Everything Nice

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Yeah, another crossover idea. This time I was hunting for Anime on youtube and found a recent Japanese take on a old cartoon......

And Everything Nice

1.

Astro and Uran looked in the mirror at themselves, and each other. “I'm not so sure about this.” Uran said.

“You don't want to stay a little kid all your life, do you?” Astro said.

“The two of you have made so many human friends.” Dr. O'Shay said. “Surly the two of you want to go to middle school with them. You can't be the smallest kids in your class. Your friends are growing up, you need to also.”

Astro nodded. Both of them were now a bit taller than they had been a week ago. Uran was also a bit, well rounder and shapelier that she had been, Astro looked a bit more muscular.

“Tomorrow, the two of you get enrolled in Middle School.” O'Shay said. “You'll be with your friends, and you'll meet some new ones.”

“That will be fun, won't it sis?” Astro said to Uran.

“I guess so, Ani” Uran sighed.

The Metro City New Townsville district Middle School was a longer bus ride from the O'Shay house than their Elementary school had been. Getting off the bus for the first time, Uran felt a bit scared, but Astro was already used to it, being a year ahead of his sister. “Don't worry Uran,” He said. “You'll be fine. I'll wait for you by the bus when school lets out later today.”

“OK, Ani.” Uran said as she walked the other way to her home room. “I'll see you later.”
Uran kept turning her head around to catch a glance at Astro as he disappeared around a corner. She wasn't looking where she was going when another student on a skateboard slammed into her. Uran and the older girl picked themselves up off the ground and looked at each other.

“Baka!” the older girl yelled at Uran. “Don't you know better than to walk into the path of someone going the other way?”

Uran almost started to cry. She stared at the kid who had just crashed into her. She was almost a head taller than her, dressed in green shorts and a green shirt. She also had vividly green eyes and short dark hair under a green baseball cap.

“Gee, I'm sorry.” Uran almost sobbed. “It's my first day here and I guess I'm a bit scared.”

The older student picked up her skateboard and seemed relieved that it wasn't damaged. “Gee, I guess I was a bit nervous on my first day of school too,” she said offering Uran a hand. “My name is Buttercup. Welcome to the New Townsville Middle School.”

“Gee thanks.” Uran said. “My name is Uran. Err, do you know where room 212 would be? I think I'm lost.”

“It's on the way to my homeroom.” Buttercup said. “Jump on the back of my board, I'll give you a ride there!”

The two of them balanced on the skateboard as Buttercup weaved in and out of traffic in the hallways, getting dirty looks from all the teachers. “This is fun!” Uran giggled. “Ani is going to be jealous!”

Buttercup braked her board to a stop in front of Uran's home room. “Here's your stop!” she said just as the first bell rang. “Crap! I'm gonna be late again for class!” Buttercup moaned, “Gotta run! See you later maybe!” She pushed off and flew down the hallway on the skateboard as Uran walked into the classroom and looked for a seat.

Astro found his homeroom easy enough. He looked at the chart posted on the blackboard and found the seat assignment that the teacher had already made. Astro quickly found his seat, just as a girl with long red hair wearing a bright orange dress entered the room. She also looked up her seat assignment and walked back to her desk, right in front of Astro! She turned around and noticed the robot boy and smiled at him.
“Hey, you're new here aren't you?” she said, “What's your name, My name is Blossom.”

“Hi!” Astro said with a bit of a lump in is throat. “I'm Astro, maybe you've heard of me?”

“Nope!, never have.” Blossom said, her brown eyes meeting his. “Glad to meet you though.”

A crowd of other students entered the room, some of them were smart enough to look up their seat assignments, others just stood near the doorway making conversation with each other. Astro saw Kenichi and Tamao wander in and find their seats, and he waved in their direction. Just then a girl with short blond hair done up in two braids entered the room. She was wearing a bright blue dress, and had the most stunningly blue eyes Astro had ever seen. The girl took the seat to the right of Blossom and blinked at her and then turned to Astro. “Hey who's the cute new kid in the class Blossom, you can't keep him for yourself!”

