Boomer and Bubbles had certainly been doing their best to follow the tiny robot. It had been two hours since they had started, and so far this tiny robot didn't show any signs of stopping yet. They were forced to not fly too fast in terms. It was able to move fast, but they still could get way ahead of it if they weren't careful.
"Should we stop it?" Bubbles asked. Her blue counterpart had his attention mostly fixed on the tracking device itself. They had been following it for some time, more amazed at how long the drone could go without any worry of shutting down from lack of power.
"Give it another ten minutes then we'll take a break," Boomer nodded. He wanted to make sure they got something out of this time spent. He wasn't going back to his brothers without something to show for all the hard effort. The blonde powerpuff thought it was be better to change topics to try and lessen the stress and boredom that had been building throughout the hours.
"How come your dad's robots don't hold together this well?" Bubbles asked jokingly, wondering why Mojo Jojo's robots were so flimsy in comparison to the new robots. She knew for a fact that the ruffs' creator had a big problem with reusing the previously destroyed robots parts to build the next one, like a horrible recycling system going on. Boomer didn't seem to respond that well to the question.
"My dad's not alive anymore," the blonde ruff stated.
"Did Mojo get in an accident?" Bubbles worriedly inquired, feeling guilty for being insensitive. She hated to imagine someone dying, even if they were the powerpuffs' worst enemy. After all, they hadn't seen the evil monkey in some time.
"Mojo's not my dad. HIM was. All I hear from Mojo is shouting all day and annoying planning," Boomer explained. HIM was the former most terrifying person known throughout Townsville. After the puffs had destroyed the ruffs, HIM had decided to revive them and give them a second chance at revenge. Since then the rowdyruffs had been through odd times between the monkey that created them and the demon that revived them, including a custody battle at one point. Sadly HIM had to be destroyed by the powerpuffs inevitably, and that fateful day came a little over a year ago. That forced the rowdyruff boys back to Mojo.
"You don't like being Boomer Jojo?" Bubbles pressed the topic more, seeing him sigh.
"Nope. I'm just Boomer, alright? Please drop it," the blue ruff requested. His counterpart obeyed, not wanting to hurt his feelings anymore. She wondered if his brothers felt the same. Brick and Butch didn't seem to hate Mojo Jojo that much, but to swear off their own last name was odd. She had to wonder if there was a reason for boomer to have a personal dislike toward Mojo.
The tiny drone was out of sight right now and was scurrying through a few back alleys. It hadn't not stopped yet, but there was a manhole cover. When it crossed over it, the cover sprung up. The tiny machine tumbled over, losing its balance. It didn't get a chance to react before its entire body got grabbed and crushed with minimal effort.
"Here we go…" a voice rung out as the destroyed drone got pulled into the sewers, the manhole cover being left lying nearby.
"Something's off…" Boomer claimed as they continued flying. He gave his counterpart the GPS device. The red dot they had been following had suddenly picked up more speed.
"Are they really that fast?" Bubbles quirked. This wasn't right. They recalled what Brick had told them, if anything was going strangely, they had to smash the drone and flee.
"Let's go break it and we'll head back home…" the blonde girl sadly said. They were hoping to find the robot base, but it turned out to be a waste of time. Just what they feared, it was already two in the afternoon.
"Wait!" Boomer grabbed her hand. She looked at him, confused, but he had a serious look in his eyes. It was odd to see him be so assertive, but she liked him a lot when he wasn't acting afraid around his brothers.
"So what if it got faster? It probably got washed away by a storm drain. We aren't going back without something to show for it," the bright haired boy theorized that maybe it was just bad luck on the drone's behalf, due to the rain last night.
"You're right! Come on, let's go before it's out of range," Bubbles agreed. It made sense to her. She was impressed by how smart he was. Butch and Brick made him out to be the dumbest of the group and maybe they weren't wrong, but she could tell he had a higher intelligence than he let on. The two of them few off to try and catch up to the drone.
It had only been twenty minutes and they had flown another fifty miles. This was ridiculous to them, they had no idea the sewers would be that bad with it. However, abruptly, the red dot they had been following on the GPS for so long came to a stop.
"I think it got stuck," Bubbles said, relieved. She felt a little tired. That was a nice flight, at least. It wasn't too hot out and the clouds were obscuring a good lot of the sun today.
"Is this the robots base?" Boomer had to wonder aloud. If the drone wasn't stuck, then that meant it reached its destination. They both landed on the ground. They were in a suburban part of Townsville. To lightly say this was a rich person neighbourhood was an understatement.
