Bubbles rolled her eyes, and shook her head sadly as her two sisters stood staring her down, like a wolf staring down its soon to be meal. Blossom's painful frown and Buttercup's clenched teeth were so hard to look at and so hard to resist.
Words could not begin to describe the torrent of helplessness that began to wash over Bubbles as she shifted her gaze between the very surprised mayor and her two very upset siblings who were clearly not amused with this mischief she had caused.
Her earlier courage and motivation to go ahead with her plan despite everything, she felt draining away as her sisters continued to look at her without a word.
It was the red haired Blossom, who eventually broke the icy silence that had ensued when she and Buttercup had stormed in on the tense confrontation between her sister and Mayor, clearly not caring that she had interrupted what was an important conversation for Bubbles at least.
"How could you do this Bubbles?" she asked, looking through Bubbles rather than at her directly "How?"
"This isn't cool Bubbles. This isn't." added Buttercup, soft but dangerously.
Bubbles wasn't pleased. She knew that to her sisters, she would never really be taken seriously. She had tried being serious before and it had never worked. Why should she expect it to now, she didn't know.
"You're scaring Mr Mayor" remarked Blossom, looking at the shocked and wordless man with an air of concern "Why are you doing this Bubbles?"
"You better start spilling the beans, or its not gonna be pretty for you." chimed in Buttercup.
Bubbles looked once more at Mr Mayor, who had so far listened in silence to her sisters and was clearly looking to them for help.
Then she turned her attention back to Blossom, and scowled. She had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but if Buttercup wanted her to spill the beans so badly, she would get what she wanted. It was now or never anyway.
"I know more than you think I do Blossom." she began, speaking slowly and clearly so that not a word she said would be missed "I'm not a baby. I know things."
Blossom looked puzzled.
"But you don't listen to me Blossom. You and Buttercup don't listen to me. You always think that you know better, and that nothing I say matters. At least that's how you make me feel."
Blossom's hard eyes softened a little at that, and Buttercup frowned slightly. It was clear they had not expected any of these things to be said and that they were instead expecting some story about why their beloved sister had gone crazy and gone to town with half the city, no pun intended.
"Don't you understand by now what I mean?" asked Bubbles, spreading her arms wide "Don't you see what Mr Mayor did today to make me this upset?"
"What did he do?" Blossom brought herself to quietly ask. "Those people outside are criminals trying to put others at risk."
"What people outside?" asked Mr Mayor suddenly not liking the way this was turning out. He cared not a whit about this outlandish argument between the three siblings, but the mere mention of dangerous criminals outside brought him back to his senses.
Bubbles glared sadly at Blossom and shook her head. "No. They're not criminals Blossom. They're sad and misunderstood people that Mr Mayor treated badly. All they want is to be listened to and noticed, but Mr Mayor doesn't want to listen to what they have to say."
She closed her eyes against moistness "And now you and Buttercup don't want to listen either because you think you know better. Because you think you're right and I'm wrong. You think your sister's wrong and you don't care about your sister. You don't care about me. You don't!"
"Wait, wait hold up Bubs" exclaimed Buttercup, her voice surprisingly mild and gentle despite the clear offense Bubbles expected she must have caused with these snide comments "What makes you think we don't care about you? Of course we care about you."
Bubbles avoided the urge to back down. Buttercup had no idea how long she had waited to hear those words from either her or Blossom. She was beginning to wonder if they would never tell her that despite all the scrapes they had been through despite their relationship as sisters born on the same day, that they did still care for her after all.
They certainly had an odd way of showing it. With how long they had been treating her as a immature child who didn't understand anything, and was therefore not worth taking advice from, this comment simply didn't belong anymore. Especially not from the rough and prickly Buttercup who seldom liked to admit to mistakes and wrongdoings since she was determined to keep a tough image.
"If you really love me as your sister, you'll listen to me." ordered Bubbles firmly, realizing she could not show weakness even if her sisters felt regret. "You'll listen to what I have to say and you'll understand that I had a good reason to do all this. Or at least try to understand."
Buttercup grunted gently, but said no more while Blossom prompted Bubbles with a soft "go on.". She looked at Bubbles no longer as a teacher might look at a misbehaving student but as a true and honest friend genuinely regretful of another's wounded feelings.
Bubbles once more perused the two girls and the trembling elderly man before her, checking that each of them had given her their undivided attention once and for all.
Then she began her long and lengthy explanation, taking frequent glances back at her listeners periodically to ensure their concentration remained on her.
She delivered a brief but informative speech about all the criminals in the city, and how they made the city an even more unsafe place than it already was when monsters from that island somewhere far away kept attacking the city.
She explained how many of them however, had only sunk to the level they were at when they were deprived of certain things that any decent person with a heart would have, or should have unconditionally granted them anyway.
Using the well known and notorious beggars known all too well as "the Gangreen gang" she elaborated on her earlier point that Mr Mayor had indeed been negligent of the going on's in his city. Issues like Racism, poverty and inequality were too easily shrugged away under Mr Mayor's rule.
