So I just wanna quickly clarify something here. I know I said this month I said I'll work on all my old stories, but this piece IS actually one of my old stories. One of the VERY first nes I had plans to publish waaaay back in September but plans change and new things come in, and so basically this has been sitting in the clutter for a long time now. I thought of making this a oneshot, but then it would be insanely long and would take forever to finally publish, sooo, yeah. Enjoy? Heh heh...?
Ok, no seriously, Enjoy! :)
It was another lazy day for the Powerpuff Girls as they lounged at home, spending spring break in their beds. Well, only Bubbles had to spend it in bed, really. Poor thing got caught in the heaviest storm of the year and had come home drenched and sneezing.
The monsters were at rest for a while now and the Mayor, surprisingly, haven't called the Girls for opening his pickle jar in weeks.
Buttercup yawned, looking up from the TV as her wrestling match ended. "It was so obvious Big Ben was going to win; That Louie-guy was nothing against him," she muttered, talking about the show. The Puff yawned again as she floated into the kitchen for something to eat.
"Man, things can't get any more boring," she said, "The monsters of Townsville are sure being on their best behavior."
Blossom looked up from her homework on the kitchen table as Bubbles trudged down the stairs, blue eyes all puffy. "Well, they are being pretty quiet lately," she agreed, "Probably scheming some elaborate plan or something."
"Hey, Bubs," said Buttercup, acknowledging the Puff's presence as she grabbed a packet of chips.
"How are you feeling, Bubbles?" asked Blossom, "Better?"
Bubbles nodded. "A little bit," she sniffled, "Maybe the monsters are on spring break, too."
As if on cue, their hotlines started to ring. "Spoke too soon, sis," Buttercup grumbled, grabbing an energy drink and chugging that down instead.
Blossom sighed as she answered the call. "Yes, Mayor. Mhm, we're on it. You have a nice spring break, too," she said over the phone, "Come on, girls. Ice Monster."
"Oh, come on! We just finished winter!" cried Buttercup.
"I'm already sick," Bubbles pointed out.
"You stay here and rest," Blossom told her, "It's not like the Ruffs will be there to take us down or anything. We'll be fine. It's just an ice monster, and ice is my specialty."
"It's also your weakness," said Buttercup.
Blossom ignored her. "We'll be okay, alright? Just stay and rest. Okay Bubbles?"
"Happy thoughts, Bubs! We'll be back!" cried Buttercup, taking off.
"Love you, Bubbles!" said Blossom as she took off after her sister's green streak of light. Bubbles sighed as she watched them go.
"Oh, wow," said Buttercup when she first saw the beast.
"Seriously?" Blossom asked as she looked at her sister incredulously.
The monster was as tall as Townsville's tallest skyscraper and made out of solid ice.
"How are we to even defeat this thing?" asked Buttercup. When the ice monster noticed them, it blew a blast of ice in their direction. "And it's got ice breath!" the Puff added as she dodged the blast. Blossom countered with her own ice breath.
"We could try to melt it somehow," she suggested.
Buttercup rolled her eyes. "Who are you, Brick?" she asked.
"I was just saying," said Blossom, "You give ideas then!"
Buttercup went to the monster and tried to punch it.
"Hi-yah! OW!"
"Buttercup!" Blossom cried, quickly flying over to her.
Buttercup rubbed her arm. "Okay, so punching definitely won't work. This dude's made of solid ice!"
"Let's at least try to crack him in the center or something," said Blossom, "We have to try."
Buttercup attacked him from behind as Blossom took it on from the front. The tomboy karate-kicked the center of the beast's back and the beast roared. He spun around and whacked her away before returning his attention back to Blossom.
"Uh-oh," Blossom gulped.
"AAAAHHH!" Buttercup cried as she shot halfway across town, crashing right into someone.
"Oof!" the someone mumbled. The Puff widened her eyes in horror.
That voice, she thought. Had it been any ordinary someone, they would have been knocked unconscious. But if this someone still lived to mutter an "oof," it could only mean-
"BUTCH?!" Buttercup shrieked as she looked down underneath her at the spiky jet-black hair and forest green eyes.
The Ruff pushed her off of him and grunted, his trademark sneer currently morphed into a scowl. "Watch it," he grumbled, "Stupid Puff."
