Disclaimer: I don't own the Powerpuff Girls.

"Deadline"

Chapter 5:

…………………………

Blossom quickly told her sisters the plan, but Buttercup wasn't all too eager to follow it. "Blossom, that doesn't make sense!"

"Just do it!" Blossom replied.

After a brief pause, Buttercup skeptically nodded. The girls turned to face the Rowdyruff boys with a determined look on their faces and lined up in an organized fighting stance.

"Are you ready?" asked Blossom.

Bubbles and Buttercup nodded. "Ready!"

The girls charged forward. Seeing this, the boys got ready. When the girls were near enough, Brick blew his fire breath at them. Boomer and Butch went forward to attack. But when Brick stopped blowing his fire, the girls were nowhere in sight. But then suddenly, POW! The boys were struck from behind.

The girls stuck in their group, as did the boys. So when attacking, all of the kids had to be careful not to hit a teammate. The girls were mostly evading the boys' blows, but they would often attack to make sure the boys wouldn't suspect a trick.

Eventually, both the RRBs and the PPGs were weary. They had scratches and bruises here and there, and their hair was a bit mussed. The only difference was that the girls had much more wounds, and their clothes were a little raggedy at the edges. Still, the girls just kept on fighting.

After a moment, Boomer noticed that Bubbles had somehow disappeared from the brawl. But before he could mention that, his brothers were smashed on either side of him by Blossom and Buttercup. The two sisters pushed off and backed away.

Suddenly the boys were thrown off guard by Bubbles' sonic scream. They covered their ears and clenched their teeth. While the boys were still stunned, Buttercup slammed them down to the forest floor with a flying kick. Then Blossom used her ice breath to bind them to the ground. After only a few seconds, the boys were almost completely covered. They couldn't even turn their heads to laser-eye the ice.

The boys struggled, but they were so exhausted and weakened by the fight that they couldn't break the ice. The girls let out a sigh of relief and flew off trailing their colored streaks of light, and rubbing their aching muscles.

When they were out of the boys' hearing range, Buttercup turned to Blossom and scowled.

"Pinning them down, I understand that. But why the heck did you want us to just leave them! Why not finish them right there!"

"Buttercup, do you think you could beat them in your condition? You know that they weren't half as tired as we are. In fact, we're lucky we even managed to pull off my plan," Blossom explained.

"I know, but we still did it, nonetheless!" Buttercup protested. "You know that if we don't beat them now, they'll be back!"

"Yes, they WILL be back, but we'll be ready for them. We're going home."

Buttercup's eyes widened. "WHAT! Home! But that's the first place where they'll look!"

"No it's not. Trust me."

When Bubbles was sure they were done with their conversation, she asked in a small voice, "Blossom? Buttercup?"

Blossom turned to face the blonde. "Yeah, Bubbles?"

"Do you still believe the boys aren't evil? I still do…"

Incredulous, Buttercup interrupted, "After the thrashing they just gave us, you still think that?"

Bubbles turned her attention to Buttercup. "You mean you still think they're evil? I thought you agreed with us!"

"I didn't really agree. I just had mixed feelings at the time. But now, I'm sure of it! The Rowdyruff boys are pure evil!"

Bubbles turned to Blossom.

"Blossom, you believe me, don't you?"

Blossom didn't answer. Her face looked unsure and slightly sad. In truth, none of the Powerpuff girls were completely sure whether or not the Rowdyruff boys were really bad. Buttercup mostly believed that the boys were, Bubbles generally believed that they weren't, and Blossom had no idea what to think. But there was one thing for sure; all of them were slowly starting to lose faith.

…………………………

Back in the forest, Brick was using his fire breath to melt the ice around his face. He kept his small and steady flame going until he finally could turn his head. He laser-eyed the ice that bound him, melting it quickly. Once he was free, he used his lasers to release his brothers.

"Come on, guys!" said Brick. "We lost a lot of valuable time!"

"But where do we start?" Butch asked. "We don't even know where the girls went!"

Boomer decided to share his idea. "Maybe they went home."

BOP!

"Ow!"

"Dude, that's just plain dumb!" Brick said. Under his breath he added, "But still, it IS you I'm talking about…"

"Why is it so dumb?"

Butch agreed with Boomer. "Yeah, man. I don't get it."

"Those Powder puffs may be girls, but they're not that stupid," Brick explained. "They know that their house is the first place where we'd look, so that's the last place where they'd hide!"

"Hmm, you're right. So they're probably somewhere in Townsville," Butch agreed.

The Rowdyruff Boys took off toward the sleeping (and incredibly oblivious) city.

