Disclaimer: Hmm…nope, still don't own PPG.
Yes, it is part three.
Yes, you must read on. YAY!
Love Him Not
It was sometime between the bathroom and breakfast that Buttercup's blueprints for revenge came into mind. By no means did she have to sit and formulate, something she'd loathed for the past years of her life, but rather appeared full and complete with easy to understand, user friendly steps. Of course, she could not let on to her plots and formulations and hence retained that dark, sullen and bitter mood she'd achieved yesterday after dinner.
Little did the green Powerpuff know that her sisters' own plans were already in effect…
"My you're looking grungy today, Buttercup." Blossom replied with her usual bite of nonchalance, not taking the time to eye her as she engrossed herself in the Townsville Times. Buttercup cast a particularly nasty glare in her general direction and started on her usual breakfast: two frosted strawberry Pop tarts, a gargantuan bowl of Lucky Captain Rabbit King cereal with 2% milk, an English muffin with strawberry jelly and peanut butter, complete with a tall glass of cold orange juice (the ritual actually started that morning, upon seeing Blossom's breakfast of Vanilla Slim Fast and Bubbles' picking idly at a sour grapefruit). She placed herself in her chair backwards and shoveled down her food in a way that made Bubbles wince, gulped the orange juice loudly, yawned at the table, propped her elbows onto the wood hard before letting out a glass-breaking burp. Blossom had veins popping out of her head. Bubbles was looking a bit green.
Buttercup gave an obnoxious grin.
"Well, I'm off to see Mitch and the guys. You know, skateboarding, boxing and general blood and guts. So much to do, so little time." She wiped her arm on the black sleeve of her baseball shirt she had worn yesterday afternoon and pranced out of the door. Blossom looked utterly disgusted. Bubbles gave up on the grapefruit and pushed it away.
"Is Operation Buttercup underway yet?" Bubbles shook her head, and smiled pleasantly, as though there were something up her sleeve. It made Blossom downright nervous.
"Don't worry, Blossom." Bubbles said with her usual amount of daily cheer and skipped happily away, happily depositing her grapefruit in the trash. The pink puff was beginning to worry about her sisters ambitions, hoping that, for even Buttercup's sake, the plot didn't involve bunnies, rainbows or crayon drawings.
Butch was sulking.
Now really it wasn't that he liked her. Her being Buttercup of course, the object of his thoughts since the previous afternoon where he'd nary said a word since. He couldn't like her of course, because it was simply impossible to like her but…well…
How dare she.
It was a brilliant plan on her part, he regrettably admitted. What a way to defeat him. Use her girlish powers not once, but twice on him in a radius of little over ten years. A desperate and yet desperately efficient scheme that put her miles ahead in the game. It had to be against the rules somewhere, written down in the immortal code of bitter rivals. He'd have to search the library. Or make that Elmer kid do it for him. Either way…
He'd have to get her back somehow. He wasn't quite sure how, but it would have to be done. One way or the other. So really, Butch was thinking and sulking, or sulking in a pensive matter and continued on with this for some time…
Then decided to go skateboarding. But not because he liked Buttercup or anything and wanted to see her. He just wanted to go skateboarding. Maybe at the skate park. But not because…
You get the idea.
Mitch Mitchelson, at the skate park since just after dawn, stared out at the vast nothingness of gray ramps and cement. Most of the usuals hadn't arrived yet; in that dreadful silence the inner conflicts skated through his usually empty brain like first-time skaters. Buttercup was different yesterday. Really, he couldn't place it. Maybe it was her hair. Or what she ordered. Actually (he blinked, watching a lone skater roll down the ramp in pain), when he dimly evaluated the situation, he couldn't care much less.
So Mitch stopped staring out at the vast nothingness, hopped on his red skateboard and decided to do a few warm-ups before Buttercup got there.
Boomer was working on his fourth bowl of Pony Puff Sugar Lumps with Frosted Marshmallows (yes, it was feminine, but if Bubbles liked it, he liked it, and the prizes weren't half bad either). Brick was busy counting how many jumbo marshmallows he could fit his mouth. Butch stalked towards the door, skateboard under arm.
