Part 2: The Darkness Consumes
Professor Utonium sat on the small bunk in his cell, staring at the cold steel floor. He'd woken up here several hours ago, and had no idea where he was or where his girls were. His heart twisted in his chest like a parasite, threatening to drive him crazy from worry. Where were those girls? What was happening to them?
He looked up when the door opened. A balding man with a ring of gray hair and a pair of determined eyes entered, followed by a pair of gun-wielding tux-wearing officers. "Professor Utonium. I am Jerry. I would like a word with you about your creations."
"My girls... where are they?" Professor Utonium's voice cracked as he spoke. He swallowed and spoke again more firmly. "Please, tell me they're okay."
"They're being studied by our scientists... but I have more urgent things to discuss with you." Jerry stood in front of him, staring down at him with his hands clasped behind his back. "Are there any more creations like the ones we found in your house?"
"They're not just creations... they're my daughters. Please, let me see them. They're probably scared." The Professor pleaded, pushing himself to his feet. The guards pointed their guns at his chest, but Jerry stood calm and cool in front of him without so much as flinching. "They need me... please." Jerry stared at him blankly.
"They are illegal genetic mutations. They must be dealt with appropriately." Jerry's eyes softened slightly. "It's not my call..." He stiffened again just as quickly, shaking his head. "I need you to tell us if there are any more of them out there. How many did you make?" The Professor stared at him in horror until he was prodded again. "How many are there?"
"Th... three..." The Professor slumped down onto the small cot in defeat, his mind racing. "Only my three, beautiful little girls..." He hung his head and closed his eyes. He heard Jerry's footsteps turn to leave, followed by the guards that flanked him. Suddenly an explosion rocked the entire building, shaking it down to its foundations.
Jerry fell to the ground hard, grunting in pain. "We're under attack!?" He pushed himself to his feet and ran out into the hallway. The building shuddered again, sending all three men hurtling to the ground. Professor Utonium lurched to his feet and lunged over them, darting down the hallway. He didn't know what was going on, but it was a chance to find the girls.
The floor beneath his feet shuddered again, sending him skidding into the wall as the entire building began to tip. He lurched forward, not sure where he was going. Suddenly the floor underneath his feet gave way and he fell through in a shower of debris. He hit the floor hard, grunting in pain and sliding against the wall of the crooked building.
He looked up when he heard delighted cackled echoing from further down the hallway in front of him. "Kill 'em, let's kill 'em now!" A scratchy voice pleaded in excitement.
"You stay away from us you evil little brats!" Blossom's voice commanded. The Professor pushed himself to his hands and knees and crawled down the hall, toward what appeared to be a holding area. The bodies of guards and scientists littered the floor between him and the three figures that floated in front of the cell. There was a large hole in the solid steel wall behind them, extending all the way to the outside of the building. They looked familiar... but he had thought they were dead.
"Oh don't worry girls." Brick floated up to the cell and ripped the door off with a flick of his wrist, throwing it to the ground. "WE won't hurt you..." He and his brothers cackled as they floated into the cell. The Professor could hear his girls struggle against them, but without their powers they didn't have a prayer. Their cries were quickly silenced.
The turned to leave, but the Professor ran forward desperately. "Stop! Leave them alone!" The Rowdyruff Boys turned to look over at him blankly, then busted up laughing. The Powerpuff Girls were hanging limply from their hands, unconscious with bruises on their faces and bodies. "L... let them go!" The Professor threatened futilely.
"Looks like old age caught up with you pops." Brick lashed out and grabbed the front of his lab coat, hauling him close with a grin. "All that's left is a trip to the grave."
"Not on my watch." An unbelievably powerful light flashed from behind The Professor, searing into Brick's large, hypersensitive eyes with the force of a magnified sunbeam. The Rowdyruff Boy screamed in agony and floated back, squeezing his eyes shut. Professor Utonium looked back after the light faded to see Jerry standing behind him with what looked like a large cannon.
