JMJ

NOTE: The time period was a little tricky to choose since the Powerpuff Girls is an older show. For most things time period doesn't matter but high school is of course the center of trendy. I decided it best to set the high school in a sort of late 00's, because of how they would have been little girls in the late 90's.

Chapter One

Super Girl

The doors to Townsville High burst opened to a rush of crisp orange, red, and yellow leaves like confetti to shower upon the students who entered as if for the last of the opening credits to a high school musical.

"Oh, I can't wait to finish my project for history class!" exclaimed Blossom, dressed in her usual scholarly outfit.

One would think she was going to some kind of Ivy League with her pencil skirt, her pink blouse, and her tidy ponytail. Her daisy jewel-like earrings added a touch of flair, anyway. After all, her shoes were just a pair of simple slip-ons.

"It's all about Amelia Earhart! I got my report half done, my plane models are on their way, and I have all my resources catalogued to the T!"

She grinned from ear to ear and her earrings gave off a shimmer as she threw back her head.

"You always pick somebody like that," shrugged Buttercup.

"'Well behaved women seldom make history,'" declared Blossom crossing her arms.

Buttercup snorted. "Yeah, you don't say that to me when I'm not letting you boss me around like you're the mom."

"Oh, do you have to be so contrary all the time," Blossom huffed.

"—A report on PIXAR and how they were told that Toy Story would never make as much as the Lion King," said Bubbles.

"But you love the Lion King," Blossom blinked in surprise.

"Oh, no! Not me!" Bubbles laughed taking out her ear buds; before she turned her music off one could easily hear some JPop just ending. "That's Kayla Fennell's project. Oh! she's gunna have the best Halloween party this year! I just know it. I'm so excited!"

At first Buttercup thought Blossom was going to scold her for not taking her own project seriously, but she should have known better.

"Oh, I know! Me too!"

They were almost squealing. Buttercup hated it when they squealed. Just like they squealed when the Professor gave all six of them their own color-coded iPods so no one would have to fight about each others' different music style, it was Blossom and Bubbles who squealed like little piglets. What happened to the girls she used to know?

"Brian Pike's gunna be there!" Bubbles sighed dreamily.

She was in her usual Japanese-styled street-wear dress that was not quite Lolita, not nearly a school uniform, but it was all frills. A dolphin necklace bobbed along a silver chain at her neck. Her shoes were chunky, white and dressy. Her hair was also Japanese-inspired with two long spiraling pigtails held together in two hair-bands each with a silver octo-pussy-cat pun creature in the upper bands. A touch of blue highlight squiggled like a pair of delicate tentacles through the yellow of her hair. Her makeup was as thick as a JPop star's with blush marks. Overall she looked much like she was going for a sea-themed Kawaii-look, which, of course, she was. She even had to walk in her pastel, platform Mary-Janes and heart-bubble doily socks with her feet turned in like she was trying to walk like an anime girl.

She'd never be able to kick out a bad guy now, Buttercup thought. And the only reason why she likes Brian is because he's part Japanese. Come on, she's got to admit that! Ug!

She rolled her eyes.

And she didn't much care for Kayla either. She was the most brainless, hyper prissy girl she had ever met. Between her one sister with her air-heart and the other with her airhead, it was just gunna be some girly pallid pink and blue disaster like it always was with Kayla. Why, oh, why did her sisters just become stupid teenagers behind her back?

How did this happen? When? The pair of them were just stereotypes from some Disney Channel show. It was sickening.

Even Bubbles used to be pretty hardcore! Just because they weren't superheroes anymore didn't mean they had to give in to this. Giggling and prattling in their silly way about boy bands and half-nude singer girls flowered in sparkles was enough to drive anyone insane. Not that Buttercup didn't have her tastes in music or even have excitement in finding clothes she liked, but getting energized for more than an hour about high-heeled boots was quite another thing, and spending forever afterwards trying to figure out which one to chose? Oh, and who could forget such important magazines that had tests on stuff like: if you were a fruit which one would you be: apple, orange, banana, or grapes, and what that meant for your future.

Besides weren't bananas some kind of nut or something? Shouldn't the brain whiz Blossom know this? Oh, wait. It was a berry. Well, they were both fruitcakes anyway, and where did that leave Buttercup?

The boys were at least fun to be around at him. Well, except Brick was always sulking around grumpy with the silent-treatment lately and into anything dark just to bother people. Boomer was fun outside of school, but it was a little annoying being the sister of the cute one in school that all the girls liked and he didn't even notice, because he was practically still five in that regard. Out of all the six of Utoniums, though, it was funny that the most popular one was Boomer overall. Buttercup knew she could have been more popular than she was, and maybe Blossom was right that she was getting to be a little too contrary these days but— oh, and that just left Butch, who wasn't so bad even at school, but the boys were probably goofing off somewhere and hadn't come in the doors with them at the moment.

