Chapter 97: Stalker of the Dark (Part 2)
The City of Townsville. The Outskirts. Lombardi Family Estate.
05 MAR (Sunday) 1989. 2216.
"Is the trap set in place?" a growling voice asked, echoing in the dining hall of the Lombardi crime family's massive mansion headquarters.
"Yes, Don Ricci, and I've made damn sure the stick's bigger than the carrot," Fedele Palladino answered while he was cutting up some rabbit meat on his plate. It was a rare treat, something hardly anyone in the city ever partook in.
Bossman laughed. "Why the animosity, Fedele? It's almost unprofessional," the Lombardi don said. Slim and Junior were too busy eating their own rabbit steaks to bother with talking. It was only when they were forced to split up and coordinate their own band of gangsters that they would flap their lips more. "So we have some animal loose in the city - it don't mean we get all angry. Just call animal control and sort it out, you know, read a newspaper while you're at it."
"That animal killed my buds at the warehouse district," Fedele said. He stabbed the piece of rabbit meat he had been eating. "I was thrown in jail because of her. The look the prisoners and the guards gave me… I haven't been in a cell for years. It was humiliating! I look like some helpless chump with my injured leg and a crutch. If my paid cops hadn't put me in a separate cell, I'd be dead in minutes. She's going to pay for that."
"You said you've seen her. Tell me again how she's like," Bossman asked.
"She's crazy. Had some futuristic armor on. Blew up everyone with grenades and bombs and shot down the rest of them. She sure likes purple - if only she's as girly as her favorite color," Fedele described, with no small amount of venom in his voice. "Cause if she was, I would have held her down and fucked her."
"I hope you're not serious. You know the rules, right? Anyway, sounds like my kind of girl," the mob don replied after chewing and swallowing another long slice of rabbit meat. "Would have loved for her to join my other girls - Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup."
"Then why did you give me the go-ahead for the trap?" Fedele asked, now confused.
"Back in the day, when I was just another run-of-the-mill soldato, I went to Las Vegas on a gambling trip. Remember that time, Palladino?" Bossman explained. "I went in as a stranger and raked it in big time at the cards table. I decided to try the slots after that, and I just kept losing. I saw the signs, and I ignored it. One of the casino attendants was watching me. They probably tweaked the machine. I lost half my earnings pushing my luck, and I spent the rest of it consoling myself with good food, good booze and good women."
"Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup was a gamble that paid off, and I know when to stop," Bossman continued. "This 'animal' that's been rampaging in the city, killing my men and my friends, ruining my business and my plans… needs to die. If she does, she ain't worth a gamble anyway. And if she doesn't? Well, I might need to gamble again in the future, see if I can show her the good life somehow."
"What was her name again?" Bossman asked.
"I heard that it was 'Bunny' from a friend's friend in the USDO," Fedele said.
"Bunny, eh? I like that name," Bossman remarked, before putting another slab of rabbit meat in his mouth.
The City of Townsville. Tenements. Run-Down Apartment.
05 MAR (Sunday) 1989. 2217.
It was entirely unexpected, turning invisible. Even the naive Bunny could see the value in such an ability, and it was beyond just the wow factor. However, there was no time to celebrate, no time to experiment with it.
It was time. Bunny had been ordered to gather evidence of Feig's corruption. With the photos she had taken, she had more or less done it. Her second order was to arrest Feig on the spot - everyone else was just fodder.
She considered going in with just her laser eye beams blazing, but that would be too tiring. Instead, she raised her SMG. Coming up to the door, she reached for the doorknob and gripped it. With a single jerk, she managed to pull the doorknob off - along with the locking mechanisms inside - throwing it aside after that. Barging through, she fired her weapon at the two guards stationed in the residence's stairs. They were killed instantly.
Two more men in suits stood up at the living room, firing a hail of bullets at her, bouncing off her chest armor and face. She returned fire, and her bullets had gone right through their chest and face. They collapsed almost simultaneously together. With the entire residence's first floor guards gone, Bunny returned her attention to the stairs. Running up to it, she began ascending. A grenade was thrown at her by a guard behind cover left of the stairs, but she was able to catch it in mid-air and toss it back. There was a shout before an explosion rang out.
Another guard, shredded by shrapnel but still breathing, leaned out from the right, by the stairs, and fired his sawed-off shotgun down at her, but the pellets did nothing to her. He couldn't escape death when Bunny reacted within milliseconds, pumping five or six rounds into his head.
