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Chapter 4
Following the Trail
The Mayor of Ultrapolis looked at the three little girls, sitting while in wait for him to give them his answer. He had been surprised at first to see them appear in his office, but once they had filled him in about the current situation, that emotion had been taken and put away.
"I think I know who this 'scientist' character is, Powerpuff Girls," he said gravely. He stood up from his chair and went around the desk, getting closer to the girls. He wanted to get a good view on the girls' faces, considering what he was going to share with them.
He took in a breath, then started with a question. "By any means, has Donnie ever told you about somebody called Porter? Doctor Porter?"
The girls looked at each other for a second before shaking their heads in denial.
"Hmm. Do you know then about the first job in this city of Donnie's creator, Professor Laurentium?"
"He told us once that Professor Laurentium had worked at a lab facility with other scientists. He left at some point to build his own laboratory, from what I remember," the red-haired girl said.
"That would be correct. More specifically, Laurentium has worked at Ultrapolis' General Laboratory, or UGL, for various months. Of course, he shared the workplace with a lot of colleagues, and one of them was Doctor Porter."
He quietly walked around the office as he continued to speak. The girls kept their eyes fixed on him all the while.
"Porter was a scientist who was ready to do everything that he thought necessary to accomplish his goals. He was not frightened by dangerous undertakings, and he tried multiple times to get results in ways few people in the community considered safe or even acceptable. His views led him and Laurentium to fight various times, but eventually Porter someway gained the approval of the majority of the employees and scientists at the General Laboratory, and we believe Laurentium decided to quit once that became clear."
He stopped to face the girls. "With him out of the picture, Porter had the full capabilities of the UGL facilities at his disposal. We don't know what he exactly did during those months inside the facility, as the lab's logs have been destroyed. But one day, an explosion nearly made the entire facility collapse. We saw dozens of men and women die in that incident, and only a few were lucky enough to survive, people who knew little of what was really going on within those walls."
He shook his head. "Yet, Porter's corpse was never found. We labelled him as the only person missing, after months of research."
He approached his desk again. "That incident brought me to commission some research on Porter and the circumstances of the UGL's disaster, of course, but we didn't learn much more than what I already told you. All of this happened five months before the birth of Donnie."
"Sorry to interrupt, but how can all of this be of any help to us? I mean, there's no way to tell if the guy we're looking for is this Porter guy," the brunette girl questioned.
The redhead kid elbowed her sister, but the Mayor didn't mind her observation. It wasn't like she hadn't made a good point.
"There's a reason why I am bringing up this name to you, of course. Porter was a scientist specialized in biology research. That united with his fierce personality in terms of his methods brought to… abnormal results. Know that after the incident, the fire-fighter squads which were sent into the parts of the facility that had managed to not crumble down… found things that are not easy to describe. It was frightening enough, that the town committee and I made an executive order to level the area and sterilize it from anything that may have been created in there and survived the disaster."
He sat back down on his chair, his hands clasped together. "He was thirty years old when the event at the General Lab happened. I know that it hardly makes sense, but if there is anyone in the world who's capable to survive that catastrophe and then hide successfully after it, that would be him. I have no idea how that would be even possible, or how it can be that he now looks double his age or even how he has powers comparable to yours… but he's the most likely individual I can come up with that may be able to fit all of this."
He let the words sink in for a moment. Eventually, it was the redhead, the one he believed was Blossom, that spoke up first.
"Would you excuse us for a minute, sir?" Blossom asked. "We need to talk for a moment."
He nodded, and the girls began to whisper to each other, discussing their options. In other circumstances, he would have found their quiet discussion almost cute, as mischievous little girls planning who knows what. But the circumstances simply weren't compatible with such thoughts.
After finishing their short conversation, the girls turned back to the Mayor of Ultrapolis. "Okay, Mayor, we think that there is a good likelihood that Porter is indeed our man. Do you know where we might be able to find him?"
"Unfortunately, no," the Mayor answered. "Until you came in there and told me about what happened, I had accepted that Porter was dead, along with many other people in Ultrapolis. Finding him was something we had given up on months ago."
"But we do need trail in order to track him down! There must be some clues we can look for to find out where he's hiding Donnie…" the redhead thought out loud. The other two sisters similarly grew serious, mulling over the possibilities.
The Mayor wasn't completely out of suggestions. It may not have been the best one, but the one he had hopefully would be a good start.
"I believe that if there was anyone in this city who knew about Porter's real situation or even location, then that person would've been Professor Laurentium."
