Chapter 111: Palace of Minos (Part 2)
Audio Sensor Recording 03081989-2123-TH
DOC 08 MAR (Wednesday) 1989
EXTRACTED 11 MAR (Saturday) 1989
-TRANSCRIPT START-
Field Researcher Utonium: Alice, I really need to talk to you.
Psychiatrist Alice: That's why I'm here. (crinkling of a sofa) Is it about the Girls?
Field Researcher Utonium: Yes. It's all about the Girls.
Psychiatrist Alice: Which one of them? How do you feel about each of them?
Field Researcher Utonium: Am I… a patient?
Psychiatrist Alice: No, you're not being evaluated, Thomas. I'm worried about the Girls too.
Field Researcher Utonium: Bunny concerns me most.
Psychiatrist Alice: How so?
Field Researcher Utonium: You've talked to her. I've told you about it. She's not getting along very well with her sisters. Blossom repeated her mistake with Bunny. She- she attacked Bunny even though Bunny was just trying to protect her.
Psychiatrist Alice: Is that what Bunny said? Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out the extent you know about this.
Field Researcher Utonium: Bubbles told me everything. Bunny too. Blossom lied and- kept things from me.
Psychiatrist Alice: What about Buttercup?
Field Researcher Utonium: Buttercup wasn't there and even if she was… (sighs) she probably wouldn't have bothered getting involved. She probably would have just stood by and watched.
Psychiatrist Alice: It's not just about Bunny, isn't it?
Field Researcher Utonium: Well… No, I guess it's not. My family's such a mess… I'm a terrible father. I can't even look after my own kids!
Psychiatrist Alice: It's not your fault, Thomas. Your kids are special. Very special. You said it yourself, using those exact words. Since you can't fly with them or fight crime alongside them, or even supersede General Blackwater's authority, there's only so much you can do. If it's any comfort, they spoke highly of you during my session with them today. Well, most of them. Buttercup's mostly silent today.
Field Researcher Utonium: (dejectedly) What did they say?
Psychiatrist Alice: Bunny thinks about you all the time, and when her sisters couldn't give her the love and attention she needs, she looks to you and Selicia.
Field Researcher Utonium: That's not exactly a recipe for healthy family life, now is it? The conflict… the sibling abuse.
Psychiatrist Alice: No, but- don't be upset, Thomas. These things take time to sort themselves out. It looks bad, but I think it's just the Girls being born little kids, and so encountered these hurdles so quickly. With normal children, it would be years before friction starts to appear between the siblings; throw in some law enforcement responsibilities and all the complications that could arise from children witnessing crime and violence, and it's a powder keg waiting to explode.
Field Researcher Utonium: That's not a good prognosis.
Psychiatrist Alice: It's not a prognosis. It will take time. I believe that, with your help, Bunny will find a place among her sisters in a few weeks or a few months. If we're lucky, we'll get a lull in criminal activity, they'll be able to focus on being little girls again, interact meaningfully and wholesomely, and forget about their conflict during the crime war.
Field Researcher Utonium: You really think so?
Psychiatrist Alice: You're not the problem, Thomas. You were never the problem, only the solution.
Field Researcher Utonium: I wish I can be as optimistic as you.
Psychiatrist Alice: Don't think about it. Listen… About Blossom. I've spoken to her at length about her interactions with you. She said that you haven't been paying her any attention. Is that true?
Field Researcher Utonium: She's being grounded for beating up Bunny and lying, and that's part of that.
Psychiatrist Alice: What about before that?
Field Researcher Utonium: I know, I've been spending more time with Bunny - but she's younger, and she needs my help to get her on her feet and come to terms with the reality of being the- the soldier General Blackwater wants.
Psychiatrist Alice: I realize this is tough, but I think you might be overdoing it a little-
Field Researcher Utonium: Don't you START telling me HOW to raise my own kids!
Psychiatrist Alice: Thomas! My God!