"In the sewer…?" the blonde girl squeaked. She didn't want to get dirty. She hated going into the sewers, but it was unavoidable at times. They found the nearest manhole which was in the middle of the road. They opened it and climbed inside of it. Boomer pulled the cover back over the manhole when they got in.
"Either way, we gotta get it if it's stuck or not," Boomer sighed, hoping they had reached the robot base. The sewers smelt as bad as expected and the water was flowing nearby. Bubbles tried to take a few steps but almost slipped into the dirty river. Thankfully the blue ruff grabbed her and pulled her away, saving her from a future tomato bath.
"Thank you," Bubbles kept a tight grip on his hand. She was afraid to let go. The powerpuffs and rowdyruffs had been working together great thus far. She felt nothing but relaxed and confident with him.
"Anytime. I think this is to a drainage tunnel?" Boomer pointed ahead as they followed the GPS, the red dot blinking the closer they got. He was right, as there was a big drainage tunnel at the end which was a large pit that let the sewer water flow to another area. At the bottom, there were a bunch of pipes in between.
"There's the robot!" Bubbles flew down to one of the many sets of pipes. The tiny drone was caught between some of the pipes. The blue powerpuff was confused, picking it up, seeing how damaged it was. The drone looked like it had been caught in a car crusher at a junkyard. Boomer was keeping an observant eye out.
"One rough ride in the water wouldn't do that," Boomer had to confess, looking around. The blue puff felt sorry for the tiny robot. Just because it was small, it couldn't be as durable as the big robots. She took the tracking device off of it and put it in her pocket, though when she looked down, she saw an odd red light in the darkness at the bottom of the pit. It was beginning to get brighter each second. Her eyes widened as she dropped the drone.
"Boomer, look out!" Bubbles screamed, tackling him out of the way as a huge red laser beam missed them by inches, blasting through the ceiling and breaking right through to the surface. Light broke through and shimmered below. The two quickly flew out through the newly created hole in a surprised fear.
"Thanks for saving me, Bubbles. What was that?!" Boomer was grateful but angry that they had just been jumped out of nowhere. That attack looked too powerful to belong to any of the super powered children anymore. As they saw the road around the hole they had just escaped through, began to crack and strain as something broke through.
"A-a robot!" Bubbles answered. It was scary the way it looked. The robot had two arms that looked normal. Its body however seemed more elegant in design. The colour scheme was black, it had a gold long part on the back of it that looked like a fin. There were two odd blasters attached to the wrists of the robot. The main thing that drew their attention was the robot's face, a scary golden mask that looked like its mouth had a bolts covering it. The robot had green eyes focusing on them.
"It destroyed the drone…" the blonde ruff gritted his teeth, trying to size up the situation. He had a heavy fear in his gut right now. The robot aimed one of its blasters at them.
"You are correct, child, but I am not here to engage in a blind fight," a voice echoed. The super powered blue children stared at it in awe. The robot was talking to them. It did nothing to help the confusion. Every time, the families seemed to get closer to learning more about the mechanical enemies, was when something new and even more astonishing came out to surprise them.
"W-who are you? What do you want?" Bubbles questioned if this robot was friendly and didn't want to fight. She would accept it, but the voice sounded like a woman. The echo made it faint, though still understandable.
"Yeah! And only an idiot attacks first then says they don't want to fight!" Boomer stomped, though didn't notice the hypocrisy behind the comment until after he had already said it.
"I want the material you took from the other Gifted Gear," the female machine explained her requests. The powerpuffs fears of the drone recording everything were right, though they had no idea how easy that footage was to access to all of the machines.
"What's so important about a rock?" Boomer growled. He hated these robots immensely, and this was his first encounter with a real one that wasn't a drone. It ignited an odd fire in his heart. They didn't know what Gifted Gear meant, assuming it to be the name of the robots in general.
"I am not permitted to say. This is my final request. Please turn it over and desist from bothering our operations, before I am forced to take extreme measures," the elegant robot's last warning was given to the blue children. They looked to each other. The looks in their eyes alone were good enough answers to their wonders if they were going to just stand and listen to the demands.
"Please listen! We don't have the rock your friend had. Can you please tell us what you all are doing? Why do you need these?" Bubbles attempted to settle this in peaceful terms, but sadly her soft voice fell on deaf ears.
"I am sorry…" the robot fired both blasters, two red beams heading toward them. They flew out of the way quickly, Boomer darting right for the machine, punching it directly in the face, hoping for that to be the weak point. Sadly, it wasn't. He got smacked away like an annoying blue bottle fly. Bubbles let out a loud ear piercing screech that shattered windows of nearby buildings. Any civilians around were beginning to flee upon the fight starting. The robot was affected partially by this, but the sonic scream wasn't having a good effect. The blonde girl almost got hit by another laser, being forced to duck. Boomer traded a few punches with their enemy, but each hit did nothing but hurt his knuckles.