Boomer crossed his arms. "I still think they went home."

"Shut up!"

…………………………

In the Utonium household, the Powerpuff Girls were taking a nice hot bath for the second time in one night. The water shined a silvery bluish color. Blossom couldn't help but let out a long relaxed sigh.

"Ahh…The Professor really outdid himself when he made these bath salts with Chemical X. I feel better already."

"Good for you," Buttercup muttered. "Now what is your big plan, leader girl?"

"Well, now that we've recovered, we should stand a chance against the boys. And if we use some of my battle strategies, we can win."

"But they're stronger than ever now," said Bubbles.

Blossom raised a hand. "Au contraire, Bubbles. Actually, the boys are no stronger than they always were. I mean we managed to subdue them, remember? They were just fighting harder and better than usual then. But now we know what we're up against and we'll be prepared!"

With all of their injuries completely healed, the girls got out of the tub and wrapped themselves in their bath towels. Before they drained the water, Blossom mixed in some powdered Antidote X to neutralize the Chemical X.

A few minutes later, the girls were in their bedroom, getting ready for round 2 with the Rowdyruff Boys. They were now in their original respectively colored dresses.

The boys had better brace themselves, because the girls were back in business.

…………………………

"NOW do you believe me?" Boomer said in an almost taunting tone.

Brick had an annoyed look on his face and didn't say a word. Butch was just as agitated.

"Come on, admit it! I was right and you were wrong!"

Brick was still in defensive mode. "Just because I was wrong doesn't mean you were right! They could have been here and not in their house."

Boomer rolled his eyes. " Oh, really? Well then, where are they now?"

"Right here," a not-so-distant voice answered.

The boys turned to see the Powerpuff Girls ready for action again.

"Don't think we'll go easy on you," Blossom smirked.

Brick smirked back. "Heh. That sounds funny since you're the ones who ran off with your tails between your legs."

"Hmph!" Blossom pouted. "Girls, 'Heaven's Haze' maneuver, now!"

The girls charged and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the boys. After less than a minute of fighting, each girl suddenly zipped down under the boys. The girls got into their group and formed another combined beam, except slightly different from the starburst formation. The ray didn't really harm the boys, but it did blast them up into the sky.

The girls flew up after the boys into the clouds high above Pokey Oaks. Again, the kids split into three pairs with each other's counterparts.

Boomer fired as punch, but Bubbles ducked out of the way. She jumped up, gave a knee kick to Boomer's chin and somersaulted backwards into the clouds. She began zipping in and out of the clouds and quickly striking Boomer with each swoop.

The leaders were having a similar situation. Brick gave a roundhouse kick toward Blossom, but she jumped up and gave him a double-fisted slam between his shoulders. Before he could strike back, Blossom dove into a cloud out of sight. But for some reason, Brick didn't also jump into the clouds. He just stayed out in the open and shot lasers into random spots in the clouds, allowing Blossom to frequently pop out and strike him. Whenever she hit him, he would try to hit her back, but miss.

Butch fired a flurry of punches that Buttercup dodged easily. Every so often, she would give a punch or kick. Strangely, every blow she made was a direct hit.

'Wait a minute. Something's wrong…' she thought.

She backed away and fired a blast of green energy from her hand. Butch raised his arms, but not his shield. So he was sent flying backward into a cloud.

"I knew it!"

Buttercup left Butch and hurried over to her sisters. As Buttercup expected, Bubbles and Blossom were winning because their opponents were holding back. However, they didn't seem to notice what was going on. They were too busy jumping in and out of the clouds and attacking.

"All right, boys, the jig is up! Why aren't you fighting back?" Buttercup exclaimed.

Bubbles and Blossom gave a confused "Huh?"

"Because we-"

"SHUT UP, BOOMER!" Brick shouted. He turned to Buttercup. "What are you babbling about?"

Buttercup crossed her arms. "Quit pretending you don't know."

Butch suddenly shot out from inside the cloud the kids were standing on, obviously irritated.

"What the heck is takin' you so long?"

"See?" said Buttercup. "Butch let me knock him down too easily and then he was just waiting for me to attack him again! What are you guys up to?"

Blossom and Bubbles realized that Buttercup was right. How else could they have been winning so easily? Normally, the girls would have a harder time fighting the boys, but this fight was too one-sided. Not to mention that what Boomer had just said meant they WERE holding back on purpose. From the way the girls were glaring, Brick could tell that he had no choice but to tell the truth, and so he swallowed his pride.

"Okay. We were holding back because… we want you to finish us off."

All three girls' eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"WHAT!"

To be continued…