Chapter 21: The Descent (Part 1)
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
10 FEB (Friday) 1989. 1930.
On the way to the crime-in-progress, Bubbles was flying behind her sisters and in the wake of their X-haust light as usual. Blossom and Buttercup were chatting happily in the meantime, about how it was great to be back in school once more, about what they would be going up against this time around, and how they would go about dealing with it.
Bubbles, of course, was completely excluded from the conversation, but the conversation itself soon died down quickly when Blossom and Buttercup discovered that they had run out of things to talk about.
Without external stimuli, Blossom soon drifted into her own thoughts, going back to the previous day, when Daddy got angry with her – really angry.
She remembered crying all the way into her room and staying there, just like what he wanted. She'd hoped that he would no longer be angry if she did. Looking outside one of the round windows, time passed quickly as she became buried in her own thoughts, in the injustice of it all: why should Dad be angry with her when Bubbles had been the one at fault? Not only did she fail to save Buttercup at one point, but she'd also failed to save them both - her very own sisters! On another occasion! And that was not to mention the three hundred other children too!
Hadn't she forgiven her enough, back when they were just starting out in law enforcement? When she'd abandoned them during the fight against Junior, one of the Amoeba Boys? Or when she failed to board an escaping car, failing to end the Highway 13 Incident before it became severe? Buttercup did not fail to mention, either, that Bubbles had abandoned her to Naga.
The door to her room soon opened, and in stepped her father, with his arms crossed. Blossom was snapped out of her moody introspection.
"Blossom," he'd said her name in a way she had never heard of before – a way that was brimming with negative emotions. Now, she had seen the other side of her father, the side she had never really seen before. "I am very disappointed in you."
Blossom turned around. She had stopped crying, but the feeling of being misunderstood never went away.
"But it's not my fault!" Blossom argued.
"Which part!? Is it the part where you left your sister behind, naked in some dirty place!? Or is it the part when you pushed her!?" the professor accused. The words he said had disarmed Blossom completely. The way he'd said it had painted a terrible picture she could not hope to defend. "Huh!? Which part!? You tell me!"
"Three hundred children were missing because of her!" but Blossom was going to try anyway. Tears were already streaming down her eyes. "Kidnapped!"
"And is that what you want for your sister!?" the professor barked at Blossom, who shrank away from him in fear – he had never talked to her that way before. "Because that could have happened had it not been for Mullens! Townsville is a very dangerous place, little lady! Mojo Jojo or Naga or someone else - I don't know who - could have been watching nearby!"
"But she's been leaving us behind!" Blossom stubbornly continued to defend herself. "It wasn't the first time!"
"You know what, I think you're right!" the professor shouted, further infuriated by Blossom's sudden lack of empathy and wisdom. He started towards Blossom menacingly.
"Dad? What are you doing!" Blossom screamed as she saw the way her Dad was coming towards her - without the same love he always showed, and with malicious intent.
"You're perfectly right! I should throw you out for abandoning Bubbles!" the professor said as he marched up to Blossom as she backed away, knocking over a stool with a teddy bear. "I should even offer you up to Jojo or Naga as a peace offering!"
"Dad, NO!" Blossom screamed as she darted away, accidentally knocking down a mountain of soft toys.
"Let's see, who should it be!? Any ideas, Blossom!?" Despite her speed, the professor was able to catch hold of her."I'm sure they'll take good care of you!"
"NO!" Blossom screamed as she yanked her hand out of her Dad's grasp and sped away again, this time hiding behind her pink kiddy table.
The accusation, what the professor said – how right the professor was had made Blossom lose control and cry like she never did before. The convincing act he'd put up to make his point had made it even worse - even Bubbles would look better in her usual crying fit if Blossom was melting down next to her. So much so that it'd snapped the professor out of his anger and forced him to put an end to his act prematurely.
He had to go back to being the nurturing dad. At first, Blossom was constantly backing away from him whenever he tried to come close, but she eventually accepted a hug from him and wet his shoulder thoroughly with her tears. It took a very long time for her to calm down, which was uncharacteristic of her.
"Blossom, as hard as it is for you to believe, it's not Bubbles' fault," the professor had gone on to explain when she had calmed down and entered a kind of receptive daze. "It wouldn't be any of your faults if any of you did something wrong. The three of you weren't supposed to be out there."
