Episode 1: Crusader 'Toonist

The city of Townsville: Yet another summer break has just about come and gone for the children; soon, many will start school for the very first time, others are starting their first year without school, and for others, it's the beginning of a brand new year; especially for the Powerpuff Girls! But, as they're growing older, the girls will have to go through their school career without their beloved teacher from kindergarten: Ms. Keane.

On the last day of summer break, after having their dinner with the Professor, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup flew to their teacher's house to say their goodbyes. They rang the doorbell and waited patiently on the porch. Ms. Keane emerged from her house with the brightest smile on her face when she saw her former students,

"Why, if it isn't my young ladies! You're growing up so fast!" she greeted. But, the Powerpufff Girls hung down their heads,

"School won't be the same without you..." Blossom lamented.

"Why can't you start teaching the first-graders now?" Bubbles asked innocently.

"No teacher could ever replace you!" Buttercup sighed. Ms. Keane laughed, and motioned the girls to step inside the house. The sisters sat in the seats at a table.

"As much as I'd love to be able to teach at a higher grade level," the teacher began, "I don't think I'm moving out of my position anytime soon. You're going to have many teachers as you go through the years, some will be okay, some may not, and others will be better teachers than I'll ever hope to be. It's just another little thing you have to leave behind along the way to adulthood."

The Powerpuff Girls nodded silently. Then, Ms. Keane asked, "You've been registered already, right? Do you know who your new teacher is?" The sisters thought for awhile; Blossom responded,

"Um, his name's... Mr. Tremblay." Ms. Keane's eyes widened, and she pressed her body against her chair,

"Great."

"What, you don't like him?" Buttercup asked.

"I haven't spoken to him often," Ms. Keane explained, "He... well, let's just say he's very vocal about his opinions. He's not the best at keeping them to himself during school hours."

"Is he a bad teacher?" Bubbles fretted.

"I shouldn't be bad-mouthing him in front of his new students," Ms. Keane chuckled, "The last thing I'll say about him is: he'll get off topic. A lot. So, if he get's too off the subject, just remind him of what he's supposed to be doing, alright?"

"Okay!" the sisters said together,

"We'll keep in touch, right?" Blossom asked Ms. Keane as they were about to go back outside.

"Of course, girls." With that, the Powerpuff Girls began their flight home. They came into their house and played video games for a few hours. Returning to their school-year bedtime, the Professor had to shut off the TV and tuck his anxious daughters to bed. The girls tried to imagine what their new year at school would be like before finally drifting off to sleep.

...

Instead of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, the Powerpuff Girls would be attending Pokey Oaks Elementary School, the sister school, where they would be from 1st grade to 5th grade. On this day, the Professor drove his daughters to school.

"School's gonna get harder, isn't it?" Buttercup grumbled.

"Of course," the Professor answered, "But, don't get too nervous, Buttercup, they'll ease you into the new things." Utonium parked his car and the family walked into the lobby of the school, where dozens of parents tried to calm down their nervous children. "See? There's your classroom over there," the Professor pointed at a room at the end of the hall. He hugged the girls and left the building.

Taking a deep breath, the Powerpuff Girls shuffled to their classroom, Room 5, and stepped inside. Assaulting their eyes were posters of different cartoons hanging on the walls, some they recognized, like Looney Tunes, and others they didn't have a clue about, like something called Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures; the posters did not go well with the standard educational material in the classroom.

The sisters got their first good look at their new teacher, Mr. Tremblay, sitting at his desk. He looked much younger than he was, though, he was sixty. He had pretty normal features, except when he turned his head towards the girls, they realized the lens of his glasses were opaque, making the eyes behind them impossible to see.

Mr. Tremblay frowned as soon as he saw the Powerpuff Girls, who immediately knew something about them annoyed him; but, he said,

"You don't need to remind me. You gotta be excused when the Mayor calls; there's name tags at your desks." The girls stared at their new teacher before going to their assigned seats. They began to observe the students who gradually flooded the classroom.

"Ugh! We gotta spend another year with Mitch Mitchelson?!" Buttercup groaned, referring to an annoying kid from kindergarten as he walked into the classroom. They waited for a while, and when everyone had found their desks, after all the parents had left, Mr. Tremblay finally stood up and introduced himself,

"Alright, I'm Mr. Tremblay. I'm what the staff calls, 'The Radical.' Now, I don't consider myself one, but I don't follow the lesson plans to a T, and that makes the staff a little uncomfortable. For the first day, I want to do an activity to help us get to know each other a bit." The children's eyes lit up and they whispered to each other with excitement. Mr. Tremblay tapped a ruler on his desk to quiet down the students.

