Chapter 152: Final Hope
The City of Townsville. Central District. City Hall.
24 MAR (Friday) 1989. 1922.
Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were desperate. They couldn't think of anyone else they could turn to, so they decided to fly to the City Hall. Mayor Wilford had always been forgiving and friendly, and Miss Sara Bellum had always offered a listening ear.
Getting there, however, was a totally different matter. The Girls knew that the mayor had likely seen the photos of them with the Amoeba Boys, so he would likely be mad at them like the rest of Townsville. Blossom, ever the Powerpuff Girls' commander and leader, decided that just flying freely into the City Hall and waltzing into the mayor's office wouldn't do. He was a powerful man like General Blackwater, and powerful men, when mad, tended to exert their power with extreme prejudice. Blossom knew that there would be mayoral bodyguards and police officers standing in the way, and since killing or even hurting them wasn't an option, a different approach was needed.
It was the first time they were flying so high, their heads were above the clouds. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup had opted instead to fly vertically upwards in another part of Townsville until they were so high up that they could no longer see Townsville. The air was thin here, and though the Girls struggled uncomfortably to breathe, they were able to do so without fainting. From there, they headed in the direction of the City Hall, occasionally flying lower to take a peek under the clouds at where they actually were.
It was a surreal experience. To the Girls, it was like being in an entirely different world, with a jetliner flying by being the only thing that reminded them that they were still on Earth.
When they were finally directly above City Hall, the Girls simply held hands to form a ring and let themselves drop.
It helped that it was dark by then. It'd made sure that they were able to drop without anyone seeing them - they had even made sure to close their eyes and avoid using any X-thrust. Blossom was able to see for the three of them using her x-ray vision to see through her own eyelids.
For Bubbles and even Buttercup, it was a frightening experience, dropping like this without looking. It was like taking a funfair ride without the guarantee of safety harnesses, or doing bungee jumping… without the cord.
"Now!" Blossom ordered her sisters when they were close enough to the roof of the City Hall. The three of them began thrusting upwards, negating their fall. Their descent slowed and slowed until they were hovering once again, mere feet above the roof of Townsville's City Hall.
The guards were still unaware of their presence. From where they were in the middle of the sloping roof, the Girls could see a few patrolling the balconies below. Clothed in suits and armed with only unremarkable guns made of normal material, the mayoral guard would have been easy pickings. But they weren't here for that. Even with the Girls being as naive as they were, they knew that even just hurting any of the guards would ruin any chance of them getting help from the mayor. It felt like forever ago, but Bubbles had already killed several of the mayor's guards in her drug-fueled insanity more than a month ago - ending just one more mayoral bodyguard would probably spell the end of whatever friendship had remained between them and the mayor.
They waited, and waited. It was drizzling and it was cold and miserable to be out, but the Girls had no choice - if they messed this up, there would be no one else they could turn to.
"What if Mister Mayor's not in?" Bubbles whispered her worry.
"He's always in," Blossom suggested. It was partly true. They had visited him often in the past, and they had done so at all hours of the day and night. He was a perpetually busy man, and with his recent surge of energy, he could only be busier.
"But what if he's not?" Bubbles whispered insistently.
"Shh!" Buttercup shushed her.
The Girls had to wait longer, but eventually, the guard close to their chosen balcony turned and left; Blossom had been observing him through the roof with her x-ray vision, but it was getting harder to use that ability, and by the time she was done, her vision was swimming and not because of the rain. It was exhausting as they had hardly had any rest.
"Come on," Blossom whispered to her sisters as she jumped down to the balcony from the roof and crept into the top floor from the balcony, crouched low.
The light in the hallway was dimmed. The guard Blossom was observing had his back turned as he was walking down the hallway. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup trailed him. As it just so happened, the doors leading to the mayor's office was just ahead.
The Girls continued creeping forward as the guard went ahead… then stopped, just a few feet from the door. The Girls hurried, hoping to perhaps slip through the door before the guard could see them.
Realistically, it wasn't possible. As the man was turning around, Blossom fired a quick stunning heat ray, knocking him out.
"Go!" Blossom ordered the team as the guard fell. It was bound to make a commotion, but it didn't matter. The mayor was close, just a door away! The Powerpuff Girls piled in on the door, literally flying through it and landing in the middle of the massive room.
