Whoever said it had been an easy week was going to get beat up.
Badly.
By the Powerpuff Girls.
And the Rowdyruff Boys.
All the lights in the Utonium home were currently turned off, though with Blossom's enhanced eyesight and night vision, they might as well be on.
The 'eldest' Utonium daughter was currently sitting in the kitchen, wearing one earbud that was connected to her laptop atop the dining table. A half-empty mug of coffee and a bowl of one of her favorite fruits were placed nearby to the side.
Rose pink eyes focused on the laptop screen as the pink puff continued to work in silence. The only sounds were the soft typing on the laptop keys, nearly inaudible snacking from Blossom, and the easily ignorable faint ticking of the kitchen wall clock in the background.
[-is the second store to be robbed this-]
[-another home was broken into last night at-]
[-newly cropped up string of stolen pets on-]
[-purse snatcher strikes again-]
[-posted below is an updated list of stolen cars-]
[-and the recent bizarre serial murders-]
The pink puff pulled out the single earbud from her ear and leaned back in her chair, perfectly manicured nails slowly tapping the kitchen table as she mused. Was it just a coincidence that the city's crime rate rose, albeit minimally (rather unnoticeable really), at the same time as the Rowdyruff Boys' return to Townsville...?
Without taking her eyes off her laptop's screen, Blossom reached for her second (or was it third? She couldn't quite remember...) cup of coffee and took a sip.
Annoyance flashed through half-lidded rose-pink eyes as red lips frowned down at the now-cold cup of coffee. A brief zap of pink eye beams quickly reheated the half-empty mug.
Blossom's gaze returned to her laptop screen when a notification for a new email popped up.
Opening it, Blossom saw it was Brick's reply to her unsubtle (to them at least) use of the topic of their unwanted class partner report, a literary analysis and criticism on a chosen work of William Shakespeare. Blossom had suggested 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'. Another warning.
Rose pink eyes narrowed when she saw the email contained only the name of another work by the aforementioned playwright.
[The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice]
Unfounded suspicions.
Blossom scowled.
"Hmph."
The front door suddenly opened, and rose-pink eyes briefly glanced at her black-haired sister entering the house with a tired and frustrated face, holding back a yawn. Grumbling no doubt curses towards a certain green-eyed, black-haired ruff to herself (as she had taken to doing more and more lately), as she entered the kitchen, the green puff stopped in surprise at the sight of her 'eldest' sister still awake.
Buttercup took one look at Blossom, glanced up at the kitchen wall clock displaying the time 1:23 a.m., then turned back towards the redhead.
"...Please tell me we don't have a test*1 coming up."
Blossom raised an eyebrow.
"We don't have a test coming up."
Buttercup nodded and crossed her arms.
"Alright, now tell me the truth."
"We don't have a test coming up." Blossom repeated with a small sigh, "It's a project report."
"MOTHERFU-!"
Buttercup was cut-off by Blossom flicking a belladonna berry*2 at her forehead. With super strength.
"Ow!" The green puff's right hand shot up to her forehead as her redhead sister quietly murmured, "Shush."
Rose pink and lime green eyes simultaneously darted upwards to the ceiling. The two waited in silence for a second.
With their super hearing, they easily caught the Professor's uninterrupted snoring and Bubbles' groaning, immediately followed by the faint sound of rustling sheets that indicated the blonde rolling over in her bed.
"Shut up, Buttercup..." Bubbles sleepily grumbled near-unintelligibly as the green puff's voice was loud enough to reach her super hearing from her bedroom (a testament to their superpowers since all the bedrooms in the Utonium family home were made to be soundproof, looks like the Professor needs to make improvements again...), "Ugh, esdemasiadotempranoohmondieusaiakudanawǒhènnǐsosehrpryamoseychas*3-"
The cranky voice quickly trailed off into silence. Light, even breathing indicated that the blue puff had fallen back asleep.
"Welcome home, Buttercup." Blossom said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Now, tell me where you've been and please skip the useless attempt at evasion." They were both too tired for it at the moment anyway.
