She peeked around the corner of the hallway, looking for enemies inside the room just beyond. She hefted her whip and ran into the room. Instantly hundreds of little spiders shot up from the ground, slithering towards her. She still managed to make it to a drop-off in the middle of the room and leap over the pit, slinging her whip to make it wrap around a pole just above it. The whip started to carry her across the chasm.

"Princess!" A sudden yell startled her, and she let go of the whip reflexively. Princess cursed herself as her computer image slammed into the far wall and plunged into the hole.

"What do you want?" She grumped through her real lips as she restarted the game.

"I want to know what's going on. You know who sent that e-mail last night, don't you?" Blossom's voice demanded. Princess smirked as she entered the game from her last save point and walked down the hall.

"Of course I do. Everyone knows, Blossom." Princess grinned. Without warning her consciousness was yanked from the computer and Buttercup lifted her from the seat. "Hey! This is assault! I could have you arrested! Unhand me this instant!" Princess screamed angrily.

"You know something and you're going to tell us." Buttercup told her. "That's not a question!" She shook princess hard enough to make her head ache from all the movement.

"Stooop iiiiiit!" Princess yelled. Finally Buttercup stopped shaking her, giving a moment to collect her scrambled thoughts. "I don't know what happened, but Blossom IS the one doing this. I've seen her several times in cyberspace since she appeared in my computer two nights ago. And I know she's been up to no good." She scowled.

"That's a lie. I've only been on the computer once since that happened, the time I talked to you." Blossom exclaimed.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Princess asked. She scoffed at the Powerpuff Girls' joint glare. "Oh whatever. Look, I really don't know all of what's going on. All I know is that someone who looks and talks like Blossom is wreaking havoc online." She glared at Blossom, smirking. "And if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck..."

"Put her down Buttercup." Blossom said. Buttercup snorted and put Princess down, stepping away from her. "If I find out you're lying to me, I'll be back to haul you off to jail again."

"You can't find anything on me. I didn't do anything." Princess smirked as she brushed off her clothing. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a game to complete." She turned back to her computer and sat down, sliding the visor over her head. She tuned out the Powerpuff Girls until they finally left.

________________________________________________________________________________

"What do we do now? All we know is that Princess seems to think there's like another you online or something." Buttercup laughed. "I've always wondered how long it would be before the girl cracked up."

"I'm going to go online." Blossom decided. Buttercup looked at her curiously.

"You're not buying that crap are you? I mean come on. A fake Blossom terrorizing through the internet? Sounds like a cartoon or something." Buttercup commented.

"What's the alternative Buttercup?" Blossom demanded. "That I'm doing all this? That my unconscious mind is trying to hurt all my friends while I sleep? I can't accept that, no matter how ridiculous this sounds!" Buttercup remained silent for the rest of the flight home. Once there Blossom floated into the bedroom and started changing into her nightgown.

"What are you doing? It's only 2:00 in the afternoon." Buttercup asked.

"The Blossom online is in my nightgown with messed up hair, so I want to go on and see if anyone recognizes me. Maybe if they think I'm her... or me... they'll tell me something about me... or her..." Blossom blinked, then pulled her nightgown on and yanked the bow out of her hair, ruffling it up as best she could. "How do I look?"

"Grumpy." Buttercup smiled. Blossom smirked back.

"Good enough." Blossom floated downstairs with Buttercup behind her and sat down at the computer. "Please, try not to let anyone interrupt me. I want to get to the bottom of this before anyone else is hurt." Buttercup nodded and Blossom put the headgear on. Instantly she was logged into the computer, staring at the door that led to the network.

She went through it and traveled down the hallway toward the end, ignoring all the doors. This was simply a small network connecting all the Virtual Reality Computers in Townsville, which was a sizeable amount since it was a big prosperous city, but beyond it was the connection to the rest of the world. The internet, which looked very different from the inside.

She walked out onto the electronic pathways that led into the darkness beyond. The darkness surrounding her was dotted with millions of brilliant white lights, each leading to another network, with each network containing hundreds more computer systems. This road led to a central system where people from every corner of the planet could converge. In other words, this was where the chat rooms went.

She approached the large rooms and examined the headings. There were rooms for adults, young adults, senior citizens, new young adults, children, bisexuals, gays, lesbians, gays and lesbians, transgenders, fetishists, Christians, Wiccans, Jews, blacks, whites, hispanics, Asians, supremacists, muslims, hindus, native-americans, televangelists, single parents, gay parents, lesbian parents...

