AU: Just an idea that's been brewing for a while. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

Summary: "No matter what we are, no matter what we're capable of, we're still just teenagers." A raw anecdote that hopes to humanize kids who've never had the luxury of being mundane, and show how illusory invincibility can be.

Disclaimer: A few characters are mine. The rest of them are Craig's, but I own these words :)

Rating: R/Fiction M. They're teenagers. Sex, drugs and profanity are not unprecedented.

Pairing: PPG/RRB

Notes: - Inspired by the legendary "More Than Human" by sbj and the urge for representation.

- Strong themes.

II - Nice To Finally Meet You - Zed

Tuesday served as a sort of reality check for the Girls, having arrived school just as the Boys exited their cars.

Unlike yesterday though, only brief glances were exchanged between them, save for the smirk Butch thew Buttercup's way, to which she clenched her teeth but reserved any outburst. Boomer gave Bubbles a signature smile as well, eliciting an awkward smile from her in return.

Bunny was excited for World Music class, she'd meant to enroll last year but had her hands full with the band and World Literature. Now having dropped the latter she found both her academic and social schedule convenient enough to take the class. If only she'd known how the first few days of Junior High were going to play out, she'd have beat herself with some clown make-up before registering.

Bunny fiddled with her pen abashedly, channeling a significant amount of focus on the board, resolute in her effort to look anywhere, anywhere but her right. Where Bear was seated, directly beside her. She'd gotten to class early, as she tended to do, there were about three, four people present when she entered, naturally leaving multiple seats free for occupation, which everyone and anyone was entitled to, of-course.

But Bunny had found it just a tad bit disorienting when Bear emerged through the doors—about forty seconds after she had—scanned the classroom, spotted Bunny, immediately claimed the seat right next to her, and said nothing. It was as if the universe had taken some unforeseen, sadistic interest in unequivocally fucking with her, or maybe Bear had. Or worse yet, maybe they were cohorts in the matter.

Why would he do that? Why would he sit by her side if he didn't intend to talk to her?

Maybe he's just waiting for class to start. You know, like a normal person, she'd told herself, but dismissed the thought right after. There was nothing normal about their situation, right? There was history, if not between them, definitely surrounding them and he hadn't addressed it.

She was aware she shared that responsibility, but...

She inwardly sighed.

But nothing, from where she stood, she was the one who this was eating up inside, she was the one who had to confront him. But Jesus was his presence nerve-wracking, his indiscernible expression didn't help matters. At some point during class she caught him looking at her through her peripheral vision and nearly snapped her pen in half.

She had to restrain herself from whizzing out the door once the bell went. She instead limpidly gathered her things in a manner she hoped epitomized composure. She reached back to grab her book tote and heard him shuffle to his feet. She looked back up in time to see him exit the class without so much as a glance in her direction.

She blinked at the open door as people continuously walked through it, before groaning and taking her face in her hands. Why was she being so God damn weird about this?

"Bunny?"

She parted her fingers just enough to see through them and realized it was Mr. Zuberi who'd called her attention from behind his desk. He looked at one of his brightest students with a worried expression. "Is everything alright?"

Bunny dropped her hands, revealing her vacant visage. She was assured then, that this situation was really pestering her, when in that moment, she'd actually considered revealing her current dilemma to her teacher.

She nodded instead, the emptiness in her features prevalent. "I'm fine Mr. Z", she slung her tote over her shoulder and stood up, realizing she was the last one left in the class. Those who had this second period were already filing in. She threw him a hesitant smile as she made her way to the door.

"Thank you for asking."

You've got to be kidding me, Blossom thought from her position seated in-front of her black canvas, eyes on a concentrated Brick next to her.

For the myriad of knowledge that Blossom had at her disposal, she couldn't conjure up any logical reason as to why Brick, Brick, of all people, was seated in this class. What portfolio could he have possibly submitted to place him in Art IV instantly? She watched as he sketched into his drawing pad before pausing to look at his canvas, angling his head at it, and grabbing his eraser.

The gears in her head spun frantically as she tried to make sense of this. She pictured the five year old miscreant who had taken pleasure in mass vandalism. The boy who prided himself on inane exploits like stealing candy. And now she pitted that mental picture against the boy seated beside her, applying shade to his sketch. She practically heard her brain glitch in protest. This was nothing short of absurd, and Blossom was so enwrapped by this unorthodoxy that she'd ended up pointedly staring at him rather than at the work in-front of her.

"Really," he suddenly said, startling her and disrupting her train of thought. "Do you really, not have anything better to do than peer at me like some sort of owl." He said, glaring at her for emphasis.

Blossom blinked at him, then steeled her eyes once she'd collected herself. "I'm sorry, I just find it incredibly unimaginable that a villainous person like yourself could have anything even remotely resembling of art in them."

She made out just the faintest tightening of his jaw. He leaned forward slightly, lip curling in anger as he growled, "You don't know anything about me."

She matched his tone. "I know exactly who you are."

"Is there a problem?"

They both looked up to Ms. Wilson standing over both of them, a reproachful brow raised.

Blossom gave Brick one last glare for good measure before she huffed and returned her attention to her canvas. "No Ms. Wilson, I apologize."

The woman gave them a once over, before walking past them as she continued to inspect the students' work. Brick let his glare on Blossom linger, wishing more than anything in that moment that he could sear a few lasers into her stupid face. Maybe that would get her to Shut The Fuck Up.

She didn't bother looking back at him, and with a grunt, he turned back to his drawing pad.

"Like it's not enough that he's a disgusting fucking jackass! He's also a disgusting fucking, perverted jackass." Buttercup hissed through gritted teeth, her unfortunate soda can taking all the punishment as she squished it with every word, until it was nothing more than a thin clump of dripping metal. Mitch and Harry—who were on either side of her—had shifted their food the instant she began ranting about Butch, intent on avoiding the raindrops of Mountain Dew that erupted from the object in her hand.

"He literally spent all of gym drooling over the girls, and then when we get on the court he starts throwing raunchy comments at my teammates who totally encourage him!"

Bunny gently pulled the crushed can out of Buttercup's hands, foreseeing her reflexively throwing it at someone.

"Those dudes stealin' all the attention now man," Harry said begrudgingly. "You should'a heard the way girls were talkin' about 'em in Algebra."

"You gotta admit man, it's damn near impossible to compete against guys with freakin' superpowers," Mitch said, placating Harry.

"Brick's so tall and dark and mysterious. What about Bear? That tattoo on his neck? I would definitely have his babies." Kim sighed with beaming eyes, parodying the comments she'd come across herself.

"Bear has a tattoo on his neck?!" Bunny and Pablo echoed, the former less dramatically than the latter.

"What, does it say 'Douchebag' in cursive?" Buttercup scoffed.

"I even heard they're all on the Male Hottie list," Harry continued to pout.

"No surprise there," Pablo gave a variant of his many sighs.

"Seriously? When was it updated?" Kim said incredulously, she never missed the memo.

"Can we fucking talk about something else," Mitch diverted, turning to Bunny. "Battle of the Bands?"

Bunny snapped a finger. "Damn. That's Friday night."

"We might have to dip if we don't find somebody today," Harry pointed out.

"No, we won't." Bunny scolded, waving a finger at him. "I'll play the guitar if I have to, but that's plan B."

"Aren't you guys going to need time to practice?" Buttercup asked, grabbing a bunch of Mitch's fries from his tray. He didn't bat an eye.

"Anyone as good as Wes would nail our original songs in a couple days," Bunny assured.

"Starting to doubt we're actually going to find anyone as good as him at this rate. Like, ten people auditioned yesterday."

"There's always some Hendrix wannabe F'ing around somewhere." Buttercup countered Kim in a rare show of optimism.

Her gaze soared aimlessly then as she munched, until it landed on a table about five or so tables over them, practically at the end of the cafeteria. Buttercup scowled at the occupants.

Bear met her icy glare with a jaded gaze, Brick followed Bear's line of sight, frowning upon seeing who was in it. Both their brothers followed his motion and swiveled to face that direction. Butch sneered through a full mouth of chips while Boomer simply turned back to his brothers, after noticeably reviewing the table.

"You and Brick should have like, an official Death Stare battle or something," Kim chuckled at Buttercup, who was too occupied trying to apportion the intensity of her glare equally between all four brothers.

Pablo averted his eyes to avoid subconsciously lingering. "I can't see it from here!" He cried, indignant. "What does it look like? I need you to be intricately descriptive,"

"About what? His tattoo?" Kim rose a brow.

Pablo rolled his eyes. "No, his 'personality'. Of-course his tattoo!"

"That has to tell you a lot about why you suck at relationships right?" Mitch smirked at him, Pablo warded him off with a "Shut up."

"Man, you don't even know if he's into dudes or not," Harry said, giving Pablo a deadpan, to which he simply reiterated his defensive jibe.

Bunny drowned them out, even as Mitch began to appeal to Buttercup to chill out. Her eyes peered straight ahead, past random heads of hair littering her view, past Butch's predacious smile, past Brick's cold glare—though he'd looked away from them at that moment—and right into Bear's eyes.

He stared back, keeping her there. Her reflexive thought was to flick her eyes away, but this was as far as they'd come in the way of any sort of progress, she didn't want to be the one to ruin it. He looked like he was contemplating something, like he was trying to tell her something without having to speak. Her nerves spiked a tad but she was determined not to break this contact.

He didn't carry the same conviction.

He tore his eyes away from her abruptly, letting them focus on Boomer instead. He ruined it.

She looked away just as fast, feeling she was woken from some sort of trance. She had a quick look around her table to see if she was being observed, but Harry thankfully had everyone occupied with another one of his questionable tales. All save for Pablo, who was looking at her with a bothered expression.

Bunny twitched a smile at him, chancing a hopeful look back at the Boys' table, but Bear was indulging his brothers in conversation now. She looked away and grabbed her soda.

"Man, what does a guy need to do to get a looker like that in a backseat?" Butch smirked, peeling his eyes from Bunny back to his brothers.

"In your case? Faultlessly strategized blackmail." Brick said dryly.

Butch obtained a thoughtful look, humming in consideration before facing Brick. "Remind me to ask you about that later" he said. Brick shook his head in contempt.

"The Girls don't really strike me as the type" Boomer chuckled. "They've got that whole 'superhero' image about them."

"Yeah, right." Butch scoffed. "Like you can't tell that Buttercup gets real cozy in the locker rooms" He jeered.

"You really think Buttercup's the type to sneak guys in there?" Boomer said, incredulous.

"Maybe she doesn't need to do any sneaking." Bear offered, sipping his soda.

Butch and Boomer whirled on him, confusion painting their features before realization slowly crawled in.

Butch smirked. "Now that I'm fucking certain of." He laughed. Boomer arched his brows in a way that said Oh, Damn.

"If so, she needs to get at it more often. I can't imagine the amount of repressed stress she harbors." Brick said, briefly glancing Buttercup's way. She glared back up him as though sensing his gaze.

"You found a dealer yet?" Bear asked Butch. He didn't typically smoke marijuana, and he certainly wasn't as big of an enthusiast as his brother, but he imagined it was going to take him a while to get his hands on his preferred intoxicant. He would manage. As of right now...

He stole a look at the table again, instantly averting his eyes once he registered Bunny's own orbs moving back to him.

Right now, he just really needed to relax.

"Right, shit! Gonna pound it 'outta Mitch today" Butch said, popping a handful of Lays in his mouth.

"You better. We're gonna need it" Boomer beamed. His brothers all turned to him.

"What the hell are you scheming?" Brick growled, narrowing his eyes at Boomer in warning.

"And why the hell did you scheme it without me?" Butch said, feigning anguish.

"Chill out," Boomer said, to Brick in particular. "Would you guys rather be sober at the Battle of the Bands?" He pointedly inquired.

"Oh, yeah, heard about that shit. Hm, an event packed with hotties and barely any adult supervision," Butch said, smirking at the prospect.

"Heard some of the bands here are pretty sick!" Boomer's said with a smile etched across his face. "We should totally go."

"Waste my Friday night listening to a set of mediocre, rock-star wannabes blaring noise pollution?" Brick said, pocketing his phone. "I'll pass."

"You make Squidward look like he farts rainbows. Do you know that?" Boomer said, pouting grumpily at Brick.

"Work on your material Boom," Brick dismissed in a bored tone, standing up. "I'll catch you guys later."

Boomer frowned at him as he left the table. Butch and Bear nodded at him distractedly. "Wouldn't mind staying home and writing a bit honestly." Bear said to Boomer, almost apologetically.

"Oh c'mon! Not you too? I even heard one of the Girls is on that night," Boomer said, in an attempt to hook Bear in.

"I really couldn't care le—"

"Wait, which one of them? My future baby mama?" Butch asked.