“Hi” Astro blushed, “I'm Astro.”

“My name is Bubbles” the newcomer laughed.

The classroom was now almost filled up. One more student rode into the room on a skateboard. Astro stared at the newcomer, a real tomboy dressed in bright green shorts and a green T shirt as well as a green baseball cap. She kicked her skateboard up into the air and caught it, then carried it over to her seat to the left of Blossom, who stared knowingly at her. “Just missed the late bell Buttercup!” Blossom said.

“Yeah, well I ran into this new kid and had to help her to her homeroom.” Buttercup said, turning to see who was behind her and to her right. “Hey sport, like to play soccer?” She asked Astro, making eye contact with him with her vivid green eyes.

[FelicityRedbarrow]

This could be good. I was all about The Powerpuff Girls when I was little! I have to admit that I wasn't wild about the Japanese adaptation, though. I'm still excited to see where this goes.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I vaguely remember the original series from when my daughters were little.... It was done with very crude 'blocky' artwork. I really like the look of the anime version, and they did keep most of the character personalities similar, especially the villains. The cannon was a bit different though, with some new characters added. I also thought it would be easier to merge the Astro Boy 'world' with the anime version in a crossover.

[Little Brown Fox]

I haven't really seen much of Powerpuff Girls Z. That being said, I didn't see much of the original series, either... but I can say that I don't particularly care for it. It's overrated, I think. Kind of like Dexter's Lab, and what little I could willingly subject myself to of anything KND-related. (Sometimes an aesthetic can ruin everything; granted, the premise was kind of stupid to me, anyways. I didn't watch a lot of cable shows when I was young- I didn't actually have cable, and could not frequently visit relatives who did.)

Now then, as for the differences that I am aware of between the two versions- one that bothers me is what little I've seen of Him's design. He looks like a straight-up jester, instead of the unsettling lobster man he's supposed to be.

I'm not sure how good I'll find this, but I'mma read it anyway, because there's not enough new fic and I'm hecka bored.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

“Co-ed P.E. class?” Astro muttered looking at his class schedule.

“We still have separate locker rooms.” Buttercup answered. “And I'm going to kick your butt on the soccer field!”

“We'll see about that!” Astro answered defensively.

The first three classes of the day were rather boring with the teachers handing out textbooks and reading assignments. Astro stashed his math, history, and science textbooks in his locker and headed for the gymnasium for P.E. He hoped that the instructor wouldn't take the class outside to the ball field for the day's workout, and it seemed he might luck out on that score as the first order of business was handing out their gym uniforms. That process involved sizing everybody up so they'd all get uniforms that fit. However, as soon as he entered the locker room and saw the dozen robots quickly measuring each student and handing them their gym shorts, shirts, and shoes it was clear that the entire class would be outfitted in no time.

Astro was one of the last students outfitted, and by the time he had changed into his P.E. uniform and entered the gymnasium most of the class was already assembled there. The girls were on one side of the room, and the boys on the other. Mr. Gehrig, their P.E. teacher blew his whistle and called the class to order.

“Well student's that was great timing, I see you are all outfitted and dressed, we still have over a half hour of class left.” Mr. Gehrig said, “Plenty of time for a little game of soccer.”
He quickly ran around the room and separated the class into two mixed groups with about the same number of boys and girls on each side. “Perfect!” He announced, “Let's head outside and kick some balls around!”

Astro found himself on the same team as Kenichi and Tamao. He looked across the field at the other group and saw Buttercup balancing a spinning ball on the tip of her left index finger. She was staring at him as if daring him to play against her.
Mr. Gehrig blew his whistle for the teams to line up. He took the ball from Buttercup and stood in the middle of the field. He then tossed the ball up and blew his whistle. Both sides charged at the ball. Kenichi reached it first and started kicking it towards the goal. He and Tamao passed the ball back an forth, and then Tamao kicked it towards Astro who was now in the clear. Astro took aim and kicked the ball towards the goal, but Buttercup ran in just in time and intercepted his delivery. Now she and another girl relayed the ball towards the goal on the other side of the field. She lined up a shot and attempted to score.

