Reply to Guest: See bottom because it's long.
Chapter 17: Vice (Part 1)
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
9 FEB (Thursday) 1989. 2045.
Bubbles remained alone even after a mundane day had come and gone. The Girls were finally able to go to school on Thursday, and their patrol duty was cut short to two hours since they had only just recovered, their battle scars still visible on their otherwise young, spotless skin. It would be another day before they disappear entirely.
Nothing had happened during patrol. The only action they were involved in during the day was found on the golf course with Mayor Wilford shortly after patrol, who had asked to meet them after hearing about the incident in the woods through Miss Bellum. During the conversation, which Buttercup found boring and Bubbles was too upset to listen to, they were given a chance to try their hand at golf, but it became a rather brief session when Blossom accidentally sent a ball hurtling far beyond the bounds of the course, Buttercup had caused an explosion of dirt and grass in the ground when she tried to strike the ball and Bubbles wouldn't even join in.
Instead, she sat alone at the spectator's table, under a parasol. Her only source of comfort was the dream she had last night.
She was in the woods all alone, and it was a cold and snowy night. She was beset by monsters who looked like the Purple Man, and she couldn't escape. For some reason, her powers were gone and she couldn't run very far.
When she happened upon a house that looked exactly like hers, with Blossom and Buttercup sitting on the front lawn, playing with their construction trucks, she thought she was safe. But the house told her otherwise, with it being run down, with severe red lights emanating from the round windows on the second floor. She tried to tell them about the monsters, but they ignored her entirely, still playing with their toy trucks, still conversing between themselves. When she grabbed Blossom in an attempt to gain her attention, she actually punched her - and Blossom was still as strong as she was in reality.
The punch had sent her miles back and right smack in the middle of a horde of those Purple Men. When she thought she was going to be torn apart, a bright light shone from deep within the woods, overtaking her and the creatures that wanted to divide her up. But the dream was over the moment she looked upon her savior - a woman with golden hair, sparkly blue dress and silver shoes, with wings like an angel. She'd stuck out a hand for her to take.
The next thing Bubbles knew, she'd woken up to Mom shaking her awake early in the morning to prepare her for school.
Back in reality, the Girls were back home from the golf course after having their fill of lemonades, cookies and friendly banter. Dinner was eaten with Bubbles being ostracized once more as Blossom and Buttercup conversed between them, talking about battle tactics and martial arts while ignoring Bubbles' feeble attempts at contributing.
It was the worse while Selicia was training the Girls before sending them to the professor for a bath and playtime after that. As usual, Bubbles was pitted against Blossom because the Mom knew she would never stand a chance against Buttercup. Furthermore, she knew that Blossom always go easy on Bubbles.
Except this time, Blossom did not go easy on Bubbles. Already too depressed and suffering from a distaste for physical violence, Bubbles was barely putting in effort when she went for a predictable chest punch, expecting Blossom to just dodge it. Instead, her leader sister went all out on her. With a shout, she delivered a chop to the side of her neck, stunning her before seizing her by the wrist and thrusting a hooking kick to her knees, forcing her to the ground and pinning her arm to her back, making sure to give it a good, painful twist and making her cry out in agony.
And Selicia had made them go at it again and again. Blossom did not let up one bit, and Bubbles knew that where Blossom once cared, she was now the reverse; she even enjoyed making her squeal, likely as punishment or revenge for leaving her to die to the Purple Man. In their second round, Bubbles was driven to defend herself more vigorously, and had tried a double punch, only to be felled by a kick to the side of her knee, a spinning kick to the face, which she blocked but at the cost of getting knocked down, before she was subdued swiftly with a neck lock - Blossom had made sure that it was tight to the point of strangulation, and as if Mom was conspiring with her, she wasn't called off until after an agonizing minute or two, when she actually believed that Blossom was going to choke her to death.
On the third round, Blossom had gone all out, blocking Bubbles' pitiful attempts at doing the same, before delivering a sweeping punch to her thigh, which got her down to her knees once more. The match ended quickly, as always, when Blossom gave her a right hook to the face, and this time, it was hard enough that Bubbles bled from the nostrils as she sat on the ground. She wept when the only reaction from Blossom was a cold stare. Before the Purple Man, it would have been a profuse series of apologies, a hug, and a napkin.
