Allies and Rivals

Since my review thanks is pretty long, I placed it at the bottom of the chapter instead.

Chapter 9

The Pride of the Rowdyruffs, the Uncertainty of the Powerpuffs

"What happened?" Dr. Edwards worriedly asked when he saw Brick and Butch enter their home. "What happened to Boomer?" he shouted, clearly panicked.

"Well Dad, we had another fight with those Powder puff sissies," Brick explained while he carefully laid his unconscious brother in the sofa. "We were playing ball, and they just attacked us for no good reason at all!"

"Yeah Dad," Butch added as he lay Bubbles and Buttercup in separate sofas. "As Brick said, we were just playing ball, minding our own business, and suddenly they attacked! They started it!"

"They trained hard so they were as strong and fast as—" Brick continued but was interrupted.

"Never mind that! What happened to Boomer?" Dr. Edwards asked in an impatient manner as his instincts as a doctor took over and he began treating the wounds and bruises of Boomer.

"Well, he got whacked by the cat thingy," Butch replied. "The Fiefy Fairy Feline I think!"

"Oh? Since when did you begin to think? Yesterday? Funny, I never noticed the difference!" Brick teased.

"Hey!"

"Brick, stop teasing your brother. That is not the time for that! Can't you see your brother's condition?" Dr. Edwards scolded. "And what did what to Boomer? Are you telling me a cat did this to him?" Dr. Edwards asked in disbelief as he wrapped bandages on the parts where Boomer was hit.

"It's the Fiery Furious Feline. The girls turned into flames, combined into a meteor like thing that was shaped like a cat, and it hit Boomer," Brick explained, this time in a more subdued tone. "And Dad, will he be alright?"

"He will," their father replied as he made the final touches on fixing Boomer, lessening the worry the boys had for their fallen brother. "It's lucky he's a Rowdyruff, or he might have been killed! He would be up and ready in about a couple of hours."

"How about them?" Butch asked in a derisive tone as he pointed at the Powerpuff Girls.

"I'm still not sure, but knowing them from the last fight, they would recover at the same time as Boomer," Dr. Edwards said as he shifted from treating Boomer to fixing up Blossom. "Brick, would you be so kind as to get some of my medical tools in my office? It's in the third drawer on the left of the big table. It's a big white box with a red cross in it."

"Okay Dad," Brick curtly answered, and in two seconds, was back with the tools.

"Thank you, Brick," Dr. Edwards said as he began applying betadine to some of Blossom's bruises.

"Dad, the fight started when they attacked us and…" Brick began.

"I know you fought well, son, but could you please wait until I finished with all the kids? Look, when I've given the girls to Ms. Keane, and when Boomer wakes up, we could all sit in the sofa and you could tell me what exactly happened."

Of all the three girls, Buttercup's condition was the least worst, because she was only knocked out by three blasts at the same moment, and Bubbles the worst, as a result of the beating she received to the boys' knee-jerk reaction to Boomer's fall. However, as Dr. Edwards said, none was too serious, and the worst thing that could happen was that one of them might wake up with a severe headache.

Dr. Edwards finished patching up all three girls in about an hour. It took another half-hour to patch the wounds and bruises of the victorious Brick and Butch. He, with the boys' help, loaded the girls in stretchers and put them in the back of a vehicle which looked like an ordinary van on the outside but was actually more like an ambulance inside. Boomer was tucked in bed and his brothers watched over him while the Doctor drove towards Ms. Keane's house.

He was deep in thought. 'I wonder what exactly happened? The last time they fought, the boys completely wiped the floor with the girls. Wait a minute, I remember Brick said that the girls trained till they caught up with them! So that's it! Poor Boomer. Though I would have to hand it to the boys. They won even without any advantages in strength and speed. I'm so proud of you all, even you Boomer! You defeated them not once, but twice, and not only by brute force, but by using your brains! But what I don't get is why would the girls just attack my boys for no reason at all? My boys didn't do anything that would warrant their attention. After all, they did stop a bank robbery once. Now why would they want to get back at…Of course, those girls wanted to get back at my boys for beating them up in the first place. Well, if that's the case, I can't blame them, although it wouldn't put them in the right inasmuch as they were the ones who attacked my boys first during that first fight.'

He stepped out of the house, wiped his thick eyeglasses, removed his fedora hat and knocked on the door.

"William, what brings you here?" asked a pleasantly surprised Ms. Keane.

"It's the girls," he said solemn tone. "They were defeated in a fight. I found them already unconscious near my house. That's all I can tell. They are in the back of the van."

Ms. Keane gasped there in shock, before running to the back of the van and taking a look at the girls.

