Villain: Redux
By: Yay Ninja Bob
Part II: Hate & War
Chapter 9
Back in Action
The music that played from the stereo was a familiar tune to Blossom, but she couldn't quite remember where she had heard it before. She watched the small group of teenagers bounce in time with the upbeat tempo as they continued to dance at the center of the room together. The Snyder home's living room was decorated with cascades of multi-colored paper streamers which hung down from the ceiling. The wooden floorboards of the home were littered with scattered pieces of pink and blue confetti and splattered bits of bright neon silly string. From where Blossom leaned up against the wall, there was a large bouquet of pink balloons partially blocking her view of the homemade dance floor. The opaque baby pink color was still translucent enough though that Blossom could easily look through the bubblegum arrangement and watch as Bubbles continued to dance with several of their friends from school. Her sister's blonde pigtails bounced as she rocked her head in time with the music and in sync with Robin who had been her dance partner since the music began.
Blossom watched their friend Pablo rejoin the dance floor with a can of silly string in each of his hands. The tall boy aimed the spray streamers above the crowd of dancers and caused a shower of bright blue and pink stringy foam to rain down on the tops of everyone's heads. Bubbles immediately shouted at him with a laugh and briefly zipped from the dance floor to retrieve her own aerosol can of silly string to fight back with against Pablo.
Bubbles shook the can and took aim, but the tall boy ducked down and quickly hid behind Robin. He laughed as he continued to use the girl as a human shield from Bubbles. "No fair!" Bubbles laughed again and the two continued to dance around Robin who was trapped between their silly string stand-off.
Blossom smiled to herself as she continued to look on from the sidelines. She leaned up against the wall with a can of soda in hand and sipped quietly as her friends Mary, Tiffany and Elmer continued to chat beside her. She tried to focus on their conversation once more, but became distracted by the antics of the dance floor yet again when she heard Robin begin to shout between laughter, "Ahh! You guys! Leave me out of this!"
Robin giggled uncontrollably as she was lifted off the ground by Pablo, who spun around with her, still holding her in front of him as the blue Powerpuff circled them with a steady spray of purple stringy foam. The brunette kicked her feet helplessly as she was held hostage by Pablo and they twirled around together. The purple silly string splattered against them both as they laughed. While Pablo struggled to return fire on Bubbles, Robin quickly snatched the pink colored can from his hand and turned on him. The boy laughed as he fell backwards and Bubbles and Robin teamed up to blast him with a final barrage of bright neon foam.
"Hey, Tiff, I think you might be right," Mary commented as she also watched the silly string warfare play out.
"Told you," Tiffany grinned slyly from behind her can of soda.
"Right about what?" Blossom asked as she looked at her friends.
Mary adjusted her eyeglasses as she looked to Blossom, "Tiff's been saying that she thinks Pablo has a crush on Robin."
Tiffany continued to grin, "Oh, come on. It's obvious." She nodded towards the dance floor again.
Blossom watched as Robin helped Pablo back onto his feet and the two continued to laugh together as they tried to shake off the globs of neon colored foam that covered them both.
"I wonder if she might like him back?" Mary questioned.
"No way," Blossom said out loud before she could stop herself. Her friends glanced in her direction, "I mean," she began again. "Pablo's a nice guy, but... I just don't think he's Robin's type."
"Well, you would know better than us," Mary shrugged. "She's your best friend, right?"
Blossom sipped from her can of cola and stayed quiet as she continued to watch Robin and Pablo from afar.
"I dunno," Tiffany continued, "I think they'd make a pretty cute couple-"
"So, Elmer," Blossom interrupted, feeling a little desperate to change the subject, "How's your summer been so far?"
"Huh? Oh-oh, " Elmer stammered a little. "It's been fine, I-I guess."
"Yeah?" Blossom forced herself to look away from the dance floor and give Elmer her full attention. "How's summer league been? Has your team been winning any games?"
The shy boy hid behind his thick framed glasses as he answered. "W-well yeah, I-I guess, but it's no thanks to me, really. I-I just sit on the bench m-most of the time and just watch."
"Wow, your parents are still making you play baseball?" Mary asked. "Didn't you break your ankle last summer?"
"N-no, I-I just sprained it. It was pretty bad, but..." Elmer gulped a little. "But my dad said it was n-no reason to give up, and so he signed me up this summer again. It's f-fine, I-I guess..."
"Hit any homeruns yet?" Blossom asked as she sipped from her soda can.
Elmer laughed nervously, "N-no," he smiled. "Like I-I said... I-I don't really get to play much." He paused as he drummed his fingers nervously against his can of soda, "Mitch is the one who scores the most runs usually. H-he's the reason why we win most of the time, I-I guess. Coach says he has what it takes to go pro s-someday."
"Ugh," Blossom rolled her eyes a little, "Like that jerk needs his ego inflated any more than it is."
"You're on the same team as Mitch this year?" Tiffany asked with wide eyes. "How is *that*?"
"He better not be tormenting you like he does at school," Mary said with concern.
"N-n-no," Elmer struggled with his stutter for a moment. "H-h-he hasn't... s-so far... I-I mean... my dad is usually at all my games, so... I-I don't think he will..."
"Well that's good," Blossom gave Elmer an encouraging smile. "But if he does try anything, you just let me know, OK?"
"Oh-OK, Blossom," Elmer smiled weakly. "Th-thanks."
As Blossom smiled at her friend, her pink eyes eventually drifted back towards the dance floor. Robin laughed as she ran her fingers through her wavy brown hair, trying her best to remove the chunky bits of silly string that covered much of her head. "Be right back!" she giggled to Bubbles and Pablo as they continued to dance with their other friends. "I need to wash some of this stuff out!"
Blossom watched as Robin left them behind and quickly walked down the hallway and towards the home's staircase. "Be right back," Blossom announced next to her friends as she shortly followed after Robin. By the time she reached the second floor, she spotted her girlfriend disappearing into the upstairs bathroom. Before Robin could shut the door behind her, Blossom slipped past with a flash of pink light and was in the bathroom with her.
"Need some help?" Blossom offered with a smile as she grabbed a towel from the towel rack behind her.
"Sure, thanks," Robin smiled as she shut the door behind her and walked over to the sink counter. She turned on the faucet and tilted her head towards the running, cool water.
Blossom stood behind her and watched as the water began to run brightly with shades of pink and blue as Robin worked out the sticky, multicolored mess from her hair. After a couple of minutes of thorough rinsing, the brunette's hair was clean, but dripping wet as she lifted her head back up. Blossom stood behind her and quickly draped the towel along Robin's shoulders to keep her from wetting her shirt. She then handed Robin a second towel, "You sure got the worst of it, huh?"
Robin's giggle was muffled from the towel as she wiped her face with it, "Yeah, I kinda got stuck between your sister and Pablo and their silly string fight," she laughed.
"I saw," Blossom said as she looked her up and down and laughed a little, "You're still covered all over in that stuff. Maybe you should change clothes."
As Robin toweled off her hair she gave Blossom a devious smirk, "You wanna help me with that, too?"
Blossom's cheeks flushed a bright red as soon as her girlfriend gave her the suggestive look. "Sure. I guess I could if you want."
"Well," Robin stepped towards Blossom, still with a sly smile, "It's your birthday. So you tell me what you want."
Blossom's face only grew redder as she nodded. "Yeah," she answered bashfully, "I think I'd like that." She watched as Robin opened the door once more and stepped into the hall. Blossom followed her into her bedroom across the way, and as soon as they were inside, Robin shut the door behind them and gave Blossom another playful smile.
Blossom was always surprised by just how vulnerable Robin could make her feel in an instant. A gentle, single handed caress of Blossom's face was all it took for the super heroine to go weak in the knees, and she would follow wherever her mortal lover led her. Robin giggled a little as she watched the tall redhead melt under her touch. She cupped her hand delicately under her chin, and brought her face down towards her own, meeting Blossom's red painted lips with a sweet, soft kiss.
Blossom gently held onto Robin by her hips as her kisses traveled to Robin's neck, and Robin felt her skin tingle under her girlfriend's lightly chilled breaths. Robin swiftly removed her shirt and Blossom continued to kiss her along her collarbone. As soon as Robin's shirt fell to the ground, there was a knock on the door.
Blossom groaned a little, but refused to stop her neck kisses as Robin stifled a giggle and shouted out towards the door, "Just changing clothes! I'll be right out!"
"Hey, Robin! Is it cool if we put the basketball game on downstairs?" Pablo asked from the other side of the shut door.
"Yeah, sure!" Robin answered, "The remote should be on the coffee table!"
"Cool, thanks!"
Robin returned her attention to Blossom, but quickly noticed that she had stopped her gentle caressing and now appeared to wear a frown. "Come on," Robin encouraged her with another playful smile, "We don't have to stop."
Blossom bit her lip nervously as she let her hold of Robin go and allowed her hands to fall loosely to her side. "Can I ask you something?"
Robin stared up at Blossom for a moment, confused, but nodded, "Of course."
Blossom stepped away from Robin and continued to bite her lip for several moments. Robin watched as Blossom slowly, but inevitably began to pace just as she always did whenever her mind began to race.
The brunette sighed deeply to herself as she stood there in her bra and watched the redhead float from one side of her room to the next. "What's up, Blossom?"
"Do you- no actually... nevermind..."
"No, what is it?"
"It's nothing."
"It obviously isn't, Blossom, so just tell me," Robin frowned.
"Do you..." Blossom gulped a little, "...like Pablo?"
Robin blinked at Blossom, unsure if she heard her correctly. She had her back towards Robin as she asked her. "Wait. What?"
Blossom turned to face Robin once more. "I know you like boys too, and that's fine. I don't care. Really, I don't, but... Well, it's just that Tiffany and Mary were saying that he's got this crush on you apparently, and so I was just wondering-"
"Blossom, are you serious right now?"" Robin sighed a little. "So just because Tiff and Mary said he likes me, you wanna know if I might like him, too?"
"It's OK if you do, but I just want to know-"
"NO," Robin interrupted again firmly. "I don't like him. OK?"
Blossom nodded slowly, sensing she had made things worse. "...OK." She watched as her girlfriend walked over to her dresser and retrieved a clean t-shirt from the middle drawer. "It... was stupid of me to ask. I'm sorry, Robin. I was just worried." She frowned. "I guess I just started thinking that maybe... you would want to do better than me."
"You know," Robin muttered as she pulled on the shirt over her head, "You're making it really hard to not get mad at you on your birthday." She faced Blossom again with a frown. "I'm with you, Blossom, because you're the one I like," she stepped towards Blossom and gave her a small smile. "More than that, I love you."
Blossom stepped towards Robin and took her hands in hers, "I love you, too," she said softly, "You're amazing, and..." Blossom frowned a little as she shook her head, "Robin, I'm so sorry. I-I don't know why I get so scared that you might get sick of me one day, but I just-"
Another knock on the door interrupted Blossom, and Robin instantly snapped back with a frustrated shout, "Just a minute!" She looked back at Blossom, "Look," she sighed. "It's your birthday today. I really don't want something like this to ruin your day. So let's just try and forget it, OK?"
"OK," Blossom smiled weakly.
Another knock on the door and this time both girls shouted at the door at the same time, "What?!"
"Blossom, are you in there?" Bubbles' voice squeaked on the other side.
Blossom and Robin looked at one another before they answered the door together. They opened it and saw that Bubbles stood on the other side with a grave look on her face. Her baby blue eyes glistened as she looked to Blossom who immediately stepped towards her with concern. "Bubbles, what's wrong?"
Bubbles took her sister by the hand and began to lead her towards the stairway. "There's something on TV you have to see..."
"Bubbles, what is it?" Blossom questioned as her sister led her back to the Snyder home's living room. Robin followed after them and as the three entered the room together, Blossom noticed that the party's music had ended.
