Chapter 9. It's still the same day as the last chapter but it starts later in the morning.
Also, sorry for taking such a long time to upload. I had to cover my co-worker's shift at work as well as my own so I've had very little time to actually write.
November 12, 730 am.
After getting out of bed, cleaned up, and dressed, the girls are sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast when Bubbles asks Blossom what they're learning in school today.
"Hey Blossom, what's Ms. Keane teaching in class today? I forgot."
"We're going to learn the basics of multiplication." Blossom replied.
Buttercup nearly choked on the glass of milk she was drinking from upon hearing that. "Math? Aw man, I hate math."
Blossom rolled her eyes. "Buttercup, you need to go to school to learn new things. Learning new things is what keeps your brain healthy and your mind fresh."
Buttercup looked at Blossom with a raised eyebrow and said, "'It keeps your brain healthy and your mind fresh?' Blossom, how can school be that good for you if you just repeated yourself?"
"No wait Buttercup. I'm pretty sure the brain and the mind are two different things...right Blossom?" Asked Bubbles, although now that she said that sentence out loud, she wasn't so sure anymore.
"Hmmmmm, well, yes and no. It really depends on who you ask and what they believe." Blossom sighed. "Ok, this is going to be a little difficult to put into words on the account that this is a metaphysical concept, but I'll do my best. The brain is the big, gelatinous, blob of grey goo inside your head. It's what allows us to speak, decipher things, read, understand logic, motor skills, controls how the body works, etc. Basically everything we need to be functional, to be alive. That's what it is physically anyway. The mind is...well, uh...it's what makes you, you. Your personality, your memories to an extent, your willpower, and I believe your imagination and creativity as well. Some people even believe it's what houses' your soul. So, in order to keep your mind fresh, and by extent, what makes you who you are, you need to stimulate your brain with new information every now and then."
Buttercup blinked at what Blossom said and thought about it. As much as she hated to admit it, her sister had a point. She never thought about it like that before but one more question popped up in her head.
"Well, if our brains need new information, as you say, 'every now and then', then why do we have to go to school for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week?"
"Because, our brains develop the most between the ages of 2 to the early to mid 20s I believe. The more you learn between those ages, the better off you'll be."
"Oh." Was all both Bubbles and Buttercup could say to that.
"Girls, I know you can fly to school in less than 5 seconds if you need to but do keep an eye on the time." The Professor said suddenly from the living room.
The girls looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it said 7:53.
"Whoops, you're right Professor, thank you. Come on girls." Blossom said quickly and all three of them took off toward school.
A minute later, just as they had reached the school, Buttercup noticed a pillar of smoke out in the woods and pointed to it. "Whoa, look at that. There's something burning out in the woods."
Blossom and Bubbles both turn and notice it as well.
"Hey yeah, you're right Buttercup. I wonder what's burning." Said Blossom.
"Uh, the woods." Replied Buttercup in a smart alec tone of voice.
Blossom gave Buttercup a flat look that clearly said, 'hahaha, very funny.' But before Blossom could verbally say something, Bubbles said, "Oh no, all the animals are losing their homes."
Buttercup groaned softly, "Ugh, again with the animals." Then said louder, "Look Bubbles, if it'll make you feel better, why don't we just fly out there and quickly put it out ourselves, sound good?"
Bubbles nodded happily but before she and Buttercup could take off, Blossom stopped them. "Hold it girls, it looks like the fire's already petering out. That's not a very strong smoke column."
Buttercup glanced at the column of smoke again before turning back toward Blossom and saying, "Maybe it just started."
Blossom shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Even if it did just start, it would look better than that."
Bubbles looked worried still, and noticing this, Blossom added, "That said, we'll keep an eye on it for the next few minutes. If it turns into a billowing cloud of smoke, we'll head out there immediately."
Bubbles visibly relaxed hearing that and smiled, saying, "Thanks Blossom."
Blossom smiled back. "You're welcome. Now come on, let's get inside."
900 am
At Fuzzy's cabin, the boys are still sleeping after playing that bungee-jump-target-practice game that Brick came up with all afternoon and into the early evening. Incredibly, the vine survived the entire game and the only reason they stopped was because it was getting too dark and they were having trouble seeing the targets on the ground and the rocks thrown off the top off the cliff. After they got back that night, they were amazed that they could have so much fun without causing wanton destruction or picking fights, but they weren't sure yet if it was just a one time thing.
