'Lo, everyone

I was extremely surprised at all the feedback (and the NOT feedbacked reads) this story has received. I'm drooling here, guys! You rock!

So, special THANKS and delicious chocolate–sprinkled donuts to those who reviewed: blackkitty27, candygurl100, SevenSecretsGuardian, animeskullgirl16 and bubblesxboomer!

Honestly, you guys are amazing! ^–^ I'm not used to such popularity, since I usually write for mostly dead fandoms (and let's face it, I was still learning English at the time – to be frank, my writing sucked). Ah, well, more motivation for me to continue! Keep the reviews coming! They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! xD

AND OH MY, WHAT IS THIS? FANFICTION HAS PICTURES? WHAT ELSE HAPPENED WHILE I WAS AWAY? O.O

This was supposed to be posted around the weekend next to the posting of the first chapter, but Life went all like: "Hey, you know who we haven't messed within a while? Sya.", and lots of Math tests happened, along with University entrance exams and... well, graduation. Yes, I graduated. At 16. Bow down to me and call me a supergenius - or not.

Also, I've been spending hours on a stage, acting as a tribal blue monkey surrounded by talking lions (any guesses as to which play it is?). BUT here it is now!

There is a slight amount of FusionFall references on this fic, seeing as the game happened around their early teens (I think) and they're around sixteen on this story's timeline, but you don't need to worry if you don't play the game. In fact, I don't (my rickety old computer doesn't support it) but all the necessary information will be provided in the ever–important Author's Notes at the end of the chapter – which no one seems to read nowadays.

Well, without further babbling, here is the next chapter of DA!

As always, READ, ENJOY and REVIEW!

Deadly Alliance

Chapter One – Fight and Flight or Defeated From the Start

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For either way you chose, you cannot win. - The Phantom of the Opera

Buttercup groaned, blinking away the black spot clouding her vision. She could smell charred metal and smoke, which awakened her other senses much faster than usual.

Realizing that they were still in the car, she felt Bubbles by her side, stuck to her seat by the miraculously intact seatbelt.

Blossom and Professor should still be on the front, too.

Wide awake now, Buttercup struggled against her own belt, managing to unbuckle it with unstable hands. She met the roof of the car headfirst with a loud "crack!"... On the car's part.

We're upside down? What the fuck happened?

Blossom stirred, her long hair doing a good job of covering the roof. She coughed twice before noticing that she wasn't the only one awake.

"Huh? Butter'up? Wha' 'penned?"

Buttercup offers her the best imitation of a shrug she can manage, considering her extremely awkward position. Blossom's groggy mind couldn't help but compare her to Snake doing yoga (and that is an extremely embarrassing story which she'd rather not share).

Bubbles groaned next to Buttercup, and the three sisters sharde a glance.

"Did the car blow up or something?"

The dark-haired Powerpuff raised an eyebrow in response.

Blossom eyed her sister's head (which was doing a perfect angle of 90 degrees with her neck) and decided that she was in no position to answer - literally.

"I think so. Professor, are you alright?"

They turned to the adult in the driver's seat. Blossom reached out and felt his pulse.

"He's fine, I think. Just unconscious."

"Well, what happened?"

"I can't remember - last thing I know, we were arguing about- Ooooh, the blood is rushing to my head..."

Bubbles diverted her attention to her green-eyed sister. "Buttercup, isn't that position... huh, uncomfortable?"

Buttercup did a mix between something that resembled a horizontal split, a pirouette and air-guitar playing before landing on her knees (this time with the head in the right direction). She cracked the joints on her neck - making Blossom cringe as she did so - before sighing contentedly.

"Shit, that's much better. My neck was starting to hurt!"

"Watch your mouth, Buttercup," scolded a red-faced Blossom.

The teenager smirked. "You look like a tomato, Leader Girl."

"Guys! Focus!"

"Sorry, Bubbles," apologized Blossom. "You're right. Now is not the time to be arguing."

The pink-eyed leader reached for her seatbelt. Buttercup's eyes widened.

"Huh, Blossom, I think you should-"

Crack!

"-be careful with that."

"Dude, stop twitching."

Butch sneered at his red-headed brother, Brick, not pleased at all by the situation. The older male seemed unfazed, though.

"Really, I thought you'd gotten rid of that habit ages ago."

The sneer grew. "Fuck you, dumbass. Why'd we have to bring those pussies along?"

The three Rowdyruff Boys turned their heads towards the other elements of their group - six evil versions of the Powerpuff Girls. Of course, in their humble opinion, none of them was as evil as the boys.

