"Hate as your co-conspirer

He'll set you soul on fire

Hate makes the flames get higher

Deal with me now, Vampira!"

"Vampira" by The Devin Townsend Band

The Powerpuff Girls in

Fierce Cup O' Reality.

Chapter the Sixth,

The Greatest Victory.

In times past, with mortal hands

three men fulfill plans long in the make.

On the hunt for lesser men

they cheat themselves of a nobler life.

Blood becomes a base for them

to preform their heathen ritual.

For days they round these humans,

as though they were cattle for a feast,

bringing them to a mountain,

the top of which is marked by dark script

written with the red life force.

Brick begins to chant his heathen prayer;

Butch and Boomer do so, too.

A void is opened in the center

where they stand. Dark heat rises

along with a voice of dreadful sin.

The voice: "Seek my mark so as to gain

a power in night without restrain.

This power comes not for free,

your mortal soul must you give to me."

Three heads, dark and grim, nodded,

releasing their souls into the void.

The abyss then seemed to smile,

as quite the catch had just then been made.

The voice: "Rules; the kind with finer font.

Fear not the sun, tarry all you want!

But as dawn shines its bright head

your powers return back to the dead.

Drink your fill in time of night.

Blood keeps you strong during this your blight!"

The void then faded away

into whatever dark place it rests.

Brick had become a new breed.

Butch and Boomer, too; a vampire!

Brick's P.O.V.

I'll try my best to enjoy this. This beating and bludgeoning of Blossom. I'll crack her skull, and split her lips, and even put on a show so as to seem like I'm having fun, but really I'm just killing to kill time (Did I just make a joke? . . . No, I didn't think so). I'm just not sadistic in nature like Butch is. He's having a great time with Buttercup, though he's showing remarkable restraint so as not to knock her unconscious or outright kill her. I'll compliment him on that later. Boomer probably likes this more than he'd be wiling to admit. Just touching Bubbles seems to be enough send him off shivering in a corner.

Oh dear. Blossom is trying to fight back again, she's so cute sometimes. I guess I can see why Boomer thinks we're all soul mates. Maybe in a different life we'd have met in high-school and started going steady, but that's just not how things are. Though, seeing her like this, with ripped clothes and spirit at the breaking point, maybe I should have her. Why not? Give these people a sight truly worth despairing over. Their hero getting fucked, literally, by their destroyer. We could be enemies with benefits (now that's a joke!) . . . Never mind. I'm never in a libidinous mood while in vampire form. Probably due to the lack of blood-flow. Oh well. I'll still try my best to enjoy this.

Butch's P.O.V.

Hidden. Always lurking beneath fleshy walls; scratching from the inside. Eyes beneath the water watching my family. The world is a web. I'm stuck and cannot leave. My brothers are stuck and cannot leave.

I break them open to reveal their real form. From their form I can learn their purpose. No one else can see them beneath the skin. No one else but my brothers. The spiders have them all fooled. We can seen their eight legs stretching under the flesh. Their eight eyes watching. Eight eyes can see so much.

That's why I must crush their frames and pull them from their skin costumes. It's the only way to figure out what they're up to.

I hear my voice slip away from me, "Not yet, Buttercup, we have a lot to go through before I can let you die!" I reel the rest in before anything important comes loose.

There is a response, a sharp collection of clicks and slurps. The spider's language. My ears are special, though, and I can understand their terrible words, "Ha. Do all vampires hit like pussies?" I'll have to discern the meaning later.

This one is stronger than most. That's because she is an elite chosen specifically to kill my brothers and I. She is faster, and stronger, but I am stronger still. I'll shatter her skin, and rip out her true body. Show them that I'm not afraid. I have to stop them in order to save everyone. I'm the only one who can.

Boomer's P.O.V.

If I had armpits made from roses I would always smell pretty.

Blossom's P.O.V.

My father was taken away from my family. I could have stopped them, but chose not too. It's my fault he's gone.

