Blossom and Buttercup seemed to lose all color in their cheeks, as they dared a glance through a window.
There were at least hundreds if not thousands upon thousands of discontented, angry people bunched together outside the building, united in their wrath as they stood shouting and screaming.
Bubbles who had already seen the damage caused earlier, was more robust. Her campaign involving little more than posters and a hastily constructed website had gone better than she ever expected. Too well perhaps since she had never intended to cause the collateral amounts of damage she had seen on her way here. But perhaps this did indeed show that she was not alone in her crazy beliefs.
And that did give her comfort, to know that she was indeed right in thinking that the city wanted mayor gone and that a little push was all that it needed to bring everyone who mayor had let down, back to their senses.
"You need to go down and talk to them Mr Mayor" instructed Bubbles, ignoring the worried moans that the short man cowering under the desk was making "it's the only way."
"B, but what if they, they hurt me." the terrified man managed to stammer in reply, his hands covering his face.
"They won't if you go down and tell them you're sorry." insisted Bubbles firmly, and seriously "But if you don't, you'll just make everyone more angry and even we won't be able to help you then."
"Bubbles is right" Blossom reluctantly put in "Those citizens are our responsibility as well, and we can't just put them in danger to help you Mayor. You need to do what she said."
Mayor very slowly stopped shaking, and weakly managed to struggle to his feet. He bowed his head forlorn, all hope now gone from his child like eyes.
"Please no." he begged turning to Blossom, the one he took to be the most understanding. "Please help me. Anything but that."
"I'm afraid we can't help you Mr Mayor" sighed Blossom shaking her head slowly "If we interfere any more, we might make those people even more angry and we can't do that."
"And Bubbles is right about you being a selfish Meanie" chimed in Buttercup abruptly "It's time to face up to what you've done Mayor. It's time."
Mayor looked once more at the three girls, sifting for any sign of sympathy with the plight he now found himself in. He found none, as all three girls sat staring at him like three stone statues. He quietly whined, and uttered a desperate "please". Their looks didn't change.
Mayor sighed, and walked to the window to look at the crowd once more, not caring if they looked back at him or not since they knew he was here.
He saw them glaring angrily back at him, three large men restraining a helpless Ms Bellum who made no attempt to break free of their embrace. A slight glance upwards told him that she knew too that he was in there, but then she quickly averted her sight from him, demonstrating through mime that she could not help her boss as much as she would have liked to.
Taking one last look that was neither friendly nor unfriendly at the three girls who now sat together on three wooden chairs by the wall, he wearily trudged out of his office without shutting the door behind him.
The three girls stayed still, their eyes fixed to the doorway from where he left, and did not move again until the sounds of his footsteps as he lumbered down the stairs had finally died away.
Blossom and Buttercup turned to Bubbles with ashamed and ashen expressions to open their mouths to apologize and ask their younger sister for forgiveness. But Bubbles nodded understandingly before either got the chance. She nodded and gently smiled, her soft grin saying all that she needed to say.
She forgave her sisters despite their lack of understanding and empathy with her, and for being so stubborn and difficult to convince.
She still loved them, since they were sisters and sisters watched each other's backs even if they didn't always agree with each other. And as long as they started taking her more seriously instead of always selling her ideas short, she would still love them as always. Especially since now they saw that some of her ideas held sense.
Buttercup was first to turn away from her sister, as she put her arm to her head as she closed her eyes to reflect on everything that had happened today.
Though she still felt that Bubbles had been a bit extreme when she seemed so willing to forgive so many of their old adversaries, she did begin to grasp what Bubbles meant when she had told them time and time again that fighting might not be the best approach.
She had not been blind to the carnage and bloodshed caused by the revolution incited by Bubbles's rhetoric, nor the secret unease she felt when she saw police officers seized by the neck and beaten to the ground by angry citizens who had grown tired of all this and were ready to lay down their lives fighting for what they believed in. Mr Mayor had not done his people justice in sending armed guards to patrol the city at a time when negotiations should have been the solution instead.
So many lives lost because of one man's fear and refusal to listen to what his critics had to say about him. So much needless violence started because of feelings that had stayed hidden for far too long. So much noise and clamor because the mistreated citizens had held their silence for too long.
To think that all this was the result of not listening to their sister sooner. To think they just left her to wallow in her own misery, when they could have helped instead.
A new emotion surged through Buttercup as she kept her eyes closed, refusing to cry. An emotion she had not felt in a long time.
She couldn't figure out what exactly it was, but it wasn't good. And she certainly didn't feel comfortable with herself in that moment as the noise outside finally began to die down.