Chapter 5

Paper Tiger

Sophomore Year - September

Boomer ignored his phone alarm, rolled over, and tried to go back to sleep. Whatever the hell Butch was doing made too much noise for that to work, so he laid in bed, wrapped in his covers, doing nothing.

"Boomer! School!" Brick shouted through the door. "Do not make me come in there." Brick wasn't kidding, he would drag Boomer out of bed and make him go. It was better to just do what he said, it made things easier. He smelled cooking bacon anyway. Someone was making breakfast and that had never happened.

Boomer pulled on the nearest clothes, grabbed his backpack, and went out into the kitchen. But there wasn't anything on the counter.

"Someone make breakfast?" Boomer asked.

"No," Butch snorted from the couch, putting a spoonful of cereal into his mouth while reading something on his phone.

"Ready to go?" Brick asked, stepping down the stairs and stuffing a book into his backpack. "You better wash that bowl and spoon before we leave."

"It's cool, Brick." Butch put the cereal away and took his dishes to the sink. "We have a dishwasher now."

"Isn't there bacon?" Boomer asked.

"You want bacon? Get your ass out of bed earlier and make it yourself," Brick said.

Boomer rolled his head away. His brothers were never thinking about anyone but themselves. "So what do I get to eat?"

"I don't fucking know, but make it quick." Brick looked at his phone.

Boomer opened the pantry. All the good food was gone. Whatever was left he would have to make.

"He didn't make me any bacon either," Butch said, loading his spoon and bowl into the dishwasher.

Boomer rolled his eyes and went back to the nothing in the pantry. It was all bullshit food. Why did they even have three boxes of rice and a bag of potatoes?

"Dude, just grab something," Butch's hand wrapped around a bag of bread and he gave it to Boomer.

Boomer inspected the bag's contents. There were only four slices left and two of them were end pieces. "Bread? That's it?"

Butch huffed and grabbed a jar of peanut butter. He forced it into Boomer's other hand. "There."

"What am I gonna spread it with?"

"Your finger, I don't care." Butch waved him off.

"Let's go." Brick hit the button opening the living room wall. He and Butch flew out of the apartment. Boomer stuffed the bread and jar of peanut butter into his backpack and followed.

Boomer met his friends under a tree before school started. They were wasting time playing hacky sack before classes started. Boomer was hungry, so he dipped the bread into the peanut butter rather than spreading it with his finger like Butch had suggested. He wasn't an animal.

When he ran out of bread he got himself into the circle his friends were standing in. The hacky sack passed back and forth between them and came toward Boomer. He kicked it straight up and caught it on top of his head. He floated up so everyone could see.

They weren't looking at him, they looked everywhere else but at him. One person groaned. Everyone was mad.

"Come on, man. Pass it to someone."

"This isn't about showing off, we just want to play."

Boomer turned his head to drop the sack. It plopped onto the ground. He wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words. It's not like he used powers or anything, and he wasn't showing off. Why were they all mad? He had been new to their group, but he thought they were friends. Why didn't they want him around? Why didn't anyone want him around? He stared at the deflated bag of beads.

The bell rang and everyone scrambled to first period, Boomer wandered the halls. His eyes panned over flyers posed on the walls announcing clubs, events, and whatever else was going on that Boomer didn't want anything to do with. He wanted to go home so he could do whatever. No one ever wanted him around anyway. Everyone liked Butch and Brick, but Boomer never got to hang out with anyone. Everyone thought of him as the screwup brother.

Down the hall a big guy in a letterman jacket had some kid in a headlock. It was a strange thing to happen, everyone was supposed to be in class.

"Alright, loser," the jock said. "Pay up or get beat."

The kid didn't struggle, he pulled some money out of his pocket and gave it to the bigger guy, his hand shaking the entire time.

"Homework too!" The bully tightened the hold. For a moment, he looked like Butch, but even bigger.

The kid pulled back tears, straining to get air. "I need to get it out of my backpack," he managed.

