"Wait here, Bubbles; let us go in first, just in case!" Blossom whispered, just outside the secret passageway to Him's lair, down in the bowels of the earth. They knew its location well, they had been there a number of times.

"Okay." Bubbles answered, "Just tell me when to come in."

Her sisters zoomed down through the darkness, feeling the increasing warmth. They crashed into Him's living room and looked around. He was nowhere to be seen and his magical TV set, with which he did his evil surveyance of things topside, was turned off. Buttercup heard splashing.

"Oh great, he's taking another bath!"

"Let's surprise him. Maybe he'll drop something 'lectrical in the water if we're lucky!" Blossom grinned.

They followed the sounds back through a darkened hallway, then burst into the room the demon's voice was coming from. He didn't seem at all surprised to see them.

"Well, what brings you out so early on a Saturday?" he asked in his oily, somewhat feminine voice.

"We wanted to ask you a question." Blossom answered.

He smiled. "Fair enough. But I'll ask you one first." His voice changed to his evil, dark shriek. "DON"T YOU TWO BELIEVE IN KNOCKING??!!!"

He calmed down. "It's terribly rude to barge in on someone like that! By the way, where is Bubbles?"

"Uh, that's what we're here to talk about." Blossom said.

Buttercup gave him a sly grin and said, "How would you like to destroy her?"

"What? Destroy poor sweet Bubbles? What a delightful idea!" His voice changed again and he narrowed his eyes. "What is this, some kind of a trick?!"

"No, you don't understand." Blossom said. "We never said you COULD, we only asked if you WANTED to."

"And if you want to, you're gonna have to help us, or you'll never get the chance!"

"HELP you? Why would I do that?" One claw came up from the murky, foul-looking bathwater, holding a rubber duck that Him called Mr. Quackers and spoke to for inspiration. "Do YOU know what they're talking about, Mr. Quackers?"

He gave the duck a squeak. "He doesn't know either. And just why won't I get the chance to destroy Bubbles, or any one of you three brats at my whim?"

Blossom clasped her hands together in front of her, and appeared almost as if she were asking a favor. "Well, you see... she's kinda...uh, dead."

"WHAAAT??!!"

"Yeah, and if you don't help us figure out how to get her back then you can't destroy her later, so there!" Buttercup stuck out her tongue at him.

"Girls, Girls, Girls...!" he chuckled. "I am the MASTER of head games! Just who do you think you're fooling with here, hmmmmm?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Okay, we tried. Come on, Buttercup."

Blossom whispered an aside to her sister as they left the bathroom. "It'll give Him a chance to get dressed!"

"Good idea! Yecchh! What IS that stuff he takes a bath in, anyway? And you guys think I'M bad!"

They got back to the living room and shouted in unison at the top of their lungs. "Bubbles!"

Somewhat angered at the idea of the Powerpuffs toying with him, but quite intrigued with it at the same time, the demon rose out of the evil waters, waved one of his claws, was enveloped in a burst of flame and reappeared from the flames completely dressed. He walked out into his living room and spotted a smiling Bubbles floating between her sisters. Only it wasn't her.

The Girls watched in amazement as Him's eyeballs popped out of their sockets a good two feet and his curled beard unrolled, out straight like a party favor.

"A G-G-G-GHHOSST!!!!!!" the demon shrieked, in the exact manner of the adults in the old Casper cartoons. He ran smack through one wall of his living room and disappeared, leaving behind perfect claw-shapes attached to the shape of the rest of his body, as a giant hole.

Blossom smacked her forehead with her palm. "Geez, Louise!"

Buttercup doubled over, laughing. "Ha ha haaaaaa!! What a wuss!!!!"

Bubbles laughed too, and said happily, "Hey! I scared the Heck out of HIM!!"

"Yeah, I know, but I was hoping he could help us!" Blossom said, disappointed. Then, in defiance of the laws of physics, she made a snapping sound come from her fingerless hand. "Hey! Wait a minute! He must have a little red book lying around somewhere! Let's go over his head!"

Bubbles giggled and pointed to the floor. "Hee hee! Don't you mean UNDER his head?"

They all enjoyed a good laugh over that one.

"Spread and search, Girls!"

Blossom and Buttercup went back past the bathroom and each went a different direction. Bubbles floated by the bathroom door and peeked in. She heard a squeak, and, surprised, stopped and went inside. Not seeing Bubbles joining them in the search, her sisters both turned to go back and heard it at the same time. They gaped at each other and met at the bathroom door. Bubbles was looking at the rubber duck floating in the water and she was making squeaking noises.

"Bubbles! We don't have time to play!" Blossom scolded her.

The duck squeaked three times. Blossom and Buttercup nearly became ghosts themselves and grabbed one another.

"It talked!" they squealed.

Bubbles smiled at them, then looked back at the toy and squeaked some more, and got another answer.

Buttercup recovered sufficiently to say, "I can't believe you're actually having a conversation with a toy!"

