I had a lot of fun with this chapter, not gunna lie. Still, I'm not entirely happy with it. If I was being more careful with this story I'd probably hold off on posting but eh, I'm not unhappy with it either. So here it is! Hopefully you all enjoy reading it!

Thanks as always for all the kudos, follows, and comments!

This...was going to be a disaster. Blossom just knew it. They were going to be going home with some serious damage today. Hopefully, it would only be from the monster. She shot a look over at Brick, who was flying right by her side today for some reason and looking angry about it, and Butch who was trailing after the group like a beat puppy dog. Buttercup kept sending him looks which had started when he first nearly made that comment about her and hadn't stopped since. Blossom was pretty curious too, but she wouldn't pry. Bubbles on the other hand...

Her youngest sister had made no attempts to hide her looks at the duct tape. It had been so obvious that Boomer was flying in between the two and kept giving her looks about it. She would simply smile back and get a smile in return though only for the whole thing to repeat.

Blossom sighed. She had such a bad feeling about this.

Well, Boomer was sort of impressed. He didn't know how Brick was keeping it together so well. In more ways than one. Still, he could tell his oldest brother was seriously unnerved by this whole thing and he couldn't blame him. Thank god the beam hadn't hit him. Boomer would probably lose it. In all sorts of bad ways. Still, a monster fight in this situation was gunna be trouble. For both of his brothers.

Blossom pulled up to a stop as a blast of electricity shot up into the sky a decent distance off to their left. "Alright. We'll split up here. Keep your communicators on. Thankfully, the professor just finished heat and surge proofing them so they should be able to handle everything. If it gets dicey, pull back and radio the team."

"Which way to King Kong?" Buttercup asked. Blossom shot her a look before pointing straight ahead.

"Dead center. Try to keep your hearing as intact as possible just in case."

Buttercup sighed but nodded. They all knew that with a supersonic monster it wasn't very likely.

"Right. Good luck everyone."

With that, Buttercup and Butch took off in flashes of green while Blossom and Boomer turned to do the same. Blossom stopped short at the look on Brick's face though.

"Brick?"

Boomer groaned. Brick's jaw was so tense he was surprised he hadn't chipped or cracked something yet. Bubbles shot him a look. As much as he was sure she was enjoying this, they had a job to do and Brick needed to get to it. With a groan, Boomer placed himself between the two reds and raised an eyebrow. Brick nodded slightly before shifting to the side. Boomer followed, continuing to block his view. Their speed kicked up rapidly until they were blue and red streaks flashing around Blossom. While the pink puff did not look impressed, in fact she looked kinda pissed, Boomer knew this was needed. A few seconds of this and Brick took off to their right in a streak of red, not looking back at all. Bubbles shot Boomer a questioning look, but he just shrugged back. Hopefully, it would be enough to keep him focused on the fight but right now? It was hard to tell if he'd lose control again and zoom back to Blossom's side.

With a sigh, Bubbles took off at almost full speed to catch up to Brick. When Boomer turned back to Blossom he saw that she had a dark look on her face as she glared off after Brick.

"I didn't realize he had such little faith in my abilities. I don't need babysat. I can take care of myself."

Boomer couldn't help a disbelieving laugh that had her rounding on him. He shut up quickly at the icy look in her eyes and gulped nervously. "Somehow I don't think that was the issue. Trust me, Brick knows you don't need protecting. I swear he probably has a scar or two from when we all still fought against each other from you."

Blossom's look softened slightly. "I doubt it. Not even Buttercup has any scars. Our X is extremely good at preventing them. Although, if it wasn't that he unconsciously feels the need to babysit me then what was the issue? Why was he so...close?"

Her nose scrunched up slightly at the end and Boomer couldn't help but think it was an oddly innocent look for the pink puff. He was also slightly concerned. Did Blossom seriously not have a clue at all about how Brick felt? Cause if so, it was gunna make it so much harder on Brick.

Either way, now wasn't the time. He shrugged at her question. "Who knows? I don't try to understand what goes on in his head. Anyways, more important things to be worried about?"

Another flash of electricity shot into the sky and Blossom glared at it.

"Right. Come on. The city needs us."

She shot off in a flash of pink and Boomer quickly followed. He'd worry about her lack of awareness later. Although he definitely made a note to hound his brother later too. Clearly Brick needed to up his game a bit if he wanted to get this puff's attention.

"Alright. Sonic ape frog thing. Cause this ain't weird at all," Buttercup said as she and Butch came to a floating stop not far from the monster. It really was a weird cross between an ape and a frog. She could see that the thing's chest could swell out if the monster wanted it to. It was probably how it let loose sonic blasts. Which was bad. The thing was huge and even just looking around she could tell it was capable of serious damage.

Butch sighed through his nose and gestured about wildly for a bit. Buttercup shot him a look when he was done.

"Leader girl doesn't expect us to stop this thing nimrod. We're damage control. This thing is still an ape so she's probably guessing it packs a punch. We're the best two to take that. She probably also wants us to use your shield to block the sonic blasts as much as we can. If we can."

Butch waved his hands about some more. Buttercup rolled her eyes.