"Those boys better not be late for class," said Blossom looking over her shoulder suddenly.

"Oh, Boomer will get them into class," Bubbles said, always quick to defend them.

Buttercup didn't say anything this time, her mind was already wandering, and she had not stopped like her sisters. She was heading for class. Could she still make her report on the history of greasers? She had not found a prominent figure in the movement she wanted to use, admittedly, and the project was meant to be somewhat biographical.

But why was it that when the bell rang all she heard was a bank alarm going off? Why was it that instead of tackling algebraic equations with Mr. Wiseman, all she was picturing was tackling number-beasts, and her pencil was her foot kicking them for all she was worth?

Was she actually thinking like an old lady has-been at the age of fifteen?

Ug!

At lunch she saw a Fuzzy Lumpkins in her mashed potatoes and she smacked it with her spoon. In English class with Mrs. Quinn, Mojo Jojo was talking Mo-linguish about taking over the world before he gave his redundant adverbs some conjugating punching verbs. Sudusa lurked in Mr. Brown's lit class under the wing of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. When Ms. Zhou was talking about microorganisms eating away metal over the course of time, she was seeing the brain-sucking idiocy of the Amoeba Boys for crying out loud!

The Amoeba Boys? You miss the Amoeba Boys!?

"Hey, Buttercup," Mitch whispered when the teacher wasn't looking.

They were watching a short movie about those stupid microbes now.

Buttercup raised a leery eye from the window where the blue sky had looked enticing enough to make her forget that she could not longer fly. If only she could fly at high speed and slam charging into this crisis.

"You going to Kayla's party? Princess is going."

Buttercup stared at him a moment. Then she turned back up ahead at the screen.

Talk about amoebas… She'd give Princess a good punch just for making Mitch interested in her, even if she hadn't done that one on purpose.

Buttercup blinked.

Was she over the rainbow already? Or was she just some punky girl who was no longer super to go along with it.

She slammed her forehead into her desk.

"Buttercup? Are you taking notes?" warned Mr. Zhou.

"Yes!" Buttercup said rubbing her head.

Some of the nearby students laughed quietly.

She snatched up her pencil. Then she held that instrument of graphite injection so rigidly over the first blue line of her notebook it was as though she had suddenly forgotten how to write. She looked up at the screen. Then she looked back at the paper and forced the pencil down with all her might.

The lead broke. Her pencil sharpener, she knew perfectly well to be also broken, and it was the last sharp pencil she had. Why had she not saved her mechanical one!? Oh, right because she had run out of lead.

This time she threw her head back unable to take it anymore.

"Rah!"

#

For the first time in a long time, Buttercup was happy that the Professor was picking them up instead having them ride on the bus. If she had to hear one more thing about that Halloween party she was literally going throw up. Fennell wasn't even going to make it scary.

Well, actually she was going to make it scary, but in the wrong way. Buttercup could just show up as Freddy Krueger with full costume and fake blood, but… well, everyone else was going to dress up like some stupid gothic princess, or a flashy pop star or fluffy animal thing or Pokémon. Even the real Freddy Krueger would run away screaming.

And to top it all off, Bubbles was listening and humming to Shonen Knife all the way home as though the Powerpuff Girls were someone else. Someone the Utonium girls had never known. Just a cartoon they half remembered.

"Buttercup screamed in class again today," Blossom suddenly said to the Professor in between her rambling about how wonderful school was.

Buttercup didn't even join in with the boys laughing and jeering today so she heard her sister as clear as a screech from a megaphone. As always, Mommy Blossom was the one to report everything. Mommy Blossom had to get the Professor all concerned.

"Are you alright, Buttercup?" asked the Professor.

Buttercup only slumped in her seat crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

"Buttercup?" asked the Professor again, turning briefly from his driving to look back at her with that concern she feared to see.

"She's just mad cuz Brian likes Bubbles better," mocked Brick with a sneer.

Buttercup shoved Brick hard. "No, I don't!"

But the boys were laughing anyway, and Buttercup just rolled her eyes and huffed to look out the window of the van.

Oh, those blue skies looked so sweet! She could almost see the rainbow, but she was no super girl anymore to leap through the clouds to rescue anybody— least of all herself…

But she had to get away. Somewhere.