"Girls!" she shouted as she looked at each of the bandaged and unconscious figures.

"Don't worry, they'll be alright. They're no worse than before. I already patched them up so they would recover in two to three hours. Please take them to Professor Utonium," Dr. Edwards asked.

Ms. Keane didn't know if she was to be relieved, or just to worry more. However, her common sense prevailed and she accepted Dr. Edwards' request.

"Of course, William, anything for the girls," Ms. Keane finally said after peeling her eyes off the girls. "Aren't you coming to see John? You know, you haven't seen him since you suddenly appeared?"

"No. I've been busy these past few days and today's no exception. Sorry," William politely replied.

"It's alright. I'm sure John will understand," William replied. If Ms. Keane didn't know any better, she would think that she could detect a sense of sarcasm in the tone, but dismissed it.

A few minutes later, Dr. Edwards and Ms Keane carefully transferred the girls into the back of her car. After carefully strapping them with seatbelts, she drove towards Professor Utonium's house.

"MY GIRLS! MY BABIES!" Professor Utonium shouted upon seeing her unconscious daughters. He quickly grabbed them and carried them over to their rooms. Ten minutes later, the room was as it was when the girls were first defeated—Full of medical paraphernalia with Prof. Utonium making a series of tests to determine the exact state of health of the girls. And like the very first time, he forgot about Ms. Keane.

"Thank God they're alright. A few hours of rest would totally heal them," he said, more to himself than to Ms. Keane.

"I'm glad they're alright," Ms. Keane said as he gave Prof Utonium a cup of coffee she made while waiting for the Professor to finish fixing up the girls.

"It was close," Professor Utonium said. "If they weren't patched up when they were, then the recovery time will be much longer, probably 24 hours or so. Tell me, Sandra, what happened? Who could have done such a thing?"

"I really don't know. Dr. William Edwards came to my house, and gave me the girls as you saw them—" Ms. Keane began.

"What does he have to do—" Professor Utonium interrupted.

"As I was saying in response to your question before you so rudely interrupted," Ms. Keane replied exasperatedly, "William was the one who patched them up. Honestly, if I didn't know better, I could have sworn by the way you two acted that you were the worst of enemies instead of the best of friends! He said he found them beaten up after losing another fight and patched them up and brought them to my house so I can bring them here!"

Professor Utonium wondered why Dr. Edwards would even consider helping him? 'Why would he help my girls? It's not like they knew each other or something, because he certainly didn't do it for me. Never mind, the important thing is that my girls are alright. Now, what kind of fight did they get into now? I guess I'll just have to wait until the girls woke up to tell me. Wait a minute, I remember something when the girls went out this morning.'

Flashback

"Professor, we've just completed training in the highest level!" Blossom proudly announced.

"That's good, Blossom," the Professor absentmindedly said as he continued to read the morning paper.

"Professor, aren't you going to congratulate us?" Buttercup said as he lowered the newspaper so the Professor could see them. "You aren't even listening!"

"Huh, what's that again Blossom?" the Professor again as he put down his paper.

"Professor, we just completed our training!" Blossom again proudly announced. "We're now ready to fight the Rowdyruff Boys!"

"Yeah, we'll kick their butts for beating us up the last time," Buttercup said as she punched an imaginary opponent in the air.

"That's not the main reason, Buttercup. The real reason, the numero uno one is that we need to defeat them to save Townsville from being taken over by Mojo Jojo."

"That's right, Bubbles, that's right," the pink puff said. "See you later, Professor! We're off to teach those Rowdyruff's a lesson!"

"Are you sure you're ready? I mean can you take them on right now?" the Professor asked. "You know, you didn't have a chance last time you fought."

"Of course we can. After all, we beat the highest level possible in your training lab," Buttercup confidently declared.

"And we can't possibly delay. Who knows when those villains will strike?" Blossom added.

"Okay, just be careful," the Professor shouted as the girls blasted off to find the boys.

End Flashback

'I shouldn't have allowed them to attack those boys this morning. I should have added more levels so they can train harder and become stronger and not get beaten,' the Professor thought.

A few hours later…

Boomer woke up and found himself in bed. He soon recognized the two figures beside him were his brothers Brick and Butch.

"Hey, Boomer, nice block! Too bad you have to get knocked-out to do it," Butch teased.

Boomer just looked down dejectedly. "I'm sorry I let you guys down. I guess I'm not that great, ha. Please don't tell me you lost, because I'll never forgive myself if that happened," he then sniffed and a few tears came out of his eyes. "I guess you guys are ashamed to have a brother such as myself, who couldn't even hold his own against those girls."

