Aftershock
Isn't it surprising how a life can change in a split second? How someone can sleep with a smile on their faces for no reason to suddenly start smiling because they're still alive? It is quite amazing, really, how many things we had given for granted.
Townsville, my hometown, had lived in peace for ten years; there were hardly any crime anymore, no one dared to cause mayhem, only the usual 'super' villains, but even they were slowly disappearing. Because of this, my sisters and I had the privilege of living a normal life and do the things normal growing children did. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Well it was. Soon after my sisters and I turned 16 the planet Earth was put in danger by a new enemy: the evil Fuse. His planet, Fusion, has traveled throughout the galaxy for millennia, devastating and absorbing countless planets and civilizations. This time it had chosen the planet Earth.
Regardless of our superhuman strength, Blossom knew we wouldn't be able to fight Fuse and his arsenal of monsters out of our planet on our own, so a league of Heroes was created. We fought Fuse with all our power and every possible resource we had – from our natural abilities to man-made missiles and gadgets- but that wasn't enough to defeat him and one by one, all of us failed.
Thanks to super genius Dexter's inventions, we managed to keep some areas protected, but it still wasn't enough to save every city. Fuse's desire to take over the planet was too strong to fight, and soon it became very obvious that we were losing this war. One by one, each town in the world fell to Fuse's hands. One by one I watched them fall: Endsville, Megaville… Townsville, they were all submerged by grotesque green goo and everything that was left of them was our memories.
With the big cities falling one after the other, we had to focus on small sectors that we could keep completely Fuse-free and continue our fight there. Unfortunately, not only were we losing land, we were also losing food, technology… fighters. I was one of the few surviving heroes that were still fighting. My companions, my comrades, my friends… they all gave up making this fight a whole lot more difficult for me. The fights became harder and harder to survive as Fuse created his own versions of us calling them Fusions. And with no one else to fight alongside me, I felt alone. The only ones I had left were my sisters and the Professor Utonium.
Would you like to know what it was like before Fuse attacked? I was a rock star who lived on the road with my boyfriend and his gang. A year before Fuse attacked, I fought my old foe Mojo Jojo overseas. I won the fight, but at a high price. I lost my memory. During this time, Ace and his gang took me in, and under the name of Belladonna, I became a famous singer. After a while, I recovered my memory and went back to my sisters and creator, and when I thought everything was going to be better, Fuse attacked.
After two long years of fighting, there are few of us –of the heroes- left and it occurred to the Professor that maybe it would be a good idea to ask the villains to join the force. Many wanted to take over the world and it was agreed that if they didn't help there would be no world to take over. So, after two years of being in hiding, old enemies of ours had come out of retirement to protect the world- even Fuzzy Lumpkins was fighting! Unfortunately, even with their help it wasn't enough.
As it was to be expected, many of them died and many more ran back into hiding at seeing the magnitude of the situation. But a thought has occurred to my genius sister Blossom: bring the Rowdyruff Boys. The 'council of geniuses' had deliberately avoided asking the boys the first time around because they feared the boys- having their strength and abilities- would turn against us and work for Fuse if he gave them a better offer than we had given them. At the turn of events- and with all the other villains hiding like rats- the council had no other choice than to ask the boys for their help.
For as much as I hated to admit it, they could our last hope of beating Fuse and his army once and for all. Fuse didn't know of their existence, and he didn't know of their powers and the huge assets they were to our rebellion. Regardless of how annoyed I was of calling them 'heroes' we needed them to survive- we needed them to win.
"Are you ready?" My sister Blossom said through the ear transmitter.
I chuckled turning the ear transmitter off and preparing myself for the attack. Sector V was under attack and it was my turn to protect it. Numbers 1 through 5 had been called to protect Candy Cove with Licorice Lips and Sticky Beard, while Dexter and Mandark and my sisters were protecting Tech Square. So I was left alone to protect Sector V.
More fun for me.
I smirked as the Ultramagno Beetle and the Super Sneaky Spawn charged against me. I got in a fighting stand as the first Beetle tried to disable me by stinging my neck. Easy shot. Using my laser beams, I managed to destroy it before it even got close. I started shooting at the slimy creatures, disintegrating each and every single one of them without even breaking a sweat. Then, as I prepared myself for round two, a sharp pain went through my body as it started going numb and a rather burning sensation invaded my veins, my lungs and my heart. A Super Sneaky Spawn had sneaked from behind and bit my shoulder paralyzing me. I hated these things like you have no idea.
More sneaky spawns crawled on me and soon I was trapped under a massive ball of weird acid goo. I could feel my limbs turning heavy like stone as the poison traveled faster through my veins because of the adrenaline rushing. Even though the acid was powerful and could destroy large cities in a matter of minutes, it was no match against the Chemical X turning my skin stronger than any possible steal. Unfortunately, that didn't change the fact that I needed to breathe again at some point.
