Chapter 42: The Wages of Sin (Part 1)

The City of Townsville. Sky. En Route to Downtown.

18 FEB (Saturday) 1989. 1123.

Blossom was troubled, and that was an understatement. Nothing seemed right ever since she woke up. Bubbles wouldn't speak to her, and that was on top of her deteriorating self-control because of her new power. Buttercup, on the other hand, had the opposite problem. Her Dad had taken away all her powers, and she was severely weakened as a result. Even though it was well-deserved and necessary because of her psychotic tendency to kill and hurt without the need to, and sometimes even without provocation, Blossom could empathize with her wayward sister, how scary it would be to lose all her powers, and how sad she was to suddenly be capable of nothing - to not be able to fly, to not be able to fire her eye beams or lift heavyweights. Those were things that Blossom felt had made her Daddy proud - she'd seen him smile whenever she showed him a new trick she'd learned.

It also meant that she was one girl short, though her friends had an answer to that…

"This is Flight Control Five, please confirm the status of Bravo-Four-Eight, over," her radio came alive while she was thinking. She hated how some of the people in the USDO she knew had these weird number-names for them. She couldn't phrase it, but she hated being called by a number.

"What do you mean, Miss Flight Control Five?" Blossom asked - the officer on the other end of the radio had used some terms she was still having trouble understanding.

"Why is Buttercup not with you? Over," the woman on the other end said, her patience slipping.

"She's lost all her powers. She can't fight crime anymore," Blossom reported. It was sad to see Buttercup meltdown the way she did when she was told off for trying to go with them in the first place…

Buttercup had rushed into the Girls' room as soon as the USDO hotline rang. She was slow compared to Blossom and Bubbles, but she just so happened to be in a nearby washroom when it happened. By the time she had opened the door on her sisters changing up, her sisters were already putting on their armor. Buttercup had gone ahead to change into her uniform despite being disempowered, much to Blossom and Bubbles' confusion. And she had to take a long time to do it because of how slow and clumsy she had become.

'Buttercup, you're not supposed to come with us anymore,' Blossom had told her even as she was putting on her green military fatigues.

'You can't fight crime like this. You don't have your powers…' Bubbles added, but Buttercup had brushed her off.

'Shut up, cry-baby!' Buttercup had shouted rudely at Bubbles while she was being a klutz with her boots, which she had to heave out of the walk-in closet. Bubbles had taken offense to this – had it not been for Blossom restraining her, she would have thrown Buttercup across the room.

'You can't even fly anymore,' Blossom had continued, but Buttercup had gone quiet as she continued to change into her uniform - with difficulty. Her point became much clearer when Buttercup tried to lug her guns out of the closet. She had to drag her MP5 out with the stock making a ruffled line in the carpet. She had to give up halfway, with sweat pouring down her face, and settle for the pistol, which looked like it was weighing her down anyway. She had to carry it two-handed as if it was a heavy machinegun.

Dad walked in on them after that.

'Buttercup? What are you doing?" he questioned the disempowered little girl, who had frozen the moment she was caught - she didn't use to do that, but now, she was scared easily, and she couldn't help it.

'I'm going with Blossom and Bubbles,' Buttercup had forced herself to be who she was. 'I'm going to fight crime.'

'You can't, honey,' Dad had said. At the very least, he didn't look angry, but more amused than anything. 'You can't even fly anymore.'

'That's what I told her,' Blossom had said. 'But she wouldn't listen.'

'But…' Buttercup wanted to rebut everyone but found that she didn't have anything real to defend herself with. Not only that - it took immense effort to even try to think her way to her desired goal. 'What am I supposed to do now?'

'Be the little girl you've always been, Buttercup. That's what you're supposed to do,' the Dad had said, and as he was saying this, Buttercup was pouting. 'Have fun. Play with your toys or watch the TV. Or sleep. You know, like a little girl.'

'But I don't want to!' Buttercup whined. Ever since losing her powers, she was more prone to crying too. 'You want that but I don't want it!'

It was at this point that the look of Buttercup being downcast, looking completely purposeless, was carved into her mind forever. Buttercup didn't even look like Buttercup anymore, as if she had lost her soul as if she had lost a huge part of herself. Blossom knew what Dad had said - that Buttercup couldn't feel as much as the rest of them because she was 'sick' and 'messed up' inside, but it looked, then, that she was feeling sad enough.

