PR 11:
Disclaimers: I don't own PPG, RRB, or any other characters associated with McCracken's work.
I really do get inspiration from the most random of things. Haha. This time I was watching my little brother while he was playing this video game with a go-cart. My first thought was of how bad ass I can imagine a go-cart or dune buggy to look. The second was that Buttercup would love scarring the shit out of Butch. So most of this chapter is dedicated to all my crazy friends because, yes, girls CAN be insane it just depends on how much insanity we decide to let you know about.
•••000•••
"Hurry up would ya? This place gives me the creeps." Buttercup cringed, purposely shuddering from her spot in the doorway. She made it a point to not step foot into Bubbles' closet. "It's worse than the malls clothing department."
"Hey, I don't see you complaining when I make all your punk or whatever clothing brand that is." Bubbles crossed her arms.
"Ok first, it's not a brand, it's a style." Buttercup mockingly imitated her sister and crossed her arms. "Second, I don't mind it that much. It's when things start getting frilly-" she pointed at a rack filled to the brim with lacy and puffy clothing of all colors to emphasize her point. "then I have a problem."
"You act like it's gonna kill you."
"Yah, she'll die of color exposure." Mitch chuckled, waltzing off towards the door, he paused to give the slightly shorter girl a strange look. "Or choke on the rainbow she tries to barf up."
He immediately ran off, the tail end of his orange shoes disappearing around the frame of the bedroom door.
"When will you let that go!" Buttercup snapped, tearing off after him.
"What was that about?" Boomer glanced at Bubbles who simply shook her head.
"Trust me. You don't wanna know." She sighed. "Well, we better get going before one of them breaks something. Most likely Mitch."
Boomer shrugged, following them out. Brick muttered complaints under his breath the whole way.
"Hey wait up!" Butch called from the back, running out from behind one of the many clothes racks as he tugged his jacket on over his rumpled shirt. "Damn it Blondie! Why are there so many buttons on this thing?"
Bubbles paused, blinking innocently at him, a wide smile on her face. "To annoy you."
"Why you little- oof-" Butch stumbled back clutching his nose. "What the fuck?"
He stepped foreword again only to kick the smooth surface of a mirror. Butch paused, reaching out and rapping his knuckles against the smooth surface.
"This way idiot." Brick called.
"Huh?" Butch spun around, looking in the opposite direction. "These stupid mirrors are confusing…"
•••***•••
"Nice of you all to join us." Mojo sat typing away at the computers, not even bothering to look up. "Now boys, I need you three to put those on again." He raised a furry hand and pointed at a empty corner of the room.
"Those what?" Boomer questioned, searching the walls for anything he might have missed. "Ah-ha!" he cried triumphantly, his fingers pressing into a paneled groove that promptly fell open.
Inside were several sets of those weird band things Blossom had made them wear on that first day. He pulled out a few, handing them off to his brothers before inspecting the one in his hands. It didn't look any different, not special in the least, but he could feel the faint trace of wiring just beneath the surface.
"Why do we still have to wear these?" Butch complained, sliding off his jacket to slip the crossed band over his chest.
"Think of it like one of those computer scanners." Mitch grinned, adjusting a bright orange checkered wristband. His voice dropped to a deep rumble as he curled his fingers like claws at them. "It's always watching you…"
"There's something seriously wrong with you." Brick deadpanned, shifting the slightest bit away from the brunet.
"It's not, what's wrong with him." Buttercup grinned. "The question is, what's right with him."
"Exact- hey!" Mitch scowled as she laughed.
"How come we have to wear these and you don't?" Boomer questioned curiously, wrapping the bands around his upper arms.
"Cause we still don't know what you guys can do." Buttercup stated matter-of-factly.
Ignoring Mitch and his incessant muttering, she walked over to Mojo's side. Facing one of the various screens she waved her hand bringing up a keyboard and began typing away.
"What are you doing now?" Butch walked up behind Buttercup, eyeing the screen in front of her as she hunched over the keys.
"You'll see." was her distracted reply as she continued typing away, pulling up several files only to down size them, all the while clicking in various numbers and letters so fast that the Ruff had difficulties keeping up.
