Chapter 117: Flight of Icarus (Part 2)
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
11 MAR (Saturday) 1989. 1117.
Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! The clown phone in the Girls' room blared as Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were moping in their own corners. No one picked up the phone immediately. Blossom and Bubbles were still unable to get over the battle they'd fought with their own younger sister, Bunny, and Buttercup had gone back to her usual non-chatty self, hiding in the closet as if she had something to hide. Blossom was disturbed, but Bubbles was even beyond that; it'd set her back, and she couldn't help but feel depressed again, and when she had to inject herself with a syringe of watered-down His Secret, she felt the urge to take His Secret 2.0 stronger.
Eventually, Blossom hovered to the phone lazily and picked it up.
"Hello?" Blossom answered the phone with a dismal tone to her voice.
"Oh, thank goodness- ur - Powerpuff Girls! We're in a heap of trouble! Huge trouble!" out came Mayor Wilford's voice, less shaky and old as before. Somehow, it'd grown stronger, louder and shriller. It did sound like huge trouble.
"What is it, Mister Mayor?" Blossom asked, somewhat distracted by the mayor's cry for help.
"It's the Townsville Stadium! Terrorists are threatening to blow it up! Please, you gotta help us! The Townsville Terriers NEED that stadium for their home games!" the mayor cried through the phone, his voice reaching unpleasant heights.
"We're on our way, Mayor!" Blossom replied, more confidently this time. Bunny might be ill, and their sisterly relationship - if it could still be called as such - might be in tatters, but there were more urgent matters to attend to.
"The ur… police are already there! Please hurry! The terrorists are in the locker room of the home team!" Mayor Wilford added before they part ways on the line.
The Girls geared up and flew off after that, though Blossom had difficulty rounding everyone up to fight crime.
"Are you sure you're okay, Bubbles?" Blossom asked the sweetest of the three as they were on their way to the Townsville Stadium. "You're still wearing bandages and everything."
"Dad said I'm well enough, so yeah, I guess…" Bubbles said. "It's still a little achy, but I think I'm okay…" Like Buttercup, Bubbles had to undergo surgery last night, except that Professor Utonium found surprisingly little organ damage, which explained why she was able to help fly Bunny home last night in the first place. She had been lucky. Bunny's sword had slid past the shoulder blade and missed her lungs.
"What about you, Buttercup?" Blossom turned to the toughest of the three and asked. "Are you okay too?"
"Hmph, I'm fine…" Buttercup simply grunted. She too was still wearing bandages around her chest and underneath her armor, but her wounds had closed rapidly after yesterday's surgery. When the professor operated on her, it was found out that the combat knife Bunny had plunged into her was done so to be non-fatal, if deliberately painful. The blade had slid past the heart and right lung, doing minimal organ damage. All it took were some stitches (actually, lots of them) and some bed rest for Buttercup to be fit for crime-fighting again, though, like Bubbles, she was still a little sore in the chest, and some superficial parts of the wound had yet to close, which necessitated the bandages.
They flew towards the Townsville Stadium. In ten minutes, they were downtown. The Girls stopped beside a billboard to rest, but they were doing something else too. The Girls were met with another advertisement featuring them - except they hadn't volunteered for another photoshoot ever since January. This time, it featured the three of them flying across the sky, though it didn't look quite right. The poses for flight were all wrong and would have resulted in a rapid tailspin and crash landing. There was also something about their faces on the billboard that didn't look quite right - it was like staring at their doppelgangers.
But they had to move on, lacking the time to wonder about such things. They went uptown and finally swooped down to the entrance of the Townsville Stadium, guarded by an inordinate number of police officers even for a siege. There were almost a hundred officers spread out over the grand entrance. They met with the lieutenant in charge of the scene, who led them into the stadium, oddly calm considering that they were faced with terrorists.
The Powerpuff Girls were brought into the locker room, where the terrorists were said to be holed up in… Only to be met with none other than Mayor Wilford and his USDO advisor, Miss Bellum.