Now it was Astro's turn to defend against a goal. Buttercup's kick drove the ball high on a line drive towards the goal. Astro leaped into the air and headed the ball back towards the other side of the field. Tamao whispered to Kenchi “Astro's gone hyper! I hope no one noticed that little bit of jet exhaust!”

Astro ran after the ball. Without realizing it, he had suddenly become crazed with the game and was determined to score no matter what. He moved like a blur, using perhaps a bit more of his 100,000 hp than he should, behaving more like a robot than a boy in school with other humans.

Buttercup also was caught up in the moment. Her eyes glowed with a green light as she unconsciously put more than just a bit of powerpuff into her movements to intercept the ball from Astro and blast it across the field with a power kick. Just as the end of class bell sounded, the ball knocked over the goal on Astro's team's side of the field.

“I told you I'd kick your butt!” Buttercup yelled at Astro. “Hi Five!” she added, slapping his hand with her open palm.

Back in the locker room, Astro sat next to Kenichi and Tamao on the bench, changing back into his school uniform.
“I wonder if that girl with the green eyes is a robot?” Tamao said. “She sure out powered you there Astro.”

“No, she's no robot.” Astro said. “I would have noticed that. But there is something different about her that I can't quite figure out.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The lunch bell rang and Astro found his friends Kenichi, Tamao, and Shub had already staked out a table in the lunchroom, so he joined them. “Hi guys!” Astro said, “How's your day going so far?”

“As usual.” Shub said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Same here.” Tamao and Kenichi replied together.

The boys had each brought a bag lunch with them. While Astro didn't really need to eat, he did bring his usual thermos bottle containing an oil mixture to help with his body's need for lucubration and hydration for cooling. Lunchtime for him was more of a social thing, and his friends understood that and went along with it.

Zoran found an empty table away from the crowd to spend her lunch hour. She was about to open up her lunch box and remove her thermos when three girls wearing bright colors invaded her territory. They each were carrying a tray of food from the kitchen area. “Hi Zoran! Mind if we join you?” Buttercup yelled as she took a seat on the other side of the table from her. Bubbles and Blossom took seats on either side of Buttercup. “Hey guys, this is the new kid I told you about!” Buttercup said. “Zoran, these are my bestest friends, Blossom and Bubbles.”

“Hello.” Zoran said meekly. “Glad to meet you, I guess.”

The three girls quickly attacked their ramen with chopsticks. Bubbles and Blossom ate with dignity, but Buttercup slurped her noodles into her mouth, making loud noises. Zoran opened her thermos bottle and slowly sipped her oil and water.

“You on a diet or something?” Buttercup asked. “Don't you want any lunch?”

“Yeah, you look like you could use to put on a little weight, you're so skinny.” Blossom said.

Bubbles leaned over to get a better look at Zoran and what was in her thermos.
“Hey you guys, leave her alone.” Bubbles said, “Can't you see that she's a robot?”

“Really?” Buttercup said, “How can you tell?”

“I just can!” Bubbles said, getting up from her seat and carrying her tray over to the other side of the table to sit next to Zoran. “Don't let them bother you!” she said giving Zoran a hug.

For the remainder of the lunch hour Zoran and Bubbles were busy exchanging girl talk. Blossom and Buttercup quietly finished their lunch, and then walked off to sit outside till the bell for the next class rang.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

And Everything Nice

2.

“So how was your first day of middle school?” Dr. O'Shay asked.

“GREAT!” Uran yelled. “I made friends with a real nice girl who's in an upper class.”

“What's her name?” Astro asked.

“Bubbles.” Uran answered.

