FIVE

"Eeeeeek!" Bubbles shouted. "I'm a larva!"

Julie jumped, too. Blossom, on the other hand, crossed her arms and scowled at her sister.

"Very funny, Buttercup! All that suspense for something stupid!"

But she thought it strange that her sister wasn?t cracking up at the gag she'd pulled, as was typical of her. Buttercup was famous for her practical jokes and laughed louder than anyone when they worked. Elmer and Ms. Keane were both laughing.

The teacher stood up. "Goodness, Buttercup, what a story! I'll be right back, children, I'm just going to get s'more s'mores!"

She dashed off with the empty platter, toward the cabin. Mitch and Harry were in hysterics, rolling on the ground. Mitch was holding his stomach, his eyes shut.

"Ahahahaha!! That was great, Buttercup, you Powerpuff Girls're bugs! Hahahahaha!!"

The twins woke suddenly and sat up, rubbing their eyes. "Duh, what'd I miss?" Lloyd said.

"Aw, man, you missed the freakiest story ever! Buttercup, you rock!"

He opened his eyes and couldn't believe what he saw. The laughing had stopped. Buttercup stood, scowling at everyone, who looked back at her in surprise.

"Go ahead, laugh! LAUGH!" It was the first real emotion she'd shown all evening, and everyone's jaws dropped. She began to walk around the circle rapidly, as if she were stalking an enemy, stopping at each of the others, pausing to point and snarl at them.

"Why aren't you laughing?" she said to the twins. "What'sa matter, Mitch?" She gave him a shove. "It was funny a minute ago!" He turned white and looked around for somewhere to escape to, but she moved on. "Would someone please explain the joke to me?" she asked in a more pleasant tone as she stood between Harry and Julie. "I seem to have missed it." They cringed.

When she got between her sisters, she looked down at them. Bubbles had curled herself into a fetal position with Blossom's arms wrapped around her protectively.

"YOU!" she shouted, pointing at them. "C'mon, laugh some more, maybe I'll get it this time!"

"But I didn't laugh!" Bubbles cried. "You scared me! We're not larvas!"

"Buttercup, that's enough! You're scaring her! Stop it! You got so wrapped up in that stupid story of yours that now you're starting to scare ME!"

"Stupid, is it?" Buttercup said quietly.

"Let it go!"

"I can't. You don?t know the whole truth yet."

"Buttercup, give it a rest, ok? You had us all fooled, but to make us think we're really aliens and that the Professor didn't make us, now I'm startin' to get mad!"

"Blossom, Professor Utonium couldn't make three little girls any more than he could make the sun set in the east."

"No!" Bubbles screamed, covering her ears. "Don't you talk about him like that!"

Buttercup sighed and took her seat. She was now talking only to her sisters; it was like the others had simply vanished.

"Girls, why do you think we look like this, huh? We're NOT human. But in our larval form we ALMOST look that way, so R'oyam and the team knew we would have the best chance of fitting in with the people here. And it worked."

"Buttercup, this is going too far! If that was true, why don't me and Bubbles know about it, huh?"

"There's a couple reasons for that, Blossom. I'm the real leader of the Powerpuff Girls, not you, and I always have been since the day our guide told me what our mission was."

"That's a laugh!" Blossom said acidly. "Why you?"

Buttercup wasn't insulted. Softly, she replied, "I have a personal stake in this. L'irpa and H'cram are my mother and father. Our guide has a stake in this too, and she's the one who told me. L'irpa is her sister. I told you our eggs were selected very carefully. You see, girls, we aren't really sisters."

The other kids were speechless at the spectacle before them, at what they were hearing. No one even noticed Ms. Keane returning with a full platter of fixings. She saw something was up when Bubbles and Blossom reacted to something Buttercup had said.

Bubbles burst into tears. Blossom reacted angrily, "How could you say something so mean?"

Buttercup lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry. But it's true."

"Buttercup, if you insist on keeping on with this, fine! But I can poke so many holes in your story it'll go down like the Titanic!"

