Bubbles arrived back home in Townsville at pretty much sundown, and the Professor was not happy about it too. "Bubbles I'm surprised at you, it's not like you to stay out this late. What were you doing?"

"Oh I was just browsing the shops and kinda got distracted, I didn't buy anything in the end. Anyway you said to be back before dark, and it's sundown now" Bubbles reminded him in an innocent tone placing her hands by her side looking at him wide-eyed.

"Well I suppose. Now you girls run yourselves a bath and straight to bed, you have school tomorrow" the Professor said in a softer and more usual tone.

Naturally, the other two puffs, especially Blossom, were suspicious of what their sister was doing all this time. "What were you doing all afternoon, Bubbles?" asked the eldest sister whilst all three of them flew upstairs.

The blue girl knew they would ask questions, so she came up with some excuses on the way home. "Oh I was originally going to buy something I wanted, but kinda got distracted." She feigned being embarrassed.

"Heh, typical Bubbs eh?" chuckled Buttercup.

She wasn't going to be able to give excuses like this all the time when she wanted to check on the boys. So she decided on something. Every night she would sneak out when everyone else was asleep, and fly to the city of Founders where she could hopefully talk to the boys for a while.

It might be tricky. She would be losing sleep, and she wasn't exactly a morning person as it is, especially in recent months. Heck what was she thinking? Worrying about losing sleep when the boys had to make do with cardboard boxes and old newspapers. Well tomorrow night, she would fly over to Founders city to see the boys and every night she can spare from then.

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The next day in Founders city Brick was sitting on the edge of a rooftop of a small building. He seemed to be in deep thought, with a far away look on his face. In truth, he was thinking over the future, and what he and his brothers would be doing. It was a struggle to survive now. Would they still be doing what they were doing now? Still scraping the streets to find something to live on? Would they even still be alive by then? He didn't want to consider that option. He should just focus on the present, keeping his brothers alive. And right now, something caught his attention.

On a bench below, someone was listening to the radio on their phone out loud, which was reporting news. Brick could hear it easily with his super hearing. It was talking about them.

"The mall is hoped to be reopened soon after the attack yesterday. Surprisingly, two of the Rowdyruff boys were on the scene as well, actually helping the police force it seems, which is ironic given their attack on Townsville's police force eighteen months ago. It has been indeed confirmed that the three boys are in Founders city and what their motives are remain unclear. They rescued several hostages and apprehended the gunmen. A few days earlier witnesses reported the blue one rescuing a couple's infant child from a burning apartment building."

'Boomer did what?' Brick listened.

"The city's chief of police, chief Mccoy, has warned everyone to keep their distance from the Rowdyruffs and report any sightings of them, as we still don't know whether the boys are dangerous or not. In other news the investigation is ongoing of a murder last night in storage room 5B at the Founders docks. CCTV managed to capture the identity of the assailant as Joe Briggs, a known hitman for the mob, who has been at large for several months and the award money has been moved up to five thousand dollars."

Brick's eyes widened at that. $5000, just think of what he and his brothers could buy with that. They wouldn't go hungry for months. But who was he kidding? Was he honestly considering going out there and hunt down an assassin? That would make him a hypocrite, considering how he told his brothers not to get involved in anything like that. But the thought of all that money to live off, it was just too tempting.

But would he even catch this hitman? How did he ever hope to find him? Well, if there's one place to start, it was the crime scene.

Brick flew up and headed in the direction of the docks. Since he already was in the limelight with the mall incident, he'll have to do this quickly and discreetly.

'I just hope they pay it in cash.'

Storage room 5B which was pretty much a small warehouse, similar to the one he and his brothers were living in. It had been taped off by police and looked abandoned. He flew in an open window and saw the white line which signified where the body of the murder victim was. Everything he read in all those detective stories and crime books in the prison, was coming to fruition. It was almost like an exact scenario in one of those case studies.

Brick hoped to find something that could lead him to the hitman, this Joe Briggs. Some sort of trail perhaps. But if the police couldn't find something like that, how could he? He would just have to try his best. Brick observed the scene that lay before him. There were a few boxes and items knocked over.

'There obviously was a scuffle, in that case the killer was close to the victim when he killed him. Strange. Assassins normally prefer to take out their victims long range with a firearm.'

He remembered talking and overhearing criminals with similar careers during his time in the prison. Brick noticed the fuse box on an upper level that had been opened, and right next to it was a broken railing, indicating someone must've fallen. He flew up to the fuse box and noticed a few switches flicked.