There was a hushed quiet among everyone as they stood gathered around the TV. Blossom could see a mix of fear and confusion in her friends' eyes which remained fixed intently on the television screen. As her pink eyes finally fell on the TV, they grew wide and she could not help but gasp out loud.
"If you are just tuning in, we are watching live aerial coverage of what authorities are describing as 'the largest prison breach' Townsville has ever seen. No comment yet on how many prisoners have escaped, but from what we are seeing here, at least hundreds of inmates are actively fleeing into the streets here in City Square. At this time, we are advising everyone in Townsville to stay indoors."
The live broadcast was an aerial shot of City Square, focused mainly on Townsville Prison. Just as the news helicopter's reporter described, there was an endless parade of orange jumpsuits rushing beyond the barbed wire gates of the facility and pouring into the chaotic streets of the city. Lines of police cars tried to barricade the perimeter of the prison, but the force of the orange jumpsuited men was too much. The black and white cars shook violently as their sirens flashed red and blue, while the crowds of inmates began to topple each cop car over one by one. As the helicopter coverage pulled back and revealed more of the area, there were several small fires beginning to break out along the streets. Not much further, there was a large group of police officers, outfitted in riot gear, with their batons drawn and their shields up as they steadily marched. As they drew near the lawless met them head on, and there was an immediate clash of orange and black, as the officers tried to force the prisoners backward and the prisoners fought to break past them.
Blossom stared at the live footage with her jaw agape for several moments. Bubbles and Robin both stood beside her, and also looked on in continued shock. Less than a decade prior to then, a prison break in Townsville wasn't all that uncommon. However it had been a long time since something like that had happened, and it definitely had never happened on such a wide scale before. A few escaped convicts was one thing, but hundreds all at once? As Blossom watched the news coverage, she tried her best to estimate just how big a prison breach it was. There were so many orange jumpsuits on the screen, it was hard to be sure. It looked almost as if every prisoner had managed to escape somehow.
Blossom felt a buzzing from her cellphone in her pocket. She fumbled to retrieve it, still not wanting to tear her eyes from the news coverage. "H-hello?" she answered as she pressed the phone to her ear.
"Blossom, it's the mayor!" Mayor Bellum's voice shouted on the other end.
Upon hearing the panic in the mayor's voice, Blossom's heart began to race. "Yes, Mayor?"
"Blossom, there's been a massive prison breach at Townsville Correctional! We have officers on the scene, but there are far too many escaped inmates for them to handle! We need the Powerpuff Girls!"
As Blossom listened to the mayor's pleas, she felt the air around her thicken with tension. Although the mayor spoke quickly, somehow everything felt like it was happening then in slow motion. The moment was so surreal to her, it took a second for Blossom to remember to respond. She took a short, deep breath before answering. "Don't worry, Mayor... We're on it."
Bubbles looked to Blossom as she hung up her cell. She held her breath as she waited for Blossom to speak.
"That was the mayor," Blossom announced quietly as all eyes on the room fell on her. Blossom looked around the room at her friends' scared expressions, and felt something begin to stir within her. She placed her hands on her hips, straightened her posture and lifted her chin as she turned to Bubbles and nodded firmly, "Townsville needs us."
Mojo's dark fur rustled in the wind as he was carried through the sky at high speed. He hung suspended below his unknown masked abductor who grasped him firmly with their gloved hands by his hairy forearms. The wind whistled loudly as it ripped past his ears and he felt an intense pressure building within his exposed, oversized brain the longer they remained in the air. It was impossible to know how high up they were as they flew through the sky, but judging from the thick cloud banks below his dangling bare, green feet, Mojo knew it would be foolish to try to break free. "Where are you taking me?!" he demanded loudly over the roaring wind. "Who are you?! What is the meaning of this?! For what purpose have you broken me from my cell, and just what is it that you want with me?!"
"Calm down!" they shouted back. "We're almost there!"
The clouds beneath his feet began to part. Mojo looked down and saw the ground steadily approaching as they began their descent at last. The lush green landscape below sloped upwards, and along the grassy hills sat many large mansion-sized homes with bright blue, sparkling swimming pools and tall and gleaming, private access gates. The Hills was home to the most elite class of Townsville, but at the very top sat the largest of all the estates. Mojo's eyes narrowed on the two golden M's that marked their destination, and grumbled low under his breath, "Morbucks."
They swiftly glided over the tall golden gateway and landed on the doorstep of the main home. The alien masked person sat Mojo down first, before ringing the doorbell on the door.
Mojo scoffed as he dusted off his bright orange jumpsuit. Out of all the possible destinations to be taken to against his will, Morbucks Manor would make the top of his personal list of least desirable places. After all, it was partially the wealthy billionaire's fault as to why the Villains Ward existed in the first place. Not only did the Morbucks money pay for the Villains Ward, but it was the businessman's own construction company who built the ward, too. After all the help he had graciously given to the family's spoiled heiress- designing her blaster ray guns, her jet pack, and even showing the child how to use them- one would think their previous business together would count for something, but it did not stop Morbucks from ultimately selling the chimp out.
Mojo watched as the masked stranger seemed to impatiently bounce in place as they rang the doorbell again. They reached into their back pocket and retrieved a black cellular phone, "Shit, this is taking too long," they muttered from behind their mask. "Gotta go," they looked to Mojo. "See ya."
"Wait one minute-" Mojo began, but stopped as the masked person stepped off from the porch and quickly launched themselves straight into the air once more. Within a split second, they had disappeared high into the atmosphere and Mojo was left standing there alone outside the front door to the mansion.
As Mojo blinked up at the sky, Alfred arrived to answer the door. The skinny butler's eyes grew wide as they fell on the mutant chimpanzee that waited on their doorstep. "Miss?" he called out behind him, "I believe you have a delivery..."
Mojo turned back around and his eyes fell on a short young woman with curly red hair. As her brown eyes fell on Mojo, she wore a look of shock on her face. "Holy shit," she breathed to herself as she stepped out onto the porch and met the monkey face to face. "They actually did it, but how on Earth..." While Princess stood there, momentarily stunned, she felt a buzzing from her cellphone. She saw from the caller ID that it was the line she had given to her lackey earlier and so she quickly answered it.
"So that'll be twenty-five thousand. Cash. I'll be back tomorrow for it, so have it ready."
Princess held her cell to her ear and nodded, "Of course." The line ended and Princess hung up her cell. She blinked at the device in her hands for a moment, wondering to herself how her lackey managed to complete their mission so quickly- without even taking any of the equipment she tried to provide. She still had no clue who they were, and the increasing mystery surrounding them only made Princess all the more curious.
Mojo studied the freckle faced teenager with a raised eyebrow. Slowly, he began to recognize her, although he did not believe it at first. The last time he had seen the bratty little girl, well, she was just a little girl. At that moment, Mojo began to realize just how long his last incarceration managed to last. The girl was just around ten when last he saw her, and now she looked to be well into her teens.
As Princess returned her cell to her pocket, she turned to Mojo once more and looked him up and down. "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting your arrival so soon, but," she paused as she turned to Alfred behind her and clapped her hands, "Alfred, please get our guest suite on the East end ready for Mojo."
"Right away, Miss," Alfred answered with a single nod and turned to leave.
Princess turned back to Mojo and placed her hands on her hips, "It's nice to see you again, Mojo," she said with an innocent smile.
"Princess?" Mojo folded his arms across his chest, "So, it was you who was behind my kidnapping?"
"Kidnapping?" Princess laughed a little, "I would think you'd see it more as a rescue."
Mojo shook his head. "What else would one call it when one is taken against their will, and brought to a location against their own choosing? Rescue?" He scoffed. "I remember just how you Morbucks operate, and I know for certain that this freedom will come at a price, for your empire does nothing for free. I, Mojo, am no fool! So do not waste your time pretending that this is charity! As I said, I know better, and I know that you have brought me here not for my benefit, but yours- your own- and not mine! Well," he glared at Princess, "Whatever it is that you need from me, I'll have you know that I will have no part in it!"
"That's a funny way of saying 'thank you.'" Princess said with her hands on her hips. "Come, let's go inside," she motioned for Mojo to follow her, but the chimp kept his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed on the girl. Princess could see that Mojo was displeased with his situation, but she knew he would have no choice but to get over it eventually. She rolled her eyes, "Oh come on, Mojo," she tried again. "It's been six years. Where else do you have to go right now?"
Mojo's eyes widened for a moment, "Six years?" he repeated in disbelief.
Princess nodded. "That's right," she said as she held the door open for Mojo. "So come on in. I'll have Alfred prepare us some tea, and the two of us can catch up."
Mojo pondered this for a moment. He thought back to the events that had just transpired and imagined that the city most definitely had been alerted to his escape from prison. There was no question that soon those cursed Powerpuffs would be after him. His eyes fell on a window to his left where he could see a faint reflection of himself. The bright orange jumpsuit he wore would make him an easy target for anyone wishing to return him to a cell.
The short chimp looked to Princess and saw that she still wore an annoying, smug smile. As much as he wanted to tell the spoiled brat to take a hike, at that time his options for avoiding re-capture were sadly limited.
Mojo continued to glare at the girl, cursing her name under his breath, as he crossed into the grand foyer of the golden gilded mansion.
Princess shut the door behind them. "Right this way, Mojo," she held her chin upright as she walked past him, "We have much to discuss."
"So that'll be twenty-five thousand. Cash," Buttercup said into the black cellphone she held against her ear as she hovered briefly in the air. "I'll be back tomorrow for it, so have it ready."
"Of course," Princess replied simply on the other end.
Buttercup ended the call and darted forward once more. She wasn't sure how long it would take for the Powerpuff Girls to be called, but she knew that call was coming, and she did not want to be caught missing when that happened. Still, she had to keep her rate of travel carefully calculated as she soared through the sky. If she flew at top speed, it would automatically trigger a bright lime-green trail of light, which was something she wished to avoid. Sneaking around the city undetected had become one of the green Powerpuff's secret talents. She had mastered just how to fly ever so slightly below her maximum flight speed without summoning her light trail. At just the right speed, and at just the right height, she could soar through the sky unseen. It wasn't long before she successfully reached her home, and as she flew towards her bedroom window she removed her mask and reached for the circular pane of glass.
Buttercup struggled momentarily to lift her window open before she slammed her gloved hand hard against the glass. "FUCK!" she shouted in frustration, remembering again then that the window had been sealed by the Professor just two weeks prior. He had replaced the window glass with a new invention of his- a clear, crystal glass that proved to be Powerpuff-proof. It was an attempt to keep his troublemaking teenager from sneaking out, but in this case, it successfully kept her from sneaking back in.
Buttercup began to hover towards the front of their home. She figured the likely hood of the Professor being near the front door was pretty slim. He said he would be "in the lab," and that common statement of his usually guaranteed his absence until at least dinner time. However, as she came around the corner, she spotted her sisters leaving their next door neighbor's home in the distance. "Shit!" she darted quickly back around the corner of their home and rushed for the shut window to her sister Bubbles' room.
Bubbles' bedroom window was not equipped with the same security measures as Buttercup's, and she had no problem forcing it open. However, on the other side of the window sat a collection of brightly painted art canvases, and Buttercup stumbled over the pile of artwork as she fell inside. She had no time to fix the scattered mess she caused, as she heard the sound of her sisters entering their home downstairs. She shot off to her own bedroom quickly with a flash of green light and slammed the door shut behind her.
"Buttercup!" both Blossom and Bubbles called out in unison as they entered downstairs.
Buttercup's heart raced faster as she rapidly removed her dark themed outfit, and shot off towards her closet to retrieve the first pair of pants and shirt she saw. She pulled on her clothes quickly, and stumbled again as she panicked to hide her previous disguise beneath the piles of laundry at the floor of her closet. She shut the closet door and zipped back to her bed where she retrieved a random comic book on her nightstand, and tried her best to look casual as she listened to the sounds of her sisters ascending the stairway together.
