Here's the next chapter, hope you like!
Chapter 3: The Smallest Life, The Greatest Cost
First National Bank was strangely quiet when the girls arrived. The glass doors and windows of the building were completely shattered, not unusual for a typical bank robbery, but something still seemed very different.
"Not so fast!"
As they made their grand entrance, announcing their arrival triumphantly, they found the scene before them to be quite unusual. Deserted. No bank tellers, no customers... no robbers.
The entire bank was in ruins. The tiles on the floor were smashed and broken, as though giant feet had crushed them, and the solid steel door to the big vault was bent and open, as though something with superhuman strength had wrenched it open like tin foil. The girls stood there for a moment, dumbfounded, wondering to themselves what was going on.
"This is strange.." Blossom said to herself.
"Where is everybody?" Bubbles wondered aloud.
"Hello? ..Anybody here?..." Blossom called.
She stopped to listen for a moment and soon picked up the soft sobbing of a little girl with her super-hearing.
"Do you hear that?" Blossom quickly searched around the room and finally came across a small child in a red frilly dress, huddled in the corner of the room, quietly crying and clutching a little doll.
"Little girl? What happened here? Where is everybody?" Blossom asked. She looked up at Blossom, her young, innocent face soaked with tears, and her blonde curls hanging messily over her red, puffy eyes.
"M-me..and ..my m-mommy.. were waiting ..in l-line...and.. this big scary monster came.. and ..I tried to hang onto my mommy.. but now she's gone.. everyone's gone.. " she spoke in between gasps and sobs.
The girl began to cry harder, grasping her doll for dear life. Blossom tried to console the girl, but it was no use. This was no time for questioning, but there were still some things Blossom had to know.
"Little girl, what did the monster look like? Where did it go?" Blossom asked slowly and calmly so she wouldn't upset the child even more.
"It was very tall... it was like a big shadow...b-but it moved so fast that I don't really know ...I don't know how.. ..but it was like ..everything went black ..I couldn't see anything... then there was so much screaming and noise.. I screamed as loud as I could for my mommy... but when I woke up... ..my mommy and everyone else was ..gone.." She said slowly, struggling to get each word out between her cries.
Blossom hugged the little girl, tears in her eyes.
"Don't worry, we'll find your mommy." Blossom said with a little smile. "Bubbles, take her to the police station, she'll be safe there."
Bubbles held the little girl's hand and led her out of the bank, while Buttercup and Blossom began searching for clues.
"Hey Bloss! You might want to take a look at this..." Buttercup said.
Blossom quickly flew over to the bank's vault, where Buttercup was hovering, a shocked and surprised look on her face.
"What Buttercup?"
"Look.." Buttercup pointed to the inside, which was still full of large money bags.
"Bizarre..." Blossom said to herself.
"What stupid villain would open the vault, and not take any of the money?" Buttercup asked.
"Something seems fishy Buttercup.. I'll check it out, and you can keep searching for more clues."
"Right on, leader girl," Buttercup said as she carefully searched around the room.
Blossom flew inside the giant safe and began to inspect the bags of money. She opened one of the bags and took a peek inside.
Her scream echoed throughout the vault as she discovered what was inside. Blossom threw the bag aside hastily and quickly took several steps back out of the safe, still panting and gasping for air.
"What? What is it Blossom?" Buttercup flew over to where Blossom had nearly collapsed, a worried look on her face.
"Blossom? What happened? What did you find? Blossom! Tell me!" Buttercup shouted in Blossom's ear, becoming increasingly frustrated at her sister's lack of response.
Blossom sat there, speechless, her mouth hanging open; completely ignoring Buttercup's frantic questioning. All she could do was point inside the vault, a distant look in her pale pink eyes.
"I guess I'll have to see for myself.." Buttercup said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
Only moments later, Buttercup was also on the floor with Blossom her face as pale as a ghost and her mouth hanging open in shock.
"I... I can't believe it..." Blossom finally said. "...T-here wasn't money at all in those money bags... but b-bodies..."
"Yeah... so... I guess he took all the money after all...h-huh?"
The girls sat there in a dismal silence for a while. Staring in disbelief at what was before them. After a few minutes, Blossom spoke up.
"You know what we have to do Buttercup..." Blossom said with a sigh.
"Y-you don't mean...?" Buttercup said, her voice quivering.
"Yes. We have to look through all of them... its our job Buttercup.. We need to find clues." Blossom said, her usual confidence masking her inner fear.
They both gulped and slowly began to drag the bags out one by one. They carefully removed each body, and the little hope that those innocent people might still have been alive was crushed in an instant.
Soon enough, several Policemen arrived, and began collecting the numerous bodies in body bags. As the morbid task continued, suddenly Blossom shrieked loudly. Buttercup rushed over to see what was the matter, and then she too screamed.
Lying on the ground was the body of a little girl, clutching a tiny doll. She wore a red dress and her hair hung in shiny blonde curls. Her pale face looked so peaceful as she laid in her eternal sleep. Soon enough a couple of policemen had joined them, and had put the little girl in a body bag as well.
Blossom and Buttercup watched them carry her away in a stunned silence.
"But.. But how? This was the same little girl we spoke to only minutes ago..." Blossom said in shock.
Buttercup sat silent for a moment. Then suddenly she yelped and turned turned to Blossom with wide eyes.
"If this is that little girl... then... who is with...?"
"BUBBLES!"
How's THAT for a cliffhanger, Mwahaha!