Chapter 14
Waiting to Exhale
Yellows' Training Room (No One's POV)
"Shall we get started?" Bam asked while the metal door slid shut as the yellow heroes walked into the room.
"I don't see a point to this." Blazze sighed while Bam nearly tripped over himself hearing that from her.
"And what brought that mindset up?"
"We haven't been making good progress Bam, we haven't gotten through to Bass and we let someone…die." Blazze said finding herself quite defeated remembering how broken Bubbles looked holding her grandma. "We have to hold everything together, but I feel like we haven't been doing an incredibly good job at that! We are just going backwards and what if she tries to attack our family again! I can't lose —"
"Shush." Bam said while taking her into a hug and feeling her whole body shake. "Take a breath, yellow rose."
"It's just so hard to be optimistic about this." Blazze sighed holding onto Bam's arms to stable herself. Blazze didn't want her friends suffering with that painful feeling like she did all those years ago. It scared her and of course she could grin and bear it by herself, but now she had friends to look out for and vice versa.
"You don't always have to be you know." Bam said while running his hand through her hair as he held her closer. Bam could understand that she was trying to shoulder a lot of the pain, but he wasn't going to let her do that. Not this time especially since he was there to stop it. "I love your determination Blazze, but if you hold all of this in you are just going to be depressed again. I'm here to talk to you just like the team is willing to listen too."
Blazze smiled pressing Bam into a kiss that sent sparks through his entire being. "How did you become such a good counselor?"
"Practice." Bam smirked while calling out his weapon and taking her hand to go to the training area that had targets on Bam's side and gymnastic equipment on Blazze's. "So, let's figure out how to use our hearts to get these to work."
"Still sounds like a complicated task that doesn't have a lot of information to go off of." Blazze huffed calling out her weapon but decided to watch Bam practice before she worked on hers.
"Just relax and it will more than likely come to you when you are not thinking about it."
"Confident, huh?"
"Maybe." Bam winked while taking a deep breath and trying to call an elemental arrow out. For a moment nothing happened, and the yellow heroes waited for something.
"Do you have to call it out?"
"No, I mean these are new arrows, so maybe I have to." Bam said while rolling his shoulders and resetting. "Earth." Slowly, a choppy earth arrow appeared in his hand making a smile appear on his face. "See? Easy."
"I guess." Blazze said looking at the arrow a bit sketchy since it didn't look like the ones he had used in the fight. Bam paid no mind to Blazze's demeanor and released the arrow. However, the arrow quickly fell to the floor breaking into pieces. "Um…"
"A minor miscalculation on my part! Not really used to these earth arrows."
"Ok, why not try a water one." Blazze smiled trying to show some support at that failure.
"Yeah, easy one…water." Bam said while getting into position but noticed nothing happened. He called out water again and again until it seemed like he was out of breath.
"Maybe water is a little hard, you usually do fire better!" Blazze said remembering how his fire bird and flaming power darts turned his arrows into fire at some point.
"Fire." Bam growled out watching as a huge fire arrow engulfed his bow. Blazze immediately grabbed a water bucket and threw it onto the arrow not wanting to burn their whole training area down. Of course, some of Bam's area was fireproof, but that didn't mean there wasn't accidents once and awhile.
"Sorry, I don't think the Professor would like his lab on fire."
"I will just try again." Bam cleared his throat then reset his position hoping for a different outcome. He only called out a normal arrow which wasn't want he wanted.
"You got an arrow out!"
"It's not an elemental one." Bam huffed while letting the arrow out only for it to break before it even hit the target. "What?"
"That has never happened before?" Blazze mumbled not noticing the little twitch in Bam's eyes as he called out a normal arrow. Once he released it, the arrow broke midway in the air falling with a small clash. He did it again, this time seeing the arrow break just as soon as he pulled back on the string.
"Bam —."
"You should be working on your ribbon, Blazze. I got this." Bam huffed not seeing the sympathetic look on Blazze's face as she made her way to her training station. It was like a mini gymnasium with bars, balancing beams, vaults, and mats for safety. Though never really being a gymnast herself, Blazze found it quite easy to do within her Puff Z form. Blazze looked at her weapon and took a deep breath trying to figure out how her heart could connect to it.
"When in doubt, dance it out." Blazze said to herself while getting into a starting position. She raised the multiple ribbon and swung it into the air as she sauté then glissade across the room. However, in a matter of seconds she felt the ribbons tangle onto her legs causing her to fall to the mats. With a groan, Blazze slowly got out of the four ribbons and got back into another starting position. The ribbons swung back and forth as she moved her arms into different positions, and she felt at peace. That is until her arms were wrapped in two of the ribbons making a nice little bow.
