JMJ
Chapter Twenty
Out of Mind
Mojo Jojo told all. From the beginning of his first encounter with Com to the end, and with so much extra monologuing and side tangents there was ample time to accidently discover Pr. Ex's secret kitchenette housed with the finest ingredients from all over the world. And while everyone was at it, it was time to make a secret supper within this inner sanctuary in this secret evil lab.
"How can he just go on like that?" asked Wes when the sautéed Japanese vegetables and meat strips were almost done.
"Maybe he just has a lot of nervous energy," chirped Bubbles.
"I think at this point it might be somewhat therapeutic," said Blossom with a careless shrug.
"Nah!" Buttercup shook her head. "I think it's just a last lame attempt to have a sense of control over what's going on."
They felt themselves to be quite the scientific experts on Mojo Jojo, and Wes had to smile. From, one could almost believe it was a healthy dump on his part.
"I can hear you all, you know," Mojo slipped in between complaining about how good he had been to Com all these years to snarling about his destiny in taking over the world. He spoke quite casually now with a sip of water at the counter he was seated at. "And it's all three!"
He spilled all over the counter he was so emotional in that last burst.
The girls giggled despite themselves. Wes felt that they were almost too comfortable with the city's most notorious super villain. Mojo just shook his head a little too comfortably too around his own arch enemies who defeated him every other day.
"But where's Brick and Butch!?" whined Boomer impatiently.
"Yes, I was getting to that!" said Mojo.
Here he cleared his throat, but instead of going more dramatic, he simply went for a more matter-of-fact tone now: "Brick and Butch are down in one of the engine rooms in one of the lower levels of my volcanic lair where Boomer also would have been if I had caught him too in the simple manner in which I bound the other two against their will, but he was, for some unforeseen reason, not in the same location as his brothers, and therefore still remains free. It is in this engine room, in which I already have expressed them to be, that they are being kept safe, fed, and warm even if most-likely extremely bored and frustrated.
"I had no intention of harming them physically, if for no other reason than the fact that I need them physically intact, but I felt there to be no need to entertain them. I was busy taking over the world and dominating everything to be beneath my feet. They are, come to think of it, probably very sleepy, since I am using them to run my robots in a way that is connected to them but not to the point of their sentient thought being channeled into the mech-army, so I am sure from their point of view it is all very groggy.
"Although, I could go into a long explanation into how this all works, and I would be pleased to relate it all, I feel that we do not have time for unnecessary discussion. This is why, of course, I have carefully limited our conversation to only the necessities of our current situation."
There was a moment of therapeutic silence.
"Uh, huh. Tell us another one," said Buttercup slamming her face into her cupped hand over the table.
"Mojo, I'm sure this is all very difficult for you," said the Professor calmly folding his hands together over the table; though his own impatience was evident enough, "but I think what would be more useful is for you to tell us how to free the boys. We're going to need them now more than ever, because Wes and I have searched this place from top to bottom. Though I found some very rare and top quality vinaigrettes there are no remains of Chemical X to be found."
"That is unfortunate," said Mojo stiffly.
"But that's because you made that other guy give it all to you," Bubbles pointed out accusingly.
"True," Blossom agreed.
"C'mon we're supposed be—!" complained Wes.
Setting down his tea cup, the Professor touched Wes's shoulder and shook his head. The super-denizens evidently had to work this out at least for a few moments themselves. Wes slumped back in his seat. The only thing that consoled him was that the Professor had this ready look about him that told him that he would stop it at just the right moment. Hopefully he knew his timing well.
"How was I supposed to know that Com would be able to slip everything out from under my own precautions!?" whined Mojo meanwhile. "I had many backups against his taking over when I began this plan."
"You should have known better," said Blossom with zero sympathy. "You shouldn't be trying to take over the world at all, and there are consequences to playing with fire, after all."
"Yeah, you do it way to much!" said Buttercup.
"Too much stupid!" snapped Boomer in echo.
"But the town's not exactly on fire," Bubbles pointed out scratching her head. "Just kind of blown up with really mean soldier robots…"
But no one answered her.
"You let Princess take away our powers!" blamed Buttercup.
"The Gangreen Gang took Pr. Ex straight to Com, from what it sounds like, helping Com more than you," Blossom charged.
"You kidnapped my brothers too!" Boomer added.
"You left way too much to chance in the first place," Blossom sniffed closing her eyes. "You didn't have any idea what the other villains were going to do once you let them loose to wear us down, and you had to be paying so much attention to them and Pr. Ex and us—"
"Plus your ugly robots!" cut in Bubbles.
"Well, they're not ugly…" grumbled Boomer in the background hovering a little too close to Wes for his comfort.
"Right!" Blossom agreed with Bubbles. "So you didn't have time to keep more track of Com. And don't you roll your eyes like that!"