"Agh! Shit! My eyes!" Brick pawed furiously at his eyes while his brothers laughed. "Shut up you morons!" Brick whirled on his brothers, silencing them. He then turned back toward Jerry and the Professor. His eyes were red and half-closed, as he was clearly still in pain. Jerry raised the cannon again. "Let's get out of here!" Brick grabbed Blossom's dress again and streaked out through the hole he'd made before, followed by his brothers.
"Girls!" The Professor ran to the hole to stare out into the dark of the night. The boys were nowhere in site, and neither were his girls. "No... girls..." Jerry walked up behind him, resting the light-cannon on his shoulder.
"We'll find them and get all this sorted out." Jerry looked over at him. "I'll make sure of it."
"How long are you going to stay mad at us Clover?" Sam asked with a soft sigh as she watched her blonde friend eat lunch at school the day after their strange mission.
"Yeah, we said we're sorry for making you upset the other day." Alex added.
"Empty apologies." Clover huffed, stuffing a forkful of salad into her mouth with an irritated glare at her friends. "You're going to have to work for a long time to make me think you're my best friends again. As it is, you're only really, really good friends."
"How will I ever sleep at night?" Sam smirked slightly.
"So who's your best friend?" Alex asked.
"What are you talking about? I don't have any." Clover replied.
"You have to have a best friend, because you have lots of friends. It stands to reason that ONE of them has to be the best friend you have." Alex pointed out sagely.
Sam laughed and shook her head. "Sure can't argue with that logic."
"What-ever." Clover rolled her eyes and stuffed another bite of salad into her mouth. Suddenly the ground beneath them simply vanished, plunging all three girls down into the dark tube that inevitably carried them down toward WOOHP headquarters.
This time they emerged from the wall onto the padded 'O' set into the wall, avoiding the unnecessary bruises that came with slamming into the cold steel floor. Sam grunted and pulled herself out of the pile with her friends, looking up in surprise. There was another man standing beside Jerry.
"Isn't that the guy we arrested last night?" Sam asked confusedly.
"Indeed he is. There have been some new developments that we need to take care of, and his knowledge will prove invaluable." Jerry pulled a small remote out of his pocket and pressed a button. An image of the girls they brought down last night came up, alongside an image of three new, but very similar, figures. "It turns out we were all wrong about the thefts."
"We were... wrong?" Alex asked, stunned. "Wow... we must be losing our touch."
"Don't take it too hard girls." Professor Utonium told them with a kind smile. Still, there was an undercurrent of fear and worry in his eyes. "After hearing about what happened, it was only natural that you came to the conclusion you did. Even I didn't know the Rowdyruff Boys had returned."
"Still... let me formally apologize." Sam stood and approached the Professor with her hand outstretched. He smiled appreciatively and shook it. "I thought something was funny about last night. I just couldn't figure out what."
"Apology accepted." The Professor replied.
"Now, to your mission girls." Jerry interrupted. Sam, Alex and Clover turned their attention to him. "Last night, these 'Rowdyruff Boys' broke into WOOHP headquarters and kidnapped the Professor's girls. Your mission is to find and rescue the girls. It's of vital importance that they are found and returned safely."
"Why is it so important?" Alex asked curiously. "I mean, it sucks that they were kidnapped, but you make it sound like the entire world is at risk if they're not around."
"From what we've discovered in the last few hours, it just might be." Jerry replied cryptically. "As for your gadgets, these are no mad scientists you'll be up against. Professor Utonium knows their strengths and weaknesses far better than we do, so you will accompany him to his lab, and use his equipment for this mission. Any objections?" The girls remained silent. "Good luck girls, and Godspeed." He turned away from them dramatically.
"You know Jerr, you should consider a job in acting. You'd seriously rock." Clover commented as she, Sam, Alex, and Professor Utonium turned to leave the office. Jerry turned his head slightly to look at her with a thoughtful expression, but they left before he could respond.
"Ugh..." Blossom groaned in pain as she opened her eyes. Piercing light flooded through her eyelids, blinding her and forcing her to clench her eyes closed again. "Wh... where am I?" She remembered the Rowdyruff Boys entering their cell... but why would they kidnap them? The boys weren't the type to gloat or kill them in some diabolically insane way.
