A/N: No more papers to write. Now I can get back to writing stories.
"Now you see her over there?" I say, pointing towards the soccer field.
Boomer moves his glazed eyes from the ground. I swear, how am I related to him again?
"The girl with the long brown hair, that's Ashley. Now she's one of those girls who's into nice, sensitive types of guys. I'm tellin' you man, to her you're gonna be Daniel Craig and Johnny Depp rolled into one."
Boomer isn't looking at her. He's lookin' at the damn cloudy sky again. Honestly, how much moody crap am I gonna have to take from him and Brick?
"Come on Boomer I'm trying to help ya here." I say, giving him a little push. "You could at least look at her. I spent a lot of time lookin' for a girl you'd be compatible with."
"What's the point?" He asks quietly.
Oh great, here come the emo responses. "Because it will make you feel better," I say. "You're not turning into one of those people who likes being miserable, are you? Like Brick?"
"No I don't mean that, I mean…we're gonna destroy this place aren't we?"
"Well sure that's the plan, but we don't have to destroy everything."
"I have a feeling we will."
We sit quietly for a few minutes. I've been trying to avoid bringing this up. It's got a lot of bad implications, after all. I mean when I think back to when we were kids, how much of a villain was Boomer? He followed me and Brick everywhere and trashed whatever we trashed, but what about when he was alone? Ever since Buttercup mentioned his supposed friendship with Bubbles, I took some time to reflect. Boomer did use to disappear from time to time when we lived here. Back then I didn't think much about it. Boomer was always the black sheep. Kid never seemed to be on the same wavelength as me or Brick.
Course with my stupid little kid brain just shrugged it off. Figured he was a sissy and there really wasn't anything more to it. I never thought he'd be out having happy-fun time with the Blue Puff. No wonder he's been depressed, she went all goth while we were gone! So where does that leave him? Is he going to kill her when the time comes? Is he going to turn on us?
I look over at his sunken head. Alright, it's time to find out where he stands. "You know Boomer, I'm wondering if maybe there's another reason why you don't want me hooking you up."
I lean closer towards him. "Maybe because you've got your eyes on another girl."
Boomer looks over at me, but doesn't change his expression.
I give him a knowing smile. "Maybe a girl who used to be similar to you, but she's changed and you can't reach her? Maybe a girl your family wouldn't approve of?"
"It doesn't matter." He says. Isn't that just the god damn statement to end all statements these days? He stands up. "Mom and Dad are going to wipe this town off the face of the earth. They're not gonna leave a single thing alive." He says, and starts to walk away.
"Oh come on!" I say after him. "You expect me to believe that's what's making you upset? Look those two aren't the end all. If there's stuff we want to keep, we'll be able to freakin' keep it."
"No we won't." I hear him barely say as he leaves. Man, what is he so worried about. He thinks our dumbass 'parents' are gonna boss us around like that? Us, the three demi gods who could beat them to a pulp when we were five? Ugh, seriously. Can't he come up with a better excuse than that?
I lie down and close my eyes. I spend some time trying to clear my head. I probably only get about five minutes of peace before all my stupid problems come flashing around in my head. First there's Buttercup. I still haven't thought of a new way to get her to fight me. I owe her for beating me in too many fights. Man, how lame would it be if we killed her and I didn't get my epic showdown? And now Boomer is becoming a problem. Well…he could become a problem. Actually…he could have been a problem. If he spent all his free time as a kid kissing up to the Blue Puff, then there's no way he'd kill her…or let us kill her. But…maybe things will work out. She's already dead inside. Might just be able to take her down without him disowning us.
Then there's Brick who I've been worryin' about for a while now. Ever since we got here he's been dragging his feet. He's all like, "I've got a plan to infiltrate Blossom's club," and I end up doing it! In fact, I don't even know what the Hell he's been doing. I should go find him. Maybe bug him for a while to go have some fun. Man, I really miss the days when the two of us would steal cars and crash parties. We were best friends…and now he's off in his own world or somethin'.
When I open my eyes, two giant blue circles are right in front of my face. I let out a little yell jump back.
Oh look who it is, Ms. Goth herself. Wearing more ridiculous clothes as usual. Some sort of white and black getup.
"Damn, you are sneaky. Couldn't even sense you there. You're like a freakin' ghost." I say with a little laugh, trying to save face.
"Where's your brother?" She asks.
I can't help but sigh and shake my head. I mean really, I knew there'd be drama at high school, I just wasn't expecting something like this to pop up.
"Listen Bubbles," I say, "I know you and Boomer had something going on back in the day. But the thing is, you and him are just on totally different levels now. I really don't think it's gonna work. I bet it was exciting when you were kids, what with the whole Romeo and Juliet thing going on, but all that family feuding is in the past. I can tell you're the kind of girl lookin' for that forbidden excitement and all, but the magic with Boomer is gone now. Its best you move on. You should go to California. I hear there are all kinds of idiots over there with dyed hair and piercings and emotional music..." I close my eyes and take a moment to stretch my arms, "…and all that crap."
She's giving me a familiar look. It's that look my brothers give me when I tell them a bad joke. That look Mojo gives me when I put banana peels on the floor right outside his door. The way Buttercup has been looking at me every time I try to strike up an innocent, friendly conversation. Expressed in one word, I'd have to go with 'not amused.' Err, make that two words.
