Hey guys!

Thank you so much for the supportive reviews and responses to the last chapter, super appreciated as always! As promised, here's chapter four!

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, settings, or properties from The Powerpuff Girls, Craig McCracken owns them. I also don't own Sanrio, and major kudos to the genius who invented the fictional sorority/fraternity name Phi Tappa Kegga.

Sorry for errors!


Chapter Four

-Bubbles' POV-

"Second position, and, plie," my ballet teacher instructed us.

I bent down with the rest of my classmates; with both hands placed on the pole, we slowly bent our knees with our feet shoulder width apart. Then we stood back up, straightening our knees. Gentle piano music was playing in the background.

"Now third position. And plie," she said, walking past us and watching us with a critical eye.

Even though Ballet I was only one of my extra classes, Mrs. Chappelle was easily my strictest teacher. She had been a ballerina for 30 years in the New York Ballet, and five years ago, she had retired to teach the art she had long mastered. She was a prim, neat woman, a perfectionist—like Blossom times a thousand, always wore her grey-striped dark brown hair in a bun, and was extremely tall with long legs that were still powerful and sculpted despite her age.

"Fourth position, I want to see straight lines. Plie," she barked.

We did as asked. The girl behind me, a girl named Audrey that I talked to during breaks sometimes, sighed almost inaudibly. I bit back a smile as I straightened my knees again.

"Fifth position," our instructor said next. "Plie."

Groans and grunts came from some of my classmates as they struggled with twisting both their feet inward in the unnatural position, and Mrs. Chappelle rolled her eyes in disdain. I had transitioned into the position with no strain at all, though my joints and muscles were more flexible than their human ones, so that was probably why.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you all have got to practice this position more. The semester is more than halfway over, this is unacceptable. I should not be hearing all of this struggling over one position," she scolded. As she strolled past me with her perfect posture, she paused, then looked me up and down with approval. "Excellent form, Bubbles. Nearly perfect." She looked at the rest of the class and pointed at me. "This girl has clearly been practicing. Everyone take note."

At the whole classes' attention on my form, I felt a flush spread from my face all the way back to my ears. I actually hadn't practiced at all, but I didn't want to say anything. "Thank you, Madame," I said. Some of my classmates glared at me in envy. I looked away from them. It wasn't like I could help being built differently than them. I just was. It wasn't anything to get so mad at, though.

With a glance at the clock, our instructor turned off the piano music coming from her mp3 player, clicking a button with her small remote, and then clapped her hands together. "Well, class, that's it for this week. I'll see you next Tuesday and Thursday, do not be late. Remember to practice your positions, and next week, we'll be starting on arabesques." With that, she left to her office, and we all went over to our bags to change from our ballet slippers into our normal shoes.

I stopped by my pastel, sparkly blue bag, sitting down to take off my white slippers. As I put them into my bag and retrieved my flat boots that had pillow-like insides—my favorite shoes to wear after Ballet class—I heard two of my female classmates whispering behind me as they put on their street shoes, my advanced ears picking it up as clearly as if they were speaking to my face.

The first voice I heard was high, and a little snooty. "She's totally not a beginner. I bet she registered for this class just so she'd be the star student."

The second one chimed in, "Yeah, she's already a famous superhero. What is she even doing in this school? Doesn't she have more giant bugs to squash somewhere?" She stopped, snorting.

The first girl giggled. "Seriously, how much more attention does she need? She's even a member of that sorority that's hard to get into. Must be nice to get whatever you want when you're famous. What a showoff."

Gritting my teeth and my eyebrows furrowing slightly, I quickly turned to look at them head on. "Excuse me?" I said.

They gasped, clearly realizing that I had heard their every word, avoided my gaze and scurried out of the dance hall with their bags.

I sighed slowly as I looked back down at my bag, my shoulders slumping and a slight sting rising in my throat. Hearing that had stung. I'd already known that there were people that didn't like going to the same school as us, but I'd never heard it for myself, especially in such a rude way. I had thought we only had to deal with people like that in high school, but I guess I'd been wrong. Maybe high school never really, truly ended—just transferred to different venues.

