Chapter 1

"Professor, we're leaving for school now!" cried Blossom, knowing full well that he had trapped himself in his laboratory again, working on yet another one of his experiments.

They heard a muffled reply, which they took for a "Have a great day girls!" His usual words for when they left for the day.

"I guess he'll be working himself to the bone again", Buttercup murmured with a sigh, grabbing her bag as they headed out. For the past few weeks, the professor had been spending an increasing amount of time in his lab. He was working on a new project, something the Mayor had specifically asked for, and it had been taking away most of his time.

"I've tried to ask him to relax a little, to take a few breaks, but he keeps saying that his work is very important and he cannot sit still before it is completed" said Bubbles. The three had started out early today, deciding to take a lazy stroll to the school instead of flying. It felt like it had been ages since they had taken a relaxing walk together. They were always in a hurry, wherever they had to go, missing out on opportunities to just chat. "We might have to put our foot down. He's going to burn himself out. I'm thinking we should urge him to go out with us this weekend. We haven't gone on a family outing for quite some time".

Her sisters nodded, a slight smile appearing on their faces at the thought of some fun over the coming weekend. Growing up, they had always made it a point to go out somewhere nice at least once every week, to spend some time together as a family. The pressure of school and activities hadn't kicked in yet back then, and even the professor used to find time to excuse himself from work. Even though there hadn't been a lot of options for places to hang out at, Townsville being so small and them being reluctant to leave their town unguarded for even a day, they had still managed to relax and enjoy themselves.

When had everything changed though? When had school started taking precedence over family?

As they were ambling down the road, happily discussing all the things they ought to do on their day out, they suddenly felt a strong, hot, burning gust of air, whooshing past them. Before they could even react, whatever had caused it was gone, with only the air around them turned scorching and smoky. It was strong enough to char the skin off of a normal person. The girls themselves were left gasping painfully, their eyes watering from the burning sensation.

"What the hell was that?!" Buttercup exclaimed angrily, still coughing from the remnants of the fiery smoke, her eyes shut tight to prevent it from hurting them anymore.

Wheezing, Bubbles muttered. "I- it was so sudden, I didn't even get the chance to see!"

Together they started moving their arms around, strongly cutting through the air. As the smoke started to dissipate, the girls opened their eyes. To their horror, they found that the air around them was left with trails of the smoke.

It was colored in bright red, blue and green.

"Is that, what I think it is?" Blossom whispered, sudden dread creeping into her voice, making her shiver.

The three of them looked at one another, their eyes wide with shock, trying to confirm their suspicions. "That - It couldn't have been...?", Bubbles' voice trailed off as she stared at her sisters first, and then back at the wisp of colored smoke, blowing dangerously in front of them.

Without wasting even a second more of their time, the three of them rose up in the air together, as if having read each others' minds. Their hearts thudding wildly, they took off, following the trail of the smoke.

As they increased their speed, realization suddenly hit them. The trail was leading them to their high-school!

They stopped right in front of the gates. From the outside, nothing looked amiss. But the trail seemed to be going inside their building.

Their blood pumping furiously, they rushed inside.

They had been expecting to find the place in nothing short of chaos, with people running amok while they cried desperately for help. However, the scene in front of them was regular, like any other day. Nobody seemed the least bit affected. In fact, most people probably hadn't even noticed anything.

Wait, hadn't all three of them noticed the unusual smoke? Were they somehow misled?

Frowning, Buttercup stopped a young boy, who was hurrying towards his locker. "Hey, did you notice something weird coming inside the building right now?" she asked quickly.

The boy blinked, gazing at them dumbly and then shook his head, stating that he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. Feeling impatient, Buttercup exclaimed, "Think carefully! Did you happen to see a trail of colored smoke entering the building!?" Startled by her temper, the boy took a step back. "Uhm, no. I didn't", he replied feebly, gaping at her face, afraid that she might have lost her marbles.

"This is no use, I don't think the students know anything." Blossom said on an exasperated breath.

Beginning to feel uneasy; sure that something was terribly wrong, they decided to go to the principal's office and warn him, letting him know of their suspicions. The principal always listened to them on matters concerning the school's safety. They had lost count of the times they had saved the building from crashing down from a monster attack.

The Powerpuffs rushed into the principal's office, ready to caution him, but then stopped dead in their tracks.

Sitting there, in front of the principal's desk, were three boys, dressed in colors that the girls were all too familiar with. They stared at those well-known faces that were calmly turned towards the principal, who-surprisingly, was smiling down pleasantly at them.

How could the principal be so calm when three of the most powerful and violent criminals ever to have threatened their town, were sitting right in front of him? What in the world was going on?!

