Reply to Guest: Yep it would be awesome if this is turned into an actual show! It'd likely end up as an adult swim cartoon like Samurai Jack though. Personally? I think it's more fitting if its a dark live-action series or series of movies.

Chapter 86: Undesired Help

The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

03 MAR (Friday) 1989. 1420.

"Buttercup… Ohhh, Buttercup…" the tomboy could hear a voice calling out to her, singing her name. It was a male voice, though she couldn't be sure. She found it annoying. All she wanted to do was just lie down there all the way to the weekends if she could. The last crime-fighting operation had taken a heavy toll on her, and she just wanted to be left alone. "Buttercup…" the voice sang out to her.

"What!?" Buttercup yelled before sitting up. Her slit cheek still stung. She'd accidentally pulled the stitches there which were holding it together. It was dark all around her. All she saw was a silhouette in the dark. A rather odd silhouette. She couldn't even make out the shape of it, but she thought she saw claws. Whoever it was turned abruptly, and all she noticed were red eyes, shining glaringly bright, searing her mind.

Buttercup opened her eyes. Was it a dream?

"Buttercup… Hey… Buttercup," another voice was calling out to her, and this time, it was most certainly a male voice. She felt a large hand gently enclosing around her upper arm. She had been lying on her good side, facing away from the usual place where Dad would work whenever he was at the medical side of the lab.

She'd ignored him at first. The dream had commanded her attention. Was the silhouette her new, powerful friend?

"Buttercup…" Dad had insisted on waking her up. Annoyed, Buttercup rolled onto her back gently, and let him know sternly how she felt by giving him the look. "Sorry. I know you're tired and hurting, but it's time for lunch. A recovering Girl's gotta eat." He'd said the last part jokingly, but Buttercup wasn't even tempted at all to laugh. She didn't even so much as say a word.

It'd worried the professor profoundly. Earlier today, he had received a call from Miss Keane, who was equally worried about Buttercup. Apparently, she'd gone completely cold and anti-social.

"I know it'll be hard for you to eat with your mouth, but I don't think you'd want the alternative…" the professor went on. He felt guilty about it all. Before Bunny came into the picture, he hadn't been the warmest of fathers to Buttercup. Although his reactions to her shenanigans were more than justified, he'd felt that he could have done something more, something better. With Bunny, he'd hardly paid any attention to Buttercup.

"What's the 'alternative'?" Buttercup asked. Though she didn't quite know the meaning of 'alternative', she could figure out what it meant based on the context of their chat.

"I could always put you on the drip, feed you through a needle," the professor said. The thought of being poked some more in the lab had gotten her attention. Buttercup sat up immediately with difficulty, discovering that she was still in a kid's patient gown. Gently, the professor helped her up. Had he been anyone else (like Bubbles), Buttercup would have pushed him away.

"Come on, your dear sisters are waiting," the professor said. Looking around her, Buttercup realized that there was no one else. Blossom, Bubbles, and Bunny had already gone on up. "Can you still hover? I can carry you if you want."

Buttercup forced herself to hover even though it was hurting her thigh and side, which had been hacked with Duranium hatchet and sword respectively. The stitches in those places hurt as they were still fresh. Professor Utonium could tell from the look on her face that she wasn't exactly having a grand time floating beside him as they headed up the stairs.

They ascended in silence, and Buttercup wouldn't want it any other way. There was nothing to be had from Dad except food and other goodies.

The professor then came to a stop in the middle of the stairs.

"Buttercup, how about if we stop for a moment?" the professor asked the toughest of the three. "I can tell that you're in pain."

"I don't care," Buttercup said coldly, and wouldn't even deign to look at him. The professor sighed, before doubling down and sitting down on the steps of the lab stairs.

"Come on. Won't you sit down next to me?" the professor pleaded with Buttercup, patting on the space beside him. Buttercup folded her arms as she continued to look away. But she knew she couldn't hold out forever - somewhere in her head, in that silver lining scarring her brain where emotions she wouldn't have felt otherwise would erupt from, she felt connected, still, to Dad, no matter how annoyed and angry she was at him.

Grudgingly, she allowed herself to float down to the steps, sitting next to the professor. Her arms were still crossed, and she was leaning away from the professor as if he was made of concentrated acid. When the professor wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him, he could feel how stiff she became. It was rather upsetting. Since when did he become the enemy?

"Buttercup, what's wrong?" he asked as gently as he could.

"You're mad at me, aren't you?" Buttercup said without looking at him.

"Mad about what?" the professor asked. Nothing had crossed his mind as to what Buttercup was talking about.

"Blossom told you everything, didn't she?" Buttercup said. "I heard her before I fell asleep. She told you everything."

