Like a good communist, I own nothing.
"Gauntlet: Diaspora"
Part 3
June 14
'Interim'
"We're over the drop zone. Remember. Hit them hard and fast. If you can take them by surprise, we'll be half way to winning this thing."
"I know! Let's just go!" Princess shifted impatiently where she stood, facing the open side of the airplane. The city of Townsville stretched out below them like a sprawling steel and crystal jungle.
"Right." Their leader, a mercenary known by many names, but most frequently as Burnsday, gave the team one last look. 'The Artist Formerly Known as Major Man' was crammed a backseat and hunched over, while the aptly named 'Hate Male' stood nearby, trying to get a tenacious wrinkle out of her form fitting costume.
Snapping his faceplate in place and securing his visor, Burnsday tensed and jumped out of the plane. Within a second, his powered armor fully activated, giving him full flight capability. Princess followed close behind, more than willing to let her teammates to most of the heavy hitting. Next, TAFKAMM squeezed his substantial self out of the plane, and took to the air a little unsteadily. Hate Male just jumped, and landed perfectly on a nearby rooftop.
Her three comrades quickly joined her.
"Scanning the area for targets..." Burnsday concentrated, and his armor's radar system activated, and started actively tracking any nearby contacts. He then visually checked them, and stopped when he encountered one he had been looking for. "Got one: looks like the Blue Rowdyruff. Airborne. No others around."
"Where are the others?" Princess asked. She hadn't seen any of them nearby, on the approach to the city.
"No idea. Hate Male - run recon. But no engagement, do you get me?"
She sneered at him, but nodded. In the blink of an eye, she sped away.
"Good. Major Man..."
"The Artist Formerly Known as Major Man." TAFKAMM corrected.
"Major Man..." Burnsday said again, his growing anger identifiable despite the faceplate he now wore. "You will follow up on my attack. Princess, run a screen pattern."
"Whatever." Princess agreed, but just barely.
As the others went off, and without another word, Burnsday reached behind him and pulled out a large, long, sniper rifle. It was a massive gun, too large for any normal human being to ever wield, and its kick was more than enough to tear a car in half. Burnsday could only fire it became of his armor, and its flight stabilization system, which helped dampen the recoil. As the weapon began to charge up, Burnsday reflected on it with wonder. Just a year ago, he'd never have imagined he'd be in such a position, using such powerful technology. Indeed, if all went well today, he'd take his leave from Morebucks employ with a cache of weapons and money few could hope to match, and enough pure Chemical X to keep him supplied for a lifetime.
With an audible locking ping, the weapon's targeting systems interfaced with those in Burnsday's armor. His sights locked on and magnified on his far off target: the still floating blue Rowdyruff. With a thunderous roar, the weapon finally fired. All along the length of its barrel, super-conducting electromagnets accelerated a sliver of tungsten carbide sheathed in a single mold duranium ramjet case. In less than a half second, the round reached speeds in excess of mach twelve, shed its ramjet mold, and liquefied from the air friction.
The blue Rowdyruff in the distance never even heard what hit him until it had impacted into, and through, him. Burnsday gritted his teeth, and fired two more snap shots in quick succession, before the weapon spat out its spent cooling rod. The figure in blue writhed and spun from the two shots, both of which were perfectly on target, and plummeted to the ground.
"One down." Burnsday lowered the weapon, and reached into the pouch on the side of his waist. Carefully, he removed a fresh cooling rod and slipped it into place so that the gun could be fired again if necessary. Floating into the air, he headed towards where Major Man would be finishing the job.
Miles away, Major Man landed.
Looking down at the body, he nudged it with his foot. He then looked up at where Princess hovered, looking on intently with a mixture of disgust and shock. It gradually occurred to the costumed ex-superhero that the girl probably hadn't ever seen a dead body before.
"AH! Its alive!!" Major Man yelled, loudly.
"What?! He is?!" Princess came closer, her face betraying more than a little hope. She was starting to have second thoughts about what she was getting into.
