The ruckus of the rooftop battle had managed to attract a small
audience on the grounds below, and one concerned student had rushed off to
phone the police. Because it had taken place so high up nobody had managed
to see much, let alone any of the feats of superhuman strength, so
Buttercup's extraordinary abilities still remained safely unknown by all
but Johnny.
The police closed off the scene of the battle to
investigate and picked up a description of the three criminals. But, as
Johnny and Buttercup knew, trying to track enemies like those down would
be a hopeless wild goose chase. The two youths were taken to the nearby
infirmary, the nurse scratching her head to find that neither one was the
least bit injured.
The super-powers, Johnny noted. This was getting weirder and weirder by the minute. Not only was there the mystery of the mighty combat abilities that had coursed so fleetingly through his own body… but the astonishing fact that underneath Buttercup's immature, tantrum-happy exterior there was fearsome and battle-ready warrior. It certainly made Johnny look upon the child in a whole new light-- she seemed so much more mysterious, and maybe even mythic, than before. Just where had she come from?
His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of Professor
Tartakovsky's footfalls as he waddled along the now-crowded hall towards
them. Johnny's eyes crept up from the floor to meet with him. The man's
usually smiling face was apologetic and grim, and in place of the bulky
staff roster was a pair of empty hands.
"I am sorry, little Buttercup.
I look all morning, but I did not find the professor you have been
searching for."
Buttercup pursed her lips. "Then we'll just go to the
next university…" she proclaimed with a tinge of panic in her words.
"Won't we?" She looked up to Johnny.
He sighed. "I… look, Squirt. It's kinda hard to find someone if you
don't even know their name. Going through all the universities in the
county alone could take months." The wide eyed little girl's lower lip
involuntarily began to wobble.
"Maybe we could file a missing person
report with the police…" Johnny suggested.
"No!" Buttercup cried. "Not the
police, please."
The tone of her voice commanded Johnny to heed
her wish. Tartakovsky raised a dubious
eyebrow, but Johnny was now too convinced of the child's plight to suspect
her of being some kind of fraud or criminal. The only thing that aroused his interest
was still the question of what on Earth his super-powered little ward's
origins were.
They exited the university, Johnny tugging a straggling Buttercup along
by the hand. "Where to now, then?" She asked him.
"Well, since you
don't wanna go to the cops, we better call off the search until we've got
a better plan. I can't go back to school today, 'cuz the teachers'd
totally eat me alive for playing hooky. And we can't go home, Kaasan is
there and she'd have a cow too."
Not knowing where to go, Johnny
stopped in the middle of the footpath and looked up at the skyline
hopelessly.
"Y'know, Squirt, sometimes I really hate this city."
Wretched minions! How dare they have pounced on the boy like
that!
Him calmed himself then, just enough to reflect that his two
lieutenants were too simple and unquestioning to have done anything
different during the battle that morning. Even so, it filled his heart
with bile to think that they had no qualms at all about injuring young
Johnny-a child so crucial to their task. He tried to feel the same of Lord
Alecto, who had been the one to issue the questionable orders… but he
couldn't. Whatever failings that man had were more than made up for in his
brilliance, his elegance, his enterprising. There was no distinction in
Him's mind between Alecto and God.
And as such, Him wasn't about to let him down. If his Lord wanted
Buttercup delivered to him, that's what he would get. It mattered little
that his lieutenants were too injured to fight now, in fact Him was glad
that they would finally be out of the way.
At last, Him was going to
go after the girl who had eluded him for so long-and this time, he was
going to do it on his own terms.
"Oooh!" Sandy squealed. "I didn't know you had a little sister!"
Johnny groaned. "I wish people would stop calling her that."
"Actually, Buttercup-chan is our neighbour." Michiko informed
cheerfully, setting plates upon the crowded table. "She eats with us
because her father works long hours."
"And my sisters have rocket
science and brain surgery classes after school." The girl added assuredly.
The grown-ups at the table swapped an odd look between them.
It was Monday evening, and Johnny and his two classmates had been
involved in study group for the afternoon. He had managed to keep
Buttercup out of their hair by sticking her in front of his family's
television. Not the most responsible of actions, but at least it was a
place where she would be safe.
Johnny had spent the weekend reading
mountains of medical journals in an effort to find some helpful
information on amnesia. If he could manage to unlock Buttercup's memory,
it would make their search for the elusive Professor a lot easier. It was
sad that the girl was so far gone that she couldn't even recall her own
last name.
But at the moment, it was kind of hard to pity her. Her face messy with clumps of sticky rice, she was elaborating on stories of her imaginary 'family' downstairs and their evermore fantastic feats. Sandy, Sara and Johnny' parents listened in, not convinced of her fibbing for a second but utterly charmed by the tyke's mannerisms and imagination. Johnny found it simply disgusting.
"So what happened then?" Sara asked, an amused grin sitting upon her
face.
"Well, Blossom and I couldn't stop the chalk monsters, no matter
how hard we beat 'em up… but then Bubbles got up from the ground, ran into
the classroom and got some chalk. Then she went up to the nasty frowny
monsters and drew smiley faces and hearts and rainbows on 'em and stuff.
Then BLAM!-"
Buttercup violently swung her arm, accidentally coming
into contact with her glass of juice and spilling it all over Johnny's
dinner plate.
"Hey!" The boy wailed.
"Oh, Buttercup…" Michiko cooed, shuffling over to her seat. "Did you
spill your juice, you poor thing?" She leant over to the child and picked
up the cup, dabbing at the wet tabletop with a dishrag.
"Here, I'll
get you some more!" Sara offered, and leant over to fetch the juice jug,
knocking yet another cup over into Johnny's drowned meal.
The boy
glumly watched random slivers of vegetable and beef bob about in their
sweet, sticky sea and quietly whimpered.
"What about my dinner?"
"Oh honestly, Johnathan, I think you're old enough to clean up your
own mess." Michiko clucked, still hovering over Buttercup.
"But… but…"
Johnny's mouth dropped open in astonishment and disgust. "She was the one
who knocked it over!" He pointed to the pint-sized culprit.
Buttercup
narrowed her eyes-what a jealous, vindictive jerk he was being. Time to
play hardball.
Scrunching up tiny fists and girlish features, Buttercup's face
promptly went red as she exploded in a shrill show of staged tears.
"WaaaaaaaaahJohnnydoesn'tlikemeanymoooooooooooore!"
As one, the
three women at the table 'Awwww'ed and rushed to Buttercup's side,
coddling maternal instincts awakened by the upset tot.
"Johnny, how
could you be so mean!" Sandy chided. "She really likes you!"
Johnny
swore he could see a smug grin tug slightly at the side of Buttercup's
mouth as Sandy turned her back to look at him.
"Kinishi nai,
Buttercup-chan, let's get you your juice to settle you down." Michiko took
her in her arms and delivered a harsh parental glare to her son.
"I
didn't do anything…" was Johnny's flabbergasted, obsolete protest.
He
flopped back in his seat and stared at the gratuitous scene. After a
while, he turned to his father.
"Are chicks always like that with
little kids?"
Sam said nothing, but lowered his head, gave his son an
empathetic pat on the back and sighed.
To Be Continued. . .