Buttercup shook off the strange sensation and focused on winning the race. She’d lord it over them but good on the plane, all the way to the Bahamas. She could see the tiny view of the end of the tunnel widening, and it began to take the shape of her house. It grew larger and she began to smile, knowing she was going to win. Suddenly, the sides of the tunnel seemed to collapse upon them and in a split-second, she could feel herself being spat out the end into her front yard. It was strange, but she was home. Blossom appeared standing next to her and then there was Bubbles, sliding on her face in the grass and spitting out dirt as she stood.

Triumphantly, Buttercup floated to the front door and began to open it, never noticing that her house was practically falling down. Their three round bedroom windows, along with all the others, were shattered and a big section of the roof was gone. She floated inside, the other two girls following.

Boastfully, she crowed, "I told you I’d win!"

Floating alongside, Bubbles scowled, "You already said that!"

"No I didn’t!"

Blossom came to Bubbles’ defense. "Yeah you did, Buttercup, I heard you!"

"No I didn’t!" Buttercup thought. She laughed, "You just think I said it ‘cause you knew I was gonna whip your sorry butts! Losers!"

"You didn’t whip nobody, Buttercup!" Blossom shot back. "You just barely beat me!"

Angrily, Bubbles pointed. "And besides, you cheated!"

Buttercup thought that was ridiculous. She pulled the turned-up ends of her hair straight down. "I didn’t have to cheat. I’m just more aerodynamic than you." Clapping Bubbles on her pigtails, she laughingly added, " I don’t have big powder puffs to slow me down."

Crying, Bubbles screamed, "Professor!", like she usually did when she was being picked on and couldn’t think of any other way to defend herself. But Blossom’s sudden gasp got her attention, and Buttercup’s, too.

"Girls, LOOK!"

The living room was a shambles. Furniture was overturned; lamps and pictures that had been hanging on the walls lay broken on the floor. Cobwebs covered everything. They noticed then the broken windows. Screaming for the professor and getting no answer, they raced about the house and found the same thing everywhere. The bright colors in their bedroom had faded from years of sun and exposure to the weather.

"What happened?" Bubbles cried.

"He has to be in the lab." Blossom said gravely. "But I’m afraid to go down there."

"Me too." Buttercup agreed. "Let’s look everywhere else first."

They dreaded what they would find when they got there. They had no clue what had happened but they were intelligent enough to know that it had taken place a long time ago. Nothing had been disturbed in all that time. That meant either the professor was gone or he was…gone.

"Let’s check the garage!" Bubbles yelled.

"Hey, yeah!"

They raced downstairs, hoping to find it empty. Wherever he had gone to, maybe he was safe and would get hold of them somehow. But when they threw open the door, there sat his car, covered with years of dust. Blossom wiped some of it away from a window, and there were their suitcases, all packed and ready for the drive to the airport that was never made.

"Oh, no."

Gripping each others’ hands for dear life, they made a chain and floated to the door of his basement laboratory. Gingerly, they began down.

"Professor?" Bubbles called meekly. Her voice echoed. The room was silent and in the darkness they saw disarray to match what they’d seen upstairs. As their eyes adjusted, they saw broken glass and ruined equipment everywhere. Had an experiment gone haywire and exploded while they were at school? But then, why was everything covered with the dust of time?

Blossom said softly, "Maybe he messed with that time portal thing and screwed something up. I remember him saying how dangerous it could be."

"Hey yeah." Buttercup answered just as quietly, but then heard something. "Hey, what’s that?"

"I heard it too, Buttercup." Blossom said.

"Blossom, I saw something move!" Bubbles whimpered.

"Shh!" the leader whispered, pulling them in the direction of whatever it was.

Silhouetted in the dark, they saw a sitting figure. On the table in front of it sat a cauldron like the one they were created in, a flask of some liquid, a box of sugar, a jar of spices and what appeared to be some dried flowers. He held a spoon full of something in one hand.

"It’s him!" Buttercup whispered. "What’s he doing?"

The voice was that of an old man, but it was unquestionably Professor Utonium’s. "Sugar, spice, and…powdered rice?"

"He’s trying to make us again!" Bubbles whispered.

"But why would he do that?" Blossom wondered aloud. Her quizzical expression turned to horrified. "Unless he thinks we’re dead!"

"Yeah, but it ain’t gonna work if he’s using rice." Buttercup muttered.

They floated out from the shadows just as he lifted the flask and poured what had to be Chemical X from it into the cast-iron pot. They pulled away, not sure if they should expect an explosion, but all that happened was a fizzle and some thick smoke.

"No, no! Darn!" he said in frustration. "Why didn’t I write it down?"

"Now!" Blossom hissed, and they moved closer. Together, they called, "Professor?"

He turned toward the noise. "Wha? Who’s there?" He reached for his glasses that sat perched on his aged nose. They saw him in full for the first time. Extremely old, bald except for long, unkempt white hair around the fringes, and without most of his teeth. "No! It can’t be!" he cried, putting his hands to the sides of his head. "Oh, my mind playing tricks on me again! Why won’t you leave me alone?"

"But Professor, it’s us, the Powerpuff Girls!" Blossom protested.

"Stay back ! Leave me alone!" He waved his gnarled hands at the apparitions before him in futile swipes, then fumbled beneath the table and pulled out a cane that had broken and been repaired with tape. He swung it at them. "I’m warning you!"

He gave out a sharp cry of fear when the Buttercup apparition, instead of disappearing, angrily snatched the cane from him and broke it in two with her hands, then threw the pieces to the floor.

"Professor! It’s us!" it screamed at him. The other two ghosts moved forward. "Professor, it really is us." the Blossom apparition said pleadingly through tears.

"Girls?" he croaked. "Is it really you?"

"Yes, Professor." they answered together, crying tears of both joy and sadness. He buried his face in his hands and wept tears of the same. They went to him, lifted his arms and fitted themselves into his embrace, just as they had the night they returned from a long day of fighting and found him asleep at the dinner table.