Grimacing at the sight of the light pink mug of coffee*4 and the bowl of belladonna berries, the green puff headed straight for the fridge. "Butch was out of bounds nearly all night." Rummaging inside, the brunette pulled out a slice of frozen pizza, "Went to find out where and why." A quick zap of green eyebeams reheated the slice, "Couldn't."
Blossom frowned.
"His tracker?"
"Kept on fucking moving!" The black-haired puff angrily devoured the now-scalding hot pizza. "Led me on a fucking wild goose chase all over Townsville before circling back home! I mean, what the fuck..." Blossom generously ignored her sister's foul mouth this time.
"Going to bed?" The redhead asked as her sister passed by her, exiting the kitchen.
"Yeah." Buttercup yawned. "You?"
"Not yet."
"A'ight, don't stay up too late..." Buttercup yawned again, floating up the stairs and towards her bedroom. "Again..." After all, it wasn't the first time Blossom did this.
Blossom placed the earbud back on her ear, returning her eyes to her laptop's screen.
"Too late."
-M-I-A-S-M-A-
"Without a struggle, there can be no progress."
- Frederick Douglass
One of the biggest parts of Pokey Oaks High was its cafeteria, second only to its rather impressive sports field and auditorium. Equipped with numerous tables, the fairly spacious yet often crowded school cafeteria was able to serve and seat most of its boisterous student body.
Sitting at one of the more secluded tables located in a far corner of the bustling cafeteria was one disquiet Bubbles Utonium. The normally bright and bubbly blonde currently had a pensive expression on her face, an elbow atop the table, her chin resting on the palm of her hand. Her free hand was absentmindedly picking at her stale salad with a fork.
"Is something wrong, Bubbles?" Asked the soft voice of one of the Powerpuff Girls' childhood friends, Robin Snyder. The blue puff looked up to find her light brown-haired friend's concerned aqua eyes looking at her as Robin sat down in front of her. "The salad not good?"
"I'd hardly call that a salad." Another voice, this time the rough voice of Bubbles' black-haired sister, scoffed from beside the blue puff.
Buttercup not-so-ladylike plopped down to her right, setting down her crossed arms atop the table. "I'm pretty sure that's made out of plastic." She eyed Bubbles' lunch with distaste and scowled, "Is that even edible? Better yet, is anything in here even edible?!"
"Lower your voice, Buttercup." Said a familiar voice with a hint of strain.
Bubbles and Buttercup, along with Robin, turned their heads up. In front of them stood Blossom, carrying a tray of... something.
The pink puff rolled her eyes at the looks on their faces as she took a seat in front of Bubbles and to the right of Robin. "It's spaghetti."
"And bloody eyeballs?" Buttercup raised a brow, giving a tentative poke to one of the deformed clumps of what seemed to be meat on her sister's plate of supposed food. "I think one just winked at me..."
Blossom rolled her eyes once more. "Very funny, Buttercup."
"Seriously, the cafeteria food tastes like shit." The green puff's face scrunched in disgust, "Someone's gonna get sick sooner or later eating this."
Unlike Buttercup, however, Bubbles was less concerned about the cafeteria's food and more focused on her red-haired sister.
Blossom looked tired.
Not physically, as the redhead looked fine and perfect like normal, though the blonde could detect the use of concealer*6 under her eyes (does she have a test coming up?), but it was more in the way Blossom carried herself. It was not that discernible, but those who knew the pink puff well would easily be able to catch how her posture faintly seemed sluggish, along with her usual vibrant rose pink eyes dulling slightly.
Even Buttercup noticed.
"Bloss, you okay?" She asked, looking concerned at her red-haired sister's unfocused face.
"Hm?" The pink puff snapped out of her light daze. "Oh, yeah. Just stress, sleep deprivation, and a headache..." Same old, same old.
All three other occupants of the table frowned.
Bubbles asked further, "Are you sure? Maybe you should go to the infirmary..."
Robin nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Blossom. You're kinda out of it today."
"Really, girls, I'm fine. I told you, it's just stress." Blossom sighed. She opened her can of espresso and pointedly ignored her black-haired sister's scrunched face of disgust, then took a long, soothing sip. "Anyway, where are the boys?"
