"Several arrested over suspicion of causing strikes against Mayor" the professor read out loud, as he flipped to the next page of the paper he had fixated himself upon after another long day in the lab, making the finishing tests to his next big classified project.
He sipped coffee as he shook his head, clearly puzzled. "But who want to do such a thing like that? A lot of people appearing to be the culprit behind this attempt to turn the city against the mayor have been caught, but all of them say that although they hate the mayor as well, none of them know who it was that started this entire mess."
"Take a look" he insisted as he turned the paper around to show his three daughters who sat in a sofa waiting for the next good cartoon on television to come on, meanwhile simply meditating and celebrating this brief period of relative peace that would no doubt soon be disturbed, although this time they had a feeling that it wasn't simply a bloodthirsty monster hellbent on crushing buildings that they would have to deal with.
One gigantic monster had in fact tried to jump the city earlier that day, but thankfully they had intercepted it and brought it down quickly before it even got to the city thanks to a nature hike the three girls had been taking outside the city to get away from the hustle and bustle of the crowded metropolis.
The walk had of course turned out less peacefully than they would have preferred, but at least no civilians had been killed from this relatively minor incident. Ignoring of course, the implications that this beast was just a scout or messenger of thoughts for much worse to come, and that when he didn't get back to his equally as barbaric brethren, they were bound to come looking for revenge.
The paper which the girls now tiredly turned their attention towards, showcased several large and muscular men in prisoner clothing behind bars, not an unusual sight in this restless and often lawless place where law enforcement teams were sub par at best. What really caught their eye, was the headline below which stated that the first strikes and large scale protests had began after a soaring rise in the amount of buildings vandalized by graffiti spouting all kinds of hate messages towards the mayor and how they despised his methods of running the city.
There had been an escalation in the amount of hatred shown towards the mayor for some days now, but today had taken this to new extremes as a large group of rebellious protesters had gathered outside the mayor's office, some holding large signs saying "Power to the people. We want mayor gone.".
They stood outside the whole day, and refused to leave even when the mayor ordered them to leave him in peace and threatened to start taking legal action if the crowd didn't go away. This made them even angrier, according to the newspaper, and some of them even began to bang on the door even though it was made from thick steel far too tough to break through.
It was then that the mayor called in the police, and managed to grab a few of the protesters not quick enough todisperse after learning too late that he was for once being serious.
Most of those taken in for questioning were uncooperative at best, and downright insulting to the officers at worst claiming that they were nothing more than cowardly puppets on a string working for a selfish puppet master who only cared about himself, too much of a softy to even try and gang up on the mayor so that they could have a better life along with everyone else once the mayor was gone.
The few who were calm enough to give any answers during interrogation time, claimed they knew nothing about the possible identity of one "Rebel strika 91" who had not only started a chat room and webpage campaigning against the mayor, but claimed to be the one planting dirt against him also in the form of posters which they claimed they had placed all over Townsville to try and raise awareness of their cause.
They could give no more information, and claimed that even if they knew more they would keep what more they knew hidden.
The investigation continues.
"What do you make of it?" the professor asked, clearly unable to understand much himself.
"Whoever's plotting this dastardly scheme must be a very cunning agent." Blossom slowly remarked, after some few seconds of deep thought "They're a lot like a shadow in the way they've stayed hidden for so long. I still don't see why anyone would want the mayor gone so badly. I mean I don't like the mayor much myself and neither do my sisters, but we put up with him despite that."
"I'm with you on this one Bloss" replied Buttercup "I mean sure, mayor's not the nicest guy but come on, neither are a lot of the monsters and criminals we have to deal with on a day to day basis like we do. And even if Mayor did leave, we'd probably just end up with someone even less good at running the city than him. Not to mention how if no one's run against him for this long, this really has come out of nowhere."
She turned to Bubbles, who had so far listened in silence, trying not to make direct eye contact with any of the other 3 people in the room with her. "What do you make of all this Bubbles?"
