I don't really know who is reading this anymore, but if anybody has remained loyal to this story, thanks, a lot. This one took a while to write, sorry about that. I hope whoever is reading this likes it.. I'd like to finish this story, but I can't seem to find the motivation. If anybody would like me to finish just let me know.

Anyways, enough of my whining. Enjoy

Chapter 5: Circulus Concursus

Black clouds floated ominously above the Townsville skyline, eclipsing the moon and layering the sleeping city with a blanket of cold darkness. A gentle breeze was the only movement in this eerily quiet city, only until a blinding white flash illuminated the empty streets, zooming at near light speed towards the suburbs.

Brio was on his way home again in a panic, fearful of what he might find.

Unfortunately for him, it was already too late.

Quasi kicked open the door to Mojo's observatory, dragging the bodies of Professor Utonium and each of the Powerpuff Girls behind him. Mojo Jojo was closely surveying the work being done by his monkey comrades and occasionally yelling an order or two.

He turned when he heard Quasi return, and grinned in anticipation.

"Excellent," He said, "good work Quasi."

"Come, bring them here..." He then signaled for Quasi and one of robots to follow him.

Mojo Jojo and one of the newly created droids escorted Quasi and his captives towards a small door on one side of the room. The door was obviously intended for Mojo, for both the droid and Quasi had to crouch to fit through.

The concealed passage lead to a small, uneven staircase that was dimly lit that seemed to wind around endlessly into deeper and deeper darkness. The two followed Mojo down the endless flight of stairs until the pitch black darkness was softened with a red-orange glow that poured through the little window of the door at the bottom. Mojo pushed open the small door and they all came to a large room, if you could even call it that.

The true floor of the chamber was a sea of molten lava far below, casting red and orange glows upon the black rock that made up the wall. However, a narrow path of suspended floor that led to a large metal grated circular platform suspended in the middle above the molten lava made up the man-made floor of the room. In the center of this larger platform, Quasi noticed five cages, but not just any metal cages. The bars on these cells were antidote X in an extremely high-voltage laser form. A single touch would kill a human and significantly weaken a chemical X being.

The droid, specifically known as QuasiMojo0005, suddenly wrenched the four bodies from Quasi's grip and heaved them roughly over its shoulder before sluggishly clanking its way along the tapered pathway towards the cages.

Quasi simply blinked in surprise at the robot's actions and followed hesitantly along the narrow pathway that led to the large circular platform. As they made their way towards the center of the platform and towards the 5 cavities, Mojo pulled out his remote control and turned off the antidote X rays of each cell, allowing the robot to place each of his prisoners one by one in each cage.

A pause.

"Well, what about the other one?" Mojo asked in annoyance.

"What?"

"The fifth Utonium!" Mojo protested.

Quasi's eyes widened as he remembered the fourth chemical X child, the new Ruff, the one who had been the driving force of everything that defeated him before... How could he have forgotten!

"You're telling me you didn't capture him as well!" Mojo exclaimed.

"I cannot believe this! I simply cannot believe it!" Mojo roared as he began to hop up and down in anger. He pulled out his remote control and pressed the button several times, each delivering a painful shock to Quasi's body accompanying a bitter insult.

"How could you possibly be so stupid, idiotic, incompetent, brainless, foolish!"

Quasi screamed in pain with each shock, each one more painful than the last. He fell to his knees and finally to the ground, convulsing in pure agony.

"H-he.. He wasn't t-there," Quasi croaked out in between gasps, "I..I b-b-brought everyone in the house.."

Mojo stopped short, still heaving and bearing his teeth in rage. He dropped the remote and stepped towards Quasi.

"Well, what are you waiting for, worthless beast, find him!"Mojo signaled to the robot, and the droid then kicked Quasi hard in the side.

Quasi hollared in pain as 0005 then held him up by his neck, his tired body hanging lifelessly above the ground.

"I ..don't know w-where he is," Quasi spat in between grunts and gasps, "How c-c-could I possibly know? Little b-brats should be asleep in.. in bed this time of n-night."

Mojo walked silently towards the opposite side of the platform, still steaming with anger, but apparently pondering the next course of action.

"Very well then," he finally said after a long pause, "if you are too weak to carry out your duties then we'll put some of my new creations to the test."

Quasi scowled at Mojo, still quivering with pain.

Mojo quickly pulled out some kind of walkie-talkie, spoke something in a strange monkey language, and in moments Koko Kongo came scampering down the stairway in a frenzy.

"Y-y-y-yes master Mojo?" He stuttered in fear.

"Send out the droids, we have a mission for them," Mojo ordered.

"B-b-b-but sir, they are not finished yet.. the ones we have now are but prototypes, and they are still being tested," Koko said cautiously, cowering beneath Mojo's imminent angry reaction.