"If you mean the ruffs, they're all the way at the other end of the cafeteria." Buttercup scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she gestured with her head the aforementioned table where their three counterparts sat, surrounded by a crowd of obnoxious (fan)girls and nosy (fan)boys. "What, we have to sit next to them now too?"
Blossom shook her head. "No, it's fine as long as we have a clear view of them."
"Oh, right, you're supposed to be watching them." Robin blinked, glancing curiously at the rather loud table. Butch was leaning back in his seat with a smirk on his handsome face, roughhousing and joking around with the Pokey Oaks High football varsity, of which he was the new quarterback. Sitting next to him, Boomer had a sunny smile as he chatted with the populars, into which he and his brothers were quickly and unsolicitedly inducted. He was facing Brick, who was scrolling through his phone and ignoring everyone, his half-lidded red eyes flashing in irritation.
"Trust me, it's not as fun as everyone thinks it is." Buttercup scowled. "I swear, everyone in this goddamn school are fucking idiots."
"Language, Buttercup." Blossom halfheartedly chastised on instinct, more than used to her black-haired sister's colorful vocabulary.
"Ugh, give me a break, Bloss..." Buttercup groaned, closing her eyes and tilting her head backwards. "I'm super stressed out right now..." No, she did not childishly whine, thank you very much.
"You're not the only one." The pink puff sighed. "Great, I left my binder in my locker. I'll be going ahead..." Blossom stood up and left, taking her tray with her.
Buttercup, Bubbles, and Robin shared a look. All three noticed that the redhead didn't touch her food, not that the green puff could blame her.
"Told ya the cafeteria food tastes like shit."
Boomer was absolutely breathtaking, in both good and bad ways.
While not quite the last place she thought her counterpart would be (not quite hiding), it was still not a place Bubbles thought the blue ruff would be, at least not willingly.
The blonde turned to look down at the screen of her phone, where the tracking application displayed a dark blue dot currently in the location right in front of her. Incredulous, Bubbles briefly thought about the possibility that Boomer intentionally left his tracker here to trick her.
'It's either him or a ghost...' The blonde thought as she stared at the doors to the library, 'And I'm still not sure which one I'd prefer...'
Bubbles blinked as the doors to the library opened suddenly.
Sky blue eyes looked up at ocean blue ones.
The blue puff immediately jumped backwards, her cheeks blushing. Bubbles mentally wondered how long she had stood there, as she admittedly got lost in her thoughts.
Boomer shot her an amused smile.
"Hey, Bubbles. You didn't need to fetch me, I was just about to go to class."
Bubbles watched as her counterpart started walking away.
"Why were you at the library?" The blue puff quickly blurted out, trying*7 again.
Boomer paused.
"...You don't know." The blue ruff hummed, half surprised, half questioning. His back was turned to Bubbles.
He left her question unanswered and walked away, her sky-blue eyes could only watch his back as he did so.
The classroom door suddenly banging open startled Buttercup, who had just been about to fall asleep while waiting for the perpetually late teacher, into nearly falling off her chair.
Grumpy lime-green eyes looked up as a frantic-looking Robin Snyder rushed over towards where she sat.
"Buttercup!" Robin panted, "Mitch called out Butch!"
"What!?" Buttercup roared, startling the other students as she stood up and slammed her palms on her desk.
"I overheard the two of them when I passed by the restrooms and rushed here to tell you..." Robin hurriedly explained even as the green puff whipped out her phone and impatiently opened the tracking application.
Lime green eyes snapped down towards the screen of her phone, where the tracking application displayed a dark green dot, not at the boys' restroom, but in the school parking lot.
"'Just gonna take a piss' my ass!" The green puff growled out, recalling her counterpart's flippant words. ("Just gonna take a piss. Why, you gonna watch?" )
Mitch calling someone out wasn't exactly new in Pokey Oaks High, what with his temperament and the fact that all three Powerpuff Girls aren't at all lacking in admirers in the school. With his reputation though, guys hesitated to pick a fight with him, Buttercup's (unwanted) guard dog, as he was fairly skilled in fighting and popular within the school. Unfortunately, Mitch tended to act without thinking, especially when angry, and he had challenged Butch without knowing just exactly who he was...
