Thank you again, Asuki-sama, for editing this chapter for me!

The List

Professor
"Thanks for the help, Professor Utonium! We couldn't have done it without you!"

"No problem!" I said with a smile.

Professor Charles Berger left the room and considerately closed the door. I was initially surprised when I found out that Leo's adoptive father worked as a scientist at the Townsville lab; no one had told me. The last I had heard of him, the day the boys were sent down to Texas to live with him and his wife, was that he was a doctor. However, we had gotten to know one other over the night. We became fast friends as the night grew longer and we opened up to each other. He told me that he'd left the San Antonio hospital only a few years after they had adopted the boys and continued his career as a scientist. Science was a lonely field; it was so pleasant having a man like Charles as a colleague.

During a short break, while we were having coffee together, he invited my family and me to eat dinner with his family on Christmas Eve. Apparently, they didn't have any other family than his wife's sister and she and her family was going to spend their Christmas in Hawaii. And since the girls and I only had my mother, she was invited as well.

I always invited my brother Eugene but I hadn't seen him since we were twenty-something. He always gave me excuse after excuse, year after year, that he was too busy to see us. So I severely doubted that he was going to show up this year either.

Before Charles left, he told me that there was a woman here who went by the name Irene. She had the keys to the lab and was the one who locked all the doors when everyone finished their business in the building so that all we had to do was just leave once we were done.

It was four AM, still dark outside, from what I could tell when I separated the window blinds a little to see. I was humming to myself as I gathered all of my stuff and put them in my briefcase. I whistled a little as I walked towards the door and grabbed the door knob.

"Going somewhere, are we?"

My whole body froze. Chills started running down my spine, with one of my hands still stuck on the door knob. That voice – those voices – could make any human faint from fear; any man, feel less of a man. But what struck fear in me most of all was his name…

Him.

When I turned around, I spotted the demon, or creature; tall and red, staring at me with a frightening glint in his eye and a wide, evil smile as he sat perched on one of the counters.

"Now you're mine."

Somewhat later – if it was an hour or a day, I didn't know – I woke up on a cold, stone floor with a gag stuffed in my mouth and ropes binding my wrists and ankles. My eyes felt thick and fuzzy. And most alarming of all, the world didn't sound right, ringing and banging within my skull. I didn't know where I was or what I was doing here. Sweat ran down my body even though the floor felt cool on my face; the room I was in was steaming hot.

"So you're finally awake? I was starting to wonder if you would ever wake up." I heard Him's voices tell me, echoing and clashing with the rest of the painful noise in my...mind…? I couldn't even confirm if I was going crazy or he was right in front of me.

When he spoke, it sounded like two different people talking together. The first was feminine and malevolent. The other was soprano and not of this world. I shivered at the melodious yet malicious harmony crescendo-ing in my mind.

"Now all we have to do is to wait for your little Powerpuff girls to come to your rescue so I can finally show them my newest invention: the Powerpuff Exterminator Six Thousand and One!"

I looked up to see a big, dangerous looking machine. I was hoping that it couldn't possibly harm my little girls. However, I couldn't do anything to warn them either, I was completely helpless where I laid on the cool floor.

I saw that we were in a big, dark cave of some sort. It smelled wet and old.

"U' 'ill memver…!"

"I can't hear anything you're trying to say so it's better you just keep quiet while we wait for them! I think they've noticed at this point that you're not home!"

He started walking right past me. I had a sudden flash of inspiration. Maybe if I could trip him, I could try to escape... But as soon as I started kicking my legs, I knew it wouldn't work. I couldn't reach him.

"Try not to enrage me." Him laughed. "Finally, I will get rid of those Powerpuffs and the world will be mine!" He shouted as he held his arms out to no one in particular and laughed a stone cold laugh. "But first my assistant needs to lure them over here, and then the Powerpuff Exterminator Six Thousand and One will do whatever it does. And then the world is mine." He said with a dark voice, turning towards me.

"'uh ish 'ur ashishdand?" I mumbled through the gag calmly.

"Who is my assistant? And you think I will just tell you?" Him laughed. "What I can do is to tell you this: it's someone they really hate and would do anything to stop."

Blossom
Four days before Christmas.
When I woke up the morning after the Yule ball I felt so euphoric; Dainton was back in my life and I could finally forgive him. It was only four days until Christmas and my bedroom was bathing in sunlight. It was ten AM and I felt it was time to rise and shine.