She shook her head in astonishment. She had never realized there were so many different groups of people out there. Why did everyone on the planet need their own room? They were all still people right? She shook her head in confusion and just went in the room marked for children, since that was where she belonged, and likely where she would go if she came online without knowing it.

Inside the room there were three other kids that were images like herself, but fifteen more that were screens with letters printed on them. Kids who hadn't gotten the Virtual Reality System yet, so were forced to use text-based chatting. As she walked in the three kids turned toward her to size her up. One of them grinned.

"Hey, you're here. I was wondering when you would show up." One of the kids told her. Blossom cocked her head curious and approached him.

"You were expecting me? How?" Blossom demanded.

"You told me to. Duh." The boy laughed, shaking his head. "You're not actually going to make me give you that message though are you? I mean, you know it, why should I have to tell you?"

"Go ahead and tell me." Blossom gulped. She was confused beyond belief, but she didn't want to let it show. If he found out she wasn't who he thought she was, she could be in trouble. Yet she could very well be who he thought she was and not know it...

The boy groaned and rolled his eyes before clearing his throat. "Okay. 'You're feeling good about the deeds you've done and the revenge you've wrought.'" The boy smirked. "What does 'wrought' mean anyway?" He asked confusedly. Blossom gulped and shook her head, backing away from him. "Hey, is something wrong? You told me to tell you!"

"I'm sorry... I should go!" Blossom turned to run back out of the room, charging back toward her computer system. She didn't know why she was running, but something was freaking her out about all this. The message talked about revenge... and Mike and Robin had been humiliated just two days after Robin had accidentally caught her dress on fire with a magnifying glass. She'd blown it out with her ice-breath, but that made the fabric brittle and the entire dress had shattered.

Sure she was angry at having to make her way home half-naked, but she wouldn't seek revenge... yet how could the person who left the message know? She and Robin had been alone at the time. Only they knew what Robin did. Nobody else could have known...

As she pulled out of the computer and set the helmet on the table Buttercup watched her carefully. "So? What's going on Blossom?" Buttercup asked. Blossom looked up at her, not sure what to say. There was only one explanation for this. She had to be responsible somehow.

"Buttercup... I need you to do me a favor." Blossom said. Buttercup cocked her head to the side, listening.

________________________________________________________________________________

"Are you sure about this Blossom? It doesn't seem a little... ridiculous to you?" Buttercup asked that night. Blossom was busy tying her feet to the bedpost to keep herself from moving during the night. Bubbles was already asleep on her side of the bed, but they could move and speak without waking her up thanks to their powers of hearing whispers and floating above the bed.

"If I was the one who humiliated them somehow, I can't be allowed to do it again. The only way I could have done it is by sleepwalking downstairs, logging in, and sending the e-mail. Now tie my hands to the headboard." Blossom demanded. Buttercup sighed and complied, tying the rope around Blossom's wrists, then the headboard.

Blossom pulled at the ropes to make sure they were secure. "Good. Now if we wake up in the morning and the ropes are broken and someone has been humiliated, we know who did it." She said. Buttercup rolled her eyes and floated to the center of the bed, lying down.

"I really hope you know what you're doing red." Buttercup grumbled under her breath. Blossom closed her eyes, secretly hoping she knew what she was doing too.

________________________________________________________________________________

Miss Keane sipped her cup of tea and plopped herself in front of the fireplace. The fire crackled and glowed with orange and red colors. The heat felt wonderful on her bare skin, and she gave a soft sigh. She loved staying up late into the night, wearing her bathrobe and just taking in the silence after dealing with twenty screaming kids.

She thought she heard something outside the front door, but she passed it off as her imagination. She took a sip of her tea, letting it calm her constantly frayed nerves. She heard another sound near the front door. She tried to ignore it, but it kept coming again and again.

Irritably Miss Keane stood up and approached the front door, listening for it to come again. She didn't think it would be a burglar; Townsville was the safest city in the world. She gripped the door handle and slowly swung it open. Without warning a swarm of cops flooded in, several grabbing her by the arms. "Hey, what is this!?" Miss Keane yelped.

"Kimberly Keane, you are under arrest for the possession of child pornography." One of the officers told her. Miss Keane stared at him stunned, until she finally realized what must have happened. Blossom must have sent HER the movie of Robin and Mike too, but she hadn't thought to check her e-mail and delete it. So they thought she wanted to collect it. Though that still begged the question, how did they know it was there? It's still illegal to monitor e-mails without reasonable cause.

