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Chapter 5

Believed Stoneheart

Blossom and Buttercup were bewildered. All they could do was watch the mess that was the fight happening in front of them. None of the contenders was willing to give in anytime soon.

That lasted for some seconds, until Blossom shook her head. That was a chance they couldn't lose! They had to try to free themselves, get Bubbles and escape from that relative of Fuzzy!

"Buttercup. Buttercup!" Blossom called, moving her hand on her sisters' head. Buttercup turned to her and the redhead did not wait for a reply. "Quick! Help me with these bars!"

She began to push the metal bars that were closing the cage, like they were trying before. A moment after, Blossom realized that her sister hadn't moved a finger.

"Blossom, how can you believe that we're going to break those darn bars now that there're only the two of us?"

"I know," answered Blossom, "but we have to try! We can't leave Bubbles there!"

Buttercup looked at her blue-eyed sister, still trapped in the ice shard. And she almost gasped to see Fuzzy Lumpkins land two meters away from her, thrown by a strong kick of his enemy. Fuzzy completely ignored the girl at his side: he stood up and charged at the yeti again.

"Alright, alright!" quickly said Buttercup as she rushed to the bars and tried to push them with all of her might.

While Blossom cleared her forehead from some drops of sweat, she thought about her current condition. The hunter said that the substance is going to affect us for now. If we're lucky, we should recover enough powers to escape before that fight ends.

Fuzzy Lumpkins flew again in the air, this time ending on a trunk of a tree near the edge of the clearing. He groaned as he impacted with the wooden cortex. But that wasn't stopping him: as he slid on the ground, he stood up again and glared at his cousin. The creature was glaring right back: his nose was lightly bleeding, which showed how Fuzzy had been able to inflict some damage.

"You've crossed the limit, Fuzzy! Don't expect me to have any mercy now. I won't be pleased until your face will be turned to mincemeat!" the yeti shouted. It was clear that Fuzzy wasn't anymore the only one being furious.

Fuzzy gave out a loud roar in response and launched himself at full speed, fists tightened. The yeti was ready for him, and when they encountered each other, it was easy for the creature to dodge the various punches the raged lumpkin threw at him.

After some seconds, the abominable snowman attempted a counter-attack with one of his own punches: Fuzzy blocked it and, grabbing his hand with all his strength, kicked him right in his knee. That made the yeti lose his equilibrium, and Fuzzy seized the moment to draw out his claws and try to slash him. Unfortunately, the yeti was too fast, and Fuzzy hit nothing but air as the creature leapt back.

It was time for the yeti to show his special abilities. The white furred beast made a long breath and then let out once again his powerful ice breath. Fuzzy, however, was a bit far from him, so it was piece of cake to move around the yeti and continue to hold off the freezing breath until the creature had fully emptied his lungs.

The yeti coughed and growled at his enemy, annoyed. Before Fuzzy could make his next move, the yeti suddenly raised his hands and let them fall on the ground with a loud noise. The earth crackled and, afterwards, shards of ice began sprouting from the debris, giving shape to a trail that headed directly for Fuzzy.

This time the lumpkin almost failed to dodge the attack: in fact, he ended up being hit anyway with a slight cut on the side. And that gave him another reason to get even angrier.

Almost exploding in madness, the hillbilly began circling the yeti, throwing at him everything he could find among the debris. Fuzzy's cousin found himself with the need to avoid a shower of metal beams, wooden planks and pieces of furniture.

Fuzzy wasn't really paying attention to what he was throwing at the creature. And that meant that when he grabbed his banjo, which had somehow survived the collapse, he didn't notice it and threw it at his foe.

The creature, seeing that the last projectile wasn't that dangerous, simply punched it in the air before it could reach him, therefore reducing it to smithereens.

Fuzzy blinked. Was that what he had just seen? No, impossible. It couldn't be... could it?

"JOOO!" he shouted like a little girl as he realized what happened, which was weird given the fact he was three times bigger than he usually was.

The yeti rolled his eyes and sighed, momentarily ignoring the seriousness of the situation. "Lumpkins…" he muttered, "They're all the same."

The loss of his beloved instrument was the straw that broke the camel's back. Adrenaline filled every blood drop in his body as Fuzzy, having completely lost control of his brain, leapt towards the distracted creature at an incredible speed. The roar he emitted was enough to catch Blossom's and Buttercup's attention. What they saw actually shocked them.

