Bubbles' POV
I looked at Boomer. It was day now, and we were both in town, outside the mall. He said nothing to me, but we were hiding.
"Boomer?" I ask.
"Yes, Bubbles?" He responds.
"Maybe we have to move onto another town… I mean, I'll be found quickly in Townsville." I tell him. He nods, slowly, and walks towards the trees. I look confused, but I follow him anyway.
"Hide." He says breathlessly, underneath his breath.
We hide behind the trees, and he equips his phone from his pocket. "Look at this, his says, pointing at Townsville. We could fly out of this very country, Bubbles. But are you ready to give everything up to only come and follow me to live… to live… maybe to live with me." He mutters the last part.
I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to leave my sisters behind, but if I stayed where we lived, perhaps I'd go insane and kill myself. I didn't trust me anymore, or who had been left behind after my mini rampage, that had cost Cody.
"I'm not sure." I start, truthfully. "But… could we look around town once more? If I do leave, I know I'll miss this place." I add.
"Even the beach?" He teases.
"Even the beach." I tell him.
xxx
Buttercup's POV
Butch prowled and growled. He was moving towards me, but like a wild animal, I barely moved. I kept my voice steady and repeated the question – for the sixth time.
"Where's Bubbles?" I snap, folding my arms.
"Where's Boomer?" He retorts.
I shrug, and he shrugs at the same time.
"You know where (s)he is." We both say at the same time.
There's no laughter, because we're still accusing each other, and we both seem to be aware we'll never get an answer.
"Tell me where you last saw Boomer." He snarls.
"Only if you tell me ditto, about Bubbles."
"Fine," he snaps, "on three, we'll say it."
"One…" I begin.
"Two." He adds.
"Three."
"The beach." We both say at the same time.
"Well, shit. Boomer's probably drowned himself, the little idiot." Even though he insults his little brother, I can tell he really cares about him and would hate to see Boomer hurt.
"Please," I start, "Bubbles is more likely to have drowned herself and him." I snort, sarcastically. Butch snorts as well.
"I don't think Bubbles is that dumb." He suggests.
"Me neither, to be honest. I think she's smarter than people give her credit for." I tell him.
He nods.
"I think we should look for the Bs." I point out, awkwardly.
"Bs?" He raises an eyebrow.
"Their names start with B." I dryly state.
He shrugs.
"Let's go to the beach."
"Right."
We both fly, in twists of green streams curving around each other. Eventually, after flying and moving out of the way of buildings, aeroplanes and toy helicopters.
I move like a green thread, and the sky is the fabric.
"Check the toilets first. If you don't see her, meet me back here." He tells me.
I have no idea whether we'll find them or not, as we land on the beach. Without so much as looking at each other, we hobble around awkwardly, and at one point duck into the toilets.
I go to the female toilets, and he the male toilets. But Bubbles seems smart enough not to hide in this decaying mess. I ignore the slime slavered all over the wall, or the dripping tap… or whatever that greenish yellow mess coming out of it is.
Swallowing my pride and the fact I probably didn't bring my hand sanitiser, I slowly move towards one stall. Knocking on the door, licking my lips, I quietly ask for her name.
No answer. I kick the door, and it flies off its hinges. An old woman is stood by the door, knees shaking and her face growing whiter every second. I grit my teeth.
"Sorry, Ma'am." I say respectfully, and she nods, wordlessly. "I'll leave now, I just thought…" I choose not to share this information, and quickly exit, without checking the other stalls. She obviously wasn't hiding in there.
Ping!
I check my phone, waiting for Butch to come back. Blossom's sent me a text.
Excitedly (even though I'm never excited by my phone), I look at the text. Quickly, I sink slightly – she hasn't found Bubbles, and is asking if I've seen her. I sigh depressively. Not at all, not a trace. I text back.
Ping!
"D'you think she'll come back for Cody's funeral?" I read aloud.
"Ah, really? Cody was a good kid, y'know." Butch says, being stood behind me. I shake my head at him, not sure if I'm peeved or okay with what he's telling me.
I quickly text her back, creating such a tiny gap to think of a retort. It's a convenient and good gap.
"Come on, his funeral's been planned for like, a million weeks. I know you're pretty backwards, but living under a rock is low – even for you." I sarcastically point out. He shrugs.
"So? Unlike you, the news isn't my soap opera. Got enough of that already, with Boomer missing." He says.
I chuckle, and he titters. Weirdly enough, I think I like his sense of humour.
"It's a mystery worthy of The X-Files. Two people just disappear… at the same time." I continue to joke.
His eyes widen. "You don't think…?"
I cut him off.
"Absolutely not, Butch. They didn't Butcher him."
That pun was awful, and he just had to understand it.
"Not cool, Buttercup." He says, but he's smiling. "That's not what I meant." He finishes.
I say nothing – I know exactly what he's implying. "C'mon. Let's get back to the arcade."
We both fly, racing each other in the sky. It's funny, because we have to swerve around buildings, and at one point Butch collides with a crane. The look on his face is so dazed, dopey, and kind of cute.
Not that I think much of him anyway.
"Nice, linear movement." I mock him, and he growls playfully. Grabbing me by the waste, he flies with me.
