Powerpuff Girls & All associated trademarks are property of Turner Entertainment

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I am making no money from this.

Chapter 03

The sight of multiple streaks of neon coloured light tearing through the night sky had once been a common and reassuring scene for the citizens of Townsville and despite the uneasiness of the situation and the thick, pressing tension it was impossible for the girls to not appreciate what the sight of their own reunion, joined by two of the villains whom they had once fought against might represent to those looking up at them from below.

A symbol, just as Blossom had intended to become.

The three sisters, along with Boomer Jojo, all clad in their civilian clothes as changing into costumes, whilst only taking a matter of seconds for them had still seemed to be an inexcusable waste of time and Princess Morbucks, who once again wore her black and gold armour had naturally taken to the sky mere moments after word of events in neighbouring Citiesville had been received. Professor Utonium had spent those few moments desperately imploring his daughters not to soar head first into the open pit of corruption without a plan, the girls' step-mother joining him and pointing out that Buttercup's injuries were still far too serious for her to take an active role and that the five of them would need to make a plan rather than rely on the superpowers that had been proven to be no longer as absolute as once thought.

Blossom's only response had been that they would plan on the way.

"Okay, what we need to do is contact the Citiesville Mayor and-"

"Blossom you're not the one in charge here, not this time" Buttercup's voice was strained by the effort that sustained flight was taking on her yet clear and decisive as she forced herself forward and flew ahead of Blossom who had, likely entirely without conscious thought fallen into her former position in the girls' formation, flying at the centre and slightly ahead of Bubbles Buttercup whilst Boomer flew at Bubble's right hand and Buttercup could see Princess soaring through the dark beneath her, likely intending to catch the green-eyed young woman if her powers faltered and sent her tumbling towards the ground. Blossom for her part seemed utterly perplexed by the statement, something understandable as the redhead and spent much of her life in a position of authority or command in the field; yet it was still a state of affairs that Buttercup found to be insufferable.

"What I'm suggesting is the most logical course of action" Blossom countered vehemently "We operate through legal channels and-"

"This is Citiesville we're heading into, do you remember what Citiesville is like?" Buttercup demanded irritably, eyes flashing a vivid, poisonous shade of green "There are no legal channels here, do you think I would have spent the last three years working underground and collecting glasses in a nightclub if there was?"

"You've been working in a club?" Boomer asked, the admission being a genuine surprise

"Focus" Blossom snapped, more harshly than she intended and earning herself a glare from Bubbles in the process

"Citiesville is bought and paid for, every elected official takes massive campaign contributions either from corporations like my Dads', companies that have ties to the mob and have probably got connections to supervillains or directly from the mob….You really think Le Quack can have an arms shipment brought in without somebody knowing about it but turning a blind eye because they were paid?" Princess delivered the information with an unmistakable anger towards Blossom, the Powerpuff Girls who out of all of her sisters had always treated Princess with the most disdain, even when she had wanted nothing more than to be a hero and help them; Blossom herself picked up on the sneering edge but chose to ignore it as there was simply nothing she could say to refute it, especially not when Princess was happy to acknowledge her own families' hand in such corruption so she chose instead to disregard the woman she considered as no more than an insult to what a superhero was supposed to represent entirely and addressed Buttercup once again.

"Then how would you approach this?"

"Normally I'd say we got for a stakeout, sneak in and collect evidence then find one of the few good judges before we bring him in" the dark haired sister replied, brow furrowing as she added "But we don't have time, Ed is already going after Le Quack so we're gonna have to go in all guns blazing-"

"God I hope that's a figure of speech" Blossom interrupted.

"No lethal force unless it's the only option" Buttercup's answer was acceptable, though more open to the idea of killing than Blossom liked "We need to hit hard and fast, most importantly we need to make sure Le Quack gets as little warning as possible"

"Does Citiesville still have a no fly zone for superheroes?" Bubbles asked nervously, the idea of being thrown into a jail-cell and forced to comply police officers' whose loyalty had been purchased sickening her to her core.

"On paper yeah, they only enforce it when it suits 'em though; problem is it might suit 'em tonight….Has everyone got their comms in?" Buttercup replied, referring to the series of minute earpieces that many in their heroic trade favoured; specifically in this instance a set handed out by Princess upon their departure. Seeing a series of nods the green-eyed young woman called down to Princess "Call Double Dee"

"You got it babe" at that the scarlet-haired, freckled and olive-skinned vigilante opened a secure and encrypted transmission to the Editorial Suite, the base of operations located beneath Eddy's nightclub, staffed and operated by the jittery, manic and compulsive but undeniably genius young man known as Double Dee and after a few moments of crackling static a slightly high pitched and reedy voice greeted them.

"H-Hey Buttercup, I heard you'd been hurt it's uh-it's great to see you're up and about already!" Edd, or Double Dee's voice wavered as he spoke, changing note and tone several times whilst the words spilled out of him with an urgent rapidity as if his body could not keep up with his mind. Fortunately Buttercup was well accustomed to dealing with her friends' peculiarities and promptly but gently halted his train of thought before it could meander away.

"Hey Double Dee, I'm guessing you already know the situation. We've got Le Quack's location but we don't know how well prepared he is and he was weapons that can hurt me now, Ed is an idiot and wants to solo it anyway. Me and Princess are on the way and we brought help, we need a plan for how we're gonna tackle this without causing a mess"

"I um….let me think" Double Dee stammered out, the tension growing as the five heroes surged through the air with the countless skyscrapers of Citiesville looming ever closer with each passing second.

"I've got it" he finally announced, voice filled with electric and contagious energy "We'll use the firework display protocol, a variation of what we used to pick out the officers bought by the Yakuza last year….I can send you Ed's most likely route to Le Quack, if you approach from the opposite direction then I can ensure that the police only do what we need them to do"

"Then it's settled" Princess interjected "Make it happen Double Dee" with that the transmission ended and it was Bubbles who asked the most obvious question.

"What's the firework display protocol?" Buttercup paused before answering, allowing herself a wince that had nothing to do with her injuries as she knew how the answer would clash with her sisters' sensibilities.

"Double Dee is going to create dozens, maybe hundreds of fake call outs for the police to respond to and at the same time he's gonna to interfere with camera and other monitoring equipment across the city. Part of the plan involves getting the officers we know or suspect are crooked as far away from Le Quack as we can, then getting the few good cops that we can rely on on our route; what we're gonna do is fly low when we get into the city and give the police a route to follow. We fly ahead, catch Le Quack red-handed with all the evidence and then the police can grab him"

"Which is what we planned to do last night" Princess added with a huff.

