Bubbles was beginning to stir in her sleep, feeling the rays of sunlight peeking through one of their windows. She sat up, yawning, feeling tired still. The clock showed that it was about 9am in the morning. She looked at the bandages on her arm covering her burns. She then looked around her bed. Her sisters were nowhere to be seen. She assumed they were downstairs eating breakfast. The blonde girl climbed out of bed to change out of her nightgown. She was recalling what Buttercup had said to her. It had given her an idea, and she was just waiting for the opportunity.
"Hm?" Bubbles heard that all too familiar ringing, looking to a nearby table. There was a toy phone, its bright nose glowing as it rung. This was the opportunity for her idea. That was the emergency hotline, the very phone that was the only way to contact them. The only people who had the phone number were the mayor and police chiefs. Her sisters weren't in sight, so Bubbles picked up the phone and put it to her ear.
"Hello, Bubbles Utonium speaking," the blue puff answered, wondering what the problem was, but had a good guess at who it was.
"Hello, yes, this is Chief Winston from the eastern Townsville police department. We have a robot causing problems here and need assistance in destroying it," the police officer explained. There was a rogue robot on the loose attacking the town. Bubbles had been waiting for this. Just like Buttercup had talked to her about, she wanted to become strong enough to fight on her own no matter what the situation.
"Consider it handled," Bubbles assured that the attack would be halted before she hung up. She was ready to go, though she didn't want to raise any alarms or make her sisters worry. She looked around and saw a small piece of paper, grabbing a pen quickly and leaving a small note behind before she flew out the window with a light blue streak of light behind her. Bubbles was determined, but she knew she had to not hold back, and instead just go all out against any threat. She hoped Buttercup's advice was correct.
Bubbles was trying to mentally prepare herself as she flew by, seeing all the leafless trees below and the piles of various coloured leaves everywhere. It was a beautiful view from up above. She couldn't wait until winter begun since they always got great snow in Townsville. It didn't take long for the young girl to get to the eastern part of Townsville. This section of Townsville was more of a popular spot for teenagers, mostly malls and shopping districts. She and her sisters loved what they sold here. It was such a nice variety, but the price made it hard to come often. The blonde girl could soon see a fire in the distance.
"is that one of Mojo's?" Bubbles asked herself when she got there. One of the many malls was partially destroyed, and an odd robot was there. It had three tentacles for legs balancing its circular body around. She wondered if Mojo Jojo had made it, a well-known villain throughout town who made a lot of robots. He tended to just recycle them after they were destroyed, so it was getting annoying at this point for the puffs. Right now, though, Bubbles didn't care. She just had to destroy it since it looked like it would be easy to defeat.
Bubbles flew right at the mechanical menace, bashing its spherical body and knocking it backwards. It tumbled the opposite way, damaging the road. The puff smirked happy to have gotten the surprise attack off. This was going to be easy, she thought. However, she was surprised to see it curl up and roll on the ground, quickly gaining its footing again before standing back up. She saw some of its metal move and fire a big red laser at her.
"Eep!" Bubbles put up her guard, creating a light blue force field. Her energy projection was the best defensive move the girls had. The beam blasted into the practical shield. The blast lasted only a moment until it faded fast. When she lowered her defences, she noticed the robot itself charging at her. She wasn't able to react, as the robot swung one of its three limbs, pounding her downward into the ground. She collided with the concrete road. The robot tried to stomp on her afterward, but she recovered fast enough to catch its leg, stopping its attempt. She fired a blast of heat vision, cutting its leg off. She then quickly flew back up to get out from under it.
"Wow… this is a smarter robot than usual..." Bubbles said. Usually the robots were no more threatening than the monsters were. She saw it retract its damaged leg as another emerged like some form of emergency backup. Bubbles was irritated, feeling like any progress made was just one step forward and then thrown five steps back. Bubbles attempted to dart and deliver a hard blow to the body of it, but when she punched it, that ball of a machine just leaned back like it was on springs, before it suddenly lunged back forward, crashing into the powerpuff girl and sending her flying the opposite way. It seemed like it had countered the full force of the attack back at her. Bubbles didn't have a chance to react, seeing it firing another laser blast. She let out a scream of agony, being hit before she crashed into a building's side.
"This… this was a mistake…" Bubbles muttered. Her entire body was hurting and beginning to feel like it was fighting against her, demanding rest. The robot ran toward her, jumping up and throwing two of its legs, smashing her right through the building and effectively destroying the entire second floor. Bubbles found herself lying on a destroyed table in the destruction, surrounded by some poor startled civilians. She had been beaten into an upstairs restaurant. The robot seemed to want to finish its job right then and there.
Bubbles closed her eyes, just as it began to charge another laser blast, having nothing but regrets about this whole idea. Suddenly she heard a loud explosion. She hesitantly opened her eyes, seeing the robot toppling backwards, smoking. Part of its spherical body had been blown up.
