Reply to Guest: Yes, Buttercup's psychopathy is indeed undesirable. However, there's a reason why psychopathy, and by extension other mental illnesses, are prevalent is due to the fact that they are far more difficult to treat than physical illnesses. Drugs and chemicals can only do so much - assuming there's anything effective at all. In real life, they aren't really that effective against psychopathy, partly because psychopaths generally don't want to be treated and since I try to write as realistic as possible... That's not to say they won't try what you suggested though haha. But we'll see what happens in the future.
In the meantime guys, let me know your feedback on the story so far! I know the whole Critics United mess had made all parties a little skittish, but I welcome both positive and negative feedback as long as they're civil. Anyway, back to the regular program...
Chapter 71: Wait
Phone Recording 03011989-0734-TH
DOC: 01 MAR (Wednesday) 1989.
Extracted: 01 JUN 1989.
Corporal Nana Weston: General Blackwater's office. Who am I speaking to?
Professor Utonium: It's me, Utonium.
Corporal Nana Weston: I assume you'll want to talk to the general?
Professor Utonium: Not yet. Nana, right? Have we met before?
Corporal Nana Weston: Not really. We've met at your house but never sat down to talk. I was recruited a couple months ago.
Professor Utonium: It doesn't matter. I heard about you from Selicia-
Corporal Nana Weston: I hope it isn't anything bad. Bunny's such a dear, Utonium. I enjoy teaching her what I can.
Professor Utonium: I heard. Selicia's a little jealous of you, but she trusts you. How is she? Bunny, I mean.
Corporal Nana Weston: She's… fine. The training's hard on her but she's taken well to it.
Professor Utonium. I see. Thanks for taking care of her - I mean it. I'd like to speak to the general now.
Corporal Nana Weston: Thank you too. It's an honor speaking to you, sir. Transferring now.
(There is beeping while the line is being transferred)
General Blackwater: Blackwater here. What is it?
Professor Utonium: General Blackwater! You said three days, general. Three days! Where is she? Where's my Bunny?
General Blackwater: Let me correct you there, prof. I said three days of training - and she'd just had three days' worth of training, and it's more than what you could ever provide her in your lifetime. Don't get your lab coat tied in a knot, professor. She'll be 'returned' to you today.
Professor Utonium: What have you done to her?
General Blackwater: What I should have done to Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup right from the start. Don't call me again for such trivial matters. I assume that is all? (Hangs up)
Professor Utonium: (Hangs up after a pause)
The City of Townsville. Downtown. USDO Headquarters.
01 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 0849.
"You can't let him know about this, Private Bunny Utonium," General Blackwater said. Bunny was standing at attention in his office. Her face, however, was anything but a soldier's."Do you understand?"
"But… I tell my Dad everything," Bunny reluctantly said. She knew that the general was the kind who wouldn't take no for an answer. But Dad was everything to her, even now, when the general had more influence over her. "The man I shot- he-"
"Private Bunny Utonium!" the general growled at Bunny, who tensed up at the sound of his anger. She'd wanted to move away, preferably towards the door, but her discipline and training prevented her from moving. However, he eased up surprisingly, growing gentle: "Bunny - sweetheart - you know how your father is like. It would be good for both you and him that you tell him nothing. Let me take the fall for it."
"But you can't!" Bunny broke out of her pose, alarmed by what the general was suggesting. But on remembering that the general preferred her to be a little more stoic, stifled her own emotions and stood still. "I don't know if I can…"
"Your concern is duly noted, but he knows that I'm a killer. Nothing will change if I take the wrap for it," the general reasoned. Sensing that there was some awkwardness and too many emotions between them, he turned around to look out the window instead. "Besides, it wouldn't exactly be a lie, would it? I ordered his death, and you were merely carrying out that order. You did well, by the way, private. It's commendable that you did it despite your feelings for that man."
Bunny felt anything but comforted and proud. His blood was in her hands, and the fact that she was 'just' carrying out orders didn't make her feel any less guilty. And it showed. The general had caught a glance of her staring down at the floor, her face screwed up as she was concentrating her entire will on not crying. A drop of tear broke through anyway.
