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Chapter 8
Birth
The laboratory was now silent. The explosion had left a mark, annihilating the table and nearby shelves of poor-quality wood and metal, and yet no one seemed to care as the silence remained unperturbed while the seconds passed. No one dared to break it.
Doctor Porter waited for the dust to clear out, unmoving. Dazed, his mutants had seemingly lost their will to fight, and some of lesser ones had even fled the place after the explosion. The Rowdyruff Boys hovered in the air with their arms crossed, waiting to understand what the heck had just happened. Mojo Jojo rubbed his hands, eager to find out if they had indeed succeeded.
Buttercup had no idea of what was going on, but she was smart enough to realize it was no good. Blossom felt on the edge and kept her guard up, ready for anything that may come at them from the dust-covered area. Bubbles covered her mouth with her hands, as she silently hoped that what had happened in front of her didn't work.
Donnie was unable to say or do anything due to his shock. His eyes were simply fixed on the place where the pot used to be.
Slowly, the dust dissipated. And, soon enough, the veil over the result of the experiment disappeared.
A human figure hovered right over the remains of the lab table. And Donnie felt his throat clench when he finally saw her.
She was a little girl, looking much like him, the girls or the ruffs at a first glance. She wore clothes vaguely similar to the Powerpuff Girls' ones. Her mary janes, though, were teal in colour instead of being black, and in place of the dress she wore a pitch-black skirt and a teal-coloured t-shirt.
Her eyes had teal irises, likely her signature colour, while she wore her black, uncombed hair loose, just long enough to caress her shoulders. Her right eye was partly hidden by a rebellious hair fringe.
She smiled. A smile that could have been defined without a doubt as evil.
Perhaps, she expected to hear cries of fear as her first introduction to the world. Instead, she heard an applause, and she raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Excellent! Excellent!" Doctor Porter said as he finally took the time to fix the miraculously still undamaged glasses on his eyes. "It worked!"
"What are you so happy about, four-eyes?" the new girl uttered rudely. Her voice was still girlish enough to be recognizable as the one of a little girl, but to say something was off about it would've been an understatement.
Porter was not surprised by her remark, the fact she had not spoken in Esperanto was more interesting to him than her lack of manners. He kept applauding for a couple of seconds more before stopping to regard her.
"So, you understand English, isn't that the case? That's somewhat interesting… perhaps language grasp is a feature specific of superior infra-humans."
"Just the few ones needed to communicate with cavemen like you, four-eyes. You want a full showcase of how many ways I can insult you in English? 'Cause that'd take a while… a long while, seeing how you look. To be honest it would take hours regardless of the language."
This time, the Doctor laughed at the behaviour of his new creation. "Oh no, thank you, I'd rather not waste our time now. Tell me, little girl, what is your name?"
"I'm not sure about telling you that," she answered with a cocked head. Then, she shrugged. "But you look so sure of yourself, I pity you, so… name's Decay."
"Decay, huh? Makes sense to me. For you will bring nothing but bane, anguish, and decay-"
"Wow, very theatrical, four-eyes," Decay interrupted, "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to beat someone to death before you kill me with your mortally boring words, and you better not stand in my way!"
Porter looked amused, but he still kept speaking. "Not so fast, young infra-human. I'm the one who created you, and I did so with one, precise goal in mind. You'll have to fulfil a request of mine before I let you do whatever you want."
"Is that a threat? Ha!" Decay chuckled. "It'll take more than a dinosaur-like arm and a few cyborg cosplay pieces to frighten me! Moron…"
"But, Decay, it is in your interest to heed my request. After all, I'm sure you'll be interested in what I am going to show you here."
That said, Doctor Porter pointed at the remaining occupants in the rooms. The new girl had failed to realize there were other people here until now, so she seemed to get quite curios as she began to examine them, group by group.
The girls' gaze fell on the Rowdyruff Boys' figures first. She looked at them for some seconds before raising an eyebrow and telling Porter, "I seriously hope you didn't expect me to find those losers interesting…"
"Who did you just call a loser?" Butch cried as he tightened his fists.
