Allies and Rivals II
Chapter 25
The Attack on Citiesville
I'm starting Part IV of Allies and Rivals II. Just to let you know, Part I is the process of forming the alliance itself, from Blossom proposing the alliance, to Mojo making another attempt at the lives of the girls, and to the Fourth Clash, to the start of Blossom and Brick's rivalry for leadership, and Brick's defeat and Blossom becoming the first leader of the Ruff-Puff Alliance.
Part II is the struggle against Ckracknow and an exhibition of Blossom's leadership, from the thieves who had no names and only whites in their eyes, and the extraordinarily strong monsters, One, the kidnapping of Dr. Edwards and Professor Utonium, Brick's resignation as leader of the Rowdyruff Boys, the leadership trials of Butch and Boomer, the resumption of Brick as leader and Dr. Edwards and Prof. Utonium's renewed contact with the kids, the rescue of Dr. Edwards and Professor Utonium, the fight with Two, and Blossom's triumph as leader.
Part III is when Brick resumed his challenge for the leadership, from Brick's challenge, to Blossom's arrogance getting worst, to Brick's winning the election.
This is part IV. I hope you enjoy it. This part would showcase Brick as leader of the alliance.
The town of Citiesville, on December 10, was not really a town, but a large bustling metropolis. Its population easily outstripped that of Townsville by the millions, and its GNP dwarfed that of the Powerpuff hometown too. In fact, it was so large, that its economy could easily have been the equivalent of the GNP of a small African country.
In size, both in land area and population, it was gigantic. It was also the wealthiest city of the state, easily surpassing that of Townsville. It had a stock exchange, and was the center of trade and commerce. It was the center of science with the state's leading scientists residing and working in it. Most of the state's leading business, and branches of large corporations, had their HQ on Citiesville. An example was Dr. William K. Edwards, who lived and worked in Citiesville for ten years before abruptly moving into Townsville six months ago in June.
Indeed, Citiesville was comparable to New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, while that of Townsville can only be compared to Lexington, Kansas City, Santa Fe, or Boise. It truly ranks among the great cities of the United States of America. But for some reason, it was ignored by the rest of the country.
It's Mayor, the white haired 59-year-old Julian Malarkey, had a reputation for toughness and no nonsense leadership. His reputation was even enhanced when he scolded the Powerpuff Girls (when they temporarily went to live there) for destroying a multi-million dollar bridge that was the economic life-line of the city. That incident lost the city many billions in revenue. Many small businesses failed, large corporations had huge losses, and many people were thrown out of work, before the bridge was finally rebuilt after one month. The incident left a bad taste for superheroing do-gooders not only on Mayor Malarkey but also on all citizens of Citiesville, and from that day on, the Powerpuff Girls were vilified in the bustling metropolis.
Perhaps, the most famous landmark of the city was its red suspension Bridge that connects the main city with the suburbs. For Citiesville was located on an island in the middle of a large lake. The island where it was located has an area equal to that on New York City. The lake itself was as large as the Great Salt Lake in Utah. And the bridge itself crosses the narrowest body of water between the mainland and the island. In addiction, the bridge was the only connection between the city and the mainland because of its geography.
On the mainland side of Citiesville were its' suburbs. As the Mayor Malarkey said, a majority of the people doesn't live in the main city, but rather commute to the city using the main bridge. As such, there were always heavy traffic jams in the morning and evening rush hours.
But in spite of its' size, wealth, and population, Citiesville was a hellhole. The streets were dangerous as early as seven in the evening. Its murder rate was the highest in the nation. Crime proliferated in the city. Organized Crime families had more control over the city than the city government itself. It was extremely dirty and polluted. Its residents were rude, jerks, self-centered and selfish. It was a drug-riddled city, and the Mayor seemed helpless to solve the problem. The police were corrupt. So was the bureaucracy. Even though the Mayor himself was honest, he seemed helpless and incompetent in the face of crime and the corrupt city council. Plus, the city was the most polluted in the nation, with the lake around it is filthier than the water of an unflushed toilet with fesces. The air was only tolerable.
Things couldn't get any worst. But it did.
It was December 10, at noon. Most people were in the main city, since it was a workday. Most of the schools were also on the island, so most of the kids and teen-agers were also on the island. That moment, there were 5 million people on the island.
But there was another reason why people flocked to Citisville that day. Reporters and weathermen had reported that the first snow of the winter season will fall on Citisville that day on that hour, and most of the people of Citisville, even those who normally wouldn't go to the main city, went to the island just to see the first snowfall. Indeed, half the population of the suburbs of Citiesville were in the main city just for the occasion.
The Mayor of Citisville was observing the throng of people in the streets waiting for the first snow of winter.
