Like a good communist, I own nothing.


"Gauntlet: Pain"
Part 3


Professor Utonium returned home with a mixture of apprehension, confusion, and outright fear. He had taken a terrible risk, trusting his girls in the company of Mojo and the Rowdyruff Boys. He had phoned the Mayor after calling Miss Bellum and organizing the date... ('The get together' he corrected himself) and making sure that the old man would defer to another source. Through Sarah, he had let the Mayor be aware that he had known of Mojo's last babysitting job, and found it more than satisfactory. It wasn't a guaranteed draw, but a calculated one.

So he had let his daughters fall in the company of fiends.

He reassured himself that they could take care of themselves, and that if the boys had wanted to cause them harm, they had ample opportunity to do so without any outside intervention. 'No,' The Professor told himself, 'Brick wants them alive.' Additionally, once that was made obvious, the question then became 'why.' The Professor had varying degrees of speculation on that, and unfortunately the worst-case scenario was also the most likely.

At that, the Professor felt a pang of guilt.

Though the boys may be devils at heart, they were still his responsibility. One of so damn many. Too many. The Professor had always tried to be careful in cleaning up after Chemical X related accidents, but several times he had been caught unaware and unprepared. For these occasions, he blamed himself. He had to. There was no one else, anymore.

Shaking his head as he drove, the Professor refocused his thoughts on the way home. Sarah's smell still lingered - her perfume, wafting and teasing his senses, tempting and distracting him. The meeting had been purely professional, but the woman's vanity had demanded that she keep her appearance at its best. The evening had been wonderful...

"Focus, Utonium," He said, out loud.

The enemy.

Focus on the enemy.

Who was the enemy? Mojo and Brick, then the other two Rowdyruffs. Over time, from information gleaned through the girls, he had determined that Boomer and Butch were almost certainly unaware of their brother's true motives and past. Mojo likely knew a portion of the truth, but not nearly all. Brick would reveal just enough to secure the evil chimp's loyalty and cooperation.

The trap.

It was a situation that neither of the Professor's quarries could afford to pass up. It was a situation for Mojo to learn what Brick had held back, and it was a golden opportunity for Brick to augment and conform his own suspicions and knowledge. It was a bold endeavor, to steal the Professor's files right under the noses of the Powerpuff Girls, but if any were to attempt it, it would be Brick and his pack of jackals.

During dinner, the Professor's snare had triggered.

Soon, he would be the one gaining information from them. Soon, he would know what they did, and more importantly, what they did not. As he drove, the Professor's mind wound back to his last 'visit' to Monster Island. The place was a total loss - the volcano had been artificially set off, and the entire landmass had been caught in its fiery swath. Coupled with the probable attack it was projected to suffer, this event would almost certainly have wiped out the monster population there, and in the nearby atolls.

It had been a mess the Professor himself wanted to see dealt with.

But that did not dampen the fact that Brick had obviously already been there. It only confirmed the worst. All together, the Rowdyruffs and Powerpuffs had eliminated Four of the anticipated Nine. It was a momentous event, in a way: a joyous event, but also of potentially devastating portent. The future could not be Brick's to mold - the boy, already dark of heart, already having seen and experienced too much, could not be trusted.

He could not be allowed to claim the prize.

That sort of burden could fall to no living man, no living human being...

Silently, he cursed the root of the problem: Chemical X. Of all his discoveries, of all the mysteries he'd participated in unraveling, perhaps that alone was one better left unknown. Parking in the driveway, he saw Mojo's hoverdisk craft parked on the side of the lawn, crushing a section of grass.

Mojo Jojo.

How odd, in retrospect. Had Mojo not been hateful and evil, twisted by his past, he would not have gone back in time and set into motion the events of his own creation, and those of the Girls. Was he fated to be the outcast? Were they all just playing out prewritten roles, the lucky: fated for happiness and contentment, the unlucky: doomed to misery, doomed to insanity... to evil?

Indeed, with the discovery of Chemical X and its properties, the events of the past had fallen into crystal clarity. He had named the young chimp... Jojo. He had predicted and played the role he knew he had to play, for the benefit of those around him. In a way, that was a unique time, to be the knowing fulfiller of history. He felt powerful, godlike, even more than when he delved into the unknown, created new mysteries, basked in accolades, or had sex. ...Though that last one hadn't been a particularly recent memory.

Now, he swam in uncharted waters.

Waters teeming with sharks.

He unlocked the door, and saw Mojo asleep on the couch, and heard laughter from upstairs. It was two hours past the girls' bedtime. Silently, he hung his hat up, and his overcoat. Idly, he noticed a long red hair on the shoulder, and picked if off. Staring at it, for just a moment, he felt the texture between his fingers, and then slowly let it fall to the carpet, forgotten.

