Author's Note: Explanations will be explained...but not here...

Humility.

April 9th, 2013

In the streets, hundreds of cars stood empty around cramped parking spaces.

A crowd milled, scuffling for the best views at the familiar central fountain statue of a much younger Major, while his elder living twin stood just below behind a large podium.

A closer look by any from onlookers could spot the small tower of phonebooks stacked below their figurehead, giving him just the right stature as Miss Bellum handed him a new page of notes.

The City of Townsville...

“Blah, blah, blah bla...” The Major continued, the adoring crowd cheering as he paused for dramatic effect. “Blah blah blah!” He yelled happily raising overzealous peace signing hands to the sky.

A happy town, a city of blissful contentment, basking in the glow of yet another Fellowship Award, thanks to the ever watchful protection of the Power...

O Fortuna, velut luna

“Blah..blah?” The Mayor froze as a sudden rumble shook the earth, mirrored by the notes of a disembodied choir.

Miss Bellum knelt to keep her balance as the governor zipped behind her tall frame, the crowd on the lower level scurrying to relocate as a gaping crack grew, swallowing unlucky stragglers and one stray white Persian cat in turn.

Sweet mother of ...Music of a garishly musical tone? But- Oh Fortuna levels of evil aren't a part of our..Oh no..it's...

"They know me, dog!" Him's voice bellowed, long before his head ascended from the pit with the wail of of a flicked white ball of fur that swiftly embedded four paws worth of extended claws into a unlucky passing Talking Dog.

semper crescis, aut decrescis;

Him reclined in a cozy frame of a newly reformed throne, rimmed by skulls supporting decorative candles . Chains weaved around its base, interlocked around a struggling Blossom and Buttercup to each side, their mouths secured with neon pink duct tape.

vita detestabilis

Bubbles drifted just outside Him's line of sight toward Blossom's chains, streaking back to hover up by his side when he again looked down with an annoyed ear twitch toward the depths.

"Oooh come oon now, people, people, Latin is dead as disco! Get with the badly translated dread these humans can remotely understand!"

Fate – monstrous and empty,

"And you!" He finished with a snap, one claw growing black and glossy as it stretched on an ever lengthening arm, filling the scene just beyond sight with the sound of scattering glass.

Oh, why didn't I become a nice safe documentary narrator like mother wanted, whyyyy?

The fading bloodcurdling wail sent a shivering hush over the everyday screams of terror long reserved for fifty story monsters .

well-being is vain and always fades to nothing,

The current demon, who happened to only at this moment reach a height of seven feet, raised his clawed arms in an all encompassing semi-circle.

shadowed and veiled you plague me too!

"Hear me, citizens of Townsville! Unprivileged associates! Common beasts! I bring tidings of the gladdest kiiind!"

The bolt like mechanisms of his screwed together pincers made an uncommon whirling sound almost like the purr of a living thing, snapping inches away from Blossom and Buttercup's captive faces in a dizzying wave.

The background singers cut of with a sudden silence as Hank appeared from far below, discreetly polishing a long battle ax.

"Todaaay is a red letter daay that will, in turn, start a red eternity of your insufferable pouring blood..."

The two powerpuffs wiggled with a fresh rage of energy, already halfway free from the demonic bonds as Him continued, floating to place his head again upon Bubbles stomach as she giggled into a new bowl of conjured potato salad.

"The end of ends is upon us all drawn with my son's first breath from this earthly ball, on and on to spin and spin forever never more..."

"Uh..what was that again?" The mayor interjected in a small voice.

"You and this earth shall be dead in less than five days time and there in nothing you can do to stop it." Him growled with an eye roll.

"Him, no! These people can't..." Blossom grabbed his mouth, her own finally free of the enchanted tape.

"That's what I thought you said." The Mayor said with a solemn nod, turning to scream with all the vigor of a freshly soiled two year old.

Peaceful streets erupted into suddenly raging flames as sirens and answering screams filled the air.

Villains and normal citizens alike burst from pillaged shop windows and houses like greedy mice, half their ring leaders left trapping upon low hanging electric lines as their mountains of loot were left to the fortunate lower supporters.

Even Big Billy trotted by with a grin, carrying a uprooted mailbox marked 'The Smiths" as Snake and Little Arturo followed, scurrying under a sofa. An elderly couple, who happened to still be sitting their sofa, only hunched closer around floorplans to the Last National Bank, oblivious to the surrounding chaos.

In a far corner, an argument started sometime before the demon's appearance had since drawn deadly silent.

