Chapter 115: Heart of the Labyrinth (Part 3)

The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

07 MAR (Tuesday) 1989. 1941.

An infrared beam colored by pink traces of X-energy scorched a snowman in the middle snowball, melting a cave into it. However, it did not do too much damage.

"And that's how you knock someone out, instead of burning her to death," Blossom said triumphantly, her arms akimbo like the heroine she was, feeling proud that she had done so well in her non-combat demonstration of a non-lethal stunning heat beam.

"Is this how you save your targets for torture and interrogation later?" Bunny questioned. Her birthday crown was still strapped to her head, something which Blossom had been trying hard to ignore because she never had it in any of her monthly birthday parties.

"Bunny, no!" Blossom retorted, distressed. "The point of knocking someone out is to not kill her!"

"Oh…" Bunny moaned as she had answered wrongly. She thought she was up to speed in her strategy and tactics.

"Why don't you try it?" Blossom offered, realizing that Bunny was a little upset at being wrong. Pulling her along gently, Blossom positioned Bunny on a shooting line she had scrapped out on the snow with her mary-jane before the demonstration. She padded to the snowman she had 'stunned' in the demonstration.

"Don't burn the snowman yet!" Blossom yelled back to Bunny as she scooped up a huge mound of snow with her hands and used it to patch up the injured chest of the snowman. When she was done, she retreated behind Bunny.

"Okay, now heat up your eyes and let the heat stay there," Blossom instructed. "Narrow your eyes a little… Good." Bunny's eyes glowed purple brightly. "Now think about not hurting the person instead of harming her. Just think about not killing the person you're looking at. Are you doing that?"

"It's hard, but yes," Bunny opened up liberally. She felt so much at ease around Blossom now, despite their rough and unsettled relationship as sisters. Blossom couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Bunny. How hard can it be NOT to kill someone?

"Good, I guess… Now make sure you hold back the hotness around your eyes, don't let too much go now. Can you do that?" Blossom instructed. Bunny nodded. Her eyes had been steadily increasing in piercing brightness as she had been storing so much energy in her eyes. It was a little painful, and Bunny couldn't help but to tear up a little. The tears were boiled instantly, floating away from her eyes as little trails of mist. "Okay, now shoot!"

And Bunny did. The powerful beam, however, superheated the snowman's chest, resulting in its vaporization and an explosive release of steam, throwing whatever surviving snow there was all over the backyard. Blossom had to cover her face with her arms as some of it had splattered onto her. Only the bottom snowball that represented the 'legs' of the snowman remained.

On seeing the mess she made, Bunny bawled out loud, her tears still boiling away into thin trails of steam. She rubbed her eyes, and the hot tears stung her.

"Bunny! It's okay-" Blossom pleaded with her to stop, but Bunny had only cried louder. Desperate to make her feel better, she hugged the crying purple one. It took some time, but soon, her cries were reduced to sniffles. "It's your first try, Bunny- no one's expecting you to get it right the first time…"

"Thanks, Blossom…" Bunny said. "I'm sorry I cried. I shouldn't have. I just want you to be like you, like a Powerpuff Girl…"

"But you can! We'll just make a new snowman and try again," Blossom said, trying to sound as optimistic as possible. In a way, she was optimistic. Dad had been ignoring her, and Bunny was rough around the edges. But that could all change, right?

"Can it be like this forever?" Bunny asked.

"Be like what?" Blossom replied with a question.

"Can we be nice to each other forever and ever?"

"Sure, of course, Bunny," Blossom promised. "We're sisters after all, right?"


The City of Townsville. Industrial District. Steele's Stellar Steel.

10 MAR (Friday) 1989. 1751.

Blossom opened her eyes. The second she regained consciousness, all she felt was pain. It took her just a moment to remember through this pain that she had been fighting tooth and nail against Bunny, who overpowered her but not before taking Bubbles and Buttercup out of the fight first.

Mister Feig.

Oh no.

It was their whole point of being here. Blossom had received a call from Feig personally twenty or thirty minutes ago, frantically and fearfully pleading for help from her own younger sister. Getting up, Blossom returned to where she was in the beginning, close to the factory entrance. The sound of a struggle was rapidly evident.

Buttercup had somehow intercepted Bunny despite the Duranium combat knife that was still in her chest. Apparently, the knife hadn't slowed her down much, though she had to abandon her machinegun because the strap was agitating her wound. She was still throwing punches like the machine she was. She was slower, however, and Bunny was able to dodge them easily, before landing a slash with Ace's sword across Buttercup's stomach.

