Chapter 77: A Normal Day (Part 2)

The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

02 MAR (Thursday) 1989. 1807.

Despite what the first trio had been through, Selicia had decided that it wasn't severe enough to dismiss the day's training. Bubbles was the only one of the quartet to be excused owing to the graze wound on her arm. A Duranium bullet, likely provided by Townsville's local cult, had cut deep, enough to take out a swathe of skin along with it. Selicia had trouble deciding between letting Bubbles suffer a little in restitution for her past crime or letting her go, but she had decided to be merciful for once. She wouldn't have made a good opponent anyway.

The first match was between Blossom and Buttercup as Selicia had decided to save the best for last. As it stood, Buttercup was beginning to overshadow Blossom in unarmed combat, but Blossom had been improving as well, resulting in a stalemate between them.

"Bunny, you're up!" Selicia called for the fourth Girl when the current match-up proved to be so successful that there was little she could say. "You'll be sparring with Buttercup. Best out of three."

Bunny scampered to the center of the makeshift arena. She looked around and saw that Dad had swung around on his swivel chair, dropping his work to watch.

"Nice dress, by the way," Buttercup said to Bunny sarcastically, referring to the way she was attired for training. Bunny was wearing a set of Karategi, what she would wear in Karate class, and over that, she had padding on, and it was colored purple.

Sarcasm was still new to Bunny, but she could tell that Buttercup wasn't being sincere based on her mocking voice. In a way, she'd always known that Buttercup wouldn't be as nice as Bubbles just by how she would just stand by and watch her get devoured by Blossom's temper while Bubbles tried to intervene.

Bunny took a bow. Buttercup looked at her as if she had just grown a suit of white rabbit fur.

"You're weird!" Buttercup mocked her again.

"You ready, Buttercup?" Selicia sniped at Buttercup. She hated that she seemed to be slipping in performance, and her mouth, which was growing out of proportion to her skills, was running because of it. Bunny wasn't the only recipient of her harsh words; Buttercup was incredibly vocal during her matches with Blossom.

Buttercup shot Mom a look, hating that she'd singled her out for reprimanding.

"Do we really have to fight, Mom?" Bunny asked; General Blackwater and her martial arts instructors had beaten the butterflies out of her stomach when it came to combat, but it was a different matter if she had to fight against her sisters.

"Go!" Selicia shouted, ignoring Bunny. Buttercup, already smelling blood from the distracted Bunny, launched ahead and delivered a punch to Bunny's face, flooring her utterly and completely.

"Buttercup, stop!" Selicia yelled at the wayward of the Three. "You know the rules! Don't target the head!" Bunny was still rubbing her cheek while Mom and Buttercup were arguing.

"But that's stupid!" was Buttercup's best argument.

"No, it's not! It's for your own protection too, Butters!" Selicia reminded her. "Remember what Bubbles did to you when she was under the influence?" Her eyes darted to Bubbles, who caught it and immediately looked away. She'd heard what Mom said, and her mood had taken a turn immediately for the worse.

"Are you okay, Bunny?" Bubbles was checking on Bunny in the meantime. Dad was halfway across the lab and would have crossed it completely had Selicia not waved him away. "Don't mind Buttercup. She's really rough that way… But I think she still cares about us… Here, let me see." Bubbles gently removed Bunny's hand from her cheek. A bruise was beginning to form. Buttercup hadn't been holding back at all. However, it didn't look serious. Bubbles blew on it and gave it a kiss to calm the anxious Bunny down.

"You good to try again, Bunny?" Selicia asked, unsure if she would want to. Sure, she was a trained black ops assassin, but she was still a kid and a week-old one at that. Buttercup was still trying in vain to convince Mom that she was right, even when she was no longer listening.

But Selicia hadn't seen what Bunny had been through, and what she was prepared to do for what she believed in.

"Always, Mom," Bunny said with a determined look on her face while she stood up and rubbed the bruise on her face.

"Good," Selicia said. Putting her hands on Buttercup's shoulders, she spun her around and nudged her forward to face Bunny again. "Go on, Buttercup. Let's see how you fare without playing dirty."

