The TV glared at me, but I wasn't looking back. Nothin' good was on, yet I just couldn't bring myself to turn it off. Damn I was bored. What I would have done to have just one other person to play some poker with. Instead all I could do was lay around and stare at nothing. Very dangerous thing to do you know. I could start turning into Brick or Boomer.

Speaking of which, my phone went off. "Going to be here till closing. Get your own dinner" The text read. I let out a little cheer and jumped up from the couch. Finally a chance to go out and do something! I went down the hall and opened Boomer's door. "Hey guess what, we can finally go hit up Townsville." I said happily.

"Don't you ever knock?" He asked me from the corner. He was messing around with something inside his backpack.

"Why you got somethin' to hide?" I asked. "Don't you usually put your pajamas on by now?"

"I uh, didn't get a chance yet." He said as he closed up his pack.

"Boomer," I said, squatting down next to him, "You weren't gonna go out and have fun without me, were you?"

Boomer was quiet for a moment. "Well maybe I was." He said mockingly.

I clutched my chest and fell back onto the floor. "Why Boomer? How could you betray me so? I think…I'm going…to die…"

I looked up at him. Rather than laughing like he should have been, Boomer looked kind of…bummed out. I figured this place wasn't bringing back the best of memories for him.

"Alright look," I started as I stood up, "I know we used to give you a ton of crap back when we were kids, but those days are gone now. Now we're bros all the way and we can go do anything we want. So come on, let's go see how things are."

"We can't go out," Boomer said as he came out of his little sad trance, "Brick will kill us."

"Bricky's gonna be at the library for another four hours. We got plenty of time to go mess around a little."

"I've got some school work to-"

I grabbed his arm and pulled him out the window. "We could go steal enough money to buy that stupid school. " I said as we started flying up. "The last think we need to worry about is being good students. That's for Brick to worry about."

The sun was just beginning to set. Below us the little humans were scurrying about in their cars. Not too much has changed since we'd been gone. I recognized what street we were flying over. I looked to the left and saw the mayor's office. Ahhh…the good times we used to have there. My mind was already scanning the area looking for good targets. It almost felt like we hadn't left. Like the last seven years had not even happened. Instead of moving away in an airship we were just having another fun filled day and lookin' for trouble.

"Hey let's go check out the junkyard." Boomer asked me from behind.

"Yeah ok, but let me just take a peek at the north bridge first."

I zoomed off to the north. There it was, the old bridge we used to hang out under. "Well it's the same bridge," I said as I landed, "but wow, it's so clean. Not a single bit of graffiti."

"Not just the bridge." Boomer said as he landed next to me. "The whole place is cleaned up."

The north part of Townsville had always been the ghetto part. Lot of crooks would hole up in one of the slums when they weren't doin' time. This bridge was like the message board for the criminal population. Guys were always writing stuff about how they were gonna take down the Puffs and completely own the city. I always loved coming here and givin' those wannabes some responses, like "Ruffs will rule you fool," or "The Rowdyruff Boys own this city, and that includes you."

But now the whole place looked…friendly. The trash had been cleaned up, flowers were planted along the edges, water was clean, and there was no graffiti anywhere. I flew up a bit to get a better look at the area. This place wasn't a slum pit anymore. I mean it didn't look like a place where you'd find yuppies, but it didn't look like you'd find criminals around either. There was one building that caught my eye. It said BU on it and looked somewhat out of place. It sure as hell hadn't been here when we were stomping around. I started floating over towards it.

"Butch!" I heard Boomer yell out.

I turned around. "What, what's up?" I asked.

"Um…why don't we uh…why don't we go down to the junkyard."

"Yeah sure, let me just see what this company is." I said as I headed off.

Boomer flew up in front of me. "It's probably nothing. Let's go see some stuff before it gets dark."

I gently pushed him out of the way. "I'll only take a minute. I just want to know what's been goin' on here."

"Uh…this is lame." Boomer said as he followed me. "I thought we were gonna do cool stuff."

"Wait, shhh." I said, putting my arm out. "You hear that?"

"No." He said quickly.

