Broken

Disclaimer: I do not own the Powerpuff Girls, and I am not making one penny out of writing this thing, so pretty please don’t sue me.

Warning: Mature themes ahead. There will be violence and sex, yes, but that’s aside from psychological sundering I’ll do in this story.

A/N: If any of you have read my stuff before…welcome back. To those of you have not had the dubious honour, I welcome you.

The idea for this fict is partly inspired, I’ll admit, by what others have written on this grand website in times past. However, I hope that this bears my own style of writing…which I’m sure you’ll discover as time goes on.

And, a further warning to you who approach, both new and experienced in my ways, that I have no intention on pulling any punches. I have every intention on taking things further than before. To make them transcend what I have already done.

Whether I succeed, or whether I crash and burn…this, I do not know. I hope you’ll have fun finding out…for I know I am enjoying the experiment myself.

Be seeing you…

Chapter 1

She leant against the rocky surface of the plateau, her breath catching up with her.

The air was thin, here. She took care to gulp down extra breaths. The climb up here, to this raised surface of the planet, had taken it’s toll on her.

Not that she couldn’t have taken a quicker way up here. But she knew lessons had to be learnt in every manner possible. The fatigue in her limbs, the quickness of her breath- they all altered reality around her, made her see clearer than she would have otherwise.

A strand of blonde hair had broken loose across her face, and she pushed it back behind her ear, and took a look around.

It seemed to stretch for miles. A mile above sea level, and this hidden place of the world, untouched by humankind for all of it’s existence, barring the occasional intrepid explorer.

Like herself.

She smiled at that, as she adjusted her pack so it did not chafe in the trek to come. An intrepid explorer…at least she could lay claim to something of her own. Even if she had discovered nothing of value in all her time travelling.

She chided herself, viciously.

Stop it. It wont get you anywhere, reminding yourself things like that.

She focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Placing each foot right on the rocky ground that stretched out before her.

Streams of letters flowed across the computer screen. He watched them, intently, and then smiled to himself, the encroaching wrinkles on his face making the expression all the more visible.

Well, now. That was a pleasant surprise…

One of his students had noticed the error he’d slipped into the paper he had handed out to them last week.

“Let’s see, let’s see…the name is…mm.”

There was movement nearby, and someone was looking over his shoulder.

“What are you? Oh, I see.” She said, before pulling away. “How often are you going to do that to them?”

“Only as long as I’m pleasantly surprised.” He responded, turning his chair round, away from his cluttered desk and to the rest of his equally cluttered office on the University premises.

“Yeah, I’m sure…” She said, looking around the room. “You always told us to clean our rooms when we were kids. How come you never keep your office clean?”

“I thought I had an assistant to complain about the mess here.”

“Obviously he doesn’t complain enough.”

“He doesn’t get my filling system.”

“I don’t think anyone does, dad.”

“Well, maybe…” He said, in mock conciliatorily tones.

She laughed at that. “Yeah. And maybe Morebucks will stop getting in the gossip columns.”

“I thought you were here for study?” He asked, after their laughter had subsided at the old shared joke. “Getting a doctorate is hard enough work, and you’ve gone and chosen the same field of study as myself. I’ve left quite a footprint as it is with you girls.”

“Just be glad Buttercup isn’t here to hear you still call us ‘you girls’.”

“Father’s prerogative.”

“Yeah, maybe so. But anyway, I came to ask you about that, anyway. I’m here to ask permission to get some lab time. I’ll be running some materials through, and it’s easier doing it here than going to Cityville.”

“Your tutor is fine with this? Working in a lab I run?”

“He knows your honest. Honest to the point where you can’t tell a lie without it being written on your face.”

“Now, that’s not true-”

“See! It’s happening again!”

She reclined back in her chair.

It was comfortable. It was expensive. It was to die for. It was hers.

She smiled at that thought, turning round to face her desk. It too was the best money could buy.

More to the point, she’d bought it.

There were still whispers, she knew that. About her only getting this position because her father owned the company. About innumerable others things, as well.

But they were only whispers in this building now, and she could live with that.

A few years ago, and she’d have flown into a blind rage. Now, she had only had to fire a hundred or so employees, and the open gossiping had stopped.

This was her department. She’d earned it. Just as she’d gained her degrees faster than anyone else. Just as she’d earned this office, this position, this wealth, this power, under her own skill and determination in less than a year.

Oh, she wouldn’t be so foolish to think she’d done it nicely. At least not in the privacy of her own mind. She had never spoken of her plans to anyone, not even her beloved father. He was an intelligent man, a good man, but he was not moving with the times.

It was a good, powerful position, being head of Marketing. She controlled the information coming out of the company. She could decide what products would succeed and what would fail. All in tune with her previously held opinions. Further cementing her opinion.

And she had minions already. True minions. Ones who dared not cross her, and did everything to please her.

From here, she would move on. Marketing was not her end goal. It was only a step in her plan…

If I were a true megalomaniac, she thought to herself, I would laugh loudly.

She settled for a smile, instead. It was more befitting of a woman in her position…

She sat on a flight of stone steps, tucked away in some unnamed side street.

She looked up past the buildings, to the sky. The young, morning sky.

She smiled blearily. Her body still hummed from last night. The music. The communion of bodies, united by the font of music. For hours on end.

She ran a hand through her closely cropped hair, barely two inches in length. A short mop of black hair. Unrestrictive.

Her smile made the scars on the side of her face twitch into new formations. They were a trio of lines, running more or less uninterrupted from her hairline to her neck.

They were the obvious ones.

Large boots scuffing against the pavement.

Something hummed in her pocket.

She fished out a mobile phone, and winced at the number that was being displayed.

Damnit. Couldn’t she take leave for one week without being called on for one emergency or another? Didn’t they have other people they could call on?

She answered it regardless.

“Yeah?” She bit off into the phone.

“Agent? This is control, calling in accordance with-”

“Shut up and speak before I loose my temper.”

“Er…yes, agent. A breakout is in progress at the Superhuman Penitentiary number 3, in North Carolina.”

“So? They have their on duty post-humans, right?”

“It’s a mass breakout. All available agents are being recalled.”

“Understood.”

She shut the phone off, getting to her feet before she could hear any other information.

Damnit. She’d have to fly back across the Atlantic now.

And she was looking forward to getting drunk on the flight back, as well…

Something slept.

It slept in a tomb in the sky, and it slept in the souls of all humankind.

It dreamt.

And when it awakes, as it always does, those dreams will spread forth across the globe, and unite all of humankind in the ecstasy of madness and death.