Chapter 31: Mad and Mad
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
14 FEB (Tuesday) 1989. 1421.
The next day had been uneventful. The professor had taken the opportunity to phone the Girls in sick, using the injuries they sustained the previous day as the reason for their need for a break, even though they were near full recovery and could perform regular duties well enough.
Selicia had continued training them. Buttercup had told her everything about Bubbles' new ability. She'd begged her to let her use it in training ever since, and Selicia couldn't refuse her favorite's request, not after what had happened yesterday. For all she knew, it could be her ticket to getting better results out of Bubbles just so that she could get General Blackwater off her back. She had to endure an hour of his bullshit during the last security review, and that had destroyed her mood that day – initially, she intended to be more forgiving towards Blossom, planning only to punish her with just a few shocks from her stun baton. But then the general had gone on from berating her about Bubbles to shouting at her about Blossom's regressive lack of tactics too. The thing that pissed her off the most was that it wasn't for a lack of trying. Selicia had given Blossom refresher courses on urban warfare in January and reminded her about it since, but Blossom continued to go the easy route - regressing into a child-like simplicity when it came to problem-solving instead of growing into the tactician she wanted her to become.
Allowing Bubbles to use her BerXerker ability could save her lots of future headaches. To this end, Selicia had decided to save Bubbles for dessert, since Buttercup had been jumping up and down about it constantly. Due to the Girls' tiredness and scars, she'd limited the number of matches to best out of five.
Blossom and Buttercup had sparred at first, after a quick refresher on both basic and advanced unarmed techniques. But while she was observing Bubbles throughout training, she saw nothing in her – just the same shy little girl bumbling about with moves, both strikes and grapples, that barely improved since more than a month ago. Even with her new ability, Selicia doubted then that Bubbles could even come close to defeating her favorite.
Blossom and Buttercup's matches wore on. As usual, Bubbles sat on the sidelines, perspiring as if she was sitting in a sauna or a furnace, terrified that she was going to disappoint Mom again. The last time she did, Mom had gone cold on her once more, refusing to even hold her or talk to her. Buttercup had made fun of her, and even Blossom was confused as to why she was so easily defeated in a friendly spar with her – and Bubbles could imagine that she would be wondering if she was going to ruin the next operation.
'What do I do?' Bubbles thought desperately as she stared at her sisters sparring, at how their moves were superb and smooth – and only a fraction of it was required in actual combat for them to hold their own. She herself, on the other hand, had nothing to show for it both in and out of crime-fighting. 'What am I going to do?'
Bubbles could feel her stomach churning uncomfortably at the thought, her guts going into a knot at the idea of repeating her failures and living with it.
"Good job! Oh my! Buttercup, you've done it!" Selicia praised her favorite when she finally floored Blossom by using her own tricks against her: hooking her leg and tripping her over, at the same twisting her arm around her back and locking it that way. Furthermore, it was the third time in a row that Buttercup had beaten Blossom when no one expected her to – Blossom had won the first two rounds. On the third round, Buttercup barely won by avoiding Blossom's grapple, before letting off a series of kicks that knocked Blossom down and stunned her, allowing her to be restrained after that. On the fourth round, Buttercup won by beating Blossom in an exchange of punches and parries. This was topped off by Buttercup beating Blossom at her own game.
"That was really good, Buttercup," Blossom praised her. She'd been trying to mend her relationship with her ever since the previous day to no success. They hadn't spoken much since, beyond 'pass the pepper'.
Buttercup merely scoffed at her. Had she had the vocabulary, she would have warned her not to patronize her.
"Buttercup…" Blossom said. "You know I had to tell Dad. He's our Dad."
"Whatever, sis," Buttercup brushed her off, not that she could ever understand the way Blossom rationalized her actions. But at least it felt good to beat Blossom at her own game - the satisfaction inherent in the idea was good motivation for Buttercup to attempt it where previously, she was content to hurl punches and kicks of all types and combinations.