At the moment though, that was the least of her worries. "No, wait you have it wrong!" She pleaded, but the cops didn't pay any attention.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." The cop continued. Miss Keane didn't struggle or complain anymore, there would be no point. She really was innocent. Someone would listen to her and release her soon. She had to believe that the justice system in Townsville actually worked...

________________________________________________________________________________

Blossom woke up the next morning with a groan, trying to stretch. Her arms and legs were still tied to the bed though, so she couldn't stretch very much. She stared at the ropes until she finally remembered why she was tied down. Realizing this meant nothing had happened, she used her heat-vision to cut off the ropes and stood up.

Her joints were aching from remaining in such awkward positions all night, but she still felt good. The ropes were unbroken, so she hadn't done anything to hurt anyone else. She went downstairs to find the Professor setting breakfast out on the table. "Good morning Professor."

"Good morning Blossom." The Professor smiled, then looked up at her. His smile faded when he saw her. "Are you okay? You don't look too good." Blossom realized she must look frightful. She hadn't slept much and she was still moving stiffly from being tied to the bed.

"I'm fine, just... a nightmare." Blossom sat down in front of a bowl and started eating. The Professor didn't look convinced, but he let the topic slide. Soon however there was a knock on the door.

"Who could that be?" The Professor went into the living room, where Blossom heard the door open. She could hear the ensuing conversation thanks to her hypersensitive hearing. "Oh, good morning officer. Is there a problem?" The Professor asked.

"I'd like to speak with Blossom if you don't mind, Professor." The cop said. Blossom froze in mid-bite, listening intently.

"Of course, she's in the dining room." Blossom listened to two pairs of footsteps as they made their way to the dining room. The police officer approached her with a somber look on his face.

"Blossom..." He knelt down beside her. "I know how hard it must have been to send that e-mail last night." Blossom stared at him in shock. Another e-mail!? That was impossible. She was tied up all night, she couldn't have possibly gotten to the computer and sent anything. "If you need someone to talk to, we have lots of people who would be willing to listen."

Blossom was shaking as she gulped down the bite still in her mouth. Before she could speak, the Professor did. "What are you talking about?" The Professor asked, looking back and forth between Blossom and the officer. "Is there something I should know?" He asked.

The officer sighed and stood up, facing the Professor. "It seems that Miss Keane has had a fixation on Blossom. Last night your daughter sent us an e-mail of pictures Miss Keane took of her... even a video she took of two other students." The Professor's jaw dropped, and Blossom went deathly pale. "We arrested her last night. I just wanted to make sure Blossom was okay."

"Dear God... not Miss Keane. I never would have thought..." The Professor knelt down beside Blossom. "Are you alright Blossom? I'm so sorry..." He wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"I... I... I should... go wake up Buttercup and Bubbles..." Blossom stuttered before she streaked out of his arms and went upstairs. She was still shaking like a leaf as she grabbed Buttercup's shoulder. "Buttercup... it... it happened again! We have to do something!"

Buttercup groaned and opened one eye. "What... were the ropes broken when you woke up?" She asked. Blossom explained everything that the police officer had told her downstairs. "Pictures of you? Freaky... did Miss Keane ever take any pictures of you?"

"No, of course not!" Blossom yelled. "But I got mad at her yesterday for chiding me when she thought I sent the e-mails... oh man what have I done!" She was nearly in tears, shaking and rambling like a madman. "I must have remotely linked up to the computer somehow, and made the pictures, and sent them to the cops along with the video of Mike and Robin! I sent Miss Keane to prison!"

"Snap out of it!" Buttercup slapped her across the face to get her attention. "First thing's first, we have to find out if it's really you in those pictures. So we need those pictures." Buttercup said. Blossom stared at her, then gulped and nodded, finally calming down enough to think straight.

"Okay... if I sent them, they should still be in my Sent box..." Blossom led the way down to the Professor's lab and sat down at the computer. She logged in and went into her mailbox. There were two Sent mails. One was addressed to many names, everyone in class, and the other was addressed to the Townsville Police Department.

"Open one." Buttercup said. Blossom gulped and touched the second e-mail, letting it open. A box popped up saying 'Do you want to display the attachments?' Blossom hesitated. "Come on, we have to know." Buttercup prodded. Blossom took a deep breath and tapped 'Yes'.

An entire library of picture appeared, almost all of them pictures of Blossom nude, in various lewd poses. It almost made her sick to look at them, and she knew they were fake. It was no wonder they locked up the supposed perpetrator the night they found out about this.

