It had been four days since Bubbles had joined the rowdyruff boys, and she certainly found it hard adapting to everything, and all three of the boys seemed to have various levels of how they tolerated her. Butch didn't remotely like being around her, Boomer was warm and welcoming no matter what the circumstance, and Brick didn't really care. He seemed to treat her the same way he treated his other siblings. It was nice to her, though she still hadn't adjusted to the almost entirely new life she now had. She wanted to get stronger, and she believed sacrifices must be made, even if that sacrifice was just her being away from her family for some time until she felt tough enough to be worth more to them all.
"You awake?" Boomer asked while entering the bedroom. Bubbles was sitting on the edge of one of the mattresses, reading through one of the many books on the shelf, though they weren't consistent in what genres they covered. It was quite the wide variety, but the blonde girl assumed it to be because it was the results of thievery once again.
"Hm? Oh, good morning, Boomer," Bubbles greeted her counterpart, having slept in a little later than she normally would. Boomer saw the book in Bubbles's hands. It was nothing special, appearing to be a fantasy book of various tales mixed together, though she was only two pages into it.
"Hey, I'm only halfway done reading that," the blonde ruff stated. She knew that he wasn't as dumb as his brothers made him out to be, but she never expected any of the boys to enjoy reading as a pass time.
"Sorry, I just saw it lying under your pillow and got curious," Bubbles apologized while closing the book back. Thankfully it appeared that she hadn't messed with the bookmark he had in the pages. He took it from her and rested the book on the shelf with the others. He chuckled, not really caring too badly. The only reason he had it under his pillow was so that his brothers didn't make him lose his place.
"Come on. Brick wants us to have a meeting," Boomer claimed. The blonde girl quirked an eyebrow, wondering what this meeting would be about. She hoped it would involve a lighter training since the last time Bubbles trained with Butch, he went overboard and had knocked her unconscious. Bubbles followed the blue ruff to the back of the mechanics shop, seeing the other rowdyruffs waiting there on the couch. Their leader appeared to be more interested in messing with the power core that they had taken from Mojo's robot a few days ago.
"Good morning, guys," Bubbles greeted them happily. Butch huffed, not caring to respond.
"Boy, it is going to take a while to get used to actually having a friendly morning greeting," Brick commented. The power core sparked a little in front of the four. Whatever the red ruff was doing, the tampering clearly was unsafe. Bubbles just giggled in reply. Boomer was appreciative of the bright mood, which was a nice change to their environment. All three of the boys found it hard to be in a bad mood with her around, especially Boomer.
"So what's this meeting about?" Boomer requested them to get on with it. Usually these meetings didn't take long. Their leader groaned while tugging at another wire of the power device.
"We're gonna play a nice little prank. This thing's too trashed to sell, but I figure it'd be perfect to send right back to dad," Brick explained before he closed the power core. He then presented it to Bubbles. She took it, worried about what kind of prank this was going to be. She knew they had grown disdain for their father, but this reeked of unsafety.
"What kind of prank?" the blonde girl questioned, her concern growing each passing second. Even if she hated Mojo Jojo, she didn't want to actively harm him unless he threatened them or the town.
"Brick knows how to mess with machines," Butch claimed. His brother had learnt from their father himself. It had some uses though, and the red ruff looked proud over that fact.
"Yeah! So I rigged that little gizmo to mess up the first machine it's put into," Brick grinned. This power core now was a robot destroying device. One use, though, and it was spent.
"I don't see what this has to do with me…" Bubbles admitted. She was lost, unsure what she had to do with this prank. She hoped all she had to do was drop it off at Mojo's base, but she assumed they had other plans in mind.
"Boy, she's as slow as you, Boomer…" Brick groaned in frustration.
"Err, he wants you to go find dad's newest piece of junk and put the power core in it," Boomer explained the basic plain. It was her chore to go ruin Mojo's robot, if he had one available. Otherwise, the job was to plant the power core somewhere where their father would inevitably use it. Mojo Jojo had a thing for creating machines at a surprisingly rapid speed. His method was recycling the most recently destroyed one by stealing it from the junkyard that its leftover parts wound up at. All things considered, the powerpuff girls always were appreciative of the recycling priority. At least that was one thing they could respect out of the villain.
"And Butch is going with you," Brick added. That seemed to strike a nerve on the green ruff.
"Hey! How come I have to get stuck with the brat?!" Butch growled. Bubbles expected him to be mad, that she didn't mind. Boomer put his hand on her back. She gave him a smile, since that reassuring spirit he had was always welcomed.
"Because, I'm the one who rigged the thing, and you've been too lazy lately," their leader explained. The raven haired boy glared at the blue girl. He got up off the couch, taking the power core from her.
"Can I go with them? I'm bored," Boomer lied. He just didn't feel comfortable leaving those two alone in case something tragic broke out. Their orange haired leader shook his head.
