Bella12: Thanks for reviewing and taking an interest, doll, but you didn't need to submit critique for every chapter, not this far in. One does the trick. But thanks again, anyway. :)
The disused old subway station, or The Underground as it was known to its inhabitants, was the well hidden HQ for a resistance movement to Lord Alecto's tyranny. Townsville had long since been declared a war zone, and though the American government had ranted and raved to the mass media about bringing the crime-lord down, in truth very little had been done, or even agreed upon by congress. What outside resistance there was had been promptly quelled by Alecto's firm iron stronghold. It was up to the people of Townsville themselves to challenge their cruel overlord.
The Mayor had been missing for some months now, and for some months his cunning secretary had been taking action. Assisted by the scientific knowhow of her old friend Sandy Keane she had sneakily gathered together all the resources and manpower she could to work on raising the much needed rebellion. She called the group Team Eumenide, based upon the Greek myth of the monstrous Furies that eventually became honey-faced bringers of mercy. Its two most valued commodities were Professor Utonium's old time portal that had been recovered from the clutches of Lord Alecto, and the five teenage boys who, upon seeing their home town become a frightening dictatorship, had given up their petty crimes to join in the fight for freedom.
The 'laboratory' that the scientifically endowed Sandy (or Ms. K, as she was affectionately dubbed by the younger members) spent most of her time in was little more than a staggered collection of what gadgets and machines Team Eumenide's foot soldiers could acquire. But incomplete as it was, it had still offered the team an advantage in their missions of hostage rescues and sabotage. Over the past week, all the tracking equipment had been dedicated to finding the bewildered Buttercup, who thanks to a terrible accident had only come out of a coma a few weeks previous and was still suffering from a bout of amnesia.
Currently, the little Powerpuff was sitting in a relieved Sandy's arms in the team's lab.
"Buttercup," Sara began, giving the girl an appropriately stern maternal look, "when you used the time portal to go and find your father, did you have any idea what year you ended up in?"
She shook her head.
"You went all the way back to 1978. When you heard Sandy and I talk about retrieving the Professor from the past, we meant going only two or three years back." She explained. "No wonder you didn't find him, back then he would have been no older than sixtee-"
She was interrupted by Ace, flanked by Snake, appearing in the lab's doorway.
"Um… Ms. B, Ms. K…" He said through anxious gritted teeth, "there's something I should show you. See, Buttercup picked up something in the past that she, er, insisted on taking with her."
Sara's shoulders drooped. "Oh, no. What is it, a stray puppy?"
"Uh…"
From behind Ace, Johnny stepped out shyly and waved awkwardly at the group.
"Oh my God… Johnny!?"
It couldn't be!
The boy was struck dumb with the twisted recognition of his old classmates.
"Red? Sandy?"
"Wait a minute…" Snake interjected, "you know this guy?"
"This is… er…" Sandy fumbled, trying to find an appropriate way to introduce the boy.
"My name is Johnny Utonium," Johnny announced proudly, "and these two ladies are-er, were my high school classmates."
Ace's eyes widened over the brim of his shades. "Utonium!?" he exclaimed. "Then he's…"
Sandy nodded grimly. "Buttercup must not have recognised him because of her illness."
"Recognised me?" Johnny repeated. "What do you mean, 'recognised'?"
"Sit down, John," Sara proffered, "there's something we need to tell you…"
"Her WHAT!?"
"Yes Johnny," Sandy confirmed gently, "you are Buttercup's father-to-be."
Johnny couldn't believe it. He sat heavily and stiffly, staring blankly at the jade-eyed tyke who was clinging to Sandy's sleeve, racked with the same surprise and disbelief.
"No way!" Buttercup cried. "You mean he was the guy I was looking for the whole time!?"
"Heeey, that means I become a professor in the end!" Johnny realised, a huge grin appearing on his lips. "So if I'm the father of Buttercup and her sisters," he asked, the grin turning into a lustful leer, "then who's their mother, huh?"
"You'll find that out when you get there, young man." Retorted Sandy with a rather stern tone.
Just then, a beautiful, pale-skinned woman with wild black hair and Rubenesque curves strided into the lab, pointedly ignoring the group and heading for a control panel, looking at a clipboard in her hands.
"Wow, I hope it's her! " Johnny drooled, and was met with a swift clip around the ear by Sandy.
"Sedusa," Sara called to her, "we found Buttercup."
The woman looked stoically over to the others, noticing the recovered child with detached interest. "Good." She replied flatly.
"And, uh, we also found the Professor… though perhaps a few decades too early…"
Sedusa regarded Johnny, her apathy then becoming something colder. "So you did," she noted with narrowed eyes, her unfriendly, piercing gaze chilling Johnny's insides. Thankfully, she turned back to her work.
"Don't worry about Sedusa," Sandy told him, "she usually keeps to herself."
"Yeah," Snake said "Most fungus spends more time out and about than her."
"And they've got more friends!" Ace added.
As the youngsters laughed at the cheap shot, Sedusa pursed her lips and quietly stormed out of the room.
"Boys!" Sara barked angrily, hands on hips.
"Sorry, Ms. B, we were only kidding." Ace alleged with a gracious smile.
"So," Johnny assessed, "I see that you two are a big part of this whole resistance thing," he nodded to Sara and Sandy, "and one of my kids is here… but what about me? Where's my future self? Am I out saving Townsville or something?"
Uncomfortable looks passed around the room. Sad, mournful eyes met and eventually fell. The reluctant silence was met yet again with Johnny's naïve curiosity.
"Well?" he insisted.
To Be Continued. . .