"Uh, would anyone like some s'mores?" the teacher asked, not knowing what was going on.

Buttercup reached out for the platter. "Yes, Ms. Keane. I need this to prepare."

"Prepare for what?" Blossom demanded. "Oh yeah, you keep saying it's almost time for 'something'. I'm sure you'll clue us in."

While she spoke, Buttercup used her superpowers to make and consume s'mores as fast as she could. Eventually, the platter was empty again. Sometimes she talked while chewing, and she began to speak faster, as if she were in a hurry. She ignored Blossom's sarcasm.

"Not until you know the rest. We were sent here to blend in with everyone, to show people on Earth that we were just like they were even though we look different. As larvae, we look very much like earth children. Professor Utonium's plans were perfect. We could be his creations and that would help us fit in even more. Once people got to know us, when we came out of our cocoons they'd be more willing to accept us in our adult forms. And once they did, then they'd see that our two peoples could live together peacefully. Hopefully someday we can spread that peace to the whole universe."

"But what about our superpowers?" Bubbles asked, distressed to think it was all for nothing and might end. "What about saving the day?"

"Bubbles, our people don't have superpowers. We fly, but we need our wings for that, which we don't have yet."

"But how?" her sisters said together.

"It was an accident. When Mojo bumped into the Professor and the Chemical X got spilled, nobody could see that coming. But it was perfect, too. We ended up with our powers, which gave the world an even better reason to accept us. And girls, we're heroes back on our home planet, too. They've been watching us. Someday soon, we'll all go there together. You'll love it, I promise."

"You've been there?" Bubbles asked in astonishment.

"Oh, yes, many times. My secret hiding place," she said with a slight grin. Each girl had a spot they would fly off to when they wanted to be alone.

"Very clever. You've got an answer for everything," Blossom said snidely. "Now, here's where I start poking holes. How did our 'eggs' get here so fast if it took 160 years for the first ship to get here, huh? Your 'leaders' wouldn't have known until after 1947 to send them, so we shouldn't be here until after 2100 and something."

"That's why I'm the leader, Blossom. To explain it to you." Blossom reddened at that.

"My parents left home in 1787, Earth time, right after the Constitutional Convention told R'oyam that humans were on the right track. He and the team later realized their mistake; that they had acted too soon. Had their communicators not failed, my parents would have returned home and they would have lived to try again. But then we wouldn't be here right now. In those 160 years, our people made great advances in propulsion technology. The trip from our world to this one now takes hours, or a few months in Earth time. That's even better than when we were sent, when it took one of our days, or a whole Earth year. You, or your eggs, I should say, were six days old when we left and you were seven days old when we got here almost six Earth years ago. It takes seven days for us to hatch into larvae. Actually, you're not quite thirteen days old."

"This is ridiculous!" Blossom spat.

"What about you?" Bubbles demanded.

"Well, I'd have to be a lot older than you, wouldn't I, if I came from my mother before she left our world 214 Earth years ago."

"Aha!" Blossom laughed. "How do you explain THAT?!"

"Quite simple. When my egg was two days old, I was put in a special chamber that delayed my growth until my parents could come home and watch me hatch..."

Her lower lip trembled slightly and she looked away for a moment. When she looked back, her eyes were moist. "...and when it was learned they wouldn't, I had been there for 160 Earth years and I was forgotten. When the plan to send larvae here was thought of, they remembered me, and seeing who I came from, I was an obvious choice. They left me there until your parents were selected to give eggs for the mission. Then I was taken out. So development-wise, we are about the same. Age-wise, I'm much older."

"What do you mean, ABOUT the same?" Blossom scowled. "Are you saying we AREN'T the same?"

"Not quite. You see, even though the chamber prevented from occurring the changes that cause our eggs to hatch, I still developed. My development is a bit ahead of yours. While you're not quite thirteen days old, I'm already there. Our larval stage lasts only six of our days."

"You said the egg stage lasted seven..." Blossom pondered. "What?! You mean...?"

"That's right, Blossom. My time is up. My pupal stage begins almost any time now."

