Chapter 15 - Rescued!
Bubbles sat back in the cage as tears welled up in her eyes. She had been calling for her sisters for days, but it seemed as if they weren't coming.
Boomer unplugged his ears and turned to her. "Man, that's loud." Then he noticed her crying. "C'mon, they'll be here. Just give 'em a chance."
As if in answer to his statement, he heard a familiar sound. He jumped up and looked to where the sound was coming from. He squinted with his wide-angle vision and saw four forms coming through the sky. He grinned.
Brick pointed to the cage dangling from a crane. "There they are!"
Blossom saw the crane and the cage. "Mojo said they were hanging by a thread."
"Time to break that thread." Buttercup declared.
The four of them dove down over the mass of Mojo's thugs. Blossom and Buttercup blasted the thugs' trucks, supply crates, and anything else they could hit with their laser eye beams to cause chaos in the camp.
Bubbles stood up and began to jump up and down with glee. "They're here!" she screamed.
Boomer grabbed her and held onto her tightly with one arm. He grabbed a tight hold of one of the bars in the cage on the side from which his brothers approached. He then hooked his feet through the bars on either side of himself and Bubbles. "Hang on, we're going for a ride."
Brick and Butch shot towards the crane and snatched the chain the cage dangled from. The chain snapped and the Boys took off with the cage. They flew over a long, wide path of trees, but Boomer noticed they were slowly losing altitude.
"What's wrong?" he yelled to his brothers.
"Brick's messed up." Butch yelled back.
"I'm not messed up!" Brick shouted. "This thing's heavy!" The strain of carrying the heavy cage was pulling hard on his aching side.
"How is he messed up?" Bubbles yelled.
"I am NOT messed up!" Brick shouted again. "Boomer, Bubbles, push up from the inside of this thing, try to take some of the weight off!"
Boomer and Bubbles did as they were told. They shoved on the roof of the cage with all their strength. Boomer looked at Bubbles. "This thing IS heavy!"
Bubbles looked behind them. "Where's Blossom and Buttercup?" she asked hysterically.
Butch turned and looked. "They're coming, they're..."
Suddenly Butch was gone. Brick looked, but all he saw was trees. The weight of the cage was too much for the three and they began going down again. Brick tried with all his strength to keep them going up, but he couldn't. His side felt ready to rip apart as he gritted his teeth against the pain.
An overhanging tree branch snagged in Brick's shirt, causing him to lose his grip on the cage. It tumbled through the trees to the ground below. It landed with a crash and slid down a long embankment, taking Boomer and Bubbles with it.
The tree branch Brick was caught on snapped as well and he followed the cage down. He couldn't get his bearings in time before he hit the ground and began rolling uncontrollably down the embankment. He stopped with a thump as he smacked his head on the cage which was now behind him, on its side, on the ground.
He leaned over and rubbed his head. "Ouch, that smarts." He turned to the cage and looked at Bubbles and Boomer. He grinned and reached through the bars to ruff his brother's dirty blonde hair. "Man, thought I'd never see you again, punk!"
"Normally, I'd kick your butt for that, but I'll let ya slide this time." Boomer replied with a grin of his own.
Brick chuckled. "Yeah, as if you could..." Brick looked at the cage. "Why didn't you just bust outta this thing?" he asked.
"Trust me, we tried." Boomer answered. "Never seen metal so strong. Won't bend, won't melt, nothing."
Butch appeared from through the trees. He flew over to the cage and landed in front of it, rubbing the side of his face.
"What happened to you?" Bubbles asked as she noticed Butch's nose bleeding.
"I hit a tree." he answered. He grinned upon seeing Boomer. "Hey, stranger, you wanna phone home next time you decide to disappear for awhile?"
Boomer rolled his dark blue eyes.
Butch looked at the cage. He pulled on it and asked, "Why didn't you two break out of this?"
Bubbles sighed. "We tried!" she screamed.
"We covered that already." Brick added. "Must be the same stuff as at the mission."
Blossom and Buttercup zoomed in from overhead. They landed next to the cage and the three sisters giggled and held hands as the happiness of their reunion washed over them.
Buttercup looked at the cage. "Why didn't you guys..."
"We covered that already!" Brick yelled. "It's the same metal you tried to bust through at the mission!"
Blossom looked back the way she and Buttercup had come. "Well, we gotta try to get them out somehow. Those guys won't be far behind, I can promise you that."
Buttercup looked at Butch who was wiping the blood from his nose. "What happened to you?" she asked.
Butch shook his head in disgust. "I crashed into a tree!"
Blossom called for a regroup. "C'mon, all of us together. We'll try to bend the bars apart to let them out. Boomer, Bubbles, you work from the inside, we'll take the outside."
The four climbed on top of the cage as Boomer and Bubbles grabbed the bars from inside. They put all their strength together and pried on the bars. The bars slowly began to move apart.
"It's working!" Bubbles said.
Brick gritted his teeth and continued to pull on the bars. His side raged with pain, but he kept going. "Almost there!" he yelled.
