.
Chapter 5
The Scheme
It was a slow process, but over time, he started to feel his body again. He tried to move his hands and legs, just to make sure they were still there, and he was satisfied to discover they were not missing. The dizziness was still strong though, so he timidly opened his eyes, trying to get a hold of where he was, of who he was.
Then, a blinding light hit his pupils, and with it all the memories of the recent events returned to Donnie, boosting up his powers and energies while at the same time cancelling every trace of the drug he had been injected with. The original plan with the girls, the Rowdyruff Boys' arrival, the surprise attack with the smoke, Mojo Jojo, the energy cage.
Doctor Porter.
The boy sat up, lifting himself off the ground he was lying on. He was still trapped in an energy cage, the bars emitting a pulsing, blinding light that served also as an additional light source for the room. The room itself was different from the previous one… no more screens or control modules, this chamber was way bigger and closer in look to a standard laboratory.
Donnie noticed that only the walls and the floor were made in concrete. The ceiling was on the other hand an irregular surface of rock and terrain, and there was a simple metal frame supporting it. It was a fair distance away from him, up in the air… he would have been able to fly easily around here, if he had the chance.
Maybe there was a way to cave into the earth above and reach the surface… but there was no way to tell how much down in the ground he was.
"Good. You're awake. It's time to begin."
Donnie quickly turned in alarm and he found himself in front of the main culprit of his current predicament.
"Porter! What are you going to do?!" Donnie hissed, the hostility clear in his voice.
"Hmm. So, you do remember my name. Thought you had already forgotten about," the Doctor asked, ignoring his question. His tone was one of sincere curiosity.
"I don't just remember your name. I know everything, who you are, and what you've done!" Donnie said. "The Professor has written about you in his journal. Your wrongdoings, your madness… no way you're up to anything good."
Doctor Porter laughed to his response, and Donnie felt his fists tighten. How this was so entertaining was beyond him.
"Oh, poor old Bronislav. I was really getting on his nerves, wasn't I? Oh well, I can say that the feeling was mutual… but you are wrong in assuming that you know me that well, infra-human. Bronislav didn't know everything about me… and, consequentially, you don't."
Donnie narrowed his eyes but didn't open his mouth to speak.
As much as he hated it, the Doctor had a point.
As far as he knew, Doctor Porter should have been dead by that moment, lost in the debris of the incident at UGL, years ago. But here he was, standing in front of him, with an hateful smile plastered on his face.
They had missed him completely. Either that… or Professor Laurentium didn't write everything he knew about Porter in his journal.
He kept staring at the boy with amusement. "There is so much you don't know about me… about your own creator, even. But that is not my problem… we should have visitors join us shortly."
He remained silent, and Donnie heard voices getting closer and closer to the room. The 'visitors' Porter referred to possibly included Mojo Jojo, but there was someone else with him. Who could it be?
Then, it came to him, and he let out a gasp.
Oh, this was not good. Not at all.
The nearest slide door turned on, the metal screeching as the two parts slid into their hatches in the side walls. Then, Mojo Jojo marched into the laboratory, still frowning at the sight of Doctor Porter… followed right after by the Rowdyruff Boys.
"I really hope you're not wasting our time, Mojo. For your own sake, I mean…" Brick warned as he glanced around the room, at first failing to notice either Porter or Donnie.
"You may show some respect, Rowdyruff, as I, Mojo Jojo, will not tolerate any more of your pathetic threats!" Mojo Jojo uttered, but Brick only scoffed in response and ignored him. That was when Doctor Porter walked up to meet the new arrivals, and the boys actually realized there was someone else in the room.
"Ugh, who's this guy? A four-eyes geezer? I thought you were allying with someone cool, Mojo," Butch commented, unimpressed by Porter's look. Boomer cocked his head, unsure if Mojo was serious or not when he'd mentioned having a somewhat interesting business partner.
Porter's smile didn't flinch at the boy's rude remark. "I've lost a few dioptres in the past, that is true, but I assure you that these glasses are more of a habit really. Today I can still use my sight properly without them. Nevertheless, I'll assume Mojo Jojo has already told you about me," Mojo Jojo grunted in confirmation, "so I'll skip the presentations and get to the subject at hand. I have a little offer for you, Rowdyruff Boys."
"Hold on, four-eyes," Brick interjected. "We didn't get here to take some orders from another clueless villain with some mad plan about world domination. The day has already gone to heck for us, so if you'll excuse me, I'd want to take off and leave this darn city to go break some stuff to cool down… away from the Powerpuffs."
Boomer and Butch nodded. They seriously hated having suffered another defeat at the hands of the Powerpuffs, but today they weren't just beaten, they had been literally destroyed in a four against three battle. As much as they'd have liked to give the girls and their sissy friend a lesson not to be forgotten, they just wanted to take their leave more.
Porter brought one of his hands to his chin, and he observed in thought the three boys for some seconds before repliying.
"I understand your current… emotions, boys, but let me finish before jumping to conclusions. The Powerpuff Girls are coming right here, and they're coming for me. While I believe that the odds are our favour regardless and that they shouldn't be a major nuisance, it would still take time and focus, two things I currently do not have. I do not want to be bothered by them for the next half an hour if possible, and this is where you three come in. I need you to confront the girls and slow them down, just long enough to let me and our mutual friend, Mojo Jojo, complete our job."
Brick, Boomer and Butch glared at Porter for some seconds, then the leader said, "Nice plan. Too bad we ain't having any part in it. See you around, methuselah!"
"You won't?" Porter pressed on. "Not even when you would get to see the new friend of the Powerpuff Girls you've recently met be beaten up, then receive the worst of the punishments, and eventually be disposed of?"
