Post by Hayate on Feb 12, 2010 22:52:00 GMT -5
The city of Townsville. September 2010. As the sun rises from over the east horizon, the coastal waves of the Pacific beat lightly against the shore as if to greet it. Clusters of birds could be seen fluttering swiftly toward the north. And the brisk dawn breeze brings with it the anticipation and hope of a new day. An otherwise normal autumn morning.
Just on the outskirts of this welcoming California metropolis, in a calm suburban neighborhood, we zoom in on a certain two-story household that seemed to stand out amongst the rest. Its walls were coated in simple white, and the front door a deep shade of red. At the foot of the stoop lay a zigzagging path of marble leading to the sidewalk. A modest layer of grass covered the ground near and around this path. An otherwise standard Townsville residence.
A light-blue mailbox hung delicately by the doorbell. The black-silver lettering adorning it read “Utonium”.
Inside this household, a sweet, sugary aroma filled the air. In the kitchen, a tall fair-skinned man, appearing to be in his late 30s, stands over the stove preparing a breakfast for four. He had a rather content air about him.
As if drawn in by the pleasing scent, the man is shortly joined by two teenage girls – one 15, the other 14. The older of the two had long scarlet hair and eyes that glimmered an intense hue of ruby, while the younger one’s hair – fastened into pigtails with thin, short stretches of ribbon – was a creamy tint of yellow. Her eyes twinkled with the color of azure. Their overall appearance suggested they’d just come from a good night of sleep. As she adjusts to the light, the red-haired girl says aloud in a soft tone, “Morning, Professor.”
Now noticing the two as they enter, the tall man at the stove – Professor John Utonium – turns to greet them. “Oh, hey. Morning, Rose, Aqua. You sleep well?”
Rubbing her eyes cutely, the blond girl – Aqua – responds, “Uh-huh. …Mmm. Something smells good.”
Utonium’s smile widens by a couple inches. “I bet it does. I’m making your favorite: blueberry pancakes.”
“Alright! Extra blueberries on mine!”
“You got it. Go get cleaned up for school, and they’ll be ready when you come back down.”
“‘Kay!” Turning back around, the childlike Aqua departs for the second floor of the house.
As he whips up another batch of pancake batter, Utonium addresses the redheaded Rose. “So, where’s Midori? Still sleeping?”
“Yup.”, replies the blunt Rose with a shrug. “You know li’l ‘BC’. Alarm clocks don’t affect her in the least.”
Elsewhere in the house, Aqua attempts to stir her third ‘sister’ from her sound slumber. “C’mon, Midori, get up! You’re gonna make us late again!”
“…Just…five more minutes…”, a voice groans from underneath the sheets.
“Ugh! It’s always ‘five minutes’ with you!” Almost ready to admit defeat, the crafty 14-year-old blonde readies one last-ditch effort: she leans back and takes in a deep breath…
“!!!” Having heard this from under the covers, the sister named Midori swiftly shoves the covers off and sits up in her bed, immediately proceeding to shield her ears. “Alright, alright! I’m up! No screaming, please! My ears are still ringing from yesterday!”
Chalk up another win for little Aqua. With yet another victory under her belt, she exits the room and makes for the bathroom down the hallway.
As she leaves, Midori scratches her scalp and lets out a mighty yawn. The eldest out of herself, Aqua, and Rose, this girl of 16 had black short-length hair and eyes as lustrous as emeralds. Of course, having just emerged from deep sleep, said luster was a tad pale. “I hate it when she lords that power over me…”, Midori gripes, as this apparently wasn’t the first time she was almost forcibly awoken by one of young Aqua’s patented ‘sonic screams’.
With a single backward arm movement, Midori pulls the sheets off and swings her legs over the side of the bed. As her bare feet come into contact with the carpeted floor, she pauses briefly. It was soft and light, like sheep’s wool. The girl had experienced numerous sensations such as this one during the few months that passed, but she’d always taken them as blessings in disguise. She slowly rises to her feet and wiggles her toes, allowing carpet lint to gather between them. Then, with a quick 360-degree spin, she extends her right leg out with a vigorous kick. “…Heh.”
…Later on, with a harmonized “Later, Professor!”, Rose, Aqua, and Midori take leave of their home, now fully dressed in color-coded school apparel. The three wave farewell to their father figure as they head out the front door and down the marble path to the sidewalk.
Turning back to her ‘sisters’, Rose sports an excited grin. “Ready, girls?” Aqua and Midori reply simply with a nod. “Alright. Let’s do it.”
Facing forward, the girls stand side-by-side and gaze up at the clear blue sky above. A calm wind encircles their feet, and before long…
…they begin to hover.
As if carried by the wind itself, the three slowly lift off the ground and start to ascend. Then, once they were about 20 feet up, they really take off and shoot up into the sky.
“Bye, girls!”, Utonium calls out from the front stoop of the house. “Have a good day!” As he watches them fly off, the simple-minded professor smiles contentedly. In the time he spent in the girls’ company, he’d come to treat them and love them like they were his own daughters. He was happy with the life he’d settled into here in Townsville. And he would do anything to keep it that way.
The joy and thrill of flight was something Rose, Aqua, and Midori took great pleasure in every time they set out from their home. Whether it was people-watching from thousands of feet up, soaring aimlessly around and between towering skyscrapers, or simply letting the wind blow through one’s hair, there was something for all to enjoy.
Of course, not all are so fortunate to be gifted with the ability of self-propelled flight.
Since their arrival in Townsville nearly half a year prior, the extraordinarily gifted trio had done much in their efforts to fit in, especially in an environment they were unaccustomed to. At first, they’d also done well to keep their amazing abilities hidden from the Townsville populace in order to avoid mass panic (as well as getting their asses sued in any ensuing legal procedures for collateral damage incurred upon city property). But just a little over a month after they’d settled in, a hostage situation had arisen at the First National Bank. And when little could be done to prevent it from escalating, the girls – with their newly developed powers – intervened. Lives were saved, the culprits detained and taken into custody, and the girls were branded as heroes.
And so the story went that a trio of teenage girls who seemed to appear from out of nowhere took on the role of protecting Townsville and its citizens from danger. A children’s storybook fantasy made real.
As the three ‘sisters’ soar through the skies of downtown Townsville, they bob and weave about the tall buildings on their way to Townsville High. As the morning sun beams through the clouds overhead, shining its brilliance upon the entirety of the city, Aqua brings her hand up to shield her delicate eyes. “Wow. Sunny today, huh?”, the young blonde comments.
“Jeez. You’re telling me.”, the scarlet-haired Rose retorts, the sheer intensity of the sunlight now dawning on her as well. “You doing okay, Aqua?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Actually…I kinda like it.”
“Heh. I know what you mean. There’s just something about this city. The sights, the sounds, the people… I can’t help but love everything about this place. Don’t you think so, Midori?”
No reply from the eldest ‘sister’.
“…Midori?”
Again, no reply.
“Hey, Midori, are you listening to--!?” Turning her head, Rose discovers her black-haired green-eyed friend blasting rock music into her ears via iPod and headphones. Surprisingly, this hadn’t come to young Rose as much of a shock. “…Of course.”
Midori, having been head-banging her way through over half the city, was well lost in her tiny world of J-rock. It’s only after Rose tugs at her left headphone and lets it smack her in the ear that she snaps back to reality. “Ow!” Proceeding to remove her ear coverings, she turns to Rose with a look of displeasure. “What the hell, ‘Red’!?”
“Are you enjoying yourself on ‘Planet Buttercup’?”, inquires Rose with a raised eyebrow.
“Pssssh. It’s a lot better than ‘Blossom-topia’, that’s for sure.”
“Funny. With all the music you listen to and sports you watch, it’s no wonder your grades are so bad.”
“Oh, please! Like you’re ‘Miss Perfect’! You can’t see another person doing something and not stop them to point out every little thing they’re doing wrong!”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“…You dumped a guy for pronouncing ‘nuclear’ as ‘nu-cu-lar’…”
“HE WAS AN IDIOT! ANYONE COULD SEE THAT!”
Finally opting to speak out, Aqua joins in with, “Uh, guys?”
“What?”
“…We just passed the school.”
“…” Glancing to the rear, Rose and Midori come to the realization that they had indeed flown completely over Townsville High. Embarrassed by this fact, they exclaim in unison a frustrated “Oh, son of a…!!!”
With a quick double-back, the girls move in on the school at last and gently touch down near its front steps, where they’re greeted and waved to by a number of their fellow students. “Ah… Our adoring public…”, comments Rose, eagerly accepting her peers’ cheers.
