrimp." The brothers shook their heads. "I thought so. Mojo Jojo would not have left you with such a weakness."

"You said you knew everything 'bout us," Butch reiterated. "How's that work?"

"I know everything about everything," Beaux answered.

He rolled his eyes. "Okay."

"I'm not being a cocky shit, really. I have access to all human knowledge. Any subject you can think of, I'm an expert. Any useful subject, I should say. Sciences, mathematics, engineering, programming, linguistics, history, medicine, politics, quantum mechanics…" Beaux tapped his temple. "It's all here."

"How?" Brick and Butch deigned to sit for the explanation.

"My superpower is linking my consciousness with signals. When I was a kid I could only connect to the internet, but now that I'm older I can gather data from any device that transmits electromagnetic waves. That's why we made Singapore our home base. This country has the fastest internet in the world due to its robust fiber-optic network, not that my mental processing speeds rely on cables and providers. It's just convenient."

Brick mulled the explanation over for a minute. It was both ridiculous and fascinating, the idea of a mind connecting to a computer network. "So you download information to your brain. Can you also upload data?" he questioned.

Beaux nodded. "Indeed. That's how I was able to alter your Nervo operating systems."

"But… they're supposed to be protected by quantum encryption."

"They are, but there isn't a computer in existence that has the processing power of the human brain." Beaux pulled a face as he thought of a simple explanation. "Computers function off a fixed set of rules. They can only do what they're programmed to, what we tell them to do. Even adaptive AI works within certain boundaries. Try to equate that with human consciousness, all the things we're aware of and have control over. There's still the subconscious, a layer we can't access. Some people like to theorize how 'enlightened' humanity would become if we had complete control over our brains, but then we'd have to do things like tell ourselves to keep breathing and extract nutrients from food and actively control every individual muscle in our bodies. Those are all subconscious functions, biological programming we take for granted." He gestured flippantly. "Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I can subvert quantum encryption because the rules don't apply to me."

"Huh." Butch eyed the girls. "What're your abilities?"

"I manipulate the light spectrum from ultraviolet to infrared," Bliss answered. "The technical term is photokinesis. I can cloak myself and alter perceived appearances, like this." Her hair changed from tight aqua curls to loose pink waves. "It works on other people, too, and I can generate illusions surrounding inanimate objects. Stealth and disguise are my strong suits."

Brick raised an eyebrow. "Was it you who blew the hole in Max's facility?"

"Oh, yes, I did that by focusing UV rays into a laser." She beamed with pride. "That was the strongest one I've ever generated."

"How did you avoid hitting the Powerpuffs?"

"Belle showed me where to aim. She's psionic." There was a foreign word. "She has psychic abilities."

"No way!" Boomer exclaimed. "Like what?!"

"Telekinesis and telepathy, and she's empathic," Bliss provided. Belle had her back to the rest of the room while chopping cilantro, but thanks to her bob haircut everyone could see that her neck was red with embarrassment. "Usually she doesn't talk, but she is for your sake. The… four of us just communicate mentally through her."

Brick arched another eyebrow. "And where is your fourth sibling?"

Beaux and Bliss sighed in unison. "That's the reason why we invited you here. And that's the secondary reason why we rescued the Powerpuff Girls, the main one being that we didn't want them to endure what we did when we were young. We couldn't let Maximilian attempt to use them as weapons against the world."

"They're people, not objects," Beaux vehemently stated. "Us, you, the Powerpuffs… We may be able to surpass human limitations but we're still human, and it's our human right to choose how to live."

Boomer recalled Bubbles saying something similar to him: "Other people can tell us how to use our powers and how to live, but it'll always be our choice." Twice in his recent past he'd been prepared to use his fulgurkinetic abilities to exact immediate vengeance on people who hurt his beloved. He was willing to kill for Bubbles, and it sounded like Beaux was a man of equal conviction regarding his siblings. "So are you guys planning to get back at Max and Newtronium for all they've done?" he asked.

Bliss nodded. "Destroying that facility in Townsville was satisfactory, but there are many others around the globe in addition to factories where Kew, Dow, Chemix and Antix are being produced. We need to destroy them too, and demolish the distribution centers, and once there's no one left who can engineer Chemical X or W and their antidotes, we'll go after Maximilian personally. Beaux has the ability to financially ruin him. He could get into his accounts and transfer all his money elsewhere right now, but there's no point in doing that when Maximilian has multiple sources of revenue. We need to cut off all the heads of the snake before dealing a blow to the body."

"I'm likin' your guys' style," Butch said with a grin. "I'm in."

"Me too," Boomer agreed.

They both turned to Brick. "Whaddya say, Bro? We should work with them."

"We won't be able to live in peace until Max is out of the picture, out of Townsville. He has to go."

Revenge was the motive for all of them, but Brick couldn't help but feel his brothers wanted to enact it against the wrong person. His progenitors were probably justified in retaliating against Max and Newtronium for whatever wrongs they'd suffered during their youth, but the man was not to blame for taking advantage of the Powerpuff Girls. The fault lay solely with Brick since his choices and actions had facilitated their capture. Because of him, they were holed up somewhere in a foreign country surrounded by strangers, unknowing who they could trust if anyone at all. Certainly not him.

"The Powerpuffs already agreed to assist us," Belle spoke, delving into his thoughts.

Brick shook his head. "I want to hear it from them in person. If they say they're going to help you, so will I."

"Bro, c'mon. Fireballs? Volatile chemicals?" Butch nudged him. "We'll wreck Max's shit."

He held firm. "Only if I can see that the Girls are ready to fight."

Bliss groaned. "Fine, you win. If it'll persuade you to join our cause, we'll have the six of you meet here tomorrow on neutral ground. That way we can intervene if things go haywire."

Boomer was dubious. "Like they'd attack us?"

"Buttercup is very angry at the three of you," Belle said softly.

"Oh. Yeah, neutral ground sounds good." Boomer knew how to choose his battles. The more bodies between him and a pissed-off Buttercup, the better.

There was a lull in the conversation to dish out laksa, Beaux and Belle eating on the sectional sofa as Bliss joined the Ruffs at the table. "So how old are you guys?" Butch asked. Brick gave him a look. No fucking tact.

"Hmm… how old are we now?" Bliss mused. "We've always aged erratically."

"The last physical and mental diagnostics placed us at the equivalent of twenty-one years old," Belle replied.

Brick met and held Bliss's gaze. "You didn't answer my question from before, about your other brother."

She sighed, slumping. "His name is Blaze and he's physically the strongest of us. About a week ago, when Belle and I went to retrieve the Powerpuffs, Blaze left to do recon at a chemical factory… and we haven't heard from him since. We're pretty positive he got captured, but we don't know where he's being held. Beaux searches for mention of him every day but nothing's come up. So we were going to ask you and the Powerpuffs if you'd help us find Blaze before anything else."

"'Course we will," Butch declared, "families gotta stick together. Also, what's with your weird nicknames? 'Une' isn't a name, it's 'one' in French."

Beaux's spoon clattered in his empty bowl. "Those are the numbers Newtronium assigned us during our development since we were nothing more than test subjects to her. Bliss was Une since her heritage is French-Caribbean. Belle was Tvaer, the feminine Icelandic form of 'two'. Blaze was Natt, 'three' in Wolof which is a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania. I used to be Sai, 'four' in Thai. Did anyone mention that Newtronium stole our embryos from a genealogy bank?"

Silence pervaded the room for a beat. "Now I really don't feel guilty for leaving her with that broken leg," Boomer said, earning little smiles from his hosts.

They were going to get along just fine.