Koko was hit hard by a slap in the face, then kicked across the floor, rolling dangerously close to the edge of the platform.

"What did I just say?" Mojo sneered and began to yell, "I said I wanted you to send out the droids, now do what I say!"

"B-b-but, sir," Koko persisted.

"NOW!"

The force of Mojo's orders nearly pushed Koko over the edge of the metal platform and into the lava below, causing Koko to frantically claw at the ground to keep his balance. Without another word he shakily stood again and ran up the stairs to deliver the orders to the others.

Quasi watched the entire scene in awe, surprised at Mojo's ruthlessness.

Hmm.. Very surprising indeed. Perhaps Mojo isn't as weak as I had assumed.. Heh, not bad for a rotten ape.

Suddenly Quasi's eyes went wide as an idea hit him, a brilliant idea. Quasi grinned evilly to himself but quickly masked it with a scowl as the robot roughly pushed him towards the stairway to follow Mojo.

Each of the puffs were now resting in their own individual cages, like animals, completely unaware of what had happened to them as they slept. And the Professor, too, was now sleeping weakly, the intense heat of the volcano room making him sweat and the toxic fumes making him wheeze in his sleep.

Brio burst through the door of the Utonium household, knowing from the first glance that things weren't right, not right at all. The house was completely undamaged, nothing was out of place. But something was still very wrong.

Brio first searched for the girls in their own bedroom, sickened to find all three of them gone and their blankets in disarray on the floor.

Remain calm.. They're probably just out on a mission..

But Brio couldn't remain calm, something evil still hung in the air, the smell, taste, feel of it all. He had to know for sure.

But first, I'll check my room, just to make sure..Maybe they're in there, or even out looking for me.

Brio flew across the hall to a small room that used to be the Professor's study. It was recently remodeled into Brio's cozy bedroom, ironically with a bed that would never be slept in. Brio searched around, seemingly looking for something of importance. He scattered the contents of his drawers across the room, searching frantically. He finally uncovered a pair of pants and dug through the pockets, soon pulling out a piece of paper that was covered in chicken scratch handwriting. He let out a huge sigh of relief and stood up.

Good.. Whoever was here wasn't after this, or at least they didn't find it.. Brio grasped the scrap of paper to his chest, before stuffing it in his pocket to continue searching the house.

The Professor..

He searched the Professor's bedroom, surprised to find no one there, but even more surprised to find the bed made up, as if the Professor hadn't even gone to bed yet that night.

The lab..

He zipped downstairs to the laboratory and found just what he expected, the Professor's things still left out as if he had disappeared while working.

Brio began to panic. He didn't know what to do, where to look. He very well couldn't protect his family if he didn't know where they were.

What if they're dead? Brio thought in a panic, gasping and feeling the tears come to his eyes, What if it's all MY fault?

Brio was nearly in tears, breathing heavily and gasping with each horrible thought. With each new fear was a new emotion he hadn't experienced, and all at once he just couldn't take it. Amazing that a being so powerful could be subdued by strong emotion that he had never encountered until now.

Brio finally opened his eyes again and noticed the room to be significantly darker. He rapidly twisted his head around behind him and yelped when he saw a tall, polished-black steel robot standing right behind him.

He just dodged it's powerful punch as it slammed into the floor, leaving a large crater in its place.

"Who are you!" Brio shouted in rage, "What have you done with my family?"

The robot said nothing, and began firing a series of antidote X blasts at Brio, as he nimbly dodged each one. Brio landed on the ground and rocketed towards the robot, delivering a powerful punch to its chest.

In his rage the punch was hard and powerful, for he managed to make deep dent on the robot's torso. But even though the robot was a weaker, cheaper prototype model, the black duranium metal that made up its armor still made Brio's hand completely numb with pain.

Brio jumped back and howled in pain, looking down at his throbbing hand, running his other hand across it and feeling the surely shattered bone inside. He grit his teeth, seething, and it took all of his willpower to hold back the painful tears that clouded his eyes.

But Brio wasn't going to be stopped so soon. He jumped up and prepared to attack again, but this time with a cardio pulse wave. He began gathering his energy even more rapidly than usual, his rage and adrenaline flowing.

In that instant, however, another robot appeared behind Brio, wrapping its powerful metal arms around Brio's body from behind, holding him still no matter how hard he struggled against the droid's tight grip.

Brio focused suddenly on the first robot, terrified, as it fired its blast point blank without any hesitation, giving Brio hardly any time to think or even breathe.

In that split-second of resourcefulness and quick-thinking, however, Brio created an invisible shield directly in front of him, giving the illusion that he was, in fact, hit with the blast.

Brio's head instantly slumped over as he appeared to have fallen unconscious, and the seemingly victorious droids returned promptly to Mojo's lair.

