Chapter 4: Unexpected hero
"He just let you go?" Blossom says as the Powerpuffs fly home, "but why?"
Buttercup frowns at her "why are you even questioning it? The whole thing wasn't Bubbles fault in the first place".
Bubbles was the first to land at the Utonium residence "he just brought me in and said that the whole thing was just a mistake on his part. He said he would investigate who the real culprit is".
Blossom lands and follows Bubbles through the door "that idiot, I already told him who the culprit is, why is he being so stubborn?"
Buttercup sighs and plops on the couch "if I didn't know any better I would think he was covering for someone".
Blossom frowns at her while heading to her room "He's our principal; he wouldn't do something like that".
Bubbles goes into the kitchen and to the fridge, she then sees the note on it and smiles. The professor decided to go on a 5 week vacation in the Bahamas; this gave the girls free range of the house till he got back. Even though he was gone right now, it still felt as though he was still there with all the notes he posted everywhere. Bubbles reads his latest one "don't forget to take out the garbage and pay the gardener this Friday".
Buttercup looks over at her "how does he do that?" she hears something faint outside. It was the sound of loud music however it was not loud enough to disturb their evening "Butches party, they're kicking it off early this time".
Bubbles sighs and takes out the milk from the fridge and pours herself a glass, she then goes over to the cabinet and grabs a bag of Oreo cookies. She smiles and enjoys her snack while taking out her textbook to do her homework "well, knowing butch it's probably going to stretch on through the night. Thank god they live so far away in the city".
Buttercup channel surfs and slouches against the couch "well the volume on that shit must be off the charts if we could hear it from here". She gets bored quickly and turns off the T.V, she then gets up and goes over to the kitchen "well anyway, whose turn is it to make dinner?"
"Yours remember" Bubbles grins at her "blossom cooked last time and I did it the night before".
"Whatever" Buttercup says reaching the phone "I'm ordering pizza, you guys don't like the shit I cook anyway". She dials the number and looks over at bubbles "Pepperoni tonight?"
"And half plain cheese for Blossom" bubbles chimes in about to start her homework.
"Ok" Buttercup says and calls in the order, while she is on the phone bubbles tries to get her homework going. For some reason her concentration this evening was leaving her, she just couldn't keep her mind on her work.
As the evening went on, the girls ate their pizza dinner and conversed on everything that had gone on that day at school. The subject of brick had come up causing Bubbles to look up at blossom "what?"
Blossom looks back at her "I bet brick was behind what happened to you today, bubbles".
Buttercup tilts her head and takes a bite from her pizza"wow, do you blame him for everything these days".
"I don't blame him for everything" Blossom says defensively "I'm just connecting the dots here, you said yourself that he bumped into bubbles. He probably slipped the drugs on her when he helped her up".
Buttercup takes another bite from her pizza "never thought of that". Bubbles suddenly looks down at her pizza, beginning to lose her appetite, would he really do that to her? She knew that she shouldn't put it pass him; he was a villain, power or no power.
Blossom pours herself another glass of soda and looks at them, her demeanor softened "look I know that I target the Ruffs a lot, and most people think that I'm bullying them. I'm not picking on them at all, it's just….." She puts the bottle down on the table and sighs a little.
Bubbles genuinely wants to know "what?"
Blossom looks over at her "I never wanted them released from jail in the first place. I felt that the judge was out of his mind, these boys murdered someone. It's not like they robbed a bank or graffiti the side of a building, murderers shouldn't get a second chance, or community service. They should be locked up like the animals that they are, especially brick, I know for a fact that he hasn't learned a single solitary thing from his time with the collars on. This makes the whole court decision stupid and pointless".
Bubbles then looks concerned "are you sure? I mean you never know maybe they might just change. You're never too old to learn from your mistakes".
Blossom smiles at her "I get where you're coming from Bubbles, but I seriously doubt that's the case here".
Buttercup finishes his slice of pizza "you're way too nice sometimes, Bubblehead". Bubbles keeps quiet for the rest of the meal, she was a bit anxious about what they said and she wanted to find out if it was possible. After the meal they each went off to do their separate things, later that night they retired to their rooms. They all slept soundly despite the party that was obviously going on far off in the Ruffs house.