Brick and Butch, who planned on teasing him, just looked at each other guiltily. Brick in particular angrily glared at Butch.

"That's not true, Boomer!" Brick said, trying to make his insecure brother feel better. "You did great! If it weren't for you, I would probably be the one in that bed instead of you! Thanks Boomer!"

"You're just saying that because you're my brother," Boomer said as he sniffed, more tears falling out of his eyes. He didn't wail, but sobbed quietly. "I know you expected much from me, and I'm sorry if I didn't meet it by getting knocked out!"

"Don't cry! If it weren't for you, we would never had won—" Brick began, but was interrupted.

"You guys won?" Boomer asked. "I thought we lost the fight because of me?"

"Are you kidding? Because of you we, and that includes you, Boomer, won it! Am I right Butch?" he then glared at his brother.

"Uh yeah, because of you we won," he said it, thought hesitantly. "Though you could have acted less like a baby and let that damned fire cat hit Brick. I'm sure he had a plant to dodge it," he said sarcastically.

"You see," Boomer said. "Even Butch said I suck!"

Brick glared dangerously at his raven haired brother. Butch for some reason flinched at his brother's glare, and didn't say anything stupid after that.

"Don't listen to him. He's just being a jerk. You were great!" Brick encouraged. "And don't you cry! Crying is only for babies and girls, and are you a baby?"

"No," Boomer said, still sniffing?

"What, I can't hear you?" Brick said.

"No!" he said a little louder.

"What, I still can't hear you, baby!"

"NO I AM NOT A BABY, BRICK, AND I AM CERTAINLY NOT A GIRL!" Boomer shouted.

"Then dry your tears and stop crying," his redheaded leader said. "You have no reason to cry or bawl or feel sorry for yourself! Don't be pathetic and have some pride! You are not Bubbles who always turn on the waterworks every chance she got! She maybe your counterpart but we all know that you're better than her!"

"What's going on here? And are you alright Boomer?" Dr. Edwards suddenly said as he appeared at the room.

"Well, Dad, Boomer is crying because he got knocked out, and Butch started teasing him and I decided to pat Boomer in the back, well not pat literally, but I decided to encourage him!" Brick started.

"And Butch was being mean and Brick said I was great and then you suddenly came back and…" Boomer continued, still sniffling.

"Whoa! Not too fast! I want you to tell me everything that ever happened today," Dr. Edwards said.

"Well, it all started when we were playing volleyball with an iron ball, minding our own business, when those three girls attacked us all of a sudden. Why they attacked us I have no idea, but I quickly rallied our defense and we counterattacked!" Brick began.

"Duh, you messed up big time, Brick," Butch said. "You made a mistake with their strength, that's why we were stomped big time in the first part of the fight. You should have dumped those stances and fought to our best! What just happened is we got stomped by the girls because of fighting at SCARF or something, Brick realized that we were getting thrashed and ordered us to fight at Double A."

"It turned out that we are just even. Bubbles kissed me…"

"And Boomer enjoyed it," Brick interjected, then laughed.

"Hey, you didn't tell me you had a girlfriend!" Butch added, then laughed more.

"Boomer, you should have told me you had a fiancé," Dr. Edwards said, joining in the teasing. "Tell me, when is the wedding day?"

"DAD, BRICK, BUTCH, she is not my girlfriend, and I did not enjoy that kiss!" he shouted. He was blushing red, and mightily embarrassed. By this time, he totally forgot that he was crying and the reason for it, and instead, was trying to fend off his brothers' teasing.

"And that blond girl has a thing for you, Boomer. I mean why should she be the only one to kiss any of us?" Brick added, who by this time is rolling in the floor in laughter, clutching his stomach.

"Maybe she kissed me because she wanted to destroy me, like each of the girls did to us in our very very first fight!" Boomer replied indignantly.

"True, but you're the only one any of those girls kissed since we were recreated," Brick replied, still laughing but not as hard.

"And by the way you reacted, screaming, pulling out your hair, dunking yourself in the lake repeatedly, even eating stones, well I would say that is the actions of a love struck fool!?" Butch said.

Boomer shade of red grew even more red, if it was still possible, given the level of his embarrassment. "That's not true!"

Dr. Edwards decided to end his blond son's torment. "Okay, okay, that's enough. Now can we please get back to telling what really happened?"

