Chapter Text
Blossom swished her bedroom’s curtains out of the way in order to get the best view possible. The sun’s rays beamed into her cold, dark room, illuminating light against the mess strewn about it. Empty cups stacked into one another, her old, torn uniforms buried beneath her recent wardrobe selections on the floor, her computer desk being littered with folders, binders and miscellaneous documents, and crumpled bundles of notepad paper resting beside the desk’s full garbage bin; all of it shared the light radiating off of it with her.
No one would suspect that the leader of the strongest team in the west coast could even allow such a mess in her living space. She didn’t want to believe it herself, though avoiding the fact certainly contributed to the current state of things. Not a single person was allowed in her room, and she always had the blinds drawn and curtains closed. No one could see the way she lived. If they did, they’d know that beneath the smart and sassy exterior, one that always radiated confidence and perfection just like the sun, would have such a deteriorated, exhausted interior.
Lifting the blinds just once in the morning, the sun was what helped her regain her strength every day. The belief she had, that it could undergo everything, having to maintain and to be in command of its entire solar system, and still shine so brilliantly…It meant that she could, too.
Just then, a knock at her door interrupted her thoughts. She quickly released the blinds, covering the sun from her gloomy room, and pulled the curtains together. Taking a breath and a quick look in the mirror, she clicked open her door. “Yes?”
“We’re gonna be late if you don’t hurry up, Sweetheart.”
Before her was Brick, who was already in full uniform. From the new letterman-style jackets to the base suit, it had that same deep red color he was always associated with. Only a week or so ago, he had been as pale as a ghost, dressed in white and only maintaining the same demeanor as before. Now, however, his freckles had become more prominent from his time outdoors, and he truly looked like the updated version of his pre-teen self.
“Sorry,” Blossom quickly left the room, adorning her own version of the uniform in a pink, bubblegum-colored variant, “I just had to do something. Is everyone else downstairs?”
Brick looked over to the staircase, which more than likely led to the team’s remaining members. “Yup. They’re all getting antsy, so I’m just trying to get outta here. Ready to go?”
“Yes. Let’s go.” She started to walk to the staircase, before realizing Brick wasn’t following. Turning around, she saw her bedroom door had opened in front of him.
“Holy shit,” Brick said before she could shut it, “Your room’s a dump.”
She took a breath before she said, “It’s as if I haven’t had time to clean.”
“...We haven’t fought anything since the hellbeast.” He smiled. “Or maybe you’ve got some other demons to fight.”
Clicking her door closed, she didn't turn to look at Brick.
“Still thinking about the three of us, right?” His voice was as bitter as he liked his coffee. “Yeah, I’ve seen the way you’ve looked at me. At them . I swear to Hell if you—”
She quickly rolled her eyes, glaring at him over her shoulder. “Look, Brick, I’m not in the mood for your taunting. Don’t be ridiculous. If you really think that, you’re jumping to conclusions.” She stood her ground, crossing her arms. “I have no problem with the three of you, or I wouldn't let you stay in my home, or go anywhere near my friends. But I will have a problem with you if you don’t stop trying to intimidate me and go downstairs.” She pointed over to the staircase, glaring up at his stupid face. “ Now .”
“...Aye, aye, captain ,” he leaned towards her before walking over to the stairs.
To say the least, she was embarrassed. The most, of all people to see that…Damn it, of course. Of course it would be that jerk. Only he could read her like that.
Out of anyone else, only he would’ve noticed it all over the last week…Her reluctance to eat anything Boomer had made until one of the boys ate first, her weariness every time one of them pushed another too hard for her comfort, or laughed in such a way that triggered memories she didn’t want to remember.
And especially when Mitch or Robin were around, she worried. They have no powers or ability to overpower the boys. One move out of her sight and they could be injured, captured, killed…She thought she hid it well enough, but supposed Brick was just as vigilant of her and her sisters. He saw right through her.
If she were half as much a tyrant as he used to be, she would’ve torn him a new one for even trying to test her like that. Bastard .
Joining the rest of the group downstairs, Blossom noticed everyone was collectively excited, but not in a good way. Her sisters were only troubled slightly by the circumstances, but Brick’s brothers were a different story. Boomer was practically shaking like a small dog, fumbling his hands. And though Butch hid the nerves better, he had flinched when Brick got his attention.
