Chapter 16
Hide-and-Seek
Townsville Children's Hospital was a peaceful place to be... at least to start off with.
The ones having the most fun were definitely the children in the playroom, not only coloring, painting, laughing, and dancing with the things that the room itself had already provided for them, but with all of the surplus of toys Bubbles had been more than happy to give away after she had already taken what she wanted from the truckload gifted to her.
She even delivered them like she was Santa Claus along with her sisters out in the playroom, putting the ones she was giving away in a bag and throwing them out to eager, outreached hands as she trilled, "Merry Christmas, everyone! Even though it's not quite Christmas yet!"
"Who wants the robot?" Buttercup asked, holding up the packaging tantalizingly for anyone who was interested. Many boys whooped and hollered and Buttercup chose a rather tiny brown boy in an orange shirt and a diaper, holding out chubby brown fingers for the toy in question.
"And who wants the potty training doll that can drink and wet herself?" Blossom asked, getting the same squealing response from eager girls, fixing to raise a pretend baby of their own for a household.
There were screams of delight when the children received whatever stuffed animal, teddy bear, or board game that they liked, being told that those items weren't just for borrowing but for all of them to keep. It was like an early Christmas for everyone.
"THANKS BUBBLES!" The kids all cried, running off to enjoy whatever toy they had saw themselves fit to have.
"You're welcome, everyone! Now make sure to be good so the real Santa can give you more this year!"
There was at least one familiar face in these gaggle of kids that cared less about the toys and more about the little girl who had previously been busy giving them away.
"Bubbles! Bubbles!" That same boy in the striped shirt and with the brown, chestnut hair shouted. He had his left arm wrapped in a cast and held in a sling and he came running to her now on the puzzle-piece carpet. He was still as concerned about her now as he was the day before. "Are you okay because that was crazy and-"
Bubbles smiled reassuringly at him. "I'm okay, Jimmy! The doctors fixed me up, good as new!"
"That's good!" The boy breathed a sigh of relief. "The doctors fixed me up too!" He showed off his wrapped up arm. "I fell out of a tree and my mommy rushed me up here when I felt the bone snap. It hurt so much when I fell out that I was probably crying as bad as you were!"
Bubbles giggled at the image of a tough little boy like him wailing, especially since boys were often taught not to cry. At least not as much as girls. "I'm sorry you broke your arm, Jimmy! Are you feeling better now?"
"Yeah, it doesn't hurt nearly as much."
"Same here. I'm just a little sore."
"Can you pee?" Jimmy asked in a more lowered tone, inching closer to the girl so he could ask the question in private. His mommy always told him that questions about bodily functions and private parts were naughty when they were done out loud.
He remembered exactly where he had saw Bubbles bleeding in the waiting room and it was the same place where little girls used the bathroom.
Bubbles nodded her head. "Almost just as good as I could before! The last time when the nurses made me do it, there was blood." She winced at the memory. "It hurt too. But now it's better!"
"Awesome!" Jimmy shared a high five with the girl, both of the kids smiling gleefully at each other.
"Hey Jimmy, did you get a toy?" Buttercup asked.
"No, I've got plenty of toys back at home!" The boy proudly declared. "I was mostly just worried about Bubbles. But since she's okay, I'm gonna go off and play!"
"Okay, have fun!" Blossom replied, waving him off with the boy doing the same.
Now that the rest of the kids were sorted out, it was time for the Girls themselves to have their own fun.
"So what's on the agenda today, Bubs?" Buttercup asked, giving all the agency to her sister.
Both her and Blossom felt like she deserved it after everything she had been through. Besides, this whole thing had started from Bubbles being the main leader of their play in the bedroom and they wanted her to have a more positive experience from something like that instead of something embarrassing, excruciating, and bloody.
"Yeah, we'll do whatever you want to do." Blossom agreed, placing a hand over her sister's back with support.
Bubbles blushed at this display of extra niceness being shown to her by her sisters and then grinned bashfully, quickly coming up with the perfect thing for them to do. "Hey I know!" She said, spotting a little red wagon in the corner. "Let's all take our cuddlies on the Train of Thought!"
"The Train of Thought?" Her sisters questioned, though they smiled as they questioned it, not showing any forms of mockery or derision.