"Ah, look at those people," Mayor Malarkey observed, "waiting for the first snow of winter. I suppose its something to drown out all their problems, for a while. Pity that some pickpockets will probably take advantage of those poor saps while they're too busy staring at the sky. I wonder how long it would take before those degenerate losers would incite the crowd to riot?"
"Well sir, I think you should alert the riot police just in case," his aide, Mr. Pratter, suggested.
"Tell them to bring the high-pressured hoses, and all of those riot gear and tear gas just in case they get rowdy. We don't want a repeat of the great riot following the destruction of the bridge by those bug-eyed freaks, now would we?"
Many people, at least those that weren't at work or at school, gathered in the streets to await the first snow of the season. But something altogether different, something deadlier, arrived.
There was a large explosion in one of the skyscrapers, and the pieces came down on the crowd. The crowd panicked, and stampeded out. But another skyscraper fell to where the crowd had run to. Then, the buildings all collapsed on them. There were screams, shouts and yells as many thousands of people lost their lives to the concrete and steel of the buildings.
Fifty thousand people were killed in that first few minutes, from the crowd in the streets, to the people in all the large and crowded hundred story skyscrapers and office buildings and apartments in that section of the city.
"Nice shot, Beta," a silver haired boy with red eyes about 18 years of age said. He was about six feet two, very muscled, and had a calm and authoritative voice. He was floating above the city with four other companions.
"Of course Alpha," replied Beta, a black haired boy about 17 years of age with yellow eyes, about 5 feet nine and a half inch tall. He was quite skinny and weak on the body, but his laser attacks were the most powerful. It was his hits that demolished the skyscrapers around the crowd gathered in the streets. "Ha, did you see that? 50 K dead in just three shots!"
"Epsilon, do it," Alpha commanded to another boy also 18 years old. He had dark brown hair and black eyes and a height of 6'5", the tallest of the five. He had no laser attacks or any ranged ones, but he was physically the strongest of the five. He quickly flew towards the brick colored bridge, where pandemonium reigned as thousands of cars and people dashed towards the mainland. When the first of the panicking people neared the end of the bridge, Epsilon, using his fists, pulverized that part of the bridge. Most of the people on that part where either killed when they were crushed by the concrete or when their cars fell into the freezing lake and they can't get out and drowned. Others who were running tried to jump and swim into the opposite shore, but the water was freezing, and pretty soon, all but the toughest died from extreme cold or just drowned. Only two dozen or so, out of hundreds, managed to swim ashore into the mainland.
The rest of the people stared at Epsilon, then screamed and started running in the opposite direction. Epsilon smirked as he flew as fast as he can to the opposite side of the bridge and demolished it, trapping at least two thousand people. He then demolished the bases of the bridge, lifted the bridge up into the air, and threw it upside-down into the lake. It happened so fast that most people were still on the bridge when it collided upside-down with the water. At that moment, three-quarters of all the people in the bride, about 1,500 people, died. The rest of them were floating in the freezing lake, slowly dying of the cold.
Then, to make things worst, it began to snow, and the first snow began to fall on the lake. Some of the more able bodied tried swimming for the shore.
"Delta, finish off those people in the water. Their screaming irritates me!" Alpha ordered.
"Yes sir," the fifteen-year-old five-feet-three inches tall brown eyed and gray haired Delta went where Epsilon was. He was like Beta, frail in body, but was compensated by his extremely powerful laser attacks. In addition, he was fast with it. "Hey Epsi, Alpha told me to help you kill those buggers!"
"I don't need your help," Epsilon grunted. "I can do the job myself. And don't call me Epsi!"
"I know you're superstrong, but can you do this?" He then began releasing tiny laser blasts from his hands as fast as machine gun bullets. Each of the laser blasts hit a single man, woman or child still struggling in the freezing lake. The laser blasts were powerful enough to tear a hole in each of the people's heads the size of a pencil. Soon, all of the people in the lake were dead, and Citiesville Bay, as the lake was called, was blood red.
"Show off!" Epsilon sneered.
Citiesville was now cut off from the rest of the world, and there five million people in it were trapped.
Meanwhile…
Mayor Malarkey was quickly evacuated from City Hall moments before it collapsed, and was shuffled into a helicopter.
"Pratter, close all media outlets in this city. I don't want the media reporting this to the outside world!" Malarkey angrily ordered.
"But sir, don't you think it might be wise to ask others for help?"
"Bah! This town doesn't need any more negative publicity! You know why Towsville is poor compared to us? Because all those monster attacks and villains scared businessmen away from that city! I don't want the same thing to happen to Citiesville!" Malarkey explained. "Tell me, who among Towsville is a big shot among the state?"
