Not my best work, but it came to my attention that I hadn't actually added a chapter in a few days so, here you go! :3 Enjoy! And thank you for the reviews!
Chapter 9
After Blade had calmed down, her entire body seemed to be drained. The boys had explained to them that it was something that happened if an effect of her spell didn't go quite as planned, which in this case had happened to a very large extent.
"But what happened?" Buttercup demanded to the boys as Boomer put a damp cloth on Blade's head, allowing her the space to rest.
Brick sighed and shrugged, "whoever this Dark Witch is, they've been closer than we imagined." Brick dug his hands into his pockets, "usually Blade can sense them... but this one's different, much more powerful."
"When you say close?" Bubbles asked awkwardly.
"You heard her," Butch snapped, "this Witch is at the school!"
"That's not close enough," Brick growled back, his eyes flashing a dangerous red towards his brother, signalling for him to back off. It sent chills down Blossom's spine to see him this way. He was obviously worried for the safety of everyone involved in this Witch hunt; "for Blade to have reacted in that way means one thing..." Brick let out a deep breath, looking towards the floor, "someone here has been in contact with this person, brushed up against them... spoken to them. Something."
"That could be anyone!" Blossom tried, sighing in exasperation, "We can't just recall everyone we've walked past in the last forty-eight hours!"
"Everyone female," Boomer noted as he joined his brothers, "The Coven is strictly matriarchal."
Buttercup sighed, rubbing her face, "still, that's a Hell of a lot of people; you don't suppose we could frame it on Princess and get it over with?" Buttercup looked at her sisters who were each giving her very cold stares, she rolled her shoulders and grinned, "it was only a suggestion," she defended.
Boomer looked back to the bed and then to his brothers, "we should probably give her some time..." he suggested.
The two other brothers looked at the sleeping Blade and nodded together, guiding the three sisters out of the room silently.
It was then that Blossom noticed the sagged features on each of the boy's faces. If they could feel her pain, surely they'd also felt the energy drain that Blade had given herself. Her theory only became stronger as she watched the trio yawn together, poorly concealing their lack of energy.
"Maybe we should all get some rest?" Blossom suggested as she looked at Brick unsurely.
Brick gave his brothers a once over, also noticing his own depleted energy.
"Not a bad idea," Butch muttered.
Brick looked back to Blade's closed door, "We can't just-"
"Leave that to us," Blossom smiled, "we'll guard Blade's room, make sure nothing happens."
Blossom was almost positive that Brick's face fell with the knowledge that she wouldn't be by his side during the night, and had to conceal a smile that spread across her face. Bubbles turned to Boomer and they exchanged an awkward hug, unsure of how exactly to attack the situation of their current relationship. Buttercup just rolled her eyes at Butch when he crossed her path, still agitated with the fact that she had no easy outlet for her anger these days, what with the better trained Police in Townsville; they were hardly ever called upon. Buttercup had to make do with punching bags and students at school. Butch didn't even engage Buttercup with eye contact; he instead walked past her like she didn't exist as the trio disappeared downstairs.
Bubbles looked towards Blossom warily, "so how are we gonna do this?"
Blossom shrugged, "do you want to take shifts or...?"
Buttercup grinned, "If we take shifts you'll be able to spend some time with your special-"
"Shut up Buttercup," Blossom growled, pointing an agitated, authorative finger at her sister. Buttercup however, didn't take this as a warning to back down; "Oh please, you really expect me to believe that nothing happened... he went to your room didn't he?"
Blossom felt her face warm up, "that's really none of your business."
"Not even a kiss?" Bubbles asked, her eyes widening as soon as the words passed her lips. "Oh God, I'm sorry!"
Blossom rolled her eyes, "its fine, especially when I can see you're in the same boat."
Bubbles felt her heart plummet, "how did you even-"
"Hugging Boomer?" Blossom teased.
"...Yeah, we're... well we're..."
"Going on a date tomorrow," Buttercup finished for her blonde sister, sticking her tongue out childishly as Bubbles made a weak swipe at her green sibling.
"Okay girls, enough!" Blossom sighed, raising her hands in finality, "this joke's gone on long enough, we need to work out a rota."
