Author's Note: A one shot...in two parts! Yay? Timeline after PPG movie before first series episode :3. But it is AU, so many things, are a tiny bit different, such as Princess being there. Because she got kicked out her old school early maybe? She is not telling that is for sure...
Marshmallow Crucifixes
The City of Townsville- in summer! A time of memories, of friendship...
"Everyone, everyone! Inside voices please! Inside-Oh what's the use? We are outside I suppose..."
...and of a slightly unhinged summer school teacher or two. Aw, Ms. Keane, your doin' a-ok this fine-ah-day!
The summer air hummed with the song of sleepy grasshoppers toasting in their sunbeams to the thunderous screaming of a class of kindergartners let loose upon the unsuspecting woodlands:
Buttercup was zipping overhead at top speed trying to set a new record for most pine trees circled in a single flight before lunchtime, while Bubbles stood on the banks of the lake, feeding ducks with the rest of the class.
Blossom, meanwhile, was on an endless search for the perfect tree to read under, her plans foiled every minute or so by a sisterly shower of half a dozen trees' worth of pine needles.
"Buttercup, cut it out!" Blossom said, cleaning her hair for the fifteenth time.
"Can't-hear-too- away!" Came the broken, zooming answer with a flash of a grin.
It's a good thing Fuzzy Lumpkins, that mountain dwelling no do well is in jail this week or this trip might have been cut short by a Fuzzy playdate with- The Powerpuff Girls!
"Alright, children, children!" Ms. Keane said, shouting to be heard over the valley's adjoining waterfall that poured like thunder on mountainside.
" Now cameras out! We're all going to start our nature walk with the tour guide to discover these:"
She pointed, a cavern of darkness filled with sound of scurrying spiders meeting the glance of fifteen sets of eyes.
"The nesting caves of the rare Townsvallion fruit bat, said to be omens of unspeakable evil to the ancient natives- won't that be fun?"
"I'd rather be throwing the bus down the falls." Buttercup said with a growl.
"Buttercup!" Blossom and Bubbles crowded around her to glare.
"What, everyone could still ride inside.." Buttercup grinned, joined by a nodding Mitch and most of the class. "We'd call it-Wave Mountain!"
The whole class turned, their eyes waving under the promise of a puff powered field trip.
"Oooo..please Ms. K-?"
"No!"
Their teacher screamed in a barely reined in flurry of camera- handing- out movement.
"We came here to see bats and have a one night uneventful camp out and that's what we're going to do if it kills-"
Ms. Keane shook her head, her voice returning back to a normal level in front of a shocked looking crowd of five year olds.
"Ahem, this way, class...."
Only five minutes later the naturally spooky caverns had progressed into an advanced darkness making even Buttercup edge closer.
"Did anyone else notice Miss. Keane is gone?" Princess asked as the whole class gasped from a sudden dripping sound.
"I think she was flirting with Mr. Narrator..." Buttercup rolled her eyes as the echoes of a disembodied voice and their overworked teacher whispering carried within reach of their super-hearing.
"There's only one exit , we'll be fine if..."
A rock falling echoed through a far off bend, sending a small army of spiders shuttering into their shared flashlight beams.
Blossom's own beam shot upward to where Buttercup and Mitch now clung in shivering balls around each side of her neck.
"Wimps." Princess huffed in a trembling voice as they continued on, Blossom quickly shedding her living jewelry.
"Do you think Ms. Keane got bitten by a bat?" Bubbles asked, her voice shaking as she tightened her grip on Elmer's hand. The small, pale looking boy wearing glasses whimpered over the sound of small bone fractures.
"That's vampires Bubbles, not bats, even the ones that drink blood only..."
"These..caves have...vampires?" Bubbles squeaked as the sound of a boy's shoulder being dislocated set a single bat wheeling.
"Oh brother..." Buttercup groaned.
"Bubbles there is nothing scary in these old caves, and even if there was any such thing as vampires, the sheer manpower needed to transport a single coffin down this far under the earth's..."
Blossom began, flying upward to check the wind current direction.
"There she goes again.." Mitch sighed,dragging astick behind them in the craven dirt in a vain attempt at entrainment.
"Argh, will you quit it? You're the only kid stupid enough to want to go to summer school." Princess exploded, the light from her diamond encrusted, pink mining helmet blinding everyone who turned.
"What a loser!" Mitch agreed. "I bet you don't have anyone who'll even stay around you unless they're forced to-like us."
"Well well welll..what do we have heeere? Interesting..tasty...appealing..yeees.."
The cave itself whispered, pitch black shadows flowing over pointed rock formations like silk, unheard to the bickering gathering.
Bubbles eyes grew wide as a tiny red bat drifted above her like a fluttering leaf silently, drawing her without a word from the very end of the safety of their hand holding line into the cloak of overhead space.
"That's not true!" Blossom said, turning in her rage to notice a suddenly shorter line.
" Hey...where's Bubbles?"
"And now even her own sister! See everyone?" Princess turned, crossing her arms with a smug smile. "Blossom's a boring sister-forgetter!"
"Am not!"
"I'm go find her quick, c'mon guys!" Buttercup's eyes glinted a bright green in the darkness as she started to float down the nearest tunnel branch into the heart of the mountain.
"Alright!" A chorus of bright voices agreed, eight sets of small feet following the green glow.
"Buttercup, Ms. Keane said we should all stay together!" Blossom yelled, her hair ribbon drooping to match her frown as not even an echo answered.
"Double sister loser, I'm going home..." Princess zipped away in an trail of dust, the sound of a top of the line engine and wheels squealing sending the few remaining students behind Blossom into a mad rush to join Buttercup.
Blossom sighed.