Reply to Guest (Ch 29): (Moved to bottom because it's lengthy)


Chapter 26: Rules To Follow

The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

12 FEB (Sunday) 1989. 1610.

Selicia had taken the opportunity to train the Girls during their free time after church, and Bubbles was terrified – no, not just terrified. Words could not justify what she was feeling. What was once an anxious affair had become nerve-wracking. She could see her guilt riddled all over the lab, with every change of expression her sisters and Mom made, with every word they said. Bubbles had been suspicious of her family since the day she used her fairy godmother's magic to defeat Naga. She was afraid that they would know about her secret, or that they'd found out all along. She was paranoid, even, that they were just waiting for the right moment to pounce on her and jump down her throat for using the drug. Even worse; in her terror, she could imagine Blossom and Buttercup abandoning her once more, even beating her up for her mistakes, which was the next logical step from Blossom hitting her, even if her leader sister had promised not to hurt her anymore.

Bubbles had been sitting on the sideline as she watched in horror as Blossom and Buttercup sparred – for every fanciful punch or kick they hurled at each other, time was ticking by, counting down to her turn on the arena. And she knew she couldn't even put up a half-convincing performance without a dose of the fairy godmother's magic.

Buttercup had been going at Blossom aggressively, as usual, doing a spinning kick before landing and executing a series of butterfly kicks and forcing Blossom to back away. Blossom, on the other hand, was much more reserved. Strategizing with the time she had. Like a hawk watching its prey for an opportune moment to strike, like a spider waiting for its prey to falter or draw closer, Blossom was biding her time.

And it eventually came. After a third Butterfly kick, Buttercup stumbled, having lost her balance from dizziness. Blossom needed simply to tackle her, forcing her to the ground, and when Buttercup tried to punch her way out on the floor, Blossom parried them, redirecting them, before pinning her arms to her chest.

"Not fair!" Buttercup growled in frustration after Selicia declared Blossom the winner. It was the third time in the row. "She's using the same trick over and over!"

"So find a way to beat her trick, Buttercup! Instead of charging at her blindly like a bull!" Selicia said as she patted Blossom on the shoulder to get her to let go, which she did. As much as she liked Buttercup the most, she was frustrated with her lack of cunning. In this training session, she was hoping that Buttercup would at least become Blossom's equal, but it hadn't happened. If anything, Buttercup had regressed from being Blossom's near-equal. The first six matches had been a back-and-forth, with Blossom winning the first round, then Buttercup the second. The pattern repeated itself, until the seventh round, when Buttercup had won a second time in the row. Just when Selicia thought that she had it, Blossom had then gone ahead to win the next three rounds by simply being much more careful and tactical, letting Buttercup's arrogance and tiredness get the better of her.

"But- but- If the same trick works over and over, shouldn't mine do that too?" Buttercup argued back.

"Sit your butt down and use that head of yours to think Buttercup!" Selicia shut her down impatiently. Her comment had stung deeply. She had never criticized her so harshly before. Crossing her arms, Buttercup hovered away to the sideline, sulking.

"It's your turn, Bubbles! Get over here!" Selicia called out to her. Even before she did, Bubbles had already become an unnerved quivering wreck, with sweat running down her forehead and the blood drained from her face as if she was back in that panic room where the Morbucks and their acquaintances were nearly crushed to death had it not been for her.

Meekly, she stood up, and when she found that her knees were buckling, took to hovering to the center of their makeshift arena in the middle of the lab.

"Bubbles? Are you okay?" Blossom whispered to her sister when she realized something was wrong, still unable to come to terms with her past mistakes. Bubbles shook her head, unable to find the will to even speak.

"Bubbles, are you ready?" Selicia asked the blue-eyed of the two. Despite being clearly unready, Bubbles nodded her head. Although Selicia knew that she wasn't entirely truthful, she allowed the match to go ahead: "Begin!"

Blossom raised her fist in a defensive posture and waited. Bubbles did the same but did not attack.

"What are you waiting for?" Blossom mouthed cautiously at Bubbles – she knew that her Mom would not like any form of 'staging' or 'collusion'.

At being egged forward, Bubbles tried to let out a brave shout only for it to sound frightened and anemic. She charged forward with a fist winded up for a punch, attempting to imitate her less fearful self. Blossom was able to sidestep her with tremendous ease and trip her, then pin both her arms behind her back.

"You're learning all the wrong things from Buttercup, Bubbles!" Selicia yelled at Bubbles, exasperated. "Get up and try again!" Buttercup, in her corner, couldn't help but break a tear from what her Mom said, but it was only a momentary spurt of empathy from the silver lining in her head, brought on by Bubbles' intense anxiety and misery.