The bully released the lock and slammed the kid into the lockers. "Get it then."

"Hey!" Boomer stepped forward scowling at the bully. "Leave him alone or I'll..." He trailed off. Boomer was never good at playing hero. What was he even doing? No one wanted his help. His mind dissociated from whatever his body was doing. He was outside of himself, watching.

The bully turned toward Boomer and a menacing smile formed on his face. "You standing up for him, you little bitch?" He dragged his victim along the row of lockers toward Boomer. The kid's head banged on the padlocks as he went. "I think I'll take your lunch money too."

The bully towered over Boomer. "Lunch money. Now." He held out his hand.

That guy would have never even messed with Butch. Butch would have kicked his ass without a second thought. Brick might have killed him. He visualized Brick pushing the bully's head into the lockers until one crushed the other. But, then again, Boomer could do that too...

His mind slid into someplace comfortable, like he remembered who he was. The world came back, sharp and visceral. "Why don't you give me your lunch money?"

The bully mentally recoiled, as if he had never considered it could happen to him. He quickly recovered. "You're asking for it." He let the kid he was holding go and puffed up his muscles.

Boomer stepped forward and got in the asshole's face. "Give me your lunch money. Now."

Boomer didn't feel much when the guy's knuckles broke against his cheek. It felt like a strong breeze.

He went down like a bitch, clutching his devastated hand, laying on the floor, shocked at what had happened. "You broke my fucking hand, you piece of shit." He spoke in a half whisper to keep the pain down.

"I wasn't kidding." Boomer held out his hand, their positions reversed. "Money. All of it."

The bully was totally focused on himself. To him Boomer wasn't even there.

"Hey!" Boomer punched a nearby locker without his super strength. It didn't do any damage, but it was loud. "Money."

The bully reluctantly pulled the money he got from his victim out of his pocket and handed it to Boomer, his good hand shaking.

"I said 'all of it'."

"I- I- don't have any."

Boomer growled. Wasn't that what Butch did? No. Butch would have choked him.

"Okay, okay. Here." The bully took his wallet out of his pocket. Before he could get the money out, Boomer snatched up the whole thing.

He looked in the cash pocket, there were a bunch of bills, including a couple of 20s, and slipped it into his own pocket. "Cell phone."

The guy looked equal parts offended, terrified, and in pain. Pathetic. Was that how his brothers saw him?

The guy waffled a bit, having to give in to the demands of someone much stronger than him but still not wanting to give up his phone. He had never had that happen before.

Boomer reached into the boy's pocket and took his phone. "Tomorrow, you're going to have 20 for me or I'm taking your car keys. Got it?"

The boy looked away, then nodded.

Boomer rolled his eyes and walked away. He studied the phone and wondered how much he could get for it. Then he remembered they got paid for taking down monsters. Taking the phone was stupid. It was like one of those principle things Brick liked to talk about, but not worth the effort. What had he been thinking?

"Hey," a voice came from behind Boomer. It was that kid the bully was beating on before Boomer had stepped in. "Thanks for..." the kid was taller than Boomer, but had even less muscle. He was acting all meek for some reason.

Boomer had no idea what to do.

"...helping me." The kid stood weird and he wouldn't look up from the floor. "You're Boomer, right?"

"Yeah."

He finally looked up at him. "I'm Mike Believe." He held a hand out to shake.

Boomer thought it was weird, guys didn't shake hands, they fist-bumped or head-butted each other. Old men in business suits shook hands. It was weird, but he shook the guy's hand anyway. "Oh right." Boomer gave Mike his money back. It was only a five anyway.

"Thanks, man." Mike took Boomer's offering. "Look, I gotta get to class. But I'll see you around?" He asked hopefully.

"Yeah." Is this what it felt like to be cool? It was uncomfortable, but Boomer liked it. "See you around."

