A/N: Here we are with a new chapter. And oh my, prepare for ANGST.
I came back way earlier than expected, because this is a chapter I really really wanted to write.
As the title implies, this is probably one of the most important chapters there is in the story, which explains the length.
Just when I think a chapter can't get any longer than it previously was, I go on ahead to disprove myself. xD Proud of myself for finishing it. It's a bit rough around the edges because of finals...*cough* hence some wordings might be edited later, but most likely no change will be in the story. Here we go!
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A prickly set up of atmosphere enfolded the now more crowded forest, and it was not because of the swooshing pine leaves close by. An impending face-off between two pair of siblings, red against green, stood in parallel on respective sides of the family, impassable gazes piercing into the other.
"Thought you had nothin' else to do with me." Brick started with reproach on the Rowdyruff side.
The once, and technically still, leader Rowdyruff showed traces of his own morning moodiness as he faced his brother. He knew he had to an extent agreed to his red-bowed counterpart that he would straighten things out with his brothers, one of them present before him now; but his bitterness was getting too much in the way.
Aware of this, his contender took a breathy sigh, not much of a person for words. He ruffled his spikes. "Look man, I know what I did there was weak. But we need you back."
"Why? Wouldn't want a wuss for a leader, would you?" Brick snapped.
Butch grumbled unsettlingly. This was going to be a bucket of fun.
On the Powerpuff side of confrontation, Buttercup on her own was still trying to explain herself out of her questionable appearance with Butch. She needed to come clean if she were to have any dignity interrogating her sister afterwards.
"Like I said, it's not what you think! He just came out of nowhere and decided to stalk me all through the night! He... he-!"
Blossom listened silently and casted no doubt. After talking with Brick she herself knew she had to resolve problems with her sister; though this was not how she imagined things to be.
But apart from that, the redhead was well aware that she was in no position to question her. Although she did intend otherwise, she outright lied to her sisters, defended their sworn enemy, and snuck out in the middle of the night without really trying hard enough to give an explanation and build their trust. They were a team, but she endangered it by ignoring Buttercup's input. And if she wanted her green sister to trust that she wanted to make things up with her, she should start with trusting her first. So what if she was with Butch? Buttercup likely had her own reasons, as she had her own.
"Buttercup, I believe you." She assured her sister. The leader revealed her concerned expression to ask upon Buttercup's grabbed attention, "Did he... hurt you in any way?"
Numbed by her question, the raven-haired girl stared at Blossom with mixed emotions.
"Buttercup, please..." Blossom urged softly. "I'm trying to get through to you..."
Oh now she acts like she cares about what she has to say?
The green puff's hitched breath stung with anger, but it subsided as she too, all matters aside, was truthfully relieved to see her pink sibling unhurt. Which was what mattered most. Still, right about now she was wondering if all her worry for her last night was even worth it. She breathed out of her nose.
"No, leader-girl. He can't ever come close to hurting me. I ain't no pushover." The green puff regarded her sister the same. "You?"
Blossom crossed her head and held on to her own hands, humble. Buttercup folded her arms begrudgingly, half still at what her pink sister had done, and half at how she was dealing this with sulk rather than standing up for herself. But now she could see how her leader's aim wasn't to disregard her opinions.
"Well, aren't you going to say anything? This doesn't mean you don't owe me an explanation."
"I know, I know." The leader puff exhaled. She had to get to this one way or the other. The pink puff cleared her voice and met her sister with more clarity. "Listen, I know this looks bad, and I'm truly sorry that you had to find out this way, Buttercup, but... there's something you have to know about the Rowdyruff Boys. Yes, they are evil, yes, they are our enemy, and yes, they are still very wrong for what they did to our people, but it didn't have to be that way."
"What...do you mean." Buttercup squeezed her eyes, still far from convinced, but willing to listen.
Meanwhile, the stand off with the Rowyruffs was also breaking ground to more truthful conversations. Neither of them, though, knew what they were in for.
"How 'bout you take your place as leader?" Brick continued from before. He was actually half serious, having long been keen of Butch's envy for his position. Resentment smeared out of his tongue. "I know ya wanted it all along."
Butch could only stare at him with his mouth agape. Oh man, beat sense to him, nothing! If he didn't fess up soon, there was fat chance they'll get their leader back!
"Dude, I no longer want it..!" He cried out, desperate. The green boy groaned frustratedly, letting go his ego. "You don't understand! That's not what mattered. It's not you, it's HIM that dirtbag that ticked me off!"
The red ruff's eyebrows drew back a little at his placement of words and the mention of their dark powered father. He backtracked, and his scornful guard slightly dissipated at his brother's truthfulness. Butch saw his relented air as his cue to continue.
"You're not a wuss," he admitted ruefully, eyes shielded and teeth clenched, "It's been the same with me, okay? I got attacked on my way to get pizza, and it sucked." The green ruff grabbed part of his hair along the way, completely perturbed. "What sucks more is that I feel like dirt for letting that get through my head! I'm havin' and feelin' this unwanted stupid sissy thoughts just like you are, and I don't give a darn at what HIM tells us, I was a total screw-up to make fun of ya fer it!"
Brick was listening through his brother's unraveling speech, regarding with closemouthed and pensive thought. He clearly softened from his brother's apologetic reach-out to him. And from his brother's call out of weird happenings, he could perceive that there were definitely matters to be looked into with their father. They had to get to the root of this problem. But the red ruff sure couldn't handle it alone, as he tried before.
"And Mojo?" Butch went on. "He was a total buffoon for doing what he did. I see it now." The green ruff looked briefly over at his female counterpart facing her sister, the atmosphere over there still tight. "And if ya don't want ta fight the puffs, that's fine," he said. "It should be up to us to do so, if we want it or not. And I'm leaving that up to you, bro." Butch messed up the back of his head as he awkwardly searched for Brick's reaction. His smirk was nervously hopeful. "It's no fun without ya."
There was momentary silence. Brick let out a breath and smiled graciously with a tilted brow, "Took ya long enough."
Back to the Powerpuffs, Blossom was doing her best to calmly iterate what was told to her and what she found out about the boys. The way they were controlled and manipulated, how they never had a chance to think for themselves, and though hesitant to talk about Brick's personal matters, what really happened down at the park, along with the incident with Mojo.