"Well, there is Mr. Spencer Morebucks…"
"Morebucks is a schmuck!" Malarkey replied.
"And Dr. Edwards!"
"Edwards is a damned fool! The only reason he's such a success is because he lived here in Citiesville for ten years. And he left for no reason! That ungrateful fool! I hate him! He shouldn't have left Citiesville if he knew what was good for him," Malarkey said.
"And Professor John Utonium," Pratter said.
"Prof. John Who? Oh yeah, that mad scientist who created those bug eyed freaks? That nobody? But anyway, so what? Citiesville has many more than what Towsville could offer."
"But what about those five floating monsters?" asked Pratter. "Surely, you must ask for help if you want…"
"Help schmelp! I don't need any of it! We can take care of it. Order the entire police and the military to attack them," Malarkey said.
"But sir, I don't think our armed forces could handle…"
Malarkey brushed off his aide's objections. "You don't have faith in our armed forces? Our soldiers are well trained, and our equipment is state of the art! No, we will win by ourselves, or my name isn't Julian Malarkey!"
And so the order was given. Soon, all of the Citiesville police, and military, and air force went into action. However, the congestion of people in the streets and the debris prevented the tanks and police cars to roll, so the military were forced to march on foot. Also, a large part of the land military was on the mainland, so were unable to join the assault. The lake guard, the lake's coast guard equivalent, did not have enough vessels for transport, and none that can carry tanks and artillery. And a large part of these lake vehicles were now being used to evacuate the city, but they were too few to make even a dent.
The people were somehow relieved at the sight of their fine brave police and military marching down the street opposite the direction of the throngs of multitudes fleeing people. Soon the people cleared the way for the men-in-arms, and the way was clear for the tanks, rocket artillery, missile launchers, and ordinary police with rifles and machine guns to march.
Soon, they reached the spot where the five attacking teen-agers were. At a given order, the military unleashed hell. Tanks fired their rounds, artillery fired their shells, the city air force pounded them with missiles and bombs, and ordinary soldiers and policemen and soldiers shot their hand guns, automatic weapons, bazookas, and grenades. All the firepower of the city was concentrated on the five.
Soon, the shooting stopped when the five were shrouded with smoke. After a few seconds, the smoke lifted, and the five were standing, without a scratch in their bodies. Alpha smirked. "Cychaela, take care of these fleas," Alpha ordered.
Cychaela was the only female member of the five. Sixteen years of age, five foot six, with blond hair and blue eyes, she was weak in body, average in laser attacks, but she was the fastest of the group. With astonishing speed, she went and kicked and ripped off the wings of the warplanes and bombers, then proceeded to destroy all tanks and artillery. She then put her attention to the soldiers and police, and proceeded to kill them by snapping their necks. And it all took half a second. One observer saw the military in all their glory, fighting the five, blinked, and when he opened his eyes, it was all gone. In half a second, the military were no more, and another seven thousand killed.
"That was fast," Alpha wryly commented.
"Of course, fearless leader! The master didn't create me to be the fastest one for nothing, you know," Cychaela replied.
"Destroy all boats and ships on the lake," Alpha commanded. "Nothing should escape."
Cychaela nodded and did as told.
"So what do we do now?" asked Beta.
"We continue to create havoc until we lure those Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys here. Then, we destroy them," Alpha said.
"But why can't we just invade Townsville or something! Why attack Citiesville?" Delta questioned.
"Look, Delta, and that goes for all of you, we do not question the orders of our master, our creator. Our orders are to thrash Citiesville until those goody-two-shoes come here. Then, we would destroy them," Alpha said.
"But how are you sure they'd be baited?" Epsilon asked.
"Simple. They have to. They're superheroes. It's their job to rescue every useless and not-so useless hoboes that are threatened by us! They'll come," Alpha said. "In the meantime, have some fun. Just don't kill all of them."
So Beta, Cychaela, Delta and Epsilon went and had "fun" with the people, torturing, maiming, killing, and destroying.
Meanwhile…
"Sir, you must call the Ruff-Puff Alliance! It's Citiesville's only hope!" Pratter said.
"I don't need those babies to save my city!" Malarkey shouted.
"Sir, all our police and military are gone! We have no choice! And if you don't call them, you would have no city to call your own!" Pratter replied.
Mayor Malarkey finally relented. "Okay, call Mayor Jay Mayor. No, cancel that, call Sara Bellum instead! Tell them I need, no say that I want those boys and girls to come here and do a little favor for me!"
Meanwhile…
It was a peaceful, happy late Autumn, or early winter, for the Edwards' family. They were in their forest, putting all the dried leaves in a gigantic pile fifty feet high in the middle of a clearing. Most of the dead branches and twigs were carted off to their backyard to serve as firewood. As the three boys hovered around to prevent the spread of fire, Dr. Edwards took a match from his pocket.