“Alright, everyone.” She said, bringing the focus onto herself. Maybe she couldn’t hide from Brick, but she could easily hide from the others. “Let’s not waste any more time. This is the one chance we’ve got to get the city’s trust as a collective team. Keep your cool, pretend we’re not under pressure, and please don’t do anything stupid.”
———
Cameras flashed repeatedly in the crowd of reporters and citizens of the city. The hustle and bustle of everyday life hadn’t stopped in the streets beyond those closed nearby City Hall, where car horns and motors revving continued to be prevalent. Just as anticipated, trucks and vans from local reporting outlets blocked the outer view from behind the crowd, but Blossom could still see cars pass by from the side of the stage.
“Thank you all for gathering here today. I understand and have heard your worries and concerns regarding recent events. Today, I am here to address all of it. Time for questions will be reserved for the end of this conference.” Ms. Bellum stood with the poise and assuring attitude she always had. Even from behind the stage that had been set up outside of the City Hall, her elegance was something that could soothe any aching stress from the earlier morning. “One week ago from today, we continued to suffer at the hands of those evil monsters. Their origin was not of Monster Island, but from another source entirely.
“The PowerPuff Girls had been taking care of them, but were wearing down over time. Something many seem to ignore is that they are still children. Children who had lost sleep, sustained multiple injuries, and were hospitalized several times, all over the course of what should have been their summer vacation, just like every other child in the city. But they don’t get that luxury. They never have. They have continued to neglect well-deserved vacations, to always stay by Townsville, to push themselves to the brink, nearly giving their lives to this city.
“But enough is enough. I had to make a decision. A decision many of you may have considered reckless, foolish, and a completely insane misuse of my authority. I insist to all of you that it was not. Had I not given the orders, the PowerPuff Girls would have died. One of them was found in critical condition in the midst of battle, and would have succumbed to her injuries if not for my decision. I neglectfully allowed these girls to put themselves through hell and back for this city, and it was about time they had alternative resources to utilize.”
The mayor looked to Blossom, who had been waiting for her cue to walk on the stage. She nodded to confirm, gesturing to the others to follow her. She let Bubbles go ahead of her before walking on stage herself. Buttercup followed behind, with the boys entering after her. While the girls stood on Bellum’s right after entering from the left side of the stage, the boys stayed to her left.
The change from cheers to murmurs was discomforting. Blossom looked out to the crowd, whose faces all gave away their judgment. In an effort to ignore the stares, she focused on the lights of police cars lined up around the area, beyond the small crowd of reporters and bystanding citizens.
Taking the slightest glance across the stage, she noticed Boomer clutching his hands together behind his back. He was terrified. Poor kid , she thought to herself. If his brothers were also scared, they hid it well enough for the average citizen to not pick up on it. She could see it in their eyes.
The mayor continued her speech. “Since their release from the city’s asylum, a new era of Townsville’s security has arrived. The monsters stopped appearing as a result, and crime rates have dropped significantly without any of them having to lift a finger or leave their home since that fateful day. I understand you may not want to hear that directly from me, however. I’ll allow them to speak for themselves.”
She turned her head, and therefore everyone’s attention, to Blossom. Wasting no time, she quickly moved to the podium center-stage preparing for what to say. She had written and memorized a series of note cards the night before, and knowing Brick would have to speak on the boys’ behalf, she wrote some up for him as well. He had scoffed saying he didn’t need them, but she insisted he did. He wasn’t what she would call a great public speaker.
“Good morning, everyone. I know you haven’t seen much of me or my sisters lately, but all things considered, that should be a good thing.” She exhaled a laugh to herself, hoping at least someone else would find it funny too. “Our lives’ work is to uphold peace and order in Townsville, and I know you all have a lot of questions. Truth is, I did too at first…I didn’t trust that this arrangement would, or even could work.