"So hold up, HIM is behind all the commotion?" Buttercup called in between her sentences.
"In a way, yes."
Buttercup glanced briefly at the standing boys off the side.
"Annd you think those dunderheads are capable of feeling? They want people to care about them?! Yeah, right. What a joke!" The green puff scoffed with a shake of her head.
"It's true." Blossom insisted, voice kept moderate. She thought through her head. "You've been out with Butch. Haven't you noticed anything different about him? Anything at all?" She pressed hopefully, as it might have affected Butch some way as well.
Buttercup, instead of retorting without thinking like usual, 'hmmph'ed and fished through what happened last night: It was displeasing, yes, but also very weird. The ruff for sure, had been consistently showing signs of affection for his brother and a strong indefatigable will to protect him, weird; but what was weirder was his peculiar decision to refrain from wiping her out of existence. She was, although painful to admit, at his mercy last night; but the green boy took a glimpse of her circumstances and let her be, defended her from outside attack, and even soothed her out of her worries!
If it's my brother you're looking for, then you'll have go through me...
...He became too much of a softy... so don't you get nunnuya girly head worried about it...
...
Oh crud, and it turned out he seriously wasn't lying! It really wasn't in Brick's interest to attack her sister, Butch really wanted to stand up for his brother, and there really was no underlying plot against her and her sisters.
Buttercup felt her head being chewed out. Are these boys really going through changes? If all this happening was true, then she couldn't really blame the Rowdyruffs for being entirely evil all the time.
She blew out a sigh. By now she could say she made up with her sister, but she wasn't about to let herself believe these twerps were corrigible...yet.
"We're taking this convo elsewhere. Bubbles has to hear this, too."
Nodding, Blossom agreed at this idea. The two sisters were about to depart side by side.
"Hey, Blossom!"
The redheaded girl, taken by surprise, faced wholly towards Brick's voice, astonished by the mention of her name.
Brick wasn't the one to miss her surprised reaction, and blushed red. Was it that weird? She was staring at him wide-eyed as if she didn't realize that he knew it. He knew their names all along, they all did because of HIM, though it was meant to be inscribed in their minds as hateful. But his first call to her, thankfully, wasn't that of.
"I'll catch up to you later or whatever, yeah?" he released a nervous, yet cheeky smile.
"Sure," Blossom's smile resonated. "Later, Brick."
Butch, watching their amiable exchange, turned to his own partner to call, "Yo, Butter-puff!"
His said 'partner' snarled unappreciatively at the purposedly half-pronounced name. "What."
"You'd better be prepared for these babies next time." The jet-black haired ruff kissed his knuckles each time and winked mischievously at her. "No easy-going from now on."
Buttercup's tongue discharged in disgust, but strangely her face was in deep fluster from his unexpected act.
"Like heck I wouldn't be ready!"
She turned away in rapid motion and ejected herself out of the forest, her head steaming.
Blossom gave the two ruffs a friendly wave and left likewise in her trail.
After their leave, the green Rowdyruff chuckled in prankish humor. "Heh, greenie. She a tough one, ain't she?"
He turned to find Brick looking at him with an unreadable judging expression. Butch hissed in defensive nature. "What? I'll keep quiet of your deal with pinkie if you let off mine."
"Deal." Brick said curtly.
They both choofed out of the no longer towering forest trees.
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In another space of dawning light, gentle snores of snoozing children was heard. A stuffed animal held in one of their dormant grasps languidly found their way out, and in slow stir, out of the two, the heavy-eyed Powerpuff slid her baby blue eyes open. The blue girl remembered blurry images of the past night; them falling asleep after her long recites of storytelling, her counterpart's night-light slowly dissipating...
She fixed her pig-tails and stood up stretching with a lengthening yawn. She then lightly tapped the shoulder of her counterpart still in dreamland, a drool trickling down the side of his mouth.
"Boomer."
"It wasn't me!" The boy wiped his mouth and scrambled up to his feet. "...Huh?" He goggled, waking up.
"Boomer, I gotta go. I have school." The puff said, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
"Oh..."
The boy traced his glum blue eyes down at his feet and murmured in hinting sorrow. "Before you go, just so ya know..." He stalled a bit for truthful words. "Your stories are awesome."
"Oh?..." Bubbles shyly twirled one of her pig-tails with her hand. "Thank you."
All was hushed. Their time together was coming to an end, but it felt unfinished to just leave, the air between them.
Bubbles mulled over what could be done. "You know... you can join us anytime to be part of it. It'll be fun..." she told him meekly. If she could convince her sisters by then that is.
Boomer looked uncertain himself as his eyes digressed. He still seemed scared of the idea, letting their sibings know about their new friendship, let alone allow him to fight next to her.
The blue girl's spirits were downcast from knowing she made it gloomier. Despondent, she prepared herself to leave. "Bye, Boomer."
He breathed, and let down a whisper. "Goodbye, Bubbles..."
Bubbles lifted her eyebrows, pleasently surprised but also saddened by the utter of her name. Goodbye... She held back the heated tears starting to form behind her eyes. She hoped this wasn't their last time seeing each other like this.
The blues dashed out of their late-night playground, toward their respective homes.
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Dark forest green and deep maroon red were parallel in the sky to the other. In the middle of their flight back to Mojo's pad, the green ruff sensed the hesitance in the unfocused light of eyes in his leader. Concern molded into Butch's pool of dark green eyes as he gathered his best comforting voice.
"Don't worry about monkey, he's been treating us alright. After ya left, the dude's been sorry."
Brick tuned in. "Yeah?"
"He did dinner, built this dank gym and even went through his tech to make us this thing-a-majig." He held out his wrist for Brick to see the gadget he was wearing.
"Heh, I was wondering what that was." Brick replied, showing interest.
"And if dat still ain't enough, we can use him to get demon-dad off our back, just like he used us." He offered, his grin devious. "Waddya say?"
Brick quirked a smile at him. "I like how how you think, sergeant."
The two chuckled and faced front.