"Because blue boy is clearly the best to go up against Mothra and leader girl will be best suited to directing him with hot head having to fight the ice one. As for Bubs, leader girl probably sent her with hot head thinking that it'd help them wrap that fight up faster. After that she'll head here and help us out."

Butch gestured about some more.

"How should I know? But I'm sure Bubs can figure it out even if it does happen. Let's just hope that hot head is as much of a control freak as I think he is. Anyways, this thing ain't doing much right now so I say we just chill."

Butch groaned at that and Buttercup glared at him.

"Do you always have to have action? Come on dude. We're in the middle of the city with a third of the team. This thing sitting around is a good thing. Less damage we need to be taking care of."

Butch huffed through his nose and Buttercup decided to ignore him. He could get over himself at this point. She'd take a boring monster in the middle of the city any day. Plus, she doubted this thing was going to stay quiet. Literally.

They floated there watched as the thing's chest inflated and deflated slightly. After a few minutes of the, all of a sudden, the monster swung to face them and seemed to cock its head at them for a second before opening its mouth and taking in a deep breath.

"Shit. Butch-!"

Buttercup couldn't get another word in before the monster let out a giant croaking bellow. Butch was quick to put up a shield around himself and Buttercup to try and block some of the blast out. They were both quick to cover the ears as the blast hit them.

They could follow the path of the sound and its intensity as it caused the streets and buildings to shake so much that crack and fissures formed in just about every surface. She should have told Butch to put his shield around the monster, not them. Too late, it hit them, not much after that thought, hard. Even with Butch's shield and their ears covered, and they were good at covering their ears thanks to Bubble, it was still loud enough to make both greens groan out at the pressure it placed on their ear drums. Buttercup even stumbled in the air slightly and Butch shot her a look, unable to help her with his hands covered. She pulled herself together enough to stay in the air behind the shield though. Not that she felt the shield was doing them much good.

It lasted almost a quarter of a minute which felt like eternity. Once the monster finished both greens cautiously dropped their hands. Their ears screamed with a ringing sound and Buttercup knew right away it wouldn't matter if Butch had his mouth duct taped or not, she wouldn't be able to hear him. Even if she focused her X on her ears to speed up her healing it wouldn't do much good. She'd need at least a good 30 minutes of that before she'd be able to make anything out and she was going to need at least a day to fully recover and it was just one blow. She seriously hoped that the city had been able to evacuate people to the safe areas well in advance this time. With the alarms failing they'd placed men at gate houses along the coast to watch for incoming monster to try and give the people a warning. They were still pretty close to the coast all things considered so she was hoping it had helped give the people the heads up they had needed. It clearly hadn't been good enough to give her and the other X heroes enough of a heads up to have this fight over the ocean and not in the city. If the people hadn't gotten out in time...

That was a worry for another time. She had a monster to deal with. It leapt at her and Butch and seemed to roar. They both zoomed out the way and fired energy blasts at it. They hit the monster but didn't seem to do much other than make its chest area glow. Getting flashbacks to the fights throughout the year, Buttercup gestured wildly to get Butch's attention and make him stop. He shot her a look but did it.

The monster seemed to roar again as it swung around widely to its left, taking a swipe at Butch. The green ruff seemed to huff as he easily dodged the blow before zooming over to Buttercup. He raised an eyebrow as he reached her.

"It's doing that glowy thing!" Buttercup shouted. She tried not to be too loud, but she saw the monster flinch away as some of the surrounding debris also moved from the force of it. She frowned at that.

Butch also clearly hadn't been able to make out what she said but she wasn't too surprised. He gestured about as the monster took another swipe at them, causing Buttercup to have to pull her attention away from Butch to dodge it. Butch tried again but had to stop short as the monster lunged at him and tried to essentially swallow him whole. Buttercup gnashed her teeth together before trying again.

"The glowy thing! It did it!"

His brow furrowed and she guessed he'd maybe done a better job covering his ears than she had. She doubted it though since she was the one living with Bubbles, but he did have dog in him. Their hearing was better. Not that any of that really mattered at that point.

Buttercup tried again as Butch flew closer but still had no success and both had to pull away from one another as the monster punched at her. Shaking her head at how slow it was she zoomed down to land a punch across its cheek. She watched closely but didn't see any glowing. The monster fell to its side from the force of the blow, slightly stunned.

Buttercup felt a really triumphant smile spread across her face. Bullseye. Now she just had to tell Butch. She turned while the monster was still down and zoomed to Butch.

"The glowy thing! Physical hits only!" She mouthed carefully as Butch watched her lips. It took him a second before the lightbulb went off.

With what she figured was a bad impulse of his, Butch ripped the duct tape off his mouth.

"Sweeeeeet!" He yelled as he threw his head back. She rolled her eyes and turned to the monster only to be hit with what felt like truck and pushed into Butch. The force wrapped around the two of them and she felt her stomach lurch as the monster yanked both greens towards its face, both tightly caught in its grip. It roared in the faces and Buttercup felt her nose scrunch up at the smell. She felt Butch saying something and rolled her eyes. Trust him to still say something witty even while they were both deaf.

