Inner Turmoil
Buttercup awoke to the chirping of birds high above her. When she opened her eyes, she saw that she was lying in the middle of Townsville's park. She wondered exactly how she got there. Last thing she remembered, she was fighting against Butch, and then Brick came and her memory went fuzzy. She got to her feet and stretched her limbs. She must have been lying there for quite a while to be so stiff. She quickly realized that the lingering pain she had been carrying in her chest since her injury was gone. She pressed against her ribs, first gently, then with increasing pressure. Still no pain. Even her hand felt better. She figured she ought to put it to the test. She walked over to a tree and gave it a swift punch. The trunk snapped easily in two and there was no pain from the impact.
"Yesssss," Buttercup shouted, jumping for joy. She was no longer crippled. No more pain. No more cramped hospital quarters. She danced around like a lunatic, shadowboxing and doing acrobatic stunts to celebrate her sudden recovery. Suddenly she stopped short. How exactly did she heal so suddenly? It would have taken at least a week for her body to heal on its own. She couldn't have possibly been unconscious that long. Could somebody have healed her wounds while she was asleep?
Buttercup thought back to her experience in the tower. She had been attacked by Butch, but Brick had intervened before he could kill her. Could he have been responsible for her sudden recovery? "No way," Buttercup thought to herself. "Why would one of my mortal enemies want to help me? It had to have been Bubbles or Blossom. They must still be fighting the Rowdyruff Boys. I have to go back to the tower and help them. They probably need me."
Buttercup took off without a second thought. With her confidence boosted from her sudden recovery, she was ready for any battle that awaited her ahead. In time she was back at the familiar Townsville ruins where the tower lay. She closed in on the entrance when something amidst the debris caught her eye.
"Bubbles!?" Buttercup gasped as she saw the body of her sister lying over a pile of rubble. She quickly flew down next to the rubble and gently lifted her Bubbles' head up so she could see her face. She was pale as a sheet and her veins were black as if they had been filled with a dark liquid. She was hardly breathing, with each breath coming in hard and ragged as if it pained her to do so. Her heart beat so weakly in her chest that Buttercup wondered if she heard it at all. She looked like she could die at any minute, as if the slightest shock could kill her then and there.
Buttercup reached out and touched Bubbles' cheek. She was ice cold, an infectious cold that sent a chill down Buttercup's spine. It felt as though someone had put Bubbles in a freezer before throwing her out into the street. "My god. Who could have done this to you," Buttercup thought as she gently stroked Bubbles' hair. She lifted her sister's body into her arms and took off in the opposite direction from the demon tower. She had to get help, and she had to get it fast.
Mojo had been spending the last twenty hours doing routine checks on Blossom. It wasn't looking good. Her body wasn't regenerating like it was supposed to. She continued to slip further and further from his grasp. He had tried everything from drugs to additional surgery to specialized I.V. fluids, but nothing would stabilize her. His life support system was the only thing keeping her alive, but he knew sooner or later her body would fail altogether. He had to act quickly or else Blossom would die.
Mojo was suddenly startled from one of his routine checkups by an explosion coming from his living room. He rushed over to check it out and found Buttercup standing amidst the remains of his front door, holding a very sick looking Bubbles in her arms.
"Mojo, you have to help me. Bubbles is dying. You're the only one I could think of who had the technology to save her."
Mojo was too frightened from his previous encounter with Bubbles to refuse. "Uhhh, right this way," he said without a moments hesitation. He led Buttercup to a another medical lab and had her place Bubbles onto a surgical table. He immediately set to work taking tests. Buttercup simply watched in silence as Mojo worked. If anyone could save Bubbles, it was Mojo.
It was dark, blacker than the blackest night, all consuming in its presence as it enveloped everything in sight. Bubbles could not tell if she were alive or dead. She felt icy cold all over. She could not see or feel her body, but it was there all the same. There were voices all around her, nightmarish voices whispering horrible secrets to her that she didn't want to hear. They hissed and muttered and cackled in the darkness, driving her to insanity with their sickening tales. She tried to cry out, but she could find no mouth through which to speak. Her voice was lost along with her body, leaving her completely naked to the assault of whispers that attacked her.
She was terrified beyond words. She wished desperately that she would wake up from this nightmare and find herself in her own bed. What was happening to her? What were these voices that tormented her? Would she be doomed to float here forever, listening to these horrible voices for all eternity?
Buttercup watched from a corner as Mojo did test after test on Bubbles. The only thing that gave her comfort was the constant beeping coming from the heart monitor that Mojo had attached to her earlier. He was constantly taking notes on a little pad, his hands working at a feverish pace. Finally he put down his test equipment and looked up at her with a grim expression.