"That's" Blossom paused for a moment, mulling the plan over in her mind and considering the hellish circumstances her sister and the dubious souls she surrounded herself with had found themselves in for long enough to realise that it was simply the best and most practical course of action available to them "It'll have to work. Lead the way Buttercup"

"This is all about helping people right, that's what matters" Bubbles added, trying her best to sound bright and cheery whilst Boomer decided that he would have to be the one to voice a concern that must have been passing through all of their minds.

"What happens if the people we're fighting have weapons like the one that shot Buttercup?" it was Buttercup who answered, through gritted teeth and with eyes hard and blazing.

"Then don't get shot"

Located in what had, decades prior been had been an industrious and productive part of Citiesville; where it had been choked by smoke and fumes from factories and steel-mills that had once paid enviable wages was what was locally known as the Down-Town Theatre but had in actuality, prior to being closed and seized by a criminal enterprise been called the 'Ducks and Drakes Theatre Hall'

That name was no small part of why the avian crime boss named Le Quack had wanted to add it to his empire.

The theatre hall had officially been closed and left standing vacant for several years now, since even before Le Quack had made his official debut into the criminal underworld of his current home; the gangster having using money, power and influence accrued across several states through prior misdeeds to health inspectors and tax auditors destroy the perfectly legitimate business so that he might make it the centrepiece of his operations within the bleak and wretched cesspool that was Townsville; its' atrium slowly becoming almost as squalid as graffiti-ridden and smoke stained exterior as the once proud establishment became nothing more than a glorified safe-house, drug den, brothel or whatever else might be required of it; its' reputation providing a thin veneer for all manor of crime and vices.

In Citiesville this only made the theatre a more fitting part of its' surroundings.

Le Quack himself however had secluded himself away in his office, a place from which he could overlook his expansive empire; one which whilst certainly bloody and rotten he liked to believe was slightly more refined and sophisticated than his contemporaries, a place in which he could be surrounded by all the gaudy and ostentatious finery that decades of crime had allowed him to amass without having to be troubled with the day to day operation and uncouth, undignified realities that he deemed to be beneath him except for on those occasions where problems that stood apart from the natural order of things presented themselves.

One such problem had clearly presented itself at that moment.

"Boss" a burly yet squat slab of a man grunted as they entered the office with a knock, correcting themselves a moment later "Monsieur, we got a problem-"

"Your presence alone would tell me that" Le Quack replied scornfully, a cloud of blue-grey smoke issuing from a bill filled with human teeth; the avian mobster stubbing out their cigar before continuing "I find myself surrounded by incompetence, first la petite fille and her friends yesterday and now more; what? What is it? Qu'est que c'est?"

"It's uh" the hulking brute gulped audibly "It's the girl, Boss we just got word from our guy at air traffic control….she's not dead-"

"And she is returning to Citiesville, can we not have her stopped?" Le Quack demanded "What is the point in paying off la police if they won't act"

She's not alone….it looks like her sisters are with her" the thug answered, beginning to tremble at the thought of the same thing that had stayed the hands of their corrupted officials "We can't try and fight Major Glory"

"Ah, a family feud, a vendetta, blood and a battle to the end" Le Quack chuckled, waving their oddly formed wings around to encompass the theatre "We are at least in a fitting place for it no?"

"I don't get it-"

"Of course not" Le Quack spat, annoyed by his cronies' lack of proper vision and appreciation for the artistry of crime.

"You want us to fight the Powerpuff Girls? All three of them" the slab asked, begging to sweat and clearly nervous to the point where defecting and abandoning his employer had crossed his mind "Though new shells that you brought in from the science guy….The boys don't have them all unloaded yet, a lot of 'em aren't the same calibre as the guns we've got on us; we're gonna be sitting-"

"Consider your next words very carefully" Le Quack visibly bristled, calming himself and forcibly affecting his smooth and cold facade once again "The heroes will have their confrontation dramatique, though I will unfortunately not be here to see it and if your people can work efficiently then neither will they….The bullets were not the only boule brilliante that we brought from the docks yesterday"

"You want us to unpack it?" the man asked, his nerves abating for a moment and then being renewed albeit with a new flavour as he considered exactly what was being discussed and the amount of time in prison that could follow the actions in question; this was beyond organised crime and veering into super-villainy.

"But of course" Le Quack laughed "Fetch my limousine and then….prepare the silverware"

The plan that the newly reunited Powerpuff Girls and their allies, both those present with them and that moment and those working remotely to ensure the situation remained under control was working largely as expected; something which those who had lived in Citiesville for some time had accepted whilst Blossom, Bubbles and Boomer could not help but find it disturbing.

The five airborne heroes had soared around the outer edge of the city limits and above the same docks that Buttercup had been wounded in only a day prior, contrails of light diffusing in the fog that hung over the sea before making their way deeper into the city at dizzying speeds; dipping low enough to almost touch the roofs of the vehicles they skimmed over. It was with a heavy heart and sinking feeling that Blossom realised that whilst the streets were still scattered with small crowds of people even at this later hour very few of them were reacting to her presence with the sense of wonder and relief that she was used to and instead hastened away from the immediate area, leaving the redhead to wonder exactly what had happened in this city to earn such a response. Sirens had quickly filled the air as the police officers deemed honest, or at the very least trustworthy enough caught sight of the trail that was being left and began to follow; the noise quickly fell away into the distance however as Buttercup raced ahead with Blossom, Bubbles, Boomer and Princess close behind until finally she soared high into the air again and glared down at the abandoned theatre that Le Quack had made his base.

"This is the place" she growled, eyes narrowing as the air began to crackled around her with acid green lightning as rage she struggled to contain bubbled to the surface.

"Remember when the bad guys had real lairs, y'know really had some class about it?" Boomer noted idly, undercutting the moment somewhat as he drifted idly in the air.

"We live in one of those lairs" Bubbles pointed out with a small smile despite the situation "Besides Fuzzy Lumpkins lived in a wooden shack"

"The whole business went downhill the moment I was disowned" Princess sneered, Blossom shooting her a withering glare only to realise a moment later that the armoured woman was apparently joking and she was the only one to not take the comment as such; deciding that this was neither the time nor the place for joke she harrumphed loudly and focused her attention on the theatre below.

