Note: I don't own any Powerpuff Girls characters or themes. I just write about them. I would also like to thank Butterteen for pointing out a mistake in my last story. I fixed it, and the story now makes sense near the end. I do my writing and editing early in the morning, when I may be half-asleep, so just bear with me sometimes. Thanks.
02: Acceptance
The story was no where near normal, but when you live in Townsville, you come to expect strange. But this whole scenario that Brick spoke of was more than a little hard to swallow.
"We know we were acting like nimrods, but we learned our lesson. We're sorry for what we did and tried to do to you," Butch said.
"Same here. We were real jerks. I understand if you don't forgive us," Brick said.
"Sorry," was all Boomer could get out, now focusing his head away from the girls.
Buttercup shook her head. "Pardon me, but this whole story seems more than just a little unbelievable."
"It's the truth! How could we be standing here if it was a lie! You three blew us up! Sure, we deserved it, but you just don't heal getting nuked like you heal a papercut!" Butch said, starting to become angry.
"Ha! It shows that you're lying!" Buttercup retorted.
"We ain't lying! I'm just mad you think that we're here to beat ya up, when we have yet to throw any punches!"
"Butch! Ease off, man. We're here to try and redeem ourselves, not start another brawl!" Brick said, grabbing his brother by the shoulder.
"You too, Buttercup! Brick's right, we don't need another battle!" Blossom said, putting herself between Buttercup and Butch.
"Okay, if you're not lying, where is this statue anyway?" Buttercup asked.
"Over here," Butch said, retrieving the statue from the bushes. "We were afraid that it would get busted if you three attacked us."
"See! It looks all old an' stuff! It proves they aren't lying!" Bubbles said, trying to convince her hot-headed sister.
"It PROVES that they could just be working on their stealing! And what's up with little boy blue over there? Is he a bad liar, so you told him to keep quiet." Buttercup said, motioning to Boomer, who had his gaze fixed on the ground.
"Boomer just got real shook up from the whole experience." Brick said.
"Well, if it is true, than you three jerks deserve what you went through! Hearing the pain everyone went through sounds like justice to me!"
Now Brick was becoming angry. Not at Buttercup's disbelief, but from Boomer's body language. The red ruff could see the argument was really getting to his brother.
"Listen, we didn't come here for arguments or brawling, we came here to apologize, and try and make some sense out of our lives. We've apologized, but we understand if you don't forgive us. Just come out and say it if you don't."
Buttercup was ignoring Brick by this point. She saw the reaction that her words got from Boomer, and she could predict what would happen. She would push the blue ruff over the edge, he would attack her, and this would prove the boys were lying.
"I can imagine that the screaming was pretty loud. You put a huge number of people at risk. Mothers, children, the elderly, and even talking dogs were all in danger!"
Boomer began shaking quite visibly.
"Buttercup, cut it out!" Blossom said, trying to regain control of the situation.
"Why? They got what was coming! I say let them suffer! The longer, the better!"
Boomer could hear them. The voices. The screaming. The pain. It was all coming back. He put his hands on his ears to try and stop the noise.
"Knock it off! Can't you see the poor guy's a wreck already!" Butch said, becoming even angrier.
"C'mon Buttecup, leave the boys alone. They've been through enough," Bubbles said. She could still remember Boomer's outburst in the Utonium backyard, and was quite convinced that the boys were truly sorry.
"No they haven't! I say we blow them up again! It isn't like anyone will miss them!"
"Buttercup! How can you say such an awful thing!" Bubbles said, quite surprised at her sister's verbal attack.
"Stop it," Boomer said to himself, trying to quiet the voices.
"Look! He's holding himself back from attacking!"
"Stop it!" Boomer said, trying to keep his sanity.
"Watch out, he's gonna attack!" Buttercup yelled, ready to counterattack.
"I'm sorry! Leave me alone! I didn't mean it!" Boomer said, trying to shake the voices from his head.
