Outside the bar.
The Powerpuff girls walked out of the bar wondering how they were going to get to Manchester without using their flying power. "Even if we could use our flying abilities, we still don't even know where Manchester is." Buttercup complained. "Yeah that is an issue, first we'll need a map." Blossom stated. "Or a guide." a voice said behind them. The turned round and saw a long-haired brunette teenage girl behind them. She was wearing a black tank top and a pair of skinny jeans.
"Hello, I'm Jenny, a friend of Nikita." She explained. "She asked me to help guide you to Manchester." She continued. "Well...we are in need of a guide." Blossom stated. "Right, we'll take my hover car." The Powerpuff girls eyes went as wide as moons at this. "Hover car?" Buttercup repeated. "Yep, all Blood Arrow agents are given one to help transport us around." Jenny explained. She pull some car keys out of her pocket and pressed a button on it, a sleek, blood red, floating car then flew into a space near the little group, whistling as it did so. "Come on lets go!" Jenny then sat in the driver seat, the girls just stood on the pavement, staring in awe at the car. Jenny noticed this and gave a small giggle.
"Oi girls, stop drooling and get in." Jenny chuckled as the Powerpuffs snapped out their bewildered states and stepped into the hover car, it then floated off the ground and sprouted backward-swept wings. It then shot into the sky like a rocket out of hell. But surprisingly no-one in the car was pressed into their seats by the insane speed. "Whoa!" Buttercup yelled. "Impressive isn't it?" Jenny then pressed a button on the steering wheel and the words 'auto pilot: engaged' appeared on the dashboard. "Next stop: Manchester." Jenny announced. She then rotated in the driver seat like a desk chair to face the girls. "If you have any questions speak now." She then stated.
"Uh...what are the 'Blood Arrows'?" Blossom asked. "The Blood Arrows are a small faction of rebels that oppose the war with America, we've been working with the American Central Intelligence Agency and your Army to provide data about Britain's war plans." Jenny explained. "How the hell did Britain develop so much advanced technology?" Buttercup asked. "Here's a quick history lesson: in 2010, British scientists discovered several things: that matter and energy are interchangeable, how to harness the power of black holes and how to control molecules with ease." Jenny then continued. "All these things combined started a huge technological revolution, resulting in things like these hover cars..." She gestured at the metal around them. "...flying battle ships and other futuristic things." she then finished.
"Why hasn't America seen any of this until now?" Bubbles asked. Jenny then scratched her head. "I don't mean to be racist but, you yanks never pay that much attention to Britain at all." The girls then looked at each other. "Good point." Blossom stated. "So what can you tell us about agent Calypso?" Blossom then asked. "Ah Calypso, she's a very good friend of the Blood Arrows, she once took down a flying battle ship single handedly, she climbed on board, blew up its engines and it simply fell out of the sky." Jenny smiled as she told that small story. "Although she's a tough and occasional naughty girl she's usually very kind and caring, always willing to help out and she's never failed a mission in her life, however I've never seen her without a bottle of Pepsi Max in one hand." Jenny continued.
Before she could go on the dash board started beeping. She swirled round in her seat and shut off the auto pilot. "Unidentified craft, this the HMS Trinity, you have entered restricted airspace, state your ID code and intentions." Came a serious voice from the radio. The Powerpuffs then looked out the window and saw a flying battleship identical to the one they saw as they were crossing the British boarder. "Trinity, this is MI99 shuttle 9-alpha-7, we're transporting supplies to Manchester." Jenny replied into the radio. "Acknowledged 9-alpha-7, you are cleared to proceed." the captain stated. "Confirmed Trinity, we're proceeding." Jenny then turned off the radio. "Well that wasn't so bad was it?" Jenny stated. Bubbles gave a nervous chuckle before saying: "I wasn't worried." in a very unconvincing tone.
Manchester
The rest of the journey to Manchester was uneventful. Jenny landed the hover car outside Victoria train station. "I have to rendezvous with a Blood Arrow agent on the other side of the city, good luck Powerpuffs." With that Jenny took off again. "Alright girls lets go." Blossom said, the girls then entered the station, Victoria wasn't a huge station, it only had a few large platforms and the girls could see highly advanced trains that would make the Japanese bullet train cry real tears.
Just then the girls ear pieces came to life and Gabriel could be heard. "Girls, change of plans, its no longer possible for you to return to America, ever since you made it past the Azores blockade the British/American border has been heavily fortified with experimental battleships made by MI99 themselves." Gabriel explained. "How will we extract Calypso now?" Blossom asked. "We've sent the USS Iowa II to rendezvous with you near Lands end on the western coast of Cornwall, she'll be your new base of operations." Gabriel stated. "Right, thanks for tip, Powerpuffs out."
