"No, Buttercup!"

Blossom pushed her sister's hand away. "Git!"

She glanced up at the clock on the laboratory wall and saw that it was almost seven; almost time for the professor's speech. She returned to typing, or tried to, at the computer keyboard. She hunched her shoulders and leaned forward protectively, to keep her pest of a sister from bugging her.

Bubbles unknowingly did the same thing in sympathy for her sister; she knew what Buttercup was like. "Yeah, Buttercup! 'Sides, it's my turn next!"

Just to be safe, Blossom hit 'save', in case Buttercup snuck her hand in there and made her page go away. At least she wouldn't lose everything. It was a great privilege the professor had given them, to use his computer while he was giving his lecture at the University. Actually, it was more of an accident, since he'd forgotten once again to call a babysitter for them. Being that this time of May the sun set a little after seven-thirty and he didn't want them playing outside in the dark, he'd given Blossom explicit instructions to be off the computer and in bed by eight. She was afraid Buttercup might really mess something up on it and they'd never get to use it again. "Go play your video games or something and we'll let you know when it's your turn."

"Pfffft. The way you're goin', I'll be in second grade before I get my turn. You don't even know what you're doin'."

"I do too!"

"No 'ya don't!" Buttercup gave a little snort. Blossom was making herself blank pages for her journal. Once she was done she could just print new ones for future years. She typed first the date, the 'enter' key ten times to create enough space for each entry (figuring two days per page when she printed them out), then held down the 'dash' key to make a separating line between entries. She was just finishing typing 'January 12' when Buttercup said, "You're doing it the stupid way."

"What other way is there?"

"Duh. Lemme in there and I'll show 'ya."

Blossom shoved her sister away. "Oh, no. Just tell me, if you're so sure of yourself."

"OK." Buttercup answered evenly. "Why type all that out when you don't hafta? Just type January and your line thing once, then copy it, then paste it in how many times you need to. Then all you gotta do is put in the dates and spaces later."

Blossom was surprised. "Really? That would save time. But how do you copy something?"

"Simple. You know how to highlight?" Blossom nodded. The text on the page turned blue.

"Hit the delete key."

Even as she did it, Blossom knew that was wrong. The page went blank. Bubbles let out a gasp louder than Blossom's. "You tricked me! Now I lost everything!"

"No you didn't. See that 'edit' thing up there? Hit it." Blossom frowned and hesitated. "No, go ahead, it's no trick." Blossom gingerly did so and saw the small drop-down, but nothing else happened. "See? Now just hit 'undo'."

Blossom's work magically reappeared. "Whoa, Buttercup! That's cool!"

"Yeah. If you make a mistake and delete something by accident, as long as you undo it the very next thing, you get it right back!"

Bubbles stared at her sister. "Wow, Buttercup, where'd you learn that?"

"Hah! And you guys think all I do in the mayor's office is make faces at 'im behind his back. I seen Ms. Bellum do this stuff, and lots more!"

Blossom wasn't thinking about her project anymore. "Like what, Buttercup?"

"Can I sit down?"

Blossom looked sideways. "Bubbles, do you care if she goes ahead of you?"

"No. Buttercup, can you show me how to make pictures on the computer? Ms. Bellum does sometimes."

Buttercup was already making herself comfy in the chair. "Later, Bubbles." She rubbed her hands together and smiled. "Ah, great! Now I can snoop and those two dummies won't even know it!"

The girls looked at the mess of icons on the professor's desktop.

"What's all that stuff, Buttercup?"

"That's all the different things Professor downloaded and other stuff that makes the computer work, Blossom. I ain't even gonna try figuring it out. I know what I'm looking for."

"What's that pretty flower?" Bubbles pointed at the icon.

"That's ICQ, just like it says. You can talk to people on it."

That gave Blossom a thought she didn't like. "Buttercup, you better not try to get on the internet. Professor said we can't!"

"Relax. I ain't going anywhere near that place!" She opened up the 'My Documents' folder.

Blossom didn't notice at first. "I thought you were gonna show us some more neat tricks with my journal pages. Go back...Hey! That says 'My Documents'! That's the professor's private stuff!"

Bubbles got nervous. "Maybe you shouldn't, Buttercup..."

"Will you guys cut it out and trust me for once? Look! Where do you think that journal of yours is, Blossom? Right here in the 'Blossom' folder!"

Her sisters could see a whole group of little yellow folders with all kinds of names. There must have been more than fifty, all alphabetized. Right away they saw theirs.

"Oh. Sorry." Blossom said, not too forcefully. "Open mine up again."

"No. I can't show you anything 'cause you got hardly anything to work with. I need a good, big file to show you much."

"No! I don't think you should be messing with any of Professor's things!"

Buttercup smiled to herself. "OK, just a couple more steps, and I got 'em!" She turned viciously on Blossom. "All right! Here! You can have it back!" She got up and floated for the stairs. "You two can have it. I'm gonna watch TV."

"No, wait, Buttercup!" Bubbles called out. "I wanna see how to draw!"

"Get Miss Know-it-all there to show you."

Blossom lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry. I won't say nothing more, I promise."

Buttercup resumed her place, looking up at her sister. "Look, Blossom, I'll show you that I can't mess something up." She reopened the 'Blossom' folder and the journal page. Blossom saw what she had saved earlier, up to January 11. Buttercup smiled and began to type.

'Blossom wears the same underwear two days in a row.'

Bubbles broke into a giggling fit. Blossom yelled, "I do not! That only happened once, and that's because you forgot to do the laundry when it was your turn! Now get that offa there!"

"It's not on there. I'd have to save it first." She closed the file and the little warning window appeared, saying the file had been changed and did the user want to save the changes? "See? I say no and it's gone." She tapped more keys and the file was back. "See? No underwear. I can do anything I want with another file as long as I don't save what I do to it."

"All right."

"Thank you. Now, you guys help me find something interesting here."

"That one!" Bubbles pointed to a folder named 'Rowdyruff Boys'.

Buttercup looked askance at her. "Whaddayou want with that one?"