With her arms folded over her chest, Midori herself remarks, “Careful there, ‘Rosie’, or else your head won’t fit your hat…”
Aqua, somewhat amused by Rose and Midori’s back-and-forth, lets out a lilting giggle. But she stops short of a full laugh when she sees a particular male student walking up toward the school. “Uh-oh.”, Aqua starts teasingly. “Don’t look now, Midori, but your boy toy is here.”
“Huh?” Unaware of whom Aqua was referring to, Midori glances across the front of the campus until her pretty green orbs land on a tall boy with coffee-brown hair and slightly toned muscles. Those familiar with the exploits of Townsville High’s football team would no doubt recognize the lad as its star running back, Mitchell Mitchelson. “Oh! Mitch!” Almost impulsively, Midori’s feet start carrying her in Mitch’s direction.
“…Aqua, do you even know what ‘boy toy’ means?”
With a shrug, the little blonde simply answers, “I heard it on BET.”
As Midori comes into view, Mitch acknowledges her with a grin and a wave. “Oh, hey, Midori. How’s it goin’?”
“Oh, you know – SportsCenter, too much homework, sisters bugging the crap out of me. Same as always.”
“Hahaha. I hear that. So, you know that game we got against Anaheim this Friday, right? We win this one, and we’re goin’ to the championships, y’know? It’d be great if you could come.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. I’m your ‘lucky charm’, remember?”
As if it was something Mitch could ignore. Midori had gone to every one of Mitch’s last seven games. And at each of those games, Mitch had scored the winning touchdown. Since the fifth, he’d begun to call Midori his ‘lucky charm’. “Heh. That’s for sure. Well, I should get to class before ‘Teach’ chews me out again. Catch ya later, Midori.”
“Sure, Mitch. Later.” Midori’s lips retain the shape of a smile as Mitch walks off. Once he was out of her line of sight, she turns around to find Rose and Aqua standing right behind her. Their brows were narrowed, and their grins stretched from cheek to cheek. “…Shut up.”
“We didn’t even say anything yet!”
But the girls’ chance encounters for the day wouldn’t end there. In mere moments, a limousine coated in elegant white pulls up in front of the school. And this indicated the arrival of only one person. The first to step out of the car was the driver: a lean middle-aged man dressed entirely in black. Coming around to the other side of the vehicle, he opens the door on the rear passenger side. At that moment, another person steps out of the limo: an attractive female student wearing a yellow variation of the school’s official attire and whose curly hair gleamed a vibrant orange.
While the rest of the student crowd seemed to be in awe at her entrance, Rose could feel her stomach turn at the sight of the vehicle. “Oh, great, it’s her…”
Arguably Townsville High’s most popular student and certainly its wealthiest, now introducing Tabitha Morbucks. Speaking aloud in a bit of a pretentious manner, the Morbucks girl addresses her chauffeur. “I expect to be picked up at precisely 3pm, Russell. Not a minute later.”
“Of course, Miss Tabitha.”, the dapper Russell replies with a bow.
In the moments that followed, Russell and the limo drive off, and Tabitha makes her way toward the school. Boys and girls alike were always struck speechless by her beauty and the manner in which she presented herself.
Her innocent nature getting the better of her, the sapphire-eyed Aqua motions a wave and calls out, “Morning, Tabitha!”
“What’s the matter, ‘Tabby’?”, Rose enters with. “The bus too good for you?”
Upon hearing that nickname, Tabitha stops in her tracks. The very utterance of it was enough to make the ginger-haired gal twist her ‘perfect face’ in irritation. She turns her head to make eye contact with the three and rejoinders, “…Oh. It’s you three. I thought something reeked of sweat stains. Shouldn’t you be out saving a little kid who’s stuck in a well or something?”
It was now Midori’s turn to pop a vein. Hers and her friends’ heroic deeds around the city being reduced to Lassie clichés? Not cool. “How would YOU like to be stuck in a well, you snobby little…!?”
“Whoa there, ‘Green’.”, says Rose, jumping in to tug at Midori’s reins. “Take a breath, huh?”
“Tch!”
“Yes, that’s a good girl.”, Tabitha continues to mock. “You don’t wanna stretch out your leash.”
“Keep it up, ‘Princess’, and see what happens! I’ll drop you off the freakin’ roof! Just try me!”
It was no secret that Tabitha Morbucks enjoyed getting under Midori’s skin. And it was so easy to. The girls had only been attending Townsville High for a few weeks, but it took no time at all for them to make themselves known across campus. Up until that point, Tabitha was the center of attention, so one could imagine how threatened she felt when they arrived.
Speaking out once more, Aqua addresses the high and mighty Morbucks girl with a query. “Hey, Tabitha, I was wondering. You can afford to go to any school in the world you want, can’t you? Why go here?”
“…Hmph.” Before answering, Tabitha flicks a lock of hair out of her face. “Well, you know me. I’m a girl of the people. It just wouldn’t be fair to deny the good students of Townsville High the chance to associate with me. It gives ‘em something to shoot for! Hahaha!”
“…Can I kick her ass now…?”
“Let it go.”
Just then, a loud ringing sound echoes across and outside the school. The 8:05 bell. And nothing ends a heated conversation better than realizing you’re late for 1st Period. Exhaling a sigh, Aqua groans, “Perfect… Late again…”
“Oh, relax.”, says Rose dismissively. “Miss Keane’s a total teddy bear. She’d look the other way if we came into class wasted.”
Sharing in the redhead’s joke with a laugh, Aqua and Midori follow close behind her through the double doors of the school, Tabitha and a handful of other students soon after.
But while the girls and their schoolmates enjoy another day of learning, an entirely different kind of entertainment was about to take place elsewhere in the city. Outside the First National Bank of Townsville, a scheme was being hatched.
“Alright, boys, gimme some good news. Billy?”
“Took out the guards in the back.”
“Good man. Snake?”
“Disabled the security cameras inside.”
“Solid. You got the stuff, Artie?”
“Revolvers, semi-automatics – you name it, I got it.”
“They oughta make stuffed dolls of you, ya little piece of awesome. Now…for the final touch.” Reaching behind him, the apparent ringleader of this group takes out a can of lime green paint. One by one, the members of the group would coat their faces with the pigment, after which they arm themselves with handguns. “Alright, boys… Let’s make the magic happen.”
The doors of the First National Bank are forcefully kicked in, the face-painted group marches inside, and patrons and employees jump in a fright. “Good morning, Townsville!”, cries out the leader of the pack. “This is Ace of the Gangreen Gang with your wake-up call!”
Elsewhere, at Townsville City Hall, a third type of entertainment was taking place. …Or rather, lack of entertainment. In his velvet-carpeted office, in his cushiony swivel chair, mayor of Townsville Bernard Mayer signatures his way through stacks of legal documents uninterestedly, as has been the greater part of his workday for the past week or so. Looking up at his assistant to his left, the somewhat portly authority figure asks with a bit of a whine, “Is that the last one?”
Standing by the mayor’s desk with an armful of papers pressed against her bosom, able assistant Sara Bellum straightens her spine, hardens her stance, and meets his eye with a stern gaze. “I’m afraid you still have a few more documents left to sign, Mr. Mayer.”, she replies, grasping the papers with one hand and tidying her strawberry-blond hair with the other. “Besides, I warned you about falling behind in your work. Maybe if you spent more time doing your job instead of practicing your golf swing…”
“Hey, just you wait! One of these days, I’m gonna kick Schwarzenegger’s ass all over the putting green!”
“Uh-huh…”
Just then, with no fair warning, in bursts another member of the city hall staff in a fright. “Mr. Mayer! Ms. Bellum!”
“W-What is it!? Is there a problem!?”
“Turn on the TV, quick! Channel 4! Something’s happening at First National!”
Hastily handling a nearby remote control, Sara powers on a television set located at the west wall of the office and tunes it to channel 4. A breaking news report was covering the robbery taking place at the bank.
“--reportedly began some 15 minutes ago. TVPD officers on scene are receiving heavy gunfire, and are unable to approach. Suspects have been confirmed to be the notorious Gangreen Gang, who, according to police reports, have been involved in a considerable amount of criminal activity throughout the state of California, including but not limited to public vandalism, grand larceny auto, and illegal possession of narcotics. The situation appears dire, as the suspects are heavily armed and appear to be volatile--”
The news report goes on from there. “This looks bad…”, the anxious Sara Bellum says silently to herself before turning to face the mayor. “…Mr. Mayer…”
Looking back at her, the Townsville mayor gestures a nod, as if knowing full well what needed to be done. “Right…!” Facing forward at his desk, he glances at a small panel at the far right. It consisted of merely a red button and a glass pane covering it. The mayor flips the pane open and prepares to press the red button underneath, taking a brief pause before doing so. His expression wasn’t that of anxiety like Ms. Bellum’s, but of excitement. With each press of this button, the man felt as though he were about to prevent a nuclear holocaust. “…Hahaha! I love this part!”
