As much as Butch hated it at first, he eventually got used to not having to steal or rough anyone up to acquire food or for fun like back in the old days. And concerning their reputations being dead, he was proven right on some occasions. Whenever the boys were forced to go out in public, for things like food and drink, people would distance themselves out of fear, or even run away from the boys.
Life was indeed hard as Brick and Butch predicted. Still anything was better than living in that offshore prison. They felt free at least. But they really had to work to get what they needed sometimes. Money was really difficult to acquire given their current situation. They often had to resort to scavenging around in bins outside restaurants or fast food joints to get something to eat for the night.
They were also running out of newspapers to burn. They weren't always that lucky to find a newspaper that someone threw away in a bin somewhere. Speaking of which day by day similar headlines splashed across the front page:
ROWDYRUFF BOYS IN FOUNDERS CITY?
It was no doubt now that the Founders police force knew about them. Not to mention the press and the public. Admittedly they hadn't been the most subtle at staying hidden when needed be. Still they kept their distance from them. Even if they had to leave food behind sometimes in a hurry, it was always safer to just get out of there and away from people.
It was also not uncommon, flying around the backstreets of Founders for the boys to witness certain, let's say acts of crime. Not just muggings but assaults for the sake of assaults. The way it happened was so nonchalant that it was as if they knew they'd get away with it.
There were numerous illegal deals and break ins. One time whilst out scavenging, the three boys accidentally came across, although some distance away, a gang roughing up a man at the end of the alley.
"Shouldn't have ratted us out punk." They kicked and punched the man onto the floor and kept going until their hands were covered with blood. It became rather graphic.
"Hey! What's going on back there!" A police officer at the other end of the alley spotted the assault and confronted the gang.
"You didn't see anything" one of the gang members stepped out for a minute and threw the officer a roll of dollar bills, before returning to the beating.
The officer shrugged. "Very well" and carried on.
"Brick" Boomer whispered, disturbed at what was happening, remembering the prisoner they once defended. He wasn't the only one. The red ruff himself, and even Butch found it a little hard to watch given what they went through. Nevertheless, for their own sakes there was nothing they could do.
"Let's, let's stay focused boys."
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
"Collect dead wood, it burns easier" Brick instructed the three as after searching high and end in the only places they could go without being seen, the boys resorted to searching wooded parks for anything. At least it was a good source for firewood.
Whilst searching, the 'youngest' Rowdyruff boy overheard something with his super hearing. He soon discovered what it was when he picked up a pile of dead wood and saw a squirrel underneath, looking as if it was sheltering. Or at least, trying to build a home from the sticks.
The blond wondered why it was trying to make a home there since they normally live in trees and felt kinda guilty for taking the fragile animal's house, since he and his brothers were in a similar predicament. He turned around to see the squirrel nestling in some tall grass. Clearly the animal didn't have a home, or much of a home. Just like the boys. And Boomer had to admit, an animal was his only comfort for 18 months.
He sighed, and flew over to the squirrel and knelt down. "What's wrong fella?"
The squirrel just squeaked, and Boomer understood, as Squirrels were rodents. "Your home fell down?" The squirrel pointed over to a fallen tree. "Yeah, it has been stormy lately. But why not make another home out of a tree?"
The squirrel chirped. "None of them have suitable enough dens huh?" Boomer looked around and saw a tree trunk that was quite thick. He cocked an eyebrow, an idea forming "Don't worry, I've got an idea."
He zipped up, concentrating his heat vision on a midsection of the tree. It took him a while to do this and the squirrel watched in astonishment.
FInally he finished, and there was a perfect den carved out from the heat vision for this squirrel to live in. "There you go" he picked him up and placed him in there. The squirrel chirped a thank you and the blue ruff saluted back, before carrying on with his task.
All three of them that evening huddled close to the dimming fire, finishing their already half eaten chicken meals they found in a restaurant garbage bin.
