The Girls Are All Grown Up

Ch. 46

The answer was no, they could not win just one more time.

Buttercup struck down one more monster with a kick to the head strong enough to throw them through the wall on the opposite side of the building. 

Two more came running at her only to get thrown back by her lasers. As she did so, one shadowy figure sprung up and nicked her side with it's blade arms.

She gasped and jumped back to get distance between them.

''Buttercup!" Butch turned his focus to her.

It was the opening one of the monsters needed to rip into his already re-opened wound. This time, she could see the blade sticking all the way out of Butch.

A terrible sound filled the air, and it took a second for her to realize it was her. She was screaming as Butch grunted and hit his knees on the ground, blood splashing against the ground as the monster tore the blade out.

It was as if the world had tipped, and all she could feel was her rage at the monsters that were trying to take the last thing she had left away.

They'd torn Buttercup and her sisters to pieces, but they couldn't have Butch. Not him.

She wasn't thinking, she wasn't feeling anything except her rage and fear for Butch as she raced towards the shadows.

They were laughing.

They were fucking laughing.

That was all she needed to want to rip them to shreds worse than they'd done to her.

All of them crouched down as if waiting for her but her lasers tore into them before she could even reach them with her fists.

She'd joked with her sisters and father about Bubbles' hardcore mood when she was pissed off enough. This was so much further past that.

She couldn't stop screaming as she slammed her fists through their stomachs, clawed at anything she could reach, and lasered their faces with a bloodthirst no one could match.

She could see Butch on his knees behind her if she turned her head just a little, see him holding a hand to the ground as if to keep himself steady and the other clutching the front opening of the stab wound.

They weren't going to make it. But she could make the monsters pay for it, she could make sure they died with them.

Her sisters would be safe after this then.

I wish I could tell Blossom I forgive her and understand now, the thought had Buttercup gasping against tears.

She wouldn't get to see Bubbles smile like she used to ever again.

She wouldn't get to see Blossom wear a red bow in her hair again.

And she wouldn't get to tell Butch how she'd dreamed of coming back to him for years. Of them having a future together.

As she charged forwards as fast as she could, lasers and fists blazing, the monsters went to meet her head on, with blades out and teeth like a shark's bared.

Instead of hitting the enemy, Buttercup found herself getting launched backwards with a loud cry. Only she didn't land harshly on the ground, two pairs of arms had her.

Buttercup blinked up at her sisters that held her safely in the air and away from the monsters she'd been rushing towards.

''Geez, Buttercup you didn't have to take on all the bad guys by yourself y'know,'' Bubbles tried to make light of it, but her voice caught.

She stared at them, unable to speak.

Blossom avoided her eyes and said quietly, ''Sorry we're so late.''

I won't cry, I won't cry, Buttercup told herself. Damn it...I'm crying.

''Better late than never,'' she croaked, throwing her arms over both of them to hug them as tight as she could.

Bubbles choked out a laugh, ''You got that right, hot-head.''

''Brick and Boomer have Butch, they grabbed him when we grabbed you,'' Blossom said, twisting to look over at the said Ruffs who were having their own emotional hug-fest with their injured brother.

''If we get Butch out now, he might make it,'' Bubbles said, ''But we have to go now.''

Buttercup couldn't take her eyes off of the three Ruffs, with Butch in the middle grimacing from pain. His whole front was soaked with blood, and she knew his back was too without seeing it.

''The Professor, he can--'' she couldn't finish her sentence, the words stopped coming as she watched Butch struggle with an anguished face.

''We found him, we know, Buttercup. Let's just get you guys out of here first.'' Blossom said, taking the reigns like she used to in the old days.

Buttercup looked at her sister, the ex-leader of the PowerPuff Girls, and all she could think to say at that moment was, ''Don't let him die.''

She wanted to say thank you, she wanted to say she was sorry for all the blame she'd thrown at Blossom, she wanted to say more.

But while she couldn't say what she wanted to, she knew without a doubt Blossom would get them out and to safety for Butch to get the medical attention he desperately needed. Blossom was taking charge and was there.

Just knowing that, that was all her mind needed apparently because the next thing she knew, her eyes were closing in her sisters' arms and she didn't have the strength to open them again.