[They look genuine to me...] Blossom said. [I must have set her up last night... and look, my hair's messed up like before. That really must be a sign that I'm doing it in my sleep...]

"Wait a minute..." Buttercup said. "Print one out and logoff so I can get on."

[What good would that do?] Blossom asked.

"Come on already." Buttercup demanded. Blossom shrugged and picked one of the less stomach churning ones to print out. She logged out afterward and let Buttercup hop on. Buttercup went into her mailbox and printed out the image of the Sender on the class wide e-mail. "I thought so, look at this." Buttercup printed out the e-mail and logged off.

"What am I looking at?" Blossom asked. Buttercup grabbed both pictures and held them close to each other.

"The hair, look." Buttercup moved over to Blossom and showed them to her. She didn't see what was so special, it was messed up in both pictures. They agreed that was a sign of her sleepwalking the other night. Actually now that Blossom was paying close attention, something did seem odd... "If the messed up hair IS a sign of scrambled brainwaves, then why is it identical in both pictures? Shouldn't it be different each time?"

Blossom now realized she was right. Every clump, strand of hair was in the exact same place in both pictures. "That means... there's only one character model doing this." Blossom took the pictures from her sister. "Mine is different each time but this one stays the same."

"So it can't possibly be you." Buttercup told her. "Of course that asks the question, who is it?"

"This all started when I used Princess' stupid computer... the answer has to be in there somewhere." Blossom sat down at the computer again. "I'm going to end this. I'm going to break into her computer while she's at school. I'm sure the Professor won't mind, since he's sure I'm an emotional wreck over all the manipulation."

"Isn't breaking into someone else's computer illegal?" Buttercup asked.

"It's better than letting whatever's going on continue." Blossom placed the helmet on her head and logged back into her account. She immediately went for the 'Network' door and walked toward Princess' computer.

She grabbed the handle, but it was locked. Apparently it automatically locked itself when nobody was using it. Blossom smirked and pulled back a moment before slamming herself into the door. She broke right through, stumbling into the lobby of Princess' computer system. A piercing red light came on from the ceiling, almost blinding her. An alarm no doubt. She hoped nobody was home at Morebucks manor.

She moved quickly toward the 'Data Files' door and went through, looking around. There was another set of doors, each labeled with a different kind of file. She had no clue what she was looking for, but it had to be around here somewhere. Maybe in the System Files...

She moved toward the door, then stopped and whirled when she heard something behind her. She leapt in the air to avoid a mass of liquid that flowed right under her. But instead of continuing on, it stopped and formed into a large, humanlike shape. An anti-virus program... she should have known Princess' system would have security measures.

It swung one huge fist at her, but she dove down to the ground and flew between the creature's legs, trying to reach the 'System Files' door. The program was faster than she anticipated. It whirled and slammed one fist into her, sending her hurtling into the 'Backup Files' door instead. The door shattered and she went flying to the ground just inside.

She groaned and rose to her knees, hearing the liquid behemoth right behind her. She leapt forward, bouncing off the wall and flying back into the program's head. She gave it a mighty kick, sending it flying back into the hallway. It burst into a pool of liquid on contact, flowing through the hallway in two different direction. It would be awhile before it could come after her again.

Blossom sighed and turned to look around at the files. 'beach~1.exe', 'indi.exe' 'bat.exe'. She puzzled over the filenames until she realized what they were. Princess said in class that the computer saved all files as backups if the computer was shut down unexpectedly. This must be where the files are backed up. Wait a minute...

She searched through the long list of files. Apparently Princess wasn't very good about shutting down her computer properly to have accumulated this much junk in the last two days. Finally she found what she was looking for, 'bloss.exe'.

[A backup file of me...] Blossom mused. [Of course... The Professor said the network wasn't configured to support our minds as users... so it saw me as a program. That night, my program must have still been running when Princess was on, it just sucked me in when my waking consciousness stopped and my dreaming kicked in.]

[And when she shut down her computer with you... the program... still active. It created a backup.] Blossom whirled around, seeing the other Blossom standing behind her, grinning. [Me.]

[But if you're a backup of me, then you should have my mind. And I would never hurt those I love, no matter what they did to me.] Blossom declared.

[If someone hurts you, you hurt them back. It's the way life is.] The copy said slyly. Blossom stared at her a moment, then started chuckling.

[Of course. You're a computer file, not me. And there's one thing a computer could never copy. My love for my friends.] Blossom said, letting all the pieces fit into place. Everything made sense now, and she was reassured what she wasn't unconsciously hurting her friends. [Now move aside, so I can correct this problem.]