"What about your new power, Bubbles?" Blossom suggested as she dusted her meek sister off. "Why not use it?"

"But- it's urm… ur…" Bubbles searched everywhere desperately for an answer. She sort of found it while she was looking at Selicia, who was looking sternly at her with her arms crossed over her bosom.

"It's against the rules to use our powers…" Bubbles finally said, knowing very well that she was misinforming her sister. It was the second time she had outright lied about her new 'power', and the umpteenth time she had passed up an opportunity to tell the truth. She'd never liked lying - and the only reason it was bearable for her was that the fairy godmother's magic was the only thing that could free her from fear and give her the strength to fight crime and by extension, preserve the sisterhood between her, Blossom and Buttercup.

"Oh, right," Blossom said. "Why didn't I think of that?" Despite being the smartest between the three of them, Blossom was none the wiser when it came to Bubbles' secret - and it made Bubbles feel worse. Her leader sister had placed complete trust in her - trust that she had to constantly betray from now on.

Bubbles would go on to lose the next two rounds trying to invoke her 'new ability' without the drug. On her second try, she charged Blossom with a whiny shout and a spinning kick - with the latter actually well-executed but futile - before getting taken down in a tackle mid-spin. On her third try, she went in with a flying kick and missed, before taking a punch to the side and the neck. She went down after getting forced to her knee when Blossom kicked her in the thigh and was restrained with an arm lock.

By the sixth round, Selicia had given up on Bubbles, and called the whole thing off as it was a one-sided wipeout every single time.


The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

12 FEB (Sunday) 1989. 1923.

Bubbles had spent the rest of the day miserable and being afraid, despite the victory she had won for Blossom and Buttercup back at the cinema. Holed up in her room, she was having a tea party with Blossom and (reluctantly) Buttercup, but she was hardly paying attention, unable to enjoy it, knowing that everything she had gained could just disappear with just a buzz of the USDO hotline.

"Are you okay, Bubbles?" Blossom asked as she was putting down the kettle - she had noticed that something wasn't right with Bubbles all day. In training, she had put it down to nervousness and over-reliance on her powers, but she had no clue what could be causing it while they were just playing. Bubbles looked the same either way - sweating even when as enhanced individuals, they were highly resistant to heat, and going pale despite a supercharged adaptive circulatory system that could work even with half her blood gone.

"I'm fine," Bubbles lied and flashed a fake smile. However, beyond the surface lie, she struggled to think of a reason for her current freak-out. Their Dad had conducted a medical and scientific examination of them before dinner, and he'd remarked that they were in perfect health. "Just… tired, I guess."

"I'm sorry about the training," Blossom apologized as she took a sip from her tea. "I tried to make it end as quickly as I could."

"It's fine," Bubbles said and added nothing more. Silently, she took a sip from her tea as well, while leaning on Octi's chair.

"Maybe I'll talk to Mom," Buttercup said unexpectedly, after downing an entire cup of tea, hating the taste but liking the hydration it provided. "Maybe she'll let you use your new power. I really wanna see it again!" Perhaps that way, she might find a way to beat it and win back her Mom's favor.

Buttercup had inadvertently added nothing but more pressure on top of the crushing boulder on top of Bubbles. Her toughest sister wanted to see it, but it was uncertain if she could ever provide an encore, and she couldn't imagine what would happen when she couldn't provide it again not if, but when it was required of her.

"I'm going to bed…" Bubbles said weakly and meekly as she got up from the table and walked away. Blossom stared after her, worried.

"Bubbles- the party just started!" Blossom objected.

"It's not like a real party anyway," Buttercup said as she took the opportunity to get up and leave too. "Not like Elodie's."

"Oh, fine…" Blossom sighed, resigned that there wasn't much fun to be had tonight. She took a sip of her tea alone, and without the distraction of her girlish fun, felt the pressure of being a leader once more. What if Bubbles' new power was just a one-off event? How would she keep Buttercup from harm? How would she keep Bubbles away from harm? How would she even do all that and save innocent lives at the same time? Or do well enough in an operation? How would she even achieve anything?

Disapproving voices were beginning to swirl around Blossom as she leaned against her pink kiddy table, clutching her forehead as she was beginning to feel overwhelmed again.


The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

12 FEB (Sunday) 1989. 2359.

Despite Bubbles' fears, the clown phone did not ring, and so the Girls got to stay as little girls for the rest of Sunday. It didn't make it any easier for her, however, as she knew that the next one was coming anytime, anywhere. Even if Miss Keane would take the class to an excursion to the Townsville Zoo the next day, General Blackwater or Agent Blake could call Blossom through her cell phone.

