It was almost three in the afternoon. Buttercup sped her way back to the center of Townsville Central Park. By that time, the whole lot was empty and void of any nearby citizens, most likely due to everyone now heading to their homes to either rest or get ready for the Gala. Buttercup was betting more towards the latter.
The toughest fighter raised her head as she heard a zipping sound in the air. Bubbles just finished arriving and landed next to her sister, her forehead covered in a light film of sweat. "Hey, Bubbles. You look like you just ran a marathon. Everything okay?"
Bubbles nodded, swallowing quickly before answering. "Yeah, it's a long story. Where's Blossom?"
"Right here, girls!" The pink leader landed before the other two with the large ancient tome in her hands. Her sisters' eyes nearly bugged out of their skulls at the size of the book. "Geez, Bloss! We knew you were heading to the library, but we didn't think you would go nuts over researching all this stuff! What's with the big ass book?" Buttercup quipped in surprise.
Bubbles nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah! That's a pretty big book! How did you get a hold of that?"
Blossom flushed slightly at their questions. "I… I got it from Mojo, actually."
"You WHAT?!" her sisters shouted in unison. Buttercup chipped in. "Blossom! You mean he saw you?! Well, what happened?"
"It wasn't intentional, Buttercup. I just so happened to come across Mojo with bad timing. Plus, I encountered another one of those things while I was there!"
"You mean you fought one of those monsters, too?!" Bubbles piped up inquisitively. Buttercup whipped and turned to her blue sister. "You too, Bubbles?"
The girls stood completely perplexed. "Looks like we each had our own trials along the way. Did you guys manage to find something?" Blossom glanced at them curiously.
Buttercup shook her head. "Nah, only a crystal flower that disappeared as soon as I picked it up."
"Me too! I found one when I was at the Otto Time Diner fighting a skinless pterodactyl!" Bubbles said rather excitedly, causing her sisters to raise a brow in question. "A skinless what now?" the leader of the troupe was taken aback by that. And here she thought the deformed two-legged monster she fought was mortifying. But what she found more mortifying was that Bubbles ran into one of the most obvious places where Him would be found.
Speaking of…
"Psh! That's nothing! I had to fight a giant lizard-man demon at the arcade while saving the Gangrene Gang." Blossom and Bubbles then whirled and gawked at Buttercup. When she meant the Gangrene Gang, they both knew she meant Ace, her long-time crush. Buttercup knew those looks that her sisters were giving her and scowled at them. "What?! It was either that or they would have been monster food!"
Blossom waved her sister off and returned to the original topic she had in mind upon Bubbles' mentioning the diner. "Forget that right now. Bubbles, did you find out if Him was the one behind these attacks?"
The blue puff shook her head. "Nope. When that thing attacked, time somehow stopped and everyone else in the diner also froze, including Him!" This raised another question for Blossom. "What do you mean that time stopped? How?"
Bubbles shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno! I found my- something behind a clock and found a blue crystal flower in it and when it started to glow and disappeared in me, there was an earthquake and time just stood still suddenly."
This was all too odd for the girls. Buttercup was also perplexed at this. "That's weird. That didn't happen to me. All I got was a monster attacking Ace and I managed to get a new special attack to whoop its sorry behind."
Judging from the tales her sisters had shared and her experience, it appeared that these creatures were capable of different abilities aside, as well as having different forms other than the giant one they have encountered earlier that morning.
She glanced back down at the tome in her hands. She wondered…
Opening the book up briefly, she flipped through the first couple pages and glanced over the text until she came across a depiction of a monster that looked somewhat like the ones they had come across. Then she skimmed over the description next to the image. The word "Hellion" stood out.
"Girls! Look at this!"
The other two PowerPuffs shuffled over quickly to either side of their redhead sister and looked in the book.
"What the hell is a 'hellion'?" Buttercup wondered aloud. Bubbles felt goosebumps tickle her skin at glancing the ancient image and description her sister had found. "They look very creepy…"
"It appears that these things have been around here before, as well as having different forms and types. They also seem to be ancient and otherworldly, so they're not from around here either. But what do they want? Why are they showing up now?"
There are dozens of more questions that keep stemming up every time they come across an answer to several others. This is just getting more frustrating for the girls.
But they knew that they had to keep going to get to the bottom of things to save their beloved city, and possibly even the whole world or universe for that matter.
Closing the large book, Blossom bit her bottom lip in deep thought. They definitely need to warn the Mayor. Perhaps Miss Belum would also have a good idea on how to go about things, especially at this time of unique crisis they are in.
"Come on, girls! We got to get to City Hall and fast. We need to warn the Mayor and Miss Belum about all that has been transpiring!"
"But what about the Professor and Ms. Keane?" Bubbles asked with worry. Buttercup shook her head. "Looks like they'll have to wait for now, Bubbles. Let's make this fast so we can get back to them too, Blossom!"
Nodding, the leader took to the skies and her sisters following in tow.
At Townsville City Hall, the Mayor was in his office, struggling to get a jar of pickles open after he just signed the last important new document for the city's legislature.
Miss Belum shuffled and organized the documents into a folder and was ready to take them when the Mayor let out an exasperated cry. "I can't get this bloody pickle jar open! Miss Belum, could you please...?" The assistant placed the folder down and made her way to the desk to take the jar. She opened it with ease and as the Mayor gladly took it to get his first dib on a pickle, the doors of his office flew open. The PowerPuff Girls had just arrived, surprising the two city officials entirely.
