(Opening shot: the city skyline during the day, with snow falling. During the following verses, pull back slowly into the suburbs; the entire landscape is blanketed in white.)

Narrator: 'Twas the city of Townsville, and all through the town,

All the townsfolk are stirring as snow's falling down.

It's bitter and freezing in the dead of December,

But there's reason for joy, if you can remember.

For it's this time of year that our story unfolds,

When our hearts are the warmest, despite all the cold.

(Pokey Oaks Kindergarten comes into view.)

Yes, it is Christmas, just two days before,

And all through the town, none can wait anymore...

For the timely arrival of one certain fat guy...

Who brings us all goodies from out of the sky.

Full of anticipation are these urban folks,

None more so than the students at old Pokey Oaks.

(The camera stops pulling back during the last two lines, then cuts to a close-up of Ms. Keane's desk inside. One of her pupils reaches into view and sets an apple on it; the gift has a red ribbon tied around it and a misspelled tag attached: "Mary Krismas Ms Kene.")

Ms. Keane: (from o.c.) Thank you, Billy.

(Pull back. She sits behind the desk, which is decorated like a gingerbread house and piled high with apples, and kids are lined up with similar offerings. The blackboard behind her reads, "Homework: Have a happy X-mas!" During the next line, the named kids file past and give her their apples.)

Ms. Keane: Well, thank you, Kristen. Thank you, Clara.

(Elsewhere, three kids are stringing popcorn garlands for a small potted Christmas tree. One of them is Julie Bean, but she is eating the materials. Another kid winds up a Santa Claus doll and lets it loose on the floor; camera follows it.)

Santa doll: Ho ho ho! Ho ho ho! Ho ho ho!

(Cut to a close-up of drawings taped on a bulletin board and pan across them. They are arranged in a rough line and depict Santa's team of reindeer.)

Bubbles: (from o.c., to "Deck the Halls")

Christmas time is in a few days, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!

(As she continues, the camera reaches her taping up the sleigh picture and pulls back.)

Santa'll give me lots of toys, yay, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!

(She jumps up an octave on the last "la." Turn down to Buttercup at the desk in front of the board. She has pages spread out before her and looks rather annoyed.)

Buttercup: Bubbles! I'm trying to concentrate!

Bubbles: I'm only trying to spread some Christmas cheer.

(She floats down as Blossom walks over to them with a small gingerbread house in hand.)

Buttercup: Well, can it! I'm busy. (We now see that her pages are headed "GIMME.")

Blossom: Doing what?

Buttercup: (stacking them up) Writing my wish list for Santa.

Bubbles: Are you crazy? You're only giving him two days to prepare - and that's even if he gets it on time!

Buttercup: Oh, yeah? When did you send yours, smarty-pants?

Bubbles: December 26.

Buttercup: Hah! That's after Christmas.

Bubbles: December 26, last year. (She blows a raspberry.)

Buttercup: Oh, no! What if I don't get my official Red Raider carbine-action two-hundred-shot range-model air rifle?

Princess Morebucks: (from o.c.) Hah!

(This catches the girls off guard. Pull back to show her standing at a distance, in her civvies and with her back to us.)

Princess: Who would want a stupid old BB gun? (They gasp.)

Girls: Princess!

Princess: Besides, you'll shoot your eye out. (Cut to her.) Since my daddy buys me anything I want, I only have one thing on my list for Santa: to be a Powerpuff Girl!

[Note: Buttercup's choice of gifts and Princess' response to it are take-offs on Ralph Parker's predicament in A Christmas Story.]

Blossom: Don't hold your breath, Princess.

Princess: What?! Why?

Bubbles: Because Santa has his own list, and he checks it twice. It says who's naughty and who's nice.

Princess: So?

Bubbles: Duh! You're naughty. (Princess gasps.)

Princess: Nuh-uh!

Blossom: Yeah-huh.

Princess: Nuh-uh!

Buttercup: Yeah-huh.

Princess: Nuh-uh!

Bubbles: Yeah-huh!

Princess: Prove it! (The girls rise out of their seats in time with the next three lines.)

Blossom: You bought the city and legalized crime!

Buttercup: You hired Mojo to try and destroy us!

Bubbles: You gave us a bomb for our birthday!

Buttercup: You teamed up with three felons and went on a crime spree!

Bubbles: You tricked our friend Robin into stealing, and then you tattled on her!

[Note: References to "Bought and Scold", "Mo Job", "Birthday Bash", "Meet the Beat Alls", and "Superfriends", in that order.]

(On the next line, zoom in on Princess, putting the girls o.c.)

Blossom: You're a spoiled brat who's greedy and jealous, and you don't care who you step on to get what you want! (A beat of silence.)

Princess: And your point is...?

(The girls groan disgustedly and drop back into their seats, just ahead of the school bell. As everyone else heads for the door, Blossom holds her position for a moment before following them.)

Blossom: The point, Princess, is that you better change your ways, or all you're ever gonna get from Santa is a big fat lump of coal in your stocking.

(Close-up of a boiling-over Princess on the end of this. The o.c. sound of the Santa doll snaps her out of it. Pull back to show the toy walking slowly towards her; when it is within striking distance, she boots it hard enough to break it and send springs flying. At the door, Ms. Keane wades through a knot of cheering kids who have put on their cold-weather gear.)

Ms. Keane: Okay, kids...ooh! Hold your horses.

(Reaching the knob, she pulls on it and is rewarded with a large drift of snow that spills in through the doorway, burying the kids. She looks out; cut to just outside the door as she pokes her head around the frame for a better view. The entire building is hemmed in by several feet of snow. However, the area nearest her starts to smoke and melt, and after a moment the surface recedes to show Blossom clearing the path with the help of her eye lasers. She is now clad in full winter kit, including a pair of bright red earmuffs.)

(When she stops firing, pull back down the newly cleared sidewalk to the sound of cheering, then cut back to the door. The girls float out, all dressed for the cold - Buttercup sporting a green and white striped cap, Bubbles a scarf and toboggan - and are followed by their classmates at ground level.)

Ms. Keane: Bye-bye now. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Be nice for Santa.

(Close-up of Mitch Mitchelson as he heads out. His coat is the same shade of orange as the shorts he usually wears, and he has on a black hat and scarf. The latter shows the same message as his regular T-shirt: "MITCH ROCKS." After a moment, he approaches another girl who takes no notice of him, stops, and makes a snowball to throw at her hat, which looks like the perfect target - but before he can throw it, Ms. Keane speaks up.)

Ms. Keane: Remember: he's watching you.

(The would-be pitcher's face falls and lets the snowball drop to the sidewalk before walking away. Back to the doorway, the camera placed so that Ms. Keane is seen from the waist up. Princess is the last to leave; she is decked out in a white fur coat and hat. As she passes, there is a crunch and the woman recoils in pain.)

Ms. Keane: Ooh!

(Pull back; she is standing on one foot - apparently the little brat trod on her toes. As the other kids look on, some in anger, others in muted fear, she walks straight through them to her limousine at the curb. The driver is holding the door open for her. Head-on view of that door, with her directing a vicious look at the camera from the passenger seat; when the door is closed, we see the recipients of that glare: the girls. The limo speeds away; cut to Princess inside.)

Princess: Spoiled?! Greedy?! Bratty?! Naughty?! Naughty?! (Pull back to the driver's seat.) Driver! Do you know what those rotten awful Powerpuffs said to me today?

(The driver tries to think of an answer that will not get him fired on the spot.)

Princess: They said I was naughty! Can you believe that?

(He coughs a bit, easing the word "yes" into the sound.)

Princess: Me? Naughty? I'm not naughty, am I?

Driver: (sweating) Well, uh...I'll...oops!

(He jabs at a button on the dashboard. Behind him, a tinted-glass partition slides up and blocks the passenger area from sight and hearing.)

Driver: Seems my finger has slipped. (to himself, wiping forehead) Whew. That was close.

(He drives in blissful silence for a moment, but the ringing of the limo's telephone draws his attention. Ever so slowly, he extends his hand downward, picks up the receiver, and lifts it to his ear. The force of the next words causes him to recoil briefly.)

Princess: (over phone) Well? You didn't answer my question!

Driver: (imitating static) You're-you're-you're breaking up!...I'm going through a...unnel...alk...late...

(The last of this, meant to sound like a cell phone signal dropping out intermittently, would normally go something like this: "I'm going through a tunnel. I'll talk to you later." There is a loud pounding on the partition, after which Princess sticks her head out the rear driver's-side window. She can be seen through the front one now, and she is holding the receiver on her end of the limo.)

Princess: (through glass) No, we're not! I'm in the car, you twit!

(Close-up of its rear license plate "MORBUKS" and pull back as it rolls up the drive to Morebucks Manor. Inside, Princess sits at one end of a long dining room table and stirs a bowl of soup. At her elbow is a bell to summon servants; after a moment, she rings it and the camera pulls back to the other end of the table. Delicacies are ranged along its length, and an elderly fellow carrying a tea tray stands with his back to her.)

Princess: Servant, tell me. Do you think that I'm naughty?

(His eyes dart nervously about before her next word shakes the entire room.)

Princess: WELL?

Servant: (stammering) I think my...biscuits are burning.

(He dashes o.c.; his mistress fumes and knocks her soup bowl aside. Cut to the exterior of the manor's upper floors. It is now nighttime, and the snow is still falling. Inside, Princess is tucked in for bed and still quite out of sorts. Pull back to show a hefty woman standing across the bedroom, with her back to the girl: a nanny or governess.)

Princess: Nanny!

Nanny: Yes? (forcing a smile) Sweetheart?

Princess: Am I naughty? (Tense pause.)

Nanny: Time for bed! Lights out.

(She runs o.c. The lights go out as the door to the hall slams. Princess glares after her for a moment.)

Princess: Wait! I need another pillow! (Pause; silence.) Fine! I'll just go get it myself!

(She jumps down from her bed and crosses the room to the linen closet. When she opens it, however, instead of pillows and blankets, a torrent of coal spills out and fills the room almost to the ceiling. Liberally smudged with its dust, the occupant emerges from the vast heap and spits out a chunk.)

Princess: Naughty, huh? I'll show you who's naughty!

(She bats at a piece and sends it flying toward the camera to black out the screen. A door opens, admitting a shaft of light from outside and Princess standing within it - we are now in another dark room. Piece by piece, she dons black clothing, then picks up a piece of coal; extreme close-up of each cheek in turn as she uses it to smudge dust on her face, in the same way that football players apply black pigment beneath each eye to reduce glare. Pull back to show her fully suited up, head to toe, and ready for a little covert action.)

(Cut to a pan down the hallway. Princess, just out of view and following the camera, kicks the coal along in front of herself. Overhead view of her.)

Princess: And all these years I thought that coal in my stocking came from Daddy's coal mine!

(The chunk reaches a staircase and bounces down; she follows.)

Princess: Who does that blimp think he is, denying me presents?

(Close-up of the bottom steps; the coal tumbles down them and shatters on the floor. She groans from o.c. and descends into view; follow her to the front entrance on the next line.)

Princess: Well, this time I am gonna be a Powerpuff Girl! (The manor's exterior; she throws the doors open and steps out.) And I'm sure not gonna let some elf with a weight problem stop me!

(A string of motorized carts - the sort that might be used to ferry passengers and crew around an airport - pulls up at the steps that lead down from the doors to the front walk. She stomps down, climbs into one, and is whisked away. Pull back and follow her along the drive. The procession consists of three connected carts - with the limousine driver piloting the lead one, Princess seated in the center one, and the last one piled high with suitcases. During the following lines, the driver stops near an airplane and she gets out and boards it.)

Princess: Hah! Well, I'll show him - and I'll show those Powerpukes who's naughty and who's nice!

Narrator: She entered her jet, to her man gave a yell,

And away Princess went, with a plot, I can tell.

Princess: To the North Pole! And step on it!

(She slams the hatch shut. Cut to the manor's exterior and pull back to a long shot as the plane takes off. Pan to the city skyline as the Narrator continues.)

Narrator: And left no one aware of the web she would weave...

(Dissolve to one corner of the exterior of the girls' house and pan to center the structure.)

Not even the girls, preparing for Christmas Eve.

(Close-up of Blossom in the living room. She is braced for a showdown.)

Blossom: Okay. On the count of three.

(Cut to Buttercup, also down there and ready to go.)

Blossom: (from o.c.) One... (To Bubbles, also ready.) ...two...

(Pull back. All three are in a line by the stairs, as if about to run a race.)

Blossom: ...three!

(They zip off in different directions. In the kitchen, Blossom opens the cabinets in no time flat and stops at the counter with a mixing bowl and some ingredients, which she pours in. Buttercup flashes into a hall closet; a moment later, something crashes through the door and lands on the carpet. It is a large cardboard box labeled "X-mass," and it has left a snowflake-shaped hole in the wood. Buttercup emerges from the box, with a tangle of Christmas lights ensnaring her. However, this does not stop her from zipping o.c. with the lot.)

(Bubbles, meanwhile, is flying in high gear; cut to the exterior of the house as she exits through a bedroom window. Pan to the forest, where her light trail disappears among the trees. The glare of her eye lasers flashes up among the leaves, and a tree falls over - she drew lumberjack duty this year. In the kitchen, Blossom extracts a mound of dough from her bowl, shapes it into a ball, and throws it up near the ceiling twice. It lands on the counter before her and spins in place for a second before she blows gently over its surface to flatten it out.)

(Outside, Buttercup puts lights on the bushes and the frame of the front door. Window frames and wall edges are given the same treatment; when she finishes, the entire house has been outlined in white lights. Bubbles streaks toward the door; inside, it bursts open and we see her holding the tree she cut down. She hurls it across the first floor, adding a bit of spin to make it rotate, and it hits the living room wall with its trunk pointing down and drops neatly into a stand that has been placed there. Another instant, and she has festooned it with ornaments and tinsel. She beams at her accomplishment and zips away.)

(Close-up of a star-shaped cookie cutter held aloft by Blossom. She quickly produces two more - a Christmas tree and a gingerbread man - in the same hand by a small feat of legerdemain. Pull back to show her floating in the kitchen; she starts flinging the cutters as if they were shurikens, and they strike the flattened dough on the counter. The number of projectiles suggests that she was holding entire stacks of cookie cutters. Once they have all hit, she zaps the mass with a quick blast of her eye lasers, then lifts up the entire fully baked sheet with one hand and lets the cookies drop onto a plate in the other. Throwing the scraps aside, she breathes in the aroma.)

(Outside, Buttercup lands in the front yard and throws three giant snowballs off to one side. They land in a stack to form a snowman, which she quickly decorates with coal eyes, mouth, and buttons; carrot nose; stick arms; a scarf; and a top hat. She then zips away. Inside, Bubbles hangs red ribbons on the balcony and garlands on the stair banister in an eyeblink, then scales a wreath toward a painting and gets it to stick up near the top edge. Buttercup flies into view and stops near the top of the tree; Bubbles does likewise a moment later.)

Bubbles, Buttercup: I win! I get to put the star on the tree!

Blossom: (from o.c.) I don't think so.

(This jolts them out of their glee at having won this decorating competition. Quick pan to her by the fireplace, where a good blaze is going. Three appropriately colored and labeled stockings hang from the mantel, and the cookies sit on a nearby table next to a glass of milk. Blossom's face is the very picture of smugness - she beat them to the punch and she knows it.)

Buttercup: Aw, man!

Bubbles: No fair!

(Close-up of a star ornament in Blossom's hand and pull back to show her floating up to the topmost branch of the tree. As Bubbles smiles and Buttercup fails to, she sets it in place and then addresses herself o.c.)

Blossom: Okay, Professor!

(Cut to him. He is now in the living room as well, and he eagerly clutches the ends of two electrical cords.)

Professor: Here we go!

(He connects the cords and voices a stifled little cry of anticipation. Close-up of a group of tree lights, which turn on one at a time, then of the star, which suddenly blazes to life. The family watches the spectacle.)

Girls, Professor: Ooooh!

