Something was rotten in the City of Townsville.
"Bye, girls! Tell Dad I'll be home before dinner!"
For the fourth time in the last two weeks, Buttercup's sister had lied to her.
It hadn't been obvious at first. It started when she was 'just picking some things up', which sounded reasonable. Blossom was always thinking farther ahead than Buttercup or Bubbles, and sometimes that meant buying something the house needed before anyone else realized they needed it.
The only problem was...she'd come home without having bought anything.
A few days after that, she 'had to study late in the library'. Most people wouldn't think twice about that...except Buttercup knew that Blossom always studied at home, in the room the three sisters shared.
Then, she 'had to help out a friend' but refused to tell them who the friend was.
This time, her excuse had been that she was 'going to check out a new bookstore'. Even before Bubbles had looked on her phone and seen there was nothing about any new shop in the area, Buttercup had known it was a lie.
She wasn't great with people, but Blossom was her sister. Eventually, even Buttercup had learned how to read her.
Which was why, after pretending to head home, Buttercup and Bubbles followed her, still dressed in their gray school uniforms.
It just didn't sit right with them. Blossom was...as much as Buttercup hated to say it, she was the leader of the triplets. She was all about integrity and doing the right thing and junk, and her lying to them...it stank like Mojo Jojo's armpit.
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Bubbles whispered, as she hid behind a telephone pole.
Blossom had looked around, though whether because she suspected her sisters were tailing her or just to look for something, neither knew. Buttercup had hidden herself in a bush, and hissed, "Of course! What if she's being blackmailed, or mind-controlled?"
That seemed to get through to Bubbles, and the normally cheerful blonde started creeping down the street with Buttercup once more when Blossom focused on a direction once more.
The tension for what was to come was building up in Buttercup's body, and with a glower on her face, she popped her knuckles in one hand. The sound was loud, especially in the otherwise quiet street, but Blossom didn't turn around.
Whoever was doing this to little miss perfect was going to pay, Buttercup was damn sure of that.
In the end, Blossom's destination confused the hell out of Buttercup. It was...a park?
Why would she hide going to a park?
When they were younger, they'd go to places like that all the time. Especially with Bubbles' love of animals, wild or otherwise.
It must not have been a very good park, though, because it was early afternoon and there was no one there except Blossom.
She was looking around, though, clearly trying to spot someone.
Buttercup and Bubbles looked at each other...just what was going on? Why had Blossom gone there, of all places?
That's when they saw him: pale as death and wearing all black, with hair as red as blood, a guy who could only have been a villain flew down on some kind of weird propeller backpack thing.
Looking over at her sister, Buttercup saw steel in Bubbles' eyes. She was thinking the same thing.
They moved into action with practice born of their years as heroes.
Without their costumes, Bubbles couldn't glide over using her sonic scream, leaving her to try to get within range and hopefully blow the villain's eardrums out with her Quirk.
Buttercup, though? She didn't need her costume. She was a weapon, all on her own.
Her Quirk wasn't as flashy as either of her sisters', but she didn't need it to be. With No Limit, Buttercup was able to get stronger, faster, and tougher the more she trained and strained and broke herself. She'd passed anything like a Quirkless person's limits a long time ago, and was easily the biggest powerhouse in the school.
Sprinting forward as fast as she could, which was faster than any normal human could even aspire to, Buttercup intercepted the villain as he was landing, before Blossom could come any closer. He only saw her coming at the last second, his eyes had been on the redheaded sister until it was too late.
"Get away from my sister!"
Buttercup's punch hit him right in the face, sending him flying backwards, smashing into the trunk of a nearby tree. It felt good to see the creep crumple in pain on the ground, and Buttercup turned to grin in satisfaction at Blossom.
She was about to ask why Blossom had been hiding the fact she was tracking this villain, and why she hadn't thought to share the mission with them, when she saw Blossom's face.
It had gone nearly as pale as the villain's, blood drained, and her eyes were wide as they started to fill up with tears. "Jack!"
Blossom high-tailed it towards the villain, and instead of cuffing him or further incapacitating him, she helped him stand up. The villain's hands were holding his nose, which looked bent now, as blood gushed out of it.
She looked over at Buttercup, fury in her eyes. "Buttercup, you broke my boyfriend's nose!"
Her what.
"Your what?!" Buttercup and Bubbles said at the same time.
They looked from Blossom, who switched back into worry mode as she looked at the guy, to the bleeding villain, trying to make some sense of what they were seeing.
It finally clicked.
"Seriously, Blossom? You got mind-controlled again?" Buttercup asked, feeling irate.
Bubbles sighed. "You need to be more careful, silly."
Still holding his broken nose, the villain tried to speak. "Pby pidn' pnd pntrl pr!"
Blossom focused on her sisters again, blushing. "It was one time! And like Jack said, he's not mind-controlling me! We're just...dating."
That did nothing to help Buttercup's skepticism. She looked from Blossom to this 'Jack' guy and back again. "Seriously? This is your first boyfriend? Mr. Emo Goth McGee who is clearly a villain?"
"Wasn't Brick her first boyfriend?" Bubbles asked, looking confused.
That just made Blossom more angry. "Brick was never my boyfriend! We were like...six! It didn't count!"
"Ph's Phck?" Jack asked, looking at Blossom.