"But you said we're special, and we're supposed to fight crime," Blossom sniffled, still hugging her Dad. It was at this point that the professor wished that Blossom was more forgetful. It was challenging to think of a way out of what she remembered.
"But the three of you are kids, too," the professor reasoned. "And fighting crime – that's an adult's job. Maybe the three of you should start only when you're older…"
Despite everything her Dad told her, she could not bring herself to forgive Bubbles. But she knew that Dad loved her, and so she resolved to be less angry with her, perhaps even eventually forgive her despite the consequences of her mistakes, when enough time had passed and she'd done something - anything - to make up for it.
The City of Townsville. Tenement Area. Silver Age Cineplex.
10 FEB (Friday) 1989. 1952.
It became apparent quickly where the crime in progress was the moment they saw the heart light in the sky and the facade of the building that was surrounded by the police and USDO. The signs on the roof, box office, and posters were designed to attract attention, and they had done just that.
But it seemed that something else had succeeded better in attracting attention: the number of police and USDO vehicles and manpower deployed was enormous. At the front alone, there were something like six squad cars and a few SWAT vans, as well as just as several humvees and a couple of APCs. Just as many vehicles were on each side of the cineplex, partly out of necessity as the building was huge, and had served as the main center of entertainment for the entire tenement area.
The Girls swooped in and landed as soon as Blossom saw where Mister Blake was, and he was with the usual suspects: Mullens, Olivia, and Stanley.
"The movies?" Blossom wondered aloud the moment she landed. "What is there to steal in the movies?"
"Beats me," Olivia replied as the group formed a circle to plan their raid on the cinema. "There's not a lot of money and valuables to steal in there. They're after something else. Maybe something they can't just steal."
The group crowded around the hood of a humvee, where they had laid out a map of the cinema - apparently, the criminals in there had been holding hostages, and had been around for a couple of hours. Hostage negotiations had come to a standstill, preceded by delaying tactics on both sides. Conflict became the only option, but when it was apparent that there would be heavy casualties no matter which point of entry they used, they decided to call in Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup.
"We're not dealing with your run-of-the-mill criminals here," Agent Blake had gone on to explain the situation. "We have reasons to believe that they are affiliated with a cult. Eyewitness descriptions fit the bill - some of them wore strange robes and accessories or had equally strange markings on them. And there's a lot of them, something like twenty or so of them at least, mostly holed up in cinema 3 of the cineplex based on our observations."
"But what does that mean? They're still normal people, right?" Buttercup had asked naively.
"Cultists… They're not very normal if you ask me," Mullens had answered her instead. "They're going to be really dedicated to whatever they've been asked to do by their leader. They'll do whatever it takes, even if it means sacrificing themselves."
"Do they have superpowers? Like us?" Blossom inquired. The detective thought her question was very pertinent for a three-month-old, even if naïve.
"No, of course not," the old detective said.
"Then they're easy," Buttercup assumed. Blossom, in the meantime, had noticed something worrying however: Bubbles hadn't been listening. She was staring at the bumper of the humvee, her eyes distant, and evidently so was her mind. The leader of The Three could not help but to glare at her.
"So Blossom, any idea how you want to do this?" Mister Blake asked.
Blossom did not answer immediately, as she was momentarily distracted by Bubbles' lack of attention and participation.
"How about like before? Bubbles could use her sonic scream and we could fly in to save the hostages," Blossom proposed. Looking back at Bubbles, she was certain that her mind was still in some other world - a castle in the sky, for example. She put her hands on her hips and glared at her some more.
"That's a little run-of-the-mill for the three of you, but it could work," Detective Mullens said, all the while ignorant of the tension growing between Blossom and Bubbles.
"But what about the hostages? Won't the sonic scream hit them too?" Agent Blake asked. Blossom, however, did not catch his question.
"Bubbles. Bubbles!" Blossom shouted at her sister to try to catch her attention. Quite infuriatingly, Bubbles had withdrawn herself to such a state that she didn't hear her.
"BUBBLES!" Blossom screamed one last time, the loudest she could muster, to the point where she was turning heads several squad cars or humvees over.
"Huh?" Bubbles vocalized absentmindedly, half-stuck in the past. "What?"