There was a door right before the stairs on the second floor. Bunny saw through it with her x-ray vision preemptively and saw a group of three men and a woman preparing to rush through the door. She glared at the door and emitted her purple laser beams, sweeping it across the door, putting a slit on it… and the neck of a gangster who was about to open it. Like the other man Bunny had killed with her lasers, his head had rolled off, leaving the rest of the body to crumble where it was. The three other bad guys in the room were smarter and had backed away instead.
Running up to the door, Bunny punched a hole in it, pulled a grenade off her armor, primed it and threw it in. She never looked back as she knew her grenade had landed among the group inside, a good position to kill or mangle them all. As she continued to scan the other rooms of the residence's second floor with her x-ray vision, she could hear screams coming from that previous room and then an explosion. Based on the silence that ensued after that, it was clear that they were either dead or too wounded to pose any threat.
That was when she saw him. The next room ahead was occupied by him. The corrupted police chief, Paul Feig. He appeared to be sitting on a desk of some kind, facing the door. He didn't appear to be caring about what was going on around him, nor was he accompanied by anyone.
Sneaking quietly towards the door, she readied her SMG and hid behind the wall next to the door. From there, she gave the door a horse kick so powerful that it was shattered against the wall. Whirling into the room with her SMG up and her teeth gritted, she said not even a single word, relying on the threat she was projecting alone to freeze her mark.
"You're under arrest," she finally announced to Paul Feig. His face was in full view, exactly like what she saw in the pictures. He was wearing a brown duster and matching fedora, over stereotypical detective-type office wear.
"I'm Paul Feig," the mark said, almost in a tone-deaf manner.
"I know, stupid," Bunny said venomously - she had no sympathy for the man, who she was informed was a corrupt cop, someone who wasn't doing his job and fighting crime as he should. Someone who imperiled her family because of a lack of principles. "Put your hands above your head!"
"I'm Paul Feig," he repeated himself, in the exact same tone and manner. His head started convulsing after that. The expression on his face changed from one of idiocy to enormous pain - that was until his head was convulsing so much that she couldn't really tell what his expression was.
"What?" Bunny uttered, confused as much as she was frightened by the man's strange behavior. The rest of the man's body then began convulsing as well. He began making a strange, high-pitched whining sound, like a robot gone wrong. She could then hear bones snapping, flesh tearing. Strangely, there was no blood. Bunny gasped, backing away, eyes and mouth wide with fear and shock.
The man's look began changing - his face becoming thinner, smaller. His hair grew longer, turning blonde. The man became shorter, slimmer. He changed until he was no longer a man, but a woman.
"Praise Him for my gift!" the woman cried in the worship of someone - or something. She then drew a pistol from within her duster, but Bunny was faster and she fired her MP5 first, putting several bullets in her chest. The woman fell over on her desk and was lifeless after that. But Bunny had aimed wildly because of her shock, so she couldn't be sure if she had killed the face-dancer (for the lack of a better name).
Not that she would have time to find out.
Something had jumped out of a room far to the left that was just out of view of her x-ray vision, something about the size of a short man, but with a gigantic brain encased in reinforced glass.
"Here's Jojo!" the being screamed as it raised something in its hand, throwing back a purple cloak.
Mojo Jojo! Bunny recognized the unique individual. But it was far too late for her to react to him. The thing in his hand resembled a kind of speargun, and there was a loud explosion when he pulled the trigger. An arrow of some kind, propelled by Chemical W-laced gunpowder, shot out of the speargun and went straight into Bunny, who was knocked back by the force. She fell to her knees, after that, as the shock had weakened her.
Bunny's left arm felt numb. Looking down, she was met with a ghastly sight: the arrow had pierced her armor and gone right through her left shoulder, and it felt like it was brushing her left lung.
Never had she felt more vulnerable than before. Raising her MP5 one-handed, Bunny tried to fire it, but Mojo Jojo had pressed a button on his speargun first. Something whirred and spun in the arrow - inside her.
PAIN! PAIN was all Bunny felt in her shoulder, then in an instant, her entire body when the arrow in her began squirming mechanically. Bunny had only fired her SMG out of pain, the shots missing entirely before she dropped the gun and fell to the ground, screaming and writhing in pain never felt before.
It felt as if glass shards had been packed inside her wound - not only that, it felt as if the glass in it were spinning as if in a blender.
