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Chapter 3

A New Nemesis

Brick had been thinking about many different things during his fast and uncontrolled flight towards the ground. Many of those thoughts in fact were various cursing comments directed at the four heroes who were currently making him and his brothers have a very bad time.

The red ruff crashed with a loud noise and when the dust was cleared away by the wind, he found himself lying in the umpteenth crater.

He quickly stood up, cleaned his long-sleeved shirt from the grass, and fired a furious glare at the responsible of his last encounter with the earth.

Blossom only smirked in response. She was really loving every moment of this, wasn't she? He would have gone to meet her right away to give her a lesson about her behaviour, and by lesson he meant a knuckle sandwich on the nose… if it wasn't for the guy who was at that moment hovering right by her side. The yellow eyed boy was wearing a more neutral expression, but Brick had no doubts about the fact that he was having fun behind his and his brothers' back as well.

Jerk.

As much as he disliked admitting it, he had underestimated him, and so did Boomer and Butch, who were currently busy keeping Buttercup and Bubbles under control. As soon as the girls had joined the battle, the European guy had showed to have teamwork skills Brick had been sincerely surprised by. His different powers let him do things the girls couldn't do, and with their combined strengths they were able to cover each other's weaknesses, taking out the numerous attacks the Rowdyruffs had launched at them.

If he didn't change tactics in some way, his two brothers would soon be left alone against the four puffs. And that wasn't something he was looking forward to.

Therefore, he at first floated upwards watching his two adversaries. Then, he dashed in the opposite direction, towards the other four combatants.

Donnie and Blossom were initially taken aback by Brick's retreat, but soon they zapped away in hot pursuit. But the red ruff had still a good advantage over them.

Instead of joining the brawl the greens and the blues were currently fighting in, Brick flew over them shouting an order. "Boomer, Butch, MOVE! With me!"

The blue and green ruff immediately left their counterparts and followed their leader. Buttercup and Bubbles began following their prey almost instantly, and in a few seconds the group pursuing the ruffs increased in number. Their speed was so high that in less than a minute they were far from Ultrapolis' suburbs. Soon, the first treetops of the spruce forests began to take the place of the rare farmhouses and long roads.

"Any ideas, Brick?" Boomer timidly asked in mid-flight. He was definitely worried about the situation at hand.

"I'M THINKING!" Brick rudely shouted back, his brows knitted into a nervous face.

"This ain't good…" Butch muttered. Unfortunately, the green ruff's phrase had the effect to jinx it, as something had approached them quietly. They did not catch what it was until it detonated right behind them, releasing a light blue explosion.

The Rowdyruff Boys were all thrown away by the shockwave and sent flying with a spin in the air. They fell deep into the conifer forest under the branch covers, too stunned to rebel against gravity.

When Brick finally regained control of his body, he found himself submerged by the undergrowth of the woods. He freed himself from the sea of bushes and leaves and checked his surroundings, only to find his brothers in a similar state of stupor and pain. Whatever that thing was, it hurt.

"Butch, when we're finished with this, you're soo going to get it…" Brick growled.

Butch did not have the chance to retort with a witty remark like he would've wanted.

"That's it, Rowdyruff Boys! You have nowhere to hide! Surrender now!"

The ruffs raised their heads only to find the obvious. The four heroes were hovering twenty meters or so above them. Their circular formation blocked every possible plan of escape.

They had got them.

But surrendering to the puffs? Surrendering to that dimwit of a boy?

Surrendering to Blossom?

Heck no!

"We're not giving in yet, Blossom. You didn't catch us in the past and you won't catch us today, even with the help of your sissy friend there!"

"We shall see, Brick," Blossom replied before making a move with her right arm, signalling her order. The Powerpuffs began their descent towards them, while Donnie remained hovering up above. With the idiot up there, the ruffs would surely be intercepted if they tried to make a retreat.

Brick he clenched his fists, or at least did something similar with his fingerless hands, and gritted his teeth.

Dang it.

"Guys, you sure it's not a good idea to surrender? I mean…" Boomer said.

"Getting yourself captured and closed off in jail is no fun, Boomer," Butch explained, rolling his eyes, but still keeping the puffs under his sight, "Least, not on our terms. And besides, we would have to go under a trial, which is boring. So just wait and try not to get yourself knocked out for more than three seconds."

Boomer stuck out his tongue at his brother, who was too much focused on the puffs to care. Brick wasn't even listening to their bickering.

