Chapter 108: The Fallout
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
08 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 1335.
Bunny had once again found herself at the balcony, staring into the distance. So much had happened, and too much had changed. The line was drawn between her and Blossom, and even Bubbles seemed to be keeping a distance. When Bunny came back home with Bubbles, it was clear from her Dad's behavior that Blossom had made good on her promise to tell him everything. They didn't talk much even as he was patching her up. Lunch was a quiet, subdued affair. Then there was her sword, which seemed to have taken on a personality of its own, changing her, and finally, the fact that she hadn't been well lately. She had only just recovered from the pain in her joints and neck and the odd exhaustion she was feeling.
It was all getting too much. Bunny's thoughts turned to the most extreme solutions for recourse. She thought about running away or even killing herself. Her life had been nothing but a lack of freedom and an abundance of violence, all in the name of protecting a family that no longer cared for her.
While she was deep in thought, the glass door behind her slid open. The huge form of Dad came up next to her. Professor Utonium rested his white-sleeved arms on the balcony railing, noticeably looking distant as if he had ceased to be her father.
"Do you hate me, Dad?" Bunny finally managed to summon the courage to ask.
Professor Utonium sighed. Bunny found it worrying.
"No..." he had said this in a way similar to a long-drawn yawn as if he was exhausted even though it was just past noon.
"I can never hate you, Bunny," he went on, but still kept his distance. "I don't think I should hate you either. You're not a monster, and I know it's much more complicated than what Blossom believes…"
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
08 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 1216.
The doorbell rang while Professor Utonium was watching the television, hoping to learn more about his adopted daughters in advance that way. He padded over to his front door to open it, only to find a rather troubling sight: Blossom, alone. Her uniform was hanging loose and slightly unbuttoned, her vest loosened and her jacket unzipped, opened to give her bandage and the wound underneath some space. Beyond this, however, she was clean. What worried him was the absence of Bubbles and Bunny.
"Blossom, where are your sisters?" the professor asked, uneasy about the turn of events.
"Dad, I have to talk to you. It's about Bunny…" Blossom said, and though the gravity of the matter wasn't light, she enjoyed finally speaking to her Dad, one-to-one with no distractions and certainly no Bunny.
"Is she-" the professor couldn't finish his sentence. He couldn't stomach the idea of it, partly because he had a hand in Bunny's destiny as a law enforcement bioweapon, but also partly because Bunny was so young, with so much more to live for. He had created her, and quite simply, he loved her. "Is she… dead?"
"Dad? No! It's not that," Blossom said, putting the professor at ease.
"Then what is it about?" the professor asked. Together, the creator and enhanced child returned to the living room, sitting around the fireplace.
"Bunny's been killing people outside," Blossom divulged the secret. She bit her lips, unsure of how to go on from here. "She killed a lot of bad guys today, and she… messed them up really badly. Like, there were many of them with their heads gone and cut in half and… It was really bad, Dad."
"I see," the professor muttered. He leaned back on his couch. He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath before opening them again. "In a way, I knew she's been doing that. It's why General Blackwater wanted her to keep things secret. I just wish that was all…"
"There's more, Dad… Bunny, she-" Blossom said before stopping. She wiped some tears away before continuing with her narrative. "Bunny burned me with her eye beams and I fainted and- and- if Bubbles hadn't been there, I don't know what would have happened to me…"
It wasn't something Professor Utonium expected. He didn't think that Bunny was even capable of attacking her own sisters. She simply had too much respect for them. She looked up to them as well as cared deeply about them - from what he knew, it was for them that she continued to fight crime without ever saying a word.
"She… It can't be. Are you sure it wasn't an accident?" the professor questioned Blossom, who shifted under his inquiry. Although he wasn't interrogating her, she knew that the picture wasn't as black-and-white, and it implicated her as well. "Maybe she was firing at someone else and hit you by accident?"