"Maybe he's thinking about making boys too and that's how!"

Blossom shook her head while looking over the folders. "Nah. More likely his theories on why they blew up. How 'bout that one?"

It was labeled 'My Girls'. "I bet it's what he really thinks about us but would never say!"

"Blossom! I'm shocked! What about his privacy?" Buttercup said with mock horror. Blossom's curiosity had won out, just like she knew it would. That was the folder she was thinking of herself. "But, OK!"

To her dismay, she got the prompt for a password. "Aw, nuts. It's password protected! I bet all these folders are."

Blossom suddenly had second thoughts about what they were doing. "That's smart. It'll keep evil villains from getting anything sensitive. Maybe we shouldn't..."

"Aw, don't give up so easy. I saw how Miss Bellum looked up a password she forgot." But she couldn't remember where the password manager was located. "Darn!" She went back to the folders and tried opening a few more at random with the same result. "Rats!"

"Hey, Buttercup?" Bubbles asked. "Try that one."

The folder's name was 'letmein'. Blossom and Buttercup looked at each other and blinked.

"Worth a try."

To their surprise, it opened. Inside was a list of some very odd names and combinations of numbers and letters...and next to them were the names of the folders they gained access to.

Buttercup slapped her forehead. "Geesh! He goes to all the trouble of passwording everything and then he goes and does this!"

Blossom shrugged. "That's the professor. Now, let's go see what he says about us!"

Photographs. Photographs and more photographs. Some great ones that brought back happy memories, but not what Buttercup wanted to see.

"Fooey. I guess we aren't gonna find it. All the rest of these sound like science stuff and I don't feel like looking through all of 'em. Except for 'Top Secret', and that one, maybe we should keep out of."

Blossom agreed. Bubbles wasn't that disappointed. "Will you show me how to draw now?"

"Wait, Bubbles." Blossom said, thinking. "I know I saw documents some other place once. They weren't all spread out on a page like this where you saw the folders and everything. They were in like some kind of list..."

Buttercup's eyes grew larger. "Hey, yeah! Thanks, Blossom! Ms. Bellum did this for like a shortcut!"

She went to 'Start' and then 'Documents'. They noted that it did not say 'My' in front of it.

"It's different!" Blossom exclaimed. What they were looking at, and didn't know, were the temporary files, the ones viewed most recently. Individual files within folders. He had forgotten to clear them out. Among them was one they hadn't seen before, 'Professor's_Journal'.

"Bingo!" But when Buttercup clicked on it, they saw that the file could not be found and that the nearest thing to it was 'C/MyDocuments/Top Secret/PJ'. Did the user want to go there?

"Aw, that's it." she said. "That's the diary. He changed the name I bet just before he left!"

"That means he suspected we might be snooping around, Buttercup." Blossom frowned slightly. "And that's what we're doing. Forget it."

It was too late, the file was open; and she leaned forward in spite of herself. So did Bubbles.

"That doesn't look like any diary or journal. It looks like a letter!"

"Whoa..." Buttercup breathed. "No wonder it's top secret. Look!"

At the top were the words. 'To Be Opened Upon My Death'. Below that was the opening to a standard business letter.

The words set them all on edge. "What's this?" Blossom said. "Opened? That goes on an envelope! He's writing this letter to somebody and he didn't send it yet!"

"The Professor's gonna die?" Bubbles shrieked.

"Take it easy, Bubbles, it's prolly his will. Everybody's 'sposed to have one, everybody really old like he is, anyway."

"It's to some lady lawyer." Blossom said. "You're right, Buttercup. Let's see what's in his will!"

Together, they began to read:

'

N. Olive Burl, Esq.
1947 Capitol Ave.
Townsville USA

Dear Ms. Burl;

In the accompanying envelope you will find my Last Will and Testament. I prepared it myself using the approved form for this state and it was duly and properly witnessed by Sara Bellum, who I'm sure you will agree is as standout a citizen as we have. She is truly an asset to this community.

As Trustee, you will see to it that my wishes are carried out in full in regard to the care and continued wellbeing of my beloved children. The trust accounts established in their names should provide everything they will need into adulthood and beyond, including an education at the university of their choosing. Upon reaching the ages of twenty-one, these accounts will be turned over to their full control. As you know, I have left them very well-off financially. It, in large part, is the very reason you are now reading this letter.'

Bubbles sniffled. "Oh, I don't like this! I don't wanna think about growing up without him!"

"There, there, Bubbles." Blossom wrapped her arms around her sister. Though she knew better, she also was saddened by the symbolism of the contents. There would someday come a time..."This is just something he hasta do legally to make sure we're taken care of, just in case. Nothing's gonna happen to him."

"Yeah, Bubbles." Buttercup agreed. "He must have lots of insurance, then. We're doin' OK but we ain't rich enough to have the kind of money he makes it sound like."

"I just noticed something." Blossom interjected. "There's no date. That means he didn?t send it yet. He's only working on it."

Bubbles sniffed one more time and wiped her eyes on her dress. "OK, I feel better now. Girls, it looks like we did find what we wanted to see. He really loves us a whole lot if he's thinkin' about our future like this."

Blossom wiped away a few tears herself. "Uh huh."

Buttercup agreed, too, but was a bit less sentimental and more practical than her sisters. "I'd like to know what that will says. If he ain't done with it yet, maybe it's in here somewhere!"

Her sisters nodded and they all read on:

'Matters surrounding the trust you are already familiar with, of course. The real purpose of this letter is to provide you with as much information as possible to assist the appropriate authorities.'

They traded quick glances with one another. What 'authorities' was he talking about?

'You see, I have always known that my misguided actions of the past would someday lead to this heartache I have caused my girls. For myself, there can and should be no sympathy, though I know they will grieve. They deserved far better than they got from me.'

The mood in the lab changed suddenly. Bubbles wailed out loud and tears sprang to Buttercup's eyes. "Professor, no! Blossom, what's he talking about?"

Blossom trembled. "I-I don't know, Buttercup! Something bad happened that we don't know about!"

Bubbles cried, "We gotta help him!"