"So, who's interested in pretending to use these chicken bones as pretend swords? There's not much else to do" Butch threw a bone into the small fire with a half interested look. "Playing card games all the time is getting kinda boring."
"I don't wanna play right now Butch" Boomer said throwing his finished meal into the fire as well. "That chicken really makes you thirsty."
"Yeah, but we couldn't find any decent drinking water, or anything to drink. Brick I have to admit, especially after eating that, I'm really parched." Butch turned to his leader brother.
Sadly Brick had not been able to find even half drunk bottles of anything. However, it then started to rain quite heavily outside, which gave Brick an idea. Something else he read about in the prison.
"Boy given how desperate I am right now I wouldn't hesitate to go out and- Brick? Where are going?" Boomer saw his brother pick up a few empty bottles from yesterday and some old newspaper, as well as some charcoal from the fire.
He flew outside and placed the bottles upright on the floor stuffing the newspaper as some sort of filter in them. He then put the charcoal in newspaper filters and picked up some gravel from the ground and placed it in there too. The rain water then started to filter through the gravel, charcoal and newspaper and clean water began to fill the bottles.
He flew back in, wet from the rain. Taking off his cap and shaking his short damp hair like an animal, the boy held in his hands three bottles of clean water, handing them to his brothers. "Save those bottles for next time" he told them.
The boys however just stared at the water as if it was an object they had never seen in their lives. "Are you sure we can drink this?" Butch examined it.
"I purified it" Brick replied, taking a sip of his own, and eventually Boomer and Butch drank too, and quite fast to quench their thirst.
During this quiet few seconds, the leader himself decided to use this opportunity for a few words he wanted to say. "Boys I, I just wanted to say well done. You both did very well finding food today. I'm proud of you."
"Brick?" Boomer turned to him.
"Yeah?"
"I'm still thirsty."
"Hand it here Boomer" Brick took the bottle and went back outside with more charcoal and newspaper, leaving Boomer and Butch to talk amongst themselves.
"Do you really think the people in this city will come for us Butch?"
"I don't know. I mean, I don't agree with Brick on most things, but, so far," the green boy who normally would never show any signs of sincerity before, cocked his to the side nodding, "he's not doing a bad job keeping us safe here. But one thing's for sure, it's going to be better here, than what Townsville thinks of us."
Boomer agreed. "Yeah. I wonder what's going on there right now."
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Meanwhile in Townsville…
"Buttercup, look for a weak spot!" Blossom ordered as she dodged a blow from a mechanical arm that Mojo Jojo was controlling.
"How am I supposed to know where it is?" Buttercup protested flying around their adversary controlling a mechanical robot like machine.
"Don't hit where he's stored anything flammable!" Blossom yelled, trying to distract Mojo, since he had just stolen flammable liquids from a science lab in the city, in an attempt to produce more weaponry.
"Damn to eternity you girls! If you'd just left me alone, or at least stay still, then this could've gone a whole lot easier for all of us wouldn't it?" Mojo protested.
"Then why don't you stay still for a change?" Buttercup joked attempting another hit.
"Where is Bubbles? She's supposed to be here right now." Blossom kept flying around the robot trying to distract it, whilst Buttercup looked for a weak spot.
Mojo chuckled. "I know what you're trying to do girls. There isn't a possible way to outsmart Mojo Jojo. The greatest scientist of all time!" He pressed a button on the controls when Buttercup found a weak spot and went to punch it, electrocuting her.
"Buttercup!" Blossom called out, as her sister fell to the ground. But being as tough as she was, she was able to still be standing after a shock of that voltage.
Blossom used her x-ray vision to see where the wires were in the robot that the electrical current traveled through. With a fiery charge she shot at them with her heat vision, blasting them apart. Blossom saw out of the corner of her eye a blue streak coming towards them.
"Bubbles, hit it just there!" Blossom pointed to an area and the girl flew up rather quickly and punched the place where Blossom directed.
