Bubbles woke up the next morning, she had just come out of a dream modeled after the movie she'd watched last night with the boys, she dreamed she was in a cabin in the woods being attacked by horrific creatures from the depths of Hell, being protected by a chainsaw-wielding hero with a red mullet, 'I wonder what that could represent' she thought to herself.
She decided it wasn't worth thinking about and chose to occupy her mind with other things as she stared at the ceiling of her new room, the first room she's ever had that she didn't have to share with her sisters, she wondered if they were awake yet, and if they were worried that she never came home last night, 'I wish I could see the looks on their faces when they had to explain what happened to-'
Bubbles' eyes widened in realization "The Professor!", she scrambled out of bed and grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand, with everything that happened yesterday she completely forgot about him, but no matter where she currently stood with her sisters the last thing she wanted was for her father to be worried about her, she quickly dialed the number and waited for him to pick up which he did almost immediately.
"Hello" she heard him say
Bubbles spoke quickly trying to explain her actions "Professor, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I forgot to tell you I was leaving, I just got so caught up with Blossom and Buttercup, and I completely forgot to think about how this would affect you, please don't be mad"
The Professor laughed lightly "It's fine Bubbles, I'm not mad, just worried, are you safe? Where are you staying?"
Bubbles smiled "Yes I'm safe, I'm staying at a friend's house", it wasn't a complete lie
"Which friend?"
"I uh, I don't want to say" Bubbles said nervously
She then heard a knocking at the door "Bubbles, former Powerpuff Girl and current resident in the home of I, Mojo Jojo, breakfast shall be ready shortly and I, Mojo Jojo, recommend that you prepare for it, for it is the most important meal of the day"
She covered the phone speaker "Thanks, I'll be down in a few minutes"
"Be sure that you are, for nobody will be going hungry in the house of Mojo Jojo" Mojo said
Bubbles put the phone back to her ear "You heard all of that, didn't you"
"Every word" The Professor said grinning
"Please don't tell Blossom and Buttercup"
"Don't worry sweetie, your secret's safe with me"
Bubbles smiled in relief "Thanks dad, I love you"
"I love you too and don't worry, I know you and your sisters will work this out in time, you'll see"
Bubbles smile widened "Thanks again, I'll talk to you soon"
"Alright, have a great day sweetie", no sooner than he hung up the phone did Blossom and Buttercup fly into the room and started alternating with questions
"WAS THAT HER?!"
"WHAT DID SHE SAY?!"
"IS SHE SAFE?!"
"WHERE IS SHE?!"
"DID SHE SAY WHEN SHE'S COMING BACK?!"
The Professor proceeded to answer their questions in order "Yes, she called to tell me she was safe, she said not to tell you where she is, and she didn't say when she's coming back", the girls lowered their heads in disappointment, "Just give her some time, she'll be back, then you can all work this out, okay?"
"Okay" they said in unison
"Good, I'm going to go get started on breakfast"
Meanwhile back at Mojo's lair, Bubbles, Brick, and Butch all enter the kitchen to see Mojo cooking breakfast with a still terrified Boomer clinging to his arm, "What did I tell you two about watching horror movies with him?"
Brick thought back "I don't remember your exact words, but I'm pretty sure it was some really long and repetitive version monologue that boiled down to just 'Don't do it'"
Mojo groaned "Well will you at least collect your brother before he cuts off the circulation in my arm"
Brick did as he was told and grabbed Boomer, setting him down in a chair "Demons, everywhere, they're gonna get us" Boomer said shakily
Butch being Butch, couldn't resist the temptation and snuck up behind his brother in an attempt to scare him "I'M GONNA EAT YOUR SOUL!"
Boomer screamed, flying up to the ceiling like in an old cartoon, Brick rolled his eyes at the display and flew up to his brother "Boom, there are no demons"
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! ONE OF OUR DADS IS A DEMON!" Boomer corrected
Brick shook his head "I mean there's no demons here right now"
"How do you know?"
Brick could see he wasn't getting through to him and decided to try a different tactic, "Alright, I know it's not really your biggest strength, but think for a minute, how did the demons get summoned in the movie?"
