Chapter 6
Six years before Fuse's invasion.

Townsville was essentially the same city in spirit then as it is now, a city bustling with activity, adults heading to work, and children playing together. Of course, it wouldn't be Townsville without a crime committed every now and then. The Powerpuff Girls would always arrive to save the day when the situation called for it. They had been fulfilling this duty ever since their kindergarten years.

The ten-year-old Kyle was an energetic and adventurous young boy full of spirit, always desiring a chance to journey out into the world and maybe even become a hero. He usually dressed himself in a black shirt and wore a long sleeve black shirt over it. And no one would ever catch him not wearing his favorite red headband he received as a gift; it meant a lot to him.

One of the boy's favorite pastimes was to play in Townsville Park, the most popular attraction within the city at the time. About five by five acres in size, there was plenty of room and activities for anyone who decided to visit. The park was managed by a group of groundskeepers whom people would probably find strange. The manager himself was a living gumball machine. Three were anthropomorphic animals: a blue jay, a raccoon, and a yeti. The rest were a strange British man shaped like a lollipop, a short and obese green-skinned man, and a small ghost with a hand on his head. Despite the groundskeepers being oddballs, people were easily willing to accept them.

Even though Kyle enjoyed going to the park, he still had trouble with the local bully. Mitch Mitchelson was his name. A brown-haired boy of the same age as Kyle, he and a group of his friends always loved to go tease and boss around the neighborhood kids. One could easily distinguish him as he always wore a black t-shirt with the phrase, "MITCH ROCKS", printed in white. Match particularly loved to boss Kyle around when they weren't in school. It was mostly due to his hair and eye color as not a single person in Townsville shared the same characteristics at this age.

On this particular day, Mitch was acting a little more aggressive and abusive than usual. Kyle was simply standing in the hilly area of the park with his back turned towards Mitch, unaware the bully was there, as he was waiting for some friends to arrive. Mitch quietly snuck up and kicked him onto the ground. Kyle rolled over after coughing up some grass to see he had brought his friends as well.

"What do you want, Mitch?" Kyle asked while wiping the dirt from his face.

"My sources tell me that you're going on a little treasure hunt." he replied. "I want in."

"As if I'll take you."

Mitch suddenly kicked Kyle across his face. The force was enough to leave Kyle with a nosebleed. He and his friends just stood and laughed while Kyle clutched his cheek in pain.

"Mitch!" a voice exclaimed.

Mitch and his friends turned to a group of three people. They consisted of a two boys and one girl, the female seeming to be acting as the leader. The girl's name was Amber, a friend of Kyle's. She had her long black hair down and wore a strange lily on the right side of it. What made it strange were the colors; they were a mixture of red, orange, yellow, and black. Aside from that, she dressed herself in a white long sleeve shirt and blue jeans. The other two boys were named Dan and Adam. They had been friends with Kyle since pre-school. People usually called them brothers, but they truly weren't. It was mainly because of how close they were and how much they were seen together. They had similar short hairstyles, but Dan's was a light brown while Adam's was black. Both boys were also as adventurous as Kyle, but Dan tended to be a little more cautious while Adam loved to see the face of danger. Dan was dressed in a white and blue soccer sweater and camouflage-styled cargo pants. Adam wore a black and grey long sleeve shirt and grey jeans. The two boys quickly ran to Kyle to see if he was okay.

"What's the big idea?" Amber angrily asked Mitch.

Amber had moved into Townsville a year before and met Kyle upon their first day of the school year. She told everyone that her family moved to the city due to her father being transferred and that he was working directly for the Mayor. Kyle decided to joke around when he first introduced himself and ended up making her laugh which was quite an achievement as no one had ever seen her come close to even a small smirk. After that, they were friends in no time. She turned out be a little bit of a tomboy, always getting competitive when she played with the boys. Kyle and the others didn't mind as they wouldn't have to worry about her holding them back. It actually amused them when they thought about it.

"You all right, Kyle?" Dan asked.

"I'm fine now." he replied, wiping the blood from his nose.

Kyle saw Amber was still confronting Mitch and his friends. They continued to laugh at her. Of all the things that annoyed Amber, it was Mitch's laugh. She didn't know why, but it just annoyed her to no end.

"Well?" she asked.

"I don't get why you insist on helping him," he replied, "let alone be friends with him. You actually like that freak of nature?"

"I'm pretty sure everyone one here would agree that they could refer to you as one."

