Inner Turmoil-Chapter 12
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!"
Buttercup looked at Blossom smugly, an evil smirk plastered onto her face.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!" she roared so loudly that she could have made the house explode.
Bubbles was now hiding partially under the table, goggling at Blossom and Buttercup apprehensively. Both her and the professor were very quickly putting two and two together. It was very obvious who that "strange teenage girl" was.
"YOU COULD HAVE COMPLETELY BLOWN OUR COVER!!!"
Buttercup suddenly jumped up from her seat and got into Blossom's face, snarling.
"I HAD NO CHOICE!"
"BULLSHIT!"
"FUCK OFF! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED!"
And the battle raged on like that for what seemed like hours. The professor didn't bother stopping them; he was too busy watching the report on TV. At that moment they were showing pictures of the scene, complete with the bodies of the alleged "robbers". He'd seen men dressed like that before. It couldn't be.
It was no doubt that those men were from his old employer. but why had they been trying to rob something? That didn't make sense. Something much bigger was going on, and he had the distinct feeling the girls were involved, Buttercup especially.
"YOU WENT THERE DIDN'T YOU! AFTER I TOLD YOU NOT TO!"
The professor stopped dead, staring numbly at the two girls who were fighting like raged lions, their faces red with rage. What was Blossom talking about? Where had Buttercup gone that had been so bad? Before he could think about it any further Bubbles was anxiously tugging on his sleeve. He turned to her, only to find her still partially hidden beneath the table cover.
"Why did Buttercup do that?" she asked softly, her eyes glittering with the new threat of tears.
"I-I don't know honey. perhaps Buttercup was a little too eager to use her powers." the professor trailed off, his mind now occupied with new horrors. Buttercup knew about Medicom, that's where she'd been, and they'd come after her after she'd revealed her presence. That was the only explanation-
"Professor, didn't she go a bit overboard?" Bubbles asked weakly, bravely trying to inch her way out from under the table.
"Yes. I suppose she did. but."
"Why?" Bubbles asked meekly, stealing a nervous glance in their direction. They were still fighting.
"I don't know-" but the professor stopped when he heard his name come from Buttercup's mouth. It must have been ugly, because at that moment Blossom slapped Buttercup so hard across the face she stumbled all the way over to the sink.
"Don't you ever talk like that again," Blossom hissed angrily, the veins on her neck popping. Buttercup didn't move, but kept her back turned to the table, and looked as if she was staring into the sink. "He has done nothing but good for you, you ungrateful bitch-"
And Buttercup spun around, ready to clobber Blossom, but stopped when Blossom spoke again.
"If it'll make you happy, we'll make him tell us, right here, right now."
And the professor gulped heavily, knowing exactly where this was headed, his innards squirming with nerves and tension. Bubbles was staring at them questioningly.
"Ask him what?" she asked heavily, her voice full of stress.
The professor stood calmly, keeping watch on both Blossom and Buttercup. Then, Blossom turned to him slowly with an expression that made him go numb.
"Professor, we need to ask you something."
He nodded; they did suspect something, and now was probably the right time to tell them. After all, White Hazard was beginning to stalk around; they very clearly knew the girls were in the city. The girls deserved to know why they would come for them, which was what was most likely going to happen.
"Where did we come from?"
Bubbles let out a pitiful squeak of surprise. Blossom watched the professor calmly, her face even and kind. Buttercup looked at him as if she was going to pounce at any moment. He took a deep breath, and began at the beginning.
"I suppose its time I tell you. yes. erm-you see, when I said you were made from sugar, spice and everything nice, I wasn't telling you the full truth.umm."
"Spit it out!" Buttercup said angrily. Blossom looked at her angrily, eyeing Buttercup's clenched fists cautiously. If Buttercup tried anything-
"When I graduated from college I took a job at Medicom. back then I was just working on protein analysis. nothing serious."
"Then, about a year later I was approached with a new job offer that involved Xantium, Chemical X, and thinking I was only going to study Xantium effects on human genes I took the job. I had no idea that live subjects were involved."
Buttercup shifted where she stood, and the professor looked at her anxiously. Bubbles had suddenly gone very pale.