"Hah! I'll floor her in no time!" Buttercup boasted as she was walking to the center. When the start of the sparring match was sounded once more, Buttercup rushed Bunny again, flailing multiple punches at her, only for Bunny to deftly dodge them blindingly fast. Blossom had been watching all along; her jaws were parting wider with every second. If Bubbles was fast, then Bunny was like a lightning!

"Stand still, you stupid rabbit!" Buttercup yelled in frustration when her punches and kicks had only connected with air. She jumped and directed a spinning kick at Bunny, only for the purple Girl to sidestep it a few inches to the left before delivering a left hook to her side, paralyzing her. This was followed by a punch to the solar plexus. Buttercup tried to salvage the situation by bear-hugging Bunny, only for her to break it easily and sweep her off her feet, leaving her groaning on the floor.

The second match wasn't any better for Buttercup. After a brief exchange of punches and deflections, a single punch to her armpit, even when pulled back, was enough to send her back to the ground.

The third match had devolved into wrestling. Buttercup, in her desperation to win at least one for herself, was initially able to gain the high ground by forcing Bunny to the ground face-down and pinning her arm to her back. Bunny would then proceed to launch the both of them up into the air with her super-strength and reverse their positions, with the force of the impact causing Buttercup to let go. Bunny would then pin her to the ground in the exact same position.

It was the 'Floor Hopper', as Selicia would term it.

"Seriously, Buttercup? It couldn't be two to one or even one to two? It just had to be three-love! That was pathetic!" Selicia would reprimand Buttercup after that, something which the enhanced little Girl found upsetting, though she'd kept it to herself. Selicia would then turn to Bunny to give her a quick coach-like one-armed hug and a rub on the head. "Good job, Bunny! Looks like your training's paying off. But I wonder…" Selicia's gaze had wandered to Blossom, then briefly to the emotionally-wounded Buttercup.

"Blossom, you're up," the security officer called to the leader of The Three. It was her turn, at last! Blossom had been waiting for this moment, which couldn't come too soon - the seconds were ticking by so slowly. It was finally her chance to prove herself to be the superior of the quartet! Blossom inched her gaze a little towards the left; yes, Dad was watching too. It'd surely mean that she'd get the attention she deserved after defeating Bunny!

Selicia, however, had a different idea in mind.

"Buttercup, you'll team up with Blossom. If you win this one match, we'll call it even. If you don't…" Selicia's voice trailed off before she turned to Bunny. "You think you can beat them both, Honey Rabbit? It's perfectly fine to back down from a fight you can't win."

"I can win, Mom," Bunny simply said, her tone turning away from confusion and anxiety into something more enlightened. Memories of her training had surfaced after she was punched in the face by Buttercup. She wasn't going to just roll over and die.

Buttercup was incensed, and right beside her, Blossom thought that Bunny was showing off once more. The sheer arrogance of it! It was reasonable if she thought she could beat Buttercup alone, but to take on two of them at once and come out on top? When the two of them had more than four months of hard-core live combat experience combined?

"Go right ahead then. Form a triangle, the three of you," Selicia ordered. Bunny got into position but Blossom and Buttercup were staring at her, confused. Selicia had to arrange them in the end, making so that each Girl was a corner of an equilateral triangle. Even before the match was started, Blossom and Buttercup were already giving Bunny the death stare. Bunny could have sworn that their eyes were glowing brighter from the intensity of their gaze alone.

Buttercup, as usual, launched ahead when Selicia ordered them to begin, this time with even greater ferocity. Blossom, however, opted to watch first as Buttercup screamed her way towards Bunny and fired punch after punch at her. With equal speed, Bunny was dodging strikes over her and deflecting blows aimed straight at her. In the meantime, Blossom decided to flank her, and while Bunny was busy, delivered a flying kick, expecting a hit - only for Bunny to practically warp out of the way backward.

Surging forward, however, Buttercup side-kicked Bunny while she was still reeling from the double-team and managed a hit on her chest. Bunny stumbled backward, lost her balance and fell in the same direction. Blossom was quick to take advantage of this; while Bunny was still getting up, she leaped towards her for a heavy flying spinning kick, and when she fazed out of the way, threw a surprise punch, which caught her in the throat. Bunny's hands went up as she gagged on the force of the punch. Blossom couldn't help but smile when she made the gains she did.