Boomer rolled his eyes. "Yeah, your future baby mama" he said, Bear paused. "Haven't you guys seen the posters on the notice boards?"

"Like that illuminant smile and those hips aren't enough, the woman can sing!" Butch sang himself, rather discordantly. "I wonder what other kinds of music she can make" Butch sniggered.

Boomer snickered at Butch's decadency despite himself. "Well, you aren't gonna find out if they don't find a new guitarist." he said, and now Bear was basically frozen.

"They're looking for a guitarist?" Bear almost said in a suddenly soft voice, wanting a reaffirmation.

"Yeah," Boomer answered, then it hit him, right across the head. He smiled broadly at Bear. "Yeah, they are."

Bear blinked, casting his eyes down to the table as he processed this new information.

"Man, I fucking suck at the guitar. You think I could get in with the armpit?" Butch said, slipping his hand under his shirt and placing it around said region, flapping experimentally.

Bear ignored him, still boring holes into the plain white of the table. He looked back up to find Boomer still beaming at him knowingly.

"To the right, the only thing going left should be your arm. That's the only way you'll pop right, you guys are looking like a spasm circus!"

Bubbles felt a little bad for the girls trying out as Clara bellowed out instructions and singled out offenders. This was most likely going to be the last day of tryouts, with aid from her and Robin, Clara had already sifted out most of them. There were just three spots available on the team, and just six girls left, so none of them were intent on letting this opportunity slip through their fingers. And being the Nazi of a Captain she was, Clara wasn't going to settle for anything short of preeminence.

"Girls, help me out." Clara called to Bubbles and Robin who were either side of her. The auditioners shuffled back until they were nearly at the middle of the Basketball court. The three girls already on the squad backed them.

"Watch our feet ladies" Clara instructed as she snapped a three-count and shifted into motion, in unison with Bubbles and Robin.

The blonde Puff felt the reflexive smile that bedecked her face upon performance rise. Ever since she'd joined the team during freshman year, it'd been apparent that she was the best on the squad, even back then. Many supposed it was natural, what with her having a significant genetic advantage and all, but that was not to undermine her intense work rate. And even more than that, she'd been dancing for as long as she remembered, cheer aside, she'd been magnetized by the artistry of dance since she was a toddler.

She'd nagged her dad ceaselessly to get her enrolled in Ballet classes, and that had only been the beginning. She spent the following years learning Hip-Hop, Latin and had just recently riveted on Ballroom. All in all she'd been dancing for close to ten years, and that was evident whenever she took to the court or the field with her teammates.

She stepped into a finishing position, her arms and legs alike spread evenly. "Got it? Alright, from the top" Clara ordered, walking back to the benches as the auditioners stepped forward.

"The whole routine is a four-step. Try counting in your head before popping out your arm" Bubbles advised in a much less direful tone compared to her captain. The girls all indicated their understanding and got into position as Clara rose her fingers to snap a count again. Just as she began, the doors to the gymnasium swung open forcefully, all the girls present turned to see who'd so boisterously interrupted them.

Bubbles' eyes widened in horror as Boomer sauntered in, whistling nonchalantly. He caught sight of the girls and ceased forcing air through his puckered lips to throw Bubbles a simper from across the court.

"What the hell is that guy doing?" Clara said in exasperation. If Boomer saw her piercing, malicious gaze, he ignored it outright.

"Uh... Bubbles?" Robin turned to her friend with a confused expression, Bubbles groaned.

Boomer halted his approach at the light blue streak that jetted towards him. It came to a stop right in-front of him and Bubbles materialized with a muffled expression on her face.

"Boomer. What are you doing here?" She asked warily.

Boomer recovered from her hasty confrontation and smiled down at her. "I heard you were at cheerleading tryouts. Vice-Captain huh?"

"...Yeah," she replied slowly, the puzzled look that adorned her face only growing. She glanced back at the girls who were all looking her way. "So... what are you doing here, exactly?" she said as she turned back to him.

"Well, I wanted I was hoping to run into you in the hallway but, since I heard you were here I wanted to come tell you myself."

"Come tell me what?"

He rose his phone that was clutched in his right hand and cocked his head at her with a smile. "You didn't text me back."

Bubbles furrowed her brow, giving him a disbelieving look. "No way. That's why you came here? You came to tell me to text you back?"

"Well, yeah. It's pretty rude not to reply people's texts yunno," Boomer said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He spoke up again right before she could say a word, "We need to get started on our assignment, we haven't even picked a song."

Bubbles stared at him, she sighed as she begrudgingly admitted that he was right. She'd seen his texts yesterday, all of them, she'd just... well frankly she didn't know why she hadn't responded, but it just felt weird. Didn't this feel weird to him? He was acting like they'd been going to school together for years, like once a upon a time he hadn't tried to kill her and her sisters repeatedly.

Boomer snapped a finger in her face and she blinked, just now putting him into focus. "So what are you saying?" he asked, looking at her as though she was the strange one.

"Well, I have to be here for a while so, how about tomorrow?"

"Cool! My place or yours?" he asked the instant she answered.

She briskly but delicately gauged the prospect of Boomer coming to her house and the inevitability of him meeting her dad. She instantly decided that, although they weren't exactly friends, she wasn't going to be the one to condemn him to that fate.

"Yours." She nodded, subconsciously wary about being in a residence where all the Rowdyruff Boys could be present. But really, she wasn't certain that Boomer would remain the same after encountering her dad and having a 'friendly talk' with him.

"Settled then, we'll head there together after school" he cheered. Bubbles had started to tell him to just send the location and she'd just meet him there but he was already walking back towards the doors. She found herself just staring at his retreating form.

She let out a sigh and was in the process of turning to walk back to the girls until Boomer spun abruptly. "Goodluck guys!" he howled encomiasticly to the auditioners, before issuing Bubbles one last grin and pushing the doors open, launching back into a rhythmic whistle.

Bubbles blinked, then made her over to where the girls were waiting. "What was that about?" Robin asked as she reached them. Bubbles waved it off.

"Nothing, he's just weird" she answered dismissively.

"Ain't that the truth" Clara assented, throwing the doors Boomer had just exited through one last muddled glance before redirecting her attention back to the girls in-front of her.

Bubbles gave the doors a protracted gaze and did the same.

Buttercup fiddled with her locker combination, mindlessly bopping to the Trap that assaulted her ears via her Headphones. She dumped her books in to it aimlessly and shut it, unfazed when Mitch was revealed to be standing just behind it, leaning on the locker next to hers. She slid her headphones down to her neck and arched a brow.

"What's up?"

"The ten bucks you owe me bitch." Mitch's smirk was cocky as he opened his palm. Buttercup gave him a bored look and folded her arms.

"You're the one who owes me ten bucks, moron." She corrected.

Mitch's smugness fell into absolute bemusement. He stared off into the distance, trying to recollect the authenticity of her claim. "Oh, shit." he said, remembering.

"Lay off the weed Mitchelson" Buttercup said reproachfully as she started for the gymnasium. He fell into step beside her.

"That's like telling Bugs Bunny to quit eating carrots, dude would get withdrawals and murder Daffy or something" Mitch sneered, lightly shoving her shoulder with his. "Give me ten bucks anyway?"

She immediately dug into her pocket, fumbling around for a bit and drawing out the monetized paper Mitch requested for.

"Alright!" he exclaimed, plucking it out of the hand she held up to him. "So what's got you ticked off... today?" he asked noting her sour demeanor.

"The fact that I have to share a court with Butch" she spat.

Mitch's sneer faltered, he looked away from her, suddenly interested in the laces of his sneakers. "Yunno, maybe he isn't as much of a dick as you peg him to be" he said in an uncharacteristically small voice.

Buttercup shot him a look. "What do you know about him?"

"Nothing," he answered, a little too quickly, she thought. "M' just saying, you really wanna walk around pissed off all the time 'cause he's... existing?"

The girl grunted. "He's done more than exist since he got here." her face darkened. "He fucking ticks me off, on purpose. I swear if he makes one more bloody dyke jokes I'm gonna rip his God damn arms off."

Mitch watched her warily as her face contorted in indignation, he coughed when he found that he lacked a response.

"Well, uh, I gotta go meet up with the gang. Take it easy okay?" he said, slowing as she progressed forward. She listlessly nodded her head in response, bumping fists with him without looking.

Mitch exhaled a breath and rerouted to the doors, coursing through the crowd that was moving in one unit to the nearest exits. He emerged through the front doors and skipped down the steps, Bunny and the others were probably in Pablo's usual parking spot.

Suddenly there was an arm hooked behind his neck, he was so startled that he nearly toppled over himself. He turned to look at who might as well have been his assailant. He glared scathingly at them.

"Could you fucking stop creeping on me like that?" Mitch groused. Butch cackled.

"You're like a fucking bobcat. I'm surprised I haven't got you shittin' bricks yet" Butch smirked. Mitch ducked under Butch's arm, freeing himself from his hold.

"Fuck you. The hell do you want?" Mitch inquired, rubbing his neck tenderly.

"I haven't had a proper high in weeks. Any longer and I'm gonna go nuts, hook me up with your fucking dealer." Butch said beseechingly, slapping Mitch's back in a twisted act of suasion.

"Alright alright!" the brunette cried, swatting away Butch's hand. He slowed instinctively, coming to a full on stop when he tapped on a certain number.

Butch equally came to a stop, leaning on one of the cars they currently stood in-between. He cocked his head as Mitch placed his phone against his ear, after a few rings a voice spoke on the other end of the line.

"Ma brotha! What up fool?" With his superhearing, Butch could hear it perfectly.

"S' all good Rex. I got a customer for you." A prolonged exchange ensued between Mitch and this Rex persona. After Mitch ensured him he wasn't sending a weasel his way—Butch had scowled in offense—he agreed to meet Butch in a specific alley downtown.

"You're a life saver asshole," Butch grinned in thanks, bumping fists with Mitch as he pushed off the car. He was about to launch himself into the air right when Mitch called for him to wait. "What?" Butch asked, his voice laden with impatience.

Mitch pocketed his hands, not really looking at Butch. "You should... ease up on Buttercup dude. Seriously, you've put her in a shit mood ever since you got here."

"The fuck?" Butch frowned. "That's what you wanted to tell me?"

Mitch met his gaze then, blinking in mild surprise. "I mean... yeah." he said.

Butch snorted, "Whatever man. I'll lay off your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend asshat!" Mitch cried, but Butch was already in the air, his laughter fading into the skies.

Bear stared at the two guitars hanging from his wall, he'd been doing so for close to ten minutes. His eyes particularly fixated on the electric.

He'd driven straight home once school had let out, not waiting for either of his brothers. Brick was the only one besides him who had come home either way. He'd briefly contemplated where Boomer could be or what he would still be doing at school, doubtlessly assured that Butch was scouring the city for a plug now.

His eyes moved from the guitar to the poster in his hands, scrutinizing the raven bust with a pair of X's where its eyes should have been, topped off with a crown shaped flame on its head. Under it, printed in bold letters read: Looking For Guitarist. He let his eyes roam further down to the edge of the poster where the address where auditions would be taking place was outlined in diminutive letters. There was a row of other information he was otherwise uninterested in.

He glanced back to the customized Ibanez that hung in-front of him, gave it a protracted look, and stood, folding the poster and stuffing it into his back pocket.

"Fuck it." he muttered as he grabbed his guitar by the neck, unhooked it from the wall and slung it over his shoulder.

He shut his door behind him and floated down the stairs, pausing when he heard some shuffling in the kitchen. He suddenly decided he wanted to drink some water.

He stalked in to see Brick leaning against the counter beside the microwave with his arms folded. He inclined his head in greeting as he opened the fridge. Brick grunted a response, his eyes landing on Bear's back.

"Where are you going?" he inquired.

The poster rose out of Bear's pocket and floated over to Brick as Bear gulped the H2O straight from the bottle. Brick picked the poster from the air and unfurled it.

"You want to join a band?" Brick asked incredulously. He'd seen this poster on the notice boards, and due to the never ending chatter that permeated the school grounds, he also knew the members of the band. Well, a member, specifically.

"Is that strange somehow?" Bear retorted, tossing the empty bottle into the bin without turning.

"Not so much the fact that you want to play music, but the fact that you're usually inclined to go about that yourself," Brick folded the poster and held it up, releasing it as Bear willed it to float back to him.

"There's... significant motivation behind this." Bear answered, pocketing the poster.

"The Puff?"

"Bunny." Bear corrected, starting to turn. "And yeah. Her."

The microwave dinged, Brick pulled it open. "Sounds more like something Butch would do."

Without missing a beat. "If he had any iota of musical talent, he would probably be auditioning too." Bear replied, almost out the door frame now.

"What exactly do you hope to achieve by talking to her?"

Brick's question made him halt just before he was out of sight. Brick waited for a response, but all he got was an eventual shrug, then Bear was gone. The front door clicked closed seconds later.