The air around the red boy was much more alleviated. He's been sorry, huh? Monkey-daddy might just deserve a second chance. And as for HIM that scumbag... Brick's expression turned grave. The ruff could see a way of solving all this mess. If only they all put their heads together...
Brick then realized someone's absence.
"Wait a minute, where da heck is Boomer?"
"He's still at the..."
There was a blue shower of meteor ray gaining toward them on their side view, which answered the question. It slowed down hesitantly, and equalized its speed with theirs beside them.
"Uh- hey, dudes!" came a nervous greeting, acknowledging red.
"Whadaya know, it's Boomie!" Brick grinned with laid back half-lidded eyes. They were glad to see him, but none of the two questioned where he had been.
The owner of the blue light pulled back in puzzlement at the ease of mood.
"Wait, we all cool, now?"
"Yup." Red and green both answered simply. Boomer shrugged in relief, accepting easily. Clouds of the clear sky swept past their pathway.
"So what up? Where we heading?"
Brick made a motion with his head.
"Tell 'im, Butch."
"Mojo's of course, ya dingus. And we decided we're not fightin the puffs unless we wanna."
"Oh-okay!" Boomer chirped. This was more than good news for team blue. He might actually see his counterpart again without having to fight her.
"And- from now on, we gonna lay it down on HIM and Mojo that we ain't their puppets for show."
"Oh..." Boomer's voice was heavier than before at Butch's notification. This was sudden...
...But well, why the heck not?
He didn't know about Mojo, but his face twisted in anger at what HIM made them go through all this time. Besides, unlike what HIM made him believe, thanks to someone, he knew now that he wasn't weak. He wasn't a pushover compared to his brothers. And he sure wasn't his puppet, nosiree. If his brothers were in for it, it probably was high time.
"Yeah, let's do that."
Their combined powers of rainbow arched towards their destination.
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With a roar of impact, the ceiling of Mojo's observatory crumbled loose at the trio's arrival. The three figures descended down from their dust wind.
"Alright, Mojo." The leader of the gang emerged. "Master Brick has arrived! But there's gotta be some changes to things around here, if ya truly wanna.." Brick slowed his words, "...say... sorry..."
A chill of ominous air crawled down their spines.
"Good to see you back, boys," echoed an effeminate voice. "Enjoyed your time out, hmmm?"
"What is HE doing here..?" Brick's tone stiffened with rancor. The boys all together took a backstep from the thin and uncomfortable red fog they were about to tred on, contempt evident in their eyes.
The attention-divided monkey in the corner whipped around to face his boys, his own face ill-humored at the not-so-subtle presence in his territory.
"I did NOT permit him entrance!" he pointed, still in his pajamas and robe, not properly dressed, "He barged in himself!"
There was a disturbing chortle coming near. "Now Mojo, what's wrong with a father wanting to see his boys?" It said coyly. The dark entity vanished from its original place, and summoned himself behind Mojo's back, laying his large pincers down delicately on the chimp's tremoring shoulders.
The monkey, irked, turned to the voice with raging temper.
"It is NOT your time to come take them is the problem! Not even close!" he balled his fists, "This is an absolute violation of our pact! Which I certify it to specifically state: not to 'intervene,' as in, not to 'cross over the line,' and DEFINITELY NOT TO 'butt in' to one's parenting business! Which is to say, that also entails NOT butting into one's sanctuary without permission so EARLY IN THE BLASTED MORNINNNGGG!" the monkey screeched, jumping up and down in his night robe, shaking his monkey fists in the air.
"Oh-?" In complete unbothered temperament, HIM the dark devil gingerly pulled back from their space in seeming reflect, placing a claw up to his chin. "You have a point, my fellow monkey-guardian. But—" he thrusted upfront with a booming volume "—HOW is a parent not to take measures when his children are being NEGLECTED?"
Mojo was irate with his forefinger up. "You speak nonsense! I have NOT neglected my duties as a parent!"
"Well then, where were they, Mojo?" HIM voiced down, calmly folding his claws in front of his puffed out chest. His tone was condescending, "Where had the boys been just now, before you woke up to my visit?"
"That's-!"
"None of you two's beeswax!" Brick finished, stealing the baton. The two parents were whipped to his attention. The red boy stood, legs apart, prepared to lay down the talk, "We're not babies! We can choose for our own what we do and where we go!"
"Yeah!" His brothers shouted.
...
A shred of silence fell.
In slow clickings of heels to the floor, HIM straightened himself and advanced forward in a low chuckle, "Is that so my little ones? And what would those choices be?" he hummed, "Choices such as going behind your own parents to get—," he grinned as flames shot up "—FRIENDLY WITH THE ENEMY?"
The children flinched in shock, but Brick hunched forward and swung his arm to the side in their defense.
"We don't know what you're talkin about!"
A burst of evil laughter occured, then an enormous dark wind of energy accumulated around the devil.
"DON'T PLAY GAMES WITH ME, CHILD! I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE YOU THREE HALF-WITS HAVE BEEN! YOU WERE ALL BEING SISSIFIED UNDER THE POWERPUFFS' GIRLY ENTICEMENTS!" he fumed.
With a sharp gasp, their expressions were exposed.
"What?!" Mojo stood off to the devil with total disbelief.
"ASK THEM YOURSELF!"
The chimp parent jerked himself toward his boys, pointing to his opponent, "Is what this miscreant rambling, the truth?!"
"..."
Throwing glances among them, the Rowdyruffs all evaded the chimp's gaze, an agitated frown disclosed on their faces. The monkey sunk down his jaw, appalled—but he swayed his head. Appalled or not, and truth or no truth, this was something that he should have rightfully pursued and handled for his start of the term as a parent!
The irritated chimp called to his partner in parentship, "And how, may I ask, did you obtain this reliable piece of information?" he addressed him in doubtful delivery.
HIM shrugged, letting down the obvious answer: "I've been spying on them."
"You've been spying on us?!"
"You've been SPYING ON THEM?!" Mojo shrieked equally in horror.
"I knew it." Butch growled.
Steam flew out and rattled from the braincap of the monkey. Face throbbing with high blood pressure, the last straw broke for Mojo.