After slipping on my comfy, plush boots, I slung my bag over my shoulder, swallowed back my hurt and walked out of the dance hall, taking a different exit than those girls had.

As soon as I got outside, not feeling like I could stand the entire walk back to my dorm after that ordeal, I made a snap decision. I decided for once to break the only rule that the Dean had for us as a condition for allowing us to attend the university on a superhero discount—i.e., paid for by the government—no superpowers on campus unless it was for an emergency.

I took off into the air, deciding that this felt like an emergency. I heard noises of surprise and shouting as the few people who had been walking around me watched me fly away, and I knew that I'd probably pay for this later.

Within seconds, I made it to the big, beautiful Phi Tappa Kegga house on Greek street. After landing in the front yard where the grass had turned yellow, which almost matched the pastel yellow paint on the outside of the house, I entered through the front door. Walking through the gorgeous, chandeliered entrance hall, I went straight up the winding staircase where my room was on the 3rd floor, pushing open my bright, neon blue door that had a sign with my name on it in shiny silver letters.

I locked the door behind me and plugged in my string lantern lights I had strung along the light blue walls, bringing a soft light to the room. I got out my laptop, plopping down on my plushy, satin, cerulean bed comforter and grabbing one of my Sanrio pillows to hug for comfort.

I waited for my computer to wake up. When it was awake and fully functional, I opened up my video chatting program, scrolled through my contacts and then clicked on Boomer's username, calling him and praying he was already using his computer in a private place.

The first time I called, he didn't answer. I called again after waiting five minutes, and this time, thankfully, he answered. His gorgeous face appeared onscreen, his long, shiny blonde hair hanging in his dark blue eyes. I recognized his dorm room in the background. "Hi angel," he greeted. His smile dropped off his face when he saw my expression. "What's wrong?"

I grimaced, letting the hurt from earlier flow out of my lips, telling him the short story of what had happened in class earlier. Saying it out loud made the sting in my throat come back. "Is that what they really think of us? Do they really all think that we're attention seekers?"

The whole time, Boomer had been listening carefully with a concerned look on his face. "Sweetheart, don't listen to people like that. Don't let it bother you, okay? Those girls are obviously jealous of your natural gracefulness and physicality. And probably your prettiness, too. You can't help that you were made that way."

Shyly, I chuckled. He always knew what to say to make me feel better. "I guess," I said.

He continued softly, leaning closer to his webcam, "I'm sure the majority of your classmates like you. They have no reason not to. You're wonderful."

I leaned toward my webcam, too, resting my chin in my hands. "No, you are. Thanks for cheering me up, sweetie." Hugging my pillow closer to me and leaning back, a smile came onto my face again. His amazing ability to turn a bad day into a good one was one of my favorite things about him. "How's your day going? Morning classes go all right?"

As Boomer told me about his day, and we laughed about some kid in his first class that had brought breakfast from some fast food place with him to the lecture, I completely forgot about the petty girls in my ballet class.

"Hey, I have some time before my first afternoon class." He said suddenly. "It's your lunch break too, right? Want to go grab some lunch somewhere?"

He didn't need to ask me twice. I changed out of my Ballet clothes and put on a casual outfit cute enough for a spontaneous lunch date with my boyfriend—tights, a breezy lace dress, and a cardigan. Soon, Boomer's car pulled up in front of the house, and I opened the passenger's door and jumped in, greeting him with a hug attack.

We got some lunch at a Greek place nearby, and then had some time to spare after eating, so we left his car behind in the parking lot and went for a quick fly.

The city's skyline always looked different from up above. The endless walls of huge buildings seemed so small, the people and traffic even smaller. Humans only got to see the city from this angle in airplanes and helicopters, we got to see it whenever we wanted to. Sometimes I forgot what a privilege that was.

The air wasn't too warm, nor was it too cold. Hands interlocked, we flew over downtown, over Town Hall, and on impulse, decided to take a short break on the bridge. Landing down on one of the tall steel towers that held up the suspension cables, we sat and let our feet dangle over the edge and into the empty air, which plunged downward endless stories. The lines of moving cars on the bridge far below were antlike.

