21
The school was on fire. It was Buttercup's fault.
Okay, not entirely Buttercup's fault. Butch had a large hand in it as well. Blossom had seen him circling the science block briefly before Buttercup had come crashing out a window and tackled him face first into the football field. There was a smouldering crater there now, and there had been no sign of either of them since the library had caught fire two minutes later.
"Okay everyone, just keep moving, no need to panic. Bubbles!" As she ushered everyone out, she caught sight of her blonde sister hurrying past, chivvying along Robin and a few other people from whatever class she had just been in. Several teachers hurried past as well, trying to keep order, and more or less succeeding.
"Blossom, what's happening?" Despite the fact that she seemed to have everyone else under control, Bubbles was obviously extremely anxious. Not panicking; she'd been in too many of these situations to be panicking over something like this; but she did have a tendency to become a big ball of nervous energy until she knew exactly what she was doing.
"I don't know. Butch turned up and Buttercup reacted."
"Do we go after her? I haven't seen her-"
"No, let's just get everyone out of here first. As long as the two of them are around here, it isn't safe. I just hope she has the sense to lead him away from the city."
As it happened, she evidently didn't. Several of the students started screaming as Buttercup suddenly came crashing through the front wall of the building, skidding painfully across the tarmac towards her sisters. Bubbles made a wordless noise of alarm and immediately ran towards her, but stopped short when Brick appeared in front of her, throwing out an arm to block her way.
"Don't. Do what Blossom says; get everyone out of here. Now."
"But-"
"Do what he says Bubbles." Blossom was almost surprised to hear herself say it, but Brick's tone told her that he knew that this was about to get very ugly. Buttercup had already pulled herself back to her feet and she looked livid, to the point that when Blossom caught a look at her expression, she actually felt scared of her. But before she could say anything, her sister was already gone.
Trying to bury her reservations for the moment, Blossom carried on helping to get students through the front gates. When everyone was finally clear, she searched for Bubbles, who was already coming over to meet her.
"Do you know where they are?" Bubbles shook her head.
"The smoke's getting too thick back there, I can't see anything." At that moment, Brick touched down next to them.
"Dammit, the emergency services can't get in to put the fire out unless we get them out of here. And even if we do get the fire put out, they're going to tear the building apart at this rate."
"Blossom, what do we do?" Bubbles' eyes had changed to green in her worry over her sister, and Blossom could feel a twisting knot of anxiety in her stomach. This was bad. The school was wrecked as it was and it was only going to get worse. And who knew what state Buttercup would be in at the end of this.
"Wait... Wait, I have an idea. Bubbles, can you change into Buttercup?" Her sister blinked at her.
"Huh? I... I think so, but why?"
"Just do it. Now." Still confused, Bubbles closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. With one of those little shivers, a second Buttercup shimmered into existence, much to Brick's surprise.
"What the hell?" he managed, his voice faltering a little. If it had been any other situation, Blossom would have been greatly amused.
"I'll explain later," she said, grabbing her sister's arm. "But right now, we need to stop them. Bubbles, come on!"
xxx
By the time they found them in the smoke, the library was in ruins, and neither of them looked in any better shape. Buttercup had blood all over her face, running from a cut somewhere on her scalp, and Butch was already sporting a broken nose and a lot of chest lacerations and scorches.
"That's what you get for trying to run!" Butch was yelling, his tone manic. Buttercup viciously spat a mouthful of blood to the side and pullled herself up to her full height.
"You sick bastard, I'll kill you for this. You hear me? I'll kill you!" Her voice was rising, her tone every bit as mad as his was. Blossom looked to Brick and Bubbles, realising that they needed to intervene now.
"We need a smoke screen. Brick, try and blow some more of that smoke over here. Bubbles, when we're covered, I'll grab her, and you take her place, lead Butch away. Can you add in those injuries?" Bubbles nodded, copying them without a word. Blossom winced when she saw them appear on her sister, even though these ones weren't technically real.
"Okay, be careful not to let him catch you; Buttercup's having trouble with him as it is. Are you ready?" Her sister nodded, and Brick simply left to do his part. Blossom positioned herself to swoop in and grab her sister. It was not going to be pleasant; if Buttercup was in this state, she would not appreciate being dragged out of the fight. They only had a very small window of time in which to do this before one of them did some real damage to the other, but Brick had already managed to thicken the smoke around them. Blossom could feel her eyes stinging; she needed to get them all out of here as soon as possible.
When they were finally obscured from view and Butch's swearing became punctuated with coughing fits, Blossom finally made a move. Aiming for Buttercup's position, she shot forward and slammed into her sister, grabbing her and dragging her along with her. Anticipating Buttercup's protests, she already had a hand over her sister's mouth. Behind her, she heard Butch stop yelling as Bubbles crashed into him, and hoped that she would succeed in drawing him away.
xxx
She didn't relinquish her iron grip on her sister until they were well outside of city limits, and Buttercup had been fighting against her the whole way. When she finally let go of her, she was instantly rewarded with a punch to the jaw as her sister started screaming at her.
