Like a good communist, I own nothing.

"Gauntlet: Lies"
Part 4

May 8

"Cross pattern! Strong green! Boomer- Cover fire! Move! Now!"

Butch felt the song of war ring in his ears. Brick's words provided only rough direction; Butch heeded first and foremost the calling of his blood. The world around them was a blur as they flew towards their target. Standing over the city like a colossus was some sort of spider like creature, mottled and pitted black across what passed for its rocky body and long spindle legs. Across its surface, a thin film of pale white slime flowed and dropped down onto the city.

The hissing he heard from below was a warning that went unheeded.

Fist forward, he attacked the body from above while Brick circled around to flank. The substance was like rough hewn rock or concrete, yet remarkably strong. Still, against Butch's power, even it buckled with a spray of white goo. Pulling back for another blow, he suddenly felt searing pain cut into him like a knife.

Pulling back with a pop of displaced air, Butch looked down at his arms and hands. The white slime was some sort of acid... and it was eating into him. He could see the flakes of skin falling off through the red hazy of agony. Roaring, he was about to open fire with his eye beams when a voice interrupted him.

"STOP!"

It wasn't Brick, and it wasn't Boomer, so Butch ignored it. Red fire danced from his narrowed eyes and cut into the material with a wet splatter, releasing a small fountain of white blood. Butch laughed.

"That's it! Burn you mother..."

"I said: STOP!" Something grabbed him from behind, and threw off his aim. He blinked, terminating the flow of energy, and spun around.

"Who..." Butch sneered at Blossom and pushed her back. "The Pink Puff? What the HELL are you doing getting in my way?"

"Damn it!" Brick yelled from above. "Boomer, stop firing! Butch, regroup behind the sun!"

Butch looked in the direction of his leader's voice, back to Blossom, and then headed off at top speed. He headed for the sun, using it as cover behind them for their next attack. It apparently didn't matter to Brick that the spider creature didn't have any eyes.

"What's the problem, Bossman?" Butch's whole body still hurt, but he'd come to like a little pain. It did the body good. It purified the mind.

"Yeah?" Boomer asked. "We were about to cut that thing to ribbons!"

"It's leaking acid all over the place." Brick held his hand, and the two brothers noticed that it had gotten caught by some of the stuff too.

"Dude!" Boomer floated forward, and then noticed that Butch was hurt even worse. "What happened to you guys? Acid..."

"Can't hurt us?" Another voice continued. In three flashes of lights, the Powerpuff Girls met their counterparts. Blossom came forward. "Apparently it can."

Brick's frown deepened. "Antidote X..."

"Antidote X?" Boomer questioned. "What the hell is Antidote X?"

"An inhibiter for Chemical X." Brick blew over his hand, and saw that the wound was quickly healing. "Chemical X is a unique form of weak base. Antidote X is a unique form of weak acid. They neutralize each other... at least until our bodies produce more."

"How... do you know that?" Blossom looked down at his hand.

"It was one of several weapons your father could have used against us. Of course I would become familiar with it." Brick's tone was controlled, but Boomer again got the feeling that he was hiding something from them. Most likely it was because the Girls were there.

"I... guess that makes sense..." Blossom shook her head, getting back to the point at hand. "We can't attack it head on."

"And we can't blast it from a distance. Not with it over the city like this," Brick said, finishing.

"The legs!" Buttercup gasped, in revelation. "We could throw it..."

"The legs are covered with that acid stuff. You'll lose your hands, never mind how huge and ungainly that thing is, they'd probably break off before you could toss it." Butch made a fist and winced. "Damn it... Lemme guess, Green eyes, you rushed right in, huh?"

Buttercup nodded, nursing her own wounds.

"Water! Water is an acid and a base. We wash it off, then we can..." Blossom stopped when Brick shook his head.

"It would just leak more." He pointed from one leg to another, a span of over four miles. "Plus that would require a huge amount of water. We'd drown everyone in the city doing it."

"Freeze it...?"