"Oh yeah," Brick continued. "We have achieved a point of physical and tactical equality with the Powerpuff Girls. We all tried different tactics with them, but it was of no use. Although Butch was right about me underestimating the increase of powers of the girls due to their training, he had no right to criticize me on that point since his underestimation of Buttercup's strength was even greater than my underestimation of Blossom's strength. True, I made a mistake when I ordered my brothers to fight at less than full strength, but I immediately corrected it by telling them to fight at full strength before we got thrashed enough to be weakened. We fought at full strength, but as I already said, we fought with rough parity."

"Yeah, we were beating each other silly and getting nowhere," Butch continued, "that after a couple of hours of it, Brick and Blossom called for a rest for one hour. I, of course, am still full of juice at that point, and am giving Buttercup all I get. BAM, WHAM, I hit her head, kicked her in the belly, laser eyed her, but I didn't want to have all the fun while my brothers are resting, so I let her catch her wind."

"And while we were resting," Boomer continued, "we played a card game. I got a 6 of hearts, an ace of clubs, a 6 of diamonds, a king of clubs and a king of spades in the first deck, while Butch got four 2s and one 3 of hearts, and…"

"Hey, how did you know that was my deck?" Butch asked exasperatedly.

"X-ray vision. Now where was I, oh yes, Brick got…"

"Boomer, never mind the stupid card game, tell Dad what happened next!" Brick shouted.

"Oh yeah," Boomer said, scratching his head. "We figured out that those girls somehow got stronger, and we needed a plan. Anyway, Brick said that we gotta do those fancy moves we did while we were training, with all the counting and stuff, well Butch said it was a stupid idea, but after sleeping and stuff, it worked and Buttercup was out of the fight."

"You're going too fast!" Brick protested. "You haven't even gotten on how I brilliantly conceived a plan and how, thanks to my supervision, it was perfectly executed and lead to our ultimate victory. Anyway, I figured during the break that we're not going to beat them if we continued trying to overpower them one on one. I decided to use a different approach by all of us trying to hit one of them all at once. It would work, the only problem was trying to get one of them without the other two interfering to mess up my plans…"

"Oh who cares how you thought of your plan, Brick?" Butch shouted, interrupting him. "We all know how brilliant your plan is, we don't want to know how you came up with it, because we wouldn't understand it because it would turn out to be some complicated and too complex thing that would leave us hanging with our mouths wide open and unable to understand a single sentence you're saying. All that Dad wants to know is what happened after that!"

"Now, now Butch, that's not how you should talk to your brother, and Brick, Butch has a point. You should focus more on what happened."

"Okay," Brick said. "Anyway, because Butch and Boomer followed my carefully crafted plan to the letter, we were able to knock out Buttercup fairly quickly. We were soon just toying around with Blossom and Bubbles, but they were able to do that fiery comet cat thing and charged at us. At first, it seemed that it is charging straight at Butch, but at the last moment, it changed direction and headed straight for me. I didn't even notice it before Boomer suddenly pushed me out of the way and was knocked out as a result."

Boomer then became sad again as he was again reminded that he was the first and only Rowdyruff to be knocked out in a battle. Soon, he was sniffling and tears were beginning to come out of his eyes again.

Butch looked at Boomer contemptuously. 'Boomer is such a baby! Crying over such trivial things. The only reason Brick is trying to be nice to him is because Boomer saved his butt.'

Brick decided to comfort his brother. "Snap out of it Boomer. You were great before that!"

"Boomer, don't cry. Now, why did you do that?" Dr. Edwards asked, referring to his famous block of the furious fiery feline.

"Well, I saw that it was going to hit Brick, then I thought he is going to be in trouble, so I pushed him out of the way. Trouble is, I didn't get away fast enough, and it was like I was hit by a speeding locomotive with superpowers!" the six-year-old Boomer said, barely containing his tears.

"Boomer, you shouldn't be ashamed of having been knocked out!" his father exclaimed. "You should be proud of what you did. You only did what you thought was right, and what you did was certainly not wrong! You must never be ashamed about anything you do if you think you're right! So don't cry Boomer, because I am proud of you three, and especially you Boomer. Even if you failed, if you did all that you can do, then you can hold your head up. Be strong, and don't shed tears over spilled milk."

"And this goes for you two too!" Dr. Edwards said to Brick and Butch. "One of these days you will fail at one of the things that you'll try. The first failure is always the hardest, I know. Once, you failed, but for now, since you were reborn, you only had successes. I also believe that in the near future, you would definitely succeed in whatever undertaking you would do. But failure in one field or another is inevitable. If not, you are just lucky. But once you did, then you must not let the burden of failure crush you. You must keep your pride in yourself, and only regard that failure as a stepping stone for your eventual success. Learn from your failure and from your mistakes, and eventually, it will only be a footnote in your train of success."