Field Researcher Utonium: I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… (cries) It's just- It's all my fault. When I first thought about creating Bunny, I'd thought of her as a- a sacrificial pawn to push forward in place of her older sisters. I regretted thinking that way, but it's too late, and now she's suffering because of me. I could have said no.
Psychiatrist Alice: You were ordered to make Bunny. You couldn't have. You would have been imprisoned for insubordination and half a dozen other charges if you didn't.
Field Researcher Utonium: No, I could have negotiated with General Blackwater. I could have offered an alternative. I didn't. I went for the quickest solution to spare Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup from having to fight crime.
It's all I can do to… atone for my sins. I owe Bunny all the love and attention I can give her. I owe her everything.
Psychiatrist Alice: I understand what you mean… Just- don't be too hard on yourself. You were doing what you thought was best for everyone you love. But Thomas, listen to me, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup need you too. I hesitate to say this, but… Selicia could help you with Bunny, and you could give Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup more time. You see, your decision… your feelings… aren't wrong. They're logical, even - I mean, you're THE Utonium. It's just that Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup didn't see it that way - they couldn't. They're little girls at their core. They're different from us adults and they have different needs, made all the more pressing by their uniquely stressful positions.
Field Researcher Utonium: Maybe you're right… But- I… I just need some time.
Psychiatrist Alice: Listen, at the very least, the good news is that Bubbles seem to be doing better than before, despite her past addiction to this 'His Secret 2.0'. She wasn't even upset that you were spending all your time with Bunny, at least until very recently. It's Buttercup we need to talk about.
Field Researcher Utonium: What did she do this time?
Psychiatrist Alice: It's more about what she hasn't been doing. I couldn't get her to talk at all. That's dangerous. It means she no longer trusts me. It could mean that she has something to hide. How long has it been this way?
Field Researcher Utonium: Days, I think, although I haven't been looking out for that kind of behavior. (pause) Alright, alright, don't give me that look. But I know something has changed with her. She doesn't really want to talk to me either.
Psychiatrist Alice: That just makes it all the more alarming, considering where you stand with her. This concerns me. We know what she's done in the past. She could be doing it again. There's… one other thing. It's the Smiths.
Field Researcher Utonium: What about them?
Psychiatrist Alice: Harold Smith was interrogated over the past few days. He was practically an open book when the interrogation team assigned to him was done and he spilled everything. One of those things was his dog. He claims that the Powerpuff Girls killed the family dog, which was one of the many, many reasons he chose to break into your home.
Field Researcher Utonium: Buttercup did it?
Psychiatrist Alice: I can't say for sure. No one cared about the dog. It was dug up from its grave in the Smiths' backyard only when I ordered it. Someone from the medical department will be performing an autopsy on it soon, but the initial reports suggested that someone 'small' was responsible for its death, based on the wounds inflicted on it.
Field Researcher Utonium: When did it happen? A few days ago? A week?
Psychiatrist Alice: Estimates put it at least three months back, Thomas.
Field Researcher Utonium: Another skeleton in the closet, just like the ones I found. (sighs)
Psychiatrist Alice: She could be hiding more secrets. What I fear is it's more than likely that she could be creating new ones frequently, and right under our noses, and she hasn't stopped. Her latest animal - or human - victim could have expired yesterday for all we know. With her kind of powers, she could easily find a way to sneak past security and into the city to murder someone.
Field Researcher Utonium: She can't be that ambitious. It's not that extreme. It can't be! I've been spending some time with her, to teach her-
Psychiatrist Alice: At least until recently.
(Silence)
Field Researcher Utonium: I know I'm to blame for this…
Psychiatrist Alice: That's not what I'm implying. She would have pushed you away even if you were heaping all your attention on her.
(Silence)
Psychiatrist Alice: Look, there's one way we can solve this. The Anti-X you've created. You could use that on Buttercup-
Field Researcher Utonium: I've already done that once! It made her miserable. Lifeless! I- I think that might have contributed to her withdrawal from the family, or whatever it is you're accusing her of.
