In the next couple of months that passed, the seeds that Bubbles had planted began to grow, and eventually bloom. The inside of the greenhouse looked completely different than it had before, with a little over a hundred flowers spread out across the ground. Bubbles took some time every day to just stand back and look at it, marveling in its beauty. Every time she did, there was no doubt in her mind that life would return to the world, just as she always thought it would.

They're so beautiful, she thought, and there are so many of them…why, in another year, there could be hundreds of flowers…maybe even a thousand! That'll fill the whole greenhouse up! I wonder if I should build a bigger one if that happens…things could get really crowded in here…

Every last one of them had names. It was too many for her to remember, though, so she left it to the older flowers, knowing that they wouldn't forget. Each one of them, too, reminded her of Bulba. Oh, how proud Bulba would be, she thought, to see how beautiful her children and grandchildren are!

This afternoon, she was sitting and reading a thick book on mathematics. The advanced parts of it were difficult, but she was catching on little by little. She knew that once she completed this, she could start on the next steps of her learning process: physics, and eventually quantum physics. She had no idea how long it would take; the math part alone was being more difficult than she had expected, yet she stuck with it.

Feeling chilly, she pulled a blanket around her and looked up from her reading at the clouds in the sky. It was unusually cold for this time of the year. It certainly wasn't this cold in either of the two past years. Hard to believe it's even been two years, she thought. It seems like only yesterday.

Staring up at the sky, she realized what the trouble was. It's so cloudy, she thought…come to think of it, I haven't seen the sun in a couple of weeks. I'd better go see how long this cloud cover's going to last. Setting down her book, she called out, "Be right back!" to the flowers and left the greenhouse, soaring up into the air towards the clouds above.

She aimed to fly above the clouds so that she could get a good view of the surrounding area, but when she plunged into the layer of clouds, she immediately started coughing, and had to fly back down for some air. It wasn't a normal cloud; it was dust and ash. Holding her breath, she flew up into the cloud and out the top. She gained some more altitude so that she could see exactly what was going on.

When she saw it, she gasped…the cloud cover stretched for as far as she could see. Flying up higher, almost out of the atmosphere, she still saw nothing but clouds. What happened? she wondered…Where did all this come from? I've got a bad feeling about this…

Plunging down back through the cloud cover, she headed straight back for the greenhouse and started gathering her supplies. She had to find out whatever was causing this, even if it meant leaving the flowers alone. "I have to go," she told them as she hastily prepared. "Yes yes, I'll be back soon! No, you'll be fine; this greenhouse will protect you from anything, and there's plenty of water."

She threw the backpack onto her back and stopped by one of the flowers on the way out, saying, "Sophie…you're in charge while I'm gone, okay?" Looking at one of the other flowers and hesitating, she added, "Fine, Lucy, you can be second-in-command if you want then. I have to go…I promise I'll be back as soon as possible!"

With that, she left the greenhouse and flew out from the city, amongst the clouds once again. She regarded the dust clouds grimly, thinking, If I don't find out what's kicking up all this ash, it'll be hard for the flowers to get any sunlight…they'll die! I have to find out what's wrong!

* * *

It didn't take her long, only a couple of hours, until she spotted something ahead that looked like it might be the source of the dust: a large pillar of smoke that rose up from the ground far off into the distance. As she flew closer to it, she noticed the devastation around her…she was still a long ways from the center, but everything was in total ruins, worse than other cities she had seen. It almost looked like a gigantic explosion, but as she neared the center, there wasn't even much debris left.

What happened? she thought. If only I knew what was here before…but whatever it is got blown up, so now what? She thought for a second, then remembered something and reached into her backpack, pulling out an atlas she had found. Going over it carefully, she tried to locate about where she was in the state, and looked for any other unusual things in the area.

She found the city she was undoubtedly in, and glanced around, looking for some kind of landmarks so she could pinpoint this spot. There wasn't much left, but she saw a small lake nearby, so she estimated it. Looking down at the map, she traced her hand across from the lake towards the opposite edge of the city, stopping when it passed over something of interest: the site of a nuclear power plant.

"It must have blown up," she said aloud, "like a nuclear bomb." It sort of made sense to her, in a way…with no one left to monitor these things, she guessed it was possible that it could eventually become unstable and reach critical mass. So this released a lot into the atmosphere, but why so much? There shouldn't have been that much dust and ash…

As she mused over these thoughts, she saw a flash of light on the horizon, far off in the distance, maybe around a hundred miles away. Forgetting this site for the moment, she flew off towards it. As she rapidly closed the distance, a small mushroom cloud came into view eventually. I'd bet anything that it's another power plant, Bubbles thought. She double-checked her maps to be sure, and indeed it was…she stayed safely away from it just in case it was still dangerous to approach.

