Sorry for the delay, I had a mental block.
7. Villians for the Earth
Butch had never thought that the day he killed Buttercup would feel like this. Mainly because he had expected the moment to be followed by the impending conquest of the world, rather then his impending death. No, he wasn't going to except this. If he could just, somehow, stop Blossom and save the world, then it would be his. Now was not a time to give up.
Annoyingly, Brick was still hanging on to his leg. He shook his it angrily, to try and make him let go. "No time for that kid!" he snapped. "We have work to do."
"But…" Brick was still crying. "Buttercup…"
After a cursory glance at Blossom to check she wasn't about to attack, Butch swung an arm downwards and lifted Brick up by the scruff of his neck until he was level with his face. "Stop crying right now and listen to me! Your sister has not died in vain, yet. Blossom is hurt, if not down. Puff's heal very quickly, but if we're fast, we can get her before she recovers. However, since I only have one arm, I need your help."
"But I'm not strong enough," protested Brick. "Not to fight her."
Butch snarled. "Where's your pride! She's just a girl, when all's said and done! You've already showed enough power to hurt her. If you let the anger inside you from your sister's death motivate you, I know you can get her!"
The mention of his departed sibling set the tears of in Brick's eyes again. "I miss her…" he sniffed.
Butch gritted his teeth. He searched his mind for a lever he could use on Brick. "I was dead once," he said.
"Pardon?" Brick was amazed.
"Sure," said Butch, more cheerfully then he felt. "You sisters have killed me and Boomer once before, but I'm here now and alive, right?"
"You mean…" Brick thought for a moment, "that Buttercup might be able to come back?"
"Yes, no problem," Butch lied. "But only if we can kill Blossom first." This of course wasn't true, but Butch didn't care. In the event that they did both survive this encounter, Butch would need to kill Brick anyway on his way to world domination, so it did not really matter.
His object had been to motivate the little red ruff, and it had defiantly worked. Brick wiped the tears away from his eyes, and swallowed his grief. "Alright then," he said determinedly. "I'm ready to die if necessary."
Foolish hero, thought Butch, but his attention was drawn away by Blossom.
"You really are a hopeless optimist aren't you Butch," she laughed. "First you think you can beat me and then bring that idiot Buttercup back? By collecting seven magic balls and wishing for it, I assume!" She bit her lip, as she put on a stupidly large smile. "I'm going to enjoy killing you. Quite why the kid wants to throw his hat into your ring is beyond me…"
"He's not a murderer!" Brick bellowed. "That's why!"
"Really, who killed our sister kid?" mocked Blossom. Butch gritted his teeth, but before he could respond, he spotted something – or someone – on the horizon. Blossom noticed his eye line, and glanced over to where he was looking too, as did Brick eventually.
Princess Morbucks, wearing one of her golden battle suits, landed aggressively behind Butch and Brick. Ignoring them initially, she glanced around at the devastation, before turning to Butch.
"Oi, punk!" she bellowed. "Where the Hell's Cityville gone… and what happened to your arm!"
Butch smiled. "Thank you Princess," he grinned, "thank you for introducing me to a totally new experience."
Princess looked confused. "What experience?"
"Being pleased to see you," Butch finished. Brick laughed allowed at this, but Princess just scowled. She couldn't take her eyes off Butch's missing arm.
"Just answer the question freak," she said firmly.
Butch let the insult go. "She destroyed them," he replied, pointing over to Blossom. Princess looked over to her.
"Is that a puff?" she asked.
"Yes," Brick interrupted, "but she's pure evil, and unbeatably strong…"
"Maybe for you," Princess laughed. "But my new battle suit can destroy any of those pathetic Powerpuffs… Where are they anyway," she asked. "If this… thing…"
"Blossom," Blossom filled in. She seemed to be finding this entertaining.
"…this Blossom is trying to destroy the planet, shouldn't they be trying to stop her?"
"Bubbles is planning something," Butch explained, "and Buttercups over there," he finished, gesturing to the puff's body. Princess swallowed nervously, but she stood her ground.
"I see," she muttered. Then she spoke up. "I don't know what kind of Powerpuff you are Blossom," she called over, "but you're still just a freak, and I'm not going to let you destroy this planet, my Dad needs it for profit!"
Blossom nodded. "I see," she said gravely. "I wish I had time to test that theory, but sadly all this chit chat has put me a long way behind schedule, so if you don't mind, I think I'll just blow the three of you up." She raised one hand into the air, as Brick and Butch braced for impact. (Princess, arrogant as ever, was unmoved.) "You should recognise this move Butch, it was the one I was going to show to you and your idiot brother when we first met. Watch the…"
"Who's an idiot!" roared Boomer, as he burst from no where at high speed and kicked a surprised Blossom hard enough in the side of the head to knock her off her feet. Blossom turned the resulting flight into a well controlled cartwheel, stopping a few feet away from Boomer. She recomposed herself.
