Devil’s Food
By: Mark J. Hadley
The girls arrived back home, descending towards the door and flying inside quickly, slamming it shut behind them. “Professor!” Blossom called out, “Are you still here?”
The professor’s voice came from the kitchen, “I’m in here, girls…back so soon?”
“Yeah,” Buttercup called back, as they flew over to the doorway into the kitchen, “You won’t believe what just…happened…” She trailed off, and all three girls gaped. The professor was dressed in a cooking apron, and was chopping up vegetables, loading them into an enormous pot of boiling water. Narrowing one eye, Buttercup said, “Uhh…what are you doing?”
Looking up at the girls, the professor smiled and answered, “Oh, just trying out a new recipe I thought of. So, what happened?”
Bubbles said, “This is gonna sound strange, but the people at the bank were trying to eat us…I think…”
“Well, you are very sweet little girls,” he pointed out, chuckling a little at his own joke.
“Professor! This is serious!” Blossom exclaimed. “Something fishy’s going on, and we have to get to the bottom of it.”
Stepping back from the table, the professor nodded, “You’re right, of course. I’ll see what I can do to figure out what’s wrong.” He turned towards a table and started rummaging through some jars of oils and spices.
Bubbles flew up to the edge of the pot and peeked in over the edge. Curiously, she asked, “So what’s the new recipe?”
“Oh, it’ll be the greatest tasting soup in existence when I’m done with it!” the professor said proudly, then whispered to himself as he continued searching through the jars on the table, “Now, where did I put it…”
The other girls joined Bubbles by her side, looking into the pot also. Dipping her hand in the liquid, Bubbles carefully tasted it, and made a face, saying, “It doesn’t taste that good right now…”
Finding a tiny bottle he was looking for he examined it, smiling, and told her, “That’s because I haven’t added the secret ingredient yet…”
“Oh? What is the secret ingredient?” Blossom asked.
He spun around suddenly, splashing the contents of the bottle towards the girls, and shouted, “You!” Blossom and Buttercup yelped in surprise and flew back in time, but the black liquid in the bottle splattered across Bubbles. She fell back, landing on the ground, and tried to wipe it out of her eyes.
“Wha….what do you mean, us?” Buttercup stammered in alarm.
Instead of answering, the professor started splashing more of the contents of the bottle towards her. Buttercup quickly flew out of the way and took cover behind the pot. Blossom joined her a moment later. Bubbles sat up and looked at her hands, saying, “Girls! M-my powers are gone!!”
“Antidote X,” the professor grinned. “I figured it’d make you easier to capture…” He started walking around to the edge of the pot, holding the bottle ready…
Blossom cried out, “Let’s get out of here!” She scooped up Bubbles, and the three of them quickly made a break for the door. The professor splashed the Antidote X at them again, but missed, and they managed to escape from the kitchen. He set the bottle down on the table angrily, and cupped his hands around his mouth, calling after them, “C’monnn! What am I going to do with just a pot of vegetables?”
They didn’t stop until they were well out of the house. Once they were safely away, in the sky, Buttercup shook her head, “I can’t believe it…the professor, too! What’s going on?”
“Is this affecting everyone?” Blossom wondered. “Girls, we have to be careful dealing with anyone from this point on, all right? We don’t want them to catch us…”
“I don’t blame you…who knows what they’d do?” Buttercup said, shuddering at the thought. “They’d probably eat me and Bubbles as an appetizer, then finish you off as the main course…”
“Yeah,” Blossom said grimly…but then, she glared at Buttercup and added, “Hey, what are you implying?”
Folding her arms, Buttercup said, “I’m implying that someone shouldn’t eat so many desserts and snacks between meals all the time…”
Bubbles, who was still dangling from Blossom’s grasp, cried, “I don’t wanna be an appetizeeerrrr!!”
“Don’t worry, Bubbles,” Blossom assured her. “Nobody’s eating anybody…we just need to figure out what’s causing them all to act like this, and reverse it somehow, got it?”
Before they could say another word, though, a small pigeon flew over and landed on Blossom’s head where they were hovering. Peering up at it, startled, Blossom said, “What the…?” A moment later, the pigeon started pecking at the top of her head, and Blossom tried to shoo it away with her free arm, “Hey, ow! Stop it!!”
As Blossom waved her arm around, trying to get the pigeon off, more pigeons appeared, and they started surrounding the girls, trying to peck at them. Buttercup furiously swung her arms to keep them back, but they kept closing in. Bubbles just covered her head, clenching her eyes shut. Eventually, Blossom yelled, “Head for the trees!” and started for a wooded area below them. Buttercup followed right behind her, still swatting pigeons away.
Once they were safely amongst the trees, they had lost the birds. They waited a few moments to make sure the area was clear, and poked their heads out from their hiding places. “This stinks,” Buttercup said. “Even the birds are after us…”
“We’re safe for now,” Blossom said, “so let’s think. What’s causing this? Why is everything so eager to eat us?”
“I dunno,” Buttercup shrugged. “It’s not like we taste good or anything…” She looked at the back of her hand for a moment, then gave it a small lick. Widening her eyes slightly, she licked again and said, “Hey…I’m not half bad!”
Blossom was surprised by this reaction, and cautiously licked her own hand…she looked back up at Buttercup and said, “You’re right, me too! I mean, it’s not good enough for me to want to eat or anything, though…” Bubbles sniffed her own hand curiously for a few moments.
Nodding, Buttercup said, “Me either…but these people can’t keep their hands off of us! So why is it doing that to them, but not to us?”
