Chapter 12

A Media Sensation

"The nurse examining the child raised the alarm when she happened to find an injury that was quite significant to the Powerpuff Girl's genitals. A child protection team came to the hospital an hour later."

"The Professor is maintaining that what happened was an accident, but the injury sustained to his child was apparently so severe that it required her to go through a surgery just to repair it..." The news woman on the TV was reporting to the public with bland, neutral tones.

Even if her tone was flat, the information she was sharing was not.

Deep in the bowels of the Townsville Dump, five green-skinned gangsters gaped at the TV they had managed to scavenge out of the daily trash that the garbage truck dumped out here regularly.

"Child Protective Services is currently involved and the child, along with her sisters, have been put into protective custody."

Ace's shades nearly fell straight from his face. He couldn't believe what he was hearing and neither could any member of the Gang. Even Big Billy looked astonished and horrified too.

"Ay dios mio." Lil Arturo said, unable to really say or think anything else. "A qué ha llegado el mundo?"

"You've gotta be kiddin'..." The gang leader said. "Dat guy is really sick enough ta mess with his own daughter?!"

"And Bubblesss too." Snake hissed. "Isssn't ssshe like five?" The reptilian gang member felt sick to his stomach.

"But boss!" Billy worried, "What about his other two girls?"

The thought of this creep, the Professor, messing with them too brought a fury to Ace like no other. "Well let's just hope that that PERVERT at least had the good sense not to mess with his other two daughters too!"

Grubber took a moment to straighten out his back. This bit of news was so serious, he didn't feel it appropriate to share his thoughts with raspberries. "So far it's only an investigation Ace, but I admit that it's quite tragic. This doesn't look good and I wish nothing but the best for those poor, unfortunate girls."

Grubber was being entirely sincere. He and the Girls may not have been best buddies but he certainly never wished for this type of harm to fall upon them.

"We gotta teach this guy a lesson," Ace said darkly, taking out his switchblade and testing out the sharpness. "He's gotta learn why it's wrong ta mess with a kid like that!"

"I agree, jefe." Lil Arturo agreed. "There are codes for stuff like this!"

"Can Billy sit on bad father?" Billy asked without his usual goofiness for once.

"Yes Billy you can, but you'll have to get in line."

"I wanna cut off hisss family jewelss first!" said Snake, actually showing some viciousness in contrast to his usual timidness. "We'd probably get a fortune stealing jewelsss like hiss."

Grubber was the only one who was able to show a bit of discernment. "While I admire your passion, my dear companions, I believe our concerns should first go to Bubbles. I suggest we write her a letter of good health in the beginning, then we should give the Professor a warning, since he hasn't been outed as guilty quite yet."

This was the slightly less violent option but for Grubber, more compassionate. He knew all about being innocent until proven guilty but it wouldn't hurt to kindly and politely lay out the consequences for the Professor if this did not in fact end up being the case for his little girl.

...

Back home in a cabin...

"Ah can't believe what ah'm hearin'!"

Fuzzy, the pink antennae wearing hick had been watching the news of what had happened to one of the Powerpuff Girls in his own residence too, and he was just as plum picking mad about it as everyone else.

"That varmint done gone and messed with his own little girl?! Now I may not like those girls but that's just plain sick! I ain't never wished or wanted fer somethin' like this ta happen to 'em!"

The country hick picked up his trusty shotgun and filled it with two shells. "Seems ta me like there's a dog that needs puttin' down! Aw, just wait until I get mah hands on ya, Professor. I'll make you sorry you even messed with that little girl!"

...

"Professor!" A flamboyant demon cooed from his pink studio apartment. It was HIM, the ultimate embodiment of evil, watching the news from home on his couch. He held his claws against his chin and had his legs crossed over one another.

"I'm quite surprised at you! If these allegations end up being true, then you're even more of an evil entity than I am..."

...

"What?!" Even Mojo, from the top of a volcano inside his own observatory exclaimed. "This is an outrage! How can a father, a creator of his own children hurt his creations in that way?!"

Mojo thought about his sons... Brick, Butch, and Boomer. The thought of something like that happening to them... of Mojo of being the main perpetrator... it made him feel things he didn't even think he was capable of feeling before.

He stood up from his couch and ranted, "Even I, Mooojo Jojo, would never even think to stoop to such deplorable and disgusting depths! I am shocked, appalled, and astounded at you dear 'Father'! What use is it for me to destroy the Powerpuff Girls now when I've just been made aware of the fact that you've already destroyed them with your own hideous actions, Professor?"

The simian genius prided himself in his purely wicked ways but even he wouldn't fancy himself to be a sheer monster. On top of all that, he was technically the Girls father too. He had had a hand in creating them, so technically that made them his daughters.

And what kind of father, he thought, simply stood by while his own children were being destroyed?

"This despicable act cannot go unopposed! Fear not dear Bubbles, for your TRUE father will soon make things right!"

He picked up one of his most lethal ray guns to boot. It was an atomic vaporizer, something that would completely erase a single person's existence.

...

"Geez, daddy!" Princess said from the Morbucks mansion in his lap. "Is that messed up or what? Well at least I know you would never hurt me like that."

...

Even the Amoeba Boys had been aware of this news, and Slim timidly told his leader, "Uh boss? If we ever become criminals, I don't wanna become a criminal like that."

"Yeah, me neither boss." Junior said in a quivering, small voice. "I never wants to be a criminal like that."

"Uh, don't worry boys." Bossman said, feeling sicker than he did than the time he stood out in the rain for far too long trying to defy the rules of keeping off an area of grass in the park. "We ain't never turnin' into something like that."

Hoh boy, looks like news around here really does travel quickly...