"I'm not stupid, you're careless! You should've moved out of the way!" Buttercup snapped as she stood up.
Butch growled and grabbed onto her wrists, keeping her from flying off. "Where do you think you're going, huh?" he snarled.
"Uh, away?" Buttercup answered as if he was the dumb one, wrenching free of his grasp, "You're a Ruff."
Suddenly, the other two brothers appeared.
"Sadly mistaken, Spitfire," Brick sneered as he grinned evilly. Boomer snickered at the pet name, shooting a look at Butch.
Said Ruff scowled.
"Three against one," Brick continued, "It's not every day a Puff is stranded all by herself. Why don't we let Butch have his fun, eh?"
"Ooh, this is gonna be interesting," Boomer chuckled darkly as he rubbed his hands in anticipation.
"What do you say, Boys?"
Butch lunged at his counterpart, who gave him a kick to the stomach. The Ruff doubled over but somersaulted in midair to hide his pain and kicked her back. She dodged it, but not before punching him in the jaw. Butch growled again and swung her around by her foot, sending her crashing to the ground.
"Unghh," Buttercup groaned as Butch hovered over her, smirking. She glared at him as she peeled herself out of the crater she'd made.
Instead of going at him, though, she turned around and flew the other way, remembering the ice monster and her sister who was out there by herself. Buttercup had wasted enough time already.
This move confused ALL the Ruffs. As far as they knew, Buttercup was not one to bail out of a battle, and certainly not first to leave a fight.
"Is she bailing?" Boomer asked.
Brick smacked him on the head. "Is she not?!" he asked back.
"Well, I dunno. That's why I was- OW!"
"Just shut up, Boomer."
"She's not chickening out this soon," cried Butch, taking off after her, "I haven't had my fun!"
Boomer stared after him. "Um...o-kay," he said. Brick tugged on his ear.
"Come on, Loser!" he cried, "Let's go!"
"Oh, what? Hey, wait!" Boomer cried, following his brother's red streak of light.
When Buttercup noticed Butch on her trail, she groaned as she dodged his laser beams. "For goodness sake, why today?! I've got business with a different and more important monster first! Just leave me alone already!"
"More important monster?" Butch scoffed, "Am I not on the top of your list?"
"If you had something called a brain in that big head of yours, you would've known just by using common sense!" said Buttercup, "And why the heck are your brothers coming along? This is our fight. Don't they have their own Puffs to pick on?"
"Yo, Bro!" Boomer yelled from a distance, "Who's winning?"
The pair heard Brick smack him. "Shut up, Boomer!"
Buttercup rolled her eyes. "I have never met a more idiotic person than Boomer. How could such an intelligent monkey create such a stupid mind?"
"That's my brother you're talking about!" Butch cried indignantly.
"Exactly! Which makes you all the more detestable!" Buttercup snapped back as she entered ice monster territory, "Now leave me be. I'm not scheduled to deal with a Ruff today."
Butch glared, looking at her bitterly as she called him off in that cold tone. "You think you're having it your way?" he muttered.
"Cool," Brick cackled as he neared the fight between the Girls and the monster, "Half of Townsville's transformed into an ice rink!"
The beast noticed the new super-natural beings and roared, sending a blow of its infamous ice breath at them. Brick and Butch bolted upwards and avoided the blast but Boomer, who'd been too busy marveling at all the ice, had gotten caught off-guard and got hit.
"Oh shit, Boom!" cried Brick as he and Butch immediately flew down to their brother's frozen figure. Butch knocked on the ice as Brick started to melt it with his fire breath but had to leap out of the way when the monster fired its mouth off at them once more.
"Man, Boom is solid," Butch observed. Now Brick smacked him instead.
"Our brother is frozen in the ice and your inspecting him with fascination?!" he shrieked.
"Ow, okay," Butch winced, "So you do have a heart."
Brick glared at him, his intense gaze daring Butch to push any more buttons. "Okay okay shutting up," Butch muttered quickly.
"Shut. Up." Brick ordered one last time.
Buttercup momentarily stopped fighting to send the Ruffs a wary glance over her shoulder as she took in Boomer's frozen form. "You get it now about dealing with a more important monster?" she mocked when she caught Butch's gaze.
