PART IV
Sleep didn't come easy for the distraught Bubbles. Half of the night she laid in the bed awake worrying about her beloved Octi. What little sleep she did get, was haunted by dreams of various atrocities being committed by unknown perpetrator against the purple stuffed octopus. Early in the morning the blue-eyed puff unhappily went over her thoughts. 'Poor Octi, what am I going to do. Maybe I should give up and let Blossom take over. I don't wanna be her slave but what can I do?' As Bubbles pondered over her miserable fate, the noise of one of her sisters waking up disrupted her train of thought. Bubbles caught a glimpse of Buttercup rolling out of bed and drifting towards the closet. 'Why is Buttercup up so early? Oh yeah, she likes to go out. I wonder where she goes.' The memory of Blossom telling her that, as leader, it was her job to keep track of her sister, stuck in the young heroine's mind, she decided today she would do just that. Bubbles curiosity was amplified exponentially when she heard the shower running. 'Is Buttercup taking a shower? I thought she liked being dirty and yucky.' Bubbles waited in bed patiently, feigning sleep, for the sound of her sister zooming out the window. When the coast was cleared, Bubbles quickly got dressed and stealthily followed her tough sister.
"One bag of ranch flavored sunflower seeds, one doughnut and a small coffee, that'll be $3.98 please." A cheerful female convenience store clerk said as she beamed at Buttercup. Buttercup paid the young woman and readjusted the black baseball cap she was wearing. "Thank you for coming and have a great day."
"Thanks, you too." Buttercup left the store and scanned the sky. Knowing that Blossom knew her morning routine left the raven-haired girl a little more paranoid than usual. 'All clear, I guess.' Buttercup walked to a bus stop and hopped on the bench. The bus rolled in and picked up the super hero.
"Good morning, young lady, going to the park again?" the driver asked Buttercup.
"Yep." Buttercup answered as she paid the fare and took her seat.
Bubbles found tracking her sister to be a difficult endeavor. First, Buttercup had opted to dress more like a normal child, wearing blue jeans, a white t-shirt, a green jacket and a black baseball cap. Second, upon reaching the distant city where the two were presently located in, Buttercup hit the ground and began walking to reach her checkpoints. 'Very strange' Bubbles thought to herself while trying to keep tabs on her sister while trying not to get spotted herself. Bubbles carefully followed the bus to a park near some houses, where Buttercup had gotten off. Bubbles tracked Buttercup through the park still being careful not to be seen. 'This is neat, I'm just like Cate Archer, super spy.' Bubbles hadn't been this excited since she hacked into Blossom's computer diary. However what Bubbles discovered shocked her to the core.
Buttercup scanned the area of the park still wondering if she had been followed when a small voice caught her attention.
"Hamha Buttercup." Buttercup now focused her attention on a group of hamsters of various colors, shapes and sizes who emerged from the underbrush to greet her.
(Author's Note "text" = The hamster, or ham if you will, language.)
"Hi guys." A tiny hamster with a yellow cloth draped over her, Penelope, bounded over to Buttercup and squeaked at the girl wanting to be picked up. Buttercup giggled and picked up the little ham and tickled her behind the ears. "Okyoo" the hamster squeaked joyously.
"Didja bring the special treats you promised us for helping you?" A large hamster with gray spots asked, his black eyes twinkling in anticipation.
"Oxnard, that's like so totally rude of you." A tiger striped hamster with a ribbon tied to her tail, Sandy, admonished the larger one.
"Ha-ha, yeah I got you all a big bag of sunflower seeds, ranch flavored." The ham-hams cheered as Buttercup produced the large bag of seeds and dug in as soon as she opened it.
"Gee thanks Buttercup, there are delicious." An orange and white hamster, Hamtaro, paused from his krumping to thank the brunette.
"Glad you like them. It was the least I could do after all the trouble I put you guys through."
"It was no trouble. I had fun. It was pretty neat seeing where you live. I've never been to a super hero's house before." Hamtaro answered.
"I liked being able to see a new city with entirely different culture." Added a slender brown and white hamster, Maxwell, who always reminded Buttercup of Blossom.
"It was fun sneaking around in there, and taking that funny looking toy. I felt like Cate Archer, super spy." Oxnard smiled. This comment earned the large hamster strange looks from the rest of the group. "That's from one of Kana's computer games."
"And we put the Octi in our clubhouse where no one can ever find it." Hamtaro added with a chuckle.
"Thanks again guys, you're the best." Buttercup said as she handed out more sunflower seeds.
"Ookyoo" Penelope squeaked happily as she took a ranch-flavored seed from the puffs hand. Everyone was having a grand time unaware that they were being watched by a pair of large blue eyes.