Psychiatrist Alice: It'll be different this time. We douse her with the Anti-X and keep her at the USDO HQ for observation and treatment. It's safer this way, and I'll be able to work on her unobstructed and frequently.
Field Researcher Utonium: And what if I say no?
Psychiatrist Alice: Just think about it, Thomas. You know what's best for Buttercup. I just want you to consider it.
Field Researcher Utonium: I will.
The City of Townsville. Outskirts. Precinct 77.
09 MAR (Thursday) 1989. 1836.
Bunny did not expect this at all. What she had expected was another day or two before she could even get close to Feig again, but here she was, standing before Precinct 77 for the second time in a single day.
After finding evidence of Feig's corruption, she returned home following a quick debriefing. However, there wasn't much to come home to. Blossom and Buttercup were ignoring her, and Bubbles had to be pleaded with and dragged along for Bunny to have what passed for a playmate. They continued their chess game. Although the board was kept before they could finish, Bunny was able to remember the positions of all the chess pieces.
It took too fast for Bunny to win however; it was as if Bubbles wasn't even trying. When Bunny asked what was wrong, Bubbles, after several more attempts at coaxing her to speak, would say that she didn't feel like playing with her.
'But why?' Bunny had asked.
'You- You've- changed… I guess," Bubbles had stuttered her way into her explanation. 'I can still remember so clearly what you've done to those men. I still remember your red eyes and I can't stop thinking about them.'
It was as if she had to forcibly stop herself from accusing her of something.
'Blossom, Buttercup, and I… We've done bad things before. I've been terrible before and I know how it's like but… You're- well- worse,' she had said, and it was like one blow of the sledgehammer after the next. 'You hurt Blossom on purpose, and those men… They didn't even look like men anymore…'
Bubbles would have run away there and then had Bunny not held her back. She had ended up pleading with her for a way to return things to how they were. The only answer Bubbles could give her was that it would take time, and only after she had stopped doing bad things.
Bunny couldn't even bring herself to stay in her room after that (not that Blossom would consider the room HER room). Instead, she left her older siblings and hid in the backyard. She remembered Nana telling her about how she would dance whenever she felt terrible, so she tried that. Despite the uneven ground and the snow in the backyard, Bunny was able to do a simple recital, aided by the same X-thrust ability that aided her in flight.
Dad would see it after that, giving her a one-man standing ovation, and when she cried, he comforted her, telling her, in his own words, about what Doctor Alice thought about her future with her older siblings. Bunny would reluctantly return to her room after that, but there would be no fun to be had there. At least, in the professor's words, not yet.
The Powerpuff hotline rang after that, with Rook on the line, asking for her to return to the Outskirts of Townsville right away. Bunny had seen it as a sign, a clue as to what she had to do. If she could end this as quickly as possible, and give it time - she would be back in her sisters' arms, happily ever after.
When she'd reached Rook in the same Motel, her instructions were short and to the point: Kill Feig. It was to be a black operation, and everyone in the precinct must be killed to prevent any news of the operation from getting out.
And now, here she was, standing before Precinct 77 once more, cloaked by her special invisibility power and armed to the teeth. She hadn't just brought along her standard combat gear. She had brought along some additional firepower. An M72 LAW rocket launcher and a batch of plastic explosives.
Walking through the glass doors of the precinct while tailing a group of trenchcoat-wearing detectives, Bunny walked right past reception and deeper into the building, planting plastic explosives along the way whenever no one else was looking. Those plastic explosives were strapped with electronics, wired to detonate using a remote.
She had studied the blueprints of the police station extensively before the operation had begun, and it was in this study that the perfect opening move of her assault was found. Descending a flight of stairs down to the basement of the precinct, she picked the lock barring the way to her very first objective. It didn't take her long, once again, and when she was done, she was met with walls upon walls of power equipment and electronics.