Bunny's frown wasn't one of anger. No. If one looked closely enough, they would see that her knitted eyebrows and thin-lined lips were an externalization of near head-splitting frustration.

The boy who'd just wrapped up his audition clutched the neck of his guitar anxiously, awaiting the band's verdict.

Bunny managed a strained smile. "We'll... we'll get back to you."

The boy looked from her to her band mates, scattered across the garage. Equally issuing him smiles that were more consoling than congratulatory.

"Yeah, okay, alright." he nodded politely and exited the area. Bunny let out a heavy sigh once he was out of ear shot.

"What was that guy even doing here?" Mitch said, his smile fading into a more genuine look of perturbation.

"Don't be mean, he's definitely an amateur but he wasn't that bad," Kim said from Mitch's side, letting herself sink into the ramshackle sofa.

"'Not that bad' still leaves you guys without a guitarist." Pablo said unapologetically, swinging down on the rack toms with Mitch's drumsticks.

Harry was the only one standing. "Well, that's everybody. In other words, we're fucked," he pouted, walking over to meet them.

With a despondent exhale, "Maybe we should just start practicing with me on the guitar," Bunny said, frowning.

"Hey, any solution that involves getting Pablo to stop agonizing my ear drums is welcome by me." Mitch said, glaring at the boy in subject for good measure.

Pablo responded by launching into a solo.

His friends voiced their chargin, shielding their ears in an effort to occlude the cacophonous sounds that Pablo assaulted them with.

Bunny could only ignore the sound for so long. She whirled an irritated look on Pablo. "Okay, seriously you need to sto—" she paused when she caught something in the edge of her vision.

She turned, and instantly gaped at the sight. Pablo, who'd been looking right at her, stopped drumming and followed her gaze, as did the rest of the room.

Now, they all gaped as one unit.

Bear sauntered up to the front of the garage, expecting and purposely ignoring their slacked expressions.

"Hey." he greeted casually. His eyes roamed over all of them, stopping at Bunny. He slided his guitar over to his front, mildly noting their collective inhale once they saw the instrument.

"Is—is that an Ibanez Genesis?" Mitch found himself whispering.

"RG five-fifty collection." Harry textured Mitch's discernment, subconsciously keeping his voice low as well.

Bear still looked directly at a shell-shocked Bunny. "I'm here to audition." He said, cradling his guitar at the ready.

Bunny blinked. A flustered silence ensued, Bunny tried desperately to say something, anything. But her larynx seemed to suddenly lack all its basic functions. Now she knew the universe was being a bitch to her.

Pablo clenched his teeth anxiously, his eyes flicking from Bear to Bunny. They landed on Kim, who thankfully met his gaze. He marginally widened his eyes at her in askance.

Kim's face briefly twisted in confusion, but she got the message an instant later.

She cleared her throat, drawing attention to her, including that of the superpowered beings. She stood and walked up to Bear, cocking her hands on her hips and narrowing her eyes at him. He met her gaze levelly.

Bunny was surprised, but was otherwise grateful for Kim's physical interjection.

"What's your favorite band?" Kim asked.

"Toss up between Nirvana and AC/DC." Bear replied smoothly.

"Favorite instrument?"

"Piano."

Kim arched a brow. "What about the one in your hand?"

"Comes close, in second in-fact. But, the euphonious acoustic of the piano is unmatched in my opinion. Cristofori's a genius."

"Favorite singer?"

"Bjork. Massively underappreciated."

"Favorite guitarist?" Kim asked, suspecting he wouldn't be adept in this category if he didn't prioritize the instrument.

At the sight of his faint smirk though, she knew she was wrong. "Hendrix, easily."

Kim was relentless with these questions, but Bear wasn't fazed and fired back with ease, not missing a single beat. Bunny's expression was shifting from disconcerted to impressed.

"Best guitar solo?"

"Any answer other than Van Halen's 'Eruption' is wrong." Bear shrugged nonchalantly.

Kim seemed a little offended, the urge to defend Jimmy Page's impeccable 'Stairway to Heaven' itched her throat, but she shot it down.

"Well," Kim turned just enough to look at Bunny. "He knows his shit."

Bunny stared at her, then past her to the boy waiting to audition. Her friends all looked to her.

She nodded, looking right into his eyes. "Okay then, let's see how you play."

Bear strung out the last chords of his audition piece animatedly. He heaved a post-performance exhale and looked up to the band.

Bunny, along with the rest of the gang, were suddenly occupied with picking their jaws off the floor.

Bear fought back the smug smile that threatened to creep up into his face as he took in their reactions. He cocked his head nimbly, awaiting their verdict.

"Bruh..." Harry breathed.

Bunny looked from Bear to her band mates and Pablo, only to find them all staring at her expectantly. "So... what do we think?"

They all looked at her like she'd just asked the most stupid question ever. Which, if she was being honest, she probably had.

Bear slided his guitar over his back and pocketed his hands, watching as Bunny briskly consulted the others before turning to face him. She cleared her throat then gave him a professional smile.

"Well... um... welcome to the band." She officialized.

"That was fucking sick dude!" Mitch touted with a grin.

Bear allowed himself a smirk now. "Thanks man."

"Where the hell did you learn to play like that?" Kim asked, her shock lying somewhere in the midst of her absolute rhapsody.

"Around." He answered cockily, shrugging to boot.

Harry cackled enthusiastically. "Battle of the bands? That shit 'finna be a one-sided slaughter!"

They all chortled at Harry's jaunty exclamation. However, Bear realized that something was missing, a piece of the dissonant laughter that would have blended it all together. He looked to Bunny who was forcing a chuckle, still trying to evade eye contact with him.

Any trace of a smile on his face disappeared.

Fuck it.

"Are we launching straight into practice?"

Bunny looked up at him as her friends' laughter slowly faded. "Oh, um, I guess we should. We only have three days before—"

"Can we talk first?"

Bunny almost inhaled through the wrong pipe. She hacked out a brief, rather unceremonious cough as a result. He was still staring at her pointedly when she was done.

He's asking to talk. He's asking to talk! She yelled to herself. But was she ready? Did it matter? He had asked right in-front of all her friends, who were looking between them with slightly muddled expressions.

Save for Pablo.

Her eyes flickered to him, his expression coherently reading Go Bitch!

"Um—" she paused. Bear waited. Just stand up you fucking drama queen! "Um, sure."

Bear let out a breath nobody could tell he was holding. "Cool." He shuffled backwards, giving room for her to walk out of the garage.

Bunny blinked at him, then stood up, facing the rest. "We won't be long guys just... go over the songs we're going to perform on Friday."

"Sure 'Bun" Kim said, giving her a worried look. Bunny smiled, assuring her.

She brought her hands together in-front of her, bashfully making her way over to an awaiting Bear.

Without a word, he fell into step beside her as they strode away from Harry's garage and onto the sidewalk.

"What's that about?" Harry asked.

"I get the feeling that it's none of our business." Kim answered, but not resentfully. There was something in her voice that made it sound like she understood. Mitch simply raised a confused brow at the retreating pair.

Pablo grinned all the while.

Butch zipped through the empty school hallway, halting at the gymnasium. He'd just returned from his special escapade and had a light spring in his step. He smirked as he pushed the doors open, adjusting his bag that contained the purchased goods.

He came face to face with a group of girls he didn't recognize, a thought he rebutted when he realized Bubbles was one of them, and he remembered the mixed chick she was talking to from yesterday.

Unlike him, they were exiting the gym. The dark haired girl that headed them near-imperceptibly bit her lip, in an effort to curtail the smirk that adorned her lips when she laid eyes on Butch.

He caught it, and of-course he encouraged her. "Hello ladies." He greeted them with an affable smirk, keeping his eyes trained on the girl. Noting the slight reddening of her cheeks with conceited delight. A feeling that only swelled upon realization that she was not the only one he'd inspired that reaction from.

The only two exceptions came from the girls he'd identified earlier. With the curly brown haired one giving him a look in the realm of curiosity. Bubbles, on the other hand, twisted her face in aversion. Butch was slightly taken aback by the unwarranted disfavor, although, he had probably done something to justify her reaction. He tended to be the one at fault, a fact he was often very aware of.

He smirked their way regardless, amused when Bubbles' scowl deepened as they walked past him.

The team was already working on their drills, the girls' team were doing the same in the other half of the court. Coach Andrews caught sight of Butch, who broke into a jog at his hard gaze.

"You better have a good excuse prepped Venus," Coach Andrews groused, folding his arms as Butch reached him.

"Sorry coach, had to run an errand for my mom." Butch fabricated reflexively.

The coach peered at him dubiously, then waved him off. "Don't be late again," he said in a tone that carried finality with a hint of warning behind it. Butch thanked him and made his way to the locker rooms. His eyes passed over the court, his confrontation with Coach Andrews had caught Buttercup's attention, and now she was scowling at him.

"Watch out" Butch warned, projecting, and Buttercup caught a pass without taking her eyes off him.

"Buttercup! Keep your eyes on the ball!" Coach Andrews instructed. She flickered her eyes to him and huffed out an apology, her eyes shifting back to Butch who cackled as he walked into the girls' locker room.

Buttercup's eyes widened. "Hey!" She growled. Butch stepped outside an instant later, feigning embarrassment. "Oops. My bad."

Buttercup bristled as he smirked at her, moving over to the appropriate door by the left and pushing it open.

Bunny had been kicking a particular pebble the instant they stepped on the sidewalk, she occupied herself with that, never striking it too far that she would lose its position or misdirect it so she'd have to realign her walking step. She subconsciously hoped Bear would take that as a prerogative to open conversation, but all he did was steal occasional glances at her, she could tell her through the side of her eyes.

This was a bad idea. She told herself, wincing at the uncomfortable silence. But what could she have done? Declining his offer back at Harry's garage would have just been needlessly rude. Not to mention they would've still needed to practice afterwards. How awkward would that have been? Even so, why wasn't he saying anything? He seemed keen on finally talking to her so why was he—

She paused as she made to launch the pebble further down the sidewalk again, it was still perfectly in her line of vision, but now it was... floating. She gave the piece of gravel a confused stare, then swiveled to look at Bear.

He was looking at the pebble, he flicked his eyes upwards and it mimicked that vertical movement.

Bunny felt something inexplicable tug at the pit of her stomach. Could he...?

"Are you doing that with your mind?" She surprised herself when the question escaped her mouth.

"Yeah." he answered instantly, facing her while the pebble fell back to the ground. Bunny walked past it.

"That's... really cool." Bunny said, genuinely.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "Does it... does it ever mess with you? Like, is it ever hard to control?" She asked, intertwining her hands behind her back now, her gaze on him growing more intent.

Bear hunched his shoulders up. "Sometimes, mostly when I was younger. Whenever I got angry, or... overwhelmed, it would spiral out of control. I had to start macro-managing my emotions from really early on" he answered. There was the briefest flash of relation across her features, something that said You Too?

"You get that?"

Bunny hadn't expected the question, as was evident in the marginal widening of her eyes, but she didn't back away. In-fact, all of a sudden, her nerves were withering, giving place to comfort. "Yeah, yeah I do."

"What's your special power?" Bear asked as they turned into another street.

"I used to think I could just read minds, but turns out it's... the whole package," Bunny replied. There was something about the way she spoke, something that indicated there was much more she wasn't saying.

"Does it mess with you?" He ricocheted her question on her.

She turned away from him, slowly, twiddling her thumb against her knuckles. "Yeah." she breathed out.

Bear stared at her, he wanted to ask "Well, how badly?". "Has it been like that since you were younger?". "Is it tethered to your emotions?", all of that. But the way she was looking, the way her voice had gotten so low...

"That must have come in handy a few times huh?" He said instead, the corner of his mouth curling up in a dinky smile.

"I never use it for conspicuous purposes" Bunny defended, feeling a faint smile creep up to her own face.

Bear scoffed. "Bullshit."

"I'm serious!" Bunny laughed, catching herself before she could shove him.

Bear arched a suspicious brow, his smile morphing into a teasing smirk. "Never?"

Bunny opened her mouth to retort, Bear's second brow rose. "Okay but, just like, a couple of times," she conceded. "Under very specific circumstances!" she added when Bear opened his mouth to gloat, he was going to, she could sense it.

"Right. Never used it to know a Christmas present before you were allowed to open it?" he said. Bunny's expression fell. "Too easy." Bear laughed.

"Oh, fuck off." Bunny shot back with a laugh herself, opting to shove him this time.

He chuckled, side-stepping to allow someone walking a dog move past him. The woman waved to Bunny who waved back amicably.

"Does that ever get weird?" Bear asked, looking back at the lady.

Bunny followed his gaze and shook her head. "Not in Townsville, everyone here's used to seeing us around."

