Chapter 156: Monster Island

Pokey Oaks County. Pokey Oaks Woodland Reserve

25 MAR (Saturday) 1989. 1855.

Adjusting her course by memory alone, Blossom made a sharp turn to point herself straight to the memorized location of Monster Island. Her sisters followed - a fact that she was becoming increasingly grateful for, and increasingly aware that it was something she might lose. How they had not rebelled against her despite her streak of failure that began yesterday was beyond her.

The course change came at a cost. The helicopters were able to react to this quickly; a minor yaw was enough for them to course-correct, and they had essentially gained a shortcut. They were closer than ever.

From the forest to the plains and over some town they had never been to, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were pursued by a wing of dark green helicopters, and it was a race they were slowly losing. The flying war machines were steadily gaining on them. Blossom, and later Bubbles, and Buttercup, would later identify them to be Apache helicopters. They'd seen them before, and they were briefly educated on it during the January-February lull in crime. The color of the helicopters, however, was unfamiliar. They weren't USDO. They belonged to the US Army. Someone had called them in for assistance.

By the time the Girls had reached the coastline of Townsville, the helicopters were already firing upon them.

From afar, what was more than a thousand feet away, the Apaches were missing almost all of their shots with their miniguns. Anything that struck home were absorbed by the Girls' X-shields. The Girls were simply too small and too erratic to target properly.

The Girls, on the other hand, couldn't really fight back. They were being pursued and shot at from behind, and they had to concentrate on flying forward.

Buttercup spun herself to face skywards. Chest to the air, she fired her her Stoner Light Machinegun at one of the choppers, missing most of her shots as well as she was flying unsteadily, in so unusual a fashion.

"Stop! Don't hurt those people!" Blossom ordered.

"But they're shooting at us!" Buttercup argued back. As if to prove her point, the Girls had to bring up their X-shields once again to deflect another barrage of minigun shells, and each hit was tiring to deflect.

"Fly! Faster!" Blossom simply said.

They tried their best, but a night and a day of rest in what was practically a stranger's cottage wasn't the same as a week off at home – with Dad. They couldn't fly any faster even if they tried.

The helicopters were still gaining on them, still firing off shots from their miniguns. They were hitting home with increasing accuracy, alarmingly.

Blossom had to think of something and fast. She could feel her strength sapping away with every shell that landed on her shield.

"We'll shoot them but we can't hurt them-" Blossom decided on the fly.

"Now!?" Bubbles asked.

"Not yet, let's split!" she shouted. A simple command, rarely used, but now it was. The Girls split up, each going in a completely different direction. Blossom made a circle up, Bubbles to the left and Buttercup to the right, all of them going around the Apaches, which tried what they could to track the Girls and fire their rounds, but they couldn't turn fast enough.

The Apaches slowed, then began hovering. The Girls surrounded them from three sides – left, right and the back of the wing of copters.

"Now shoot!" Blossom ordered, her words like bullets from a machinegun, as she charged up an infrared beam. Following her, Bubbles charged up an ion beam, and Buttercup a laser beam.

All hell broke loose: Blossom fired her beam and broke the rotor of one Apache. Bubbles' ion beam had an EMP effect, causing one Apache to shut down completely. Buttercup sliced off a fin of her target before accidentally igniting the gas tank of the Apache and causing an explosion. Three Apaches down became five when Bubbles and Buttercup's marks slammed into others as they long control.

Pilots were ejecting one after another – none of them thankfully caught in the blasts that resulted.

There were still three more helicopters, and they had rotated enough to open fire on them. The confusion of it all, the excite, the thrill of success, had distracted the Girls. Blossom and Buttercup were able to bring up their shields in the nick of time but Bubbles wasn't so lucky.

After taking a barrage of painful minigun shells, she was all but knocked out. She fell, to the horror of Blossom, before hitting the waters.

For a moment, Blossom was panicking, her mind blank except for a mental image of Bubbles getting shot up with guns built to take down vehicles.

Bubbles. She had to save her.

"Buttercup, get Bubbles!" Blossom ordered instead, a split second decision. She couldn't trust Buttercup alone with the Apache copters.

The problem was, could she trust herself with them? Seeing what they had done to Bubbles had made her mad, really mad.

"Bravo-Four-Seven, you are ordered to surrender yourself immediately!" the pilot of one of the helicopters blasted his voice at Blossom.

Blossom simply glared at the remaining three helicopters and their six pilots.

"Stop calling me that!" she screamed before charging the lead copter, making an arcing trajectory at it while under fire from a hail of heavy rounds, all of which missed for lack of tracking ability against superpowered kindergartners.

