BUTTERCUP’S BLUNDER

a Powerpuff Girls Fanfic, by Jennifer Weston

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Standard Opening Shot of Townsville Skyline, Daytime

NARRATOR: The city of Townsville, and it’s a beautiful summer day! Many of the fun-loving citizens are taking advantage of the chance to engage in enjoyable outdoor activities.

(Usual footage of happy Townsville residents throwing frisbees in the park, jogging with their dogs, tossing baseballs, seniors playing soccer, kids playing bocci. CUT TO: standard exterior view of the Utonium Home, also daytime.)

NARRATOR: But, not at the Utonium household. The girls are staying in this morning, to watch a very special broadcast.

(CUT TO: Interior of Utonium Home. View of the living room TV set. On the screen, two pro-wrestlers, one dressed like a chicken and the other like a yellow dog, are tossing each other around the ring. PAN RIGHT to show BUTTERCUP on the couch across from the TV, enthusiastically imitating the moves she’s watching. Beyond her, BUBBLES and BLOSSOM float into the room, carrying a couple bowls of popcorn. Behind them walks their babysitter, zoo keeper JUDY, whom we glimpsed in ‘Meet The Beat Alls.’)

BLOSSOM: (disapprovingly) Buttercup, why are you watching this junk? It’s almost time for the Professor’s speech!

BUTTERCUP: Aw, that’s a whole fifteen minutes away! That’s it- give ‘im the spur, Raucous Rooster! He ain’t nothin’ but a Hound Dog!

(BUTTERCUP throws a hard upper-cut, accidentally striking the popcorn bowl out of BUBBLE’S arms. It goes flying, spewing popcorn everywhere, and the inverted bowl lands on JUDY’S head. JUDY slowly lifts it by the rim, looking quite displeased [a la Tinkerbell in Disney’s ‘Peter Pan’.])

BUTTERCUP: (abashed) Opps! (She flies about the room at superspeed, picking up all the popcorn, and deposits it back in the bowl JUDY holds.) I’m real sorry, Judy.

JUDY: (with a wry but forgiving smile) Apology accepted. But, I think you’ve seen enough of this kind of program for one day, Buttercup.

(As the girls settle on the couch, JUDY lifts the remote and changes channel. A cable station logo, featuring a microscope & radio telescope, appears on the screen.)

ANNOUNCER: This is the Science News Channel. Coming up next; live coverage of the Bio-Engineering Conference in Washington D.C.

BLOSSOM: (glancing at a less-than-enthusiastic BUTTERCUP) Don’t look so grumpy. You can watch wrestling anytime, but how often do we get to see the Professor giving a keynote address?

BUTTERCUP: I just wish he was talking about something less boring.

BUBBLES: Like what?

BUTTERCUP: Anything! Science is so...

(Suddenly, the TV screen goes all staticy.)

BLOSSOM: Hey, what gives? Did somebody forget to pay our cable bill?

(Gradually, a new image becomes visible. It’s a mean-eyed guy wearing a black ski mask and oversized red leather jacket. Behind him hangs an obviously homemade cloth banner, with crooked letters ‘PWLF’ above a rather sloppy painting of the world w/ an attached bomb fuse.)

MAN: (speaking in threatening tones that don’t quite conceal the squeaky quality of his voice) Citizens of Townsville! I represent the leadership of the People’s World Liberation Front, here to give you fair notice to vacate your city immediately. As a way of publicizing our Great Cause, we are about to render the famously resilient metropolis of Townsville uninhabitable! Though it has survived countless attacks from monsters and supervillains, it shall not withstand the justified Wrath of the People!

BUBBLES: (bewildered) Aren’t we people, too?

BUTTERCUP: What’s this ‘great cause’ he’s talkin’ about?

BLOSSOM: (watching attentively) Quiet, you guys!

