Hey! Thanks so much for the responses for last chapter. Here's chapter five, lots of fun and fluff!
Warning: This chapter contains mature and sexual themes.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, settings, or properties from The Powerpuff Girls, Craig McCracken owns them. I also don't own Rilakkuma, or Studio Ghibli.
Sorry for errors!
Chapter Five
-Blossom's POV-
Buttercup slammed her fist down onto the wood floor, making her can of cola topple over and leak. "We need to figure out what this is, and we need to do it now."
Shooting her a pained look, I picked up her can, taking some napkins and wiping up the soda that had spilled on our dorm room's nice wood floor. "Watch it. These are nice floors," I muttered, then stood up to toss the soggy napkins into the trash can nearby. I continued, "And of course we have to figure this out soon. It's just a matter of how."
I went to go sit back down on the floor with both of my sisters, where for the past few minutes, we had been snacking and discussing our recent, peculiar battles in broad detail. I had just gotten back from the café, where Brick and I had gathered all of the things we'd left there from our study date earlier that day. When I arrived at the dorm a short time later, Bubbles and Buttercup had already been waiting for me, sitting on my bed and watching the news coverage of the attack on our TV.
Bubbles spoke up, tapping her sparkly manicured nails against her chin thoughtfully. "Well, who do we know that would be capable of something like this?" She reached down, screwing and unscrewing the lid on her bottled smoothie anxiously.
There was pause between all of us after her question. Buttercup broke the silence. "Him?" She suggested.
I thought for a moment, then shook my head. "The monsters seem like something he would create, but he wouldn't need to use Chemical X to make them. He'd just use his own powers." I sniffed, frowning. "Besides, we haven't heard a peep out of Him for years. I think he's lost interest in bothering us. Or maybe he's retired."
Buttercup snorted, folding her arms. "Probably resting at some old folks' home for villains. Free Wi-Fi, an indoor pool, and weekly field trips where they rob banks in chaperoned groups." Bubbles giggled.
"Come on guys, focus." I said, smirking at Buttercup's comment but shaking my head. "Keep brainstorming. There's so few high-profile villains these days that this should be obvious. Who else would want to do this?"
There was another pause. Bubbles made the next suggestion. "Mojo, maybe? He's obviously made Chemical X creations before."
I nodded at her. "That's true, he has. So he would already have the experience." I pressed my lips together, frowning as I considered it further. "But when was the last time Mojo was even a formidable opponent to us? He couldn't be capable of something this creative. The last plan he attempted was his Citiesville plan with the boys, and obviously that didn't work out at all. He's definitely lost his touch. And on top of all that, we haven't even seen him in ages. I mean, how do we even know that he's still alive?"
Bubbles stared at me, her blue eyes big and grim. "Do you really think he's dead?" Buttercup was staring at me too, munching noisily on her chips.
I shrugged at them both. "For all we know, he could be. He could also be hiding out somewhere. But I think it's something we shouldn't rule out." I took a sip of my iced green tea, then set it down again. "We need to stay alert. This mystery threat could be anyone. It could even be someone new that we don't know about yet."
"But who would wanna make all these ugly monsters for no reason?" Buttercup wondered out loud, setting down her bag of chips. "And who would even have Chemical X when Professor is supposed to be the only person allowed to have it?"
"That's what I don't understand, either," said Bubbles, nodding. Her forehead was wrinkled in confusion. "And what about that weird symbol with the circles? What does it mean?"
"I don't understand it either, girls. And I can't explain why, but I have a bad feeling about all of this." I looked between the two of my sisters, a somber look on my face. "There's no telling how things will go from here. Promise me the both of you will be careful."
My sisters nodded, equally serious expressions on the both of their faces.
After wrapping up our brainstorming session, we got some dinner from the cafeteria and then came back up to watch a movie on the flat screen TV, all piled up on my bed together. Then Bubbles left, and Buttercup and I went to bed, getting rest before our classes the next morning.
-Buttercup's POV-
"I can't believe you actually cleaned up in here," I said, taking a step forward into Butch's dorm room and stepping on an empty beef jerky bag. I kicked it aside just as I saw some empty soda cans by his bed. "Kinda," I amended.
He gestured at it defensively. "To be fair, that bag was from this morning. That's what I had for breakfast."
Friday afternoon was one of the rare opportunities we had where Boomer, his roommate, was gone, and there would be no interruptions or awkward situations. Also, this time, he'd cleaned up his side of the room for once, and I could actually find his bed.
