//------------------------------//
// A Losing Battle 
// Story: Two Worlds, One Destiny 
// by Charles Spratt 
//------------------------------//

Blossom and Rainbow opened their eyes.  Once they did, they saw that they were floating in some kind of odd light blue warp thing that was going through… something.  In short, they had no idea where they were.  They looked at each other, before hearing a booming voice say, “For those whose existence both is and is not, what is the location from which you were brought?”
Blossom and Rainbow Dash glanced at each other, and shrugged.  The rhyme this voice was asking simply didn’t make sense.  From which you were brought?  What was that even supposed to mean?  Rainbow then turned her head and yelled, “Where are we?  Who are you?  What does your question mean?  WHY ARE YOU RHYMING??”
“The place you’re at is inside of your minds.  It’s because of the orbs that this place you could find.  As for my name, that I cannot say.  Even if I knew, a secret it would stay.  The question I ask, to put it in poem: what is your turf, where do you call home?” came the booming voice’s answer.
“But, why are you…” began Blossom
“Why do I rhyme?  Why do you care?  Do you want to get home, little red hair?” asked the voice in a slightly irritated tone.
Blossom blushed a little, and said, “Fine, I live in Townsville.”
“I see, so that’s where you survive.  A town that’ll always get wrecked, but will always revive.  Now what about you, Ms. Rainbow Mane?  What is the place that you call your domain?”
“I came from Ponyville, and I need to get back right now to stop Discord!” said Rainbow Dash quickly
“Ponyville, huh?  Quite a fine home indeed.  A place where flight, magic, and earth all live peacefully.” Said the voice
“Alright, then… voice.  Bring us back to our homes!” said Blossom, who seemed a bit weirded out to be talking to a voice with no body.
“No can do, Ms. Powerpuff girl.  I lack the skills to send you back to your world.”
“Then why did you ask where we were from??” asked Rainbow Dash in a slightly irritated voice.
“Because your worlds are in danger, they’re in a losing fight.  You need to see for yourselves; it’s quite the sight.” Replied the voice.  Right after it finished saying that, Rainbow and Blossom felt their bodies start to tingle.  They looked down and saw that they were vanishing from the legs up.  Their eyes widened, but before they could give any verbal statements, they completely disappeared.