"What about us?" Bubbles said, trembling. The thought of herself as an insect frightened her, plus she knew she would be terrified of being shut up inside a cocoon. It would be awfully dark in there.

"You will cocoon not long after I do. It's nothing to be afraid of. It's not like most insects. We don't get all icky. It's mostly just to rest and recharge. We do most of our developing AFTER we come out. It only lasts about six Earth months. That's why I needed to eat all that food."

"Are we gonna look like those aliens in the pictures?"

"Not exactly, Bubbles, and not right away. Remember, after we come out it will take another fourteen or so Earth years for us to mature into full adults, and we'll still look like we do now for a while. But we'll grow our proboscises by then, so we won't look exactly like those pictures."

Everyone around the fire was as bug-eyed as the Powerpuffs, listening to what was going to happen to the heroes they thought they knew.

"And here's the really good part. We'll always keep our superpowers. They won't go away."

"Wait a minute, Buttercup!" Blossom broke in. "You keep talking about this message of love and peace and acceptance of those who are different, but you sure haven't lived up to it when it comes to the monsters around here."

Buttercup broke into a full grin for the first time all night. "Blossom, the day those monsters come and live with us in peace instead of smashing things is the day I'll welcome them. Until then, I'm still kicking their butts!"

Then she grew serious again and turned to the group. She stood up.

"Hey everybody. I know this is a lot for you to accept all of a sudden like this, but it's true. Our people come in peace and we want you to think of us like you always have. Do you think you can? Even though you know how we'll really be someday?"

Blossom and Bubbles stood too, and with fearful, worried looks, faced their friends, who sat, still dazed by the events.

"Please, guys, can you?" Blossom asked.

"We'll still save the day and everything!" Bubbles promised, pleading.

"Please?!" all three pleaded, their eyes brimming with tears.

"If you can't, then our mission is a failure and we'll just go home to our own world," Buttercup said, looking at the ground.

"No!" Julie cried, running to Bubbles and hugging her. "You're my friends! I don't want you to go!" Then she hugged the other two girls.

Ms. Keane stood and came over to Blossom and Bubbles, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "Girls, you know what I think of you. You don't have a thing to worry about!"

They hugged her joyfully. While the boys weren't as forthcoming as Julie, they all, in their own fashion, told the Powerpuffs that they were welcome. Buttercup asked them to prove it by giving her sisters each a hug. Blossom and Bubbles were so overjoyed they didn't mind it, even from Mitch, who Blossom wasn't too crazy about. Bubbles suddenly grew agitated.

"What are we gonna tell the Professor?" she cried.

"Oh, no!" Blossom gasped. She'd forgotten that part, how devastated he would be to learn that his daughters really weren't.

"Girls, you're gonna have to deal with it," Buttercup said, suddenly agitated herself. "I've gotta go!"

She flew toward the dark edge of the woods.

"Buttercup!" Bubbles shouted.

"C'mon, Bubbles, let's move!" Blossom cried, already on her way. Shocked one more time, the other kids and their teacher followed. They couldn't believe what they saw when they got to the forest's edge.

As they watched, and a horrified Blossom and Bubbles floated helplessly, Buttercup hovered near a thick branch of a large tree. She looked at them and said quietly, "See you soon."

With that, a thin thread shot out from her mouth and coiled itself around the tree limb. Then she spun herself in her patented 'tornado' move and the thread wrapped itself around her, beginning at her face and working down toward her feet, then up to the top of her head and back down again, until she could be seen no more. The spinning began to slow down and finally stopped, and the silvery cocoon hung there in the moonlight.

Blossom sobbed, "Oh, Buttercup!" Bubbles leaned into her and her muffled sobs could be heard. "C'mon, Bubbles, we better take her home and explain everything to the Professor."

She pulled away from Bubbles and floated up to the cocoon, gently put her arms around the entombed girl and cut the thread with her eye-lasers.

"Blossom!" Bubbles whined. "She never told us who our guide is!"

"She's the only one who needed to know, Bubbles. I guess now we'll find out before we cocoon ourselves."

