Like a good communist, I own nothing.
"Gauntlet: Pain"
Part 4
Buttercup watched as Brick and his brothers practiced focusing their power inward, getting ready to follow through with their leader's plan. She had mixed feelings about what they were going to do. Of course, she didn't really like the prospect of 'merging' with Butch or any of the boys on any level. The very thought sent shivers down her spine, and irked her pride, yet at the same time, a small hidden part of her was curious and even eager to experience it.
To the side, in Mojo's lair, she could see the sight of the city of Townsville, from a dozen different angles at the same time. An aerial view dominated: it showed the steady advance of the strange corruption of what had been dubbed 'abnormal matter' as it cut a swath through the city. In its path, it left nothing of any substance, just a blackened glassy film over the ground. Entire buildings, whole skyscrapers, were stripped bare in minutes, all the way down to their foundations.
That was why she was doing this.
How many people had been killed, already?
She didn't want to think of the number. She didn't want to think of them as just a statistic; they were people, human beings, with friends, family, even enemies. They weren't numbers. Deep down, she wanted to talk about the conflicting feelings that ran through her, but not in front of Brick or Boomer or Blossom. Maybe Bubbles. Or Butch.
She trusted him.
She didn't need to hide anything from him.
He had seen at her lowest, at her worst... she had been suicidal; she had wanted him to kill her. Thinking back to it she felt only deep shame towards herself, and gratitude. Gratitude, because he hadn't killed her, when she had given him every reason to. She had provoked him, she had driven him, and he hadn't done it. He had seen that side of her, and never spoken of it to another soul.
Yes, she trusted him - with her life, and with her feelings and thoughts.
The problem was that he wasn't alone.
Perhaps that was why she was, at least part of her anyway, looking forward to this merging. Would it be a sharing, of sorts, with two individuals thinking as one? Would there be dominance... and would it be hers or his? How would it feel? Would it feel like a violation, like an alien presence, or would there be a completion... a unity... a symbiosis?
"Are you ready?" Blossom asked the boys, a bit anxious herself. She was wearing Brick's communicator headset, just like Bubbles wore Boomer's and Buttercup sported Butch's.
Standing between her sisters, Bubbles seemed the most stoic. She looked to be deep in thought, probably mentally preparing herself. In a way, she was lucky, Buttercup supposed. Boomer was sort of a jerk, but he was Bubbles' friend, sort of like a wacky older brother almost. Of them, Buttercup realized, Blossom would be having the hardest time.
And yet she had been the first to volunteer.
Brick.
Buttercup watched him. He was in the air, floating calmly; arms to the side. Around him, a halo of red light pulsed and circled. It was identical to that his brothers had worked up, as they slowly 'cycled up' (Brick had called it) towards their Final Attack state. Unlike Boomer and Butch, however, something about Brick made him look malevolent. Maybe it was just the color - sort of dry dark red energy, opposed to Boomer's cool blue and Butch's vibrant nature green. Slowly, Brick's eyes opened, glowing the same color as his corona of light.
"I am." He looked to the side, at his brothers, who had also opened their eyes. As one, they landed on the floor. "Blossom and I will go first. Copy what I do, and don't interfere."
Boomer and Butch nodded.
"Good luck, bro." Boomer said, first.
"Yeah." Butch seconded.
Brick stepped forward, purposefully, his body slightly indistinct as he moved. Blossom also walked forward, towards him. Too soon, it seemed, they were face to face. Brick blinked, and his mouth moved, words out of synch with his lips.
"Turn around," He had said. "Relax and open yourself to me. Do not fight it."
Blossom nodded, and turned so her back was to him. Her breathing had quickened, and she flinched involuntarily when his hands touched, and slowly entered, her shoulders. There was a crackling sound, like electricity, and with total suddenness, Brick surged forward, directly into her. Blossom stumbled forward, and let out a loud gasp. The sound intensified, and Brick's halo of energy crept in and out of the Powerpuff Girl, and then suddenly disappeared entirely.
Blossom straightened out, and looked down at her hands.
There had been no physical change.
"Interesting-ing." The voice that left her mouth was a deep base echo. "Our physical metamorphosis seems to exclude a physiological adaptation-tation."