"Well, the real assignment was to study the effects of Chemical X radiation on human embryos. We knew from previous tests that Chemical X did something to the genes that created something along the lines of super powers. It altered the genetic makeup so drastically that it transcended all scientific realities."
"So you were creating Bio-weapons-"
"No, let me finish. That isn't what we were doing exactly. it was just research, we hadn't expected things to fall apart like they had. You three were taken from an anonymous donor mother, so you really are sisters, but you have noticed that you all have very drastic superficial differences."
"What do you mean?" Blossom asked.
"You three are normal human beings, except for the fact that you never developed in a mother's womb. well. it was more of a cryogenic stasis. meaning you were unconscious for the early stages of life. You developed physically like any normal child would, except on the inside, everything about you was more than normal. Every cell in your body was swimming with particles of Xantium, your DNA completely altered in such ways that you were given super human abilities-"
"Super powers." Bubbles said slowly. The professor looked at her painfully, then nodded.
"We used different frequencies of the chemical, thus altering the chemistry of your brain. That's why your personalities are so different, and your superficial appearances as well. That's how your able to have such a different eye color, Blossom."
"When I say superficial appearance, I mean the things like your hair and eye color. At different frequencies, Chemical X particles take on different colors. The lowest is white, then it moves up a specialized spectrum to blue, pink, red, green, etc. The highest concentration gives off a black glow."
"The middle frequency is the most structurally stable. that's why Blossom is the most. emotionally stable of the three of you. Buttercup has the highest concentration of the three, being the strongest, and Bubbles has the lowest. But the lowest doesn't necessarily mean the weakest, it just means that your powers in particular take a stronger stimulus to be released. That's never really been a problem."
"As you developed everything was going smoothly. I had grown attached to the three of you. because it was like you'd become my own children. I was leading the project at the time. and despite the fact that I knew what we were doing was wrong. I couldn't help but feel blessed at being given the chance to watch the three of you grow."
"Things were going just fine. until about five years into the project, Medicom wanted to shift the leadership of the operation to a more specialized group of researches. That meant, I was still taking care of you, but was no longer calling the shots. I was angry at them, because they were making decisions and making things happen I would have never done."
"Like what?" asked Blossom. She glanced at Buttercup who looked torn between tears and screaming. She was eyeing the professor dangerously.
"We were already starting to notice some very startling changes in you. We'd known that Chemical X enhanced strength, but we never knew to what degree. And, the super powers: the laser eyes, the sonic scream, your ice breath-" he nodded in Blossom's direction, who blushed lightly, "-the enhanced intelligence, the flying. we were never expecting so many results."
"But then one day they did something I'll never forget. For some reason they thought it would be a fantastic idea to enhance the radiation levels into your stasis fluids. They thought that with the successes they were having, if they pumped more of the chemical into you, then they'd get even better results."
Bubbles made a soft sound that was comparable to the squeaking of a mouse. Her face was very white, and she looked at the professor with terror etched into her face.
"But that wasn't true at all. It was too much. and then." the professor trailed off, his eyes focusing on the ground in front of him. "The entire lab emptied so fast. but I couldn't leave. I thought you were all going to die. and everything would be wasted. I'd really grown to care about you three. and I couldn't bare to see anything happen."
"What was happening professor?" Blossom asked. Naturally, she didn't remember any of this happening, and was eager to get the whole truth.
"Everything in the lab was exploding. Things were falling apart all around me. I tried to stop the radiation sequence. but the machine was so out of control. the sound in that room was so loud it was mortifying. then your stasis tubes exploded. and you three. were still alive. but I had to get you out of there. so I took you home."
Buttercup shifted again, anger clearly etched on her face.
"Well the rest is basically what you know. You woke and I named you. and I knew I couldn't tell you the truth. not when you were so young. I began to believe that you three were even more powerful than Medicom had ever intended, especially after you destroyed Townsville on your first day out. If you were to fall into the wrong hands. who knew what could happen. so I knew it was best to hide, but I raised you as my children, and I regret none of it."
"But, apparently they know we're here now. because someone had to go snooping around, Buttercup." Blossom said very haughtily. Buttercup wasn't listening.
