by Martial Arts Master
The Powerpuff Girls and all related characters copyrighted by Craig McCracken and Cartoon Network. Special thanks to Sniper for refining my idea for a story. See, this story was originally going to be different than it is now, but I e-mailed Sniper to see if it was a good idea, and Sniper had a better one. (Believe me, you don't wanna know what my original idea was.) So he gets the credit for the idea for this story. One thing, though, Sniper: I didn't wanna have to make up a new character, so I replaced the "little girl" in your idea with Mike, from the "Imaginary Fiend" episode. And now for the story.
***
It was Friday, and the Powerpuff Girls were in Ms. Keane'c class, as usual.
"Okay, everyone, time for roll call!" Ms. Keane said.
Ms. Keane took a list of paper out of her pocket and began to read it.
"In alphebetical order: Blossom?" Ms. Keane read.
"Present," Blossom said.
"Bubbles?" Ms. Keane read.
"Right here!" Bubbles said.
"Buttercup?" Ms. Keane read.
"Here," Buttercup said.
"Elmer?" Ms. Keane read.
"Here," Elmer said.
"Mike?" Ms. Keane read.
There was silence. Nobody answered.
"I'll just mark him absent," Ms. Keane said, making a mark on her list. She then read, "Elmer?"
"Mitch Mitchellson?" Ms. Keane said.
"Over here," Mitch said.
Ms. Keane continued to take names for roll call, and then class got started.
Throughout the day, though, the class was wondering why Mike was absent. It was just minor curiousity, of course; the kind that one usually gets when a classmate is out.
They found out why Mike was absent during recess.
Everything was coming along normally.
The Powerpuff Girls were playing tag with each other.
Everyone else was playing Duck, Duck, Goose.
Currently, Mitch was chasing someone around the circle as part of the game.
Then Ms. Keane stepped out of the school.
"Everyone, come inside, quickly!" Ms. Keane said. "I have an important announcement to make!"
The class was confused, but they went back inside anyway.
As they were going inside, Buttercup said, "Aw, no fair! Just when I was about to tag you two..."
"Buttercup, this must be important if Ms. Keane is willing to interrupt recess to make the announcement," Blossom said...
Inside, everyone took their seats, noticing that Ms. Keane had a worried look on her face.
"Class, I have good news and bad news," Ms. Keane said. "The good news is that I've found out why Mike is absent."
She took a deep breath before continuing.
"The bad news is that I found out because Mike's parents called me, and they told me that Mike had a case of food poisoning," Ms. Keane said. "Fortunately it's non-lethal, but Mike's liver has been damaged, and Mike will need an operation to fix it."
"If you ask me, I think Mike's sick because he thinks of too many imaginary friends," Mitch teased rudely.
"Mitch Mitchellson, how dare you!" Ms. Keane said, shocked.
"Yeah, it's not Mike's fault he's sick!" Blossom shouted.
"And he had only one imaginary friend, and that was Patches!" Bubbles said.
"We beat him up, anyway," Buttercup finished.
"Okay, okay, geez, I'm sorry!" Mitch said, annoyed.
"Is Mike gonna be okay?" Bubbles asked, with a worried tone to her voice.
Ms. Keane said, "Sure, he'll be fine."
Ms. Keane was smiling as she said it, but the Powerpuff Girls could tell that her smile was forced. Obviously Ms. Keane was hiding something.
But they decided to wait until class was over before bringing it up again.
In the afternoon, the class ended, and everyone except the Powerpuff Girls left.
They went up to Ms. Keane, and Buttercup said, "Okay, Ms. Keane, what were you hiding earlier?"
"Young lady, you will address me politely," Ms. Keane said.
"What Buttercup meant to say, ma'am, was that we just wanted to know if everything was all right," Blossom said.
Ms. Keane was sweating.
"Well..." she said.
Then she sighed.
"I'm afraid not," she said. "I already said that Mike needed an operation, but what I didn't tell the class was that Mike's parents can't afford to pay for it. I don't want to think about what'll happen if Mike's parents can't come up with the money needed to fix Mike's liver."
"That's horrible!" Bubbles wailed.
"Mike is our friend, so I think that we're the ones who need to come up with the money," Blossom said.
"But an operation like that would cost a lot of money," Buttercup said. "We don't have that much. I don't think even the Professor has that much."
The Powerpuff Girls left the school pondering over the problem.
Later, they were in their rooms, thinking.
They'd agreed that a fund-raiser was usually how to do these things, but they weren't sure how to go about it.
"We could give science lectures," Blossom said.
"No way! Nobody's gonna attend some boring old lectures," Buttercup said.
"We could sell lemonade!" Bubbles offered.
"Nobody's gonna buy lemonade unless we charge maybe a couple of dollars or less," Blossom said. "Even if we had enough lemonade, not enough people will buy it."
"We could give martial arts lessons," Buttercup said.
"We shouldn't teach others to fight," Bubbles said.
"Are you kidding? They'd do anything to be good fighters like us!" Buttercup said.
"Maybe, but they don't have superpowers," Blossom said, "and sometimes they get jealous of us because of that."
