Buttercup and Butch were in the rundown factory, staring at the machine before them. Seeing its many tentacles was intimidating. One wrong move from them and it might cost a limb.
"What's the goal here, Buttercup?" Butch had to ask, while the robot seemed to be waiting for them to make the first move. He wanted to know what the point of this was. Smashing a robot was good for one, but if they couldn't, then this was nothing more than a waste of time, and risking their own lives on it was not worth it.
"It's holding something in one of those tentacles. Try and get it," Buttercup pointed out one of the tons of tentacles that was closed, clearly holding something. Their earlier theory was right. The machines were always looking for something. Whatever it was they wanted, they had indeed been finding so far. The green ruff nodded, taking out one tentacle seemed a lot easier than breaking the metal ball itself. They felt the floor beneath them begin to rumble. They both jumped aside, seeing a few of the robot's tentacles rip out from beneath them.
"Dang! That thing almost took my foot off!" Butch growled. The tentacles were able to come out of the ground at any time, which didn't help their stress. The two flew at it, leaving trails of green lights behind them, and just like that, almost every tentacle seemed to move simultaneously, multiple attempting to attack Buttercup. She flew between two of them before they could get their sharp parts on her. Another popped up ahead of her, opening wide and firing three big balls of fire.
The green powerpuff grinned, creating two shields of her energy projection around her hands. She punched one of the blazing balls away before smashing the next one downward, watching them explode on contact with the areas of the factory they hit. Buttercup caught the last burning ball, growling with the effort it took. She threw it straight back at the machine fighting them. Three of the tentacles flew in front and caught the fire ball. It exploded on contact, destroying those three tentacles instantly as they crumpled to the ground, burnt.
"I hate this thing!" Butch shouted, busy trying to avoid getting hit by about five tentacles that were chasing him through the air. He spun aside, dodging one from the side and kicking it away. One almost chomped him, but he caught it before it could bite him. He threw it aside, making the tentacle bite another one, cutting it off. This robot seemed to be doing more damage to itself than they were doing to it. The green ruff had to keep flying, unable to escape constantly.
Buttercup fired her heat vision, blasting the sphere machine itself. There was no effect, though. It only angered it, making another tentacle pop out of the ground to attempt to bite her. She pried the bulb shaped tentacle apart, preventing it from closing, and then blasted its inside with her heat vision. This time it was effective, causing it to fall over. The tentacles weren't as resistant as the robot itself.
"Keep them distracted!" Buttercup shouted.
"Not like I have a choice here!" Butch reminded. Either way the distraction was already being made. He had the majority of the attention on him, but Buttercup wanted whatever this robot was holding in that one tentacle directly above its head. She tried to rush at it quickly, tackling the bulb at the end of the tentacle, attempting to pry it open to retrieve it. Whatever was inside, it clearly held a great importance to the machines.
"Come on, open up!" Buttercup gritted her teeth. She couldn't force it open. Butch however had an idea, seeing a few of the tentacles about to attempt to attack her. He darted behind her and punched one tentacle, making them focus on him with nearly all the tentacles following the green rowdyruff. He began to fly circles around the sphere robot that controlled them. He went around over and under. His green counterpart just watched until all of the tentacles stopped abruptly. The robot was trapped in its own weapons, having tied itself up on accident. Butch landed on the ground beside it before he stomped on the ground, damaging it before he kicked the robot, toppling it over onto its side.
"Wow… that was some quick thinking," Buttercup had to admit that she was impressed. She landed beside him, though that tentacle she had been trying to pry open landed near them, still shut tight.
"Cut me some slack, BC. I'm not as dumb as Boomer," the spiky haired boy requested. Buttercup rolled her eyes. She was happy they disabled the robot, but this wasn't much of a win. She was worried that the robot was already calling for help silently while they tried to find out what it wanted here in the first place.
"Just come help me get this open," she requested. He came over, and they both grabbed parts of the tentacle and pulled hard. It took great effort, but together they did it. Upon opening the tentacle, they saw a black chunk of rock fall out of it. They both only stared at it, feeling a confused anger welling in themselves.
"…is that coal?" Butch broke the silence. Did they really just waste their time fighting for a hunk of fire fuel?
"I don't think so. There'd be hundreds of places to get coal easier," Buttercup claimed. She hoped she was right about it not being coal, because if it was, these robots were the most inconvenient mining tool in existence. Coal was not a hard thing to find. She picked up the black rock. It was jagged and about as big as her hand. Suddenly the tentacle they had stolen it from was trying to move, reaching toward her.