"Yes, yes! Alas, I've finally field-tested my Agony Boltgun! Muah hahaha!" Mojo Jojo cackled in triumph. "Feel the pain! The suffering! Feel my AGONY BOLTGUN!" His thumb remained on the button near the boltgun handle, and Bunny continued screaming and kicking. Her hand had gone up to the arrow, but she didn't dare pull it out - not that she had any strength left to do so.
Desperate to get out of it, Bunny shot a quick pair of purple laser beams at Mojo Jojo, who had to get out of the way - and barely did so.
"You fiend! Taste my creation's higher setting!" the sentient chimpanzee remarked as he flipped another switch on his boltgun and depressed the 'pain button' again. What Bunny had felt before became ten times worse, such that she vomited whatever remained of her snack. She continued screaming and squirming…
Until she became still.
Blood was beginning to spread beneath her, seeping into the wooden floor, in between floorboards.
"Muah hahahahaha!" the genius monkey cackled victoriously once more. "You who are the USDO's greatest weapon can't best me despite your apparent superiority, listen if you're still able. You can't beat me despite my supposed obsolescence because I am smart! I am intelligent! I am full of wit! A genius! Wise beyond my years-"
Bunny hadn't really been listening as she was falling in and out of consciousness. The pain had been unbearable, too much even for her Chemical X2-fortified body. In between periods of darkness, when she could still think - barely - Blossom's voice came into focus, of all people.
You're not a Powerpuff Girl!
"Blossom…" Bunny whimpered.
You won't ever be a Powerpuff Girl!
"Please…" Bunny muttered weakly.
You're not like us. Not at all!
"-Greatest mind in the history of-" Mojo Jojo had been going on when he stopped as he thought he'd heard something from Bunny. "Did you say something?" There was no response from the enhanced girl. Mojo Jojo nudged her with his white-booted foot, but she wasn't moving.
"You can't be dead, deceased, expired! I still need to run experiments on you! Dissect you! Vivisect you to find out-" the enhanced chimpanzee had gone on to rant only to be interrupted when Bunny had turned and fired her purple laser beams at him, cutting a swathe around his stomach, not it wasn't enough to do anything beyond burning fur and cutting skin.
She bolted straight for the window as the chimpanzee screamed in both rage and pain.
"Warrrrgh! How DARE you!" the mad monkey screeched as Bunny jumped through the window. "Come back here!" He'd pressed the button on his boltgun before she began to fall.
Bunny could feel it in her shoulder once more. Gears and mini-sawblades in the arrow were eating away at her flesh once more, like mini-sized piranha hungry for her blood. Bunny shrieked as she fell seven floors down, her consciousness fading once more. She was unable to break her fall properly, landing on all fours instead, with the arrow driven deeper into her.
It was as if the whole world was nothing but pain then, but somehow, she still managed to push herself up to her feet and continue running, even as men were swarming out of the building to take potshots at her.
"Come back here! You were supposed to be incapacitated! That arrow took me three days to make! Three days!" Bunny could still hear Mojo Jojo shouting from the window she'd jumped through. "CURSES!"
Bunny just kept running, slamming through a steel grille gate with her good shoulder. She'd kept going, despite the grinders in the arrow still turning, still inflicting unbearable agony on her. She was in the neighborhood without knowing it, dropping to her knees at one point and she had to pick herself up again. With Mojo Jojo's absence, the arrow was running on AUTO-PILOT, grinding away at her.
Oh, Bunny- Dad's voice appeared this time.
Running past screaming pedestrians and confused passers-by, bumping into some of them as she couldn't help her unsteadiness, Bunny instinctively worked her way towards her hidden motorbike. Before she knew it, Bunny had found it and mounted it. She was coughing out blood when she started it.
Hey, hey- Dad had comforted her even from afar
Bunny drove her bike out, weaving between people expertly despite the suffering she was enduring, ignoring shouts from both the living obstacles and the voices in her radio.
It's going to be alright-
She was on the highway when it happened. The arrow in her shoulder wasn't done with her yet, and it had discharged an electric shock. Bunny couldn't control herself then, and she'd slammed into a car. Falling in and out of consciousness, she was spared from most of the crash that ensued. It was only when she came to a rest on the asphalt that she was finally granted peace in unconsciousness…
Time seemed to slip by after that. At first, she saw a crowd forming around her, then soldiers carrying her into some vehicle.
"Hang on-" she remembered someone telling her. Was it General Blackwater or Rook or someone else? She couldn't really tell.
"-She's fading!"
She remembered muttering deliriously about 'Jojo' and 'arrow', 'Paul Feig' being 'fake' and that it was all a 'trap'.
