A/N: Oh. My. God. I'm a terrible person. I haven't updated this since April. April. Instead of listing all of the excuses I have and all the reasons why it's taken me so long to update my stories or even just go on this site, I will cut straight to the story. And apologize. I am genuinely, extremely, 2837423984% sorry. And I will post a super long chapter right now.

Please don't kill me. Or burn me at the stake. Or kill me by burning me at the stake.

Being made from toxic toilet water and snails, you'd expect me know that the impossible is possible. It is possible for things to exist like monster attacks, lobster demons, and cockroach armies.

But tell me, what's more mind boggling than that? Believing that my brothers and I, all super powered, would have to be protected against some cocky new villain by the, although clearly hyped up on Enchanted Chemical X, baby of the Powerpuff Girls.

I couldn't argue, because I had no proof to contradict that belief. After all, as Buttercup loves to point out, we didn't last at all against Brent.

So that's how my brothers and I ended up in Bubbles' apartment afterwards. That is, before Blossom lectured us on the rules as if she didn't already provide some clear guidelines already.

"You can't, I repeat, can not leave the premises nor can you know the exact address. Until we trust you, of course." She continued, but I simply blocked her out as we walked through the house.

Pictures decorated the clean white walls along with paintings and various bookcases. The six of us walked to a door at the edge of a hallway. Blossom opened it, revealing a large garage containing a white station wagon and a black Honda.

I began to walk towards it, since the girls had stated we weren't flying to our destination. Bubbles grabbed my shoulder and I turned around. She shook her head.

"This way."

The others had already walked to the wall, where there was not much blocking the awkward space besides a cart full of tools. Blossom pushed it out of the way and pushed a section of the wall, revealing a keypad. She quickly entered a code and the wall opened.

I shared a brief look with Boomer and Brick before catching a suspicious look from Buttercup. I rolled my eyes and followed the others to the door. Bubbles had closed the entrance behind us and the lights turned on, revealing a staircase to a large space. The space held two motorcycles, two BMWs, a convertible, a Volvo, two Jeeps and a mini-van. There were a few other cars but I focused on the motorcycles and the large room. The space was decked out with control panels and carts of tools.

"Whoa this is wicked!" Boomer grinned.

"Thanks." Buttercup smirked.

"Holy crap where'd you get the money for all this?"

"We hardly spent any money on this." Blossom said.

"You could say that being good with creating things runs in the family." Buttercup said cooly. I raised my brow and Bubbles nodded quickly.

"This is like the Batcave!" Boomer exclaimed. The group continued to walk down the stairs, closer to the various vehicles.

Boomer immediately dashed to the convertible and when the girls didn't stop him, I walked towards the motorcycles. One was red and one was black, and I found myself admiring the two of them.

"Like it?" I heard Buttercup say behind me. I nodded without turning around. "I fixed the two up a few years back and this is my pride and joy." Buttercup ran her hand against the red motorcycle.

"What about this one? Up for adoption?" I looked at the metallic black bike, walking up to it before someone beat me to it.

"Bubbles get off that, you might hurt yourself." I said to the girl leaning against it.

Bubbles narrowed her eyes. "I think I know how to ride my own motorcycle, Butch."

"Your motorcycle?" Brick came up to us, eyes wide in disbelief.

"Yeah. She rode mine all the time so I figured why not just give her the other one." Buttercup shrugged.

Bubbles smiled cheekily before Blossom interrupted us.

"Alright guys, we gotta go." She held black sunglasses and Brick looked at her quizzically. "These are so nobody recognizes our eyes. If you haven't noticed, red eyes are pretty strange."

She put on white rimmed sunglasses and tossed black sunglasses to Brick, Boomer and I.

"Put them on." Buttercup ordered. Our previous conversation was apparently forgotten as all signs of friendliness disappeared and her cold look returned.

I looked at them suspiciously before eventually putting them on. And then I couldn't see anything.

I couldn't see anything at all, even with supervision.

"What the hell?" I grunted as I struggled to take them off.

"Sorry guys, but we can't risk having you guys see anything." Bubbles sighed from behind me.

"We need to split up and rendezvous at Bubbles', understood?" Blossom said. After a pause, she started again. "Good. Now I'll take the Volvo with Brick, Buttercup and Butch take the Honda, and Bubbles and Boomer get the convertible."