"Jojo!"

"What what?! I didn't do it!" Mojo shot bolt upright. The Professor almost smiled at the reaction, but Mojo's resulting glare discouraged it. Oddly, the Professor recognized the look: unrepentant guilt.

"I trust the girls weren't any trouble?" The Professor beat around the bush, and made no direct accusations. "And that they behaved themselves? ...This time?"

"They were perfect little angels." Mojo sneered, in disgust. He yelled up the stairs. "BOYS! Time to go!!"

"Right!" "Sure!" "Just a sec!" Came the voices from upstairs. Brick was the first to actually come downstairs, and he came alone. His red eyes carried a hint of tension, and he seemed almost tired.

"Professor Utonium." He inclined his head. "You have lovely daughters, sir."

"I am aware of that fact." The Professor resisted the urge to sneer. The boy reminded him too much of himself, at that age. Only exaggerated in every negative respect.

"I hope you don't mind, but we kept the girls up late." Brick reached under his hat, and took out a small round microdisk. "I also broke your pipe, I'm afraid."

"I can afford another."

The Professor knelt down, and watched, impassively, as Brick looked down at the small disk, and promptly melted it into slag in his palm. Brick then cupped his hands, and with a small grunt crushed the remains into a fine dust. He looked up at the older man dangerously.

"We're all friends and associates in a way." Brick spoke, and the Professor's eyes passed over Mojo, who was silent. Brick was speaking for both of them, and not just for practicality's purposes.

"Another One..." Brick said, softly. "Will be coming for us tomorrow. I suggest you put the girls to bed. They'll need their strength." Two cold red eyes looked to the side, as the upstairs door opened, and the whole group came down.

"We are leaving!" Mojo spoke up to them, his voice returning as the mask of authority shifted slightly. "We are exiting the building, so that we will no longer be in this house, but rather our own."

"Right, right!" Boomer waved to the girls as he floated out. "See ya later, B-Cup, Red, Bubbles!"

"Yeah. Somethin' like that." Butch paused at the door, but didn't say anymore on the subject.

Brick just smiled, pleasantly, at them.

"Another time." He gave a quick smirk, turned, and left. Mojo followed, his cape billowing as he walked. When the door shut behind them, the Professor looked over his girls carefully. They looked to be alive and well, though obviously tired. He leaned over a bit, to get a closer look at Buttercup.

"Honey, are you all right? You've got a bruise on your cheek..."

"Butch kind of socked me..." She looked down, a bit embarrassed. The Professor frowned.

"That's..."

"We were just playing around!" Buttercup said, quickly.

She was defending him. The thought only made the Professor frown more deeply. Brick had done his job well. Truthfully, he knew Butch hadn't hit her for no reason, and between the two aggressive children, he could imagine things getting a bit out of hand. Still, there was no excuse for it - for the lack of control. Bad as he had been at that age, the Professor had never really hurt anyone who wasn't a total bully. Worse, tough as she was, Buttercup was still his little girl.

"I'm sure you were." He took up a fatherly tone. "But next time be more careful when you roughhouse. Especially with Brick and his brothers. Now: get changed for bed. You can tell me what happened when I come to tuck you in."

"Ok!" Blossom said, first, quickly agreeing with him. Bubbles just yawned, and Buttercup nodded. They headed upstairs. Running a hand through his still thick hair, the Professor noticed that Mojo had left the television on. Walking over to the couch, he saw the controller wedged in between two seat cushions. Picking it up, he felt something slip between his fingers and float to the floor: a small scrap of paper. Ignoring the television for the moment, he bent over and picked it up.

"Professor Utonium, we need to talk. Words and thoughts must be discussed between you and I, for the benefit of both. This proposed conversation..." The Professor turned the scrap of paper over. "...Is scheduled for the seventh of this month, provided we survive it, at your old lab. This note was composed and written by Mojo Jojo."

"Interesting." The Professor folded the note, and stared at it intently. It was possible that it was a trap, yet it was also possible that Mojo was willing to switch sides. Or, it could be a double cross. Or even a triple cross. A smile crept up his face, as the Professor thought over the possibilities.

With a curious eye, he opened the back of the controller, where the batteries would have been. However, instead of revealing several small batteries, a single tiny round microdisk ejected into the Professor's palm. Holding it up to the ceiling, he nodded to himself.

"It seems Sarah was right." He smirked. "I've still got it."

The disk glinted like a jewel in the light.


