Chapter 74: Homecoming (Part 1)

The City of Townsville. Highway 13.

01 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 1844.

Bunny roared down the highway towards home on her modified bike. The time had come. It was finally here. It was time to go back home. Initially, the plan had been for Bunny to return home in the morning, but Wiggum's betrayal in the early morning had necessitated a delay, first for the mission, then for the debriefing, and finally, for the worst part of Bunny's grief to pass, not that it ever would. She'd spent most of the day in her bunk, alone, conflicted and afraid of herself. Wiggum's final moments kept replaying in her mind, like the voice of her father recorded in the sound recorder he gave her.

'Wait… Please…' he'd pleaded with her. She was still debating with herself if she should have waited. Her training had jumped the gun immediately, because her objective was clear, leaving no room for hesitation. She'd stabbed him to death, all the while knowing that he was her Dad's friend. It'd complicated things, and she was way over her head.

Bunny would have stayed in her bunk longer had Nana, the closest person she had to a mother in the absence of Selicia, not come to fetch her. In the meantime, she'd screamed and cried into the void of her room, refusing to eat or drink and soiling herself in bed because she couldn't even will herself to go to the washroom.

As if things couldn't get any worse, Bunny would have to endure yet more changes. Nana had grown on her, and now she was leaving her. The woman had told her that while she showered and cleaned her, and the only comfort was that she would try to visit her occasionally, or perhaps they might meet again while prosecuting their duties. Bunny was a little dazed throughout, but she thought she might have seen Nana shed a tear or two. It was even harder that way, knowing that their separation was causing someone else some hardship.

A final debriefing with General Blackwater had set the stage for the future. Bunny would be working with Chief Intelligence Officer Rook in the future. He would be calling her through the USDO hotline, which was becoming known as the Powerpuff Hotline. If the recent turn of events were any indication, there would be many missions to follow, though the general had tried to reassure her that they wouldn't involve friends and family. The slaying of Wiggums was a fluke.

After making a turn on the highway and then going off it, Bunny found herself in a familiar place. She couldn't help but feel nostalgia even though she had been away only for three days. Four, counting the delay. Being only a week old, she had spent longer in the USDO than with her family. Things had changed drastically, even though the suburbs she was in hadn't.

For one thing, she was racing down the rows of houses in her own vehicle, under her own power. She was stopped at a USDO security checkpoint, and all she had to do was simply show them a black pass card and she was allowed through. She had done the same thing when a police patrol cruiser did the same. They didn't ask too many questions - in fact, they didn't ask anything at all.


The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

01 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 1905.

Professor Utonium had waited near the window for ages, doing nothing the whole day beyond the bare necessities that constituted his duties to the Girls and the USDO. Selicia had been supportive all the while, either staying with him or making sure that he didn't starve or thirst while he waited for Bunny.

As it was right now, all he could think about was Bunny, and what abuses she might have suffered. He could only imagine how it was like, and he couldn't imagine it well enough either, as he was neither a soldier nor a security officer. His training in the art of war was only basic, something to make it an inconvenience for the enemy to take him dead or alive. It kept running in his head how terrible it must be for a child to have to go through training that would bring some adults to tears.

Selicia, in the meantime, had just finished preparing dinner. They'd planned to leave it in the kitchen until eight or even nine if they had to, just to wait for Bunny - it'd meant so much to her Thomas. Buttercup, and Blossom (surprisingly), had helped her out, while Bubbles sat next to her Dad, leaning on him with his arm around her.

They didn't have to wait for long.

Soon, there was activity in the swirling snowfall, and light that didn't come from the streetlamps. A strange silhouette appeared at first, before being bathed in the yellowish street light. Although the professor could not see her face, which was blocked by a shaded motorcycle helmet, he recognized her instantly.

Bunny was turning into the driveway when the Girls scrambled to the window to see her.

"I can't believe it!" Buttercup grumbled, already unhappy that Bunny was coming back. She was a competition, but there was something more. "She gets a bike but we don't?"

