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Post by rcblazer on Sept 28, 2011 10:41:12 GMT -5
As Professor Utonium opens the hatch leading up to the surface, the girls fly past him to secure the surface. All around them are statues of humans who appear to be fighting a battle against each other. Some are carrying weapons, others are shooting guns, and other statues are prone on the ground; casualties of whatever war the statues are representing.
"Looks to me like some giant kid forgot to pick up his toy soldiers after he was done playing with them." Buttercup comments. "How are we supposed to find the weather device in this?"
"There can't be that many statues carrying rifles, can there?" Bubbles asks.
"Let's search around, but stick together; those two guys who were here a moment ago said the wildlife was moving in. I don't know what they were implying, but I don't like the sound of it." Blossom instructs the others.
Wandering about the maze of statues that is the Monument district of FL-49, Professor Utonium looks over many of the soldiers frozen in battle. "Who do you suppose constructed all of these?"
"Either someone was obsessed with FL-49's atomic war and built a whole field of statues to capture the moment, or we are in the lair of a gorgon and these statues were her victims." Buttercup says with a snicker.
"Buttercup, now is not the time for jokes." Blossom scolds her. "At least I hope you're joking. If we run into a monster from Greek myth down here, we're in a lot of trouble."
A clacking noise can be heard coming from another part of the maze. Everyone is able to tell where the sound came from, including the Professor. Bubbles and Buttercup fly up over the maze to see what it is.
"Well, it's not a gorgon or a minotaur, or a creature from any Greek myth I've ever heard of." Buttercup comments, looking down at a giant crab scuttling around the maze. The creature hears Buttercup and responds by grabbing something off the ground with a large claw and throwing it up at her general direction, but Bubbles manages to catch it.
"Hey, it's throwing things at us!" Buttercup shouts, aiming her rifle at the crab.
"It's big, but not very dangerous." Bubbles says, trying to calm her sister down, until she looks at the object she caught, expecting it to be a rock. Her eyes widen and her hair stands up when she realizes she is holding a skull in her hands! She quickly drops the skull with an "Eep!" which causes it to bounce off a nearby statue. The mutant crab quickly scuttles over to the statue the skull touches and slams its huge claws against it, loudly knocking a hole in the maze!
"Is everything all right? What was that crash?" Blossom calls up to Bubbles and Buttercup while holding Angel tightly.
Bubbles and Buttercup return to the maze. "Not so loud Blossom! A giant crab lives here, and I think it's still hungry." Buttercup says.
Another crash is heard, this time louder and closer!
"I think it might be trying to find us." Bubbles says.
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Post by blossomgb on Sept 28, 2011 14:00:02 GMT -5
'Let go', Angel insisted as she struggled. 'I can defend myself you know'.
Blossom looked at her, with the ribbon on, and thought of the Powerprof incident when she was about the same age. She released her grip and told her to stay close. Angel went invisible and remarked that the crabs have to see her to hit her.
The group looked round at the noise and the statues, one of which held the weather machine, but which one.
'Does this crab have radioactivity in it?', Steve asked, expecting someone else to know, but not sure anyone would. If not, he reasoned, they could shoot it. If it did have, they would have to kill it without it spurting blood. Then they would have to find the machine, which would be fun seeing as nobody knew what it looked like.
Angel went up and looked around, then came down and whispered something in Blossom's ear. 'There's a soldier statue with a different kind of gun off to our left.'
Cheers,
Blossomgb
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Post by rulerofice on Sept 28, 2011 14:48:57 GMT -5
Timo tried to think of a way to at least distract the crab if killing wasn't an option.
"Correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't something like crab be weak against ice?" Timo asked. "I could freeze this thing."
"But it probably isn't the same kind of crab we have on Earth." Buttercup said.