“Does she have these real blue eyes and blond hair tied up in two pigtails?” Astro asked.

“Yes, that's her.” Uran said, “Why?”

“Oh she's in my homeroom class.” Astro answered. “She hangs out with two other girls, one of which is in my P.E. class. Buttercup is one heck of a soccer player, there's something weird about her though. Tamao was sure that she was a robot the way she played against me. She's definitely not a robot, but is sure a great athlete.”

“Yeah, I bumped into her on the way to my homeroom.” Uran responded. “She gave me a ride on her skateboard. She's a real tomboy for sure.”

Professor Utonium and his son Ken lived in a laboratory complex not too far from the New Townsville district middle school. Ken was a boy genius who had gotten his P.H.D. at the age of nine after being home schooled by his father. Ken built his own robot dog named Poochi that has ESP abilities. School had just let out for the day when father and son were busy working on their latest invention. Suddenly the laboratory door slammed open and three teenage girls barged into the room.

“Hi Blossom, Hello Bubbles, Yo Buttercup!” Ken said without looking up.

“How'd you know it was us?” Bubbles asked chewing a wad of bubble gum.

“You always come over here at this hour after school to steal some of my candy.” Ken said.

“Yeah well that's cheap payment for saving the day so often!” Buttercup said, grabbing a handful of Peanut Butter cups from Ken's stash.

“Well at least it's been quiet in the district this week,” the Professor said, “the PPG's haven't had to save the day for several weeks in fact.”

“Yeah, it's almost a bit spooky isn't it?” Blossom said. “I hope you haven't jinxed us saying that!”

“Well, we got to get going!” Buttercup yelled running for the door.

“See Ya!” Bubbles and Blossom added together as they headed outside.

Ken looked up at his dad and said, “You know Dad, I've run into something on the 'web.”

“What is it son?” Professor Utonium asked.

“I've hacked into the school database to see what teachers the girls might be having this year and found the school student registry.” Ken said. “You know who is now attending New Townsville district Middle school?”

“I guess you're going to tell me.”

“Astro Boy and his sister Uran. Looks like the Power Puff's may be having a little help if the bad guys try anything!”


Skunk Kusai sat in his hideout in the basement of a dilapidated townhouse in a low rent neighborhood of the New Townsville district. His partner Acetylene Lamp was snoring on a cot in the back of the room. “I tell you Lamp,” Skunk said, knowing the other man was asleep, “We've got to figure out how to make a score and grab us some spending capital to restart our operation. Maybe with any luck that stupid robot kid won't find us clear across town in this district.”

Lamp coughed and rolled over. “I'd be able to grab some needed shuteye if you'd keep your G-D mouth shut!”

“You've been snoring for hours!” Skunk replied back, “and keeping me awake. 'Bout time you got up anyhow!”

Lamp fidgeted in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He pulled out a lighter from his pocket and tried striking it several times. All he got was sparks, the bic was out of gas. Skunk grabbed the fag out of Lamp's hand and lit it from the candle flame atop his partner's head, blowing smoke back at him.

“Gimme that!” Lamp yelled grabbing the cancer stick back from Skunk and stuffing it into his mouth. He picked up a newspaper that he'd been reading a few hours ago and quickly thumbed through the pages. “Here, take a look at this!” he said.

Skunk read quickly scanned the news article that had caught the attention of his partner. “New Townsville auction house to handle the sale of Mrs. Morebuck's Jewelry. Over 5000 carats of diamonds to be auctioned off, proceeds to go to charity. The auction house will open early on Tuesday to allow potential bidders to view the items up for sale.” He read.

“I bet they've already got the goods locked up in their safe in the basement.” Lamp said. “We can break in late tonight and help ourselves.”

“I haven't cracked a safe in years.” Skunk replied.

