More Than Human

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

—Camus

An ongoing Powerpuff Girls Fanfic by sbj published at Fanfiction.net in the beginning of 2009.

The girls have grown up and attend Townsville Highschool as normal teenagers (or at least as normal you can be with a load of Badass superpowers and superhero publicity). Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup each have their own cliques and groups of friends and, aside from the various monsters they fight from time to time, have been living a relatively calm and normal teenage lifestyle.

That is, until three very familiar face shows up again. After several years of absence, the Rowdyruff Boys are back for mysterious reasons and enter Townsville High. Due to the boys being the boys, Principal Keane asks the girls to look after them for a while to make sure they don't have a hidden agenda for coming back to Townsville. The Rowdyruffs claim to have no such plans in mind, but the girls don't buy it; especially not Blossom, who's convinced that the boys have something especially evil planned ahead.

It can be found here. And here.

Do not let the simple and somewhat familiar concept fool you. It was created specifically to prove that a well-written PPG/RRB Highschool Fic could be done. It also has really long chapters, averaging 26k words a chapter; so prepare for a long read.

Tropes used in More Than Human include:

• Action Girl: The Powerpuff Girls obviously, especially Buttercup, who can get downright brutal when angered.
• All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Or ex-cheerleaders, in Bubbles' case.
• Aloof Big Brother: Provided that Brick is the oldest.
  • Technically, he's not the older brother, as all three of the Rowdyruff Boys were born at the same time (the same applies to the girls as well), but his "seniority" over Butch and Boomer and his being more mature than both of them make him this in spirit.
• Beach Episode: Chapter 6, unusual for a beach episode in that it actually advances the plot.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn
• Birds of a Feather: Considering it's a romance fic, all the couples are pretty much this.
• Black and Gray Morality: Brick's view of the world. This often brings him at loggerheads with Blossom, whose view is more absolute. Buttercup also shares this view to a slight degree, which allows her to maintain her friendship to Butch, and to a lesser degree, the rest of the boys, despite knowing they work for Evil, Inc.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Two pairs, opposite genders.
• Blood Knight: Buttercup and Butch. Moreso Butch.
• Blue Eyes: Bubbles and Boomer.
• Boarding School: Princess gets sent away to one. Taken her reaction, it might as well be a Boarding School of Horrors.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Princess Morbucks.
• Casual Danger Dialog: Butch and Boomer tend to get chatty when faced in a dangerous situation, Brick not so much. Exemplified in Chapter 5, when all of them openly talk amongst themselves in front of a bunch of armed men taking students hostage in the gymnasium, including the girls, while taunting them.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Butch likes both inflicting and receiving pain in a fight.
• Cool Big Sis: Penny, who works at JS, Inc. and is close enough to the Rowdyruff Boys to be their confidante.
• Cool Car: The Nikola Motors Coil. A sleek, red sports car that can go 0 to 80 in five seconds, has state-of-the-art automotive engineering, a motor that gets 14,000 rpm and more; with only 100 of the first model being made. It's this incentive that convinces Brick to participate in Mrs. Morbucks' ballroom recital.
  • While gushing, Buttercup and the Professor mention that the car is worth more than their house, you know, the house with an expansive underground laboratory.
  • It eventually gets destroyed under the foot of a monster, Brick was...displeased. Thankfully, the whole recital thing got Brick brownie points with his boss, so he got a series 2 version as a gift.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Darius, who manages to be more corrupt than the Evil, Inc. he apparently took over. It was his suggestion (not Smith's, the boys' superior) to give the boys a "vacation" in Townsville, which kicks off the story.
• Cute Bruiser: The girls of course, though, Boomer may count too.
• Deflector Shields: One that protects the entirety of Townsville from the full brunt of monster attacks, built by Professor Utonium. On occasion however, a particularly strong monster would be able to bypass it.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Boomer to anyone who slights him or Bubbles.
• Distaff Counterpart: The Rowdyruff Boys, of course.
• Damsel in Distress: Robin has been taken hostage several times, to the point where she's just really annoyed and complains about it, even during a gunfight.