"This place looks much neater than Mojo's old lair did, so I owe you some credit there. That place was like something out of a horror movie." I jumped and landed on his bed, and the mattress squeaked underneath me. I cringed, continuing, "Ugh, wait, what am I saying? Being roomies with Blossom is starting to make me picker about how clean stuff is. I should spend more time over here." The lair had been a disaster, though. It was amazing that they could even pick through the mess to find their belongings that they brought to college.
Butch chuckled, throwing his books onto the desk that he and Boomer shared. "You know you're welcome over here anytime. I mean it. Even when Brick's over here and we're playing video games." He raised his eyebrows at me to emphasize his point.
"Wow, I'm honored." I said with mock sarcasm. Then, I crooked a finger at him, gesturing for him to come over. "Now get that sexy ass over here."
Butch smirked. He turned around, bent over, backed up towards the bed and then pretended to sit on me. Laughing, I pushed him off of me, and he acted surprised. "You said to bring my ass over."
I smacked a hand to my own face, groaning. "Oh my God, you're so embarrassing."
He lowered himself down on the bed next to me, his hair falling into his eyes, leering at me again. "You love it."
"Shut up," I groaned again, and he leaned in for a kiss.
We stayed that way for a few hours or so, for once not being all rough and frenzied like we could be sometimes. We were going slow, kissing; enjoying each other and getting lost in time. I felt drunk in the way that I always felt after being with him, warm and sleepy and embarrassingly happy. Butch was planting kisses all over my face when my phone buzzed on the table next to his bed.
Butch placed a soft kiss on the small stud in my nose, then groaned. "You've got to be kidding me," he said.
As I reached a hand towards the table, grabbing my phone, I said, "I just have to check and make sure it's nothing important." I opened the notification and relief washed over me. "Oh, good. It's just a text message."
Butch nipped my earlobe. "Ignore it, then."
I eyed the text message. "It's from Melissa, she's in my Wing Chun club. She invited me to a party she's throwing at her dorm."
At my tone, Butch shook his head, leaning back and giving me a look of warning. "Buttercup." His voice was flat.
I gave him a look in return. "What? When was the last time we even went to a party together?" I asked him defensively. "You don't have any more classes today, right? Come on. Melissa's cool. It's Friday night. I gotta relax, things have been so stressful lately."
My boyfriend looked at me for a long moment, then took my phone, reading the text message for himself. "So, it's tonight?" His tone didn't sound so unyielding now. He sounded like he was changing his mind.
"Yeah," I said, already smiling hopefully. "In two hours. Please come with me. Please, please, please."
With another pause, he blinked at me, then sighed. "Okay, I'll go with you. I won't know anyone there, though, so I don't know if I'll like it."
I grabbed his face in my hands, smacking a kiss on his lips. "You'll be with me, so you'll love it." I began getting out of his bed, climbing out from underneath him. As soon as I made it out of the sea of blankets, I lifted them again, smacked his bare butt, and scampered away laughing as he let out a shout of objection. I quickly pulled back on the clothes I'd been wearing earlier, tugging them into place and jumping back into my shoes. "Get ready, wear cool party clothes. I gotta go start getting ready, come pick me up at 9:45."
He stared at me as I walked towards the door, still lying back leisurely in his bed. "It takes you almost two hours to get ready?"
"For parties? Yes." I opened the door, and before I closed it behind me, I shot him a look over my shoulder. "Look sexy for me." I winked, slamming the door shut before he could reply.
I hurried back to my school, flying through the sky to my dorm building and locking myself in my dorm room as I prepared. An hour and forty five minutes later, Butch came knocking at my door. I opened it to let him in.
As soon as he saw me, he whistled. "Damn," he said.
I felt a smirk spread on my face as I opened the door further so he could push past me. "You like?"
As soon as he walked past me into the room, he turned back around just to continue looking me up and down with a roguish glint in his eye. "Yes. Yes I do."
I shut the door, smug. I knew I looked good. Party and club outfits were my specialty. I'd picked out my black pleather bustier, paired it with my tight dark green miniskirt and accessorized with fishnets, and black over the knee pleather boots and my black leather choker necklace. I also put product in my hair to make it perfectly messy and wild, and smeared my signature heavy dark makeup on my eyes.
