Five - Guilt on Ice
Buttercup couldn't sleep. The room was dark except for the moonlight streaming in their windows. To her left, Blossom was snoring loudly as always. Buttercup could hear Bubbles' soft breathing as she slept peacefully on the far side. But she wondered for how long.
It was after ten. The rest of the night had been uneventful; in spite of her continued expressions of being sorry, Bubbles had shrugged it off. But Buttercup knew that wasn't going to last. Bubbles would wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, in a daze and not remembering, and she would freak when she couldn't find Octi. Or maybe it wouldn't happen until morning. It didn't matter to Buttercup that Bubbles would remember eventually and get over it. It would happen, was all that mattered, and she didn't want to be there when it did. She couldn't just lie there and think about it. She had to get up and do something.
The professor was down in his lab. He'd be there half the night. She would tiptoe into his room and watch his TV until she fell asleep in his bed. If she were really lucky, she wouldn't hear Bubbles screaming and crying when she woke up. There was the chance her father would go to bed early and catch her, but she'd rather be scolded by him than have to hear Bubbles.
She carefully got out of bed and walked on the tips of her feet out of the room, hoping the hall light was out so it wouldn't throw its rays into the room and onto her sleeping sisters' faces. It was, but she caught herself. "What am I doing?" She floated the rest of the way, closed the door behind her and got herself settled at the end of his bed with the TV remote in her right hand. Late night TV was something they almost never got to see, so there ought to be some really neat stuff. She wished she had the TV section of the paper but decided against going downstairs for it. She'd just surf.
A silent observer watching her from the shadows would have seen her changing facial expressions and heard the following:
*click* "Hey, cool, a James Bond movie! I wonder what one? Aw, nuts, a commercial. Oh, well, I'll wait."
And when the commercial was over... "...we now return to Roger Moore and Maud Adams in Octopussy."
"WHAT?! Aw, man, it just HADDA be that one!" *click*
"...The sixties for 500, Alex..."
"The original name for the 1965 Beatles film, Help!"
"Jeopardy. Bor-ring."
"What is, Eight Arms to Hold You."
"Aw, gimme a break!" *click* "Ah, that's more like it! More of me, less garbage."
"...Stanley Whitfield with the day's news roundup. It was another busy day for the Powerpuff Girls as they defeated yet one more slimy creature from Monster Isle. Here's Buttercup really going to town on that sucker. Boy, I haven't seen guts like that since that dam octopus..."
"Aggghhhh!!! Stop it!" Off went the TV and the remote bounced a foot off the bed. Buttercup knew where this was coming from. The little girl snarled, "HIM!!"
Out of thin air the red demon appeared, naked except for a towel wrapped around him and held with one claw. The other clutched his toy duck. He was soaking wet and a small stream of water dripped from his pointed black beard onto the carpet.
"Who dares to invoke my name in the middle of my beauty bath?" the evil creature hissed in his frightening, dark voice. It changed the second he realized where he was, and he pulled the towel tighter in embarrassment. His red face actually turned a deeper crimson. "Buttercup? YOU?! What is the meaning of this?"
Buttercup was now standing on the bed, pointing furiously at him. "Don't play dumb!" Then she noticed his condition and averted her eyes. "And geesh, go in the bathroom and dry yourself off so I don't get my feet wet when I kick your butt."
Instead, he just waved one of his big claws and he was dressed and dry. "There. Now, what in Heck are you going on about? I was just minding my own business..."
"You mean you're not trying to make me feel guilty with everything on the stupid TV?"
Him enjoyed seeing her distress but wanted to know why. He reacted with false indignation, touching his free claw to his chest. "Moi? Sorry, dearie, guilt isn't my department. I leave that to the guy upstairs. I just get you mortals to do the things you feel guilty for! And besides, I took today off. So, what am I being falsely accused of now?"
She explained the whole sorry mess since dinnertime. Shocked, he squeezed his duck tighter. "Oh, how dreadful! I may be evil but I'm not so evil as to rip someone's cherished toy to shreds." Him broke into a grin. "There's hope for you yet, Buttercup!"
She gave him her fiercest scowl. "Aw, shut up. If you weren't behind this then just go home."
"As you wish, my dear, but tomorrow's a work day for both of us. Better get your rest. You'll need it!" A poof of smoke and he was gone.
His laugh echoing, Buttercup stared at the empty spot in disbelief for a while, then sat down again, found the remote and decided to try one more time. No way could she fall asleep after all that.
*click* "All right! A hockey game!" Her father's bedside clock said it was almost eleven. She thought that was kind of late to still be playing. "Must be overtime. Cool. Sudden death!" She saw the red 'winged wheel' logos painted on both sides of the center redline as players on both teams milled about the ice surface, not playing the game just then. She didn't know it, but that meant the game was coming from Detroit. It was almost two in the morning there.
"We're back at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit for the start of the fourth overtime between the Detroit Red Wings and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. This game's been all knotted up at 2 since Brett Hull tied it midway through the second period and it's been nothing but netminders since..."
"Awesome! Those guys must be tired. What everybody needs is a good fight!"
"...Wings' coach Dave Lewis sends out Sergei Fedorov to take the draw between Henrik Zetterberg and Brett Hull, with Lidstrom and Woolley back. Fedorov moves in against Adam Oates, referee Kerry Fraser drops the puck and we're underway in quadruple overtime!"
Buttercup sprawled out on her belly, eager for the fun to begin.
"Fedorov wins the draw back to Jason Woolley. Woolley sends it across ice to Zetterberg at the red line. Zetterberg is stood up at the blueline and stripped of the puck by Petr Sykora, who pulls it back to Keith Carney. Oh, Zetterberg takes him hard into the corner boards! Fedorov gets in there and the puck squirts free along the back boards, over the stick of Sandis Ozolinsh and into the near corner. Hull fights off a check from Paul Kariya and sends it along the near boards to Woolley. Cross ice feed to Nick Lidstrom. Oates moves out to challenge. Lidstrom back to Woolley at the right point, a blast that's turned aside by Giguere! Fedorov is right there for the rebound but he's tied up by Ozolinsh in front. Zetterberg pokes it loose and circles behind the Anaheim net. Carney gives chase but Zetterberg sends it back out to the left point. Lidstrom keeps it in the Ducks' zone. He finds Brett Hull in the near circle, a one-timer off the pads of Giguere right back to Hull, to Fedorov in front...he scoooooores!!!! It's in! The Wings win! Sergei Fedorov puts it home just 38 seconds into the fourth overtime and the Detroit Red Wings are winners! And here come the octopi!"
"WHAT?! NOT THIS, TOO?!" Buttercup leaped off the bed , not knowing what to do with herself as she saw a cepholopod smack onto the ice surface between the group of jubilant Detroit hockey players and the dejected Anaheim team. She looked up at the ceiling with her arms held up. She shook them in exasperation and cried out, "How many times do I hafta say I'm sorry, for cryin' out loud?"
She grabbed the remote in disgust and turned the set off, but her reaction time was too slow. Already, her eyes were bugging out at what she was seeing, and she turned the set back on. Her shock gave way to a grin and then a gigantic smile and she turned the set off one final time. As quietly as the excited girl could, she flew to her room and got dressed. It took all of five seconds. Another five seconds and she had checked to see that her sisters were still sleeping, then she was gone into the night sky.