'From up here, this would've been the perfect place to shoot someone, but the fuses weren't working, so the victim came up here to check the fuse box, and discovered the hitman. It looks like the victim tried to defend himself when the hitman pulled a gun, and they fell down to the floor, where the scuffle started. The victim tried to run, but Joe Briggs must've finally fired his gun which killed the victim there. And that explains the blood stains' Brick concluded.

Everything in those criminology books. It was all coming amazingly in handy. 'Surely in that fall the hitman must have been hurt too, and stumbled out before the police could arrive.'

The detective wannabe flew out of the building and down by the door that he guessed the hitman would've come out of. He looked around with his x-ray vision, and by the wall saw what looked to be a blood stain on the floor, but only visible through his super vision, meaning there wasn't a lot of it. Unlike the victim's. But it led to a trail. The hitman, Joe Briggs, had cut himself during the attack, and left a small blood trail which Brick could follow with his super vision.

He followed the trail on the docks until it eventually ran out. It stopped at what appeared to be tyre tracks, and again, the red ruff used his vision to follow the tyre tracks which he presumed the hitman to have escaped in. The tracks weren't visible to the normal human eye, so Brick had to rely on his powers. He stayed a fair distance up in the air though to avoid people seeing him. The tracks lead into a neighbourhood which, although wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst of neighbourhoods either. They lead to a house near the end of a street.

'Strange. You'd think if they knew the identity of the hitman they could trace his address. Unless..'

Brick flew down to the house quietly and through a window, worried that the hitman was using this place as a hideout. Then he saw them. There were children's toys around. 'Oh no.'

The Rowdyruff heard a scream behind him. He turned around to see a woman standing in the doorway with a terrified expression on her face, and spotted a badge on the counter, a police badge. A man came running into the room as well, and saw what his wife was looking at. Brick noticed the bandage around his hand. The realisation hit him like a ton of his namesakes. This was a cop's house.

It was a cop's blood he had been following, and his squad car no doubt, as he could see now the police car parked in the garage with his x-ray vision.

"What are you doing in my house? You're a Rowdyruff!" the cop exclaimed, both visibly and audibly alarmed.

"I, I'm sorry I was looking for a criminal, Joe Briggs, how did you cut yourself?" Brick wondered.

"Briggs? Why? I was at that crime scene with my colleagues investigating. And I cut myself on handling evidence before I drove home. Honey get the phone" the officer told his wife before reaching for a gun in a drawer.

"Wait I just wanted the award money for catching him-, ahh" Brick groaned and zoomed outside before the off duty officer could fire at him. The Rowdyruff zipped out of there and out of that neighbourhood, and out of that district into the downtown busier part of the city. He floated through the alleyways inbetween the buildings, cursing himself.

'Stupid stupid stupid!' he grimaced.

It was a foolish idea from the start. He knew he wouldn't catch the hitman. What a short lived dream that was. If he were able to identify who's blood that was, he would've known.

And now look he's done. Invaded the home of an officer and his wife. He didn't do anything, but with their reputations already, despite rescuing a few people at the mall, it wasn't going to look good for them. Especially when he talked about the hitman. He didn't just make it worse for himself, he made it worse for his brothers too, and that's why he hated himself right now.

'Could it get any worse?' Brick thought, just before raindrops started to fall, and eventually turned into heavy rain.

'Oh how cliche.' He floated down the alleyway, the rain starting to soak him. Although this was the least of his worries.

In this faux attempt to catch a criminal, he didn't have any time to look for food or any type of money lying on the street. Boomer and Butch were back at the warehouse right now, waiting for Brick to return with something. His stomach growled. All he could do was ignore the rain beating down on him.

He also seemed to forget where he was. He came out of the alleyway and onto a street, sitting down against a wall next to the entrance of the alleyway, and just stared down at the floor, becoming more soaked.

There weren't any people on the street as it was raining, except from a small line of people at a bus stop just to the left of the Rowdyruff. At the end of the line at the bus stop, a woman stood there holding an umbrella and wearing a long brown coat. When she heard the sound of someone slumping down against a wall. She looked around and her eyes widened a bit when she saw a small boy sitting on the street in the soaking rain.

But there was something different about this boy. He had no fingers, or ears, no nose. And those eyes, she had seen that somewhere before. She looked back quickly to see that the other people at the bus stop hadn't noticed him, and set her eyes upon the boy again before walking over to him. Brick kept staring down at the floor when to his surprise someone knelt in front of him. His giant eyes moved up to see a woman with a concerned but mostly kind expression on her face, and she held the umbrella over both of them.

The woman had curly orange hair, similar to Ms Bellum's, except she didn't have that much hair. She was wearing skinny jeans and high heels. She looked fairly young too.

"Hello" she greeted him. "What are you doing here in the rain?" she asked softly.