"Jesus, Bunny. I don't blame you for feeling this way. I've worked with that man for many years, and I know he's a likable guy," the general continued staring out the window, mulling over the bushes and trees swaying in the direction of the late winter wind. "But remember what I told you? About how some people would never understand? How some people could never see the greater good? Betrayal could come from anywhere, Bunny. It's why I've warned you to keep a close eye on your own family too."
Bunny thought about it. Her mind wandered - her heart was hurting now, and what better way to escape it than to return to the past? However, all she could think about was that moment when she fell into the rabbit hole, and there was no way out…
The City of Townsville. Downtown. USDO Headquarters.
01 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 0549.
"God damn it! Of all the people to do this! Of all the people!" Bunny could hear General Blackwater ranting from a mile away. Her superior sense of hearing had left no mystery to unnerve her, but what she heard was unnerving enough. She had been ordered by the general to meet him, and Corporal Nana Weston was the messenger. She had been whispering advice into her ear on how to behave in front of the general (if Bunny's own experience wasn't enough), but her advice was only half-absorbed as Bunny was mainly focusing on what the general was screaming about. "After everything we've been through! So much for an understanding!"
Bunny was gently led into the office by Nana, who then closed the door behind her, and quickly too. The general whirled around the moment he heard her come in. The enhanced girl thought that she was silent, but apparently, she wasn't quiet enough.
"Private Bunny! Get over here!" the general bellowed at the lab-grown child, who scooted over, afraid but, for now, not afraid enough to express it. "Take a look at this map!" The general jabbed his massive finger at the paper. It felt to Bunny as though he might puncture it and the tabletop beneath. "You see this highway here? Highway 16?"
"Yes, General Blackwater," Bunny acknowledged. She didn't even need to read the map to imagine where Highway 16 was in relation to her position and orientation.
"A humvee FULL of TRAITORS is traveling down this highway towards the Town of Citysville," the general said. "They plan to destroy Project Powerpuff! Ruin everything we've achieved! It would mean losing any and all military gains we've made over the past three months! They are heading towards an FBI safe house in Citysville - they plan to spread sensitive data to the rest of the federal government! We can't have that - Foundation and criminal agents would gain access to those data! And the FBI - the rest of the feds - they're going to try to shut us down!"
By this point, the general was ranting to himself, absorbed in the consequences of the traitors' actions. Bunny wasn't able to understand all of it. For example, she had no idea where Citysville was or what kind of place it was, nor did she even understand what Project Powerpuff covered. But it didn't matter because…
"They are now enemies. And they will die as traitors. Private Bunny, that's your second mission. You will intercept the humvee along that highway - kill everyone in it - no mercy, no hesitation, no survivors," the general ordered at length. Looking at Bunny, however, he noticed that she was shifting uncomfortably. She knew enough to understand that she would be killing people who weren't terrorists or criminals. "If they reach their destination, Bunny, you will be separated from your family forever. Your family will be broken apart - your sisters will never see each other again. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes…"
Pokey Oaks County. Highway 16. En route to the Town of Citysville.
01 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 0637.
A humvee's top speed was about 70 miles an hour. A sensible driver, however, would drive it at slightly below the military engine's maximum, at 60 miles per hour. It would mean that the USDO deserters were halfway to Citysville by then, just passing by the town of Pilgrim's Fall since they had left just under half an hour ago. Bunny's modified bike had a top speed of 100 miles per hour, and she was capable of pushing it beyond that. General Blackwater had measured 140 miles per hour, which meant that Bunny would be able to catch up with them on the outskirts of Citysville, Townsville's sister city.
And this, Bunny had done. Within under an hour, after pushing her and her modified motorcycle hard, she was able to catch up with the traitor humvee on a hot pursuit, screaming rapidly towards them like a bird-of-prey. As it was an open highway with the morning commute still incoming, there were few vehicles on the road. She was sighted immediately when she came within range.
A USDO deserter-soldier popped out of the hatch on the roof of the humvee to man the machinegun on top. Bunny swung left and right on both the right and the wrong lanes to avoid the machinegun fire, at one point nearly hitting a civilian sedan. She had swung back to the right lane in a nick of time. Tracer rounds gave away the deserter's aim. Only a few bullets had hit home, doing nothing to Bunny's arm but ripping pieces off the hull of her motorcycle. They weren't aiming at her; they were aiming at her vehicle. And Bunny didn't like that one bit.