"Huh?" the three girls uttered at the same time.
"Laurentium had always been wary about Porter, and we have proof that he has been trying to check what the Doctor had been doing at UGL after his departure from there. He might have failed to prevent the incident, but for all we know, he may have continued to look for information about Porter after we gave up looking for him."
"So… you suggest to go to Laurentium's home and look for something useful there? Maybe even his private lab?" Blossom guessed.
"Exactly," the Mayor confirmed.
"Hmm. Well, it's our only trail for now… we may as well follow that," Bubbles said.
"Agreed. Thanks for your help, Mayor, and sorry for our unprogrammed visit! Now, we gotta go!" Blossom thanked as the three of them stood up from their seats—or rather, they hovered up over them.
"Wait. Let me warn you before you leave." The Mayor raised a hand, stopping the girls before they could bolt. "I'm going to do my calls and have some security force squads sent at Laurentium's lab as well. If you happen to find out where Porter is located before they arrive, try to leave the info available for them. They will try to keep up and support you if need be."
The girls gave a glance to each other with doubtful gazes. Buttercup was the one who voiced their thoughts. "Uh, no offense, Mayor, but we can do it ourselves. We're used to this kind of deal with super-villains."
"What Buttercup means is that we don't want to get anyone else injured or worse. Just let us do it!" Bubbles said. She had a smile up ready for him, trying to appear as confident as possible.
The Mayor however proved to be unmoved by her reassurance. "That's only a safe option in case you need help, and one I'd rather have available than not. If Porter is still alive, I want him to be secured as soon as possible as much as you do. There are a lot of questions that he needs to answer, concerning what he did at the UGL, and if he's anything like you described, then he may very well be a living danger for the city itself."
He cleared his throat before finishing his speech. "Moreover… keep your guard ready. I recall the reports from the UGL disaster and… believe me when I say that he could have anything, anything, in store for you three."
"Uh, okay… we'll try to be extra careful about this, Mayor," Blossom said. Then, the three of them gave out a fast 'bye' before flying through the office away in a hurry, passing through a window the Mayor had opened earlier in forethought.
He watched the three coloured streaks getting away into the city and sighed again, trying to write up a mental plan of what he needed to do.
"Time to get working…" he muttered to himself as he began dialling up a number on his landline phone.
"What is their current status, colleague?"
Mojo Jojo frowned and did not turn to face his business partner, instead continuing to stare at the screens in front of him. The drone was at the moment flying fast, trying to keep up the pace of the girls it was following without letting them take notice of it.
"They are definitely looking for us, though I do not understand where they're heading for right now," the chimpanzee muttered, scratching his chin in thought.
Porter watched the screen for some seconds before replying. "I know the path they're taking. They're heading for Laurentium's old laboratory. A smart move, I have to recognize… there they may even find clues concerning our current location."
"WHAT?!" Mojo Jojo was astonished. They were going to get discovered already?!
"I have no idea what Laurentium was up to in his personal lab while he was alive, he was smart enough to cover his work well. But, if I knew something about him, it'd be that he was a careful and apprehensive person. Too much for my liking… which is why the infra-humans might be able to find the location of my tunnel system there."
"Curses! Those accursed Powerpuffs must be stopped before they do, and I hope you won't just let them get there without doing anything!" Mojo Jojo snorted, glaring at the man with no attempt at hiding his displeasure.
"I won't. They may be formidable adversaries, but that doesn't mean I'll just let them play detective without adding up some, well… entertaining obstacles on their way. The time we'll gain from that should be enough for us to begin our work."
"Finally! Pray that whatever you've been planning will be worth the wait that I, Mojo Jojo, will have to bear."
"Believe me, Mojo Jojo, when I say that what we're going to do will not just be useful… I'd even say, that it's going to be beautiful."
Mojo Jojo was not convinced. "Hmph, we shall see, Porter."
"What are you talking about? What are you planning?!"
Mojo and the Doctor both turned around to face the young boy who had dared to interrupt their discussion. He had remained silent until that moment, but it seemed like he had recovered some of his guts enough to interrogate them.
Mojo Jojo crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. No doubt he was thinking about the various tortures he could apply to his body… Porter, however, did not seem to be as bothered. He approached the boy and raised a metallic hand, aimed in his direction.
"You will know soon enough what is going to happen today, infra-human."