Boomer went to his first-period class. They were watching some nature thing where a fancy narrator talked about "the majestic snow leopard". He yawned and went to sleep. In his dream, a cat led him across the tundra and he finally felt free.

"Boomer." Boomer jerked back into reality. The teacher was staring at him holding the class phone. "They need to see you in the principal's office.

"Okay." Boomer got up and walked out of class. Why would they need to see him at the office? It had to have been a monster attack or something like that. His phone didn't have a message from Brick though. He was almost to the administration office door, when someone slammed him into a locker.

"What did you do?" Brick demanded.

"Nothing!"

"Do not lie to me, asshole. You did something in the halls twenty minutes ago."

"Oh yeah, that. This huge guy was robbing this other guy, Mike. Took his money and homework, and..." Boomer hung his head. "Then I took his wallet and phone."

Brick squinted at him like he was thinking something. "You robbed a guy who was in the middle of robbing a guy?"

"...Kinda..." Boomer handed Brick the wallet and phone. "I haven't taken any money out of it, I swear."

Brick looked into the wallet. "You didn't hurt him did you?"

"...yeah, kinda. He punched me and hurt himself."

"He punched you?"

"Yeah."

"Did you punch him back?"

"No."

Brick took off his hat, ran his fingers through his hair, and put the hat back on.

Boomer cocked his head. "How did you-"

"Shut up," Brick demanded. "Let me do all the talking. Do not say a word." He turned toward the principal's office and sighed. "Blossom's in there." He looked through the door.

Boomer took a look through the walls with his x-ray vision. Blossom stood next to the principal with her hands on her hips.

Brick set his eyes hard at Boomer. "Give me your phone."

"What!? Why!?" Boomer reached his hand into his pocket to protect his phone. "No."

Brick's eyes narrowed. He reached into Boomer's pocket. Boomer tried to stop him by jerking away, but Brick kept on him. Boomer squirmed against Brick's strength, desperately trying not to get his phone crushed. Brick pried it out of his hand and held it out of reach. He opened the camera and set it to video.

"Record this whole thing." Brick gave Boomer his phone back, forcing him to hold it horizontally. "Eyes on the screen, try to capture the action, like you're filming one of your dumb skateboard tricks."

Boomer groaned at having to do more stuff. Whatever that was about, Brick had a plan and Boomer had to follow. He kept his phone up and Brick led him into the office.

"Name?" the office administrator asked.

Brick walked right by, ignoring her and opened the door to the principal's office.

"If you boys are done roughhousing, we should begin," Blossom said before they had entered, smirking at Brick. "And yes, I would encourage you to record this meeting on camera. Wouldn't you agree, Principal Butte?"

"Absolutely," the principal agreed.

The office was big with a window on the back wall. There were filing cabinets along another. The desk was big and there was a lot of stuff on it, papers mostly, but also an open laptop. The screensaver showed highlights from the last X-ers game. A football sat near it.

"This is a matter between Boomer and the school," Brick said. "Why is she here?"

"Any time there is an incident at the school involving superpowers or technology enhancing the abilities of normal humans to super-human levels, I act as an advisor to the administration," Blossom said sweetly and smiled. "And why are you here?"

"Boomer is allowed representation."

Blossom rolled her eyes, still smiling. "Great."

"Let's begin." Principal Butte took a breath. "There was a fight in the halls. It seems Boomer injured another student, Tyler Shoe, at 8:04 this morning. We have it on the security camera. Tyler has been taken to the hospital so that the doctors can put his arm into a cast. Boomer will be suspended for three weeks for fighting with a review of his possible expulsion."

Brick tilted his head. "Is it possible for us to review the video?"

"Of course." Principal Butte tapped the laptop and the video played.

The video started from the point just before Tyler punched Boomer. There was no sound, it was in black and white, and it was picture was grainy. Boomer tried to capture as much of it as he could, per Brick's instructions. It played until Boomer took Tyler's wallet and phone and walked away.

Once it was over, it went back to the first frame with Boomer and Tyler standing across from each other.