So that was what this was about. The professor sighed. He was still unable to come to terms with the fact that Buttercup had inherited the DNA of a psychopathic half-Japanese kindergarten girl. It all wasn't meant to be; their accidental creation and his luck of inheriting three beautiful Girls as his own had come at a cost, as if this was all some fairy tale.

"Yes, she did," the professor said.

"So you're mad at me," Buttercup asserted.

"While I would have preferred that you didn't kill this 'Master Pang' and one of his disciples… I can understand why you did, Buttercup," the professor said, and Buttercup was surprised by his acceptance of her violence.

"Really?" Buttercup couldn't believe her ears. Normally, this would be one of those times when her Dad would fly off the handle.

"Yeah! I mean, just look at you!" the professor said, still looking like he couldn't believe what had befallen Buttercup and her sisters. "I was actually afraid I would miss a cut or two when I saw how much of a trainwreck you were, and I'm probably one of the best surgeons in the city!"

Buttercup, however, didn't know what to say. She hadn't really spoken to her Dad in any meaningful way, and she found that there was never really any connection between the two of them, not that she ever felt any need to connect with him. With the numerous fallout between them due to her actions outside, her discovery of a potential ally of great power and… her recent realizations surrounding her family, neither did she felt that it was all ever going to change.

"Buttercup, you have to tell me something," the professor went on again, switching gears.

"What?" she asked.

"Have you been killing anyone else before the Chinese Triads?" he asked. Buttercup stared at him and he stared back at her. She wondered, just briefly, if she should come clean with her activities - well, she and her sisters' activities. But it was an easy question to answer. Why should she care? "I promise I won't get mad."

"No…" Buttercup said, still looking into Dad's eyes without breaking contact at all for a single second. To do so would undermine what she was trying to accomplish. "No, Dad." The professor searched her eyes for a long-drawn-out moment, before sighing once more and stroking her head.

"Are you alright there, sport? I mean, on the inside. You've been really quiet lately," the professor changed topics once more, catching Buttercup off-guard. It wasn't really something she wanted to talk about. Honesty had never resulted in anything good for her, and she had so much to hide nowadays.

"I'm fine, Dad. Just… tired," Buttercup lied.

"You sure?" the professor asked again. It'd annoyed the enhanced little Girl, but she didn't want to blow her cover by losing it.

"Yes…" she said impassively. If the professor could tell that she was hiding something, he wasn't showing it.

"Look…" and he wouldn't just end it too. He took her by the hands gently, avoiding the cut on her wrist inflicted by Master Pang. "I know I've been rough with you. I'd be stupid to not realize it-"

'Duh,' Buttercup thought. She could barely stop herself from rolling her eyes.

"-But I was just looking out for you. What you were doing... will haunt you in the future. You've already made a lot of ghosts, but that doesn't mean it has to continue," the professor went on, and Buttercup found him a little hard to follow, having a limited understanding of speaking due to her months-old age, but she sort of understood… not that she cared.

"I didn't kill anyone else," Buttercup claimed for good measure.

"I know… I know…" the professor cooed gently, but Buttercup thought he sounded stupid. "It's why I trusted you and gave you back your powers, Buttercup. I knew you'd do well with your enhancements. You don't know it yet, but you have it within yourself to do good, you really do."

By that, the professor meant the Chemical-X-induced anomaly in her brain, which connected her psionically to her sisters. It was the only thing that could give her any measure of empathy and kindness at all. It was like a silver lining in the clouds. It was hope, even if the anomaly hardly ever expressed itself.

Personally, Buttercup hated it, even though she knew nothing about it except the odd burst of feelings that would suddenly appear within her. She hated it all the same, as it seemed outside her nature.

"I guess…" Buttercup droned on.

"Great," the professor said, his tone shifting to something a little more cheerful. Releasing Buttercup's hands, he jumped to his feet. "Now, how about we head up for lunch? It's way overdue. Want me to carry you? You don't look so good when you were flying."

"Sure," Buttercup acquiesced to his request, deciding that she might as well take advantage of it.


The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

03 MAR (Friday) 1989. 1446.

It was the latest lunch Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup had ever had in their lives. It was originally supposed to be hamburgers and onion rings, but mashed potatoes were added for the benefit of Blossom and Buttercup, whose faces were mutilated enough to make it painful to eat.

Buttercup, especially, was having difficulty even opening her mouth wide enough to accept the hamburger. Any movement with her mouth, anything that would stretch her cheek even slightly and agitate her Glasgow smile would cause intense pain. She would whine every other time as she tried desperately to sate her hunger while feeling pain every time she was putting something in her mouth or chewing.

She was so pitiful that everyone had forgotten that she was supposed to be Buttercup - the toughest of the three, the tomboy and the delinquent, to put it lightly. The previous time she had suffered a Glasgow smile was back in the day when the three of them were fighting in the Morbucks Industries Research Labs, but she didn't really suffer the post-traumatic consequences of the injury back then as she'd been unconscious while her split cheek mended, and by the time she woke up, it was split no longer.