Bubbles knew that she had to respond with extreme caution, even if these were her sisters and her daddy she was replying to. There was no telling what could happen if they found out too soon. They might not rat her out to the mayor knowing how genuine their love for her was, but they might be so mad with her for lying and doing something so dangerous that they might never have the same good relationship with her again.
Perhaps they'd even insist that she never talk to them again. Perhaps they'd even disown her and tell her to find another city without Mr Mayor to go and live in, if that was how she felt.
Of course Bubbles knew that the chances of that were very slim, but all the same she realized that she hadn't survived this long in such a dangerous life by taking unnecessary risks. And she certainly wasn't prepared to take a chance now, especially when the stakes were so high for not just her but the several hundreds if not thousands of lives she planned to improve.
She only shook her head, averting her gaze so that Buttercup could not see the blankness of her empty eyes. "It's hard to imagine how anyone could want to go so far with this silly plan." she admitted, managing despite the tense situation not to lie since she never once thought her plan would get to this stage. She had expected it to fail from the get go and yet it only became more and more successful against all her grim expectations. "What kind of person would do something like this?"
"Probably some convoluted bad guy whose trying to turn everyone against each other so he can catch everyone off guard with whatever it is that he's planning. That would be my most logical guess." stated Blossom, stroking Bubbles's hair after seeing how distressed she seemed by the news.
"Don't worry Bubbles." she consoled gently "I'm sure it's nothing too serious that we can't solve. I'm sure they'll find whoever it is that's spreading these dirty lies soon."
"They're not lies and you know they're not." Bubbles almost blurted out, only just managing to keep her escalating temper in check at the last second by clenching her eyes shut and gritting her teeth. "You even said yourself Blossom that you don't think Mr Mayor's a very nice person.", she thought silently. "You just don't want to admit that you're against him too because you're scared about getting in trouble."
"Yes well" chimed in the professor, glancing at the clock on the wall "I think that we shouldn't let this fairly small, um, incident get to us too much. And if I remember correctly your favorite cartoon starts about now, so I guess I'll leave you girls alone to enjoy your time here while I go back and do one last check on whether I've really gotten everything ready for the meeting tomorrow. I can't be late, and I can't afford to leave anything important behind."
And with that, he stifled a quiet yawn as he stood up and trudged wearily upstairs leaving the girls in private as they flicked the television back on and Buttercup grabbed the box of popcorn they had prepared on a nearby table.
Bubbles allowed herself to sit still and lose herself to the beautiful and vibrant images on the screen before her, she needed some relaxation time to recompose her thoughts on what to do next now that the tensions were getting serious. Some cartoon time would give her that relaxation she so needed.
The film ended and Bubbles eventually allowed herself to relax as she tried to drift away into sleep beside her sister's on the comfortable sofa, realizing that for this one night at least no more posters needed to be stuck around the city now that everyone got the picture well enough.
That was, until she heard a faint sob emanating from outside. Someone without her sensitive ears, made more sensitive by years of being unable to get to sleep at night out of fear of the darkness and the horrors lurking under her bed would have dismissed the quiet din as nothing more than a wild fancy.
But Bubbles, who was still not fully asleep yet managed to hear the sound clearly enough.
She listened for a few seconds more, thinking briefly that she was just imagining things because of the stress that had really been hitting her hard over these past few days, but there it was again and definitely louder this time as well as more sad.
Bubbles didn't know who could be shouting their grief to the world at this time of the night. She didn't care.
All she knew was that whoever it was, was clearly very desperate and urgently needed comfort. This wasn't the kind of cry a spoiled child would wail to illicit sympathy when he couldn't play with his toy train or buy his favorite sugared cereal in a supermarket because his parent's said he couldn't.
It was much worse than that. This was the kind of lament a depressed man would make, as he climbed the stairs to the top floor of a skyscraper and opened the window before readying himself to jump to his death.
Bubbles had heard this kind of cry only once in her life, and that was when she had come across a young blonde woman crying over the corpse of her dead and only baby son whose head had been ripped from his body by a rampaging monster. A monster that Bubbles later beheaded without mercy or without holding back.
