12. An Enforced Fresh start

"You know," said Buttercup as she lazily tossed away the last of the hired thugs, "I would have thought that someone like Luthor would have at least put up a bit of a better fight."

Blossom nodded. It had been an easy victory. Something told her that it was slightly too easy. She turned to Luthor. "Okay Lex," she said calmly, "tell me what the big plan is. You're not normally this sloppy."

Luthor, who had his back pressed up against a near by tree, smiled weakly. "Everyone has off days," he replied, laughing casually yet nervously. "I honestly didn't expect Bubbles to have time to contact you. It was planned to avoid that."

"You're an idiot then," said Buttercup smugly. "Now, tell us where Bubbles is, or…" She tailed off, as a light blue glow suddenly surrounded her and Blossom. Then, be for they'd even managed a "what the…?" the two Puffs disappeared.

Luthor looked around, and thought for a moment. Of course, he thought, Bubbles must be going on with her plan now, what ever it is. This didn't really bother Luthor, what bothered him was the unacceptability of his present situation. Franticly he gestured over to one of his more alert hired hands.

"Quickly now!" he said commandingly, "You must tie me to this tree before the next wave arrives. And make it look convincing."

Blossom and Buttercup reappeared in a huge cavernous stone room, with a ceiling that stretched far, far above them. There appeared to be a small hole at the very top. The floor, which was also stone, was lower at the edges, and in the centre there were some steps, leading up to a central altar. Statues round the outside showed strange liquidy creatures with bright green eyes. There was one entrance way, a fairly plain but large set of stone doors, but these looked almost unmovable. The room was surprisingly airy too, almost cold.

All these minor details however, paled into significance too a few small things. Firstly, the amount of energy in the room, soaring through it in multicoloured streams of energy. The entire place throbbed with it, and it all spiralled in to the centre, where it reached a small grey emerald, that was sat on the altar in a stand. From there, the energy was projected upwards into a huge glowing orb of pure energy, which was pulsating slowly. Blossom and Buttercup, who had been released into the room just above the floor, now landed on it, there eyes drawn to the centre of the energy. After staring at it for a few moments, they both slowly reached out to touch it.

"I wouldn't do that it I was you," said Bubbles. "It would probably tear you to pieces." They both swung round. It was Bubbles, but not as they knew her. With energy now crackling off her stunningly beautiful, perfectly proportioned body, and her eyes glowing bluer then ever, she looked invincible.

If this bothered Blossom, she didn't show it. "Ah, thank goodness we've found you Bubbles," she said relived. "Luthor's been stopped, so lets get out of here and go home."

Bubbles smiled a sort of sickly smile. "Yes, I thought you two could handle him," she said, but she didn't move. There was a small beam connecting her to the orb, Blossom realised.

"Come on Bubbles," said Buttercup irritably, "show us the way out of here so we can get home." Bubbles smiled again, and then walked round to the other side of the orb again, slowly but deliberately. Blossom and Buttercup exchanged glances, and the latter's muscles visibly tensed.

"You two ever wondered about faults in the universe?" Bubbles asked eventually. Blossom shrugged.

"Probably, but can't we discuses this somewhere where I'm not afraid of being vaporised by a surging energy stream!"

Bubbles laughed. "You used to be so curious Blossom," she said. "I know a sister of mine that would have wanted to study these streams." She bent one around her two sisters merely by looking at it, before returning it to its original position. "Maybe it's because you already know about the power of Chaos energy, or so you think. Why, when you lost your temper, it made you strong enough to kill the invincible Superman, and that's quite powerful enough for you." She shot her a piercing look with those bight eyes. "How little you know."

Blossom now joined her sister Buttercup in taking a more aggressive stance, but it was the green puff that spoke. "Okay Bubbles, we know your up to something, and like all evil bitches, you can't wait to tell everyone, so spill it!"