"I've got an idea. Get her into the air!" Boomer called out. Bubbles nodded, seeing her blue counterpart grab onto the back of the robot, beginning to lift it up off the ground. Bubbles tackled the chest, helping him force the machine straight to the sky high above Townsville. It broke free of their grips, forcing them away.
"Now!" they both fired strong rays of heat vision simultaneously. They watched the mechanical enemy get spiked downward. The long fall, plus the heated up metal, was sure to provide some form of injury. They watched their robotic enemy crash into the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of dirt from how hard it impacted the area beneath it.
"Did we get it?" Bubbles hesitantly broke the silence. They were both panting tiredly. But then, Boomer's eyes widened as another bright red laser blasted from the smoke, hitting him right at the chest. And then surrounding his body with a bigger blast.
"Boomer!" his blue counterpart screamed, seeing that red blast surround him for what seemed like a few seconds. When it vanished, he began to fall, having lost his strength and the ability to fly. Bubbles caught him in her arms, stopping his fall. His dark blue eyes were open, looking terrified.
"Speak to me! Please!" she begged, seeing the elegant looking robot climbing out of the hole it had been forced into. One of its arms were damaged badly. They could see it sparking and dangling by only a few shards of metal.
"I-I can't move…" Boomer forced out. He was terrified, almost feeling like he was dying in her arms. Bubbles cradled him, seeing the robot aim its only functional arm, firing another blast, but she dodged it with ease. Each shot seemed to take quite some time. Her enemy almost was ready to shoot again. She was angry, her light blue eyes were filled with rage. She flew downwards as fast as she could, landing on the ground and resting Boomer down, lying him on the concrete. He was still unable to move any part of his body.
"You'll be fine," Bubbles reassured, promising him that he would recover. The machine was just down the road aiming its blaster turret before firing another big red laser. Bubbles quickly made a ball around herself, forming it into a light blue energy projection sphere. She caught the attack and darted right through it, flying right toward the robot. The laser was cracking her defences, about to break through.
"Stop!" Bubbles screamed, her hyper voice caught the elegant robot off guard, having stopped its strong blast. Bubbles rammed into it at full force, her energy projected barrier vanishing instantly as she collided with it, sending it tumbling down the road. The robot tried to get up, but got punched hard in the head.
"What did you do to him?!" the blonde girl shouted before delivering a fury of punches across the entire chest. The blows did nothing though as the robot raised its arm in the air and slammed it down on top of Bubbles, punching her into the ground. The powerpuff girl was terrified being pinned down like this. The barrel of the blaster was aimed right in her face.
"Please forgive me," Bubbles heard from the echoing robot before it blasted another red laser, while she was pinned to the ground on her back.
Boomer was mortified. He could only hear the noises, but he could barely turn his neck to face his head to the direction where he was hearing everything. It felt like torture, being awake and unable to move, and hearing all that was going on and not being able to help. He felt a rock hit the bottom of his stomach when he saw them. The golden faced machine had bubbles in its grip. She was unconscious, that blast so close had knocked her out.
"What did you do!? Bubbles! Wake up!" Boomer shouted, trying to get her to reawaken. He gained no response. He felt some control coming back to his body, but all he could do now was roll onto his stomach and force himself up onto his feet. He felt like every muscle was still fighting against him.
"I feel remorse doing this. She is merely unconscious, but we cannot have you all hindering progress any further. We will come for the stone," the voice from the machine echoed. She seemed upset to be hurting children. Why she was doing it though was another problem altogether.
"Who… who are you?" Boomer coughed.
"I am Gifted Gear Unit 8. Golona," Golona introduced herself very late. The blue rowdyruff took a step closer.
"Give her back…" he demanded her to relinquish Bubbles. He knew they lost this fight, and he wished to carry her back to her house if he had to. Golona kept her grip firmly on the blue powerpuff. The robot turned away.
"You have a kind heart, but you meddled in the wrong affairs. Until we are done with our tasks, she is going to be held somewhere else," Golona declared. Boomer could swear that his heart wanted to stop, seeing the machine begin to walk away, having defeated them and taken Bubbles captive.
"Get back here! Take me! Not her!" Boomer roared as loud as he could, but received no more response. It felt like his fault that she got captured. Before he knew it, Golona and Bubbles were both out of sight. He panted, burying his face in his hands. He had to get back to the powerpuffs household quickly, and hope the others were there. It was going to be a long walk.