When I entered the kitchen five minutes later, Becca was already there and was reading The Townsville Times.

"Good morning!" I said luminously and stretched my whole body as I headed to the fridge.

"Good morning. Hey, Professor isn't home yet." Becca said, expressing very little interest as to the disappearance of our father. That and his sudden disappearance was so strange.

"He's not?" I asked worriedly when I turned around to face her.

"So you're worried too?" said Becca with round eyes when she popped up from behind the papers. Oh, that explained her lack of interest. The poor thing was trying hard not to unnecessarily worry her sister. Becca's so considerate, but I wanted to be alerted to things like this immediately. "He said he was going to come home early this morning. I've checked his bedroom, the lab in the basement, and at the Mayor's. Nobody in Townsville's laboratory had seen him since last night!"

"We need to tell Brooke… Now!"

Buttercup
I woke up around ten o'clock the morning after the Christmas party. Even though the ball itself wasn't that big of a success, I still felt that last night was one of the best nights of my life. Liam finally told me what he really felt about me, and those were the exact feelings I had for him. Even though I might have tried to tell myself otherwise.

We fell asleep next to each other in my bed late last night, but long before Betty and Becca came home from the ball. I stretched, and as I did, the sunlight hit my face. I squinted my eyes. Jesus, back off a little, won't yah, sunshine?

Liam snored a little and turned away from me. I almost cackled when I saw his peacefully sleeping face. He was going to get a nasty surprise when he woke up and figured out where he fell asleep last night. And oh, it was so lucky Professor hadn't been into my room yet. We weren't allowed to have boys staying the night and especially not in our bedrooms.

I combed my hand through his hair and down his neck. Just as I was about to touch him a little more…hm, intimately, I saw something red just under the neck of his t-shirt. I guess it was his tattoo. However, before I could take a closer look, he snored again and turned over to me. The surprise that shone on his face when he opened his eyes was priceless.

"Oh… yeah…" he tiredly mumbled and began stretching, his chest muscles silhouetted on his white tee.

The butterflies in my stomach started fluttering around. I had never noticed how awfully cute Liam is. Sure, I've always thought he was hot and handsome in a way, but not cute, and especially not now when he's freshly awake, with bedhead and all.

"Good morning," I whispered back.

He stretched his body again proudly. "So… what do you say about a little morning coitus?"

I giggled. "Gross. They'll find out you're here."

"Because of you, Miss Moany," Liam said teasingly and pulled my face towards his to kiss me.

"Brooke!" Betty swooshed up the stairs.

"Hide!" I whispered, panicked, and threw the blanket over Liam's head just before Betty stormed into my bedroom.

"Professor is gone! We need to find him!"

Blossom
Brooke, Becca and I flew all over Townsville, all over Citiesville, Farmsville, Forestville, all over The United States of America, desperately searching for Professor. We knocked on people's doors, got help from police forces all over the country… Professor's disappearance was the front-page news in all the papers around the world and all people talked about on both radio and TV.

Charles Berger told us that the last he'd said to Professor was that he could just go home because a woman who worked there was going to lock everything up, a building chalk full of security, but nobody had seen him after Charles had gone. The security tapes hadn't even intercepted what happened to him… They only showed our dad stand still for a few minutes, opening the door and walking out of the building, but when they switched from one camera to another he was just…gone…

I helped my crying sister into our house at eleven PM. We needed to take a break to rest and eat. Brooke sat down in Professor's favorite chair and started spinning his tobacco pipe between her fingers and I put Becca down in one of the couches. She lay down and rolled over to her side to face the back of the couch, used one of his lab coats as a blanket and let out a soft sob.

I went into the kitchen to make dinner, something easy so we could just eat and then continue the search.

"He would never leave us this long without calling us and explain…" Brooke mumbled when I entered the living room with three plates of spaghetti and meatballs, vegetarian for Becca.

"There isn't any other conclusion than that he is… that he is… is…" Becca couldn't finish her sentence before breaking down in tears again.

"He is not dead," I said, irritated. How could she think something like that?

"How can you be so sure?" said Brooke.

"There was no proof of a fight in the lab so therefore any evidence points to…"

"There's no proof of him being alive, either!"

"Excellent, Brooke! That's absolutely fantastic!" I shouted as I slammed the tray with the three plates on the coffee table. Spaghetti, meatballs and tomato sauce splashed all around us. "Then we can just end the search for him now and move on with our lives! Just ignoring the fact that-"

"Stop!" Becca shouted and sat up on the couch.

