Chapter 38 – Bitches be Trippin'

Brick's POV

Brick let Boomer and Bubbles take up flanking positions before he popped open the trap door. Inside was a steep stairwell that led down around a tight corner. Taking point, Brick stepped down carefully and came out into a room at the base of the tower.

He felt supremely lucky to find that while there were three guards occupying the room, they had their attention focused elsewhere. If they had been looking at the stairs when he had come out then the whole stealth plan would have been shot right out the window.

Brick carefully entered the room and waited for Bubbles and Boomer to trail out after him. The guards remained oblivious, chatting away as he motioned Boomer to take the one on the right and Bubbles to go for the one on the left. He left the guard in the middle for himself.

Pulling out his hook, Brick took the soldier completely by surprise. He came up from behind and opened his throat in one smooth movement. The other two guards could only gape in shock at the abrupt demise of their partner before they were sent to join him by the blonde duo.

It was quietly and efficiently done, and that made Brick satisfied.

"Hide the bodies quickly. We need to move." He ordered.

Looking around, he spotted a single door at the far end of the room. That must have been the exit. Brick walked up and cracked it open an inch. Peeking outside, he was pleased to find that his assumption was indeed correct.

Outside was the open courtyard lining the perimeter wall. It was actually an intelligent design if he did say so. There was a buffer zone, if you will, of fifty meters surrounding the entire base between the perimeter wall and the interior buildings. It was laid out specifically to make it nearly impossible to sneak deeper into the base unnoticed.

Fortunately for them, the imbeciles failed to realize one little detail. They left dozens of haphazardly stacked crates scattered around the courtyard. It wasn't a clear path to the interior buildings but it did provide cover and that was all he needed.

When the Blues finished up their work they returned to Brick and he pointed the boxes out to them. "Stick close and keep out of sight."

Brick waited for them to nod in agreement before he scanned the courtyard one last time. After making sure it was clear, he stole out the door and rushed to the conveniently placed obstructions.

Bubbles was practically following on his heels. It was annoying but probably for the best. Better for him to be close by if she caused a problem than far away. And with Boomer bringing up the rear, it practically guaranteed that she wouldn't get into trouble.

There weren't actually any hostiles that he could see as they dashed from cover to cover. It was like the whole place had cleared out. He had expected it to a certain extent, but you'd think they would have had a few patrols at least.

All the more better for him.

They made it to the interior buildings without incident. Here there were the occasional guards or random groups of workers scurrying about. It was tempting to incapacitate all those who got in his path, but Brick reined himself in. They had to keep a low profile if they wanted this raid to succeed.

The last thing he needed was for one of the troops he took out to miss a check in and alert the whole base that something was amiss. Bossy would never let him hear the end of it if that happened. He had made damn sure to rub the whole roof situation in her face at every opportunity during the last two weeks. She was probably just waiting for a similar situation to retaliate with.

He couldn't let that happen…which was one of the chief reasons as to why he had chosen Boomer and the Bubbly One to come with him.

Out of the six of them, Boomer and Bubbles were the most likely to follow orders unconditionally and stay quiet. Well, Boomer would stay quiet, he still wasn't quite sure how silent Bubbles would be but he could shut her up if the need arose.

At least he didn't have Butch, or that bitchy counterpart of his. Either of those two would have probably started at least two fights already. In fact, he was fairly certain that the two of them were probably at each other's throat this very minute…and it was Blossom's problem to deal with.

He didn't even try to stop the delightfully evil smirk twisting his lips.

The plant dismantling team passed unnoticed through several rows of buildings before they came upon their goal. There, exactly where the map had placed it, stood the production plant. The heavy guard surrounding the entrance proved it.

It didn't look much different from the last one they had sabotaged: big, squat, and grey in color. No outstanding feature decorated it or demanded attention. It was efficient and utilitarian, like a base building should be. The Simian army could get some things right it seemed.

Brick knelt down in the shadows to observe the guard detail. Eight troops guarded the entrance and it looked like several groups were patrolling around the building. They would need to find a better way in.

"Boomer, Bubbles, take a walk around the building perimeter. Find me a point of entry that doesn't involve a plethora of guards." He commanded quietly.

He saw the both of them nod from the corner of his eye before they silently slipped into the shadows. It was actually rather surprising to observe. He knew that Boomer could sneak around like a mouse, that was nothing new, but Bubbles? He hadn't even thought the exuberant, blonde haired ball of energy could keep her mouth shut for five minutes let alone sneak around quietly.

The fact that she could do so almost as well as his baby brother was something he hadn't thought possible. She actually knew the meaning of stealth. He might need to rethink his opinion of her.

Life was just full of surprises wasn't it?

Blossom's POV

Blossom kept a sharp eye out as she led the explosive team, both a literal and figurative term, across the top of the perimeter wall. Of course the storage facility they aimed to destroy lay on the opposite side of the outpost from them.