Mojo's robot flew up into the sky and Mojo himself was forced to eject. "Oh curse those girls! Of course they only won because my prize was so dangerous and had to be careful with it, hence why I ejected. In any other fight, the odds of me winning are.." he went off on a tangent.
"Oh no! That machine's going to fall back down!" Buttercup joined her sisters.
"Don't worry I got this" Bubbles proclaimed, firing her heat vision up at the robot.
"No wait Bubbles thats-!" Blossom tried to say before the whole machine exploded due to the flammable liquid.
"See, now it's destroyed," Bubbles pointed with her stub.
"Yeah and now there's pieces of hot metal plummeting towards Townsville" Buttercup showed her.
"Quick!" Blossom shouted as the girls flew to grab the pieces of metal before they struck Townsville, cannon bolting them in the sea. By the time they got back Mojo was long gone. Out of their super audible range and sight.
As they were flying back, Blossom wasn't very pleased with what happened. "I wanted to protect that flammable liquid because it was stolen Bubbles" Blossom explained in a gentle tone. "The company it was taken from probably lost thousands in that explosion."
"I'm sorry Blossom. I just wanted to destroy Mojo's big robot machine" Bubbles apologised.
"I know Bubbles, but next time, try to analyse the situation first before acting on it, or at least leave the decision to me."
"To be honest, normally I would hate having leader girl here decide everything for us. But, as much as I hate to admit it" Buttercup muttered that last part. "Sometimes, I guess, we gotta listen to her."
"That's the best I'm going to get from you isn't it Buttercup?" Blossom shook her head.
As they flew down the streets, people were cheering for them, calling them their heroes as usual. The girls were used to it by now. "Yes yes, just doing our jobs good citizens" boasted Blossom.
"Sheesh, you'd think they'd let us fly home in peace just once" Buttercup whispered.
The girls were now at home having dinner, and unfortunately for them, it was Broccoli and vegetables again. They had tolerated it for a while after that attempted invasion, but now they were just like typical little kids again.
"Professor can we have something else? Carbohydrates would be more suitable wouldn't they?" Blossom tried to persuade.
"Or anything else" remarked Buttercup.
"Now girls, growing superheroes like you need a balanced diet. All of you eat up, especially you Bubbles. You don't want to be hungry on your field trip tomorrow" The professor reminded, wanting to keep his daughter in top shape, as if crime fighting wouldn't do that already.
"Where's she going?" eyed Buttercup.
"Don't you remember? Ms Keane asked us if we wanted to sign up to go on a field trip to Founders city tomorrow. To see the art galleries there" she happily replied.
"And you signed up?" Buttercup asked.
"Of course I did. And besides, I get a day out of school because of it" Bubbles giggled. She couldn't help but innocently tease her sister and the green puff did indeed pout at that.
"Don't worry Buttercup, school's not that bad" Blossom boasted.
"Yeah whatever, and seriously, could we have something else to eat? I'd rather starve than have this" Buttercup pushed her food away.
"Well I hope you enjoy your day tomorrow Bubbles" the Professor tried to ignore Buttercup and change the subject. "I haven't been to that city in awhile. I have an old friend who lives there actually. A scientist like me and an old school friend. Wendy, her name is." He picked up his plate and walked over to the sink. "Try not to get lost and stay with the group okay."
The next day, the school bus carrying the kids who signed up for the field trip was just leaving Townsville. The girls, now being seven, were now in a larger elementary school, and Ms Keane had actually gotten a job there, so she amazingly was still the girls teacher.
"Now kids, remember to stay together going around this city. If you're all good, then I'll let you play in a park area for a while, okay?"
The children happily agreed, and Ms Keane turned back to the bus driver and whispered "But take us to a nicer area of that city, considering the crime rate in all."
"I know" he whispered back. "Heard it's almost as bad as Chicago."