Crashing into the copter, Blossom tore open the hatch of the cockpit. She could see a pair of pilots in the cockpit. They weren't USDO, and their flight suits were green.

The pilots pulled out their pistols and began firing at her, but it was no use; Blossom pulled the first man out of his seat, tearing away seatbelt and his grip and threw him down into the waters. The helicopter began spinning out of control, yet the other pilot continued shooting stubbornly at her. Blossom got into the cockpit, tearing the first pilot's chair off to get to him.

The second pilot screamed. Afraid of Blossom, he put the muzzle of his pistol against his chin and would have shot himself had Blossom not tear his pistol away. Like what she had done with the last pilot, she tore him out of his seat as one would a doll from its packaging and flung him into the ocean below.

The helicopter was rapidly spinning and close to hitting the water, but Blossom flew out of the cockpit just in time to avoid the splashdown, doing just as well in avoiding shells tearing through the hull of the copter she was in.

The autofire from the other two Apaches tracked Blossom poorly, hitting nothing at all, as the leader of the Powerpuff Girls arced her way into one of the copters, smashing weapons and a fin and causing it to spin out of control as she moved on to the third, bringing up her shield to block another barrage of shells as she closed in on the third copter, tore a minigun out and stuck it into the rotors above, causing an instant critical failure.

She didn't wait. Just as the second copter was steadying itself, she charged up an infrared beam, letting it build up for longer in her rage. Her face glowed bright orange like molten steel, and it was when the bone and muscles underneath was visible that she released her heat beam.

Thankfully, the pilots had the good sense to eject from their Apache before her beam struck it and tore holes into it, eventually igniting the fuel tanks.

All these while, Buttercup had plunged into the ocean after a moment's hesitance to grapple with her fear of drowning. She had never learned how to swim before, but found that 'flying' in the water worked well enough – it needed some getting used to due to the density of the water, but she was able to get started searching almost immediately after diving in.

It was dark beneath the waves, especially when night was almost upon them. Buttercup tried to compensate for this by willing her eyes to glow like lamps, but it could only penetrate the water so far. For a few critical seconds, she 'flew' in a circle to look for Bubbles, but it was all futile.

Buttercup would have given up and followed through with her randomly thought-up excuse had she not heard Bubbles. She focused on her ears after that, turning up her hearing from peak baseline to superhuman.

Bubbles was below her. She could hear her panicked mewling and struggle for air. Following it, Buttercup dived deeper, following the sound of her drowning sister until, eventually, she appeared, illuminated by the bioluminiscence of her eyes.

That was, until a shark came between them and seized Bubbles with its jaws. Buttercup zoomed up to it and gave it a punch in the head without a second thought.

The shark had been lucky. Buttercup hadn't thought about using more strength than usual due to the thickness of the water, and so it wasn't killed instantly. Somehow, it got the hint and released Bubbles before retreating, a thin wisp of blood trailing behind it.

Grabbing Bubbles, Buttercup began 'flying' upwards, but struggled to maintain a straight trajectory due to the strangeness of flying in water. She would have cursed at Bubbles if she could for adding burden to her flight, but the closest she got to was to think meanly about her.

Bubbles, for her part, was panicking; she had taken more than a gulp of seawater when she woke up under it, and would have drowned had she not forced herself to close her mouth and stop breathing. She was still struggling while Buttercup was shuttling her up, and it didn't help.

It seemed to take forever; they were going up in a zigzag fashion, pushing through the water, Bubbles kicking and digging her nails into Buttercup's shoulders as if she was in her death throes and Buttercup struggling to 'fly' up, but just when they thought they weren't going to make it, the both of them emerged into air once more, with Buttercup sucking in a deep breath and Bubbles vomiting up seawater.

All around them were falling choppers, with their pilots either in the water or soon to splash down. It seemed that Blossom was able to take care of the other Apaches after all.

"C'mon, we have to run! They're coming!" Blossom shouted from above, pointing at the horizon. Buttercup hovered above the waters with Bubbles still on her back and turned to see what Blossom was pointing at.

There were lights in the distance. Though it was dark, they could still make out the profile of Apaches well enough. More of them were coming!

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup zipped into the distance, towards Monster Island, but it was the same story all over again: the copters were gaining on them.

They flew in their usual delta formation, and so did the copters. They needed a new plan, and they needed them quick. Even if they were to make it to the island, the Apaches would follow them there, and they wouldn't be able to rest like they wanted to.