“But getting right into it, as the mayor has already said…If the RowdyRuff Boys hadn’t been released from the asylum to make our acquaintance instead of our enemy, I worry my sister Bubbles wouldn’t have made it out of that battle alive. Or any of us, for that matter. Even if we somehow managed to defeat that monster — the fourth one of that particular day — I’m almost certain another one would have followed, and another after that, and so forth. We wouldn’t have been able to both prevent mass destruction and stay alive. Those weren’t regular monsters; they were created to take as much energy as possible to defeat, and appeared to be an experiment by the one sending them to test our limits. And once that limit had been reached, I can say with certainty that more would have proceeded to wipe out this city. I’m not saying that to instill fear, but to explain why we had come to the decision alongside the mayor.”
She paused for a moment, thinking over her words. The last part had been a lie, but one that had to be told. Making the decision herself was her biggest regret in the whole situation, only above not releasing the boys sooner.
“Like many of the villains and groups that we have fought since the beginning, these boys are infamous to this city and its people. They were created as a representation of everything we aren’t, and given the motivation to take us down. That notion has since become obsolete. I understand they might not be your first, or even your last, guess as to who we would recruit for help. But I haven’t forgotten where our own story began.
“My sisters and I recklessly destroyed block after block, buildings upon buildings, just to have some fun, unknowing to the consequences. We were deemed monsters, a few bug-eyed freaks that made Townsville their playground. It took the city nearly being destroyed for us to prove we were sorry, and in a similar fashion, it took these three a few years in state-secured prison and us being pushed to our brink. We’ve all collectively put in a lot of work to make this as seamless a transition as possible, and there’s still a lot of work to be done. I’d like to hope you all will give us the time to do so. Thank you.”
As anticipated, the audience clapped when she concluded her short speech. She looked to Brick, who wasn’t looking at the crowd, but had his sights on her already. She nodded slightly, signaling it was his turn. She returned to the space between her sisters while praying Brick wouldn’t mess things up. Just follow my notes, please .
He was a bit too tall for the podium, but leaned against it nonetheless. There was so much that could go wrong. Hearing the smallest swishing sound, she turned to Buttercup, who summoned a small dagger behind her back. She knew Buttercup wouldn’t actually use it unless it was necessary, and her suspicions were a lot more extreme, but Blossom felt the slightest relief in not being alone. She wanted to trust all three of the boys, but couldn’t bring herself to trust Brick. But he was a wild card, one she couldn’t afford to let herself be tricked by.
“I’m gonna be honest,” He started, “If I told myself from four years ago that I’d end up siding with these girls, younger me would laugh and call me some dumb old man.” He’s not following them. Shit. “I’m not great at public speaking, so I’ll keep this short for all of our sakes. You don’t have anything to worry about. Not anymore. And I know just saying that into a microphone at some dumb conference isn’t gonna convince an entire city to trust me and my brothers. But we’re not going back on the promises we’ve made, and if that means we’ve got something to prove, then I don’t mind…Proving it.”
His face changed from that of seriousness to fear as he finished the sentence. Something — someone — in the crowd caught his attention, and not in a good way. Blossom quickly examined the crowd of faces, trying to find the root of the issue. Before she could find it, he summoned a gun from his left hand, pointing the issue out right away: a man with slicked back hair and piercing green eyes. Policemen surrounding the area pointed their guns as well, though their aim was focused on Brick rather than the man.
A sudden flash of green from Butch protected the teams from deep crimson spikes that emerged from the front of the stage. One of them nearly struck Brick in the head, which made him flinch back before the shield appeared. Screams from running reporters and cameramen only helped the man stand out from the rest. The team members summoned their respective weapons while Butch maintained the shield before them.
"Son of a bitch, you just had to kill the moment for me, huh?" Brick's words echoed through the speakers. "The fuck’s your problem?!"
The man revealed his true self as pink mist began to swirl around his legs. "You know, putting all of that effort into having you released was enough work already. This is just a disgrace."
"Oh, don't give me that crap." Brick's grip tightened on his guns. "You couldn't have cared less about us. If you did, those monsters would've showed up years ago. Those fuckers only started showing up when the girls got outta school. And our contract expired when we got arrested, or did you forget that? You were supposed to get us out of that, and you didn’t. You've got nothing to hold over me, asshole. She does."
The mist fully enveloped the man, returning HIM to his normal demonic form. "Well, I suppose that was worth a shot."