Blossom opened her eyes, and found herself lying down on some grass in a field.  She got up and took a look around.  Around her she saw several tall buildings, a few trees, a sign that was advertising some sort of soft drink, and the town hall.  She recognized all of these things, and immediately jumped up in joy, overjoyed that she had made it back to Townsville once again.  Once that jump was over, she heard the sound of people screaming in the distance.  Blossom immediately rushed off in the direction of the screams, ready to help Townsville against… well, against whatever they were screaming about.  Almost immediately after arriving there, however, she saw something that made her stop dead in her tracks.  The buildings in this area of Townsville were now all made of purple crystals!  More shocking than that, however, were that some of the townsfolk appeared to be made of these crystals as well!  She looked to the side, and saw that the screams were coming from a bus full of passengers that was slowly being pushed off the roof of a building by a few of the crystalized townspeople.  Why a bus was on the roof was an odd ordeal, but it wasn’t something that Blossom was willing to waste valuable seconds thinking about.  She immediately rushed to the bus, which had started to fall.  She soared down underneath it and flew upward, hoping to catch it before it hit the ground.  However, the bus simply passed clean through her when she got close.  Blossom didn’t think about that, simply assuming that she’d missed.  She immediately made a U-turn and soared down, hoping to grab the bus by its rear bumper.  When she tried to grab it that way however, the same thing happened, with her hands just going through the bumper, almost as if it were a ghost.  She attempted to grab it a few more times before the realization sank in; she was a ghost of some description.  When she realized that, she stopped trying to save the bus and sadly watched it fall toward the ground.  It was just about to hit the ground, when the vehicle suddenly stopped.  Blossom flew down to ground level, and saw that Bubbles was holding it.  However, Bubbles looked a little bit worse for wear.  Her outfit was a bit torn up, she had scrapes and cuts all over her, and her eyes appeared to be very close to shutting, almost like she hadn’t slept in days.  Bubbles immediately put the bus down, and flew over to the town hall as quickly as she could, stunning a few crystalized townsfolk along the way.  Blossom followed Bubbles, and in a few minutes, they arrived at town hall.  When they got there, Bubbles went to the grassy field that Blossom had started out in, and just lied down in it, looking up at the purple sky.  Blossom flew down next to Bubbles and said to her in a somewhat loud voice, “Hey, Bubbles!”
Bubbles didn’t answer, and instead just picked up a nearby dandelion and blew on it.
“BUBBLES!!!” yelled Blossom at the top of her lungs.  Bubbles didn’t even blink.  She simply turned to the side, looked straight at Blossom, and then turned to the other side.  “Why is she ignoring me?”  Thought Blossom to herself.  She then remembered that she was a ghost of some sort, so that might have something to do with it.  Blossom simply sighed and lied down on the field next to Bubbles, also looking at the purple sky.  After a minute though, Bubbles suddenly stood up and launched upward.  Blossom followed suit, and quickly found out that Bubbles was rushing toward Buttercup.  Blossom smiled that Buttercup was alright, but quickly switched to a look of horror at how bad she looked.  She also appeared to be just as tired as Bubbles was, but in addition to that, she was sporting a black eye, a burn mark that spread all across her right side, and several puncture holes in her arms and legs, implying that she had been bitten a lot.  She flew next to Bubbles, who squeaked in shock and asked, “Are you okay, Buttercup?  It looks like you got hurt pretty badly.”
“I’ll be fine.  Anyway, how’s Townsville doing?” asked Buttercup
“Terribly, Buttercup.  I’ve been doing everything I can to fight off this stuff, but whenever I’m about to break one of the larger crystal structures, I immediately get a scream for help from somewhere downtown.  Have you been doing any better, Buttercup?” asked Bubbles hopefully
Buttercup shook her head, and said, “No, I haven’t.  I’ve looked everywhere for Blossom, but all I’ve found is more crystalized… everything.  I did find something that might belong to her in Citiesville, though.” Answered Buttercup.
“Really?  Do you think she could be there?” asked Bubbles in a happy voice.
Buttercup’s expression remained solemn, which came as shock to both Bubbles and Blossom, as Buttercup was the last girl who would ever look that down and defeated.  Bubbles immediately lost her hopeful grin when she was handed the item: a slightly torn red bow with what appeared to be dried blood on it.  “If that’s hers, than she’s probably dead, since I know that Blossom’s bow never goes anywhere without Blossom.” Said Buttercup as she looked around at the purple crystalized buildings that appeared to be closing in on town hall.  Bubbles stared at the bow, and started to lightly cry.  
“W-wait… what if this…” began Bubbles
“If that’s not hers, than she might still be alive.  But if that’s the case, then she’s probably trapped somewhere that we can’t get to…” said Buttercup before Bubbles could finish.  
“But… couldn’t she…” Bubbles stammered 
“Bubbles, listen to me.” Said Buttercup, gently putting an arm on Bubbles shoulder.  “It’s been a week since this invasion started, and the only thing that could have come from her is this bow, which may or may not even be hers.  Even if it’s not hers, the fact that she hasn’t come back for this long means that she can probably never come back.  I think we need to face it, Bubbles: Blossom is gone…” said Buttercup, who sounded like she was trying to avoid tearing up.  Bubbles immediately started crying like a baby, and rushed over to hug Buttercup.  Buttercup looked shocked by this, but didn’t try to push her away, instead letting her cry the tears she needed.  Throughout all of this, Blossom stared at her sisters, dumbfounded that they thought she was dead.  Then again, for all she knew, she might very well be dead, since she was a ghost at the moment, and she had reawakened in a white limbo after that flash.  The thought of her possibly being dead, combined with her sisters reactions to her being gone, forced her to tear up slightly.  Before she could drop any tears, she suddenly heard a loud screeching sound coming from the east.  Bubbles and Buttercup heard it as well, and spun around to see about twenty crystalized jetpack monkeys flying towards town hall, screeching as loudly as they could.  Bubbles and Buttercup immediately soared straight at the monkeys, who immediately changed route and soared straight at the Powerpuff girls.  The 2 groups then slammed into one another, prompting a fight.  
After 10 minutes of intense hand to hand combat, the Powerpuff girls launched the last monkey away with a combined punch.  However, that last monkey pulled out two blasters and blasted the girls at close range with them just before getting launched into space.  The blasts sent Bubbles and Buttercup rocketing toward the ground like a pair of falling stars, until they hit the ground, at which point two large explosions reared up right where they landed.  Blossom gasped in horror and flew down into the lingering flames, hoping that her sisters were alright.  The first one she found was Buttercup, who thankfully appeared to be alright, save for a couple more burn marks.  Buttercup blew out the flames, and then spun her head around, trying to find Bubbles.  This proved to be unnecessary however, since almost immediately after the flames were blown out, Buttercup heard Bubbles voice making some kind of grunting noise, sounding like it was in extreme pain.  Blossom and Buttercup flew over to Bubbles, and saw that she was slowly beginning to crystalize from the tips of her toes up!  Both of them gasped in horror, and Buttercup quickly yelled, “Bubbles!  You’re starting to crystalize!!”  Bubbles looked down and, to her horror, saw that Buttercup was right!  Buttercup didn’t waste any time, and immediately slammed her fists down onto the crystal as hard as she could.  This only resulted in Buttercup hurting her hands.  Buttercup then tried her laser vision, but that proved ineffective as well.  She tried everything, but nothing she tried had any effect on the crystals.  After a minute, Bubbles was completely covered in crystal.  Immediately after that, Bubbles closed her eyes and started screaming, as if the inside of her head was on fire.  When she had finally finished screaming, she opened her eyes to reveal that they were now glowing yellow.  Bubbles immediately punched Buttercup away, before slowly getting back up.  After recovering from the punch, Buttercup stared at Bubbles dumbfounded, as Bubbles was the last person Buttercup ever expected to punch her.  Bubbles immediately soared right at Buttercup, then unleashed a powerful uppercut onto her chin, launching her up into the air.  Bubbles then bounced upward and dashed after Buttercup.  Blossom was about to join in the pursuit, when she suddenly she felt her stomach cringe up again.  Once more, she collapsed to the ground, gripping her stomach in agony.  After she fell, she heard a rhyme in her head say, “As you can plainly see, your home is almost dead.  As is the home of the mare with the 6 colored head.”  Blossom gripped her head and watched as Townsville appeared to dissolve into a blurry mess of random colors in front of her…


To Be Continued…