A/N: J'arrive! How was everybody's holidays? :)
Here's a new chapter in celebration of the new year! Action scenes take long to write, but it's worthwhile I think. Anyway, I hope everyone has a good one and enjoys this!
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"Yes, Mayor. We're on our way!"
Unlike the certainty in her voice, Blossom's hand trembled as she pretty much let go of the receiver than put it down. By the window, Bubbles had trapped her arms in likely shock, leaving Buttercup to be the only one who had positioned a take off.
But as she could obviously tell, she pulled her body back to set point.
"Well aren't you two coming?" She inquired.
The two did not budge. The rest of the children in the room stared out of their chairs in blank confusion at the unseemly event.
Finally,
"You girls go ahead," the leader instructed her team, pulling together.
Buttercup watched the redhead hold up the receiver once more as she herself thinned her lips into an expressionless line. Her turn of blind-eye ended here.
She zoomed to her sister punching in a new number and held down the phone against her will.
"Alright, spill it out, Blossom. What is it that you're hiding from us?"
Weight against the phone table, Buttercup was surprisingly levelled and firm.
Holding her head up, Blossom well-observed the green's resolve to hear her than pass judgment. In fair hold of command, she couldn't possibly ignore what was visible.
"Buttercup.. have you seen their eyes? It's not their usual color. They're possessed."
Buttercup pulled back, "Wow, you're really at this..."
"No, look at the sky!" Blossom pleaded, "Don't you see? It's HIM!"
"..."
Taking note of how serious she was, Buttercup shuffled towards while scrutinizing the distant chaos outside the window. She stopped next to the quiescent Bubbles as she worked her bearings with what she saw; a noticeable color of aura, atypical movements found in the boys, plus the logical order of events from before...
Buttercup's shoulders lowered to acceptance.
It was unquestionably their demon foe.
"So... what do we do then?" she sighed over to her leader, losing spirit.
"I have a plan," Blossom stated, "But there's no time to explain! I need you two to go keep HIM and the boys busy."
"What?!" Buttercup gaped in panic as she came within distance. "We can't handle HIM and three possessed Rowdyruffs on our own!"
Blossom pressed her drying lips together.
Despite the impossible, it had to be done.
"Go on, Buttercup! I'll be there shortly. Right now I give you full control of the team!"
In deep graveness of things, the leader puff offered what would significantly fortify the green girl's will to fight.
There was a discernible spark of green.
"Now we're talkin! Come on, Bubbles. Time for action!"
As Buttercup whisked towards and tugged the spaced-out blue puff back to palpable senses, the two made their way out to the scene as fast as they could.
Blossom, in slight relief, resumed to her task in planned protocol to the emergency. What she was too busy to notice was the motionless audience in the classroom who also widely conceived the situation.
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Arrival near the heart of town uncovered drastic view of the devastation.
Massive destruction was as far as the eyes could reach. Buildings stood in crazy angles, jutted and smashed in for several blocks. Roads were elevated and broken apart to tectonic plates. And ruins of whatever lied across everywhere among fleeing crowds.
The girls took a gasp at how grossly the situation was disseminating out of hand. At this rate, there wouldn't be a single building standing at the end.
"Ahhhh!"
"...?"
Strangely enough, as they looked down, they noticed that the citizens below were running in weird patterns, despite a considerable distance away from the main havoc. And strangest of all, as they located their eyes to inspect that certain area, they observed mists of dark foreboding fogs—one they've never seen—infesting around the three ceaseless streaks of disaster.
Resolute regardless, Buttercup stationed her fists and called to her sister, eyes fixed at their destination; "Bubbles you take blondie, I'll take the thug! As for Brick-face, holler if he attacks so we can hold him off together!"
Bubbles took the order and flashed straight toward the murky fog ahead, as did her sister.
Both hardly ignored the butterflies in their stomach.
...
Something was wrong..
While deeper and deeper they flew into what they thought was a fog, the Powerpuffs screeched to a stop as they both coughed and teared out, finding themselves within a highly nauseating miasma.
Their throats burned with the invasion of the foreign substance.
After unwillingly breathing in abundant amounts of the baneful smoke, they cautiously opened their eyes, painfully adjusting to the environment.
Their large eyes popped open all the way.
"...What in the world..?"
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Having gone through the same initiation, Blossom faced upfront the daunting conjurations of what seemed to be sized-down evil beings in HIM's likeliness. The small red gargoyles had on the same horrific grin and effeminate laughter, while wearing a mini tulle skirt and bat wings larger than their own bodies.
Gasping in shock as they charged in, she blasted every one of them back, gouging them with her ray as she made her way through.
She hustled a step behind her sisters who were battling in the outlying sky. They were tied up with their own gargoyles, while fending off their superpowered counterparts who had reached their periphery.
Blossom was much concerned. This wasn't good, and all too sudden! But everything would work out fine if she could just do this right!
Just then, the pink puff had her attention dragged to a sound of shots originating from below.
To her awe, Mojo Jojo—still in his robe (now ragged) and some dirty slippers—was shooting rocket cannonballs from the ground, armed in his own artillery from his weapon chamber. The monkey had somehow managed to escape the restraints of the devil—his wrists chafed red as a result—and collect what little he could carry as he dislodged himself, right before his home completely perished with lava. The cannons he fired, however, were not aimed at her or any of her sisters, but at the creatures flittering about in the fogs. Another shot was blasted, but it easily missed the little devils, mocking him with their tiny effeminate snickers. The miss-fired cannon hit the top of a skyscraper instead.
Mojo stomped his foot. "Curse those unintelligible creatures!"
Enraged, he drew out a button device from his sleeve which he pushed down with his thumb, setting free the jetpack on his back. The chimp levitated from the ground so he could come in level with the creatures. Blossom noticed how he was now some distance just below her, holding up the opening of the large weapon to another fire.
She sucked in a breath and hailed the monkey from her spot.
"Mojo!"
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Tough luck was prominent in their battle. The little devil creatures did little to harm the two Powerpuffs but they were definitely getting in their way of vision and mobility.
The mini HIMs danced around pulling on the girls' hair and yanking their arms to each separate directions, but when the dark-eyed Rowdyruff counterparts drove in for an attack, they glued them to place and instantly vanished, abandoning only the girls for whatever impact.