Don't be afraid-
And just before she ran out of strength, she remembered feeling that her hand was entirely covered in blood, that the vehicle seat she was put on was soaked through. After that, it was just darkness in time and space.
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
06 MAR (Monday) 1989. 1043.
Bunny opened her eyes. She had to squint from the flood of light she had wakened to. She couldn't make out where she was at first, but the soft, comfortable surface she was lying on gave her some ideas. The first thing she could make out was three circular windows before her, then the pink walls and ceiling, and mountains of soft toys. A pink kiddie table and chairs. Beanie chairs in a corner, colored pink, baby blue and lime. There was a purple one, but it was apart from the rest.
Had yesterday been a nightmare? For the first time in her life, her memories were a little fuzzy. She tried sitting up, but the pain in her shoulder made her think twice about it. Flipping her blanket over, she saw that she was topless, with bandages covering the entirety of her left shoulder. Her left arm was in a sling, likely to avoid putting pressure on her healing shoulder in case she decided to sit up or use her arm on impulse.
She was still wearing her military trousers. The only other things that were off were her boots. Whoever was taking care of her likely didn't want to move her too much.
"I see that you're finally awake," Mom said as she sat down beside her. Still tense, Bunny was shaken by her sudden appearance. She was so tired that she didn't hear her coming up to her. Reaching for her forehead, Selicia pressed the back of her hand against it, before moving it to her cheek. "Your fever's gone. That's great."
Bunny gripped Selicia's hand the moment she realized, belatedly, that she was her Mom.
"There, there, it's okay now," Mom cooed at her soothingly as she wiped tears away from her eyes. "It's over. You're safe."
Dad walked into the room after that, carrying a tray to Bunny. Mom sat the injured enhanced girl up carefully and slowly before setting up a bed table for Dad to rest the tray on. There was a tall glass of orange juice with some kind of black liquid fading away in it. A simple toast sandwich with eggs and cheese sat beside it. An image of a smiley face was burned into the toast. Bunny turned to smile at Dad, still tearful but enlivened by how much Dad and Mom cared about her.
"Here. Drink," Dad sat down next and picked up the glass of orange juice, holding it close to Bunny's mouth.
"What is that?" Bunny asked, referring to the black fluid in the orange juice.
"It's Chemical X2. It's rarer than Chemical X and more valuable. I'd say this glass of juice costs a few grands, at least," Dad said with a laugh. "You were running low, Bunny. You were really exerting yourself yesterday. Your blood loss did the rest." Bunny sipped at it, noting how desirable the Chemical X2 was that soon, she was gulping down mouthfuls of it as if there was some hidden desire in her to ingest the stuff. She would later take bites out of her sandwich, her appetite reawakened. She had never enjoyed such a simple pleasure so much before.
"What happened yesterday? How did I end up here?" Bunny asked as she swept crumbs from her chin.
"I can answer that," another person said from the door. A booming, gravelly voice that told of countless harrowing experiences. Bunny looked up to see who it was.
And it turned out to be General Blackwater, dressed in an officer's uniform with a beret.
"How is her wound, professor?" the general asked first.
"It was deep, and by all accounts, Bunny's shoulder was mangled - a normal person would be crippled for life, but not Bunny," Dad explained. He had never taken his eyes off Bunny. He stroked her hair out of adoration for her and Bunny smiled. "It's mostly healed now. Another few hours and she'll be back on her feet. Even Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup would have taken days to come back from this, and a normal human being? Months, maybe. Years, likely."
"Your services are appreciated, Professor Utonium. Now more than ever," General Blackwater said, not unkindly. Bunny's heart leaped, seeing that Dad and General Blackwater were getting along, at least for now. "I need a moment with Bunny if the two of you don't mind."
Selicia held Bunny's right shoulder and squeezed before sauntering out wordlessly.
"I'll see you later, lil' rabbit," the professor said before excusing himself and walking out the door. Bunny thought she saw his expression change. Dad was upset with something and wasn't showing it. It was something Bunny noticed adults do all the time. They knew really well how to hide their emotions. Bunny thought that it was admirable, but at the same time, too mysterious and frustrating, even.
Dad had closed the door behind him, and soon, it was just Bunny and the general. And silence, for a time.
Like Dad before him, General Blackwater marched up to Bunny, who was lying in what was normally Blossom's section of the bed, before sitting down next to her. The bed creaked from the trauma.