“Well I didn't get the nickname 'Acetylene' for nothing!” Lamp laughed, pointing to the welding torch sitting behind him. “I should be able to cut my way into that thing quite easily with my equipment!”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

An old rusty van with bald tires made its way into the downtown Townsville district. One headlamp on the vehicle was improperly aimed off to the side, the other headlamp glowed dimly because of bad wiring. A thin veil of blue smoke trailed behind the van which was burning oil due to bad rings in its tired engine. Lamp babied the clutch which was badly worn, carefully shifting from first to third gear, as the transmission refused to lock into second. He missed the sync point while shifting causing the gear box to grind past second with a moaning sound.

“Why are you still driving this POS?” Skunk moaned.

“It's better than walking.” Lamp sniped back. “I don't have the yen to replace this vehicle.”

“Hopefully that will change after tonight.” Skunk replied.

Lamp found the address they were looking for and parked the van in an alley behind the building. He turned the key in the ignition to shut down the engine, which continued to diesel for a few seconds before finally wheezing to a stop with a loud sigh, and a huge cloud of black smoke.

“You check the rear door for any alarms and I'll get my torch out of the back.” Lamp told Skunk.

“Right, I'm on it.” Kusai said, making his way towards the back door of the auction house. He surveyed the area around him. The rear of the building fronted on an alley situated between it and a vacant lot that once held a gas station. The lot was now fenced in, and several warning signs had been erected as the property was dug up. There was a large hole in the ground and several dump trucks and a backhoe were parked there. A strong smell of gasoline wafted from the excavation. It seemed that there must have been a fuel leak sometime in the past and a cleanup operation was now in progress before the property could be put to another use.

Skunk removed a flashlight from his pocket and shined it on the door. He carefully examined the door frame, and the wall around it. Smiling, he pulled a pair of wire cutters from his pocket and carefully stripped an alarm cable, then shorted two wires together. Satisfied with his handiwork he then went to work on the door lock with a set of picks. It took him nearly ten minutes to unlock the door, which he slowly pulled open. Nothing happened.

“You're getting old.” Lamp laughed. “Ten years ago you'd have had that door unlocked in only a minute or two.”

“Yeah, and the alarm would have gone off.” Skunk sneered. “I might not be as fast as I used to be, but I'm nowhere as careless as I was either.”

Lamp pulled the hand truck to which was attached two gas cylinders behind him. He carried the torch head and its attached cables around his neck like a doctor carried a stethoscope. They found the staircase leading down towards the basement, the wheels of Lamp's welding cart bouncing on each step. Skunk waved his flashlight around in the dark looking for the vault room. The basement stank from dampness and a vague petrol odor which Skunk figured came in with them from the old gas station behind the alley. At the end of a hallway he found a door leading into the front section of the building. Skunk carefully checked the door for an alarm, and found none. It took him longer to work on the lock on this door, he guessed it hadn't been opened in a long time and the tumblers in the lock were stiff. Yet the door opened easily once he'd unlocked it, and they moved inside. It was obvious that they were now in the auction house proper, the floor was nicely tiled and the walls plastered and painted as opposed to the rear of the basement that had bare concrete floors and cinder block walls.

“Smells richer in here.” Lamp said, “now where is the safe?”

They walked past an elevator and turned a corner. Yet another locked door lay in front of them. Once again Skunk looked carefully for signs of an alarm trip, and found one. He removed an electrical panel cover from the wall and stared at a maze of telephone and Ethernet cables. It took him several minutes to trace out the maze of wires and to insert a pair of alligator jumper clips to short out the alarm. He then worked on the lock with his burglary tools. Skunk pushed the door open, and smiled.

“Now that's a nice safe!” he grinned. “Think you can cut your way in?”

Lamp grabbed the torch from Skunk and examined the steel monster. “It looks impressive, but it has an Achilles heel,” Lamp said. “This model has extra thick walls, but the hinge attachments are not up to the usual standards. I can cut though the metal there in less than twenty minutes and the door will just fall off.”