Buttercup encountered another blow in that same order, her body pivotting and thrown face front; which she managed just enough to spare herself breaking through a building window, though still planting her face on the glass and sliding down.
"Uggh.." she shook her groggy self and pulled apart from the unharmed building. Up ahead, Bubbles was still caught in the network of demons.
"Ow, ow, ow, let go!" she heard her scream. The mini demons abided to her wish and slung her over to the hands of her counterpart who in due course decked her to the ground.
Buttercup had no time to respond, as her opponent suddenly swooped in and kicked her against the before building, without any help of distraction.
The green puff's back plowed into the masonry and with her collar soon snagged in his grasp, she was dragged full force down the exterior, cutting a furrow. Fragments and shards of the wall flew everywhere.
Among the madness she peeled her eyes open and took sight of her counterpart. His usual forest eyes were gone, and in place were empty pupils holding nothing; no hostility, no playfulness, no emotion at all...
It scared her, unannounced. As bothersome as he was, she would much prefer the obnoxious muscle-brain than this about now!
Despite it all, the puff came to her senses as they reached the bottom place of the attack; her legs crashed into place on the ground, her arms shielding herself from a flood of punches that followed. Yet, she could feel her feet sinking deeper into the pavement, to which she made a quick ascent and touched down elsewhere on the ground for some space to breathe.
Her green opponent made some disjointed movements—something quite different from his own—as he turned to her. He for sure was completely stripped of his natural behavior. This unsettled the green puff as she backtracked.
Alas, her last step could not find purchase as she was jerked down to her rear and pinned by the tiny demons that appeared within short notice. The Powerpuff struggled in all angles but to no avail in time. Her eyes came to view two figures floating atop of her. ...two?!
Buttercup stilled to a rock as someone else other than her designated opponent showed himself above... her leader's red counterpart.
Her mouth hung terrified as the two possessed bodies unorderly situated their arms out straight, collecting a combined force of energy.
Buttercup's green orbs shakily held the reflection of the increasing beam.
"No... no! Help!"
She closed her eyes at the expected doom.
"Buttercup!"
Blossom dived from the side just in time to tow the two out of her radar, plunging them to explode with their beams in their individual pits formed in the asphalt.
Buttercup finally ripped away from the demons. "About time you stepped in!" she threw her complaint.
Blossom nodded to her apologetically. "Point taken. But it looks like you were handling it here quite well yourself," she commended with a wink. She reached out towards her sister as she dropped her feet to the ground.
Buttercup smiled appreciatively and took her hand, scarcely before they stumbled apart to evade the otherwise vaporizing laser attack from their now rising counterparts.
The green puff, sighing, held up her palms as she took a moment to jest, "Can't even stay away for a second, can they? Boy, are they needy!" With an exchange of eye contact, the Powerpuff blasted into action with her sister.
Their standing counterparts, like a bull would, dragged their foot on the road a few times before dashing forward and rolling themselves like a bowling ball.
The Powerpuffs, headed to them in their own sequence, switched their manuever and did spinning cartwheels until they looked like pastel pinballs.
The spinning color streaks faded as they all met with an explosion.
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In some other part of the city near the market, Bubbles had unknowingly distanced apart and was swinging her arms in the sky in attempt to shake off the small devils that were pulling on her pigtails.
Falling into their trap again, she blindly took another swipe but met with nothing; she lost sense of her flight as she flailed, promptly receiving her opponent's attack that smashed her down to a shopping cart below. The wheels of the cart sailed to its market with her on top, carrying her through the entrance. There was a collision heard as people in hiding filed out from the supermarket, screaming. The previous gargoyles saw their chance and grabbed onto them, some pulling them away from the ground.
Bubbles broke back out through the entrance, balancing various sorts of fruits and vegetables up to her shoulders. She flung them desperately towards approaching devils, in rhythm to her next line:
"Get away, get away, stay back!"
The blue puff continued her food assault until she reached her last antagonist—Boomer.
She lowered her last product in hesitance, coincidentally a broccoli; she had yet been able to lay a hand on him ever since.
She called to him with pleading eyes.
"Boomer, please! I don't want to fight you! And I know you don't either..!" she backed away slowly, letting go of the broccoli. The vegetable got caught in the nearing Rowdyruff's stride, smashing into pieces. Bubbles could only sniffle at the sight of her friend, walking unstably, hollowed in the eyes and soul at the grasps of the devil.
...Goodbye, Bubbles...
—!
Her eyes streamed of tears. There was no way she could strike him, not after what they've been through!
Before he could approach any further, a ray of green plowed him out of the way straight to the side of a dumpster, after helping down the citizens from the gropes of the gargoyles. Her green sister stood protectively in front of her, watching her partner revive.
The green puff called to her,
"Bubbles, you gotta keep your head strong! It's not him, it's not the same Rowdyruff you know! You gotta fight him!"
"I... can't...! I can't possibly-!"
"Yes you can!" Buttercup said sternly. "It's the only way to save him!"
The green puff gave her a last trustful look before she took off to block an attempted onslaught on the citizens by her counterpart.
Shortly, a pink streak neared and gave her a slight nod of encouragement as she also dealt with hers.
Bubbles' distress was attenuated to find both her sisters together on this. She rubbed her tears away and shifted her view back to her blue partner. Her figure secured a firm posture.
Buttercup was right. This was the only way to get him back, to break him away from HIM's spell!
"I'll save you Boomer..." she promised.
The blue Powerpuff let out a heart-breaking battle cry and willfully charged towards her blue friend.
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Blossom jostled through the shower of devils. There was no way of knowing where they kept appearing from and how many of their numbers were left.
But what kept her fighting was the thought of her counterpart. She had made a promise to herself in front of that fateful campfire that she would help him. Inside her, she had this intrinsic flicker of will surging up from their underlying friendship. She was not about to let it extinguish.
"Briiiiick!" the redhead shouted to him.
But her impassioned cryouts gave away her position, and were only met with more of his hits. The empty look on his face in doing this pained her the more. But losing sight of his presence through the deluge of devils was far worse. Broken or not, he was still hers to save.
She did not cease her cries for him as she knocked him back in their thick of demons.