"Yeah…" Blossom said, acknowledging that fact, though she had other things in mind too. The moment she saw Bunny, she was reminded of the jealousy she had towards her. How Bunny would take away Dad's attention from her, the attention that was well-deserved, alienating her. Even when she wasn't around, Dad had paid little attention to Blossom because he was too worried about Bunny, and whenever he talked, it was always something to do with Bunny.

"At least we got Bunny back," Bubbles said. The bike controversy was hardly anything worth mentioning to her. "I missed her. I wonder how she's doing?"

"Can't believe she gets a bike…" Buttercup continued grumbling. Like Blossom, she felt jealous, and even more so than her more level-headed sister. She wasn't even trying to bury it, unlike Blossom, who'd decided that sisters were sisters, and jealousy was wrong. "I want a bike too, but no, Daddy said no, of course…"

When Bunny turned in, it didn't help that she looked menacing in her biker jacket and helmet, the fully-modded MP5 on her back and her silenced pistol on her thigh. The parts of her armor that weren't covered by her jacket promised overwhelming odds to anyone who would think to go against her. The purple glow of her eyes was shining through the shaded visor. It was easy to feel negative things towards someone who looked dangerous - it was a justification Blossom and Buttercup could have, not that Blossom wanted it and Buttercup didn't need any to hate someone.

Upon seeing Bunny getting off and removing her duffel bag from the back of her bike, Professor Utonium got out the front door as soon as he could. Selicia was more level-headed and went into the garage to open the shutters for Bunny to wheel her bike in. The Girls hovered out to look, with Buttercup looking especially offended.

"Dad?" Bunny couldn't believe her eyes either when she saw Daddy running up to her. She lifted her visor - pulling off her helmet, in fact - before running up to him. Bunny dumped her duffel bag in the snow. They both threw themselves at each other, embracing in the snow. "Dad! I miss you so much!"

"So did I, Bunny, so did I!" the professor shouted in relief. Bubbles joined in the hug after that. Blossom followed, deciding to put aside her jealousy of Bunny. Buttercup remained where she was, however, floating above the uncomfortably cold ground, her arms crossed as she scowled at the returning Bunny. "I thought about you every day! I was so worried!"

"Me too…" Bunny said. The professor let go after that.

"Look at you, all grown up," the professor said. He hated that the general got to see her through four days of development without him, but Bunny was still his adopted daughter all the same. "Using pronouns now, riding a bike…"

"Are you proud of me, Dad?" Bunny asked. Looking up at him, she was crying not just tears of joy, but something darker. Her perfect memory was a curse now as she remembered how she killed her own Dad's friend just half a day ago. She waited desperately for his answer, even though she needed to wait only a second.

"I'll always be proud of you," he said. "You're my little rabbit, forever and always. Come on, let's get back inside - it's cold out there. Here, let me take your bike." The professor helped Bunny wheel her motorcycle in. The entire family was in the garage before Selicia closed the garage shutters.


The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

01 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 1913.

Bunny was eating through her spaghetti and mash potatoes like how a compactor would crush metal fed into it. Half her meal was gone in a minute - and that included her lemon juice. She had made a mess on her face and spilled some of the tomato sauce on the table. Everyone was looking at her, and they had barely touched their meals.

"Honey, slow down. You'll choke like this," Selicia had to tell her, at the same time pulling her back from her plate. It wasn't the first thing she or Professor Utonium had to remind her. She had sat down to her meal in full gear. The professor then had to remind her to remove her weapons. Selicia got her to remove her jacket and armor after that. The suit of purple, gutted (de)power(ed) armor had ended up standing guard at a corner of the kitchen with the duffel bag as if watching them.

"Sorry, Mom," Bunny apologized before haphazardly cleaning her face with a napkin. "I like your food, and I have to be ready."

"Ready for what?" the professor asked.

"I could be going on a mission any time," Bunny explained, after sucking up another long tendril of spaghetti, and chewing and swallowing quickly regardless. She had to wipe her mouth again. "There's going to be lots of them, General Blackwater said so."

"But don't you want to spend some time with your family? You've just gotten back, and I thought you'll be thrilled to do that?" the professor asked. He didn't like this one bit. The last time he'd seen Bunny, she was content with simply being. What he saw was a change of priorities in Bunny, and he didn't like it.