"Mister Mayor? But- What's going on?" Blossom asked, surprised.
"Yeah, where are all the bad guys we're supposed to ki- I mean, beat up?" Buttercup added. She had been working herself up in anticipation of some action. It frustrated her that there turned out to be nothing at all.
Bubbles, on the other hand, was silent. Her eyes wandered to the wall, then the lockers, and finally the floor. She had been thinking about Bunny all this time, and she had been wondering about visiting her in the labs, to let the water flow under the bridge, and just be sisters. Now, she wouldn't have that opportunity anymore, at least until whatever the Mayor had in store for them was over.
"Oh, you three are such kidders, don't you remember the surprise I promise the three of you?" Mayor Wilford said. There was something about him that had changed. For one thing, he didn't have his cane with him anymore - the old man needed it with him all the time just to shuffle from one end of the room to another. Furthermore, his hunch wasn't as pronounced as before, and he stood taller than he used to be. He seemed more energetic and incredibly cheerful for a man with one foot in the grave, and certainly more full of life for one so close to dying. His complexion, previously dull, was now in the pink and the concentration of his wrinkles had even halved.
"The surprise!" Blossom exclaimed excitedly. "Yes, I remember! You promised us! Is it here now?"
"Why, certainly! And now I'm sure you want to know what the actual surprise is, am I right?" the Mayor teased the Powerpuff Girls.
"Is it a cake?" Buttercup asked, now caught up in the excitement. "Do I get my own bike!?"
The Mayor's tease had even raised Bubbles' chin. She smiled bitterly; bad things had been happening, but at least there were some good to balance it out. Whatever the surprise was, the first thing she thought about was to save some of it for Bunny, just like how Blossom had gifted her some drawings and papercrafts even after she had tried to kill half the family and was confined to the Duranium bed for it.
"Well, come on then, why don't I show you the surprise in-person!?" the Mayor started towards the locker room door and beckoned for them to follow, swinging his arms in an exaggerated manner, clearly enjoying his new-found health and vigor. Where he'd found it, Blossom had no idea. She still hadn't gotten over the fact that he was ninety years old. Considering that she wasn't even one year old, ninety seemed legendary, even mythical.
The Mayor, flanked by Miss Bellum and half a dozen mayoral bodyguards, led the Girls down the corridors that muscled young men would jog through on their way to the grassy arena in the center of the stadium.
"Mister Mayor?" Blossom came up beside him, holding his hand. The Mayor accepted the gesture gladly. "Are you still mad at us about the… urm… that day?"
"I'm sorry I hurt your friends…" Bubbles said automatically. She would still dream about that day when she broke through the walls of the city hall to massacre the terrorists there, and in the process, some of the mayoral bodyguards in the process.
"Blossom, Bubbles… I've long forgiven the three of you for all your trespasses against the City of Townsville," the Mayor said, before pausing as if straining to think. "And urm… ur…" Despite undergoing medical treatment with the USDO's medical wing, the mental effects of his dementia couldn't be eliminated entirely. There was some permanent damage that would likely remain with him for the remainder of his life.
"The Mayor knows that the three of you are children, Powerpuff Girls," Miss Bellum went on, filling in the blanks in the Mayor's mind. "He knows that you're trying your best, that you're still learning."
"Thanks, Miss Bellum. How did you get to know me so well?" Mayor Wilford said.
"We've been working together closely for a while now, Mister Mayor," Miss Bellum said. "And we've been sitting together by the fireplace hearing you talk for hours on more than several occasions."
"Right, urm, yes, of course. You are such a good listener, Sara. An increasingly rare breed these days, what with all these electronic things and gadgets…" the Mayor said absentmindedly before regaining his footing. "Anyway, Townsville's been benefiting from you Girls ever since. How the three of you have been besting the gangs that'd been plaguing Townsville for decades! It would be selfish and exploitative of me if I don't give the three of you something in return…"
Eventually, they emerged out in the open, treading on tracks, then grass. A column of vehicles was parked there, with literal tanks leading the pack! Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup had been flying low, so they hadn't noticed it until now. The USDO tank crews were sitting on top of their tanks, watching the Powerpuff Girls as they walked by, accompanying the Mayor.