Quite an amount of time passed in the Powerpuffs' disadvantageous battle in their own separate skies. Though time to time the three girls had tried to switch opponents to save themselves from emotional torment, their opposite number strangely returned and insisted upon their own partners, as if to hold on to them...
...As if to ask for help.
Buttercup swatted the last of the bat demon out of her eyes and deflected a punch from her green assailant.
"I know you said you won't go easy on me the next time we meet, but take a hold of yourself, snitch!"
Bubbles pushed her counterpart away and regretfully landed a strike on his jaw.
"You have to fight it! You're strong, I know it! You can do it!"
Blossom swung her opponent around and caught him in a headlock.
"Don't let it control you! You have control of your powers. You're the one who decides! You're not the evil voice! You're not the injections! You're not even the chemical X!—You're you!"
All three of their cries crossfired in the skyline and triggered the slightest signs of resistance in the dark voids of pupils. The number of flying gargoyles were also at some point significantly decreased in numbers.
This did not go unnoticed by the girls.
Before they could act, however, it was then at last the mastermind behind this chaos appeared in an opening swirl of red clouds.
The girls tore apart from their opponents and regarded the premonition with bladed eyes, unsurprised.
"Why hello, girls..." it purred rather coyly, "It looks like you have been expecting me. I'm just getting too darn predictable, aren't I?"
At his appearence, the controlled boys flew over like puppets under strings and gathered under his cloud. The devil made himself comfortable on his cloud cushion, eyes admiring his one claw as he would manicured nails. He blew on them most preciously with his curly lips.
"Come to think of it now, having the boys hang around with you wasn't entirely useless," he began, giving himself a stretch with his arms against his pointy ears. His fixed grin was positively pernicious—"Thanks to that, I can more easily... FAZE YOU INTO MY SCHEME"—It thickened.
The Powerpuff Girls, though angry, could not deny what they were told. They could only glare at him through vengeful eyes. HIM guffawed at what he saw, his claw hanging down to cover his mouth. He made himself disappear and returned with a lick of flame high above them.
One leg tipped up in the air, his clawed arms came together and did a twist of celebration—"So with that said, let's crank it up a notch, shall we?"
Storm winds gushed in. Following the malicious statement, more red smoke disseminated from his circle and suffocated the recoiling girls. When they pried opened their teary-eyes from the exhaust, the evil-doer was already gone.
"Holy..."
Lo and behold, Blossom noticed first what was horridly imminent. From their original spot, hundreds, even thousand duplicates of their counterparts hovered before them. Their clothing of dark aura—whichever of them was real—had intensified on every corner of their bodies.
The three girls instinctively cowered away from the sight.
"And I thought one of each was bad enough!" Buttercup whined, hands crashing down.
The colossal rush in of assails gave none of them more time to complain. The clustered bundles of Rowdyruffs intrusively flocked and entangled with their own solitary counterpart. The girls were now well apart, amid their mobs of opponents. There were three oversized balls caused from all of this, still growing in magnitude, until each of them screamed loose in shockwaves pushing back their superfluous horde of counterparts. But this did little to stop them from flooding back in.
Buttercup was caught wrestling in a bundle of outstretched limbs. "Your plan better be working, Blossom!" she grated out.
"Don't worry, it's on its way!" Blossom replied the same.
"Say what?" Bubbles questioned.
The three broke free in the same manner as before.
Blue and green stared at her, her explanation completely over their heads, which mattered none when they had to deal with another incoming tidal wave of zombified attacks.
Buttercup gave her slew of green Rowdyruffs a round of her tender mercies, keeping Blossom in sight.
"Okay, fine, I'll take your word for it!" she hollered afar, "But how do we hold off now?!"
Blossom withstood in her battle until she found the chance to talk, "Think about it! HIM isn't a villain who uses brute force for his tactics! That's because he can't cause considerable mayhem without the help of manipulation! All what we're seeing now is but a hallucination under his spell!"
"I think we've gotten that down by now! So how do we get rid of them?!" Buttercup pestered.
"And where are the real Rowdyruff Boys?" added Bubbles.
"That's what we gotta find out!"
Again, the two nonplussedly watched their pink sister jump in to her swarm of opponents, but nonetheless carried on with their own fight with what minimal comprehension.
To their luck, since the majority of the Rowdyruffs they handled were copies, most were significantly weaker than their real life forms. How to discern the real ones out of the mass, however, was beyond them.
Not long after, the heavy-weighted pile ups became too much. Abandoning the sky, all three girls ended up in a screaming dive within their conglomeration. What looked like three huge meteorites crashed down to different part of the streets, bringing down a couple of buildings with them.
The pile Bubbles was in toppled down to reveal her in the mess. She raised herself up, sensing a destabilizing quake under her. Under the dispersed blue Rowdyruffs she was sitting on, the ground bulged up and sprayed a thick sprout of water. Bubbles followed this up and descended somewhere remote, shielding herself from sprinkling water. Along the slope, she noticed that the pile she had been in encroached the space of some subsurface waters. But what else she saw was much more groundbreaking;
What used to be heaps of her counterpart were slowly dissolving into fuzzy clumps, fading away from eyesight.
"Eep! They're melting!"
The blue puff clapped her hands onto her mouth, stepping back from the unbelievable phenomenon.
"Bubbles!"
Blossom and Buttercup flashed into her landing site from hearing the commotion. In their haste, what they didn't consider were the train wrecks of following counterparts right behind their tracks, which fortunately, broke down and emulsified at the slightest touch of water droplets.
The three who had braced for what was expected, pulled out from their defense, watching in awe—
At once, they parted their lips, "Wait a minute-!"
All three of them had the cogs in their head turning, visualizing their own version of the drenched Rowdyruffs in each of their bygone fight; Buttercup with the underground pipeline geysers, Bubbles with the water tank, and Blossom with the lake.
The pink Powerpuff's complexion enraptured with hope.
"Bubbles, that's it! The real Rowdyruffs can't disappear from being soaked with water!"
"No, duh!" Buttercup replied in equal hold.
A determined smile was gathered on all of them, the water sprout sputtering in the foreground.
Blossom called for the Powerpuffs together.