Bunny, in the meantime, had nearly finished her spaghetti by the time the professor was done. She looked up at her Dad when she was distracted from the zone by what he said.

"Yes, Dad, of course, I am," she said. The professor couldn't help but notice that her ability to speak was dramatically improved too, and it wasn't just the pronouns. From what Selicia had told him, Bunny was just a few hours shy of training twenty-four hours a day, and some of that time could have been used to develop her communications ability - for once, it was something he agreed with when it came to the USDO. "I just… need to be ready. I'm supposed to protect you, and Mom… and Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup too."

The professor laughed. Selicia followed. Blossom frowned at Bunny, but reset it to a smile when Bunny turned to look at her.

"Yes, you do," he said with a smile, though he didn't really think much of it. To him, it was just Bunny's youthful spontaneity and optimism at work. The USDO would surely be sending her to missions like how they'd been using Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, but he doubted that Bunny would ever need to protect her family, not with the older Three in The House, and the adults already trained and given a security detail for protection. Blossom had protected him - even if it was against Bubbles, and the gap between the older and the younger enhanced beings was huge. That said, he still couldn't believe that millions of adults were relying on little girls for protection - and it hadn't even been six months since their creation.

"I'm proud of you, my little Sugar-Bun," Selicia said, then pulled Bunny in for a hug. It'd reminded the enhanced girl of how it felt like. She didn't let go until she had her fill of it. "You're growing up so fast!" In the meantime, Buttercup was sulking in her corner of the table, and the fact that no one noticed made her even mad. The only thing keeping her from flipping the table and assaulting Bunny then and there was that it would be social suicide, something she had actually committed multiple times before and miraculously survived.

It was something she couldn't afford right now, at least not until she'd met her new powerful friend.


The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

01 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 1949.

Everything that Bunny did, every action that Dad took was, all of a sudden, grating on Blossom's nerves. Blossom thought that Bunny had become an attention-seeker, what with her bike, her refusal to remove her equipment, right down to the way she ate and behaved. Dad, on the other hand, hadn't paid much attention to her whether Bunny was home or not, and now that Bunny was with them, it was even worse. He had become entirely fixated on her.

Dad and Mom had to separate the Girls when it came to bathing. With Bunny in the picture, the bathtub simply couldn't fit all of them, and a single parent wouldn't be able to handle them all. Dad chose to bathe Bunny, and Blossom, who was seething with secret anger, chose Mom out of spite, only to regret it. Buttercup had followed her, leaving Bubbles with Dad and Bunny.

'But I can bathe myself!' the attention-seeking Bunny had exclaimed. That show-off! Blossom knew exactly what Bunny was doing. As if having Dad's undivided attention wasn't enough, Blossom knew that Bunny was trying to cement her place as the only Girl Dad would care about, leaving no room at all for her - or her sisters for that matter.

"How about for old time's sake? You're only a week old, Rabbit," the professor had said in response. The term of endearing had actually hit Bunny hard, as it reminded her of her deceased and eaten pet rabbit, but as a master of subtlety by then, she'd hidden it well.

"Sure," Bunny smiled.

In the other bathroom of the second floor, Selicia had ended up giving Blossom the roughest bath she had ever received, though Blossom couldn't tell if it was intentional. The security officer had chosen to use the hardest, roughest sponge in the washroom, and was applying a lot of force whenever she was scrubbing her down and rinsing her hair that it was downright painful. That, and she had rushed through Blossom's bath, quickly shooing her out of the bathtub to focus on Buttercup, callously throwing her the towel and leaving her there, cold and wet, to dry herself. Blossom barely knew how, and she could feel intensely the neglect her Mom was putting her through.

Blossom had spent some time moping while drying herself sluggishly as she sat, upset, on a stool, all the while watching Buttercup having a fun time with Mom as they played with the water and joked and laughed.

Feeling left out, Blossom did not want to watch any further, so she threw on her undergarments and dress on by herself - with some difficulty - before opening the bathroom door. She took one last look at Mom and Buttercup. They didn't even notice her leaving. They didn't even care. And so Blossom walked away.