[And let you delete me? Fat chance.] The copy grinned. [Besides, there's one other difference between us. I belong in this system. You do not.] Blossom blinked, then slowly turned around to see that the anti-virus creature had already reformed and was moving toward her. A quick glance at the Blossom copy showed that she was ready for a fight too. Blossom backed into a wall, not wanting to take on both opponents at once on her own.

________________________________________________________________________________

"Blossom! Come on! Wake up!" Buttercup shook her sister violently, trying to snap her out of it. For some reason though she didn't respond, it was like she couldn't even hear her. A quick glance at the monitor showed Blossom trying to fight both her copy and the water-thing, but she wasn't faring too well by herself. "Why can't she hear me? Professor!" Buttercup streaked upstairs.

She found the Professor in the living room with Bubbles. They were both eating cereal." Professor, I think Blossom's in trouble! Come on!" Buttercup yelled. The Professor looked surprised, but wasted no time in running downstairs to the lab. "I can't get her to respond to me! It's like she's completely absorbed into the computer!"

"What...?" the Professor walked up behind Blossom, staring at the monitor. "Buttercup, tell me what's going on right now." The Professor demanded. Buttercup sighed and told him everything she'd heard. About Blossom going into Princesses computer the first day. About the dream Blossom had that night. About all the strange happenings over the last two days and everything she had heard Blossom say on the monitor.

"Why can't she hear us Professor?" Buttercup asked. The Professor knelt down and examined Blossom, trying various things to get her attention. She didn't seem to notice any of it.

"It looks like she's so deeply inside the network that all her consciousness is focused on the system." He shook his head. "Why didn't we account for this? The further you stretch someone's consciousness over this kind of space the deeper they'll be pulled in. We were so stupid!" He yelled.

"So... she's stuck?" Bubbles asked worriedly.

"Kind of... unless she can get close enough to the home computer to let her reestablish a connection with her body. But I don't know how we can help her." He watched the monitor, which was depicting Blossom struggling in vain against both assailants at once. "It's like she's trapped inside a dream and we can't wake her up."

Buttercup's eyes snapped open and she looked up at the Professor. "A dream... Professor we can help her!" She yelled excitedly. Bubbles and the Professor turned toward her curiously. "We've done it twice! We can travel into each others' dreams! Maybe me and Bubbles can go into Blossom's, if it really IS like a dream!"

"Hey yeah! We can do that! We just have to be sleeping!" Bubbles agreed.

"Well... It's not EXACTLY like a dream..." The Professor mused.

"Come on! What could it hurt to try? If it doesn't work, we sleep for a while and wake up. If it does, we can save Blossom!" Buttercup shouted. The Professor nodded and stood up.

"Come on, let's get you two ready." He led them to a pair of steel tables on the other side of the room. Buttercup laid down on her table, trying to calm herself down. She wouldn't let Blossom face those things alone.

________________________________________________________________________________

Just when Blossom thought she was getting the upper hand on the copy, the anti-virus monster came up behind her and smashed her into the wall. She was battered, bruised, and bleeding in several places. Which was odd, because she hasn't known the computer simulated these things. She supposed IT would for realism in video games and such, but she hadn't expected the pain to come with them.

[I don't need this! I can leave any time!] Blossom exclaimed. She tried to take off the helmet... but she didn't feel anything. She couldn't feel her body anymore. [What...?]

[You're in too deep now.] The copy grinned, flexing its muscles. [The only way out is through us.] She flung herself at Blossom, colliding with her in mid-air. Blossom whirled, trying to throw her at the anti-virus monster, but the copy held on to her hands and used the momentum to slam Blossom into the ground. The monster stomped toward her, but she managed to roll out of the way and lean up against the wall.

[You can't fight us both on your own.] The copy exclaimed victoriously. [Admit that you wanted to see them fall as much as I did. They humiliated you and hurt you!]

Blossom growled, pushing herself up from the wall. [I won't... what you did is not right, no matter what the circumstances!] Blossom yelled. Suddenly she felt something in the back of her mind. Two yells that seemed apart from herself, yet very familiar.

[We're here Blossom!] Bubbles yelled in her mind.

[Let's kick some butt!] Buttercup agreed.

[Bubbles... Buttercup...] Blossom looked down as her dress began to change. The computer was trying to find a physical interpretation fitting of the three combined minds. Blue, pink, and green swirled around the dress like a living tie-dye, but soon they began to meld together. Her dress turned bright silver, with her eyes following suit. Her hair bow vanished and her hair was set free about her back, extending in length. It too turned bright silver.

