SAMURAI POWERPUFFS

CHAPTER SIXTEEN – Harbingers of Doom

Professor Utonium was not displeased that the girls had brought along the stranger, but he was a man in a hurry. Still, he had allowed for a brief introduction. Jack was deeply honored to meet someone with the ability to create life with his own hands, and that such life could be so pure and righteous. It was something the various religions of his day would not have found acceptable.

"I wish I had more time to hear your story, Jack, and tell you ours, but I really want to get this thing working."

Jack understood completely. But when the new component was plugged in and Jack had been totally shocked by the object pulled from the portal during the test run, a photo of the professor and the girls from his desk in his lab, something popped loudly and began smoking. The professor feared it was something more serious this time.

"It's a different part, but it's plugged into the same power grid. If the grid itself is bad, it will keep blowing something every time. Girls, there are enough parts here to practically replace everything. It will take me less time to do that than to keep replacing individual pieces when they go bad, and I'm not risking sending you back until it's right. Why don't you all just rest up while I do this, and I'll come get you when it's ready? You girls remember how rough the trip can be."

"Yeah, it is pretty hairy." Buttercup agreed.

So the girls led Jack out to what once was their back yard. Though overgrown with weeds and some debris lay in it from their house and the Smith's next door, which was flattened, they had it cleaned up in minutes. Jack couldn't believe his eyes. He sat on a stone bench under the maple tree in the center of the yard while they sat on the grass around his feet. There, they told him the story of their birth, including how Mojo and the Chemical X had figured into it. They explained what they did and described what their city had been like. He heard about the wonderful friends their teacher and Ms. Bellum had been to them and how they influenced their lives. Blossom did most of that explaining. Buttercup thrilled in telling about the battles. Bubbles would interject with things that seemed to make little sense, but it gave him the feeling that they were indeed still just children. And other times she would come out with some totally brilliant observation that had her sisters staring at her, obviously never having thought of it themselves. He was completely captivated by them. They took the evil they saw in stride and were not in the least beaten down by it, as were many children he had met in this world. While he listened, he drew his sword and began to restore it to its sharpest with a whetstone that he kept in a small pouch, concealed beneath his belt.

Then he told them his story, or did his best, because Buttercup would interrupt often with a question about samurai life. She never took her eyes off of his face or that magnificent sword. They were amazed by some of the creatures he described for them, but he found them not as incredible as the 'monsters' they apparently dealt with routinely. Bubbles cried at some of the terrible suffering he told about, while her sisters angrily swore that Aku, or HIM as they still called it, would pay when they got back. He began to wonder if they were really talking about the same demon, but he admitted to himself that as time went on, Aku's power had probably grown. It would be much stronger here than in their time.

* * * * * * *

Buttercup was still asking questions. Blossom suddenly realized they had been sitting there quite a while and interrupted, "I'll be right back. I'm gonna go see how the professor's doing."

Her brief trip had a dual purpose. She wondered if the samurai's sword was really all that special. Was she not feeling its magic because she didn't really believe in it, or were her sisters just gullible? She'd noticed very fine metal shavings left from Jack's sharpening and decided to collect them. When they got home, she'd get the professor to see if there were any special properties in the shavings.

She floated through the rubble of her house, shaking her head again at the destruction, and went down into the lab.

"Professor? How are you coming?"

"Oh, Blossom, it's you." he said, turning. She hoped she didn't show what she was feeling. She couldn't get used to how old he looked.

"Not good. The main power grid was bad. Fortunately, there are a few extras in the things you brought, but it's taking a little longer than I expected. Another half-hour ought to do it."

He noticed her eyes wandering. "What are you looking at?"

She told him what she wanted.

"Hmmm. I wouldn't recommend taking anything from the future back with you, but in this case that sword was around long before any of us, so I guess it would be okay. And I am intrigued by the possibilities you bring up. I'll find you something."

