* * *

The girls came back down from their meeting upstairs, and the professor was waiting for them at the bottom of the steps. He still needed to figure out what Bubbles' plan was, so that he would be ready when they tried to use it on Dr. Neutron. Nonchalantly, he asked, "So, where did you run off to in such a hurry?"

"Just goin' over the plan," Buttercup told him.

"Yeah," Bubbles said, "I used some blocks to make a little map of Townsville, so we could go over every step of it. I really think it'll work!"

Blossom nodded in agreement, "We had to make a few slight changes, but I think with our combined plan, it'll really do a number against him!"

"That's great!" the professor said, forcing some enthusiasm. "Ah…might I take a look at these plans to see what you've come up with?"

Buttercup shook her head, "Nah, this time we're not gonna risk breathing a word of it to anyone. Dr. Neutron knew all our other plans, so he's probably watchin' us or listenin' in on us somehow. The less said, the better."

"But you can show me, right?" the professor said hopefully.

Narrowing her eyes very slightly, Blossom said, "We'd rather not…just to be on the safe side…"

The professor felt slightly nervous at the look Blossom had just given him. Does she suspect? he wondered. I hope not… He decided not to press the issue any further and said, "All right…I just wanted to be sure the plan was foolproof enough, but if you three came up with it together, I'm sure it'll work just fine…"

* * *

Hovering above the street via his jet boots, Dr. Neutron fired volley after volley of shots from the twin high-energy pistols he held in each hand. Blossom wove between the blasts as best she could, although it took all of her concentration. Guessing that someone was trying to sneak up behind him, he spun around, firing with one of the blasters and catching Buttercup with it at point-blank range. The blast from it sent her plummeting from the sky.

Bubbles was under her in a second to catch her, and Dr. Neutron watched, thinking, That better not have been their plan, because it was rather easy to predict. He suddenly turned his attention back to Blossom, who had taken a deep breath and fired a blast of her ice breath at him. He turned off the jet boots, dropping out of the air into a free fall and barely avoiding the icy gust of air that passed above him. He re-ignited his jet boots just before hitting the ground.

Shaking her head to get back to her senses, Buttercup called out, "This isn't working! We need to try somethin' else!"

Bubbles set her down on the ground, then took off towards Dr. Neutron, battle-ready. Blossom noticed this charge and exclaimed, "Bubbles! What are you doing? Don't attack him head-on!" Bubbles ignored her and continued her advance. Dr. Neutron didn't have anything ready to incapacitate her, not expecting a direct charge like this, so instead, he holstered his pistols quickly and swung a punch, a green energy field surrounding his fist to add extra power to the punch.

It connected on her jaw, knocking her to one side through a window of a building, and from the sound of it, the velocity carried her through the opposite side of the building as well. He forced a laugh at this, although inside, he was wondering if Bubbles would be all right. I didn't hit her too hard, he thought, just enough to knock her out I hope.

Blossom had already flown off to check on Bubbles, while Buttercup began an attack on him again, this time using her eyebeams. Dr. Neutron quickly pulled out a small mirror-like object off of his belt and held it out…the beams struck it and rebounded back, although they were more condensed on the rebound, almost like a laser. Buttercup stopped firing the eyebeams and rolled to one side to avoid the reflected beams.

Blossom returned to the fray, gritting her teeth. "Bubbles is down for the count," she called out to Buttercup. "Looks like it's up to us! Direct attack, now!"

"You've got it!" Buttercup responded, and both of them shot towards Dr. Neutron together, from opposite sides.

Dr. Neutron nearly rolled his eyes, thinking, What do they hope to accomplish? Have they forgotten about my protective shield already? He figured they must have, because in the next moment, they were upon him, and struck into his invisible energy field. They both cried out as the electricity from it coursed through them, and they fell towards the ground a moment later. They landed on the street, unmoving…knocked out.

Hmm, Dr. Neutron thought. The field shouldn't have knocked them out entirely. Maybe it was because of their charge. Oh well…either way, my job here is done. Time to get home so I can get everything in order for their return. Without wasting another moment, he turned and flew off in the direction of home.

They're definitely putting more effort into this, he thought as he followed a path between the buildings on the way out…Their attacks are a lot more coordinated, and I can feel that they're even a little stronger than before, too. Hopefully, if I can keep this up, I can get them to improve to levels beyond even…

He was distracted by a brief motion out of the corner of his eye. Curiously, he glanced behind himself, but didn't see anything. Strange, he thought. Resuming his flight through the city, he pulled the small reflective device off from his belt and examined it, as though looking for any damage, although in reality he was using the mirrored surface to look behind himself.

It took him a moment, but he spotted Bubbles, staying very low to the ground, following him cautiously from a distance. Clever, he thought. That means they set the whole thing up! So that was their plan…Bubbles pretends to be knocked out so that she can tail me back to my hideout…I'll bet the other two girls pretended to be knocked out as well. It almost worked, too, but now that I'm wise to it…

He turned sharply and darted down an alley. Bubbles saw this, and she waited for a moment quietly, listening from her position just outside the alley. All was quiet, so she turned the corner to follow him in. She didn't get more than a foot or two, though, because Dr. Neutron was standing right there…she bumped into his outstretched hand, and fell back slightly in shock.

