Return of the Shutterthug Part II

     When the Powerpuff Girls arrived at Townsville Technology center, they found it being ransacked by the Rowdyruff Boys. They had already smashed through the ceiling and were in the process of stealing the giant laser, for Mojo's new weapon.

     "No, boys!" shouted the president of Townsville Technologies. "You boys can't just break in here and take that!"

    "Oh, yeah?" sneered brick. "Try and stop us!"

    "Maybe they can't stop you, but we can!" cried Blossom, as they entered through the ceiling.

    "Why, if it isn't those Powerprisses, come to save the day!"

   "That's right!" yelled Blossom. "Now give us that laser! Now!"

     "Okay, if you insist, Powerpipsqueak!" Brick swung the heavy laser as hard as he could into Blossom's midsection, swatting her against the wall.

   "OOOOOOOFFFF!" cried Blossom, as she smacked hard into the wall. The other two Girls gasped.

   "Ha! Ha! Good one, bro!" said Butch. He hifived with Brick and they both laughed.

    Buttercup streaked for Butch. "You'll pay for that!!"

     Butch started to sneer, but then he became really afraid. "Oh man!" he gasped. "She's gonna kiss me!"

     But instead, she smacked her fist hard into Butch's mouth sending crashing into the wall.

     "That's for making fun of my sister, creep!" she yelled, then closed in on him. "Now I'm gonna kiss you! So say your prayers! Here goes! Yuck!"

     But before she could get to Butch, Boomer smacked into her, knocking her sideways. "Leave my bro alone!" he shouted, as he sent Buttercup crashing into the wall.

    "Uugh! Bubbles!" cried Buttercup "We could use you here!  Hey—Bubbles?"

   Blossom was diving for Brick, when both she and Buttercup noticed that Bubbles seemed to be holding back. She was just hanging in the air, with a pouty look on her face, as though unwilling to mix in the fight.

     "Hey, Bubbles!" Buttercup cried. "What's gotten into you?"

    Bubbles said nothing at first, then started floating in Boomer's direction. The other PPG and RRB looked on in confusion. "Er….Boomer? There's something I've been meaning to tell you!"

    "What?" asked Boomer. "What's with you? Get away from me!"

    "It's just that…..I was thinking….I thought it might be nice if we could all stop fighting and be friends….you know, like in those fanfic stories….especially you and me."

    Boomer was horrified. "Huh?! Friends? Us? NO WAY!!"

    "Wait Boomer! Listen to me!" Bubbles said

   For some reason Boomer didn't run away. He stopped, and did listen to her.

    Bubbles took the chemical X she had gotten from the Professor's lab the night before from out of her belt. "Here! See? I've got this Chemical X. I thought if you drank some of it, it would take care of that…awful stuff Mojo used to make you with. Then maybe you could be good guys, and fight monsters with us, and stuff. What do you think?"

    Boomer was at loss for words for several minutes. Then he blushed and the corner of his mouth curled up in a sort of half-smile. "Well, Bubbles….us on the same team does sound kinda cool, in way…" he then stole a look at his tow bros who he found were glowering at him. Butch especially looked ready to explode.

     "NO!" Boomer cried, back to his regular self in the next instant. "No I won't! Powerpuffs and Rowdyruffs fight togethter? Are you crazy?"

    But Bubbles had seen that look on his face just moments before, and that was all that she needed. She began floating toward him, still holding the Chemical X. "Oh come on, Boomer! Try it! It won't be so bad!"

   "AAAAAAAAARGH!" yelled Boomer. Horrified, he turned and streaked off through the ceiling.

Bubbles streaked after him in hot pursuit, still brandishing the Chemical X.

    "Boomer!" shouted Butch and Brick together.

    "Whoa!" exclaimed Buttercup. "She really does have a thing for him!"

    "Looks that way." Said Blossom. "We've got to rescue her."

     "Oh, man!" said Brick, slapping a fingerless hand over his face. "This sucks big time! And its all you stinking Powerpuff Girls fault! What's with that freaky sister of yours?"

     "Don't talk that way about Bubbles!" Buttercup told him.

    "I'll talk about her any way I want!" sneered Butch.

    "Alright, guys, calm down!" said Blossom. "We've got to do something to make Bubbles come to her senses!"

    "Says who?" said Brick. "We don't gotta do nothing with you sissies! We're going to rescue Boomer ourselves! Right, bro?"

     "You're on!" said Butch.

     "We won't let you hurt Bubbles!" Blossom said. "Even if she has lost her mind, she's still our sister, and you can't touch her."

    "We'll do what we have to with that psycho sister of yours." Sneered Butch. He and brick took off through the ceiling.

