The bottom, sides and top had all fallen out of Johnny's world. He was Alecto. He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't believe it. Sure, sometimes he could get a tad malicious, but to think he was capable of something so… it was unfathomable.
Sandy and Ace had told him the story after settling the boy in and having a measly dinner of canned beans and black coffee. They had tried to break it as gently as possible to him, but foretelling someone's tragic future was impossible to sugar-coat. They had deeply wanted to keep the horrible truth from him, but Sara insisted that he should know why his home was in such a frightening state. Besides, while he resided in the future it was better that he heard the news from a trusted, sympathetic Eumenide member rather than anyone sinister.
He was brooding in the sewers just outside HQ, feeling barren. This was a future he could do nothing about. His existence here, sitting, looking about, breathing in and out, was for no other purpose than to aid that psycho Alecto, the man he was destined to become. He was a dense, cold, ineffective lump.
He heard the sharp echoing click of a pair of shoes approaching him. He regarded them with little interest and didn't look up.
It was Sedusa who sat down next to him. "Bellum wants you to come back inside."
Johnny was quiet.
"I take it they told you the, uh, little secret about Alecto." She grinned like a hyena, seeming to take pleasure in the teenager's pain.
Finally he spoke, his voice dry and flat.
"I still can't believe it."
Sedusa snorted. "I can," she contested, then leaned in closer to Johnny. "I know you, Utonium, I knew you before you became Alecto. You were a paranoid, selfish, prejudiced little bastard then. And you're one now, too… the both of you!" She cackled.
Johnny would have usually shot off a fiery retort to such an insult, but now, he didn't see much of a point.
All he did was narrow his eyes at the woman, then turn away, gazing into the darkness.
Johnny shall have a new master.
He shall earn but a penny a day
Because he can't work any faster..."
Blossom's voice was quiet and receding-nothing like the clear, confident tone it had once been. It still hurt her father to hear it, he believed it to be the saddening result of the city's demands on her in her superhero days. Of course, he would have hated himself if he had acknowledged what had really driven her to this state.
"Shall we read another, then, darling?" He asked sweetly, gazing down at his dead-eyed daughter as she sat on his lap.
She nodded silently, avoiding looking at him.
Alecto and Blossom were reclining upon a mountain of plush toys in the little girl's windowless 'playroom'. It was in truth a prison for Blossom, one that she was seldom allowed to leave. Modelled after the Powerpuff Girls' old bedroom, it was located within the deepest, most well-guarded recesses of Alecto's fortress. It was his favourite room in all the chambers of his impressive mini-empire, and he regarded it with almost religious honour. It was the only place where, rather than focusing on his conquest, he was regarded simply as being Daddy. He grew more and more joyful by the day to know that he would soon be adding another little captive to this peculiar shrine…
The reinforced double doors clanged open. In strode a gun-wielding guard, flanked by an anxious looking Him.
"Just the demon I wanted to see," Alecto muttered sardonically, and frowned.
"Your men told me all about the hunt for my daughter, Captain."
He stood up to his full height, shadowing the imp like a great black dormant volcano.
Him bit his lip.
"Am I correct in saying that you made use of those powers of yours?"
Silence.
"And that you used them to help my younger self fight your own men and escape!?"
Him warily moved to speak, but was thwarted by Alecto's hand seizing his collar, yanking him closer to the crime lord's menacing glare.
"Are you stupid or something!?" he seethed. "For your sake, I hope those exertions were in the interest of bringing my little Buttercup home to me."
The demon took a deep breath. "Sir, we tried to capture her no less than three times… but she and Johnny-your younger self, I mean, escaped our grasp."
Him tried to ignore Alecto's fingers tightening even further on his collar.
"…And now the both of them are back in the present, under the protection of Team Eumenide. Oh, forgive me my Lor-"
Blossom cowered as she watched her father's fury erupt, kicking Him ruthlessly to the floor.
"I gave you a simple task to fulfil-and instead of do what you're told, you deliberately DISOBEY ME??" He roared, his voice bounding out the open doors and down the concrete-and-metal hallways. "I warn you, boy…"
"Please, my Lord!" Him begged, contending Alecto's anger by looking helpless, holding an arm over his quivering form. "There was nothing I could do! Every time I came close to capturing her, that boy would always stand in my way… and… no matter what your orders were… I couldn't find it in myself to hurt him. Teenager or not, he is you. I couldn't dream of ever causing harm to you… my Lord."
Alecto's face softened as he stared down at his pitiful lapdog of a Captain. He drew in a strained sigh and calmed himself. Admittedly, Him's desire to protect him in all his forms was rather touching, if only in a twisted way.
"Well, I can't say I'm too pleased with you at the moment. But…"
Here he knelt down to the floor, and Him felt the smooth, cold black leather of his glove as he grasped the demon's heart-shaped face in his hand. "You have always been so loyal to me."
Him's heart skipped a beat for the unexpected praise from his Master.
Alecto rose and began to pace the floor, in the same prowling feline fashion he always did when posed with a problem.
"Perhaps there is a chance to redeem yourself. You say my teenage counterpart has travelled to the present with Buttercup?"
Him nodded.
"We may have ourselves a useful middleman, then."
"But my Lord, he's with Team Eumenide! They'll most likely guard him from us as closely as they guard Buttercup. We couldn't reach him even if we tried."
Sitting back down on the plush toys and placing Blossom on his knee again, he smiled restfully.
"It won't be too hard," he answered. "Trust me, if we keep a vigil… young Johnny will more or less come to us."
To Be Continued. . .