Butch's face darkened as he squinted his eyes to slits. "You are still in for it once this is all over," Butch growled, hands balling up into fists.
Buttercup turned around fully and put her hands on her hips. "Ohh, I'm soo scared! What are you gonna do, pick another fight?" she taunted. Butch shook violently as he tried to control his anger.
"Guys, cut it out!" Brick shouted as they heard Blossom cry out in the distance.
"What, is little Butch having temper tantrums?" The Puff continued, ignoring Brick.
"I hate you!" Butch cried.
"I hate you more!" Buttercup yelled.
Butch's eyes glowed. "Baby, I was born to hate you," he growled.
"ENOUGH!" Brick roared as he got in between them, red eyes blazing fiercely. "I told you both to SHUT UP so listen for once!"
The Ruff's outburst temporarily silenced the whole area as the monster stopped briefly to stare at Brick. Even Blossom stopped, giving him an odd look. The Greens glared at each other.
The monster roared and resumed his fight with the pink Powerpuff as Brick rubbed his temples. "You two are impossible," he muttered. Buttercup rolled her eyes when a cry caught her attention.
The beast roared again and they all turned to see a trembling pink figure float back in retreat. "Blossom!" Buttercup cried as the ice monster swiped at her sister. The Puff barely dodged it, quivering the whole way.
"Blossom, Blossom are you okay?" Buttercup rushed as she hugged her tightly, "You're okay!"
"N-N-Not f-for long," Blossom shivered.
"Oh my god, Blossom, you're- you're so cold!" Buttercup cried as she continued to embrace her sister. The monster fired again and Buttercup instantly let go of Blossom and bolted out of the way, as did Butch and Brick, although maybe she should've carried Blossom's quaking figure with her.
Blossom let out another cry as she flew upwards, crashing into Brick who was flying away from the monster in that direction and sent both of them to the ground in a tangled mess. Blossom groaned as Brick blearily opened his eyes and tried to push the Puff off when the ice beast blew at them again and trapped them in their own little igloo sort of thing with no exit. It was sort of like a hard shell made of ice.
Buttercup stared in shock.
"Oh no, not again!" Butch cried they witnessed their sibling get entombed in the ice. Buttercup shook out of her stupor and quickly flew to them. "Please don't turn into popsicles, please don't turn into popsicles," she prayed as she rushed over to see. Butch followed.
"Whew. They're alive, so far," Butch breathed in relief.
"And you're relieved?!" Buttercup yelled. Butch looked over at her with irritation.
"At least living for a couple more minutes is better than freezing solid immediately," he snapped. Buttercup sighed.
"Yes, but Blossom is in no condition to even last a couple more minutes. She goes from okay to a popsicle in minutes!"
"So what's the deal here?" Butch interrupted stubbornly.
"The deal, you complete idiot, is that Blossom has to break out of that thing fast or she's gonna be an ice statue next to Brick. Plus, the encasement seems to be shrinking inside," Buttercup explained, "If we don't break them out of there, either way their gonna be frozen soon."
"But Brick has fire powers. He should be able to get out of it anyway!" Butch argued. Buttercup started to grow annoyed. "Yes, but- Whoa!"
The Puff dodged a pointed ice shard as it whizzed by the exact the spot she'd been floating not two seconds ago.
Butch bolted up next to his counterpart to avoid the monster's sudden attacks and darted his head back and forth between Buttercup and the beast. "What the hell? Icicles?! You never said anything about the monster being able to shoot icicles out of its hands!" he yelled.
"That's because it never did shoot icicles!" Buttercup yelled back as they swiveled through the pointed shards.
"Ice breath, ablity to shoot daggers, crazy temper, anything else?!" Butch counted. Buttercup suddenly yanked him to the right. "What the-" Butch started as an icicle brushed past his head.
"Will you just shut up and try not to get hit?" Buttercup snapped. Butch looked at her aggravatedly. "I don't need you to save my ass for me. I can do it myself," he muttered, looking away. Buttercup smirked.