"You are sick! Despicable! Undeserving of the father title that you have been placed!"—he marched in furious strides everywhere as he let his anger loose—"How dare you not trust our boys and infringe on their privacy?! I must breach! Terminate! Break off this ridiculous joint parentship at once! For it is obvious to the most plainest of plain eye that I—Mojo Jojo—am the more capable and deserving father!"—he flared his opponent an impaling scowl through his eyes.
"Step down, MONKEY." Voice turning effeminate to sinister, the demon parent surmounted the short-heighted chimpanzee, "I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO GO THROUGH THAT TROUBLE IF YOU DID THINGS RIGHT AND KEPT THESE SIMPLETONS AT THEIR PLACE."
Biting their acrimony, the two faced a glowering deathmatch with their limbs outstretched to grab hold of one another, when the ruffs intruded the collision and broke them off.
Siding with Mojo, Brick came to place, "You back off, schmuk!
"At least monkey here gave us the treatment that we deserved!" Butch hollered.
"Yeah! He's been way more rad than you!" Boomer stood by, "We're tired of your bossing around and watching over our every move!"
At the intrusion, a stunned Mojo stood in stupor at the support he was receiving.
HIM smoldered in disdain, growling lowly, "You've barely spent a day with him—"the demon erupted out of his skin"—AND YOU DARE TO TELL ME THAT THIS UNWORTHY 'IMP' IS AT SUPERIORITY THAN I AM AS YOUR FATHER?! YOU IMBECILES ARE FORGETTING THAT I AM THE ONE WHO TRAINED YOU, I AM THE ONE WHO TOOK CARE OF YOU, AND I AM THE ONE WHO CARED TO EVEN GRANT LIFE BACK TO YOU," geysers of spitting flames fired behind him as he pointed to Mojo "-WHILE THIS MONKEY JUST SAT IDLE AT HIS DEN AND DID NOTHING!"
A gust of heatshock from his wrath knocked the boys back.
From the result of their long-engraved brainwashing, the three backed up from their demon father's diatribe, staring back at Mojo with hesitant eyes.
"DON'T LIE TO YOURSELVES." The ominous voice boomed. "I AM THE ONE WHO GAVE YOU A NEW CHANCE TO LIFE. A NEW POWER TO THE WORLD. WHAT HAS HE EVER GIVEN YOU? YOU THINK HE IS ANY BETTER WHEN HE JUST LEFT YOU TO ROT IN THE FIREY PITS OF DEATH?!"
The face of all three Rowdyruffs dampened at his shrill of voice. Slowly, the boys were shaken by the logic as they stared at the ground, Brick the most.
With all aside, it was true. It was HIM, their devil parent who spared their lives from the dead, not Mojo.
...Was Mojo any better to them as a parent than the demon?
In the midst of the quandary, Mojo watched in dismay as he saw the trust in the boys start to diminish. A sheer pain jabbed his cold villain heart as he realized what state of turmoil their minds were going through. His heightened emotions closed in especially, on the most affected expression out of the three—Brick.
"...Brick, my boy..." A call to his red son escaped him,
But what traced to him was a despising stare under blood-orange bangs, falling loose from a baseball cap. It faced the other way shortly, refusing to listen.
There seemed to be a formidable gap between them.
Desolated, the rejected father looked mournfully down at his bare paws, unclothed, grasping at nothing. The flames of the atmosphere vanquished from his train of thought as his memory of yesterday raked his insides.
...YOU AND YOUR STUPID WORK!...
...You're always thinking of another stupid plan to get rid of those girls... that's all you care about!
...We're not sons to you at all!...
..We're just another crappy plan you had in mind, and nothing more...!
"No..." the monkey father staggered in his steps ahead, shaking his head violently, "No! That is far from the case! Boys, you do not understand-!" Painfully, his knees collasped to the floor as green paws shielded his eyes with self-blame, "-It is misguided to say I did not try! I DID! A thousand, possibly million times I've thought of it! But I could not! I COULD NOT because I was scared of... losing you again..!"
...!
Out of the murk,
there was a tug of heartbeat.
"You... were..?" came Brick's whisper. The color of red eyes shook in the distance.
There was a release of deep woe. "...That's not all there is!" Mojo took grab of his braincap and fastened his eyes shut, still on the ground, "Your formation was unstable!" he explained, "No matter how much I worked on your remains to stabilize your centralizing nature and bring your lives back, it was hopeless!—It was out of my reach, even for my brilliant intelligence! And at the worst, there was no guarantee that you would turn out the same! All three of you could have ended up as completely different individuals with different memories—!"
He, in shaky movements, rose back up to his feet.
"...Please, boys..! You must believe me! I had your sole identity at my best interest!" he reached out his quaking palms, "It would have meant nothing—nothing at all, if it weren't meant to be my same boys...!"
...
A dose of unexplained feelings coursed through the standing boys.
By this time, Brick slightly shifted his eyes to meet the poor monkey shuddering in anguish. The other two reflected the same.
"Hoh..?" broke an intrigued emanation. The dark daunting atmosphere completely vanished as HIM reappeared out of thin air and slanted his eyebrows upwards. "Seems like monkey-boy here somewhat knew what was going on..." The demon's sinister grin spread to its sides.
The entity snapped his pincers, breaking open the floor, and brought up a rocky podium underneath the monkey's stumbling feet. The ground below the boys also shook and shot up, a little under the same height as Mojo's footing. Soon, other parts of the observatory floor quaked and deformed, disarraying furniture, as the lair of Mojo was completely swept by red smokes cloaking the intrusion of light, except for those on Mojo and the Rowdyruffs. The monkey on the newly built stage quavered before the devil floating on a red glowing cloud, ascending over their children standing beneath. He was to be put into their judgement.
"Well...what do you say boys?—" the red devil called upon the three standing juries, amused, "Do you think this pathetic monkey brain deserves—FORGIVENESS?"
The three were silent, their heads downcast, expressions hidden by dark shadows over their eyes.
"—!"
Mojo's eye-lights vibrated as he became suffocated by the tension. The pressure insinuated by HIM was insufferable; and taken by his own uncontrollable mounting up of emotions, the monkey parent slowly tumbled into heart-breaking sobs, his posture falling down one by one, clasping his heart in spikey heaves. HIM laughed madly at his damnation, certain of his victory.
