Disclaimer: Thank Craig Mccraken. I don't - nor will I ever - own the Powerpuff Girls.


~ CHAPTER 9 ~

Confrontations


"I can not believe you actually came," Brick said in monotone, swinging the door open to an unamused and ill tempered Blossom. She had her hand cocked on her hip and had a frown so sour etched on her face it could literally kill.

"Look, I'm against this as much as you are, but unlike you. I can be mature about it. So either shut your yap or admit to the entire world that you would rather have war instead of peace," She jabbed her finger at his chest and snarled. "Besides, no matter how rude you are to me, how much you torture me internally, I will not back down. So don't go thinking you can somehow beat me at this."

He smirked and stepped aside to let her through, "Touché, Miss Blossom. But don't forget, you're in my kingdom. Watch what you say to me, or your precious little Selodia might end up not having a heir to the throne." She shot a hateful glare at him and pushed past, stomping up the spiral staircase.

Blossom's heels clicked loudly against the stone steps, echoing through the silent halls. She ran her hands across the smooth, cold marble banister, sending a small chill up her spine. The tapestries on the walls showed carefully stitched portraits of all the kings and queen before them, each seeming to frown at the presence of the unwanted visitor.

She took in each of them, lingering for a moment before skipping to the next one. It was quite obvious that the three current princes were not originally part of the Him family lineage. None of the men or women displayed on the walls had Brick's fiery red hair, Butch's piercing green eyes, or Boomer's arched brows that practically screamed trouble.

"Hurry up Princess Pinky. Are you always this slow?" The boy called from behind, in an impossibly annoying tone that made her want to yank out her hair.

She whipped around and snapped angrily back at him, "Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that the mere thought of spending time with you makes me want to hang myself, and I would like to savor the last few moments of life before my inevitable death." He glared right back at her and even dared to do the most childish, ridiculously stupid thing in the universe: stick his tongue out at her.

She stormed her way up to the second floor, feeling his eyes burning into her back. What an insufferable beast. When she reached the top, she glared at both ends of the hallway and huffed angrily. All the doors looked exactly the same. No mark of any sort to indicate where the library was.

Tapping her foot impatiently, she blew a strand of loose light orange blonde hair out of her face. Upon hearing the restless movement of her left foot, Brick seemed to move even slower, and by the time he arrived, she was ready to blow a fuse.

"How in the world do you spend-" she glanced at the lone wooden clock standing in the nearly empty hallway. "Three minutes climbing up a set of stairs compromising of approximately one hundred twenty steps? What are you, physically disabled?"

Brick shrugged, "Since spending even a second in the same room is so impossibly unbearable, and will be the ultimate death of me," he shot her a smug grin. "I decided to savor my last moments alive on Earth."

Blossom felt her eye begin to twitch again, but instead of kicking the boy back down the stairs, she took a deep breath. "Just… Can you.. Where is the library?" She finished, clenching and unclenching her fists.

He stood up straighter and gestured at the door he was currently standing in front of, "In there. B-"

Before he could finish, she brushed past him and yanked at the handles, but the door didn't budge. She turned around slowly, glaring at him with cold, hard eyes.

"Why. Won't. It. Open?" She said through gritted teeth.

"You need a key to get it open," He replied simply, earning an exasperated eye roll from her. She cocked her hips and stuck her hand out, palm facing up.

"My, my, don't you have great reasoning." Blossom spat sarcastically. "I was asking for the key, you numbskull."

He rested his arm on the banister. "Well, you're out of luck. Only my father and Professor has the key. They don't like me and my idiot brothers 'messing around' in there. It's only open during lessons."

She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "Well, do you have any other reading material around here? I can't stand talking to you." His eyebrows lifted and he removed his arm.

"Actually, yeah. Follow me." Brick abandoned his idle position by the stairs and moved towards his room. Without glancing back to see if she was following him, he waved his hand and went on, "There's a small shelf in my room, if you hadn't noticed, and you're welcome to read whatever's sitting in it, gathering dust for the past three or four years. Just don't touch anything else."

He swung open to door to his room and sauntered in, a small, devious grin playing on his lips. Wary of the potential trap it could be, Blossom placed one foot in front of the other slowly, eyes squinted in suspicion and arms folded.

Yet the moment her eyes laid upon the gorgeous, faded leather and paper covers of those few books, all her self restraint disappeared down the drain. She rushed forward and choose a novel at random, eyes hungrily devouring the comforting first words that would make her forget the annoying boy's presence before lowering herself on the bed.

"Ah ah ah." Brick, who had been watching her from his desk on the far side of the room with a smug yet disgusted expression on his face, said disapprovingly, turning his chair to face her. "I said you could read my books as long as you didn't touch anything," He bobbed his head at his bed. "that, counts as something. Get off."

Blossom sneered at him and started walking towards an armchair when Brick tutted. "Nope. That's my armchair. You can't sit on it." She raised her eyebrow and placed her hand on her hip, sighing loudly through her nose.

"Then where can I sit?"

Brick flashed her a sickeningly sweet smile. "Oh, I don't know?" His eyes suddenly lit up and he nodded at the carpeted floor. "How about the floor?"

