Townsville's public library was large and full of many, many books, as well as other various resources for knowledge. That was Blossom's main target in hopes of obtaining any information or leads to the whereabouts of the small purple lady.
The pink puff zipped across the city and landed right in front of the main library entrance. The nearby citizens murmured and glanced at her in awe, but she paid them no mind. She was on a mission.
'The library should have an answer to this. Maybe I can investigate the history archives, as well as any mythological books pertaining to sorcerers or witches. That can give me a head start on finding out more about the mysterious purple woman!'
Blossom breathed in deeply with confidence and made way into the public library.
Walking into the knowledge-filled institution, Blossom had to put in every ounce of self-control not to inhale every article of intellectual fodder around her with nerd-filled glee.
Her love for books and learning knew no bounds. She shook her head briefly and made her way towards the main desk where the head librarian sat, cataloging a list of books that were checked in and out.
Booker T. Reed, the librarian, was a lanky man in his 50's with thick bifocals and a long-crooked nose with mousy brown-grey hair. He wore a crinkled shirt with the cuffs folded to his knobby elbows and a striped tie, charcoal slacks, and brown shoes with scuffs all over. His trained eyes scanned the library cards and long spindly fingers swept over the keyboard as he cataloged the information into the library's database. He paid little attention to the pink beauty that was slowly approaching his desk.
Upon reaching the desk, Blossom folded her hands on the desktop and cleared her throat as politely as she could. "Excuse me, sir?"
Reed didn't glance up but acknowledged her. "Yes, what can I do for you?" He kept typing the information into the computer without skipping a beat, not wanting to lose track of his progress.
The leader wished the man could be more tactful but bit back a remark. "Could you please direct me on where to find the history and mythology sections?"
Reed kept on typing with his eyes glued to the cards and the screen. He lifted a thin hand and pulled out a small notepad. Briefly, he took out his fountain pen and quickly scribbled something down on the first sheet then tore it from the pad and gave it to the young woman. "The history section is on the second floor in H 431-473. You will find mythology in the far back of the second floor in M 758-841."
As the librarian kept typing away, Blossom took the note and gave him a sour look. "Great. Thanks a lot." She grumbled before floating away towards the stairs leading up to the second floor. Upon making it to the second floor, she noticed her reflection on the glass panel next to the elevators. Her red hair now much longer and reaching down to her knees with her bangs having more volume to them, appearing bouncier and far apart. She removed her hair clip after she and her sisters' makeover but kept her red bow and placed it on the back of her head rather than on top. The earrings brought out the shine of her pink eyes and her mini dress complimented not only her more mature and curvaceous bodice, but her long slender legs as well. The commander and leader of the PowerPuffs couldn't help but wonder if this is truly what she and her sisters would grow up to look like in given time, but she shoved the thought aside.
"Now isn't the time to ponder such things. I need to search these sections and fast!"
She glanced down at the scrawled info on the paper and began her trek towards the history section of the library.
Little did she know that another individual took presence in the section already, but for more different reasons.
"Curses!" a deep voice hissed in agitation, tossing a book onto the ground. A white gloved hand perused through the lined-up pieces of literature, muttering and growling with displeasure.
Mojo Jojo, one of the most infamous and notorious villains in all of Townsville, was in the library on a mission of his own. He heard rumors around the town of an incident that occurred at the kindergarten outside of the city. Something about an unearthly monstrosity that terrorized the local children at the school, and in that case, including his most hated enemies: The PowerPuff Girls.
He also heard of the rumors floating around in which the girls defeated the hideous creature, but with great difficulty and their status left completely unknown.
"Preposterous. Mojo does not comprehend how such a rumored entity could have been nearly capable of defeating the PowerPuff Girls, which is to say, came close to annihilating those little brats with such brutality or was dangerously close to having those little pests meeting their maker by the skin of their teeth. What is just as ridiculous is how such a rumor could have possibly stemmed out from such an outrageous situation that is more than likely unlikely."
The mutated simian scoped through the books in front of him, looking for any indication of a history of other worldly monsters that may have existed in Townsville other than the ones that would frequent from Monster Isle. So far, he had no such luck.
Luck. The one thing that spurned him in all his existence. Mojo cursed inwardly, his sharp canines making themselves visible at the thought. This further fueled his hatred towards his arch nemeses'. Oh, how he despised them all. Buttercup, with her brute strength and crude demeanor. Bubbles, with her cheery yet secretly vicious personality and perkiness. Blossom…
His train of thought stopped right there at that moment.