I silently hovered along the building until I got to the corner. I peeked around the back. It was the Puffs! Two of em', pinky and greeny. I grinned and started rubbing my fist.

Boomer pulled me away before I could jump out. "I know what you're gonna do," He whispered, "and we're not supposed to! We're not suppose to fight them unless they try and start something."

"I'll just say they started it." I said as I tried to get him off me. The little bugger wouldn't let me go.

"Mom and Dad will kill you if you wreck everything!"

"Well Mom and Dad aren't here." I said as I finally got him off my sleeve. "And how am I supposed to crush Buttercup's spirit if I can't fight her." I looked around the corner again. "I wasn't buyin' this whole science thing. I know if I just give her a push, she'll throw down the gauntlet like old times. "Are you gonna help me or not?" I asked.

I looked over. Boomer was gone.

"Fine, I bet I can even take on all three of them by myself." I thought as I walked into view. "Evening ladies." I said. They both turned towards me.

"YOU?" Buttercup yelled. Her eyes were wide with surprise.

Blossom looked just as shocked. "Why, why are you here?"

"I'm back now, remember?" I said while I walked around. "This place used to be my hang out. But man, if you showed me a picture, I'd say this place was from another city."

I looked over. The two of them were whispering about something. I started cracking my knuckles. That got Buttercup's attention.

Blossom put a hand on Buttercup's shoulder. "I can handle him. You go back home, ok?"

Buttercup let out a deep breath. She must have been holdin' it in for a while. She said ok and started flying away.

"You're not gettin' away this time, shorty!" I yelled as I started flying after her. Blossom appeared out of nowhere and blocked my path. "Buzz off Pinky," I said smoothly, "I don't have any business with you."

"If you're going to cause trouble, then you do have business with me." She shot back.

Boy did that sound familiar. She was in the same pose, hands on her hips with her eyes lowered. Same tone of voice, same stupid line, same arrogant look on her face. I didn't get what Brick was talking about when he said things were different with Blossom. She was looking like the same annoying, stuck-up, pain in the ass she had always been.

She let out a sigh. "Look, just listen for second." She said as she relaxed her face and let her arms fall to her sides. Well…this was different.

"I don't know where you guys have been for the last seven years, and I don't know why you've come back here, and I don't know where Mojo and Him are, and I don't know what you've been doing since we last saw you…" She stopped to take a breath. "…but you guys haven't done anything bad since you've come back, and I don't want any of you to start doing bad things. So please Butch, if you want to look around that's fine, but don't start picking fights."

My, my, this was very different. Did the great and mighty Blossom just ask me to do something? All I remember her ever doing was barking orders at everyone like an old, catholic school teacher. And I have to admit, a small part of me felt something. Something that said, "Hey, maybe I should back off. The chick doesn't want to fight right now."

Too bad for her, it was just a small part of me.

With a grin, I shot my laser beams at one of the nearby houses. The pathetic building gave out a small explosion, the wall now gone. "How about now, La Chica Superpoderosa?" I didn't wait for a response, shooting up into the air.

I didn't get too far. She grabbed me from behind and tried to put me in an arm lock. I have to give it to her, the girl is fast. I snapped my head back, trying to hit her in the face. To my surprise, she put her arms up in time to block the blow. Either way, I was free now.

I juiced it and headed for the woods. I was in the mood for fight, and I didn't need my opponent freaking out about the safety of some worthless humans. Sure it would be easy to throw a few cars around and attack her while she scrambled about, but where's the challenge in that?

"Ok Pinky," I thought to myself as I reached down for the top of a pine tree, "let's see what you've got." With a tiny pull I brought the whole tree up over my head. Turning around, I swung at the Puff like a baseball player. Blossom let out a little yell as she flew away, just avoided my attack.

BAM! BAM! My tree continued to slam into the ground. She's fast alright. Just when I thought I had her, she'd dodge to the side. Then instead of hearing my tree hit the ground, I heard a snap. Stupid thing had reached its limit already. I took a split second to look around for a better tree. It was a bad idea. Blossom launched an uppercut to my chin.

