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Chapter 3

Extracellular Matrix Interactions

"Bubbles, what were you up to this night?"

Bubbles mentally wondered why invisibility wasn't in their repertoire of superpowers. It would've been useful right now…

She sincerely hoped that Blossom would've left this matter be for the time being, but she had underestimated her sister's stubbornness. Couldn't that policeman be any faster? This is the Amoeba Boys they were talking about! Shouldn't he know if a trio of man-sized amoebas were gone from the prison?

"Blossom…" Bubbles started. "It's not… I wasn't up to anything strange or harmful or anything like that! I was doing, uh, a night shift! Like the ones we did in the past, you remember those, right?"

"The ones we did together…" Blossom specified. She narrowed her eyes at Bubbles, who cowered under her gaze. "Why did you decide to just leave, by yourself, and without even so much as a note or something?"

"I j-just… I've been having trouble sleeping lately…"

"How is that related in any way to—"

"I mean it!" Bubbles interrupted. "It's been like this for a while, so I thought I could do… stuff, instead of lying down doing nothing!"

Blossom opened her mouth to reply, then closed it, groaning.

"Bubbles, listen…" Buttercup finally intervened. "We're just worried. We never saw you as the type who enjoyed looking for crime itself—let alone doing that on your own and at night… that's closer to something on my league, if you get what I mean," she chuckled at her own remark. "You gotta admit it's weird leaving out like that when we were asleep, and I don't buy you doing it because you just weren't able to sleep. It can't be just that…"

Blossom got down from the seat and walked away from the two of them, still grumbling under her breath, though she didn't interrupt Buttercup either.

"I-I did have some trouble sleeping. It started a few months ago, though," Bubbles admitted. "I… I wasn't sleeping well because I was concerned about the city at night. We fight crime all the time during the day, but at night… we're unaware of what's going on out there. So, since I didn't know how to get some sleep and peace from those thoughts, I resolved that doing a quick shift in the night to show myself I was just overthinking wouldn't have hurt."

Buttercup looked at her in bewilderment.

"Y-you chose to do that even if you were alone?" Blossom had listened to the entire thing, and her voice was incredulous.

Bubbles nodded vehemently. "I was never going to fight crime alone, though. If there was ever going to be an issue too big to handle on my own, I would immediately go ask for your help. As I did today!"

"But Mojo and the others—"

"No one knew about this, Blossom," Bubbles added. "It was literally just me and a few night shift policemen in the middle of the night that sometimes saw me flying around. It was safe!"

"I…" Blossom let out a sigh. "Bubbles, listen, I just… why did you never tell us at least?"

"I didn't want to worry you two as well, or even the Professor," she said, her voice becoming a bit lower as her turned her eyes to the floor. "I felt like it was an issue I had to deal with on my own. It also became a bit of a habit, when those thoughts stopped bothering me as much as they did early on… it always worked out well, in the end."

"You can say that again. That oversized amoeba out there would've done a lot of damage if it weren't for you finding it early on," Buttercup conceded.

"Still, Bubbles, I… look, I understand now, but you should've told me and Buttercup at least, so that we were at least aware of what you could be doing. We had no idea where you were earlier! You said you looked out for trouble, but sometimes trouble comes for you whether you want it or not… and that monster out there proves that."

"Yeah, Bubs, I agree with red here," Buttercup said. "I didn't even believe you were out there at first, until you went through the window. If we were knew, we could at least have known where to start looking somewhat."

"I guess…" Bubbles pulled her knees up and hugged them. "I didn't think about it that much…"

"Hey, it's okay. Just be a bit more talkative all right? It looks like you've been having some worries of your own. We can help with that!" Buttercup proposed.

"And you promise not making fun of me?"

"Only if that doesn't help in making you tough," Buttercup smiled.

Bubbles glared at her.

"Oh, all right, all right, no jokes it is."

"And please, Bubbles… tell us, in the future. It's important. For all of us," Blossom said.

Bubbles nodded. Before she could reply further, though, the three were called by a nearby officer. "Powerpuff Girls?"

The girls turned to see another man, but not the same one who had welcomed them into the prison lobby in the first place, and that was supposed to go back for them once he found out about the Amoeba Boys.

"Yes?" Blossom greeted.

"Pardon me for barging into your discussion unannounced, but I am a great fan," the policeman smiled. "I still can't believe the Powerpuff Girls themselves showed up at our prison here. We usually deal with every day's rapscallions, not the big name villains you girls deal with on a daily basis."

"Yeah, tell me about it… we're here because of a trio of dudes who're even lower than the average crook," Buttercup grumbled.

"Is that so… you wouldn't be talking about the Amoeba Boys now, would you?"

The girls exchanged a fast glance. "Do you know them? Are they here?"