"I wasn't rolling my eyes!" Mojo whined.
"Eye roller!" accused Boomer zipping forward again so fast that he almost hit Wes on the way. He stopped inches from Mojo's face and thrust his finger nearly touching between Mojo's eyes.
Leaning to one side, Mojo just rolled his eyes all the harder.
"So all in all, you were so busy being a meany stink bug like usual that you didn't think about someone being mean back to you," Bubbles jumped back in.
"Look! Alright! I did a dumb!" snapped Mojo pounding the countertop. "It's not as if you never make mistakes! Saving the world takes just as many risks as destroying it, little Misses I-gave-up-all-my-powers-to-a-gno-o-o-me!" He said that last part stretching his lower lip just about as derisively as he could, emphasizing his monkey-snout more than usual as though he was going to let out a mocking hoot.
"Hey!" said the girls.
Mojo sat back haughtily.
"Don't bring that up!" cried Buttercup.
"Shouldn't we get back to what we're doing now?" offered the Professor.
"Right," sighed Blossom and Mojo strangely in unison.
They looked at each other in surprise then looked away sheepishly.
Wes smiled on the corner of his mouth quite impressed, and the Professor winked at him.
"But if there's no Chemical X then we could be stuck in here forever trying to figure out how to get Butch and Brick out! How 'bout Mojo just tells us where he keeps Chemical X, cuz he's the one hording it all," said Buttercup impatiently in spite of the breakup in tension.
"Yeah, you horderer!" snapped Boomer, the only one who had not quite got the message.
"Boomer, the Professor's right," said Blossom.
"Besides, I'm afraid you do not perfectly appreciate the situation," said Mojo sagely closing his eyes. "By tomorrow morning, Com will have complete control of the City of Townsville. He is hooked into every working computer system and linked to the internet. Every form of communication he will be able to override and overhear. There will be no easy manner for us to organize a plan to get into my storage vaults, no easy manner for us to get near Butch or Brick. Com is no ordinary computer. He is not a device of software origin. Not a drop of artificial intelligence runs through the synapses of his brain despite his otherwise technical reach. Trying to trick him with anti-computer logic will be a waste of time. He is a conniving cohort of Pr. Ex, chosen originally by Ex likely because he is man of keen intellect even if it is more streetwise than academic, but that is made up for now by the limitless and infinite information at his figurative fingertips into any database within city limits and soon the entire world."
Everyone bristled. The fact that he was going to use this system against everyone sitting in this room and beyond was bad enough. The fact that he had the gall to sit among them without remorse for his villainy even if he was sorry for himself about his stupidity was audacity at its best.
"Then what do you suggest?" Blossom demanded darkly, "we just give up?"
"I suggest—!" snapped Mojo but quickly composed again. "We do not do anything unless or until we plan it all right here this very evening and execute our plan this very night before tomorrow's light at the dawning of the sun in its rising. That will only be if we are able to execute our plan without having to go back once we've started. There will be no room for debate or second chances or for us to be able to second guess ourselves in any manner."
"Well, we first should take inventory of what we have," said the Professor. "Obviously we're all well aware of what we don't have."
"Chemical X?" asked Bubbles leaning into the Professor's side tightly.
"What we do have," Blossom reminded her kindly.
"Right," said Bubbles with a sigh.
"Uh! We have this lab," said Buttercup.
"Uh, huh! And at least two people who will be very useful in it," said Blossom indicating to the Professor and Mojo. "And I think Wes too knows a thing or two about lab work."
"We have food?" piped Boomer.
"We have one person with Chemical X?" offered Wes.
"Two," said Mojo holding his fingers out.
"Why can't you copy Boomer's power and split up between us, Professor?" asked Blossom.
"Because Boomer is made with Chemical X just as you are," said the Professor. "And even if we made three copies and gave it all to you there may be some unforeseen side-effects that we can't take the chances on given our tight timeframe. It's quite different from giving your powers to a person who was not born with Chemical X. Besides, I would still have to rebuild the machine for it in this lab and that would take more than one night."
"The Professor is right, as usual," muttered Mojo.
"What about Princess?" asked Buttercup. "She still has Chemical X."
"That she stole it from us!" agreed Bubbles.
"Where is Princess?" asked the Professor.
"In her house," said Bubbles. "She got sick from too much Chemical X."
"Then that may be a problem," said Blossom. "First her mansion is clear across town from here, and even though we have the Professor's bubble, it would still take time to get there, and it will probably take even longer to get through to her or her servants or parents or whoever else is there."
"Oh, my plan was so good…" moaned Mojo with sulk. "The irony of it is killing me."
Now it was Buttercup who slammed her fist on the table, though it was more of a light slap. She hardly had any strength enough to shake furniture despite the forcefulness. She stood upright on her chair with hands remaining flat on the table.
