Bubbles finished combing the city. Wherever the boys were now, they weren’t being obvious about it. Other than the chaos they had already caused, there wasn’t a trace of them to be found. She didn’t spot them flying around anywhere, and no new explosions or cries for help arose. They were laying low.
She hoped they would slip up…give away their location or something. She had no idea how much of that device they had left to finish, but it had to be stopped before any more of it was completed. Where are you? she thought. C’mon…fly across the city, use your powers…do something!
Behind her, she heard something flying and spun around…she relaxed when she saw it was only Butch. Despite the loss of blood and his leg, he was flying just as well as he was before. He called out, “Bubbles!”
“Butch!” she shouted back. “You’re feeling better, great!”
Butch flew up next to her and nodded, “Yeah…kick me down, and I keep comin’ back. Listen, the professor made a new formula to help us fight Brick and Boomer.” He pulled out the two vials he had on him to show her.
Bubbles looked curiously at them and said, “What is it?”
“It’s ‘Sedative X’, as he called it,” Butch answered. “It’s supposed to paralyze them. I hope it works…”
“If the professor made it, it’ll work,” Bubbles said confidently, taking one of the vials. “Does he have more of it?”
Butch nodded, “Yeah, a whole beaker of it. He can probably make more, too.”
“Good…then I want a lot more of it,” Bubbles said. “I wanna make sure I don’t run out during a fight.”
“Sounds good,” Butch said. He put his vial away, as did Bubbles, and then asked, “Why are you looking around the skies?”
“They moved from the observatory,” Bubbles told him. “They know we’re tryin’ to destroy the device…if only we’d been more careful…”
Shaking his head, Butch said, “No…it’s my fault, I should have just smashed the thing while it was unguarded. ‘Stead, I tried to figure out what it did first…”
“What’s done is done,” Bubbles said. “Let’s just get back home and get that Sedative X and…”
She suddenly stopped as she saw something below. Butch was concerned by her reaction and said, “What? What’s wrong?”
“That…building…” she said, pointing to one of the tall skyscrapers in the city far beneath them, whose rooftop they were near. “I fought my sister…Blossom…on the roof there. That was when it all ended the first time. We killed her…and Buttercup…and then dropped their…their components off…the side…”
Butch bit his lip slightly and said, “Why did you do that?”
“Because…we thought there was no way to save them…” Bubbles teared up slightly at the memory. “We…we didn’t want to get in the way of their death anymore. We just…had to let go…but if I’d known we’d find a cure, I would’ve hung onto them…”
Butch put a hand on her shoulder consolingly and said, “Hey, it’s all right…you didn’t know…”
“Maybe…maybe if we look,” she said with an odd air of hopefulness that she didn’t truly feel, “we can still find them…I mean, they were just…their ingredients were just…dropped…maybe they landed in the street, or…”
“C’mon, Bubbles,” Butch said. “We have to get back…” Bubbles realized that Butch was right…there were more important things to worry about right now. Still, as they began to make their way back home, she was still preoccupied by it. Now that there was a way to ‘cure’ them, she wished she had hung onto those components. To give them the chance to live a normal life once again, and forget about everything that had happened in the past…but it wasn’t that easy. She realized that the past wouldn’t matter if they couldn’t save everyone now, and pushed these thoughts out of her head, focusing on the task at hand…
* * *
They knew something was wrong as they approached the house. The door had been ripped from its hinges. Bubbles’ heart leapt into her throat the moment she saw this, and in a small voice, she whispered, “…oh please…no…” She and Butch made their way inside, and just as Bubbles had feared, the door to the lab was similarly broken open.
“Professor?” Bubbles called out, flying quickly for the door. She looked inside, but didn’t see him anywhere. She looked frantically across the lab, shouting, “Professor? Where are you? Professor?!” Butch poked his head into the lab as well, to see what was going on.
Bubbles drifted a few more feet towards a table which held some of his chemicals, and froze, gasping in horror. Though the professor was nowhere near, there was another unmistakable sight on the ground right in front of her…a pool of fresh blood. Her lip trembled as she struggled to make out words, “…o-oh my god…please, not the professor…please…”
Butch didn’t know what to say as he still hovered in the doorway to the lab. At that moment, though, he heard a sound behind him…he turned, looking into the adjacent kitchen, and saw one of the cupboard doors opening slowly. Professor Utonium had wedged himself inside…he looked a little shaken, but otherwise unhurt.