"Let's soak it to 'em girls! It's time to rain on their parade!"
Uprising through the sprinkling shower, the three pastel streaks tweaked their way out of the overcast red fogs towards the ocean near their town. On their arrival, the puffs shot their laser beams through their eyes and evaporated profuse amounts of water enough to generate a huge amass of storm clouds. Blowing the clouds back to where they came from, the girls made sure the whole town was shadowed by the inclement weather. They then caused friction in their hands for lightning, in order to speed up the process. But just as they crackled their first electricity, they saw in hindsight, regenerated duplicates of Rowdyruffs chasing up after them. As they were run over by the raging course of the Rowdyruffs, the sky concurrently began to rain down in torrents.
According to plan, flames were extinguished and what was left of flying demons faded. Fleeing citizens halted in their tracks to stare up at the sky.
The heavy downpour in due time overpowered the bleak of the previous fogs. Every single illusion that had permeated the town washed away with the rain.
The Powerpuffs opened their eyes and found themselves in the middle of nothing.
Buttercup was bemused. "What the-? It's really that simple?!"
Wiping her soggy bow back up, Blossom surveyed the settled situation down below. She did nothing but shrug at the blunt absence of more difficulty. "Drenched back to reality, something like that I guess," she muttered.
"That was easy!" Bubbles celebrated, striking her arm in the air. Marks of rain ran down her limb, as it did on all of their floating bodies above town.
Blossom shook her head for clarification. "But it's only temporary. It just prevents their corporeal formation to manifest in our minds."
"Oh." The previous puff remarked, hanging loose.
Sadly, the battle was not over yet.
Buttercup swayed her head and brought up the good to this. "At least for the time being we won't have external distractions."
Blossom sighed, both as confirmation and distress. "So the only thing standing in our way to save Townsville... and..."
A lightning struck as three pairs of eyes panned to the stormy distance,
"...the Rowdyruff Boys is..." Bubbles continued.
Distinguishable out far was the long-searched hovering main bodies of their three counterparts, posture condensed to head their way.
"...the Rowdyruff Boys." Buttercup completed the sequence.
A round of thunder erupted. And surely, the three figures were not the only ones that greeted them. HIM reappeared in his cloud nearby, extremely displeased.
"Well, well, well-" he said stroking his beard, "you've managed to come this far. I'll have to see to it to DESTROY you brats faster."
He paused at a factor.
"But first-" the demon let his evil eyes trace up to a shining material—which was poking out from Blossom's dress... "—I believe THIS BELONGS TO ME!"
Blossom gasped as she felt something being scraped away from her garment. Before long, the vial of glowing liquid was instantly held between HIM's claws.
Her face flopped with instant dread.
"YOU THOUGHT I HADN'T CAUGHT ON TO YOUR LITTLE EXCHANGE WITH MY PAWN?! HOW SMART OF YOU TO CARELESSLY LEAVE IT HANGING IN YOUR POCKET!"
Wasting no time, the vial was thrown across and combusted to flames. A shrill of scream followed.
"NOOO THE DRUG—!"
The pink puff clutched her head in great remorse, seeing the world before her shard to pieces at the debacle.
"The drug?!" Bubbles cried, a step behind.
"What drug?!" Buttercup followed.
Blossom wasn't in the state to answer them.
A surreptitious mist formed while HIM snuck up behind the confused two. "—The drug that I've been injecting the boys with, of course."
Bubbles and Buttercup instantly dashed back to frame him into view, their shock all too clear on their faces.
The demon chuckled amusedly at how they were unaware. "The same one that my little Brick was able to steal behind my back; It's appalling how he decides to use the evil I teach him."
...There was a sharp snap inside the leader.
"You didn't teach him ANYTHING!" she broke into a wail, eyes squelching with angry tears. She shook heavily through biting teeth, "You brainwashed them!"
Drowning in her sea of sorrow, more trickles of rain streamed down and covered her downcast face.
Deeply content with her bemoans, HIM dissolved into his clouds as his three henchman approached further. "Call it what you want," he rejoiced in howls, "IT'S STILL GOING TO DESTROY YOU."
The last of his presence disappeared from what they could discern.
The blue and green Powerpuffs were absolutely flummoxed in the situation. Whatever it was that they missed... did Blossom's plan just fail?
In what reduced to a drizzle, the Powerpuffs lowered their heads in resignation. None of them were in their right minds to deal with what was coming.
In the meantime, the Rowdyruffs were in slow advancing flight, only a few distances away...
...So was the voice that called to them.
"Over here, you bumbleheaded Powerpuff!"
"—!
—Mojo Jojo?!" blue and green yelped in alarm.
The green chimp, their usual enemy, was staring at them afloat in his jetpack, holding something in his paw. He, by now, was properly dressed in his blue tunic and purple cape.
Mojo snorted at their point of obvious. "Any of you, catch!"
Bubbles and Buttercup blundered at the sight of him pitching what he had.
Behind what they could see, there was a triumphant tug of smile at the corner of a mouth as the leader herself sweeped in to catch what Mojo had thrown. It was—to Bubbles' and Buttercup's surprise—a vial of liquid just like before, but different.
Amidst the pouring rain, Mojo raised his voice to inform her, "It's a topical drug! It should do the trick when it comes in contact with the boys and everyone who's being hypnotized under the spell!"
"Got it, Mojo!" Blossom remarked.
"Wait, what is that?!" Her sisters goggled, not comprehending.
"Just follow me!" The leader assured.
Her predecent act of misery was no where to be seen. She led the way as the three puffs soared in target of the storm clouds.
In a shortwhile, HIM appeared in fumilating anger. "STOP THEM!" he commanded the boys close by.
Yet, the bodies of the Rowdyruffs were unyielding to his request—a part of them visibly fighting inside.
"NOW!"
They twitched at his more fortified command and obeyed to what they were told. Soon their three flash of trails were in hot pursuit behind the girls.
Blossom caught sight of this over her shoulder and gave her instructions to her team. After pulling the Rowdyruffs through a low angle flight they executed a sharp elevation to the sky. The boys missed by them in overshoot, giving the girls enough time to disappear into the mist.
Shortly, there was a sound of breaking glass.
