Sorry for the wait everyone; RL got kinda crazy on me and my muse went AWOL. But we're back with a vengeance! Please enjoy.
2
Bubbles and Buttercup clashed over the bathroom the next morning and Blossom heard the scuffle and then a loud bang, all followed by several loud thumps and much cursing from Buttercup. She smirked quietly to herself; no one ever beat Bubbles to the bathroom.
Buttercup was still largely silent over breakfast, which she actually deigned to have when Bubbles declared that she was making pancakes. The three of them managed to eat the ever-so-slightly over-large stack of them in a more or less civil way, with Bubbles occasionally firing off questions about the homework she was stuck on this morning. However, Blossom still felt that she was being frozen out, and to remedy this, cleared her throat loudly.
"So, did you remember that we're meeting with the Mayor tomorrow night? There's a few issues regarding security for the opening of the new memorial fountain next week and-" she noticed Buttercup rolling her eyes. "Problem?"
"What's the issue? If something happens, we'll deal with it."
"It is always better to be prepared." Buttercup shot her a dirty look, but somehow managed to bite back the acidic remark that Blossom just knew was dying to be said.
"I'm going. Bubbles, you got practice tonight?" Bubbles nodded.
"And it's Blossom's turn to make dinner."
"Great." Blossom stood up.
"You two are purposely avoiding the issue here. Why can you not take this seriously?" Buttercup got to her feet and walked away, looking back as she reached the door.
"Maybe you should take us a bit more seriously first."
xxx
As Blossom locked the front door behind her (the Professor was still working away in his lab and unlikely to hear a bomb going off in the house, nevermind a burglary), she heard a small noise behind her, and turned to see Bubbles waiting for her. Happy that one of her sisters now appeared to be seeing sense, she smiled and walked over to join her.
"Shall we go? I take it Buttercup's already on her way." The blonde nodded and fell into step next to her, remaining silent while Blossom started her usual chatter of tactics and planning and protecting the city. It was only when they were halfway to school that Blossom noticed that Bubbles hadn't said anything; an extremely unusual occurrence.
"Is there something wrong Bubbles? You're very quiet."
"It's nothing. I was just thinking that maybe you think about this stuff too much, like Buttercup said." Blossom frowned, but before she could speak, Bubbles linked her fingers together and continued.
"I mean, it's good that you care about the city so much and everything, but sometimes it's like you've forgotten how to be a teenager, you know? I mean, the only thing you do other than schoolwork and stuff is play the violin, and you're not in the orchestra or anything so it's like you never just… switch off and have fun."
"Bubbles…"
"I think if you did something like that then… then you would understand us a lot better." Blossom was about to reply, but stopped herself. Bubbles never said anything she didn't mean, and Blossom felt a little of the old connection she had shared with her sister rekindling as she listened. Maybe Bubbles was on to something here, but she didn't know what it was yet.
"Maybe…" she said thoughtfully.
xxx
Despite the fact that she had decided that she was not going to let it bother her, Blossom still kept a wary eye on her surroundings, even though Brick only ever showed up at school if he was really bored. She made it through the day without any sign of him, but then managed to make everyone in the hallway jump as she slammed her locker closed with slightly more force than necessary ten seconds after opening it. Two more roses had been taped to the inside, and she gritted her teeth as she opened the locker again and grabbed a couple of notebooks, also ripping the flowers mercilessly out of it and stuffing them unceremoniously into her bag to be dealt with later.
She shot a borderline murderous glance at the pair of girls who she could tell had seen the roses and were just dying to a) ask questions and b) tell everyone they knew about it right now. But Blossom was above gossip; being a superhero pretty much put you at celebrity status, so you learned to live with it, rumours and all. Sweeping down the corridor with her ponytail swinging (only slightly exaggerated on purpose), she had a sudden thought, and instead of carrying on straight towards the main doors, she veered to the left and headed out towards the sports department. Bubbles had said that she had cheerleading practice today, and after their conversation that morning, Blossom had done some thinking.
When she reached the doors to the gym hall, she reached out to open them, but hesitated and ended up peering through the small panes of glass set into the wood. The team appeared to be in the middle of what looked to be a fairly complex routine, and Blossom found herself impressed by the precision and intricacy of it all. Bubbles especially. It was probably the superpowers, but she was head and shoulders above most other members of the team, not to mention a lot more focused. No wonder she had been selected to try out for a professional squad; she was good.