Selicia opted not to stop the match. Professor Utonium watched in horror as the practice match became more serious than it should. Knowing that training was important for the Girls' development and survival in the field, he stayed where he was, and could only trust in his Girls that they knew better than to cross the line and actually wound each other.

Without resting on her laurels, Blossom flung another kick at Bunny - but she was able to deflect it one-handed, with the other hand on her throat, still. When Blossom followed it up with another kick, Bunny seized Blossom by the foot and threw her off her other foot. Buttercup had 'intervened' before Bunny could capitalize on Blossom's vulnerable state.

Buttercup had attempted to mix it up, throwing in a kick or two in between multiple punches going in unpredictable patterns in the hops of catching Bunny off-guard, but Bunny didn't need to predict a pattern; she simply needed to block her blows fast enough or distract Buttercup with her own attacks, something her Chemical X2 enhancement had allowed… up to a point.

A punch slipped through after an extended exchange of attacks, and it'd gone right for Bunny's mouth. Bunny could taste blood immediately after that. She gritted her red teeth and licked the blood off them as she stared Buttercup down, seeing her as nothing more than an enemy in the sweltering heat of combat.

Buttercup didn't stop even after drawing blood; violence had become her only other stimulus now, beyond the hope of seeing her new friend. Attracted to where the blood was, she flew in with a kick, only to get sidestepped. That was when she felt a sharp pain right in the spine at the small of her back. Bunny had elbowed her there and caused so much pain that she'd fallen over, writhing on the ground.

Bunny did not stop, however, and began kicking Buttercup while she was down, just so she wouldn't get up again. It was conventional military thinking which was still relevant in an age of enhanced children enforcing the law.

On seeing this, Blossom launched at her with a barrage of punches, aimed at her solar plexus and kidneys, but Bunny was far too fast for her; Bubbles had been her limit. It'd ended with Bunny breaking her defense and directing two quick punches to her own solar plexus, then another up her armpit, sending her twirling into the ground, and like Buttercup, she couldn't get up after that.

Selicia was stunned, and so was the professor that they were rooted in their places, though they were paralyzed each by different reasons. Bubbles' mouth was agape. Bunny was practically a blur whenever she was moving, whether it was to react to an attack or to attack. Blossom and Buttercup simply couldn't match her speed.

When it was all over, Bunny was standing where she was, panting. Her hands were still up in a defensive posture. She would look to and fro, expecting another attack from another angle, but there was no more. It took her killer's instinct time to back down; Blossom and Buttercup, in the meantime, were actually afraid of her, and while Bunny was coming down from her adrenaline rush, they were crawling away from her as if she was something worse than Mojo Jojo.

Eventually, the entire lab finally snapped out of their amazement. Selicia was the first to rush up to Buttercup. Bubbles ran up to Blossom, though Bunny had tried to help her up out of concern only for Blossom to push her away and squeal for her to back off like a wounded animal. The professor, however, was the only member of the family to pay any attention to Bunny after the horrific fight.

"Are you okay, Sugar-Bun?" the professor asked out of concern as she pulled her gently away from the makeshift arena.

"They… They attacked me and I defended myself…" Bunny muttered absentmindedly. Her mind was still stuck in battle, stuck analyzing every tiny little movement and development that transpired since Selicia's call for the match to start.

"It's just training, Bunny, that's all it is," the professor was desperately trying to preserve what little scraps of innocence there was left in Bunny, but it was like carrying water with his bare hands. "It got a little out of hand, but it's normal. It happens all the time."

"Really?" Bunny sort of knew that there was some embellishment in what Dad had said, but hardwired into her head was the fact that Daddy could never be wrong. Father knows best, as the saying goes.

"Yeah… Nothing to worry about, sweetheart. Now come over here and sit down," the professor walked her over to the medical side of the lab. He was soon checking her mouth after that, making sure that there was no permanent damage, that Bunny wouldn't be losing her teeth anytime soon. It was still a mystery how the Girls' teeth work, a reminder that the professor still hadn't brought the Girls to a dentist for a checkup.