The droplets of rain thickened with a roar of thunder. Those who came in touch with the liquid stilled at their place, immersing in their wash away of illusion, and restoration of consciousness.
"NOOOoooooo!"
There was a outcry of an evil voice shaking the sky, but which eventually diminished and came to an end.
His three works of evil, under the miscible rain, lost strength and tumbled out of the sky in steep descent. By that, the Powerpuffs emerged from the clouds in surprise and split up to follow their opposite number.
Down below, in each of their waiting, was a hole carved in the ground. The girls rushed toward it from their individual spots.
A figure rised groggily from all of them in high time.
"Boomer!" Bubbles called to hers.
The fog cleared from its eyes, into brilliant blue. "Bubbles!" The boy cried happily.
Under the pitter-patter of rain, the Powerpuff raced in and hoisted him in her embrace. "I'm so glad you're back!"
Hugging back, Boomer smiled and mouthed a so am I.
Butch held his stunned gaze at his counterpart while shaking the rain off his hair. "Looks like I just got my butt saved by a Powerpuff..." he murmured in realization.
"That a problem for you?" Buttercup questioned gruffly. All the while she checked if he was alright.
Butch gave a turn of head and stood rigid. "Nah..." he said, "if it's by someone equally tough, I guess it's okay."
Blossom made her way toward her red partner, steps cautious on shallow puddles.
"Brick," she voiced softly, "...do you recognize me?"
At her call, red eyes...no longer empty, locked with hers in silent surprise. But his bangs that were soaking wet came down to cover them. "Blossom... you came.." he whispered, sloshing through the water, "You came to destroy HIM."
"No." Upon reach, Blossom gently stroked his hair out of the way with the back of her hand, "I came for you."
The soft drizzle of rain shower captured their picturesque moment.
"Ahem."
In shocked hurry, both repositioned to face their intrusion.
Buttercup was standing alongside Butch with the blues holding back their giggles in the background. Her eyebrow arched up, "Care to explain?"
The reds embarrassedly stepped apart, fidgeting a little. Blossom held out her hand in Brick's direction.
"It was all thanks to Brick. He gave me a sample of their injections from earlier," she told them.
His siblings boggled in admiration.
"Dude, you stole that?!"
"How on earth did you do it?!"
Brick just presented them a bump of shoulders, making it no great deal. "Nuthin' nobody can't do."
It was quite different from how he handled it before with Blossom. After all, stealing it itself didn't do anything to save their butts. Not without the help of her...
While their side was done, Bubbles and Buttercup were in more need of explanation.
"But we thought that was what you had in your pocket!" They addressed to Blossom.
"Yeah, HIM just destroyed it in thin air!"
The leader made a wide sheepish grin. "That's just something similar I got from the professor's lab. The real one I hid there earlier and called up the professor to make an antidote to, with Mojo." She made space to point to the monkey up above.
The aforementioned chimpanzee was drifting in his jetpack, giving them an awkward wave at the acknowledgment. He seemed abashed to come down and face his boys just yet, but he retained his third person view to pay close attention to how they were acquainting with the girls. The boys, through pleasant grins, gave him a wave back in reply.
Blossom, on behalf of the chimp who stubbornly stayed above, recounted to them what had happened backstage:
...
"Mojo!" she hailed to the monkey.
The monkey-doer lowered his weapon and snapped at her voice, "What do you want!"
"I need you to go to our house and help the professor! He's working up something in his lab!"
"-What?!"
"It's the only way! There's not much time! You have to go, NOW!"
The chimp was left open mouthed at what to him was a preposterous statement. " —Why should I?!" he fumilated through his draw out of fangs, "To the very man and supposedly once father figure who DISOWNED me long ago?! I refuse to step so low to become of his assistance!"
Blossom was prepared for this candid speech, "Because your own KIDS are at stake! You want to save them from the hands of HIM don't you?! Prove to the professor, HIM, and everyone! Prove that you're the better father!" she exerted.
While caught off balance, Mojo was brooding on her instatement of the ruffs as his 'own kids,' and how he in consideration, should pull himself together to become a good parent.
Without going noticed, Blossom stepped well into his territory, "What do you say, Mojo? An enemy's enemy is a friend." She offered her hand in welcoming truce.
Mojo, with ample grudge, bickered at the circumstances and accepted the forced alliance.
"I thought I'd be done with these lousy pacts!"
..."Wait wait wait—
you trusted Mojo for this?!" Buttercup drew her out from the recital.
Blossom collected an innocent shrug. "Well, it was a chance I had to take. It all was." She stated in confidence. But soon a note dropped as she considered a hinting worry, "Gosh, I hope what HIM destroyed wasn't important."
Bubbles dealt with zero concern, "When was it ever?"
Meanwhile, Butch jittered his head sideways at the quick progress of things for his knowledge, palms held out front. "Hold up! But HIM... doesn't he spy on everything?!"
Blossom was well equipped to respond; "He saw that I got the vial from Brick, not what I did with it later. I thought if HIM was contriving a meticulous scheme to puppetize you boys, he would be caught up in monitoring you rather than concentrating too much on us. It was a dangerous bet, but I took it anyway."
"Dannnng—" Boomer lauded.
"Nice call, leaderpuff!" Butch jumped in and dunked her a high five.
Her sisters joined in the acclamation, "Yeah, way to go Blossom!"
The Rowdyruffs and her sisters encircled the pink puff and continued to raucously revere her for her brave decisions.
...All except for her counterpart who was now bumped off to the sideline. Seen enough to reach his discontent, Brick obtrusively made space to come between the pink girl and his brothers. When he faced her after giving each his brothers the unpleasant eye, he sure did not own an air of delight.
"You did all that?" he snapped at her incredulously in a low growl, "You took all those chances you weren't even sure of? What are you, stupid?! You could've put yourself in danger!"
The red boy's face most plainly vented with worried anger.
Stupid- Just stupid-! When he gave her the vial he just wanted to know the contents of that thing, he didn't give it to her to actually do something so rash! And here he thought the puff would be smart enough to know better! If things didn't go by plan she should've made a run for it! She should have—
...
..just abandoned him...
"..."
Initially confused, Blossom got a hold of what the ruff was aiming at and shook her head, nearing the grudgeful boy.