'You'll get used to this, Buttercup,' Dad had said again. 'Give yourself some time, and you wouldn't even want to think about fighting crime anymore.'

Buttercup had, of course, stubbornly rejected this notion and ran out of the room in tears.

"Status confirmed," Miss Flight Control Five said over the radio. "Someone will be taking her place. They are on the way now."

"Who?" Blossom asked.

"You'll see. You need to slow down and let them catch up. Over and out," the flight control officer said cryptically. It'd kept Blossom quiet for a while as she tried to guess on her own who it would be, and how he or she would be taking Buttercup's place - how they could even do that, considering that no one else was capable of flying like them or fighting the way they could.

"What do you think, Bubbles?" Blossom asked her only other attending sister as they were flying towards their destination. They were answering another call, which would no doubt be another middle-of-the-road situation that would be neither too hard nor too easy to deal with, as if designed to waste their time. "Who do you think is taking Buttercup's place?"

Bubbles remained silent.

"Bubbles?" Blossom pressed her sister, deeply worried as to what was going on with her.

"I don't care," Bubbles said coldly.

"Why are you being like this all of a sudden?" Blossom asked, and caught another flash of her eyes - those deeply disturbing eyes, which were pink and bloodshot as if exhausted. At that exact moment, her eyes had flashed red.

Bubbles simply glared at Blossom, and the leader sister did not pursue the issue any further, for fear of setting her off.

They were on their way to another part of the city. When it came, they didn't expect it. The thumping of… something was their first sign. Then Blossom looked in the direction of the strangely regular sound. It was distant at first, but catching up to them. Blossom zoomed in with her enhanced vision and saw something spectacular.

It was the biggest helicopter they had ever seen, and the only kind they had ever seen were small and belonged either to the police or Townsville News Network. This one was so big that it had two 'spinning tops' on the roof, as the Girls had taken to calling the rotors.

It was a Chinook helicopter transport, and it just so happen to be painted dark green, a color which reminded Blossom of Buttercup.

"Morning, Girls. Looks to me that I'll be flying with the two of you today," a familiar voice said on the radio after it crackled to life once more.

"Mister Blake! Is that you in the helicopter?" Blossom returned the greeting with delight. As she was looking at the Chinook troop transport coming up rapidly towards them, she saw someone lean out of a side door on the giant helicopter and wave at her and Bubbles. Blossom could recognize the greying hair, the aviator sunglasses and slightly wrinkled but strong-featured face of Agent Blake.

"Sure is," Blake replied on the radio. "My condolences to what had happened to Buttercup. But I heard it's for the best."

"It's for the best…" Blossom agreed, albeit reluctantly. Sadly. She had lied to make it happen, and that was the worst part.

With the Girls forming a wing with the Chinook on either side of the helicopter, they flew towards the scene of the crime at the transport's top speed.

Just when they thought the long days were over, it'd turned out that it was just the beginning. The first call they attended to didn't even need the kind of firepower the Girls and the Chinook were packing. The crooks had robbed a pawn shop, and when they saw a military troop transport tailing them with two of the City's most feared little girls in formation with it while they were getting away in a busted old car, they gave up almost immediately – almost. They tried to shake them off by taking some sharp turns, but after the Chinook flew ahead of them and the rear gate opened up with a machine gun for a tongue, shooting out their tires, they stopped and surrendered while begging for their lives.

Bubbles took the opportunity to vent her frustration on a few of them before she could be stopped, knocking out most of the thieves. There were no openings for her to kill Blossom so far, and it was frustrating. In the back of her mind, she didn't even want to do it – but the drugs! She needed them so badly, she needed them to feel good! She knew she needed them or she would suffer a thousand pains – and so she wanted it to be done and over with as soon as possible.

It wasn't over after that. Lieutenant Blake, who took overall command of the Girls' 'unit', was alerted to another matter needing their attention, and this time, it was dire…

The City of Townsville. Business District. Edmund Tower.

18 FEB (Saturday) 1989. 1205.

The two Girls had to be led by radio all over the Business District of Townsville. Agent Blake and his crew's insertion into the newly-named Powerpuff Girls had been fortuitous, as he had many years of experience leading high-speed chases.

An armored truck had been led off from its destination by a group of highly organized robbers. When Blossom heard the initial sitrep on the radio, she'd dismissed it as just another wild goose chase, just another way to burn off the Chemical X in her blood and get knocked out cold by night. But then the additional descriptions of the perpetrators coming in told her that it wasn't usual.

