"You sure we should keep this umbrella?" Brick asked.

"Eh, it makes for a good house decoration" shrugged Butch.

The blue counterparts then entered the warehouse talking with each other.

"You didn't need to, Brick found some money on the street earlier, a twenty dollar bill, which he used to buy us some food today. Don't know where he got the umbrella from though, oh well. Hey guys" Boomer waved to his brothers. "She did show up after all."

"Hello Bubbles" Brick greeted in a formal tone.

"Yeah hey" Butch muttered.

"I brought you guys some things" Bubbles emptied the bag revealing the food supplies.

"Why would you bring us this?" Butch raised an eyebrow.

"Who cares? The point is we got 'em" expressed Boomer kneeling down to the supplies.

"The toy octopus isn't for us too is it?" Brick said as close as he could to a joke.

"Huh? Oh, no. This is my stuffed animal" Bubbles realised she was still holding it in her arms, becoming slightly embarrassed again.

"You have a stuffed toy?" Butch smirked.

"Butch" Brick sternly said.

"It fell in my bag just before leaving I guess. But Boomer fixed it for me. It tore in half in a fight I had with Buttercup" Bubbles explained.

The red and green ruff looked at their brother briefly before turning back to Bubbles. "Speaking of which" Brick wondered "how are you allowed to be here? I doubt that father of yours, Professor Utonium, is letting you go out this late?"

"Well that's the thing" the blonde puff laughed nervously. "He isn't. I snuck out when everyone else was asleep. They're going to get suspicious if I keep heading out like this during the day."

"So you still haven't told them about us?" Boomer realised.

"Not a soul" promised Bubbles raising her stub. "I'm hoping to do this every night when I can, since sometimes my sisters and I go out on patrol in Townsville late, if that's okay of course?"

"Eh, I see no harm" Brick shrugged, and Butch just shook his head rolling his eyes.

The four chemical x users sat around the fire the boys had made in the middle of the warehouse. "Is this all you have for warmth at night?" Bubbles continued with questions.

"That and those newspaper blankets" Boomer answered.

"Couldn't you boys, I dunno, go to an orphanage or something?" she wondered, and Butch just laughed at the idea.

"They'll refuse entry to us Bubbles" Brick explained.

The little puff's naivety still shone through. "But you three are suffering from homelessness too! Even if you are the Rowdyruff boys! Boomer told me what happened to you all about the wallet."

"They don't care" Butch dismissed staring down at the floor. "Violence seems acceptable when it's us it's happening to."

"Oh, I see" Bubbles decided not to press that any further. "So, what do you boys do for fun now? Since you're not, robbing stores or anything like that anymore" she chuckled a little to break the ice.

"Well we play cards sometimes, or ball games with a soccer ball we bought" told Boomer.

"Hm, soccer isn't usually my thing, but I'll give it a try if you want?" Bubbles supposed.

"Nah soccer's a dumb game, I'm just gonna head outside if you don't mind" Butch said in a bored tone and flew up.

"Where you goin'?" questioned Boomer.

"For a cigarette break, I'm just going outside for some air" Butch dismissed flying.

Brick observed him for a bit before turning back to the blue counterparts. "Boomer why don't you draw on the walls with Bubbles for a while, here" he threw him some charcoal before floating up. "Just like you used to on the prison walls."

Boomer looked at Brick confused before turning to Bubbles. "What do ya wanna draw?"

"You like to-? can we draw a bunny?" Bubbles asked excitedly.

Brick flew out onto the roof of the warehouse and joined his green brother. He had his back to the warehouse, staring out at the yellow golden lights of the skyscrapers of Founders city. The neon lights of the city blocks and it's glowing signs accompanied by the faint noise of cars and traffic gave a sense of ambiance.

"It actually looks kinda beautiful from here doesn't it? I wonder what this place looks like to them?"

"Still haven't warmed up to her huh?"

"I don't know why you and blond boy have. You do remember she's part of the same group that fought us and at one point even destroyed us" the green ruff reminded.

"To be fair we kinda did the same thing" said Brick.