Right now a comet of a man rushes towards me. He claims to be a vampire. I can't believe him. The strength he shows now is unprecedented. I think he must have been holding back all these years. He crashes into me, I fall down. I hit the ground which is too soft to support the impact. Brick lands on top of me.

"Where has all your anger gone to?"

He grabs my neck and lifts me up.

"Allow me then to amuse myself with your body."

He pierces my skin and begins to draw my blood out. Something else is being drained along with my blood. Something incorporeal.

I didn't do anything to stop them when they came for father. Bubbles cried. Buttercup yelled. I did nothing.

His muscles relax. I am suddenly let out from Brick's teeth. A great sound of satisfaction releases from him.

"Ahhhhh! Even your blood is better than average, Blossom. I wonder if it has anything to do with your powers."

I feel weak. Weaker than ever before. My anger rises, but even that seems to be too much stress for my body right now. Brick is smiling at me, as though he's beaten me. He may kill me right here, but I've already felt a harder deafeat. What more can he do?

I muster up the last of my strength for one final act of rebellion, "Hey . . . Brick."

"Darling! If you still have strength left to speak than I obviously haven't finished with you yet!" Brick says then lifts me up by my hair, "Have you finally realized that you and your sisters are inconsequential when faced with the likes of my brothers and myself? I'll let you live if you agree to be my little slave. I'm sure my brothers would be willing to strike up similar deals with your sisters. Come now, a life of servitude is certainly better than death."

He lets go of my hair, and I'm forced to lean on him in order to stay standing. He smiles.

"You may kill me here," I push away from him, and manage to hold myself up, "but at least I wasn't born in a toilet."

He stops smiling.

"Fine then."

I didn't do anything to stop them when they came for father, but I should have.

Buttercup's P.O.V.

Fuckin' Rowdyruff Boys with their fuckin' vampire strength and their fuckin' operas. Fuckin' Blossom. Probably gonna fuckin' blame me for this. Fuckin' Butch with his fuckin' shirt and his nutty fuckin' entomology.

"I will save them all, Spider!"

"I don't know what that means!"

The hell is that wacko talkin' bout. Goin' on bout skin bugs like it's a normal thing. And Blossom thinks I have problems.

Crazy as he is he's kickin' my ass! Things are starting to get mushy. Can hardly tell what I'm lookin' at. The bastard still moves like water even after those few knocks I gave him earlier.

Heh.

Guess I was exaggerating a bit when I said I was relentless?

.

.

.

All this fighting is making me hungry . . . and tired. I think I'll take a little nap now.

Vuckin' Fampires.

Bubbles' P.O.V.

It's hard to tell what's happening, but I'm sure we're losing. And that really hurts. The physical pain is tolerable, but this is something else. Me and my sisters have always been able to come together and defeat any of the bad guys. I was hoping at least that part of our relationship had stayed the same over the years.

I wish I could have seen Dad one more time, but I'm glad he doesn't have to see what his daughters have become. We're nothing like what we were before he left. I tried my best to keep everyone together; at least I'll pass on knowing that much. I guess I'll see everyone on the other side.

Professor.

Dad.

Daddy.

Wait.

There's something else. Hidden. Rising deep in my gut. I feel it pulsing with the pain, like laughter. It is dark and strong. A perfect neutral; neither good nor bad. I reach for it, but it reseeds from my grasp, as though I'm not ready to use it's power. I'm so close to it!

"Brothers! We have a schedule to keep! The time for games has passed."

I almost don't notice Brick's words. But Boomer hears and obeys.

The lights go out.

Normal P.O.V.

The lights come back on for Bubbles. She's sitting next to her sisters who also seem to just be waking up. The Rowdyruff Boys are standing above them getting showered with the praises of ordinary citizens. Evidently they've already forgotten the tragic death of What'shisface.

"Yes, yes! Your love is well received, citizens!" cried Brick, who's arms were spread wide as if that way he could accept more of the people's love, "Louder! Louder!"