"Hey! Knock it off!" Butch growled, stomping on it, forcing it to the ground. He grabbed the tentacle, dragging it to the big tied up robot and shoving it into the mess, adding another knot to the already constricted machine.
"Thanks, Butch," Buttercup half-heartedly thanked him for protecting her. She was examining the rock. It didn't seem odd, but the spherical robot moved, unable to get up but putting a lot of its strength to it, almost like it had become agitated.
"You want this?" the raven haired girl asked, holding it up high. They heard the sound of its tentacles straining to move as if it were becoming even more and more desperate, the longer that black rock was out of its possession.
"Try not to make it angrier. I don't feel like flying through a barrage again," Butch requested tiredly. Buttercup understood, pocketing what they stole. There was a bigger plus side, if the professor ever needed more metal to examine, they could come here and forcibly remove it, since they had a captive robot, but it was not safe to move it anywhere near the family. The two of them left to get out of the abandoned factory. Once outside, they could see that the clouds had mostly cleared, unveiling the moon high in the sky. Only a few hours and it will be replaced by the sun soon enough.
"Great work in there, Butterbabe," Butch applauded, trying to congratulate her for their great work in there. She gained a cocky smile, bathing in the minor praise. She enjoyed her ego polishing a lot, though had a tendency to let it get to her head on accident.
"Thanks Butch… wait, what'd you call me?!" she demanded, only just realizing what he said to set her off, though he got an evil grin.
"What? Butterbabe?" Butch laughed before being tackled by Buttercup, being pinned down on his back with his green counterpart on top of him. The sound of laughter being mixed with punches echoed through the night. It was hilarious to him, if calling her by that name to tease her made her this angry. Butch was going to get a lot of fun out of it, and every bruise was what he saw as worth it.
Later in the morning at the Utonium household, Blossom was making her way downstairs, wearing a pink nightgown. The living room was empty now. It confused her since when she woke up she couldn't find either of her sisters, and now it looked like the ruffs were all gone. She wondered if she had slept through something, though soon enough she heard conversing from the basement. She headed down to see what was going on.
"Good morning every… one?" Blossom greeted. Everyone was down here, though their attention were affixed on the two sitting on the counter. The professor was trying to treat their injuries. Butch and Buttercup had gained quite a few new bruises and cuts.
"What happened?" the powerpuff leader asked. For what it was worth, The green children looked happy nonetheless.
"My idiot brother thought it'd be a good idea to go robot hunting in the middle of the night…" Brick explained. Butch looked proud for that fact. Even if his leader was trying his best to scold him, it just seemed to not go through his thick skull.
"Buttercup caught him trying to leave and decided to follow," Bubbles continued from what they could gather. This seemed like one person being talked into another's bad decision.
"Yeah! And we won!" Butch reminded. Buttercup stayed quiet. The green ruff was taking the blame for the blind hunting, since he had described that it was him who wanted to go out and hunt a robot out of boredom, and that he had talked his counterpart into coming along. The green powerpuff girl had no clue why her counterpart was taking the blame for it, but maybe he felt guilty over something. But she didn't care. The two didn't even admit that their injuries mostly came from fighting each other.
"Well, at least you're both safe," Boomer was happy with their survival alone. Blossom rubbed her head, trying to process the bad idea. What's done is done. No point in continuing to dwell on it.
"We did get an odd rock from the robot. We figured out that's what they were after," Buttercup chimed in, pointing out the black rock held within a small glass tube. They heard that familiar tapping noise, seeing the tiny robot they had captured. It was active once more. That rock was a motivator for these machines, that much was obvious.
"I've tried examining the metal. Its refining process had something extra added into it, that I can't seem to identify," the professor said while putting away the first aid kit. All that time he spent researching the metal pieces that his children and their enemies worked hard to gather turned out to be a big waste of time.
"Thanks for trying anyway, professor. And you two, please refrain from going and fighting robots alone without checking with me and Brick first," Blossom requested. Buttercup didn't respond, but Butch muttered out an annoyed agreement. Bubbles was looking at the tiny robot that was trying desperately to get out of the glass chamber. It was now completely bashing the glass with its bulb-like body.
"I have an idea," the blonde girl suddenly spoke up.
"is it a good one?" Brick asked if it was a dumb idea. He wasn't going to even entertain it as a joke. Waking up much earlier than he was used to affected his mood badly. His brothers didn't seem to mind the early morning, though the red ruff saw an angry glare from his counterpart.
"Go ahead, Bubbles," Blossom insisted for her to continue.
