Chapter 102: The Trial (Part 1)

B-50 W2 Report 2

DOC: 07 MAR (Tuesday) 1989.

Created by: Professor Utonium

Title: Additional Report on B-50's Expanding Capabilities

Bunny has recently opened up to me about even more 'strange' things that were happening to her. She appears to have discovered some new abilities, some of them I have seen before, others unprecedented and quite shocking.

The first thing she brought up was how her ocular laser beams were behaving in her previous mission. They were burning, rather than cutting, or perhaps both. She appears to be insecure about her health, despite being created with an immune system that could kill anything instantly short of her own cells. Due to the chaotic nature of battles, there is the possibility that Bunny might have made a mistake in her observation. However, with enhanced individuals, one might never know. The scientific method should be abided by.

As it turns out, my hunch about my daughter was right. The test used was the standard shooting range using steel weights as targets, with some slight modifications. The range of the targets is fixed at 20 yards, with no paper targets at all. The results are below:

Target 1 - Major energy output is light. Laser beam.

Target 2 - Major energy output is light. Laser beam.

Target 3 - Energy: Light. Laser beam.

Note: Based on the results, it appears as if Bunny might have made the wrong observations. Another possibility is that her laser beam might have caused combustion in something flammable on her target. It is possible that her target was stained with oil, or gunpowder in some areas. Her description of her opponent that day seems to lend credence to this theory, as he appears to have manufactured his own ammunition and had been looting gas from a gas stop. However, I have decided to try something out. I gave Bunny a series of instructions, which is basically to will herself to produce heat beams instead of a laser beam.

Target 4 - Light. Laser beam.

Target 5 - Light. Laser beam.

Note: It appears that I am still getting negatives here. This time, I gave Bunny another set of instructions, which is to focus on what she wishes to accomplish. In this case, I told her to try her best to heat the target up.

Target 6 - Light. Laser beam.

Target 7 - Light and heat. Mixed beam.

Note: I am getting something here. The target has been simultaneously cut and heated up. The target has been heated up by 355°F, and cut 0.3 inches deep. Previous targets were cut as deep as 0.7-0.8 inches. This is significant. I instructed Bunny to continue.

Target 8 - Light and heat. Mixed beam.

Note: Results are similar, with only variations in the readings. The target was heated up by 328°F and cut 0.35 inches deep.

Target 9 - Light and heat. Mixed beam.

Note: At least Bunny is not getting frustrated. The same exercise would have frustrated Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup by now, but not her. She knows that she's making progress. She's such a genius darling!

Target 10 - Heat. Infrared beam.

Note: Bunny was able to produce a completely different beam, something comparable to Blossom's Infrared beam.

Target 11 - Heat. Infrared beam.

Note: Stress Test. Bunny was able to melt the steel weight partially. Thermographic analysis indicates a temperature of around 2671°F at the center of the melted region.

After a rest period of half an hour and a regime of Chemical X2 juice and Bugs Bunny cartoons, we (Bunny and yours truly, Professor Utonium) set out to test the limits on the spectrum of her ocular energy emission.

Target 12: Light. Laser Beam.

Note: She was instructed to produce an ion beam. The test produced a negative likely due to the difficulty of imagining a use and desired result for an ion beam. Neither can I imagine what is actually going on in her body and how she would have to 'flex' herself to produce the energy beam. She mentioned something about sensations. My guess is that it is as natural to her as running and walking are to us.

Target 13: Mixed light and charged ions. Mixed beam.

Note: To improve the chances of attaining the emission of an ion beam, I decided to sacrifice my oldest computer monitor and radio set. I gave Bunny the goal of disabling those devices without doing too much damage. The result was not exactly the desired one, perhaps because 'too much damage' leaves too much room for interpretation. Both electronic pieces of equipment were fried and caught on fire. The application of a fire extinguisher became necessary, though that's the least of my worries as I had to calm Bunny down. She thought she had made a mess and I was angry. I assured her I wasn't.

Target 14: Charged ions. Ion beam

Note: I gave Bunny a tighter goal of avoiding as much damage as possible while disabling the electronics. The result is positive.

After test 14, I have decided to cut the experiments short. Bunny requested a bathroom break, but she did not return. When I went to check on her after ten minutes, she was still inside and had only opened the door when I knocked. Something tells me she wasn't just taking a tinkle. I know Bunny, or rather, the inhumane training she was subjected to. She would never say no, perceiving it as failure, or insubordination. While she would not tell me what she was doing in the washroom, my bet is that she was tired, and would not tell me for fear of 'failing'. I have since been reassuring her that there was no 'failing' an experiment, but her mood did not improve even after that.