"Hey," said a dark-haired girl in a black corset. Her sneer was eerily similar to Butch's. "I resent that, shithead!"

"Shut it, Butt," the green-eyed male retorted. "No one asked you."

"The name's Brute, fucktard!"

"Who cares?"

A blonde teenager on Brute's group sighed loudly, chewing loudly on her bubblegum. The last element of the three Viletown girls, another red-head, crossed her arms.

"Listen, we hate this as much as you do, ok? Do we have to go through this every fucking time?"

Brick raised an eyebrow. "You obviously don't know Butch."

"We know Brute and we've met Buttercup. We obviously know what it is like."

"Obviously not, since you just asked that stupid question."

Butch twitched again. Boomer eyed him warily, tearing his eyes away from the confrontation between the Powerpunk Girls and Brick.

"Dude, are you sure you're ok?"

The green Rowdyruff growled.

"No, I'm not fucking ok! Can someone explain why the hell we had to bring those fucking aliens and three brats with us?"

"Orders," echoed Brick, Brat, Boomer and Berserk at the same time. The three Fusions stood silent, hovering at the same height as the rest of them.

Butch scowled. "Fuck orders. We aren't supposed to obey anyone!"

Brick rubbed his forehead. "Butch, we talked about this before..."

"I never agreed to anything."

"It's not like you can disagree."

"Fuck you."

"I would," Brat piped up, eyeing the red-headed male up and down.

Brick eyed her disgustedly. "Sorry, but no. Too much Powerpuff-wannabeeism for me."

"Yeah," Butch snickered, all but jumping into the opportunity to goad the Powerpunks... Or anyone, really. "Even he has better taste than that."

"Even he? What are you trying to say, fuckhead?" Brick sneered. "You're the man-whore around here."

"Oh, yeah?" challenged the foul-tempered Rowdyruff. "Well, you-"

But none of them discovered what Butch was going to say. In that moment, a green streak slammed into him, making him crash on the hard ground below.

"What the fuck was that?"

Butch felt the taste of blood and dirt mixing in his mouth as he roughly met the ground.

At first, he thought it had been either Brick or one of those sissy Powerpunks that had hit him - the fucking cowards, attacking without any warning. Then, he realized that they had all been on his line of vision during the entirety of the discussion. The green-skinned aliens were too obedient to attack him without any orders, so they were also ruled out.

Then, he thought it had been a missile. It sounded entirely unlikely, but hey - it had happened before.

At last, he remembered the attack to the car the Powerpuffs were travelling in, and felt elation well up inside him. The Powerpuff Girls. Fuck, yes. Finally, a battle worthy of him - the serious, blood-tainted, dust-eating, live-or-die kind of battle that he always earned for.

Above him, an angry Buttercup growled, shoving his face deeper into the dirt, almost smashing his nose against his skull in the process. Her nails dug into his scalp as she did so, and Butch almost moaned at the sheer pain that they caused.

He was in heaven.

But then Brute ripped him out of it.

"Hey, Butterbutt! Missed me?"

Butch felt the hands pulling at his hair releasing him a bit, though not enough to allow him to free himself.

"Butterbutt? Are you fucking five or something?"

Oof!

The weight above Butch was suddenly absent.

"Huh?"

Slam!

"BUTTERCUP! PAY ATTENTION!"

Completely dazed, Butch looked around wildly, vaguely registering a screaming Blossom and a panicking Bubbles as they were confronted with three different versions of themselves. A few metres away, Buttercup, Butt (er, Brute? Something like that - he didn't really care) and the green alien with black hair brawled messily on the ground, spilling blood and dirt everywhere.

Hey... He wanted to fight, too!

And so he jumped back in, a sadistic grin on his face.

Blossom felt desperation slowly taking over her usually rational mind.

The statistics looked bad - very bad. Three opponents with equal powers against each of them... The odds were against them. Just beating the Rowdyruff Boys was hard enough as it was without help of any sort.

She evaded Brick's punch and Berserk's eyebeam blast, throwing out her leg in the direction of a green-skinned, red-eyed version of herself, hitting her in the stomach. Something tugged at her hair and she felt her balance slip as she was thrown through the air, landing in the ground with a hard impact. A red blast connected with her, sending her on an unwilling flight for a few more metres.

Struggling to breathe, Blossom locked her eyes on Brick, Berserk and Fusion Blossom, all advancing on her with murderous glints on their eyes.

Her ribs tinged painfully as she coughed, tasting blood in her mouth. For the first time in years, she felt like cussing.

Bubbles flew as fast as she could, trying to avoid the blasts coming from her counterparts. One hit her ankle and she hissed in pain, knowing from past experiences that her skin would be blistering from the blow.