"So basically-" Buttercup began to say, her voice trembling with rage. "We're not humans then, we're just stupid toys for your stupid desires-"
"No Buttercup, that isn't it at all. I tried to get out of it, but I couldn't. I was in too deep, and my life was in danger if I backed out. You know how that works-"
"So, you would have backed out instead of taking responsibility over your property?! Were we nothing more than souvenirs to you?!"
Bubbles stood from the table, very slowly, watching Buttercup with cautious terror. She moved away from Buttercup slowly as if she was about to explode, which Blossom figured, was highly likely.
"Buttercup, you aren't listening to what I'm telling you. I took you in under my own free will because I cared. I wanted to raise you because I'd fallen in love with you. What part of that don't you understand?!"
"The part where we were RAISED IN A TEST TUBE!"
"Don't you understand that I love you?!"
"Shut up!" Buttercup cried angrily. The professor backed against the wall, fearful at Buttercup's outburst. Blossom felt very nervous.
"I could have easily thrown you out onto the street," the professor said through gritted teeth, losing his patience with Buttercup. "But I didn't. You know why, Buttercup? Because you were my responsibility and I was grateful for that, okay? I would do anything for you three, because you've. made me a father. something I would have never been." and the professor looked away from them, forlorn.
"Oh, professor. that's not true." Blossom said weakly, trying her best to come up with something encouraging, but she even found herself emotionally drained from everything she'd just heard.
"Buttercup, I would die for you, " he said softly. "I love you."
Buttercup didn't respond, but what happened next seemed to be moving in slow motion.
Buttercup turned to the professor, her teeth bared, fists clenched, and in one swift motion she lunged very suddenly at him. In surprise he fell back against the wall, mouth agape in shock, as Buttercup came flying towards him, readying a murderous punch-
-But before her fist could connect, before she could kill the professor, Blossom leapt into Buttercup's path and took the full force of the blast. She cried out in pain, and the professor cried out in fear, grabbing Blossom as she fell against him so forcefully that they both crashed through the kitchen wall, only to land on the other side into the living room.
Buttercup stood rooted to the spot, her fist still in the air, but her face awash with shocked stupidity. She'd just attacked the professor, and-
-Bubbles made a choking noise as if she was about to start crying, but then something happened that made the house nearly crumble. Bubbles exploded into the strongest sonic scream ever, fueled by the terror that was welling up inside her.
Buttercup suddenly jumped as the kitchen window next to her exploded in a shower of flying glass. Things were falling from shelves, wood was splintering, glass was exploding, and the ground seemed to be cracking beneath their feet.
Blossom, very dazed and barely conscious, tried desperately to help the professor cover his ears and stay awake at the same time. Bubbles was screaming; it was so loud, the house was going to fall at any second.
Somebody was definitely going to notice this.
Then very suddenly Bubbles stopped with a final strangled cry of anguish and dropped to her knees, where she remained there sobbing into her hands. Buttercup stood exactly where she was, staring dumbly at the shattered hole in the wall where Blossom and the professor were stirring. He'd taken the full force of going through the wall-
"This is bad. very bad." Blossom mumbled. In the distance they thought they heard sirens.
Blossom tried to stand, finding it very difficult as her entire face screamed in pain. She wasn't bleeding, but felt as if every bone in her face had shattered. She turned, and tried to help the professor to his feet, but it was very difficult, seeing as he'd just been thrown through a wall and bombarded with Bubbles's scream.
Blossom looked around the house, squeaking with surprise as she looked at the kitchen. It appeared as if their entire house had just gone through a war.
Buttercup made some sort of unintelligible noise in her throat, and then in an instant she was gone. A second later the front door was thrown open, but after that there was silence.
"Buttercup." the professor said weakly, as he started to sit up. "She can't leave. not now." For some reason he was more worried about her than himself, and didn't seem to care that Buttercup had just tried to kill him.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly, trying to get a good look at Blossom's face. Bubbles was still on the floor, sobbing heavily.
"I'm fine." Blossom said, standing shakily to her feet.
"You have to go get her. they'll find her."
"I know professor. You need to hide." Blossom said. Then she moved slowly over to where Bubbles was crying and kneeled down. "It's okay. Don't cry."
"They'll come for us. because of me. I'm so sorry."
"Bubbles it isn't your fault. We need to go get Buttercup before they find her."
Bubbles nodded, and Blossom very carefully wiped the tears off of her face.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!"