"What makes you think I'm evil," said Bubbles in that infuriatingly calm way, "but if you insist my dear Buttercup, I will tell you." she took a deep breath, and looked at the ceiling. "I've always thought the world was wrong, don't you know. All the suffering of poor innocent creatures. The nastiness, the meanness, the selfishness, and sometimes it makes you think; what if I could change it all, what if I could make a universe without faults?" she looked at the orb in the centre. "All the Chaos energy in the universe is being sucked in here by that emerald. I brought that here myself. You see, Luthor had a bit of Energy in here, but it's not really enough. Soon however, I will have enough here for my plan. For you see," she sniggered to herself, "if the energy in one small emerald could make my body perfect, surely all the energy could make a perfect universe. Once the orb has finished charging, I will use its limitless power my self, and it will be done."

Blossom didn't know whether to laugh, gape or cry. Fortunately, Buttercup was slightly quicker with a come back. "You prefect body is missing a bit of muscle and a lot of brain cells. ARE YOU NUTS?"

"Buttercups right," said Blossom as nicely as she could, "no mortal being could create a new universe. The world is not perfect, but if it was what would be the point of being human? We might as well all be hamsters!"

"It's not so much creating a new universe as building one over the top of the existing one," Bubbles said. "And it will happen. There will be no more suffering, murder, rape, crime and pain. All those who survive will live a life of happy and endless servitude to me."

"Those who survive?" asked Buttercup sickly. Bubbles shrugged.

"I am building over the universe," she said as if Buttercup was an idiot. "When you put a house on an ants nest not everyone survives. I suspect about one billion intelligent beings will make it."

Blossom nearly chocked. "But the worlds population is 6 billion!" she protested.

"Get with the picture Blossom, I said Universe, not world. There are about 300,000 Billion in the Universe. And of course, to guarantee everything works, they will all lose there free will. Ready for a live of servitude to me." She paused. "Or us?" she asked, slightly hopefully. Buttercup and Blossom didn't even need to look at each other.

"Bubbles you've flipped your lid!" Blossom bellowed. "Even I think we've had enough talk!" The two of them raced towards Bubbles at full speed, but just short of her, they stopped. Or were stopped. Blue energy, racing from Bubbles' body had surrounded the two of them, and she looked extremely angry.

"YOU TWO ALWAYS LOOKED DOWN ON ME AS INFERIOR," she said, her eyes losing there pupils and turning solid blue in a fit of rage. "WELL, NOW YOU TWO ARE NOT EVEN TERMITES TO ME!" She twitched slightly, and then the blue energy started fizzing and wiping around the two of them, threatening to tear them apart. As some deep cuts scythed across Blossom, and even deeper ones across the wriggling Buttercup (how was desperately trying to escape), a line of energy began to flow from each of them; pink from Blossom and green from Buttercup. They wafted into Bubbles, who regained her composer. She even smiled, as the two of them drop unconsciously into a corner of the room. "Maybe, when you wake up in my new universe, you two will reconsider my generous offer. And if Sonic thinks he and Butch can stop me, he has another thing coming." She glanced up at the orb. "Nothing can stop me now."

"Okay, let me get this straight," said Roland, who'd given up on his watching his television program. "Your Sister-in-law is going to destroy the universe and replace it with her own."

"Yes!" said Brick desperately.

"And you over heard Sonic say that only a completely pure person that is strong enough in Chaos energy can shut it off."

"YES!"

"And thus you need to get back to earth, in a way that allows you to interact with the living world, in order to stop her."

"FOR THE LAST TIME YES! I'M IN A BIT OF A HURRY HERE!"

Roland blinked. "Well, I don't think you're that pure, but good luck." He clicked the television back on for a moment, and laughed at a joke, before turning back to Brick, who hadn't moved. "What?" he asked.

"Firstly," said Brick irritably, "Charlie Sheen is not funny. And secondly," he shifted uneasily. "I was sort of expecting you to know a way out that I could use."

"Oh, so I'm just a public information burro, for ways out of the afterlife?"

"Well… you always seem to know a way."

Roland snorted. "Not this time. Fresh out of ideas." He looked at Brick's face. It was the mixture between crestfallen and 'I am going to punch you're face in' that made him feel uneasy. "Come on Brick," he said, "do you really think that the man upstairs, the boss of our boss, with really let the universe be destroyed by some stupid blond girl?"

"I'm not sure," said Brick, "but that horse race you watched earlier only had four riders in it." Roland thought for a moment.

"I'm make some calls," he said at last, exasperatedly.

"Thank you."

"After my show…"