Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce….

This time? This time? THIS time?

I felt like a bee trapped behind a window, one that keeps charging at the invisible barrier again and again, hoping that the next try would be the lucky one; the one to take it to freedom. But I didn't actually have any hope on that subject; not like I was dumb enough. I kept on trying because I didn't believe it; I was hoping that it was all just a dream and I would wake up in my recycling bin bed if I hit my head hard enough; I'd be stiff, cold and sore, but free. I was being delusional; it's not like that would actually happen anyhow. My ignorance quickly boiled up into fury and I let loose the loudest shriek of rage that I could, throwing my body against the walls of my prison one last time. Bounce. I was once again thrown right back where I started, exhausted, disgusting, aching, and incredulous, sprawled across the cold, shiny black floor like a dead guy who'd been shot down in battle. Now officially defeated, I listened to the sound of my heavy, raspy breathing as I lay there, staring at the glowing blue-green bars of the twisting cage of electricity that surrounded me. That stupid, fucking thing from hell. I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling my stomach tighten again with rage and despair. Rotten, disgusting monkey… Betraying me like a worthless piece of CRAP… I should've guessed that he would do something like this; why was I so stupid? Well, there was nothing I could do now; I was stuck here. For God knows how long. Shit….

I stared at the high, silver, domed ceiling through the stupid glowing, crackling bars of the cage, cursing that chimp to the deepest, darkest depths of hell, when I heard tapping footsteps echoing on the smooth floor and I sat up immediately, hitting my head on the roof of my cage. Bounce.

And it was that same damn chimp who'd done this to me in the first place. Mojo Jojo; standing less than three feet from my prison, a horrible haughty expression on his stupid mug. I sat up again, this time more slowly, and growled at him, trying to bore my eyes into him like I was trying to impale him with them. The rage boiled inside of me until I let out a thundering roar like a lion and charged for him, only to bounce off of the cage bars and tumble back onto the floor, just like all those other times. As I rubbed my throbbing head, snarling ferociously, Mojo laughed softly. The nerve of that ass. My eyes snapped open and I glared at him as viciously as I could, wishing my gaze would melt him into a smelly green puddle, and then I would splash in it and stomp on it until it was gone.

We stared at each other for a few moments, Mojo smug and smiling down at me, horribly triumphant, and I enraged, my teeth clenched in what I hoped was the most brutal snarl ever, my eyes twitching with fury.

"Why did you…why…?!" I burst out, stammering in my anger and disbelief.

"Yes?" Mojo replied cheerfully. He was doing his best to get a reaction out of me; I could tell.

"Why'd you even do this to me?!" I hollered, my eyes flashing and my livid voice echoing off of the glossy, black walls and hovering in the icy cold air. "I thought you gave a damn about me!"

"And what in all of your few experiences and in your primitive and inaccurate processor in your lump you call a brain caused you to think that?" Mojo asked calmly. Clever move. But I ground my teeth and held in the storm of cuss words and curses that threatened to burst out of my mouth.

"Weeeell…." I sarcastically stretched the word. "You spent that whole stupid Father's Day fighting over me and my brothers; against that badass Him."

"That is very true, and in other words, those are the exact events that occurred at that place and time."

I rolled my eyes.

"But you are missing one very important detail without which the whole entire story makes no sense what so ever!" Mojo continued, raising his voice a bit and crossing his arms irritably. "Because you and the boys whom you call your brothers were not present at the time at which that very important detail without which the whole entire story makes no sense occurred! And since your body was not present at the precise time and place at which the very important detail without which the whole entire story does not make sense occurred, you did not witness the crucial event, therefore the story, of course, makes no sense what so ever to you!"

"I get the point." I grumbled. "Just tell me what the stupid event is, then."

"You and those dimwits you call your brothers did not agree with me, therefore you did not side with my arguments and defenses! You favored the arguments and defenses of that scoundrel, Him, not the arguments and defenses of poor, poor Mojo, who was your original creator, and the source of the originality which lead to the creation of you."