Buttercup looked at Blossom smugly, an evil smirk plastered onto her face.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!" she roared so loudly that she could have made the house explode.
Bubbles was now hiding partially under the table, goggling at Blossom and Buttercup apprehensively. Both her and the professor were very quickly putting two and two together. It was very obvious who that "strange teenage girl" was.
"YOU COULD HAVE COMPLETELY BLOWN OUR COVER!!!"
Buttercup suddenly jumped up from her seat and got into Blossom's face, snarling.
"I HAD NO CHOICE!"
"BULLSHIT!"
"FUCK OFF! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED!"
And the battle raged on like that for what seemed like hours. The professor didn't bother stopping them; he was too busy watching the report on TV. At that moment they were showing pictures of the scene, complete with the bodies of the alleged "robbers". He'd seen men dressed like that before. It couldn't be.
It was no doubt that those men were from his old employer. but why had they been trying to rob something? That didn't make sense. Something much bigger was going on, and he had the distinct feeling the girls were involved, Buttercup especially.
"YOU WENT THERE DIDN'T YOU! AFTER I TOLD YOU NOT TO!"
The professor stopped dead, staring numbly at the two girls who were fighting like raged lions, their faces red with rage. What was Blossom talking about? Where had Buttercup gone that had been so bad? Before he could think about it any further Bubbles was anxiously tugging on his sleeve. He turned to her, only to find her still partially hidden beneath the table cover.
"Why did Buttercup do that?" she asked softly, her eyes glittering with the new threat of tears.
"I-I don't know honey. perhaps Buttercup was a little too eager to use her powers." the professor trailed off, his mind now occupied with new horrors. Buttercup knew about Medicom, that's where she'd been, and they'd come after her after she'd revealed her presence. That was the only explanation-
"Professor, didn't she go a bit overboard?" Bubbles asked weakly, bravely trying to inch her way out from under the table.
"Yes. I suppose she did. but."
"Why?" Bubbles asked meekly, stealing a nervous glance in their direction. They were still fighting.
"I don't know-" but the professor stopped when he heard his name come from Buttercup's mouth. It must have been ugly, because at that moment Blossom slapped Buttercup so hard across the face she stumbled all the way over to the sink.
"Don't you ever talk like that again," Blossom hissed angrily, the veins on her neck popping. Buttercup didn't move, but kept her back turned to the table, and looked as if she was staring into the sink. "He has done nothing but good for you, you ungrateful bitch-"
And Buttercup spun around, ready to clobber Blossom, but stopped when Blossom spoke again.
"If it'll make you happy, we'll make him tell us, right here, right now."
And the professor gulped heavily, knowing exactly where this was headed, his innards squirming with nerves and tension. Bubbles was staring at them questioningly.
"Ask him what?" she asked heavily, her voice full of stress.
The professor stood calmly, keeping watch on both Blossom and Buttercup. Then, Blossom turned to him slowly with an expression that made him go numb.
"Professor, we need to ask you something."
He nodded; they did suspect something, and now was probably the right time to tell them. After all, White Hazard was beginning to stalk around; they very clearly knew the girls were in the city. The girls deserved to know why they would come for them, which was what was most likely going to happen.
"Where did we come from?"
Bubbles let out a pitiful squeak of surprise. Blossom watched the professor calmly, her face even and kind. Buttercup looked at him as if she was going to pounce at any moment. He took a deep breath, and began at the beginning.
"I suppose its time I tell you. yes. erm-you see, when I said you were made from sugar, spice and everything nice, I wasn't telling you the full truth.umm."
"Spit it out!" Buttercup said angrily. Blossom looked at her angrily, eyeing Buttercup's clenched fists cautiously. If Buttercup tried anything-
"When I graduated from college I took a job at Medicom. back then I was just working on protein analysis. nothing serious."
"Then, about a year later I was approached with a new job offer that involved Xantium, Chemical X, and thinking I was only going to study Xantium effects on human genes I took the job. I had no idea that live subjects were involved."
Buttercup shifted where she stood, and the professor looked at her anxiously. Bubbles had suddenly gone very pale.