As the mayor presses his index finger on the button, an EM signal is transmitted across the city, from City Hall to Central Park, from the diner district to the Townsville Shopping Center, until it reaches the high school.
“…If you recall, in chapter 3…”, continues the lovely Ms. Allison Keane, the girls’ homeroom and English teacher, with her lesson plan. “…the narrator had this deep-rooted emotional and mental turmoil inside him brought about by his wife’s murder. But by chapter 5, it looks like he’s gotten over some of it. Now, in what way do you think the narrator’s grown -- not only as a character in the book, but as a--?”
Cut off mid-sentence, Ms. Keane finds her lesson abruptly interrupted by a flashing red light on the wall and an intermittent buzzing sound not unlike a fire alarm. Fans of this spectacle refer to it as the ‘Powerpuff Siren’.
And it, like Tabitha Morbucks’ limousine arrival, meant only one thing. As the siren sounds, all eyes in the classroom fall upon Rose, Aqua, and Midori. The three glimpse uneasily at each other before looking ahead toward their teacher at the front of the room. “Um… Ms. Keane…?”, Rose awkwardly utters.
The teacher, with an understanding smile, holds her hand out palm-forward as if to say ‘say no more’. “…Just go.”, says Keane to the trio. “The city needs you more than the class does.”
Getting the go-ahead from their dearest teacher, Rose, Aqua, and Midori rise from their desks, head out the door, and make for the roof of the school. Once there, Rose steps off to the side and finds another blinking ‘Siren’ light. Reaching up, she presses her hand against the light bulb’s glass casing. This act not only shuts the alarm off, but also brings up a transparent display map of Townsville. A tiny blip on the radar points to… “…The bank! Let’s move!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, the three take off into the eastern sky. Practically every student that was sitting at that end of the school was sticking his or her head out the window to catch a glimpse of the girls’ vapor trails. They shout various cheers of good luck to them, such as “go get ‘em!” and “kick some ass!” With the support of their peers at their back, the super-powered trio soars proudly and confidently.
Meanwhile, the situation at the bank has evidently made little progress. Of the five members of the Gangreen Gang, Ace and the one named Snake continue pelting the Townsville police force with an endless barrage of bullets. “Tch! Persistent sons of bitches, aren’t they?”, Ace gripes, his lips curled into a scowl. “If this was Los Angeles, they’d have hit us with the tear gas by now…! Hey, Artie! Find a way outta here yet!?”
Artie pops into the room at that moment, as he’d been searching for an escape route around the cops’ barricade. “No bueno, Ace! They’ve got us completely surrounded!”
“Argh! Alright then!” Taking a brief pause from shooting, Ace reloads his semi-automatic and turns to the hostages. “Maybe they’ll change their tune…if we waste one of these losers.”
Hearing this, fear begins to brew among the civilians and bank employees being held captive.
“Hey, Mumbles.”, Ace calls out, addressing the fifth Gangreen. “Why don’t you do the honors?”
Jumping at this chance, the one dubbed ‘Mumbles’ looks down at the cowering hostages with an expression of disturbed amusement. With revolver in hand, he cocks the hammer and presses the end of the barrel against the temple of a whimpering bank clerk. On the verge of tears, she shuts her eyes and hugs her legs tightly…
“…Hey, Ace…”, Snake suddenly interjects. “…You hear something?”
“…” As Ace focuses his ear to the front door, a strange sound seeps through from the other side. The crackling sound of freezing ice. “…The hell…?” Turning their eye to the door now, Ace and Snake notice it starting to freeze over. A sight that compels them to back away slowly. “Ice…!? What the hell…!?”
Just then, an immense force from the outside drives the doors in, breaking them off their hinges. They fall over onto the tiled floor with a booming thud. On the other side, the Gangreens would be able to make out three slender human-shaped silhouettes. The silhouette in the center utters a comical “Knock, knock.”
In a panic, Mumbles turns his fully-cocked handgun on the silhouettes and fires.
The silhouette at the left almost appears to catch the bullet in its hand. A soft voice belonging to the silhouette speaks out, “Careful. You could put someone’s eye out with that thing.”
Gritting his teeth in anger and impatience, Ace aims his semi at the three unknowns. “Okay, who the hell are you!? You with the cops!?”
Stepping forward into the well-lit bank lobby, Rose, Aqua, and Midori reveal themselves to the gun-toting gang. “…You could say that.”, Rose answers back.
Snake had to blink a couple of times to make sure his eyes were working properly. But it was no mirage or trick of the light. He and the gang were being stared down by three teenage girls. “This is a joke, right!? You’re just kids! What kinda stunt are the cops tryin’ to pull!?”
“Trust me, this ain’t no episode of ‘Punk’d’. Ashton Kutcher ain’t gonna pop out of the cash drawer and laugh at your sorry asses. This is the real deal. Now, you’re gonna let these people go and turn yourselves over to the police…or else.”
“‘Or else’!? Or else what!? Who’s holding the guns here!? If I were you, little ladies, I’d leave the same way I came in and tell the cops to back off! Or every innocent mouth in this room eats a lead potpie!”
“…They always wanna do it the hard way…” Slowly moving her feet, Rose steps forward, the silence blanketing the room causing her footsteps to echo like the ticking of a clock.
Raising his firearm, Ace fires several warning shots at Rose’s feet, compelling her to stop in her tracks. “Yeah… That’s what I thought… So unless you like those pretty feet you’re wearing, redhead… Get to steppin’.”
“…” Unfortunately for the Gangreen leader, ‘steppin’’ was the furthest thing from Rose’s mind. Curling her lips into a smirk, she exhales a meager… “Heh.” …and vanishes before Ace’s eyes.
“W-What the hell?!? Where’d she go?!?”
“…Guess who.”
Suddenly feeling a tap at his shoulder, Ace spins his upper body around far enough to see Rose standing at his rear. “!!!”
“…Boo.” Having had her fun, Rose spins a full 360 degrees and lays into Ace with a fierce heel kick to the head.
Ace falls over onto the floor like a dead weight, his sunglasses shattered beyond recognition.
With Ace out of commission, Snake immediately takes charge, addressing Billy and Mumbles. “What are you waiting for, you idiots!? Take ‘em out!”
Pulling out a second revolver, Mumbles fires uncontrollably at Aqua. Using only her hands, the blond girl catches each bullet effortlessly as they come within range. Before long, the mute Gangreen uses up all his ammo; the closest he’d gotten to harming the girl was grazing her palms with his gunshots.
As Aqua drops the empty shell casings onto the floor, she looks up at Mumbles with a cute smile. “Is that all?”
“…” Baring his rotten teeth, Mumbles bum-rushes Aqua and jumps her in an act of desperation.
“Aah! Get away from me, you weirdo!” Her feminine impulses kicking in, Aqua swats Mumbles away with a mighty slap.
This slap sends the Gangreen flying across the lobby of the bank and through a window.
The sight of Mumbles’ cavity-ridden gums would stay with the blond girl for some time. “Ugh… Nasty…”
Cracking his knuckles, the Gangreen giant Billy, in all his big boned glory, practically shakes the earth as he advances toward Midori. “Easy, little lady.”, he cautions. “I don’t wanna put the hurt on ya. Hehehe.”
“Oh, don’t worry. …You won’t.”, Midori boasts, assuming a defensive stance.
The behemoth swings at the black-haired girl with a left jab, which she dodges with ease. Billy then tries a right hook; again, Midori evades without any difficulty. Of course, due to the man’s stoutness, she would have easily evaded his blows even without superpowers. “Grah!!!” Driven to frustration by the girl’s speed, Billy clasps his hands together and brings them down upon Midori.
Midori catches the hammer with her forearms and holds her ground, but was caught a little off-guard by Billy’s weight. “W-Whoa! Someone’s been hitting the Doritos nonstop, haven’t they? Okay… My turn!” Pushing her arms up, Midori shakes Billy off and knocks him off-balance. Upon accomplishing this, she lays into his stomach with a small handful of jabs. Unfortunately, his body fat absorbs most of the power behind her strikes. “…Didn’t see that coming…”
“There!” With Midori’s guard dropped, Billy swoops in…and belts Midori one across the face. “Hah! Gotcha!”