Buttercup's eyes widened as she remembered that it had slipped her and her sisters' minds to inform their friends about the Rowdyruff Boys. Only Robin knew, and that was only because they were next-door neighbors.
Buttercup loudly cursed and immediately flew off towards the school parking lot, rudely shoving away students along the way in her haste.
The green puff arrived just in time to witness her counterpart arrogantly brush off Mitch, as if he and his words were a waste of time, ignoring the growing fury on Mitch's face.
"Late as always, Buttercakes." Butch glanced at her, smirking.
"I thought I told you to stay away from Buttercup!" Mitch snarled darkly, eyes narrowed to practically slits.
Forest green eyes turned back towards the barking puppy in front of him. "And I thought I told you no can do."
"Mitch, you shit-for-brains, the hell are you thinking?!" Buttercup screamed, "You two get your asses back to class right now!"
She was yet again ignored by both egotistical males. Buttercup was so done with these fucking dumbasses.
"Wait, you seriously think I was trying to get into the pants of this...?" Butch deadpanned as he pointed to himself then to his glaring counterpart, who visibly twitched at his words and tone. "Dude, even though you've got great taste, you really do have shit for brains."
"Heh..." Mitch cracked his knuckles. "Don't say I didn't warn you then..."
Buttercup wanted to scream in frustration. 'Idiot!'
Butch merely raised a brow. "You don't know me, do you?"
"Why should I?" Mitch scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You're just some fucking pansy-ass newbie who doesn't know who he's talking to!" He growled, acting tough.
"Mitch, you dead moron, shut the fuck up already!" Buttercup shouted to her well-meaning but stupid stupid friend. " You don't know who you're talking to!"
"Oh? Well then..." A dark grin slowly formed on Butch's handsome face. Forest green eyes glinted. "Allow me to introduce myself."
Mitch couldn't help but jump back when another hand suddenly shot out from behind Butch and clasped itself tightly against the black-haired ruff's outstretched fist, which was an inch away from his face.
'He's as fast as Buttercup...!' Mitch's startled black eyes trembled as they traced the hand that saved him all the way up an arm to where Buttercup stood close behind her counterpart, a stern frown on her gorgeous face.
Once again, Butch merely raised a brow, his handsome face schooled into bored apathy. A small gleam darkened in half-lidded forest green eyes, unnerving Mitch.
Buttercup gathered all of her fraying self-control as she tiptoed up and leaned her mouth right next to her counterpart's ear.
"Butch." Her warm breath whispered a strong warning. "Don't..."
"How cute, you're protecting your precious little boyfriend." The green ruff sneered. "Gag me."
Buttercup scowled, her lime-green eyes flashing her short temper. "He's not my boyfriend." Her free hand quickly wrapped around Butch's throat, her sharp nails lightly digging into the exposed skin. "And don't fucking tempt me." The green puff's nails dug deeper into the black-haired ruff's skin, leaving behind marks.
Butch was unaffected and merely sneered wider as he felt Buttercup let go of her crushing grip on his neck.
"I see you don't want me to ruin his face." The green ruff spoke sarcastically, rolling his eyes as Buttercup narrowed her own. "I don't blame you, it's fucking ugly enough as it is."
Mitch, who had been quietly standing at the sidelines and just watching the two bantering counterparts with a stunned and confused expression on his face, glared at Butch for his comment. "What the fuck did you just say-"
"Mitch, shut the fuck up and stay out of this! Don't make me rip off your dick and shove it down your fucking throat to shut you up myself!" Buttercup exploded as she redirected her furious glowing green eyes upon the brunet, causing him to flinch and jump back.
Mitch paled. He yelped and frantically nodded.
"Such a dirty mouth, Butters..." Butch interrupted, drawling mockingly as he raised a single brow. "I admit that I was seriously turned on. Just one thing though..."
Butch chose that moment to escape his counterpart's loosened hold on him and reverse their positions faster than the blink of an eye. With his right hand holding both her wrists above her head while his other hand firmly gripped her throat in a crushing hold, pain briefly flashed through lime green eyes, sending a surge of thrill to the black-haired ruff. His blood spiked, and he immediately quashed it. Buttercup's gorgeous face contorted into a dark scowl as her counterpart lowered his mouth to her ear and whispered huskily, "Piss off my fights, bitch."
