To Boldly Go Where No Puff Has Gone Before
Disclaimer: I do not own the Powerpuff girls and their related content, as they belong to Craig McCracken and Cartoon network. I also do not own anything that is related to the Star trek Universe, which are created by Paramount Pictures. However I do own the idea for the design of the Starship, the USS Dynamo, and several made up alien races scattered throughout the galaxy. Everything else, like the galaxy quadrants, warp drives…etc belong to startrek.
A/N:This is a slightly similar Powerpuff Girls version of the "Startrek Voyager" series. There is bound to be some violence, so this will be rated "R" in later chapters for graphic scenes and language. And now on with the story!
Chapter 8: Temporal Maze
The Dynamo drifted for a couple hours as its repair drones went into overtime to repair its damaged systems. The crew were so close at making it home, however their hopes were shattered when the drifting debris inside the subspace corridor caused them to blow their chance. With the ship unable to move, the crew tried several ways of keeping themselves occupied during the down time.
"Let's get it started! Let's get it started in here…" Buttercup sang along as she bobbed her head up and down to her Black Eyed Peas album that she brought with her before the maiden launch of the Dynamo. "And the base keeps runnin, runnin, runnin…" She goes on, only to be shushed up by Blossom, who was trying to read a history archive of one of the alien cultures in the Delta quadrant on her handheld device, called a PADD by the professor as a personal handheld computer. "Can you take your singing to a holodeck? At least in there, your horrible singing will be blocked out by the sound proof walls!" Blossom snapped as she clutched her head to her sister's defiant and horrible singing.
"Fine!" Buttercup scowled as she hovered out of the lounge with her PADD that was blaring the Black Eyed Peas' songs. The door slid open and closed a moment later when Buttercup left the room. "Good riddance, now back to the Iraganians…" Blossom sighed contently as she returned to her reading. She was reading intently and did not hear the door slide open again. Buttercup stuck her head through and yelled the first couple words of the chorus of the song. "Everybody! Everybody! Let's get into it! Get stupid!" Blossom jumped to the ceiling when she heard the cry. Buttercup then left the room laughing and singing along.
Butch was in the holodeck, running a game that he was very engrossed in. He was busy slaying his brothers in a free for all death match similar to Halo 2 or Unreal Tournament. Butch laughed with a sinister grin as he shot Boomer's in-game character in the head with a sniper rifle. The simulated head of his brother blew to pieces while splattering his brains and blood all over the arena. Butch can hear the transmission of his Brother's scowls and curses. He transmitted back, "Just some harmless fun, little bro!" He was about to do a victory dance when he was blown to pieces by Brick's rocket launcher. "Less yapping, more dying!" Brick laughed as he went on a rampage with the launcher.
Buttercup grooved to her music as she walked down the hallway. She stopped by one of the active holodecks. She noticed that the screen outside the holodeck displayed the boys' current game and statistics. Butch was holding first place for a moment. She then watched in surprise when Brick went from bottom of the list to the top in the next second. She tapped the console beside the screen and accessed the in-game camera for spectator purposes. She watched in shock and amazement as she saw Brick's character bouncing around the arena, taking out his opponents in the most impressive ways.
Dranico was in the mess hall, teaching Bubbles a recipe that was a family favorite. "Now you add the ignox roots and some of the Lamak thighs and mix it. Then put it on the heat for a couple minutes and it should be ready to eat…" Dranico instructed as Bubbles stirred the concoction. She was wearing a little chef's hat while she stuck out her tongue on the side of her lips as she stirred the mix with her ladle. As instructed, Bubbles then poured the mix into a pan and put it on the stove that Boomer had installed in the mess hall. After a few minutes, Bubbles could already smell the delicious aroma of her cooking.
Buttercup's jaw reached the floor as she saw Brick bouncing around the arena, killing his brothers here and there with almost no end in sight. "He's on fire!" She muttered as she continued to keep her eyes fixed on the spectator screen. She could hear Brick shouting, "And this is how I'm gonna wipe the floor with your ass!" as he used his Rocket Launcher as a club on Butch. "Oww…I guess I have to kiss his bruises away tonight!" Buttercup muttered as she watched the in-game character of her boyfriend take the beating. She heard the computer chime that Boomer has quit the game and the holodeck door next to her slid open. When she turned to look, Boomer crawled his way out tiredly. "Boomer! You're all right?" Buttercup said as she flew to the side of her friend. "You guys were playing with the safety protocols on right?" She asked as she looked over her sister's boyfriend.