The smile on his face did not falter, even when Blossom's face turned completely red with rage at his ridiculous and demeaning suggestion. How could he even propose such a insulting idea? She could not believe that there could be someone that would stoop so low merely for their own enjoyment. This boy was the most wretched person alive on the face of Earth.

"Well, I'd never! You can shove your stupid idea up your a-" She barked, her eyes ablaze with a fierce anger.

Brick held up a finger and wagged it, "Watch your language, princess. Royalty shouldn't use such crude words."

This boy just refused to shut up. He couldn't leave her alone for even a second and had seemingly decided to make her life a hell. Fed up with his constant ridiculing and mocking, Blossom spun around and stalked out of his room, head held high. If he wouldn't let her read properly in his room she would leave.

"Hey! Give me my book back!" Brick demanded, standing up indignantly. She whipped her head around to sneer at him before turning the hall.

"Why don't you come get it!"


"Still pretending to be Robin Hood?" Bubbles asked, leaning over his shoulder to inspect the gold and jewels he brought back this time, trying to stifle a giggle.

"Yeah, so? At least I'm trying to help people. What have you been doing to improve society?" He shot back, dropping a few multicolored gems into a small cloth bag and pulling the strings to close it.

She placed the daisy garland she had been working on his head and settled back on the grass. "Um, helping society? You do realize you're a wanted criminal. Princess Blossom had people put up posters about a mysterious thief, you know?"

"Is that so? I haven't been to Selodia in quite some time. Today is Tuesday, so it's been what? Seven, eight days? The people in your kingdom don't seem to have any trouble getting by." He scooped up the little bags and dumped them in his satchel, then laid down beside her to watch the clouds pass above. "You're king must be very wise and generous."

She shrugged and played with flowers growing nearby, twisting them together to make bracelets and more garlands. "He's great, but he's getting a bit old. King Utonium is already fifty one years old, he's not as lively as he was ten years ago." She turned her head to look at him. "Nowadays Princess Blossom does a lot of the work. She's only sixteen, yet she could probably run the entire kingdom by herself. But she's always really busy, and she has less and less time to spend with me and -"

His eyes were immediately on her, "You used to play with the princess? Did you grow up in the castle, too?" She blinked at him, realizing her little slip up.

"Yeah, I work there." Bubbles said quickly, feeling his intense gaze still on her. "In the kitchens. Ever since I was a little girl. The palace staff took me in and gave me a job when I was nine years old, after my mother died."

Just one lie after another, Bubbles. This is who you are now, hm? A voice laughed inside her mind. A big fat liar.

Bubbles ignored it. She was doing this to help the kingdoms, so it didn't matter. "Hey, I'm telling all this stuff about me, and you still don't let me see your face?" She nudged him with her arm. "I mean, you still haven't told me your name!"

He sighed dramatically, his dark blue eyes meeting hers. "I thought we talked about this. We're not going to see each other again so why bother?" She pouted and turned around onto her stomach to look at his face, which was rather handsome, other than the area that was covered by a leather eye mask.

"That was what you said last time! And look, here we are! At least tell me your name?" She pleaded, giving him the large puppy dog eyes. "I'll tell you mine." She nudged him again.

He sat up reluctantly and looked at her, obviously tired of the conversation already. "Alright. But you've got to stop annoying me about this." She nodded. "My name is Brody. Brody Dale of Gadrea." He held out his hand for her to shake.

She took it and smiled, "Bubbles… uh, Underwood. Bubbles Marie Underwood." That was close.

He raised an eyebrow. "What? Did you forget your name or something?" She laughed nervously, but was screaming like crazy at herself inside.

"Yeah…"

Brody stood up and dusted off his clothes. "Well, I better get going if I want to deliver all this money and jewels to the poor. Goodbye Bubbles, see you around." He got onto his horse and tugged at the reins.

"I like your new cape!" She called after him as he rode off. He waved back at her and she flashed him a big grin. It was true, the dark blue cape suited him and his title well. Besides, she was fairly certain that not all of his clothes were blue, and won't fit into his "Blue Shadow" character.

She stood up and began the walk back to Selodia, smiling to herself. Phase one complete. Finding and befriending the enemy. It was all too easy. All it took was a fake name and a couple girly smiles to trick boys.

Blossom would be pleased to hear all the information she gathered today.


"Yo Travis!" Buttercup called, waving at him from her horse. She turned around to look at Floyd and Lloyd. "You guys are going to love Travis! He's a hunter. Oh, but wait, he's from Gadrea, so don't, you know, tell Mitch. He'll go crazy."

They looked at each other and turned back to her.

"Um, okay?"

"But if Mitch finds out…"

Buttercup waved them off, "Trust me, he won't. He's Mitch. Now come one, I want you to meet Travis." She sped up to where he was leaning against a tree then jumped off, beckoning her friends to join her.

They shared a glance, and upon deciding that they didn't want to upset the princess, shook their reins for their horses to catch up.

"We're coming BC!"


Wow, last time I updated was a month ago. Sheesh. I've really been slacking off...