"You crashed our hideout!" an all too familiar voice rung out in anger. She saw a boy floating above it. He was wearing a red hooded coat that had black flames on it, and a red cap whose brim faced backwards. His messy long orange hair stuck out from all around it, while a bandage was plastered on his cheek
"B-Brick?" Bubbles quirked in fear while getting up. She recognized him as the leader of the Rowdyruff Boys, a rival set of triplets created by Mojo Jojo. The girls had killed them all at one point, only for them to be revived by another villain who in turn had long been since deceased. The blonde puff was only surprised because they had practically vanished two months ago for no particular reason. The powerpuffs were happy with it, though. There was a lot less trouble since all their fights ended with stalemates anyhow. She was more confused by why he would be fighting one of his own father's robots. Brick cast a glance at her.
"Great, so there's two annoying things here… or four," Brick muttered, assuming she had her sisters somewhere nearby. He looked back, seeing the robot which was now angry. It attempted to swing at him. Its metal arm got caught, however, by another boy who had spiky black hair. He was in a green shirt that had a black skull on it. She recognized him as Butch, the more brutal of the ruffs who acted without thinking. Butch turned around, throwing the robot over his shoulder and sending it flying and crashing into the ground, tearing and damaging the very metal it was made of.
Bubbles then spotted someone else floating in through the damaged ceiling. The third ruff appeared, with messy short blonde hair and wreathing a dark blue leather jacket that had black music notes randomly on it.
"Um… hi, Bubbles," he greeted, being Boomer of the Rowdyruff Boys. He was not as bright as his brothers and was teased a lot for it, though he tended to be the least aggressive of the group. The blue ruff offered a hand to her. She gladly took it, letting him help her up.
"Hi, Boomer. Why are you guys helping me?" Bubbles questioned. After all, the ruffs hated the puffs. She appreciated the saving anyway. Boomer glanced back onto the street. Brick and Butch were about to rip the robot in half by its legs. They had it under control.
"We weren't. I just saw you here when we came. Dad's hunk of junk ruined one of our hideouts," Boomer explained. It was just a humble coincidence. They weren't actively here to save Townsville. They were just here for good old fashioned anger-driven vengeance. The ruffs had a good few hideaways around Townsville, and they also a few in Citiesville, in the event they ever needed somewhere else to stay.
"Oh… well thank you, but won't your dad be mad that you broke the robot?" the blue puff asked. Any civilians in the restaurant had started to leave once the robot had been taken a good distance away from the building. He didn't seem too happy with that inquiry.
"I… It's a long story… do you need medical help?" Boomer offered to treat her, clearly diverting the question, when they heard the loud sound of metal bending and creaking. They saw the robot finally in pieces, being dropped by the two ruffs. All of its inner workings and wires fell out like a broken piñata.
"Yes, please," Bubbles hesitantly agreed. She would have intended to flee in case a fight broke out, but the rowdyruffs weren't hunting the powerpuff girls this time. Normally they caused mayhem to cure their boredom, but that vanishing act they pulled months ago left nothing but confusion. Boomer knew it was going to take some effort to convince his brothers. He was bad at negotiating, but it was better than leaving her there to rot alone. The two flew down to the robot wreckage, while she was staying behind her blue counterpart nervously.
"Find the power core. It's worth a lot," Brick ordered while Butch was rummaging through the fallen pieces of metal and parts, trying to find the gizmo that powered this robot, though the red ruff noticed the two blues.
"You're welcome," Brick told her. Bubbles didn't get a chance to say anything. She had been stricken with silence in her nervous fright.
"T-thanks… sorry about your hideout being destroyed," the soft voiced girl gulped, extending her condolences to the loss of their hideaway. The orange haired boy rolled his eyes with minimal care, seeing Butch climb out of the mess with a small metal box that had a lot of caution labels on it.
"I found it!" Butch happily exclaimed, even if he was covered in some grease from the digging, but he hadn't registered the puff's presence. That or he didn't care. Both scenarios were very odd to her. Bubbles wondered why all the rowdyruff boys were acting so different now. None of them had even insulted her.
"We got more places to go anyway," Brick reassured while wiping off some sweat from his forehead. He looked to his green brother, who then threw the power core to him. It landed in front of his feet.
"What's she doing here?" Butch asked. All eyes were on their blue brother, and he seemed afraid to answer.
"She needs her injuries treated. I thought we could help," Boomer explained, talking for her. She was trying her best to be calm around them.
"Help a puff?! No way! Why should we?" Butch demanded an answer to that. Brick was looking bored, but he waved a hand nonchalantly.
"Fine. But that's all she's with us for. After she's healed, she leaves," Brick agreed without question. Bubbles was surprised by this, but he seemed aware that she was alone. Boomer seemed happy by this. Butch looked awestruck, but sighed, giving up. He wasn't in the mood to fight both of his brothers over this. He picked up the power core.
"Come on! We'll take you to one of our other hideouts," Boomer happily stated. Bubbles smiled toward him as she followed. With that the four of them flew off. She was hoping this wasn't an inconveniently set up trap, but she was only trusting them because they all were acting so weird. Bubbles only hoped it went well. However, she still felt like a failure in the end.