That said, the Doctor pointed with one of his steel-gloved hands at the energy cage, and the Rowdyruff Boys realized who was locked inside. Their looks suddenly changed as their eyes lit up, and Porter smiled with satisfaction.
On the other hand, Donnie wasn't happy at all to see the three boys. That, and how the Doctor had mentioned something about being beaten up, punished, and eventually killed.
"Hmm… I gotta say, the idea to see him fall to his knees in defeat and pain… a lot of pain, is not that bad, methuselah," Brick admitted as he looked at Donnie with an evil smile.
"Not bad? Brick, that'd be one of the greatest things ever! We get to see this sissy crying for help, like he should-OUCH!" Boomer trailed off, only to have his brother shush him with a rude but efficient hit on the head.
"I assure you that the test that will take place here will likely result in such a scene," the Doctor explained further. "In addition to this, feel free to accept a little present from me as a token of my good intentions."
From the depths of his lab coat, Porter picked up what appeared to be a simple key.
"This key enables the controls in one of my Containment Farms, number seven in particular. You don't need to exactly know what that is, but I have a feeling that what you will be able to do there is going to be quite an entertaining experience for you, especially when you unleash my, well… creations, on the Powerpuff Girls. Within that farm, you have absolute free rein."
Porter threw the key to the Rowdyruff Boys, and Butch quickly flew up to catch the object in mid-air. He was very interested, judging by his grin.
Brick was trying to maintain his composure, but he was eager to know what the four-eyes was talking about as well. In the end, he gave in to his desires and said, "All right, methuselah, you got us. We'll do it… but nothing more! We ain't saving your butt in case the Powerpuffs get through and change those weird metal gloves you have into dust, got it?"
"Very clear, Brick of the Rowdyruffs. Leave through that door there," Porter said, motioning them to move towards another entrance at the opposite side of the room. "Right out of that exit you should find a map of this wing of the tunnel complex. Give the panel a quick look to find where Containment Farm VII is. The Powerpuff Girls should come nearby once they gain entry, so lure them into the chamber first. After that, they are all yours."
"As weird as it sounds to me, I'm starting to like the way you think, four-eyes! If only Mojo was like that even a little bit!" Butch exclaimed as he flew away following the direction Porter showed them, Boomer right behind on his trail.
Brick rolled his eyes before nodding to the Doctor and hovering away to join his brothers. Soon the three of them left the chamber, leaving Porter alone with Mojo and their prisoner.
"Morons…" Mojo Jojo growled, "their behaviour towards me has been far from being bearable! They will need to be lectured about how to properly show respect towards me, after we are finished with this ordeal."
"Don't mind them, Mojo Jojo," Doctor Porter reassured, "they're just infra-humans, after all. Creations of a chemical reaction of unknown properties… until now at least. You should not concern yourself with what 'experiment results' think about you, and, well… concerning the last comment uttered by the one named Butch, I just happen to have mastered the art of dialectics and how to get people to believe what I want them to. I meant no offense in my behaviour and the consequent reaction from those infra-humans."
Mojo Jojo answered with annoyance, though he looked somewhat calmer. "Umph… I see. I do hope that those brats will do something good for once and actually succeed at destroying the Powerpuffs with the mutants you've given them. After witnessing to failure after failure from them, I'm willing to give your creations the benefit of the doubt, after what the boys on their own failed to achieve."
Mutants? Donnie thought as he listened to the villains' discussion. What are they talking about…eeùù? What has Porter been doing here?
"I'm sure they will at least give the infra-humans from America a challenge they won't forget. However, I'd say we're trailing off. Let's get back to the subject at hand, shall we?"
Mojo Jojo folded his arms before replying. "You were just about to be out of time, Porter… I suppose you are now going to give me some proper explanations, as I, Mojo Jojo, though owning a genius far superior to yours or any intelligent living being in the world, where intelligent is relative to flatworms, have yet to gain the skill to read lesser being minds. Is that the case?"
"Exactly, dear colleague," Porter said, his tone unmoved and serene despite Mojo's not so hidden insults. "You need an introduction of sorts to the matter I called you here for in the first place. Now, where to begin?"
He pondered for a few seconds before resuming his speech. "You see, Mojo Jojo… Professor Laurentium, the creator of this little infra-human here, had been my greatest rival in science and beyond. For the very first time when I met him, I instantly realized how miserable and offensive he and his methods were, compared to mine. I spent the entirety of my time 'fighting' him for control and influence, trying to show other people how his views were flawed, how he was just slowing down the process of scientific research."
"Hmm, does that mean you're moved out of vengeance, then? A pitiful motif, but despicable nonetheless…" Mojo commented, scratching his chin.
Donnie couldn't help gritting his teeth as he listened to the conversation between the two. He was very much unhappy to hear about Porter's thoughts concerning his father, but he didn't open his mouth. He was talking behind his creator with lies and slanders, but he felt like there was something else beyond that, behind Porter's words.
So he waited for him to continue.
At Mojo's reply, Porter let out a chuckle, surprising both Mojo and Donnie. "Sorry, Mojo Jojo, for my informality… but I actually expected you to say so. And frankly, I understand why you feel like vengeance his my goal here. There was a time where I indeed felt hatred as soon as his face entered my sight… but that is the past now. Once he stopped breathing, he stopped to disturb my thoughts. In fact, his death to me was like I was liberated by a great burden, as if without Bronislav, a stone had been just removed from my stomach. What delighted me more than anything else, though, wasn't just joy from the news of his death, but the thought that Bronislav had indeed been a poor excuse for a scientist. The way he died, in particular, was the definitive confirmation for me that he was an incompetent fool. But then, his last experiment, the result of his utmost failure, and living embodiment of it… it returned to Ultrapolis and made things right."