We all looked at each other, Brooke a little crotchety at me and I even angrier at her. I let out a sigh and sat down on the floor with my face buried in my palms. I refused to believe that Professor was…didn't live.

"I have an idea!" Brooke said suddenly and stood up from the chair with her hand raised.

"What?" Becca and I exclaimed together.

"We've all agreed upon him being kidnapped, right?"

"Abducted…" I mumbled.

"Yeah, sure…" Brooke continued and gave me a fixed glance. "To figure out who the villain is, all we have to do is to just find him or her. As simple as that!"

"Isn't that what we've tried to do all day, already?" Becca said angrily with her face in the coat.

"Yeah, but I mean that we should search for the villain, but the opposite to that."

"Okay, Riddler, just cut to the chase. What are you even talking about?" I said, both tired and annoyed as all hell.

"Just listen, okay? Let's check on the criminals who can't have a finger in the game, and when it's only one left – one who we haven't checked on yet – then we know who it is!"

"And what if it's not one of the old ones?" I asked her.

"Yeah… What if it's someone new?" said Becca.

Brooke thought for a bit. "Nah, I'm sure it's like Mojo or something."

"So what are we going to do?" Becca asked.

"First we check who's in Townsville's prison.

Bubbles
Before we flew over to the Townsville prison, we made a list of all the ordinary villains to check off once when we had interrogated them. Mojo Jojo was, of course, the first name on the list.

When we arrived at the prison, a guard welcomed us and showed us the way to Mojo's cell. He was sitting on the floor and just stared at the wall to the left when we entered. Well, at least he was locked up.

"Mojo, we just wanted to ask you a few questions," said Betty who was closest to the chimp.

When he turned to see who was talking, all three of us gasped.

He wasn't what he used to be.

Nine long years in prison had made his face wrinkly, worn, and loose. His shaggy black fur had splashes of gray and white in it and his hands were thin and bony. His red eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he looked at us with a mix of disappointment and fear.

"You…" he said with his raspy, dark, deep voice. "What do you want?"

"Professor is gone and we just wanted to know if-" Betty began bravely.

"I don't have anything to do with that! Don't you see I'm just an ape in a cage? Trapped… Lonely…"

"And you don't know anyone who can have anything to do with it?" Brooke snarled.

"I know nothing!" he said a bit louder. "First you take my boys, whom I haven't seen in eleven years, and now you accuse me of a crime I haven't committed…"

"We're not accusing you, but if you know anything we would be so very grateful if you would tell us." I said in a little nicer tone than the others did.

"First my boys…" he just mumbled and turned his back to us.

"Oh, well. Next on the list is the Gangreen Gang." Betty said to the guard as she checked Mojo off the list.

The guard escorted us to another, bigger cell where the Gangreen Gang was. They, as well, had gotten older through the years, but they weren't as old and worn out as Mojo Jojo. They'd been in prison for only two years and were much younger than the chimp.

"Well, well, well, isn't it the world's own little sweethearts?" said Ace, the leader of the gang. His long, thin face was even thinner than before and the pointy chin was much pointier. His long, black hair was hanging in wisps, framing his thin, angular face. "And hello, Buttercup, long time no see."

His greeting reminded me of the time Brooke had a crush on the leader of the Gangreen Gang. I looked at her. She gave Ace a grossed-out look. She seemed to be thinking in a similar manner as me. "Yeah, well, whaddya know?" Brooke mumbled.

"Are you eighteen yet, baby?" Ace tried to smooth-talk Brooke who was just on her way to open her mouth to say something in fury.

Betty hurried to say: "Okay, Professor is gone, do you know anything-"

"I heard what you said to the old monkey and we don't know anything about any disappearance, neither." Ace said while playing with a toothpick with his tongue. "So you can just scuttle along."

Grabber, who looked the same as always, as if he hadn't been affected at all by the prison life, stuck his tongue out at us and started clawing the concrete wall. It was only Snake and Lil' Arturo who didn't pay any attention to my sisters and me.

"Okay! If you know anything, anything at all, you have to tell us. Got it?" Brooke said furiously, standing really close to the bars to their cell.

"It's true, Miss Powerpuff Girl," said Big Billy, the biggest and, incredibly, the dumbest one of them all, "we don't know anything about your Professor."