"Blossom, enough talking. Take the bench," Selicia ordered dismissively before turning to Bubbles, who looked like she could fill a bathtub with her sweat alone. "Bubbles, you're up! Show me what this 'BerXerker' business is all about!"
Nervously, Bubbles flew haphazardly towards the makeshift arena in the lab. She could feel butterflies in her stomach - just as much as she could already feel the 'Butterfly's punch in her stomach. She needed it! Needed it so much! There was no way she could stomach being the team let-down, the butt of all jokes any longer. Not when there was an answer to her problem, a desirable one at that.
"Mom, I need to go!" Bubbles lied, putting her hands on her groin (or her groin guard) to pretend as though her bladder was full. It was easier to lie this time - she was so nervous and afraid and paranoid that she had been visiting the washroom more often than usual for the past few days. "Please?"
"Of all the- Fine! Get it done quickly and come back down here ASAP!" Selicia growled impatiently - just thinking about how much of a failure Bubbles was in the arena of combat made her mad. No matter how much she sympathized with Bubbles as a vulnerable little girl, she saw her as anything but; she had what were literally superpowers at her disposal - how vulnerable could she be? In January it was all well and good because there was little need to fight beyond engaging a smattering of small-time crooks. She'd hoped that Bubbles would rise to the occasion to defend the peace she had enjoyed for over a month - only to be severely and utterly disappointed.
Bubbles literally flew out of the labs at breakneck speed the moment her Mom gave her permission and shook her head in disapproval. After cycling the airlock, she flew straight up to the second floor and into her favorite washroom - the one near her room. True to her word, she'd pulled down her pants and underwear and sat down on the toilet the moment she was in.
But it was all just a cover for something she knew she had to do. Quivering with excitement as she relieved herself, she reached into one of her magazine pouches to find - nothing!
'Where is it!?' she thought frantically. Her second dose of His Secret 2.0 was supposed to be in her magazine pouch! 'No no no no no! I couldn't have lost it! I couldn't have!' The mere idea that she had lost her only syringe left was unbearable - it was like having a hive of bees in her head. A headache was coming on as pressure mounted.
With sweat pouring down her face, Bubbles finished relieving herself as quickly as she could before pulling up her pants again, forgetting to use a napkin to clean herself as she redid her zips and belt and flew out of the washroom and into the Girls' room.
She would search everywhere for it - under the bed, in the drawers of her personal wardrobe, in her mountain of soft toys. She couldn't seem to find it anywhere! Standing on the pink kiddy table, her eyes darted all over the room as she feverishly tried to backtrack and remember where she had put her second dose of magic.
She needed it. Needed it so badly. So much that it was painful. To live without it was terrifying. What would she say to Mom and Buttercup?
With a terrified sob, Bubbles began searching whatever nook and cranny she had missed earlier - her nightlight, whatever openings there were in her dolls, under Octi, behind Octi, around Octi - it felt as if she could die from the nail-biting experience - until she felt it in the back of her baby blue pillow.
'Yes! Yes! Thank goodness! Thank God!' Bubbles thought gleefully as she pulled it out of the pillow. Pushing her Kevlar arm guard lower so she could get a good view of a vein, Bubbles jabbed herself with the syringe greedily and depressed the plunger - it was the third time she had done this, and she was becoming very adept at doping herself with drugs where previously, she struggled to self-medicate.
The sensation was legendary. It was like taking a cool bath after walking in a desert for days or spending a month in Xanadu after a year in hell. Where previously, it felt as if her guts were like snakes writhing about in her body, it was as if liquid serenity and bliss had filled her belly.
Bubbles lay down as pure pleasure began to spread throughout her body, through her veins - by now, she was used to the stinging pain of the fluid circulating in her bloodstreams, masked by the height of the chemical happiness she had pumped herself with. She began laughing as she curled up into a fetal position, biting her pillow as she gasped with each twinge of excitement and pleasure running through her from head to toe, gripping the blanket as she shut her eyes tightly, enjoying every second of it until…
Opening her eyes, Bubbles remembered, barely, why she had taken the fairy godmother's magic, to begin with. Going back to the vanity, she stared at herself in the mirror and saw that her pupils were glowing hellish red as opposed to baby blue and she liked it. A wicked grin spread across her face as she thought about the things she would do to Buttercup for being a bad sister and making her life difficult.
