Chapter 136: Pretenses

The City of Townsville. Townsville Central Park.

21 MAR (Tuesday) 1989. 0832.

Buttercup had been sitting on a park bench for the past ten minutes, dazed. Things had changed so drastically over the course of just twenty-four hours. She had gained a new family, new friends, and a new purpose in life. Even her perspective of the world had changed, in that this wasn't the only one. Her trip to the other side was hair-raising even by her psychopathic standards.

Pressing her legs close to her chest, Buttercup hugged them. She had left Otto Time Diner with nothing but the dress Red Coyote had put her in. She was wearing nothing underneath or above it, and she didn't even have a pair of pantyhose covering her legs. She had no shoes. The weather was still cold as Townsville was transitioning from the winter.

They were coming. She could sense them. She could hear them. She wasn't exactly very discreet when she flew to the park. The first signs she could see were of parkgoers running away even when they were far away from her. Next, a vanguard force of police cruisers and humvees, with patrol officers and soldiers respectively, began forming a loose ring around her. More and more would thicken this ring. SWAT vans and buses from the Townsville Police Department would catch up with them, followed by APCs and even tanks from the USDO, which pointed their cannons at her.

Up in the sky, helicopters from both law enforcement agencies would circle above her like vultures, to be joined by helicopters from the Townsville News Network.

It wouldn't be long before they would appear, Buttercup was thinking.

Sure enough, two streaks drew straight lines in the sky in bright hues of pink and baby blue. They descended down on her, without hesitation or mercy.

Blossom and Bubbles landed next to her, and they'd come well-prepared for a confrontation with her, donning their heavily-padded riot gear in anticipation of a fight with her. They were both staring daggers at her the moment they made eye contact. Bubbles pumped her Serbu super-shorty shotgun while Blossom cocked her XM4 Carbine while they approached her.

But there would neither be fistfights to be had nor a firefight, or any fights of the Powerpuff kind.

Buttercup looked at them with tired, sheepish eyes. It wasn't really fake. She hadn't slept well last night, and running away had taken a toll on her. More than that, however, Buttercup knew that this moment was crucial for her to get on her sisters' good side, as a start on her path of vengeance.

"Hey, Blossom, hey, Bubbles…" Buttercup greeted them, her voice raspier than usual. Her hair was a mess, and it didn't help much when she tried straightening them out with her hand.

"Get off that bench," Blossom ordered Buttercup, who did as she was told with a tired sigh. She was shivering from the cold, looking really sad and pitiful, enough for Bubbles to stop being angry towards her. Buttercup took baby steps towards Blossom, but Blossom was taking larger strides towards her, stomping angrily.

"Blossom, I'm sorry-" Buttercup tried to apologize, but it didn't stop Blossom from flooring her with the back end of her rifle. It'd floored Buttercup completely, and when she had her back to the floor, Blossom took her by the collar. Kneeling over her, Blossom began punching her in the face over and over.

"Blossom!" Bubbles screamed. Dropping her shotgun, she rushed over to her leader sister. "Stop hitting her!" In the midst of this frenzy, she'd received an elbow to the mouth by accident, which was the only thing that caused Blossom to hesitate.

"Why should I!?" Blossom yelled at Bubbles as she looked behind her shoulder. Bubbles was clutching her mouth; her teeth hurt from getting elbowed in the mouth. "She nearly KILLED Dad!"

"Dad told us to bring her back…" Bubbles said.

"He didn't tell me not to punch her!" Blossom retorted, and with that, continued slugging the crying Buttercup in the face again. Before she could deliver more than three more punches to the face, however, Bubbles had rushed up to her to pull her back.

"Dad wouldn't want this!" Bubbles shouted back, barely able to hold back Blossom. She was barely able to control her long enough for her to give in. "He said she's still our sister! She always will be! That's what he said!"

Both of them were looking down at Buttercup. She appeared more pitiful than before. Blossom had given her a black eye, and she was bleeding from her nose and lips. She looked utterly terrified, as, despite Blossom ceasing to hit her, she was still crying and shielding her face from any further blows.

"I don't need you to tell me what to do, Bubbles," Blossom chided the sweetest of the three. "I'm the leader, don't forget that, and you're just here to do what I tell you." With that, Blossom marched up to Buttercup. Bubbles did not have time to get upset at what Blossom said; she followed closely behind Blossom, afraid of what she might do next.

Buttercup curled up into a fetus, still shielding her face and gasping painfully when Blossom came up to her again. Next thing she knew, Blossom had grabbed her roughly by the arm.

"It's all your fault we missed school! Again! Now get up!" Blossom barked at Buttercup. She yanked her to her feet. Before Buttercup knew to expect it, Blossom twisted her arm behind her; it felt as if her arm would have been torn off its socket had Blossom been any angrier. "Get moving! I'm taking you home!"