Fuzzy did not draw his claws or try to hit with fists. No: his animal instinct had completely taken over. He opened his mouth, showing a stunning showcase of fangs, and closed it shut at the exact moment he impacted on the yeti's shoulder.

Every animal within the compass of three kilometres was abruptly awoken up by a tremendous, terrifying shout.

Fuzzy had his eyes closed. All he was thinking of was to put even more strength on the bite. But it lasted for little time: suddenly, a titanic force moved him away. The yeti slammed the lumpkin on the ground like it would have done with an insect.

Gritting his teeth, Fuzzy raised his head to look at his enemy. It took him a second to realize that, though he hated that fact, there was something that he shared with his cousin.

The yeti was mad. Completely oblivious to the new injury on his body, the creature abruptly grabbed Fuzzy and slammed him another time on the debris. The pieces of wood weren't a pleasant sensation on the lumpkins' back.

"I'll make you pay… for that!" the yeti growled, visibly ready to explode. And in that exact moment Fuzzy Lumpkins felt a little hint of fright get inside him.

The girls were still trying the break the cage and free themselves, but until now their struggles hadn't brought to any results.

Buttercup would have began to complain if it wasn't for the fact that she suddenly felt new energy inside her muscles and, under the force of her push, one of the bars suddenly twisted.

Yes! They're returning! Buttercup thought as she gave a final kick to the same bar. It was too much for the piece of metal, which eventually cracked and fell. It took no more than a minute to create an exit enough big to let her and Blossom out.

"We're out! Now let's pick Bubbles and get outta here!" said Buttercup, watching her sister expecting a nod. But her sister wasn't paying attention, which was weird for a person like Blossom.

"Bloss! Bloss! What are you…?" Buttercup followed her gaze until she found out what was distracting her.

The yeti was utterly winning the fight. To be more honest, he had already won, but he wasn't stopping with the beating yet. The creature was repeatedly grabbing and slamming his cousin on every object he found. And Fuzzy didn't like it one bit, given the shouts he let out.

From that scene, Buttercup concluded that they were out of time. That, however, didn't explain why Blossom was standing there motionless.

"Hey!" Buttercup shook her arms in front of Blossom's eyes, "Earth calls Blossom! I dunno, but that battle is going to end very soon, and when that happens I don't want to be anywhere near that yeti without powers!"

"Buttercup!" Blossom replied, visibly annoyed. "Can't you see what he's doing to Fuzzy? He's not going to stop until he has literally pulverized him!"

"And then what?" Buttercup replied back. The intense stare Blossom fired at her made the black-haired puff reconsider her words.

"But Blossom, he's our enemy! You can't possibly be serious. Besides, he's gone through worse…"

"Buttercup, even if he is a bad guy, when can leave him at that yeti's mercy. He's in trouble! We can't just ignore it and go away! He never lied to us in the first place."

Buttercup crossed her arms in annoyance. "All right, let's say we help him. What are we going to do, since our powers are weakened?"

It wasn't Blossom the one who answered her. "I'd say you can't do a single thing."

Before the two of them could face the owner of the voice, Buttercup was kicked away. The green girl wasn't able to control her flight and finished directly on Bubbles' ice prison.

Blossom would have turned her head, but she couldn't move her look away from the scene. Buttercup passed out as soon as her head collided with the ice, just as the ice-prison crumbled under the impact.

For a moment, Blossom thought that Bubbles would have been reduced to dust like the ice she was blocked in, but luckily that didn't happen. The blue-eyed girl, wet from feet to head, shuddered violently for some seconds before passing out like her other sister. Her body, however, continued to shiver after she closed her eyes.

Blossom would have run to them, but at the moment she was aware of the fact that she couldn't. She tried to fly away, which ended in a short hop as she discovered that most of her powers were still gone. So she did the only thing she could do. Run.

I have to put some distance between me and that beast! That should give me some time to think of a plan to save Buttercup and Bub-

Blossom couldn't think more as something hit her from her back. The pain flooded her undefended body and the redhead, losing control of her legs, collapsed on the ground. When she tried to sit up, she saw what, or better who the cause of the hit was.

Fuzzy's cousin was a stunning view. His height had slightly increased, and his skin, where it was visible, had reddened. He seemed to not care for the damage all over his body. All his focus now was on the red headed girl. And he wasn't happy.

