Chapter 18: Enough is Enough!
The two of them found their sister in her room eating a popsicle with a nurse, Nurse Cathy, holding the child in her lap, trying to further soothe her.
"Bubbles, are you okay?" Buttercup asked quietly, referring to her stitches more than anything else. She would've hated it if those ended up being torn open again because of her unintentional rough handling of her sister as she hid her.
"Yeah." Bubbles nodded. "It was scary but I'm okay. Nurse Cathy found me..."
"Are your stitches okay?" The girl asked, placing a hand over her knees.
"Yeah, they're okay. They didn't come loose or anything."
"Okay. Sorry for being so rough before."
"You weren't being rough. I was just still really sore down there."
"We're glad you're okay, Bubbles." Blossom said gratefully, taking the time to physically comfort her sister too. "Don't worry about anything else." A hardness entered her tone. "It won't happen again."
Damn straight it won't, Buttercup thought. The time to send a message to those losers about privacy was right freakin' now.
"God, that came so close to being a complete mess." Bigby said, burying his face into his hands as she sat down on the curb.
Hannah smiled weakly at him as she sat down beside him. "You did a good job though. Not a single bullet had to be fired."
The man snorted out a laugh. "Mostly because I was just tough talking. I think I got half of my lines from cheesy buddy cop movies!"
"Hey, whatever works." Hannah shrugged. She lost her smile and heaved a sigh now. "But we do have to think about trying to rehouse the girls. We can already see now that keeping them at the hospital isn't gonna work in the long-run."
"What about Bubbles?" Officer Jones asked. "Is she all healed up? Healthy enough to be discharged?"
"We'll have to see whether she is or not. But the question we have to face now is where exactly are we going to be able to place the girls?"
"Actually," An officer who had been out interviewing other people for a possible character testimony on the Professor spoke up, "I think I might have a family in mind..."
Later on in the day, the Girls were all visited by two familiar faces. One of them was familiar to Blossom and Buttercup because he was the child protection officer who had interviewed them both, and one of them was familiar to all of them because she was both Bubbles's social worker and the one who had driven the rest of the Girls up to the child advocacy center to have their separate forensic interviews.
Barbara carried in a load of boxes for the kids and so did Officer Jones, dropping them all heavily to the floor.
"Hey, Girls." The man huffed after removing his load from his person and taking the time to catch his breath.
"Hey Jones," Buttercup greeted somewhat playfully. "You got a real potty mouth, you know that?"
The man's face turned beet red. "Aw shi- ... I mean, crud. You heard all that?"
"Sure did." Buttercup bragged. "And it was pretty dang awesome if I do say so myself."
"It did help make them go away." Blossom acknowledged. "And we don't blame you for the language. You are an adult after all."
Common sense told her that there were some things that adults could do that kids just couldn't until they were the proper age. It was the same with things like driving, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes.
"Well," The man looked off to the side, scratching his head with a bit of embarrassment. "Just make sure you don't repeat anything that you heard from me, okay? It's not nice for other people."
"Maybe. Maybe not." Buttercup mischievously said, letting her eyes wander about a bit.
"Buttercup." He warned.
"Alright, alright, I won't. Not unless it's for a really good reason."
"In all seriousness though, Girls. We did bring you some of your things." Ms. Barbara intervened. She showed off a lot more than 'some' things. Sure, Blossom had her Etch-and-Sketch and Buttercup had her blanket in those boxes but there was a lot more than that.
They had their clothes in there; their regular dresses and at least three sets of pajamas each. They had their toiletries; toothbrushes, hair brushes, toothpaste, soap, washcloths, and more. They had a good amount of toys and familiar entertainment to bring with them too.
"Wow! You didn't need to get us all this." Blossom said, not only impressed but also a little worried. Why did they pack stuff for them like they were moving out or something?
"Yeah, this is crazy! Do we really need all this?" Buttercup asked quietly.
Officer Jones avoided the question for a bit as he looked at the little girl Bubbles and asked her, "You okay, sweetheart?"
"Yes sir." Bubbles answered, more than a little timid. "I'm not in as much pain."
He gave her a sympathetic look and asked more pointedly, "Do you think you're ready to get out of the hospital today? Can your body handle it?"
"Yes." Bubbles said, perking up a bit. "Is the Professor waiting for me? I'm well enough to go home now!"