Porter turned to face Donnie. The face of the Doctor had been neutral the entire time, but now, actual signs of anger could be seen in the furrowed wrinkles of his brow, but Donnie wasn't frightened by his penetrating gaze. If anything, the boy was even angrier at him.
"What? Were you surprised by the fact that the Professor had been able to outdo you once again?" Donnie retorted, glaring at the tall man.
Porter scoffed. "Hm. Are you trying to make me lose my temper, infra-human? That's laughable. No wonder you're just scrap. The exact opposite result of what should have been."
"I don't care what you think, Porter! Say whatever you want to me, you're just wasting your breath with me."
"Maybe. But that's why I'm barely concerned with talking to you."
Porter faced the evil monkey again, turning his back to Donnie. "Mojo Jojo, what I want you to understand is that my target is not to take my revenge towards Professor Laurentium, or rather, not him as an individual at least. In the months following my recovery from an… unexpected incident, I built this underground tunnel network as my base of operations and continued my experiments without the need to cover my activities or deal with annoyances from the state… or even Bronislav himself. I was able to reach new heights with my work here, something he would never have been able to achieve with his useless, limiting morals. And when I discovered of his last experiment, I felt like it was the final proof of my superiority over him and his way of working. He tried to replicate the creation of infra-humans, and the one he named 'Donnie' was a total failure. Yet, he returned and became a hero of the city. And this was something I could not tolerate."
The supposed old man closed his fists and the metal screeched under the pressure as he continued. "'Donnie' was nothing more than a flawed skeleton of something way better, and I felt the need to demonstrate it. I have tried multiple times to put him through tests of various sorts, examining its strengths and weaknesses alike. But he was always able to pass all of them, be they simple robbers paid by myself, more respectful mercenaries, and the such."
Wait… the sudden increase in criminality… was not caused by me! It was caused by him! Donnie suddenly realized, all the clues piecing together in his mind. Porter had been until now putting him into these tests, by setting up the worst criminality events that occurred in Ultrapolis.
Porter was now looking again at Donnie. A scowl was on his face.
"I reached a point where I had almost consumed every viable option. The infra-human looked neigh impervious to anything I put him through. But then, the idea struck me…"
In another room of the tunnel network, two weeks earlier, Doctor Porter let a powerful punch fall on one of the tables. The wood broke like paper under the momentum of the metal fist.
The Doctor swore and shouted furiously as he continued to march around and destroy whatever object had the unfortunate idea to stand in his way. The fact that those had no way to actually move out of the way on their own wasn't important to him at the moment.
Not too far from the raging man, a pair of old but still working monitors showed two different video feeds. The first one displayed a lizard-like creature of enormous size trying to force his way through the conifer forest in the direction of the Great Lake of Ultrapolis. The second one simply showed a yellow beam, moving over Ultrapolis' skyline.
"Impossible… Impossible! There's no way it could prevail against that!" the Doctor cried, grabbing a shelf full of books and launching it away like small rocks. His rampage reached an end there, as he started to focus on his heavy breaths. Despite his almost 60-year-old look, he didn't cough or show any sign of physical weakness, simply slowing down his breath rate every passing second.
"I… I don't need… to let myself lose control. This was… a possibility, after all. I'll just have to put back my schedule… it's not over yet."
He passed one of his metallic hands over his forehead, which was completely devoid of sweat, before eventually walking away from the destruction he had caused, moving towards another area of the room.
There he stood and looked at a series of blackboards, opened books and scribbled paper. Every one of these was full of notes concerning everything about the matter of the puffs. The amount of reference to the Powerpuff Girls, their enemies and Townsville was astounding… but the main subject of it did not have anything to do with them. It was about something much more important.
Donnie.
"One month of work… gone to waste, in a matter of minutes," Porter muttered to himself as he sat down beside one of the tables and right away wrote a 'FAILURE' over a cartel. Then, he took all the papers he could see and put them inside the cartel, effectively cleaning the table from the chaos.
"But it can't end here. There must be one flaw inside that thing. One weakness, one test he won't be able to overcome. One that will put an end to its existence."
Doctor Porter took a pen and began drawing with surprising ability. In a few seconds, a black-and-white version of Donnie appeared on the paper, replicating his puff-like look.
"…one error in the formula maybe, in the method used for his creation. One error in the purpose…"
At the word, 'purpose', Porter suddenly realized that he had been drawing without thinking, and he stared in shock at the paper. He had drawn unknowingly a form that was obviously supposed to be a copy of the first drawing, but it was unfinished. It looked like Donnie was standing right beside his own silhouette.
The doctor suddenly stood up from his chair, uttering, "I cannot believe it... How haven't I thought about this before?"
He quickly walked away, moving with ease between the shadows of the objects around him, before stopping in front of a wall that was full of dossiers of all sorts. There were various names on the drawers, but Porter was interested in only one, and he remembered clearly where to find it.
He extracted from the group the drawer with the label 'MOJO JOJO' on it, and he began to navigate through the contents inside.
"Anubi's head… ape army… various alliances… other questionable plans… but it must be here… ah-ha!"
His mouth twisted itself into a smile, an evil one, and he extracted the cartel he had been looking for.
"The Rowdyruff Boys. Exactly."
He gave a quick read to the notes inside as he thought, this, this is what I have to do! I have been blinded by the desire to find the weak spot in the infra-human, when I should've spent my efforts elsewhere! A much easier and more direct way to put it into a test that will finally return the result I seek.
He looked around as he kept monologuing to himself, like he wanted to help himself remember his own words. "The chimpanzee known as Mojo Jojo had the rightest of the ideas. He was unlucky though and had to resort to makeshift means to pursue his goal… something that brought the Rowdyruff Boys to failure. Even in their newly found form, they are nothing but a shadow of what they should have been: machines able to destroy everything in their path, including the Powerpuff Girls. Not even the spells of a demon could cure them from their imperfection."