"And always be proud that you're a Rowdyruff. Always be proud that you're an Edwards. Because of that, you are in a better position than most little boys are to start anew in the world. You are the best of the best right now, and you have the potential to be the greatest when you grow up. You are the most powerful beings in the planet. And you will inherit a great wealth so you won't want for anything ever in your lives."

"But don't sit pretty on your pedestal. Always aim to be the best in your class or in whatever endeavor you take. If you're not at the top, then be proud of the future when you'll be on top, proudly looking down on those whom previously you've been looking up to. Don't look up to anyone with awe, instead look up to someone with the aim of tearing him down from his pedestal and taking his place instead. You three must not be content with number two if you know you can have the capacity to be at the top. Never settle for mediocrity, but aim to be the greatest."

"Dad, does that mean that we don't have to apologize to something even if we are wrong?" Butch asked.

"No, Butch, it doesn't mean that. If you've made an honest mistake, or did something deliberately wrong and regretted it, always apologize. It's not good for somebody to be disliked or hated because of the wrong reasons, and it's even worst for you to be disliked for some stupid mistake on your part. If you made an honest mistake, quickly correct it, even if it means apologizing…"

"But what about pride and the whole never admit you're wrong thing?" Brick suddenly asked.

"Pride only works if you believe you're absolutely correct, or if you know that the result will be good. Otherwise, you should swallow it, because otherwise, it would only make a bad situation worse. When you know you're wrong, admit it and apologize and get it over with. Never admit you're wrong only if you believe with your heart that you're right, and they are wrong," Dr. Edwards explained.

"Also, remember this. Never say sorry twice for the same mistake or wrong. You could clarify it, make it clear, but never make it twice," Dr. Edwards continued.

"Why Dad?" Boomer asked.

"Because apologizing once is only to say you're sorry, apologizing twice is only to satisfy the ego of the one whom you're saying sorry to. Remember, when you make a clear apology once, the ball is in his court. It is up to him to forgive you, or to hate you more. After that, you could forget about the whole thing and blame him for anything that went wrong if he didn't accept the apology."

"Yes Dad," the three said.

These are the words the Rowdyruff Boys would never forget for the rest of their lives.

"Okay, now that that's over with," Dr. Edwards asked, "What happened next?"

"I don't really know," Brick said. "The moment I saw Boomer fall, I just lost it. Bubbles was nearer to me so I lashed out at her. When I regained control of myself, Bubbles was already lying on the ground."

"Brick's right, Dad," Butch continued. "The same thing happened to me. Seeing Boomer fall for the first time made me snap and a minute later, Bubbles was out cold. It's weird."

"After that, it wasn't a problem dealing with Blossom," Brick finished.

Dr. Edwards pondered for a moment.

"Okay, get some more rest. All of you, not just Boomer, were beaten up pretty badly by the girls. I'll be in my room if you need me or anything," their brown haired father said. He then left the boys to rest.

Brick and Butch looked at their father guiltily as he left. It is as if he knew what they did, but they knew it was a coincidence.

They knew that they were wrong. But they couldn't bring themselves to apologize or to swallow their pride. They just hoped that their lie wouldn't get out of hand.

A few minutes later…

Buttercup woke up and groggily shook her head. "What happened?" she said as she tried to remember what happened.

"Oh! Are you alright!" Professor Utonium, who happened to be watching over her, asked worriedly before nearly suffocating her in a tight hug.

"Professor, can't breath!" Buttercup struggled to say.

"Oh sorry," the Professor said as he loosened his hug.

"I'm alright. But what happened? Oh yeah, I remember!"

"Remember what? What exactly happened, Buttercup?" asked the Professor, who was now calmer.

"Well, we were fighting those Rowdyruff Boys AGAIN! I was beating the stuffings out of Butch, and was nearly able to overpower him in a contest of laser beams, when I was hit by Brick and Boomer by their laser beams, and it simply overpowered me!" Buttercup asserted.

"But why didn't your sisters stop those beams?" asked the Professor.

"I don't know about those whiners, but those beams did hit me, and when I see them…by the way Professor, where are those two sissies?"

"Now don't talk like that to your sisters. I'm sure they didn't want you to be hit by those beams. Blossom and Bubbles are now resting…"

"They're out cold too?"

"Yes Buttercup," the Professor replied.

"We lost?" Buttercup wondered. "Figures. Without me, the toughest one, they don't stand a chance!"

"Now let's not be too boastful!" the Professor declared. "Let's wait till your sisters wake up and you three can explain what happened."

Professor Utonium went out of the room to let Buttercup rest more. Buttercup soon fell asleep.