“…”
“…Eh?”
As she recovers from the hit, Midori spits the blood from her mouth and rubs where Billy struck her with her hand. Then, facing forward, she gives him a bone-chilling glare. “…You’re gonna wish you hadn’t done that.”
“Why, you…!” Unfazed by the diminutive girl’s cheekiness, Billy reels forward once again and attempts to strike at Midori a second time. This time, however, she catches Billy’s fist in mid-flight… “!!!”…and, with her free hand, jabs harshly at his elbow, knocking several bones out of place. “Aah!!!”
While the paint-smeared brute staggers from the agonizing pain, Midori takes a firm hold of his arm and flips him over her shoulder onto the ground, generating a small-scale tremor in doing so. “Whew… Do me a favor, ‘Fluffy’, and go on a freakin’ diet…”
Three Gangreens down, two to go. Little Artie stays in hiding, and Snake stands before the girls with wobbly knees. “W-Who… Who the hell are you freaks?!?”
With a giggle, Aqua remarks, “You guys haven’t been in Townsville for very long, have you?”
Rose takes a step forward, and Snake takes a step back in tow. “S-Stay back!” With firearm in hand, the last Gangreen standing pulls the trigger with intent to turn the girls into Swiss cheese. Click. Click. Empty. “I-I’m all out!?”
Planting her hands on her hips, Rose decides to humor Snake’s outburst with an answer. “Well, since you asked nicely…”, she starts. “I’m Rose. These are my sisters Aqua and Midori. And…I guess you can call us…the Powerpuff Girls.”
“P-Power…what?”
“Stupid name, right?”, Midori butts in, crossing her arms over her chest. “Some idiot at school made a fansite on us, and we got stuck with it.”
“Well, I think it’s cute!”
“Shut up, Aqua.”
Despite the joke that the girls were turning the situation into, Snake couldn’t deny the fact that the three teens standing before him could break his arms if he tried to resist and break his legs if he tried to run. Coming to terms with this… “…Ugh.” …he passes out.
“…Damn. He actually fainted. What a wimp.”
The danger now passed, the hostages inside the bank are released from captivity, the Gangreen Gang placed under arrest, and crowds of spectators cheer the Powerpuffs’ name. As the hoodlum group is shoved into patrol cars, the chief of police meets with the girls to convey his thanks. “A job well done as usual, you three. The city of Townsville owes you a great debt of gratitude.”
“No prob.”, replies Rose. “We’re just glad no one was hurt in all this.”
“…Though if we’re talking gratitude, how’s about hooking me up with an Xbox-- OW!” The interrupted Midori bares her fangs at Aqua as she rubs where she’d been punched.
Ignoring the green one’s bout of self-gratification, the police chief motions a salute to the three. “Keep up the good work. We’ll be counting on you as always.”
“Of course.”
“Hey, ‘Red’!”, a voice suddenly calls out from the patrol car.
“Hmm?” Turning to the vehicle’s open window, Rose finds herself being beckoned by Ace of the Gangreen Gang. “…What do you want?”
With a wide grin staining his face, he says, “Looks like I’ll be sticking around town for a while. After I make bail, why don’t you and I get together sometime? We’ll paint the town…green. Hehehe.”
Rose felt sick to her stomach again. “…Sorry. I don’t date creeps in face paint.”
Shot down, Ace leans back in his car seat with an ‘oh-well-I-tried’ look. His disturbingly wide grin doesn’t leave his face.
Having had their fill of ‘saving the day before bedtime’, Rose, Aqua, and Midori take off into the sky, glancing back momentarily to watch the Gangreen Gang be shipped off to the police station. “Man, Townsville’s got room for all types, doesn’t it?”, Aqua observes.
“Hey, at least all the monsters and giant robots stay in Japan!”
As they depart for school, the three share in their ‘middle sister’s’ joke with hearty laughter.
…Later on, as the day nears 11:00pm and nighttime completely settles in, we join the Powerpuff Girls at their home on the outskirts of Townsville. By this time, the girls had changed into their evening attire and retired to their bedroom on the second floor. Large enough to accommodate all three girls, it was furnished with three beds, three personalized chests of drawers, two computer terminals, a 60-inch flat-screen HDTV with entertainment center (Midori’s favorite), and a walk-in closet. This could surely be considered one of the better-off households on this block.
Lounging before a vanity mirror, Aqua runs a brush through her whitish-golden shoulder-length hair. Her favorite ribbons hang lazily off the countertop of her dresser.
Lying face down on her pink bedspread, Rose reads through an issue of a fashion magazine. Her lower legs swing back and forth rhythmically as red polish dries on her toenails.
And at the other end of the room, Midori too lies face down on her bed. Her eyes aren’t fixated on any form of literature, but rather the television screen. A bit by one of her favorite comedians was playing on HBO. “What’s the deal with the ‘City of Townsville’, huh?”, says the comic. “Is it a city or a town? What, the founding fathers couldn’t make up their minds or something? Can you imagine what deciding on the city’s name must’ve been like? ‘Okay, all in favor of ‘City of Townsville’, say ‘I’. …Alright, all in favor of ‘Town of Citysville’, say ‘I’. …Okay, ‘City of Townsville’ it is. Next order of business: What do we do with all the dead Injuns?’”
Midori lets out a good-humored laugh at the comic’s material.
Apparently not amused by the act, Rose and Aqua muffle the word “Hack!” under fake spells of coughing.
“I heard that!”
Moments later, their adoptive father John Utonium enters the sizable bedroom and calls on the girls’ attention. “Alright, girls. 11 o’clock. Time for bed.”
Not ones to disobey, Aqua sets her hairbrush down, Rose puts her magazine away, and Midori (reluctantly) turns the TV off. The youngest Powerpuff climbs into bed, and all three pull the covers over themselves.
With a nod, Utonium moves his hand toward the light switch.
But mere seconds before the lights go out, Aqua calls out tenderly, “Hey, Professor?”
“Yes, Aqua?”
“Could you…tell us that story again?”
“Aren’t you a little old for bedtime stories?”
“Please? Just one more time?”
Shuffling out from underneath the sheets to sit upright, Rose speaks out. “I wanna hear it too.”
And Midori follows moments after. “Yeah, same here.”
The middle-aged scientist was backed into a corner. How could he say no? “…Heh. Ganging up on me now, eh? Should’ve seen that coming.” Defeated, he turns out the lights, switches on the desk lamp at one of the two computer terminals, and seats himself in a nearby chair. Finally, he leans back against the backrest and crosses his legs. “Let’s see… How’d it go again? …Ah, yes. Once upon a time…”
…Nine months ago…
Hot spring winds blow over the rocky terrain of the Mojave Desert. Heavy sands and dust clouds press brutally against the Yucca trees. Somewhere in this virtually barren wasteland, not too far from Death Valley, there stood a great building. A naturally out-of-place construct, but perfectly concealed from inquisitive eyes by tall cliffs and sandstorms.
Inside this odd structure, a meeting of minds was taking place. A row of scientists stood shoulder to shoulder. There was a wide spectrum of scientific intellect among the group, from biochemists to radiobiologists to nuclear physicists. And to the far left of the row stood none other than John Utonium.
A new face soon enters the room to greet the team. He had short clean-cut brown hair, wore thin-rimmed glasses, and presented himself with poise and professionalism. “Hello, and welcome.”, the man greets clearly and eloquently. “First and foremost, I would like to express my thanks to all of you for coming out all this way. My name is Johann Kepler, and I represent the Project X Scientific Administration and Committee. …You are the best and brightest the scientific world has to offer. It is only because of your exceptional knowledge and skill in your respective fields that you’ve been chosen to observe firsthand as we make history. Blindness, deafness, muteness, cerebral palsy, mental illness – all these and others will be made a thing of the past thanks to the breakthroughs in science and medicine that we’ve made here.” Reaching into an inner pocket of his lab coat, the man named Kepler pulls out a small remote. When he presses the button on it…
…the massive wall of steel behind him opens up. On the other side of the wall, a group of stasis pods is revealed. Each pod was filled with a strange, purple translucent fluid and housed a person in partially suspended animation. No doubt the subjects for the experiments they were about to conduct here. The subjects were female, and appeared to be no older than high school students.
In the first pod at the left, Rose Walker slept.
In the center pod lay Aqua Fontana.
