Title: A Darker Shade of Blue
Pairing: Bubbles x Boomer (sort of?)
Rating: K+
Word count: 1,969
Prompt: The Boys are often seen turning good for the Girls. But what happens if it goes the other way around?
Summary: That adrenaline rush...the blood pumping through her veins...her heart thumping in her ears...a feeling she'd never experienced before. But maybe she liked it. Maybe she was sick of being good.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Notes: I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place for my greens story but I'm sure that will pass soon. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy this one shot. :)
~ "Oh, let me take care of that Bubbles, we wouldn't want you to get your pretty little hands dirty."
~ "Don't make Bubbles do that, she's too sweet for the dirty work."
~ "Buttercup, why don't you take this one—Bubbles might not be able to handle it."
For most of her life, this was all Bubbles Utonium ever heard. She was constantly being stereotyped as the 'sweet, goody-goody' PowerPuff. She wouldn't hurt a fly, would she? She's too sweet and innocent to take on the real danger. Leave that up to Blossom and Buttercup. As long as sweet little Bubbles stayed out of the way, everything was alright.
Well, everything was alright —for everybody else. But Bubbles wasn't satisfied. Maybe she was sick of being so sweet all the time. Maybe she didn't want to be known as 'the sweetest' anymore. Maybe she needed release...
But nobody would listen. Not even Buttercup. Her sisters just laughed when she told them she wanted to be tougher. They laughed and told her she was too sweet to be considered tough. That got her angry. Why couldn't she be tough? She could be just as hardcore as Buttercup if she wanted to! They didn't understand. They would never understand...
... What Bubbles needed was to clear her head. She dismissed herself after breakfast one morning and escaped to downtown Townsville to visit the aquarium. She let herself in (because she was a PowerPuff Girl, and she could do whatever she wanted) and watched the fish with great interest. She slowly walked up and down the rows of tanks, the colourful tropical fish flipping their flambuoyant tails at her as she passed.
Bubbles was so caught up in her peaceful fish-watching that she almost didn't notice the loud crash! from the front of the building.
With a sigh, she decided she'd better go check out what the problem was. She flew to the front of the empty aquarium to where the disturbance was happening. Several more crashes sounded before Bubbles discovered exactly what was going on.
"The RowdyRuff Boys," she scowled, poising for an attack when she spotted the three villains smashing several fish tanks with sports equipment.
"In the flesh, babe," Brick smirked back at her, adjusting his signature red cap on his head, a hockey stick in his hands and a pair of rollerblades on his feet.
"What are you doing?" Bubbles asked, more out of curiosity than anything else. Butch smirked at her, pulling the face mask off of his face so she could clearly see his piercing emerald eyes. He gripped the hockey stick he held in his hands tighter and swung it around, smashing a nearby tank and causing the water to gush out onto the floor, along with several large tropical fish.
"We're obviously baking cookies," he said with a sarcastic yet demonic laugh. He also had rollerblades on and was wearing shin guards and elbow pads.
Bubbles simply stared as the colourful fish flopped around at her feet, their gills expanding and their mouths gasping in the air.
Boomer laughed louder than was necessary, calling attention to himself. He had a longer, thinner hockey stick in his hands, was wearing a padded vest, and had roller blades on his feet like his brothers. "Yeah, obviously!" he piped, a huge grin spreading across his face.
Brick rolled his ruby eyes and smacked his brother in the face. "Shut up and go look over there, Boomer," he demanded in a low voice. As his blonde brother did as he was told, rubbing his cheek where he'd been smacked, Brick turned back to Bubbles with a bored expression on his face. "If you must know, we lost our hockey puck in one of these here tanks and we're looking for it."
Bubbles thought about that for a minute. These boys, the RowdyRuff Boys, were evil. Yet, they were the same as any normal teenage boys, it would seem. They played sports, messed around, and liked boyish things. They didn't seem too bad, when she thought about it.
She shrugged. "Well, I'd be happy to help you look!" she said with a smile. Brick and Butch exchanged a look of surprise and confusion before shrugging their shoulders indifferently. What could the 'sweetest' Puff possibly do to ruin their mayhem? She was just a weak little girl.
"Yeah, okay, well uh... you can go help Boomer over there," Brick muttered, jabbing his thumb in Boomer's direction.
Bubbles did as she was instructed and floated behind a few tanks until she spotted the blonde boy, watching a pair of puffer fish swim around their tanks with great interest.
"Is this what you guys like to do for fun?" Bubbles asked the blue Ruff, approaching him from behind and joining in the puffer-observation. "Smash fish tanks and play hockey?"
Boomer didn't look at her, but he half-shrugged. "I guess so," he replied. "I just do what Brick tells me to do."
Bubbles nodded understandingly. She knew exactly where he was coming from. There wasn't an hour that went by that she didn't follow all of Blossom's orders.
"Is it fun being evil?" Bubbles blurted before she could stop herself. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand, regretting the question. But she had already asked it, and he was already answering.
"Most of the time," he said with another half-shrug. "Sometimes it gets boring, though. Especially when all you guys do is beat us up for having fun."