As the sky grew befittingly gray instead of blue, and the clouds grew hazy making the autumn air clammy instead of crisp, she knew where.

#

The drizzling rain ran down the long, archaic windows from a time when smoking cigars was as commonplace as typewriting secretaries and fedora hats. The ghost of a jazz musician echoed from a speaker on low. The walls were bare brick. That smell of smoke still faintly lingered along with the scent of old wood from the floor and the huge wooden desk carved up like a New York librarian's.

It was the old side of Townsville. Historic. Who was to argue with the long trench coat hanging on the hook by the door so old it had an antique transom. It still opened on a squeaky hinge. Who was to question the young man wearing shades indoors, his shirt strung up with a loose tie and his dark hair gleaming as he say back in his swivel chair at the knock on the door?

The only problem was that the door read Assistant Attorney rather than Noir Detective, but as the young lady about fifteen years old walked in through the door— her hair short, her oversized hoodie dripping wet as she threw it back and set loose her solemn aventurine-green eyes to stare directly at the man in the desk— how could one not think she had come to report a sensitive case to a private detective? The best there was.

As Alex DiDio's smile widened, he threw his arms behind his head rather carelessly back, and his own emerald eyes lowered before a shrug.

"Buttercup," he said. "It's a surprise to see you here."

She trotted up to his desk, her eyes never faltering.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" asked Alex. "I'm at work, you know."

"I figured you wouldn't be too busy since you just helped to bust Dr. Louise Hamilton."

"Aww, you been following up, eh?" teased Alex. "Yeah, it's been a little quiet since Lady Ham's tears. My first big case as Ace Attorney. Ha, ha! Might get me up to DA."

"Agh! The way you're cleaning up the city, you'll be DA before Christmas, Ace!" huffed Buttercup.

Without hesitation, she climbed up onto the solid antique desktop, harder and darker than any stupid desk in the school office.

"Well, then here's to a very merry Christmas in Townsville!" said Alex.

Despite her forwardness, when Alex laughed she recoiled somewhat shyly into her huge hoodie that made her lean form look smaller. It made her large round eyes already wreathed in mascara look even bigger.

"So, I'll ask again, what's the occasion?" asked the young assistant attorney.

"Nothing," said Buttercup stubbornly, her eyes at last faltered. "I just had to get away for a while."

"Oh, c'mon, don't tell me Miss Personality don't have friends from school to hang with instead of some old man at an office."

"You're hardly an old man at an office," sniffed Buttercup.

"True. The DA now gets funny with me sometimes."

"You mean you get funny with the DA?" sniffed Buttercup.

Alex raised his brow impishly as he leaned over the desk onto his hands, elbows clunking onto the desktop.

The girl smiled, and Alex liked that. He liked that very much, but he wasn't gunna ask again what the trouble was.

Buttercup sighed. "I hate high school, alright."

"Wouldn't know about that. Never been to high school. Did my catching up online."

"Lucky," huffed Buttercup.

"Pfft! The only luck I had was bein' alive at all after what happened to me before your good old dad came to the rescue," said Alex. "It's been no cakewalk getting here, kid. Blood, sweat, and tears, and me dragging my lazy brain kicking and screaming like a baby the whole way."

"I know, I know," grumbled Buttercup looking away at the wall and swinging her legs a little as she leaned her arms back against the desk. "It's just… I just always thought being a teenager would be so cool, but you know what? Teenagers are more boring than old reruns of Barney and about as scary too."

"It's just the hormones," Alex shrugged. "Barney don't have that excuse. They grow out of them. Then life goes on-like and so does Barney."

"Hmph!"

"You want me to mention your grungy punk hoodie, Goth bolt-studded and multiple buckled sandals and skull bracelets. The mounds of ghost mascara ruining your face pale from hiding it under that oversized hood?"

"What?" snapped Buttercup turning to him sharply and punching the desktop.

It could have just as easily been his face; Alex still remembered those days quite well.

"Even your pockets have buckles, kid," Alex went on without a flinch, and the sunglasses hid his slight wry wince. "You're a teen just as much as they are."

"I don't show off my body like they do or talk about kissing like it's the funnest thing ever, and boys and boring bands and writing reports about how Amelia Earhart was a goddess to mankind so that the English teacher won't let us use the word "mailman" even when the mailman is a man! Can you believe I got points taken off for that!? And the guys like Mitch are all just watching rated R comedy movies that are more stupid than gross more than they watch a good action movie or even horror! At least our boys are fun when they're at home unlike Blossom and Bubbles who bring high school home with 'em! Ugh! I hate high school."

