Thanks for the reveiws y'all! Well.. here goes..

Hope you like!

Chapter 4: Faceless Evil

Bubbles was walking down the sidewalk, holding the hand of the little girl who was still crying softly. She wanted to avoid flying, because that might have scared the child too much. Bubbles casually looked at all the people passing by her, and as she did, one person in particular caught her eye. She noticed an old, white-haired man pass by her quickly, but it almost seemed to go in slow motion. He had a pair of cold, frightening eyes that glared down at her as she walked along with the little girl.

In an instant he had passed her by, and she whirled her head around to see where he went, but she only saw a young woman walking with a little boy. The instant stroke of fear had caused her to grasp the little girl's hand tighter, and she looked up at Bubbles, tears still streaming down her face.

"What's wrong?" She asked softly.

Bubbles looked at her with sad eyes and a little frown.

"Oh.. Uhh.. Don't worry little girl, I'm taking you somewhere safe; where that big mean monster can't get you." She gave the girl's hand a reassuring squeeze, but that only caused her to look at Bubbles with confusion in her bloodshot eyes.

"But how? How can we ever be safe? If it got my mommy..then how can YOU be safe?"

Bubbles chuckled a little.

"You don't need to worry. I'll keep you safe, cuz I'm a Powerpuff Girl! And the Powerpuff Girls never lose!" Bubbles said confidently and with an encouraging smile.

"Are you sure about that?" The girl asked in a strange voice.

"Well of course! There's nothing that can beat the Powerpuff Girls!" Bubbles said, a bit confused at the girl's strange behavior.

"I'd beg to differ..." said the little girl as she looked at Bubbles, with an odd, emotionless look on her face.

"Bubbles! Where are you Bubbles?"

Blossom and Buttercup flew frantically down the sidewalks towards the Townsville Police Station. They had no idea what on earth could've been going on, all they knew was that they had to find their sister.

Blossom stopped short when she saw a group of people huddled around something next to a large brick building. Buttercup and Blossom elbowed their way through the crowd, where they found Bubbles lying on the ground unconscious, a large bruise on her head.

"Bubbles! Bubbles wake up!" Blossom gently shook her while Buttercup broke through the crowd, exploring the surrounding area.

Bubbles slowly came to, groaning as she tried to sit up.

"Wha... What happened?"

"I don't know... something must've knocked you out Bubbles. Are you okay?" Blossom asked.

"Yeah... I think so.." Bubbles stood up slowly with Blossom's help. Buttercup joined them again, and they each surveyed the damage around them.

The sidewalk and the crosswalk of the street was damaged as though an incredible force had plowed right through the ground. There was a deep imprint in the brick building that Bubbles had crashed into, and she could still feel the impact ringing in her head.

Bubbles tried to walk a little bit, nearly fainting. Blossom and Buttercup quickly grabbed Bubbles' arms and flew up into the sky.

"Maybe we'd better go home... so you can rest. That bruise looks pretty bad." Blossom and Buttercup carefully escorted Bubbles home, as Bubbles slowly drifted off again.

When Bubbles woke up again she was lying on the couch in the living room, an ice pack on her forehead, and her family watching her with worry in their eyes.

"Hey! I think she's waking up!" She vaguely heard Buttercup's voice as she opened her tired eyes. The Professor smiled and kissed her cheek.

"Are you okay sweetie?" He asked.

"Yeah.. My head hurts a little, but I feel better."

"That's my little trooper." He smiled and gave her a hug. "I'll leave you girls alone.. I've still got quite a lot of work to do." He got up, waved to his girls and went back down to the lab to continue his work.

After he was gone, Buttercup and Blossom hopped up on the couch next to Bubbles.

"Hey, Bubs.. what happened out there?"Buttercup asked.

"I.. I can't remember what happened.." Bubbles groaned.

"Come on Bubbles.. We need to know what happened... please try to remember.." Blossom pleaded. "What about that little girl, Bubbles? Where did she go?"

Bubbles' eyes opened wide as the memory came back to her. The strange, evil look in the little girl's eyes... it all came back to her in a split second.

The little girl chuckled as she suddenly jumped in front of Bubbles.

"Huh?" Bubbles stepped backwards in surprise at the girl's strange actions.

The girl gave an little laugh and held out her tiny palm in front of Bubbles. With seemingly no effort at all, the girl blew an invisible, and yet incredibly powerful, shockwave of energy from her hand, sending Bubbles down the sidewalk, across the street, and headfirst into a brick building.

Bubbles half-opened her eyes long enough to see the little girl running away. She also noticed that, strangely enough, the people walking down the sidewalk acted as though nothing had happened. And then, without warning, it all went black.