I pulled out my cell, being extremely careful not to be clumsy and drop it into the traffic below, and told Boomer to pose. He stuck his tongue out towards my phone's front facing camera lens, and as I got my best angle and did my best cute smile, I took a picture of both of us with the uninterrupted blue sky stretching back behind our heads and the sun making our blonde hair gleam and our squinting eyes sparkle. After carefully putting my phone safely back in my pocket, Boomer stretched an arm around me, pulling me into him, breathing a satisfied sigh into my hair.

I rested my head in the crook of his neck, breathing in his cologne and the crisp November air, willing this moment to stretch on forever.

Moments like this, where we could escape from everyone else and find someplace quiet, reminded me of the night that we fell in love. There were no shooting stars to wish on now, but that didn't stop me from feeling like times like these were like a fairy-tale.

Me, him, the breezy air, and the endless blue sky that surrounded us. On top of the world.


-Blossom's POV-

A clock ticked on the opposite wall. Steam rose up from the mug that held my regular order, a French vanilla raspberry cappuccino. Mellow acoustic music was playing softly over the speakers.

Two guys were talking in low voices on the other side of the café, leaning over the table towards one another—if I concentrated I could listen to what they were saying easily, but I didn't care to eavesdrop at the moment. A middle aged woman sat at the barstools by herself, reading a book. And across the table from me, Brick was tapping the back of his pen against his notebook methodically, as he always did when he was focusing.

He was reading out of a textbook in his lap with absolute, grim-faced concentration, his eyebrows furrowed. Sunlight was slanting in through the window next to us, and it highlighted the white scar that slashed through his right eyebrow, the one I'd accidentally given him when we were kids and fighting each other was all we understood.

We had done this a few times this semester, study dates at the café that Bubbles and Boomer had discovered a few months ago—which was the perfect distance between both of our campuses. It was always quiet and peaceful, perfect for studying, and no rushing, irritable customers that other well-known chain cafés usually had.

I wanted to do this more often. These were always my favorite afternoons. Just me, my books and laptop, Brick and his books, some coffee, and our café.

Studying for my Thermodynamics class didn't leave much room for catching up or any chatting at all, but I was content just sitting here with him. Him being there with me was enough.

For a while, I quietly worked on my homework of problem sets, reverting back to the calm trance-like state that I always fell into when I studied.

Interrupting my trance after about a half an hour of peace, my phone buzzed loudly on the table. Brick and I looked up at it at the same time, startled. Brick had been chewing on the end of his pen, and he'd frozen with it still between his teeth. Grinning at him in apology, I picked it up and glanced at the screen. As soon as I did, my heart skipped a pulse. I opened the notification and read what followed, and then reading again, I stood up from my seat, my face becoming staid.

It was what I'd been worried about receiving for days now: a notification from my Hotline app. It read, 'Emergency Alert: Creature attacking east downtown square'.

Brick was still chewing on the end of his pen, but he was staring at me in alarm, knowing something was wrong. "What is it?" He asked.

"It's my Hotline app," I said, showing him what the alert said, then reaching down to close all of my books and notes. "It's only ten minutes from here. We need to go, now."

Brick had stood up too, setting down his pen and closing his books as well. "What do we do with our stuff?"

"Just leave it, we'll come back for it," I told him. I looked over at the middle-aged owner behind the counter, who was already looking at us. "We'll be back for our things. Emergency," I said politely to him, and the older man nodded at me, his round glasses tipping forward on his nose.

Brick and I rushed out of the café.

Making it out onto the sidewalk, we paused at first, stopping to hold hands, and then lifted off into the air, flying high above the city surrounding us to get a bird's eye view of downtown.

Seeing dark smoke pouring up into the sky from about 9 blocks away, we traded looks and then sped off in that direction, our hands clasped together the whole way. Neon pink and red light chased us at our heels. The wind threatened to loosen my long, hip length ponytail, but thanks to my habit of using two hair ties instead of just one, it stayed put, whipping against my back.

Within seconds, we arrived at the chaotic scene, landing on our feet.

There were citizens running in every direction, covering their mouths with scarves and sleeves, coughing and shouting, trying to get away from the smoke. It made the surrounding air hazy, and there were other loud noises echoing through the area, though there were so many that it was hard to tell exactly where each of them were coming from.