Lamp adjusted the valves on the oxygen and acetylene tanks for the right mixture and fired up his torch. He adjusted the cutting head for a long thin blue flame and began to work on the safe. The torch cut through the metal making a roaring sound like a jet engine spooling up for takeoff. Skunk stepped back to give his partner room to work. He patted his shirt pocket and smiling, pulled a nearly new cigar from where he'd placed it almost a day ago. Kusai lit the stogie and pulled in a long drag. He then heard a loud metallic clang as the door fell off the safe.

“Good work!” Skunk said.

“I told you I knew how to open this thing up.” Lamp said.

The two thieves ransacked the safes contents searching for the diamonds. They quickly found several strong boxes filled with diamond-paper envelopes containing the unmounted gems. They divided the boxes between them and made their exit the way they had come in.

“Leaving your tools behind?” Skunk asked.

“I'll buy myself a better torch with the profits from this heist.” Lamp laughed. “Besides I just used up the last of the gas, and those cylinders were starting to leak anyway.”

They reentered the dank rear of the basement, and Skunk started to cough from the fumes. He threw his still burning cigar into the corner of the room and they both ran up the stairs carrying the strong boxes full of gems.

“Hopefully we'll get a good price for this stuff from the fence.” Skunk said.

“Well Hamegg owes me one,” Lamp said, “We'll go to him first.”

Lamp struggled to get his old van started, and then ground gears again getting the old transmission into first. They slowly drove off leaving a huge blue smoke cloud in their wake.

The corner of the rear basement glistened where the concrete had been softened by the underground seepage. The old gas station a hundred or so meters away and been leaking high grade petro into the ground for nearly a decade. While the excavation crews had removed a large amount of the gasoline and diesel saturated soil, a large yet undiscovered tongue of it extended under the alley and into the basement of the auction building. Only two of the four underground fuel tanks had been removed from the station property so far, the cleanup crew still had more digging to do before the cleanup would be finished. Skunk's smoldering cigar lay only inches from the petrol soaked corner of the basement......

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

And Everything Nice

3.

Astro was the first student to arrive in the homeroom class. Blossom and Bubbles showed up a few minutes later, and once again Buttercup barely made it into the classroom before the tardy bell sounded.
“I overslept!” the green eyed teenager told her friends.

“Up late watching anime reruns on Adult Swim again?” Blossom asked.

“None of your business, but yeah!” Buttercup said. “So what classes do we have today?”

“Looks like Miss Keane's history class, Mr. Stein for science, and Dr. Mattac's Algebra class.” Astro said, looking at his schedule. “First thing this morning is P.E. I think it's going to be indoors today though, looks like rain outside.”

“Too bad.” Buttercup said, “I was looking forward to embarrassing you again on the soccer field!”

“That ain't going to happen twice!” Astro replied.


Maxx Bidd, the owner of the downtown auction house arrived with his partners early to setup the display area for prospective customers. Most of the items that would be placed on the block were already in their display cases or on the stage in the main auditorium. Only the Morebucks collection wasn't present, it being locked in the basement safe. Maxx and his two partners took the elevator down to the basement level, where they found the door to the vault had been opened and the alarm panel tampered with. The safe had been broken into and its contents were lying all over the floor of the vault room. Maxx quickly called the police to report the robbery.

Inspector Gumshoe arrived within twenty minutes with two other officers. “Looks like the work of Acetylene Lamp,” the inspector said. “What's missing?”

“Looks like the thieves were only after the Morebucks collection.” Maxx Bidd said. “All the other jewelry in the safe wasn't touched. Of course, that was the most valuable set in there.”

“We'll dust for prints, but this Lamp character knows his business. He always wears gloves.” The inspector said. “We'll be gone in about ten minutes, you can open for business as usual. I'll call you if I have any news.”

Sighing, Maxx took the elevator back upstairs and started to prepare for the pre-bid inspection. The crowd would be disappointed with the Morebucks collection missing, but there was still a sizable amount of other items that would be going up for bids later in the evening.