Donnie heard a *click* noise coming from Porter's hand, and a hidden hatch opened. Before Donnie could react, Porter put his other hand on what seemed to be a tiny tube coming out of the hatch, and pushed something, triggering the mechanism hidden inside it.
A sharp sting sensation pervaded Donnie's body and he reached out to find a needle stuck into his arm, shot so fast he hadn't even realized it. Its contents were already empty… whatever material it was made of, it had been able to penetrate its skin and shirt alike.
In a few seconds, the boy began to feel dizzy and sleepy, and in half a minute he collapsed to the ground, asleep and vulnerable.
"Seems like working on the formula for Unidentified Y-based sedative had not been a total waste of time. More effective than the gas version, it seems… intriguing, but I sadly can't dwell on it further. We got more pressing matters to attend to," Porter said more to himself than to Mojo, as he moved the hand with a jerk. The hatch closed, hiding the hidden space below.
He thus turned to Mojo, who wasn't impressed and limited himself to raise an eyebrow.
"I'll carry it with us," Porter explained. "We need to move to the actual chamber where the experiment and the test I mentioned will both take place. Once we're settled there, I'll leave you and the infra-human for a moment while I go to send my personal present for the so called 'Powerpuff Girls'."
Locating Laurentium's original house proved to be extremely difficult at first for the girls. Thanks to Donnie's accounts, they already knew somewhat the area where the house was located, but it became apparent that the scientist had not chosen an uncommon design like Professor Utonium did.
The girls had been circling around a district in the north of the outskirts of Ultrapolis for some minutes already, but there was no way to tell the houses from one another. Apparently, they were all of the same type.
"Ugh, we're wasting time! So much for the idea to not stop and ask where the lab is, Blossom!" Buttercup said, frowning, as they flew in search of something that caught their eye.
"I didn't know that Donnie's creator lived in a house so… normal! And we didn't have the time to stop by!" the leader responded.
"Then I hope you're happy now that we'll end up waste even more time, Einstein!" Buttercup retorted.
Blossom turned and fired her most angry glare at her sister, but the green-eyed girl did not even flinch. Thank heavens, Bubbles came in to stop their argument before it could escalate.
"Girls! Look!" she exclaimed.
Blossom and Buttercup sceptically watched the place that their sister was referring to. "Bubbles, that's just another random house, what do you think we-" Buttercup groaned, but she was stopped by Blossom's hand abruptly closing her mouth.
"Buttercup, wait. Look carefully."
Blossom was surprised to see her hand shoved away into her own face by her sister. Buttercup didn't seem to have liked the sudden stop of her speech, but she nevertheless turned to give a better look at the small house Bubbles was pointing to.
The house was at first sight another random building, alright, but a more accurate inspection would have revealed some key details. The garden had been left to the nature's control for a long time; most of the windows were closed, and those which weren't locked had been sealed from the outside by wooden planks. The house itself, in other words, had all the features of an abandoned mansion.
The girls found themselves flying towards the house unknowingly, and they soon reached the front. There was a huge note on the fence that gave a good explanation about the current state of the area.
This house has been closed and put under public control. All access is forbidden to non-authorized personnel.
The cartel had been put directly on the front gate to the house, that was directly linked to the house's garage. On the smaller gate at its side the only written words were the name of the deceased owner of the building on a tiny, old label.
Laurentium Bronislav.
The girls exchanged a quick glance, and Blossom ultimately took the lead and timidly pushed the small gate open. They walked over the walkway and glanced at the house as they approached the front door. It had been left uninhabited for only a few months, but it had been enough to give the place an eerie feel.
"Blossom, I don't like this place…" Bubbles whispered.
"Dummy, it's just an abandoned house," Buttercup muttered, rolling her eyes.
"Let's just get inside and find what we need. Remember, Donnie counts on us, so we gotta do this."
Bubbles and Buttercup nodded as Blossom resumed her path. Moments after they were stopped by the front door, which judging by the additional metal bars put there, had been closed for good.
"The mayor didn't give us any key, did he?" Buttercup asked as she examined the door.
"No… we might need to find some other way around to get inside…" Blossom thought out-loud. But unbeknownst to her, her sister flew towards the door, grabbed a bar, and pulled the thing away. The door might have been enforced, but Buttercup was a Powerpuff Girl, and five seconds later the brunette found out that she was keeping the entire door, the bars, and parts of the nearby wooden frame in her hand.
"Buttercup!" Blossom shouted with a scolding tone.