The monster then took that opportunity to beat his fists against his chest. Buttercup would definitely say it was a new experience and one she was in no hurry to repeat. Her head had been yanked back and forth from the force and she couldn't help but groan at the ache she now had in her neck. At least it hadn't broken anything.

Still, not wanting a repeat, Buttercup pumped her X into the muscle fibers of her arms to boost them a bit more and tried to force the monster's hand away from her body. Butch seemed to catch on and tried to help push the hand away as well. With the key word being tried.

Even with both greens pushing with their full strength against the hand around them they couldn't get it to budge, probably due to their poor angle with their arms being trapped. Normally she would have been impressed. Right now, not so much though. The monster seemed to look down at them and smile.

"Fuck. We're so screwed."

"You know, you're really lucky Blossom is sooo oblivious. Otherwise, it would have been a lot more awkward," Bubbles hummed out as she flew just behind Brick. A wave of heat hit her in the face in response. "Seriously though, all she had to do was look-"

"Bubbles, I know you. I know I'm not avoiding this conversation. I get it. Right now though? I'm really trying to not turn around and go flying back the way we came. If we keep talking about this though you might just be on your own with this lizard."

Bubbles pouted at that. "Aw, it can't be that bad. We are heading to face the thing after all even though she was just right there."

"Yeah well, I'm pretty frustrated right now and wailing on a monster sounds like a great way to work some of it off."

"Frustrated huh?"

Brick glared back at her. She didn't mind though. It gave her the chance to see just how red his face was. "Yes. Now can we please stop talking about your sister?"

Bubbles sighed but nodded. Brick huffed back before kicking it up a notch to try and get to the monster faster. Bubbles couldn't help but wonder if it was because she'd annoyed him enough that he wanted to hit something more or that he was just trying to outrun his embarrassment.

Maybe she shouldn't chance it either way. While Brick hadn't made any violent moves at anyone other than Butch, she was sure it wouldn't take much right now for that to change. In fact, she was surprised she hadn't already had a beam or two shot her way. She guessed it was simply because Brick was a red and therefore, too controlling even with himself. The fact that the effects were probably not as strong was also probably helping a lot.

Still, it really hadn't been Brick's year so far, had it? Bubbles was enjoying it lots though.

They came up to the monster pretty quickly. Both were pretty happy to see that the damage so far was pretty minimal. The lizard monster looked as if it was made of snow and ice almost and was currently clinging to the side of a sky rise building about half-way up it. Its eyes were closed but its tongue kept flicking out every now and then.

"It's kinda weird that it's an ice lizard. I'm surprised it's still alive to be honest what with lizards being cold blooded and all. It should have frozen over ages ago," Bubbles commented. Brick shrugged.

"Yeah well, let's just wrap this up quick. Hopefully, there isn't some weird trick to this one like there has been with the others. We also need to take a sample which I'm counting on you to take. Being honest with you, I'm about two seconds away from charging in and you're just gunna have to try and follow my lead. I don't know what I'll do so I can't really lead properly right now."

"I figured. That's why Blossom wanted me with you. I'm the fastest and easiest out of us to work with. I'll follow your lead as much as I can and get far far out of the way if I can't."

"Good."

Brick shot off at the monster in a flash of red and took a deep breath. As they got closer, the lizard's eyes snapped open and focused on the fast-approaching ruff. Bubbles sighed before zooming in to follow.

The lizard turned its head as Brick opened his mouth to let loose a blast of flames. The lizard barely even blink before it glowed lightly and the surrounding temperature dropped drastically. Bubbles zoomed down and up in as it opened its mouth and landed a punch across its face as she flew by. Its head swung away from Brick with the force of the punch and Brick took the chance to fire of a rapid fury of red energy blasts at its back.

Both supers frowned as some of his shots went wide and hit the building, but it was sort of to be expected. Bubbles just hoped that the area had fully evacuated already.

The monster let out a grumbling groan of pain at the blasts and quickly started to crawl across the building to try and get away. For a bit, Brick's blasts followed it until it turned a second corner and the building stood between the two. Even then, the blasts continued for a second or two until, with a string of curses, Brick managed to stop. Bubbles shot him a look.

"Don't even Bubs. Kinda not myself right now if you don't remember?"

Bubbles nearly said that it was a good thing Blossom wasn't there but then decided against it. Probably wouldn't have gone well for her.

Deciding to not waste any time, Bubbles and Brick both zoomed to the other side of the building only to have to swerve out of the way as a wall of ice launched at them. It was slow though and both were able to easily dodge it. They quickly made to fire at the monster again only to stop short.

"Wait. It was right there wasn't it? Where'd it go?"

"Well, at least it isn't doing much?" Boomer tried as he sat on the edge of a building not far from where the monster rested. Blossom huffed from where she was pacing behind him.

"Yes well, neither are we."

Fair. Not much they could do though. When they'd arrived and tried to rush in all the monster had needed to do was flutter its wings and electricity went arching through the air like crazy. A few of them had hit Blossom and Boomer was thankful he was immune to electricity. He could still remember the way she had convulsed in his arms when he'd swooped in to stop her free fall drop. It had taken almost a good minute before she'd been able to move and even then, Blossom had taken a serious hit. With a glance back at her, Boomer could still make out the occasional tremor in her limbs.