"I may get mad like a lumpkin," the yeti explained, "but unlike them, I maintain control of myself when I do. And this is why my species is superior to both humans and lumpkins.

"Your attempt to escape, other from being hopeless, has doomed you. I'll show all of you why it's better not to annoy me, commencing with you."

Blossom crawled back, the surprise replaced with panic. She had no possible way to escape from that beast. He almost overcame them in smartness and strength when they were normal, and now she was weaker and he was stronger.

The yeti raised his hand and Blossom couldn't help to close her eyes shut. She didn't want to see what the creature was going to do. In fact, she didn't care what he was going to do. She only hoped that it wouldn't last for long.

But instead of feeling the fingers of the beast closing around her, Blossom heard the noise of wood hitting something.

She opened her eyes to see a surprised yeti scratch his head. Some yards away from their side, Fuzzy Lumpkins stood. He wasn't well: leaving alone all the scratches, he was keeping his right arm fixed to his body with his other arm. That didn't stop him from throwing another piece of his former house at his cousin. However, it had no effect apart from angering the creature even more.

The yeti snorted and glared at the lumpkin. "You stubborn idiot. You still want to fight after I've almost broken your arm! How impressive… but I'm tired of your insistence, Fuzzy. I'm going to finish this story now, just as I did long ago."

The yeti began walking towards him with long steps. Blossom was basically shouting in silence with her eyes while staring at the lumpkin. Move, Fuzzy. Move!

But the lumpkin didn't move. His face somewhat softened, and the blood red colour of his fur began returning to his usual state. But what really hit Blossom was Fuzzy's his face. It was deep with sorrow.

She watched with wide eyes as the yeti finally stopped his pace, a step away from the lumpkin. Fuzzy was barely affected.

The redhead shook her head: Focus, Blossom, focus! There must be something you can do! Anything!

She quickly pondered her various choices. She had to do something now, while the yeti was distracted, or it'd be the end for Fuzzy, and possibly her and her sisters as well. But what can I do? My powers are gone! I can't use any of them: eyebeams, super strength, ice-breath, whirl wind-

Wait a second.

She thought for a moment. Actually, when she used her ice-breath, she didn't exactly control it. She just made a long breath and released the air, which for some reason was not only doubled in volume but also freezing cold. While she had learned to keep it in check in her everyday life, she otherwise didn't feel like she spent much energy while doing it.

It was a crazy idea: to use one of the powers the yeti owned against him, in a weaker version to make things worse. But Blossom had no other options. She at least had to try. In a sense, she was fighting fire with fire.

The yeti, ignoring the girl behind him, seized the lumpkin by the neck. The yeti raised an eyebrow when he saw a presence which you wouldn't expect on a lumpkin's face. A tear.

He smirked at the sight. "Lost all hope, cousin? Good. I'll grant you a fast death, then."

The creature approached Fuzzy's face with his free hand, and suddenly, he drew out a barrage of claws. They were different from Fuzzy's ones: these looked like they could pierce through stone without a budge.

"Farewell, Fuzzy! I hope you'll find peace in the otherworld!" the yeti announced as the claws dangerously moved towards Fuzzy's neck. The lumpkin didn't move, neither did he try to react or free himself. He faced the upcoming death with sad eyes, like he hadn't realized what was really happening.

The yeti was going to execute him when he heard a noise right behind him. A suspicious one. His experienced hearing told him that it was a heavy breath made by someone.

He turned his head without letting Fuzzy away, and he was greeted by a sight that almost made him gasp in shock. The pink-eyed Powerpuff Girl, having recovered another part of her powers, was hovering behind him. But he didn't know of the danger until Blossom unleashed all the air she could let out, which successfully turned into a big volume of ice-breath.

The yeti was prepared for anything, but not for having one of his own powers used against him. His mouth pursued and he managed to exclaim, "It can't be-!" before the freezing cold air enveloped him. Blossom exhaled air continuously for four seconds, until her lungs were empty and she gasped, feeling the urge to refill them.

When she was done and looked at the result of her decision, she couldn't believe it.

The yeti had become a huge ice statue. Every part of his body was blocked in solid ice, even the hand that blocked a bewildered Fuzzy Lumpkins, which was still trying to process the fact that he was still alive. The creature was in a similar state compared to Blossom's sister minutes before.