His eyes finally fell on his next target. Beakers, containing a dark orange liquid.
"I, however, are not in that same situation… but even so, I'll need all the help I can get to secure the best possible result out of the experiment. To create something that is, from every point of view, perfect, efficient, superior to anything appearing before it. Superior to the Powerpuff Girls. Superior to the Rowdyruff Boys. And, ultimately, superior to Donnie."
Doctor Porter clapped his hands. "It's sealed. This time, the test will finally end up with a positive result. The one I have long been waiting for…"
Mojo Jojo eyed Porter with a raised eyebrow.
"I have my own doubts about this plan, one that I, Mojo Jojo, have already tried to execute, will succeed. Yet, I have to concur that at the time, I had to use something different from Chemical X, or that analogue chemical you appear to use on this continent. Replicating this plan but in a cleaner environment, picturing it like I imagined it in my own mind back then, is something that tempts me without a doubt… very well, I may give you my precious advice, Porter, but hope that the final result will be something worth my time!"
"When the test will be finished, I will likely lose interest in the infra-humans, Mojo Jojo," Porter reassured, "but I'm sure that the new arrival will be eager to measure its strengths with your own enemies, after the test with 'Donnie' will come to an end."
Mojo Jojo nodded, finally finding a good reason to help Doctor Porter out.
However, someone else in the room wasn't of the same idea, and he had just managed to shake himself out of his stupor.
"You're… you're mad! You're out of your mind!"
Porter kneeled beside the energy cage and observed Donnie with a self-satisfied smile. "Mad? What you call madness, I call ideas. For you, I am out of my mind, but for me, I am closer than ever before to actual results!"
"No, you can't! You can't do that! This is wrong! No, I will stop you. I won't let you create anything… do anything!"
Donnie was absolutely terrified by the prospect of Porter's plan. There was no way to tell what could be created out of Porter and Mojo's hands with the Unidentified Y… no way. He had already heard about the mutants… and now this.
He now knew how strong the Rowdyruffs were, despite Porter's words concerning them. If it weren't for the girls, he probably would have been lying on the ground in Ultrapolis' outskirts by now, beaten to a pulp by the three superpowered boys. He knew how they were the most dangerous out of the enemies of the girls, and one of the very few who had been the closest to defeat them.
…and now, Porter wanted to put his own signature on the subject. By creating another ruff.
Or worse.
No. He couldn't let him do that. He needed to stop him before he could do something bad. He was stronger than he was six months ago, that was not something Porter could deny. He knew he could do it. No matter the cost, he had to put an end to the Doctor's plan!
Donnie was determined, and he looked at Porter right into eyes without making a single step back.
But the Doctor wasn't surprised.
"Stubborn, little 'boy'. While I'm not interested in anything but the test itself, I think I will enjoy seeing you wheeze and cough in pain and despair, at the mercy of my creation."
He stood up, losing interest in him, and he approached Mojo Jojo, who had been smiling the entire time, amused by Donnie's reaction. "Let's get started, Mojo Jojo. The first problem we need to deal with are the ingredients. We have to-"
The ground trembled, and a thundering sound echoed through the room and the walls around them. Earth portions of the ceiling fell from above them as well.
"The Powerpuff Girls," Mojo Jojo stated with a low tone. "The brats are already here. I could recognize their method of sneaking in from any possible distance."
"We have to be fast, then. It wouldn't be polite to let them arrive while we're still working now, would it?"
"Buttercup!"
"What? Don't give me that look, you just told us we needed to break in!" Buttercup said.
"I did not ask you to blast the door away like that! Now everyone in the entire country knows we're here, thanks to you!" Blossom pointed an accusing finger towards her sister.
"Well, since Ultrapolis is supposed to be semi-independent, we technically are in a very small country…" Bubbles said, only to have her sister direct one of her coldest glares at her. She gulped before quickly adding, "Heh, just saying, Blossom! That's just a small detail!"
"Well, if you two are done discussing geography, we got a friend to save and a four-eyes geezer to deal with!" Buttercup stated before sprinting into the darkness of the tunnel she had just opened up.
"Buttercup! Wait!" Blossom called out before flying in an attempt to catch up with her. Bubbles shrugged before flying into the tunnel herself.
Buttercup had not flown that far, though. In a minute, Bubbles and Blossom found her hovering in the air in what seemed to be an intersection of multiple tunnels. Some of them were closed by manmade doors, others were not, but in general there was just enough light to let normal humans see through, thanks to rare led lights placed on the ceiling. One of the tunnels was even completely enveloped in darkness.
"Gee, of course we get this…" Buttercup groaned as she looked around in search of a path to follow. No info labels were present whatsoever, so they apparently had no way to decide where to go.
"There's an entire tunnel system here… the Doctor has surely worked for a long time to get these tunnels done," Bubbles noted.
"Yeah, and that will slow us down. Again!" Blossom exclaimed. "We don't have the time to explore all of these galleries, for all we know they may be miles long… we need to think smart before we keep going."
Her eyes darted around the openings until her pupils stopped over one of the metallic doors. "It must be one of the ones that are closed by doors. Porter wouldn't have placed them if he didn't want to protect something behind."
"Good thinking, leader girl… Now let me handle the execution." Buttercup grinned as she prepared an energy blast on the hand, but Blossom seized her arm before she could launch it.
"No, Buttercup. We do like I say, this time," she said sternly. Then, she hovered in front of the door, just the distance needed to let the sensors sense an obstruction and the two halves slid into the walls, opening way for the three puffs.
"See? As always, intelligence beats muscles," Blossom said, winking at her brunette sister. Buttercup scoffed, replying with a disappointed, "Ugh. Lame…"
However, she nonetheless followed her along with Bubbles. The three of them flew through the new tunnel, which slowly changed its appearance as they kept going. More pavement covering the ground, more concrete protecting the sides, more signs of human presence.