"Well, like I said, I could go in and see what it doesn't like."

"No. You'd be on your own and while normally I don't worry about you being exposed to too much electricity, that was enough to kill a normal person and I barely got hit by any of it. If it turned out that you do have a limit on how much electricity your body can take and you went down next to the monster, I'd have no way right now to get you out. I'm not taking that chance."

Well, she was nicer than Brick in that regard. His brothers would have already kicked him off the building telling him to make himself useful. Not that he was complaining. He just wanted to get this fight started so they could get to helping the others faster was all.

Turning back around, Boomer observed the monster again. It looked to be a giant blue morpho which was pretty appropriate, what with a normal blue morpho being giant by normal butterfly standards. Every time it fluttered its wing, some of the scales went flying. It seemed that when they came into contact with one another they generated some electricity which made Boomer think that the whole monster was likely a little super charged so he could kinda understand Blossom's concern. Still...

"This is so boring."

"Ugh, I can finally make out some sound past this damned ringing," Buttercup groaned out. She was still uncomfortably close to Butch in the monster's grip. She was just glad that it was her back that was pressed against him. Being stuck face to face would have seriously sucked.

"Well fan-fucking-tastic. Now you get to hear all the wonderful things I can't help but blab about cause of your dad's dumb machine. Which is just great. You know, I really almost wish I'd had Brick's outcome more than this one. I've blabbed out about half of my secrets so far."

"Well, not like I wanna hear them either but I do wanna hear our radios just in case. Plus, not like I need my X for anything else right now."

"Still seems like a waste. This bad boy is bound to blow again and neither of us are gunna be able to hear for weeks after that."

Buttercup frowned. She wasn't too worried about her hearing, but she was worried. Growing up with Bubbles meant that the Utonium household was pretty familiar with how sound could affect things. This monster had already proven to be loud enough to kill a person, they were just lucky they were X individuals which could take a lot more. She was worried though that this thing could be louder. If it could...well. They'd had a good run she guessed.

"Again, nothing better to use it on." She'd let Butch stay none the wiser. While she was sure he'd take a similar mental approach as herself, she didn't want to chance it. Plus, not like she knew for sure.

"Well, you could have saved it and saved me from embarrassing myself. I really don't need you to hear about how when we first moved in with Bellum that we still thought it was normal to eat bugs and so we made her a meal out of them one day. I think she's the only human alive who could maybe rival a Bubs super scream."

Buttercup snorted as Butch groaned behind her. "Oh my god. So glad you tore that tape off if only so I could hear that story. Hope you know imma share it with everyone."

"I wish I could say it had been Brick's idea, but Brick actually warned Boom and I against it. We still did it anyways and Brick laughed his ass off about it. Fuck! Why did I take the tape off?!"

"Please. Keep going. What's your most embarrassing moment?"

She felt Butch tense behind her as he tried not to say anything. It lasted maybe 5 seconds.

"In the 8th grade I asked out Judy by serenading outside her window. She thought someone was dying and called the cops. When they showed up, I bolted and Boomer had to explain to them when they showed up at Bellum's that even though he'd warned me and tried to stop me, that I had been determined to socially kill myself. He even said that they should be thankful that he'd been teaching me the week leading up to that or else there might have been a murder that needed looking into. I'm just lucky Judy took pity on my horrible singing and didn't tell the whole school. Boomer thinks it's cause I traumatized her though. Fuck! Why would you ask me that?! You're no Powerpuff! Evil!"

Buttercup was cracking up. "Oh my god, this is great."

"What's really great is your laugh." Buttercup went silent at that. "Holy shit shut me up. You were never supposed to hear that. I swore I'd take that thought to the grave."

"Yeah okay. Weird now."

"What's weird is the looks you've been given Merrick. You're not into him, are you? Cause that'd suck. Like really suck. Also, wish Brick was here so I could insult his hat and die right about now. Death is really starting to appeal to me here. Just so I can shut up."

Well, weird as this was now, there was a thought.

"Nah, not into him. Still, had a question about him-"

"Nope. You ain't allowed to ask it. I know what you're gunna ask and I'll just force myself to say some other shit that I'm sure will have us both hating ourselves so don't ask."

"You don't seem to have that much self-control."

"Like that time before Bellum when we were, what, 7? And I just had to try that lollipop that was sticking out of this one dude's hand even though I wasn't entirely sure he was still alive. Dude was alive alright. He scratched me up pretty good even despite the X when I tried to take it and I ended up with the thing getting infected from the dirt on his nails. Brick had to clean it out cause Mojo was in jail for another robbery and Him was doing yoga or something. Shit. Fuck. Make me stop."

"Well, I already knew you had zero control. So, did Merrick-"

"In 10th grade there was a guy who was totally into you." Butch tensed and Buttercup could feel him starting to struggle against her either to shut himself up or get away. She wasn't sure which. "He came up to me and asked me how he should go about getting to know you. I totally was stunned. Like, I hadn't even realized you were a girl until then? But then I did? And I couldn't stop? So, I told the guy to go screw himself cause I didn't like the idea of him getting close to you. When he told me I was being lame I told him that there was no way you'd be into a chess geek like him. He flipped me off and told me he'd try anyways. I heard the next day that you'd turned him down and the next time I saw the guy in the hallway I sent him the biggest shit-eating grin I could."