"You three. Losers. Loooo-seeers!" Decay repeated, visibly enjoying the fact she had successfully annoyed one of the three boys.
"Oh, you find that funny? After we're done with you, we'll see who's the loser!" Boomer retorted. He was as much offended as his green-eyed brother.
While Butch and Boomer were equally disturbed by the annoying behaviour of the brat in front of them, Brick wasn't of the same idea. She found her pathetic at most with her insults, but before he could calm his two brothers down, Doctor Porter beat him on time.
"No, Decay. I'm not referring to those three infra-humans. Move on."
Suddenly losing interest, the teal eyed girl gave an inquisitive look around and located Mojo Jojo. She hastily commented, "Huh, a monkey. I suppose that isn't what you have in mind either, four-eyes… because I can't see how an animal scratching his own back could be of any interest to me."
"WHAT!? How you dare, you rude little insect, to insult me, Mojo Jojo, who is far more than a simple monkey, but is in reality an ape first, and a much more intelligent being second, smarter than anything you've ever seen or imagined, and devoted to the only cause of taking ov-"
"Mojo Jojo," Porter interjected. "Please forgive the… uncontrolled behaviour of my creation here, but she was made to be quite a thorn on the side of whoever is around her. So, you just have to ignore her remarks and take them for what they are."
Mojo Jojo gritted his teeth in anger… but remained silent. The scientist was right, even the Rowdyruffs had not gave him the best of the welcomes when he had first created them… and if this one was worse than them, it was no surprise to see some insults coming out of her mouth. He decided to settle on believing that it would be improper for him to lose his mind on such childish attempts to make him mad and motioned Porter to continue with his speech.
"In any case, Decay, your guess is correct. Mojo Jojo is a partner of mine, and does not have anything to do with my request, just like the Rowdyruff Boys don't. Please, ignore my other… creations, and take a look at the other guests we appear to have in the room."
Following the Doctor's suggestion, Decay finally succeeded in acknowledging the presence of the four puffs, away from the other villains. Her eyes instantly brimmed with hostility as she looked at them, and the heroes didn't react that differently to her, either. While Donnie was still trying to accept the fact that she existed, the Powerpuff Girls didn't need an explanation to realize that Decay was a living danger to everyone near her.
"You four seem like the kind of guy who needs a little lesson about how to behave," Decay said, "and with 'lesson', I mean, being beaten up to death."
Buttercup scoffed at the remark. "Pff, then I dare you to try it! Maybe after we're finished with you, you'll change your idea…"
"You're that sure you can beat me? Ha!" Decay chuckled. "I'd be surprised to see you stand for more than five seconds against me! Just look at yourselves, you are so cute you make me sick. Cuteness won't save you from me."
"Well, how about you actually keep that trap of yours shut and come here so that I can show you what I mean?" Buttercup challenged, stomping a foot in front of her in provocation.
"No."
The two girls turned towards the source of the interruption, that is Doctor Porter himself. "You are not going to fight her, Decay, nor are you going to fight any the Powerpuff Girls. My will is to test the strength of the male infra-human, the one named 'Donnie'."
Donnie was shaken off of his shock as soon as he heard his name being called, and just in time as Decay fixed her glare on him. Donnie tried with all of his might to not show the fear he felt right now, but the smile that slowly appeared over Decay's face showed that his attempts to hide his emotions were not being as effective as he hoped.
"Can I keep him after I knock him out?"
Donnie's eyes widened. What… what in the world…?
"Depends on how much of him remains after the test. I cannot care about what happens next or on how you do it. You just have to defeat him in combat. You and him, alone."
"Works for me… Maybe we can have some fun together after all of this, eh, Donnie?" Decay joked as she slowly began to march towards him. Donnie was not prepared for this. He wasn't ready… things were happening too fast!
The Powerpuff Girls however didn't plan to stand by idly. Blossom looked at Bubbles and Buttercup and they both nodded, basically reading each other's mind, and the redhead would have put herself between Donnie and Decay… if it wasn't for the fact that someone else did it before her.