“Bubbles! He’s over here!” Butch called out.
Bubbles blinked away some of the tears that were forming in her eyes and flew over in a flash…upon seeing the professor as he climbed out of the cupboard, her expression when from disbelief to joy. She tackled him with a hug, nearly knocking him back off his feet in the process, crying out, “Professor! You’re alive!”
“I’m fine, sweetie,” he assured her, “but…I admit it was a close call…”
“What happened?” she asked, concerned but still relieved.
His expression became serious as he explained, “The other two Rowdyruff Boys came into my lab, looking for my Phase-Induced Theta Transceiver. When I refused to give it to them, I knew they were going to try to kill me…Brick drew his sword and approached me. For a moment, I thought I was finished…”
“What did you do?” Bubbles exclaimed.
The professor clenched a fist, miming his actions as he spoke, “I was able to get a hold of the beaker containing Sedative X…Brick charged me when he saw what I was doing, but I threw the whole thing at him just before he reached me. And it worked! The moment the liquid splashed across him, he was frozen in place, unable to move a muscle. The sword was loose in his hand and fell out…I caught it, and did the first thing that I could think of: I drove it into his chest...”
Butch cringed, but asked, “What about Boomer?”
“He was momentarily stunned by what happened,” the professor continued. “It gave me an opening to escape, so I ran out from the lab as fast as I could, hiding in the cupboard upstairs. I could still hear the two of them faintly in the distance. Boomer wanted to go looking for me, but I heard Brick say, ‘No…we have…more important things…to worry about…’ After that, everything was quiet…I’m not sure how long they stayed, but when I thought I heard your voices, I decided it was safe to come out.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Bubbles said. “Um…did they take that…whatever it was they were looking for?”
The professor hurried back into the lab, with Bubbles and Butch right behind him, and when his eyes fell on an empty table off to one side, he hung his head and said, “Yes. It’s gone…”
“No!” Butch said. “We’ve got to find them…but we don’t have any idea where they are! They’re not at Mojo’s anymore.”
The professor scratched his chin, “You know, come to think of it, I did hear Brick say something else that I thought seemed odd at the time. Just before his voice faded out entirely, he ordered Boomer to take the device ‘back to the warehouse’…”
Bubbles’ face lit up, “The docks! They have a lot of empty warehouses down there…they must be hiding in one of ‘em! Thanks, Professor! C’mon, Butch, we gotta go there now!”
“Right away!” Butch replied as the two of them headed for the lab door. As he left, he called out, “Make more of that Sedative X, Professor…if we can’t find them, we’ll need it!” They flew out from the lab and out of the house in an instant, on their way to Townsville docks…
* * *
There had to be about a dozen empty warehouses near the docks, but one of them grabbed their attention quicker than the other, as its large warehouse doors had been ripped from the hinges. They hovered in front of the doors and listened…there was no sound at all. It was dark inside…they could see a few wooden crates piled near the entrance, but nothing else.
“Think this is the one?” Butch asked, peering carefully inside, trying to see better.
“Maybe…but it’s too quiet,” Bubbles said, straining to hear. Even with her ultrasonic hearing, she didn’t hear so much as a pin drop. “You’d think they’d be working on the device or something…”
Butch shook his head, “Maybe they’re off looking for another part already. If they are, this is our best chance to smash the thing, right?” Bubbles nodded, and Butch said, “All right, then. I’ll go inside and check…you keep an eye out in case they come back. Got it?”
“Got it,” Bubbles agreed. Butch turned and drifted forward into the darkened warehouse slowly, but after only going in a couple of feet, Bubbles said, “Wait…”
“What?” Butch said, turning back to face her again. Bubbles flew up to him and leaned forward, planting a small kiss on his cheek. Butch blinked in surprise, reddening a little, and said, “What was that for?”
“Just for good luck,” Bubbles said, smiling slightly. “Just come back safely, okay?”
Butch grinned…then gasped, his eyes flying open in shock. His gasp choked in his throat, almost like he was being strangled. Bubbles looked down in horror and screamed…the end of a sword was sticking out through his stomach, covered in blood. She floated back a few feet, her hands covering her mouth in disbelief.