Bubbles however could not sleep, she stares at the ceiling blankly, thoughts of brick kept popping into her head. "This is crazy, why am I thinking about him so much? He's not even nice to me", she turns on her side and sighs. After a long while of not being able to sleep, she makes a decision and gets out of bed "I have to find him". She had no idea why or what she was going to do when she found him, but she just simply had to see him. She puts on her clothing, a white V-neck t-shirt and a blue skirt with sneakers and walks out of the door. She floats downstairs and out the front door, she zooms towards the city to where the Rowdyruff's house is.
Meanwhile
Butch gets on his hands and does a hand stand with a couple of his team mates holding up his legs over a huge keg of beer. The crowd around him roots him of wildly as he drinks the beer upside down through the tap as it sprays into his mouth. When he drinks his fill they put him back right side up and he belches in triumph. Everyone around him celebrates by hooting and hollering "YEAH, MOTHERFUCKERS", he smiles wildly at the crowd and everyone around him starts dancing and bumping and grinding against each other. "Underage drinking, unprotected sex and a whole lot of weird shit in between, I sure know how to throw a fucking party".
Jack, the head of the football team comes up to him and puts him in a head lock "hey, dude Mark just challenged you to an arm wrestling contest".
Butch laughs "what is he, stupid?" He walks toward the dining room and sees Mark at the table, he grins at the other man "you ready to lose an arm?"
Mark flips him off "fuck you man; you don't even remember what the fuck you did to me last week do you?"
"Uhhhh" Butches drunken mind couldn't even remember what day it was today "should I?"
Mark loses it and grabs butch by the shirt pulling him in threateningly, as if he was about to punch the black haired teen "YOU SLEPT WITH MY GIRLFRIEND, YOU BASTARD".
"Oh yeah" Butch says, not at all surprised by his outburst "I probably did". He grins at Mark and pushes him forcefully away causing the other man to stumble backwards "and all you want is to arm wrestle, is that the best you could come up with, candy ass".
"WHAT?" Mark says outraged.
"You can have the bitch" Butch says "it was just sex for me anyway".
"YOU ASSHOLE" Mark charges at him and Butch steps back to avoid the others hit, he then grabs Mark by the neck, raises him a little, then slams him hard on the table, smashing his back against it.
"Well Mark" Butch says while his other team mate's chuckle "looks like even if I don't have powers, at least I'm not powerless". He laughs and gets up on the chair next to the table, he then stares down at Mark who is still writhing in pain on his back "if you're going to challenge me, fuck face, then how about you fucking win next time, or at least offer up a decent challenge". He jumps up and brings his elbow down on Marks mid section, which also causes the table to cave in. He laughs loudly and sloppily stands up, a little wobbly from the booze he drank previously "you guys can take it from here, this bitch bores me". The other players start punching and kicking him while he's down and butch grabs a bottle of Jack Daniels and stumbles out of the dining area. He moves through the crowd, taking the bottle to the head in big gulps. He then looks ahead of him and instantly gets agitated "whoa, whoa, whoa NO PUFFS ALLOWED".
Bubbles stares at him shocked, she didn't expect to actually see one of the Ruffs in this mess. Her plan was actually to simply float through the house and sneak upstairs to secretly search for Brick. She stutters a little seeing the drunken Butch teeter towards her "I…I'm not here to join the party or anything".
"I don't give a shit" Butch says in a cranky tone, he may have been having fun all this time, but the antidote x collar around his neck reminded him whose fault it was that the Rowdyruffs were powerless "BEAT IT BLONDIE".
Bubbles shrinks a little but holds her ground "look I'm here to…uh to", what could she tell him? She could say she was here to find Brick but that would bring on a host of new questions she simply wasn't ready to answer "look I'm not going to tattle to Blossom about the underage drinking in this party, but….." she tries not to falter in what she says next "it would however be in your best interest to be nice to me for once".
Butch looks at her with a cross between confusion and curiosity "what's this chick's angle?" He stares at her body and smiles "ok, you can come in, but under one condition".
Bubbles looks at him innocently "what condition?"
"Your boobs" Butch says grinning at her "I wanna see them".
Jack comes up behind him in a drunken stupor "what's going on over here?" He spots bubbles and smiles lustfully "Well hello, my little lovely".
Bubbles looks away from him "Hi Jack", she did not like the direction this was going.