"What if we found out where the robots go with this one?" Bubbles pointed to the trapped one that seemed to be eager to get out. She wanted to save them any trouble of cleaning broken glass as well.
"You mean like a tracking device?" the professor saw his blonde daughter nod.
"That's a great idea!" Boomer agreed. Finding out where these robots were coming from or going to was great. All they had to do was stick something onto the drone, and it will hopefully be a great help to know the location of the base, and maybe find out who the machines' creators were.
"Yeah, it's a good idea if that robot goes where we want it to go," Buttercup reminded them. This drone could understand them for all they knew. She didn't want to waste half a day on a wild goose chase, though she was aware that the professor had a tracking device lying around somewhere in the mess of his other inventions.
"What if me and Bubbles do it? The rest of you can work on other things," Boomer offered himself and his counterpart to follow the robot, aware that while they spent time searching, the others could handle other tasks. Bubbles nodded, agreeing to the idea.
"…Alright. You have a good idea and it may be best to do it now," Blossom granted permission to do it, since the robots didn't seem to be actively attacking the city, it was a good chance to go searching for their base while they had the opportunity.
"But if anything looks off, you break it and run," Brick reminded his brother this drone was something they smash if anything looked suspicious. Boomer nodded, understanding. The professor went to grab the tracking device from one of his many drawers full of various gadgets and gizmos while Boomer grabbed the robot from the glass chamber, holding it by its bulb body to make sure it didn't go anywhere.
"Professor, if we could get more of the metal off the robots, could you maybe design something to break their armor?" Buttercup questioned, wondering if they couldn't figure out what made the material so strong, then maybe they could just wildly make something from it to beat the robots with.
"Of course, but Blossom and Brick got injured to get a few pieces of shrapnel," the professor reminded. Both Butch and Buttercup had grins on them.
"We left the robot we beat tied up! We can take your tools and try and strip it of its metal," Butch excitedly said. He just wanted an excuse to use these dangerous tools that were meant for assembly and not fighting. The puffs' father was hesitant.
"Well… I suppose, as long as Buttercup is with you," he reluctantly gave in, letting the two green children go off to grab the tools, anything that looked good enough that could help remove the metal. The professor brought over the tracking device which was a small round chip that easily stuck onto the robot's bulb body.
"There you go. Now wherever it moves, you should be able to follow," he said, handing over a small remote-sized gadget that had a screen on it, displaying the surrounding area on a map with a big red blinking dot where they were.
"Thanks, professor! Let's go, Boomer!" Bubbles gleefully said, eager to do this. She grabbed her blue counterpart by the hand, flying off in a rush, hearing a few painful grunts as he got dragged up the steps, the robot clunking painfully against each step.
"I better go get ready. Buttercup and Butch will probably need help carrying the metal," Blossom said, yawning. She looked a little messy for the early morning. Her long hair wasn't even brushed.
"I'll make sure Butch doesn't start a fire," Brick let his counterpart go off. He hated to imagine half of these tools in either of his brothers' hands. He just wished things were a lot simpler. This was becoming more troublesome by each hour that passed. He went to help the green super powered children gather tools.
"C-can you slow down, Bubbles?!" Boomer requested. He didn't like being dragged through the air like this. They were trying to get a good distance away from the Utonium household, the robot in his other hand. He was happy to be spending time alone with the blonde girl without fighting each other, a nice change of pace for him.
"Oops! Sorry," Bubbles giggled, stopping. Boomer felt like his arm almost got ripped out of its socket, the two thinking they were at a good distance. They began to land in an eastern part of Townsville, in an open area that looked like it was be ready to have homes constructed on the land.
"Ready?" the blonde ruff asked, looking at the robot under his arm that seemed annoyed at being carried like a football.
"Ready!" she nodded. He put the tiny drone down, watching it immediately scurry off away from the two of them, as if it was terrified or wanted to avoid capture again. Bubbles and Boomer looked at the tracking device so far. It seemed to work, as the blinking red dot was moving with the machine.
"Great! It works," Boomer said. The two took off back into the air, leaving blue streaks of light behind them. They had to follow this robot now for an unknown length of distance. They were going to try their best to go undetected, hoping that this was another step toward overcoming the machines that were an ever increasing threat. They seemed to be so various in types. Each robot seemed unique compared to the last. It was impressive how many were made and what they were capable of. Boomer and Bubbles could only hope that this would end well, not just for their task at hand but for both families, once the robots are dealt with. Bubbles wanted to go three days without fighting the ruffs in a sense. She didn't want to go back to the way things used to be, though she didn't know if Boomer felt the same or not. Still, she tried to keep her focus on following the robot.