Brick nodded his head. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Principal Butte," he said. "And yes, we will be pressing charges."

Principal Butte shook his head. "Boomer is the one who-"

"Boomer is the one who was punched, I'm well aware of that." Brick smirked. "That constitutes assault and battery."

Blossom's face became a scowl. "He clearly stole Tyler's wallet and phone."

"I believe the proper term is 'confiscated'," Brick said placing the items on the principal's desk. "He had planned on returning them when the school decided to settle the bullying matter."

"Clearly Tyler shouldn't have punched Boomer." Blossom said. "However, the situation does not constitute bullying. Boomer was not injured in any way. At worst this could be called attempted-bullying."

"There's no such thing as 'attempted-bullying'," Brick explained. "If I made fun of another student for their weight issues, I would be bullying even if the victim wasn't embarrassed about it. But I was referring to the other student, of course."

Principal Butte crossed his arms. "What other student?"

Brick pointed to the computer monitor. In the paused video, Tyler's arm was wrapped around Mike's head and crushing him into the lockers. "That student." There was an entire person sticking out from behind Tyler. Boomer got it on camera.

"That's Mike. Tyler stole his money." Boomer said. "And he wanted to steal his homework too. I can show you. Does the video go ba-" A look from Brick told him to shut up.

"Why was that part of the incident not included?" Brick asked Blossom directly.

"Because it did not involve Boomer," Principal Butte said. "Boomer decided to involve himself."

"Much like the Powerpuff Girls decide to involve themselves when they beat people up. Those people just so happen to be in the middle of committing a crime, like Tyler was committing a crime in this instance."

Blossom growled.

"The school seems to have these cameras everywhere. If I checked the footage from the past few days, would I find this same student stealing money and homework from Mike?"

Principal Butte shook his head. "I'm not letting you see that footage, Mr. Jojo."

It felt as if someone had turned on the heater in the middle of summer. Brick's expression and stance didn't change, but the principal had pressed the 'Jojo' button.

"It's 'Brick'," Blossom said. "He doesn't have a last name."

"Is that some kind of 'identity politics' thing?" Principal Butte asked.

"No, its a legal name thing," Brick said. He tightened a fist. "Tyler complained about the incident with Boomer, didn't he. That's why the administration acted so quickly." Brick turned around and looked through the open door, at the office administrator in the hall. "And it happened exactly four-minutes after class started. It's almost like it was planned. But that would be impossible to prove," Brick mused. He turned toward the office administrator through the open door. "Has Mike ever filed a complaint about any incidents with Tyler?"

The administrator looked down her glasses at Brick.

"The incident happened at 8:04. Perhaps we should go through the attendance records to see if Mike has been marked late to first period lately. Though, I doubt Tyler has."

The administrator's scowl deepened.

Brick bored his eyes into Blossom. "The only reason you wouldn't let me review the attendance records is because you have something to hide."

Blossom took a step forward. "This school has nothing to-"

Principal Butte rubbed his beard "I think we should all..." He didn't say anything more, even though it felt like he should have.

Brick smirked at Blossom. It was that one he gave right before he took someone down. Boomer had been on the receiving end many times. Brick palmed the football that was sitting on the Principal's desk. "So, the school has had evidence for bullying this entire time and done nothing?" Brick asked to no one in particular. "Why, oh why, might that be?" he threw the football at Blossom using super strength.

Blossom caught it and gave Brick a dirty look. Was that supposed to mean something? She placed it on a nearby filing cabinet.

"Would anyone care to tell me when the administration planned on doing something about Tyler's reign of terror?" Brick asked. "Because it's seems to me that the school was perfectly content with theft going on within the halls, as long as the perpetrator was the school's precious quarterback."

Tyler was the quarterback of the football team? Boomer had no idea who the guy was.

"Look, everyone's fine. I sure Tyler has learned his lesson." Principal Butte rested a hand on his desk. "No punishments need to be handed out."