"Stay back, this might get ugly!" Dr. Edwards warned. "You don't want to be engulfed by the flames and smoke, you know!"
"Dad, so what? We can't get hurt by something as insignificant as smoke and fire!" Butch boasted.
"Well, you couldn't say I didn't warn you!" his father said with a grin on his face. He then lighted a single match, and lit the bottom of the pile.
The leaves were so dry and so combustible that it only took five minutes for it burn. The boys started to back out as the fire rose to monstrous heights, but Boomer suddenly pushed Butch into the fire. Then, the fire wound down and thick smoke emerged, and Butch was caught.
Butch wasn't hurt, but he was dirty and covered with soot. "Why you!"
Boomer just stuck out his tongue at Butch before laughing.
"Ha, I thought fire and smoke couldn't hurt you!" Brick teased as he took some ashes and poured it into Butch. Butch growled at him, picked up some ashes, and threw it into his leader. Soon, the three were engaged an ash war (like a food fight, but instead of food, they used ashes), and after that, they collapsed into laughter wallowing in the remains of the burnt leaves.
Dr. Edwards was laughing at the antics of his sons when his cellphone rang.
"Hello, oh hi Sara, what's up! What? Now what malarkey does that Mayor Malarkey want to say? Citiesville is under attack by five powerful beings? Don't worry, I'll send my sons to check it out! Bye!"
"Brick, Boomer, Butch, some powerful thing attacked Citiesville. I want you to check it out!" Dr. Edwards commanded his soot-covered sons.
"Aw Dad, do we have to?" Brick asked. "I mean, I can understand saving Townsville since we live here, but Citiesville? I don't think it's our business!"
"Yeah, why should we baby-sit every city that is attacked by a monster, or some superpowered being?" Boomer seconded. "Towsville is enough!"
"Yeah, who cares if Citiesville is destroyed! Hey, if that happened, then Townsville will be number one in our state! Go Townsville, you kick ass! Citiesville, you suck ass!" Butch shouted in a surprising burst of civic pride.
"Hey, I know Citiesville is the suckiest place in the world. I know, I spent ten of my most miserable years in that slum! And I hate that Mayor Malarkey of theirs, heck, I like Mayor Jay Mayor of Towsville better than him! And Mayor Mayor is an idiot! But you have a duty to destroy whatever threat there is, and wouldn't you think that once they're done with Citiesville, they'd proceed to Townsville? Now, what city do you prefer to be the battleground, Citiesville, or Towsville? If you let them destroy Citiesville, wouldn't you think that Townsville would also be destroyed when you battle here?"
"You're right Dad!" Brick replied. "Men, let's go!"
He then pressed his watch. "Blossom?"
"Yes Brick?"
"There's an attack on Citiesville. Go there now! We're heading there right now. We meet up on the way!"
"Okay Brick," Blossom replied. "See 'ya later!"
A few minutes later, they met up on their way to Citiesville.
"So what's up?" asked Blossom. "What exactly happened?"
"Dad said five powerful beings attacked Towsville!" Brick said.
"Citiesville? That dump? I think they've got what's coming to them for treating us the way they treated us!" Buttercup ranted, clearly remembering their stay at Citiesville. "Ha, take that, Citiesville!"
"For once, I agree with you, Buttercup!" Butch declared. "Townsville is way better than Citiesville!"
"Well, I hate to say it, but you're right, Butch! Go Townsville!" Buttercup seconded.
"Buttercup! Butch! Don't ever say that again!" Blossom lectured. "It's unbecoming of a Powerpuff Girl or Rowdyruff Boy! Nobody deserves that! Sure, Citiesville maybe a dump compared to our beautiful city, Townsville. It's people maybe jerks, they may have treated us miserably when we stayed there, but we're superheroes! It's our job to save the day, wherever it maybe, whoever it may be, whenever it may be! Our duty is to all the people, no matter how ungrateful it may be!"
"Look, Blossom, you're not the boss of me!" Butch said. "You lost the election, and so…"
"I know, Butch, you don't have to remind me of that! But that doesn't mean I can't be right and you can't be wrong!" Blossom replied, still proud despite what had happened, but noticeably humbler than before.
"Whatever," Buttercup answered. "So what's the plan?"
"Well, we don't know anything about what kind of attacker there is. Aside from knowing that they are five, and they are powerful, and are wreaking havoc, we don't know anything about it," Brick replied. "Most probably, if they're just like the villains we fought before, it won't be any problem."
The six members of the Ruff-Puff Alliance flew to Townsville, with the boys indifferent to its fate, and the girls less than enthusiastic with saving a city that had previously rejected them, all going out on a sense of duty, the boys out of duty for their father, and the girls out of a sense of responsibility.