Moments later the screen faded into a grid rotating around a central axis. Lines of various lengths snaked out of the corners of the screen bending and warping into random shapes as they converged on the center. After a few moments he was able to pick out wheels and the general body of a small vehicle spinning in the center. It didn't take long after that for him to figure out that it was a dune buggy, even though it didn't really look like any he had seen before. The body had more of a streamlined shape to it, plus the bars seemed too wide and far apart from the seats, normally dune buggies were more compact.
He was about to question her on this when Boomer popped up on her other side with that creepy, 'techie nerd' as he called it, look on his face. Boomer immediately launched into rambling questions using words Butch didn't even want to think of the meaning for. Something about animatrix and cyber nano's or some shit like that.
What's worse was that Buttercup seemed perfectly at ease during all his questions. Even responding with long explanations about what did this or that as the 3D image slowly came to life. A smaller screen popped up in the corner with a variety of weapon images then, several of which she scrolled over before making selections. Not a second later they appeared on the 3D dune buggy, fitting snuggly into the pockets of space surrounding the seats and body.
"Heavy artillery, don't you think?" Brick commented, eyeing the weapons packed into and around the little vehicle.
"You wish." Mitch smirked, folding his arms behind his head as he leaned agains the back wall. "Be grateful the girls taking it easy this time. You think I got bottomless pockets? She could sneak a whole gun shop through airport security like it was a pack of gum."
"If you all are quite done now, I would like to begin the explanation so we can get this over with." Mojo sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Contrary to what you may all believe, I do in fact have important matters to attend to afterwards."
"Alright, alright, I'm done anyway." Buttercup pressed a few buttons and closed the screens before joining Bubbles and Mitch at the back wall.
"Good. Now what you boys will be doing today is a pre-calculated exam. The levels vary depending on the color classifications. The lighter the color the easier it is to follow through." Mojo held up a finger as Brick opened his mouth, silencing anything the teen may have said as he clicked his teeth back shut. "Today it is in the green variation meaning it is of medium difficulty. There will be three standard landscapes which will be chosen by the computer at random based upon any existing data." here Mojo turned back to the screens as random areas of varying climates appeared, some showing snowy wastelands, others tropical paradises, while others still showed caves or steep mountain ranges. "The point of this exercise is to locate an enemy base camp and will test your observation skills. Once you find it you must infiltrate the camp, thereby discovering what their prime objective and purpose is for being there. Once you figure that out you will have to determine what course of action to take to complete the mission."
"Course of action meaning…?" Brick inquired, a bored yet hesitant air about him.
"Don't worry about it." Buttercup confidently crossed her arms, leaning against the door frame. "You leave that to me."
"Who died and made you leader?" Brick sneered at the raven girl.
"Well for one I know more about this than you do." She replied with an air of superiority. "And for two, I'll only take orders from one person and it sure as Hell ain't you."
Brick's gaze darkened, he wanted nothing more than to wipe that look off her face, it was irritating. He was getting seriously fed up with having to deal with all this crap being dished out at him. He was a Rowdyruff for crying out loud, his whole life had been spent doing things on his own, listening to no one but himself. The only person he even minutely followed was Mojo and that was only because he respected the chimp for creating them all those years back and helping them out when they really needed it. But respect only stretched so far before it inevitably waned and he finally snapped.
As it were he was pretty close to snapping and he would have challenged the girl had Mojo not curled his furry finger through one of his belt loops and tugged the boy back. The monkey made a soft crooning sound as he did so, trying to pacify the teen, but obviously reprimanding him at the same time.
"The green Powerpuff will be in charge of deciding the end results, she is more experienced that any of you, plus I believe that it will be a good experience for you to learn that not everything is going to go your way." Mojo eyed all three of his boys. "I have no idea what that ignorant Lobster has been teaching you for the last few years but you are no longer under his care you are under mine."
Not giving them a chance to respond, Mojo turned back to the computer, waving his hands towards the door.
"You are to travel in teams of two." he grumbled, clicking at the computer keys again. "You can choose who on the way there as I am running short on time and do not wish to hear any more squabbling."
"Oh! I choose Boomer!" Bubbles squealed, launching herself at the other blonde.
Boomer yelped at this, jumping back and attempting to hide behind Brick's larger frame. Bubbles was having none of it though. Dashing towards the red she feinted a left before jumping right and causing the other blonde to run right into her. Not missing a beat Bubbles latched herself on to his arm squeezing tight so that he couldn't get away. Boomer gulped, turning an impressive shade of scarlet as she pressed into his side.