Although misaligned, Bunny's teeth were fine, if only in need of braces. The blood was from tears in her gum, but those had already been sealed. With Bunny, they would heal fully in a matter of hours.

Meanwhile, Selicia was bringing the rest of the Girls to him. Instead of feeling relief from how the rest of the Girls were fine, however, the professor found himself feeling something else, something he had never felt about the rest of his family for a very long time.

The professor had made sure to send Bunny out of the lab before he said anything.

"Why didn't you stop the fight?" the professor questioned the woman he had come to accept as his fiancee - his fiancee! Doing this to his adopted children! "Look at them!" Blossom and Buttercup were occupying Selicia's arm each, each shivering in pain, clutching tightly onto her as if she was their lifeboat. Selicia looked like she was barely able to stand, likely because they were decked out fully in armor - which didn't stop Bunny from dishing out the pain.

"I thought they knew when to stop," Selicia managed to utter, flabbergasted by how things had devolved so quickly - and the Girls typically fought at speeds multiple times that of normal people. But it didn't matter; she didn't think that now was a time to hide certain truths from Thomas. "I messed up - I'm sorry…"

The professor said nothing. Not even a word. Selicia left on her own, going up the stairs. He wasn't quite done with her yet, but there were pressing matters to attend to - namely, three of his quartet. Bunny had gotten off surprisingly light - with no fractures to her facial areas and no damage to her trachea.

The damage Bunny did to Blossom and Buttercup, however, appeared more severe on the surface. Bunny had cracked the Kevlar plates inside their vests, and when those were removed, the professor discovered huge bruises in Blossom's solar plexus and armpit, and the lower half of Buttercup's spine. He had to send them through an x-ray scanner to detect internal injuries if there were any.

And it was done with bated breath from the rest of the family.

But there were no internal injuries, just bleeding beneath the skin, which stopped after they'd sufficiently reminded everyone of the ferocity of the training battle.

The professor had been quiet throughout the medical examination, something which worried Blossom while Buttercup remained as nonchalant as she had recently become. In both their minds, things that were unordinary were taking shape.

"Dad?" Blossom tried talking to him while she was still lying on her back in her ward bed. The professor was sitting behind a desk nearby, typing up a report.

It was as if he didn't hear her. But she could see that he did. She had even zoomed her vision in to see his face better. He took a brief, irritated peek at Blossom before going back to his work.

"Dad, please talk to me," Blossom said. The fear in her voice wasn't hidden at all. If she was trying to, she had failed miserably. Dad was actually less frightening back when Buttercup was wrongfully accused by Bubbles of abusing drugs, or when he was teaching her a lesson about abandoning sisters in the middle of a district rife with sex crimes.

"I thought you're smarter than this, Bloss," the professor simply said while he was typing away on his computer. Blossom's vision was still enhanced. She'd noticed that he was writing near-gibberish on the computer screen towards the latter half of his report. "Why, Blossom? Your Mom didn't… bear you a new sister for you to hurt her."

Blossom couldn't tell him. Neither could she come up with any reasonable excuse. She was smart enough to know that there was none for what she did. She'd struck Bunny in all the wrong places, all in the hopes of beating her and gaining Dad's attention. It was ironic how she'd gotten what she wanted, except she'd gotten the wrong kind of attention.

The professor was shaking with anger, but he was holding it back. He'd rested a hand on his desk, and it was balled up into a fist.

"You and Buttercup will be fine. You're lucky that Bunny's fine," the professor said while pinning his eyes on her, those carnivorous eyes he'd get when he was angry. "I don't care how you'll do it, but you're going to make it up to her one way or another."

"Dad, I…" Blossom had wanted to tell her about how she'd been feeling for days, since Bunny's entrance into the family, only to realize that it wasn't a good time for it. It never was, not since Bunny came into the picture. Before she'd get a chance to reconsider her decision, however, Dad went on:

"What are you waiting for? I told you, you're fine," he said coldly. "So get off my hospital bed and find a way to make things right with Bunny."

Blossom gasped when her Dad had essentially told her off when she needed him the most. Bunny had done more damage to her than the twenty or so Rothsteins she had killed or wounded. Was it just Bunny that'd made him mad? Blossom still hadn't figured out if he knew that she'd been killing criminals.

