Blossom had flown with Butch for a short period of time. The air felt colder than usual. She was not sure what that robot was after. All she knew was that it was tough, and one glance at her green acquaintance showed how bad that fight went in their favour. He was visibly upset, looking ready to grab the first car he could see and throw it as far as he could. She knew he could get angry, but she had never seen any of the rowdyruffs in this mood before. Butch didn't even know why he was following her. His chest was hurting and neither of them were able to fight each other right now. He felt depressed and angry for losing to some robot that came out of the blue.
"We're here," Blossom chimed that they were at their destination. Butch saw that familiar two-story house with the nicely tended garden. They landed at the front of the door. He knew where they were.
"Ugh… why are we at your place?" Butch quirked. He held his chest, going into another coughing fit before feeling the pink powerpuff pat his back. This was the Utonium household, the powerpuffs' home. She never imagined herself ever bringing a rowdyruff boy here, but he had saved her life and she had endangered his. The least she could do to make up for it was to get him help for his injury. She led him inside, where the living room seemed empty, but they could see the white couch, the coffee table in front of it and the television across from that. The house had a nice calm atmosphere to it, Butch seeing the various family pictures dangling on the walls. Blossom however didn't see her sisters anywhere, assuming that Buttercup and Bubbles were probably looking for her right now.
"We need to see the professor," Blossom stated they needed to talk to her creator, though when she said it aloud, she didn't know how her father would react to seeing a known enemy right beside her. She led the raven haired boy over to the couch, helping him lay down on it and giving him one of the small pillows to rest his head on.
"Thanks…" Butch groaned. He was drained, and the depression he was suffering from showed a lot more now that he was tired. He just looked horrible. When she tried to take a quick examination of him. He had bruises all over his face and arms, and his knuckles were bloody and damaged. She hoped that broken rib wasn't too bad. She hadn't completely lowered her guard in case of her own safety. Butch though didn't seem to have any hostility right now towards her. She didn't have the faintest idea why she was being so nice either. Even if he saved her life, it didn't make up for all the past brawls the two triplets had been having for so long.
"Don't mention it. I'm going to go get the professor. Just try and relax," Blossom insisted the green ruff try to relax. She got no response from him. He really had lost his spirit. She left the living room and headed for another nearby door that was wide open. Within it, there was a stairwell that lead down to the basement.
"Professor! Are you home?" the powerpuff leader called out, hearing the sounds of a drill digging into a sheet of metal, a good enough answer for her. She climbed down the steps to the basement of her home. The basement was full of various items and junk, including a small board full of blueprints and sticky notes of ideas, and there were chemicals and beakers lying everywhere. It was her father's laboratory. She found him not too far away, trying to drill some bolts together for his latest invention. He stopped when he saw her.
"Oh hi, Blossom. Welcome home," her father greeted. He was wearing a white coat and had short black hair, and he was quite tall in size. He was Professor Utonium, the creator of the powerpuff girls, though it was an accident. Sugar, spice, everything nice and an accidental splash of Chemical X was how the three came to be. Accident or not, he was happy to have them as his daughters. They all had been through quite a lot together. The professor worked at home, making inventions for Townsville. He was funded by various sources as result. Just a second after greeting his child, the professor looked horrified to see her. She looked like a mess. Her face had bruises all over it and her arm had blood covering it along with the burn wound from where she and Butch cauterized her injury.
"Blossom! What happened?!" the professor fearfully asked while picking his little girl up and resting her on the counter. He was the closest thing to a doctor that the powerpuffs had. Other researchers classified him as the chemical X expert because of his knowledge. The orange haired girl felt embarrassed to gain this attention from him, having forgotten her own wounds up until now.
"There was this robot that I couldn't beat. Bubbles and Buttercup are probably still in town handling another problem," Blossom claimed while he examined her. He was already doing his best to clean and disinfect her injuries.
"A robot?" he repeated, finding it a little hard to believe as the extent of her injuries suggested otherwise. He sighed in relief, finishing cleaning the blood off her arm. Once he did, he grabbed her wrist, making her extend her arm to see if she had alright muscle function. She was used to this routine. He had done it before multiple times whenever the puffs got gravely injured.
"Yeah. It was weird. I've never seen a robot like that before. There's someone else upstairs who needs your help too," Blossom stated, the professor letting go of her arm. Everything seemed fine, but he just wished she was more cautious with her own physical health, seeing how she treated the piercing wound with her own heat vision. Her father looked confused. If Bubbles and Buttercup were in town, he wondered who this visitor was that he could help. His daughter floated off, the counter leading her creator upstairs to the living room.
