The morning after Blossom and Bubbles stayed at Buttercup's house, they made their way to the Professor's lab for yet another day of training. As they walked up the path to the lab the girls held onto their cups of coffee and were yet again telling stories to each other and having a laugh. When they made it to the front door they buzzed themselves in and walked into the main lobby.
"Professor we're here!" Blossom called out while using her hands to amplify the volume of her voice.
From the other room the Professor's voice could be heard. "I'm glad to hear it girls. Thanks so much for coming in on a Sunday, just a lot of practice to be done," He yelled back while encouraging the girls to walk into the atrium.
Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup all looked at each other and let a mischievous smile streak across their face. "Sounds great Professor, but not until you get to see the surprise we brought you!" Bubbles called out in her patented innocent voice.
"Surprise? Ou I love surprises, I can't wait to see what we have in store!" The Professor called out. From down the hall two sets of footsteps could be heard pounding on the ground, obviously eager to see the surprise the girls had in store. When The Professor and Keith made it into the room they halted to a stop at the sight of a repenting smile on Buttercup. Almost simultaneously, a bright smile came across Keith and The Professor's face. "Buttercup, it's nice to finally see you again." The Professor cheered.
"Thanks Professor, Thanks Professor, and I'm back for good this time." Buttercup reassured the Professor.
"Welcome back, we missed having you around here y'know," Keith said while walking over to Buttercup.
"Nice to see you Keith, and you too Professor, I missed you guys," Buttercup responded to Keith. Buttercup then looked down at the floor and continued to talk, "I'm really sorry about what happened. I didn't mean those things I said. I'm just glad to be back."
After that Keith lifted Buttercup's head from staring at the floor and the two made eye contact. "Water under the bridge Buttercup. Teams squabble, but what's important is how they move past arguments." Keith dictated. Buttercup smiled back at Keith and that was all the response they needed.
Everyone began greeting each other and exchanging small talk as if nothing had changed. Unfortunately the catching up and the reminiscing was cut short by the Professor, "I'm glad to hear that you're still doing well," he began. "Although you've been gone for a bit, our regimented schedule hasn't changed. There's little time to waste, to the Simulation Centre!" He directed and pointed towards the simulation centre.
In the simulation centre the girls lined up and transformed into their powered up forms. They waited while the Professor loaded them into a simulation that placed them in a downtown core of New Townsville. In front of them stood a simulated Gangreen gang. From outside the simulation, The Professor began calling out different formations and on command the girls flew in that pattern. After a short time of fumbling around and slowly moving into formation, the girls quickly picked up and Buttercup got the hang of it. At the callout of each formation the girls snapped into position and began launching their own individual attacks. By getting into formation they were able to launch their attacks at the enemies without running into the risk of hitting each other.
All of the sudden the simulation paused and the only things that could move were the girls. The Professor's voice was heard from the sky, "Okay girls you're all looking great in there. Now that we have the hang of it, lets try a battle with fully capable enemies." In that moment the simulation was loaded up once again and the simulated Gangreen gang stood in front of the girls taunting them. The girls got into fighting position and launched themselves into the air. The Professor called out the rotating diamond position. The girls then formed a triangle around the Gangreen gang and flew counterclockwise at the same speed around their foes. While in flight they launched heavy attacks and knocked the Gangreen gang across the simulated street and landed in a pile in front of a building. The Professor then called out the criss cross formation. At that moment, Buttercup flew to the left and threw her boomerang, Blossom flew to the right across the same path and fired her sceptre, and Bubbles flew straight up the middle and blew a stream of bubbles. All three attacks connected with the Gangreen gang at the same time and sent them flying through the simulated sky.
The Girls all landed on the ground and jumped up and down and celebrated with one another. Buttercup gave high fives to the other two girls and all three embraced in a hug. "That was a nice shot Bubbles!" Buttercup congratulated her.
"Look who's talking! You slammed those guys!" Blossom cheered and patted Buttercup on the back.
The Professor walked into the room while clapping. "Great job girls! You guys are looking stronger and stronger each time we run a drill," he said as the girls stood in a line smiling back at him. "Alright," he continued, "the last few drills we're going to run are going to be on combined attacks." He instructed before loading in another simulation.
"Combined attacks?" Bubbles asked.
"Yes! Combined attacks! By using your attacks and merging them together they will be stronger and help you clean up fights a lot easier." He said as they were transported to an open field. In the middle of the field stood a giant rock. The Professor then walked out of the simulation centre and ordered the girls to fall into their defensive positioning stance. The girls then moved into position and the Professor instructed them to try to combine their attacks. In a first attempt, all three girls launched their attacks at the air in front of them in an attempt to have them collide but they missed. On their second attempt they tried launching their attacks into the sky and having them merge there. Instead of coming down as one unified attack, several bubbles full of energy fell from the sky like rain almost hitting the girls causing them to scatter and run in circles trying to dodge the dangerous bubbles. The girls then returned to their fighting stance and made another attempt to combine their attacks right in front of them. The girls launched their attacks simultaneously in front of them and as they all collided they formed a giant ball of light. The three girls looked at each other and ravelled about the powerful energy ball in front of them. All of the sudden the ball began to spin rapidly out of control and streaks of light began to shoot out from the sides. A very loud hum could be heard from the ball and in a flash of light the ball exploded knocking all of the girls down and filling the simulation centre with smoke.
As the smoke cleared the rock in the centre of the field was revealed to be unscathed while each of the three girls laid in the grass coated in ash, scuffs, and bruises. The Professor and Keith turned off the simulation and rushed into the room. They helped the three girls stand up and led them out to the atrium where they sat and helped patch up their wounds. "Hmm, we haven't quite figured out the proper configurations for combined attacks" The Professor said while patching up Bubbles' wounds.
"No kidding" Buttercup scoffed while wiping the ash off of her arms.
"If it means anything, you guys looked really good up until the ending there," Keith said while rubbing a cloth on Blossom's forehead.
Blossom just looked back at Keith wide eyed. As the cloth touched her forehead she felt her cheeks flare up and turn a bright red. "You, you think so?" Blossom stuttered.
Keith nodded his head in response before looking over to Buttercup and laughing. The Professor then stood up and encouraged the girls to de-transform, "alright I think thats enough for today," The Professor called out. "We all made a lot of progress and at least now we have an area of inquiry and can keep training to improve!" The Professor said while laughing. The girls all gave out a painful chuckle in response.
Following The Professor's orders, the girls de-transformed and headed for the door. Before leaving, they said their goodbyes to the Professor and Keith before saying their goodbyes to each other. They were all so proud of one another to see how strong they had become in just one day. It took them a long time before parting ways because one of the girls would compliment the growth of the other girls and regale their experiences while training. When they left the property they stood at the middle of an intersection. Ultimately before they parted ways, they made plans to gather at lunch.
That night each of the three girls laid their heads on their pillows with smiles on their faces. Blossom was so proud that her and her teammates have grown so strong so quickly. She couldn't have been more excited to protect the city of New Townsville once again.
Bubbles laid in her bed while clutching octi. She was so happy that she was able to help get the team back together and recover her friendships with Bubbles and Blossom.
Buttercup was proud of herself. For the first time in her life she was proud of herself for not being stubborn. She finally let herself break down her walls, swallow her pride, apologize to her peers, and finally fix a problem instead of running away from them. As she faded off into sleep her patented half smirk hit her face and she let out a light chuckle.
In these moments the three fated girls, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup all drifted into sleep. They all slept peacefully, unaware that their next day would become one of the most important days in their lives.