Boomer smiled weakly and said, "Bare…barely. It was Butch's idea, to leave the safety protocols…on 10…so we'll feel most of it. But it won't be enough to really hurt us…" Buttercup shook her head and said, "Not even I can be that foolish. Ouch, then I have to really take care of him tonight…after what Brick did to him." She was then cut off when the computer chimed again and the game ended. The holodeck down the hall opened and Butch crawled out, crying in embarrassment and pain. "I'll tell Bubbles to come down here and take care of you, Boomer. I gotta take care of Mr. Let's-set-the-safety-on-low." She then sighed and flew over to her sweet heart, kissing him on the cheek as she helped him hover to his quarters.
Boomer smiled as he saw the two of them hover into the elevator. He then looked at the other holodeck as it opened and Brick walked out victoriously. "Good job bro, but next time…can you be a bit more soft on me? I'm not as tough as Butch you know." Brick smiled and chuckled. "Sorry 'bout that. Here, I'll carry you to the mess hall, get you something to eat. Besides, Bubbles is there and I'm sure she'll be all over you very quickly." Boomer chuckled as he felt his older brother lift him up and hover to the mess hall.
Couple minutes passed and Bubbles is treating Boomer like a sick puppy in the mess hall. Apparently, She wasn't very angry at Brick, but she was pissed off at Butch's idea of setting the safety protocols so low. "Well, served him right that you beat him up, Brick!" As punishment, Bubbles served Brick only a small serving of the meal that she cooked. It was apparently very delicious. "No matter, I'm not that hungry. Wow, Bubbles! This stuff is really good!" Brick said as he stuffed another mouthful. "Thank Dranico, it was his recipe." She said as she fed Boomer with spoonfuls of the meal.
Back in Butch's quarters, Butch and Buttercup were lying on the bed. They had been kissing for a bit and enjoying each other's presence. "Man, it was so embarrassing to see you get beat up like that!" She said as she kissed him again on the lips. Butch scowled as he kissed back. "At least you still love me enough to care for me, despite that I lost badly." The two laughed a bit and embraced for some time. Butch stopped the embraced when his PADD beeped. He took it out of his pocket and inspected the message. It was a notice from the ship's engineering station, stating that the drones have repaired all the major systems and is now working on the minor problems. "We're back in business! Let's get it started!" Butch said as he messaged Brick on his PADD.
Brick was in the middle of chewing a piece of the Lamak thigh in his bowl of the Palaxian meat stew that Bubbles had made, when his PADD started ringing in his custom ring tone. He took it out, tapped the screen and read the message. "Ship's fixed. Let's go." It said as Brick smiled and messaged Butch back with the reply. "Great. Meet me on bridge." Brick then finished up his meal and excused himself from the others. "The ship is fixed, I'm off to get Blossom. You guys go to the bridge and meet me there." Boomer replied with an "Aye, aye, Sir!" and a salute. Brick left the mess hall and entered the nearest turbo lift.
As the door chimed and open again, Blossom shouted, "What is it now Buttercup? Don't make me bite your head…" She stopped herself when she turned around and saw the person at the door to the crew lounge was Brick. "Buttercup is driving you crazy? I'll demote her for you then." He replied with a soft chuckle. Blossom smiled and hovered to him, giving him a kiss on the cheek and said, "Not necessary, we don't really have a rank system anyway." Brick laughed, kissed her and said, "Well, we could get one." She chuckled and hugged him. He broke the embrace and said, "Anyways, the ship is fixed. Let's get to the bridge and get the show back on the road." The couple left the lounge and went into the turbo lift.
As Blossom and Brick entered the bridge, Blossom noticed that Butch and Boomer looked a bit worn out. Butch was the one that looked the worse. "What's wrong with your brothers?" Blossom asked. Brick just cleared his throat and said, "I…whooped their butt." Buttercup took the pleasure of telling Blossom what Butch had done in the holodeck to result in him and Boomer being hurt. "Ouch…Butch…I hope you learned your lesson…don't mess with the safety controls…they're there for a reason." Butch grimaced at what Blossom said and went back to manning his controls.
