(BRICK'S POV):

When I tell you that everything hurts, I literally mean EVERYTHING hurts! My body had been beaten, battered, blasted and crushed all within the span of two or three hours. It was a nightmare! I went into this with an opened mind. I thought it would be easy! Boy was I wrong. This simulation was beyond painful.

Before I entered the Danger Room Simulation Chamber, Blossom had asked her dad or whatever to modify it for me to use properly. It wasn't all that difficult beforehand. Now, there were 50 levels to it. Each was way harder than the last. I was only able to get up to level twenty four. Not even halfway through.

I had battled multiple different monsters and even some villains from the past. It was pretty insane how realistic the experience was.

I ended up coming here with Blossom after school. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't happy to be going over her house. It was great! She made us snacks before we studied together and it all made me feel at ease. No worrying about HIM, no annoying brothers to bother me, and nothing to stop me from the ultimate training.

Now normally Butch was the one that was into pushing himself to his limits. However, starting today, I was gonna be hard at work sharpening my skills. For my first day, I stayed in there for like five hours. By the time I had exited the room, it had already been dark outside.

I was sweating bullets and my body was extremely sore. Regardless, I still felt great about myself. This newfound resolve was really pushing me forward. Maybe now I could force away my own flaws and build myself into the most talented man the world has ever known. With a mind as sharp as mine and power that could rival Butch's, I'd be unstoppable! I'd be perfect. Blossom would love me and my brothers would respect me. Everything would be as it should.

Pushing my thoughts aside, I closed the chamber door and started walking towards the main area of the house. Speaking of said house, it was pretty much a goddamn mansion! I've seen pictures of what it was like before and I had to say, the difference was night and day!

Apparently, Professor Utonium was among the elites in terms of scientific engineering and his worldwide studies in biological development. His pride and joy being the three daughters that he made. The Powerpuffs alone granted him the well deserved title of absolute genius. On top of that, he was able to find several different cures for multiple diseases. The man single handedly ended a global pandemic. He was a certified billionaire and used his wealth to start his own development industry.

It was an international juggernaut! The company that helped develop tools and medicine for the human race to advance. Utonium United was THE leading corporation in the United States, South America, Europe and several parts of the Middle East. The Professor was here to make a difference and that's exactly what he's been able to do thus far.

My point being, the guy was loaded! Since he was loaded, the Puffs were kind of loaded. Well, sort of. I had taken note of the situations between the three sisters. Blossom was the one that usually assisted their father figure. Therefore, she opted out of a usual part-time job and spent her days volunteering for a vast number of communities around the world. She was very much into nonprofit organizations while her sister's got regular paying jobs despite not needing them.

They got everything they could possibly want without being spoiled like how Princess is. They had dignity and humility as Earth's primary protectors.

I had been in awe since the moment I had set foot on the property that they called home. The many floors with the many rooms was one thing, but the stuff INSIDE of the rooms were a different story. They had a freaking two hundred and eight inch TV for Christ sake. The thing was absolutely massive! High quality surround sound complete with an impressive entertainment center.

They had everything in this place! It was all just too much for me to handle. I felt like I was in paradise right now. Going back home to that empty apartment was going to be more than disappointing.

Once I had made my way back to the massive living room, I was quickly caught off guard by Blossom. She was sitting calmly on the couch typing away on her clearly expensive laptop. She hadn't noticed me yet and truth be told, I was grateful for that. It gave me more time to admire her. The full on dedication that she showed to her work was exceptional. She was a very serious person with a ton of compassion in her heart. It's just another thing I adore about her.

Even taking all of that away still left her with unmatched looks. The way that pink nightgown hugged her body was mesmerizing. She must've washed up recently. I could see a few strands of her slightly damp hair sticking to her neck.

I didn't care anymore. I knew how I felt. I just needed her to feel the same way. Maybe I could keep Butch out of the picture for a little bit. He'd be fine. He'd just have to get over it.