"Wouldn't change its chemical composition. That'll just break it into shards. Besides, we only need to kill the core."

"Core?"

"The living core." Brick sighed. "Normally it's in the center... but this thing isn't symmetrical. It could be anywhere in the main body. No. There's no way to keep this clean."

Blossom was about to suggest something else when Brick held up his hand.

"I've got a plan." He pointed to Boomer. "Boomer, take Bubbles and clear the area down below. Butch, Buttercup, cut a hole underneath the main body. We'll handle filling it with water. We'll then start striking at the body."

No one moved.

"Now!" He yelled, eyes blazing. Boomer and Bubbles didn't need much pushing - they headed down to get people out of the area. Butch and Buttercup didn't seem happy, however. The former because he wanted an actual fight, and the latter because she didn't like taking orders, and liked taking orders even less from someone she didn't like. Brick, however, didn't give a damn. His gaze cut into them; it only took a second for Butch to realize he didn't have a better idea, and Buttercup to realize that there was a lot more at stake than her pride.

She had resolved never again to put her pride before the welfare of others, and she would not do so here. Closing her eyes, not wanting to see his, she nodded. "Fine."

"Yeah, ok." Butch similarly agreed, and the two headed down to start blasting away and forming a crater under the creature.

Blossom, however, was furious. And confused. She had allowed Brick to take command, both of her, and of the team. She was more experienced, and she had her own pride, and yet... she had come up short on ideas when Brick hadn't. She had questioned herself, and Brick hadn't. She had, ultimately, backed down and allowed him to take control. Naturally she was angry with him, but more to the point, she was angry with herself.

"Follow me." He told her. It was a statement - a command. She wanted to find a reason to argue with him, to make him follow her, or at least respect her enough to ask for help instead of demanding it.

But she came up short.

Besides, she told herself, now was not the time for it.

"This is a waste of my time and energy!" Butch's eye beam pulsed brighter, and down below flecks of concrete and asphalt vaporized. He and Buttercup were circling carefully at low level, while keeping away from the bulk of the raining acid. Together, they'd carved a wide crater into the ground, even though it meant demolishing two buildings and a parking lot to do so. Amid the drops of deadly liquid, twin blue streaks: Boomer and Bubbles, darted in and out of buildings, getting people out of the general area. Most were holed up in their offices or homes and needed to be moved one or two at a time.

"Ah, shut up and keep blasting! You think I like doing this either?" Buttercup was similarly annoyed, though for her own reasons. Butch was someone she could relate to, and under his roughness there was an innate goodness that had kept her sane when she was separated from her sisters. Boomer, she wasn't nearly as familiar with, but he seemed the most amicable of the Rowdyruff Boys. Brick, however, was something else entirely. He had defeated her, he had refused to help her get better, he bossed everyone around more than Blossom ever did, and something about him struck her as horribly unfeeling. Even at her most cruel, Buttercup could revel in her emotions, even if they were anger. But when she had fought with Brick, there was no passion to him, only cold condescension.

"So..." Butch blinked, and gave his eyes a brief rest. "What's up, Green eyes? What've you girls been upta?"

"Why do you care?"

"Don't really." Butch shrugged. "Just makin' conversation."

"We've been catching up with school."

"Catching up...?" Butch paused. "Oh yeah. You missed a whole week, didn't ya?"

"Thanks to you idiots!" Buttercup growled, and decided to take a quick break, letting her vision clear. When she did, Butch's eyes blazed and he continued where she left off.

"Don't you guys have to go to school?" She asked, the thought just now occurring to her.

"School?!" Butch started to laugh. "You gotta be kiddin' me! Why would we go to school?"

Buttercup gritted her teeth in frustration.

"Gee, I dunno." She rolled her eyes. "You tell me."

"Listen: Rowdyruffs go where they want and do what they want. And I sure don't want to go to school." Butch snorted. "What are they gonna do: risk leveling the whole city tryin' to take me out just to send one kid to school? As if!"