"I meant your other brother." She says in a deadpan voice.
You know, I do spend a lot of time with other people. I go to parties, I join pick-up games, I approach cute girls, you get the picture. Admittedly there are times when I feel awkward. They're not very common, mind you, but they do happen. Course I can recover from those moments. There are methods. But you know what, I can't think of a way to save this moment. And it's really not helping that she's looking at me the way Buttercup does. I can see some family resemblance going on.
"Oh uh…I don't know, actually." I say, looking from side to side.
"Was he in school the other day?" She asks in her regular monotone voice.
I think back to yesterday. Was Brick around? Honestly it's hard to tell.
"No…he wasn't." I say. "He's so quiet these days I didn't even notice. What do ya want to know that for anyway?"
"Something strange is going on." She says quietly, more like she's talking to herself. I watch her float away towards the tree line.
Yeah, I'd say things have been strange alright.
For once I'm not in the mood to do anything during gym. Guess my mind is too distracted by my stupid brothers and our stupid counterparts. I decide to go sit near the trees away from the school. No sign of Ms. Sunshine. Bet she loves this weather. It's really cloudy and there's fog. Not super thick fog, but enough so that I can't really see what the rest of my class is doin'.
Oh, and Brick isn't around.
I wouldn't have noticed if the Blue Goth hadn't said something. Usually he just kind of sits off to the side. Now I'm wondering…how many classes has he been absent from? Really weird for him to be missing class, any class. The guy's supposed to be Mr. Super Grades and you need attendance to get those. I lean back against a tree. Maybe he gave up since Blossom isn't Ms. Super Grades.
"Hey, Butch! Up here!"
Speak of the devil, there he is! I fly up to him. Hopefully the fog will keep anyone from seeing us flying.
"Hey I was just wondering where you were. Have you been skippin' class this week?" I ask.
"Yes I have, but I've got a good reason. I found something." He says with a smile.
"Is it that magic key that lets people control the world? Cause I'd really love to try that."
"Afraid not. Come on, I'll show you."
I follow Brick as we fly higher into the air. We head further out into the forest. It's kinda hard to tell from all the fog, but I think this is the forest where Fuzzy lives. Brick flies down and we land next to a giant rock.
He easily lifts the rock, revealing a hole. Just about wide enough for three people. Brick points down, signalin' me to go in. I go in first and Brick follows as he puts the rock back over. He takes out a flashlight and turns it on. Damn, this is one deep ass hole!
"Don't make a lot of noise." Brick whispers to me. "I don't want this whole place caving in."
We start to slowly float down. Deeper and deeper we go, miles and miles underground. I got to say, I'm pretty excited to see whatever the Hell it is he's been diggin' up!
"You ever wonder where Chemical X comes from?" Brick asks me.
"Nah." I reply.
"Well you're about to find out anyway." He says as we reach the end of the tunnel.
We enter some kind of large cave. It's got those pointy things coming out of the ceiling and floor. Well you can see some of them on the floor, sticking out of all the black…liquid.
"So all of this…is Chemical X?" I ask.
"Indeed. It's the motherload." Brick says as he grins. "And don't touch any of it. Getting too much in your system is dangerous, even for us."
"What is it doing here?"
"No clue." Brick shines the flashlight around the cavern. It's pretty damn big, and flooded with Chemical X. "I don't know how it got here or how long it's been here, but it's definitely not supposed to be here. The stuff's not natural. It must have come from another world."
Brick shines the light on the ceiling. There's some of it up there too, but it's a light blue color. "It mostly stays down here. Although sometimes it drains upwards, if that makes any sense. Scientists occasionally find it, and other times it gets absorbed into a creature or an object."
"No wonder this town is so freakin' weird." I say. "How did you find it?"
"Mojo found it a long time ago." Brick explains as he floats to the ceiling. "He wanted to harvest all of it, but he couldn't find a reliable way."
"Can't believe he didn't just make us do it."
Brick takes out a weird looking bottle and spoon. "I told you this stuff is dangerous. Regular humans can't get near this much without getting sick. We can get near it, but if we touch too much, it will kill us." Brick carefully scoops some of the light blue Chemical X into the bottle and puts on the lid, which automatically locks into place. "Mojo didn't want to risk it."
Brick floats over and hands me the bottle. "Here, you can use this."
"Use it for what?" I ask, taking the bottle.
"You're still trying to get under Buttercup's skin, right? Show her this. She'll freak out and demand to know where you got it." Brick starts back up the tunnel and I follow.
We head out of tunnel and cover it back up with the rock. I lightly shake the bottle, listening to the Chemical X move around. "Weird, huh? It's like finding your long lost home or something."
"I suppose." Brick says, crossing his arms. "We're going to use this as a backup plan. Just in case things get sketchy, we can lure the Puff's down there and give them a nice dunk."
"Ha, sounds really easy for me." I say.
"Don't forget, that pool is very dangerous. One slip up and it's over." Brick says as he puts on an evil little smile.
It's funny, I haven't seen Brick this lively in a long time. He's looking' and sounding' like his old, crazy self. But wow! I look down happily at the weird, space age bottle. This is exactly the thing I need to get Buttercup to completely lose it!
Oh yes Buttercup, I'm gonna get a fight out of you yet! And then we can have a fun little science experiment. We're gonna find out how much Chemical X is too much, heh-heh!