Rook would guide her through the process, but when she was done fiddling with the control board of an electronic security system, the exits of the building were closed off by electronically controlled gates. Bunny would then move over to the power systems before proceeding to rip out the wires and control boxes off the walls.
Darkness fell all across the precinct as anything electrical failed immediately, to be shortly replaced by emergency floodlights painting the corridors of the ill-fated police station red. Shouts and screams erupted throughout the station immediately, as Bunny decloaked herself, in preparation of the bloodbath to come.
The City of Townsville. Outskirts. Precinct 77.
09 MAR (Thursday) 1989. 1844.
Before Detective Mullens had decided to come for Police Chief Paul Feig, he had been working towards the Amoeba Boys at first, first following along with Detective Wednesday's proposal to raid an orphanage with connections to a child sex slavery ring that ostensibly paid a 'protection fee' to the Amoeba Boys and the Lombardi Crime Family, and when that turned out an insufficient link to both the Amoeba Boys and Police Chief Feig due to the use of mirror agents they couldn't trace to the mob bosses and bent cops, they had gone for a drug-smuggling ring after that.
It was another joint cultist-mob operation, a relatively small one with just a few hundred syringes of His Secret, but it was located in the Outskirts where Feig was close to, and the corrupted Police Chief's name was uttered after much… persuasion.
Walking through the front entrances, Detective Garrett Mullens, along with his daughter, Detective Olivia Mullens, as well as Patrol-Dog Stanley Talker, went straight for the front desk, demanding to see Police Chief Feig.
The officer they talked to was in on it, the old detective knew. He was using delaying tactics - claiming that 'the chief is in a meeting', or that 'he is speaking to some important people right now, check back an hour later'. When courtesy didn't work, Mullens shoved his hastily-written warrant for arrest - which wasn't actually a legitimate one.
Police Chief Feig was dangerous, Mullens just knew it. A police chief who was on the payroll of the local dominant mob would be. The fact that his role was unknown made it worse. Mullens knew he had to find out, one way or another, and if it turned out to be a mistake - he'd just let the man go and deal with the consequences later. Sure, Commissioner Davis might force him to turn in his badge and gun for a month or two for holding up one of Townsville's most important police chiefs, but since when did suspension ever stop him from doing his work? If Feig turned out to be innocent, a short suspension was a small price to pay for finding out the nature of such a huge piece of the puzzle.
Mullens thought he had the desk sergeant, but before he could even peek at the crumpled-up paper he had produced, the building went dark before being lit up in hellish red.
That was how it started.
Before Mullens could even make sense of what was going on or plan his moves, explosions behind the reception desks knocked him off his feet. The officers on duty in the lobby were dashed against furniture and pillars, bloody messes to be painstakingly cut open and identified by coroners sometime down the line.
His ears ringing, Mullens was pulled to his feet by Olivia. He pulled his Colt Python out of his trenchcoat, cocking it. Civilians were screaming in the lobby; some huddled in corners they thought were safe, others ran deeper into the police station while a few tried to open the gate barring the front entrance to no avail.
"What's re plan, ross?" Stanley Talker asked as he got lower to the ground, as if ready to pounce on someone or something.
"Who could be attacking a precinct so early in the night?" Olivia wondered out loud; the noise made it hard to think.
"That's for us to find out," Garrett Mullens answered both of them. "Watch my back. We're going in."
The City of Townsville. Outskirts. Precinct 77.
09 MAR (Thursday) 1989. 1845.
After sabotaging the precinct's electrical and electronic systems, Bunny had set off all the plastic explosives she had planted. It should be enough to throw her targets into disarray while she executed the next stage of her plans.
Leaving the power room and crossing over to another door in the basement, she ripped it open and shot a cop sitting behind a desk there with her MP5, killing him instantly. Another cop opened a second door opposite hers with his service pistol drawn, but Bunny shot him too, quickly enough to terminate him while taking only a few bullets that bounced off her armor harmlessly. It didn't even hurt that much because of the protection the armor offered.