Big Billy always told us the truth. He was actually nice and was only "evil" because he did what Ace told him to, so we let them be for now.

Buttercup
There was no use continuing to interrogate these rascals. They didn't even seem to understand what was going on, let alone be the culprits of an extremely sophisticated kidnapping, whose person was still missing, so we moved on. The guard beckoned us to the next cell the while Betty checked the Gangreen Gang off the list. It was Sedusa. For a woman with hair made of snakes, she was famous for seducing and destroying hapless men. One time she even disguised herself as Miss Bellum and tried to seduce Professor. Maybe she had something to do with his disappearance this time?

"Sedusa," Betty thundered loudly when we stopped, "Let's get this over with. Did you overhear what we asked the Gangreen Gang and Mojo Jojo?"

The guard didn't follow us all the way to Sedusa's cell. Only female guards were allowed to handle her; she always escaped when a male guard got close her.

Sedusa didn't look wrinkly and old. In fact, she looked just as she did ten years ago, except for her long snake hair hanging passively on her head – she had been locked up the longest.

"I heard every word, and if you want to know my opinion you should maybe check on someone who's not in a prison cell," Sedusa said.

"We're not accusing anybody inside these walls, okay?" I said angrily. Already, I began getting really annoyed.

"What Brooke wanted to say was that if you know anything at all you would tell us, right?" said Betty.

"I don't know anything, either. But I know that Princess was released a couple of days ago. Hm, here's a thought, maybe you'd want to talk to her?"

"Did she say anything about wanting to destroy us?" Becca asked.

"No, but she was a real nail in the eye for the rest of us here – little Miss Silver Spoon." Sedusa shivered and turned the page in her magazine. "Go see her. Maybe she'll know what happened to your precious Professor Utonium."

Betty checked Sedusa off of the list and we flew to the grandest and nicest house in all of Townsville. I rang the doorbell and a butler answered it.

"Hi, we're looking for Princess," Betty replied promptly.

The butler was a large man, wearing a snazzy black suit and hat. He closed the door in our faces.

"Oh, that big son of a-" I was interrupted by the door opening – right as I was about to bash it in.

"Hello, girls!" said Princess like she was expecting us. She stood in the doorway with a wide smile.

Her hair was as curly and red as it's always been. She wore a huge, gigantic, and repugnantly (nice, I learned that one from Betty. Having a smart sister wasn't always a bad thing) pink dress and a tiara on her head. She hadn't changed at all since we were kids, just for the little fact that…we were eleven years older! Seriously, unless I didn't know it for a fact, I would've never pegged her as the same age as Betty, Becca and me.

"Come in, come in. A cup of tea, girls?" she showed us into a grand hall with a high ceiling – pompous assholes – where a very wide staircase led to the floor above us.

After the hall, she showed us into a family room that was, as much as I hate to admit it, beautifully furnished. With white and clean couches and chairs and soft silk curtains gaudily hanging in front of every tall window, the place gave off the vibe of modern pomp. I sniffed disdainfully. That was a mistake. A low, sweet scent wafted through the air. I snuck one more look around and saw where the smell came from. Beautifully delicate white, pink and baby blue flowers grew tall in golden pots, caressing the wall as they interwove together. It was all too pretty for a selfish, self-serving girl like Princess. Yet, as I said that, I noticed more and more about the incredible room. A big open fireplace stood in the far back of the big room and a gorgeous chandelier hung from the ceiling so low, you could almost touch it.

"Sit down, make yourselves at home," Princess said kindly, snapping me out of my reverie. Her house was pretty, her tone was trusting, but I didn't let myself get fooled by her for a second. I suspected a cat in her sack.

Blossom
"Marcus! Marcus, my friend. Would you please give these three enchanting girls a cup of tea, already? And maybe some pastries while we're at it!" Princess said to the butler (whose name apparently was Marcus) and reclined in her high-backed chintz chair. She gave him a quick wink, but I didn't know if it garnered suspicion or if she just wanted to be nice to him.

Brooke, Becca and I sat down opposite to Princess in a couch so wide five more people could fit next to us. We, however, still hadn't said a word since she invited us in.

"So, why are you here, girls?" Princess asked with a big smile on her face.

"We were just going to ask you if you knew anything about Professor's disappearance," I said carefully to keep the conversation low-key. The last thing we needed on our hands was a time-wasting disagreement.