Through the smoke didn't bother our lungs, the added thickness to the air was an unpleasant sensation. I felt my pupils growing, adjusting to see through the haze. I turned to Brick. "You find the fire and put it out. I'll find the monster."

He leaned in closer to me, looking down at me in uncertainty. The pupils in his ruby irises were huge and dark. "Will you be okay?"

"I'll be fine. I'll shout when I find it," I told him, letting go of his hand and lifting into the air. "Be careful."

"You too," Brick shouted after me as he took off, and I flew the opposite direction. I swooped down close to the ground a few times to help guide some families into their cars to escape, then making sure they got away safely, I went back up into the air, squinting into the immediate area around me. The smoke was starting to thin out—Brick must have put out the fire, whichever building it had been coming from.

'Where is this thing?' I thought to myself as I continued to search. There were streetlamps that had fallen over, fire hydrants that were spouting water onto the street, peculiar hairline cracks in the concrete and strange, perfectly round small holes in some surrounding buildings. Obvious damage, but no creature. Had it left to another area of town? Were we going to have to track it down elsewhere? Follow the path of damage, maybe?

The very next moment, I had my answer.

Out of nowhere, there was a loud crash, and then an abandoned car was coming flying directly at me from straight ahead. Inhaling sharply, I ducked out of the way, unintentionally throwing myself through the window of an office building next to me. Closing my eyes, I covered my face against the flying shards of glass, bracing myself for an impact.

I landed on some carpet, rolled and landed in a crouch, ensuring that I stopped safely, then I opened my eyes. I was in a room of cubicles. There were workers on the other side of the room, crouched behind chairs and desks and watching me with alarm and fear. Standing up again, I looked right at them, gestured for them to leave, and yelled, "You're all in danger. Go take cover! Now!" All of them immediately rushed out of the room, hopefully to someplace in the building where it was safer.

I climbed back outside through the hole I'd left in the window, glancing around me cautiously. I looked to where the vehicle had landed, and it was now a heap of metal lying in the street. Warily, I looked over in the direction it had come from, and finally, I saw the elusive creature.

It wasn't moving. It didn't even seem to be breathing. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at, but I only knew that it was unnatural and it didn't belong there. It was perfectly spherical like a globe, white as snow, and had long, thin spikes coming out from every inch of its eerily round body. There was no face, from what I could see, or legs, or arms. It reminded me of something—a sea urchin? Only it was completely white and fifteen feet tall.

"Brick," I called out, knowing he would hear me from wherever he was. "I think I found it."

After I spoke, the thing seemingly responded—it made a sound that almost sounded like a cackle coming from an old, static-y radio. It was the first sign of life I'd gotten from this thing, and it thoroughly disturbed me, making a chill pass through me all the way to my bones.

Brick landed next to me with no warning, saying with a smirk in a normal toned voice, "What do you mean, you think you found it?" I held up a hand, signaling him to freeze like I had, and he stopped, his grin dropping away.

The creature tittered again, static and ominous and disturbing. Then there was a terrifying, loaded pause, the way complete silence feels when you know that something dreadful is about to happen. Hair raising at the back of my neck, I looked at Brick with just my eyes, not even daring to turn my head in his direction. He did the same, staying as still as he possibly could.

"Fly," I mouthed. He nodded almost imperceptibly. With my hand, I held out three fingers. Then, two fingers. Then one.

We flung ourselves into the air, soaring upward off the ground, and at the sudden movement, the monster responded again, in a way neither of us had anticipated. The creature reared back and then in one sudden movement, burst. The thousands of spikes on its body exploded off of it, flying in a thousand different directions.

The spikes sailed through nearby windows, soared through road signs and buildings, came hurling through the air towards Brick and I as we hovered, sinking into our skin.

I screamed at the same time I heard him shout, and I gawked down at the thin white spikes that stuck out of me everywhere. I reached down frantically and pulled one out of my thigh, swallowing back a shriek at the sting. I brought it close to my face, examining it. The point of the spike that had been in my skin was completely black with some sort of thick, viscous liquid. The liquid came out from the inside of the spike, ran down the sides of it and down my hand in opaque, bubbling black stripes. Now that I was seeing it for myself, with my own two eyes, I knew what it was. I would recognize it anywhere.