"Gohin humair?" asked the red Rowdyruff (only five more for the world record!)
"I DON'T LIKE HER!" Butch roared. Boomer looked up skeptically, milk running down his chin. Brick blinked. Butch turned a peculiar shade of red.
"Skate park." He muttered, turned and closed the door. The remaining two exchanged confounded glances.
"I don't know who confuses me more…him or women." Brick tended to convey.
Mitch's attempted 1440 Grab landed in a stunning display of skin, sun and asphalt; and like the sympathetic friends he had, in his time of misfortune everybody laughed.
"Aw, you suck Mitch!" Buttercup snickered as he surfed past her with a 'phef'.
"Duh, yeah! Where your 'Duh, I'm da king of the skate-park now?' Ha-ha-ha!" Floyd, one of the two twins, guffawed with his identical pair. Floyd and Lloyd hadn't been the sharpest tool in the shed during the Pokey Oak Kindergarten days; eleven years later their attics still needed dusting.
"Watch this Mr. King of the Skate Park!" The green Powerpuff glided down into the pit, starting first with a 180 fakey and a kick flip. In the center of the pit she stopped, one foot weighing down the left end of her board.
"GREEN WHIRLY!" She screamed to Lloyd and Floyd's cheers. Giving the high end a hard kick she started to spin wildly, creating a blazing green vortex of energy. From the top of the wide-base Buttercup bounced out, soaring towards rim.
"YAHOO!" She bellowed, wheeling down the steep wall, black hair blowing in the wind as she bowed to the numerous applauds of the skaters around her.
"Man, I never get tired of that!" Lloyd declared as he watched Buttercup surf in circles around the bottom. Mitch rolled his eyes.
"As if we hadn't seen that one a million times!" He shouted in her general direction. Buttercup threw a raspberry.
"Alright then, watch this one!" With one push she went flying towards the farthest wall, leaving a faint streak of energy behind her. Her board launched high from the speed; the skater's oohed as she conceded to the feats of gravity and started her spiral descent. Just as she was about to do her new combination spins, she heard something that distracted her crucial concentration.
"BBBBBUUUUUUUTTTTEEEERRRRCCCUUPPPPPP…!"
Hence, Buttercup wobbled and fell backwards, launching the green skateboard high above her; falling, falling, falling; of course her super-heroine instinct kicked in before she hit the ground. The skateboard however, hit her smack over the head with a satisfying 'thump', loosening her concentration once more and sent her crashing into the asphalt.
"Ha-Ha-" Lloyd cackled, silenced by Mitch who, with a flick of his wrist, knocked him in the back of the head.
Buttercup rubbed her skull where her board so effortlessly careened from, the confused blinking becoming a pointed glare. Tommy Sweet, blonde and strangely obsessive, leaned over the edge, a huge bouquet of flowers and an equally big box of candy under either arm.
"Buttercup, my love! Are you okay?" With a darkening mood, she staggered to her feet, wobbled, then fell back again. Tommy shrieked, dropping his parcels to the cemented ground.
"No! NO! Don't try! I will help you, darling!" He slid down the wall with his blonde hair flying behind him, blue eyes wide with melodramatic concern. Mitch, Floyd and Lloyd, all on their boards, blocked his achieving Buttercup.
"Listen Pretty Boy," Mitch snapped from his position in front of the lovelorn townie, "Step off. We dislike your attention."
"Yeah." Lloyd agreed.
"Duh, yeah." Floyd seconded him.
"Out of my way." Buttercup pushed Mitch to the side, causing him to flop into Floyd.
"Buttercup, my love! My only!" Tommy cried, and threw his arms around her. Buttercup promptly threw him a couple of feet away.
"How many times do I have to tell you Tommy?! Don't-" And in that very instant there was a streak of dark green where Tommy once stood. Everyone made the 90 degree turn to see poor Tommy Sweet ducked and flinched to the closely missing punches of Butch.