She had anticipated this and brought an answer to the machinegun. Pulling a Mk 153 Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon from her back, Bunny aimed it at the machinegun one-handed and fired, blowing up the machinegun with an explosive rocket and sending the deserter flying ahead of the humvee and landing on the road. He was run over across the chest by his own vehicle, leaving a huge, bloody splat behind with two unequally sized parts of a body. He didn't survive the accident for long, only enough to see that he had lost more than half his body.
Bunny was easily able to close the distance between bike and humvee after that, and she'd done far more than that. After catching up with the humvee, she went above and beyond and overtook it, and then some - putting distance between herself and the gray humvee of the USDO. In the meantime, she reloaded her rocket launcher one-handed.
The soldiers within the humvee weren't deterred by their comrade's gruesome fate. Coming out from the side window of the shotgun seat, another deserting USDO soldier began firing shots at her using an XM4 Carbine, but even her armor wasn't penetrated at all, and the pain down her back was negligible due to the protection it provided.
Giving herself another boost while ignoring the enemy rifle shots, she screamed far ahead of the humvee before swerving and stopping. Bunny aimed her SMAW downrange, the weapon huge on her small frame, and fired her rocket.
The anti-tank ordnance slammed into the humvee's front, exploding and completely penetrating the armor, destroying the engine. It was a HEAT warhead, something a small vehicle like the humvee could not hope to stand up against.
The humvee swerved, spinning on the highway as the driver lost control. To his credit, however, the humvee did not flip. The brakes were applied, and the military vehicle stopped a distance from Bunny, who had thrown away the shoulder-fired rocket launcher in favor of pulling out her suppressed pistol. The soldier at the shotgun window, disorientated by the blast and bumpy ride, was shot dead mere seconds after his vehicle died.
More men began pouring out of the downed vehicle. The driver and one other soldier in the backseat, who was dragging along some non-combatant in a flak jacket. Bunny exchanged shots with the driver, who was armed with an MP5K submachinegun. His rounds slammed into her chest and head but were just mere inconveniences that inflamed her. The driver wasn't as durable and died on the spot.
The remaining two men didn't even fight back as they ran towards the snowy forests at the side of the highway, only for Bunny to put shots in their backs. Being reaction shots, she wasn't sure if she was able to kill them; she was aiming for their hearts. But they did go down.
Grimacing because of the violence, Bunny walked towards her latest pair of victims. She didn't like what she had done one bit, but Obedience Brings Victory, and that victory would save her family from being torn apart because of selfish traitors who would hurt the feelings of her beloved Douglas Carver.
When she reached the two, she flipped the soldier on his back first. He sprang, thrusting his pistol at her. Bunny seized it before he could fire it and thrust her foot down into his face, smashing it like watermelon and his helmet was like a bucket, collecting the melon juice and pulp.
As it turned out, the non-combatant was still alive, too, and he'd gotten up and bolted surprisingly fast. But Bunny was faster. Within milliseconds, she concluded that he was still alive because of his flak jacket, and so she aimed higher to bypass the Kevlar inserts. The man flew forward from the force, twirling before falling to the ground a second time, this time on his side. He screamed, and that scream sounded familiar. Bunny walked up to him. The man rolled over, and for the first time, she got a good look at his face.
It was Mister Wiggums, the man she had yet to apologize to.
"Why, Mister Wiggums?" she gasped in surprise. She knew she recognized his ponytail, but she refused to believe that a nice man like him would turn traitor. The soldiers who she did not recognize were more acceptable as enemies. "Why did you betray us?"
"Is that what Blackwater said?" the thin, poorly-built logistician said while sitting up
"He wouldn't lie to me," Bunny said.
"I was trying to help, Bunny," Wiggums claimed. "It's something I should have done sooner."
"The 'FBI' would have taken away my family, Mister Wiggums! I won't be able to see them again!" Bunny snarled at him; she didn't like the idea of anyone hurting her family, or even put a finger on them in any way. She was supposed to be back home with her family today. It was painful to stomach even a possibility that that would not happen. "Is it true, Wiggums? Would that happen?"