"Of course I do! Every guard working in strict contact with the inmates knew about them, you don't see a man-sized amoeba every day after all. Besides, they were downright hilarious! Too bad they ended up being so nice and fun they got a free release on parole…"

Well, at least that meant the girls didn't have to wait for the lobby officer to come back from his visit to the archives. Even if the news weren't promising.

"So… they aren't here anymore?" Blossom scratched her chin. "We had a hunch about them and… do you have any idea where they may have ended up?"

"Beats me," the man shrugged. "Their boss was pretty mad, which is weird for criminals right after release—but to be honest, those weren't normal criminals to begin with. Now… would you mind if a snatch a trio of signatures from you three?"


The girls flew out of the prison with empty hands. "That… was a waste of time," Buttercup grumbled.

"Actually, I don't think so…" Blossom mused. "If the Amoeba Boys are out of prison, that would actually mean they'd be free to have, uh… whatever role they may have concerning the amoeba-ish monster that attacked Bubbles."

"Well, that applies to any other enemy of us in Townsville! I think it's more likely that Mojo went on experimenting with something that went awry, or Princess paying for some secret laboratory project that resulted in that thing, or I don't know… anyone else!"

"If that's the case though… the Boys could still be involved… just without being aware of it. It wouldn't be the first time that happens…" Bubbles replied. Buttercup groaned.

"All right, let's say they're involved. What does that give us? Does that change anything, about a monster being on the loose right now?"

"No…" Bubbles conceded.

"Yeah, that's true…" Blossom agreed. "Perhaps the Professor could get something useful out of it, he's studied the Amoeba Boys in the past, when we used them to get the cure for the Amoeba Flu. But other than that… we still got that monster to deal with."

She raised a hand and the Powerpuff Girls stopped in mid-air. "Let's split up and search the city. I'll go north—you take the south-west Buttercup, while Bubbles goes south-east."

"All right, works for me. Me and Mr. Blob Monster have a score to settle…" Buttercup finally allowed herself to don an eager grin.

"Yes, but do not try to fight it on your own!" Blossom gave a scolding glance to Buttercup, before her eyes shifted with a meaningful glare to Bubbles, who cowered. "For you both. Shout for the other two if you see it. As long as we're together, we should be able to pin it down and finish it off!"


The armchair made a creaking 'click' as Him extended the recliner and he stretched himself over it. He reached out with an arm over to his side and picked up with a claw the smoothie that he had ready. After slurping up a sip, he returned to watching the feed in his lair—more specifically, the two feeds.

One feed actually divided itself into three different video feeds as the Powerpuff Girls split up. Him grinned.

"This is proving to be far more entertaining than anticipated!" he excitedly commented to himself. "The Powerpuff Girls are really going all in from the very beginning. All the better…"

He glanced at what the other feed was showing, and his grin grew eviler and wider. "As you still don't know what truly is awaiting you, girls… this is indeed something that will provide plenty of amusement. Haha… haha. Hahaha!"


Almost an hour of scouring around the city centre… and still nothing! As much as she was looking forward to the encounter, Buttercup's patience had long since run thin.

"Ahh! Where are you?!" she shouted to no one in particular. Not surprisingly, there was no reply… but there were also no glances from the people who happened to be walking down the street, doing their early morning routines as if there was nothing unusual happening.

By now, the news of the night attack from the monster had circulated around the city. There was no panic, as most of the time townspeople were very much confident in the girls' ability to scare off any monster attacks—which technically already happened that night, when the girls were able to send the blob monster retreating. Blossom had mentioned possibly paying a visit to the Mayor to discuss an evacuation, but neither her or Buttercup were sure about the true danger the giant amoeba constituted. Only Bubbles was still worried about it.

By now, Buttercup was more bored than worried. She kicked herself into flight again, moving down the street for another town district.

She was really starting to consider just calling up for her sisters to regroup and call it for the day, when she heard a dull noise. It took her a few moments to recognize it: the fizzling! The noise of the thing eating! It had to be close.

The only problem was… it was way, way louder this time.

"What the…" Buttercup was agape when she saw an entire section of the road collapse into nothingness. People screamed as they got away—no one was in the demolished section thankfully—and tried to save their lives, escaping from whatever monstrosity was causing the destruction.

In truth, not even Buttercup was prepared when she saw the first pseudopodium come out of the abyss. Because after that, the body started to flow out. Then more pseudopodium shot out, crashing into the buildings and pulling more of itself out. In the span of seconds, it was already as big as it was during their fight an hour and a half earlier.

But it didn't stop there.

The thing just… kept coming out. Soon it covered the entire hole it had come from, and after that it covered the entire street. It grew more and more, getting bigger until Buttercup, despite hovering high up in the street and at the same height of the eight store of the nearby buildings, couldn't see beyond the body of the monster.