He shook his head as my mouth dropped open so far that my jaw probably hit the floor. On that Father's Day, Him and Mojo had been yelling their heads off at each other, because they were both fighting over who was our real dad. So they did a whole bunch of weird stuff to prove to me and my bros who was eviler (not like we cared). It was cool at first, when we rode in that big ol' pickle balloon thing and when we got to command this freakin' huge battle robot, but then it started to get old. So Brick yelled at them like usual and told them that we didn't care who was eviler, and we went away.

"We didn't favor that damn lobster lady-man bitch!!" I yelled, feelings of hatred towards Him igniting inside of me, as if lighter fluid had been thrown on old ashes.

"You are not understanding what I am trying to tell to you, boy!" Mojo screamed. "Him told to me after you had left our presence that he had taken you into his care and that you were now taking up residence in his home." Mojo sneered that last word. "You were already in his possession and I had lost the whole entire argument on which I had expelled all of my energy on during the whole course of the day!"

I didn't know what to say; my words were caught in my throat. My brothers and I had been brought into our 2nd and current life by Him, who had revived us inside his house; hell, actually. (So I really was born in hell) But he was nothing but a huge bitch that used us and beat us like pack animals. (Thank god we'd destroyed him) I'd much rather live with Mojo if I'd had to choose between them.

"We didn't like Him better!" I cried out, my voice strangled in desperation. "That bitch beat us to bloody pulps, for Pete's sake! More than once! He almost fucking KILLED my brother!! And he spanked my ass…." The details of that lovely incident sprang back into my mind and stuck out their tongues at me.

"You are the boys of that horrible, damn devil creature." Mojo stated as if it were carved in stone. "You are no sons of mine."

And he turned and strode out of the room, his long, purple velvet cape billowing behind him, until he vanished through the far doorway and was swallowed up by the heavy darkness.

**************************

I felt as lost as heck that night; even worse then I'd felt that first night on my own, when I'd met that bum guy in the alley. It was impossible to sleep; the floor was hard as hell and ice cold, the machines in the place were beeping and humming and clanking annoyingly, the crickets were chirping an earsplitting, out of tune sonata, and Mojo was snoring like a huge wood chipper. So I sat with my butt frozen and numb on the floor, my eyes wide open, staring through the buzzing and twisting electric bars of my cage and looking out a window that was on the other side of the pitch black room (ok; so a little bit of green glow from my cage and the machines was there…) Out the long, oval shaped, darkly tinted window, I could see the Townsville skyline, sparkling and shimmering, and the starry sky above it, twinkling like little winking eyes. A feeling of icy cold dread and hopelessness suddenly gripped my gut; it was as if those happy, winking stars were mocking me. They were as free as you could imagine, scattered billions of light-years away from each other, sparking like gems and fearlessly roaming the universe like it was their backyard, while I was shut up in a little tiny, electric cage that I couldn't even stand up in; like a stupid hamster or something. And no one cared; not my brothers, not my dad (he wouldn't if he wasn't destroyed), not even Professor or…Buttercup. The dams blocking my tear ducts suddenly burst, and my wide empty eyes were suddenly flooding with hot tears; silent hot tears. I just sat there, in the exact same position, staring blankly out the window like a lost soul, fat, glittering tears oozing out of my wide eyes and running thickly down my face, splattering my clothes and the glossy floor. And I couldn't stop; I just couldn't. I'd always been able to restrain my tears before, so I wouldn't look like a blithering idiot, but this time I couldn't; it was like I didn't even have control over myself anymore. I guess I didn't anyways. And as I was realizing that, my head slumped over and I collapsed onto the floor in a blubbering heap, as if Professor Lockhart from Harry Potter had just removed all of my bones by accident. I stayed like that for the rest of the night, sprawled on my side, my eyes staring like blank TVs, my hair flopping this way and that, covered all over with bloodstains and filth, and tears crawling on my skin like little ants.