It was just like the liquid that had come out of the monster that Boomer and Bubbles had fought. And just like the liquid that came out of the monster Buttercup and Butch had defeated. And it was what had breathed life into me, my sisters, the Rowdyruff boys, and transformed Mojo Jojo.

Chemical X.

'Professor was right,' I thought, my eyes widening. But who had made these Chemical X monsters? How did they turn out like this, so ugly and evil? And where were they coming from? Why were they being made?

I stared down at the creature in bafflement. As I watched, coming up to replace the god-awful spikes that it had propelled, brand new spikes rose up out of its body to take their place, as equally sharp and dangerous as the old ones. Then, as the monster rolled backward slightly, we saw its face for the first time, big and sticking out slightly from the perfect sphere body, in the only area with no spikes sticking out of it. Its face was white, angular, and looked exactly like the grinning skull of a human. It grinned up at us, watching us with its empty skull eye holes. A strange symbol was branded on its forehead—three hollow circles overlapping each other, like a Venn diagram.

"Jesus," Brick said under his breath, momentarily stopping as he pulled spikes out of his skin and gaping at the creature, looking a little disturbed. "I've never seen something like this before. This thing's a special kind of nasty, isn't it?"

I grimaced, grabbing the rest of the spikes in my skin as quickly as I could and ripping all of them out. The stab wounds bled slightly, but they throbbed quickly, and I knew they'd heal in a matter of seconds. "This black stuff is Chemical X. It's what was in the monsters that our respective siblings fought, and it's what this one is made out of, too." I looked at Brick in time to see his eyes widen in shock. "The spikes are filled with it. It's not harmful to us, obviously, but we have to keep it from shooting at any humans. For them, it would be fatal."

With a grunt, Brick yanked out the last of the spikes that had stuck him, which were unfortunately on his butt. "And how do you suggest we do that? It seems like it has plenty of them in supply." In response, the creature snickered through its static noise. Brick looked down at it in alarm.

I paused, looking down at it again and thinking hard. "It uses some sort of launch mechanism, but the spikes are also how it moves. Do you see how it's leaning back on the bottom ones to right itself? Also, it took at least…what, thirty seconds maybe…for the spikes to be fully replaced." I glanced at him, knowing he'd been following my thought pattern but saying it aloud anyway, "So we make it move. Chase us. It shouldn't be able to launch spikes and move at the same time."

"Genius." He was smirking widely, nodding in approval. "That's my girl," he said. He looked over at it again. "Also, apparently it can hear us and understand us. Let's taunt it so it'll want to keep chasing us."

I smirked this time. "I'll leave that mostly to you. You're the master of insults."

Brick grinned, proud. "Thank you."

I laughed, turning back toward the monster. Readying my legs, I got my game face back on. "Let's go."

Briefly counting down again, we hurled back towards it. It watched us approach emptily, and just as it reared back, preparing to launch its spikes, Brick scoffed. "Pathetic. Is that all you got? What are you, some kind of overgrown Frankenstein soccer ball? Ooh, I'm so scared." It responded with a static cough, seemingly affronted.

"Bet it can't even fly," I responded to Brick in a sing-song voice. I began circling around the creature, leaving swirls of neon pink light around it.

"Bet it's too stupid to fly," Brick quipped back, hopping back behind it, out of its view, then in front of it again, then back again. I laughed again.

The thing responded again with a single grunt, dizzily trying to glare at us as we moved around it. Then, at the same time, we sped past it, flying into the same direction away from it. As we flew by, pointing with my finger, I aimed a lightning bolt into one of its eye pits as Brick aimed his heat vision at the bottom spikes that held its whole body up. The creature let out a static-y chortle that sounded more like a shriek of pain, then it promptly swiveled around, coming barreling after us.

"It didn't take much to piss it off," yelled Brick, part surprised, part exhilarated. The pursuit beginning, we blasted away.

I took some glances back at it, and it was spinning forward, flinging its spherical spiked body towards us like some kind of pinball from hell. It recklessly rolled over the street, rolled against the sides of buildings, weaving back and forth to gain speed.