"Rah! I'm this tempted to let Boomer kick your butt!" shouted Buttercup making as good of a motion as she could with her fingerless hand as though holding a very small spec.
Boomer flew up again violently over the counter. "Can I?" He asked holding a fist back for Mojo's face.
"No, no, that won't help anything," said the Professor.
"Mph!" Boomer sunk down again into his chair.
"Well, we're wasting time just sitting here having dinner and doing nothing but complaining instead of actually doing something!" snapped Buttercup. "I thought we were supposed to say what we actually do have!"
"Well," said Bubbles tapping her chin. "We have each other! That's the best thing!"
She hugged the Professor's side with her very tiny little arms.
The Professor smiled and gently stroked her yellow pigtails.
"But without powers, what can we do?" asked Buttercup, anger cooling but frustration still at fever pitch.
"We have to keep our heads," said Blossom.
She tapped her head as she began to use her brain.
There was silence as they watched her. Despite her mind being safely where it should be, it was obvious something had struck her, but it was a perturbing thought. The gears of her mind could almost be seen right then and there as she worked the problem out.
"Professor…" she said after a moment.
"Yes, Blossom?"
She lifted her head to him with a puckered brow.
"What is it, Blossom?" pressed Bubbles.
"Does Pr. Ex have Antidote X?"
"Yes, plenty."
"We're going to sneak in and douse the guy Mojo's got in his lair?" asked Buttercup.
"I don't think it will be that easy," said Blossom. "He's in the control room, isn't he, Mojo?"
"He is in the most secure place in my observatory, yes," said Mojo.
"Of course…" muttered Buttercup. "And he'll see us right away, right?"
"The only way to get Antidote X to him that I can see without him knowing right away would be to send it in a gaseous form through the ventilation system, but that would only work if the casing in which he is kept was weakened enough for him to be affected, which it is not," said Mojo, "as of last time I checked the seal."
"Or if the vapor was strong enough?" asked Blossom then, her mind still on some object of insight that she had not shared with the others.
"The amount of pressure it would take to get through the casing without breaking it would the pressure of the volcano itself," said Mojo.
Blossom nodded thoughtfully.
"What are you thinking, Blossom?" Buttercup pushed.
"Boomer could break him out," said Bubbles.
"No," said Blossom. "We'll need him as a distraction."
"Ah, c'mon!" Boomer complained.
"Don't you want to save your brothers?" asked Blossom grinning sprightly.
Boomer made a face.
"So, you'll go in first and if Mojo tells us how to get to them then you can go straight to them and bust them out," said Blossom promptly. "Mojo should get right to it, and draw the observatory blueprint as well as he can."
Mojo glared stubbornly.
"Boomer…" said Bubbles.
"What?"
"No!" said Blossom.
"'No', what?" asked Boomer looking round in alarm.
"Alright, fine!" snapped Mojo.
"Here!" said Bubbles handing him a crayon curtly. "It's purple. It fits you."
The Professor set a sheet of paper before him as well.
With a final huff, Mojo snatched the tools and began to draw.
"So what are you really thinking, Blossom?" asked the Professor as he sat back down.
Blossom watched Mojo with care a moment. "Well…"
Mojo looked back suspiciously as he slowly curled his arm over the paper like a student trying to hide his test from a cheater. Hovering over the paper secretively, he went back to work.
"While Boomer comes to break out Brick and Butch, Bubbles, Buttercup and I will go through one of Mojo's vents—"
"It would be a tight squeeze even for you in your small stature to reach where Com is, and in your state you will not be able to so much as pull a valve, much less break his casing," remarked Mojo.
"Whatever you're suggesting, already sounds dangerous," the Professor had to admit.
"We don't have a choice, Professor," said Blossom sadly; she made a quick glance at Mojo once more and this time he did not look up from his drawing. She sighed.
"Well, what is it already!?" gasped Buttercup. "Stop holding us in suspense, girl!"
"Well, once Boomer frees the boys, the Rowdyruff Boys will then go out and stop any of the robots that Com may send back to stop them. You can do that for a while, right Boomer?"
"With my brothers, we can do anything better than you," remarked Boomer.
"But make sure you're not too high up," Blossom said.
"My job sure's the most important!" beamed Boomer.
"Not too high up," Blossom repeated.
"Why?" shivered Bubbles.
Once more Mojo looked at her with grave suspicion.
"Because we're going to do exactly what Mojo suggested earlier," Blossom declared.
"What did I suggest?"
"We're going to send the vapor of Antidote X through pressure in the volcano, and Mojo's going to tell us how to do!" Blossom finally got out.
"What?!" roared Mojo in enraged panic like his brain was erupting through the volcano right then.