She went outside with a small piece of fiberglass tubing. He'd told her to melt it at one end and then seal the other end. It would be lighter and less of an irritant to her than metal, once she had slipped it in the small pocket sewn into the inside hem of her dress. Buttercup had somehow coaxed Jack into letting her play with his sword again while Bubbles watched, and no one noticed her carefully blow the shavings into the tube with a tiny puff of breath. First, she had to use her magnification-vision to see what she was doing when she scraped them into a pile. She turned her back, gave the open end a shot from her eyes and melted the tip, and slid it inside the hem. Done.

"It's not fixed yet, everybody."

"Cool!" Buttercup said. "Jack's showing me some really neat ken-jutso moves!"

"Great. Remind me to sit as far away from you as possible at dinner."

"Your sister handles herself well for a beginner." Jack said, and Buttercup stuck her tongue out at Blossom. He didn't see that, or he would have told her that the tongue was also a powerful weapon and could get you in a lot of trouble if you used it improperly. He held out his hand for his sword.

"Enough."

When they were sitting down again, Buttercup said, "Okay, I wanna hear about this prophecy thing you were talking about."

"I will tell you. But first I must say that I do not believe it, as I first did. You see, Buttercup, I was bowing before your greatness when you did not die at your own hands with my sword. I did not understand your unique abilities at the time. I now believe the prophet to be mistaken, as he had a hand in your creation."

"Huh?"

"Yes. You know him as Mojo Jojo."

* * * * * * *

After he told them the tale, they still had a hard time believing it. But Bubbles was very happy to hear that he was still alive somewhere.

"Y'know, he could have been like a brother if things went different." Blossom said thoughtfully.

"That's a scary thought." Buttercup laughed. "But it's kinda funny that now he sees us as goddesses. Gee. I know we're popular, but goddesses?"

"Hee! Some people just don't have much of a life, Buttercup!" Blossom chuckled.

"Well, the professor did say that Mojo realized after we left that we were what gave his life meaning. We should be thankful he cared about us that much, because we weren't too nice to him sometimes."

Blossom and Buttercup whipped their heads toward their blue-eyed sister.

"You're right, Bubbles, we weren't." Blossom said quietly. "Maybe that story he told when he tried to get our powers was true. Maybe he did feel unwanted. That's something else we can fix."

The samurai was amazed still further by their way of looking at things. They were truly wise beyond their years, all of them.

"Gee, I just had another scary thought." Buttercup piped up. "This Aku sounds like a real bad dude the way you make him sound. HIM could be scary at times, but most of the time he was just another jerk. I mean, even with him, Mojo, Princess and Fuzzy all getting together, we still found a way to win."

"Yeah, Buttercup, this Aku sounds a LOT worse than that." Blossom agreed.

"Jack?" Bubbles raised her hand as if she were in school. "You said Aku always makes himself into different things. Do you know what he really looks like?"

"Hey yeah, Bubbles," Blossom said. "HIM always looks the same, until today, and even then we knew it was still him. He doesn't change into different monsters and stuff."

Buttercup added, growing more agitated, "That's what I meant! What if HIM and Aku aren't the same? What if Aku is really bad, and HIM only works for him?"

One more time, Jack was stunned. They had taken the seed of a thought that he had gotten and fully explored it in their young minds, in only a matter of seconds.

"I'm scared." Bubbles wasn't afraid to admit.

"Me too." Blossom said. "What if we aren't strong enough to beat him?"

"You will never have to." Jack said reassuringly. "You will be on your way back to your own time very soon, and if I and my sword do not fail, you will never have to worry about it."

"Can you at least tell us what he really looks like", Buttercup asked, "so we know, just in case?"

"I will try."

"Hey guys." Blossom pointed to the sky suddenly. "I think it's gonna rain again. Let's go inside."

"Hey wait, those aren't clouds, those are birds!" Bubbles cried out.

"Wow! You're right, Bubbles!" Buttercup exclaimed, getting to her feet. "That's the most birds I ever saw in my life!"

A dark, pulsating mass of what looked like the same grackles they'd seen earlier rapidly approached and they could hear the wind the wings were creating.

Jack leapt to his feet, drawing his sword. "Those are not birds! It is Aku!"

NEXT: The Death of Hope