"GUYS!" she shouted as loud as she could while dozens of white spheres were shot at her from the monster's body. "Guys, he's here and he's mad!"

The spheres this time were not just many more than before—they were larger and travelled faster in the air, proving to be a much more dangerous attack for Buttercup to try and dodge. Not that she wanted to stick around any longer, as she immediately shot upwards once she got a window to do so.

The giant monster emitted a guttural, incredibly loud growl, and threw out pseudopodia in an attempt to grab her, but Buttercup was faster and flew higher in the air. She could already see the blue and pink streaks above the skyscrapers in the distance heading for the monster, but she couldn't stay put as the thing kept shooting white spheres at her faster than an attack helicopter gatling gun. And she knew how fast those shot.

Gritting her teeth, Buttercup tried to retaliate with eyebeams, and soon after that Bubbles and Blossom joined the bombardment, shooting at the giant creature that kept getting larger and larger. Unfortunately, their attack had no clear effect if not for annoying it further.

"Freaking Amoeba Boys, if it's you inside that thing, I will make sure to beat you back to the big bang or whatever, you hear me!?" Buttercup shouted, having had it with the continuous dodging. But before she could charge head on, there was a pink streak that came in front of her.

"Halt it, Buttercup! You aren't going against that thing alone!"

Buttercup frowned. "In case you haven't noticed, Bloss, that thing is now a dozen times bigger than it was when we fought it two hours ago! We must destroy it now, or it will keep getting bigger!"

Blossom simply glared at her. "We don't have time to argue, Buttercup. It will overwhelm us if we attack independently. We must think of a plan first, then we—"

"Girls, watch out!"

A pseudopodium fell on them, an incredibly thin filament of cell membrane this time which was covered by unidentified shapes that none of the girls were able to recognize. Blossom and Buttercup weren't enough fast to dodge it, as the thing travelled much faster than the 'shock' pseudopodia used by the blob monster earlier.

As soon as the membrane connected with them, all the weird-shaped objects that dotted the membrane appendix suddenly moved, immediately taking hold of the two Powerpuff Girls, covering them and keeping them held down over the membrane.

"Augh! Let me go!" Buttercup cried, trying to pry the things off. But they were incredibly sturdy, and sticky. Blossom didn't have much success in doing the same as well.

The help came in the form of Bubbles, who wasted no time and sliced the pseudopodium off before the creature could make another move, shooting at the base of the extension where she felt like it was weaker, a decision that proved wise.

Blossom and Buttercup ended up falling down with it, as the membrane proteins didn't detach from them as soon as the pseudopodium did, but the monster cared little for it as it turned its enormous body in the direction of the blue puff.

Bubbles didn't cower this time, facing the monster head on as she kept her distance.

"You think that because you're so big, you can do everything you want in Townsville now, you big meanie?!" Bubbles shouted. "This is our city, and it doesn't matter whether you're as big as a house, as tall as a skyscraper, or as large as a district. We'll still beat you down, and we'll make you sorry for it!"

The monster was unperturbed by Bubbles' words. It emitted a loud, ravenous roar, which was clear enough for her to understand that this thing wasn't backing down either.

So be it—she wasn't going to let it go on a rampage under her watch. And neither were her sisters, as Blossom and Buttercup—still trying to get off protein remains off their clothes and skin, re-joined up with her.

"See what I mean, Buttercup?"

"Whatever, red… all right, I'm all ears."

Blossom looked at the monster. "Well… we don't have time to get back to the Professor to check if he's found out anything useful. But he did mention that the membrane wasn't as protective as he expected. Which means… that we can easily get in."

"You want to get inside it…?" Bubbles didn't hide her disgust. "Yuck… I didn't like it when it was smaller…"

"Well, if that thing works like most monsters, we should be able to find whatever makes it work from the inside still. If we attack that, it should be down in no time," Buttercup said.

"Precisely! I'm not looking forward to visit the insides of that thing either, but it's our only option… and I don't know how far it'll go if we let it go unpunished while causing chaos in the city."

She extended an arm. "We'll charge, me first, you two right behind me, wedge formation! Come on girls, let's show this evolution geezer what it means to mess with our city!"

Bubbles and Buttercup nodded, and the girls assumed formation just as the monster started to move towards them. It was fast, much faster that it was in its smaller form, and its body behaved like a perfect fluid, flowing through streets and between the walls of buildings and skyscrapers without so much of a pause. It really looked unstoppable, but the Powerpuff Girls didn't care.

Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup let out a war cry together in defiance of the monstrosity as they crashed through the cell membrane and made their entrance into the cytoplasm.