My eyes became heavy and my vision became blurry as black dots obstructed it and I realized the air in my lungs was starting to fail me and I was on the verge of passing out. If I tried to breathe in, the acid would enter my body faster and kill me from the inside. As I struggled for strength to move my muscles, an explosion sent the sneaky spawns off me.
I gasped, filling my lungs with as much oxygen, and went into an awkward coughing fit since my body was still paralyzed. The leftover acid on my body was starting to burn through my skin and I fought the urge to scream hissing a curse instead. My ears where ringing because of the explosion that had blasted the Spawns off me, but I could still hear faint explosions and screeching spawns and I could see the Beetles and the Sneaky Spawns running away as green energy balls hit three at a time, destroying them.
Soon, the explosions ceased and I could hear some Beetles and Spawns screeching their retreat, we had won this battle. I heard footsteps coming towards where I lay immobilized, getting louder with each steady step. The footsteps stopped and I heard a slight chuckle coming from deep in his throat, I didn't need to look at his face to know there was a triumphant smile on his face.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" his husky voice echoed in the air. I would've flipped him off if my hand, and the rest of my body, wasn't paralyzed. "If it isn't the great Buttercup Utonium paralyzed from head to toe. Can this day get any better?"
"Shut up and help me!"
He kneeled next to me, his deep green eyes shining with arrogance and a wicked smile adorned his lips. I felt his hands grabbing my shoulders- probably smirking at my pathetic state of helplessness- he spun me and ripped part of the back of my shirt. I glared and blushed in my insides when I felt his lips on my back sucking the venom out. I felt my body regain its strength and movement as he sucked every ounce of venom out of my body. There were times when the spawns venom didn't work on my sisters or me, the Chemical X destroyed it the moment it entered our bodies, but Fuse got smart and upgraded his venom to make it somewhat immune to the Chemical X. Now I was stuck receiving help from the worst person I could ever get help from specially since he would never let it go.
Super-fucking-great!
I felt him chuckle against my skin and I couldn't help but rolled my eyes annoyed that it couldn't be anyone else, like Blossom, to find me and help me. I would never hear the end of it with her goody-two-shoes lectures that piss me off, but I still preferred that over anything he had to say. He still had the shaggy black hair, deep emerald eyes and dangerous smirk I remembered. He was still mischievous, playful and annoyingly happy. Why was he still himself when I wasn't?
"All done, damsel in distress,"
"Didn't you hear, Butch? Us damsels don't do distress anymore," I rolled my eyes at him giving him a hard shove to make space between us.
"Is that why I had to save you from getting eaten by spawns?" He said, and I didn't need to look at him to know he was smirking.
"I was fine!" I defended.
"Your clothes weren't," the satisfaction in his voice could be heard for miles.
I quickly wrapped my arms around my legs feeling my cheeks burning. I wasn't completely naked but my clothes were not decent either, and the fact that he ripped part of my shirt to suck the venom out didn't help. The Professor chemically 'fortified' the clothes, especially the human's clothes, so our fighters wouldn't be running around fighting Fuse's monsters naked. Unfortunately, the clothes weren't indestructible and when we were under the acid for a very long time the clothes started disintegrating. And i had been under the acid for a very long time.
I heard a thud next to me and saw a black piece of cloth laying next to me, "What is this?"
"My jacket." He shrugged, "I want it back so don't overuse it."
"What if I don't want to give it back?" I asked putting it on quickly to avoid him from seeing more than what he had already seen.
"I'll get it back," he smirked and set off into the air leaving a dark green streak behind him.
I did the same since I didn't need anyone else seeing my unmentionables and I knew I would never hear the end of it if Blossom ever found me in this... state. I was in enough trouble for turning my communicator off and I didn't need Blossom putting a watch over me from now on. Specially since I knew the few people willing to work with me where the people who could really push my buttons. Butch was among them.
When Butch and his brothers came back, I couldn't help but get in a fist fight with him. We said things to each other that angered us both and we handled our anger the best way we could: I broke his nose, he broke my wrist, buildings were demolished and Fuse almost destroyed another entire section of Goat's Junk Yard. Not in that order. I obviously got in major trouble with the Professor and my rednerd sister, and ever since the public disciplinary example they made of me, Butch had made it his hobby to piss me off. And the best way he did so was by saving my life, even when my life wasn't in danger but I still had to show my gratitude for not telling Blossom about my stupid reckless mistakes.
