Title: Emotionless
Chapter One: His Faults

Standard Disclaimers Apply

He was...hollow. There was nothing inside him.

He could not remember the names and faces of people he had once known; had once pledged to protect.

They stared up at him with terror in their unfamiliar eyes -those who paused to look up into the face of their destruction, that is. Most simply ran from him without sparing more than a second to glance fearfully back to see if he would give chase.

He continued his purge mindlessly, teetering on the verge of boredom.

The screams of the citizens had long since become a mindless drone in the back of his head that was beginning to obnoxiously beat itself against his skull until a headache was on the verge of forming. Still, Boomer tried his best to ignore it and forced himself to give his undivided attention to their current situation.

Today was the day, he thought with anticipation blooming beneath his ribs. Today was the day he would finally prove to EVERYONE just how strong he was. Too many times had his short attention span caused his many failures in his new occupation as a hero of Townsville. Butch and Brick had molded into the job relatively easily but he was still stuck making rookie mistakes. Well, no more! Today he would show them, and everyone else, what he could really do.

Mojo sent Blossom and Buttercup hurtling toward the ground with a giant metallic backhand from his latest robot likeness of himself. Boomer chose this moment, while his brothers were distracted with pulling the girls out of the concrete, to make his move. As he rushed at the cause of all the destruction he imagined the praise he would receive in taking down his first creator singlehandedly; he imagined the cheers of the citizens when he saved them all on his own. 'BOOMER! BOOMER!' They would shout.

He was sent crashing into the closest office building by a well aimed blast from the robot's built in ray gun, distracted as he was from his daydreaming. Bubbles was by his side in an instant, asking if he was okay; she'd been previously escorting the citizens trapped beneath rubble or blocked by the robot's presence to safety.

From outside he could here Blossom and Brick shouting out orders that he was sure he didn't want to miss. Boomer shrugged off Bubbles' concern and flew back into the fray, the Puff right beside him and looking rather dejected with his attitude.

Quickly spotting them, Brick yelled for them to attack in the formation they'd gone over just the night before. The two blonde superheroes were quick to follow his orders. Boomer let a small smile grace his face, encouraged by the fact that for once he knew his part well and surely wouldn't be able to mess anything up. I'll would finally show them; the words rang excitedly in his inner ear with an echoing beat.

Except…nothing turned out the way he'd wanted. Bubbles and Boomer's tasks worked around each other, and their part was arguably the most important. They were both supposed to attack from a higher point in the sky. Bubbles was to use her laser vision on the point where Mojo's reinforced glass shelter that housed him met the metal of the robotic body, and she played her part flawlessly. The heat made the metal more malleable which would enable Boomer to cast dents upon the surface, making the attachment less sound and easier to pull off the glass if they all worked together. Mojo had learned many new tricks and experimented with new materials over the years, so it took more than just smashing through the glass and tossing him around to defeat him like in the old days.

The only rift in Brick and Blossom's plan was Boomer's unpredictable attention span. The blonde Ruff had gotten better since childhood, but still struggled in keeping focused on important tasks when there were large, distracting things in the vicinity. Mojo's robot arms swinging wildly in the air as Buttercup and Butch landed hits on both sides was probably a good example.

Boomer's attacks were slow and contained only half his strength as he paid close attention to how his green brother's attacks constantly made the robot stumble backwards from the force of his hits. Buttercup did not hold anything back either, despite her role as a simple distraction so he and Bubbles could get their job done without any trouble.

At one point the two attacked the metal together, effectively denting it with the power of both their fists and momentum without the use of heat. This was a feat, seeing as the metal was supposed to be Puff/Ruff proof.

It didn't take long for Boomer to become completely enraptured with the toughest members of their team and their bullish fighting style. A sharp stab of envy settled uncomfortably inside him.

So inattentive was he to his own task that his hits came too slow after Bubbles systematically heated the metal, making it so the only damage he was doing was to his own fists. The pain of the light bruises littering his knuckles didn't even register in his mind.

He didn't notice when Bubbles began frantically calling his name to warn him of his 'eldest' brother's approach until it was too late and Brick was floating right in front of him, arms crossed, and looking pretty irritated with his lack of progress.

"What the hell are you doing?" The red ruff hissed angrily, gesturing to the rather unblemished metal that should've been riddled with dents with the amount of time he'd been given to do it.

Boomer winced at the rebuke, hanging his head in disappointment in himself. He'd let himself get distracted again! "I'm sorry, I-" Brick didn't allow him to finish his…his what? His excuse? That's all it really could've been.

"I think you should sit this one out Boomer."

The words tore through him like a chainsaw in the hands of a hockey mask-wearing psycho. That was the only comparison that really came to mind for Boomer because it felt just as horrific and painful as it must have been for the victims of such cruelty. "No! I-I can still…" Boomer tried to plead with his leader, but one look at the narrowing red eyes of his brother had his words trailing off.

Brick turned his head to the side; an obvious dismissal. So that was it; he was just kicked out of the fight? He could still help! He…he could! He hadn't gotten to show them yet...