And that thought made Blossom blink. "Buttercup, Bubbles!" she called as she hovered away and looked for them.

It took her four seconds to localize her two sisters still lying on the ground. Blossom hovered towards them, still not able to use her flight powers at their maximum capacity. When she reached them, she landed on Buttercup's side and began shaking her.

"Buttercup! Buttercup! Can you hear me?" Blossom said, visibly worried. She stopped only when the green eyes of her sister finally opened. "Uuuuh... What? What's going on?"

"Buttercup! Are you all right?" Blossom asked.

"Ouch. I think I've lost some neurons today," muttered Buttercup, still trying to catch her equilibrium.

When her mind finally stopped to spin, something hit her. "Blossom," she said, "where's Bubbles?"

The two of them turned their heads to the shivering form that was Bubbles' body. In the blink on an eye they were over her.

Bubbles was still out cold, but her appearance was definitively making her sisters worried. Her skin had become incredibly pale, and her breaths were struggling ones.

Blossom didn't know exactly what to do. She supposed that the best action to do now was to maintain her blonde sister awake.

"Bubbles. Bubbles, wake up!" Blossom called as she shook her like she did with Buttercup. Her blue-eyed sister gave no response.

It was then Buttercup's turn. She abruptly pushed Blossom away and smacked Bubbles in the face. Of course she did so lightly, but it was enough to make Bubbles recover her senses.

The blue puff slightly opened her eyes, which instantly fixed on her sisters with an intense stare. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out from it. Slowly, her arms circled her own body, like she wanted to keep as much heat as possible inside her body.

The shivers that shook Bubbles' body were worrying for Blossom. She couldn't know what was going to happen if they didn't do anything, so she quickly undresses her coat and put it around Bubbles body. Buttercup didn't know what to think of it at first, but eventually followed her lead and did the same.

While her sisters began to feel the first hints of the cold temperature, Bubbles looked like a little ball of clothes now, her head the only thing left uncovered. But still, she didn't stop to tremble in coldness. Actually, she was beginning to let some light sobs out.

This isn't working! We have to bring her to some warm place before something bad happens! thought Blossom until she saw something that utterly astonished her.

Fuzzy Lumpkins was standing in front of them, right behind Bubbles. Someway he had managed to free himself from the frozen gasp of his cousin. Although he had been totally beaten up, he didn't look angry or nervous. In fact, his face was dead serious.

The beast moved his hand towards Bubbles, which put Buttercup on the alert. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

She would have tried to stop him if it wasn't for Blossom's pat on her shoulder. The green puff raised an eyebrow at her sister, but Blossom just watched her with a soothing stare and nodded at Fuzzy. The redhead knew that by now the beast wasn't going to harm a fly.

Her thoughts proved correct. To be more precise, what the Powerpuff Girls saw would have stuck on their minds for quite a while.

Fuzzy Lumpkins, the raged hillbilly, the unsocial worker, the lonesome villain… gently grabbed Bubbles and took her from the ball of clothes she was enveloped in.

Blossom and Buttercup weren't able to comment. On the other side, Bubbles was too weak to react, so she let Fuzzy do what he wanted.

The beast lifted the little blonde girl and brought her up to his chest, letting her lean on it like he would have done with a child of his breed. He kept her in this position for some long minutes, with no sign of boredom or annoyance.

Only when Bubbles' shivers started to slow down, the lumpkin decided to put her down, helping her until he was sure she could stand properly on her own.

Blossom and Buttercup exchanged a quick glance, like they wanted to ask each other whether they had seen the same thing. Then, they approached their sister.

Not only Bubbles' body seemed to have stopped shivering, but her skin had gained a warmer colour as well. The thick fur that protected the lumpkin's body had succeeded where her sisters' heavy clothes could not.

Bubbles watched her new saviour. She was as bewildered as her sisters, if not more. There was only one thing she knew she had to do.

"Thank you… Thank you, Fuzzy."

Fuzzy Lumpkins abruptly turned around in to the opposite direction, and didn't seem to want to face the girls anymore.

"Fuzzy, uh… Are you all right?" asked Blossom, curious about this new event.

"Go. Go now," Fuzzy stated, his voice rising in tone.

"Fuzzy, are you sure? We just want to help, and-" Blossom insisted.

"Take that piece of crap I'm condemned to call cousin and go away!" Fuzzy repeated, basically shouting.