"Is that Butch?!" the professor asked, awestruck, seeing the spiky haired boy sprawled out on his couch. Butch shot him an annoyed glare. He didn't need a sound induced headache added to all his other problems. This wasn't the first time they met. The ruffs had kidnapped the professor on several occasions, and if they hadn't done it, their own creator would take him hostage as well. It was, by extension, a super powered family feud.
"Hey there, old man…" Butch smirked, giving a comment about the ever aging professor. He was more wondering why one of the rivals to the powerpuffs was in his home, let alone resting on his furniture.
"Blossom what's going on?" the professor requested an explanation. He was visibly not happy with this. She knew he would be upset upon seeing the green ruff, but she didn't care. She had to take responsibility for the injuries she had brought upon him in the fight. She was glad the ruff seemed to be holding back on his verbal abuse, but that might be because of his depression.
"He saved my life, professor, and I think I broke one of his ribs, but I'd be as bad as any other villain if I just left him there to die," Blossom explained her reason why she brought one of their mortal enemies here. It was almost like a minor peace pact due to the robot ruining their fight. Professor Utonium looked at the young boy in a little disbelief.
"I'm proud of how far you're willing to go to help people… good or bad," the professor exclaimed that he was glad his daughter had no intentions of letting the simple term evil get between being a hero, saving lives and helping people. All three powerpuffs did their best to help everyone, though Blossom in particular tended to stick her neck out a little too much when it came to helping. She knew the risks and her father was proud as he could be. He went over and picked up Butch.
"Hey! I'm not two, I can walk!" the spiky haired boy growled, not taking kindly to being held like an infant. It seemed like everything in the world was out to try his patience today.
"I'll make sure he's fine. You try and rest," Professor Utonium told his daughter. Butch got a little angrier at being ignored, but he didn't have any strength left in him, pouting as the scientist carried him downstairs to examine him and make sure the injuries were treated. Blossom felt better, knowing he will be in good hands. She sat down on the couch, beginning to go over her own thoughts. She hadn't stopped thinking about that robot, not for one second. She couldn't figure out why most of their attacks did nothing to it. That was another topic to talk over with her entire family.
Blossom looked at her arm that had been wounded earlier by the impalement. It throbbed in pain, just thinking back on that moment. She waited patiently for the professor to tend to Butch, barely noticing how fast the time seemed to pass by.
"Hey! Earth to Blossom! You awake?" she heard with the sound of fingers snapping. She got snapped out of her trance. She saw Buttercup standing there. She had a black eye and a good share of cuts and bruises of her own. Bubbles was sitting nearby, but she looked the least hurt out of them all.
"Oh hi, Buttercup. Sorry, I was thinking," Blossom apologized, not intending to overlook them like that. She felt bad whenever she went into those trances of deep thought.
"Are you alright? How did your fight go?" Bubbles chimed worriedly. The way she was acting, something was wrong. It made her worried that she had lost to her opponent. For the other powerpuff girls, they had another stalemate against Brick and Boomer, but they had spent the last hour searching for their leader since she and Butch had been separated from the groups during the brawl.
"We didn't fight much. A robot got in the way and ruined it," Blossom said. She was starting to understand how Butch felt. The way they lost to the robot was demoralizing, though she knew they had been fighting half crippled and not at full strength.
"Mojo helping the ruffs?" Buttercup inquired if it was the rowdyruffs' creator who had a hand in the robot assault. The pink puff shook her head.
"No. Mojo Jojo could never make a robot that good. We couldn't even dent it. Our attacks were worthless, no matter what we did," she admitted. If it was the monkey behind it, he either had improved dramatically or had gotten help. Both scenarios were ridiculously unlikely. The blonde girl tilted her head.
"We?" Bubbles wondered what their leader meant, seeing her pink eyes focus on her. Before she could say anything, they saw their father come upstairs. He seemed happy, though that expression went away seeing his hurt children.
"Welcome home, Bubbles and Buttercup. Blossom, your friend is fine and recovering," the professor informed Blossom. She was relieved, flying up so she could wrap her arms around him. Buttercup had the pieces put together, and she wasn't happy to discover it.
"Don't tell me…" Buttercup saw her green counterpart climbing out of the stairwell behind the professor. Bubbles already hid behind the sofa and Buttercup was ready to assault him already. Blossom got in between them.
"Stop! Stop!" she demanded. Butch looked a lot better. It turned out he didn't have a fully broken rib, but a few were cracked because of that battle. The green powered children kept their gazes on each other. Professor Utonium hated situations where he was in the middle of a fight about to break out.
