Ta-dah! Two weeks earlier than I said, I'm here with Chapter 3! Woohoo!

Thanks so much for the reviews and response to the last chapter, so appreciated as always.

Warning: This chapter contains strong language from some certain greenies, graphic action violence and sexual themes. Be advised!

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or settings from The Powerpuff Girls, Craig McCracken owns them. I also don't own Pink Floyd, Chanel, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Coach, Jimmy Choo, Mercedes, BMW, or Porsche. Whew.

Sorry for errors!

Chapter Three

-Buttercup's POV-

My alarm sounded off. I groaned. No. Stop. Shut up. Go away.

I should have known that I'd pay for how late I'd stayed up video chatting with Butch the night before, and that I'd seriously regret it when I had my only early class on Tuesday mornings, but I didn't. And now I was lying in bed, covering my ears even though my stupid advanced hearing made the action pointless to do, and hating my life.

Although, I wasn't gonna lie, that video chatting session had been…fun. No regrets there. I was lucky that Blossom had been studying in the library until late, otherwise she would've caught us, which would have been mortifying. That kind of thing still wasn't as good as the real thing for me, but close enough for now. It would have to do until we could get alone again, which would hopefully be soon.

"Buttercup," Blossom said after a while, who was already awake and getting dressed after taking a shower in the communal bathroom down the hall. How the hell was she awake before me when she'd gone to bed after I did? "Ignoring your alarm won't make it stop. Turn that thing off and get up."

I closed my eyes, groaned again, and then flung one of my hands blindly toward my phone, feeling for it on the bedside table. Locating it after knocking a few things off the table by accident, I brought it towards my face, opened one eye, and then finally silenced the thing. I closed my eyes again blissfully.

Not fifteen seconds later, Blossom was right beside my bed, yanking my quilt completely off my body so that I was exposed to the chilly morning. Such cruelty. "Buttercup, get up. I'm not going to tell you again. Next time the alarm goes off, so help me, I'll drag you out myself."

Curling up into a ball, trying and failing to grab back my blankets with one hand, and then finally opening my eyes, I squinted them at her with resent. "I hate you," I croaked.

"Yeah, yeah. Now go take a shower." She threw a towel at my face as I sat up, and I pulled it off my face as I stormed out of our room to head to the bathroom.

With straight-faced displeasure, I ignored everyone that spoke in my direction on my way there. This was the one thing I hated about college, aside from the general school part—the people. So many people, everywhere. And huge dorms, with a huge amount of people. Thankfully, for freshmen, they were separated by sex, but that was the only good part about it.

It was enough that we had to share a dorm building with this many people, but shared bathrooms for each floor? It was hell. Total hell. Barely any privacy, shared smells, shared mystery wet spots on the floor that you step in with your bare feet when you forget to wear flip flops or slippers in there. No. Just no. No to everything.

I really missed my bathroom at home, and my privacy. But I sucked it up, deciding it could be worse. I could've lived in Bubbles' sorority house with her. Now that would've been real hell.

After showering as fast as I could, I hurried back to our room, wrapped in a towel with my wet hair dripping down my back and shoulders. Blossom was still there, and she handed me a hot cup of coffee as soon as I came inside. Extra strong and black, just like I liked it. For the millionth time, I was so glad that we'd decided to buy a coffeemaker for our dorm room, rather than having to venture all the way down to the cafeteria first thing in the morning for a cup every day.

I took the cup from her gratefully as she turned back to packing up supplies in her bag for her first class of the day. "Why the hell is it so cold in here?" I asked, shivering and then taking a gulp of the hot beverage. It scalded all the way down.

Rubbing her hands together herself, Blossom shrugged. Her red hair was in one long, loose braid down her back, and her pink, long-sleeved sweater dress was neat and prim. "I guess the dorm supervisor doesn't think we need to turn central heating on until it gets colder."

I cringed, running to our shared closet to locate some warm clothes. "It's pretty damn cold already," I muttered, my teeth chattering. "It's two weeks to Thanksgiving, what are they waiting for? The first snowfall?"

Ignoring my griping, she prepared to leave, gathering her things. Shrugging on her pastel pink coat, she pulled her backpack onto her shoulders. As she left through the door, she glanced back at me, saying bluntly, "Bundle up today. Don't be late to class."

