Preparing for the Future
Princess Morbucks was one of the richest people in the world. No, that's not hyperbole. Standing in a mansion that was as gaudy and audacious as it was impressive, she was the daughter of one of the absolute richest oil tycoons; Mr. Morbucks, someone with the power and connections to have a suit of power armor that could make one capable of fighting on equal level with a Powerpuff Girl. And since the displacement of power, he'd also gained ownership of the city of Townsville, having been elected mayor.
Where one may expect a man in his position to have been dethroned and left destitute by the recent overhaul in energy and fuel source provided by the Queen of Endsville, Mandy, Mr. Morbucks had kept up with the times that only a man with an innate sense of finances could have managed. He'd helped shift the transfer of power in the favor of the girl who claimed to hold ownership of the Grim Reaper - it had left him in a very comfy position as a financial assistant for the ruler of the Underworld to gain a monopoly on the market only she could provide, and to where Morbucks could benefit.
Princess was, thereby, furious.
"Daddy!" The ginger girl screamed with a pitch that had the glass panels of her fathers study shaking - he winced in turn, gray and well trimmed mustache twitching slightly at the sound of his daughter. He held in a sigh, instead swiveling in his chair to face his red faced daughter, the man holding a glass of water in one hand, comfy in his plush chair and dressed in a luscious robe.
"Yes, Princess?"
Princess was shaking - quite literally shaking. Her body quaked with livid fury, fists clenched and her eyes almost bloodshot; her hair was a mess, and this early in the morning, her father could assess quite easily that his daughter had just woken up.
A newspaper was thrown directly in the face, with all the strength that the thin arms of the teenager could send at him. Letting it drop, the man glanced down, raising his eyebrows at the headline.
'THIS JUST IN! Mayor of Townsville and known holder to the Morbucks Fortune has aligned with the Queen of the Underworld? The richest man on EARTH bows down to a teenage girl!'
He turned back to his daughter, leaning back in his chair and this time allowing himself to let out a very tired breath.
"I see you've heard the news," he noted idly, chewing at the inside of his cheek, readying himself for the headache of the day to come.
"Y-you're not even going to deny it?" His Princess squawked, stomping down a foot. "It says there that you're just… giving away MY money to this weird wannabe Queen of Endsville!"
Princess' father gave his daughter a very long look, face scrunching up, the normally uncaring and uneasily bothered heavyset member of high society for once looking properly annoyed. It had his daughter taking a single step back, as her father carefully placed his hands along the arms of his chair, rising slowly to a full height of six feet.
"Sweetie," he began carefully, sternly. "This is
my money. My fortune. And there is no doubt in my mind that we would be homeless and on the streets soon enough if I didn't throw my eggs into the basket being held by that little girl playing Queen. She has the means to destroy everything I have created, and what could I do? I have my hands in many different pockets - but do you know what makes up the main source of our finances, Princess?" His daughter was silent, looking utterly blank, having never once taken a look into the family business.
"Oil." He said simply. "We have oil. A fuel source that has recently been invalidated, and will soon be going out of style - I'm not going to be the next Blockbuster," he paused at the blank look that word gets from his daughter, before sighing. "I won't be the next Yahoo?" Another blank. "MySpace…?" He tries.
"Daddy, you're just making up words now."
"... right. Honey, my little Princess," he says, putting a hand on his pride and joy's shoulder. "The base foundation beneath our money, has crumbled. And we need a new one - I'm riding the wave while I still can, before it carries us under."
His daughter seemed to understand that much, grumbling slightly despite the logic.
"But that means we're," she swallowed, looking as if she was choking on dog food, "working for someone else. Daddy, I can't be the help to someone else!"
Her father shook his head, finally having sparked some amusement from the man now that his daughter was grasping the severity of their predicament.
"It won't be forever," he offered his daughter, "Morbucks always come out on top - we're going to wait though, bide our time and make sure things are stable before anything else. Then, I'll see what I can do."
Princess eventually nodded, seeming to deliberate on something.
"Okay, but I want a new horse. The last eight haven't listened to anything I say!"
Her father rolled his eyes with a smile.
"Of course Princess."
—-------------
Out on the Coast of Townsville
A flash of red light erupted through the skull of a giant sea monster, a green cyclops with gills that stood over forty feet tall. It screamed, blood flying forth from it's eye as the floating form of a teenage boy looked down distastefully at the creature.
"You're going through my territory," Brick informed the monster derisively. It roared back with flames spewing from its mouth. Without needing to apply much effort at all, the superhuman simply avoided the blast.
"I'm actually trying to find things I like doing," Brick noted to the creature, dodging a few swipes idly, Brick continued speaking, "and I'll tell you that photography has been absolutely shit. Crochet was fun for a while, but it's super girly. Football isn't fun if people erupt into blood and guts when you tap them. I'm ready to see if monster hunting is my type of thing now - I'd recommend you not be my test."
That actually seemed to spook the 'mindless' being, hesitating before meeting the teenager with another roar.
Eyebeams erupted across the skull of the being, ending its life in an instant as it pierced through its brain, the enormous beast stunned still, before falling limply back into the sea, floating away as blood drifted from the open wounds across its body.
Floating a few moments longer, Brick sighed.
"Nah, this sucks ass too."
"You didn't like photography then?"
Brick shook his head, stretching out his shoulders a bit. Boomer floated not far behind him, head cocked curiously.
"Wasn't interesting. Broke the camera too." From his pocket, Brick pulled out was once an older model polaroid camera, tossing the bits and scraps remaining to his sibling.
"Dammit Brick, I don't have many of these left!" Boomer bemoaned, carefully going over the remains, before groaning and letting it drop to the sea. Shaking his head, the teen struggled not to grumble. "Maybe drawing?"
Brick considered before shaking his head, "I stopped at finger painting." He left it there, as though that was enough explanation. Honestly, it probably was.
"... Have you tried getting therapy?"
Boomer nursed the sudden bruise forming on his cheek from the sucker punch he'd received in the same instance that he'd finished his sentence.
"Dick," he muttered, while Brick simply gave a stern glare.
"I've tried lots of shit at this point - it isn't working. I want someone to punch me, someone to give me a good figh-" Brick caught a punch from his brother, ignoring it promptly as he continued unheeded, "-t. Fucking giant monsters can't even bruise me, you and Butch never act serious enough. It's bullshit, it's fucking
boring!" He ended with a shout, throwing his hands up in frustration.
Boomer was quiet for a moment, simply rubbing at the bump on his cheek.
"Do you think you just… Need a new Powerpuff Girl?"
Brick didn't respond, silent as he considered the insight from the most emotionally intuitive of the three siblings.
"I don't need a dumb girl to keep me from getting bored," he argued eventually, even though the argument fell rather flat despite himself. "Besides, the three of them are pretty dead. Hard to come back from that." Boomer nodded at that, turning his head slightly, consideringly.
"... we used to be dead."
Brick froze, before locking his eyes with his blond haired brother.
"Dad would never go for it. He hated those girls, and not in the, "beat them up for being annoying gross girls," type way. He wanted e'm dead."
Boomer shrugged, giving a sort of smirk.
"Who said we'd tell dad?"
The two held the silence, before Brick eventually let out a long and drawn out sigh, one that spoke of admitted defeat.
"We're either grounded or dead."
"Eh, dad likes me more anyways. I'd say my odds of surviving are pretty good."