"We have some catching up to do." Bubbles chirped, happily dragging him out of the room and down the hall, heedless of any protest he made.
'That little brat…' Mitch silently cursed the girl knowing full well that she had snatched the blonde up so that she wouldn't get pinned with one of his brothers instead. "Hey Bu-"
Mitch cut himself short as he turned to find Buttercup grinning at him mischievously from where she stood elbow resting against her own counterparts shoulder. His eye twitched just the slightest bit while he stood there glowering at his so called friend.
'Evil bitch.'
As if knowing exactly what he had just thought she grinned wider, grabbing Butch by the forearm and leading him out of the room much the same way her sister had just moments before.
"Great~" Brick rolled his eyes, half tempted to stomp his way out. "Let's just get this over with."
"Woo hoo…" Mitch cheered, not bothering to hide his lack of enthusiasm, just low enough that the red wouldn't hear he mumbled irritably. "I so don't get enough credit for this."
Zipping his jacket open Mitch dug through a random pocket. After a few seconds he pulled out a couple of pixie stick packets. Ripping the tops off all of them at once he tilted his head back and poured the mixture of colors into his mouth. Swallowing the sugar powders he grinned and dashed off ahead of the grumpy teen and down the hall.
Following the familiar corridor he ducked into the room and snatched a head set just before it hit the ground. Grinning triumphantly, he slipped it on.
"Pay up." Buttercup shot Bubbles a smug look.
"I really thought he would miss them this time." Bubbles sighed, digging a five dollar bill out of her back pocket.
"I've learned better than to ask." Boomer stated calmly, moving away from the other teens.
Butch just shrugged, he was beginning to grow used to the weird antics, learning fast that it was hopeless to try and make sense of the group. Then again, it's wasn't very hard to get used to their odd ways, he wasn't exactly in any position to talk after all seeing as he was originally made of snails.
The lights began to flicker then, a loud whirling sound echoing through the empty room.
•••***•••
"ARE ALL GIRLS INSANE OR JUST YOU AND YOUR SISTERS?!"
"I AIN'T INSANE! I JUST KNOW HOW TO HAVE FUN!"
"Fun?! YOU CALL THIS FUN? MAYBE IF I WASN'T ABOUT TO BE BLOWN TO BITS! I'D REALLY LIKE TO KNOW WHAT YOUR DEFINITION OF THE WORD IS CAUSE IT SURE AS HELL AIN'T THE SAME AS MINE!"
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, SCREECH!
"AAAAAHHH! LOOK OUT FOR THE-"
"WILL YOU STOP SCREAMIN IN MY EAR!" dirt and rocks rained down from above, the sound of explosions ringing all around them as Buttercup cut sharply to the left, narrowly missing yet another mine. "Besides I missed it by like, a mile!"
"MILE?! THAT WASNT EVEN AN INCH!" Butch shouted, trying to be heard over the roar of the wind. He clung desperately to the bars surrounding the dune buggy as if his life depended on it, and quite frankly it probably did with a driver like Buttercup. "ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US BLOWN UP?!"
Fire blazed within the confides of a canyon, ash and dirt rising in thick sheets of grey. Rugged walls vibrated with each blast, pebbles and boulders alike being shaken loose. At the bottom of the steep gorge were the two teens atop a dune buggy of dark green metal seated on a pair of sleek black chairs. Mounted on either side and atop the vehicle were what looked to be extremely advanced gating guns that seemed to be firing none stop as the crazy raven haired driver laughed psychotically.
Every blast of the machine hit their targets as the buried mines exploded in rapid succession. Rocks and bits of metal flew in every direction, some crashing into the raven haired teens hard enough to bruise.
'Why do I always end up with the crazies?' Butch bit his lip so he wouldn't scream, Ruffs don't scream, as his counterpart made another hairpin turn. Not even a second later the ground to his immediate right erupt like a geyser shooting rocks and dirt into his face. It was a good thing he still had that visor thing on, he didn't care what it was called, it kept all the crap Buttercup's driving kicked up out of his eyes. 'Speaking of driving, I am never letting her drive EVER again!'
•••***•••
Slosh, slosh, slosh.
"It just had to be a marsh didn't it?"
"Look on the bright side, at least it's not a swamp."