Blossom flew into the fray the moment she saw how badly Buttercup was doing. Grappling Bunny from behind, she restrained her and was able to catch her by surprise. Seeing this, Buttercup took advantage of this and proceeded to treat Bunny like a punchbag, landing multiple hits in her stomach and face, but before she could do any further damage, Bunny shoved Buttercup away with her foot and broke free from Blossom through sheer force of strength. When Buttercup tried to fight back, Bunny punched the combat knife she had left in Buttercup's chest, forcing it deeper into her, to the point where the edge protruded from her back. Buttercup fell back, screaming, falling to her side, a hand gripping the handle of the Duranium knife in her chest.

Blossom fired an infrared beam at Bunny out of desperation, but Bunny blocked it with her purple energy shield. Blossom kept it up, trying to wear Bunny out. On realizing that their roles were reversed, Blossom pulled her MP5 and fired it at point-blank range. The force was just enough to break through Bunny's shield. Bullets slammed into Bunny's chest and neck.

But Bunny was a force of nature, and Blossom's attack did not even slow her down. Smacking the MP5 away, she slugged Blossom in the face, giving her a black eye and knocking her off her feet. When she tried to get up, Bunny put her foot down on her face. Hard.

Seeing that neither Blossom nor Buttercup was moving, Bunny stared down at them. Bringing up her x-ray vision, she stared into Blossom and saw that her heart was still pumping, but slowing down. She turned to look at Buttercup too. She could see her own knife inside Buttercup's chest. It had slid past the sternum and between the heart and the left lung, scraping against both and causing minor organ damage, but the heart was still beating against the blade, and the lungs breathing against it.

They were both still alive. Bunny contemplated killing both of them. The sword was egging her on. 'Go ahead, Bunny…' it whispered. 'Claim their lives and you'll have Bubbles all to yourself...'

Standing over Blossom, Bunny raised her sword underhanded, but she'd spent yet more time thinking; resisting the call for more blood from Ace's sword.

No.

What had cut through the sword's aura was her love for her family. Memories came rushing back to her - of the good times and her wish for a happy family.

No.

Bunny left Blossom and Buttercup alone. Instead, she searched the factory for Mister Feig. It didn't take very long when her vision could penetrate walls. Feig had been stuffed in a spacious locker, in the manager's office. The attempt to hide him was slipshod. A bag of golf clubs, with the sports equipment, spilled out, and books and locker shelves littered the floor before the locker Feig was hiding in, all but pointing out where he was - even without her x-ray vision, Bunny would have found him early into a standard sweep of the area.

Floating towards the manager's office, Bunny's mind was once again filled with a fantasy of a better tomorrow: her family, having a picnic in a field of mythical green grass, under the mythical spring sun, not too cold and neither too hot, a gentle wind blowing, Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup, and her joking and laughing and playing catch under an azure blue sky. They would come around and understand why she was doing this, surely they would!

Bunny's dream was shattered when Bubbles zipped in front of her, standing before the door leading into the manager's office, blocking the way with her arms outstretched.

"Bunny, stop!" Bubbles cried. "You can't go around killing people!"

"He'll kill you if I don't kill him!" Bunny said. "I'm protecting you and the rest of the family!"

"No, you're not!" Bubbles retorted. "I won't let you hurt Mister Feig!"

"Get out of the way, Bubbles!" Bunny warned her favorite sister. She tried to squeeze past her, but Bubbles, again, shifted herself to block her out completely. Bunny tried to push Bubbles out of the way. Bubbles would not let up, and when Bunny was able to break through, Bubbles grabbed her and shoved her back before punching her in the cheek.

Bunny stumbled back, cupping her face.

"You'll hurt me instead of letting me save you?" Bunny said, tearing up from the punch, not from the pain, but what it meant.

Bubbles was shocked; she had punched Bunny out of reflex, but she understood why she did it readily. Unsure of what to say, she broke eye contact - and saw Blossom and Buttercup on the floor. She glared at Bunny.

"Blossom… Buttercup… What have you done to them, Bunny? I would rather hurt you than let you do it to anyone else," Bubbles said.

What Bubbles said had struck Bunny harder; she had always liked Bubbles better than Blossom and Buttercup because of how sweet she was in the past.