"That accursed Blossom. She's the worst of them all…" His gravelly voice growled lowly, his tone hitting a lower octave at the mention of her name.
'She is the most difficult of them all. Her intellect rivals that of mine, with such a vast thirst for knowledge and an aptitude for never-ending inquiry of all that exists before her. She has the talent and potential to be more than just a leader of those insufferable sisters of hers. She is cunning, she is methodical, tactical, but just as if not more insufferable, inconceivable, unforgivable, beautiful…'
His heart stopped for a moment; his breath caught in his throat. Did he just think that? What Mojo failed to notice was that while his evolved mind was ticking off those little notes about her, he was whispering them all the same to himself aloud, but not so much as hearing a pin drop.
Then a gasp escaped, but not from his own thin lips. The megalomaniacal monkey veered ungracefully from his position to the direction of where he heard the surprised cry.
His eyes scanned the surrounding area but found nothing. Grimacing, he turned back towards the books in front of him and looked a little more, finally stopping at a giant tome of a sort. It was old and leatherbound, the spine slightly bent from lack of care from its previous owner and the pages showing signs of heavy age. There was no title on the cover, but an image of what looked like the heavens and dark, vengeful looking fires colliding against one another with ancient looking beings engraved as well.
The simian raised a brow ridge, his curiosity getting the best of him. He propped the first pages open and skimmed through. After a few moments, a look of mixed surprise and triumph crossed his rough animalistic features. "Ah-ha! This is it! So.. the rumored monstrosity that which was spoken of from this earlier event is called a Hellion… Sounds like something for which Him would be more familiar with, if anything."
A crashing sound came from behind him followed by a feminine shriek. He whirled around, slamming the giant book shut in his tight clutches. Clever as he ever was, Mojo would never leave the confines of his lair without proper weaponry in case he was to run into any trouble (the PPG, of course). His left gloved paw readied the laser gun he had in his holster of his belt and inched slowly towards the corner.
As he peeked around the corner, what he saw made his eyes go wide in utter shock and disbelief.
A few isles down, there was a giant, ash grey monster looming over the bookcases. Its body was covered in veins that flowed black blood and had a shapeless orifice for a mouth with razor sharp teeth. It had no eyes, and the only ligaments it had were two long legs with a pulsing object in the center of its chest that would most likely be its heart.
But that frightening sight wasn't what shocked him the most. As horrifying as the spectacle was, it was when he looked at the source of the shrill cry from earlier that had him ogling with no real cognitive response.
Blossom was fighting for dear life, as she dodged the creature's attacks, the suction of a mouth spitting out acid at her at aimless directions and dissolving various pieces of literature and wooden shelves into nothing but toxic and vile goo.
The pink puff somersaulted into the air, dodging another acid spit that flew mere inches past her. Her hands raised up above her head as she prepared an attack of her own. "Take this! Berserker!" With lightening quick movement, her hands procured bright rose gold orbs of lightening and tossed them in a barrage at the creature. The orbs did some damage on the beast, but not enough to take it down.
"Dammit! This thing isn't going to go down without a real fight. I got to do something and fast!" Her pink eyes scanned everywhere for something else to aid her, but not quicky enough.
The abomination made a sick wheezing sound that sounded like nails scratching against a chalkboard that resonated throughout the library. The Puff was taken off guard and covered her ears at the painful noise it projected.
The nearby citizens all huddled as safely as they could behind toppled desks and bookshelves, watching helplessly at the pink leader and the terrifying creature. Reed being one of them, his lanky form shaking like a leaf behind a knocked over desk as his glasses threatened to fall off his face from shaking too much.
Mojo then noticed that the beast was about to spit out more acid and Blossom was taking her time to recover from the nerve-wracking noise it made. Wasting no time, he dropped the book and took aim at the monster with his gun.
"BLOSSOM!" the chimpanzee shouted as he fired at the ugly deformity. His aim was true, as it hit directly at the heart. It must have done something, as the regularity of its pulse hiccupped, and it started to choke briefly on its own acid-like bile.
That gave Blossom the time needed to fully recover and regain focus once more on the beast. She turned around to see who her savior was and gaped in shock. It was Mojo Jojo, and what made things even more distressing: he saw her.
Her eyes then darted at something glowing nearby the mutated monkey; it was coming next to a book that was lying next to his feet on the floor. The light glowed a bright white and she saw that it was a pink gem in the shape of a flower.