"HA! Just kiddin!" Major Man gave the lifeless body a small kick, rolling it over so it was face up. There was none of the glory and rush she'd expected to feel. Instead, Princess balked at the sight of the Rowdruff's lifeless azure eyes, and the small pool of blood only made her want to wretch up what little she had eaten earlier.
"Wait..." She mouthed, softly. "Why is the blood white?"
"Eh?" The Artist Formerly Known as Major Man scratched his head of golden curls, and checked the facts for himself. Indeed: the pool of blood wasn't the expected red. It was a pale colorless white. Then, slowly at first, but with increasing haste, the body of the blue Rowdyruff started to move. His two attackers could only watch in amazement, as he got up... his wounds, solid holes through his body, gradually diminishing and healing.
"What's... what's going on?" Princess gulped, and floated back and away. This wasn't possible! It just wasn't!
The blond boy just blinked at them, silently, and attacked.
'Opening'
Overhead, earlier that day, streaks of pink, two shades of green, and light and dark blue crossed the sky. Butch and Boomer led the group for one simple reason: The former wouldn't even associate with anyone but the latter. Disaster had been narrowly averted at the last second by the hotline call from the Mayor, just seconds before Blossom could do something stupid, like getting into a fight with the volatile Rowdyruff Boy.
In a way, Boomer could understand where they both were coming from.
Everything had been thrown upside down after Brick died. The Red Rowdyruff had been more than a leader to his brothers. Indeed, he'd been more than even a brother - he'd been an older brother. He'd been a father. He had been the first thing they had seen when they were reborn. He had taught them, in absence of a teacher or formal education, and he had stood astride their actions like a colossus.
Maybe, his dying should have brought the two remaining ruffs together closer, but instead it had tossed them apart. Butch and Boomer were very different species of animal. That had always been so, but never more than recently. They were brothers, but they hardly talked. They hardly even saw each other anymore. What had passed for a family when they lived with Mojo Jojo was falling apart at the seams, with its foundation... its very mortar, gone.
Then, interrupting his thoughts, Boomer saw it.
The Mayor had called about some sort of weird atmospheric distortion. 'Like a mirror' Blossom had relayed to the rest, before Butch had taken off for the city. It hadn't been visible at first, like looking sideways at a two dimensional object, but as it moved slowly in midair it became more distinct. The Mayor's description had been apt.
It was like a mirror.
"What on earth...?" Buttercup gasped, the first to speak.
"Careful!" Blossom added. "It may act like a magnifying glass or something."
Looking at it from low and to the side, they could see that it was circular. Both faces were like a shimmering reflective metal, which reflected and glared in the early light. It was slowly revolving on an uneven axis, but otherwise doing absolutely nothing.
"I say we blast it!" Buttercup nominated, but held back to see if anyone else was going to do similarly or object. The old Buttercup would simply have gone in without considering the others, but these were different times, and she was hardly the 'old' Buttercup.
When no one spoke up against it, she fired.
As it hit the surface at an angle, the eye beams simply bounced off and up into the air. It was something Buttercup had actually considered might happen, and when she saw that it did, a large part of her was grateful that she'd held back and switched her target to the topside of the object. Her beams passed off into the upper atmosphere harmlessly, instead of hitting the ground and the city. Of course, another part of her was frustrated and annoyed that she hadn't done any damage.
"Physical blows may be more effective." Butch didn't wait - he just charged in, but pulled back at the last second, aiming for the ground. In a single swift pass, he tore up a street sign, and wielding it like a huge knife, threw it at the edge of the floating object. The spinning sign-turned-blade hit on target and passed through harmlessly.
"Damn it!" Butch floated up, facing the slowly moving mirror. In it, he could see his reflection, throwing back at him all he hated and despised. He saw himself: disheveled, unkempt, dirty, angry... pitiful. He hated mirrors. In less than a second, his patience evaporated.
"What the HELL is going on?! What are you?!" He pointed at it, shaking with fury. "I'm ...I'm sick and tired of all this! Show yourself! DO something!"
"Butch..." Bubbles started to say, perhaps in warning.