"Oh yeah?" she challenged, grinning evilly as she watched over her counterpart's shoulder. "Why're you smirking? I can save myself just fi-OW!" Butch cried out as an icicle hit his shoulder. Buttercup continued smirking. "You can save yourself just fine, huh?" she said. Butch scowled as he looked up at her.
Suddenly Buttercup's eyes widened as she uncrossed her arms over her chest and shoved Butch out of the way. A big hurl of hard-packed snow got chucked into the walls of an old brick building.
"Snow?" Butch asked in disbelief as he stared at the white flakes, "Are you sure you're dealing with an ice monster? I mean, the dude's practically ice itself, save for the angled slits that are supposed to be eyes, so where the heck is he even shooting the snow from?!"
"I don't know, Butch. We have to get Brick and Blossom out of there first," said Buttercup. "Two, or one when you're thinking about it practically, is not enough against this monster. Four would be a great help, especially if one possesses fire powers."
"Buttercup, look out!" Butch suddenly yelled. "Woah!" said the Puff as she ducked down a storm of icicles. Buttercup flashed a grateful smile at the Ruff, momentarily forgetting this was Butch she was smiling to. "Thanks, man," she said.
Butch scrunched up his face. "Don't thank me. It sounds weird."
Buttercup looked at him with an odd expression before turning back to fly over to the encased Reds. Butch followed reluctantly, the only thing moving his body forward was the thought of saving his brother, who was also by the way, a key asset to saving his other brother.
The monster roared. "Don't look back," said Buttercup, "Rescuing our siblings is more important at the moment. Family first, work second."
Butch eyed her sideways. "Since when are you the reasonable one?" he asked, raising a brow.
Buttercup frowned at him, before thinking better of it and shrugging instead, opting to go for a smirk. "When you become leader, you have to accept some sense," she answered intelligently, knowing her choice of words would catch her counterpart off-guard.
"Accept what now?"
Buttercup stopped to float in front of him. "I mean, when the leader gets out of the picture for a while, the next runner-up has to take over and start thinking reasonably to win in the end," she explained in a very-reasonable tone, sort of acting like Blossom, "So basically, I'm just ensuring that I'm a good leader and defeat the monster."
"Whoa there, hold up. Who made you the leader?" Butch asked snottily.
Buttercup smirked. "I simply fall next in line," she answered, sounding even more intelligent, like a queen or something.
Butch scoffed. "Let's just hurry up and get our siblings out of there," he grumbled, "The less time we have to spend working together, the better."
Buttercup frowned at him but said nothing.
Blossom hugged herself in attempt to keep warm and paced on the spot. Brick was leaning lazily on the glass, watching her and rose an eyebrow. He inched closer to the center as the ice started to cave in and grunted as his counterpart plopped down next to him for the same reason.
She was still shivering and her teeth-chattering had been going on for so long Brick had gotten fed up of it and finally had enough.
"What is wrong with you?" he snapped.
Blossom looked at him and Brick backed up a bit. Her pink eyes were glowing dangerously and she wore an expression Brick had never seen before. It looked like she was going to explode.
The Ruff flinched back at her intense glare as she growled under her breath, visibly shaking as she tried to compose herself from lashing out.
"Wh-What's...what's wr-wrong with me?" she repeated incredulously, all her bottled up anger bubbling out, "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me?!" she yelled, "You're the most selfish and cold-hearted person I've ever met! Your obnoxious and you don't care about anybody!"
"Of course I-"
"Don't you dare put your brothers in. You treat them horribly. Have you ever reflected on how you behave with Boomer alone?" Blossom interrupted as she continued to shiver, "You're arrogant and stuck-up and have no heart to help!
So I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't show an ounce of empathy to someone who's in trouble. I'm freezing, I'll probably freeze completely solid soon, and you're asking what's wrong with me!"
Brick was silent. Blossom was right, in all respect, but as they grew older and started to change, even she couldn't pinpoint a person's characteristics completely. Because there were parts of him, new parts of him, which Blossom had yet to know about.
"Are you done?" Brick asked, irritated.
Blossom huffed. "No patience as always," she muttered, "But let me tell you one more thing. I'm your purpose in life. It's your mission to end me, it's what you were born to do. But once you finally do finish me, once you finally do get rid of your purpose, then you'll have no purpose," Blossom snarled coldly,
"And just like that, you and your brothers will be aimless people, resorting your life to live off the way you do right now. Steal, get caught, go to jail, come back out, and forever have a bad life and impression."