The first time we met Princess was in Pokey Oaks kindergarten and she got so fascinated by my sisters and me, she wanted to become a Powerpuff girl herself. We told her it wasn't possible as she didn't have any super powers, so after a tremendous amount of engineering failures (her father paid for machines that could only slightly replicate our powers, hardly good enough) they came in contact with one of our biggest enemies: Mojo Jojo. He invented a machine that could replicate our powers almost perfectly and turned her into a villain to fight me and my sisters but we defeated Princess and put her in jail.

"Professor's disappearance? Yeah, I've heard of that a lot today and no, I'm really sorry but I have no idea who took him away from you."

Brooke let out a sigh on my right and Becca let out a dry sob on my left. "Are you really sure? We've been searching and searching all over the place and we really can't figure out what's happened to him." I continued, still cautious but more pleading.

"Yeah, I'm really sure." Said Princess with a sad expression on her face. "Oh! Here are the tea and the pastries! Can I offer some to you before you leave? There's a long night before you, you must be starving."

Marcus the butler came with a tray with the teapot and pastries. He walked by the grandfather clock, snapping my attention. It read twelve thirty AM. I didn't realize how late it was and how rude of us it was to visit princess at this time… But she did invite us in, kind girl… Wait.

Marcus put the tray on the coffee table between Princess and us and began pouring tea into the small cups. She invited us in. At twelve thirty at night.

"Thanks." Becca sobbed when she received her cup and a brownie ("Chocolate helps when you're sad." Princess had said kindly). Brooke and I received the same. We had been received with a kindness that Princess hadn't even afforded her own parents only a decade ago…

"Go on, drink," Princess said while nodding her head with big, shiny eyes. "I can only imagine how you feel. It's awful to lose a parent." She had been taking acting classes right before her arrest…

She smiled wider as Becca shakily raised her cup towards her lips. I saw an elusive evil gaze in her eyes just before-

"Stop! Don't drink that Becca!" I shouted and knocked the cup out of her hands. The cup fell down on the floor with a crash so tea splashed over the wall.

"What's going on?" Princess stood up and looked furious, but she tried to act like she was confused.

"What have you spiked the tea with?" I asked angrily.

"My dear Betty, how can you think something like that about me? It's been years since we've fought and-"

During the short time Princess spoke, Brooke had flown into the kitchen and came back after just a few seconds. "And what is this?" she asked, she held in her hands a small flask with the label 'Antidote X' written on it.

My sisters and I stood next to each other and stared at her with either hands on our hips or arms crossed.

"H-hey, girls… You don't really believe that I… It was Marcus! It was his idea, I swear!"

Buttercup
Marcus the butler turned out to be a really nice guy. He showed us all the secret rooms and tunnels in the big manor to prove that Professor wasn't there. He waved to us when we left half an hour later.

Right after we dropped Princess off at the prison again ("I was just released! Oh, you stupid Powerpuff girls! You just wait!" Princess had furiously shouted as we flew with her) and checked her off the list we flew home again to rest. The next villain wouldn't approve of an interview with us this late at night. Not that I cared. I was willing to send the next villain that got in my way ten feet above the atmosphere.

We were home at ten past one at night. Again. Time never rests for the almighty, as they say, and we all fell asleep in the living room. I slept in Professor's favorite chair, Betty on the big couch, and Becca in the small couch with Professor's lab coat as a pillow.

Professor
Three days before Christmas
After a few hours of restless sleep, I, once again, woke up on the cold stone floor with a gag in my mouth and ropes tied around my ankles and wrists. Why hadn't the girls found me yet? They had never taken this long to solve a mystery. Blossom was too intelligent and figured out things long before me, Buttercup had her aggressive nature – in a good way – that drove her to never stop until she was finished and never gave up when it came to saving someone, and Bubbles could get help from the animals, even the smallest insects.

I slowly turned my head to look where Him had gone, but I couldn't see him. My arm ached something awful because I had been laying on it for several hours, so I rolled over on my back. With a sting of shock, I found Him leaning over me with a wide smile.

"So you're awake now?" the demon said with his echoing voices. "Did you sleep well? The sun is shining and it's time to wake up!"

I groaned a little but felt too weak to make a sound.

"There, there. Relax, it's not long before the girls arrive. I've asked my assistant to go and fetch them now, so they'll soon be here with us."

He laughed for a bit and walked over to a big table where he had put out some food. I hadn't eaten anything in over twenty-four hours, but I wasn't about to beg him for food.