"NO!" He cut the blonde girl off, and went back to pointing accusingly at the mirror. As it moved, Boomer and Bubbles started to come into view, and he could see their reflections: concerned and a little afraid.
"NO! I HATE this!" Butch roared. "We're being toyed with! Why... why did Brick keep us in the dark?! I... I HATE THIS!! I HATE EVERYTHING!!"
Then, last but not least, Blossom and Buttercup came into view in the mirror, and the world flashed a bright brilliant white. As it faded, so did the mirror. Before their eyes, it started to dissolve. Only... they were still staring at their reflections. Butch twitched, and leaned in closer. Across from him, the other Butch did likewise.
"This is..." He started, but never finished. Twin fists to the face cut him off, and sent him flying back and down into the city.
"What the...?" Blossom blinked, and then felt a blast of heat slash into her side. She grimaced, and saw stars, as something hard and fast plowed into her lower back.
"Watch out!" Buttercup yelled to her remaining sister, and Boomer, as her counterpart lunged for her. The raven Powerpuff managed to grab her double's arms, and twisted with her, struggling for dominance. Nearby, Boomer and his copy took off in similar directions, little more than streaks of pure blue blasting through the air. Bubbles and her double never moved.
They just stared at each other.
"Come on!" Bubbles held up her arms. "Come on!"
It just blinked, and headed off, away from her, towards Boomer, leaving a trail of light blue behind. Bubbles could only watch, stunned, as Boomer was hit from behind, and then by his double from the front, and sent down to earth. He impacted with a crash, plowing into and through a tall glass office building.
"Stop! Why are you doing this?!" Bubbles quickly recovered, and chased after the pseudo-Boomer and Bubbles. The two stared at her, and instantly split up in different directions.
"Come back...!" She looked back and forth, left and right, and ultimately chose right. It was better to keep on her counterpart, rather than get confused. At least she knew the other Bubbles was the false one. But why were they avoiding her and attacking the others?
Really: what on Earth was going on?!
'Chorus'
Hate Male was halfway through her scouting patrol when she saw something and stopped. It wasn't the jewels, however, that caught her eye, nor the normally well dressed patrons that would gift such an establishment, in the commercial heart of the city, with their business. Quite the contrary. The two occupants of the store were paying little heed to their surroundings, and the fine store looked like the proverbial china shop that the bull had stormed through.
More to the point, the two little girls inside were exact duplicates.
Hate Male had been briefed on the Powerpuff Girls, and knew that... one (or both) of the girls was called 'Buttercup.' She had also been told what the girls were capable of, but hearing about something and seeing it in action were two wholly different things. After a brief exchange of blows, that Hate Male could hardly follow, one of them connected with a haymaker.
The shockwave almost knocked the Asian supervillain off her feet.
Closing her eyes, as shards of glass and bits of diamonds filled the air. Just to her left side, the Buttercup that had been struck hit the pavement of the street, bounced, and hit a telephone pole, twisting it into something resembling a pretzel. Thinking quickly, and remembering her orders, Hate Male didn't stick around: she just moved.
FAST.
The world became a comforting blur as she ran, first down the walk, and finally up a wall and to the rooftops. High above, she just caught what looked like red blasts of some sort coming up out of a building and into the air, like tracers from a machine gun. Farther off, she heard an explosion rock a while block of the city.
So much for the plan.
"Kusotare!"
She cursed Burnsday and his plans. Some 'inside intelligence' they'd ended up with! Still, she'd make do. Checking the small watch on her wrist, she popped open a small tracking radar, and took off - following it towards Burnsday and the others. As she ran to them, she made a mental note to react a little more slowly if that baka Major Man got involved.
Why their Morebucks employers had even hired that idiot, she couldn't understand. He was worse than any other ...man ...that Hate Male had the displeasure of meeting. Of course, growing up in Japan had soured her views of all men - she couldn't count the number of times she'd been groped while on the train - but this one was the worst of the lot. By far. If it wasn't one sexist comment or another, or some annoying innuendo, it was the incessant leering and catcalling. Her blood boiled at the thought.
More than normal, actually.