*****************************

I was running and running and running, over a never ending, flat white plain that looked sort of like a giant piece of blank paper, and ghostly, white mist hung in the air like a thick blanket. One leg in front of the other, foom foom foom… but it was weird; I couldn't even hear any sound as my feet thumped on the ground. It was perfectly silent. My breath was coming fast and raspy, and my hair was blowing gently in the soft air. I was running like a maniac, as fast as I could, but I didn't seem to be moving a darn inch; the scenery around me wasn't changing. Panic started to blossom inside of me, but then I saw a figure float out the mist, a good distance in front of me; it was Buttercup. My pounding heart stopped completely; she looked like a saint, her short hair billowing angelically around her sunny, beautifully smiling face, her crystal green eyes twinkling like stars and her dress flowing like air. Her glistening eyes met mine and her already sunny face brightened up drastically, and then she threw her arms out in my direction; my mouth dropped open. And then I ran faster, my legs thrashing as fast as I could move them; zoom zoom zoom. Sweat broke out on my face and the wind buffeted me like heck, but I still wasn't going anywhere. Buttercup remained the same distance away. I started to panic, dashing faster and faster and faster still, until…a burning pain sliced into my head like a gigantic knife, and it threw me off of my feet as if it were a physical force. I slammed into the ground on my face, after sailing through the air and flailing my arms and screaming like an idiot. I struggled to get back on my feet, my breath stuck in my throat, but the pain burned me in a big horrible burst; I shrieked and collapsed back onto the floor. And before I could restart my heart, it was upon me, scorching my whole body like a billion fire ants biting me all over, like I was being burned to a crisp in an oven… I couldn't feel; I couldn't see…

********************

The little black haired boy sat up like a zombie awakening from the dead, his emerald eyes glinting evilly and a huge, demented grin on his face. But it faded almost immediately when he saw where he was; in a tiny cage with bolt of twisting and buzzing eerie blue electricity for bars. His mind flew into a rage and he lost it; he started throwing himself wildly against the bars, screaming shrilly and madly as he did. But no matter how hard the boy tried, he couldn't break through; every time he touched the bars, he bounced off of them and was thrown back onto the hard, smooth floor. He couldn't…Why couldn't he? The boy shrieked in pure fury and jerked his hands up to his head, seizing two handfuls of his hair and ripping them out, almost thirsting for the stinging pain. His mind engulfed with unfathomable ferocity, he jerked his head down like a striking cobra and sunk his teeth into his own arm, growling like a tiger with rabies, ripping through the filthy sleeve and tearing into the skin, shining red drops of blood spurting out. He pulled his head away from his skin and laughed dementedly at the scarlet rivers oozing out if his arm and dripping to the floor, the injury burning with agony. The boys hissed like a snake and opened his bloody mouth wide, but before his could bite himself again, there was a fizzing sound and then a pop, and the electrical cage bars vanished; the boy was free. He leapt to his feet immediately and cackled evilly, his eyes flashing a sinister burgundy, ignoring the warm blood trickling from the bite on his arm. Then he heard soft pattering footsteps approaching him out of the blackness and he froze, his crazed eyes fixed on that patch of black in the pitch dark room with its high, domed ceiling. And his father stepped into the silvery moonlight that spilled through one of the long, oval shaped, dark windows on the other side of the room and washed onto the patch of glossy black floor where the boy stood. His father was beaming proudly at him, a promising gleam in his eyes; the boy's face lit up into a sinister smile, and his body began to twitch uncontrollably.

"What's we gonna do Daddy-O? What's we gonna do Daddy-O? What's we gonna do Daddy-O? What's we gonna do Daddy-O? What's we gonna do Daddy-O?" the black haired boy chanted, his tongue dangling out of the corner of his mouth and his emerald eyes gleaming evilly in the pale beam of moonlight illuminating his crazy face.

"I have a task of which you must accompany me on, my dear boy." The boy's father, Mojo Jojo, said calmly and kindly. The boy clapped his hands together, chuckling in a high and psychotic tone, his whole face brightening and his head nodding very quickly. "We are going to rob a bank, son."