"Were you listening just now?" Blossom interrogated Bubbles. "What did we talk about, Bubbles?"
Bubbles did not answer, knowing full well that she had missed everything, and knew nothing about what was going on in the situation.
"How many bad guys are we fighting today, Bubbles?" Blossom questioned her coldly, shaking with anger.
"Urm… Ur… Nine?" Bubbles had to take a wild guess, basically giving her the largest number she could think of.
"Fine - do you know what you're supposed to do this time?" Blossom jabbed at Bubbles further, her patience strained by Bubbles' error.
"I don't know…" Bubbles said, still so preoccupied with what happened the previous night that there was little room left for anything else.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Buttercup remarked from the side, more out of mean-spirited spite than surprise and disbelief.
"What is wrong with you, Bubbles!?" Blossom hammered at her with her rhetorical question, as she gesticulated wildly.
"I don't… I'm sorry…" Bubbles tried to explain, but she was struggling to do so - there were things in her head that she didn't want to talk about, not in such a public place, and then there were things she could not put into words. "I just…" She'd continued to stare at the ground, her hands clasped together in front of her as she didn't know what else to do with them.
"Hey, Blossom," Agent Blake tried to break it up. Blossom did not even hear him. "I think you need to-"
"You're useless, Bubbles! Useless, useless, USELESS!" Blossom screamed in blind rage as memories of past difficulties caused by Bubbles came up, and the real possibility of more pain and failings caused by Bubbles had enraged her. In her wild rage-filled imagination, she believed that the hostages inside would die and all criminals involved would escape because of Bubbles. Dad would then somehow be mad at her again, Buttercup would be injured and then her Mom would punish her, likely in an imaginative, painful way. It was all too real and vivid that it might as well be a reality to Blossom. "Dad told me to forgive you! But you're USELESS!"
"I HATE YOU!" And before anyone could stop Blossom, she slapped Bubbles hard enough that she'd slammed into the humvee face-first, at which point, Mullens and Olivia had to risk their lives to restrain Blossom before she could harm her own sister any further. Thankfully, Blossom had cooled herself off when she realized who was stopping her.
"Rur-rles? Are you rokay?" Stanley Talker asked, very concerned. He nudged Bubbles in the arm with his snout.
Bubbles had broken in a cry late. The slap and her face planting into the armored plate of the Humvee had shocked her at first. Turning around, she sat on the military vehicle's bumper, covering her face as she finally bawled. But when she realized how low she had sunk, how badly she had screwed up and how many people were looking at her, she took off, her baby blue streak of light looking like an uneven streak of tears. She'd gone at maximum speed, taking everyone by surprise, going through some dark alley and likely several streets over.
"Oh great, now we'd have to go after her or Dad's going to go crazy about us leaving her," Buttercup moaned in frustration. Detective Mullens, in the meantime, had lost it. He forcefully took Blossom by the arms and plopped her down on the humvee's hood hard enough that her butt hurt.
"You lil' pipsqueak! That how you treat your own sister!?" he scolded Blossom, and she didn't like that one bit. For one thing, he'd used the same word as the time he gave her a ride-along, back when they weren't friends yet. Then there was the fact that the detective had told on her and Buttercup, causing Dad to go ballistic on them. What kind of a friend would do that?
"Didn't you see her, Mister Mullens? She wasn't even listening! She wasn't even trying when she should be working harder!" Blossom defended herself.
"Did it ever cross that little mind of yours that you were being a little heavy-handed!?" the detective scolded, pressing a finger into her collarbone. Blossom didn't like that one bit.
"Like how you used to talk to me?" Blossom talked back. The detective was taken aback by both her memory and audacity, at how she'd dug up the past. Behind him, Olivia was crossing her arms and glaring at Blossom.
"You're getting a real mouth problem, you know that?" Detective Mullens chided.
They would have argued further, had it not been for a window breaking on another front and the sound of gunshots back and forth breaking them up.
"I have to find Bubbles, Mister Mullens," Blossom said as she floated and brushed past his shoulder. "Dad will be mad if I leave her behind again."
Agent Blake stood in her way, blocking her not just with his body but with their friendship.
"There's no time, Blossom," Blake said. "We need you in there now. People – hostages and police officers both – will die if we wait."