Blossom tried to remain calm. "Girls, we can't just run off until we know more. Let's read the rest of this and then talk to him."

Buttercup blurted out, "He won't tell us anything, Blossom! If he would, he would've!"

Blossom felt cold. "It's really bad, then. He's willing to die to protect us. Keep reading, girls. It's hard, but we have to."

'When I saw things beginning to get out of control, I tried to stop it. It's too late for me now, but I pray that there may still be hope for my kids. Forces too powerful for me to stand against saw to my premature end, and as I have stated, the information here may lead you to assist the authorities in bringing those responsible to justice. I knew the face(s) of the person(s) directly responsible at my moment of death but of course I can't tell you now who that is. But I can and will give you the identity of the one individual who is my true murderer."

Bubbles fainted dead away. The other two stared at each other, their faces pale.

"M-m-murder?" Buttercup finally sputtered.

Blossom spoke as if she were alone there in the room. "But-but who? Who would want to do that to him?"

Buttercup jumped out of the chair. "Mojo! Or Him! Or...or...or somebody else!" she finished, frustrated at coming up blank.

Blossom knelt to help Bubbles sit up. "No, Buttercup, they only like to destroy people, not murder them."

"Oh, yeah."

"Murder?!" Bubbles passed out again.

"All right, girls, hold hands. We're going to get through this calmly, no matter how bad it is."

Blossom was seated in front of the monitor once more, her right hand resting on the mouse. Her sisters stood behind her, their eyes transfixed on the screen. She held Bubbles left hand in hers. Buttercup took Bubbles' right hand and laid her right on Blossom's right shoulder.

Blossom began to scroll onward and they started to read. "The only way we can help him is by staying calm."

"Yeah." Buttercup agreed. "We gotta keep remembering that nothin' happened yet. And it ain't gonna, either!"

Bubbles could only tremble nervously and wanted to squeeze her eyes shut. "But I hafta be strong just like my sisters so we don't let anything bad happen to him!"

The words began to move.

'But before I give you that identity, I must insist that, as the most important of the duties that I am entrusting you with, that you see to it she is protected, both financially and in the legal sense. She is to be treated equally regarding the provisions of the trust, regardless of anything she might do. And she is to get the best legal representation money will buy, no matter what crimes she is accused of and no matter what the public sentiment against her may be. In spite of anything she may have done, none of it will be her fault. That responsibility also lies on my shoulders.'

The girls looked to one another questioningly, all with the same thought. "She? Is he talking about ME?"

'And that is where my story begins, in the middle. She's getting stronger. I don't know where this will all end up, but I am fearful. Each time, she will continue to get even stronger, until no power on earth will be able to stop her. The one thing I do know is that her sisters will do everything in their power to do just that, and I pray that they make her see before it is too late.'

The hand-holding came to an immediate end. Blossom turned on Buttercup. "It's you!"

"Me! Why me? It's not me, it's Bubbles! She?s the weakest." Buttercup glared at her sister and pointed. "And she's gonna go 'hardcore' on everybody again!"

Bubbles forgot about being afraid. "I am not! If anybody's gonna go off the deep end, it's you, Blossom!"

To her horror, Blossom found both of them glaring at her. "Yeah!" Buttercup growled. "Who lost it 'cause of a stupid lousy haircut, huh?"

"And we can't forget about those golf clubs, can we?" Bubbles added snidely.

"Shut up, four eyes!" To Buttercup, Blossom said, "I don't need a stupid blankie to get the job done."

"I'm over that and you know it!"

Blossom turned to Bubbles and said coldly, "If they find the professor's body with all his teeth missing, then we'll know for sure."

"Oooooooh, after we're done reading this, Blossom, I'm gonna pound you for that!"

Glaring at one another, they turned back to the screen.

'I created a monster, and it's a horrible irony that it happened the way it did. For, you see, I created her for the very thing that has corrupted her so. Money.'

Blossom said, "See? I told you."

Buttercup let out a gasp and her mouth began to wiggle. "Waaahhhhh!!!!"

She was gone from there in an instant and her sisters could hear the bedroom door slamming shut. Bubbles stood there in shock, staring at Blossom.

"Uh oh, Bubbles. I think I went too far."

It took ten minutes of pleading and apologizing to get Buttercup to go back downstairs. What finally did it was Blossom's admission that it could be her. It could be any one of them. She reminded them about the candy and toy incidents.

"Girls, we still have time to change why the professor wrote that letter. But I swear, on my honor as a Powerpuff Girl, that if I'm the one he thinks is goin' bad, I'll tell the professor to take my powers away. I'd rather grow up without them than grow up without him."

"Me too." Buttercup said. "We're in this together."

Their extended right hands met in the middle between them. "All for one, and one for all!"

Bubbles looked at the monitor. "Maybe the shock of finding out which one of us it is will be enough to make us stop."

"If it isn't, Bubbles," Buttercup said, "the professor was right. Me and Blossom'll do whatever it takes to stop you."

Seeing Bubbles bristle at that, Blossom laid a hand on her arm, looking at her and then Buttercup. "Either way, girls, there's still time to prevent anything from happening. What we can't find out here we can find out from the professor. Now, let's get this over."

'Yes, I have created a monster. I created her not out of love, but out of the love of money, and her upbringing has reinforced that to the point it's the only thing she cares about. I realized it only too late, and it is my failed attempts to correct the situation that are why you are reading this now.'

"Oh, no." Buttercup whimpered. "It is me!"

"I like money too, Buttercup." Bubbles said, trying to comfort her sister. "Everybody does."

"Yeah, but he keeps saying 'her' instead of 'us', so he's gotta mean me!"

Blossom stood frowning, trying to think. "Wait, girls. I don't like the way this sounds. You know how the professor always told us he wanted the perfect little girl because the world was such a rotten place, and the rest was an accident?"

"Yeah?" they replied.

"What if it's all a story to hide the fact that somebody really hired him to try it?"

"What?" Buttercup gasped.

Bubbles was horrified. "The professor would never do that!"

"Maybe he did, Bubbles. I have no doubt that he loves us, but what if he was only doing it for the money?"

