FAMILY FIRST

Dear Profess Dad,

I'm really sorry to have disappointed you again, I really didn't mean to hurt her. However, I don't blame you for being upset with me, it's not like I've been the best daughter in the world. I've realized that with all the villains gone from Townsville, there's really no need for me anymore, and my leaving will only give you one less kid to send to college. Don't come look for me, this is better for the family. I love you Dad. I'll miss you.

-love Buttercup

Dear Blossom,

You're probably relieved that you won't have to strain your voice yelling at me anymore. I left home and I don't plan on coming back. If you're upset at all, it's probably because you don't have anyone to put down to show how perfect you are. Well even if you don't like me, I love you bloss, even if we didn't get along, you're still my sister. I'll miss you.

-love Buttercup

Dear Bubbles

I'm so so sorry for hurting you, you gotta believe I didn't mean it. I know you don't want to hear from me and I wouldn't either, so I'm leaving, you won't have to worry about getting hurt anymore. I've always felt protective of you Bubbles, and if I can't do my job, there really is no point in staying and putting you guys in danger. I love you Bubbles. I'll miss you.

-love Buttercup

Well this might seem a little extreme so this might clear things up:

•••••••••••••••••FLASHBACK•••••••••••••••••••

"Buttercup, this is the third time I've had to tell you to stop throwing that football in the house!" I had one of my friends, Mitch, over and since it was raining outside, we were playing football inside. I acted like I didn't hear the professor and threw the ball back to Mitch and we continued like this until it turned into a more competitive tackle game. Mitch took the ball from me and I got really mad, so I shot my laser eyes at him and threw a baseball in the same direction (he could handle it) , but he ducked and I was horrified to see Bubbles standing right behind him. I tried to shout a warning, but I couldn't get anything out before she was hit in the back of the head with both attacks, effectively knocking her out.

Mitch, being the awful friend he was, left before he could get in trouble with my family. From the noise my attacks made, the Professor and Blossom came to find out what happened and saw Bubbles on the ground, a baseball near her, she was steaming with some of her hair scorched, and I was the only other one in the room. Obviously, they figured that I was the cause of this and since nobody was here, they figured it was on purpose, first, it was the Professor who yelled at me.

"Buttercup! I'm so disappointed right now! What could sweet little Bubbles have done to you to make you do this to her?" I tried to explain myself. "I didn't mean to! You gotta believe me! I aimed that attack at Mitch but he ducked and she was right behind him!"

Then Blossom swooped in on her bedazzled high horse and said, "That's would be a great story Buttercup, if Mitch was actually here!"

The professor saw her point and then started to yell at me for lying. "Buttercup! I'm getting tired of your problematic behavior! You know that lying is a big no no in this household! If you're going to live here, you are going to need to start following the rules of this house! Why can't you be more like your sisters?" I was shocked that he would just come straight out and call me problematic without even considering the fact that he could've left, but I was also kind of hurt that he would compare me to my sisters like that. I wasn't about to show it though! I look over to Blossom and see the smug look on her face, she just loved it when she was talked above me. She loved getting the attention of being the good daughter.

"Go to your room, you won't have dinner tonight, you better hope Bubbles is ok!" The professor spoke harshly towards me, he did that a lot more often lately. We were only 11 and the professor was already tired of my attitude. When I got to my room I looked in the mirror. I saw a young girl with bright, lime green eyes, tan skin, light freckles, jet black hair that went to right above the middle of my back, and bangs that almost covered my eyes. Thinking back to what the professor said to me, I compared my unique features to Blossom's perfect, non-freckled skin. Nothing was wrong with my freckles, but they were wrong because Blossom didn't have them. I compared my long bangs to Blossom's shorter, neater bangs, her kind pink eyes to my angry green ones. I was a different person, I was supposed to be different from her! Why did the professor want me to be like her? I never would be and I knew that, so I would forever be a disappointment to him.

That was when I made my decision to run away. Bubbles would be safer, the Professor wouldn't have to deal with me, and Blossom wouldn't have to strain her perfect voice yelling at me. Since we got separate rooms, it would be easier to run away. I started to pack my favorite clothes (we finally got our own styles) and the money I saved up, which was only $70. I emptied my school backpack and put in everything I wanted to bring with me in it. I sat it beside my bed and wrote out the letters to my family.

•••••••••••••••END FLASHBACK•••••••••••••••

Well that's what brings us here. Everyone in the house is asleep and I was ready to leave. I left all three notes on my bed and grabbed my backpack and quietly flew out of my room window, not really knowing where I was going.