(The wonder is short-lived, however, as the lights flicker and then go out.)

Girls, Professor: (crushed) Awwww...

(More flickering, and the lights are back on.)

Girls, Professor: Ooooh! (They go out again.) Awwww...

(They come back on, and everyone gasps happily at the good fortune. Once again, though, Murphy's law of electricity asserts itself and the Professor looks as if he might cry this time.)

Girls: Awwww...

Professor: (moaning) Not again!

(Cut to outside the living room window and pull back slowly on the next line. His silhouette can be seen through the glass.)

Professor: Every year it's the same darn thing. I can make three little kids out of seasoning, but I can't get these lights to work!

(Dissolve to a longer shot of the house, seen from a couple of streets away, and pull back slowly into a pan through the neighborhood on the next line. The houses are tricked out with lights.)

Narrator: Ahh, Professor, get to it. You fix up those lights.

Everything must be perfect on this most happy of nights.

(Dissolve to a pan along another street. People wave from their doorsteps and carry trees and presents.)

Townspeople: (to the tune of "Deck the Halls")

Public domain Christmas songs, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!

(On the end of this, zoom in on one window and dissolve to the living room within that house. Pan across the space as the Narrator continues; a father relaxes with his pipe, while his son plops a party hat on a less-than-enthused dog.)

Narrator: A night so many people throughout the whole city...

Share with brother and sister, Mom, Dad, puppy, and kitty.

(Near the end of this, a cat runs happily toward a Christmas tree at the far end of the room, where the woman of the house is adding some ornaments. The couple's daughter chases the cat into the branches, and it pops out near the mother's head. Everyone has a good laugh at this; the dog remains aloof.)

(At this point, the camera is positioned just behind and to one side of the tree, which is so close that it is seen only as a black silhouette. Pan in its direction until the screen is entirely blacked out. The laughter fades, and the pan continues to show a different room with a tree set up near a blazing fireplace. A small boy walks in and sets some cookies and milk by the grate, then pulls out a note marked "To Santa" and looks eagerly toward the tree on the next line.)

Narrator: And all of the younguns are waiting with glee,

Thinking only of morn and what's under that tree.

(Close-up of the cookies and milk. He sets the note down by them, turning it around to reveal its flip side to the camera. On it is his drawing of a firetruck, labeled "Truck," and stick figure driver labeled "Me." If nothing else, this kid thinks big. He skips happily out of the room, passing his older brother - a big, sour-faced fellow wearing a letter jacket and a healthy crop of pimples - as he goes. When said brother sees he is now alone in the room, his face brightens and he pulls out a note of his own.)

Narrator: And not just the children, the teenagers too.

(He puts it down by the first one; its flip side shows a helmeted stick figure ("Me") holding a football.)

Narrator: Chuck wants a football.

(Cut to outside the window as he too skips out of the room, then turn up to the roof. A girl with long black hair and punk-wannabe clothes sits up there and sulks - Chuck's sister.)

Narrator: Kathleen, a tattoo.

(Cut to another house and zoom in slowly.)

The grownups as well have gifts that they crave.

(Dissolve to the interior: it is Ms. Keane's house, and she is saying a prayer. Zoom in on a picture that hangs behind her. She and some of her kids are outside Townsville Hall; they are all enjoying the day, except for her. She is casting a very worried glance down at Mitch, who is mooning the camera.)

Narrator: Ms. Keane only wishes for Mitch to behave.

(Dissolve to a box that holds a My Little Mare doll from the Ponypuffs line of toys; the illustration resembles the pony seen in the kids' show early in "Nano of the North".)

Narrator: A My Little Horsey with combable hair...

Is on the top of the list of our honorable Mayor.

(On the end of this, cut to him in his office and pull back to show Ms. Bellum in the foreground. He is in his pajamas and sprawled on the floor, having fallen asleep over a book.)

Narrator: Ms. Bellum longs for a facial made of sea salt and moss...

To ease stress she endures from her ridiculous boss.

(As he finishes, pull back far enough to leave both of them visible only as silhouettes. She hangs her head and walks away. Pan across the office in that direction, the view fading to black.)

(Snap to a long shot of Mojo Jojo's observatory and zoom in.)

Narrator: And even those foes with hearts full of spite...

(Cut to inside, near the top of a steel Christmas tree, and turn down. Mojo stands placidly by the lowest "branch," ornament in hand.)

Also eagerly await the gifts they'll get tonight.

(He hangs the ornament, but it quickly slides off the steel surface and shatters on the floor. He is irked; pull back to a long shot of him as he stalks away with his cape trailing imperiously as usual. Out in the street, the mail trucks are running even at this late hour.)

Narrator: And beyond the boundaries of this particular town,

(A girl drops a letter to Santa, addressed to 1 North Pole, into a mailbox.)

More hoping and wishing can be found all around.

(A truck pulls up, blocking the view; when it pulls away, the entire mailbox is gone. Follow it as it passes out of sight behind a building and the landscape changes to Egypt. The truck emerges in an area where palm trees and pyramids have been draped with lights - and, incredibly enough, it is still snowing.)

Narrator: The whole world's fallen under the Santa Claus spell.

(Now it drives into Japan and then the Netherlands before finally passing o.c. The snow continues to fall, and those lights are still shining into the night. Close-up of a small girl sitting at the window of one of the Dutch windmills and looking out dreamily as the truck rolls on behind her.)

Narrator: And on this eve of all eves, their hearts start to swell.

(A windmill blade sweeps across the screen. Behind its trailing edge, the view wipes to a map of the world, with various landmarks indicated on the continents. A dotted red line traces its way from one place to the next. As each of the following areas is named, a letter to Santa spins into view from the map and the camera cuts to an appropriately illustrated stamp from that place.)

Narrator: From Paraguay to Paree, from Tucson to Timbuktu,

(Another letter passes across; behind it, wipe to a close-up of an eager kid outside.)

The world's children are hoping their dreams will come true.

(The Timbuktu stamp in the previous sequence shows a rather bewildered fellow looking at a map and trying to figure out where he is. As the Narrator finishes, pull back slowly to show other kids gathered outside, then dissolve to a longer shot of that neighborhood and keep pulling back. Two more such dissolves show the entire subdivision and then the planet from outer space.)

Narrator: But these dreams are about to be foiled...

(Dissolve to Princess' plane in flight. She has bailed out.)

By an evil young girl who's nothing but spoiled.

(The camera follows her as she floats down and deploys a parachute. A signpost in the foreground indicates that this is the North Pole. Turn down to point at the ground and rotate 180 degrees, then turn up to point over a ridge at a large mountain chalet with a fleet of trucks parked outside. There is a smaller building near the trucks, and the main structure has a long, low hangar-like annex at one end. This is Santa's workshop - actually, "full-scale production plant" might be a better term. Princess drifts into view toward the complex.)

(Cut to inside, near the ceiling of one room. A thud marks her touchdown on the roof; turn down to a window, through which her shadow becomes visible among the bushes. She opens a snow-caked pane, looks around - and is rudely interrupted when all that snow falls on her head.)

Princess: Stupid snow!

(She is then knocked to the floor by the pane swinging down again.)

Princess: Stupid floor!

(Getting to her feet, she looks around. Cut to her perspective, panning slowly across the width of the room - a break area. Coffeepots, first aid kit, sink, a vending machine stocked with Nog Cola, table and chairs, bulletin board with notices tacked up - the sort of thing you might find in any factory. Her gaze focuses on a door set in the far wall and zooms in. Back to her.)

Princess: Ahhh! Ho ho ho!

(She somersaults across the floor and makes a leap for the doorknob. Just as she is about to seize it, though, it starts to rattle - someone is coming in from the other side. She drops to the floor and freezes in terror as voices make themselves heard through the wood. Laughing and arguing, they come closer; sweat pours down Princess' face as she looks for a place to hide. Close-up of the door, which finally opens to admit two elves, one fat, the other thin.)

Fat elf: And I said, "If you want a wooden duck whittled, that there is your man."

Thin elf: The man can whittle. (Overhead view of the room; they head for the vending machine.)

Fat elf: Oh, he sure can. Whittle, whittle, whittle, whittle, whittle.

(Cut to the machine, which dispenses two cans of Nog Cola at the press of a button. The elves drink as the camera rotates about 45 degrees counterclockwise and turns up slightly to show the far top corner of the room, where Princess is clinging to the ceiling, her face toward the floor. Close-up of her, still sweating; a drop runs down her cheek and hangs off her chin for some seconds. It finally falls away and hits the floor in the spot where the elves were standing - just after they have headed back the way they came. Neither takes any notice.)

(Cut to the open door, the camera pointing into the break room, as they walk o.c. and return to work. Princess descends into view, hanging from a line attached to the ceiling. When she gets to the floor, she goes into a three-point stance and reels in the line before jumping away to one side. Next she peeks around the doorframe; pull back to show this adjoining area as part of a wide hallway. There is a pile of boxes to one side. She ducks away again, an instant before a muscular, tattooed elf carries a large box into view. Follow him and turn up to the top of his load, from which Princess emerges, having hitched a ride unbeknownst to the worker.)

(Now she pulls out two small suction cups, one from each sleeve, and fires them toward the ceiling. Trailing lines behind them, they stick between two overhead lights; she quickly hauls herself up. Now she brings out two more cups, one on the sole of each boot, and flips her legs up to attach these to the ceiling as well. All four limbs are now anchored, and she begins to crawl along the ceiling, keeping pace with the muscular elf.)

(When he reaches a doorway, she makes her way down the section of wall above it. Cut to inside this new area as he enters and she peeks in; pull back and pan slowly across to reveal this as a production area, with elves working everywhere. Toys are carried on horizontal and vertical conveyor belts, candy canes are being made, a vat full of rubber balls stands amid the machinery, boxes are being filled, and forklifts carry pallets of crates here and there. One elf climbs a staircase at the far end of the room, where tall, closed double doors give onto a balcony overlooking the works - the plant manager's office.)

(Back to Princess, who squints a bit; goggles slide down over her eyes from beneath the brim of her cap. Cut to her perspective "infrared" and zoom in on a sign next to the doors: "Santa's Workshop: PRIVATE." Back to her again; the goggles slide away, and she flips herself over the top edge of the doorframe and climbs up the wall to reach the ceiling. She makes her way among the lights, not raising the suspicions of the elves working at the vertical conveyors.)

(She stops near the candy cane machine to observe it in action. Straight lengths of red and white striped candy emerge from an outlet near its base, and an elf bends one end of each to give it the cane shape. Princess climbs down the side of one feed tank, then up the other, and finally leaps away - but due to the force she exerts, a pipe fitting blows out and starts to leak. A large bubble of liquid candy forms there and grows a second before popping.)

(One drop splatters on the floor, just in front of an elf who is pulling out a pneumatic hose anchored to the ball vat. He steps in it and slips, losing his grip on the nozzle, and balls start to shoot toward the ceiling and stick in it. Princess must hustle along in order to stay ahead of them. Cut to her perspective, approaching the doors - they are framed upside down due to her placement - then back to her. She disengages the suction cups on her hands and feet, flips over, and lands on a light fixture.)

(Now she fires a grappling hook from her belt toward the doors; it embeds itself just above them. A second hook extends from her belt, just above her rear end, and sticks in the fixture as a second anchor. She leaps free and slides toward the door on this makeshift zip line without being noticed. Reaching the other end, she stands atop the frame and reels in the line behind her. The grappling hook strikes her in the rear, causing her to let out a cry of pain that she quickly muffles with both hands.)

(Princess slowly lowers herself headfirst, using the line that is still attached to the wall, and looks cautiously in each direction. The elves on the walkway in front of Santa's office are at a distance and do not see her; she releases the line, drops to the ground, and carefully backs up through the doors, closing them behind herself. Inside, close-up of a blazing fireplace, which she tiptoes past. Pull back to show it in one corner of the room, with a comfortable armchair nearby and a work table cluttered with tools and supplies in the foreground. The room is quite spacious, and its back wall boasts a number of plaques and an "Employee of the Month"-style photograph of an elf. Pan along its length as she sneaks in farther; half-finished toys also take up space on the table. She reaches the far end, which sports bookcases, a Christmas tree, and a framed picture of the big man himself, and stops by a doorway into the next room.)

(Cut to just inside this entrance; she peeks around ever so cautiously. As she speaks, the camera turns down to point at the floor, rotates 180 degrees, and then turns back up to point across the floor, which is littered with rolls of wrapping paper.)

Princess: Now, if I were a big fat bearded oaf... (Turn up farther to expose another tree, a drawing board, and a wall calendar.) ...where would I keep a stupid list?

(On the end of this, pan right to show a desk in the far corner, with a computer set up on it. She approaches this, climbs into the chair, and peeks up over the edge. A thick pile of printouts catches her eye, and her expression goes sour. Close-up of this; it shows a list of first names and a one-word heading in huge red letters: "NICE." She has found Santa's list. Grabbing the top sheet, she leans back in the chair and the rest of the pages unfold like an accordion - they are still attached to one another, the sort used in dot-matrix printers.)

Princess: (reading, looking at page after page) "Nice. Agatha Aarons, Arnold Adams..."

(She mumbles her way through several pages before stopping short on one of them and letting off a contemptuous little snort.)

Princess: "Bubbles, Blossom, Buttercup"?

(More mumbling and leafing through the list before she stops again.)

Princess: "Mitch Mitchelson"?! You gotta be kidding me!

(More mumbling and flipping through, and she reaches the last page.)

Princess: "Zachary Zimmerman." Where's my name?

(She groans disgustedly, gathers most of the pages into a stack, and throws the lot across the desk with a scream; it lands in a neat pile, right back where it started. Pan to her, still in the chair, then to the monitor. A Post-It note is stuck there, and it bears the word "NAUGHTY" above a single name: hers. Zoom in on this, then cut to an extreme close-up of her and pull back as she gasps in total shock at the facts. Close-up of each letter of the heading in turn, then pull back to frame all of it.)

Princess: (from o.c.) "Naughty." (Turn down to her name.) "Princess Morebucks."

[Note: Though her name has been spelled with an E in these transcripts, the Post-It leaves it out.]

(She reaches into view and removes the note; pull back to show her standing on the edge of the desk. Princess is overcome with sadness, but that soon gives way to boiling rage, and she tries to throw the slip down - but it is stuck to her fingers and does not budge. After waving her hand in a vain attempt to dislodge it, she finally manages to slam it down on the desk and then grabs a pencil. Close-up of it, held aloft in her hand, as she turns it around in preparation to erase and brings it down. Pull back to show only her shadow on the wall, bent over the desk and plying the eraser furiously. When she finishes, she leans back - part of her hair now in view - and laughs in malicious glee. She then leaps away and opens a window to slip out.)

Narrator: She spoke not a word; she had finished her work,

And took leave of her lie with a satisfied smirk.

(She leaves and closes the window. Quick pan to the desk, over which a snowy gust of wind blows to rattle the papers. The printout and the Post-It are both back where they started, but Princess has switched their headings. Cut to a long shot of the entire complex and turn up toward the sky, then dissolve to the outer-space view of Earth.)

(Dissolve to a close-up of one ornament on the tree at the girls' house. The lights are out. Pan right to the stairs, where the girls are dressed for bed and floating up to their room.)

Narrator: Meanwhile, three children we know are heading to bed...

(Dissolve to a slow pan across the bed. Buttercup and Blossom are asleep, and Bubbles turns off the lights and sits awake with Octi. Light from the hall shines over her.)

With thoughts of the morning and what lies ahead.

(Silence. Dissolve to an overhead shot of the bed; she closes her eyes after a moment. Another such transition shifts the view to just over the balcony railing, the camera pointing at the bedroom door; turn down to the tree. The lights are back on.)

Narrator: The girls drift off to sleep, their hopes at their heights,

(The Professor keeps fiddling with the electrical cords.)

While their dad is downstairs, still working on the lights.

(Fade to black.)

(Fade in to a long shot of Morebucks Manor.)

