Chapter 20 - We Meet Again, Mojo
Mojo's men scurried around the dome-like structure they had constructed at the base of El Cristo. Mojo stood overlooking the city of Cochabamba, eager to put his plans into action.
"As soon as the ray hits the town, the people there will be mine to control!" he bellowed. He turned with a flourish of his long purple cape and entred the dome. He stopped suddenly as he heard a sound, a familiar sound he had heard many times in the past. He turned and looked into the sky. Far in the distance, he could see six streaks of colour coming towards his camp. His eyes widened as he realized what the colours were. The Powerpuff Girls AND his own Rowdyruff Boys were approaching at super sonic speed. He yelled orders to those around him and hurried inside the dome. He quickly strapped himself into his machine and pushed buttons on the control panel to set coordinates for his hypnotic ray gun. He shoved the lever forward and watched as huge purple rays shot out of El Cristo's eyes, mouth, and fingertips and stretched towards Cochabamba. The rays nailed the entire city and it glowed purple from the blast.
"He hit the town already!" Bubbles cried out. "What do we do now?"
"We kick some hiney!" Buttercup bellowed. The group streaked over the camp, blasting anything in their path with their laser eye beams. Mojo's men ran everywhere in panic as trucks, crates, tents, and other buildings exploded from the laser blasts.
Mojo slammed his fists down on the console of his machine and yelled, "A-cursed Powerpuff Girls!" He unstrapped himself and went outside to face them and his Boys. Upon seeing him, the children swooped in on him. Buttercup slammed him at super speed, carrying him with her until she dumped him on the ground. Bubbles followed with a kick that sent him flying down a hill. Brick met him at the end of the hill and socked him back up. Boomer grabbed him at the top and flung him into a stack of crates. Butch picked him back up and punched him backwards. He tumbled across the ground and came to a stop in front of Blossom. She hit him with her ice breath as he stood up, freezing his feet to the ground.
Mojo held up his hands and let out an evil laugh. He held a small remote in his hand and yelled, "You're too late, Powerpups! As you can see..." He indicated a spot behind the six. They turned to see the entire population of Cochabamba headed towards them with glassy eyes and various forms of weaponry from clubs to semi-automatic rifles.
The children stared with wide eyes as the hypnotized townspeople came after them screaming. Buttercup kicked and punched anything and anyone who came near her. Bubbles took several of the people up in the air and dropped them into a nearby drainage ditch full of water.
Hearing the splash, Boomer turned to see the water ditch. He called to Buttercup. "C'mon, follow me!" The two flew over to the water ditch and began spinning up water spouts with tornado force. The blue and green spouts headed over a crowd of people, sucked them up into the water, and deposited them in the ditch.
Blossom froze an entire group in their tracks with her ice breath, then was attacked from behind by more. Several of them piled on her, kicking and punching at her.
Butch shot over to help her. He threw the people off Blossom like rag dolls until they dragged him to the ground as well.
Brick fought back a crowd with all his might. He punched and kicked the people aside until one of the men slammed him in the stomach with a baseball bat. He screamed in agony as the blow hit him in his injured side and he fell to his knees. The people around him fell on him, clubbing and kicking him.
They were overcome by the people. They mustered their strength and each blasted out of the mobs of people pinning them to the ground. They flew up and back and landed in a circle inside the ring of crazed townspeople. They stood glaring at the townspeople, each huffing and puffing.
"There's too many of 'em!" Buttercup shouted.
"We can't take them all." Boomer yelled.
"We gotta snap them out of their trances." Brick said. He wiped the blood flowing from his mouth and held his side now raging with pain.
"But how?" Bubbles shrieked.
"We better figure it out fast before they kill us." Butch told them.
"Bet'cha Mojo can tell us." Blossom stated as she turned towards him. He stood on a crate and held the remote aloft. He continued to cackle and cheer as the townspeople clobbered the Girls and his Boys. She saw the remote and took a chance. She blasted the remote from Mojo's hand with her laser eye beams and watched as he dropped the now fiery hot device to the ground. It melted into a black pool of plastic.
Almost instantaneously, the townspeople stopped. They blinked and looked at each other. They looked around and saw Mojo and his cronies and began running and screaming. Apparently, Mojo had been terrorizing them for quite awhile. Mojo's men began shouting at them, pushing and shoving their way through the masses to take on the children.
"Aw, man, does this ever end?" Butch asked. He punched one man as he came running towards them, sending the man flying backwards into a tent.
"At least the odds are more even now!" Buttercup yelled as she sent another man flying over a pile of burning crates.
They defeated Mojo's remaining men easily, then they turned to take Mojo himself. Mojo backed away, hands up in front of him.
"Oh, come now, do you really want to beat me up now?" he asked sarcastically.
"You bet'cha!" Bubbles stated.
"You're finished, Mojo, might as well give it up now!" Blossom yelled at him.
"Long trip for nothin', huh, Mojo?" Boomer teased.
Mojo Jojo stopped and looked at the Boys. His face melted into fatherly love as he spoke to them.
"Oh, my Boys, you wouldn't really harm your father, now, would you?" he asked innocently. "Join me instead! We can be a family together and rule anywhere we want! You haven't really fallen for these Girls simple lies of peace and justice, have you? We are better than them! We can rise above all this and be together again!" he insisted.
Brick picked up the baseball bat on the ground and glared at Mojo. He made a move to swing it at Mojo, then stopped. He lowered the bat and paused, still glaring at the evil monkey-turned-villain. Then, he smiled at Mojo.
"Nah, you're right, I guess we can't hurt you, huh?" Brick said. His breathing became more laboured as he wiped more blood from his mouth and onto his shirt. "That wouldn't be very fair, right?"
Buttercup made a move to tackle Brick and beat him, but Blossom stopped her. The three Girls stood and watched to see what he was going to do.
"I told you they couldn't be trusted!" Buttercup shouted at Blossom.
"What do you mean 'THEY'?" Butch shot back. He, too watched Brick to see what he was up to.
Mojo grinned a wicked grin at Brick. He stretched his arms out to Brick as if to embrace him. "Come, my son, we'll go together, make the world our own!" he promised.
Boomer grabbed Brick's arm and shouted, "What are you doin'?"
Brick shook off Boomer's hold and continued on towards Mojo, still dragging the bat with him.
"Yeah, that could be fun, huh?" Brick asked Mojo. "Just you and me, right?"
Mojo nodded and reached for Brick. "Just you and me, Brick!"
Brick stopped suddenly. Mojo looked at him, stunned. "What the-?"
"Nah, I don't think so,...dad." Brick swung the bat up with all his strength and smacked Mojo with it, sending him sailing back over the camp and into the ditch. Mojo landed with a huge splash, surfaced, and raged his fury as Brick muttered, "Homerun."
Boomer and Butch clutched at their chests and turned to their brother. "What was all that for?" Butch demanded.
"Could you have scared the crap out of us any more than that?" Boomer asked.
Brick spat blood on the ground and turned to them. "Hey, got him goin', though, didn't it?" He grinned at them and they snickered together.
"I was gonna kick your butt in about another minute!" Buttercup told Brick. "I really thought you were serious!"
"So did I!" Bubbles perked in.
Brick shook his head. "Nope, not going there again. Besides, we made a deal, remember?" he said as he looked at Blossom. She smiled and nodded her head.