The Progeny Trinity

I sat by myself at the school cafeteria. I always chose to sit far away from people as I am not a very social person. I am the exact opposite of mom, where she is assertive, aggressive, short tempered and loud. I on the other hand am meek, withdrawn, quiet and tend to keep my frustrations to myself.

I began to eat my food and after three bites, I was joined by someone. I quickly looked up to see who it was before I could decide whether or not to inwardly sigh in disappointment at this social incursion.

Thankfully it was my two cousins, Beatrice and Brock.

My lips curled into a smile and they returned it.

"What's up, Betty?" Brock asked, his grin stretched across his face which made him look like a gentle blond giant. That was such a fitting demeanour for a son of Bubbles. Brock had a great father. Mike Believe was somebody who even I looked up to as a father figure.

Leave it to auntie Bubbles to be a good judge of character and find herself a good man. I never really knew my father as he had left when I was very young.

"Nothing new," I responded silently.

"Did you hear about one of the missing students?" Beatrice asked. She was always keeping her eyes and ears stretched as far as this city goes. The internet was Beatrice's domain and she absorbed its wisdom and insanity as one would expect from a daughter of Blossom and Dexter.

"Yes, I heard of it and mom said there's a spike in crime lately, so she'll work a bit longer today. She told me to go straight home after school," I said.

"And we both know that you won't," Beatrice said with a sly smirk.

"Nope," I said with a bit of guilt building up in my chest. It was my self-given duty to keep innocents safe and evil at bay.

My mom told me about her childhood and how she faced all kinds of odds with her sisters. My first villain encounter was when I was seven and witnessed Mojo Jojo go on a rampage in his giant mech and various automated killer drones downtown while mom was buying me ice cream.

She kicked his ass into next Tuesday. That was the day that inspired me to be like her, a beacon of hope for those who cannot defend themselves. But she wouldn't let me. She would always tell me that it was too dangerous and I could understand, my powers were weaker than hers after all.

I wouldn't let that obstacle get in my way, none of that stopped me and here I am at the age of sixteen doing my own superhero vigilante stuff under her radar.

"What have you found out about the crime rate rising, Beatrice?" I asked her. She and I both knew about that.

"Well, The Gangreen Gang and The Crowz have increased their activities in the lower sectors of Townsville. Betty, there are scary rumours coming from 'The Narrows' which are about an urban legend."

The Gangreen Gang has changed a lot since the days our moms were young. Now they're a big syndicate with many members joining with some going so far as to paint their skins green in order to mimic the founders. I also wasn't surprised to hear Beatrice say that about the Narrows because there was always scary shit coming from 'The Narrows' which is why even the cops rarely ventured into that place.

"What's going on in the Narrows?" Brock asked.

"Brock, have you heard of Project Barracuda?" Beatrice asked him.

"I can't say that I have," he responded.

"Well I don't blame you as it's some highly classified government army stuff. Basically, 'Project Barracuda' was an attempt to replicate the Professor's Powerpuff Girls experiment, or at least the accident that gave our moms their powers. This project involved Buttercup's DNA but I don't know much else about it and my dad's super computers couldn't dig up much."

If Dexter's computers couldn't dig it up, then I knew that this was some pretty shady stuff if the government were willing to bleach the hell out of their systems and wipe all of the data.

It honestly didn't surprise me that something like this was even attempted by the military-industrial complex. What did surprise me however, was how long it took for anyone else to try again after Professor Utonium.

Sure, Mojo Jojo attempted and one could say that he even succeeded with the Rowdyruff Boys, but what about afterwards? It baffled me that nobody else managed to make more. Maybe many have tried but failed just like Professor Dick Hardly?

The Powerpuff Girls were originally intended to just be normal girls made in Professor Utonium's lab from scratch. He designed every gene, coiled every helix, grew every cell and intended to cultivate his perfect three daughters from the Petri dish.

But an accidental spill of the highly unpredictable and hyper volatile Chemical-X mutagen forever changed the DNA within the growing cells alongside the lab chimpanzee who was exposed to a splash of it which enlarged his brain way beyond the holding capacity of his cranium and turned him into Mojo Jojo.

