Chapter 4: Yet another Ally, and Blaine's New Partner

The Professor was back in the X Lab, as Blaine had called it, in the midst of creating something new. Now that he knew that his new research on Chemical X was perfectly safe, or as safe as it could possibly be (this is Chemical X we're talking about, folks), he could easily create another experiment in the time it took to make the Powerpuff Girls. This time, since he had already created a Super Rowdyruff, he would create the opposite, a Super Powerpuff. He worked as quickly as possible, and fortunately, he had all the ingredients right in the lab. Robotic limbs, taking orders from the Professor's computer terminal, combined the ingredients and loaded the mixture into the crystal chamber. The Professor was so excited, he added the Chemical X himself.

He quickly began entering in the necessary data for the crystal to initiate the process used to create Blaine, a process he had labored nearly nine years to develop. The crystal received the data and began pulsing, turning an odd green color that, for some reason, made the Professor think about mint. Suddenly, the center of the crystal gave off a big flash of light, which died away, leaving the shadowy form of what was clearly a human female. The Professor quickly shut off the crystal and went to greet his new daughter. 'Good grief, I've gone from three kids to eight in nine years!' he thought excitedly as he gazed at the girl.

In the case of his girls, each girl's respective counterpart's clothing and eye color reflected their own in a way. However, as he immediately noticed, whereas Blaine's color was gray, the girl in front of him was a completely different color. She wore clothes identical to the ones worn by the PPG's, except that they were mint-green, just like her eyes. A gold X, similar to the one on Blaine's clothes, was on her right shoulder. Her long hair was also mint-green, and she wore a black hair-band.

"Hello, who are you, sir?" she asked him in a soft gentle voice.

With a very big sense of déjà vu, the Professor spoke. "I am your father, Professor John Utonium," he replied.

"Hello, Father, it is very nice to meet you," she beamed at him brightly. "What is my name?" she asked.

The Professor had to think for a moment. So far, he had given all of his kids names that began with a B, so he thought he should uphold tradition. However, he wanted to give her a name that he thought best described her. As soon as he determined that fact, one popped into his head. "Well, after thinking about it, I'll call you…Beth, Beth Utonium," he said at last.

"That's such a pretty name, Daddy," she said. "I love it!"

Just then, there was a loud boom in the basement, followed by a few curses in a young male voice. "Sounds like Blaine is having a problem in the simulator," said the Professor. "Come with me, Beth. We'd better go check on him."

"Daddy, who is Blaine?" asked Beth, tilting her head like a curious kitten.

"Someone very special, someone I'm sure you'll really like," replied the Professor, winking at her. "Here, come with me so you can meet him."

"Okay, I can't wait!"

In the simulator, Blaine certainly had his hands full. Instead of destroying most of the robots in one move like the last time, he had decided to give his unarmed fighting skills some practice. Basically, he was using his strength and speed to wear down the numbers of the robots. This had proved to be slightly more difficult than he had first thought, because not only were these things heavily armed and armored killing machines, they outnumbered him 600 to one.

He didn't care, however. He loved the feel of his heart pounding in his chest, the rush of adrenaline, the feel of his body being pushed to exert itself to new lengths. Here, in this thrill-a-minute environment, he felt free, unrestricted…heck, he felt so alive!

Unfortunately, just as he smashed a robot in half down its middle, he suddenly realized that another one was right behind him, it's large titanium-bladed sword whizzing down towards him. It was then that Blaine had his first experience with panic. Unable to evade the attack or put up any kind of adequate defense, he braced himself for the imminent blow.

Suddenly, a mint-green blur shot in from the side, smashing the robot to pieces, which shot through the air and impacted several floors of a building. Blaine looked at who this new arrival was, and got the first shock of his life.

"Wow, is that Blaine in there?" asked Beth in awe.

"Yes, that is Blaine, in there doing a combat simulation," replied the Professor, following a defeated robot with his eyes as it plunged to the ground and smashed to pieces on a city sidewalk. "This is the simulator that your sister's, the Powerpuff Girls, train in, as well as their counterparts and your brothers, the Rowdyruff Boys."

Beth suddenly looked alarmed. "Oh, no! He's going to be attacked from behind! I have to help him!" she cried.

Before the Professor could say anything, Beth vanished into thin air, only to reappear in the simulator, shooting towards a robot in the process of launching an apparently successful sneak attack on Blaine. It was thwarted, however, when Beth knocked the thing clear into next week. 'Somehow, she knew that Blaine was being ambushed before the robot even began to attack him! Not only that, she teleported into the simulator!' These and other thoughts began to flood his mind as he observed Blaine and Beth's first meeting.

Thanks to the Professor's research, Blaine had been "born" with the body, mind, and knowledge of an average 15-year old boy. (A/N: Actually, his knowledge and intelligence is WAY beyond average, but that's pretty obvious, right?) Even so, nothing could have prepared him for the sight right in front of him. The only girls he had seen so far had been his sisters, but even so, she had to be the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She had the kind of body he had only seen in his dreams, and a light seemed to emanate from her, a light that seemed to sparkle in her eyes. All at once, he saw that she possessed Blossom's character, Bubble's kindness, and Buttercup's strength. To all of this, she added an air of grace and charm that was all her own.

Beth was equally fascinated by Blaine. Everything about him, to her, practically screamed "strength." His hair, though strangely long for a boy, seemed to emphasize his strength and spirit. His face was exactly what she imagined a fairy-tale knight would look like. In him, she saw everything she had pictured in the perfect guy.