Narrator: But there's yet one more little girl filled with anticipation,

(Dissolve to a pan along the trophy room, where the fireplace blazes.)

Not for worldwide rejoicing, but her plot's activation.

(Stop on Princess, standing before the fire, and zoom in. She is back in her street clothes. Dissolve to a close-up; she is shoveling in coal from a pile behind her.)

Narrator: An evil gleam in her eye, this little redhead...

Is the sole one aware there is something to dread.

(Cut to inside the fireplace; Princess looks over the flames and smiles evilly from ear to ear. Now she approaches a window and looks out over the city.)

Narrator: She knows that these fools, content in their sleep,

Will, because of her, awaken and weep.

(Her smile has become a Cheshire Cat grin.)

For tomorrow, the world is in for a big huge surprise...

(Dissolve twice to longer shots of the window and the manor.)

Not candy and presents, but Christmas' demise!

Act Two

(Dissolve to an overhead view of the girls' house, zooming in slowly, then to their bedroom. Sleigh bells make themselves heard outside, followed by something scraping on the roof and a muffled command - Santa has just arrived. Bubbles wakes up, looks out the window, and hugs Octi joyfully before nudging Blossom.)

Bubbles: (softly) Girls! Girls! Girls! Wake up! (Bubbles accidentally smacks Blossom, lightly. Blossom shifts position to get out of reach.) I heard Santa! He's been here!

(She is rather annoyed at their lack of a response, so she takes matters into her own hands. Giggling, she jumps out of bed and tiptoes toward the door. Cut to just outside it; she eases it open and peeks eagerly into the hall. The only sound is that of the Professor's snoring through his bedroom door. She giggles again and zips down the stairs to stop at the tree; its lights are working again, but they then flicker and go out as before and her face falls. She slowly floats down to ground level and discovers, much to her dismay, that there is nothing under the tree but carpeting. The cookies and milk Blossom left for Santa are still untouched by the cold fireplace. Bubbles gasps. She keeps her voice down throughout the following scene.)

Bubbles: I know I heard him.

(She looks around herself; cut to her perspective, panning across the living room. Stop on the stockings and zoom in.)

Bubbles: What? (Back to her; she brightens.) The stockings!

(She flies over to them, looks around to make sure she is alone, and reaches into hers. What she pulls out is a lump of coal; she gasps and throws it down. On her next word, pull back across the room to behind it.)

Bubbles: No!

(She drops to the ground next to the coal and starts crying.)

Bubbles: No, no, no, no! ...Noooo!

(She gets herself under control in an instant, clapping her hands to her mouth in order to keep from waking everyone else, and eyes her sisters' stockings. The discovery of more coal in Blossom's causes her to gasp, and finding the same in Buttercup's sends her into a fit of hyperventilation. Upon looking o.c. across the room, she gasps weakly and zips in that direction, then flies to the sliding glass doors that lead to the backyard and opens them. Cut to the patio outside them as she takes off.)

(Bubbles stops in midair and, shading her eyes, squints to survey an area. Making up her mind, she flies to a house and stops outside its living room window. She wipes away some of the frost and peers in; cut to inside the room. There are no presents under this family's tree either, and the milk and cookies are still intact. She looks elsewhere, and her eyes glow orange; cut to her perspective of the stockings on the mantel and zoom in. She is focusing on these, and after a moment their contents - pure anthracite - appear. This is her X-ray vision at work. Back to her outside; she shuts it off and recoils in shock at what she has seen.)

(She then flies to another house, clears some frost from its window, and reconnoiters the room. No presents under this tree; milk and cookies not sampled; another stocking X-rayed and found to be stuffed with carbonaceous fossil fuel.)

(Bubbles flies down the street, stops in midair, and trains her X-rays on a random dwelling. Overhead view of it; the roof fades away to show yet another tree bereft of gifts and two more stockings filled with West Virginia black. Her check of another house yields a similar result. Now she aims her gaze in another direction; snap to black, which gives way to three horizontal panels that wipe in from the sides of the screen to show the results of her scan. The top one reveals a lack of presents, the middle one an untouched snack for Santa, the bottom one a pair of coal-laden stockings.)

(Back to Bubbles, who turns her eyes somewhere else. The same snap-and-wipe sequence shows another ignored house, but this time the panels are vertical rather than horizontal. She checks another area; snap to black, which yields to four small views that each fill one quadrant and appear in the following order. Top left: a tree without gifts. Top right: an uneaten snack. Bottom left: X-rayed stockings loaded with solidified peat moss. Bottom right: a shocked Bubbles. Cut to a long shot of her, too stunned to move or speak as snow comes down around her.)

(Dissolve to Buttercup and Blossom, still sound asleep, and pan quickly to the closed bedroom door after a moment. The tranquility is shattered when Bubbles barges in through it.)

Bubbles: WAKE UP! (flying around, trying to rouse them) Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up! (They do so.)

Buttercup: Yay! Presents! Let's go, baby!

Bubbles: No!

Blossom: Whoo-hoo! (They charge out past Bubbles.)

Bubbles: (poking her head out) But wait!

(They pay no heed and go right for the stairs. Cut to the top of the tree, with Blossom flying tight circles around it and descending slowly; turn down to follow her. Buttercup is already eyeing the bare space under it with considerable disgust.)

Buttercup: What the heck? (Blossom reaches her.)

Blossom: Santa hasn't even been here yet! (Bubbles comes partway down.)

Bubbles: Yeah-huh. I heard reindeer on the roof. (The others float up to her.)

Buttercup: Oh, yeah? Then where are all the presents?

(Bubbles has no immediate response to this. Finally she shakes her head to clear it and finds her tongue.)

Bubbles: That's what I've been trying to tell you! THERE ARE NO PRESENTS!

Blossom, Buttercup: What?!?

(During the following, Bubbles pantomimes to match her words.)

Bubbles: (rapid fire) Listen, okay, okay. Me and Octi were dancing with pirates in a pond, when a man in a gorilla suit started yelling. So I woke up, and then I heard Santa on the roof. And I tried to wake you up, but I couldn't, 'cause you wouldn't wake up. So I went down the hallway, and the Professor was snoring... (Cut to her bewildered sisters; she continues o.c.) ...so I came downstairs to see what Santa left... (Back to her.) ...even though I know I'm not supposed to. But there weren't any presents under the tree, just ornaments hanging! (happily) Like that cute little shoveling-snowman one, which is really my favorite because it's funny that a snowman would be shoveling snow, when he's made of snow! (She giggles, then gets back to business.) So then I looked in my stocking, but there wasn't candy. Instead, there was coal! Can you believe it? Coal! In my stocking! Which is just ridiculous, 'cause why would Santa give me coal? So I looked in your stockings, and there was coal there too! So I looked next door, and they didn't have any gifts either! Only coal in their stockings, and all the other kids on the block!

Blossom: (angrily) You went through other kids' stockings?

Bubbles: No! I saw through the houses. Duh! X-ray vision!

Blossom: Bubbles, you should know better.

Buttercup: No wonder you got coal in your stocking.

(They turn away and consider the matter closed, but Bubbles will not let it rest.)

Bubbles: (snarling) I already had coal in my stocking before I looked at the other kids' stockings!

Buttercup: Oh, really? Then why don't me and Blossom have coal in our stockings?

Bubbles: You do!

(It finally hits them like a two-by-four to the back of the head.)

Blossom: Me? (Bubbles nods sadly.)

Buttercup: You gotta be kidding. (A shake of the head.)

Blossom: Really? (Nod.)

Buttercup: Nuh-uh.

(Bubbles can barely bring herself to meet her sisters' eyes this time. After a moment, she nods again and they gasp, shivering with fright.)

Blossom: Buttercup I can understand, but...me?

Buttercup: (incensed) Hey!

(Cut to the stockings. Bubbles flies over, plucks down Blossom's, and dumps the coal out. It lands at her sisters' feet; they both gasp at the sight.)

Bubbles: See?

Blossom: This can't be right.

Buttercup: Um...yeah!

(Cut to the patio. Bubbles floats into view behind the sliding doors.)

Bubbles: It-it was a mistake. (Back to her inside.) He must not have checked his list twice like he's supposed to. (She shrugs.)

Blossom: We better find Santa and set this straight. (as they assemble into a line) Ho...

Bubbles: ...ho...

Buttercup: ...ho!

Girls: Let's go!

(They take off and fly straight up the chimney. Up on the roof, they emerge from the vent with soot covering them from head to toe, look at each other, and share a laugh over their disheveled state. They are now in their everyday dresses. The merriment is cut short by a familiar voice from above.)

Princess: (from o.c.) Hello, Powerpuffs! (Pull back and up to put her toes in the foreground.) I've come to deliver you your Christmas present: A fourth and more powerful member of your team!

(Cut to her; she floats down toward them and is in her yellow Powerpuff-style outfit.)

Princess: Me! Princess! (They shake themselves clean.)

Girls: What?!

Princess: That's right! You can't deny me any longer! (floating slowly past them) Santa realized that I was the only truly nice kid in the whole world and that you were naughty for not giving me what I want!

(Cut to a slow pan over the rooftops to bring her into view, surveying them with her back to the camera. Stop when she is at center screen.)

Princess: So now every kid in the world gets coal! And I get what I've always deserved: (turning around; zoom in) To be a Powerpuff Girl!

(She fires lasers from her eyes; the girls bear the full brunt of this assault and drop like rocks, landing face first in the snow to cut three Powerpuff snow angels into it. They quickly emerge.)

Buttercup: This is so wrong! (Close-up of the other two.)

Blossom: How could Santa believe that Princess is nice?

Bubbles: Excuse me? How could Santa believe that I am naughty? (Pan slightly to Buttercup.)

Buttercup: 'Cause you snooped on other people's presents!

(Bubbles gives her a hard sidelong glance and takes a second or two to get herself under control.)

Bubbles: Look. I already told you, I only looked 'cause we didn't have any presents, so I wanted to see if any other kids had any presents.

Blossom: Enough chatter, girls. We better find Santa and fast.

(They start to take off into the night, but Princess blocks their exit.)

Princess: Oh, no, you don't. (Zoom in slowly on her.) I knew you conceited little ingrates wouldn't be able to accept the fact that Santa thinks you're naughty.

(On the end of this, cut to Blossom and Buttercup trading a suspicious look - they are starting to figure out the scam. Princess moves in a bit closer to the girls.)

Princess: But I'm not gonna let you brats ruin my Christmas.

Buttercup: (moving in on her) Forget it, Princess. We're so gonna tell Santa on you!

Princess: (sweetly, flying away a short distance) Not if I tell on you first.

(She leaves a yellow light trail behind her.)

Bubbles: We didn't do anything?

Princess: Oh, yeah? (pitifully, hamming it up) "Oh, Santa Claus, as the only nice child in the whole world, I felt it was my duty to warn you about the three naughty girls who were so angry you gave them coal..." (Cut to them, bristling at this; she continues o.c.) "...that they're coming to destroy your workshop and ruin Christmas forever." (Back to her; she takes on the sweet tone again.) Oh, Santa...

(She gives them her biggest and most vicious grin, drops to a rooftop, and bounces off it to head for the city proper, her laughter echoing in the air. The girls charge after her. Princess leaps from one roof to the next like a mountain goat with pogo-stick legs, her yellow light trail shining in her wake; they match her every move. This chase plays itself out in another part of the neighborhood, after which she briefly gives up the strategy and simply flies over the houses, with the girls still in hot pursuit.)

(Princess resumes the rooftop bounce on another street, and they match her - but now, instead of letting their momentum carry them up, they swoop past three adjoining houses and each swipe a wreath from one front door. They fling these ahead of themselves in quick succession and land them neatly around the fleeing girl's body to trap her. Not for long, though; she flexes her muscles, breaks free of the holly, and hits the gas again. The girls stay on her heels.)

(Outer-space view of Earth, zoomed in on the northern hemisphere. A four-colored light trail - pink, blue, green, yellow - streaks toward the North Pole. Back to the chase; Princess looks over her shoulder and sees the girls closing the gap. She puts on an extra burst of speed and slowly starts to gain ground. Extreme close-up of each in turn: Princess from the side, Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup head-on. All eyes are narrowed in single-minded determination: "Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, don't fail me now!")

(As the ersatz Powerpuff Girl barrels down the street, the genuine articles start to descend on her. Bubbles is the first to engage her at close range; they ram into one another and lock shoulders for a moment, after which Bubbles finds the enemy pulling her pigtails and using them to sling her aside. She plummets out of the sky and crashes into the side of a house, ending up tangled in its lights and wiped out among the trash cans. She sits up and looks angrily into the sky; back to her sisters.)

Buttercup: Bubbles!

Blossom: She'll catch up. We can't let Princess get ahead of us.

(Ground level. Bubbles watches the three light trails blaze through the falling snow, then pulls at the light cord in an attempt to free herself. The race moves down another street, creating a pair of small sonic booms that shake the entire area. Princess sees the remaining two sisters zeroing in on her with fresh bloodlust in their eyes. Blossom goes in for close-quarters combat; the enemy flips onto her back to keep an eye on her. Whatever move the ponytailed redhead makes to try and pull ahead, the curly-haired one matches it to keep her back. Extreme close-up of the latter, who gives a nasty grin and waves, then of the former, whose eyes narrow to fierce slits. Princess pulls up, leaving Blossom puzzled at the sudden move; pull back to show a tall tree in her path. When she smashes into the upper boughs, the entire trunk bends over to absorb the energy of her impact - and then it snaps back to vertical and catapults her out of sight.)

(On the ground, Bubbles finally gets herself untied as Blossom flashes past and plows a Santa and sleigh off a nearby roof. In the city proper, Princess zooms among the buildings and Buttercup keeps after her. Both take a hairpin turn around a corner, but the brunette suddenly finds herself alone - her target has seemingly dropped out of sight. She looks ahead and behind, but there is no sign of Princess. Long overhead view of her; the brat swoops into view and starts following her at a higher elevation.)

(Buttercup looks off to one side, and Princess drops to her level right in front of her, flying backwards. They are nose to nose at this point. The chaser gets a smack in the face.)

Buttercup: Ow! Quit it! (Again.) Ow! Quit it! (Again.) Ow! Quit it!

(She tries to strike back, but Princess dodges and jumps onto her head. Finally, she gets a clear shot and lands a hard kick that sends Princess sailing ahead and o.c.)

Buttercup: QUIT IT!!!

(Long shot of the area; Princess is coasting away on the momentum of the strike, and the kicker is floating in place. Close-up of Princess.)

Princess: Thanks, Einstein!

(Said genius only hangs in place, realizing that she just gave away the advantage. Her sisters catch up and pull her along.)

Blossom: (sarcastically) Good job, Buttercup.

Bubbles: (likewise) Yeah, nice one.

Buttercup: Oh, shut up!

(Another section of the city, with the mountains visible in the distance. Princess streaks over the horizon, and all three girls rejoin the pursuit. The outer-space view of Earth is seen again, and the four-colored streak moves closer to the North Pole. Now the mad dash moves through a frozen wilderness that is thick with trees. Princess weaves back and forth through them; the girls are still matching her pace. Their quarry approaches an area in which several fallen trees lie across snowdrifts and small hills, with little space left to squeeze under them. She smiles and goes into a dive.)

(She zips under one tree and looks back over her shoulder only to see the girls kick up a cloud of snow as they do the same. Turning in a new direction, she looks ahead and is surprised to find herself bearing down on a huge snowdrift. She plows deep into one side and out the other, losing none of her speed. The girls take the corner and charge the drift. Blossom, the first to hit it, bores a small circular tunnel to mark her passage and to replace the one Princess cut, which collapsed under the weight of the snow. Bubbles smashes through it next; the hole has again filled itself, but she opens up a larger, heart-shaped bore. Last is Buttercup, who also slams into the filled-in drift - but she is stopped cold, having apparently hit a buried patch of something hard, and slides down o.c. When she hits the ground, the resulting tremor shakes the snow loose to reveal a broken-down pickup truck resting on an outcropping of rock. Buttercup hit its side panel, while her sisters went straight through the frames of the missing driver and passenger windows. She sits in the snow, rubbing her head woozily, and then collapses into it.)

