Author's Notes: There was another reviewer by the name of "Peach" who asked if the Gangreen Gang would be with Jack Wednesday in his home in this story and this is basically to answer his question with no, they won't be. It's a crying shame that the Powerpuff Girls doesn't have any ongoing storylines (other than the one with Sedusa getting revenge for her hair getting cut off in the episode "Something's A Ms." and arguably the one with Dynamo where it returns to wreak havoc on the town under a mysterious pilot.) because that would've been such a good one for the Gangreen Gang who I feel are the least truly evil of the villains. Aspirations showed their soft side the most with them helping the girls save the day at the end after Sedusa broke their hearts. But yeah, I also wanted to point out that even though I have nothing against AceXButtercup shippers when the latter is of actual consensual age, Ace's behavior was inherently predatory in nature in "Buttercrush", especially towards a young, preschool-aged girl. So yep, here you go.

Chapter 5

A Greater Understanding

"Don't mope." Wednesday said, when he heard the girl groan from the back, her head dropping into her hands. "You're going to the county hospital, but it won't be like the dentist's office."

Buttercup was tired of having to go through "procedures" altogether and she dreaded this "medical check-up" she supposedly needed even more.

"They're not gonna perform any surgery or give you any injections." Wednesday assured her even so, for all the good that it did. "You don't have to worry about becoming some guinea pig."

"I don't know why I need the stupid check-up anyway." Buttercup muttered with a familiar petulance. She pushed her fist up into her swollen cheek, letting her gaze fall to the window. "I can heal up just fine."

There was only one other time she remembered being hospitalized and that was after a grueling battle with Mojo that left every last one of the Powerpuff Girls in traction with blood bags and many bandages. (AN: Any of ya'll remember that short clip from the episode "Mo Job"? That was crazy AF! I always wondered what the heck happened to the girls to leave them in that bad of a condition. Left a noodle incident too.)

"Perhaps you can." The man acknowledged. "But without proper monitoring, there could always be further complications. A cracked tooth for example can lead to an infection and in your case you already have several and a fever on top of that. It isn't anything terrible, but it never hurts to make sure."

Since they were on the subject of medical care, he couldn't help but let his mind wander to five green-skinned homeless youths who were probably far behind in records like that too.

"God knows that Gang probably has a whole host of untreated conditions." He could already picture untreated broken bones, neglected dental care, and underlying conditions they probably weren't even educated enough to know about.

Was that rather large red-haired cyclops in the group a healthy weight for his size, age, and height, or would he be considered obese? Was that small, doll-sized one merely a midget or did he suffer from stunted growth as well due to factors such as poor nutrition and malnutrition? Was it normal for that snake-like one and the kid with the sunglasses to have bloodshot eyes? That boy dressed in rags with the most grotesque appearance and pronounced hunchback to his posture seemed to have the most overt health problems. At the very least he needed a brace for his spine. For all that he knew, that one in particular could be a sufferer of sclerosis or some other calcium or bone deficiency.

If only those lousy punks would allow themselves to be helped but Wednesday how hardened these kids born and raised by the streets could be...

Buttercup groaned at the mention of them, looking at them only as the goofy, incompetent, and green-skinned delinquents that the girls were always beating up and tossing into jail. They were also one of her victims from the whole "Tooth Fairy" incident and she remembered Ace in particular using brass knuckles to knock out his share of her teeth back at that museum.

She didn't have a very good impression of them and for valid reasons, something that Wednesday himself acknowledged.

"I know they're a bunch of punks," He said to her knowingly from the front. "But what they really need is guidance. They're a lot older than you but I still consider them kids. Despite everything they've done short of stabbing, shooting, or murder itself, that is what they are at the end of the day."

"Whatever happened to them anyway?" Buttercup asked curiously. "Weren't you going to take them home with you too?"

"Well yeah, about that." For once, Jack Wednesday looked mildly flustered, taking the time to audibly cough and just barely blush crimson in the cheeks from embarrassment. "It would seem as if they would rather vandalize my car, chuck bricks through my windows, and dump me upside down in a recycling bin."