Taking a mint green long sleeved shirt out of the closet that said 'I DON'T LIKE YOU' across the chest in white, dripping lettering, I rolled my eyes and grinned. "Thanks, Mom."

I quickly threw on the long sleeved shirt and black jeans with holes in them, tucked my wet hair under a loose black beanie, and pulled on my trusty, worn green sneakers. After trudging through the cold morning air, wrapping my leather jacket close to my body, I suffered through my first class of the day with glazed eyes and a minimum amount of attention, as usual.

I took my usual seat behind the guy that always brought his pillow to class and recorded the professor's lecture on his phone as he slept. I didn't know him, but I admired his ability to sleep through every single lecture without snoring loudly or getting kicked out.

After nearly two hours, class was done. Leaving the classroom, I decided to head toward the cafeteria for a late morning breakfast, since I hadn't eaten yet, and my stomach felt like it was making a meal out of its own lining.

Just as I'd ordered a breakfast burrito, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Handing the cashier my money card as I hit talk, I brought my phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Good morning," my boyfriend's voice greeted me on the other end. He added in a self-amused way, "Get much sleep last night?"

I waited at the counter as the girl behind the counter heated up my food in a microwave. I rolled my eyes. "No, actually. Thanks for that."

"You're welcome," he said proudly. "What are you doing? You just get out of class?"

The girl handed me my burrito on a paper plate, and I gave her a brief grin, mouthing 'thanks' before I turned around, searching for a place to sit. "Yeah, just got out. Now I'm—"

"Holding a breakfast burrito," he said.

This gave me pause. "Wait," I said, looking around me, bewildered. "How did you know that? Are you here right now?"

He was laughing into the receiver. I could hear his laugh in the cafeteria too, buried underneath the roar of voices, but from where, I couldn't tell exactly. "Look by the fountain."

Looking toward the fountain in the middle of the cafeteria, I found Butch, sitting at an empty table, leaning back against the tabletop with one elbow. He waved with one hand and hung up the phone with his other, smiling big.

Smiling back like an idiot, I came over to him. Stopping in front of his table as he stood to greet me, I shook my head, still cheesing hard. "How'd you even know I was here?" I scrunched my nose up jokingly. "Maybe I should get a restraining order."

Ignoring that last part, he shrugged. "I knew you'd be here looking for something to eat," he said simply. He kissed my forehead, his stubble brushing against my skin pleasantly. "Since you surprised me yesterday, I owed you a visit." He reached a hand toward my plate, acting like he was going to grab my food.

I yanked it away from his reach. "Don't even think about it," I warned.

We sat down at the table, my legs stretched across his lap on the bench we shared, and I scarfed down my burrito as we talked. The video chat we'd had the night before weighed heavily between us even though we didn't speak a word of it. If anything, it had just made the tension between us thicker instead of easing it. I saw the way he was looking at me, swallowing hard, looking down at my legs as he held them so they'd stay on his lap. How was it that we hadn't been able to be alone—alone alone—for a whole week? I was going crazy. And from the looks of things, he was too.

I had an entire hour before my next class, and Blossom's back-to-back packed schedule didn't allow her to come back to the dorm during the day. Now was the perfect time.

After finishing my burrito, I also finished off my orange juice and then leaned toward him. "Come up to my room," I said, looking at him more calmly than I actually felt.

He jolted, like he hadn't been expecting me to say that at all. His eyebrows rose. "Do we…have time?" He swallowed hard again, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. Ugh. I wanted to kiss and bite it.

"If we hurry." I took my legs back from his lap and stood up from the table. "If we run there, we'll have a whole hour."

Butch stood too, hesitatingly. "I have a class soon," he said, though not enthusiastically. "I don't know if…" he trailed off, putting his hands in the back pockets of his jeans.

I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling him to me. I looked up at him with half-lidded eyes. "Skip it," I told him. I traced a finger slowly down his chest.

A moment went by as Butch watched my finger drag down his chest with dark, lidded eyes, and then he reached back to unlock my arms from around him. Looking like for a moment he was going to say no, wickedness suddenly glinted in his eyes as a grin burst onto his face and he said, "Race you!" And then took off running in the direction of my dorm building.