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
The Rowdyruff boys were floating down an old alleyway of the city looking for anything to scavenge, or at least find something of worth to pawn off for money in the garbage cans, since they the owner of the pawn shop didn't really care who he was buying from.
"C'mon let's go this way" Brick ordered.
Boomer was about to follow his brothers, when once more, with his super hearing, he heard something small drop to the floor. He turned around to see a wallet lying on the floor, and a man walking down the street, not realising he dropped it.
The former convict floated over to pick it up and couldn't help out of sheer curiosity and perhaps a touch of old peek habits inside, and his eyes lit up when he did. Inside was 160 dollars. What luck! This was enough to feed his brothers for weeks. But then again, wasn't he taking this wallet without this man's knowledge?
Maybe if he found it on it's own, maybe it'd be different. But he knew this man dropped it, so if he just took it, wouldn't that be stealing? His brothers wanted to remain neutral right? But they needed this money, but they didn't need to add to their already tainted reputations. He sighed, and floated over.
"Excuse me sir?" he tapped his shoulder. The man turned around, and almost jumped back a bit, realising who was addressing him.
"You um, dropped this."
"Wha-, what do you want?" the man asked, becoming quite afraid.
"I, just wanted to give this back to you," Boomer tried to explain.
The man was half expecting this boy's brothers to come out and attack him at any moment. "Look I don't want any-"
"Don't you want it?" Boomer asked, confused.
The man just started running, and by now a few more people were on the same street. From their perspective, all they had seen was a man running from a Rowdyruff boy holding a wallet. And then the fear and accusations started.
"It's them! It's one of them, those Rowdyruffs from Townsville."
"Get the police, o-or anyone!"
People were running, and Boomer, frozen in place with what was happening, dropped the wallet. Brick and Butch suddenly heard what was going on and realised their brother wasn't with them. They flew to meet him and saw the comotion.
"Boomer what's going on? Did people see you?" Brick asked.
"Is that a wallet?" Butch saw on the floor.
"Guys, I found this wallet, I heard a guy drop it and decided to give it back to him, but he got scared and ran away, now people are accusing me of taking it forcefully" Boomer explained, panicking a bit.
"Are you sure that's what happened?" Brick had to be sure.
"Please Brick, you have to believe me."
"Alright, I'll take your word."
A police squad car then pulled up since it was patrolling nearby. Two officers got out and hid behind the car.
"Jenkins call for backup. We know perfectly well what these boys can do, remember what happened over a year ago in Townsville?"
"Guys we should get out of here" Butch was about to fly away when Brick stopped him.
"No, that'll only confirm their suspicions. I'll-" he sighed "I'll try to reason with them."
"You can't reason with people who are prejudiced against you!" Butch yelled but Brick ignored him.
"One of them's coming closer!" the officer yelled.
"Look officer, my brothers and I are not going to do anything hostile. My brother told me that he was just trying to return a wallet."
The officers, surprised he was talking with them, shouted from behind the car "Why should we believe that story?"
"Well what evidence do you have? You can't technically do anything to us anyway unless we've done something" Brick pointed out.
"And how do we know you won't do anything in the future?" they questioned pointing their guns.
"If we were going to do anything drastic we would've done by now."
That's when several squad cars arrived and now a couple of the citizens were looking out of their windows in the buildings watching the boys. The cops had their guns trained on them.
"We can't be too careful, so we order you to leave this town." The officer turned to the others. "Keep your guns on 'em, just in case."
Brick floated back to his brothers. "Let's just fly out of here."
The boys immediately took off, and as they did the citizens began to throw objects and jeer at them.
"Too scared to beat up the cops this time?" a man shouted.
"I hope they beat you up good in that prison!" a woman exclaimed.
"You're all probably full of hate aren't you!" The people kept throwing whatever they could verbally at them.
"Let's fly up" Brick suggested and the brothers flew up higher into the clouds.