In a minute, they reached another metallic door, which creaked open mechanically as soon as they were in front of it. There was no simple intersection of tunnels however ahead of them.
The girls hovered into the new chamber, to find something they did not expect. The space available for them to fly was far bigger than the one in the tunnel. A walkway circled what seemed to be a large, deep pool, the contains of which were unknown, shrouded by darkness. The lights that could be spotted on the walkaway were too weak to reach the depths below, so the only clue about what was being kept down there was…
"Bleah!" Buttercup couldn't help letting out, visibly disgusted. "What the heck is down there? I don't like to clean up that often myself, but this smells like it's beyond repair!"
Blossom and Bubbles were of the same idea. The leader girl kept her nose blocked with her hands as she said, "Let's just keep going. I see an exit on the other side of the abyss."
Buttercup didn't wait for further orders. She hovered forward, flying directly above the basin.
"Buttercup, wait!" Blossom called, but her sister turned back while still moving towards the other side, saying, "Bloss, there's no way I'm staying here for more than what is needed to cross this pool. Geez, do you like this smell?"
Bubbles wasn't paying attention to what her sisters were doing. There was a small electrical display on the metal fence of the walkway. Terminal lines were being displayed cyclically, showing a message written in Esperanto. What she read there was far from being reassuring.
Reproduction Basin #3.
Current task… manual sterilization, requiring human intervention. Reasoning: loss of control over the biological evolution and genetic recombination within the basin. Precautions must be taken when entering the basin chamber. Waiting…
WARNING. Levels of genetic recombination are above a critical threshold; chances of Titan creation in the basin are non-negligible. Sterilization is URGENT.
She didn't understand the details, but it didn't sound good. And Buttercup was right above the basin now!
Fighting the horrid odour, Bubbles shouted at her sister. "Buttercup! Get out! Now!"
The brunette raised an eyebrow and took an interrogative glance at her blonde sister. "Bubbles, why are you even shouting? There's nothing here but the stinky smell. I don't-"
She suddenly disappeared from Blossom and Bubbles' sight as a tentacle compared out of nowhere, bolting up between them and their sisters. The tentacle thrust itself towards the green puff, but Buttercup, while surprised, was not taken aback and she dodged easily the thing before it could hit her.
Blossom and Bubbles flew to the rescue as soon as the tentacle came into view, but just as they were going to fire their eyebeams at the thing, two additional tentacles came out of the darkness of the basin below them and put themselves in front of the two puffs.
Blossom and Bubbles didn't stop their movement, however. Their goal was still to join back with Buttercup as soon as possible. The tentacles were just an obstacle to be overcome.
Blossom inhaled a large puff of air, and a moment after that she released a strong wave of ice-breath. The tentacle facing her was frozen solid and immediately fell back into the pool. Meanwhile, Bubbles waited patiently for her own tentacle to attack.
The appendix suddenly charged forward with its point aimed at Bubbles' chest, but the girl was faster. She avoided the thrust and grabbed the tentacle from the side, stopping it into a steel block. Then, Blossom arrived at her side and she fired her eyebeams at the tentacle, effectively cutting it in two. Bubbles released her grip and the two parts of the appendix fell back from where they came.
The two of them turned towards Buttercup, but she wasn't in trouble. To be more precise, she was currently ripping her own tentacle apart.
"Haven't they taught you that it's rude to flank people like that?" she taunted as she punched the remains of the tentacle one more time, before letting them fall into the pool again. She then gave a look to Blossom and Bubbles as they approached her.
"That was… easy?"
"Too easy…" Blossom added.
"We must get out of here, girls. I read that the thing here-!"
Bubbles was cut off as something screeched from behind, and finally the real inhabitant of Reproduction Basin #3 made its appearance. The girls slowly whirled their bodies and unconsciously flew back a little bit as they realized what was in front of them.
There was a giant being occupying more than half of the space of the entire chamber, far bigger than the monster they had previously fought in Laurentium's lab. Tentacles of all sorts and lengths dotted its entire body, but apart from that it looked like a disjointed mass of random organic masses. The only thing that the girls felt confident about concerning this thing was that it was furious.
"OUT! OUT! NOW!" Blossom cried out.
The girls scattered as an army of various tentacles was fired at them from the Titan. They had to keep going as tentacles began to try to stab or seize them from all directions. It seemed like the Titan had filled the entire chamber with its appendixes, from which tentacles sprouted out like grass leaves growing instantly.
Blossom gritted her teeth and punched forward, getting a tentacle out of her way only to have another one replace it. She fired once again her eyebeams and the laser sliced through it easily. These things might have been weaker than the monster they fought earlier when picked alone, but there were far too many of them!
Still flying, Blossom noticed what seemed to be the only viable solution at the moment, that is, the exit they had seen when first entering the basin chamber. Getting a hold of her breath and praying Bubbles and Buttercup would hear it, she cried out into the chaos. "GIRLS! EXIT, NOW!"
She kicked the last tentacle out of her way and dodged the thrust of another, then she zoomed right towards the exit door. Tentacles began to pursue her, but she was faster than all of them. The Titan roared behind her… or at least emitted a unnatural call that could be classified as a 'roar'.
She was the first one to reach the exit. She didn't waste more time than needed and directly broke through the door, slamming it open and throwing the entire door wing away into the tunnel. As soon as she did, an alarm began to ring and a third door frame began to slide downwards from above.
Blossom gasped when she realized what she had done and instantly went to stop the thing from going down further. She struggled to keep the frame steady, but surprisingly, while she could slow it down, the sheer weight of it was too much. It wasn't Duranium: the emergency door must have been made out of an extremely large piece of metal which was hidden above her. She probably would have been able to keep it up normally, but she had spent a lot of energy in the last few seconds and she was out of breath.
