11. Back where you Belong

Blossom looked at Sonic like he'd sworn at her.

"My job! That isn't what you pay me for!"

"Oh good," said Sonic, "then I won't have to pay you overtime. Now come on, you've been missing this for ages. I'll buy you some time to sort it out."

With that he sped into the battle himself. Blossom paused, and then she stuck her hand into the air and shouted, "HUDDLE!"

The other four were there in a flash, Buttercup and Bubbles had huge smiles on their faces.

"You taking charge?" they asked. Blossom scowled at them.

"Only because you're all hopeless! What was that up there?"

"The results of mixing work with alcohol?" suggested Butch.

"Listen (Blossom ignored the comment), if I'm in charge, we're going to have a plan, okay. When you go back in there, I want you to attack the body - not the limbs – of the machine, and try and Mojo to turn his back to me. Then one of you – Bubbles – distract him while the other all focus your blasts on one point of his back, while I…"

There was a smashing sound, and a deep hole suddenly appeared in the middle of them. Sonic's voice came drifting out from the bottom of it; "chat times over."

The Blue and Green puffs/ruffs split, Blossom stayed on the ground for now. She watched again, and everything seemed more… ordered. Gee, I have a real knack for this, she thought.

Bubbles tapped the side of Mojo's window.

"Hello Mojo!" she said cheerfully. The Monkey glance at her for a moment, before turning his attention back to the front.

"You're not going to distract me! I mean distract as in divert my attention form what I am currently doing towards doing something else that would render me incapable of doing what I am currently doing because I would be doing something else." Bubbles whacked on the windscreen again, so Mojo got the robot to bat her away.

From the ground Blossom sighed. Well, patience is a virtue.

From his position of just inside the back door, Eddy was upset. This was not only because Blossom was angry with him, when he was still sure he'd done the right think, but also because his lawn was being torn up by a giant robot. Couldn't anything about the first problem right now, and he certainly couldn't do anything about the second one, but that didn't stop it upsetting him.

"Dam it," he muttered. In frustration, he grabbed a near by stone and hurled it at the robot. Belying his lack of talent, the stone hid the machine on the windscreen.

Mojo was confused. Who could have thrown that? He had all the puffs on his radar, so it wasn't one of them? He sung the robot round, trying to pick up another hero that had to be around here somewhere.

Blossom was delighted. Everything was now on track. Mojo was distracted (quite why didn't matter,) and the others were in position, blasting the same point in the back. Now it was up to her. Carefully, she tried lifting off, and she was surprised how easily she managed it! After so long, she though it would have been harder.

"Just like ridding a bicycle," she murmured. Then she reached down in to the near by hole, and withdrew the dizzy hedgehog from within.

"You alive Sonic?" she asked.

"I think I broke something."

"Good, because your about to be a cannon ball!" and as she drifted up behind the robot, she started spinning Sonic round and round until he was whirling like a blue blur, and then chucked him at the point the others were blasting. He went straight through, and the robot very quickly stopped, broke, and clasped.

"Wayhay! That's our Blossom!" shouted Buttercup. Boomer and Butch landed next to the robot's remains, which Mojo was scrambling out of.

"Come on Dad," said Boomer gently, "time to put you in a home."

"No, not that! It's like a prison in there!"

"Precisely."

Once the Ruffs had departed to drop off Mojo, (having told their respective partners to see them at home) Bubbles and Buttercup turned to Blossom.

"See," said Bubbles, "that wasn't so bad! It was like you'd never been away."

"Yeah," Buttercup supported, "and no one died! So what do you say now? Can you come back to fighting?"

"Well…" Blossom hesitated, "I was pretty good, although there were lots of areas to improve on, like the…"

"See!" Buttercup cut her off before the lecture started, "you really enjoyed it! Come on, it was what you were born to do!"

The last phrase hit home, but not in the way Buttercup was expecting.

"That's the point," said Blossom, "if that's what I was born to do, it's what MJ and Edward were born to do, and I want them to have a choice."

"IS THAT A NO?" Buttercup was aghast.

"You take far too much responsibility," Bubbles said sadly, "they'll find out eventually…"

"AHEM!" the three puffs looked up. "It may have escaped your notice," Sonic - complete with bruises and not looking at all pleased – began, "but I'M in charge here. Blossom, come in dressed suitably for fighting work on Monday!"

"But…"

"Don't worry; I'll station you in Canada for the day. No news will reach hear. But I don't want your paperwork to slip either," and with that he left.

Buttercup and Bubbles smiled. "That's the best thing that's happened to you for a while!" Buttercup said. "See you on Monday.

Blossom watched them go. For some strange reason, she thought they may be right.

It was now two in the morning. Blossom entered the lounge quietly. Eddy was already there, drinking coffee.

"Not coming to bed?" she asked flatly. Eddy jumped.

"No, I thought you needed some space."

"I'm better now."

"Oh, so we can forget it?"

"No, I just want to know why."

"Oh." Eddy paused for thought. "Right, well you know just before Buttercups wedding Butch walked out on her."