Butch landed exactly in front of the Powerpuff Girls, facing the opposite way, as he bellowed. "Wait a second, girly! You ain't going anywhere until you implore me to forgive you about calling me a loser... or let me break every one of your bones. I'd be good with either!"
Boomer followed his brother right away as he shouted, "Yeah! No beating up sissy, until we beat you up!"
Brick put a hand over his face, exasperated by her brothers' behaviour. He could understand Boomer, but even Butch? He had to rein them in. "Butch, Boomer, just leave her alone. She isn't worth of our time."
Decay laughed. "You two are so funny. You truly believe I consider you any kind of threat! Puaw-lease! Your own name is so pathetic, it boggles my mind you think I would show any kind of respect to you. Rowdyruff Boys? Seriously, is that a boyband name of sorts?"
Brick instantly zapped away and landed in front of his brothers, cracking the floor in the process.
"What did you just call us?" he hissed, ready to move and go to the offensive. Boomer and Butch both grinned, happy to see their leader was agreeing with them. The Rowdyruffs were ready again to kick butt, and do it together!
But Decay wasn't frightened at all by the prospect of fighting the three boys. In fact, she suddenly decided she had more motives to fulfil Doctor's Porter request first, than fighting the three losers in front of her. It might have been fun to give these idiots a lesson, but what she had in mind for Donnie sounded even more fun to her. So, she decided to go for a quick solution.
Deal with the three of them in the fastest, and most painful, possible way.
She stood in battle stance and taunted, "Come here and I'll repeat it for your poor little boo-boo ears. I'm waiting!"
"You'll regret that! C'mon, boys!" Brick ordered. Butch darted forward, directly towards Decay, while Brick and Boomer flew away left and right, a clear flanking manoeuvre. Instead of showing herself preoccupied, Decay let out a little giggle before bolting at full speed towards Butch. Her hands moved in a circle way in front of her, and before Butch knew it, he collided with an invisible force field face-first.
Darn, should have expected it. She's got the same powers as the dimwit, Brick reasoned quickly as he and Boomer continued to fly around and began to shoot eyebeams towards their adversary.
Butch, on the other hand, gritted his teeth and did not let himself get stunned by the impact. He flew away at a safe distance while Decay was too much busy evading the attacks by his two brothers.
"What in the world is going on!?" Mojo Jojo protested, indignant. "The boys are not supposed to fight her! They are on the same side, our side!"
"I don't think she'd change her behaviour if I told her to stop, Mojo Jojo," Porter said, "and I suppose the same could be said for your creations. I believe, though, that this shouldn't constitute much of a problem. If everything goes as I imagine, the test will still begin soon. Furthermore, this gives us some time to deal with more important matters, like… what can we do to deal with the other infra-humans."
He raised the hand still imprisoned inside the metal and pointed a finger towards the Powerpuff Girls and Donnie, who were watching the fight with interest.
"I'm actually… not that surprised. Looks to me like bad guys cannot get along with each other, period," Buttercup commented.
"True, but that gives us a chance we cannot let go to waste. Bubbles is injured, and we are all quite weakened. As much as I hate to let someone like Doctor Porter on the loose, we must get out of here while we can! After we have recovered, we'll return to capture them all and-"
"Blossom, no."
The leader of the Powerpuff Girls thought she had heard it wrong. It was Donnie who had interrupted her.
"Donnie… for what reason would you-"
"Doctor Porter has created that... that thing for one, and only one reason. Me. If we escape now, Porter will do anything, anything, to give his new creation another chance to fight me, probably even in Ultrapolis! I cannot let that happen. I cannot let that thing get any closer to the city!"
"But…"
"No buts, Bubbles," Donnie cut her off. He now felt better, his arm hurt but didn't felt as bad as earlier, and he was determined to do what needed to be done to keep his city safe and the people who lived there, included those he had started to love.
"There is no other way out of this," he said. "If anything, you should be the ones who have to get out of this place."