Out in the corridor, she saw Dad leaving the common bathroom with Bunny and Bubbles in fresh pairs of dresses, chatting happily about - why, about Bunny's experience in training, of course! What else could they possibly be talking about?

"Oh hey, Blossom! Why didn't you join me for a shower?" Bunny had the nerve to ask Blossom. "I've really missed you."

'Of course, she'd want me with her - it'd make it easier to show Dad how much better she was!' Blossom thought venomously as she tried her best not to give her youngest sister the stink-eye. She'd flashed a smile, though it was so hard to pull off that her face might crack from the effort.

"But that'd mean I can't join you for a shower," Bubbles said, half-parroting Bunny already. Blossom hated it.

"Oh yeah," Bunny said, on realizing what Bubbles pointed out. "Well, I've really missed all of you! I'm so happy to be back home!"

'Of course, you would be', was Blossom's reaction, though she didn't let it be known.

"Why don't the two of you go on ahead - Bunny and I have some catching up to do. Don't worry, she'll be playing with the two of you soon enough!" the Dad would say with a laugh, before bringing Bunny down the stairs with him, leaving Blossom outside her room and on the verge of tears. Bubbles simply held her hand and led her back into her room, just as oblivious to Blossom's feelings.


The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

01 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 1954.

Professor Utonium ended upbringing Bunny down to the labs for a checkup. In between lab tests and interviews, they were both playing catch-up with each other. The professor had learned, however, that there were things that were off-limits. 'It's classified,' Bunny would say to such inquiries.

"Can we just… be together?" Bunny had requested when everything was said and done when it came to her checkup.

"Don't you want to show me your voice recordings?" the professor asked. To him, it was an informal project, something he'd be more than happy to go through, not just out of his own curiosity both scientific and mundane, but also out of love for Bunny: for three days, he was unable to fulfill his role as a father, and he'd wanted to make up for it.

"I just want to be with you, Dad. I've missed you so much and… I just want to spend some time with you?" Bunny had said instead. The professor couldn't refuse her. How could he? When she had sacrificed so much just because she had the fortune or misfortune of being created artificially and biochemically enhanced?

They'd ended up sitting together while Daddy worked on his computer, with Bunny leaning on him, or hugging him once in a while, asking questions occasionally. The professor enjoyed every second of it, such that all his worries about her time in the USDO headquarters had evaporated. He enjoyed learning how far Bunny had come in her development - and she was developing really, really fast. Faster than even Blossom, in fact.

Time flew by, and while Dad and Bunny were enjoying each other's company down in the labs, Blossom was left in her room with Bubbles and Buttercup, and they were all playing halfheartedly, as each of them was haunted with their own demons and ghosts. Blossom had still her own perceived failings in the raid on the cultists to deal with, and the only man who would listen to her was busy with some other Girl. This was not to mention the jealousy in her swelling to proportions she had never felt before.

Bubbles, on the other hand, was still coming to terms with her close shave when it came to her drug problem. Like Blossom, she missed being able to talk to Dad about anything, but unlike her, she wished she could play with Bunny immediately. After Bunny was born, she wasn't able to really get to know her, and she was anxious to get started.

Buttercup, on the other hand, was having a bit of an epiphany as she was clutching Blankie closely to her while flipping through a stack of word cards. None of it mattered - not Blossom or Bubbles, not even Dad, and not the social norms they enforced. Mom had become the only thing in the family she remotely even cared about. Only one thing mattered now: her desires, and that included her need to meet the powerful friend she had never met before. No, it was worse than that, for try as she might, she couldn't dissociate herself from it all. She had expected nothing but neglect from her sisters, and that was fine. The disappointment had come from elsewhere. Dad had failed to provide her with what she needed, and even Mom was guilty of this, as she should've been able to intercede on her behalf, except she didn't.


The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

01 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 2047.

It was an hour before Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup finally had the pleasure of seeing Dad and Bunny walked through the door of their room. The Girls hadn't been very busy in that hour, and it was only in the latter half of it that they had finally gotten back together to appreciate the little things - beating the hardcore criminals of the city and genuinely cleaning it up (though Bubbles still had reservations about killing some of them), and being the thing that drove the Amoeba Boys towards the path of goodness. Of course, they were things they had to keep secret from Dad.