(Blossom and Bubbles keep chasing Princess through the forest. Doing some quick swerves to miss the trees, the yellow flyer can barely keep ahead of the blue one, while the pink one drops back. Their flight swings low enough to blow snow from the drifts that line the path. Princess fires her eye lasers ahead of herself and turns her head from side to side in order to sweep the area; cut to one tree that gets cut and starts to fall, then two others that do the same. She shoots at other trees to cut them down. Bubbles just barely scrapes past several that fall toward her, but must pull up short to avoid behind hit by another that sends up a cloud of snow when it hits the ground. She squints through the haze, which clears to show her enemy holding the tree by its severed end as if it were a Louisville Slugger. She prepares to swing; close-up of Bubbles, her eyes wide in shock. A flash of light, and she has been knocked senseless and soaring by the hit.)

Princess: Out of the park! (She throws the tree aside.) Two down...

(Before she can say "one to go," however, Blossom blasts past her, close enough to leave her spinning in the wake. She looks into the sky, sees the leader flipping a salute back to her, and takes to the air in pursuit. Now it is Blossom's turn to match Princess' moves and stop her from taking the lead - and it is also Blossom's turn to pull up without any warning. Princess blinks stupidly up at her; a quick flash of light, and Princess has run into a tree as Blossom did earlier. She is flung backwards when the trunk snaps to its original position and she crashes back first and head down into a distant tree. Long shot of the forest; a few birds are scared into flight by all the commotion.)

(Princess slides down into the snow and Blossom takes fierce pride in the reversal of fortune.)

Blossom: Ha! Payback!

(She streaks ahead; Princess takes off to follow. The outer-space view of Earth again, with the four flyers even closer to the top of the world than they were before. Blossom's light trail whips over the Arctic Ocean, sweeping low enough to stir the water as she passes, and Princess' trail marks her chase at a distance farther up. The latter looks behind herself and finds Bubbles and Buttercup moving in from a still greater height. In a very long shot of the ocean, we see the four girls now spaced out from each other: Blossom, then Buttercup, then Princess, and Bubbles a distant fourth. However, Bubbles starts to catch up.)

(Princess gains ground on Buttercup and starts firing her eye lasers; the brunette dodges all the shots, which send up clouds of steam from the ocean. Bubbles fires a burst of her own, but nails her sister by mistake; she drops toward the water, but Princess catches her.)

(Opening shot: the city skyline during the day.)

Professor: (from o.c.) The city of Townsville?

(Pull back. The view is that from a window in his lab. He stands nearby, phone in one hand and mop in the other - taking a break from cleaning up the place to speak with whoever is on the other end of the call.)

Professor: It's about fifteen miles east of the 101. Take the 210 to the Harbor Freeway exit south. It's the third house on the left. Bye!

(He hangs up. Camera shift: the girls stand across the lab from him and are helping with the cleanup.)

Girls: Who was that?

Professor: Huh? Oh, that was my old college buddy and roommate, Dick Hardly.

(The scene undergoes a wavering dissolve to a view of the Professor in his earlier days. He is working intently at a desk loaded with beakers and flasks. His hair sweeps down a bit lower over his eyes, and he wears nearly the same clothes he uses in the present. Two differences: he has no lab coat, and his shirt sleeves are short rather than long.)

Professor: (voice-over) Aw, gosh. I remember those late nights, working side by side on our lab assignments.

(On this last, pull back and pan across the room - a college dorm room, as evidenced by the bunk beds. The Professor's half is neat as a pin, but the other half is a total wreck: clothes scattered everywhere, Grateful Dead poster on the wall, lava lamp on a stereo speaker by the door, even a couple of liquor bottles lying about. The bottom bunk has been made with hospital corners, marking it as the Professor's. The top one sports rumpled sheets that have apparently not been washed in quite some time.)

(At the door, on his way out, is the Professor's roommate. This fellow wears shoulder-length blond hair swept back, a broad-collar shirt open at the neck, pink-tinted glasses, and a deep tan. He looks and sounds somewhat like Dexter's father on Dexter's Laboratory, but more of a youthful smooth talker. This is **** Hardley's past counterpart.)

Student ****: Hey, Utonium, make sure you finish our homework before I get back.

(Opening the door partway, he finds an attractive coed waiting outside.)

Student ****: Hel-lo, Betty. (He opens fully. A squat, older, frumpy-looking woman is there too.)

Coed (Betty): I brought my mom along. I hope that's okay.

Student ****: (over his shoulder) Hey, Utonium, I got a new assignment...

(Cut to the college chemistry lab, with the two roommates in attendance, then to a close-up of them as the Professor's narrative continues. They are working on an experiment. Student Prof applies a flame to the base of a flask, while Student **** looks away from his as if he would rather be out partying than working on his assignments.)

Professor: (voice-over) Yes. He was a veritable wellspring of resourcefulness.

(Student **** gets an idea and reaches around behind his partner, tapping him on the far shoulder. The latter sounds much as he does today, but his voice is not as deep.)

Student Prof: (looking over there, surprised) Huh?

(While his attention is diverted, Student **** switches the two flasks. The roommate looks back at him, puzzled, and he whistles innocently for a moment before giving a broad, reassuring grin. Unaware of the switch, Student Prof adds a drop of a chemical to ****'s flask, only to have the mixture explode in his face. Student ****, meanwhile, adds a drop to the Professor's, causing it to fizz and emit a miniature fireworks display complete with American flags sprouting from the flask's mouth. He feigns surprise, then smiles in triumph as the rest of the class - Student Prof included - gathers around the bench to applaud him, with no one, not even the Professor, aware of ****'s little switch to get the credit himself.)

(Cut to the night sky, filled with stars.)

Professor: (voice-over) We explored and discovered the universe together.

(Pull back. This view is the image in the objective lens of a telescope Student Prof is using to do a little stargazing from the balcony. A second instrument is partially visible at left, but it is pointed down rather than up.)

Student Prof: Wow! This is so exciting, ****!

(Pan slightly left. Student **** stands next to him, looking down through the second scope with a leer fixed on his face.)

Student Prof: We can see so much with these telescopes!

(Student ****'s perspective: he is looking through a window across the street, at two coeds in their underwear and lounging on a bed.)

Student ****: (distracted) Yeah...exciting...

(Wavering dissolve back to the Professor in the present.)

Professor: Yeah, those were exciting days. (The doorbell rings.) Oh...there he is now!

(Outside, at the bell by the front door. A finger presses it a few times. Cut to behind the owner of said finger and turn up quickly to the head. The individual wears black moccasins and pants, a long white coat similar to the Professor's, and carefully styled blond hair in a small ponytail. When he stops ringing, he throws a distrustful glance back at the camera - it is ****, but his glasses are now tinted blue instead of pink.)

(Next to the door is a mailbox filled with the day's deliveries. He pulls the stack out and starts to look it over. On top is a magazine entitled Science Fun. When he speaks, he sounds much as he did during the flashback, but a little deeper.)

****: (to himself, contemptuously) Geez, still into the science stuff, huh? What a geek.

(The door suddenly opens, and the Professor gets a good look at his old roommate.)

Professor: Dick!

****: (brightly, handing him the mail) Oh! I got your mail here.

(Cut to just inside the door. Now we can see that ****'s coat has no pocket and a collar that resembles the style he wore in college. He wears a pink shirt underneath.)

Professor: Oh, thank you.

****: Yeah, you should probably pay that bill pretty soon.

Professor: Um, thanks. So what brings you to Townsville?

****: Oh...I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to see what the old roommate was up to. So, you gonna let me in or what?

Professor: Sure, sure, come on in.

****: (quickly shaking hands, walking in past him o.c.) Wow, look at this place! Still living in the '60s, huh? It's like we never left college. (Cut to him, rounding a corner.) So, what you working on these days? How you making money? Where's the lab?

Professor: Oh, you don't want to go in there. The girls are cleaning it up. It's a mess. (**** is now at the open lab door.)

****: Yes, I do. I want to see what you've been up to. (addressing himself into the lab) All right, kids, go play somewhere else. Your old man and me have some business to...dis...cuss.

(On the end of this, the sound of the girls in flight is heard, and his eyes go wide as he trails off. They are zipping around the lab, putting the place in order at top speed. **** stares, speechless, as they keep working. Blossom runs the vacuum cleaner, and Bubbles picks up a large piece of equipment to give her a clear shot at the floor underneath. **** grins, now watching Buttercup eye a collection of cobwebs and blow a gust of air to sweep them up. This turns into a small tornado that works its way toward Blossom and then dissipates, leaving the collected dust in a pile. She zaps this with her eye lasers, vaporizing every grain.)

(Now dollar signs appear in ****'s eyes as he has gotten a truly greedy idea. Pull back as the Professor approaches from the hall and puts a hand on his shoulder.)

Professor: I see you've met my girls.

Girls: Nice to meet you, Professor ****.

****: (to Professor) What do you mean, your girls? You mean you made those things?

Professor: Um...well...technically. But I am their father.

****: (grabbing his lapels, very animated) You're sitting on a gold mine here! I knew you would turn one of your little inventions into a cash cow. We could make a fortune with these things!

Professor: Uh, ****...

****: This is bigger than Bowplus. I mean, big!

Professor: (sternly) ****...

****: I'm talking global, baby. The Japanese will eat these things up! Hey, you think we could market them as a food?

Professor: Dick! Dick! ****!! (He finally gets ****'s attention.)

****: What?!

Professor: (coldly) May I have a word with you outside...old buddy?

(The exterior of the house. The two men step out onto the front lawn. When the Professor speaks, his tone recalls his reaction to Bernie Bernstein's attempt to exploit the girls in "Film Flam", and he does not want a repeat of that, even from an old friend from college.)

Professor: Listen. I don't appreciate you referring to my girls in that manner.

****: Come on!

Professor: Come on, nothing! You just keep clear of me and my kids, pal. (walking back into the house) Consider our little visit over! (He slams the door.)

****: (softly) We could make a fortune. (louder, walking to front room window) Come on, Utonium! Let's talk a...bout it.

(This time, the reason for his trailing off is the closing of the window blinds. He stands still for a moment, then turns away from them and begins to think, deciding if he can't sweet talk the Professor into using the Girls as money makers, he'll simply go around him and behind his back.)

****: Hmmm... (smiling thoughtfully, an idea manifesting in his brain) ...hmmm...

(Cut to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, seen from the street. The school bell is ringing, and kids charge happily out the door to head home. The girls are last to leave. When they reach the street, a muscle car pulls up and blocks them from view. The camera shifts to just behind the girls, and now we see the driver's side window down and **** leaning out to address them.)

****: Hey, girls. Come here for a sec. I want to talk to you.

Blossom: We're not allowed to talk to strangers.

****: Stranger? I'm no stranger, I'm the Professor's buddy.

Blossom: (as the girls smile, remembering) Oh, yeah, you're Professor ****. Cool car!

****: Thanks. (smooth-talking, averting his eyes) You want a ride home?

(The car squeals away - its license plate is seen: "PROF-DIK" - and rolls through the streets of Townsville.)

****: (from inside the car) You know, I've been reading about you guys, and I think it's really great, what you do here in Townsville. (Cut to inside.) But you know, I've been all over the world, and there sure is a lot of evil out there. It's too bad there aren't more of you girls out there to help save everybody. Gee, if there was only a way to make more of you girls, we could help save people all over the world...and that would be good, huh?

Bubbles: Uh, yeah!

****: Tell me, what exactly are you girls made of?

Bubbles: Sugar...

Buttercup: ...spice...

Blossom: ...and everything nice.

Bubbles: Oh, and an accidental dose of Chemical X.

****: Wow! Sounds like you could do a lot of saving with that stuff. (He smiles broadly at them.)

(The car pulls up in front of the house.)

****: Well, here we are. Well, I guess I'll see you later, girls. (dejectedly) But, boy...I sure wish I had some of that Chemical X. I mean...for the good of the world and all.

(The girls sit quietly and mull this over a bit, after which Bubbles nods and the other two smile.)

Blossom: Hey, Professor ****? Wait here for a sec, okay?

(They float to the front door and enter the house. Cut to the Professor inside, reading the paper. The girls float past behind him.)

Girls: Hi, Professor!

Professor: Huh? Oh, hi, girls.

(He goes back to his reading, and all is peaceful again for a moment.)

Girls: (as they zip back out) Bye, Professor!

(The street again. The girls zip to the car, and the camera cuts to ****'s window as they approach him. Blossom is carrying a bottle of the now-familiar black liquid marked with the now-familiar large X, and he reaches eagerly for this.)

****: Gimme, gimme! (taking bottle) Yes...yes...

(Pull back down the street, behind the car. The girls watch as it speeds away now that **** has what he needs to carry out his evil plan he thought of earlier, and they are totally unaware of his true intentions.)

****: (from inside) ...YEEESSS!!!

(Fade to black.)

(Snap to a padlocked gate in a chain-link fence. It bears signs that read "KEEP OUT!" and "ABANDONED EVIL FACTORY." **** reaches into view with a pair of bolt cutters and breaks the lock. The gate swings open, and his car barrels through. Turn up to point along the road, which winds along a narrow ridge over the water and stops at an old factory on its end. It is now nighttime. The car pulls up and stops as the camera zooms in slightly.)

(Cut to him inside, pouring sugar from a box.)

****: Sugar...

(Fade to black, then snap to him adding spices from a couple of shakers.)

****: ...spice...

(Fade to black, then snap to him dumping a bucketful of the "everything nice" mixture as seen in the show opening. The youthful background laughter from that sequence is heard as he continues.)

****: ...and everything nice.

(Fade to black, then snap to the bottle of Chemical X as he reaches into view for it.)

****: (from o.c.) And an accidental dose of...

(Cut to him, standing by a large vat full of the ingredients and with a medicine dropper in hand.)

****: ...Chemical X!

(Extreme close-up of a single drop being squeezed from the dropper. It hangs for a moment and finally falls free. Cut to the outside.)

****: (from inside) Oops.

(An explosion shakes the building, sending flashes of light from the windows and black smoke from the chimneys. Back to ****, now lying dazed against the wall and with his clothes in tatters, similar to what happened to the Professor when he first created the Powerpuff Girls. The entire room is bathed in brilliant white light. He has his hand to his eyes to shield them from the glare. He takes his hand away, and his eyes pop as the camera pulls back across the room to stop just behind a pair of feet that look like those of the girls. He smiles and begins to laugh - softly at first, then more heartily and madly as the view fades to black. His evil plan to use the Powerpuff Girls for monetary gain is about to become a reality.)

Part Two 

(Snap to a view of the New York skyline, seen from a distance with the Statue of Liberty in the foreground. A voice begins to speak.)

Voice: The crime rate has jumped, Mr. Mayor, a whopping eighty-six percent.

(As the voice speaks, cut to a meeting room where several officials are gathered and a man sits at a desk in the corner. The speaker is an aide standing by a graph labeled "NY CRIME" and has been addressing himself to the man at the desk - the Mayor of New York. After he finishes, pan left across the room to the door, which opens to admit ****.)

****: Eighty-seven, to be exact.

(As he continues, he wheels in a cart with something covered by a cloth on it. Six Powerpuff feet are seen below the cloth's edges.)

****: If I could just take a moment of your time, gentlemen, to illustrate... (The thing starts to squirm.) ...how a city like Townsville, USA... (smacking it, making the squirming stop) ...not yet!...maintains a crime rate percentage ratio of point zero-zero-three over zero. Do you know how?

(Cut to the aide, now standing next to the Mayor. Both remain silent, unsure of what to say to answer ****'s question regarding comparing New York to Townsville.)

****: (from o.c.) I'll tell you how! (Back to him.) Superhuman children! That's how. It may sound strange, but what I'm offering is a security system based on that same technology. (grabbing cloth) Behold...the new and improved...