With murder on her mind, Bubbles flew to the door, opened it roughly with a loud slam and flew back down to the lab. Where previously, she'd admired Buttercup and even feared her for her battle prowess and accomplishments, all she saw in her mind now might as well just be a moving target, to be shot to pieces, blown to bits, run through, torn apart, rend to shreds, beaten to a pulp and slashed thoroughly.
"Bubbles! What took you! We have to…" Selicia bellowed the moment she saw Bubbles. She didn't see her red eyes immediately, but when she did, it'd taken the words out of her mouth.
Buttercup simply smiled at her reborn sister, who she thought would be more of a challenge. She hadn't faced Bubbles for quite some time, mainly because she was a walkover, and when she did, she found her far too easy - boring with a capital B to fight with as she couldn't even put up much of a fight that it was surprising she could beat regular people in combat. During the Battle in the Cult Of His Arm Compound, she had hardly seen Bubbles in action because she was too busy fighting – she was hoping to see more of it now.
Bubbles landed right before Buttercup, her malicious smile still strong on her face, her glowing, doom eyes drilling into Buttercup's cold green eyes. The look of it actually unnerved Buttercup, and the toughest fighter of The Three had stopped smiling. Uncrossing her arms, she got into a defensive posture.
"Are we fighting now, Mom!?" Bubbles barked madly at Selicia as she giggled uncontrollably. "Are we!? I wanna fight badly!"
"Go right ahead, Bubbles, Buttercup," Selicia gave them the go-ahead, even though her confidence at refereeing the sparring match had waned with the way Bubbles looked and behaved. Buttercup's description did not do Bubbles' BerXerker look any justice. Bubbles was the poster child of the sweet, innocent perfect little girl look. Now, she looked like something from a horror movie. Even the most bloodthirsty security officer she knew would be appalled by Bubbles, whose eyes screamed bloody, gory murder, her face contorted in fury with saliva and foam dribbling down her mouth. The madness and hatred in her face were unnatural on a face so young.
Bubbles had jumped on Buttercup the moment her Mom flagged off the fight - in fact, she'd been losing patience within seconds that she would have done so with or without her permission.
Sprinting towards Buttercup, Bubbles started with a series of punches, which Buttercup dodged. Buttercup retaliated as she ducked by punching Bubbles in the stomach twice before getting the knee, which she was able to block with both her hands, but the force of the blow had sent her flying back. She landed on a knee and had to balance herself by planting a hand on the ground.
Her punches had done nothing. Bubbles was merely laughing it off brokenly as she watched her fly backward from her force. Buttercup's hands shook from the force of the blow. Even blocking Bubbles' attacks was painful.
"What's the matter, Buttercup!?" Bubbles sneered at Buttercup, spittle coming out of her mouth. "Aren't you better at fighting than me!? Aren't you hard-core!?"
"Oh, I sure am! More than you!" Buttercup replied and responded by running up to her and doing a spinning kick. Bubbles punched Buttercup in the leg, deflecting her. Buttercup landed roughly, nearly losing balance. She'd felt the punch right down to the bone. Her leg felt broken, though it wasn't really.
Bubbles didn't give her time to recover, but it wasn't out of a sense of tactics. All she smelled was blood, and in the absence of any other targets, Buttercup was the one to provide it.
Blossom had been watching from the sidelines, and she had gone rock-hard tense, gripping her towel tightly almost to the point of tearing it. To witness her sweetest sister acting this way was troubling. Professor Utonium, her father, had joined her on the bench, having been distracted from his work by this chance to observe Bubbles' new power.
And he didn't like it one bit. He thought it'd turned Bubbles into… something else. Putting an arm around Blossom as she leaned on him, he watched, almost with morbid curiosity, but he was just as tense and ready to intervene the moment anything went wrong. In a way, he knew that something was bound to go wrong.