"Dad, I really need to talk to you," Blossom begged.

"No, you need to talk to Bunny," Dad snapped back at her. "Who I really need to talk to is Buttercup."

Buttercup turned on her bed, careful not to agitate the bruise on her back, and looked at Dad impassive. It actually took effort for her to speak, not from pain or lack of energy, but from the sheer lack of motivation. "You do?" she asked.

"Dad-" Blossom mewled.

"Just go, Blossom. Don't talk to me again until Bunny's happy," he snapped back at her again. Brought nearly to tears, Blossom floated off her bed and towards the stairs. Turning around to look at the professor one last time, she hoped for her Dad to second-guess himself, but he hadn't even looked her way as far as she could see.

As soon as Blossom left, Professor Utonium got up from his chair. Buttercup had lost interest in a span of seconds and had rolled back to face away from him. He'd expected her to be rough with Bunny - it was within her character to do so - but what really concerned him was her complete apathy to… everything. Even Selicia had told him in bed the previous day that Buttercup seemed less engaged even with her. Alice had yet to say anything, no thanks to General Blackwater for canceling Wednesday's psychiatric session without his input.

Coming up to Buttercup, the professor put his hand on Buttercup's arm. There was no reaction from her. "Buttercup?" he tried to catch her attention, but she continued to pretend she didn't hear him. So he walked around the bed… only for her to turn and face the other side, rubbing her aching back after that.

"Buttercup," the professor said again.

"What?" she finally said something.

"I know you're still upset with me," he said. "I was wrong. I shouldn't have jumped the gun so quickly when Bubbles accused you of using those drugs." It felt as if some weight was lifted off his shoulder. There hadn't been time enough for him to admit his mistake sooner, even when Bunny was gone. He'd spent it on worrying and fearing for Bunny's life then, something he regretted.

Buttercup said nothing to that. In her mind, that wasn't the only thing that'd left her disenfranchised. It was just one transgression after the next, a string of proof that she was just the third wheel of the Powerpuff Girls, tied to the moment she was born. And now, with Bunny in the picture, what was she? The fourth wheel? Not that it mattered anymore - there was someone else, someone so powerful he could command the love and obedience of thousands, something she doubt Dad could do.

"I'll always love you, no matter who or what you are," Dad said when he was met with silence once more. Not that it worked. He sat down on her ward bed, his hand on her shoulder. He caressed her cheek briefly, partly because he was afraid anything more ambitious might provoke her. "Look, how about if you choose what's for dinner? I'll get you whatever you want."

Buttercup seemed silent at first, and the professor was all but certain that he wasn't getting through to her, until…

"Can I get an ice-cream? And pizza?" Buttercup finally took the offer. She'd rolled over to finally face him.

"What flavor?" the professor asked readily, afraid that he might lose the opportunity to communicate with Buttercup if he hesitated.

"Mint and pepperoni – no pineapples!" Buttercup said. "Yuck, I hate that fruit!"

"Mint and pepperoni, coming right up!" the professor said with glee - finally, some positive banter between him and Buttercup! "There's just… one small price to pay, Butterscotch."

Buttercup never liked the nickname Mom and Dad would give her. Butters, Butterball, Butterfly, Butterscotch, and even more recently and shamefully, Buttress and Butterbread.

"What?" Buttercup asked, already beginning to lose interest because of Dad's habits.

"How about a hug and a kiss?" the professor asked. More lovey-dovey SHIT that Buttercup hated. But if it meant getting ice-cream (mint-flavored too!) and pepperoni pizza…

"Okay…" Buttercup agreed begrudgingly, sitting up and giving Dad a hug and a peck on the cheek.

"Oh, doesn't that feel good?" Dad said.

"Yeah, super," Buttercup 'agreed', though she'd kept the sarcasm as hidden as super-humanly possible, lest she risk getting her ice-cream and pizza offer retracted.

"How long has it been since we last did this?" he would then ask.

'Not long enough,' Buttercup thought, as her mind wandered to the dead cat, the cultists and their sacrifices for her, and the powerful friend she was going to meet.