Hello everybody! I'm finally back! First off, a THREE WEEK LATE UPDATE. I'm seriously disappointed with myself and I'm so sorry. You guys have been amazing during my time of un-inspiration. Secondly, this was a bad chapter in all honesty. It doesn't measure up to my usual standards, I wrote it completely uninspired, and it had another half of it but, again, I was too uninspired to write more than a half-baked attempt at it... I will be combining them in my next update, though, I hope, and I still can't believe you guys are still with me even after all of my shenanigans. Especially you, silent readers! Please, feel free to comment and review, I can take it :). Anyways, a huge thank you to CandyLuv99, GoofballGirl, and Tyrell97 so much for favoriting me! And another thanks to Ash141, BlueSakura1999, CandyLuv99, DoNotDistract, FlyingMintBunny89, GoofballGirl, The Darkeon Flash, and Tyrell97 for following me. And as always, a HUGE thanks to CandyLuv99 for always commenting! You always make my day :). Now on with the story!

"Everybody, out! Through the tunnels!"

She snapped out of her crazed state of mind at the hoarse sound of the blonde man's voice. Way to go, Adams, she internally cheered as she stood up calmly. There's a reason why you and your family's not dead. She approached the railing and swung her body on top of the rail, her back facing the outside.

"I'm coming down," she called, not looking at the ground. She let herself plunge.

Eh, jumping is risky and all, but not even looking before I free-fell? BC's going to kill me.

"Shit!" She vaguely heard some cussing below her before she felt a hard thump as she reached her destination.

"Are you trying to kill me? Or better yet, kill yourself? 'Cause you seem to be doing a great job at both." A sarcastic, biting voice came from above as she finally opened her eyes. Pink eyes focused onto deep forest green ones, and a smile lifted onto her face.

"My hero." She bestowed a sloppy kiss on the scowling man's cheek as she clambered out of his arms. He just snorted in response.

"More like your executer if you don't hurry your butt out of here before BC sees you –"

"There you are! Get off my boyfriend. Or better yet, stop jumping off roofs."

"- Too late." He gave her a sympathetic smirk then turned to his beloved.

"Hey, babe, I was just escorting Miss Blossom over here –"

"Shove it," She snarled, "Blossom, come on, we need to get you out of here," the brunette gestured towards the building chaos in the room. People were almost fighting to get to the cleverly concealed hatches on the different sides of the room. The pulsating panic of the crowd was masked by the practiced run-and-gun calm of the mafia. Barely. Blossom would rather not be there when the skillfully constructed composure came crashing down. But.

"No." Her father was out there. No matter how illogical, she was not willing to allow the captain to go down with his ship. He was all she had left.

Her brunette friend disagreed, however. Her short, wild black hair shook with her calm rage as she gestured more violently towards the scene's building hysteria. "Look, I get you out of here alive or I get you out alive. Chose one right now."

The redhead shook her head slowly. The chaos was mounting and her friend seemed to finally hit the brink of exasperation. "No. I'm staying. I'm going to make sure these families get out or I'll die –" The rest of her sentence was cut short by her friend's hand shooting out and clamping her mouth.

Her steady lime green eyes held hers, fearless and ruthless. "Look, I already know how this argument's going to end. You're as stubborn as a mule when you want to be. I'll stay with you, but-BUT if anyone's going to die it's going to be me, got it? So let's just hurry this up so I can get you out as soon as –"

A large hand clamped down on Buttercup's own shoulder and she whipped around, almost drop kicking the man in the crotch.

"WOAH, WOAH, THERE. Nobody's dying on my watch, okay? You two done yet or yah going to be standing here yapping all day? Let's get this over with. Whatcha want to do, Bloss?"

The unruffled redhead dusted herself off smoothly and looked at the giddy young man shift from foot to foot. He looked positively bloodthirsty. "We will just be leading this crowd out into the tunnels in a calm, organized fashion. No killing. Buttercup, take the South end, Butch, the North. I'll take the West. The East's been closed for years. Now move!"