There must be a way to defeat the puffs. There must be! We… we could…

Brick's line of thought was suddenly stopped when something bright suddenly went off in front of him. His vision suddenly turned into pure white, dazzling him without notice.

"ARGH!" Boomer screamed in surprise.

"What the heck is this?! I can't see anything!" Butch cursed out loud.

Brick would have said something even more vulgar, but he stopped himself when he heard voices above him.

"Blossom, Buttercup! I can't see anything!"

"Fall back!"

"Darn it!"

Whatever type of flashbang detonation had blinded the ruffs, it had had the same effects on the puffs, which gave them a chance to get out of there. Now, if only he could recover his vision before the girls did.

When the white colour finally began to fade, Brick was met by a wall of grey particles. Apparently the responsible of the dazzling explosion had decided to throw in some smoke bombs just in case.

Brick frowned. He couldn't see anything through the smoke screen, not even using his supervision. Whatever type of fume it was, it was made to be extremely thick and hard to see through. There was only one way to find his brothers.

He sighed before calling up for them. "Boomer! Butch!"

"We're here, Brick! We're coming!" Butch's voice answered. In no time the two remaining ruffs met him.

"Any idea what's going on?" the green ruff inquired.

"No, but I'm not going to question it until it helps us. C'mon, let's get out of-"

"ROWDYRUFF BOYS!"

The voice, while electronic and disturbed by interferences, was impossible not to be recognized.

"Mojo?" Brick didn't see this coming even in the worst of his expectations.

"Yes, it is I, Mojo Jojo, who is currently not here, as you can see yourselves," Mojo Jojo's voice explained as the silhouette of a flying drone appeared in front of the Rowdyruffs, "and I'm here to get all of you out of this particularly delicate situation you boys found yourselves in!"

"Umph, like we need your help, Mojo. We're not following you, period!" Brick snarled, Butch and Boomer nodding in unison. They all just wanted to go home, even if their current home was the umpteenth house from which they had casted out the owner.

"Mmmh, so you just want to persist in the fight, even if the Powerpuff Girls and the boy known as Donnie are still in the surroundings, outnumbering you?" the drone buzzed off, the eye of the camera staring at them. It was as if they could see the ape right through, grinning at them.

Brick put a hand on his forefront. He hated it when Mojo was right.

"Alright, alright. Lead the way, but no funny business Mojo!" Brick struggled to say. He would have sworn that he saw the monkey grinning behind the camera's lent.

"Good to see your neurons are still functional. You'll soon come to know what a superior being as me is doing in Europe, while I-"

"Yeah yeah, Mojo, whatever…" Butch cut down the sentence. The camera rotated to face the green ruff, something that could be interpreted as annoyance, but the drone remained silent. After that, the ruffs and the drone soon left the area, oblivious to what was going on farther in the mist.

"Fall back!" Blossom shouted as he instinctively brought a hand in front of her in an attempt to protect herself, the other too busy in covering her blinded eyes.

"Darn it! Darn it!" Buttercup yelled, not happy to see her sight stolen from her. Bubbles was in a similar situation, as she was trying to reach forward in order to prevent herself from colliding with the tree branches around them. None of them was able to see where the others were.

"Girls! Donnie! Get down, towards the ground! We can't afford being separated!" Blossom shouted as she began descending without exactly knowing where she was going, while praying that her sisters and her friend had followed her suggestion.

Soon, her Mary Janes touched the sparse grass of the undergrowth, and she was surprised to see the vision already returning to her eyes. To her dismay, however, she found that whatever, or whoever, had caused the flash explosion had decided to throw in a smoke screen as well. Not even her supervision could work, the dust was too thick.

"Bubbles! Buttercup! Where are-!" Blossom began calling, but she was cut off.

"Hang on, leader girl!" Buttercup's voice boomed, and a second later the shadow of the green puff appeared through the fog.

"Where is Bubbles? And Donnie?" Blossom instinctively said when she saw that the brunette was alone.

"I hoped you would tell me, red. No idea…" Buttercup replied, her gaze never leaving her surroundings. She was obviously expecting an attack any moment, and Blossom had to admit she had every right to do it. No one could tell what, or who, could have caused this change in the situation, and why they did.

"Okay, let's move and find them now. The sooner we regroup, the better," she ordered. Buttercup nodded, and together the two girls began moving, floating one metre away from the ground in complete silence, one watching the other's back.