"If that's the case, then the only option I see is to distract the crab somehow in case it's irradiated while someone get the weather machine.Those who move fast should be able to distract the crab long enough... and I can still protect you." At the last bit, Timo imagined how powerful the crab can be against his shield and how would the hit reflect on him.
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Post by rcblazer on Sept 29, 2011 7:41:06 GMT -5
"Angel may have found the weather machine." Blossom says, speaking quietly as to avoid giving their position away. "If we move quickly and silently enough, we might be able to reach it before the giant crab finds us."
"We could try that." Buttercup replies, a round object on the ground catching her eye. "I think I may have found something useful."
"What is it, Buttercup?" Blossom asks her. Buttercup picks up the object, which appears to be an unused fragmentation grenade.
"I think we would need more than one of those to deal with the giant crab." Bubbles comments.
"I don't intend to use this to defeat the monster." Buttercup says as she pulls the pin. "We are going to send it after us in the other direction!" She finishes saying as she throws the grenade over the walls of the statue maze to the group's right. The grenade explodes noisily at the other end of the maze, followed by the scuttling and smashing sounds of the giant crab going after the spot where the grenade blew up, effectively misleading the monster!
"Good work Buttercup, now let's hurry and find that weather machine." Blossom replies.
The heroes follow the path to the left as Angel directed, coming to a series of statues aiming rifles at one another. In the center of this dead end sits a statue facing and aiming its weapon the wrong way, looking at the makeshift hall of the maze instead of the enemy. Its weapon, instead of a rifle made of stone and marble as part of the sculpture like all the others, is instead a blue and green mechanical device resembling a sniper rifle with a clear loading chamber meant for liquid on the top made of some sort of alien reinforced plastic. On the side of the grip is the same familiar emblem of the Blizza regime as on Patriarch's space pod and on Steve's wristband.
"That's got to be what we're here for, the weather device!" Blossom exclaims.
"Let's grab it and get out of here before-" Bubbles starts to say, when a large object suddenly falls out of the sky and hits her on the head, shattering on impact!
Bubbles Condition: Bloody - Irradiated 2%
Bubbles cries out in pain, clutching the bleeding cut left in her scalp by what appears to have once been the head of one of the statues! The scuttling of the giant crab responds to Bubbles' cry of pain, now headed quickly in their direction!
"How did it figure out we were over here?" Buttercup asks in frustration, hoisting the laser rifle. "Blossom, you grab the weather machine! I've got an inklin' for some seafood!"
"Buttercup, wait!" Blossom is about to begin, when one of the statues suddenly explodes nearby, the giant crab bursting through the maze!
Buttercup attacks Clawgrip
Attack: Laser Rifle
Defense: Flight
"You think you can throw pieces of statue at MY sister and get away with it?" Buttercup asks the crab rhetorically, aiming and firing her rifle. The laser blasts from the rifle hit the crab's giant claws, which seems to have no effect on them! "It can throw like a pro, and block lasers with its claws!" Buttercup exclaims.
Clawgrip attacks Buttercup
Attack: Bubble
Defense: Block
The giant crab spits what appears to be sea water at first at Buttercup, but when it hits her shirt, it suddenly expands into a giant bubble, trapping her inside! "Hey!" Buttercup shouts angrily, attempting to kick her way out of the bubble to no avail!
Buttercup Condition: Fine - Restrained - Irradiated 2%
The giant crab turns its attention away from Buttercup and looks down at Blossom, who is currently checking on Bubbles with Timo and the Professor, carrying the weather device on her back. The monster quickly slashes its claw, severing the head of another statue to use as a throwing weapon.
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Post by rulerofice on Sept 29, 2011 8:25:29 GMT -5
Clawgrip attacks Blossom
Attack: Throw (statue head)
Defense: Block
Timo attacks Clawgrip
Attack: None
Defense: Ice Shield (normal)
As Timo checked on Bubbles, he heard the giant crab and turned to see the giant crab severing a head from another statue. Just as the giant crab throwed the head, Timo went and created an ice shield in front of the group.