Why was it that objectives never seemed to be close by?

It wasn't all bad. The map had showed that the warehouse jutted right up against the wall. It was weird that it didn't have the same buffer zone like all the other buildings but Blossom wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

There could have been several reasons that it was so close, the builders could have run out of time, or supplies…or both. Maybe they figured they could fix that small problem at a later date? Whatever the reason, Blossom was happy for it. It was pretty much a straight shot along the wall to get there.

The only obstacles she and her team faced were the patrolling groups of soldiers stationed along the wall. It hadn't proved to be much of a hinderance though. Butch and Buttercup easily handled the ones they couldn't sneak by.

Buttercup would complain that hanging off the side of the wall until the hostiles passed by didn't qualify as 'sneaking' but it had worked and that was all that mattered. Minimizing the violence was her top priority, that and maintaining stealth.

Both her and Brick had agreed that this time the raid needed to be performed with the utmost professionalism and covertness. They couldn't afford another mess like the last one. There was no way they would get one more miraculous escape. This wasn't some TV show, crap like that didn't happen twice.

It was alright though, she'd make it work…somehow.

If Butch and Buttercup remained quiet, it would be possible. They had been able to contain themselves for the last fifteen minutes and they were almost at their target. Now came the hard part.

Blossom slowed to a stop along the wall above the warehouse and looked down over the edge. The area, much to her dismay, was being heavily patrolled by several groups of Simian troops. They weren't small groups either. It looked like each squad was in the sight of at least two others at all times.

Well, that was a setback she hadn't been expecting, she should have but didn't. This would make gaining entry much more difficult.

Damn.

The redhead switched her gaze to the top of the warehouse, unfortunately there didn't seem to be any avenues there either. There were no smoke stacks or ventilation grates that she could spot, which was also weird. What kind of warehouse didn't have ventilation shafts? Not only was it extremely inconvenient but it was also totally against all known buildings codes.

So with the two obvious options out of the picture, how the hell were they supposed to get in? She couldn't send Butch or Buttercup to cause a distraction. Even if they remained out of sight that would alert the entire base that there were intruders and that was a big no-no. It would blow the entire stealth angle they were going for, not to mention put them all in danger.

There had to be another way in. Hmmmm.

After a minute of observation and much frustrated thinking, Blossom finally had to face the facts…she needed another opinion.

It was time to see what the peanut gallery could come up with. Buttercup, maybe, but Butch? She was just waiting for the 'Let's light them on fire' angle. That boy didn't seem to have an ounce of sense in him.

With a quiet sigh, Blossom turned to her team mates. "Have either of you thought of a way to gain entry?"

"You haven't yet?" Butch asked with a raised eyebrow.

She resisted the sour frown trying to work its way onto her mouth. "…I'm having a bit of trouble."

Butch shrugged mildly and looked out over the edge. "If we don't have to be quiet about it then yeah. I got a few ideas."

"We do."

"Well…damn." The brunette let out a huff. "It would be a lot easier if we didn't."

"And deadlier…moron." Buttercup muttered as she leaned out over the edge too.

The bad thing about being formerly super human was the enhance senses that came along with it. It meant Butch heard her sister's little jab. A scowl had worked its way onto his face and he sent a loathing glare at her.

"Alright Butterbutt, what do you suggest?"

"What did you call me?" Buttercup growled with a dangerous gleam in her eye, turning to look at him with equal amounts of disdain.

Blossom also spotted her hand oh so slowly inching towards one of the knives hanging from her vest. Oh boy, it was time to intervene. Things would get violent soon if she didn't.

"Buttercup…" Blossom said in a low voice, giving her younger sister the 'Look'.

It was enough to make the grumpy brunette let her hand fall away from the sharp implement that she no doubt wanted to jab in Butch's eye socket. With a huff, the Green puff turned from her counterpart and scowled at the ground.

It was a good thing she did, otherwise that smug grin on Butch's face probably would have set her off.

What an ass hat. Did he even realize how much he was playing with fire?...Probably. He always did seem slightly masochistic to Blossom.

"I've got nothing Bloss." Buttercup groused after a moment.

Damn it, she had been hoping for an unexpected flash of brilliance that she could work with. Now what? Checking her watch revealed that twenty minutes had passed since they had broken up with Brick and his team. That left them only forty minutes to rig the warehouse to blow and get the hell out of there.

Great.

It wasn't impossible, but that didn't mean it would be easy. She really hoped that Brick was having the same problem as she was. If he beat her to that rendezvous point she'd never hear the end of it. Having another victory to lord over her was not something she wanted or needed.

Ugh, she hadn't had one moment of peace around him where he wasn't bringing up that stupid roof fiasco…even though most of it was Butch's fault. Did he see it that way? No, of course not. Neither did Butch. That would require an objective point of view and generally not being a total douche bag.

Jackasses, the both of them. In fact, the only pleasant one to be around was Boomer and that was just because he knew how to keep his mouth shut.