Thrown off, I watched him retreat for a second and then laughed, chasing after him shouting, "You got a head start! Screw you, cheater!"

Both of us made it to my dorm room's door at the same time, not the least bit breathless even though we had been at nearly a full run, and he waited, his hands squeezing my waist as I quickly fished out my room key from my pocket. I unlocked the door, flinging open the door and throwing my backpack off of me and out of the way.

He grabbed my face, kissing me hungrily before I could even get the door closed behind us. I found it blindly and swung it closed, clumsily locking it before Butch slammed me against it and pressed me into it with his body. His body felt so good against me, so solid and heavy and warm, and I needed more.

He threw off my beanie with one hand and then tangled his other hand into my unruly, air-dried hair. I tugged up the bottom of his black Pink Floyd shirt and broke our lips apart briefly to yank it over his head, and I pawed at his bare skin roughly as he peeled back my jacket and tossed it aside. Just as he was pulling off my shirt, however, the sudden noise of my phone going off interrupted us momentarily. After pausing for a second, he pulled my shirt off anyway. My phone went off again.

I started to reach for my phone in my pocket as Butch began kissing my neck, and I struggled to pull it free from my tight jeans.

Butch groaned against my neck as it went off again. "Just ignore it," he mumbled.

Successfully getting it out, I glanced at the screen. "It's my Hotline app," I said.

He sucked my collarbone languorously, his teeth scraping against my skin. The sensation felt straight up sinful and it tempted me to throw my cell onto the wood floor and forget about the stupid app. "Who cares," he muttered.

I sighed, standing my ground and forcing myself to remember my priorities. "It's probably important." I opened the notification and read what the alert said, my eyes widened, and then said, "Shit, Butch. Look at this."

Finally, in a daze, he lifted his face from my neck, and I showed him what the alert said. 'Emergency alert: Creature attacking Townsville Plaza Shopping Centre'. I shoved out of his grasp, pulling my shirt on again. Then, bending down to retrieve his shirt from the floor, I handed it to him. He took it grudgingly.

I shrugged at him. For me, anticipation for the oncoming battle took over any disappointment I had about sexy time being interrupted. In order of importance to me: 1. Fighting 2. Basic physical needs with the boyfriend. I grinned at him as he put his shirt back on, putting my phone away and barely containing my excitement as I said, "We'll continue this later. Time to go kick some ass."

#

As soon as we reached the front lawn of my dorm building, the both of us took off into the air at breakneck speeds, a burning, nuclear green following our path.

The Townsville Plaza wasn't too far away from my school, merely blocks away, and we reached it in seconds. Being as far up in the sky as we were, we could see every bit of the commotion from above. Shoppers were screaming, ducking into shops, speeding away from the area in their cars. We hadn't caught sight of the monster yet, though.

"Where the hell is this thing?" Butch asked. "It hasn't left, right?"

"I don't know. Let's go in," I told him, and after he directed a nod at me, we dropped to the ground, landing lightly on our feet. We were now standing directly in the middle of the Plaza.

It was Townsville's sole high end shopping center, with fancy stores like Chanel, Gucci, and Marc Jacobs. Only Townsville's wealthiest shopped here, as evidenced by the Mercedes, Porsches and BMWs and such in the parking lot. And right then, there was a shit load of rich people running for their lives.

It was hard to tell which direction they were running from, because they were running everywhere— running into us, running into each other, tripping and falling and ducking for cover. WHAM. The both of us jumped as a door flung off of the Jimmy Choo store, the front windows shattering as the detached door flew across the plaza. People ducked away from it, the unruly crowd collectively running from that particular area.

And from the gaping hole crawled out the creature.

It was smaller than I'd been expecting, but still pretty big—it was hunched over on all four, spindly legs, and completely white in color, even slightly translucent. Its veins were visible through its white skin and it was gaunt looking, with all of its bones straining against its skin grotesquely. Even hunched over, it looked about seven feet tall. And it was gross, even by my standards. Its front legs were actually more like arms—it was walking on its knuckles like an ape. It had a humanlike head, two minute black dots for eyes that were right over its joker-like, grinning fanged mouth that stretched up the sides of its head to the top. Black liquid dripped from its fangs, and some kind of weird symbol was branded on the skin near the top of its forehead—three circles squished together that overlapped in the middle.

