Crystallized Dreams

Chapter 16: The Powerpuff Girls' World

THUD! THUD!

The moment the three stepped out into the world, they were greeted by the rhythmic shaking that they had felt on their last visit to this world.

"What-" Katie was interrupted when the ground shook once more, "is-happening?"

"I-don't-know," Josh replied, also being stopped between each word he said.

"Let'sgetuptohigherground!" Michael suggested, talking faster so as not to be interrupted. "And maybe-we can-findoutwhatiscausingthis!"

The twins nodded and used their powers to materialize a staircase that went up to about fifty meters in the air. Then the three and climbed the stairs for many absolutely terrifying seconds.

Just don't look down... Katie thought and gulped. If we fall now there won't be enough time for me to transform and save everyone!

The thudding continued even as the three were making their dangerous ascent. It was at that moment that Katie and Josh decided to have the staircase vanish up to the point they were standing on, leaving them stranded in the sky.

"Well just look at that!" Josh breathed and sat down on his haunches. "We can't feel the thudding anymore."

"We're all just sitting on a floating hunk of staircase above Townsville," Michael said and sat down next to his companion. "Sounds pretty legit."

The view from their little piece of staircase was breathtaking, yet frightening at the same time. A fall from this height would certainly result in death. After a couple moments the three decided to stand up and search for what could be causing all the thudding in the ground.

"I don't see anything," Michael said as he strained his eyes to look as far as possible. "Maybe it's just some weird earthquake."

"I find that highly unlikely," Katie shrugged. "But it might be something that has to do with a disturbance caused by the gateway crystal."

"You're probably right," Josh agreed. "But to investigate further we need to-"

CRASH!

The next few moments seemed to play in slow motion.

A fiery red comet rose up from underneath the earth and crashed right into the floating staircase, causing to completely shatter. Everyone standing on it was knocked off and sent plummeting to the ground almost fifty meters below. Before Katie could even process what was happening, she instinctively transformed and caught herself before she could fall down any further. Her heart beat faster than it ever had before; the shock from what just happened was almost scarier than her mother's death! But as soon as Katie realized that her brothers where wingless and had no way of stopping their fall, her eyes widened. "NOOO!!"

Tears filled Josh's eyes as the air around him whipped his hair and clothes around wildly and blurred his vision. He struggled to turn himself around in midair and saw Michael, falling only a few inches to Josh's left. The boy was unconscious and had various cuts from the shattered staircase. In a frenzy, Josh desperately tried to take his hand. If the both of them were going down, he wanted them to at least go down together. After a moment of battling with the furious air that made his hands flail about wildly, he managed to grab ahold of him, weaving Michael's fingers through his own. Then suddenly, time began to slow.

Or at least that was what it seemed like.

Josh found his fall to be slowing somehow. But the added weight of Michael and their backpacks still dragged him further down in the sky. It wouldn't be long before they both land splat onto one of the many buildings in the city. Seeing this, Josh did his best to carry Michael in a steadier position. Then he closed his eyes and tried willing himself to slow down. There was nothing left to do, so he had to at least try.