And the pod at the right housed Midori Kondo.
Addressing the row of scientists again, Kepler emphatically proclaims, “My fellow scientists… I welcome you…to Project X!”
Just on the outskirts of this welcoming California metropolis, in a calm suburban neighborhood, we zoom in on a certain two-story household that seemed to stand out amongst the rest. Its walls were coated in simple white, and the front door a deep shade of red. At the foot of the stoop lay a zigzagging path of marble leading to the sidewalk. A modest layer of grass covered the ground near and around this path. An otherwise standard Townsville residence.
A light-blue mailbox hung delicately by the doorbell. The black-silver lettering adorning it read “Utonium”.
Inside this household, a sweet, sugary aroma filled the air. In the kitchen, a tall fair-skinned man, appearing to be in his late 30s, stands over the stove preparing a breakfast for four. He had a rather content air about him.
As if drawn in by the pleasing scent, the man is shortly joined by two teenage girls – one 15, the other 14. The older of the two had long scarlet hair and eyes that glimmered an intense hue of ruby, while the younger one’s hair – fastened into pigtails with thin, short stretches of ribbon – was a creamy tint of yellow. Her eyes twinkled with the color of azure. Their overall appearance suggested they’d just come from a good night of sleep. As she adjusts to the light, the red-haired girl says aloud in a soft tone, “Morning, Professor.”
Now noticing the two as they enter, the tall man at the stove – Professor John Utonium – turns to greet them. “Oh, hey. Morning, Rose, Aqua. You sleep well?”
Rubbing her eyes cutely, the blond girl – Aqua – responds, “Uh-huh. …Mmm. Something smells good.”
Utonium’s smile widens by a couple inches. “I bet it does. I’m making your favorite: blueberry pancakes.”
“Alright! Extra blueberries on mine!”
“You got it. Go get cleaned up for school, and they’ll be ready when you come back down.”
“‘Kay!” Turning back around, the childlike Aqua departs for the second floor of the house.
As he whips up another batch of pancake batter, Utonium addresses the redheaded Rose. “So, where’s Midori? Still sleeping?”
“Yup.”, replies the blunt Rose with a shrug. “You know li’l ‘BC’. Alarm clocks don’t affect her in the least.”
Elsewhere in the house, Aqua attempts to stir her third ‘sister’ from her sound slumber. “C’mon, Midori, get up! You’re gonna make us late again!”
“…Just…five more minutes…”, a voice groans from underneath the sheets.
“Ugh! It’s always ‘five minutes’ with you!” Almost ready to admit defeat, the crafty 14-year-old blonde readies one last-ditch effort: she leans back and takes in a deep breath…
“!!!” Having heard this from under the covers, the sister named Midori swiftly shoves the covers off and sits up in her bed, immediately proceeding to shield her ears. “Alright, alright! I’m up! No screaming, please! My ears are still ringing from yesterday!”
Chalk up another win for little Aqua. With yet another victory under her belt, she exits the room and makes for the bathroom down the hallway.
As she leaves, Midori scratches her scalp and lets out a mighty yawn. The eldest out of herself, Aqua, and Rose, this girl of 16 had black short-length hair and eyes as lustrous as emeralds. Of course, having just emerged from deep sleep, said luster was a tad pale. “I hate it when she lords that power over me…”, Midori gripes, as this apparently wasn’t the first time she was almost forcibly awoken by one of young Aqua’s patented ‘sonic screams’.
With a single backward arm movement, Midori pulls the sheets off and swings her legs over the side of the bed. As her bare feet come into contact with the carpeted floor, she pauses briefly. It was soft and light, like sheep’s wool. The girl had experienced numerous sensations such as this one during the few months that passed, but she’d always taken them as blessings in disguise. She slowly rises to her feet and wiggles her toes, allowing carpet lint to gather between them. Then, with a quick 360-degree spin, she extends her right leg out with a vigorous kick. “…Heh.”
…Later on, with a harmonized “Later, Professor!”, Rose, Aqua, and Midori take leave of their home, now fully dressed in color-coded school apparel. The three wave farewell to their father figure as they head out the front door and down the marble path to the sidewalk.
Turning back to her ‘sisters’, Rose sports an excited grin. “Ready, girls?” Aqua and Midori reply simply with a nod. “Alright. Let’s do it.”
Facing forward, the girls stand side-by-side and gaze up at the clear blue sky above. A calm wind encircles their feet, and before long…
…they begin to hover.
As if carried by the wind itself, the three slowly lift off the ground and start to ascend. Then, once they were about 20 feet up, they really take off and shoot up into the sky.
“Bye, girls!”, Utonium calls out from the front stoop of the house. “Have a good day!” As he watches them fly off, the simple-minded professor smiles contentedly. In the time he spent in the girls’ company, he’d come to treat them and love them like they were his own daughters. He was happy with the life he’d settled into here in Townsville. And he would do anything to keep it that way.
Project Powerpuff
Part 1
[/i][/center]Part 1
The joy and thrill of flight was something Rose, Aqua, and Midori took great pleasure in every time they set out from their home. Whether it was people-watching from thousands of feet up, soaring aimlessly around and between towering skyscrapers, or simply letting the wind blow through one’s hair, there was something for all to enjoy.
Of course, not all are so fortunate to be gifted with the ability of self-propelled flight.
Since their arrival in Townsville nearly half a year prior, the extraordinarily gifted trio had done much in their efforts to fit in, especially in an environment they were unaccustomed to. At first, they’d also done well to keep their amazing abilities hidden from the Townsville populace in order to avoid mass panic (as well as getting their asses sued in any ensuing legal procedures for collateral damage incurred upon city property). But just a little over a month after they’d settled in, a hostage situation had arisen at the First National Bank. And when little could be done to prevent it from escalating, the girls – with their newly developed powers – intervened. Lives were saved, the culprits detained and taken into custody, and the girls were branded as heroes.
And so the story went that a trio of teenage girls who seemed to appear from out of nowhere took on the role of protecting Townsville and its citizens from danger. A children’s storybook fantasy made real.
As the three ‘sisters’ soar through the skies of downtown Townsville, they bob and weave about the tall buildings on their way to Townsville High. As the morning sun beams through the clouds overhead, shining its brilliance upon the entirety of the city, Aqua brings her hand up to shield her delicate eyes. “Wow. Sunny today, huh?”, the young blonde comments.
“Jeez. You’re telling me.”, the scarlet-haired Rose retorts, the sheer intensity of the sunlight now dawning on her as well. “You doing okay, Aqua?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Actually…I kinda like it.”
“Heh. I know what you mean. There’s just something about this city. The sights, the sounds, the people… I can’t help but love everything about this place. Don’t you think so, Midori?”
No reply from the eldest ‘sister’.
“…Midori?”
Again, no reply.
“Hey, Midori, are you listening to--!?” Turning her head, Rose discovers her black-haired green-eyed friend blasting rock music into her ears via iPod and headphones. Surprisingly, this hadn’t come to young Rose as much of a shock. “…Of course.”
Midori, having been head-banging her way through over half the city, was well lost in her tiny world of J-rock. It’s only after Rose tugs at her left headphone and lets it smack her in the ear that she snaps back to reality. “Ow!” Proceeding to remove her ear coverings, she turns to Rose with a look of displeasure. “What the hell, ‘Red’!?”
“Are you enjoying yourself on ‘Planet Buttercup’?”, inquires Rose with a raised eyebrow.
“Pssssh. It’s a lot better than ‘Blossom-topia’, that’s for sure.”
“Funny. With all the music you listen to and sports you watch, it’s no wonder your grades are so bad.”
“Oh, please! Like you’re ‘Miss Perfect’! You can’t see another person doing something and not stop them to point out every little thing they’re doing wrong!”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“…You dumped a guy for pronouncing ‘nuclear’ as ‘nu-cu-lar’…”
“HE WAS AN IDIOT! ANYONE COULD SEE THAT!”
Finally opting to speak out, Aqua joins in with, “Uh, guys?”
“What?”
“…We just passed the school.”
“…” Glancing to the rear, Rose and Midori come to the realization that they had indeed flown completely over Townsville High. Embarrassed by this fact, they exclaim in unison a frustrated “Oh, son of a…!!!”
With a quick double-back, the girls move in on the school at last and gently touch down near its front steps, where they’re greeted and waved to by a number of their fellow students. “Ah… Our adoring public…”, comments Rose, eagerly accepting her peers’ cheers.