"No, Dad! She shot me and she wasn't trying to hit anyone else!" Blossom shouted as she rose from the couch, feeling anger and annoyance surging in her. It'd come up even without her knowing, and she didn't even understand why at first. It was the first time she had ever felt this way towards Dad, and it frightened even herself. Her eyes fell to the floor, suddenly ashamed of herself as she sank back down to her seat.
"Assuming you're right…" the professor went on. Blossom's outburst did not go unnoticed, but he'd decided to let it go as he understood what Blossom was going through. "Did she have a reason for doing that? Did she tell you anything?"
Blossom couldn't make up her mind on what to say next. She wasn't sure if she should even tell the truth or lie, as so many things could paint her as the villain.
"She… she said she's better than me and that she should fight and not me and Bubbles!" Blossom's dark side eventually won out, though she became uneasy because of her choice. Yes, she wanted Bunny to suffer and lose Daddy's attention, just so she could get it all back. But to tell a lie… It was against her conscience, and something Dad wouldn't like. It had added another misdeed on top of the others, secrets that were like wild animals, clawing to get out.
Bubbles and Bunny would return a short time later.
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
08 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 1337.
"-and Blossom thinks that you're full of yourself, that you believe you should fight crime alone and not your sisters. Is that true?" the professor finished off the story and waited.
"I just want to protect Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup!" Bunny retorted, shocked that Blossom would talk behind her back like that. Realizing that she had raised her voice at Dad, she apologized: "I'm sorry… Things have been bad between Blossom and me…" She had started tearing up again.
"Tell me what happened, Bunny. I want your side of the story," the professor asked. He rubbed her shoulder amicably. Bunny stopped crying, believing now that things weren't all doom and gloom as she believed.
She told Dad everything, how she tried to convince Blossom to stay out of the fight only to be screamed at, how she then stunned her, and went on to fight alone. She talked about her battle - now finally allowed to do so since the mission was a public one - and how she had been proven right by the unusual number of Duranium firearms and explosives the Russian Mob possessed. She talked about how Blossom beat her up later and left Bubbles and her behind in anger.
The professor was disturbed. The sibling rivalry between Blossom and Bunny was fast going out of hand. But he knew immediately who was wrong in this case.
"You have nothing to apologize for," the professor said. He couldn't resist the frown that was cresting on his face. "Just… Look at the trees, Bunny, and forget about all this. I'm going to have a chat with Blossom."
The professor knew where Blossom was. He'd seen her on the way up, watching some cartoon on the television about a fictional talking dog and a crew of ghost hunters. He started on his way down, and the more he thought about Blossom, the more infuriated he had become, and the more infuriated he was, he started going faster, until he was almost breaking into a jog.
He was almost flying down the stairs when he shouted: "Blossom!"
Blossom jumped up from the couch, shocked by the sudden confrontation.
"Dad? What-"
"Zoiks! Run, Scooby-Doo! Run!" the television blared as it talked to itself. "Rhelp!"
"Blossom! I've taught you better than this!" the professor shouted at her, gesticulating madly at her as he marched up to her. When he got up to her, he grabbed the TV remote roughly from her and switched the TV off. "We talked about it! I thought we had an understanding!"
"Understanding about what, Dad? Why are you yelling at me?" Blossom asked, confused, and upset that things had deteriorated once again.
"When you told me your story, you conveniently left out the part where you beat up your own sister! And that wasn't the only thing you left out, was it?" the professor snarled, pointing fingers at her. "I really want to believe you, Blossom! You lied - even when I told you not to!"
"But- but- I- didn't-" Blossom stuttered as she struggled to think of a way out for this one, but for some reason, the only thing she could think about, oddly, was how similar to Buttercup she had become.
"And let me tell you one other thing you did! You left your family behind - again! And two of them, this time!" the professor roared. "You were supposed to be smarter than that, Blossom! What the hell is going on with you!?"
