"Deadline"
Chapter 10:
Below the Utonium household was a soundproofed, isolated room known as Professor Utonium's laboratory. Inside, the professor was working busily at a beaker over a Bunsen burner. Professor Utonium held up an eyedropper over the bubbling beaker and began carefully squeezing out a drop of acid. He began to perspire with tension as the little drop drew closer and closer to the concoction. Slowly…slowly…
Suddenly, the Powerpuff Girls burst through the soundproofed door with a loud BAM!
"PROFESSOR!!"
SQUIRT! BWOOOSH!
The mixture foamed wildly over the top of the beaker and dissolved away the surface of the professor's desk. The Professor had backed away just in time, but slapped his forehead in frustration.
"Girls," he said. "Don't barge in so suddenly like that! You just scared the- GASP!! What in the name of…!"
The Professor was obviously startled to see his three daughters standing right in front of the door exhausted, hurt and on the verge of tears.
"Professor," Blossom cried. "The Rowdyruff Boys, they…"
"The Rowdyruff Boys did this to you?!" the Professor clenched his fist and his head steamed like a boiling teakettle. "Ooh, that's the last straw! No one hurts my little angels and gets away with it! I'll invent something right now that will…"
"No, Professor. The boys…they're…dead…"
Professor Utonium's eyes widened and he was lost for words. He was a bit confused that the girls were crying over their sworn enemies. But he kneeled down to their level and gently laid his arms around them.
"I'm sorry, girls. Let's go upstairs and you can tell me what happened," he murmured.
In the living room, the girls sat on the Professor's lap as they told him everything that happened, from their fight with the Rowdyruff Boys to the final battle against Him. By the time they finished, Bubbles had broken down in tears.
"Blossom and Bubbles felt the boys weren't really evil," Buttercup admitted, tears starting to build up in her eyes. "And even though I didn't really believe that, I guessed they could change for the better! They really could!"
The Professor wiped the girls' tears and stroked their heads to comfort them. "I understand," he said. The girls leaned into their father's shoulders and continued to cry.
Suddenly the girls' eyes snapped wide open and perked up their heads as if they heard something.
"What is it, girls?"
"There was a voice coming from our room!" said Bubbles.
The girls raced up the stairs into their bedroom. There they saw the Rowdyruff on their bed, alive and awake! The boys looked quite shocked and bewildered. The girls, who were equally shocked floated slowly in front of the bed.
"Oh my gosh!" Bubbles cried. "You…you're alive! You're really alive!"
"I can't believe it!" Blossom exclaimed, tears welling in her eyes again.
Brick snapped out of his astonishment and smirked. "Well you better believe it, sissies! We're back yet again, and it goes to show you, you can't get rid of us! We ain't going anywhere!"
For a moment, the girls just stared, wearing the same kind of sweat-drop as from Chapter 1.
"What are you talking about?" Blossom finally said. "You really thought that we wanted you guys dead?"
Buttercup sank to her knees and hung her head, so her face couldn't be seen. But her shoulders trembled and her breathing was quick and uneven.
"Uh…Huh-uh, huh, huh huh huh…"
Curious, Butch leaned in close to Buttercup. He still couldn't see her face, though.
"Hey. What's so funny?"
WHACK!
"AGH!"
Buttercup looked up to face Butch and angrily shouted, "Do I LOOK like I'm laughing, you moron?!!"
She clearly didn't look like she was laughing. She had tears in her eyes and streaming down her face. But the corners of her mouth were slightly raised in a smile.
There were very few things in the world that could make a Rowdyruff Boy forget about fighting. The astonishing sight of your sworn enemy ragged and crying for you was one of them.
"You're okay!" Bubbles exclaimed. "But how? I thought you were gone forever when that mirror broke!"
"Mirror?" Boomer asked. "What are you talking about?"
"You might not know what I'm talking about, but I know Brick does."
Brick pointed to his chest. "Me?"
"Yeah. You talked to me through my reflection when me and the girls were fighting Him. Your souls were trapped in that mirror, and we could break the spell by destroying him, but if the mirror broke, then you'd have no chance of coming back to life. You said it yourself."
"I don't remember ever saying anything like that," replied Brick. "Now, destroying Him to break the spell, I understand that. But how the heck were we supposed to know about a mirror, let alone what would happen if it broke? That couldn't have been me who talked to you."