"BANK!!" the boy screeched, jumping up and down, and his eyes sparkling.

"Yes…" Mojo said coolly. "And I need you to help me take out the ones who try to stop us, in others words, get in our way and try to keep us from achieving what we wish to achieve. Can you do that?"

The boy nodded even faster, the black spikes of hair on his head flopping back and forth.

"Good; very, very good. Let us go, then?" Mojo gestured in the darkness, towards his front door, a smile on his face. The emerald eyed boy let out a shout of delight, seized his father by the hand, and took off in a bright streak of green, zooming up, crashing through the black, domed roof of Mojo's hideout and zooming into the vast night sky that stretched into infinity above them, washed with swirling inky blackness and scattered with twinkling stars, glistening and glittering like diamond dust. Mojo glanced exasperatedly back at the dark, gaping hole in his ceiling as he and the black haired boy soared over the glittering night cityscape, the cool, fresh night air curling around them; Mojo would have to fix his ceiling again. He sighed softly, hoping the emerald eyed boy wouldn't notice.

*****************************

I awoke with a start, almost as if the stupid alarm clock in our room had gone off, announcing the beginning of another rotten school day. Another Monday? Groan groan groan…. I shakily sat up, annoyed, and when my eyes opened and I saw where I was, despair clouded over me again; I was still in the electric cage, sitting in Mojo's gloomy hideout. I'd rather be going to school than still be locked up in this hellhole; now that's saying something. I yawned, rubbing my eyes, and looked around. It looked like early morning, judging by the faint, light glowing in the light navy sky out the big, oval shaped windows; maybe like 5 o' clock. In the morning. Groan groan groan… The fatigue tugged at my heavy eyelids and my tired, aching body, so I lay back down on the hard floor and curled up, trying to get back to sleep. But after I got myself settled, my eyes popped open and I sat up in a swift, fluid movement and scanned the lair in awe, my eyes huge and confused. The whole place looked as if it had been flooded…with cold hard cash. All the bills formed a huge green sea that coated the whole rotten place from top to bottom; there were also stacks and stacks of shining coins. Mojo was living in a goldmine! A look of incredulity and suspicion washed over my face; just where the heck did Mojo get all this cash?! A really gigantic bank account withdrawal? No; since when did Mojo the Motormouth ever keep his bucks in the bank? He was always robbing the bank!

Before I had the chance to think any more, in came Mojo, from his bedroom door, humming cheerfully and eyeing all of his money with satisfaction. He stopped right in front of my cage, put his hands on his hips, sighed deeply and deliberately (as if he were sniffing the aroma of all of the money) and looked right at me, a smug smile on his filthy face. I shot him an evil glare, complete with narrow menacing eyes and a ferocious snarl. Was he trying to annoy me on purpose? Probably.

"Mojo had an extremely successful night on the night before this day, and it was full of large amounts of success." Mojo boasted, still looking at me in that funny way.

"I can see that." I muttered under my breath. And we stared at each other for a few moments; Mojo still with that weird look on his face.

"Geez; will you STOP DOING THAT?!" I burst out, irritated. "You're freaking me out!"

Mojo grinned; it was an evil grin.

"I owe you a big statement of gratitude, boy, for one only gets big statements of gratitude when they have assisted someone else in a very helpful matter, and that is what you have done for me. "

I just blinked at him stupidly.

"What..??"

"I owe my night of success wholly and completely to you; without you my night of success could not have occurred, and therefore I owe you a grand statement of gratitude."

"English please."

Mojo groaned and said very simply:

"You are the reason for my success."

Those seven words hit me like a tsunami; I froze, stock still, my eyes wide and blank and staring straight forward.

"WHAT?!!!" I broke out of my state of stupor with bewilderment. Mojo's mouth curled into a horrible smile; he was enjoying this, that smutty creep. "What do you…? How…? I mean I was just sleeping here…And…What…?"