She wanted that more than anything and Jones hated dashing her hopes a bit. "Well Bubbles, I don't think that's happening right now, but it's not your fault. We just need to investigate some things with your daddy for a while and in the meantime we're sending you all to stay with some friends."
"Friends?" Bubbles's expression fell and her sisters looked similarly doubtful.
"Wait, so we're moving?" Buttercup asked.
"Yeah." Jones answered. "Just to be safe."
"And how long is this going to last?" Blossom asked glumly, really hating how this whole thing seemed to be stretching out indefinitely.
"Not long, sweetheart. I promise. Our case is already starting to wind down. Once we've got everything we need, this will all be behind us."
"Oh, I sure hope so!" Blossom complained, not wanting to make a scene but also not being able to hide her frustration for all this.
"W-What's going on?" Bubbles asked uncomprehendingly. "Why can't I go home with my dad? Why do I have to go somewhere else?"
Her panic was starting to painfully mimic the way her sisters had first reacted to the news that they would all have to be kept in protective custody until this case got a proper evaluation.
"It's not your fault, sweetie-" Barbara intervened, trying to calm the little blonde Puff down.
"But why can't I go home?!" Bubbles shrieked. "What's going on?!"
"Bubbles, do you remember that little talk we had last night about being safe?"
"Y-Yes." Bubbles answered, while her voice was starting to break. There were tears starting to drip from her eyes and she asked, "B-But what d-does that have to d-do with this?"
"Well, we don't think it's very safe for you remain here after that little incident we had with all those bad guys, right? And we don't know if it's quite safe for you to return to your dad or for him to pick you up yet to take you home until we can make sure you're protected-"
"But I am protected!" She shouted. "The Professor makes sure to protect me from all kinds of things! That's why he built the .Mo! That's why he made us wear elbow pads! No one protects me better than the Professor!"
This was all really hard to hear and everyone struggled to keep straight faces. "Bubbles, it's okay." Blossom insisted, trying to hug her. "We're staying with friends, remember? It won't be so bad."
"But I don't WANNA stay with friends! I WANNA go home with my dad!"
Barbara reached out to give her a hug of her own and she tried to express understanding as she ran her fingers through the crying girl's blonde hair. She rocked her back and forth and said, "I know you do, honey. I know you do. I know this isn't fair and I know you want this to be over with and I promise you it will be, but these things do need to happen first. Do you understand, Bubbles?"
"Y-Yes!" Bubbles eventually sobbed, a thumb brushing away her tears as she continued to lament her fate.
"I'll tell you what, honey. What we will think about is setting up monitored phone calls between you and your father. You can't quite see him in person but you can have little chats with him over the phone at times if that's what my supervisors can agree to."
"Okay." That did sound at least slightly better.
In the meantime there was still some business unrelated to CPS at all that needed to be dealt with before the Girls ultimately accepted their new position.
"Officer Jones," Blossom muttered. "Do you think it's okay if we step out for a little bit to handle some personal matters before we come back in here?"
"Girls, you can't-"
"We're not running away." Blossom said firmly. "We just need to TALK to some people for a while." She spoke through gritted teeth.
"Yeah, it won't even take a minute." Buttercup growled with similar quiet fury. "You won't even notice we're gone. Not for long anyway."
"Alright then." The man sighed. He couldn't exactly stop them when they had superpowers. This was still more of an agreement than anything else. "But at least eat something first. I don't think any of that hospital food really counted as food before now."
That actually aroused a tiny laugh out of the Girls. So there was another soul who knew the struggle.
"Look, I was gonna eat this for my own breakfast but then, you know. Stuff happened. So..." He took out a bag from Starbucks and offered a few bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches, blueberry muffin scones, cinnamon raisin bagels, and other things that smelled heavenly and were sure to taste even better.
"Oh, you're a food truck! The best food truck there is!"
Since Bubbles was a vegetarian (of a sort), she decided to pick out the Spinach, Feta, & Egg White Wrap to eat, taking small bites as she simultaneously tried to wipe her remaining tears. This whole situation would only be for a little while. She wouldn't be away from her father forever...
It was a relief to be able to get properly freshened up with full bellies and clear heads. They were gonna need every ounce of their strength as well as a professional appearance for what they were going to do today.
"Girls, you're not gonna get yourselves hurt, are you?" Bubbles asked worriedly, wondering how exactly Buttercup and Blossom were going to go out and "handle business".