"Um... Blossom?" Bubbles reached out, but drew back when Brick/Blossom looked in their direction and they saw her eyes. They were a stark, dazzling, glowing ruby color.
"We are Blossom-som." Brick/Blossom said, and started to move her limbs. "We are a function of two variables-ables, both less than the whole-ole. You inquire-ire? You querry-erry? To answer: the merging is a unity-ity. The variables are subsumed-umed, but still conscious and separate, still whole-ole."
"Are you...?" The Professor had been watching the process closely, as had Mojo, who had been silent since the whole thing had been proposed.
"Stronger-ger? More powerful-ful?" Brick/Blossom flexed her muscles and took a deep breath. "Yes-ss, that, and much much more-ore. Our intelligence had increased as well-ll... I can feel it-t." The amalgam faced her sisters. "You six will do as our variables did-id."
An order?
Buttercup frowned. Already, this combination of Brick and Blossom was bossing them around. The tone hadn't even indicated that she... it... whatever... had even thought about asking. No doubt Blossom's bossiness had merged with Brick's and produced a sort of uber-bossiness. Buttercup snorted in annoyance at the very thought.
"Bubbles...?" Boomer walked towards the blue Powerpuff, his movements indistinct just like Brick's had been. Bubbles held a hand up to him when he got close, and tried to touch the side of his face. His cheek was immaterial, and her hand passed through it with little resistance. A tear slid down her cheek, but there was no fear in her movements as the two children slid together into a single being. The sound was slightly different with Boomer and Bubbles, as Bubbles slowly pivoted from the embrace.
"This is very strange-ange." She said, her tone just slightly deeper than Bubbles' normal voice. "I feel very... tingly-ly. But good-od, sort of-of."
Buttercup gulped, and walked up to Butch, who was standing close by, his arms crossed. He smiled when she got close, carefully facing away from Brick/Blossom and Boomer/Bubbles so that only she could see his expression. He leaned in closer, and his lips moved.
"Here goes nothing... I guess. See ya on the flipside." Were his words, and his arms unfurled and spread out, as if to give her a hug. Impatience getting to her, Buttercup reached forward, and gasped, surprised, at the texture of his body. She reached into him, his substance like a thick mist, and pulled him into her. She saw his face getting closer, eyes closed. At the last second, before she too closed her eyes, she saw his mouth move, and the words registered a half second before, like a jolt of fire, they merged.
"Greeneyes..."
He was like a surge of energy and adrenalin in her veins, like an injection of raw power. She heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing, but him - inside her blood and mind. His voice was like a soft whisper, a reassuring presence that became a natural part of her, like the arms and legs she had been born with. There was a conference of wills, a doubling of thoughts and emotions and experiences and memories and a million things in a raging torrent that came and went in a millisecond.
It felt... great.
Beyond great.
It felt a thousand times as intense and wonderful as the candy the Mayor had given them. Words, thoughts even, failed to describe the feeling that permeated her body. And with it came what they had so needed to save the city, themselves, and everything they had ever known.
"Such... such... beautiful... POWER!!" Butch/Buttercup let out a deep content rumble. There was no stutter to her tenor voice. "My god..." She gritted her teeth, reveling in the feeling. "Professor... Mojo... fathers... you can't imagine our power now... We are ready!"
"As are we-e." Boomer/Bubbles agreed. "Let do what must be done-ne."
"Give us the sensor devices-ces," Brick/Blossom demanded, facing Mojo. "NOW."
"They are... over there." Mojo pointed. On a foldable metal table were three small black boxes. Brick/Blossom's eyes narrowed at his words. The Professor quickly remembered what she had just said. She hadn't wanted to know where they were - she had wanted them. She had given an order, and Mojo hadn't followed it. Quickly, he ran over to them, picked up the black sensor boxes, and brought them over. Holding out one of them to Brick/Blossom, he waited for her to take it.
Looking down at the device, Brick/Blossom didn't move.
"We did not ask you to get them-em. We asked him-im." She snarled, quickly growing angry. The Professor nodded, and put the boxes back on the table. Mojo got the drift, ran over to get them, and brought them to Brick/Blossom.