"Well, they read something out of the book of the dead"
Brick nodded "Good, now, when have you ever read a book in your life?"
Boomer thought "Well, never"
"Right again dumbass, now quit being such a little bitch and have some damn breakfast" they proceeded to float back down to the table where Bubbles and Butch were already seated
Butch shook his head "You're such a freaking baby"
"Give him a break Butch, it was a really scary movie" Bubbles spoke up
"I'm not saying it wasn't, it's one of the greatest horror films of all time, but even you stayed and watched through the whole thing and you're, well, you" Butch explained, "But I guess it probably helped that you had your boyfriend right there to protect you" he said with a smirk causing Brick to glare at him and Bubbles to start blushing
"Alright children, settle down and commence to eating this incredible breakfast prepared by I, the worlds greatest father and master chef, Mojo Jojo" Mojo said as he put the food on the table and everyone proceeded to eat. "So, do you four have any plans for the day?"
Brick swallowed the food he had in his mouth "Yeah, I figured we'd all go to the junkyard and wreck some old cars"
"What? Why would we do that?" Bubbles asked
The boys all looked at each other and then back at her "Because it's fun" they all said in unison
"Wait, have you never destroyed anything before?" Brick asked
"Sure I have, I've wrecked plenty of buildings during fights" She answered
Brick shook his head "It's not the same if you didn't mean to do it, I mean purposely destroyed something"
Bubbles thought about it, "No, I guess not"
Butch scoffed "Why am I not surprised"
"Shut it!" Brick said before turning his attention back to Bubbles "Actually this is perfect, we can go down to the junkyard and show you how to blow shit up, it'll be like your initiation"
Mojo rolled his eyes "I don't suppose you would be more interested in doing something a little more productive, I have been working on a new plan for world domination I could use some help with, or perhaps you could get started on the long list of chores that need to be done" by the time he'd finished talking they'd already left, "Ugh, why do I even bother"
As the four of them were flying toward the junkyard, Bubbles couldn't help but notice the difference in the flight pattern that the boys took, where the girls were always well coordinated and organized with Blossom always leading in the front, the boys were more radical and chaotic, even trying to get ahead of one another like it was a race, they held a more relaxed posture too as opposed to her and her sisters who always flew in the same heroic pose with one arm outstretched in front of them, one to the side, and one leg tucked in, they'd adopted the pose when they saw Superman fly in a similar way on TV and even now she still did it out of sheer habit.
She decided to relax into a more natural position which instantly felt more comfortable. She grinned as an idea came to mind, "Last one to the junkyard has to say something nice about Butch!" She shouted as she sped off towards their destination
The boys' eyes widened in surprise "Did she just challenge us to a race?" Boomer said
"I think she did" Brick said
Butch's eyes narrowed "Nobody beats me in a race" he then sped off after her
"Oh no you don't" Brick said as he sped off as well
"Guys wait, I don't want to have to say something nice about Butch" Boomer shouted as he sped off after them
Butch was gaining on Bubbles until Brick came up behind him and knocked him right out of the sky "Too slow bro", Brick sped up until he and Bubbles were flying right next to one another "What's going on speed racer?"
Bubbles grinned "Not much, you ready to get beat by a girl?"
"What makes you so sure you'll beat me?" he smirked
"Just a feeling I've got. You might wanna look out"
"Huh? What do you-" Brick didn't have time to finish his question before he was tackled straight through a building and pinned to the ground by none other than his brother Butch, "You idiot, now we're both gonna lose!"
"Speak for yourself" Butch said as he began to fly away, he was stopped however when he was frozen in place by his brother's ice breath
"Sorry bro, just thought you needed to cool off a little" Brick flew off toward the junkyard laughing at his own stupid joke.
Brick arrived at the junkyard to find Bubbles casually waiting, "Took you long enough" she smirked
Brick smirked in return "I must be hallucinating, did I just hear trash talk from sweet innocent Bubbles?"
"Yep" her smirk fell "Why, was it not good?"
Brick laughed lightly "It was just fine, I might be able to make a Ruff out of you after all"
Just then, Brick was tackled into the dirt by a thawed out and pissed off Butch, "You freaking cheater!"