"Buttercup!" her sisters shouted again as they opened the door together, and found Buttercup reclined on her bed with her paper comic book in hand.
Buttercup glanced up at them as she sat up. "What's up?" she questioned. Within her chest, her heart still pounded and she felt a nervous sweat on her face, but she could see by the look in her sisters' eyes that they were already too preoccupied by something else to notice.
"Buttercup, there's been a breach at Townsville Prison!" Blossom explained quickly. "Get your uniform on! We gotta go!"
Buttercup sat aside her comic and rose to her feet as she watched Blossom disappear with a flash of pink light into her own bedroom. "What's going on?" Buttercup played dumb to her blue eyed sister.
Bubbles shook her head, "It's terrible, Buttercup!" she said with a high pitched squeak, "We were at Robin's watching the basketball game when it cut to the news! It's the biggest prison break Townsville has ever seen and all the criminals are out and now they're all in the streets, and the police are being overrun and-"
"Bubbles!" Blossom interrupted her harshly as she reappeared at the doorway, half dressed in her pink Powerpuff uniform. She had her pink and black track pants on, and just a white tank which she normally wore underneath their team jacket, as she snapped at both her siblings. "Go get dressed now! We need to get going!"
Bubbles disappeared next with a flash of baby blue, and Buttercup began towards her closet door. She opened it and retrieved the lime green uniform that hung in the back. As she removed the clothing from its hanger, her eyes fell on the pile of clothes at her feet and she kicked them further into the closet, making certain that the alien mask she had been wearing was still buried deep beneath the heap.
"There's no telling how many inmates managed to make it out! Hundreds at least! Maybe more!" Blossom spoke loudly from her bedroom as she continued to get dressed. The team leader's room was between both her siblings' rooms. Bubbles and Buttercup could easily hear her through the walls as she continued to shout at them while they individually put on their uniforms. "When we get there, our priorities are as follows: One, contain the breach! Two, stop any more crooks from escaping! And three, round up the ones who have and return them to where they belong! Got it, girls?"
"Got it," Bubbles and Buttercup's voices returned from beyond the walls to their respective bedrooms.
As Blossom zipped up her pink, Powerpuff team jacket, her pink eyes fell on her vanity set at the corner of her room. Above the mirror, hung a bright red ribbon. She snatched it quickly and used it to tie up her hair.
"Girls?" the Professor called from downstairs. "What's with all the shouting? Is something going on?"
Blossom finished fixing her red bow around her ponytail and quickly darted out of her room with a flash of pink light. Just as the Professor had reached the top of the basement steps, Blossom met him face to face.
"Blossom?" the Professor looked at his daughter with concern. He noticed immediately that she was fully dressed in her superhero uniform. "What's happening?" he questioned.
"Professor, there's been a massive breach at Townsville Prison-"
"A massive breach? When?!"
"Just now apparently, and the mayor needs our help!" Blossom explained quickly. "There are hundreds of escaped convicts- too many for the police to handle on their own- and so it's up to us!"
"Ready!" Bubbles announced as she zipped into the room next. The tall blonde was dressed in her bright blue uniform.
"Buttercup, are you almost-" Blossom began to shout for her green eyed sibling, but was interrupted by a bright flash of green light as she appeared next.
"Ready," she announced, too, as she stood before Blossom in her lime green uniform.
As Blossom's eyes fell on Buttercup, she saw that the tomboy had taken the time to cover her dark facial scarring with a simple layer of concealer makeup. Even with the thick coat of liquid concealer, the scar on her face was still faintly visible, but only when up close. It was something Buttercup would do whenever they had pre-planned Powerpuff events, although Buttercup tended to avoid such events altogether for the most part. The only other reason she would cover her face scar, was for school, and that was to avoid "being a distraction" by the request of her teachers. Wearing makeup was something Buttercup usually protested against loudly, and Blossom was surprised then to see her wearing it without anyone having to first suggest it.
Blossom stepped towards Buttercup and placed a hand on her shoulder, "You look good."
Buttercup rolled her eyes. "Whatever."
"Come on," Blossom nodded firmly at each of her sisters, "Let's go."
As the three made their way to their home's front door, the Professor hurried after them and shouted, "Girls, wait!"
The triplets halted at the doorway and waited for the Professor to catch up. As soon as he reached them, he wrapped his arms around all three of them at once and embraced them tightly, "Be careful out there, Girls," as the scientist spoke, his voice broke a little as his emotions rose.
"We will, Professor," Bubbles squeaked quietly. The blonde was in the center of the group and she wrapped her arms around the Professor's torso as she returned the tight hug.
Blossom returned the hug, too. "We got this, Professor," she smiled reassuringly at him. As she pulled away from the group embrace, she heard another voice shout from behind.
"Wait!"
The three siblings turned around and saw Robin sprinting up their driveway. Her teal eyes were wide and she panted heavily as she stumbled quickly up to their front porch. Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup stepped out onto the porch and met her. Robin held her hand to her chest as she tried to catch her breath, "The TV... just said..." she began through heavy pants, "That the Villains Ward... was hit..."
Blossom and Bubbles' eyes widened immediately as they gasped out loud, and Buttercup gulped nervously as she looked from Robin to her sisters. Professor Utonium stood behind them and also stood with his jaw agape. Blossom stepped towards Robin and asked quickly, "Did they mention if any escaped?"
Robin nodded as she frowned. "They all did."
Blossom's jaw dropped, and Bubbles gasped again. Buttercup saw each of her sister's shocked reactions and tried to fake her own as best she could, "That's... crazy..." she muttered as she shook her head.
Blossom forced herself to shake off her surprise and turned to both Bubbles and Buttercup. "Girls, while we're out there, any villain spotted takes top priority. Got it?"
"Got it," Bubbles and Buttercup nodded together.
"Good. Now, let's-" Blossom stopped as Robin threw her arms around her.
"Please be safe!" Robin sniffled a little as she interrupted the tall, pink Powerpuff with a tight embrace.
"W-we will." Blossom's face flushed red, but it faded as Robin pulled away and hugged her sister Bubbles next.
"Good luck!" Robin said as she embraced Bubbles.
"Thanks, Robin," Bubbles returned the hug quickly.
Robin pulled away from Bubbles and turned to Buttercup last. She wrapped her arms around the skinny, green Powerpuff and gave her a quick hug. As Robin pulled away, Buttercup could see that her teal blue eyes glistened with tears, but the girl dismissed her emotions with a short laugh as she gave Buttercup a smirk, "And kick some ass, OK?"
Buttercup returned a small smirk, "OK."
Blossom stepped off the front porch, and Bubbles and Buttercup followed after her. As Bubbles stood to Blossom's right, and Buttercup joined her on her left, she gave them each a single, determined nod. "Let's go!" Blossom shouted, and with that the superhero trio shot off into the sky with a multicolored blast of green, pink and blue.
It was over a thirty-foot drop from the third level of the prison to the concrete ground below. While his friends Grubber and Snake momentarily halted at the opening of the broken prison wall, Big Billy gave the jump no second thought. After all, Fuzzy and Sedusa had managed to make it look so easy. As Arturo argued with the strange skinny alien, the eight-foot tall giant scooped his short little buddy up with his right hand, and collected Snake and Grubber next with his left arm. With the three of them in his arms, he made his daring leap.
The large man hit the concrete with both feet underneath him, and as his knees bent, he felt a sharp pain in his right ankle. Billy yelped a little as he set his friends down on their feet.
"Yo, you OK?" Arturo asked as he watched Billy wince in pain.
"Yah," the redheaded giant massaged the spot above his foot, as he knelt over, "Yah... I'm OK."
The gang had landed just behind the prison building. Although they had no visual of the front gates, they could hear the loud commotion of the ongoing prison riot as the escaped inmates and officers fought against one another. They suddenly heard a ferocious roar to their left, and turned to see that Fuzzy Lumpkins had reached the barbed fencing some two hundred yards away. The giant pink beast's fur was puffed out and rigid as he tore at the fencing with his bare hands. He peeled back the wire barrier wide enough for him to slip through, and he charged forward once more.
"Come on, guys! ¡Vamanos!" Arturo shouted and the four men began to race for the opening.
As they ran across the long stretch of pavement, they could see Sedusa running towards the same opening just ahead of them. Snake was the fastest out of his friends and he bolted past the wild-haired villainess and reached the hole in the fencing first. As he turned back to call after the rest of the gang to hurry, Sedusa was right behind him. "Outta the way, Chump!" she elbowed past the skinny gangster as she ducked low under the opening.
Just on the other side of the fencing was a road, and beyond that was a small city park. Sedusa halted beside the road as the sounds of gunshots rang out behind her. The gang stopped too, and collectively flinched at the sudden loud popping heard coming from the prison. They looked back towards the broken wall of the Villains Ward and saw a series of bright flashes, but could not see much else.
Sedusa turned back towards the street. Far down the road she could see red and blue lights flashing as a parade of cop cars sped towards the prison. Her bright green eyes fell on the park across the street and she quickly darted across the road.
"Come onsss! Hurry up, guysss!" Snake shouted as he waited still at the fence. He also saw the police sirens approaching, and his heart raced faster the closer they got.
Grubber reached the fence opening, followed by Arturo and Big Billy trailed behind last as he hobbled a bit on his hurt ankle.
"Thisss way!" Snake rushed the group as soon as they made it past the prison barrier, and led them across the street just where he had seen Sedusa disappear.
The green skinned men ran directly into the city park and quickly scrambled to hide behind a hedge of tall, green bushes. As they fell behind the bushy foliage, they landed beside Sedusa who had already been hiding there. The pale beauty in the orange jumpsuit looked disgusted as the men huddled up beside her. "What, are you following me?! Can't you freaks find your own hiding spot?!" she snapped at them.
"Sssorry!" Snake said in a hushed voice as the police sirens whizzed by in the streets. "We don't know wheresss we're going! And I just figured yousss wasss better at thisss villain ssstuff than any of ussses sssso-"
Sedusa quickly cupped her hand over Snake's mouth as several police cars halted on the street. "Shhh!" she hushed all of them. "Shut up or you'll give us away!"
The five held their breath as they peaked through the hedgeway and saw six cop cars pull along the curb outside the prison. A team of ten officers gathered around the damaged fencing where they had just made their escape. While several stood guard around the torn fencing, another group of officers began to scatter throughout the area in search of any nearby escapees. Eventually, two officers began to cross the road and headed towards the park.
"Sssshit," Snake muttered, "What do we do nowsss?"
Sedusa pursed her lips as she watched the approaching officers and tried to think of a new route for escape. As soon as the officers made it past the hedges, the five of them would be right in plain sight. The gang beside her began to tremble as they fearfully watched the two cops draw near. She glanced in their direction and briefly felt pity for the young men. They were still just boys, really. Being centuries old herself, this was not her first jail break and she doubted it would be her last.
"You boys wanna make it out of this?" Sedusa whispered.
"Yeah!" all four responded in low whispers.
"OK," she turned towards them, "On three, we make a run for it that way," she tilted her head to the right, "Think you boys can do that?"
They nodded at her in unison.
"Good," Sedusa smirked a little. "Get ready then."
The four men remained crouched behind the hedge bushes, and kept their eyes focused on the road to their right as Sedusa began to count in a quiet whisper.
"One... two... three!"
Grubber, Billy, Snake and Arturo leapt from behind the bushes and sprinted as fast as they could for the road to their right. As they jumped from their hiding spot the two officers stopped in their steps and shouted after them immediately, "Hey! Stop right there!"
The gang did not look back as they ran down the sidewalk together, but they could hear the two officers chasing after them. Although they had no clue where they were going exactly, they knew if they stood a chance they would have to keep moving. None of them had yet realized that when Sedusa had counted to three, she failed to follow after them.