"Holy shit," Butch said, staring ahead at it, looking mildly horrified.

"Looks like there's our guy," I grimaced at it too. "Or thing. Super fucking ugly thing."

It tipped its head back as if sniffing the air, then abruptly, looked directly at us. Neither of us moved. It slowly tipped its head to the side as if it recognized us. Then very slowly, it stood up on its hind legs to its full height, bracing its arms at its sides as if it were human. Ribs stuck out in its torso sickly. Stretched up at full height, it was at least nine or ten feet tall.

I stared back at it, unsettled. "It's as if it knows we came here to fight it," I told Butch.

At the sound of my voice, the creature recoiled, threw its head back, opened its jaws, and let out a wail like I'd never heard before—like ten human screams put together with the sound of a radio stuck between stations.

I'd taken a step backward at the sound. What was this thing? I narrowed my eyes at it challengingly as I said to Butch under my breath, "Do you think this thing can fly?"

"Doubt it," he said in a low voice back to me, eyeing it. "No wings. Its eyes look bad, too. Maybe it senses heat to see," he paused. "Maybe that's why it picked us out of the crowd. Our body temperatures. It knows we're not human."

Amazed at his reasoning just then, I nodded slowly. That had actually made sense. That was Butch though—he had the mind of a warrior. His amazing ability to pick apart an opponent was like no one else's. Back when we were enemies, I'd hated that about him. Now it was one of the things I loved the most. "Let's hope you're right," I said to him. I still didn't take my eyes off of the creature, just in case it moved towards us. I didn't want to be caught off guard. "We'll attack from both sides. Keep it distracted while the other attacks from behind."

"Got it," he said. "Count of three."

"One," I said, bracing my legs to take off.

"Two." He did the same.

Adrenaline was already pulsing through my body like fire in my veins, my hands shaking with anticipation. It felt so good. I clenched them into fists, smiling. God, I'd missed this feeling. Taking a deep breath, my legs coiling for the jump, I shouted, "Three!"

We burst into the air at the same time that it fell forward on its front legs again, galloping directly at us. It charged through the space that we'd previously occupied, its head whipping around in alarm as it realized we weren't standing there anymore, searching for us.

I went first, barreling down from the air straight into its back with both of my fists. As my fists collided, it shrieked, and I drew my hands back with a hiss. Its skin was cold, ice cold. It began to turn around to face me, and as I aimed a kick to the back of its neck, I leaped over its head. It screamed again.

From above, Butch aimed his heat vision at the middle of its back, allowing me to fly up into the air again as the thing turned again, looking for him.

I flew in front of it, aiming heat vision directly at its feet to get its attention. It whipped its head back to face me, its beady little eyes on me as it jumped away from the heat, its jaws snapping at me.

"Oh, did that make you mad? Poor little baby," I taunted. I aimed another shot of heat at its front foot, and it made a pained squeal and then bristled.

While its attention was on me, Butch came down at it, kicking his feet repeatedly into its back. It roared in rage, reared up on its arms and kicked back at him with both of its back feet, successfully hitting Butch square in the torso. He flew backward into the nearest store and through the glass display window.

I cried out in momentary fear that I couldn't help. "Butch!" I swiveled back to the creature, something within me lighting up in flames. Seeing the thing starting to follow after where he had landed, I launched after it. Coming up behind it and wrapping both hands around its skinny, frail neck, I squeezed hard. "Not my boyfriend, you ugly bastard." I said, spinning around and flinging it as hard as I could across the square. Thankfully, no one was in its way—the square had cleared out by now, and it looked like we were the only ones there.

It hurled against the Coach store, landing against the sign and then falling down onto the brick ground with a heavy thud. The 'O' from the sign fell of the building and landed around its neck, and it struggled to get it off, shimmying and whipping its head from side to side. I took that moment to run over to Butch. "Are you good? Any injuries?" I asked him, climbing through the broken window to help him up.

Looking pissed, he took my hand, standing up and rubbing his head. "Yeah, I'm good. That little shit is feisty, isn't it?" He nodded toward the window with a slightly angry looking grin, showing me he really was okay. I breathed out in relief. He said, "Come on, let's go take this thing down."