Bubbles couldn't believe what she was seeing. Buttercup, the cute-hating tomboy, was hanging around with hamsters and enjoying herself. Suddenly, it all made sense, the outfit the green-eyed puff begged the Professor to buy but Bubbles had never seen worn, the brunette's sudden relaxed demeanor, the two-hour laughing fit Blossom had one morning, it all came together. Bubbles frowned as she watched and listened to her sister squeaking and chittering along with the tiny creatures. Hearing enough, the blond angrily confronted her sister, "Buttercup, how could you!"
Buttercup and company swung around in terror to see an infuriated Bubbles glaring angrily at them, or more specifically Buttercup. Buttercup realized that her sister had been listening in on their conversation. 'Oh man, I'm in for it now.' Buttercup thought terrified. It was all over, the Professor was going to forbid her from seeing her ham friends again, her reputation as the toughest fighter would be forever tarnished, she was going to be grounded, she would be forever sentenced to a hamster free life of ridicule and shame.
"After all this time, you've been playing with cute little hamsters and you didn't tell me!" Buttercup looked flabbergasted. 'She isn't mad about Octi?' "And you can talk to them too? Didn't you know I had so many questions I wanted to ask Twiggy!?" Buttercup slowly smiled and sighed with relief. Bubbles couldn't speak hamster. "I like hamsters too, you know." Bubbles added giving Buttercup big puppy-dog eyes with a timid, cute voice that matched her look.
"Gee, I'm sorry Bubbles, it's just that.. well.. um.. er.. I hafta get up so early to play with them, and I know you like to sleep in.." Buttercup began stammering out an excuse when she was interrupted by three more hamsters carrying a certain stuffed octopus with a top hat.
"Hey Buttercup, Bijou and Pashmina wanted to rearrange the furniture in da clubhouse so we had to bring your toy outside to make room." The big hamster wearing a safety helmet, Boss, said.
"Yeah, you might say it ate up all the space. Hee-Hee-Haw-Haw." Another hamster wearing a red apron, Howdy, joked. "Geddit, it's a joke. Y'all should be laughin."
"Man Howdy, that was like so totally lame." The third hamster, Stan, who looked like a male version of Sandy.
"Say isn't that the goil we saw Buttercup's room? Uh, why is she lookin at us like dat?" Boss asked with a sweatdrop forming on his head.
Later, that afternoon
With the girls and the Professor gone, Blossom decided to enjoy a soap opera that was playing. 'You don't love me. You only love your eyes, ears and throat pavilion.' 'I've dedicated my life to the diseases of the head holes, but it never got rid of the hole in my heart.' Blossom was really getting into the televised conversation when it was interrupted by a news bulletin.
'This is Stanley Whitfield reporting live from City Hall, where Powerpuff Girl Bubbles is about to make an announcement.'
'People of Townsville, I'm happy to announce that I have captured the evil Octi-nappers.' Bubbles was referring to group of scared hamsters, a few of them squeaking desperately at Buttercup. 'These bad hamsters tricked Buttercup into taking them to my house and helping them steal my poor Octi.' Blossom groaned guiltily, Bubbles wasn't supposed to find out about Buttercup's hamsters.
'And as Mayor, I can assure the good people of Townsville that these evil doing hamsters will be going to jail for a long time.' The Mayor added. With that, half of the group of hamsters began bawling and the other half began to squeak at Buttercup even more desperately. The one in the red apron began to act like it was the end of the world.
Blossom slumped down in the couch, her conscience bearing down on her. That's when she caught Buttercup's expression, an expression that filled the redhead with pure terror. It was 'The Look.' Blossom had only seen 'The Look' once but it was definitely memorable. An especially tough monster had scored a cheap shot on Bubbles, breaking her arm. The blonde's pathetic wailing set something off in Buttercup, which led to the monster's horrific demise. When the green-eyed puff had finished, half of the city was covered in monster gore. Blossom had nightmares for weeks about the expression Buttercup wore while she avenged Bubbles pain. Now 'The Look' was pointed directly at her. Blossom immediately left the house and sped off towards City Hall.
Blossom crashed into the City Hall pressroom. "STOP!!! It wasn't the hamsters, it was me."
"What are you talking about?" Mayor asked suspiciously.
"The Octi-napping was my idea. I blackmailed Buttercup into helping me steal Octi. I had her use her hamster talking power to talk her hamster friends into sneaking into the house and taking Octi. We then took the hamsters back to their park and hid Octi with them. Please don't put them in jail." Blossom babbled quickly on the verge of tears.