"W-What!"

Mitch dashed towards Amber, ready to attack her. Amber simply laughed and at the last minute, calmly side-stepped out of the way. She extended her foot and tripped Mitch as he ran past her, sending him rolling down the hill they were standing on and crashing into a trash can filled to the brim with garbage; its contents were spilled all over him. The rest of Mitch's group were powerless and unmotivated without their leader so they ran away without a word.

Amber helped Kyle to his feet again and helped Dan and Adam clean the dirt off his clothes.

"We can go on the treasure hunt tomorrow." she told him Kyle. "You don't have to push yourself if you don't want to."

The other two nodded in agreement.

"I'm fine." Kyle replied. "Thanks for showing up when you did, guys."

"Hey, we're always here for you!" Dan assured him.

"So how exactly did you find this cave?" Amber asked in a curious manner.

"Oh, well yesterday, I was walking along the grassy area near those mountains over there."

Kyle pointed in the southern direction towards a mountain chain. The chain itself bordered the area from three sides: north, south, and west. The mountains were not that big, only about half the size of a skyscraper.

"Then a saw something shiny in a small batch of purple flowers. I ran over and found a gold coin. It was pretty cool looking and had some weird animal or something on it. Anyway, after I found it and tried to run back to show you guys, my foot got caught on something and I fell through some kind of opening. You couldn't see it from the outside because some overgrown grass covered it up. It looked like a cave. I figured there would be some kind of treasure if the coin was nearby so let's go!"

"Wait." Amber interrupted. "Where's the coin you were talking about?"

"Oh, I must've been pretty excited when I was running home to tell you guys that I've dropped it on the way. But don't worry! There's bound to be more of them! C'mon already!"

"I'm in!" Adam exclaimed.

"If he's going, I'll go to." Dan added.

"Alright. If you insist." Amber said.

Kyle led the way to the mountains' cave system. He parted the overgrown grass to let the others go first. Adam went first, followed by Dan, then Amber, and finally Kyle himself. The entrance was small, but the cave walls were high enough to accommodate an average fully grown man. Kyle had brought along two flashlights to light the way. He gave the second one to Adam as they lead the other two. The passageway they were walking was completely straightforward. There wasn't a single fork in the road which eliminated the possibility of getting lost. It was obvious that not a single person had set foot in the cave for centuries. There were some marks on the walls left behind by sharp tools that haven't been used since one thousand years ago.

The group little expedition had gone decently so far. They had already progressed through a good amount of the cave, but they still had yet to find a single piece of valuable treasure like Kyle had said.

"I'm starting to think there's nothing here." Dan said. "Maybe we should turn back? I'm don't like the feeling of this place."

"Oh, c'mon." Kyle urged him. "There's gotta be something in here if we saw those marks on the walls."

"We'll go a little further." Adam told them. "If there's nothing by then, we're calling it quits."

The group continued on for a few more minutes. Still nothing. They were pretty sure they were close enough to Townsville Bay by then. Soon things took a turn for the unexpected when Amber accidentally stepped on what seemed like an old trigger stone. The cave suddenly began to shake and a segment of the ceiling collapsed behind the four. By the time the dust, the group saw their exit was now block by a pile of medium-sized rocks.

"W-We're trapped!" Dan exclaimed.

Adam gave his flashlight to Amber and attempted to pull aside the rocks. He was able to easily move aside the rocks one by one with enough effort.

"It'll take a while," he said, "but we can move these out of the way. Dan, come over here and help."

Dan hurried over and began pulling aside the rocks as well. Amber continued holding the flashlight so the boys could see what they were doing.

"I'll go ahead to see if there's another way out." Kyle said.

"Wait!" Amber exclaimed. "...Ah, nevermind. It's useless to argue with you anyway. Just be careful, alright?"

Kyle nodded and continued inside further. It was only a few seconds before he came to a turn and disappeared from the others' sight.

After a while, Dan and Adam were making steady progress to clear the way. They were about halfway done, being able to see the other side through the very small openings between the rocks. As Amber stepped backwards to allow the boys to have more light, she noticed the light being reflected by something on the ground. It was a gold coin. She picked it up and examined it more closely. It matched the description Kyle gave earlier. One side was completely flat, but the other had the engraving of the upper half of some creature. It had menacing eyes and it looked like its eyebrows were made out of fire. Amber stood staring at the coin before she came to a realization.