"Why did you do that? I was fine. I was-" She fell silent as Blossom returned the punch, knocking her backwards.
"Would you look at yourself?" she said, her tone icy. "Look at the state you're in." She gestured to the blood and dirt and soot stains that her sister was covered in, that her own top was stained with after carrying her all this way. Buttercup got back on her feet, rubbing her cheek.
"You should have stayed out of it. It was nothing to do with you. He's my problem, I-" Blossom didn't even bother saying anything; she just hit her again, throwing her weight into it.
"You just don't think, do you? You never think. The minute you let yourself be provoked, you made this my problem. You put your own selfish pride before the safety of everyone in the school; I can't ignore that Buttercup. I can't ignore the fact that you obviously can't handle-"
"Stop it!" Blossom did. She hadn't been expecting this. Another punch maybe, or just a barrage of swearing, but not this. Buttercup's voice was cracked and desperate as she spoke. "Just stop it. Stop..."
"Buttercup..."
"I know. I know I... I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't want this, I just... I couldn't stop it. When he showed up I just..." Blossom's eyes widened as she realised Buttercup was crying. Buttercup never cried; not once since she was six years old. And it was more than that. Buttercup was terrified.
And Blossom had no idea what to do.
"Buttercup, what happened?" Her sister shook her head, absently trying to shove blood-matted hair out of her face.
"I don't... He just, he showed up, didn't even come in or anything. I just looked up and there he was outside my class. And I thought I could ignore him, you know? I thought I had my powers under control, but then..." She shuddered, looking like she was about to be sick.
"Buttercup-"
"It's like he just crawls inside my skull or something. Every time he's around it's like he's strangling me, and I can't do anything. I just lose it. I just lose it and that's what he wants."
Blossom was still at a loss. This was much worse than anything she had imagined. Now, the school getting destroyed seemed completely insignificant. She didn't care about it any more. But what was she supposed to do now?
"Blossom, Buttercup! Oh my gosh, are you okay?" Bubbles still had black patches in her hair as she landed and threw herself on Buttercup, almost throttling her with the force of the hug she was giving her. Brick landed behind her, and Blossom noticed that one of the sleeves on his jacket had nearly been torn off and his hat was missing.
Leaving Bubbles to fuss over their sister, she turned to Brick, thankful that maybe here was a situation she could deal with.
"Is everything okay back there? What happened?" He shrugged, and then winced at the motion.
"The fire's out, although the building's a wreck. They found a couple of students who got hit with debris, but no one's too badly injured. Looks like the school's going to be closed for a while though. A few weeks at least." Blossom frowned. The city was straining for money anyway, fancy donated fountains notwithstanding. Fixing the school might take a lot longer than a few weeks if the funding wasn't available.
"Bubbles managed to get Butch away from the city. Was a close call; she let the disguise slip a bit too early and he pretty much lost it. Don't worry though; he won't be causing any trouble for a while." She noted how grim his expression was as he said it, and caught a glimpse of what looked to be a fast-darkening bruise underneath his torn sleeve.
"Are you- I mean, thank you. For looking out for Bubbles. For helping us."
"Well, I go to that school too y'know. I'd get bored if it wasn't there. Besides, Butch has been... unstable lately, more than normal I mean. If I didn't do something, people really were gonna die." They both looked over at Buttercup who was half-heartedly trying to shoo her sister away as Bubbles mopped at the blood on her face with a tissue.
"She seemed fine yesterday, you know? I thought everything was finally normal, but now..."
"I've never seen her act like that before. I mean, I knew she was kinda nuts, but not like that."
"It's... complicated. Butch... She picks up on his feelings, feels what he's feeling. But it's too strong for her; she can't control it. At least, I think that's what's been happening." Brick quirked an eyebrow at her.
"Feels what he's feeling? How long has that been going on?"
"A little while now. Our Chemical X destabilised and sort of... recalibrated, but it changed in the process." She shrugged. "At first, we were all a little unstable, but I thought we finally had it under control."
"So, that's what Bubbles' little insta-disguise trick is?" Blossom nodded.
"Yes, and Buttercup seems to have some kind of influential empathy. At first, it only seemed to work on the guys in the basketball team, but now she can pick up and influence almost anyone's emotions."
"Right. Okay." She wondered if he was going to ask what power she had picked up, but to her surprise, he didn't. She watched as Buttercup tried to get to her feet, Bubbles helping to hold her up. It looked as though she might have hurt her ankle somehow, but she didn't seem overly concerned by it.
"Hey, uh... I'll help you get her home, okay? Just in case he turns up again." Blossom almost automatically refused the offer, but then thought better of it. He was right; if Butch did turn up again, there was no telling what he would do in his anger over Buttercup 'running away' from the fight earlier. And as strong as Blossom and Bubbles were, they were no match for Butch in one of his berserker rampages. But Brick was stronger than his brother, even if he didn't bother displaying it. They'd be much safer with him there.
"Alright, thank you," she said finally, managing a small smile. "And... maybe you could help me practice again tonight. I think I might finally have cracked Puff the Magic Dragon."