I'd even went the extra mile and put on black lipstick, even though I never wore lipstick. I'd stolen it from Blossom's makeup box; she'd used it for her Halloween costume this year. I had to say, it made me look delightfully wicked. I think my boyfriend thought so too, he couldn't stop staring at me.
I stared back at him, raising my eyebrows. "You don't look so bad yourself," I told him. Understatement.
He smiled, waggling his eyebrows at me. "Sexy enough for you?" Butch was coincidentally wearing almost as much leather as I was wearing. Under his black leather biker jacket, which was adorned with zippers, band patches, and safety pins, his t-shirt underneath it had a skull smoking a cigarette on it. His black jeans—which had to be from high school, I hadn't seen him wear jeans that tight in years—had rips and tears all over them, exposing his skin underneath. His hair was pulled into a teeny ponytail that stuck out at the back of his head, exposing the shaved areas on the sides of his head. He looked delicious.
Almost shuddering, I got a hold of myself. "Yup. Definitely," I said to him, eyeing him up and down again. I walked past him, grabbing my phone off my bedside table, throwing on my leather jacket, then heading back towards the door. "Let's head over."
After walking to Melissa's dorm building, then taking the elevator to her floor, we stepped into the party the moment we left the elevator.
The party was already in full swing, spilled out into the entire hallway with dancing bodies and dance music playing so loud that it thumped in my throat.
Taking Butch's hand, I wound through the crowd, already starting to sway my hips to the music. I was already on the hunt for alcohol when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to face whoever had tapped me.
It was Melissa. Her ink black, curly hair was already wilder than usual, stark against her neon orange crop top, and her face was flushed. Her thick black eyeliner almost matched mine. "Hey girl, you made it!" She shouted above the music, even though I could've heard her just fine if she hadn't.
"Yeah!" I said, shouting so she could hear me. I pointed back at Butch, who waved. "This is my boyfriend. I forced him to come with me."
Melissa laughed, waving back at Butch. "I'm glad you did. Nice to meet you!" She said to him, raising her red solo cup in his direction, and then she took a sip of her drink, saw me eyeing it, and shouted to me, "The drinks are in my room, room 53! Down that way!" She pointed all the way to the middle of the hallway, where a door was propped open.
"Thanks!" I began to make my way there now, shouting at her over my shoulder, "See you around!"
I towed Butch behind me, getting jostled left and right as we made our way to the open door. Finally arriving there, an even bigger crowd of people was before us. For half a second, I wondered if half of these people even went to our school. Melissa must have announced the party on one of her multiple social media accounts. Or all of them. She did have like, 10,000 friends, or something like that.
"God, it's loud," Butch said to me, leaning in close to me from behind. "And cramped. It's like a metal concert in here."
I laughed as I pushed my way through one last throng of people, and there was an opening, revealing the table with drinks on it in red solo cups.
Walking over, I stopped in front of it, huffing impatiently. "Finally," I said, picking up a cup for my boyfriend, handing it to him, and then one for myself. I immediately took a gulp, then gagged, jerking back the cup to look inside it. "Holy shit, did someone mix an entire liquor cabinet into this?"
Butch took a sip too, then cringed. "Whoa, man. Brutal."
I tossed back some more, swallowing before I could taste it, then laughed. "Whatever. At least it's strong."
Since college started, and I'd gotten over my holier-than-thou aversion to alcohol instilled in me by Blossom, I'd since learned that the Chemical X in our bloodstream burns through alcohol pretty quickly. It was hard for us to get drunk, and if we wanted to feel the effects at all, we had to go for something way stronger than beer. Not mixed an entire liquor cabinet's contents strong, but I supposed it would do.
We stood there for a while, drinking down our drinks and talking, and I started to feel heat pooling in my chest. Just as I finished the drink, I had to use the bathroom, so I told him to wait there as I took off in search of the bathroom.
The bathroom was gross, as expected—people throwing up and girls crying all of the mascara off of their eyelashes. I went to the bathroom as fast as I could manage and got out of there.
When I came back, it took me a minute or two to find Butch through the pulsing hordes of bodies. But when I did, I was immediately lit with fury.
Three equally leggy and tan blonde girls surrounded him, all giggly and flirty as he kept trying to leave, clearly unimpressed and annoyed. They kept blocking his way, laughing like it was funny. "Where are you going, sexy?" One of them asked. "Don't you want my number?"
