Chapter Four

4.1

Since she had woken up a few days ago, Buttercup felt as if she had been buried under a pile of rocks. She was pretty sure that the professor had taken her and her sisters out of that factory and they had been saved but her body was telling her otherwise. Her powers had gone but her attitude was still there and she refused to get beaten.

Okay. Maybe that was an exaggeration to say that her powers had gone. She could still fly. She could still defend herself from the things living under the surface of where she was trapped but she didn't have the strength that she needed and as far as any sort of blasting lasers or ice breath, that kind of thing – if she had ever known to do it well then she had forgotten it.

Other than the mice, the only thing that kept her company was a small three-person group who had decided to take residence under the earth and had somehow forgotten how to get back up again. Still, it gave her people to talk to.

"Hey, BC," Helen – one of the underground dwellers, a young woman in her very late teens with a gothic vibe – said as she approached her. "You want to eat?"

Buttercup sighed and rolled her eyes, "Fine," she said before looking down. This place was somehow more than one would expect for being under the earth and had some kind of magic on it, there was food and plants and water here, enough to sustain them. All four of them had had near death experiences and so Buttercup did wonder if this place was a sort of limbo or purgatory but her hope remained that one day she would see the professor and her sisters again.

"I don't think there is a way to the surface, all I've ever seen are boulders and I've never been that strong, or that tall but since you can fly…maybe you could actually make it to the surface," Helen said in a very casual manner.

"I wish," Buttercup replied before flying over to where the two guys, Flint and Daniel, were. Flint was the eldest of the group and was in his late thirties. Apparently he had been some kind of a sailor or transporter and knew the waves and waters but very little about land. Daniel was a British student in his mid-twenties who apparently had been doing a study abroad in Tokyo when he had found himself down here.

This really could be purgatory and maybe there wasn't an end to it but Buttercup had to keep trying. She at least wanted to see her sisters again. Being separated from them made her cry more than being separated from her blankey. Then again, maybe they had been taken to heaven or whatever paradise existed because they were better than her most of the time. She was always said to be the 'toughest fighter' but maybe compared to Miss. Sunshine and 'The Leader' she wasn't worth making the quota of people allowed into that good place.

"Your dad probably misses you a lot," Helen said and Buttercup shook her head as she picked up one of the sandwiches that, although being a bit dirty, tasted good.

"He's not my dad," she said, "He's the professor."

Buttercup was at the point where she didn't know whether or not that was true or how she wanted to feel but she had to develop a thick skin to be able to survive down here. And at least he wasn't hearing her saying this. At least she didn't have to worry about hurting his feelings.

4.2

Bubbles sat in front of the window with a glass of milk at her side. She had told the professor, her father, that she was going to go to bed and then snuck down here as she worried about her sisters. Everything here reminded her of them. Well, it had been the house where they had all been created and raised but it was more that that. They had had an unbreakable tether to one another so they could survive all the harshness of the world as a team but now…now that was all gone.

She was about to break down again into particularly messy tears when she felt a hand on her back and saw a plate with two cookies slide in front of her. "Do you want to talk?" Professor Utonium asked as he pulled out a chair and Bubbles shook her head. "Well, do you mind if I sit here with you?"

"No, dad," she smiled to him and he smiled back at her, "I just…I can't stop myself from wondering where they are, if they're okay, if they're hurting, if they're -" she shook her head as tears washed down her face. "No, no, no," she squeaked, panicking at the imagined loss of her sisters.

Utonium pulled the blonde to his chest and held her as she sobbed. He didn't want to give up but then he had no idea what to do. If Bubbles couldn't find him then was there anything that he hadn't tried in a chemical or technological sense. Of course when his girls had disappeared his first thoughts were to create anything or anyone to find them but none of those attempts had been fruitful.

However, in those moments he had zero of three, at least this time he knew that Bubbles was with him and if she was with him then her sisters might need to find a way to get back to him. He thought this over but then heard the crying girl's sobs stop and she was only hiccupping as she slept and grabbed to him.

He couldn't put any more pressure on her. She didn't feel a connection to her sisters and he had to take that as a sign to not let his hopes increase. Maybe they could find someone, a friend, a way to get some comfort for them.

4.3

"So, I have to ask you this question," Utonium said as he brought Bubbles her breakfast the next morning and she looked up at him with red and itchy eyes. He knew that she needed time and he wanted to get her that time but there were things that couldn't be avoided. "Did you want to go back to school?"

Bubbles stared at him and then looked away. She sighed, "How?" she asked him and he sat down about to explain it in a more academic way before he caught himself, yes, he had always been the professor to the girls. He had often explained things to them in scientific terms or demonstrated hypothesis and theories. That had been the way he had been since he had outgrown being a troublemaking brat.

This needed a different touch, a different approach.

"I've thought through the options and I want for you to make a decision on it," he said and Bubbles watched him as she thought it through. She bowed her head as her depression showed on her face. When she was new and young and fresh she loved interacting with people and wanting people to be friends. It always mattered a lot to her when she could meet a new friend or share her toys or her crayons. Now she didn't know which people to trust or even if there were still people who were worthy of her trust.

"You mean like a…boarding school or something?" she asked and Utonium looked in shock.

"Well I…I wasn't thi—thinking but…" he said as he tried not to show how terrified he was of letting her go away from him. He had thought that they would spend more time together and that he would protect her. If she had wanted to try to go to a private school here then they could discuss it but a boarding school, somewhere he wouldn't be able to see her, to take care of her, to hug her. After so much pain from the thoughts of losing his girls, no, he didn't want a boarding school.

"It's just…everything here is so familiar," Bubbles said nervously and Utonium looked around the house.

"Yes, it might need a little updating but I didn't want to erase all the memories of you girls. I still feel a need to keep your sis-" he said and Bubbles started crying as well. "All I mean is -"

"I don't want to lose my memories of them either," Bubbles trembled. "Buttercup and Blossom weren't only my sisters but my best friends, the only two made of the same combination of stuff as I am but I don't know how I can cope when I think of leaving them behind. I want to keep their memory alive but I don't want to see it," she said and Utonium nodded.

"So, I think that an option might be that we go somewhere else for a little bit, somewhere new and interesting, somewhere where there's a lab so I can continue working but also somewhere that has everything you might need," Utonium smiled as he turned to Bubbles. "After that, what do you think? Homeschool or regular school?"

"Can I homeschool?" Bubbles asked and Utonium smiled and nodded.

"Of course," he said. Bubbles looked down sadly as she thought about where they could go. She did know one town that might be nice, she had had an interest in it for a while and not for the type of reason one would consider good. On the day after she and her siblings had been taken to the lab to be copied and have the Chemical X ripped out of them, there had been a huge rock slide and there was something there that spoke to her.

She was terrified of looking it over by herself though but she was even more worried about how the professor would take her feelings over this location, this seemingly random location.

End of Chapter Four

Thank you for reading

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Three

AliceKettle