Brick wakes up first, stretching to rid himself of a few kinks in his body and yawns. Looking over towards his brothers, who are still sleeping; Butch on an old tire and Boomer on the couch, he has to crack a half smile.
"I still can't believe we had that much fun doing something that simple." He said to himself. "But, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. It was my idea after all." He finished with a cocky grin. Brick then clapped his hands loudly and yelled, "Alright boys, wake up!"
Butch quickly snapped up and looked in every direction, saying, "Who, what, when, where, why?"
Boomer jerked awake as well, saying, "Whoa, what the-ahhhh!" *THUD* Before he rolled off the couch in surprise and hit the floor. "Ow."
Brick and Butch both laughed at that.
While Boomer was picking himself off of the floor, Butch turned toward Brick and asked, "Dude, why'd you wake us up? I was having this awesome dream where the entire city was made out of candy and we were eating it."
Brick looked at Butch with a raised eyebrow before snickering. "You were dreaming that the city was made of candy? That is the most random thing I've heard out of you yet Butch."
Even Boomer looked over at Butch with a stunned look and said, "Yeah, even I've never had a dream that weird. Are you starting to lose your mind for real?"
Butch scoffed. "Alright, shut up, I don't care what you two say, I was enjoying it." Butch turned back to Brick. "So why did you wake us up Brick?"
"We need to figure out what we're going to do today."
Butch gave Brick a flat look before saying, "You had to wake us up for that?"
"Oh, well, I'm so sorry for wanting your input before making a group decision." Brick said sarcastically.
Butch growled as a response, but before there was an argument, Boomer said, "Well, whatever we end up doing today Brick, can the video arcade be part of it? It's been a while since we've been there."
Brick turned to Boomer with a smirk and said, "Hey yeah, you're right, it has been a while since we've been there hasn't it? Sure, we can do that."
"Sweet!" Boomer said happily.
Butch rolled his eyes and responded, "Pfffffttttt, yeah whatever, what about the rest of the day, huh? The video arcade has NEVER occupied an entire day for us Brick."
Brick rubbed his chin in thought for a moment before saying, "Well, we'll obviously get a bite to eat, maybe we can mess around with a few people, i.e. pull a few pranks, without causing destruction of course. We'll play it by ear Butch, we have padded out entire days just doing that before."
Butch just shrugged as a response and said, "Alright, fine, let's go."
The boys fly out of the cabin and get above the trees. Just before they take off toward the city however, Boomer spots some smoke a couple miles away.
"Hey guys, look. Something's burning over there."
Brick and Butch look at Boomer, then in the direction he's pointing and notice the smoke themselves.
"Hey yeah, he's right. What do you think caught on fire?" Asked Butch.
"Beats me," responded Brick, "let's head over there and find out."
They're a few hundred yards away from the site when they notice police officers everywhere and Brick holds out his arms to stop his brothers.
"Whoa, that's a lot of cops." He then looks down at the tree tops and decides they would be better off if they weren't noticed. "Alright, listen up, we don't want them to see us so we're going to hide in the tree tops and listen in on what they're saying."
"Wait, why do we have to hide Brick? We didn't do anything." Said Boomer.
Brick sighed. "I know that, but they don't, and I doubt they have any reason to believe anything we have to say anyway, so we're hiding. Got it?"
Boomer nodded. "Yeah, ok."
Butch rolled his eyes. "Sure, whatever."
After the boys sneak into the trees and get closer to the perimeter, they see that the burnt remains appeared to be a warehouse of some sort. Wondering what started the fire, the boys then use their super hearing to see if they can pick up any information from the officers talking on the ground. Most of what they overhear however isn't anything of particular interest. Conversations ranged from forensic work to the amount of paper work they would have to fill out back at the station to making jokes about how the rest of the day would be a breeze now since the day started with a raging inferno.
Butch growled quietly and said, "Ok, we've obviously missed the interesting parts of what's happened here. They're mostly just talking about what they're going to do the rest of the day now."