"Yeah! It's a train that can take you anywhere in the world you can imagine! Anywhere you can think of in your own head!"
A train whose destination by dictated by thought. Bubbles sure had a creative imagination.
"That's a great idea!" Her sisters trilled happily, truly meaning it.
The hospital receptionist manning her desk was currently humming to herself as she busied herself with completing her early morning duties. Checking in patients, ensuring health insurance and all information was updated, scheduling appointments, handling questions, and handling co-pays and billing.
She never spotted the growing crowd of villains marching up right outside of the main entrance of the hospital until she could hear the noise the agitated group was making. Then she looked up and nearly got the fright of her life seeing so many incensed people up close and personal.
Their hospital made it a point not to turn away any form of patient, even if those patients happened to be supervillains, and she'd treated their kind before after the Powerpuff Girls had dealt with them... many, many times in the past. But this was new. These guys definitely didn't seem any worse for wear and their faces looked both angry and murderous.
"Excuse me?" She asked anyway, trying to keep up her usual air of professionalism even under the threatening presence of so many evil doers. "May I help you all with any kind of ailment or injury that you've come into the hospital for today?"
"The patient we're lookin' for is a man who's sick in th' head!" Fuzzy said, holding up his boomstick. "Th' patient's name is Professor Utonium and I'm afraid his illness is quite incurable! We were lookin' to give him some good ol' fashioned euthanasia and put him outta his misery!"
"Um..." The receptionist trembled as she secretly pressed the panic button underneath her desk. "Professor Utonium's not exactly here right now and neither is anyone else you might be looking for!"
"Not even Powerpuff Bubbles?!" Mojo angrily questioned, holding up his own form of deadly weaponry. "I wish to separate her from the clutches of her so-called 'father'."
"W-Well you'll have to look somewhere else," The receptionist lied. "Because she's not here! She was transferred to a different hospital for specialized treatment!"
"I demand to know the location of this separate hospital immediately! And where are the other Girls?!"
Pick up the phone! Pick up the phone!
Hannah's phone was blowing up from the sanctity of her living room as the exhausted social worker slept after a long and hard day's shift. She hadn't even bothered changing out of her work clothes and simply collapsed onto the couch as soon as she got home. She certainly didn't feel like answering to anybody higher up today and she nearly turned her phone on silent before biting the bullet and looking at the caller ID.
Chuck Jones.
Finally, after an excruciating amount of time, Officer Jones finally got a reply back to his partner on the phone.
"Hannah"
"Was is it Chuck?" His partner asked sleepily, the woman still waking up from her nap.
In contrast to her own grogginess, her partner was very much wide awake. "Get some clothes on and meet me at the Townsville Hospital right now!"
"Why? What's going on?" Hannah questioned, this time with more alertness. She got out of her laying position in bed and sat up slightly on her couch.
"We've got an angry mob outside the building and most of them are supervillains. They're mad and they're nearly ready to riot and the receptionist on-duty can only hold them off for so long!"
"A mob?!" Hannah's eyes nearly popped outside of her own head. "Why in the world would there be a mob just outside of the Townsville children's hospital?"
"Well, we can thank the damn media for never knowing how not to sensationalize a simple story!"
"The media?! When did our team and I ever agree to something like that?! I had no idea any of us were even being filmed! The investigations were never meant to go public in the first place!"
"Well, you know how these bastards are! They're sneaky!"
If it bleeds, it leads. That was their main motto over there. And a story this big involving the Powerpuff Girls and a possible scandal with their father? How could those damn talking heads possibly resist?
"They never got any footage of us but you know it doesn't really matter how much or how little they truly have! They can weave a story out of damn near anything! Now whatever they've said, it's caused quite a stir-up and I need you to help me disperse this crowd before it all goes to hell in a handbasket!"
"Shit!" The woman swore. "Hang on, Bigby! I'm getting some pants and a shirt on now! I'll meet you in about 10 to 15 minutes!"
"Wish it could be sooner but I'll take what I can get! Good luck, Barbara!"
"You too! See ya, Jones!"
"Tickets please, everyone! Are we all buckled in? Good! We're leaving the main station in 20 minutes! Please secure all bags and luggage beforehand, okay?"