(He whisks the cloth away, leaning back o.c. as he does so. The six feet belong to three girls who look somewhat like the originals - but with a few differences. One, the sizes of various body parts and features are not the same for all three. Two, the highlights in the eyes of the Blossom and Buttercup copies are unusually large and do not match those of the Bubbles copy, whose pupils seem a bit too dilated. Three, the Bubbles copy has pigtails that ride too high on her head and sit at an odd angle. Four, the Blossom copy has crossed eyes and her abdomen is too short. Five, the hairstyles are correct, but the bangs are mismatched: "Blossom" has Bubbles' part, "Bubbles" has Buttercup's, "Buttercup" has Blossom's. When they speak, they sound as if they are reading from cue cards. It is definitely clear that ****'s first attempt to create his own version of the Girls has met with some problems somewhere in the creation process, despite following all the steps regarding the ingredients.)

****: (from o.c.) ...Powerpuff Girls with Chemical Xtreme!

Knockoff Bubbles: Let's be friends.

Knockoff Blossom: Prepare to be stomped!

Knockoff Buttercup: Girl power!

(Cut to the aide and the Mayor, who look uneasily o.c. toward this exhibit. They glance at each other and smile after a moment.)

(Cut to the Professor and the girls at home, on the living room couch. The TV is heard o.c., with a news flash breaking in. On screen, a reporter sits at the broadcast desk, with a graphic of the three off-kilter girls next to her.)

Reporter: Flash news report! Today in New York City, a giant alligator monster tripped over the island of Manhattan on his way to work, nearly injuring his toe.

(As she speaks, the scene cuts to a close-up of a huge alligator that looks very much like Wally Gator from Hanna-Barbera cartoons, then pulls back to the sound of screaming as it loses its balance. The creature, which carries a briefcase, about to fall squarely on Lady Liberty. When the cut occurs, the rest of the reporter's line is delivered as a voice-over.)

Reporter: (voice-over) Luckily, three Powerpuff Girls lifted the oversized beast to safety.

(On this line, the knockoffs fly into view, catch the alligator, and set it down on the shore before departing. Cut to them flying away. They still sound very stilted.)

Knockoff Bubbles: Let's be friends.

Knockoff Blossom: Prepare to be stomped!

Knockoff Buttercup: Girl power! (Back to the family; the girls look quite stunned.)

Professor: "Girl power"? (to Buttercup) Since when did you start saying "girl power"?

Buttercup: (laughing nervously) I always say that...uh...girl power?

(She looks uneasily away from him, then to her sisters.)

Professor: But wait...when were you in New York? (All three are caught by surprise.)

Bubbles: Hey! We've never been to New York.

Blossom: Shhh! (to Professor, laughing nervously) Well, uh, the Mayor of Townsville is friends with New York, and he said, "I think it would be good if you guys went there," and that we should do it, and that we should-should. 'Cause...what was the question again?

Professor: Um...when were you in New York?

Blossom: Yesterday.

Buttercup: (whispering, to her) Today!

Blossom: I mean, today.

Professor: Hmmm...good, good. Well, good night.

(Cut to the bedroom and zoom in on the girls, tucked in for the night but looking too worried to sleep, especially after having lied to the Professor to avoid raising any suspicion from him. Light from the hallway falls across all three of them.)

Bubbles: I feel weird about lying to the Professor.

Blossom: A little white lie is okay. Besides, it'll all turn out good 'cause we're good.

Bubbles: And more of us will only be gooder.

Buttercup: Yeah, good.

Blossom: And Professor **** is good, right? And he's only interested in good and goodness. (All start to nod.) Good?

Bubbles: Good.

Blossom: Good?

Buttercup: Good.

Blossom: Good.

Girls: Good night.

[Animation goof: Bubbles' mouth, not Blossom's, moves on the last "Good."]

(Cut to a daytime shot of a bridge across a bay - it might be in San Francisco - and pull back to the shore. A businessman hands **** a large sack of money. Smiling, the latter looks over his shoulder. Pan in that direction to show a man next to three counterfeits who look like badly drawn cardboard cutouts. He pats the head of "Bubbles.")

(The factory at night - now it has added a new wing - as another explosion shakes it. Close-up of a packing crate as **** slaps an 'Indiana' address label on it, then pull back. He stands at a dock, while the crate is in a boat floating just in front of him. A city skyline can be seen in the distance. He and the boatman wave to each other, and the craft makes its way toward the city.)

(Now **** is in an Asian district during the day, shaking hands with a man while spectators cheer. The camera turns up to show a Japanese flag and three giant robots standing among the buildings. They lean against each other for support as tears roll down their faces - another defeat at the hands of these mass-produced, but not authentic, superheroes.)

(The factory at night. Another explosion, and the sky flashes black briefly. Inside, head/body assemblies without hair or features are being carried on a conveyor belt. Hanging from the ceiling, at their head level, is a stencil template marked "EYES." As each unit moves past this, it is sprayed with white paint to put the whites of the eyes in place. Continuing along the conveyor, each unit has a mouth painted crookedly onto it by a worker - by this point, the pupils have been filled in black.)

(A worker plops a hair bow onto a hairless Blossom head/body, one in a procession of units whose eyes have now been completed. This is picked up by a robotic arm and carried to another conveyor loaded with pairs of legs. The unit is fitted onto the legs and carried along. It reaches yet another worker, who attaches a pair of arms. Now the hair is in place, though the hairline is again wrong - Buttercup's, in this case. A line of figures, sporting all manner of color and style mismatches, proceeds under a sugar dispenser. As each one moves in, a worker pulls a lever to dispense the material onto it.)

(A blond-haired Buttercup, her eyes not quite in alignment, is swept into a Chemical X dispenser. The liquid pours down onto her, sparks fly, and she emerges, coughing and with black smoke pouring out around her. She reaches the end of the conveyor and drops into a waiting box, one of several in a row. Each is marked on the side with one of the girls' names to indicate its contents, and the tops show the Powerpuff Girls title logo with the word "XTREME" added in jagged red letters, along with a picture of the girls and the word "POW" at an impact point in the bottom corner. The top is put on the just-filled box, and three - one for each sister - are loaded into a crate that bears the product name on its side. **** closes the crate and addresses it to India. Cut to the dock at night, where the boatman is pushing off with a hefty load of merchandise to deliver to its next destination.)

(Cut to a skyline that looks as if it could be a city in India, in the daytime and turn down to the street to the sound of a panicking crowd. People point fearfully into the sky. The camera turns up to a long shot of one tower, which has a man standing atop it. From this distance, we can see that he wears a large turban with a ruby set in it, a pair of short white trunks, and nothing else. He laughs as a beam of energy emanates from the ruby, then turns his head back and forth to strafe the street. Smoke pours up from below. Close-up of him as he stops. The man's face looks very much like that of Mojo Jojo, possibly an Indian version of Townsville's dangerous mutant simian.)

(Three light trails streak across the sky, approaching the scene, and their owners stop near the tower. Suffice it to say that these three creations will never be mistaken for the real Powerpuff Girls: heads and bodies badly distorted, hair all screwed up, eyes showing more than one color. Like their predecessors, these three speak in a very artificial manner.)

Bubbles #2 : Hello. It’s Bubbles here to save you again.

Blossom #2 : We got to save the world before bedtime.

Buttercup #2 : I think they're asking for a heinie-whooping.

Raja Jaja : I am Raja Jaja. Taste my choudhamasaladay!

(He puts his hands together as if to pray, and another beam shoots from the turban. The imitations dodge this. Buttercup #2 moves in to attack, but when she hits him, her arm falls off. He is not damaged.)

Raja Jaja :  (laughing) Oh, that is a good one.

(He laughs some more, right up to the moment when Blossom #2 flies up behind him and socks him in the back of the head. Now Bubbles #2 moves in and kicks him, breaking her own leg off at the knee. This strike knocks him from his perch. He falls o.c., screaming all the way down, and we hear a hefty thud that shakes the camera when he hits the ground.)

(Cut to the family at home, watching these events on TV. The Professor cocks an eyebrow at the girls, clearly suspicious again after seeing this latest news report.)

Professor: India, huh?

Blossom: Yeah. Nozzle tov!

[Note: This is a corruption of the congratulatory Yiddish expression "Mazel tov."]

(The factory at night - it has now expanded once again, with support trusses extending from either side of the ridge to hold up the new construction so it doesn't fall into the water below. An explosion shakes it. Cut to ****, looking at a sales chart in its main office and appearing very dissatisfied.)

****: Sales are dropping in Tokyo. (over his shoulder) Cut back on the sugar by half!

(Blossom head/bodies roll past the eye stencil and are spray-painted. This time, the whites and pupils are in place and the worker is adding the pink irises. **** stands amid piles of cash and counts a fistful greedily. A worker slaps arms onto the bodies that pass him, even though some immediately fall off again. The defects are much more noticeable now. Cut to a faux girl in Egypt during the day. This one has blond hair and a light blue dress and eyes like Bubbles, but the hairstyle and voice of Buttercup. Again with the stilted speech.)

Buttercup/Bubblecup : I think they're asking for a heinie-whooping. (As she says this, her head falls off and rolls away.)

(Back to the factory dock at night, where **** waves to a departing helicopter with a huge load of crates. Inside, units hurtle through the sugar dispenser at high speed - the worker operating the machinery can barely keep up and starts to fall asleep. From here, dissolve to the French flag, then a pile of money being given to ****, then a man at home making a phone call. Behind him is an open box, with pieces of a Blossom - still with the wrong hairline - scattered near it. It is clear this defect of the real deal completely failed, and the man is right to be furious about it.)

Man : (angrily) What kind of stuff are you trying to push on us?

(Cut to **** in the office. He sits at the desk, his feet up, and talks into a headset receiver. He does not seem at all fazed by this complaint or by the sound of many other phones ringing - doubtless more angry consumers calling to file complaints against **** for his cheap imitations of the real deals that were very poorly made and defective and barely could do what the Girls were famous for before breaking down and proving their ineffectiveness to the real deals.)

****: Well, sir, if you'd look closely at the warranty, it's actually only good for 3 hours. But the new model is guaranteed to last up to 5 full hours!

(The conveyor carries units through the Chemical X dispenser at a blinding pace. The machine is now in top gear, sending out plumes of smoke. Cut to outside the factory, which has grown some more, at night. A series of explosions erupt from various areas. The last results in a mushroom cloud rising from the heart of the plant.)

(A stack of money is counted by machine, after which we see the sugar dispenser yet again. Now the worker simply leans wearily on the lever as the units are zipped through faster than ever. Cut to a balcony, from which **** surveys the factory floor.)

****: Faster! Faster!

(The dock again. Now a fleet of helicopters is carrying the products away as **** waves. Back to the office. He sits at his desk, piled high with cash, and has his arms around two bikini-clad women. The grin on his face would put the Cheshire Cat to shame. It is clear he is rolling in profits, despite all the bad imitations of the Girls he has been selling all over the world. Fade to black.)

Part Three

(Opening shot: - the kitchen of the house during the day. The Professor is washing dishes and listening to a radio sitting on the windowsill. What he hears next causes his face to fall.)

Radio reporter: Today in Germany, the Powerpuff Girls failed again as they attempted to quell a runaway bratwurst destroying Düsseldorf in its path. This is N.P.R.

[Note; NPR is short for National Public Radio.]

(The factory floor, filled with products not yet in their boxes. Seen from the neck down, **** walks along, looking them over, as the camera follows. Anything that could possibly be wrong with this batch is before he sends them out to their buyers.)

****: Hmm. Too ugly. Useless.

(He stops upon finding a dead-on copy of Buttercup.)

****: What's this? This one's perfect! I thought I told you to cut back on the sugar! Take it back and melt it down for its Chemical X!

(The properly-made girl looks up nervously at him when he says this - he has been addressing himself to an o.c. worker. So much for **** wanting to have exact replicas of the Girls to profit off of.)

(Cut to the following message: "THE FOLLOWING IS A PAID ADVERTISEMENT FROM PPG X2000. THIS PROGRAM IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THIS NETWORK IN ANY WAY." It is the sort of notice that appears before a station runs an infomercial. This stays on screen for some seconds, after which the scene cuts to a burglar outside a house and trying to open a window.)

****: (voice-over) Are you having a problem with crime? (Inside, an old woman looks toward the window, the burglar's silhouette visible, and screams.) And let's face it, folks, who isn't?

(Cut to the exterior of the Bank of the Imperial Garden. A robber runs out, crashing through the door with a moneybag over their shoulder, as the alarm goes off. Inside, the manager cries at his desk.)

Manager: Oh, save me from my crime problem! (Cut to ****, stepping into view against a blank wall.)

****: Well, say goodbye to those fears, folks. The Powerpuff Girls Xtreme are here!

(A new scene slams together: Blossom delivering a flying kick. Behind her is a pink background with the word "POWER" in big white letters. Next slam: Bubbles lashing out with a kick, against a light blue background with the word "PUFF." Third slam: Buttercup punching, with a light green background bearing the word "GIRLZ." Last slam: a yellow background, showing the word "XTREME" in the same ragged red script as before.)

[Spelling error: Up to now, "girls" has been spelled correctly on all the boxes in the factory.]

(This last scene spins away, and we see **** running down the aisle of an auditorium filled with cheering people to get to the stage. Once there, he addresses the crowd, microphone in hand.)

****: Hello, hello. Thank you. Thank you. I'm here to tell you about our new crime-crunching product, the Powerpuff Girls Xtreme!

(The crowd cheers. Cut to a sweater-clad man on the stage.)

Trevor : Australian accent) Wow, ****, you seem pretty excited about this new product.

****: You know, Trevor, I am. And I'll tell you why. Better yet, why don't you show 'em, Trevor?

Trevor : Right. Here's how it works. (stepping across the stage to a cloth-covered object with Powerpuff feet) Follow me over here to the crime simulator.

(He pulls the cloth away, exposing three girls. "Blossom" has Buttercup's hairline, "Buttercup" Bubbles' - "Bubbles" has the right one. Their legs are too skinny, their smiles do not match, and "Blossom"'s hair bow is out of proportion.)

Trevor: Voila! There's the little buggers now. (patting "Buttercup“‘s head) Cute, aren't they? Now, I'm gonna play the crook sneaking in on the simulated window.

****: We'll see how he fares against the Powerpuff Girls Xtreme.

(The crowd laughs and cheers. On the stage, a window and part of a wall have been set up. Trevor approaches from "outside.")

Trevor: (laughing, climbing through) Ha, ha, ha, ha! Here I go.

(Pan away from him a bit to where the facsimiles are standing. They fire a burst at him from their eye lasers. Cut back to Trevor, who has now been evenly crisped. The crowd laughs.)

****: Okay. While you get cleaned up, let's take a listen to what these people had to say.

(Cut to a couple in front of their house.)

Wife: Oh, well, when we first moved into the big city, we didn't know what to expect. But ever since we got the Powerpuff Girls, I've had no trouble keeping Bill at home. (She giggles.)

(Cut to a fat kid in the street.)

Fat kid: (holding up a more-or-less accurate Blossom) I lost 200 pounds with my Powerpuff.

(The robber in front of the bank. The alarm is still going off.)

Robber: (holding up bags of cash) The Powerpuff Girls got me $2.5 million.

(Back to the stage.)

Trevor: You know, ****, I'm getting pretty excited about the Powerpuff Girls, too.

****: And you should be, Trevor, because these Powerpuff Girls are made with Chemical Xtreme!

(These last two words appear on the screen as he says them; "Chemical" in regular black type, "Xtreme" in ragged red with the X vibrating. From here, cut to the girls at home. They have been watching this infomercial, and two out of three not at all pleased about finding out what **** has been doing with the Chemical X they gave him, especially renaming it to "Chemical Xtreme" along with slandering their good name with all those poor knockoffs of them that have been saving people all over the world while they remained in Townsville to keep the Professor in the dark about the truth of the matter.)

Blossom: What?! That... …Professor Dick! He lied to us!