There were five of them. And they were described to have green skin and of wildly different body shapes. One was a midget, and another was basically an elephant. The other three were somewhere in between.

By the time Blossom, Bubbles and Blake's Chinook had reached the armored truck zigzagging across the city, it was already too late. The armored truck, which belonged to a security company likely hired by a bank, was being tailed by a couple of old-fashioned cars. While it was retreating across a T-junction, something huge came out from around the corner and tackled - TACKLED - the armored truck. A gigantic form of a man, green-skinned and evidently powered by some manner of Chemical, not unlike Chemical X. The armored truck had veered off the road as a result and ended up planting itself into a lamp post. A third car came up beside it, having raced downrange from the opposite direction. The chasers stopped behind the halted armored truck and got out.

Blossom could recognize who they were, and she could easily name one of them. Ace. The Gangreen Gang. Evidently, they were still in business despite their (relatively) peaceful resolution during Christmas at the Battle of Morbucks Industries Research Labs. Blossom thought that she had made an impression on Ace and his gang, turned them into good people. Dad had taught her that there was good in people, even the criminals, and she had taken his lessons to heart. Now, that was all up in the air.

Blake's Chinook stopped flying forward and hovered. Blossom and Bubbles followed and hovered in place too.

"That big one looks dangerous," Blake on the radio said. "Blossom, Bubbles, go straight ahead. My crew will circle around and shoot."

"I want to talk to them," Blossom said.

"They don't look like they're in the mood for a chat, kid!" Blake said over the radio. Bubbles, in the meantime, looked trouble and stayed silent. In her mind, she had been fighting the urge to use her drugs. It wasn't about the ability to fight crime any longer. The drugs' effect was cumulative, and she would find herself getting into a rage and whipping up a storm the moment she had to fight. She had been feeling like an absolute wreck since waking up in the Princess' mansion. She knew that using the drugs would make her feel good again, but she had only enough for one moment of high… and no way to know when she could carry out the fairy godmother's wishes and get more.

Ignoring Blake, Blossom flew ahead and landed next to the tall and lanky one with the angular shades. Bubbles followed her as the other two normal-sized Gangreens had just pulled two security officers out of the armored truck's cabin. One of them was incapacitated. The other looked unconscious. Either one of them could be dead.

Ace, the tall one, had already noticed Blossom and her sister, however. He'd noticed long before they arrived. The Chinook Blake was in was loud, and it'd announced their presence.

"Well, well, well, look who's here," Ace greeted Blossom with a smile, a genuine one, exposing his sharp teeth. He was armed to the teeth. He had a bulletproof vest on. A sword hung on his belt. It was the same Duranium sword he'd used to cut and stab Blossom, very nearly killing her. A sniper rifle was slung on his back.

"Mister Ace," Blossom addressed him, leader to leader.

"Remembered my nicky-name too!" Ace said to his gang members. Billy, the big one with ginger hair covering his eyes, was leaning against the truck. He laughed stupidly when he heard it. Arturo the midget, who had just unlocked the back of the armored truck, peeked from behind it.

"She did? That's smart for a 5-year-old," the small one said, unaware that they were antagonizing someone far younger.

"Let's kill them, Blossom!" Bubbles barked, caught in the moment – it was easy for her to do that these days.

"Whoa, slow down there, hotshot," Ace said, putting up both hands, though the gleeful, mocking look on his face never left. If he was shocked at the look Bubbles was giving him, he wasn't showing it. He turned to Blossom after that: "What's going on with your sister? Was she bitten by a dog or something? She looks like she got some rabies in her!"

Ace's boys sniggered at his remarks. Bubbles gritted her teeth. Saliva dripped from her mouth. Her eyes were shining hellish red, had been since she smelled blood. It'd what prompted Ace.

"How are you, Blossom?" Ace then said, a little more civil than before. "I'm sorry I hurt you so badly the last time."

"I'm much better now," Blossom said even as Blake's voice was egging her on to start fighting the Gangreen Gang. "W-why are you doing this?"

"I've told you before. I still have people to feed, Blossom, and…" Ace had explained until his voice broke. "this winter hasn't been kind. We didn't have the money, so we didn't have enough food, wood, and medicine. People got sick. People died."

"But you're stealing! And stealing is wrong!" Blossom said. "Can't you ask for help? I'm sure there are many nice people around."

