Don't Fear the Shadow

Chapter Two

Shade's Mishap

Twenty minutes after her agreement with Him, Shade went back to the suburbs, and decided to look for the target provided for her. She figured that she would be useful for something, knowing that he would be the right man to cooperate with. She floated to the top of a nearby house and searched everyone, until she came across one home: the home of the Powerpuff Girls. She took a peek inside to see if Crystal was in there.

"There she is," said Shade, as soon as she spotted her. "She's the chick that weirdo wanted me to copy. But it looks like there are other girls too, so I'll have to wait until one of them is alone, then I'll go for the attack." She then mimicked Buttercup by accident and looked at herself in disgust. Him then appeared from behind her and giggled at her for her mistake.

"What?" said Shade, in Buttercup's voice.

"I didn't say mimic one of the Powerpuff Girls, silly girl," he said, grinning wickedly.

"Sorry, my bad," said Shade, in Buttercup's voice, as she had her hand on the back of her head in embarrassment. She transformed back to her true form, and looked into the window again, saying, "But I'll do it right this time." She looked at Crystal one more time, and mimicked her. This time she did it correctly, looking like a perfect replica of Crystal Lee. But first, she needed to wait until the right moment for her attack on one of her friends.

Meanwhile, the girls, minus Princess, were having a conversation about the recent crimes lately.

"Man, this stinks," said Buttercup in disgust. "Eversince ol' Him showed up to beat the heck outta Crystal, a lot of bad guys started showin' up. Some of them we don't know yet, the rest we do. I mean, jeez! This is nuts!"

"Nuts is right," said Nancy, while stroking her black hair. "Crime rates have been increasing lately. God knows when this crime spree will end."

"You got that right," said Buttercup, in agreement. As soon as Blossom finished reading a book, she closed it, put it away, and said, "Well, there could be a logical explanation for these strange crimes. But I would have to agree with Buttercup that they have been breaking out constantly."

"See," said Buttercup. "Even the leader girl's agreein' with me. You'll have to be a brainiac to figure that out." She grinned as she said this. Blossom got angry and said, "Brainiac? Why you!" She was about to hit her own sister, but Buttercup dodged the punch while playfully teasing her.

"I dare you to say that again, Buttercup!" said Blossom, angrily.

"Hee, hee, hee! You're a brainiac!" said Buttercup, playfully. Blossom kept attempting to punch Buttercup, but failed to do so many times. Crystal on the other hand had enough of their quarrel, so she placed a barrier around each sister, except for Bell, Bunny, and Bubbles, who hated arguments. Blossom and Buttercup saw a barrier on both of them and said, "Hey!" Crystal steps in with a smile, and says, "No more arguin' you two." They both made a blank look after she said this. Bubbles giggled at the sight, having already known that Blossom and Buttercup fight with each other all the time.

"The question is, how will we defeat Him and bring peace to this city?" said Nancy.

"Well, there's always the Otto Time Diner," said Bubbles.

"Girl, that's only if he's not causin' trouble," said Sasha. "Besides, Brittany and I had to quit because he figured us out through our disguises."

"That's the same with the De-Ville Marketplace," said Crystal. "Only that was opposite from Sasha and Brittany. He actually fired us after he found out who we were."

"Bummer," said Buttercup.

"Ahem," said Bunny. "Might I make a suggestion?"

"What's up, failed experiment?" said Buttercup.

"Please don't call me that," said Bunny, with a blank look. "As I was saying, maybe we could use some ice against Him. It worked on him before."

"Yeah, but we can't just dump a big ice cube on 'im," said Buttercup.

"No, she has a point," said Crystal. "He seems to hate the cold, so ice should definitely work." Sasha looks at the clock. It was getting close to 9:00 PM.

"Don't look now, but bedtime's about to hit," she said as she read the clock.

"Good point," said Blossom. "Let's talk about this in the morning, okay?" Everyone agreed and went to go to bed. Crystal on the other hand sensed someone's presence outside. She went to take a look outside. There was no one in sight. She shrugged and went back inside. As soon as she got into the house, Shade, who was in disguise of Crystal, was hiding in a nearby bush. She smirked and left at the right moment, hoping that she would do as Him pleases. But first, she needed to frame her latest victim.

To be continued…