2: Cry ~ FFicReader
Townsville had always been most peaceful in the winter, there was never anyone outside and it was never noisy. That was mostly because the grey tinted sky, the pouring rain and low temperature wasn't inviting anyone to leave the comforting warmth of their own homes. It was getting dark, and it was only 4:00 PM.
In the Utonium Household, the towns' three heroes sat in their living room. One reading an encyclopedia for "the fun of it", one drawing herself, her sisters and her father neatly in pencil, shading away aimlessly and ignoring all that went on around her as she lost herself in her portrait, and the last girl, slumped over the couch, bored out of her avid mind. Buttercup groaned. She needed something to do before she actually died of boredom.
She looked down at her arms, rubbing the places where there had just been bruised. They were all cleared up, and the Gangreen Gang would pay for what they did to her. How were they even that strong? She sighed and moaned, sitting up casually before sobbing loudly.
"I'm so bored! This weather sucks, why can't the Professor pull something together that'll make the sun actually come up!" Buttercup complained. Bad weather conditions always drove her nuts, and it was always her sisters that got an earful of it. "Buttercup, not this again." Blossom sighed, throwing the book over to the opposite side of the couch. She, too, wished that Professor would create some sort of weather changing experiment thing, just so he could make her middle sister shut up. But, the Professor had been downstairs all night yesterday and was still in bed sleeping. Of course, Buttercup wanted him to wake up and entertain them all, but the poor man needed some rest to get his brain up and running.
He came downstairs early that morning, proclaiming that he was well-rested and could prepare breakfast. They were concerned about him, because not only did he look like he had been thrown into a dirt pile after getting ran over by four trucks, but he also looked scared and worried. They forced him to go back to sleep, and he did after a brief argument. (Which he lost almost immediately.) Of course, he was only concerned for their safety and well-being, but the siblings were fine, and they had healed quickly. No need for him to worry about them any longer.
"Why don't you go play one of your video games, like, The Legend of Zelda or something?" Blossom suggested, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "If you haven't noticed, Red, I've beat all my games more than once and I'm waiting for a few new ones." Buttercup replied calmly. Despite the serenity in her voice, Blossom could hear the attitude dripping from it. She inwardly sighed, knowing that this was one girl she couldn't win against when it came down to scenarios similar to this one.
"Why couldn't a monster attack the town or something! It would be so much more fun than sitting here all winter." The green-clad girl explained. Though her eyebrows arched themselves as she watched a pair of light pink eyes widen. "So you would want to put the lives of others in danger just so you could 'have fun'?" The leader questioned.
Buttercup could've sworn her own brain had just imploded behind her skull. Never had she been so dumbfounded from someone's stupidity. "Of course I don't want to, stupid! I just want some action-" "I'm not stupid! I'm smarter than you, so what does that make you? You incompetent-" Bubbles had been plugging her ears as the two sisters went at each others throats for the last 5 minutes, and she couldn't even put the finishing touch on what she claimed to be her "best drawing ever". It wasn't long before she finally snapped.
"Will you two just shut. Your. Traps! I'm sick of you two always fighting! I'm trying to do my work over here, and you girls are making that really hard for me!" Silence fell around them as the two PowerPuffs looked at their blue sibling. "And, Buttercup, could you turn off that damned TV! It's bad for the environment! Plus, you're making the electric bill bigger." She barked. She hasn't lost her temper that much since she was 5 and her sisters told her she was too weak to train in the training room at level 10...
Buttercup's taken back expression twisted into a scowl, as she glowered at her blue-eyed sister. Bubbles had retrieved her sketch pad and resumed her drawing, ignoring the constant stares from her siblings. She breathed in and out of her nose trying to calm herself.