"Thanks for proving my point," she said calmly. "I gave you the chance to run away, and instead you choose to die. In my book, that makes you an idiot."
Boomer grinned widely, putting his arm up into the air with a flat palm, as if he was holding a pizza plate. "We'll see," he laughed. There was a blue burst of energy, and a large, flat energy disk was generated above his palm, with a size of about a metre across. "If you're so powerful, try and block this!" He spun it towards her like a Frisbee, sailing through the air as he did. To his delight Blossom didn't move, initially.
The pink puff was clutching her injured side. That glancing blow from Butch had hurt a lot more then she had let on, no wonder Buttercup was dead. Still, her opponents seemed to have got over Buttercup's death depressingly quickly, and now their tails were up. If she could deflect this blast, it would surely knock them back again. It was just that she was sure she'd seen this once before…
At the last minute she remembered where. Flicking her head out the way at the last moment, the disc just glanced her check, before careering into the ground behind her. Rather then exploding on contact, it just sliced straight through the earth, leaving a thin, yet deep scar.
There was also now a new scar on Blossom's check. Suddenly she looked worried. If she hadn't moved, it would have cut her in two.
Boomer however, was still deflated. "Dam it," he muttered, "so close…"
Butch laughed. "Great effort Boomer," he bellowed. "Get over here now."
Boomer obliged, but he wasn't happy. "Don't congratulate me," he snapped. "That was our one chance…"
"Rubbish," replied Butch. "We've all managed to cause her problems now," he said, referring to himself and Brick. "We can win! And she knows it!"
"For once I agree with you Butch," added Princess, "I mean if you three weaklings can hurt her, then I should find this a breeze!"
"I don't care if she's on our side," Brick muttered to Butch, "she's still a jerk."
"Don't worry kid," Butch laughed, "we'll use her for now, and then we'll deal with her latter." Then he realised what he'd said. Dam it Butch, he thought, the child's not part of "we."
Blossom did not look impressed. "On the contrary fools," she spat, "I see no reason to fight you any more. None of you are worth my time. But do not fear, you shall still die." She reached into her pocket, and withdrew a small glass vile. Kicking a small hole in the ground, she opened the vile, and poured four small seeds out into the hole, before covering them in dirt.
"What's she doing?" Boomer asked.
"Isn't it obvious," Princess laughed. "She's planting some flowers for her own grave!"
Blossom looked up, straight at the lot of them. She was smiling crookedly. Then, she took a step back, and four stunted, hunched creatures, burst out the ground from where she'd planted her seeds. They were bald and green skinned, with over sized fore heads, beaked mouths filled with sharp teeth, large, red eyes and two fingered, clawed hands and feet.
"Like my Saibamen?" Blossom asked smugly. "Sure, they are no where near as strong as me – the soil might be a bit poor around here. Still, with one each, they should be able to deal with you four."
Princess looked unimpressed, but Brick had jumped to safety behind Butch's leg again. Boomer looked worried. "She seems confident," he muttered.
"Rubbish," Butch replied, as Blossom wondered over to a rock to sit on. "We've got her worried, she knows those freaks are going to loose, but I'll wager she needs a bit of time to recover, and wants to examine our fighting styles."
"She's not going to learn much then," Princess snarled through gritted teeth, "because this will be over in seconds!" She charged off towards one of the Saibamen, leaving the others free to attack the three Ruffs. Butch and Boomer spilt off quickly while Brick, momentarily paralysed by fear, was almost over run by "his" immediately.
Boomer, who had headed skywards, was quickly caught up with by a Saibamen, which swung a bladed claw at him. The blue ruff managed to duck underneath it, and land a sharp punch in the creature's abdomen. The Saibamen was seemingly winded by this, but then being almost a plant-like being, it didn't necessarily need to breath. Hence Boomer took a heavy kick under the chin, as one of the creature's talons grazed dangerously close to his neck.
Ignoring the blood now flowing down his neck, Boomer fired a powerful eye blast at the monster, hitting his target and propelling it down into the ground. Boomer landed a short distance away, firing up a blast that would hopefully be powerful enough to destroy the Saibamen. He was disappointed at the speed at which the creature recovered, and was then amazed as the head of the creature split open. Out from the hole came a splash of green liquid spurted out. Boomer wisely chose to dodge it, allowing the liquid to fall to the floor, where it hissed aggressively, burning a deep hole.
Rather then being disgusted, Boomer was impressed. "That's so cool!" he declared to the disappointed monster. "Shame it was your last strike." He fired his blast straight into the gap in the Saibamen's head, with predictable results.