"What are you saying, Blossom?" Buttercup demanded. "That he only wanted to keep us 'cause we got superpowers and that he would have sold a normal kid?"

"No, Buttercup. That might have been the plan, but I know the professor well enough to know that he knew it was wrong and felt guilty and decided to keep us instead."

Bubbles' eyes widened. "But, Blossom, if he kept us and the money, too, isn't that a crime?"

Buttercup answered instead. "Not if there aren't no papers or anything, Bubbles. It would be his word against whoever paid him."

"Right, Buttercup. And it's not exactly legal to make money by selling kids. Look what happened with Professor Dick. So he didn't actually commit a crime at all."

"Yeah, Blossom," Buttercup agreed, "but if he kept us and the money, that would make somebody awfully mad!"

Bubbles whispered, "Mad enough to kill him?"

"Yes." Blossom didn't like thinking it, let alone saying it out loud. "Girls, I think we just found our motive. Now we have to learn who it is so we can save the professor's life."

'When I sold my talent and beliefs for personal gain, I started my child down the road to emptiness. It is no surprise she has turned out the way she has. But I love her as much as I do her sisters, and I swore to undo the damage I did. Perhaps with counseling she can be made to see that material possessions are meaningless compared to the love of family. I hope her sisters can forgive her for the things she's done, as I forgive her. My dear, beloved Princess.'

Blossom went pale. "Princess?"

Buttercup went red in the face. "Princess Morbucks?!"

Bubbles squealed, her voice rising on every word. "She's our sister??!!"

They were too stunned to do anything else but read.

'It all started around fifteen years ago. I had been doing research into the lost art of alchemy; turning materials into something other than their natural state. Had I been only about money, I probably could have found a way to turn lead into gold. But, even then, science and life mattered equally. I sought to find out if it were really possible to create life in a laboratory. I published papers on the subject. Still, money was important, though I saw it more as a means to further my studies than to create a comfortable life for myself. Being out in the world, enjoying life's finer things, never appealed to me as much as being in my lab, letting my mind roam free. Had an opportunity arisen, though, to earn vast amounts of wealth from my work, I would not say no. I am not that altruistic.

Such an opportunity arose in the spring of 1990. I received a letter from a colleague I hadn't seen in years. He had read my papers on artificially created life and knew someone who might be interested in seeing that research taken beyond the realm of theory. I met with the interested party and came away with the belief that he had only the best intentions in mind. He was wealthy beyond imagine and simply wanted a daughter with no strings attached. He had never married and suspected that any prospective marriage partner would be interested only in his fortune, and thusly he would lose not only a large portion of that fortune but his child as well if the marriage ended. The man did seem a bit paranoid, but I can't say I found fault with his logic. A plus was that he lived thousands of miles away from Townsville. He had never heard of the place until he flew to meet with me. I was thinking that having the child live somewhere distant was a good thing, though at the time I didn't understand why I felt that way. Even then, a tiny part of me was sensing that I would be doing the wrong thing.

So, for an advance fee of one million dollars, I began my research. By 1992 I was sure I was onto something solid and by the next year, my 'client' had greenlighted the 'project'. By early 1995 I had a full computer model to show him, and I got the go-ahead to produce a female child. I was paid another two million for the work, whether it succeeded or not, with an additional seven million to be paid on 'delivery'. Ten million dollars I took, and it gained me nothing.

Nothing good, I should say. What happened, I realized in hindsight, was an omen of what was to come. I had carefully stirred all of my ingredients with a large spoon. I went to my desk to briefly double-check the list to see if I had it right, when the reaction took place. I was not expecting it to happen that quickly and I feared the worst. But, she was perfect in every way. She didn't cry. She looked up at me with a smile in those blue eyes, with those tiny red curls, and her perfect little mouth sucked away like it was a pacifier at the spoon I had left in there when I walked away. The spoon, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, was made of silver. I smiled back and said, 'Why, you're just a little princess, aren't you?''

Bubbles was the first one able to speak. "She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth."

Blossom sagged visibly. "Oh, Bubbles, that might be funny if this weren't so sad."

Buttercup's feelings were all over her face but for now she said nothing. They kept reading.

'She was such a beautiful baby. Had Morbucks not been there in the house, I do believe I would have cleaned out my bank accounts, taken my infant daughter and quietly disappeared for good. But he was there. And I was too weak. I heard a noise behind me and knew he'd heard me talking to her. There was no chance of hiding her and explaining away the failure until he left. He came down the stairs, saw me holding her and immediately reached for her. She cried, then, and would not let go of me. I should have stood up to him, told him to keep his money, he wasn't getting my child. She was mine! But something in the way I hesitated giving her to him angered him and he told me calmly that he didn't take kindly to being double-crossed. It was a menacing calmness, and while today I fear him not and will fight him to the end, at that moment I did. I began to suspect that I'd seriously misjudged the type of man he was, but, even as my innocent little baby shrieked, I handed her over and took my thirty pieces of silver from him.

For a second, I was ready to snatch her back but he gave me a sneering, "Oh, if you want a kid so bad, just make another one. You can afford it. This one belongs to me." He looked at her and said. "Princess. Yeah, I like that."

Looking back now, it was just like those words in that song from my adolescence:

'Well, another man might have been angry.

And another man might have been hurt.

But another man never would have let her go.' ¹

I stashed the check in my shirt.'

Bubbles cried out loud, "Professor, how could you?"

Blossom was no less upset but said, "Wait, we still don't know everything."

Buttercup bellowed, "Well, I know all I need to know! Let's go take care of that creep before he can do anything to the professor!"

Blossom had to forcefully restrain her. "No, Buttercup! How do we know for sure it's Daddy Morbucks and not someone else? You're probably right, but we can't just go off blind without knowing more!"

"I don't wanna know any more!"

"Bubbles, we need to know exactly how Princess got like she did. She was born good, like us, and Professor's right, it isn?t her fault!"

"Duh, Blossom, he brainwashed her, that?s how!"