"Why don't you just turn it off then?" Buttercup questioned. Still looking directly at her drawing book, she shook her head in annoyance. "Because, Buttercup, I'm drawing." Blossom examined her younger sisters as they bickered. "Oh, so you care about your drawing more than the environment?" That did it. Bubbles opened her mouth, ready to let Buttercup receive an earful, when their new-and-improved hotlines rang. The girls had upgraded from a little preschool-like telephone to three individual high-tech cell phones. These phones were programmed to ring at the same time if the police department and/or the mayor called, but they could also ring separately, if only one or a certain 'Puff was needed. In this case, all three of them were to report to Townsville's police department.
Bubbles briefly closed her mouth before reopening it. "I'll go tell the Professor that we're leaving." She said as she zipped off, leaving a blue streak in her wake.
Buttercup jumped at the chance to answer her cell phone. Blossom let a low growl escape her throat as her younger sister took the call. But, holding back her tongue, she, joined by Bubbles who had already returned from upstairs, approached her as she listened to the policeman ramble through the phone. All they could manage to hear, other than a muffled male voice, was Buttercup responding with a "Yes", "Hmm", "I see", followed by her hanging up. Buttercup pursed her lips, turning to her sisters.
"Girls," she paused, her sisters looked intently at her as she continued. "Little Arturo was murdered early this morning."
They arrived at the police station, where they were greeted by the head police chief, Paul Derrick. "Good afternoon, girls." Mr. Derrick exclaimed as he walked up to them. Each girl said their salutations, and went on to discuss the reason that they were called. "What happened?" Blossom was the first to speak up afterwards. Her blue sister curtly nodded while her green sister stared at him expectedly. Mr. Derrick back at the girls, his brown eyes watching them steadily as he tried to gather the right words to say. "As you girls know, Arturo de la Guerra was murdered, but we can't find any leads on who could've done it." He concluded, answering all of their thoughts, but not enough to satisfy them. He proceeded to lead them to his office, offering them each seats, and continued his explanation on the unfortunate events. "From the look of the crime scene, and the, uh, damages to his body-" Bubbles cringed, just thinking about what the stern man could've been implying. "-the cause of death was not from some sort of 'fight gone wrong' with someone- It's too macabre to be a fight." He pushed his heavy glasses up onto his bearded face, his lips drawn into a thin line. "Who ever committed this had a very big problem with the victim. There's no way this is a random act of violence. We need you to help figure out who could've done this." He concluded, pulling out a rather large file envelope. After giving the girls time to collect themselves, he opened it, revealing the images from the crime scene.
Bubbles gasped, Buttercup winced, and Blossom drew a deep breath. The pink 'Puff calmly took the file, not hesitating to close it, and listened, along with her young sisters, as Paul explained everything that he and his fellow detectives knew. It didn't take long, for they, as they said, had no evidence of any kind. No footprints, no fingerprints, nothing. Who ever murdered Arturo de la Guerra was very careful, and made a smooth getaway. They had handled crimes like this one before. They knew if the culprit decided to kill someone else, that he or she would slip up, and they would slap the handcuffs on them without a second thought.
Paul had finished talking to the girls. They said their farewells and hurried towards the exit, slightly glad to be able to go home and look over the report that Blossom held in her arms. "Can you believe someone would do that?" Bubbles chimed as soon as they stepped foot outside. She had always been the most caring, even if the person she was worried for was an arch enemy. That had to be her greatest weakness, and one day it would be her downfall as well. (As much as she hated to admit it, it was true, and Bubbles herself couldn't disagree.) Despite her sisters, and her own, knowledge of that fact, they didn't try to change it, for it was who she was. The girls all knew what each others biggest weakness' were, and they accepted them. Buttercup's downfall would be her need to be the strongest; to never show fear, compassion, not even love. To always stand out as the brave one, and to be confident in battle. But inside she was scared. Scared of losing her family, scared of losing to someone else. Scared of being weak. So she would never admit defeat.