The head hit the ice shield with such brute force that it caused the shield to nearly break up. Instead the shield cracked up badly all over, blocking the head, but the hit forced Timo to crash on the ground with almost equal force.
Timo Condition: Broke A Sweat - Irradiated 2%
"UGH!" Timo yelled upon impact. He quickly got up and looked at the crab. "My ice shield didn't do much. It felt like I got hit by that skull at full force. We have to get out of here NOW!" Timo looked at Bubbles. "I can carry Bubbles."
But before Timo could even touch Bubbles, the giant crab starts advancing on them while keeping its claws up, getting ready to attack.
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Post by blossomgb on Sept 29, 2011 12:56:09 GMT -5
When it was ready to attack, Angel was ready to attack it, nicely invisible and waiting. Steve however warned her to stay clear as he raised his stick. The crab might have been invincible from above, but how about from below?
Steve fired the stick at the crab's underbelly which appeared softer. The crab leaned away from this and Steve fired again. The crab overbalanced and ended up upside down with it's legs and claws in the air. It seemed unable to get up from this.
'Run', he told everyone. 'Down the hole, now!'
The crab was still upside down and seemed unable to right itself. Steve and Angel advanced on it and Steve handed Angel the gun. Another bullet from the stick and it's movements lessened. Angel fired the laser gun, and the modulated output melted the crab's underbelly. It gave a cry but was unable to move to avoid the beam.
'Let's catch up with the others', Angel said.
'Good idea', Steve replied in his best English accent as they flew to join the others, leaving the crab in it's death throes...
Cheers,
Blossomgb
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Post by rcblazer on Sept 30, 2011 12:34:13 GMT -5
"Now that we have the weather device, we will need to bring it back to the Museum control room." Professor Utonium states. We can attach the device to the Auxiliary Filtration Input panel, load it with the purification chemical, and activate it. Based on what Dr. Frumapirz told me, the device will fire the chemical into the sky and create an artificial storm which should distribute the purifying chemicals to the entire world."
"Slow down Professor; one step at a time." Blossom advises him. "We still need to make the necessary modifications to the purification chemical, or else it will wipe out all mutant life on the planet as well as Radiation X, and we don't want to do that."
"Yes, you're right. Dr. Saw and I have a theory that the Chemical X itself is the missing ingredient to the purification, but..." Professor Utonium hesitates, unsure of what to say.
"What's wrong Professor?" Bubbles asks.
"I have a feeling it isn't as simple as that. The way the formula dissolved the flesh of a pri... we will need something more than Chemical X or Antidote X. What we need is a formula that has been proven to both reverse and preserve mutation, and right now only one comes to mind."
Blossom nearly chokes on her own words. "You can't mean... Professor, you don't even know how it was made!"
"What are you talking about?" Buttercup asks.
"Professor wants to recreate the mutation serum Mojo created and used on Imposter!" Blossom answers. "The only one who could possibly tell us the formula for that..."
"...is Mojo Jojo himself." Buttercup finishes her sentence. "Are you sure about this, Professor?"
"I'm sure." He says in response. "Chemical X would only strengthen the mutants with the purification formula, and Antidote X would cause them to dissolve more rapidly. Only the cure Mojo created for Imposter's mutation added to the purification chemical would provide the necessary results of clearing Radiation X from the environment of FL-49 without harming the mutants. I am absolutely sure of this!"
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Post by rulerofice on Sept 30, 2011 14:13:47 GMT -5
"Oh great." Timo said, rolling his eyes. "I'm pretty sure Imposter will let us take her blood without any fight and use it to clear the air of this entire planet."
Bubbles looked at Timo. "Were you been sarcastic?"
"No, I was serious.... OF COURSE I WAS SARCASTIC!" Timo said, a bit louder than he meant. He then looked at Bubbles with worried look. "How's your head?"
