For those who have been waiting for this, I thoroughly apologize for how long this took to get back to. I hope people are still interested in this story, as this is one I really want to finish.

Chapter 14

The whole school was in an uproar when they looked at the list of students entering the talent show. One student was about to sign his name when he looked and saw the last name signed was Blossom Utonium. After that rumors spread all around the school about one of the Powerpuff Girls entering, and the one they all least expected would as well.

Princess was outraged. She taunted all she wanted, but she didn't really want her to enter. Buttercup and Mitch were walking down the hall past the principal's office when they heard shouting. They stopped and Buttercup used her supersonic hearing to listen.

You can't be serious!

I'm sorry, but she signed her name on the list.

She has super powers! She shouldn't be allowed to enter! She's barely even here anymore!

Still, she is a student. I can't deny any students the right to enter the talent show, not even if they're absent. I'll talk to her to make sure she doesn't use her powers in the talent show, but other than that you'll have to deal with it.

At that moment the door burst open and Princess rushed off in a huff. Buttercup had a hard time holding in her laugh watching her.

"So?" Mitch asked, since he didn't hear everything.

"She's upset because Blossom entered the talent show. Probably afraid she'll show her up," Buttercup stated.

"I don't see how though," Mitch said, "Sadly, I don't see what your sister can do. Does she even have a talent?"

Buttercup had to think about that. What kind of talent could she even have? Why did she even enter? Also, why did she care? Blossom was the last thing on her mind right now. Buttercup still needed to find Mojo, and figure out what those symbols appearing all over Townsville meant.

"Don't know, don't care," Buttercup stated, "I have better things to worry about."

"But, she's your sister, isn't she?" Mitch asked.

"Did Robin get any info on those symbols?" Buttercup asked, completely ignoring Mitch's question. Mitch sighed in defeat, knowing that when she did that there wasn't getting through to her.

"I called Robin about it yesterday," he said, "She said that she wanted to talk to us about it personally."

"Then it's a good thing she's in our next class," Buttercup said walking ahead. Mitch shook his head and ran after her.

In English class, Robin was sitting at her desk surrounded by a bunch of books obviously on witchcraft. While the school uniform for girls was white and dark blue by default, Robin was the only one who wore a black version that was as short as Princess' and Bubbles' uniforms, fishnet stockings that were sort of torn on the left leg, and black high heels. Princess was also in this class, and just like Blossom, Robin was one of her favorite targets.

"Freak!" Princess shouted throwing some of Robin's books on the ground. Robin picked up her books and gave Princess a dark look.

"Is that the best you can do?" Robin said darkly, "You seem a little off today."

"Not in the mood, Witch of the West. Don't you have spells to conjure up?" Princess asked sharply. Robin gave Princess a leer and turned back to her desk.

"I'll conjure a spell to turn you into a frog," Robin whispered to herself. At that moment Buttercup and Mitch walked into the classroom.

"Robin," Buttercup said walking over to her, "You okay?"

"Just had a few words with the true bitch of the school, that's all," Robin replied as Buttercup and Mitch sat down next to her.

"So, what you got?" Mitch asked.

"Well, I unfortunately still can't figure out what kind of spell this is exactly," Robin said.

"That's a lot of progress," Buttercup said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"But, I did come up with a theory," Robin turned the page of the book she was reading, which showed them a simple pentagram, "This is a normal spell circle. As you can see, it's a lot simpler than the ones we've seen around Townsville."

"True," Mitch stated, Buttercup nodding in agreement.

"Now, certain pentagrams are meant for certain spells. But this means that it can be hard to make spells do certain things. In order to fix this, certain black mages will go as far as to combine pentagrams or parts of pentagrams to make a spell do what they want," she turned the page, showing them a very complicated spell circle a lot like the ones turning up all around Townsville, "Look familiar?"

"So, you think that the symbols appearing all around Townsville are the result of combining spells?" Buttercup asked, getting a nod from Robin.

"In the attempt of making one really big spell," Robin continued.

"What in the world," Mitch asked, looking down, "What kind of spell could Mojo be trying to cast?"

"The real question is, how did he learn what kind of combination he needed to make the spell he wanted?" Robin stated, catching their attention, "In order to make a custom spell, you have to be proficient in magic, and that could take years. Unless he were working on magic in his spare time, I don't see how this is possible."

"I doubt that," Buttercup stated, "He would have used magic on us at least once if he were testing it out, and like I said before, he believes science is absolute. I just don't see Mojo suddenly going as far as to use magic."