"Well, they wouldn't be jealous if they got to know us better," Bubbles said.
Blossom's eyes metaphorically lit up.
"That it!" Blossom said. "Bubbles, you're a genius!"
"Huh?" Bubbles asked, confused.
"You've given me an idea," Blossom said. "We'll hold a contest, and we'll use the money people spend on raffle tickets to pay for the operation! The contest should be that whoever wins the contest gets to spend one day with us to get to know us."
"That's stupid!" Buttercup said. "What if we have to fight crime?"
"He or she could watch on the sidelines," Bubbles said helpfully.
"Yeah, that's a good idea!" Blossom said.
Then their faces fell.
"But we'd have to get the Professor to set it up," Bubbles said. "Grown-ups usually do these things."
"If it's in a good cause, he'll have to agree," Blossom said.
The Powerpuff Girls raced downstairs.
As it turned out, once the Powerpuff Girls explained their cause to Professor Utonium, the Professor agreed to set things up for the contest.
So that's how the girls ended up standing on a podium in the middle of Townsville as the Professor explained things to the citizens.
"Everyone, the Powerpuff Girls are holding a special contest," Professor Utonium said. He pointed to a box beside him and said, "This is the raffle box. Those who wish to participate in this contest must buy a raffle ticket and put it in the box, and once we've raised the amount of money we're aiming for, I'll draw a raffle ticket out of the box. Whoever the ticket belongs to will get to spend a special day accompanying the Powerpuff Girls."
As expected, this attracted a lot of children, and no wonder. Lots of children fantasized about spending time with the Powerpuff Girls.
Many children came with their parents, and their parents paid for the raffle tickets.
A crowd formed behind the people buying raffle tickets.
Blossom saw one section of the crowd that was made up of intellectuals.
These were what detractors would call "geeks".
Also, they were arguing among themselves. Thanks to her super-hearing, Blossom could make out what they were saying.
"If I win, I'm gonna impress Blossom with my memorization of the Gettysburg address," one of them said.
"Who cares about that? I think she'd rather hear you talk about her beauty," another intellectual said.
"Are you calling her conceited?!" a third person shouted.
"No, I was calling her beautiful," the second intellectual said.
"Yeah, at least we can all agree she's pretty," a fourth person said.
"Of course, the winner would have to put up with Blossom's dumb sisters, too," a fifth person pointed out.
"Anyone Blossom gets along with, I'd get along with," a sixth intellectual said. Blossom smirked. Looks like she had a fan club.
Meanwhile, Bubbles saw another section of the crowd that was mostly made up of "cute" boys.
These were what admirers would say would grow up to be "handsome", and what detractors would say would grow up to be "pretty boys".
They, too, were arguing among themselves. Like Blossom, Bubbles used her super-hearing to make out what they were saying.
"I gotta win this contest!" one boy said. "Bubbles is so cute!"
"Oh, like you'd really impress her by telling her that," a second boy said. "She'd probably knock you flat."
"Idiot, she's too sweet to do that," a third boy said.
"You're the idiot! Didn't you hear about that incident when Bubbles went berserk?" a fourth boy asked. "Apparently she gets that way when she gets mad."
"Well she likes animals, anyway," a fifth boy said.
"Yeah, if I won the contest I could easily put up with her bossy sisters if it meant Bubbles was there, too," a sixth boy said.
Bubbles giggled to herself. She hadn't known she had a fan club.
Meanwhile, Buttercup was looking at yet another section of the crowd. This section was made up mostly of aggressive boys.
These were boys that sometimes were schoolyard bullies. They worked out a lot, and as adults they'd probably get jobs with anything involving aggressiveness.
These people, too, were arguing among themselves. Like her sisters, Buttercup used her super-hearing to make out what they were saying.
"Man, Buttercup'll probably be a babe when she gets older," one boy said.
"Heck with older, she looks gorgeous now!" the second boy said.
"You're a pervert!" a third boy said.
"Am not!" the second retorted.
"Anyway, I wish I were as strong as she was," a fourth boy said. "Then maybe she'd let me fight crime with her!"
"You idiot! She's a superheroine!" the fifth boy said. "You could never fight crime!"
"Could too!" the fourth retorted.
"You'd probably get riddled with bullets or vaporized," the fifth boy said.
"Well, if I win the contest, I could handle those two sissy sisters of hers if she's there, too," a sixth boy said.
Buttercup smirked. These boys were idiots, but at least they were fans of hers.
"Looks like we're celebrities," Bubbles whispered to Buttercup.
"Yeah, and I get all the good fans," Buttercup whispered back.
"Don't get cocky, girls," Blossom whispered to both of them. "Remember, we're doing this only to pay for Mike's operation."
"You're just jealous 'cause nobody likes boring old you," Buttercup whispered nastily.
"Ha! I do have fans," Blossom whispered back.
Then Professor Utonium interrupted everyone by saying, "Our money goal has been met. I will now draw the raffle ticket to see who the lucky winner is."
The crowd held their breath as the Professor drew a raffle ticket.
"And our winner is...Mojo Jojo!" the Professor said.
"What?!" the girls screeched.