Sedusa remained crouched behind the hedge as she watched the policemen dart after the Gangreen Gang. The villainess wore a devious smirk as her bright green eyes followed the chase down the road. "Sorry boys," she cackled quietly to herself, "It was just too easy." As soon as they rounded the corner and were out of sight, she slipped away to her left and made her escape.
The streets of City Square had erupted into complete pandemonium. A deafening choir of police sirens blared over the loud clamor of the ongoing battle between officers and outlaws. The city's entire police force was called into action, and still it was not enough force to keep the escaped inmates of the prison contained. While the lines of officers were overrun by the massive tidal wave of orange jumpsuits, they looked up and finally saw their super powered reinforcements arrive.
Even though she had already seen the scene for herself on television, once they had arrived in person, Blossom was shocked all over again by the mayhem taking place below. Her sisters hovered on either side of her and also looked on with wide eyes. "Woah," all three breathed in unison.
"OK, Girls," Blossom clapped her hands together, "We've got a lot of work to do, so let's get started. Bubbles, you take the west side of City Square. Buttercup you stick with the east. I'll handle the front gates. Every crook in orange needs to be put back behind bars, and remember to keep an eye out especially for our escaped villains- the Gangreen Gang, Sedusa, Fuzzy and Mojo."
As her sister named the villains, Bubbles squeaked at the sound of Fuzzy's name. "If the villains are all out... wouldn't they try to go back to all their old lairs? We should look for them there!"
"That's good thinking, Bubbles," Blossom nodded. "But-" her pink eyes fell on the hundreds of escaped criminals beneath their feet and her super hearing tuned to the sharp cry of a woman screaming. The pink Powerpuff saw that the cries for help were from an innocent civilian who sat in her car; a large inmate had broken her driver's side window. She screamed for help as he tried to force the car door open. "First, we have to get this under control!" Blossom shouted. "Come on!"
Blossom shot off quickly to the civilian's rescue. A flash of pink light swooped down from the sky and the inmate was tossed aside like a ragdoll. Blossom appeared before the frightened woman and helped her from her vehicle. "Don't worry, Ma'am! You're safe now!"
As Bubbles and Buttercup watched their sister carry the woman off to safety, Bubbles let out another nervous squeak and turned to Buttercup, "Buttercup... if Fuzzy's out, what if he goes back to his cabin and finds the coyotes?"
Buttercup glanced at her. "Shit..." she muttered quietly, "I didn't think of that-"
More cries of help from below interrupted the two. They looked down to where there was a city bus parked along the street. The shouting came from the bus driver who was being forced out from his vehicle. As the city worker was tossed out onto the sidewalk, a stampede of escaped convicts ran past him and boarded the hijacked bus. Just as the bus began to speed away, Bubbles and Buttercup shot after it. They each grabbed the bus by its back bumper and kept it from going any further.
As the tires screeched to break free from the two's hold, Buttercup looked to Bubbles. She saw that her blue eyes glistened with tears a little, and she could tell that her sister was truly worried about her coyotes. "We'll work fast, OK?" Buttercup shouted over the burning rubber, "As soon as this shit is cleaned up, we'll go check on them, alright?"
Bubbles nodded, "OK!"
"I got these guys!" Buttercup nodded towards the bus, "Go and get the driver to safety!"
Bubbles nodded and took off with a flash of blue light. Buttercup lifted the bus up by its back end, and raised it off the ground as its wheels helplessly spun faster. In the distance she could see that the gates to the prison were finally closed and secured again by law enforcement. Her sister Blossom swooped down from above and scooped up several inmates at once. She tossed them over the shut gate, before repeating the same maneuver again, and again.
Buttercup looked up at the dozens of trapped inmates inside the bus through the wide, rear window. They booed and cursed the green Puff's name as she held onto their getaway bus. "It was a nice try, guys," she shook her head at them before lifting the bus over her head as she ascended into the air with it. She chucked it and sent it soaring over the prison gates. The vehicle's tires blew out completely beneath it as it violently crashed down just outside the prison entrance. Everyone on board was stupefied by the rough landing. A team of nearby officers immediately rushed over and quickly apprehended the men on board.
Bright flashes of pink, green and blue weaved in and out of the streets as the girls worked together to round up all the men in orange. Amid the chaos, the heroes would find the occasional innocent civilian who had been unfortunate enough to be out in City Square that day. The team used the nearby city capitol as a temporary refuge for the innocent, where the mayor and her staff provided shelter for the stranded and aid.
As the escaped men scattered in a panic, there was an increasing sense of fear growing among them as the Powerpuff Girls charged down from above repeatedly. Like bright, glowing neon hawks swooping down on their unsuspecting prey, one by one, the heroes plucked the inmates from the streets, carried them into the sky and delivered them back to the prison. As the hysteria among the inmates intensified, some escapees began to retreat freely, hoping to avoid an encounter with the Powerpuffs altogether. With the heroes there to deal with the prisoners in the streets, the police were able to focus their efforts on returning every crook to their cell. With hundreds of criminals to deal with, it still took every cop on the force working to get the job done.
After successfully clearing her area, Blossom soared high above the streets and saw that several cop cars nearby had been set on fire. She quickly flew over to the burning vehicles and used her ice breath to extinguish the flames. As the embers died down, she looked to her right and saw that Bubbles' area was almost nearly clear, too. Buttercup was to her left and had done well securing her side. Blossom saw that she carried a pile of unconscious men in one arm as she sucker punched another fleeing criminal with her free hand and then added his unconscious body to her collection. With half a dozen crooks in her arms, the green Puff's hands were full and she shot off towards the prison with a flash of green light to deliver her final catch.
Blossom hovered high in the air once more and searched with her bright pink eyes. She had yet to spot any villains since their roundup efforts began, and her heart raced frantically as she realized this. Even though the streets below were much calmer, she knew there had to be more criminals still out there, including all the villains. As her pink eyes scanned the ground, they locked on a large group of fleeing criminals in the distance. They had managed to make it far enough down the road on foot that they had nearly reached the border of Downtown. Blossom's eyes began to glow red as she fired up her laserbeams. With one quick zap, her laser eye beams struck a tall palm tree. It came crashing down onto the road just before the group of inmates, blocking their path into the city.
Bubbles and Buttercup joined Blossom in the sky. They took a moment to catch their breath as their leader gave her next command, "There's still some inmates who've made it past City Square. Spread out, and make sure that none make it any further into the city! Again, we need to be on the lookout for any villains! If any of us spot one, we call each other on our cells for back up immediately! Especially if it's Mojo! Got it?"
"Got it!"
"Good." Blossom gave each of her sisters a small, proud smile. They both looked so determined, and despite everything, Blossom couldn't help but feel strangely happy in that moment. "Great work so far, Girls."
Bubbles and Buttercup each returned a weak smile to Blossom. For Bubbles, her concern for the coyotes still weighed heavy on her mind, and her motivation for completing the job at hand was to get to her secret rescue in the woods as soon as possible. Buttercup could see behind the blonde's forced smile, and could tell that this was the case for her. There had been no sign of Fuzzy anywhere. Surely, if he was still in City Square the hairy pink sasquatch would easily stand out amidst the rest of the inmates. Buttercup felt a wave of nauseous guilt wash over her as she thought about the possibility of him reaching the cabin before she and Bubbles could. If anything happened to her sister's coyotes... Bubbles would never forgive her.
Blossom could sense that something was troubling both her siblings, but she thought it to be nerves. After all, it had been the first true call to action in years for the team. Less than a couple hours ago they were celebrating their birthday, and now they were dealing with a wide scale prison break. She gently rested a hand on each of her sister's shoulders, "We're almost through this, Girls," she smiled reassuringly. "We can do this."
Buttercup and Bubbles nodded together. They each shook off their uneasiness and looked determined once more.
"Let's go!" Blossom ordered.
With that the team shot off into action again. Blossom flew towards the group she had stopped down the road, Bubbles retreated back towards the west, and Buttercup darted for the east side.
The pavement beneath his feet was so hot, Snake could feel the heat radiate through the soles of his black boots as he sprinted down the street. The green man's forked tongue slithered rapidly in and out between his thin lips as he breathed deeply in through his nose and out his mouth- just like his old track coach in high school had taught him. Before he dropped out, the young green man held the record for nearly every track and field event at his school. Short sprints, marathons, hurdles- he had a real talent when it came to speed and agility. As he sped along the pavement, Snake's only focus was on getting far away from the two cops that pursued him and his gang. He no longer could hear the shouting of the officers behind him, so he imagined they were making good progress. At long last, he reached the end of the road, and made a sharp left for the next street, "Thisss way, guysss! Come on!" he shouted over his shoulder as he scurried around the corner.
Snake's eyes fell over his shoulder, and the former track-star's quick feet slowed beneath him as he came to a stop. The skinny green man stood alone in the road, realizing then that neither his friends nor the cops were anywhere in sight. He had been so intent on ditching the officers, he forgot his friends weren't as fast as he. His heart thumped wildly in his chest as he began to fear for the safety of his gang. How far back were they still? They had been running for so long, what if one of them- or worse- what if all of them had fallen behind? If the cops had managed to reach them, what could Snake do? He nervously yanked at his stringy black hair as he realized he would have to turn back for them. He couldn't just abandon them. They were like his brothers, and this was their one shot at being together again- free.
Snake jogged back around from where he just came, and as he rounded the corner of the street, a silver minivan was also making a turn onto the road. Snake stumbled to a stop as the minivan nearly collided with him. The vehicle screeched as it slammed on its breaks to avoid running into Snake. The short young woman behind the wheel wore a look of terror on her face as her eyes fell on the green skinned man in orange. While Snake stared back at her with his own fear in his eyes, the woman began to panic, and she screamed as she struggled to unbuckle her seat belt.
Snake stood aside as he watched the short woman flee from the still running vehicle and run for shelter in a nearby complex. He stood there for a moment in confusion, but as soon as he noticed the keys still in the mini van's ignition, Snake knew that this was his chance. He quickly slithered into the driver's seat, buckled himself in and stepped on the gas.
As he sped back down the road towards the prison, he soon spotted his gang running in the distance. It was clear that his three friends were running severely low on steam, but lucky for them, so were the officers that chased them. The cops were still several yards behind the gang. Snake stepped on the gas once more and drove towards them. As soon as he drew close enough, he slammed on the breaks and yanked hard on the steering wheel and drifted to a stop just before them. He lowered the driver's window and shouted out to his friends, "Come on guysss! Hurry!"
The three made a dash for the minivan as soon as they recognized their friend behind the wheel. They couldn't help but cheer and celebrate as they eagerly jumped into the back. Arturo shut the sliding back door behind him, Grubber climbed up front to the passenger seat, and Billy the giant easily took up the entire backseat by himself. The cyclops parted his shaggy red hair momentarily as he looked around the vehicle, "Where'd Sedusa go?" he blinked dumbly.
"Man," Arturo grumbled as he buckled himself into his seat, "That bruja tricked us so she could get away on her own!"
"Buckle up, guysss!" Snake shouted as he stepped on the gas once more, and they quickly sped away.
The two officers halted in their chase, and took aim with their pistols. They shot at the tires of the van while it drove off. As the bullets popped off behind them, Billy, Arturo and Grubber cautiously ducked low, and Snake tried his best to weave through the road and dodge the bullets that flew after them. Thankfully, the aim of the officers failed. Their van screeched loudly as it sped around the corner, and for the time being, the gang had managed to make their escape.
Blossom's pink eyes narrowed on the seven escaped inmates in the distance. They worked together as a team while they tried to hoist one another up over the large tan trunk of the fallen palm tree that blocked their path. As the first convict managed to lift himself up, he suddenly found his feet frozen against the surface of the tree's trunk and unable to move as a dizzying bright pink light zipped around him at top speed.