They weren't prepared for what they saw when they arrived in Citiesville. In fact, nothing that they've experienced could have prepared them for this day.
Unlike in Townsville, where the people are orderly during monster attacks, there was total chaos in a city that's experiencing a super attack for the very first time. People were panicking, running and looting. But what really made their face white, and their blood curl, was the sight of dead bodies. Hundreds, nay, thousands, of dead bodies, lay on the streets, on the grounds, and on the pavements, on the parks—most of them murdered by the five, but some killed by the stampede of fleeing people, but they had no place to flee because the bridge was cut off. Some were killed by criminals who escaped in the chaos from Citiesville penitentiary.
More horrifying still was the conditions of their bodies. Many had their heads blown off, their brains scattered across the ground. Some had large holes in their body, their guts and entrails seen from outside. Some had no wounds and looked asleep, but the bones were broken inside and were very dead. And blood was everywhere. It was as if it had rained blood, since there was so much blood running on the streets.
But the most revolting thing from the point of view of the members of the Ruff-Puff Alliance was the behavior of the people. It's every man for himself. And to take the cake was the looting of the dead bodies. Men, women, and children, even while fleeing, would strip bare the dead bodies for their possessions. Even blood soaked clothing was stripped by fleeing people. Not to mentioned money and jewelry. And the ruffs and puffs even saw people using pliers pulling gold teeth from dead people, all in broad daylight, but unnoticed in the general chaos of the day.
Brick was immediately disgusted, and he immediately got sick, and began vomiting uncontrollably. He hasn't seen this much carnage on people, even while he was still working for Mojo Jojo the first time he was created. Boomer soon joined his brother. He nearly fainted by so much blood and guts, but miraculously, he recovered by leaning on top of a building. He was stunned by the sight, shivering as both his brothers went besides him. Butch, like his brothers, vomited uncontrollably, but didn't come close to fainting, but he kept his eyes off his ground. It was just too disgusting.
Bubbles screamed and immediately buried her head at Buttercup's shoulder, before fainting. It was just too much for her innocent mind. Blossom herself nearly fainted, but recovered, but she went to a building and cried at the carnage. She also vomited like the boys. Buttercup was stunned, and she couldn't help but cry. She joined Blossom, and cried together.
"Well isn't that grand," a low, loud voice said above where the six were. "Squirming at the sight of dead bodies!"
"So you were the one responsible for all of this, this carnage and destruction!" Blossom shouted. "You'll pay for this!" It was teary and emotional, all her humanity being aroused by the barbarity she just witnessed. They were outraged beyond tolerance.
"Yeah, you big stinker!" Buttercup replied.
By this time, Bubbles recovered and was crying, but it was soon turned to anger. "You'll go down, whoever you are! What you did is…is…is…is not nice!"
"So why don't you attack us?" Alpha challenged, with his four companions besides him.
"Don't be too hasty, you can't fight if you're too emotional," Brick said. He was cool and composed, and gritted his teeth at his new opponents.
Unlike the girls, he and his brothers didn't care about the lives of the people of Citiesville, and were only shocked because they never ever seen such carnage before, and was revolted by it. But they didn't care how many of them died. They might have grown loyal and affectionate towards Townsville and even it's people, but outside it, they were at best indifferent. It was still six months since evil Rowdyruffs were resurrected by Dr. Edwards, and it was amazing about how the doctor was able to use self-interest and loyalty to slowly change them for the better. Still, they had retained much of their characteristics when they were evil, such as their blind loyalty, their indifference or hostility to anybody from outside their world, their desire to maintain an emotional distance with the girls, even as they changed from essentially evil to essentially good.
It was the first order given by Brick in the battlefield.
"Okay, then, what do we do now, genius?" Blossom replied. "We can't wait too much, more people would die!"
"Yeah Brick, what do we do?" Bubbles said.
Looking at the situation, he simply didn't know enough about his enemies other than they're ruthless, merciless, barbarous.
"Guys, how strong do you think they are?" Brick asked.
"I don't know," Butch replied. "But I'm sure we can whoop their ass!"
"I don't know and I don't care! All I know is that I want to tear them apart limb by limb!" Buttercup said.
"Well, I'm not sure. What they've done can be done by any ordinary villain, so most probably they're much weaker than us!" Blossom said.
"Okay, attack them! Each of you choose one of them to battle. And kill your opponent!" he ordered. None of the girls questioned this, since they were all in a vengeful mode, and were too emotionally charged at the sight they just saw.