Boomer nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think they only way we'll find out what caused the fire at this point is if we fly down there and ask one of them."
"Yeah, I think you're right Boomer," said Brick, "but we're obviously not going to do that. As far as we know, they'll try and pin it on us since we do live out here." Boomer and Butch both nodded in agreement on that. Brick then said, "Anyway, let's just head into the city now."
But just as the boys were about to take off, their super hearing finally picked up an interesting conversation.
"Perez, it must have been the Ruffs you saw dart across the highway, they do live out here."
This made the boys pause and they looked down at a small group of officers at the base of the tree they were hiding in.
"Frank, whatever Clark and I saw, it did leave an energy trail like the Puffs and the Ruffs do when they fly, but I'm telling you it wasn't any of them. It was something else."
"Well, what else could it have been? The six of them are the only ones who leave an energy trail in their wake, right?"
"Yes, you're right, but none of them leave a violet energy trail. The girls' energy trails are light blue, pink, and light green, while the boys' are dark blue, red, and dark green."
"Well, maybe the boys were flying close together and their color trails combined or something."
Perez shook his head. "Frank, we've all seen the girls fly around the city like that and their color streaks never combined to make a new color. Even when they've done a combination attack where they quickly fly around one another, their colors never merge. You can still pick out their individual colors. Also, on top of all of that, when their energy trails disappear, they disappear cleanly, same with the boys. This violet one dissipated into light particles that fell to the ground like snow."
The group of officers looked back and forth between one another, obviously troubled by what Perez said.
"You know Perez, now that I think about it, you're right. The girls' color streaks have never merged together into a new color and their streaks do disappear cleanly." Stated Frank. "But then what did you and Clark see?"
Perez shook his head. "I'm not sure. When we get back to the station, we can look through the dash-cam footage for it because I know we had it on when it happened."
All the officers nodded in agreement on that, then walked back over to their vehicles.
As they left, the boys exchanged glances.
"A violet energy trail...that falls to the ground like snow?" Asked Butch.
"Yeah, that is weird." Said Brick while rubbing his chin in thought.
"Violet? Isn't that like a shade of...purple, or something?" Asked Boomer.
Brick glanced at Boomer and nodded. "Yeah, it is. It's a bright shade of purple. Sometimes, you can call a mixture of purple and white violet as well."
The boys look back at the burned warehouse for a moment, then Butch said, "So, whatever they saw, more than likely is what caused the fire?"
"It seems that way, yeah." Responded Brick. After thinking it over for a few moments, Brick shakes his head and says, "But we aren't going to find out what it was anyway, since they did say they would have to look at the dash-cam back at the police station."
"Yeah, and I don't think we can just float in and ask about it." Said Butch.
Brick smirked. "True that. Alright, let's get out of here."
And with that, the boys leave the area, quietly, before rocketing off towards the city.
100 pm.
Professor Utonium was working down in his lab when the phone rang. He walked over to the phone, picked it up, and said, "Utonium residence."
"Professor, this is the chief of police." The voice answered back.
The Professor's eyes widened in surprise and said, "Oh, good morning sir. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
The chief gives a heavy sigh and the Professor asks, "Is everything ok sir? You sound troubled."
"Honestly, no, I'm not ok. Do you recall a couple days ago, the recording that Dick Hardly left for the kids to see?"
The Professor sucked in a breath and said, "Yes, I do. Why?"
"You may want to come down to the precinct and look at a few things."
The Professor closed his eyes in worry and supported himself on the lab table before saying, "Alright, I'm on my way right now. I'll be there shortly."
315 pm.
The boys were currently laughing their butts off on the roof of Malph's shopping center after playing a joke on some poor shopper by picking up his car and moving it 20ft away to a different parking space. What made the simple prank so funny to them wasn't the fact that they moved the car, but the shopper's reaction. He spent almost a full 2 minutes looking for his vehicle before he finally found it and wondered how it got moved. Fortunately, they were able to hold in the laughter until after the shopper left, otherwise, they may have gotten into a little trouble with the police and maybe even the girls which would be a problem, since they did call a cease fire which did include causing zero trouble of any kind. But they burst out laughing as soon as he was out of earshot.
"Did-did you see the look on his face when he finally found it?" Boomer choked out.
