Mandy and Billy's walks to school have always been a bit silent between them. Usually they just walked in silence as they took the route from Endsville to Mel Blanc High. Even if the route itself was short, just a mile walk in fact, their silent walks were a source of quality time for one another. They were just the kind of friends that could find comfort in both silence and conversation. Billy and Mandy had grown quite a bit since their adventures in Endsville, Billy becoming much taller and wearing a black and white letterman jacket with dark blue jeans and black sneakers that were very scuffled. Meanwhile Mandy's outfit consisted of a grungy grey print shirt and light grey pants with holes in them, and pink highlights in her hair neatly kept out of her face with her trademark headband.

"So Mandy," Billy broke the silence. "You know stuff, how much jello would it take to fill up those water jugs we bring to our games? The football team I mean!"

Mandy scoffed. "You and your stupid questions…."

"I'm just askin! It'd be a pretty funny prank to pull on Coach Lumpkins! Could you imagine all the jello he'd have to get out of his fur?!" Billy burst into laughter at the thought. Mandy rolled her eyes at her best friend's idea of a prank. It seemed more like an inconvenience for her. Still, it felt nostalgic for her to have conversations with Billy like this…

"Billy," she began. "You remember when you'd ask stuff like that to Grim? He'd always put his head in his hands and sigh while you went on and on about it."

"Oh yeah, he was so done with me whenever I did that..!!" He chuckled to himself.

"Heh, yeah…" Mandy snickered to herself, getting a surprised look from Billy.

"You never laugh! At least, not any time that I can remember." Billy scratched his head quizzically. "Mandy...do you miss Grim?"

Mandy quickly readjusted herself. "...no. I mean, well, I do, but it's more complicated than that—" She couldn't find the words to describe how she felt about those times, but luckily for her, Billy found them for her.

"You don't just miss him, you miss everything about those times...right?"

"...yes." Mandy looked away, appearing a bit embarrassed to admit it. "But those days are behind us. No more weird underworld stuff." Mandy sighed dejectedly.

"I guess…" Billy murmured, a bit downcast as well. "But I miss Grim too, Mandy." He patted her on the back as they went up the stairs towards their first class.

As they both opened the door, they were greeted by their fellow classmates, seated in arrangements of 2 to every table, which were rowed up into two sections. Mr Peabody, their history teacher simply glared at the two. "You're both late." Mandy ignored him and went to her seat next to Buttercup, the toughest of the powerpuff girls, and never afraid to show it. She had adopted a punk rock aesthetic since her time in middle school, and in her black choker and green shirt with a band no one has heard of on it, she always kept up her image as a rough and tumble hero. She and Mandy had a mutual love for cynicism and rebellion. "Sup, Mandy!" She offered a high five, which was returned with a half-hearted tap from Mandy. "How's it hanging?"

"Well, Mr. Peabody's already ratted on me, so it's shaping up to be a pretty normal day for me." Mandy replied while getting her notebook. "Cool," Buttercup remarked, taking a pencil out of her pencil case and proceeding to throw it at Dexter, who sat in front of them. Buttercup snickered at Dexter's annoyance while Mandy only focused on her work.

Buttercup took another pencil from her case and flung it right into Dexter's hair. He didn't seem to notice it immediately, seeing as how he still paid close attention to Mr. Peabody's lecture on the founding of CN City. Even Mandy chuckled quietly as Dexter went to scratch his hair, taking hold of the pencil.

"Gh— yOU!!!!" Buttercup burst out in laughter as Dexter practically fumed at the ears. Mr. Peabody rubbed his temples at the scene. "You two are always causing such a ruckus here…! Don't you have better things to do than interrupt my class?!" He snarked, before getting back to his teaching.

Meanwhile, Billy rushed to his seat, where his current lab partner, Mac. Mac was a bit shy, usually hiding in his red hoodie and doodling away. Billy wasn't fazed by this, plopping down beside him and taking out his tattered notebook from his even more disorganized backpack. "Heya Mac!!" Mac appeared startled hearing Billy. "Uh...hey Billy!" Mac was in the middle of a very detailed doodle, which Billy had noticed quickly.

"Whatcha drawing?" Billy asked. Mac gulped nervously. He didn't show his drawings to people much. "It's...um...you can just look at it." He pushed it towards Billy. It was a drawing of some kind of shadow creature, with piercing eyes and a crooked smile. It seemed to be hiding behind a lamp post, hiding from the light… "Woah…" Billy gawked. Mac looked away in shame. "I know, it's a bit creepy but—"

"This is SO COOL!!!!" Billy exclaimed. Mr. Peabody growled at him for yelling in class. "Billy, I would prefer you not interrupt my class with your yelling, please."