And there he was: Mayor Wilford, startled and caught off-guard, but he was there, there to listen to the Girls' woes and help them out in any way he could. Mayor Wilford pulled a drawer open and took out an old M1911 handgun. There were guards in the room, too, and they tensed up upon seeing the Powerpuff Girls.
"Mister Wilford, no!" Miss Bellum was in the room as well, rising from her desk when she saw him brandishing the pistol.
"They're working for the mafia, Miss Bellum!" the mayor said to his USDO aide before turning back to the Girls. "Isn't that right, Girls? After everything I've done for you! You're here to punch my clock, aren't you!?"
"But why would I punch a clock?" Bubbles asked, confused.
"But Mister Wilford-!" Blossom wanted to explain, but the indignant mayor wouldn't let her.
"You work for the Don Ricci, do you, Blossom!?" the mayor shouted.
"Y-yes…" Blossom admitted, looking away as she was ashamed of the fact, but she looked up at the mayor again, her resolve unbroken. "I mean I used to! I was tricked into helping him! I'm not friends with him anymore, I swear!"
"It's true, Mister Mayor, you have to believe us!" Bubbles said. "We ran away from his place!"
"Yeah, Mister Mayor, we thought we were making the world a better place!" Buttercup joined in just to appear good.
"Liars! LIARS! All of you! I trusted the three of you!" the mayor screamed and gesticulated madly with both fingers and gun; Blossom never knew he could raise his voice like that. "And my apparent naivety is all over the news now! I look stupid in front of the whole world! 'MAYOR WILFORD IS LOSING IT', the news said! All because of the three of you!"
"Mayor Wilford, you're over-reacting! The Girls! They're just kids! They were tricked!" Miss Bellum tried to defend the Girls, but it was too late: the mayor was too far gone.
"Guards! Take Miss Bellum out, now!" Mayor WIlford ordered, his one good eye still staring the Girls down. Two of the guards in the room began dragging Miss Bellum away.
"Mister Mayor… c-can't we just… talk?" Blossom stuttered, terrified of the mayor now. The mayor responded by raising and firing his old pistol at them. The remaining guards in the room, four of them in all, began opening fire too. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were able to block them with their shields, but they were weakening rapidly.
The Girls turned tail and ran as bullets struck them from behind, tearing holes in their dresses. They burst out of the door, only to be met with more mayoral bodyguards shooting at them. Flying past them, with Buttercup knocking one off his feet, the Girls extricated themselves through the nearest window, bullets still hitting them from behind as a few overzealous guards shot at them as soon as they could get to the windows.
Almost immediately, sirens were blaring and police lights were flashing below. The Girls simply hadn't been very observant for all the enhanced senses they possessed: there was heavy police presence all around the City Hall. As the Girls flew away, the police did their best to follow, the task made easier by how they were slowing down for lack of Chemical X.
The city, like a body fighting off an infection, wasn't letting up. As the police pursued the Girls, they were firing shots at them. Blossom got her team to fly erratically, but they were still getting hit.
"Go up!" Blossom ordered; they had been following the roads, but not anymore. The Girls made a hard right and a sharp 90 degrees ascent before zipping over a tall building and disappearing out of sight of the police cruisers hunting them down. For the moment, they were safe, no longer stung by bullets like bees.
The City of Townsville. Downtown. The Mall
24 MAR (Friday) 1989. 1943.
The Girls landed on the roof of The Mall, which was a building that pretty much did what it said on the front. It was a shopping place they frequented, a place of joy and happy memories - but not anymore, as it could only remind them of what they had lost now. The sun had set not too long ago. It was dark, with just a few lamps lighting the open top floor of The Mall. To top it all off, it was still drizzling, and the Girls were soaked because of how long they had spent trying to outrun the police.
Together, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup found shelter at what was becoming a familiar haunt for the three of them: a stairway. At the very least, it was clean this time with no dead cockroaches and rats littering the steps of their temporary 'room'.
"Mister Wilford… How could he…?" Bubbles cried, still unable to believe what had transpired. During the chase, there was no time to think, but it was as if they had all the time in the world now, with police sirens distant and faint. "I thought we were friends… But he… he…" She couldn't finish her sentence before wailing in despair.