Only one idea stuck out in a situation such as this, and Blossom didn't expect that she would think of it during such a time. It was a risky idea, one that Blossom couldn't muster the courage to use; if it worked, she could buy them all the time they needed, but if it didn't, they would lose whatever lead they had on the choppers.

"What's the plan, Blossom!?" Buttercup asked, in that usual aggressive, demanding tone of hers. "They're gaining on us!"

Bubbles would have demanded a solution, albeit less aggressively, had she not been too queasy to speak. Instead, she was throwing up more seawater, this time not from her lungs, but from her stomach.

"We're going to dive!" Blossom finally decided.

"D-dive?" Bubbles finally spoke up, motivated by fear of the water she nearly drowned in.

"Again!?" Buttercup shouted in disbelief. Blossom looked back: those lights were getting closer, gaining on them despite their speed.

"We have no choice!" Blossom said. "Dive and do the Bunny! Now!"

The Girls immediately seized all X-thrust, cutting off their tri-colored light trail behind them. Now practically gliding in the air from momentum, they fired bursts of X-thrust to dive head-first into the water.

They kept their head out of the water at first whilst 'treading water' by pushing themselves up with minimal X-thrust such that it was next to impossible to see the glow of their bodies. When the Apaches got close, the Girls took deep breaths and let themselves sink while curling up into fetal positions and covering their eyes with their hands. Blossom kept watch on the Apaches by seeing through her eyelids and hands with her x-ray vision; she made sure to avoid making any kind of extra bioluminescence in her eyes by keeping the ability expressed far below maximum. As such, she could still see an outline of the bones in her hands as she saw the helicopters loom over the waters above them, shining spotlights in the water as the pilots of the crafts had suspected, rightfully so, that they might have entered the waters.

Thankfully, the Apaches soon flew overhead and overshot them, keeping their spotlights shining on the water. Five minutes passed, then ten. The helicopters were a fair distance away, but Blossom wanted to make sure they were far, far away.

Funny enough, it reminded them of what Dad would get them to do in the bathtub once in a while. He would play a game with them where all three of them would submerge themselves in the tub and see who could hold their breath the longest. Blossom was usually the winner, and Buttercup, no thanks to her drowning incident with Slim of the Amoeba Boys last year, was usually the first one to surface.

Fifteen minutes passed. Twenty. The Girls, by now, were beginning to struggle, the primal fear of drowning becoming apparent. Far in the distance, Blossom could see the helicopters breaking formation and scattering a little, as if confused and desperately searching for them.

Twenty-five minutes passed. The helicopters switched off their spotlights and began flying away while slowly getting back into formation. Thirty - they were off in the distance again. Satisfied, Blossom took her sisters by the arms and began tugging at them, signaling for them to begin surfacing. Opening their eyes, they realized that they were far from the surface. Afraid, they huddled together and began ascending using their flying abilities, but it was a rough ride up as they weren't used to 'flying' underwater. Dad had yet to teach them how to swim, and from what Buttercup alleged, he never would.

They burst up to the surface, floating in the water, treading in it using their powers rather than skill. The helicopters were nowhere to be found, and they were free to find refuge wherever it could be found.

"Thanks, Bunny," Bubbles mumbled as she looked up into the dark, starry sky, believing that it was Bunny who inspired Blossom to take the stealthier approach.

"Can we go now?" Buttercup urged her sisters.

Blossom simply began flying without saying a word, her eyes dead and set on the island. Her sisters could only follow, despite having to keep a constant eye on Blossom.


The City of Townsville Coastline. Monster Island.

25 MAR (Saturday) 1989. 2014.

From afar, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup could already see that Monster Island was exactly as Mayor Wilford described. Off in the distance, they could see the rusty rails of a rollercoaster forming gigantic waves of steel and wood. Towers of concrete and broken glass dominated one side of the island; it was the resort section of the island. Much of the island was overgrown with trees and vegetation. The larger rides were still visible despite the trees, while the smaller ones were almost completely engulfed. All of this was bathed in moonlight, which had all but washed out all the details. If there were any pirates and fugitives on the island, the Girls would have to get a much closer to spot them.

The first place that appealed to them as a landing zone was what appeared to be a park - or what used to be a park. The vegetation had gone out of control and graffiti had taken over what the plants hadn't. Landing on the broken tiles of a walkway in the park, the Girls looked around and saw no one. They were safe and alone for now.

The winds howled. Animals hollered and roared in the distance, as if predators of nature could be upon them at any minute. The Girls could see benches along the brick paths overgrown with weeds and other hardy plants, but they weren't enticing as makeshift beds in any way, with some of them half-filled with soil and even plants, while others were caked in bird poop.