It hurt only a little bit. I already guessed her scrawny arms didn't have much punch to them. I decided to give her a taste of a real punch and skyrocketed towards her. She tried to move, but I landed a blow right in her gut. Pinky fell to the ground, leaving a nice little crater. I landed down near her while she got up. It looked like I had knocked the wind out of her. Now it was time to see if she could handle some close range combat. I ran in with a left kick. Blocked. Right kick. Blocked. Another left kick. Blocked.

Block, block, block. Everything got blocked. But she wasn't trying to counterattack. I think she knew she didn't have the muscle to do any real damage to me. Too bad for her I had started going in a pattern. You see, there's a lot of mental work in fighting. For instance, right now I was doing the same four moves over and over again so that her brain would get used to the pattern. When I went in for a leg sweep, she was too busy expecting another punch to avoid it. Then I sent out a punch right for her face.

I screamed and jumped back. Man that burned! She had hit my fist with her eye lasers. I blew on my poor fist, trying to make the pain go away.

"Hold on for a minute." She yelled.

I started rubbing my fist and looked at her. "Hold on? Why?" I asked.

"This is pointless, you didn't come out here to fight me." She said.

"Hey I just wanted a fight, period. And since you're the only one who still fights apparently…" I said as I got back into a stance.

"Well I'm not interested in fighting anymore either." Blossom replied, turning her back.

"What? So you're just gonna quit?" I said, dropping my stance. "All of you just quit? How does that happen?"

She started walking back towards Townsville. "There isn't much fighting to do around here anyway."

I started following her through the forest. "There must be giant monsters comin' around sometimes."

"Not anymore."

"Well what about all the other villains? Sure none of those chumps can put up a fight like us, but I bet they keep hopelessly trying."

"I found a new way to deal with them."

"New way? What new way?"

She turned around and looked at me. "Hey, can I ask you for a favor?"

I crossed my arms and eyed her suspiciously. "A favor?"

"Yeah," She said, taking a small card from her pocket and handing it to me. In big letters it said 'Better Understanding: A Guide to Your Happy Future.' I raised an eyebrow, unsure of what to make of it.

"Tomorrow after school, I'd like you to come to that building where you saw Buttercup and I." She said, hovering in the air.

"What for?" I asked.

"You'll find out if you come." She said, and flew off.

Well that was unexpected.

"Ugh, this is so stupid." I thought to myself. I'm referring to myself entering the BU building, not the actual building. No, the building itself is rather nice. Very clean, a high end computer at the reception, and lots of…vegetables? Yeah that's right, there's vegetables growing near the walls.

"Wondering about those, aren't ya?" There was Blossom. "Did you know that looking at vegetables reduces stress, and the more different kinds there are the less stress you feel?"

"Mmm fascinating." I say as I yawn.

Blossom only laughed. "Come on into this room. We're going to start in about ten minutes."

I sigh and follow her. I don't know why I've come here. Boredom, curiosity? Must be both. At least Brick will be happy that I'm helping with the stupid plan, even though Blossom is supposed to be his target. In fact, I've gained ground on every Puff except for Buttercup. Doin' all the damn work myself around here. My pitiful brothers haven't even thanked me yet. Being this amazing is really a curse.

Blossom drops me off in some room. No vegetables in here, just a bunch of weird looking paintings. Chairs are in a big circle with a handful of people already in 'em. I sit down next to some red haired girl. I tried to make Brick go to this stupid thing but he was all like "I've got a stupid essay to write and since I'm such an idiot I have to spend all day working on it." Don't know where the hell Boomer is. Guy just up and disappeared after school.

I look over at the girl next to me. She's got freckles on her face. "Have I seen you somewhere before?" I ask her.

"Of course you have." She says in a stuffy voice. "I am Princess Morbucks. You've seen me on billboards all throughout Townsville."

"Oh you're that ugly rich girl who used to always bug us."

"What! Who do you think you are? I can have you everyone you care about destroyed!"

I lean over and look down at her. She must be as short as Buttercup. "Does the name Rowdyruff ring any bells?"

"You!" she says in surprise.

