Chapter 120: Flight of Icarus (Part 5)
The City of Townsville. Downtown. Payne Avenue.
11 MAR (Saturday) 1989. 1245.
"Keep firing! Don't let them get close!" Blossom yelled while she was reloading her MP5. Her hands had never been clumsier or slower. Even holding the MP5 was difficult as it was never designed for little children. She was on the passenger seat of the car and using the door as a firing port.
"I AM FIRING!" Buttercup yelled back from the shotgun seat. Her thigh had stopped bleeding at least, but it'd hurt like hell. Even if everything was all over, she wouldn't feel like moving at all. Spent bullet casings were fast filling up the feet compartment as she unloaded her ammunition on the swarm of red-eyed officers and civilians massing against them, most of whom were hiding behind cover as well. Some of them had even pushed or driven in more cars to act as cover, though their remaining self-preservation instincts had prevented them from driving into the Powerpuff Girls and the depleted forces assisting them.
Bubbles was behind Blossom, clutching her shoulder. She had been shot there with a Duranium rifle by snipers on top. Who it was, she had no idea, but it reminded her of the first time she was close to death. Her face was drained of color more so than her sisters. She shook with fear and anxiety as she jumped with every burst of arms fire.
"Bubbles!" Blossom shouted. "Bubbles! What are you doing!? Start fighting back!" Blossom began shifting herself towards Bubbles and pulling her up front. She was successful in jolting Bubbles awake, and she began firing her shotgun at the closest enemies.
Bullets kept putting new holes in their cover. Some had missed, but many struck home. The only use of the car doors was to reduce the pain the bullets were causing. What was more alarming were the holes punching the roof of the car, which were the size of adult fists; what crazy projectile that was making those holes had also gone through the bottom of the car. The Girls were too occupied to study them, but they were holes made by Duranium bullets.
Those were just the icing on the cake, however. As Blossom was firing controlled bursts from her MP5, some kind of arrow whisked past her shoulder, less than a foot from hitting her. The large projectile went straight through the car door behind her, thankfully missing Bubbles as well. The arrow was stopped only when it embedded itself deep in the road. They didn't know it, but Mojo Jojo was trying to pick them off from an office building.
"This is General Blackwater. Blossom, please come in," The Girls' radio came to life amid the sea of death. Never in their short lives would they think that they would be glad to hear his voice.
"Mister General!" Blossom shouted into the radio in panic. "We're stuck in a car and everyone's attacking us! HELP!"
"Help is on the way. I'm gathering some reinforcement all around you. Can you last ten minutes?" the general asked.
"NO!" Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup cried in unison.
"You're just going to have to. If I don't amass my soldiers and send them in force, the risk to their lives will be too great, over and out," the general came and went, cold and logical.
Shortly after that, a particularly suicidal man in jeans and jacket came sprinting out of cover towards them, arms splayed out with grenades in his hands. Blossom and Bubbles were quick to shoot him, but he just kept on coming. He was able to toss the grenades into their car before they finally put him down.
"Out of the car! Quickly!" Blossom screamed as she pushed Bubbles towards the other door. They clambered out of the window like rats out on a sinking ship. Buttercup was slower, and she had to abandon her Stoner light machinegun just to reach the driver's seat. Both Blossom and Bubbles had to help pull her out, and in the nick of time, too. The grenades detonated in the car, shredding the interior apart. Had they stayed in there, they would have been done for - they wouldn't have been killed, but to take two grenades while bereft of most of their powers would likely mean unconsciousness.
"That's not good…" Bubbles muttered.
"Ya think?" Buttercup said.
The City of Townsville. Downtown. Payne Avenue.
11 MAR (Saturday) 1989. 1248.
Police Chief Paul Feig was pissed. The Powerpuff Girls' demise were much slower than expected. From his radio, he could tell that things were going tits up. The same shadow hunter that had been trying to assassinate him had wrecked his plans and killed off many of his trusted associates at the rooftops. If this kept up, reinforcement from both TPD officers loyal to the city and the USDO would pour in from all sides, and then he would be found out.
It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. He was told that the Powerpuff Girls would be easy pickings once they were disempowered! But they were still fighting, and fighting so hard it was putting his drugged officers to shame, both the voluntary and the unwitting.
