Boomer and Butch had moved their gaming console down to the living room TV, where chief Mccoy, who was their babysitter for the evening, could keep an eye on them.
"So your mother lets you go out in the middle of the night on your own to tangle with criminals but needs someone to babysit you at home?" Mccoy wondered.
"That's the gist of it" Butch shrugged.
"Speaking of which, as soon as mom gets home we'll be heading out" explained Brick, sitting next to his adoptive grandfather on the sofa. "To start our, 'patrol'. If the Founders police are okay with it" he hinted not turning to him.
"Well, I'm not gonna stop you. By the way, you didn't hear this from me, but there's a suspected mob meeting tonight outside a warehouse near the docks. We heard this from a mole. So if you by any chance want to check that out, I dunno" Mccoy vaguely suggested shrugging his shoulders and moving his head from side to side.
"We'll, take a look" replied the red leader catching on.
"And uh, if you want to keep up to date on crimes in progress or recent ones, you can take this" the police chief handed the Rowdyruff a small radio, a police radio, which the boy examined. "Again, you didn't receive this from me."
The front door then opened and Wendy walked through, hanging up her coat.
"Mom you're back!" Boomer flew up and hugged her, which she happily returned smiling.
"Hello boys. Thanks for looking after them dad. Any trouble?"
"No they were as good as gold" the old man told her getting up from the sofa. "How'd it go? Did you explain it to those girls okay? I mean I talked to the leader one over the phone briefly but you probably explained it better."
"They, accepted it. And I assured them that everything was okay with the boys."
"Well then hopefully relations between them will be, peaceful. They've already had dinner and such. These three just need a bath now, they have baths right? For their, patrol tonight" the chief informed her.
"Thanks again dad, have a goodnight." Wendy hugged him before he left with the boys waving him goodbye.
"So, how'd they take it?" asked Butch who had stopped playing his game and attention was entirely focused on what his mother had to say.
"Blossom and Buttercup were definitely, surprised, at the fact I adopted you three" Wendy told them, sitting down next to Brick on the sofa removing her high heels. "And to my surprise, they didn't say all that much. Not to me anyway. Other than asking the Professor if he heard what I said correctly, they just sat there, silent and very confused."
"That's, kinda worrying" stated Brick after hearing his mother's story. "It means they were more shocked than we expected them to be, which could mean they might not believe you."
"I explained to them everything as best as I could, plus Bubbles chimed in a bit, playing along of course, trying to get her sisters to warm up to you, bless her." The woman stood up and headed to the stairs.
Butch groaned. "Can't those damn Powderpuff sissies accept the fact that even we can experience suffering?"
"Right now they're not a problem. If they ever become one, then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" Brick planned out.
"Yes, well I'll run you three a bath before you go out tonight. And I'd better get changed too." As Wendy headed upstairs, Brick got up, floated down to the lab, and took an older different radio, one used for playing music, and removed the SIM card from the one chief Mccoy gave him, sliding into the bigger device. Now he could keep up to date with ongoing crimes, and know about ones that were currently happening. Kind of like what the girls have with that hotline phone of theirs.
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It was now late at night, and while most of Founders city had its own artificial lights, most of the docks had to rely on the moon. It wasn't hard for the Rowdyruffs though, they managed to find that meeting the chief informed them about just fine.
Staying silent atop a storage house, the three new superheroes observed two cars pulling up, and two groups of people stepping out of them. One group looked more formal than the other did.
"That side must be the mob" Brick observed whispering. The deal began between the two sides.
"So fellas, did ya bring it?" the man at the front of the group of mobsters asked.
"Sure did, it's all in here" a man from the other group patted a briefcase he was holding.
"Oh yeah, let's see" the mobster requested.
The man with the less formal group then proceeded to open the briefcase, revealing stacks of hundred dollar bills, which was enough to make even the ruffs eyes widen.
"Look at all that dough" Butch said in a quiet but surprised tone.
"How did thugs like them get that kind of money?" Boomer wondered, whispering too.
Brick pressed the button on his belt, making the bill of his hat spin around and the small red screen drop down. Hitting 'record' on it, the Rowdyruff leader continued to observe the deal.
"So d'ya get our stuff?" the informal man asked.