Blossom realized she was getting into a mental rant and took a calming breath. Looking around again with a frown, her eyes ran across a part of the building that she had somehow overlooked in her earlier assessment. There, on the far corner of the building almost outside her range of vision, were two long horizontal windows.

They were the hinged kind of window that swung open from the bottom. Not an uncommon feature for normal warehouses and garages alike. They were primarily for airflow purposes if she remembered correctly. With all that machinery inside, the whole place must have stunk like oil and gasoline.

It did give her an idea though, that was going to be their ticket in.

Blossom turned back to her two sulking teammates with a grin. Each of them was trying their hardest to ignore the other, which she supposed was a good thing. It was better than them trying to disembowel each other.

"Guys, I think I've got it." That got their attention.

"You see those windows over there? On the far corner?" Blossom pointed at them. "We can hop on the roof from the wall and repel down in through those windows. We get in, plant the charges, and climb right back out. Quick and undisruptive like."

"Unless anyone sees us coming in or out of the window." Butch said pessimistically.

Blossom resisted the impulse to roll her eyes. What did it take to get a positive reaction from this guy? "It's a necessary risk that we're going to have to take. This is the only way in that I can see without raising the alarm."

"Wouldn't a length of rope hanging through a window be a tad bit suspicious Bloss?" Buttercup asked.

Blossom shrugged, trying not to get irate as all the potential flaws of this plan were being pointed out to her one by one. She said she had a plan, she never said it was a great one. "Look, there isn't much we can do about that Buttercup. Unless either of you have come up with some amazing idea that doesn't involve revealing ourselves then this is what we've got to work with."

She stared at them, waiting for some sort of complaint or rebuttal. Instead, she got a shrug from Butch.

"...Okay, let's do it." He said blithely as he popped his shoulders.

Beside him, Buttercup slowly added a nod of her own. "Lead the way."

Good, cooperation was always good. In fact with those two, it was downright miraculous.

"Right." With that the redhead moved down the wall and found the perfect spot to jump across.

Blossom landed on the roof with a thud that continued to ring long after the initial noise died out. Buttercup's and Butch's landing added to the sound, making a low thrum Blossom felt almost to her bones.

'Please don't let anyone here that. Please.' She thought with a wince.

Thirty nerve wracking seconds passed by before Blossom dared to let out a sigh of relief. There were no shouts of alarm or anything like that, they were still in the clear.

"Butch, find some place to secure that rope."

"Why do I have to do it?" He whined.

"Cause you have the rope dumbass." Buttercup scoffed.

"I-"

"Just secure the rope Butch." Blossom cut him off sharply.

He gave the two ladies a glare but did what he was told…thankfully without any more complaints.

Blossom took a moment to walk up to the roof's edge and look down over it. This was definitely the place where the robots were being stored. Around the main entrance stood several large robots, they weren't the normal T-32 attack bots but Blossom recognized them. The RS-4 model.

They were the vicious older cousin to the T-32's and packed a lot more punch. Her relatively low experience in the field meant she had only fought them face to face a few times before, but it was enough to know that she didn't want to mess with them.

Not only did they have a more advanced AI system than the other bots, they also had a series of explosive round that could demolish a car. The plus side was that all those bonuses came at a price, less ammunition and generally an all around slower movement capability.

It wouldn't be the end of the world if they came face to face with one of them during their mission, but she would much rather avoid it if possible. Which was why they're weren't going through the front door.

Blossom turned back around and saw that Butch was tying the last knot in the line. He had somehow been able to dig the hook into a seam between the roof plates. That was perfectly fine to her, as long as the rope didn't give out on them during their climb.

"Good job Butch, you take point" The Green Ruff bared his teeth in a small grin as he grabbed a length of rope.

"And Butch…don't cause a commotion." Blossom reminded him.

The brunette just waved a hand as he slid off the roof edge and dangled in place for a second. After getting his swinging under control, he started to climb down at a steady pace.

Blossom nudged Buttercup to do the same. The Green Puff gave her a fierce scowl but after a moment, sighed and did as she was told. She definitely wasn't happy about it though. Blossom shook her head lightly at her sister's stubbornness and followed after her.

She was a quarter of the way down when Butch reached the window. She saw him cautiously poke his head in. A moment later he pulled back and looked up at her.

"Psst, hey, this way in looks pretty good. It's really dark. We should get in unnoticed." How he managed to yell that in a whisper was something Blossom couldn't really figure out, but that wasn't important.

The important thing was that her plan was going to work!

She allowed herself a smile as she nodded Butch to continue on. He nodded back and threaded the rope through the window opening. For some reason a grin lit up his face as he finished. Positioning himself right on the window edge, Butch looked up once more and leered at Buttercup.

"You know, I might call you Butterbutt but surprisingly enough, you have actually have a nice ass. Thanks for the view." With a small laugh he slipped inside, narrowly avoiding a vicious kick to the face from his counterpart.

