A.N./ Welcome to yet another chapter folks! This is only the second story I have ever published and I really didn't expect someone to actually like it! Thanks for the reviews fanficfan001! They're what keep me going. By the way, in the show Butch actually did fight with far more brawns than brains. The only reason he was ever able to take on the girls was because he was one part of a well balanced whole.
Now on with the story!
Brick opened his crimson orbs to an unsettling view. An I.V. machine was near by; the bag of clear fluid hanging from its metal hook was suspended over his head. Beyond this was a simple white ceiling, the paint rippling across the surface like rolling white sand dunes in an enormous desert. Blinking away the bleariness from his eyes he turned his head slowly to look to his left. Blossom was sitting in a simple metal chair that looked highly uncomfortable. She was fast asleep from the look of her, her breathing slow and regular and her head hanging limply so that her bangs were hanging in her face.
He frowned as his drugged mind attempted to assemble the facts that led to the current situation he now found himself in. He recalled turning against the evil that was all he had ever known and in doing so being forced to fight his brothers. He remembered dodging Butch's ungraceful attacks with ease. Brick could also remember Blossom defending him to her sisters and insisting that he truly wanted to turn from evil forever. Following this thought he remembered the searing hot agony he had felt when Boomer had struck him with an energy blast. "That must have been it…worse than I thought though." He choked this out in a horse whisper and Blossom stirred slightly and muttered what could have been his name. Brick listened closely for a few minutes and dismissed it as meaningless mutterings when he heard nothing else from the girl.
With a start Brick realized that Blossom was still in her pink uniform meaning that she likely had not left him since he arrived. Yes, they still wear the same old uniforms except that they now were black athletic shorts underneath their skirts. Upon further consideration he recalled the scent of summer strawberries and began to wonder what she smelled like. "Did she…." He let question trail off meaninglessly in that horse whisper of his again. Blossom stirred at the sound but remained silent. He attempted to sit up and felt stiffness against his back along with a slight twinge of pain that likely would have been maddening if he wasn't drugged. With some effort he lifted the light blanket covering him and saw crisp white bandages running across his chest and behind his back. "At least its not a cast," he muttered and let his arms drop with a cushioned plop.
This time Blossom not only stirred but raised her head and looked at him with weary eyes. The dark bags under her normally beautiful bright pink eyes testified to several sleepless nights keeping watch over him. Brick felt a sharp twang of sympathy for the miserable girl in this dreary hospital room and gave her a half-hearted smile. A true smile caused by happiness rather than a sense of superiority or smug overconfidence. "Since your awake, how long have I been out?" Brick croaked as Blossom offered a ghost of a smile in return. "About three days." She said this without the usual matter-of-factly tone in which she usually answered a question. Instead she sounded relieved. "Three days!" He exclaimed, causing his voice to crack and make him sound squeaky. Brick was looking at her with shock and dismay, reluctant to believe what he heard. Blossom giggled slightly at the sound of him before nodding her head in confirmation. She found herself thinking of his puberty and how ridiculous the three boys had looked and sounded. This evoked another small bout of quiet giggles from her causing Brick to raise an eyebrow questioningly. "What?" He rasped and she shrugged, quickly falling silent.
Brick was about to say something when the professor opened the door and walked in to stand beside his daughter, leaving the door open behind him. The professor looked much the same as he always had. Short black hair that was always neat and well kept, a clean-shaven face, and he still always wore his crisp white lab coat and black pants. However there was a bit of gray flecked into that black hair and a few more defined worry-lines ran across his face. The professor stared at Brick as though he were some weird experiment for a few minutes before opening his mouth to speak. "I must admit Brick… You don't seem as evil these days." A long silence stretched after this statement as Blossom looked at the professor with embarrassed chagrin and Brick looked at him with nervousness. "Um…Thanks?" Brick ventured to break the silence. The professor simply nodded and continued to regard Brick with a calculating look. "Dad?"
Blossom questioned anxiously.
The professor turned to his daughter and smiled before returning a solemn face to Brick. "There are things we must discuss Brick. In private." The mayor who now wore a simple black suit with a red tie, walked in as the professor made this statement and nodded in agreement with him. The mayor still wore his rather small top hat on his now completely bald head and it nearly fell off as he nodded. "Indeed." Over the years the Mayor had grown increasingly competent until at last he was able to run the city without Ms. Bellum having to look over his shoulder all the time. At length she had managed to feel confident enough in him to take a much-needed vacation. He is still, however, unable to open a pickle jar.
"Yeah, yeah. I hear you… See you later red?" Brick looked at Blossom questioningly and she nodded in acknowledgement. "My name is Blossom…and that's fine Brick." Brick smiled to himself as he watched her get up and leave, the door clicking shut quietly behind her. The professor and Mayor looked at the ex-villain seriously and Brick returned their stares with an equally serious look of his own. "So what do you two want?" The mayor was the first to speak and he did so slowly and clearly so that there was little chance for him to be misheard. (Something he had picked up for his speeches.) "Brick, this is quite an unsettling turn of events… Surely you understand this. We can't simply just let you roam the streets unchecked, fighting crime and delivering justice at whim. How do we know that so much time in such corrupting surroundings hasn't permanently altered your perception of right and wrong? For all we know you could be a walking time-bomb!" Brick nodded his understanding and the professor just watched Brick's reactions and listened from his place in the chair Blossom had been sitting in. The mayor closed the door and moved away from it to stand at Brick's bedside.
"I understand your problem Mayor, sir. Perhaps you could monitor me somehow?" The mayor nodded and smiled at Brick's quick and intelligent response. "We considered this but in all honesty even if we did find out you were dealing out false justice we simply lack the power to bring you in." Brick considered this for a moment then nodded. "So you need someone of equal or greater power to watch me." Both the professor and the mayor nodded and responded in unison. "Correct." The mayor continued and noted how different the boy sitting in this hospital bed seemed from the trouble-making youth that had terrorized the town for so many years. "The professor here has agreed to let you enroll in his new university and one of the girls has agreed to let you share an apartment with her near there. Now to lay out the stipulations of this little probationary period…" "It's Blossom isn't it?" Brick interrupted and both of the older men in the room frowned slightly. The boy seemed a bit too quick for comfort. "Yes." The professor responded a little stiffly and the mayor went on. "The main thing is that you are under no circumstances to fight crime without at least one of the girls to observe you doing so. The second thing is that their word will always be taken over yours in their reports unless one contradicts the other."
"For example," The professor began, "Bubbles says that you killed a criminal but Blossom says that did not happen at all. In that case it will be up to you to plead your case to one or both of us and present any evidence you have." Brick nodded his agreement and both men nodded in return. "If this goes well Brick then I will declare you to be one of Townsville's heroes and you'll be free to pretty much do as you please." The mayor said this with the slightest ghost of a smile. The professor smiled more openly as he spoke. "I know you won't disappoint us Brick." "And just how do you know that?" Brick asked his question curiously. "Because you simply aren't the same person you used to be." As the men moved to leave the professor spoke one more comment as he left. "See you at class on Monday."
Brick lay in bed contemplating everything the men had aid and smiled to himself as thoughts of a certain red haired heroine entered his mind. Sleep took him after an hour or so without any struggle from the eight-teen-year-old hero to be.