"He's NOT a toy! His name is Mr. Quackers!" Bubbles frowned back at her. "I 'pologized for scarin' Him away, an' Mr. Quackers thinks it's funny!"

The duck squeaked three more times.

"He says Him will be OK when he finds out the bathtub did this to me. But I didn't get the part about an iron tastin' good."

The duck squeaked again.

"Oh, he said Him would find the irony delicious. Whatever that means."

Blossom grinned. "Yeah, he would. Mr. Duck sir, could you tell us where Him keeps his phone?"

The duck squeaked again and Bubbles thanked it and said goodbye. She flew ahead of her sisters and pointed the way.

"Down here, second door on the left. He said we don't need any book, just pick it-ULP?!!"

They stood in amazement.

"Whoa! Now THAT'S what I call a HOTLINE!" Buttercup exclaimed.

They were floating in a small room. The walls were painted the color of Blossom's eyes and there was a desk and chair. Floating inches above the desk was a mass of flame, in the perfect shape of a telephone. On the wall to one side of the desk was a dartboard with their likenesses on it, stuck full of darts.

"I think this is what we're lookin' for, guys. The direct line." Blossom said in a hushed voice. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

But they had come this far and figured this was the best chance they had at getting some help. Blossom gingerly reached for the receiver and pulled her hand back sharply.

"It's too hot!"

Bubbles tried to pick it up and they were all surprised that she could. She held it up to her, but then pushed it away as an evil scream ten time worse than Him's barked out of it. Her ghostly pig-tails flew out to the sides.

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO NEVER CALL ME HERE!"

They all jumped back. Bubbles was too afraid, so she held the phone out for Blossom to do the talking.

"W-w-who is t-this?"

"WHO IS THIS?!!"

It was no problem for any of them to hear. Buttercup held onto Blossom, their teeth chattering.

"B-B-Blossom."

"BLOSSOM?! OF THE POWERPUFF GIRLS?!"

"Y-you know who we are?"

"OF COURSE I DO! THAT SNIVELING LITTLE TWIT WON"T SHUT UP ABOUT YOU THREE!!! I"M SICK OF HEARING ABOUT YOU!! HEY, WHERE IS THAT IDIOT, ANYWAY? WHAT ARE YOU DOING USING THIS PHONE?!!"

Blossom explained how and why they came to be there. An evil, screeching laughter came through the receiver. They stared at it until the voice came through again, this time in a more conversational tone.

"Oh, you actually thought that Him could help you! You've made my day! Why do you think he spends so much time obsessing about you three? Because he's afraid of ghosts! Imagine that, a demon afraid of ghosts! He's really not cut out for this line of work."

The girls laughed and their fear melted away.

"Can you help us?" Blossom asked.

"That depends. How long ago did this all happen?"

Blossom looked at her watch. "Oh, about two hours ago."

"Two HOURS? Something's not right. Bubbles should have been here before now, but she's still there with you....hold on for a second...."

The girls looked at each other, horrified, while they heard rustling noises through the phone. The voice came back.

"No, this is DEFINITELY wrong, it says here that you three aren't supposed to show up until two thousand and ...oh, wait, you don't need to know that, it'll spoil the fun."

"You mean we're goin' to HECK?!" Bubbles wailed. Her sisters looked no less upset by the news.

"Well of COURSE you are, you silly girls! EVERYONE stops by here on their way to that other place I won't talk about. Even the one whose name I can't mention stayed with us one night. How long you stay is entirely up to you. That's Him's real job, to encourage you mortals to lengthen your stay with us! It's a wonderful place, really. It's NEVER cold and we've got LOTS of fun things to do to you, er, for you to do! But to answer your question, Blossom, no, I can't help you."

"Awwwwwww," the three of them groaned.

"Nope! You'll have to figure this out by yourselves. Tell that fool when you see him that I am NOT pleased. Now, you be sure and be bad little girls. Come see us at Motel 666 and we'll keep the fires burning for you! Ta ta!!"

Bubbles replaced the flaming receiver on the flaming cradle.

"I should've asked him who was gonna stay the longest."

"What are you looking at me for?" Buttercup frowned, seeing her sisters grinning at her.

"Well, now we know who WASN'T behind it." Blossom said. "I guess it's gonna have to be up to Professor to figure it out."

"I hope he didn't find me yet!" Bubbles worried.

Buttercup shrugged. "Only one way to find out."

Just as they were about to leave, Him returned to his lair. He looked startled to see them still there.

"I didn't mean to scare you like that, but Mr. Quackers told me you'd feel better."

"Well, Bubbles, you did startle me there, but I have to say it doesn't bother me at all to see you like that, now that I'm used to the idea! In fact, it makes me quite happy!"

"Oh, I wouldn't be so happy if I were you." Blossom smiled an evil smile. "Your boss isn't very happy with you!"

"WHAATT??!!

"Or maybe, your ex-boss?" Buttercup smirked at him, enjoying every second.

"He told us your REAL name! MUD! Bye!!" Bubbles waved.

Off they went, laughing, leaving behind a very worried-looking demon.