CHAPTER ELEVEN: "Face to Face"
The city of Townsville …
The time was 8:00 AM. Blossom and her sisters entered their class with all their required materials; however the day did not seem normal at all. They could not help but to keep looking over their shoulder.
"When Brick comes in here we should pound the lights out of him and make him tell us what he's up to," suggested Buttercup as she sat down next to Blossom.
"No, there are too many people here and somebody could get hurt if we start a fight," replied Blossom.
"Well then what can we do?" asked her blond sister.
"We don't really have enough evidence to convict them by the law. The only thing we can do right now is go to school with them and wait for them to make a mistake, then exploit it," replied Blossom. "That is hoping that they make a mistake before they get too far with whatever evil that they are planning," she added to herself in her thoughts. As leader she decided it would be best if she kept her doubts to herself.
Suddenly the hotline rang. Blossom immediately dashed over to the phone and lifted it off the receiver. There was one hotline in every class that she had and she thought that the measure was a little excessive, but the mayor had ordered it and there was no way of reversing it.
"Blossom here... What?... We'll be right there!"
The lead heroine hung up the phone. "Girls we need to get to the beach! Now!"
With that the Power Puff Girls dashed out of the class room and flew toward the beach at an incredible speed, weaving through the massive buildings of the city.
"Is it the boys?" asked Bubbles.
"Nope, giant monster," replied her red headed sister.
"Finally! It's been too long since I've had some monster action," stated green-eyed puff with eagerness in her voice.
However, when they finally arrived on the scene they heard something that they didn't expect to hear at all: cheering. The Power Puff Girls exchanged quizzical looks with each other before rounding the final building of the city to arrive at the beach where the monster had surfaced.
There on the beach the ugly monster was laying, already slain. A massive crowd of Townsville citizens was gathered around the scene. They cheered and whistled and applauded for their heroes who had saved them from utter destruction. However, their heroes were not the girls. The Power Puff Girls looked toward where the praises of the citizen were directed and spotted three figures silhouetted by the sun, which had risen not too long ago. The figures descended out of the sun and revealed themselves to be the Rowdy Ruff Boys.
They hovered only 50 feet off the ground, before Brick raised his hand up and the applause and cheering ceased momentarily.
"Citizens of Townsville," he began. His voice seemed to echo through the sky so that all could hear. "You have no need to fear of such threats as this pitiful excuse for a monster. From now on the city of Townsville will be under our watch," He paused for effect "The watch of: The Rowdy Ruff Boys!"
The crowd went crazy again, cheering and applauding the new supposed super heroes. As the applause died down one citizen spoke up. "Hey, wait a minute! Didn't you try to help Mojo Jojo take over the world a few years ago?"
Brick immediately pointed to the citizen and with a solemn look on his face said, "Yes, I did." His expression seemed highly sad. To his audience it appeared as if he had been through much grief in the past and was filled with regret that the subject had even been brought up. His expressions immediately drove the city to have sympathy for him and take pity on him. "I have done many sins in my past. These things I have regretted for many years and the grief that they brought me has been unbearable. I did these things because I was brain washed by my first father and creator, Dr. Mojo Jojo, into believing that what I was doing was the right thing."
Within moments he had the citizens of Townsville hanging on his every word and pouring out compassion on him. "By the time I had realized that what I was doing was far from the right thing I had committed many horrible wrongs and destroyed many lives. I continued this because I had hoped that it would earn me the approval of my father. But little did I know that nothing short of world domination could earn me his approval. For my sins I must say that I owe you, the citizens of Townsville, an apology. Please forgive me."
Blossom could not believe it. The people of Townzville were shedding tears. "We forgive you!" they said.
Brick continued. "And now I give another apology to the people whom I owe it to the most." He immediately looked in the direction of the Power Puff Girls. The citizens followed his gaze and seemed to have just noticed that the girls were hovering there. With mist in his eyes Brick asked, "Will you forgive us, Power Puff Girls?"
There was a long pause. "That clever little scumbag certainly knows how to act well," thought Blossom.
Blossom instead decided to turn to the people of Townsville. "Townsville, are you kidding me? This is the same villain who tried to help Mojo Jojo conquer the world and you're going to trust him because he did one good thing after many years of hiding? That's very suspicious to me."
Just then, one citizen shouted from the crowd, "You're just being bitter because they got here first and you wanted the glory!"