"Divorce?" Two voices asked

"Fine!" They both agreed, as Ace's tall shadow headed off in one direction, and what looked like a slightly shorter collection of black snakes went the other with the sound of high heels.

"Dad?" An eight year old's voice asked, an unspoken answer to a question that had none dying halfway.

"Yeah?" His father replied, looking down at the small shadow.

"Nuff'n..." Spunk whispered.

The Mayor suddenly froze mid-classic scream where he raced past the small street. His eye switched over his monocle as he did a quick running about face, driving down to a space unseen below the long forgotten podium.

"Miss Bellum!"

"Oh Mayor!"

In the middle of the flames and mindless masses an unmoving, bedraggled looking Talking Dog and White Cat sat back to back, their white fur blanketed in a cloud of black shoot.

"I hate you." Talking Dog grumbled.

"I hate you to." White Cat agreed his sharp accent matched with narrowed yellow eyes.

"Who cares? We're all going to die!"

Both animals sniffed in sync, suddenly turning to nuzzle one another in a wave of tears.

"Well, well, the more you know..." Him laughed, turning from filing a pincher edge into an even sharper point.

"Aaaah, the reminds me, before anything else..loose ends, loose ends, can't have this one coming back to bite me in the tush..."

Light, a shade far dimmer than Him's own traveling warp grew in a space just below where he now sat. "Not that I'd miiind horribly, but better saaafe, stitch in time, aall thaat..."

The familiar face and square jaw, edged by white and gray peppered hair a shade darker than his lab coat, blinked.

"Professor!" Three voices quailed in shock.

"Girls!?" The Professor shouted, barely a moment before struggling to look past Him's knee, his efforts met with a tiny needle of red liquid to the neck.

Bubbles was at Him's own throat half a breath later, a pinch to the jaw landing squarely before a second was blocked halfway through with the the demons smile, a tooth regrowing with the sound of realigning bone.

"Dear..sleep, only sleep.." Bubbles choked down on a whimper, drifting to support the Professor's weight as Blossom knelt to check his pulse.

"Oldest wine in existence yooou know, lovely called Ambrosia..One smidgen, ooor something of that measure..he should be ooout for a few days..or until the end of time, whichever comes first..."

Him smiled, drawing a dropper from a tiny bottle and hanging it above his open mouth for a moment before recapping it with a sigh.

"So terribly fattening..."

His glowing eyes settled on the Professor's body as Buttercup safely tucked him in a distant office building.

"But still sooo tastefully aged..."

"Hey Dad, if the world is ending, can I have that pet whale?" The voice of the youngest Gangreen member carried over as Buttercup doubled back into sight.

"Sure thing, kiddo..." Ace's voice agreed with a strained edge.

"Buttercup?" Blossom asked, not even finishing before Buttercup turned, the wind under her flight path slow and heavy.

"I know, I know, stop them from freeing Willy...I'll be right back..."

Him cleared his throat anew, perching atop the throne like a oddly shaped rooster.

"There's nothing you can do, oh cows and lesser creatures, but do not fear..no, no..

The scattered and crazed crowd suddenly stopped, some mid- murder attempt, collecting around Him's platform with the all the hope of a supernatural ice cream truck.

"Come, gather, all..."

Him laughed his sleeves scattering a small storm of gold glitter other the Powerpuff standing before him.

"For a hero, yes,a great champion of Earth, has stepped forward and proclaimed..."

Blossom now stood wearing a golden trimmed pink gladiator costume atop a solid gold pedestal, blushing from head to toe.

"That she, the great Blossom, may on this day throw in her powers against the oh so perfectly manicured edge of my own strength, in a bid for the earth's continued existence..."

In Him's shadow Bubbles opened her mouth, quickly stopping to bite her lip.

She drifted over to Blossom, now standing alone under the weight of countless eyes as her clothing melted back to normal.

"And should she fail, well...what chance is there of anything this angel does being less than perfect, right everyone?"

More cheers sent Blossom's bottom lip quivering as she turned way, sitting to rake her her face with her palms.

"Ah, it almost sets me shaking all a twitter right here!"

"What are you doing?!" Blossom hissed as with a clawed wave a sound poof dome of red tinted energy appeared over their heads, cutting off any peering signs of the outside world.

Bubbles flew without a word, sitting down in the air before settling her new unsteady center of balance beside Blossom.