The crowd's collective voice grew till it matched the cacophonous cries of a generic pop singer's pre-concert party. A verbal gallery of whooping and hollers. The sort of peasant menagerie that inspired any reasonable person to rethink genocide ethics (at least for this one instance). The people yelled as though they were each tying to be heard individually, but instead their voices were sucked into the conformist blob that made up the vocalization. Oh, bitter hubris! By trying to gain unique attention, the people were making themselves less likely to be noticed.

"Sing of our victories!" shouts Brick to the people.

"We love you!" respond they.

"How much?" asks Brick.

"This much!" the people spread their arms as far as they can.

"Swear your fealty to us!" continues Brick.

"Sure, whatever that means!" the people say back.

"Entreat to us your complete subjugation, and become the proletariat of our regime!"

" . . . Yeah!"

"Vampires fucking rule!" one teenage youth yells.

"Yes, we do rule. Over you."

"Hurray!" Brick turns his regal head to face the girls, who remain in a pitiful pile on the ground. He speaks so that only they and his brothers can hear, "So you see," began he, "our victory over you is absolute. Your people believe that we will be their salvation. Ironic . . . no wait . . .yes, yes it is ironic."

Bubbles looks upon the crowd of civilians and feels nothing from them but the panting, obese obsession for the vampiric boys. Her heart splits. She wonders whatever became of those good times. She tries to remember if the happiness was taken away with her father, or if, perhaps, it lingered on a little longer, alive in Bubbles' optimistic soul. Could an idea, as abstract as happiness, do that? Physically reside in a person? Bubbles could not think of an answer at the moment.

"These people are only on your side cause you won the fight! Just wait till the sun comes back up, then we'll kick your asses all over again!" yells Buttercup.

"That may be, but the sun will never shine here ever again," says Brick, "Jorden Søln will see to that. And we will see to Jorden Søln."

"What are you talking about?" asks Bubbles.

"The meteor that is supposed to miss the Earth, Jorden Søvn; my brother's and I are going to alter its course so that it smashes this little planet to pieces."

Consternation slides through the girls like an icicle pulse.

"Every soul will be burnt away in a glorious instant. Then, it will be as though none of them ever were.

"This is why we had to become vampires. Our strength, though impressive by human standards, would not have been enough to move the meteor."

"Why? Why kill everyone? There's no point to it!" comes the voice of Blossom, become with rage.

Brick moves to Blossom's ear, whispering "Is there a point to anything else? . . . I think I will enjoy the peace and quiet."

"You fucking scumbag!" Buttercup pushes her battered shell off the ground in a futile attempt to stop Brick. He just pushes her down as though she were a child.

"Child. And now we take our leave. If there is a God out there, and he is as benevolent as they say, then I hope you can find your father their. And if Hell be your destination then fear not. For the devil can only hurt you with a third of the strength the Rowdyruff Boys posses." Brick turned to the normal citizens while he and his ilk begin taking the air, "Goodbye, gentle townsfolk. We'll meet again when next disaster strikes," and then they are gone into the sky.

Through the troposphere; the stratosphere; the mesosphere; the thermosphere. They are staying in the Earth's shadow, making sure the Sun does not rip their added powers from them before they can accomplish their dark task. The meteor is already close. Certain spots on the planet below can already see the space-rock. At its present course Jorden Søln would miss planet Earth. The boys took places beside the large mass, and with huge effort begin to alter the meteor's flight path.

Even with their vampiric bonus the boys struggle with Jorden Søln. It seems as though the meteor does not want to destroy all life on the planet below. But physical persuasion eventually wins, and the Earth is about to be impacted.

The girls can see all this with their super-vision. Pretty soon the meteor can been seen even by the unaided eye of normal folk.

Blossom looks calm, "I guess this is the end then."

Buttercup is the perfect mirror of her sister reversed. She is panicked, and she is trembling. "Whoa, wait! Shouldn't we leave? I know it's a shitty thing to say, but we could still get out of here. Maybe people will be able to survive on the other side of the planet?"

Blossom turns her aggression onto Buttercup tenfold, "Goddamn it! Just once try no to be a coward!" she is yelling.