"Hey, I bought us some time! C'mon, let's get in while we can," Buttercup said before flying into the first room without waiting for Blossom's answer. The redhead sighed in defeat and followed her in, Bubbles right behind her.
Laurentium's house had indeed been left to its own for some time. Everything was covered by a thin, but clearly visible cover of dust, and as Buttercup found out at her attempt to switch them on, the lights were not working. The light entering from the destroyed entrance was enough for them though, thanks to their super-powered sight.
The front door was directly linked to a living room not too much different to the one they had at their own house at Townsville, but that and the kitchen apparently were the only rooms on the ground floor.
The girls spread out and began looking for something that could look like the entrance to a laboratory. Blossom moved towards the kitchen, but she soon found out that apart from a fridge that hadn't been turned on in a long while, a table and some shelves, there wasn't anything remotely interesting.
Buttercup floated upwards and began inspecting the first floor. She found a bedroom and a bathroom, and a series of three, completely empty rooms. Well, that was true for the first two.
"Nothing here! Darn it, where is that lab?" Buttercup grunted while she entered the third room. When she realized what was inside, she stopped in mid-track. This room was not completed, just like the other two, but it wasn't empty. It lacked the floor and coloured walls, but there was a single bed and some additional furniture still packed into plastic. Another plastic bag contained what seemed to be toys.
Buttercup swallowed but kept her coolness. She knew what this room was supposed to be for, but that was it, no reason to ponder over it. It wasn't the laboratory, and it wasn't her business.
She turned and floated away, trying to act like she had not seen anything. "Hey! Did you guys find anything?" she called out, aloud.
"Buttercup, stay quiet!" Bubbles said in a nervous tone, hovering up from a nearby room.
"No, no, Buttercup, not yet. I give you've not been lucky as well, have you?" Blossom called back from the kitchen downstairs.
She gave an affirmative 'hmm-mmm' as she glided downstairs, followed by Bubbles. The three of them were all in the living room now.
"So, now what do we do?"
"We still need to inspect the car garage, and for all we know the entrance may be hidden somewhere outside. Let's go," Blossom instructed. Buttercup nodded, but as Blossom turned towards Bubbles, she noticed that she seemed to be lost into watching something on a wall.
"Bubbles, come on! We need to keep looking."
But the girl did not move, thus forcing Blossom to move towards her and put a hand on her shoulder. She glanced up, wondering what could have taken his sister's attention.
It was a framed photo, where Professor Laurentium was portrayed. He wasn't alone, though, as the girls were able to recognize Donnie's aunt, Katja, along with a man and two kids who were no doubt her husband and sons. There were also other people in the photo, most notably some scientists who decided to keep the lab coat for the moment. They were all smiling.
Blossom found herself lost into the photo just like Bubbles was. She had had just one chance to see Laurentium with her eyes, though not exactly in the flesh—still, the memory was clear in her mind. It was him.
"Hey, what are you two doing? It's not the time to daydream!" Buttercup's sudden voice boomed, nearly startling the two of them. Bubbles turned towards her with an annoyed look, but Blossom shook her head.
"Sorry, I've lost focus. Let's move."
That said, the girls began walking to the door, and they would have exited if it wasn't for Bubbles who suddenly tugged at their sisters' dresses.
"What now, Bubbles?" Buttercup said with a frown.
"I… think there's something else to that framed picture."
She went back exactly where the photo was located. She admired the frame for some other seconds.
"Bubbles, whatever you have in mind, just do it. We can't afford to play around for long," Blossom advised.
Bubbles nodded without turning and hovered upwards. She approached the photo and observed the object for some additional seconds. Then, she abruptly took the picture away.
"Uh… Bubbles?"
She put the frame over a nearby shelf and moved away to show her sisters what she had found: the wall part hidden by the photo was as lucent as metal, and there was a key lock in it.
"I knew there was something behind it... just like in the movies," Bubbles said, giggling.
Buttercup and Blossom looked at each other before going in front of the suspicious wall piece. The latter inquisitively tapped the wall, which caused the hidden door to move. The girls moved back as the heavy, metallic door continued to move thanks to gravity with a loud creaking.
Before them there was a series of stairs, after which, the darkness reigned. But there was no doubt. This was Laurentium's laboratory. They had no idea why it was hidden that way, but it wasn't important for the moment.
Blossom dared to make the first step. The stairs didn't react with an atmospheric creak, so the girls began a quiet descent into the chamber. They expected these to finish soon, but they soon realized their thought was wrong.