Boomer emerged from behind him in the darkness, having obviously slipped out from behind the crates while they were distracted. He held the sword which had punctured Butch through his back. With another quick motion, he pulled the sword free, and Butch collapsed immediately to the ground, rolling over onto his back and struggling to breathe.
“Butch!!” Bubbles yelled, “NO!!”
“He’ll be dead soon,” Boomer said flatly. “And so will you, along with everyone and everything else in the whole world. Life is coming to an end…the task is almost complete.”
Bubbles turned to flee, but as she did, Brick zoomed out from a hiding place under one of the docks. Obviously revived and well once again, he blocked her off before she could get away. She quickly pulled her sword from her back, and Brick responded by drawing his own. “There is no escape, Bubbles,” Brick informed her. “Your life ends here. There’s no need for you to resist…drop your sword, and give in to the calm of Death…”
Butch lifted his head up slightly from the ground and wheezed in protest, “…no…Bubbles, don’t…let them…”
Boomer interrupted him with a quick slash from his sword, slicing into his abdomen and ripping it open…Butch wailed loudly, an agonizing cry that seemed to cut right through Bubbles’ heart when she heard it. “Stop it!!” she howled, in tears.
“Listen to it, Bubbles,” Brick told her. “That’s suffering you hear. That’s pain. That’s what life brings…without it, there is no pain, there is no suffering. Only peace. The comforting nothingness of Death…”
Bubbles couldn’t take her eyes off of Butch as his cries grew softer, and finally, with a last kick of his remaining leg, his head rolled to the side, lying still. His gaze seemed to be fixed on her, a dead stare…somewhere, part of Bubbles thought, He’s at peace…they’re right, he’s free from life…it can torment him no longe—…
“No!” she shouted, shaking her head to clear it. “No, life is good! And you’re the evil ones! If you’re so sure that Death is the answer, then…” She dashed forward, towards Boomer, with her sword at the ready, “…die!”
Boomer raised his sword and easily blocked Bubbles’ swing, pushing her sword to the side. She was staggered by the move, but threw herself to the ground immediately to avoid Boomer’s own swing, which passed by closely over her head. She only had a moment to notice that Brick was approaching as well, and rolled to the side…Brick’s sword missed, striking the ground instead.
Bubbles kicked off from the ground and shot into the air. Brick was about to follow, when Butch’s body suddenly began to glow, as it broke down into its base elements. He was momentarily distracted by it out of the corner of his eye, and Bubbles responded by firing a quick blast of her eyebeams. They struck Brick, knocking him to the ground and causing him to slide into the dark warehouse.
Looking down at the spot where Butch used to be, Bubbles thought, I can still bring his components back to the professor…Butch is still okay, I just gotta win this fight, and…
Boomer followed her gaze and must have figured out what she was thinking, because he said, “Not this time.” Before she could respond, his eyebeams powered up quickly and blasted down at the components…Bubbles watched in alarm as the components were vaporized, right before her eyes. Now it was final, the horrifying truth dawning on her: Butch was gone, this time for good…
Bubbles couldn’t take it anymore…she shrieked at the top of her lungs. The powerful sonic waves caused the entire dock to tremble, and Boomer was knocked down by the intensity of it. In anger, Bubbles soared down from the air towards him, pulling out her vial of Sedative X with her free hand. Boomer spotted her approach and raised his sword defensively. Crying out loudly, Bubbles swung her sword…Boomer knocked it aside as he had done before, but Bubbles was prepared for it, splashing some of the Sedative X over him the instant he did.
Boomer’s teeth clenched, as his entire body locked up, unable to move. Her voice filled with rage, she shouted, “This is for Butch!” and took another swing at him, now that he was completely unprotected. With one powerful blow, she slashed him in two across his chest. He fell into two separate pools of blood…some of the blood had splattered onto Bubbles, but she didn’t care. All she cared was that they paid for what they did to Butch.
She started to tuck away the vial holding the rest of the Sedative X when an eyebeam blast shot from out of the darkness of the warehouse. The blasts hit the vial, causing it to shatter, coating her hand in the chemical. She yelped in surprise, her sword dropping from her other hand, but that was as much movement as she had time to take. A cold, electrical feeling swept up from the hand, covering her entire body and locking her into place, like a statue, still hovering where she was.