They were completely silent for a good couple of minutes before Buttercup was able to make her mouth work.

"I'm... shit. I don't-you know what? I'm gunna pretend I didn't hear that and I'm not gunna try asking again," she managed to wheeze out.

"Please," Butch pleaded in a sad, whimpering high pitch tone that was pretty dog like to be honest.

"Any way I can make you not tell me another fact like that?"

"Well, you could listen to all the random history facts I'm always dying to tell people but don't cause I'm too busy trying to look cool and they just make me seem like a nerd."

Buttercup sighed. "Fine. Hit me."

"How the fuck are we supposed to find this thing?! Gaaaah!" Brick yelled as he ripped his hair tie out to pull at his hair. It was a bad and childish habit that he'd grown out of. The fact that he couldn't help but do it now just added to his frustration and he couldn't help but let out a blast of heat hot enough that it singed Bubbles's clothes slightly. She shot him a look as she patted the areas out. He managed to at least make an apologetic expression at her.

She sighed as she scanned the city below. "Beats me. Floating around up here isn't helping though. Maybe if we fly down, we can fly around for colder spots?"

There would be no way Blossom would have supported the idea. It would put both of them at risk of an ambush from the thing. Brick found himself only lightly worried though. More than anything, he just wanted to get this over with already.

And because he had no control at all right now, he couldn't help but find himself shooting down into the city. He could hear Bubbles grumbling lightly behind him and made a note to buy her something nice after this. She deserved something to make up for what he was putting her through, and he knew she knew not to expect an actual apology. Especially since this wasn't even really his fault.

"Let me know if you feel something and keep close. I'm having a hard time feeling any sort of a chill right now."

That ever raging inferno he housed was going a little haywire right now. If this kept up, he'd have a backlash event soon. Which he really couldn't afford.

"Will do cap."

Brick couldn't help but roll his eyes at the nickname. He didn't get why everyone loved it. Yeah, he wore a baseball cap all the time. Yeah, he was the football team captain. Yeah, it was fitting. Still!

Least the greens understood. Buttercup rarely ever called him by it though Butch tended to use the nickname a lot during practices.

They flew around in silence, feeling for any difference. After about a good 10 minutes of this, Brick couldn't help but come to a stop and let out a roar of flames.

"We're getting nowhere!"

"No reason to get so upset. At least it isn't doing any damage. Plus, the longer this takes, the sooner you'll be back to normal. I'm sure the others are just fine anyways."

"Well, they haven't radioed for help so here's hoping. Still, I can't take much more of this. I'm going insane!" Brick cried out. Bubbles flew over and pat his shoulder reassuringly. She was one of the very few people who could do that right now and not have him breaking their wrists for the uninitiated contact.

"Now, now. It's not that bad. Could be a lot worse."

And, because why not? It got worse. A giant mouth opened up below them right then and before either could react, they were swallowed whole.

The whole process was more than a little unpleasant, though Brick was glad they were small enough compared to the monster that it hadn't felt the need to chew. After a few seconds of being awkwardly tumbled down the monster's throat with Bubbles, the fell into the pit of stomach acid. Their clothes started to make a hissing noise as the acid began to melt through them and Brick quickly felt an itch across his body where it had come in contact with the acid.

"Ew ew ew ew ew ew EW!" Bubbles screeched as she flew out of the acid and shook herself of violently to get rid of the acid. Brick was slightly impressed. He didn't think he could have done a better job himself. "We did NOT just get swallowed! I liked these shoes!"

Brick sighed as he floated up and flicked as much of the acid off as he could. He knew better than to try shaking it off like Bubbles had. If he got any on her she'd probably kill his eardrums and there was a monster out there that could do it for her instead so he managed to not shake like a dog.

"Sorry Bubs. I'll buy you a new pair."

"Their limited edition!" Brick winced as she went slightly sonic. She hmphed at him before turning away and taking some deep breaths to calm down. "Now what?" She asked, much calmer now.

Brick sighed. "Well, boom I guess."

"Is that safe? I mean, with me here?"

Brick thought about it. "Hold your breath and fly for the throat when it gets close to the boom point. City has been evacuated right?"

Bubbles nodded. "Yeah, they should all be in the safe areas by now."

"Good. Still, warmer in here than I thought it'd be, what with this thing being an ice lizard and all," Brick idly noted as he started to let his heat loose. Bubbles shrugged.

"I mean, it is a monster. Chances are that its warm blooded and not actually a lizard. There's a ton we still don't know about monster anatomy and all."

"Speaking of, grab a sample before I blow it will ya? Take a nice amount too."

Bubbles made a face before flying to the top of the stomach. She grumbled as she took out a little box and opened it up. Icy vapors poured over the sides from where the sample spot was. Groaning, Bubbles plunged her finger into the monster's stomach lining and pulled a chunk of flesh out which she quickly placed in the box before closing it.