The room she had assaulted was a security room, meant to act as a strong point to prevent a breakout of prisoners in the next room. There was a cabinet labeled 'Armory 3'. Bunny flew over to it and tore the doors open, revealing shotguns, pistols, and ammunition inside - but she didn't do it to loot it. Leaving it alone, she passed through the second door. After passing through, she shot and killed another cop with a rain of bullets through his meager cover. The cop had been hiding behind his desk with a shotgun.
Before Bunny was ten or so jail cells, all of which were filled. It was perfect.
Hovering over to the desk, she pulled the freshly-made police corpse out of its hiding spot and left it in front of the desk. Coming back around, she saw a big, red button at a corner of the tabletop. As she had done before in the first precinct she destroyed, she ripped away the safety guard protecting the emergency release button and pushed it. Over ten gates barring more than ten jail cells slid open simultaneously. As if drilled for this, Bunny hid under the table coolly and waited as the criminals streamed out and salvaged weapons from the path of police corpses and the devastated armory cabinet.
Almost immediately, there were gunshots and shouts coming from upstairs. Things were going according to plan.
The City of Townsville. Outskirts. Precinct 77.
09 MAR (Thursday) 1989. 1848.
There were gunshots and shouts coming from below as Detective Mullens, Olivia, and Stanley Talker went deeper into the precinct. Men ran up a flight of stairs leading down, and the moment they saw the Mullens family and their intelligent service dog, they opened fire with their stolen guns. The detectives and talking dog ducked into cover in branching off corridors, with the detectives returning fire.
Criminals. One look and Mullens could tell. Four decades of service had made it second nature. The detective took another peek out of the corner. One of them was down but not dead, and he was screaming and writhing on the floor. There were more gunshots and shouts down the hallway.
"A jailbreak!?" Olivia shouted from the corridor opposite his.
"Looks like it!" the older Mullens concurred.
"Rhat's re plan?" the talking dog asked again.
"We're bagging them," the old detective decided. "We'll crawl slow, we'll do better if we avoid friendly fire with the seventy-seventh officers. We'll move on my go." Mullens raised three fingers, counting down by curling them. Three… Two…
Before he could hit one, however, something purple floated to the middle of the corridor they were peeking at, an MP5 pointed forward. Mullens hid immediately, shocked by the sudden appearance of that ghoulish thing. For some reason, the first thing that popped up in his mind was a ghost. He raised his hand at his daughter and dog to get them to stop, before putting a finger on his lips to shush them.
He peeked again. The floating thing turned out to be a being like the Powerpuff Girls. Come to think of it, he had read about the 'fourth Powerpuff Girl' in the newspaper and seen the news report on the TV. Mullens couldn't speak to Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup about her because they'd stopped meeting. The detective couldn't risk drawing attention from the Lombardi, and he'd suspected of the Powerpuff Girls of working with them in some capacity.
The purple Girl was larger than the Powerpuff Girls and far better equipped. Before he knew it, she had zipped away deeper into the precinct.
The City of Townsville. Outskirts. Precinct 77.
09 MAR (Thursday) 1989. 1849.
Bunny followed the sound of the firefight between police officers and their prisoners. Bringing up her x-ray vision, she saw several detectives and about ten cops trapped in the ground level office, with prisoners shooting from doors and windows. The cops were quickly becoming encircled. Staring off into the distance, she saw one or two criminals still trying to open security shutters blocking a side entrance to no avail.
This meant that over twenty targets were distracted, an opportunity she could not pass up. Flying over to one window looking into the office and flanking the cops, she poked her head out and fired twin laser beams from her eyes, at first taking off the arm of an officer before beheading another.
It didn't matter that the cops noticed her after that. One of them fired a shotgun at her, which stung, but when the cop responsible hid behind his desk, she drilled through it with her laser beam, and consequently, through him, which probably stung worse.
