Blossom can feel her heart pounding in her chest as she flies along with her sisters. Brick had woken his brothers up bright and early to do whatever it is they're supposed to do.
She herself had barely slept. Her overthinking mind not letting her sleep as much as she'd like.
Thankfully, she didn't struggle too badly to get her sisters up and going. Specifically, Buttercup as she usually doesn't want to get up for school. The three of them dressed in suits that the Professor made for them a while back. Really, a prototype that they've tested a few times that moves fluidly with them and provides some extra protection from attacks. Bubbles worked on the design so they would at least be cute.
They arrived near the house that the boys were staying at. Keeping a safe distance on some rocky terrain where they can observe from. They got there much quicker than the boys did as they opted to fly there. Butch was right, the house did look like a dump. It stands alone in the middle of nowhere. The exterior is heavily spray painted and there is no grass in sight.
Blossom doesn't like the feeling she gets from the house. The energy is off and she had never been a big believer of that in the first place.
"How does Brick even know about this house?" Buttercup asks aloud. Blossom shrugs. "Whoever is behind all this probably owns it or just uses it. Looks to be in really bad shape." She responds. "I can't imagine what the inside looks like!" Bubbles chimes in.
"Hopefully better than the outside." Buttercup mumbles.
Shuffling is heard from the speaker. From where the girls stand they can see the front door opening. They watch as the boys step out of the house and make their way down the stairs to the car.
So far, Butch and Boomer haven't been able to get any info from Brick on where they are going or why they are here in the first place. This unnerves Blossom as she is going in this blind. Each of the girls carry a small backpack that contains Chemical X that Bubbles was able to get from the Professor. She felt confident about having as much as they do just in case anything happens to one of them or the one of the boys. Also having packaged it carefully so the vials won't shatter.
The boys have been quiet for the most part. Really, just Butch deciding to keep his mouth shut before he says something to royally piss Brick off.
Once they're in the car, they start speeding off to the next destination.
"Hey guys, anyway you can get how long of a drive this is out of him?" Blossom asks through the speaker.
"Hey bro, how long is the drive?" Boomer asks. "About an hour and a half." Brick responds. Butch groans. "I hate being in a car."
"Thanks guys." Blossom says. She decides that that'll be plenty of time to investigate the house. She scans the house with another device to detect any spyware and it comes back clean.
The girls cautiously step inside, careful not to mess anything up. First thing she does is that she heads to the freezer. "Ew. What are you doing?" Buttercup asks. Watching her older sister take out a bag of blood that was discovered last night. "Just inspecting." Blossom responds. Bubbles stays a good distance away. Opting to just observe.
Inspecting one of the bags she flips it the other side and sees some light red liquid that had separated from the blood. Between that and the blood is a black liquid. It's not much, but it's definitely noticeable against the dark red color.
"See that?" She asks. Moving the bag closer to Buttercup to take a closer look.
"What is that?" Buttercup asks. Studying the frozen liquid. Bubbles peers over Buttercup's shoulder so she can also see.
"I'm not sure." She says. Blossom thinks about it. "Well, if we were to say this is Brick's blood then this would be the X." Blossom says pointing at the black liquid. Which runs through all of them. "Okay…then what's that?" Buttercup questions, pointing at the lighter red.
Blossom thinks for a moment inspecting the bag when it hits her. She pales at the thought. "Blossom?" Bubbles asks. Noticing the color change on her sister's face.
"I think it's Antidote X." She says. This stuns her sisters into silence. Perplexed at the thought, she puts the first bag back and pulls out another. This one has a noticeable amount more of Antidote X than the one she originally pulled.
The third has even more than the second. The idea makes her sick to her stomach.
"Look! That one has a date!" Bubbles exclaims pointing at the bag in Blossom's hands. Blossom scans over the date and if memory serves her right, that is the day that Brick came looking for her before he went missing.
She was gonna be sick.
"This is his blood." She whispers. "How do you know?" Buttercup asks. "This is the last time he came looking for my help and he was in terrible shape." Blossom says.