"Will you stop that! I know your the 'sugar' of the group but do you have to be a 'glass is half full' person? Can't you just let me complain without trying to point out a bright side in this situation THAT HAS NO BRIGHT SIDE!"
"Why do you have to be so pessimistic?"
"Why do you have to be so optimistic?"
"Well it's cause-"
"THAT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION!"
"Geez, no need to be so snippy. You should just be grateful there's nothing biting you."
"…You were saying…"
Turning around, Bubbles giggled softly. Clinging to Boomer's fingers was an odd looking fish. It wriggled back and forth as he shook his hand trying to get it to let go.
"Well at least it's not a snapping turtle." turning around, Bubbles began to walk off again. It was important to get out of the marsh, they were supposed to be in a jungle. "I found one of those last time and let me tell you, it wasn't pre-"
"AAAAHHHHH! GET IT OFF!" Boomer's sudden outburst nearly made Bubbles jump out of her skin.
Whipping around, the blue Puff nearly fell into the swamp water in a fit of laughter. Not even a minute after the statement had left her mouth, Boomer had managed to disturbe a snapping turtle. Said reptile had clamped down on the poor blondes toes and was holding on for dear life as he thrashed his foot around in pain. Bubbles couldn't really blame him, her previous encounters with the turtles weren't much better. Superhuman or not those reptiles could really bite. As much sympathy as she had she still had to laugh though. He just looked so funny.
Standing on one leg, Boomer had his arm spread out for balance, the weird fish still attached to his left hand. On his right foot was the brown colored turtle, it's beak like mouth clamped to the toes of Boomer's shoe. This in itself would have been funny but what really made Bubbles laugh was the look on Boomer's face. He looked totally and utterly shocked at what was happening and panicked, shaking his leg vigorously.
He quickly lost his balance from the action and began flapping his arms like a crazed bird. It didn't help much though as he ever so slowly fell towards the swamp water.
"Aaahh! Bubbles, help!" Boomer called out in desperation, squeezing his eyes shut.
…
"Gotcha." Bubbles giggled, catching the blue Ruff by the arms from behind.
One cobalt orb slowly opened as if he were afraid it were just his imagination and he actually had fallen in the water. Realizing he was safe, Boomer sighed in relief before tilting his head back to look up at her. He couldn't help but grin sheepishly when he noticed the bright smile on her face.
He suddenly stiffened in her grasp, eyes widening like saucers. Her smile faded replaced by confusion as Bubbles tilted her head to the side. She could swear Boomer's face was turning pink as he floundered around in her grasp. She pushed against his shoulders, shoving him upright again before he could hit the water, dislodging the critters in the process.
"T-thanks." Boomer mumbled, almost to quiet for her to hear as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head, looking everywhere but at her.
"Its ok." Bubbles slapped her happy smile back on before walking past him. "Look on the bright side, at least it was only a turtle and not an alli-mumph!"
"DON'T. You. Dare. Finish that." Boomer all but yelped, his clean hand clamping over Bubbles's mouth, effectively cutting off her sentence. "You jinxed it the last time. Im not taking any chances."
While he continued his little rant, Boomer didn't seem to notice Bubbles had gone wide eyed. Repeatedly glancing behind him, she tugged at his gloved hand. When he didn't seem to notice she yanked his hand away in a panic. Grabbing him around the waist, Bubbles tossed Boomer over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes before blitzing in the opposite direction.
"Bubbles, what are you- AAHHH! Your a jinx!" not more than a foot away was an enormous gator. It's monstrous jaws opened wide as it snapped at them. "Run Bubbles! Run faster!"
Ignoring the screaming boy Bubbles ran, her feet rising to the surface. Near stagnant water sprayed up like walls on either side of them, Bubbles's aqua blue streak flashing faintly, hair streaming behind like golden banners.
"Remind me again why we can't just fly!" Boomer sighed, relaxing now that the gator was further away.
"Because were not supposed to use 'superpowers' during practice." Bubbles huffed, growing tired of having to explain again. 'Besides, you don't even know the half of it.'
If he was this whiney after being deprived of his flying for so short a time… Bubbles definitely didn't want to be the one to break the news to the Ruffs that they would soon have to wear the same type of restrictors that she and her sisters already used. He might just go into shock.
•••***•••
"Remind me why I haven't killed you yet!"
"Cause you haven't caught me yet! Now run!"