They were talking over their building blocks when their youngest sister came in, hugging her shiny and purple cutting-edge armor and hauling a huge duffel bag full of equipment into the room. How Bunny could have balanced the bag on her motorcycle was a mystery to the elder Girls, who had never ridden bikes before.

Blossom and Buttercup were trying very hard not to scowl at her, resisting open hostilities with Bunny for some very different reasons. Bubbles, on the other hand, was all natural with her smile. To Blossom, it was all about the family, and doing the right thing by them. To Buttercup, a family had become an undesirable thing, and the only reason why she was staying was Mom; having a new member was only going to add to her woes.

"Hello, Girls," the professor greeted his original three. "How about the three of you welcome your little sister to your den?" Little sister. Blossom thought it funny, considering Bunny's size. She was more than a head taller than they were, owing to her physical age and luck of the draw - whoever gave Bunny his or her DNA must surely be a huge, hulking guy or girl.

"Aren't you going to spend some time with us?" Blossom asked Dad, and while she was at it, she couldn't keep the disappointment out of her voice, nor the smile up.

"I'm going to have to take a bath," the professor said, having never seen Blossom's reaction, only heard it. He thought her reaction was normal; Blossom liked him very much, and she couldn't be left alone for even a minute without missing him. "I'll be right back in, oh, maybe half an hour."

He still had Selicia to tend to. She tended to desire him at night, and he didn't mind helping her out with that. With Bunny now on board, time would be an even bigger premium… but the emotional rollercoaster he'd been through had taxed him more. He needed to get away, even if it was just for half an hour.

With that, the Girls were left alone with Bunny, who had decided to leave her armor standing like an honor guard right next to the walk-in closet. Blossom thought that Bunny was a big show-off for doing that, though in reality, Bunny had looked into the closet and decided that there was not enough space between the Powerpuff Girls' crate of weapons and their uniforms and gear.

"Come on, Bunny, join us!" Bubbles was the first to offer her a place beside them. "We're having lots of fun making a tower!" And failing, apparently, as it'd come crumbling down several times in the twenty minutes they were at it.

"Yeah, why don't you join us?" Blossom added, though not quite concurring with Bubbles. With Blossom, it wasn't an invitation. She wanted to weigh Bunny out - then assert herself. There was no way she was going to let Bunny take the lead away from her. No, it couldn't be that way. She had always been the smart one, and therefore the most deserving of the attention of a smart Dad.

"I really miss you guys!" Bunny said while scooting over and sitting herself down on the floor next to Bubbles, who welcomed her wholeheartedly by giving her a hug. "I thought about the three of you all the time while I was training…"

After clearing the debris of their last failure, the Girls started all over again, this time with Bunny's help.

"How was training like? Is it as scary as it sounds?" Bubbles asked. Blossom gave a stealthy sigh. Buttercup gave Bubbles a quick glare; she hated even how Bubbles sounded like.

"It was hard, really hard. I had to do some terrible things, but it could be fun sometimes," Bunny reminisced on her time in the USDO headquarters, and it was more nostalgic that she thought it would be. She was helping her elder sisters with the foundations of their tower at the same time. They had arranged the pillars on the ground floor roughly, putting one in each corner. Bunny thought it would be safer if she added twice the number, with some were arranged inside the box of pillars. It was better to be safe than sorry - that was one thing she learned during her training, no matter what the subject matter was.

"I'm going to protect all of you," Bunny said unexpected as they continued building their tower. The three elder Girls, in particular, had lots of inspiration to draw from, considering the number of skyscrapers they'd been visiting in recent weeks.

"I think we should be protecting you instead," Blossom said. Had she not been concentrating on building her tower, irritation would have risen in her voice, thinly veiled. Dad had bought them more wooden blocks to play with and Blossom was eager to see what she could do with quadruple the number of materials - but in truth, it represented the height of the amount of attention her Dad had been giving her since Bunny came into the picture.