Things weren't looking good. She had briefly spotted Buttercup in the midst of a bloody brawl and Blossom didn't seem to be faring much better than her.

Blast on the right.

She gave a sudden swerve left, effectively avoiding the eyebeam she had heard coming in her direction. As a 'thank you' present, she turned to shot one right at her pursuers...

And crashed into someone else.

"Oh! Hello, Bubbles," greeted Boomer, squeezing her neck. "How have you been?"

Brat giggled madly as Fusion Bubbles charged a superpowered punch at Bubbles. Thee blonde heroine winced.

I don't think this is going to end well.

Buttercup sneered, scratching furiously at the Fusion version of herself. Brute pummelled ferociously at her abdomen and Butch- well, Butch was looking extremely dazed. Perhaps he was smoking something? He usually wasn't one to waste a good fight.

She managed to hurl the dark-haired Powerpunk off of her, throwing her against the green-skinned alien, whose face was now oozing green matter (courtesy of Buttercup's nails). Both landed loudly and groaned.

Butch, however, wasn't nearly as inattentive as he seemed to be. He jumped down on her, wrapping his arms around her throat in a deadly embrace. His legs tightened around hers, cutting off her movement and destabilizing her with his weight. Buttercup faltered as she tried to regain her equilibrium at the same time she attempted to loosen Butch's vice-like chokehold.

"Get... off!"

Butch grinned maliciously. "I'm not even going to try to make that sound sexual."

She struggled harder, her short dark hair almost blinding Butch by stabbing him in the eyes.

"You could probably use- OUCH! FUCKING HELL!"

Buttercup sunk her teeth into the hard flesh of his arm. Blood infused with Chemical X spilled out, filling her mouth with a metallic taste and dripping to the floor in small red streams. Butch tried very hard not to moan in both pain and pleasure. Very hard. Now this was what he had been searching for.

He watched through half-lidded eyes as Buttercup licked the blood off of her sharp teeth, having released his counterpart during the brief moments of unexpected pain. There were a few seconds of silence as they measured each other, feeling the Chemical X in their veins start to heal them. The moment of peacefulness (or close to it, anyway) was broken quickly, though, as Fusion Buttercup and Brute went back into battle, fully recovered.

Blood stained the dirt as they fought.

Brick couldn't honestly say that he wasn't enjoying it the slightest bit.

To see her like this - the high-and-mighty Blossom, the holy defender of the city of Townsville, the perfect leader of the Powerpuff Girls - brought to her knees like this, dirty and stained with blood, defeated in battle... To tell the truth, he was enjoying it quite a bit.

Berserk cackled madly at his side as Fusion Blossom remained mostly impassive (maybe it was an alien/Fusion thing? He couldn't bother asking), but Brick was sure that the three of them were relishing the sight.

"How does it feel," he asked, fingering the tip of her torn bow. "to be defeated? How does it feel to know that you're worthless, defenceless? Huh, Pinky? Does it feel good? No? Such a shame."

His hand heated up against her skin, raising its temperature to uncomfortable levels, and it swelled under his touch. Blossom winced visibly, trying to use her dislocated arm in order to get away from him.

Berserk tsked. "You're no going anywhere, Blossom. You and your sisters are coming with us."

Brick smirked in satisfaction at the beaten leader's subdued look. Behind her defeated demeanour, however, Blossom's brain worked a thousand miles per hour in order to concoct a plan.

Boomer was quickly getting tired of Brat's constant giggles. Hey, it had been cute for the first fifty times or so, but it was quickly getting annoying.

Bubbles slammed into him once more, battered and bruised from the rough treatment they were offering her. Her blue eyes stared at him for a moment from behind the bruises, before she was brutally pushed away from him once more.

Brat giggled again.

"Come and join the fun, Boomie!"

To tell the truth, Boomer couldn't care less. Fighting was Butch's thing (and occasionally Brick's, if he was sufficiently pissed off) - which wasn't to say that he completely renounced anything evil. The blue-eyed Rowdyruff wasn't particularly fond of violence, but he did love stealing things, wronging people and being generally evil all the while.

Of course, he would sporadically indulge in a few punches and kicks, to blow off some steam - which was why Bubbles found herself with a fistful of superstrenght shoved in her gut.

She hissed in pain, eyes searching for her sisters. They were clearly losing - badly - and she really hoped that Blossom would have a plan.

Meanwhile, the blonde Powerpuff would just have to bear the pain.

Brute was enjoying the fight very much.