Un…Freaking…Believable. Of all the nerve!

Below her, Buttercup dangled beet red and beyond outraged. She looked ready to dive down after the sexist pig and beat him until his face looked as red as hers'. Blossom tried to make a soothing gesture with her hand but she was feeling just as angered.

She knew it was too much to hope for Butch not to be a complete and total ass. Why had she even expected anything different? She must have been high when she agreed to this whole thing.

Blossom nudged Buttercup lightly with her foot to get her moving again. While Butch's blatant sexism was enraging, they didn't want to be caught in plain sight dangling helplessly from a building.

With a curse through gritted teeth, Buttercup climbed down the rope and slid inside the window. Blossom followed her in moments later.

Inside the warehouse was surprisingly cool, in fact it was colder than the chilling winter temperatures outside. Blossom could even see her breath come out in little puffs. The other prominent feature of the building was how dark it was. The back where they entered was hidden in shadows, only the shafts of early morning light through the windows provide any source of illumination.

She let go of the rope and landed lightly on her feet, taking a moment to adjust her eyes to the darkness. Buttercup was already stalking towards Butch with murder on her face. The cretin was looking over a few miscellaneous robots stationed nearby and completely unaware of the doom about to be rained down on him.

As much as Blossom wanted to let Buttercup have her way, they really couldn't afford World War Four to start right now, not knee deep in enemy territory. The redhead hurried after her and caught up right as Buttercup smacked Butch soundly upside the back of his head.

The force of the blow was enough to send him careening forward into one of those robots he was looking at. A loud clang rang out into the air as his head met metal, eliciting a wince from the Pink Puff.

Not a sympathetic wince of pain mind you, no, she really couldn't care less about what happened to Butch at the moment. Her wince was more because of the fact that that noise might have alerted the guards out front to their presence.

Hell, if they didn't have such a need for silence Blossom would have let Buttercup smack him a few more times. It might have taught him to keep his asinine comments to himself in the future.

Butch regained his balance with a muttered oath and glared menacingly at his counterpart. "What the hell bitch?! Are you crazy?!" He barely managed to keep his voice at a moderate noise level.

With a glare of her own, Buttercup got right up into his face and shook a fist under his nose. "Keep your eyes to yourself next time you pervy bastard or I'll rip them out!" Her sister on the other hand, had no such qualms about keeping the decibels down.

"As if you could! It' wasn't my fault your fat ass was hanging right there when I was talking to Pinkie!"

"Oh that's it!-" Buttercup moved to swing her fist back but Blossom snatched it, stepping in between the two of them before things got physical.

"Enough!" The two warring Greens stood perfectly still at her command, still looking like two dogs about to attack but at least they were silent.

"The both of you need to calm down, we're on a God damn mission for crying out loud. Butch, keep your comments to yourself in the future or next time I won't stop her. Buttercup…ignore Butch." Blossom ordered sternly, pinning the both of them with a hard pink eyed stare.

It took a minute or two but finally Buttercup turned away and gave her a surly nod. Butch wasn't much better but he did nod…which was probably the best she was going to get from him. The Puff leader let go of Buttercup's fist and straightened her sweater.

"Right…now let's see if that little episode alerted anyone. Follow me and for goodness sake, stay silent."

Boomer's POV

Boomer stayed as silent as a mouse as he crept up behind Brick and settled down on his heels. The redhead failed to notice his return and kept his gaze on the guards ahead of him.

This wasn't anything new to Boomer, he was usually ignored whether intentionally or not, but he did have to give Brick his report. It would be a lame report, but it wasn't his fault this place was being guard like it was a freakin' palace.

He had spent the last few minutes circling the perimeter several times, at least four maybe even five, and each time was the same. There was no entry that he could find that wouldn't require them to put up a fight to get into.

Brick would not be pleased.

Accepting the inevitable disappointment, Boomer lightly cleared his throat to get his brother's attention. He hadn't meant for the noise to be loud but it actually got a surprised flinch from his usually stoic brother.

That was a first.

He didn't think he had ever really seen Brick get surprised…maybe a few times but not for small little things like this. Of course, he had been showing a lot more emotions lately. More than Boomer could ever remember before. It was mostly annoyance and smugness but they did count as emotions and that was a step up from nothing at all.

The Red Ruff regained his composure and looked over his shoulder at Boomer. He raised his eyebrow in a silent question and Boomer hurried to give his report.

"It's a no go Brick, the building's completely surrounded with heavy patrols ranging from four to eight troops each. I couldn't find a way in that didn't involve cracking a few heads. There's also a lot of activity on the inside, people are going in and out constantly." Boomer informed him, feeling a bit downtrodden.

Brick only responded with a grimace before he turned back towards the building, an intent look on face.

And no response…just disappointment. Well, Brick style disappointment, which also looked a lot like regular boredom but Boomer could tell the difference.