"It hurts quite a bit." Bubbles said. "That skull was quite hard I think my head is bleeding."
Timo looked at everyone. "I don't suppose any of you brought some first aid kit with you?"
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Post by blossomgb on Sept 30, 2011 15:32:21 GMT -5
Steve looked at Bubbles head as he listened to the conversation.
'Well, Theories are all very well, but being an engineer, I need proof', he stated. Blossom looked at him and then the professor. 'Have you got any way to prove these theories, before Blossom takes her hat off, which would bring one or both of them running once they realize that we've got that.'
He pointed at the weather machine that he carried. Then he touched Bubbles head.
'Well, it's just an idea', The Professor said.
'Not enough', Blossom replied.
Bubbles had a gash to the head, but nothing serious. Steve looked in his pockets and came out with a nearly empty tube of Super Glue.
'No', Timo said.
'I've not enough anyway', he replied, giving Timo the tube as a keepsake.
Next offering from Steve's pockets was a roll of self amalgamating tape. 'Ah this will do', he replied as he tore a bit off. Then he put it on the wound. This didn't hurt Bubbles, but it did stop the bleeding and allow a clot to form.
Cheers,
Blossomgb
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Post by rcblazer on Oct 1, 2011 10:01:30 GMT -5
"So where we headin' next? We can't go back the way we came, since Little Boy Blue might still be tryin' out for a bit part in an arcade fighting game down there." Buttercup replies. "I'd say that means we're hoofin' it up here on the surface."
"There looks to be no end to this maze." Blossom replies, looking at the endless halls of statues. "It will be quicker if we fly over it, just be careful not to attract any unwanted attention."
"We should go back to Udd City and speak to Dr. Saw. I will need his help installing and preparing the weather device." Professor Utonium says.
"Okay, back to Udd City. Hopefully Mojo hasn't launched a second wave of robots at them." Blossom replies as she and Steve lead the way through the sky.
Once they are away from the Monument and the maze of statues ends, the heroes land, and then quickly take cover upon hearing the roaring sound of another gol! Looking out through their hiding spot, they can see the familiar giant mutant being shot at by a small squad of udds armed with rifles and machine guns. Although the bullets are piercing the flesh of the monster, causing its radioactive blood to splash against the nearby walls, the gol seems to ignore the damage, swatting the smaller mutants with its hands and crushing others under its feet!
Once the fight is over with the clear winner being the gol, it stomps and roars in triumph before walking into the devastated ruins of the human cities. Professor Utonium is the first to leave his hiding place, examining some of the gol's blood on some nearby rubble.
"Professor, get away from there!" Bubbles says. "That thing could come back!"
"I want a sample of this creature's blood to test my theory." Professor answers Bubbles. "If I'm correct, Radiation X is not entirely responsible for the creation of that monster." He removes an empty beaker from his armored suit and scrapes some of the radioactive blood into the beaker. The blood sizzles slightly as he looks over it in the glass container.
"Can we go yet?" Buttercup asks.
"Yes. Let's get out of here." Blossom replies. She lifts up the Professor in order to quickly carry him through the air, followed by the others as they arrive back at the familiar underground apartment complex that is Udd City.
Professor Utonium is quick to take the gol blood sample to the Butcher Shop. "Seymour, I need your help once again."
"Welcome back, Professor." Dr. Saw replies. "I take it you were successful in finding the weather device."
"We have it, now we need to readily adjust the formula. I have a gut feeling that while Chemical X would make the formula harmless to mutants, its side effect would be to make them stronger."
"I see. Such a result would be unsatisfactory, even for udds. We are not as strong as some of the other mutants, including some of the dangerous wildlife out there. Weapons and firearms allows us to survive against the hostile mutants, but just barely."
"If you were stronger, couldn't you keep them away without your weapons?" Bubbles asks.