Bubbles had begun pushing back aggressively, aiming punches and kicks at Buttercup, which Buttercup equaled with blocks using her arms and legs. But Bubbles, with all her restraint removed, was blindingly fast. Once in a while, her attacks - mostly punches – had slipped past Buttercup's textbook-perfect blocks and parries, jabbing at Buttercup, weakening her with every successful strike. Her eyes grew more and more terrifying to Buttercup with each blow, even though it never changed in appearance beyond blue to red, meek and weak to mad and mad. She was like a shark tearing at its prey, or a swarm of piranhas in the shape of a little girl, slowly devouring her.
Buttercup was slower, and her advantage in raw strength and brutality was all but negated by Bubbles' drug-enhanced endurance and lack of pain. She'd aimed two punches to her face, but Bubbles sweated them off as if they were paper balls. She gave her a side-kick in the stomach when there was an opening, but it looked as if Bubbles didn't even notice. The toughest of The Three remembered Naga, how she'd done the same thing, and panic arose in her when she realized she was going to end up like her.
The match was furious and ultimately one-sided. Buttercup was steadily getting tired and weaker while Bubbles showed no sign of stopping or tiring. When Buttercup went all in and aimed a double fist at Bubbles, Bubbles parried her arms aside and delivered a series of machine-gun punches in Buttercup's chest - putting a dozen or more blows in her within a few seconds, if even that. Winding up a harder punch, Bubbles sent Buttercup flying across the makeshift lab arena, and the latter little girl landed head-first, defeated.
Selicia gasped, and so did Blossom and Professor Utonium. Buttercup was bleeding from the mouth - Bubbles wasn't holding back at all. She was writhing on the ground, holding her mouth as blood dribbled past her hand, down her chin and in between fingers.
"Bubbles, what the hell!" Selicia screamed angrily at Bubbles. "You weren't supposed to hit that hard!"
"You didn't stop Blossom when she was hurting me!" Bubbles screeched as she stomped menacingly towards Buttercup, who crawled on her back, her eyes misting as she was in shock.
"Don't you mouth off at me! Take a seat!" Selicia shouted. Bubbles didn't listen. Instead, she'd kicked Buttercup in the head. "Bubbles, stop!"
But Bubbles didn't obey this time. Selicia's voice had gone unheard. It didn't even register as Bubbles knelt over Buttercup and took her by the collar.
"Bubbles, I'm serious, stop!" Selicia ordered again. She could feel her hair standing on ends as she realized, with horror, that Bubbles wasn't going to stop, and certainly wasn't just aiming to just intimidate Buttercup. "Stop! STOP! BUBBLES!"
She began punching Buttercup repeatedly in the face. Professor Utonium jumped out of his seat. Blossom hovered.
"Bubbles! What are you doing!" the professor shouted in horror at the unnatural behavior of his sweetest adopted daughter.
Selicia pulled her pistol out – she'd always carried it whenever she was in uniform. Blossom, however, flew up to her and got between her and Bubbles.
"Mom, no! She'll hurt you if you shoot her!" Blossom said before turning around in mid-air and flying into Bubbles, knocking her off of Buttercup. They both skidded on the shiny tiled lab floor, with Bubbles a greater distance away.
Blossom was rolling on the ground as she skidded but she righted herself quite easily with a bit of Chemical X-aided gymnastics. Bubbles was less graceful in her senseless fury, and only got up when she came to a stop.
In the meantime, Selicia took the opportunity to drag Buttercup, who was crying in pain, as far away from Bubbles as possible. The professor had sprinted in Buttercup's aid, and as Selicia was holding her, began examining her facial injuries.
"It's okay, Buttercup, you're safe now – she's not going to hurt you again…" Selicia comforted Buttercup as, for once, she was acting her age and bawling her eyes out.
"Buttercup, get your hands off-" the professor was struggling with her as he was trying to check her wounds. Buttercup had always had this habit of hiding her wounds whenever she was injured, starting from the first time she was shot because she was playing with his pistol, which she picked up from the lab.
There was blood everywhere.
