Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/17c2872/i_found_the_original_chemical_x_part_2/
Part 3: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/17dhv3u/i_found_the_original_chemical_x_part_3/
Do you remember The Powerpuff Girls? It was an old show from the late 1990’s and early 2000’s about three little girls with the powers of Superman who were made in a lab by a professor to fight crime. Sounds weird when you spell it out, doesn’t it? Well, it’s even weirder when you watch the show.
Despite the main characters being kindergarten aged, being named Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, having a pink room filled with heart décor, toys and a rainbow bed, the show is dark. The girls must constantly protect their city, the City of Townsville, from all manners of danger ranging from common criminals to supervillains to even the devil himself. Let me tell you, this show did NOT shy away from showing the true peril these girls had to face. They got hit, scratched, and at times downright tortured. Guns were drawn multiple times in the show. Actual guns, not some kind of laser or anything.
The Powerpuff Girls themselves would even dismember some of their foes. Granted it was usually giant monsters, but even so, if they colored the goo that came out of the monster’s red it would be like something out of Doom. It’s unfortunately not hard to imagine this premise today, especially with the all the “evil supermen” shows that exist today, but back then this subversion of expectations was revolutionary.
Like the superhero shows before it were more cheesy and light hearted, but this, for crying out loud there was blood in the intro, and this was still marketed for kids! That’s when I began thinking, what was the inspiration for this show? What drove a man like Craig McCracken to make a show like this? Was it just to subvert the genre? A simple critique? Maybe it was just an idea he randomly came up with and rolled with it.
Wikipedia says that McCracken’s inspiration for the Powerpuff Girls was the art of Margaret Keane, and I can see how that would be the case. Oh god, I wish that was the case. It didn’t explain the superpowers though, the ideas behind all the villains, and worst of all, the idea behind Chemical X. That’s when I started my research. I wanted to uncover the truth of The Powerpuff Girls, and… I did. I really wish I didn’t. That’s why I’m making this. Everyone should know the truth, it’s my duty as a historian to tell the truth, no matter how much I wish the truth remained buried.
Before I reveal the… uncomfortable truth, let me tell you about myself so you know why and how I even went on this mad quest for knowledge. My name is Doctor Rainer, I have a Ph.D in European History and Anthropology. I also have a bachelor’s in general science, but that’s more of a biproduct of my requirements for obtaining a history degree. I’m a researcher at the University of Texas. I won’t tell you which one though for privacy reasons. Yes, I know, wow, such an amazing career choice you might be thinking. Well for one thing I chose this because this is what interests me. Secondly, all history matters. If we forget even the smallest detail, then you’ll end up being taught that the American Revolutionary War was fought with M16’s. Lastly, I do have basic knowledge of global history, but I specialize in European because, as I said, it interests me. I’m getting off track, sorry.
My point is my job is to think, study, research and document. When I’m not forced to teach classes, I’m free to research anything in history that might not be documented yet. Yeah, even though I specialize in European History the college board doesn’t really distinguish or care about the classification of history unless it can be made into a class to make money. Make no mistake that colleges are corporations. Even if they get funding from the state from time to time, they still only care about money, which is why they care more about medical students and “athletic sciences”. Those are the money makers. Sidetracked again.
The point I’m making is that my job allows me a surprising amount of “freedom” in how I conduct research. During these “off times” my job mainly consists of me looking for historical documents and writing research papers on them. Papers like… like this one. Like with all research papers, we don’t start with a thesis, rather a question. As you saw above you’ve seen my question; what inspired the Powerpuff Girls? You’re probably asking when this crazy idea came into my head and why a European historian would be wasting their time on an American cartoon that isn’t even that old. Or you’re probably asking me to get to the point already. Well, the truth is it came from a period of depression. A combination of low academic importance mixed with a social life that only exists online leads to points of sheer loneliness.
So, I tried to find something to keep my mind occupied. I began re-watching The Powerpuff Girls. I had hoped to return to a simpler time watching the show. Instead, my researcher’s brain began going into overdrive. I began thinking about all the things I said at the beginning of this paper. Why was this show so dark? Then something hit me. What if this show wasn’t just a random stroke of genius? What if it was inspired by something? Well, obviously I answered my own question, right? Earlier I mentioned Craig McCracken was inspired by the paintings of Margaret Keane. Well, where did she get her ideas? How did inspiration from art about big eyed children become a show about kindergarteners beating up bad guys to the brink of a bloody pulp? I wanted to find out how it all started because I had nothing better to do.