We crash into a toy aeroplane, and he refuses to steer, resulting in a second crash. "Smooth." He teases, after letting go of me. I realise his grip wasn't even that tight and I could've broken out of it. I have no idea why I didn't.
I land first, and he falls to the ground, practically. Luckily, it's not that fast a fall. Can't say much for him though, he grimaces and pulls faces. I think he's just fussing though.
"Brick – you're unbelievable." I hear Blossom snap.
"Ooh. Drama." I whisper to Butch, whose eyes glint.
"Me likey." He jokes.
We slowly and carefully move towards them, listening in.
"Really, Blossom? I'm just sayin'. He didn't skip outta town for no good reason. Plus, I'm thinkin' he 'n' Bubbles is together."
That was the worst English I'd ever heard, but I chose not to be judgemental.
"My sister does not like your brother. Hell, even Buttercup couldn't fall for your dim-witted, dumb sack of meat you call Butch!"
"Like he'd ever like her. She's just a fu—flipping burden on everyone she surrounds. Even Ms Keane couldn't stand 'er."
"Don't you dare talk about my sister that way!"
"Then don't talk about my brother that way!" He yells.
I can hear her shout, and a bonus: I hear and see her slap him around the face.
"Damn, that hit must've been hard. Did you hear his skin like, cry?" I ask Butch.
He's become paler now, like the old lady. He snaps out of it when he notices me staring at him. "Yeah. A hard hit." He echoes quietly.
"Don't worry about Blossom," I tell him, "if it makes you feel better – she's saying that so she can piss off Brick."
"Oh." He says.
They're coming towards us.
"Quick! Pretend to fight me." I hiss.
He quickly swings at me, and I swing back. We begin to fake-fight, throwing gentle slaps onto our skin. Once we're rolling around on the floor, still pulling each other's hair, he accidentally catches me on the chest.
I can't help but slap his hand really, really hard.
He winces.
"Yikes, you've got hands." He mumbles.
xxx
Bubbles' POV
"Hey, Boomer."
He looks at me.
"S'up, Bubbles?"
"I've made my decision. I'm not leaving."
The smile on his face grows by a mile.
"That's great, Bubbles!"
"Let me finish," I tell him coldly, and quietly, "I'm not leaving until Cody's funeral is over. It's too weird for me to leave four days before his funeral…" I say.
"But Bubbles, you didn't kill-"
"I know. Other people don't, and won't." I tell him simply. He looks at me, and his smile had disappeared so quickly, it was no more than a nervous twitch.
"Boomer… after his funeral, will you run away with me? I've done some research on other countries… and I'm going to fly into England if I can." I tell him. I'm stuttering now, and he's clearly stunned, perplexed by the news.
"I never thought you'd run, Bubbles. Besides, I haven't told you about it, but you… you can't run." He explains.
I look at him. "Why not?"
"Because… I have your phone, and someone… someone else knows, okay?" He says quickly, not meeting my gaze.
"What? Someone knows what?" I ask him, my voice harder now.
"Um… look. Someone snapped pictures of Cody's body being found at the beach, and of course, they zoomed in on the note. But the note doesn't look like a suicide note, but rather…"
I grab my phone from him, my eyes boggling out of my head.
"Are you kidding me?!" I scream.
"Shhh, Bubbles." He clamps a hand over my mouth. "You'll alert someone." I nod quietly, and he takes his hand away.
"Well… I'll have to get rid of them," I reluctantly say. He looks like he wants to slap me around the face, more than once.
"How?" He asks automatically.
"Bubbles – I think it's time you go back to your sisters. How are they going to save the day without you?" He suggests.
"They'll be fine," I say idly, "but when I through with this person, they won't be." I say, eyes glazed, and glassily fixed on my phone's monitor.
My tone is icier, and it's because I'm sick of people trying to push me around. This person is the last straw.
"Come on, Boomer. We have a funeral to prepare for, and passports to create. We're going to need new identities."
We walk through town, having stolen brown wigs and sunglasses that cover our blue eyes. Under the guise of a young couple, we stop every few seconds and kiss each other. He grins at me, obviously surprised I knew what I was doing now.
People say nothing, and when we wander towards the park, people give us weird looks. I smile back at them – if only they knew.
Our visit is cut short when Boomer yanks me back, suddenly, glancing at a TV screen. He shakes his head slowly.
"Look." He says, pointing at the screen.
I see the reporter's lips move, but my eyes are fixed on the headline and I hear nothing else:
THIRD MURDER RESULTS IN POLICE LEAKING A POWERPUFF AND ROWDYRUFF'S NAME TO THE PUBLIC AS POTENTIAL SUSPECTS.
Every few seconds it swaps the headline, but there are only four headlines. Eventually, I tear my eyes away and look at Boomer. Neither of us can breathe, and don't feel like going to the park.
"So," I say, my tone no longer jokey, "how does that trip to England sound?" I whisper to him.
He looks at me, and then opens his mouth to answer.
To be continued.
A/N: Keep reading and reviewing! Also, to answer the other question: 'Was Cody already dead?' Most likely: Bubbles found the note hours later, and he would most likely have died in that time. PM me for requests!
~Adelost