"No kidding, Buttercup, but there's still more to the story than that! Remember, Professor said that Daddy Morbucks lived thousands of miles away? What made him come here?"

Bubbles looked suddenly afraid. "And he was talking about her, not one of us! She's gonna do somethin' really bad someday!"

"Even worse than everything she's already done!" Blossom exclaimed.

Buttercup gasped. "Oh, you're right, guys! I forgot! Professor said that she keeps getting stronger! What's he mean?"

Blossom's expression turned to a determined one. "We have to find out. Like it or not, girls, Princess is our sister, too, and we have to help her!"

'For a time, I erased all thoughts of what I had done from my mind. My baby was gone and I needed to forget. I decided to get myself a pet, and seeing that I've always been such a practical person, I got one that could also serve me in the lab. That pet, of course, was JoJo, and you already know the story. But getting a pet was only partly successful, because my thoughts returned to my terrible deed and Morbucks' last words to me. I couldn't undo what I'd done, but I could still have a daughter. I rationalized that now I could provide her with a life I couldn't hope to had I not taken the money, as if that would somehow excuse me. Of course it didn't, but you know that story, too. Things were bumpy for a while until the world accepted them, but my girls are the light of my life and I wouldn't take back that accident for anything, not even to get rid of Mojo. It just pains me to no end to know that my kids don't have the love of their older sibling and she theirs. Instead, they fight, and I am the cause of it.

I am not the only one to blame here. Things could have gone on with there being no harm done to Townsville. But he just had to bring her back into my life.

I was shocked that afternoon when I saw the news that Morbucks Industries was going to move its headquarters to Townsville from its home all the way across the country. The explanation was that Townsville was a great place to do business, but I knew the real reason: Once he saw that I had created something even more wonderful than what he had, he wanted revenge. So he brought her back here, to torment me with having her so close, yet untouchable, and for something far more sinister. For, you see, while he turned my little Princess into a spoiled brat, she is not, at her core, evil. She knows only what she has been taught. The impetus for her desire to gain the powers that my girls possess comes from him. He is behind it all.

And this is where the true danger lies. While Chemical X is toxic to humans in large doses, (witness the sad case of my ex-college roommate and ex-friend), it is relatively harmless in small ones. But the effects are temporary. What Mojo Jojo gave to the girls' schoolmates wore off quickly with no ill effects. However, the dose he gave to Princess was a massive one, and rather than harming her, it gave her everything the girls have and then some, judging by what they told me. While I have no way to prove it (yet), I believe the powers would have been permanent had she not been hit with the antidote.

My reasoning is this: Since she is artificially created, she is subject to the same forces of nature that allowed my girls to receive their powers. Princess is immune to the dangers of Chemical X. Should she somehow be exposed to it again, I fear that the antidote may not work. Even if it does, she will be left stronger, and each new time it occurs, the antidote will become less and less effective until it has no effect at all. That would be wonderful, except for the fact that Princess in her current state will use those powers for evil purposes. My girls, powerful as they are, won't be able to stop her. I could strengthen them by repeatedly giving them the antidote and then restoring their powers, but I would leave Townsville temporarily unprotected each time. It's too risky.

I have now made it my life's work to take my first-born child away from Morbucks, legally if possible, but by whatever means necessary. This is why I have not told the girls. They will never go for using illegal methods, no matter the good intent behind them. But I will stop at nothing. My daughter will become a useful and loved member of society, and of our family.

Even if it kills me.'

They fought to keep their tears of hurt and anger from their eyes as they flew through the Townsville twilight.

"That Daddy Morbucks isn't getting the chance to hurt the professor!" Buttercup growled.

Blossom was no less furious. "Yeah! I wish he had told us, but he's wrong about one thing!"

"We won't stop at anything either!" Bubbles cried. "I don't care if it makes us criminals!"

Buttercup looked sideways at them. "We can always say we didn't know it was wrong to try and protect our sister from that no-good creep."

"Yeah! Ignorance is nine-tenths of the law!"

Blossom blinked. "Uh, Bubbles, I think it's 'possession'. But that's a better excuse than I can come up with."

They were fast approaching the lavish estate at Morbucks Manor. Blossom rapidly gave the plan. "OK, Buttercup, you go find Daddy Morbucks and don't let 'im outta your sight! Me an' Bubbles will try to convince Princess that she needs to come with us."

"Yeah, Blossom! When we tell her she's our sister and she can really be a Powerpuff Girl, she'll forget all about wanting to destroy us!"

"Who'da thought there'd ever be a fourth Powerpuff Girl?" Buttercup wondered aloud. "I'll meet up with you guys later!"

Her green streak went one way and her sisters' pink and blue ones the other above the huge house, just as the sun was setting.

Professor Utonium walked through the gathering dusk in the parking lot at the university. His speech had gone well but he wasn't thinking about that. He had something else more important on his mind. He had no trouble spotting his car; it was the filthiest one in the lot, another indication that his thoughts had been elsewhere for some time.

"I can't put this off any longer! I've waited too long as it is! I must do something about it tonight!"

It was all he could think about as he headed home. "Oh, why did I wait so long? The girls will never forgive me for letting things get out of hand like this."

Princess Morbucks sat, backed into the wall of her grand bedroom, trying to get as far away as she could. She stared in horror at the wet sleeves of her pajamas. "Ack! Powerpuff slobber! Keep away from me, you drooling fools!"

They had let their emotions get the best of them, hugging their lost sister and crying. Blossom decided she'd better start fresh.

Princess prompted her. "What do you blithering idiots want?"

"Princess, we want you to come home!"

"I am home!"

Bubbles tried explaining. "No, to our house. You're our sister!"

"What?! You're crazy!"

"No, it's true!" Blossom protested. "The professor made you first and sold you to Daddy Morbucks and then he made us and your daddy didn't like it and is trying to get back at the professor by makin' you hate us and everything!"

"Oh, really?" She didn't believe a word of it, but she could see that something had made the two little twits snap. "Looks like one of that idiot monkey's lasers worked for once." So she decided to toy with them. "Why did he sell me, then?"