...But that moment, the sound of Mojo's sobs stirred one of the figures, forming lights back in its eyes.
It asked, "If... If it was possible, then... would you have brought us back?" the voice of the red ruff rippled the air, reaching the center of his father's ears.
All three regarded him upraised on his judgement post, their lights no longer washed by antipathy.
Mojo, still tremoring in quiet sobs, felt his throat tingle at the ray of hope, "Yes, my boy.." came a hoarse but sincere answer, "You are my son." he looked down to all of them from his sitting, relieved from the endowed opening of their hearts. "You all are."
There was an audible roll of demon eyes.
"Oh boy-"
HIM's face fell to a frown from the unwanted turnout, drenched in boredom as he lay on his cloud, obviously unmoved.
"Enough with this," he yawned, pulling up, flicking a claw to the side. "I am sooo wasting evil-ness from all this mushy 'fatherly love.'"
Afterwards, with a sharp strike, he generated a handful of physchokinetic force and slammed the monkey to his back, onto the nearest wall, wheezing the air out of his lungs.
"Mojo!" The boys cried.
In a shrill second, shackles sprouted from the walls and latched on to the fighting wrists and ankles of the father monkey, fastening him above his feet. Another bundle of more malleable dark globs chained him around the mouth and subdued his resistant screams.
At once, a howling roar of laughter swept the ambiance, increasing in intensity and pulling apart the unstable compartments of the ground. All hell broke loose; flames bursted, winds swirled, and lava bubbled up from the volcano that was exposed beneath, melting down what could have been once a place for a homely household.
Following its path of destruction, the outcropping underneath the boys crumbled, bringing them down to rocky edges of what was left of the ground.
Finally, a gobbet of lava erupted in front of a dark levitating Lord, his back turned, materializing a rising throne of his own.
"NOW," His evil Majesty bellowed, turning; he reclined on his throne as he rested his arms; the earth quaked from his presence, "WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH YOU?"
The Rowdyruff Boys stumbled, doing their best to catch their hold of balance among their footing in the blazing inferno, both mental and physical.
First gaining ground, Brick faced the void of darkness.
"You may have taken Mojo down, but this isn't your 'kingdom,' HIM!" He ripped out his contempt, standing upright in front of his team full of steady confidence, "You can conjure up all your evil spells all you want, but ya can't overpower us here!"
The red-powered boy smirked smugly in front of his high and mighty father.
..But the smirk hung on the devil was wider.
"Oh, how wrong you are Brick..."
The voice echoed,
and rang in theirrr-RRRIIIIINNNNGGG!
"—AGHHHH!"
All together, the three let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Unable to take hold, they dropped low to a gash of pain pulsating from their veins, crippling them down to submission. They panted, bloody-eyed, as immeasurable amount of weight and heaviness were inflicted from inside, their line of spinal cords and pain receptors going wild. Watching this, their monkey parent as well helplessly screeched and struggled against his binds at their downfall.
"What's happening?!" Butch gasped out, wheezing,
Boomer likewise whimpered in ragged breaths,
And with the world in his vision spiraling around, Brick was on all fours, his hands scraping the ground in agony; his head clanging in alarm.
"...the shots!" He choked out.
Satisfied by the answer, His Majesty conjured on a malicious grin. "Right you are,"—he echoed—"So that means you're under my sole control noww..." With taunting air, he descended from his throne, step by step—"No. matter. where. you. are."
"You...! you... tricked us!"
"Ohh Brick, you knew it already, son." The devil laughed and teleported to meet his eyes, only his head floating just aloft the ground. "I knew you were always the sharpest tack in the box."
"What... the heck do you mean..." Brick snarled in denial, his breath stabilizing. Thankfully, he was able to bear the pain now; all three of their bodies were withstanding their aches, though still paralyzed on the earth unfolding beneath.
HIM again, disappeared and reappeared on a cloud elsewhere.
"Oh don't think I haven't noticed," the devil put a mock claw on his chest, "I know you're smarter than what you let yourself be, my boy,"—he cooed knowingly—"But all aside, I'm impressed. It must have been hard to contain yourself." The dark voice shook his head in fake disappointment, claws shown sideways, "If only you were smart enough to use your intelligence for evil... tsk tsk... Isn't that right, Mojo?"
The tied parent in the back could do nothing but struggle against his gag.
"Anywho—as much as I wanted it differently;" The demon popped up on an outcropping that he newly summoned, staring into the monkey's angry eyes—"With all matters coming to this, I suppose it's time I let you in, as also a rightful parent to our boys, some shocking 'revelations'..." He crossed his heel-clad legs, quoting ecstatically with his giant pincers. The demon then craned his neck eerily backwards to address the other three in the background. "This is an interesting topic that concerns you too, boysss—the truth behind your rebirth. So you might as well pay close attention..." he giggled.
He came down from his seat in dainty landing of feet. The red demon hummed a happy tune and danced in long strides on his thigh-high stiletto boots, reaching close to Mojo—"May be a surprise to you, monkey, but I didn't just bring the boys back to life out of whim. I did some research of my ownn," he proclaimed flamboyantly, claw arching backwards, "As you know, 'Chemical X'...is such a peculiar substance—It is volatile. Unstable. And without the right containment of it, it will explode out of hand—which is why—'BOOM!'" HIM made a small explosive puff within his two claws, "Unlike the girls, the boys couldn't take control of their overflowing powers in time, turning to pitiful clouds of dust."
Boomer, facedown on the ground, strainedly lifted his head up from hearing the story.
"But I thought- but I thought we 'exploded' because of da cooties-!"
"Hah! Cooties?!" HIM cackled derogatively. "Oh Boomer, you naive, innocent soul. It must be hard to be so painfully ignorant—There were no 'cooties,' EVER! Don't you see?! My injections were purely to mold you to my purpose through trial and error!"—his tone rolled on the ground contemptuously—"Because it turns out your 'unstable' puny bodies back then just couldn't handle the Powerpuff's defined goodness!"
Mojo looked more than disturbed by the mention of the solemn past event, which HIM noticed.