Blossom started forward without looking around, without a word, without giving her sisters the order to follow. Bubbles shivered in the wind. Buttercup raised an eyebrow at Blossom, wondering what she was thinking. They both exchanged looks before following Blossom.

The moon and starlight was strong this night; they could see the rest of the park well enough. Not too far away was a Ferris wheel, but before them was a a junction of brick roads, a guard house and more benches. There were other rides; one involving a pirate ship that was supposed to swing back and forth as it was being assailed by a mechanical giant squid, another with a King Kong that wasn't quite downsized - it looked as if it was supposed to pull a capsule filled with seats up before letting it fall. All the rides were in severe disrepair, of course.

Blossom continued walking, still not facing her sisters.

"B-blossom, w-where are we going?" Bubbles asked while she shivered from the cold. Looking all around her, all she could see was desolation and desperation. It was stupid, she knew, but she was still hoping to find ready-made houses filled with friendly people in them. If Mister Lumpkins could be nice to them, then surely so many others could too?

"Yeah, what's the plan this time?" Buttercup asked her usual question. Blossom stopped, as if Buttercup's question was a laser beam that struck her. Stumbling to the nearest serviceable seat, which was ironically the stump of a long-dead tree next to an absolutely rusty and dirty bench, Blossom plopped herself down, her pink, glowing eyes almost dead.

"Blossom, what are we going to do?" Bubbles continued asking Blossom even as the meekest of the three approached her.

"I'm starving, Bloss, where are we going to get food?" Buttercup added as she came up to Blossom, too, stopping next to Bubbles.

"I don't know," Blossom muttered, putting her hand to her temple as if her brains might implode; if there was a time she felt like she could get a headache, it was now. Buttercup had reminded her that she was hungry too, and as it stood, they had no shelter, no water and no help to add to their problems. In short, they had nothing, and Blossom had no idea what to do next.

"What do you mean you don't know!?" Buttercup badgered Blossom. "You're the leader, remember?"

"Blossom, please, we can't stay here, not in a place like this!" Bubbles began to panic as she looked around her, terrified by the half-skeletal titans all around them, as well as what might be lurking in the shadows all around them. "Do something!"

"Blossom, where are we going next?" Buttercup continued to press Blossom for answers.

"Blossom, please, I'm scared!" Bubbles cried; she thought she could hear the bushes around them moving.

"And I need a bite, and fast!" Buttercup added.

Blossom clutched her temples, as if her head was ready to crack open like an egg, her face a grimace. She closed her eyes, as memories of the past two days were flashing by so strongly, she could hardly see. All this was interspersed with the cries of the pilots she had fought against earlier. Were they all alive by now? What if they drowned? She wasn't even sure if the ones she had thrown out hadn't hit the rotors of their Apache helicopter.

"-What if there are monsters here to hurt us too!?" she could barely hear Bubbles over the pulse of her heartbeat.

"-you smarty-pants. You landed us in the middle of nowhere with no cakes or Lumpkins!" Blossom could then hear Buttercup began scolding her out of frustration.

"SHUT UP!" Blossom screamed, having finally had enough, but worst of all were her memories of yesterday. "Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!"

"Blossom!" Bubbles gasped.

"STOP PUSHING ME!" Blossom screamed.

"I- I-" Bubbles stuttered, unable to form a response after seeing Blossom practically go insane.

"YOU KEEP PUSHING ME! STOP PUSHING ME!" Blossom screamed as she pushed Bubbles, who stumbled back but did not fall.

"I- I'm sorry, I was just-" Bubbles tried to explain herself as she reached out for Blossom, only for the leader sister to smack her hand away.

"Ow!"

"DON'T TOUCH ME! QUIT PUSHING ME!" Blossom screamed, and it would be fair to say that she wasn't entirely in control. She then pushed Bubbles to the ground. "YOU'RE USELESS! AND YOU KEPT PUSHING ME!" Blossom scolded, while Bubbles could only whimper pathetically as she began tearing up.

"Whoa, Blossom! That's just mean!" Buttercup said; even she couldn't help but to be taken aback by Blossom. The transformation was too sudden and too extreme even for her to adjust to.

"SHUT UP!" Blossom yelled back at her. Bubbles, in the meantime, was bawling her eyes out on the floor. "YOU'RE MEAN! YOU KEPT TELLING ME THAT DADDY'S DEAD AND YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!"

