The store bell rang as Boomer exited the candy store with two small bags. He had intended to buy three, but the money he and his brothers had robbed a month ago hadn't been enough to buy all the jawbreakers.

It had been about a day since Brick took Blossom in. Boomer and Butch, of course, did not feel too good about this. But they weren't going risk receiving blows from their brother. Blossom was in a half-comatose state (he still didn't quite understand what it meant, even after Brick mentioned it to him multiple times), and, according to Brick, would be too "dangerous" if they let her go right now.

"And make sure you buy the candy, got it?" he remembered Brick yelling at him as he left the house. Boomer snorted. Thanks to keeping a Powerpuff Girl in the house, they couldn't even do what they had always enjoyed doing freely. Welp, he would have to deal with it. Not like he could do anything about it, could he?

He glanced homeward. Well, not homeward. It was hard, at least for Boomer himself, to call that place "home". It wasn't even really their home in the first place. The house had been on sale last winter, but they had taken it by force with Mojo's help. The boys themselves had told their "dads" that they wanted to live separately from their "parents".

He was going to set off and fly back home when he heard a voice. A very familiar voice.

"Have you seen her, please? Um, have you?" the voice just grew louder. And louder still. Until the source of the voice, not looking where it was going, crashed into him as it turned the corner.

"Ugh!" Boomer fell to the ground, still holding the bags. He rubbed his head, and looked up to find. . .

"Bubbles?"

Bubbles rubbed her head and looked up. The first thing Boomer noticed was that she was a mess. The hair in her pigtails seemed out of place. She had that crazed look in her eyes that clearly said, I can't talk with you, or anything.

The next thing he noticed was that out of Bubbles's arms tumbled out a huge stack of papers. On each of them was a picture of Blossom. He couldn't make out the rest of whatever was on them.

He set the candy bags down on the sidewalk and walked towards the paper pile. He picked one up. Sure enough, there was that big picture of Blossom. And there was something else on top it. Boomer read the word: MISSING. Below the picture was a bunch of information. Boomer smirked. What was the point of writing so much when everyone in the city knew very well who they were?

He kept reading. Lost On: May-

Boomer received a smack in the face before he could read the rest. As quickly as that blow came, he felt the paper being snatched out of his hand. He rubbed his face and glared back at Bubbles. Then, he got scared. Looking into Bubbles's eyes at the moment made him feel like he was looking straight into Him's eyes.

"Get your hands off them, you-" Bubbles stopped, searching for the right word. But she couldn't think of any. "Just-just get away!" she snapped.

Boomer just gazed at the paper in her hand. He thought he knew the answer. And it would probably be a stupid question to ask. But he asked anyways. "Dude, why'd you get these papers?"

Boomer failed to shield himself from another blow. He covered his face in pain. "Ow!" Yup, definitely a stupid question.

"Why should it be any of your business?!" Bubbles hollered, clutching the poster as if it was her life. "You shouldn't turn up around here!" Despite her bravado, Bubbles couldn't help but hear her heart thumping loudly. She was just one step away from a hysterical panic attack.

Oh, no! she was thinking. Now Boomer had found out that Blossom was missing. And if any villain found out that Blossom, out of the trio, was missing, she knew they'd do anything to take an advantage of Buttercup and her own self. Boomer was probably too stupid to realize what he and his brothers could do, but what if he was smarter than she expected? Or what if he went home and absentmindedly told his brothers about what he had seen, and they would figure out what they could do? She really hoped Boomer would forget seeing the poster.

Boomer stammered, unsure of what to do. "Um, uh, but, I was only-"

"Shut that big fat mouth of yours!" Bubbles cried, pointing at him accusingly. "If you ever come back here, I'll, I'll-I'LL CAVE YOUR FACE IN!"

Boomer was about to protest, and Bubbles was about to yell something else nasty, when they were both disrupted by a loud SPLASH! and a burst of water in their faces. Boomer wiped the water from his eyes just in time to see a speedy truck pass by. Bubbles, on the other hand, took the time to wring the water out of her pigtails, that had straightened out from the impact.

Too late did she noticed the poster she was holding was receding to a pulpy, gluey mess.

"N-no!" she whimpered, and turned her gaze to the papers that she had lost her grip of. Or, at least, what used to be a pile of papers that she had held onto. It was just-there was no other way to describe it-mush. Bubbles stood over the pasty pile with the sopping wet former poster in her hands, swaying from shock.

Boomer thought he knew what was going to happen. A look at how her eyes twitched, and it was easy to realize in a flash. One, two, three.

Bubbles fell over and broke down, wailing.

Boomer felt uncomfortable. He had seen the Powerpuff Girls being left in misery before, but he never saw any of them crying. They usually held up pretty well when they were fighting him and his brothers. Until now. And he hated watching Bubbles cry. It made him feel like he had to do something. He knew he could just leave, but for some reason, he felt like he was stuck where he was.

What can I do, what can I do. . . Boomer kept thinking. Bubbles crying was making him feel worse. And the worst part of this queasy feeling was that he didn't do anything. All he did was pick up a poster, get smacked in the face twice, see a random truck drive by and get soaked, and. . . well, now, watching her weep. If he had been the cause, if he had known this incident to be his fault, he would be laughing. He would be proud of himself. Heck it, his brothers would be even prouder, possibly jealous, of him for being the first of them to make a Powerpuff Girl cry.

But he didn't do anything to her. Not this time. And she was crying, for crying out loud. That was the bad part.

Bubbles just kept crying. She only managed to hand out copies of the poster to ten citizens or so out of the population of ten million (and counting). And the ninety posters that had been left were destroyed beyond repair. There was no way she and Buttercup could save Blossom in time now. Running into Boomer and allowing herself to be distracted had led this to become a matter of do or die.

She continued to cry until she felt something nudge her. She looked up to find Boomer holding out a bag towards her. Sniffing, she took it, and peeked inside. She let out a soft gasp before facing Boomer.

"J-jawbreakers?"

Boomer nodded slowly.

Bubbles just stared back. Then she flashed a quick smile, and rocketed off. Boomer stared into the distance until he couldn't see her anymore.

Then Boomer felt weird. He felt like he was satisfied. He was released from that spot he had just been rooted into. He did something to end this-and he found it good.

And he didn't like that.

He took off into the air, towards "home".

Wow, there's an awful lot of crying and "No!"s in this fanfic. And the chapter title sucks. . . -_-;;

Been ten days since I last updated. TEN FRIGGIN' DAYS. GAAAAAH!

Gotta start working on this story a bit harder.

So, yeah, I have officially decided to include some Boomubbles and Butchercup stuff (I know, the latter hasn't come out yet). Hopefully, this'll work the way I'm planning it to work.

Oh, and random trivia. . . did anyone notice that Bubbles was the only girl who hugged Boomer and smiled while kissing his cheek in "The Boys are Back In Town"? (If you don't know that episode, REMEDY THAT IMMEDIATELY.) Also, anyone notice that. . . Brick was the only boy who didn't frown when he got kissed?! LOLZ