Good News Everyone
The sun was brightly shinning over the city. May had arrived, flowers blooming in the city parks, warm dry air replacing the showers April brought. The city had effectively cleaned up all remnants of Princesses attack a few weeks prior. Morebucks himself had donated most of the funding, with a whole ad campaign to remake his image into a caring man.
Brick was once again focused on his work. Excitement filled him as he typed away at his computer. It was his final assignment and was excited to finish it off. A quick overview of his work, and he soon smirked with satisfaction. He saved it to his flash drive, grabbed his coat and took off towards his school. Normally he would just send it online, but he wanted to hand this one in personally.
He felt the wind against his face, and the sun beating down on his back as he flew. He was nearing his school when he heard someone scream for help. Rolling his eyes he rounded back towards the noise. He soon found the source deep in an alleyway. The Gangrene Gang had a tall brunette frightened clutching her purse in front of her.
"Oh baby," The leader ace said as he held a decrepit hand to her chin, "Why would you hurt our feeling by screaming for help? We won't hurt ya we just wanna hang." All members had their back to Brick as he floated down to the opening of the alley. Grubber blew a raspberry as he lied on his stomach, feet up chin on his hands. Big Billy was laughing as he moved the hair out of his eye, snake had one hand against the wall next to her shoulders. Arturo was next to her legs stroking a finger up and down her exposed flesh between her skirt and boots. Ace was closest one hand on her shoulder and another still on her chin. The image disgusted Brick to no end. He loudly cleared his throat to let them know they weren't alone.
"Well lookie here boys, we got a hero among us." Ace turned to laugh.
"He looksssss kinda pissssssed," Snake added, "You think he hassss beef?"
Brick rolled his eyes and shot back, "I was in a good mood until this. So let's make this quick." He stepped closer to them. He already knew what he wanted to do to them.
"Aren't we just a little beneath your power?" Ace said, "Why not just let us be." Walking closer to the boy hands in his pockets. "Besides what did we even really do? This is all a misunderstanding. You know what that's like." He tried to reason with the boy. Their reputation was growing and he didn't want to be anywhere near his bad side. He placed a hand on Bricks shoulder and lowered his shades. "What do ya say, let us go?"
Brick pointed to each one has he spoke. "Eeny," He pointed to snake, Meeny," He pointed to Billy, "Miny," Arturo, and a sadistic smile grew as he pointed to Ace, "You." he grabbed the arm Ace placed on his shoulder and twisted it. Ace fell to the side from the sudden pain, and when he tried to look up brick laid a fist deep into his cheek. As he lied there Brick grabbed him by the feet and shot to the rest of the boys. He used Ace like a bat and beat the rest of the gang away from the young woman. Arturo found himself slammed into the nearby dumpster, Snake was sent flying into the air landing on the nearby roof. Brick grabbed both legs and started to spin, soon after reaching top speed he sent Ace flying with a screech into Big Billy and both boys went crashing into wall.
Laughing off the dizzy feeling he heard the sound of raspberries growing distant. He turned to see Grubber running away arms in the air as he tried to escape. Brick grabbed a nearby trash lid and harshly flung it at the back of his head. The collision made a disturbing sound of bones cracking as Grubber fell forward. "That was kinda fun." Brick said stretching out his shoulders and neck. He turned to the woman and gave her a warm smile. "Would you like me to escort you to the police department?"
She stood there in awe at what transpired. She was a young college student, who never saw the destruction the boy did in his past, but heard all the stories. "Are you one of those Rowdyruffs I've heard about?"
He looked down at his body then returned his gaze to her, "Well I ain't a Powerpuff." He let out a chuckle.
"I'm sorry, it's just I expected you to have devil horns and a tail from what everyone has warned me about before I came out here." She step forward with a shake.
"That would probably strike more fear into those I fight, but it's not my style. So would you like a lift to the Police Department?" He returned to his original question.
"I think I would just call them myself." She said pulling her phone out of her purse.
"Well that works too, see ya lady." He called out and turned around.
"I hate to ask, but could you stay, you know in case any of them wake up." She said signaling to the boys he just beat to a pulp. Sounds of groaning could be heard through the following silence before he answered.
"Sure." He held back a twitch, he just wanted to be done with this sooner, but he had to keep up appearance that he was now on the laws side. "But I don't think they will be waking up any time soon."