The stairs finished only after one minute of walking. "Man, this lab is sure bigger than the Professor's!" Buttercup exclaimed, which resulted with her voice saying 'Professor' three times in a row.
When the echo stopped, she raised an eyebrow before adding, in a quieter tone, "Yep, it is."
"Anything we can use to light this place up?" Blossom said. Her answer was a light turned on directly into her eyes.
"Hey, watch it out, Bubbles!"
"Sorry… these must have been left behind by the last visitors," Bubbles apologized while she showed her sister the flashlights she had found. With the added light they were able to take a good look at their surroundings.
Buttercup was right: Laurentium's laboratory was way bigger than the Professor's one. It seemed like the scientist had preferred to work on getting more space in order to not get limited by it. A large portion of the lab was indeed full of objects: shelves full of books, scientific contraptions and instruments of all types, various working stations and tables, and so on, but there were a lot of empty areas as well.
"Wow… Donnie's creator didn't spare any expenses…" Buttercup said in awe.
"How are we supposed to find something about Doctor Porter here?" Bubbles asked as she pointed the flashlight around.
"I don't know, but we can't just stop now. Let's split up… there must be something that could lead us to Porter somewhere in this place."
The girls therefore moved in three different directions, in search of any clue useful to learn the current location of the Doctor.
Buttercup was the first one to lose her patience while she looked around.
"Ugh, this is going to drive me crazy…" she grumbled as she lost interest even on the objects she was illuminating with her flashlight. "It's going to be hours before we find anything at this rate."
She stopped walking and huffed, in an attempt to focus on her task. She therefore randomly pointed the flashlight around, just to keep herself occupied.
Buttercup gasped when she realized what was standing in front of her.
"Whoa…"
There were various lines of tall metallic shelves, full with dust and all types of glassware and scientific equipment. While this alone would have been a boring finding for the brunette, what impressed her was what the first line of shelves contained.
Various beakers and tanks, all containing a dense, dark orange liquid. And every glass object had a 'Y' paper plastered on it.
There were at most thirty of those things visible, but Buttercup noticed that around there were boxes identified with the same 'Y' symbol, which left few doubts about their contents.
Unidentified Y… Buttercup thought as she floated up and reached to touch one of the beakers. Blossom will probably kill me if she sees me doing this, but… this is really it.
In the end, the curiosity won her, and the little girl picked up one of the beakers. She felt the liquid inside move up and down as she rotated the glass and watched the substance inquisitively. To her, it had no interesting features whatsoever… but Chemical X didn't have much going for it as well, apart from the black colour.
How is this even possible? Why isn't Chemical X unique, like the Professor told us?
She mulled to herself as she observed the container.
What can this Unidentified Y really do?
"Buttercup!" Blossom voiced called from another area of the laboratory. "What's your status?"
"Ahem! I… umm… Haven't found anything yet, Blossom, but I'm still looking!" Buttercup quickly said as she hastily put the beaker back into its place. The move was a bit less careful than needed and the girl had to put both hands on the shelf to stop it from falling over.
"Right… just keep exploring. This place is big but it's not that big, we should find something anytime now!"
"Sure thing, sure thing!" Buttercup responded before hovering to the ground, snatching the flashlight and resuming her search with renewed vigour.
Blossom resumed her pace with a worried look on her face. Heavens only knew what Buttercup was doing, and she hoped to find something before her sister did anything uncalled for.
She had been wandering around the lab for ten minutes now, and while she liked to think that she was the most focused one of the Powerpuff Girls, she had begun to feel nervous as well. Time was a crucial factor, as there was no way to tell what Porter was doing to Donnie, assuming he was the culprit for his kidnapping in the first place.
But for now, she had found nothing more than various mechanical equipment pieces and instruments not that much different from Professor Utonium's. She would have tried to think of a way to speed things up if it wasn't for the fact that something appeared in front of her as soon as the light reached it.
It was a machine far bigger than the ones she had encountered until now. From the outside it wasn't much different from a cube of metal, but at men's height she found a control keyboard and a sign that read out, Emergency Condenser.
Condenser? Blossom thought, I believe I've read something about that word. It has to do with electricity, so… hmmm…
She hovered up and put herself in front of the commands of the machine, before realizing that there were further notes on the side of the case. On one of these it she read, Temporary Generator - To use in case of power outages or usage of energy-expensive machines.