"We know Le Quack is in there and the police are already on the way, we need to corner him and any of his people; we don't want a prolonged firefight that puts everyone nearby at risk"

"Agreed, we need to use the element of surprise as much as we still can" Princess nodded, images flashing across the tinted visor which made up much of her armours' faceplate before she turned to Buttercup "Structurally sound, it won't collapse"

"Well then" the green-eyed girl shifted her weight in mid-air and readied her left fist, right arm still bound in a cast and sling; hampering her ability to fight but hopefully not enough to matter and then her eyes seemed to shine as a savage smile split her face "No point in wasting a perfectly good front door….let's go in through the roof"

With that she attacked.

Buttercup rocketed downwards feet first and stone, wood, pipework and insulation was ripped apart around her as she exploded into the theatre; cleaving a path of destruction from its' roof directly down into its' atrium where amidst the squalor, filth and faded glory that defined the place she caught sight of a single shipping container that had been moved close to the centre of the open space with a forklift truck nearby, too small to move the rusted mass of steel itself but perhaps intended to unload whatever lay within; the driver of the forklift had abandoned it however and it was reasonable to assume that they were one of the dozen or so armed men now training their weapons on Buttercup herself.

"Shit!" she cursed through clenched teeth before launching herself into action, the flurry of action and familiar pounding in her skull as her fury reached a fever pitch being offset by a new sense of caution; the knowledge that she could be harmed forcing her to attack less directly than she otherwise would have. Buttercup's eyes erupted into twin jets of vivid green flames as the shadows around her warped and deepened to consume her form entirely, in her less corporeal and more manoeuvrable state she was the stuff of nightmares; slithering across the ground and darting around the edge of her enemies' field of vision like a midnight black comet, hailstorms of bullets and panicked yells and screams from gangsters who could not touch her in her wake until finally she pounced, her body becoming a solid and physical mass once again as she appeared beside the forklift truck and kicked an anthropomorphic dog wearing a pinstripe suit who had been using it as cover square in the chest, sending them hurtling back with a yelp of pain and an audible crack which Buttercup ignored in favour of grasping the forklift truck itself by its' roll-cage; grunting exertion as she hefted the vehicle with one hand and promptly hurled it into the crowd of mobsters with a thundering crash.

Leaving them scattered and disoriented at the exact moment help arrived.

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND GET ON THE GROUND!" Bubbles emerged in the doorway, kicking the door of the theatre itself across the atrium at a frightening and almost certainly lethal velocity before giving the command with a superhuman yellow that made the air itself tremble, forcing several of the thugs to comply as their eardrums burst; sending them toppling to the floor clutching their skulls in pain with their weapons clattering around them.

There were those amongst the gangsters who remained standing however and each of them levelled their weapons, ranging from simple pistols and shotguns to high calibre machine guns and even a laser weapon of some kind and the threat of the blonde woman being hurt in the same way Buttercup had spurred her allies onwards; Boomer flying into the midst of the mob with a yell, placing himself protectively in front of Bubbles before tackling the largest of their number and sending them hurtling into the wall which cracked under the force of the impact, a bloody smear marking the point where the gangsters' head had struck it.

Princess remained airborne and attacked with cold, calculating precision that did little to mask the incandescent fury etched into her features, descending through the whole that Buttercup had torn into the roof and deploying the wrist-mounted pulse weapons of her armour to unleash a barrage of attacks which rippled through the air to blast chunks away from the walls and floor and sent the gangsters fleeing and scrambling for any cover they could find.

Blossom, despite her distrust and distaste for Buttercup's partner saw the success of her attack and quickly realised that it presented an opportunity for to end this entire fiasco quickly and with as little violence as possible; with that in mind she streaked around the atrium of the theatre in a blur of neon pink with bullets whizzing by her, perilously close but never striking her until she snatched each and every weapon from the hands of each and every gangster and piled them all close to the doorway that Bubbles had destroyed. With the sound of echoing gunshots finally fading away she hovered several feet above the confiscated weapons and glared at the beaten and battered rabble before her; in trying to become a symbol of peace, hope and unity Blossom had also learned that it was possible and some cases justifiable to use her mere presence as a threat in service of the greater good, something Dex-Star excelled at but she felt she could make a passable attempt of; with that in mind Blossom allowed blazing fuchsia light to coalesce and gather in her eyes before directing her gaze downwards and destroying the guns entirely in an explosion of ignited ammunition.

"You're all under arrest" Blossom's voice was icy and commanding, eyes still glowing as she glared at the criminals she had apprehended "Now, who's your supplier"

"Fuck you, we're not talking" one of the gangsters, face obscured by a slanted forward fedora sneered, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground; the sheer obstinate willpower catching Blossom by surprise though Buttercup, more experienced with the denizens of Citiesville's criminal underworld was not so easily impressed stepped forward; strained but determined and prepared to tell Princess to search the premises for Le Quack and everything that could possibly be considered evidence.

Then two things happened almost at once.

Firstly the sound of screeching tires filled the air and Princess launched herself into the air again, through the hole in the roof in search of a vantage point before calling down to Buttercup.

"It's Le Quack! The bastard's getting away!" Buttercup had only the briefest moment to comprehend the information before the sound of a roaring engine began to fade away into the distance and a fraction of a second before she could call up to Princess to wait, that it might be a trap or a decoy and that they could have their quarry found again it became clear that it was too late; Princess streaked off through the night sky to give chase and bring Le Quack to justice.

Then a mechanical clanking came from within the shipping container, following by the whirring whine of several power supplies and weapons systems coming online before finally the rusted steel cuboid exploded outwards with a deafening shriek of tearing steel that sent jagged debris ripping outwards in all directions, lacerating more than one of the captured gangsters in a grisly splash of crimson. Boomer flew into the fray blindly only to be seized and flung backwards, a blur of navy blue and a dull boom announcing that he had been thrown through a wall before the thing responsible finally stepped out of the dust and revealed itself.

The robot was roughly a dozen feet tall, a black spheroid body with deep scarlet lights flashing across its' surface supported by six segmented legs of bright silver fitted in a loose ring around its' lower half, each limb ending in a four pronged claw whilst in place of arms it four more limbs; the uppermost two being attached towards the top of sphere, a pair of sturdy armatures lined with cables and pistons which led to a weapons array, each arm boasting a triple barrelled cannon that appeared to integrate some manner of alien technology and each barrel being larger than any of the Powerpuff Girls. The final pair of limbs were affixed to the machine by some form of suction and appeared capable of moving freely across its' spheroid surface, the limbs were massive, silver, segmented and serpentine whips that ended in more four pronged claws, though these crackled with electricity.

This was Le Quack's silverware and Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup realised that any attempt to save the day would have to begin with destroying the machine.