While the girls were having a hard time understanding Donnie's reasoning, the last sentence from him made the three of them shake their heads in unison.
"Forget that! We're not leaving you alone here!" Buttercup stated.
"We're the Powerpuff Girls! We do not leave anyone behind!" Blossom continued.
"Even more if he's both a fellow superhero, and a friend of us!" Bubbles finished.
And Donnie, yet again, despite the situation, couldn't help but smile. Those three girls continued to surprise him, even after all the time they had spent together.
They didn't have the chance to continue arguing as an explosion detonated, driving their attention back to the fight. They turned towards the battle only to see Boomer a few meters away, his head planted in the floor and the legs sticking out. Butch was in another part of the laboratory, lying on the pavement, apparently knocked out. Brick was the only one of the ruffs still up and fighting, but Decay wasn't leaving him the time to breathe.
The leader of the Rowdyruff Boys was fighting with all of his might, just as his brothers did, but it was as if the girl anticipated every single one of his attacks.
Furious, Brick dared a more intrepid attack, lunging forward with a kick, but Decay not only easily avoided the attack, but took the initiative and grabbed the boy's leg, then she swung him around like a sling. She, however, had not the chance to effectively throw him at a near set of machines as a dark blue energy blast hit her in the back, sending her away.
Boomer came ready to help his brother out, but Brick didn't need his hand to stand and send the worst of his glares towards the teal eyed girl. Decay gave a look behind her and realized that Butch, who had already managed to recover, was hovering opposite of his brothers, ready to attack. She was surrounded.
"Congratulations, girly, you've successfully made us mad. Now face the consequences," Brick threatened as he punched a fist into his other hand.
Due to the previous fight, Decay's had her hair all around her face, covering her eyes. She moved one of her hands over them, to let just the left eye see without any obstacles. Inside it was something comparable to bloodthirst.
"You either," she simply hissed before zapping at full speed towards Brick and Boomer. The two of them flew in opposite directions, but Decay didn't give them any time to regain their breath. She followed Boomer while bombarding Brick with a series of teal-coloured energy grenades, which she stopped doing only when she reached the blonde ruff and engaged him in close combat.
Butch would have come to Boomer's aid if it wasn't for the fact that, before he could move of a single centimetre, the Chimaera leaped in and crashed on the floor right in front of him. Around him, a pack of porcupines closed every way of escape. All the mutants screeched in hostility before attacking the green ruff altogether.
"Hmm… intriguing. The mutants have always been keen to act like a pack of sorts, and it looks like they're trying to help my design of infra-human, like they consider her part of their group," Doctor Porter noted as he observed the battle.
Mojo Jojo was silent. For some reason, the fight wasn't leaving him unperturbed like he expected.
Yeah, he was one of the evilest geniuses that had ever appeared on the globe, but still… he couldn't say he was completely unmoved by the scenes visible in front of him. Boomer was having a bad time keeping Decay at bay. Butch was trying not to get devoured by the Chimaera while at the same time evading the spikes thrown at him by the lower mutants, and Brick had found himself blocked by a swarm of dragoons that had come from who knows where.
Realizing how this was very unlikely for him, Mojo shook the intrusive thoughts out of his mind and replied to Porter. "I don't care. My only preoccupation, the only thing I am concerned with at this present moment, is to see the Powerpuff Girls and their new ally finally in their personal grave by the end of the day!"
"It will happen, my friend… It will happen," Porter reassured him. "I can already see we're getting to the end of this preliminary of sorts."
Where the heck is Butch?! Brick thought as he flew downwards, avoiding being burnt to a crisp by the hot acidic breath of a dragoon. Those freaking mutants! Why weren't they returning to their nests or something like that? The dragoons were not a real threat to his life, but the fact was that there was an entire swarm buzzing around him balanced the fight and made Brick spend more energy that he would have wanted, instead of coming to his brothers' aid.
He needed to reach Boomer. A bad feeling had begun to make its way over to its mind, and he had suddenly felt the need to make sure it was just himself and not a real-
A powerful hit emitted a terrible sound, as Brick heard the sound of his brother wheezing to the impact.