"What?! Who are you?! Oh, please don't hurt me!" The Mayor cowered behind his desk in confusion and fright. Blossom was the first to speak. "Mayor! We aren't here to hurt you! It's us! Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup!"
The Mayor peeked over the edge of his desk in wonderment and was baffled. "G-girls?!"
Miss Belum gasped in just as much shock. "Girls! What happened to you?! How come you're- well, older?"
"We are just as stunned as you are, Miss Belum. But the truth is we really don't know that either." Bubbles spoke up, a little hurt and disappointed that their beloved Mayor and his bombshell secretary had failed to recognize them at first glance, thinking them as complete strangers.
"We are trying to figure that out. But right now, we have more pressing matters that need to be brought up to your attention. You see, Townsville might be in serious danger!" the pink leader announced with urgency.
"And not just Townsville, but possibly the whole world as we know it!" the green fighter put in her two cents, a frown marring her pretty face.
Miss Belum and the Mayor stood in complete shock, both trying to captivate what was occurring. "Danger? What kind of danger?" The Mayor trembled slightly.
Belum crossed her arms with a concerned posture. "Does it have to do with the rumors about that strange monster that attacked your preschool?"
The girls nodded simultaneously. "Yes!"
"That monster was from another world entirely! It wasn't like the ones we fight on occasion from Monster Isle." Blossom exclaimed.
"Not only that, but there seems to be more where they came from, and they keep popping up at random out of nowhere!" Buttercup cried.
The atmosphere was tense with suspense and heavy seriousness at the entire situation. This was much bigger than any of them had ever fathomed or ever experienced. Miss Belum broke the tension like a sharp knife.
"We can't alarm the citizens right now. This will cause a serious panic and throw the entire city into a state of utter chaos. So far, we haven't seen any other appearances on our end regarding these things, so for now, let's try to keep this contained as much as possible until we get to the bottom of all this. Girls, have you informed your father about this as well?"
The girls were tongue tied at that one. The Professor seems to be the only one who was left in the dark about the whole ordeal. He isn't even aware that his precious daughters have now transcended into beautiful goddess-like femmes and without a clue as to why.
But that would all come to a close as they heard a hoarse cry from behind them all. The girls whipped around in alarm, only to come face to face with their beloved patriarch and their schoolteacher.
Professor Utonium was wide eyed and in speechless shock. Before him, were no longer little adorable five-year-olds, but now fully matured girls in their near late teens. Bubbles let out a pained gasp and Buttercup felt like someone socked her in the stomach, hard.
Blossom, however, felt helpless. They knew that they would have to explain what they could to their creator and parent, but they didn't imagine how confusing and scary it would be. The leader was also speechless, not having a clue of what to say to their dad.
"Girls? How? What- what happened to you? My- my precious angels…" John was stunned. He knew from what was told to him by Joyce earlier about the girls undergoing a sudden change, as well as facing a near death experience from an unknown entity, but he didn't really think she was serious. But seeing what was before him now, there was no room for doubt.
The girls began to tremble in fear, not knowing what their father would say or do, let alone what they should say or do themselves. Finally, after what seems like agonizing eons, someone took initiative.
Utonium rushed towards his daughters and embraced them all as much as his arms would allow him. The girls stood there in a stupor for a moment before they hugged him back, each of them sniffling and becoming teary eyed. It was the comfort that they needed most right now at a time like this.
"Pease don't be mad at us, Professor." Bubbles sniffled, her baby blues leaking tears. Buttercup's bottom lip trembled. "We don't know what happened to us! It just did!" Blossom was the only one who didn't say anything, as tears flowed freely while she embraced their father.
John sighed in relief, holding his girls tightly and kissed each of their foreheads with parental affection. "Girls, there's no reason for me to be angry at any of you. You did nothing wrong. I'm- I'm just glad you're safe and alive."
In all honesty, the one fear the man had that was killing him more than anything was the thought of losing his precious children after what he had heard. As far as the rest was concerned, he asked no more; his fatherly intuition telling him that even his own kin wouldn't know what exactly transpired themselves to become what they are now. They can figure that out together later.
Ms. Keane, Miss Belum, and the Mayor all watched the tender scene before them with compassion and heart-felt happiness. They were all thinking the same thing.
As long as they're alive and together, that's what matters.
Meanwhile, in the deep depths of the darkness, the mysterious dark figure hissed and slammed a taloned hand down on the armrest of his throne, cracking it from the sheer force of the impact.
"Those meddlesome brats! They succeeded in taking down more of my legionnaires!"
The imp flinched at the sudden burst of anger and stuttered. "M-milord? If I may? Perhaps we can deploy one of our more… aggressive units?"
The evil otherworldly overlord seethed in anger, taking in his henchman's words in with careful consideration.
"Very well. But do so after their little festivity this evening comes to a close. We don't want to spoil its appetite now, do we?"
The imp bowed deeply before withdrawing out of the dark throne room. "Of course, Milord." The imp stalked away as quickly as his short legs could carry him, leaving the dark figure alone to his own devices. An evil, fanged smirk crossed his ash like features, his venomous yellow eyes giving off an intense glow that could smother even the strongest sun into a black hole of nothingness.
"Soon, little pets… your luck will run out, and your famed heroics will become your own undoing… and epitaph."