Le Quack allowed himself a hearty but carefully measured and refined chuckle as he sipped a glass of wine from the comfort of his private, luxury and extensively modified limousine.

"Ah magnifique, magnifique" he said more to himself than the driver who remained silent and dutifully focused on the road ahead "A battle against le Powerpuff Girls, truly a fitting final act in the story of my theatre….A shame to close the final curtain perhaps but it was beginning to grow stale no? Perhaps an encore elsewhere is for the best, new opportunities, new inspiration….Pah! What would you know, you are but an oaf and a chauffeur?"

"Oui monsieur" the driver answered, allowing only the faintest hints of exasperation to creep into his voice. It was hard to deny that the avian mobsters' smug and self-satisfied confidence, arrogant and insufferable as it was to witness was a well-earned thing; Le Quack had after all established a network of contacts and connections that weaved its' through both legitimate and criminal circles across the entire country and even reached out into Europe and that vast web of associates and underlings had given him the political, social and raw, simple financial capital to abandon a single city or even an entire state and simply start over again if needs be.

However those same connections had provided him with boons which meant that he may not have to.

Chief amongst these boons were the additions to his organisations' sizeable armoury, which he had paid a fortune capable of bending the government of at least one small country to his will for. Le Quack had been approached by a shadowy representative acting on behalf of an individual who had wished to remain private for obvious reasons, a man, woman or perhaps otherwise inclined being who had supplied not only the robotic war-machine that he had come to call 'The Silverware' but also the chemically laced ammunition purported to be able to stop even the mightiest of heroes; that the bullets were still in their experimental and testing phase had been made clear to him throughout the negotiation period and the Mafioso understood that he had only himself to blame for his own expectations and perhaps his own misjudged aim when shooting Buttercup Utonium but the fact that they had failed to deliver exactly as expected still rankled.

Another boon, from another source and almost pedestrian by comparison was his limousine; a vehicle that had once belonged to a secret agent working for a now-defunct government agency with the acronym S.P.O.O.N; stolen at the time of that agents' death and auctioned off by members of a ludicrously wealthy crime syndicate. The limousine boasted an array of features which included but were by no means limited to an engine that allowed it to move at truly terrifying speeds, even despite the gratuitous amount of armour plating that was rumoured to be sourced from the remains of a salvaged mecha that weighed it down; its' interior, besides being lavish and comfortable was also capable of acting as a mobile base of operations and featured its' own entirely self contained environment which could be maintained for quite some time and allow the limousine to act as an escape pod of sorts.

Which made the fact that the driver suddenly veered and weaved more than a little confusing.

"Qu'est que c'est?" Le Quack demanded, sputtering in indignant anger and hurling their glass as they wiped away red wine that had been splashed across their clothes and stained their snowy white plumage.

"We're being followed boss! One of the heroes!" the reply from his driver caused Le Quack to grind his disturbingly human teeth and glance out of an armoured window, just in time to see a rippling pulse of amethyst light rip into the ground and reveal that it was Princess Morbucks rather than a real Powerpuff Girl who had given chase; the scarlet haired young woman flying above and behind them, the wings of her battle-suit already damaged from some previous confrontation and her arms thrust forward as she unleashed successive blasts from her wrist mounted weapons.

"How dare this child of the bourgeois attack moi? Keep us steady!" Le Quack raged before unbuckling their seatbelt and reaching into one of the many compartments hidden within the vehicles' interior and producing a powerful laser blaster, whilst it would not be able to fire the chemical rounds intended to stop the Powerpuff Girls against this child in a costume the avian crime boss doubted it would matter much.

"Au revoir!" he declared loudly and with cruel eagerness as he clambered out of the sunroof and took aim, his beak twisting into the closest thing to a smirk it was capable of only to falter a second later as Princess revealed that her costume had more weapons available to it than those that had been deployed thus-far, face hidden but no doubt wearing a smirk of her own as she deployed a pair of small rockets from her flight pack, located behind her wings that came shrieking through the air with an ominous beeping sound that steadily crescendoed.

Seeing the incoming assault Le Quack threw themselves back into the limousine, his weapon being dropped and forgotten yet no sooner was the hasty sigh of relief given than it was proven premature; Princess had not aimed for the armoured car and had instead simply blown the ground beneath it to smithereens.

The limousine sailed through the air and landed on its' roof with a deafening crunch, sparks jetting from the asphalt as it skidded across the road before coming to halt. Le Quack was a bloodied mess, hollow bones almost certainly broken and mangled after being flung around the interior whilst his driver hung upside down and unresponsive in his seat; the situation was unmistakably dire yet still the criminal tried to convince himself that it would not do to panic, the road might have been destroyed but the limousine itself was impossible to breach.

Such hopeful thoughts left Le Quack's mind in an instant as the door was cut away with a scream of tortured metal.

"HOW?" he demanded, even as he was hauled out of the vehicle "THIS LIMO WAS MADE FROM-"

"From old mecha parts, yeah I know" Princess sneered, removing her armoured mask so that the pure, unfettered hatred on her face could be seen "Guess whose family owns the company that salvaged that mecha and has access to all the tools to cut through that armour"

"I surrender!" Le Quack cried, realising immediately that they were entirely out of options.

"Of course you do, you're French" Princess's quip was delivered with none of the teasing edge that one would expect from the average hero, instead she simply held Le Quack aloft with her left hand and proceeded to deliver punch after punch to his bill with all the super-powered strength that her battle-suit afforded her.

"You 'ave not heard the last of Le Quack" the duck slurred the words out, spitting out teeth whilst blood oozed from fissures running along the length of a cracked and crumpled beak whilst Princess tossed them to the ground and stood over them, golden armour of her knuckles smeared and spattered with red whilst her breathing came in ragged and laboured gasps as she tried to bring herself back from the edge of giving in to every murderous impulse she had.

"Who made the weapons!" she demanded, words rising to a scream "Who's your supplier?"

"Even if I knew their name I would never tell" Le Quack, in an impressive display of fortitude managed to laugh "I 'av lawyers, you 'av nothing, nothing at all and I will make you rue the day that you-"

Princess's hand close around his throat.

"I believe you" she was beyond anger now, beyond hate and her voice was filled with an eerie calm "So let's have a little French revolution" with those words her wrist mounted weapon began to power up with a whine and Le Quack let out a strangled whimper as he realised that his captor was no hero and that she fully intended to decapitate him where he stood.

