Author's Note: Just a few more chapters, honest! Heh. Well, like usual, be sure to leave a comment. Perhaps you can tell me I'm making this story too damn long *laughs* I wouldn't accuse you of lying.
CHAPTER 20
"…"
There is no word in all the languages in the universe that could describe the severity of Pathie's shock.
"I'm…so confused," the blonde said, "You…you sound so weird."
Pathie did not respond. He merely stared at her with an open mouth and a slacked jaw as his arms hung lifelessly on his sides.
"W-Why are you staring at me?" asked the blonde nervously.
No response.
One of the planet's inhabitants at one of the roadblocks called out to the girl: "Bubbles, what's going on? Why isn't he fighting?"
"I…I don't know," the girl called back, "The Rowdyruff said a lotta weird stuff to me. I don't understand much of it!" And how can I even understand it at all!? I thought my power only worked with cute little animals!
"Shall I order my men to shoot?"
"I…don't know."
"We'll await your command, Bubbles. My men tell me that your sister over here is recovering, so she'll be ok."
The blonde turned back to Pathie. Her uneasiness intensified when she realized that the scout's stare hadn't faltered through the brief conversation with the earthling.
"What do you want from me?" she asked, her fragile emotions beginning to swell like a cancerous tumor, "You've…you've scared me, so much! You hurt my family. You kidnapped me. You tied me all up. You tried to put a needle in me! Why!?"
Pathie looked into those eyes. Those pretty, blue-sky eyes. He sensed the fear, the pain, the suffering that beckoned her firing squad to send him to his judgment day. Would it please her to see a peppered corpse?
I bear out my soul and still she thinks I'm a villain!
Pathie snapped out of his stupor, as though he was splashed with a bucket of ice-cold gore. Guilt silenced his tongue but for a second, before his frustration nearly spewed out of his lips.
"What-! How-! Why-!" He exclaimed, cutting himself off at every second to avoid becoming the monster the girl thought him to be. The scout fell silent again, letting his emotions simmer. He went down to one knee and placed his "hands" at his forehead, contemplating how to handle the situation without suggesting hostility. The blonde watched the Malukian, her confusion growing, as well as her opinion on the scout's oddity.
At last, the scout rose from the ground again, standing confidently on his two legs, looking at the golden-haired girl with noble intent. "Perhaps our misunderstanding can be resolved if we take the time to get to know each other," he suggested in a solemn tone.
The blonde did not respond, the uncertainty of the scout's intents still screaming warnings in her battered mind.
"My name is Pathie. Pathie Zimbogous. I work as a planet inspector back at home. But as you can see, I'm working for the military now. I was drafted. No doubt you know the reason why.
"My residence used to be a random, rented condo in the cities. Now it's wherever the military sends me. So this planet is now my current home away from home as of this planet's last change of light."
"I have no living family members. I live alone. I am single. And I am also a vi- oh, god…"
The scout turned his face from the blonde, hiding his blushing cheeks, hard to hide under albino skin. It's college all over again, he thought with dread, I could never talk decently to females before, and I still can't do it now! Bloody hell!
Well, I better try again. I won't get anywhere if I stay silent like this.
Pathie was about to turn around when the girl's voice froze him on the spot. "Pathie…Zimbogous?"
"…yes…that is my name," the scout replied, his stomach twisting in knots.
"Oh."
Silence fell on both of their tongues, for either one knew what to say next. Eternities passed them by until Pathie finally said, "I believe I owe you a better apology."
"An apology?" the blonde replied uneasily.
The scout slowly turned to face the girl again. He softly cleared his throat.
"I'm not quite sure where to begin. There are so many things..."
"Well, saying sorry for trying to poke me with that horrible needle would be good!" The blonde suddenly exclaimed, "That…That…thing you had was so huge! I thought you were going to kill me!" The last two words reached an exceptionally high pitch.
The accusation made Pathie forget about his social ineptness. "I had no intention of killing you! I was only trying to sedate you, since you had the intent to decapitate me with laser fire! Your hysteria didn't help things along, either!"
Instead of diving into hot debate, the blonde once again tilted her head. "Huh? D…cap…id-tate? Can you go slower, please? My head hurts!"
Pathie slapped his forehead, muttering curses underneath his breath. "For crying out loud…it's the same problem every time. Aren't there any females with an appreciation for good vocabulary?"
Unbeknownst to Pathie, the girl heard every word. "Blossom might like those big words, but you whacked her down the street with a pole, you big, fat, dumb, doo-doo brain!" She screeched, before falling silent and meek once more, as fearful of provoking him as he was of her.