"He ditched us!" Buttercup exclaimed angrily. "Just when I thought he was gonna help!"
Blossom sat where she was, staring at the concrete steps below her, past her sisters, staring into the dimly lit service stairs below. Everything she had tried to accomplish had failed - all her plans thus far hadn't borne any fruit. In fact, no matter what she had tried, she had only done more harm than good - friends were killed, or put in danger. In the case of Mayor Wilford, he wasn't even a friend anymore, and Miss Bellum was in trouble because of her.
"What are we going to do, Bloss?" Buttercup asked the leader sister, but Blossom simply would not speak.
"Blossom, say something!" Bubbles pleaded, finding Blossom's silence troubling.
In the end, Blossom's stomach did the talking for her. It rumbled like never before. As if in sync, Bubbles and Buttercup's stomach began rumbling too, followed by a collection moan from the three of them. It was only then that Blossom realized that she hadn't eaten in a while; the last time she had eaten something was during an early lunch. They had missed tea, and it was past dinnertime. In other words, it had been eight hours since they last ate anything.
"We need to find something to eat…" Blossom finally said, though how they were going to get food without Dad, she had no idea. It was an objective worth pursuing, but deep down, Blossom knew why she decided to take it on, and it was partly because she was kicking the can down the road, putting off discussions on how they could get out of their terrible circumstance until a much later time.
Together, they descended down the stairwell and crowded around the nearest door that could take them inside the mall. Looking through the window on the door, the Girls saw that there were still people walking around the mall, though the crowd had thinned with the time.
"I think we need to wait," Blossom decided. It was still hard to believe, but they were wanted now. She knew how she had to change her behavior, for now, they were the criminals in the eyes of the law rather than its enforcer.
"But I can't!" Bubbles cried, her hands clutching her stomach. There was hardly ever a time when they had to go hungry for more than half an hour. Knowing nothing of starvation, the pain of emptiness was unbearable.
"We just have to," Blossom insisted, herself feeling weak from having not eaten.
"That's the right call, Bloss," Buttercup said as she continued staring into the mall. A few people looked in their direction, which sent the Girls scrambling to hide. "Charging into a shop didn't help when I ran away a few days ago."
Right. Blossom remembered it as clear as if it happened a minute ago. Buttercup had run away before, and from what she heard, she had raided a mini-mart to steal food. It saddened Blossom now that all three of them would have to steal, even if it was just for food that they need.
The City of Townsville. Downtown. The Mall
24 MAR (Friday) 1989. 2031.
When the mall was on the verge of closing, the Girls left their stairway hideout. Half the lights within the mall were switched off, likely as part of standard procedures to power down for the night. The Girls slunk around like cats, moving in the darkness and crossing rivers of light only if they had to.
Many of the shops were already closed, but there were some that were still open. The Girls' stomachs continued to growl like wild animals; it'd made stealth much more difficult. They had to pass by fast food restaurants, bistros and cafes - those were among the first to close for the night. It took some searching, but eventually they found it.
On the first floor, across the mall from the grand entrance, a cake shop was still open, and there were no customers about. It was perfect! Cautiously, the Girls approached the cake shop, eyes and heads searching all around them like thieves in the night. They were able to get up to the display unseen, and they couldn't help but to press their faces up against the glass as they stared hungrily at the cakes displayed within. There were chocolate cakes, carrot cakes, vanilla, rainbows, and even a trio of cakes with their faces painted on them with frosting, as if the cakes were made for them.
"Let's go get our food," Blossom whispered.
"But quietly!" she reminded her sisters. They sneaked around the display, was met with a swinging door which they opened before finally making it to the back of the display. There, they were able to open the back of the display, discovering in the meantime that the display was refrigerated. When they did,they began removing whole cakes from the shelves within. The cakes with their faces had caught their eye.
Blossom could almost sing when she finally found food. Turning around to find a place within the staff area to eat, however, she was met with a most unwelcome sight.
A chef, or a baker, was staring at them, shocked, with another cake on a pan which he carried with both his hands. The moment Blossom and his eyes met, the baker dropped his cake and made a break for the kitchen he was working in.