The crew took this positions and the Dynamo aligned itself back on course and jumped to warp. While in warp, Butch noticed something on the ship's power supply. "Damn. Brick, we're some what low on gas…we need more fuel." Brick sighed and told Boomer to look on the long-range sensors for any friendly planets with refueling stations. After a bit of scanning, Boomer found something and said, "Lay a course for heading 024-351. There's a planet about 10 light years away that has what we need." The Dynamo turned 45 degrees to starboard as the ship changed course.
The Dynamo was fast approaching the planet. On Boomer's panel, it read that the planet has a prospering space trading station and plenty of life on the planet's surface. There were also readouts of many ships in orbit around the planet. Boomer tried scanning the ships, but strangely, they are not providing any more information except that they are in that location. "That's strange…I'm not reading any encrypted barriers on their ship systems…so why can't I see them on the sensors?"
The Dynamo dropped out of warp a moment later and appeared in a system that is completely void of life. The planet they were headed towards was dead ahead of them. What appeared to be a planet full of life, the planet is now an abandoned and desert-like planet. Craters and evidence of a war to end all wars could be found all over the planet's surface. The most disturbing thing that they also noticed is that the planet has been like this for over several centuries. "This can't be…our sensors said that this planet is full of life just 2 minutes ago…now we're seeing a planet that has been uninhabited for many centuries!" Boomer stammered as the others began uttering statements of bewilderment.
Brick sighed. "Well…there's nothing we can do…but we do have the suits and the mining equipment. See if there are any Sefulium deposits on the surface. We could go down and gather the fuel we need ourselves…after all…there's no one down there anymore." Boomer scanned the surface and found a mine containing the deposits they need. Brick formed an away team with Dranico, Blossom, Butch, Buttercup and himself to go down and mine the fuel deposits. Boomer and Bubbles were to stay behind and monitor their status.
In the transporter room, Brick put on his helmet as the others on the away team followed suit. The boys were carrying the mining equipment while the girls carried the scanning equipment. Dranico stood by carrying his own personal scanner and mining equipment. Boomer and Bubbles said good luck to their companions and engaged the transporter. Brick gave "thumbs up" and began to dematerialize with the others. Boomer watched the sensors and waited for the suits of the away team to appear on the surface. However, they never showed up. "Something's wrong…our sensors are not reading our away team on the surface!" Boomer muttered as he scanned the surface of the planet desperately to find them. Nothing, not even a visual image of something living walking on the surface could be found. Just abandoned cities and huge bomb craters were to be seen from orbit.
When Brick rematerialized with his away team, he was surprised to see life on the planet's surface, with green grass plains, strange alien trees and not a sand storm anywhere. Worse, his suit's communication system states that the Dynamo is not in orbit, or at least, not on the contact list. He tried contacting the ship but he was not getting a response. The others were just as surprised as him to find themselves on a planet full of life when minutes ago, they were confident the planet is a place void of life.
Boomer and Bubbles scrambled around, trying to locate their companions. "Something's very odd going on that planet…we need to find out what and why it is happening." Boomer and Bubbles began to analyze the damage and craters from the surface. They have a feeling that the super weapons used in the war on this strange planet may be causing the strange phenomenon. They were hard at work at finding a solution to the problem.
The away team moved towards the mine and observed the surroundings. "It looks almost like this planet is in its prehistoric age." Blossom muttered as she observed the surroundings. She was right when they ran into some kind of primitive alien. The creature screamed in its primitive tongue and fled down the plains at the probably frightening sight of the away team in their suits. The universal translator was not recognizing the language and the away team could not figure what the primitive alien had said. They rather not follow the alien and went on to their objective. They went into the mine and took out their scanning equipment, to try and locate the mineral deposits.