"So you're the Powerpuff girls?" a voice then said. The girls froze after hearing this and turned to see a blonde teenage girl with a bottle of Pepsi Max in her hand. She was wearing a small black tank top that revealed her flat tanned belly and a pair of red shorts that revealed half of her thighs "Flamer?" Blossom then asked. "Kill-zone." the girl replied. "I can't say how pleased I am to see you three, Nikita and Mark told me you were coming." Calypso said. "Interesting pair." Buttercup stated. "Nikita took the liberty of read your minds while you were in London, I'm very sorry for the intrusion; I had to make sure whoever Gabriel sent hadn't been tampered with." Calypso explained. "I understand, now lets get you out of here while we still can." Blossom stated. "No argument here Blossom." Calypso agreed.
The group then walked outside and Calypso called her own hover car, unlike Jenny's this one was jet black. They got inside and took off. "Just before we found you Gabriel told us about a change of plan; the CIA has sent the USS Iowa to meet us near lands end." Blossom explained. "Brilliant, that fits well into my plans, I have some 'unfinished business' I'd like to take care of, we're flying to a Blood Arrow hideout in Cornwall." Calypso explained. She then spun in her seat to face the girls. "Girls, you have no idea how difficult it was to betray my country...in order to save it from war." Calypso stated. "No we don't, but we are willing to help finish what you started." Buttercup stated. "Thank you girls, we need all the help we can get." Calypso then spun back round to fly the hover car.
The Blood Arrows hideout.
The hideout was huge, it was basically an artificial hill that hid the base from the prying eyes of the Blood Arrow's enemies. Calypso then flew the car round the hill until she stopped in front of what looked like a large pink rhododendron bush, she then pressed a few buttons on the dashboard and the bush split in half to reveal a round metal door underneath. It then opened up and Calypso flew the car inside. The door shut behind them and the Rhododendron bush reformed itself.
"This, Powerpuff girls, is the secret home of the Blood Arrows, they burrowed into the ground and layered this artificial hill over the top, concealing it." Calypso explained. She then landed the car in a large hanger bay, alongside some larger craft. A red-haired man in his early thirties then walked out of a pair of double doors on one side of the hanger. He smiled when he saw Calypso and the Powerpuff girls. "Ah Calypso, you made it." He said happily, his British accent was very thick, much like a WW2 fighter pilot. Calypso returned the smile. "Powerpuffs this is Harry Blake, leader and founder of the Blood Arrows." Calypso introduced the girls to him. "Powerpuff girls? a very unique name, welcome to BAHQ." Harry then stuck his hand, which Blossom then shook. "Gabriel Stone told me you were in the country, so I paid Mark and Nikita to find and direct you to Calypso here." Harry explained motioning to the blonde girl.
"How are we holding up against MI99?" Calypso asked. Harry's smile then vanished. "Well we're not exactly brimming with confidence right now; our outpost in Scotland was found out and destroyed by the HMS Tesla cage, MI99's experimental lightning ship." Harry explained. "Its main guns can take down everything in range with single shot, it will tear our forces a new one if we don't deal with it somehow." Harry stated. "What's the plan?" Blossom asked. "We'll explain on the way to the target, its a shipyard being used to to construct a new type of vessel, its unlike any other ship girls; the design is like nothing either of us have faced so far." Calypso explained.
"Lets get going then, the strike force will meet us outside." Harry said.
Outside.
The Powerpuff girls were happy to be able to fly by themselves again, Calypso and Harry Blake were on a flying gunship along with several other gunships. "This will not be an easy operation, the shipyard is surrounded by a dark matter field of some kind, its blocking our radar and other scanning instruments; not a single frequency of radiation on the electro-magnetic spectrum can get through it, this means your X-ray vision won't work either girls." Harry explained. "The dark matter field is also further reinforced by floating mines, also there is only one known clear passage in and out of the field located to the south of it, our scouts report its no more than 20 metres wide at its widest." Calypso added.
"So we're about to attack something thats inside a dark matter field, infested with mines and with no knowledge of what the hell else is in there?" Buttercup asked. "Pretty much Buttercup." Calypso said casually.
A few minutes later.
It wasn't that hard to miss: The dark matter field was basically a huge black dome shaped cloud over a stretch of ocean that crackled with lightning every few seconds. The gunship fleet and the Powerpuff girls flew to the bottom of the field and found the tube-shaped clearing in the field. They also saw another group of gunships there, presumably the scout force. "OK girls, we'll go in first, stay right behind us, the mines are low yield but will throw you around a lot if you set one off." Harry stated. "W-we have t-to go in t-there?" Bubbles stuttered, looking into the dark passage way, a crackle of lightning streaked across the clearing, briefly lighting up the inside and illuminating the hidden mine field within the surrounding dark matter. "Stay strong Bubbles, we'll put a dent in the British war machine by doing this." Blossom said to her calmingly.