"But- It didn't happen that way!" Blossom blubbered.
"Are you saying Bubbles' been lying to me?" the professor interjected. Unknown to both Blossom and Bunny, he had taken the time to speak to Bubbles about this shortly after she had returned. She had been the key to telling what was the lie and what was the truth.
"No…" Blossom said. She couldn't help it anymore. Having been found out and humiliated, she couldn't hold back her tears and whimpers. All she ever wanted was her Dad's love, but all she had found was his ire.
"I'm grounding you, starting from today," the professor said. "No TV, no going out of your room, and no desserts! And don't you dare cry or whine about this treatment because you deserve it!"
"Why, Blossom? I didn't want to believe General Blackwater when he said it. He said that you're not suitable to lead Bubbles, Buttercup and Bunny. That would have been fine, but the way you're going right now, you're not even suitable to be their sister!" the professor continued scolding Blossom, who took it even though she was downcast and depressed over the turn of events. "But I'm starting to think that he's right. You've really disappointed me, Blossom. I thought you know better than that!"
"What else have you been hiding from me? Spit it out!" the professor went on to demand.
Blossom, who had shut her eyes for fear of looking at Dad, and to stop the endless supply of tears, shook her head, even though in her mind, she knew that she had many other secrets she had declined to let out.
"Fine. But can I really even trust you from now on?" the professor lamented. "Now go up to your room and think about what you've done wrong. Get going!"
Reluctantly, Blossom obeyed him and floated lazily towards the second floor.
"And no powers in The House!" the professor warned her. Depressed, Blossom touched down at the foot of the stairs and started climbing it one step at a time to the second floor…
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
08 MAR (Wednesday) 1989. 2214.
Later that night, after Doctor Alice's routine visit, the Girls were tucked in for the night after a quick bedtime story. But when the adults were gone, something sinister took over.
"Bunny, get off the bed," Blossom said to her neme-sister quite unexpectedly, when the younger Girl thought that they had all forgiven each other.
"But why?" Bunny asked, even though she knew the answer. It was all happening in the near-darkness, with only a ray of light coming in from the half-opened door.
"I'm not sleeping with you next to me," Blossom replied. "Get out!"
"But… This is my bed too…" Bunny said, sitting up. "Bubbles, tell her!"
There was nothing but silence from Bubbles. She had plenty of time to think about what Bunny had done. The way she had murdered all those Russian mobsters was horrific, how she tore them up like slabs of meat, like some animal or mythical werebeast… Like Mac and her origamis, and like Lumpkins, back in the forests of Pokey Oaks. Her eyes had shone red, which was never, ever a good sign.
"Buttercup! Tell her, Buttercup, please!" Bunny pleaded with the other Powerpuff Girl, but she remained as silent as she had been for most of the day, forever brooding about something she alone knew.
"Blossom, please…" Bunny then returned to begging Blossom. "I'm sorry I burned you with my beam - I just didn't want you to be hurt by the bad guys again!"
Next thing she knew, she felt a shove coming from Blossom, and when that wasn't enough to dislodge her from the bed, she felt a bare foot to her face, which sent her crashing down to the carpeted floor. Although it could never injure her, the sensation from the fall, not to mention that humiliating kick in the face, was still unpleasant.
"Our bed was colored pink, blue and green. I don't see any purple in it, so it's not yours! It's never yours!" Blossom shrieked in a hushed tone, projected to the room but not loud enough for Dad and Mom to hear. "Get out of the room! It's all your fault Daddy hates me now!"
Wiping tears away, Bunny got up and left the room. Where would she sleep now? Walking down the second-floor corridor in her pajamas, Bunny came upon Dad and Mom's room. She considered skipping it, as talking to Dad would only bring more trouble to Blossom, but what then? Where would she go? There was no other way.
Bunny began knocking on the door. There was no response at first. She thought she could hear Dad and Mom whispering to each other, doing something at first. But then there was the sound of clothes getting put on and footsteps.