Well, it might not be what I was looking for, but it'll sure help us if I manage to get it to light this place up, Blossom thought. She looked around and found one of the buttons quite inviting, with the big 'Start' which was written on it and all. Okay, here goes nothing, she said before pressing it down.
The machine instantly began roaring as it came back from its prolonged state of inactivity, event that startled Blossom and made her fly back to safety.
"What's going on?" Buttercup's voice said in the distance, followed right after by Bubbles' own call. "Hey, girls, what's all the noise about?"
The machine continued to hum until it reached a stable state, after which the lights in the lab were suddenly turned on.
Blossom smiled at her accomplishment. "I found what looks like a power generator, and I turned it on! This should help us find something way faster!"
"WHAT?! You just turned up what seemed to be a power generator? What if it wasn't? Geez, and I thought I was the reckless one here…"
"Huh? What do you mean? What did you do?" Blossom replied, suspicious about her sister's reference.
"Uh… Nothing!"
"Girls!" Bubbles voice interjected, preventing Blossom from investigating further. "It's not what we're looking for, but I just found something you have to see here!"
"What is it, Bubbles?" Blossom shouted. She didn't want to lose more time than needed.
"…it's a bit hard to describe. Can you come here yourselves?"
She sighed before replying. "Fine, I'm coming. Buttercup, keep looking around while I see what Bubbles want."
She heard Buttercup grumble an acknowledgement, along with other words she decided to ignore. She hovered over the height of the various shelves before heading for Bubbles' location. The flight didn't take her long; indeed, having the lights on was proving to be very helpful.
When she reached her sister, she found her standing on the ground in wait.
"So, what's so important then?" Blossom said as she landed at her side.
Bubbles limited herself to raise her arm and point forward before saying, "Look."
Blossom at first didn't see anything remotely interesting to. A working table, some wooden shelves, an abandoned pot, some other machines…
Then, a memory came back into its mind when she noticed one of the machines looked strange in its design. It somewhat resembled a sea urchin with all those spikes…
Then, it hit her. That machine… she knew what it was.
…but still, I'm right here writing while on of the spikes comes out of my stomach. I doubt I will be alive when assistance arrives.
At the bottom of the machine, there was a reddish stain, dark and dry, but still recognizable by the girls. It had not been cleaned away at the time of the event. At once, everything in the area got its meaning: the table, the pot, the machine…
"…this is where Donnie was born, isn't it?" Blossom whispered.
Bubbles nodded, as she was at loss of words. She was staring in particular at the stain on the floor.
"…listen, I know it's not pretty, but that has happened a long time ago. It's the past now. We still got to see Professor Laurentium… sort of, and he looked fine. We don't need to think over it any more than needed… Let's just continue our research, Bubbles."
That said, Blossom turned around, but before she could fly back to her previous location, Bubbles stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Blossom, wait. Look at that."
The redhead saw a shelf full of documents, something that she had yet to find in the laboratory. The papers had seen better days, but the contents looked still readable.
"Is it the first one you saw as well?" Blossom asked.
"Yep."
"There must be important info in there if it's so rare, then. Come on, let's get to work," Blossom said, but before they could take a single step towards the papers, the ground rumbled.
"Ugh, now what? Buttercup!" Blossom called.
"Wasn't me!" Buttercup replied from the other side of the lab, "There is something right under this-"
Her speech was abruptly cut off as there was a loud noise of earth, metal and concrete being shredded, and a beastly call coming from an unidentified animal right from where Buttercup's voice came.
Bubbles and Blossom right away zapped into flight and flew through the laboratory. Ten seconds was all they needed to join their sister.
Something was trying to get a hold of Buttercup, as the brunette tried to free herself from the grasp of the being. Blossom and Bubbles reacted on pure instinct and fired their eyebeams at the beast, which howled in pain and lessened its grip on Buttercup's legs, enough that she was able to pry herself out of its grasp.
The brunette flew at a safe distance and met up with her sisters.
"Are you okay?" Bubbles asked.
"I'm good, that… thing was fast, but that wasn't enough to get me," Buttercup answered. The three of them then directed their utter attention to the foe that had appeared to confront them.
It was like someone had dreamed of a fantastic animal made up of other animal parts, converted it into a nightmarish style, and put it in front of the Powerpuff Girls.
The right side showed two limbs that looked like raven's paws, while the left side ones were covered with reptile-like scales. The same applied for the snake-like tail, but it didn't for the feline-like construction of the main body.
