I own nothing from fusionfall. I wish i did but that will never happen.

Chapter 17: Downtown

After two hours on the Slider, Holden finally reaches City Station and starts to make his way to the park. He passes by City Hall, and is reluctantly stopped by Princess.

Princess grins and then replies in a sly voice, "Well, look who it is. I have a little favor to ask of you, Holden."

He groans a loud groan, only because he knows Princess is going to send him to do some dirty work for the things she wants.

She then says in an enticing voice, "Come on, I'll pay you even. Doesn't that make you want to do this even more?"

Holden silently stands there with a scowl and shouts, "What do I look like, one of your servant or someone you can buy?"

The few people that are around look questionably in their direction.

"You just got burned Princess. Just leave Holden alone before I clock you." A voice loudly says, coming from above.

Princess looks up and shock spreads across her face. The voice belongs to Buttercup.

"I thought you were still missing." Princess stammers.

Buttercup grins and replies happily, "Well, I would be still if Holden hadn't found me. Now, get lost!"

Princess sulks away in utter disgust, but not before muttering about getting back at Buttercup.

"Well I'm going back to Marquees. I have a session to get to with Ace."

Buttercup waves to Holden and flies off.

Holden continues to walk and eventually arrives at the park which looks like a complete war zone.

Outside of the infected zone is a small operation base with an RV out front. Three people are looking intently over sensors and other data on the opposite side of the RV.

"I have a theory that this infected zone is what our planet is going to look like if we don't stop Fuse." An older gentleman in a red Hawaiian shirt had said in a clear deceive voice.

Holden rounds the RV so he could talk to the three people.

The man turns around, smiles and says in a happy tone, "So you must be Holden. Coop said you were coming. I've heard a lot about you from my grandson, Ben."

Nigel marches up to Holden and sticks out his hand to shake Holden's and replies in his best leader voice, "Good working on saving Sector V for me."

Holden grins and replies modestly, "I was just doing my duties, Nigel. It was nothing. Here's the hard drive, Max."

Holden hands the item to Max carefully.

Grandpa Max looks at it for few moments, frowns, and responds a short time later, "Well I can repair most of it but, Dexter will have to do the rest. When I'm done, I'll deliver it for you."

Holden nods and replies gratefully, "Thanks Max, I got some data that I need to deliver to Dexter. See you later."

Holden gets on his hover board and starts for Tech Square. As he arrives outside the building, his hover board shorts outs, sparks, and turns out to be beyond repair.

The door to Dexlabs opens and Computress rolls up to him and asks in her chipper voice, "What can I do for you Holden?"

Holden explains to Computress about the information he had gathered.

Computress nods and replies, "I shall give Dexter this Intel for you immediately. I must inform you that the Slider system has been taken offline for repairs though. If you are headed back to Sector V, please try to find another mode of transport."

Computress rolls back into Dexlabs and the door closes. Holden walks over to the skyway minions that work for Mojo, but they unfortunately had just called it a day. For the next hour Holden tries to find some way back to Sector V. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. in City Station has been disabled by Princess who had been rather annoyed because of what had happened earlier with Buttercup.

Holden sighs deeply, because he is out of ideas on how to get back to the tree house in timely manner.

I could ask Bubbles or Buttercup to fly me back, but I don't want to take advantage of them since they are busy. Buttercup must be rehearsing right now and I know Bubbles is protecting the Mayor, Holden thought as he slowly makes his way over to the mall.

He stops by the hover board sales stand to look at buying a replacement board, but everything that they are selling, even the older models of hover boards, are overpriced. Holden groans at the prices and walks across the street over to City Hall to check on the nanos and to see if Bubbles is playing with them. The nanos turn out to be floating around playing tag or other small games with each other.

Looks like Bubbles is off elsewhere, but where could she have gone? Holden ponders on this thought as he goes back to the mall to find something to eat.

Bubbles bends down and smells the Orchids that had been planted around Orchid Bay long before the war started. She sighs heavily. Bubbles feels that this is the only time she can just relax besides playing with the nanos.

Sometimes she wishes she had someone to be with. Blossom has Holden, but they never even tell each other how they feel. Buttercup is with Ace and even has a profession, and Bubbles? She didn't have anyone.

"Bubbles, if you're out here smelling the Orchids by yourself then you must be feeling rather lonely."

She looks behind her shoulder to see Boomer floating on his back. Bubbles frowns at the sight of him. Boomer could be sweet, but that sweetness always turned out to be devoured by the evil side of him when it came to fighting.

"Yes I am Boomer. It's stupid how my sisters have people to be with and I don't." B

Boomer falls on the ground and then stammers with an scared expression on his face, "Wait, B-B-Buttercup is alive?"

Bubbles smiles at the fact he is scared to death.

"She's dating Ace, you big dummy. She's Belladonna." Bubbles says and giggles.

Boomer looks at the ground and then says, "Bubbles, let's go on a date. I'll treat you to something down at the mall."

Bubbles is amazed that he asked her out on a date then and responds. "Alright, there's a new tea stand there with some Bubble tea. I heard it's incredible."

They fly over to the mall and find the stand and order their tea.

Bubbles squeals excitedly, "It's delicious! I wish I could get the recipe and then I could make this whenever I want for the nanos."

Boomer tries to keep a straight face, but can't help but chuckle at seeing Bubbles so happy. Suddenly, his face turns white, as he spots Holden at a table nearby out of the corner of his eye. Bubbles looks behind Boomer and waves to Holden.

Holden walks over to them and replies with a raised eyebrow, "Are you and Boomer on a date, Bubbles?"

Bubbles turns red and responds sheepishly, "Yeah, please don't let Blossom know. She would scold me. What are you doing here?"

In truth, Blossom would probably just give her a mild lecture.

Holden frowns and responds slowly, "Well, I was down here delivering a few things, when my hover board died. I was just about to leave to walk back. Well anyways, have a nice time."

He waves back and starts the trip back home.

Bubbles and Boomer finish their tea and they walk away from the mall before Boomer says, "Thanks for the date Bubbles."

He kisses her and files away quickly. Her face turns bright red. Bubbles touches her face where he had kissed her, letting her fingertips linger on the soft piece of skin. She couldn't believe what had just happened, but she manages to slowly make her way back to City Hall with a bright red face, and a big smile that stretches from ear to ear.

Expanded end for Bubbles' date with Boomer. Anyway its was kinda obvious that i was setting up for bubblesxboomer