Mom had to go over to help her with her food. She would proceed to cut her hamburger up into tiny little pieces and feeding them to her in such a way that she didn't have to open her mouth much. "Take small little bites… Don't chew so hard," she would say.

Then the doorbell rang. Who it was, the professor had no idea. He wasn't expecting anyone.

As Selicia was preoccupied with Buttercup and the elder three Girls were too injured, Professor Utonium and Bunny went to answer the door. How their new guests had sneaked up on them, the professor did not know - usually, he'd either hear a car or see it at the window, but he'd boiled it down to the most recent tragedy keeping them focused on the family.

The professor was standing ready when Bunny reached for the door and opened it wide.

He'd known it would be someone he didn't quite like, and it didn't matter whether he knew them well or not.

General Blackwater stood before him like a bear deciding whether to maul him. Crammed beside him was someone new, someone holding a clipboard like how Wiggums would have. However, this new man was dressed in the USDO's gray security uniform. Behind him was a man with a trolley loaded with crates.

It all felt too familiar. It wasn't the first time General Blackwater had visited on one pretension or another.

"General Blackwater, sir," Bunny saluted the general immediately, and the big guy saluted her back casually before reaching out to stroke her in the head. Bunny smiled affectionately, and the professor didn't like it. He still had many questions regarding their connection, and his speculations could only take a wild, dark turn.

"What are you doing here?" the professor was almost growling at the general, though the way the general was looking at him resembled someone who was observing a kitten trying to snarl.

"A few things," General Blackwater said vaguely. He gestured at the security officer beside him. "This man here is the new Chief of Logistics."

The new Chief of Logistics reached a hand out to the professor. "Captain Tanner. You must be Professor Utonium. Nice to meet you," the new logistician greeted robotically. It didn't help that he was wearing shades and looking like some shady fellow. The professor did not accept his handshake.

"With the way things are going, logistics should fall under my jurisdiction from now on," General Blackwater said.

"Yeah, what wouldn't?" the professor said cynically, intending it to sting the general, but it would take an ICBM to even make a dent, it seemed.

"I need you to sign these receipts, professor," Captain Tanner, the new Chief of Logistics, said mechanically. The professor did not like anything about the man. He seemed devoid of humanity, of passion. He knew, just knew, that he was merely General Blackwater's puppet. All this 'Captain Tanner' had done was to remind him that Wiggums had been killed in some USDO fuck-up of which he knew nothing about - of course, they'd keep it from him!

Glancing down at Bunny, the professor noticed something else though. She seemed just as upset as he was. He knew what she was feeling, what it meant. Wiggums was her friend too, and she was, of course, sad that he'd passed.

"What is all this?" the professor took the clipboard from the logistics soldier roughly, caring nothing about how he might feel. As far as he was concerned, he might well be incapable of feeling anything.

"Materials, equipment, weapons, and essentials for the bioweapons, sir," Captain Tanner said bluntly. Professor Utonium greeted his teeth. "And other miscellaneous equipment. It's all there in the papers."

"Don't you dare call them 'bioweapons' again! Especially not in front of them!" the professor barked at the officer.

"Isn't that what they are?" the officer said defiantly - though that wouldn't be the right word. The professor, in professional terms, would be the defiant one as he was the junior-ranker ever since he'd vacated his position on the USDO council.

The professor ignored the captain, and scanned through the list of items delivered:

WEAPONS

H&K MP5 - 3ea (Note: spares in case of irreversible damage to previous stocks)

H&K MP5 (fully modded) - 1ea (Note: spare)

P226 Compact - 3ea (Note: spares)

M9 Beretta (fully modded) - 1ea (Note: spare)

9mm pistol cartridges - 4,000rds

EQUIPMENT

Power Armor Repair Kit - 1set (Note: for B-50 to repair armor)

Firearms Cleaning-

The professor did not continue reading. He didn't like how the receipt looked. It'd reminded him too much of how the Girls were risking their neck for people who cared nothing for them, and it was enough that they'd come back broken once more. But wait, there's more! Soon, Bunny would have to carry that burden for Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, all alone!

Caring little for the paperwork, Professor Utonium signed it haphazardly before pushing the clipboard into the captain's hands.

"Now what do you want?" the professor asked the general again.

"A routine visit and briefing with your… 'Girls'," the general said. "Now out of my way!" The general didn't really even shove the professor aside - a nudge from him was enough to clear the way. Bunny had witnessed this, which upset her. With the number of enemies out there in the world, couldn't those who remain be friends?

The general went past Bunny, followed by Captain Tanner and another soldier, who wheeled the trolley full of equipment into The House. But that wasn't all. Coming out of the cab of an APC was someone else, someone who Bunny missed greatly.