Come to think of it, she'd felt... short tempered towards everyone in general lately. Shaking her head, she banished the thought. It was likely just a consequence of working in a totally different culture, and having to deal with all the stress of the last few days. When she got back to Japan, Hate Male promised herself a nice long soak in an expensive hot spring.
That would be simply... heavenly.
She arrived on the scene just in time to hear the crack of bone, as Major Man's arm twisted unnaturally. The large man roared, loudly, but kept fighting, jabbing rapidly at a blue blur that zipped and coiled around him like a tornado. Circling around, the two power armored members of their little supervillain unit were sniping energy blasts down at the two.
Surprised, Hate Male was slow to shift to a combat mentality.
She didn't act to help, but despite her hesitation, the Artist Formerly Known as Major Man finally managed to catch the blue blur. With speed and strength enhanced by artificial and unstable Chemical X, he caught the speedy Rowdyruff in two massive hands, swatting him like an insect. Staggering back, and breathing heavily, Major Man barely got out of the way as a hail of energy fire rained down, engulfing the battered and stunned ruff.
In the distance, the upper half of a five hundred foot tall skyscraper exploded. A streak of pink and green spun out, and clashed amid the expanding cloud of wreckage. Blossom and the pseudo-Butch smashed together in great conflagrations of blows, before breaking, turning, and colliding once again. Blossom's eyebeams fired, and she floated back, allowing the false Rowdyruff to dodge and weave through the fire as he charged towards her.
When he got close, she breathed out in short bursts, freezing quick patches of air; the moisture collecting into blocks of ice. This sort of thing wasn't possible when she used the power in deep breaths, but in short spurts, it was fairly effective. The green fake ruff cringed and tried to stop, but his inertia carried him into the mini-hailstorm. Trapped and slowed, Blossom then let out a deep breath, and froze him just inches in front of her.
Holding out her hands, dual globes of energy collected.
"You... lose!!" She relaxed her concentration, and the globes fired out like a shotgun, at point-blank range. The pseudo-Butch, frozen and helpless, took the blast full on. Lances of energy cut into him, and he fell back to earth a smoking wreck.
Over a mile away, Buttercup continued to duel with her double.
With another tremendous kick, she sent the other girl up and into a concrete embankment attached to one of Townsville's bridges. It shattered like glass, and the other girl twisted through the air like a broken rag doll. Floating up, Buttercup wiped a trickle of sweat from her brow, and checked to make sure her opponent was still breathing. She'd had to fight full out, without holding back, just to survive... but she didn't want more blood on her hands.
She didn't want to kill.
She couldn't.
Seeing her copy, she silently wondered if she had broken that mandate. The other Buttercup was a bloody mess. The real one could identify what looked like a broken back, and an arm that would never fully recover from its ordeal. What frightened her, however, was that the pseudo-Buttercup wasn't breathing. Then again, thinking about it, Buttercup wasn't sure if her copy had ever actually breathed... They just blinked and fought.
Like... like mindless robots or drones or something.
The lifeless body stirred, and twisted. With a strange grinding sound, the broken back repaired itself. Slowly floating up and facing Buttercup, the double blinked, and charged into the attack. Buttercup could only watch, amazed, as the arm she had seen a broken and bloody mess began to shift and distort - elbow reattaching and bones knitting together before her eyes. White blood trailed from the wound, where once bone had broken skin.
A shockwave shook the entire area.
"Hey, hey, ladies! I know I'm a hot item and all, but there's no need for all this!" Boomer dodged, frantically, as the false copies of Blossom and Bubbles chased, eye beams carving swaths of flame in the city. Catching his momentum, and spinning up and around, he brought his hands forward, and dove down, gaining speed. Running on pure inertia, he turned around and blasted at his pursuers.
The pseudo Bubbles was caught surprised by the move, and fell off to the side from the impact of Boomer's eye beam. She crashed into the side of a building, but the false Blossom was either too quick, or too ready, and dodged the strike. She didn't, however, see Butch come in from the side. With both feet, the Rowdyruff hit like a rocket propelled harpoon. A thunderous crash filled the air, and the Blossom copy sailed off down the street, colliding with a parked SUV at a gas station. The ensuring firestorm shattered windows for a half-mile.