    Blossom and Buttercup followed them.

    Meanwhile, a lovesick Bubbles still chasing Boomer. They zigzagged around buildings, chased crazily through parking garages, and smashed through billboards, leaving twins trails of sky-blue and navy blue. Once, they crashed through the window of an office and zoomed through the office, as clerks looked up, gaped, and hid beneath their desks. Papers streamed and flew all about them. At last, they crashed out the other side, and zoom down the side of the building, then up down across the center of the street below, causing a traffic jam as the cars collided with one another., the drivers yelling at them.

     They zoomed to the top of the tallest building in Townsville. Boomer was panting he had flown harder then ever before. Bubbles landed a few feet in front of him. "Give up?" she said sweetly.

    "C'mon, Bubbles." Said Boomer. "Enough's enough. Gimme a break, okay? You know we can't be friends! I'm a Rowdyruff! You're a Powerpuff! Think about it! The guys would kill me!"

    "Is that what you're afraid of? What your brothers will think?"

   "Well, yeah…..it is…kind of. But it's not just that…"

    "What do you really want, Boomer? C'mon, Boomer, tall me. I really want to know. Those brothers of yours don't have to find out."

    "I….uh….I dunno, Bubbles. " Boomer said, blushing again. "To tell you the truth…I've wondering about it myself  lately."

    But before he could cay more they heard a loud crash, and looked in the direction.

     They saw a giant monster wrecking the center of downtown. Boomer made a beeline for it, hoping to distract Bubbles.

     This monster resembled Gaos in the old Japanese Gamera films. It had a huge, triganular head, and a beaklike maw lined with teeth, from which it was firing beams of white fire, exploding cars and buildings. It had a pair of gigantic wings that extended the height of its body. When it flapped these mighty pinions nuclear winds accumulated, which smashed into the tallest buildings, reducing them to rubble.

     "Ooops." Said Bubbles. "Sorry, Boomer. I've got to take care of that monster. You can help if you like."

     For several seconds, Boomer was unsure of what to do. Then he streaked toward the monster behind Bubbles. ""I'm coming with!" he called. "But it's just this once!"

    But as soon as they came within proximity of the monster, he thrashed his giant pinions, and the resulting nuclear wind caught them both in its grip, threatening to send them crashing backwards. Teeth gritted, Bubbles and Boomer strove mightily against the fierce gusts, as it tore at their shirts.

The monster, grinning like the devil, opened his giant jaws, preparing to zapp both of them with one of his laser beams.

   Boomer noticed this first. As the generator within the beast's mouth intensified, preparing to barrel forth, Boomer launched an attack of his own. The beams of his eyes connected with the laser in a cascade of red sparks. Still trapped in the wind generated by the monster's wings, Boomer pressed his attack. Bubbles, seeing then what Boomer was doing, fired her own lasers. Together, they forced the beam back inside the monster's jaws. There was a terrific explosion, as the monster's triangle-shaped head was split in two. The nuclear storm ceased, as the beast was sent crashing off its feet, demolishing two good-sized buildings in the process.

    "Wow, we did it!" Exclaimed Boomer. "Yea!"

    "Alright Boomer!"

    They flew down to where the blackened carcass of the monster was lying, and began bouncing with joy.

   A crowd of citizens was already gathering. Some journalists from the tribune were already snapping pictures.

    "See, Boomer? Being a good guy isn't so bad. Maybe you won't even need—"

    But all at once there was a flash of light bigger than all the others. And the charred carcass of the monster suddenly was gone—as were the remains of the two buildings.

   "Whoa, dude!" exclaimed Boomer "What happened?"

    "I dunno!" said Bubbles. "It looks like—"

    There was another flash of light, and the crowd in front of them vanished.

   "Whoa!" cried Boomer. "What gives?"

    Then Bubbles spied a dark figure rounding a street corner. It looked like the same figure they had seen earlier. "I know! I know who's doing this! It's the Shutterthug!"

    Boomer looked at her quizzically. "The who?

  "The Shutterthug! He's this really awful villain who used to be with the Townsville tribune. He had this weird camera and when he took a picture of something, it became trapped in the photo. When my sisters and I tried to stop him, he trapped us too!"

   "Intense! How did you get out?"

    "We broke off the top of the Townsville Monument and dove it through the photo. That's how everybody got freed."

   "So you think this photo-creep is back."

   "Well, it does kinda look that way."

    Bubbles and Boomer took off and began scanning the streets and alleys for any sign of the culprit. But just like the other times, the Shutterthug had vanished.

   Then Bubbles seized Boomer by the arm. "Boomer, look!"

   "What? I don't see nothun' Just a big field of grass!"