I plowed the rest of my way over, seething and roughly pushing past everyone that stood in front of me. Arriving, blood boiling, I shoved through the Wall of Blondes, nearly knocking one of them over as they squawked in astonishment. Striding right to Butch, I grabbed his face with both hands and kissed him languorously and territorially on his lips. Before we broke apart, I bit his bottom lip and tugged down on it, turning my eyes to the three girls and grinning mockingly at their scandalized faces.
"Excuse us, ladies." I said as Butch locked his arms around me from behind, dipping his head down and pressing a kiss to the side of my neck. I could practically feel his smile as we turned away and the blonde triplets hurried away, gawking at me in outrage and jealousy.
After pausing by a wall, where there were less people standing, Butch turned me around to face him. He looked delighted. "Well, damn," he said. He licked his bottom lip, swollen where I'd bitten him. I guess I'd been a little too enthusiastic. Oh well, he'd heal fast. "Someone's a little possessive, aren't we?"
"Not possessive." I swiped off the small amount of lipstick I'd left on his lips, then pressed a fingertip gently to the swollen curve of his bottom lip, looking into his forest green eyes and shrugging. "Just protecting what's mine," I said. The wide grin on his face melted, and his eyes darkened, locking with mine. An electric charge pulsed between us. Just then, the song changed to a guitar-heavy rock song, and I took both of his hands, pulling him back to the center of the room where everyone was dancing. "Now come dance with me, Rowdyruff boy."
We made our way back into the heavy throng of dancers and danced together, sleepy heat coursing through my veins and sweat dripping off my skin as I grinded back into him, his hands grabbing and feeling all over me.
With no further nuisances and interruptions, the both of us drank and danced the whole night. When the night was over, we stumbled back to my dorm early the next morning before the sun came up. We slept in past noon, tangled up on my tiny bed in a pile of wild black hair and leather and limbs and the bitter scent of liquor.
-Bubbles' POV-
A sharp knock came against my door, and the next second came the sardonic voice of our sorority house mother, "Bubbles, you know the house rules. Do you have a boy in there?"
My eyes widened, turning to stare over at Boomer, who sat on my bed against my pillows and giant Rilakkuma plush. He was staring back at me, eyes big with apprehension, and he slapped a hand over his mouth. I turned to the door again, calling out unconvincingly, "Me? No, of course not!"
Friday afternoon, when both of us had no more classes for the day, I'd snuck him into the sorority house. He'd flown up to my window, and I'd let him in—the same way he used to sneak into my bedroom late at night during high school. Oddly enough, we'd never been caught by Professor back then. So it figured that the first time we got caught was when I was in a large house with thirty other girls.
I heard the house mother chuckle at my obvious lie from the other side of the door. "All right, I get it. Just be safe in there. Use protection!" My face exploded in a hot flush as I heard her laughter and footsteps retreat.
"Um, okay," I answered her awkwardly, even though she was probably too far away to hear me. I turned back to Boomer quickly. My heart was pounding faster than its usual quick, inhuman pace. "She was just joking!"
God. I couldn't believe she'd said that, and right in front of my boyfriend. I wanted to crawl underneath my bed and hide.
Boomer kept his voice low, looking a little red-faced at the joke himself. Nervously side stepping it, he said, "I'm not getting you in trouble, am I? We could go back to my dorm instead, if you want."
Secretly thankful that he'd changed the subject, I shook my head, waving him off with a hand. "Liz? No way, don't worry, she doesn't care. She's cool. Plus, I'm her favorite. She'd never get me in trouble." I liked to think that me and the house mother, Liz, had a special bond. She was young, in her late twenties, and the first day of school, I'd given her makeup advice. We'd been close ever since.
"All right. If you think it's okay," Boomer said, shrugging, and then he waved me over and patted the space on the bed next to him. "Get over here. It's cold over here by myself."
I climbed onto my bed next to him, snuggling into his side as he brought me in close. "I'm glad you're here. We never get to hang out in my room, and you've only seen it once." I gestured widely to the room. "You like?"
He looked around at everything, nodding slowly. "It looks almost like your room at home." He squinted in thought. "Not as much stuffed animals as I expected."
"I could only bring half of them, this is all that would fit," I explained very seriously. He 'ahh-ed' in understanding. "I had to bring as much as possible, though. I wanted it to look super cute."
Turning his face closely to the side of my head, he leaned in and kissed my hair, and then he said, "It's not as cute as you are, though."
I felt my face heat up again. "If you say so."
Boomer 'mhmm'ed, then leaned even closer, kissing my ear lobe. "Nothing is as cute as you are."