He had been watching the Girls from a bakery along the parade route. Unaffected police officers were constantly arriving at the Powerpuff Girls' aid. At some point early in the battle, they had even driven in some police cruisers to act as cover and concealment, but their numbers were never great as they kept getting picked off. SWAT and STARS officers were cut off from the Powerpuff Girls - they were on the other side of the mass of red-eyed druggies, too busy fending for themselves. By now, the numbers on the Powerpuffs' side were thinning out as the corpses piled up. Now, there were just four survivors stubbornly shooting back at the red-eyed horde.
A plan began to form in Feig's mind. Yes! If the plan wouldn't work on its own, then he would force it to work! And once the Powerpuff Girls were dead, he would collect his bounties from the Foundation, Lombardi, and Cult of His Promise and defect to the USSR before the TPD caught on. He would secure his place in Russia as an adviser to the Soviets and retire a rich man in Moscow!
Exiting the bakery to the protest of those ignorant of his motives, he kept himself low, following the police barrier on his side of the road. Without a dose of His Secret 2.0, he was just as likely to be attacked by the addicts as the Powerpuff Girls and their diminished police escort. Poking his head out briefly to see if any of the addicts were looking his way, he climbed over the barrier clumsily - the barrier wasn't designed to be scaled with ease, much less by a man rendered as unfit by office work as he was - and began making his way towards the Powerpuff Girls, darting from car to car. Shots were fired his way, which made him hurry along in utter panic as too many years off the streets and too much of a mercenary attitude had softened him.
Eventually, he was able to take cover beside the Powerpuff Girls. He drew his revolver out as he leaned against the engine section of the car, which provided the best protection against small arms fire.
"Mister Feig!" Blossom exclaimed in surprise, glad to see another ally.
"No time for hugs and kisses," Feig said. "What's the situation?"
"It's BAD!" Bubbles shrieked, still in tears, still clutching her shoulder. Half the singlet underneath her armor had already turned a dark shade of maroon. "I got a big boo-boo!"
"Yeah, and something got me in the leg," Buttercup said in between firing shots above the car with her pistol.
"Could be worse, way worse," Feig brushed them off, taking pleasure in hinting at what was to come without the Girls even suspecting his involvement in their terrible predicament. "Well, why aren't the three of you flying away or using your laser eye thing?"
"We can't fly," Blossom said. "Our powers are gone and we aren't even that strong anymore…"
"What do you mean? How much strength do you have left?" Feig asked as he rose to fire off shots from his revolvers, but he was shooting above the heads of the affected, smiling as he was facing away from the Girls. So, the other elements operating alongside him had their own plans after all. Everything was falling into place.
"Like, my guns and stuff are getting really heavy…" Blossom said; she was exhausted and felt ready to faint from having been shot at so many times. The Girls' armors were riddled with rips and holes, their Kevlar pockmarked and cracked.
"Is that so?" Feig said knowingly. It was time to finish off his plan… and the Powerpuff Girls. Taking peeks at the other police officers in the vicinity, he noticed that they had barely acknowledged him, perhaps too busy fending off Him's puppets, surviving by the skin of their teeth. Well, not for much longer.
He turned his revolver on the closest patrol cop and put a bullet in the back of his head. He turned to the other three and shot them sequentially, with the last cop only barely realizing what was going on when he saw his comrades go down before he himself was shot in the face.
"MISTER FEIG! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Blossom, Bubbles, and even Buttercup screamed in unison.
Looking down at the now-helpless Powerpuff Girls, Police Chief Feig simply smiled.
"Never got the chance, but I'd like to thank the three of you for saving me back at that factory," Feig said, as he was breaking his revolver open and filling it up again with a speedloader. "You know, for beating up that horrid sister of yours and risking your lives for little old me… Even though you probably shouldn't have." He shut the revolver and knocked the hammer back.
Blossom's face began to change when she realized what Feig meant, to one of pure, abject horror.
"Bunny's right! You ARE a bad guy!" Blossom exclaimed. She could feel a flash flood of regrets and sadness, then pure rage at Feig and his betrayal. She had been too busy to think about it until now, that Bunny had been completely right from the start, about how policemen could be bad, and now Feig.