Yeah...This was all on me. He had enough success handed to him. He can whine all he wants about how his powers are actually a bad thing. I'm not buying it. He's just being annoyingly modest. He's pitying me like I asked for sympathy from him. My little brother. I can't believe he had the nerve to show fear in regards to some random stranger. He was too dramatic.

I shook my thoughts away and walked towards the back of the couch. I leaned against it and cracked a small grin. "Hey…"

She jumped a bit and looked over her shoulder. Her unique, bright pink eyes were locked with my crimson ones.

"Oh Brick. You startled me."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I kind of just walked in. Anyway, what's happening? Is that school work or something?"

She shook her head. "No, it's actually just a few rough drafts for my college requests. I'm not entirely sure which I'll end up at though. I have a couple of choices that I'm in favor of but I won't know for a while if I'm in or not."

I wrinkled a brow at her before laughing. "Are you for real?"

"What's so funny?!" She asked with an annoyed huff.

"It's just that you're all stressed out over this stuff when you're pretty much guaranteed to get in. You're the leader of the Powerpuff Girls and the daughter of the world's greatest scientist."

"No...I don't want to get in like that. Not just because of my name and status. It has to be solely based on my ability! I want to earn what I work towards. Otherwise, what's the point? I'm more than just a title, Brick."

I could see why she was my counterpart. She was determined to get what she wanted. She's willing to put in the time and effort to obtain her goals. All without shortcuts! I find that to be extremely difficult for most people. She's always finding a way to surprise me.

"Look, that came out wrong. You're really smart Blossom. I was just saying that you still shouldn't have anything to worry about."

"Thanks Brick. It means a lot. Especially coming from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She smiled. "It's just that our history wouldn't exactly lead anyone to believe that we'd be in this situation. You know...You in my house giving me words of encouragement. It's really uplifting to hear you telling me that."

I felt the heat rising to my cheeks. I swear my heart had skipped a beat. "I uh, yeah! Any time you start feeling down in the dumps, just call me and I'll tell you what you need to hear." WHY DID I SAY THAT OUT LOUD?!?!

"Oh really? Is this supposed to be the part where I give you my phone number?" The small grin that she had on her face was just too much.

If I wasn't blushing before, I definitely was now. "I um...You see, uh...I kinda sorta...Don'thaveaphone!

"Huh? What did you say?"

I sighed. "I don't have a phone yet so uh...Yeah…"

"Do you want one?" She asked.

"I can't afford one right now. I don't even have a job."

She giggled before placing her laptop down and standing up. "Follow me. I'm sure I can find you a usable phone."

"Blossom it's okay! You really don't have to do that!"

"I know that dummy. I just want to. Now come on!"

She led me up to the third floor and walked me into her room. Needless to say, there was a lot of pink. Like a lot of it. Not to mention it was spotless in there.

She opened a few drawers and moved around a few items before pulling out a touch screen phone with a singular round button on the bottom of it.

"It might need to be charged but if it still works, it's all yours!"

I tilted my head to the side a bit. "How long does it usually take to charge?"

"I'd say in about two hours. More than enough time for you to get in the bath."

"Wait what?"

She pinched her nose and pointed outside of her room. "You! Bathroom! Now!" She demanded.

We walked towards the end of the hallway and stopped at the large bathroom area. There was a large sit in shower in the corner, a padded toilet with a bidet, two sinks, a rack for towels and bathrobes and best of all, the large, round , jacuzzi tub in the center.

"Y-you're actually letting me in here?!"

"It's the bathroom Brick. Nobody would care if you used it."

"Well yeah but this is like THE bathroom."

"Yes, it's the main bathroom. At the same time, there are five other bathrooms. You're my guest so you have my permission to wash up in here. Just leave your clothes in the bin by the door so that I can wash them. When you get out just throw on a robe. One of the professor's should fit you well enough.

