Also: There's a piece of music I think will go well with this story. You mayn't see why yet, but I suggest "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden.
By Gregory Cooper
Chapter 1: Enemies at the Gate
"Hello girls, how has your day been?" asked Professor Utonium, the Powerpuff Girls father, as they flew into the house one late afternoon.
"Painful..." said Blossom, as she flew by and straight up to her room. Blossom was the smartest of the three Powerpuff Girls, as well as being their leader and unofficial "mum". At the age of 6, she and her sisters looked deceptively small and naïve, a fact they had often used to their advantage in the fight against crime and the forces of evil, as well as against the monsters from nearby Monster Island.
All three sisters currently stood at a little over three and a half feet tall, and they all wore dresses that that were the same colour as the oversized eyes that were disproportionately large in relation to the rest of their heads. At the moment, they were all also covered in various bruises and cuts, most of which had already stopped bleeding.
"...long..." added her "younger" sister, Buttercup, who was well known as being the toughest of the three girls, and who never let anyone forget it either, if at all possible. What had once been a green dress that she had worn to school that very morning was now a rather badly cut lime green T-shirt and skirt. There was also a quite big and very nasty looking slice right across the middle of her stomach, which still seemed to be slowly oozing blood.
"and tiring," finished Bubbles, the "youngest" of the triplets, so thought of only because of her tendency, much more than either Blossom or Buttercup, to act her real age. That doesn't mean though, that she wasn't as smart or as tough as them, for she most certainly was. Where Blossom exuded intelligence and maturity beyond her years (most of the time, at least), and Buttercup was always acting tough, Bubbles was the group's innocence.
"We're going to lie down for a while, Dad," the three girls said as one, as they floated slowly up the stairs and vanished into their room.
The Professor, their "dad", was more accurately their creator. One day, over a year previously, he had been trying to make the perfect little girl by mixing sugar, spice, and everything nice together. But his irascible lab "assistant" at the time, the Professor's own pet chimp Jojo, had knocked into him at the wrong moment, causing the Professor to break a flask of Chemical X over the concoction. The resultant explosion had created the "Powerpuff Girls", his three ultra-superpowered daughters, and the protectors of the city of Townsville.
Unfortunately however, it had also greatly increased Jojo's brain capacity and overall intelligence, making him a certifiable genius - well, certifiable at least. Jojo had then given himself a new name - Mojo Jojo, and had since been repeatedly attempting to take over the world and destroy the Powerpuff Girls, for humanity had accepted them, but not him.
"Oh dear...." The Professor had seen their latest battle against their arch-nemesis Mojo Jojo on the TV, and it had not been easy. Indeed, it seemed that every time they fought him, his plans and gadgets were growing stronger and more effective against their girls. If this trend continued...he didn't particularly want to think what it might lead to, but knew that he had to face the possibility.
Or did he...?
The girls heard their father outside their bedroom door, but felt too tired to get up for the moment. He knocked again.
"Girls! Can I come in? There's something I want to talk to you about."
"Kmm id, deb", mumbled Blossom into her pillow. If she wasn't so tired at the moment, she'd most likely be crying from exhaustion. The Professor came in and sat down on an unoccupied corner of the bed.
"Girls, I've noticed that the number of attacks on Townsville have been increasing lately. Are you three okay?"
"We're fine," said Buttercup, tiredly.
Blossom sat up and wiped her eyes. "But if this keeps up much longer, then we probably won't be." Both her sisters gave her a look. "I'd noticed the increase in attacks too."
"And you didn't tell us?"
"I didn't want to alarm anyone unnecessarily. I thought it was just short term, but it doesn't look that way now, does it Professor?"
"Sadly no, Blossom. I would suggest reinforcements, but hopefully this'll all die down at some point...." Of course, he didn't dare mention the possibility that it might not.
"So what choices do we have?" asked Bubbles, who was nervous at the thought of a torrent of battles that might prove to be un-winnable.
"Well, we could try and ride the storm out together...", offered Blossom, hopefully. Buttercup, who'd been deep in thought during the last portion of this conversation, sprang back to life fast enough to almost startle Bubbles into crying.