However, she insisted on showing me something else before we ended the experiments.

She could turn invisible. Astonishing! No words could express my surprise at seeing this for myself. I have included multiple videos of this phenomenon in this report. Please observe them carefully. You will see that she will fade away within a second, and after that, only slight distortions in the air could be seen, and even that requires lots of squinting and focusing to notice.

At first glance, this 'cloaking' ability of hers appears to defy science. Initially, I have multiple hypotheses to explain this, just waiting to be tested. One possible explanation I have is that she might have created gravitational distortions around her, bending light in such a way that none of it will bounce off her but instead go around her, achieving invisibility.

A second possibility is that she is mimicking and emitting light coming from all around her, in addition to absorbing those that would have reflected off her in normal circumstances. While this might seem unlikely, Chemical X and X2, as well as their effects, are largely still not well understood. The Girls' eyes have already proven them to be bioluminescent - this could just be the next logical step.

A third hypothesis I have involves higher dimensions. She could be phase-shifting between this dimension and the next higher dimension in order to render herself invisible.

The last hypothesis I have is the simplest of them all. It might have been that she could have gained a psionic power rather than a physical one. It might be a subconscious ability that causes selective blindness in everyone around her, enlarging the blindspot in their eyes to fit herself in, or simply preventing the brain of everyone around her from registering her.

Tests will have to be conducted next time. Bunny was already tired by the time she showed me her cloaking ability. However, I have been able to rule out several of the hypotheses through observations alone.

Bunny could not have phase-shifted between this dimension and the next. She would not have been able to interact with anything on Earth well if she did. She would have fallen through the Earth - her clothes should have fallen off. The fourth dimension (or the fifth, if time is included) is a very strange place. Had she phase-shifted into it, she would have reported seeing something from there, but she did not. In fact, there is also a good chance that anyone who moves through the fourth dimension might end up elsewhere other than where she was - and Bunny was walking around in the lab.

Bunny could not have developed a psionic ability either. I was able to capture her turning invisible on camera and view the footage. The footage itself shows her clearly turning invisible. If it were a psionic ability, I would have been able to see her in the footage even after she had applied her cloaking ability, as her psionic power would not have affected me while I was viewing it (away from her, might I add).

It remains to be seen how her cloaking ability works. We can only be glad that it works. This means a higher survival chance for Bunny. As her father, I'll take it any day.

The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

07 MAR (Tuesday) 1989. 1602.

Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! The clown phone rang when the Girls least expected. The Girls had expected it to ring while they were in school, and they had expected it to ring while they were at lunch. Blossom thought that it was because the Amoeba Boys had held their end of the bargain, putting a stop to many of their petty crimes throughout the city using their influence.

Blossom had tried to have fun with Bunny and decided to let her decide on their activities. Bunny had recreated a grand strategy game General Blackwater used to play with her using their Townsville map and some toy soldiers. It was pretty fun, Blossom had to admit, but the phone had interrupted them.

Bunny flew over to the phone, a bright purple line of light streaking behind her; it'd impressed Blossom. Bubbles clapped and laughed, glad that Bunny was getting a hang of flying.

"Hello?" Bunny had picked up the phone and greeted whoever was on the other side. Someone was blowing a puff of smoke before answering.

"This is Rook. I have an assignment for you. Bring only light weaponry and keep your (un)powered armor at home, Meet me down at the tea shop at Williams Street in Old Town," the intelligence agent said curtly, and when Bunny expected him to just hang up, he went on: "Remember: third floor, room three. I've signed in using the name 'Quinn'. Now get Blossom on the line."

After calling Blossom over, Bunny handed the phone to her. Blossom couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. What would they need them for this time?

"Blossom. Police Chief Feig would like you to take down the boss of the local Black Brothers," it turned out to be General Blackwater this time. "Do you feel like killing anyone today, girl?"

"No… I don't wanna…" Blossom said timidly. It was as if her mistakes were staring down her back, warning her.

"Then don't. Feig wouldn't mind that you kill the Big Brother of the Black Brothers and his Mid Bros, but you have my permission to spare as many lives as possible," the general said, curiously. Blossom had never thought of him as a particularly merciful person.

Dad would walk in on them after that.