The morning P.E. class was restricted to an indoor session in the gymnasium due to a constant drizzle that kept the outdoor play field damp. Buttercup voiced her complaint about the situation to Mr. Gehrig, who just shrugged his shoulders and cited school regulations. He gave the class a choice of activities which included basket ball.

Buttercup grabbed one of the balls and started dribbling across the gym, taking long shots at the basket, making most of them. Before he knew what was happening, Astro found himself involved in a one on one game against the green eyed tomboy. Buttercup zigzagged back and forth, her reflexes somehow faster than Astro's. Before he knew what had happened, she was two goals ahead of him, and not even winded.

Astro recovered a rebound, and made his way across the court with Buttercup blocking him from taking a shot at the goal. Finally Astro saw an opening and jumped to shot. Buttercup jumped up in front of him and grabbed the ball about ten feet in the air! 'No way!' Astro thought to himself. The only way that she could have done that was to fly!


Across town the auction house had just opened to the public. Several dozen people were inspecting the items for sale up on the auditorium stage. The pre-auction showing was on the fourth floor of the building. One of the two elevators in the old building was down for repairs, and the one in service was the smaller one that ran slowly. The patrons complained about having to crowd into the small lift to get upstairs, but the crowd slowly grew as the morning went on.

Down in the basement Skunk's cigar still smoldered. Across the alley, the work crews had just started to load more of the combustible dirt into the waiting trucks to be hauled away. The backhoe driver began to dig at a new location to uncover one of the remaining 10,000 gallon fuel tanks still buried under the former gas station.
“CRAP!” The heavy machine operator muttered.

The foreman waked over to the excavation site and looked into the hole. “Looks like you punctured that old tank with the power shovel,” he said. “I think the tank split open, we're going to have a big mess on our hands!”

About a thousand gallons of fuel poured out of the old tank. The stream of liquid followed gravity downhill and poured under the alley into the basement of the building on the other side. The concrete floor of the basement, already crumbling in the corner from years of underground moisture, started to bubble with the flow of gasoline. The advancing vapors reached the glowing cigar but and ignited.
Lamps two gas cylinders were not quite as empty as he had thought. They had been slowly out venting while sitting in the corner of the basement forming an explosive bubble near the ceiling.


Bubbles, Blossom and Buttercup sat in the back of Miss Keane's history class, while Astro had been assigned a seat near the front of the room near the window which faced towards downtown. The girls were half paying attention to their teacher, while passing notes back and forth about some cute boy in another class. Astro stood up to answer a question when he thought he heard something. He cupped his hands to his ears and cranked his hearing up to 1000x to hear the rumble of an explosion. Astro turned to face the window and could barely make out a mushroom shaped cloud of smoke rising in the sky in the direction of downtown. He zoomed his eyes into telephoto mode and saw the flames shooting high into the air.

“Er Miss Keane?” Astro said in a panic.

“Yes Astro, what is it?” the teacher asked.

Astro left his seat and walked up to the teachers desk. He whispered something into her ear.
“Why yes, I guess you'd better get going then.” Miss Kean said, “You're excused.”

Not too far away in Professor Utonium's laboratory the computer control panel started buzzing. Ken quickly ran over to the monitor to see what the alarm was all about. “Dad!” he yelled, “Look at this!”

A map image had formed on the screen showing a blinking red icon in the downtown New Townsville area. “Looks like a large explosion and a fire.” The professor said. He zoomed a web cam view and saw flames shooting out of a building with people hanging out the window. “I don't know if the fire department will get there in time.”

“Right,” Ken said, knowing what he had to do. “Poochi, call the girls!” he said.
The robot dog stood up and put his paws to his mouth. “POWER PUFF GIRLS WE NEED YOU!” he yelled.

In the back of Miss Keane's history class the belt buckles worn by Blossom, Bubble, and Buttercup began to beep and glow. “Oh no not again!” Buttercup moaned. She stood up waving her hand “Miss Keane, my head hurts!”