She raised her MP5 at Feig, but her movement was slow from the lack of Chemical X and exhaustion, and Feig was able to push it aside. He tore it out of Blossom's grasp, tossing the gun aside, before picking up Blossom and using her to ram Bubbles and Buttercup, who fell in a heap. Putting a knee and his weight on the heap of Powerpuff Girls, he began stripping them of their weapons - Bubbles' shotgun and their pistols - before punching Blossom twice in the face for good measure.
Picking Blossom up, Feig slammed her against the car. Blossom had started sobbing and bawling, more than shocked by the turn of events.
"You know, I think I like you better this way," Feig said.
"W-why, Mister Feig?" Blossom asked, still crying. "Wh-Why d-do you hate us all along? I t-thought we were friends!"
Feig chuckled briefly at what Blossom said, finding it appropriately childish and naive. Leaning on Blossom, he wiped the tears on her face with his other hand.
"There's one thing you gotta learn in the business, dear girl," Feig said. "There's nothing personal. Well, I do think that you kids are a spoiled bunch who's got everything handed to you, but that's not why I decided to do this." He looked behind Blossom, and saw that the horde of red-eyed addicts was beginning to crawl out of their covers; they were beginning to catch on that no one's firing back.
"B-but w-why?" Blossom cried.
"Money," Feig admitted. "Anyway, I guess it's time I take my leave then. It's been a pleasure knowing the three of you." With that, he punched Blossom in the stomach once, then a second time before dropping her. Bubbles had been hugging his leg, intent on detaining him, but he was easily able to shake her off and even kick her in the face. Buttercup was trying to stand and put up some kind of resistance but was prevented from rushing him by her injured leg. Feig thought it cute and shot her in the chest three times, dropping her to the ground again.
Backing away, Feig pulled out a metal syringe. He had prepared the dose for himself, according to the advice of his contact in the Cult of His Promise. It was a low dose, not enough to make him high nor cause him to be puppeteered by whatever malevolent force behind the red-eyed - if there was any such thing as the cultists claimed. The small dose, however, was enough for him to camouflage himself from the His-Secret-affected.
Injecting himself with it and dropping the syringe nonchalantly, he backed away further to give the red-eyed horde room as they began swarming around the now-helpless Powerpuff Girls. He thought it amazing that these 'chemical zombies' were still intelligent unlike how the zombies of Hollywood were usually portrayed. Knowing that firearms were useless against the Powerpuff Girls even in their disempowered state, they began kicking and stomping and kneeling down to punch and pummel them.
The Girls were screaming helplessly, too eerily, like real girls.
"Help us! Please! Someone HELP US!" their words melted into one, sometimes merging. "HELP! HELP US! SOMEONE HELP US!"
They sounded like real girls, enough that Feig was beginning to feel sorry for them, but he backed away, all the same, climbing over the barrier again to watch from a safe distance, a distance where the Girls' cries and screams of help were drowned out by the snarls and growls and yelling of the red-eyed.
The City of Townsville. Downtown. Payne Avenue.
11 MAR (Saturday) 1989. 1253.
Somewhere, sometime, it had begun snowing heavily, perhaps for one final time. Cutting through the falling snow, Bunny swooped down towards her sisters, pushing herself far beyond her limit, far beyond her exhaustion. She could see them, a horde of glowing, red-eyed police officers and denizens crowding around her sisters, who were completely surrounded and dwarfed by the adults who were beating the absolute shit out of them. Bunny could see them using her x-ray vision. They were bruised and bleeding - the addicts were made strong enough by the drugs to do some damage.
Flying towards them at breakneck speed, she charged up and fired ocular laser beams at them liberally, all the while feeling needling pain in her eyes and head as she did so. Heads and limbs were lobbed off; ten or twenty of them fell in pools of blood and severed body parts.
Bunny flew by and landed some distance from the horde, which had just noticed her. She didn't give them time to react. Reloading her modded MP5, she began gunning them down, two or three of them fell at a time, until there weren't many left. By the time Bunny ran out of ammunition, there were only five or six of them left, who Bunny began taking out with her silenced pistol. One made it to within melee range… who was promptly dispatched with a Duranium knife to the heart. Sidestepping the last of Him's puppets, she let him fall where she used to be anti-climatically before sheathing the knife.