"Woah! Cool!" Buttercup exclaimed, forgetting her own troubles upon seeing the tanks, which actually wouldn't have been that cool in the eyes of soldiers or even some civilian adults, as they were outdated models, M60 Patton tanks bought on the cheap from the US Army. They hadn't even been repainted yet to fit their new law enforcement roles. "Are we going to ride in one of those?"
Mayor Wilford laughed.
"No, Buttercup, I'm afraid you won't get to play soldier today," he said with a grandfatherly smile. Buttercup pouted with displeasure, and he went on in hopes of improving her mood. "But I have something better. You'll like it, I'm sure."
They were brought to a parade float that was visible even from behind the tanks, as it rose to a height above the military machines. It was a huge, colorful beast, built atop a large cargo truck. There was a heart-shaped platform at the front with metal railings sized for little children, and behind that were cartoon-styled versions of themselves, rendered as massive plaster statues, smiling and staring into the distance, waving at an audience that wasn't there yet. Pink-red skirting was draped all around the float, and banners were hung at the sides of the massive artwork in pink, baby blue, and lime, with words encouraging the soon-to-amass crowd to cheer for them. 'GIVE IT UP FOR THE POWERPUFF GIRLS!' the banners screamed.
"Pfff! I'd rather have the tank!" Buttercup said anyway. She hated the fact that there was way more pink and red than green, something which seemed to be a recurring theme throughout her life. Blossom, as usual, took all the limelight.
"Who knows? Maybe one of your USDO pals might give you a ride after all this is over?" Mayor Wilford suggested patiently. He used to be less forgiving and tolerant, but with the return of his health, he could afford the time and energy. "But for now, why don't the three of you hop in on the Powerpuff cruiser and enjoy your victory parade? You've earned it!"
"But what's a parade, Mister Mayor?" Bubbles asked. They had never been in one before, and neither had they seen one even in illustrations.
"Oh, you'll love it. It's when tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people are invited to see you… not because they have to, but because they want to," Mayor Wilford tried his best to paint a picture that was as appealing as possible to the Girls. "Imagine having hundreds of thousands of friends, and imagine artworks the size of trucks and buses and even buildings, like the one you'll be standing on, made just for you to enjoy. I've been in plenty of them. Imagine the sky lighting up in numerous colors like a rainbow, thousands of balloons everywhere, people taking pictures of you, and shouting your name because they love you!"
"I would love that…" Blossom said.
"I don't know…" Bubbles replied, her cheeks burning red with embarrassment. She couldn't even imagine how a thousand people looked like, much less ten thousand or a hundred thousand.
"But… a tank…" Buttercup continued to harp on the prospect of riding a tank, though the mayor had successfully made it harder for her to do so. She thought that it would be interesting, at least, to be sought after by thousands of people. It made her feel… something. Pride? Or arrogance? Love? Or power? The onslaught of both insanity and her sisters' stabilizing psionic waves from the silver lining in her brain was confusing her so much she felt like smashing her skull open.
"Come on then, hop into your float and enjoy the show!" Mayor Wilford encouraged. The Girls kicked themselves up into hovering positions. Bubbles and Buttercup floated up to the platform, but Blossom stayed where she was.
"Mister Mayor?"
"Hmm? Yes, Blossom?"
"There are so many things I've done wrong…" Blossom said and was unsure of how she could continue.
"We've all made our fair share of mistakes," Mayor Wilford tried his best to put Blossom at ease. "I know you feel like you don't deserve a reward, but you do! You want to do good, and you have done well. Kids your age… they don't tend to achieve as much as you, nor would they care to. You're one of a kind, Blossom, you and your sisters."
"Do you really think so?" Blossom said, smiling from ear to ear.