"How often do you guys have to save people outside of Townsville?"

"Not often, Monster Island is literally a few thousand miles away so they mostly attack the city exclusively anyway."

Bear hummed and cracked his neck. "Aren't there other Monster Islands around the world though?"

"They're not so much Monster Islands as their islands that may occupy monsters" Bunny corrected. "Plus, zoologists and scientists alike still speculate that there're monster species in the sea."

"The lot of them must be incompetent then." Bear muttered, Bunny whirled a weird look on him. "Why do you say so?" she inquired.

He waved dismissively. "Thinking out loud" he said cryptically. Bunny stared at him a second longer, but didn't press any further. Bear reached up to scratch his neck listlessly and Bunny inadvertently followed his hand. She saw it clearly from here, she wondered how she had just noticed it since they were up close. It was just sizeable enough to be perfectly discernible, and she examined as Bear's fingers scratched just under it.

A bear paw print tattoo.

Bunny snorted, albeit, there was nothing indicating amusement in the sound. "How ingenious of you." She jived.

Bear's eyes flicked to her. "Oh—" he said upon tracing her gaze. He smiled lazily, "I was feeling kind of poetic, ended up looking severely pretentious instead. Serves me right for getting a tat at fifteen."

"Your mom let you get this when you were fifteen?" Bunny said, incredulous.

Bear snorted. "She's the one who tatted me."

This boy talkin' about what now?!

Bunny made a conscious effort not to gape. "You're messing with me."

Bear nodded a thanks at a guy who complimented "Nice guitar" as he strode past them.

"Naw—" he shook his own head for a contrasting reason. "—she used to tattoo people in college and I guess she got pretty good at it. I told her I wanted one and she just whipped out the gun, a little too quickly, actually" Bear said, recalling how his mom had been so giddy at Bear's request that she immediately dragged him to the lab while lunch was on the fire. Brick had assumed cooking duty, while Boomer and Butch had jetted down to witness their brother get his tattoo. Naturally, Butch was on the chair to get his own ink the very next day.

Bunny was gobsmacked, and doing a poor job of hiding it. It wasn't as though there was much of a structured image of Ms. Venus—she subconsciously noted how she addressed her as 'Ms'—in her head, but here Bear was, absolutely shattering the already incoherent perception she held of her.

This is a chance to give it some definition. She abruptly thought to herself. Then, as she did so often, shot it down with much resoluteness. Her brain was infamous for loosing all its thinking ability when she got the least beast uneasy. This was literally the first conversation she was ever having with Bear, a conversation she was admittedly enjoying, she wasn't going to risk ruining it by hassling him for info on his life.

"That's... insane." Bunny breathed out.

"Yeah, she's kind of the best mom in the world." Bear smiled. She wondered if she would be seeing this regularly, him smiling.

"You should smile more." She said before giving it a thought.

Bear blinked, definitely not expecting the comment. He wasn't certain how he was supposed to reply to that, thankfully she bailed him out.

"Just..." she looked away from him, shrugging. "You should smile more."

They were both slowing their pace, unsure of the reason for doing so. Well, they'd finally gotten it out of the way, they were talking, and it felt natural. There was more Bear wanted to talk to her about, nothing in particular, talking to her just felt... no, it was natural. But he imagined that he had enough time to do that, more than enough.

He halted, catching Bunny off-guard. She came to a stop, taking a couple steps backwards to stand in-front of him.

"We should head back and get some practice in." Bear said, jerking his head ambiguously in the direction they'd come from.

"Oh. Yeah, yeah we should." Bunny assented, feeling a slight, inexplicable pang of disappointment.

Suddenly, Bear's hand was risen up in-front of her. She looked from him to his ringed fingers and back. He had on a soft, collegial smile, looking starkly different from the stoic, enigmatic boy she saw yesterday.

"Nice to finally meet you, Bunny Utonium." he said.

Bunny blinked, chuckling at his self-imposed irony. She rose her equally bejeweled hand and clasped his, grinning up at him.

"Likewise, Bear Venus."

"Madam."

Sara Bellum looked up, laying down the sheaf of paperwork she held in her hands on her polished mahogany desk. "Yes Patrick?" She obliged her assistant as he stepped just in-front of the door, maintaining a hand on the knob.

"I've just been communicated Mr Morbucks' arrival." He said. The Mayor hummed and nodded at him, he exited her office.

She hadn't expected Townsville's infamous multi-millionaire to return for another few days, no matter, she could appeal her proposal to him now. She picked up her phone and tapped his number in. He picked after three rings.

"Sara" his gruff voice greeted cordially.

"Jean" she replied impassively. "I trust you had a good flight."

"Naturally. So, to what do I owe this pleasure? You rarely contact me for casual purposes." Jean said bluntly.

"I have a business proposition for you." Sara informed, and she could practically hear him smirk.

"You gotta be shittin' me." Buttercup said.

Bunny, Harry and Mitch were seated around her—Pablo and Kim had the early lunch on Wednesdays—with Harry, true to nature, relaying the profundity of Bear's adroitness in playing the guitar with rapping enthusiasm.

"He's fucking lit BC, I ain't playin'. We were done with three songs in two hours, he barely made any mistakes after reading the music once!"

"He's really good," Bunny confirmed wit a distracted nod, thinking back to how Bear was near-faultless in rehearsal yesterday.

"Dude's like Curbain and Hendrix's love child or something." Mitch voiced his assent, eyes far away in reminiscence as well.

"You guys sure are gassing him up," Buttercup said, indifferent to this news.

"No, really. He's insanely good, even by superhuman standards." Bunny insisted, as she came back to Earth and looked at her dark-haired sister.

"You're coming to Harry's after school right? You'll see for yourself." Mitch assured. Buttercup gave a doubting grunt in reply.

"Yo, Bear!"

Bunny, Buttercup and Mitch all snapped to. Harry was waving behind them, beckoning Bear over. "Y'all come sit with us!"

The rest of the table swiveled their heads in unison again to find Bear a few feet from them, being tailed by a chip-bearing Butch. Their body language suggested that they'd probably planned to sit elsewhere, but had halted at Harry's call.

The Ruffs exchanged a glance, then Butch smirked and stalked over. Bear followed.

Buttercup whirled on Harry. "What the fuck are you doing?" she hissed viciously. The boy in question gave her a confused look.

"C'mon Buttercup, maybe you should give him a chance." Bunny murmured as the boys neared, Buttercup redirected her glare to her. "Just a friendly suggestion." Bunny retracted.

"Make some room man," Butch requested, gesturing to the vacant but inadequate space beside Mitch. Mitch blinked up at him, stunned. He darted a quick glance at Buttercup who was looking from him to Butch with knitted brows. He looked away from her and shifted, Butch logged down next to him.

"Lookin' hot sweetie." Butch leaned forward and grinned bawdily at Bunny.

"Come any closer and I'll rip your fucking tongue out." Bunny threatened brusquely.

"Damn, didn't know you were a kinky one." Butch cackled as he threw a hand full of chips into his mouth.

"What up, you sick son of a bitch," Harry beamed, Bear chuckled as he slotted in between him and Bunny. "I'm a'ight. I'm definitely taking this shirt man," Bear said, motioning at Harry's top half.

"Not before I rock this denim my guy." Harry replied, grabbing at the arm of Bear's dim grey, one-size-too-big jacket.

"Do you wear anything that isn't ripped?" Bunny teased.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Bear retorted with a minuscule smirk.

"Don't flatter yourself," Bunny said, rolling her eyes coltishly.

"Dude, where does Rex get his shit? I was in the fucking clouds last night." Butch said to Mitch conversationally. Buttercup—who up until that point had been trying to scar Butch's face with the third degree—assumed a look of shock.

Mitch didn't see it, he made sure not to look at her to find out either. "I wouldn't know man, pretty sure he's really tight-lipped about that shit."

"Guess when I get desperate I gotta just be a little... persuasive then." Butch sniggered.

Buttercup blinked. Looking frantically between Mitch and Butch, the former hesitant to meet her eyes. When had he... when had they started talking? What the fuck was her best friend doing talking to that... that inflaming bastard.

Bunny offered Bear her soda, he accepted. His eyes flickered downwards to her wrist as he took the cup from her. A small silver bracelet adorned it, nothing intricate, it was completely plain in-fact. He had a swift look at Buttercup's wrist to find an exact match around it.

"What's that?" he asked, taking a slurp.

Bunny followed his gaze. "Oh, these are our suits. Well, in their deactivated state, but yeah."

Butch choked out a laugh. "Fuck me, you guys actually have supersuits?"

"You think I'd risk ruining this Chiffon?" Bunny said, gesturing at her top.

"If you guys wear capes I'm leaving the band." Bear said flatly, and Bunny obliged him with a chuckle.

"You guys heard about the guy who can lift, like, a hundred and forty pounds with his beard?" Harry inquired enthusiastically.

Bear whirred a perturbed look on him. "What?"

"Here we go," Bunny sighed, reclaiming her soda cup from Bear.

"No cap! It's some old Turkish dude. His name kinda sounds like his parents lost a bet... but it's real I swear!"

"You're not fucking serious are you?" Butch said, his voice muffled from the second wad of chips he'd devoured.

"Why am I the only one who ever sees this stuff? Don't you guys watch freaky shit online?" Harry clamored.

"Oh, I definitely watch some freaky shit online," Butch laughed, throwing Bunny another suggestive sneer. "My favorite category's ebon—"

He suddenly felt a force swing his head down, thumping it hard against the table face first.

"Shut up, man." Bear said, identifying himself as the perpetrator. Harry cackled, Bunny—who'd been poised to biff Butch in the nose—issued Butch's groaning form a repulsive scowl.

"I take it back, he deserves no chances." She said to Buttercup, who unbeknownst to her, had been staring at Mitch in disbelief.

The boy continued to scrutinize his lunch.

The highly awaited last bell of a day rung and within seconds the empty hallway was teeming with students, scampering towards the exits.

Buttercup muscled her way through the crowds, striding towards the main entrance. Scowling in her wake, even though it tended to be her default expression, most people tended to... sense when Buttercup once in a bad mood. It was a survival skill, really. One that was essential in self-preservation while on school grounds.

She didn't even notice people throwing her wary looks or giving her room to walk unhindered. Someone was shuffling behind her, and after a while it seemed they built up the confidence to speed up and match her pace. She looked up, her scowl deepened, and she returned her gaze to the floor.

Mitch's shoulders slumped, almost like he frowned with his entire body.

"What." Buttercup said, she tried to keep the ice out of her voice, but if Mitch's tiny shudder was any indicator, she failed.

"Buttercup..." he trailed off as he took in her detached face. She didn't speed up, or tell him to Fuck Off, he took those as good signs. Though, it didn't make it any easier to talk to her, but after they'd walked in silence till they pushed through the school's main entrance he'd had enough.

"Buttercup, listen I... I didn't know that you, you know, weren't cool with him. When I went to the bleachers on Monday he just showed up, and he seemed tight so we—"

"So you lied."

Mitch blinked, "What?"

"You lied when you said you were with Rodney." She clarified, still not looking at him.

"Oh," he winced guiltily. "Yeah... I guess I did." More silence, they were navigating the school lot through sheer muscle memory now as they pivoted and approached Pablo's car.

Mitch groaned, "Buttercup, I'm sorry I—"

"Don't worry about it" Buttercup interjected abruptly. "You should be sorry, but I'm not your mom, I can't tell who you can and can't hang out with."

Mitch stared at her. "You sure?"

"I'm sure, alright?" She said, meaning it.

She'd been thinking about it since lunch, and while she'd initially been pissed that Mitch had apparently befriended Butch, she didn't want something as trivial as that to cause friction between them, it would be stupid.

Besides, she actually hadn't told Mitch—or anyone for that matter—why she couldn't be anywhere in Butch's vicinity without being overcome with the staggering urge to strangle him. And she intended to keep it that way, it wasn't a memory she liked to revisit.

Unfortunately for her though, her brain had already latched onto that train of thought and now flashes of that atrocious day blinked in her head. She clenched her jaw, unable to suppress the faint snarl that exited her mouth. She'd caged the memory in the deepest, darkest crevice of her mind and locked it up. But the moment she'd seen the Boys emerge from those cars, the bars weakened, and it broke out and permeated her head.

Filling it with thoughts of him, that bastard. That crude, rakish, hair-brained bastard. Just thinking about Butch's inveterate smirk made her blood boil. He hadn't even acknowledged it, he acted as though that day never happened and still had the fucking gull to jeer at her. Even after what he did, after humiliating her. That motherfucking—

"Hey," Mitch said, snapping her out of her thoughts as she snapped to. "Look, if you're still pissed with me that's fine—"

"I'm not" Buttercup averred, then calmed at the sight of Mitch's soft expression. "I'm not, for real."

Mitch's nod was slow, "Okay."