Blossom seemed ashamed. "For the money. But Princess, he's really sorry and we all want you to come home and be part of our family."

"And, we're rich, too!" Bubbles said. "He put lots and lots of moneys away for us!"

That got her attention. "Oh, yeah?" she asked, her eyes afire. "How much?"

"Seven million dollars!" they shouted proudly.

"What?! Seven million? Split four ways? Why, my monthly allowance is more than that!"

Their mouths about hit the floor. Bubbles began to whimper. "But Princess, don't you wanna be a Powerpuff Girl with us?"

"I can be a Powerpuff Girl anytime I want, only better than you peons! Now get out of my house!!!!"

Blossom sputtered, "But...but..."

Princess closed her eyes, made fists and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Daddeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!"

Daddy Morbucks heard the little girl screaming but couldn't do a thing about it. At the moment, he was trying to keep himself out of the clutches of the little green lunatic. He'd been savoring his cigar and cognac in the library when she burst in, yelling and making wild accusations. Something about that nutty professor of hers, ten million bucks, brainwashing his daughter and he wasn't getting away with it. She was angry and crazy, but he was just angry. It was time to put his foot down on Utonium, hard. But first he needed to make sure that he wasn't the one to get stepped on.

He made it out of the library, avoiding a few bookcases as they toppled and showered their volumes to the floor, escaping through the trophy room on his way to the garage. Too open and not enough time to hop in a car, which would really do no good anyway. He managed to get back to the trophy room and get his hands on an old flintlock rifle, and he aimed it at her. He trembled with rage, and a healthy dose of fear.

"Don't come any closer or I'll shoot! I mean it!"

The old fowling piece hadn't been cleaned in some time and his shaking hands made it discharge. The ball struck Buttercup right between the eyes. She reached up and picked off the flattened piece of lead, about the size of a quarter.

"Oh, now you're really gonna get it!"

His anger gave way to fright and he ran, dropping the gun and running into a leather chair. He bounced into the wall, which knocked a mounted rhinoceros head to the floor, narrowly missing him. He seized it and thrust the protruding horn at her.

"Keep away from me, you crazy little-"

"FREEZE!!"

Buttercup heard a crash and spun to see four SWAT team members in sunglasses and earplugs, aiming shotguns directly at her.

"All right!" she shouted. "Take that jerk in 'fer questioning! He's got a lot of explaining to do!"

"I SAID FREEZE!!" shouted one of the cops, apparently the one in charge, and she heard the slide-action of the weapons before they were once again aimed at her. The men closed in on her.

"You've all got a lot of explaining to do!" came a voice. Buttercup whipped her head to see her sisters, each being escorted by two more SWAT team crew. The girls were cuffed and their legs shackled to each others, and they were in shock. Princess walked behind, smiling smugly. Buttercup was cuffed, shackled and connected to her sisters in short order.

"Thank goodness you heard the silent alarm." Morbucks dropped the rhino head and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Got here as soon as we could, sir." said the leader.

"Take 'em to jail, boys!" Princess crowed.

Morbucks, once again feeling in charge, told them, "We'll be right down. And Utonium had better have a good explanation for this, or else!"

"You're the one with the explaining to do!" Buttercup shot back.

Blossom yanked her bound arms away from the two cops and pointed them at Morbucks. "The professor wanted to do this his way, to protect Princess as well as us. But now we're gonna do it our way! When the whole world hears the truth about you, no amount of money can save you!"

"I'd keep my mouth shut if I were you." the team leader said, raising his weapon. "You three are in enough trouble as it is."

The shocked girls began to protest but got no sympathy from their captors, only a nasty chuckle from Princess. "But not as much trouble as your daddy!"

"Professor!" Buttercup shouted. She looked at her sisters. "Oh no! One a' you two shoulda gone to look for him!"

"I know!" Blossom whined. Her face fell, along with her sisters'. "It's too late now."

"Indeed." said Morbucks. Of the team leader, he asked, "You got him yet?"

"A car's on the way."

"Good. He's going to pay for this."

The girls struggled to escape, to no avail. They had met the force too powerful to stand against. If Morbucks had the cops on his side, there was no hope.

As soon as he pulled into the garage and stopped, the professor bolted from the car and ran toward the front door. No time to lose. He pulled up short. To his shock, the door stood wide open. He saw that all the downstairs lights, including the ones in the basement lab, were burning. He ran inside, calling for the girls, but got no answer. They weren't in their room. The house was empty. He called the mayor's office to see if they'd been sent on an emergency. Even if they had, it wasn't like them to leave the house wide open like this. It had to be something serious and he was worried. But when Sara Bellum answered the phone, what he heard shocked him even more.

"Yes, Professor, there's been an emergency. The police are on the way over to you now. The girls appear to be unhurt, but the situation is very serious. I'm sorry, Professor. I'm afraid not even the mayor or I can help you."

No sooner did he thank her and hang up, he heard the siren as the cruiser pulled up in front. He ran out to find two officers approaching. One was tall and dark and spoke in a gruff voice. The other was short, red-haired and red-faced, and spoke in an Irish brogue.

"Officers! Are my girls all right?"

"Uh, not exactly, Professor." the tall one said. "We need you to come downtown with us."

"They seem to be in a wee bit o' trouble, sir." said the other.

"May I at least lock up my house?"

They followed him in and walked around the downstairs while the professor checked the house again. Nothing seemed out of sorts here. Then they heard a gasp and ran down the basement steps. They saw him staring at a page on his computer screen.

"Oh no!"

"What's the matter?" asked the taller officer.

"Oh, what have I done? Officers, the girls found something that was never intended for them to see!"

"How bad is it?"

The professor quickly printed out the letter the girls had read and grabbed the four pages.

"Bad. I only hope it's not too late!"

A guard escorted him to the holding cells and left him there, moving off to keep an eye on things as everything got sorted out. "Tell 'em kids not to try anything. We got the place surrounded."

On one side were Morbucks and Princess; in a cell for their own protection, obviously. Morbucks stood in his pajamas and smoking jacket, and slippers. Princess had her bathrobe over her pajamas and scowled as soon as she saw him. In the cell opposite, Buttercup stood flanked by her sisters as they all clutched the bars and squealed in anxious delight upon seeing him. Their legs were still shackled.