While her hands kept pushing back at the emergency door, she glanced towards the basin and saw Bubbles and Buttercup coming towards her with an army of tentacles right on their trail. The Titan itself was moving in order to get nearer to its prey as well. Blossom knew that she needed to let the emergency door shut itself just a blink of the eye after her sisters made it through. It was either that or risking the Titan making it out of the basin chamber!
Okay, calm down, Blossom, focus… she thought as she frowned in concentration. Right after they come in, let it go… just a little after… a single instant after…
"NOW, BLOSSOM!" Bubbles shouted as she and Buttercup literally threw themselves into the space left below the door, and Blossom mechanically let it fall down. It collided with the floor with a booming sound, followed by the noises of organic material bumping into the frame of the shut door, on the other side.
Bubbles and Buttercup flew to the door and began to push it against the force of the tentacles on the other side, and Blossom joined them in no time after recovering from her dizziness. They heard the roars of the Titan as it tried to break free from its prison, but the door did not move of a single centimetre. It had been designed to be resistant even without the presence of the three puffs… with the three of them helping out, the aberration had no chance to get out.
Suddenly, the hits stopped, and the girls gave themselves some seconds to regain their breaths and rest. Their heard sounds of something moving over metal, followed right after by a long, terrible wail. After that, the tunnel network had fallen into silence once again.
"That… that was a close one…" Buttercup said as she cleaned her hands from green mutant blood.
"W-what is wrong with Doctor Porter?" Bubbles asked, her voice almost cracking. "I mean… what kind of man would… create something like that other monster back in the laboratory or… or this? It's… horrible… and ugly…!"
Blossom was worried as well. They were used to fight monsters in Townsville, technically, but even those were a production of natural evolution, even though a strange part of it. They were still somewhat natural, at least as far as she knew. These mutants however… were without a doubt unnatural.
She shuddered as another unsettling wail came from the now quarantined Reproduction Basin. If she hadn't known what was inside beforehand, she probably would have gone there herself to check if someone needed help…
"…we need to keep going," Blossom said, her own words sounding unconvincing to her. "I know it's hard, but the man behind all of this still has Donnie under his grasp. He can't be too far… Come on, follow me."
She began to walk away without waiting for an answer. Bubbles and Buttercup exchanged a glance before scurrying over to follow her.
They continued to follow the tunnel and got farther into the depths of Porter's hideout. They didn't exactly know where they were going, but this was definitely a part that was inhabited. They found additional Reproduction Basins, which they decided to avoid even when none of them had the same warning messages as displayed in the one they had visited, and kept moving along.
They stuck to the main tunnel until they started to hear a new noise. It was a dull sound, and to their ears it was like something was being repeatedly smacked onto the floor.
"You hear that as well, don't you?" Buttercup asked.
"Yeah. What do we do? It might be another one of those… things," Bubbles said.
"Tch… we need to check it to find out. It might be Donnie as well… if he's hitting the ground while hoping for someone to hear him or to break through."
"I have a bad feeling about this, Bloss…" Buttercup replied.
"I… do too. But we don't have a choice."
They kept silent afterwards and resumed to move, hovering up to avoid noises while approaching the source of the noise. They turned left and right for some intersections and passed by various other chambers. Now there were more room types dotting the tunnels' walls, most of them clearly labelled. Minor Laboratories, Archives, and other chambers with complex names.
This place is huge. Doctor Porter must have been building this for so long… Blossom thought as she looked around.
The noise was getting louder, and in no time they found themselves in front of the auto-door which separated them from the source. Bubbles read out the side label for her sisters.
Containment Farm VII.
"What in the world is a Contraption Farm?" Buttercup said with a frown.
"It's Containment… but I have no idea what a 'Containment Farm' is supposed to be." Blossom let out a sigh.
"We have to get in. Stay put, girls."
She was the first one to start moving and the two halves of the door slid into the wall, letting them enter the new area.
The new room was bigger than the Reproduction Basin in size, but there was no pool and the floor and bottom of it coincided. The space here was found above, as the chamber went high up above them, ending with a dome-shaped ceiling at the top. The most noticeable feature was visible on the walls, though.
Every available spot was occupied by a cell, and every cage contained at least a living mutant. There were hundreds of cages covering the side walls, which according to math implied that even more mutants were in the room.
The girls hovered towards the centre and they couldn't help flinching when the mutants, without a doubt feeling their presence, began to emit all types of sounds and noises. Most of them were disturbing to hear for them; some were comparable to painful roars or growls, a few even sounded like screams.
"Blossom, Buttercup… These things… I can't even follow what they're saying. It's like they're constantly screaming in pain, and they don't make sense…" Bubbles cried as she kept herself close to the other two. Buttercup was on full alert, ready for an attack at any moment, while Blossom scanned over the chamber, trying to decide their next move. Despite the chaos made by the mutants, she was sure that the noise they had been following had stopped as soon as they had entered the room.
"I can't hear that tapping sound anymore… maybe it was one of these creatures that was doing it. We might as well keep going… don't let them get to you," she said, turning to her sisters. She gave her most reassuring look to Bubbles in particular, who had her eyes clenched shut and was trying to cover her ears.
"Just ignore them, Bubbles. There's nothing you can do for them, and they cannot harm us until they're imprisoned in their cells."
"That's the point, Blossy."
The speed with which the Powerpuff Girls reacted by speeding upwards with a sudden burst of energy, putting themselves in battle stance, would have left astonished the wisest of the warrior monks.
"Rowdyruff Boys!" Blossom exclaimed, recognizing the voice of Brick right away. The Boys were not visible to them, not yet, but they were without a doubt in the surroundings, hidden somewhere. The girls slowly hovered into in triangle formation, covering each other's backs.