Buttercup heaved a weighted sigh and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "Tell me you've got some fucking pot on you?"

The somber look on Mitch's face ignited into a giddy smile.

Buttercup snorted. "I'll take that as a yes."

They could see the gang gathered around Pablo's Subaru Forester. Bunny was seated on the boot, flanked by Harry and Pablo on the ground.

"What up losers." Buttercup greeted when she and Mitch reached them.

"Ah, Buttercup. Such a ball of sunshine," Pablo said with faux-cordiality.

"She makes me so warm inside," Harry added sardonically, lifting his clasped hands to his face for emphasis.

"It's what I do." Buttercup accepted their felicitates with a shrug, before hopping up and taking a place beside Bunny.

"Isn't she just the best?" Mitch joined in the fun as his eyes glimmered in adoration. "She sure is!" Harry and Pablo echoed.

"Do you three have any intention to live past High School?" Buttercup said, her voice threatening.

The three boys sighed in adulation. Bunny laughed.

"Where the hell is Kim?" Buttercup said, shaking her head at the guys, but she was smiling.

"Kim is over here!"

They all snapped to, and saw Kim hastily approaching them as she weaved through parked cars.

Bunny looked above her, eyes landing on the car she seemed to have just left. She saw Billy—holding what was probably Kim's gym bag—standing with Boomer and Bubbles, though it seemed like Billy was about to take his leave.

"I don't know if this will ever get normal." Buttercup said, and Bunny turned to see her gaze directed at their sister as well.

"C'mon people, let's move." Kim said, the franticness in her voice not going unnoticed by Bunny. She stared at Kim who was throwing furtive glances over her shoulder at the two chattering, blonde superhumans.

Bunny winced. Of-course.

"We still have to wait for Bear," she said as Kim looked back to her friends.

"There's something pacifying about that name."

"I'm honestly surprised you didn't jump his bones at practice yesterday" Mitch said, deadpanning at Pablo whose eyes looked as though they'd legitimately morphed into hearts.

"God! Those were the hardest two hours of my entire life." Pablo cried, and they all chortled.

"I'm not gonna forgive you guys if this guy plays like a basement kid who picked up guitar from YouTube tutorials," Buttercup said.

"Hey, YouTube gave me a few pointers on piano," Harry defended.

"Maybe she's trying to tell you something." Bunny sniggered.

"Here he comes," Kim announced, drawing all attention to her, then to the direction she was looking in.

Bear exited the school entrance, lazily floating down the steps before planting himself on the pavement. Bunny and Harry began to wave him over just as he coincidentally looked up in their direction. He took to the air again, drifting over the sheet of cars and landing among them.

He plucked his Earphones off and gave them a pint-sized but friendly smile.

"BC thinks you're shit at guitar" Harry reported, pointing at said girl.

Bear hummed. "Is that so?" he arched a brow at his apparent detractor.

Buttercup met his gaze head on and shrugged, unapologetic.

"An uninformed opinion of-course," Pablo beamed at him.

"You're not gonna take that are you?" Bunny said in a mock instigative tone.

Bear shrugged. "We'll see what you say in thirty minutes" he replied, looking at Buttercup.

"Okay, I'm with Kim now, let's fucking jet!" Mitch cackled, slapping the boot exuberantly.

They all howled save for Kim, Bear and Buttercup. The latter two who were engaged in a seemingly harmless stare-off, though their grave expressions suggested otherwise.

An abrupt beeping suddenly cut into their laughter. Bunny got to her phone before Buttercup.

"Ms Bellum? What's going on?"

Bubbles waved bye to Mike and Robin, as well as a couple of other guys from the football team as they separated in different directions of the lot. Mike was in a hurry, he wanted to go visit his grandma at the hospital, Robin was going with him.

Bubbles, on the other hand, went in search of Boomer. They'd had English together today, and he was just as forward as he'd been since the first day. He'd paid her next to no mind for the duration of the class, only to stop her in the hall once the bell went to ask her if she could still make it to his place today, she'd affirmed that she could.

He's so weird. Bubbles thought to herself as she whipped out her phone and dialed his number. She hadn't anything against him, but she was beginning to wonder why he was so keen on them hanging out. Maybe she was just in her head, they did have an assignment to do after all. Even though he was the one who'd really-but-not-really demanded for her to be his partner.

He picked up the call. "Hey you!" he greeted jauntily.

Bubbles didn't know whether to be amused or disquieted by his energy. "Hey, where are you?"

"I'm by Billy's car, we're down east, near the road" he informed.

"'Kay, I'm headed there." She ended the call and opted to fly over to him. She soared over Bunny, who was obliviously talking with Harry and Pablo. Boomer was already looking up at her and throwing his signature hand sign by the time she zeroed in on him and Billy.

"Hey Bubbles." Billy greeted as she landed.

"Hey Billy," she smiled back at him. "Where's Susie?"

"She left with her sister, family stuff apparently."

"Oh, is she okay?" Bubbles asked, the slightest modicum of worry washing over her features.

"Yeah, she's fine. I think they're just moving downtown or something." Billy answered.

"You pick a song yet?" Boomer cut in, facing Bubbles.

"Not yet, I was thinking we could settle on one together?" she ventured.

"Sounds like a plan." Boomer assented, snapping his fingers and pointing at her. Bubbles chuckled despite herself, he was so, incredibly ridiculous.

"Um..." A voice whispered from behind her. She impalpably stiffened.

"Hey Kim!" Boomer beamed, ignorant to the discomforting looks that Billy and Bubbles had assumed.

Kim cleared her throat. "Hey... Boomer"—Billy had introduced them to one another yesterday. Bubbles' eyes were glued to the floor, in the edge of her vision, she could just make out Kim stepping towards Billy and handing him her gym bag, requesting he helped her drop it at home.

"No problem" Billy said, taking the bag from her.

Boomer's grin dissolved as he became conscious of the thick atmosphere. He swept a look at all three of them, muddled.

He made to say something, but only got about two syllables out before Kim said, "Hey Bubbles."

Bubbles flicked her eyes up, catching Kim's own chocolate brown orbs. She didn't so much smile as she pursed her lips with an awkward curve. "Hey."

"Um... how've you been?"

"Fine." Bubbles answered shortly.

"That's cool."

"Hm."

Boomer almost recoiled from second hand, awkward tension. What the fuck was going on here?

"Well... I—I guess I'll see you around?" Kim said, and she sounded strange. Her words sounded desperate and laced with melancholy.

"Yeah" Bubbles replied, notably forcing a laugh.

Kim folded her arms around herself, clearing her throat once more and bidding a distracted goodbye to Boomer and Billy before walking away.

Bubbles' gaze furtively followed her, watching as she made her way over to her friends at Pablo's car, Buttercup and Mitch had joined them now.

Boomer scrunched his face in perturbation. "What the hell was that about?"

Billy looked between him and Bubbles, momentarily considering clearing it up, but at the sight of Bubbles' now dejected face, he decided against it. She'd be better off telling Boomer herself.

"I gotta go help my dad with dinner, so... I'll see you around man" he patted Boomer on the shoulder and managed a dinky smile at Bubbles. Boomer and Bubbles shuffled away from Billy's car as it roared to life, before twisting and riding into the road.

"We're flying to your place right?" Bubbles swiftly said, already beginning to float.

"Hey, what just happened? Why were you and Kim so weird?" Boomer asked innocently.

Now that she was looking at him, he could clearly see the despondency in her expression. He apologetically retracted.

"It's cool if you don't wanna talk about it—" Boomer assured, raising his hands. "I don't mean to pry, I just—"

He stopped rambling at Bubbles' dismissive wave. "You didn't do anything. It's fine, really."

She dropped the waving hand on her arm, rubbing at it. A car honk sounded and they both jerked to. They shuffled back into the now empty car space where Billy's car had been as another drove past them.

Bubbles remained silent even as she descended to the ground.

"You don't have to tell me anything Bubbles. Let's just head—" Boomer began to say but she softly cut him off saying—

"Kim and I used to date" Bubbles blurted in a whisper. Boomer stiffened, he'd heard just fine. "You would've found out eventually anyway."

His eyes swoll into dinner plates. They darted from Bubbles to Kim—a few car rows over with her friends, Bear was just landing among them—and back to Bubbles who had now mustered up the ease to look up at him.

HOLD UP! Boomer exclaimed in his head. Didn't this mean that...

"Oh... so... she's your..."

"Ex. Yeah" Bubbles folded her lips in and nodded awkwardly. So many questions were suddenly thrashing around in Boomer's head. So many.

I can't ask that though, can I? He said to himself. At this point he was probably openly gawking at her, she stared back, her expression expectant. Is she waiting for me to ask? No that's not it, it couldn't be... could it? It's none of my business! This inner struggle continued to persist as he was nothing short of flabbergasted, because... well he certainly wouldn't have imagined that someone like Bubbles would be—

The chiming of her phone came to Boomer's rescue. She whipped it out just in time to see the familiar 'X' symbol flashing on the screen. The chiming ceased and she looked over to her sisters, they both took to the air.

Bubbles switched modes and immediately slipped out of her small bag, she held it out to Boomer. "Hold this for me?"

"Sure." And once he took it from her she zipped into the air after her sisters. It was now that a faint roar echoed in the distance, deep into the city.

Brick shoved his books into his locker, shooting them a distasteful look before slamming it.

He was beginning to seriously consider revisiting the topic of dropping out with his mom, but he imagined that she would still be resolute in her decision that him and his brothers finish High School before having that prerogative. He hadn't any recent memory on when school had actually posed any sort of challenge to him, it felt beneath him to share a classroom with duds who didn't know the fucking difference between Sine and Cosine.

He sauntered among the students who had made a habit of avoiding him in the halls. He relished the way they sped up when he neared them, shifting towards the lockers like the insects they were. If they maintained the sense to not bother him—he would make sure of it in any case—then perhaps he could actually survive the inevitably torturous years to come.

"You're like the ultimate Scrooge. A symbol for all modern day brooders. Ever consider changing your name to Bruce?"

Brick heaved a heavy, irritated sigh. "Fuck off, Butch."

Butch fell into step beside Brick with a snigger. "What's got your panties in a twist now" he said, dodging an attempted jab to his face.

"This is my happy face" Brick replied in a bored tone.

"You 'ought to loosen up bro. Shit hasn't been that bad since we got here."

"Speak for yourself. Only reason I haven't blown this place apart is because I've been strategically avoiding the Pink One." Brick said, his face twisting in disgust at the last words.

"Saw her on my way to lunch today, she's definitely 'Friday Night' worthy," Butch smirked.

"You have no fucking taste."

"Says the guy who's been single his whole life."

"Your ex back at home, what was her name again?"

Butch paused, raking his brain. "... shit... was it Jennifer?"

Brick rolled his eyes as they veered. "I stand corrected."

"Whatever. She was smoking hot, that's the point."

"You and I clearly hold contrasting definitions of the word hot brother."

"Look over there," Butch placed a hand on Brick's shoulder and jerked his head. Brick followed his direction, laying eyes upon a group of girls chattering by their lockers. "That blonde one. Look at those lips, that friggin' waist, those legs for daaaays," he said, motioning openly. "You're telling me that's not hot?"

Brick was not impressed. "She looks like she reads teen melodrama and worships Taylor Swift."

"Why the hell would you care what kind of books she reads?" Butch inquired, brows furrowing in confusion.

"I need to ask a girl about her opinions on Napoleon's motives behind the French Revolution and have her not look at me like a Blubber fish," Brick said bluntly.

Butch gave him a dry look, dropping his hand. "That brother, is why you're the boring one."

"If only you understood how much of a compliment that is coming out of your mouth."

They were welcomed by the afternoon sun as they burst through the doors, they both chose to float down the stairs when a blur of pink whooshed past them.

Unlike the people surrounding them, they didn't budge as the generated wind whipped harshly. Brick simply held his cap in place.

Both brothers followed the blur as it zoomed to join the now fading wisps of purple, green and blue, their eyes widening when they heard the unmistakable monster roar.

People were sprinting to their cars now in a frantic attempt to get to their homes. Even Pablo and the gang had left as soon as Bunny and Buttercup jetted off.

Bear hovered over the commotion, watching idly as car after car sped into the road. Something in his peripheral vision moved and he turned to see Boomer floating towards him.

"Yo!"

He swiveled to the voice and saw Butch approaching them as well, Brick lazily trailing him.

By the time the four of them came together Butch had assumed a troubling, maniacal grin.

"Let's go have some fucking fun!"

Boomer pouted, looking in the direction the girls had flown off in. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"C'mon! I'm bored 'outta my skull, when was the last time we had a good fucking fight?" Butch appealed, his grin momentarily faltering when he met Bear's cold gaze. "Oh... yeah. Sorry. But this obviously ain't gonna be like last time."