Buttercup couldn't help but chortle at that, finding the mental image of such a straight-laced guy being so unceremoniously humiliated by the Gangreen Gang wholeheartedly hilarious. That was how those guys were though. They were hopeless.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He replied to her uproarious laughter. At least she actually was chuckling, even if it was solely at his expense.

Buttercup stopped to wipe her tears of mirth, and then she said, "I don't know why you even try with those guys."

"Somebody has to." Wednesday replied, making Buttercup think of a similar line said from Bruce Wayne when his partner asked him why he put on the costume of Batman and did what he did everyday. His answer to her was the same: "Because nobody else can."

Picturing a stuck-up guy like Jack Wednesday as some superhero made her laugh, especially when she pictured him as the dark avenger of the night, Batman. The brooding nature of the man did seem to fit a guy like Wednesday.

"You gotta be careful about a guy like Ace though." Buttercup warned him, sobering up into a more serious mood. "He knows how to put on the charm but he lies out his as-"

At her near swear and the glowering look she received in return for it, she quickly changed the unsavory word she was about to say.

"-butthole. He did it to me and did it to Ms. Keane. He tried to make himself out to be some good guy who was only there to learn." She spat, feeling herself grow more hot-tempered and resentful towards the lying backstabber who had the audacity to play around with her young, crushing heart.

"And before that, he tried to pull the same crap on me." For the use of "crap", she looked up at the truant officer questioningly, wondering if that was allowed.

"I'll let that one slide." He told her mildly. "And I do understand what you mean. Ace is indeed a slick-talker. Kids like him often are quite manipulative. It's how they think to survive in the harsh world that they live in. It doesn't make it right of course, but it does explain it. That's probably how he got all those other teenagers on his side too. He probably sweet-talked them just as he did with your teacher and yourself."

Buttercup nodded her head. She could totally see Big Billy falling in line. The guy was essentially the epitome of guilelessness and gullibility. Snake didn't seem to have a lot of self-confidence either if he willingly put up with Ace punching him all the time just for a chance at security and as for the others... they probably didn't have much choice either considering their possible backgrounds.

It made her think about them in a slightly more nuanced light.

"Maybe me and those guys aren't so different."

"Well, you're certainly not a young delinquent."

"But I did fall for one." Buttercup refuted. "It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life and both of my sisters nearly ended up dead because of it."

"And that's on Ace." Wednesday stated firmly, despite his earlier defending of the boy. "Not you."

Buttercup's brows furrowed with oppositional anger. "Of course it's on me! I never should've fallen for some stupid, smelly gangster in the first place! But I just couldn't resist his 'bad boy' rebel appeal!"

"It was NOT your fault," The man said again with more forcefulness, "that you were taken advantage of by what is essentially a young adult. That kind of behavior is called grooming and it's very predatory. I may not think the kid is evil but that still doesn't give him a pass to try to manipulate a kindergartner."

In fact, the thought alone disgusted him. If not for the fact that he was nearly 100% certain that Ace Copular was not that kind of character with that kind of abhorrent attraction to minor children (besides schoolyard bullying tactics), he probably would've punched the kid in the face himself.

"Ace Copular knew exactly what he was doing while you were only a naïve, young girl. If anyone tried to give you a hard time for that besides yourself, I'm here to tell you right now that those people are dead wrong. So is that the case?"

Buttercup thought about it and she realized that nobody acted as her biggest critic in that situation than herself. Blossom and Bubbles forgave her immediately after she apologized, and the Professor was more disgusted with Ace than he ever was with her too, even though she had been sneaking out of the house for the last couple of days to hang out with a gangster at some shoddy old shack in a literal dump.

"No." She said, feeling some of her burdens of guilt literally falling away from her shoulders at his revelation. "It isn't."

"Good." He said simply, and the long car ride outside of the city limits continued.