Screaming like an animal, Bunny surged forward - Bubbles fired an ion beam, and Bunny didn't even attempt to defend herself. The ion beam singed Bunny in the chest piece of her armor, sizzling electronics but doing nothing much else. Bunny simply bore with the pain and delivered a punch, which Bubbles deflected. Bunny, however, aimed a low-blow to Bubbles' stomach, weakening her. This was followed up by several more punches, not all of which were neutralized, before Bubbles sustained a knee to her stomach again, throwing her back into the office.

Drawing her Serbu Super-Shorty, Bubbles fired a shell, which Bunny simply blocked by covering her face with an arm. Bunny grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and crushed it. She stomped on Bubbles before picking her up and flinging her to the window facing out, shattering glass. There, she hung on the sill of the window, but she was getting up again.

'No, that wouldn't do', Bunny thought. She didn't want to be interrupted while trying to kill Feig. Picking Bubbles up before she could sweep glasses out of her eyes and recover, Bunny slammed her against the concrete wall so hard that her head was stuck instead. Not wanting to leave her like this, Bunny pulled Bubbles down and laid her down on the ground, where she was still groaning in pain but was otherwise incapacitated. Bubbles' eyes were still open, her innocent baby blue pupils still visible and looking at Bunny but barely able to focus.

"I… I'm sorry, Bubbles," Bunny apologized to her while she was still able. "I had to do it, I really had to. You'll see that I'm right, I promise." Bunny left her behind after that, before floating into the manager's office. She could hear Police Chief Feig's panicked, shallow breathing. Hovering to the only locker in the room, Bunny tore the door off just to scare the cowardly man, before pulling him out one-handed and tossing him across the room. He rolled on the tiled ground, stopping only because he had slid into the foot of a couch. Feig screamed in pain as his numerous wounds were agitated.

"No, stop! Please!" Feig continued to beg, the fight in him long gone. "We- we can make a deal! I'll do anything you say! I'll give you whatever you want! Just tell me what you want! Please!"

"I want you to die!" Bunny screeched as she brandished her red-glowing sword two-handed. She shifted her sword, holding it underhanded before raising it high, wanting to make sure he was well and truly dead even on the first stroke.

"PLEEEEEASE!" Feig screamed as Bunny brought the sword down on Feig.

"No!" a Girl screeched, the voice high-pitched, as she threw herself on Feig to protect him. The sword went through the Girl instead, and Bunny could only stare in horror at what she had done.

She had accidentally stabbed Bubbles in the back - how deep, she did not know. Pulling back didn't seem to help as the sword had gone in quite deep, being made of Duranium.

"B-B-Bubbles!" Bunny stammered in horror as she dropped her sword and backed away. "I didn't mean to!" Bubbles wasn't moving after she had accidentally stabbed her.

"BUBBLES! WHAT HAVE I DONE!?" Bunny screamed madly as she clutched and clawed at her own face in agony, unable to believe what she was seeing.

As if some kind of divine punishment, Bunny felt the pain in her chest and head worsen. Her migraine headache had gone from a dull ache to sharp pains following the pattern of her heartbeats. She felt knife stabs all over her chest. She clutched at her heart, where much of the pain was. The pain was radiating from her very fingertips, spreading all the way to her toes.

That was when Blossom sneaked up on her. Seizing Bunny by the arm, Blossom turned her around and punched her repeatedly in the face, the force so hard that it'd sent her sprawling on the ground… and unconscious.


The City of Townsville. Industrial District. Steele's Stellar Steel.

10 MAR (Friday) 1989. 1801.

Blossom had to rally her sisters quickly after that. After knocking out Bunny, she flew to Bubbles' side. She had been stabbed in the back. Flipping her on her back nonetheless, Blossom hovered her fingers over Bubbles' nose. There was still breathing. Bubbles was still alive. Relieved, Blossom shook her, and Bubbles groaned.

"Bubbles? Are you okay?" Blossom asked. It didn't matter if she was. They would need to get home as soon as they could. Blossom helped Bubbles to sit up. Bubbles winced in pain.

"I'm fine…" the sweetest of the three said, only to wince in pain once more. "I just… Give me a minute."

Blossom went out of the office in the meantime and found Buttercup already sitting up, Duranium knife still in her chest.

"Buttercup, are you okay?" Blossom asked, genuinely out of concern. Though Buttercup had been nonchalant and rude, she was still her sister.

"What does it look like!?" Buttercup said, pointing at the knife in her chest.