She licked her bloodied lips feverishly, loving the way her muscles ached all over. It had been a while since the last time she had felt so thoroughly and physically exhausted. It felt so fucking good.

She threw another punch in Buttercup's direction, fully expecting it to miss. It was a pleasant surprise to watch it land perfectly on the girl's jaw.

Huh. She guessed Butterbutt was tired, too - about three times more tired, in fact, since she had to worry about the other versions of herself.

Which meant that they were winning.

The Powerpunk resisted the urge to whoop and cheer like a schoolgirl. Fuck, yes! Finally, those idiotic Powderpuffs were brought down to their knees!

A blow to her stomach brought the corset-clad girl back to reality, where the Powerpuff Girls weren't serving to her every whim and everything wasn't made of stolen gold - yet.

Buttercup sneered at the dark-haired Powerpunk, delivering another kick as she tried to scramble out of Butch's tight grip. Fusion Buttercup shoved her nails - which were more like claws, actually - in her arm, and Buttercup had to contain a scream as her skin burned with what seemed to be liquid fire.

Butch prepared to squeeze his hands around her throat. He had been dreaming of this moment since he was a five-year-old - not to kill Buttercup, but to defeat her so utterly that she wouldn't ever be able to look him in the eye ever again.

But suddenly, she wasn't there anymore.

Only the vestiges of a blue streak were.

Bubbles flew as fast as she could, dragging both of her battered sisters behind her. Buttercup spluttered angrily, not yet understanding what was going on, and Blossom tried her best to aid her blue-eyed sister in their escape.

The feeling of shame rose in Bubbles' chest. Never in their lives had the Powerpuff Girls felt so lost and defeated; never had they been so outnumbered, overpowered. This was worse than when they had aided Mojo Jojo to conquer Townsville - this time, they knew their limits. This time, they knew it was hopeless.

And the worst of all... they had left Professor behind.

The nine villains watched as the three dots disappeared into the horizon.

"Well, that was unexpected."

Brick sneered at the blue elements of the team. "Why the fuck did you let her escape?"

Boomer cowered as Fusion Bubbles stared at the red-headed leader.

Brat stepped forward, chin up. "We didn't think that she was still conscious, much less able to fly!"

Brute growled at her blonde sister.

"Since when do you fucking think? Leave the thinking to Berserk!"

"Well, like you do it much better!"

"Shut the fuck up before I make you!"

"QUIET!"

Silence settled over the group. Berserk exhaled, annoyed.

"We need to report this to the Leader. The Alliance won't fall this easily."

Nothing else was said for a while as the nine hovered in the same place, dripping blood on the rough soil. Butch nursed his left arm, in which the shape of teeth was still discernable, in spite of the healing powers of Chemical X. Suddenly, a pained moan was heard from the overturned car.

A slow smirk spread over Brick's face.

"Now this is an interesting twist."

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN!

Betcha' weren't expecting Professor to be left behind. Didja'? Didja'? xD

To tell the truth, even I wasn't expecting it. My fingers have a mind of their own. =D

Well, here is the promised information! Please warn me if there is something incorrect so I can... huh, correct it. Thank you!

What you need to know about FusionFall and VileTown:

FusionFall is an online game in which characters from various CN cartoons work together in order to save the Earth from being consumed by Fuse. The Powerpuff Girls are in their teens during the game. Blossom, Bubbles and Professor think that Buttercup is dead after she got in a deadly fight with Mojo Jojo and wasn't seen again. In fact, Buttercup lost her memory, adopting the alter-ego of Belladona and joining a rock band with Ace. who she dated for a while. Lord Fuse creates Fuses, evil versions of the characters which can only be defeated with Imaginary Matter.

VileTown is an alternate universe in which the Powerpunk Girls (Berserk, Brat and Brute) reside, helping the evil dictator Opressor Plutonium rule over Viletown with terror. They show no qualms in killing their victims. The Powerpuff Girls came in contact with them after accidentally entering a mirror, which acted as a portal to their dimension. As the Powerpunks terrorized Townsville, the Powerpuffs helped Jomo Momo (the good version of Mojo Jojo) to defeat the dictators and restore the city.

Now the counterparts, in order by teams:

Powerpuffs - Rowdyruffs - Powerpunks - Fusionpuffs

Blossom - Brick - Berserk - Fusion Blossom

Bubbles - Boomer - Brat - Fusion Bubbles

Buttercup - Butch - Brute - Fusion Buttercup

Well, that's all for now, folks!

Oh, and my birthday was two days ago. So, can you leave a review as belated birthday present? Pretty please with the Rowdyruff Boys on top? ^-~

Luv u guys!

Sayonara!

NixenSya