Respite came in the from of a shadow looming over Princess, a figure panting heavily and stepping out of the darkness to gently place a hand on her shoulder; Le Quack quickly recognising the towering man as the same brute who had charged into the meeting at the docks.

"No" Ed said simply "Not like this….Police are coming, ones he hasn't paid off. Let them take him"

"He shot Buttercup" Princess's grip tightened, tears welling up in her eyes "She could have died, he pays for that!"

"He will" Ed's grip tightened, gently but firmly trying to prise her hand away from the mobsters' neck "But if you kill him here the police are gonna try and take you in….is this a road you wanna go down and who you wanna be, after everything you've done to be someone else?" Princess let out several shallow, uncertain breaths before slowly releasing her grasp, the sound of sirens steadily nearing their location and the knowledge that Ed was correct being the final push she needed.

"You're a coward" Le Quack sneered "A coward and-"

Ed's punch to the temple knocked him unconscious.

"Y'know what makes this guy even worse….he's not even French, he's French-Canadian" Ed snorted and with that he and Princess slipped back into the shadows that they operated from, retreating with the understanding that Buttercup would join them soon.

"Okay, I'm willing to admit we're out of practice" Blossom groaned, dragging herself to her feet and clutching at ribs that had possibly been bruised when the scuttling robot had seized her ankle in one of its' lashing tendril-claws and slammed her into the ground with enough force to crack stone.

This latest blow was a perfect indicator for how the battle had progressed thus far.

The Powerpuff Girls, whilst being leagues above baseline humans in terms of strength and resilience were still not entirely invulnerable and whoever was responsible for the mechanical terror that they fought was a demented yet truly inspired master of their craft who had created something capable of not only keeping the sisters at bay but also forcing them onto the defensive.

"We need to stop this thing so the fire department can get in here!" Buttercup yelled over the sound of clanking joints and roaring fire "If this place has been used as a drug den then the wiring has probably been messed with and it could blow at any minute!"

"I'm open to suggestions!" Blossom called back, surveying the scene around her and realising just how out of hand things had gotten. The theatre was in ruin, walls and roof already collapsing in the wake of the robots' initial onslaught of attacks that had ignited the raging inferno spreading around them; whether the machine had been simply attempting to destroy evidence as pat of some pre-programmed safety protocol or it had attempted to use resulting explosions as a way to subdue the Powerpuff Girls was a mystery but the robot had sought out the various deposits of the ammunition filled with an anti-Chemical X poison and opened fire on it with explosive results. In light of this Boomer, stunned and winded by the initial attack had begun collecting the unconscious bodies of Le Quack's thugs and flying them out of the slowly collapsing building, taking them to the edge of the police cordon that had been set up where they would be loaded into ambulances whilst also being watched closely to prevent any attempts at escape.

With collateral damage limited the Powerpuff Girls had fought unrestrained but were still struggling to make any headway.

"GIGA DRILL BREAK!" Bubbles's yell announced her attack as she came flying down at the spheroid robot from above, giving into her habit of announcing her techniques as she began to spin at incredible speeds; the contrail of electric blue light she left behind her becoming a swirling vortex as she made to spear the machine vertically through its' centre. The Robot proved itself to be more than a match for this however and directed both of its' triple barrelled weapons upwards, unleashing six beams of pure manifest darkness into the blonde girl, robbing her a momentum and tearing a yell of pain from her as the two of them engaged in a battle of wills which ended shortly after when the machine swatted her aside with its' whipping tendrils, sending her crashing through several burning support beams that exploded in a shower of embers and falling rubble.

"BUBBLES!" Buttercup let out a panicked yell

"Stay back!" Blossom yelled before bursting forwards for another attack, she might not have been wearing the white costume and golden mask of her station but she was still Major Glory, inheritor of the mantle of greatest hero on the planet and she would not be beaten by the mechanical attack dog of a back-alley gangster with ideas above his station and it was that conviction that saw her weave and jink between a salvo of attacks, darkness that she believed might be antimatter ripping through the air dangerously close to her cheek until the robot decided to follow up with a two-pronged attack from its' tendrils.

Blossom had studied its' movements and judged its' timing.

"I don't think so" she delivered what was admittedly a poor quip as she thrust her arms out and caught the incoming claws, matching their power and gritting her teeth as she withstood the electrical charge they unleashed before taking a deep breath and exhaling a cloud freezing mist which engulfed the thrashing limbs until they were no longer responsive; the blinking red lights within the central orb flickered rapidly and angrily in what Blossom assumed was some sort of error message, she capitalised on the opening she had created by twisting and jerking violently until the tendrils finally gave way and were torn from the body in an eruption of shattering ice.

The machine simply refused to be beaten however and simply opened fire, blasting Blossom back into the wall of the burning theatre.

"BLOSS!" Buttercup yelled, earning herself the attention of the mangled but still functional robot and quickly realising that the lives of her siblings, Boomer and the police officers outside, along with any nearby civilians were in her hands.

And she only had one working arm.

The robot began to move, scuttling forwards on its' many legs and adjusting its' aim as it readied its' weapons and before she knew it Buttercup was in motion.

Time slowed to a crawl, conscious thought slipped away and instinct took over; her eyes blazed with acid green fire and she surged forwards with all of the speed and power she could muster, a crackling, volatile and frightening trail of neon green and writhing darkness that forked like lightning bolts trailing behind her as she began to oscillate between her physical and shadowy forms, between corporeal and ephemeral at dizzying speed until she reached the Robot.

Buttercup's previously ruined right arm reared back, almost of its' own accord and the cast that held it was shattered as she delivered a devastating punch as her body travelled through the entirety of the machine; ripping vital inner workings apart until she appeared behind it, the heavy thud of the thing collapsing to the ground confirming that the deed had been done as she swayed on her feet, cold sweat prickling at her brow despite the flames.

And then the pain set in.

"FUCK!" Buttercup sank to her knees, clutching at her right arm which was now riddled with deep purple, almost black marks beneath the skin where something internal had been damaged. Through the sickening, incomprehensible nausea that crashed over her in dizzying waves as she keeled over onto the scorched ground she was almost entirely unable to process the sound of Bubbles tearing her way free of the rubble she had been buried under, the blonde girls' rage petering out and being replaced by panic as she saw her already wounded sister in such a pitiful state.

"Blossom! Blossom get up Buttercup needs help!" the words dragged Buttercup back from the brink of incoherence and forced her to pay attention to her surroundings despite the haze of pain she was in.

"I'm okay….I'm okay" she forced out.