Soon the two puffs realized that the smoke, while abnormally thick, was failing to remain dense over time. It was a windy day, and soon the breezes began to slowly clear out the air, thus increasing the girls' field of view.

"Bubbles! Donnie!" Blossom continued to try calling the others, as remains of the smoke screen were still preventing them from properly checking the surroundings. No one replied to her, and for a couple of minutes that felt like hours for her, nothing happened.

That was, until they heard a noise. The clear sound of metal colliding with a skull.

Blossom and Buttercup didn't even have to tell each other what they were going to do. The two girls went off almost instantly, rushing towards the source of the sound. They were fast, enough fast that Blossom believed that whoever had attacked someone in the distance, they couldn't have had the time to get out of the way before their arrival.

When a human form began to be visible in front of them, however, the two girls took different routes of action. Blossom stopped, and she would have told her sister to do the same if she had the time.

Buttercup was however of another idea, as she didn't want to let the surprise factor go to waste, and she did not slow down at all. Thus, she disappeared into the fog and with a war cry charged at the figure.

Blossom cringed when she heard again the same, exact sound from before, only louder and definitely closer. She braced herself and resisted the urge to come to the help of her sister, even with the sound of a tree log cracking under an impact. That was mainly due to the fact that the stranger had decided to move right towards her, finally revealing himself.

Blossom glared at the man who was now standing in front of her. The male adult looked much older than Professor Utonium, or even most people. Wrinkles all over his face and a cover of grey hair left no doubts about his age… the apparent age, at least. The girl would have given him no less than sixty years old. He wore an extremely simple lab coat which was shorter than the one used by her creator, fact that revealed a pair of black working trousers. He was wearing a pair of glasses as well, an extremely old model without temples.

He did not look dangerous at first glance for the Powerpuff Girl. However, there were some other characteristics that she took note of as she studied him, things that put her on guard about him despite its weak appearance.

She couldn't see his human-flesh hands and feet. In place of the first two, he had what appeared to be robotic-looking appendixes made out of steel which resembled in every way to a human hand, almost looking like metallic high-tech gloves of sorts. The feet had got a somewhat similar treatment as well; the man was wearing what looked like shining metal boots. There was no way to tell if those things were covering his hands and feet or if they were in place of them.

Blossom tensed when she saw the man move one of his robotic hands. The appendix made a sound easily recognizable as the screeching of metal against metal, but other than that the movement and articulation of the hand looked perfectly natural. He then simply fixed his glasses, no doubt in order to get a better look at the girl.

That was when their eyes met. Blossom was surprised when she saw that there was nothing she would've expected from an enemy… apparently, in his expression. There was hatred, or hostility… nothing of the emotions she was used to deal with. His gaze was completely and utterly neutral, like she didn't even exist in the world.

"Hello," the man began, leaving Blossom even more confused with apparent good manners and a tone compatible with his expression. His voice was rough, as the one of someone who had seen a lot of things in his life. "Apologies for what I've had to do. Still, I'm sure you know that when you follow your path, there are obstacles that have to be surpassed, whatever the cost is. Your sisters were an obstacle in my path, unfortunately, and I sincerely hope you won't be as foolish as they were."

That said, the man turned his back to Blossom and began walking away, without further explanations.

"Hey!" she called out in annoyance, "What did you do to my sisters? Who are you? What do you want with us and-?"

She stopped in mid-sentence when she noticed that the right arm of the man was currently enveloped around something. She immediately recognized the colour of the hair.

"Donnie?! Stop right there, you!" she shouted with a commanding tone. "Leave him alone!"

When the stranger didn't slow down at all, she was left with no choice: she had to go and stop him… she couldn't just let him get away with Donnie!

Blossom flew up a little bit before charging at the scientist-looking human. She prepared herself for everything the man could have prepared for her.

But she was not prepared for what he ultimately did.

The man did not turn to face Blossom until the very last moment. The speed with which he rotated his body was inhuman, something Blossom believed to be exclusive to puffs. Inhuman was also the speed of the fist that arrived to greet her forehead. There was no time to react, and the metal collided with her cranium at full speed.

At first, Blossom had thought that her superpowers would have protected her from this attack, but she was wrong. The sheer force of the punch was completely out of parameter, unlike even the strongest of impacts she had to endure while fighting Mojo's battle robots or the giant beasts of Monster Isle. She was sent flying back, her vision instantly becoming blurry as an extremely painful headache began to torment her head.