Robin: "This is, what, like the fifth time in my entire life? I need to move the hell out of Townsville!"

• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Blossom, usually with her dance group. Brick towards his brothers when they get out of line.
• Dumb Muscle: Bubbles' boyfriend, Will, may have been this, considering he had no qualms against trying to pick a fight with Boomer, whom he obviously had no chance against.
  • It's worth noting that he also yells at Bubbles for defending him against a football thrown at super speed and on fire. Something that would've easily killed him.
• Energy Weapons: Boomer has them, the same ones he had from "The Boys Are Back In Town".
• Estrogen Brigade Bait: Brick, to a ridiculous degree. None of the girls at the beach (save Blossom) even try to hide their attraction to him once his shirt comes off. Hilarious version of every male's pants-busting crush on Blossom, as it's Buttercup who lusts after him with the most intensity.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Mojo Jojo finds cursing very disrespectful.
• Evil, Inc.: JS, Inc., known for their banking. The boys are employed under their Special Cases unit, which deals in weaponry, espionage, assassinations and more.
• Eye Scream: Buttercup blinds Butch in one eye during their fight using her Eye Beams. He recovers.
• Fog of Doom: A product of Him, which is attracted to (and attacks) ones with conflicted hearts.
• Fiery Redhead: Blossom, moreso here than in the original series.
• Friendly Enemy: Butch and Buttercup's friendship to a degree. Buttercup is the only one of the girls that knows, and not merely suspects, that the boys are still villains, working for an Evil, Inc., since Butch told her. She is able to rationalize their disparate alignments when Butch comments that the people they kill are more than evil than they are.
• Green Eyes: Buttercup and Butch.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Princess is still clearly jealous of (and angry at) the Powerpuffs.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Buttercup and Butch, though Butch more often spends some time triggering Buttercup's temper.
• Healing Factor: Near-fatal injuries given to the girls or the boys generally heal much faster than for a regular human thanks to the Chemical X. This is also what allows Butch's eye to heal from being blinded by Buttercup's eye beams in a matter of days.
• Hero Insurance: The destruction of city property is offset by higher taxes since they couldn't possibly charge the girls for their years of service defending the city against giant, horrible monsters. Now PERSONAL punishment, however...
• High School AU
• Hot Mom: Mrs. Morbucks, presumably.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Brick's opinion of Bubbles. Which comes into play when Brick notices that Him's black fog avoids attacking her and tricks her into taking the brunt of its attack. At first it seemed to work... but Brick didn't realize Bubbles' heart was conflicted with her feelings for Boomer.
• Jerkass: Very much Butch, though Brick is hardly a saint.
  • Will also counts.
• Kid Hero: The girls, though they are in high school.
• Life of the Party: Boomer, given his fun-loving personality and his bizarre focus on singing Avril Lavigne songs.
• Lightning Bruisers
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Butch.
• Macho Masochism: More evident in Brick than his brothers believe it or not. Even when he gets deathly ill in Chapter 8, he still tries to go to school and insist he's not sick. Later when he faints in front of everyone, he insists it was a manly faint.
• Meaningful Echo: In the first chapter, Blossom tells her sisters they were better than humans, and thus should be more responsible. In Chapter 3, Brick tells Blossom the exact same thing, in regards on how he could punish his brother any way he wanted.
• Mugging the Monster: The criminals who took over the school gymnasium while taking hostages. Yeah, pointing a gun at Brick and threatening him is not the most solid of plans.
• Nice Cap: Brick's, which he apparently rarely takes off in public (or at all).
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Brick delivers one to Butch after the latter, ignoring Brick's orders to not pick a fight with the Powerpuffs or cause any havoc in town, deliberately provokes Buttercup into attacking him. The brutality of Brick's beatdown, and his subsequently removal of Butch's powers (temporarily) to prevent Butch's Healing Factor from fixing his injuries (though there were other considerations involved in Butch having his powers removed) horrifies Blossom. Brick justifies his actions by pointing out that Butch is a borderline psychopath, and violence is the only way to keep him in line at times.
• Non-Idle Rich: Mrs. Morbucks, who constantly travels the world while dealing with renowned corporations, the traveling stops though when she comes back to Townsville to put Princess into a boarding school and clear the Morbucks' reputation.
• Not So Stoic: Brick, when he gets really pissed off.
• Obligatory Swearing: It's not shocking for them to curse casually (especially Butch), given that they are teenagers, though Blossom has a stern stance against vulgar language. When they get right pissed off however, the expletives get MUCH more pronounced.
• Omniglot: Bubbles, who speaks no less than 4 different languages: English, Spanish, French, and Japanese. She's even been called "Little Miss Rosetta Stone" by her friends.
  • Mrs. Morbucks even moreso with the addition of Chinese.
• One of the Boys: Buttercup was this, but after her and Mitch's break-up she slowly drifts apart from them and Butch seemingly takes her place, much to her chagrin.
  • However, she seems to be this again after she and Butch get on more friendly terms with each other.
• Painted-On Pants: Bubbles' outfit at Princess' party. Brick was happy to lampshade it.
• Person of Mass Destruction: In their fight in Chapter 2, Buttercup and Butch damaged fifteen city blocks, a large public parking structure, all the windows of an office building, a water main, as well as a big part of the school.
• Put on a Bus: Princess.
• The Stoic: Brick, until something doesn't go how he wants it to.
• Title Drop: Buttercup does it while talking to Butch.