I squirmed at the soft, ticklish sensation, suddenly growing shy. I asked, trying to distract him, "What about bunnies? They're way cuter than me."
"They could only dream of being as cute as you," he answered easily. He kissed directly under my ear lobe, right on my pulse.
I swallowed hard, proceeding with another distraction attempt and asking, "What about puppies? Kittens?"
"Nope." His breath blew out in a chuckle, and it fanned across my neck warmly. "Not even they can compare." He gently pressed his lips against the sensitive skin of my throat.
My mind was beginning to feel hazy, and my heart felt like it was thumping in my throat, directly under his lips, and I was positive that he could feel it. Out of nowhere, I blurted, "Wanna watch a movie?"
Boomer stopped pressing soft, fluttery kisses on my neck and leaned back, seeming taken off guard. "Oh," he paused, blinking at me and slowly letting me go. "Sure, sweetie. If you want to."
I scrambled back on my bed, crawling away from him and hopping off of my bed, going over to my bookshelf where I had some movies stacked up on the third shelf. Thankful that I was now facing away from him, I could get a hold of myself and gain back my composure. I slowed my breathing.
This happened every time we were alone—alone in a private space—lately. He would get comfortable and cuddly and affectionate and suddenly my nerves would go haywire. For the entire time we'd been dating, this hadn't happened to me before. I mean, when we had first gotten together, I was nervous and jittery around him a lot. But this was different. It felt different, and I wasn't sure what it was.
…Actually, I knew exactly what it was. I just couldn't admit it to myself. Maybe because thinking about it made me even more nervous.
"So," I said to him, still facing the shelves. "What do you feel like watching? A comedy, maybe? I have a few of those. Or maybe an animated one? I have some Studio Ghibli movies." He wasn't answering because I barely paused long enough to let him answer. I couldn't stop talking. "I also have some TV shows on DVD. We could marathon one of them if you want, and we could order food from some place and have it delivered and—"
"Baby." His voice was directly behind me. Very gently, from behind, he wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my shoulder. I hadn't even heard him stand up. How long had he been behind me?
My heart was pounding again. I swallowed hard. "Yes?"
His arms tightened ever so slightly. "Are you all right?"
I tried to keep my breathing even. I'd known he'd been able to tell that something was off. He always could. As calmly as I could manage, I told him, "Yeah. I'm okay. Why?"
Boomer tilted his head forward so he could look at my face better. I wasn't meeting his gaze, and I knew he'd noticed that, too. "No reason," he said finally, giving me another squeeze and pulling away. "I was just making sure." Then, he pointed to one of the movies on the shelf. "Why don't we watch that one? It's one of your favorites, right?"
After I agreed, I put the movie into my laptop, plugged in my lantern string lights and turned off the big light, and we settled back onto my bed as it started, although less cuddled up than before.
Twenty minutes into the movie, I was strongly regretting making the lighting dimmer. I'd thought the dimmer light would calm me down, but for some reason, it was making me even more anxious. I was more aware of Boomer than ever, and every time he would glance over at me it felt like my skin was lighting up with a thousand volts of energy.
Instead of quoting the movie word for word, the way I always did when I watched this movie, I was completely and utterly silent, staring past the laptop screen and trying to stay calm.
I began to fidget, my hands ringing together and un-ringing and ringing again and my sparkly fingernails were tapping together and I couldn't seem to control it. It felt like I was blinking too often. Why was I blinking so much? Suddenly, it felt like it was impossible to breathe quietly, and every breath in and out of my nose sounded like a freight train. Was it just me, or was my breathing really that loud?
I couldn't even concentrate on the movie. What were we even watching, anyway? I couldn't remember. I wondered if I was going crazy. Was I going crazy? Why did my heartbeat feel like two boulders knocking together? Why did Boomer smell so amazing? Was he watching me right now? What if he could tell that I was freaking out?
"Sweetie," he said suddenly, choosing to speak at the most totally untimely moment ever. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Startled, I turned and looked at him, intending to answer—and froze. It was like my brain just stopped working and my body went into overload. My hands shook, my face exploded, flushed and red, and breathing was difficult. His hair was pushed out of his eyes, the dim light was hitting him just right and his eyes were lidded and I didn't know what came over me but I pounced on him.
I pounced on him so hard that the both of us went careening off the bed and onto the floor—my hands tangled in his hair and my lips crashing onto his. For a moment, he was frozen underneath me, in shock. Then he wound his arms around me and began to kiss back, a slight smile curving his lips.