"I'd much rather not spend my afternoon engaging in pretentious heroism" Brick said, following Boomer's gaze and scowling.

"They're gonna be the ones in the papers and shit" Butch said, waving his arm in the general direction the roar erupted from. "We can just help them fuck it up" he said in reference to the monster.

"I don't know dude" Boomer shook his head, reluctant. Butch faced him and wrinkled his face upon viewing the object that hung from his back.

"Why the fuck are you carrying something that looks like a fucking unicorn barfed it up?"

"It's Bubbles'" Boomer answered, sounding more defensive about her than himself.

"We don't have to fight along" Bear finally said, eyes darting to city. "We can just watch."

Butch groaned about the exact same second Brick scoffed.

"Worse than playing hero to this pathetic city? Spectating the ones who actually play hero to it." He started to float past them, towards where he and Bear's cars were parked. "You guys can go fuck around, I'm going home."

"Aren't you curious to see how they fight?"

Brick paused, turning just enough to see Bear staring at him. His purple-eyed brother then redirected his gaze back to the city. Brick did the same.

All four them hovered in silence as another monstrous screech sounded.

Blossom burst through the school doors, rapidly angling upwards and shooting forward. She reached her sisters just before they cleared the suburbs and entered the city area.

Bunny, Bubbles and Buttercup instinctively pulled up beside her, assuming their positions to her right, left and below her respectively.

Their bracelets glowed their distinct colors and transmuted, spreading from their wrists and enveloping the entirety of their bodies from their neck downwards.

They zeroed in on the monster now, it was a humanoid, with bulky, overly long arms and visibly smooth silver skin, along with three eye-less heads sitting on its shoulders. Its thirty-foot form stomped down the street, leaving car-sized craters in the asphalt with every step.

Luckily, the citizens in this area had mostly been evacuated. Only a few could be seen sprinting down the streets, a couple cars were racing away as fast as the acceleration could take them, but the creature closed in on them with every step.

"Bubbles! Bunny! Get those citizens out of here!" Blossom ordered, her sisters adhered and dove down. Bubbles picked off the civilians one after the other until eight of them were entangled in her arms. Bunny swooped under a car and lifted it off just before the monster's foot slammed down in that very spot.

"Hold onto something!" Bunny yelled to the driver who obliged by gripping his steering wheel. She lobbed the car off into the air, faintly acknowledging the frightened scream from the man as she grabbed the second car, shifting it to balance on one hand as she hovered and raised her other hand, waiting. A second or two passed before the first car landed on it.

She zipped away from the area, tailing Bubbles to Eight street as their sisters took on the monster.

Buttercup circled around its swiping hand and kicked it the back of its head, it only stumbled before Blossom rammed a jab into one of its knees and it buckled to the ground on the other one. Buttercup took the opening and released an onslaught of energy beams everywhere from its multiple heads to its torso.

The creature shot its arm out suddenly, catching Buttercup off-guard in its fist before hurling her into the side of a building, shattering numerous windows on impact. Blossom shot up, dodging a barreling punch and uppercutting the middle head, there was a howl of aggravation before Blossom followed up with roundhouse kick on the head to her left. She eyebeamed it for good measure, searing into its skin. She then suddenly felt a bed-sized fist slam into her from behind and she ate the asphalt face first.

The creature roared and bounded after her, ready to bring its fists down just as a streak of bright blue flew against its chest. with its momentum reversed it lost balance and caromed into the side of a dilapidated building, sending heavy debris soaring across the streets. Bubbles landed where Blossom was standing, shaking dust off her hair.

"Blossom! Are you okay?"

The girl huffed. "I'm fine, did you clear out the area?"

Bubbles was in the middle of nodding as a purple streak tackled her and Blossom by their waists. A glaring, black laser razed the ground they stood on not three seconds ago.

Bunny disentangled herself from her sisters once they were at a safe height.

"Great, it possesses energy projection" Blossom grumbled, watching as the monster emerged from the derelict building.

"Where's Buttercup?" Bunny clamored, there was a loud bellow from below them and they all looked down to see Buttercup fly out from the building she was thrown in and charge towards the monster.

"Don't be reckless!" Blossom sped off, screaming after her. Bunny and Bubbles rushed after her as the four of them closed in on the roaring beast.

Brick had caved and decided to follow his brothers. Admittedly, his curiosity itched to see what these so called 'superheroes' could really do.

It hadn't been difficult for the boys to find them, the sonorous hails of the battle were hard to miss. They ventured into the city on foot, ducking into a seemingly evacuated hotel as the girls rounded the street, engaged in scrimmage with the monster.

This was probably one of the fancier hotels in the city, it went up a walloping twenty-eight stories. They floated up to the eleventh one, after Butch had snatched a brochure from behind the Front Desk to help decide which room would offer the best viewing experience. They decided on a Master Suite on the west wing.

They met the door locked, Butch suggested they simply kick it down. Bear retrieved a pin from his pocket and picked the lock instead.

"Damn, this place is crazy!" Boomer touted as they filed in, he ducked into the living room area and carried one of the cushions.

He joined his brothers in the large bedroom area just as Bear willed the ceiling-high curtains to part, revealing the ceiling-high windows.

"A-One seats baby." Butch laughed, placing his face against the glass as a supersuit clad Bunny soared past them.

"You think we're good here?" Boomer inquired, plopping down on the cushion.

"These are reflective windows, they can't see us" Brick assured, then felt a bewildering sense of Déjà Vu.

Like Butch, he'd opted to stand. Bear was the only one who hovered, cross-legged.

After a moment of consideration, he fetched a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his jacket pocket. He picked a stick from it, the pack remaining stagnant in the air even as he let it go and lighted the cigarette.

"That thing's pretty fast," Boomer commented as the monster dodged a spear kick from Bubbles and smacked her into the ground.

"It's less about its speed and more about its awareness," Brick corrected, and true to fact, despite its apparent lack of sight-providing organs, the monsters' heads swiveled in alert as the girls attacked it.

"The blue one is defo getting knocked first." Butch said.

Bear shook his head. "Naw," he said, blowing out smoke and pointing, cig-in-hand. They watched as Buttercup flew forward, ignoring a command from Blossom as she weaved through the onslaught of lasers and barreled into the monster's chest, sending it skidding harshly, asphalt collecting at its heels. "Buttercup'll get knocked first. She's not taking any caution, and she keeps ignoring Blossom."

"My thoughts exactly," Brick assented. "There's no thought to her attacks, sooner or later she's gonna get—"

The monster then—unlike the eyebeams it'd been firing—literally roared out a Megabeam, nailing Buttercup head on. She soared backwards a few hundred feet—nothing but a trail of smoke—all the way to another edge of the city.

"Oof!" Boomer grimaced. "That had to sting."

"That fucker's full of surprises." Butch said, his eyes wide.

Blossom arced around the beast while its head was still reared up from its attack on Buttercup. She volleyed it upwards, Bunny took a cue from her and flew over it, drop kicking it back to her sister.

"What a woman" Butch cooed, his saliva beginning to drip on the glass.

"Blossom isn't letting that thing breathe" Boomer leaned forward as Blossom released a fury of lasers on the monsters' heads specifically as it howled in pain.

"She is making good use of its lapse in focus." Brick muttered begrudgingly.

The cigarette hung from Bear's lips as he watched Bunny ram into the monster's midsection. He took a drag and plucked it from his mouth, exhaling the nicotine as he continued to observe.

Blossom was beginning to get frustrated. This thing just kept getting back up, and worse yet, it seemed as though all the damage they were inflicting on it did nothing to hamper its mobility or stamina. Even the scars they'd seared across its body just disappeared after some time.

She watched as Bubbles slugged it and it hit the ground, hard, sending a cloud of dust into the air. Still, Blossom could make out its light twitching as it laid on the road, it would be up again.

They had to tear it apart.

"Girls!" she called and her sisters pulled up beside her. "We have to blow that thing to smithereens."

"How? Our blows aren't keeping it down." Bubbles pointed out.

"Not to mention when we laser it, it just returns the favor" Bunny groused, then peered. "Our attacks are working though."

"They are," Blossom nodded. "I think it has it has a healing factor and rapidly recovers its stamina. We're hurting it, its just rehabbing too fast to sustain any lasting damage."

"My question stands. How do we take it down?" Bubbles said with a worried frown as the monster began to stir.

"I've got a plan" Blossom asserted, her sisters leaned in to listen.

With, sudden, shocking agility, the silver skinned monstrosity sprung to its feet and fired at the girls. They careened out of the way, in three different directions.

Bubbles and Bunny flew straight to the vacuous heads, zipping around to the ones at the side, noting the head in the middle was the only one capable of projecting energy. The beast swung its arms, trying to swat them away, and failed.

They managed to catch its riveted attention, doing nothing but zigzagging around the beams spawning from the monster's eyes, biffing it if said beams began to tear into the buildings around them.

Blossom stayed low to the ground, her belly mere inches from the asphalt as she zoomed in on the pair of large, toe-absent feet. She inhaled, faint blue wisps seeping out from the sides of her mouth. She shot up just as she expelled a shaft of ice from her lips.

The monster felt a strange sensation rapidly encasing its legs and looked down to see the perpetrator. Bunny immediately jabbed its jaw upwards.

Blossom was done with the legs and was now finishing work on the torso. Bubbles and Bunny continued to ceaselessly knock the heads, not allowing them a moment of rest. They backed off suddenly, and the beast made to charge another Megabeam in its mouth, but it was too late.

A coat of dense, bluish-white ice crystallized over that last head, freezing it in place. Blossom zipped away from it and turned to inspect her work, only the monster's figure was visible from its completely frozen, ill-composed form.

"Now!" Blossom behested and dove forward. Her sisters dove after her in the form of colored streaks and they simultaneously plowed into the beast's helpless form, shattering it into thousands of pieces.

They came together in the air, swiveling their heads as it rained frozen monster.

Bubbles whooped, the beatific grin on her face a deep contrast to the anxious unease that bedecked it a few minutes ago.

"Good job Leader Girl" Bunny hailed, humoring Bubbles with a high-five.

Blossom grinned at the compliment, before reestablishing a mildly earnest expression as she looked into the distance and shook her head. "You guys go get Buttercup, I'll take care of the ice debr—"

She paused, her expression growing grave.

"What's wrong Blossom?" Bubbles asked at the abrupt cut-off, following Blossom's gaze. Bunny had already caught on.

"You're kidding me right," Bunny said in disbelief. The three of them watched as the bits of ice began to jerk violently, sliding across the ground, through the air, they converged at one point before coalescing into a figure they wouldn't have minded never seeing again for the rest of their days.

The ice exploded, sending shards flying in every direction. The girls shielded their faces as the picks jetted past them, slashing at their suits, although not causing any damage to them. They lowered their arms and looked in shocked horror as the monster—fully formed—leaped at them.

"Fucking hell!" Butch cackled. "This is quality entertainment."

"Man, how many tricks does this fucker have up its sleeve?" Boomer had shifted his cushion closer to the window.

Brick only stared as the monster slugged Bunny into a building. Two streaks of blue and pink zipped around it, landing blow after blow. He turned to look at Bear.

"Did you see that?"

Bear boorishly flicked away a filter and picked a second stick from the floating pack. "The heads yeah?" he ventured, glancing back at Brick.

"Yeah." Brick nodded.

"What the shit are you guys talking about?" Butch peeled his face from the window and issued his brothers a confused look. Boomer looked between them in curiosity as well.

"You should have been paying attention to something other than how Bunny's ass looks in that suit," Brick said flatly, narrowing his eyes at Butch.

"Dude, how do you expect me to do that? Really, how?!" Butch clamored, gesturing towards the window for emphasis.

Brick rolled his eyes at his brother's stupidity. Boomer was now peering intently at the creature as it eyebeamed Blossom and simultaneously slammed both Bubbles and Bunny into the pavement.

"These suits are incredibly stout" Brick muttered, observing how their full-body aegis hadn't been so much as blemished despite all the hits they were taking.

There was a glint in the corner of Bear's eyes. He flicked his eyes to see a growing dot rapidly approaching from the sky. "I was wondering when she would get up." he said, taking a drag.

They all watched as the dot slowly became more discernibly green, and it in a matter of seconds it thudded against the monster with a Boom. The shockwave from the impact shattering numerous windows and mildly indenting some buildings as the monster went flying across to the other end of the street, bashing into a forceful stop via a high-rise apartment building.

Buttercup now hovered where it had been standing, a coat of green pulsing around her entire body. The sheer gravity of her scowl almost tangible in the air.

"DAYUM BOI!" Butch and Boomer echoed.

"Well..." Brick said, at a loss for words, his eyes slightly wide.

Even Bear's mouth was marginally agape, the cig dangling from his lips.

