The Powerpuff Girls: Declassified

by xbriannova

Sequel to Project Powerpuff: Declassified. The Powerpuff Girls: Declassified is a dark, gritty and mostly realistic re-imagining of The Powerpuff Girls. After finding their footing and redeeming themselves, earning the trust of many Townsville citizens, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup continues to fight crime in a calmer City of Townsville. However, something unseen threatens them.

47. USDO Emergency Meeting 02181989 Trans

USDO Emergency Meeting 02181989 Transcript

DOC: 18 FEB (Saturday) 1989

-TRANSCRIPT START-

Director Cliff: (Slams table) Where the hell is Professor Utonium!?

Liaisons Head Yorkshire: He's on his way, sir. It is an emergency meeting after all, and some of our security personnel aren't here yet either.

Director Cliff: Fine. Should we start with some of the minor matters first then? Yorkshire, give me something minor from the agenda of the day!

Chief Intelligence Officer Rook: How about if I make the announcement?

Director Cliff: Go right ahead.

Chief Intelligence Officer Rook: I regret that it is my first duty as Chief Intelligence Officer to inform the council that Chief Intelligence Officer Jackard was killed in the field three days ago. I will be assuming his position as of today.

Psychiatry and Social Services Department Head Alice: A regrettable loss. He had a brilliant mind, and he was more than just an intelligence agent. He should have stayed in HQ. (remorseful)

Chief Intelligence Officer Rook: The circumstances of his death-

General Blackwater: I know the circumstances of his death very well, Rook. Congratulations on your promotion. Why not tell the council the circumstances of Jackard's death for their benefit?

Chief Intelligence Officer Rook: Jackard had been operating in the field for over 5 weeks. I know, as I had to take over certain responsibilities here in HQ because of his absence. He's been gathering intelligence on the various cults operating in Townsville.

Director Cliff: Yes, the cults. I was skeptical of their importance in Townsville's criminal network at first, but Jackard convinced me otherwise… partially.

Chief Intelligence Officer Rook: He went out there to find more data to convince you fully, sir.

Director Cliff: That, he did.

Chief Intelligence Officer Rook: He died three days ago on a mission to apprehend the leader of The Cult of His Promise, sir. Leopold Sutton, if I'm not mistaken. He's also the overall leader of every cadet branch of the cult, including The Cult of His Arm.

Director Cliff: How did he die?

CIO Rook: He was killed during a police raid on a compound owned by The Cult of His Arm. Our people were there, and they're still investigating the circumstances surrounding his death, but the man in charge of the investigation believe that he might have been mistaken for a cultist and shot down.

Director Cliff: Mistaken by who?

CIO Rook: He's still doing ballistics tests using the firearms of all personnel involved. He'll be done in a few days.

Director Cliff: Good. I want to know who the fuck killed him. He'd better not be a member of the USDO, or I swear to God, I'll make sure he suffers for it.

(Silence)

Director Cliff: Wake up, people! Do we have any minor things to settle!?

Media Ops Lead Glitchfell: I've got one.

Director Cliff: Let's hear it then.

Media Ops Lead Glitchfell: The Townsville media complex, and to an extent, the world, has been asking for a team name for B-47, B-48, and B-49.

Director Cliff: They've already given them all sorts of names. Should we even bother?

General Blackwater: Permission to speak freely, sir.

Director Cliff: Go on.

General Blackwater: The Girls are our personnel, our operatives. They're our responsibility. We should not let anyone else but us label them. We should give them an official unit designation. We'd be putting our foot down. If we don't, it's a sign of weakness, and our enemies would love to see a chink in our armor.

Director Cliff: Agreed. We are no longer the Organization. Suggestions from the floor?

Media Ops Lead Glitchfell: If I may, sir, the city had already produced a long list of suggestions. (crinkling of paper) Here you go, sir. I've circled the ones I believe are good.

Director Cliff: So we're still letting someone else name our organic weapon platforms?

Liaisons Head Yorkshire: Sir, I think it's a very good idea.

Director Cliff: Explain to me how contradictions are a good idea.

Liaisons Head Yorkshire: We are still choosing the name, sir. I believe it's a good diplomatic move to choose a name coined by someone in the city. They would think we're listening, that we're taking their opinions into consideration. We need to keep our public relations in the positive after last year. There will always be people smearing our name, and we need to stay on top of them.

Director Cliff: (Scoffs) Some of these names here are actually pretty good. (Pause) We'll call them… 'The Powerpuff Girls' from now on.