"Yeah so you can-"
Blossom quickly pressed the palm of her hand to Buttercup's lips, eyeing her warily as she pulled back slightly, "we kissed." Blossom stated with a slight grin, "that's as far as it got."
Buttercup smirked, nodding her head in approval for what she had heard as Blossom began to talk through the sleeping arrangements for that evening.
By morning, the girls had each taken a shift each. Blossom, who had taken the final shift had felt half compelled to go and see Brick, but from the looks of it, all four siblings were completely wiped out in a way that Blossom began wondering if they would have even woken up for the apocalypse.
When Blossom saw the first of the light shine through from the window on the far hall wall, she decided to look in on Blade. Blade was asleep, completely still on her left side. Her eyes seemed to be doused in more than just black eyeliner as Blossom could still see the bags that seemed quite profound reaching around the bottom of her eyes. Blossom sighed; this probably meant the boys wouldn't be a bundle of laughs this morning either. Instead, she decided to do something more important with her time.
That morning, Blossom dragged Bubbles out of bed, leaving Buttercup to keep watch on the household of sleeping supers. In Blossom's opinion it gave Buttercup the chance to really think over her current relationship with the boys and her other sister. It was obviously something Buttercup had on her mind, Blossom only needed to see the way that Buttercup continually stared at Butch to know that much. She still didn't trust them, but at that point, Blossom just didn't have the time or energy for that kind of behaviour.
And not just because of how well things seemed to be going for her and Brick...
Bubbles and Blossom flew into the centre of Townsville to a small coffee shop where they'd arranged for a very special contact to meet them. They needed somewhere that they could freely chat, and considering it was a Saturday and no one spent their Saturdays awake at 7.00am attempting to wake themselves up, Blossom thought it the perfect place.
"You did say seven right?" Bubbles asked worriedly as she checked her watch a third time in the space of five minutes, "are you sure she got the message?"
Blossom rolled her eyes, "Bubbles, remember, she would have gotten the bus, not everyone can fly."
Bubbles took in a deep breath and rested her head on the table that they had picked at the back of the room, "you're right." She sighed, "She'll be able to see us here though right? We are a little concealed... y'know in the shadow..."
"That's the point," Blossom had to refrain from laughing aloud at her sister's jittery self. Something told her Bubbles still hadn't quite gotten over the news of last night's events.
Then, only moments later did the two sisters look up as they heard the door of the shop open, and a tall, slender female entered the building.
Robin.
She too had filled out in the days since their childhood, growing her brunette locks long past her shoulders in a straightened fashion. Robin simply wore a white blouse and black skirt, a small green beret nesting perfectly on the side of her head in addition. She grinned as soon as she saw the glowing eyes of her long-term friends, the two Powerpuffs she had hung out with since her very first day at Pokey Oak's.
"Hey! Bloss, Bubbles!" Robin grinned as she slid into the seat next to the blonde Powerpuff, "What is it that you need to talk to me about?"
Blossom and Bubbles shared looks of concern before they nodded at one another. Blossom leant in on the table, taking into account the fact that they were currently the only people in the shop except for one very tired person behind the cashier who didn't look up for standing let alone listening in on what they had to say.
"When I tell you what I'm about to tell you..." Blossom whispered, looking to Bubbles once more before she finished, "you have to promise to believe me."
Robin grinned, "of course I will."
Bubbles leant in to her best friend, "really... because what we're going to say will sound crazy."
Robin rolled her eyes, "giant monsters, evil super counterparts, zombies, talking monkeys and Him." Robin looked at her friends seriously folding her arms against the table as she smirked slightly, "Trust me, I can take it."
So, with one deep breath, Blossom explained their situation, allowing Bubbles to add in extra points or things she missed out along the way. Robin stared at the two sisters, at first her face was expressionless, but it slowly seemed to ease into understanding after ten minutes of what look liked extreme shock.
"So... the Rowdyruffs are good now...?" Robin asked.
Blossom nodded her head and Bubbles simply gave her a 'so-so' sign with her hands, shrugging slightly.
"And they're Guardians to that evil extra sister of yours who disappeared... but now she's good and she's also a Witch?"