A few hours later…

Blossom woke up and saw her sisters sleeping to either of her side. She shook her head, wondering what happened, then suddenly remembered everything.

'Oh yeah, I remember now. Those boys thrashed us again. I wonder what went wrong this time?' She then remembered Brick's words which hit her like a boulder.

"If you want to blame someone…blame yourselves, for being stupid and careless," Brick said.

"…And," she continued, "we're not stupid and careless! You're plan is just so brilliant that we couldn't do anything about it."

"…I mean," Blossom said when she realized what she said, "No, you're not that brilliant, anyone who had more than an IQ of 5 could've thought that one up, and we just didn't expect such a lame attack from you!"

"So you're saying you're careless because you didn't prepare for such an obvious attack, and you're stupid because you let us get away with it," Brick replied between chuckles.

"No, I'm not saying that! You're twisting my words and using it against me!"

Blossom had to concede something. Brick was a brilliant leader, an equal to her in that department at least. 'Darn it! He's so good! We're not stupid, we just didn't see it coming,' Blossom thought, referring to the blasts which simultaneously hit Buttercup. 'It was so brilliant!' Blossom though.

"I've got to hand it to you," Brick continued. "You actually caught up with us in terms of strength and speed. However, you were pathetic tacticians and strategists. You concentrated your training too much on gaining strength and speed to catch up with us that you totally neglected planning your attacks on us."

'He's right. I counted too much on overpowering them that I neglected to make long range plans to fight at our level. And even if that attack failed, it would only produce a stalemate.'

She then observed several things that Brick didn't say.

Brick and his brothers trained better in battle tactics, which was shown by the precise timing in which they did their attack on Buttercup.

Brick has more control over his brothers in the heat of battle. She noticed that Boomer but especially Butch didn't change their stances even if they were being thrashed unless Brick gave the order to do so. 'They didn't even disobey Brick even when he was wrong. They can even carry out his orders perfectly! I can't imagine Buttercup allow herself to be beaten up just to follow my orders. And their cooperation is just great. No wonder we were beaten so handily.'

Then the implications of her words dawned on her. 'Does that mean that he's a better leader than me? No, no, no! Even though he's a good leader, he's no better than me. No sir, he is not a better leader than I am. No, I am better than that jerk! He was only lucky. Butch would sooner or later rebel against his authority, and his plan succeeded purely by luck!' she concluded. 'After Buttercup got knocked out, it was a matter of numerical superiority that decided the fight. And he can't be better than me because he's evil and I'm good, and good is always better than evil!'

However, a new blow to her self-esteem came unexpectedly, or expectedly, depending on one's point of view, from her own sister Buttercup.

Buttercup woke for the second time, this time more refreshed, and without the splitting headache she had when she first woke up. She looked at her side and saw Blossom in a contemplative mood.

"So, what's leader girl thinking? How much she sucks at fights?" she mocked.

"Oh shut up Buttercup," Blossom retorted. "It's like Benedict Arnold calling Jefferson a traitor! You're the one who fell first after all, tough girl! Look, I'm Buttercup, the tough one, and I was the first one to get knocked out!" she continued, doing an imitation of Buttercup to get her point across.

"I wouldn't have fallen if you did your job properly, Blossom. I have Butch by the ropes but you had to botch it up and let the two other Rowdyruffs gang up on me!" Buttercup shouted. "Look, I'm Blossom, and because I'm such a good leader, I let my sister be hit by a beam from somebody I'm suppose to be beating up! I mean, what kind of a leader are you? Are you so stupid as to let them do that to me? You're supposed to cover them while I finish Butch, but no, you had to sacrifice me to prove the incompetence of your leadership! And you call yourself the smart one. If you have half the brains you claim you have, you would have figured a way to finish the boys early on even if we're at equal strength. Or even if you have still that tiny pea in your head you call a brain, then you would have done all you can to prevent the attack! But what did you do? Instead of attacking Brick while he's attacking me, you had to stare at me so long while I suffer then run after me after I fell, when it was too late. You should've have attacked Brick and ordered Bubbles to take care of Boomer. That way, you could easily stop the attack, or if not, knock one of them out!"

Each of those words cut deeply into Blossom, and bit by bit, her confidence in her leadership abilities lessened. She knew every word of Buttercup was true. However, her pride wouldn't let her give up, and she became more stubborn than ever. "Don't tell me what to do Buttercup! And don't insult my intelligence!" Blossom sternly replied. "You know very well that I'm a better leader than you could ever hope to be, and I'm way smarter than you. And don't blame me for you being knocked out. If you had just followed proper orders, you wouldn't be hit. And if…"

"What proper orders?" Buttercup interrupted. "Tell me, what orders did you shout in that fight that would have helped us? That's so typical of you, Blossom, barking orders when it isn't needed, and forgetting one when it is."