She was still watching them work through routines when she heard the familiar pounding of feet that were going way too fast to be a normal human running. Sure enough, Buttercup came racing around the corner and towards the gym, all trace of animosity gone as she called out to her redheaded sister.
"Glad I found you. Monster attack downtown and it's a big one. Grab Bubbles and let's get going."
xxx
As Buttercup had said, it was a big one. Bigger than they'd seen in a while. It was also ugly, but that was pretty much part of the whole monster deal. Same with the havoc-wreaking, and boy, was it wreaking.
"We have to stop it now. It'll destroy half the city at this rate. I'll take point. Bubbles, you work on getting the civilians to safety, Buttercup, take the right flank; try to distract it while I figure out any weaknesses we can exploit."
It was a perfect plan. Of course it was a perfect plan; Blossom had thought it up. However, while Bubbles immediately swooped off to do her job, Buttercup didn't move, instead eyeing the thing up critically.
"This thing's all offence; nothing to defend itself with other than attacking."
"Buttercup, stick to the plan."
"We don't need your fancy plan! Watch this!"
"Buttercup no!" But it was too late; Buttercup was already gone in a green blur speeding straight for the thing. Blossom attempted to follow, but the creature lashed out with one of its various appendages (again, standard monster malarkey) and took out several upper floors of a skyscraper, bending a major support beam out to a ninety degree angle to the rest of the building. Blossom managed to make it over and hold it up just in time to save it from collapsing, but it was insanely heavy and she already knew that the strain was too much even for someone of her ability.
Stuck struggling with the incredible mass of concrete, steel and glass that was still attempting to freefall all the way to the streets below, Blossom desperately tried to call for her sisters, but Bubbles was hundreds of feet below ushering civilians out of the vicinity, even though, as used to this sort of thing as they were, they were all seemingly quite content to gawp mindlessly at the current debacle. Buttercup, meanwhile, was launching herself relentlessly at the thing, a flash of green light stabbing repeatedly at its hide. Eventually, her attacks became less and less frequent, and she retreated to a short distance away.
"Buttercup!" Blossom yelled, her voice straining just as much as the rest of her. "I need… No, Buttercup, don't!"
There was a sickening crack as Buttercup's hands flared with a blinding light and connected solidly with the thing's head. It roared deafeningly, swaying backwards and allowing her to swing in underneath its elongated snout and deliver a devastating double booted kick to its throat. With an almost pathetic choking noise, it toppled over, and Blossom watched with horror (or as close to it as is possible to achieve with a chunk of building attempting to reintroduce you to the laws of gravity) as it looked set to crush the residential area below. But then, somehow, Bubbles was there, catching it and launching it back up towards Buttercup, who gripped one scaly… arm (?) and hurled it skywards, where it sailed off to somewhere outside of the city limits.
"Blossom! Are you okay?"
"Do I look okay?!" Blossom gasped. "Help me!" They duly did so, helping her heft the building back up and bending the support beam back so that it would hold up temporarily. Long enough for the construction crews to come and fix it up anyway.
Of course, the usual media circus had shown up by the time the three descended to the street below, and they greeted it with the same forced smiles (except Buttercup, who was better known for the trademark scowl) that they did every time.
"What on earth were you doing?" Blossom hissed angrily from the corner of her mouth at Buttercup, who was staring nonchalantly at the cameras while Bubbles did all the talking.
"I saw an opportunity. I went for it. The monster bit the dust. What's the problem?"
"You could have been injured. I had a plan, you should have stuck to it."
"But my plan worked too."
"You didn't have a plan." Buttercup shrugged a shoulder.
"And nothing worse than normal happened. Go figure."
Blossom bit back the lecture on responsibility that was fighting to make itself heard. Buttercup, as much as she really hated to admit it, did have something of a point. But the fact was that Blossom had lost control of the situation, and Blossom could not lose control of a situation. She had to be in control, it was how this all worked.
And yet here was Buttercup wrenching that control clean out of her hands and hurling it out of town along with the monster. At that moment, Bubbles wrapped up her little spiel for the cameras and looked back at her sisters expectantly, prompting Buttercup to shove her hands in her pockets and stalk off, muttering about missing practice. Blossom watched her go, feeling the little ache that was becoming far too familiar. How on earth did life get so complicated all of a sudden?