Bubbles: (puzzled) Lost 200 pounds? I don't get it.

(A rattling noise causes them to start in surprise. Cut to a close-up of the front door keyhole, where the Professor is fitting his key into the lock - the noise we just heard - then back to the girls. Blossom feverishly punches buttons on the remote control to change the channel before the Professor can see the infomercial and learn of what **** has been doing, and ****'s smiling face gives way to static just before the Professor opens the door.)

Professor: Hi, girls.

Girls: (popping heads over top of the couch) Oh, hi, Professor. How was your day? (Behind them, the TV screen is now dark.)

Professor: So, how was Düsseldorf?

(The girls begin to stammer and stutter for a moment before Blossom comes up with an answer. It is clear that the Professor heard about the news report of the fakes being unable to save the day again over in Germany, and wanted to hear the Girls' thoughts on it.)

Blossom: He's good.

Buttercup: Yeah, good.

Professor: Oh, really?

Blossom: In fact, we were just going to meet him right now. (They zip off; we hear the door slam.)

Professor: Hmm. (Cut to the girls on the front step.)

Blossom: Let's go see **** and get this all straightened out.

(They take off; cut to the factory, smoke pouring from all its chimneys, as they approach it. It is night time again.)

Blossom: Nobody lies to the Powerpuff Girls.

(Cut to a long shot inside, behind **** at the balcony railing, and zoom in on each of his next three words.)

****: Faster, faster, faster! (A crash from o.c. startles him into turning around.)

Girls: (from o.c.) Hey, ****!

(Camera shift: now we - and he - see them at an open door, at the far end of the balcony.)

Blossom: You're a liar, Professor ****.

Bubbles: A liar, liar, pants on fire, Professor ****! (**** chuckles wickedly.)

****: Heh, heh, heh! I'm glad you came, girls. (almost psychotic) I need more Chemical X!

Blossom: We'll never give you any more Chemical X.

****: (composed) Well, that's just fine, (psychotic) because I was planning to take it!

Blossom: Never! In fact, we want the Chemical X we gave you back! Where is it?

(****'s eyes dart to one side in paranoia when he hears this; cut to the bottle of Chemical X the Girls originally gave him sitting on a railing. He makes a dash for it, snatching it up an instant before they can take it away first. Now he backs into a corner as they close in on him to try and take it back, by force if necessary.)

Bubbles: Come on, ****! (Close-up of him, sweating and panicky.)

Buttercup: (from o.c.) Return it now, ****! (His eyes dart from side to side.)

Bubbles: (from o.c.) Hand it over! (Back to the girls.)

Blossom: Don't be selfish!

(Faced with no other alternative, **** stuffs the bottle into his mouth sideways; its ends bulge under his cheeks.)

****: (muffled, shrugging) I don't know what you're talking about.

Blossom: You still have it. (He shakes his head.) It's in your mouth!

(His jaw and throat muscles start to work, and after a bit of straining, the bottle turns right side up and slides down his gullet.)

****: (speaking normally) What are you talking about? I don't have anything. See?

(He opens his mouth and points into it, showing it to be empty, and crosses his arms smugly. The girls regard the whole display of gastronomic gymnastics with **** disposing of the evidence with some puzzlement.)

Buttercup: Whoa. He swallowed it.

Bubbles: (to ****) Are you ok?

****: What? Of course I'm okay. I've never felt better in my life.

(His eyes go very wide, and he pitches to the floor, jerking and convulsing. It is clear the Chemical X has started to affect **** upon being swallowed by him moments earlier. Cut to a long shot of the girls, now very unnerved, as his shadow rises from the floor and throws itself over them. We hear him screaming in agony and see the shadow collapse; the girls gasp, and the camera cuts to him in the middle of another fit. Pink foam bubbles from his mouth and his hair is askew. After several seconds, the fit subsides, the foam disappears, and his coiffure restores itself.)

****: Whoo! (standing up, hair untidy again) You know, for a second there, I thought I was gonna turn into a monster or something.

(As he says this last, his voice starts to sound very strained and his body initiates an alarming transformation. Large growths form on his back, and his arms and legs begin to swell; tentacles sprout from his chest, and the skin of his forearm becomes horny green hide, with his coat sleeve turning a lighter green. His ponytail increases in length and becomes another tentacle, and one shoulder of the coat rips away to expose more of that dark hide. His legs bulge with new muscle, causing the moccasins and pants to fall away in shreds and expose light green skin. Through this sequence, we hear **** groaning and growling like an animal.)

(Overhead view of the girls, watching the metamorphosis in total shock. The camera turns around from them to show ****'s new appearance. He has become very muscular and now stands all the way up to the ceiling; six tentacles are rooted in his chest, a seventh where his ponytail was. His forearms, abdomen, and shoulders are armored with the dark green hide, while the rest of his body has the light green tone. All his clothes are gone, replaced only by black fur at his pelvis. His glasses have been replaced by black shades, and his hair is more or less in its old style.)

(Deformed Powerpuff rejects gather at a railing to watch. Many of them have no hair and resemble the girls in only the most basic details. Blossom and Bubbles square off against ****; he lashes out with a chest tentacle and grabs Blossom. The tentacle starts to glow once it has hold of her.)

Blossom: Bubbles!

(Bubbles fires her eye lasers, cutting the tentacle and freeing her sister. Now Buttercup moves in and catches **** in the back of the head, knocking him down o.c.)

Buttercup: Don't mess with the real Powerpuff— Uhh!

(She does not get to finish the crack, as the ponytail tentacle snakes up and whips her down, cutting her off mid-sentence. Cut to the other two, who have now landed, as she slams to the floor between them.)

Bubbles: Buttercup!

(****, back on his feet and with the severed appendage regenerated, whips his ponytail tentacle down at the girls. Buttercup spreads her legs to avoid its strike; it crashes through the floor and emerges behind her. Pulling loose, it now targets Blossom but misses and comes up behind her as well.)

(Cut to outside the chain-link gate, now closed, as headlights play over it, then to just outside the Professor's car with him in the driver's seat - he has arrived on the scene to confirm his suspicion about the Girls and **** when they left earlier to speak to him. In the windshield, we see the reflection of what he sees: the factory, with more explosions emanating from within. His face registers shock, then righteous anger; his girls need his help and **** needs to pay; he floors the gas pedal and charges o.c.. We hear a crash, and the "KEEP OUT" sign - battered and crumpled from the impact - clatters to the ground. Now the camera points along the road as he drives toward the factory, the smashed gate hanging open.)

(Inside, the girls hit the floor and skid across it, cutting furrows as they go. **** approaches the spectators at the railing; a lever protrudes from the wall nearby. He now speaks with a deeper, reverberating tone that radiates sheer fury.)

****: (sweeping rejects aside) Get this junk out of here! (grabbing lever) You will give me your Chemical X!

(He pulls the lever; the girls look up in surprise as a large glass dome slams down, imprisoning them. It is fitted with electrodes and has a large hose attached to its top. The equipment crackles, and greenish mist and white sparks pour from the hose. Close-up of Buttercup; the sparks disappear when they touch her, and the normal color starts to fade from her arm, which turns a sickly pale with greenish spots. The change works its way up toward her shoulder. A large tank starts to fill with the compound **** is after to make more of his corrupt clones of the real deals.)

(Cut to the Professor outside the room, opening a door and looking in. Three easily recognizable forms stand at a distance with their backs to him.)

Professor: Girls? (Head-on view of him, walking in.) Uh, girls?

(Cut to just next to him, the camera advancing with him; he is reaching into view toward them.)

Professor: (from o.c.) Blossom? (Head-on view of him again.) Blossom?

(Close-up of her back as he reaches into view to touch her shoulder.)

Professor: (from o.c.) It's me, the Profe-- Aah! Oh! Oh! Huh? Aah! [screaming]

(He spins her around to face the camera. The whites of her eyes are a sickly yellow and without irises, the pupil highlights red. Her hairline is ragged, and she sports long buck teeth. The Professor recoils from this apparition, crying out in fear. Another mutant reject of the originals that **** created as he focused more on money than quality. He looks in another direction and sees an array of monstrosities that are all but unrecognizable as Powerpuff Girls. Gibbering and yelling, he looks away and is greeted by yet another collection of hideous creatures. Averting his eyes once more, he screams loudest in horror when he sees the three genuine articles in ****'s extractor. The electricity crackles over them, now all looking completely washed out and with spots all over their bodies and clothes; the mist is now gone.)

(Extreme close-up of the Professor's eyes.)

Professor: Girls? (Extreme close-up of ****, then back to him, his eyes wide.) ****?

(Pull back; the two former college buddies stand across the room from each other. **** has his hand on the lever.)

****: You're too late!

(The Professor runs up to the dome and crushes himself against it.)

Professor: Girls!

(Blossom addresses him; she has somehow regained a bit of her strength, as her color has momentarily returned to normal.)

Blossom: (through glass) Professor! Help... (She becomes drained again.)

Professor: (turning away) ****, no! Stop! You're destroying them!

****: Stand aside, Utonium, (Cut to a group of rejects at a railing; he continues o.c.) or be crushed by my wrath. (The rejects look o.c. toward the scene.)

Professor: (from o.c.) I can't, ****. I won't!

(Back to him, on his knees by the dome. The extractor has stopped; the girls have crumpled to the floor. Now the air inside the dome appears to shimmer as if in a heat wave.)

[Animation goof: The dome is seen several times during the following sequence. In some shots, the wavering effect is seen; in others, it is not.]

Professor: (begging) Please, take me instead. I'll do anything you want.

****: Am I to understand that you're sacrificing your life for theirs, and you'll stay here, and make X forever?

(The Professor thinks this proposition over for a long, anguished moment before giving his mutated former college buddy his answer.)

Professor: (resignedly) Yes. Just don't hurt the girls. (looking in at them) They're my family.

****: You fool! Why should I let them go when I have you both? (to rejects) Take him away!

(They jump down and mass against the Professor.)

Professor: Oh, ****, what have you made?

(He falls back against the dome. Cut to inside it; he turns to look in and addresses the girls. Behind him, we see a factory floor jammed with quality-control failures.)

Professor: (through glass) It's gonna be okay, girls.

(Outside the dome again. He cries out as the rejects grab him and start passing him overhead towards **** as if he were crowd-surfing at a concert.)

[Note: One of them, facing away from the camera, sports the hairstyle of Mandark, Dexter's archrival on Dexter's Laboratory.]

Professor: Bubbles! Blossom! (pulling free, standing up) Buttercup! Girls, I...I... (as tears form in his eyes) ...I love you.

(The rejects stop their advance on him, uncertainty writing itself on their twisted faces, and all eyes turn toward him and ****. Cut to inside the dome.)

Girls: (weakly) We love you too. (They pass out. It looks as if **** had killed them by draining them of all their Chemical X.)

(Quick pan to the rejects, who now become rather angry and begin to rise into the air, then cut to ****. As he speaks, the sound of more of them rising can be heard.)

****: I said, take him away, you mutants. Huh?

(They begin to close in on him, chanting "****! ****! ****!" under the next several lines. Close-up of the bucktoothed "Blossom" the Professor found, with others surrounding her. From here on, all the rejects we hear the sound very zombie-like, some with severe speech impediments.)

Bucktoothed-Blossom: You never gave us love.

(Long shot of ****; now many more of the rejects are airborne, facing him and away from us.)

Reject Buttercup: Where was our love? (We cannot tell which one is speaking. Although it had a Buttercup-like voice.)

****: Get back! I am your master! (A bucktoothed "Bubbles" is seen among a group.)

Bucktoothed-Bubbles: Only a master of evil, Dick.

(They make their final approach; he throws his hands up to protect himself.)

****: No! No!

(Pull back across the room. The rejects have now swarmed, covering him from the waist down, and only a few still hover. He starts to lose his balance as they begin to overpower him.)

****: NOOOOOOOO!

(He tumbles backward, sending up a cloud of black smoke when he hits the floor. Eye-laser shots flash through the air and touch off a sheet of green flame that consumes him and the hordes of rejects. A few survivors throw the lever; cut to the floor as the dome is lifted away. The Professor is about to run to the girls, but a voice stops him.)

Survivor reject Blossom: (from o.c.) Get out… (He looks up o.c.; cut to this reject at the lever with the others.) ...before it's too late.

(He scoops up the girls and runs o.c. before smoke and fire cover the scene. Dissolve to another wall of flames and pull back; we are now outside the factory, which has been completely engulfed in the green inferno. If anyone even escaped from there, such as ****'s workers, it would have a miracle if they did. Pull back down the road. The Professor has the three lifeless forms in his arms and is looking sadly over his shoulder toward the burning wreckage of his former roommate's mad scheme.)

(Now he looks down at them and drops sobbing to his knees, thinking that his daughters are dead, hugging them so tightly that his whole body shakes from the effort. The end-shot background dissolves partially into view, then disappears. Normal color starts to return to the girls' feet, working its way toward their heads; the spots give way to it as well. When they have completely regained their color, their eyes pop open, alive.)

Girls: (ecstatically) Professor!

Professor: Girls! (hugging them again) I thought I lost you.

Bubbles: What happened to Professor **** and the other Powerpuff Girls?

Professor: Well, old **** may have gotten the formula right, but the one ingredient he forgot was love. (carrying them o.c.) Let's go home, girls.

****: (anguished, from inside the still-burning factory) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

(The background for the standard end shot comes up.)

Narrator: I guess the love you take is equal to the love you make. So once again the day is saved

(The girls are zoomed out farther than usual.)

Narrator: thanks to the original, bona-fide Powerpuff Girls. Accept no substitutes.

The End!

We’ll see you again soon!

in:

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A Made Up Story/Transcript

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A MADE UP STORY

Storyboarded and written by Chris Reccardi

Art direction by Paul Stec

Animation direction by Robert Alvarez, James Tim Walker

Directed by John McIntyre, Randy Myers

Transcribed by Alan Back

Act One

(Opening shot: the city skyline at night.)

Narrator: The city of Townsville! (Zoom in on one section.) Where something horrible…

(Dissolve to a slow overhead pan across the rooftops of one block.)

Narrator: …something evil…

(Dissolve to the side of a building, where a poster showing a man’s face has been put up.)

Narrator: …something nefarious…

(A huge, spiky-haied shadow throws itself across the view. Close-up of the poster, which reads “Joe Bob for Congress”; something multicolored flashes across the screen, and when it clears, the image has been touched up considerably. Joe Bob now sports a face full of makeup.)

Narrator: (trying to keep from laughing)  …something hilarious is taking place!

(Zoom in on the altered poster, to the sound of cackling female laughter that echoes through the night, then pull back to frame a portion of the skyline. The many-hued streak zips up and down among the buildings as the camera slowly pans to keep it in frame.)

Narrator: Yes, some horrible, evil, nefarious, hilarious prankster…

(Cut to a rooftop billboard that shows a happy young couple—this is a travel ad for, of all places, “Siberia—Land of Dreams.” On the next line, the streak flashes past, leaving the images changed similarly to the poster.)

Narrator: …is defacing all the billboards… (A poster of a cowboy and his horse is hit.) …posters… (A statue gets made over.) …and statues in Townsville.

(Zoom in on the head, then cut to a bus stop bench on which four men are seated; it is now the next day. The eyes of three of them dart about and finally settle on the fourth, who is reading a newspaper; zoom in on him during the following.)

Narrator: Who could be behind this senseless lashing out?

(Zoom in closer, slowly, to a close-up of this man. He finally raises his eyes and looks back and forth—and then the paper is lowered to show a very tiny fellow sitting in his lap. The latter was holding on to it; he rolls it up, tucks it under his arm, and walks away. From here, cut to a shot of a somewhat surprised-looking Mojo Jojo.)

Narrator: Could it be…Mojo Jojo? (A crowd is seen.)

Crowd: No! (A plumber works under a sink.)

Narrator: Could it be…your plumber?

(He pulls himself out and stares confusedly at us. Big, fat, scraggly beard, not too bright.)

Crowd: No!