"Yes, that's right. The chemical X you chose to create them, Mojo, was too unstable." The demon twirled his claws in the air, "Ohhh dear, by the way—ever wondered where that came from? The chemical X you found in jail, hmmm?"
No one in the room, if capable, was willing to answer.
HIM, red-faced and annoyed by the obvious lack of response lashed out on his own;
"Come on, THINK WITH YOUR MONKEY BRAIN, Mojo! How on earth would chemical X end up in a toilet bowl inside a prison?"—he roared—"I PUT IT THERE!"
The eyes of the monkey bulged in terror at the disclosure.
"What?!" The ruffs all shrieked against their straints.
Butch snarled, exasperated."You're joking!"
However, HIM's patronizing attention was only placed on the befuddled monkey, tone tainted with derision;
"And you thought you really were the 'one and only' first creator of the Rowdyruffs all alonng, how amusing... If anything, I am their creator—" A thunder rumbled behind,"—I. AM .THEIR. FATHER!"
"Nooooooooooooooo!" came three desolate cries.
"LIAR!"
"IT CAN'T BE REAL!"
The trauma in Mojo, most out of all, was undescribable.
HIM erupted into a loud belly laugh, clapping his claws onto his face.
"Ohoho- this is quite a pleasant scene to watch! Let's see what our monkey-daddy has to say about this."
The demon ripped the gag free on Mojo with his magic. Owning up to his expectations, the sentences structured from the monkey's freed mouth were inarticulate: "No... it isn't true..it can't be... It was just me. The one, the only, the single solitary doer—"
HIM snorted. "Oh but it is true," he snapped the gag back on, hearing enough. "I thought I'd help out with your petty little scheme, after monitoring your pitiful-self screaming Bloody Mary behind bars through my personal television set, (A/N: 'The Rowdyruff Boys' episode.)" he recited, pacing back and forth, "I'll give credits to you for the idea of creating them, but I was the one who provided the most important source material."
The demon halted in his tracks. His pincer to his cheek.
"Alas, even a monkey falls from the tree sometimes, right?" he turned, eyeing all four of his prisoners in the eye, "I wanted to make sure these boys were downright evil. So it was my 'petty' greed at that time, that had me add a special mix of pure evil in that concoction of chemical X." The devil sighed, in meek regret. "Thanks to that, the boys had been mindlessly born evil, rather than figuring that out own their ownnn," he waved his claw, "And turns out, the chemical X inside them was destabilized and blew up because they were missing something—'something' the girls had, and they didn't. What a pesky substance it is."
In a blink, HIM was back on his throne.
"So, for a long time—after the first creation of the boys ended as utter failure—I lost interest," the devil reclined to his back, "Until one day, after sitting on the couch watching endless re-runs of the past, it suddenly hit me—what they were missing was 'free will!'" he pulled up, clasping his pincers together in excitement, "The inherent power to define their nature as good or evil! Oh goodie! Now all we had to do was give them some sprinkle of 'free will' and be a jovial family! It's that simple, right?!-"
"—WRONG!" The dark devil answered his own rhetoric in fury. "Because we CAN'T ALLOW minions of our power have free will, can we? Once they start 'asking questions' and 'making decisions' it becomes much harder to control them!" he hissed, "They must be indoctrinated to believe that they actually have a 'choice' in choosing their nature! Then, when the time comes where chemical X has fully synced and stabilized with their defined existence—THAT'S when we take over their soul to fully have them SERVE US!"
There was a shake of ground as the infernal Lord reigned on his throne, "AND WITH THE POWER OF CHEMICAL X UNDER MY TOTAL CONTROL, NOTHING CAN EVER STAND AGAINST ME!"
AHAHA-AHAHHAHAHA-HAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Against his manic laughter, the Rowdyruff Boys glowered in horrified expressions at what they picked up.
"...Minions?!"
"..Indoctri-what?!"
"...SERVE YOU?!" They each cried indignantly.
"YES!"—HIM's voice thundered in top volume, blaring into their eardrums—"YOU ALL WERE 'BRAINWASHED MINIONS TO SERVE ME!' DID YOU EVER THINK YOU WERE ANYTHING WORTH MORE, YOU INSIGNIFICANT SCUMS OF THE EARTH?! YOU ARE JUST MERE TOOLS FOR ME TO ATTAIN MY ULTIMATE WORLD DOMINATION!"
Out of the three, the green ruff saw fire catch behind his eyes, "You mean to say it was all an act?! You trying to suck up to us to be our father, and spending your time with us down at the underground?!"
A harsh switch of air, and the evil presence was in front of the Rowdyruff.
"Now isn't this a surprise. Here I thought you never cared, Butcho, whether or not people—" his face was tender and mocking, "LOVED you."
Evil returned and spat at the boy disdainfully, "Not really the tough one, now are we?"
He shook his head, ridding his rancor.
"Well, it wasn't entirely an act, if that makes you feel better." The demon bumped his shoulders in his normal voice. "Daddy did care a little for you boys... What's a little I can't sacrifice, if it's to get what I truly want?" He chuckled and stepped away, his back facing them. The air was again dark and heavy, "Oh but you were all so meddlesome. Especially you, Brick." He pointed the shrewd end of his claw toward the leader, boiling over the shoulder, "Always wanting to go outside, do what you want, and have your 'freedom,' oh cry me a river!" His tone was stained with absolute disgust. "Why couldn't you be more easy and docile like your brothers? Daddy had to go on and make changes to his plans, and abridge your already short pathetic 'free' time." He slithered his snake-like tongue with mock shame. "You're still not stable enough, but you know what? I don't really care. It's time I take over your soul..." His smooth line of teeth stretched to his cheeks as he eyed them greedily, "..before you wrap your silly heads around anymore worthless ideas..."
From all the surfacing gobbets of deception, the blue boy was having the biggest mental breakdown out of the three quivering bodies.
"So that's really it...?" he squeaked, "Y-you've planned this, all along?"
"Why yes, you little idiot," the returned reply was careless to all degree, "My apologies if I made you believe otherwise, OOPS."
Boomer could feel something hot pull back at his throat. All those efforts to try to keep up with his brothers... be meaner, tougher, whatever-er... they were all rendered useless. They were all behind a big scam!