    "That's just it! Don't you see? That's where Townsville hall and the Mayor used to be."

    Boomer looked, and saw that she was right. "Whoa! You're right, Bubbles."

   Both of them floated to the ground and looked at the vacant plot of grass. "That Shutterthug will take over the entire city, if we don't stop him!" cried Bubbles.

     "What'll we do?"

     "Keep looking!"

    They flew over the town again scanning everywhere for signs of the Shutterthug. Then Bubbles saw Mojo's observatory vanish.

   "Boomer, look! Mojo's lair! It's gone!"

    "Oh, no! That's our home!"

     Bubbles and Boomer streaked in the direction of where Mojo's lair was. The landed on the ground to find that entire volcano had vanished.

   "Oh, no!" Boomer wailed. "Pops and my bros are gone!"

   "Don't worry, Boomer." Bubbles said. "We'll find a way, don't worry. And your brothers were with us last time we saw them."

     Just then, they heard a voice. It was Blossom's. "There you two are!"

    They both saw Blossom and Buttercup land in front of them. "Well, Bubbles, what do you have to say for yourself!" Buttercup demanded.  

     "Hey, where's Brick and Butch?" Bubbles.

    "They wouldn't search with us, so we split up!" Buttercup explained. "And don't try to change the subject!"

    "Don't worry about us," Bubbles said. "Everything's cool between us, right? We beat up a monster, as saved Townsville. Tell 'em about it, Boomer?"

   "Well, er….yeah, we did…sort of."

   "So are you coming with us or not?" asked Buttercup.

   "Well, not right now." Said Bubbles. "It's the Shutterthug! Take a look! Notice anything different?"

     "Wow!" exclaimed Buttercup . "Mojo's observatory's gone. I knew there was something different about this place!"

   "But where'd he go?" Blossom asked. "Did anybody see anything?"

   All of them exchanged glances and shook their heads.

   "Ah, but I did!" said a voice. "I lured all of you here so I could finish you!"

    All of them turned and gasped as a dark figure emerged from behind a bush. It was the Shutterthug, dressed in the same Snidley Whiplash outfit he had before. He was carrying his special camera.

   "Shutterthug!" cried Blossom, jabbing her arm at him. "I knew you were behind this!"

   "And so I was," laughed the Shutterthug. "But this time, you Girls will not escape, like you did before!"

    "And what makes you so sure of that?" Buttercup demanded.

    "Because, Powerpuff brats, I now have invented a new lens for my camera. Only this lens is different! It does not capture things within a photo! Instead it freezes whatever has chemical X within its system. And once I use it to immobilize you super powered pests into statues, I will then use my other lens to rob Townsville of all its valuables!"

    With that he raised his camera, and clicked the shutter. The Powerpuffs were instantly frozen in midair, as they were zooming through the air to attack him.

    "Whoa!" exclaimed Boomer, gazing at the three Girls, suspended in midair.

     "Oh," said the Shutterthug. "I forgot about you. I wasn't counting on a Rowdyruff Boy. Oh, well. What's good for the goose is good for the gander."

   He leveled the camera at Boomer, and clicked the shutter. There was a blinding flash.

   But Boomer remained unfrozen.

   The blue RRB sneered at him "Better luck next time, shutter-creep!"

    "What?! Why aren't you frozen!" he began looking over his camera, checking it to see if there was anything wrong.

    Boomer didn't care why he was immune to the flash. He streaked for the photo felon, and slammed into him, knocking him hard into the turf. Boomer yanked the camera away from him.

   "No! You rotten boy!" the Shutterthug cried. "Give that back! You don't know what you're doing!"

    "Oh, I think I do, Mr. Shutterthug!" Boomer replied with exaggerated politeness. He yanked out the rolls of film. "Hmmmm. What do we have here?"

    "Stop!" commanded the Shutterthug.

   Boomer started ripping the roll of film to shreds, a wicked sneer on his face. And at once Mojo's observatory appeared just where it was supposed to be. And the carcass of the monster he and Bubbles had defeated materialized a short distance away. And then the stature of Townsville's founding fathers appeared, along with all the other items the Shutterthug had stolen—and the people who had become trapped in the photos as well.

     Boomer socked the Shutterthug hard in the face, causing him to slam hard into the ground. Then he yanked up the villain by his front shirt. "Why are the Powerpuff Girls still frozen?" Boomer demanded. "Tell me!"

    "My flash has frozen them. It takes the reverse flash to unfreeze them!"

    "Then unfreeze them!" Boomer almost screamed. "Especially Bubbles! And she better be alright! Do it now, before I pound ya!" He threw the Shutterthug to the ground, and jammed the camera into his arms.