June 6

"Attention! Attention! Townsville as declared a Special State of Emergency throughout the four boroughs. Please relocate to the nearest designated shelter in a calm and orderly fashion."

Sarah Bellum waited, impatiently, on the back roof of the Town Hall. She could hear the voice from all around, from all over the city. Typical of Townsville, however, 'calm and orderly' didn't accurately describe the actions of the people, who were running around in random directions like headless chickens. Even some of the police, who should be directing the people, were in a state of panic.

Once again, John had underestimated the raw stupidity of the masses.

Over the last month, he'd proposed a system of underground shelters in anticipation of another major attack. It had fallen to her, however, to get the funds and legal permission for their construction. They were well placed and superbly designed, though expensive, but Miss Bellum had well known that John Utonium knew more about the reoccurring monster attacks on Townsville than anyone. True, they'd never had such a system before, and he had never really insisted on such a thing before, but she had trusted his judgment, and had seen his plans come to quick fruition.

The people, however, weren't as cooperative.

She tapped her foot, anxiously. The people would, at this point, have to fend for themselves - she couldn't deal with them right now. She had enough problems just dealing with the Mayor.

"Miss Bellum!" he called out, as he finally rushed from the roof door, escorted by two guards. He was flanked by his wife, and had a pickle jar and a hastily packed luggage bag under his arms. "Were are we going again? I love surprise vacations!"

"This isn't a vacation, Mayor. This is a crisis... Townsville is being attacked!"

"Again?" He said, dejectedly.

"This way, please." She addressed the Mayor's wife, not feeling particularly in the mood to cut through to his reasoning centers. She headed for the waiting helicopter, and the Mr. and Mrs. Mayor followed. With a minor tremble, the copter was off and into the air over the city. Looking out the window, Sarah saw three floating dots over the tallest building in the city, also waiting. And in the distance, near the docks, something horrible was starting to make itself known.


"Its... its that thing..."

"None other." Brick watched as the cloudy mirage settled over a part of the city. As it did, buildings started to fall apart and slowly disintegrate. "Boomer! Fire the probe!"

"Gotcha." Boomer lifted a bazooka-like weapon, and flipped out a targeting scope. Closing one eye, he took aim at the anomaly, and fired. The resulting missile split in midair, revealing a sensitive scanning apparatus. Boomer tapped the side of the headphone he was wearing. "Package is away, pops."

Brick and his brothers narrowed their eyes, their vision magnifying to follow the sensor probe. Without much of an impact, it hit the 'body' of the mirage, heading for what seemed to be its center. As they watched, slowly, the missile itself started to strip away, layer-by-layer, bit-by-bit. It was literally falling apart at the molecular level. After only a second or so, it shorted out completely, and ceased functioning. In less then ten seconds, it was little more than a husk of scattered carbon dust.

"What the hell...?" Butch involuntarily floated back and away, in abject shock. "Holy shit, dude!"

Boomer adjusted his shirt. He was sweating. "How are we supposed to fight something like that?"

"We'll find a way," Brick answered, calmly. "We'll find a weakness, and then we'll kill it. Just like the others."

"It's eating the city! It's... it's eating it!" Boomer pointed. "Look at those buildings!"

Brick did. He watched, as the structures in the area of the mirage melted and dissolved. It was like they were decaying, but at a greatly accelerated pace. It was like a force of entropy. Simple contact with it would cause molecular bonds to fall apart and break down. It was an insidious and frankly horrible was of getting the job done.

This... had been the fate of many of those poor creatures that once inhabited Monster Island. Those that had avoided the other Ones that came for them faced this... thing... and had simply been eaten alive while they fought, vainly. Even the strongest of them, even the most invulnerable of them, would have been no match for this sort of thing. The thought that, had Brick not acted when he did and smothered it and all of Monster Island in lava, this thing could have arrived at the same time as one of the others, before they were really ready, troubled the Rowdyruff leader. In truth, Brick had wanted the island scoured just to cover his tracks.

"Brick! Look!" Butch pointed to one of the buildings.

Brick turned his attention there, and saw them. It was difficult to sort out, given all the background noise, so he hadn't heard the screams. Several people, running around and out of a building, like they were on fire. In a way, actually, they were. They were on the absolute periphery of the anomaly, and Brick could see their bodies falling apart, layer-by-layer.

"We..." Boomer caught himself. "Shouldn't we do something?"

"Close your eyes." Brick's voice was bleak. "Those people are already dead."

Boomer didn't close his eyes, but he looked away, down to the streets, which were still full of people. He tried to shut out the screams, tried not to distinguish them from the sounds of simple panic from below. Butch did the same. Only Brick watched those people's final moments.