"Look, Fuzzy, you can't really expect us to just leave when you-" Buttercup pressed on.

"I said get offa my property now!"

Fuzzy seemed to have reverted to his usual self. Still not daring to look at the girls face to face, he raised an arm and pointed in the direction of the city.

The girls moved back, feeling a hazard, but Fuzzy didn't move. He continued to look at some point in front of him and the girls remained unsure of what to make of it.

"What's wrong with him?" Buttercup whispered in the ear of the redhead.

"I don't know Buttercup," Blossom answered. "I think that it won't be easy to explain what he's just done. We better follow his advice and go away. Do you think you can help me out with carrying that thief over there?"

"Well, we'll discover only if we try," Buttercup replied, inquisitively looking at the imprisoned yeti.

Blossom focused on her other sister. "And you, Bubbles, think you can fly for a bit? We'll only need to hover for now, don't worry."

"I think so…" whispered Bubbles, her voice still weak. She made an attempt to hover up and eventually succeeded in maintaining a steady position in the air.

"Okay then, let's go," Blossom ordered. The three of them moved towards the statue of ice. With some struggle, Blossom and Buttercup were able to lift up the bounty hunter and carry him up over the trees. Bubbles followed them, and after some seconds they were over the forest heading for Townsville. They didn't hear a single word of goodbye from Fuzzy.

The Chief of Police was sipping a cup of good hot coffee, taking a break from the case of the theft at the Art Museum. The black man touched his moustaches as he thought over all the information they had gotten at the moment. There was really no evidence at the museum, and the witness hadn't helped much yet. All their hope now was put on the Powerpuff Girls, which he supposed should have discovered something by now, with the snowstorm gone and the light fading in favour of the night.

He wouldn't say that, especially in front of his fellow policemen, but he was getting worried.

Deep in his thoughts, the Chief didn't see a sweating Perez running towards his office. The officer didn't even try to knock to the door as he rushed into the room, nearly making the Chief fall from his chair.

"Perez!" the Chief shouted, "I hope it's something important!"

"It is, Chief!" Perez informed, still panting. "The Powerpuff Girls are out there in the street! They brought some type of winter giant monkey with them!"

"WHAT!?" The Chief exclaimed. After a minute, he was exiting the police station with his raincoat on.

He watched in disbelief as he saw the scene. The Powerpuff Girls were on the sideway, with some policemen discussing loudly around them. The black man couldn't really tell from the distance, but he could imagine they weren't totally okay.

The most stunning sight, however, was the giant ice statue located in the centre of the street. There were already some drivers that, blocked from the weird obstacle, began blaring their horns in annoyance. Some policemen were already carrying some metal barriers to circle the statue.

In a second, all the points were linked, and the Chief of Police realized that the Powerpuff Girls had made it.

With Perez still following him, the Chief approached the superheroines. The group of officers immediately stopped arguing when they saw him.

"So, it seems like we got another monster here, huh?" the Chief remarked, smiling at the girls. The smile disappeared as he realized that the girls weren't in good shape. Especially the blue-eyed one, he didn't like at all those shivers and the achoos she let out.

"What are you discussing up there that is more important than helping the girls?" the Chief asked with a frown on his face.

"Err, Chief... We don't know if we have to call for an ambulance or to aid them ourselves, and you know, chief, this kind of yeti here-"

"Do both, you idiots!"

The group of policemen quickly scattered, everyone doing a different activity. The Chief sighed as he rethought about the general quality of the police quarters, but it wasn't his main problem at the moment.

"I ask you to forgive my men, girls. Had I known you were in this state, I'd have had something prepared for you."

"It's okay, Chief, w-we at last managed t-to capture our th-thief…" Bubbles stammered, smiling at him.

"And what a thief, I might add. Do you know what he wanted to do with the art pieces he stole?" the Chief investigated.

"He set a trap for us, Chief. He basically wanted our heads," Blossom answered.

The Chief nearly felt the coffee he had just drunk go up into his mouth.

"He said he was some kind of bounty hunter, and that he wanted to sell us after we were captured."

"Thank goodness that stupid yeti didn't manage to get us in the end," Buttercup muttered.

"Wait a minute!" Perez interjected, "Did he perhaps say he did that same thing with other superheroes?"

Bubbles and Buttercup didn't know anything, so they were a bit surprised to hear Blossom's reply. "Yes, he said something about that."