"Yeah, he got commitment issues. Are you telling me that telling that you had to tell him to get him over his commitment problems?"

"No. He didn't walk out over commitment; he left because Buttercup refused to cut you out of her life."

"What! But she told me…"

"Yes, I know," Eddy felt confident enough to move closer now, "But Buttercup didn't want you to think that it was your fault that her wedding had collapsed, so she lied."

"Why did she tell you the truth then?"

"She didn't. I went to track Butch down so I could get him over his commitment problems. He told me. Well, once he'd thrown me out five times. When he gave up and told me, I had to tell him. I seemed stupid that they should brake up over something that isn't true."

Blossom thought for a moment. "You should have told me."

"You'd have killed me!"

"Well, maybe. But I'm not going to now. Just about."

"Thank you."

"Just one more thing though," Blossom said, "why."

"Why what?"

"Why did you go and look for Butch, and try again after he'd thrown you out?"

"Because I thought if Buttercup was happy, you'd be happy. That's all I want, right?"

"You've never even liked Buttercup!"

"Well, perhaps I didn't want her moping around here miserably," Eddy said quickly, "but mainly to make you happy. Not that I can ever make you truly happy," he finished sadly.

Blossom had always been honest with Eddy, so he knew how much she'd loved Brick. He also knew the full strength of Blossom shame and regret for not saving her young love, and this (not surprisingly) depressed Eddy slightly. Sometimes she wondered if she should have lied slightly to him about it.

"You know I love you, just in a… different way to Brick. He, admittedly through no fault of his own, wasn't there for me to help me through the aftermath, hasn't had children with me, or saved me from, well, killing my self."

"He would have if he was here," Eddy said sullenly.

"Yes, but it didn't happen like that. I'll sure that in other alternative universes, if they exist,that he'd throw him self into another dimension that he'd transported me into to save me(Sorry, couldn't resist, author)and that we'd be really happy together,but it didn't happen here. Life is like swings and roundabouts, and when you get a chance, you've got to grab it with both hands and not worry about anyone else other than your loved ones. What are you going to do?"

Eddy paused, and then grabbed Blossom with both hands. He'd judged the mood right, which was surprising! Instead of hitting him Blossom laughed.

"Is it okay if I go back to crime fighting?" she asked.

"Sure, you looked great out there," Eddy smiled. He started to lean in, when he piped up again; "Hey, we can tell the kids you're a superhero now!" he said excitedly.

"No."

"Darn."

The doorbell rang early the following morning. Blossom and Eddy opened it together. Edward and MJ were just outside.

"Hi Mum, hi Dad, we're home!" MJ said cheerfully.

"MJ," Blossom looked at her "why haven't you washed your face? It's a mess!" She bent down and started rubbing the mud off with her fingers. MJ squirmed.

"MUMMM!" she moaned. Eddy looked round outside.

"Not like Granddad to send you back like this, where is he?"

"He's round the back," yawned Edward.

"He couldn't check my face cause he was too busy telling Edward off for watching the 24 motorsport channel all night!"

"You little rat!" Edward woke up suddenly, "I'll…"

Before their parents could assert any discipline, the Professor came sprinting (well, he's old now, so as much as he could sprint) round from the side of the house.

"Blossom darling," he said excitedly, "can I take the remains of that giant robot in the garden."

"GIANT ROBOT!" said Edward and MJ, one excitedly, the other worried.

"I knew we should have cleared it up," muttered Eddy.

"Oh yes, sorry Eddy, it appears to have fallen on your shed."

"WHAT!" and he ran round the corner, the kids and the professor following close behind. Blossom paused for a moment.

"There's nothing like a normal life laced with the abnormal," she said to herself, before following.

As she walked past the window and round the back, she didn't notice the person standing just in the flower bed. Why should she, thought Brick, no one else ever did. But everyday since he'd died he'd come here, even though it was his only time off. He sighed, and pulled the hood of his Blacker than black robe over his head. Just because no one could see him, didn't make it a good reason to let people see him cry. He wasn't really crying any way. Honest.

A white horse wondered through the wall of the house and nudged him. Brick sighed.

"Found the sugar cubes then," he asked his steed. It snorted. "Hey, just trying to make conversation, shessh. Okay, time to get back on."

He jumped on the horse, and opened his robe slightly (revelling the blood strained clothes he'd died in) and pulled out a large hour glass (egg timer). It had a name inscribed in the glass, and the sand had nearly all drained through. Brick read the name.

"Ah, Mario Fernandez, 89, about to die of natural causes after a fulfilling life, on the list for the good place. Great, no teen suicides of 34year old cancer victims then." He looked down at his horse, "how is your Spanish?"

"Neighhh"

"Yep, thought so. Right, a good round today, and maybe Death will give me that promotion." He tugged on the reigns and the horse (literally) took off in to the air.

He then took it round past Blossom's house on more time, even though it was the wrong way.

And I think I'll leave it there. It's not the end, but it's the end of this story. I will be starting a sequel soon (weather you like it or not, and if your on this page, you are properly at least indifferent,) so look out for that. Please review this, any advice you have I would be grateful for. Thanks, till next time.