She tried to sleep, but sleep would not come. Dad's story time did not do her any good. It didn't help that it was a story about Pinnochio, whose nose grew longer the more he lied. She couldn't help but see herself in Pinnochio, wishing once again that she was a real little girl and not some puppet controlled by General Blackwater, or everyone else.

For an hour or so, she thought she'd even fallen asleep and dreamed that she was Pinnochio, and every time she told a lie about her new power, her nose would grow longer over the tea table, except Blossom and Buttercup wouldn't notice. She'd dreamed that she had turned into a literal puppet, controlled by strings from high up above, leading into the dark sky above.

"Bubbles," a familiar feminine voice had whispered her name when she realized that even her face had become wooden and unresponsive, and only a single tear had managed to escape that entrapment. "I'm here. It's going to be okay."

That was when she woke up, though she still wasn't even sure if she'd fallen asleep. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see white light coming in from under her door. She sat up, gasping in surprise.

'The fairy godmother is here?' Bubbles thought, worried that her secret would be exposed by a visit from the fairy godmother. Looking at her sisters, she saw that they were soundly asleep - they wouldn't have seen the white light. Did they? Could they? Bubbles was really afraid of being found out.

Buttercup snored and drooled where she was. Blossom turned in her sleep, mumbling to herself as she shook her head. Bubbles thought the way Blossom looked was troubling. Was she having a nightmare?

Bubbles caressed Blossom in her ample scalp, before gently and quietly throwing off the baby blue side of the Girls' blanket and ascending into a stealthy hover. Gliding to the door, she opened and entered the corridor - and as it just so happened, there was light coming from the stairs. Bubbles followed it, turning the corner to begin the descent on the stairs, only to discover that the light was gone.

'Where did she go?" Bubbles wondered as she continued down the stairs and into the living room. Looking around, she wandered the living room, searching blindly - looking under the coffee table, the couch, peeking into the kitchen. She didn't have to search for long when there was another burst of white light, this time coming from the backyard, shining through the glass sliding doors leading into it.

Excited, Bubbles flew towards the sliding doors thoughtlessly, creating a streak of baby blue light and a small whooshing noise in her wake. There, she saw her: the fairy godmother. Bathed in a glow of white light, she was highly visible and standing beside the family tree, her golden hair, blue dress and angel wings shining, sparkling. Bubbles slid open the backyard door and floated towards the fairy godmother in awe, forgetting that it was cold outside and not even feeling it.

"Hello, Bubbles," the fairy godmother greeted her god-daughter serenely. "It is nice to see you again."

"You came back!" Bubbles exclaimed gladly as she rushed to the sparkly-dressed being, hugging her in the legs. "I've been so worried that... That…"

"I will not return to your side?" the fairy godmother completed Bubbles' sentence for her.

"Yes…" Bubbles admitted. "I'm afraid, miss. I can't help Blossom and Buttercup without your magic!"

"Silly little girl," the fairy godmother teased lovingly with a laugh. "Since when does a fairy godmother ever abandon a child? Yes… yes… I will forever be at your side. That's a promise…"

"Is there anything, in particular, you need from me?" the fairy godmother asked with a mischievous smile, despite knowing exactly what Bubbles wanted.

"Your magic, fairy godmother! I need it, please!" Bubbles begged. "I need it or Blossom and Buttercup will hate me again!"

"Why, of course, dear," the fairy godmother said, a kind of triumphant smile replacing her previous smile. She reached into her dark blue pouch and pulled out a familiar brown leather pouch, but there were two of them this time. "Anything for you…"

Bubbles snatched them from the fairy godmother's hands desperately, smiling when she got them as if she had found some buried treasure.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" Bubbles squeaked with joy as she hugged the two pouches of 'magic'.

"Your welcome," the fairy godmother said. "But there are some rules you need to follow from now on, dear Bubbles…"

"I'll do anything for your magic!" Bubbles exclaimed, but her excitement was beginning to die down a little once rules were mentioned. "What are they?"

"They are simple to follow… yes… yes… Are you with me, Bubbles?" the fairy godmother said. As if her wand was a pen, she used it to write sentences down using white light as ink and the air as paper. Despite facing Bubbles, she was able to write it mirrored such that Bubbles could read it without coming up next to her.

"Rule #1: Do not reveal my magic to anyone…" the fairy godmother read to Bubbles as she pointed out the first rule.

"Not even my Dad?" Bubbles asked.