"I'm just getting FUCKING started!" her furious voice thundered, loud enough for the boys to hear. She made to zoom forward but halted and looked down, appearing very irritated that she was being kept from bringing down hell upon the writhing creature a ways from her.

"These suits are kinda flamin'" Butch said, admiring the girls' get-up. It was white from their necks down to their toes. Along the trims of the neck and spread across the whole suit were patterned lines—in their distinct colors—that piped to a median point 'X' symbol on their chests.

Her sisters appeared at her side and Blossom immediately began to berate her for her recklessness. Buttercup, despite the fury etched on her face, still managed an eye-roll. Bunny appeared to break it up just as Bubbles pointed as the monster which had started to groggily shuffle to its feet.

"This thing's stubborn as fuck. How the hell are they gonna beat it?" Boomer wondered.

"By being cognizant," Brick scoffed. "We only did this what? Four times? They've been at this their whole lives and still struggle with middling creatures like this."

"We got lucky last time, if you've forgotten." Bear suddenly blurted, turning dull eyes on Brick. He stared back, meeting Bear's gaze levelly.

"You did what you had to do," he said, his tone grave. "I don't call that luck."

"What were you saying about its heads?" Butch interjected, facing Bear.

The boy's gaze lingered on Brick—who'd looked back to the battle below them—a second longer. He blew out smoke, eyes flicking to Butch. "Let's see if they figure it out."

"Did you guys notice something when it rejoined itself?" Bunny said.

"Notice what?"

"Its heads," she answered Blossom.

"So we knock its heads off" Buttercup said, bumping her fists together.

"You missed the part where it can regenerate" Bubbles frowned at her erratic sister.

"I don't think it's that simple anyway" Bunny dismissed Buttercup's suggestion.

"What are you theorizing?" Blossom asked as the monster released a warning screech.

"I think the source of its regeneration is in its forehead... well, foreheads." Bunny ventured.

Blossom blinked at her, then thought back to when the pieces of ice began to converge. They had first formed into three disfigured, sphere-like structures before the rest of the ice conjoined with them.

The monster had pulled itself into a hasty walk now. The girls all stared at it, their eyes dilating in unison.

"I see it! I see them!" Bubbles announced.

Her sisters could see it to, she was referring to the tiny, black spheres located in the middle of each forehead, overlayed with equally black, palpitating energy.

"We all do," Buttercup grumbled, clearly agitated. "Now, can we rip it to fucking shreds?"

"Watch your language" Blossom automatically reprimanded. She looked back to the beast that was starting to speed up. "Buttercup," the girl looked to Blossom. "Keep it steady, Make sure you've got a firm grip on it. Bubbles, Bunny and I will take care of the spheres."

"Can I rough it up a bit?" Buttercup asked, her expression strangely and genuinely solemn.

Blossom gave her a look, Buttercup only continued to pout. "You are so rambunctious."

"No idea what the hell that means, but I'll take it as a 'Yes'" Buttercup proclaimed, then zipped off. She ignored Blossom's reproachful cry behind her as she neared the beast, just as it broke out into a full-fledged run itself.

She tipped downwards abruptly, before canting up a suckerpunch into its jaw. With its momentum recoiled, it stumbled backwards, allowing Buttercup a few more well placed energy-coated hits.

The creature wobbled, recovering, and she made her move. The energy around her swelled, before shooting out in three directions.

"What the fucking fuck?" Butch articulated, his brows knotting in bemusement.

"Do you guys remember her being able to do that?" Boomer's face was equally one of the bamboozled variety.

Bear blinked.

Brick rose a dubious brow.

Buttercup hung in the air. Three other Buttercups hovered around her, impeccable, mirror-like, carbon copies.

The four of them zoomed forward, each grabbing hold of a monster limb with their arms. It began to thrash around violently, but the Buttercups held strong and kept it in the air.

Her sisters were right on the ball, already speeding towards the hulking beast the instance Buttercup had confined its movements.

Bubbles dove for the head to the left, Bunny took the one to the right, and Blossom darted straight down the middle. She briefly made out, particles of plasma gathering at the monsters' mouth, but again, it was too little, too late.

Coated in pink energy, she burst through its forehead, she faintly registered its shrill cry as she plowed through the dark, surprisingly squishy insides, perhaps not that surprising, considering she was going through what was probably its brain. She could already see the sphere, box-sized and connected to an artery-esque tube.

She tore it off.

She emerged from the back of the monsters head, throwing the orb in-front of her and eyebeaming it into nothingness. She flew over its explosion, taking notice of the two other eruptions that took place at either side of her.

The shockwave whipped her taut ponytail around as Bunny and Bubbles flew up beside her.

In the arms of the Buttercups, the monster had gone limp, and even with superhearing, one would have had to strain to hear the weak growl that escaped its lips in a last expulsion of defiance before it was dropped to the ground, flopping lifelessly against the asphalt.

Buttercup and her clones floated up to meet her sisters.

Bunny huffed out a breath. "Man, talk about an intransigent son of a bi—" she ceased as Blossom's scolding look. "Monster. A really, really stubborn monster." she amended.

"I'm still not completely used to this," Bubbles said in reference to the four pairs of green eyes that stared back at her.

"Oh yeah?" the four Buttercups said in unison. Bubbles eeped. Just one of the dark-haired girls burst out laughing this time as the three others reverted to wisps of energy and got suctioned back into the original Buttercup.

"And there you have it folks! It was a close match, and our heroes even looked on the ropes for periods of it! But they managed to turn it around and pulled another victory for team Powerpuff!" Boomer commentated into an imaginary microphone in his hands. "Your thoughts, Butch?" he held it up to his gurgling brother.

"Bunny's hips plus Blossom's legs?" he whispered, love-struck, "I'd do anything to get in a girl like that, anything."

"Alright!" Boomer maintained his faux-exuberance. "Anything to add, Brick?"

"They took too long to make a simple, analytically informed decision," Brick said, lip curling in disapproval. "They could have X-Rayed it after initial engagement and been done with it. Not to mention a lack of cohesion 'cause of Buttercup. I doubt this team would survive under harsher, less time-friendly circumstances."

"Spoken by the Idea Man himself! Round us up Bear?" Boomer swiveled to him.

Bear stared through the window with a characteristically vacant expression, watching as Blossom and Buttercup argued some more, but his attention wasn't really on them. Bunny studied the carcass below them, ruminating on something definitely. She could've handled this on her own, he thought to himself, unsure why he was certain of it. He still hadn't pressed about her special power, but if she'd honed it anywhere close to the level he'd honed his since they were born, then this should have been a piece of cake. And he got the feeling she knew, the way she'd sputtered and deflected the topic yesterday, like she was scared of it, scared of the depth of her power or something. Which didn't make sense to him...

After a prolonged silence, which prompted Brick and Butch to also look at him, he simply said...

"They're not bad."

"You heard it from the experts! Tune in next time on Powerpuff Mania!" Boomer closed, dropping the invisible mic.

"Well, that was largely underwhelming. Remind me to thank you guys later for wasting my time." Brick groused as he turned and began to make his way to the door.

"Oh c'mon! You're being harsh, I think they were pretty kickass." Boomer said in the girls' defense, lobbing the cushion on his shoulder as he tailed Brick.

"You think the God damn Power Rangers are kickass. I don't think your take is adequately undergirded," Brick said flatly.

"Just the OG Mighty Morphin' Rangers" Boomer corrected. He glanced at the cushion, suddenly wondering why he was carrying it. He shrugged it off. "I want a ride home."

"You're not getting in my car with that thing on your back."

"Shit!" Boomer halted, taking hold of the straps like he just remembered they were there. "That's right, Bubbles doesn't know where our place is, I still have to head back to school to take her there."

Now Brick halted, whirling a furious eye on Boomer. "You're bringing her to our house?"

Boomer blinked. "Yeah, we've got a Choir assignment. We gotta practice."

"Why can't you do that over at her place?"

"She said she'd prefer to do it at ours," Boomer replied, giving his brother a weird look.

Brick's glare lingered on a catatonic Boomer a few moments longer, before he huffed an exasperated sigh. "Great, just what I need, a Powerpuff in my space," he grumped, having resumed his walk to the door. "Just keep her away from my room. Got it?"

"But what if, like, I want to give her a tour or something?" Boomer said that one just to fuck with him, and Brick bit.

Just before he exited the door, Brick held it open and turned to Boomer, his expression cold and his eyes glowing a dim but frightening red. "I'm capable of dark things brother, don't test me." he said in warning, before shutting the door.

Boomer rolled his eyes with a smirk, bounding up to the door and leaving the room right after him.

The girls had just dispersed, Buttercup lifted the monsters' corpse off the street and flew towards the city's docks, her sisters went in the opposite direction. Leaving a somber Butch in their wake. With his eye candy gone, he decided it was time to leave as well.

"You're going to practice with the band right?" he asked Bear, who drew his out his fifth stick and decided to pocket the pack.

"Mhm." he answered as he lighted the cig and planted his feet on the ground, turning to an awaiting Butch, whose gaze was hopeful.

Bear kept from rolling his eyes. "Yes, you can come."

Butch's eyes suddenly went misty as he sniffled and clasped Bear's shoulders, looking right into his eyes. "You're the best brother ever."

Bear in turn just stared back at him, blank faced, before bluntly saying, "Stop touching me."

Boomer—who stayed back in the empty school parking lot—bid his farewells to his brothers as they sped off in their respective rides. Brick and Bear's cars diverted in opposite directions at a junction as the latter headed to Harry's place. People had only just begun to filter back into the streets so, without any form traffic, they got there in under six minutes.

Bear parked at the side of the road in-front of Harry's house about the same time Bunny landed right in-front of the garage. She turned back, confused to see him just arriving.

"Dude, where the hell were you?" Harry called to Bear as he and Butch stepped down from his car.

"Hey Sugar," Butch sneered at Bunny. She only narrowed her eyes dangerously at him as he strode past her, sniggering. She looked back to Bear who slung his electric—that had been in his backseat—over his shoulder.

"Where were you?"

"Had to get some groceries," he replied, monotone.

Bunny stared at him, allowing herself a dinky smirk. "You went shopping during a monster attack?"

"You guys were like, five streets away, and a nigga needs his bread." He shrugged, smiling when she laughed.

"Sexy." Butch opined, jerking his head at Kim's curtain of dyed pink hair.

The girl was unsure how to respond, so she opted to nod, uttering a slow, "Thanks."

"Don't touch anything dude." Mitch said once Butch plopped down beside him on the sofa behind all the set-up equipment. Butch touched a hand to his chest, issuing Mitch a disheartened look, "Your distrust hurts me." He said, smirking as he snatched Mitch's drumsticks out of his hands.

"Where's Buttercup?" Pablo asked as Bear and Bunny joined them.

"She's on Monster clean-up duty, my dad called her home to help with dinner anyway" Bunny answered, clapping her hands. "Alright, let's make some music."

Bear shot a warning glare to Butch, who swallowed the sexual innuendo that bubbled in his throat.

With her sisters all occupied with one thing or the other, Blossom was the first one to get home.

She could hear her dad shuffling around the lab downstairs as she closed the door behind her. She made a quick pit stop at the kitchen on her way to her room, fetching a box of pop tarts from a cabinet. For all her general dislike towards overly sugar-packed snacks, those toaster pastries were her one weakness. She thought, as she read 'Chocolate Mocha' on the flavor banner right below the signature logo and smiled impishly.

She extracted two from the box and popped them in the microwave. She placed them in a saucer once they were done and made her way up to her room.

She laid the saucer down on her white desk, picking up one tart and munching into it. Her eyes glazed over as she chewed, seriously, these things were criminal. She straightened one of the canvases leaning against the wall above a long wooden support plank that extended from the wall, mentally noting that she needed to wash at least two of them out.

Blossom almost grumped, and while she could stop herself from exuding any verbal grievance, she couldn't stop her face from twisting in closely recognizable ire. She hated how, these days, she couldn't think about her one profound passion without a certain supercilious, peevish boy stepping into the frame of her mind.

She was still just, absolutely muddled that someone like him would be sharing a creative class with her. She struggled to fit Brick anywhere near the definition of 'Art', especially given his errant history—its existence still very prominent as far as she was concerned—and non-artistic exterior.

Her phone chimed. She picked it out of her pants pocket, backtracking to retrieve the second tart that awaited her. She read the name on the screen and hesitated just as she was about to bite into it.

She slided the green phone icon to the right and placed the phone on her ear.

["Ms Bellum? What's the emergency?"]

["Blossom, thank goodness. Is Bubbles with you?"] Sara requested, wordlessly dismissing Blossom's worry of danger.

["No, I'm the only one at home right now."]

["Ah, regardless, clear up your schedule, I want to speak to you both on Saturday."]