"Why should I?! You have to be some kind of idiot to help him-" Buttercup got punched by her leader. She had hit her directly in the chest and sent her back a few steps. That insult had triggered her anger. She wasn't in the mood to fight her sibling. They had disagreements quite a lot, but whenever Blossom was the first to get aggressive in the matter, that was a bad sign.
"I'm not going to fight with you! He saved my life and I owed him the help. End of discussion," Blossom panted. Butch found himself in an awkward position. Did saving her life really balance out how she felt toward him, or was this a temporary thing? Butch couldn't decide what the answer was. Buttercup's teeth were grinding, more than aware of how their leader's mood was right now. She began to head toward the steps to go upstairs.
"I'm going to lay down," the green puff stomped off upstairs. The professor was relieved that things had calmed down. His children always sorted their issues out, so it would pass on its own. He took a seat in the lone chair nearby, Blossom sitting back down. Bubbles was uncomfortable, but she tried to relax since the rowdyruff was being nice right now. Butch knew he was out numbered, so that discouraged any bad thoughts he had for the time being.
"…thanks, Blossom," Butch forced out. He owed her thanks for what she did for him. She smiled in return.
"It's the least I could do. But we have a bigger issue," she responded, trying to focus the topic on the robot that they had encountered. She went into detailing, and describing what exactly happened. Bubbles became more afraid, the more she heard. The way Butch described the robot wasn't pleasant. In fact, he made it out to be some walking death machine that ate people.
"This does sound troubling… and you're sure it was looking for something?" the professor asked, his daughter nodding.
"Half the time it looked like it didn't even wanna fight us!" Butch complained. That annoyed him more, the way the robot tried to just ignore them at first.
"I'm glad you both are safe," Bubbles stated. She didn't know what she would do if she lost her sister. She doubted anyone of the family would be able to get over the loss. The atmosphere was awkward. An old nemesis was sitting nearby, being friendly. Bubbles however liked it. She always believed that they could be nice if given the chance, but everything seemed to be a power struggle lately. She wanted to enjoy the peace while it lasted.
"I'm afraid no one's safe until that robot is disposed of. Did you get a piece of it? Anything at all?" Professor Utonium requested if they had any shards of the robot. Butch rolled his eyes.
"Sorry, we've got nothing. We weren't able to even dent it! What's it matter anyway?" Butch reminded that they had done nothing to it.
"If you had a piece of it, anything from it, I could examine it and maybe figure out why neither of you could hurt it," the professor explained, that if they had anything at all, it could potentially be of great use to countering the robot and any others that followed it. Since someone created that machine, it was safe to assume there were more like it. Butch got out of his chair.
"Alright! Let's go then!" he grinned, Bubbles and Blossom looking to each other nervously.
"Go where?" the blonde girl requested, wondering what the black haired ruff had in mind, seeing him crack his knuckles.
"We're going to go hunt down and scrap that machine!" he exclaimed proudly. He wanted revenge, and he proclaimed it loud and clear. Blossom though stood up.
"No way! It almost killed us both! Even if we brought Bubbles and Buttercup, how do you know it'll go any better? We don't even know where it is!" Blossom countered, stating everything that could go wrong. Even if they did find it out of luck, if two powered children couldn't handle the robot, what would four do?
"Did I say I cared? I'll go destroy it myself if I have to. I'm not going to sit here and wait while it gets away," he said, not wanting to lose the chance they had to find it, if it was still at the storage facility or at the very least in the area around it.
"Then you're being a suicidal lunatic!" she got closer, the two's heads clashing with intense glares burning into each other's eyes.
"What if we get Boomer and Brick?" Bubble's sweet voice called out, causing them to stop arguing. They all looked at her. The professor seemed to agree.
"As much as I'd hate to have them anywhere near you girls… Bubbles is right," the professor recommended while patting Bubbles's back, thankful that she stopped that fight.
"I don't think the other ruffs are going to be as… reasonable as Butch," Blossom put it nicely. The green ruff however seemed to just be going with any idea that sounded worthy of helping get the robot scrapped.
"Yeah, Brick and Boomer are idiots, but they'll listen to me! …I'll go get them and bring them over," Butch agreed before heading for the door. Bubbles was already terrified and the other rowdyruffs weren't even there. She didn't know whether to be proud of her own idea, or unhappy that they were going to have to attempt hard negotiations with their counterparts.
"We'll be here," Blossom said, seeing Butch open the door before he flew off, leaving a dark green streak of light behind him. Blossom plopped back down onto the couch, feeling drained herself. She hated arguing so much, but there were just days where she couldn't avoid it. All the family could do now was wait and hope that Butch could get his brothers to come with no resistance.