Pathie silently cursed his rotten luck. For Pete's sake, I must control myself! The scout thought, It's bad enough that the girl's on an emotional teeter-totter! Ok…round three…this time, skip the small talk.
"Young miss...why are you frightened of me?" Pathie asked.
The girl glared at him. "Like you don't know."
"I don't, actually. You were frightened of me before I knew you existed. You never gave me the benefit of a doubt. You screamed, shot at me, cowered in fear, and never stopped to simply talk to me, until now. I want to know the reason why."
The blonde hesitated, her face twisting in a sea of confusion, until she responded with a question of her own. "What kind of Rowdyruff ARE you?"
Now it was Pathie's turn for confusion. "Er…what's a Rowdyruff, if you don't mind me asking?"
"You're a Rowdyruff," answered the blonde.
"I am? Last time I checked, I was a Malukian."
"But what's a Malukian?"
"You and I."
"But…I'm a Powerpuff."
"What's a Powerpuff?"
"I am!"
"You look like a Malukian to me."
"We can't both be Malukians!"
"But we are, I assure you."
"I'm not a Malukian! I'm a POWERPUFF!" the blonde shrieked.
"I don't think there's a difference, young miss. We should move on to more important things," Pathie said quickly, attempting to keep the girl's emotions in balance.
"Hmph! Fine! But I still say you're a Rowdyruff, so there!" The girl stated, right before she stuck out her tongue at the scout.
Well…she certainly is youthful, the scout thought pleasantly, I haven't had anyone stick their tongue at me since I was a child.
"Ahem…well, young miss…would you be so kind as to tell me your name?"
The girl was taken aback by this sudden nobility. "My…my name's Bubbles."
Bubbles? That's a first, Pathie thought, Her parents must've been serious hippies. That might explain a lot.
"Bubbles, it's not a mystery that you have no reason to trust me." The scout stated.
"…yeah…"
"How can I earn your trust, Bubbles? I am willing to do anything you ask. Anything. I will make no effort to resist."
Pathie placed his hand upon his chest. "Scout's Honor."
Bubbles' eyes darted from sight to sight as she brainstormed the possible ideas. Finally, she settled on one such idea.
"I know just the thing," Bubbles said with a subtle grin.
"What would th-AAAGH!"
Pathie's inquiry was cut short by his own yelp of surprise, for Bubbles had grabbed him by the hand and blasted away into the sky, dragging the scout along most uncomfortably. Not wishing to cause any more hostility, Pathie had no choice but to go along for the ride and to do whatever the blonde could possibly have in mind.
But where the two are headed is anyone's guess.
**********
Buttercup's head throbbed like a techno beat as she pulled her bludgeoned body out of the grinded asphalt.
"Ugh…my aching head…"
The brunette looked down to the demolished road. The spot where she was slammed into the ground had an imprinted engravement of herself, like it was a footprint in mud.
"That albino really packs a wallop…hey, waitaminute! Where is that freak?!"
She snapped her view left and right and up and all around, fully expecting a dirty sneak-attack from the Rowdyruff. All she found, however, was a semi-demolished city street, abandoned save for the bewildered cops who were applying first aid to their wounded at the roadblocks.
Buttercup figured that at least one of the policemen would know what happened while she was unconscious. So she was about to approach (very speedily) one of the cops when a familiar, red-headed sibling emerged from the wall of police cars.
"Buttercup! Thank goodness you've alive!" Blossom exclaimed.
The brunette's recognition was instantaneous, and she immediately embraced her sister in a loving hug as she exclaimed the sibling's name in ectasy. However, she quickly pushed herself away, reasserting her tough exterior. "So, leader girl, what's going on? How come no one pulled me out of the crater in the road?"
"I'm really sorry, Buttercup, but I wanted to make sure the two policemen the Rowdyruff injured were doing ok. They got hurt pretty badly!"
"Yeah, I know. I saw. Poor guys," Buttercup said sympathetically. "Um…where's our sister? Why isn't she here? And on top of that, where the heck is that albino scumbag?!"
"Well…according to the policemen, our sister flew off with him," Blossom said solemnly, though with a hint of disbelief.
"What!?"
"They say that all they did was talk, and then flew off. Neither Bubbles of that Rowdyruff lifted a finger against each other! Well, not that they have fingers, but still-."
"What a load of bull!" Buttercup exclaimed, "Bubbles gets a chance go mano-a-mano with the worst villain she's ever met and they don't fight!? That Rowdyruff's gotta have some kind of mind control or something!"