Butch landed next to his exhausted brother.
"Hey..." Boomer slowly smiled. "Thanks for the assist."
"Yeah?" Butch smirked. "What're brothers for?"
Boomer put his hands on his knees, and let out a deep breath. "Damn straight. How you holding up?"
"I'm good. You look pretty spent, bro." Butch slowly put his hands out, and patted Boomer on the shoulder. He wasn't really good at these sorts of things. Boomer, he knew, needed to feel some sort of kinship... that was why he was willing to work with, and even for, those Powerpuff Girls. Butch wasn't as bad as Brick had been, really. Brick's actions, even his displays of emotion, were all calculated. Butch simply wasn't used to them - wasn't comfortable with them.
It wasn't his way.
Did Boomer know that?
Did Boomer know that Butch would walk with him through the flames of hell, if it was asked of him? Did Boomer know how truly sorry his brother was for everything that had happened? Did Boomer understand that Butch loved him? That they were brothers... family... no matter what happened?
Perhaps not.
But he should.
"All that flying... and dodging..." Boomer gritted his teeth and stood. "I'm fine, man. Cool."
"Great. Let's finish the job then..." Butch suddenly saw motion, in the distance. From a pile of rubble, the pseudo-Bubbles emerged, completely unharmed. Further off, the Blossom double sore from the fires, like a phoenix. She was covered in burning fuel, and the flame licked up her shoulders and legs like wings, contrasted and merging with her red hair. She shambled forward at first, but quickly her walk adjusted to normal, as her legs reset and healed.
"No way... no damn way..." Butch wiped his brow. He was starting to feel a little low on energy, too, though not to Boomer's extent. He'd pounded on the fake Boomer and left him broken in a ditch near a train station, and then taken it to the fake Blossom. How was that girl still standing?
"They're... healing..." Boomer growled, angry. "We're not doing any damage!"
"No shit, Lieutenant Columbo." Butch balled his fists. "Can you fight when invisible?"
"No." Boomer shook his head. "I can't move fast when I do it. That kinda makes throwing a good punch tough. You think I'd be talking to you right now, NOT invisible, if it'd be a help here?"
"Che. Typical." Butch paused. "Do it anyway. When they pass you after me, hit 'em from behind."
"That's your plan!?" Boomer gave his brother a oblique look and sighed. "It'll do."
Without another word, Boomer began to fade from view. Butch flew forward, past Bubbles to Blossom, and hit her with a swift uppercut. The still burning Powerpuff's feet left the ground, and Butch circled around, hitting his afterburners. Sure enough, the two fake Powerpuffs gave chase, Blossom looking more akin to a burning comet than any sort of living creature.
When they passed the cloaked Boomer, he opened his mouth.
"WOAH!!" Princess spun around, holding her ears. She'd recognized the effects of a Sonic Scream anywhere, but this one had been different: it was a rising base rumble, a low tone, instead of a high-pitched one, more like a sonic boom than a scream. It shook her to the bones, and from its direction, she could see a rising cloud of dust.
Putting that aside for the moment, she resumed her chase.
Bubbles was fast, but not fast enough. Catching up to her, Princess snapped forward her palm, and fired. Bubbles tried to block the attack with her arms, but it overwhelmed her, and she fell back, smoking but hardly hurt. Princess forced herself to smile, but the truth was that she wasn't really enjoying herself. Not only was she... somewhat shy of personally committing outright murder, but also Bubbles really didn't annoy her that much. Most of her personal ire was directed at Buttercup and Blossom.
"Look... Princess... we don't have to do this..." Bubbles started.
Princess frowned.
"You're not talking your way out of this!" Princess laughed a piercing annoying guffaw. "You girls are long overdue for a come down!"
"But...!"
"Shut... UP!" Princess lunged, just as Bubbles ducked low. The blonde girl spun into a kick that squarely connected with Princess' torso, but her armor easily took the blow.