"Dad! Please!" Bunny cried as she knocked on the door, desperate for attention after her rejection from even the sweet Bubbles. For a split second, she thought that her rejection would continue through her parents. For a split second, she thought that Blossom's hatred had spread to Dad.
Then the door opened.
"Bunny? What are you doing out here?" Dad asked and Bunny immediately jumped on top of him, hugging him tightly. The professor laughed, thinking at first that Bunny had been silly. "Hey silly Girl, what's wrong?"
"Blossom, she- she kicked me out!" Bunny cried, rubbing her face in the professor's bare shoulder. "She said it's my fault you hate me and- and she kicked me out!"
"What do you mean? From your own room?" Selicia said, looming behind the professor with nothing but the pants of her pajamas and her bra on. On hearing this, she frowned and pushed past her lover. "I'll teach that know-it-all a lesson!"
"Selicia, honey, wait!" the professor grabbed her by the arm.
"What, Thomas!?" Selicia said. Professor Utonium was taken aback by his soon-to-be-wife's attitude. He had never seen her like this before. Since when did she start calling Blossom a know-it-all? But he kept his insights to himself. He thought it was largely nothing, just Selicia becoming cranky from being interrupted from their nightly activities.
"Not now, not like this," the professor said. "Let the Girls sleep. We'll talk to them tomorrow."
"As for you, Bunny," the professor turned to the youngest of the quartet. "How about if you sleep in our room for tonight?"
"Really?" Bunny said. She didn't expect this. Never had General Blackwater or even Nana allowed this. Dad and Mom had never extended this offer either, and Bunny had sort of understood this as the concept of 'privacy'.
"Can't she get her own room?" Selicia pleaded with the professor.
"Maybe tomorrow, dear. Bunny's upset. She needs us," he said. Selicia laughed. Was that bitterness in her voice?
"Of course. How can I be so selfish?" she said. The professor was reassured. How could Selicia ever be bitter about taking care of the Girls? His own mother, estranged from her though he was, had often talked about a certain common kinship among girls and women, often called upon in times like this.
Selicia leaned over to Bunny and pecked her on the forehead. "Let's bring her in, then."
It was on this night that Bunny had caught a glimpse of the professor and the sergeant's master bedroom. For some reason, clothes were lying on the ground. The professor's lab coat and office wear, Selicia's military dress uniform and various underwear, which the adults cleared up quickly after letting Bunny in. Still, the damage was done and the professor could only hope that the implications of the mess would sail over her head…
Which it did. Instead, Bunny focused her attention on a white, flowing headdress on the desk and a white gown inside an open cabinet. Selicia had briefly shown them to the professor before they got passionate, and it had served as a distraction from it for Bunny.
The enhanced child stood before the white gown, awed by its quality and beauty. She had never seen anything quite like it, and the only thing that could equal its workmanship was arguably her (un)powered armor. Selicia came up behind Bunny, putting her hands on her shoulders.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" she said. "Your Dad and I are going to get married in just a couple of weeks."
Bunny smiled. It was something positive, at least, something to be happy for. Before Bunny had even started training to replace her sisters as a law enforcer, she knew from the wedding photo shoot that Dad and Mom were getting married. She had a brief conversation about the subject and knew that it amounted to a 'happily ever after' for them and of course, her and her sisters. What she didn't know was that it was… unconventional… for a pair of parents to marry only after having four children. Not that Bunny knew about the exact nature of the four children, including herself, nor how they were 'conceived'.
"Someday, you're going to wear one of your own and get married to a man who loves you like how your Dad loves me," Selicia went on. "I'm sure a Girl like you will find true love."
"Really?" Bunny said.
"I can't wait for my own wedding!" she added, and before long, she was fast asleep, snuggled between the two protective pillars that were Dad and Mom, so that she could 'move time' and get closer to a brighter future.