"It wouldn't just strengthen udds. It would make the already dangerous mutants like ults and clawgrips stronger as well, making them even more dangerous." Dr. Saw replies. "We would still be at a disadvantage against them in a hand to hand fight, and our weapons would no longer be able to hurt them. They would easily wipe out our kind and dominate the planet."
"This is all just speculation, right?" Buttercup asks. "It might still work."
Dr. Saw and Professor Utonium go into a testing lab together with the gol blood sample. The girls watch as the two of them run the blood sample through a tube that boils some of it while a computer calculates the elements that make up the radioactive blood of the giant mutant monster. Looking at the results, Professor Utonium steps out of the room.
"Just as I thought." Professor says as he steps out of the room. "While the blood of this creature is mutated by Radiation X, its level is more or less the same as other mutants."
"So why is it bigger and stronger than the others?" Bubbles asks.
"The monster was not born this way; the sample is irradiated human blood. The udds are not the mutated humans of FL-49, the ults are!" Professor shakes his head, trying to come up with the least shocking way of putting it. "Worse, this sample of blood has an extra component flowing through it... Chemical X."
"You mean...?" The girls looked shocked by this revelation.
"It means your theory on mutation was correct, Professor." Dr. Saw responds. "Udds are born as pries who evolved by eating the pure flesh of the FL-49 born Powerpuffs who were not killed by Radiation X poisoning. Ults on the other hand, were born as humans who must have been experimented on with the black nectar, possibly in the hopes of turning them into bio-weapons. Radiation X coupled with Chemical X must have transformed them into the mindless, violent ults we know today. Those ults who were heavily dosed must have evolved further into gols."
"Which means Chemical X will only make them even stronger." Blossom finishes for Dr. Saw.
"Antidote X would weaken a gol, possibly even an ult, but using it with Frumapirz's purifying chemical and the weather machine would only insure complete mutant extinction." Professor Utonium replies. "It may even make the formula harmful to Powerpuffs as well. I must know how Mojo Jojo created the mutation serum he used on Imposter when she suffered from Chemical X mutation. Not only did the serum give her the power to change back and forth into a mutant at will, but it also made her completely immune to the effects of both Chemical X and Antidote X, possibly Radiation X as well."
He turns and looks at Timo. "It won't be a simple matter of taking a blood sample from Imposter, because I already tried that. Whatever Mojo used on her did not come up on any of the scans I did of the sample of Imposter's blood I took when she was being detained in my lab. Our only hope would be to get Mojo himself to tell us how he made it."
"I think you've forgotten something, Professor." Buttercup speaks up. "Mojo ain't gonna give us the serum formula out of the kindness of his heart. If we want it we're gonna have to beat it out of him!"
"We need a plan. Some way we can get Mojo to tell us what we want to know." Blossom says, thinking hard to come up with something.
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Post by rulerofice on Oct 1, 2011 10:53:04 GMT -5
Timo sighed. "Since Mojo most likely won't give us that information even after we'd beat him to near death, I see only 3 other options:
1: Give him a some kind of truth serum.
2: Have someone read his mind, but I don't think we have any mindreaders here.
3: Put him on a lie detector.
All are very poor choices, I know."
"I'm pretty sure there are other ways to get the information." Bubbles said. "I mean this is Mojo we're talking about. Since when has he ever outsmarted us?"
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Post by blossomgb on Oct 1, 2011 11:15:16 GMT -5
Steve came out from the laboratory with the Professor and Dr. Saw.
'Well, it's not proof of your theory, but as calculated guesswork goes, it's pretty good. How's the head wound?' he asked Bubbles.
'Good, thanks', Bubbles replied.
Blossom and Angel looked at Steve, and Blossom spoke.
'If this stuff works and can be harmful to us, then we need to handle it carefully. Like, from in space!'
'True', Buttercup added.
'So we need a spaceship too, or at least an orbiter.', Angel commented.
