Fill in the Blanks

LuluCalliope

Chapter Eleven

"I think that this is all very ironic!" The Monster gushed. "A person from one team has been spying on another team!"

The members of the Gangrene Gang tried to look as casual as they could under the sudden tension.

Mojo Jojo slouched over in his seat.

Sedusa pulled at the ends of her hair as she stared at Princess anxiously.

The Amoeba Boys stared at Sedusa…it took them a while to realize that she wasn't the culprit, and it took them an even longer amount of time to find out who the culprit was.

And Princess cleared her throat before answering Him. "I haven't done anything wrong," she said with convincing innocence. She was turning out to be a pretty decent actress.

"I know you haven't," the Creature cooed. "I know that there aren't any spies…we cannot afford to have any ruining stage three…not at a time like this…"

"And why is that, I wonder?" Princess inquired with a voice that was more polite than friendly.

The Monster ignored her. "So what were you doing with the Gangrene Gang and the Rowdyruff Boys?" The boys were too afraid to correct Him, and nobody else wanted to speak.

Princess shrugged. "I just wanted to drop off some pizza for them," she replied sweetly. "They don't have time to grab any food during the day, except for those dreadful snacks stashed up there for the girls." She turned to them. "How was it?"

"Great," Butch lied through a forced smile. "I only wish that there was more."

"And I assume that you have plenty of food to eat, or at least some three-course meal?" Princess asked Sedusa.

"Yes," the older woman answered, still fidgeting with the ends of her hair.

"Nothing's wrong, then?" Princess asked sweetly.

"There's nothing you can do to fix these three," Sedusa complained, pointing at the Amoeba Boys. They didn't say anything in their defense, but Princess nodded sympathetically.

I don't think that Him saw anything really suspicious about what Princess was doing—and most of it, I have to admit, was due to her impressive acting—and the meeting ended not long afterwards. She walked with our "team" back upstairs.

"Do you want Him to start putting two and two together?" Brick asked her as we unlocked the door.

"No," she hissed, "I don't. But I am still going to visit you guys, and Jojo may drop in every so often. I can cover for Mojo, but I don't know what I'm going to have to say to keep my cover."

"You could stop coming up here, just to be on the safe side," Snake snickered. Ace punched him in the face.

"If you can't say anything helpful, then shut up!" He said. Snake glared at him, and Princess rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. I'll think of something on my own," she muttered to herself. She stormed to the exit. "You might want to look into something called 'improvising'," she called out. "It might be helpful at the next meeting." The door slammed behind her, and Ace locked it.

"Keep it down," Blossom yelled from down the corridor. "I'm trying to read." We split up again—the same teams as yesterday—and I did contemplate not going with Ace. I wasn't sure how another meeting with Buttercup was going to go.

We found her in her bedroom again. She was lying down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, popping a piece of gum, and snapping her "fingers" to some random beat. I stared at her hand, noticing that she did have fingers, but barely noticeable ones. The celadon nail polish helped bring them out a little.

"I still can't believe Fuzzy died," she said flatly, staring up at the ceiling. I shuffled my feet awkwardly, and Ace did the same. We stared at her in surprise when she suddenly burst out laughing. "I just remembered the time that you tricked the Mayor out of his office. And you broke in and made all those prank calls to our house…and you made us attack Mojo Jojo and Him…and Fuzzy!" She laughed even harder. "He was so mad! You should have seen his face!" She clutched her sides, giggling hysterically. "A-and we thought that it w-was the Mayor the…whole time!" She had to gasp in order to breathe, and tears were running down her face.

"I think she's calming down," Ace whispered to me when she rolled off the bed. She sat back up and sniffled a little, wiping the tears away.

"And we found out that it was really you…it was all over the papers," she said quietly. "And that was the only time I think I felt sorry for Fuzzy…"

"He was always good for a laugh," Ace shrugged, and I nodded in agreement.

Buttercup cracked a small smile. "Yeah, I guess I'm going to miss him a little," she admitted, twirling one perfect black curl around her finger. It actually didn't look that small, and I was surprised that I hadn't noticed it after all. Or maybe she had always had fingers, and I had forgotten some things about the appearances of the Powerpuff Girls over the course of eight years. That was possible.

"Will you miss me a little if I die?" Ace joked.

Buttercup glared at him. "What kind of a question is that?"

"A serious one," Ace replied.

"Well, you're not planning on dying today, are you?"

"I think you're trying to change the subject."

"No, no I'm not! We're still on the subject! And while we're on it, let's talk about the potential causes of death, shall we? The gangrene—"

I took this as my cue to go, and I left the two arguing. I wandered around the corridor, looking for something to do. I found Blossom sitting in her room, surrounded by a few books and all three Rowdyruff Boys, as well as Big Billy. They weren't talking, but they watched her read.

"This is boring!" Brick cried out, causing his brothers to jump a little, but Blossom didn't look up from her book. "What are you even reading?"

"Hans Christian Andersen," she replied at once. "He's brilliant! I love his work!"

"Then why don't you marry it?" Brick teased lightly, causing everyone to groan.

"First of all, I said that I loved his work, not him as a person," she replied, turning a page. "Second of all, if you're really going to insult me, then you are going to have to try to do better than that. And you might want to watch out, while you're at it, because I might give you cooties."

"We don't believe in cooties," Boomer replied.

"You used to," Blossom reminded him.

I wandered away. I don't think that they even knew I was peeking in at the conversation. I found Snake and Little Arturo with Bubbles in the lounge. She managed to look almost as elegant as Princess as she sipped what looked like apricot juice, but Snake and Artie looked very out of place.

"Doesn't it hurt when Ace punches you?" She asked Snake.

"Not really," he replied honestly. "It helps when your skin is pretty much dead."

"I thought that the skin gets weaker when it dies," she said.

"And I thought that you were supposed to be the dumb one," he shot back.

She didn't flinch. "People were very fond of calling me dumb," she said, daintily swirling the liquid around in the glass. "But I don't think that's quite true. I was very innocent and very naïve. And I was delicate…but not so much anymore." She chugged the rest of her drink and belched a little. "Pardon me," she said primly. There was a small sink in here, over where there was the stash of fruit juices. She rinsed out her glass, and before I wandered away, I heard her speak again. "I won't hesitate to strike any of you down in battle if I get the chance. I want for you to know that."

And even though this came from the kindest of the girls, I still shuddered.

A/N: And, just to recap: everyone is pretty much on thin ice at the moment. It might get dangerous if the girls try to escape again. (Oh dear, I shouldn't have said that! I am not the best with spoilers, am I?) Write a review and tell me about your favorite Fuzzy Lumpkin moments! (I may put in a little funeral for him if I get enough material.) REVIEW!