Back on the Dynamo, Boomer began to uncover more on the origin of the individual craters. "This…this seems interesting. Bubbles? What do you make of this?" Bubbles flew over and read his findings. "I…I don't know…what does this mean?" She said as she squinted in confusion as she read the complicated findings. Bubbles was bright, but she still struggled with very complicated things that usually Boomer could handle. Boomer sighed and looked at the information. "I think…there seems to be strange temporal anomalies going on all over this planet…"
Brick walked further into the mine and rounded a corner to find more aliens at work in the mine. They looked like they were evolved forms of the primitive alien they just saw. They screamed with fear as they saw the away team walking into the cavern, with their strange lights shining on their helmets. Finally, the universal translator picked up their language and translated the speech for the away team. "Spirits of the mine! They have come to kill us! Run!" The aliens said as they fled down the tunnel on the other side of the cavern. Brick looked over at his companions. "What is going on? We just saw a primitive alien, and now we see an evolved form…it's almost like we're traveling to different time…" Brick stopped speaking when he realized what is going on.
"I think there seems to be some kind of temporal zones all over the planet. I think we will run into different time periods of this planet." Blossom said as she realized the situation as well. Butch then suggested. "That explains why we couldn't contact the Dynamo from the surface just now, we were in the past of this planet. Thus, technically, the Dynamo hasn't really arrived yet." "Then how are we going to gain contact with the ship?" Buttercup asked. Brick shook his head and stated the obvious. "We'll have to travel all over the planet…try and locate a time period that is in the same time period as the dynamo." The kids then worked to gather enough Sefulium to take them to another system where hopefully they can find a better source. While they mined the walls, Dranico kept watch.
Boomer tuned the sensors further and he began to detect temporal activity all over the system. "This war that took place…it appears that something really bad happened…there's different time windows everywhere." As Boomer analyzed further, Bubbles noticed that on each of the sections of the planet, a greenish glow appeared. In one particular area she noticed, the glow was the brightest. "Boomie, can you check that area? I got a strange feeling about that spot." Boomer nodded and ran a deep scan on that particular area on the planet.
Each of the kids strapped a load of Sefulium onto their backs and exited the cave. As they exited, they noticed they were once again in prehistoric times. "We know that the planet's history is going to end in a major war…let's find the place with the clues of a deserted planet… Our scanning equipment would show us the difference." With that said, Brick and Butch lifted Dranico as they picked a direction to fly to. "Sorry for the inconvenience, Dranico. We'll have to carry you in order to fly around quickly, hang on!" Butch said as the away team flew south, watching their surroundings change in time to their amazement.
Boomer noticed something while analyzing the particular area. It was a enormous crater, much bigger than the other scattered throughout the planet. And he also noticed it had a lot of radiation of a left over super weapon in place. "Something happened there…wait…it's temporal signature…it hasn't been changed…it's matching to the current window we're in…" Boomer thought as he pieced things together. "That's the source! If…if…our siblings could get there…we can pick them up on the surface and transport them back on…" Boomer said out loud. "But how do we contact them?" Bubbles asked. It wasn't very good thing to do. After all, the other places could be very different time periods. "It's not in chronological order…we won't know where our sibs were, and even we have a way of planting a message…how can you be sure they'll find it?" Bubbles stated. The two of them went through, trying to solve the solution to the temporal maze.
Miraculously, the kids were some how flying towards the right direction. Using what they saw as they flew towards the location they found, they realized that a pattern could be seen. "Time is accelerating when we go this way. We already…Whoa!" Brick said as he narrowing dodged a crudely fired projectile from a somewhat ancient rifle. The away team had flown into a period on this strange planet where it could be compared to the times of the American Civil war on Earth. They were hovering in the middle of a battlefield while the two warring sides suddenly stopped their fighting to see the strange beings that were floating in the air. Brick wanted to prevent intervention so he grabbed Blossom by the arm and continued flying. "Honey, I can't afford for you to get hit. Neither would I let Dranico get hit." The others just flew after their siblings. Seeing the strange sight disappear off the horizon, the two warring sides went back to their bloodshed, taking crack shots on each other.
Bubbles and Boomer grinned with glee when they managed to tune their sensors just right. They now had a way of taking a quick peek in each of the different time periods. Also, the improved sensors gave the crew onboard a view of the different boundaries between the time periods. "It takes a lot of energy to take a peek, so we have to take a quick peek in each of the areas." Boomer said as he finished the final adjustments to the sensor system. They activated the sensors in one of the areas north of the giant crater. "Holy crap! Look! It's Brick and Blossom. They're in the middle of some kind of conflict! Wait…Brick's getting them to leave right away…they're going in the right direction!" Bubbles shouted as she watched the screen. "Let's hope they won't change direction!" Boomer said as he readied the transporter system to pick them up as soon as they get into the crater.
