A PLACE TO CALL HOME

This is my first PPG story so be gentle.

Time frame for the story would be about the PPG and the RRB being about 7-8 years old. In my mind, the characters looked more like their PPGZ look, only younger, but thats just my mind. To each their own.

I own nothing in this story. These characters belong to Cartoon Network and Craig McCracken

The city of Townsville, a bustling metropolis full of ever changing buildings and businesses, people and ideas. Yes, the reason was the monsters and villains trying to destroy or take control of the city but luckily the residents had their three super heroes to save the day. The sunny days were always perfect and the rainy days were never too bad to just go outside and splash around.

Boomer used to love the rainy days. Rainy days meant that his brothers wouldn't want to run out and cause destruction and mayhem. It was too much of a hassle and usually one of them would get sick, no matter how immune their bodies were to illnesses. The powers they had received from HIM more than made up for that one imperfection.

At this moment, Boomer wished that, if he still had powers, he'd have given them up in a heartbeat to at least find drier shelter in the unforgiving rain that was pelting him in his back alley hideaway. He knew that if he moved, he'd miss out on his dinner for that night, something he didn't want to repeat from yesterday. His stomach growled and Boomer slowly shifted, taking care to not jar his heavily battered and bruised left leg.

Boomer looked up and sighed. The rain made it hard for him to tell what time it was. The restaurant, whose back alley he was currently residing in, always threw the lunch leftovers out just about an hour before they started the dinner rush. There were stray cats and dogs whose only meals were the scraps the employees threw out, and Boomer tried not to take too much, lest one of the animals go hungry. Boomer made it a promise to himself to only eat in the middle of the day to ebb the hunger away.

Drenched blonde hair kept getting in the boy's eyes, irritating both the slightly swollen one and good, working one. The boy pushed it out of his eyes, slightly thankful that his hair was at least getting the dirt and blood out of it. Counting down the minutes until his meal, Boomer hugged himself tighter and chanted in his mind to not cry, to just keep thinking about his future and not his past, the one that ended him up in this mess.

It had been a week ago since the blonde haired Rowdyruff's entire world was shattered. The boys had got beaten again by their counterparts, the Powerpuff Girls and both their "fathers" had it in for the three brothers. After a painful lecture, Brick and Butch snapped, and began beating Boomer harder than they ever did, convinced he was the one that made them lose. Brick had been the one to slam the metal weight against Boomer's eye and Butch made short work on Boomer's leg.

They had left him crumpled in his room for an hour, before coming back to get him and dragging him to HIM's feet. HIM had forgiven his two brothers but not him and before he knew it, he woke up in a shady part of the city, in pain, and powerless. His leg had partially healed the wrong way before his powers were taken and now he could barely move it without screaming in pain. He had labored painfully to his current location, knowing stray animals always came to this alleyway for food and knew he could sneak some of it without anyone knowing.

He had heard bits and pieces throughout the week by the employees saying all the villains had disappeared. He knew that it was futile then to try to find refuge with one of the other bad guys. Boomer was all alone now in the big, unforgiving city; abandoned and forgotten.

Boomer snapped his head up when he heard growling and looked toward the swarm of animals huddled around the diminishing remains of lunch and groaned. He had fallen asleep and missed his chance to eat that night. He knew he didn't dare risk sticking around for the dinner leftovers. The animals were meaner at night and Boomer had to make it to his sleeping shelter before it got too dark. His stomach grumbled again, louder, and Boomer shut his eyes, grimacing at the pain.

"Boomer?" His breath caught in his throat and his navy eyes locked on to worried pale blue ones. Bubbles. The blonde Powerpuff was standing over him, a pale blue umbrella in her hand. His heart started racing. There was no way he'd ever be able to fight in the state he was in, powers or not. He felt like he was seconds away from passing out. He saw Bubbles quickly looking him over before locking her eyes onto his again. "Let's get you home, Boomer."

He wanted to laugh at her and tell her to mind her own business or push her away and run as fast as he could away from her. And she should know by now he had no home. No one would be at either of his "fathers" homes. They had all gone away for whatever reason. He couldn't get any words out. His mind felt blank and he numbly registered that Bubbles had gently helped him up and was now flying somewhere with him, carrying him bridal style. The warmth in Bubbles arms and the wordless tune she hummed slowly dragged him into unconsciousness.

Boomer felt warm, warmer than he thought he had ever been. He slowly opened his one good eye, noticing that his other one had a bandage on it. He slowly sat up in the small hospital style bed he had been sleeping in and noticed the clothes had had been wearing for a week were gone, replaced by a large dark green sleep shirt. He pulled back the covers and found his hurt leg had been bandaged and braced. The smell of soap and antiseptic filled his nose and he looked around the room, noting the familiar machines and gadgets. This was Professor Utonium's lab. Bubbles had taken him to her house.

The door creaked open and Boomer held his breath, his one eye widened. He felt himself relax when he realized it was just Bubbles and tried to take deep breaths to slow down his racing heart. She smiled at him and walked to his bed. "It's good you're up. We're about to eat dinner. I'll help you to the table." He tried to help himself a little as she helped him out of bed and up the stairs. He refused her offer to carry him again.