MAN: (holding up a textbook-type sketch on a notepad, of some object shaped like a vacuum tube) Within your own downtown area, right under your inattentive noses, we have constructed and buried a Chernobyl Bomb. It contains four tons of nuclear waste- the sort your society so carelessly discards from it’s power plants. This bomb will detonate at precisely 12:22 today, spewing the waste over your entire downtown area, rendering it too irradiated for anyone to venture into for the next millennium. Now that I’ve given you warning, you shall bear responsibility for any casualties resulting from this corrective action, not we of the People’s World Liberation Front. Get out while you can, and in the future take better care not to incur our righteous vengeance! (The image snows out, giving way to the station logo.)

JUDY: That was probably just some cable-pirate’s prank. (But she’s obviously concerned.)

BUBBLES: (looking to the wall clock- the time is 11:48) Blossom, how long is it until 12:22?

BLOSSOM: Not nearly long enough to evacuate all downtown. (sighing) I guess we’d better check it out, guys. Better safe than sorry.

BUTTERCUP: (much less regretful) That’ll be more fun than listening to a lot of bio-engineering jargon, anyway!

JUDY: (lifting an unlabeled videotape, and slipping it into the VCR beside the TV) I’ll record the Professor’s speech for you.

BLOSSOM: Thanks, Judy! Okay, Girls; let’s roll! (They all take off.)

(CUT TO: Overhead shot of the PPGs in their standard V formation, flying over the city.)

(CUT TO: Street level scene- the sidewalks are dotted with anxious people who’ve just viewed the broadcast. When they see the three colored streaks overhead, they’ve all greatly reassured.)

TOWNSVILLE WOMAN: Look, the Powerpuff Girls are on the job! We can stop worrying.

TOWNSVILLE MAN: Yeah, they’ll probably deliver that nasty ol' bomb right back to the manufacturers! (There’s general laughter and folks go about their business.)

(CUT BACK TO: the Girls in flight)

BUBBLES: So, where do we start looking?

BLOSSOM: (frowning thoughtfully) Well, if that bomb is real, it’s in the downtown area. And the guy said they’d built and buried it on the spot, so that should narrow it down to...(brightly) I know! A construction site! Nobody would take any notice of digging there, or of trucks bringing materials in and out.

BUTTERCUP: Nice deduction, Sherlock Blossom! Too bad there’s about fifty structures going up in Downtown just now.

BLOSSOM: Then let’s assume Lateral Formation, and sweep every site with our x-ray vision. Look for the shape we saw in that sketch, or any sign of radioactive material.

(The Girls line up and activate their x-ray beams. Quick POV Shots of seven overflown construction sites, the x-ray holes revealing old tires, shopping carts, a treasure chest, broken office furniture, soda bottles, a dinosaur skeleton, and discarded PCs. At the eighth site they spot it; a wide cylindrical capsule with a narrower projection, the larger part of it filled with glowing green stuff, the projection with complicated wiring.)

BLOSSOM: That’s it! Move in and uncover it, but *gently*.

(They dive down to the site, land in a row beside the burial area, draw deep breaths and blow. All the dirt covering the capsule is swept back as if by a windstorm, revealing gray metal casing. BLOSSOM steps closer to study it.)

BUTTERCUP: (moving in position to grasp the edge) Hey, Leader Girl, we don’t exactly have time for research! Let’s just pick this thing up an’ chuck it into...

BLOSSOM: (alarmed, lifting an arm to halt BUTTERCUP) No, wait! Do you see that?

(She points to a particular spot in the projection. Through an X-ray hole, CLOSE ON one component: a sealed shallow pan half-full of mercury. Fine wires at either end of the pan project just above the mercury’s surface.)

BLOSSOM: That’s a mercury-level trigger! If we tip this thing even a few degrees off-center, one of those wires will come in contact with the liquid metal, completing an electrical circuit to set off the charge! We’re gonna have to disarm this thing where it is!

BUBBLES: Do you know how to do that?

BLOSSOM: Maybe I can figure it out- let’s get it open.

(BLOSSOM shuts one eye, and squints the other to produce a very narrow laser beam. She carefully aims this beam to cut around the edge of the projection. The girls take hold of the freed cover, lift it clear and carefully set it aside. BLOSSOM examines the bewildering mass of wiring and relays, her expression becoming ever more dismayed.)