Media Ops Lead Glitchfell: Ur- sir- I didn't circle that-

Director Cliff: I know very well you didn't circle that name, Glitch. I didn't choose that name because it sounds good. I selected it because it still has a part of us left in it. Make sure the entire city knows about our decision. I want that unit name made official in the USDO.

Media Ops Lead Glitchfell: Yes, sir.

Chief Finance Officer Silverslick: I think it has a great ring to it. It's got good marketing potential.

General Blackwater: Says the used car salesman who nearly got them killed.

Chief Finance Officer Silverslick: What did you just call me?

General Blackwater: You heard me right. Or do you need a sensory checkup in the medical bay?

Chief Finance Officer Silverslick: I was just doing what I was hired to do you jock!

Director Cliff: Shut up! Both of you!

(Silence)

Media Ops Lead Glitchfell: You know, we could put up a few billboards and newspaper ads featuring the Powerpuff Girls and their new name. Public service announcements and things like that.

(Sound of doors opening)

Director Cliff: Make it so. And where the hell is Professor Utonium!?

Professor Utonium: Right here, sir.

Director Cliff: You! What the hell did you do to B-48!?

Professor Utonium: Buttercup, sir. She has a name and it's Buttercup.

Director Cliff: Don't you dare lecture me after what you did! I want an explanation, now!

Professor Utonium: Very well. I've been working on the means to advance the progress of Project Powerpuff beyond what we have now-

Director Cliff: And why do we need any further progress when we have B-47, B-48 and B-49? Why not just manufacture more copies of them?

Professor Utonium: As I have mentioned a million times, they are prototypes, accidental ones at that, and they are not meant for any kind of field deployment in the first place.

Director Cliff: So why not just take the best of the three, B-47-

Professor Utonium: Blossom, you mean-

Director Cliff: And clone a few more of her? I believe we still have the stem cells from her DNA source?

Professor Utonium: It wouldn't be ethical and-

Director Cliff: I think we all know what you mean. You want Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup to be unique. You've fallen in love with those bioweapons-

Professor Utonium: Don't… call them bioweapons.

Director Cliff: (ignoring Utonium) and you've taken them in as your own. And now you want the best for them. You're treating them like children - your own children, to be precise. You've built yourself a little dreamland.

Professor Utonium: It's hardly any sort of paradise with what they're being subjected to every day - when they weren't meant for field operations in the first place.

Director Cliff: Enough. I don't care what your motivations are, as long as I'm getting results. I want to hear your proposal, and it'd better be something. I don't like how you've just taken one of the Project Powerpuff subjects offline without my approval. You're lucky I haven't thrown you in a cell and reassign someone to be their handler.

Professor Utonium: I- urm- have been working on something I have been calling the 'Anti-X'. It is a three-stage Chemical W-assisted compound that could neutralize the powers of a Chemical-enhanced being. It is a cocktail of compounds that renders stabilized Chemical X inert by bonding with the stabilizing agents to prevent them from bridging with mundane molecules, before irreversibly reacting with them to effectively destroy them and disconnect them from the Chemical X. The Chemical X itself is destroyed by the presence of Chemical W-

Director Cliff: So you've basically created something to destroy Chemical X?

Professor Utonium: Yes, and it worked too. The results are encouraging. I have effectively reverted Buttercup to the baseline of a 5-year-old human being… except she is still bulletproof… and still has a prodigious healing factor - about a quarter of what it used to be, but still far above baseline. She is normal in every other respect now. My medical examinations have revealed no other abnormalities.

Psychiatry and Social Services Department Head Alice: Upton, what about Buttercup herself? How does she feel about this change in her physiology?

Professor Utonium: She's deeply upset, I'm afraid. But she'll cope. She always did.

PaSSDH Alice: I'll check up on her later.

Professor Utonium: It's much appreciated. She'll need help making adjustments.

Director Cliff: We need to get back on track. What do you hope to accomplish with this… 'Anti-X'? It seems counter-intuitive to create something to destroy Chemical X.

Professor Utonium: I'll be frank. I want Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup released from service.

Director Cliff: And you've created Anti-X to retire them from service and give them a normal life, am I right?

Professor Utonium: Pretty much, yes.

Director Cliff: And what makes you think I'm willing to accept that?

Professor Utonium: I have continued my research in Chemical X. I can create something better for the USDO's use.