[Come on.] The unified Powerpuff Girls grinned in challenge. The copy growled and lunged toward her, but Blossom managed to dodge and block every blow. The anti-virus came up behind her, but Bubbles senses it before it could strike them, and Blossom dodged it. Neither the copy nor the program could lay a finger on her now. It wasn't that she'd gotten stronger, the increased awareness brought by her sisters let her sense the movements of both opponents at all times. That gave her the key advantage.

She ducked under the swing of the anti-virus and kicked the copy in the stomach, whirling in time to catch the monster's arm on the backswing and tear it in half, sending a wave of water flying against the wall. She whirled and deflected a kick from the fake Blossom with enough force to send her spinning away, then whirled and met a punch from the monster's other arm with her own, which tore into the liquid barrier.

She lunged forward into the monster, sending pieces of liquid flying every which way. Buttercup sensed the copy coming up behind her, so Blossom whirled and blocked the punches that were thrown at her. Their arms flew in an invisible pattern of strikes, but Blossom won out in the end, flinging the copy against the ground with enough force to put a dent in it.

Bubbles felt the anti-virus coming up behind her again, so she whirled and whipped her leg out. The kick slammed into its stomach, sending it flying back into the hallway. It slammed into the ground hard enough to burst into a pool of water. This time, it didn't seem to be reforming. Puddles littered the rooms, each disconnected from the others.

Blossom turned back to her copy, then floated toward the file with her name on it. [You do it... and you'll go back to taking all the crap they do to you.] The copy pushed herself to her knees, staring at Blossom intently. [You won't get any revenge... they will walk all over you again. And you'll sit back and let it happen.]

Blossom smirked. [I don't need you.] She reached out and tapped the file name. A menu appeared listing options. She pressed 'Delete' and one more box appeared, 'Are you sure?' Blossom looked back at the copy, then smirked and pressed 'Yes.'

[Rrgh...] The copy growled as her body began to vanish, becoming little more than a string of ones and zeroes that were pulled back into the system. [You... weak... little...] Was all she was able to say before her body vanished completely.

Blossom smiled, turning to head back toward her own computer system so she could log out. She couldn't wait to get out of here and relax without having to worry about ruining her friends' reputations.

________________________________________________________________________________

It took several days before they convinced the police department to let Miss Keane out of prison. The Townsville Police Department wasn't keen on believing their story, but the Mayor wasn't about to let their wish go unheeded. At the same time the Professor proposed that the virtual reality systems be recalled and destroyed, since the dangers inherent in them had become apparent.

This really ticked off Princess Morebucks, who didn't want them to take away her precious new piece of hardware. She had time to realize that Blossom had broken into her computer, but didn't have time to prove it before the computers were recalled. So she was given yet another reason to hate the Powerpuff Girls. As if the girls cared what Princess thought anyway.

Still, after everything was calm and settled, with Miss Keane back at work with the incident wiped off her record, and Princess still hating the Powerpuff Girls, there was one more loose end Blossom wanted to tie up.

"Please Robin, you've got to believe me!" Blossom begged as Robin walked from the schoolroom to the swings on the other side of the playground. "I would never do that to you... or Mike. It wasn't my fault, it was..." Blossom trailed off when Robin kept ignoring her. She slumped her shoulder, still floating in pace with her friend.

"Okay... it was my fault I guess... if I'd never tried that stupid computer before I was allowed... or maybe if I told the Professor I did it before the copy started lashing out..." She grabbed Robin's hand, making her look at her. "I'm really sorry Robin. I was stupid... but I promise it will never happen again." Robin stared at her for a few moments, then sighed.

"I guess it was just a bit surprising... that's all." Robin admitted. "I never expected to see you there... with that evil look on your face. I... thought you hated me for some reason."

"No way, you're still my best friend in the world." Blossom told her sincerely. Robin smiled and pulled her into a big hug.

"You're my best friend too." They pulled away from each other and walked toward the swings again. The air this time was more companionable, and everything seemed to be okay. Still, there was one more thing Blossom was curious about.

"What was it like?" Blossom blushed. Robin looked at her curiously. "You know... with Mike." She said. Robin blinked, then started giggling uncontrollably. So Blossom go an earful on what it felt like, and got a good feeling in her heart. Everything was back the way it should be. She just hoped next time the Professor helped invent something, it wouldn't try to hurt everybody.

THE END

Special thanks to Marquis Elmdor for the idea and the incentive to do it.