"You were just about to hand Boomer a three-week suspension for theft before this examination, not to mention the possible expulsion. And now you refuse to do your job." Brick smirked. "Perhaps I should inform the superintendent, or better yet, Mrs. Bellum."

Principal Butte snorted. "As if you could actually get a hold of-"

He was interrupted by a ringing coming from Brick's phone. Boomer finally got it, that's why Brick wanted Boomer to record it on his phone, because Brick knew he might need his own phone. It's smart to plan ahead like that.

"Good afternoon, Brick." Mrs. Bellum's voice came through. "How can I help you?"

"Hello Mrs. Bellum. I'm in a meeting with the principal. There has been an incident at the school. One of the varsity football players punched Boomer in the face."

"Is Blossom with you?"

"Yes," Blossom said. "I'm here."

Brick mouthed something to Blossom. She gave him another dirty look.

"Blossom, have you reviewed the incident?"

"Yes. The camera footage shows that Boomer was not at fault."

"Then why am I receiving a call, Brick?" Bellum asked with venom in her voice.

"My issue is that when we entered this meeting, Boomer had been deemed 'at-fault'. Principal Butte planned on handing Boomer a three-week suspension before we reviewed the footage. Now, he is refusing to punish the football star for ongoing bullying and theft."

"Mom, you should know this is being recorded," Blossom said hastily.

"I want him fired immediately, or the recording on Boomer's phone of this entire incident will be published on the internet."

Mrs. Bellum sighed. "Are we having a tantrum, Brick?"

Principal Butte chuckled.

"Quite the opposite Mrs. Bellum. I insist that this school employ an effective principal, who deals with these types of incidents without bias and can hand out punishments fairly. After all, if individuals are allowed to abuse their power, this city could very well descend into..." Brick chewed on the last word. "Chaos."

There was a pregnant pause on the other end. Everyone in the room, except Brick, stared at the phone. The call timer counted the seconds.

"Consider it done," Bellum finally said and she hung up.

Principal Butte looked aghast at what had happened. His office phone rang.

Brick smirked at Blossom. "We're done here." He pulled Boomer out of the office.

A few words and Boomer was spared three-week suspension. Was Brick a miracle worker? Or did he make some kind of deal with the devil?

When they got back out into the halls, Brick punched Boomer's shoulder. It didn't hurt, Brick wasn't using his super strength, but Boomer flinched anyway. "Next time you're cleaning your own mess."

Blossom retreated from the office with a scowl on her face and her arms crossed.

"Get back to class," Brick said before turning toward her.

Butch took a drag of his cigarette and blew a puff smoke into the air. "Hold up, some douchey football player thought he could beat up Boomer!?"

Boomer swallowed the pizza in his mouth. "Yeah. I mean, he punched me."

Butch laughed. "That's awesome. Plus, you got that asshole principal fired?"

"Yeah, well, no. Brick did that."

"He pissed me off." Brick took a bite of his own slice. "Fuck him."

"Aww man, I'm gonna miss making fun of that guy. Heh, Principal 'Butt'. He threw me in detention every time I called him 'Seymour'." Butch flicked his cigarette off the side of their building. "Yeah. Fuck him. His replacement can't be any worse, right?"

Kindergarten - April

"You let yourself get captured?" Butch punched Boomer in the stomach.

Boomer sucked in air but his lungs wouldn't let him. He doubled over.

Butch stood Boomer up again. "AND you got beaten up by a bunch of girls?" Butch punched him twice.

"There were three of 'em," Boomer pleaded.

Butch kicked him. "It don't matter how many there were! You're supposed to be a Rowdyruff Boy!"

It wasn't fair. Boomer was always 'the dumb one' 'the weak one'. He hated being called that.

"Be stronger," Butch said.

"Get smarter," Brick said.

But he would never be as strong as Butch or as smart as Brick. He wasn't good at anything. He could cry and that was it.

"You're pathetic," Brick said. "Put some clothes on."