Brick could feel his eye twitching in annoyance, an overwhelming urge to strangle the teenager in front of him. Straight from the get go he had ended up with problems, his rotten luck winding him up with Mitch, the partner from hell, for the trial.
Things just spiraled down hill from there. Instead of materializing on the ground like they should have, Brick and Mitch had started out on the branches of the tallest tree Brick had ever seen. Without the ability to fly it was a rather daunting task to reach the ground once more and true to his expectations, Mitch had slipped. Normally that wouldn't have bothered Brick in the slightest, he hardly even knew him anyway, but Mitch had dragged him down as well. Fortunately about twenty feet from the ground they landed in a mass of vines, unfortunately, getting tangled in the stringy plants.
And if that wasn't enough, directly after getting out of the tree, they had been attacked by some type of jungle cat. Not even ten minutes after that Mitch miraculously angered a-were those even supposed to be here- rhino. Followed by a troop of monkeys after getting in a fight with one over a freaking banana of all things. And now… now… he was gonna die! Brick had, had enough with the lanky teenager, the only problem was that he couldn't seem to catch him.
He'd not the slightest clue as to how the boy had done it but Mitch had caused an insanely large explosion which led to the fire they were currently running from.
"Come on man! You can do it! You can do it!" Mitch shouted out encouragingly, either oblivious or uncaring of Bricks's bubbling anger. His face curled up in an infuriating smirk. "Run, run, run!"
"You better hope I don't catch you!" Brick roared, jumping over a decaying log. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't seem to catch that damn brunet.
If he hadn't been so mad, or running for his hide, he would have stopped to think about that statement. For how could a mere human like Mitch possibly hope to keep up with, much less outrun, a superhuman. So what if he wasn't using his powers, his speed still should have been at least ten times that of this jackass. But as things were, Brick wasn't thinking about that, all he wanted was to wring Mitch's scrawny neck.
•••***•••
"Is this the kind of crap you guys do every day?"
"Most days… Damn it Butch, stop starring at my ass!" Buttercup snapped quietly, shifting to the side she threw the green eyed teen a heated glare.
"Well maybe if it wasn't so FAT I'd be able to see around it!" Butch growled back loudly.
"Shut up stupid, were in a tunnel it echoes!"
"I don't CARE if it ECHOES!" He snapped, shifting back to sit down. "We've been crawling throughout this thing for hours!"
"It's been less than twenty minutes since we left the dune buggy, and only about five since we found the tunnel." twisting in the tiny crawl space, Buttercup turned to sit beside Butch. "It should only be a bit further and we'll be inside."
By some lucky shot, the greens had found the targeted base camp. It had appeared at the border between the canyons and jungle area, in the form of a Mayan temple. The structure had been built into the side of one of the canyon walls and for all the world looked inconspicuous. If not for the surveillance camera Buttercup had spotted she might have considered driving past it. But as it were, the teens ditched the dune buggy in the thick foliage to investigate.
Closer observation revealed extensive amounts of cameras camouflaged in the area. Sentries were posted around as well, a couple having to be knocked out. Finally Buttercup had to deem it impossible to get in without detection and the two had to look for a back door.
Wo and behold, here they were, crawling through some cramped tunnel, probably lost after taking a wrong turn. Buttercup blamed Butch's constant complaining, Butch blamed Buttercup's ass for distracting him, she kicked him for starring, and he slapped said ass in retaliation. All in all, things weren't going so great.
"Hey, look at this?" Buttercup whispered, stopping abruptly at a thin crack in the wall, light filtering through it.
"Mmph!"
"Dude! What the hell!" turning as much as she could in the narrow space, Buttercup slapped him across the head before shoving him away from her thigh.
"You know, maybe if you didn't stop so fast I wouldn't a bumped into ya!" he grumbled back. "Then again, maybe if it wasn't for ASS DEL GRANDE here it wouldn't happen at all!"
"I SWEAR! If you make ONE more comment about my ass I'm gonna kill ya Rowdyruff!"
"Go ahead! I'd like ta see ya try!"
"Why you-!" clawing at the rock walls, Buttercup forced her body around to face the green eyed teen. She lounged at him, the small space leaving him no room to escape as her hands clamped down around his neck.
…
"BC?" a muffled voice weaseled its way into her angry mind. Her grip immediately loosened around Butch's throat just as he began to turn an odd shade of blue. "Is that you?"