"But what about Bubbles?" Blossom asked, torn between listening to Blake and going her own way, torn between her love for Bubbles and her anger.
Yes, it was a bit of a problem. The USDO agent's eyes went to the ground as if to search the floor for answers, only to actually find it there for once.
"Stanley Talker, I know you don't like me because of my affiliation, but…" Agent Blake said, tried to be delicate with the dog's 'feelings', if it had feelings analogous to a human's. "You're the best person to find Bubbles right now – I know the two of you have bonded well, and we humans don't have the same tracking skills as you do."
"Hrrrrr…" the talking dog glared at Blake through his ballistic lenses as he sat on the ground, contemplating and still disliking the man because he worked for the USDO.
"You've seen Bubbles. She needs a friend – I can't get to her but you can," Blake went on further. The talking dog got up shortly after he was done talking, then padded towards the alley Bubbles flew through.
"Rrrr… Don't think that Ri'm doing this recause of you," Stanley Talker said sternly to the USDO human before sprinting away into the alley, faster than any dog ever could.
"Will the two of you be able to handle it alone?" Blake asked Blossom.
"Pfff, we'll be fine without her," Buttercup answered the question for Blossom, scoffing at their apparent 'need' for Bubbles to be in their team. Blossom couldn't even find it within herself to object to it. Deep down, she loved Bubbles, but recent events - an entire week of it, had shown that Bubbles just wasn't cut out for fighting crime. "Miss Goggle-Eyes will just cry for no reason and ruin our plans anyway."
"We'll have to go with or without Bubbles," Blossom said, avoiding the question tactfully, and it hadn't gone unnoticed. She looked up at Blake, some indescribable fear overtaking her as she did. She didn't even know what she was afraid of or for anymore – was it for herself, or Bubbles? Or of her enemies? Or Mom? Was it the fear of losing her friends and their approval? "Those people need our help…"
"Right… We'll be right behind you, and closer to make up for Bubbles' absence," Agent Blake decided not to pursue the matter, and with that, he started barking orders for his men to prepare for a breach.
The City of Townsville. Tenement Area. Near Silver Age Cineplex.
10 FEB (Friday) 1989. 2003.
Bubbles flew from one alleyway to another, caring little about what was around her. Cars would screech to a halt or even crash in her wake. People were startled or knocked aside.
And she wasn't just crying – she felt her control slip away entirely – a common occurrence, but not in front of everyone. When she realized she'd given in to her bad memories once more during such an important moment, she couldn't help but feel ashamed, and it was worse when Blossom slapped her. It'd hurt inside more than it did physically.
Blossom had changed, and she blamed herself for it. Had Alice just been comforting her all along? Lying to her that she wasn't wrong just to keep her happy?
Or was Alice right all along? Had Dad been right to coddle her? She did not like the uncertainty of not knowing one bit.
Bubbles had kept on going for a while – she'd kept running until she could feel aching everywhere as she felt drained from the speed. It was only then that she stopped, and after deciding that she had run away far enough to avoid being seen by her friends and sisters did she finally settle down.
Sitting down on a boxy old television screen, she burst into tears, sobbing in the dark where no one would listen. It was better this way, she thought with whatever little presence of mind she had left. Because no one would get angry or get hurt this way.
"Poor little girl… So misunderstood and utterly misused," a voice came from the dark, startling Bubbles out of her despair. It was feminine and rich in pronunciation as if spoken by a well-read or cultured person.
Bubbles jumped to her feet and would have lit her eyes up to brighten the alley had someone else not done it for her. From deeper in the alley, a woman floated down from high above, glowing brightly with white light, looking like an angel. She even had wings too, resembling that of a dove's, or an angel's. Touching down on the filthy, muck-covered snowy floor of the alley with her silver shoes, the woman – or angel – came towards her, covered in a dress that wasn't just blue like the sky – it was sparkling. Her hair wasn't just blonde – it was golden like the promise of a good morning. A satchel bag hung on one shoulder - it was the only thing that wasn't shiny, being dark blue. In one of her gloved hand was a wand that ended in a star. In the other was a handkerchief, which she used to wipe Bubbles' tears away.