One boy in the crowd threw off his disguise to reveal Mojo Jojo, the villainous monkey.
| As usual, he spoke in redundant sentences.
"That is correct! I am Mojo Jojo!" he began. "I am not an ordinary citizen! An ordinary citizen is not who I am! I am actually a villain! I entered this contest in hopes of gaining my revenge! Revenge is what I wanted, and revenge I shall have! When I babysat you, you tortured me emotionally! So now I shall torture you emotionally as well! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Hey, we're not accepting a villain as a companion-for-a-day!" Bubbles said.
"Aha! This is all a sham!" someone shouted. "You just wanted the money! You never intended for anyone to spend a day with you at all!"
"Yeah, let him stay, unless this contest was a phony!" another person shouted.
The crowd began to look angry.
"Okay, okay, we'll do it!" Buttercup said angrily. Then she grabbed Mojo Jojo by the throat and said, "But you better behave, or else!"
Later, there was a distress call from the bank.
When the Powerpuff Girls (and Mojo Jojo, thanks to him winning the contest) arrived at the bank, they discovered robbers.
"Not so fast, evildoers!" Blossom shouted.
"Aaaaaah! The Powerpuff Girls!" the lead robber screamed.
"Don't worry, I'll help you!" Mojo Jojo said.
But he was speaking to the robbers, not to the Powerpuff Girls, as they found out when Mojo Jojo suddenly pulled out a laser cannon and started firing lasers at them.
The girls had to dodge the lasers, and meanwhile, the robbers were quietly sneaking away.
Finally Buttercup punched Mojo Jojo in the face to get him to stop firing lasers at them, and the girls were able to catch the robbers.
As the police were taking the robbers away, Mojo Jojo said, "Curses! I meant to impede your progess! I meant to---"
Before Mojo Jojo could go off on a tangeant again like he usually did with his redundant sentences, Blossom caught him off by saying, "You were obstructing justice! I wish you'd never won the contest!"
"But I did! Nyah-nyah-nyah!" Mojo Jojo said, sticking his tongue out at them.
"Oh, real mature," Bubbles said sarcastically.
"Ha!" Mojo Jojo said triumphantly. "Now you're stuck with me for a day, just like I was stuck with you when I was babysitting you! And just like you did to me, I'm gonna be a pain-in-the-butt to you!"
Again, one of the girls cut him off before he could go off on a tangeant.
"Shut up," Buttercup said. "We're putting you in jail after the day is over."
Later, Townsville was attacked by a giant monster that looked like a cross between an igloo and a yak.
Buttercup flew up and knocked it backwards, and then Blossom got under its icy legs and tripped it.
Bubbles flew in to deliver the finishing blow.
Suddenly they had to dodge a barrage of lasers.
"What the---" Blossom started, then saw Mojo Jojo firing at them.
"Mwahahahahaha!" Mojo Jojo said. "How are you going to finish off the monster with me attacking you too? Mwahahahahaha!"
"Would you stop it?!" Bubbles screamed. She flew to Mojo Jojo and kicked him in the gut. Mojo Jojo doubled over in pain, giving Bubbles time to shatter the icy monster with one blow.
Buttercup shouted at Mojo Jojo, "You idiot! Stop impeding our progress! We may have to spend a day with you, but once this is over, we'll kick your but and send you to jail."
Later, the Powerpuff Girls had to stop the Gangreen Gang from vandalizing a statue of the Mayor.
"Not so fast, Gangreen gang!" the Powerpuff Girls said when they (and Mojo Jojo) arrived at the statue.
"It's the Powerpuff Girls! Let's get outta here!" Ace, the leader of the Gangreen Gang, said.
"You don't need to run," Mojo Jojo said, firing his lasers at the Powerpuff Girls.
"I'm sick of those lasers!" Blossom said. Blossom used her ice breath to freeze the laser gun, and then Blossom shattered it.
"Ha! Now you can't shoot any more lasers at us!" Blossom said.
"I don't need to shoot any more lasers," Mojo Jojo said, pointing behind Blossom.
Blossom looked around and saw that the Gangreen Gang was gone.
Now the Powerpuff Girls were infuriated at Mojo Jojo.
"Mojo Jojo, you're being a pain-in-the-butt!" Buttercup shouted.
"Ha ha, well there's nothing you can do about it!" Mojo Jojo taunted. "I won the contest, and I have to spend a day with you! So you can't put me in jail until the day is over! That is to say---" Before Mojo Jojo could start speaking redundantly, Bubbles cut him off.
"No need to rub it in," Bubbles said.
And so it went on. Every time the girls tried to stop a crime, Mojo Jojo either hindered them or completely prevented them from stopping the crime.
At the end of the day, the Powerpuff Girls got into bed, having beaten Mojo Jojo up and thrown him in jail.
They were exhausted.
"That wasn't a very good day," Blossom said.
"At least we have enough money to pay for Mike's operation," Bubbles said.
"Yeah, but it looks like Mojo Jojo got his revenge," Buttercup said. "Now I'm beginning to regret how we harassed him when he baby-sat us."
The End
E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@msn.com.