"Nah, we aren't fightin' anybody." Buttercup dismissed. "We're just having a friendly and diplomatic conversation."
"I don't believe you." Bubbles said bluntly.
"Well, you don't have to believe us." Blossom said equally straightforwardly. "You just have to stay here and relax. We can guarantee you that the little problem you had to deal with today won't be happening anymore.
"... are you guys gonna kill anyone? You know as superheroes we aren't allowed to kill anybody! Even the bad guys!"
Buttercup and Blossom laughed a little at this.
"No Bubbles, we are definitely not gonna kill anybody." Blossom assured her.
"No matter how much we may really want to." Buttercup added.
With that, they were both gone to go confront each other preferred targets that the police and the Townsville's Department of Children and Family Services hadn't already dealt with already.
The Amoeba Boys were too sweet to go after. They hadn't done anything wrong so the Girls wouldn't be giving them a hard time. Princess at least had the decency not to spread any gossip (yet) or act like a total bitch about things, so she was currently safe too. Him had remained an outside observer as well even though even he expressed surprise at what he thought the Professor had done to their sister. Since he never took any direct actions to ruin their life, he would wisely be left alone as well.
So that just left...
"Okay, I'll go after the Gangreen Gang." Buttercup said.
Blossom gave her a bit of a wry smile. "You sure have a thing for green, don't you?"
"Shut up." Buttercup replied half-heartedly, though she too was smiling crookedly.
"And Bloss? You?"
"The Rowdyruff Boys."
"Whoa!" Buttercup's eyes popped wide open. "You're not gonna try to encounter all those guys alone, are you?"
Blossom closed her own eyes and took a deep breath. "Yeah. I am."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I know I'm not usually the one to say this, but do you really think that's such a good idea?"
"It's fine. Like you said, it's only a talk. And if those idiots have any class at all, they'll respect the fact that it's only supposed to be a talk."
"You just put the word 'class' in the same sentence with the Rowdyruff Boys. You know that, right?"
"I'll be fine."
This was a tense situation. Buttercup finally came upon an agreement to ensure her sister's safety. "Alright, but if anything turns hairy back there, don't be afraid to call out and yell, okay? I'll come running as fast as I possibly can to help you."
"Thanks for the knight in shining armor act, but I really don't think I'll need it. I'm honestly mad enough to destroy all three of them to be honest."
Buttercup threw her head back and loudly laughed. "Yep! You are definitely starting to sound more like me!"
"Yeah. I think I like it. At least for now."
"Alright. We'll meet back with each other in 15 minutes. Anything over that and we both go over to check on the other one."
"Deal."
They shook hands on it (kinda) and each went off their separate ways, ready to raise sheer hell.
CRASH!
The poor Gang was nearly scared straight out of their green skin when a very familiar equally green Puff came crashing down through their shoddy roof, making her presence known in the most destructive and intimidating fashion imaginable.
"We didn't steal anythin' this time!" Ace immediately said, covering his health insurance right there on the spot before she could get any ideas. "Whatever anybody said, we didn't do it, it wasn't us, and you can't prove that we did it-"
"Shut it!" Buttercup ordered. "I'm not in the mood for hearing any of our crap today, Ace!"
"Duh, wipe your feet please!" Big Billy hopelessly said, each member of the Gang looking at him as if he'd just stepped on a landmine. Was this idiot TRYING to get them all killed?
"Ahem uh," Snake timidly spoke up. "Isss there a problem, Buttercup?"
Hoh boy, he didn't even know the half of it.
"So, I bet you guys thought you were bein' pretty funny back there, huh?" Buttercup challenged, giving them all a hateful and derogatory gaze with her hands placed on her hips.
"Excuse me?" Ace asked, bumping up an eyebrow from beneath his shades.
"Don't play dumb with me, Ace. That ship has sailed! You know exactly what you did and you know exactly what you wrote. You and your little cronies!"
"Uh, okay. Maybe I am a dummy because I still don't know what the heck you're talkin' about!"
"This." Buttercup finally produced the document in question; the 'Get Well' card they all took turns writing in and signing for Bubbles, all of them wishing her good health and a speedy recovery.
"Yeah. I see it. What about it?" As far as Ace was concerned, he hadn't wrote anything bad in it and neither had any of the boys.