Blossom blew a steady breath of ice as she circled around the inmates, encasing their black boots in thick cubes of ice and stopping the men in their tracks. A few men who were last in line to climb the obstacle course, quickly retreated for a nearby apartment building. They rushed for the door to the building and had almost made it inside before a bright flash of pink cut in front of them.
Blossom stood in front of the building's entrance with her hands on her hips as she smirked slyly at the remaining three prisoners. They stumbled backwards off the apartment steps, and quickly turned their backs to make another run for it, only as they turned around, the pink Puff was there waiting in their path once more.
Blossom's long ponytail whipped around as she twirled gracefully in the air, and executed three flawless spinning back kicks that struck each of her opponents. Her bright red sneakers hit each man in the center of their chest, and sent them stumbling backwards. Blossom landed delicately back on her feet in a perfectly heroic pose, as she wore a smirk. With her hands poised on her hips and her chin lifted proudly, the redheaded hero watched as the three men fell over onto their backs; their heads bounced against the pavement, and they were knocked out cold.
As Blossom smiled to herself, she heard a collection of shouting from above, accompanied by loud whistles and applause. She looked up and saw that each window to the apartment building was open and crowds of citizens stuck their heads out as they cheered for the young heroine. As her pink eyes fell upon the onlooking fans, a big bright smile swept the teenager's face. Some of them held cameras and phones as they snapped pictures and video of the pink Powerpuff, and Blossom held her pose perfectly so that they could each get their shot of her.
"WAY TO GO!"
"THAT WAS AMAZING!"
"YOU'RE INCREDIBLE!"
"WE LOVE YOU, BLOSSOM!"
As flattering as all the attention was, Blossom still had a job to complete. She paused to give her fans one last smile and wave before she swiftly gathered the seven escaped convicts with one effortless swoop, and shot off back towards the prison.
Buttercup zig zagged through the air as she left City Square behind her, and began her sweep over the east side of Townsville. Her emerald eyes darted back and forth as she scanned quickly for any orange jumpsuits below. At first, she saw none, but as she ascended higher into the air, she saw down a sloped road ahead of her and spotted three escaped prisoners in the distance. Buttercup flew towards them, and as she drew near, she saw that there were two police officers that chased the group.
"STOP!" the cops shouted after them as they continued their pursuit. As the largest of the three turned his head to look back over his shoulder at the cops, Buttercup suddenly recognized the large green man for who he was and she skittered to a stop in the sky.
It was Big Billy, Grubber and Arturo of the Gangreen Gang. Buttercup hovered in the air as she watched from afar. She felt herself begin to sweat as she felt unsure of what to do. Blossom had ordered her to call if they had found any villains, but... she had promised Arturo earlier that she would help him back to his daughter. Truthfully, with all the chaos of the day, she had almost forgotten about that. Sophia was a good kid, and Buttercup wanted to help Arturo, but with two cops already in pursuit, just how was she supposed to do that?
Buttercup quickly looked around for any sign of her sisters, but she did not see them. Maybe she could figure something out, after all.
She turned back to face the retreating gang in the distance and suddenly spotted a silver minivan speeding towards them. "What the-?" Buttercup raised an eyebrow as she watched the speedy vehicle skid to a stop just ahead of the gang. Her emerald eyes shone bright as she activated her x-ray vision and got herself a clear view of who drove the van- it was Snake. She next watched as Grubber, Billy and Arturo jumped into the back of the van. As soon as they were inside, the minivan sped off once more. The two officers unloaded their weapons upon the fleeing vehicle, and for a moment, Buttercup worried that would be the end of it. However, the cops' firearms ran out of bullets, and Buttercup couldn't help but smirk to herself as she watched the gang successfully make their getaway.
She waited for a few moments to give the officers time below to fully give up on their pursuit, before she zipped off once more, and began a new chase for the Gangreen Gang.
"Sssomebody needsss to tell me where we're going exactly heresss!" Snake shouted as he kept the steering wheel steady.
"Shit, Man!" Arturo cursed from the back, "I wish I knew just where the hell that alien guy went! He promised me he would take me to Sophia!"
Snake shook his head. "Mansss, I don't think nobody sssurvived that gunfire we sssaw back there-"
"Yah," Big Billy chimed in, "It was like a bajillion fireworks-"
"Nah, Man!" Arturo protested. "You guys don't get it! I'm telling you! ¡Eso que ni qué this guy was from another planet! I watched the prison guards shoot off a hundred bullets at this fool, and they just bounced off of him like nada! Yo, you all saw how he ripped that cell door off with just his bare strength, right?!"
Grubber turned around in his seat and gave Arturo a short spit.
"Exactly, Man!" Arturo agreed, "He made it look easy! Like poppin' off a cap on a bottle of cerveza! No ordinary person can do that shit!"
"Oh Mansss, I hope we ssssurvive thisss sssso we can enjoy a nicccce cold one! It's been ssssso long-"
"Forget that!" Arturo interrupted, "What we need to do is find that alien guy so he can get us to Ace and Sophia!"
Grubber spit from the passenger seat once more.
"Yeah, Grubber'ssss got a point!" Snake said, "How do we know we can trussst sssome alien?!"
"He said he knew Sophia!" Arturo continued to argue with his friends. "And he knew me! Without me even mentioning the fact that I had a daughter! Somehow this guy knew everything!"
"How'sss that possssssible?"
"What if da alien can read minds?!" Billy shouted from the back.
"Yo, and he'sss here from ssspace to collect more ssssubjectsss!"
"You guys are crazy!" Arturo shouted. "Why would he help us all escape if that were true-"
As Arturo argued, he was interrupted by a sudden bump that he and the rest of the gang all felt at once.
"Guysss!" Snake shouted immediately from the driver's seat, "I can't movesss the car no moresss!"
The four men stared collectively out the front windshield and watched the pavement of the road slowly disappear beneath them.
"We're being lifted into the air!" Arturo shouted in disbelief.
"It'sss the alien!"
"Ahh!" Big Billy tugged at his red hair as he began to freak out, "We're being abducted!"
As the men inside continued to panic helplessly, their getaway van soared swiftly through the bright blue summer sky. Unknown to them, Buttercup was underneath their vehicle, as she carried it over her head and sped across the east side of the city. They weren't too far from their destination, and the super powered teen could easily reach East Downtown in a matter of seconds.
Still, with no clue of what was taking place, Billy, Arturo, Grubber and Snake stared out the windows in fear as they saw nothing but blue sky and clouds around them. After just several seconds of flying through the air, suddenly they felt a shift in gravity as the van began its descent. As they were lowered back onto the ground, their eyes fell on a simple, small home with a patchy green lawn. There was a loud thud as they landed just outside the brown colored unit, on its cement driveway. As soon as they felt their vehicle make contact with the earth once more, they scrambled to remove their seatbelts and quickly exited the vehicle before it had the chance to take off again without warning.
The four looked up at the sky and searched all around for any clue as to what just happened, but saw nothing.
"Uhhh... where are we?" Billy questioned.
"Yo, what the hell is going on out here?!" a voice shouted from behind them. They turned around, and saw a young guy with shaggy brown hair step out from the front door and out onto the small porch. His eyes fell on the four strangers in orange jumpsuits that stood on the driveway and he looked confused, "Who the hell are you guys?"
Before any of them could answer, their eyes next fell on a tall, slender green man in dark shades who stepped onto the porch next.
"Ty, did you hear that-" Ace stopped mid sentence as his own eyes fell on the four. "...crash?" he completed under his breath as he slowly removed his sunglasses from his face. He rubbed at his clouded eyes, in complete disbelief. "Holy shit..." he shook his head as he stepped off the porch and stood there staring at each of them completely in shock. "It's... the gang."
It took them a moment for them each to recognize him, but once they did, Billy, Grubber, Snake and Arturo all shouted at once: "ACE!" The four immediately raced for their old friend and within seconds, Ace found himself at the center of their enormous group hug.
"Yo, how the fuck are you all here right now?!" Ace shouted. The grown man felt his voice break a little as he fought against his fast rising sentimental emotions. "We was watching the prison break on the news, and I was wonderin' if you guys was really a part of it, but- how'd you find me?! How'd you get here?! Dudes, what the fuck?!"
"We can hardly believe it ourssselvesss!"
"An alien carried us through da sky!"
"Yo, Man, you have no idea how glad I am to see you!"
As the old gang was reunited, Tyler looked on from the porch of their condo. He had known about Ace's former gang, but he never imagined he'd meet them himself one day. As he watched Ace slowly break down in happy tears while he hugged each of his long lost friends, Tyler began to realize just how much this reunion meant to him. Ace had called them his former family, and he could see for himself then that that was exactly what they were.
"Nino, who are your friends?" little Sophia asked curiously as she joined Tyler on the porch.
As Arturo's eyes fell on the eight-year-old, they immediately began to swell with tears. He felt his mouth go dry as he struggled momentarily to say her name. A part of him feared that when he said it out loud, the magical dream he suddenly found himself in would end, and he'd wake up and find himself still locked away in his cell at the Villains Ward. He hadn't seen his daughter since she was just two years old. Even though he spoke with her on the phone every Sunday since his incarceration, it was still so surreal to hear that tiny soft voice in person for the first time. "Sophia..." Arturo finally dared to say her name. "Dios mio... you're even more beautiful than I remember..."
The tiny green child's big brown eyes blinked innocently back at Arturo. She did not recognize who he was at all. She looked to her uncle Ace for answers, and he quickly walked back towards her and knelt down beside her. "Sophia," he began softly and with a reassuring smile, "That man right there," he tilted his head in Arturo's direction, "That's your dad, Soph."
Her brown eyes widened as she looked back at Arturo on the driveway. Even though she had no memory of her father being around, Ace had always raised her to respect Arturo as her dad. She only knew him from their short, weekly phone calls. He was always so kind and encouraging, and he reminded her at the end of each call that she was loved. She always secretly prayed that she'd get the chanceto meet him one day, but she never thought those prayers would be answered. Slowly, a wide grin swept across the brace-faced little girl. "DADDY!" she cried out as she ran at the man at full speed and leapt into his arms.
Arturo caught her in his arms and squeezed her with all his might. He could not help but sob loudly from the overwhelming joy he felt as he embraced her then. For the first time in over six years, he held his baby girl in his arms again. And for Arturo, it was the most magical moment he had ever experienced.
A bright blue ribbon of light looped in and out of the city's tall high rises, as Bubbles swept the west. The usual happy-go-lucky girl's face was squinted in a serious and determined expression for once as she scanned the streets below. Her sisters and herself had been at it for nearly three hours then, rounding up inmate after inmate as they combed the city for more. This was their seventh consecutive sweep, and so far, she had yet to find any more escaped convicts. With the red, summer sun beginning to slowly set over the horizon, Bubbles was thankful for this. Finally, they would be able to expand their search beyond the main city, and soon she would at long last get to Townsville Forest.
As Bubbles looped back around towards City Hall, where Blossom had instructed them to meet after their final sweep, she heard a frail voice shout from below, "H-help! Somebody, p-please... help!"
Bubbles turned her head as soon as she heard the voice and zipped quickly down to where it came from. When she landed, she saw that there was a car that had collided with a street fire hydrant. The water that gushed forcefully from the broken red hydrant beat down on the smashed hood of the vehicle. Bubbles could see that the front windshield had been broken, and the car's front axle was bent and twisted out of place. It must have been a pretty hard crash for the driver. With all the mayhem that had just taken place in the streets, Bubbles was surprised there hadn't been more accidents such as this one.
She came to the driver's side of the car and saw an elderly man was still sitting inside behind the wheel. He was slouched in his seat, with his head leaned back against the headrest and Bubbles could see that he was bleeding profusely from his forehead. The blue Powerpuff quickly forced the broken driver's side door open, and helped the old man unbuckle his belt, "Don't worry," she spoke softly, "You're going to be OK now..."