Bubbles needed to find where that sound came from, and quickly. Whoever made that cry might have only seconds left before something unimaginably terrible happened to them. They might well be in their last throes of life, even as Bubbles stealthily darted from the house and managed to follow the noise down street after street despite the moonless sky and the loud din of a still bustling city that did it's best to obscure the cries and sobs that were Bubbles's only compass.
Bubbles didn't know what she could expect to find, but she didn't care. Unless this really was some sort of extremely devious trap set out to trick her, but she dismissed the idea of it all being an act when she heard the sob again, now more choked with desperation and pleading than ever.
It couldn't have been a trick. Even if the sob did come from a remorseless criminal, Bubbles had every reason to help since she knew that to ignore a plea so sincere as the one she heard now, would be to accept full responsibility for whatever gruesome fate befell the unknown figure next when they could cry no more. And she wasn't sure she could live with that guilt.
The buildings parted ahead, to reveal a thick forested area ahead but being a Powerpuff girl, the trees did nothing to impede Bubbles as she flew higher and banked over the trees beneath her with the greatest ease.
Her baby blue eyes carefully scanned the forest beneath her for any sign of something that could give a clue as to where the cry was coming from, but could find nothing as of yet despite the care she took when she gave each and every bit of land a careful look over even as she flew forward.
Something strange happened as the layer of trees broke apart to review a large lake, a perfect place for a quiet walk at least during the day when it would surely look a lot less frightening and bleak than it did now. The sobbing seemed to stop, and a deep inhaling took its place.
The kind of breaths a professional singer might take when he was readying his final performance to try and wow his audience with a surprise finale that he was a hundred percent certain that it would blow them away. Though Bubbles wondered what kind of audience anyone could expect on this dim cold night, in such a secluded and empty place such as this lake in the middle of so dense a forest.
It was a nice place to clear one's thoughts, Bubbles had to admit. But at the same time, quite a lonely place considering the thick layer of forest one would have to navigate through to find such a place. The forest seemed quiet peaceful, but at the same time quiet tedious and difficult to have to walk through. Bubbles did wonder for a second whether she was intruding on someone's privacy, since she did struggle to imagine anyone coming to such a secluded place for any reason save to be left alone in seclusion.
Her thoughts about perhaps leaving before she upset the one she only meant to help was interrupted by a soft and melodious voice which seemed to sear through Bubbles's very soul. It was a sad, emotional voice which sang. The kind of voice a lonely musician might sing when he realized that his entire audience had long since left the stage never to return, yet so engrossed in his tune was he that he continued to sing unable to stop.
"I've got no time. I've got no time to live." went the lonely singer, a young female no older than thirteen judging by the frailty and pitch of the carefully sung song. "I've got no time to live and I can't say goodbye."
Bubbles was relieved she had come. Clearly whoever was singing really was near the brink of dying, and she really had come just in time. She descended from her position in the sky, not wanting to be seen yet as she crept towards the dark silhouette she could now see clearly standing on what appeared to be a cliff overlooking the dark waters of the lake, holding what appeared to be some sort of light which it waved about slightly as it sang.
"And I'm regretting having memories of my friends when they used to be beside me, before they left be to die." came the next part of the song, causing Bubbles's eyes to moisten slightly, while making her stamp her feet in anger. Whoever had made this young girl (Bubbles guessed it was a girl from the pitch at which the song was sang) was going to be very sorry, she promised the singer that much.
"But I know this is. I know this is the truth. Cause I've been staring at my death so many times"
Now Bubbles's eyes narrowed and she clenched her teeth. What did that girl mean by her death? Was it already too late to do anything? At best the word "death" was a metaphor for something not quiet as bad, but clearly bad enough so that the singer felt empty and hollow inside. Was she... Bubbles could not finish her thought. It hurt her heart so badly.
"These scary monsters roaming in the halls. I wish I could just block the doors. And stay in bed until the clock will chime." The voice seemed to be struggling to refrain from breaking, but was clearly forcing itself to finish the song at any price.
What did she mean by that Bubbles wondered as the chorus came, marked by an increased amount of grief in the words and a slight rise in volume.