"Right here" the mobster clicked his fingers and his subordinates behind him carried out not a briefcase, but some sort of small crate, which they took the lid off to show their 'customers'.
Inside was all scientific equipment, stuff used for experimenting. And from Brick's small red screen in front of his eyes, Wendy could see the whole deal from the computer at home down in the lab.
"Beakers syringes and bunsen burners, equipment used for chemistry. But, the mob doesn't usually deal out items like this, nor are these the type of thugs to be scientists" she stated.
"Perhaps they're trying to cook up some drugs themselves" suggested Butch.
"Perhaps" was all Brick replied with.
The mobsters down below had the same question. "So uh, what you gonna do with all that sciencey equipment?" asked the head mobster now holding the briefcase with the money.
"Sorry, can't talk about it. The bosses won't allow us."
"And who might these bosses be?" a threatening voice from above caused the mobsters and thugs look up, only to see three streaks of light dart at them. It all happened so fast, there was no time for the mobsters and thugs to draw their weapons, each one of them from both groups was knocked out cold.
The only one left conscious was the head of the informal group of thugs, the one that offered the briefcase filled with dollar bills. Attempting to crawl away, he felt himself being lifted up into the air and his back slammed against a nearby wall, now faced with a pair of angry red eyes.
"What bosses? Who gave you all this money?" his attacker demanded to know.
The man became visibly terrified. "You're, you're just like my bos-, no, you're those Rowdyruffs aren't you? W-well I can't tell you, they'll kill me!"
"I'll do a lot worse if you don't talk" Brick threatened.
"Even if I did, they never gave me their names, not even an alias, I honestly don't know who they are!" the man confessed, and seeing that there was no point carrying this on anymore, the ruff gave one final blow knocking him out like the rest.
"Mom, I'm sending you the recording of this meeting, inform the police anonymously of this location with that evidence" the ruff leader requested over the comm.
Standing next to the dropped bag of dollar bills, Butch and Boomer stared in amazement at how thugs like this could even obtain this sort of money.
"Wow, whoever hired these guys must be loaded," Boomer remarked, scanning over the briefcase.
Brick floated over and gave a quick scan of his own, running it through database files. "Hm, I doubt it" he replied to his blue brother. "This money is stolen. These notes were originally stored away in Townsville's first national bank, but according to the files, they were never moved."
"You know, there was a robbery at that exact bank the previous night" informed Wendy over the comm. "According to the report, it happened in less than an hour, millions of dollars stolen."
"The briefcase they brought it in is too old to be traced from where they might've bought it. Mom, in that anonymous tip to the police, inform them about the stolen money as well."
"On it Brick."
"So what now?" questioned Butch.
"I've got a picture of the license plate from the mobsters car, we'll trace that back at home. For now, we'll continue our patrol around the city."
"The thing that worries me though boys," Wendy spoke over the comm. "That science research equipment is banned in most countries, including this one. That type, those syringes and scalpels and things like that, was actually used for experimenting on, people."
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School began the next day, after another successful night of crime fighting. The boys didn't seem too tired this time, as their mother did make them come home at a certain point, and they were ready once again to face the socialness of elementary.
It turned out that one of the biggest factors to the boys gaining trust amongst the other students was time. Some of the other students by now had begun to see that the boys wouldn't truly hurt them. It also helped that the two other children, Matt and Rebecca, were starting to hang out with them a lot more. Often seen together being pushed on the swings or playing marbles. Rebecca even showed the boys how to play hopscotch, which she strictly forbade them to fly.
Not all students and teachers trusted the Rowdyruffs still. Even so that any student that even said something good about the ruffs, was ridiculed and laughed at by the students that still didn't trust them.
In class that morning, Mr Scott was handing out a group task he wanted the kids to work together on. "Okay everyone, I want you to do this in groups, which I'll put you into" he announced, showing the students which tables he wanted them to sit, mixing the class up slightly.
"You're putting us into groups sir? But, but-" one girl protested, glancing slightly at the Rowdyruffs.
"It'll be fun, now move to your seats please" the teacher ushered, and although reluctantly, the kids did as he said.