'Well Mojo must come in something', Steve remarked. 'And seeing as we have that, then if you take of that hat, either Mojo or Imposter will come running. Maybe both. And you've beaten them more times than I can count'.
'True', Blossom answered.
'When we get him, what truth drugs do we have?', Steve asked Dr Saw.
'I have something that'll do the job almost instantly', Dr Saw replied.
Steve looked at everyone. 'Well, either Mojo with the truth drug, Imposter for a blood sample or maybe both', he commented. 'Are we ready for me to take Blossom's hat off?'
Cheers,
Blossomgb
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Post by rcblazer on Oct 2, 2011 11:28:20 GMT -5
"Hold that thought." Buttercup speaks up. "If we take the tinfoil hat off Blossom while she is in on the plan, Imposter will know what we have in mind too. She does get instant up to date info."
"Buttercup's right. Best I continue to wear this." Blossom replies. "If this is going to work, we need to find Mojo and catch him off guard. If we allow Imposter into my mind again, Mojo will be more than prepared for us."
"We still aren't sure where to even start searching for Mojo." Bubbles says.
"I think I may know." Blossom says with a knowing smile. "According to the Professor and Dr. Saw, ults are the remnants of the humans of FL-49 who were mutated by a combination of Radiation X and Chemical X. Call it a hunch, but I get the feeling by the way the gols hunt and eat other mutants to get bigger that the ults and gols are always trying to make themselves bigger and stronger."
"What does any of that have to do with finding Mojo Jojo?" Professor asks, still not completely sure what Blossom has in mind.
Blossom explains her idea. "If Mojo is on FL-49, he must have built himself a lab somewhere. He couldn't have sent robots of his own design to attack Udd City otherwise! If I know Mojo, he's also got a chemistry set in this lab, one the ults and gols would be very interested in."
"You think Mojo might be supplying the ults with Chemical X?" Bubbles and Buttercup both ask.
"If Mojo has somehow convinced the ults to work with him, we're in a lot more trouble than we realized!" Professor exclaims.
"Probably, but if I'm right, all we have to do is find one of the ults, and then follow it instead of fighting." Blossom says. "We'll need to avoid being seen by it or any of its friends though. If I'm right, they should lead us right to where Mojo is hiding out!"
"That won't be a problem for your daughter, but what about the rest of us?" Buttercup asks. "Subtlety isn't exactly my specialty."
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Post by rulerofice on Oct 2, 2011 14:53:47 GMT -5
"Neither is mine anymore." Timo said. "My ice shield is emitting this strange humming sound which grows louder according to the radiation level. Without that sound I might be able to sneak in too,but..." Timo trailed off as another thought came to him. "There's another problem too. The same one that's bothered us ever since we landed here: the radiation itself. Without my ice shield to protect you all from radiation, you will be exposed to it and we still don't quite know what will happen if it reaches to high levels nor how deadly it can be to us."
"Unless there's another way to protect us from the radiation?" Bubbles said. "Even just a temporary solution?"
"As long as it's quiet enough to allow stealth movement but do we even have such technology on our hands here?" Timo asked.
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Post by blossomgb on Oct 2, 2011 16:39:40 GMT -5
'Then, once we've found the lab and Mojo, we still have the problem of getting the information out of Mojo. OK, a truth drug, but by that time we may have been irradiated too much to function properly ourselves. OK I can dose you all up with these tablets but that is with us inside Timo's shield. Without it, I don't know how long they will last.' Steve said all this with a small hint of worry. 'Is there some addition you can make for your shield, Timo, to stop it making the noise?'
Bubbles looked at Timo and round at the rest. 'Is there', she asked Timo.
'Hold on again', Blossom replied as Timo was thinking. 'The last time, no other creatures could hear it. Maybe it'll be the same?'
Cheers,
Blossomgb
Note: I've been away this weekend, in sunny Scotland. I didn't go and visit it, but I passed a place called Wigtown, which is the Scottish seat of the clan McCracken.
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