Brick, realizing what was happening, quickly tried to calm his brother down. "Boomer, settle down. It's over man."
"I'm sorry!" Boomer said, trying to appease the voices.
"What the heck?" Blossom asked, dumbfounded by the situation.
"Please, go away! I'm sorry!" Boomer said, trying to regain control.
"Fight it Boomer! Don't let 'em win!" Butch said, trying to encourage his brother.
The encouragement was futile. Boomer was not aware of anything going on around him. All he could perceive were the voices and the pain. It was even worse now that he knew thought that Buttercup didn't believe their story. Finally, the voices won out.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Boomer screamed, falling to his knees.
"Boomer! They ain't real! Block 'em out!" Butch said, trying to get through to his brother.
"Get a hold of yourself, bro!" Brick said, trying to gently shake his brother back to reality.
The Powerpuff girls, save Bubbles, were more than a little surprised by the turn of events.
Blossom immediately flew over to the boys. "Is he okay?" she asked, concern evident in her voice.
"Does he look okay?!" Butch asked, sounding more worried than angry.
"Oh my God. They were telling the truth," Buttercup said, frozen by the ramifications of what her words had done. Frozen, that is, until Bubbles made her move.
Bubbles slapped Buttercup. Hard. Buttercup hit the ground with a thud and had a trickle of blood coming out of her mouth. Buttercup looked at her sister with surprise, not only by the nature of the attack, but also from the force.
"You deserved that," Bubbles said, before joining the group around Boomer.
Professor Utonium had thought it was another monster attack when he heard the sounds of battle from his lab. He figured when the noise died was when the girls had beat whatever the latest terror was. Soon, the Professor could also hear the sounds of arguing between the girls and a group of boys. Professor Utonium knew he recognized the voices. They sounded so familiar, but this time they were lacking a certain hard edge. After a few seconds of thinking, he remembered. The most horrible enemies the girls had ever fought were back.
The Professor rushed upstairs and out the front door to find a scene that was the complete opposite of what he anticipated. The Rowdyruff Boys were most certainly alive, but it appeared that one of them was having something akin to a panic attack, while the other ruffs and the girls were all trying to calm him down.
"Girls! What in the world is going on?!" Professor Utonium asked.
"It's a long story, but we need to help Boomer!" Blossom said.
The Professor was confused for a few moments, but decided to trust Blossom's intuition about the boys. "I think the best thing is to give him a sedative to calm him down. Bring him to my lab."
A few minutes later, Boomer was asleep on a cot in the lab after being given a sedative shot by the Professor. Brick had then informed the Professor about the events leading up to the present situation.
"An' that's where we are now," Brick said. "And for the record, we're all sorry for what we tried to do to you, the town, and your family."
"We were bein' real savages," Butch said, hanging his head.
"The girls are safe, and it's quite evident you three are sorry, so I forgive you. Now, I think we better let your brother rest for a while."
Once they got out of the lab, the group continued their conversation.
"So, we have to wait for midnight for this statue to work?" Blossom asked.
"Yeah. Problem is, we need all six of us for it to work, and there needs to be a full moon out," Brick said.
"Tonight is a full moon, and considering you kids have Chemical X in you, the sedative I gave Boomer should wear off before then. If not, you should be able to wake him up," the Professor answered.
"Well, that's where we're different. Mojo didn't have Chemical X," Butch said.
"He used somethin' else instead, but went for potency instead of chemical stuff," Brick said.
"Well, what did he use?" the Professor pondered.
Both ruffs look at each other, turn their eyes to the floor, and mumble something under their breath.
"What was that?" the Professor asked.
"Toilet water," Butch said.
"Come again?"
"He used toilet water to create us," Brick said, obviously embarrassed.
"Well, that's. . .not quite Chemical X, but the potency part is correct."
"Can we talk about something else?" Butch pleaded.
A sudden grumble in everyone's stomach made it clear what the next item on the agenda should be.