Jack licks his lips and gives her a lazy smile "finally decided to take me up on my offer".
"Not even in your dreams Jack" Bubbles says agitated.
Butch chuckles "oooooh denied", he laughs even more after seeing Jack get a little pissed "don't worry, Bubbles is about to make your night right now". Butch looks back at Bubbles "well? Let's see them".
Bubbles blushes and adverts her eyes, she might as well get it over with now "fine" she lifts up the front of her shirt and pulls her bra down so that her boobs bounced right out.
"Dear lord" Jack drools and gets out his camera phone, taking a picture of her breasts.
Butch pulls a digital camera out of his pocket, taking a picture for himself "oh yeah, they should call you melons instead of bubbles".
"Ugh" Bubbles pulls her bra back on and her shirt back down covering herself "well?"
Butch walks away from her "yeah we're good for now"; he takes another gulp of the liquor and leaves Jack with Bubbles.
Jack grins at her and corners her "so you wanna go somewhere and show me the rest of your package?"
Bubbles pushes him to the side and ignores his perverted intentions "I'm not here to see you". She heads upstairs leaving a very pissed and rejected Jack standing by himself. She floats upstairs and looks down the hall, there are five rooms here "just like a frat house". She checks the first room and quickly closes it, two women were fingering each other in that one, she was afraid that if they saw her they might force her to join in. She then goes over to the second room, which was empty, she moves on to the third room and sees a leather clad woman whipping an older man. She sighs "the level of depravity in this house has no bounds". She checks another room and her jaw hits the floor, there she sees boomer with a camcorder standing against the wall video tapping a young couple on the bed. Bubbles puts her hand to her mouth watching the man stand on the bed over his girlfriend and pee on her chest.
Boomer momentarily looks over at bubbles and casually addresses her "hey Bubbles", he continues to video tape the couple and walks around the bed with his cam poised at them.
"Boomer, what on earth are you?" Bubbles stops as her gag reflex gets the best of her.
Boomer doesn't look at her and continues to video tape as if what he was seeing was normal "I call this piece, one man, one woman, one bed".
"You're disgusting boomer" Bubbles says trying not to throw up, the man on the bed then turns around and hunches over so that his butt is directly over his girlfriends chest. Bubbles freaks out "WAIT".
Boomer looks over at her again "is there something you want?"
"Where's Brick?"Bubbles blurts out.
Boomer blinks at her for a moment "I don't know"; he continues filming as the guy tries to strain himself to take a dump on his girlfriend's chest "he left like a couple of hours ago".
"Ok thanks" Bubbles quickly runs out of the room and shuts the door behind her, she breaths a sigh of relief having gotten out of there on time. She zooms down the stairs and passes Jack on her way out the door.
Jack glares at her disappearing figure "you think you're too good for me bitch, we'll see about that". He goes back through the crowd to see which of his team mates were drunk enough to help him with his plan.
5 minutes later
Bubbles looks at her watch while strolling down the empty streets "10:00 pm", she sighs "what a waste of time, and I still haven't found Brick". She wondered just what was it that made her go on this wild goose chase in the first place. As she walks, she doesn't notice the large group of men following a good distance behind her.
Meanwhile, in a cheap hotel nearby
Brick puts on his pants and stands up from the bed he had previously occupied with his older female friend "so, as I was saying before you so pleasantly interrupted me, how many bags do you want?" he looks over at the dark blonde woman who lounges in bed watching him dress " I got five left".
The large breasted woman grins at him "I'll take all five", she then crawls over to him and drapes her naked body at the end of the bed "are you sure you can't stay a little longer?"
"Sorry babe" Brick puts on his red shirt and black leather jacket "I'm running late for my brothers party as is, I'll call you later though". He dips down to kiss her one last time before heading for the door "later". Brick closes the door behind him and smiles "what a productive day, Sergio got his cut, I sold 100 bags, got another import coming in, received some new supplies for my meth lab, and still have just enough time to retrieve my special blend from it's special location. I'll even get the deposit for the bags I sold tomorrow morning, absolutely awesome". He walks happily out into the empty streets, while whistling to himself.
Meanwhile back to bubbles
Bubbles strolls towards a dark alley, for some reason she simply didn't feel like going home right now, she turns a corner and only then realizes it leads to a dead end "oh". She notices that it's between an abandoned apartment building and an old warehouse "never noticed this place before".