Nana Weston. Bunny couldn't move when she saw her, mainly because she didn't know how to react, being overwhelmed by joy. Instead, she just stood there smiling, leaning by the door as Nana walked towards her, herself smiling too in that gray security uniform of hers. She scooped Bunny up into a hug the moment she came close enough, the both of them laughing.

"As you can see, Professor Utonium, you're not the only person in your 'daughter's life," the general remarked, his words garnering even more ire from the professor. He had been very tactical with the timing of his remark. Bunny was too preoccupied to listen, and the sarcasm would have gone right over her head.

The general had been looking at Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup at the kitchen, who were eating, but while he was crossing the living room to get to them, he stepped on something hard in the carpet. A lump in the ground. He removed his boot from the object to see what it was.

And it turned out to be a bullet. Looking around the living room, he saw that there was a trail of expended rounds leading into the lab, likely coming from the Girls. He'd heard the report. This time around, it was a vicious battle. Quite predictably, the Girls, under Blossom, were completely tactless in their approach against the enemy, resulting in a bloodbath that didn't quite yield as many benefits as he'd hoped.

Sergeant Selicia stood at attention the moment he entered the kitchen.

"At ease," he said while looking down at Buttercup, who whined her last before falling silent. She looked absolutely wretched, as did Blossom. Bubbles was the least haggard and appeared much better off than her sisters - predictably. Although recent reports about Bubbles' crime-fighting performance had been better, he still could not help but believe that she was still being her cowardly self, letting her sisters take the brunt of the enemy attacks while keeping herself safe.

Buttercup and Blossom were still in their patient gowns. The general came closer to them to examine their wounds and saw how grievous they were. It was no wonder they were still wearing those loose-fitting lab rags! He bent down, cupping Buttercup's chin in his gigantic hand and gently turning her neck so that he could see. He examined the Glasgow smile on her cheek. It'd begun to heal, but not by much. He looked behind Blossom and could just about see her massive ax wound through the thin fabric of her patient gown. Even he would cringe at such a wound - he would rather get shot than to take an ax to the back.

"Thanks to you, Blossom and Buttercup could barely even move," the professor said. He'd sneaked up on the general while he was examining the Girls.

The general growled unintelligibly as he straightened up. "Well, you're about to thank me for something else," he said.

"Why?" the professor asked.

"I'm taking 'The Powerpuff Girls' program offline," the general boomed, making damn sure that everyone in the room could hear him. He turned to look at Blossom, whose face appeared pale as she stared at him with that needy look, with eyes framed by eyebags of hardship. "I think it's time Bunny proves herself as a complete replacement to them. Besides, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup are in no condition for combat."

Professor Utonium's expression of cynicism didn't change one bit despite the good news.

"Isn't this what you want? Why the long face?" the general said. "I feel like I'm talking to a child sometimes."

The professor turned his gaze on Bunny, who was still in the middle of hugging Nana, trying to catch up.

"It's Bunny, isn't it?" the general said. "Of course it is. You need to learn how to stop falling in love with every lab subject you touch!"

"What have you been doing to her?" the professor questioned the man as he glared at him. But of course, it wasn't going to intimidate him.

"I've been giving her what she wants," the general claimed. "And she wants to protect you and your family. Now, we're moving onto phase 2 of that general idea, just so you'll get to take your… 'kids' out to a picnic or whatever it is you're doing with them."

The general would then move on to brief the various members of the 'Utonium family' on what their goals were. Selicia had been given the additional responsibility of fortifying the house - apparently, those boxes contained the beginnings of siege-resistant upgrades for their doors and windows, with more materials on the way.

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were told to just rest and let Bunny take over. Blossom was conflicted - being a crimefighter had become a source of pride for her; a way for her to gain dear ol' Dad's approval and attention, a way for her to see her friends (both new and old, on one side of the law or the other). While Blossom hated Bunny for taking it away, the last battle had gotten her thinking about what she'd been doing for the Amoeba Boys.

It gave Buttercup a reason to hate Bunny too, as hurting and killing criminals had become the only way for her to feel or enjoy anything. Bubbles was the only one of The Powerpuff Girls to be overjoyed over this news. It seemed all but certain then that Dad's promise to liberate her from the duties of law enforcement was coming into fruition. Besides, she felt happy for Bunny, who had grown so quickly - almost as much as they did in the past 3 months. Within days, she might even surpass them all.

Bunny certainly did not mind at all. It was as if everything she could ever want in life was already there. Her entire family was still around. Sure, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were hurt badly in their last operation, but they were alive, and the news that she would be taking over their role entirely couldn't come at a better time. General Blackwater had visited, bringing Nana with him, and he promised, with some hesitation, that he would allow Doctor Simmons to visit at some point.

If only he could promise to bring Wiggums back too…