"Strike one-ne. Pray you do not make another-er." Brick/Blossom took the three boxes from Mojo with a low growl that promised punishment for future offenses. She turned, and addressed her siblings. "Bubbles! Buttercup! Come!"
The two exchanged glances, and walked up.
Each one was handed a sensor box in turn.
"You will follow my lead-ead. We will separate a quarter kilometer from the target area-ea." She floated over to the overhead map of the area and pointed to two spots. "We will arrive there thirty seconds from now exactly-ly. By then you will be in position-ion... the sensory effect will be optimal-al."
Butch/Buttercup growled at the orders she was being given, but said nothing. Brick/Blossom gave her siblings a few seconds to remember their position, and then headed out at a slow speed. When Boomer/Bubbles and Butch/Buttercup took to the air, the three suddenly picked up speed, apparently simply vanishing in thin air out the open door to Mojo's Observatory.
"Hmm." The Professor was obviously thinking deeply about something, but kept his thoughts to himself. Mojo looked up at him, silently wondering if the older man suspected that he was up to anything. After a moment, the Professor sighed.
"Let's get ready for that data stream." He walked off to one of the command consoles that had brought out of one of Mojo's Labs. Watching him, Mojo let out a deep sigh of relief. With any luck, no one would suspect his motives in pairing them up with their counterparts before it was too late.
Boomer/Bubbles entered the substance of the all-consuming cloud. There was a very faint tingle that engulfed her body, but the powerful energy-dampening field that danced on the surface of her skin negated the danger significantly. She had been told earlier to hold her breath, but still she could tell that what passed for the 'air' was thick, like watered down molasses.
It flowed like an invisible ocean.
Down below and around, she could see the ravaged remains of the city. A few tenacious bits of the street below still remained, but were steadily being corrupted and decayed by the cloud of abnormal matter. Already, much of the ground was nothing more than a nasty black and gray glass-like substance.
She landed, in what she recognized as her designated spot.
Looking down at the black box she held, Boomer/Bubbles pressed the obvious red shallow button on the top left corner. It didn't really acknowledge that it had activated, so she focused her hearing, and, amazingly, heard the electronics inside working. Curious, she looked up at the sky, and found the sun - looking at it hardly fazed her. Concentrating, she magnified her vision, and found her sight leaving the atmosphere, going past a sea of darkness, and up to the surface of the star. She could see individual swirls of plasma and storms on the surface, and past that, but hazier and less distinct, down deeper into the corona.
Getting a bit dizzy, she blinked, and was suddenly back on Earth.
Waiting, and growing impatient and uneasy, she thought about their enemy. Bubbles herself knew nothing of it, beyond the fact that it was a monster of some sort, and that it had to be destroyed before it hurt any more people, and destroyed any more of Townsville and the world in general. Boomer, however, knew a bit more. Bubbles heard his thoughts, echoed his feelings and concerns, and saw in her mind's eye an island... blackened and ravaged, populated by the giant corpses of hundreds of monsters of every variety. Then the island was aflame.
Curious, she dived deeper into the memory, and found herself someplace else entirely. Like a lost diver in some endless coral reef, she had been looking for one thing, and ended up with something similar, but different. She saw another monster, more like the ones she was used to - it had a twisted face, and a smaller one attached onto the side, both eyes just empty sockets. She saw Townsville in the background, and herself, but not herself, blasting at it with her eye beams.
Then, in a flash, there was something else.
She realized she was seeing things in reverse, going back into the earliest of Boomer's memories. She wanted to stop, or to at least remain in control of the sensation, but like the waters of a burst dam, the flood would not be abated. Faster and faster it went, uncontrolled and random, until she saw Brick. He was smiling - honestly smiling, like Bubbles had never seen him do. There was another of the random flashes, and then darkness.
Only... in the darkness...
She was not alone.
Two narrow strips, like chipped diamonds, focused on her - eyes! Was this the face of death that she now saw? Like drills, they cut into her, and she felt helplessness and pain overwhelm her mind and body.
"He is mine." A voice, full of daggers and malice, dripped. "I am his."
You
Are
Not.
Brick/Blossom was also waiting.