More firepower was directed at her after that. The police officers were quickly getting overwhelmed from all sides as the prisoners continued firing upon them. Bunny hid under her window, but there was no rest for her, for when a prisoner rounded the corner and raised his stolen pistol at her, she fired at him with her SMG, killing him. Another prisoner took cover in the corridor perpendicular to hers, popping off quick shots at her. She shielded her face with her arm, and the bullets did nothing, for a bubble-like purple energy shield appeared.
Was it a new power? There was no time to wonder, or investigate it, or enjoy it. Pulling a fragmentary grenade off her vest, Bunny primed it and hurled it. The grenade bounced off the wall, hard. It'd made sure that the prisoners wouldn't be picking it up anytime soon. There was a shout, then many before there was an explosion, then silence.
She spied on the prisoners with her x-ray vision. Four, five of them were caught in the blast. Four of them weren't moving, A fifth was rolling on the ground, clutching a severed arm.
Bunny returned to firing on the cops after that, splitting a cop's head from ear to ear with her laser beam the moment he poked out. A detective returned fire with a shotgun, but Bunny had caught him too, cutting his shotgun in half as well as his arms.
However, the enhanced Girl was beginning to tire. Vaulting over the window, she navigated the maze in the office formed by desks and crashed straight into one used by a still-living cop, pushing it into another, pinning the cop in between. There was a loud, bony crack as the cop's spine was shattered. She continued pushing, crushing the cop even further. He eventually died from extensive trauma.
Another cop poked out of his cover and unloaded his machine-pistol at her. Again, she raised her arm, and again, she somehow managed to form a purple energy shield without practice. However, there were too many bullets. The energy shield broke; the rest of the bullets slammed into her and she returned to cover. It might not have wounded her, but the sensation was no different from getting stung by a swarm of bees, if not worst.
Bunny was already beginning to feel faint from exhaustion and pain. It was too soon, but it was a fact she had to live with ever since she began feeling sick.
Drawing Ace's sword, Bunny dashed down the office. The officer shooting at her had been reloading, and he panicked and ran upon seeing her coming at him with a sword. Taking a swing, Bunny severed his right leg, causing him to miss a step and fall. She plunged the sword into his back after that, piercing his heart. There was another officer down the office, the only one left. On noticing that fact, the policewoman hid behind her desk.
Bunny did not wait. Rushing up to the desk, she drove her sword into it, penetrating the back of the desk and the shoulder of the policewoman hiding behind it. There was a hollow scream from inside the desk. Withdrawing the blade, she drove the sword in again, this time putting it through the back of the cop's head, which exited through her mouth. Blood was seeping out of the holes Bunny made in the desk when she withdrew her sword as if the desk was bleeding, painting the back panel and the floor red. Bunny's eyes were turning red without her noticing.
Unbeknownst to her, she was being watched by none other than Detective Mullens, Olivia, and Stanley Talker. Horrified, they withdrew. They had followed the fourth Powerpuff Girl, believing that she was a friend, but the opposite turned out to be true. Some of the cops she killed were corrupt, but not all of them.
Garrett Mullens was no stranger to black operations. The Townsville Police Department, both the just and corrupt halves of the law enforcement agency, had conducted a fair few all on their own. He knew right from the start what was going on. The USDO was behind this, and they had traced the same breadcrumbs to Feig as them. Unlike him, however, they wanted Feig dead, while Garrett planned to have him arrested, interrogated, and put away in a far-flung prison for the rest of his life.
While Bunny was mopping up the remainder of the prisoners, Detective Mullens led his crew back towards the lobby - it was the safest place he could think of, and there were people there who needed his help.
After gunning down the last of the prisoners, Bunny threw a look over her shoulder, sure that there was some movement behind her. Bringing up x-ray vision, she sighted a man and a woman in trenchcoats, and a K-9 unit dog retreating back towards the lobby. The lobby was still filled with living people, witnesses to the black operation in progress, making them liabilities to be eliminated.
She knew who her next targets were now.