"What!" shouted Buttercup in disbelief. "I beat up monsters and bad guys because I like to, Bubbles does because she wants to help people, and Blossom does it out of moral responsibility. Why do you think we would get angry over glory?"
"Yeah, right," another citizen said with sarcasm. "Then forgive the Rowdy Ruff Boys!"
Several dozen voices in the crowd began to agree with him and it was not long before the crowd was chanting, "Forgive them! Forgive them! Forgive them!"
The girls were completely shocked by how quickly Brick had obtained Townsville's favor. Grudgingly Blossom floated forward towards the boys. Brick moved forward as well while his brothers stood still, arms crossed and smirking at their leader.
The two leaders met above the middle of the crowd. Blossom extended a hand. "I don't trust you, but I will forgive you," she said.
Brick took the hand and replied with a heartfelt "Thank you."
The people of Townsville cheered wildly. While they cheered, Blossom said in a voice low enough only for Brick to hear, "I'll find out what you're up to soon enough."
For a brief moment Brick's heartfelt gladdened expression on his face switched to a smirk, then switched back. He gave no reply.
Afterwards they separated and returned to their siblings. The Chemical X charged teenagers then headed back to school and made it back to their classes on time.
Blossom and her sisters took their seats once again. The pink puff carefully observed Brick as he entered the class room.
The teacher immediately approached him. "Brick, you do understand that lying to the teacher, as you did to me yesterday when you claimed to the be 'Rick Jones,' is an offense worthy of disenrollment here at Pokey Oaks High," she said.
Brick was calm. This time he had come up with a story for himself before class and his acting immediately came into play. In a very polite and mannerly way he explained to her that he had been worried that other students might not understand that he had changed from being a villain to a hero and he was worried that they might make him a target of social isolation and humiliation. He also explained that he was waiting for the right time to let everyone know that he had changed and that he planned on letting her know in advance, but could not think of a way to tell her.
Blossom couldn't help but notice that Brick was extremely brilliant in how he handled people and how he acted. The teacher bought every word and he was let off the hook without even a slap on the wrist.
He took his seat next to Blossom. This time, during the whole class Blossom did not even acknowledge that he existed.
Butch entered his first class: Biology.
He took a random seat and sat in it without a word. He hated biology and that fact that he had it as his first class in the early morning only made things worse.
"Hey, that's my seat," said someone next to him. Butch cranked his head around and his eyes met that of a large student with a football jacket on. "Move it, dude," he added.
The green-eyed ruff merely grunted and ignored him. The student reached over and flicked the back of his neck. This extremely annoyed the green ruff. He didn't move, but instead waited for him to do it again. "Hey," the student said in rough voice before reaching over again. This time Butch reached behind him and quickly grabbed the student's fingers before he placed a crushing grip on them. The football player gave a squeal as the Rowdy Ruff pulled him forward and gave him a glare that could shatter glass. Once he saw that the student was afraid he shoved him back. The football player merely moved to another seat.
At that time the teacher walked in and the class quieted down. The teacher reminded Butch of Bill Nye The Science Guy. He seemed overly cheerful and highly energetic, the ideal person for Butch to avoid.
"It appears we have a new face with us today! Where is Mr. Butch? Please come up to the front and introduce yourself," he said with a delightful tone.
Butch grunted and got out of his seat to approach the front of the class, hands in his pockets. The boys of the class began to size him up while the girls stared at him intently.
"Hello, Mr. Butch. I am Dr. Oblinsky. Normally at the beginning of every class we go around and introduce ourselves. Since you weren't here for our first class you're going to make up for it today. So please tell the class the number one hobby that you have."
"I like to fight," he said flatly.
"And what is the thing you dislike the most?"
"Anyone stupid enough to get in my way."
There was a long silence in the class. Mr. Oblinsky then decided to have Butch take his seat again and cut his introduction short.
Right when lunch started Blossom and her sisters went to their lockers to put away their books. Their lockers were all in the same hallway. Buttercup's locker was right across from Blossom's, while Bubbles' was to her red-haired sister's right a few columns down.
Blossom put her books away and turned to her sisters. "Girls, today after school I plan on going to the Townsville bank to see if I can find Henry Stanford's research. Once I find a way to continue the search we'll work our way from there. We've got to catch up to the boys."