"She's poisoned. Something inside her is eating away at her system," he said, shaking his head.
"Is there any way to cure her?" asked Buttercup frantically. "You must have something that can counteract this poison, some cure all that you keep in your basement or something."
"Unfortunately, nothing that I have could possibly cure this poison. I can analyze the poison and try devise a way to counteract it, but I can make no guarantees it will work. The toxin is unlike anything I have ever seen before. I will have to take this blood sample to my testing lab immediately and analyze it further. I will try to work as fast as I can. You stay here and keep an eye on her vitals."
Mojo left the medlab with the blood sample, leaving Buttercup alone with Bubbles. She checked the various equipment to make sure everything was in order. Her heart was still beating steadily, which was a good sign. She leaned over her Bubbles' and began gently stroking her hair. "It's going to be okay Bubbles," she whispered softly. "Mojo is going to find a cure for you. Just hold on for me okay? You will be better soon enough."
Bubbles wanted nothing more than to lash out at the invading voices calling to her through the darkness. They gnawed at her like a swarm of mosquitoes buzzing around inside her head. Finally she just couldn't take it any more. Through sheer willpower she was able to find her voice and she released a ear piercing shriek that shook through the darkness like a raging hurricane. The voices immediately ceased their chattering and all fell into dead silence.
Suddenly everything grew colder as a deathly chill passed over her. An ominous presence seemed to gather all around her, closing in on her like a silent stalker. Bubbles tried to fly away, but she could not tell if she were moving or not. Her body just seemed to remain in one place, and the presence only continued to advance closer and closer to her. She could not tell where it was. There was no sound, no smell, no warmth or heartbeat. There was just the ever growing presence, closing in around her like a thick cloud.
Suddenly Bubbles felt what could only be described as the most horrible sensation she had ever felt. A slimy tentacle as cold as ice and oozing with fluids clung to her leg and slowly slithered up her thigh. She could feel it inch its way around her, wrapping her in a terrible embrace. More tentacles found their way onto her skin and they also began to wrap themselves around her. She struggled with all her might against the their slimy grasp, but the tentacles were far to powerful and overtook her with ease. They bound her so tightly that she was crushed beneath their great weight, unable to move and barely able to breath.
There was the sound of breathing, faint at first, but growing steadily louder with each passing moment. It rose until it filled the darkness, a bone chilling, inhuman sound that drew ever closer to Bubbles. She could feel an icy breeze with each terrifying sigh. What she could only guess was a tongue rolled across her chin and wrapped around her face before recoiling back from whence it came. A hungry sigh escaped from unseen lips.
Bubbles went to scream again, but another tentacle was quick to seal her mouth. In the darkness before her a face revealed itself, a hideous face, so grotesque that the most sturdy of people would have ran in terror. Its eyes rolled madly in its head and its lips parted to reveal several rows of rotting yellow fangs dripping with decaying flesh. Bubbles felt herself moving closer to those fangs, drawing nearer to inevitable doom. She couldn't move. She couldn't scream. She was powerless to fight this creature. She couldn't bear to watch as the jaws stretched open to consume her and sealed her eyes shut.
A spike in the heart monitor shook Buttercup out of deep thought. Bubbles' heartbeat was becoming highly irregular and her body began to convulse violently. Her eyes shot open revealing only the whites as the pupils lodged themselves into the back of her head.
"Mojo, get over here. Something is wrong with Bubbles," Buttercup screamed. She watched in horror as Bubbles' body continued to writhe uncontrollably.
Mojo arrived in a flash. "She's going into seizures," he stated. He rushed to a drug cabinet and pulled out a vial and a syringe. He filled the needle from the vial and immediately injected it into Bubbles' arm. There was no response to the drug. She continued to writhe and convulse, force of her body causing the table to jolt and rattle. She then released a blood curdling scream that pierced through the air, and fell limp against the table, the heart monitor humming steadily as she flatlined.
"NO! BUBBLES, NO!" Buttercup shrieked.
Mojo pulled out a defibrillator and set the voltage as high as it would go. He administered a shock to Bubbles' chest, but the flatline persisted. He administered the shock a second time, and a third time. He continued until he finally had to admit defeat. Bubbles was gone. He put the pads down and shook his head.
"What the hell are doing?" Buttercup shouted. "You have to keep trying. You just can't let her die."
"I… I can't help her," said Mojo weakly.
"Yes you can," Buttercup shouted as tears began to stream down her face. "You have to keep trying. You have to bring her back"
"I've tried everything. There's nothing more I can do. She's gone Buttercup."