"Eh, Pinkie, always on point when it's obvious. Yeah, that's us," the voice of Brick replied sarcastically. It was an electronic voice, which the girls took as proof that he was talking through a microphone. Their thoughts weren't far from the truth as Brick, Boomer and Butch were currently hidden into one of the side-cells, one that was in reality a disguised control room.
Blossom ignored the remark and continued on. "Why am I not surprised to hear your voice here? You're just the type of guy who would ally with someone like Doctor Porter!"
"Methuselah just gave us an offer we liked, Blossy. That's the only reason we're here, and I assure you, you're all going to experience how fun what he offered us is going to be!"
"Just try it, suckers!" Buttercup challenged, momentarily forgetting that she was surrounded by dozens of bloodlust-driven mutants.
"Gladly! Butch, your turn. Try to release something easy to begin-"
"Free the biggest one, Butch! Free the biggest on-"
BONK!
"Ow!"
"You ain't spoiling all the fun already!"
"But I wanna see the big guy out in the field!"
"Butch, just… do something, before I consider giving Boomer as food to one of those things."
"Aye, aye! Heh… hahaha! Okay, let's see what you can do against this, Powerpuffs!"
The girls tensed up as a command was activated and internal mechanisms began to work behind the walls around them. Slowly, a group of cages opened itself… and the prisoners inside fled right away, after which they began to descend down the chamber, climbing down the cages that were still closed while moving towards the girls.
The creatures were once again a complete different being from those the girls had met before. They were surprisingly small, slightly bigger than the girls themselves but way smaller than a human being. The moved like beetles with three pairs of legs, and their face was a mangled mess. They had enormous eyes without pupils which were fixed on the girls they were trying to reach, the colour of which varied depending on the individual. Their appearance was completed by a thick cover of spikes on the backs of all the mutants: long, sharp, and deadly-looking spikes.
"Butch, those things don't seem like a big deal to me…"
"Hey, it's written there they're actually pretty dangerous! Look, they're called Porcupines, and-"
"Guys, watch, they're going to fight!"
The Rowdyruff Boys went to the windows of the disguised control room to watch the upcoming battle. The girls were still motionless in their triangle formation, while the porcupines kept moving. Some remained at the same level of the girls, gripping on the cages, while others had reached the floor and were moving there to flank the girls. A few more seconds, and they would have surrounded the puffs.
Blossom continued to keep one of the porcupines under her sight. The mutant stood up on its back legs and made an aggressive noise comparable to a squeal. She narrowed her eyes.
"Okay girls, we can do this. I don't know what those things can do, but they can't fly for sure. Keep your distance and blast them from where they can't hit you, got it?"
"You mean we're actually going to fight them?" Bubbles asked.
"Yeah, I mean, these mutants aren't worrying me that much, but what about the boys? Those idiots might just decide to release the entire zoo locked up in here against us," Buttercup added.
"They might do so regardless, if we start to seek them out actively. We better just play their game as long as it gives us space to fight the creatures in small groups, and once we find an opening, we beat them up and keep going… Girls, remember that Donnie must be close. I think the boys are here to slow us down."
"So, your suggestion is…?"
"We deal with this battle as fast as possible, then go and save our friend!"
"Sounds good to me."
With the plan settled, the girls focused their full attention to the porcupine mutants. Just in time, as one of them squealed out a call, and suddenly the entire pack stood up, but they did so on their front paws. That way, their backs were facing the girls, though their heads were still angled enough that their eyes were fixed on the girls.
"What in the world are they-"
Sounds of what seemed like hundreds of tiny explosions were heard, and an instant later a barrage of spikes was fired in their directions
"UP, NOW!" Blossom ordered, and the three of them immediately flew up, barely avoiding the incoming attack. The spikes hit nothing but air, and the barrage was so thick some of them even collided with each other.
"Are you kidding? They fire those spikes? Wasn't that supposed to be a myth or something?"
"They aren't real porcupines, Buttercup," Blossom corrected, "but that doesn't matter. Come on, eyebeams! Return fire!"
The Powerpuff Girls began to retaliate, firing lasers from their eyes at the pack below. But the porcupines were not only snipers but also agile creatures, as they proved to be capable of dodging the eyebeams fired by the girls' eyes and respond with more spikes. For an entire minute, the two sides skirmished without one of the parts actually landing a single hit.
The Boys simply continued to view the battle from their safe location, eager to watch the action unfold. For them, this felt not that different from watching TV.
Then, Buttercup suddenly lost her patience, and instead of using heat vision again, she charged an energy blast on her hand and fired the thing at one of the porcupines. Once again, the mutant avoided the attack, but this time the blast exploded with a green thunder, with a conflagration far more powerful than a classic eyebeam one. The porcupine was too close and the shockwave hit it full force.
The mutant literally disintegrated as soon as the shockwave touched its body.
"Huh! Just as weak as I thought…" Buttercup grunted in slight boredom. Blossom and Bubbles, after registering the event, followed her sisters' example, switching to energy blasts. The porcupines were fast, but not enough to get away from the blasts before the shockwaves could hit them, so in less than a minute the pack was decimated to two members.
"Oh, they're already winning…" Butch said, a frown on his face.
"They aren't! Let me free something more of these things, and these ones as well…" Brick said, starting to mess with the commands of the control panel.
The girls were ready to deal with whatever monster the Rowdyruffs were going to send against them, but Bubbles had another idea in mind as well. They were losing time here, and there was only one way to stop the mutants from being released: stopping the ones who doing the releasing in the first place.
She gazed around the chamber, until her eyes fell on something that looked suspicious. Among the lines of cells that lined the walls, there was one that looked a little different from the others. There was glass between the bars… her supervision wasn't playing tricks on her. That must have been the place where the boys were hiding!