Brick smirked "I didn't cheat, I just saw an opportunity and took it, like dad always says" Brick started talking in a bad Mojo impression "When you are faced with a chance to gain an advantage over your opponent you should take said advantage, which is to say that even though it may not be fair to your opponent it will bring you closer to victory, and you should always strive for victory because it is much better than defeat, for when you are defeated-"
"Alright I get it" Butch groaned
Bubbles watched the altercation between the two before she realized something was missing "Hey guys, where's Boomer?"
At that moment Boomer showed up covered in bites, scratches, and claw marks, "What the hell happened to you?" Brick asked
"Well I was trying to catch up with you guys when I saw this awesome bird, and I tried to take a selfie with it… he did not want to take a selfie" Boomer explained as his brothers shook their heads
"Whatever, let's just wreck some cars" Brick said
"Hold on" Bubbles said, "Boomer, don't you have something to say to Butch?"
"What, what are you talking about?" he asked
"If I remember correctly, I believe my exact words were 'Last one to the junkyard has to say something nice about Butch', right?"
Butch grinned "Hey yeah, that's right. Go ahead Boom, say something nice about me"
"Uhh..." Boomer thought hard to find something to say "You're uh… HAIR… is really spiky"
"Are you freaking serious?" Butch said with his arms crossed
"Yeah, and uhh… it's really dark too" Boomer added, Butch was unimpressed
"Honestly Butch, I'm impressed he came up with anything" Brick said as Butch glared at his brothers, "Alright, let's do this. Bubbles, you see that car over there" he pointed at an old station wagon, she nodded "Alright, now all you gotta do is destroy it, in any way you want"
Bubbles rolled her eyes "Alright, but I still don't really see the appeal of this" she focused her laser vision on the car and hit the gas tank which apparently was not empty causing the car to explode into a burst of flames, leaving Bubbles wide-eyed and impressed, "Oh my gosh that was so cool" she said under her breath
The boys let out a few cheers at the mindless destruction and Brick even gave a proud smile "Not bad, you did pretty good for your first time", Butch and Boomer started snickering like any preteen boys would when faced with anything resembling an innuendo, earning themselves a glare from Brick in the process
Bubbles hadn't noticed the small altercation as she was still admiring her work, she quickly turned to the boys "That was so much fun, can we blow up something else?" she asked excitedly
The rest of the group smiled as they gave a loud "Hell yeah!" in unison not noticing that they were no longer alone
"How 'bout a hell no" they all turned to see Ace, leader of the Gangreen Gang and local resident of the landfill they were currently vandalizing, "How many times have I told you little bastards to stop comin' here to blow shit up?"
"Pretty much every other week, when we come here to blow shit up" Brick said
Ace rubbed his eyes in frustration, "Look, don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like you guys, or even that I got a problem with what you're doin', I was a kid too once, I used to hang out in junkyards and smash out car windows just like you guys"
"Used to?" Butch interrupted
"Shut it", Ace continued "Anyway, that's not the thing that pisses me off, what does piss me off is how I gotta hear Big Billy cryin' about how the noise scares him, or Grubber bitchin' about how he can't hear his soap operas, that shit gets old real quick"
Brick flew up to meet his eye "Look Ace, we get where you're coming from we really do, but we just don't care"
Ace was getting visibly mad now "Alright ya little rat, if you four don't get the hell outta here I'm gonna-" Ace stopped mid threat to reevaluate something he said, 'Wait, four? I know I'm not great with numbers but I coulda swore there was only three of em' he thought, he took a better look at them and noticed there was, in fact, one extra person in the group, one that didn't really belong, "Bubbles? What the hell are you doin' with these idiots?"
Bubbles shrugged "Just… blowing shit up" everyone was surprised to hear her swear, stunned even, but she just wanted to try it out and see if she liked it, 'It feels weird to swear, I probably won't make a habit of it, still it's nice to know I have the option now' she thought, she noticed everyone was staring at her and decided to break the silence "It's my initiation"
Ace snapped back to reality, "Initiation?" he asked
"Yeah" Bubbles grinned "I wouldn't be much of a Rowdyruff Girl if I didn't destroy anything"
And just like that Ace was back to being shocked, he didn't really know how to react to this, so he chose to just play it off like it was no big deal "No, I guess you wouldn't be. Whatever, do whatever the hell you want but don't make me come out here again" he said as he walked back to his crappy little shack, as he was walking he pulled out his phone and sent a text to a contact labeled Bud
'Hey', he pressed send and waited for a reply
'What's up?'