"How are you feeling?" the general asked, his voice surprisingly soft. "We were able to shadow you by following the GPS tracker in your armor. We picked you up as soon as we could."
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry… I did a bad thing yesterday," Bunny said, infantilized by fear. She had become immediately aware of what was going on; what was at stake. This was the general in the room, and she had just failed a mission yesterday. It was her first time, no less, and she didn't know how to deal with it. "Bunny bad!"
"Perhaps you didn't hear me the first time. How are you, Bunny?" the general asked again, taking Bunny by surprise. She didn't expect the general to be calm when she had thrown a mission - a relatively important one at that, too - without following through with it and figuring out what had gone wrong.
Still, she couldn't help but weep and tremble at the thought of having failed the general. This, on top of having experienced some horrifying things even by the standards of an enhanced black ops soldier - it was all coming back to her now. The face-dancer as her flesh molted and bones snapped to change form. Mojo Jojo flying out of the darkness, like a stalker of the dark. General Blackwater, in response to this, took her by her good arm.
"Don't fall apart on me now!" the general bellowed, but not in an angry way. "Stay strong, soldier. Don't let them beat you."
It felt like the general's way of comforting her. Though rough as it was, Bunny appreciated it. She smiled once more.
"My whole body hurts and I don't feel like moving," Bunny finally said.
"How about in an hour or two? Can you do that?" the general asked. It felt like a challenge, a good-natured one at that, something Dad would do while he was teaching her how to ride a bike.
"I'll try," Bunny said, smiling; glad that she wasn't being treated as a liability despite her perceived failure and her very real injury.
"Good. That's the Bunny I know," the general said. He yanked a tissue out of its box on the table next to him and started wiping her face. Despite applying as little force as he could, he was still quite rough; he was unable to help it. "You've overcome obstacles a man in the Special Forces could barely manage. Believe me, I know. This is just a minor setback. Now, talk to me, Bunny. What happened yesterday?"
Bunny thought over everything she had experienced in the Tenements Area. She could only remember bits and pieces at first, but as she got into the groove of it, her memory went into overdrive, enhanced as it was. Soon, it was as clear as day.
"Paul Feig wasn't really Paul Feig," Bunny said.
"What do you mean?" the general clarified.
"When I came in to arrest him, he changed into a woman…" she tried her best to explain it and knew that it wasn't enough. "She said something about 'Him' and her 'gift' and tried to shoot me but I shot her first…"
"The Cult of His Promise," the general surmised. "You mentioned something about 'Jojo' while you were bleeding out last night. Was he there? Mojo Jojo?"
"Yes. He did this to me. He had a gun that fires a big arrow at me…" Bunny explained. "He came out when the fake Paul Feig changed into a woman."
"A rabbit trap, in other words," General Blackwater said. "So, they've finally figured out that you were hunting them down one by one."
"I wish they didn't…" Bunny said. "My arm still hurts."
"Rest, soldier. You've done well," General Blackwater praised the little black operative. "We're leaving in two hours."
"Why?" Bunny asked.
"The Director himself wants to see you, and we'll need to redraw our plans; I think it's time I put you in the officer's room," General Blackwater explained. He pulled something out of his breast pocket. A pair of rank patches bearing two chevrons denoting the corporal rank.
"You're promoting me?" Bunny said rhetorically.
"Obviously."
"But that would mean that I outrank Bubbles and Buttercup…" Bunny mumbled, uncomfortable with the idea. Bubbles had been like a mentor to her, same as Blossom, and when Mom wasn't around, her protective nurturer. Buttercup, well, was Buttercup. Her love and attention were nigh-unattainable, which made it much more sought after. Would becoming a corporal finally make her proud of her, worthy of speaking to? Or would it make her an object of hate and jealousy? Bunny did not know and was almost too afraid to know.
"You've done more than them in a week, and more than what most soldiers could do in a lifetime," General Blackwater said. "You're better than your sisters. You'll soon be commanding them, I'm sure."
"But… I don't want to," Bunny admitted. "Blossom's the leader and…"
"She won't be for much longer. She's made a mess of things, all the time," the general said. "Now rest. You've earned it." With that, the general stood up but felt Bunny's hand around a few of his fingers.
"May I… Get a hug from you?" Bunny requested of the general. He sat back down, and curiously, turned to look at the door. It was still closed.
"Sure," he said, and gingerly leaned in for a quick hug with Bunny. Except she'd held on longer than that, extending it.
For the time being, the darkness was no more.