Her whole demeanor had changed into her commander-in-chief mode. It didn't go unnoticed. Butch threw her a wicked grin and a mock salute. "Yes, Captain!" Buttercup threw him a solid punch. And with deadly precision, those two zeroed into their assigned roles.

"Get your lazy butts out of here NOW!" The redhead almost smirked at her friend's overly-aggressive method of shooing the last of the stragglers out of the auditorium. Her end looked clear as well. She resisted shooting the ceiling a concerned glance. It's been almost eight minutes. The Gov should be coming any moment now.

"Come on, Buttercup," Blossom called out, "Butch has already cleared the North side and headed into the tunnels to close it up. We have to move." She glanced around the emptied room. No sign that humans had ever encountered it. Her eyes narrowed. Where was her father?

"Alright, alright. Move first, princess. I need to make sure you're safe until the end, you know." The redhead almost scowled. Her friend knew her too well. In all honesty, she would've probably stayed behind a little longer to find her father. Ah, well. He'll survive. Nothing kills the Crimson Massacre. She hoped.

She gave a brief jerk of her chin in acknowledgment and looked once more at the shadowed hatch in the wall. She knew it gave way to a ladder down to the tunnels but… With one more forlorn glance at the abandoned room, she dived into the darkness. The hatch sealed shut, and probably would be for a very long time.

After shimming down the hatch, she had walked on for a couple of minutes. The wide tunnels were devoid of life, the majority of the meeting's participates most likely already heading down to the Protected Levels and heading home. The Southern and Western tunnels will be converging soon if my memory serves me right. The dimly lit corridor dripped in a constant rhythm, she noted. Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop. It must be raining, she concluded dully. She thought of other things, things other than the meeting that had gone wrong, anything other than the father that had gone missing. He survives, he always does. This tiny incident isn't enough to keep the Crimson Massacre down. It didn't stop the corner of her lips to tug down, though.

"Hey, Bossy Blossy. Glad to see that you're still alive."

The redhead turned to the sound of her friend's voice. "Hey, Butterbutt."

The brunette snorted. "I give two shits about you, too." She strolled up to Blossom languidly, hands in her ripped-up jean's pockets.

"Language."

"I speak English, what more do you want from me?"

"Clean English."

"You'll get that when my mother rolls over and dies."

"No fair. That woman couldn't die if the world was ending."

Buttercup rolled her eyes as she walked next to the girl. Her friend was really hurting in there, she could see it. She wasn't blind. Blossom only gave her weak-sauce banter like that if something was really wrong. Seriously, it's like she forgot that the brunette practically grew up attached to her hip.

"Hey, don't worry about your dad. G.O.O.D. is a squad made-up of the baby stuff. If your dad were to fall to anything, it would be to an atomic bomb. He's almost as hard to kill as my mother."

Blossom's head jerked up sharply at the mention of her father, pink eyes narrowed. Her eyes smoothed out into a blank, noncommittal stare almost immediately after, but there was none of the usual mischievous gleam. The pinks were troubled. Her steps sped up, clacking in a stiff manner so unlike the usual grace she held herself with. Buttercup almost felt sorry for her. Almost. Her internal war between what she wanted to bring up and what Blossom wanted to ignore tore at her. Buttercup hated indecision. Indecision was for the dead. After the struggle, she ended up taking pity on the redhead and changed the subject.

"You coming to the massacre in three weeks?"

Blossom smirked and relaxed, this topic in much safer waters. "You mean every day's not a massacre?" The dark-haired maiden laughed at her friend's biting comment as she hustled to join her in the tunnel.

"You know what I mean," said the raven-haired woman with a playful punch, "we're going to be taking over the richest side of North America. Those government idiots have always been able to hustle out of our grasp and book it to an unsecure area just in time. But now we've got them cornered. Those overfed fatties will be busting out the big guns to keep the Ricci family business out. Not that they're going to be successful." The bloodthirsty black-haired woman grinned crazily as she smacked her two fists together.