Is this happening all over? she wondered. If enough of these things went off…yes, that must be what happened! The explosions must be kicking up all that debris. This is like…what did the professor call it? A 'nuclear winter'? Something about if too many atomic bombs are set off. But…if the sun is blocked off for too long…the flowers will all die! I've got to save them! But how do I stop it? And how do I get rid of all the dust that's already in the air?

Without hesitation, she turned and headed back for home as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the clouds were getting thicker, and the air darker. She had no idea how long the flowers could live without sunlight, so every second counted…

* * *

It was almost as dark as a moonlight night, now, as Bubbles sat next to her flowers inside the greenhouse, thinking furiously. "Let's see," she said aloud, "I have to clear away the cloud cover, but I have to stop the power plants from exploding, or else it'll just come right back again. But how am I gonna do that? I don't know how to stop those things, and there are so many of them! There's just gotta be a way…"

As she thought about it, something suddenly occurred to her. There was one of those power plants right in Townsville itself. In fact, it was the same one with the generators that Mojo's device had been hooked to. She thought all power had ceased from it, but she hadn't considered that its nuclear core might still be active in there somewhere.

Bubbles quickly got up and flew out of the greenhouse, heading for the power plant. It wasn't difficult to get inside, seeing as there was still a huge hole blasted in the roof. Inside, she saw the generators, and Mojo's device, still attached to it. Flying over to a bank of computers, she hit the buttons a few times to see if there was any power being fed to it, and amazingly, the screen lit up dimly.

Her eyes widened as she saw what was displayed, various readings that she didn't recognize. But most importantly, it was flashing in red, 'DANGER MELTDOWN EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY 00:00:59'. Suddenly afraid, she started looking around, trying to figure out how to stop it. It's going to blow up! she thought. What do I do? What do I do?!

She quickly weighed her options. One was to obviously find a way to reverse everything before the meltdown occurred, but she had absolutely no idea how to do this. She could try flying away to a safe distance, but then…the flowers would all be destroyed, and she couldn't let that happen. She could try lifting the entire greenhouse, flowers and all, and fly to a safe distance with them, but she wouldn't have time.

The clock on the display had dropped to '00:00:47' by this point. She was running out of time. Only one thing to do, she decided, and she hoped it would work. Flying out from the power plant, she fired her eyebeams, cutting into the ground around it, slicing a big circle surrounding the entire building. Then, flying into one of the gaps she made, she lifted the entire facility out, straining every muscle despite her super strength. It slowly worked its way out from the ground, and she lifted up over her head.

Realizing that there were only seconds left, Bubbles put all her strength into it, and with a shout, hurled the facility high into the air. It disappeared through the cloud cover, on its way to orbit. She wiped off her forehead and sank weakly to the ground, resting…far above her, she heard a massive explosion as the power plant blew up safely away from the Earth.

That was too close, she thought, a bit shaken as she laid on her back. It's a good thing I found out about this…what would have happened if I hadn't? I would never have seen it coming…and it could have gone off at any time! Of everything I've been through so far, this is probably the closest call of all…

The use of all her strength took its toll on her, and she passed out from sheer exhaustion. She knew she had more business to take care of, but she just couldn't do it right now…in the back of her mind, she silently hoped that getting rid of the power plant would be enough for the moment…

* * *

When Bubbles came to, the air was pitch black. The sun must have set, and no stars or moon were visible. There was nothing but an inky blackness surrounding her. For a moment, she was afraid…she had never quite fully gotten over her fear of the dark, and this was probably the darkest darkness she'd ever been in. Then she started feeling around, trying to find a piece of wood or something.

Eventually she came up against a tree. She broke off one of the branches and used her eyebeams to light it on fire. This finally gave her a source of light, and she started looking around to get her bearings, and to find her way back to the greenhouse, since she still had a working flashlight over there.

As she flew back, she was filled with despair…this was only one power plant, while there were countless more out there. First thing's first, she decided. I have to see if I can at least remove some of those clouds. If I can't, then there's no point in trying to stop all the power plants from exploding, because I've failed either way. But if I can find a way to get rid of the clouds, then at the very least, I can just remove them again if more show up.