Bubbles had all of her new fluffy stuffed lions, bears, tigers (oh my!) and other mammals and reptiles situated comfortably into her little toy wagon. They were all sitting up straight and Bubbles smoothed out their ears, trunks, manes, and other things before finally being satisfied.
"Where are we going, Mr. Conductor Sir?" Buttercup asked, playing the part of a black and white skunk.
"To the Land of Milk and Honey!" Bubbles answered.
"The Land of Milk and Honey?" Blossom questioned, picking up a pink rabbit to make her ask the question.
"Yes, it's quite delicious! I hope you've worked up an appetite everyone because it's gonna be good!"
"Well if there's one good thing that came out of all of this, it's all these cool new toys we get to play with in here!" Buttercup said.
Bubbles nodded vigorously and brought up something else. "Yeah! And the Professor's getting me an ice cream for being such a good girl after my operation too!"
She never forget his promise to treat her with this as a reward after she was all better from her surgery.
Buttercup and Blossom gave each other nervous looks at this declaration of Bubbles's, neither of them knowing when exactly that promise would have a chance at being fulfilled. They did a good job of hiding their discomfort though by laughing and going along with their sister's good spirits.
"Yep, he sure is! So what kind of ice cream do you want him to get for you when he finally comes in here?"
"I hope our dad takes us to Ben & Jerry's!" Bubbles cheered. "Ben & Jerry's has the best ice cream!"
"Can't disagree with that." Blossom replied.
"Geez, how many flavors are they up to now anyway?" Buttercup asked. They seemed to come up with a new one every other week. There were some that were even discontinued now after an experimental phase.
"Somewhere around 30? Maybe 40?" Blossom estimated, truly wanting to come up with an actual number. It was quite a conundrum for her.
"Well for me, you can't go wrong with the Brownie Batter Core." Buttercup said in the meantime, always finding that one to be her number 1 flavor.
Blossom raised a hand and laid the other one over her chest. "Mine is the Strawberry Cheesecake flavor!" For her, it was the perfect combination of two desserts; cheesecake and ice cream.
"And for me, it's the Americone Dream!" Bubbles said, clapping her hands. It was a classic. Vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl. She hoped she could actually get it in a cone at the parlor; tubs of ice cream were fine too but you could never beat a fresh waffle cone.
"You know all this talk of food is kind of making me hungry." That cereal had already left the blonde's system and now she was itching for more to fill her empty stomach.
"Hey, maybe that Easy Bake Oven can bake us something that's actually edible!" Buttercup joked, pointing out the device in the corner. All of them knew just how terrible hospital food tended to be.
"Hey, yeah!" Bubbles perked up at this idea. "It already comes with some mixes!" She picked up some of those mixes now and asked her sisters, "Which one do you think we should do first? There's party pretzel dippers, red velvet and strawberry cake, mini whoopie pies, and cheese pizza!"
"Definitely the pizza!" Buttercup chose, unable to see any other option for a REAL breakfast this morning.
"I agree. Whether it's cold, leftover, or fresh, you can never go wrong with a good pizza in the morning!" Blossom said this like it was a mathematical and scientific fact.
Bubbles began to fly over to do just that, taking out the two pizza dough mixes, the garlic herb cheese mix, the marinara sauce, the egg wash and the instructions. Her sisters watched her do this without a care in the world... until they happened to hear a commotion just outside that caught their attention.
None of the other regular kids playing would notice it - they didn't have super hearing like the Girls did.
"Wow, what's going on out there?" Blossom inquired, hearing raised voices and what sounded like... arguing? It was hard to make out who was who but she definitely heard the receptionist at the main entrance. She sounded a little panicked.
"Yeah, it sounds like a crowd..." Buttercup added on. This crowd didn't sound friendly either...
"What is it, Girls?" Bubbles questioned innocently from her spot in front of her pink Easy Bake Oven, mixing ingredients without a care in the world. "Are there some more sick people coming in?"
"I... I don't know." Blossom didn't like the energy she was picking up from this rising argument just outside.
Well you'll have to look somewhere else because she's not here! She was transferred to a different hospital for specialized treatment!
I DEMAND TO KNOW WHERE THIS SEPARATE HOSPITAL IS IMMEDIATELY!