Brick emerged from the warehouse, flowing slowly over to her. Bubbles tried desperately to move, but it did no good…the chemical did its work all too well. Brick paused just for a moment to stare down at the two halves of Boomer, which had begun to glow until they finally broke back down into the components. He then approached Bubbles again.
Oh no oh no oh god please no don’t kill me, she thought, watching helplessly as he stopped in front of her. He leaned down and picked up her sword, lifting it and the one he already had up into a ready position. “I’ll have you know,” he said, still unsmiling, “that the device is very nearly complete. We only need to charge the power cells from the city power, and it will all be over.”
He leaned forward, coming face to face with Bubbles, and said, “That shouldn’t matter to you, though…because you won’t be alive to see it used anyway.” Bubbles tried continuously to move, but she couldn’t budge, not even so much as bat an eyelid. When will it wear off? she thought. When?! Please wear off, please please please please…
Brick slowly pulled both of his swords back, and Bubbles panicked…It’s not wearing off! Oh god…I’m dead…nothing I can do…I’m gonna die…She wanted to close her eyes so that she wouldn’t have to see it, but they would not close. She’d knew have to watch the whole thing…every terrifying moment of it. She knew it was over as soon as she saw his swords start to swing towards her…
But in that moment, luck seemed to smile on her one more time. Sedative X ran its course, and almost quicker than it had taken effect, the paralysis was gone. Every muscle had been straining to move, so when it wore off, she flew back immediately. The swords missed her by a mere few inches. Realizing that she not only was still alive, but was free as well, Bubbles took off without a second thought.
Brick was surprised when she flew off and frowned, but he didn’t care. Even if she had gone off to make more preparations to combat him, he knew she wouldn’t be back for a while, and a little time was all he needed. He carefully scooped Boomer’s components up from the ground and rushed back into the warehouse to revive him, so that they could carry out the final steps of the plan together…
* * *
Bubbles didn’t stop flying until she was well within the city. Everything had happened too fast…Butch, the only support she had through all of this, was dead. She had no weapons left to fight them with…the professor’s weapon was destroyed, her swords were all in the Rowdyruff’s hands, there was no Sedative X left…all they had was a few doses of Antidote X back at the lab, and that wouldn’t be good enough.
I need help, not just another weapon, she thought. She paused to catch her breath, and tears started flowing from her eyes. Butch, you tried your best…why did you have to die? I can’t do this alone…I just can’t…
She glanced up and realized where she was: at the base of the building again. The building, the one where her final fight with Blossom took place. Feverishly, she thought, This is the direction the wind blows…maybe, maybe I can find them…yes, they’ve got to be somewhere, they can’t just disappear…
She forgot all about the boys for a moment and started searching the area in desperation. Part of her knew she wouldn’t find anything, but another part of her insisted that she had to try. It was a week later, and logic told her that even if their ingredients had landed on the ground, they would have blown away long ago, but she didn’t care…she searched just the same.
In a flurry, she dashed down street after street, alley after ally, all downwind of the tower. Inevitably, it began to dawn on her that it was foolish to keep looking. She paused at the entrance of yet another alley and thought, Maybe this is it, this could be the one…just one more alley…
Her mind forced reason upon her, though. They’re GONE! Nothing you can do will ever bring them back…they’re gone for good! It’s a waste of time to keep looking; you’ve got to find a way to stop the Rowdyruff Boys before they kill us all! She lowered her eyes, sniffing sadly and trying to see clearly through her tears. Even after all this time, she still couldn’t just give them up. And now that she needed them more than ever, she had to accept their loss again…
She raised her head and was just about to fly away, when she saw something in front of her. For a second, she thought it was something in the alley, amongst the trash in the corner. She wiped the tears from her eyes to see more clearly, and realized it wasn’t a mirage, yet she could barely believe her eyes, even as she flew closer to confirm the impossible.
Various debris and junk had collected in that corner, but that wasn’t all. She recognized the shapes that had collected there…the objects that constituted what the professor referred to as ‘everything nice’. Each separate object was unique, and even recognizable…Bubbles knew in an instant that they belonged to Buttercup.
She kneeled down next to it and sifted through the corner. It was unbelievable. Somehow, the wind had blown the components here, where they were trapped against this corner. With a sudden burst of happiness, she laughed, scooping up everything she could into her arms.