I smiled back wickedly.

Together we flew back outside as soon as the thing was starting to stand back up on its hind legs, at its full nine foot height once again. Not wasting any time, we attacked.

Butch swung with a punch to its face, I came at it with a kick to the knee. The bone in its leg gave with a snap, and it wailed, crumpling to the ground and throwing an arm back to smack me away.

I ducked from the arm just as Butch punched it again in the back of its neck. I kicked it hard in the torso and I heard a couple of its ribs break.

Screaming again—weaker and deep throated, like a man's scream—it leaned down and caught my shoulder between its jaws, sinking its fangs into my flesh. I cried out as it turned its head sharply and chucked me away with its mouth, and I sailed through the air and thunked hard against the steel statue that stood in the middle of the Plaza. Behind the loud clang that resounded as I left a dent in the steel, I heard Butch shout my name.

Landing on the cold hard brick ground, the wind knocked out of me, I immediately grasped my arm under where the fangs had gone into me. A tiny amount of blood was coming out, mixing on my shirt with the black goop that had coated the thing's teeth. "Fuck," I said, hissing through my teeth. I felt it throbbing fast, though, which meant it was healing.

Jumping back up on my feet and turning, I saw Butch staving off the thing by blocking it with a green energy shield. I came soaring back, flinging myself at the monster, throwing a flying uppercut punch to its jaw. A crunch resounded, and it flew backward, just missing hitting Butch as he scrambled out of the way. It crashed into another storefront, the front windows breaking and broken glass raining down on it. "That's for leaving nasty monster drool all over my favorite shirt, asswipe!" I shouted at it.

"How bad?" Butch came to my side immediately, drawing aside the collar of my shirt to look at my wound.

I glanced down at it too. The tiny needlepoints had already healed up, thanks to the Chemical X in my bloodstream that clogged up the shallow stab marks. New, pink skin was covering where there were bleeding wounds seconds earlier. I pulled my shirt collar up to cover it again. "I'm all right." I looked toward the monster, and I saw that it was getting back up. It stood up again, on both hind legs once more, although it was limping. I frowned. "That's not right," I said, shaking my head. "No. I broke its leg. It shouldn't be standing like that."

Butch was frowning, too. "Looks like it's healing, too." He braced himself, preparing to take off again. "Break it again. I'll help you break the other ones. That's the only way to get it to stop running and standing."

I nodded at him, and we were off. I came at its leg with all my strength again, aiming a flying kick at it with all of my body weight. At the same time, Butch took one of its arms and drove his elbow through it, not just snapping it in half but breaking it off of its body. Black liquid sprayed everywhere. Crumbling to the ground once again, the creature let out the loudest scream yet, this one sounding like a female human, and it rung out throughout the neighborhood with an echo so great that the whole town had to have heard it.

I came at the other leg. Following Butch's lead, I kicked down at the thigh bone with my foot, heard it crunch, then yanked the limb up as hard as I could with my hands. It came off, and black goop gushed from the wound, flooding all over my favorite sneakers. In one quick movement, I ripped off the leg that I'd just broken again. Another ear-shattering scream.

While it was distracted, Butch went for the last limb, arms flexing as he tore it off with his bare hands, more black liquid pouring out of the exit wound like a fountain.

The creature began to make wheezing sounds, screaming between them weakly. This time, most disturbingly, it sounded like a child screaming.

"Let's shut this thing up," Butch said, and he began rubbing his hands together hard and fast—smoke rose up from them. Since I had that ability too, I knew what that meant, and immediately I backed away, flying up into the air just as he lifted up as well. I joined in, rubbing my hands together, feeling the heat building quickly as they began to smoke. Between his rubbing hands grew an atomic green ball of fire that stung my retinas to look at, and feeling the energy and heat in my body build and surge down through my arms, soon an orb of green fire formed between my hands, too, searing against my skin. With a war cry, Butch hurled the ball down at the creature the same time that I chucked mine, and BOOM.

I closed my eyes and shielded my face with my hands from the powerful emerald explosion as the aftershock flew past me and shattered every window within a 15 foot radius.