Blossom moved forward, with a trio of arrows ready to fly at Him. "So you've been watching us? I'm not surprised, but it makes me sick nonetheless. Just what do you think you're going to accomplish here? You've got twice as many of us against you now."
"That may be so, but I'm not here for combat today, my dear girl." He said, standing just before the stage. "Your loyalties have changed, but you're angry, and confused where it should lie.” He held out a claw to the boys, giving the girls none of His attention. “I'm offering you a return to our previous agreement, but only this once . You'll be brought back as much as necessary, just destroy them. It's as simple as that."
There wasn't a moment of hesitation. Brick's left gun began charging up a shot. "I got my brothers back, I’ve got friends, and I’ve got a home I feel safe in for the second time in my life because of them.” This distracted Blossom momentarily. He wasn’t serious, was he? “ You killed us over and over, recreating us until we were stable. You barely let us stay here outside of battles, and you stripped us from the only place we got to call home. I'm not letting you do it again.”
“Actually, I've got an offer for you ." He ditched the gun in his right hand, making it fizzle out into zaps of red. He grabbed the microphone from the podium, with the speakers allowing his voice to reach far beyond the intended target. "Get lost or eat pavement, fucker."
His words echoed in Blossom's mind as the microphone was flatly placed on the podium. She took note of the phrasing, and the order of which he listed everything. Unlike her, who found HIM's presence to be nothing more than an annoyance, the rage burning in Brick was so strong, she could've sworn a faint smoke emitted with every breath he took. There was something between those two she wouldn't dare get in the midst of. She slightly pulled her arrow back, grounding her focus back to the situation at hand.
“Such a shame. You’ll come to regret that decision some day.” HIM turned, looking back at the group one last time while his thick pink scarf formed the same clouds as before. “Until we meet again, brats …”
Butch dropped the shield once the clouds dissipated, cuing nearly everyone else to finally let their weapons disappear with it. Relieved sighs and bated breaths were released amongst the group, and when she could finally look away, she noticed Brick still had his eyes where HIM stood, and the gun in his left hand, albeit lowered to point at the ground.
She moved around the front of the podium, catching his attention but not a glance. “He’s gone, you know. You don’t need the gun anymore.”
“Yeah…” He opened his hand, letting it fall and fizzle out into sparks of electricity. “Are we done?”
She shrugged. “I guess…Everyone left, so…”
“ Almost everyone.” Ms. Bellum, who had moved to the back of the stage when HIM appeared, looked over from the stairs. “At the very least, that made you appear unified as a team. It’s progress. Great work, all of you.”
Boomer peeked at her from behind Butch. “Can we leave now?”
“You may. I’ll handle further questions, regardless if they want me to answer them for your sake. Blossom informed me of your plans, and you all deserve to go out and enjoy yourselves. Just leave this business to me.”
———
And so, they did just that. The team had roughly two weeks before the next school year began, and they had plenty of errands to run and lost time to catch up on. The group had decided the previous day to meet up at Robin’s house next door, as the Professor wanted to deep-clean the house while the teens were out for the day. They all arrived in quick haste, eager to get to the activities.
“Hey, we’re back!” Blossom said.
Robin and Mitch waited for them just outside of the house, leaning up against the bright red pickup truck the boys didn’t know the owner of. Robin walked over to the group first, finishing the juice pouch she had been sipping. “The three of us saw the whole thing live. That was crazy!”
“Don’t remind me…” Blossom said. "It was just a public stunt. Nothing we can't handle."
"It sure seemed like you couldn't handle it!" Cackling from the top of the truck revealed, to the boys, a freakish 2-dimensional hysteric. To the girls, he was known as Patches. The bells at the ends of his at jingled with every motion. "The kid with the cap almost got stabbed in the face and everything!"
Immediately noticing the creature appear, Brick drew his gun. "The fuck is that thing?!"
"Giving me a bad rep already, Patches?" A boy with sandy blonde hair and black-rimmed glasses exited Robin's home. "Least you could do is give me a warning you summoned yourself…"
Patches launched himself an unrealistic height into the air, squashing and stretching back up as he landed on the ground behind the boy. "Mikey, my boy, you already got a warning through your migraine!" He laughed. He leaned over Mike's shoulder, wrapping his arms cartoonishly around each other.