Blossom's would be her stubborn demeanour, and her hatred for being wrong. She couldn't be wrong. She knew that her attitude could be changed, but she didn't want it to change. She was born with it, and it was a part of her. Though she had no fear, and no worries, because no one could match her intelligence. But there was only one person that could go above and beyond her, and that was the only person who could actually break her down from the inside, and then beat her down on the outside. And that person was…
Buttercup slightly jumped as the back pocket of her lime green shorts vibrated. Bubbles turned to Blossom, pulling out her yellow and purple cell phone and answered it, followed by Buttercup, then Blossom. They were met by a very familiar voice. One that they had grown to love, even if he could be very annoying. The mayor of the city had called, sounding rather alarmed as he raspy old voice rang out throughout the girls' ears.
"The Gangreen Gang are destroying things at the park-" The mayor paused before adding, "-again," to the end of his incomplete question. "We need you girls to stop them before they hurt someone." "We're on it, Mr. Mayor." Bubbles squealed and they each hung up the phone.
At the park waiting for them were the green skinned boys, standing in their usual positions. For once, Grubber was the first to 'speak' as the girls touched down directly in front of the gang leader. Spit went flying all over Ace, who was, kindly, shielding the girls from the dreaded saliva. Bubbles giggled upon witnessing his expression of disgust as he turned sharply to face Grubber. But, holding his tongue, returned to the PowerPuffs. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here." Ace exclaimed darkly. His voice was at a low growl and he wasn't wearing his shades. His eyes were cold and dead, mirroring his tone.
Buttercup took a step back, getting ready to fight. She wanted to even the score between them for what he done to her. Ace didn't even bat an eyelash at her, much to her dismay. Instead, he shook his head, his eyes briefly closing and he continued to stare blankly at the trio. "I'm not fighting you." He inquired as he put his hands up defensively. He looked to his feet sorrowfully. The Puffs` were taken back, but still remained aware. "I just want to know why you didn't save him." He whined in a hushed voice. Blossom seemed annoyed and concerned all at once, and took a cautioned step towards him.
She stared at him long and hard. Studying his expression and body language. Trying to find a flaw within his façade. But to no avail, she relaxed her tense muscles ever so slightly, and spoke.
"I have a duty to protect the citizens of Townsville, and-" "Then how come Lil' Arturo'ssss dead? You ssssayin' we ain't citizensss of thiss town?" Snake interrupted. He looked more than upset, and his never looked so downtrodden in his life. Blossom turned to Snake, and unsympathetically disagreed with his notion.
Grubber spat some more.
Next in line for a speaking role was Buttercup. "It's not our fault, we couldn't just randomly come running over to save him- we didn't even hear anything that would indicate any kind of trouble, so how the hell were we supposed to know!" She yelled. Blossom simply held up her hand, preventing Green from spitting out any more profanities to the green gang leader. "What she's trying to say is, we weren't aware of the incident, so we couldn't help him." Blue interjected. "I'm sorry for your loss, but that's no good reason to attack a park flooding with children!" She continued. Ace's expression softened. "I'm sorry about that, too." He added, clearly not directing the comment towards anyone. Blossom felt a twinge in her heart, if only for a hurried moment. She wrapped her arms around herself, and took a deep breath. "Look, Ace, how about you give us all the information you can about Arturo's passing, we can help bring justice to you all." She offered. Big Billy groaned out of misery at the mention of 'Arturo's passing', and frowned. "Fine. But we don't really know much. All I know is that he left the hut to use the washroom, which is outside. He never came back. We went to search for him and then, we found him. He was butchered. We don't know when or how. All I remember is a lot of blood, and only half of a body, sliced down the middle." Bubbles shuddered, remembering the images from the crime scene. Too gory for her innocent mind to handle.
"It wasss horrible!" Snake mourned. Blossom looked sadly at him, and they thanked the Gangreen Gang for sharing what information they could. But as Blossom turned to follow her sisters, for they had already taken off, she felt a rough arm grab her. She whipped around only to come face to face with a pair of cold dead eyes. She stared deep into them questioningly. "Please," he begged, "find the killer, and bring justice the Arturo de la Guerra's name."
Hot tears stained his pale green cheeks.