(Next up: the car thief from “Girls Gone Mild,” who swiped that black SUV.)

Narrator: Could it be…Charlie Bean? (He shrugs.)

Crowd: No! (A quick, long pan begins.)

Narrator: Or could it be…

(Stop on a shadowy area of the city, with a sprawling tower standing high over the other buildings; a large M is on the roof. A violent thunderstorm has begun. Lightning strikes, illuminating the area for a moment and showing the tower to be in ruins, and the view dissolves to a long shot of a silhouette standing at a top-floor window. This figure is very thin, with long arms and legs, claw-like fingers, and spiky hair.)

Narrator: (shocked) No! It can’t be!

(Dissolve to inside the building, a close-up of the legs; the feet are clad in high heels. Tilt up slowly toward the head and stop. After a long pause, lightning reveals the face in full detail: wide, staring eyes set above a tiny nose; thick lips drawn back from a snarling mouth; chin tapering down to a very fine point. The entire face is heavily made up, and it and the streaked white hair are left half in shadow by the lightning’s glare.)

(Another strike, and the silhouette is seen again inside the building. It cackles madly in the voice heard earlier; this individual is the culprit. Pull back a bit from the window, then cut to outside the tower and pull back some more as her laughter rings out and the storm continues. Fade to black.)

(Pull back to reveal that the black has now become the pupil of Blossom’s eye, seen in extreme close-up as if through a magnifying glass.)

Blossom: Mask Scara!

(Pull back. It is now the next day, the sky is clear, and she is indeed peering through a hand-held lens, which she lowers. Her sisters stand with her on a city sidewalk.)

Blossom: It’s the work of Mask Scara!

(Cut to behind the girls. The Mayor, Ms. Bellum, and the Professor are there as well; in front of them is the object of Blossom’s study—a movie poster advertising Exterminator 3. The face of the insecticide-wielding actor on it has been covered with makeup.)

Mayor: Uh…did she say “mascara”? (Close-up of the Professor; zoom in slowly.)

Professor: No. Mask Scara, the dreaded villainess.

(Dissolve to a curb at which a limousine is pulling up. A carpet has been laid down for its passengers, and a uniformed attendant stands ready. On the next line, the car stops, he opens the rear door, and two dogs are seen on leashes. They get out, followed by their owner—a young blond woman, very stylishly dressed in a pink suit and matching pillbox hat, with a beauty mark above the right corner of her mouth.)

Professor: (voice over) Formerly known as fashion mogul Madame M…

(Said mogul proceeds along the carpet, after which we see the tower whose ruins were the apparition’s hideout. However, the structure is gleaming and new—this entire sequence shows past events. Zoom in on the M; during the next line, cut to a meeting room, where Madame M is making a presentation to some executives. A graph is projected on a screen behind her.)

Professor: (voice over) …whose cosmetics empire made a fortune in makeup sales…

(Close-up of the graph, which shows an arrow climbing steadily upward. The vertical axis is labeled “Profits,” while the horizontal one is split into two areas. The lower part of the graph corresponds to “Old Look,” while the much higher part is labeled “‘Trashy Look’ Campaign.”)

Professor: (voice over) …by cleverly marketing the Trashy Look.

(On the end of this, close-up of a mirror. In it is the reflection of a young blond woman liberally applying mascara to her eyelashes. Pan from her to a black woman putting on lipstick, then a brunette dusting on face powder. All three faces sport a vast overabundance of cosmetics—the aforementioned Trashy Look. From here, cut to a magazine spinning toward the camera against a black backdrop.)

Professor: (voice over) But then…one day it happened.

(The magazine stops near the camera. It is an issue of Bogus, and it shows the brunette—now rather depressed-looking, with plain hair and no makeup at all. Headline: “The Dull Look is in!”)

Professor: (voice over) The Dull Look was in!

(Dissolve to a close-up of her, now sitting in a laundromat and reading a magazine; pan to the black woman, then the blonde, both also sporting the no-frills appearance. The former reads her own magazine, while the latter shovels ice cream into her mouth.)

Professor: (voice over) Yes, it was the end of the Trashy Look. (The profit graph again; now the arrow plummets.) And Madame M’s empire… (It drops o.c.) …crumbled.

(The graph shatters as if it were a pane of glass, and the pieces clear away to reveal Madame M screaming and holding her hands to her head. The red background behind her gradually brightens until she is visible only as a silhouette; her hair springs up into those exaggerated spikes seen earlier. Cut to the exterior of the glittering tower—which becomes its ravaged self of today when lightning cracks across the scene. The rain begins; now we are back to the storm of the previous evening, and the camera zooms in on the uppermost stories and cuts to the silhouette of Mask Scara at the window. Zoom in slowly on her head as the lighting strikes over and over, then cut to a close-up of the glass, through which people can be seen running in a panic. Her face appears as a reflection and can be seen clearly for the first time, with the beauty mark near her mouth giving her away as the former Madame M.)

Mask Scara: Finally, my revenge on Dullsville is almost complete. (Pull back slowly to frame her.) Oh, look at them running terrified!

(Now enough of her is in frame to reveal that she wears a pink bodysuit, the same shade as the outfit she sported as Madame M, and long black gloves. She turns from the window.)

Mask Scara: I’ll shake them to their very foundation! (breaking the mood) Get it? Foundation?

(She has a good laugh at this very bad pun. A final crash of lightning, and we are back to the present. The Professor is deep in thought; pull back slowly from him.)

Professor: And now she’s taking her misfortune out on all of the innocent signage of Townsville. Boy, that makes me mad—kinda like when you wash your hands in a public restroom, and the hot water just stays cold. Or like when you’re mowing the lawn on a hot summer day, and your undershorts keep riding up the—

Bubbles: (from o.c.) Um… (Pull back to frame her.) …Professor, we get the idea. Anyway, I think the makeup looks kinda neat. (Pan to Blossom.)

Blossom: I think it’s just lame. (To Buttercup.)

Buttercup: Oh, what’s the big deal, anyway? I mean, it’s only dumb posters and billboards and statues. And people getting upset over a little makeup is ridiculous. Hmph!

(She puts hands to hips, content in her contempt, but is shaken out of this mood by the reverberating cackle of Mask Scara and sound of her approach. Pull back to frame all three girls, who look around nervously; the villain’s multi-hued trail flashes by and fills the screen.)

Narrator: Uh-oh! (It clears, leaving a pink cloud floating in the girls’ place.) What target has Mask Scara chosen to smear this time?

(Cut to a flag waving atop a pole. It is designed after the Stars and Stripes, but the blue field extends from top to bottom and shows the Mayor rather than a group of stars.)

Narrator: The Townsville flag?

Crowd: No! (An open mailbox, with flies buzzing around it.)

Narrator: Your neighbor’s mailbox?

Crowd: No!

(Cut to Buttercup, her back to the camera—but her eyelashes have now been teased out so far that they extend well beyond the sides of her head.)

Narrator: Or could it be…

(She turns around. Lipstick, mascara, eyeshadow—and a beauty mark to match Mask Scara’s. She has been hit but good.)

Narrator: …Buttercup?!?

(Pull back to frame all three girls. The pink cloud has dissipated, giving Blossom and Bubbles a good view of what has happened to their sister so they can laugh themselves silly.)

Buttercup: Shut up!

Blossom: Oh, Buttercup, relax. We’ll just wipe it off.

(A towel is produced and rubbed over the victim’s face, but the stuff does not even smear.)

Buttercup: Well? Is it off? (Blossom and Buttercup hold back smiles.)

Blossom: Uh…not exactly. Here, hold on.

(She applies the towel much more vigorously; Buttercup’s hair ends up a mess, but the makeup stays firmly in place.)

Buttercup: Well?

Blossom: (stifling a smile) Still working on it. (Bubbles holds up a fire hose connected to a hydrant.)

Bubbles: Here, try this! (Blossom takes it.)

Blossom: Hold on, Buttercup!

(Close-up of Bubbles, who looks toward her sisters with noticeable dismay as the sound of repeated pounding is heard. The hose is not being used in quite the way she intended. After several hits, she speaks up.)

Bubbles: Um, Blossom?

(Pull back. A very angry Buttercup rubs her head at the point where Blossom has been socking her with the hose’s nozzle—a slightly misguided attempt to clean her up.)

Bubbles: I meant use the water. (She opens the hydrant valve.) Try now!

(A huge stream shoots from the nozzle; it is all Blossom can do to keep the hose steady. Buttercup is hit full force and driven against the back of a truck. After a few seconds, Bubbles closes the valve; as the water drains away, we see Buttercup—now thoroughly bashed and battered, her dress torn, but not one speck of that makeup gone. She slowly slides down over the truck’s bumper and ends up sitting on the pavement.)

Buttercup: How about now? (Blossom and Bubbles hold back smiles.)

Blossom: It’s…um… (laughing a bit) …still there.

(Buttercup screams in complete frustration and begins to slam her head against the truck, denting the rear panel very badly.)

Bubbles: Blossom! How about using your ice breath?

(Blossom seems to approve of this idea, and Bubbles smiles proudly at having come up with this brainstorm. The redhead sucks in all the air she can hold and lets go with a subzero gust that connects squarely with Buttercup’s face and frosts her over. When it stops, a huge ball of ice has grown to engulf most of her body; only her feet can be seen breaking the surface. Blossom strikes the ice with a flying kick that is seen three times, and the ice shatters away from Buttercup in slow motion. However, this strategy has had no more success than any of the others.)

Buttercup: Well?

(Her sisters shake their heads fearfully; she growls and starts to boil over.)

Bubbles: I know! I’ll use my ultrasonic Bubblesound!

(She lets go with the high-powered scream she has used on previous occasions and sets the whole city shaking. A STOP sign starts to vibrate on its pole, and the lettering melts away after a few seconds. A very tall building experiences tremors; finally all the windows blow out. A Mangelene billboard shows a very fat woman lounging in a swimsuit. After a moment, the surface peels away to reveal a different picture: a very surprised moose, with no hair anywhere on its body below the level of its mouth. This is a travel ad for Canada. The moose reaches past the edge of the board, its hooves disappearing as if this image were on a TV screen, and comes up with a towel. It hunches over, holds this in front of itself, and laughs in an embarrassed way.)

[Note: The original image is a riff on Angelyne, the “billboard queen” of Los Angeles. Most notable for the self-promoting billboards she has put up throughout that city, she was a candidate for governor of California in the recall election of 2003.]

(Cut to the city skyline. As Bubbles’ scream finally dies away, the buildings tremble and collapse in a shower of rubble. Dust clouds fill the screen and slowly clear away to show Buttercup standing hunched over, her back to the camera. Blossom, Bubbles, and the Professor lean in expectantly as the Mayor pops up over the man’s shoulder to see for himself. She wheels to face them—Mask Scara’s work has not been even slightly affected.)

Buttercup: Well? (Long pause.)

Blossom: I’m sorry, Buttercup, but I think Mask Scara’s makeup is…long-lasting. (Buttercup looks away angrily.)

Professor: Girls, I’m afraid this is a job for a scientist. You girls try and catch Mask Scara, and I’ll head home and work on an antidote. (Pan a bit to put the Mayor in view, with Ms. Bellum.) And Mayor—you go…uh…do something with yourself.

Mayor: Uh…okay.

(Hyped up about his plan of action, the Professor runs o.c.—altogether forgetting that his car is parked right there at the curb. The girls trade slightly bemused looks; after several seconds, his footsteps make themselves head and he walks back to the car. He is trying to play it all off—“yeah, I meant to do that”—as he opens the door. Close-up of the girls, looking after him; the slam of the door and the revving of the engine are heard. Pull back; he backs up and o.c., and the camera shifts to point down this street. The car bounces along, still in reverse. Back to the girls.)

Blossom: Let’s go, before Mask Scara strikes— (The villain’s streak fills the screen.) —again?

Narrator: Oh, no!

(She departs; now the camera pans along a street full of stunned people whose faces have been thickly plastered with cosmetics.)

Narrator: It looks like Mask Scara is putting her smear campaign on the whole population!

(The pan stops as he finishes this line; a face has been drawn onto a mailbox. Mask Scara strikes again; cut to a view of several billboards that have had eyes painted on. She zips here and there to add mouths as the camera pulls back slowly.)

Narrator: Yes, it looks like Mask Scara is painting the whole town indeed!

(Another sweep, and the view changes to the exterior of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten. Zoom in.)

Narrator: Making no discrimination between… (Inside, Ms. Keane is at the blackboard, her back to us.) …the good guys…

(She turns around, revealing that she too has been victimized. Another sweep; now the view has shifted to the Mayor’s office. His chair is turned away from the desk; zoom in as it swivels, exposing him sitting there with the Trashy Look firmly established. He holds a hand mirror.)

Mayor: Gee, uh…I kinda like it.

Narrator: …and the bad guys!

(She sweeps through here; now the view has changed to a long shot of Mojo’s observatory. Close-up of him inside, seen from the jawline down; he is howling in rage. Tilt up to his face, which is in the same shape as all the others. Another sweep, and Fuzzy Lumkins stands in his shack, with jaw hanging open and makeup on. Again: the Amoeba Boys have been hit. Again: the Gangrene Gang. Again: Princess Morebucks. Again: the crowd that has been reacting to the Narrator’s queries.)

Narrator: Oh, no! It looks like she’s painted just about everybody!

(Another sweep, and a portion of the city skyline is seen. She flashes into the air, cackling insanely all the while; cut to her in flight, with a giant lipstick in one hand and a powder brush in the other. For the first time, her footwear can be seen in its entirety: black, thigh-high, spike-heeled boots. The next words jolt her out of her celebration and stop her dead in midair.)

“Him”: (from o.c., singing) I’m pretty, I feel pretty—

(He starts and ends this bit in his effeminate voice, going briefly to the evil one. Long shot of his domain: a floating mountain, with other bits of land bobbing here and there. The entire area is seen against a black-and-white backdrop of a stunt pilot walking along the wings of his biplane in flight. As the singing continues, zoom in quickly through a hole in the mountainside; “Him” is sitting at a vanity and applying makeup.)

“Him”: —oh so pretty, I’m pretty, ha-ha!

(Mask Scara cannot contain her glee and charges in. When she arrives, the backdrop has changed to a color clip of a small girl playing in a garden; it then starts to show various random images as it did during “The Boys Are Back in Town.” “Him” is a bit irritated at the intrusion; the woman’s face goes slack when she realizes just how heavily her would-be target already hits the cosmetics. “Him” stares back at her, equally confounded. Mask Scara. Extreme close-up of “Him”’s eye, tilting down to the mouth, then up to the other cheek. She stands there, trying to make up her mind what to do with her lipstick and brush, then has a flash of inspiration.)

(In no time flat, “Him” finds himself enveloped in her whirling dervish for several seconds. When she backs off, his face is covered with clown makeup, and his hair now sticks out in bushy red tufts above his ears. Mask Scara’s laughter echoes as her streaks fill the screen to mark her departure; when the view clears, we are back in the city, with more buildings showing makeup faces, and she is zipping away as the camera pulls back slowly.)

Narrator: Is there no hope for Townsville? Can anyone stop this faceless defacing? (brightly) We’ll find out after these messages.

(Fade to black.)

Act Two

(Opening shot: the exterior of the girls’ house during the day.)

Narrator: The city of…whoopsie, wrong scene. (He clears his throat; zoom in slowly.) As I was saying, who will save Townsville?

(Inside, the Professor is hunched over a computer in the lab, with his back to the camera. The screen before him depicts a DNA molecule.)

Narrator: Oh! The Professor! I get it.

(The girls fly into view; Buttercup’s face is still made up, but she has otherwise put herself back in order.)

Bubbles: Professor, we still haven’t caught Mask Scara!

Blossom: And now the whole city’s literally covered in the Trashy Look!

Buttercup: Have you made any progress? (Close-up of the screen.)