"Oh, sorry that I'm not ready to die? ! This vague ideal of heroism you've been living by has multiplied your ego! Your cause has never been mine! Why can't you see that I'm not you? I'll never be like you! I've never wanted to be like you! If you can't live life any other way than as a hero then you're the coward, not me!" Buttercup is manning all of her guns to return fire.

For Bubbles that familiar feeling starts to swell in her stomach again. That cold constriction of muscles.

"You were a coward before, when the Professor left, I don't know why I should be surprised now!"

"Me? ! I'm not the one who turned into a fuckin' gun for hire just to saddle up next to a monkey! Remind me, did Mojo Jojo have anything to do with what happened to dad?"

"You are a disgrace to our father!"

"When have you ever cared about your family? !"

That dark neutral cracks through to the surface. This time there is no need for Bubbles to try to grab for it; it is already consuming her. With it comes a simplistic clarity, one that allows Bubbles to realize that there has been a problem with her perception of all things. A fuzzy veil is lifted from her mind's eye, and the focus of things begin to shift. She is able to see her sisters throughout their whole lives. Their change from headstrong to craven; from inspiring to despicable. Bubbles could see, also, herself in this same fashion. She wanted to keep her sisters together after the Professor was taken away. She wanted to make sure they were still a family.

But she was angry at both Blossom and Buttercup. Since their father's incarceration neither of the sisters had asked poor Bubbles, "Are you okay?" They never told her, "you're not alone," or, "your family is still here. The tears you shed are not the only ones, and you don't have to cry in silence."

Bubbles hated her sisters now, but until this moment could not fathom such an idea, it went against her very nature to do so. She hated them more than Mojo Jojo, more than Him, or Princess, or Fuzzy, even more than The Rowdyruff Boys and the people who took the Professor away. She was willing to do anything for the two of them, and they hadn't noticed her through their own petty issues.

Bubbles drank this fierce cup O' reality, swallowed hard and asked for seconds. It felt natural. The cotton-candy glasses had come off, breaking beneath her foot. She no longer saw the bright side to the worst situation. Instead she saw herself, and the impact she could have on the world if she only moved. Reality became her stage, her name was being called, it was time to dance. And she was one hell of a dancer.

Her power thundered to life. Echoes were felt across the globe. Dark azure waves of intent rolled from her id to reality. It choked her sisters' arguments out. Blossom and Buttercup turned their eyes on Bubbles.

"Bubbles. Wha-"

Bubbles erupted, interrupting Buttercup. Everyone within ten feet of her was knocked off their feet. Most of the city-folk who had been enraptured by the sisters' fight were now fleeing Bubbles' might; others were to stunned to do even that most basic act of preservation. If the attractive glow given off by pregnant mothers was a sign of life creation then the glow Bubbles produced was the opposite light of the destroyer made tangible; an enfeebling charisma.

Bubbles looked upon her sisters. Her face was the most perfect example of rage and hatred. She would have terrified her sisters were it not for the tears falling in thick, free streams.

"You won't even try?" said Bubbles, "You're pathetic. Both of you." And she took off like a missile, aimed to deter the meteor as best she could.

Her body slammed into the meteor's surface. She could feel its gravity pulling on her, magnetic strings threaded into her skin. She pushed against the rock, her arms breaking into its surface as she did so. Bubbles screamed, part pain, part frustration. Jorden Søln would not move except towards Earth. The pressure building up in her own body was beginning to break out. The capillaries in her eyes were starting to rupture, and blood tears began to pour out of her. Still she could not move the meteor.

As her face flushed sanguine, as her teeth began grinding together, as her voice broke with sad heaving, as Bubbles was about to give up she heard a grunt coming from beside her. Blossom had began pushing against the meteor without Bubbles even realizing it. A second later Buttercup joined them. The three girls pushed until they all screamed a harmonious sound. Jorden Søln began to slow down; it was stopping. The girls continued and eventually the meteor began to reascend back to the heavens. Slowly at first, but faster as the girls picked up momentum. They made it out of Earth's gravitational pull, and let the rock go in the direction of the sun, traveling faster now than it had ever done before. They fell home.