"Well, the real assignment was to study the effects of Chemical X radiation on human embryos. We knew from previous tests that Chemical X did something to the genes that created something along the lines of super powers. It altered the genetic makeup so drastically that it transcended all scientific realities."
"So you were creating Bio-weapons-"
"No, let me finish. That isn't what we were doing exactly. it was just research, we hadn't expected things to fall apart like they had. You three were taken from an anonymous donor mother, so you really are sisters, but you have noticed that you all have very drastic superficial differences."
"What do you mean?" Blossom asked.
"You three are normal human beings, except for the fact that you never developed in a mother's womb. well. it was more of a cryogenic stasis. meaning you were unconscious for the early stages of life. You developed physically like any normal child would, except on the inside, everything about you was more than normal. Every cell in your body was swimming with particles of Xantium, your DNA completely altered in such ways that you were given super human abilities-"
"Super powers." Bubbles said slowly. The professor looked at her painfully, then nodded.
"We used different frequencies of the chemical, thus altering the chemistry of your brain. That's why your personalities are so different, and your superficial appearances as well. That's how your able to have such a different eye color, Blossom."
"When I say superficial appearance, I mean the things like your hair and eye color. At different frequencies, Chemical X particles take on different colors. The lowest is white, then it moves up a specialized spectrum to blue, pink, red, green, etc. The highest concentration gives off a black glow."
"The middle frequency is the most structurally stable. that's why Blossom is the most. emotionally stable of the three of you. Buttercup has the highest concentration of the three, being the strongest, and Bubbles has the lowest. But the lowest doesn't necessarily mean the weakest, it just means that your powers in particular take a stronger stimulus to be released. That's never really been a problem."
"As you developed everything was going smoothly. I had grown attached to the three of you. because it was like you'd become my own children. I was leading the project at the time. and despite the fact that I knew what we were doing was wrong. I couldn't help but feel blessed at being given the chance to watch the three of you grow."
"Things were going just fine. until about five years into the project, Medicom wanted to shift the leadership of the operation to a more specialized group of researches. That meant, I was still taking care of you, but was no longer calling the shots. I was angry at them, because they were making decisions and making things happen I would have never done."
"Like what?" asked Blossom. She glanced at Buttercup who looked torn between tears and screaming. She was eyeing the professor dangerously.
"We were already starting to notice some very startling changes in you. We'd known that Chemical X enhanced strength, but we never knew to what degree. And, the super powers: the laser eyes, the sonic scream, your ice breath-" he nodded in Blossom's direction, who blushed lightly, "-the enhanced intelligence, the flying. we were never expecting so many results."
"But then one day they did something I'll never forget. For some reason they thought it would be a fantastic idea to enhance the radiation levels into your stasis fluids. They thought that with the successes they were having, if they pumped more of the chemical into you, then they'd get even better results."
Bubbles made a soft sound that was comparable to the squeaking of a mouse. Her face was very white, and she looked at the professor with terror etched into her face.
"But that wasn't true at all. It was too much. and then." the professor trailed off, his eyes focusing on the ground in front of him. "The entire lab emptied so fast. but I couldn't leave. I thought you were all going to die. and everything would be wasted. I'd really grown to care about you three. and I couldn't bare to see anything happen."
"What was happening professor?" Blossom asked. Naturally, she didn't remember any of this happening, and was eager to get the whole truth.
"Everything in the lab was exploding. Things were falling apart all around me. I tried to stop the radiation sequence. but the machine was so out of control. the sound in that room was so loud it was mortifying. then your stasis tubes exploded. and you three. were still alive. but I had to get you out of there. so I took you home."
Buttercup shifted again, anger clearly etched on her face.
"Well the rest is basically what you know. You woke and I named you. and I knew I couldn't tell you the truth. not when you were so young. I began to believe that you three were even more powerful than Medicom had ever intended, especially after you destroyed Townsville on your first day out. If you were to fall into the wrong hands. who knew what could happen. so I knew it was best to hide, but I raised you as my children, and I regret none of it."
"But, apparently they know we're here now. because someone had to go snooping around, Buttercup." Blossom said very haughtily. Buttercup wasn't listening.