Using the incident of when some of the monsters had been forced to vacate their island to live in Townsville, she continued by pointing out how xenophobic each citizen had become and how any attempt at that long awaited truce she had waited too long for would never succeed as long as that attitude remained.
"Those are evil monsters. We have every right to be afraid of..." Buttercup began, but Bubbles quickly held up a hand for silence.
The spotlight for once was on her, the naive and stupid one according to them. She was not determined to let that go quickly.
The xenophobia didn't stop at the monsters who were quite rightly a threat, Bubbles continued to point out. It extended to other cases such as the earlier mentioned Gangreen gang who were mistreated solely because of the color of their skin. The color of their skin and almost nothing else. The crimes they did commit to warrant any scorn happened later.
Blossom covered her mouth. She never thought of it that way.
Bubbles moved onto her next important point choosing her words carefully. Her point being that any security guards or defenses the city ought to have by now were weak and small. And how three girls, however well trained, loyal to the city, or powerful could not hope to contain the threats alone. Especially since one of the key reasons that the monsters attacked in the first place was to draw the girls out for a fight.
A fight where if a monster happened to win or survive, they would return to their island hailed as a hero by their kind. So it stood to reason that if the city had other defenders, the monsters might eventually see less reason for attacking.
"So what you're saying is that somehow all of this is Mr mayor's fault?" asked Blossom, as Bubbles allowed her sister a brief moment of silence expecting a question at exactly that moment.
"There's more to it than that, but yes" was the slow, and thoughtful reply. "But I'm not finished yet Blossom. I'm sorry."
Blossom's eyes continued to widen as she wondered if this really was the same Bubbles sitting before her, telling her these deep and wise things that even she as the team's leader had trouble seeing even by now. This seemed like a completely different person, but perhaps it really was because she had never tried taking Bubbles as seriously.
If the citizens couldn't even together and set aside their differences, stated Bubbles wistfully, then there was no way that they could ever hope to overcome the bigger problems the city still had. There was no point in fighting each other when they already had these crazy monsters to deal with on their hands.
It wasted time, it made it easy for the monsters to storm in uninvited but most of all it was cruel and senseless. Why not embrace friendship and love, when they made the world a so much better place than hatred and resentment?
"You still haven't pointed out how all this is Mr Mayor's fault you know." said Buttercup, when Bubbles eventually stopped speaking to show she was finished.
"Then look around you. Look at all this expensive and high end furniture in this office" remarked Bubbles, now beginning to lose patience with her sisters for not yet seeing her point "Then look at how rundown and poorly built a lot of the other buildings in this city are and you'll see what I see."
Buttercup looked to Blossom. Blossom looked back.
Each were at a loss of the words their clever and astute sister had snatched from their lips.
"See how many people die hungry in the streets. How many people don't even have a job. Don't you get it yet?"
Blossom and Buttercup kept their eyes fixed on each other. Their sight began however to dart at the shocked and shivering man who by now was beginning to take step after step backwards towards his desk.
"If it wasn't for Mr Mayor, a lot of the bad people wouldn't be there. Think about it Blossom. You know it makes sense. Think of how many bad people we've fought who only turned bad for a reason."
A torrent of nasty memories flooded back to Blossom and Buttercup as image after image of many of the criminals they had taken on over the years came to them.
There was of course the Gangreen Gang who were as Bubbles put it, simply desperate for some money so that they didn't starve to death. But there was so much more.
What about that other woman, her name which they'd forgotten. Had she simply not turned to the criminal life when... because, because of sexism. Because she was sick and tired of how like many other places, men were treated with so much more respect and kindness than women? That was a problem they had to admit now, and it was difficult saying that when they themselves were not men.
Or was that just an excuse she had made up on the spot? It didn't matter. Either way this was a problem.
Of course they remembered Princess. The things they did to her that day even if she hadn't given a good first impression, they really did seem a bit cruel and excessive now that they thought about it. Perhaps they really should have at least given her more of a chance to prove herself after all. She might even have been a valuable ally.
But overriding all of those less well remembered thoughts, was Mojo Jojo. Once the professor's loyal assistant who had even had a hand (if only by accident) in their creation which surely would have ended in failure without his help. In short, he was no less than the equivalent of a second parent to all three girls.
But just how had they treated their second parent and the three rivals who should have been their direct siblings, they preferred not to even think on.
Bubbles had taught them two valuable lessons today. And one of those was that had they not been so eager to pick a fight with each and every shady character they set eyes on, they might have had far fewer enemies who wanted the three protectors of the city dead.
But these thoughts were interrupted as the loud voice of a man came through the still open window. Judging by how strangely quiet it had grown outside otherwise, it was clear he was speaking for the large crowds that Blossom and Buttercup only now began to pay heed to.
"We can see you in there Mr Mayor." came the loud and furious screech. "Come out now, or we'll make you."
This was followed by many more cries and bellows which seemed to agree with the first voice.
Mr Mayor cowered under the table, as he continued to shake in even more fear now. He didn't want to leave now or ever.
Can't think of what to write here as an author's note. But thanks once more for reading and please, a nice comment down in the comment section would be good for support after all the effort put into this chapter.