"Are you sure about this? He won't go all over protective dad on me?"

She giggled yet again. "He might if he were still here. He went to go catch a flight to Qatar

in order to oversee the production of a new super drug that can aid in tissue growth."

"Sounds complicated." Wait does that mean we're alone?!

"Not as much as you may think. Now get your butt in there and don't even think about coming out until you're nice and clean!" She said and she lightly shoved me inside and closed the door.

Wasting no time, I ditched all of my clothes and placed them in the small black bin. I turned on the large tub and activated the jets. The moment I sat down inside of the warm and rumbling water, I instantly felt soothed. The water was practically messaging my entire body. After all of the training, this was very much welcomed. I was practically melting into the tub itself! After a few light scrubs with soap, I fell right to sleep.

The nap I ended up taking left me feeling recharged and brand new. I was definitely feeling way better than I was before I got in. I wasn't too sure of how long I had been asleep for. I assumed that it had to have been for quite a while. I was hearing some commotion from downstairs and I wanted to see what was up.

I turned off the water and hopped out. I threw on some boxers that belonged to the professor and placed his robe over my body. It was soft and light. Absolutely perfect after a nap like that.

After straightening myself out, I started my journey downstairs and I was already certain that something was wrong after hearing all the shouting going on.

"NO! We don't have enough to just use whenever one of us gets hurt! You know how important they are!" I heard Blossom shout.

"You can't be serious right now! He's in shock Blossom! Look at his wound! You know he won't just wake up from this in an hour!" Buttercup shouted back.

I decided to descend each step even more until I had reached the bottom. Once I did, I was surprised to see all three sisters standing around my passed out brother. His blood was leaking to the floor beneath him. My knees instantly went weak.

Look, I've seen my brothers hurt before but this takes the cake. For the slightest of seconds, I thought he was dead. He just laid there, completely still with a hole in his chest. I was terrified. I ran over to his side and kneeled down next to him.

"What the hell happened to him?!"

There was a tensed silence in the air before Buttercup decided to speak. "He got attacked after work. The guy had some freaky teleporting powers. He got Butch in his chest quicker than either of us could react."

"It was just one guy! You mean to tell me that NONE of you guys could stop him?!"

"Brick calm down." Blossom said from behind me.

I couldn't just calm down. My brother was sprawled out on the floor with blood pouring out of him! He tried to tell me that he was being followed earlier and I treated it like it was nothing serious. Now he was hurt and Boomer was still out there somewhere doing God knows what!

"We were knocked away before we could help him! You weren't there! You didn't see him! That man...He wasn't normal, Brick! He was stronger than us."

I placed a hand over his wound and winced at the faint heartbeats. "His body isn't going to fully recover from this on its own. He needs medical attention."

"I think I can help with closing his wounds." Bubbles said before running off for the medical supplies.

I glared. "What do you mean you THINK?!"

"Just shut up Brick." Buttercup lifted him up in her arms and started carrying him towards the downstairs laboratory.

I decided not to speak. I needed to calm down and let them handle this. Blossom and I followed after her with the pink eyed leader spouting out protests.

"The professor isn't home Buttercup! We can't just go around using the few vials of chemicals X that he has left!"

"Just drop it Blossom! I'm not about to let him stay in a coma for a week or two just to wake up in agonizing pain with an uneven scar on his chest! As if I'd let him come back with a missing lung!"

"What if there's a world ending crisis and one of us is on the brink of death?! Those vials are the ONLY thing that will fully restore us! We can't afford to just waste them like-"

"IT'S NOT A WASTE!"

Blossom and I stared at the green eyed Puff as she laid my brother out on a table. Her head hung low and it seemed like she was extremely tensed up.