Blossom dropped the pastry. ["What for? Is there something wrong?"] Blossom asked, her tone carrying a similar intensity to when she analyzed a monster right before an attack.

["Everything is fine Blossom, don't fret."] Sara assured, placating Blossom. ["I need to speak to you girls concerning an event I have planned."]

"You actually waited."

"'Course I did." Boomer smiled up at a descending Bubbles, stripping off her bag and handing it to her. She worded a thanks and placed it around her shoulders.

"All in a days work?" He inquired, motioning towards the city as he rose to the air as well.

Bubbles grinned sheepishly. "The monster was a little stubborn, but yeah, basically."

"You know, it's honestly kinda hard to envision you locked in battle with giant, ugly monsters" Boomer said as they took off.

"I look more the part in my supersuit." Bubbles giggled.

They flew away from the suburbs and into the city, Boomer leading the way until they touched down at the Boys' place. Bubbles tried not to gape, but she was finding it incredibly difficult as she scanned the quadrilateral structured marble house in-front of them. The windows were blurred from the outside, only the ivory light from within was illuminant amidst the dimming grey ambience of the evening sky. The days gave way to the dark much earlier recently.

"This is your house?" She said, her voice coming out smaller than she intended.

"Yup Yup." Boomer answered, beaming back at her. He whipped out his key and opened the door, he stood by it, waiting for Bubbles to shuffle in before closing it.

Bubbles thought she should maybe stop swirling her head around like a child in a toy store, but she couldn't help herself. Aside from the aesthetic allure, the house was huge.

"So, should we work on the kitchen table? Or you want to come up to my room?" Boomer asked. Bubbles was instantly rocked from her awe-stricken musings, she swiftly turned to him, inadvertently reddening in shock.

"What?" she cried.

The boy before her simply blinked, jabbing a thumb at the stairs behind him, "Wanna go get started in my room? Or in the kitchen? Or would you be more comfortable on the—"

"The kitchen's fine," she blurted, coughing lightly.

"Cool," Boomer grinned. "Let me go get my notes... do you have a speaker with you?" he paused at the foot of the stairs, turning to face her, brows risen in question. She shook her head and he continued his ascent.

Once he was gone Bubbles' feet carried her into the living room. She gazed over the sofas, taking in the beautiful flowers that sprouted from a vase on one of the glass stools. There was a wide floor space behind the sofas, where a small bar stood against the wall, but what arrested her attention was the Grand Piano. She floated to it, brushing her fingers against the cover as she eyed the interior. She drifted around it and tapped in a few keys.

She found herself smiling, she wasn't quite adept at playing the piano, and even that was overstating her ability. The only one in her household who wouldn't look stupid sat in-front of a piano was Bunny. But despite that, no matter how discordant the keys she played were, they still managed to sound melodious, the piano was just that kind of instrument.

She suddenly heard someone unlocking the door and jerked to. Brick strode into view, heading straight for the stairs. He seemed to catch her figure in his side eye and stopped, facing her.

She made an attempt at cordiality. "Hi Brick." she waved, smiling affably.

Brick's staid face only thickened, he narrowed his eyes at her and continued towards the stairs without so much as a glance in her direction.

She frowned, following his form till he disappeared up the steps. Her hand dropped just as Boomer reappeared, speaker in hand, note in the other.

"What are you doing over there?" Boomer snorted as he made his way to the kitchen.

He set his speaker down on the dining table and drew a seat out. Bubbles floated into the kitchen, taking the seat beside him.

"So contemporary, do you have anything in mind?" Boomer asked, flicking his pen against the blank pages on his open notepad.

"Well, I was thinking we could do Cristina, or maybe Toni?" Bubbles suggested, already scrolling through her phone.

Boomer wrote them down, nodding in agreement. "If we eventually go the less mainstream route I think we should do Norah."

Bubbles arched a brow. "Who?"

"Norah Jones" Boomer answered. "She's under the radar mostly, but she has an amazing voice, she's got that one song, uh..."

Boomer snapped his fingers repeatedly, trying to jog his memory.

"Like a flower... waiting to bloom. Like a lightbulb..."

"... in a dark room" Bubbles joined in as the tune reestablished itself in her memory.

"I'm just sittin' here, waiting for you to come home and... turn me on." They both sang, smiling into the lyrics.

"Turn Me On! Yeah, I know that song," Bubbles beamed.

"Yeah, exactly! We're gonna kill it!" Boomer laughed as he scribbled Nora's name among the potential singers they'd cover. Bubbles giggled at his enthusiasm.

"Okay okay, turn on your Bluetooth." Bubbles requested, still sputtering with laughter. Boomer grabbed the speaker and activated the Bluetooth. Bubbles had just switched hers on when she heard another door opening.

She swiveled to the direction the sound had come from, Boomer simply picked up his pen. "Who is that?" she asked.

"Hm?" Boomer turned, urging her to ask again, but it turned out not to be necessary.

Bubbles felt her mouth slack as Olivia emerged through the kitchen frame, a lab coat hanging over her casual attire. She huffed out a fatigued breath as she grabbed a glass off the counter.

"Hey honey," she greeted, flicking the tap up as water spewed from it into her glass.

"Hey mom!" Boomer simpered. "You done for today?"

"Unfortunately not, there's still quite a few materials I haven't teste—" she paused, the rim of the glass millimeters from her mouth. Bubbles stared back, in equal, if not superior befuddlement. Actually on her part it was more... amazement. She felt as though she was looking at a character that had sprung from the pages of a work of fiction. After all those years of highly curtailed descriptions from her dad... here she was, she was staring her right in the face.

"Oh, right." Boomer gestured at Bubbles. "Mom, this is—"

"Bubbles, Bubbles Utonium." Olivia finished, dropping her glass back on the counter.

Bubbles seemed to snap to. "Uh... yes! Hello Ms Venus, it's... it's nice to finally meet you." She could not believe that was her attempt at composure.

Though, her nerves did settle dramatically when Olivia's lips curled up into an amiable smile.

"Why, you've grown into such a pretty girl."

Bubbles was taken aback, taking a moment to register Olivia's words. "Oh. Well, thank you ma'am," she said, blushing at the compliment.

"There's no need for such formality dear. Boomer, where are your manners? Get the girl a drink."

"Damn, sorry." Boomer stood.

"What? No, that's okay, you don't have to—" Olivia was already waving off Bubbles' protest as she turned to Boomer. "Get her some apricot juice." He nodded and slided over to the fridge.

Bubbles—quickly realizing she had little say in the matter—decided against further demurral.

"So, to what do I owe the honor of having a Powerpuff Girl grace my home?" Olivia beamed down at her.

Bubbles couldn't help but laugh bashfully. "Well, Boomer and I have an assignment for Choir. We... kind of got paired up, so we're working on the song we're going to perform" she finished just as Boomer returned with two glasses filled with apricot juice.

"Well, how about that for a coincidence." Olivia said, and Bubbles had to laugh at the sheer irony. "Do you see yourself doing anything with singing?"

"I honestly can't say, I love to sing but I'm more interested in dance" Bubbles replied.

"She's the Vice Captain of the Cheer Squad!" Boomer accentuated with a grin.

"I'm not surprised in that case" Olivia smiled. "Any forms of dance specifically?"

"I'm a sucker for Ballroom, though its the most recent form I've picked up I'd dare to call it my strong suit—" Olivia's eyes flickered to Boomer, who was now giving Bubbles his rapt attention.

"—I also love Ballet though, and I'd say I'm fairly good at Latin and Hip-Hop as well" Bubbles answered, smiling as modestly as she could.

"My my, such versatility. How long have you been dancing?"

"About ten years." she answered Olivia.

Olivia nodded, impressed. "And there's a dance program at Townsville High?"

"Is there?" Boomer asked, sipping his juice cryptically.

Bubbles shook her head, her expression dimming just a tad. "Unfortunately not, the seniors that just graduated tried to appeal for one, but the school just doesn't have the funding."

"That's a shame," Olivia said, meaning it. "I can just tell you'd light up any game you get the chance to properly perform at."

Bubbles couldn't stop smiling, literally, her cheeks were starting to hurt. But how could she not smile, when this incredibly sweet woman was bombarding her with so many compliments. Compliments were one of the many things she liked to receive, especially in regard to her passion. For some reason, she hadn't expected her to be so... warm. Her dad had never painted her as a villain, or even as a remotely bad person, he'd honestly just... never painted her, period. And Bubbles was both shocked and pleased at the kind of person Olivia seemed to be.

"I have to get back to work now" Olivia announced, standing off from her leaned position. "But it was such a pleasure to meet you Bubbles."

"Thank you! You too Ms Venus." Bubbles thanked.

Olivia gave her one last smile before turning and making her way out the kitchen, grabbing her glass of water on the way.

Bubbles turned back to Boomer, her smile ubiquitous.

"Oh, and Bubbles?!" she heard Olivia's voice call out.

"Yes?!" she projected back.

"Say 'Hello' to your father for me!"

Bubbles' grin twitched, only momentarily. "I will!"

The water sputtered out the faucet as Brick turned off the shower, warm, despite the sizzling weather. He'd tried to go to bed once he got home, a decision which backfired immensely. He ended up taking a fifty-fifty chance of refreshment nap, and woke up on the wrong side of the probability. Welcomed back to consciousness with a piercing headache.

He felt better now though, showering always had a tranquilizing effect on him. As he strode past his brothers' rooms, he could make out Bubbles bidding her farewell to Boomer from downstairs. He swung his door open, flicking on the lights to replace the murk.

He emerged from his closet fully clothed minutes later. The sunlight that filtered into his room had disappeared as the moonlight creeped in. He shuffled to his window, grabbing the curtains as he pulled them closed completely. He hated leaving them open, hated the sight of this city even from a passing side glance.

He floated over to his desk, shifting his sketchpads aside and pulling his laptop up. He sunk in his chair as it booted, glancing at the wall above his closet door where his clock was placed.

Tick, Tock

It was Wednesday. How the fuck was it still Wednesday? How had it been just three days since he started at that wretched school? How had it been just three weeks since he moved to this wretched city?

Tick, Tock

Just the mere, conscious knowledge that he was here aggravated him to no end. This city was a constant reminder of the life he'd profusely tried to escape from. A life of duress under the guise of tutelage. A life of incessant scurrility from those rats, a bunch of secondary creatures who hunkered behind the heroics of three little girls, thinking they knew anything about him, thinking he would have willingly deigned their pitiful city with his time.

Tick, Tock

Like he would have wasted his talents on juvenile delinquency if he'd had the agency. Like he couldn't level their whole fucking city to the ground even now—

He paused, catching himself in that thought. He sunk lower and exhaled a heavy groan. No, he had to stop entertaining those thoughts. He wasn't that person anymore... he couldn't be. He glanced at his screen, the laptop had long since booted.

Tick Tock

Brick hated it here. "I hate it here" he externalized, feeling just as inflamed as he had before speaking.

"Brick!" His mom called, her tone carried a bit of urgency. His eyes flickered to his door, lingering on it a few more seconds until she called out his name again. His head swiveled back to his clock, only three minutes had passed. He abruptly decided he wanted a new one.

He exited his room and zipped down the stairs, where Olivia was waiting with her phone pressed against her ear. Brick noted the troubled look on her face as he stalked up to her.

"Yeah mom?" he said upon reaching her, his eyes roamed to the living room where Boomer was sprawled on one of the long sofas, remote in hand.

She seemed to be finishing up conversation with whoever was on the phone. "Alright then. Yes, he's here." She said, finally looking up at Brick.

The boy assumed a slightly confused look as she held out the phone to him.

"Who is it?" he asked, already taking it from her hand.

"Jean Morbucks." Olivia answered, her expression uneasy.

Jean Morbucks, Brick repeated the name to himself, it sounded eerily familiar. "Hello?"

"Brick, a pleasure. I assume you've been informed who you're speaking with." a husky, debonair voice greeted on the other end of the line.

"I have, the pleasure is all mine," Brick replied, unsure why he reflexively straightened, and cleared his voice. "I'm afraid I'm not entirely familiar with your person sir, if I'm being honest."

"All in due time," Mr Morbucks replied. "I want to make you an offer."

Brick was confused, but his curiosity took precedence. "What kind of offer?"

"I'd like to patronize you. I understand you're quite adept at Photography, yes?"

Brick physically nodded. "I believe myself to be."

Olivia scrutinized Brick as he palavered with the apparent wealthiest man in Townsville on the phone. She was failing miserably at self dousing her worry, so she decided to make her way back into the kitchen. She turned towards the sofas just before she entered.

"Call your brothers Boomer, tell them to come home."

"Okay," Boomer obliged, dropping the remote and reaching for his phone.

Olivia's eyes whirred back on Brick, a line forming between her brows. Her frown deepened as he zipped up to his room, voicing the need for a pen and paper.

~End: Ch. 2~