Boomer had made a single mistake. Mistake that let the girl he was fighting with have the opening she needed. As Boomer gasped due to the momentary lack of air in his lungs, Decay smirked.
Brick had only the time to get a glimpse of this scene as the nth dragoon flew in front of him and cawed. "Get out of my way!" he shouted before firing an eyebeam towards the creature, too close for it to evade. The beam pierced easily through the mutant's body, but Brick did not have the time to wait for it to explode.
He flew right through it, ignoring the heat, the acid drops falling over his body along with the mutated body parts, and sprinted for Boomer, only to find three additional dragoons waiting for him on the other side. There were simply too many of them. He couldn't ram into them because of the dangerous gas hidden inside them, but trying to destroy would've made him waste too much time.
Butch was currently in an even direr situation as he struggled with both legs and arms to keep the Chimaera's jaw open and prevent it from chewing him down. Decay, on the other hand, had already knocked down Boomer and was by now kicking the heck out of his body. Over and over again.
The Rowdyruff Boys were having a bad time.
And the first one to realize how this was the actual situation was Bubbles. Until that moment, the girls and their friend had stared at the battle, unsure of what to do, considering that those fighting were all their enemies, but Bubbles now knew what needed to be done.
"Guys, we need to do something… to, uh… help them!" she said, timidly at first.
"Huh?" Buttercup said, incredulous. "Bubbles, did I hear that right? Are you suggesting, like… to help the Rowdyruffs?"
"Y-yes! They may be our enemies, but we cannot just let them get hurt like that, or… or worse!" Bubbles tone was firm now, enough that her sisters knew that convincing her to change her mind was going to be hard.
"Bubbles," Blossom said, "do I have to remind you how the boys have been so 'kind' to us when we encountered them in the past? I don't think they'd actually help us if the roles were reversed, just think about what they did when those mutants hurt you! They didn't care. And even if, they are still our enemies!"
"That's not a good reason to let them get hurt! We are not like them, Blossom, and staying there without helping them is wrong!"
Donnie thought over the argument… and ended up agreeing with Bubbles' reasoning. Yeah, he hadn't encountered the boys before, or at least before today, and he didn't know how much those three had been a problem for the girls beyond what he was told, but Bubbles was right. The boys may have had problems concerning their empathy, but they did not. They couldn't just stand there and let them get killed.
And he had another reason to agree on helping the Rowdyruffs, which did not have anything to do with heroism and hoped it to be able to convince both Blossom and Buttercup.
"Listen, girls, I feel like Bubbles does have a point here, but there's something to be gained here from helping the Rowdyruff Boys. If we let the fight go on, we may have to fight Decay and the mutants together. It's clear that both are now an enemy of the boys… so, I think that a temporary alliance can be settled."
Blossom was quite surprised by Donnie's advice, mostly because it sounded surprisingly fitting. She hated the thought of allying with the boys, but it made all the sense given the present situation.
She let out a small scoff. "From what time have you been so good at making plans?"
Donnie winked at her before answering. "I've learned from the best one at it."
In other circumstances she might have felt flattered, but right now she could just sigh. "Okay then, that makes sense… and I understand what Bubbles means. It wouldn't be the Powerpuff way, to not go and give a hand to the boys. It's sealed, then."
"Wait, wait, wait! You're not really going to go help the Rowdyruff Boys, are you?"
The three glares that Buttercup received were tell-tale about the answer.
"Oh boy…" Buttercup groaned, even though he didn't argue afterwards.
"Okay. Girls, I'm going to go help the blonde Rowdyruff. Blossom and Buttercup can go help the other two with the mutants," Donnie said.
"Hey, slow down, leader boy!" Blossom protested, "We have to split up, alright, but letting you go alone against Decay is not an option!"
"No, Blossom. It's the only option."
Donnie looked around and found out Doctor Porter was now observing him. Despite his body randomly twitching every minute or so now, most probably a symptom of the lack of one of his metal appendages, he was still able to keep an eye on him. The yellow puff knew what Porter was thinking of right now.