His expression hardly changed.

"I'm going to get these idiots underground," Butch said, suddenly. "Its better than just floating here and waiting for Mojo to get done with his analysis!"

"I'll help!" Boomer seconded, and both boys faced their leader.

Brick paused. "Fine. If any of you see the girls, stop them before they do anything stupid, alright?"

"You got it, Bossman!" Butch gave him a quick nod, and shot off to help those down below. Without hesitation, Boomer headed off in another direction to do the same. Brick sneered, gave the slowly advancing 'mirage' one last look, mentally calculating its speed and direction, and headed off.


"Its substance is... not a form of normal matter."

"How is that possible?"

"That..." Mojo added. "Would require additional research, because at present, we do not know, and thus, cannot answer that question."

"Exactly." The Professor sighed. He looked around the assembled group. As always, Brick and Blossom had taken the most interest in the information he and Mojo had been able to get together, and the others mainly hung back and waited. Some, like Boomer and Butch, had a mild interest in the details, while Buttercup and Bubbles didn't seem as inclined.

"And the decaying effect..." Brick asked. "Is a product of this abnormal matter?"

"Yes. At first, based on initial information, Mojo here theorized that there were localized space-time fluctuations that disrupted normal matter, however, recent long-range analysis has proven this to be false..."

Mojo nodded, grimly. "Spectrometric, interferometric and dimensional markers indicate a stable state not conducive to..."

"AH!" Boomer yelled, suddenly. "Brain freeze!!"

"Perhaps it would be better to skip right to the meat of things?" Blossom suggested. Brick had warned her that there had likely already been a good deal of casualties caused by this latest incursion, and she didn't want to even think about precisely how many. The... cloud... thing was still advancing towards them.

"I agree." Brick echoed her initiative. "You can write a paper on the details later. We need to kill it as soon as possible."

"That ...may not be possible." Professor Utonium took a long draw from his cigarette. Normally, he made a point of not smoking when the girls were around, and until recently, he preferred a more dignified pipe. However, when the girls had seemed dead, over a month ago, he's fallen back on his bed of coffin nails. It was a dirty habit, too, but given the present situation, perhaps understandable.

"What do you mean, not possible?" Brick took a step forward, getting closer to the projected display of information on the creeping corruption that Mojo and the Professor had put up. He searched it over with his eyes, quickly. Desperately. "What about a Living Core?"

"There does not appear to be one." Mojo closed his eyes. He looked mentally defeated.

"Not within the body of abnormal matter, anyway," The Professor corrected. "Given that there must be one, we can only theorize that it is located elsewhere."

"Wait!" Blossom cut in. "How do you know there had to be one? What is this 'Living Core' stuff, anyway? I've never heard of it before, and now you..." She point to Brick. "Always seem to be looking for it!"

The three: one man, one ruff, one neither, exchanged quick glances.

"It just means ...a weak spot." Brick explained.

"Like the heart." The Professor added.

"Or the central nervous system, from which the nervous system radiates into the..." Mojo started.

"But...!" Blossom still didn't understand. From what she was hearing, this thing wasn't even alive. Why did it HAVE to have some kind of 'living core?' It could just as easily be some mindless non-conscious cloud of toxic waste or something that came and went with the winds.

"Blossom..." Brick's eyes met hers, radiating cold confidence. Radiating pure domination. She wanted to press the issue, but the look in his eyes made her realize that now wasn't the best time for it. What worried her wasn't so much Brick and Mojo keeping secrets, but her own father... the Professor. Then again, perhaps she was just being paranoid. It was just as likely that they were oversimplifying things for the benefit of others.

'Yes,' she told herself, 'That was definitely the most likely explanation.'

"We have determined a way of finding the weak spot, based on the relative density and flow of the tidal currents within the area of abnormal matter." The Professor changed the subject with a bit of good news.

"And the bad news is...?" Brick, of course, wanted to know the catch - the reason they hadn't already followed through with the Professor's 'good news.'

"The bad news is that it requires triangulation from within the area itself. That cannot be accomplished, because any probe sent into the body will cease functioning before we can get anything approaching an accurate readout." Professor Utonium took another long drag from the cigarette.

"Can't we... just fly in? Real quick?" Butch spoke up, confirming that he had, indeed, been listening. "Like flying into a volcano... our skin should protect us, right?"

"Maybe for a very short period of time." The Professor scratched his chin. "The energy dampening effect that your powers give you isn't powerful enough to survive the trip."

"We'd be striped to the bones in seconds that deep into the body." Brick painted a grizzly image.