"You have done well." A deeper voice told itself.
"Can I see you? Please? I must!" A more feminine one responded.
"We must remain separate." The male voice said, firmly. "I command it."
"This is my body. My mind. You are a guest..."
The male voice laughed.
"No." He said. "You misjudge me. I am not a guest. I am a conqueror!"
Deep within Brick/Blossom, a war raged. Invisible armies crashed over a mental battlefield, over invisible lines. Each side advanced and retreated, won and lost, a thousand times a minute. And then, there were the lulls in the war, when the two Wills conversed.
Blossom's mind-image appeared in resplendent white and gold gown with pink trims and a display of jewels fit for the richest of queens. She was an adult, as she dreamed she would one day become: beautiful and confident. She walked with an entourage of women, dressed only slightly less perfectly than herself, all sporting well-hidden weapons.
She met with Brick, whose self-image was a stark contrast to her own. He, too, imaged himself as an adult, a striking man with close cut red hair, and brooding dark eyes. While Blossom imagined herself as tall and majestic, Brick kept himself at medium height, no more and no less than those who stood by his side, each a carbon copy man in military fatigues. Brick himself wore a military outfit fit for a general, or a dictator, and a red and green beret. All those who stood by him were armed, and sported their weapons openly.
The two sat at the table, where a modest dinner awaited them.
"You continue to fight me. Why?" Blossom asked, and she took a glass of wine to her lips.
"It is the nature of man to fight and to war."
"You cooperate when necessary." She countered.
Brick smirked. "It is the nature of man to cooperate when survival demands it."
"I am only defending myself."
"I am only defending myself." He echoed her.
"Don't do that." She said, a bit angry. "You are doing no such thing. You would dominate this relationship completely if you could. No doubt that was why you wanted to be paired up with my sister."
Brick 'hmfed' and reached for a loaf of bread. Without buttering it, she tore off a piece, and started to eat. After a few chews, he swallowed, and spoke.
"It is the nature of man to dominate those weaker than him."
"It is the nature of humanity to protect those weaker than themselves..."
"Protection is no different than Domination. You know this."
"You tell me often enough." Blossom ate daintily, and there was a moment of silence.
"So long as I live..." Brick said, taking another bite of unbuttered bread. "I shall dominate those I can."
"Ah. The truth." Blossom put her fork down, and looked him in the eyes.
"There can be no lies here. ...Unfortunately." Brick frowned.
"Why say that? Why hide so much from me, and from others?"
"The truth is a terrible thing, little girl." Brick leaned back, and took a long drink of water. "Do not be so quick to seek it out. You are happier not knowing."
She smiled at him. "I am less happy knowing that I do not know."
"The funny thing is..." Brick narrowed his eyes at her. "I'd say the same thing in your position. However, I will not yield to you what I do not deem necessary."
Blossom's tone hardened. "Do not think I will be rebuffed so easily."
"I relish the moment your actions catch up to your boasts." Brick pursed his lips, as if feeling great joy. "Know this... your pain... your secrets... your fears... all these mean nothing to me. All these pale in comparison to what I know and have seen and what I have felt."
His willpower flexed, and Blossom saw a memory - her memory, appear in the sky overhead. She saw herself taking the set of golf clubs, stealing them, for the Professor on Father's Day. She saw herself, standing there impotently, letting Femme Fatale go free. She saw herself, gorged on candy and half conscious, while Mojo thrashed the town. Brick's eyes searched her for signs of anger, outrage, and embarrassment: weakness.
He found none.
Instead, she forced her mind on his, directly. His willpower was formidable, his mental blocks nearly impenetrable, and his memories a labyrinthine maze of unreadable code. And yet, none knew him as well as she, and with total focus, she pushed deeper into his mind, more boldly than ever before. Surface memories would be of no help to her - she would only 'feed' her false or useless thoughts.
She mentally heard him snarl at her reckless and unexpected maneuver. She had the upper hand, only in that they were in her body, and imposed on her mind. A tiny memory, hidden under a hundred folds, caught her attention, and with all her strength, she pulled it free from its bindings and laid it bare.