"I know, but you asked me for help." she said to him. "And I told you I would."
Brick, remembering all too clear, flinched at this, slightly embarrassed. "..I didn't know things would get this much out of whack..." he mumbled.
Blossom laughed away his show of furtive worry and smiled compassionately. "Whatever the cost, it's what I do. What we all do, as heroes." She stood before her sisters, gesturing fondly to Brick who by that, calmed a little. "Brick, you also stole that vial from HIM's chamber," she reminded him, "You risked your safety to save yourself and your brothers."
Brick, in quiet considering, didn't say a word.
The Powerpuff placed both hands on each of her sides in proud recognition, "That also makes you a hero."
Struck dumb, the Rowdyruff meandered into her eyes in touch of a new dimension.
"A hero..." he echoed.
Crack...
An inopportune sound of groundshake chilled all of them to the bone.
"I'm sorry to interrupt you on your precious moment," Mojo called urgently from above, "but AREN'T YOU ALL FORGETTING THAT YOU HAVE NOT YET DEFEATED THE DEMON?!"
The frantic shake of monkey paws hauled them to view a new rising calamity.
In imminent display, a giant fissure formed on the ground, spreading beyond their footing. They jumped and reformated farback, eyeing the rising silhouette from the bulking aperture. Every notorious detail handed to them that it was HIM.
Blossom gathered her eyebrows.
"I guess the drug wasn't enough to neutralize him!"
But when fully exposed to view, they realized in plain sight that the demon wasn't facing them empty-handed. To the Rowdyruffs' immediate recognition, the object he had clenched in his claw was the syringe used on them, only many times greater in size. The liquid within the containment fluctuated in sync to the owner's seething anger.
"So—Blossom..." The devil smoldered with a nightmarish glare, "YOU LIKE TAKING CHANCES DON'T YOU?! How about you take the odds on THIS!"
—!
"WHAT THE HECK!"
The Rowdyruffs shuddered with sick expressions, right as the demon striked his own arm with the needle in the most deadly stab. The area of abuse instantly bulged out to abominable width, veins popping up as appendages.
All other parts of his body followed the gruesome process. HIM's once slim arms turned to black steel, his legs thickened, and his entire body briefly hid into pitch dark with only his large grin and glowing red eyes visible with his growth. Timely lightning cracked all the way across the sky illuminating his new muscular physique. The evil villain now stood far taller than before, his crazily outgrown black hair and beard whirling with the wind mixed with rain. The tulle on the rim of his red outfit was now replaced with spikey hems of fur.
Butch gawked at what he witnessed, "That's his final form?!"
Boomer shriveled, hiding behind him. "Creepy!"
There was a guttoral laughter arising with a new undertake of evil tone. The monstrous creation crouched down to view them with yellow, vein-shot eyes.
It exploded to loud cacophony accompanied by thunder.
"WHICH WILL BE FASTER?! ME BEING NEUTRALIZED BY YOUR PETTY RAIN DROPS?! OR ME OBLITERATING YOU ALL?!"
The crowd of children affronted the tempest. Butch and Boomer once again volunteered to be the most chattery out of the group.
"This guy's totally lost it!"
"Word!"
With their comments in the trail, the six of them in mutual alliance, ripped through the rain to deal with the turmoil. However, to what they were uncalled for, each of their dive in for attack collided with thick impenetrable skin, leaving them with sore site of impact. The villain laughed down at them and striked them in pairs down with his claw.
After raining down to a pitfall on the ground, the children poked their heads out in stupor.
"Looks like we can't take him now!" Brick recovered, "We gotta stall till the beast sizes down!"
"Good idea!" Blossom approved.
With no other method, the six of them grouped and retreated in low flight under the splashing of droplets. Naturally, the ginormous monster pursued right behind their tails.
"FOOLS! YOU THINK YOU CAN RUN?!"
Spitfires of acid poured down on them along with earth shaking thumps. Pieces of asphalt, and the mud below it splattered onto them and warned them of the dangerous distance. With the cleansing rain behind their backs, it was up to them, every now and then, to separate in their flight to evade the unfortunates.
All throughout, Mojo was following close behind the children and the demonic monster. Once switching the gear on his weapon, he locked the device to laser mode and shot the back view of the adversary. This however, he had to duck right after due to the ricochet beam that failed to harm him.
After going through more vain attempts, Mojo cursed through his breath and observed the little to effective raindrops—It was going to take forever!
The monkey's plan took a different direction, for which he pulled the device on his wrist closer to his mouth.
"I'm returning with more of the formula!" he announced. Butch and Boomer were startled to hear his voice through their wrist watches. "Keep good hold of the demon!"
The boys reached out an 'okay' signal for him to proceed. Copying, Mojo zipped away on his jet wings.
The children were hence left behind to deal with the gaining hazard. Still a wide road view of their pathway unfolded before their eyes, but how much of it would last was the question. As a bigger problem, they started to see citizens who have yet gotten far out to escape, scrambling away for their dear lives.
The girls, afraid for their safety, dashed in and out of their main trail to aid them out of the way. The boys merely watched their heroic actions.
It however, wasn't long until under Brick's view, a man in a suit tripped onto a puddle. Falling behind a fleeing crowd, he was in danger of becoming trampled by the monstrous strides.
The red leader let out a grunt and kicked in a U-turn. He snatched the drenched man out of the crush site and brusquely deposited him on a safe side-walk before he could utter a 'thank you.'
Butch gave a look of disbelief, when soon enough, a high-pitched scream was heard calling for help.
"Goshdarn-it!" he carped, diving to the rescue.
Boomer likewise, moved in to a group of people who were cowering from an acid downpour headed their way.
Seeing all this, the girls traded satisfied grins and stayed on the path to lure HIM.
Right then, Butch, as a result of his heroic entry, came back to flight with a woman cradled in his arms bridal-style. The woman in question, however, was showing little gratefulness from the sight of her billowing skirt in the wind. She grabbed on to his unruly spikes of hair and demanded to be put down.
"Ow! Ow! LADY! I'm just tryin to save ya! Can't a guy show some chivalry for once?"
He lowered her down and shoved her to a safe alley. The green ruff returned with his hair in complete disorder, looking very haggard.