"Here's hoping it survives this."

"Eh, I'm sure the professor made it so it can take a punch. I'm not a fan of his in-progress machines but the final products ain't too bad."

Bubbles shot him a look and he shrugged. "His final products are genius please and thank you."

"Yeah, yeah. Get ready. On three. One...two...three!"

At the count of three, Brick finally really let loose before plunging back into the acid. The liquid quickly began to boil, and he felt the monster squirming like crazy as it tried to make it stop only to be unsuccessful. A few seconds later and the monster blew apart covering the city and himself and Bubbles in monster guts.

"Great. Just great. And we still haven't heard from anyone else so I'm guessing we can't go clean this off."

Brick sighed as Bubbles tried flicking as much off as she could. "Yeah no. Still have work to do."

Bubbles made a face before shaking violently again. Brick closed his eyes as more guts landed on him. Once she was done, she looked herself over and sighed.

"It'll have to do. What next?"

Brick wiped a hand across his face and flicked off as much as he could. "Next, you go help the greens while I head over to the other two. Radio them and let them know you're on your way."

Bubbles saluted. "Aye aye captain!"

"Oh, and make sure to prioritize keeping the sample safe. We need to get it back to the prof and figure out what's up with these monsters getting through the alert system. There's no guarantee that we'll be able to get a sample from one of the other monsters."

"Roger. Over and out!" Bubbles said with a giggle as she took off full speed for where the greens were. Brick sighed. Right. Now to head for Blossom and Boomer.

He hadn't even finished the thought before his body was shooting off in the direction he needed to go. Hopefully, this damned thing wouldn't last too much longer.

"Fact number 136. Turkeys were once worshiped as gods."

"Okay, BS. I call BS on that one. No way is it true."

"But it is! The Mayans are believed to have thought of them as symbols of power. One of their rulers even had the word turkey added to his royal nickname. Course, they still sacrificed and ate the delicious things, but they considered them to be stand-ins and messengers of gods. Think they tried to domesticate them but more often than not it didn't work out. That was when they ate them instead. I think. If I'm remembering correctly. Anyways, look it up when we get free."

"Ha! I'm gunna have to. Worshiping turkeys..."

"Fact number 137. The U.S. government pretty much poisoned alcohol during the prohibition to try and get people to stop drinking the stuff illegally. Don't see how killing them was any better but eh. It's estimated that at least 10,000 people died."

"That's morbid. Why are you talking about poison and people dying?"

Both greens whipped their heads to the side to see Bubbles floating there with a curious look on her face. Buttercup broke out in a huge grin.

"Bubs! Thank god! We're stuck and we can't force out way out. Neither of us can get a good angle or whatever and so this ape has had us like this for almost this entire time!"

Bubbles cocked her head to the side. "Sooo...you decided to talk history?"

Buttercup felt her face heat and groaned since she knew what was about to happen.

"Nah see, Buttercup tried to ask me about something I really didn't want to talk about so instead I started spouting other facts that I really, really didn't want to talk about. We decided me ranting about random history facts was the safest bet. Speaking of, did you know-" Butch said. He was cut off by a much too interested Bubbles.

"What random facts did you really really not wanna share?"

Her eyes were sparkling in a way Buttercup knew all too well. She also knew that she really needed to change the topic. Like now.

"It doesn't matter! We have other things to take care of. Mainly the giant ape that's thankfully been ignoring us all?"

All three looked up at the ape who was staring off in the distance, breathing calmly.

"Hmmm, yeah. The monsters this time are kinda weird. Ours didn't really do much damage either. Kinda just hid from us using some sort of camo or something. I kinda almost feel bad for the way the poor thing ended up."

"Yeah, they're small too. Well, comparatively. Doesn't matter though. We got a job to do so help us out here. Maybe if you pull while we try and push it'll be enough."

"Well, worth a shot I guess."

They immediately set out to do just that. While they were doing that though, the monster slowly turned to focus on them.

"Okay, again. On three. One...two...oh shit! Incoming!" Buttercup yelled as she felt the ape take in a very deep breath. Bubbles immediately flew in between the ape and the greens, taking a deep breath of her own. As the sonic croak from the ape let loose, Bubbles let loose with a scream of her own. The greens reeled back at the conflicting sounds as Bubbles quickly fine-tuned her frequency to help neutralize that of the ape's. Even though she had been quick about it, both greens knew their hearing was completely shot now.

Once the sonic match was done, Bubbles spun around and started saying something only to have both greens squint at her.

"Bubs. No good. Can't hear," Buttercup tried to say somewhat softly. She wasn't worried about Bubbles's hearing. Her sister's eardrums could take the biggest beating of them all what with her own abilities with sound and all. Still, while Buttercup managed to not go sonic this time, she still had clearly been loud as Bubbles winced away from the two. Buttercup watched as Bubbles huffed and threw her hands in the air. With a quick glance at the monster, who was back to taking calm breaths again, she held up three fingers for the greens. She dropped one slowly and they caught on quickly.