"I cannot care about what happens next or on how you do it. You just have to defeat him in combat."
"You and him… Alone."
"…you have to trust me on this. Please!" Donnie simply said.
Blossom knew that every straw of experience told her that she shouldn't let him go, but Donnie was basically pleading her. Whatever the kid had in mind, it was strong enough that it made him decide to face the newly created ruff girl alone.
She just hoped that he knew what he was doing.
"All right, Donnie, but just remember that… hey!" Donnie was already on the move, flying towards Boomer and Decay.
She sighed before turning to her sisters. "Okay… Girls, I'm going for Brick. Buttercup, you go to Butch's help, try to make sure that the bigger monster stops being such a big problem, okay?"
"As much as I hate just the idea to help Butch, I can do with showing that mutant there how it's done!" Buttercup agreed before dashing in a green streak in the direction of the Chimaera.
"Bubbles, don't think I forgot you're still injured. I know you don't want to just escape… and I understand. Still, stay out of danger and if you want to help, do it only when it's really needed and while keeping your distance, all right? I don't want you to get hurt even more."
Bubbles nodded, content to have her sister at least acknowledge her will to help out, and she remained where she was as Blossom flew in the air and went through the laboratory in search of Brick.
The Chimaera felt that something was coming, so it rotated itself while still trying to swallow down the puff that was trapped within its jaws. However, while the senses of the monster were impressive, it was still too slow for powerpuff-level speed, so Buttercup didn't actually have to do anything different than aiming a punch at the creature's face.
"Nice to see you again!" Buttercup taunted at Butch before following her first strike with two powerful punches. The creature wailed in pain, thus giving Butch an escape route he did not let go unused. The two reunited as the Chimaera retreated, shaking its head as it tried to check if its jaws were still in one piece.
"Butters? What are you doing here?" Butch asked, gratitude apparently was nowhere in his mind.
Buttercup thought it over for a second before replying with a retort. "What, isn't it obvious? I'm saving your butt!"
"Hmph! I don't need any help, especially not yours!"
"Well, I heard someone crying out for help before while he was being chewed by a giant mutant, am I wrong?"
"I'd like to see your reaction while being chewed by a giant mutant!"
"I for sure wouldn't have screamed like you-"
"CUT IT OFF YOU TWO!" came the unexpected interruption in the form of Bubbles Utonium, who couldn't wait around while the two were bickering with each other. "Unless you want to be sliced to bits by that monster over there!"
Shocked, Butch and Buttercup stared at the blue puff momentarily without a word. Soon, her words proved true as the Chimaera attacked again, swinging both reptilian claws and bird-like talons towards the two. Buttercup and Butch evaded the attacks at the last seconds, and the creature would have continued to pursue them if it wasn't for Bubbles, who released a sonic scream able to momentarily repel the mutant.
Butch and Buttercup were again in front of each other. A born fighter glared at the other one for some intense seconds… before Buttercup finally broke the ice.
"Truce?" she asked before offering her hand.
"Truce," Butch agreed, shaking the girls' hand, "but only until that overgrown lizard-bird-thing is down!"
"Agreed. Little doggy here needs a lesson about who's the boss!"
And then, Buttercup and Butch bolted together, a beam half light green, half dark green, coloured in a spiral-like fashion, heading right for the Chimaera's location. At the sight, the few porcupines remaining screeched in fright and scattered about.
…and the giant mutant somehow knew that it was in deep trouble now.
Brick was quite fed up with the current situation he was in. There were a lot of reasons he was upset… and on top of it all, now his hat had been almost reduced to ash by the last dragoon that had tried to attack him. It was even more infuriating than the actual burns on his skin!
Those darn flying insects… little buggers easy to be taken out one by one, until you didn't have to fight ten of them at the same time, by yourself. If he survived this, he would make Doctor Porter's eat his own glasses.
Brick gritted his teeth and flew backwards, just in time to evade the gas wave released on him by a dragoon. He was surrounded by six of the creatures, though, and they looked like they were preparing a coordinated attack.