The most grotesque feature however was the face of the creature, which was not identifiable as a part of an animal. It was like random pieces had been assembled in an even more random way, resulting in something that could be described only as an abomination. Eyes, holes that you couldn't be sure were noses or ears, everything was placed without a proper rule. The only thing that stood out were the jaws and the menacing teeth that lined them. The creature may also not have been as big as a Monster Isle inhabitant, but it was still as big as an elephant.
Overall, the mutant looked more like a zombie rather than a proper living being. Its body parts were not covered by skin for a notable portion of its body, and in some areas its internal organs, which were more of a mangled mess rather than normal viscera, were visible. There was however no blood or sign the creature suffered from all of this. There was no way something like that would have been capable to stay alive… yet, it was, and at the moment it was mad, as it opened its jaws and emitted a screech that made the Powerpuff Girls flinch.
"Okay, stay put. We can beat it, let's try to keep him busy from all sides and-" Blossom stopped when the creature leaped towards them without notice, at a speed they were not expecting at all from it.
"SCATTER!" the leader shouted, and the girls dashed away in three different directions as the Chimaera slashed at them with its two different sets of claws, reptilian ones and talons alike.
The monster landed on a mixture of machines, crushing them with ease. Then, he looked around in search of its prey and registered the fact that the girls were now separated from each other. Before the Powerpuffs could regroup, the Chimaera leaped towards Bubbles' location.
The blue puff prepared herself for the upcoming battle. The monster opened its mouth but when its teeth closed into each other it ate nothing but air, as Bubbles was already behind it and kicked it on its back, hard.
The creature screeched and as soon as it touched the ground, it leaped on the opposite side almost instantly, taking aback Bubbles with its speed. This time, its slashing scored a hit.
"Gaah!" Bubbles shrieked as she flew away from the monstrous being, which would have been already on hot pursuit if it wasn't for Buttercup and Blossom who respectively punched it and hit it with a pink energy blast, forcing the creature to retreat.
"Bubbles! You okay?" Buttercup said at the same time while she and Blossom moved back, keeping their stare on the beast.
"…I'm good, I'm good… don't let it hit you, those claws are sharp!" Bubbles reassured. Her right arm had some deep cuts in it, some drops of bloods leaving her body. Her healing powers were actually already kicking in, but those couldn't do anything about the pain.
"I'm making sure that thing regrets ever crossing our path!" Buttercup shouted, just in time as the Chimaera took the initiative and jumped again with its jaws ready to take them in its clutches.
Blossom and Buttercup both fired their eyebeams before moving sidewards to evade the creature's mouth, which landed a shot on the creature's face. It screeched in pain, but nevertheless continued its path and slashed its claws at Bubbles, who this time was able to avoid the attack easily, being well aware of how dangerous it was to be in range of those talons.
Buttercup and Blossom followed the beast, and when it landed it found himself in close quarters combat with the two puffs. They began to attack him with all they got, punches, kicks and such. It tried to react with its claws, but the girls were fast, unrelenting and small, and every attempt resulted in another punch in its guts. It roared furiously and suddenly changed tactic: it crushed both forelimbs into the floor, breaking the concrete like it was plastic, and raised its body in the air.
The girls retreated above in an attempt to keep it under them, but that was exactly the opposite of what they should have done, as the creature bent its forelimbs and used them to take another powerful leap, basically flying backwards. It somewhat was able to locate the position of the two puffs in space as both limbs tackled the two girls. The reptile limb hit Buttercup as a powerful fist, sending her on another part of the lab, crushing machines and wood alike, but Blossom was not so lucky, as the bird limb closed itself around her body, effectively trapping the little girl.
"Blossom! Buttercup!" Bubbles shouted as she saw her two sisters in danger. Deciding that Buttercup could do without her for a moment, she pursued the beast with the purpose to help Blossom. But the Chimaera didn't waste any time.
As soon as it reached the ground, the monster exchanged its prey from the back limbs to the fore ones, and Blossom did not even have the time to realize what was going to happen as the monster literally shoved her into its jaws.
"BLOSSOM!" Bubbles screamed. Every bit of fright left her, and she charged the monster with a frontal assault. The Chimaera therefore turned only to have a blue punch crack its way into its teeth, effectively demolishing part of them. The pain was too much even for the nightmarish being, and the force in its mouth was weakened enough to let a pink streak exit from the death trap (crashing additional teeth in the process).
The two of them flew up away until they reached the ceiling of the laboratory, and only at that moment Bubbles decided to finally ask, "Blossom…?"