"Another time, Jack." She inspected his nose, moving his hands away so she could see it better.
For just a second, Buttercup actually felt a little bad. She hadn't meant to hit him that hard. From what she could see, it would be a surprise if there was any solid stuff left intact in his nose.
"This is going to sting, but it should help until I can take you to my school's nurse." Then, she blew her cold breath on his nose. She didn't quite freeze it solid or anything, but at the very least the bleeding was slowing down.
"Pnk p'" he told her, which Buttercup was fairly sure was supposed to be him thanking her.
Turning her attention back on them, Blossom looked ready to start a fight. They'd butted heads over the years, especially Buttercup and her, but this time...Buttercup was actually starting to kind of feel guilty. Not that she'd admit that. It was totally this Jack guy's fault for looking like a villain.
Putting an arm around Jack's shoulders, easy for Blossom to do since she was almost a full foot taller than him, she glared at Buttercup. "I'm taking him to get healed. Wait here, we'll be back to talk this out."
After Blossom walked away with her injured boyfriend (which holy heck Blossom was finally actually dating someone Bubbles couldn't believe it!) and they waited for them to return, Bubbles had to admit to herself that they'd messed up.
Like, sure, Buttercup had been the one to punch him, but if Bubbles had gotten to him first, he'd have still been hurt. Maybe not that bad, buuuuuuut...
Buttercup didn't look as ready to admit that. "-is own fault! Look at him! How was I supposed to know he wasn't a villain?"
Normally, Blossom was the one to argue with Buttercup about stuff like this, while Bubbles just kind of listened to their back and forth. But Blossom wasn't there, and Bubbles felt like she should probably speak up for her. "Well...we could have talked to them first?" Idly, she reached up to fiddle with one of her pigtails.
"But what if he had been a mind-control villain?" Buttercup replied. "Plus, it was super suspicious that Blossom hadn't told us about him!"
"That is weird..."
They waited in silence after that. Buttercup silently fuming, probably coming up with reasons why she hadn't done anything wrong, while Bubbles just explored the park a little. She quickly found some squirrels and started chattering away at them, just like she used to do as a kid.
"They're coming back."
Turning around, Bubbles saw that was true. Blossom was keeping an arm on Jack as they came closer, but the blood had been cleaned from his face, and his nose...
...looked better? Hopefully it would return to normal, eventually?
They came together, and stood in silence at first. Blossom and Buttercup were glaring at each other, each waiting for the other to say something first.
Which is probably why it was Jack who cut in. "Hello, heroes! I am your nightmare come to life, the villain who will one day rule the world, Jack Spicer! Evil boy geniu-aaAAHH!"
Before he could finish the sentence, Buttercup had grabbed him by the shirt under his black coat and was lifting him into the air, drawing back her fist.
"Not in the face! Not in the face!" Jack begged, putting his hands between the danger and its target.
"Buttercup! Put him down!" Blossom complained.
She did so, but still had a retort ready. "Didn't you hear him?! He's a bad guy!"
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Blossom asked Jack, "Can you plug your ears real quick?" He did so, whistling a tune while looking away, as Blossom told them, "He says stuff like that, but he's not actually a villain. I think he just enjoys the aesthetic and reputation, but he hasn't committed any serious crimes since he came to Townsville."
"Oh, so he's kind of like an actor!" Bubbles chimed in, happy to kind of understand the situation now.
Blossom considered that for a second before shrugging. "Yeah, that's not too far off. But he doesn't like it when you say he's not a villain, so please...just play along? For me?" Bubbles agreed without issue, she loved playing pretend anyway, but it took some serious Blossom Glaring for Buttercup to grumble that she'd try.
At a signal from Blossom, Jack took his fingers out of his ears. "Anyway!" He put an arm around Blossom's waist, who didn't seem to mind it being there. "I'm her boyfriend! You're her sisters! So I won't go out of my way to smite you with my indomitable machine army."
"Oh, we've fought one of those before!" Bubbles could remember it like it was yesterday. Probably because it was only like a month ago. "Mojo Jojo builds a lot of robots."
Jack looked offended. "Seriously? There's already a robot-building villain in the area?"
To Bubbles and Buttercup's shock, Blossom leaned down and kissed the top of Jack's head, then told him, "Your robots are far more sophisticated."
That was when it really started to settle in for the sisters. This was like...real. Blossom was actually going out with him, and they seemed to really like each other.
For Buttercup, that showed with a roll of the eyes and a gagging sound.
For Bubbles, that showed with an excited squee of excitement and a barrage of questions. "Wait, so, how did you two meet? What was your first date like? Who kissed who first?"
But before Blossom could answer those questions, Buttercup grabbed Bubbles by the shoulder and started pulling her away. "She can tell us later, Bubbles. We already interrupted their...ugh...'date'...so we should get out of here."
It made Bubbles smile. This was usually as close to 'nice' as Buttercup got.
She wasn't the only one who appreciated it.
"Thank you, Buttercup."
Rather than reply normally, Buttercup just flipped the bird at Blossom from over her shoulder. "Consider the broken nose payment for not telling us sooner!"
She must have known she'd get an earful for that later, but in the moment Buttercup looked smug about the parting line.
They were halfway home when Bubbles thought of something. "...what do you think Dad will think?"