Until that moment, Brick had been forced to escape, avoid and repeat, but that had tactic had to end. The dragoons had pushed him far away from the locations of Butch and Boomer, and he knew their situation wasn't the best currently.
His eyes began to radiate red light as he prepared to make the six dragoons explode in a chain reaction with an eyebeam. The preparation, however, proved to be unnecessary.
Brick blinked, then gaped as he watched the dragoons, now encased in six solid blocks of ice, succumb to gravity and fall at nine dot eight meters per square second towards the ground. He observed the blocks (and the creature's trapped inside) crash and crumble apart, before giving a glance to the obvious responsible person behind the event.
"Well, so much for the help, if that was an attempt to do so," Brick growled, crossing his arms.
"What? You wanted me to light them up like you were going to do? Thus causing an explosion that would have hit you full force and from all directions?" Blossom asked, a smirk on her face.
"It was going to work anyway."
"Well, you're welcome, Brick."
The two leaders didn't have the chance to continue jabbing at each other as the rest of the swarm of dragoons came towards them.
"Now, I'm sure you realize those things want to burn both of us…" Blossom began.
"Really? To be honest, seeing a well-cooked version of you might be something I'd look forward to."
"Brick…"
"All right, all right, I understand why you're here, don't lecture me. Let's just destroy enough of these insects to let us reach and regroup with the others."
"Exactly what I had in mind."
The reds braced themselves, and waited for the last moment, right an instant before the front line of the new swarm opened their jaws. Blossom and Brick flew down, and then began to go through the swarm itself, combining the eyebeam attacks of both to create a somewhat safe pathway through the mutant formation.
The creatures were trying to slow them down, but in doing so were beginning to get in each other's way, thus giving both Powerpuff Girl and Rowdyruff Boy easy targets and opportunities to cause chain reactions and achieve multi-kills at ease.
The final result obtained by Blossom and Brick was the complete obliteration of three quarters of the swarm, while the last quarter fled away in retreat.
"Why weren't those that easy to fight before?" Brick muttered, still flying to reach the other side of the laboratory along with Blossom. The destruction around the laboratory became wider and wider as the minutes passed, the ground could be considered a large surface of debris by then.
"Because now there's someone actually good at doing that by your side?" Blossom taunted.
"Very funny. How about you get-" Brick's new insult was left unfinished as a giant object flew towards them, effectively making the two of them divert trajectories. They soon recognized the object as no other than the battered body of the Chimaera, sent away flying by the combined strength of the greens.
The creature stubbornly stood up and prepared to roar in anger, but it stopped before actually doing so as it suddenly noticed there were now five puffs to fight with now, while he was in a weakened state. Thus, the monster decided to forget about them for the time being, whirled its body and made a beeline for the destroyed metal door of the lab, disappearing in the darkness beyond.
"I really hope we aren't seeing that thing again, I'm literally sick of fighting it by now," Buttercup complained.
"It weirds me out to say it, but I agree," Butch added.
"I have a feeling that's not going to be the case," Bubbles said.
"If it returns, then we're going to stop it again, together," Blossom declared.
"But until that moment, we're not working together again. C'mon Butch, let's go help Boomer," Brick ordered, as he didn't look forward to be ally with the puffs for more than needed.
Brick and Butch, however, didn't have to do much to complete their next goal.
AN: sorry for the sudden interruption at the end of this chapter, but I wanted to maintain a decent flow for the next one and decided to move the part about Donnie and Boomer to it. Also, next chapter is the one which is probably getting divided in two parts due to length, and in case I end up doing that I still plan to publish those together.
Notice that Decay does not share Bubbles' special power of language knowledge. Bubbles is able to basically talk to every living being (animals for sure as seen in the show itself, I think every human language does apply as long as there are people who speak it in the world). Decay has a birth language just like Donnie, Esperanto, but she's already able to talk fluently some additional languages as a result of the balance of the recipe used by Porter… and maybe something else (spoilers).