"Why are you even letting her visit us? Why are you letting the former enemy, whose sisters would jump at the chance to have us thrown us back in that prison, come in and out of our warehouse like some sort of hotel guest?"

"Didn't you show her some martial arts moves the other day?"

"That doesn't mean I enjoyed it. Brick, it honestly feels like she's just some law official come to check on us to make sure we're 'behaving'."

"Butch, I'm the one who's making sure we don't get into trouble again. Think about it. What if we didn't let her visit us? Bubbles would get suspicious about three former criminals hanging around in another city, she wouldn't just let it be. She would get worried and be bound to tell someone. Before we know it we would be dealing with pink green and a whole bunch of vigilante mobs. So I figured if she came by every now and then and see us for who really are, we wouldn't have to deal with all that" Brick finished his explanation.

Butch refused to look at him, still keeping his sulky demeanour, but he seemed to have accepted the explanation. "Where did you get that umbrella from by the way?" he asked, changing the subject. "It seemed too good a condition for you to have found it on the street."

"Then it must've been recently thrown away" dismissed Brick. Then he stopped. "Do you hear that?"

"Just gunshots, we hear them a lot Brick, especially in this neighbourhood" shrugged Butch.

"Go back inside Butch, it's getting cold out."

"That was a bit sudden."

"Just, don't repeat what I do, okay?" Brick then flew in the direction of the shooting leaving a red streak behind.

"What the hell is he doing?" Butch questioned watching his brother shoot off.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"This is officer Jones, I have an officer down! My partner, gunshot to the leg, we need that back up now-"

"Officer Jones, is it?" Brick floated above the car the two policemen were hiding behind. A shootout between them and an apartment building was taking place in a rundown street nearby.

"You! What are you doing here?" Jones pointed his gun at Brick, visibly very scared.

"Is that a, Rowdyruff?" the injured officer looked up, clutching his leg in pain.

"Just to prove to you, I wasn't in your house to harm you." The Rowdyruff blasted into the apartment building, the assailants confused at him being there, their gunfire not penetrating his skin at all.

He dodged the bullets regardless with his speed, zapped the guns out of their hands with his heat vision and knocked out two men and one woman. Grabbing them all he floated outside and dropped them in front of the squad cars.

Jones stood up, staring dumbfounded at the unconscious assailants and looked at Brick. "Why-?"

"Like I said, my brothers and I, aren't going to hurt anyone, especially any cop, not anymore."

The back up just then arrived, and the red ruff pointed to the wounded officer. "Tell him to keep pressure on that until medical help arrives."

He zoomed off back in the direction of the warehouse, and the other cops ran out of their cars to their colleagues. Among them was Founder's police chief Mccoy, a man who appeared to be in his 50s and whose uniform was different to the rest of the officers.

"Officer Jones, what happened? Was that one'a those, rough boys?" the chief stared in the direction the ruff flew in.

"I-, I'm not sure what happened sir. We were caught in the shooting then all of a sudden that boy appeared, the same one who was in my house earlier, and he apprehended these three" Jones explained.

Chief Mccoy kept staring on for a few seconds before turning back to the other officers. "Get a medic over here quickly," he ordered for the injured officer.

Brick was thinking over his decision just now. He did it to correct his mistake earlier, that's all. He made it clear himself, he and his brothers would not get involved in anything like this, at least not by choice. But as the ruff leader thought more, he was starting to realise something. Something similar to what he felt when he saved that man in the alley who was going to testify.

That officer, officer Jones. He had family. His wife and children. If Brick hadn't intervened in that shooting just now, they could've lost family. To criminals. The Rowdyruff had a similar experience.

Not just Jones and his wife, but those people in the mall. The people standing outside, dreading the thought that their loved ones wouldn't make it. He tried to prevent the memory of his unconscious, blood soaked, battered brothers in the prison medical ward entering his head. He wondered then, whether his brothers would make it when it happened.

"That was a gallant act of heroism wouldn't you say?" Butch said sarcastically, appearing alongside Brick.

"You decided to watch?" Brick replied in an unamused tone.

"You didn't see me."

"No, I heard you. We make a distinctive sound when we fly y'know."