"Seriously?" she huffed while working her way out of the mess as she wondered if these ribbons had a mind of their own. When she had used them before they seemed to go in the direction that she wanted them to. But as she just stood there and tried swirling the ribbons around her it seemed like a game to them. "You got to be —."
"Kidding me!" Bam yelled throwing his bow to the ground making Blazze look his way. She could see that his area was littered with puddles, rocks, and broken arrows that didn't even come close to hitting the targets.
Blazze put her ribbon down and quickly when to him then placed a kiss on his cheek. "I think we both could use a break."
"Yeah…that would be good." Bam said.
"What? You barely even started!" cried a male voice making the yellows look around in confusion at the cheery voice.
"Um…hello?"
"He's right, to give up so easily it really disappoints me." a soft female voice said while the two heroes looked at each other nodding.
"Unfortunately, lights, we don't know how to use them." Bam said getting a gasp from the male voice.
"Oooh they know who we are!"
"As expected from the smart ones of the group;" the female said which almost felt like it was smiling at them. "However, you haven't told us why you haven't been able to use them."
"Clearly it's because our hearts aren't connected to it." Blazze said getting another excited giggle from the male.
"Yes and no…give a better reason, something more personal." the male said while the yellows looked down for a moment to think.
"I think it's because I can't stop relying on others for the answer." Blazze mumbled.
"And I'm going to guess it's because I can't stop helping others."
"Man, this is too easy." said the male while a bright light of gray and white appeared before them as they quickly covered their eyes. Once they felt it was safe, Blazze and Bam found themselves in a white room with two figures standing in the middle of it. The male had light blue hair tied into a bun with white, glowing streaks through it. He had yellow eyes and was dressed in a long toga with a yellow Greek theatre mask not covering his face. The woman had black hair with gray on the side that seem to shine white at times and was completely styled in a wareshinobu. Her face was completely painted like a maiko and the dark yellow kimono was dolled up as if she was going to perform for them.
"Welcome whitelighters, my name is Akihiko and this is Harue." Akihiko smiled while the male waved excitedly at them. "We are here to help you connect to your weapons; however you must do something before we can."
"That would be?" Bam asked watching Harue practically jump up and down.
"We have to bond our souls together!"
"Wait, what?" Blazze asked feeling a bit of a tension creep into the air.
"Fully bond with us, so we can become stronger and better!"
"Like Takashi." Blazze said watching the two lights kind of nod making the yellows look at each other.
"We would like some more information before doing that." Bam said.
"Since we know how things got with Bell, we would rather not take a risk like that."
"Ooh that is totally fair with us." Harue giggled while Akihiko nodded understanding their worries. "What would you like to know?"
"Who exactly are you guys?" Blazze asked while Harue covered his face with his mask and Akihiko took out a fan. The brown-haired heroes were shocked seeing the room almost become a stage as they looked onto a show.
"As Takashi explained, he was the foe who cursed the one you now call Suzu's family in order to cause chaos." Akihiko said while they saw Harue performing the role of Takashi crushing towns and people in his bare hands. "That demon has plagued the human world for centuries only able to possess humans who agree to it."
"The only way to get rid of demons like that is to attack it with something good and spirits usually do the trick." Harue said while Akihiko seemed to form seven beings out of light. "The people of that time period prayed for help and sent 7 spirits: longevity, fortune, popularity, sincerity, kindness, dignity, and magnanimity, though we like to change a lot hehe."
"Those spirits were able to defeat the demon, however it wasn't for long as the hosts the spirits had to live within didn't want to fully bond with them." Akihiko said while Harue showed Takashi falling and rising back up countless of times as the spirits seem to glow dimmer each time. "Because of that they were weaker unable to truly sent the demon back into the dimension it originated from."
"Though the person, Kennai, had a good idea on keeping the demon sealed by using us, but fate seemed to have other plans." Harue sighed while the yellows watched as the lights portrayed different events of when the Powerpuff Girls Z came to be and defeated Him. "Even though I knew I was finally going to die with that demon within us all, I was going to miss the fun that world had to offer."
"But as you can tell Harue was the only one to escape from that event of Takashi destroying the rest of the group." Akihiko said while the area slowly faded into white again as the heroes looked upon the lights before them.
"I had to survived and was able to find you Blazze." Harue smiled once his mask was removed. "Your own strength kept me from fading and I'm grateful for that."