"Mitch?" she called out experimentally, the gasping boy forgotten beneath her hands. Was she hearing things?
"Over here!" Mitch's enthusiastic voice echoed a little louder this time. "You and Butch ok?"
"Ugh…yah?" She winced slightly at the questioning squeak in her voice.
"What'd you do to my brother, Puff!" Brick's angry voice nearly shouted down the tunnel.
'Boy is he mad. Wonder what Mitch did this time.' Buttercup thought as she turned to follow their voices.
"Bro! She's tryna' kill me!" Butch called out pitifully the second she released him, he darted under and squeezed his way past Buttercup before she could whack him again.
Following after his retreating form, Buttercup stopped short. She had to clean the visor, rub her eyes, and blink a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things. 'Nope, no such luck.' Butch, like the idiot he was, was stuck in a crack in the wall. His legs flailing back and forth as he tried to worm his way through.
"Come on, come on…" he muttered, thrashing a bit more. With a loud rip, he fell onto the other side. "Freedom!"
"Idiot." Buttercup muttered under her breath. Pausing at the crack, she eyed the space wearily. She pressed her hands against the sides, a loud rumbling crunch greeting her ears confirming her suspicions. 'Greaaat…'
"Come on Puff. We ain't got all day." Brick grumbled impatiently. Buttercup could see him crossing his arms on the other side with the same old irritated scowl he always seemed to have.
'Does this guy ever loosen up?'
When Buttercup made no move to get through the crack, Mitch came to stand in front of it. Shifting a bit, he wedged himself in the space, Blocking the green Puff from view. "Ugh… BC… can you… you know… ugh… fit?" Mitch whispered as quietly as he could, hoping not to anger her, when she refused to look at him he continued. "You can't… can you?"
Cheeks flushed, Buttercup turned away. Crossing her arms she pouted quietly trying to think of how she could get through since she couldn't fit and wouldn't be able to break the walls. It wasn't that she couldn't break the walls, she could smash through them as easy as cardboard. The problem was that if she did, after confirming how stable the walls were she knew that breaking them would cause the entire wall to collapse, the resulting noise would alert the sentries who would swarm the place in no time. They still hadn't found the objective yet, she wasn't even sure if this was a retrieval or extermination mission. But either way, it was a bad idea to make a lot of noise and attract attention until then.
"You guys go on ahead." Sighing in defeat, she made herself comfortable. "Call me when you need a distraction."
"Are you-"
"Just go!" she snapped, cutting him off. "Get out a here before someone notices ya!"
"K." obviously unhappy about it but knowing better than to argue, Mitch leaned away. "Alright guys, we better get going."
"Seriously?" Butch looked at the brunet incredulously. "We're just gonna leave?"
"We have to." Mitch mumbled, displeasure obvious on his face.
Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Brick stalked off without a second glance. Mitch reluctantly trailed behind him, both disappearing from view. Waiting a moment, Buttercup leaned her face through the opening looking side to side. Sure enough, on the left side of the opening was Butch. 'What the hell is he doing?'
"Your supposed to go with them ya know."
Ignoring her, he slid down the wall sitting cross-legged beside the crack. Shifting a little he propped one leg up, resting his elbow on his knee. He fumbled around through his pockets for a moment before pulling out a dark green MP3 player and a pair of headphones. Without a single word, he popped one side in his ear before handing her the other, never once looking at her.
•••***•••
"Okay Boomer, moment of truth." Bubbles whispered, pulling her hair back she tugged her hood on, motioning for him to do the same. "Try to keep up."
Chewing on his thumb nail, Boomer pulled his hood up slowly. 'Please don't let me die…or at least don't make it painful.' Trying not to show his fear, Boomer followed after Bubbles wishing, not for the first time, to be able to fly again.
Backs pressed against jagged stone walls, the two blues inched along a narrow ledge. Now he was never one to fear heights, flying accustomed him to heights that made skyscrapers look like ants, but the very thought of slipping and falling now made him queasy. Sharp stalagmites jut out of the ground ready to skewer them if they made a single mistake. Water dripped from above making the rock slick and slippery.
"There's a jump coming up- you know… now that I think about it we never assigned you guys code names…" Bubbles mumbled quietly. "Well I'm just gonna call you blue till then ok."