"Here's how it works," Mr. Tremblay announced, "You have to get into groups of at least three people. I'm a studio executive, and you're all up and coming animators; each group will come up with an idea for an animated show that you'll pitch to me, the studio executive. Everyone will have until after lunch to come up with their idea, and you'll pitch your show to me after lunch."

The class grew so quiet, you could almost hear a cricket chirping. The teacher sat back down at his desk and leaned back, "All I ask is that you put your best effort into it. Don't hold yourself back, I'll listen to any idea you have. It's not for a grade, but I'm still rating it." The class awkwardly got up from their seats and bunched into groups, the Powerpuff Girls immediately grouping with each other, along with their friend, Robin Snyder.

It took a while for anyone to start talking, but once they got the hang of the activity, Blossom almost had to shout to converse with her sisters and Robin,

"Bubbles, Robin, whatever we come up with, you draw it down. Anybody got any ideas?" Buttercup grinned widely and flailed her arms around,

"I got one!" she giggled maniacally, "It's a bazillion years in the future after a nuclear war wiped out most of the human population; but, aliens arrive and give the survivors super-human powers so the last humans can fight to gain control of the Earth to repopulate it! I call it... The Omega Wars!" Bubbles raised her hand when her sister was finished, and she described her idea,

"Um, I know! A fairy kitten lives in an enchanted forest, and we follow her adventures helping the magical animals of the forest, and along the way, everybody learns some environmental messages. It's called Fairy Kitty Fiona and Friends." Finally, Blossom proposed her cartoon,

"I'm going for something way out there," she explained, "In my show, Wanderer, our main character wanders around a barren wasteland, and she encounters some interesting things along the way. The audience will keep guessing: is she dead? Does everyone she meet represent an aspect of her mind? Is this the world after the end? You're supposed to figure that out by yourself, and there's no dialogue."

"Why?" asked her sisters and Robin,

"Because, no dialogue makes it even more artsy!" The Powerpuff Girls began to argue over whose idea was the best, and after a while, they turned to Robin, "Do you have any ideas, Robin?" Blossom asked her,

"No."

"Then, you be the one to vote whose idea is the best!" Buttercup challenged Robin. The girl blushed and twiddled her thumbs,

"Oh, I like everybody's idea! But, um, I was thinking, Mr. Tremblay probably likes artsy stuff; so, he'll probably like Blossom's idea the best." Right away, Blossom began instructing Bubbles and Robin on what the characters would look like, how the backgrounds should be, to color in the lines, and so on. Buttercup just sulked and observed her group members silently.

The lunch bell rang at long last, the students almost having to be pried away from their creations. They hurriedly ate their lunches and rushed back to their class when they were all finished. The groups got into a line as Mr. Tremblay sat back down at his desk,

"Alright, the way this works is each group will have five minutes to describe the fundamentals of their show, and I, the studio executive, will decide if your idea's worth having a pilot episode produced." The kids gasped in delight, but sighed when Mr. Tremblay added, "And, no, I'm not actually making a pilot for your show." Mitch Mitchelson's group went first.

He and his group detailed their show called, Bringing Home the Bacon with Benny and Quinn; but, Mr. Tremblay interrupted them suddenly after only a minute,

"No, no, no! You know what you're doing wrong? Your taking a page out of all those shows with the two male protagonists who have the same personality and go on psychedelic adventures. It's been done to death by now, if I can't tell the difference between the main characters, especially if they're unlikable, why should I watch more than one episode?"

Mr. Tremblay continued this pattern of pointing out every mistake with each group's idea, getting particularly annoyed every time a group had an idea based on anime. So, the groups became less and less enthusiastic about presenting their idea when it was their turn. I just know Mr. Tremblay will love my idea, Blossom thought to herself, It's completely different from everyone else's.

Finally, it was the Powerpuff Girls and Robin's turn, Blossom and Buttercup explained the setting and characters while Bubbles and Robin showed off each drawing. But, Mr. Tremblay cleared his throat in the middle of their presentation, silencing the group.