Blossom has no proper answer, but she still refuse to believe her sister. "NO! That's not true, Buttercup," she shouted.

"Wake up Blossom," Buttercup suddenly said.

Blossom suddenly rose from her bed and began shaking Buttercup. "That's not true Buttercup, it's not my fault you fell, I…"

"Whoa, Blossom, calm down!" Buttercup suddenly said. "Whatever it was, it was only a dream."

"A dream?" asked Blossom.

"Yes. I woke up a while ago, then you suddenly started shouting 'NO! That's not true Buttercup!' so I decided to wake you up."

"You mean it was all a dream? A nightmare?"

"It was," Bubbles suddenly said from beside her.

"And you don't blame me for you getting hit by those beams?" Blossom asked.

"Well, no. You're not smart enough to figure it out," she teased.

"Hey," she said, playfully punching Buttercup in the arm.

"Seriously, I'm not, and if you're feeling guilty about it, it's alright," Buttercup comforted her.

"Besides, we have those boys to worry about without us pointing fingers at each other," Bubbles added cheerfully.

"I guess you're right," Blossom said.

"Now, what's going on, oh girls, girls, are you alright," Professor Utonium asked as he give each of the girls a tight, and I mean tight, bearhug. "Oh I'm glad you're okay, I was so worried. What did those bad boys do to my precious little princesses?" He then released them and sat them again on the bed. "Now I want you three to tell me what happened."

So the three girls pretty much told the professor what happened. Except Bubbles, they pretty much inflated their roles in the fight, like the one they did during the time the rescued a naked Mayor. They also belittled the Rowdyruff's achievement. They said things like, 'They were just lucky, or 'We just got careless', 'They're not so smart,' and 'Next time, we'll crush them,' or 'Those boys aren't so tough.' The Professor somehow got the general picture despite the different interpretations of the three girls.

"Professor," Bubbles suddenly said. "How long have we been out!?"

"About four hours," the Professor replied.

"The city! What happened to the city?!" Blossom panicked. "Has those boys taken over the city?"

"Relax!" The Professor said, trying to calm Blossom. "Nothing's happened. The city is alright. Mojo hasn't even escaped from jail." As if to prove his point, he grabbed the remote control and turned on the TV news. There wasn't anything like the disaster the girls expected if the boys won.

"That's strange," Blossom retorted. "Why doesn't the boys attack the city? Why didn't they try to at least take over Townsville? This doesn't make any sense!"

"Maybe they aren't so bad after all!" Bubbles cheerfully suggested. "Maybe they aren't evil and they want to join the good side."

Buttercup, Blossom, and Professor Utonium all glared at her with incredulity.

"Or I guess not," the blue puff said.

"Nah, they're just biding their time. They'll just wait for us to be at our weakest, and BLAM, they'll strike!" Buttercup said.

"But aren't we at our weakest when we were out cold?" Blossom suggested. "I mean, they could've just killed or destroyed us when we were unconscious, that would have been more logical, but why didn't they? Also, why didn't they bust Mojo out? We heard them say they'll bust Mojo out and then take over Townsville, but so far, they didn't. And how did we get here? I'm sure the Rowdyruffs wouldn't just give us up to you Professor. They're up to something fishy, and I don't know what it is."

"Well, whatever their reasons, let's be thankful they haven't tried anything drastic," the Professor said with relief. "And it's only four hours. Maybe they're still planning their course of action? And Ms. Keane said it was Dr. Edwards who saw you and patched you up and gave you to her who gave you to me."

"Oh, I guess we owe Dr. Edwards another one," Bubbles said.

"Yeah, we'll have to thank him when we have the chance," Buttercup groggily said.

"Okay girls, I'm going to cook dinner. Now, since all of you seem pretty okay, I'll leave you here. Just call me when you need me."

The Professor then left the girls to their own devices.

"So what do we do now?" asked Buttercup.

"What do you mean?" asked Bubbles.

"I mean, pinhead, what would we do now with the Rowdyruffs?"

"Well Buttercup," Blossom said. "What do you think we should do?"

"Why ask me? You're the leader!" Buttercup replied.

"Well, I just want to know what you would do if you're the leader, or are you admitting that you don't have what it take to be a leader?" Blossom shrewdly replied, baiting her sister.

"Well, if I am the leader, I would immediately attack those boys," Buttercup answered. "They were only lucky the last time!"