Before they could take off, they were intercepted by General Blackwater and his personal guards. The general looked Buttercup up and down disapprovingly before turning to Blossom.

"Good job. Your attitude and level of aggression are appropriate," he said, before going back to staring at Buttercup. "And as for you, Bravo-Four-Eight, you don't get to go free this time. There will be hell to pay for what you've done. Townsville wants blood specifically from you, and we're going to give it to them."

"Are you going to kill me?" Buttercup asked, looking at him blankly, her tone flat. Behind her, Bubbles looked more afraid than she was.

"No, but you will be punished… harshly. But not yet. I'll leave you alone for now to think about that," the General said. "Now get her out of my sight."

With that, Blossom and Bubbles lifted Buttercup up into the sky and flew her towards home.

The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

21 MAR (Tuesday) 1989. 0855.

The Powerpuff Girls, reunited, flew right into their room through a single circular window, with Blossom and Bubbles still holding on tightly to Buttercup as if she could slip out of their fingers the moment they let go.

The Girls' room had once been a place filled with giggles and fun. But now, with everything going on, silence and sadness now dominated it. With Buttercup back, that was twice as true. When Blossom was done shipping Buttercup back home, she ignored her wayward sister and just went into the walk-in closet to get changed.

Buttercup was still hurting from getting punched in the face over and over. She went and sat down by her lonesome behind the dressing table, looking at herself in the mirror. It didn't look good. Her left eye was bruised and swollen shut. Her left cheek was puffing up and red. Her hair was a tangled mess. Her nose and lips had been bleeding, and the blood wasn't cleaned out. Peeling her lower lip back, she spotted a few ulcers, likely from being punched so hard that her teeth had injured it.

She also spotted Bubbles looking at her. Buttercup forced herself to cry, remembering her new purpose now - but it wasn't hard to do. Her injuries were genuinely painful, and she was genuinely distressed.

As Buttercup expected, Bubbles came along, easily manipulated. Pulling her portable medkit off her hip, she set it down on the dresser.

"There, there, Buttercup, I'm sure Blossom didn't mean it…" Bubbles cooed at her while she was dabbing medication on Buttercup's facial wounds. Buttercup winced in pain.

'Of course she meant it, stupid', Buttercup thought, this time far more careful about what came out of her mouth.

"When Blossom was mad at me, I thought she'll never be nice to me again," Bubbles continued when Buttercup did nothing except let her tears flow naturally. True to her color, Bubbles was like a water tap that wouldn't stop when she opened up. It made her so easy to manipulate. It made her good practice for Buttercup. "But she became nice again. Blossom's nice. She forgave me and she'll do the same for you."

'And I'll make her,' Buttercup schemed, her confidence fed by the pliant Bubbles, who fell for her despite all the evils she had committed just because she let a few tears slip.

"Do you really think so?" Buttercup said, making herself sound as miserable as possible. It wasn't hard, as the act of crying gave the impression well enough.

"Yes," Bubbles vouched for Blossom.

"But what if it's different this time? I was really mad at Dad and I couldn't control myself and I had to do all sorts of things-" Buttercup cried, her act becoming all the more convincing with every word. She couldn't finish her sentence, as planned.

"I'll talk to her," Bubbles promised. After applying some medication on Buttercup's facial wounds, she pasted band-aids on top of them. "We're a family, and we'll always be sisters. We have to stay together. That's what Dad said."

'We were never a family, stupid,' Buttercup gloated in her mind.

"Can I have a hug?" Buttercup said. In truth, she hated hugging Bubbles, but she thought it would make her act look more convincing.

Bubbles appeared stunned. Was this the same Buttercup they'd brought back home? Buttercup was never this emotional before. What had changed her?

"Of course," Bubbles said, before granting Buttercup her wish, and pulling her into a warm embrace.

"It's horrible out there! I was so scared!" Buttercup cried her crocodile tears, all the while smiling behind Bubbles' back. She's got her in her claws now, all while Bubbles was completely oblivious, completely deluded. She was patting Buttercup in the back as they hugged, trying to lessen a sadness in Buttercup that was, in actual fact, barely even there to begin with.

"Feeling better?" Bubbles asked after letting go of Buttercup and wiping stray tears away from her face with her fingers.

"I miss Mom," Buttercup added a final touch.

"Me too…" Bubbles responded as expected. "But Daddy's still around…"

Buttercup would have killed her on the spot for saying that had it not been for her grand plan to exact revenge in a way thousands of times more powerful than simply killing her targets.