Brick Boomer and Butch felt slightly awkward at having to float away from their table and approach another, with a bunch of other students who still weren't too sure of the brothers.
Boomer tried to greet them. "Hey" he said to the table of students but got no response.
"Okay class, now your job is to design a poster of a map of Europe. You can use any colour, and I don't expect you to name all the countries, but just try your best" Mr Scott set them off on their task.
On Brick's table, the kids were talking amongst themselves.
"So Romania goes here right?"
"No it''s next to the black sea, somewhere."
"Anyone know the shape of Croatia?"
"That's the boot one isn't it?"
Brick decided to speak up, remembering all those atlas's in the prison several times. "I think it's something like this" he took a pencil and drew an outline of Croatia.
"Huh, that does fit" one kid said.
"I guess, but what about the others?" Another asked.
On Boomer's table, the blue ruff began colouring in a section of the map. "Hey kid, we're not done outlining" one boy told him before seeing what Boomer had drawn.
"Wait that's, coloured in perfectly," he observed.
"How'd, you learn to draw like that?" a girl asked.
"I, didn't learn" was all Boomer replied, and the other kids watched in amazement as he coloured within all the wrong outlined countries.
Eventually they finished. Mr Scott walked around the tables, praising the students. "Good job everyone. You all got a good number of the countries right. As I said, I didn't expect you to get them all, but nice artistic work from you guys I see" he pointed to Boomer's table, making the kids seated there smile and one gave a friendly nudge to the ruff.
Mr Scott then got to Brick's table, where even he was surprised at the student's work. "Why that's, a perfect map." The lines were a bit squiggly and the colouring in was scruffy, but it was Europe. "You got all forty-five countries?"
"Forty-six sir, counting Kosovo. And that's also if you count the United Kingdom as one country, otherwise there'd be forty nine" Brick added.
Mr Scott chuckled, clearly impressed. "Well in that case, I'll have to give your table a gold star each." This pleased the students next to Brick, and were having second thoughts about sitting apart from the Rowdyruff.
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The bell rang and along with their peers, the three crimefighters floated outside onto the playground. As they were floating their two school friends approached them. "Hey guys!" greeted Matt coming up beside them.
"Hi Matt."
"We heard what you did last night!" said Rebecca excitedly. "You three knocked out an entire two groups of thugs. Well, one of them was part of the mob, but still." They reimagined it the exaggerated way young children tend to do.
"You heard about that?" asked Butch. "How?"
"Our dad's a police officer, and was one of the first on the scene last night after you three were there" the girl answered.
"Has he mentioned us any other times?" Brick wondered.
"Sometimes, just on the stuff that you guys have done. I don't exactly know what his opinion of you is, but from what we heard from him, you guys should be classed as heroes!"
Brick looked away. "I don't really class myself as a hero."
"What are we then? Vigilantes?" Butch questioned. Brick didn't answer.
"Y'know it's kinda weird. We've heard a lot of stories of you three fighting crime, but all the news people are saying that your actions are just gonna cause more crime" Matt told them, visibly confused himself.
"But the exact opposite has been happening! The crime rate's gone down" Boomer protested.
"They say things like you're still covering for possible criminal activities" Matt continued, trying his best to imitate the news anchor.
"Possible criminal activi-, we're three kids with an adoptive mother and attending an elementary school. And also have superpowers" exclaimed the green ruff.
"Why would they say those things about us Brick?" the blond boy asked his brother.
Brick muttered "I can think of a few reasons."
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At the Utonium household, Bubbles was at the table with a question paper in front of her and a pencil pressed against her lips. The maths homework given by Ms Keane was really stumping her. A measurement problem which she didn't have the first clue on how to solve.
The Professor was busy downstairs in the lab so she couldn't ask him, and there was no point asking Buttercup as she didn't even do her homework. So the blue Powerpuff picked up the paper and flew upstairs, opening the door to the sisters bedroom, where Blossom was going over all the recent news reports about the Rowdyruff boys on the computer.
The puff floated over. "Um, Blossom, I'm having some trouble with this maths problem, and it's due tomorrow. Since you've already done your homework, could you help me with mine?"
Her sister didn't answer at first. Only after a few seconds did she respond "Huh? Oh, what is it Bubbles?" she asked not taking her eyes off the screen.