"It also allowed us to come to be and become the new white light you see before you." Akihiko smiled giving a bow to the yellow, young lady making Blazze blush at the attention. "Also like to thank you boys for keeping us stable through this time too even if we aren't fully white yet."
"Heh, no problem." Bam grinned while the lights looked at the two.
"So, will you allow us to bond with you?" the lights asked while the yellows looked to each other.
"Of course." they said while the lights smiled back at them and touched their chest making all of them glow. Warmth filled the heroes as they saw the lights turning into a white and gray light then entered their bodies. The connect felt so powerful and deep that they almost felt like falling.
"Blazze, you were picked for this role because you have the ability to give people the hope to overcome things. You must rely on yourself sometimes allowing that to shine through. Your weapon can feel that you aren't confident in yourself." Harue said making Blazze nod and touching her heart.
"I understand, I promise to try harder Harue."
"Bam, you are alive because you are the pride to pull through until the very end. However, don't miss use it, help when needed not when wanted. Your weapon can also feel when you are misusing it too; try asking for help once and awhile."
"Need vs. Want, always a challenge but I'm up for it." Bam laughed hearing the gray light joining in.
"Now let's see you try this again." The lights said while their weapons appeared before the heroes. They took hold of them then found themselves back in the training room.
"Well, that was —."
"Time to prove that I was the right choice for this work!" Blazze grinned while quickly making her way to her side as Bam gave a light chuckle to her enthusiasm. Bam decided that he would watch wondering how this would turn out for his girlfriend this time. With a deep breath, Blazze hugged her weapon to her heart and closed her eyes. "Hey, let's try that dance one more time."
With her eyes still closed, Blazze got in a starting position and raised the weapon with four ribbons in the air. Bam could also feel the air change around them as he saw the ribbons get pull back in a gentle wave. Blazze began to sauté on the left then the right as the ribbons kept out of her way framing her as if she was a fairy. With an arabesque, Blazze could feel the ribbons draping her body like she wanted then spun into some chainés making them spin around her.
Bam watched on in awe, remembering how Chika was once a ballerina before she decided to stop after superhero business got in the way. He could tell she missed it just by how graceful she still was and did all the moves like he saw on the stage before. Maybe she could pick it up again once Takashi was finally dealt with or even practice it every now and then.
Blazze felt her hair and ribbons swirl around her as she started doing fouetté making sure to keep her focus on a spot within her area. It was fun and she was in control. Once hitting the tenth turn, she brought herself into fifth position and led herself into a series of changement. The ribbons bounced into patterns that she hadn't done before, but it felt so natural at the moment. With a final changement, Blazze held the weapon and yelled out, "Dancing Ribbon!" The ribbons immediately knocked into one of the bars and slammed into it, luckily not destroying it. "I did it!"
"Nice going, yellow rose." Bam said while giving some cheers to her as Blazze made her way to him.
"Thanks, Bam. Do you need any help?"
"I…" Bam was about to deny her but chuckled kissing her nose. "I would love some of that help, I haven't really gotten the hang of my arrows."
"Heh, how hard was that?" Blazze winked as she made her way to his training area with him not far behind.
"Oh shush." Bam chuckled while standing in front of the targets then feeling a bit uneasy seeing all the failed attempts.
"Hey Bam, just breathe…you know archery like the back of your hand." Blazze said while seeing his shoulders tense a bit as he drew the bow back without an arrow. "I know it took me years to learn dancing and telling you it's going to change for everyone. This is just a new tool for you to master." Blazze smiled while touching his shoulders feeling the muscles slowly unwind.
"Who's becoming the counselor now?"
"You got this Bam." Blazze said while moving to the side, so he could focus. Though Bam was natural to this weapon, it was strange that he couldn't understand the new feat of it. "Hmm, fire is all about intense and passion while water is all about bending and control. With earth it is all about support and grounding and air is about motion and aloofness. Maybe it is a feeling as well."
"…" Bam thought about the moment when he first used the element arrows and remembered using the arrows as counterparts to Brittle's spheres. Those emotions did flash in his mind, but he never really focused on it until Blazze pointed them out. With another breath, Bam thought about flow of water as an arrow of water formed in his bow. "Arrow Wrapping!" He let go keeping his mind on the feeling and it wrapped around the target dead on.
"You did it!"
"Well shit, you hit the nail Blazze." Bam laughed while focusing and pulling out an earth arrow sending it out. "Look out Tokyo City, we're back!"