"NO SHE ISN'T," Buttercup screeched as she grabbed Mojo by the collar and began to shake him madly. "KEEP TRYING. BRING HER BACK TO ME."
Mojo stared wide eyed with terror at Buttercup. "I… I-I… I…" Mojo just couldn't get any words out. Thoughts of "I'm going to die" filled his head as he hung loosely in her grip.
Finally Buttercup released Mojo and fell to her knees, spilling tears into her hands. She knelt beside Bubbles, putting her face close to her ear. "You can't die Bubbles," she whispered. "You just can't die. Please come back to. Please Bubbles. Don't leave me."
"Please Bubbles. Don't leave me." These words echoed in the darkness like a sirens calling. Bubbles felt a wave of emotion well up inside her. She couldn't die. She was needed. People who loved her, people she loved, were suffering. She had to go back. She had to live.
Buttercup had rested her head on Bubbles' chest, spilling tears of sorrow into her bosom. Suddenly a steady beeping caught her attention. The hear monitor was reading a pulse once again. Bubbles was still alive.
A laugh escaped her lip, a laugh of joy, a laugh of relief. She hugged Bubbles tightly. She was alive.
Mojo could only look on in fear disbelief. He didn't have a clue what was going on. He only wished these Powerpuff Girls would all get better and get the hell out of his house. "Get the hell out? That's not a bad idea, Mojo thought to himself. He began to crawl away slowly, making sure Buttercup didn't notice him leaving. Anyplace would be better than here.
Bubbles fought with all her might to escape the bowels of the foul beast that consumed her. She ripped through the dark flesh, finally bursting out into the open as the beast howled in pain from her ejection. She felt a new strength within her, greater than she had ever felt before. She rose high above the creature, no longer afraid.
The creature looked at her with a ferocious gaze, quite unhappy at having its belly ripped wide open. It summoned the voices again to aid it, but she remained unphased by them. These creatures could no longer frighten her. They were nothing but opportunistic parasites, parasites that she intended to destroy once and for all.
The voices began to close in around her. Growing louder and louder as drew closer. Finally Bubbles could see from where they were coming. Millions of ugly faces stared at her through gleaming red eyes, all speaking together at once. They moved in closer and closer, stretching their arms out for her. She waited, waited until they were nearly touching her.
Her body glowed bright with an intense light that filled the darkness until none remained. Howls of agony filled the air as the monsters were incinerated by the intense light. Soon none remained. The darkness faded, revealing a beautiful meadow of brilliantly colored flowers and cute woodland animals, a bright glimmering sun shining high in the clear blue sky; her childhood sanctuary, long forgotten with age. Her body was free at last. She could now return to the people she loved, the people who needed her now more than ever.
Buttercup felt a gentle hand stroke her hair. She looked up to see Bubbles smiling down at her. "Your awake," Buttercup cried with glee. She threw her arms around Bubbles and fought back the urge to cry once more. "I… I thought I was going to lose you."
"It was your voice, your voice that brought me back," Bubbles whispered.
Buttercup couldn't help herself. She cried like a baby into Bubbles' arms.
"It's all right Buttercup. Everything's going to be all right," Bubbles whispered gently as she continued to stroke Buttercup's hair. "Wait here. There is something I need to do."
Buttercup watched Bubbles jump from the table and leave the room. She showed no sign of the illness that had just an hour ago nearly killed her.
Bubbles found her way into the room where Blossom still lay in critical condition. She made her way to her bedside and looked over her. She took one hand and placed it on Blossom's forehead. Blossom's body tensed as something surged through her. Her labored breathing softened and color had fully returned to her pale face. Almost immediately she opened her eyes, yawning as if awakening from a pleasant slumber.
"Good morning Bubbles," she said without thinking. She suddenly remembered everything that had passed over the last day and shot upright. Bubbles put a consoling hand on her shoulder and she immediately calmed. She looked over her body. All her injuries were gone; in fact, she felt better than ever. She moved around her once broken arm, trying to convince herself she was not dreaming the whole experience. "What… how… but I should be…" she stammered, unable to formulate the right question or statement to express her confusion.
"That doesn't matter right now," said Bubbles reassuringly. "What matters is that we finish what we started."
Blossom saw the look in Bubbles' eyes and nodded. She understood all too well what they had to do. It was time for them to take care of the demon menace once and for all, for the sake of Townsville; maybe even the world.
Buttercup waited patiently where Bubbles had left her. When Bubbles had returned with Blossom, she felt an unspeakable joy. Now the three of them were together again, a team once more. Him and his minions had better look out. The Powerpuff Girls were back in business.