"Well it's just that I have the homework Ms Keane gave us, and I was wondering if you could help me with it?"
"Bubbles can it wait until later? I'm in the middle of important detective work right now, and I have to concentrate" Blossom tried to shoo her off. Not out of contempt, but she had better things to do right now. "I'll help you in a minute alright?"
Bubbles sighed and floated off, wondering how she was going to do this. Well, there was one other person she could ask. Flying downstairs she called out "Professor, I'm just heading out for a while."
"Okay Bubbles just be back for dinner" he replied working on a machine not really paying attention.
Zooming out of the house and through the other buildings of Townsville, she travelled a few miles and arrived in a suburban area of Founders instead.
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"So you times the length and width to find the uh, the…"
"Area" Brick finished the girl's sentence.
"Yeah, area. In centimetres squared right?" she inquired.
"Right. So if the area of the floor in this problem is sixteen centimetres squared, and the carpet is four, how many metres are there left?" The red Rowdyruff was sat cross legged across from the Blue Powerpuff who was sitting the same down in the lab of Wendy's house. The maths paper on the floor between them.
Bubbles did the sum in her head. "Sixteen take four that's.., twelve! Twelve centimetres squared right?"
"Correct. The same with the next problem. You add a table which is two centimetres so that leaves…"
"Ten!" exclaimed the blonde superheroine quite excitedly. "Ten centimetres squared!"
"I think you've got the hang of this now" figured Brick as he stood and floated up, as did Bubbles. "Our mom said you can play with Boomer and Butch in the back yard if you want once you're finished, I think they're playing tag or something" the ruff dismissed before floating over to the computer next to him.
"Aren't you gonna play too?" asked Bubbles who was about to fly upstairs.
"I've, got work to do" the ruff replied bringing up a screen of license plate numbers. "Maybe you should ask Butch to show you more martial arts moves. Even I sometimes ask him. It's very useful" Brick suggested.
Bubbles was about to fly out, when she stopped and turned around, like she was going to ask something else. "Um, Brick?" she finally said and he looked at her.
"Do you, think I have bad judgement?" she didn't look him in the eye.
There was a brief silence for a few seconds, until the boy responded with "From what I've seen, you tend to hear both sides of the story first, at least in our case you did. And made up your own mind based on those stories and your own experience. That's the kind of judgement everyone should have."
He gave a small smile to the girl which she gratefully returned, and as he turned back to the computer and she turned to leave the room, she whispered a quiet "Thanks" and then zipped outside.
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A new email popped up on Blossom's computer. She had been waiting for an update from Townsville's chief of police, who's team was working on restoring the damaged CCTV footage from the robbery at the town's first national bank. So when the alert came up she was more than eager to open it.
A video file was attached, but first, she read what the chief had written in the email:
Miss Utonium,
We have just about managed to restore the footage as best as we could. It's still somewhat blurry however, since we couldn't fix all of it. But it did pick up three, very quick silhouettes, who appear to have the same powers as you and your sisters. I believe our suspicions have been confirmed.
Chief of police.
Blossom opened the video file and watched the footage play out. It was blurry like the chief said, but a while in, three streaks of light zoomed into the bank, damaging most things in there, and ripping the vault door open, throwing it across the room. Leaving the place how it was found the morning after.
Because of the blurry footage, it was hard to tell what shade of colour the light streaks were, but from what the Powerpuff could tell, they were blue green, and possibly red.
The figures, who were the same height as Blossom and her sisters, sped out the room, bags of money in their hands, before the camera was damaged completely.
The footage ended there, and the Pink Powerpuff sat there with a smile etching on her face, as she knew the chief was right, her suspicions had been confirmed. "Gotcha."
This chapter's a bit shorter than the last one, I was worried that there wasn't much happening in this chapter, but I suppose it builds up the mystery a bit more. I did plan to write a bit about Butch being in the soccer team but I think I'll save that for later. Anyway, updates coming as soon as possible.
Jinx: Thank you very much, here it is.
Ekka189: The boys are slowly earning trust, it'll just take time of course.
John: We'll soon see who was behind the heist.
Powerpuff girls and Rowdyruff boys belong to CN.