"Yes, Blossom, I'm sure she'll reveal herself to you. But before you go, there's something I want to say to all you kids," Ms. Keane said, and she coaxed them back to the fire. They couldn't take their eyes off of what Blossom was holding, even as she gently laid it on the ground next to her as she sat.

"Now, kids," she began, "this is very important. Do you understand now about accepting those who don't look like we do?"

"Yes, Ms. Keane." Julie said. "That's kinda what my story was about."

"That's right, Julie, the little boy and the mirrors. I forgot about that! Thank you for reminding us."

"Ms. Keane?" Elmer tugged at her sleeve. "Buttercup was crying after Julie's story."

"That's because it really hit home with her."

"You don't know the half of it. That's what she said." Bubbles said softly.

"That's right, Bubbles." She turned toward the other boys. "Now, Lloyd, Floyd and Mitch," She knew Harry understood, being the object of scorn at times for his appearance. "I want to be sure you boys fully understand before I tell you the next part. Do you?"

"Yeah, Ms. Keane. We shouldn't pick on people 'cause they?re not like us..." Floyd said. "...even if they're bugs from another planet." Lloyd finished.

She frowned, but they didn't laugh, nor did Mitch. They couldn't take their eyes off of the cocoon.

"Mitchell?"

"Yes, Ms. Keane." He looked at Blossom and Bubbles. "You guys are cool no matter what you look like!"

"What about me, Mitchell?" the teacher asked.

"Yeah, you're cool, too, Ms. Keane!"

"Good." With that, she reached to her face and tore off the mask of the person they all knew, revealing the alien beneath.

"Ohhhhh! Ms. Keane, it's YOU!" Blossom shouted.

"You're our guide! Yippeee!" Bubbles cried gleefully.

Mitch flew to his feet in terror. Elmer shrank back. So did the twins. Harry and Julie, though shocked, didn't budge.

The strange face, looking like the big-headed, round-eyed creatures they'd seen many times on TV in movies and shows, except for the long, curved nose-thing; looked around the dwindling fire.

"Now, Mitchell, what did we just talk about? I'm still the same on the inside. You're not afraid of my proboscis, are you?"

"N-n-n-no." He sat back down slowly.

"Kids?"

Elmer looked up into the big eyes and the strange face that smiled down at him, and he leaned into his teacher and gave her a hug. Julie ran up to her and did the same.

"Good!" she said happily and ripped off the alien mask, showing her true face.

A startled gasp came from all of the children. Blossom and Bubbles now didn't know WHAT to think. Without warning, the cocoon vibrated, then burst into a mass of flying silver threads. Everyone jumped up, shrieking and running, except Ms. Keane who sat calmly. The night was suddenly filled with hysterical laughter, and they turned to see Buttercup, floating in midair, holding her stomach.

"Hahahahahahahahaha!!!! Oh, that was the best ever! Oh, hahaha, Mitch, you should have seen your face just then! Oh, I got you guys but GOOD!" Thanks a lot, Ms. K!!! Hahahahaha!!!!!

Her sisters were in her face in a flash. The other kids were still too surprised to realize what was going on and just watched. Most of the other kids, anyway. Mitch was nowhere to be seen.

"Buttercup! How COULD you!" Blossom screamed at her. "You scared me out of my wits!"

"Yeah!" Bubbles joined in, her face reddening. "You scared the pants offa us!!"

"Oh, hohohohoho!!! That was the whole idea, you dorks! And did I ever!! Oh, boy, you should've seen yourselves!! Hahahahahaha!!!

Blossom blinked. "You're right, Buttercup. That WAS the point of this camping trip!"

She and Bubbles stared at each other. They flew at her.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

"Uh, oh!" Buttercup took off into the night sky, her sisters in hot pursuit.

Blossom yelled, "I get my hands on you, Buttercup, you'll see something REALLY scary!"

"Yeah!" Bubbles shouted. "I got my OWN message of peace, love and acceptance!"

But they were laughing as they said it.

Chapter Six

Chapter Four

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