And the enhanced little girl allowed her to do it, without suspicion or doubt, as she had exhausted her capacity to think by then. Neither did it seem like she had anyone left to turn to – and the woman, pure in the way she looked, pure in the sense that she was never tainted by the horrible events of her life, felt like the only avenue for comfort left.
Bubbles sobbed anew as the angelic stranger caressed her in the same cheek that Blossom slapped. The woman hugged her for some time, patiently cooing at her until she stopped shaking and crying.
"You… You're the woman from my dreams…" Bubbles mumbled after taking a second look at her.
"That was me, yes," the woman admitted.
"But who are you?" Bubbles finally asked. "Why are you being so nice to me? When even my sisters…" She couldn't finish her sentence, as the topic was still painful to talk about.
"That's because I'm your fairy godmother, Bubbles," the angelic woman introduced herself, answering both her questions at once as she took a few steps back to let Bubbles see her again in her fullest glory, putting her arms out like a messianic figure. "I've been watching over you since the day you were born, and I will watch over you until the day you return to the ether. You've been strong, Bubbles, but your strength has its limits. I've come to help you in your darkest hour, dear Bubbles."
Bubbles stood up - she'd finally found the will to do so. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, she finally smiled, because something had finally gone her way.
"I've always wanted a fairy godmother! Oh, I need you so much!" Bubbles exclaimed, but she soon became dejected once more. In her experience, things had rarely worked out very well. "But… How're you going to help me? Things are really bad - Blossom and Buttercup hate me and I- I- just can't fight crime. Dad said that he needed weeks before he could save me but I don't know how I can even last tonight…"
"Well, that's why I'm here… Yes… Yes…" the fairy godmother said in a kindly, maternal voice. "You are destined for greater things than catching a few hoodlums, Bubbles. That you're wishing to be a normal little girl isn't your failing, but the failing of everyone around you. Do you believe that?"
Bubbles couldn't be sure - she had to search within herself for answers, and even then, there was a whole lot of things to think and feel through for someone who had just lived for three months.
"I've watched over you, Bubbles, all this time. Although it pains me to see it, I had to stand by and watch your mother mistreat you - oh, how she would fail to teach you and bring you to your fullest potential. Your sisters were no better… Yes… Yes… Buttercup, especially, but Blossom is to blame for some of it too," the fairy godmother explained. "Even your father seeks to lead you away from your destiny…"
What the fairy godmother had laid out to her was convincing, and it'd made her mad, and disillusioned, and disappointed, at least up until the part where she mentioned her father.
"But Dad loves me…" Bubbles defended her father meekly.
"Oh, dear, how you leap to the defense of your loved ones so readily. You are good, Bubbles. Pure of heart," the fairy godmother said. "Yes… Yes… your father loves you, as does your mother and sisters, and your friends - there is no doubt about that. But sometimes, even those who love you do not know how to help you. I, on the other hand…" The fairy godmother looked at Bubbles expectantly from the corner of her eyes as she felt the rough surface of her satchel bag, rubbing it as if to suggest that it contained something of interest to her.
"How will you help me?" Bubbles asked. The fairy godmother turned to face her directly with a smile as if she had been expecting that question all along. Opening her dark blue bag, she reached into the darkness within it and pulled out what appeared to be a metal syringe.
"I will bless you with my magic, Bubbles," the fairy godmother said mystically as she put out her hand to present a leather pouch with something long and thin inside, waiting for Bubbles to take it. Hesitant at first, Bubbles stretched both of her arms out, her hands forming a cup. The fairy godmother gently put the object into her hands. Pulling the gift out of the leather pouch and looking at it, she saw that it was a small metal syringe with a glass center where she could see a dull, red liquid inside. On the side was printed 'His Secret', but right beside it, '2.0' was scribbled using a dark red marker. "Contained within this device is my magic. Use it, Bubbles, and all your problems will go away…"
"Will I live happily ever after?" Bubbles asked. She had been read a lot of fairy tales, and she couldn't help but see the parallels between her life and those stories. The princesses in those stories would always start out amid terrible circumstances, terrible people and with humble backgrounds. The fairy godmother smiled widely, before holding it back and damming it into a kindly smile. She chuckled.
"Why, yes… yes… of course, dear," the fairy godmother said with her all-knowing smile. "A princess like you deserves a happy ending, do you not? Now… Do you know how to use it?"