She felt even more guilty now knowing the extent of Brick's pain. Especially when he would come looking for her. She knows from experience that injecting Chemical X after Antidote X was extremely painful. He never did express the full pain he was feeling in her presence.
"Damn. That's a lot of AX." Buttercup says. Blossom shoves the bag back in the freezer and closes the door shut. No longer wanting to look at the bags. Still wondering why they would be there.
"I thought you said he would fly to your window. If he was injected with that much wouldn't he be powerless?" Buttercup adds. Blossom considers this new thought. "Well, they clearly retracted it from his system. But why would they go through that much trouble?" Blossom says, thinking aloud.
"I don't know but this is creeping me out." Buttercup says, crossing her arms. Bubbles nods in agreement. Blossom sighs. "I know, but we have to help. We need to get to the bottom of this or all the boys will be pawns."
Her sisters nod in agreement. Blossom decides to keep looking around the house to see if they find anything else, but nothing stands out.
"There's a basement!" Bubbles shouts from where she stands. Blossom and Buttercup make their way over. Bubbles stands in front of the door patiently looking at her sisters. "Well? Aren't you going in?" Buttercup says.
"What? No! You go in!" Bubbles says in shock. "I would if you moved!"
"Alright alright. Enough of that. Excuse me Bubbles." Blossom says. Making both her sisters stop their bickering. Bubbles side steps out of the way as Blossom makes her way down the steps.
"Scaredy cat." Buttercup mumbles to Bubbles as she follows Blossom. "Am not!" Bubbles says watching them walk down the steps. "Uh huh. Then why are you still up there?" Buttercup says as she takes careful steps. The staircase feeling old and unstable under her feet. Honestly she should've just floated.
"Because it's dark!" Bubbles responds. "I know. I know. The light isn't working." Blossom says as she reaches the bottom of the steps. Hoping to get them to stop.
Pink energy flows to one of her hands that she uses as a light to take a look around. Buttercup copying her with green energy. With the combined light, a better view of the basement is revealed.
Old furniture covered in a thick layer of dust is what greets them. If Blossom didn't know any better, she would have guessed that no one has stepped foot in here for years. But of course, she has an eye for detail when she sees a filing cabinet lacking a bit of dust compared to the other items kept away here.
She walks up to it, it seems to be old and worn, but it seems to be the newest piece in the basement. Pulling the first drawer she finds that it isn't locked and finds newspaper clippings. Recent ones at that too from the murders going on in Townsville. Every single one so far.
She looks back at her sisters who are too preoccupied with bickering about how Bubbles won't join them and Buttercup taking a look around herself.
Turning back to the filing cabinet, she doesn't find much else in the first drawer but the few clippings. Shutting that drawer and pulling out the second, however, is a much different story. This one is filled to the brim with folders labeled with years. She pulls the most recent one out and it has newspaper clippings regarding the Rowdyruff Boys causing trouble. Each one has a highlighted sentence stating that the RRB almost defeated the PPG.
Even Blossom has to admit that the boys are very much the most difficult villains to defeat since they are almost equals. The boys possess more strength and power, but the girls are always one step ahead and outsmarting them.
Flipping through the folder there's photos of the boys just out and about town being normal and ones where they are causing trouble in town.
Some of the pictures have her and her sisters fighting them. "What did you find?" Buttercup asks, looking at the folders that Blossom is holding.
Before she could answer, Bubbles pipes up from the top of the stairs. "The boys said they'll be getting there in 20 minutes!"
"We have to go." Blossom says to her sisters. Making sure she put things back the way she found them before shutting the drawer.
Making their way back to the front door, the girls step outside and down the steps preparing to take off. Buttercup and Bubbles fly off. Blossom takes one last look at the house before she follows. Mentally preparing for what's to come.
A/n: Thank you for all the lovely reviews! It makes me happy to know you all are enjoying this story! I have never written anything in the mystery genre, so that's encouraging to know. As always, reviews are appreciated!:)