"Not even him," the fairy godmother said.

"But why?" Bubbles asked.

"They do not believe in me as you do," the ethereal being said cryptically. "So make sure you hide my magic from everyone, dearie…"

"Okay…" Bubbles agreed submissively, knowing that everything hinged on the magic in the syringes.

"Rule #2: Return the pouch and syringe to me," the fairy godmother read the next rule after pointing it out. Bubbles thought it to be fair and square that she didn't even say a word. It was the least she could do.

"Rule #3: Let yourself go, Bubbles, when you are under my spell – have fun, do not think," the angel-like being read from her list – and it was written as it was read, for some reason. Bubbles thought it was funny. It made the fairy godmother out to be a fun and playful person, and she liked it.

"But what if I… hurt someone I shouldn't?" Bubbles asked. While she was under the influence of His Secret 2.0, she had no fear, no restraint and so much anger and pleasure and need for more stimulation, and she knew it – during the Battle of Silver Age Cineplex, she was aware of what was going on and what she was doing – but the intense desire to pay blood for blood, to avenge her sisters, to simply hurt for the sake of pleasure, was hard to resist. She simply didn't because she thought it was the only way to save her sisters and rekindle the sisterhood between them. Furthermore, the godmother's magic had removed the consequences of her actions – there was no pain and exhaustion as she fought in ways her normal self would have fainted from, replaced only by a constant, throbbing pleasure and rendered the rest of her insensate.

In other words, it felt as though her control of herself was slipping and easy to lose. Thinking back, she didn't really want to kill the cultist who had attempted to ambush her.

"But you won't – you'll have a very good reason for every person you attack," the fairy godmother said with that smile of hers, that hard-to-read smile. "Yes… yes… have confidence in yourself. After all, everyone you've banished in your last battle deserved it, do they not?"

Come to think of it, Bubbles thought the fairy godmother's point was reasonable. It was because of all the bad guys involved that her sisters were wounded quite badly in that battle. They deserved it. All of it.

"Rule #4: You will do everything I ask of you," the fairy godmother finally stated the last of the code. She paused after that to let Bubbles take it in. Bubbles had only looked at her with those wide eyes, as though expecting more rules to just be written in the freezing air. "Is there anything you wish to ask?"

"But what can I do for you, miss fairy godmother?" Bubbles asked enthusiastically.

"Oh, that. Just… small things." the fairy godmother said with what looked like a devious smile, but Bubbles was none the wiser. "Tiny tokens to show me appreciation for the help I provide you. It's only polite, yes?"

"Like what?" Bubbles pressed, not out of suspicion for she was smiling innocently as she asked, but out of an eager need to please her benefactor.

"Oh, my weary old bones…" the fairy godmother exclaimed as she placed the back of her hand on her forehead, arching her body in a show of tiredness that was stereotypical of a lady. "I help from the kindness of my heart and receive nothing in return. All I'll ask for are just tiny things that will make me smile… yes… yes…"

"I'll do anything you want, fairy godmother," Bubbles said. "You've helped me so much – I should help you too, even if it's just to make you smile. My Dad taught me that people should help each other to make the world a better place..."

"Speaking of doing everything I ask of you – how about one tiny little thing, right now?" the fairy godmother requested.

"What do you want, fairy godmother?" Bubbles asked with an enthusiastic smile, eager to please. Tokens of appreciation for the magic - that was the rule, set in stone.

"Hugs and kisses?" the shining angel said. Bubbles floated up to her without a word and wrapped her arms around her savior's neck as the angelic being embraced her, then planted a peck on her cheek.


Reply to Guest (Ch 29): Hmm... I don't remember it being implied that a cult's following the Girls in the original show... I just remember it came pretty close to that in See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey but the Girls shut that down real quick. Hmm, interesting to note.

As for the fail-fallout-fail pattern with the story, it's something that's going to end real soon if it hasn't already. I identified it as a problem in my writing style back in Project Powerpuff: Declassified, though it might be inevitable considering that the Girls in this universe are weaker yet face tougher odds. Anyway, I know about this and I've been actively trying to avoid writing a formulaic story (e.g Journey to the West). Let's just say that things have changed from around, I'd say, the Act 1 finale onwards. I'd say this change is inevitable too as the Girls are only getting stronger and stronger and the plot demands it :)

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. I'll be more careful in avoiding the 'formula' approach to storytelling.

Edit: Also, to add, you're right. The cycle serves the plot as well, as it definitely will push the professor to try to save the Girls from it. A break from the cycle, however, does not automatically mean salvation however... Hyuck hyuck you know what I mean? ;)