"So basically-" Buttercup began to say, her voice trembling with rage. "We're not humans then, we're just stupid toys for your stupid desires-"
"No Buttercup, that isn't it at all. I tried to get out of it, but I couldn't. I was in too deep, and my life was in danger if I backed out. You know how that works-"
"So, you would have backed out instead of taking responsibility over your property?! Were we nothing more than souvenirs to you?!"
Bubbles stood from the table, very slowly, watching Buttercup with cautious terror. She moved away from Buttercup slowly as if she was about to explode, which Blossom figured, was highly likely.
"Buttercup, you aren't listening to what I'm telling you. I took you in under my own free will because I cared. I wanted to raise you because I'd fallen in love with you. What part of that don't you understand?!"
"The part where we were RAISED IN A TEST TUBE!"
"Don't you understand that I love you?!"
"Shut up!" Buttercup cried angrily. The professor backed against the wall, fearful at Buttercup's outburst. Blossom felt very nervous.
"I could have easily thrown you out onto the street," the professor said through gritted teeth, losing his patience with Buttercup. "But I didn't. You know why, Buttercup? Because you were my responsibility and I was grateful for that, okay? I would do anything for you three, because you've. made me a father. something I would have never been." and the professor looked away from them, forlorn.
"Oh, professor. that's not true." Blossom said weakly, trying her best to come up with something encouraging, but she even found herself emotionally drained from everything she'd just heard.
"Buttercup, I would die for you, " he said softly. "I love you."
Buttercup didn't respond, but what happened next seemed to be moving in slow motion.
Buttercup turned to the professor, her teeth bared, fists clenched, and in one swift motion she lunged very suddenly at him. In surprise he fell back against the wall, mouth agape in shock, as Buttercup came flying towards him, readying a murderous punch-
-But before her fist could connect, before she could kill the professor, Blossom leapt into Buttercup's path and took the full force of the blast. She cried out in pain, and the professor cried out in fear, grabbing Blossom as she fell against him so forcefully that they both crashed through the kitchen wall, only to land on the other side into the living room.
Buttercup stood rooted to the spot, her fist still in the air, but her face awash with shocked stupidity. She'd just attacked the professor, and-
-Bubbles made a choking noise as if she was about to start crying, but then something happened that made the house nearly crumble. Bubbles exploded into the strongest sonic scream ever, fueled by the terror that was welling up inside her.
Buttercup suddenly jumped as the kitchen window next to her exploded in a shower of flying glass. Things were falling from shelves, wood was splintering, glass was exploding, and the ground seemed to be cracking beneath their feet.
Blossom, very dazed and barely conscious, tried desperately to help the professor cover his ears and stay awake at the same time. Bubbles was screaming; it was so loud, the house was going to fall at any second.
Somebody was definitely going to notice this.
Then very suddenly Bubbles stopped with a final strangled cry of anguish and dropped to her knees, where she remained there sobbing into her hands. Buttercup stood exactly where she was, staring dumbly at the shattered hole in the wall where Blossom and the professor were stirring. He'd taken the full force of going through the wall-
"This is bad. very bad." Blossom mumbled. In the distance they thought they heard sirens.
Blossom tried to stand, finding it very difficult as her entire face screamed in pain. She wasn't bleeding, but felt as if every bone in her face had shattered. She turned, and tried to help the professor to his feet, but it was very difficult, seeing as he'd just been thrown through a wall and bombarded with Bubbles's scream.
Blossom looked around the house, squeaking with surprise as she looked at the kitchen. It appeared as if their entire house had just gone through a war.
Buttercup made some sort of unintelligible noise in her throat, and then in an instant she was gone. A second later the front door was thrown open, but after that there was silence.
"Buttercup." the professor said weakly, as he started to sit up. "She can't leave. not now." For some reason he was more worried about her than himself, and didn't seem to care that Buttercup had just tried to kill him.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly, trying to get a good look at Blossom's face. Bubbles was still on the floor, sobbing heavily.
"I'm fine." Blossom said, standing shakily to her feet.
"You have to go get her. they'll find her."
"I know professor. You need to hide." Blossom said. Then she moved slowly over to where Bubbles was crying and kneeled down. "It's okay. Don't cry."
"They'll come for us. because of me. I'm so sorry."
"Bubbles it isn't your fault. We need to go get Buttercup before they find her."
Bubbles nodded, and Blossom very carefully wiped the tears off of her face.