"My best work yet dear, my very best..." Him nodded, the light of a transporting beam glowing to one side of their enclosure, revealing a very puzzled looking Mojo Jojo in helmet, robe, and reading glasses. "Oops! Ooo, clumsy mee..my magic is sooo butterfingered sometimes!"

Blossom looked up from Bubbles' arm, her eyes growing wide and glossy.

"Why am I here? I, Mojo Jojo, who was presently and now formally researching that which would currently require me to be elsewhere,"

Mojo raged, his everyday ranting tone falling ever so slightly every time his pacing and punching around the suddenly apparent dome wall brought his path past Him's black boots.

"...than the place in this proximity I am occupying now without any expectation as to why..."

Mojo froze as his rage seemed to die down, clearing the vision of his own eyes, their gaze softening within barely wrinkled smile lines.

"Oh Blossom, you are here to? This is an most unexpected turn of events most awkward in nature..."

The chimp, his full size still only now reaching the powerpuff's own adult height, slowly edged forward inch by inch with each heavy pause.

"As previous attempts on my part... have been ineffective in reinitializing... corresponding correspondence.... when I believed our past occupation... of close spatial distance... to... be.. very... mut..ua..lly.. beneficial."

For the first time in her long history with both the raging villain and her all knowing sister, Bubbles watching in silent awe as the two stood, completely silent, staring at a shared spot on the ground between them.

"Even without explanation or knowledge of the meaning of my relocation by extraordinary means, I am grateful.." Mojo looked up shyly, his arms flying out in full bear hug. "Which is to say, I missed you!"

Bubbles gasped as Blossom's powerful hug answered the villains' own.

"Blossom? You and Mojo? Really? When? How?" Her voice picked up more and more excited volume, as unspoken moments of months past seemed to click into place. "So that's why you and..you and..."

Bubbles grinned, hugging them both where words left off.

"Oooh, the heartfelt honestly level is downright nauseating..."

Him purred, taking Bubbles place to hover over the two as the sound of his voice drew Mojo's head closer to Blossom, a low, territorial screech curling his lip.

"But heeere's where it gets especially interesting monkey, before those adolescent sensibilities of yours get tooo warm and fuzzy..."

Mojo's screech grew to a full volume as he stepped away from the Powerpuff, reaching to swat at Him like a large leather clad fly.

"What is this? I, Mojo Jojo object to the accusation that my metal age is less than mature! I am an adult, which is to say..."

"Blah, blah, quiet time for that nasty testosterone trouble you have!" Him said, a large piece of the unearthly pink tape floating to bind the chimps' wrinkled mouth. "Now, do you know what yoour little Blossom..."

Buttercup flew through the top of the dome at that moment, depositing a very wet looking Ace and son just outside it's surface.

"... has to do tooo save the world?"

"Whatever it is, we'll do it , Him." Blossom nodded.

"All of us." Bubbles agreed with a happy energy.

"Together!" Buttercup finished, only giving the new existence of Mojo Jojo within the dome the smallest of uninterested glances.

"But of course..." Him's eyes grew into long cat-like slits as he stroked the air with a claw. drawing from nothingness the moisture of the surrounding spring air into a large floating sphere. It's surface rippled, playing out the scene of three tiny shadow puppets being dipped into a bubbling liquid.

"They must be killed. Killed and slipped into a specialty designed form of containment pods which only you can constrict with that wee monkey..."

"Chimpanzee!" Mojo screeched, rubbing the spots on his now hairless lips.

The scene zoomed out, showing the black liquid actually placed in large tubs under the watchful guard of an armor covered green knight.

"...mind to be reanimated if they should succeed when..."

"No." Mojo growled as Buttercup's surprised gasp and wrinkled flat nose in the background seemed to only reinforce his decision.

""But, whyever nooot? Why would Mojo Jojo, the oldest enemy written of in Powerpuff lore, be agaaainst the tasty fulfillment of his greatest wiiish?"

"Blossom? What is he getting at? Why..." Buttercup asked as Blossom turned away.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the leader of the Powerpuffs landed, beginning to walk the short distance of the platform.

"That is in fact, I, Mojo Jojo's wish," He began taking on the odd, even tone of a storyteller, as the water globe floated above them all, flashing a long string of giant robots.

"... as Mojo Jojo is the title of myself, the villain who lives for the destruction of the Powerpuff Girls..."

A long ago shadow of a crazed Mojo loomed tall, now wearing the ceiling of city hall as a makeshift crown.