Somewhere in my idiotic rant, the truth hit me with the force of several tons of concrete. I'd gone insane again, probably when I was asleep, and somehow my insane self had helped him rob the bank or something. Oh my God.

"No…this can't be happening…I…I was..UUUHH!" I broke down on that last word, throwing my hands over my face and curling up into a little ball, like one of those pill bug things that Bubbles hated. And I just lay there, screaming and screaming and screaming; Mojo was using me. And I wouldn't know what horrible thing he'd made me do until I woke up. Maybe he'd make me hurt the Mayor, or my brothers, or…..Buttercup. I started to hyperventilate. The image of Buttercup, all twisted and broken and spurting blood everywhere burst into my head and flashed at me like a neon sign. I shrieked like a mad banshee, my hands snaking up to my head and gripping some of my spiky hair as my whole body writhed and thrashed; there was a sudden pain like a flash of fire and a ripping sound and my hands were full of loose, disheveled black hair. My mind was lost in the cloud of horror and disbelief; I started to throw myself against the bars of my cage again, just like I had when I'd first gotten caught. Bounce, bounce, bounce.

"NO!!" Bounce, bounce. "NO!" Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce. "NO! NO! NO!" Bounce. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Zap. Now I definitely hadn't been expecting that. Pain coursed through my writhing body like a white hot snake as I was shocked with millions of volts of zapping electricity, (Ok; not millions…) and I was screaming and screeching like a mad person, which I guess I was. Officially. When I hit the floor with a crash, dazed and hurting like heck from the shock, I began to tremble uncontrollably, hot tears bursting from my eyes and pouring down my gritty face like a waterfall. How…? How could this be happening to me? I just lay there for God knows how long, bawling and crying and weeping and snorting, and Mojo just left, satisfied.

********************************

Do you think this is bad? Well, you better. And get this; as impossible as it seems, it got worse. Mojo kept on making me do stuff, mainly hold up joints like the jewelry shop and the museum, but once he took me to rob a bakery because he was all out of his favorite rolls. Jerkwad. And did I get anything?; heck no. I'm the one starving and locked up 24/7 in a stupid, tiny cage, and I don't even get any food? You can imagine that scene; Mojo reclining in his easy chair and eating his rolls, listening to classical music, while I was giving him looks of death and cursing him under my breath, my stomach rumbling like an earthquake, and my whole body hurting from being cramped up in that minuscule cage for too long.

One thing I thought was weird was that we never seemed to run into the Powerpuff Girls (and my two brothers) when we were on our little criminal escapades. Why weren't they ever around?; as far as I knew, the Powerpuff Girls were always around when bad guys were doing their stuff. Did they know what situation I was in, anyway? Did Buttercup know? I hoped she wasn't still mad at me for freaking her out. During those long, endless, cold nights of gloom and doom and captivity, I couldn't stop my mind from wandering to her. I dwelled on it all; her punches, her kicks, her sarcastic jokes, her blankie, the way her eyes sparkled when she was truly happy… I usually broke down at this point, and my eyes would flood with tears; how long had it been since I'd seen Buttercup? How long had I been a prisoner in this stupid cage? How long had it been since I'd eaten like a pig at Bravo Burgers? (a vivid memory of a 'how many hamburgers can you eat' contest between me and Bubbles came into focus in my head; it had ended with Bubbles having to visit the pediatrician.) How long had it been since my life was normal? Well; normal for me anyways… Would it be like this forever? At that prospect I completely and totally broke down; to the point where I had to wring out my shirt and buckets of salty tears squirted out. At least it washed out some of that crap on it; blood, dirt, vomit… etc.(you don't want any more details on this.)

So yeah; you probably get the point. (if you don't, I'll hunt you down and smack you) My life in Mojo's slave drive sucked crap. I seriously didn't think it was capable of getting any worse. But boy, was I ever wrong.