"It's different, I'll give you that," the teacher admitted, "But, there's one major issue: I can't tell the personality of your main character, she's too non-distinct," he pointed at Bubbles' drawing of the main protagonist.

"Uh, well, I-uh," Blossom stammered, "You're kind of supposed to figure that out with the people and places she encounters."

"Your designs don't tell me a thing, it's too subdued, do you want your viewers to fall asleep from boredom?" Mr. Tremblay asked. The group just stared at him, trying to say something back; but, they silently grabbed the papers and began heading back to their desk. Mr. Tremblay leaned down and whispered to the Powerpuff Girls, "I need you three to stay behind when school ends. I need to talk to your father."

The rest of the day was spent silently reading, the heroines nervously wondering what they did wrong to warrant staying after school ended. At one point, Mr. Tremblay called someone on the phone, and the girls could tell he was speaking to the Professor, "Hello, Mr. Utonium, uh, listen, I need you to come to the school after everyone's let out, I need to speak to you with your daughters... no, no! It's not like that, I'll explain when you get here... alright, thank you."

When the bell rang, the sisters enviously looked on as the kids burst out of the classroom, Robin sympathetically waved to them as she left. The Powerpuff Girls and the teacher were the only ones left, Mr. Tremblay stared at the girls behind those opaque glasses. At four-o-clock the Professor stepped into the room and shook hands with the teacher,

"Have a seat," Mr. Tremblay said, gesturing to a chair beside his desk. He looked at the Powerpuff Girls and called out to them, "Come closer, this involves all of you." The girls timidly rose from their seats and, with their arms behind their back, did as they were told. Mr. Tremblay sat back down at his desk, and let out a long sigh, "Mr. Utonium, your girls have a serious problem."

"What do you mean?" the Professor grunted, the Powerpuff Girls held their breath and blushed. Mr. Tremblay clasped his hands together,

"I understand that your girls are triplets. But, I get the feeling that they're the same body with different colored clothing and hairstyles, along with the basest personality differences to tell them apart." The Professor stared at the teacher, horrified,

"Are you insulting my daughters?!" he tried to contain his growing fury.

"Of course not!" Mr. Tremblay laughed, "This is constructive criticism! I can tell you're a smart guy, a lot smarter than most other dads I've met. I'm helping you to improve your daughters!"

"Improve?" The Professor shot out of his seat, "Sir, I'll have you know that when I'm through speaking to the staff, you'll be out of a job!" Mr. Tremblay shook his head,

"Tsk, tsk; so be it. No one understands the good I'm trying to do for the world. It may take a lot to change the zeitgeist, but it's even harder to bring it back to what it used to be."

"I've had enough of your nonsense!" Utonium grabbed his daughters hands and they were about to leave the classroom, when an ear-peircing crash from the outside made the family look back out of the window at the skyscrapers of Townsville, where something massive was stomping around within the city.

"Looks like the Powerpuff Girls need to save the day again," Mr. Tremblay noted, "If you don't mind, I'd like to see you girls in action; I just want to see how you handle the monsters of the week." The Powerpuff Girls hesitated, but they picked up Mr. Tremblay and the Professor and flew out of the school. As they grew closer to the city, the heroines realized who was terrorizing Townsville.

Their arch nemesis, Mojo Jojo, was inside another one of his giant robots, blasting the streets with a canon attached to one of the arms, but he wasn't alone; the dreaded demon, HIM, rode on the right shoulder of the mechanical beast, hurling fireballs at the buildings. And the creature Fuzzy Lumpkins chased the innocent bystanders on the ground with his rifle in hand. The three villains stopped their rampage when they spotted the Powerpuff Girls,

"Ah, we were wondering when you'd show yourselves!" HIM greeted,

"Finally, at long long last, we shall commence another battle between the forces of good and evil, the Powerpuff Girls versus I, Mojo Jojo, who has brought reinforcements, backup villains to assist in the destroying of our shared enemies!" Mojo announced from inside his machine.