Nodding they got ready, another finger dropped as Bubbles also moved closer to the monster's fingers. As she dropped the last one, she quickly reached out to grab at the monsters' fingers and pulled as the greens pushed. Unlike with just the greens, they were able to move the fingers but just barely. Still, it was enough for Buttercup who very quickly wiggled her way free before the monster's grip tightened again around Butch.

Buttercup was pretty glad her hearing was shot as she turned back to look at Butch whose mouth was flapping like crazy. From the look on Bubbles's face she got the gist pretty quick although even without that she'd have had a pretty good idea. Still, not like she needed Butch's help with this.

Turning with a glare, she met the eyes of the monster and snarled at it.

"Physical attacks only Bubs."

Buttercup didn't wait for her sister before launching at the monster's face and landing a punch right across it. Bubbles quickly followed up by landing a punch to the monster's stomach. The combined hits had the monster stumbling back as it opened its fist and let Butch go. Buttercup didn't flinch as she felt Butch launching past her to land a punch square in the monster's face at full strength. The force of the punch sent a shock wave out that shattered the few remaining windows of all the surrounding buildings. Buttercup frowned at that before glaring down at Butch who was smirking at the now passed out monster. He could be so excessive.

Bubbles turned and was clearly trying to tell them something but with their ears so damaged, all Buttercup could do was cock an eyebrow. Bubbles visibly huffed at that before pointing off to the distance where a flash of lightning went off.

Oh. Right. One more. Buttercup whacked Butch over the head to get his attention, and ignored his glare, before taking off for the last one. The fact that it was still around despite Blossom having been the one to head that way worried Buttercup. Hopefully, everything would be okay.

"Alright. Not doing that again," Boomer said as he gently laid the convulsing Blossom on the ground. Again. This was the third failed attempt with each one ending worse than the last. Boomer couldn't help but wince as that last shocks finished wreaking havoc on Blossom's body.

He really wished she'd just let him go at it at this point. He was pretty confident that he could handle the amount of electricity, but Blossom was being stubborn. Not that that surprised him.

Blossom let out a shaky sigh as her body kicked into recovery mode and X began to flood her system again.

"Yeah. Not again," she managed to softly get out through her tremors. Boomer sighed as he kneeled down next to her.

"Come on Bloss, at this point just let me try. What's the worst that could happen?"

She glared at him and he winced at the look. She didn't even have to say anything for him to feel like an idiot. Okay, the worst could still happen, and it'd be bad but still, it was better than watching this! He seriously was not enjoying watching Blossom convulsing on the ground.

"No. But maybe...radio for help."

Wow. She had really hated that she had to say that. Boomer imagined that this was the face Blossom would make if she ever had to eat poison. Yup. That was a poison eating face. Still, he wasn't going to argue. He put his hand on the earpiece to turn it on.

"Hey, need help with the butterfly. Anyone able to head over?" He asked into the piece. There wasn't any delay in response.

"Yeah. I'm here."

Boomer about jumped out of his skin at the sound of his oldest brother's voice coming from behind him. Brick was looking down at Blossom with a weird look on his face before he turned to glare at the monster. Boomer guessed the effects of the professor's machine must have started to wear off with the amount of control his brother was showing now. It was around about time for it anyways.

"I see that. A little heads up woulda been nice."

Brick grunted before nodding at the monster. "Any reason you haven't stormed it yet?"

Boomer glanced down at Blossom who frowned at Brick only to get the red ruff clicking his tongue loudly at her.

"Boomer, cover me. I'm firebombing the thing. From the top."

Brick took off before Blossom could say anything. Boomer shrugged at her before taking off to meet his brother up in the clouds above the monster.

"I did try to tell her I could take it but..." Boomer trailed off as he reached his brother. Brick sighed loudly.

"Yeah well, she's always been a worry wart to start with. Add in that she doesn't know much about your limits yet and it makes sense. Plus, not like we ever told her how far Mojo and Him tested you. Think you'll be fine?"

Boomer nodded, a grimace on his face. He really didn't like to remember his time back as a kid in Mojo's lab but he guessed it had been sort of helpful. The professor had been having a hard time finding a machine strong enough to measure Boomer's electrical output without causing things to short circuit. The first time he'd tried to measure Boomer's electricity, half of the prof's house had ended up with electrical damage in the sockets and wiring. Mojo hadn't cared about damage to the surrounding areas so, as a kid, Boomer had pushed ahead without caring about things like that. Needless to say, the ruffs had known from a pretty early age that saying Boomer could handle a lot of electricity was an understatement. They'd yet to find an amount that could hurt the blue ruff to be honest.

That said, the butterfly was giving off enough though that Boomer had understood Blossom's concerns. While he wasn't trying to hide how much he could handle, it's not like he'd been able to tell her that he could for sure handle it either. He didn't know the details of Mojo's research and findings. The monkey never shared anything with them. And Blossom was the kind of person who wanted the hard facts, not the maybes or 'I feel like it should be fine's.

"Great. Make sure to get out of there quick and just keep me from getting hit enough that it would be dangerous. From the way Blossom looked, I know I'm gunna end up dropping like a rock when we get closer," Brick said as he began to heat up. Boomer nodded and then started his dive when Brick nodded back.