Brick knew something bad was about to happen, but he wasn't sure what it was. He didn't had time to react even when he saw a bright flash to the left of him, followed by a strong force that was threatening to knock the kids out of the sky. "Some kind of Nuclear Bomb! Or similar weapon, we must be getting close! This looks like the great war is taking place around this time!" Brick shouted in the loud roaring of the smoke and dusty wind as the explosion formed a large mushroom cloud west of the away team. The wave got even stronger and the away team's shields flickered for a couple seconds. "It's too strong! We must find shelter to wait it out!" Blossom shouted back. Butch knows the risks of something similar to a nuclear weapon exploding and wasted no time at all to get the others to follow him to the ground, as he pounded in the ground to make a make shift pit to hide in. "C'mon! We don't need to worry about the radiation, but the 4500 degree heat will burn us into a crisp!" With that, the away team hid in the make shift pit and the two boys covered their friends as the explosion roared on the surface.
Boomer noticed that it was taking them quite long to get to the crater zone. He then noticed that somewhere near the crater, a large single hole suddenly appeared. "It's not there before! I think our sibs made it while they were there!" Boomer said as he zoomed in on that region. The two of them watched in horror and shock as they see a war torn world with weapons of mass destruction exploding here and there. "It must be some thousand degrees down there…they could be killed if they stayed on the surface! That's why they made that hole!" Boomer said as he pointed to the hole. Sure enough, upon zooming in, they could see Brick and Butch covering the two girls and Dranico as the explosions rocked the surface. "Can't we transport them now?" Bubbles screamed in fear and dread. Boomer began to panic. "I don't know if I can make the modifications…but I'll try!" He said as he rushed into Engineering, remembering what Butch has taught him about the systems. "Hurry!" Bubbles told him with concern as she kept her eyes glued to the screen.
Butch clenched his teeth when he began to feel the increasing heat. "This hole will not last long! We gotta make a move before its too late!" Brick said as he braved the heat as well. "But we can't just leave now! The heat will kill us in an instant!" Butch countered. "Well, what are we supposed to do?" Brick replied as he braved the further heat. He began shaking his head to keep his vision from going out of focus. He suddenly saw with shock as Blossom began to lose consciousness. "No! No! Don't pass out! Hold on, you'll be all right!" He screamed as he tried to make her a little bit more comfortable in the heat. Butch noticed that Buttercup and Dranico were also succumbing to the heat. "We…we are going to die…just like the…" Butch heard Brick say when they heard an even louder explosion going off in the distance. As the new explosion wave blew past their hole, they could have sworn that time seemed to stop. Brick then felt the familiar feeling of being bathed in a bright light as he began to dematerialize with the others. He rematerialized in the transporter room of the Dynamo, and seeing everyone is all right, he began to pass out.
Brick woke up in sickbay a moment later, doing all right after a near fatal brush with heat exhaustion. He looked around and saw that Blossom was sleeping peacefully in the bed beside him. Everyone else was also all right and snoozing lightly. Only Boomer and Bubbles were awake, looking over their companions. "You're finally awake…I don't know how you and Butch did it, but Buttercup, Blossom, and Dranico were more closer to death than you two. If you two didn't cover them, they would have…died." Bubbles said with a quiver in her lips. "Yea…and we thought we were doomed too…I want to thank you guys on getting us out…even though it seemed impossible." Brick said a moment later. "No sweat bro! Don't worry about the fuel right now, just concentrate on resting. Me and Bubbles will take care of everything." Brick nodded and closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
The crew have narrowly escaped death on the strange planet and avoided the possible fact of dying in its history. Boomer and Bubbles have loaded the fuel that the others had mined and re-powered the ship. Soon, they will continue their journey, but for now, they needed to rest.
A/N: And that's the end of the huge chapter 8! I know this story took some time, as juggling schoolwork and Fic writing is not easy. I managed to complete this story and I am please to announce that I am in the works of a possible horror story…regarding a horrible fate that will befall Townsville. I am currently reading other fics to make sure I don't take too much of their respective authors' ideas. Chapter 9: "The Beta Wormhole." Will be posted soon. Thanks for reading and have a nice day!