Tightening his grip on his counterpart's throat for a split second, he let go and stepped back, causing Buttercup to stumble with both hands immediately massaging her throbbing neck. Her head snapped up, furious lime green eyes glowing, and glared defiantly at smoldering forest green eyes.
Buttercup gritted her teeth, barely holding herself back from retaliating. She remembered her 'eldest' sister's warning, and Blossom was a lot scarier than Butch, hands-down.
Watching the scowling duo glaring at each other, Mitch gritted his teeth. His fists tightened in overflowing rage, narrowed black eyes darkened at Butch.
Butch suddenly scoffed. He shoved his hands into his pants pockets, turned around and headed back towards the school entrance.
Mitch snapped at Butch's walking form.
"You... You..." He suddenly ran forward, rushing with one fist extended towards the back of the black-haired ruff's head. "...Fucking bastard!"
Buttercup's eyes widened in alarm and she cursed. Before she could move, Butch had already turned around and gripped Mitch's outstretched fist with one hand, causing the brunet to wince at the inhumanly tight grip. With a single flick of his wrist, the green ruff nearly dislocated Mitch's elbow. The green puff watched with wide eyes as Mitch fell to the ground with a loud pained cry.
"How weak." The black-haired ruff sneered down at the brunet he was currently torturing. If he twisted his wrist even just a bit more, Mitch's elbow would be dislocated.
"Butch!" Buttercup called out loud with an angry growl. Her warning lime green eyes were staring straight at his forest green eyes and a smirk graced Butch's lips. "Let him go, Rowdyruff!"
Mitch froze.
Sensing the sudden lack of struggling, Butch looked down at the brunet and raised a brow.
"R-Rowdyruff...?" Mitch's black eyes widened in fear-filled recognition. "A-As in t-the Rowdyruff Boys...!?"
"Oh, so you do know me!" The black-haired ruff grinned widely. Mitch gulped and Buttercup's eyes narrowed as Butch's grin turned feral. The black-haired ruff let go of Mitch's nearly dislocated arm and instead grabbed his neck in a choking grip, lifting him up. Butch hovered in the air, taking the utterly terrified and sweating brunet with him. Mitch gulped, feet dangling desperately in the air, hardly able to breathe in his situation. Literally.
"Butch!" Buttercup called out once more. Her fisted hands clenched and unclenched from where they laid at her sides. "Drop him!"
"Or what, Butterfly?" Butch smirked and, just to add to the green puff's already quickly growing rage, tauntingly shook the frozen-in-fear Mitch in front of her.
Buttercup gritted her teeth. Lime green eyes started glowing. "You're seriously asking for a fight..."
"Only from you, Cupcake." Butch spoke sweetly, narrowing his eyes as he softly cooed down to her.
Buttercup's eye twitched as she made a strangled noise from the back of her throat that sounded not unlike a yowling cat, which sent her black-haired counterpart into a mad laughing fit.
"I'll say this one last time, asshole." Buttercup's eyes glowed brighter in warning. "Drop. Him. Now."
"Come and make me." With a mocking smirk, forest green eyes looked down at her. "That's if you still got it, 'Toughest Fighter'."
That's it!
At that, Buttercup just snapped.
She absolutely hated being called weak, especially by her counterpart!
Lime green eyes glowed and the green puff flew forward, leaving behind a trail of light green. She delivered an overpowered punch right at the black-haired ruff's gut, causing him to let go of Mitch as Buttercup sent Butch careening through several walls.
Bubbles bit her lip as she stood there in the lockers hallway rather stupidly, watching her counterpart standing right next to her locker. The blonde puff mentally groaned as Boomer seemed to not be leaving any time soon, nor was he in any apparent hurry to do so. Bubbles let out a small sigh.
Bracing herself and consciously shutting off her empathy lest she be unnerved by her counterpart's emptiness, the blonde puff swiftly zipped over to her locker and quietly opened it, hiding her face as she quickly stuffed her white shoulder bag inside. If Boomer noticed her, he did not show it.