"So we weren't important to you at all-?! Not one teency-weency bit?"
"Why would you be?" It laughed, "What else could possibly be more important than ultimate reigning glory over all?"
"...!"
Disintegrating under the truth, the boy hung his head with his morose blue eyes collecting harsh droplets of tears. Small hiccups escaped his mouth as he clenched it down.
"Oh Boomer, how many times do I have to tell you-" The red villain approached viciously in a stampede as he struck him with his boot, kicking him to the side, "-TO 'MAN UP' YOU LITTLE RODENT! I KNEW YOU WERE ALWAYS TOO MUCH OF A CRYBABY! WORTHLESS! PATHETIC! NOT WORTH ANYTHING TO DO THINGS RIGHT!"
The demon's spiteful uproars beat down on the tremulous Rowdyruff, sharp heels close against his downcast face, pinning him in murks of despair.
"Stop!"
Watching the cruelty befall, Brick writhed in painful recognition as he was reminded; how he and Butch out of HIM's influence, would demean him, shove him around back and forth with clearly hurtful words, over and over and over...
...He simmered to the very top of his head. NO ONE. NO ONE messes with his little brother!
"Leave him alone YOU SCOUNDRELLAAGHHHGHHH!"
The raging Rowdyruff violently rose and resisted against his invisible shackles, strenuously trying to break free and show this demon his place. But all efforts were in vain as he was brutally strangled down again with another tide of heart-wrenching pain. His frustrated scream unwound out of proportion.
Taking a break from his chide on Boomer, the demon feigned surprise at his outburst.
"Brick?" he floated closer, "Is it shocking to you, too? To know how I didn't care?" His demonic face distorted into a freakish smile, "—LIKE THOSE CITIZENS AT THE PARK?!"
"SHUT UP!"
Lit by a fuse, the red ruff spewed out his hurt and anger,
"I KNEW EVERYTHING." he gurgled hatefully, "And you were NEVER, in NO WAY MY FATHER!"
"Too bad. You didn't do anything about it with your smart little brain."
Brushing off, the demon snapped his claws to bring them to another earsplitting scream, watching as an immediate bout of unknown force thrashed on the Rowdyruffs once again. Clenching their teeth from mind-numbing pain, the boys caved their heads between their arms, their elbows and knees digging into the sizzling earth of fiery heat.
Brick wriggled, lips drawing blood. "You're not getting away with this!"
"How so?" The devil blandly remarked, reclined cross-legged back at his throne. "Oh." He, in sly comprehension, tweaked a large bundle of smoke to project the face of the pink Powerpuff. The demon sneered at Brick's indignant expression, "Do you expect your princess to come to your futile rescue? Well well then, that should be taken care of, shouldn't it?"
Brick's inflamed eyes clasped on to hatred.
"Don't you even think about hurting her!" The red ruff fired. He clenched his chest, struggling to keep his head up, eyes soared upwards in resilience.
The devil paid no mind to his threat. Instead, he beamed with unraveling dark intentions, "Oho, on the contrary, Brick... You'll be the one hurting her."
All three Rowdyruffs blanched at what they could only imagine. The demon launched up from his seat, cracking open the floor.
"You ALL WILL BE DESTROYING YOUR BELOVED PLAYMATES!"
Deafening echoes of laughter spilled from his unfathomable aura of despair. The boys burrowed their faces further, their eyes bloodshot, feeling like something in their bodies were about to implode.
"No..!" They wailed in the storm, their minds clinging onto images of their counterparts, "NO!"
From overdose of brainwashed agony, their view split to double vision and back, bright colors blazing for a second and fogging up, slowly eating away their consciousness. In desperation, a squirming monkey in the background resisted violently inside winds of a new forming hurricane, then succeeded to break loose of his gagged mouth—"I command you to STOP!" he shrieked straight down to his lungs, "You must not control them—YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT! STOP THIS ALL AT ONCE!"
HIM to his attention, faced him with scathing bitterness. "CONTRACT'S OFF, DADDIO!"
The dark Lord spat acid fire in front of the monkey's hanging frame, as he summoned a fragile paper catching flames, containing their vows. Evil's gruesome grin hung upwards in the most disturbing manner, "Who makes a deal with the devil, anyway?"
Aside from their standing, Brick wrecked a cry out of his throat, catching glimpse of his now steadily succumbing brothers. His body convulsed entirely, overriden by uncontrollable villainous thoughts in his head: tainted thoughts of immense hate, destruction, revenge...
Yet, despite every inch of breakage, the trampled soul pulled forward to his last cloudy remembrance..
...
'...I'll catch up to you later or whatever, yeah?
..Sure.. Later, Brick...'
Grasping his unstable heart, Brick held on to his last trail of hope, right before his thread of consciousness was swallowed up by an abyss of dark pupils.
"Blossom..."
...
..
ㅡ
At the Powerpuff residence, for after what felt like forever, the three girls reconciled near the wall of their oval window panes for a small clear up of matters.
Moments ago, once Bubbles was found missing in their bedroom, Buttercup was on the brink of losing her sanity, just until the timid blond girl was caught red-handed cautiously entering behind their sight.
"Bubbles, where were you?" Buttercup demanded in a frenzy.
"I...uh.. went to find..."
"...Boomer?" Blossom took a wild guess.
A frightened gasp replaced the girl's answer. But instead of admonishing her, her sisters both sighed in relief.
"Don't worry, Bubbles... It's the same with us." Blossom assured.
Afterwards, though first entirely confounded by her two sisters' brief clarification of each of their happenings, Bubbles herself jumped in to their discourse as she also revealed her side of the story with Boomer.
Buttercup was not entirely pleased, for it turned out she was the only one going "destructo-mode" with nothing kept under her sleeves. But hearing their stories, the green Powerpuff came to a salty admit that she had not been willing to be attentive of the whole frame of things. After all, for what it was worth, the three had ended up with nothing to really blame on the other, knowing, for whatever reason, that they had all 'spent the night' with their destined enemy.
The last threads of their conversation, however, were left in loose ends as they were interrupted by the call from the professor downstairs, preparing them for school.
Much improved from last dinner, the three girls headed down the stairs together in awkward slow flight, Blossom in contemplation.