Director Cliff: Go on.

Professor Utonium: The Girls were created by accident when I decided to test the effectiveness of an incomplete Chemical X formula. I have continued working on the original formula, and I believe it could - no - will result in a… urm… bioweapon that is far better than what we have currently.

Director Cliff: How far along are you to a finished product?

Professor Utonium: I've already begun testing the complete formula - we'll call it Chemical X2 - on plants. I believe I will be ready to create a new enhanced operative within a few days.

Director Cliff: Hmm. And you will. I believe the USDO and Townsville could stand to use a new bioweapon on its side. Crime is on the rise - it's never been down, to begin with - and some of them are being perpetrated by enhanced individuals who your Girls are generally too inept to stop, it seems. If what you say is true - that you could come up with something better, I think it just might win us the war.

Professor Utonium: So, regarding my Girls' retirement-

Director Cliff: Your Girls' retirement! You don't seem to be grasping the stakes here!

Professor Utonium: (slams table) You think I don't!? You've been sitting behind your comfy boss chair, behind an expensive desk, guarded by a hundred soldiers in HQ while my Girls are doing all the dirty work! I had to watch my Girls come home every day, tired and injured and psychologically scarred! I know the stakes very well! I've been closer to the front lines than you'll ever be! And it's been nearly 3 months!

Director Cliff: (Laughs) You want your 'Girls' to retire? Fine, I'll let them retire.

Professor Utonium: You will?

Director Cliff: There are conditions though. First - create me my reinforcement. I want it in the time frame you gave me.

Professor Utonium: It's done.

Director Cliff: And second: They will remain active even with said reinforcement deployed, on reserve at least and deployed alongside the newer enhanced operative at most until my reinforcement is ready to operate alone.

Professor Utonium: Fine.

General Blackwater: I have my own conditions for you to fulfill, prof.

Professor Utonium: What conditions?

General Blackwater: I will be selecting the DNA to be used instead. I know you, and you'll likely choose something unsuited for combat. Doctor Vanum will be assisting me. Right, Vanum?

Doctor Vanum: Right.

Professor Utonium: You said 'conditions'. Are there more?

General Blackwater: The new Powerpuff subject's training will be put under my direct supervision instead. You've done enough damage in that respect.

Professor Utonium: So the child will be living with you?

General Blackwater: No. That's about the only thing you've done right. You'll be taking care of it for me. It's better that all Powerpuff subjects be housed in one building.

Head of Logistics Wiggums: It'll make the logistics easier, at least.

Director Cliff: Now wait a second - this new bioweapon… It'll still be a child physically?

Professor Utonium: Possibly. There's no telling how Chemical X2 will react with human cells, if it will even be different from Chemical X in any way.

Professor Utonium: Since we're on the subject of conditions, I have some of my own.

Director Cliff: And what makes you think you're in any position to make any demands?

Professor Utonium: I don't. But it would really be nice if you'd listen. I'll know for sure that I'm working for a good organization that cares about the welfare of its personnel.

Director Cliff: (laughs) Those Girls sure did a number on you, did they? Color me interested – what do you want?

Professor Utonium: I want full severance and isolation from the USDO for Selicia, the Girls and me after your next bioweapon is fully ready – fully prepared, educated and trained. I want the Girls to be funded for the next twenty years of their life, up to college. And I want the USDO to leave us alone after retirement. No drafting, no matter what emergency it is.

Director Cliff: (Mocking) You drive a hard bargain, professor.

CFO Silverslick: You have more financial know-how than you let on.

General Blackwater: This is unacceptable!

Director Cliff: Agreed. It is outrageous that you've neutralized one of our bioweapons without my express permission, to begin with! B-47, B-48, and B-49 can't just be cut loose from the USDO. They're assets even if they will be obsolete eventually.

Professor Utonium: But you agreed to retire them if-

Director Cliff: But I did not agree to your conditions. I will only agree to the 'girls' – your 'children' being put on reserve. I want them on reserve in case your next creation couldn't do the job one day.

Professor Utonium: Then that's no different from active duty.

Director Cliff: We could… agree to a limitation to the level of emergency they will be called in to neutralize.

Professor Utonium: Level 10. Please. (Note: Level 10 refers to emergencies threatening humanity on a global level)

Director Cliff: Level 5. (Note: Level 5 refers to any emergency involving hostile enhanced individuals)

Professor Utonium: Seven.

Director Cliff: This is not a negotiation. Five.