An all too familiar voice answered her question without even having to open her eyes. "You are in my lair Powerpuff Girl. You are in my lair because you are powerless, and it is because you are now powerless that my victory is assured, and your loss is also quite assured, because it is me you were fighting, and for me to win you must lose!" Mojo Jojo's laugh echoed through the large empty chamber as Blossom forced her eyes the rest of the way open. She was strapped to a steel table in the middle of a large room, with her sisters still unconscious beside her and Mojo Jojo standing with a grin in front of her. "My plan was perfect."
"You won't get away with this Mojo..." Bloissom growled. She gasped in surprise when Butch's face appeared inches from hers.
"Can we kill 'em yet Mojo!? Come on! Kill 'em kill 'em!" The Rowdyruff Boy chanted, his fists twitching like he was resisting the urge to reach forward and pop her head off right there.
"No, I have better plans than their deaths, something that will undermine all that they have fought for in fighting me all this time, so they will join me, and because I stand for that which they fight, they will fight for that against which they have always fought." Mojo exclaimed. Brick and Boomer scratched their heads from off to the side.
"Huh?" The other two boys asked in unison. Mojo slapped his forehead irritably.
"Observe!" Mojo grinned and took out a familiar looking gun... it was the Chemical-X weapon he once used to give Princess powers, and try to take away the girls' powers.
"Are you going insane? We're already powerless. More Antidote-X won't hurt us... w... will it?" Blossom asked. Mojo grinned.
"Don't forget, Blossom. You are MADE of Chemical-X. One reversal will remove your powers... two... will revert you to your original components." He pointed the gun at the girls as the Rowdyruff Boys grinned delightedly. Blossom struggles against the ropes that bound her, but she couldn't break out without her powers. "And when I reassemble you... I will remix your ingredients, just as that fool Him did with my boys. Say goodbye to your heroic sides." Mojo's laughter was joined by that of the boys as the gun fired, streaking toward the Powerpuff Girls.
The Utonium family house was a much friendlier place in the early morning when they weren't trying to sneak into it, Sam noted. Professor Utonium led them through the cheery living room to the door that led down into the basement laboratory. The Professor marched to the other side of the lab and pulled open a shelf.
"I may be able to modify some of these for use against the Rowdyruff Boys, but it could take some time." He told the girls over his shoulder.
"I'll help, just tell me what to do." Sam approached to help him haul the equipment to a nearby desk.
"Yeah, while you two do that, I'm gonna go raid the fridge. Let me know when we get to do something interesting." Clover turned and walked back up the stairs. Alex stared after her, then looked down at Sam and the Professor blankly.
"Um... adios!" Alex darted up the stairs and ran after Clover, leaving Professor Utonium and Sam to work on the equipment.
"Don't mind them, they'll behave... hopefully." Sam smirked.
"I don't mind." Professor Utonium lifted a few pieces of equipment from the table to examine them. They set to work on the gadgets they would be using for this mission, with the Professor directing every move Sam made. He really knew what he was doing, it was all Sam could do to keep up with his orders. But he was patient and gentle, even when she messed up.
Work proceeded surprisingly fast, and soon they'd assembled a small variety of gadgets powered by the Professor's mysterious Chemical-X. From hyperpowered lasers to miniature chainsaws with micron-sized blades. And it was all designed, he said, to combat those who were like his daughters...
"There..." The Professor sighed and held up his last gadget, a pair of Chemical-X detecting goggles. "These will allow you to find them anywhere in the city." He held them out to Sam.
"Thanks... we'll put them to good use." Sam took it from him, though her eyes never left his. His eyes lingered on hers as well, as though pleading with her to find his daughters. "You... really see them as more than just experiments... don't you?"
"Of course..." Professor Utonium replied. "I don't have any other family... they're all I've ever had." He smiled slightly and looked down at the counter. Sam bit her bottom lip guiltily, knowing she was the reason they were gone now. If she'd figured it out before apprehending them last night, none of this would have happened...
"Don't worry Professor..." Sam reached way up to the tall man's shoulder and laid her hand on it lightly. "We'll find your girls and bring them back." She gave him a small, comforting smile.