"Ha! That's nothing!" Princess backhanded the Powerpuff, and Bubbles flew back, holding her jaw. Princess smirked, and pulled back to deliver a finishing blow, when suddenly Bubbles surged forward, eyes red with frustration and anger. In the blink of an eye, she had Princess by what passed for her collar, and slapped off the visor of her helmet.
"You... IDIOT!" Bubbles raged, and gave her a hard shake. "Don't you have any IDEA what's going on?"
"W... What?" Princess growled, teeth gnashing. "How DARE you speak to me like..."
"Look!" Bubbles pointed down, toward where Hate Male and Major Man fought the psudo-Boomer, while Burnsday orchestrated. They were beating the lone ruff, but the boy kept getting back up. He was currently splotched with his own white blood, but still eagerly fighting.
"Now..." Bubbles said, more calmly. "Does that look natural to you?"
"Hey!" Princess threw her hands up, breaking Bubbles' hold on her. "Get your hands off me! I don't know what you're getting at, but you won't trick me!"
"If you're smart..." Bubbles looked down, somewhat shy, somewhat embarrassed. "You'll leave. Now."
"That a threat?" Princess dismissed it. "It's not a good one."
"It's the truth." Bubbles blinked, and looked up at her. For a millisecond, it looked like her eyes had flashed a dull white, and Princess felt a twinge of fear creep up her spine. "I've seen you die...you and everyone else... you and countless others..."
'Choir'
"Stop! Wait...!" Blossom's words were cut off, as a hand clamped down on her mouth. A blinding blow to the back of the head followed, and for just a second, she blacked out. Only when she hit the ground did any semblance of consciousness return. Floating overhead, she saw the green eyed monster in the body of Butch, slowly descending.
Relentless.
"Damn it!" Buttercup backhanded her opponent to the ground, for the tenth time. Her muscles were raw and overused - she felt about to collapse. She'd dished out enough damage to beat her double several times over, but the ...thing just kept getting back up. She blinked, and found that it was much harder than normal to open her eyelids. Barely managing to keep upright, she watched as the pseudo-Buttercup recovered, and got back to its feet.
Tireless.
Boomer hit the ground with a soft thud.
"Ah... I've fallen and I can't get up..." He looked up at the emotionless eyes of the pseudo-Blossom. Slowly, he reached up. "Give a brotha a hand?"
She blinked.
"No?" Boomer set himself, and surged up in the attack. He rolled back and kicked up, hitting her square in the jaw, in a spray of blood and pearly whites. "What a kick in the teeth!"
Landing opposite her, Boomer tried to keep his composure and fight off fatigue. He was gasping like a fish out of water, but the sight of his opponent stumbling back, holding her face, almost made him want to go another fifteen or twenty rounds. Then, slowly, she faced him, and Boomer could see that the vacancies in her mouth were slowly being refilled. In less than a second, her slightly parted lips held back, once again, a perfect set of teeth.
"Oh... weak... dude..." Boomer ran a hand through his sweat slick hair. A half second later he was once again on the ground. This time, he saw only stars.
Merciless.
"Why... won't... you... stay down...?" Butch shook his head, trying to keep the sweat out of his eyes. He looked down at his arms and hands, still wrapped in the fighting tape he'd put on earlier in the day to cover up the scrapes he'd purposefully given himself smashing his bathroom mirror. It seemed like it had been hours ago. Looking up, he saw the sun - maybe noon, which meant he had been fighting for hours.
In front of him, the pseudo-Bubbles slowly advanced.
Impossible.
"Don't you see?" Bubbles' eyes screwed shut, as sparkling clear tears trailed down her cheeks. "Don't you understand? It's all happening just like I saw... You should have ran for it... You could have proved me wrong! But it's too late, now! I can see that... "
Princess floated back - floated away.
"You won't live through the day. ... None of us will."
"You're insane! I..." Princess never finished her sentence. Halfway through, one of the Doubles grabbed her legs, and dragged her down, kicking and screaming. Bubbles just watched, and wiped the tears from her face.
"I'm not crazy," She said, softly: too softly for anyone save herself to hear. "I'm a good girl."