"I doubt it, Buttercup," Blossom said, "If he had that kind of power he would've already used it against you and I. No, I think Bubbles might actually be handling this in her own special way."
"What's she going to do, act like a peacemaker? Pffh!"
"Well, she can be very persuasive."
"But talking's never going to work with a Rowdyruff! They're rotten to the core! Bubbles is going to get killed, thinking she can reason with some monster like that!"
"To be honest, I have no idea what she may actually be doing, and I don't even know where she is. All I can say for certain is that she seems confident enough to handle the Rowdyruff herself. I don't like it either, but until we know where she is we have no choice but to let her fight solo. Besides, right now there's an even worse problem."
Buttercup scoffed again. "What? Give me a break! What can be worse then a Rowdyruff?"
"How about a rampaging killing machine?"
This struck Buttercup with quite the shock. "I'm listening."
"The cop's CB radios have been blaring non-stop about a floating metal octopus chasing a flying squirrel while demolishing everything in sight. Buttercup, not only has the Professor's robot gone berserk, it's also trying to kill Bullet!"
"Crud!" Buttercup cursed.
"We're the only ones who can handle this, Buttercup."
"But what about-?"
"As long as Bubbles keeps that Rowdyruff busy we only have to worry about the robot. I don't know about you, but fighting off a rampaging machine and an evil Rowdyruff at once would be too much for even all three of us."
Buttercup grumbled. "Fine then, Blossom; but if anything happens to our sister I'm blaming you for it!"
Blossom did her best to suppress her retaliatory emotion. "If we listen to the cop's radios we can get an idea of where the robot is. Come on!"
The two superheroes flew together to one of the roadblocks, stopping short of the police car sporting Blossom's own engravement on the metal door. Blossom entered that car, turning up the speaker of its CB radio:
"kshsht…requesting immedia-kshst…pistols do jack-squat a-kshsht…it's now chasing a white sta-kshsht…now pursuing on North Main str-kshsht…Oh, shit, it's going to- AAAAAH!"
Like an exclamation mark, the sound of a car being crushed like paper shocked the radio into silence.
Blossom and Buttercup wasted no further time. They abandoned their former battleground to fight with a new enemy, the cry of the unlucky officer still ringing in their minds.
**********
Professor Utonium found himself in the iron clutch of cruel irony.
How else could it be described, when a machine created to hunt turns its own skills on the creator?
He drove his white station wagon more manically then ever down the streets of a city in apocalypse, barely staying out of reach of the robot's massive tentacles. Robin, the little girl riding shotgun, closed her eyes tightly and shook with fear, holding on to an unconscious squirrel like a child's comfort object. And as for the reporters…well, despite that their demise was nearly certain they did not want to lose their jobs anyway. Billy recorded footage of the monstrosity behind the false safety of the rear windshield as Boris attempted to provide some commentary.
"As can plainly be seen, this latest threat to Townsville is quite a force to be reckoned with. Damn! Look what it did to that police car! That vehicle was crushed like a tin can!"
"Boris, you're not helping!" Billy wailed.
"Keep quiet! I'm trying to enhance the footage."
"All you're doing is making me wet my pants!"
"Will you two SHUT UP?! I can barely focus on the road!" The professor snapped.
The poor kindergartener began to whimper in her seat, wishing she could escape from this newfound hell. None of the adults took notice, however. Things both trivial and important clouded any observance of her.
Before Boris had a chance to lecture Professor Utonium on the importance of their jobs, the reporter caught a most dismaying sight.
"Oh, shit! That thing's going to impale us like a shish-kabob!"
Indeed. The robot had torn a traffic pole from the road and was holding the said object like a throwing dart, eyeing the fleeing station wagon for the perfect shot.
"Turn the corner, dammit! We have to get out of the line of fire!" Billy wailed.
"I can't! If we slow down to turn, the robot will catch up to us and we'll be done for!" The professor exclaimed.
"Can't you slow it down with one of your gizmos or something?"
"For Pete's sake! I'm a scientist, not Inspector Gadget!"
"Oh, that's just peachy!"
"It's reaching back!" Boris yelled, "Here it comes!"
The robot threw the traffic pole with ease, sending it rocketing through the air. The occupants of the car screamed as the pole punched completely through the front and rear windshields in the dead center, shattering glass to thousands of sharp pieces. The professor lost control of the car as the pole exited, causing the car to skid wildly until the front nose smashed into an abandoned Lamborghini and halted.
Satisfied that its prey was incapacitated, the hunter slowly approached the lifeless car, hovering like a demonic apparition as its tentacles waved hypnotically.