Part 2
The city of-…oh hang on, I've done this already. Anyway, it's a new day, and we find Bubbles and Buttercup mid-way through another period of school!
The two Powerpuff Girls were out in the playground during lunchtime. As the morning had moved along, Buttercup was sure she could feel Princess' glare on her back. She knew Princess well enough by now to know that direct rejection of her wishes could come around to bite them in the back, and Buttercup had made a mental note to keep watch on her over the course of the day.
Despite her fears, the entire morning had passed by without incident, and the two girls decided to make the most of recess and try to have a bit of fun.
It was this mindset that had brought Buttercup into an intense game of dodgeball that had been going for the past few minutes.
Buttercup ducked underneath one ball that was thrown at her, which bounced away behind her towards the rest of the playground. She ignored the lost ball, as she was more concerned with the other ones that Robin was about to throw at her.
Suddenly Buttercup was hit with a ball to the back of the head; not hard, but enough to irritate her. She turned around to find the thrower, and was none too surprised to find Princess smiling at her. "Oops, sorry about that!" she said sarcastically.
"Hey! What'd you do that for?!" Buttercup snapped, though she felt she there was no need to guess.
"To get your attention! I'm reasonable a reasonable person; I decided that I'd give you all night to make a final decision on my offer." She paused. "Well? I'm waiting for your answer!"
Buttercup stared in disbelief for a moment. Then in a low, furious voice, she said, "I told you Princess, we have no interest in working with you."
"Oh come on!" Princess whined, starting to look infuriated. She took a step towards Buttercup, her voice rising in irritation. "Why?! Why do you always oppose me?!" Everyone else in the playground was starting to notice the building argument, and those who were farther off began to walk over.
"Why? You really need to ask? You won't leave us alone, that's why! Don't you think we've got enough to worry about without you pestering us?! You're a jerk, Princess! A whiny, bratty jerk!"
Princess suddenly seemed to snap at this remark, and took another step forward towards Buttercup. A she did, she swung a punch; an uncoordinated, sloppy punch at Buttercup. She dodged it easily, and grabbed Princess' right hand as it came by, pulling Princess towards herself.
As she came stumbling towards Buttercup, the Powerpuff span her around so her back was to her, pulling Princess' right arm up at a painful angle. Keeping her grip tight on Princess' right hand, Buttercup wrapped her right arm around Princess' neck in a chock hold, though Buttercup was careful not to squeeze tight enough to cause any damage.
Princess struggled to free herself, but Buttercup held on securely. She lowered her head, towards Princess' ear, and whispered, "Listen Princess. I don't know why you think you can just come along and shove yourself in our team when one of us goes missing, but I suppose I should have expected that from you by now!" When Buttercup finished speaking, she brought her foot up to the small of Princess' back, and shoved her away from herself; Princess stumbling a few paces forward before bringing herself to a halt. "Now please, for your sake, and for that of my sister's, please get lost!"
Princess span round again, and rather than listening to Buttercup, just goaded her instead, "You wanna fight then, huh? Come on then, gimme your best shot!"
Buttercup and Princess stared, eye-to-eye. Everyone else watched in breathless anticipation; even Bubbles was frozen in terror. Suddenly someone ran in front of Buttercup protectively. To everyone's shock, it was the person in the class whom everyone associated with nervousness and shyness: Mike.
He cried out, "Leave them alone Princess! What have they really ever done to you?! They have done so much for everyone, for us…for me! And yet you feel it's okay to be…be…so mean to them!"
Princess did not take the interruption kindly. "Get outta here you little scamp!" she shrieked, shoving him away harshly. Mike stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, the back of his head impacting the playground hard. Everyone, except Princess, stared in horror. There was a brief second of silence, before Mike began to cry loudly.
"Mike!" Bubbles cried, dashing to his side.
Hearing the commotion, Ms. Keane walked outside. She was presented with the sight of Mike, lying on the ground, crying his eyes out with Bubbles kneeling by his side. Buttercup and Princess were still giving each-other death stares, and the remaining children were watching in shock and awe. "What's going on here!" she shouted.
After a few silent moments of exchanged glances, Robin answered her. "Princess was bugging Buttercup and Mike tried to break them up and then she pushed him over!"
"Bubbles, take Mike inside!" Ms. Keane ordered. Bubbles nodded, helping Mike to his feet and leading him back indoors. Then Ms. Keane turned to the source of the issue. "PRINCESS MORBUCKS!"