"I'm afraid of what he can do to me, but I have to show my girls that I'm confident." He smiled. "Hello, girls."

"Well, hello, Daddy!" Princess said mockingly.

Bubbles missed the sarcasm and smiled. "It's okay if you call him Professor. Right, Professor?"

"Utonium, what in blazes is this about?" Morbucks thundered.

"Tell him, Professor!" Blossom pleaded.

"Yeah, Professor." Buttercup muttered, glowering and shaking her fist menacingly at the opposite cell.

"Now, girls, I want you to remain calm. The truth is going to come out and you don't have to worry about me any more."

"See? I told you!" Blossom said to Morbucks. "Princess, when this is all over, you'll see!"

"Yeah, I'll see that you three get what's coming to you!" She turned to Morbucks and said, "Daddy, I'm cold!"

He pulled out a fat stack of hundreds and handed it to her. She promptly tore the bills in half and dropped them on the floor, then pulled out a lighter. She rubbed her hands over the resulting flames. "Ah, that's better." She looked straight at the professor. "I wouldn't be your kid for all the money in Town-"

She stopped rubbing her hands, her eyes growing wide. She pulled out a calculator and furiously punched numbers, then sneered back at him. "For half the money in Townsville!"

"I'm sorry, girls." the professor said, shaking his head. "She's just too far gone. It's best to forget the whole thing and move on. I'm sorry I raised your hopes. I was wrong to think I could change things."

"No, Professor!" the girls pleaded as one, looking over at the sister who spurned what they were offering. "Don't give up!"

"BLAST IT!!" Morbucks shouted, his arms thrust straight down from his jacket. "Will someone tell me what's going on here?!"

Professor Utonium reached inside his lab coat to his shirt pocket and produced the letter. He handed the sheets through the bars to Morbucks, who took them. His hand went inside his jacket for a pair of reading glases. He held the letter up to his face, obscuring it from the girls' view as they waited anxiously for the reaction.

'N. Olive Burl, Esq.
1947 Capitol Ave.
Townsville, USA'

"Aha! B'wahahaha! Oh, this good, Professor!"

The professor grinned slightly and Morbucks saw the stares from the four girls. "There hasn't been any live burlesque in Townsville since they tore down the Capitol Theatre back in '47. Clever, Professor."

"Thanks. I figured nobody would even catch that."

The children scratched their heads in mild confusion. Morbucks read on.

'Dear Ms. Burl;

In the accompanying envelope you will find my Last Will and Testament. I prepared it myself using the approved form for this state and it was duly and properly witnessed by Sara Bellum, who I'm sure you will agree is as standout a citizen as we have. She is truly an asset to this community.'

"Oho, yes indeed, that Sara Bellum certainly stands out. Great asset."

The two men chuckled. The four girls squinted up at them. "Wha??"

Blossom implored, "Professor, what's going on?"

"Oh, nothing. Now be quiet and let him read my story."

"What??!!" came four shouts.

Blossom was incredulous. "Professor, this whole thing is just a story?"

"You made the whole thing up?" Buttercup shouted. "Why, I oughta..."

"Whose idea was it to go snooping through my files?"

"Hers!"

Buttercup found herself being pointed at on both sides. She slumped. "Mine. Guess we deserve it, huh?"

"We're sorry, Professor." Bubbles said sadly.

"We're sorry!" they all said to those across the aisle. Morbucks waved his hand in dismissal. He was engrossed in what he was reading.

Princess chortled, "Hah! Serves you right! You dorks really thought I was your sister!"

Bubbles fired right back. "Yeah, well the only way you're gonna be our sister now is in a story!"

"Or a Powerpuff Girl!" Buttercup shouted.

The brat ignored them. "Now I know where your noses went, you keep sticking 'em where they don't belong!"

She got a whack on the head from her father with the pages. "Zip it!" She saw he meant business. He went back to reading. Suddenly he held up his hand. "Oh, now wait a minute!" He looked out at the professor. "I think you just crossed the line!"

"Hah!" Blossom pointed through the bars. "The truth hurts, don't it?"

"What'd he say, Daddy?"

"Some not very nice things about me."

"Sue the pants off of 'im!"

"Hey, it's just a story, Princess." Blossom said somewhat angrily. "What's the big deal if it's all made up?"

The professor reached through the bars to pat her head. "It's all right, Blossom. I've got lots of pants." That made Bubbles giggle hysterically and the other two grin. Even Morbucks chuckled.

"Funny. Love the Chapin reference, too. Ah, good old Harry. We always lose the good ones."

"Uh, thanks."

Morbucks scanned the pages for a few more minutes. When he finished, he told the totally confused guard to release the girls. They were all let out and the girls and Princess moved as far away from each other as possible.

"Tell our friends outside it was all a big misunderstanding and they can go home."

"Put it on the Web. With a disclaimer that it's just a piece of fiction."

"I could stop you but I won't. I'd really appreciate it, though, if you changed a few names. You're a pretty clever guy. You can do it without changing your story much."

"Oh, I think I can do that. And my kids and I would appreciate it if you would sit on your daughter. You can do it without changing her lifestyle."

He gave the little brat a smirk. "Much."

"Oh, I think I can do that."

"YAY!!"

"Daddeeeeeeee!!!!"

Outside the jail, the girls sat in the back of the police cruiser they would all ride home in. They watched with interest as the professor stood next to the open rear window of Morbucks' chauffered limousine. They heard him insist that no harm had been done, but could the professor please, ask the girls to just call first if they had any concerns, either with him or his daughter? The girls couldn't see their arch-nemesis but could imagine her pouty little face. It was almost worth the whole ordeal.

Then the two men shook hands and the limo sped away. The professor crammed himself into the back of the police car, Bubbles promptly hopped onto his lap, and they rode off, with a different pair of officers than had brought him there.

"So, Professor," Blossom started out. "Are you gonna put it on the internet?"