******************************

It was just another day in the hamster cage, just laying there on my back like a useless lump, staring at the same old ceiling like a blithering idiot. I couldn't feel my extremities; my arms and legs were like worthless, aching lumps of meat, tortured with shooting pain from being cramped up for so long. I thought about the good old days where I would be running free like a maniac, loading myself with sugar and playing video games with Buttercup and pigging out at Bravo Burgers and just being me. I glanced through the crackling bars of my cage out one of the big, oval windows; it was a wonderful day, the sun shining like a golden lava lamp, the sky was wide and clear as a clean windshield, the skyscrapers glittering like toys in the light, and the green trees rustling gently from the refreshing spring breeze. Despair clutched at me again, so I rolled over on my side and pressed my cheek to the hard, cold floor, every inch of my body throbbing with dull, burning pain; I couldn't stand looking outside when I was stuck in this hellhole, like a goldfish in a clear tank. My stomach was almost constantly growling; Mojo was starving me. And I wasn't exaggerating the least bit; I couldn't even remember the last time I had eaten. Grroowwwll… My stomach rumbled like an engine almost, aching with empty hunger; I clutched it and squeezed my eyes shut, the pain almost overwhelming me for a second. Rowdyruff Boy indeed….the sarcastic voice in the back of my head sneered. You're breaking down from just laying there in that cage like a pathetic lump? Loser. I'm not a loser; I'm not, I protested. I just can't… My throat seized up and I started to cry again; I didn't even try to hold this in anymore. Who the heck was there to care, anyway? And when the burning pain suddenly erupted in my head and began its usual crushing thing, I didn't even care. I just lay there, my body twisting and jerking with no feeling, almost oblivious to the whole thing as the fiery pain enveloped me like a twig in a bonfire. Who cares…who cares…

*************************

The black haired boy sat up like a rigid board, his eyes alight with that usual malicious, crazed glow. But his face fell when he saw where he was; that stupid, glowy cage again. His face twisted with fury, he yelled at the top of his lungs:

"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And the cage vanished with a little 'pfft'. The boy smiled his mad and toothy smile, jumping to his feet and scampering across the room like a rodent, his spiky black hair bouncing as he did.

"Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!" he yelled, bouncing up and down impatiently, his limbs twitching and jerking frenziedly. Mojo stepped out of the kitchen door and strode into the room towards his crazy little son, looking purely overjoyed.

"I have something very fun and enjoyable for us to do at this current time!" Mojo exclaimed, his finger pointed and his hand held up in an exclamatory gesture. The black haired boy's emerald eyes bugged out and his tongue lolled out of his mouth as he began to pant, almost like a dog.

"What? What? What? What?"

"We're going to…litter the park!"

The boy's face fell.

"That's not fun!" he complained, slumping his shoulders like an exhausted gorilla.

"Why, yes it will be, my dear boy…" Mojo leaned down so that his face was right next to the side of the boy's head and he whispered something; the boy's frown curled into a sinister, demented smirk as he listened.

"Hee hee hee hee; let's GO!" the boy screeched right after Mojo had told him the whole plan; Mojo beamed proudly, snatched a big trash bag full of garbage, and grabbed onto the boy's hand. The boy laughed dementedly and took off like a green firework sparkler, speeding towards the curved, dark roof and the clear, sunny skies above it.

"STOP!!" Mojo suddenly burst out, sounding desperate and throwing out his free hand frantically; the boy shuddered to a halt, stopping only inches away from the roof. He threw a puzzled glance back at Mojo, who looked nothing short of exasperated.

"Please do not crash though Mojo's roof..." Mojo pleaded, speaking very quickly with a soft, high voice and jabbing his finger down towards the front door. The boy obediently flew down and crashed through the door and burst into the warm, pleasant spring air, laughing joyfully, his eyes sparkling dementedly. Mojo groaned, slapping his forehead with his free hand; now he had a door to fix instead of his roof.