Wheezing and coughing blood by the buckets and hunched in intense pain, Bunny limped slowly and near-lifelessly towards Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, who appeared badly bruised and bloody. Were they alive? Was she too late? The youngest of the quartet looked on with pure terror in her eyes… until Blossom opened her eyes, and for once in a long while, their eyes met without hate.
While all this was happening, Police Chief Feig watched in disbelief as his plan had fallen apart once more. Ever since he'd spotted Bunny swooping down from above, he'd shifted himself to a more advantageous position, following along the police barriers on his side of the road until he'd ended up in front of the car the Powerpuff Girls were hiding behind. From behind him, the last of his snipers came up to him.
"Chief!" the police sniper reported. "There was a fourth Powerpuff! She escaped!"
Feig had no time to entertain the sniper, who, from what he heard from his radio, was the last of his co-conspirators. Neither did he wish to tolerate his failure nor the splitting of the bounties. Pulling a knife out from inside his trenchcoat, Feig whirled around and stuck it into the sniper's throat before seizing the Duranium anti-material rifle in his arms. 'Thank God it's Duranium,' Feig thought. It was a godsend to him. Pulling open the bolt, he saw that it still had a Duranium shell chambered. He checked the magazine. The chambered round was the only one he had to work with.
Popping out from cover, he ran as close to Bunny as he could. She appeared distracted, and he was able to run past the car. Raising the Duranium rifle, he aimed for the center of mass in panic and fired, believing that he had no time to do a proper hit for how fast enhanced individuals tend to be.
Panicked though the shot was, it was impossible to miss. The bullet had ripped straight through Bunny, piercing straight through her heart.
Bunny stumbled, clutching her chest, with blood flowing freely between her fingers. Looking up from Blossom, she fixed her killer's gaze on Feig, who appeared paralyzed and shocked that Bunny was still standing. Limping forward, Bunny glared at him with such hate that it could melt all the dying snow of Townsville. In fact, it seemed as if even winter itself was fleeing.
"H-how is that possible?" Feig stuttered, his lips trembling not just from the cold, but the coming doom in the form of the seemingly indestructible Bunny. He dropped the Duranium rifle, which might as well be a useless trophy from then on. "You're- you're supposed to be dead!"
"I know," Bunny said, before raising her trembling suppressed pistol and putting a few bullets in Feig's heart. He shook from taking the bullets, but remained standing, as though a statue, still staring in horror at his executioner. Bunny shifted her aim up before firing a few more bullets. One of them went clean through Feig's skull, and with that, he fell face-first on the snowy road lifelessly, the look of horror forever carved into his face, a sight for the coroners.
It stopped snowing after that. It had finally stopped snowing.
Looking up towards the clearing sky with tears in her eyes, Bunny thought to herself that she had finally done it, and now she was free. She had saved her sisters. Her pistol dropped from her numbed hand, clattering on the ground before she dropped to her knees.
Once more, images of better yesterdays flashed before her eyes, of Dad teaching her how to take her first steps, how to say her first words, of Blossom teaching her how to stun with a heat beam, of Bubbles letting her piggyback on her in the wind tunnel, of Buttercup finally deigning to look at her for once… Of many more things that she had strived to fight for and preserve.
As the first pure sun rays of spring were cast down from the heavens, Bunny fell on her back, resting on broken asphalt, unable to even feel the agony bolts still sticking out of her chest and stomach. She could see the sun, so clearly and not obscured by clouds for once. Daedalus… Dad. She wept, knowing that she had to make him sad to do what she must. If only she could see him one more time and say she was sorry…
Over her, Bunny could see a dark shape now, covering the sun. She could barely see now, but the shape came closer. It was Blossom, kneeling down beside her, with tears in her eyes, and a look on her face that was sort of an odd cross between sadness and a smile.
"W-where's the rest… of them?" Bunny said, blood streaming from her mouth, still, noticing that two of her sisters were missing and she was fearing the worst. "Are they… are they alive?"
"The rest of us, Bunny. The rest of us," Blossom said as streams of tears continued to fall. Her regrets were still fresh in her mind - she had been wrong all along, and now Bunny had paid the ultimate price for it. "We're fine now… You've saved the day, Bunny."