"Bubbles, take her home, take her to Dad-"

"No" Buttercup ground out through clenched teeth "Le Quack's people know we're here now, they'll have people watching the sky….Get me to the club, I'll lead the way….call Princess or Eddy, they can get us a ride-"

"Okay, okay that makes sense" Bubbles nodded frantically as she slung her sisters' uninjured arm around her shoulder and helped her to her feet "Boomer can deal with the police, standard hero routine and keep the camera away….Blossom what are you doing?"

"Taking this robot for examination" the redhead answered bluntly, Buttercup hearing a groaning creak of metal along with the answer.

"Is now really the time-"

"Yes!" there was a flash of vivid pink and a sudden drop in temperature ad Bubble's question was interrupted "Somebody nearly killed Buttercup! Someone is actively trying to kill us! I want answers and I want them now, whoever made this robot is the same person who made those bullets and Dexter and I are going to find out who they are….I need to be doing something about this Bubbles!"

"Okay I understand" the anger and annoyance vanished from the blondes' voice and she watched as her sister, the traditional leader of their team hefted the defeated robot overhead and took to the sky, ripping through the still burning building as she surged directly upwards towards the stars. After a moment the heat of the flames still raging around them was enough to prompt Bubbles to act.

"You're sure you don't want Dad to look at this?"

"I don't think anything's broken, I'll get it looked at while we're at the club" Buttercup answered, still wincing at every movement until her face relaxed into a weary smirk as she added "Y'know there's gotta be a better way of organising a family reunion….I think I'll come to the next barbecue Dad plans"

Bubbles couldn't help but giggle at that despite herself.

The sun was slowly beginning to rise over the smog-choked horizon of Citiesville, the baking yet still grey and pallid air already filled with the dull ambience of countless commuters going about their business, the occasional siren that pierced the ubiquitous sounds of traffic and city life being an expected thing and nothing at all to do with the events of the previous evening; the grim and resolute way with which life continued on giving the impression that nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all.

Things within the Editorial Suite were a slightly different matter.

As much as the nightclub above it was Eddy's domain and the charismatic swindlers' personality seemed to ooze from every surface as though the entire venue were an extension of manifestation f his psyche the basement lair which served as the base of operations for Citiesville's vigilante heroes was made in Double Dee's image. Harsh, clinical lights glared overhead, reflecting from white tiling that lined every surface and was kept in an immaculate condition whilst various machines, workbenches, storage facilities of all kinds and other more esoteric and difficult to describe things filled the space along with for some strange reason an elaborate ant farm that had been built into one of the walls and also several plants of a dubious nature which had often been touted as the real reason for the excessively bright lighting. Despite the cramped and chaotic nature of the place, where things were in a constant state of flux and motion due to the manic mind that oversaw them the workshop and laboratory were somehow kept in an impossibly neat order, with every item being labelled and having a clearly designated place assigned to it.

Edward, or Double Dee as he was almost always called was as much of an example of organised chaos as his workspace.

Whilst the government sponsored and secretive program to create super-powered individuals through the use of chemicals administered through jawbreaker candy had shown clear and undeniable results on Ed, namely his monstrous strength, resilience and constitution the matter was less certain in Double Dee's case; it could have been that the exposure to such chemicals had altered his mind in some way or it could have simply been that he was skittish, manic, obsessive and almost unnaturally intelligent by nature, capable of building or repairing almost anything with whatever he happened to have at his disposal.

His skin was sickly due to the lack of natural light despite what he provided to the questionable crops he was growing and his build was wiry, slender to the point of almost unhealthy emaciation and made more noticeable by clothing that was a little too large; currently sporting a pair of baggy jeans which were held up by several tool belts which were strained by the weight of the equipment they carried, an equally oversized orange jersey which in turn had another harness filled with tools and equipment slung over it and wrapping around his torso whilst over that he wore a lab-coat and black surgical gloves. A loose fitting and sagging black beanie hat adorned his head, worn at an angle and hiding his hair from view though the tips of matted black locks could be seen peeking from beneath it at the rear of his skull and his eyes, wide and forever looking less focused than the man truly was were currently covered by a pair of thick goggles which featured dozens of ceaselessly shifting and rotating lenses with which he peered at Buttercup Utonium.

"And we're done….or as done as we can be, until I have more results and data to work from; then I can refine the process and modify-"

"Thanks Double Dee" Buttercup interjected, stopping his train of thought before it could build any real momentum as she looked down at her right arm to examine both her own injuries and her friends' handiwork. Her final attack against the robot had seemingly compounded her existing injuries, meaning that whilst her inhuman strength remained, along with most of her other powers her healing and resilience had been reduced in a localised area and whilst it was likely that she would fully recover there was no telling how long the process would take. Fortunately her bones had remained unbroken, those that had been damaged by Le Quack's bullets already beginning to knit themselves together though that was not to say that she was unmarked and instead she bore several black marks where her bruises had internal bleeding had seemed to coalesce in what might have been some oddity of her shadowy form; as a result of this the sleeve tattoo of her right forearm was now shot through with forks of black lightning and Buttercup was unsure if the liked the effect or not. Currently much of the odd pseudo-scarring was hidden from view by a heavy yet flexible brace that Edd had constructed to replace her cast; it was held in place by immense amounts of pressure applied with incredible delicacy and the limb was restricted yet not totally immobile and she had been promised that it would hold her healing bones and tissue together without the need for any form of invasive surgery.

"Can I fight with this thing on?" she asked

"I….well I certainly wouldn't advise it" Double Dee looked miffed at the idea "But I doubt that you'd take that advice, it can most likely take a few hits before it needs to be rebuilt, and likely so will your arm at that point….I suppose you want that to be the first improvement I make?" Buttercup nodded but before she could voice her agreement or her thanks the sound of several pairs of feet descending the hidden staircase which led to the Editorial Suite, the identities of the new arrivals being obvious but still confirmed by the sound of Eddy's voice.

"You look like shit….you're okay though right?"

"And you look like the larval stage of Guy Fiery" Buttercup snorted "But yeah, thanks" Ed and Princess both stifled fits on incredibly tired laughter at the comment and the sound was enough to steer the attention of Double Dee in their direction, the manic scientists' entire demeanour becoming frantic as he flailed his arms in a shooing gesture upon seeing the dried blood that stained Princess's damaged armour

"Contaminants! Contaminants everywhere! I insist that you-"

"Double Dee" Eddy cut him off "Come on, we're taking Ed to get breakfast….I'll help you clean up afterwards. It's not important right now" Edd looked as though he would very much like to debate that assertion for a moment before his lens-covered eyes darted between Princess and Buttercup several times and he understood; he shed his lab-coat, gloves and heavy goggle before trudging up the staircase and leaving with the two men who had been his lifelong friends.