Brick sat down and waited with the woman. Soon enough they arrived on the scene took her statement. Apparently Billy had grabbed her into a bear hug and dragged her down the darkened alley, and that's when Brick heard her shouting. He helped load them into the police van, and had to get snake off the nearby roof. He actually did wake up but was trapped up there. The look of fear he gave Brick when he floated up to collect him, sent a prideful warmth through Brick. He landed down in front of snake and smirked. "If you know what's good for you, you won't let me catch you doing anything dumb like that again." He took a few steps closer to the frighted man. "I mean it, if I so much find you and your little gang doing anything like this again, I won't be so nice."
"Yessss sssssir you got it." Snake nodded and held his hands up in surrender.
"Tell your boss about my little message when you both wake up." He said as he struck Snake over and over again until consciousness faded from his eyes. He lifted him up and went back to the police. "Sorry it took so long, took a bit to find him." He lied as he loaded him up.
"It's alright, we are just happy to have them in custody. It'll be good to see them locked back up for a bit. We've grown tired of them causing trouble, especially to our female community." The cop laughed as he closed the doors on them.
"You be safe miss," Brick called out as he floated to the sky, "When you get back tell Jerome I say hi." He called out to the cops and took off back to the school.
Soon he landed in front of the building. Walking in he quickly made his way to the main administration office. "Hello young man can I help you?" The staff wouldn't recognize him, this being his second visit to the school in his entire education career.
"I'm here to see Principal Willards." Brick replied leaning on the counter. "Before you ask I'm Brick." She was gonna say something about how rude he was being, but just shook her head. Something inside told her just to let it go. She walked off, and just as quickly returned.
"He said you can see him in his office." She opened the thigh high gate that separated the waiting area to the staff area of the office. He walked passed with a thank you, and walked down the hallway until he found a door marked "P. Willards."
Walking in he was greeted by the man sitting down. Standing up he was 5'11" had a broad shoulders and short jet black hair styled professional into a part. His dark brown eyes were almost overshadowed by his bushy brows, while he often shaved he quickly already grew a slight stubble back. He chose to wear dress shirts, today was a light blue with a deep orange tie. Finally a pair of glasses were perched on his face. He was about mid forties in age. The room was decorated in achievements, both from his schooling, and awards the school earned since he became principal. Beige walls and blue carpet surrounded the man behind the wooden desk.
"Brick!" He greeted with a smile, "what a surprise. I haven't seen you in a little over a year." He motioned to one of the empty seats in front of his desk. Brick took the seat and before he could speak Willards spoke again. "You have accomplished so much in the time you've become our little guinea pig for the online trial." He congratulated the boy.
"Yeah, and I wanted to turn this last one in today." He placed his flash drive on the desk and slid it forward. Willards typed away on his computer and pulled up his student file.
"Hmm, looks like you're one assignment away from completing your graduation requirements." He grabbed the small memory stick off his table. "This is it I take it?"Brick nodded. The way his education often worked was he would do equal parts essays and tests, based on the material emailed to him. Each email contained 8 different courses, and would equal about one months work for an average student. By the time Brick reached his 9th grade year, the only thing that slowed him down was the computer he worked on. Willards inserted the drive into his computer and opened up the files.
It was a long silence that filled the air. If the clocks inside weren't all digital you would only hear the rhythmic ticking of them. After about 25 minutes of reviewing the work he sent it through the special program that would Grade all his work. Check for plagiarism, and spit out a final score. "Well Brick, it look's like its another perfect score. If you didn't have superpowers I would think your progress impossible." He smiled as he turned to the proud youth sitting in his chair.
"So this means..." Brick said trying to get him to say it.
"That I'm happy to announce you will be attending the graduation ceremony in two weeks." He held out his hand across the desk with a smile. Brick took it with his and shook it.
"And...?" He said.
"Of course I will pay for your gown rental, I haven't forgotten our bet." When Brick first joined he had little faith he could accomplish his goal without actually setting foot inside the building. So he agreed if Brick managed to graduate as a virtual student he would handle all finances for his graduation. It wasn't so much about the money for Brick, to him it was more about proving another person wrong. Having him pay for his graduation fees was, to Brick, an act of admitting defeat.
"Well it has been nice knowing ya Principal Willards." Brick said as he stood up.