As they landed back in Townsville they were greeted with cheer long kept from them. Many of the civilians saw what the girls had done. Bubbles' face was still weeping red, her hand were cut, swollen, and her body was shivering. She fell to her knees and passed out.

"Whoa!" Buttercup caught Bubbles before her head hit the ground.

"We need to get her home," said she.

The sun began to break over the horizon. The cheers became unwanted attention, the crowd was beginning to have a claustrophobic effect. The three rowdyruff boys, now bereft of vampire abilities, stomped towards our heroes. There composer seemed to indicate that they lost more than just power with the sun's assent, but also that posh, arrogant dignity that seemed so uncharacteristic.

"Dudes! The powderpuff girls totally just saved us!" yelled an excited young lad as the boys passed by. Butch punched his stomach really hard.

"You bitches!" yelled Brick, "Do you know how long it took me to come up with that plan?"

"Not very judging from its simplicity," retorted Blossom.

"Shut up! It was a solid plan! You and your meddlesome fucking heroics! You have got to be the only thing I hate more than this goddamn planet!"

"What was the point of your big plan anyways?" asked Buttercup.

"I've been wondering that too. The meteor wouldn't have left any survivors, so there would be no point to world domination."

Brick's brothers displayed a small trace of confusion.

"I thought you said there would still be a few people left after the meteor hit?" said Boomer.

"Yeah. You told us that we would come back and rule over the survivors easy." added Butch.

"Don't listen to them, morons. You'll just get confused."

Blossom's eyes filled with a sudden epiphany, "I see it now. You knew you couldn't push Jorden Sølv by yourself, so you had to get your brothers to help."

Buttercup turned to her sister, "What are you getting at?"

"Don't let Brick's fanciful rhetoric, and pompous looks fool you. He's not happy with life. I doubt he even sees a point to it all."

Blossom turned her gaze, once so pathetic to Brick, now so piercing and dangerous, "You wanted the world gone. You reflected upon yourself and saw an empty shell. Your intellect gave you the grandiose notion that you were superior to everyone else, then you began to see the world in black and whites, the common and the enlightened. But the only enlightened person you could see was in the mirror, and instead of trying to bring the world around you up to that same level you decided to shut the rest of society out. Everything became everyone's fault, and you felt that you were the only person who could fix things."

"Shut up," said Brick.

"And the only way you knew how to fix things was to erase them. To give yourself some peace and quiet."

"Shut up."

"But that wouldn't have helped you. Being alone in the vacuum of space would have only made you realize-"

"Shut up!"

Brick charged Blossom. He pulled her off the ground, wildly attacking in a manner that resembled an angry child. They fell and rolled along the broken roads of Townsville. When they finally stopped Blossom was on top of Brick, her knees pinning his shoulders down, and her fist raised above his head. The pink glow shinning from Blossom's hand shouldn't have been as intimidating as it was.

"You would have realized that getting rid of the world wouldn't have made your problems go away, because your problems live inside of you."

Brick looked somber, but not defeated, "If I were you, I would kill me now. There's no prison capable of holding me, and there are plenty of other ways I can destroy the world."

"I've already done a lot of bad things in my life," said Blossom, who had a face matching Brick's in its expression, "What's one more to that list?"

"Stop!"

That mellifluous sound came from above like a angel preforming a cappella. Bubbles had awoken, and Buttercup stood at her side.

"We've beaten him. You don't have to kill him." Bubbles rested her hand on Blossom's shoulder.

Blossom looked into Brick's eyes and saw no hope for change. He was defiant, and would be till the end.

"Bubbles, under normal circumstance you would be right. But Brick isn't like the other villains. He's not motivated by money, or power, or any sort of desire."

"Blossom . . . please. Show him that you're better than he is. That you don't have to go to his level to beat him."

Brick laughed, "Don't be fooled by sweet little Bubbles. Hesitation is a cowards tool. If you let me live you'll be killing this entire, miserable species.

"When you were looking into me I was looking into you, and you know what I saw? We're the same! You and me, babe. I'm what you would do if you had a really really bad day. We're cut from the same stone, you and me."