"We're gonna git you girls this time!" Fuzzy boasted. The Powerpuff Girls set down their father and teacher, and they retorted,

"Bring it!" the heroes and the villains began running closer to each other; but, Mr. Tremblay rushed out in between the fighters with an ecstatic face and waved his arms at the villains,

"Hold up! I want to get a closer look at you!" Everyone halted, irritated. HIM jumped off the robot and Mojo emerged from inside the robot,

"Who is it that dares to interrupt this showdown, risking his life by jumping straight first into a battle field?" the simian screeched at the teacher. Mr. Tremblay's grin widened, and he began howling with laughter, almost falling to the ground,

"Beautiful, just beautiful!" he cried. The sisters stared at the confused Professor, and the villains stared at each other, puzzled, "The unique personalities, the distinctive voices, the political incorrectness of your designs!"

"Huh?" Mr. Tremblay turned around and scowled at the Powerpuff Girls,

"You've failed at everything if your villains are more interesting than the heroes!" Mr. Tremblay scolded, "It's clear to me now: I'll get nowhere by sticking with these boring protagonists. To make this world the way I want it to be, I'm siding with the bad guys!" He turned to the villains excitedly and explained to them, "I'm not hiding my powers anymore, just watch and you'll see what I really am!"

He pulled out a piece of paper with a drawing on it from his pocket, delightfully saying, "I knew this costume would come in handy eventually!"

"Mr. Tremblay!" Utonium shouted, "What are you doing?" The teacher put the paper on the ground underneath his feet. Then, he pulled the sides of the paper up his body, the paper being far more elastic than possible. He continued this until the drawing of the paper completely covered his body, and finally, he let go when the paper went over his head. He now wore a black trench coat with black gloves and shoes; his entire head had been replaced with a cartoonish fox mask. In one hand he wielded a large lance.

The Powerpuff Girls snapped out of their shock and leaped towards Mr. Tremblay, the Professor stared on nervously. Mojo, Him, and Fuzzy sat down in front of Mojo's robot.

"Should we go get the girls while they're distracted?" Fuzzy inquired his fellow villains.

"It is not right, completely unfair!" Mojo grumbled, "This newcomer is hogging the spotlight, leaving us, the main antagonists of the episode, in the sidelines!"

"Let's watch the show for today," HIM proposed, "This may be an interesting fight." Mr. Tremblay ran from the Powerpuff Girls at an inhuman speed, rolling out of the way as they tried to swoop down and tackle him. He made it to a poster of a festival that would be coming to Townsville. To the heroes' shock, Mr. Tremblay peeled off the illustration of the Ferris Wheel as it were a sticker.

The Powerpuff Girls flew closer to Mr. Tremblay, who was using his hands to stretch out the Ferris Wheel. The girls were almost a hair length away from Mr. Tremblay, who had managed to stretch the Ferris Wheel to make it as tall as the triplets put together. He sent it rolling towards the girls, who screamed as the Ferris Wheel barely missed them. However, Buttercup had managed to grab onto the wheel,

"Thank you, Mr. Tremblay!" she laughed as she hurled the object towards her teacher. To everyone's surprise, Mr. Tremblay had stretched out his lance in that time to make it extremely long, and wider as well. He used the lance to slow down the Ferris Wheel when it hit the ground and started to roll towards him. Before the Ferris Wheel could stop, the Powerpuff Girls took this opportunity to grab the distracted Mr. Tremblay and grip him tightly so he couldn't move.

They threw the teacher onto the ground, Bubbles taking his lance away from him. Mr. Tremblay groaned,

"I'm out of practice... but, no matter what happens to me, I'll stop at nothing until I make my perfect world, I can't stop."

"Why not?" asked Blossom,

"If you hadn't guessed by now, I'm no ordinary human. I go from world to world, every time I die on one, I'm sent to another one. For who knows how long, I go to one world, die, go to another one, rinse and repeat. But, some day, I'll break out of this cycle, and I'll recreate the world the way I see fit." No one said anything more. The police arrived, arresting Mr. Tremblay and taking off his costume.

The Utoniums and the other villains watched as Mr. Tremblay was driven away from the premises inside the police car.

"Looks like you'll be spending the year with a different teacher," the Professor remarked,

"Maybe Ms. Keane can fill in!" Bubbles cheered, and her sisters squealed in agreement. They turned around to look at the villains, who jolted and pleaded,

"Wait, wait!"

"Looks like we've got some unfinished business!" Blossom huffed. The Powerpuff Girls happily fell back to their routine of beating up their rivals.

And so, once again, the day is saved, thanks to: The Powerpuff Girls!