After about a minute that we'd been on the floor making out, I finally came to my senses, pulling my lips away from his and gaping at myself in shock. "Oh my God," I whispered, my voice hoarse. "I'm sorry."
Boomer was dazed, eyes glazed, goofy grin and hair mussed and tangled. "Why are you apologizing?" He reached up, tucking some hair behind my ear that had fallen into my face. "Please, continue."
I leaned back on my heels shakily, my face as red as ever. I couldn't believe I'd just done that. "I don't know what came over me," I muttered, gesturing at him. "I just attacked you like some animal."
"Yes, yes you did," he said, still grinning widely and leaning up from the floor on his elbows. "Feel free to do that whenever you want."
Still completely astonished at myself, I partially covered my face with one hand. "I'm lucky we didn't break anything. Liz would have killed me." Sitting on the ground, cross legged, I sighed. "Can I tell you something?"
Boomer sat up, sitting like I was and facing me. "Shoot," he said.
Hesitating, somehow even more embarrassed at what I was about to admit, I sighed again. It was time to tell him. "I've…" I paused, dropping my head to look at my hands. "I've been wanting to do…that…for a while now."
My boyfriend cocked his head at me questioningly. "What, kiss me, you mean? Bubbles, you can kiss me whenever you want to."
My voice was quiet. "That's not what I meant." The room pulsed with stillness, the only sound coming from the movie, which still continued to play on my laptop up on my bed.
"Oh," he paused for a moment, staring at me. Possibly seeing how I wasn't meeting his gaze again, he finally gasped in understanding. "Oh. You mean…you want to have sex?"
I bit down hard on my lip, my entire body bursting into a new round of blushing. I was probably bright red all the way down to my toes. Slowly, and very slightly, I nodded.
Boomer scooted closer to me until our knees touched, and his voice came out gently. "What's so wrong about that? There's nothing to be embarrassed about." He leaned his face closer, but I still didn't look him in the face. "We're in love. It's a perfectly normal thing to want. I've wanted to, too. For a very long time."
I squirmed, some of my mortification waning. Hearing him confess it too made me feel reassured. "I just didn't know how to tell you," I admitted. "So it's just been building up inside of me and—" I stopped, biting my lip again.
He chuckled. "I'm glad you told me. It's important that we talk about things like this." He tucked two fingers under my chin and slowly lifted my face up. "I never want you to feel scared or embarrassed to talk to me about things. Especially if it's about how you feel. Okay?"
Finally looking at him now, the warmth in his eyes had immediately calmed me again. "Can I tell you something else?" I asked.
"Of course," he said. "Anything."
This time, I locked eyes with him, and I didn't look away as I said, "Boomer, I trust you. But I'm scared. Of going too fast."
Lifting both of his hands now, he placed them both on the sides of my face. "Whenever we decide to take that step, whenever you're ready, we'll take our time. I promise." He leaned in and kissed my forehead.
I closed my eyes, soaking in the warmth of his skin against my skin. "Can I tell you one more thing?"
He kissed my forehead once more. "Tell me," he said.
I opened my eyes. "I love you."
Boomer slouched down, matching my height, and brought his forehead down to mine, resting it there. Our blonde hair mixed together, surrounding the both of our faces like a curtain shielding us from the rest of the world. His eyes stared into mine. "I love you, Bubbles." Then he leaned in, closing the last inch between our lips.
I unfolded my legs as we lay back on the floor again, and I broke apart from him briefly to ask, "What about the movie?"
His breath blew out across my face in a silent chuckle. "Screw the movie."
Agreeing, I burst into giggles, since I had seen this movie at least 300 times before anyway, and he kissed me again. We kissed the afternoon away.
-Back to Blossom's POV-
After a peaceful two days passed without incident, things had begun to return back to normal.
With less questions plaguing my mind, I found the time to go back to my studies, focusing my full attention on my classes. I finished three essays, put the finishing touches on my paper that was due the next Monday, and even got all of my reading done. Getting through all of my homework that I had at the moment, I finally had some extra time that Sunday to hang out with the whole gang.
Since it was the third week of November, sunny days were becoming scarce. This day was a particularly sunny day, and pretty warm considering what month it was, so we decided to take advantage of the great weather and hang out at the park that afternoon.