That hurt. Bubbles suddenly felt bad for Boomer and his brothers. Especially Boomer. He got picked on and no doubt beat on by Brick and Butch at home, and then to top it all off, the PowerPuff Girls beat him up just for doing what his brothers had told him to do!
Bubbles moved away from Boomer and the puffer fish, floating over to a tank housing several piranhas. She eyed the vicious-looking fish for a moment before she spotted a small, round black object at the bottom of the tank in the sand. She turned back to say something to Boomer, but he was nowhere in sight.
"Boomer?" she called, peering around the corner to see if he'd left. He wasn't there. "...Boomer?"
It scared the pants off of her when she whirled around to see Boomer, just inches from her face.
"Yeah?" he asked nonchalantly, as if he hadn't noticed the close proximity of their noses. Bubbles cleared her throat nervously and pointed over his shoulder with a timid hand.
"I-I found your hockey puck."
Boomer didn't pull his eyes away from hers. "Where is it?"
She slipped around him and led him back to the piranha tank. "Right there," she said softly, pointing to the object at the bottom of the tank.
Boomer raised his eyebrows casually. "Hm. So it is."
He lifted his hockey stick up and aimed his swing directly at the wall of the tank. He smirked at Bubbles' slightly frightened look when the piranhas and their water spilled to the floor in a rush of water and seaweed. He reached his hand through the hole he'd made and retrieved the hockey puck, turning it over in his hands.
Bubbles wasn't sure why, but this simple act mesmerized her. She knew what these boys were doing was wrong, and she heard the sounds of Brick's and Butch's hockey sticks smashing tanks back near the front echoing in her head, but she didn't want to stop them. In fact, she wanted to watch them. No. What did she want? She wanted to...
"Can I try that?" she whispered, to Boomer's great surprise. Whatever in the world drove her to ask such a question, she hadn't the slightest idea. She only knew that she wanted a taste of what bittersweet bliss that was being evil.
Boomer's eyebrows shot into his hairline but he said nothing. He held the hockey stick out to her questioningly, waiting with baited breath to discover what sort of trick this was.
But it wasn't a trick. Bubbles took the instrument carefully in her hands, gripping the handle tightly. She smiled lightly as she made her way to the tank she wanted. When she found it, she raised the stick above her head and, with one last glance at Boomer, smashed the wall of the tank in one large swing.
She couldn't help it. She grinned widely as the puffer fish exploded into giant balls and flushed out with the water onto the floor.
Boomer raised his eyebrows at her again, and she grinned. The adrenaline rushed through her body as she gripped the hockey stick tighter in her hands. Who would have known doing evil was so... fun? It was crazy. It was insane. It was... amazing. She wanted more. She met Boomer's piercing blue eyes again. Without looking away, Boomer shoved the puck into his pocket and covered her hands, gripping the hockey stick, with his own. In one swift movement, he snapped the stick in half and took the handle end for himself. He grinned at his counterpart as he swung his arm blindly around, smashing the glass of a fish tank directly behind him. Bubbles giggled and mirrored his actions.
The two blondes laughed and cried out as they whipped around the aquarium, destroying nearly every tank in the building. There were fish flopping helplessly around on the floors, water pooling around their ankles and seaweed in their hair and on their clothes. But for once, Bubbles didn't care. She was having too much fun to notice.
When at last the very last of the tanks was smashed, Bubbles and Boomer looked around at their handiwork. With a smile, Boomer took her hand and led her back to where Brick and Butch were arguing.
"I swear it landed in one of these tanks!" Butch was yelling at his redheaded brother.
"Well we've searched the whole place, but none of these stupid tanks had the puck in it!" Brick shouted back.
As Boomer and Bubbles approached, the two older boys turned expectantly to face him.
"Well? Did you find it, Boomer?" Brick asked impatiently.
Boomer half-smiled and glanced at Bubbles. "No," he said slowly. Before his brothers could groan in annoyance, he added, "Bubbles did."
The blonde boy reached into his pocket and revealed to his brothers the round object of their interest. Butch snatched it out of Boomer's hand.
"It's about time!" he exclaimed eagerly, pulling his mask down to cover his face once again. "Let's get outta here, it smells like fish!" and he rocketed out of the building, calling behind him, "Last one to the rink's a smelly girl!"
Brick sighed and followed his brother, leaving nothing but a red streak in his wake.
Boomer turned to Bubbles with a twinkle in his sapphire eyes. "You ever play hockey?" he asked her, a devilish grin playing at his lips. "I'm gonna need a new stick, but..."
And as Bubbles shook her head, took her counterpart's hand and was led out of the completely ruined aquarium, she couldn't help but smile slyly to herself. Maybe the RowdyRuff Boys weren't as threatening as they seemed. They were only teenage boys, after all. They were just trying to have fun. And even though they caused heaps of trouble and picked fights every then and now, they weren't the worst out there. And even though the aquarium was completely destroyed and the poor fish were no more; that adrenaline rush she'd gotten, the blood pumping through her veins and her heart thumping in her ears was a feeling she'd never experienced before.
But maybe she liked it.
Maybe she didn't want to be considered the sweetest anymore.
Maybe she was sick of being good.
And maybe, just maybe, it wasn't so terrible being evil.