Energy built up in front of his palm, forming a ball of green energy…as menacing as he could muster, he hissed, "Nice try, Bubbles, but Dr. Neutron is not so easily fooled. Unfortunately for you." Bubbles could only gape as the ball of energy launched away from his palm towards her…before it hit her, however, it exploded in a bright, blinding flash of light.

Bubbles clasped her hands over her eyes, rubbing them. She blinked a few times, waiting for her vision to return, which took about thirty seconds or so. Once she could see again, she saw that Dr. Neutron was no longer around. He, in fact, was well outside the city limits by this point. Close call, he thought, but it'll be interesting to see what they'll try next…

* * *

Blossom was stumped. She sat down on the floor of their room, furiously going over a set of plans, trying to come up with something that would work. Buttercup and Bubbles were both around the plans as well, equally puzzled. "All right," Blossom said. "Let's go over this again…Dr. Neutron has extremely advanced technology, has studied us and can anticipate our moves, and doesn't have any apparent weaknesses…"

"That's impossible," Buttercup frowned. "Everyone has a weakness."

Bubbles thought for a second, then said, "Maybe if we were just tougher…"

"What do you mean?" Blossom said.

"Well," Bubbles explained, "his weapons and stuff are pretty strong, but if we were tougher, they wouldn’t hurt us anyway…"

"Yeah…" Buttercup said, thinking about that and brightening up, "…yeah, that way, we could just wear him down! But it'd take us forever to toughen ourselves up…"

"Maybe not," Blossom said with a grin. The other girls looked at her, and she suggested, "How about we get the professor to make us some personal forcefields or something? Sort of an artificial way of toughening up…"

All three of them nodded, then flew out from the room to go see the professor, who was downstairs watching the news on television. "Professor!" all three of them called out. He looked up from the television curiously, and they quickly explained their idea to him.

The professor scratched his chin, and said, "It's not a bad idea, but I…"

"But what?" Buttercup demanded.

"I…uh…" he said, thinking, Argh, I can't think of an excuse! But I have to come up with something! "…uh, I don't have the parts necessary to build them…"

"Sure you do," Blossom said. "Just pull one of your old inventions apart or something to get the parts you need."

"But it'll take time…" the professor explained.

Blossom shrugged, "So are those devices we wanted you to build that can disable his equipment. We still don't have them, though…"

The professor felt cornered. To avoid them getting any wiser to him, he said, "Those will take time, but I guess I can have the forcefields to you by tonight, if I go to work on them now."

Bubbles cheered, "Yay! Thanks professor, we knew you could help us!"

The professor managed a weak smile, then got up and said, "Well, I'd best be off to work on it, then." He left the girls and went downstairs into his lab. Once there, he sat down at a table and laid down his head, resting it on his arms and sighing.

Now what? he thought. I can't build these forcefields for them…well, I can, but it'd ruin the whole training. No, I need to find a way out of building these for them, and hopefully, something to stop them from asking for my help after this. Only on their own will they learn to really strive to improve themselves, but they're also going to need an incentive. I have to come up with something for Dr. Neutron to do that'll really force them to push their limits. Something they can't ignore, like trying to blow up the entire city, or…

A smile crept across his face, and he said aloud, "Two birds with one stone…"

* * *

"When's he getting back?" Buttercup asked irritably, hovering back and forth by the front door. "He's been gone for more than three hours!"

"I don't know," Blossom said, from her position on the couch in the living room. "He said he had to go get a few things, but this seems like kind of a long time, doesn't it?"

Bubbles was pressed up against the glass of the window, watching outside for any sign of the professor. "Where could he be?" Bubbles fretted. "He shoulda been back by now! Maybe we should go look for him…"

"No," Blossom ordered, "we stay put until he…" At that moment, the hotline buzzed. Blossom broke off from what she was saying and rushed over to answer it. "Hello, Mayor?"

The voice on the other end wasn't the mayor, but its mechanical overtones were recognizable anyway as it said, "Hello, Blossom."

Narrowing her eyes darkly, Blossom said, "Dr. Neutron. How did you get on this line?" The other girls flew nearby to listen in on the conversation.

"A simple matter of tapping in," he explained, "but that's not important right now. What is important is that I have something you want."

There was a momentary pause, and then the professor's voice, sounding scared, came over the line, "G-girls?"

Blossom gasped, "Professor?!"

* * *

In a little makeshift hideout elsewhere in the city, the professor had set up a lot of equipment, plus a few new weapons. He spoke into the telephone, trying to sound frightened as he said, "Girls…h-he's got me held at…" Breaking off from his own speech, he stuck Dr. Neutron's mask over his face quickly and spoke, his voice now being mechanically augmented again, "That's enough, just to show you that I'm serious."

"You let the professor go, Dr. Neutron!" Bossom's voice came from the phone, shaking with rage.

"I thought I made myself clear that I give the orders around here," the professor replied, still wearing the mask. "After all your defeats, I thought you would have realized that by now."

Blossom calmed down just a little, and said, "What do you want?"

"Nothing," he replied with a chuckle. "Just to prove to you that I can do whatever I wish around here, and that you can't do anything to stop it. Goodbye."

"No, wait…!" Blossom began, but he had already hung up. The professor set the mask aside and grinned, thinking, That ought to do it. Not only won't they be able to ask my advice anymore, but now, they'll be even more determined to defeat Dr. Neutron. If this doesn't make them fight at their absolute best, I don't know what will…