"Another mission?" he would say to Bunny, a bitter, sad smile on his face. How adults could come up with such mixed expressions so readily, she didn't understand. They were an enigma, something she hoped she would get a better grasp on months down the road.

"We're going too, Dad!" Blossom exclaimed, hoping to draw attention to herself.

"Yeah, Dad, but it's going to be different this time," Bunny said, with Blossom still repeating herself behind Dad in the hopes of attracting some fatherly eyeballs. All the professor did was to gesture for her to stop and quiet down. "I don't think I'm supposed to fight much today."

"I'm glad about that. Hey, listen, when you're back for dinner, we have a surprise waiting for you," Dad said. It was only then that he turned to Blossom, but he wasn't really talking to her: "Right Girls?"

"Right…" Blossom said dejectedly as she floated forlornly in her lonesome. Once again, she was second.

"It's going to be a big and wonderful surprise!" Bubbles exclaimed from her corner while she was slipping her kevlar vest on. She giggled after that, barely able to contain her excitement. Blossom knew what Bubbles was talking about, and she was already starting to regret her hand in arranging it.

Meanwhile, Buttercup was already done prepping to fight crime. She wasn't really even listening to the conversation. Right now, the only thing that even remotely appealed to her was the promise of an adrenaline-pumping battle. In the meantime, she was just sitting at the pink table alone, facing away from them, and stroking her massive LMG as if it was a pet.

"Thanks, Dad," Bunny said, before hugging him. "I'll be fine, I promise. I don't want you to be sad again." She'd managed a smile, even though she knew full well that something was off and she wasn't totally fine. Still, she was holding out hope that it was just another battlefield injury.

It was then that she understood how Dad could have such mixed expressions, such complexity. In the end, she had become something that wasn't much different.

The City of Townsville. Old Town. Williams Street. The Baker Tea House.

07 MAR (Tuesday) 1989. 1634.

Bunny had found her new set of instructions odd. No (un)powered armor? Light weapons only? Just what would she be doing that would require the inversion of preparation? She had to dig out her rarely used conventional combat gear, which was designed similarly to her sisters', and she had left the majority of her weapons at home, bringing only her Duranium knife and a pistol along.

What was stranger was the fact that her mission was happening in broad daylight, and there were no instructions for her to disguise herself. When she stopped outside the place she was supposed to go to, she couldn't get used to how everyone was staring at her while she was parking her bike. And when she stared back at them, they would disperse and hurry along.

"Devil's child," one old woman hissed at her before walking away faster than old women normally could or would.

"Jesus, her eyes…" she overheard someone on the way into the Baker Tea House, using her enhanced hearing.

"A fourth Powerpuff Girl? How is that possible?" another civilian whispered to another behind her back.

When Bunny had finally gone indoors in the Baker Tea House, it was much better. There were few patrons in the confusingly versatile establishment, and most of them were either too old or too absorbed in their work to bother with her. There were rows of bread upfront, and tea was being served to the patrons. Apparently, 'Baker' was a pun sealed by family name and business decisions. A sign told her that there were rooms upstairs, making the place an inn as well.

Before she could go up the stairs, though, a receptionist got up from a desk and stood in her way.

"Are you looking for a room or a person?" he asked. He too, was pretty old, in his fifties. Bunny thought that he would be easy to overpower or kill if she had to.

"I'm looking for Mister Quinn," Bunny said plainly, waiting for the receptionist to respond. The receptionist returned to his desk. After putting on his spectacles, he began flipping through the pages of his guest book, then returning to the same pages he had gone through. It was only after going down the list twice that he'd seen the name. 'He's so slow!' Bunny thought.

The man looked up at Bunny from his guest book before looking back down into the list.

"You've already found his name…" Bunny said - in fact, she had already found Rook's alias in the guest book long before the receptionist did. The aging man straightened up before looking at her again. After looking at her up and down, he removed his spectacles.

"You know, aren't you a little underaged for… that?" the man, who was ancient compared to Bunny, said.

"Underaged for what?" Bunny asked.

"You know… that thing? The stuff your mom and dad don't wanna talk about? Sweetie, you don't have to cater to the perversions of a sick man if you don't want to," the receptionist said. "I can call the police if you want if there's some pimp hanging out just outside my fair establishment."