"Could you… pull it out?" Blossom suggested.

"No way! It hurts too much!" Buttercup replied.

"Can you fly?" Blossom asked, and actually considered leaving Buttercup behind for the paramedics to find - the priority now was Bunny, before she woke up.

"Just… A minute…" Buttercup said, echoing Bubbles' words. Sirens were blaring in the distance. The USDO and the TPD were coming. A minute was all they had - for Blossom knew that what they had done wasn't exactly allowed by flight control, and by extension General Blackwater. When they objected to them attending to this call from Feig, Blossom switched off her radio.

It would take time, but the Powerpuff Girls would eventually get together, though Blossom and Bubbles did most of the work as they didn't have combat knives sticking out of their chests. They carried Bunny back home. Their wayward little sister had groaned all the way home, moaning something about 'an accident' and that 'she didn't mean it'. Blossom ignored it all. At this point, Blossom felt that Bunny did not even deserve to live, much less to be listened to.

They brought Bunny into The House to meet Dad. By this point, Bunny had regained consciousness, though she was still groggy and weak. Blossom had expected stiffer resistance from her, but she seemed almost… ill. Bunny's face had gone pale, the strength in her arms gone, and Blossom had to hold her up just to keep her upright.

They were a grisly sight to Professor Utonium and Selicia Goodwin.

"What happened!?" Dad asked. "Why is everyone injured?"

"Bunny attacked us," Blossom said. "She went crazy and she attacked us!"

"She tried to kill Mister Feig!" Bubbles added. "And we had to stop her! It was horrible!"

Buttercup didn't need to add anything. The combat knife in her chest did all the talking. She was hunching over from the pain. Flying home had made it worse.

"Buttercup!" Selicia screamed. She picked her up gingerly, cradling Buttercup in her arms to avoid touching the combat knife embedded in her. "Did Bunny do this to you!?"

"Y-yes…" Buttercup said. Just talking about it made her feel faint and nauseous.

"I'll operate on her immediately!" Professor Utonium said. "Selicia, get her prepped for surgery."

"Wait, Dad! What about Bunny!?" Blossom yelled before the professor could move.

"Just- just watch her and- it's dinnertime! Just get her some spaghetti and feed her," the professor said. Blossom immediately put Bunny in a dining chair. Bubbles put down a bowl of spaghetti in front of Bunny.

The professor was about to leave when…

"Dad…" Bunny called out to him. "Please… Don't leave me…"

The professor went up to her, standing over the dining table she was sitting behind.

"Did you really do all this, Bunny?" the professor asked sternly. Bunny, at that time, couldn't remember the last time he was so severe with her.

"I had to- they didn't listen-" Bunny tried to explain, but she was feeling incredibly nauseous, and with every word, she felt like vomiting. Not an inch of her body was free from pain, and she couldn't think straight from the migraine she'd had since hours ago, which had ebbed and flowed at the best of times.

"I'm disappointed in you, Bunny!" the professor said, pointing accusingly and aggressively at her.

"Hold her down!" Blossom ordered Bubbles as she hovered by Bunny's bowl of spaghetti. Using a fork, she began rolling up a ball of spaghetti that looked more like a ball of yarn than food.

"Here's a big one!" Blossom said, grinning like a mad-girl. "Eat up…!"

"Dad-" Bunny shouted, but her voice was low and hoarse. The professor had already turned around and was stomping towards the airlock; it was either he didn't hear or didn't care. Either way, it was terrifying for Bunny, as she felt abandoned.

"D-" Bunny tried to yell for the professor to come back, only for it to happen. She began coughing. Blood spattered onto her spaghetti, adding the red of hemoglobin to the red of tomato sauce. Then she vomited into her spaghetti, adding even more blood to it.

"D-da…" Bunny couldn't even finish a single word as she cried dryly. Blood flowed down her cheeks instead, adding to two more rivulets snaking from her nostrils.

"Ew!" both Blossom and Bubbles cried in unison. "DAD! It's Bunny! She-" The professor turned around, only to be rendered as helplessly paralyzed as his adopted daughters.

Bunny's eyes rolled up, revealing the white of her eyes, now colored red with blood. She began suffering spasms, then an outbreak of convulsions. Bunny fell off her chair as she suffered a seizure, not unlike an epileptic shock, foaming white in her mouth.

"GET HER DOWN TO THE LAB, NOW!" Professor Utonium shouted.