Soon, Bubbles had joined Blossom, kneeling down next to Bunny. Buttercup stood over them, her apathy thankfully obscured by Bunny's blurred vision, which was fast diminishing even further, and before it would be shut out entirely, Bunny drank in the image of her sisters, still alive and well. It was all she ever wanted.
That was when an uneasy and painful realization struck her even during her twilight. Naga and Mojo Jojo. She hadn't checked if they were dead for good. Then there was the Red Man, who lingered somewhere out there, unchallenged, his laughing threats still echoing in her mind. That was not to mention his countless minions in the City of Townsville and the many factions of the criminal underground still operating in the city.
Bubbles reached for the bolt buried in Bunny's chest, looking to help remove them, but Bunny seized her hand before she could.
"Leave it- It is over-" Bunny cried. "I- I can't fight anymore. They're still out there. The Red Man- he's coming. He'll kill Dad and Mom and destroy everything and- I wish I can stop Him but I can't-" Bunny grabbed Blossom by the strap of her armor desperately, afraid to let go least she fall away forever, wheezing and breathing with increasing difficulty.
"Bunny…" Blossom cried, struggling to even speak. Looking down at Bunny's wounds, it looked like nothing she had ever seen before. It was like Bubbles in December 1988 but a hundred times worse. She held Bunny's head lovingly and decided on the only other thing she knew. "I know I'm not as good as you, but I promise… I- I'll protect our family."
"We will," Bubbles, too, was crying. "We promise…"
"Our family…" Bunny said, savoring those words and the meaning they held. For the longest time, she had struggled to find even a modicum of acceptance in her sisters. She closed her eyes, using what remained of her tumor-ridden brain to imagine a vague scene of her with her entire family, happy together, happily ever after.
"Our family," Blossom affirmed, her voice shaking with so much terror at what was inevitably coming.
"Our family…" Bunny loved those words, like the greatest going-away gift there was.
For a moment there, Bunny thought that she had slipped into nothingness. But not yet. Blossom's voice had drawn her back.
"Blossom?" Bunny uttered. Even talking felt barely possible now.
"Hmm?" It was impossible for Blossom to talk too because of what was coming. Death had never hit her so close to home before. Bubbles had already reached that point, and all she could do was to cover her mouth with both her hands to stifle her cries while she wept utterly. Buttercup, affected by the deluge of sadness coming from her sisters, wiped a tear that had inadvertently fallen from her left eye. It was indeed a loss that Bunny was dying, Buttercup thought. She was a good fighter, after all, far better than her, she could only grudgingly admit. It would have been sweet and fun to learn something from her.
"A-am I- Powerpuff?" Bunny could barely ask. She was spending even more energy just to keep her eyes open, just to see her sisters one last time. Tears of blood streaked across her cheeks.
"Yes, Bunny, you're a Powerpuff Girl, you always were," Blossom declared finally, with Bubbles nodding vehemently and Buttercup kneeling down next to her too, such that Bunny got to finally see her face again.
"I- I'm g-glad," Bunny uttered, closing her eyes, smiling.
"You're a Powerpuff Girl," Blossom repeated before continuing on. "And you're better than the three of us put together." Blossom sat down, squeezing closely next to Bunny. "General Blackwater said you'll be leading us soon and he was right Bunny. I would love to follow you when you get to be the leader. I'll follow you all day and all night and- Bunny?"
Something was wrong. Blossom turned to look down at Bunny. Her chest had stopped heaving, and she had stopped breathing.
She had gone.
She had gone and Blossom wasn't sure how much of what she said was heard.
All around the battered and bleeding Powerpuff Girls, police cruisers and USDO humvees and APCs were gathered. General Blackwater and Corporal Nana Weston came out in one of them, both with looks of horror in their faces. In the distance were gunshots and explosions still, as regrouped USDO and TPD units began pushing back at the remainder of the crazed drug addicts and whatever criminal elements that were having free reign in the chaos.
Among the vehicles were three Lamborghini speed transports, from which emerged Agent Blake and his men, but all they could do now, for all their heroism, was to witness the aftermath of a situation he couldn't even try to salvage.