"Bubbles! How many times must I tell you to NEVER take your eyes off the target!?" Selicia had scolded the defeated little girl, adding salt to wound. Bubbles had been consistently looking away from Blossom, mostly because she couldn't bear to make eye contact with her. "NEVER let your guard down! God, what am I supposed to do with you!? No wonder Buttercup and Blossom were hurt so badly!"
Back in 'her' room after a bath, in which Blossom and Buttercup played with the water without her, Bubbles was left by the wayside again as Blossom and Buttercup played with a construction set, with Blossom throwing in her wooden blocks as building material. Bubbles had only her mind to play with, with Octi lying limply in her lap, after she found everything else unpalatable because of her situation. Yet, all she was doing was to think back to those times when she had faltered, to those horrible times that made her feel terrible beyond a normal person's comprehension.
That was when the hotline rang. And its song was almost a godsend. To Bubbles, it meant a distraction from her solitude and alienation, or even a chance to redeem herself.
Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! It rang. Blossom flew to it within the third ring, ready as ever to help the weak.
"Mister Blake, is that you?" Blossom had answered enthusiastically; it had always been him so far, and he had been nothing but a good friend. In the woods, when they were in so much pain, he was right beside them at all times.
"This is General Blackwater," the big man's voice boomed into her ear instead. "I have a special assignment for the three of you. Do it better this time than you did the last time." He'd said it sternly, coldly and without remorse - perpetually in a bad mood.
The City of Townsville. The Strip, Outer Edges.
9 FEB (Thursday) 1989. 2102.
"Aw, yuck! Not this place again!" Buttercup moaned as they flew into the area known as The Strip - she could identify the district by the more garish colors of the buildings and street decorations. They were flying really low this time by the explicit instructions of General Blackwater, so low down that they were following the streets, mere feet above the tallest vehicles. The last time the Girls were here, it didn't end well, and it wasn't just because they ended up chasing a bunch of criminals from The Strip to Highway 13, resulting in severe property damages, heavy civilian casualties and little contribution to the war against organized crime. The adults here were… strange. Odd. To put it mildly, weird to the Girls. Not so mildly, they thought the adults here were disgusting. For some reason, some of them would pull off some or most of their clothes while they were on stage and the others would like it, to the point of hooting and whooping at them, catcalling with every flex and jerk of their bodies! The Girls couldn't understand one bit why they would behave in such a manner, nor what the appeal of such an activity was.
"I wonder what did General Blackwater mean by 'special assignment'?" Blossom asked aloud, mostly addressing Buttercup while Bubbles kept silent. Even their formation was broken because of Blossom and Bubbles' falling out, with the latter flying behind them. "And why do we have to fly so low? I hate the smell of the smoke…" By that, she meant the vehicle exhaust fumes coming from the busy traffic of the city.
But it wasn't just the smoke that Blossom hated. The reason why she loved flying so high was that cutting through the city was faster and easier. By flying low, she was bound to the directions of the streets, and she had to remember exactly how to navigate it, street by street. Even with her superior memory and intelligence, it was a major headache. A slow and painful process.
After rounding a corner, they had finally made it to the address General Blackwater had given. This time, there was no heart signal, and the number of accompanying cops or soldiers were very few - in fact, there were no USDO soldiers at all. At first glance, it appeared as if there were no cops, and Blossom had to squint and zoom in with her eyes to spot her favorite policemen: Mister Mullens and Olivia. Stanley Talker was with them, and he had blended in far better than any human being could.
They weren't in their usual clothing. Mister Mullens was in a dark blue suit, something incredibly uncharacteristic of him - the intention being that he was supposed to be a tourist looking to roll a few dices and pull a few levers. Olivia looked like a waitress with a formal blouse and pants from a high-end restaurant. The talking dog… had to go naked to blend in as a normal, unremarkable dog, complete with a restrictive collar and a demeaning leash which Olivia was holding onto.
The Girls landed in front of them, unsure of what to expect and why their police friends were playing dress up.
"What are we doing, Mister Mullens?" Blossom asked.
"Yeah, I hate this place," Buttercup added.
Bubbles remained silent, her eyes glued to the floor. Mullens, Olivia, and Stanley were looking at her, concerned, but their duties took precedence.
"I'm glad you do. I've got a new lead after busting up the sewers," Detective Mullens explained as he lit a cigarette. Blossom found it disconcerting, and when she took a glance at Olivia, she saw that she appeared the same way too. The detective had stopped smoking weeks ago - and the little girl knew from her Dad that it was a bad habit - a vice. That he would start again meant that something was wrong. "The drug lord you bagged for us, Blossom, squealed that some of his merchandises were going into The Strip…" The detective took a puff of his cigarette as he leaned against a lamp post, looking like he had taken on some extra weights upon his shoulders.