"No way, sister!" Buttercup argued. "I'm not dealing with Butch for a whole car ride."

I heard an aggravated sigh from Blossom. "Fine. Buttercup and Boomer in the Honda, Bubbles and Butch in the convertible. Now, let's go."

I felt a hand grab my wrist and tug. "Come on Butch, it's this way."

I scowled as there were a billion things wrong with this picture. I was blindfolded and being helped by Bubbles. I took pride in never needing anyone but myself and my brothers, and needing Bubbles to make my way to a car not more than a few strides away from where I was hurt my pride. This is the part where most people would roll their eyes at me and call me an egotistical dick. I'm the furthest from one. If anything, Brick and Boomer have most, if not all, of the egotistical, selfish, self-absorbed and jerk qualities. I heard a car engine start, and then a car door opening. I couldn't tell which one was coming from the convertible, but as Bubbles told me to sit down I guessed the latter.

The car door on the driver's side opened then closed. The familiar sound of keys and the engine starting followed by a seatbelt click hit my ears and soon, the car was moving.

I wasn't sure how the car ride was going to be. If I learned anything from the past day is that Bubbles wasn't the same girl I thought she was. But I also learned that surprises were something that often came out of Bubbles Utonium.

I wasn't all that surprised when Bubbles began to order me around.

"No, the one on the right." Bubbles commanded, and my hand went to the right, where it was met with another CD. "Yes, that one!"

"You know, if you were gonna watch me while you told me to get the CD, you could've just done it yourself. Especially when you said that you didn't want to take your eyes off the road."

"Shut up and put the CD in the player."

I chuckled and reached for the CD player, curious as to what music was going to blare. I was betting on something Top 40… Justin Bieber? One Direction? Or some other godforsaken manufactured heartthrob or boy band that appealed to the eyes so the demographic of teenage girls acted purely on hormones and not on hearing because goddamn, there was no other reason why girls were so infatuated with these things they called singers.

The CD loaded and drums blared through the car speakers before being joined by guitars. The interments were soon accompanied by a voice that was definitely not some pubescent 15-year-old boy.

"Say my name and his in the same breath

I dare you to say they taste the same

Let the leaves fall off in the summer

And let December glow in flames"

The tune was catchy and Bubbles had no problem singing along under her breath. I didn't pay much attention to her as I was to listening to the song. It wasn't bubblegum pop… it was good.

"Erase myself and let go

Start it over again in Mexico

These friends, they don't love you

They just love the hotel suites, now"

Bubbles was tapping along on the steering wheel, and soon enough, my mind was going along with the beat of the lyrics.

"I don't care what you think as long as it's about me

The best of us can find happiness in misery

Said,

I don't care what you think as long as it's about me

The best of us can find happiness in misery"

"Like it?" Bubbles asked, and I turned towards her, forgetting that I couldn't see her- or anything for that matter.

"Yeah." I shrugged. "And here I thought you'd only be listening to bubblegum pop and all that jazz. Didn't know you'd have a good song selection."

Bubbles scoffed. "Of course I like bubblegum pop." Shocker. "But I like a bunch of different music. Plus, who doesn't like Fall Out Boy?"

"Fall Out what?"

"The band that plays this song, dummy." She giggled.

"You sure are strange…" I sighed.

"Strange how?" Bubbles asked, sounding amused.

"Well for one, you're so… badass."

"Why thank you." Bubbles laughed.

"I'm serious. I mean I thought you'd be all shits and giggles, but you're so kickass now. For one… a motorcycle? I would've thought the biggest bike you'd ride was a tricycle."

Bubbles laughed hard- harder than I'd expect someone who was just insulted would. "Well I wasn't a big fan of motorcycles and told Buttercup to quit it. But I was convinced to try it out and, well… it was fun. So I helped her convince the Professor to let her keep it. The rest is history."

"Interesting…" I said blankly.

"Spit it out." Bubbles said after a few moments.

"What?"

"I know you wanna ask about… everything."

I raised an eyebrow and attempted to turn towards her. I couldn't see her, but it was better to pretend than to talk to a highway. "I wouldn't think that you'd be willing to talk to the enemy about your plans."

Bubbles snickered. "You're hardly an enemy now and it's not like I'm telling you about our weaknesses. So before we reach the apartment, or safe house, as the Professor calls it, where Blossom will insist on keeping you in the dark, literally, just ask whatever the hell you want to ask."