"My Mom taught me how to use a needle…" Bubbles said, referring to the times when Selicia had trained her as a field medic. Holding up the syringe before her, something occurred to her as she removed the plastic cap covering the needle of the syringe: "Wouldn't it break if I inject myself with this?"
"Oh no, of course not. It is special, made just for you… Now hurry along and use it!" the fairy godmother gently pushed Bubbles to inject herself with it. "I sense that your sisters might need some help - help that you can't provide unless you use my magic, dear."
As if on cue, Bubbles could feel her right temple flaring up in pain - she knew what it meant. It meant that her sisters, one or both of them, were in trouble, in serious pain.
"Yes, fairy godmother…" she muttered as she quickly got to work. Under the fairy godmother's glow, she slapped the inside of her forearm to find a vein. Once she found it, she took a deep breath and aimed with the syringe needle… but hesitated. Fear overtook her, though this time it was fear that she couldn't understand. It felt like something beyond the fear of needles.
"Your sisters are in trouble, Bubbles…" the fairy godmother repeated herself. The way she looked at Bubbles had become strange - piercing, intense, almost willing her to stab herself with the needle. "If you can't help them, they will grow to hate you with a passion even if they live through tonight…. yes… yes… That is certainly not what either of us wants…"
'I HATE YOU!' Blossom's voice echoed in Bubbles' mind.
'You're useless, Bubbles! Useless, useless, USELESS!'
Bubbles could feel her temple becoming worse. She could only fear the worst.
'She's not hardcore, not like us.' Buttercup's voice joined in the fun in Bubbles' war-torn mindscape.
'Why do I even have a sister like you?'
"You can't help your sisters without my blessing, Bubbles…" the fairy godmother repeated herself.
Yes, Blossom and Buttercup did need her help. Yes, they were mean to her, but no, she wasn't going to abandon them again if she could help it – the last time had been one too many times. Sisters were sisters, and love was love. It was what her Daddy had always taught her and she wasn't going to forget it, ever.
Taking the plunge, Bubbles stuck the needle into her vein and depressed the plunger, pumping the dark red fluid into her. The fluid felt hot in her veins, and she could feel it spread like molten iron inside her. It was painful at first, but then something else took hold. Bubbles withdrew the syringe and dropped it out of shock and regret, both of which didn't last very long because of what happened next.
The first thing she felt was pleasure - intense pleasure she had never felt before, better than being plunged into a warm bath after a freezing day out in the open. Even better than sleeping snugly in Dad's loving and warm embrace. It was better than any candy she had eaten or any rush she'd felt doing anything. She could feel it on every inch of her body, inside and out. Then the fear was gone - as if it was a thing of the past, as if she never knew it. To be released from the tyranny of fear itself had completely enthralled her. Bubbles clutched her head as she felt overwhelmed by the sensation of pure delight running through her veins, and throwing her head back as she fell to her knees, moaning with it as she smiled and chuckled. She closed her eyes, taking in the sensations.
There was no more fear, and something else crept up in her, slow at first, but quickly gaining momentum. Boldness. Unbridled anger. Fury. Boundless fury! Bubbles opened her eyes and caught sight of herself in a broken mirror not too far away, and saw that her eyes had turned hellish red. Cracks were running down the mirror as if splitting her face in two, but she liked what she saw. A grin spread across her face as she imagined what she was going to do to the people who were hurting her sisters, as she imagined what she was going to do to people, period.
"Thanks, miss fairy godmother!" Bubbles exclaimed with an aggressive growl in her voice, cruel laughter erupting after that. Balling up her fists so tightly that her knuckles and wrists cracked, she tensed up her muscles in preparation for battle. "Thank you, so much! SO VERY MUCH!" She couldn't help but laugh madly as pure pleasure and rage coursed through her veins.
"I'm glad to help. Now go… Go and save your sisters!" the fairy godmother prompted as she pointed her wand in the direction of her sisters, and Bubbles turned to fly away, her streak of baby blue light in her wake, now with a thin core of hellish red in its center.
"Yes… Yes… I'm so very glad to help…" Bubbles heard the fairy godmother say faintly before her voice disappeared entirely from the distance.
But she didn't care. All that mattered to Bubbles now was to rip and tear… until it is done.