"You really don't know when to grow up, do you? First it was the crank calls and now this?! When are these dumb little pranks of yours finally going to stop?!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ace said, getting up and holding his hands out in front of her. "That wasn't no joke of ours, alright? That was actually somethin' pretty sincere-"
"Sincere?!" Buttercup nearly laughed at the word. "You've gotta be kiddin' me! How many times do you expect me to fall for that, Ace? Haven't we already been through this before? You can't fool me like you did when I had some stupid crush on you! YOU ARE A LIAR. You lie to everyone around you just so you can get something out of them!"
She picked him up by his vest jacket then and startled the rest of the Gang members with her suddenly violent actions.
"Ay, chica!" Lil Arturo tried to say in a tone that was meant to calm her, but Buttercup wasn't hearing it and screamed at him to, "SHUT UP!" So he didn't dare to say another a word and neither did the others.
"So why don't you just come out with it now?! What the hell do you want from us this time?!" She shook him in her anger and it was rough enough to make Ace's shades fall. "Are you trying to use us to help you take over Townsville?! Or are you really trying to make me fall in love with you again after you already proved yourself to be a worthless, lying, scheming PUNK?!"
...
Blossom didn't really bother to knock either when she kicked the main door to Mojo's volcano-top observatory clean off, finding the Rowdyruff Boys lounging about and fooling around with his stuff just like they always did.
"Thought I'd find you three idiots all the way out here. You're entirely too predictable."
"Nice to see you too, Pinky." Brick greeted casually, never losing his composure at her rude form of humor. "So what are you doing here? I thought you were being held by CPS."
"That's a pretty funny joke." Blossom said, giving him a wry, humorless smirk.
Brick snorted with his own form of agreement. No one could truly "hold" any of them in a real sense. The Puffs and Ruffs were simply too powerful, even for a so-called government agency like Child Protective Services.
"Yeah," Brick snickered. "Guess it kinda was."
"Kinda like that joke you tried to pull in the hospital today?" She pointed out, getting to the heart of the matter.
"What, you mean with Bubbles?" Brick responded. "Believe it or not, that was actually us tryin' to be nice."
"Yeah, well you freakin' suck at it!" Blossom spat. "And I don't think you should try again!"
"Eh." Brick shrugged. "Can't say I disagree with that. In case you haven't noticed, we're all pretty bad at being good."
Cute. Blossom thought. Savor that while you can. Things aren't about to be so cheeky for long.
"So, you forgot how to count Pinky?" Butch asked teasingly, giving her a malicious, maniacal grin. "There's three of us and one of you."
If he was looking to intimidate her, she would have to disappoint him. "And?" Blossom challenged. "You don't scare me, Butch."
"We've been good so far!" Boomer shared, actually sounding proud of this fact. "Least until your sister gets better from her surgery..."
"How is she by the way?" Butch asked, nearly sounding sincere.
Blossom gave him a smirk she could really smack him silly with. "How my sister is..." She began. "Is none of your goddamn business."
...
"Hey, take it easy, Buddacup!" Ace shouted, a good amount of fear now entering his exposed and vulnerable bloodshot, pink eyes. "It ain't nothin' like that, alright? I don't want nothin' from you!"
"Take it easy?!" Buttercup repeated. "I'll take it easy when all of you losers are officially out of our lives for good! Look Ace, I don't trust you as far as I can throw you and I don't appreciate little punks like you coming into our lives and pretending like everything has been nothing peaches and cream between us all this time when it hasn't!"
"I-"
"You've been out to get us ever since that night in the rain and even though we never did a thing to hurt you, you still tried to hurt us for absolutely no other reason except the simple fact that you could! If you think after all that you've done to me and my sisters that we can ever 'hang out' with each other or act 'cool' again, then I'm here to tell you now that you are dead freakin' wrong!"
"Let me ask you something Ace, what has Bubbles ever done to you?"
"She hasn't-"
"WHAT. HAS BUBBLES. EVER DONE. TO YOU?!"
"Nothin'! She ain't done nothin' to none of us!"
"So why don't you stop harassing her and leave our family alone!? You've already tried to hurt both of my sisters once; I will BURY you before I EVER let that happen again!"
...
Now this was a statement that had all the Ruffs taken aback. Did Blossom Utonium, the main goody-goody of her little girly group just say the word "damn"? And the way she said it was quite vicious too. Very cold and intentional.
Brick almost looked impressed, but taken aback at the same time. "Excuse me?"