"Then, Chief, what we have there is not only an abominable snowman, but also an international criminal which is wanted in various countries across the world!"

"How do you know of that, Perez?" the Chief asked, perplexed.

"Well, uh… I do follow the deeds of superheroes in the United States and beyond, I'm kinda enthusiast about'em, Chief… So I heard about the disappearance of some superheroes, I did some research in the police data, and I found out about this guy."

"Interesting. You don't appear to be the daydreaming man I thought of, Perez. Now get back inside the station and call the ones who're going to take care of this yeti."

"Yes, sir!" Perez acknowledged as he ran away towards the entrance of the police station.

"Bah… here's a man who's a bit distracted but has a golden heart. I'd rather have more like him than those boneheads, to be honest…" the Chief mumbled to himself as he turned to the girls.

"So, all is well that ends well. I can sense it was hard to defeat the monster there."

The girls exchanged glances before Blossom decided what to say. "Let's just say… without the help of a certain person, we might not even be here."

The Chief raised an eyebrow at the enigmatic response, but he decided he didn't want to bother the girls anymore. "All right, I think there'll be plenty of time to tell me what happened after you recovered. I'll see you later girls. Holmes! Get that butt of yours moving, we don't have all the day!"

The girls looked at the Chief as he continued to give orders here and there. Seconds later some policemen gave them some coats and blankets to keep them warm, and then escorted them into the warmness of the police station's hall.

Here the girls waited for an ambulance. They weren't really worried, their powers, although they had not completely returned, still helped them in regaining their strength and healing their scratches. Blossom and Buttercup were more concerned with Bubbles and the near hypothermia she reached back at Fuzzy's home.

Speaking of the lumpkin, the girls' conversation started to focus on him and his improbable change of behaviour after the yeti's defeat.

"We'll have a lot of to talk about with the Professor," Bubbles commented.

"Indeed, Bubbles. We should have someone tell him we're safe now by the way," Blossom added. Bubbles nodded as she sipped from a hot cup of chocolate an officer had offered her before.

"Blossom…" the redhead turned to face her black-haired sister. "Do you think that Fuzzy lost his mind?"

"To be honest, I can't exclude it Buttercup. Yet... before you woke up, I was already awake and I listened to a conversation between Fuzzy and his cousin. He showed him about all the new possibilities he had without us in the way, and for a moment, he looked like he was going to let him go away with us. But then, out of nowhere, he attacked him. I know he's really attached to his property, but still…"

"If it's like you are telling us, then he's definitively nuts," Buttercup muttered.

"I think there's more to it than that, Buttercup," Bubbles said. "I mean, did you see what he did to me? Did you ever see do him something like that with his own nephews that time we went camping? He didn't, and he just did that with us, who he called 'sworn enemies' in the past!"

Buttercup shook her head but didn't argue back.

"For what we know," Blossom continued, "the thing he cared the most in the world was his banjo, and still he didn't treat it like a little kid."

"Exactly. What I'm thinking about, Blossom, is that the yeti has brought something up in Fuzzy's head… Something enough important to make him mad even after the yeti tried to convince him of the advantages of our absence," Bubbles finished.

"I'm still not convinced. Remember how he 'gently' asked us to get out in the end? He shouted at us like he always does, didn't he?"

"Yes, but he didn't dare show his face while doing it, like he hadn't the courage to do so," Bubbles replied. "Whatever was going on in his mind, I think it showed us a part of Fuzzy we won't be able to see again for a good while, girls…"

She smiled weakly. "I like to think this is proof that even Fuzzy has a heart, after all."

Blossom and Buttercup didn't find any flaws in Bubbles' line of reasoning. While they didn't smile as Bubbles did, since the thought of Fuzzy actually having emotions besides anger and joy from playing the banjo and being by himself was still mind-blowing, they recognized that something they weren't aware of was up.

The blonde Powerpuff Girl was right now thinking of the moment Fuzzy had basically let his own heat warm her up. She found that terribly cute, even more from someone like the lumpkin.

That memory was going to stick to their minds for a good while, wasn't it?

The darkness was almost total in the clearing. There was a complete silence, stopped from time to time by the call of some animal that hadn't fallen yet in hibernation.

Fuzzy Lumpkins lied on his former armchair, which he had previously extracted from a good volume of debris, staring at the black sky above him. Winter wasn't exactly the perfect season to watch the stars, but Fuzzy was still able to catch some of them.