But before they could move, Cychaela, in a speed that astonished the six, quickly grabbed Bubbles and tossed her to Epsilon. He caught the blue puff, and in a well placed punch in the head, knocked her out cold. And it happened in five seconds. Epsilon then put the unconscious Bubbles under his arm.
Beta and Delta began firing their powerful lasers at the remaining ruffs and puffs. They fired it rapidly, and it hit all of them dead on, hurling them to the ground, hurt and weakened.
"Avoid those laser beams," Brick shouted. "They're deadly!"
"You don't have to tell us that, Sherlock," Blossom replied.
"Okay, try Plan 54," Brick instructed. "Okay, go!"
The five remaining ruffs and puffs then went straight for the enemy, with formation patterns changing so that Beta and Delta could not aim right.
But the enemy had a trick on its sleeve.
Alpha, Cychaela, and Epsilon charged.
Cychaela, using her superior speed, quickly yanked out Boomer from the formation and threw him to Epsilon, who had gone to the top of a skyscraper where he roughly placed an unconscious Bubbles. Boomer was able to halt before reaching Epsilon, but Epsilon attacked Boomer and soon, they were engaged in hand to hand fighting.
It was a bad situation for Boomer, simply because Epsilon was physically the strongest of them all, and easily was tougher than Boomer. They are about the same speed, so they were able to hit each other with the same frequency. Yet Boomer's punches and kicks barely tickled Epsilon, and Epsilon's attacks hurt and weakened Boomer. Pretty soon, Boomer was nauseous and dizzy as blow after blow was landed on his head and body.
Cychaela yanked Butch off their formation right after dealing with Boomer. She threw him towards Delta, who started throwing his powerful laser beams at Butch. Butch was hit four times in a row. It hurt, and it angered Butch.
"You'll pay for that!" Butch shouted. "Nobody does that to me and gets away with it! I'm level 17 for your information!"
"I don't care what level you are, I'm going to kill you," Delta said.
"Get ready to bow to me, you, whoever you are," Butch said as he angrily charged Delta.
"Perfect, just like a sitting duck," Delta chuckled as he shot beam after beam from his hands that hit the green-eyed boy dead on.
Butch ignored the beams that hit him, pressing forwards to reach Delta. But each beam that hit him produced massive pain and weakened him. After the fourth beam hit him, his strength gave out and collapsed, and he fell to the ground.
"Buttercup, take care of her," Brick ordered as he saw Cychaela yank his two brothers from his formation, thus ruining Plan 54.
"I'm on it," Buttercup replied as she assaulted the female teen. Cychaela, however, easily dodged her.
"Ha, slowpoke, you can't hit me!" Cychaela shouted. "After all, I'm ten years older than you, and you're just a baby!"
"We'll see who has the last laugh!" Buttercup said as she began her assault.
However, Cychaela was just too fast and she just spun around Buttercup. Buttercup tried hitting her, but Cychaela's speed made her miss. She hit Buttercup with small powerful lasers, not as powerful as that of Delta, but delivered in showers as she bombarded her with rapid laser beams and an occasional punch and kick. Buttercup tried resisting, but her opponent was just too fast. Soon, Buttercup was growing exhausted by the constant barrage, with Cychaela being too fast for her to hit.
Brick was about to help when he and Blossom were confronted by the remaining enemy, Alpha, and Beta.
"Ah, so, Blossom Utonium, the proud and arrogant leader of the Ruff-Puff Alliance," Alpha said, "and Brick, the tough and just as arrogant second-in-command."
"Hey, I'm not the…"Blossom protested.
"No need to be modest Blossom," Brick said, winking at Blossom. "No need to hide the fact!"
Blossom decided to go along with Brick's ruse. After all, he was the leader. "Yeah, so what? Who are you?"
"Where you're going you won't need to find out who I am," Alpha said. "Beta, take care of Brick, I'll take care of Blossom!"
Beta began a barrage of laser fire at Brick. Brick was hit by the first one, but in spite of the massive pain, he managed to duck the following beams despite its speed. Desperate, he made a massive ice block, and threw it at Beta. The ice was easily destroyed by one of Beta's beams.
Brick flew around an arc shaped path so he would avoid being hit by the laser beams, and got close to Beta by his right side. Soon, they were engaged in hand to hand fighting. But even if Beta had a frail and weak body compared to Epsilon, he was still slightly stronger than Brick, and fast too. He blocked all of Brick's trusts. Brick was able to directly hit Beta with his ice breathe and laser eyes, but it was too weak that it only scratched him. Beta had no laser attacks from his eyes or attacks from his mouth, but took control of the fight, making powerful punches on Brick that slowly but surely sapped his strength. Beta and Brick were more equal than Epsilon and Boomer, but Beta still had a marked physical superiority over Brick, and it was telling.