   The Shutterthug tuned the flash around with trembling fingers and clicked the shutter. And as soon as he had done that, the Girls, formerly trapped in mid-flight, slammed into him in full force, and began wailing the tar out of him. Boomer meanwhile, was demolishing the shutterthug's camera until he had smashed it to pieces.

     "Boomer! Are you okay?" he heard Bubbles cry. She zipped over to him.

    "Yeah," he said. "I'm just glad you are! Ooops." Boomer covered his mouth with one fingerless member. "Sorry, Bubbles, but I wouldn't want my bros to here that."

   "But you saved us!"

    "Yeah," said Boomer, blushing. "I guess I kinda did…."

    "Then maybe you'll take the Chemical X?" Bubbles asked hopefully. "There's got to be some good in you, even with that toxic slime or whatever it is. If there wasn't you wouldn't have done that."

    "Well….I'm not sure yet. Its embarrassing, ya know? Let me talk to the guys about it okay?"

    "But they already said they didn't want to be good?"

    "Well, if there's good in me there's good in them…..maybe I can bring it up, sometime. I'll think about it."

     Just then, the police arrived to arrest the Shutterthug. Two cops seized him by the arms, preparing to toss him into the wagon to haul him off to Townsville prison. "I'll get even with you Powerpuff  Girls someday—mark my words! And you, you Rowdyruff Boy! I'll find a way to get even, just you wait!"

    "Maybe so." Bubbles said. "But for now, I'll think, youv'e other things to worry about! Take A look!"

    Then the Shutterthug saw that already in the wagon was another convict already picked up earlier. It was none other than Fuzzy Lumpkins, who was under arrest for trying to rob the local Farmer's Market.

   The police tossed Shutterthug in with Fuzzy and clanged the door shut.

   "Whoa!" said Bubbles "He's in trouble now."

   "This I gotta see!" said Boomer.

     They floated up to the barred window of the police wagon. Fuzzy had already seized Shutterthug by the front of his shirt. "Heeeeey!" he said. "Ain't you the one who done stole mah prize pumpkin, Bessy Mae?"

    "Well, er, I_" the Shutterthug stuttered.

    His words were cut short as Fuzzy rammed one large, pink-furred fist into him.

   Bubbles and Boomer were taking it in by the window. Bubbles covered her eyes and shuddered.

   "Whoa, dude." Boomer said "that's gotta hurt!"

   They floated away from the awful scene and landed with Blossom and Buttercup. "Well," said Bubbles. "I guess that takes care of the Shutterthug…for now. But once he gets out of the prison hospital, he's got plenty of time to cook up another scheme."

     "You got that right." Agreed Blossom. "Next time, we'll be better prepared for him."

     Just then, Brick and Butch cut across the sky and zomed down to join the others.

    "So  there you are!" Brick said.

   "Yo, what'd we miss?"

    "Er, not much of anything." Blossom said.

    "Yeah," said Bubbles. "We got the Shutterthug, and sent him to jail. Right Boomer?"

   "Eer, yeah, right." Boomer said, secretly glad that Bubbles was sticking up for him.

     Butch seized Boomer by the shoulders. "Man, she  didn't do anything to you, did she bro?"

   "Heck no!" said Boomer "Get your hands off, dude! I'm fine!"

   "Then why are you still with these sissy Powerpuffs"

    "Chill out, dude! I got away form her, okay? I just happened to be here when that Shutterthug character got here, and they kicked his butt."

    "Okay, dweeb." Said Brick. "Fine. But we're still keepn' an eye on you, dig?"

    "Yeah, I dig." Boomer said. "So we going home now?"

    "Yeah, guess we are…" Brick said. "We'll see about Pops' laser tomorrow. Later sissies!"

   They streaked into the air and disappeared into the top of Mojo's observatory.

    Later, the Powerpuff Girls were gathered in the living room talking over the day's adventure with the Porfessor.

    "But why do you suppose Boomer was immune to the Shutterthug's flash?" Bubbles asked.

     "I think it was because he still had that icky chemical X substitute in him. That must have been what kept him from coming over to the good side. You see, you girls get your superpowers from pure Chemical mX. The Rowdyruff Boys probably have it too, but its….contaminated. And that's why the flash didn't work on him."

    "Then I guess it's a good thing I didn't give him this." Bubbes said, looking at the tube of Chemical X.

    "Well, don't worry." The Professor said. "I wouldn't be surprised if one day the Boys might decide being evil really isn't all that cool. Then maybe they'll take it."

    "I can only hope," Bubbles sighed.

   And so once again the day is saved by…..Boomer!? (f this were an episode, there'd be a picture of  Boomer, with his arms crossed looking very annoyed at being called a her) Hey, don't take it so hard!