"What is it, Mister Mullens?" Bubbles finally talked, unable to stay silent any longer. The old man looked incredibly troubled, and she was worried about him. He had been nice to her and she wanted to do the same for him.
"Some of the drugs aren't just going into The Strip, they are going to the worst part of it. We're talking about men - and women - who... well, takes an unnatural shine on kids, boys and girls both. And they exploit them…" the detective explained further, the next word always harder.
"What do you mean?" Blossom asked, unsure of what he was saying.
"It's something I was hoping the three of you won't have to know about, at least until you're older - much older," the detective went on after taking another puff. "Not all adults see your innocence as something to be cherished, and today, it's just our luck we get to deal with the worst of them." Blossom and her sisters were still confused as to what Mister Mullens meant, but she didn't have time to be confused for long when he nodded in the direction of something - someone. "But we won't be alone in this today."
The Girls turned to look in the direction the old detective was nodding at. Two more men were walking up to them, one of them dressed a little more like a classical detective - or a gangster - and another with tattoos covering his entire body. The top he wore, which was just a small vest baring midriff, parts of the chest and his arms, was flaunting it.
"Meet Detective Jack Wednesday and his associate, Felipe Hernandez," Detective Mullens introduced. Jack Wednesday was a detective who was considerably younger than Mullens - a man who looked like he was only a few years older than Olivia, at his early 30s at most. He wasn't the same bruiser-type, looking more like the sleek and smart sort of detective, not too tall, not too muscular. Too smart for most gangsters, but sometimes too smart for his own good. He was a rising star in the TPD on the fast track, and with crime's corrupting grip on Townsville seemingly weakening, he was able to rise even further.
"Pleasure to meet the three of you - it's great to finally work with the famous Angels of Justice," Detective Wednesday greeted the Girls. He extended a hand to each of the Girls, who shook it awkwardly as they recognized the gesture but had rarely ever used it. Before the Girls could speak, however, he'd already gone on. "Call me Mister Wednesday. I heard the three of you love using that title. Anyway, I was once in the juvenile division and now I'm putting my foot into vice, starting with this case."
"But what are we doing?" Blossom asked again when she was finally allowed to speak, though, with this Jack Wednesday character, that window was much smaller and tighter. Her question, this time, however, had put hesitation in even the energetic Wednesday. The younger detective exchanged looks with the elder, then with Olivia, before returning his gaze to Blossom, his hazel eyes hardened, but unable to help but display sympathy for her.
"We need at least one of you to go undercover with us as a… merchandise. We'll be busting a child trafficking ring, and it's going to be a big one, with hundreds of kidnapped children to save and many major ringleaders - and their underlings - to arrest," Mister Wednesday explained. "If we pull this off, the children of this city will be much safer, once and for all. No one will dare to sell a kid for a pound of marijuana in this city again once they know the three of you are on the case."
"Girls, this will help me put the Amoeba Boys behind bars for a very, very long time," Mister Mullens added. "Our favorite sewer drug lord confessed that the Amoeba Boys have been protecting them in exchange for a cut of the child trafficking money - if we can pin it on them, they'd be locked away for life - for sure. Even some of the corrupt have reservations about child exploitation."
"The plan's simple enough, I'm sure you kids will manage-" At this, Blossom felt vaguely offended, but Mister Wednesday continued without noticing the change in her expression. "-Because of the traffickers' way of doing things, one of you will have to go in as a kidnapped child while smuggling in a GPS device - courtesy of your USDO pals. The device will reveal where the traffickers' hideout is. Using a computer in my van, I'll find out where you are, inform the few hundred undercover cops in The Strip, and bust the trafficking ring before they knew they were in for it," Detective Wednesday explained, at length, the plan, again leaving no room for a two-way conversation. "I know this is a lot to ask from you - whichever one of you - but I can't use regular kids, you understand, right? Right - so who's volunteering?"
"Wait - what will the other two of us do?" Blossom asked.
"Help bust the child traffickers, of course," the newly-minted vice detective said.
"Um… I would go but…" Blossom said, conflicted as to her decision. "I'm the leader, and I have to lead my sisters." She looked at Buttercup with a worried look on her face, then to Bubbles, with her expression changing to one of coldness as a single look at Bubbles' had reminded her of the perceived betrayal. "I need Buttercup because she's the toughest of us three."