"'Overfed fatties' is a redundant phrase," The redhead chided jokingly. "Besides, this is a joint effort between our families; the Riccis aren't the only ones conducting this…'transaction'." The brunette just tossed her head uncaringly.

"Oh, whatever. So long the Riccis get a slice of that money and a gun in our hands, we'll be good." The redhead just shook her head, knowing full-well the extent of the Riccis' bloodthirstiness – with or without the money.

"Hey," the redhead's attention snapped back to her friend's voice, "your family leading the raid, right?" The dark-haired woman asked cautiously. The redhead's family was notoriously known for their secrecy and digression. A casual mention of the leaders of a raid of this scale could make them a little…tense.

Tense indeed. The mirth the redhead had displayed a second ago was, at the moment, silent and cold again. The brunette almost regretted asking – almost. A Ricci never had regrets. They did what they wanted and took the consequences like the maniacs they were. But still…angering another family…was unacceptable.

"Buttercup! Blossom! Guys, I finally found you!" A bright blonde peeked the attention of both women. They stopped, watching the blonde reveal herself from a concealed side tunnel on their left.

"Bubbles," Buttercup started, "Before you say anything, did everyone escape?"

Bubbles turned her head to her old friend. "Yep, everyone made it out. There was a big uproar at the Capital, though. Buttercup, your mother was practically destroying the Capital demanding that she see you again. Apparently, G.O.O.D. arrived to an empty crime scene. Wow, is your dad good at what he does, Bloss. And -."

"Shush," Blossom said suddenly. "You mentioned my dad. Did he…?"

The blonde nodded her head with a big smile. "Your dad made it out fine. Though, he did ask me to –"

"THERE YOU ARE!"

A loud shout disturbed the almost harmonious air as a big ball of human came bowling at the group. "What the –" Buttercup was cut off as it launched itself at her. She was knocked to the ground as the group gaped at the merciless hugging happening at their feet.

"Ugh, get off of me you big lump." Buttercup hissed as Butch nuzzled her neck affectionately. He finally looked up at her face and grinned wildly.

"I knew my girl would survive. I was maybe a tad concerned when I didn't see your lovely ass anywhere when G.O.O.D. arrived but that has now been rectified."

She threw him a searing glare. "I dare you to say that one more time, dear. And who do you think I am? There's no way I would be injured by one of those wimpy G.O.O.D. goons, let alone die because of 'em."

Her glaring face didn't dent his goofy grin, however, as he stood up, pulling her along. "I know, I know. I wouldn't have proposed if you weren't such a tough cookie." She 'hmphed' as she allowed him to pull her up, softening slightly when she was in his arms. The scene was…too sweet for the bloodthirsty jade-eyed couple, Blossom decided, looking at them, unamused.

"So…you two going to nuzzle all day or what?" She said, finally breaking the decidedly private moment.

That seemed to snap the brunette out of her slight smile and she pushed the brunet off of her coldly.

"What?" he whined miserably, "Why'd yah have to do that, Bloss? We were going to –"

"Make me puke," the redhead finished, rolling her eyes. "Get a room."

He stared her down and shifted his gaze to his "loving" fiancé. "Maybe we will," he said with a mischievous smile. He grabbed his fiancé by her waist and twirled her stubborn body around. "Come on, babe, you want to do what the little lady says?" His eyes practically twinkled.

The brunette begrudgingly felt the edges of her mouth tug upwards and said slyly, "Yes, dear. Maybe we will." The two grabbed each other and booked it down the tunnel for the nearest exit.

The blonde looked at the disappearing couple bewilderedly. "Are they going to have sex or kill each other? I can never tell with those two anymore." The redhead mentally reviewed their dialogue and came up with a blank conclusion as well.

"No idea. Anyways, you were saying something about my father…?"

"Oh, yeah!" Bubbles exclaimed with sudden vigor. "Your father said that he needed to talk to you at…'the place where the mightiest of mocking jays rest'? I don't know what that means but-"

The blonde watched as her long-time friend and technically-family rushed off down the poorly lit tunnel. I've been part of her family almost all of my life and I still get surprised by them, she mused amusedly.