"Buttercup…"

"I can't even imagine what he thinks of me right now. To see me looking so weak in front of him. That shithead practically one-shot me and Bubbles right before he wounded Butch. This was the second time that I had been so pathetic in front of him and I hate it! I don't know why I feel so obsessed with proving myself to him. I just can't help it! I train so hard and yet there's still levels that I haven't reached yet. I'M his counterpart! I should be the only person giving him a challenge."

Welcome to the club. I'd been feeling like this for years now. The fact that there were more people that were as powerful as Butch only exacerbated the fact that I was weak too.

"Hey guys! I've got the supplies ready." Bubbles said. She laid them all out on the table before grabbing a thread and needle. "So how do I stitch up a hole this big?"

Buttercup glared at her sisters. "You can't! He needs to close off some of the wound first. Unfortunately, he can't do that without one of the three vials on the wall!"

"BUTTERCUP!" Blossom suddenly shouted. "You can't just use them whenever you feel like it! You have to let him heal it naturally!"

"There's a fucking hole in his chest! How do you know that he won't bleed to death before it just heals by itself?! If you still haven't noticed, this ain't a normal injury!"

"His healing factor should kick in and keep his vital signs stabilized. I highly doubt that he would die!"

"You don't know that! Even if he does wake up, what then? He's still going to be wounded badly! His lung is definitely damaged and the amount of blood lost can't possibly be a good sign!"

To be honest, I was with Buttercup on this one. Butch was badly hurt! This wasn't a minor cut either. He had a gaping hole that wasn't going to patch itself up any time soon. He needed a boost and a shot of chemical X was exactly that!

I grabbed Blossom's arm and gave her a pleading look. "Please! Give him the injection. We may not see eye to eye all the time, but I never want to see my brother like that. Please help him Blossom."

"I don't know Brick. If it was guaranteed that he wouldn't make it, I'd have injected it in him immediately. This just seems too extreme of a solution. It takes years to develop the right potency for a working dosage of chemical X."

"I'll do whatever you need me too in order to help make more. Just give him the shot."

She sighed but ultimately decided to grab the vial. She walked it over to the table and grabbed the hypodermic needle and extracted the chemical X from one of the vials.

She brought the needle over to Butch's left arm and injected him with it. Veins had glowed from underneath his pale skin for a split second. He was fully breathing again and the wound was already starting to close. He was going to be alright.

"Alright Bubbles. You can start the stitching now." Blossom said with a mixed expression. I just hope that she wasn't mad.

"Thank you Blossom. I promise that I owe you one for this." I said to her.

"Yeah, don't mention it." She said with a light yawn. She quickly turned to her green eyed sister. "You're telling the professor about this!"

"Fine by me..." She grumbled in response.

After about thirty minutes of stitching, Butch's condition finally went stable. Everyone in the room was silently watching him sleep now. His wound was closed and the bleeding had long since, stopped. He was actually gonna be okay.

Bubbles put the medical equipment away before washing her hands. "I'm guessing he just needs a little rest right now. I'm not too sure about when he's gonna wake up though."

"Hey were are you going?" I asked the raven haired Puff.

Butchercup scooped him up and started carrying him up the stairs. She didn't speak when we asked her where she was going. She just, up and left with MY brother.

"Brick are you gonna be okay?" Blossom with Bubbles joining her.

"I don't know. Whoever the hell did this is still out there. We don't even know when he'll come back. It's all just a little bit too much for me to handle right now. I should probably just go home."

"Are you sure you don't want stay here-"

"I can't. I need to go back and make sure Boomer is alright. Hopefully he's just waiting for us at home. Besides, Butch will be safer here with you three. If somebody really is after him, then a two bedroom apartment isn't going to be safe enough for him."

"Well alright…You take care of yourself. Also, don't forget to change back into your clothes. They should be on my bed."

"Thank you guys. I really do appreciate you taking good care of him."

"It's no trouble Brick. Also, tell Boomer that I said hi!" Bubbles quickly added.