"Its 'you and I,' Brick," Blossom slammed her fist through Brick's skull, "'You and I.'"

She stood up only to fall back down. Buttercup helped her to her feet again.

Butch and Boomer arrived, stunned at what they saw.

Butch said, "You killed him," with an air of realization that he never before seemed to have.

Boomer cradled his brother's corpse and began to cry. Butch faced his adversaries.

"You!" he whispered.

The Powerpuff Girls stood together before Butch, horrifying in their stature. They admitted to no wrong doing, and denied nothing. Their faces were hard like war-struck Spartans, and their battered bodies didn't seem to affect their confidences at all.

"Take his body if you want, "began Blossom, "and get out of here."

Boomer looked to Butch for guidance, tears still coming from his eyes. Butch stood his ground for a moment, and had he done so a moment longer a fight was sure to break out again. But he backed off, and helped Boomer pick up Brick.

"We'll be back for you."

Then they left.

When the boys were completely out of sight Buttercup asked, "Are you sure it was a good idea to let them go?"

"Its fine. Without a brain to lead them they're only half as dangerous." Blossom's whole body then began to shake. She fell back to her knees and wept.

"I didn't want to kill him. I really didn't want to!" She hid her face in her hands.

"Hey, its okay," soothed Buttercup, "we understand. He wasn't gonna change."

"No, you don't understand. He was right. I'm just like him. That's why I was able to figure him out. I've gone through the same thing."

Bubbles moved Blossom's hands away from her face, "But do you want to stay like him?"

With a fury Blossom shook her head.

"Then you can change."

Blossom pressed her head into Bubbles' shoulders and wept. Bubbles held on to her sister, who was shaking with her own sobs. Bubbles rubbed circles on Blossom's back, but it seemed to do little in the way of comfort.

"I'm sorry," whispered Blossom continuously.

Noting the gathering crowd, that seemed to be a mix with respectful awe and obsessive leering, Buttercup offered, "I think maybe we should deal with all this sisterly bonding at home."

The flight home was quick, Blossom had managed to stop crying along the way. Buttercup was troubled, an awkward pressing of images swept all conscience slackerisms aside. There was a deconstruction going on in her gut. Not the sort of deconstruction that breaks down food and turns it into poopy, but a mental break down. Unlike most break downs, however, Buttercup's was a calm one built around self reflection rather than a loathing of the world exterior.

Their home was a shambling mess, but it was theirs, and it offered them the privacy they needed. The three sisters talked, and eventually laughed. Together they reassembled the house and made it livable again. After all the work was completed, and the house was restored to almost full glory, the sisters discussed future plans. They decided that it would be best for them to separate from one another, but still remain in contact. This way they wouldn't breed the same content they had lived with before.

Buttercup quit her addictions and went to see her father in what was thought to be a secret prison, but was made pellucid to her thanks to X ray vision. Just one of those perks that comes with genetically superior genes. Nobody was going to stop her from seeing him.

Blossom went back to school. She still kept track of Mojo Jojo lest he make some dastardly attempt at world conquest, but for the most part his evil only manifested as the corporate evil all billionaires seemed to have. She was ready to become a real leader again. Not just someone who gives orders, but a person who inspires.

Bubbles stopped stripping, instead she traveled the world, seeing and experiencing new things.

Townsville heard not from the Powerpuff Girls. They were mentioned in the same way urban myths are, though with a little bit more proof to back up the stories.

This adventure was wrapped up. Perhaps not in the neatest of packages, but one that held the contents together nonetheless. There would of course be more adventure for the Powerpuff Girls, their lives were not yet over, and power always attracts attention. There are tales of lust and romance; great battle and triumph; words and frivolity. All of these things would happen, and they would be glorious in their attempt even if the execution was foiled by a gangling knuckle-dragger who couldn't lace his own shoes without trying to discern some hidden nature within the experience. Anyways. These things were all going to happen, and true, Achilles-like greatness would have followed. The kind talked of by many, and envied by many more. Legendary stories not to be believed yet cherished by all!

But then the Sun exploded.

The End!