Nobody's POV

It was around 6:30 when the professor woke up and walked downstairs for breakfast. He grabbed a plate and put bread in the toaster. What a beautiful morning. He thought to himself. It was a warm sunny day, a bright rainbow arching over Townsville from all the rain they got yesterday. When the toast popped up, he put both pieces on a plate and sat down to eat while reading the newspaper. The next one down was Blossom, and Bubbles, who turned out to be perfectly fine, with only a headache followed soon after. It was only Buttercup who didn't come down yet.

"Why isn't she down here yet? She is usually always on time for breakfast!" Blossom shouted.

"She might still be upset from last night. Maybe we were too hard on her last night, I mean, Bubbles wasn't really hurt and some of the things we said were uncalled for." The professor regretted the way he yelled at Buttercup the night before.

Blossom looked a little guilty, I can be really mean to her sometimes, and I get praised for it. "I'll go check on her, dad." "Thank you Blossom." He smiled and went back to reading his paper happily until he heard a scream come from upstairs. His heart dropped as he assumed the worst and rushed upstairs with Bubbles behind him and ran through Buttercup's now open door.

"Is she ok?" When she didn't answer, the professor looked over at Blossom to see her crying with a piece of paper in her hands.

"Blossom? What is that? Please, God Blossom, please tell me that's not a suicide note." He felt his face drain of color at the thought of Buttercup killing herself.

"No, but she's gone. You and Bubbles have letters too." She pointed to her bed. Bubbles and the professor picked up their letters and started to cry.

"WE NEED TO FIND HER!" Bubbles sobbed. "I KNOW SHE DIDN'T MEAN TO!" Both the professor and Blossom agreed. They sent out a lookout for Buttercup, she would be home in no time. Everyone everywhere knew who she was.

Buttercup POV

I never really got too far, I got tired by the time I got to the other side of Townsville since I never went to sleep. I went to sleep in a hotel, this way I could get breakfast in the morning too! The next morning I got my breakfast and left to go farther. Since it was daytime, I decided to walk just in case they are out looking for me. Unlikely, but I don't wanna take chances. I had on a black hat, dark blue denim shorts, a black tank top and my favorite green converse. I didn't really try that hard to blend in because I secretly hoped they would try to find me. I never really wanted to leave the family, I just felt like I wasn't wanted there. I walked towards the outskirts of Townsville slowly, hoping Bubbles, the professor, or even Blossom would try to stop me. I knew that outside of this city, it would be hard to track me down, and I knew they all already woke up. I even sat at a bench for a few hours, and was disappointed when nobody came. I guess leaving really was the right thing… I got up from my spot on the bench and sadly began to walk out of Townsville.

Who needs a family anyways! Once I left Townsville, I realized I had no idea where I was going, but I continued to walk anyways. I eventually ended up in citiesville by nightfall, which really wasn't a good place to be at that time of day. I was alert, but I walked until I found an abandoned hotel, it would have to do.

Two days later

I guess my letters weren't enough to signify that I was officially missing, because I only just started seeing reports to stay on the lookout for me. That meant that the police are a bunch of dumbasses, or my family just found the letters. I prayed it was the first. I was watching the news channel the whole day, luckily finding some food in the hotel since I was broke. It must not have been abandoned that long ago. The TV still worked as well, so I wasn't complaining.

The story on the news flashed to in front of my house. I almost choked on my food when I saw Bubbles crying on the doorstep of the house. I made a huge mistake! Blossom even looked sad which surprised me, but what surprised me the most was that the professor was crying begging me to come back, that he wanted to apologize. I knew I couldn't stay here. I left because I thought they'd be happier without me, but if I was wrong, there's no point in staying in this hell hole. I left the abandoned hotel and when I got to the lobby, I saw all the villains there, they were plotting something, so I hid myself and tuned in with my super hearing. I texted Bubbles as I listened.

Me: Bubbles, I'm in an abandoned hotel in citiesville, but all the villains are right in the lobby, I can't get out without them noticing!

Bubbles: Buttercup! I missed you sooo much! I was never mad at you! What are they saying?

I listened in to their conversation

"They won't be expecting it today. We've been dormant for so long that they've been out of practice and with so many of us together, there's no way they can stop us from taking over!" Said HIM. It was obvious he was the leader, and it was obvious he was talking about us. I couldn't just let this happen, if they reached Townsville, we'd be in trouble. The law enforcement in citiesville was much more of a help than that of Townsville.