It moved surprisingly fast for how stagnant it had been sitting before, and it turned out that my hypothesis had been right: it wasn't shooting any spikes at us. Its face was barely visible as it moved, appearing in brief flashes on the left side of its body, then the right, then occasionally the center again, revealing a hollow glower as it snickered at us menacingly.

What I hadn't counted on, though, was the throwing.

I had been wondering how it had managed to throw a car at me earlier, considering it had no hands, and I was finding out how right now. The monster spun over a nearby abandoned car, the car stuck to the spikes, and then rolled over the top of its spherical body and flung at us at top speed.

Brick and I flew apart, ducking away as it hurled between us and crashed onto the road ahead, which the creature rolled over and flung at us again. We dipped and weaved out of the way and continued zig-zagging as it threw more debris on the ground at us unrelentingly.

"Okay," I shouted, turning sharply to avoid getting hit by a flying bicycle. "I wasn't expecting this to happen!"

Brick lifted higher into the air to avoid a parking meter. "Would have been fortunate to know about this ability a couple of minutes ago," he shouted back. He glanced over his shoulder and jerked to the side as a stop sign soared past him. "I'd have some serious admiration for this thing if we weren't the ones that had to get rid of it."

I rolled my eyes even though I knew he was joking. Glancing down and noticing that there were more and more people in the area we were quickly moving into, running away in droves, I called to Brick, "There's too many citizens here. Let's go back!" And we immediately changed directions, flying back in the direction we'd come from and directly over the monster. Pausing in momentary confusion, the creature then made a wide turn against a tall nearby skyscraper, shattering windows and leaving puncture marks along the side of it, and came after us again, letting out a demented static-y cackle. I turned back to Brick as we flew. "Making it chase us isn't enough. We need a plan B."

Shouting and ducking out of the way as a sizeable chunk of the road got thrown in his direction, Brick yelled, "Feel free to come up with one."

"Give me a second," I said through gritted teeth. Trying to think of a plan and avoid flying objects coming at me at the same time wasn't exactly my forte. As if on cue, a smaller chunk of the road smacked me on the back of my head. I whipped my head around, looking back at the creature in annoyance. "Ow!" The thing chortled at me.

"We can't hit or kick it without risking getting impaled or stabbed by those stupid spikes," Brick thought out loud. "And apparently the thing has impressive endurance levels, so it chasing us isn't doing anything either."

Beginning to think clearer, an idea finally came to me. "Our powers. We'll have to rely on using them to outsmart it. Maybe some misdirection—" I paused, allowing a slow smirk to spread on my face. "I think it would be pretty easy for one of us to distract it as the other attacks, considering it can only look in one direction with its whole body facing that way. And if this thing was frozen facing one direction, it probably couldn't do much of anything."

The both of us ducked out of the way as an airborne motorcycle flew past us, and then Brick looked at me suddenly, catching onto my plan. "Yes! Do it," he said. "I'll distract it with my powers and make sure it doesn't explode in the meantime. Go!"

I immediately lifted up higher into the air, continuing to follow them both from a high view. For a few more feet, Brick let the creature keep chasing. Then, abruptly, Brick stopped flying, spun around to face the monster, drew in a deep breath and spewed blistering fire breath directly in its face. The creature rolled backward, twitching and letting out crackles that sounded more like shrieks. Brick began circling it again, flying around it in fast, dizzying circles, breathing more fire on it as it continued to twitch and squeal. I lingered high above them, feeling the heat waves rising up from the fire down below and watching for the perfect moment to jump in.

In the space of a split second, Brick stopped his fire breath and sped away from the creature as it continued twitching. Seizing my chance, I took in a deep breath, then blew a long, icy tundra gust of wind at the monster.

Icy mist surrounded it, and at first the creature stopped moving as the gust covered it, as if it were disoriented by the sudden extreme temperature change. Then, as it seemingly realized what was happening, it reared back, moving so its face was groundward. Then it began to shake, looking like it was attempting to launch its spikes but the surrounding coldness was slowing its movements down.

"It's working!" Brick shouted. "Keep going!"