But Boomer didn't argue further, even as Brick commanded Buttercup to take his place and Butch continued his frontal attack. Even as Blossom, who had just joined them to see what the problem was, and Bubbles, who was at his side, gave him what appeared to be pitying looks.

The blonde Ruff took off into the sky, away from sight of Mojo's robot being quickly and efficently taken down and the monkey's shouts of indignity. He just kept flying until he was far enough away that the giant robot's body was only a speck of black towering over some of the damaged buildings.

He came to a stop just over an area of the town that he recognized as the square. It held a polished fountain in the middle of the stone walkways and was encircled by wooden benches. He lowered himself until he was seated upon one, staring blankly at the continuously flowing water for what felt like hours, lost in his thoughts of his most recent flop that only added to his high stack of failures that just had to be on the verge of toppling over.

He fervently wished that he had the mental capacity to overcome his short attention span that always seemed to come up at the worst moments.

A butterfly flew into his field of vision without any warning and landed on his nose. Its wings delicately flapped to further capture his interest. He went cross-eyed in order to better see the creature he had always been so fascinated with. It was a shame that this fascination had many times been the cause for property damage done to the city.

He wasn't sure what it was really; he just really liked butterflies. They were amazing in the way they flew with somewhat jerky movements, their wings always some new kind of beautiful pattern that he couldn't help but commit to memory so as to recognize his frequent visitors individually.

Little known to most, Boomer shared Bubbles' power for talking to other species; but his was only with insects and arachnids. Also, although they could understand him, he could not them. He usually got the gist of what they were saying to him though after years of practice and playing impromptu games of charades in order to communicate back to them.

His little friend who had visited him today was one who came to find him often, no matter where he was. He'd given it the name 'Shadow', since it seemed to stalk him. Shadow had beautiful wings of blue and yellow splashes of colors, which only helped the small creature in earning the teen's favor when they'd first met many years ago.

Boomer did not know if butterflies had genders, but Shadow seemed to fancy itself as a female and did not protest when Boomer referred to it s such. Today she stared at Boomer in a questioning sort of way; she was asking why he seemed so melancholy.

He answered her in detail, expressing his gloom about being unable to prove himself to his siblings, despite trying so hard as of late. When Boomer suggested in an offhand sort of way that perhaps he wasn't cut out to be a hero, Shadow batted her wings against his cheeks, her expression clearly admonishing for the line of thought. She pushed off from his nose and made a series of twitchy movements that to anyone else would look like the creature was doing some odd sort of dance.

Boomer translated the dance to mean roughly: I have told you not to think so lowly of yourself. You do a lot of good for this town by simply being who you are. Do not hate yourself for that.

He was about to answer her, probably with an argument about him doing anything good for anyone, when someone interrupted them.

The stranger was tall, standing at least six feet in height; Boomer was probably a foot shorter the man smiling down at him. He had slightly graying hair and wore a long black coat with a briefcase swinging idly in his left hand.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but you are Boomer, right? One of the Rowdyruff Boys who protects our fair city along with the Powerpuff Girls?"

Boomer didn't answer right away. Shadow had to poke him in his temple with one of her tiny appendages to remind him that just staring at someone in surprise was not an appropriate thing to do when asked a question. He swallowed with difficulty and stammered to answer. "Oh! Ah, ye-yes, I'm…I'm Boomer."

The man nodded, his smile stretching a little wider. He dug into his pocket, pulling out an iPod that looked brand new. It was a royal blue and Boomer's eyes were riveted to the device the second it was made visible.

"I bought this for my son for his birthday, but his mother already got him one without my knowledge. I was going to return it, but…" He stretched the hand holding the iPod out to Boomer, and the blonde stared uncomprehendingly at it for a few seconds. The man took hold of the boy's limp hand and placed the music player into his palm, closing the fingers around it. Boomer looked up at him in disbelief; the man was clearly amused by his expression. Shadow peered down curiously from his hair at the gift.

The blue Ruff found his voice after a moment, shaking his head vigorously as if to shake off the man's kindness –nearly dislodging his friend- and tried to hand the iPod back. "I can't take this, Sir. These are expensive right? I…I can't just… I mean..."

However, the man only shook his head in a much calmer fashion than Boomer had only seconds ago and said, "It's fine. Think of it as a thank you for all the good you do. You may not remember it, but you saved my life when a building was about to fall on top of me a few months back. I really appreciate it."

Boomer sat stunned at first, then nodded in slow acceptance, a wide smile forming on his face. "Um, okay, thanks! It was no problem really; it's my job." He said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. The man smiled one last time and continued past Boomer and down the street, soon disappearing out of sight.

Shadow fluttered happily around him. See! See! There are others who know of the good you do, Little One.

Ignoring the use of the ironic nickname, Boomer smiled wider than he had all day, stroking his thumb over the smoothness of his new gift. "I guess so," he mumbled. Truthfully, the man's words had indeed made him feel a little lighter after his blunder from earlier in the day. It was nice to be looked at like he was worthy of the title 'superhero' rather than 'idiot.'