Me: Bubbles I'm giving you my location. I'm in an abandoned hotel. All the villains are plotting an attack today. Call the citiesville law enforcement for backup, I'll hold them here for now, hurry!

I waited for the perfect time to show myself. I saw them about to leave, so I shot an eye beam at Princess, that should cause a distraction. "AHHHHHH something HIT me!" Perfect she didn't even know it was me.

The villains began looking around and I stayed on alert to take out anyone who got too close. Ace was the first to get close to me, so I grabbed his mouth so he couldn't make any noise and knocked him out with a blow to the head. This method continued on for about 7 more villains. The rest of the gang, princess, fuzzy lumpkins, and seduca. I don't know how they haven't realized that half their force was missing, but at the moment it worked in my favor. The next villain however, I was not so lucky to run into, HIM. He scratched me with his lobster claw and threw me in the middle of the lobby. All of the remaining villains stared at me. Mojo, Brick, Butch, Boomer, Bossman, Slim, Junior, and HIM was right behind me.

"Damn it." I whispered to myself, I really dug my grave this time. I waited for them to make the first move, keeping my attention on the bigger threats at the moment, the rowdyruff boys and HIM. Mojo wasn't a threat without his robots, and the amoeba boys were self explanatory. I continued the stare down for as long as I could, stalling for time, when I felt a vibration in my pocket, I could only hope that it was Bubbles telling me she was on the way. The first to charge was Butch. I thought so much like him, it had gotten much easy to fight him. He was so predictable now. I saw the punch he was going to throw before he even threw it, his fist came down with great force, but I sidestepped it, his momentum throwing him off balance. I grabbed him and used my signature tornado and flung him with all my strength right at Mojo, effectively taking Mojo out, but Butch was still ready to fight, I wouldn't expect any less from my counterpart.

The villains seemed to have gotten smarter though since they finally thought to join in the fight. At this moment, I was fighting the Rowdyruff Boys, HIM, and the Amoeba Boys, which wasn't going in my favor at the moment. For every punch I threw, I got three back and a slash from HIM. It was easy to dispose of the Amoeba Boys, but I was struggling with the last four villains. At this point, I was very cut up and bruised to the point that someone might think I was dead if they saw me, but I wasn't about to just give up. They all crowded around me and I couldn't help but smirk. Bad choice. When they got close enough, I whipped up my signature green tornado sucking all of them in, catching them by surprise. I kept it up until I could see them beginning to get disoriented. When I finally stopped, they flew in different directions, crashing into different parts of the room. I took care of HIM first.

I shot over to him before he could recover and sent a knockout punch to his head, taking a few teeth with it. I turned around to receive a solid punch to the jaw and I could feel it break. That hurt like a bitch! I refused to scream and give whoever did that the satisfaction, but I already knew it was Butch.

I shot my eye lasers at his hair, burning out a good amount in the middle. That distracted him long enough for me to get three hard punches to his face, breaking his jaw, his nose, and giving him a painful black eye. To make sure he stayed down, I gave him a strong kick to every guy's weak spot. Before I could turn my attention to the remaining two ruffs, I received a painful kick to the back, sending me across the room, where I landed in front of Boomer, who gave me a VERY painful kick to the stomach. I didn't scream, but I coughed up a good amount of blood and spit it at him. Bad idea! I was in no position to anger anybody right now since I couldn't even find my breath to stand up.

Before I could fully regret my decision, I felt a sharp pain in my nose and felt a lot of blood rush down my face, there was no way it wasn't broken. I hid my face behind my arms and covered my stomach with my legs to minimize the damage I would take from this beating that was sure to come. And let me be the first to say, Boomer did not disappoint. Many people see him as the weak ruff, but he has one hell of a kick to him. I felt something break with every kick he sent to me.

Bubbles, Blossom, where are you guys? My situation only grew more hopeless as Brick joined in with Boomer. At this rate, I wasn't going to last much longer. I used my sonic scream, hoping to get anyone's attention, and on a huge lucky break, my sisters made an entrance, taking the ruffs' attention off me long enough for me to take a shot at their weak spots. I eye lasered at Boomer's weak spot, making him drop in a second, but before I could make a move on Brick, he kicked me in the head and I flew across the room. I didn't allow myself to black out though. I looked up to my sisters and they gasped in horror. I suddenly remembered all of my injuries and realized how terrifying I must look.