After a short trip through the balmy skies, the boy and Mojo landed in the middle of the massive, green fields of Townsville Park, the pungent odor of freshly cut grass lingering in the lukewarm air. The boy immediately got to work; he snatched the bag out of Mojo's hand and tore some trash out, throwing it high into the air like confetti and cheering. Mojo took some trash and spread it across the grass while the emerald eyed boy continued to toss it into the air in a green blur, playing catch and kickball with some of the big pieces. Mojo grinned as he watched his son and littered the field with a carpet of junk, keeping a watchful eye on the clear, crystal blue sky. And sure enough, after a few minutes, Mojo saw what he was looking for; five vivid streaks of light zooming up out from behind the distant, glittering city skyline and soaring like jet planes towards them; one streak pink, one light blue, one light green, and one red. Perfect.

A few more minutes and the four approaching streaks reached the wide skies high over Townville Park, curving downward and zooming down through the balmy air towards the grassy ground, and the litterers that they were after.

"Here they come!" Mojo shouted excitedly to his son, who immediately stopped throwing trash and twisted his head up toward the incoming streaks, a huge, menacing grin plastered on his face. Before the four figures even touched the grass, the green eyed boy hit them all with his laser eye beams, throwing them all off course; they staggered to the ground dizzily. When the smoke from the lasers cleared, all four newcomers' eyes fell upon the black haired boy and they gasped in unison; the boy laughed delightedly, recognizing these people as well. They were a redheaded boy with a backwards red baseball cap and a long ponytail, a redheaded girl with pink eyes and a large red bow, a black haired girl with brilliant light green eyes, and a girl with bouncy blonde pigtails and sky blue eyes. The black haired boy charged at them, still smirking, but they scattered and got out of harm's way just in time.

"Remember the plan!" the redheaded girl shouted to her companions in the moment of the black haired boy's confusion. What the plan was, the emerald eyed boy didn't care; he flew like a comet at the blonde girl, swinging his fist at her in an attempted punch. She ducked, her pigtails flying, and she countered with a sharp kick that caught the boy haired boy in the stomach. Then a jet of crackling, yellow zapped through the air and nearly hit the blonde girl; she shrieked and leapt out of the way, her head swiveling around to see who her attacker was as soon as she was out of range of the laser. Mojo stood there, cackling and cocking a bright red laser gun into the sky. He then swung around and fired his gun at the redheaded boy, who wasn't paying attention at the moment; the boy was too busy staring in awe and bewilderment at the emerald eyed boy, who was jumping up and down, beating his chest like a gorilla and howling in delight.

"Brick!!" the redheaded girl screamed, throwing her hand out in horror. But it was too late; by the time Brick turned in her direction, his expression confused, the blinding beam of jagged light had reached him, hitting him squarely in the chest and knocking the air out of him. He grunted and crumpled to the ground like a bird shot by a hunter; he tumbled onto the rippling grass and lay motionless, his baseball cap askew. The redheaded girl gasped in horror, but she left Brick there; she now had a good idea of what she was up against.

"Don't let that laser hit you!" she ordered, and then she twisted around in midair, her long ponytail swirling like a cape, and she dive bombed down through the sky, right at Mojo, who laughed and aimed his gun at her. Just as he pulled the trigger with an electrical zapping sound, the redheaded girl rolled in midair, twisting out of range; the yellow beam hit a nearby oak tree that exploded in a cloud of thick, acrid smoke as if it had been hit by lightning, scattering the surrounding grass with fragments of wood and other debris. The redhead motioned for the blonde girl to join her, and the girl obeyed, zooming downward and lunging at Mojo as the redhead did the same. Soon, both girls were zooming in circles around Mojo like large, multicolored flies; he fired his gun randomly at them, irritated.