Meanwhile, Brick was still struggling. Not being used to such and aggressive series of attacks, his movements where not instinctive enough to allow him to counter attack. Or for that matter, to avoid them. Soon enough, the Saibamen was able to knock Brick's feet out from beneath him, causing to land hard on his back. The Saibamen quickly pinned him to the ground with a spiked foot, and swung his clawed hands straight down towards Brick's head. Brick tense up and closed his eyes.
The attack didn't reach him however, because Butch arrived just in time to kick the monster off. He was able to do this because the Saibamen that had been attacking him was currently being griped round the neck by Butch's remaining hand. Ignoring this one temporally, Butch landed on the other Saibamen, and stamped hard on its neck, desperately trying to break it.
He managed, but the Saibamen he'd being ignoring managed to get enough freedom to bite his arm with its toothy beak. Butch roared in pain as blood burst from the wound, but with out a free arm to smash it off with, he resorted to trying to head but the creature. This only gave him a head ache, but fortunately Brick had got back to his feet, charging in with a burst of anger and unlikely power, smashed the body of the creature to pieces with one punch, which was hard enough for the shock waves to wrench Butch's arm.
The Green Ruff staggered around a bit, before regaining his balance and composure, just as Brick was prising the dead Saibamen off his arm. The Green Ruff sneered. "I suppose I can't bawl you out now for nearly loosing," he said.
Brick laughed, in a happy way that bothered Butch slightly. "I guess not," he chuckled.
"But do you understand your power a bit more now?" Butch asked. "Shame your sisters never trained you properly," he continued once Brick had nodded. "I've have to think of a way to use that power with out putting you in a proper fight situation."
"Why?" Brick asked. "Am I more powerful then you?"
Butch grimaced. "Yes," he replied. "Even without training."
"How?"
Butch didn't know. But looking at across at Blossom, a thought was brewing in his head. "If she's a puff," he thought quietly, "Where's 'our' red ruff…" He looked down at Brick again. "Professor Utonium didn't create you," he mused to himself. "I'm sure of that."
His train of thought was interrupted by the frazzled body of the last Saibamen smashed into the ground just in front of him. Above, Princess Moebuck hovered comfortably, her new battle suit unscratched. She was seemingly unbothered.
Boomer landed nearby. "Did you see that!" he enthused. "She pounded it!"
"I didn't," Butch muttered, "But I'm sure Blossom did."
The Pink Ruff stood up, a huge smile on her face seeming to indicate that her confidence had returned. "Soil must be rubbish on this planet," she mused. "I suppose I'll have to clean up here myself.
Dam, thought Butch, she must have healed.
Princess was not concerned. "Okay Puff/Freak/Alien," she bellowed. "It's time. I'm going to barbeque you in double quick time and then serve your body as the main course for my victory parade! Princess Moebuck, saviour of the world – has a nice ring to it."
Blossom looked at her, and then at her scouter. Pausing briefly for thought, she grabbed the computer and took it off, tossing it away. "If you are that confident, then this machine must be faulty," she explained. "But be glad, you've caught my interest. I shall humour you."
Princess unleashed a burst of electric energy. "No, you will die!" she bellowed, before firing a wave of electricity at Blossom. The pink puff leant her head slightly to one side, and the surge whistled past her, before crashing to the ground a short distance behind her. Princess was not greatly phased, just a bit annoyed. She charged in screaming furiously, as she launched a rapid wave of attacks at Blossom.
Just before she reached, Boomer noticed Blossom's expression change, from one of arrogant confidence to one of concentration. Clearly she rated this opponent as a threat. The two of them smashed across the sky, with Princess doing all the attack, Blossom all the defending, and leaving the Ruff's desperately trying to follow the battle with there eyes.
"I think…" Boomer muttered, "I think that she might be winning!"
"Is that a good think?" Brick asked. "I mean Princess does seem kind of evil."
"Nah," Boomer continued confidently. "She just likes the attention. She's unlikely to try and kill us after this… I think."
"Dam it!" Butch bellowed suddenly. Boomer and Brick looked up.
"What?" they asked.
"Don't you see!" Butch grimaced. "Yes she's causing her problems, but the speed's reducing. She must be using all the power in the suit to keep up… and Blossom has plenty in reserve."
The Ruffs stood in silence for a moment, giving Boomer and Brick a chance to observe that Butch was right. "I have a plan," Brick piped up bravely. Boomer and Butch looked at him.
"Really?" Boomer asked doubtfully. However Butch had just clicked. Of course, it was so clear now. From what Blossom had said, she should have been the Puff's leader, so Brick should have been there leader. With him the Puff's would easily have been beaten, and they would rule the world. So why had Mojo got rid of him? To keep him and Boomer under control of course.
Blossom's return had blown him a favourable wind, if only he could live long enough to take advantage of it. Of maybe the key was not to live at all…