"You guys go ahead," she said.
Their leader descended herself to another direction.
"Why? You're not having breakfast?" They looked at her.
"Well, I..."
Not knowing what to say, the pink girl anxiously played with the top of her hair clasp, hesitant to break the peace after just sharing earnest conversations.
Buttercup caught on, angsty.
"You've got more secrets to hide from us?"
Quickly denying with her head, Blossom looked straight into their eyes with both strength and integrity.
"Please, girls." she called, "I know it's a hard favor to ask, but I promise.. I'll tell you everything when the time comes. ...Right now, you just have to trust me."
ㅡ
"Children," came a depressed voice of Ms. Keane, "Mitch won't be joining us today. He's still recovering in the hospital.. from the terrible, terrible incident that happened yesterday-"
Blossom swallowed a knot at another factor to trigger Buttercup to their yet leftover remains of the fight. Pokey Oaks Kindergarten was full of injured, though medically treated, children from yesterday's havoc. But matters worse, the leader felt like she was already tied to a ticking detonation device, after the green puff sourly caved in to her request back at their house.
"-so to show us we care, let's all take out our crayons and make our dear friend a 'get well soon' card, shall we?"
The whole classroom was brought down to sadness.
Blossom in response, flopped her head down to the desk, guilted by the gesture their teacher decided to make. Remaining in her face-shielding position, the leader puff flicked her eyes around their classroom with dodging glances, taking in the patches and bandages that some of her classmates were in. The pink girl groaned as she could mentally hear the ticking bomb coming from Buttercup with arms crossed beside her.
"Are you okay, Blossom..?" rised a worried call from the instructor.
The pink Powerpuff raised her posture, "Yes, Ms. Keane..."
Their caring teacher consoled her by saying that what happened yesterday wasn't her fault and not even she as a super hero could have stopped it from happening. As kind as it was, it made the leader feel much worse in her precarious spot.
Later, with crafting materials passed around, all the children put their thoughtful efforts into their cards, face somber but hopeful. It seemed although Mitch had been a bully to a lot of them at least once in the past, the children had all come together in support of him as a brave warrior, through a common, more hated antagonist.
And Blossom knew exactly who he was.
In the meantime, innocent of the tension, Bubbles worked joyfully on her side of the table with her tongue poking out, busying herself with her colorful crayons. In how the blue girl saw things, she just couldn't wait to see Mitch all better and strong—then have him and everyone make up with the Rowdyruff Boys because they kind of didn't mean to—and then, she could finally figure things out with her Rowdyruff friend! Everything was going to be "perfect" from now on, after the conversation she had with her sisters, right? Once they all find out how good the boys can be, everyone could get along and live happily-ever-after!
Getting ahead of herself in happiness, the blue puff hugged her incomplete coloring to her chest.
"I'm going to make the prettiest, most cutest, most wonderful get-well-soon card there is!" The elated girl swooned in her chair at the thought.
Blossom and Buttercup, apart from her happy land, worked quietly with their eyes faced ahead, fixated on the work they seemingly had their hands on. Blossom was cutting out a jagged heart from red-colored paper, the trims not turning out how she wanted it to be. She put down a breath along with the unhelpful scissors. Something had to be done. As in, they had to wrap up the unfinished conversation from before.
Her heart-filled voice reached to Buttercup who was making a mess out of her paste glue.
"Remember when we first appeared in town? How people didn't really like us...?" she asked.
"This isn't really the time for memories, Blossom." The reply was sullen, but attention was nearby.
Blossom stared off in reminiscence, hoping what mud they were in right now would also pass by for them to look back to.
"Well, I think it's the same for the Rowdyruff Boys. They haven't acknowledged what they did was wrong. ...I mean, they knew what they did was evil, but they were taught into believe that's what's in their nature to do so. To destroy and cause pain. When all they did until now was just, what they thought as a playful act, never really aware of to what degree it can actually hurt someone. If you think about it, it really wasn't in their intentions..."
Buttercup slowed, but was still busy with her glue, splattering them out in puddles on her card.
"Well what happened at the park yesterday seemed pretty intentional to me. You know, with brick-boy?"
Blossom's voice gained gravity, "We'll have them pay for their actions, and Brick for injuring civilians. What he and his brothers did was still wrong." The leader picked up her paper from before, only half the heart shape cut out. She murmured, "But like I told you, it wasn't exactly one-sided."
"They kind of put it on themselves, don't you think? Controlled or not, after what they did, they want people to be nice and caring?"
The green girl's now amassed pile of sticky glob was starting to solidify in her hands.
"I told Brick that, too. He admitted what he did was wrong. We can get them all to see the same light as us, I'm sure of it."
"Yeah, I think so, too."
The two sisters cut to their smiling blue sister who also joined in their discussion. Sighing, Buttercup let down her knitted eyebrows and detached her hands from her card-work doused in glue. Her mind was leaning towards her sisters' approach to the boys. In truth, the green girl also wondered; if it came to them knowing they had the choice in them, would they really be willing to do the right thing?
KABOOM-!
A loud blowup from a volcano rattled and disconnected any form of further work in the classroom. Startled cries of children heeded to the sound from the farout, hiding behind chairs in case of another brace for impact. The Powerpuffs on duty, zipped to the window, grabbing sight of the volcano crater of Mojo's lair coming agape and letting loose a smoke of sinister red to the sky. Trails of super human speed spiraled around its opening then onwards to the busy center of Townsville, venting familiar destructive colors of attack in its passing. The shocked girls immediately magnified their vision to come in contact with a close-up of three red, green, and blue terrifying figures clad with dark aura, plainly apparent to be the ones who they were with just before.
Buttercup's perspective returned to normal.
"Well then how do you explain that?" she faced her leader with a fall of faith.
Blossom, in contrast, was immobilized by the window as she came to head-on view of her counterpart, holding dark voids of possessed eyes.
Her heart piled with trepidation.
"Brick..."
A faint blaring of urgent hotline rang in her palpitating background.
ㅡ
A/N: I shall return. Finals be gone!
P.S
The word count for this chapter!
It's over 9000! BUAHHHH!
...Get the reference? Sorry.. lol.