The Powerpuff Girls were born in artificial wombs within the Professor's laboratory. Seemingly normal at first except for larger eyes than is usual for a human. The Professor noticed a white dot in the middle of their iris, a unique anatomical feature that was responsible for giving their eyes the ability to view in another visual spectrum as well as zoom in on something. The eyes were larger for a reason, which was to harbour all of these unique anatomical and evolutionary advantages over the human eye.

The trio were artificial life forms. In medieval times they'd be known as a Homunculus, a being created through the use of alchemy; and what is science but another form of alchemy?

The Powerpuff genes were similar enough to allow the birth of children with humans and strong enough so that my cousins and I inherited most of our mother's traits such as the unique large eyes with white dots in the iris as well as the respective hair and eye colours. Also as was often the case with hybridisation, the results were quite unpredictable.

Beatrice was the weakest but had the biggest smarts which were mainly thanks to being raised by the dorkiest of parents and having the resources, motivation and encouragement to cultivate her mental faculties to grow.

Brock only had super strength and durability but he really struggled to shoot lasers out of his eyes and could not fly like Beatrice or myself. Maybe one day he might fly because we're still gaining new powers as we grow. I only learned how to shoot laser eye beams last year.

I am the toughest in terms of durability which I find quite ironic and amusing due to being the daughter of 'the toughest fighter' and all.

"You said something about someone going missing earlier, who was it?" I enquired as I remembered the missing student that Beatrice has mentioned.

"Roger," Beatrice said with a hint of dread in her voice.

"Do you know where he was last seen?" I asked her.

"He was last seen near McCracken Road by eyewitnesses. That's another scary area, probably more so than the Narrows because this isn't an urban legend."

"How come?" I asked Beatrice.

"Something's been killing people there and leaving empty lifeless husks behind."

My stomach sank a bit. I remembered when mom caught a cannibalistic serial killer known as the Townsville Ripper and Blossom made sure that the cannibal was locked away forever.

The Powerpuff Girls have changed the ways that they fought crime. As children, they were licensed vigilantes who were allowed by law to protect the city from giant monsters, villains and criminals of all kinds.

But as they grew, they chose career paths specifically designed to ensure society ran smoothly.

Blossom became a lawyer, using her smarts to protect the innocent and ensure that the guilty got what they deserved in a fair trial. The Ripper deserved no mercy and thus she was given none by the law.

Bubbles became a teacher in this very high school that my cousins and I attended. She used her friendly personality to bond with as many students and her multi-lingual special power to help with educating those who were struggling with English.

My mother stayed closest to the traditional and direct approach of tackling crime, she became a police officer and earned herself the nickname of 'Buttercop.'

With these women taking a more legal approach to fighting an ever dwindling crime, super heroes were henceforth seen as vigilantes and this was something that was no longer allowed in this increasingly safer city.

Which is why I kept my activities a secret in the wake of these unprecedented rising crime rates. I only started this last week and Beatrice has agreed to help. I used the fighting skills that my mother had taught me in case I ever needed to defend myself from the likes of a giant monster or the evil incarnate known as HIM.

I only stopped one crime so far, which was some random mugging at a street corner where the coward ran away after I let him shoot me in the eye with his handgun and enjoying the horror on his face as the bullet harmlessly bounced off of my eye. It did sting like hell though and it took every effort not to flinch which was totally worth it in making a good first impression not only to myself, but also to the person that I saved.

But that was just a minor thing compared to this. I knew of nothing that murdered and then left 'empty husks behind' as Beatrice so eloquently put it. I am new as fuck into this whole crime fighting thing and my superhero and gunshot virginity were just lost on last Friday.

"I'm gonna look into that," I said.

"Betty, don't do this. You could get hurt," Brock said with a low voice.

"I'll be fine, Brock. What could possibly be strong enough to hurt us? Our moms did these things ever since they were five," I reassured my cousin.

It was true, their powers manifested at the age of five and that's when the seemingly normal large eyed infants became known to the world as 'the Powerpuff Girls.'

Beatrice's, Brock's and my own powers manifested at much later ages. Mine at seven, three months before my eighth birthday. Brock's came at age six and Beatrice's at age twelve.

"If you say so," Brock said and we resumed eating as we've just realised that lunch time was nearing its end and our food was getting cold.