"We know." Bubbles told her sister smugly.
"What? How?"
"I followed Buttercup this morning and found her and the hamsters with Octi. I then asked Buttercup, 'Hey, what's going on here?' Then she told me about how you were gonna tell everyone that she hung out with hamsters if she didn't help you steal my Octi. So I thought, 'That dirty Blossom, I'm gonna teach her a lesson' so here we are."
"But the news release?"
"We taped it earlier and I had it beamed directly to the house." The Professor answered proudly.
"Stanley Whitfield?"
"I promised next time he tried to interview me, I'd actually do it instead of telling him where he can stick his microphone." Buttercup grumbled.
"The Mayor?"
"Well, I didn't have anything better to do." He answered.
"The hamsters?"
"They're back in their homes safe and sound." Bubbles answered happily.
"Now Blossom, you what you did was wrong." The Professor admonished his daughter.
"Yes." She responded miserably.
"And I believe your leader has thought of the perfect punishment for you."
"Blossom, for doing all that bad stuff, your gonna hafta get up early and go jogging for an hour, for the rest of the week. And I gonna go with you to make sure you do it." Bubbles told her already miserable sister. Blossom only groaned in response.
So the rest of the week went by without any major incident. Just a few robberies that were easily handled and the return of the Gangrene Gang who were too shook up by their experiences with real gangs to do anything. Bubbles and Buttercup were sitting in their beanbag chairs happily playing video games.
"WATCH OUT FOR THE BATS! OH NO, THE GHOST LADY IS GONNA MAKE THE ICE FALL DOWN AGAIN!" Bubbles resumed her duties as Buttercup's advisor.
"Yeah I know, chill out sheesh." Buttercup grumbled. "So do you still want be leader?"
"Nah, it wasn't all that great. I'd much rather let Blossom do all that stuff, and besides if I were leader, I couldn't come with you and play with those cute little hamsters. Can I?"
"Sure." Buttercup smiled at her sister.
"Really? Hooray! Say are you thirsty?"
"Yeah."
Bubbles then rang a little bell she had next to her. Blossom floated to her. "Yes master?" she asked bitterly.
"Blossom, bring us two glasses of lemonade, chop-chop." The blond snapped.
"Yes master." Blossom headed to accomplish her task while thinking, 'This is gonna be a long month.'
THE END
Sleep didn't come easy for the distraught Bubbles. Half of the night she laid in the bed awake worrying about her beloved Octi. What little sleep she did get, was haunted by dreams of various atrocities being committed by unknown perpetrator against the purple stuffed octopus. Early in the morning the blue-eyed puff unhappily went over her thoughts. 'Poor Octi, what am I going to do. Maybe I should give up and let Blossom take over. I don't wanna be her slave but what can I do?' As Bubbles pondered over her miserable fate, the noise of one of her sisters waking up disrupted her train of thought. Bubbles caught a glimpse of Buttercup rolling out of bed and drifting towards the closet. 'Why is Buttercup up so early? Oh yeah, she likes to go out. I wonder where she goes.' The memory of Blossom telling her that, as leader, it was her job to keep track of her sister, stuck in the young heroine's mind, she decided today she would do just that. Bubbles curiosity was amplified exponentially when she heard the shower running. 'Is Buttercup taking a shower? I thought she liked being dirty and yucky.' Bubbles waited in bed patiently, feigning sleep, for the sound of her sister zooming out the window. When the coast was cleared, Bubbles quickly got dressed and stealthily followed her tough sister.
"One bag of ranch flavored sunflower seeds, one doughnut and a small coffee, that'll be $3.98 please." A cheerful female convenience store clerk said as she beamed at Buttercup. Buttercup paid the young woman and readjusted the black baseball cap she was wearing. "Thank you for coming and have a great day."
"Thanks, you too." Buttercup left the store and scanned the sky. Knowing that Blossom knew her morning routine left the raven-haired girl a little more paranoid than usual. 'All clear, I guess.' Buttercup walked to a bus stop and hopped on the bench. The bus rolled in and picked up the super hero.
"Good morning, young lady, going to the park again?" the driver asked Buttercup.
"Yep." Buttercup answered as she paid the fare and took her seat.
Bubbles found tracking her sister to be a difficult endeavor. First, Buttercup had opted to dress more like a normal child, wearing blue jeans, a white t-shirt, a green jacket and a black baseball cap. Second, upon reaching the distant city where the two were presently located in, Buttercup hit the ground and began walking to reach her checkpoints. 'Very strange' Bubbles thought to herself while trying to keep tabs on her sister while trying not to get spotted herself. Bubbles carefully followed the bus to a park near some houses, where Buttercup had gotten off. Bubbles tracked Buttercup through the park still being careful not to be seen. 'This is neat, I'm just like Cate Archer, super spy.' Bubbles hadn't been this excited since she hacked into Blossom's computer diary. However what Bubbles discovered shocked her to the core.