With her arms folded over her chest, Midori herself remarks, “Careful there, ‘Rosie’, or else your head won’t fit your hat…”
Aqua, somewhat amused by Rose and Midori’s back-and-forth, lets out a lilting giggle. But she stops short of a full laugh when she sees a particular male student walking up toward the school. “Uh-oh.”, Aqua starts teasingly. “Don’t look now, Midori, but your boy toy is here.”
“Huh?” Unaware of whom Aqua was referring to, Midori glances across the front of the campus until her pretty green orbs land on a tall boy with coffee-brown hair and slightly toned muscles. Those familiar with the exploits of Townsville High’s football team would no doubt recognize the lad as its star running back, Mitchell Mitchelson. “Oh! Mitch!” Almost impulsively, Midori’s feet start carrying her in Mitch’s direction.
“…Aqua, do you even know what ‘boy toy’ means?”
With a shrug, the little blonde simply answers, “I heard it on BET.”
As Midori comes into view, Mitch acknowledges her with a grin and a wave. “Oh, hey, Midori. How’s it goin’?”
“Oh, you know – SportsCenter, too much homework, sisters bugging the crap out of me. Same as always.”
“Hahaha. I hear that. So, you know that game we got against Anaheim this Friday, right? We win this one, and we’re goin’ to the championships, y’know? It’d be great if you could come.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. I’m your ‘lucky charm’, remember?”
As if it was something Mitch could ignore. Midori had gone to every one of Mitch’s last seven games. And at each of those games, Mitch had scored the winning touchdown. Since the fifth, he’d begun to call Midori his ‘lucky charm’. “Heh. That’s for sure. Well, I should get to class before ‘Teach’ chews me out again. Catch ya later, Midori.”
“Sure, Mitch. Later.” Midori’s lips retain the shape of a smile as Mitch walks off. Once he was out of her line of sight, she turns around to find Rose and Aqua standing right behind her. Their brows were narrowed, and their grins stretched from cheek to cheek. “…Shut up.”
“We didn’t even say anything yet!”
But the girls’ chance encounters for the day wouldn’t end there. In mere moments, a limousine coated in elegant white pulls up in front of the school. And this indicated the arrival of only one person. The first to step out of the car was the driver: a lean middle-aged man dressed entirely in black. Coming around to the other side of the vehicle, he opens the door on the rear passenger side. At that moment, another person steps out of the limo: an attractive female student wearing a yellow variation of the school’s official attire and whose curly hair gleamed a vibrant orange.
While the rest of the student crowd seemed to be in awe at her entrance, Rose could feel her stomach turn at the sight of the vehicle. “Oh, great, it’s her…”
Arguably Townsville High’s most popular student and certainly its wealthiest, now introducing Tabitha Morbucks. Speaking aloud in a bit of a pretentious manner, the Morbucks girl addresses her chauffeur. “I expect to be picked up at precisely 3pm, Russell. Not a minute later.”
“Of course, Miss Tabitha.”, the dapper Russell replies with a bow.
In the moments that followed, Russell and the limo drive off, and Tabitha makes her way toward the school. Boys and girls alike were always struck speechless by her beauty and the manner in which she presented herself.
Her innocent nature getting the better of her, the sapphire-eyed Aqua motions a wave and calls out, “Morning, Tabitha!”
“What’s the matter, ‘Tabby’?”, Rose enters with. “The bus too good for you?”
Upon hearing that nickname, Tabitha stops in her tracks. The very utterance of it was enough to make the ginger-haired gal twist her ‘perfect face’ in irritation. She turns her head to make eye contact with the three and rejoinders, “…Oh. It’s you three. I thought something reeked of sweat stains. Shouldn’t you be out saving a little kid who’s stuck in a well or something?”
It was now Midori’s turn to pop a vein. Hers and her friends’ heroic deeds around the city being reduced to Lassie clichés? Not cool. “How would YOU like to be stuck in a well, you snobby little…!?”
“Whoa there, ‘Green’.”, says Rose, jumping in to tug at Midori’s reins. “Take a breath, huh?”
“Tch!”
“Yes, that’s a good girl.”, Tabitha continues to mock. “You don’t wanna stretch out your leash.”
“Keep it up, ‘Princess’, and see what happens! I’ll drop you off the freakin’ roof! Just try me!”
It was no secret that Tabitha Morbucks enjoyed getting under Midori’s skin. And it was so easy to. The girls had only been attending Townsville High for a few weeks, but it took no time at all for them to make themselves known across campus. Up until that point, Tabitha was the center of attention, so one could imagine how threatened she felt when they arrived.
Speaking out once more, Aqua addresses the high and mighty Morbucks girl with a query. “Hey, Tabitha, I was wondering. You can afford to go to any school in the world you want, can’t you? Why go here?”
“…Hmph.” Before answering, Tabitha flicks a lock of hair out of her face. “Well, you know me. I’m a girl of the people. It just wouldn’t be fair to deny the good students of Townsville High the chance to associate with me. It gives ‘em something to shoot for! Hahaha!”
“…Can I kick her ass now…?”
“Let it go.”
Just then, a loud ringing sound echoes across and outside the school. The 8:05 bell. And nothing ends a heated conversation better than realizing you’re late for 1st Period. Exhaling a sigh, Aqua groans, “Perfect… Late again…”
“Oh, relax.”, says Rose dismissively. “Miss Keane’s a total teddy bear. She’d look the other way if we came into class wasted.”
Sharing in the redhead’s joke with a laugh, Aqua and Midori follow close behind her through the double doors of the school, Tabitha and a handful of other students soon after.
But while the girls and their schoolmates enjoy another day of learning, an entirely different kind of entertainment was about to take place elsewhere in the city. Outside the First National Bank of Townsville, a scheme was being hatched.
“Alright, boys, gimme some good news. Billy?”
“Took out the guards in the back.”
“Good man. Snake?”
“Disabled the security cameras inside.”
“Solid. You got the stuff, Artie?”
“Revolvers, semi-automatics – you name it, I got it.”
“They oughta make stuffed dolls of you, ya little piece of awesome. Now…for the final touch.” Reaching behind him, the apparent ringleader of this group takes out a can of lime green paint. One by one, the members of the group would coat their faces with the pigment, after which they arm themselves with handguns. “Alright, boys… Let’s make the magic happen.”
The doors of the First National Bank are forcefully kicked in, the face-painted group marches inside, and patrons and employees jump in a fright. “Good morning, Townsville!”, cries out the leader of the pack. “This is Ace of the Gangreen Gang with your wake-up call!”
Elsewhere, at Townsville City Hall, a third type of entertainment was taking place. …Or rather, lack of entertainment. In his velvet-carpeted office, in his cushiony swivel chair, mayor of Townsville Bernard Mayer signatures his way through stacks of legal documents uninterestedly, as has been the greater part of his workday for the past week or so. Looking up at his assistant to his left, the somewhat portly authority figure asks with a bit of a whine, “Is that the last one?”
Standing by the mayor’s desk with an armful of papers pressed against her bosom, able assistant Sara Bellum straightens her spine, hardens her stance, and meets his eye with a stern gaze. “I’m afraid you still have a few more documents left to sign, Mr. Mayer.”, she replies, grasping the papers with one hand and tidying her strawberry-blond hair with the other. “Besides, I warned you about falling behind in your work. Maybe if you spent more time doing your job instead of practicing your golf swing…”
“Hey, just you wait! One of these days, I’m gonna kick Schwarzenegger’s ass all over the putting green!”
“Uh-huh…”
Just then, with no fair warning, in bursts another member of the city hall staff in a fright. “Mr. Mayer! Ms. Bellum!”
“W-What is it!? Is there a problem!?”
“Turn on the TV, quick! Channel 4! Something’s happening at First National!”
Hastily handling a nearby remote control, Sara powers on a television set located at the west wall of the office and tunes it to channel 4. A breaking news report was covering the robbery taking place at the bank.
“--reportedly began some 15 minutes ago. TVPD officers on scene are receiving heavy gunfire, and are unable to approach. Suspects have been confirmed to be the notorious Gangreen Gang, who, according to police reports, have been involved in a considerable amount of criminal activity throughout the state of California, including but not limited to public vandalism, grand larceny auto, and illegal possession of narcotics. The situation appears dire, as the suspects are heavily armed and appear to be volatile--”
The news report goes on from there. “This looks bad…”, the anxious Sara Bellum says silently to herself before turning to face the mayor. “…Mr. Mayer…”
Looking back at her, the Townsville mayor gestures a nod, as if knowing full well what needed to be done. “Right…!” Facing forward at his desk, he glances at a small panel at the far right. It consisted of merely a red button and a glass pane covering it. The mayor flips the pane open and prepares to press the red button underneath, taking a brief pause before doing so. His expression wasn’t that of anxiety like Ms. Bellum’s, but of excitement. With each press of this button, the man felt as though he were about to prevent a nuclear holocaust. “…Hahaha! I love this part!”