The crazy black haired boy cackled happily and stepped towards his father, going to help, when he was seized from behind by a strong hand and rammed face first into the grass. Sputtering and panting and his eyes flashing madly, the boy propped himself up with his arms and spun his head around to see who his attacker was; it was the black haired girl, who was standing a few feet behind him, breathing heavily, her fists held up in front of her in a defensive pose and her knees bent, her light green eyes narrowed and her teeth gritted, her short black hair whipping in the breeze. A challenge; the emerald eyed boy sprang back onto his feet, smirking with glee, and then he threw a powerful punch at the brunette's face. She blocked it expertly and immediately with one arm, and then she aimed a jabbing kick at him at the same time. It hit him in the knee, knocking him off his feet and sending him sprawling through the air, his eyes wide in bafflement. Then the brunette joined her hands together in front of her and shot a green burst of light energy from them, heading straight at the spinning black haired boy, who quickly joined his own hands together; there was an electric crackling sound and a green, glowing sphere formed around him, the brunette's beam bouncing harmlessly off of it and hitting the grass, frying it to a charred black heap. The black haired boy giggled triumphantly and thumped on his feet onto the grassy ground; the brunette hit him with her green laser eye beams before he could think, knocking him flat onto his back with a grunt of pain. She then rushed at him in a green blur, zooming over him, her right arm drawn back in an incoming punch; the boy on the ground threw up his arms and blocked her at the last second, snarling like an animal, his eyes and his hair wild. Their arms pressed tightly against each other, the two kids pushed and pushed, like a shoving match, one attempting to overpower the other. And suddenly the brunette froze, her eyes widening as she stared down at the demented boy struggling underneath her; she stopped fighting altogether for a second, but that second was enough. The boy rammed his arms against hers as hard as he could, letting out a warrior cry as he did; she was knocked backward, sailing through the air like a green ping pong ball and crashing onto the grass like a falling meteorite. And before she could blink, the crazy boy was upon her, pummeling every inch of her that he could reach; punch, kick, slap, kick, zap; it was all a green blur. Harder, faster… The crazy boy began to cackle like a mad chimpanzee, his emerald eyes alight with a malicious, demented glow. More blood…more…more…

*****************************

I groaned, stretching out my aching arms and legs; there was a loud crack as I felt my elbows pop. Yawning, I opened my heavy eyes and scanned my surroundings, slumping dejectedly when I saw that I was still in the same cage, in Mojo's stupid hideout, and it was still sunny and beautiful outside. Damn. Muttering under my breath, I reached up with my hands to rub my face, and I froze like a Popsicle; my hands were covered in blood. There was a high pitched scream that tore the air, and it took me a second to realize that it was mine.

"Holy sh…what the heck happened!?" I screeched.

"I believe that I can answer that."

I spun around with a terrified expression that immediately faded into a furious one when I saw who was standing next to my cage, a horribly triumphant look plastered on his face.

"Wha…??"

Mojo shoved a newspaper that he had been holding in his hand, though the bars and it snatched it, my jaw dropping open and my eyes widening to the size of moons when I saw the cover photo.

It was Buttercup, and she was in the hospital. (I hate hospitals) But that wasn't the worst of it; her face was a blotchy mess, so cut up, swollen, and bandaged that you could barely see any of her skin. Beside her bed, the others stood, Boomer, still dressed in his hospital gown with the bandage still on his chest and in a wheelchair, Blossom and Bubbles, both in tears, and Brick, looking horrified, a bandage wrapped around his head. Since when had he had that there? The large, blaring article title read: Buttercup Utonium seriously injured in battle.

My heart lurched; I was too stunned to move. I turned my head slowly towards Mojo, my body shaking.

"Is this….??" My voice was trembling and abnormally high pitched. And then I broke down, bawling like a little baby and rolling all over the floor like a suffocating fish. It couldn't be….No…

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Mojo laughing, Buttercup's blood on my hands…I couldn't live like this anymore. My brain crashing like a computer, my hand grabbed hold of the skin on my arm in a green flash and yanked fiercely; I screamed crazily and there was a white hot flash of agony, and then blood was gushing from the huge gash in my arm, the skin literally torn away like paper.

Mojo's smile disappeared and a look of complete terror replaced it.

Before I knew what was happening, there was a horrible slash of pain and my leg was bleeding as well. Shrieking like a banshee, I reached for my uninjured arm and then…

There was a loud bang and I was on my face on the floor, acrid smoke billowing through the air. Noo…Noo…

And then I was out.