Princess' eyes were still locked with Buttercup, and she looked up upon hearing her voice. "What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?!"
More severe than anyone had heard her before, Ms. Keane said, "Little lady, your attitude of late has been completely unacceptable! You've been disrespectful to me, rude to your classmates, and have constantly attempted to incite fights between yourself and the Powerpuff Girls!"
Buttercup added, "We don't care about any offer, deal, or anything else you have to say to us!"
"Princess, I want you to go and sit inside, and I'll deal with you in a minute!" Ms. Keane emphasised her order by pointing at the door.
"Fine!" Princess shouted huffily, storming off indoors.
Ms. Keane sighed, shaking her head. She turned to face Buttercup. "Are you all right Buttercup?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just fed up of her," Buttercup responded.
"Well I'll deal with her presently. In the meantime-…" Ms. Keane was cut off by the noise of jet engines. Everyone looked towards the classroom door in time to see Princess flying out from the building, hovering in front of them.
"I've had it with your sort of company!" she yelled. "If you wanna be like this, then be my guest! I'll go and socialise with people who actually appreciate my company!" Before Ms. Keane could stop her, she flew off and away from the school.
"And you stay away from us!" Buttercup yelled after her, as Princess disappeared over the horizon, presumably back to her mansion.
Ms. Keane sighed tiredly, gesturing for all the kids to go back into the classroom. Inside, Bubbles was sitting next to Mike, who was holding an ice pack to the back of his head.
Buttercup walked over to them and asked, "Are you okay now?" Mike nodded meekly. Buttercup paused, and then continued, "You shouldn't have jumped into the middle of me and Princess like that! She could've hurt you badly!"
"I know," Mike replied, timidly. "I just didn't like how mean she was being to you Buttercup. She shouldn't be like that."
"I would've been fine!" Buttercup admonished, before turning and heading back to her normal desk.
When Buttercup had gone, Bubbles turned to Mike and smiled. "She probably doesn't want to say thank you herself, but I know she feels it. You probably stopped her from getting into a big fight with Princess back there. Who knows how that could've turned out? Thank-you, Mike," she said and hugged him gently. Mike was surprised and he blushed furiously. Bubbles broke away, giggling and smiling, moving over to join Buttercup.
The rest of the day passed as normal, and though Buttercup kept a close eye and ear out for Princess, she never reappeared. At the sound of the end of school bell, Bubbles and Buttercup leapt into the sky, heading for home.
As the two flew through the air, Buttercup remarked, "Well, I'm glad it seems Princess has given up on us."
"Yeah," Bubbles agreed. "I hate fighting, but I really felt like givin' her a whack when she hurt Mike like that." She paused. "What are we gonna do now?"
"Let's get home and ask the Professor if he's had any news. If he hasn't, we'll go and search around for Blossom again."
Bubbles nodded in agreement, "Okay."
A couple of minutes later, the girls arrived home, to a very quiet house. Buttercup opened the door, calling out, "Professor?" There was no response.
The two floated inside. As they entered the living room, they saw the Professor passed out on the couch, snoring lightly. He was in the exact same position he'd been in when they'd gone to school that morning. The telephone was sitting on the table right by him.
"Oh…" Bubbles whispered.
Buttercup added, also in a hushed tone, "He must've been sitting by that phone all night!"
"Shall we…put him to bed?" Bubbles suggested tentatively.
"I suppose so. It's the least we can do right now."
Gently lifting him up, Buttercup and Bubbles slowly and carefully carried the Professor upstairs, entering his bedroom and setting him down on the bed in a comfortable position. Once they were sure he was settled and was still asleep, the two left the room, closing the door quietly.
As they hovered back downstairs, the phone started to ring. Bubbles and Buttercup stared at it, and then glanced at each-other briefly. Buttercup shrugged, and flew over to answer it. "Uh…hello?" she said uncertainly.
"Hello, Buttercup," a distorted voice said from the other end, "I have something of interest for you."
"Huh? Who is this?" Buttercup asked, gesturing for Bubbles to fly over and listen in.
"Talk," the voice said, and the noise of a phone moving around came. For a few seconds, there was silence. Suddenly the voice came again, "I said talk!" and there was the sound of a harsh slap. From the phone, came a few quiet whimpers and mumbling sounds.
Although muffled, the sounds were all too familiar to the girls, "Blossom?!" Buttercup said in disbelief.