"But he is, isn't he? You saw him go down…" Buttercup said. Couldn't help even now to assert herself a little. Her only reply was a slap in the face, which shocked her more than hurt her. Screaming like an animal, Blossom wrapped her hands around Buttercup's neck, choking her, but Buttercup was able to break away from the crazy Blossom's grasp quickly, coughing.

When Buttercup was about to say something more, she stopped when she saw what further consequence her words had on Blossom. The ever-noble, ever-stoic (usually) Blossom was breaking into tears herself, and before Buttercup could try to apologize to get on her good side again, she turned and ran deeper into Monster Island.

"Blossom, come back!" Bubbles shouted tearfully even while she was in the middle of crying herself. She was about to chase after Blossom when Buttercup held her back.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Buttercup said. She was still rubbing the cheek Blossom had struck. It was a hard slap; Blossom had really meant it. Claiming that Dad was dead was never a good idea, this Buttercup knew. She just couldn't help but set Blossom off just for fun.

"Are- are you sure? W-What if there's something in Monster Island that'll get her?" Bubbles said, sniffling. Worry for Blossom had taken precedence over her emotional wounds.

"She'll be fine. She helped us take down a bunch of helicopters and took down a few all by herself," Buttercup said, at the same time thinking that she could probably do better. "I think she can handle whatever is on this island…"

"Why did you have to mention Dad? You know she doesn't like to hear about him dying…" Bubbles said, worry turning to anger. It wasn't exactly the first time Buttercup had harmed her or her sister, physical or otherwise.

"I just thought I'd tell the truth…" Buttercup said, meaning none of her words but making sure she sounded like she meant it. Bubbles was so easy to lie to.

"But you really shouldn't have said it…" Bubbles insisted and was finally getting up when she didn't feel sorry for herself anymore.

"And you shouldn't have complained about being a scaredy little cat!" Buttercup said, bringing up her ready-made put-down.


The City of Townsville Coastline. Monster Island.

25 MAR (Saturday) 1989. 2023.

Blossom ran away, leaving behind her sisters, leaving a trail of tears behind. She ran as far and fast as she could, and it was only when she reached a giant tree that she stopped.

Frustrated, she began punching the tree, each fist hurled at it with greater and greater force, screeching as she let all the anger, and pain, and sadness out. She kept punching it until it finally gave with the hardest punch yet. The tree fell in the opposite direction of where she was standing, and it was only then did she feel some regrets over having snapped a tree that had done her no wrong in two.

"Blossom?" came Bubbles' voice. As it turned out, she wasn't far behind.

"Bubbles…" Blossom said, turning to her sister, all while she was afraid to meet her gaze. She knew what she had done, and it wasn't exactly her proudest moment. Ever since Selicia's abuses started, ever since her duties as the leader of the Powerpuff Girls began, her temper had gone out of control, and never once had it brought anything good when it happened. "I'm sorry…"

Bubbles did not say a word. She simply came up to her and gave her a hug. A much-needed one.

"I'm sorry," Blossom cried. "I'm so sorry for everything I said. I just feel so helpless and alone!"

"You're not alone, Blossom," Bubbles said. "You're not. I'm here with you…"

"It's just that…" Blossom said, sniffling. "Everything I do is just wrong, and things just keep getting worse…"

"Honestly?" came Buttercup's voice. Blossom looked up to see Buttercup looking at them, standing not too far away. "You were kinda cool when you took down those helicopters… That wasn't wrong."

"And we're still alive," Bubbles added. "That's something and it's all thanks to you..."

Blossom shed tears anew, her lips quivering; somehow, she had even gotten through to Buttercup. It didn't matter how much. All it mattered was that the three of them were together again, and this time, her temper hadn't divided them like she thought it would.

Buttercup came up to them and made the hug a group hug. It was something Blossom never imagined she would do, and now she was afraid that this was all just a dream, and she'd wake up on the island, in the middle of nowhere, abandoned by her sisters.

"I'm sorry I slapped you, Buttercup," Blossom said.

"Nah, it's fine. I can take way more than just a little slap," Buttercup boasted, but at the same time secretly resenting Blossom, not just for the slap which took her off-guard, but also for the hug. Blossom was just so disgusting! "So, what now, leader sis?"

"How about we fix this poor tree?" Bubbles suggested instead.

"Good idea," Blossom praised, appreciative of any contribution whatsoever, no matter how mundane or unrelated to their predicament. Sometimes it helped to just DO SOMETHING, rather than despairing.

Together, the Girls lifted the trunk of the tree, hoping to reunite it with the stump and perhaps fix something for once.