I made my way back upstairs. As soon as I made it to Blossom's room, I quickly changed back into my lavender scented clothes. They even felt quite a bit softer than before. I nodded and walked out of the room. I closed the door behind me and started walking back over to the stairs.

That was until I passed what I assumed was the room that belonged to Buttercup. Her door was slightly crack but it was enough for me to see what was happening.

Butch was sprawled out on her bed with neon green sheets over him. His counterpart on the other hand was sitting right next to him on the bed. I could see her sliding her fingers along the side of his face, never taking her eyes off of him.

"I hate you so much sometimes. Why'd you have to make everything so weird? You make me so fucking confused. I wish this were easier when you're awake. Talking to you that is. There's so much on my mind that I want to say to you. Bubbles knows but that's pretty much it."

"..." What the hell was she talking about? The softness in her voice was enough to catch me off guard but her mannerisms weren't usually like this either.

"I'm gonna tell you someday soon. I just have to work out a few things for myself. Just don't scare me like that again you stupid jackass!"

When she leaned in and gave him a peck on his forehead, I knew that it was time to go. I wasn't supposed to see any of that. The fact that she actually felt something for him was beyond me. Regardless, it was good to know.

I gathered my bearings and flew out of the large house. So many things warped around within my mind. For starters, who the hell was going around picking fights with Butch? I mean, they had to have known who and or what he was. Perhaps HIM was back. I had been expecting that rotten bastard to show his face again. Could he be here for revenge? Maybe he wasn't even involved in this to begin with. It could be someone we've never even heard of. An extraterrestrial creature seemed like an option. No earthling could do that much damage to a Rowdyruff, let alone Butch of all people.

My flight was slow and steady as I scanned the streets far below me. I wasn't about to be caught off guard. There was no way in hell I was dying tonight. Thankfully, everything seemed in order. Things were peacefully quiet. I was grateful for that. I was able to get back home without any sort of trouble.

Once inside, I had noticed Boomer in the barren living room. He was sitting on the floor eating a bag of chips while playing a game. He seemed completely immersed. He didn't even know I was here.

"Boomer!" I called out to him.

"Hmm?"

"How was your day?" I asked, simi-awkwardly

He paused his game and looked up at me. "Are you on drugs?"

"Excuse me?"

"Since when do you wanna know about how my day went?"

I let out an annoyed sigh. "I'm just asking! I wanna know if you were attacked."

"Attacked? By who?"

"I don't know! Anybody!"

"No dude. I wasn't attacked. Why would you even think that?"

I tried to suppress my glare. "It's because of Butch. He got hurt pretty badly. Someone picked a fight with him earlier."

"And he lost?!" Boomer asked frantically.

"What?! I don't know, most likely. I wasn't there! Besides, that isn't the point! He's badly injured and now he's out cold in the Utonium estate."

My blonde brother quickly stood up and walked to the front door. "Well then what the hell are we doing here?! We should be by his side so that no one else can hurt him!"

"Hold it there buddy. I just came from their house. He's gonna be fine. Besides, it's not like either of us will be much help against whoever it was that attacked him. We just have to let him recover."

"Get out of my way Brick! I'm going!"

I grit my teeth with frustration and snatched him up by the collar. "I'm getting real sick of you two forgetting who I am. I told you to stay put and I meant it! We need to watch each other's backs for now and that all there is to it!"

He challenged my harsh gaze with a mean look of his own. "...Fine!"

I put him down and watched him stomp over to his and Butch's room. His anger was understandable. I was angry too. That's the exact reason why I want us here. What if that bastard wanted to go after all of the Ruffs? That would mean that me and Boomer would have to stay alert and keep our distance from Butch until he was better. Can't have him being killed while he was unconscious. He'd be safe with the Powerpuff Girls. I doubt anyone would think to break into their house and take him. He'd be alright. We could see him tomorrow after school. I only hope that he's better by then.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Any feedback and suggestions are much appreciated. Next chapter should be up soon. Till then have a blessed day and stay safe!