He spent quite some time after that conversing with his insect friend, before Shadow reminded him of the curfew Blossom and Brick had imposed so they could all be ready for their nightly patrols. It had darkened significantly from late afternoon when he'd first arrived to the beginnings of nighttime. He bid his friend a goodbye and took off toward the Powerpuff abode.

When he returned it was dinnertime. Being his and Bubbles' night to prepare the meal the two chose to keep it simple and make spaghetti for their siblings.

As he worked on correctly shaping the meatballs, tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth as he tried to keep his concentration on such an undemanding task, Bubbles turned to him while she stirred the sauce. "Where did you go Boomer? You were gone for a long time." She looked a little sad as she said this, and Boomer was reminded of how he'd shrugged her off and basically ignored her the entire day. Feeling incredibly guilty, he lowered his eyes.

"I just went to the square to be alone for awhile," he said hesitantly, wondering if she would take offense to the statement. She didn't; merely nodded her head in understanding and returned to her task. He realized he had paused in his own, and inwardly cursed at himself. Multitasking was not one of his few skills.

Silence reined in the kitchen for a while before he broke it, carefully choosing his words and unknowingly stalling the preparation of the meatballs once again. "I…I know there have been a lot of attacks lately which hasn't left us with a lot of free time," he started, becoming nervous when she turned from the stove to look at him again. "But…uh…if you want to when we get the time we could…go out. On a real date this time, I mean." His voice lost its volume toward the end, his cheeks turning a telltale shade of red as he averted his gaze.

All of the Ruffs and Puffs were effectively 'dating' their respective counterparts, but none of them had really taken the time to make it official what with their busy schedules. Boomer was offering to do just that, and Bubbles' delight was obvious in the way she squealed happily and ran over to throw her arms around his neck. He couldn't quite hug her back with hamburger meat covering his hands, but he managed to squeeze her to him with his forearms. Bubbles knew that the date would probably not be for weeks to come, but was still happy to know it was coming at all.

When dinner was finally prepared the six teens sat around the table conversing about attack strategies, villains they'd faced and probably would be facing in the near future, and other subjects you wouldn't find normal teenagers talking about at dinnertime. Bubbles was very animated in their discussions and their siblings noticed. It pleased Boomer that she was so excited and lifted his own mood.

Predictably, it didn't last very long.

"You know, this isn't half bad," Buttercup commented, twirling her fork around another bite of noodles. Bubbles grinned brightly at the compliment. She had spiced up the sauce a bit and Boomer had added some seasoning to the meatballs for extra flavor. It meant a lot to get a positive remark on cooking from Buttercup, who was the best in the kitchen.

Butch snorted, and Boomer just knew he had nothing good to say.

''Yeah, it figures you'd be good at cooking, Boom, when you suck at everything else."

Now, logically, he knew his brother probably didn't mean it the way Boomer would undeniably end up taking it, but Butch had been saying things like that so often lately… The blonde Ruff tried very hard not to let what was said get to him, but could not help how he visibly wilted in his seat. It was enough that all three girls glared at Butch on his behalf. Brick merely shook his head, looking exasperated. Boomer wondered biefly if that was directed at him as well; Butch's words perhaps reminding their leader of what happened today.

He stayed quiet for the rest of the meal and excused himself when he finished eating, retreating to the room he and his brothers shared with the girls. He let himself fall back onto the makeshift bed right beside Bubbles'. The Professor had a rule about sleeping in the same beds, and even though the man was not here –being away at a conference discussing the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys living in his home; he believed it was supposed to be televised soon- none of them dared risk his wrath by disobeying. The man had a way of just knowing when they were doing something they weren't supposed to, and didn't hesitate in grounding the boys along with his daughters.

Boomer liked Professor Utonium. The man was kind and very understanding of their situation. He was never unfair and had helped them in their rocky start at transferring over to the good side, as well as opening his home to them when they were effectively given the boot by Him and Mojo. He had no idea what Butch thought of him, but he knew Brick greatly admired the scientist for his intellect and his character in general.

The thought of his brothers only reminded him of what had gone on downstairs and the events of Mojo's attempt to take over the town again. He sighed, mentally tired, and pulled out the iPod he'd been given. He reached up into the small dresser Bubbles had beside her bed, grabbing a set of headphones from the top drawer. He wondered why the iPod didn't come with its own headphones but didn't give it much more thought, scrolling through the songs already programmed into it. Strangely, they were all his favorites.

He picked one and placed the phones into his ears, letting the music lull him to sleep. It was only when he was in the deepest state of unconsciousness, and a song that spoke of earning ackowledgement from those around you played from his gifted music player, that the music began to affect his unconscious state.

Boomer dreamt of the successful takedown of many monsters, his brothers watching in awe, Blossom and Buttercup looking proud, and Bubbles cheering him on in the background.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for his dreams to warp themselves into something more sinister. It told of him taking down his brothers, viciously beating them into the ground. He laughed maniacally, thinking that he'd finally won. In a small corner of his mind, he wondered when it had become a competition.

When he awoke the next morning he would remember nothing of his dreams.

A/N: Here's the new story! It's based on Idiosyncrasy's prompt 'Emotionless.' I hope it's worth the time spent coming up with it.