She saw, high above them, the image of a scrap of purple cloth, with a hint of black on the edge. Slowly, it floated down to rest on a pool of red blood. Blossom couldn't believe it, but it looked like...
"Bunny?" She blinked, not believing, not understanding. That had been part of Bunny's costume.
"Enough!" Brick stood, and threw the table aside, spilling food and drink over the floor. He motioned to his men, and stormed off without another word. The war was back on.
Blossom/Brick shook her head, and looked down at the small box in her hands. Then, abruptly, she heard a scream pierce the air, loud and long. It was Bubbles. Brick/Blossom tensed to see what was happening, but caught herself and remained in position. The mission came first - they had to triangulate the location of this One's weakness. Even as Bubbles screamed, in obvious terror, Brick/Blossom remained in position, waiting. Waiting for the signal...
"We've got it!" The Professor's voice sounded, and in that instant, Brick/Blossom dropped the black box, and disappeared in a flash. She found Boomer/Bubbles on the ground, her physical form wavering, holding the little black sensory box close to her chest. Already, the blue ruff/puff was starting to cough, after inhaling the abnormal matter that was in the air. Grabbing her, Brick/Blossom focused her power, and in a blink she was out of the area and in the air and then even higher: into the upper atmosphere.
As atmosphere gave way to near vacuum, Boomer/Bubbles gasped, and the air and matter she had inhaled were sucked out into the void. Bringing her charge back to earth, Brick/Blossom placed her sister down on a nearby building top, and started CPR. There obviously hadn't been too much damage done, because Boomer/Bubbles quickly started breathing after just a few chest thrusts.
As she did, her glowing blue sapphire eyes opened; there was a popping sound and a bright flash. Brick/Blossom blinked, saw that Boomer and Bubbles had separated, and that they were lying next to each other, unconscious. She also noted that Boomer was naked and had reformed minus his clothes.
"Curious-ious." She said, softly. Something caught her eye, and she looked up to see Butch/Buttercup descending, slowly, her arms crossed.
"What happened?" The brunette amalgam asked, only slightly concerned.
"Premature deconstruction into initial variables apparently-ly." Brick/Blossom shrugged, and stood up. They had plenty of time to deal with the thing, given that they'd soon have the exact location of its living core. They could then forgo moving the two children until after the abomination was dealt with.
"These two are not in any physical danger-er." Brick/Blossom said, as much for herself as for her comrade.
"Good," Butch/Buttercup said, sounding a bit bored. "Can we get on with this, then?"
Brick/Blossom tapped the side of her headphone. "Contacting associates-es. You will divulge to us the location of the target-et."
"One moment..." The Professor paused over the communicator. "All right. Mojo and I have triple checked the data. You're not going to believe this, but we've calculated that the living core is projecting its body all the way from geosynchronous orbit, almost 36,000 kilometers above an area near 90 degrees west... right above the Galapagos Islands."
Brick/Blossom turned to Butch/Buttercup. "You heard that-at, did you not-ot?"
Butch/Buttercup just smirked, and blasted off in a green streak of light, a loud series of sonic booms in her wake. Brick/Blossom scowled, and set off at a similar pace. The data wasn't nearly as specific as she would have preferred, but it would have to do. At nearly top speed, they searched for and found the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of South America in the Pacific, easily enough. Rising high out of the atmosphere and into the fringes of space was equally easy, though judging exact distance traveled was more difficult.
The lack of air wasn't particularly a problem either - given a small amount of preparation time, a Powerpuff or Rowdyruff could operate in an anaerobic state for an extended period of time. Such a state normally weakened the body greatly, but given the incredible power of either ruff/puff combo, it wouldn't likely pose a significant problem. Even in a highly weakened anaerobic state, either of the amalgams was stronger than one of their components at full power.
No... the problem was finding a lone tiny black object in the endless black expanse of space. Looking around, seeing nothing, both Brick/Blossom and Butch/Buttercup's patience began to wear thin. It was fortunate, then, that in space no one could hear you swear, or a number of astronauts would have been highly offended. Thousands of miles away and below, in Townsville, the creeping body of abnormal matter continued its steady advance, devouring everyone and everything in its path, directly towards two unconscious targets...