Detective Mullens' muscle car was part of the relief force, but similar to Agent Blake, there was nothing he could do but watch. Olivia and Stanley Talker were with him, as a family more than a group of law enforcers.
Just on the periphery was a white family sedan, from which out came Professor Utonium and Sergeant Selicia. The sedan itself had a few broken windows and bullet holes - they had to fight through a crowd of addicts before they could get through, and that was only after they were aided by a detachment of PTF guardsmen.
Together, they ran up to the Girls as quickly as they could, only to find what they most feared. Blossom was crying whilst sitting beside Bunny, who was lying on the ground, a pool of blood underneath her. Bubbles was brave and had fought on, and she was attempting CPR on Bunny, in full ignorance of Bunny's numerous fatal conditions. Buttercup seemed largely unaffected, but she, too, appeared distressed as she sat with her legs outstretched, deep in thought. They all looked battered, their armor and uniform peppered with bullets and holes and tears.
All the professor and Selicia could do were to stand by their adopted daughters, for they were far too late. Bubbles turned to look at them, confused as to why the professor, who she knew was a doctor too, wouldn't help.
"Dad! Bunny's not breathing!" Bubbles cried. "Why won't you help me!"
Professor Utonium stood stock still, looking away, his mind still stuck down in the labs, still stuck at that moment when he'd warned Bunny to not leave The House, only for her to do the opposite, only for her to be right about the threat her sisters faced - and for him to be right about the only possible outcome of it all…
"DAD!" Bubbles screamed at the top of her lungs while she was still pumping Bunny's chest.
"Stop, Bubbles," the professor mumbled. "Just- just stop." He'd taken a brief look at Bunny, and it was clear that there was no hope left. On top of the Chemical-X2-induced diseases she suffered, there were too many wounds, most of which were critical wounds that, altogether, would have made survival all but impossible. And even if she were to come out of this breathing, what then? Her diseases would have caught up to her within hours from all her exertions.
"But Dad!" Bubbles cried stubbornly. "I can save her! I can save Bunny!"
"END STAGE BRAIN CANCER!" the professor screamed at her. "LEUKEMIA! AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS! There are tumors ALL OVER HER BODY! PERFORATIONS IN EVERY MAJOR ORGAN! HER HEART HAS HOLES, BUBBLES! LOOK AT HER! I TOLD YOU TO STOP! YOU CAN'T SAVE HER!"
Bubbles was dumbfounded, and so were Blossom and Buttercup. Selicia backed away from him as if he had just turned into some eldritch abomination. Even the USDO soldiers and Agent Blake's squad had fallen silent as if to give him distance and the bereaved their space. Only the sound of distant firefights and some sirens persisted.
Bubbles burst into tears if she wasn't in enough of a watery mess as it was. It was then that Professor Utonium realized what his trauma had caused him to do.
"Oh, honey, my sweet-" the professor said, shocked at himself and how his grief had twisted him inside out and he didn't even realize it. "I didn't mean to-"
Then it happened, without warning, without a preamble. Light emerged from Bunny's corpse, rays of white light were shooting out from random parts of her body at first, before there was an explosion of energy covering everyone right up to the outer circumference of the ring of military and police vehicles forming around Bunny.
Blossom had been covering her eyes as it happened. It took the longest time ever for the white light to fade away, and when she did, she opened her eyes and stopped covering them. Looking at Bubbles and Buttercup, they'd done the same. But something else caught her eye.
For a brief moment, Bubbles and Buttercup's eyes were shining purple, just like Bunny's, before returning back to normal, well, subnormal, considering that much of the glow in their eyes was gone from Anti-X poisoning.
"B-Blossom?" Bubbles muttered meekly, thankfully shocked out of her crying fit.
"Your eyes-" Blossom said.
"Yours too, Bloss," Buttercup said. "It was purple, like, for a second."
None of them, however, were too fond of investigating that phenomenon any further. They fell silent once more, and gathering around Dad was all they could do when he called them over. Huddled together as a family, Professor Utonium, Selicia Goodwin, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup stood beside Bunny, and one by one, they said their final goodbyes to the latest addition and earliest death in the family…
As spring finally arrived, the sun, stronger than before, mourned with them.
END OF ACT 3: DOWN THE BUNNY HOLE