"It... It isn't the most fun in the world," Buttercup admitted. She wasn't sure whether what she was hearing was really great or really sad. "But everyone goes..."

"Yeah? Well you just met the exception to the rule." Butch crossed his arms, and his eye beams stopped again. "Looks like we're done here. You healin' up all right?"

"It was just my arm." Buttcerup rubbed the spot. It felt dry and sensitive, but it had healed over. "Hey, Butch?"

"What?" He sounded impatient.

She cut right to the point. "Do you train with Brick?"

"Yeah." He nodded slowly. "All the time. I train with him and Boomer. Why?"

"I... I kind of asked him to help me get better." She looked down at her feet, embarrassed. She couldn't believe she'd asked for help, or that she was now telling someone that she had. But, deep down, she knew that out of everyone Butch would understand the situation best. He'd already seen her as her absolute lowest point in life. She didn't have anything to hide that was worse than what he'd already seen.

"You actually asked Brick to give you some pointers?!" Butch smiled at that. "He said no, didn't he? Listen, Green eyes, there's something ya need to understand about him. Brick ain't exactly very eager to help people."

"I noticed." Buttcerup looked up at him. "I was planning on just attacking him every day or so... pick up stuff first hand."

"A pretty ballsy way of going at it," Butch said, amused. "Only real tip I can give ya is to be unpredictable. If he sees ya comin' there ain't a lot ya can do."

"You've... Never...?"

"Beaten him?" Butch's smile faded a little. "I've come close a bunch of times, mostly 'cause I'm stronger 'n tougher."

"Is that why you take orders from him? Because..."

"No!" Butch cut her off before she could ask what he didn't want to hear. "I follow him because he knows what he's doing. Because he saved me and Boomer."

"Saved...?" Buttercup trailed off when she saw Brick and Blossom flying their way. Each carried a large block of ice. It was too risky sending Blossom in by herself to freeze over the area so that they could melt it, so they'd had to make the ice elsewhere and throw it into the crater, one massive block after another. Buttercup never got to finish her question: Butch had already taken off and started helping fill their puff/ruff-made lake in the center of the city. Boomer and Bubbles soon joined in, melting the ice with eye beams, until the lake hissed and boiled.

"All right!" Brick shook his fist as everything started to come together. "Now, everyone, focus on the main body and..."

The earth shook.

With the sound of footfalls.

"Um..." Bubbles pointed up at the thing. "Brick... it's moving..."

Brick could only watch as one, then two, and then another massive leg lifted into the air. The creature was shifting position, crushing whole buildings under its huge spider feet, raining destruction on another section of the city. Brick's lower lip moved when he realized his mistake: destroying the area under it had meant that, of course, it would move onto another target!

"Un... unbelievable!" Brick growled, and instantly realized something else: it was headed in their direction. "SCATTER!!"

A side of the walking monstrosity seemed to face them specifically, and without warning a geyser of white acidic slime was headed in their direction. Behind him, he could see that the group was still aghast: still in shock that it had moved at all when it hadn't before. Still in shock that it had fired at them, when it hadn't before. Butch and Buttercup, perhaps more used to thinking on their feet, managed to rush away in a flash of green, but the others weren't going to make it.

"God... damn... this!" Brick inhaled deeply, hands forward. As he did, red crackles of energy danced between his arms and hands, like two tesla coils exchanging lightning. With a yell, Brick's special power flexed itself, and a rolling wave of fire: an inferno to rival the pits of hell itself, tunneled out from his mouth and between his arms and hands, directed and confined into a tight spiral. It hit the fountain of white blood head on, immolating it.

But not completely.

Brick grunted as a burning mass, pressed ever forward my momentum alone, broke through the column of fire and into his torso. It felt dull, but not terribly painful, like being hit by a basketball in the chest. He was starting to wonder what it was, when the scouring all consuming throes finally registered. Amid the flames, Brick felt himself blown back and down to the ground. The impact, however, was barely felt. Nothing seemed to matter or remain comprehensible through the blazing red that had become his new universe.