"Dan! Adam!" she exclaimed. "Stop what you're doing right now and find Kyle! He's in huge trouble!"

"What? How do you-"

"Just do it!" she interrupted.

Dan and Adam looked at each other and nodded. They knew Amber was being serious and followed her orders. Together, the three ran after Kyle. Dan was the fastest out of the three, followed by Adam, then Amber so he gained a bigger distance than the other two. They soon came to a large antechamber. Dan, being the first to enter, saw Kyle up ahead and began to run towards him. Adam and Amber stopped by the entrance as they were stunned by what they saw.

It appeared to be a large shrine of some sort. Torches lit by a strange red fire encircled the room. Various sorts of dark-colored garments, antique pottery, and golden coins were scattered all over the place. Towards the center of the opposite wall was the shrine itself. A stone altar had been constructed in front of a large stone idol statue. It was the same being the appeared on the gold coins. Looking at the statue, it didn't even have any legs. It looked like it was some sort of shadow being.

Adam and Amber saw Kyle standing before the altar with Dan about to confront him.

"Kyle?" Dan asked. "Why're you just standing there? Weren't you looking for another way out?"

Kyle remained silent for a moment.

"...Who are you?" he asked strangely.

Something was wrong with his voice. It was largely distorted and sounded demonic. It didn't even remotely sound like Kyle's normal voice. The expression on Amber's face obviously showed she didn't like it.

"Kyle?" Dan asked again. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I can't speak for this vessel." Kyle responded in the same demonic voice. "But you should be worrying more about yourself."

"What are you talking abou-"

"Dan!" Amber exclaimed. "Get away from him! Hurry!"

Kyle suddenly turned around to reveal he was wielding a strange metal sword in his right hand. He immediately thrusted it into Dan's chest with a bloodthirsty smile. Adam fell back in horror of what he just witnessed while Amber held her hands over her mouth. Kyle slowly removed the bloody blade from Dan's body. The boy was already dead before he hit the ground.

"One step closer to completing his plan."

Kyle looked towards Adam and Amber who were still paralyzed from what they witnessed. They saw Kyle's eyes had changed as well. They were now glowing with a bright red color. He simply laughed as a strange black mist flowed out of his body. Kyle eyes reverted back to their original color as he collapsed next to Dan's body. The mist began swirling into a sphere before expanding to form a large demon-shaped shadow. It had no visible facial features on its hawk-like figure. All one could see was total blackness. It quickly dived towards Adam and Amber once its wings were fully formed. It was then suddenly stopped when a yellow light immediately engulfed it and the rest of the room as it approached the two children.

"I apparently woke up when that shadow thing disappeared." Kyle told Sherri. "Or at least, that's what Adam told me. He was shaking me awake when I came to, the first thing I saw was Dan's lifeless body laying there right in front of my face. Not only that, but I saw the blood-covered sword in my hand afterward... I was traumatized. All I could do was to begin screaming. Adam tried to calm me down, but I just couldn't stop..."

"Once I finally did calm down," he continued. "Adam told me what happened. Apparently, something possessed me and it made me kill Dan. Once it left my body, I fell unconscious and that thing went after him and Amber. Then that yellow light appeared out of nowhere and made that thing disappear. We didn't know what to do Dan's body, but we took it to the local police since we couldn't just leave it there and it seemed like the right thing to do. We were kids so we were really scared of what they were going to ask. We just told them that a weird monster appeared in the cave and it stabbed Dan with a sword. It wasn't that hard to believe considering Townsville's history and how young we were. We took some of them to where it happened, but the sword and even the blood stains were gone. For some reason, they let us off the hook as they apparently had a lead on the case. We didn't tell our parents about it. The police didn't either. They only informed Dan's parents of what happened to him. The only people who know about what really happened during that incident are me and Adam."

"What about Amber?" Sherri asked.

"She disappeared without a trace that day, including her family. Even the Mayor didn't know where they went. Adam said when that yellow light appeared, the shadow and Amber were gone by the time he could see again. Anyway, Adam and I just went on with our lives. He and his family moved to another city because they were tired of the monster attacks on the city, but we still kept in touch. I didn't talk much to others as time went on, mostly kept things to myself."

"And your hair and eyes?"