Leaving Buttercup and Princess with some privacy, which the scarlet haired young woman used to rush across the workspace and throw her arms around her partner, burying her face in the crook of her neck.

"Not even a day" she chided her shakily "I said don't worry me like this again and not even a day later"

"You should see the other guy….well 'bot" Buttercup chuckled, leaning into Princess in sheer exhaustion "Besides it had to be done, Blossom and Bubbles were getting thrown around; someone had to shut it done"

"Buttercup, she's the strongest fighter-"

"Not the jingle, we agreed to never talk about that damn jingle" Buttercup grumbled, the teasing an old habit between the two of them. After a moment the green eyed girl pulled back and examined Princess, taking in the sight of her own blood dried on golden armour with fresh smears and spatters joining it and at that moment she realised that her duty was not entirely done.

"Did you get him?" she asked cautiously "Le Quack, is he-"

"He's in custody, injured but in custody….We made sure that the cops did their job instead of letting him go" Princess's voice was hollow "He almost wasn't….I was gonna kill him"

"That was something we prepared for" Buttercup breathed out "We knew we might have to-"

"I wasn't gonna do it 'cos I had to" Princess's quickly voice filled with a bitter rage and self-loathing "I was gonna do it because right there I hated him and I could, being a hero had nothing to do with it….Ed stopped me but damn it Buttercup am I everything your sister says about me?"

"No" the answer came quickly "No….I don't believe that-"

"But I-"

"You were going to solve a problem directly and at the source, the same way you always do" Buttercup let out a sigh "I'm not gonna say I agree with why you wanted to do it, or that I would have been happy about it but….look Blossom's heart is in the right place but she has to believe in a system, she needs the world to have rules and order; for that to work then sometimes people like us have to do things that she doesn't want to think about it"

"So you don't think I'm slowly luring you over to the dark side?" Princess managed a weak, watery laugh.

"Nah….We're just a different kind of hero" Buttercup yawned.

"Right now we're the kind of heroes who need eight hours of sleep" Princess retorted and Buttercup felt that urge to lean forward and kiss her on the lips there and then was entirely justified.

After leaving Buttercup at the base her vigilante team operated from, promising to herself that she would forget the plants that she had seen and never mention their existence to either Blossom or their father Bubbles had returned to the now completely collapsed remains of the theatre in down-town Citiesville where Boomer was still aiding the corrupt police and thankfully more honest fire department in their efforts to quell the fire and keep people safe. Once the situation had been brought under control and after the pair of heroes had dealt with both the media presence by using their public personas, sunny dispositions and well-documented quirkiness and the police who had seemed more interested in trying to find some legal technicality that they could use to fine or detain the pair for by simply stating flatly that they would not be cooperating any further and any attempts to force the issue would lead to a media circus that would attract more attention than those officers wanted both Bubbles and Boomer had finally been able to leave and return to Townsville.

The sun had already risen fully, bathing them in warmth and light that was for the moment unwelcome by the time twin streaks of blue light descended upon the domed lair that had once belonged to Mojo Jojo.

"I need sleep, I need sleep so bad" Bubbles mumbled, words barely coherent as she stumbled; weary and half-dazed into the living room where the blanket fort that she and Boomer had shared what felt like an age ago still stood. As she spoke she began the process of shimmying out of clothes that been ripped, stained and frayed beyond any practical hope of salvaging during the fight against the robot, Boomer first blushing and turning away regardless of how many time they had seen one another in various states of undress then catching sight of the various bruises mottling most of her back.

"You need me to get something for those?" he murmured as he drew close, planting a tender kiss on the top of one shoulder; he knew that she would heal completely within a few short hours but the sight of her so badly hurt was still an unpleasant one.

"Just sleep" Bubbles mumbled as she leaned back into him.

"Breakfast?"

"Nope, sleep"

"Should we call your Dad and let him know everyone's okay?"

"I'll text him….then sleep" Bubbles pouted, despite the obvious urge to smile.

"What if we're needed for-"

"Text Elmer, get him to cover patrols" Bubbles turned and swatted Boomer's chest playfully "Then sleep….baka"

"Well….Since the blankets are already here" Boomer gave a sly grin before lifting Bubbles up by the waist and gently carrying over to the mass of pillows and covers, the sound her giggling filling the room until it was silenced when she pulled her nemesis-turned-boyfriend down to the ground for a slow, yet intense kiss which ended with Boomer's shirt, torn in several places after been thrown through a wall being discarded and Bubbles on top of him; fingers lacing through his as she straddled his waist and leaned over his face and chest

"Hey" she breathed out

"Hey" Boomer whispered before pulling her down onto his chest and kissing the top of her head "Sleep….baka"

"Jerk" Bubbles grumbled, pouting playfully as she nuzzled into him; making herself comfortable as Boomer, still half-dressed began fumbling for his phone. Finding that the device was still thankfully undamaged he unlocked it and prepared to send text messages to the relevant people only to find that Sandra Utonium had already messaged him first, the message containing a link to a news article that had been breaking at the time which he promptly opened and scanned before gently nudging Bubbles to get her attention.

"Oh of course they tell it in a way that makes it looks like she did all the work" the blonde teen scoffed, there was no malice to her words however the image of Blossom in burned and ruined civilian garb, signature bangs of her auburn hair partially obscuring her face whilst the rest of her mane trailed dramatically behind her in the absence of her new costumes' mask, looking undeniably heroic all whilst holding the mangled remains of a defeated robot overhead was undeniably galling when the story attached to it attempted to tell a tale of Major Glory coming to the aid of Citiesville in its' time of need even outside of her professional hero role, all without mentioning Bubbles and Boomer; though the omissions of vigilantes such as Buttercup was understandable, if not appreciated.

"Once again the day is saved, thanks to…." Boomer gestured expectantly "Come on they used to write these headlines three times a week, they know the catchphrase"

"Clickbait trash" Bubbles gave an amused yet biting chuckle that sounded remarkably like Buttercup before pausing and considering for a moment "It's fine, it is. I don't do this for the sponsorships or the praise"

"I know you don't" Boomer nodded, shifting his wait and hugging her a little closer to him "But what happens now….This isn't our usual thing?"