"M-m-me?" Bubbles stammered when she realized that all eyes had turned to her. "But I can't!"
Blossom glared at Bubbles angrily - thinking that Bubbles was at it again, being her usual, cowardly self. Couldn't she see that it was the best way to do things? Taking Bubbles by the arm, Blossom pulled her aside roughly behind Mullen's car to have a private conversation with her.
"You're not getting out of this one, Bubbles!" Blossom chided her meekest sister.
"But I can't! I'll just mess up again!" Bubbles cried as she stared at the floor, afraid to meet Blossom's glowing pink eyes, eyes that did too well in expressing anger.
"You said you wanted to be a normal little girl," Blossom tried to hand out the carrot. "Now's your chance to act like one."
But Bubbles wasn't having it. She knew that acting as a kidnap victim did not constitute being a normal little girl.
"Bubbles, look at me," Blossom ordered her sweetest sister when she realized Bubbles wasn't nibbling on her carrot like a bunny. When she wouldn't respond and was instead mewling pathetically in fear, Blossom raised her voice as the stick: "Look at me!" Reluctantly, Bubbles obeyed, though it was a hard thing to do, looking at those glowing pink eyes that were burning with rage and showing dislike towards her. She had to really force herself to look at them. "Do you want me to forgive you for what you did in the woods?"
"Y-yes…" Bubbles replied, her eyes dancing between Blossom's eyes and her eyebrows, then her lips, and back and forth.
"Do you want us to play together again?" Blossom asked, unaware that she was more like Mom than she would like to be, just like what she said.
"Yes…" Bubbles replied predictably.
"Then go in as a normal little girl," Blossom delivered her ultimatum. "Do it, and I'll forgive you and we'll play together again."
"But what if I-" Bubbles tried to say, but was cut off again.
"It's the only way, Bubbles!" Blossom said impatiently, nearly raising her voice once again, displeased that Bubbles could not see things her way. Putting her hands on Bubbles' shoulders, she tried to do things her Dad's way: "We'll help so many people - children like us!"
Bubbles remained silent. This felt wrong - everything felt wrong, and in The Strip, no less.
"Bubbles, you're my sister and… I'm sorry I've been mean towards you," Blossom tried again. "I still love you, Bubbles. Won't you do it for me? I promise I'll forgive you - I won't leave you alone again."
Bubbles nodded curtly, totally unwilling, but agreeing only because it meant redemption in Blossom's eyes. They then returned to everyone else who had been waiting on them, with Blossom's hand gripping Bubbles by the upper arm.
"Well?" Detective Jack Wednesday asked. Blossom and Bubbles stopped before them, and when Bubbles wouldn't answer his question, Blossom gave her a jab of her elbow, prompting her to act.
"I'll do it, Mister Wednesday…" Bubbles said reluctantly.
The City of Townsville. The Strip, Outer Edges.
9 FEB (Thursday) 1989. 2147.
"I don't like this…" Bubbles said as she looked at herself in the mirror. She was inside Detective Wednesday's van, and she had undergone a complete do-over. She had swapped out her uniform and tactical gear for an expensive white dress, let her hair down and dyed it brown. She had to put on black contact lenses that blocked out the glowing light from her eyes (mostly). Even her own sisters, who were with her in the van, had trouble recognizing her after that.
"It won't take long at all, so bear with it," Detective Wednesday said dismissively as he was leaning into the back compartment of the van before he had to lean out again - his veteran colleague had been jumping on his back because of this.
"Isn't there any other way to do this?" Detective Mullens made his disapproval known. "We're still talking about a little kid here!"
"I'm sure It'll be fine. Unlike other little kids, Bubbles' got all her 'enhanced abilities' and all that, as the USDO likes to call them. She can't be hurt or restrained, isn't that right? I was there when the USDO announced their deployment," Jack defended himself at length.
"That's not what I'm-" Detective Mullens tried to object, but he was cut off very quickly.
"Therefore, her life and limbs are secure and we have nothing to worry about, not that anything could happen to threaten her - it wouldn't take long for us to track her down and start busting down doors, and the child trafficking ring does not damage their own goods. Even in the event that she has been sold and taken away, which is unlikely in the time frame we're working with if you can do the math, she'll easily be able to rescue herself through the application of her enhanced abilities. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a vice operation to run," the younger detective had spewed out even more points just when everyone thought he had run out of it. Getting back into the back of the van, he closed the door and called out for his associate, Felipe, to start driving, leaving the Girls' more familiar friends to take up their own positions.