"It was her... that little girl did this to me..." Bubbles said to herself in shocked wonder.

"What!" Buttercup shouted. "But she was just a little girl! How could she blow you, a Powerpuff Girl, into a brick building?"

"I don't know.. ..I really don't know.." Bubbles said almost shamefully, her eyes staring distantly ahead.

"Because that wasn't a little girl, Bubbles." Blossom said.

"What?" Bubbles asked, stunned.

"That was our villain. It must be. There's no other explanation."

"But... how? How could that be our villain?"

Blossom shook her head sadly. "We found the body of that little girl at the bank, hidden in the vault.. along with many others."

"Maybe it was a ghost! Maybe that's what happened last night too! Maybe there's ghosts all over Townsville!" Bubbles said, her voice rising quickly and also quivering in fear.

"No, that's not possible. I hugged her, and you held her hand. This was no ghost. And yet, there's no way that little girl could be real."

Bubbles' eyes widened as she realized this, and thought about it silently.

"We're dealing with some kind of monster that must do his crimes, and then disguise himself as one of his victims. Its like he's playing some sick and twisted game with us." Blossom explained.

Each girl thought this over for a moment, until Buttercup suddenly cried out.

"Hey! That would explain the incident with Mr. Cole..."Buttercup said. "We all saw him in the jewelry shop.. It must have been the villain in disguise!"

"But that wasn't the only time I saw him." Blossom said.

"What? What are you talking about?" Buttercup asked.

"I swear I saw Mr. Cole standing outside the school today during recess. But I just assumed I was seeing things." Blossom explained.

"I know what you mean... I think I saw him too on the sidewalk as I was walking the little girl to the police station.."

"But how could that be? You guys are crazy!" Buttercup rolled her eyes and laughed at her sisters.

"Maybe he has us in some sort of mind trap? Maybe we're just hallucinating?" Blossom thought aloud.

"The only question is... how can we capture such a villain? If we don't even know what it's true form is...or IF he's even real at all." Blossom said with a sudden hopeless realization.

Each girl seemed to sink lower on the couch as they thought about the horrible truth.

"You're right.. there's no way we can catch this villain.. if we don't even know what it looks like.. Or even if it really exists." Bubbles said.

"Well SOMETHING must be doing this.. there's just no way to know what is real and what's not.." Buttercup said.

"I guess we'll just have to weed him out then." Blossom said, as Bubbles and Buttercup looked at her curiously. "Catch him in the act."

"But how?" Bubbles asked.

"Easy. We know his targets... money, jewels.. Valuable things. We just need to wait until he strikes again and nail him. Get the security tapes and watch him in action. Then we'll know how to capture him." Blossom said with a new confidence in her voice.

"Yeah! Great idea Blossom! We'll be sure to catch him now!" Buttercup said, her old courageous spirit back.

"Yeah! That big dummy won't know what hit him!" Bubbles giggled and the girls hugged each other, ready and willing to take on this new foe.

Meanwhile, while the girls celebrated their new plan of attack against this faceless villain, a pair of vengeful red eyes hovered ominously in the darkness of the old factory. Every one of their words echoed throughout the giant hollow room, as though they were being projected from some sort of load speaker. Instantly the factory was thrown into a cold silence as the connection was cut off abruptly, and the shadowy figure began to chuckle to himself in that same ghostly voice at the girls' plan.

"Foolish Powerpuff Girls. I'm not interested in money and riches. Hah! What I want cannot be bought with petty human money. What I want is the total control I deserve! I want the utmost power over this pathetic little city."

He began to pace back and forth in the darkened room, grinning to himself as he thought about his plan.

"Ignorant fools, thinking they can catch me so easily. What they have seen was merely a small taste of my power. I will prove that no power can match my own, not even that of those puny little Powerpuff Girls. I will get what I want, and I will kill anyone who stands in my way." He stood still and began to laugh to himself.

"The only thing left to do is destroy those cocky little brats. But.. killing them now would be too easy.. and not painful enough." He scratched his chin with his long fingers as he thought to himself. After a few moments, a wide grin spread across his face, but it was hidden in the darkness of the room.

"I need to kill them from the inside out. Break them each one by one. I need to make their greatest fears real. I want to see them screaming and on their knees begging for mercy. Its perfect!" His voice rose in intensity with each word, until finally he exploded with another fit of evil laughter. He stopped suddenly and then began to think to himself again.

"But... there's so many possibilities... how should I do the job? It needs to be slow and painful... but how?" He thought to himself some more, until a horrible deadly grin spread across his face.

"I know just what to do..."

Well there ya go.. hope you enjoyed it ;; thanks for reading!