BLOSSOM: I recognize some of the components, but I don’t have any familiarity with this setup- it’s an advanced design!

BUTTERCUP: The Professor might know... (slaps her forehead) But he’s in D.C. !

BUBBLES: (looking to the First Townsville Bank across the street, which sports a large clock over the doorway) An’ the big hand is past the one!

BLOSSOM: Buttercup! Fly to the Townsville Police Station- maybe they’ve called in a bomb squad!

BUTTERCUP: (dubious) Yeah, maybe! (But, with no better option in sight, she speeds away.)

(BLOSSOM, thinking hard, continues to examine the mechanisms. BUBBLES looks around, as if hoping somebody helpful will walk in.)

BUBBLES: Blossom, isn’t there anyone else in Townsville, who knows enough about bombs to...?

(BLOSSOM, suddenly inspired, does a ‘finger’ snap.)

BLOSSOM: Yes, there is! Bubbles, make sure nobody comes near this thing- I’ll be right back! (She takes off.)

(CUT TO: Standard Shot of BLOSSOM in Fast Flight. Looking straight ahead, she again activates her x-ray vision.)

BLOSSOM: I just hope he’s home...

(POV shot of Townsville Central Park, and the upcoming observatory. An x-ray hole appears in the observatory’s side; CLOSE IN through it to reveal MOJO JOJO seated at a low table, intently working on a model of a Spanish galleon. At his elbow sits an open box of fine model-building tools.)

BLOSSOM: (smiling) Perfect!

(EXTERIOR SHOT of the observatory, as the usual pink streak shoots over it, arcs back & smashes through the door. CUT TO Interior of observatory. An astonished MOJO jumps in his chair, as BLOSSOM zooms right up to his face.)

BLOSSOM: Mojo, we’ve got an emergency- you gotta come with me right now!

(She grabs both MOJO and his tool box and zooms out. CUT TO exterior of observatory. The pink streak, now paralleled by a purple one, shoots out and back over it’s original course.)

(CUT TO: shot of BLOSSOM in fast flight, the tool box clutched under one arm and MOJO slung over her shoulder, his cape flapping behind them Superman-style. MOJO is, of course, outraged.)

MOJO: Blossom, I demand to know the meaning of this abduction! And it had better not involve another set of golf clubs!

BLOSSOM: (snaps) It involves an armed Chernobyl bomb, ensconced less than a mile from here!

MOJO: (shock replacing most of his anger) What??

BLOSSOM: The bomb’s set to go off at 12:22- if it does it’ll irradiate the whole downtown area, including your precious observatory and everything inside it. An’ you’re the only one in the vicinity with enough weapons expertise to have a chance of disassembling it!

(BLOSSOM makes a 45-degree dive back into the construction site, setting MOJO down in front of the opened bomb. At the sight of it, he gasps.)

MOJO: I perceive that you were not pulling my leg!

BUBBLES: (distressed) Can you fix it?

(MOJO leans close, his eyes knowingly darting over the intricate mechanisms, as BLOSSOM sets the opened tool box beside him.)

MOJO: It appears I had better make my best effort. (He grabs a pointed-screwdriver tool and gets determinedly to work.) If you please, keep far enough away to give me sufficient space, and see to it that I have no distractions.

(BLOSSOM and BUBBLES obediently move back until they’re standing beside the girders of the site’s partially-constructed building. BLOSSOM nervously glances to the bank clock. It’s now 12:15.)

(CUT TO: A scowling BUTTERCUP in fast flight.)

BUTTERCUP: (fuming) That was a waste of time! What’s the point of having a police bomb squad, if half of them are gonna go on vacation the same week? Hair-trigger or not, we’re just gonna have ta try to move that...

(Her mouth drops open as she catches sight of something below. POV shot of the construction site- BUBBLES and BLOSSOM are hidden by the girders, but a familiar purple cape and white turban are plainly visible, right beside the capsule. Furious, BUTTERCUP dives fists first, straight towards MOJO.)