"OK we're going in." Harry announced. His lead gunship then hovered cautiously into the passage, the Powerpuff girls followed tentatively, the blackness of the dark matter field surrounding the tiny clearing looked forbidding, it kept whistling as wind blew through the spikes on the mines, hissing and crackling as lighting crashed all around causing a very unnerving effect on both the Blood arrow fleet and the Powerpuff girls. Bubbles was barely holding together; the silhouette of the mines kept flashing out of nowhere as lightning struck around the group and disappeared just as fast as the lightning that caused it. "Try not to look around, keep your eyes on my gunship." Harry commanded, trying to keep his voice from shaking. "God I hate feeling so vulnerable." Blossom thought, trying to keep her gaze on the flying hunk of metal in front of her, it was very hard not to look into the blackness that wrapped round the clearing, knowing that it was laced with explosives and god no knows what else.
"The passage is narrowing up ahead, we need to slow down." Harry stated. The girls didn't want to slow down, the sooner they got the mission done the sooner they could get out of this black hell. But they had to, if they reached a turn in the field they wouldn't be able to slow down in time to make it round. It didn't help that the passage was now only 5 short metres wide. "Be careful girls, if fall into the field you'll be completely blind and have no way of knowing if a mine is a millimetre from your face until you touch it." Calypso explained. "I don't think we'll want to do that." Buttercup stated.
Blossom's eyes then went wide as moons when she saw something long and pointy sticking 2 metres out of the blackness. "Harry stop your ship!" Blossom yelled. Just in time the lead gunship stopped, inches from the pointy object. "Phew, thank you girls, you have good eyes." Harry stated with gratitude. His gunship then flew round the metal spike and flew further ahead. Blossom then took off her bow and scrunched it up. "What are you doing?" Bubbles asked. "Getting rid of that mine, it'll block our escape attempt." She then threw the scrunched up ribbon at the spike, the mine exploded, destroying itself.
"Alright, the passage is opening into a huge open area, this must be the shipyard, blimey its massive!" Calypso said in awe. The ship yard was roughly 3 times bigger than that of the flying battleships it built. It was basically a huge rectangular shape that took up the whole clearing in the field with a hole the same shape in the middle that went through the whole thing. In that hole was the new ship, unlike the flying battleships that the group have all seen before, this ship was much sleeker, Instead of having a rounded oval-shaped hull, the shape of this new ship was shaped more like a Narwhal class submarine and it had a Trapezium shaped bridge on top. It also it was as black as the dark matter field surrounding the ship yard it was suspended in, it was only when Harry saw the different design of the engines on the back that they he had an epiphany.
"Its a submarine! A giant submarine." He said into the radio. Before anyone could reply to him the shipyard dropped the large submarine into the sea below. When the girls saw the name of this new ship, a wave of terror crashed through them. "I-is anyone else s-s-seeing t-that?" Bubbles stuttered pointing at the blood red letters on the side of the sub. "Yes Bubbles, we see that." Calypso agreed, trying to keep her own voice from quaking. As quiet as a falling paper clip the menacing sub dived into the murky depths.
"Dammit, it got away." Harry spat with acid in the words, then he sighed in defeat. "Alright lets destroy this ship yard anyway, we can't take it out from the outside; their main guns will tear us apart, Calypso and Powerpuff girls, you need to break on board and set some charges on the weaponry's main coolant supply." Harry ordered. "What are you gonna do?" Buttercup demanded. "I'll guide you there using scanners and video feeds on your ear pieces, the interference from the dark matter isn't as strong in this clearing as it is in the passage, so we'll stay in here where they can't detect us." Harry explained as Calypso got in her hover car in a small hanger on the gunship and flew into the opening on the shipyard with the girls flying in tow.
"Why haven't they started shooting us?" Blossom asked. "They probably haven't detected us yet; their scanners only work on larger craft in this dark matter field, like our gunships." Calypso explained. "If we can disable the shipyards weaponry, Harry and his squad can blow this thing apart without being tore up themselves." Calypso continued. She landed her hover car inside the shipyard's hanger and the girls landed next to it as she climbed out. "OK ladies, your objective is 5 decks below you, there should be a lift in front of where you landed." Harry stated.
The girls found the lift and called it up, after a small 'ding!' the lift doors opened...revealing two security guards. "What the fu-" Before they could finish Calypso banged their heads together, after seeing stars for a few seconds they both fell unconscious. The girls were amazed at this. "You three helping me or what?" Calypso asked grabbing one of the unconscious guards by his legs. The snapped out of their surprise and picked both of the men up. They then shoved them in the hover car and bound and gagged them. Calypso then locked the car.
"OK lets go." She commanded. The girls then walked into the lift and the doors closed in front of them.