"I was still haunted by the thought that I killed one of my closest friends. I know that something was controlling me, but I can vaguely remember seeing myself killing him. I makes me feel like I could've stopped it from happening if had enough willpower. Plus it could've never happened if I agreed with him to turn back or not even going treasure hunting in the first place. The guilt drove me to the point of trying to commit suicide a few times, but whenever I was about to do it, I could always see Dan's face telling me not to so I always stopped. I eventually dyed my hair black and got colored contacts. I thought that people could see my hair and eyes' whitish color to symbolize purity and that's something I'm definitely far from. I also painted the "D" on my hat and shirt as a constant memory."

Kyle then rolled up his right sleeve to reveal his red headband tied around it, just above his elbow.

"And I just keep this around to at least remind me of the good times I had with my friends." he continued. "Dan and Adam knew I had thing for headbands and since red was my favorite color, they thought it was the perfect gift... Even though I continued on with my life, I always felt I deserved to die. When I found out about Dexter's ad in the billboards about a volunteer, I decided to go through with it. If I couldn't die on purpose, then I thought dying by accident or by someone else's hand would suffice."

"You're willing to throw your life away for just that? It's not your fault! You didn't have control so you can't be held responsible!"

"But-"

"I'm not listening to this anymore!... Let's just head back...and if you want, I know where we can recolor your hair if you really don't want people to see your real appearance..."

Sherri walked back towards the Malph's encampment with Kyle following behind her at a distance. They made it back without much trouble though Numbuh 5 was surprised to see Sherri with Kyle.

"Sherri? What are you doing here? And Kyle, what happened to your hair?"

"Uh...fashion preference." Sherri responded. "Fusion Spawn kinda ruined it. Anyway, we got what you wanted. Sorry about earlier."

"Don't trouble yourself like that. Nobody's mad at you. You should've told us what you were up to. In any case, good work guys. Now that you two are here..."

Numbuh 5 directing their attention to a KND transport vehicle. Attached by a metallic rope to its rear bumper was a large cargo container. It contained various items ranging from food to building supplies packed in cardboard boxes.

"While you were gone, we managed to recover a stolen shipment from Fuse's goons. It's supposed to go to Peach Creek, the next town east of here. You mind taking it there for us? "

"Sure." Sherri replied. "We needed to go there anyway."

Kyle sat in the cargo hold's passenger seat while Sherri manned the steering wheel. She started the engine and the two headed off eastward, following the road bound for Peach Creek Commons. The scenery between the towns was twisted and distorted by Fusion Matter or completely destroyed. There were plenty of Terrafusers and Fusion monsters scattered about in the distance, the monsters being repelled from the roads by stationed SACT agents.

"So what's Peach Creek like?" Kyle suddenly asked.

Sherri was silent for a moment. She was still thinking about what Kyle had told her.

"Well, it's like any other neighborhood: school, houses, developments, the like. Why'd you ask?"

"I heard gossip from back home that there's some weirdos living there."

"Oh, they must've meant the Eds. Yeah, they like going around with their scams trying to rip people off for their quarters. I really don't get why quarters though. Can't get much with those nowadays. Since the alien invasion, they've been a huge help though. They still occasionally do their scams, but with taros now... Oh, there's the Cul-de-Sac over there."

Kyle and Sherri came within Peach Creek's vicinity. A sign, though slightly destroyed and faded, gave the friendly "Welcome to Peach Creek!" message to the visitors. After a few turns into some streets, they were approaching a medieval-styled fortress. What made it odd besides the fact fortresses like its kind haven't been made in hundreds of years was that it was made out of cardboard boxes. It surrounded the entire cul-de-sac. At the entrance were two gigantic wooden doors with childishly-painted angry faces on them. One had its tongue sticking out while the other one had a normal mad look.

"Who made this?" Kyle asked. "Cardboard really doesn't make a good fortress against monsters..."

"You'd be surprised." Sherri replied. "The place was made by Edd, but we like to call him Double D or 'Sockhead' for some other people. He's one of the Eds. It does actually hold believe it or not. For some reason, Fuse's goons just stay away from the walls. It's like there's 'Anti-Fuse repellant' coating on them. C'mon, let's go inside."

Sherri pulled the transport to the main gate. Two boys wearing what looked like Boy Scout uniforms opened the gates and led the two inside. Their uniforms consisted of yellow short-sleeve shirts overlaid with light blue vests decorated with badges signifying their achievements though their designs were childishly drawn. They also wore light blue pants and a same color handkerchief overlaying their head. One of them was wearing a red ascot around his neck while the other kept his in his pocket.

"The Urban Rangers are happy to assist you!" they saluted.