"Hello my love"
She turns around and is instantly splashed with some kind of strange greasy substance. She teeters backwards and grimaces at the foul smelling stuff as it causes her clothing to stick to her body "w…what is this?"
"wow, you look even hotter wet" Jack walks out of the shadows along with around 4 other drunken men, he smiles watching her squeeze some of the stuff from her shirt "you'd be surprised what you can find in the Rowdyruffs basement. Turns out they still have stuff left over from their old man's experiments, like antidote x".
Bubbles looks shocked at him for a moment "w…what do you want?"
"Isn't that obvious" the other men around Jack gather towards Bubbles "that stuff makes you powerless doesn't it?"
"G…get away from me" Bubbles backs away from them, she sees a trash can lid and picks it up hitting one of the men with it. As soon as there's an opening she runs past the men and tries to move past Jack, but two men ambush her from behind and slam her to the floor. They then forcefully rip open her soaked shirt and tear off her bra "STOP IT…NOOOO".
"Hold her down boys" Jack approaches them as they shift her onto her back and hold her arms and legs down.
Brick walks down the street and sees the old abandoned apartment building; it was where he stashed some more of his drugs. He needed to stock up on some more of his own stuff before working on the new shipment from Sergio. He is about to enter it when he hears someone screaming in the alley next to the building. He halts in his actions and gets nervous "oh what the fuck now?" he slowly walks over to where the alley is and instantly gets a headache. He sees Jack and his football goons force bubbles to the ground and Jack rips off her panties. He grimaces as she lets out another high pitch scream "what the hell is she screaming about? It's not like she's never had sex before, just lay back and take it bitch". He looks around him, it wouldn't be long before someone overheard her and decides to call the police "and yet again, pigtails would have been the sole reason that my stash would be compromised. I'm starting to get sick and tired of running into this chick". He sighs, it couldn't be helped, he had to interfere "hey".
Jack at this point was positioning himself to enter her but stopped when he heard brick. He turns around and the other men look his way also like deer's in a headlight. Jack growls at Brick "look man, just walk away, this doesn't concern you".
"My brother's on your football team" Brick says casually walking up to them "therefore it is my concern". Brick looks over at Bubbles, who at this point is shaking like a leaf, he sighs and looks back at Jack "come on, this is just plain unsightly, even for you".
"This is none of your fucking business red" Jack yells at him as the other men let go of Bubbles. The blonde quickly moves away from them shivering.
Brick glares at him "it's on my turf, which makes it my business. Now get the fuck out of here you lowlifes".
Jack gets pissed "Fuck you", he throws a punch at brick, however the redhead steps to the side easily and jack falls over onto the floor.
"You guys are drunk" Brick says grinning at them, another man tries to punch him in the head. Brick grabs his arm and flips the larger male over his shoulder, slamming him head first onto the pavement. He stands up straight and looks up at them smugly "you dicks can barely stand much less fight". The other three men hesitate and he looks over at them "go home, you pansies, before I kick your ass". The other men rush out of there and exit the alley; the fourth man gets up slowly and limps away.
Jack gets even angrier "what is this? You fucking her or something?" he suddenly freezes as Brick presses the blade of his pocket knife up against his neck.
Brick looks at him seriously "LEAVE, NOW, before I slit your throat", He yanks jack and throws him down on the floor. Jack gets up and stumbles away. Brick watches the area for a moment, then slowly turns and looks at Bubbles, his eyes suddenly widen a bit while looking at her. Bubbles looked traumatized; she was shivering and holding herself. Her shirt was ripped apart and so was some of her skirt, her skin was wet and sticky from a combination of sweat and antidote x and one of her pigtails came loose. "Shit" was all he could think as he looked at her sorry state, he walks towards her and she cringes away closing her eyes "don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you".
Bubbles still doesn't look at him, she couldn't stand having him see her like this. She covers her breasts with her arm and tries to pull down her skirt to cover her now exposed vage "oh god, someone just shoot me now, this is so embarrassing". Tears well up in her eyes and she keeps them closed willing the tears not to spill in front of Brick, she suddenly feels something warm being wrapped around her. She opens her eyes and notices that Brick has draped his jacket around her. She looks at him puzzled as he walks away from her and looks around at the streets.