In short order, Blossom would come out of the walk-in closet after that. She had taken a surprisingly long time to change and deposit her armaments and gear that Buttercup suspected that she had been secretly eavesdropping on them. Perhaps even observing them with her x-ray vision. Whether that was true or not, Blossom wasn't letting it on. Instead, she'd hovered straight to bed to lie down.

The door to the room would open after that. Blossom sat up. All three Girls looked in that direction. It was none other than Dad when he was least expected. He looked unkempt, as was common these days. He was wearing a pair of loose cotton singlet. Bandages were visible even when they were underneath the white singlet; they were bulging on his chest, a reminder to everyone what had transpired the previous day. He was still wearing his lab coat and black office pants.

He'd said nothing at first. Instead, he studied the Girls for a moment before pinning his eyes on Buttercup. Blossom, afraid that she might suffer consequences for attacking Buttercup while retrieving her from the Townsville Central Park, lay back down and hid under the blanket. Buttercup looked at him all teary-eyed as she still wasn't done crying yet (though she wasn't holding back). Bubbles looked at him all worried. There was something about the professor that concerned her, and it wasn't just the look on his face that suggested that he was still in pain from his rib fractures.

"Buttercup," he simply called to the green Powerpuff Girl, nodding in the direction of the exit. Buttercup didn't dare look at him, not for fear of his authority as the Dad, nor social consequences, but because she was afraid she might give her game away. Getting up, Buttercup walked out of the room. The professor closed the door behind him. "Follow me to the lab."

They made their way to the underground laboratory. There was no exchange, no small talk, not even a word shared between them. Neither did Professor Utonium hold her hand, or carried her, or do anything that might suggest that there was any familial relationship between them.

This continued down the stairs, through the airlock, then down the elevator, and finally when both of them made it to his desk. The way the professor was acting actually unnerved Buttercup a little. With so much about him changed, anything was possible; anything could happen.

When they'd finally reached his desk, the professor sat down. He pulled another chair next time him.

"Sit," he said curtly, business-like. Buttercup did as she was told, hovering over the chair before letting herself fall on top of it. "We need to talk."

"About what, Da-" Buttercup said, just stopping short of addressing the professor as her father. It no longer sounded right anymore, with everything she had discovered. She had spilled everything to the professor. The cover was blown on both sides. It no longer made any sense to maintain the ruse.

"That's exactly what we need to talk about," Professor Utonium said. "Did you… tell Blossom and Bubbles about this?"

"You mean about how you're not my real Dad?" Buttercup clarified with some bitterness in her voice. Despite the fact that she had found someone better to be her dad, she was still resentful. Her perfect memory was a plague this time; she remembered exactly how much she had suffered under the professor.

"Yes," the professor sighed, heavily, as though he was being crushed by a massive boulder. "Did you tell your sisters, Buttercup?"

"No," Buttercup said. The effect that a single word she uttered had on the professor was palpable. "Should I?"

"No! I- It's all I have left," he said. "Don't take that away from me!"

It was perfect, perfect for Buttercup to carry out her plans.

"I won't. I don't wanna," Buttercup said. She hovered off her chair, closing in on the professor, who stiffened up, gripping the armrests of his office chair, as if expecting another punch from her. Instead, Buttercup settled herself on his lap, gently hugging him. "I'm sorry I punched you… I was just angry. I wish you're my real dad…"

"R-really?" the professor said, unable to believe this turn in Buttercup. Everything she'd said seemed to suggest that she hated his guts, that she would never, ever forgive him. But this had given him hope, more than he had even dared to claw back on his own. When he forced his way through his ward and got Doctor Simmons to give him a lift back to The House, he'd seen the crevice in the living room wall Buttercup had made with her ocular laser beams. It was above where his head was. It all made sense now. Buttercup did, despite all odds and her clinical psychopathy, seem to love him.

"I wish I hadn't told you that- that I know everything…" Buttercup cried, squeezing out more crocodile tears that she knew she never had. It was turning out to be as potent as laser beams. "And now we're not a family anymore!"

"Oh, Buttercup," the professor was crying too. To have the normally tomboyish Buttercup break down like this… was a signal that things were bad as if having to shoot his own fiancee in front of his own adopted daughter wasn't bad enough. "You know, Buttercup, we can still be a family."

"But how?" Buttercup cried. It was perfect. Everything was going according to plan. The concept was so simple, really, that even a small child could understand it. Give a child a toy, and she'll smile and giggle - take it away the next moment, and she'll cry like a baby. That was what she planned to do with this fake family of hers: to build it all up as high as a skyscraper before destroying it in one fell swoop.

"The secret's between you and me. Blossom and Bubbles still believe we're a biological family," Professor Utonium said. "Besides, I can still be your father and you can still be my daughter even if... you were never really mine. It's called adoption. Happens all the time."