"Wahhh!" Tommy cried, covering his head and desperately dodging Butch's powerful fists, marked by the cracks they left in the wall surface.
"And if you ever, ever make a move on Buttercup again I swear I'll-"
WHAP!
Butch was tasting the bitter sting of asphalt through his teeth.
"What in the heck do you think you're doing?!" Buttercups shrieked, standing near Tommy who was once shrunk against the wall but now clung to her leg in tears.
"Buttercup, dearest you've saved me!" But she didn't filter a word he said, perfectly ignoring him in everyway.
"If anyone is going to beat up Tommy Sweet it's me!" Tommy looked up in shock.
"Is that all my love means to yoooooooouuuuuu…" Buttercup had kicked him away, sending him sliding along the pit basin back to where Mitch, Lloyd and Floyd watched with anticipation. The green Powerpuff then raised her fists and flew, as second nature, towards Butch's surprised and on looking head.
Everyone in the skate park watched as the two blurred into green streaks, rising out of the fighting area by a couple feet or so. Buttercup kicked. She whirled. She punched and threw. Butch defended and blocked her in everyway possible. He dodged. He spun. He turned and snapped. Buttercup flipped back after he spun from her direction, leaving her wide open to attack. Butch charged naturally, his arm raised for a sure-victory blow to the head…
And for the first time in his entire fighting career hesitated to punch.
In that split second Buttercup predicted the outcome and twisted his arm, hurling him back to the basin of the trick-pit with a crash. She landed a slightly from his position, breathing hard, her wild black hair thrown gently askew.
Butch warbled, dazed as he pulled himself to his feet. Buttercup snapped to attention, raising her fists quickly but then-
"Stop…" Butch uttered sharply, raising his hand as he himself panted, "You win, Buttercup."
Everyone gapped. Even Buttercup.
Her already large green eyes widened.
"What…?"
"I said…" Butch gulped. What was he saying anyway? "I said…you win. No more fighting."
Buttercup swayed dangerously as Mitch, Tommy, Lloyd and Floyd bounded up to her side like rambunctious puppies.
"Duh, that was a nice one Buttercup!" Floyd praised happily, holding her fallen skateboard.
"Alright! One for the B-cup!" Mitch cheered.
"You were magnificent, darling!" Tommy cried, hugging her arm tightly.
Buttercup's knees buckled slightly, but she caught herself.
"I…ah…" She took a look at Butch, who had turned away, and was still breathing roughly. "I don't feel so good…" And she didn't really. Her stomach had dropped slightly, and gurgled in her ears. She was feeling weak; different, distraught. Her vision was spinning even.
"I'm gonna hit the road…I'll see you guys later…" She stepped from their grasp and flew up to the edge of the pit. Her board pulled from Floyd's arms and landed before her, where she eased out of the park and skated down the street.
Once more, everyone was in a state of shock. Where was the 'yeah, I kick butt don't I' attitude that accompanied Buttercup everywhere at all times? Mitch decided that Buttercup had been acting strange since yesterday. First her odd…girlishness and then her loss of attitude. Lloyd spoke for everyone when he said,
"That was…weird." They turned to see Butch, but he to was already gone. And after that afternoon adventure, no one really felt like skateboarding anymore.
When Bubbles heard Buttercup enter the Utonium household she galloped upstairs, giggling wildly, obviously holding 'Operation Buttercup' behind her back. The blue Powerpuff gently pushed open the oddly unlocked door to her sister's room, shaking a little green and black action figure at her.
"Buttercup…" She chirped sweetly. Her smile faltered softly into a face of concern. "Are you okay?" She squeaked in a tiny voice.
Buttercup looked up slowly, almost tiredly, and stopped from strumming her guitar softly along the tune of The Space Between.
"Huh…uh…yeah, I'm fine." Then instead of grimacing at the little Butch doll in her sister's hand or yelling for not knocking she went back to stroking the guitar.
Bubbles stared for a moment.
"BBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!"
End of Part 3
Hopes you're not all mad at this quasi-cliffhanger…more on chapter 4! GOMEN FOR REVIEWING! ~ Arte-Chan