'Buttercup: "I get it. All that shit you said yesterday, about fighting, and the pain, and spilling blood, the rush, the god-like superiority over everything when you're winning and the push to be... to be something more than human when you're beat to shit and your body's feeling weaker than one..." She wet her lips, pressed them together, and took a deep breath before nodding. "Yeah. I get that."

• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Brick's eyes are red to begin with, but become even more so when he's angry, probably prepared to fire lasers.
• Redheaded Hero: Blossom, of course.
• Rich Bitch: Princess Morbucks.
• Running Gag: Butch drooling over Blossom's shapely legs, Boomer singing Avril Lavigne songs, Blossom admonishing foul language.
• School Idol: All three girls, at least from the guys' point of view. They regard them as "The Untouchables" because they're out of everyone's league in their own ways.
• Schedule Slip: Updating process takes very long due to its sheer length and constant beta editing. Updates for each chapter often happen within months of each other.
  • There was a year's gap between chapters 4 and 5.
• She's Got Legs: Blossom, which is one of her main attractive points according to boys, especially Butch.
• Shipper on Deck: Butch playfully ships Utonium/Bellum mainly through their interactions and his own twisted humor.
  • Bubbles has her fun trying to get Blossom and Brick together.
• Sick Episode: In Chapter 8, the Rowdyruffs all contract the Amoeba Boy virus, which left them bedridden for a day. Brick took much longer to recover because he tried to ignore it.
• So Cool Its Awesome: A musical about zombies sounds so awesome even Buttercup wants to watch it.
  • It's also never actually shown in the story.
• Supreme Chef: Buttercup, who was forced to cook a three course dinner five days a week after her fight with Butch that resulted in heaping amounts of collateral damage. Nevertheless, she's extremely good at cooking.
  • Lethal Chef: Blossom, whose cookies once left the Professor curled in a fetal position after consumption.
• Team Mom: Blossom.
• The Smart Guy: Blossom and Brick, obviously.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Buttercup and Bubbles.
• Villain by Default: Blossom's view on the boys, even when they haven't done anything worth noting. This opinion sort of changes after the hostage incident though.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2. Buttercup and Butch, out of all people, are the first of either group to actually become good friends. However, this isn't to say that the insults stop for a second.
• What The Hell Anti-Villain: Blossom and Buttercup react violently when Brick forced Bubbles into taking an attack from the black fog. They calm down a little when he attempted to justify his reasoning. Boomer's reaction to it was more discreet.
• Win Your Freedom: The reason the Rowdyruffs were no longer under Him was because Brick won their freedom by answering HIM's riddle, one so complex and involved that it had actually taken him weeks to get through it.