Without telling her sisters, Bubbles dashed towards the control room. Blossom and Buttercup shouted her name when they realized she was going on her own, but the blue puff was so confident she didn't pay attention to them. Once the boys were taken care of, the mutants would stop being a problem too.
But one of the surviving porcupines had fixed its focus on her. The tiny remains of the brain that were plastered in the mutant's skull assessed the situation. Two puffs were distracted, the blue one was too focused and flying on a straight path. An occasion that couldn't be let go to waste.
Quietly and without squealing, the porcupine once again stood up on its front paws, and it focused its gaze on Bubbles. When Blossom turned back to control the two remaining mutants, she only had the time to gasp as a single spike was shot from the porcupine's back. She fired her eyebeams on instinct, but they missed their target and instead hit the mutant, which literally broke apart as it went right through it.
"Bubbles! DIVE, NOW! BUBBLES!" Blossom tried to cry out a warning immediately after, but Bubbles was completely immersed in her attempt to reach the ruffs to pay much attention to her sister's voice.
She was only seventy or so meters away from the control room and by now she had even recognized the faces of the three boys, who were still messing around with the commands in an attempt to decide what to do. When she heard Blossom's call, she simply turned around while keeping her flight up, without slowing down. When she saw the spike, it was too late to react or move out of the way.
The projectile missed its main target, Bubbles' heart. Yet, it scored a hit, nonetheless.
The pain shot through her body like an electrical shock, and she let out a high-pitched shriek of pain.
"BUBBLES!"
The last remaining porcupine had no chance to keep up the attack as Buttercup was on it and she threw a single powerful kick at it. The head of the mutant flew away, and the rest of the corpse collapsed shortly after, but she didn't mind as she immediately flew up to catch up with Bubbles. Blossom was already there, having flown up to her sister immediately.
Somehow, the spike was able to go through the blue puff's skin, completely ignoring the superpowered protection it should have provided. The result was that Bubbles' right arm had been skewered from one side to the other, the spike stuck half-way through her arm.
Blossom tried he best to soothe her sister and calm her down, but it was hard to considering how painful the wound was.
"We… we need to get it out," Buttercup stated, matter-of-factly. Blossom nodded before regarding Bubbles.
"Bubbles, this… it is going to hurt. You have to push through, though, we need to do it. Stay with me, okay?"
Bubbles, her eyes full of tears, nodded in silence and tightened her grasp on Blossom's hand with her left one. Buttercup approached them and carefully took a hold of the spike… then, after counting to three, with one fast movement, she slid the thorn away from the wound.
Bubbles gritted her teeth hard, and Blossom found herself grimacing as her hand suddenly began to hurt under her sisters' hard grasp… however, neither of them let out further sounds. Blood poured out of the hole on Bubbles arm, copiously. They knew that their powers could stop the blood loss after some time, but without proper care Bubbles was going to be out of commission for way too long.
"It's okay… it's gone now, you're all right…" Blossom reassured, trying to comfort Bubbles. Buttercup examined the spike for a little, letting Blossom have a look at it as well.
What kind of thing would be sharp enough to do this? It almost felt like Duranium. Has Porter somewhat manage to mutate those creatures such that they can generate Duranium on their own?
With a hand, she gestured for Buttercup to move the spike closer. When she touched it, she didn't find any sign of Duranium in it. The spike was extremely sharp but was still fully organic in nature.
If it's not Duranium… then how? How can these spikes or even the claws of the monster back at the lab be able to hurt us that easily?
She didn't understand it well, but she didn't have the time to think it over any longer as a voice interjected, catching the girls' attention.
"Done playing the doctor? Because, if I were you, I'd look behind me…" Boomer's voice echoed through the speakers as he joked about their predicament, followed by the groans of his brothers.
Buttercup turned around and was met with the sight of another pack of porcupines climbing down the walls opposite of them. She had no qualm though this time, and the mutants let out squeals of surprise as she dived into the pack with a war cry.
Blossom stayed with Bubbles… she knew that Buttercup could deal with those mutants without help, for now. Really, though, she didn't follow her as her attention was caught by another matter.
A swarm of flying creatures, unlike anything they had encountered up until then, was coming after her and Bubbles.
With Bubbles still barely holding herself together with the wound… she was alone in this one.
What kind of nightmare have we got ourselves into?
AN: …okay. THIS. This has been a hard chapter to write. The first part in particular... I really hope I got the main villain's personality right. He's supposed to be a strange villain, different from the canon ones but not much better than them moral-wise. He has no interest in harming others like, for example, Mojo does, but he will show no mercy for the fools who dare to step in his path. Moreover, his motives can be classified as weak, which makes him even more despicable in my opinion: worse than a bad guy is a bad guy with futile motives.
Now, talking about another subject. I've used the term 'Duranium' before in 'The Perfect Little Boy', and I've finally decided to keep it as a canon (to the fanfiction) element in the sequel. While I'm mainly using it as a background feature, I feel the need to give a little description of the basic concept and from where it comes, so here it is.
Duranium is supposed to be the only metal in the world capable of sustaining Powerpuff powers and able to reach levels of thinness and sharpness sufficient to cut through Puff skin like a simple knife would cut through butter. It is extremely hard to make and needs not only time but specific materials, which make it fairly rare.
I've read some fanfictions that mention Duranium, and the ones I've read go back to the early years of the fandom, when the show (the original one) still aired on TV or the immediate years after. While I don't know who invented it, keep in mind that it's not my idea at all, I'm just burrowing a concept that had already been used by other authors before me and modifying it a little to use in my little story here.
I can safely say we're now halfway through the story. I might have to split in half the next chapters… I have definitely developed a bad habit of writing long chapters. Hoping I've kept you interested so far!