Buttercup scanned the area of the park still wondering if she had been followed when a small voice caught her attention.
"Hamha Buttercup." Buttercup now focused her attention on a group of hamsters of various colors, shapes and sizes who emerged from the underbrush to greet her.
(Author's Note "text" = The hamster, or ham if you will, language.)
"Hi guys." A tiny hamster with a yellow cloth draped over her, Penelope, bounded over to Buttercup and squeaked at the girl wanting to be picked up. Buttercup giggled and picked up the little ham and tickled her behind the ears. "Okyoo" the hamster squeaked joyously.
"Didja bring the special treats you promised us for helping you?" A large hamster with gray spots asked, his black eyes twinkling in anticipation.
"Oxnard, that's like so totally rude of you." A tiger striped hamster with a ribbon tied to her tail, Sandy, admonished the larger one.
"Ha-ha, yeah I got you all a big bag of sunflower seeds, ranch flavored." The ham-hams cheered as Buttercup produced the large bag of seeds and dug in as soon as she opened it.
"Gee thanks Buttercup, there are delicious." An orange and white hamster, Hamtaro, paused from his krumping to thank the brunette.
"Glad you like them. It was the least I could do after all the trouble I put you guys through."
"It was no trouble. I had fun. It was pretty neat seeing where you live. I've never been to a super hero's house before." Hamtaro answered.
"I liked being able to see a new city with entirely different culture." Added a slender brown and white hamster, Maxwell, who always reminded Buttercup of Blossom.
"It was fun sneaking around in there, and taking that funny looking toy. I felt like Cate Archer, super spy." Oxnard smiled. This comment earned the large hamster strange looks from the rest of the group. "That's from one of Kana's computer games."
"And we put the Octi in our clubhouse where no one can ever find it." Hamtaro added with a chuckle.
"Thanks again guys, you're the best." Buttercup said as she handed out more sunflower seeds.
"Ookyoo" Penelope squeaked happily as she took a ranch-flavored seed from the puffs hand. Everyone was having a grand time unaware that they were being watched by a pair of large blue eyes.
Bubbles couldn't believe what she was seeing. Buttercup, the cute-hating tomboy, was hanging around with hamsters and enjoying herself. Suddenly, it all made sense, the outfit the green-eyed puff begged the Professor to buy but Bubbles had never seen worn, the brunette's sudden relaxed demeanor, the two-hour laughing fit Blossom had one morning, it all came together. Bubbles frowned as she watched and listened to her sister squeaking and chittering along with the tiny creatures. Hearing enough, the blond angrily confronted her sister, "Buttercup, how could you!"
Buttercup and company swung around in terror to see an infuriated Bubbles glaring angrily at them, or more specifically Buttercup. Buttercup realized that her sister had been listening in on their conversation. 'Oh man, I'm in for it now.' Buttercup thought terrified. It was all over, the Professor was going to forbid her from seeing her ham friends again, her reputation as the toughest fighter would be forever tarnished, she was going to be grounded, she would be forever sentenced to a hamster free life of ridicule and shame.
"After all this time, you've been playing with cute little hamsters and you didn't tell me!" Buttercup looked flabbergasted. 'She isn't mad about Octi?' "And you can talk to them too? Didn't you know I had so many questions I wanted to ask Twiggy!?" Buttercup slowly smiled and sighed with relief. Bubbles couldn't speak hamster. "I like hamsters too, you know." Bubbles added giving Buttercup big puppy-dog eyes with a timid, cute voice that matched her look.
"Gee, I'm sorry Bubbles, it's just that.. well.. um.. er.. I hafta get up so early to play with them, and I know you like to sleep in.." Buttercup began stammering out an excuse when she was interrupted by three more hamsters carrying a certain stuffed octopus with a top hat.
"Hey Buttercup, Bijou and Pashmina wanted to rearrange the furniture in da clubhouse so we had to bring your toy outside to make room." The big hamster wearing a safety helmet, Boss, said.
"Yeah, you might say it ate up all the space. Hee-Hee-Haw-Haw." Another hamster wearing a red apron, Howdy, joked. "Geddit, it's a joke. Y'all should be laughin."
"Man Howdy, that was like so totally lame." The third hamster, Stan, who looked like a male version of Sandy.