"I think we should wait," Blossom said. "We're not at full strength right now, and we would lose if we fought them one on one. And even if we are, we still don't know where to find them. Right now, we still don't know what their weaknesses are. We should let them act first. We'll just respond when they do something and sooner or later, they'll make some mistakes, and when they do, we'll use it to defeat them!"

"But wouldn't that get us killed?" Bubbles asked.

"No. For some strange reason, they don't want us dead. If they did, they had two opportunities to do so. We could lose if we do that, but we won't die. We'll just come back and hit them again and again until we defeat them."

Outside, Blossom was a wall of steel, an example of unbendable will, but inside, she had lost much of her self-esteem as a leader and no longer had absolute confidence in her leadership abilities. The shock of a second defeat and a horrible dream was too much. 'I wonder if good is always meant to win after all?' she pondered as she began contemplating. 'The luck that always follows us when we do battle against evil is no longer with us.'

Outwardly Buttercup was calm and collected, like her usual self, but in truth, she was bitter over the defeat. She wanted to blame Blossom when she woke up, but her leader's nightmare convinced her otherwise. She expected Blossom to be the same bossy arrogant Miss know-it-all self, and she would accuse her of leading them to defeat in order to bring her down by a notch, but her nightmare and her sister's reaction convinced her that she already was taken down a notch.

Only Bubbles was not psychologically affected in any way by the fight. She was too innocent to be.

Boomer doubted his value and his ability as a Rowdyruff because of what happened. Falling in battle for the first time ever indeed was a very hard load to bear. His father's words comforted him, and convinced him not to cry. But it still troubled him, and would be a source of teasing form Butch.

Butch himself was disappointed of his blond brother. 'He fought well, but why did he do such a stupid thing?' he always thought. 'And why would he cry? He's such a baby. He doesn't have what it takes to be a Rowdyruff!' Another thing that bothered him was the lie he told the girls and his father. 'Brick was right about it, I shouldn't have made that stupid lie! Then we wouldn't have to lie to Dad about it, and Brick would not be forced to lie to cover up my stupid mistake. Dad will be so angry and disappointed with us if he ever finds out. I'm sorry Brick, Dad.' But outside, he couldn't bear to admit the truth, and he couldn't stomach apologizing or correcting his mistake to a Powerpuff.

Brick was perhaps the most worried. Not only did he lie to his father to keep them from apologizing to the girls even after Dr. Edwards perfectly told them it is alright to say sorry, but he covered up Butch's lie. He also perceived that it might destroy their reputations forever. But he had too much pride to admit it to his father. 'Dad is right, but I'll never apologize to the girls. He'll find out sooner or later. And those girls would relentlessly attack us now that they think we're bent on taking over Townsville!' He looked into the sky, and wondered if the future was as bright as the night before.

Author Thanks

Uncle Sam, yup, Butch screwed it all, but he isn't the only one. Thanks. TJ Rose, thanks. And continue reading, it will get better, I promise. BubbleBean22, thanks for the complement. I do try to make the chapter try to stand on their own with all of them being interconnected, I do hope I succeed. To Hairy Gregory, yup, it was bad luck but bad planning did their part. And about your other questions, please be patient. It would all be answered in Chapter 10. To SupersayainkingTommy, thanks. The reason I did Dr. Edwards is that because almost all the other bring back the RRB was brought back by Mojo Jojo for some evil purpose. As I was trying to do an original a plot as possible to a bring back the RRB, I decided to include him. It may sound weird, but I haven't seen a many fanfics where Mojo didn't recreate the boys. Anyway, glad you like my story. And finally to UnromanticPoetess. I'm so glad you decided to take time to read my story. Anyway, here are my comments. It was unrealistic, that first chapter. I guess I haven't developed the plot much during that time, so it was poorly done. Anyway, I hoped I have advanced it enough to make it good. And I didn't know it was a cute scene, but thanks for pointing it out. And you're right. I do have many spelling and grammatical errors. Thanks for pointing it out. As for the moral compass, you'll understand more of it on the RRB as you read more chapters, notably chapter 5. And as their personalities, I try to make them as similar to their PPG counterparts as possible. And I agree, that chapter was too fast. I wanted to go to the fights as soon as possible that I condensed it as much as possible to get it done quickly. I didn't really realize it until you told me, and I decided to add more details in the succeeding chapters than what I did before. I'll probably revise it when I edit it in the future. As on how each boy analyzed the girls fight, I try to keep it in with their personality. Thanks again. Well, yeah, it pretty much shows their happy go-lucky view, though the plan to get Dr. Edwards and Prof. Utonium isn't so happy go-lucky on the part of Blossom. And thanks for reading my story.