"Don't worry guys, he's harmless right now." Mike said. "I had an energy drink earlier."
"You're gonna get a heart attack from all that caffeine, ya know." Patches remarked.
Mike rolled his eyes. "If I had a heart attack, it'd be from the hypertension you give me. Now can you get back in my mind?"
Patches gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine, but I’m gonna join you in your dreams ."
"As long as you'll help me wake up this time…" Mike broke away from Patches's hug.
"See you then!" The monster poofed away with a giddy smile going unnaturally beyond his cheeks.
Noticing the discomfort of the others to speak, Mike addressed them. "Sorry about him. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. I could tell he was waiting for me to stop driving earlier to get out…"
"When do you ever get good sleep?" Mitch joked in an effort to break the tension.
Robin seemed a bit more concerned than afraid, however. “You know, if you’re tired you can rest here at my house…We can always hang out somewhere else another time.”
“After HIM showed up on live television to threaten them?” Mike said. “They’re probably gonna have their hands full for a while. Speaking of which…” His attention redirected to the boys, who looked at him with suspicion. “You can call me Mike. I already know your names, but I don’t know if anyone mentioned mine, so yeah…And that monster was Patches, my imaginary friend…er, fiend. I can’t really control him, he’s the only one that can just appear, but he’s harmless most of the time.”
“And when he isn’t harmless…?” Boomer said. Worry was radiating off of him.
Mike rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from everyone. “He’ll be a bother, but nothing you all can’t handle.”
“If he’s physically injured enough, he’ll poof and disappear like he just did before.” Blossom explained. “He’s jumpy, though, so it can be hard to get hits on him. But if Mike falls asleep, Patches goes back to his subconscious. Usually Mike just ends up asleep mid-battle, but otherwise, Patches has to get stabbed, shot or hit with enough blunt force in that state.”
“He’s still a pain in the ass without the madness…” Buttercup complained. “But yeah, he’s about as harmful as your standard supervillain.”
Brick still seemed uneasy about the creature. He tried, and failed, to hide the feeling, but he was still on-guard from the encounter. “Okay, sure, but why the hell does it look like that?”
“Oh, well, he used to look like this guy I saw at a renaissance faire when I was little.” Mike found amusement in the question. “But he’s changed over time. He’s the only one who has, honestly. He was my first imaginary friend, so I figure that’s got something to do with it.”
Butch, completely ignoring the topic, made a point of observation. “Is…That nail polish?”
“Hm? Yeah, my girlfriend asked to paint them.” Mike said, looking at his hands. “I think it’s cool.”
Bubbles tucked her hand into Boomer’s as they stood together. “Can I do your nails tonight? Please ?”
“Uh…Okay?” Boomer shrugged. Bubbles took the opportunity to give him one of her endless supply of hugs.
Butch leaned to Brick. “Told you it wasn’t a ‘girl thing.’”
“Oh, grow up.” Brick said, rolling his eyes. “That was a long time ago.”
Blossom checked the time on her phone. They were already late as far as her schedule went to get to the mall thanks to HIM’s meddling, and she wasn’t happy about it. “Alright, let’s get into some regular clothes and head out. We’ll meet up with you three at the mall.”
“Okie doke.” Robin said. “Let’s get our head start.”
Mitch joined her and Mike over to the red truck. “They’ll still get there before we do.”
The team moved to their home as the trio drove past. Blossom wasted no time getting to her room, swiftly shutting the door behind her to avoid the others. She accidentally kicked a lump of clothes as she made her way to her closet. Aside from Bianca’s fresh set of uniform suits and letterman jackets, she had no more than a couple pairs of jeans and her winter clothes hanging up on its rack.
She realized it had been so long since she wasn’t wearing uniforms every moment of the day that her laundry from the last week accumulated fast. Her basket was overfilled, with fallen clothes littering the floor around it. Her dresser turned up empty, save for undergarments and pajamas that sat around collecting dust.