Thus, when she landed far away from where the man was located, Blossom did not immediately get up to fight. She was dazzled, incredulous and stunned at the same time. She wasn't even sure if she had passed out or not.

Soon, the headache began to lessen its grip, and Blossom could make out something in front of her. Unfortunately, it was the face of the man himself.

She instinctively moved back only to find herself pinned. A metallic boot blocked her feet and therefore every possibility of movement. Too stunned to put up some type of resistance, she remained motionless lying on the ground.

Trapped.

"Humph," the man hummed before smiling. Not an evil smile, of course. It was a amused smile, as if he found all of this slightly funny.

"You may have your chance to fight, Blossom Utonium, as people like to call you," the scientist continued, "but that may not happen now, as I did not account for it in my plans. And, you should know, when something isn't in my plans, it won't happen, period."

The man stood up, as he was bending over her. He still had Donnie, who was definitely knocked out, firm under his arm.

"Do not get in my way again, infra-human. If I'll ever need your presence, you will know, but otherwise, if you fail to listen to my words… trust me when I say that you'll regret it."

That said, the man threw a metal fist at her face without notice, too fast for Blossom to react in her still dazed state. This time it hit her face head on, and if the first one had caused her to be out of commission for half a minute, this second strike had the effect to make her black out on contact.

Blossom?

Blossom!

"Blossom! Wake up! C'mon, leader girl!"

Blossom slowly returned to the world of the living (and awake). She opened her eyes only to close them back due to the excessive brightness of the light. "B-Buttercup?" she whispered, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Bubbles too, she is right here with me," the brunette told her, "we have a stinking headache, but apart from that we're both fine."

"What about you, Blossom?" Bubbles said with worry, "Can you stand up?"

Blossom tried to at least sit up, and she was pleased to discover that her muscles were still working and that her skeleton was still in one piece. With some difficulty, she manage to stand on her legs, trying to ease her eyes to the light.

Her sisters had both a hand over their foreheads, but other than that, they didn't look injured.

"I'm fine… I think," Blossom said. She wasn't convinced about it herself, given the fact that she felt like her head was full of wasps frantically buzzing in her head, but she resisted the urge to soothe her head. There was a metallic taste in her mouth as well, and something moist was coming down her nose, which caught her interest. Upon cleaning it off with her hand, she found blood on her fingers.

That old man didn't hold back for sure…

"I have so many questions… about what just happened," Buttercup stated matter-of-factly.

"So do I. What about the Rowdyruffs?" the redhead began.

"They vanished," Bubbles answered. "I have no clue on where they've gone, but they sure weren't present when I was knocked out…"

"I bet the cry-babies have taken the chance to run for it as soon as the flash bomb blinded us. Losers…" Buttercup muttered.

"Speaking of 'flash bomb'… do you remember anything about what happened?" Blossom asked.

"Bubbles does not remember anything but seeing pure white at some point, before waking up. She must have been knocked out before she could even see something through the smoke. As for me, well, you should remember it yourself, Bloss. Do you?"

"…I do," Blossom said, frowning as she struggled to recover her momentarily distorted memories. She remembered Buttercup charging head on at something, only to be dispatched with surprising ease by her foe… the old man.

"I remember him, too…"

"Who? Wait, you mean whoever was the guy who attacked us?"

"Yes, Buttercup. Some type of scientist, I think, given the clothes he was wearing… but he was not just some random science professor. He was extremely strong and fast, I don't know how he was able to do everything he did… he said to not mess with his plans."

"Well, for me, he has just secured a visit by myself. I've a score to settle with the man now."

"Wait, Buttercup…" she sighed, then gasped as a headache pulse shot through her skull. She massaged her temples. "There's something else, something I'm missing… What was he-"

Blossom interrupted her own speech as her eyes went wide. In her mind, a detailed image of the scientist appeared. However, it was not his face nor its appearance that made Blossom pause. It was the form of the young boy that was kept under his arm.

"Donnie!"

"What?" Bubbles and Buttercup said at the same time.

"He's kidnapped Donnie! I remember now!"

"Oh, no!" Bubbles cried. Buttercup, too shocked at first to open her mouth, finally replied, "Darn it… that's a good reason to get moving now!"