Bubbles leaned in further, so she could speak down the receiver, "Blossom? Are you okay?"
But already the phone had changed hands again. The voice continued, "I thought you'd just like to know that your dear Blossom is safe and well for the moment."
Just then, another voice near the phone came, "Big Billy ready to take watch fur da Powapuff Gurl."
"Shut up Billy!" the voice snapped, briefly turning normal, and very obviously belonging to Ace. His voice became distorted again as he said, "Goodbye Powerpuff Girls," and the phone hung up seconds later.
The pair were silent for a few moments. Finally, Bubbles spoke up, "The Gangreen Gang?! They're behind this?!"
"Well let's not hang around!" Buttercup cried out. "Let's get down there!" without hesitating, Bubbles and Buttercup flew out of the front door, heading to the dump as fast as they could.
They arrived at the dump within minutes, and charged into the Gang's shack, smashing the door clean off the hinges. "Not so fast Gangreen Gang!" they shouted in unison.
To their surprise, though, the gang was nowhere in sight. "Where are they?" Bubbles wondered.
"I guess they made a run for it as soon as they realised we were coming; look at the furniture," Buttercup indicated. Indeed, the shack's miniscule furnishings were strewn about, a telltale sign of a group of people making a speedy exit.
"Well let's have a look around; maybe they left some clues," Bubbles said. Buttercup nodded and the two began to carefully examine the room.
A couple of minutes passed. "Find anything Bubbles?" Buttercup eventually asked.
Bubbles was feeling along one of the walls, looking at it closely. "Nothing ye-hey!" she cried.
Buttercup twirled round, "What is it?"
"There's something here," Bubbles said, carefully examining a barely noticeable gap between two planks of wood. "It…It looks like a hidden door!"
Before Bubbles could say anything else, Buttercup suddenly zoomed over, demolishing the door with a quick kick, revealing the hidden room. Inside, Blossom was shackled to the wall, and she was frantically struggling and trying to cry out.
Elated, Bubbles and Buttercup cried out together, "Blossom!"
The two speedily zipped over to Blossom. Whilst Buttercup worked on trying to free Blossom from the restraints, Bubbles ripped the tape off of her mouth. As she did this, Blossom shouted, "Girls, no! It's a trap!"
Buttercup and Bubbles had barely even time to blink, before Ace and the rest of the gang appeared from behind a fallen table in the back of the room, and fired an orange blast from a somewhat square shaped laser gun with two transparent containers atop it. The blast hit Bubbles in the back, and she screeched in surprise, dropping to the ground on her knees, the fight blasted out of her.
Buttercup spun round, just in time to see another shot coming straight for her. She had no time to dodge, taking the shot right in the face. She stumbled, but stayed standing. She shook her head, stared at the gang with a look of fury, and growled, "You…" She raised her fist and quickly moved towards the gang. But she staggered more than she ran, and seemed to be having trouble keeping her eyes focused on the gang. As she reached them, Arturo suddenly stepped aside and stuck out one of his legs, tripping Buttercup up and sending her head-first into the table. The side of her head hit the table hard, and she grimaced in pain, before sliding to the ground out cold.
"Buttercup!" Blossom cried. "Bubbles, do something!"
Bubbles was struggling to stand, her eyes glazed and half-closed. "I can't…" she mumbled, finally giving in and falling unconscious.
"Bubbles, no! You fiends!" Blossom raged, thrashing in desperation. She inhaled, ready to fire a blast of ice breath from her now free mouth, but before she could, Ace fired once again, hitting Blossom. "Ahhhh!" she cried in shock.
The gang strode over, beginning to chain up Bubbles and Buttercup like Blossom. "What is that gun?" Blossom asked, her eyelids drooping as she felt herself beginning to black out again.
Ace grinned, and showed her the side. "I'm told this should look familiar to you."
Blossom struggled to read, murmuring her words. Her face changed into one of shock as she read the most important part, "…shooting the antidote of Chemical X at the Powerpuff Girls…and eliminating…their…powers…" she slurred on the final word, her head finally drooping down, to the fiendish chuckles of the gang…
End of Part 2
A/N: Okay, this took much longer than it should've, but I finally did it! I struggled for a while to decide what way the story was gonna go whilst staying close to the original series. I feel this chapter doesn't have much substance to it, but I wanted to get it out so I can move on to the rest of the story, where I have plenty of ideas of how it's gonna go.
Thanks for waiting, and hopefully Part 3 will be here in not too long.