"Oh… Do I still call you dad?" Buttercup asked.

"Can I trust you?" the professor asked, this time rhetorically. Buttercup had come back to him despite everything she had done; that took responsibility and courage that he hadn't been sure Buttercup possessed, but here she was.

Buttercup nodded.

"Call me Dad in front of your sisters," the professor said. "But I guess you can call me by my name whenever no one's around. Can you do that?" The professor had thought it through even before he had this talk with Buttercup. It wouldn't be so much of a problem with her, seeing that her memory and mental performance was enhanced by Chemical X to genius levels.

"Sure," Buttercup said gleefully. She never liked calling the professor 'Dad', since the truth was that he never was her real father. The professor smiled along with her, thinking that she was smiling because she got to call him Dad again. "But… What's your name?"

Buttercup had known what others called him, but with so many lies floating around, she couldn't be sure.

"Utonium. Professor Utonium," he re-introduced himself, putting his hand out for a handshake.

Buttercup could have sworn he had other names, but for now, she would have to take what she could get. She took the professor's hand, which engulfed hers; they shook to this new agreement.

"I love you, Professor Utonium," Buttercup said with a fake smile. "It's nice to get to know you better."

"My, you're full of surprises today," the professor said, moved to tears. He wiped some of it with his fingers. "You don't know how much this means to me."

"I guess I've learned my lesson while I was running away…" Buttercup lied as she returned to hugging him and resisting the urge to squeeze him to death or put her fist through his heart. "I shouldn't have run away! I have the best professor in the world, and the best sisters there are!"

It was all too perfect. In just one short moment, Buttercup had secured her place in The House, as well as a position of power. She was, quite literally, the second- no, first most powerful person in The House now, since she knew everything that was going on.

"By the way, what's that you're wearing?" the professor asked.

"Oh, nothing, just something I picked up from the streets," Buttercup lied. "I was really stinky, so I had to change into something…"

The professor laughed. He imagined that it was probably a dressed pinned on a clothesline somewhere in the Tenements, and Buttercup just took it to replace her uniform.

It was all history now, something which the professor was now certain would never be repeated again.

The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.

21 MAR (Tuesday) 1989. 0944.

The door to the Girls' room opened once more and Professor Utonium and Buttercup walked through it. Blossom and Bubbles could only wonder what their meeting was about, but the sight of Buttercup in Dad's arms had given them some ideas. Bubbles smiled, but Blossom didn't quite manage to. Blossom had to wonder what they had been talking about, and if it had something to do with her.

"Good job with the first-aid, Bubbles," Dad praised Bubbles while he was putting Buttercup down on the Girls' tri-colored shared bed. "Blossom-"

"Are you mad at me?" Blossom asked before Dad could say anything more. She thought that by being more forthright with it, Dad would be less angry.

"To tell you the truth, a little," the professor said, knitting his eyebrows before sighing. "But it's been tough for all of us. We're all grieving in our own ways - Your mother, Bunny… it's hard enough to lose one family member, but two… You thought that you almost lost me, and I understand that. Just… no more violence between the three of you from now on, okay? Besides, I think Buttercup has something to say to you, Blossom."

"Buttercup?" the professor prompted her when the tomboy stayed silent.

"I- urm. I-" Buttercup was at a loss for words. Even with her newfound ability to manipulate people so finely, she still found the idea of apologizing impossible. Taking a deep breath, she tried again: "Blossom, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I've done and I won't do it again." She'd blurted out the rest of the apology quickly, preferring to just get it over with.

"Blossom? Don't you have something to say to Buttercup?" the professor prompted Blossom this time when the leader of The Three had stayed silent in turn.

"I'm sorry too, I guess…" Blossom apologized in turn. "I shouldn't have hit you."

Then the unexpected happened. Buttercup threw herself at Blossom, giving her a hug. Blossom was so shocked that she couldn't move a muscle, and it was only after her mind had made multiple loops on the same fact that Buttercup was HUGGING her that she closed her own arm around Buttercup. It felt weird, but it also felt right. Blossom's world had been turned upside-down in every way, so why couldn't some of those changes be positive for once?

"I missed all of you when I was running away," Buttercup cried, this time smiling behind Blossom's back when no one was watching her, gloating that her vengeful intentions was completely invisible to them. "I won't do it again! I promise!"

It was amazing how they were all so easy to manipulate.

"Well, I'll leave the three of you to it then," Dad said before turning to leave the Girls' room. But he wasn't smiling when he turned to face away from the Girls. Bargaining with Buttercup to hide the truth about the family from Blossom and Bubbles had left a bad taste in his mouth. It felt as if it had soiled his relationship with his adopted daughters.

He was going to have to drink again tonight just to fall asleep.