Boomer in his situation, had protected his group of people through a barrier of energy. After what could have been a catastrophe passed, he let his powers dissipate and looked towards them.
"Hi! I'm Boomer!" he introduced himself innocently.
The crowd just nodded numbly. The blue boy did a salute and flew back to the rainy sky.
Before they knew it, more people had to be rescued and pushed out of the way of their excavating muddy path. Those of which who they couldn't find safe ground were mounted up on their arms, balanced gingerly to save them all from being squashed. But the compiled people they had in tow were increasing to ridiculous numbers, until they seriously had to find a different route to things.
Drops of water splashed onto their heads, formed from the wet crowd overhead. They were all holding onto one another, shivering, either from the cold or from fright.
Butch sputtered from the loose drop that fell onto his face. And with his hands busy, he blinked away the droplet. "Is the evil-brute shrunk to size, yet?!" He yelled in desparation. To what was obvious, they all had a hard time maintaining their pile.
Buttercup, shivering in similar state, searched through her eyes and eventually spotted some calm areas to lay down her pile of passengers. She darted to and fro on the job, then with all done, the green girl massaged her hands to tear up yet another street light, aiming the spear right at the demon. Taking the long shot, it pierced through the slow motion of droplets and hit a bulls-eye on his left eye. The demon arrested in his pursuit, bellowing in pain.
At the event, her sisters and the boys lowered and skidded to a squirting stop on the road. The unleashed crowd scurried out to different corners of the street.
"Alright, time to fight!" Buttercup declared from above.
As they could all see, her attack proved that the demon was no longer invicible to them. The villain, from the rain, had noticeably decreased in height as well.
Butch bolted up to Buttercup's side to inspect the outcome closer. He easily cringed at the vicarious pain, "Do ya hafta use that trick all the time?"
"Only when necessary." She commented, unmindful to his queasy reaction.
Quickly though, they both had to drop down to avoid burning from his fire breath of fury. From what happened, the nearby buildings caught flame with their ironwork structures exposed. The landing of rain did little to quell the fire, turning to instantaneous vapor upon contact.
The screaming demon along the way pinched out what was a toothpick in his eye. Shockingly, if what HIM showed until now wasn't already of inducing nightmares, the state of his liberated outrage surely was by now. All boys and girls faced the ferocious monster with undiluted fear.
Backtracking in the rainy storm, Brick out of all, stood strong and called forward the team.
"Come on, y'all! If there's something I've figured out long ago, as long as we don't get riled up into his dirty ploy, there's no way he can beat us with physical harm! He ain't worth nothin without his stupid mind controlling!"
Blossom addressed him proudly. "That's my partner!"
Brought back to courage, the superhumans took a moment to wipe out loose wet hair in the way. In this process, all the Rowdyruffs' usually wild hair were tamed and dampened down to shape.
Bubbles made sure to check in worry, "Has everyone evacuated?"
Boomer zipped around the puddles in quick investigation. "All clear!"
And all clear it was.
The boys and girls came in formation as they paired up with their individual partners. Silently in the shower, they observed the unspoken borderline in front of them. The scene on the villain's side and the one on theirs, one on fire and one in raindrops, stood in complete antithesis.
They knew, of course, that it went without saying; the one standing next to them had also been their polar opposite in the recent past, standing on the other end of the road. But at this stage, with all bygones washed aside, there was one thing they were all sure of... There was no doubt, with their united powers, their common villain before their resolve would stand no chance against them.
...That in mind,
"Ladies-" Blossom began,
"-and gentlemen," Brick received.
They shouted simultaneously together: "Let's put this demon back where it belongs!"
Right with the good-to-go, Butch most excitedly roared to the sky as first in line. "Ahhhh-yes, bruddas and sistas!" he howled in his embedment of light, "Let's get down to partay!"
Out to the firey open, their red, green, and blue twisters of light barreled down to hit home on the demon with their own individual sentence. The incredible sight did not disappoint. Ribbons of their color enclosed the wretched villain with abundant attacks, his retaliating claws and spitfires having no effect to come to a hit.
Brick, in for a new try, peeled away from the color streaks and neared the demon's face to aim for a combo attack.
"Blossom! Give me a hand here!" he called to his partner.
"I'm on it!"
To his assist, Blossom grabbed on to a full root of hair on the back of their adversary's head. Pulling as far as could go, she tilted back to fix him for Brick's open fire. Towards the yowling face, Brick raged in for his intense array of punches, sending the giant head flying sidewards in succession to the blows. Taking no more, the matching giant claws threw itself toward the attack area, but with the two darting out of the way, only succeeded in hurting its main component. HIM's whole head juddered like a ringing bell, showing the consequence.
The blues, for their own performance, laced up the villain's legs, up around his body, until they reached the end of the trail to smash his chin in with an uppercut.
The light trails raced out of the painful aftermath, releasing happy giggles.
"Boomer, we're fighting together!" one shouted to the other.
"Yeah, I know!" the other replied, "This is fun!"
"I told you!"
Before long, their blue gradients disappeared past the drizzles to show their green siblings also in on the battle. Initially uncooperative, the two greens came to teamwork as Butch slashed a strike across the demon's chest, serving side distraction for Buttercup to charge in head-on and land a good one with her feet on his nose. As she was exiting in the spill of blood, however, HIM blasted his eye lasers straight-on up to her scream. Not taking this too kindly, the green puff drilled furiously into the line of laser returning the pain with a punch to his good eye.
Leaving him to writhe, Buttercup joined her quite impressed teammate somewhere in midair.
Butch clapped his hands, applauding, "Well done, soldier! I commend your high tolerance for pain! I didn't have to save you this time!"
Buttercup huffed at what he had to bring up. "We're already even!"
Then in curt manner, she faced back to the fight still relayed by their siblings, "Watch closely, cuz you ain't seen nothin yet!"
Butch did an accepting hand motion as he followed her into battle. "Whatever ya say!"
So there they had it.
The Powerpuffs and Rowdyruffs had long shifted the battle to their offensive.
With each passing moment, their strikes increased in volume, while their towering opponent progressively shrunk to building size. But in the meantime, the rain drops, in contrast, were slowly coming to an end, which left them to take the fight mostly into their hands.