The smell of food hit him and he couldn't help his mouth from watering. He had been near two days without food and he was famished. Seeing the professor and the other two sisters sitting at the table waiting for them quickly diminished his appetite. He shuddered and once sitting, he avoided his eyes from them. In the back of his mind, he knew he was intruding. There was no way they purposely wanted him here unless they thought he knew something. He chewed the food that Bubbles had given him slowly. He'd never had meat loaf before and doubted he'd ever have it again. He savored the taste as the food filled him up. It had been awhile, even before his expulsion, that he'd had a hot meal.

The other two Powerpuffs ate their meal quickly before excusing themselves upstairs, leaving the professor, Bubbles, and Boomer at the table. Not long after, the professor left the two as well, asking them to clear the table and to come down to the lab when they got done. Boomer dried the dishes he was handed, lost in his own thoughts. No doubt they were all going to question him about what the others had planned. He'd become their prisoner in the lab or be sent to the Townsville jail designed especially for the super villains once his usefulness was up. The kindness he was receiving wouldn't last for long.

Bubbles helped Boomer back down to the lab. Boomer gulped as he saw Professor Utonium sitting calmly in his work chair, some papers and a few beakers with odd colored liquids sitting on the desk beside him. "Boomer, I ran some tests on you while I was fixing your injuries and the reports say your powers are gone. Is that correct?" Boomer tried to keep his nerves and dinner down as he heard himself meekly answer yes.

"Who took them away? HIM?"

"Yes."

"Do you know where any of the villains are?"

"No."

The professor kept asking yes or no questions, trying to keep them simple. Boomer's breathing started to even out and the tension he had started to ebb away. "Okay Boomer, one final question. Would you like your powers back?" "Wh...what?" The question startled Boomer, and he began to breathe heavily again. "Boomer, its okay. You're safe with us. So would you like them back?" Bubbles lightly squeezed Boomer's hand and the blonde boy looked into the girl's soft eyes. "I think I'll be able to create a serum to restore them by mixing your DNA with Chemical X. It's going to be a long process and it may hurt in the beginning with your body needing to adjust to the chemicals. One shot a week for about six months but after that, I feel that your powers should be up to par with what you previously had. Of course you'll have to relearn everything but the girls have all agreed to help you." The professor smiled.

"Why? Why do you want to help me? I'm the enemy. I've hurt you all so many times." Boomer inwardly cringed at the hoarseness of his voice. It had been a while since he had used it this much, other than the one word answers he had given the professor and the screams he had made when his brothers beat him for the final time. "Because, when Bubbles decides someone is part of our family, its very hard to convince her otherwise." Boomer whipped his head around to see Blossom smiling at him.

Buttercup came over to him and lightly squeezed his shoulder. "It would be nice to have a brother around to keep us from getting too girly, and to kick a guy's butt if he breaks one of our hearts later on in life. And besides, we already got a room made for you. Wouldn't want all that hard work we had to do go to waste, would you?"

"A room? I have a room?" With that, the three girls grabbed Boomer and flew him out of the lab and up the stairs. Boomer looked at the four doors in the hallway. The two closest on opposite sides had a pink door and a green door with nameplates of Blossom and Buttercup respectively. The farthest door on the left was light blue with Bubbles name on it, and directly opposite from her room was a navy blue door with the nameplate Boomer on it. They helped walk him to the room and Boomer reached up, feeling the carved out nameplate with his fingers.

The room was simple, just a bed, a desk and a dresser with a door off to the side of the bed where the closet was. "Sorry its not much right now. We wanted to at least get a few things in here so you can use it right away. The professor said later on in the week, we'll go shopping for things to decorate it and to get you some better clothes. In the meantime, if you don't mind, you can use some of my sleep shirts. I wear guy shirts to bed, in fact you're wearing one right now." Buttercup grinned.

Boomer's legs buckled and if not for the fact he had the three girls holding him, he would have fallen. He felt his face grow hot as tears threatened to erupt out of his non-injured eye. The boy felt someone lean in front of him and he looked up as Bubbles cupped her hand in his face. "No one has ever been nice to me, ever. I don't deserve this, especially from you three. After what we did...after what I did..." Boomer began to whisper, more to himself than the three girls. Bubbles pulled the boy into a tight embrace, softly stroking his hair. "It's just what we do, Boomer. We help people, no matter who they are, no matter what they do. You're one of us now, and we look after each other, no matter what." His heart clenched as Blossom and Buttercup leaned down and embraced him as well. "We love you Boomer."

Later that night, after the tear-fest, after the movie they watched with the popcorn and hot chocolate, and after they had all said goodnight to each other, Boomer laid in his new bed, quietly thinking to himself. He wondered why all the villains disappeared and what would happen if and once they came back. He wondered how his brothers would treat him once they found out he was a good guy now, and he wondered once he got his powers back, if he would be strong enough to protect his new family.

Family. In one short day, the Powerpuffs had treated him more like family than his brothers or fathers ever did. Before sleep overcame him, he vowed on his life to never let anything happen to them.

Well, that's that. I can either leave this as a one shot or add more to the story, like tell it in other's pov's. Or even call this a prologue to a longer story. If I get any reviews, I'll leave it up to the readers to tell me. I know there are some plot holes that would be filled by either way I mentioned, so like I said, I'll leave it up to the reviewers.

Thanks for taking the time to read.