"...or we could take the war to them!"
There was a unanimous "What?" from all present, accompanied by a confused look from Bubbles and an apprehensive one from Blossom.
"Well, instead of sitting about on our butts for one of those scabby villains to come up with a way of beating us, we could go on the offensive.
"You mean a pre-emptive strike?"
"Yeah. Or, if that fails, we could strike them first." Blossom slapped herself in the face.
"That's what pre-emptive means, honey."
"Whatever, dad."
"But Buttercup", said Blossom, "we're superheroes. We fight crime and the forces of evil."
"My point exactly."
"So if they haven't done anything wrong, we can't attack them."
"But they're constantly doin' stuff wrong! And when we throw 'em in jail, they get out again in a matter of days!"
"Maybe they have good lawyers?" Bubbles asked hopefully. Both her sisters, and the Professor too, raised their eyebrows at her. "What'd I say?"
"Anyway, I say that we get them, before they get us. What d'you say?"
"I'm sorry Buttercup, but we can't do it. It'd be ethically wrong for us to attack bad guys for no good reason."
"But you just called them 'bad guys'! So if they're so bad, why should ethics apply?!"
"Because...I...erm, well...just because they should!"
"And I'm with Blossom on this one, Buttercup."
"You're always with Blossom, Bubbles."
"Well, that's 'cos she's always right."
"Is not!"
"Girls, please!" the Professor interjected. " Blossom and Bubbles are right, Buttercup. End of discussion." Suddenly, his face brightened. "Now, time for dinner!"
That night, after the girls had been put to bed, and Buttercup had made her usual complaints about it being far to early to go to sleep (and then fallen asleep a scant 20 seconds later), the Professor was lying in his own bed in the next room, thinking back on their earlier conversation.
If only there was some way to stop all the attacks without excessive violence he thought to himself. There's no way that any of this towns supervillains would ever agree to renounce evil, and it would be wrong to kill them, even though they ARE evil and destructive. Imprisonment doesn't seem to work either...unless...of course! It's the wrong sort of prison!
He shut off his bedside lamp and tried to get to sleep, but his new idea kept him awake another couple of hours...
The following morning, the girls were up and eating breakfast even before the Professor came to wake them.
"Huh. I wish I could be an inventor. Then I could get to sleep in late too," Buttercup said through a mouthful of burnt toast.
"Well you can't be, 'cos you're still at school," Blossom said. "And you do realise that toast has about the same nutritional content as a lump of charcoal?"
At that moment, Bubbles flew past with her backpack on, having already had her breakfast. "That's 'cos it IS charcoal, Blossom." Blossom and Buttercup soon finished their breakfasts, and as they and Bubbles were about to fly off to school, the form of a very sleepy looking Professor emerged at the top of the staircase.
"Before you go, you three", they turned to look up at him, "I managed to come up with a plan that may stop the supervillains outright late last night."
"Really?" asked Blossom, intrigued. "How?"
"Well, wait a few minutes while I get dressed, and then I'll explain it to you."
"But what about school?" asked Bubbles, upset that they'd miss colouring hour.
"Ah, who gives a..."
"Buttercup!"
"...flying fig about school?" finished Buttercup, totally ignoring Blossom's little outburst. "There. Happy? I didn't swear."
"Good."
"Don't worry. I'll wring Miss Keane and tell her that you'll all be in later this morning. I'm sure she'll understand that it's important."
Twenty minutes later, all four had assembled down in the Professor basement laboratory, with Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup sitting, facing a giant whiteboard which the Professor was now pacing in front of.
"...So you see, this plan should work. Any questions?"
"Yeah, I do," said Blossom. The Professor nodded for her to continue. "What if it doesn't?"
"Good question, Blossom. If it doesn't, then we'll have some seriously annoyed villains on our hands. Then again, that couldn't make the situation much worse than it is already anyway, so...." Buttercup threw her hand up at this point. "Yes Buttercup?"
"When can we put it into action?"
"Well, most of the villains tend to be quite lazy, so they'll still be asleep. I have all the necessary equipment already...I should be able to do it all myself before you three get home from school."