Putting on a comfortable outfit of pink tights under shorts and a soft pullover white sweater with a pink scarf, I was ready to go. We packed a picnic basket full of food and drinks—well, Bubbles and I packed it, Buttercup kept taking things out of it to eat—we brought a blanket with us to sit on, and we met the boys at Townsville Park.
Townsville Park was my favorite place to be in the autumn. The leaves had already long changed into hues of orange, reds, browns and gold, and annoying bugs were nowhere to be seen. Hot chocolate and hot apple cider carts opened throughout various areas in the park, along with candy apple stands. Families and couples gathered to take pictures with the colorful leaves and enjoy the last rays of sun before winter came to freeze everything. Autumn had always been one of my favorite times of year. It's the season of changes and when people come together again to find warmth and familiarity.
Making our way through the park, we walked past the dormant volcano that Mojo's abandoned lair still sat on the top of, dark and cold. It was crazy how a place that had such a significant place in our past had become so irrelevant in our lives.
Without the malevolent bite it used to have, the lair had become somewhat a city landmark, with regular groups of tourists coming and going to take pictures of it. A cold, empty landmark. Nothing more.
After a while of just strolling through the park, enjoying the views and watching as the boys pushed each other into giant piles of fallen leaves, all of us found a nice area beside the lake, spread out our blanket and sat.
I sat between Brick's legs, lying back against him as I ate some apple slices. Every once in a while I would look up behind me and offer him one too, which he would accept by opening his mouth and letting me clumsily shove the slice inside. Bubbles and Boomer were both lying down side by side on their stomachs and leaning up with their elbows as they talked, and Buttercup and Butch were sitting cross-legged, facing each other and trying to toss pieces of popcorn into each other's mouths. The weather continued to hold up, and Canadian geese on the lake next to us swum on top of the water serenely.
This was the most peaceful afternoon I'd had in months, since summer, and the happy calm that surrounded us all felt wonderful. In fact, it felt perfect. So I should have known that it wasn't going to last.
The moment I realized that, though, was about an hour after we'd been sitting there, the exact moment things started to go wrong.
At once, in an unexpected moment, all of the Canadian geese on the lake took off into the sky and flew away over us, every single one of them.
They made a huge racket, honking and flapping high above us as we stared upward at them, and Buttercup and Butch were making jokes about how we scared them off by doing nothing. Brick and I laughed along with them for a few moments, thinking nothing of the relatively normal moment, but when I noticed Boomer and Bubbles, I stopped.
The both of them had stood up, with Bubbles closely observing the direction that the geese had flown off in with squinted eyes. Boomer was staring at her with a questioning look. The look on her face was so grim that I immediately felt uneasy.
I nudged Brick, gesturing for him to look at them. He did, and then the smile on his face dropped into a frown.
"Baby? What is it?" Boomer asked Bubbles in a worried tone, putting both hands on her shoulders. This caused Butch and Buttercup to realize something was going on, and the both of them looked over, quieting.
"Shh," Bubbles held up one finger in Boomer's direction, concentrating hard. Then she slowly turned around, now facing the direction the geese had flown away from. Her eyes stared out to where more of the park, the less populated part of it, stretched beyond the lake, where dark clouds had formed seemingly out of nowhere. "Don't you hear that?"
Boomer frowned, confused and watching the direction she was looking in. "What is that noise?"
"Bubbles?" Buttercup, just like the rest of us, was watching her carefully. "Are you okay, Blondie?"
Bubbles was still staring out, almost as if in a trance. "No," she said finally, distractedly. "Something's wrong." She paused again, not taking her eyes away from the dark distance. "Don't you hear them?"
The rest of us except for Boomer—who was now absorbed by something himself—were bewildered now, having no idea what she was talking about. We all exchanged looks with each other.
"Hear who, Bubbles?" I asked her warily. I couldn't deny that there was something wrong—the hair rose on my arms, and something about the atmosphere felt very off. And from far away…a sound. I could hear it now that I was listening. A peculiar sound.
Bubbles opened her mouth to answer, then abruptly gasped with a look of alarm. Backing up, whipping around and grabbing Boomer's arm, she dove to the ground, pulling him down with her. "Get down!"
Before any of us even had a chance to respond, the biggest mass of birds I'd ever seen exploded from the direction Bubbles had been staring in, coming in our direction. There were so many that it looked like a thick, dark cloud. All of us threw ourselves face down against the picnic blanket as they passed directly over us, crowing and tweeting and flapping right above our heads.