"All's clear, no ones up at this hour anyway" Brick sighs again for the hundredth time that night "and my night was going so well up until now".
"Thank you" Bubbles squeaks a little, having strained her voice from screaming, she sees him turn his head to look at her, "he looks cranky", she looks down a bit sadly, she didn't expect him to instantly be her prince charming but he could have at least smiled at her kindly.
"You really are stupid are you?" Brick says in a cranky way while approaching her again "coming out here at this hour dressed like that, you might as well put a "fuck me" sign on your back and paint a target on your ass". He kneels down in front of her "put the jacket on", Bubbles pushes her arms through the jacket sleeves. Brick zips up the front and helps her up, he then notices a pair of keys on the floor where she was. He picks them up and hands them to her "I'll get us a cab, just wait here", he walks out of the alley way and makes a phone call on his cell phone. There was a cab service that Sergio had recommended to him, one that would keep things discreet and private. After making the call, he leans against a wall and looks out onto the streets fuming a little to himself over his messed up night.
Bubbles stays where she is for a moment before slowly approaching him, she decides to take this quiet moment to ask him what she's been trying to ask him all night "um….Brick?"
Brick turns to look at her casually "yeah?"
Bubbles timidly looks up at him "why did you try to frame me earlier?" Brick doesn't really answer her, he just looks out at the streets, so she stands next to him and leans against the wall "Blossom thinks it was you who planted the drugs on me, and I happen to think she's right. It didn't really take me that long to figure it out, I just had to think back at the time you bumped into me".
After a long moment of silence, Brick grins a little to himself "you're not as dumb as I thought you were". He chuckles "I guess you've got me".
Bubbles frowns a little "that's not very nice".
"I didn't survive this long by being nice" Brick looks at his watch "what's taking that cab so long?" He thinks impatiently "if it makes you feel better, I didn't specifically target you, I just needed a scapegoat", he looks off out onto the streets again before continuing "to be honest I don't really have anything against you, I was in a bind so I used the closest person I could get my hands on".
"Even though it's our fault you and your brothers are powerless?" Bubbles asks.
"What? Are you feeling guilty all of a sudden?" Brick says "well don't be", Bubbles looks at him a little surprised. He ignores her and continues "you girls were just doing what you always do, saving the day from creeps like me. I was pissed by it and I'm probably still am, we're not going to suddenly become friends or anything. I guess we've just needed time to adjust, so right now, living this way has become the norm for us". It was true, the ruffs had resisted like crazy when the judgment was rendered and the collars were forced on them. There wasn't a single night where he hadn't dreamt of destroying the girls the minute his punishment was over and the collars were off. He wanted to kill everyone and destroy everything, that was 6 years ago and their tempers have died down since then. They blended into the crowd living normal lives, "Is this why the judge didn't lock them away? Taking the power away from us under the impression that perhaps we aren't that bad after all and all we needed was a little discipline, what a crock of shit. Having no powers does not mean that we can't do bad things".
Bubbles suddenly stands in front of him smiling at him brightly "you know, that does make me feel better".
Brick stares at her for a moment, then flashes her a mocked fake smile, to make fun of hers "aren't you just a bowl of sunshine, making everything brighter with a smile".
"Yep" Bubbles says "it's what keeps me from being jaded, cynical and a heartless jerk, like you", Brick instantly frowns from that statement causing bubbles to giggle. She then closes the distance between them by pressing herself against his chest and resting her head on his shoulder "I'm glad I got to see you tonight Brick".
Brick's whole face turns red "what the hell?!" he puts his hands on her shoulders and gently pushes her away "Don't be weird". The cab finally comes and he walks away from her towards it "come on, I'm taking you home". They get into the cab and the vehicle drives off, brick looks out the window in thought "I'm going to have to come back tomorrow night for the next batch, until then I'll have to go on Sergio's stuff". His train of thought is suddenly interrupted when he feels a warm body press against his, he shrugs it off but after a moment it comes back. He turns his head and glares at the blonde head on his shoulder nodding off to sleep. Brick groans miserably, but then looks at her and his gaze softens "she's been through a lot tonight; I guess it won't hurt to let her rest for a bit, till she gets home anyway". He relaxes and his head also dip downward as the two ride the cab all the way to Bubbles house.