"My students call me that, you can call me Perry for now on." He laughed as he ejected the Drive from his computer, and handed it to the boy. Brick pocketed it and smiled.
"Whatever you say Perry. See ya in graduation." He turned to the door.
"Just wear some clean slacks and at least a polo shirt, they won't let you participate if your not dressed nicely under the gown." He informed while he typed on his computer. Brick barely heard him as he walked out the building and shot off into the skies. He headed straight for the prison, and waited for his brothers to be released from their classes.
A few hours passed by in an eternity as he waited, but eventually blue and green streaks raced up to greet him.
"Hey Bro," Butch greeted. "Whatcha doing?"
"I just earned my high school diploma." Brick Beamed at his brother.
"Really? Well alright!" Boomer yelled giving his brothers high-five while Butch slapped Brick's back.
"Yep and since I'm in such a great mood, I'm treating us out to lunch."Brick said. "So y'all wanna hit the Salt and Pepper Diner?"
"Oh yeah, I could go for their BLT." Butch said rubbing his gut.
"I'll take the grilled cheese." Boomer mimicked Butches motions.
"What're ya telling me for, tell the waitress when we get there. Last one there is a rotten egg." He called out and all three shot off to the diner.
Once there, they walked to a booth and sat down. Menus were always ready at any empty table as they looked over their options a woman with long red curly hair in her early 20s had approached the boys.
"It's good to see you all." She greeted, she seemed to have a slight southern accent as she spoke. She laid her green eyes on Butch and she continued. "Especially you."
Butch looked at her and while he felt she looked familiar he couldn't place her face to memory. "Uh, have we met before?"
"You saved me over a month ago." She informed, "Just after one of those thugs at the bank slammed the butt of his rifle in my face you jumped in front of us and blocked all their bullets."
"Oh yeah, now I remember. When I saw that bruise on your face I returned the favor to all four of those guys." He laughed as he reminisced.
"My daddy and I are so grateful for you three, that we already decided your meal is on us. So my name is Stella, and what will you three be havin' today." She grabbed her pen and notepad.
"I want a BLT and fries, also a Mr. Pibb if ya got it." Butch replied. She nodded and looked over at Boomer.
"I'll have the grilled cheese." Boomer said.
"Tomato soup with that dear?"
"Of course!," Boomer smiled at her, "And a sprite please." She returned his smile and laid eyes on Brick.
"I want a couple Chicago style dogs, fries and a coffee, please." She teased him about being too young before he defended. "You're looking at a High school graduate, we're celebrating my early graduation toots." He said with a playful wink.
"My my, Well alright mister a couple dogs fries and coffee coming right up. Congrats." She said with a grin collected their menus and returned to the kitchen. While she was one the boys conversed about what they did today, and the classes Butch and Boomer had. They didn't have the pleasure of summer break being so far behind the rest of their peers, that they were looking forward to the first one this year, now that they were caught up.
Brick told them how he mangled the Gangrene gang earlier, and they boys laughed at his story. "Their looking worse each day I'm surprised you haven't washed your hands yet." Butch laughed.
Brick made a gagging noise and looked at his hands. "You're right I ain't eatin' with them all over my hands. Be right back." He said walking up and headed to the bathroom.
Boomer and Butch turned to talking about summer plans, and deciding what to do with all the free time they were gonna have. Soon enough Brick returned just as Stella returned with their food. With thanks they all started devouring the food laid out.
"You know if someone would have told me a year ago I would be happily serving the Rowdyruff Boys in my Diner for free I would have called theme crazier than a soup sandwich." She giggled. "But yet here y'all are, and here I am with a smile plastered on my face. Hard to believe I was saved by the once dangerous criminals the Rowdyruff Boys."
Brick swallowed his food and spoke with a joking tone, "Easy there toots we're still very dangerous I could blast you and your whole restaurant to ashes if I wanted." He held up the steak knife that came with the silverware in a faux threatening manner as he joked with Stella.
Before anyone could laugh at the joke they heard a familiar voice from the entrance. "That's all we needed to hear." They looked over and saw the Powerpuff Girls standing in formation. Bubbles looked sad, Buttercup looked ready to fight, and Blossom looked disappointed. "Get 'em girls." She yelled and they rushed the three boys sitting at the booth.
A.N. as always I ask you to leave a review would you kindly.