Brick didn't know why she wasn't trying to get away from him or warn the other people at the bus stop. Everyone still saw them as criminals.

"Just, looking around for something to eat, I suppose." Brick didn't see any point in lying.

"Why? Don't you have anything to eat? And in the rain?" the woman wondered.

"And forgive me for saying but, you're eyes, you're a chemical X user aren't you? That's who you are, you're one of those Rowdyruffs. What am I saying? Of course you are. You're on the news and everything. Well done at the mall yesterday" the woman complimented.

"Yeah, well, that was just a one off thing. We're trying to stay out of the whole crime thing now" Brick admitted.

"Where do you live? If you don't mind me asking?" she persisted with questions.

"I'd, rather not say" Brick looked away.

"I understand" said the woman before fiddling with something in her umbrella and then handing it to Brick. "Here, take this for the rain."

Brick raised an eyebrow, why would she give this to him? And also, it was common for people in Townsville to know what chemical X was thanks to the girls, but here in Founders city, it probably wouldn't have been that well known. How did she know about it?

He accepted the umbrella and murmured a small "Thanks. What about you?"

"It's okay, my bus seems to be here now." She motioned to the bus just pulling up. "I have to go. Pleasure talking to you." She patted him on the head and stood up. She seemed average height, though wearing high heels.

Brick was still confused however. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Oh just call me Wendy." She looked to see people getting on the bus. "Brick, isn't it? Leader of the Rowdyruffs. Stay safe" she smiled and walked towards the bus.

The windows were too fogged up for the passengers to see the Rowdyruff. He watched it drive off and looked up into the umbrella. And there in the middle part, was a twenty dollar bill wrapped around it. Brick almost felt bad at the thought of accepting that. But he couldn't afford to feel bad. He took off still holding the umbrella, and tried to find a convenient store that would serve him.

XXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

It was now late evening back in Townsville, and the Powerpuff girls were getting ready for bedtime after an afternoon of 'saving the world'.

Bubbles was thinking over her plan again. She would sneak out when her sisters and the Professor were fast asleep, and fly over to Founders city. There was the possibility of Blossom or Buttercup waking up in the middle of the night for a glass of water or something, and seeing that she wasn't there. So she would make a 'dummy' Bubbles, out of a soccer ball and a blonde wig she found in the attic earlier, which she shaped into her hair style.

Speaking of her sisters, Buttercup was not happy. As today in school there was a foodfight, which to no surprise Buttercup was involved in. Bubbles had abandoned Buttercup during the fight to get Octi out of there, who she had brought to school for show and tell, leaving Buttercup to get humiliated and absolutely destroyed by mash potatoes.

"You're not still angry are you?" Blossom asked the green puff whilst the three lounged in their bedroom after just coming back from an emergency call. Buttercup had been sour all day.

"I had seven other kids on me! They completely bested me in that fight!"

"Well to be fair, you do have superpowers" Bubbles reminded.

"That doesn't excuse why you left me hanging today Bubbles. All because of some dumb toy."

"Don't pay attention to her Octi, she's just jealous that I have you and she had to give up her blanket."

"And that's another thing, why did I have to give up my blanket, when you get to keep that stupid toy fish!"

"Mollusk" Bubbles corrected.

"Oh will you shut up! And I don't want you acting all morally superior again!" Buttercup shot at the puff leader.

"I don't act morally superior, I just try to do what is best for everyone, even if that means getting involved and doing something" Blossom said back, slightly frustrated. "And I think it's time you grew up, instead of getting into childish food fights."

"You wanna talk about growing up? Then why are you letting her keep that stupid thing?" Buttercup flew down next to Bubbles and pointed at the toy Octopus.

"You're much stronger Buttercup, and you were ready to give up your blanket," Blossom proclaimed.

"Oh sorry mom" Buttercup mocked. "But I don't think she should keep this," she snatched Octi from Bubbles.

"Hey give him back!" Bubbles grabbed her stuffed toy whilst Buttercup stubbornly held onto it.

"Why don't you just give him up for one night?" Buttercup tugged on it.

"Girls please!" Blossom tried to say as the two girls pulled a limb each of the toy. And unfortunately, being just a stuffed toy and being pulled by two superpowered kids, it wasn't long before the poor thing ripped in half, it's stuffing scattering across the floor. Bubbles gasped and fell to her knees, staring at the ripped Octi.

"Now you've done it" said Blossom.

"Oh great, look Bubbs, before you start the waterworks-" Buttercup attempted to say before the blonde puff burst out into tears. The Professor had heard all the noise in the girls bedroom.

"What's going on in here? Oh no what happened?" he noticed the ripped toy on the floor.

"Buttercup and Bubbles were pulling on it, and it ripped" Blossom explained.