I took another breath and blew again, and this time icicles began to form on the thing's spikes, freezing them together in big clumps. It rolled backward again, its empty skull face being revealed. Slowly, shiny ice began to form on the ground around it, connecting the creature to the pavement and forcing it to stay put. It struggled, writhing around and trying to free itself, and the loud, static snickering that the monster made sounded like noises of panic.

I breathed in once more and let out one last, giant blast of frozen air, and this time frost coated the thing completely, encasing it in a massive, smooth, solid ball of ice. The spiky thing was completely frozen inside, and the skull face stared up at me in the air, bony jaw dropped as if it couldn't believe what had just happened.

Proud, I took a moment to catch my breath. Floating lightly back to the ground, I turned toward my boyfriend, gesturing toward the glassy frozen globe. "I'll let you do the honors," I told him.

Brick looked at it eagerly, tempted, but then glanced back at me and reached for my hand. I put my hand in his and he brought it up to his lips, kissing it. "Together," he said. I smiled.

We separated and walked some feet away from it, standing on either side. After another count of three, we flew at it at blurring speeds, coming at both sides with a flying kick at the same time. The sphere shattered against the simultaneous impacts, chunks of ice and snow-like particles flying everywhere, and the monster inside shattered along with it, bursting into tiny little pieces. I turned my face away from the cold explosion, and when things settled again, I walked over calmly to where the majority of the pieces of the monster lay on the pavement.

Solid white and solid black lumps of ice lay there, motionless. Squatting down close to it, though, I heard a faint static, like a fuzzy radio station turned almost all the way down. I glanced up at Brick. "Hear that?" I asked him. He nodded.

As we listened, it came to a complete stop, and there was only silence.

We went to go sit down on the sidewalk, not because we needed a break but because we just wanted a few moments of peace. And predictably, within fifteen minutes, every news team in the area had come, reporters surrounding us and cameras swarming, taking footage of the wreckage, interviewing the few witnesses on the scene that had been taking cover, and taking footage of us as the reporters shouted questions at us.

"Please line up. Yes, we have some time to answer a few questions. We'll answer them to the best of our ability," I said to all of them as they thrust their microphones in our faces.

Brick placed one hand on my shoulder and held another one toward them, palm facing outward. "One at a time, please."

One woman reporter shoved her way to the front, asking us the first question. "Blossom, what exactly was that creature the both of you just defeated?"

I took a breath, answering. "We don't know exactly what it was. What we do know, though, was that it was a monster made from Chemical X."

The next question came shouted from the back of the group. "How do you know?"

Pressing my lips together, I deliberated for a moment before answering, not sure if I should say it or not. After some thinking, though, I decided to say it anyway. "My father, Professor Utonium, told me."

After a shocked pause, the reporters started shouting questions at us once again, and Brick held his hand out further, guarding me from them. "Hey, hey! One at a time! Easy!"

The next one came from my left. "Did Professor Utonium make these creatures?"

I shot the reporter a look. Were they kidding? "No, of course not. Professor hasn't made any new experiments in years, and he would never make something so dangerous to the city."

"What have you got to say about today's battle, Rick?" Another reporter burst out. 'Rick?!' I thought. I restrained an annoyed snort. That reporter was obviously new. How embarrassing.

Brick cleared his throat, disgruntled. "First of all, my name's Brick. Not Rick. Second, this battle was like any other battle. It was nothing we couldn't handle. And if any more of these monsters come out of the woodwork, we'll be able to handle those suckers, too. The city of Townsville has nothing to worry about." After a curt smile at them, he slung an arm around my shoulders and kissed my cheek, leading me away and saying to the reporters brusquely, "We have to go now. No more questions."

The cameras flashed furiously at his display of PDA, and I blushed, unable to hide my smile. He was beginning to handle the superhero life well, I was impressed. He even knew how to work the media now.

The reporters continued to shout after us, but with a shared grin at my boyfriend, we took off into the sky together, holding hands again, leaving the rest of their questions to hang in the air.


Whew. Now that Blossom and Brick have defeated their own monster, along with discovering that Professor had been right after all, what will happen next? (Of course, I already know, I just like teasing you guys.)

Stay tuned for chapter five, coming soon! Reviews are always appreciated!

-MsButterFingers