Professor Utonium: (Sighs) Fine.

Director Cliff: And please, for goodness sakes! Find a way to reverse your Anti-X! B-48 is one of the more productive of your 'daughters'!

Professor Utonium: If unnecessary killing is productive to you…

Director Cliff: I don't need a morality lesson from you.

Professor Utonium: The effects of Anti-X might not even be reversible. We're standing on the bleeding edge of science here. I've been driving in the dark.

Director Cliff: Then you'd better switch your headlights on and find me my destination!

Professor Utonium: What about the rest of my conditions?

Director Cliff: You and Selicia are staying in the USDO. It is a matter of national security that you do. The only thing I'm willing to grant is funding for your 'daughters' existence. That's about it.

Professor Utonium: That's not very different from our present arrangements. What's there to stop you from declaring every engagement with enhanced individuals an emergency for my Girls to handle?

Director Cliff: Nothing. What did I tell you? You aren't in any position to make demands. You should be lucky I even considered retirement for the bioweapons you call your 'Girls'. You'll either take my terms or leave it, and if you leave it, I'm reassigning you to the North Pole and throw in General Blackwater as the 'Girls' 'father'!

(Silence.)

PaSSDH Alice: Thomas…

(Door opened forcibly before slamming shut.)

Director Cliff: Now that that's over and done with, what's next on the agenda, Yorkshire?

General Blackwater: You don't need her to tell you what it is. Security's next.

Director Cliff: Yes, crime's on the rise again. It's like those bastards are multiplying like vermin. Solutions?

General Blackwater: Our forces are fully engaged at the moment. They are at 100% capacity. There's nothing more we can do unless…

Director Cliff: Unless what?

General Blackwater: As much as I don't see eye to eye with Police Commissioner Davis and his merry band of blues, their assessment of our strategy makes sense. We're combating crime as if it's the Vietnam War all over again.

Director Cliff: And what's wrong with that?

General Blackwater: We lost the Vietnam War, and we're not exactly fighting a war here with two armies going toe-to-toe on a dance of death here. We need to adapt to the situation in Townsville.

Director Cliff: Your proposal?

General Blackwater: We need to reorganize our forces. As it is, our largest deployable unit is a squad of fifteen to twenty, and we're usually sending our men out by the platoons. We can only be in so many places at once, and sometimes we'd end up sending a hundred men on the wildest of goose chases to arrest one or two men for what turned out to the possession of toy guns and chewing gum rather than illegal firearms and plastic explosives.

Director Cliff: And you want to break our deployed units down into smaller bits? Do you realize how that sounds?

General Blackwater: I'm fully aware of it, but it's either that or be ineffectual and lose Townsville's support eventually. We break our squads and platoons up into fire teams and send them everywhere, and we'll be able to do something.

Director Cliff: In other words, we'll be more like the TPD.

General Blackwater: Yes. But better. Even one of our fire teams is better than a few of their patrol units combined.

Director Cliff: Very well. Make it happen. What about our 'Powerpuff Girls'? They're one lab rat short.

General Blackwater: We have almost a thousand guys in Townsville. We'll reinforce them with some good old-fashioned boots from the ground.

Director Cliff: They can't exactly fly, Blackwater.

General Blackwater: No they can't, but some of our equipment could, and fast enough with the kind of modifications we've been making.

Director Cliff: Very well. Make it so. Vanum, what's the status of Project Klendathu and Project Cyclops?

Doctor Vanum: We've been testing different versions of the power packs we've been making using Chemicals A through to X for energy storage. We've discovered that we have options, and Chemical A might not be the best one. We're weighing our options right now and refinement the power pack design of the best ones. In the meantime, we're making refinements to the final designs of the Klendathu power armor and Cyclop mechanized suits.

Director Cliff: How soon before we can field them?

Doctor Vanum: There's going to be a delay. June or July, probably.

Director Cliff: Are you serious?

Doctor Vanum: You know, Professor Utonium's been lending his expertise in helping with the power packs and designs - in his free time, over the internetwork and phone. If it weren't for him, it would have been next year.

Director Cliff: You watch your tone with me. If it weren't for me, we wouldn't even have any of these projects - Powerpuff, Klendathu, Cyclops. And if it weren't for my forgiving nature, you'd be shipped off to Uganda right now. I heard they could use another drill bit technician for the Duranium mines. The last one died from a cave-in, and slowly too, from what they said.

-TRANSCRIPT END-