Bubbles followed her yelling “My ears are ringing!”, Blossom added “And I have a splitting tooth ache!”

“I guess you'd better go see the nurse again!” Miss Keane said.

The three girls ran out of the class room and took the stairway up to the roof. They got there just in time to see Astro jumping off the roof and flying away. They quickly transformed themselves into the Power Puff's and blasted skyward in the same direction that Astro had just gone.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

“Wow, I've been beating a robot kid at sports?” Buttercup yelled. “I bet that Uran kid is his little sister.”

“Makes sense.” Bubbles replied, grabbing the blinking compact on her belt. “Looks like there's a huge fire in the downtown area. That must be the emergency Ken and the professor called us for.”

“Right!” Blossom cried out. “Now just how are we going to save the day today?”

After the pool of gasoline in the basement had ignited, the flames touched off a secondary fireball as the cloud of oxygen and acetylene near the ceiling exploded forming a fireball that engulfed the two gas tanks which were not completely empty. They went off like a bomb, sending a column of flame upward through the wooden floors above the basement. A tongue of flame shot back under the alley returning to the source of the fuel.

The remaining fuel in the two tanks still buried underground detonated, sending a secondary fireball high into the sky. The blast blew both tanks skyward out of the ground like intercontinental ballistic missiles, they came crashing back to earth across the street setting two other tall buildings on fire. The backhoe was also blasted across the street, smashing into yet another building, its operator now trapped under a pile of rubble. Two large propane tanks in another part of the auction house basement blew up from the heat, feeding the flames.

Panic filled the fourth floor of the auction house building, as smoke blocked the staircases and the remaining elevator refused to operate. The auction patrons leaned out the windows for some air, scanning the view around them hoping that the fire department would get there before they burned to death.

Astro hovered over the scene and quickly looked around. There were now several large buildings damaged and burning. He could see people trapped in the burning buildings at many of the windows. Before he could decide what to do first his three classmates arrived and hovered in the air around him.

“There are people trapped in the rubble in several of the buildings!” Blossom yelled to him. “Go rescue them! I'll take care of the people who can get out of the high story windows. Bubbles, you and Buttercup see about putting out the fires!”

Astro was greatly surprised to see the Power Puff girls, but he was glad to have help. He nodded his approval of the plan and dove into the building where the backhoe had been blown into the basement trapping the operator. He rapidly dug out the machine from the ton of bricks and steel that lay on top of it, then he pried open the machines cab to get the operator out. The man had a broken leg which Astro splinted using a board and cloth from the mans clothes.

Buttercup flew over the fire raging from the former gas station, which now looked like an erupting volcano. She swung her gigantic hammer to create a shock wave that blew out the fire in much the same way that Red Adair used to extinguish oil well fires with nitroglycerin explosions.

Bubbles waved her huge bubble wand to send a shower of bubbles that extinguished many smaller fires burning in the streets and the buildings.

Blossom used her yoyo as a rescue line to lower several people at a time from the windows of the buildings to safety.

By the time the New Townsville fire department finally reached the scene, most of the fires had been put out and the trapped victims were out of harms way. Astro and the Power Puff girls hovered over the scene. “Looks like our work is done here!” Blossom said.

“Yeah time for a high five!” Buttercup cried out. The four of them stuck out their right hands for a mutual high five. “Hey guys, I think we need to get back to class.” Bubbles said.

“I'll race you back, robot boy!” Buttercup laughed at Astro.

“This is one race you are going to loose!” Astro said with a sneer.

“OK, you're on!” Buttercup replied, “On the count of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BLASTOFF!”

Astro went hypersonic using his leg and arm rockets, causing a sonic boom that blew out windows along his route. Buttercup left a green ion trail wake in the sky as she tried to keep up with him, with Blossom and Bubbles way behind with their orange and blue vapor trails.