"We're right behind you, Bloss," Bubbles replied as she shut her locker. It was then that she noticed someone had been standing right behind her locker's door. He was the cutest boy she had ever seen. At that moment she realized that it was Boomer who she had been looking at. He seemed distracted with putting his books into his own locker, which was right next to Bubbles'. That in no way stopped Bubbles from being startled by the sudden sight of him and she let out a sudden and brief shriek.
The shriek startled Boomer and he immediately looked towards Bubbles, just noticing that she was there. He looked at her quizzically.
Buttercup and Blossom were there in an instant. "What did you do to our sister?" the green-eyed heroine said accusingly.
"Um… I didn't do anything. I was just putting my books in my-"
Boomer never finished his sentence. His brother's happened upon the scene and his leader cut him off. "Well, what have we here? You know, Blossom, three to one odds aren't really that fair," Brick said mockingly.
Boomer and Butch quickly stood to their leader's left and right assuming a formation. Butch had his arms crossed and his face had sheer hatred written all over it. Boomer had his hands on his hips and sported a scowl on his face. The Girls did the same and soon they stood face to face with each heroine facing her own counterpart.
"Mark my words," Blossom began, "You will lose. Your little ruse may have fooled Townsville, but it doesn't fool us."
"Blossom, you have me mistaken. I am seeking to find the pieces of the key so that they don't fall into the wrong hands," Brick replied.
"And your hands are a perfect place for them," Blossom said with sarcasm dripping from her mouth.
"I've changed for good. I no longer desire to cause destruction. We should join forces," he said.
"Yeah right," Buttercup said. "If you really want to help Townsville, just stay out of our way and clean up the mess we leave behind."
"Yeah," Bubbles added before sticking her tongue out at them.
"Fine we won't work together. I guess there's no point in continuing this conversation. Good day to you, Miss Utonium," he said before doing an about face and walking in the opposite direction of the girls. Butch followed him. Boomer went to his locker to finish putting his books into it. He stole a glance at Bubbles before he went to follow his brothers.
As the Rowdy Ruff boys went out to lunch two girls blocked their path and stopped them. One of them was blond, the other was a brunette. Instead of school uniforms, they each wore brightly colored clothes that revealed plenty of their finely tanned skin. Both of them had expensive jewelery and make up on as well. Their figures were very shapely and they were both very beautiful.
"Whoa," said Butch.
Brick seemed more or less irritated by the fact that they were blocking his path to the lunch line. "May I help you?" he asked calmly.
"Listen, Natasha wants you to sit with her at The One. What do you say?" said the brunette.
"Who is Natasha?" he asked blankly.
The brunette opened her mouth to speak, but the blond cut her off. "How rude of you, Meagan, not to introduce us to him," she said to her friend in a chidding manner and extended a hand towards Brick. "Hello, my name's Kaitlyn and this is Meagan. We've been going to Pokey Oaks since elementary. We could show you around if you like."
"That won't be necessary. Name's Brick. These are my brothers, Butch and Boomer." He said as he took the handshake. At the same time he stole a glance at the lunch line and could not help but notice that it was getting longer.
"We know who you three are," said Meagan. "So are you going to sit at The One?"
"I'll think about it, let me get my lunch first," he said as he immediately began walking toward the lunch line.
Butch decided that he would rather sneak off school campus and get his own lunch, even though going off campus was against the rules. Of course, that didn't mean much to him. Boomer went with Brick to the lunch line.
"Hey, bro. Where do we go after this as far as getting the last jewel?"
"When we get back to the warehouse I want you to give me the translation to those writings inside the Egyptian temple. I'll study those tonight, then once I find a lead we'll continue from there," confidently replied Brick.
"What about the girls? Are we going to need to fight them again?"
"Only if they get in our way," replied Brick as he got his lunch.
Right after he got his lunch the red ruff realized that he had nothing useful to do with his lunch time other than eat. He also realized that Butch had disappeared from his sight. Figuring that there was nothing better to do he decided that meeting this "Natasha" person and getting to know some of the students better might well be worth his time.
Red Crown: Remember to review if you want me to update. It motivates me to write.
Edit: This is funny. I didn't know if the city's name was spelled Townsville or Townzville. I went on the Cartoon Network website and discovered that it was correctly spelled Townsville. I fixed this error in this chapter. Sorry about that.