All the color drained from the two sisters' faces when they heard what sounded like a very familiar and malignant force in their lives talking to the receptionist. It wasn't just Mojo either. If they hadn't been mistaken, they thought they heard Fuzzy too, spitting threats at the poor hospital worker. They both started breathing at a much more rapid pace than they had been before.
"Girls?" Bubbles' carefree nature slowly disappeared at their lack of answer for her, as well as how stiff their bodies looked from behind, even if she couldn't yet see their pale faces.
"How many of them are even out there...?" It sounded like quite a crowd... a riotous crowd.
"Buttercup," Blossom whispered to her with a quick glance of her eyes in her direction. "Get Bubbles out of here, now." There was sweat trickling down her forehead and Buttercup heard the urgency in her tone clear as day.
Buttercup didn't waste a single extra second. She quickly scurried over to her sister in a hurry on her hands and knees, and tried to put on a happy expression for her even though it was strained as all get-out.
"Guys, what is it?"
"I'll meet you outside down the hall, okay?" Blossom called out to Buttercup frantically before she left.
"Okay!"
Bubbles watched her leave with a wide-eyed expression. What in the world was going on? Buttercup quickly got her attention.
"Hey Bubbles, how about we play another game for now?"
"Another game?" The child asked.
"Yeah! Let's play hide-and-seek!" Before Bubbles could even express her opinion at that, Buttercup grabbed her by the hand and started zipping off with her in tow, only for Bubbles to stop her with a fierce complaint of pain.
"Buttercup, stop! You're going too fast!" Bubbles complained. "My stomach... still hurts."
"Oh! Uh..." Buttercup wondered if she could solve the problem by just carrying her but then she happened to spot something debatably even better: that little red wagon in the hospital's playroom!
She tipped the wagon on its side and let all of the stuffed animals fall out of it before setting it upright again. "There! A nice wagon for the two of us to ride in." She quickly dropped the girl down inside, giving Bubbles time to properly situate herself before grabbing the steering handle. "Now hang on!"
'Hang on' was right because Buttercup was going at such a breakneck speed with the wagon right behind her that it was a wonder none of the wheels at the bottom ended up catching on fire. Bubbles needed to hang on to the sides of the wagon just to have a chance of staying in. It was probably one of the bumpiest rides of her life.
It didn't take long for the rest of the staff to catch on that something was seriously wrong and they decided to take pre-emptive measures to protect the rest of the wide-eyed children.
"Hey kids?" Nurse Cathy said. "Why don't we take a break from playing to hang out in our rooms for a while?" She nodded her head at her other colleagues and added, "And we better lock those doors real tight too, okay?"
She hoped that they got the hint and luckily they did, all of them scooping up as many as the children as they could carry delicately but swiftly in their haste to get them to safety.
"Now on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you say that headache feels now, Angie?" A blonde with an eyepatch named Nurse Joy asked, looking to be in her mid 40s.
"I'd say it's about a 3 now." The girl on the bed said, still sporting that shiner smack dab in the middle of her face from her soccer ball accident. Her father was in the same room with her, giving her his support.
"Okay, so how about now we-" She was interrupted by a buzzing on her phone. She slid her hand into her pocket and politely excused herself to take this call. It wasn't really a call but a message. An urgent one.
It read: "THIS IS NOT A DRILL. PLEASE LOCKDOWN ALL PATIENT ROOM DOORS AND SECURE YOURSELF IN ONE PLACE. POSSIBLE RIOT GOING ON OUTSIDE."
Her one visible pale blue eye widened and she quickly followed orders, taking out her keys and locking the door from the inside.
"What's happening?" Angie's dad asked urgently as the room was suddenly locked and secured by the nurse.
"Stay quiet." Was all she said as an answer, making the man's blood pressure rise with fear. He did his best to hide this from his daughter though, simply stepping back until he made it to her bedside and squeezed her hand comfortingly.
"Why? What's going on?"
"Nothing right now and the door's secured so just stay calm and try not to make any noise."
"You can instruct your daughter to do the same if you'd like."
"Daddy?" She asked anxiously, seemingly picking up on his fear even so.
"It's okay, Angie. Just stay real quiet for your daddy, okay?"
She did what she was told, starting to feel her heart beating faster.
He wondered if he would start hearing gunshots soon. An active shooter in a hospital setting of all things sounded like just about the evilest thing yet, but then again, human beings didn't seem to have any limits when it came to the things they were capable of...