"No. There aren't many nice people around. Not enough anyway, not in a town like this," Ace said. "You'll understand one day. In the meantime, I gotta go. It's nice chatting with you."

With that, Ace made a move for the armored truck's cabin. Arturo had closed the back of the truck, coming up to Ace like some kind of a familiar, cackling and gloating about how they had stolen millions of dollars in one go.

"I can't let you leave, Ace!" Blossom insisted. Ace stopped in his tracks. "I'm sorry about your friends, but I can't." Stealing was wrong - Dad had taught Blossom that - and it was worse if it was an entire truck - a real truck - full of stuff. Blossom didn't know what they were stealing as she didn't know what armored trucks were for, but it didn't matter what it was.

The tall, lanky one turned around. Although his shades had hidden his eyes, Blossom could sense displeasure in behind them. Injustice, even.

"Then neither will you leave," Ace threatened before pulling out his sword. "I've compromised enough and let you live and my friends died because of it! I ain't having no more of that!"

"In fact, you remind me of everything I hate," Ace went on, and his words hurt when it shouldn't even. "A white knight goody two shoes protecting those who didn't need protectin'! Hurting the weak and the sick and the poor!"

"But-" Blossom tried to speak, only to be shut down instantly.

"No! Shut up! I told you a sad story about my people dying, and this is how you treat me?" Ace went on. "I should have killed you while I had the chance. There were children I know who died because you had to act all angel-like!"

All around him, his gang had formed up. Arturo snarled at Blossom, looking like a Chihuahua from hell. Big Billy stopped leaning against the armored truck and came up behind Ace threateningly - he'd uprooted the lamp post the armored truck had struck, using it as a gigantic club. Snake got out of the cab of the armored truck and drew his Uzi submachinegun. Grubber pulled a few raspberries… and a pistol.

Blossom couldn't help but feel vulnerable despite her superior enhanced abilities. But worse of all, she couldn't help but feel betrayed by what Ace had said. Why should she be hated when he was committing the crime? She'd felt a connection with him before, that he was a good man despite what he was doing. She was able to relate to him because of the commonalities they shared - They were both leaders. They both possessed the power to do good. They were both doing what they felt were good things.

In fact, Blossom was about to talk some sense into her counterpart on the other side of the war on crime when Bubbles acted first.

Coming forward, she gave out a sonic scream, blowing Ace and his cohort back and knocking them against the armored truck, overturning it. Blossom had to get out of the way and cover her ears, shaken out of her wits by the suddenness of the noise. In the middle of it, she saw blood spraying out of Bubbles' hateful eyes. She screamed for her to stop, but her own voice was drowned out by the sonic scream.

By the end of it, Blossom was lying on the ground, her own ears ringing – her vision blurry and distorted. She continued shouting at Bubbles, trying to gain her attention, but she couldn't tell if she did. All she could hear was ringing in her ears, and all she could see were splotches of colors.

Bubbles immediately charged at her punchbags. Blake's men started shooting from the side door facing the Gangreen Gang.

Ace was able to draw his blade and slash Bubbles across the chest as she was flying towards him, causing her to tumble and hit the bottom chassis of the armored truck.

"Grab what you can and split!" Ace ordered his gang as he himself ran for the bags of money that had spilled out of the back of the truck. The boys did the same, fleeing bullets fired from the Chinook, which, under Blake's orders, began turning its back so it would face the self-righteous robbers. The back gate of the Chinook opened, revealing a wall of men and guns arrayed against the green-skinned enhanced individuals. The machinegun in the center opened fire, and so did the rest of them.

Blake himself was wielding an Anti-material sniper rifle loaded with Duranium rounds. Aiming at Big Billy, he started putting them in his back as he was bumbling away and yelling in pain, money bags spilling from his cradling arms.

The amount of firepower they were putting out had even floored Arturo, the smallest of them, and Snake had to abandon his bags of dough to rescue him.

Blake thought he saw blood, but before he could confirm anything, the Gangreen Gang had rounded the corner. He'd thought about ordering his Chinook transport to give chase, but orders were orders. The plan relayed to him was to intercept the criminals assailing the armored truck. Should the Gangreen Gang retreat, it was up to the police and other units to hunt them down. In the meantime, he ordered his Chinook to land.