Bubbles made it back to the greenhouse. The flowers seemed all right…she quickly said, "Everything will be okay…don't worry, I can find a way to bring back the sun." As she went through her gear, locating her flashlight, she nodded in response to the flowers, "I know, but don't be scared…I'm here, and I won't give up. I'm going out there right now to try something, okay?…Yes, thanks, all of you. I'll need all the luck I can get…"

She turned on the flashlight and headed back out into the darkness, flying up towards the clouds. Tucking the flashlight into her belt as she approached, she had an idea that she wanted to try, something she had seen Buttercup do a long time ago. Maybe it could do the trick in this situation too, if she can duplicate it. I hope this works, she told herself.

Holding her hands together, Bubbles started to spin around, slowly at first, but then picking up speed, until she had whirled into a small tornado. The clouds nearest to her were drawn into the whirlwind, and once she had enough of them, she flew higher, above the cloud cover, almost into space. She continued the spin, and the clouds streamed out, leaving Earth's atmosphere and dissipating into space.

It was a little more dizzying than Bubbles had expected…she wondered how Buttercup had done it so easily. Nevertheless, it was only a little bit of the cloud that she had managed to pull up, so she flew down and repeated the process again, releasing more of it into space. Then again, and again. After around ten more attempts, she had to stop and steady herself, taking a break to keep her vertigo from causing her to throw up. She took this time to look down at the cloud cover again and see how much progress she had made.

Not very much, unfortunately…it was only dented; she'd have to repeat the process many more times before she could make a hole big enough for the sun to poke through once it rose again. And then, it would probably just fill back in from the adjacent clouds before long. She realized this, and just stared in disbelief.

No, she thought, I can't have come this far, just to let a bunch of dust and ash keep life from surviving…I…I have to keep trying…I can't give up! Taking a deep breath, she ended her break and dove into the clouds to resume her tornado spins…

* * *

It was almost two weeks later before the clouds finally started thinning. Bubbles spent nearly eight hours a day purging clouds from the atmosphere…each day, she grew more fearful for the flowers, how they could survive without the sun, since barely any sunlight was coming through even during the day. Yet she continued, with the dim hope that when the clouds finally did clear, they might still be alive.

During this two-week period, she noticed something odd: the flowers hadn't wilted even the slightest. She wasn't sure how this was possible, but she readily accepted the fact, especially after she had been so convinced that she was going to fail. Maybe her little pep talk she gave them every night was doing some good, or maybe this type of flower just didn't need as much sunlight.

She attributed it to the flowers' resiliency, though. This was a flower that had survived a world-wide apocalypse, after all. Perhaps it could go for months without sunlight, who knows? They might even last a while without water. She had never tried not watering them, because she didn't want to take that chance. It would also explain how come the flowers remained in bloom all year round. Whatever the reason, they were definitely strong, and most definitely flowers unlike anything she had ever seen before.

That's good, she thought. They're so strong…they'll pull through and bring life back to the whole planet one day. I know they will.

* * *

Another week had passed, and the cloud cover was almost completely gone over Townsville. The sun shone brightly across the landscape once again, and Bubbles was confident that she could keep it that way. A trip to another nearby power plant gave her some more useful information: they weren't all in danger of meltdown, as many of them had likely fallen dormant like this one. That meant that even if it happened a few more times, it wasn't likely to create a cloud cover as heavy as before.

She was able to turn her attention back to the flowers now. She was even more curious than ever as to how they were able to endure so much, and wanted to try a few things. Sophie, always the brave one, volunteered to go without water for a while. Even after that whole week, she still seemed perfectly fine, although on the last day, a few slight telltale signs of droopiness began to show. So they're not immortal, Bubbles thought, but they're pretty tough otherwise.

She sat with the flowers that Saturday, to have their usual group discussion. Bubbles smiled at Sophie and said, "As you know, due to Sophie's help, we now know that it's not just sunlight, but water also that you can go without for at least a little while." She looked in the back and after a brief hesitation said, "No, don't worry, that won't ever happen. There's still plenty of sunlight and water for you all!"

She took a few deep breaths and said, "Now, let's think about this. This means that you can probably grow in areas with very little water. Soon, but not for a while, I'd like some volunteers for anyone that wants to try growing out in the dry fields near Townsville. So think about it for a little while…" She took another deep breath, "…and if you're sure, I'll move you over there…"

Lying back for a second, she held her hand over her chest and took a few more deep breaths. After a moment, she waved her hand and said, "No, Jade, it's all right…I'm just tired…I'll be fine after…some rest…" She smiled and laid down to take a little nap, thinking, It's been a long few weeks…I've been pushing myself too hard, maybe I should take it easy for a little bit…besides, the flowers are much stronger than I ever imagined, and they can handle themselves. I need a vacation…but where can I go? There really isn't anyplace…oh well, I'll think about it later…right now, I need some well-deserved rest…