There was no doubt about it; they were Buttercup’s ingredients all right, the same ones she had kissed and released herself. Some of it was missing—some of the spice, and almost all the sugar—but it was all right. So she won’t come out as sweet or as tough, she figured. As long as she’s back to life, it doesn’t matter…she can still help me! I won’t be alone again… Cradling the components in her arms carefully, she headed straight for home…
* * *
The professor wasn’t in his lab when she got there. She was afraid for a moment until she spotted a note on the table, which read, ‘Went into town, getting last part of a weapon to use against the Rowdyruffs. I’ll be back ASAP. Love, Prof.’ She smiled to herself…the professor always had a backup plan of some sort. Anyway, she didn’t need him here; she already knew how to revive Buttercup by herself, and headed over to the table which held the professor’s mixing bowl.
She quickly loaded the components
into the bowl. This'll work, it's got to
work! she thought. She looked
across the table and picked up two vials.
One was filled with Chemical X, the other with Antidote X. She knew they were both of the final
ingredients to make this work.
Taking a deep breath, she dropped a few drops of
Chemical X into the bowl and replaced the vial on the shelf. She quickly hovered back to a safe distance,
clutching the vial of Antidote X. As soon as I see her, she thought, I need to splash this on her…turn her back
to normal. Then, I'll have her
back! Buttercup will be back…
A moment later, the mixture exploded, just as
always. Bubbles was used to seeing it
by now, so it no longer surprised her.
However, nothing could prepare her for what she saw after that. The vial of Antidote X dropped from her
hands, crashing to the ground, as she felt herself let out a horrified scream.
Buttercup was hovering there…part of
her, anyway. As her ingredients were
incomplete, so was she. Half of her was
missing…but it wasn't just a simple half, like only the neck up, or the left or
right side. Most of her skin was gone,
safe for a few patches here and there.
Her left leg was completely missing, and part of her arm was gone as
well. There were also holes in the
muscle underneath, revealing several exposed organs. Her heart was only half there, and one of her lungs had huge gaps
in it. Part of her brain was visible
through the side of her skull, and one of her eyes was missing, leaving only an
empty socket.
Blood poured out from all the open
"wounds," spilling to the floor.
With a strange groaning screech, Buttercup fell from the air where she
had been hovering, landing on the floor of the lab with a wet *splotch* sound. Bubbles flew back instinctively, stopping
with her back against the wall…she shrieked, "Oh god!!"
Struggling to lift her head from the
pool of blood that was collecting around her, Buttercup managed to stare up at
Bubbles with her good eye. She strained
to pull in a breath with her one functioning lung, and with a pleading look in
her face, she wheezed softly, "…kill…me…"
She knew she had to do it…gathering
what was left of her resolve, she focused, and fired her eyebeams at the
horrible…thing that was once
Buttercup. The beams sliced through
her, creating a brief shower of blood as she exploded outwards from the force
of it. Within seconds, the pieces of
her that were now strewn across the lab each begin to each glow, and in several
small flashes of light, they vanished, replaced by tiny piles of the
components. All that remained now was
the blood, covering the ground and some of the equipment in the lab.
Bubbles sank down the wall, landing
on the ground, and curled her legs up against her, clutching them to her chest
and shaking uncontrollably. She
remembered what the professor had said to her…it seemed so long ago, yet she
knew it wasn't…
‘It was wrong of me to bring
them back to life. I know that now. All it's done is bring about anguish and
sorrow.’
‘Sometimes, Bubbles, it's better just to let go. Let them return to their
eternal rest. We have no right to deny them that.’
Bubbles clenched her eyes shut, as
tears escaped from them. The professor
was right…but she didn't listen, and because of it, Buttercup had to
suffer. She knew it was all her fault
that she had to go through all that, yanked from her rest just for more
torment. It all began to finally dawn
on her…
You
see? came a small voice inside of her…You
brought about more suffering, because you wanted life to continue…
Life is suffering…
Suffering must end…
You must put an end to it…
This was finally more than Bubbles could take. She flew out of the lab, screaming in a frenzy. Against what she knew were impossible odds, she made a beeline straight for the docks. One way or another, it would end. She wouldn’t back down this time, even if they overpowered her. Weapon or no weapon, she thought, I’ve gotta take them down. I gotta do it now…I can’t be afraid…I’ve gotta stop them, even if it kills me…
TO BE
CONTINUED…