"He's not the only one who thinks so," Miss Bellum said. "Blossom, you were mistreated often, and you often face impossible odds. Sure, bad things happen, but it's important that we celebrate the good that comes out of it, like you and your sisters."
Blossom smiled toothily at the both of them before joining her sisters on the float's platform.
Soon, the parade float began moving after the tanks up front rolled ponderously forward at low speed - the tanks weren't that slow by design, but they were instructed to inch forward at walking speed for the parade.
Blossom looked behind her. There were other floats behind them - one with the city mascot, a Terrier, as well as a plaster statue of the city's founding father, a chiseled man in a barbaric fur coat, hat, and a musket. Mayor Wilford and Sara Bellum had their own car, an open-roofed white '60s classical car reserved for high officials. Behind them was a convoy of USDO humvees and APCs, providing additional security, as if the tanks weren't enough.
Police officers flanked the floats on both sides, marching in formation, some in ceremonial uniforms, while others were prepped for combat, especially the squads of SWAT officers and STARS specialists. More police officers marched in formation behind the last float, followed by police cruisers, SWAT vans, and even newly-acquired APCs.
Although the parade column was slow, the Girls were soon plunged back into the light. Crowds had gathered behind barriers on either side of the road, cheering for the Powerpuff Girls. Relatively few people had seen the Powerpuff Girls up close, and legions had turned up for the chance. Legions more came genuinely because they were a symbol of hope and a sign of positive change. The flashes from hundreds of cameras were blinding.
Soon, the Girls began to understand what Mayor Wilford was offering them, and what he meant when he described a parade for them. Confetti was released from payloads above. Firecrackers shot up into the dark, cloudy sky, exploding in an omnidirectional shower of sparks colored pink, blue, and green. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup stared up into the sky, amazed by the sight.
"Hey, ur- Girls, is this thing on?" it was Mayor Wilford on the radio. Blossom was surprised that she would find him there. The Mayor would normally prefer to speak in person.
"Yes, Mister Mayor, what are you doing in there?" Blossom adjusted the mic pressed up to her face and asked on the radio.
"I just thought I should accompany you Girls in spirit, even if I can't stand with you," the Mayor said. "I can see the three of you from my car, but it's rather far away."
Blossom turned back and waved at the Mayor. He waved back at him.
"Now, why don't you wave at the crowd. It's a crowd-pleaser that'll never fail," the Mayor advised. Blossom and Bubbles did as he was told. Blossom had to nudge Buttercup to do the same thing. The crowd went wild. Ahead of them, three huge balloons the size of garden sheds were were heavy, but they had just enough helium in them to allow a slow ascend. Again, these balloons were colored the same as the Girls, in pink, blue and green.
"Girls, the balloons are for you. Why don't the each of you blast the balloons with your respective colors and see what falls out," Mayor Wilford advised. The Girls looked at each other, each excited to shoot their respective balloons for their own reasons. Blossom was curious as to what the Mayor meant, Bubbles just wanted to have fun and Buttercup wanted action wherever she could get it.
Blossom looked up at her giant pink balloon, charged up a pair of heat beams before letting it loose. The balloon exploded instantly, resulting in a shower of pink confetti. Smaller pink, red, black and white balloons within the larger one was let loose, which flew up into the sky because of their lighter weight.
Bubbles and Buttercup shot their respective giant balloons almost simultaneously after that, resulting in similar consequences. The Girls laughed, enjoying the exercise. This created a light show with the Girls' beams for the citizens and tourists attending the parade. Periodically, more of the same giant balloons would be released for the Girls to shoot down. The crowds on either side became louder. Blossom's smile widened equally as much, while Bubbles' cheeks burned redder, and Buttercup ego was stroked harder.
Soon, however, it became a little tiring. The strange thing was, they hadn't even fired off too many beams, just ten to a dozen of them.
Little did they know that they were already in a trap set just for them. Beneath the Girls each was a nozzle poking out from a hole, too small for the Girls to notice without knowledge of its existence. Another thing they had failed to notice was the gas leaking from the nozzles. The trinity of gas trails was too thin and transparent.