She covered her face with her hands. What was to her own admission a minor inconvenience was her last straw for the day. Blossom was exhausted, not by drowsiness, but by everything going wrong from the moment she woke up. Her alarm hadn’t been set the night before, causing her to wake up late, and with everything that happened, she just wanted to forget their plans for the day. It seemed like the world was working against her anyway, so why not just screw the plans, tell everyone else to go without her and curl up in bed?
A knock at the door interrupted her train of thought. What now? She thought, lifting her head from the top of her dresser. It better not be him again…
She opened her door. “Yes?”
To her surprise, as well as her relief, it was just Bubbles. She already swapped outfits, wearing a frilly-sleeved shirt and flared jeans. “Hey, Blossom. I’m sorry if I bothered you.”
“No, no, you’re fine.” Blossom said. “Did you need something?”
Bubbles had her arms behind her back, revealing a white button-up shirt and black skirt when she moved them forward. “Brick said you hadn’t caught up on laundry and might need to borrow some clothes. I don’t know if he was just pranking me, but I didn’t want to make assumptions if you needed the help. I don’t mind giving you an outfit, so I brought these. I have a few other outfits if you want to take a look.”
Thinking back to the morning, Blossom remembered her closet being open before she left…He must’ve seen its open space with the small lumps of clothes across the floor. She could feel the burning feeling of embarrassment on her face.
“It was a prank, wasn’t it?” Bubbles misinterpreted Blossom’s anger at the situation. She shook her head, feeling guilty for bringing it up. “What a jerk! I’m sorry, forget I said anything—”
“Wait.” Blossom interrupted her. “He wasn’t joking…When he got me this morning before we left, he probably saw my full basket from the doorway.”
“Oh.”
“I was probably going to end up asking you and Buttercup for clothes anyway. I really appreciate you coming to me, Bubbles. Thank you. I promise I’ll give these back as soon as I clean them. I’ll do my laundry tonight if we don’t have any more villains showing up.”
The clarity cheered Bubbles up. “Alright. One more thing?”
“Yeah?” Blossom hoped it wasn’t another thing Brick told her.
Bubbles looked away, shy to bring up what she wanted to say. “…You can always ask for help, okay? You’ve been spending a lot of time alone in your room lately — not that that’s a problem! Things have been crazy, so I get if you just want more time to yourself. But you’re usually the one always on top of things…I want to make sure you’re okay. And—And don’t lie to me. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to, but please be honest with me.”
Her worries weren’t unwarranted. Blossom had spent a lot of time reading the boys’ records she got back at the asylum. She once again received them from the mayor a few days prior, and she wanted to know exactly what to expect from the boys. In particular, she focused on Brick’s records, reading each individual entry from his supervisor, but hadn’t even completed the first year of entries. Whoever his supervisor was, she was thorough in her reports. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed her long periods of absence.
Blossom reassured Bubbles. “I’ve been really busy. Sending messages, emails, being on and off phone calls for hours on end. And that’s not even mentioning all the adjusting to seeing the boys and not having to fight them on sight, or not having the hotline wake me up in the middle of the night for the monsters. I got so used to fighting them, I hadn’t thought of much else. It’s just been overwhelming, and I fell behind on a few things here and there. But I’ll be okay, I think. I just need a bit longer to get back to normal.”
“As normal as our lives get.” Bubbles giggled from her own joke. “Okay, I’ll leave you to it. Maybe we should shop for clothes before we leave the mall? Then you’ll have something for tomorrow, just in case. Ooh, and we can stop at that pastry shop by the movie theater, too! I heard their cinnamon rolls are to die for!”
Blossom smiled at the offer. “That sounds like fun. I might have to take you up on that.”
“Okay, for real this time, I’ll leave you to it.” Bubbles waved as she went back to her own room.
Turning back to her messy room with a fresh set of clothes in hand, Blossom quickly got ready, fixing her bow and smoothing out the shirt. Soon after, she went to the laundry closet down the hallway and grabbed an extra basket, returning to the cluttered bedroom and picking up everything that couldn’t fit in her other basket. Being able to see the floor gave her enough motivation to clear off the notepad sheets and profiles of the boys, moving them to respective drawers in her filing cabinet. She’d have to dust and vacuum when she got home, so she jotted the tasks down on the blank notepad she left on her desk. Just before she went to leave, she tied her curtains back, and let the sun shine into her room once again.