As the mayor presses his index finger on the button, an EM signal is transmitted across the city, from City Hall to Central Park, from the diner district to the Townsville Shopping Center, until it reaches the high school.
“…If you recall, in chapter 3…”, continues the lovely Ms. Allison Keane, the girls’ homeroom and English teacher, with her lesson plan. “…the narrator had this deep-rooted emotional and mental turmoil inside him brought about by his wife’s murder. But by chapter 5, it looks like he’s gotten over some of it. Now, in what way do you think the narrator’s grown -- not only as a character in the book, but as a--?”
Cut off mid-sentence, Ms. Keane finds her lesson abruptly interrupted by a flashing red light on the wall and an intermittent buzzing sound not unlike a fire alarm. Fans of this spectacle refer to it as the ‘Powerpuff Siren’.
And it, like Tabitha Morbucks’ limousine arrival, meant only one thing. As the siren sounds, all eyes in the classroom fall upon Rose, Aqua, and Midori. The three glimpse uneasily at each other before looking ahead toward their teacher at the front of the room. “Um… Ms. Keane…?”, Rose awkwardly utters.
The teacher, with an understanding smile, holds her hand out palm-forward as if to say ‘say no more’. “…Just go.”, says Keane to the trio. “The city needs you more than the class does.”
Getting the go-ahead from their dearest teacher, Rose, Aqua, and Midori rise from their desks, head out the door, and make for the roof of the school. Once there, Rose steps off to the side and finds another blinking ‘Siren’ light. Reaching up, she presses her hand against the light bulb’s glass casing. This act not only shuts the alarm off, but also brings up a transparent display map of Townsville. A tiny blip on the radar points to… “…The bank! Let’s move!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, the three take off into the eastern sky. Practically every student that was sitting at that end of the school was sticking his or her head out the window to catch a glimpse of the girls’ vapor trails. They shout various cheers of good luck to them, such as “go get ‘em!” and “kick some ass!” With the support of their peers at their back, the super-powered trio soars proudly and confidently.
Meanwhile, the situation at the bank has evidently made little progress. Of the five members of the Gangreen Gang, Ace and the one named Snake continue pelting the Townsville police force with an endless barrage of bullets. “Tch! Persistent sons of bitches, aren’t they?”, Ace gripes, his lips curled into a scowl. “If this was Los Angeles, they’d have hit us with the tear gas by now…! Hey, Artie! Find a way outta here yet!?”
Artie pops into the room at that moment, as he’d been searching for an escape route around the cops’ barricade. “No bueno, Ace! They’ve got us completely surrounded!”
“Argh! Alright then!” Taking a brief pause from shooting, Ace reloads his semi-automatic and turns to the hostages. “Maybe they’ll change their tune…if we waste one of these losers.”
Hearing this, fear begins to brew among the civilians and bank employees being held captive.
“Hey, Mumbles.”, Ace calls out, addressing the fifth Gangreen. “Why don’t you do the honors?”
Jumping at this chance, the one dubbed ‘Mumbles’ looks down at the cowering hostages with an expression of disturbed amusement. With revolver in hand, he cocks the hammer and presses the end of the barrel against the temple of a whimpering bank clerk. On the verge of tears, she shuts her eyes and hugs her legs tightly…
“…Hey, Ace…”, Snake suddenly interjects. “…You hear something?”
“…” As Ace focuses his ear to the front door, a strange sound seeps through from the other side. The crackling sound of freezing ice. “…The hell…?” Turning their eye to the door now, Ace and Snake notice it starting to freeze over. A sight that compels them to back away slowly. “Ice…!? What the hell…!?”
Just then, an immense force from the outside drives the doors in, breaking them off their hinges. They fall over onto the tiled floor with a booming thud. On the other side, the Gangreens would be able to make out three slender human-shaped silhouettes. The silhouette in the center utters a comical “Knock, knock.”
In a panic, Mumbles turns his fully-cocked handgun on the silhouettes and fires.
The silhouette at the left almost appears to catch the bullet in its hand. A soft voice belonging to the silhouette speaks out, “Careful. You could put someone’s eye out with that thing.”
Gritting his teeth in anger and impatience, Ace aims his semi at the three unknowns. “Okay, who the hell are you!? You with the cops!?”
Stepping forward into the well-lit bank lobby, Rose, Aqua, and Midori reveal themselves to the gun-toting gang. “…You could say that.”, Rose answers back.
Snake had to blink a couple of times to make sure his eyes were working properly. But it was no mirage or trick of the light. He and the gang were being stared down by three teenage girls. “This is a joke, right!? You’re just kids! What kinda stunt are the cops tryin’ to pull!?”
“Trust me, this ain’t no episode of ‘Punk’d’. Ashton Kutcher ain’t gonna pop out of the cash drawer and laugh at your sorry asses. This is the real deal. Now, you’re gonna let these people go and turn yourselves over to the police…or else.”
“‘Or else’!? Or else what!? Who’s holding the guns here!? If I were you, little ladies, I’d leave the same way I came in and tell the cops to back off! Or every innocent mouth in this room eats a lead potpie!”
“…They always wanna do it the hard way…” Slowly moving her feet, Rose steps forward, the silence blanketing the room causing her footsteps to echo like the ticking of a clock.
Raising his firearm, Ace fires several warning shots at Rose’s feet, compelling her to stop in her tracks. “Yeah… That’s what I thought… So unless you like those pretty feet you’re wearing, redhead… Get to steppin’.”
“…” Unfortunately for the Gangreen leader, ‘steppin’’ was the furthest thing from Rose’s mind. Curling her lips into a smirk, she exhales a meager… “Heh.” …and vanishes before Ace’s eyes.
“W-What the hell?!? Where’d she go?!?”
“…Guess who.”
Suddenly feeling a tap at his shoulder, Ace spins his upper body around far enough to see Rose standing at his rear. “!!!”
“…Boo.” Having had her fun, Rose spins a full 360 degrees and lays into Ace with a fierce heel kick to the head.
Ace falls over onto the floor like a dead weight, his sunglasses shattered beyond recognition.
With Ace out of commission, Snake immediately takes charge, addressing Billy and Mumbles. “What are you waiting for, you idiots!? Take ‘em out!”
Pulling out a second revolver, Mumbles fires uncontrollably at Aqua. Using only her hands, the blond girl catches each bullet effortlessly as they come within range. Before long, the mute Gangreen uses up all his ammo; the closest he’d gotten to harming the girl was grazing her palms with his gunshots.
As Aqua drops the empty shell casings onto the floor, she looks up at Mumbles with a cute smile. “Is that all?”
“…” Baring his rotten teeth, Mumbles bum-rushes Aqua and jumps her in an act of desperation.
“Aah! Get away from me, you weirdo!” Her feminine impulses kicking in, Aqua swats Mumbles away with a mighty slap.
This slap sends the Gangreen flying across the lobby of the bank and through a window.
The sight of Mumbles’ cavity-ridden gums would stay with the blond girl for some time. “Ugh… Nasty…”
Cracking his knuckles, the Gangreen giant Billy, in all his big boned glory, practically shakes the earth as he advances toward Midori. “Easy, little lady.”, he cautions. “I don’t wanna put the hurt on ya. Hehehe.”
“Oh, don’t worry. …You won’t.”, Midori boasts, assuming a defensive stance.
The behemoth swings at the black-haired girl with a left jab, which she dodges with ease. Billy then tries a right hook; again, Midori evades without any difficulty. Of course, due to the man’s stoutness, she would have easily evaded his blows even without superpowers. “Grah!!!” Driven to frustration by the girl’s speed, Billy clasps his hands together and brings them down upon Midori.
Midori catches the hammer with her forearms and holds her ground, but was caught a little off-guard by Billy’s weight. “W-Whoa! Someone’s been hitting the Doritos nonstop, haven’t they? Okay… My turn!” Pushing her arms up, Midori shakes Billy off and knocks him off-balance. Upon accomplishing this, she lays into his stomach with a small handful of jabs. Unfortunately, his body fat absorbs most of the power behind her strikes. “…Didn’t see that coming…”
“There!” With Midori’s guard dropped, Billy swoops in…and belts Midori one across the face. “Hah! Gotcha!”