The City of Townsville. Downtown. Van Damme Apartments.
11 MAR (Saturday) 1989. 1209.
"Muah Hahahahahaha! This is perfect! Flawless! Impeccable! They've completely and utterly fallen for it!" Mojo Jojo cackled as he was watching the television screen before him. He had set up a temporary outpost in an apartment building right next to the route the Powerpuff Girls' victory parade would be proceeding through. The television screen was displaying an active feed from a hidden camera on the Girls' parade float. It was high-tech stuff, something that the general population had little access to, and it provided a highly detailed, high-resolution video of what was going on.
He could see that the device he had planted under the Girls' platform was working - he could barely make out the thin wisp of white gas floating up to their intended recipients. It was the very reason why he plotted to steal the Anti-X formula from Professor Utonium. There was a reservoir of Anti-X under the Girls' platform, and small amounts of it were being released upwards, exposing the Powerpuff Girls to it in small doses.
They would slowly lose their powers over time without realizing it. It was amazing to the enhanced chimpanzee how everything had just fallen into place. As it just so happened, the Girls were instructed to shoot down giant balloons to please the crowds gathered to worship them, something which Mojo Jojo understood to be energy-consuming, something which would accelerate the process. It was all too perfect.
From underneath his table, he pulled out a briefcase. Setting it down on the table, he unlocked it with a passcode. Opening the briefcase, he took out the contents. There were two weapons inside: the first was his self-made laser pistol, powered by Chemical X - he could even use his blood as ammunition in this device. The second was his latest creation, a harpoon gun that utilizes both the power of Chemical X-infused gunpowder and a crossbow layout to propel a Duranium-tipped bolt designed to inflict pain in the form of in-built deployable saws and electric prods. If it could work on the USDO's latest bioweapon, then it could certainly work on the inferior prototypes.
"Soon… soon, I shall bring the Powerpuff Girls to heel, and prove my superiority, my dominance, that I have always been right, and correct, and accurate, precise!" Mojo Jojo ranted in his little outpost. It was a dirty little room in an uninhabited apartment unit, filled with discarded food wrappers, plastic bottles, and banana peels. "Soon, Townsville will fall, and the USDO will follow suit. They will wallow in their defeat, forever proven wrong! And then perhaps, I shall reclaim what's mine! Father… Soon, Father, we shall be reunited, and nothing will distract us from our familial relationship - nothing!"
The City of Townsville. Highway 17.
11 MAR (Saturday) 1989. 1209.
Bunny roared down the highway, pushing her motorbike to the breaking point. She knew about Dad's warning, that using her power would kill her, but the urgency of the situation had forced her to augment the speed of her bike with her own. Her flip-phone rang while she was approaching 200 miles per hour; even the traffic police couldn't even begin to catch up with her.
Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Her flip-phone stubbornly nagged at her to pick it up, but she ignored it with difficulty. She knew who it was, and she knew, too, that if she picked it up, she could be tempted to return home. Tears flowed down her face and blood down her nostrils and mouth as she continued to tear through the highway.
She felt faint. Coming off the highway on a ramp, she was almost there. Her mind had become blank again. She could feel it coming on.
"No, no, no!" Bunny cried as she felt her arms convulse. Soon, she lost control and crashed into the wall of a neighborhood apartment building. A seizure had hit her at full force even before then, but it was small comfort as time was lost to her brain misfiring. It had continued for longer, as her brain was damaged even further. Bystanders tried to help, but the look of her deterred most people from approaching. She was laid down on her side to prevent her from drowning from her own vomit.
It'd lasted minutes, and when Bunny came to, she simply pushed the bystander, who was a woman trained in emergency medical procedures, away and took off up into the air. Bunny had seen her bike, and it was totaled, with smoke streaming out and belts and machinery spilling out. There was no other way to reach her sisters beyond running at a speed slower than flying, which was also less energy-efficient.