"So, ready to surrender?" Alpha asked.
"Don't surrender, Blossom," Brick shouted while fighting Beta.
"Your second-in-command begs you not to surrender! But he's not the leader, he's not the one who has the responsibility1 You have! You have the chance to end this useless slaughter!"
But Blossom knows that Brick in effect gave an order not to surrender. Besides, even if she was still the leader, she won't. "I won't surrender! Now, I demand you stop this violence and leave!"
"Very well, if you want it this way, then have it your way," Alpha said as he threw a ball of laser into the crowds below. A split second later, before Blossom's very eyes, hundreds more people were killed in a large explosion below.
"You monster! Why do you have to kill people? Why all this blood?"
Instead of answering Blossom, Alpha assaulted Blossom with a vengeance. The leader of the five, Alpha, was the most powerful of them. He had the strength of Epsilon, the speed of Cychaela, and his beams were as powerful as that of Beta and Delta. He is an average solo tactician, but an excellent team leader, who knows how to deploy their various strength and weaknesses.
Alpha soon took control of the struggle, as he easily blocked all of Blossom's punches, and all her thrusts, and like her sisters and the boys, got thrashed.
Meanwhile, the situation became worse.
Boomer finally succumbed to unconsciousness as his body couldn't take anymore of Epsilon's blows. Buttercup also collapsed as Cychaela delivered her coup de grace.
'Damn it, it's lost,' Brick thought, as he backed away from Delta and went to Blossom's side. Both of them stood side by side as their enemies surrounded them from five sides.
All of them were laughing in a sinister and evil manner at the remaining two. They were confident—and they had good reason to. Blossom and Brick were battered and bleeding—one final assault would finish them off.
"Okay, do you surrender!"
"Not on your life," Brick replied.
"Oh well, it's your choice! Any last requests?" asked Alpha.
"Well, as a matter of fact, yes!" Brick said. "Could we wear our sunglasses?"
"That's odd? Why'd you want to do that?" asked Beta.
"We just wanna die cool!" Blossom answered.
"Well, okay," Alpha said. "But be quick about it!"
Blossom and Brick took out their shades from their pockets and wore them.
"Any other request?" Alpha replied.
"Well, could we empty our pockets?" Brick requested.
"That's strange, but why not?" Alpha said. "You two certainly have a strange sense humor!"
Brick smirked as he picked the sunball on his pocket, and activated it.
Soon, a blinding white flash enveloped Citiesville, and the five villains were forced to close their eyes or cover it with their hands.
"Blossom, get your sisters and run!" Brick ordered as he flew and picked up Boomer and Butch while his counterpart picked up her sisters. After that, both of them flew at top speed for Towsville.
"What now, Brick?" asked Blossom.
"What else? Do what we always do, train!" Brick replied. "We get to the highest level of Dad's lab!"
"And that would be?" asked Blossom.
"Level 40! After completing it, we'd be more than twice as strong," Brick replied.
"But won't that take one and a half weeks at the least?" asked Blossom.
"If that's how long it would take, then so be it," Brick replied.
"And what do we do in the meantime?" asked Blossom.
"We will not engage those five until we complete the training!" Brick replied. "Unless they invade Townsville, we won't face them until we're ready."
"And if they did invade Townsville?" asked Blossom.
"What choice do we have?" Brick said. "We'll fight until we win, or until our very last breathe. And after that, we escape and find some other place to prepare."
"But…but…what about Citiesville?" asked Blossom.
"Citiesville is doomed!" Brick said.
"No it's not! There are millions more that is still alive in Citiesville!"
"So what? They're as good as dead!" Brick spat. "We can't do anything for them in the meantime!"
"But we can't just let them die!" Blossom countered.
"Look, I don't care if those imbeciles either rot in that island alive or are already in hell dead!" Brick replied. "As far as I'm concerned, our main job now is to defeat those five, and as of now, it will only do us harm if we tried to save those people in Citiesville. From now on, our duty is to save Townsville!"
Blossom stopped mid-air and stared angrily at Brick. "I can't believe you Brick! How could you be…be…be so heartless and cold? A lot of people died today, and I don't want more to die!"
"Look, I'm not bloodthirsty, but our priority is the defeat of those five! It's true that I don't care for the people of Citiesville and for the city itself, but I don't want Townsville to be destroyed, because it's my home too. Think of it this way. If we attack now and tried to save the people, we most probably would either be killed or captured, and if that happened, not only Citiesville, but the entire world would be at their mercy," Brick explained. "Sorry to sound so callous and coldblooded, but I'm a Rowdyruff, and that's just the way I am! And it's the cold hard truth."
"Well, you're right! But that doesn't mean I agree with you on all counts. I care for all those people. They have lives like you and me, you know," Blossom replied.