I smile and cross my arms. "That's right, we're back to-"

The little weirdo jumps onto her chair and grabs my collar. "How could you leave like that? When you guys left it was over!"

"Princess, please!" I hear Blossom from the doorway. Princess lets go of me and sits back down. Did she just take an order from a Powerpuff?

Blossom walks over to the empty chair across from me. "Everyone, I'd like to introduce our guest for this session." She holds her hand out towards me. "This is Butch, and I'm hoping that he'll want to join for more sessions after today."

The rest of the people in the circle all give me half-hearted greetings. Blossom then starts up again. "You see Butch, Better Understandings is a form of rehabilitation I've developed to help people who are struggling with their lives."

Oh great. The Pink Puff brought me to a damn therapy session.

We went around the room doing that stupid thing where you tell your name and crap. Blossom left me for last. "The name is Butch. I come from a long line of cross-dressing demons and crazy monkeys who try to take over the world."

"Yes um, thank you Butch." Blossom says. Obviously that's not what she wanted me to say. "Now tell me Butch, what is it that you're good at?"

There's a lot of things I could say to that. So many wonderful things that would no doubt make the Pink Puff turn as red as Brick's hat. But you know what, it's his job to piss her off. "I happen to be a champion of poker." I say.

Blossom puts on a big smile. I imagine she was expecting one of my other responses. "That's excellent Butch. But you have to be careful about gambling. Do it too much and you'll lose everything from your money to your family."

"That's for the people playing against me to worry about." I say with a grin.

I can see her gritting her teeth, trying not to frown at me. Hey I'm not made of stone.

"Hold up a minute there short stuff." I say to Princess. The stupid therapy session is finally over. I managed to catch Princess before she gets into her limo. "What were you saying about things being over?"

"Get in." She orders. I happily oblige.

"Ooo, nice." I say as I get comfortable. There's a TV and a bunch of food by the windows. Why did we never get a limo?

"You want to know what was over? You want to know what was over!" She yells at me.

I reach over and take a sandwich. "We'll you don't have to tell me right now." I say while I unwrap it.

"Everything was over!" She says as she picks up a drink. Wonder if there's alcohol in it?

She takes a gulp and continues. "You guys were the strongest in Townsville. The three of you, Mojo, and Him. The rest of us tried as hard as we could, but everyone knew that if anyone was going to beat the Powerpuffs, it was going to be you five."

"Yup, when you're the best you can forget all the rest." I said while chewing. Great sandwich. Its got bacon in it, and no crusts.

"Well that's exactly what happened. The rest of us had to quit, thanks to you lousy quitters!"

"Well why'd you do that? Just because we left didn't mean you had to stop."

"Of course it did! It completely killed moral for the entire criminal underworld! At first everyone thought you guys were hatching up some kind of super incredible evil scheme. So we waited, and waited, and waited. You never came back! We all figured, well that must be it. If the Powerpuff's greatest enemies decide to just give up, then there's really no beating those girls."

"Aw that's so sad. Too bad I don't care."

"Well you should care! Otherwise what good are you!"

"I happen to be the best, and I'm going to prove it very soon."

"You better, because if you don't, then you're nothing. The whole reason you boys were created was to kill those annoying girls. But all you did was lose, lose, lose! And I can't believe that you guys would just quit like that and admit to the world that the girls are better than you. Admitting that you're just failed experiments!"

"Alright I've had enough of you for a lifetime." I say. I fly up and punch a hole in the roof, letting myself out.

"I'm sending you the bill for this!" She yells after me.

"Good, then I'll have something to burn." I yell back.

Failed experiments, huh? God that is irritating. Big words coming out of a shrimp like her who definitely came the least close to ever beating the Puffs. Even those talking bacteria things almost got them…twice in fact! Damn, what am I even doing? I'm supposed to kill those girls, and I just spent the afternoon in a therapy session run by one of 'em! This is like what happened to the clown girl in Batman, only the other way around.

Well I've had enough of dickin' around with the Blue and Pink Puffs. I'm going to really focus from now on, and Buttercup won't know what hit her. We'll just see who loses in the end.