"No, Blossom. I was going to when it was finished, but Morbucks was right about changing the names. Problem is, it will change the story."

Bubbles looked up at him. "Then why'd you tell 'im you would?"

"I saw an opportunity. The only way Princess will ever change, girls, is if he changes first. I think he got the picture...though I never dreamed he'd ever see that!"

"Sorry, Professor." Buttercup cast her eyes downward.

"Well, Buttercup, that's what I get for being so absent-minded that I forgot to get a baby sitter and then had to trust you girls to entertain yourselves without getting into anything...and for not passwording my passwords! I can't believe I did that! But it's all right, girls, things worked out just fine."

"But Professor," Bubbles asked. "What made you want to write a story about us in the first place?"

"Oh, to be popular with all your fans out there who like to read the interesting tales people write about you." he fibbed. "Besides, writing is a great outlet when you have things on your mind." That part was true.

They were astounded. Blossom asked, "You mean there's more stories about us?"

"Oh, a few."

"Can we read them, too?" Buttercup wanted to know.

"If you saw some of the fixes people get you into, I think you'd be glad you didn't read 'em."

"Tell us who they are and we'll kick their butts!"

"Can't do that, sweetie." he told his young firebrand.

"Why not?"

"Some of them are my friends."

Bubbles asked, "Are you popular, Professor?"

He looked down at the three little girls who looked up to him. "With the only audience that really matters to me, I sure hope so!"

Blossom smiled sweetly. "Aw, you'll always be popular with us, Professor!"

"Yeah." Buttercup said. "But don't give up your day job."

"Here we are, folks!"

They got out, thanked the officers for the ride and said good night. As he walked up the driveway and they floated alongside, Buttercup asked, "Are we gonna get punished for snooping?"

"Well, I had thought about doing something. What do you think is appropriate?"

"I know you'll be fair, Professor." Blossom said, hoping he?d say that frightening the heck out of them was punishment enough.

"Well, girls, as I was walking to the car tonight, my mind wasn't even on the great speech I'd just given. All I could think and worry about was what I'd done." He pulled the garage door remote out and they watched the door start to go up.

"You mean about leaving your story where we might find it?"

"Oh, no, Bubbles, not that! About me letting the car get so dirty! There's your punishment, girls."

"Aw, Professor!"

"Hurry up, girls, and then it's bedtime."

As they watched him go, Buttercup grumbled out loud.

"Some happy ending that was!"

Bubbles agreed. "Hey! Shouldn't he get punished too, for bein' absent-minded?"

Blossom watched him go inside the house and said quietly, "I think he has been, Bubbles. Grownups get punished different from us, that's all."

"What kinds of things DO you have on your mind, Professor?"

He went downstairs and started the computer up, intending to fix his compromised security measures.

"They never cease to amaze me. How they were even able to understand all that, let alone show the restraint they did once they thought I was in danger. And they were so ready to embrace someone who's shown them nothing but meanness and cruelty...such loving children they are, in spite of their outward aggressiveness at times. I feel terrible for tricking them like that, even though it was an accident. How can I explain to them that those words I wrote are just as much about my failings as they are about his? He's a selfish man and has raised that poor kid to be the same way, but am I any better? I spend my time working, working, working, and then complain when their duties take them away from me. I hate it that I have to share them with the world, even though I know it can't be any other way. And, I have no real idea what Morbucks' problem is. Maybe she's just a flat-out bad seed and money's the only thing he knows. It's my fear of losing my girls that is causing me to shy away from women and deny the girls the mother's influence they ought to have. I need to overcome that, for their sake."

Bubbles grabbed the hose away from Buttercup just in time, before her angry sister could blast Blossom with a jet of water.

"Where do you get that he's a bad father? Huh?!"

"I didn't say that, Buttercup!" The large, pink eyes blinked in shock. "I said he's worried that he's a bad father. His story shows he's afraid that he's not doing a good job of raising us!"

"I don't see that at all, Blossom." Bubbles said, matter-of-factly.

Buttercup took the hose back and finished rinsing off the car. "Yeah. Did we turn out bad?"

"No."

Bubbles dumped the wash water onto the driveway and Buttercup gave the suds a quick rinse, sending them to the street. She hung up the hose and Bubbles put the bucket away in the garage, and the two floated up to their sister, who hovered in the combined light of the garage flood and the moon, holding three big, white towels. They each took one from her and began toweling off the car, starting with the roof.

"What that story says to me, " Buttercup said, "is that he's a little weird. And so are his friends. I mean, why would anyone wanna make up stories about us when all they gotta do is watch the news at night? How can you top that? But still, he ain't a bad father."

"He's not weird!" Bubbles said forcefully with a scowl that disappeared just as quickly. "What that story says to me is just how much he loves us."

Blossom realized she was just floating there and pitched in with the drying. The moonlight threw their long shadows onto the grass, making them resemble the monsters their owners battled so often. "I guess you're right, Bubbles. Maybe I think too much."

"I know I'm right. We should go tell him why we were really lookin' at his stuff. We wanted to find out what he really thinks about us. That was wrong..."

Buttercup looked at her and said quietly, "Yeah...when we knew it all along."

Bubbles wiped the last drops of water from the back bumper and straightened up, her serious look replaced with a smile that reflected the love she felt. "But I want him to know that we found it anyway!"

The professor sat there at the keyboard; with the machine turned off for the night. He looked at his watch. A little past nine. Late for the girls, and he felt guilty for making them wash the car. Still, he believed they needed some real, concrete thing to teach them the lesson, because words didn't always sink in with them. Even so, something very good had taken place this night, and he shook his head in wonderment.

"It's amazing how even when they do the wrong thing, something good comes of it. I might not have ever showed this little piece of self-analysis to anyone, and now look what's happened. Princess may turn out all right someday, and I dearly hope she does. And if it does happen, I'll be able to look back to tonight and say, 'Once again, the day was saved...thanks to the Powerpuff Girls.'

THE END

¹ Song lyrics from 'Taxi' by Harry Chapin, 1972, WEA/Elektra Entertainment

Story written August 15-18, 2002

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