"You want us to get under somethin'?"
"No, just stay where you are. Don't panic and don't move."
"Where's your room, Bubbles?"
"Down there!" Bubbles pointed.
Buttercup at least found herself happy that it was so far down the line. That meant that if any villain was trying to search for her throughout the hallways, they'd have to check through every room in the front first.
"Good!"
Once they finally arrived at their destination, Buttercup wrapped an arm around her sister's waist and flew her out of the wagon, opening the door to her room with her other hand.
"Here, get inside!"
Buttercup pushed her through the door and then whirled around quickly to try to get it closed and locked. As she tried to get it secured, she realized that sleeping patient rooms didn't have a lock on them in the first place. That was so that other staff members and hospital workers could have easy access to their patients inside.
"Dang it! It won't lock!"
"Buttercup?" Bubbles asked worriedly from just behind her. "W-We're still only playing, right?" She was starting to have doubts that this was merely a simple game of hide-and-seek.
"Uh, sure Bubbles..." Buttercup said absentmindedly as she quickly found a chair and pushed it up against the door handle, preventing it from being able to open from the outside. She flew up in front of the glass to look out through the window, searching for anyone who could be out there running through the hallways or trying to follow them.
She then proceeded to turn the lights off to the room and pulled a blackout blind over the glass to prevent anyone else from being able to take a good look inside.
This was starting to feel like one of those "lockdown" drills that Miss Keane and the class sometimes did in Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, only this didn't really seem like a drill this time..
"Say, help me look for a good hiding spot for ya, will ya Bubbles?"
"Uh..."
Buttercup started zipping around different sections of the room in a haste to try to find a suitable place before Bubbles could even really open her mouth to give her own opinion. She was pretty much stumped anyway. Where exactly could you hide in a healthcare setting?
"Under the bed?" Buttercup said, checking underneath the space. "No, too obvious! Maybe behind something, like an IV pole? No, that's not good enough either!"
Bubbles made a tiny sound of discomfort, looking all kinds of out-of-sorts in the background.
Suddenly, she got her "Eureka!" moment when she spotted some cabinets above a table that also acted as a handwashing sink. She thrust open the doors and beckoned Bubbles to get closer.
"Yes! Here! C'mon Bubbles!"
Not really waiting for her to follow, Buttercup took her by the hand and practically started shoving her into the cramped, tiny space, barely big enough to house her equally tiny, doll-like body.
"Can you get up there or do you need help?"
There was still some pain medication in her system, making her rather slow on the uptake so Buttercup gave her a bit of a boost, helping her into the cabinet. When Bubbles finally sat down, her sister urged her to scoot a little farther back.
"Can you get a little further back? As far in the back as you can..."
There was suddenly a noise down the hall that had the two kids snapping their heads up to attention. Buttercup whipped her head around to the door and the blonde didn't miss the line of sweat trickling down her neck.
"All units needed at Townsville Children's Hospital for a possible riot!" Officer Jones barked into his police radio, his sirens blaring as cars parted in the road to give him access to the streets beyond him. "Rioters may be armed and dangerous! Attention needed by all available units immediately!"
Meanwhile Ms. Hannah-Barbera was nearly running every single red light and stop sign there was, swearing with each and every breath as she drove her car like a madwoman. "Shit, shit, shit! Please God, don't let there be traffic at this time of day!"
"Bubbles, stay in here for a few minutes, okay?" Buttercup requested, just floating outside of the cabinet doors so the two of them could still talk to each other before she closed them.
The façade that this was simply an innocent game of hide-and-seek was quickly shattered in this moment. The blonde now looked openly afraid.
"Mm hm." Bubbles nodded silently, letting out a small whimper.
Buttercup placed a finger against her lips and gently touched the girl's shoulder, communicating a need for her to stay completely quiet.
Bubbles nodded again, barely containing her urge to cry.
"Don't come out until I come and get you, okay?"
"Okay!"
With that, the green-schemed child slowly shut the cabinet doors in front of her and made sure to weld them shut with her heat vision so that they would stay sealed. That way no one would be able to get in or out of them without having a really hard time.
As soon as she heard her sister exit the room from the depths of her confined space, Bubbles buried her head into her knees and gave into her despair, wanting her father now more than ever now...