Once there, Butch was once again to say the least unhappy. "See what they did? Why should we take anything like that from them?"
"Because we have no choice" Brick answered.
"Boomer why didn't you just take the wallet?" Butch turned to him.
"I was just trying to give it back."
"But if it had money inside, don't you think we should've kept it?"
"But I saw the guy drop it, isn't that the same as stealing?"
"You gotta bend the rules sometimes. Boomer all you've ever done is mess up. Like in the prison the day we were beaten to a bloody pulp."
"I-, was only thinking of us."
"Now you sound like him" Butch pointed to Brick.
"Well if I'm such a burden, I'll look for food myself" Boomer flew down back into the city alone.
"Boomer!" Brick called out but Boomer was too far gone. Brick turned to Butch with an angry look.
"What? He'll be fine, especially now. He's not going to do anything that'll get him in trouble. He'll probably come crawling back to the warehouse soon anyway."
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
The children of Townsville's elementary school had just finished going around the art gallery, which to Bubbles wasn't as interesting as she would've thought, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. And as promised, Ms Keane took the children to a park area, in a safer part of the city. Bubbles went on the swings, the roundabouts, but it wasn't really that fun without her sisters around, and none of her other friends were on this field trip. Actually some things with her sisters started to become slightly less fun, as arguing did occur slightly more often.
She got bored eventually and floated away into the forest area, despite the Professor having told her not to. Hopefully Ms Keane wouldn't notice, and besides she'd get back before anyone noticed. She came out to a street. It was a fairly busy road and she floated above exploring the area of the city.
Boomer was flying above the buildings, angry at first but that soon turned into slight sadness. He wished people would just let them alone, even though he knew that was impossible. Though he supposed it was right, they only had themselves to blame. Suddenly he heard a scream. He glanced downward and using his x-ray vision, he saw an apartment building on fire. The fire brigade rushed to and fro to evacuate people from the building.
The blue ruff watched and decided not to get involved in anything. He wanted to be neutral, not good. And besides, after the way he and his brothers were treated, why should he? "Good luck with that."
Just when he was about to turn away, a woman screamed quite panickingly to the firemen.
"My baby's still in there!"
Boomer turned back and saw two parents watching the building burn, being held back by some of the firemen for their own safety.
The Rowdyruff floated there for a bit, not sure what to make of all this. He then realised, the baby was a helpless little person against something that could kill it. Just like himself and his brothers were in that prison. He'll have to do this quickly. He located the baby with x-ray vision and flew head-on into the flames.
He saw the baby lying on the bed, and he barely dodged a wooden plank falling down. 'Why is it that every time a building's on fire, a baby's left behind?' He picked it up which was rather difficult considering he himself was only seven and his arms weren't particularly too long.
Bubbles, whilst flying around, heard the commotion as well, and zoomed over to see what was going on. She gasped when she arrived in time to see the burning in flames, and heard the parents on the ground worry about their baby still inside. This wasn't her city, but a baby was in danger.
She was about to fly in, when she saw a blue streak crash out of the building. The two parents saw it fly out of where their apartment was. Boomer flew down to them. "Is this yours?"
"Yes. Yes that's our baby!" the parents took a hold of it and hugged it. Boomer floated back up to get away from the people as quickly as possible. Bubbles couldn't believe what she just saw. The Rowdyruff boys, or Boomer at least, here? Saving a child?
As Boomer floated, he was going to fly away, just when he looked up to see his counterpart. He froze, confused and unsure what to do.
Bubbles looked back at him. Her mouth agape and confusion in her innocent eyes. "Boomer?"
Now this was definitely a long a chapter. Not sure if I got the stage of school right for what age the girls are in the US. I suppose this chapter became more about Boomer towards the end and his character, and next chapter we'll see Bubbles's interaction with the boys. Oh and you'll see that Wendy character the Professor mentioned later in the story.
Powerpuff girls and Rowdyruff boys belong to CN.