Why had he expected anything different? It really shouldn't have bugged him as much as it did but he guessed somewhere inside there was a part of him that wanted his brother to be pleased by what he did. It was a really weird feeling but he seemed to be experiencing that a lot lately.

A result of too much thinking no doubt.

Holding back a sigh, Boomer noticed that he and Brick were the only two here. Bubbles was nowhere to be found. He had been gone for at least ten minutes or so, that should have been plenty of time for her to do her scouting and return back here…unless she had been found and captured.

For some reasons he found himself feeling uncomfortable at the thought. There was another one of those weird feelings.

Shaking his head, he looked at Brick's back. "Bubbles isn't back yet?" He asked quietly.

Brick didn't move except to shake his head absently, obviously lost in deep thought. Better for it actually, if he had been looking he might have noticed the small frown that unexpectedly pulled at Boomer's lips.

It was completely involuntary and Boomer hurried to smooth out his features, feeling a bit unsettled. Of course…when was the last time he hadn't felt unsettled? That seemed to be his usual state of being now a days, especially when it came to his counterpart.

It was…she…she was just so weird.

He was used to being ignored but whenever Bubbles was around she was always trying to talk with him and crap like that. He had never experienced anything like that from anyone he had ever met before.

It was like she wanted to be…friends?

A second later, Boomer shook his head at the ridiculous notion. Him and her as friends? Former mortal enemies? Yeah right. He really needed to keep his head in the game, this was not the time or the place for such crazy ideas.

He pushed those thoughts aside and moved up next to Brick. The two of them wordlessly observed the building until a small sound caught Boomer's ears.

"Psst! Hey, I think I may have found a way in."

The sudden hiss almost gave Boomer a heart attack. He whirled around so fast that the hood of his sweater nearly smacked Brick in the face.

Behind them, bouncing anxiously on her heels, was Bubbles, looking perfectly healthy and unharmed. The uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach eased when he realized it was her.

"What way in?" Brick questioned as he turned towards the Blue Puff.

Wait…she had found an entrance? Where? He hadn't seen anything in the four laps he had made.

Bubbles leaned in like she was about to reveal a big secret. There was even a small smile playing on her face, like this was some fun little game.

Yep, she was definitely one weird girl.

"Okay, so I found out that this plant isn't actually all that new. It's a refurbished production facility that still relies on coal to heat the furnaces."

"What? You can't be serious? Coal?" Brick interrupted with raised eyebrows, which equated to a gob smacked expression for him.

Bubbles nodded quickly. "Yep, I couldn't really believe it either. Most of his stuff is usually powered by like fission or something. Anyway, whatever the reason the plant runs on coal and they can't store all of it in there. They keep it all in a silo a few hundred meters to the west. I ran down to take a look at it, that's what took me so long."

She leaned between them and pointed up towards the building. "You see that thing hanging between the alleyway up above?"

"Hmm." Brick nodded. Boomer nodded too although his agreement it probably didn't matter that much.

"That's a conveyor belt between the silo and the plant. The coal rides it all the way to the inside of the plant, and it's covered the entire way. We could totally sneak in at the silo and ride the belt all the way in, avoiding all the guards." She finished with a small grin.

…That…

….that was actually a good plan.

Damn, why hadn't he thought of that? ...Cause that conveyor belt looked damn small, that's why. There was no way they would be able to fit in it.

Unfortunately Brick didn't seem to care about size issues. After a minute of thinking, he gave Bubbles a slow nod. "That could work. Why didn't you include that in your report Boomer?" Brick turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

Feeling his face flush, Boomer froze.

Crap.

"Uh, I um…didn't actually…see it."

Okay, that was total lie but there was no way he was going to admit that he was afr-uncomfortable of small spaces. Not to Brick, and most definitely not to Bubbles. What kind of man wasn't fond of small spaces?

A weak one.

Brick heaved an irritated sigh and rolled his eyes, causing the heat on Boomer's cheeks to warm up even more. The Ruff leader turned back to Bubbles. "Lead the way to the silo. In any case it should be less heavily guarded than here."

Bubbles gave him a small salute and turned to lead the way. As she started walking away, Brick spoke up again.

"And uh…good work." That admission sounded incredibly pained but Boomer was too shocked to really give it much thought.

Did Brick just…compliment a Puff?

The redhead shifted his weight as the two blondes stared at him open mouthed. There might have even been a tiny smattering of red on his cheeks.

…Holy shit, he really did just compliment a Powerpuff Girl!

Deciding that enough time had been spent gawking, Brick gruffly walked away from the two of them. Bubbles was the first to recover and jogged after him, sending a questioning look Boomer's way.

Only, he felt just as confused. What in world was that?

How did Bubbles, a Powerpuff Girl, managed to get a compliment like that from Brick? Who loathed Powerpuffs with a passion! It practically broke the laws of nature itself.