'Wanna hang later?'
'Sure, but I'm gonna be a while'
'Work?'
'You know it'
Ace grinned, 'I keep tellin' ya, your missin' out on the wonders of unemployment'
'It's spelled you're, as in you're an idiot'
Ace's grin fell, 'Screw you'
'You can't, you'd get arrested', the girl laughed as she pressed send, earning the attention of her sister
"Buttercup, who are you texting?" Blossom asked
"Huh? Oh, just a friend." Buttercup said as she put her phone away
"Well stay focused"
Buttercup rolled her eyes "What's there to focus on, it's just a regular bank robbery, we could do this in our sleep"
"I'm just saying-" Blossom sighed "Let's just get this over with"
The girls stopped the robbery with no problem and dropped the crooks off at the prison, Blossom started to fly toward their home when she noticed Buttercup wasn't following, "You coming?"
Buttercup nervously rubbed her neck "Actually, I've kinda got plans with a friend"
Blossom smirked "Oh? Would this happen to be the same secret 'friend' that you've been having plans with for the past few weeks?"
"Yeah, that a problem?" Buttercup said
"Not at all" Blossom assured "Just one question though"
Buttercup groaned "What?"
"Is he cute?"
Buttercup blushed "W-what?!"
"Or she, if that's what your into"
Buttercup glared at her sister's teasing "Screw you!"
"You can't, that would be incest and it's frowned upon by society" Blossom grinned "See you at home, have fun with your secret not-boyfriend" she said as she flew away
Buttercup then flew to the junkyard in a huff, she arrived at the gang's shack and let herself in, "Hey guys"
"Hey Buttercup" they all said in unison
"Glad ya could make it Bud" Ace said
"Don't call me that" she said as she sat next to him on the couch
Ace shrugged "Well I gotta call ya somethin', and I don't think 'Buttercup' really fits ya too good" he explained
"Yeah I never really liked it either" she admitted "It's just so… cutesy, and my dad even told me he didn't really put much thought into it"
"Ya could always change it" Ace suggested "Plenty of people do that"
"Yeah, but to what?" She asked
Ace shrugged "Whatever ya want"
"I'll think about it" She said
They sat in silence for a minute watching what was on TV before Ace spoke up, "I saw your sister today"
Buttercup jerked her head to look at Ace "What?! Where was she?! Did you talk to her?!"
Ace kept looking forward at the TV as he spoke "Yeah, she was here in the dump 'blowin' shit up', her exact words"
Buttercup's eyes widened in shock, "No way, she said shit?! Bubbles never swears!"
"Yeah, it was kind of surreal, her friends seemed pretty surprised by it too"
"Friends? What friends?" Buttercup asked trying to get as much information as possible
"She was hangin' with Brick, Boomer, and Butch" He explained
"THE RUFFS?! SHE WAS WITH THE RUFFS?! WHAT THE HELL?! WHO HANGS OUT WITH THEIR MORTAL ENEMIES?!" She yelled
Ace looked at her and lowered his shades in a deadpan expression "Really?"
"That's different, the Ruffs are villains, you guys are just assholes"
Ace shrugged "Eh, ya got me there. But I wouldn't really call 'em villains, they're just kids, stupid annoying kids"
"Whatever, thanks for telling me" As Buttercup got up to leave, she was stopped by Ace lightly grabbing her arm
"You're not leavin' yet are ya? Ya just got here" He said
"I really should tell Blossom"
Ace shook his head, "You can tell her later when ya get home, stick around, we just ordered a pizza"
She raised her eyebrow in confusion "How the hell can you guys afford a pizza?"
