Chapter 07
The following Sunday, Buttercup of course got up before anyone was up. While she was in the shower she began thinking about what happened at dinner yesterday.
Last night
Bubbles and Buttercup were in the hallway, Bubbles giving Buttercup a lecture about everything she said.
"I honestly don't know what your so bent out of shape over," Buttercup said shrugging, "I didn't say anything that wasn't true."
"That isn't the point!" Bubbles shouted, "You knew you were making her upset, but you kept going and going! Blossom has a point, you don't have to say everything that comes to mind!"
"Look: you, the Professor, Miss Bellum, you may all think that you're helping her by letting her live in this fantasy world, but you're not!"
"And you are?" Bubbles asked, apparently incredulous by the look on her face.
"It's better she faces the truth instead of believing that the whole world is going to just switch up and concede with the way her mind wants it to. Honestly, I'm a little shocked that you're taking her side."
"I'm not on anyone's side. I just..." Bubbles looked down, and Buttercup sighed.
"Blossom needs to wake up and realize that the world isn't just going to bend over and follow her commands. As her sister, the least I can do is try and snap her back to reality," with that Butttercup walked out of the hallway.
Present Day
Buttercup knew that she was right. She had never been the type to hold back when she was a kid, and she wasn't about to start now. Blossom wasn't acting in the right head, and it was a shame, because she was always the one who had her head on the straightest.
She got out of the shower and got dressed in her usual street attire. Not even waiting to make breakfast she bolted for the door and flew off to the downtown area. She still had a mission, and she wasn't going to let Blossom and her bad attitude get her side tracked.
She landed in an alleyway downtown. She looked around until she heard a whistle. Buttercup turned around and saw Mitch leaning against a wall waiting for her.
"Mitch, what's up?" Buttercup asked walking up to him.
"It amazes me," Mitch said getting off the wall, "You're almost late for class everyday, but whenever it comes to business with the Brawlers you're right on time."
"Oh shut up," Buttercup said giving Mitch the usual handshake, "You said that you got information on Mojo?"
"Not me," Mitch corrected, "Robin. She said that she'll be here any minute."
Robin? Buttercup wasn't expecting that. Robin was a friend of theirs from Kindergarten. She went to their high school now, and was one of the BC Brawlers, but she was more of an informant than anything else. She had knowledge on a lot of things no one knew about, but Buttercup wasn't too sure how she could help in something about this.
There was a beep from outside the alleyway. Both Mitch and Buttercup turned and saw a girl their age with long brown hair, wearing a fancy and revealing black dress, fishnet stockings, black high heels, purple eye shadow, and black lipstick, wearing a necklace with a pentagram on the end, and on her hands she had black nail polish and a ring on her right ring finger also with a pentagram on it. She was getting out of a black car and was walking up to them with a serious expression on her face.
This was their informant when dealing with the occult, Robin.
"Robin," Buttercup said walking up to her, "Good to see you."
"Likewise," Robin said giving Buttercup the Brawler handshake, "When Mitch told me about the symbols I had to look into it myself."
"And?" Mitch said walking up to them, "You said that you found something."
"Well, it's not so much what I found but what I didn't find."
"You Wiccans make so much sense," Buttercup said rolling her eyes.
"Hear me out," Robin said walking forward past Buttercup and Mitch. They shrugged and followed her. She lead them to another one of the symbols in the alleyway.
"You found another one?" Buttercup asked.
"Yes, last night. After I looked at it I did a little research on it, but I couldn't find anything on it in my books."
"Shouldn't that say that it isn't a anything occult?" Buttercup asked.
"You would think, but the technique is just too perfect. These designs, they're too precise not to mean anything. Also, they're recreated perfectly, as if the person is following a set diagram. This level of precision you would only find if it were for some sort of purpose. Also, look at this," she pointed to the center and they noticed one of the parts in the symbol was a pentagram.
"So, is it a spell of some sort?" Mitch asked.
"Yes, and a powerful one. Whatever it is it's meant to affect the entire city, too?" Robin explained.
"How do you figure that?" Buttercup asked, now getting a little more interested.
"Well, the symbols are duplicated all throughout the town. You see, if you want to affect a large area with a spell you can do it in one of two ways. One is making a large spell circle that covers the entire area, but for larger areas and with more complex spells, you would put the spell circle all around the outer parts of the area, and in key locations. The symbology of each one has to be exact though, in order for the spell to react."
"Do you think this is a complicated spell?" Buttercup asked.
"I guarantee you, this is a very complicated spell, and considering that I can't find anything on it in my books, then it's black magic," Robin stated.
"That's amazing," Mitch said, "Kind of scary though. I mean, what could Mojo be planning that would affect the entire city?"
"The real question is," Buttercup said walking off a bit, "Why would a man as smart and scientific as Mojo Jojo, resort to using black magic? I'm sure anything he needs he could get without it, and he doesn't seem like the type to be into it."
"This might be a last resort," Mitch said turning to Buttercup, "You, Blossom, and Bubbles pretty much trashed everything else he tried. Maybe he just got tired of losing."
"But I know Mojo," Buttercup said now turning back to Mitch and Robin with her arms crossed, "and this isn't his style. He believes science is absolute. The closest thing to using magic he ever did was using the head of Anubis to turn everyone in the world into dogs, and even that used a machine."
"So that's what happened," Robin said thinking back to when she was five. She remembered twice in her life she was strangely turned into a dog, but she never knew why. As this happened before she moved to Townsville she never thought too much of it. She shrugged and let it go.
"Something is off here," Buttercup continued thinking to herself, "and until we catch Mojo we aren't going to get anywhere."