"It would require an energy field more than twice that you can individually generate within the same surface area." Mojo explained, with unusual succinctness.

"So if we... huddled together...?" Blossom asked.

"It wouldn't help, because the surface area would increase." Brick took off his hat, and scratched his head. Blossom watched him - it was unusual to see him without his hat on, and his hair looked flattened and uncared for. It was, she supposed, the exact opposite of the way she cared for and took great pride in her hair.

"We have thought the problem over, attempted to see from every angle, and come to no definitive solution." Mojo crossed his arms, and looked at Brick. Silently, he waited for his protégé to come to the conclusion Mojo knew he would. This was the moment he had waited for, but he had to hold his tongue, and make sure the boy suspected nothing.

"Tactics aren't exactly my specialty." The Professor admitted, and looked at the two respective leaders of their teams. Blossom and Brick stood, and thought. Behind them, the others, even Bubbles, tried to come up with some sort of solution, though all knew that the most likely plan to be followed would come from either of the redheads.

"I..." Brick finally spoke up. "Have been toying with an idea that may work."

"Well? Let's hear it!" Blossom encouraged him. She hadn't come up with anything yet. Brick folded his arms behind his back and started to pace, like a general in front of his troops.

"I have spent more than a little time carefully dissecting and examining two of your techniques." He motioned to the Powerpuff Girls in general, and Blossom in particular. "Specifically the 'Starburst Ray' and the 'Flaming Feline' variants. Your ability to ...merge, for lack of a better word, for short periods of time is something I have never been able to replicate with Boomer or Butch."

"Neither of those techniques would help us here, though." Blossom observed. The 'Flaming Feline' technique still had a form that encapsulated the girls' physical bodies. Additionally, it was an individual 'creature.' It wouldn't be of any use triangulating the monster's living core/weak spot.

"No. But it gave me an idea... an idea for just such a desperate occasion." Brick took a deep breath. "You all, no doubt, remember the attack we Rowdyruffs used to finish you girls off?"

They all nodded. Brick hadn't been conscious for it, but they had seen Butch use the attack, by himself, when he closed the distance with the last monster they'd battled. Aside from that, the attack wasn't something that was easy to forget, though they'd only caught the end part of it in that first major fight they'd had.

"In the attack... we Rowdyruffs use what could be considered a sort of supercharge that coverts us into a sort of highly excited... quasi-matter state akin to plasma. The inherent instability and power of that form, however, makes maintaining it difficult."

Blossom slowly nodded. "I think I see where you're going with this..."

"Then let me be frank." Brick's brow lowered into a frown. "What I propose is a sort of layering... we will superimpose ourselves on you girls' physical forms. The surface area exposed will be the same, but the combined power should be far more than even double that you already possess."

Blossom crossed her arms as well. "It's a dangerous plan."

"But one that will work..." Brick snorted. "I am aware of the danger. It is greater for us, then for you. But this... thing must be stopped! After the merging, we three should be able to move within the mass of abnormal matter, triangulate the position of this thing's weak spot, and destroy it. After that, we should separate into our original forms naturally."

"I don't like it." Buttercup said. It was her first statement of the meeting.

"You think I do?" Butch grunted.

Boomer and Bubbles were silent up until then.

"Who?" Bubbles asked.

"We all have different strengths and weaknesses. We should pair off accordingly." Brick answered. "I propose the following: myself and Bubbles, Butch and Blossom, and Boomer and Buttercup."

"No!" Bubbles yelped, out of the blue. The suddenness and strength of the reaction surprised more than Brick.

"What do you mean: No?" Brick asked.

"No!" Bubbles said again. "I don't want to be with you. You're... you're mean."

Brick's eyebrows rose at that remark.

"What about Brick-Buttercup, Butch-Bubbles, and Boomer-me?" Blossom amended. The group seemed to consider that, when Mojo spoke up.

"That would not be wise." Mojo paused for everyone's attention. "Your individual powers will clash. The most stable and effective pairing would be between counterparts, that is to say, between those of the same color. It is no coincidence that this is so, but a product of your individual energies, powers, and... you get the idea."

Brick gave his former mentor a sidelong glance. He was marginally suspicious. Then again, Brick was suspicious of everyone and everything. Mojo kept his cool, and said no more, leaving it up to the children to decide. Blossom slowly nodded in acceptance.

"I'm... I'm ok with it." Everyone looked at her, but she kept her chin up high, and tried not to look embarrassed. "Besides... It might be... neat."

"Fine." Brick agreed, a bit reluctantly. "We'll pair up with our counterparts."

Outwardly he was silent, but inwardly, Mojo Jojo was sporting a broad, terrible smile.