Professor: (from o.c.) Girls, check this out. I’ve invented a DNA-based, vector-sensitive, target-seeking computer virus—

(The display changes to show the outlines of a car, house, computer, and cell phone all connected to a box in the center of the screen. Within this box is the image of a woman. As the Professor continues, the DNA strand pops up in each of the four surrounding items.)

Professor: (from o.c.) —which, if remotely uploaded to the target individual’s communications peripherals— (She panics.) —will directly enter their sensory system, causing the individual to cluck uncontrollably like a chicken…

(On the end of this, the display changes to show only her; now her mouth has been replaced by a chicken’s beak, and she is squawking loudly. As the Professor names each of the following symptoms, she starts to exhibit it as well.)

Professor: (from o.c.) …develop incurable rashes, with or without excess body hair. Hideous screaming follows, and finally— (chuckling) —total meltdown.

(This last is represented by a puddle of liquid where the woman used to stand. Pull back to frame the family.)

Bubbles: Um…that’s coolie, but will it help us catch Mask Scara?

Professor: Well, no.

Blossom: Professor, we’re running out of time!

Professor: Yes, girls, I know.

(Now he turns, exposing his face—he too has found himself on the wrong end of Mask Scara’s bag of tricks. The girls cry out in fright.)

Professor: I just need more time. (He turns back to his work.)

Blossom: Okay. But hurry, Professor!

(Wipe to a quick pan through the city. The girls pull into view during the next line.)

Narrator: Meanwhile, the girls scour the city, looking for any clue that will lead them to Mask Scara. (They land on a rooftop.)

Blossom: We’ve scoured the whole city, and still no clue that will lead us to Mask Scara. (Some distant noise starts up.)

Bubbles: There’s gotta be some way.

Blossom: Shhh! (Close-up of her, hand cupped to ear.) I hear something!

(With all the conversation having stopped, she—and we—can hear it clearly: their foe’s laughter and the sound of her swooping in somewhere. Blossom’s eyes go wide with surprise.)

Blossom: You hear that, Bubbles?…Bubbles?

(The enemy blasts past the roof; when the view clears, the camera has pulled back to frame all three girls. Bubbles has received a split-second, overdone makeover, and the laughter is gone.)

Bubbles: Hear what?

Buttercup: Yeah! About time!

Blossom: (turning Bubbles to face a window) Uh, Bubbles? You better take a look.

(Pan slightly to bring the reflection into view. Bubbles seems pleased with the outcome.)

Bubbles: You know, I kinda like it! (Buttercup fumes and claps her hands to her face.) Gee, Blossom. How come Mask Scara hasn’t gotten you yet?

Blossom: Because she isn’t going to. That’s why. In fact, I’ve figured out a way we can catch her.

Crowd: How?

(A made-up bull hangs its head into view and moos with them.)

Blossom: By intercepting her at what will clearly be her next target.

(Quick pan to a hotel. A stage has been set up in front; its backdrop is a large red cloth that has been put in place to cover something. A considerable crowd has gathered to watch, and camera crews are on hand to film this event.)

Narrator: The unveiling of the new mural of the Mayor of Townsville! (Close-up of a podium on the stage.) And here to open the ceremonies tonight is none other than the Mayor of Townsville himself!

(A spotlight is trained on the podium, but the little man is nowhere to be seen. Several seconds pass with no noise other than a bit of coughing from someone in the crowd.)

Narrator: Uh, Mr. Mayor?

(Several more seconds go by with no sign of the elected official. The camera shifts to show the back of the podium, the side that faces the speaker. A drape hangs down beneath the surface on which lecture notes are to be spread out; this hides the interior of the fixture from view.)

Narrator: (annoyed) Oh, Mr. Mayor?

(Close-up of the drape; now loud snoring can be heard from behind it. A hand reaches into view and pulls this away—and inside is the Mayor, asleep on his feet, drooling steadily, and still showing the Trashy Look as seen earlier on. However, a lipstick mouth has been painted onto his mustache as well. The hand pokes him, startling him out of his nap.)

Mayor: No! I didn’t take it! (hands to head) It was Ms. Bellum! (A glass of water is dumped over him.)

Narrator: Mayor! It’s time for you to make your speech!

Mayor: Uh…oh, okay. (He thinks for a long moment.) Uh…what speech?

Narrator: The speech you will make!

Mayor: Oh.

Narrator: No, not “oh,” you! (More thinking.)

Mayor: Why?

Narrator: No, you!

Mayor: You?

Narrator: No, not me! You, the Mayor!

Mayor: Me?

Narrator: Yes, that’s what I said!

Mayor: Now wait a minute. Who’s “I”?

Narrator: “I” is you.

Mayor: Stop it!

Narrator: Gee, are you okay?

Mayor: (sobbing) I don’t know anymore! (Long shot of the area; the girls are now onstage.)

Narrator: Aw, forget it. (Zoom in slowly.) And providing security tonight against any unexpected events are none other than… (Close-up of Bubbles, panning to Blossom and then Buttercup.) …the Powerpuff Girls!

(The long shot again; now the spotlight beams play over the cloth covering.)

Narrator: So what do you say we unveil that mural, huh?

(Wild cheering from the crowd. Close-up of the girls; behind them, the cloth begins to rise slowly. Close-up of Bubbles, who looks toward Blossom with some unease, then pull back. The Mayor’s feet have been uncovered on the gigantic painting that covers the entire front of the hotel. Buttercup is seen in a similar shot; cut to Blossom, her arms folded and her face showing a tight, confident smile. The Mayor’s midsection has now been revealed; as the crowd watches with bated breath, we see Buttercup and Bubbles in turn. Each of their faces now shows great tension as they look up along the artwork’s height. The Mayor’s mustache—lipsticked just like that of the man himself—is exposed; back to the crowd, which suddenly goes from smiles to a stunned gasp. Long shot: the entire mural has been unveiled, and the Mayor’s painted counterpart has fallen victim to Mask Scara just as he did. The Narrator cries out in shock.)

Narrator: Mask Scara’s already struck the mural! (Zoom in on the face; cut to the Mayor.)

Mayor: Huh! The likeness is uncanny.

Buttercup: (kicking a can furiously) That does it! Why don’t you come out and face us, face to face? We’ll see if your brushes can match our punches!

(Cut to a patch of sky, the camera pointing up through the buildings. A woman reaches into view and points up as the evildoer of the hour streaks overhead.)

Woman: (from o.c.) Look! (Cut to the crowd.)

Man: It’s…it’s…

(The sky again; Mask Scara has written her name in huge multicolored letters.)

Man: (from o.c.) …Mask Scara!

(Her laughter echoes in the air as she puts on the final touches; cut to her in flight, riding the giant powder brush. She sweeps down toward the mural and lands on the roof of the hotel.)

Mask Scara: (taunting) What’s the matter, girls? Don’t you appreciate my little…makeover?

Blossom: Just tell us why you did it, Mask Scara! Why?

(This catches her slightly off balance for a second or two, but she soon smiles oddly.)

Mask Scara: Why?

Mayor: (cowering) Oh, no! Not again!

Mask Scara: I’ll tell you why. Because I wanted the extra… (Extreme close-up of her eyes.) …coverage! (Pull back; she breaks the mood.) Get it? Coverage?

(She laughs heartily over this pun, just as she did on that “foundation” crack before.)

Bubbles: Um…Blossom…she’s nuts!

(Mask Scara is now on her back, laughing herself silly and kicking her legs in the air; next she rolls over onto her stomach and pounds her fists against the roof.)

Mask Scara: Oh, shorty, that was a good one.

Blossom: Enough of your bad jokes, Mask Scara! It’s time to take a powder!

(Yelling, the girls take off and rocket straight up toward the roof. Mask Scara stands ready.)

Mask Scara: Oh, you want to play ball, eh? Good. (She lifts her brush.) ’Cause Mask Scara’s up at bat.

(She swings the brush, releasing a broad arc of pink powder.)

Mask Scara: And she socks it clear to Louisiana, and it’s a triple!

(Cut to the girls on the end of this. Blossom swerves to avoid the powder, but her sisters are caught in it and sent spinning.)

Mask Scara: (from o.c.) No, a double. Drat!

(The powder dissipates, leaving the two girls coughing in midair. Back to the roof.)

Mask Scara: That’s what I call battin’ rouge!

(She laughs over this latest awful pun until Blossom gets in her face.)

Mask Scara: Huh?

(Blossom lands a blow that sends the brush flying; she tries to deliver another one, but the woman jumps clear. Cut to her in midair and reaching behind her back for something.)

Mask Scara: This calls for… (pulling out huge eyelash curler tongs) …the Mask Scara Mega-Lash Curler!

(She snaps the tongs together a couple of times. Bubbles and Buttercup rush her, but she sidesteps their advance and snares them on the return pass. Crushed together, one on top of the other, they yelp in pain for a moment.)

Mask Scara: Backlash!

(She is tapped on the shoulder by Blossom and hit with a left hook that would stop a convoy of trucks. It sends her flying toward the Canada billboard exposed during the “Bubblesound” attempt to remove Buttercup’s makeup. She lands on the moose’s snout; the embarrassed animal laughs. Now Blossom pries her sisters apart and looks toward where the woman hit.)

Blossom: Uh-oh.

(Mask Scara, now atop the billboard, pulls out a huge tube labeled “Base Creme.”)

Mask Scara: Super-Elastic Base Creme!

(She squeezes the tube and sends its contents out in a mighty gush. Blossom dodges this, but Bubbles and Buttercup are hit square on and pushed o.c. by the force of it.)

Mask Scara: Base hit!

(The two girls stick against the side of a building and try in vain to free themselves from the gooey mess. Blossom flies over to them.)

Blossom: Brace yourselves, girls!

(She fires her eye lasers, softening the adhesive enough to let her sisters pull loose. Now Mask Scara has a giant lip liner pencil in hand and swings it around to point at the girls.)

Mask Scara: Oh, yeah? Have a taste of my Liquidescent Lip Liner!

(A broad beam of red light shoots from the tip; as it travels, it shapes itself into a giant pair of lips. Cut to the girls, charging in, then to the lips, then back to the girls as they raise three full-force yells of rage. Long shot of the area; the girls and the lips approach in slow motion, the lips puckering as for a kiss. When they collide, there is a huge explosion and the camera pulls back to show a gargantuan cloud of red smoke over the city. Cut to Mask Scara, who tilts her head slightly to look at something o.c., then to said something—the girls, seen plummeting toward the street in an overhead view. Back to the villainess, who watches eagerly as the crash landing shakes the camera; she then throws the lip liner aside.)

Mask Scara: Now that’s what I call the kiss of death!

(In the street, horror-stricken onlookers gather around the unconscious girls as her laughter rains down on them. Pull back slowly.)

Narrator: Is this it? Are the Powerpuffs no match for Mask Scara’s powder puff?

(A news van is parked at the curb. The Professor’s car races into view and rear-ends it, knocking it out of the way. Back to the girls.)

Professor: (from o.c.) Girls!…Girls!

(They start to come around and manage to lift their heads with great effort. Blossom rubs her eyes and stares in disbelief.)

Blossom: Professor?

(Cut to the curb. Getting out of the driver’s seat is a figure in a flowered dress, apron, and flat-heeled shoes, holding what looks like a giant jar of cold cream—but the legs are far too hairy to belong to any woman. Tilt up slowly to the head; it is the Professor, with his black hair hidden by a dark blond wig.)

Professor: (laughing nervously, to camera) I’ll explain later. (running to girls) Girls, I’ve done it. I’ve finally created an antidote!

(Close-up of the jar’s label. The first four words are arranged so that their large-text first letters fall in a single column; beneath them is the word “System” in small print. The Professor points out each word as he says it.)

Professor: (from o.c.) Calibrating Oscillating Lifting Dermatological Cream.

[Error: The first, second and fourth words are spelled “Callibrating,” “Occilating,” and “Dermalogical,” respectively.]

(Pull back. The girls blink confusedly up at the Professor for some moments before Blossom speaks.)

Blossom: What does that mean?

Professor: (holding up jar) Oh, just another fancy name for cold cream.

(He turns the container around, revealing another label: “C.O.L.D. Cream.”)

Crowd: Cold cream?!?

Buttercup: Gimme that! (She snatches it away and opens it.) I’m getting this junk off of my face once and for—

Bubbles: No, me first! (She yanks it away.)

Buttercup: (grabbing it back) Nuh-uh, I got dibs!

Bubbles: (seizing hold) Nuh-uh!

(The two girls start trying to pull it out of each other’s hands; finally Bubbles tears it free.)

Bubbles: Gotcha!

(The cream goes flying out of the jar in slow motion due to the force of her yank. Cut to a street-level view of Mask Scara, still atop the billboard, and zoom in.)

Mask Scara: NOOOOOOO!!

(The dollop hits her dead in the face in slow motion, knocking her from her perch. Street level; she has landed on her feet and is clutching her face. Now she is dripping with the Professor’s concoction, and she yells in agony as smoke rises from her half-barbecued hair and the rest of her body. Close-up of a sewer grate; as the sound of her suffering continues, ribbons of red and pink goo flow across the pavement and disappear beneath the street—her makeup is finally coming off. Back to the crowd, the Professor, and the girls, all of whom recoil from what is happening before their eyes. Finally Mask Scara’s cries die away and the cosmetics she applied so liberally to everyone’s face fades away.)

Blossom: (to her sisters) Hey! Your makeup’s all gone!

(The crowd cheers and throws confetti. Mask Scara is left dazed, with sodden hair and not one bit of her own makeup. Cut to a pan across the city; all her handiwork has vanished. Among the items seen: the Siberia billboard with the happy couple, the cowboy poster, and the statue.)

Narrator: Yes! And with Mask Scara’s malevolent masquerade over with, Townsville is once again restored to its former splendor.

(Cut to the girls. Blossom nods in a very self-satisfied manner while her sisters trade a slightly nasty look.)

Narrator: Except for Blossom, of course, who never lost it to begin with.

Buttercup: Yeah, Blossom. How come Mask Scara never got you?

Blossom: Well, let me break it down for you. As the leader of the Powerpuff Girls, I’m always one step ahead—using my keen head and clear mind, implementing my brains and natural beauty. Now, if you don’t mind, I must be on my—

(On the end of this, she starts to walk o.c. However, she slips in a mud puddle and is thrown into the air to hang there for a long moment, yelling in surprise. She lands flat on her back in the puddle and is copiously splattered with the muck. Standing up, she loses her balance and stumbles, still yelling, over to a painter who is applying a fresh coat of red to a wall. She falls headfirst into an open can and emerges with her entire face covered. Unable to see through the paint, she staggers down the block and crashes into a stack of boxes on the sidewalk outside a grocery market. A bag of flour set on top of these tumbles down and spills its contents in a white cloud. When the view clears, Blossom is white in any places that are not already read or brown, except for her eyelids and part of her ponytail. Coughing, she gropes her way down the street and runs into some more boxes. An open container of Styrofoam packing peanuts is knocked free, and these pour down onto her head and pile up to look like a baby’s bonnet, hiding her bow from view. She tries to sort all this out for a moment before turning to address Bubbles and Buttercup as if absolutely nothing unusual has happened. They have joined her on this sidewalk.)

Blossom: Well, as I was saying, I must be on my way. I’ve got important things to…

(She loses steam because her sisters have started laughing over her ridiculous appearance.)

Blossom: What? What’s so funny?

(The crowd joins in. As Bubbles and Buttercup point at their hapless sibling, the Professor has a good laugh, followed by Ms. Bellum and then the Mayor. The little man howls so much that he trails off into a coughing fit. Pull back slowly out of the gathering as the merriment continues.)

(The background for the end shot comes up.)

Narrator: (laughing throughout) And so once again— (He trails off.) Whoops! (Again.)

(The girls appear in a triangle formation. Blossom, at top C, is doing her best to hold her usual pose with some bit of dignity, but is failing miserably. Buttercup and Bubbles, at bottom L and bottom R, respectively, are laughing their heads off. The Narrator does likewise for some seconds before getting any useful words out.)

Narrator: Thanks to the Powerpuff Girls! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

The End! [😂😂😂]