"Forget that Boomer. How about his thought process? You could clearly see his thought process play out in his expressions; from the moment he realized it was gone, to looking all around for it, to finally locating it and having this strange combination of relief and 'how the hell did it get over there?'" Said Butch who had stopped laughing but was holding his sides.
Brick wiped away a tear from laughing so hard. "Oh man, that was great. Whew!" Brick took a moment to compose himself before saying, "Alright, let's go get a bite to eat boys."
"Where are we heading?" Asked Butch.
"That burger joint on the pier." Said Brick.
"Aw, sweet! I love that place." Said Boomer.
The boys fly toward the burger joint on the pier but just before they arrived, Butch noticed something familiar on top of a nearby building.
"What the...hey guys, isn't that one of the robots that Mojo had with him when he was robbing the Mint?"
Brick and Boomer stopped and looked back at Butch who was pointing down at the top of a building. Upon looking for themselves, they immediately recognized the AA drone.
"Hey yeah Butch, you're right. It is one of those things." Said Boomer.
"Huh, that's weird. You'd think the police and the girls themselves would've cleaned them all up by now." Said Brick.
"Maybe they just missed it." Said Boomer.
The boys fly down to the drone to get a closer look.
"You guys think it still works?" Butch asked.
Brick just shrugged his shoulders but Boomer floated up to the drone and knocked on it a couple of times. The drone then suddenly made a few deep beeping sounds and began powering up. It began twitching as its mechanical limbs started to spasm, its eyes then lit up a deep red and, after noticing Boomer, focused on him. Since it's last functioning memory was fighting the PowerPuff Girls, the drone made a snap decision that Boomer looked like Bubbles and aimed its laser cannon right at him.
"Whoa!" Yelled Brick.
"Yikes!" Yelled Butch.
The drone charged up its cannon and fired. Boomer barely had enough time to fire his own energy blast at the drone itself before the two attacks met in midair at point-blank range and detonated.
Meanwhile, on street level, the girls were at a street market buying some food for dinner tonight and had just finished up.
"Alright girls, ready to head back?" Asked Blossom.
"Yeah, I'm set." Said Buttercup.
"Ditto." Said Bubbles.
Suddenly, there was an explosion on top of a nearby building and everybody on street level ducked at the loud sound and several people began running away.
"Whoa, what the heck?! What happened?!" Asked Buttercup.
"I'm not sure but let's check it out." Blossom responded.
The girls flew up to the top of the building and looked around for a moment before Bubbles saw the remains of one of the AA drones that Mojo used in the Mint robbery.
"Hey girls, look. It's one of the drones that Mojo had."
Blossom and Buttercup noticed it as well a moment later.
"What? But I thought we found all of them." Said Blossom.
"Well apparently Blossom, we missed one." Said Buttercup sarcastically.
"Buttercup, this isn't funny. Someone could've been hurt." Blossom replied smartly.
"Why would it blow up now though? It's been a couple of days since the robbery." Said Bubbles.
"That's a good point Bubbles." Said Blossom.
Just then the girls hear a small groan to their right. When they looked over, they were surprised to see who it was. Leaning against a wall, rubbing his head, was Brick.
"Ow. That hurt." He muttered.
Before the girls could make their presence known, Butch suddenly popped up from under some debris and said, "Well, there's something that's never happened to us; one of Mojo's inventions blows up in our face." He said angrily along with a hint of sarcasm.
"Not now Butch." Brick growled. Then added, "And besides, Boomer was the one who blew us up."
Boomer then knocks off part of the drone's steel body that was sitting on top of him and says, "Yeah, after it tried to shoot me, you jerk. Would you have liked it better if it did?"
Brick narrowed his eyes in annoyance and said, "Well, no, but..." Brick's eyes then widen after he noticed the girls, "...oh."
"Uhh, hi boys." Blossom said finally.
Butch flinched when he noticed them and muttered under his breath, "Oh, this will go over well."
Boomer, whose back was to the girls, bent over backwards and said, "Uhh, helloooo-whoa!" Boomer lost his balance and fell down on his back.
Everyone stared wide eyed at Boomer for a moment until Bubbles started giggling and Butch and Brick face palmed in embarrassment.