The noise died down. Dropping my arms, I opened my eyes and looked at the charred, limbless creature. It twitched, threw its head back with one last static noise, and then the noise cut off as black goop bubbled out of its throat. Then it stopped in that position, rigid, never moving again.

Landing on the ground, we turned to each other. We were both filthy. Our clothes were full of holes, and we were covered in that black goop that had a chemical, acidic smell to it. Holding his hands up in the air, requesting double high fives, Butch said, "Nice going, partner in crime."

Taking a moment to laugh at the irony of him saying that, I stood up on my tip toes to slap him five with both hands, smirking at him. "You know, I know we've done this before, but we should fight together more often. At least once a week. We kick ass." Plus, it had done wonders for my stress. I felt so much better now.

"Hell yeah, we do." Butch glanced around us, looking at the mess. Abandoned shopping bags, broken glass, and black goop were everywhere. "I'm still not that used to crime fighting. What do we do now? Are we supposed to uh…I don't know…clean up?" He didn't look excited at all by that idea.

Laughing again, I elbowed him in the ribs. "Don't worry, that's not our job. Mayor sends cleanup crews to take care of that. Besides, the news stations are gonna want footage of all the damage. They'll probably show up soon." I took his grimy hand in my grimy hand. "Let's just get the hell out of here and have dirty post-battle, class-skipping sex."

He smiled down at me goofily, as giddy as I was from our post-fighting high. "That's my girl," he said.

I got on my tip toes again to plant a kiss on his lips, and then we both flew back to my campus, waving down at all of the grateful citizens below who thanked us and cheered at us.

Then we locked ourselves in my dorm room and finished what we'd started earlier, not even caring that we were still all grubby…and, by the way?

It was totally worth waiting a whole week.

-Blossom's POV-

"At full height, the creature was about nine and a half feet tall. It had gone through 3 different shops before the Powerpuff-Rowdyruff pair had shown up, but thankfully, aside from some minor injuries, most shop patrons were unharmed. Eyewitnesses say that it was as if the monster had materialized into the Plaza out of thin air, though that detail hasn't been officially confirmed. This incident comes right on the heels of the spider monster that attacked downtown Townsville just this Sunday."

Tuesday afternoon, during my visit back home, Professor and I watched the television as the news reporter recited these words with nearly no emotion on her face, though she may have been going for the 'serious' look. She stood among the damage at the Townsville Plaza, surrounded by glass and some black stuff all over the ground. They had already hauled away the charred remains of the monster away to dispose of it, which they had shown on camera. I'd thought that was in pretty bad taste, but that was the media for you.

"Townsville police are investigating the separate cases, and they say there is not enough evidence yet that they might be related in any way. It has been years since any monsters have plagued the city of Townsville. Since the Powerpuff Girls and the Rowdyruff Boys teamed together two years ago to protect the town, crime has decreased tenfold."

Amused, I chuckled. "'Teamed together'? Is that only what they've been calling it in the media?"

"I think the news stations leave the dating rumors to gossip magazines," Professor said, shooting me a dry look and turning up the TV. I laughed again.

"Many wonder where this new resurgence of monsters has come from, and what it might mean for everyone who lives here. We reached out to local renowned scientist Professor Utonium with some questions, and he refused to provide comment."

I glanced over at my dad, eyebrows raised. I imitated the reporter's voice. "'Refused to provide comment'? How come you didn't respond, Professor?"

Professor sighed and rolled his eyes. "Typical media. Always contacting me for things like this. Just because I'm a scientist it doesn't mean I know exactly what's going on either," he muttered. Sitting forward on his spot on the couch, though, he stared at the television again as they rolled footage taken of the battle from an eyewitness's cell phone. He adjusted his bifocal glasses, frowning. "Although, it's peculiar…"

I froze, the cookie in my hand stopping halfway to my mouth. I blinked at him. "What is?"

He continued. "That black liquid…the viscosity, the opacity…if I didn't know better, I'd think that it was…" he trailed off again, his frown making the lines on his face deeper.

I put my cookie down on my plate. "Professor, what is it?"

Professor paused, silent for a few more moments, and then he shook his head at himself. "No, it couldn't be Chemical X. It looks so much like it, and that creature has some of the physical characteristics of an experiment made from Chemical X, but that would be impossible."