With a final heave and a push of Mojo's remote, Brio was quickly incarcerated within the confines of this antidote X prison, just like his father and sisters. Mojo was quite pleased with the robots' work for apprehending this incredibly powerful ruff with ease, much to the shock and envy of Quasi himself.

How on earth could I let this happen? Getting shown up by a couple of mindless metal monstrosities, Quasi looked back towards Brio's cage and suspiciously at Brio's unconscious body.

I refuse to believe it. There's no way Brio could have been defeated so easily.

Quasi couldn't shake these uneasy feelings, but masked his doubt so that Mojo didn't notice. They both stood at the doorway to the dungeon-like room, watching the robot as he turned to follow them up the stairs to the observatory.

But as the robot turned to leave, but stopped suddenly, frozen in mid-step.

Quasi blinked and felt a jump in the energy of the room, but quickly dismissed it as the robot simply short-circuiting.

"Those darn lazy monkeys.. I told them hundreds of times that the stupid droids need a longer battery life.." Mojo muttered to himself as he huffed and turned to continue back up the stairs, with Quasi following close behind.

As the door slammed behind them, the robot fell forward, the smoking crater in his back now visible. Brio stood now with his arm pointed outwards, his hand smoking as well, an angry scowl on his face.

"Heh, I'm just lucky they were prototypes," Brio said as he began to power up and glow a bright white light as he had once before during the battle with Quasi.

"Adrenaline Rush!" He yelled, shaking the entire volcano lair with his voice and his rumbling power.

In an instant his antidote X cage had exploded and been incinerated in this powerful life-energy that was radiating around him.

He then jumped forward and leapt towards Blossom's cage, panicking as he felt his temporary burst of energy dwindling fast.

Brio bravely reached straight through the antidote X rays and grabbed Blossom's lifeless arm, grit his teeth in pain and extended the white aura down his arm and around her body. In one quick motion he yanked her through the painful bars of the cage, keeping her completely unharmed, and quickly repeated the process for Bubbles and Buttercup as well.

As he did all of this, ear-splitting alarms began to sound throughout the lair. Brio knew his time was running out to escape. But as Brio reached inside the Professor's cage to save him as well, he was kicked from behind and thrown across the platform. Brio stood up quickly, getting a look at his attacker and gasping in surprise.

A new droid now stood before him, prepped for attack. Brio's eyes widened at the robot's rapid response to the alarm, and its undetected entry of the room. Nevertheless, Brio took a fighting stance as he prepared to attack again.

The robot began to laugh in a ghostly, echoing voice.

Brio's eyes grew wide again, but he soon glared at his opponent.

"You can't fool me, Quasi."

The form of the robot quickly morphed into the likeness of the new and improved Quasi, with a disappointed look in his eyes.

"Aww.. but I was going for the whole dramatic reaction thing," Quasi mockingly pouted and began to narrate the events in a playful voice, " "Quasi!' Brio gasped and shook in terror, 'But.. HOW?'"

Brio's expression became serious and annoyed, "Cut the crap, Quasi."

"Seriously, though...do tell me," Quasi said with a laugh, "how'd you know it was me?"

Brio narrowed his eyes in anger, "I figured it was you, I've had a sickening feeling for weeks that you still weren't completely dead. And now I know why. Besides, there's no way Mojo could do this by himself. "

"Yeah, true.. The stupid baboon would be lost without me," Quasi puffed out his chest in pride, letting his ego get the better of him.

Brio suddenly grinned mischievously, hoping to deflate that ego, "So you're working for Mojo now?" He spoke as though he was just making small-talk and snickered, "Are you really that desperate?"

Quasi fumed and his eyes started to glow a dangerous blood-red glow. He quickly regained this composure, however, and ignored Brio's teasing as he began to advance on him, snickering.

"I'm afraid it was really not my choice, for it was Mojo who made the mistake of bringing me back to life," Quasi explained with an evil grin, "it really doesn't matter who I'm working with, so long as I kill you in the end."

"But I thought you were too good for partners, eh? Isn't that why you broke things off with Him?" Brio smirked a little while savoring Quasi's infuriated reactions as he mocked him. Oh, what fun it was to watch Quasi seethe beneath the remarks of nothing more than a smart-mouth child.

Quasi powered up his metal arm so much that it was glowing bright red, preparing to blast Brio with antidote X rays.

"I'm impressed Brio.. Not a bad move you pulled, not bad at all," Quasi spoke in a calming voice, despite the fact that he was talking to Brio at gunpoint, "I knew those MojoQuasi.. QuasiMojo ..whatchyamacallit.. droids couldn't have stopped you so easily, I'm just surprised Mojo could be so stupid as to believe it."

Brio said nothing and simply glared back at Quasi, waiting for him to continue.

"But I'm afraid that despite a valiant effort, it all ends here,"Quasi said, as fired the blast.

Thanks for reading