"Fine." I shrugged. "I wanted to ask… well, what the hell was that all about?"

"What do you mean?" Bubbles said slowly.

"Your abilities. I mean, I've seen some crazy shit in the past, but what you did today out there… that was something else."

"Like what? What did I do?" Bubbles asked, but I knew that she knew the answer to that.

"Your energy blasts… the shaking… the freaky changing of the eye color… and mind control, for lack of a better name. It's mind-boggling."

"First of all… mind-boggling? Who says that?" Bubbles laughed, and I rolled my eyes. "Second of all, has anyone told you that you're really observant?"

"It's…whatever. But seriously, is that all from the ECX?"

"Not all of it…" Bubbles said quietly. "We haven't… we haven't figured out what I can really do. It's too dangerous. When I first used my powers… bad things happened. Really bad things. I couldn't control it, which is why I always shake like a freaking chihuahua."

"You do?" I asked.

"For someone so observant, you sure did miss out on that very noticeable detail."

"I guess I just didn't notice…" I muttered.

"Well you are twitching most of the time, so you probably don't notice when someone does it too."

I scowled. "Aren't we supposed to be talking about you?"

"Fine, fine." Bubbles sighed dramatically. She was silent for a few moments and for a minute there I thought she wasn't going to answer. "It was too powerful at first. The Professor had to use thirty doses of Antidote X just to get my powers to fade. Not to make all of it go away for a few hours, but to fade just a little bit. That was enough to let my sisters contain me and it took about a week for me to cool off and learn how to control myself from nearly blowing myself up. It took a few weeks to learn how to use some of the moves without losing control. The Professor said it'd take a lot to have me go back to my old room, because he said he wanted me in an environment where I was protected from the city. But I knew what he really meant. So I convinced him to let me stay in one of his safe houses in the city. I haven't used any of my other powers, or even tried to unlock any of the others. It's too dangerous. Even in the safe house."

I hesitated before responding. "That would explain the apartment."

Bubbles sighed quietly, "Yeah."

"You know… you didn't have to tell me all of this. I get the need to keep secrets."

"I know." Bubbles said, and I had the strangest feeling that she was smiling. "Let's go."

I realized that the engine was off and the car was still. Bubbles took the keys out of the ignition and paused before clicking her seatbelt and exiting. As Bubbles led me around, I scoffed inwardly at her previous statement.

I really wasn't as observant as either of us thought.

But as we silently walked, I thought back to what Bubbles and Blossom had said. Bubbles said she was being protected. But it sure as hell wasn't from the city. It was from herself, as cheesy as it sounded. It was also to protect the city from her.

And as I processed this information so I could inform my brothers, I contemplated Blossom's words from earlier.

"You'll need her protection. She's the only person who can stand a chance against Brent and you need her to survive."

Was Blossom sure about that? It sounded more like they, or more specifically Bubbles, needed our help more than anything. And it looked like they were going to need us if they wanted to survive their battles with Brent. Bubbles needed us as punching bags or test subjects to help control and unlock her powers while her sisters needed us to help find any defense strategies against ECX powers.

Did we really need her protection? Maybe.

Did she need us more? Possibly.

I never had any protection that wasn't my own powers or my brothers' help before, and the idea of even supposedly needing it was driving me crazy.

There was no way a Rowdyruff Boy needed protection from anyone, let alone a Powerpuff Girl.

A/N: Holy cheeseballs that was the longest chapter I've posted on this site. That's more than 2.2 thousand words so hopefully it slightly made up for the extremely long gap between updates. Anyways, since I'm back from my vacation that was oN THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COUNTRY (aka Washington state) and I have internet and concert tickets to see one of my favorite bands, I'm excited to update the next chapter. I was going to include more Butchubbles fluff but I thought it was kinda early in the story for that.

Oh, and a sidenote! I hope you don't find Butch's comments about manufactured heartthrobs/boy bands too offensive. I was trying to think of what a grumpy teenage boy who doesn't like that kind of music. In other words, I was trying to think like Butch. I, on the other hand deeply enjoy boybands and teenage heartthrobs.

Anyways, I hope you liked the update and leave some reviews down below if you liked/loved/hated it! Catch ya on the flipside.