Time passed, and Blossom's senses had gotten better as she gave herself a moment to rest. As the ringing and veil over her eyes went away, she saw that Bubbles was sitting and leaning against the overturned armored truck.

"Bubbles!" Blossom shouted when she saw that her sister was hurt. The Kevlar vest that was supposed to protect her had been cleanly cut through - no doubt the work of a Duranium blade powered by enhanced hands. Speeding to her, she tried to tend to Bubbles, but Bubbles pushed her away.

"No! Don't hurt me!" Bubbles yelled, staring fearfully at Blossom. It had Blossom confused. When she tried to come closer to Bubbles, the latter Girl punched the former across the face and pushed her away.

"Ow! I wasn't going to!" Blossom claimed as she was clutching her jaw, rubbing it.

"You did this!" Bubbles stood up and accused, looking like she was more angry at Blossom than she was hurting from the wound. Her eyes were still red. "This is your fault!"

"What are you talking about?" Blossom said, honestly confused as to why she was getting blamed for an injury she did not cause.

"You did this to me!" Bubbles screamed madly, and Blossom became terrified of her own sister, such that she wouldn't dare to come anywhere close to her. "You did this to me! You did this to me! YOU DID THIS!"

"Whoa! Whoa! What's going on here!?" Blake asked as he was running up to them. Bubbles' evil eyes told him everything he needed to know.

"You need to calm down, Bubbles," the USDO officer added, but Bubbles didn't look like she was capable of calming down.

"It's all your fault! It's all your fault! It's not my fault! IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" Bubbles continued screaming, and she wasn't referring to the injury Ace had inflicted on her at all.

"Bubbles! You're scaring me!" Blossom exclaimed fearfully. More men were disembarking from the modified USDO Chinook. All of them were keeping their distance, and none of them dared to raise their guns at her - and it wasn't just because they knew her.

"Bubbles, what's the matter?" Agent Fields, Blake's right hand, asked, but Bubbles had continued chanting her madness.

"Bubbles, please, tell me what's wrong!" Blossom said as she decided to risk it all and approach Bubbles. She didn't look like she was going to hurt anyone - the way she was on her knees and clutching her head as if it could fall off at any moment.

But the moment she was close enough, Bubbles had launched herself at her, dragging her across the asphalt so hard that they were creating a path, damaging the road.

"What the hell!" Blake shouted as he witnessed this impossible sight - something that only enhanced individuals were capable of.

"Bubbles, what are you doing!?" Blossom shouted when she finally came to a stop, all sunken into the ground at the end of the path Bubbles had made. Her entire back felt raw from being dragged across the road. "This isn't you!"

"The Bubbles you know is DEAD! And it's all your fault! Your fault!" Bubbles screamed madly while she was sitting on top of Blossom, her bloodshot eyes widely open, as if staring deep into her soul. "You wanted a hard-core Bubbles! Well, now you have a hard-core Bubbles!"

Panting madly, Bubbles raised a fist and opened up her fingers like claws, and Blossom shielded her face with both her arms.

"Stop! Let her go!" Blake ordered. He'd raised his XM9 anti-material rifle at her. Bubbles turned to glare at him, as if to consider killing him too, before dashing up into the air, screaming away at breakneck speed, her baby blue X-energy contrail tainted by red energy at its core.

With Bubbles gone, Agent Blake was able to check on Blossom. While he was coming up to her, however, Blossom sat up on her own without his intervention. She didn't look like she was physically wounded, surprisingly, but Blake knew that emotionally, it was a completely different story. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. With or without enhanced abilities, which kid wouldn't be? Blossom had just been assaulted by her own sister, and Blake knew that they were supposed to be close.

"I need to find her, Mister Blake," Blossom said, while she was holding back tears and sniffling. "Dad will be mad if I don't."

"She could be anywhere by now," Blake said. "There's no point doing that."

What Blake had said had likely driven Blossom to tears as she started bawling and wiping her tears away in front of her.

"B-but she's my sister! I can't just give up on h-her!" Blossom cried, struggling to express herself as she did. "And something's wrong with her! She's never lost control like that before!"

"Hey... That's not what I meant," Blake comforted the little girl as she hugged his leg. He put a hand on her back. "I would never leave her be like this. All I meant to say is we need to call this in and get some people to help. Okay? Can you let me do that?"

Blossom let the man go. He bent down. "I'm sure we'll find her in a few hours, just in time for dinner. Be strong, Blossy. It's not the end of the world."