"I'm hungry. Professor, what's for dinner?" Bubbles asked.
"Well, I'm a little short on variety, but I could whip up some spaghetti quick. It would be the best thing since we have guests tonight."
"Woah, you serious?" Brick asked.
"I wouldn't be a very good host if I wasn't."
"Thanks!" both ruffs exclaimed.
"Girls, why don't you show Brick and Butch around and keep them occupied until dinner is ready."
"Okay." The girls respond.
The next part of the evening is quite uneventful as the Utonium family plus Brick and Butch have an uneventful dinner. The table was mostly quiet.
After dinner was finished and everything cleaned up, the Professor went to the lab to check on Boomer. Blossom, Bubbles, Butch, and Brick were sitting in the living room, while Buttercup was sulking on the back porch.
"Wow. I've never seen Buttercup this down before. She must really feel awful," Blossom said.
Bubbles snorted in response. "She deserves to feel bad. She was so mean to Boomer."
"Yo, I appreciate the sentiment towards Boomer, but why side with us?" Butch asked.
"The same thing happened to him when we were in the backyard. It show's you guys are really sorry."
Brick shook his head. "Man, this whole thing has been bad for us, but it screwed Boomer up ten times worse than me or Butch."
"If you think about it, it kind of makes sense." Blossom states.
"How you figure that?"
"Well, you three boys seem to have similar personalities to my sisters and myself. The colors set it off. Green for the tough yet bull-headed ones."
"That's Butch," Brick says, smirking a little.
"Hey!"
"Red for leadership."
"And ego," Butch says, eliciting a small giggle from Bubbles.
"And blue for sensitivity. It makes sense that this effects Boomer the worst."
"It does make sense," Brick said.
Not knowing what else to say, the conversation died for a few moments. The stagnation broke when Butch began walking to the back porch declaring, "I'm gonna go talk to Buttercup."
"That might not be a good idea, Butch. It's best to leave Buttercup alone when she gets like this," Blossom warned.
Butch shrugged and pointed to his shirt. "I'm the green ruff, so I think I know what to say to avoid pissing her off. Besides, I'm still kinda mad over what she did to Boomer, but I get why she did it. Reverse the roles, and I'd do the same thing. That and I just feel bad seeing her like this.
Brick's head shot up at that statement. "Woah! When'd you get sensitive?"
Butch shrugged again. "Don't know, it just don't seem right, that's all."
Buttercup was feeling really down right now. She thought that the boys had been lying, but she was wrong. They were actually telling the truth. She had pushed Boomer over the edge, and now she was the one who felt sorry.
"Why do I have to be so thick skulled?" Buttercup wondered aloud.
"You're green," Butch said, exiting the house and sitting beside her.
Buttercup gave Butch a confused look.
"Blossom explained this theory a minute ago. She said we have similar personalities based on our clothing color. Brick and Blossom are bossy, Boomer and Bubbles are sensitive, and we talk before we think."
"I've got that down to perfection. Listen, I'm real sorry for what I did to Boomer."
"I don't like what ya did, but it makes sense. You wanted to piss him off so he would attack you, and then it would prove we were lying. I would have done something like that in your place."
"Yeah, but I didn't think you guys were on the level. Last time was just too close."
"Yeah. A perfect example of being thick skulled, wouldn't you agree? You're lucky you got strategy or we would have whooped you."
"What?! You come back saying you're sorry, and now you claim we got lucky?!"
"Got ya."
"Huh?" Buttercup asked, quite confused.
"Ya ain't sulking no more." Butch said with a smile.
It was true. Buttercup actually felt more like her old self again. And with feeling like her old self came a usual feeling of cockiness. The problem was she was up against an almost mirror image.
"Wow, the big tough Rowdyruff actually used his head. I'm surprised anything gets through your skull."
"Well, Mojo made us amplified versions of you."
"Meaning you think less than I do."
"Also meaning I'm tougher than you," Butch said, before sticking his tongue out at Buttercup.