Now it was Brick's turn to glow angrily as his red eyes blazed. "Stop being such a bitch to me. At least you have a wonderful life to go back to once you face off villains. Where do you think we go? When we win, we get adored for half a day by our father figures before we're thrown off with another plan.
And if we lose, we get another beating on top of the ones we've already endured," he spat, "And if your smart brain didn't already process this, our so-called father figures are villains themselves! We live off their earnings, which is hardly much given who they are. You deserve it once in a while," Brick muttered as he crossed his arms and looked away, glaring at the ice.
Blossom only stared at his surprising outburst.
Buttercup punched the ice, cracking it ever-so-slightly. She karate-kicked the crack and it spread about two centimeters. "This is going to take a while," she sighed.
"We don't have a while. They'll be popsicles, as you called it, by then!" Butch cried.
"Then help me break this thing, Stupid!" Buttercup snapped. "Instead of just standing there, bust the ice with me so it'll break open faster!"
Butch sighed aggravatedly. "Keep it up and you'll be by yourself to save the day," he snapped back as he joined in.
Buttercup gave him the side eye. "Oh-ho, you think you're helping me get my sister out? You're just doing this to save your stupid brothers," she said.
"No kidding," Butch snarled, "You've got a whole adoring town behind you and a loving father-like figure you can return to. All I've got is these two, no matter how idiotic they may seem." The Ruff emphasized 'idiotic' and briefly glanced at how the Puff looked down at her feet to avoid looking at him in the eye.
Butch huffed and punched against the glass, grunting as he spread the crack halfway across.
Buttercup only stared, staying silent.
"Well? Are you going to help?" he demanded.
The Puff shook herself out of her stupor. "Right, yes. Sorry," she mumbled as she gave a measly little punch, before growling out in frustration at herself and punching way harder next time, a loud cry in her wake.
Butch gave her a weird look but kept quiet, resuming to widening his crack further as the monster roared faintly in the background.
"We gotta hurry," he grunted.
"Shit," the Puff hissed as she acknowledged the beast, "Yeah."
Silence ensued after, the only sound being the kicking and ounching of ice as the two worked away. Guilt seemed to be eating away at Buttercup, though. After a while, she finally spoke up to break the tension.
"Look, Butch...I-I," she started, before taking a deep breath, looking away, "I'm really sorry...about earlier."
Butch didn't say anything but his eyes narrowed as he kicked the ice.
"Mocking you and your brothers...that wasn't cool of me. I shouldn't have done that. I...I'm sorry for making you feel bad or...err, anything," she finished in a mumble.
Butch stopped moving, looking down, teeth slightly bared, and Buttercup looked at him in concern. "Butch...?"
"It's fine," he hissed, "You don't need to apologize."
"But I-"
"I SAID IT'S FINE!" he finally roared, finally looking up. His green eyes were blazing. Buttercup looked at him with wide eyes. He calmed down.
"Sorry," he muttered, before shuddering, "Ugh, that feels weird."
"Wha-?"
"I just...sorry, I really just needed to...ugh, I'm.." the Ruff stammered, "I just needed to yell at something," he finally muttered.
Buttercup punched the glass awkwardly. "I, err, well, sorry..." she said, not knowing what to say, "I guess I was just saying that I didn't mean to say all those things. I...I was feeling frustrated and angry and you just weren't leaving me alone."
Butch sighed, looking away and back at the ice igloo they were trying to break. "It's nothing," he muttered, "In all honesty, Boom's kinda stupid anyway. I know he can be smart, but I don't know shit as to why he doesn't use it."
"Right..."
"Look, just don't dwell on it," Butch finally said firmly, "Let's just break our siblings out of here, kick this monster's ass back to wherever the hell it came from, and then go back to fighting and being enemies. Life is a whole lot easier that way," he muttered, "No nonsense like this feelings and "Sorry" business. It's weird anyway."
Buttercup opted to be silent as she watched her counterpart punch more aggressively at the ice, noticing how much more frustrated he looked.
At what, she had no idea.