"Do we even know where he is?" Mitch asked, "I don't think he's still in his lab on the mountain."
"Probably not," Buttercup said, suddenly slamming her fist into her palm, "but that's not a bad place to start looking."
Robin and Mitch took Robin's car, while Buttercup flew. They stopped near the inactive volcano that Mojo Jojo's lab was stationed on top of. Buttercup wasn't too sure what made less sense; the fact that there was a volcano in the middle of Townsville, or that Mojo had his lab smack-dab on top of it.
"Looks like we're here," Buttercup said as she landed, Mitch and Robin walking up to her.
"Can we really just walk right inside?" Mitch asked.
"I don't see why not," Buttercup concluded, "Mojo never really kept it very well guarded, so me and my sisters used to raid it all the time."
"But didn't you three just charge in through the roof?" Robin asked.
Buttercup wanted to say something to that, but she couldn't find the words, "Let's go," she eventually settled on.
They climbed up the stairs, Buttercup taking the lead. Buttercup took a look inside, and once she saw it was safe, she motioned for Mitch and Robin to come in as well. Inside it looked like there hadn't been anyone inside for ages. There were documents left all over the floor, some with very dangerous machinery, and from the looks of it there had been a struggle of some sort.
"Man," Mitch began, "his lab is ten times messier than my room."
"Considering how messy your room was the last time we came over," Robin commented, "That's saying something."
The three of them looked around for a few hours. They found a lot of abandoned machines, some of which looked really nasty too. Why had he left all of this behind?
"Hey, Robin, BC, over here!" Mitch called from another side of the lab standing over a desk. When Robin and Buttercup went up to him they saw a replica of the spell circle on a big piece of paper on the desk.
"So, this is where he practiced, huh?" Buttercup asked.
"Strange though," Robin said looking at the shelf of books next to it, "Out of all the books on this shelf, I'm not finding any books on black magic."
"He probably took all of that stuff with him," Mitch stated, "You know, just in case we tracked him down."
"Since when did Mojo get that cautious though?" Buttercup asked, "There's learning to be more careful, and then there's just plain paranoia. This right here, looks like the latter."
"Seriously," Mitch added, "I mean, have you seen some of the stuff he left behind? You'd think someone like Mojo would take all of this stuff with him is he were planning to switch bases. Why leave it behind?"
"There's that," Robin chimed in, "and the state the whole base is in right now. Either there was a struggle of some sort, or Mojo was trying to get the hell out of here in a hurry. If it's the latter, that would explain why he left so many of his weapons behind."
"But the struggle would explain the state this place is in," Buttercup stated, "Look at this place. Some of this stuff looks trashed, and I know for a fact me, Blossom, and Bubbles didn't do the trashing."
"Then who? Is there someone else after Mojo Jojo?" Mitch asked.
"Honestly, I can't think of anyone," Buttercup said, "Especially someone else who has Mojo this scared. He always gave the impression that the only people he was remotely afraid of were me and my sisters. Not even you-know-who has him that afraid."
"You know who?" Robin asked.
"You know," Mitch said, "Him?"
"Oh, right. Him," Robin stated nodding. That was a person no one had thought about for ages, as he was just so silent as of late. Then again, everyone had been silent, and there hadn't even been a giant monster attack.
"So, what do we do?" Mitch asked finally, "It's clear that he isn't here, and he was pretty careful about leaving any clues about where he was going."
Buttercup gave a sigh, she knew exactly where her next stop was going to be. That was the last place she wanted to go.
"We need to speak with our "informant"," Buttercup groaned.
"Who's that?" Robin asked.
"Oh, I know who you mean," Mitch said in understanding, "Him?"
"Yeah," Buttercup said with another sigh, "Him."
"When do you want to go?" Mitch asked walking over to Buttercup, "Right now?"
"Hell no!" Buttercup said shocking Robin and Mitch, "I'll go see him after school tomorrow. Besides, Ace won't even be there, and he's the only one there who's remotely useful."
"Why won't he be there?" Robin asked.
"I don't know," Buttercup said shrugging, "All I know is that he's never at their base on Sundays. Weird if you ask me."
"Maybe he goes to church," Mitch said with a smile, Buttercup giving him a harsh glare.
"Don't even joke like that," Buttercup said spitefully, "The last thing I even want to think about is Ace in a church."
The three of them walked out of Mojo Jojo's base back to Robin's car. The sun was setting now, showing how long they had been out.
"Well, we should probably get back," Mitch said, "My pops'll go apeshit if I'm not home at a decent hour."
"I can give you a lift home if you like," Robin offered.
"Thanks Robin," Mitch went over to Buttercup and gave her the Brawler's handshake, "See you in school tomorrow, BC."
"Yeah," Buttercup said, "See you tomorrow."
Robin walked over to Buttercup and also gave her the handshake, "Take care, and tell Blossom and Bubbles I said hi."
"Yeah," Buttercup said looking away, "I'll let them know."
Buttercup stayed and watched them drive off, and then turned to look back at the base. She remembered the good old days when she and her sisters would break through the roof and shout "Not so fast, Mojo Jojo!" Back then, they were a team, but now things were different. Buttercup could barely even talk to her sisters anymore; Blossom was in her own little world of misery and hate, and Bubbles seemed to be defending her. Things just weren't the way they were back then. For a second she began wishing she could talk to them, but then remembered what happened the last time she tried to reach out, especially to Blossom.
"Forget it," Buttercup said looking down, "I don't need them. Townsville is better off with just me anyway."
She flew off back to the Professor's house, trying to convince herself that she was better off alone. Whether it was working or not was a different story.
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