"For once I agree, Buttercup. I don't know if he has anything to do with the boys showing up in Ultrapolis, but this crook has definitely caused everything else. He distracted us in order to take us out and capture Donnie without having to actually fight us head on. We got to discover who the guy is and what he wants with us and Donnie!"

"Well, apart from the fact that his punches are hard, there's not much we know about him…" Buttercup noted.

"I don't know… if he's anything like what Blossom said, he cannot have passed by unnoticed in Ultrapolis, right? Just like everyone knows Mojo back in Townsville…" Bubbles reasoned.

Blossom thought about it for some seconds before replying. "Mojo attacks Townsville basically every week, though, and I don't think that our man does the same for Ultrapolis… Donnie has never told us anything about him, and he'd have told us if there was a bad guy attacking Ultrapolis all the time."

She nodded to herself as an idea came up to her. "Let's go first to visit Katja and tell her what happened. I think she deserves to know since she's family for him. Then, we will try to see if there's anyone in this city who knows about the old man. Let's move!"

With the next course of action decided, the Powerpuff Girls flew away and dashed towards Ultrapolis at full speed. They couldn't fathom what had happened to Donnie, and for all they knew every second wasted could have been crucial.

Donnie suddenly woke up with a jerk, ending up floating in the air. The last thing he remembered was being blinded by an absurdly bright light, but after that everything was black. Somehow, the memory seemed to be compatible at first with was he seeing at the moment, as something very bright was currently preventing him to open his eyes.

Soon, his superpowered eyes began to settle to the new environment and its brightness. When Donnie finally managed to keep at least semi-opened them, a voice greeted him.

"Well, well, well, if this isn't a lovable reunion, that is, a second instance of a meeting which has already taken place in the past!"

Donnie felt the air being sucked away from its lungs. That voice… he remembered it. He remembered him. It was impossible!

He forced himself to get an image of what was in front of him, and he didn't like what he saw.

He was closed into a cage made out of bright energy bars… again. And again, Mojo Jojo, the archenemy of his friends, was smiling at him from the other side.

"Don't worry, my old acquaintance. This time, things are going to work out differently for both of us. And of course by that I mean that this time, I, Mojo Jojo, will prevail over the pathetic brats you call friends. Nothing will stop me from getting rid of the Powerpuff Girls once and for all!"

"No!" Donnie shouted in anger. He had stopped being a cry-baby a long time ago. He had changed, and he was not going to let the monkey put him in despair again. "I'm not going to let you do that! I'll stop you!"

"To be fair, Mojo Jojo doesn't exactly want to have anything to do with you, Donnie…" a voice interjected, surprising both the villain and the hero.

The mutated chimpanzee hastily turned and launched an annoyed glare at the source of the disturbance. Seconds after, the figure of a man appeared by his side. It was the same one who had attacked the girls.

"He's only interested in the destruction of the Powerpuff Girls, as I've promised him that what I'm going to do with you will most probably have the same effect on your person," the man continued with a neutral, almost teaching tone.

Donnie didn't let his guard down. He wasn't going to let some simple words frighten him. "Who are you? What do you want from me?"

"That's something you're going to know soon, but not at the present moment. For now, you should be satisfied to know that I was the one who captured you and brought you here. My recently acquired colleague here helped me with the building of this peculiar cage who, as he told me, appears to be extremely effective on keeping your kind under custody."

Donnie glared at the scientist. He was already feeling bad emotions towards the guy, even if he didn't know who he was. There was something off about him, something that he could tell just by listening to his tone. Besides, if he was willing to team up with Mojo Jojo, he couldn't be up to anything good.

"You know what? I don't care what the heck you're going to do, with or without the monkey. I'm still going to stop you both at any cost!" Donnie retorted, ignoring Mojo as he protested about being addressed as a mere monkey.

The man stared at him, ignoring himself the shouts of his angry companion. Then, he smiled.

"That is a mistake… the last of many. You really should care. Nevertheless, I think that I can satisfy one of your questions at least… you should know of a way to call your jailor, after all."

He kneeled and stared at Donnie with his usual apparent neutral expression. And no matter how hard he tried to not do it and despite the scientist's glasses, the boy made unconsciously a step back. He felt intimidated because an idea had just come up into his mind, an idea concerning a memory he considered minor up until the very last moment. Something that could've been connected with the identity of the man.

The scientist's next few words ended up confirming his theory.

"You shall refer to me as Doctor Porter."