At this news, big smiles appeared on all three girls' faces. "Great!"
The girls had a good day at school after that really good piece of news. They arrived at Pokey Oaks Kindergarten in time to find out that colouring hour had been postponed until just before lunchtime, so Bubbles' worrying had all been for nothing. Instead, they had Maths first, followed by some work on their handwriting - REALLY fun (not).
At lunchtime, Blossom couldn't wait any longer - she had to tell someone the great news, or else she'd simply burst. So she sought out her sisters.
"Hey Buttercup!" Blossom shouted, popping up beside her sister in the middle of a game of marbles.
"Argh! Now look - you made me miss!" Buttercup said, glaring at her pink-eyed sister.
"Oh, pipe down - you stole those marbles from me anyway."
"That's not the point. I was gonna win Mitch's and then give you yours back." Now Blossom shot a dirty look at Buttercup in return. "Anyway, moving swiftly on...what's the big deal?"
"I wanna tell Robyn about the plan, I'm just too excited!"
"Alright, alright. Calm down." Blossom stopped bouncing on the spot. "Last I saw, she was with Bubbles, drawing over the far side of the playground." So they went to join their blue-eyed sister and best friend.
"Hiya Robyn. Have you heard?"
"Heard what?"
"By the end of today, all the city's biggest supervillains will be stopped. Permanently."
"You mean it?!"
"Yep. We've got a..."
"Actually, it was dad's plan."
"Cool! So what is this plan then?"
"Well..." began Blossom, when she heard Miss Keane answering the hotline phone. She was suddenly all business again. "We can't talk now. Duty calls."
"Oh bother."
"Girls!" Miss Keane shouted. "It seems the Beat-Alls have been re-formed! They're on Main Street at the moment!"
"Thanks Miss Keane!" And the girls flew off, to once again save the day.
When Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup arrived at Main Street, the scene was absolute...
...Chaos.
The road had been torn up for at least a mile in each direction by an army of tanks, dotted here and there by the footprints from Mojo Jojo's Robo Jojo. Heavy objects had also smashed into several buildings, and some vehicles could be seen lodged in odd positions, such as upside-down and wedged into a giant toilet. As they came round the corner of a nearby building, they saw the cause of this destruction.
The Beat-Alls.
When Mojo Jojo, the demon known to Townsville only as Him, Princess Morbucks and the Gangrene Gang had formly amalgamated, they had beaten the girls into a bloody pulp and forced them to run from their beloved city. To this day, this remained the only time that the Powerpuff Girls had even been beaten.
Blossom didn't hesitate in giving the order to attack. "Girls, attack plan alph..." the sound of a chain-gun firing was heard very close by.
Blossom never finished her sentence, as her chest was suddenly riddled with bullets. She put her hand to her chest in a vain attempt to quell the flow of blood, as both her sisters looked on in utter amazement at the sight that their sister and leader had been so savagely attacked. She tried to take one last breath, but the shots had perforated both her lungs, making her death rapid and totally silent.
She was dead before she even hit the ground.
"Blossom?" Bubbles said, in a small, squeaky voice. Buttercup flew down and managed to pry one of the bullets from her now dead sister.
"It's duranium."
"Blossom?" Bubbles asked, again. Just then, the chain-gun could be heard firing again, from even closer. Buttercup flew up, grabbed Bubbles by the hem of her dress, and dragged her back round the corner of the building and out of site of the attacking bad guys.
"Wha...?"
"Bubbles, keep it together."
"Blossom is...dead?"
"Yes Bubbles. You know what this means, don't you?" She asked, holding up the duranium-covered bullet.
"No?"
"This means war."
To be continued...
OK, what did you think? I know Buttercup's reaction sounds a bit cold, but you have to remember they're in the middle of a veritable war-zone, so she hasn't got time to feel sad, or she - and Bubbles - could end up dead too. And this is also the one who's always ready for a rumble. Well, looks like she's got one now.... ****Evil Grin****
Also, please don't get too annoyed with this. I promise, there IS a happy ending, I repeat there IS a happy ending. You'll just have to wait and see how, though. :-D