She carefully removed him from the car, scooped him up in her arms and shot off quickly for City Hall. The frail senior citizen shivered slightly as she carried him through the air, and she tried to reassure him again as they flew, "I've got you, Sir. It's OK."
Outside the steps of the capitol and parked along the curb was a row of white painted ambulances. There were several teams of emergency responders there, standing by to treat any injured civilians. As Bubbles arrived, she landed on the steps of City Hall with the injured man in her arms and a nearby team of paramedics rushed over at once to take him from her.
"He was in a car accident," Bubbles explained to the team. She stood aside and watched the emergency technicians carefully lower him onto a stretcher and load him into the back of one of the ambulances. As they fixed an oxygen mask around his face, Bubbles felt her heart ache for the elderly man. He was still shaking, and he looked so scared. She looked on quietly as they shut the back door of the ambulance, and then watched as it pulled away and sped for the hospital down the road. As Bubbles watched the red sirens disappear over the far hill, she prayed quietly to herself that the man would be OK.
"Bubbles," Blossom landed beside her sister. "How was the west?"
Bubbles faced Blossom, "I didn't see any more prisoners."
"Good," Blossom said with a single nod. "Everything was clear on my end, too." As she spoke she looked up and saw a green light approaching from above. Buttercup landed beside her on the steps of the capitol. "Buttercup, how was the east?"
"It's all good now," Buttercup reported.
"Any signs of any of our villains?"
Buttercup and Bubbles shook their heads.
Blossom sighed a little. Her pink eyes traveled over her sisters' heads and fell on the mayor and chief of police who came towards them. She stood up straight. "Mayor," she reported to the politician, "We can confirm that the main city is clear now."
"Girls," Mayor Bellum began as she stood before them, "We cannot thank you enough for all that you've done today."
Blossom blushed a little, "It's no problem, Mayor," she smiled. "We are still having trouble locating the villains that escaped though," her smile turned to a frown.
Mayor Bellum turned to the police chief who held a manila folder in his hands. He handed her the documents and she passed the folder next to Blossom. "Unfortunately, it would seem that there is one more villain to be added to our search efforts."
Blossom blinked back at the mayor for a moment before she opened the manila folder. As she did, each of her sisters stood close beside her and peered at the folder's contents with her. Their eyes fell on a collection of still photographs which looked to be taken from prison security footage. The stills featured a skinny figure dressed all in black who wore an alien faced Halloween mask.
"We've confirmed that this individual was the one behind the prison break and the one responsible for freeing all the villains from the Villains Ward," Bellum spoke as the three continued to stare at the photos within the folder.
Buttercup gulped nervously as Blossom handed her one of the photos to take, before handing the last copy to Bubbles. Buttercup held the still frame of herself from earlier, and pretended to study it just as her sisters studied theirs. She felt her palms grow sweaty as she held the thin paper in her hands. She glanced at Bubbles and Blossom, and wondered what they may be thinking. The pictures weren't the clearest images, and the mask she wore had successfully kept her face hidden. Still, Buttercup silently began to panic as the gravity of what she started at long last began to settle in her mind.
"Unbelievable," Blossom shook her head as she stared at the masked criminal, "This was all carried out by one person?"
"Yes," the chief of police nodded firmly as he rested his hands on his belt, "We're still interviewing the guards who were on duty today, but," he shook his head, "So far, we've been led to believe that this fella might possess a multitude of supernatural abilities."
Blossom looked up from the photo and blinked back at the chief. "Supernatural abilities?" she repeated with wide eyes. She looked between him and the mayor, "Can I see the footage?"
Bellum nodded, "Yes, of course. We'll be holding a meeting with all our findings first thing tomorrow morning. As soon as our interviews are wrapped up and we have all our evidence collected, we will be reviewing everything so that we can begin our hunt for the person responsible for all of this."
"We have a hunch that this perpetrator might have some sort of vengeful motive against you girls," the chief continued. "It being your all's birthday and whatnot. The fact that they chose to strike today seems oddly personal." He looked at each of the girls, "Any ideas?"
The three teens looked at one another before looking back at the police chief and shaking their heads. "No," they all responded.
Bellum sighed deeply. "I am so sorry that this mess had to happen on your girls' birthday." She frowned at each of them. "The chief and I will be working all night to get to the bottom of this. We will also have our units patrolling every inch of the city and they will be on close lookout for our escaped villains. So if you girls would like to return home now-"
"With all due respect, Mayor," Blossom interrupted, "We wouldn't feel right just leaving the city without first exhausting every effort to find the villains ourselves. Right, girls?"
Bubbles and Buttercup nodded, "Yeah."
"And if the motive behind this attack is truly because of us," Blossom shook her head, "We have a responsibility to make this right."
Mayor Bellum gave the team leader a small smile. "Very well," she began, "You girls do your thing then, but don't push yourselves too hard. You've done well enough already. With our units on patrol, if anything turns up, we will be sure to give you three a call."
Blossom smiled weakly, "Guess we should reinstall the hotline then, huh?"
Bellum smiled back. "Thank you again, girls. We'll meet again in the morning."
As the mayor and police chief departed, Blossom turned to face her sisters. "OK, guys," she began. "With all the villains still missing, it's time to change course. I think for our next sweep we should adopt Bubbles' plan and search for our missing villains at their old hideouts." Blossom scratched her chin a little, "Sedusa will be hard to locate- that chameleon never stayed in one spot for long. But, we know Mojo had his old observatory. I'll check there."
"I can check the forest for Fuzzy!" Bubbles volunteered right away.
"Perfect, Bubbles!" Blossom smiled proudly.
She looked at Buttercup. "Buttercup, I want you to check the dump for the Gangreen Gang."
"Sure," Buttercup shrugged.
"We'll reconvene here in an hour, unless we find anything. And if we do, we call each other for back up, OK?" She paused as she raised the photo in her hands once more, "Also, we gotta be on the lookout for whoever this is. We don't know what to expect from this guy, so if either of you happen to spot him, proceed with extreme caution and again, don't forget to call for backup. Got it?"
Bubbles and Buttercup nodded.
"Alright," Blossom folded the photograph and tucked it safely in her jacket. "Let's go!"
The three took off all at once. As Blossom headed west for the Discovery Dome, Bubbles and Buttercup began to soar north for the forest. While Bubbles zipped through the sky, she was surprised at first to see Buttercup sticking by her side. The tomboy shouted over the wind as they flew, "I'm coming with you to the forest!"
"But Blossom said you should check the dump-"
"That shit's a waste of time!" Buttercup shook her head. "That old shack isn't even there anymore! Besides," she frowned a little, "I said I'd go with you, right? We can check the stupid dump after!"
Bubbles' baby blue eyes watered a little as she smiled at her sibling, "Thanks, Buttercup."
Townsville Forest sat beneath the mountainside which ran along the northern border of the city. The hike was difficult to manage on foot, and the woods were so dense it was easy to get lost. However, for Fuzzy Lumpkins, his kind had lived in those parts for generations. Although he hadn't been there for years upon years, he still knew the area well and had no issue navigating through the thick forest. It was the place he dreamed of every night when he would lay his head down back in his cell at the Villains Ward. The sweet scent of cedar, the crisp mountain air, and the quiet, trickling streams that wove in and out of the mountainside- the forest had been his home all his life. As he made his long hike up the mountainside, he already felt a great sense of peace just being back in nature. After all that time being locked away in a steel cell, it was good to be back again.
The sun was beginning to set, and it would be dark soon within the hour. His hike took hours on foot. After all, he had built his cabin home deep inside the forest for good reason, and that was to be as far away from the rest of civilization as possible. Peace and quiet, and solitude were what mattered most to him. He could not stand the loud bustling ways of the city. His pa used to tell him about a time before all the highways and factories were built- a time before humans took over. As long as he was left alone in his cabin, Fuzzy could pretend that such a paradise still existed.
Even though Townsville had declared the forest a nature reservation, before it did so, mankind had already done their damage. The forest once stretched as far as the hillsides, but much of it had been cleared to make way for the city's expansion. All that was left were the woods just under the mountains. Fuzzy imagined that if the humans had never arrived then maybe there would still be more of his kin around still that day, and he wouldn't be the last Lumpkin left.
As Fuzzy followed the narrow stream that led up to his old small cottage, his eyes fell on the mud under his feet. He halted for a moment as he looked about the riverbank and noticed many prints left behind in the mud. The experienced tracker knelt down and gently touched the paw print markings. Dogs? No. Wolves? No. Coyotes. That was it.
He scratched his chin as he studied the tracks curiously. Coyotes usually traveled alone, or at best in very small packs. However, as he looked around he could see many sets of paw prints. It took some time for the simple-minded beast to count them all, but it seemed that there were at least twenty-three different distinct sets altogether. In all his life in the forest, Fuzzy had never heard of such a thing before. Twenty-three coyotes traveling together? That was a strange thing to imagine. As he thought about this, his ears perked up at the sound of a single howl in the distance.
Fuzzy held his breath as he listened intently to the wild, echoing call. Although he could not tell exactly where it came from as the sound ricocheted off the forest trees, he could tell that the coyote who sang it was not very far. The howl began low and rose higher and higher, like an alarm. That was how the animals of the forest spoke to one another. Wherever this coyote was, it had seen Fuzzy and his call was an alert to the rest of his pack.
There was a still quiet for several moments in the forest after that. Fuzzy continued his hike slowly up the mountainside, and saw that the paw prints in the mud seemed to travel the same path as he. He stopped in his tracks again as suddenly the wild spoke again, and a choir of howls cried out all at once.
The pack had answered their Alpha's call.
Fuzzy quickened his pace. What he'd give to have his old trusty shotgun right then.
As he hurried across the forest, he tried to keep in mind that animals rarely made trouble, so long as you caused them none. It was the unspoken code of the forest, after all. The coyotes that watched him probably just wanted to be sure that he meant them no harm, and soon they would be able to see for themselves that all Fuzzy really wanted was to just get back to his property. Surely once they saw that, they'd leave him be.
His instincts were correct, but what Fuzzy did not realize then was that his old home had become the coyotes' new den. The closer he got to the cabin, the more the coyotes viewed the pink beast as an invading threat. The coyotes had spent years of their lives scavenging the streets of Townsville and fighting to survive. Their den in the forest had been the best thing to ever happen to them, and that evening they banded together to protect it. The pack scattered throughout the woods, and watched the furry yeti draw closer.
As his eyes finally fell on the small wooden cabin, a giant toothy grin swept Fuzzy's face. At long last, he had made it. But his smile soon faded. "Huh?" he said out loud as he noticed something off about what he saw. The hand-carved wooden door to his home had been removed. There was a piece of blue plastic there instead. As he saw this, a vicious snarl swept the beast's face, "Somebody's been messin' with MY PROPERTY!"
Fuzzy's mean roar echoed throughout the forest, and the coyotes answered back with their own howls. The furry wild man practically foamed at the mouth from the rage he felt knowing that his home had been violated. Fuzzy began to charge for his cabin with his chest puffed out and big, but he didn't get very far. He had only taken two steps before the first three coyotes struck him from behind and knocked him onto his belly.
As he lifted his face from the dirt and looked up, he saw a single grey coated coyote standing over him. The wild dog's head hung low and his yellow eyes burned brightly as he looked Fuzzy dead in the eyes. The canine's teeth were in a mean snarl as he growled low at Fuzzy.
Fuzzy quickly tried to scramble back onto his feet, but felt a sharp pain on both his ankles strike at once.
He yelped loudly as he turned on his back and kicked at the two coyotes that gripped him by his feet. He struck one hard enough that it retreated quickly in a whimper, but there were only three more coyotes there to take his place. They bit down on his right leg and several more latched onto his left, and together they dragged him backwards through the mud.