Blossom had parts of her dress literally melted, and on those parts her skin had been consumed, not enough to reach the flesh inside thank goodness. Apart from some additional cuts and purple, dense stains of mutant saliva all over her, she was alright and did not sustain serious injuries.
"I'm okay, but let's try to stop that thing before it does something more than this!" Blossom almost shouted quickly, the experience albeit short had clearly shook her. Bubbles nodded and the two of them whirled their bodies to face the beast.
The Chimaera was furious beyond any limit. It screeched again and prepared itself to leap again towards the two girls… forgetting about the third one. Buttercup had no mercy whatsoever as she attacked from the back and stormed the mutant with everything she got. After a minute the damage was so serious one of her punches went through its skin. Even Buttercup had to move back when her fist reached the internal parts of the monster's body because of the nausea it gave her.
Blossom and Bubbles finished her work by kicking together the being while it wailed in pain into a group of machines, demolishing everything in its trail. The mutant cried out with another unnatural call before finally getting back on its limbs and glaring and the Powerpuff Girls. Then, it suddenly turned and sprinted away, towards the hole from where he had come from.
"After him!" Buttercup shouted, but she was stopped in mid-flight as Blossom grabbed one of her legs.
"Blossom, what the heck? That thing is one hundred percent coming from the same guy who got Donnie! We got to chase it and-"
"You want to follow it through the same tunnel it came from? Which goes who knows where? It might be a trap or worse, for all we know."
Buttercup frowned at the insistence of her sister, but when she turned to see where the monster was, the being had already disappeared out of sight.
"Ugh! I hope you're happy, it's already gone…"
Blossom sighed and released the grip on her sister's leg. She looked around to examine the current state of the laboratory.
"This place is a mess now…" Bubbles let out.
She was right. The battle, while short, had caused vast damage around the big chamber, and debris of all types were littering the floor. Machines had been destroyed, liquids were spilled everywhere, shelves had fallen over. It was chaos.
"We did not need this…" Blossom said as her eyes scanned around the chamber, trying to find something that could be of use for them. It was hard to find anything before, but now… it was nearly impossible.
"Girls, wait. I think I see something down there," Buttercup said. Her two sisters cocked their heads interrogatively, but she did not explain herself, deciding to move directly into the object that had captured her attention.
The brunette landed between cracked wood and pieces of metal, in front of what seemed to be a steel box, half covered by other wreckage parts. A genius wasn't needed to understand that it was hidden before, and that the attack of the mutant had somehow helped revealing its existence to the girl.
Buttercup hovered over the suspicious object and cleaned the surface out of the debris, bringing into view a lock. Blossom and Bubbles joined her at her sides shortly after.
"I think we just hit jackpot," Buttercup said before grabbing the lock and tearing it away from the box like it was made of foam. Blossom raised an eyebrow but did not scold her. There was neither time nor reasons to be careful or respectful of the container's integrity.
The green puff slowly opened the case. Inside, the Powerpuff Girls found an overwhelming quantity of paper. Folders, files, all types of documents on which the girls easily recognized the handwriting as the one of Professor Laurentium, the one they remembered from his journal. They didn't even have to dig into the contents that much as one of the top cartels had a certain name plastered on its cover.
PORTER - POST UGL ACCIDENT.
Buttercup took the cartel and opened it, revealing words written in Esperanto.
"Huh, that weird language again... Bubbles, it's up to you again," she said as she passed the document over to her sister. Bubbles took a breath of fresh air and started reading out the text.
Porter is alive. He has been trying to stay in the dark, but his attempts to spy over my work have been easily tracked by my control detectors. I should have already given this information to the authorities… but I don't think that may be a good idea… I actually do not know what to do, either. Porter should be dead, but he's not… and how that is possible makes me fear what he's capable of. Bringing this into the public eye may backfire fast, and I don't want to risk it. Not yet.
I have no idea if anyone is going to find these papers, but if you do, it means that I'm not here anymore, be that because of Porter himself, or anything else. In this cartel you will find everything I've been able to learn about him and its current whereabouts until the last moment I touched the cartel. From locations to activities… everything I knew, has been put here and other cartels you'll find in this box.
I pray that this will be enough to help you stop Porter… before his own madness does more damage and inflicts more pain than he already did.
The girls shared a glance without a word. Then, Bubbles began to go through the pages fast, looking for the only info they needed right now the location of Porter's hideout.
Because now, they knew that Donnie was in great danger.