He had to rest for a while. Not that he cared about his injures, these were mere scratches for him, and his bones would work themselves out. He'll survive. What he needed was to rest his mind.

"I'm going to finish this story now, just as I did long ago." The words from his cousin were repeated and repeated in his mind, making old memories resurface.

He didn't want to remember. He was good with his cabin, his banjo, and his occasional rampages in the city. Heck, he would've even say he didn't mind the Powerpuff Girls meddling with his business every now and then. But his cousin had to come, bringing with him remembrance.

The fact was that lumpkins and yetis were two separate lines of breeds of the same human-like beast. They were closer to each other than to any human or animal, but at the same time they were complete enemies. They fought each other for decades, before Fuzzy was born and oblivious to the humans.

But that fight continued during Fuzzy's early years. And in that exact time it happened.

Another tiny tear escaped from the hillbilly's eyes, which he quickly brushed off. He had to keep his composure, he was a lumpkin for Jo's sake!

Eventually, he failed to distract himself, and the memory came back in full display.

It was a little event in the bigger picture, but that small raid was still a key part of Fuzzy's life. He had lost friends there. He had lost relatives. Thank goodness his father and mother had survived at the time, but it didn't help with the loss of the others.

And destiny wanted that stupid monkey-face, in a younger version, to be the one to actually break into his hiding place and almost kill him.

It was only by blind luck that the yeti was half-distracted and half-bored to the point that he decided to spare him. The monster asked him for his name, and told him that it was his lucky day.

"But don't sing in victory, little lumpkin. Sooner or later, I'll find you and return, and I'll demand you a welcome appropriate for a king: if you won't do what I ask you, I'll be disappointed and that won't be good for you. Keep that in mind! Goodbye, cousin!"

Fuzzy had always thought that the yeti's words had only been said to frighten him… until he appeared years later on his porch. How could a single yeti track him down to a place completely different from the last time he saw him, without any trail to follow?

Fuzzy couldn't know, but it was in fact only another improbable stroke of bad luck: one that led the yeti to become a bounty hunter and look for the Powerpuff Girls, which in turn brought his cousin right in front of his house.

Fuzzy stood up from the chair, a serious expression on his face. Enough remembrance for a day. If he wasn't able to forget it, he'll at least try to not let that influence him. He was a respected lumpkin inside the family, and in his book that wasn't going to change.

Nobody was going to know about his secret, about the fact that he was capable of feeling love for people other than objects (and Jo, of course, may he rest in peace). Fuzzy believed that his cousin wasn't going to be a problem: he could think about a few things that humans were going to do to him if they discovered what he had done, and he would most probably be carried far away from Townsville. The girls, however, were another matter.

They already had seen something they shouldn't have seen. Stupid, blue girl! What was wrong with him? He was Fuzzy Lumpkins, the merciless hillbilly! He should have shooed them away without any remorse once his cousin had been dealt with.

But his mind didn't follow through with his resolve, apparently, and he did what he felt was the right thing to do at the time. Fuzzy walked away, making a decision. He wasn't going to question more what happened: he was only going to make sure that wouldn't happen again. Starting with a trap for unwelcomed visitors, which were all of them.

He sighed as he began thinking about where to pass the winter and how to build a new house when the good season returned, when he stumbled on something. He watched down and realized it was the hatch to the basement he used to hibernate. He quickly opened it and entered the chamber. Some steps after, he collided with something.

"Gah! What's this?" the lumpink complained, touching something solid in front of him. He moved in the darkness, impacting with various new objects he didn't know the nature of, and he spent some minutes to arrive to the fireplace. Here, he cleaned away the ash and replaced it with new wood, and finally lit the fire up with a lighter found in his suspenders. When he turned to see what his basement was full of, he opened his mouth in shock.

"Argh! What's all this junk? This… garbage!"

Fuzzy Lumpkins abruptly grabbed a precious statue and threw it through the trapdoor. The statue flew for some meters before landing on the ground and breaking itself apart.

"Stupid cousin! He destroys my property, then he fills what's left of it with garbage!" Fuzzy shouted as he threw away a masterpiece on canvas, which lost all of its colours as it landed on the snow.

And so Fuzzy continued in this way, complaining about his predicament while destroying almost the entire art collection of Townsville's city museum. Also known as 'garbage'.

THE END