"Why would it impossible?" I asked.

"Because I'm the only person in possession of Chemical X, and it's locked up in my safe downstairs. Remember, Mayor declared it illegal for ordinary citizens to own any Chemical X years ago." He picked up his mug of tea, sitting back on the couch again. "Well, except for that small sample I donated to be on display in the Townsville Science Museum fourteen years ago. But it's under high security."

I nodded then, frowning too. "Yeah. You're right, that would be impossible."

Professor shrugged, then took a sip of his tea. "Anyway, have you talked to Buttercup? Is she doing okay? That fight seemed brutal." He paused with a look of distaste. "And Butch…is he okay, too?"

I snorted at his poorly veiled dislike. He had recently found out that Butch and Buttercup were sexually active, and he was not the biggest fan of him at the moment. "I called her as soon as I found out about what happened. She didn't answer the phone, but about an hour ago, she texted me and said they were fine." She'd also nearly given me a heart attack when she hadn't answered her phone, but that was beside the point. All was well now, anyway.

"Well that's…that's good. I'm glad they're okay." Professor picked up the remote control, changing the channel. "Let's watch something else now, shall we? I've had enough of this." He changed it to a sitcom with a cute little girl dancing around in a poofy dress. She pranced around, bragging about how cute she looked. He cooed in that way that all parents do over little kids. "I remember when you and your sisters were that age. So adorable. I miss those days sometimes."

Finishing off my cookie and brushing my hands together, I grinned over at him sideways and said jokingly, "You probably won't have to wait too much longer for grandchildren. My bet is on Bubbles to have them first." Then I laughed. "Buttercup would be last for sure."

Professor chuckled, and then with a completely offhand tone that threw me off, he said, "Yes, well. That would be nice and all. It's really a shame that all of you are sterile."

I stopped, my blood running cold, freezing to ice inside of my veins. It felt like my heart had dropped into my stomach. I stared over at him in shock, watching his face. "Wait…" I paused for a long time. "Are you being serious?"

He looked back over at me, seemingly surprised at my confusion. "Was what I just said serious, you mean? Yes. I was being perfectly serious." Looking closer at the look on my face, though, he turned to face me, his dark eyebrows forming a line. "You knew that, didn't you sweetheart?"

I blinked at him. For some reason, my stomach was full of a sourness that I couldn't explain. "No," I said. "I didn't."

Professor set his tea down on the coffee table, looking a bit guilty. "I'm sorry. I thought you and your sisters understood that long ago. It wouldn't be…it wouldn't be possible for you to reproduce. I didn't design you girls to have that capability." He pressed his lips together. "Even though you have the ability to menstruate, your bodies are too hostile of an environment to carry life. And that would be if you could even produce offspring with another person at all, human or not. Procreating with a human would definitely be impossible, since you're of a different species altogether."

I was quiet for a few long seconds during his explanation, and then I turned to face the TV again, setting my empty cookie plate onto the table, too. I asked him in a quiet voice, "Could we change the subject, please?"

He smiled a staid smile back at me, guilt plain on his face now. "Sure."

I spent the rest of the afternoon at home, but the good mood between the two of us was spoiled. I wasn't sure why learning of that fact about my sisters and I had made me feel so uneasy, but it had. It felt like I should have known about that already, or guessed at it at least, but I hadn't.

When I went back to campus, attended my evening class of the day, spent some time studying in the library, and then went back to my dorm room, it was still weighing heavily on my mind. I didn't breathe a word of it to Buttercup, even when she had asked about my visit with Professor. I didn't know why.

I didn't know if Buttercup would even care about it as much as I did. Maybe she wouldn't care. She didn't even like babies very much. She thought they were gross and noisy. So why did I keep it to myself?

Maybe it was the lack of possibility that felt haunting to me. I knew that there were some human experiences that we couldn't have, but I guess I'd never thought that much about it. 'Too hostile of an environment to carry life.' I'd never really thought about having kids in the future with Brick, because I was way too young for that, but having the knowledge now that we never would was a huge blow, and it stung more fiercely than I could have ever imagined.

I went to sleep that night with the sick feeling still in my stomach.

Stay tuned for the next chapter!

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-MsButterFingers