"You heard what I said, Brick. Or did that go away too, along with your already tiny brain?"
"Ooh, she's spittin' out all the insults today." Brick Jojo cooed, turning his head to share the news first with his gaping brothers. Then he turned back around to her and a got a good deal more serious. "Somethin' piss you off today, Pinky? Particularly somethin' to do with us?"
"You're always pissing me off, Brick!" Blossom told him hotly and honestly. "You and your little group of two stooges!"
"And why exactly are you so pissed?" He probed, shamelessly stepping into her personal space.
"You just don't know when to stop, do you?" She growled out in his face. "Our sister ends up in the hospital, needs an operation on her private parts, and you still just can't leave us the hell alone!"
Her spit flew in his face as she yelled at him more viciously than she ever had before.
Butch and Boomer sat there stunned. They had never seen Blossom this unbelievably mad before. They were so used her to being the prideful and professional one of her group that to see this unexpected side of her was actually quite frightening.
"Do you know what we've had to deal with?! The villains we've had to hide from when they came up to that hospital to try to KILL our dad?!"
"For your information, Pinky!" The red Ruff yelled at her right back. "We weren't TRYING to mess with you or your sister; we were ACTUALLY trying to help!"
...
"Look kid," Ace said, holding his hands up in front of her as his feet continued to dangle off the ground. "I know you and I have got some pretty bad blood between us. I know I haven't always done right by you or ya sistahs. But I'm here to tell you right now that ain't none of us are here to mess with any of yous right now, least of all Bubbles. We already know how much shit she's been through already."
"Good!" Buttercup replied, finally giving him the luxury of being set back down. "Because what people like you and everybody else needs to understand is that Bubbles is my sister and nobody else's! I'm the one who protects her and I'm the one who looks out for her! Nobody else has the same role that I do!"
...
"You know what?" Blossom said, actually starting to talk quietly for once. "I would've rather you sent our sister a letter saying 'Serves you right! You got what you deserved!' than the stuff you decided to put down instead. At least then I would've known you were being honest."
This actually surprised the Rowdyruff Boys. Their mouths simultaneously dropped to the floor.
"Dude..." Butch said, actually sounding offended. "Are you serious? You actually think we would write that?"
Boomer sounded strangely hurt too. "Yeah... I mean, I know we're not good..."
"But we're not that damn bad!" Brick defended. "Just because we like to see you babies suffer doesn't mean we ever wanted your sister to get ra-"
"No." Blossom interrupted. "You aren't that bad. You're actually a whole lot worse."
...
"Look Buddacup, we understand how ya feel about yer sistah-"
"No, you don't!" Buttercup snapped. "You don't even have a family!"
This was the same barb the Professor had jabbed them with (the apple not falling far from the tree?) and the gangsters didn't appreciate this coming out of Buttercup's mouth any more than they did the Professor's.
"Okay, look-!" Ace began in protest, making the grave mistake of standing up (quite literally) to the enraged Powerpuff.
"Who are you raising up against?!" Buttercup hollered, shoving the gangster right back down on his ass again. She did it with enough force to make him stay down this time.
"I'm talking right now! You don't get to talk yet!"
"Buttercup-" Grubber tried placatingly.
"SHUT UP!"
The Gang cowered in fear at her rage and huddled together for dear life.
...
"The only reason you want to see Bubbles get better from all of this is so you can go right back to torturing her for yourselves again as soon as she gets out of that hospital." Blossom claimed. She looked at them all straight on and asked, "Am I wrong?"
Before they could, she went even further. "This is nothing more than a game to you. You are so sadistic and evil that you don't even care about her getting hurt that way! You have humiliated her, degraded her, beaten her, and disgraced her and none of that is going to change! You just want to make her bleed somewhere else for yourselves!"
For once, the Ruffs were rendered silent from this. They had no witty comebacks, no smart remarks. There was nothing even from Brick who had been so loud and vocal before. They really didn't know what to say to that armor-piercing question. Would they indeed go back to the same things they had always been doing?
"It doesn't have to be that way." Boomer quietly said. "I don't wanna hurt her anymore after all that happened..."
"You already did." Blossom replied ruthlessly. "And what you've done is far worse than anything that my dad will ever do! And do you wanna know why?" She leaned in close to all of their faces for this one. "Because unlike yours, my dad isn't evil!"