Everything went smoothly until it dragged on. What seemed to remain as their continuous advantage came to a stop as HIM suddenly reached his claws into air, his lucky swipes clasping onto Brick on one, and Butch and Boomer on the other. His prisoners struggled against the grip, but were unable to break apart. More of the demon pincers squeezed into their skin, eliciting their screams in severe pain.
The girls in panic, careened to their rescue, but got trapped into HIM's blow of fire flinging them below to a screech, their supine bodies burnt and immobile. Ensuring once more, a black boot stomped down on the unconscious bodies to prevent them from reviving.
With distraction out of the way, the eyes of the demon rolled its evil pupils back to the prisoners in his grasp, lit with insane vengeance.
"PATHETIC. HAVING TO RELY ON YOUR OWN SWORN ENEMIES TO FIND RELEVANCE TO YOUR IDENTITY!—FIGURES! YOU WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN BORN WITHOUT THEM!"
The devil pounded his claws into a masonry until the spires crumbled down, giving them painful demonstrations of what solid structures feel like.
"GET THIS THROUGH YOUR HEADS!" he continued to degrade, "YOUR EXISTENCE WOULD HAVE MEANT NOTHING AFTER YOU'VE DESTROYED THEM!—NOTHING!"
The last echoes, to his ill-fate, had failed to discourage six glowing irises coming to life.
What was shown after, instead proved to do the exact opposite.
"You're wrong!"
Three resilient bodies yelled and broke loose with a large emission of energy. Their previous captor became blinded from brilliant light.
Brick, in the lead, accelerated mightily up to the sky, "It doesn't matter how or why we were born! Because I am my own person!"
Boomer hightailed along, "I am not a toy!"
Butch moved in lastly with great force, "And I am a fighter for my own reasons!"
Together, the boys gathered their eye lasers to stitch him right across the middle of his chest, serving him right. Staggering backward, the beast set free the girls under his feet in time for their regained consciousness.
Each boy within the success, landed near their crater, helping them up. The six of them regrouped on the ground, the girls no longer in sooty disaster. HIM on the contrary, had barely found purchase with his arm resting on the roofstops, struggling to stay up.
Seeing their antagonist in close defeat, Brick whacked his hand and called for the finale.
"Let's finish him!"
At the drop of command, the reds placed their hands together for attack formation, emulated by the blues, ...but stopped at the greens.
Brick and Blossom frowned at their tomfoolery. Of all things, and of all times, the last two were unwilling to follow through with the idea of holding onto the other's hands.
"Butch! Stop being a baby and put your hands together!"
"Buttercup! Do what he says!" They chided.
Their blue siblings snickered as the greens grudgingly gave in to the order.
That over with, they all took to the air in a spinning tornado and drilled down to the earth underneath. HIM who had no method of tracking them, waddled in his boots until they bursted out, dousing him with their propeller attacks. They circled around his feet, gradually capturing them into their spin. With the demon entangled, they amplified to an engulfing whirlwind which wound into one huge cone stretching up to the clouds. The clouds spiraled down along the drainage, soaking their screaming prisoner with what was left of the weather. From the effect, the sky was rendered free from the overcast of shadows.
Laterwards at their cease of attack, they all ended up finding themselves tangled in the other's arms from the spin. They stepped apart from their partners, blushing. What was left of HIM went flying like an air-releasing balloon and connected to a traffic light. His flaccid body, from the deflated volume and the twirls of the maelstrom, snaked around the pole thanks to the leftover momentum.
By this point, the demon was thoroughly beat-up to its original size. But he was down and not out—In their overhead view of him in the sky, the tenacious villain growled and struggled to free himself from his tied situation.
"Not on my watch!"
Saving them the trouble, the one to serve the final blow was none other than a shot of green liquid that sprayed out and drenched the demon senseless. The source of it was Mojo who had loaded a water gun with his own modified tank. Afloat his portable jet, he looked disgustedly at the resisting creature that melted at the contact.
Disassembling to a throat-raking bewail, the body of what was once their threatening opponent liquified and traveled down the streets. Some of its viscous contents drained down the sewer, while some were left bubbling and evaporating to steam. The lips of the demon, had it still owned its structure, hissed a you'll pay for this... and disappeared down the earth.
"Alright! Monkey-man!"
"Nice hit!"
In loud victory call, the children welcomed Mojo with high regards, watching him wipe clean a stray discharge of liquid from its gunport. But before they could stop him any further, he left, telling them disgruntledly, that he'd be attending his house remains, handing the children their glory.
They all scratched their heads and shrugged in defeat. He must be much confused himself what to figure out from all of this.
"Ahh, let him be. We'll deal with him when we get down," Brick said.
With the war over, they turned their minds to the town scenery below.
Every path they had taken was destroyed; the streets and buildings subjected in flames, in rubbles, and in mudpiles, which would require a lot of time to heal and repair. And it went without saying, same was with what nightmares the boys had to experience all along.
Still yet, despite the fresh scars, now with the evil defeated... all was peaceful in front of them under the glimmering sun.
"...Did we do it?"
After letting the moment sink in, Boomer leaned in and pulled lightly on the blue puff's arm. "Did we do good..?"
Bubbles turned to her friend, smiling in the open light. "Yes, we did," she said to him, "We did it."
Boys and girls together with refreshed laughter, let all their eyes roam to the serene distance.
The storm had passed after a long struggle, and the sky miraculously cleared to show a beautiful color shot of rainbow. Six of their alligned figures, those of which a distinct hue, merged with the splendid scenery.
For what it came down to, their first united battle was over, whether they expected it or not.
...
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A/N: Yay, no cliffhanger this time!
Sorry for all those previous chapters with them hehe. xP It's not because I like cliffhangers, it's because I think the chapters end nicely with them. (Isn't that the same thing?!)
So anyway, is this the end?.. Not quite.
Here's a sneak peek of the next chapter:
Scene 1
"Are we really gonna do this...?"
"It will only take a second..."
"I-If it's to get rid of this stupid side effect, then let's get it over with!"
Scene 2
"Professor, why on earth would you own a device like that?!"
"I don't know. Isn't that how all my inventions go?"
ㅡ
Welp, that's all that I have for you right now. See you next time, toodles!