When the red light faded, Bubbles lay flattened against the opposite wall with Buttercup beside her -- the blast, or whatever it was, had blown them clear across the room and singed their dresses black, with only traces of the original colors remaining. The three villains howled, whooped, and tittered with laughter.

"My, my!" Him's sickly-sweet voice rang out. "It worked even better than I hoped! Well done, Mojo!" He clapped his red lobster-claws together, and Princess and the chimp clinked punch and Kool-Aid glasses.

Bubbles and Buttercup tried to regain their voices: "Wha...wha..."

Him continued his speech. "But we all deserve credit. I'm sure you girls are well aware, I'm not exactly from around here. I'm from a certain very hot place," he giggled, "and so I thought, what if we could bottle some of that hyper-heat and bring it here? Princess' Daddy Morebucks thought it was a splendid idea -- so much that he financed the whole project," (Princess beamed at this, and stuck her tongue out at the two charred Powerpuffs), "and Mojo built it!"

"It was a labor of love," the ape added.

Bubbles and Buttercup shot forth as if from a double-barreled cannon. "Bubbles!" Buttercup hissed. "We gotta take that thing out! Mojo's never made a gadget we couldn't smash up!" And indeed, at that moment, her huge eyes lit up at past memories of this.

Bubbles glanced around. "But which gadget?" The observatory was, of course, always full of them; riveted metal robots, lasers like big spikes tipped with glass, computers and power packs.

"We'll show you!" Princess squealed with glee.

The room glowed red again. Bubbles' shadow appeared before her on the opposite wall, and a great heat stung her back. It was as if a furnace had opened behind her. She yelped, and she and Buttercup shot in opposite directions. Then she looked over her shoulder.

What she saw looked indeed like a spherical furnace, hovering in midair, glowing red-hot and big enough to swallow a good-sized car; and out of its mouth crackled a hundred flares, leaping and erupting like lightning flashes, snapshotting the room in flashes of yellow. Bubbles felt its heat and thought better of touching it.

Him said, "You see, girls, we remembered your capacity for vandalism and took it into account!"

One of the flares lashed at Buttercup, throwing off sparks, and might have scorched her to cinders had she not bolted out of the way.

Bubbles gave the furnace an eye-blast; no result. The beams simply vanished into its fiery interior.

"Hee-hee-hee! You're just helping it, if anything!" Princess raised her fists.

Buttercup leaped to the opening, drew back a fist.

"Yes! Go ahead! Strike it!" Mojo was actually jumping with excitement. "And see what happens to your pwecious wittle fist!"

Buttercup didn't try it.

A flare shot out at Bubbles, and as fast as she was, it nearly caught her. Then it whipped out again at Buttercup. Shot after shot fired, pockmarking the observatory walls with charred spots, as the girls zigzagged to avoid them.

Bubbles yelled, "We can't dodge them forever!"

"But what can we do?" Buttercup ducked another volley. By now the villains were all going crazy, leaping, cheering, jeering.

Finally the Powerpuffs streaked out the jagged hole in the ceiling, the villains throwing taunts after them.

"Buttercup?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you hear them say something about -- "

"Taking their party out on the town?"

"Yes." Bubbles' heart sank. "That was it."