Despite what your teachers or professors have said, everyone uses Wikipedia. So, I went there to begin my research into what inspired Margaret Keane’s paintings. I didn’t find anything that supported my thesis, but there was one line that stuck out to me. It was a quote from Margaret Keane that said “”Children do have big eyes. When I’m doing a portrait, the eyes are the most expressive part of the face. And they just got bigger and bigger and bigger,”. I’m no psychologist, but I can tell when someone is saying something with deeper a meaning.
After that quote, the article said, “Keane focused on the eyes, as they show the inner person more.” I don’t think that’s right. I think there was a more literal meaning to what she was saying. I decided to have a look at some of her art. Almost every piece of art had a child with big eyes staring straight forward. There was something else though.
Almost every one of them had the exact same expression. An expression of hollowness. It didn’t matter if they were with an animal or sitting on the stairs, every child had this same expression. At one point I just stopped on one painting and looked right into the eyes. I felt like I stared at it for an hour, but I think it was only like a few minutes. This is when all my training came to a peak. As a historian and an anthropologist, it finally hit me. All these pictures are of the same person. Keane was obsessed, or maybe haunted by this person.
I wanted to desperately email Margaret Keane to ask her about this, but she died on June 26, 2022. I was too late to get her story. I thought briefly about getting into contact with her daughter, but there’s no record of her online. I bet it’s for privacy reasons, so I won’t go looking for her out of respect for that. Unfortunately, this also led to a dead end in this path of research. However, it was not the end.
I attempted to contact Craig McCracken. I had thought that if I was clever and asked the right questions, I could get the true story of the Powerpuff Girls out of him. Well turns out it’s harder to get a hold of a man who probably has infinitely better things to do than to humor the deranged ideals of a lowly college professor. At the time of writing this I believe he’s currently making something called “Super Toddlers” so that’s even more of a reason. Dead end again. I tried emailing many others who worked on the show like Gennady Tartakovsky and even the actors like Tom Kenny and Tara Strong, but again I was ignored.
It was at this point that the reality of what I was doing hit me in the face as hard as a Powerpuff Girls punch itself. I was a grown man, a college professor, harassing famous people in an attempt to prove an unfounded theory about a children’s cartoon because I was bored. Now not only do I feel like a creep, a feel like a lunatic too. However, it was right when I was leaning back in my chair with my face firmly planted in my cupped hands that I received an email.
There was a part of my job that I didn’t mention earlier because it’s a rare occasion, but admittedly it’s the most exciting part of my job. From time to time an archeological site will be uncovered. When this happens, a lengthy political and bureaucratic discussion begins between the people who discovered the site, the entity that owns the rights to the site, the country where the site is located, and the organizations that are interested in the site itself. Once the discussion is over, one of three outcomes occurs. Either the site is totally claimed by a private citizen and thus would require special permissions from said citizen to study the site; the site is deemed unimportant and remains abandoned or is purchased by a private entity or lastly the site becomes a Heritage Site where researchers, like me, can be assigned to uncover and document its mysteries and eventually open the site up for tourism.
If the third outcome happens, another discussion happens between the interested parties in question such as countries, political entities, universities employed by the state and/or private sector, and on even rarer occasions individual private citizens. This is to determine who would be best suited to excavate the site, but “more importantly” who will bring the most prestige to their respective parties. Yeah, it’s a pissing match but somewhere beyond the unnecessary competition is a real desire for knowledge, so I like to look at the positives.
The email was from my university. I won’t transcribe it word for word because it’s long and written like any corporate email would be, but to paraphrase it says “Dear Dr. Rainer, We have received word of a new Heritage site located near Lublin, Poland. Our university has been chosen to aid in the research and documentation of this site and YOU have been chosen as one of our research team members. Please report to the University in three days with your luggage and valid identification as well as a valid passport.” I was ecstatic! I’ve never been picked to go abroad and study anything, let alone a site that has just been discovered! Oh boy I miss that optimism. I packed up about a weeks’ worth of clothes, my laptop, my phone and toiletries. Don’t worry, I don’t have any pets or plants that need to be looked after so I had no need for a house sitter.