"Prove it! I've had three months to get tougher, and I can take you easy!"
"That sounds like a challenge!" Butch said, flying into the air, followed by Buttercup.
Inside, the Professor had returned from the lab. He had gone fewer than three steps before Brick was in front of him.
"How's Boomer?"
"Still asleep. He should wake up in a few minutes. Where are Buttercup and Butch?"
"Buttercup was outside sulking and Butch went to try and cheer her up," Blossom said.
Suddenly, some noise can be heard outside. The group rushes outside to see two green blurs bouncing off each other in the air. After a few attempts, Brick and Blossom are able to grab their respective siblings.
"Butch, what the heck is wrong with you?!"
"Buttercup, what's going on?!"
Buttercup and Butch gave each other a competitive smirk.
"Just showing her that the ruffs are the toughest," Butch said haughtily.
"How come we beat you last time?" Buttercup asked.
"You cheated! No fair kissing in battle!"
Buttercup blew a kiss at Butch
"That's it! C'mon, Sissypuff!"
"You first, Rowdywuss!"
Realizing that their siblings were only sparring, Brick and Blossom descend to the ground and let Butch and Buttercup continue.
Blossom shook her head at the scene. "He's you're brother," Blossom say to Brick.
"She's you're sister," Brick retorts.
Bubbles can only shake her head. "I'm gonna check to see if Boomer's up," she says before floating down to the lab. Bubbles sees that Boomer is awake, and is still trying to shake off the effects of the sedative.
"How you feeling?" Bubbles asks as she floats over to Boomer.
"Groggy," Boomer says, hopping off the cot. As soon as he hits the floor, he begins to feel dizzy and almost falls over. Bubbles quickly floats besides him and uses herself as a brace to hold Boomer upright.
"Thanks again," Boomer says.
"What was the first thanks for?" Bubbles asked.
"For forgiving me. I don't deserve it," Boomer said, lowering his head.
"Sure you do! You're really sorry and it shows, so why not forgive you?"
"Thanks, all you kindness means a lot to me."
"No problem. C'mon, everyone else is upstairs. Need help?"
"If you don't mind."
Boomer and Bubbles exit the lab, with Boomer still leaning on Bubbles for support.
The scene outside was still the same as Blossom, Brick, and Professor Utonium were watching Buttercup and Butch duel in the air.
"What the heck are they doing?" Boomer asked, as he and Bubbles floated outside.
"Boomer! How ya feelin?" Brick asked.
"Dizzy, but Bubbles has been helpin' me get around."
"Hey Butch! Quit foolin' around! Boomer's awake!" Brick yelled to his brother.
"Huh?" Butch said, dropping his guard. Buttercup, already in motion, gives him a hard strike to the face, knocking him out of the air.
"Oops," Buttercup said.
Butch lands with a thud on the ground. He sits up, shakes the dust off himself, and walks over to the group. He gets a smirk on his face when he sees Bubbles helping Boomer stand.
"Aww, look. A true, blue couple."
Bubbles and Boomer start blushing furiously at this comment.
"Uh, thanks for the help. I think I can stand on my own now," Boomer said to Bubbles.
"Okay, if you're sure," Bubbles replies, letting Boomer stand on his own.
"Hey, Boomer."
The group sees that Buttercup has landed and has a nervous look on her face.
"Boomer, I'm sorry 'bout all those mean things I said. Heck, I'm sorry to all three of you for what I said."
Boomer shook his head. "Forget it. I deserved it."
"No, you guys came to apologize, and I started acting like a paranoid wacko."
"Even more than usual!" Bubbles piped in.
"Hey! Whose side are you on?" Buttercup asks.
This gets laughs form the entire group. Once everyone has stopped, Boomer restarts the conversation.
"So, now what?"
"We wait." Blossom replied simply.
"For what?" Brick asks.
Blossom turns her gaze inward, towards the gold statue. "For midnight."
To Be Continued