"Hungry?" Him said, wagging a sausage on a fork in my direction. "Ha!" he put the fork in his mouth and began chewing it with an evil glance towards me.

I tried everything to call the girls. Before, all I needed to do was shout, and they could hear me wherever we were on this planet, and come save me. But now it seemed impossible… I was too weak and gagged.

Like he read my mind Him said, "Don't even try to call them, Professor Utonium, they can't hear you because of these isolated walls. We're underground and you can't enter if you don't know how. My assistant knows, and he'll take them to me."

"Uh… uh…" I mumbled as I tried asking who his assistant was.

"Oh, soon you'll find out." Him said with a somewhat chirping voice.

After fifteen minutes, Him began pacing in the cave with a bitter expression. He mumbled over and over again something about his assistant should've been there thirty minutes ago.

"What a little coward… He shouldn't turn his back on me now, he can't afford to disappoint me now…" Him growled while still pacing. "Well, well. We can start without him. What I really needed you for anyway was for you to do something for me. Come, let's go to the lab."

Bubbles
The doorbell rang the morning after, making us jump.

"Oh, no, what time is it?" Betty asked panickedly.

"Quarter past eight." Said Brooke and appeared at the door in a fraction of a second.

I sat up and felt more tired than I had ever been. I hadn't slept much and had cried almost every waking second. I started rocking my body back and forth as I remembered where I was and what we had to do today, with Professor's coat in my arms. I heard Leo by the door.

"I think I know something about Professor."

Betty and I were by Brooke's side in no time. Brooke pulled Leo into the house and slammed the door shut behind him. "What do you know?" she asked him quickly.

"I think Luke has something to do with it."

"Luke? Your brother Luke? What? Why do you believe that?" I asked breathlessly.

"Do you remember what happened the day before yesterday, at the ball?" Leo asked turned to me. "He left just after I punched him and he didn't come home by the time I came home that night. And when dad came home early the morning after, yesterday, Luke was still out. Luke came home last night and looked scared but he didn't want to tell mom and dad what had happened or where he had been or anything."

"Where is he now?" Betty asked.

"He was home when I left, but I don't know if he's still there…maybe he's sleeping."

"So you think he kidnapped Professor?" Brooke asked with one eyebrow raised.

"Maybe." Leo shrugged his shoulders. "Or he saw who did."

"Okay, we still have a few villains to check off the list and we were going to interrogate Fuzzy Lumpkins today. Someone needs to keep an eye on Luke." Betty said.

"I can do that." Said Leo. "We live together. All I have to do is to follow him if he leaves the house."

"Maybe Liam…" Brooke said but silenced before finishing the sentence.

"What?" I asked her, but she only shook her head with her lips tightly sealed.

"What were you going to say about Liam?" Leo asked. "He didn't come home that night either, now that I think about it…"

"Shadow him too, if it's possible." Said Betty. "We need to go now."

Buttercup
While we flew, I felt ashamed and embarrassed. I had made Liam a suspect. What I actually wanted to say was that maybe Liam could help shadow Luke, but right after I uttered his name, I realized that what's between Liam and me was a secret.

What if I had suggested that Liam could help us, what would Betty and Becca say? Why would I suddenly think that he's okay when I've hated him for years? Like, what would they say if they knew that I liked him? I mean, like-liked him… I wasn't even sure if he was serious about us. What if he and Luke had planned this all to happen? Liam was such a good actor… What if… what if Liam was in on it too?

I needed to stop thinking about that now… I needed to focus on finding Professor! And if Liam was in on it…I will just have to kill him.

We flew over the town and headed to the woods where a small, decayed old cabin stood in an opening.

"Fuzzy Lumpkins…" said Betty nervously when we landed in front of the cabin. "I hope he doesn't start shooting us with his Boomstick."

"He's kinda' old now, right?" Becca asked. "I mean, he won't chase us or anything?"

"No… I hope you're right." Betty mumbled.

"Come on! Are you a Powerpuff girl or a Rowdyruff boy?" I said angrily. "His 'boomstick' is nothing compared to our powers!"

"Okay, stop this nonsense, girls!" said Betty who seemed to think that she was the bravest one. "Let's knock."

She knocked on the door and we all waited. It took a few minutes of knocking but at last, we heard steps inside the cabin and Fuzzy Lumpkins answered the door. He wasn't as bright pink as he was before, the color had faded a bit over the years and he had gotten gray hairs all over his fur. The jean overalls he wore had several patches and holes and were dirtier than ever, hanging loose on his wasted body. He looked at us with a pink eye that was filled to the brim with yellowish, sticky goo.