Boomer didn't really want to acknowledge the feelings of anger and inadequacy welling up against him in his own mind. That was all he wanted from Brick, an acknowledgement of his work, something he rarely got at all and then Bubbles shows up and in less than thirty minutes boom! There it is. Only towards her and not him.

…This was all just another clarification that universe really didn't care about him or his feelings. Butch was right…he was a huge, unbelievable sissy. It was pathetic.

Boomer heaved a sigh and scrambled after the two retreating figures. He didn't want to be left behind.

Not that Brick would likely notice.

Butch's POV

Butch tried to be as quiet as possible as he dropped the body of an unfortunate guard in the shadows, but damn that guy was heavy, even for him. Weren't soldiers supposed to be in shape and shit?

The Green Ruff shook his head as he wiped his hands off on his pants. Seriously, the general lack of a decent challenge from these hacks was majorly disappointing. He could take a dozen without breaking a sweat…that whole roof thing last raid didn't count. That wasn't so much a challenge as a death wish.

Even he wasn't that crazy.

Butch looked around and tried to gauge how far along his teammates were with their work. The C4 charges they were planting weren't many but they looked like they packed a punch. He kinda wished he could have nabbed one and dissected it before the goodie goodies took off with them all.

Blossom would have developed an ulcer if he did though. Psh, as if he would blow himself up! He knew explosives like the back of his hand. He could have had that thing broken down and reassembled in five minutes flat with no one the wiser…probably.

Pinkie did have the craziest eye for tiny little details though. Just like Brick. Ugh. What did he ever do to deserve to be stuck with the two of them?

The girls had actually managed to cover almost a third of the warehouse while he played guard duty. He would have much rather handled the explosives but Bossy had made sure to stick him with the boring job, saying something about chauvinistic pigs or some shit like that.

Well, they had better hurry their asses up. That was the eighth guard he had taken down in the last fifteen minutes. Sooner or later someone was going to realize that people weren't returning from the back of the warehouse.

Not that that was a problem in his book, but they did have that dumbass stealth rule they were trying to follow. Utter nonsense, but Butch wasn't about to rock the boat. He rather liked not getting lectured thank you very much.

Butch casually stretched his arms as he fought back a yawn. They really were taking their sweet time with those charges. If he had been given them, it would have finished by now.

The brunette threw another quick glance and noticed the two girls standing huddled together. He couldn't hear what they were saying but it didn't look like a happy conversation which meant only one thing…problems.

Leave it to women to mess up something as easy as planting explosives.

With a shake of head, Butch made his way over to the two and ducked into the huddle. "I hate to break up girl talk, but what the hell are you doing? Shouldn't you be planting charges?"

"Shouldn't you be guarding us?" Buttercup growled at him with a dangerous glint in her lime colored eyes.

"I have been Butters. You can look over there if you want proof." Butch responded as he pointed over to his collection of KO'd troops. "What I'd like to know is what the fuck you've been doing for the last fifteen minutes!"

If possible her jaw clenched even tighter as she took a step towards him. Butch did the same and used his superior height to leer down at her.

Somewhere in the back of his mind there was a voice reminding him that he wasn't supposed to be riling her up…but he ignored it. It wasn't his fault all the things that poured from her mouth made him hate her! You'd have to be a freakin' saint not to!

Just as it looked like the fun was about to start, Killjoy pushed them apart and stood between them.

"Enough you two!" Blossom barked.

She waited for them to back down before letting her hands fall. Butch hated it when she interrupted their fights, always right as they were about to get good too. He grumpily crossed his arms and waited for her to continue.

"And for your information Butch, we have been planting the charges. In fact, we're out." Blossom told him.

"Out? Whadda mean out? You're not even half way through!" He asked incredulously.

How could they have run out of charges already? What were they doing, placing them five feet apart? Gah! Why was he stuck with these women?! Whyyyyy?!

Blossom glared lightly at him as crossed her arms defensively. "I know, but we only brought enough explosives to take out maybe a three hundred robots. That was double the size of the garrison at the last base. I wasn't expecting there to be so much more here."

"You thought this was the main storage facility! How could you not have planned for that?! You! Miss Meticulous!"

Oh he was mad. This was ridiculous! They had come here expecting to find hundreds of robots yet she had only packed enough for three hundred? What the hell?! He was starting to think that he had been giving Bossy way too much credit for her supposed genius.

"Because we don't have that many!" Buttercup came to her sister's defense.

Butch blinked at her. "What?"

His counterpart gave him a loathing leer. "Newsflash Bitch. We're not that big of a base. We have to ration out supplies. We can't just use all of it on one raid. That would be moronic."

Grr. He hated it when she called him that! He was the only one allowed to give out nicknames dammit!

"Buttercup's right Butch. We're just going to have to use what we have."

"And how the fuck are we supposed to do that when we can only cover a third of the objective?!" He threw his hands up in frustration.