“…”
“…Eh?”
As she recovers from the hit, Midori spits the blood from her mouth and rubs where Billy struck her with her hand. Then, facing forward, she gives him a bone-chilling glare. “…You’re gonna wish you hadn’t done that.”
“Why, you…!” Unfazed by the diminutive girl’s cheekiness, Billy reels forward once again and attempts to strike at Midori a second time. This time, however, she catches Billy’s fist in mid-flight… “!!!”…and, with her free hand, jabs harshly at his elbow, knocking several bones out of place. “Aah!!!”
While the paint-smeared brute staggers from the agonizing pain, Midori takes a firm hold of his arm and flips him over her shoulder onto the ground, generating a small-scale tremor in doing so. “Whew… Do me a favor, ‘Fluffy’, and go on a freakin’ diet…”
Three Gangreens down, two to go. Little Artie stays in hiding, and Snake stands before the girls with wobbly knees. “W-Who… Who the hell are you freaks?!?”
With a giggle, Aqua remarks, “You guys haven’t been in Townsville for very long, have you?”
Rose takes a step forward, and Snake takes a step back in tow. “S-Stay back!” With firearm in hand, the last Gangreen standing pulls the trigger with intent to turn the girls into Swiss cheese. Click. Click. Empty. “I-I’m all out!?”
Planting her hands on her hips, Rose decides to humor Snake’s outburst with an answer. “Well, since you asked nicely…”, she starts. “I’m Rose. These are my sisters Aqua and Midori. And…I guess you can call us…the Powerpuff Girls.”
“P-Power…what?”
“Stupid name, right?”, Midori butts in, crossing her arms over her chest. “Some idiot at school made a fansite on us, and we got stuck with it.”
“Well, I think it’s cute!”
“Shut up, Aqua.”
Despite the joke that the girls were turning the situation into, Snake couldn’t deny the fact that the three teens standing before him could break his arms if he tried to resist and break his legs if he tried to run. Coming to terms with this… “…Ugh.” …he passes out.
“…Damn. He actually fainted. What a wimp.”
The danger now passed, the hostages inside the bank are released from captivity, the Gangreen Gang placed under arrest, and crowds of spectators cheer the Powerpuffs’ name. As the hoodlum group is shoved into patrol cars, the chief of police meets with the girls to convey his thanks. “A job well done as usual, you three. The city of Townsville owes you a great debt of gratitude.”
“No prob.”, replies Rose. “We’re just glad no one was hurt in all this.”
“…Though if we’re talking gratitude, how’s about hooking me up with an Xbox-- OW!” The interrupted Midori bares her fangs at Aqua as she rubs where she’d been punched.
Ignoring the green one’s bout of self-gratification, the police chief motions a salute to the three. “Keep up the good work. We’ll be counting on you as always.”
“Of course.”
“Hey, ‘Red’!”, a voice suddenly calls out from the patrol car.
“Hmm?” Turning to the vehicle’s open window, Rose finds herself being beckoned by Ace of the Gangreen Gang. “…What do you want?”
With a wide grin staining his face, he says, “Looks like I’ll be sticking around town for a while. After I make bail, why don’t you and I get together sometime? We’ll paint the town…green. Hehehe.”
Rose felt sick to her stomach again. “…Sorry. I don’t date creeps in face paint.”
Shot down, Ace leans back in his car seat with an ‘oh-well-I-tried’ look. His disturbingly wide grin doesn’t leave his face.
Having had their fill of ‘saving the day before bedtime’, Rose, Aqua, and Midori take off into the sky, glancing back momentarily to watch the Gangreen Gang be shipped off to the police station. “Man, Townsville’s got room for all types, doesn’t it?”, Aqua observes.
“Hey, at least all the monsters and giant robots stay in Japan!”
As they depart for school, the three share in their ‘middle sister’s’ joke with hearty laughter.
…Later on, as the day nears 11:00pm and nighttime completely settles in, we join the Powerpuff Girls at their home on the outskirts of Townsville. By this time, the girls had changed into their evening attire and retired to their bedroom on the second floor. Large enough to accommodate all three girls, it was furnished with three beds, three personalized chests of drawers, two computer terminals, a 60-inch flat-screen HDTV with entertainment center (Midori’s favorite), and a walk-in closet. This could surely be considered one of the better-off households on this block.
Lounging before a vanity mirror, Aqua runs a brush through her whitish-golden shoulder-length hair. Her favorite ribbons hang lazily off the countertop of her dresser.
Lying face down on her pink bedspread, Rose reads through an issue of a fashion magazine. Her lower legs swing back and forth rhythmically as red polish dries on her toenails.
And at the other end of the room, Midori too lies face down on her bed. Her eyes aren’t fixated on any form of literature, but rather the television screen. A bit by one of her favorite comedians was playing on HBO. “What’s the deal with the ‘City of Townsville’, huh?”, says the comic. “Is it a city or a town? What, the founding fathers couldn’t make up their minds or something? Can you imagine what deciding on the city’s name must’ve been like? ‘Okay, all in favor of ‘City of Townsville’, say ‘I’. …Alright, all in favor of ‘Town of Citysville’, say ‘I’. …Okay, ‘City of Townsville’ it is. Next order of business: What do we do with all the dead Injuns?’”
Midori lets out a good-humored laugh at the comic’s material.
Apparently not amused by the act, Rose and Aqua muffle the word “Hack!” under fake spells of coughing.
“I heard that!”
Moments later, their adoptive father John Utonium enters the sizable bedroom and calls on the girls’ attention. “Alright, girls. 11 o’clock. Time for bed.”
Not ones to disobey, Aqua sets her hairbrush down, Rose puts her magazine away, and Midori (reluctantly) turns the TV off. The youngest Powerpuff climbs into bed, and all three pull the covers over themselves.
With a nod, Utonium moves his hand toward the light switch.
But mere seconds before the lights go out, Aqua calls out tenderly, “Hey, Professor?”
“Yes, Aqua?”
“Could you…tell us that story again?”
“Aren’t you a little old for bedtime stories?”
“Please? Just one more time?”
Shuffling out from underneath the sheets to sit upright, Rose speaks out. “I wanna hear it too.”
And Midori follows moments after. “Yeah, same here.”
The middle-aged scientist was backed into a corner. How could he say no? “…Heh. Ganging up on me now, eh? Should’ve seen that coming.” Defeated, he turns out the lights, switches on the desk lamp at one of the two computer terminals, and seats himself in a nearby chair. Finally, he leans back against the backrest and crosses his legs. “Let’s see… How’d it go again? …Ah, yes. Once upon a time…”
…Nine months ago…
Hot spring winds blow over the rocky terrain of the Mojave Desert. Heavy sands and dust clouds press brutally against the Yucca trees. Somewhere in this virtually barren wasteland, not too far from Death Valley, there stood a great building. A naturally out-of-place construct, but perfectly concealed from inquisitive eyes by tall cliffs and sandstorms.
Inside this odd structure, a meeting of minds was taking place. A row of scientists stood shoulder to shoulder. There was a wide spectrum of scientific intellect among the group, from biochemists to radiobiologists to nuclear physicists. And to the far left of the row stood none other than John Utonium.
A new face soon enters the room to greet the team. He had short clean-cut brown hair, wore thin-rimmed glasses, and presented himself with poise and professionalism. “Hello, and welcome.”, the man greets clearly and eloquently. “First and foremost, I would like to express my thanks to all of you for coming out all this way. My name is Johann Kepler, and I represent the Project X Scientific Administration and Committee. …You are the best and brightest the scientific world has to offer. It is only because of your exceptional knowledge and skill in your respective fields that you’ve been chosen to observe firsthand as we make history. Blindness, deafness, muteness, cerebral palsy, mental illness – all these and others will be made a thing of the past thanks to the breakthroughs in science and medicine that we’ve made here.” Reaching into an inner pocket of his lab coat, the man named Kepler pulls out a small remote. When he presses the button on it…
…the massive wall of steel behind him opens up. On the other side of the wall, a group of stasis pods is revealed. Each pod was filled with a strange, purple translucent fluid and housed a person in partially suspended animation. No doubt the subjects for the experiments they were about to conduct here. The subjects were female, and appeared to be no older than high school students.
In the first pod at the left, Rose Walker slept.
In the center pod lay Aqua Fontana.
And the pod at the right housed Midori Kondo.
Addressing the row of scientists again, Kepler emphatically proclaims, “My fellow scientists… I welcome you…to Project X!”