"Can you interpret the spell?" Mitch asked Robin.

"It could take some time, and I'd have to have a replica of the symbol to work from, but I think so."

"I'll get you a picture after school," Buttercup said as the teacher walked in, "I don't know what those symbols are for, but I have a bad feeling."

"Hi, vote for Utonium," Bubble said handing a pin a student, "Hey there, vote for Utonium please. Hey there, cutie, vote for Utonium please," she winked at one of the boys as she handed a pin to a male student.

After third period Bubbles and Jane went to work spending their lunch handing out fliers and pins to the students. On the pin was a picture of Bubbles wearing a dark blue suit and holding a clip board (the whole look was unintentionally sexy) and in golden letters "Bubbles Utonium for President".

"You think this is funny?" Bubbles heard from her side. She turned and saw Princess storming over to her holding one of her fliers, which had the same picture on it.

"What are you talking about?" Bubbles asked Princess inocently.

"Don't think I don't know what this is about! This whole running for student body president thing is just a ploy to get one over me! And this," she held up the picture, "is just a way to use sex appeal in order to get votes!"

"No Princess, this is trying to use sex appeal," Bubbles said holding up one of Princess' fliers, which showed her sitting on a desk with her legs crossed and a sultry smile, and wearing a skimpy business suit that showed her legs and even showed the top of her bust line, "I can't help it if I'm naturally beautiful. Also, all I'm trying to do is make sure that we don't get a bitch for president. You see, I care about the school, and the other students. All you want is to be able to boss everyone around. I mean, you do boss everyone around anyway, but..."

Princess' beautiful face scrunched into an ugly scowl, "This isn't over, Utonium. First I'm going to beat your sister in the talent show, then I'm going to crush you in the election."

"Yeah, okay. Oh, excuse me," Bubbles pushed past Princess and handed a student one of her pins, "Vote for Utonium, please," Bubbles turned back to Princess with a sweet smile, loving the angry scream Princess gave as she stormed away. Jane ran over to Bubbles with an excited look on her face, "Jane? What has you so happy?"

"Okay, you know the rumor that Blossom entered the talent show?" Jane asked.

"Yeah, I remember. We even saw her on the sign-in sheet."

"Follow me," Jane took Bubbles' hand and lead her upstairs to the roof. Once there Bubbles heard humming. She knew the song, but couldn't put a name to it. Jane put a finger to her lips telling Bubbles to be silent and then opened the door.

They saw Blossom pacing around the roof with her earphones on. She looked really at peace right now for some reason, something Bubbles hadn't seen in a while. Her eyes were closed, and she had a slight smile on her face.

"What's she doing?" Bubbles asked.

"I don't know," Jane said, "She just listens to the same song over and over. I think it has to do with the talent show."

"I wonder," Bubbles used her super sonic hearing to zone in on the music. It was muffled, but she knew the tune, "Firework."

"Huh?" Jane was confused.

"From Katy Perry. That's Blossom's favorite song," Bubbles said walking away from the door and heading downstairs, "She has all of Katy Perry's CDs, and her MP3 player has mostly Katy Perry songs."

"I didn't take Blossom to be a fan," Jane said, but Bubbles shook her head.

"It really makes sense if you really know Blossom," Bubbles said. She knew that Jane was confused, but she left it at that. Bubbles knew that deep down Blossom longed to be like Katy Perry, so it made absolute sense to her.

"Do you think she's going to sing that at the talent show?" Jane asked.

"She is actually a good singer," Bubbles said, "I'm just surprised that she's actually going to enter."

"Do you think this is from her date with Brick?" Jane asked. Bubbles was about to answer that quickly, but she had to think about it. Maybe this was because of her date with Brick. Could he have given her more confidence?

Speaking of Brick, he walked past them going to the roof. Was he going to see Blossom? Bubbles was tempted to follow them, but she felt that they needed some time by themselves. Besides, now Blossom wouldn't have her earphones blasting music. She would hear Bubbles if she spied on them.

Blossom sighed to herself and took out her earphones. She needed to give her ears a break. After all, she had listened to that song at least ten times so far. She knew the lyrics by heart now, and she had the pacing down, now she just needed to try and sing it.

"I had a feeling you would be here," she heard behind her. She turned around and saw Brick walking up to her holding a small box, "Today is pizza day, so I bought an extra one for you."

"Oh, th-thanks..." Blossom said looking away a bit, but unable to stop from smiling. Damn it Blossom, why are you falling for him?