"Mr. Anderson! What are the-"

"Oh, good morning girls!" beamed their principal as soon as he saw them. He got up from his chair and gestured towards the boys. "Say hello to Misters Brick, Butch and Boomer Jojo. They have been transferred to our school and start their classes from today."

TRANSFERRED TO THEIR SCHOOL?!

The girls gaped at their principal, who seemed not to have noticed their expression.

"I trust that you'll show them around. I had been meaning to call you to my office and introduce you to them. These boys had been studying in Citiesville high but for financial reasons, had to come to Townsville instead. Of course, living in Citiesville must have been hard on you three, the cost of living there is exceptionally high." he was saying to the boys, nodding his head as if in understanding. "I can assure you, everything will be taken care of here in our school. I hear you've found yourselves a place to live already. Don't worry about money, I'm sure the school's board of directors will work something out. I've talked to the teachers in your old high-school and they have had nothing but good things to say about you three. We're happy to help out students like you."

Mr Anderson glanced at his watch and started on seeing the time. "But, now that that's done, off you go! Your classes start in a few minutes!"

Thus saying, he dismissed the students from his office, returning to the piles of paperwork littering his desk.

Feeling awkward and anxious, the girls silently walked out of the principal's office, too dazed to protest. They were about to walk back to their classrooms when a voice stopped them.

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to show us where to go?" a snide voice remarked from behind.

Ignoring the voice, the girls kept walking.

"Don't reply to anything they say. Lets just go to our classroom for now. We'll get to the bottom of this soon eno- hey!" Blossom was stopped short by a strong hand, tugging at her elbow. She jerked away sharply, to look at the perpetrator. There, standing with the most infuriating smirk on his face, was Brick. Behind him, Boomer and Butch held similar grins.

They were too shocked to notice inside the office, but once outside, the Powerpuffs looked at them closely. The boys sure had grown up, a LOT. All three of them were easily 6 ft tall. Brick of course, still sported a short pony-tail and wore a maroon cap over his ginger head. Dressed in a maroon t-shirt and a pair of black jeans, he looked casual and—much to the girls' chagrin—handsome. Butch wasn't bad either, with his black hair spiked up in a fashionable taste and wearing an ensemble of green and black. He had grown quite a bit of muscles, making his body look lean and strong. Boomer, on the other hand, had the cute boy-next-door looks, with his wavy blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes that matched the color of his shirt.

The three of them together, in fact, looked extremely striking.

"Aw, come on now. Don't be mad. We only want you to help us find our new classrooms", Brick drawled. "After all, the principal said you were supposed to".

Incensed by her confusion over their sudden arrival, and also their helplessness at being able to do nothing inside the school, at least for now, Buttercup cried out furiously. "Listen you twerp, we know you're here to cause us trouble. If you think we're going to actually help you guys with that, then you're the biggest fools to have graced the Earth, ever!" She was seething with rage, wanting nothing better than to challenge the boys into a fight right there. If she thought her comment would rile the boys up though, she was disappointed.

Instead, surprisingly, they looked thoroughly bored.

"What was that? Twerp?!" Butch chortled, watching Buttercup's red face, and smirking at her. He shook his head, as if to say he was disappointed at all three of them. "Jeez, I can't believe you guys still act like this." he said. "It has been a really long time since we saw you, and we thought you would have changed by now. Sure, we had our differences when we were in kindergarten, what with you wanting to protect Townsville and us wanting to destroy you. But I thought that was all in the past. We've grown up now, for heaven's sake. Don't you think it's time we left our childish differences behind?"

Astonished, and more than a little confused, the girls couldn't help but stare foolishly at them. What exactly were these three playing at? Changed? How was it possible for three brats, who derived immense pleasure from causing havoc in the city, to change? Surely they were up to something. Surely they were here to fight the Powerpuff girls and destroy their high school. Surely they wanted to use their powers and take over Townsville!

"Hellooo? Earth to the Powerpuffs. Can you hear us?" joked Boomer, smiling pleasantly at them.

It was the way he looked at them—with his eyes almost kind— that broke them out of their reverie.

"Are you going to show us to our classrooms now?" Boomer asked, his lips still drawn up in that annoyingly good humored smile. "We'd hate to be late on the very first day of our class here and give a bad impression to the teacher."

The older girls had their eyes narrowed at him, suspiciously.

Bubbles finally mumbled.

"Uh, um. Yeah. Okay. Just follow us and we'll take you to your classrooms". She glanced at the other two, with a troubled look on her face, as if to ask if this was the right thing to do.

After a few minutes, Blossom and Buttercup nodded their heads slightly, and together they started heading towards their classroom, with the boys following closely behind.