Fuzzy lashed out at the coyotes wildly, but as soon as he began to beat at them, more coyotes came for him next. As he flailed his arms, the coyotes took turns making quick rips at his thick furry coat- tearing out chunks of pink fur from his arms and legs. It began with just missing patches of fur, but the more and more the coyotes ripped at him, the deeper their teeth began to sink into his flesh.
As the dogs attacked, there were more that drew in closer and closer in a tight circle around Fuzzy. Whenever Fuzzy managed to beat one off, another came next. Even with his bear-like strength, he was severely outnumbered, and the wild pack of dogs kept him pinned to the ground as they continued to rip at him one by one.
Fuzzy yanked hard on the scruff of one of the dogs, and forcefully tossed him against the trunk of a nearby tree. As the coyote slammed against the bark, he was knocked unconscious. This act only made the rest of the pack angrier. They collectively pounced down on him, and forced him to lay flat on his back against the cold ground.
The grey coated coyote stepped forward from the circle that surrounded Fuzzy and let out a loud, bellowing howl. As his cry echoed throughout the woods, he lowered his head once more and his yellow eyes locked again with Fuzzy's.
Fuzzy was so terrified by the predatory look in the dog's face then that he did not notice the bright blue and green lights that soared over the horizon.
Bubbles gasped loudly as she and Buttercup crossed into the forest and she could see Fuzzy in the distance with her coyotes. "Oh no!" she cried out as they flew towards them, "He is here! He's already fighting the coyotes, Buttercup!"
"Well, we're here now! We'll kick his ass and take him back to jail! It'll be-" Buttercup stopped herself as she began to notice the small puddles of red blood and scattered piles of pink fur that littered the ground.
Bubbles gasped again as they both screeched to a stop just behind the circle of coyotes. Her blue eyes were wide with shock as she watched Victor slowly inch his way towards Fuzzy who was pinned down still by a dozen other dogs. Victor's wire coat stood up sharp and jagged as he growled low and continued to stare down Fuzzy. Bubbles looked at Fuzzy and saw that he was badly bleeding, his orange jumpsuit had been ripped to shreds, and his eyes were wide with fear. Bubbles just couldn't believe it. She had never seen such a mean expression on Victor's face before then, but as he snarled at Fuzzy, Bubbles could see that her friend's primal instincts had taken over him.
"VICTOR!" Bubbles cried.
Just as the blue Powerpuff called out, Victor made his strike. The grey coated dog swiftly pounced onto Fuzzy's chest and he sunk his teeth deep into his throat. Fuzzy tried to cry out as Victor attacked, but his vocal chords were already damaged.
Bubbles looked on in horror and found herself frozen in a complete state of shock as she watched her friend tear at the defenseless yeti's neck. Buttercup stood beside her with her jaw agape, but as she witnessed Victor rip away a bloody chunk of meat from Fuzzy's throat she couldn't help but be impressed by the canine's commitment, "Alright, Victor!" Buttercup pumped her fist into the air as she rooted for the coyote.
"NO!" Bubbles shouted as she finally snapped out of her stunned state. She immediately shot off as she shouted again, "VICTOR, NO!" Bubbles flew at Victor and knocked him away from Fuzzy with a forceful shove. The rest of the coyotes scampered away as soon as Bubbles came upon them.
As Victor stumbled off of him, he turned to face Bubbles still with a chunk of pink fur and meat between his teeth. He spit it out onto the ground and lowered his ears flat as he blinked back at Bubbles. "Bubbles, he was-"
Bubbles interrupted Victor's quiet whimper with a loud howl, "NO!" she cried out in the speech only the coyotes could understand, "THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO! THAT'S BAD, VICTOR! VERY BAD! ALL OF YOU! BAD!"
Victor lowered himself closer to the ground as he whimpered again, "But, Bubbles-"
"NO!" Bubbles howled again.
As Buttercup watched her sister howl back and forth with the coyotes, she could not understand what her sister was telling them. She could tell though- by the tears that streamed down her face- that Bubbles was completely distraught by what the coyotes had done. Buttercup thought at first that Bubbles would be relieved to see that her mutts could fend for themselves, and that Fuzzy did not hurt them, but this was clearly not the case. Truthfully, Buttercup didn't know if she'd ever seen her sister so upset before in her life.
Buttercup heard a gurgling noise from where Fuzzy lay on the ground. She floated over to him, and as she stood over his body she could see that the gurgling came from his throat as he struggled to speak. He held one hand over his neck as a steady flow of blood seeped between his furry fingers and his eyelids looked as if they were growing heavy.
"Oh, shit..." Buttercup muttered to herself as she knelt over him. She had seen that Victor had just torn at him pretty good, but she didn't think he had done that much damage. "Bubs," she called out as she watched Fuzzy's eyes gradually close, "Bubs! Dude, I think we need to get him some help!" As she knelt over him, she saw the arm he had lifted to his throat go limp. As his hand fell away from his neck, a sharp spray of bright red blood spit upward from his vocal chords and struck Buttercup in the face. She responded quickly by cupping her hands over the opening in Fuzzy's throat, and pressing down against the rising fountain of blood. As she kept pressure on the wound she shouted for Bubbles again, "BUBBLES!"
Bubbles finally heard Buttercup and quickly zipped over to her side. As she finally began to notice the blood on her sister's face and the state Fuzzy was in, her eyes swelled with more tears, "Oh my God, oh my God," she squeaked in a panic, "What do we do?!"
"I'll keep the pressure here on his throat! You lift him up!" Buttercup instructed her sister quickly. "Forget jail- we need to get him to the hospital before he croaks!"
Bubbles quickly moved to the other side of Fuzzy's unconscious body, and she carefully hoisted him up into her arms as her sister continued to press down on his neck. Together, they carried him into the air, and shot off back towards the main city.
Robin sat upon the sofa beside the Professor within the Utonium home's living room. The two of them had been glued to the news on television all day. It was late into the evening already, and neither of them had heard a word from Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup. The only information they had was what the news broadcast covered, and so the two of them sat and watched, and waited. It was all they could do.
The Professor checked his wristwatch for the time and saw that it was nearly ten. His girls had been called to action nearly eight hours ago. Even in their youth- when crime-fighting was an everyday fact of life for them- it was rare to have them gone for so long. Earlier in the afternoon, they were able to catch brief glimpses of the girls in action from the news helicopter's live feed. They watched how the team managed to clean up the streets of City Square, and return a reported 867 escaped inmates back to their cells. However for the last several hours, the footage that the station played was mostly shots from earlier. The action around City Square had long since died down, and the reporters on the scene spent their time interviewing locals on their eye-witness accounts of the prison break.
The news reported that the Powerpuff Girls were patrolling the city, in search of the escaped villains who were still at large. That reported search began several hours ago, and the longer time went on, the more and more both Robin and the Professor feared what may be happening off screen. Two hours prior, the news had broken that Fuzzy Lumpkins was apprehended by them and was in custody, but there hadn't been any updates since.
As the Professor watched his wristwatch's minute arm tick past ten, he sighed deeply and looked to Robin. "It's getting pretty late, Robin. Are you sure you don't need to go home?"
Robin glanced at the Professor, but only for a split moment. Her teal eyes returned to the TV screen as she frowned, "I already told my parents I wouldn't be back home until they're back. They understand."
Professor Utonium smiled weakly. "OK, then." He could see in the young girl's expression that she was worried terribly for her friends. He imagined possibly even as worried as he.
As the news coverage took another commercial break, Robin reached into her pants pocket for her cell phone. She checked it for any messages, but there were none. As she scrolled through the device, she brought up a photo of herself and Blossom. They had taken the selfie together that past Sunday when they spent the day together at the beach. As Robin's teal blue eyes stared at the cherished memory, she felt a sharp pain within her chest. She felt her eyes beginning to water, and she quickly returned her phone to her pocket and forced herself to shake away her fear for the hundredth time.
Just then, there was a click heard at the front door. Both the Professor and Robin jumped to their feet immediately and rushed for the home's entrance. As they came around the corner, they saw that at long last, the girls had returned home.
Blossom held the door open as both Bubbles and Buttercup slowly floated through the entrance. All three looked incredibly exhausted as they shut the door behind them and turned to see Robin and the Professor coming into the hallway. The pair ran at them immediately, and the triplets found themselves instantly smothered by one big, simultaneous embrace.
"Thank goodness!" The Professor celebrated as he planted a kiss on each of the tops of their heads, "You've made it home! And you're all safe!" As he stepped away, his eyes fell on Buttercup. The tomboy's face was stained red as well as much of her uniform. Bubbles also had traces of blood on her baby blue jacket. "Right?" the Professor asked with concern as he looked between them both.
Bubbles nodded slowly. She looked glum and she squeaked quietly as she answered him, "Yeah, Professor. We're fine."
"Yeah," Buttercup nodded. She saw that the Professor was staring at her blood soaked sleeves with wide eyes, and she added, "It's not ours."
"Thank goodness," he sighed with relief.
Blossom looked to Robin who smiled directly at her. "Robin, you waited here for us the whole time?" Blossom questioned.
"Of course I did, Silly," Robin shook her head, still wearing a grin. She couldn't help it. After spending the entire day worrying over Blossom and her sisters' safety, Robin was beyond relieved to see them back home again. Even though she had just finished hugging all three of them, the brunette felt the need to wrap her arms around Blossom once more. She practically leapt off the ground as she threw her arms around her, "I'm just so glad you're back."
Blossom rested her chin on Robin's shoulder as she returned the embrace. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and cherished the warmth her girlfriend lent to her. "Me too."
"You girls must be starving!" the Professor clapped his hands together. "I'll get some quick dinner started while you three wash up!" he announced as he began to hurry for the kitchen.
"Dibs on the shower first," Buttercup muttered as she began to float down the hallway.
Bubbles followed behind her and sighed quietly, "I'm next."
Robin watched the two slowly float past she and Blossom and her smile faded a little. She looked to Blossom. "What happened to them?"
Blossom shook her head, "We split up to search the old villains' hideouts. Bubbles found Fuzzy in the forest and called Buttercup for back up. Apparently there was a pack of wolves that got to Fuzzy before we could." Blossom shuttered a little, "They really did a number on the sasquatch. Bubbles was pretty shaken up over it."
"Poor, Bubbles," Robin commented as she watched the two reach the second floor. She turned back to Blossom. "But everything else went OK?"
Blossom shrugged. "OK enough, I guess. I mean... we got the prison secured again, and Fuzzy's been caught. He's in critical, but if he manages to pull through, he'll be locked up again," Blossom paused as she frowned, "But... we still have no clue where the rest could be. We looked everywhere we could think of- honestly I really didn't want to stop- but no matter how thoroughly we searched we just couldn't find any of them." Blossom sighed, "A part of me feels like we failed today..."
"You didn't fail," Robin spoke softly, but seriously. She looked Blossom in her eyes as she gave her a reassuring smile, "You guys saved the day."
Blossom blushed, "Thanks, Robin." She paused. "I'm sorry that we had to leave the party so early. After all the work you put into it and everything, I feel terrible-"
"That wasn't your fault," Robin interrupted. She shook her head, "Besides, all that was really left for the party was just the gift opening. All the presents our friends brought are still waiting for you at my house." She paused for a moment as she looked at Blossom, "You wanna help me bring them over? Maybe opening some gifts from her friends will help cheer Bubbles up? We can't have her all depressed on the night of her birthday."
Blossom smiled at Robin. That was her girlfriend- always thinking of others- always trying to make things better. "Sure," she reached for the doorknob and pulled the door open. "Let's go."
Bubbles quietly floated inside her bedroom, and gently shut the door behind herself. She slowly made her way over to her bed and sat down. She had felt mostly in a daze for the last several hours of the night. She was exhausted- both physically and emotionally- and the blue Powerpuff had barely managed to keep it together up until that point. As she sat on her bed, she felt everything deep within her suddenly rush to the surface at once. She buried her face in her hands, and finally gave into the tears she had been fighting back all night.