"So my Flashlight's on, and I stay up until dawn.I got this headache and my life's on the line."
Again, what did she mean by her life being on the line. Or was it even a girl doing the singing?
The only thing Bubbles could glean so far, was that sleep had been a difficult thing for whoever was singing. Bubbles almost wanted to rush forward and beg the mysterious figure standing on the cliff to stop singing and tell her what was wrong, but she knew that would be rude.
The very least Bubbles could do was let the singer finish before she interrupted, and perhaps she could learn more about how she could best help when she heard the rest of the song.
"I felt like I won, but I wasn't done. The nightmare repeats itself every time. Got to keep my calm, and carry on. Stay awake until the sun will shine. But I'm not so strong, and they're not gone. They're still out there to take what's left of mine"
Who was they?, was the biggest question in Bubbles mind right now as she resisted the urge to step forward to get a closer look at the figure whose face was turned away from her. She knew even one step forward could give away her position, and she didn't want to do that yet. But whoever "they" were, they would soon pay for driving this stranger to this deep depression.
And yet even as Bubbles's sympathy for whoever the stranger was had grown by the second, that sympathy and pity turned to utter shock as the stranger began the second verse of the song, quieter yet more angry than before.
"I have this urge, I have this urge to kill. I have this urge to kill and show that I'm alive."
Bubbles clapped her hand over her mouth. Was this... another criminal who had turned to crime because of some deep seated trauma. Had she been feeling guilt for a remorseless serial murderer, who was likely planning their next murder even as they sang. Had they come here so that no one would witness them as they plotted their next evil scheme against some innocent child.
The blonde girl's angst only trebled as her heart began to beat faster and faster when the next line turned out to be perhaps the most twisted words she had heard her whole life long.
"I'm getting sick from these apologies, of people with priorities that their lives matter so much more than mine."
Bubbles didn't know whether to feel pity or anger at those words. Was this a justification as to why someone would be willing to turn to killing. If so, then did this make the killer more sympathetic, or even more barbaric. Bubbles didn't know the answer, and her feet refused to carry her away from here until she found out just what those words really meant.
As much a turncoat and joker as fate was, today it had brought her here in a rare bout of seriousness for a reason. And Bubbles was determined to discover it even if it killed her. Be it morbid curiosity, or genuine sympathy which gripped the blonde preschooler superhero, she really didn't care now.
But just as her heart felt as if it would thud out of her rib cage, another poignant line caused her to gasp audibly in exasperation now no longer knowing what truly to feel anymore.
"But I'm stuttering. I'm stuttering again. No one will listen and no one will understand. Because I'm crying as much as I speak, cause no one likes it when I shriek, want to go back to where it all began."
And then, no longer able to stand the pain and concern that had been building inside her from the first verse of this concise yet elaborate and well put together song which said things that ordinary words in a normal conversation could never express, Bubbles ran forward towards the dark figure which had by now stopped singing after realizing at last that it was no longer alone in its secret place.
Sounds carried further than expected on a silent and windless night such as this, especially when there were but two people alone together in such a obscured and secretive location. Bubbles's gasp, quiet as it was had been enough to alarm the stranger that something was not quite right.
The stranger slowly turned as Bubbles ran forward, freezing in place as the stranger clapped eyes on her with their baleful stare and most of their face still obscured in blackness.
Thank you once again so much for reading. This chapter really took a massive chunk out of me and it really was fun to write. One thing I love to do in films and movies is to find an appropriate song which summarizes the setting and characters of the movie as perfectly as possible. Bubbles's plan as you can see is unfolding well, but clearly there are still a lot of other obstacles for our brave heroine to encounter. Some of these will take place between people she never thought she would have to confront anywhere but in a fight.
I'm sure you've already guessed it by now from the chapter, but who do you think this mysterious figure who Bubbles has chosen to try and help really is? And what do you think they really need from Bubbles?
I would really like to hear your opinions once more, and as usual stay tuned for the next chapter which may take some time. Please do comment, since I do read every one of your compliments and every one of them breaks my heart inside. Thank you all so much once again.