"...and in the past has done everything to fulfill the realization of decapitation, dismemberment, and otherwise unsavory ends for those three..." Mojo smiled as the memory of a white uniform and a dove landing on a finger flashed into view and faded just a swiftly. "...that would stand in my way of world domination ..."

The hum of Him, returning to his seat with a freshly popped bowl of popcorn in the background, went completely unnoticed.

"But, this is not the wish of Jojo." A small voice whispered, its rising and falling syllables edged by random vocalizations. "No, Jojo does not wish for the death of Blossom...as such a death would be as Jojo's own..."

Hairy arms clasped around Blossom, the passionate hug drawing the start of tears as it was this time met with the soft stroking of his hair.

"No. No..." Choked words whispered, barely above the level of superhearing .

"Buttercup I.." Blossom gasped, drawing from Mojo's embrace.

"No, no...You can't..."

Him's eyes lengthened in silent glee, darting back and forth between the two.

"Buttercup, I was going to, I wanted to, when we were on the Asteroid M mission ..."

"You? You and Mojo.. you..fake...you lair!" A defiant back met Blossom's reaching hand as Bubbles quickly flew into small the space between them.

"Buttercup, it's okay, like me and L- Him we..."

"Shut up Bubbles, this is nothing like you and...it!" Bubbles winched, recoiling from the words like an antidote X dipped blow, her eyes beginning to tear. "You never were the real lair, putting yourself up like some living goddess of perfect prefectness!"

"I..." Blossom tried again over Bubbles sobs where she had returned to the background, rubbed softly by the bunt side of Him's scorpion
tail.

"Shut it, I'm not finished!" Buttercup screamed, grabbing Blossom by the collar and tossing the unresisting puff down. "

I trusted you...I idolized you! It was hard work, really hard!"

Buttercup's voice dropped dangerously low and sweet as the water bubble floated here and there, showcasing her memories of bloody monster battles, bookended here and there with scenic ,focused martial arts training.

"But I thought 'Oh, I can work hard, I can try to keep my temper in check, I can put my life on hold to train day and night and act like I like it because that is what Blossom would do! That is what Blossom would want because she never gives in, she always works against all levels of evil, she never compromises, never gives them an inch..."

The magical bubble drifted downward, popping upon the length of a battle worn palm.

"But..."

"An inch!" Buttercup snapped as Him nearly choked on handful of popcorn, Bubbles' tears rising to a full wail.

"And if you think I'm going along with this stupid mission for any other reason than having a miserable planet to come home to with my sister Bubbles and her baby ...you're an even bigger stupid liar than Him..."

The hollow thud of a small ginger haired body falling to the earth mixed with a sob.

"Fuck it."

Buttercup growled, the light of her streak rickashaying with a superpowered kick below the pink trim of Him's fur coat at one end and meeting with a very flustered looking Ace, blushing dark green with a trance of lipgloss as the assailant vanished into the sky.

"Low..class...very..." Him squeaked, clutching himself as he fell with a weak whine.

"I will do this thing, but it will not be for your sake, Sir."

Mojo began, looking from where Blossom hovered near his ear, his long nailed green hand picking over her hair of its own accord.

"Three pods will take twenty six hours to..."

"Two... po..ds." Him corrected, his voice shattering half the jewels on the inventors small turban.

" Ah ha!" Mojo laughed, pointing at the miserable curled ball of a demon with a smirk. "I knew there would be some catch as to exempting your beloved of all the powerpuff girls from the fate of medical death which the killing of Bubbles and her unborn child would..."

Him chuckled, his laughter finally falling back into lower inhuman octaves in a extra ordinary display of recovery time for a male of any species.

"Kill Bubbles? Kill Bubbles? Why Mojo, Mojo, Mojo..." Him sighed, oozing to pat the green helmeted inventor on the head like a child.

The line of Blossom followed after Buttercup's now distant streak lit up the skyline, showcasing honeyed, mocking words in Mojo Jojo's style of speech against an angry neon squiggle.

"Have you not figured it out? Is it not obvious that an equal to my marvelous malignancy would, could, only be? Bubbles is Death."

Mojo blinked with a blank look as the sound of hoofs on ancient stone filled the energy dome from below, the body of an animal passing through solid bedrock and concert like mist .

A mustang horse, its surface soaking up and reflecting surrounding color into a pale mirror like coat, nonchalantly bowed its head over the girl, her blonde hair unmoved under its nostrils.

"This is Bob..." Bubbles whispered, petting the offered muzzle with a small smile as she dryed her eyes with her other palm. "He's mine, you know..."