Bubbles realized he was right. "You're right. I do remember when Buttercup accidentally fell on the mirror. Him said his plan was ruined."
"The first thing most people would think of is to break the mirror. There was the time when Mojo turned everyone into dogs, and we managed to reverse the effect by smashing the Anubis Dog Head," Buttercup added.
"So in that case, it makes perfect sense that Him would try to trick us into doing the exact opposite," concluded Blossom.
In the meantime, the Professor was seated on one of the girls' small chairs and listened to the kids' conversation. Next to him was the Utonium family's pet, the talking dog.
"You know," Brick said a bit nervously. "We never asked for your help."
Upon hearing that, the girls were peeved! "Well, SORRY!" snapped Blossom. "I guess we should have just left you to…!"
Brick quickly realized the mistake he just made. "Wait! That's not what I meant! What I meant was…uh…"
"What Brick meant was, girls," the Professor said. "That out of all people, the boys never thought you would try to help them. You were archrivals for so long, since when you first met. But you suddenly turned around and faced Him to save their lives."
Brick's eyes widened. "Can this guy read minds or something?" he thought.
"Why would you help us, anyway?" Butch asked, a little suspicious.
"Because you boys aren't really evil," Bubbles answered bluntly.
After just a few seconds, the boys burst out laughing. "Us? Not evil?" Butch exclaimed. "BWA-HA-HA-HA!! Don't make me laugh! ...Although you just did!"
"You must have taken one too many hits to the heads!" Brick guffawed.
"Yeah! That's like saying Princess is poor!" Boomer added. "How can we not be evil?"
"Well," said Bubbles. "You don't have evil intentions or care about evil stuff. Everything you do is for your own entertainment."
"You're wrong!" Butch shouted. "There is an evil thing we care about! And that's…that's…"
Butch and his brothers remembered last Father's Day, when Mojo Jojo and Him were both trying to prove themselves the more evil father. In the end, the boys ditched them both, with Brick saying the one evil thing they care about was destroying the Powerpuff Girls. But that was over a year ago, and after everything that happened, what about now?
Trying to think, Butch scratched his head in a way that could make him go bald. But then he noticed something: his spikes were gone! Had he really gone bald?
Butch felt a tuft of hair near the back of his head. It felt like…a cowlick! Just then, everybody noticed that the boys' hair had changed. In fact, their hair had reverted back to their "old style!" The boys now looked the same as they did when they were first created.
"What happened to your hair?" Blossom asked. "When did you guys cut it?"
"We never cut our hair," Boomer answered. "I think this happened because Him's spell wore off."
"What? I thought it grew out."
"No," Brick said. "Him made our hair like that with a wave of his hand…thing."
"So I guess this proves that Him really IS destroyed! If he's gone, then his spell should have disappeared too!" Bubbles concluded.
"Doesn't that include the 'cootie vaccination' he gave you guys?" Buttercup said.
The boys froze and turned pale. They could already feel their insides churning. But the Professor smiled.
"I can take care of that," he said. The kids were surprised.
"You can?" asked the girls.
"Yes. And I can do it right now. Come down to my lab, boys."
At first the boys were a bit uneasy, but they followed him out the bedroom door and walked down the stairs.
Before they stepped through the doorway to the Professor's laboratory, Blossom called out to them.
"Wait! You were about to tell us that one evil thing you guys care about," she said. "What is it?"
The boys looked at each other and finally Brick said, "It's nothing…"
The boys then walked down the stairs into the lab. The Professor, still at the door, said, "Girls, don't worry. Just take a Chemical X bath and go to bed. I'll call the school and tell them you're staying home today."
The girls yawned, nodded and headed back upstairs. They took another Chem. X bath to heal their wounds. But before they could crawl into bed, they heard the sound of cars approaching their house. Buttercup looked at the clock, which read 3 am.
"Who the heck could be coming here at this hour?"
(To be continued…)
Yep, quite OOC. When Tonifranz read this, he had all sorts of questions because this didn't seem realistic.
Thank you for the reviews! I'm sorry but the final chapter won't be up anytime soon because 1.) I'm not done writing it. And 2.) Winter Break is over and I'm going to class again. This semester I have to REALLY buckle down.