He looked up at her and smiled back gently, though the worry didn't leave his eyes. He was so sincere and emotional, but obviously smarter than anyone Sam had ever met... anyone who didn't want to take over the world anyway. She blinked, a small blush creeping across her cheek as he took her hand and lifted it from his shoulder. Sam gulped as he brought it down, holding it in his strong, but gentle hand.
"Thank you. I know you'll do your best, and it's all I can ask." He told her. Sam nodded slowly.
"I... I'll go find Alex and Clover... we need to start our search." Sam stuttered softly. The Professor let go of her hand and nodded. She quickly took her chance and bounded up the stairs, emerging into the living room. Her heart was pounding... but this wasn't the time for stupid crushes. She had a job to do, and a very important one. Her own feelings could wait.
The spies were dressed in their color-coded WOOHP uniforms as they flew into the air above Townsville with the Jetpack Backpacks they still had from the previous night's mission. They stopped in mid-air, hovering high above the city streets. "Okay, put on your Chemical-X Detecting Goggles. We have to find our targets as fast as possible."
Clover grimaced as she pulled her goggles out of her bag. "Remind me never to complain about WOOHP's fashion designs again." She commented, holding the thick work-goggles out in front of her distastefully. Finally she slid them on and looked around with her partners, scanning for any trace of the Rowdyruff Boys or Powerpuff Girls.
"Hey, I think I see something." Alex exclaimed, staring at a volcano top observatory right in the middle of the city. "It's three... no... make that four... five... six figures." She said.
"Then let's get in there and find out what's going on girls." Sam pulled her goggles off and darted down toward the volcano, followed by her partners. They landed on the top near the telescope, creeping across the dome to the telescope's hole to peer inside. The room was completely dark, with no movement in sight.
Sam lowered herself into the hole and set her feet on the top of the telescope, walking carefully down its length until she could safely jump to the floor. Clover and Alex followed her, none of them making any sound in the hollow, steel room. They crept up to the only door they could see in the darkness, pressing their ears against it.
Nothing alerted them to anybody in the room, so Sam gripped the doorknob and pushed it open, creeping inside. This room was darker than the last, with no windows to let in the moonlight. "Alex, I thought you said you saw blips in here?" Clover whispered. Even that little sound seemed to echo endlessly.
"I did, they're in there somewhere." Alex replied confidently. Suddenly a pair of crimson pools appeared in the darkness in front of them. The girls gasped and stepped back, but two more pairs of pools appeared behind them. The girls moved together until their backs were touching.
"The Rowdyruff Boys..." Sam reached into her belt for one of the gadgets Professor Utonium had given them. "Get ready girls, this could be intense."
"Please, being able to fly doesn't make them more than just kids. This'll be a snooze fest." Clover retorted. Suddenly the crimson pools vanished into three pools of light, streaking toward them. Sam didn't even have time to lift her arm before the light slammed into her, shoving her painfully back against her partners, who seemed to have formed a wall behind her.
Another impact to her jaw sent her flying, but she didn't even hit the ground before another impact dug into her stomach, flipping her to her back on the cold steel floor. Another impact to her ribs sent her sliding across the smooth floor, clutching her stomach painfully. An impact to her spine stopped her slide, followed by another strike to her jaw that slammed her head into the floor.
Sam lied on the ground, curled up in pain. She could hear the groans of Clover and Alex from nearby. Obviously they had fared no better than Sam had. She felt like her ribs were broken from the first impact... she could barely imagine moving let alone fighting.
Suddenly the lights above them flared to life as an irritating laugh echoed through the large, steel room. "That was magnificent! Never in my days have I seen such a display of careless ferocity as I have just witnessed, and being a criminal genius, I have seen many acts of careless ferocity indeed. But that was the most beautiful act of careless ferocity ever, for it was the fiercest, and most deadly that I have ever witnessed."
Sam craned her neck to look toward the sound of the voice. A monkey wearing a strange superhero costume was walking out of a nearby glass elevator, followed by three little boys without fingers and with big eyes... wait...