She graciously took the pizza and sat down on her usual bench. She looked up at Brick raising an eyebrow, "You can sit down, you know."

"Oh, I didn't know I was allowed," Brick said playfully, "I mean, we are enemies, right?" Blossom gave a small laugh, instantly wishing she hadn't. You're leading him on! Stop this now!

Brick sat down next to Blossom and looked up at the sky. Blossom couldn't help but notice how calm he seemed nowadays. It was like he was a completely different person. She, as strange as it was, felt safe next to him. But he was still a Rowdy Ruff... right?

"I imagine you saw my name," Blossom said.

"You mean in the talent show?" Brick asked, getting a nod from Blossom, "The whole school is talking about it. Princess was outraged."

"Yeah, she would be," Blossom looked down, suddenly afraid. Princess was the one thing that killed Blossom's courage in the talent show. She even signed her name on two lines, "Do you know what Princess is going to do?"

"Does it matter?" Brick asked. Blossom had to admit, it really didn't, but she was still afraid.

"I'm not sure that I can do it," Blossom said, "I don't even know why I signed my name on that sheet. I can't beat Princess."

"Don't worry about Princess," Brick said, "Whatever she does, it doesn't affect you. Just focus on yourself. In two weeks, it's all about you."

"All about me..." Blossom thought to herself, feeling that fire in her chest again, "Should I go back?"

"Well, I sure miss you," Brick said, making Blossom blush, "But yeah, I think you should go back. Don't let Princess have a one up on you."

"But I'm scared," Blossom said, "I know the other students will be talking about me, and I don't want to face Princess again. I just want her to leave me alone."

"If you keep running away then she wins," Brick stated, "Whenever you run to the roof, or respond to her insults, she feels like she won."

"Why does she do that?" Blossom asked sadly, "Even knowing what I am, she still pushes me."

"That's why she does it," Brick said, shocking Blossom, "She knows that she can't beat you in a fair fight, but she knows that you know that too, so she attacks you in a way she knows is going to get a response. Truth is, she's afraid of you."

"Princess, afraid of me? Hardly."

"Remember during our date when I stared at her?" how could Blossom forget? "All I had to do was look at her and she ran," Brick continued.

"That's true..." Blossom said, "You weren't really going to hurt her, were you?"

"Of course not," Brick said leaning forward, "One, that's not me anymore, and two, it would have been too easy. All that would have done is prove her right about us, that we're monsters. Okay, maybe in the case of me, I sort of am, but-"

"No!" Blossom said suddenly looking into Brick's eyes, "You're not a monster! The Brick you were then... is not who you are now! You're better than that!"

"Bl-Bloss..."

"Don't you ever call yourself that again, got it?" Blossom commanded.

"Got it," Brick said, clearly shocked by her outburst. Now that she said it, she was shocked by her outburst just now. Where did that fire come from? Why did she yell like that?

She shook her head and finished her pizza quickly before standing up, "I've... got to go!"

"Blossom, are you okay?"

"Fine!" she turned around smiling, trying to ignore how much her eyes were watering, "I'm fine, Brick. I'll see you tomorrow." she then flew off into Townsville. Once by herself, she leaned against a wall and let her tears flow freely. Why did Brick do this to her? Why was she acting out so much? Finally, what was this hot feeling in her chest? She was scared. It was changing her, but into what?

After a while though, she noticed that as she cried, she began laughing. These weren't tears of sadness or fear, these were tears of joy. She was... happy? But why? All that happened was her outburst at Brick.

No, that wasn't all. She was releasing her emotions. She was setting herself free.

"Hey, it's me," Brick said into his phone, "I think I convinced her to come back," the person spoke into the phone, "I know. It's a lot easier to keep an eye on her in school. How are things on your end? Did anyone find you?" he listened to the person on the phone for a while, and then breathed out in relief, "Good, then that means he doesn't know either. Hey, Blossom just flew off into Townsville. Should I-" the person spoke immediately stopping him, "So you'll let me know if anything happens to her? Thanks," the person told Brick something, "Right. I think Buttercup is still investigating the symbols. Shouldn't we stop her?" the person on the phone spoke for a long time, yet Brick listened intently, "Well, if you're sure. I think my next class is about to start," the person on the phone said something making Brick smile, "Right, you too. See ya Mojo." Brick hung up the phone and looked out at the town, thinking about who might be out there.

"I hope Mojo Jojo is right," Brick said to himself, "We can't fail, no matter what."