"Goodbye, Mister Bikey," Bunny muttered as she flew away, leaving behind another family member. She could feel it; she was paying a heavy price for the expressway in the sky to her sisters.
Her flip-phone was no longer ringing. Picking it off her belt, she realized that it had been destroyed in the crash. She regretted not picking it up and hearing the voice of her Dad one last time, but it was better this way. She couldn't turn back now, she mustn't. She could feel it in her bones: her sisters were in danger.
The snowing was light, and Bunny was able to cut through it easily. It'd reminded her that spring was so close. The dark clouds had even parted briefly to reveal a golden disk in the sky that was the sun. Bunny had rarely seen the sun, and it reminded her of Icarus. There's no turning back now…
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
11 MAR (Saturday) 1989. 1216.
Professor Utonium was sitting on the floor in the Girls' room. He had pulled the Powerpuff hotline down from its pedestal and was dialing Bunny's number on it, something he rarely used. Selicia sat beside him, just staring, a look of concern on her face. She had seen Thomas this way one too many times, but it took the cake this time around.
"C'mon, pick up the phone, Bunny! Please!" Professor Utonium said desperately as he'd punched in Bunny's number for the umpteenth time. Soon, there was a series of harsh cellular beeping again, indicating that Bunny did not pick up her flip-phone and that the line did not connect. "Damn it!"
He had tried several times before, before switching to calling General Blackwater about Bunny and warning him about Bunny's claim that Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were in trouble.
"I know," General Blackwater had claimed then. "I've reinforced the USDO presence in the parade. I know the enemy will take advantage of it somehow. It's too big a target not to. I will look out for Bunny, but you better know that I'm disappointed in you, professor. I thought controlling Bunny was your specialty."
The conversation did not continue from there, and the professor was left to continue calling Bunny like a passive idiot, to no avail.
He slammed down the phone for the last time, frustrated, still upset at himself. While he knew it would have been understandable for him to be upset at Bunny, he didn't allow himself to do so. There was simply no room for it. In fact, Bunny had acted far beyond her years (or days), selflessly choosing to safeguard her sisters' life rather than her own. It was something to be proud of, even if it would end up taking away Bunny from him. His heartfelt like a tangled mess of wires, and it was uncomfortable. He didn't know if he should scream, or smile, or cry, or laugh, or perhaps something in between or everything at once.
"Honey, you tried," Selicia tried to comfort him. "There's nothing more we can do."
The professor closed his eyes. He couldn't help but imagine Bunny slowly killing herself while using her powers, bleeding herself dry from every orifice, while the enemy - if there were any - whittled her away like woodwork. He imagined her falling away like sand, disintegrating into a million pieces, and he'd never see her again.
"No! There's always more we can do!" the professor said as he opened his eyes wide, determined to do something, anything, even if it meant even the remotest chance of preserving his youngest daughter's life. He got up and marched out the door.
"You're going to get her?" Selicia asked as she followed him.
"And I don't care how many speeding tickets I'll get, I'm doing it!" the professor said. Selicia grabbed him by the hand, pulling him back.
"Thomas, wait!" Selicia said.
"What!?" he shouted, angry at not one particular person, and certainly not Selicia, but angry at the state of things.
"Look, if what Bunny said is true, then it's gonna be dangerous," Selicia said.
"I don't care," the professor retorted.
"I know, we just have to do it right," Selicia said. "I'll drive, and we'll need to prepare for a fight."
"We don't have time for preparations!" the professor said. "Bunny could be dying this very minute and we'd still be here, debating it!"
"I can't lose you too! Not you!" Selicia wailed, almost to the point of tears. It'd shaken Professor Utonium out of his fit of rage, reminded him that he was not alone in this. "We have to do it right. Please, Thomas. Think about Bunny and the other Girls. What if they survive but you didn't? What's going to happen to them? What about me? I can't care for them alone! I won't!"
The professor relented reluctantly in the end. Selicia was right, but neither was he wrong…