I arrived early as I usually do and was surprised that everyone who was chosen also decided to arrive early. It was a relatively small team too, only about five of us were chosen. There was something… peculiar about the people that were chosen. I won’t use their real names, but I will tell you what their field of study is. There was only one historian in this team, me. The other four were Doctor Kal’tsit (Kal for short) who is a medical professional and microbiologist, Doctor Mobius who is a roboticist and engineer, Doctor Oak who is a retired veterinarian and zoologist, and Doctor Oppen who is a nuclear physicist and chemist. Not that it really matters, but Kal was the only woman of the five of us, just so you’re aware. I was heavily confused about this whole situation when they told me about their professions. For a moment I felt like I was in the wrong place and even Doctor Kal looked at me with a worried look. Before I could ask any questions, a strange man walked in.
The man was about middle aged, dressed in a suit and wore sunglasses, even indoors. He carried a briefcase and wore a cold expression. He called out our names one by one and we answered as if it was a roll call. Once we answered he said, “Follow me.” and began walking out the door. The five of us grabbed our stuff and followed the strange man outside. When we got out there was three SUV’s waiting for us with people dressed similarly to the man who roll called us. It was strange, almost like we were going to be riding with the president. Are all university trips like this? We were instructed to put our bags in the last SUV. After we packed them up the men in suits ordered us to hand over our phones and get into the SUV’s.
“Ok…” I thought to myself, and the others had similar looks of confusion on them, though in the end we did as instructed. Mobius, Oak and Oppen were put into the second SUV. Kal and I were put into the first. The men in suits took the driving and shotgun seats and we began moving. The drive was… awkward. The men said nothing as we drove. Kal attempted to talk to them, but she was ignored. I attempted to start a conversation to try to ease tension. “Uh, this is my first time going out on one of these expeditions.” I said awkwardly. Kal gave me a side glance and said “Oh, good for you.” in a cold tone. She then put her hands on her lap and just stared forward. So much for that. The rest of the drive was uneventful.
We arrived at an airport, but instead of going through a terminal we were driven right to a hanger next to the runway. Outside of the hanger there was a small jet, probably a private one, and standing outside of it was three men, two in black suits with sunglasses and one in an unkempt brown blazer with a Hawaiian shirt underneath it. The SUV’s stopped and we were ordered to get out, which we did. The five of us were then approached by the Hawaiian shirt man who walked up to us like a playboy or any fathead you can think of and spoke in an equally fatheaded voice “Eyyyy it’s the science boys!” Kal gave an annoyed look. The fathead spoke again saying “As I’m sure you’re aware, you’re here because we uncovered something new and you five are chosen for your special talents.” Ok, now I’m starting to see red flags.
This might be my first time going on one of these expeditions, but this is way off from anything I know about these things. The others didn’t look so surprised, but I could see some skepticism from them. I was about to ask something when the fathead noticed me then strutted right to me. “Ah you must be Rainer!” He said as he grabbed my hands and started shaking them violently. “It’s Dr. Rainer.” I said annoyed. “Yeah whatever.” Said the fathead. “You’re especially integral for our little… dig, yeah.” He then but his arm around me and addressed the others. “Now, my name’s not important. What is important is I’m who’s funding this little excursion, so let’s set some ground rules. Rule number 1, don’t mess with the boys in the suits. Rule number 2, what I say goes and you will do whatever I say without questions. And most importantly, Rule number 3, you are not allowed to talk to anyone about what we find at the place we’re going to unless you’ve been approved to do so. Sound good?”
The others looked at the fathead with looks of confusion, worry, and slight annoyance. Regardless, we could all tell that this was something serious, so we just simply nodded our heads. “EXCELLENT!” The fathead screamed in my ear. He then waved his finger in the air and pointed to the jet. Guess we were ready to go. The suits began loading our luggage as the fathead, the five of us from the university, a couple of suits and the pilot and co-pilot boarded the jet. The door closed, we went onto the runway and then began flying. The flight was largely uneventful and unimportant, except for one time when the fathead sat down across from me, let out a big sigh and simply said “Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.” He then stumbled away. I could smell booze on him, so I think he was drunk. Other than that, I slept the whole time until we arrived. I wanted to ask questions like where we were going or what’s at the site we’re going to, but I thought against it. So did the others it seemed because none of us talked to each other the whole way there.