Red flags were sprouting all over the place when he offered to summon the authorities. From what she'd learned, there was a crooked cop around every street corner in Townsville. They would jeopardize the mission - whatever it was - and she wasn't in the mood of failing General Blackwater nor fail to protect her family again. An image of a wounded Dad flashed in her mind, and that set her off. Marching up to the receptionist, Bunny grabbed him by the collar and pulled him towards her, pressing her face close to his.

"If you call the police," Bunny whispered to the man in a voice trembling with rage and oozing with threats. "I will break every single bone in your body. Don't do it."

Bewildered and shocked, more than intimidated by how strong the enhanced girl was, how oddly mature she was and her jagged set of teeth, the receptionist nodded several times. Bunny slammed him back into his seat.

It was only by that time that, belatedly, the receptionist recognized her for who she was. It wasn't some pair of contact lenses she was wearing, and it wasn't props she was armed with nor some costume she was wearing. She was the fourth Powerpuff Girl, as rumored by the newspapers and talking heads on television.

"Gee- I- I was just trying to help, you know," the receptionist stuttered as this fourth Powerpuff Girl was giving him the death stare. "Please don't kill me."

"I don't want to kill innocent people. I don't like it," Bunny said, unable to help the tear escaping her eye. The receptionist had inadvertently reminded her of her past deeds. "Don't make me and I won't."

And with that, she went up the stairs.

The City of Townsville. Old Town. Williams Street. The Baker Tea House.

07 MAR (Tuesday) 1989. 1639.

After rapping on the right door a sequence of codes, Bunny was allowed to enter Rook's room. The man wasn't dressed in his usual suit. He was disguised as someone else, likely someone fictional. He was wearing a fake mustache and sideburns, a leather jacket, and jeans. He looked 'off'. It was no wonder the receptionist had suspected him of 'perversions', whatever that meant - Bunny had no idea.

"What am I doing today, Mister Rook?" Bunny asked from the get-go. For some reason, she couldn't resist sitting down on his bed. There was something in her that compelled it, a hint of tiredness, maybe, but it was very faint. "Why are you wearing a costume and I'm not? Why-"

"All your questions will be answered in due time, Bunny," Rook had been looking out the window. Turning around, he regarded her with a pair of scrutinizing eyes. Despite his shades - which was the only thing that didn't change - she could see the way he was looking at her. She couldn't resist peeking through his sunglasses. He returned to looking out the window again, at what, Bunny had no idea. "Things are changing quickly - so quickly. The more you know, the less you do."

"Shouldn't it be 'the more you know, the more you do'?" Bunny said, finding his expression odd. How could someone know less when he knew more?

"Nevermind," Rook dismissed it all before turning around again. "I've read a report from your father that you have gained the ability to turn invisible. Is that right?"

"Y-yes…" Bunny said,

"Show me," the chief of intelligence ordered. Bunny obliged, closed her eyes in concentration - not wanting to mess up her first demonstration to Rook - before letting that tingling feeling wash over her. Right before the intelligence officer, Bunny faded away into nothingness. The only clue of her existence after that was the depression in Rook's bed, shaped like a butt and thighs.

"That's…" the man was lost for words. Starting forward, he reached out to touch her. His motion was slow; he was almost afraid of making contact with her. He could barely see anything at all, just an odd, faint distortion in the air. Eventually, he did, and he ended up touching something soft. He immediately felt his hand being slapped away by what felt like an extremely solid mass of air.

"Ouch!" Bunny yelled before dropping her cloaking field. She was rubbing her eye while she was fading back into view.

"Sorry, sorry!" Rook apologized immediately, startled. "That's incredible! It's better than I expected!"

"So what am I doing today?" Bunny asked again, still rubbing her eye. Although there was no damage - not that the accidental eye-poke would have hurt even a normal person - but it was still painful.

"There's a police station in the area. Precinct 13," Rook explained, still enthralled by Bunny's performance. "I want you to infiltrate it. Enter the office of one Detective Marion. He will be there today. He is known for taking bribes to hide or plant shreds of evidence at crime scenes. Find anything that will serve as evidence for his crimes there. The TPD's Internal Affairs and the USDO's own Anti-Corruption Squad would love to have it."

"But what about-"

"I know. You want the man responsible for using your sisters, for puppeteering them to do the enemy's bidding. You're afraid he will do something to them, and you want him dead," Rook said. Bunny found little room to argue. "Not yet. This will serve as a trial run. Work out the kinks of your invisibility, if there's any. Learn the strengths and limitations of your stealth capabilities, and we'll find Feig and put an end to the threat he pose to your sisters."