"Brick!' he awoke to Butch yelling in his ear.
"bah! what?" Brick asked as he sat up.
"punch me in the face" Butch said, vibrating in place.
"what?" Brick repeated.
"I wanna try something" Butch explained.
"can we do it after breakfast?" Brick questioned.
"okay! also, almost forgot. John came in and told me to tell you. you're getting a haircut today. whether you like it or not" Butch replied as he hopped off the bed.
"aw man" Brick groaned, hiding his face in his hands as he lay back in bed.
"why are we doing this again?" Boomer asked. he was wearing the normal orphanage uniform and his black sneakers but he was also wearing a black capelet meant to fit an average sized teenager to hide his face.
"relax, I just want to get a snack from the store and I'm afraid to be ambushed by crooks. you know townsville is practically crawling with them" the newly preteen girl he was walking with replied. she wore the same uniform with white socks and black loafers while her elbow-length dark brown hair was tied in a high ponytail.
"do you even have money Chloe?" Boomer questioned.
Chloe stopped walking and pulled up the side of her t-shirt dress, pulling out two dollars from her pocket.
"how did you get that?" Boomer queried.
"I've been saving up from odd jobs in farmsville. no big deal" Chloe shrugged as she let go of her t-shirt dress and began walking again, the two dollars still in hand.
"if you don't get me anything, I'm leaving you to walk home by yourself" Boomer replied with a scowl.
"fair enough" she spoke, not turning to look at him.
they walked in silence until they heard the sound of a monster a few blocks ahead.
"looks like we'll be going the long way" Chloe remarked as Boomer gently pulled on the hood of his makeshift cloak in a desperate attempt to hide his face from view as much as he could.
"come on" Chloe said as she began crossing the road.
"watch out!" Boomer screamed, pushing her forward with one hand and catching the large piece of flying rubble with the other.
he grabbed the rubble with both hands before tossing it back at the monster the powerpuff girls were fighting.
Boomer then zoomed into a nearby alleyway, leaving a shocked Chloe on her hands and knees in the middle of the street.
she scrambled to her feet and followed after him.
"why are we hiding?" Chloe asked.
"I'm an ex-criminal! if they see me they'll throw me in jail! or worse, they will see me but instead follow me back to the orphanage and arrest me and my brothers!" Boomer replied, grabbing tightly onto the hood of his cloak.
"no they won't, they're the powerpuff girls. they don't hurt innocent people" Chloe reasoned.
"well they hurt me! they hurt us. we were confused children who just happened to have superpowers. our 'dad' told us to go beat up the powerpuff girls, our 'opposites'. we were just following orders but it only ended up with us exploded.
when we next came to, HIM had revived us and we were sent yet again to beat up the girls. it ended with us shrunk tiny. after that we were basically abandoned by both father figures except for one time they argued about who was our rightful parent.
we were left homeless on the streets. no one even cared. we found an old collapsed house on the edge of town and turned the still in-tact basement into our hideout. our lives finally improved a little.
then two years later my leg got broken into the wrong position in a fight and Bri thought up the idea to move to farmsville and we did. but it backfired in the best way possible.
we were taken in by social services and sent to the orphanage. our best home ever. I don't want to be taken away from that. I don't want my brothers to be taken away from that" Boomer vented as he leaned against the wall and sat down, only stopping when he couldn't hold back his tears any more.
"oof. sounds like you were really holding that in huh?" Chloe muttered.
Boomer held back his tears for a moment to nod in reply.
they both froze when the top half of the building they were hiding behind was torn off by one of the powerpuff girls and thrown at the monster.
in a panic, Boomer picked Chloe up and sped off in the direction of the orphanage, his cloak flying off.
"come on! hit me!" Butch cheered.
"I don't know...I don't want to hurt you" Brick mumbled.
"oh don't be such a softie! I've got super healing, remember? hit me as hard as you can!" Butch replied.
Brick zoomed up and hit Butch right in the nose, launching him back into a tree.
"oof, that kinda hurt" Butch muttered, whipping the blood off his face as he got onto his knee.
he then stood up, pressing his hands together.
Brick watched as Butch shut his eyes, the blood on his hand soaking into his skin and disappearing as his nose healed.
"wow, this super, duper, woper healing could actually be useful" he told himself as he opened his eyes and looked down at his finger-less hands.
"heh, you said 'super, duper, woper'" the red-haired boy teased.
"you did too!" Butch snapped back before he zoomed over and punched Brick right in the jaw.
he flew back several feet, landing in a puddle of mud.
Brick sat up and readjusted his jaw back into place with a wince and a groan, causing Butch to flinch.
"you wanna stop? I've already tested out what my power can do" Butch suggested.
Brick nodded before he felt blood drip from his mouth.
Butch hissed before he knelt down and gently rubbed the blood on Bricks chin onto his hand.
he then placed his hand right below Bricks ear before shutting his eyes.
Brick stared at the raven-haired boy in shock as he felt his jaw slowly heal, his own blood soaking into his skin.
after a few moments Butch pulled his hand away and stood up.
"oh, that felt so weird" Brick mumbled.
"but, it did heal my jaw so, I guess it's fine. thanks little bro" he said as he stood up.
"we were born at the same time" Butch grumbled.
"well, I'm counting by the order we said our names for the first time so-" Brick was cut off by a worker running over.
"are you boys okay? I saw you fighting" the worker gasped.
"uh yeah. turns out I can heal other people. with their blood" Butch replied.
"okay...we should get you to the orphanage nurse. make sure you're both alright" the worker said.