Blossom smiled, "that's it, you're getting the hang of it!"
Robin swallowed, visibly paling, "so... all the things that go bump in the night, all those myths and stories of monsters and mythical creatures, they're all real..."
"As far as we can tell." Bubbles sighed, placing her right hand on her cheek tiredly, "I want Boomer to tell me more about fairies but I don't want to sound lame."
"It shouldn't," Blossom smiled sympathetically for her sister, seeing the longing she had for knowing more about the realm of impossible creatures, "fairies in most cultures are incredibly intelligent creatures, in fact, in Irish cultures they're even considered quite troublesome."
"There goes Bloss putting on her special intellectual cap," Robin chuckled, patting her pink eyed friend on the head jokingly. Blossom tossed her head to the right, laughing along with Robin before things became serious once more.
"This is where you come in." Blossom said.
"You have to be our eyes and ears," Bubbles added, leaning in to her best friend, staring at her gravely, "Dark Witches are bad news... you have to be on the lookout for any girl at the school who acts strangely."
"Failing that," Blossom sighed, "look for anyone with fangs."
"Fangs?" Robin instantly paled, "why?"
"Vampires aren't the immortally dark romantics like in the movies," Bubbles huffed, rolling her eyes, "Boomer told us they're more like lackeys to the Dark Witches."
"So I gotta look out for any fanged students following around a strange girl in the school..." Robin nodded, winking, "gotcha."
After the long winded conversation, the girls finished their coffees and hiked out of the shop, instantly intriguing themselves with other stores in the area. By the time the girls finally made their farewells, it was just past one in the afternoon, a full five hours later than they had told Buttercup it would take.
The two Powerpuffs flew leisurely home, shopping bags strapped to their arms like bracelets. Bubbles lay on her back, staring at the clouds above her as she revelled in the feel of the warm afternoon breeze gently threading through her hair; "Do you think BC will be mad?" she asked, biting her lip as she thought of Buttercup's venomous gaze.
Blossom sighed, "If the guys are awake, it would be Buttercup's choice to stick around, she could have come into town and found us." Blossom reasoned, silently worrying whether there would be Hell to pay back home.
When the girls arrived home, they weren't in the least bit shocked to see a very angry Buttercup standing on the front porch, glaring at her sisters as if they'd committed some kind of felony.
"You said one hour!" Buttercup growled, instantly appearing by her sisters as they landed on the ground, "I've wasted five fucking hours of my life playing babysitter to four stupid teenagers!"
Blossom blinked, "they've been asleep all this time?"
"Nuclear warfare wouldn't wake 'em." Buttercup growled lowly to herself, "I know this spell or whatever it was made them tired, but this is just crazy!"
"Have they stirred at all?" Bubbles asked, already half way through the front door. She was immediately given her answer when she saw the three sleeping brothers in the living room, sprawled on various pieces of furniture; "It must have been a pretty powerful spell."
"On the plus side," Blossom smiled, attempting to force her gaze away from Brick's peaceful form, "Robin is going to help us out on the Witch front... any weird activity going on and we'll know."
"In the mean time... can we trust anyone?" Bubbles asked unsurely as the girls silently walked past their sleeping counterparts and entered the kitchen.
"That's true," Buttercup agreed, "if anyone at the school could be the Dark Witch, we can't trust anyone."
Bubbles' eyes widened in shock as she leant against the small island counter in the centre of their kitchen, "does that mean we shouldn't trust Robin? What if she's the-"
"We've known her too long for that kind of thing to have happened," Blossom assured, waving off the hysteria that she could feel creeping down her back like a second skin, "We can trust her,"
"Or can we?" Buttercup asked, opening the fridge as she fished out a soda, popping the can in the pocket of silence she obtained from her question; "let's face it, if there really is a Dark Witch at our school, then they could mask themselves as anything, anyone... the closer to the power, the better. Let's face it..." Buttercup took a swig of her drink, "We may all be royally screwed."
Could it be true? Is there a chance that Robin is the Witch? How can the girls go back to school when anyone could be the enemy? ...And how will Boomer and Bubbles' date go? ^^ - :D Find out soon! x