"Yes, and I followed your orders, and didn't intervene" Butch scorned.

"Look, I know I may seem like a huge hypocrite right now, I get that. But the only reason I did that was because, well because, I accidentally flew into that officer's house earlier" Brick hesitantly admitted.

Butch eyed him. Not angry or confused, but curious. "How d'ya do that?"

"I was-, I thought I was, on the trail of a hitman, but I got it wrong and ended up at that officer's house, believing the hitman to be hiding there." the boy confessed.

"So this is not the first time you went back on your own orders?" Butch stated.

"Only because there was a five thousand dollar bounty on him" Brick defended.

"You-, five thousand? Well I don't blame you there. But why should Boomer and I follow your orders, when you don't even do that?" Butch questioned.

"Because Butch I'm starting to think, maybe I don't always know what's best. For us anyway. I mean heck, I hardly ever did before. I'm the reason we ended up in that prison, by making us attack those police officers in Townsville!"

"I suppose" Butch looked down. "I still hate the fact that the guards and the warden thought the beatings against us were acceptable because we had powers, but if we had hit back once, we'd get in trouble."

"So are you going to disobey me and commit a crime?" Brick, not with an angry tone asked.

Butch sighed "No, I'm not. I don't want to go back to that hellhole as much as you do. I was only tempted to commit a crime again because I thought it was inevitable. But I'm telling you now Brick, if the other two puffs find out about us, that's it for us. Thank god Bubbles is, well, Bubbles."

The two brothers floated alongside each other for a bit. Butch then quietly said "I'll play a ball game. With you, and the blues if you want."

Brick grew a little smirk. "Let's go ask them."

The blue ruff and puff had by now, each drawn their own choice of animal on the wall, using up several pieces of charcoal. "I hope you don't mind these drawings on your walls Boomer" worried Bubbles after finishing her bunny.

"Pfft, in this building? It's begging for something like this. By the way, is my shark's nose too big?" Boomer scratched his head.

Bubbles giggled. Once you really got to know Boomer, he was actually quite fun to be around. Before she only fought him, but now she was getting to know a sweet, naive, somewhat innocent side to him. And he could be quite funny too. Heck he fixed Octi for her, just because she looked upset.

It made her wonder what the Rowdyruffs would've turned out to be like if raised by a different parent. If they weren't born to Mojo Jojo. It wasn't their choice to turn out the way they did, for the first part anyway. It was hard to believe that the Boomer she was talking to now was the same boy who committed crimes all those months ago.

At this point Brick and Butch had returned to the warehouse. "You guys took a long time," pointed out Boomer.

"We, just had a talk is all" Brick responded. "So, what ball game should we play?"

"Ooh ooh, could we play piggy in the middle?" Bubbles asked, waving her hand up.

The boys looked at her with blank faces, even Brick. "What? Don't you know-" Bubbles realised. "You don't know do you? Well I'll teach you" she flew down and grabbed the ball. "Normally you play with three people, but we can work with four."

The boys looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders, and listened to Bubbles. After the game, which the three boys, even Butch, seemed to really enjoy, Bubbles had to head home. She picked her empty bag up, along with Octi, and waved goodbye.

"Bye boys, see you again tomorrow night. And thanks again for Octi Boomer" she waved, and flew off in the direction of Townsville.

The three waved back and Brick turned to his brothers. "C'mon we'd better get to bed." The three Rowdyruffs settled down in their cardboard beds, ready for another attempt to stay warm through the night.

Brick awoke grudgingly the next morning to the sound of knocking at the warehouse door to the alleyway of the side of the building. He rubbed his eyes and sat up.

'Ugh, better see who's at the,' he paused. 'Door?'

He floated up and used his x-ray vision. 'No it, it couldn't be' he flew to the door and zapped off the padlock, opening it to see that same woman from the bus stop yesterday.

"Um, hello Brick. Not disturbing you am I?"

Hey guys, another chapter. I feel like not that much happened this chapter, but we got to see a bit of development in Brick. And a bit of Butch too. More will most likely happen next chapter. Updates coming as soon as possible.

Powerpuff girls and Rowdyruff boys belong to CN.