Her whole body shook from how hard she cried. At the foot of her bed sat her giant Bunny-Bunny plush doll. The blonde girl took the giant stuffed rabbit in her arms and squeezed it tightly, as she laid on her bed with it and cried. Her hard sobs were muffled as she buried her face within the stuffed animal's plush white chest. As she wept, her mind flashed back to the events of the evening that haunted her- the coyotes' feral growls- Victor's burning yellow eyes- the blood that gushed from Fuzzy neck- the pink fur and flesh between Victor's sharp teeth- her sibling covered in blood- the weight of Fuzzy's unmoving body in her arms and how it grew colder as they carried him... She tightened her arms around her plush rabbit and sobbed even harder.
Never before had the young girl experienced such heart break. After everything she had done, and after all the times she defended the coyotes when nobody else would, Bubbles was beside herself then. Along with the looping memories in her mind, she could hear Dr. Weaver's voice reminding her:
They're coyotes, not dogs...
When it comes to the wild ones, well, they're labeled wild for a reason. And so that's where they belong- the wild...
Feral animals are wired in a different way...
They're simply... unpredictable.
She cried and cried, and could do nothing else. For fifteen minutes she let it all out until she drained herself of all her tears. She wept for her broken heart, and she wept for the coyotes. She prayed that Fuzzy would be OK, and she wept for him, too. Despite him being the enemy, Bubbles knew that he did not deserve this. Nobody did. How could the coyotes be so cruel? How could Victor be so cruel? If she hadn't been there to witness it herself, she would never believe that he was capable of such ruthlessness.
Slowly, her muffled sobs faded to quiet sniffles, as she forced herself to sit up once more. Bubbles rose from her bed and began to walk across her bedroom for a box of tissues on her desk. She tripped over something on the ground and looked down. One of her paintings lay on the floor and she knelt down to retrieve it. As she took the painted canvas in her hands, she began to notice there were several more scattered at her feet. Normally, she kept her artwork stacked neatly upon her drawing table beneath her bedroom window and she was confused as to how they ended up on the ground.
As she collected the scattered paintings and returned them to their place, she felt a cool breeze and discovered that her bedroom window was open. She blinked at the open window momentarily before shutting it. While she fixed her canvas collection once more, Bubbles listened to the sounds of the shower running in the bathroom across the hall. She wiped away the tears that stained her face with her hands and walked back to her bedroom door.
Bubbles floated quietly down the hall, and looked at the shut bathroom door as she passed it; once again she could hear that Buttercup was still in the shower. She reached the other end of the hall and stopped at Buttercup's closed bedroom door. She paused there for a second before she quietly slipped inside.
Her blue eyes immediately fell on the birdcage that sat upon Buttercup's dresser. Lorenzo and Maria perked up at the sight of the pigtailed girl. "Bubbles!" they chirped excitedly, "You're home!"
"Hi, guys," Bubbles chirped back with a forced, weak smile. "Hey..." she began again, "Can you two tell me... did Buttercup... go anywhere today?"
"Yes, she was gone for a while!" Maria whistled.
"Yes, yes," Lorenzo agreed as he bobbed his head, "She only just returned before you all left again!"
Bubbles frowned a little. She had suspected that her open window might have something to do with her sibling's notorious habit of sneaking out. But what would she be sneaking around for in the middle of the day? She knelt closer to the cage and whistled quietly, "Do you know where she went?"
"No, but she seemed excited to go!" Maria answered.
"Yes, but when she returned, she was acting strangely, wasn't she, my love?" Lorenzo whistled.
"Yes, definitely. Very strange."
Bubbles blinked at the birds, "Strange how?"
"Well, she flew into the room and looked panicked like something had chased her!" Lorenzo answered.
"Yes, and she kept trying to hide something behind that door!" Maria tilted her head towards the other end of the room.
Bubbles stepped away from the birdcage and her blue eyes fell on the shut door to Buttercup's closet. She wasn't usually one for snooping, but... something about the situation felt odd. Slowly, she made her way over to the closet, and reached for the door's handle.
"What are you doing?"
Bubbles whipped around quickly, "Buttercup, nothing! I-I-" she was about to begin her apology when her eyes fell on her sibling. Buttercup stood at the doorway, dressed in her PJs for the night with her hair still dripping wet from the shower. She held her uniform bundled up in her arms, and Bubbles saw that she stared back with her green eyes big and full of panic. As Bubbles followed her sister's fearful gaze to where her hand still rested on the closet door's handle, Bubbles knew then that it was the look of someone who was about to get caught.
"What are you doing?" Buttercup repeated again as she stepped into the room and began to walk towards her sister.
"Where did you go today, Buttercup?" Bubbles asked directly.
Buttercup halted. She gulped a little. "Nowhere-"
"Buttercup, don't lie, OK?" Bubbles frowned. "Maria and Lorenzo told me already that you went out. They also said that when you came back you were acting weird, and that you hid something in your closet... So where did you go today, Buttercup?"
Buttercup stared back at her with her mouth agape. She felt her heart pounding fiercely in her chest as her eyes darted between her sister's suspicious look and her hand still resting on the door to her closet. She tried to think of an answer- another lie- but she was too caught off guard to come up with anything.
Bubbles watched Buttercup clearly panicking before her. She had no idea what could be causing her to act that way, but she felt it necessary to find out. "Buttercup..." she squeaked quietly, "What's in there?"
Buttercup swallowed hard as she stepped cautiously towards her. She met her by the closet door and spoke low, "Bubs, I..." she began with her eyes on her feet, "Bubs... you and Bloss were at your party, and I... I dunno. I was just... bored, I guess. I just... needed some air, and..." Buttercup's voice trailed off as her eyes met Bubbles'. She frowned. "I just wanted to have a little fun on my birthday."
Bubbles stepped aside and watched as Buttercup opened the door to her closet. The tomboy knelt inside and reached with one hand for a pile of laundry on the floor. She picked something up and slowly turned back around to face her.
"Here," Buttercup muttered quietly as she placed something into Bubbles' hands. "Take it. Just... please don't tell the Professor."
Bubbles looked down at the small jar in her hands. She turned it over and realized it was full of marijuana. She frowned as she looked at Buttercup once more. "Buttercup," she sighed a little, "You have to be more careful. It's one thing for you to sneak out to smoke at night when the Professor's asleep, but in the middle of the day?" She shook her head. "You're just asking to get caught again, you know?"
Buttercup sighed heavily, "Yeah... well, I guess you caught me, huh?"
Bubbles watched as her sister added her uniform to the top of the pile of laundry. She could see that the uniform's sleeves were now stained a deep red. The sight of the blood only reminded Bubbles once more of their time in the forest and she felt sick. As Buttercup shut the door to her closet, Bubbles tried to push the nightmares from her mind once more. "Buttercup," she began quietly, "I don't want to get you in trouble..." She sighed again as she handed the jar of weed back to Buttercup, "Here. Just... find a better hiding spot, OK?"
Buttercup took the jar and gave Bubbles a small smile, "Thanks, Bubs."
Bubbles smiled at Buttercup, but said nothing. She stepped towards her and planted a small peck on her scarred cheek. "Thanks for helping me today."
Buttercup rubbed the spot on her cheek as she watched her sister float out of her bedroom, "Anytime."
Once her sister had left the room, Buttercup's eyes fell on the birdcage on her dresser and narrowed. The two birds blinked back at her with their tiny beaded black eyes. They watched as the skinny teenager turned back to her closet and began to rummage around for something.
"Time for bed, you two," Buttercup said as she approached the birdcage with a dark colored throw blanket. She draped it over the cage, trapping the parakeets in darkness. "Rotten little snitches," she muttered under her breath.
Buttercup's eyes fell on the open doorway to her room, and she saw Blossom ascending the staircase with Robin at her side. The two of them each carried a bundle of gifts in their arms, and they stopped at her door. "Hey, Buttercup," Robin smiled as she stepped into her room, "I was gonna come bring this by after the party, but- well you know," she shrugged a little as she held a wrapped, rectangular shaped gift out to her. "It's from me."
Buttercup took the gift from Robin, "Thanks."
"Is Bubbles still in the shower?" Blossom asked Buttercup from the doorway.
"Yeah," Buttercup shrugged, "She just got in."
"I'll put her gifts in her room for her," Robin smiled as she turned to leave down the hallway, "It will be a nice surprise for her when she gets out."
Buttercup watched as Robin left. She looked down at the wrapped gift in her hands and tore the green paper open. It was a book, which usually wasn't something the green Puff would be excited about. However, on the cover was a photo of her most favorite punk of all time, and a smile instantly swept her face, "Cool," she said to herself as she held the book in her hands, "Joe Strummer."
Blossom stood at the doorway still and watched Buttercup. She was curious to see if her sibling would actually enjoy the gift Robin had gotten for her. She had gone with Robin to the bookstore that day when she purchased it. At the time, Blossom believed Robin's gift to be an odd choice for Buttercup; she never read anything but comics, after all. However once she saw Buttercup's reaction for herself, Blossom realized then that she had been wrong.
"Some birthday, huh?" Blossom leaned up against the frame to the doorway.
Buttercup looked up at Blossom. "Yeah," she muttered as she floated over to her bed and sat down.
Blossom watched her sister flip through the pages of her new book for a few moments before continuing. "I guess it wasn't all bad though, right?"
Buttercup looked up at Blossom once more, "Yeah..." she raised an eyebrow. "I guess not..." She sat aside her book and tried to judge the peculiar smile on her sister's face. "Wait... what do you mean?"
She shrugged as she laughed a little, "I don't know exactly." Blossom flew into the room, and sat her small pile of gifts down at her feet as she sat beside Buttercup. "It just kinda looked like you were having fun out there," she began again. "You know, while you were knocking all those crooks out. Were you?"
Buttercup smirked a little, but she said nothing.
Blossom nudged her with her elbow, "Come on," she grinned. "You can admit it."
"What? Why?" Buttercup smiled slyly. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah," Blossom smiled, "I... actually did."
Her sister's answer's came quicker than Buttercup expected, and the answer itself was definitely not what she anticipated. The surprise on her face must have been clear to Blossom because she began to laugh a little again.
"I know, I know," Blossom shook her head, "I shouldn't say that. I know that this is serious... It's very serious. The villains are all out and plotting who knows what. I should be worried about what may come next, and who this new masked villain is. I guess a part of me is, but another part of me..." Blossom looked at Buttercup and smiled, "I don't know why, but I just feel... weirdly excited."
Buttercup blinked back at Blossom for a moment, before she slowly nodded. "Yeah..." a small smile crossed her face again, "Me too."
"Well," Blossom began again as she rose to her feet. She collected her gifts once more as she turned to leave, "I have to put this stuff away." She paused at the doorway. "Say, tomorrow the mayor and the police are having that meeting about the break in... Did you want to maybe come with me?"
Buttercup nodded, "Yeah, I guess I can."
Blossom smiled, "Again, I know I shouldn't say this, but... Personally, I can't wait to catch this bastard."
Buttercup watched as Blossom's eyes narrowed with determination as she spoke. Her gaze was focused off in the distance as if she was picturing something in her mind then. Whatever she was imagining, it caused Blossom to smile in a mischievous sort of way. The look caused Buttercup to feel suddenly on edge. After all, the bastard her sister wanted to catch was her. She had known Blossom all her life, and one thing she knew about her was that whenever she set her mind to something, Blossom was always determined to see it through.
"Yeah," Buttercup finally answered back as she forced herself to smile once more. "Me too."
A/N: I figured I should start doing this for some of Arturo's dialogue...
Quick spanish translations:
vamanos - let's go
bruja - witch
eso que ni qué - a saying similar to "no doubt" or "it goes without saying"
nada - nothing
cerveza - beer
Dios mio - Oh my God