Sam looked up at her attacker, gasping when she saw Blossom floating above her. "The Powerpuff Girls...?" Sam groaned. Blossom growled and kicked her in the stomach. Sam shouted in pain and squeezed her eyes shut. It had felt like being stepped on by an elephant...
"Powerpuff Girls?" Blossom sneered. "That was back when we were stupid and blind. Now we know that it's survival of the fittest! Now we know we're better! Now we're the Whoopass Girls!" Blossom let out a barking laugh, throwing her head back and sticking out her chest.
"Oohhh, very nice." The monkey said.
"Thanks, I've been working on it." Blossom replied.
"Whoopass Girls?" Alex asked, pushing herself up to a sitting position. From the look of her, her beating had been even worse than Sam's. Her right eye was nearby bruised shut, and she was bleeding from the side of her mouth. God knew what the rest of her body would look like. Still, she didn't let her pain show as she stared up at Bubbles floating above her. "No, you're not evil, you're the good guys!"
"Shut up!" Bubbles kicked her in the jaw, slamming her head into the floor and knocking her unconscious.
The monkey laughed delightfully and marched up to Sam, staring down at her with a victorious smirk. "Such beautiful irony to have the girls who have caused me such distress at my beck and call. You three... spies... don't matter to me." He snapped his fingers. "Whoopass Girls, please take care of these three for me. Make sure they're the first to feel the wrath of Mojo Jojo."
"Our pleasure." Blossom grinned and grabbed Sam by the front of her outfit, yanking her face close to hers. "If I knew cutting loose felt so good before, I would have done this a looong time ago." She raised her fist and brought it back. Sam tried to pull away, but she was still hurting and Blossom's grip was like an unbreakable vice.
A strange sound interrupted Blossom though, giving her pause. Sam blinked and looked to see Clover laughing wildly even as Buttercup clutched the front of her uniform. "What's so funny!?" Buttercup demanded, gripping her suit tightly. Clover's laughter continued however. Poor girl must have snapped, Sam thought. Her face was bruised and cut, and her left arm was hanging limp, but she was laughing like she'd just seen the funniest thing in the world.
"All those boys over there, and it's the girls who do all the fighting." Clover grinned sarcastically, staring past Buttercup at the Rowdyruff Boys. The one in the red cap blinked in surprise, staring at her. "Isn't that, like, totally typical? Boys can't do a damn thing... it's always the girls who get the job done."
The Powerpuff girls chuckled to themselves, casting the boys a sly look. The boys growled darkly, marching forward. Sam blinked, realizing what was happening. Clover hadn't snapped... she was a genius. "Hyeah, boys always have to get girls to fight their battles for them." Sam announced loudly to make sure the boys heard her.
"Move aside girls!" The boy in the red cap marched up to Blossom and shoved her aside. "We'll dispose of these pathetic little bitches."
"Hey, back off, I was gonna do it!" Blossom shoved the boy back again roughly. That was all it took for things to deteriorate into a melee between the two that bounded throughout the room uncontrollably. Bubbles and Buttercup rushed to their sister's aid, but the other two boys cut them off and soon all six of them were embroiled in the fight.
Sam pushed herself to her hands and knees, crawling painfully over to Clover. "Good thinking Clover. Now we just have to find a way to neutralize all of their powers."
Clover lied back on the floor, grunting as her bruised ribs yelled in complaint. "Don't you have some kind of gadget for that?" She asked painfully. Sam reached into her belt and withdrew a mechanical-looking grenade the size of her fist.
"This was designed to incapacitate them... but it could take us all out in this enclosed space." Sam replied. Clover stared up at her steadily.
"Do it, we'll be fine." Clover told her. Sam stared down at her, then patted her shoulder and pushes herself painfully to her feet. Clover groaned and pulled herself toward Alex as Sam turned to walk toward the area where the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys were locked in a massive battle. Sam took a deep breath and took the pin in her mouth, pulling it out of the grenade with a jerk of her wrist.
She wound up and hurled the small object as hard as she could before whirling and stumbling quickly back toward her friends. Clover had made it to Alex and was trying vainly to pull her toward the other side of the room. Sam ran up to them and dove on top of them both, holding them down as she heard the grenade detonate behind her.