"Ew!" Betty and Becca exclaimed and backed away from Fuzzy, so I took their place in front of them.

"Fuzzy, we need to talk to you about-"

But what I wanted to say was something he didn't want to hear. He opened the door wide with a loud creek and pulled out his shotgun. "What're y'all doing here?" he shouted and began shooting around us.

We all shrieked and flew up on his roof to seek shelter.

"What now?" I asked angrily.

"Why did you fly off? You said his boomstick was nothing compared to our powers!" Betty said accusingly.

"It can still ruin our clothes and-"

"Stop fighting! We need to come up with a plan to calm him down and interrogate him!" said Becca almost as angry as me and Betty.

I sighed, made a big hole in the roof with my fist, and flew into his home. I landed on the floor inside a shabby looking kitchen that didn't look like it had been cleaned in a long time. The floor was covered in some sort of sticky and stiffened dust, the walls had several weird stains from food and greasy sludge, dirty plates and glasses laid spread all over the counters and old, rotten food was on the table and oozed out a gross, disgusting and trapped in odor. Poor Fuzzy…

Blossom
I don't know how she did it without vomiting from the stench, but Brooke flew into Fuzzy's cabin, surprised him on the porch and then flew up to the roof again where Becca and I waited for them.

"Ask the questions now, Betty." She panted.

I looked past the edge of the roof down on the ground where Fuzzy's boomstick laid, bent and ruined between a big rock and a pile of logs. "Fuzzy, uh… Sorry for trespassing on your private property…"

"Yes, that's right! Y'all are trespassing on my private property!" Fuzzy shouted while hanging in Brookes grip.

"We're going soon, we only want you to answer a few questions about Professor." I continued.

"What do y'all wanna' know 'bout him?"

"Well… he hasn't been home for almost forty-eight hours…"

"And what am I supposed to be? Y'all's babysitter? Get off of my property!" Fuzzy Lumpkins yelled.

"We just wanted to know if you've seen him. Or maybe heard anything about him?" I continued as I hadn't been interrupted.

"Or maybe you took him, yourself!" said Brooke.

"I don't know anything about any Professor!" said Fuzzy, getting more and more furious every passing second, and began swinging his fists to try and free himself from Brooke.

"Keep asking him questions or something, Becca, I need to have a look around in his cabin," I said.

"Are you sure, Betty?" Becca asked and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Don't you think we're going too far?"

We both looked at Fuzzy who wormed around in Brooke's grip, he looked older and angrier than before and he started to tire.

"We have to…for Professor…" I pleaded. Becca looked down at her feet and nodded softly.

I felt great remorse when entering Fuzzy Lumpkin's cabin from the hole in the roof, while he was up there, forced to answer questions by two super strong persons while a third was snooping around his private property… I was desperate, we all were, and we were willing to do anything in our power to find our dad…

As I stood in the middle of the dirty kitchen, I felt my heart sink and something dark and heavy overwhelmed me. What if Professor wasn't here either? What if Brooke was right about him being… He couldn't be dead, could he? We would know, right? We would feel it, wouldn't we?

I quickly looked through the rooms in the cabin and it didn't take much time. There were only two rooms: the combined kitchen/living room and the bedroom. There was no toilet inside the cabin. I searched for a secret trapdoor in the floor that could indicate that there was a basement or just about anything, really…but I didn't find a basement. I didn't find my dad.

After acknowledging my defeat, I flew up on the roof again, checked Fuzzy off the list and straighten out his shotgun. I flew home again with Becca and Brooke right behind me.

"Where are we going next?" Brooke asked and flew up beside me.

"Home. We need to eat something before continuing." I said, feeling empty inside. "If only those scientists hadn't asked Professor if he could help them he would be home right… now…"

"What?" Becca asked. She had noticed something different about the story I had fed to her about Professor's projects.

"A bacterium… He was helping them stop a villain-created virus." As I said that, an unexpected understanding popped up into my mind.

"Yeah? What's up with that?" Brooke asked.

"Come on!" I said impatiently, it was so obvious! "Out of all the villains that we deal with, which do we know are the most likely to spread viruses and diseases in order to seem like the evilest villains in town?"

Brooke and Becca said together with sudden realization, "The Amoeba Boys!"