Boomer just nodded absently, not really hearing what she was saying. Shifting slightly, Bubbles leaped across the eroding rocks to the ledge on the other side. Shuffling farther along she paused to wait for him, probably making sure he didn't fall. Taking deep steady breaths to calm his nerves, Boomer took a flying leap across the opening.
"Yes! I did- woah!" A strangled shout burst from his throat as the rocks crumbled beneath his feet.
"Shoot! Boomer!" Hands moving like lightning, Bubbles grabbed the front of Boomers jacket and yanked him back against the wall. Slapping her arm across his chest she plastered him to the rock. "…You ok?"
Fingers gripping into the solid stone, Boomer slowly nodded his head shakily. After a few moments Bubbles began moving again, Boomer inching after her. The lights in the cavern brightened the further they went until it filtered through a tunnel… a tunnel on the opposite ledge.
"Great… what else can go wrong?" Mumbling under his breath, Boomer glared down at the width of the gorge separating them from the tunnel. 'How the heck are we supposed to cross that?'
They couldn't fly, much to the blondes irritation, and there wasn't enough room to jump. Boomer was just about to start grumbling to Bubbles when he noticed her digging through her pockets. Showing amazing balance, she leaned forward off the ledge and grabbed what looked like two short metal pipes from her pants leg pockets. Sliding them together, they clicked, locking in place before she unzipped her jacket. From somewhere inside she pulled what looked like a spearhead and locked it into the metal pieces in her hand.
Finishing in about half a minute, Bubbles held what looked like a double headed spear. The two spear tips had three prongs with hooked edges. The handle was about a foot long, just wide enough for both hands to hold.
"Bubbles… what's that for?" Boomer questioned, eyeing the device.
"Its Aqua right now, not Bubbles, Aqua." Bubbles replied absently. Lifting the spear to eye level, she aimed it towards the tunnel across from them. "And you'll see in a second."
With a soft click a puff of smoke burst from the pipe end, the spear head rocketing out like a silver bullet. An audible crack echoed from the rock wall upon impact. Boomers enhanced vision allowed him to see the prongs on the spear snap out like a grappling hook, locking it into the wall. It was then that he noticed the wire-like rope attached to it.
Slipping her hand into a crack in the wall, Bubbles tugged on the rope a few times, making sure it held. Satisfied, she lifted the device above her head and pressed it against the wall. With a snap it locked in place and she tugged on the rope again for good measure.
"Hope you can balance Blue."
"Balance… why do I need balance?" Boomer questioned cluelessly.
The answer to his question came as Bubbles grabbed on to the long rope and pulled herself up. Like an acrobat she twisted her body coming to a handstand on the rope before dropping her feet down over her back. From there she shifted her weight onto the fore front of her feet and stood up straight on the rope. All Boomer could do was gape, his jaw hanging wide in awe at the way the petite blonde could move.
Without so much as lifting her arms for balance, Bubbles moved casually across the rope. Her hands clasped behind her back as if she were strolling through the park instead of walking across a tightrope suspended above a pit of jagged rocks. Once she reached the other side, Bubbles hopped delicately down into the open tunnel.
"Well, what you waiting for Blue? Come on."
'Im gonna die.' Was the last thought to cross Boomers mind before he hoisted himself up onto the rope. He didn't even bother trying to stand as he inched his way to the other side.
•••000•••
Hiya! This chapter just kinda appeared randomly. I actually had it sitting around waiting to be finished for quite some time. And before anyone asks the fight between the greens was just pure randomness that spouted from a stupid argument me and my best friend had.
I'd also like to apologize for taking such a long time to update. I'm currently experiencing a particularly bad case of writers block with random bursts of inspiration in between. To be honest I'm still very upset with this chapter. I wanted to add more to it like what happened with the blues or greens when they first arrived but I just couldn't write it, I even had a scene in mind of the greens squabbling over who would get to drive but I just couldn't seem to put it on paper. I did post up a one shot during that time though, it's called 'Socks' check it out if you can.
Anyways I'd like to ask that you help me out with some ideas or maybe stories that you've enjoyed, even songs if possible, anything that might get me out of this funk.
Also as an incentive to try and get more people to review, since none of these chapters have names I'm leaving it to you guys to try and come up with them if you want to. You don't have to but if someone leaves a chapter name I'll post the first ones I receive, whether it be by actual review or a pm.
Thanks for reading, please leave a review so I can try to improve. ^_^