"But isn't she supposed to fight crime instead of us now?" Bubbles reminded the quartet of them. "That's what Dad said. I'm tired of all the-"

"Not right now, Bubbles!" Blossom interrupted her, annoyed at her mildly-mannered sister's timing. At this moment, she had accidentally knocked off a foundation block for the third floor of their tower. It would have crumbled down and taken the entire thing with it had it not been for Bunny's intervention. Within the space of milliseconds, she'd propped up the structure with a finger, keeping it steady while Bubbles replaced the pillar Blossom had accidentally demolished.

Blossom didn't like that one bit. It'd made her look bad.

"General Blackwater said that I can't do it all for the three of you yet…" Bunny said to her sisters. "As much as I want to. He said I'm too 'inexperienced' to do that."

"You should listen to him," Blossom told her blatantly, just barely holding back her disdain for what she perceived to be arrogance and disrespect in Bunny. "You can't protect us, Bunny."

"Yes, I can," Bunny said stubbornly. Buttercup snorted at her, laughing at the altercation. If nothing else, it was free entertainment for her. "I want to."

"Can you fly?" Blossom asked with a straight face, crossing her arms.

"No…" Bunny said.

"Can you shoot a heat beam with your eyes?" Blossom pressed the youngest of them all.

"I can't, but-"

"What about lasers like Buttercup?" Blossom continued to drill into Bunny. Buttercup relished being recognized.

"No, But Blossom-" Bunny tried to speak.

"Can you do a sonic scream like Bubbles, then?" Blossom continued to pile on Bunny's inabilities.

"No…" Bunny said, feeling discouraged as she looked down at the tower and away from Blossom. Blossom couldn't help but smirk at her.

"What about a bubble to block bullets?" Blossom pursued Bunny relentlessly.

Bunny shook her head, unable to even speak anymore, upset by the revelation that, for all her training, she was still inferior compared to her sisters, as Blossom pointed out.

"Blossom, you're not being fair to her!" Bubbles couldn't help but exclaim at the injustice she saw. "You couldn't make a bubble until today and I taught you that!"

Blossom turned around quite suddenly to glare at Bubbles. She looked so angry, Bubbles was actually considering making a an energy shield bubble pre-emptively to avoid getting singed by her infrared beam. To Blossom, this was betrayal of the worst kind; she'd forgiven Bubbles for harming her entire family, taught her many things that they had been taking for granted (such as flying). She'd never faltered in her support for her. Bubbles was being unfair! Mean!

"Yeah, and I taught you how to fly!" Blossom exploded. "I protected you out there when all you knew was how to cry like a baby!"

"I didn't mean-" Bubbles tried to defuse the situation; her attempt was cut short. She knew what was coming when Blossom started digging up her past faults.

"Shut up! At least I didn't hurt Daddy like you did!" Blossom shot back at Bubbles, not with a heat beam but with words that were worse. Furious and losing control with herself, Blossom shot up to her feet and kicked their tower with a manic shout, sending the wooden blocks scattering all over Bunny. Feeling all kinds of strong emotions all at once, an overwhelming sensation that she still wasn't used to, Blossom ran away and swiftly got out through the door.

Bubbles had gasped upon hearing Blossom's all-too-true accusation, what was fast becoming a taboo subject. Bunny had wanted to cry, too. She didn't expect Blossom to treat her so badly as to throw wooden blocks at her, but seeing Bubbles so devastated had spurred her into action. But what was so frustrating was that all she could do was to hold her closely and hope for the best.

"What was that about?" Bunny asked Bubbles, who was still too busy fighting back tears to give any kind of coherent answers. Bunny, on the other hand, was shocked beyond belief; she'd never imagined her sisters would be like this when she first laid eyes on them, back when she still had trouble deciphering their words.

"It's a long story. A big yawn I don't wanna talk about," Buttercup said nonchalantly. She had been watching and she did not care enough to intervene. If she had popcorn to begin with, she would have eaten through the whole bucket in a matter of minutes. When the show's over, however, she got up to leave Bubbles and Bunny alone when it became too boring to watch.


A/N: Decided to stick this down here to avoid ruining the reading experience. Boy, editing this was a tough one! I had to delay the release of this piece by a couple of days because I just couldn't get it right. If you guys have any feedback and suggestion on how to improve this chapter, let me know! Stay nice and awesome, and happy impending new year!