"He saw us! Get him!" Blossom ordered her sisters. All three of them left their cakes on the counter on their way to the kitchen to pursue the man. Whoever he was, he was quick - the door was already shut when he took off. Not wanting to attract any attention, the Girls struggled to open it normally, not realizing in the heat of the moment that it was locked from the inside.
Time was of the essence, Blossom knew. All it took was one tattletale and the police would be onto them. Buttercup, in her frustration, began tearing the door open. Blossom and Bubbles helped. They could only hope that the mall was as empty as it looked.
The three of them flew into the kitchen, hearing someone talking on the way. Rounding a corner, they found the baker, but it was too late. He was already on the phone, screaming into it and begging whoever was on the other side of the line to rescue him.
"I'm in The Mall, they're coming for me!" the man screamed. The Girls flew right into him, sweeping him off his feet. The phone he was using, an old model mounted on the wall, was left hanging on the cord, faint calls for clarification barely audible.
"Let me go!" the chef yelled, his voice a little too high-pitched for his size. The Girls piled on top of him, with Blossom sitting on his chest, face-to-face with him.
"Keep quiet!" Blossom demanded from the man.
"What do you want from me!?" he pleaded with the Girls. He could feel one of them holding down his leg, and another pinning his arm down. "Don't kill me, please!"
"Nothing! We're just really hungry and we need some food," Blossom tried to explain. "Don't call for help again - we didn't do anything wrong…" Blossom had said this, but her heart said otherwise. She felt guilt the moment she mentioned it. She had done something wrong - working with the Amoeba Boys for one. Her only saving grace was that she and her sisters were tricked into helping them, which meant that it wasn't entirely their fault.
"Okay, okay! Please, just let me go! Don't hurt me!" the man begged.
"Alright…" Blossom got off his chest by floating upwards. Her sisters backed away. Together, the three Girls watched him closely, wondering if he was going to try something else.
"I'm listening. Closely. If I hear anything weird, I'll pound you," Buttercup warned the baker before heading back out of the kitchen, presumably to feast on her chosen cake.
"Don't mind my sister. She won't," Bubbles tried to reassure the man (and failing) before leaving too - she was so hungry she could eat her entire cake - and it was meant for four to eight persons.
Blossom, however, stayed. Once again, her depression was overwhelming her. Here she was, being forced to do something terrible once again - stealing food, assaulting a man and compelling him into silence. It was as if every step she took in an attempt to escape the maze the Amoeba Boys had built was another step back into their pockets. Committing more and more wrongs, she felt as if she was being led to becoming one of them - one of the bad guys.
"The news… It said the three of you are wanted," the baker explained in an attempt to fill the void of silence. "You were caught working with the local mob boss?"
"Yes… But only because I thought he became good and was trying to help…" Blossom explained to him. "But he was lying all along…"
The man turned away instead of facing Blossom. "I don't know if I can believe you," he said. "This city is full of lies. Please, just steal whatever you want and leave me alone." There was a strange look to the man, something too personal for a stranger she had never met before. Was it disappointment?
Blossom didn't know what to say to this, so she left the man where he was and returned to Bubbles and Buttercup outside. They were busy chomping down on their cakes, though only in moderate amounts. As it turned out, they were eating ice cream cakes which were cold, so they could only take their time. Bubbles was less enthusiastic about eating stolen cakes, so she was only taking small amounts, hungry as she was. When Blossom started, she wasn't much different from the meekest of the three, nibbling on her ice cream cake as if it was stone.
They would come to regret taking their time, for a squad of well-armed men busted down the front entrance of the mall, just across the first floor from them. There were six of them, three armed with XM4A1s, while another three more were holding what appeared to be flamethrowers. They were all dressed in gas masks and biohazard suits. Blossom could tell that they were USDO because of their equipment.
Tubes with large nozzles were quickly deployed behind them, The Girls watched with a mix of curiosity, disbelief and fear as white, pressurized gas shot out from those tubes towards them, quickly engulfing them. It wasn't enhanced abilities that helped them this time as they were tired. Pure instinct took over. The Powerpuff Girls ducked behind the counter they were eating on. They were exposed only briefly to the white gas, but they knew immediately from their bodies' reaction what it was.
Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup briefly felt surges of energy leaving them, accompanied by electrical-like discharges, as if they were Tesla coils. They were tired before, and now they were starting to feel so exhausted that they could drop dead there and then.
"It's Anti-X!" Blossom exclaimed in panic.
"The same stuff M-m-mom used to try to kill us?" Bubbles mumbled, scared.
"We need to go, now!" Buttercup hurried the two of them. She had seen this before, back when she ran away. The USDO was always quick to catch up. In actual fact, it was the work of the chef. His call was directed to The Mall's security, who in turn called the USDO - and the USDO happened to have a presence nearby.
The white mist was beginning to drift down to fill their hiding space.
"Bravo-four-seven, eight, and nine, come out with your weapons on the ground and you will not be harmed!" one of the USDO soldiers ordered, his voice muffled by his gas mask, dehumanized and robotic.
"Yeah, right," Buttercup muttered under her breath. The USDO had done nothing but hurt them all the time, whether they obeyed or not. Even Blossom and Bubbles understood this.
"We have to go," Blossom said; she could smell it now, the Anti-X they so hated. Her hairs on the back of her neckwere standing on end, as if there was static electricity. "On my mark!"
Blossom leapt out without waiting another second, but her movement was slowed, and it was hard to see. Her sisters followed her example, making the same mistakes. They were immediately engulfed in flames the moment the USDO soldiers saw the silhouette of their weapons.
Blossom, in the end, flew away in the only direction she knew was safe: up. Still, her sisters followed. They flew up and then to the third floor in the open area, their clothes on fire, the fabric flaking away as ashes.
The fire was stuck to them like glue, and although it wasn't hurting them, it was causing them a lot of pain. The moment they could, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup dropped and rolled just like how they were taught. The napalm was stubborn, and it took forever before there was no more pain. By the time they were done and could get up, their clothes had fallen into charred, flaking pieces.
"Ew! Ow! Ew!" Bubbles cried as she patted away at small wisps of fire still blazing on what little remained of her dress, by now dressed mostly in ash and soot. She tried to remove her shoes, but she didn't have to as they fell off on their own.
"Yuck! Disgusting!" Buttercup complained as she tried to sweep the remnants of her dress away, but some of them had the consistency of sticky gel, which made them difficult to clean off.
"We need new clothes, and I think I know where we can get them," Blossom said as she was pulling off a loose string of what remained of her church-given garment and stepping off what was left of her Mary Janes. She knew the mall, as did her sisters. This was where they got their signature dresses late last year. "Follow me!"
Together, the Girls flew across the mall, leaving the USDO team chasing them far behind and still scrambling to get them, their barking orders and reports becoming faint as they got away. Breaking through the doors of a clothes shop, they made a beeline for the Rainbow Streams (TM) section as it was getting cold and they didn't like that they were flying nearly buck-naked across a public area even if there was no one around to witness their shame.
Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup worked fast, though they were far from their best because of their exhaustion. Using clothes from other brands to wipe the soot, ash and black gel off themselves and each other, they began dressing themselves - and quickly! It started faint at first, but they could hear them again, that group of soldiers who burned them with their flamethrowers. Before they were even fully prepared to leave, torchlights were shone in their direction. Blossom fired random shots from her XM4A1 into the air, sending the men into cover.
"Let's run!" Blossom ordered, and the three of them, once more, took flight while they were still adjusting their new dresses. But they were met with a wall. Retaliatory shots were fired their way, none of which hit because of their flight speed, which was still admirable by normal human standards but sluggish by Powerpuff standards.
Desperately afraid of getting set on fire again, the Girls smashed through a glass wall and into the corridor outside, leaving the bio-warfare team behind. Following the corridor further into the mall, they found another exit on the other side of the mall, but it, too, was blockaded by the USDO and police. Red and blue lights were flashing outside. The doors opened; another team of gas mask and biohazard suit wearing soldiers occupied it.
The Girls knew what would happen next as tubes were thrown through the door. Before they had to inhale another mouthful of Anti-X, Blossom led the Girls up, all three of them flying high with all their might before breaking through the skylight.
Once again, they found themselves on the run, but bereft of friends and family, where could they go next?