"We can't, we were just gonna beat the guy up and steal it when he got here" Ace explained
Buttercup rolled her eyes "Of course you were, fine I'll hang out a little longer" a collective cheer rang out through the shack, they really did like having her around, and they weren't really bad guys, not anymore at least, they could still be tremendous dicks a lot of the time but by no means are they evil, and Buttercup had grown to like them too, they'd almost become like a second family to her.
There was a knock at the door, "Pizza delivery"
Ace smirked "Just a minute" he turned to his second in command "Snake, you got your bat ready?"
A second, dysfunctional family made up of violent assholes
Oh wowee, a scene transition
The Rowdyruff Boys and Girl had just returned home after a long day of mischief, they were all laughing and enjoying themselves as they entered the lair, "Dad, we're home" Brick shouted and floated to the kitchen
Bubbles had gotten her clothes dirty and torn throughout the day so she went upstairs to get changed, she opened her still unpacked suitcase to find she had only packed a few dresses, she completely forgot to pack any spare tights or shoes, "Oh shoot!"
Boomer heard her from the hallway "What's wrong?"
"My tights got all ripped up and I forgot to pack extra" she explained
Boomer tried to think of a solution "Well you really should wear something more durable anyway, I've got some old jeans that would probably fit you, you can have them if you want"
"Thanks Boomer, that'd be great" she said
He smiled "No problem"
Bubbles and Boomer came down about five minutes later, Bubbles wearing Boomer's old jeans under her dress as well as a pair of old sneakers they found, Brick and Butch were sitting on the floor by the DVD cabinet sifting through various movies trying to decide on one to watch, Brick noticed the other half of his team had entered the room "Hey guys, Mojo's out for the night, he left a note saying he needed to get something for his next plan and he's gonna be gone until tomorrow, lucky for us he left us money for pizza"
Boomer's face lit up "Can we-"
"NO, WE ARE NOT GETTING PINEAPPLE ON IT!" Butch interrupted
Bubbles crossed her arms "Why not? Pineapple's good"
"I mean, we could get one pineapple and one meat lover" Brick pointed out
"Oh my god, you are so whipped!" Butch said "Fine! Get your godawful Hawaiian abomination, but so help me if I find one piece of crappy yellow fruit on MY pizza THEN I WILL BECOME VERY HARD TO LIVE WITH!"
"You, hard to live with? Don't be crazy, we could never get sick of you." Brick said sarcastically
After Brick called in the order they all tried to decide on a movie, "How about Evil Dead 2?" Butch suggested
"NO!" Boomer shouted, "How about Blade Runner?"
Brick shook his head "Nah, too long and artsy. We could watch Spaceballs"
"I've never heard of that one, what's it about?" Bubbles asked
"It's like a parody of science fiction movies like Star Wars and junk, it's hilarious" Boomer explained
"Sounds cool, let's watch it" Bubbles said enthusiastically
"Well look at that, I guess there is something we can all agree on" Butch said
Just then there was a knock at the door "P-pizza delivery, please don't hurt me", everyone looked at each other confusedly until Brick opened the door to a delivery guy who looked like he'd been brutally clubbed with a baseball bat
"Woah dude, rough night?" Brick asked taking the pizza
"You have no idea" he took the money and left, seemingly wanting to end this day as quickly as possible
"Poor guy" Brick said shaking his head "Whatever, PIZZA'S HERE!"
They all settled in to eat their pizza and watch the movie, it was actually pretty nice, until Butch accidentally bit into a slice of pineapple pizza and started screaming like a little girl, but after that, things went right back to being peaceful, they'd ended up marathoning a bunch of old movies until Bubbles and Brick fell asleep holding one another, this, of course, caused Butch to groan and drag Boomer upstairs, "Come on roomie"
"Aw, but it was just getting to the cute romantic part" Boomer whined
"Shut it"
A/N: Wow I wrote a lot here, I guess all this practice is starting to pay off. So what do you think? Do you like it so far? Do you hate it? Let me know with a review, I really do like reading them, they make me feel… powerful.
Next week we're getting dark and serious, with a whole lot of tear-jerking drama that'll make everyone really freaking sad. Doesn't that sound like fun?
Anyway, let me know what you think, and may the spirit of our great lord and master Aku be with you #PraiseAku.