"Nope. I need your help with something else," Brick claimed. He stretched quickly before he got out of his seat. The blonde boy looked concernedly at his counterpart as they heard Butch opening the shutter to exit.
"I'll be fine, don't worry," Bubbles said, though her words didn't do much to reassure him. He could only hope that this would go smoothly. They watched Bubbles and Butch step outside before flying off, leaving a light blue and dark green streak of light behind them as they flew.
"Come on, we have to get it ready," Brick said. Boomer took a moment to process his leader's orders, nodding. He had no idea what they were doing, but it didn't sound like it involved fighting at all. Boomer always wondered how hard it was to be both a leader and a brother, balancing everything out to keep his decisions entirely objective. Brick was more relaxed to allowing a powerpuff to become a rowdyruff, which was greatly comforting. The two of them left the mechanics workshop, closing the metal shutter behind them to get to work on this project.
Meanwhile at the Utonium household, things had been a lot glummer. Blossom was in her bedroom, sitting at the desk, looking over a small map of Townsville. Red 'X' marks were drawn all over it.
"It's like… she vanished off the face of the earth," Blossom muttered to herself. She was referring to Bubbles herself. Four days ago, the last time either of the siblings saw their blonde sister was after that one monster fight. The only clue they could find was the remnants of that destroyed robot, where the civilians saw her. Bubbles had left a note behind that was a lie about how she was going to visit a friend and would be back later that day. Sadly, she never turned up, and all the marked off areas on the map were locations they had searched already.
"Blossom, are you okay?" she heard, looking at the doorway. She saw a tall man in a white lab coat who had short black hair.
"Oh… hi, professor. No… not really," Blossom responded. He was Professor Utonium, the creator of the powerpuff girls. Though it was an accident in his lab, Utonium felt it was destiny instead. He couldn't be any prouder of the little girls. Usually their father was funded by the city to continue his research on requested items or inventions he created, ever since the girls had come into his life. He had never been happier.
"I appreciate you working hard to find Bubbles, but you need to take care of yourself, too," the professor stated. Blossom had been spending a lot of time with Buttercup searching through Townsville. Of course the professor was upset by his missing daughter, but he had to do his best to put on a brave face so his other children wouldn't lose hope.
"I know, professor. I just wouldn't feel comfortable lying around doing nothing…" the pink eyed girl confessed. She felt her father's hand pat her head. He was proud how much that his children cared so much for each other and the townsfolk.
"It doesn't help that the witnesses claimed the rowdyruff boys destroyed the robot, too," Blossom added. The rowdyruff boys never were good news. Wherever they were, there was always some form of underlying motive behind everything involving them. They did every move they made, despite the fact that it had been months since they last fought. However, it had gotten at least quite peaceful since their sudden disappearance.
"I'm back!" they heard Buttercup's voice ring out while she was floating up the steps. Buttercup had probably been working just as hard as the puff leader herself, mostly because she felt like her advice was what made Bubbles go off and fight something alone, not that it sounded bad. It seemed like she had beaten that robot in the end.
"Welcome home. Did the police have anything they could offer?" Blossom requested, though she saw an aggravated look on Buttercup.
"They said they'd make sure all units were on alert for any signs of superpowers that have been used and alert the other towns. Otherwise, all they can do is put Bubbles in the missing persons list," Buttercup answered. She didn't even look at their father, feeling horrible for having turned up nothing either.
"What? They didn't offer to put an amber alert out?" the professor asked, a little baffled by this. That seemed to be the cause for his raven haired daughter's anger.
"The chief told me that because Bubbles has superpowers, then she can legally go missing if she wants to. How stupid is that?" Buttercup explained what she was told. The laws imagined anyone with superpowers could take care of themselves. There were only few scenarios that really could be threatening to the powerpuffs. Chemical X or Antidote X wasn't freely available. In fact, it was illegal to create or own without specific government approval. The professor had to do a lot to just get one small vial of the stuff years ago, and he only had one emergency container of it hidden away, and he wasn't making any plans on filling out fifty pages of papers to get more of it.
"You two will turn up something. Don't worry," Professor Utonium smiled. His daughters seemed depressed, knowing the police weren't even able to aid them much beyond just saying they will keep an eye out for their missing sister.
"I'll go start on lunch. Just take a breath and try to gather your thoughts," the professor said what he always believed in. Whenever a situation looked tough or hard, or whenever he got stuck working on one of his inventions, all he could do was take a breath and try to think it over.
"Thanks, professor…" both of his children thanked him, letting him go out of the room. Buttercup went over and just plopped onto the bed, feeling drained. Blossom was aware that this was taking a lot out of both of them. The two of them decided to try and take a rest, only hoping that Bubbles would be fine on her own.