"Now, let's run through the whole thing once again in case the three of you have trouble remembering everything," Detective Wednesday said to the Girls, turning to Bubbles especially. "You remember everything I told you, bubble girl? Repeat them to me again."
Depressed at what she was being forced to do to win back Blossom's love, Bubbles had nonetheless done everything she was told to the best of her abilities. She'd run through everything the detective had told her over and over again even as she changed her outer appearances.
"My name is Anastasia Summers and I am the 5-years-old daughter of a well-off grocer from California. I was kidnapped at the airport while I was on vacation and brought straight here," Bubbles recited her cover story.
"Good. I didn't think you have it in you," the detective praised Bubbles, though the little girl felt vaguely insulted instead, not that she let it show - she wasn't about to try anything that could ruin the whole operation, whether the potential consequences of her actions and words were real or imagined. She wanted Blossom to smile at her again, to play with her and comfort her again whenever she was down, and she wanted it all so badly. She couldn't imagine spending another day with Blossom frowning at her and treating her like an enemy. "Now, let me run through the ground rules for you once again: Do not use your enhanced abilities. Do not reveal who you are. Do not resist the bad guys - just do as you're told. And act your part - act gutless, helpless and hopeless. Cry and scream when appropriate. Blend in."
"Okay…" Bubbles agreed - not that she had a choice. The rules were easy enough - she essentially had to do nothing and be the coward that Blossom and Buttercup thought she was. That Bubbles thought she was. It seemed like an easy ticket to win back Blossom, and yet it didn't give her hope. It all felt wrong somehow.
"And we'll hide in here until it's time to go," Blossom added after Bubbles had said her final word. Blossom and Buttercup were sitting in cardboard boxes, among many others and all sorts of other random junk.
"Right. Now for the final layer of disguise…" Detective Wednesday said as he pulled out some things from a cardboard box - a blindfold, rags, and ropes. "Just calm down - you'll be fine. Or don't, if it helps you act the part. Who knows? You might be on your way to becoming a Hollywood actress."
With that, the detective began tying Bubbles' hands behind her back, then blindfolding and gagging her. When Bubbles started crying, her bawling muffled by her gag, Buttercup found it satisfying, and actually liked Bubbles better that way. Blossom became concerned at what she was putting Bubbles through, but she didn't let it show. She told herself that it was the only way Bubbles could contribute - something which Bubbles herself would want if only to feel useful and helpful to her friends, the citizens of Townsville.
It was all for the greater good. Even though Blossom did not know the expression, she was thinking the same thing.
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Reply to Guest: Don't worry about asking some uncomfortable questions or saying some controversial things. I'd be happy to respond. First: Buttercup's background. It's true that some Caucasians have black hair, but statistically, there's more Asians with black hair than Caucasians. Furthermore, this universe's Townsville has a Little Tokyo with a million Japanese living there, and since Buttercup's DNA was sourced from Townsville, there's a very high chance one of the Girls will end up having some Japanese DNA - and that's not counting other Asian minorities. I think it's more unlikely that Bubbles ended up with a Swedish immigrant's DNA lol.
The reason why I made Buttercup 25% Japanese is due to the above, as well as how Buttercup was portrayed in the source material. The ethnicity of the Girls was never explored. However, Buttercup was shown to have an affinity for Japanese/Chinese culture (though not extensive), and it inspired me to vary the Girls a little - if only to ground the series in reality, as well as to open more doors. Hence, Blossom is the most 'American', having 3rd generation Irish-American DNA, Bubbles having Swedish DNA and Buttercup having 25% Japanese and 75% 'American' (more like Russian-descended) DNA. This also plays to the fact that the idea of the 'American' is really a whole bunch of immigrants coming to the US at some point or another, starting, of course, with the British in the early colonial times, with many, many other Europeans and other old world people of other continents coming in one time or another as well.
The scooby-doo talk was unavoidable in my universe because it's bound more by reality. A dog's mouth simply can't form human words as well as a human could. It's a miracle that he could even be understood - and I think I broke some rules of reality doing that. Just look at Mishka the Talking Husky on Youtube lol - though to be fair, Mishka didn't have the intelligence of Stanley.
Also, I didn't know that the writers of The Powerpuff Girls favored Bubbles more. Darn, I really need to up my game, don't I? Can't call myself a PPG fan that way...