"I know. That is why in times like this, you must not let your heart rule your head. When fighting for your life against ruthless opponents, you musn't show any weakness or emotion, or your enemies would exploit it and use it to their advantage!" Brick lectured.
"I know it Brick! But just because I have to pretend to your enemies that you are cold blooded doesn't mean I have to be in real life!" Blossom countered. "Being warm-hearted and concerned with lives of people is what differentiates us from those like those villains we fought today!"
"Well, do you think I'm like them, since I'm also cold blooded?" Brick asked sternly.
"Six months ago, you were, but you've changed a lot. But you and your brothers still have a long way to go, Brick," Blossom explained. "Still, you've changed enough to make me have confidence in you as leader, Brick! But I still think you should have a better plan than leaving millions of Citiesvillians on the mercy of those five while we prepare!"
"Well, if you're so smart, tell me a better plan!" Brick challenged.
"Okay I will! We train for three days, that would give us enough time if we train hard enough to reach level 25. At that point, we will have become powerful enough to be able to win!" Blossom explained.
"But three days? We might lose, you know," Brick replied.
"And that's a risk I'm willing to take. Look, the sooner we strike and defeat those enemies, the more people we could save and the less suffering they would endure," Blossom argued.
"But what if we lose? Look, you're underestimating the power of those five. They easily tossed us like rag dolls even as we gave our best! No, I won't risk us having killed. When we battle those five monsters, it would only be as sure winners, or at least, to have the deck stacked in our favor. Because if we make a risk and we fail, then Towsville is screwed! If we strengthen ourselves as much as possible, then we would have less risk of ourselves being killed!"
"I don't like it! Many people will die!"
"Damn the people of Citiesville! And if we die, the rest of the world dies with us! We can't risk it!"
"I still am not convinced!" Blossom said.
"Well, how about this! I AM THE LEADER, AND YOU WILL DO AS I SAY!" Brick shouted. "And I'll take responsibility of all those killed after this minute, just follow my goddamn orders! I promise you, we'll definitely kill those bastards and that bitch after I'm through with this!"
Blossom noted the irony of the situation. She used the exact same words when she was the leader of the alliance to force Brick and the boys to do her orders when they don't want to, and now he's using it against her. "Okay, I'll do it. I can only hope that you're right and I'm wrong."
"Good! And thanks. We'll hold another meeting in the house to discuss this with the rest of the team. Blossom, I want you to support me on this one."
"I supposed I might as well. But I'm only returning a favor since you never disobeyed me when I was the leader," Blossom replied. "Besides, even when you thought I was wrong, you still followed me. Well, I'll be a hypocrite if I didn't do as I preached." After that, they resumed their flight to Townsville.
Meanwhile…
In the skies above Citiesville
"Those dirty bitches and sons of bitches! I'm going to beat them like shit when I'm through with them!" Delta ranted.
"Yeah, let's go after them! We can lay waste to their precious little Townsville while we're at it!" Beta seconded.
"Calm down!" Epsilon advised.
"Calm down? Calm down! How could we calm…"
"Will you two blabbermouths shut up!" Cychaela shouted. "So what if they tricked us with a light show? We own them in a fight! They'll be back!"
"She's right you know," Alpha observed. "We can't chase them to Townsville. Our Master gave us explicit orders not to attack Towsville ever!"
"But what if they cooped themselves up in Townsville?" asked Beta.
"They won't!" Epsilon replied.
"And why not?" asked Beta. "They're probably shaking in their boots at us now!"
Epsilon just stared at him and said nothing.
"Hey, why don't you say anything?"
"There's nothing worth saying to idiots like you!" Epsilon said.
"The reason they won't hide out while we wreak havoc is because they, or the Powerpuff Girls at least, can't stand to see those people break their nails. No, they won't. They care too much. That would cloud their judgment. They would risk their lives to save a few thousand lives before they are prepared, and when they do, you know what'll happen. And besides, if Master's observations are correct, Blossom is the leader. She will order the rest of them to prematurely attack out of concern for these people, and we'll crush them. They neither have the patience nor the cold-blooded ruthlessness to do the necessary things to defeat us."
Meanwhile…
"That's odd," Dr. Edwards said to his friend, Professor Utonium, whom he invited that afternoon to his house. "Why the heck didn't the attack get mentioned in the news?"
"I don't know. Maybe Mayor Malarkey exaggerated the whole thing?" the Professor replied.
Before the doctor could say another word, the doorbell rang.
"Now who could that be?" asked the doctor as he went for the door.
It was a man in his late fifties, tall, have white hair, wearing a dirty suit with a dirty shirt and a red tie.
"Mayor Malarkey?"