Just as the birds passed us, mine and my sisters' phones went off at the exact same time. Slowly sitting up from the ground, watching the mass collectively fly away, all of us exchanged looks of open mouthed shock and dread.
My sisters and I fished our phones out frantically. "The birds were scared of something. They were warning us," Bubbles said to us, pulling out her phone from her pocket. "That's why they were flying away. And those sounds in the distance. Do you hear them?"
"Yes," I said immediately as I pulled out my phone, understanding what she was talking about. The strange, far off noise. That was what I heard. It was still going on—a rumbling yet high frequency noise of some kind. It was closer now. "Something's coming. What do you think it is?"
Immediately after I stopped speaking, we began to hear the screams of citizens. Then, even worse—a loud BOOM. The ground shook underneath us, and in the populated part of the park behind us, the families and couples and kids all began running away, a scene of chaos for the fourth time in just one week.
At the same time, my sisters and I opened the Hotline notification, reading it. At the sight of the words on my phone's screen, a shockwave pulsed through my body. It felt like my stomach had dropped down to the picnic blanket. Tearing my eyes away from the screen, I looked up at Bubbles, whose eyes were huge with fear, and then Buttercup, whose face had become steely. All three of us stood up.
All three of the guys were staring up at us, waiting for one of us to say something. "Well?" Brick prodded. "What is it this time? Another monster?" He began to stand up from the blanket.
I shook my head at him slowly, trying to swallow back my dread, and read the crime alert aloud, "'Emergency alert: army of monsters moving through downtown and coming toward Townsville Park.'"
Butch jumped up, standing, and then snatched Buttercup's phone out of her hands, reading the screen in alarm, and Boomer and Brick stared at me in disbelief. Boomer's voice rose, shooting up from his seated position and getting onto his feet. "What do you mean, army?"
"There's no way. That has to be wrong," Brick said, shaking his head and continuing to stare at me as he stood. "Maybe it was a typo."
Slowly putting my phone back into my pocket, I shook my head too and said, "I don't think the alert would say it was an army unless it truly was one. Ms. Bellum doesn't make mistakes."
"The birds," Bubbles said faintly. She still had her phone held in front of her face, but rather than reading what the screen said again, it looked like she was staring through it. "They were absolutely terrified. And if it's a whole army…" she trailed off.
"We're probably screwed," Buttercup finished for her. She snatched her phone back from Butch and shoved it into the pocket of her tight jeans, turning to me. "So, what now, Red? Where do go from here?"
They were all looking at me. Pressing my lips into a line as I had a few moments of thought, I said decidedly, "We have no other choice. We have to protect the city." Taking a moment to look toward the ominous, empty direction that the birds had flown from, I looked at my companions again. I took my scarf off, dropping it to the picnic blanket below. I would come back to get it after the battle. "Let's go meet this so called army."
Leaving our peaceful picnic behind, my sisters, the boys and I lifted into the air, flying to go meet whatever was coming to us before it could do any more damage.
Townsville Park was large, but it didn't take long at all to find what we were looking for. In less than a minute, we arrived, and we found it—well, them—at the exact same time they found us. All of us stopped in our tracks, levitating and staring in horror.
"No," I heard Boomer say. Bubbles covered her mouth with her hands. Buttercup and Butch cursed at the same time. My heart caught in my throat as Brick murmured, "Mother of God."
We couldn't tear our eyes away from them.
All of them. All white, all huge, whispering, tittering, bellowing. Jaws snapping, feet stomping, writhing like a living white ocean, moving and closing in on us.
There were spiky, spherical ones like Brick and I had fought, ones that looked just like the one Butch and Buttercup battled with grotesque, fanged smiles, ones that towered over the rest on their twelve legs just like Bubbles and Boomer's monster, plus more that none of us had even seen before. There were ones that flew, ones that slithered on the ground like snakes, ones that had two or more heads. All were equally gruesome to behold.
A heavy static sound emanated from all of them, and it also strangely charged the surrounding air, feeling thick enough in the atmosphere to start a lightning storm.
The sheer number of them was impossible. Eyes scanning quickly, I counted—ten, twenty, thirty-five…fifty. Fifty exactly. Fifty white, mutant Chemical X monsters, with the three circle symbol branded onto every single one of them.
Completely surrounding us.
Oh man.
Stay tuned for the big battle!
Reviews and/or feedback are always appreciated, and remember I'm always available for contact at my profile here or at my livejournal!
-MsButterFingers