"She tried to take it from me" Bubbles pointed at Buttercup whilst still crying.

"Buttercup." The Professor looked at her sternly.

"Well I, she shouldn't be with that toy anyway! She should have given it up by now!" Buttercup protested.

"She will eventually when she's older. First the foodfight today and now this, that's another week you're grounded for. Now apologise to your sister."

Buttercup sighed. "I'm sorry Bubbles."

"It's time for bed now girls." The Professor knelt down to his 'youngest'. "I'm sorry Bubbles, I'll sow him back up tomorrow, okay."

Bubbles sniffed. "Okay."

All three girls got into bed, and the Professor placed the two halfs of Octi on top of the dresser. "Now try to get some sleep okay? Goodnight girls."

"Goodnight." The light was switched off.

Although saddened, Bubbles didn't forget her plan. With teary eyes she waited until her sisters were fast asleep, and then quietly floated out of bed, changing out of her nightdress and into her usual blue attire. She placed her 'dummy Bubbles' in the bed, and flew down to the kitchen, grabbing a few things for the boys to eat. Back in the bedroom she opened a window to fly out, but before she did, the two pieces of Octi accidently fell into the bag she was carrying the food in. Bubbles began her journey towards Founders, still shedding a few tears over Octi.

Boomer was on the roof of the boy's warehouse. Butch was in a mood as Brick told them Bubbles would probably visit them again at some point, he just didn't know when. And it wasn't long before Boomer spotted a light blue streak heading towards them. Indeed the Powerpuff had come back to see them, and he didn't really mind that, mainly because he saw a friendly likeable side to his counterpart. It only took not fighting her to see that.

Bubbles landed on the roof when she saw Boomer. "Hey Bubbles. Brick said you would be back, didn't expect it to be this late."

"Yeah, I figured I'd visit you guys nightly, if that's alright?" Bubbles said half heartedly.

"I guess so. It's up to Brick really, though I'm sure he wouldn't mind. What's in the bag?"

"Just some bits of food for you boys." Her tone wasn't as cheerful as usual, which the blue ruff noticed.

"And the octopus?" he pointed.

"Wha-, Oh! How did he get in there?" Bubbles realised, Octi must've fallen into her bag. The two pieces of him anyway.

"What is it?" asked Boomer.

"It's my, stuffed toy" Bubbles said in a quiet tone, as if she were embarrassed to say it.

"What happened to him?" Boomer floated over. Bubbles expected him to laugh or something, but his tone of voice had traces of sympathy.

"Well I was fighting with Buttercup. And she started yelling that I was too old for 'this thing'."

The puff floated down and sat on the edge of the building. Boomer sat down next to her.

"She started pulling on Octi, that's his name, and I pulled back, and he ripped in half" she sniffed and a few more tears rolled down her cheeks as she held the two halves of Octi. "He's my favourite toy."

"No wonder you seem so upset." Boomer for some strange reason didn't like seeing her like this. Perhaps it was because it reminded him of when he lost Henry, his mouse. Although that was a living thing and this was a toy, the parallels were there. Also Bubbles had been kind to them the past few days and hadn't tried to fight them or anything.

The ruff looked around on the roof as he got an idea. "Wait here" he told Bubbles as he searched around and managed to find a small needle, and a bit of string which was luckily the same colour as Octi.

He flew down next to her again and took the two halves from her. "Hand me the stuffing please."

Bubbles didn't know what he was doing, but watched him as he placed all the loose stuffing back inside, and then began to sow the two halves together. Her eyes widened a bit and the tears stopped falling. Boomer seemed so delicate and so careful with this, like he was sowing it with his eyes closed.

"Boomer, how, how are you-?"

"Ah they made us sow mailbags all the time in the prison" Boomer smiled.

He bit the piece of string off once he was done, and handed the toy back to her. She gasped as she looked over and examined her stuffed toy. It was completely whole again. You couldn't even see the line of stitching, it blended in completely.

"Octi! You're whole again! You're whole again!" she hugged it. "Boomer you fixed him completely!" she looked at him, her eyes half closed.

"Not bad for someone with no fingers or thumbs huh?" The ruff was then pretty much smothered by a hug from his counterpart.

I'm really really sorry guys that it's been so long since I last updated this fanfic. It's just that I wanted to work on a Christmas story of mine, but now that the Christmas period is over, I'll be working on this again. And I promise it won't take as long to update again.

So anyway, like I said, you saw that Wendy character as I promised you would. (Side note, the best way I can describe her hair is like Melissa's from Milo Murphy's law. That's how I imagined her.) We got to see some Brick's surprising detective skills, sort of, too.

Powerpuff girls and Rowdyruff boys belong to CN.