Her nerves lifted slightly at that as she started quickly but quietly arranging her things for her next class. 'So far, so good...'
"Bubbles."
The blonde puff jumped, startled, her light blue eyes widening at the soft, mellow voice obviously directed towards her. Boomer was arranging a few notebooks, not once glancing away from the inside of his locker.
"Please stop acting skittish around me."
Bubbles blinked in surprise. 'What...?'
Boomer closed his locker door softly, a thin notebook casually tucked underneath one arm, gaining the blonde puff's attention. He turned to face her, bright eyes blank and unreadable. Bubbles resisted a shiver.
"I can't really speak for my brothers, but I already told you that I have no intention whatsoever to fight." His voice was soft yet his tone was the opposite. "So I'd rather not deal with your silly fear throughout high school. It's as annoying as it was back when we were kids."
Bubbles narrowed her eyes up at him. "Back then you were evil."
The corner of his lips quirked up slightly, his cheerful handsome face still serenely void of emotion. "Back then."
Bubbles was silent.
"Bubbles..." The blue ruff reached out a hand and his counterpart startled as he lightly closed her locker door*8. "Do I make you nervous?" Boomer leaned forward and Bubbles forced herself not to lean back. "Scared?"
Hesitant? Yes.
Frustrated? Yes.
Scared?
A firm "No."
Boomer smirked and stepped back.
"Don't force yourself." His spoken words were tinged with a mocking tone, "You'll only hurt yourself."
Sky-blue eyes narrowed. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, Bubbles... you're sweet." Boomer spoke faux-affectionately, "Just not all sweet."
"I'm trying to be friendly here!" Bubbles uncharacteristically snapped.
"Trying."
The blue puff let out a frustrated sigh.
"Boomer, I'm naturally empathic, but I can't feel anything from you. If I closed my eyes, I'd feel like I was talking to air..."
Boomer beamed. "What a coincidence, that's what I'm feeling right now too!"
"You!" Bubbles scowled up at him. "Ugh!"
Boomer sighed and ran his free hand through his hair. "Look, we don't really care whether you three believe it or not, but my brothers and I just want to go through our lives in peace. I'm sure you and your sisters do too, so just do the both of us a favor and act like I don't exist, easy enough for you."
'For you.' Her counterpart's words echoed inside her head and Bubbles frowned. "Boomer... I don't fear you, you know that..."
"Do I?" The blue ruff replied with a blasé voice. "When you were trying to avoid me?"
Bubbles' beautiful face blushed as she continued softly, "Fears aren't silly either..."
"I know." Boomer said simply. "My brothers and I are well acquainted with fear, remember?"
Bubbles frowned.
"My brothers and I could do to spend high school without getting fearful looks thrown at us, at least not ones we don't deliberately cause anyway." Boomer's voice was flat even though his smile remained warm-looking. The hand that was clutching his notebook tightened for a split second before loosening. "You don't know how annoying and sickeningly haunting it is..."
"Boomer..." Bubbles' eyes darted down towards the ground. Her soft voice quietly whispered, "I don't..."
"That's right, you don't."
Bubbles flinched.
The blue ruff took one look at his counterpart and let out a small sigh, lightly shaking his head. "Never mind." His voice and posture regained their unreadability masked by a sunny facade.
Boomer suddenly paused. He quickly reached out his free hand and grabbed his surprised counterpart's wrist, pulling her towards him.
Sky blue eyes widened, "Wha-!"
Bubbles' wide eyes widened even more as the wall to their left suddenly exploded. Butch was sent flying close behind her, the air ruffling her light blonde pigtails as he crashed into the lockers to their right in a rain of slowly clearing dust and debris. With a low groan, Boomer's black-haired brother slowly picked himself up from the dented mess and rubble that used to be a whole row of large metal lockers along with the wall behind them.
"Yep, she's still got it alright. And to think I was just kidding..." The green ruff grunted as he slowly stood up. Forest green eyes glowed with madness and battlelust. "... Until now." Butch shot forward with a crazed grin and disappeared into the hole in the wall made by his earlier explosive entrance, leaving behind a trail of dark green that quickly faded.
Bubbles blinked.