The inside was laid out like a typical cul-de-sac although much more lively and active due to many people taking shelter here. Further down at the other end was where much more activity was taking place. Many small stands made out of cardboard as well were grouped together in a ring to function as a marketplace. Vendors were selling varieties of goods such as weapons or just clothes for people trying to keep up with the latest fashion in these darkest of times. Leading right to the center of the ring was a long red carpet. At the end was a throne also made of cardboard. Kyle immediately took notice to what was behind it. A large glowing machine stood behind the throne. Kyle assumed it was a Dexlab creation due to its design and blue-palette colors. Branching off in four directions from the main console were what looked like smaller versions of the machine connected by a white glowing light made out of data and energy particles. Sherri parked the cargo in a nearby garage close to the entrance. The two disembarked the transport and continued walking down the street.

"C'mon we have to give these transport details to King Eddy" Sherri said sarcastically.

"'King Eddy'?"

"Eddy's another one of the Eds. He usually acts as the leader of the scams. Ever since the invasion began, he took this opportunity to set up an entire business empire throughout the world. He even declared himself 'King of the Cul-de-Sac' and had a throne and red carpet made for him. Sure he's a pain, but his business is helpful to everyone. The Cul-de-Sac is practically the biggest trading center right now."

"What's that huge thing behind his throne?"

"The Great Machine. It's an invention of Dexter's that manages and stores everyone's Nanos when they're not in use and sends your Nanocom the code on how to synthesize a certain Nano. It's connected to every Nano Station in the world. It used to be behind Downtown's City Hall, but we managed to move it here before the area got destroyed."

Kyle and Sherri approached Eddy up ahead, impatiently sitting on his throne. He was shorter in height than one would expect, even shorter than Dexter. He wore a yellow shirt, blue jeans, and red shoes. He particularly had an annoyed expression.

"What do you losers want?" he asked.

"Pardon our intrusion your kingship." Sherri said. "We just delivered that stolen shipment from Genius Grove you requested. Here are the details."

Sherri handed Eddy a clipboard with various papers attached to it.

"Hmph, 'bout time they got here. I really need better people who can deliver my stuff without getting it stolen. Anyway, I'm done with you, get out of here already!"

"Kind of a snob." Kyle whispered as they headed back.

"Totally." she replied.

The two stopped at nearby stand manned by an Urban Ranger. His shop was selling wares relating to hair products: colored wigs, styled combs, hair straighteners, etc.

"Hey, Rich." Sherri said. "You still have some bottles for black, right?"

Rich nodded. He quickly went inside his storage room and came out with a bottle of black hair dye. Sherri paid for it and handed the bottle to Kyle.

"No need to thank me." Sherri said.

"But, you didn't have to pay with your money."

"Just don't worry about it. Anyway, Nanocoms have a big storage feature. You can store that for now."

Kyle browsed through the Nanocom's GUI and found the storage feature. A white light was projected from the screen. Kyle placed the bottle within the light where it began to levitate. The bottle began to dematerialize into data consisting of 0's and 1's and disappeared inside the Nanocom's projector lens.

"1 percent out of 100." Kyle read aloud.

"Dexter only programmed it to hold only a hundred things since it seemed to be plenty enough space." Sherri informed him.

They soon came to a house with a SCAMPER parked in the driveway. The pilot seemed to be just doing a system's check. He told the two that they could hop in any time.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye for now." Sherri said. "You can take this SCAMPER back to Sector V. Anyway, I guess I'll be seeing you. And I really think you should think about whether your life, heck any life, is really worth throwing away to you..."

"No meaning in dieing, huh?" Kyle quietly said to himself.

Sherri waved goodbye to Kyle as she headed back to the marketplace. Kyle headed back to Sector V afterward once she disappeared into the crowd. The ship later came to a landing in Hero Square. Upon exiting, he immediately saw a group of people huddling around causing a commotion. Kyle went to investigate. Numbuh 2 and Computress were there with some KND agents tending to a female operative. Kyle assumed the agents were the medical type based on their doctor and nurse-like attire.

"What happened to her?" Kyle asked as he tried to break through the crowd.

Numbuh 2 heard his voice and cleared Kyle's way inside.

"Numbuh 108." he replied. "She was on a recon mission in the nearby Infected Zone when she was spotted and attacked. He just dropped her off as a warning."

"He?"

"Fusion Numbuh 2, my counterpart..."