Wiggums hesitated. "Yes."
Bunny's eyes widened. She lifted her suppressed pistol and aimed it at his head.
"But it would have been for the best. Look at what he's done to you! And your sisters!" Wiggums countered. "And you're going to defend him? Think about it, man!"
"The FBI would have separated all of you, sure, but they wouldn't hurt you! And they'll make sure General Blackwater can't hurt you either!" he went on. Bunny wasn't convinced. Her mind was still held up at the part where he admitted that whatever he was doing would break her family apart. "They might even reunite all of you in a few years' time after the USDO's finished!"
A few years. To Bunny, who had lived only a week, it might as well be a million years. Wiggums was a complete traitor - planning to break her family up, and even admitting that he wanted the USDO destroyed. Bunny had a special treatment for traitors. Without another word, Bunny drew her knife and thrust it at him. He was just about able to block the blow with his hand, but the blade had gone through his palm and out the back of his hand. He howled loudly.
"Wait! Please!" he screamed, but Bunny was beyond reasoning. Hatred had long filled her heart, and it was like a drug - young as she was, she couldn't resist what she felt. She withdrew her knife and stabbed him again, this time in his chest - but she wasn't aiming. She couldn't - tears stung her eyes as she felt the betrayal hard. Wiggums screamed, but Bunny didn't care. She continued stabbing him in the chest over and over. The Kevlar plate in his flak jacket hindered her, so she tore it away and continued stabbing until he fell to the ground.
But he was still breathing.
"Wait…" he croaked, the snow beneath him turning red. "Please…"
Bunny didn't wait. Instead, she quoted from memory Blackwater's message for Wiggums - to be given to him if he was still alive and subdued: "Blackwater told me to tell you this, Mister Wiggums: You are hereby charged with desertion, abandoning your post, dereliction of duty, the attempted release of top-secret data, the endangerment of your fellow USDO agents and treason to the United States of America. The penalty is summary execution."
Bunny did not understand half of it, but it all felt right to say.
"Wait…" Wiggums was still croaking, coughing up blood. But Bunny did not wait. She plunged her knife into him one last time - this time through the eye and upwards, an instantly fatal stroke. Blood spattered on her and on the snow when she withdrew her blade. Little red dots forming a line along with the force of the withdrawal.
Obedience had brought victory, and it'd made sure her family stayed together too. She had to admit that there were some doubts in her when Wiggums claimed that what he was doing was for the best, but she would never doubt General Blackwater again - as long as she got to see her family.
"I'm sorry…" she finally apologized to him, though he wasn't quite there anymore to hear it. "You were nice to me."
With that, she returned to the humvee she had disabled. After punching open the fuel hatch, she lit a bundle of paper taken from a box of documents inside the military vehicle and lit it on fire. She'd made sure to spread the fire to the interior of the vehicles and the boxes of documents found inside before throwing the bundle of fire through the humvee's fuel filler line and into the fuel tank. She walked away, leaving the vehicle to erupt in flames.
Before she left the scene altogether, she took one last look at Mister Wiggums, a good man she had killed, with tearful eyes. Her gaze then wandered briefly to the decaying, polluted town of Citysville and its iconic suspension bridge before mounting her motorcycle and driving away. Sirens blared at the distance as cops from Townsville's sister city caught wind of the strange incursion.
"It's my third day here, Daddy, and… I don't know how I feel. I want so much to be back with you and Mom and Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup but… General Blackwater felt like home too. He's done some bad things to me, but they felt good. I remember how you kept pushing me, Dad. You kept pushing me to stand up, to walk, to talk and brush my own teeth. What he was doing felt like the same thing.
Both of you have taught me to do the right thing, even though I don't feel like doing it. The two of you don't seem to like each other, but I wish we could all meet and have a nice party. Blackwater can be really nice too.
I'll do whatever it takes to see you again, Dad. I'll do anything for you, and Mom, and my sisters. Will you be proud of me, Dad? I can't wait to see you again - General Blackwater said I'll be able to do that tomorrow! (yawns) I'm going to sleep now. Tomorrow wouldn't come if I don't, right? I can't wait! Good night, Dad, good night, voice recorder!" - Bunny Utonium, 03/01/89, 0015. Sound Record File 3