For once, Blossom actually looked unsure. He noticed her biting her lip as she looked around, trying to grasps some sort of inspiration.

Great, just great. Now what?

How could they complete with damn mission without more explosives and stay stealthy at the same time? This was turning into the mission from hell, complete with annoying demons sent to torment him.

He let a heavy sigh pass through his lips as he attempted to calm down. He had to remember Brick's warning. He couldn't let his anger get the best of him this time.

As Butch opened his eyes he saw Blossom was now pacing with a worried look on her face. He really hoped she wouldn't crack under pressure. She looked like the type to turn into a psycho crazy bitch. He already had to deal with one, he didn't want another.

So, it was going to be up to him then to figure a way out of their mess. Figures. Well at least now it would be done properly. Butch looked around the warehouse and took in their situation.

What to do? What to do?

They could steal some gas from the trucks outside and douse the entire place before setting off the explosives. That would make a big boom…but it also meant they had to go outside which was under heavy guard. That wouldn't fly.

Hmmm. They could…harvest gun powder from the bullets of the guards he incapacitated…nah that wouldn't work either. They'd have to have a shit ton of bullets to make that work and a lot of time. Neither of which they had.

…Damn. This was harder than he thought.

Butch scratched at the scruff covering his jaw as he tried to think through the problem…that reminded him, he needed to shave, but that was unimportant. He needed a fool proof method. But what?

It was then he noticed that while he and Blossom were trying to figure a way out of their situation, Buttercup was just standing there looking up at the ceiling like a retard.

What the fuck was she doing?

"What the fuck are you doing?"…He liked to speak his mind.

Buttercup slowly lowered her head and gave him the most deadpan look he had ever seen. And he lived with Brick, so that was saying something. He waited for her to answer him, but instead the bitch ignored him and turned towards her sister.

"Hey Bloss." She asked, interrupting the redhead's pacing. "How hard would it be to bring that down?" She pointed up to the ceiling.

Butch craned his neck back and looked at what she was pointing at. Along the top, shrouded in darkness, was a jumble of scaffolding. It covered the entire length of the roof and looked like it supported the whole thing. There was this weird giant hook connected to the scaffolding too, like one of those claw machines that he always cheated on. He had no idea what the crap that was for though.

Blossom hummed lightly from beside him as she looked up at it too. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye and saw a little glimmer in her pink eyes…it was either the madness starting to seep in, or she was coming up with an idea.

"That's it Buttercup." She said, releasing her lip. "We can use the scaffolding to crush the entire group of them. Perfect!"

A small smile lit up her face as she turned and began walking towards a group of robots. Buttercup stepped alongside her and left Butch to catch up.

Seriously, no manners, from either of them.

"We won't need to blow up all of the beams up there, only the main load bearing ones. If we take out five or six of those, the entire system should become unstable and fall." Blossom thought aloud.

"And how are we going to do that?" Butch asked as he stepped up to her other side, sending a sneer Butters way just for good measure.

"Easy…we use the C4."

Blossom's simple statement cause both Butch and his annoyingly bitchy counterpart stop dead in their tracks.

"Excuse me?" The Green Ruff asked wanting to make sure he heard that death wish right.

Did she just say they would use the C4? The primed charges that were already planted and highly unstable? She couldn't be serious…could she?

Fucking hell! It was the madness taking over her brain!

"You heard me, we'll take a few of the charges and use them to destroy the beams." The Puff said lightly, like it wasn't suicidal.

"Bloss, that's crazy! If we remove those charges there's a very good chance it will blow up in our faces, and take a few limbs along with our heads." Buttercup protested, grabbing Blossom's sleeve.

At least one of them was still sane, even if it was Butters. He'd take her over a kamikaze run any day. Not that he didn't like a good kamikaze run, just only when it was the last option at the table. This was most definitely not their only option.

"I know, but it has to be done. If I had noticed that damn scaffolding earlier then it wouldn't be an issue." The redhead sighed as she stopped before one of the robots with a charge planted on its chest plate. "But I didn't so this is what we're left with. We don't have much time left. Each of us will pull off two charges and head up to top floor. There looks to be a ladder over there."

A quick glance to the side showed that yes, there was indeed a ladder to the top floor. Damn her ability to be right.

Buttercup stayed silent a moment before sighing mightily. "Okay, so how will we know which beams to plant the charges on?"

"Woah! Hold on sister! Whadda mean we? I never agreed to this insanity!" Butch cut in.

Was he the only one with a brain cell left?! Picking up a primed charge was like…well like picking up a bomb about to go off. There wasn't a much more accurate description. Had they lost all sense?

Blossom turned on him and stared hard into his eyes. The intensity behind them shined brightly in her pink orbs. It kinda creeped him out actually.

"Listen Butch, you're just going to have to trust me. There isn't another way that we can do this without giving away our presence. Brick told you to listen to me didn't he? Well, I'm telling you to grab those charges and get your ass up that ladder. Complain all you want later but for now, follow your orders."