A loud gurgling sound knocked her back to reality.
The monster was recovering as well and was about to spit another round of acid. She wasted no time and jumped away from it, missing the acid spit just in time. She then saw that the monster took an interest in Mojo and spat towards him. She aimed towards Mojo and shoved him out of the way, grabbing the gem in the process. The acid missed barely by a few inches yet again.
Blossom looked in her palm and was in awe. The pink flower crystal began to levitate in her hand and hovered towards her. It glowed brightly and warmly before disappearing into her chest. She was confounded "What was-?" she was cut off as it was her turn to be shoved aside.
Mojo pushed her with the whole force of his body, holding her as close as he could to shield her from the attack of another acid spit. The acid hit a part of Mojo's arm and the chimp screeched in agonizing pain as it burned his skin and fur.
Blossom saw this and then she saw red. Flying into a fit of rage, the pink leader raised a hand up in the air and darted towards the shapeless freak. "How dare you?! Die, you gross freak!" A larger rose gold orb that almost resembled a small sun formed in her palm, her hand then closing into a fist and slamming it into the floor. "Blazing Sun!" she cried out vengefully.
The fiery ball spun towards the thing at a high velocity, becoming bigger and bigger until it engulfed the monster whole in searing flames. The creature shrieked until its cries dissolved with the rest of it, leaving a giant scorch mark on the wooden floors of the library.
Gathering her bearings, Blossom heaved in a deep breath and turned to look at Mojo. The chimp was going into shock. She gasped and acted as quickly as she could. "Hang in there, Mojo!" She placed a hand over the monkey's arm and from it, a bright white light glowed over the acid burn. The wound began to heal until his skin and fur was fully intact and free of any semblance of epidural damage.
She then placed a hand over his chest, the same white light glowing over him. This calmed his heart rate and lulled him into unconsciousness. Once that was over, Blossom took a shaky breath, her eyes watery from the event.
For a moment, she thought he was a goner. She closed her eyes briefly before opening them again and glancing over at the book where the gem fell out. It was a tome, the same tome that Mojo was holding earlier before he…
'Before he dropped it to save me.' She finished the thought as she picked up the ancient text. She took a quick look at the cover then a brief lookover inside. This was it.
Taking the book, and casting one last look at the resting monkey, she sighed. "See you later, Mojo. Sorry, and… thank you." She looked at the clock. It was ten to three. Knowing her sisters were waiting for her. She shot up into the air and flew out of the library. "Now that we got something, it's time for us to go to City Hall! We got to inform the Mayor what is going on!"
She wasted no more time and went to find and retrieve her sisters.
Groaning, Mojo rose from his deep stupor and blinked. His eyes fought to regain focus and scanned around the area. The library was a complete mess. The citizens were all fazed, scared and confused. Some were helping to clean the library and others were talking amongst themselves.
The librarian, sitting nearby, was sipping a hot cup of coffee while trying not to spill the contents from his overly shaken state.
Then he remembered the tome. Mojo quickly cast a look to where he last dropped the book but saw that it was gone. Then he recalled the events that occurred. The monster, the acid, the injury, Blossom….
'Blossom!'
He jumped quickly to his feet and grabbed the librarian roughly by the collar. "Blossom Utonium! Where is she?!" Everyone was in silent shock at the outburst. The librarian coughed as his coffee spilled everywhere on the wooden floors.
"She-she left! She took a huge book with her and flew off after healing you!"
The simian's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. He looked down at his arm and saw that the lanky man was right. His injury was completely gone and healed. After a few moments, Mojo bared his teeth and glared.
"CURSES!" He howled and grabbed his gun. He shoved it into his holster and stormed off and out of the library.
He was not going to forgive her for this. Not at all.
"How dare she?! Not only does she fail to provide a proper explanation to her sudden growth in physical stature but stole my book and healed my arm without so much as a word of reason or stated purpose as to what has occurred! I, Mojo Jojo, will not let such insolence pass without so much as a justification to all this madness!"
He knew what he needed to do. And more importantly, he knew where he needed to now go. The Gala was tonight, and there, he would find his answers; his book, and moreover, he would find Blossom.
"Tonight, Blossom Utonium, you WILL explain yourself to Mojo Jojo and you WILL give me back my book, even if I have to do so by force! And that is to say, you will be taken along with it, whether you like it or not!"
The simian made his way back to his observatory, where he would prepare for the Gala, as well as a confrontation with his rivaling intellectual equal.