Buttercup shoved with all her might to help get the bars apart. She reached in and grabbed Bubbles' hand. "C'mon, that's enough for you to get out."
Bubbles grinned happily and began to climb out as the four began to let up on the bars.
"No, don't let..." Boomer shouted as he snatched Bubbles back inside. As they watched, the bars snapped back into shape. They looked as if the children hadn't touched them.
Blossom blinked in astonishment. "What the - ?" She ran her hand along the bars. "How did...?"
"That's what I was talking about. I was trying to tell you to not let go." Boomer informed them.
Blossom continued to feel the bars. "That's amazing!" she exclaimed.
"No, it's annoying!" Brick corrected as he held his side.
They heard Mojo's men making their way through the trees after them. Brick turned back to the cage. "OK, c'mon, one more time. Don't let go until they're both out."
They returned to their work, pulling and shoving on the bars together. The bars slowly opened again. Boomer nodded to Bubbles. "You first, quick!"
Bubbles shot out of the cage then joined the others to help hold the bars apart. "C'mon, Boomer!" she shouted to him.
Boomer released the bars and flew out of the cage. He hovered over their heads and shouted, "Free! I'm free!"
Blossom snatched him back down and hushed him. "Remember them?" she asked, pointing towards the trees.
She again studied the metal cage as the bars returned to their original positions. "That's unbelievable! We gotta take this cage with us."
"What?!" Buttercup snapped. "Are you crazy, I'm not carrying this thing!"
"It's too heavy anyway." Butch added.
"Yes, but think of the really neat things you could make with this stuff if somebody could figure out how it's made! Think of metal objects that never get dents or rusty! Earthquakes wouldn't destroy buildings anymore!" Blossom continued.
"No," Boomer spoke up, "we're not taking that with us." A stern look crossed his face.
"Why?" they asked in unison.
"Mojo's going to sell the formula to make it to somebody." Bubbles stated. "He's also going to hypnotize the people of a city to mine the ingredients to make it. We heard some of his guys talking about it."
"So, we'll stop him from selling the formula and take it with us!" Blossom said excitedly.
"NO!" Boomer shouted. "Don't you get it?"
"But think of all the good uses for this metal!" Blossom insisted.
"Yeah, and think of the rotten ones as well," Boomer said. "Think of an army of tanks, planes, aircraft carriers, bombs, everything made of this stuff. Then imagine they're not a very friendly army. They'd be invincible. Do you get it now?"
The implications of what Boomer had said sank into the rest of them. They stared at each other in stunned silence.
"Oh, man, he's gonna build an army with this stuff. That's the reason he needed to get rid of us so badly." Buttercup realized.
Blossom stared off blankly. "If he does, he'll be unstoppable."
"Bingo!" Boomer exclaimed.
Blossom snapped out of her gaze. An angry look crossed her face. She was now more determined than ever to stop Mojo. She turned to Bubbles. "OK, Bubbles, where's Mojo? Any idea?" she asked.
Bubbles shook her head. "No, they were getting ready to move us to the next spot when you guys showed up."
"The next spot?" Brick repeated. He leaned over and held his side again. "How many more 'spots' are there, anyway?"
"There's four clues to find him, at least that's what we heard." Boomer answered. He looked at his brother, concerned. "What's the matter with you, anyway?"
Brick lifted his shirt and showed Boomer his side. The swelling was worse than ever and the bruises had turned completely black.
Boomer's eyes widened at seeing Brick's injuries. "What the heck is all that?" he asked.
Brick put his shirt back down and replied, "I got hit with a tranquilizer dart, then some guy kicked the crap out of me. Otherwise, I'm fine."
"You didn't say anything about getting beat up." Butch piped up.
Brick shrugged. "Cigar man."
Boomer and Bubbles were confused. "Who's that?" they asked.
Buttercup looked up. "Oh, you aren't in on this, that's right! We've got Bolivian military after us, too. Seems Mojo told them we're terrorists. Isn't that neato?"
"Oh, and let's not forget the soccer game." Butch added.
"Soccer game?" Boomer and Bubbles questioned.
"Oh, yeah, that was a blast." Butch answered sarcastically.
"And the guy we threw in the dumpster." Brick continued.
"OOO, I loved that part!" Buttercup cooed.
"Shush!" Blossom said. She looked around to make sure she had their attention.
"OK," Blossom began, "We already have three clues. That means we still have to go to Trinidad to get the last one."
"Why?" Butch asked. "I mean, we're all together again, Brick's hurt, why don't we just take off outta here now?"
"'Cause, if Mojo's thinks he's going to get away with hypnotizing an entire city to do his dirty work, he's wrong." Blossom growled. "I'm not gonna let him. You wanna take off, fine, go ahead. I'm going to stop Mojo." She glared at the group with determination showing on her face. Mojo's men were almost through the trees to where they now stood.
"You coming, or going?" Blossom asked them all.
Brick stood up and looked at his brothers. Then he turned to Blossom. "We're with you. Let's get outta here before those goons show up."
Blossom smiled. "OK, Trinidad it is."