They would have continued to stare in awe at each other, had a laser blast not shot right between them, bringing them back to reality. "Uh, maybe we should hold introductions until after these guys have been dealt with!" said Blaine, maneuvering out of the way of a few more laser blasts.

"Err, sure, no problem!" said Beth, also doing a few evasive maneuvers. "I don't suppose you'd like a little help!"

"Hell yeah, the more is all the merrier!"

"Okay, let's do this, big guy!"

The two super-kids flew headlong into the robots, who they proceeded to lay the smack-down on. Without even noticing it, they were executing their attacks in perfect tandem with each other. They not only eliminated their targets together, they attacked in perfectly synchronized rhythm with each other. Even when they went after different opponents, their rhythm was unbroken. Even though they were totally oblivious to this, the Professor was seeing everything.

"They don't even know each other, and look at their attacks!" said the Professor in utter amazement. "Their attacks, their movements, they perform them as if they were one body with one mind! This is even more amazing than I could ever have imagined!"

Just then, Blaine and Bell took out the last robot with a combined dive kick. The Professor quickly paused the simulator, giving the two a chance to finally meet each other.

"Umm, hello," said Blaine in a nervous voice as he felt his cheeks heat up.

"Yes, umm, hello to you, too," said Beth, blushing as well.

"Well, um, my name is Blaine," he managed to say, holding out a hand.

"Umm, uh, my name is Beth," she responded softly taking his hand.

Just the fact that their skin was touching was enough to send excited shivers down their spines. Blaine's face was on its way to discovering new variations of red. Beth felt like her heart would either burst from pounding too fast, or it would break completely out of her chest. Funnily enough, Blaine just happened to notice that hers was...well, let's just say she was "gifted." He shook his head a tad and forced himself to look at her face, hoping to high heaven she hadn't noticed him staring.

"Well, uh, it's nice to meet you," said Blaine as he slowly, almost reluctantly, let go of Beth's hand.

"Yes, it was a pleasure to meet you as well," said Beth, feeling an odd surge of heat throughout her body.

"Pardon me, you two, but why don't we continue this simulation some other time?" came the Professor's voice, snapping them out of their trance.

"Certainly, Father," said Blaine, tugging his collar. "Well, Beth, shall we go?" he asked, holding out his hand again.

"Yes, I would like that very much," said Beth, smiling as she took his hand yet again and allowed him to escort her to the control center.

'Wow, her skin is so soft,' thought Blaine as they walked. 'And she sure is, well, gifted.' His eyes suddenly darted once again to her chest, but he quickly forced himself to look ahead. He scolded himself mentally for having dirty thoughts about a girl he didn't even know.

"Well, I suppose you both have some questions for me," said the Professor when Blaine and Beth arrived in the control center.

"Well, yes, I do have something I want to ask," said Blaine, tugging his collar again. "I don't want to sound like I'm being rude to her, but who is Beth?"

"Well, she is your counterpart, Blaine. She is formed in the same way as you were. Just as you are a Super Rowdyruff Boy, Beth is a Super Powerpuff Girl," explained the Professor. "From now on, you two are going to be partners."

"Well, in that case, I guess I have nothing else to ask," said Blaine. Turning to Beth, he asked, "Do you have any questions, Beth?"

"Well, I guess I do," she said, stepping forward. "Earlier, I saw Blaine being attacked before that robot was even behind him. Then, it was like I just instantly appeared in the simulator just by thinking that I wanted to," she said. "What caused all of that?"

The Professor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I'm not 100 sure, but I think you possess the ability to teleport yourself to any location you wish to be at, as well as psychic precognition," he said.

"Okay, I get the teleportation thing, but what exactly is precognition?" asked Beth.

"It basically means you can see things before they happen," said Blaine, coming to her side. "You have the ability to sense danger to the point that you can see something bad before it even happens, so you can avoid it and escape being hurt. In this particular case, you saved my butt, for which I express my deepest thanks."

Beth blushed and looked at Blaine shyly. "I-it was no trouble, Blaine," she said. "You know you're really smart."

"Well, uh, thank you, Beth," said Blaine, blushing again. He scratched the back of his head nervously.

The Professor fought back the urge to laugh at his new children's bashfulness. "Well, perhaps you two should get some sleep," he said. "I know this might be strange, but since we don't have any spare beds, you two will have to share the pull-out bed in the living room sofa."

Blaine felt like he was about to freak out, but he calmed down, since he knew that there were no alternatives. "That will be quite all right, Father," he said with enough composure that he sounded sincere. "Good night, and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, good night, Daddy," said Beth, giving the Professor a kiss on the cheek.

"Good night, kids," he said as they left. "Sweet dreams to both of you." 'And look after each other,' he thought.

In the living room, Blaine had set up the pullout bed, and was taking a moment to stretch and yawn. "Well, Beth, I guess we hit the hay. We have a big day ahead of us," he said, removing his shoes and undoing his ponytail.

"Yeah, I guess so," said Beth, removing her shoes and hair-band. Once she had done this, she walked over to Blaine and put a hand on his cheek, causing him to turn his head to look at her.

"What is--," he started to say, but he was stopped when Beth pressed her lips to his in a soft kiss that lasted about five seconds, but it seemed to him like forever. "Umm, uh, good night, Beth," he said softly. 'Did she just...did we just...?' he thought, unable to believe it.

"Yes, umm, good night to you, too, Blaine," replied Beth, also in disbelief. 'Did I just...why did I do that?' she wondered. 'I just felt like it was something I should do, but why?'

The youths climbed into bed and despite the flurry of thoughts they were both having, they fell into a peaceful sleep.