"Like I said, never went to high school, but that sure didn't stop the teenager from getting through in me and my gang! What do you think it's like when you're a teenager minding your own juvenile delinquency and a trio of five-year-old little girls busts your jaw throwin' you clear across the next street down?"

"Yeah, well, now I just kinda wish I could work for you instead of going to school. Just because I don't have super powers doesn't mean I couldn't be your field agent secret detective."

She turned around and grinned at Alex as though she truly thought this to be a possibility with just a word from him.

"Okay, you start first thing tomorrow," teased Alex.

"Agh…" was all Buttercup said again.

She let her head drop onto the desk on her back with her legs now limp over the side across from Alex and his chair like a flopping fish on a deck finally died. Her arms spread out across the desk like she was chained to it.

"Isn't your dad there to talk to?"

"He liked high school. He doesn't get it."

"Oh. Maybe all you need is something to think ahead to. You may not be able to be a detective tomorrow, but maybe you could just focus on that being your goal for after high school. That's the only thing that got me through sitting all day every day in front of a computer doing my school work. I doubled and tripled it. Working as fast as I could to get through and start my mission."

"To bust up the guys who tried to destroy you?" asked Buttercup absently.

He stood up to lean his face down to look her straight into those huge sulky eyes. Their tinge twinkled despite her funk, he saw as he pulled his sunglasses down to get full clarity of vision over the rims.

"To clean up Townsville and make up for my crap-life before that," Alex said very seriously.

Buttercup closed her eyes.

Silence fell upon the moment. Then Buttercup laughed.

"Hah!" said Alex sitting down again. "That's the punky girl I know. Laughin' at me when I'm bearing my soul!"

"No," said Buttercup. "I think you're awesome. You know that."

Alex sneered, and was just about to open his mouth to say something when the door opened again.

"Dah! Mr. DiDio!" It was good old Big Billy who had opened the door, dressed much less slovenly than the old days, but perhaps just as disheveled, as Alex's assistant.

"Hmm?" Alex asked lightly.

"Billy was to remind you that the Mayor wants to have a meetings with yous this afternoon."

"Right. Tell her I'm on it. Got business to take care of first."

"Hi, Billy!" said Buttercup waving.

Billy beamed. "Buttercup!" he cried as lit up as a jack-in-box.

The girl leapt off the desk, and Billy immediately opened his great arms better than any arms of Santa Clause. She dove in for the biggest tightest bear-hug in the world. He lifted her right off the floor with the ease and innocence of a toddler lifting a teddy bear for a squeeze. Buttercup laughed enjoying every second of the rib-crunching embrace. She hugged him back as well as she could before he plopped her down.

"Yous have a meeting with Mr. DiDio?"

"Mr. DiDio?" Buttercup asked turning to Alex with a sneer.

"Mr. DiDio told Billy to call him 'Mr. DiDio' instead of 'Ace' when Billy works for him, and he told Alice to call him 'Patrick' whenever she wanted."

"Oh, did he!?" Buttercup crossed her arms knowingly.

Alex shrugged completely innocently, and he grinned. His first name really was Patrick, though he usually went by his middle name's nickname these days.

"Are you gunna marry her or what?"

"She's takin' me away, Christmas Day…" Alex's lips curled like steam from a Dickens' hot punch after he almost sang that verse like a lyric from "Silver White".

Buttercup had no idea why he left off heavy metal for jazz, but to each their own, she supposed.

"You mean you're taking her away," giggled Buttercup.

"Not until New Years," retorted Alex, "but the rings cuff us Dia de la virgen de Guadelupe."

"Huh?" She looked at Billy.

Billy shrugged.

"The twelfth," Ace clarified. "You should get your invitation this week. It's not gunna be big or nothin'. Just the serious people for a serious fling."

"Nice!" Buttercup giggled.

"Why? I thought you hated all that stuff these days."

Buttercup scowled. "Just the high school version."

Alex laughed and he sauntered to the door. "Take care of yourself, kid. I got my sponsor to talk to. She's kinda weird sometimes, but Warden's backed me since the beginning."

"Don't tell me she's invited," teased Buttercup. "She's almost as weird as the old Mayor."

But she interrupted her own teasing to give Ace a hug too— just a quick one, and Ace patted her shoulder.

"Keep your chin up, kid," he said. "Just remember that nothin' lasts forever, except your spunk, and don't let nobody forget that, super girl."

And with that he led her out of the office and left her wondering if he could actually have heard Shonen Knife. The idea of Ace knowing JPop could only make Buttercup laugh once more. At least she was in a good enough mood to go home again.