Author's Notes: Okay people, I love Bubbles but let's face it, that little girl could get away with murder sometimes if she wanted to, all because she's the cute one! Well, this is just a little sample of what would happen if that wasn't the case. You can't help but think, "What happened to Bubbles once she got home after everything she did in Bubblevicious?" Well, let's find out!
Chapter 1
As a Father Broods
The city of Townsville! Where when we last left off, our little pint-sized bundle of joy was hard at work beating the snot out of our rather unfortunate supervillain, Mojo Jojo for trying to attack she and sisters from behind with a laser fire gun!
"Why you…!" The little crimefighter shrieked, punching and kicking the simian at the same time. Her sisters were content to simply sit back and watch. Their blonde hardcore sibling had this thing in the bag. "How dare you zap me and my sisters?! Take this! And that! And this! And that!"
Oh Bubbles, you're so cute when you're all tough like that!
... but unfortunately for our young little Bubbles, there's a man sitting at home right about now who doesn't really believe that her behavior today has been all that cute. He is a man who is most commonly known as "Professor Utonium" and he's had quite the long and stressful day, answering phone call after phone call from many a distressed and angry citizen, all of them more than happy to share all the terrible things his precious little angel had allegedly done to all of them today and the news has been anything but good. According to them, he really needed to get a handle on his "precious little monster" before some stronger, decidedly less friendly forces decided to lend in a hand to "help".
Sigh. Some people just really have nothing nice to say at all do they? Here were some of the highlights:
"You better hope that little girl of yours has been brainwashed by some evil supervillain or somethin', 'cause if not, I'd say you're doin' a pretty crummy job as a parent to that kid!"
"Tell me honestly; is this some mutant freak version of the terrible twos?"
"I can't believe you've raised your daughter to think it's okay to abuse animals! You oughta be ashamed of yourself! I would've thought someone with the word 'Professor' in his name would have better sensibilities than that!"
"I wasn't doin' nothin' and she just flew up and attacked me! All because I tried to walk and chew bubble gum all at the same time!"
"Maybe if you actually got off your fat, lazy butt and taught that girl of yours some manners, maybe she wouldn't think it's alright to run around pullin' stuff like this on people!"
"Your kid is real funny, you know that? I hope you plan on settin' her straight sooner rather than later, otherwise, I'd be more than happy to get the military force involved!"
"My medical bills are going to be through the roof! Are you planning on paying those for me, Mr. Stay at home dad Professor J. Utonium?"
Yes, it was a lot of sour grapes to deal with indeed and Professor Utonium was understandably worn out, as well as confused and severely disappointed if any of these accusations were indeed true. They seemed too numerous not to be. Oh, he was going to have a lot to deal with when Bubbles finally came home...
"Oh Bubbles," The man sighed despondently, while he sat alone in his armchair in the main living room of the house. "What has gotten into you? What are all these people on about?"
He sighed again and looked up wearily at the clock, noticing the hour was nearly at 10. This was way past the girl's bedtime at 7:30, and they certainly weren't at home brushing their little teeth and putting on their jammies for the night.
Saving the world before bedtime.
So much for that little endeavor, Professor Utonium thought wryly, realizing that he'd never really thought that whole thing through. It was a cute little tagline for sure, but not at all applicable to reality. After all, didn't that old saying go, crime never sleeps? Of course it did. It was inevitable. So the girls were often arriving home these days later rather than sooner. Unavoidable, he guessed.
Another sigh from the Professor. No, that wasn't the only thing keeping him up so late at night too. He truly wished that it was. It would've made his job a whole lot easier, only having to scold the girls about their curfew. But if all that he had heard today was true, then he was going to have to do a lot more scolding than that, and it was going to have to be towards the one little girl he hated being stern at the most, and that was his precious little Bubbles.
The joy and laughter of his life. His bunny. But if the accounts were to be believed, she acted anything but bubbly and friendly today. No, by all accounts she'd apparently gone on a rampage that left not only people but even animals hurt and that was something that definitely needed some addressing.
Oh God don't let it be true, he begged silently to the sky. None of this sounds like my little Bubbles at all! How could she nearly beat a dog to death? Bubbles is supposed to love animals! And how could she be bullying the townspeople when she always loved making new friends and putting a smile on everyone else's faces?
It was all so... contradictory!
But would he really get anywhere being doubtful? No he wouldn't. Not until he got a proper explanation out of her at least. But he knew one thing for certain. There wouldn't be a repeat of what happened a few days after he had first created the girls and they had unwittingly joined forces with his fellow former pet Jojo while the Professor himself was in jail, helping him bring rise to a super-intelligent and destructive simian army that had nearly been responsible for bringing Townsville down to its knees.
In that moment when he had seen all the chaos and destruction around him, and the girls were pleading their innocence to him—("Please Professor! Please believe us!")—he had responded with uncertainty, questioning his very creation of the girls and whether or not they were really good. ("I don't know who to believe. I thought you were good.") They had been so devastated to hear that they fly off into the sky, exiling themselves away in space, nearly never to be heard of again, simply because he chose to believe a crazed mutated chimp over his own three daughters.
He regretted his words and his actions that day ever since and the girls certainly proved him wrong by using all of their special gifts and powers to save the town from ruin. If it weren't for them, who knows what Townsville would've liked now. He apologized profusely and hugged them so tightly at the end, but even now the guilt never left him, and he vowed never to do such a thing ever again.
That was why this was so hard. It was oh so hard to picture having to yell at his sweet, sweet little Bubbles. To have to actually discipline her. The Professor never liked disciplining his girls in the first place. He never liked having to be the bad guy. Expressing his disappointment, expressing his anger. Sending them to their rooms or to a corner in the kitchen for a timeout or even worse... grounding them. The less said about that Ima incident, the better. That wasn't one of his proudest moments either. He just kept messing up! Nobody ever said this whole fathering thing would be easy, but the Professor had never backed down from a challenge before and he wasn't going to now. He was in it for the long haul.
He would prove those sorry people wrong when they said that he didn't know how to raise his girl or keep her in line. He was a very respectable parent thank you very much, and he went out of his way to try to instill morals in the girls all the time! It was like these sour adults forgot what it was like to be a kid and make a mistake every once in a while! Everybody makes mistakes, especially children, and even superheroes could fumble from time to time. Part of life was learning.
He remembered to keep that in mind when his kids finally made it through that door. Done properly, parenting in and of itself was a heroic act. Done properly that is.