The blonde puff stood there, rather stupidly, mouth open in shock as her mind processed what had just happened. 'Did Boomer just...?! But how'd he know Butch was going to crash right where I'd been standing...?'
Boomer let go of his (surprisingly not painful) grip on his counterpart's wrist and turned around, stuffing his hand in his pants pocket as he walked away.
"Boomer, wait!" Bubbles cried out, making her counterpart halt in his step.
The blue ruff turned his head around to look back.
"A-Ah, t-thank you..." The blonde puff shyly spoke, blush dusting her cheeks.
Cute... Boomer stared at her for a full minute before looking away and continued walking.
Bubbles looked down with a small sigh.
Boomer suddenly paused. Unseen by his blonde counterpart, the corners of his mouth quirked up.
"...You're welcome."
Bubbles's head shot up, eyes wide in shock, but her counterpart was gone. It didn't stop a smile from erupting on her face.
Buttercup was wrong and Bubbles was going to prove it.
"Things often seem more difficult in our minds than they actually are. Luckily we could always change our mind."
- Rachel Wolchin
III. Ticking Time Bomb
(or in which the Greens just can't help themselves)
Author End Notes
*1: One of Blossom's bad habits is that she often forgoes sleep to study/review for tests, exams and projects, as well as monitoring Townsville.
*2: Over the years, Blossom's developed a taste (addiction) for poison and poisonous food, specifically the kick they give her, kind of like caffeine really. The only reason the Professor allows her to continue consuming poison is because she and her sisters are immune to poisons. (Well, they won't die from consuming them, getting sick however...) And also the fact that Blossom knows not to share with others.
*3: Another of Bubbles' talents/abilities is her being multilingual. She even sometimes combines languages together. Those that Bubbles doesn't know yet, she can quickly learn and assimilate into her arsenal of languages.
Translated from Google Translate: Es demasiado temprano (Spanish: It's way too early), oh mon dieu (French: oh my god), saiakuda na (Japanese: you suck), wǒ hèn nǐ (Chinese: I hate you) so sehr (German: so much) pryamo seychas (Russian: right now)
The lack of spaces is because Bubbles was slurring rapidly without pausing for breath.
*4: The reason why Buttercup hates coffee is because of a past incident. After their hell puberty, Blossom took to drinking coffee when stressed. The first and last time Buttercup secretly stole a sip from Blossom's mug caused her to become so sick that she kept dizzily puking nonstop and had to have her stomach pumped*5. Turns out, Blossom's coffee that day was approximately 75% espresso, 24% mixture of various deadly and fast-acting poisons and 1% Antidote-X (which also mutated the poisons). All of Blossom's AP classes' exams were scheduled for the same day Buttercup decided it'd be a great prank to swipe her 'eldest' sister's coffee. Remember, Blossom's stress levels and how deadly her poison intake are directly proportional to each other. The more stressed she is, the more poisonous and deadly her coffee and snacks are and the higher her rate of consumption is. This incident is just one of many that caused Buttercup (and Bubbles) to rather comically fear Blossom, much to the pink puff's ignorance and confusion.
*5: To add insult to injury, Blossom just kept calmly drinking her mug of dangerous-to-even-the-PPG-or-rather-two-thirds-of-the-PPG coffee while she watched Buttercup have her stomach pumped (and develop trauma).
*6: Of the three Utonium sisters, Bubbles was the hair, makeup and fashion expert. Blossom only uses concealer whenever she has eye bags (from forgoing sleep, usually on all-nighters studying) and just puts on light makeup during formal events. Buttercup doesn't bother putting on any makeup at all and always has to be chased around the house by an obsessed Bubbles whenever the three have to be all dressed up.
*7: For the past week, Bubbles has been alternating between trying to befriend Boomer and trying to avoid him. The reason her attempts at befriending the blue ruff are shaky is because Boomer's emotional emptiness unnerves Bubbles, and his sunny mask frustrates her. And he knows it.
*8: Look up Kabe-don in shoujo anime/manga
Buttercup (and Butch) has a really dirty mouth. I can't really blame her for releasing all that pent-up stress and anger at poor Mitch, not that the brunet didn't contribute to nor deserve it.