“Maybe it doesn’t have the same effect on us,” Blossom suggested. “Maybe to these people, we taste really really good…like, I don’t know, a hundred times better than the best pizza in the world…”
Buttercup whistled and said, “That’s one delicious pizza…”
“But we’re not pizza,” Bubbles insisted. “We’re little girls! Why would they want to eat little girls, no matter how good they taste?”
“They probably can’t help it, Bubbles,” Blossom said. “It could be hypnotic somehow. Which leads me to believe that something might be causing this…it all started after the fight with Mojo, so maybe it was something he did…”
“Yeah, it’s gotta be Mojo’s fault!” Buttercup frowned, punching one fist into her other. “Whaddaya say we head over to the prison and ‘question’ him a little?”
“Right, let’s…” Blossom began, but then stopped as she noticed a shadow looming over them. The girls all swiveled around, and saw someone approaching…they recognized him in an instant…and he looked upset…
“Durn Powerpuff Girls!” Fuzzy Lumpkins growled. “I done told ya b’fore, git offah mah property!!” He dove at them, and the girls immediately split up, going different directions. It took Blossom and Buttercup a moment to notice that Bubbles was fleeing on foot, since her powers were still gone…luckily, she still managed to dodge, and Fuzzy landed from his dive on the ground next to her.
Buttercup called out, “Bubbles, run!”
Fuzzy got partially back up, and sniffed the air for a moment, his expression changing from anger to amazement, “Whoo-eee!” he exclaimed, “I smells somethin’ deeeeee-licious!” He fixed his gaze hungrily at Bubbles, still right next to him, and Bubbles yelped, scrambling away as fast as she could.
It looked like Fuzzy was about to chase after her, so the other girls quickly flew closer waved their arms to get his attention…Blossom shouted, “Hey, over here!” This distracted him long enough for Bubbles to get to a safe distance, heading off further into the woods. “Okay, now that she’s safe, let’s loop back around and…” Blossom started to say.
“RHAAAARGH!” Fuzzy snarled, leaping at them abruptly. His speed took them by surprise, and in the next instant, they were both pinned to the ground under his hands. They struggled, but couldn’t break free…if there was one thing they knew well about Fuzzy, it was that his strength was nearly unstoppable when he’s upset. They stared up in shock as Fuzzy grinned down at them and said, “Ah gotcha! Now…reckon ah’ll have me a lil’ snack…”
“How about a little smack instead?” Buttercup said, pulling one of her arms free and swinging a punch at Fuzzy’s wrist. He yelped, and jumped back, grabbing hold of that wrist, but he had let the girls go in the process…they both quickly flew at him, and a couple of punches later, he was down for the count.
“Whew,” Blossom said, wiping off her forehead and looking down at the unconscious Fuzzy. “That was close…”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Buttercup nodded. She looked around for a moment and said, “Hey, where’s Bubbles?” Blossom glanced around the woods as well, but neither of them could spot her anywhere.
“She must have run off,” Blossom pondered aloud, then cupped her hands by her mouth and shouted, “Bubbles! Can you hear me?” Listening for a moment, she found no answer coming back…
Buttercup shouted in the other direction, “Bubbles! C’mon, where are ya?” No response either. “We’d better look for her…”
“Yeah,” Blossom agreed. “Without her powers, she’s too vulnerable, especially with everyone chasing us down like this…” They both took off and started combing through the trees, trying to find any trace of her…completely unaware that she had already left the woods, and was running off further into Townsville…
* * *
Bubbles jogged down one of the first alleys she saw when she made it into the city, and stopped to catch her breath up against the wall. That was so scary, she thought, the way that Fuzzy looked at me…they really are tryin’ to eat us! What are we gonna do?! And…with my powers gone, how am I gonna get away if they come after me?
She was about to find out, because at that moment, one of the townspeople peeked into the alley and pointed at her, yelling, “There’s one of them! After her!” At least a dozen more people charged into the alley, and Bubbles quickly started running for the opposite side, which emptied out onto the street. She had a lead on them, and even though she was tired, she smiled, thinking, I’m gonna make it!
That’s when another group of people appeared at that side of the alley, blocking off her escape. Bubbles skidded to a halt, and turned around…she was trapped! She glanced around feverishly, looking for a way out as they approached her from both sides, and spotted a small basement window near the ground by the alley. Diving for it, she kicked it open—luckily, it wasn’t locked—and started to crawl through.
Before she could make it all the way, one of them grabbed onto her leg. She tried to kick herself free, but then her other leg was caught as well. Before she could do a thing, they had pulled her out of the window and back into the alley. She tried to call for help, “GIR—…” but was interrupted by someone tying a gag over her mouth…someone else quickly tied her up with some rope.
They triumphantly rose her in the air over their heads, giving a victorious cheer, and ran as a group out of the alley, carrying her along with them overhead, like some kind of trophy. Various shouts went up from the people: “We’ve got her!” “Back to the diner!” “It’s dinnertime!” “Hey, is there enough to go around?” Bubbles couldn’t budge; she was tied up too securely…all she could do was hope that the other girls would find her in time…
* * *
Him nearly fell off of his couch, he was laughing so hard. “Oh this is just precious!” he exclaimed, watching the latest turn of events on his TV. He was eager to see which of them would be the first to be eaten, and it looked like Bubbles would be it. “What do you know? She’ll be an appetizer after all…” He changed the view on the screen back to the other girls, and raised an eyebrow as he saw which way they were heading, and added, “On second thought…if they go that way, then Bubbles might end up being dessert instead!” He sat back to watch, knowing that the girls had no idea who they were heading towards…probably the only one capable of taking them down while they still have their powers…