"Holy...!" Boomer spun around, raced down after his brother. Blossom and Bubbles scattered. Brick's attack had bought them only a moment's reprieve. The spider thing seemed to be on the warpath, spewing white death at anything that flew.

"BRICK!" Blossom yelled down. She could see his prone form in a pile of broken glass that had once been a store window. "Bubbles! Douse him with water! Hurry!"

Bubbles nodded once affirmative, and shot off like a bullet.

"What..." Butch pulled up next to her. "What the hell happened?!"

"Brick's... Brick's down." Blossom pointed to Buttercup, and she quickly came to her. "The thing is still after us. That means we lead it out of Townsville! Try and intercept any of its attacks with your own!"

"Hey!" Butch pushed her, hard. "Who put you in charge?! I say we smash the damn thing while we can and to hell with the city!"

"To what with the city?!" Blossom felt a surge of indignation and anger boil up, far greater than it had before. She pushed him back. "How can you even say that?"

"Don't push me!" Butch pushed her back, even harder, almost sending her flying. She barely held her ground against the Rowdyruff. "To hell with this city, and to hell with you!"

Butch reveled: plans had failed. It was time for action, bloody bold action. Time to heed the clarion call to arms that raced through his veins! Time to raise hell! He held up his arms, shaking and boiling with power, threatening to overflow. A green glow enveloped him, supercharging him to an extreme. It was the Final Attack of the Rowdyruff Boys, the one that they had used to defeat the Powerpuff Girls the first time they'd fought. Buttercup's eyes widened at seeing it again.

With a loud war cry, Butch charged right into the heart of the beast. Red optic blasts and green energy fire from his hands heralded his bull rush, but given the torrent of white poison death thrown at him, even that would not stop it all. Butch felt none of it; the pain was like a memory, like a distant memory. Forward, ever forward, until again he met the creature, and the blows poured down without mercy or hesitation.

"That idiot!" Blossom was shaking with rage. "Buttercup! With me! Blast the acid before it can hit anything! It's up to us!"

"And me!" Boomer rushed up. "I'm with ya, Red."

"Me too!" Bubbles came in from the side. She looked like... Blossom didn't want to even speculate on what she'd seen. Or what she was thinking.

"Good. Go!"

With that, they were off. While they went to work, Butch lost himself in his berserker rage. To the green Rowdyruff, there was nothing more or less to existence than the destruction of what was in front of him. Still, his blows were calculated and measured. There was no pain, only the high of honest to god battle. White sprays erupted from where he'd hit his target, but Butch kept moving, constantly, avoiding most of the spray before it could hit him.

Gradually, he lost track of time, until, with a sudden movement, the black mass shifted. He barely saw it, but the base of one leg, so huge as to obscure everything else from sight, plowed into him. Next thing he knew, he'd hit the water, though at his speed, it felt more like solid concrete.

"No! Butch is down!" Blossom was breathing heavily. Her eyes watered and hurt from firing so often and so quickly. During Butch's attack, they had managed to keep most of the resulting spilt white blood from actually hitting the ground and causing more damage and death, but it hadn't been easy. Blossom was already starting to feel low on energy, and in all likelihood, Buttercup, Bubbles and Boomer were in similar condition. Oddly, she didn't feel under that much stress anymore: it was like she was running on automatic.

"We need to end this quickly!" Blossom took a second to think something up. "Ok, Boomer, Bubbles! Take the two legs closest to you..."

"But..." Bubbles started.

"You have to, Bubbles. It'll only hurt for a little while!" Blossom pointed to the two legs. "Pull them out of position, and it'll fall backwards towards the center of the city! Buttercup... you take the leg on the other side. When it's down, I'll freeze it in place and try and take it out!"

"Right!" "Gotcha!" "I'm on it!"

Blossom watched them go with rising anxiety. Floating higher, she concentrated her power, tried to focus it. A little more was all she needed: a little more and a lot of luck. A headache suddenly hit her, but she quickly shook her head, clearing the cobwebs. Focus! Focus!