"Sorry, Mr. P!" Billy whispered, smiling a false smile before getting back to Mac's drawing. "Dude, you are so good at this!!!" Mac scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Thanks, I guess…! I didn't think you'd like it.."

"Are you kidding?! I've met the grim reaper! I love spooky stuff like this!!" Mac smiled, he hadn't expected to meet someone who shared his interest in the paranormal without wanting to fight them! Mr. Peabody tried to ignore them as he went on about the founder of CN City, when Lazlo, standing up from the fourth seat in the second row, raised his hand. "Yes, Lazlo? Do you have any questions?"

"Well, no. But I do want to direct everyone's attention to the weather…!" He gleefully pointed outside as the students finally noticed the storm that had formed outside.

"That's odd…" Mr. Peabody stared at the anomaly. "The forecast today said clear skies…!"

"Yeah," Buttercup commented. "That is pretty weird. Think it's a villain's doing?"

Mandy interjected. "No...not many villains can harness weather powers…"

"Mandy's right," Blossom, who sat in the front row, agreed. "but this doesn't seem natural either…" Mr. Peabody quickly intervened. "Now, now kids. I'm sure there's a logical explanation for this. Maybe the forecast got it messed up…!"

"Negative, Mr. Peabody-Unit." Robot Jones informed him. "The forecast is proven to be accurate 99.9% of the time."

"...thank you, Robot." Mr. Peabody said through gritted teeth. "However, there is no need to panic. I'm sure it'll pa—"

A sudden burst of lightning crashed right near the classroom's windows. The lights flickered for a while before finally shutting off. The sky appeared to have change as well, turning to a dark shade of scarlet.

"...well, we're fucked." Bloo flatly quipped from the back row.

Lazlo screamed, holding onto the first source of light he could find; Robot Jones' brain. Meanwhile the Powerpuff girls scrambled to one another to figure out their game plan. Mr. Peabody tried to keep everyone calm, even though he himself was panicking.

Billy was shocked to say the least. He gazed into the window as he tried to wrap his head around what was happening. Mandy and Mac walked up to him while he was off in his little world. Suddenly, he spoke. "Mandy…do you think Grim heard us?"

"...what?" Mandy inquired.

"Earlier, we said we missed him….maybe…"

"Wait, what's he talking about???" Mac asked.

"While we were walking to school, we were talking about Grim. About everything that happened and…Billy?"

Billy was fine without a trace. Well, if you count running out of the class and crashing into the trash can being gone without a trace. Mandy quickly followed after, yelling about how much of an idiot he was.

Billy ran as quickly as he could. Being a star athlete had its perks when it came to running towards imminent danger. Mandy trailed behind him as fast as she could. With every twist and turn in the maze of a school, Billy's determination only grew. Mandy could see the fire in his every step. He had never been more focused in his entire life...

The chase finally stopped at the front of the school. In the eye of the dark red hurricane, Billy stood. Mandy yelled out to him as she finally caught up to the quarterback.

"BILLY?! BILLY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! DO YOU HAVE A—"

She suddenly froze. "…..Death…wish?"

There, before them both, was none other than Grim himself. His robe still as pitch black as ever and his glare as terrifying as it had always been.

"...Grim?" Mandy whispered.

He looked just as he did when they were kids….but there was something missing. Something was wrong.

"Grim," Billy began to ask. "Where's your scythe?"

Grim finally said something to the two as he gazed into their eyes.

"Children….I'm gonna have to ask you two for a….big favor."

Billy and Mandy only stared at Grim, confused as to what this favor was. Suddenly, two scythes appeared before them. One was a milky white color, the other was as dark as midnight.

"Choose which one you want. I'll explain everything soon." He stared at them intently as they inspected the scythes. Mandy quickly took the black scythe as Billy settled for the white one, looking just a bit pouty for getting the leftover. As they each grabbed their respective scythes, they began to glow with a white aura, cultivating into a burst of magic sending shockwaves through the entire city.

Grim smiled. Clasping his hands together, he exclaimed.

"Welcome to Reaperhood, you two!"

(Author's Note: Hiya!!! I've had this account for a LONG time and never actually published anything on it- (mostly bc I was too scared to) but this is the first idea I've had that I genuinely love and feel proud of enough to publish!! Hope you enjoyed it!!!

(UPDATE: 5/6/21 revised and edited it a bit! Fixed a few things so hopefully it's a lot better now!!!