The heat of her words matched her tone as she glare up at him. Butch found himself gaping momentarily at the small little redhead in front of him.

…Daaaamn.

"Fine! I'll grab some fucking charges. Geez, take a chill pill before you burst a blood vessel." Butch grumbled as he moved passed her and took a look at the active charge.

"Once you get up there, find the support beams. They should be thicker and made of stronger material than the other peripheral beams. They should also have a lot of other beams connecting to them. Plant your charges and then get back down. Rendezvous at the window, clear?" Blossom said from behind him.

Butch nodded lightly as he started gently prying the explosive from its new home.

"Roger Dodger." Buttercup saluted before moving off to find her own charges.

He felt Blossom stare at his back one last time before she also moved off.

Crazy bitches.

They'd be the death of him. He just knew it.

A/N: Okay, the official actiony start of Raid number two! It hasn't gone too badly...yet *evil grin* That could be subject to change, or not. You'll just have to wait to find out next chapter! Oh, and since I got a pretty good response on the picture I drew of the Rowdyruff Boys in my universe, I'm drawing one of the Powerpuff Girls too! I've got the sketching all done, now I just have to do the inking and cell shading and then I'll post it up on my tumblr as well. I'll be sure to let you guys know when it's up :D

Reviewer Recognition:

ROC95: Thank you, thank you!

Meleexx: Lol thank you, and it's alright, I don't judge people on their laziness :D

Scourge: Oh man, so evil! You know a few others said something about killing off Mitch and my response was like Geez! You're all so blood thirsty! Poor Mitch. As for the Bubbles getting injured...it's a possibility. Mayyyyybe. ^.^

kidstandout: Hehe, yeahhhh. I tend to be a bit morbid when it comes to main characters in stories. I just like them to be maimed some way, it shows perseverance and chutzpah and stuff. Or I'm just a morbid person. *Shrug* Either way, yep, every character has some kind of scar (be it mental or physical). They've lived their lives and gotten burned a few times, I guess I feel it makes them more badass. Cause seriously, Buttercup shrugging off a close range proximity grenade? Yeah, She's a BAMF. Thanks for the review!

Devin Trinidad: Oh ye of little faith! Nothing bad happened in this chapter but you know...the next one . Hehehe! Thanks for the review!

Silent Reader: Yep, but really the drawing isn't all that impressive. I used photo reference for the base anatomy(meaning I cheated and traced it! Terrible!) Then I just drew my own wardrobe over them, inked it all, and did some cell shading style painting cause I'm horrible at any other style of painting. So yeah, not terribly amazing but it works. And yes! I am currently drawing one of the girls so you can see them. I might do some other characters after than, like sub characters but I'm not sure. We'll see.

I'm glad you're all right with different pairings and stuff, I don't want to throw something in and then all my readers ditch me cause they hated it. All I'll say is that things constantly change! Like relationships, and this story is mainly about relationships. Sure, we could say it was solely based on good versus evil, but really? It's all about the character development ;) Oh and thanks about the 160 reviews congrats! We're almost at 200 which is AWESOME! I never thought I'd get this many so I'm pretty pumped!

And last, Butch's view on Buttercup. Okay, so you know how you can really dislike someone but they are still physically attractive? And then you get even more pissed at them because you realize that even though you hate them, they're still appealing to you? That's kind of how Butch is with Buttercup. He doesn't like the fact that she affects him, plus he's a bit unhinged. He does what he wants. Sorry for the long reply but you had so many points to touch on! I wanted to get them all answered :D

Lily: Lol You're welcome! Like I said, I'll try to keep up with it but you may need to remind me from time to time. I tend to forget to check on things quite a bit. :D I hoped you liked the clashing between the Greens this chapter, I had a lot of fun writing it. No blood, but you know bruises are just bleeding on the inside right? Hehehe. And Bubbles with Brick and Boomer? The next chapter will mainly focus on Bloss/Butter/Butch but it ends on a really fun part with Bubbles. We'll see how she reacts to Brick and his crazy plans! (As for romantic tingling? Not quiiiiite yet...but close :D) And finally! YES I DO FEEL VERY APPRECIATED! I even put it in all caps to prove just appreciated I feel :D Thanks so much for being such a faithful reviewer!

That goes to all you guys too! Thank you so much for coming back every Saturday and giving this story a look. I never thought I'd have such a dedicated bunch of folks like you and it means a lot to me. And you too silent readers! This story wouldn't be going so well if it wasn't for you. I love being able to see all of the hits each chapter gets and knowing that dozens of people tune in and read. Happiness abound!

Alright, next chapter: Butch and the girls have to navigate a maze of beams suspended fifty feet above ground while trying not to make any sudden jarring movements. Yeah, that's gonna be fun. Plus Brick and the Blues make it inside the plant! Tune in next Saturday for the next chapter: A Hop, Skip, and an Explosive!