The butterfly didn't react until they'd dropped about half of the distance and even then, all it did was fluttering its wings a little. Not that it needed to do much more. With that little flutter, electricity arced across the sky.

Boomer threw his arms out and let his own electricity build as he tried to reach out and push the arcing sparks away from his brother. He heard Brick grunt though and knew he hadn't been completely successful. Still, Brick was already getting too hot for comfort for Boomer and the monster showed no signs of moving still. Gritting his teeth, Boomer kicked his speed up a notch and tried to deal with as much electricity as possible before shooting off to the side and out of Brick's way. He turned, shaking the stray sparks off his arms, and watched as the flaming ball of fire that was his brother hit the butterfly.

The thing burst into flames and let out a high-pitched scream before crumbling into dust. Yeah, that was more heat than usual for his brother and Boomer was officially concerned. Last time Brick had burned that hot...

He flew over immediately to where the pile of ashes was and looked for his brother. Like he'd thought, Brick stood in the middle, hands tremoring slightly on his sides, panting with his face flushed. The air shimmered slightly with the heat waves he was still giving off.

Boomer knew better than to get too close but still dropped down closer to his brother. "You good?" He asked. Brick shot him a look.

"Too much heat. The damned machine made controlling it hard and so I've passed the point of no return. Gotta head home. Tell the prof that I'll be back later to make up for the missed physical."

Without waiting, Brick shot off in the direction of their home. Boomer scratched at his neck, slightly worried. He should probably go with but...

He turned and saw the greens and Bubbles approaching and sighed. He'd head off after Brick in a sec. First, he needed to pass the message on. Then he had to make sure Butch didn't end up dead because of his fat mouth. Or worse, end up in Bubbles's cross hairs.

"Well, I'm glad that we were able to get such a fresh sample, two of them even! I just wish I could have examined Brick as well though," the professor said as he sighed. Blossom sighed at that.

Boomer had told them that Brick wouldn't be able to make it. When they pressed for a reason why he wouldn't say. Luckily, Butch still had no control over his mouth and had caught on quickly. She knew all too well how bad the backlash of their special powers could be, even if she didn't know all the specifics on how Brick's affected him.

"This will have to do dad. I'll help you run with the tests. Do you have an idea on which ones to start with?"

The professor scratched at his head with a sigh. "I have a faint idea of what to look for but let's start broad. It'll probably be a week or so before we'll have our answer I imagine."

Blossom had expected that. Monster samples were always tricky to work with and so it always took them longer than usually to analyze them properly. Still, she was happy that they'd finally be getting answers. These monsters lately...

Before that though, she had something small to take care of. Fair was only fair after all.

So Blossom has a weird filter that just...makes her oblivious to herself haha. Poor Brick. Also, Bubbles is getting ideas and the greens are worried! Can't wait for you all to see what I have coming!

Marsnoesunplaneta! Hope you enjoy the fight scenes again! And four chapters in a go! Binge reading/watching is always the best way to do it though, in my opinion. I have a ton of binge reading to do to catch up on my fav stories too...if only I had the time T.T

Trase! You're right, you're right, and... you're right! Haha I like giving them all trouble don't I? The reds in particular. Brick's having a rough year for sure. And yes! All said and done, Boomer's brothers are his brothers and he loves them. Plus, he knows Bubbles can get carried away and Butch doesn't need that. I go back and forth on the whole dumb Butch thing. In my mind, it's more like a selective learning issue? Don't ask him math problems but history? Art? Something he's interested in? He'll blow you away with what he knows. That's a nerdy image though so he plays up being a hyperactive idiot to seem less uncool. This is a high school story though. I'm sure he'll learn to not care so much about what others think eventually (it's a struggle though).

Guest! Hope you enjoyed the lack of filter and slightly more childish Brick. He is a red though, couldn't make him totally lose control. I wanted him to be able to look in the mirror the next day still haha.

RainbowColoredHumanBeing! You do you. I don't mind you talking about other things. It makes me look forward to hearing what you have to say next! I'm doing good as well, a little stressed but eh, I'll live as always. Hope you're still doing good! I have a lot coming for the greens! The blues and reds will get their drama still though. I just need a liiiiittle more time to build that up. I'm not sure how I feel about the live action, mostly because of what I've heard about the plot. I don't want bitter Powerpuff Girls! I like the idea that they love saving their city, even if it means they sacrifice their personal time to do so! I'm also a bit worried about the potential romance side of things (cause it's a drama and realistically there'll likely be a romantic plot or two in there). I like the puff X ruff combo and if they throw some other romantic end game in there that isn't that it could honestly turn me completely off the show. But maybe not, maybe I'll like what they'll do. I dunno. I'm trying to be realistic in my expectations I guess.

Artemis Raven Courtney! Haha hope you liked what I made poor Butch go through this chapter. More greens to come, for sure!

Planning to post again in another two weeks. I have a test next weekend so I probably won't even think about writing too much. If you follow Favor's then sorry but chances are high I won't be posting on it next time. Too much going on for me to properly do an edit on it, I think. Maybe that'll change. Anyways, until next time! Ciao!