The sound echoed through the empty room first, deafening the girls before the heat washed over them all. The force was enough to blow them across the smooth metal floor, but Sam and Clover held on so that the spies moved in a big pile instead of flying every which way. Sam howled as the flames of the explosion burned into her back, but as quickly as the blast had come it faded, leaving behind only smoke and the lingering smell of smoke.
Sam grunted and sat up on her knees, casting a quick glance backward. The Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys had been gathered around the grenade, and all of them were laid out on the floor unconscious. Sam grunted and pushed herself to her feet, trying to ignore the searing pain in her back and ribs.
"Well... that was easy..." Clover quipped from on top of Alex, who was still unconscious.
"We just have to... get them back to Professor Utonium... see what he can do with them." Sam reached into her belt as she stumbled toward the kids, pulling out a small syringe filled with Antidote-X. She approached Blossom and knelt down beside her, but before she could begin administering the Chemical the ground began to shake.
"What the Hell...!?" Clover exclaimed, wrapping her arms around Alex to keep her from shaking around too much. "Is the volcano erupting!?"
"It... doesn't seem like it!" Sam shouted back as the syringe dropped from her fingertips. Suddenly the ground underneath Blossom shot upward toward the ceiling. One piece slammed into Sam's jaw, sending her hurtling back toward the floor with a heavy thud. She shook her head and opened her eyes to see that all six of the Chemical-X creations were being held in the air by the ground itself.
A soft, flutelike voice erupted from the ground in the middle of the steel pillars as the ground finally stopped shaking. "Forces of light, forces of dark, both vanquished in one fell arc." Sam pushed herself to her feet, staring in surprise as a crimson figure rose up from the floor, a pair of crablike claws clicking together dangerously. "Thank you, spies." He grinned.
"What's going on? I don't get it... what happened to the monkey? Who're you?" Sam demanded. The crimson figure laughed, walking toward her slowly.
"Mojo Jojo obeys ME." His voice seemed to fluctuate randomly between that of a bird's song, and grating steel. "He knows better than to challenge me. Now, with his help, and yours, all six of my greatest nemesis' will be under MY power! These boys will pay for betraying and abandoning me... and the girls... will know everything their hearts fear."
"You forgot about us... didn't you?" Sam dropped into a fighting stance, reaching into her belt for one of the many gadgets Professor Utonium had given her. "You've gotta go through us before you can take them anywhere."
The crimson figure shrugged off-handedly. "Okay." His claw swept in her direction in a graceful arc. Without warning Sam flew backward, as if rammed by a dozen Powerpuff Girls. She slammed into Clover and Alex, collapsing to a heap on the floor as the crimson figure let out a light, but taunting laugh. "With that, I shall take me leave. Prepare yourselves for the inevitable end, girls. It will come very, very soon." With that he vanished into the ground, and the three steel monuments began to descend with him.
Suddenly Clover lurched to her feet and ran forward, pumping her legs as hard as she could. "Clover, what are you doing!?" Sam yelled.
"My job!" Clover shouted back as she dove for one of the descending monuments. It was almost at ground level now, and soon would undoubtedly vanish into the floor. Clover's arms stretched out in front of her as she passed over the top of the now-tiny monument. Her arms wrapped around Blossom, pulling her close to her chest as she hit the ground with a hard thud on the other side.
The monuments vanished into the ground with the other five Chemical-X creations, but Clover pushed herself to her feet with Blossom held in her arms. "Our mission was to bring back the Powerpuff Girls, the least we can do is bring back one of 'em." She grunted as she moved back toward Sam and Alex, the adrenaline of the charge leaving her to feel the pain of her wounds from the prior pummeling.
"We should get out of here before that... thing... realizes what happened." Sam knelt down to pull Alex into her arms, carrying her toward the front exit of the observatory. She had hoped to have this all wrapped up tonight, now it looked like things had only gotten worse. All they could do was check in with Jerry and hope there was something they could do after that...
TO BE CONTINUED