I got in my room through the window and got in the shower to get the green goo out of my hair before it hardened and forced me to cut it... again. This wasn't the first time I was disabled by the spawns, and it certainly wasn't going to be the last. The first time Butch, of all people, went to my rescue was because I turned my communicator off, like I had done now, causing Blossom to freak out and request backup in my name. Butch, out of the goodness of the evil little thing that pumps that black slime through his veins, volunteered to help, if I needed any, and to check on me just in case I was in danger. When he found my half-paralyzed body, he made it very clear he wasn't going to let me live it down, and he didn't. I bought his silence in exchange for mine, since luckily I caught him smoking one night, which only meant he was breaking several rules in the book that could get him in serious trouble with the council. So he was silent and so was I.
After washing the goo and left over acid from my hair and body and after getting dressed I walked out of my room to find Butch's jacket laid out on my bed. I blushed in anger and embarrassment at the state he had found me in.
Vulnerable.
I hated depending on anyone, specially Butch, and it made my blood boil to think my life had depended on someone. Angry and annoyed, I grabbed the jacket and set out to find him to throw this back in his face. The cloth burned my fingertips, for the simple fact that it meant he had saved me yet again. And I hated it.
After flying for a few minutes I found him in the outskirts of Genius Grove smoking a cigarette just like I knew he would.
"Don't give yourself too much credit, Buttercup," he said after I landed in front of him with excessive force announcing my current mood, "I knew you were looking for me."
I stared at him with a deep glare ready to punch that smirk off his face. Instead, I stretched out my arm, handing him his jacket, and bit out, "thank you."
His smirk grew wider, "Any time, Buttercup."
I snorted still glaring, "I don't like you."
"It doesn't take a mind reader to see that." Butch said smirking.
He had a new power, a mind reading power. He managed to keep it a secret for a very long time until one day he slipped and answered one of my unvoiced questions. After I found him out, he made no effort to hide it anymore and had become the most insufferable person in the entire planet.
"Give me some credit!" He playfully pouted announcing he was reading my mind, "I'm sure Fuse and his minions are more insufferable than me."
"They are a close second."
He laughed, his deep green eyes boring into mine. "For someone who hates me so much, you sure spend a lot of time thinking about me."
I fought the urge to blush. "I'm thinking about ways to kill you without getting caught."
"Really, now?" his smirk grew wider and stepped closer to me, his eyes shining bright with mischief.
"What are you doing?" I raised a cautious eyebrow at him watching him carefully.
"Giving you a good reason to want to kill me," he answered and in a quick motion he had me pinned against the wall of an abandoned house.
"What the hell is your problem?!" I sneered to his face putting my hands on his chest trying to push him away only making him laugh.
"You know I can see all the things that go through your head, even the things you don't want me to see." It wasn't a question. His smirk grew wider, showing perfect white teeth, when I blushed knowing what he was talking about.
I developed an attraction for him not long after he returned, it had been going on for a while and judging by the way I caught him looking at me, it wasn't one-sided. This stupid flirty attraction was merely physical and completely stupid, but it wouldn't go away no matter how hard I tried to make it go away. And these little games of his didn't help the cause. He was pressing his body against mine, it was hard enough to feel but soft enough to tease, and he pinned my hands on each side of my head with his when I tried to punch him.
"Can you see how badly I want to kill you?"
"I can see how badly you want me to kiss you."
I snorted and opened my mouth to say a remark but something unexpected happened. He kissed me. His lips crashed against mine with a passion I never imagined possible. I bit his bottom lip hard, making him bleed, hoping he would pull away but instead he deepened the kiss. With a low growl, his tongue entered my mouth caressing mine, making shivers run through my body. I couldn't fight the fire running through my body so I kissed him back with a hunger that took us both by surprise.
Grunting againts my lips, he let go of my hands, which quickly tangled in his smooth silky black hair, picking me up by my thighs. I wrapped my legs around his waist, ignoring the thousand red flags flashing in my head telling me this was wrong and I should stop this before it could get out of hand.
"Want me to tell you what else I can see?" his voice was hoarse and his eyes spelled sin.
Our breathing was labored, my heart was racing and my mind was hazy. I looked at him, lust shining bright in his eyes, his lip still healing from the bite and his tangled hair was a mess thanks to my hands. His fingers dug to the skin of my thighs pressing his hips against mine making me moan. Making me decide.
"Why don't you just show me?" I purred. It was an invitation to play with fire, to do something so bad it could get us killed.
His beautiful green eyes widened for a second before he dragged us inside the abandoned house. I should stop this, I knew I should, but it felt good... it made me feel alive. And all because of a kiss. A kiss in desperate moments can lead to something bigger. It can cause an earthquake, shake your world, and then you have to face the aftershocks.
To Be Continued
Edit: I finally finished this... no to clean eight more chapters... damn... Anyway If this is your first time reading this chapter, what did you think? If you happened to read the original chapter before it was fixed, what do you think of this replacement? Is it better? I hope its better! :D (Edited 12/21/13)
Take Care Everyone!