The right side of my face slightly deformed from my broken jaw, cuts and slashes all over my face and body, my nose deformed and bleeding, and my lip busted and covered in blood. They charged Brick, the only villain remaining. He was caught off guard by their ferocity. I watched their fight, slowly starting to lose consciousness, when I felt a large hand grab my shoulder.

My first instinct was to turn to punch, but I could feel that my arm was broken, so I just looked at who was about to finish me off, but was shocked to see the professor. "...dad?" My voice was barely a whisper. He looked panicked. "Buttercup, honey you gotta keep your eyes open ok? Can you do that for me?"

"I-i think I can…" my vision started to go black, but I forced myself to stay awake. He pulled out his phone and called someone, speaking quietly, but urgently as well. It was hard to hear what he was saying, but i focused on staying awake, for the professor. Everything around me got quieter, but I kept my eyes open, it was getting harder and harder to keep my promise to the Professor. I felt someone shake me back into consciousness "-ercup…. Buttercup! You gotta stay up honey, it's really important that you do that!" The professor called, he was on the verge of tears, but I didn't know why.

I looked at him to see Ace standing up, getting ready to attack the Professor, my dad. I pushed him out of the way and received a kick to the eye, my head hitting the ground, which hurt more than the kick itself. Everything was spinning and I couldn't hear anything, but I used all my strength to keep my eyes open, I didn't want to disappoint my dad again. I looked up to see my dad beating the shit outta Ace! It was really cool! Soon, Blossom and Bubbles joined the fight, easily defeating Ace.

I looked towards the door and saw a lot of people swarming into the building, but I couldn't tell who they were through my blurred vision. I felt myself get sat up and was staring at who I guessed was Blossom. She was frantically yelling something, but I couldn't hear her. She seemed to look more panicked by the second. I could barely feel her shake me, and then Bubbles and Dad came into my line of vision. They took over Blossom's position as she ran off to take care of something that seemed important. Dad shook me every once in awhile when I started to lose focus.

Everything started to blur into a colorful blob, when I felt myself be lifted onto a soft bed. I could barely feel myself get hooked up to a bunch of machines. All of the colors around me started to go white, but I couldn't close my eyes. When I could finally see again, I saw a familiar looking girl. A girl around my age with a purple shirt on with black shorts, purple eyes, and light brown hair in a high ponytail. "Buttercup! Good to see you again, but not really. I'm not going to let you stay for that long."

"...braces?" She giggled a little, she always found that name funny.

"Yeah that's me!"

"It's good to see you again, but how am I seeing you?"

"Oh that. You died!"

"HOW? WHEN?"

"You lost too much blood and they couldn't get any from Bubbles and Blossom on time, but I'm sending you back, it's not your time yet."

"Wow this is so weird…"

"yeah it is pretty weird, but I have to send you back now, bye Buttercup! I'll miss you!"

"I'll miss you too Braces…" My vision went black and I saw my surroundings come back. I saw all the colors blurred together, but everything slowly came into focus. First Dad, then Bubbles, then Blossom. I tried to talk, but my mouth wouldn't open. I started to panic and tried to sit up, which I also couldn't do. They seemed to realize my panic and Blossom explained the situation to me.

"Buttercup, your jaw was broken so they had to wire it, you can't open your mouth, and right now, your back is broken and so is both of your arms, so you won't be able to sit up. I felt relief that there was a reason behind my inability to do anything. "We thought we lost you sweetheart, we were so scared." The professor said. "We're glad you're ok Buttercup, and-and we're sorry, we didn't mean to make you feel like you didn't belong with us. You will always belong in our family."

I was surprised to hear this from Blossom, I thought she would be the most relieved to have me gone.

"We don't know what we would've done if we didn't find you." Bubbles managed to speak through her tears. Maybe I was wrong to run away. It was about two agonizing weeks that I had to stay here, but it was worth it when I finally was able to get back home, and aside from being very sore, and a few new scars on my face, I was as good as new. My family started to treat me better and Townsville hosted a huge party in my honor for saving the city from the terror that would've come if I hadn't intercepted the villains conference. All of the villains were placed in solitary confinement in power proof cells.

My sisters and I went back to living our lives as normal little girls, and I never felt out of place ever again. Running away helped me realize that my family would always be there for me no matter what.

THE END

AN: I kinda have writers block on my other story, A Crossed Line, but I felt like I needed to write, so I just wrote a short story. Hope you enjoyed it! Please review to tell me what I can work on, what you did or didn't like about the story. Thanks for reading!