"Say isn't that the goil we saw Buttercup's room? Uh, why is she lookin at us like dat?" Boss asked with a sweatdrop forming on his head.
Later, that afternoon
With the girls and the Professor gone, Blossom decided to enjoy a soap opera that was playing. 'You don't love me. You only love your eyes, ears and throat pavilion.' 'I've dedicated my life to the diseases of the head holes, but it never got rid of the hole in my heart.' Blossom was really getting into the televised conversation when it was interrupted by a news bulletin.
'This is Stanley Whitfield reporting live from City Hall, where Powerpuff Girl Bubbles is about to make an announcement.'
'People of Townsville, I'm happy to announce that I have captured the evil Octi-nappers.' Bubbles was referring to group of scared hamsters, a few of them squeaking desperately at Buttercup. 'These bad hamsters tricked Buttercup into taking them to my house and helping them steal my poor Octi.' Blossom groaned guiltily, Bubbles wasn't supposed to find out about Buttercup's hamsters.
'And as Mayor, I can assure the good people of Townsville that these evil doing hamsters will be going to jail for a long time.' The Mayor added. With that, half of the group of hamsters began bawling and the other half began to squeak at Buttercup even more desperately. The one in the red apron began to act like it was the end of the world.
Blossom slumped down in the couch, her conscience bearing down on her. That's when she caught Buttercup's expression, an expression that filled the redhead with pure terror. It was 'The Look.' Blossom had only seen 'The Look' once but it was definitely memorable. An especially tough monster had scored a cheap shot on Bubbles, breaking her arm. The blonde's pathetic wailing set something off in Buttercup, which led to the monster's horrific demise. When the green-eyed puff had finished, half of the city was covered in monster gore. Blossom had nightmares for weeks about the expression Buttercup wore while she avenged Bubbles pain. Now 'The Look' was pointed directly at her. Blossom immediately left the house and sped off towards City Hall.
Blossom crashed into the City Hall pressroom. "STOP!!! It wasn't the hamsters, it was me."
"What are you talking about?" Mayor asked suspiciously.
"The Octi-napping was my idea. I blackmailed Buttercup into helping me steal Octi. I had her use her hamster talking power to talk her hamster friends into sneaking into the house and taking Octi. We then took the hamsters back to their park and hid Octi with them. Please don't put them in jail." Blossom babbled quickly on the verge of tears.
"We know." Bubbles told her sister smugly.
"What? How?"
"I followed Buttercup this morning and found her and the hamsters with Octi. I then asked Buttercup, 'Hey, what's going on here?' Then she told me about how you were gonna tell everyone that she hung out with hamsters if she didn't help you steal my Octi. So I thought, 'That dirty Blossom, I'm gonna teach her a lesson' so here we are."
"But the news release?"
"We taped it earlier and I had it beamed directly to the house." The Professor answered proudly.
"Stanley Whitfield?"
"I promised next time he tried to interview me, I'd actually do it instead of telling him where he can stick his microphone." Buttercup grumbled.
"The Mayor?"
"Well, I didn't have anything better to do." He answered.
"The hamsters?"
"They're back in their homes safe and sound." Bubbles answered happily.
"Now Blossom, you what you did was wrong." The Professor admonished his daughter.
"Yes." She responded miserably.
"And I believe your leader has thought of the perfect punishment for you."
"Blossom, for doing all that bad stuff, your gonna hafta get up early and go jogging for an hour, for the rest of the week. And I gonna go with you to make sure you do it." Bubbles told her already miserable sister. Blossom only groaned in response.
So the rest of the week went by without any major incident. Just a few robberies that were easily handled and the return of the Gangrene Gang who were too shook up by their experiences with real gangs to do anything. Bubbles and Buttercup were sitting in their beanbag chairs happily playing video games.
"WATCH OUT FOR THE BATS! OH NO, THE GHOST LADY IS GONNA MAKE THE ICE FALL DOWN AGAIN!" Bubbles resumed her duties as Buttercup's advisor.
"Yeah I know, chill out sheesh." Buttercup grumbled. "So do you still want be leader?"
"Nah, it wasn't all that great. I'd much rather let Blossom do all that stuff, and besides if I were leader, I couldn't come with you and play with those cute little hamsters. Can I?"
"Sure." Buttercup smiled at her sister.
"Really? Hooray! Say are you thirsty?"
"Yeah."
Bubbles then rang a little bell she had next to her. Blossom floated to her. "Yes master?" she asked bitterly.
"Blossom, bring us two glasses of lemonade, chop-chop." The blond snapped.
"Yes master." Blossom headed to accomplish her task while thinking, 'This is gonna be a long month.'
THE END