"Buttercup, please!" the professor pleaded with Buttercup to let him see her face. Any effort he made to pry her hands off her mouth and nose was futile. But the reality of what Bubbles had done was apparent even with Buttercup's hands stuck to her face. There were bruises and open skin all over her face. She had a black eye, and just by observation alone, probably one or two stress fractures around the Orbit region of her skull.
Bubbles rushed Blossom as soon as she could, which was immediate. Blossom was forced to fire an infrared beam at Bubbles, causing her vest to burst into flames. It didn't stop Bubbles from throwing punches at her, but Blossom ducked and dodged and even flew out of the way. Smoke was rising from Bubbles all the while as her uniform continued to burn until she was coughing and retching from it – until she tore vest away, along with the singlet underneath.
"Get out of the way, Blossom!" Bubbles screeched crazily at her sister. She looked the part too, with half her face covered in Buttercup's blood. "Or I'll hurt you just like Buttercup!"
"What is wrong with you, Bubbles!" Blossom cried. "Why are you being like this!?"
"Why are you protecting Buttercup, Blossom!?" Bubbles screamed. "She's always hurting us!"
"Because she's our sister! Because I love her!" Blossom answered. "Please… You're my sister too! And so is Buttercup! You need to stop this!"
Bubbles clutched her head as though there was a great struggle going on inside. She whimpered as she shook her head.
"It's… so hard, Blossom," Bubbles cried, her expression changing to one of being upset, before it swung back around to being one of anger and hatred once more, broken by occasional mad giggles. "Buttercup should be hurt for WHAT SHE DID!"
"Bubbles," Professor Utonium came up beside Blossom. "I don't know what's going on with you, but listen to me – calm down."
"Get out of the way, DAD! I don't want to hurt you!" Bubbles screamed madly at her Dad. She looked so unhinged that Blossom had flown in front of the professor at chest level, just in case Bubbles lose control again.
"So don't, Bubbles," the professor said. He inched his way forward and around Blossom, shrugging off Blossom's hand and wordlessly telling the smartest of The Three that he would be fine. "You're in control, Bubbles. You love us – you won't hurt us."
Bubbles glared at the professor, then to Buttercup, who was still lying in a kneeling Selicia's lap, blood making rivulets down her cheeks and chin. She returned her eyes to the professor, who had gotten a bit closer, the look on her face swinging frequently between a glare and a tearful, needy gaze.
"I've hurt Buttercup…" Bubbles cried, at first regretful, before becoming hateful again. "I've hurt her – and I want to hurt her more!"
"No, you don't," the professor said. He was even closer now, just a few arm's lengths away. "She's your sister. She's rough but the two of you've shared some good moments. Remember how she comforted you around Christmas?"
"I've hurt her – I want to hurt her. She'd hurt me!" Bubbles continued to repeat herself as she panted and hyperventilated. The professor made his way closer, making no sudden moves. Blossom and Selicia looked on, dead worried and actually expecting the head of the household to get his head chopped. "Blood! I want blood!"
"Bubbles, look at me," the professor said as he got way closer, almost within arm's reach of Bubbles. Bubbles' hellish red eyes flitted to him as her face twitched with uncontrollable rage and pleasure. "This is not you."
"Stay away from me, Dad, I'll kill you!" Bubbles yelled at the professor, who actually shrank away from her, startled, but he didn't stay away from long.
"No, you won't," the professor asserted as he came within arm's reach of Bubbles and bent down. "Come here."
"No, Dad! I'll kill you!" Bubbles snarled. But the professor did the opposite and scooped her up into a hug, carrying her as he straightened up, and as he did, Bubbles broke into a sob. She grabbed at his lab coat as she cried into it. "I'm so sorry Dad… I'm so sorry… I lost control!"
"Shh… Shh… It's fine," the professor said. "I knew you wouldn't do it. You're my Bubbles, you've always been my little girl. You'll always be my little girl."
The professor looked into her eyes, and Bubbles looked back. Her eyes were red, but right before the professor, it'd returned to baby blue.