She saw Bubbles and Boomer get to their targets first. Each grabbed onto the leg in question, and began to push it out of alignment. She heard Bubbles scream from the pain - each leg was dripping with that damn white acid - but Bubbles kept at it: she was tough when she needed to be, of that there was no doubt. Boomer wasn't yelling, but she knew he was in the same boat. Much further away, Buttercup rammed into her target with fury, and the towering spider creature's body began to waver and lose balance.

With a resounding crash, several buildings were smashed as Bubbles and Boomer's target legs lost footing and slipped. Buttercup's just shot out akimbo. The other four of the seven legs responded, trying to steady the main torso, but it wasn't enough. The dripping black and white uneven hulk that passed for its body tumbled back and then fell straight down, skidding, almost like it was slippery, down the side of an already partially melted building through a courtyard, and into the water filled crater she had been aiming for.

Closer and closer she flew, and then when in range, Blossom let loose with a great blast of her ice breath. Moisture began to freeze over, and in seconds the whole lake, and the monster's body, were encased in a layer of ice. The massive miles long legs still moved, however and the ice was quickly beginning to crack from the pressure. Blossom's face was an angry snarl, and with every last bit of energy and concentration, she fired her eye beams, holding back not a fraction of a fraction. The layer of ice where she attacked vaporized instantly, and beneath it, the body of the creature writhed and struggled.

"No..." She whispered, softly, only to herself and her enemy. "I won't let you win... I won't... I WON'T!!"

Her beam seemed to double in strength, cutting the creature to the heart. Layer after layer melted away, gallons of blood hissed and spat and spilled, but was neutralized by the water that surrounded the nearly immobilized monster. Finally, through the blood haze, through the layers of muscle and alien tissue, Blossom saw something pure and solid. Somehow, though she had no way to prove it, she knew it was the core that Brick had mentioned. She pressed her beam for more energy, to do more damage, but came up empty.

Her reserves depleted, Blossom felt herself slowly fall to the earth, totally spent. Struggling just to keep floating, she tried to fire again, but it was like squeezing a stone for water. She looked around for Boomer or Bubbles or Buttercup, but realized they'd probably be passed out somewhere from the agony they'd been through. The agony she'd put them through. The agony they'd endured, for her, for her plans, because of her guidance.

"I won't... I won't let you win..." She somehow kept floating. There was only a spark of energy left: her life. It was the ultimate sacrifice. It was also one she was willing to make. To save her sisters, to save Townsville, to save herself and affirm what she was... Maybe, in her death, Brick would see that he'd been wrong. Maybe she did 'rule' Townsville. Maybe she did revel in the control and the glory... but what separated a Tyrant from a Leader was what she was about to do...

"Hey..." She heard a strained voice from behind. Slowly, she turned, recognizing the voice. Butch smirked, his green eyes glittering like ferocious ethereal fire. He gave her a quick look. "Hey babe, mind if I join the party...?"

He gulped, hard, and faced the prone creature. Over his head, Butch held the creaking burden that was an entire US Navy Arleigh Burke class Destroyer, plucked right out of the water, its crew wisely jumping ship when it suddenly started to fly into the air. Seawater ran down Butch's scarred arms and face.

"Happy birthday, ya son of a bitch!" With a mighty heave, he threw the massive vessel down, at the exposed core of the monster. "I got a present for ya!!"

In almost slow motion, the keel of the ship tore into the core. The whole ship buckled and bent from the impact, and then the munitions on board, crushed and compacted, added a fiery maelstrom to the mix. In seconds, there was nothing to be seen except a settling cloud of black ash and a maze of twisted steel sticking out of what used to be the spider monster's freakish and deformed body. The long legs, unmoving, were mute testament to the victory.

"Hell... yeah... I killed you..." Butch's eyes rolled up into his skull, and he fell limply forward. Blossom barely caught him before he hit the ground. High above them, almost mercifully, it began to rain.

As the cool drops of water hit her face, Blossom smiled.

They'd won.

She'd won.

Redemption!