"I don't know" Bubbles admitted "I guess Blossom really is still the leader, we have to wait until she finds something that tells us who it is that's trying to hurt us….In the meantime we keep Townsville safe; but first we sleep"

"Definitely sleep" Boomer nodded as he pulled more covers over the two of them; deciding that after the weekend they had endured they were more than entitled to eight uninterrupted hours of sleep and several hours and relaxing and lovemaking after that.

Whether that happened or not was another matter entirely.

Author's Notes:

Well I had the first three chapters of this story planned out and now they're here; this is the point where I decide if I want to carry it on or not, although updates will slow down as I have to plan further ahead.
Also just a heads up, I have this weeks chapter of my RWBY story ready to go but my writing schedule might be off-kilter for a few weeks….I don't wanna get too personal in here but I lost my Grandad over the weekend so things are a bit of a mess.

But anyway, let's summarise:
Three Powerpuff Girls, Princes and Boomer….out here looking like a Power Rangers team up.
Blossom really does just fall into that leader role naturally but the fact she's just putting herself in charge after three years like it's default settings is definitely grounds for people to be annoyed at her.
The talk about campaign contributions….A little too real?
"God I hope that's a figure of speech"….They're not the Punisher, closer to Red Hood but even he's more extreme.
Hey look Double Dee is an actual character now.
Of course the Citiesville crew have a plan to make sure that the only officers anywhere near crimes they call in are ones that aren't bought by the mob….not necessarily good, just not bought by the mob.
I literally looked for the names of plays that had duck in them and was disappointed by what I found.
Ever been in a trap house? I have, anywhere that gets used as a base for organised crime invariably becomes some degree of shithole.
Le Quack being such a prick has been a pleasure to write.
The line about sitting ducks made me giggle to myself while I was writing it and I'm not sorry.
The Le Quack line I always remember is him asking "Where is the silverware" when robbing Muriel, so now his robot is called the Silverware.
So the police are roughly where they need to be and largely out of the way for this.
Le Quack put a few holes in Buttercup's arm and shoulder, so she's putting a hole in his house.
Also yeah, she could have just ploughed through that entire crowd but risking another shooting is just silly.
I could have made the individual fight scenes last longer but honestly they did what they needed to.
Dexter is the Batman analogy of this series….Of course he's done the whole emerging from the shadows thing before and Blossom picked it up.
Of course he had a getaway car scheduled for the most dramatic opportunity.
And now we have the Silverware, I based it very loosely on the robot from the Incredibles.
…..Yeah I did Boomer dirty but someone had to get manhandled to show that the robot is a threat and getting him out of the way made it a Powerpuff Girls only event.
So Le Quack never actually knew who his new toys were from, the plot thickens.
Repurposed Mecha chassis, it's just something I like the sound of so it might be my go to for cool sounding sci-fi metal.
Also….S.P.O.O.N isn't from the shows, it's just me parodying S.H. .D
Come on, we can't have a mobster without a little car chase.
Oh course Princess has missiles.
Let's be real about it, Princess got some really good lines here; all the way from the mic drop about whose family makes the tools for cutting up mecha right through to the French Revolution line.
A nice save from Ed, I'm not opposed to letting my heroes finish off a villain but not in this instance.
The French-Canadian line made me laugh out loud the moment I thought of it.
Oh the amount of training Blossom is gonna try and insist on after this is in unreal.
Anywhere that's been used as any kind of drug den has got faulty electrics where they've tapped into the mains.
Boomer got the grunts out of the way, meaning nobody is getting trampled by the robot, caught in crossfires or crushed by falling rubble.
Yes Bubble's anime references will continue to be a thing and I even have some planned out for future chapters.
Blossom really does have some issues with pride and ego bordering on arrogance they way I write her….oddly enough she's more like a younger Princess Morbucks in some ways than she'd like to admit.
Shout-out to Buttercup unlocking a new special move at a critical moment, if only we could actually learn skills like that.
Now the swearing in my writing is nowhere near as gratuitous as it is in my day to day vocabulary, but that's a fair time to scream fuck.
Blossom needs to be doing something….I wrote that line a few hours after my Grandad passed, because I needed to be doing something; art mimics life.
Yes Double Dee absolutely has a hydroponic grow set up in his lab, because if anyone needs to smoke weed and chill it's him.
His outfit is basically the anime mad-scientist version of his actual outfit right down to the multiple belts….And he is absolutely he kind of white guy to have dreads.
The arm brace….what if I told you it's the beginning of a costume for Buttercup?
I'm sorry but Eddy does look like the larval stage of Guy Fieri.
I wanted Princess and Buttercup's scene to be poignant and not just like I was wagging a finger at the readers while I moralise at them and I hope I managed to do that.
Also yeah, Princess definitely brings up the jingle to tease Buttercup.
So Boomer and Bubbles stopped robberies and other crime on Friday night, fought Roach Coach Saturday afternoon, Saturday night all through to Sunday evening was family stuff and then Sunday night was flying to and from Citiesville and fighting Le Quack; they get to take Monday off.
The blues are cute as hell together and writing them is therapy.
Of course the press focused on Blossom.
I was actually gonna have a Blossom and Dexter scene at the end of this chapter but realistically it feels like it would work better as an opener for the next chapter to transition out of the intro and into the story proper.
Also yeah, let's be a real and get this unequivocally out in the open….Bubbles and Boomer fuck, they rail the shit out of each other on a regular basis and y'know what, good for them.

Thank you to OrcPaladinArthur, Weedy, TriggerBlaze345, Shadow88 and Lurkweed for their reviews on the last chapter.
First off, I actually thought two of you were the same person for a sec.
Yeah Princess and to some extent Boomer are always gonna be a sticking point for Blossom, she values order and things being sensible too much.
Blossom is the baseline, Boomer and Bubbles are maybe a little weaker than her, Buttercup is a little stronger but then Bubbles can go "Hardcore" and she's considerably stronger for as long as she can maintain that anger.
Personally so far Bubbles has been my favourite.
Sometimes you've gotta be civil just because it's a family event.
Y'know what, Boomer and Princess is an interaction I hadn't thought about and now I've gotta figure it out.
Oh yeah, I'll definitely need to work in an in-universe explanation for superhero physics; though fortunately I do have one in mind that will tie into plot points because let's be real….things like rescuing people at superspeed, the girls would actually break people in half.
Ed aka Jawbreaker is bulletproof in roughly the same way Luke Cage is bulletproof, bullets won't pierce his skin but he's gonna end up with bruises if you keep shooting at him; blasting him with an Anti-Tank cannon is gonna bust internal organs, which is why Buttercup had a bruised face in Chapter 01 after taking one for the team.

As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.