BUTTERCUP: GET AWAY FROM THERE, MONKEYMAN!!

(Startled, MOJO whips his head up; BUTTERCUP slams into the left side of his face, hurling him across the construction site and into a stack of cement-mix bags. QUICK CUTS to BLOSSOM and BUBBLE’s appalled faces. BUTTERCUP zips after MOJO, pulling her arm back for another blow. Suddenly BLOSSOM is there, seizing her elbow.)

BLOSSOM: Buttercup! STOP!! Mojo was disarming the bomb!!

BUTTERCUP: (confused) Huh?

(BUBBLES darts to the semi-conscious MOJO, now half-buried under the heavy bags. She tosses the bags aside and grasps him under the arms.)

BUBBLES: Mojo! You gotta wake up!

(MOJO groans, one hand clutching the left side of his face. BUBBLES quickly transports him back to the bomb, sets him down where he was and pushes a tool back into his hand. We view MOJO from his right side as he fights off his stupor, grinds his teeth and resumes work. But it’s obviously more difficult for him now; he’s perspiring and making small quick head movements. The girls can only stand back, fearfully noting as the bank clock’s minute hand moves to 12:20. Straining and shedding sweat drops, MOJO works ever faster. POV shot as he unscrews the last bolt holding down a metal plate, pushing it back to uncover three red wires. Grabbing up a miniature wire-cutter, he clips them; one, two, three. MOJO places both hands against the casing’s edge to brace himself, letting his head droop as he breaths a deep sigh of relief.)

(CLOSE UP as the bank clock clicks to 12:22.)

(PULLBACK SHOT of the full construction sight. Several seconds pass. Nothing happens. The girls break into broad smiles and start jumping around.)

BUBBLES: Mojo! You Did It!

BUTTERCUP: Way to go!

BLOSSOM: Great job, Mojo!

MOJO: Yes. (He lifts his head and starts to turn towards the girls.) A particularly impressive feat, considering that I had to do it with impaired depth-perception. (He completes the turn, and for the first time we can see his left eye is swollen shut. The right eye regards BUTTERCUP venomously; she gives a guilty flinch.)

BUBBLES: Eeep! (She darts across the site to a storage shed, rummages quickly through a first-aid kit, and zooms back to offer MOJO a cold-pack.)

MOJO: Thank you, Bubbles. (He presses the pack to his injury, but continues to glare at BUTTERCUP. BLOSSOM is now doing the same thing.)

BLOSSOM: (sternly) D’you want to explain that behavior, Buttercup?

BUTTERCUP: (defensively) I thought Mojo was trying to set off the bomb!

MOJO: (with rising fury) You thought I was trying to set it off, while situated right beside it? That would be a rational interpretation only if I possessed suicidal tendencies, which I most certainly do not, as it is very much my preference to remain alive. And, even if I had no such preference, it was entirely unnecessary for me to bring about the bomb’s detonation, as it was already timed to explode in minutes without my aid! So in either case, I could have no motivation whatsoever to do what you *thought*! Just what *do* you use that oversized head of yours for, Buttercup?? To stretch out hair bands???

(BUTTERCUP looks as livid as she did in the jail-cell scene from ‘Candy Is Dandy.’ But before she can attack, BLOSSOM and BUBBLES, both in the frowning-with-folded-arms pose, move to flank MOJO on both sides. With a strangled roar, BUTTERCUP explodes straight upwards, leaving a vivid green rocket trail pointing directly into the sky. Her sisters’ demeanors soften.)

BUBBLES: Where’s she going?

BLOSSOM: Probably to circle the earth a few times, until she cools down.

(MOJO sniffs derisively, then turns his attention to the deactivated bomb.)

MOJO: With all the radioactive material inside it, this thing is dangerous even disarmed. It should be guarded until the proper authorities arrive.

BLOSSOM: (distracted) I suppose. (BUBBLES’ main attention is also elsewhere; she’s looking regretfully into the sky.)


---- continued in Part 2 ----