Chapter 2: Project Bloom

When Professor Ranium arrived at his home that evening, he plopped himself down in his easy chair and clicked on the TV. The nightly news was on, and the top story was that a secret meeting had taken place earlier that evening, and no reporters knew what was going on. They tossed around theories, a few coming quite close to the truth, but no “Project Bloom” was mentioned.

The Professor, however, was not paying attention to the news. He stared blankly at the screen wondering what to do. Whatever he needed, he would get. The only problem was: what did he need?

The Professor reached to the table beside his chair and picked up the phone. Dialing a long-distance number, he waited as the phone rang at the other end. He heard a click as it was picked up.

“Hello-o-o?” sang a high-pitched voice.

“Hi, Bubbles? This is Uncle Ranium,” Professor Ranium began.

“Oh! Uncle Ranium!” Bubbles replied, launching into a fast set of questions. “How are you? Are you in trouble? When was the last time you visited? Are you coming to visit us?”

“No, no, I’m fine honey. Is the Professor around? I just need to talk with him.”

“Umm, I think so… hold on.” Bubbles turned her head a little and shouted, “PROFESSOR! IT’S UNCLE RANIUM ON THE PHONE!”

After shaking his head clear, Professor Ranium said, “Thank you, Bubbles.”

“No problem, anytime Uncle Ranium. Oh, here’s Professor. Bye!”

“Hello?” asked Professor Utonium into the phone.

“Hi, Utonium, this is Ranium, how’ve you been?”

“Oh, not too bad! You know, just taking care of the house, taking care of my little angels, the usual. What have you been up to? How’s the situation in Villagedale?”

“Well, I’m still alive, survived last Monday’s monster attack. Listen, can you keep a secret?”

“Sure, you know me.”

“Okay, well, I have been chosen to lead a project to get Villagedale a superhero.”

“Oh really! That’s great! I’m happy for you!”

“Yeah, I want to know what you think. We both know that sugar, spice, and everything nice, accidentally mixed with Chemical X, yields 3 beautiful little girls with superpowers…”

“And don’t forget the love.”

“Yeah, that’s what went wrong when your college buddy tried marketing off the girls, right? Well, love’s kinda hard to just… have around you know?”

“Ranium, I’ve known you for thirty-odd years. I know you care about my girls as if they really were your nieces by blood. I know you’ll make a great creator, er, father.”

“But how can I be sure? I don’t want 3 deformed girls who hate me for the rest of their days… What if I mess up? I don’t know if I can handle this project…”

“Ranium! You are the only person in the world I would ever trust to take care of my girls, should something happen to me. I know you can do this. It will take some adjusting, but you will make a great role model for whoever you end up taking care of.”

Ranium was silent for a moment, got out a notebook and pen, and then replied, “Okay, okay. I’ll do it. But can we go over the specifications one more time?”

“Sure. Get a large basin or bowl. Pour in 8 cups of sugar. Add one pinch each of several different spices, and then put in a tablespoon each of everything nice. Mix well. Then ‘accidentally’ add a beaker-full Chemical X. An explosion will occur, and when the light dims, the girls will be floating in mid-air, still glowing from the explosion, dresses and all. That’s it.”

“Got it, thanks a lot Utonium. I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime. And listen, if you have any questions, just call me, okay?”

“Sure thing, see you later. Thanks again.”

Professor Ranium put down the phone, stared at the notebook for a minute, and then walked over to his computer. Carefully he entered everything he knew regarding the new Project Bloom, and then went to bed. Tomorrow would be a very busy day.

At nine the following morning, Professor Ranium met with the Prez, and detailed everything he needed. He already had a beaker of Chemical X in his lab, but everything else was to be city-funded. The Prez promised him all of the ingredients by the following morning. So Professor went back to his home to finish writing the report on the preparations for Project Bloom, and detailed what he expected to occur: one superheroine. Professor Ranium had decided that since Townsville was approximately twice as large as Villagedale, he would not need to create 3 powerpuffs. He would instead cut all of the ingredients by 2/3, thus yielding 1 superheroine. Of course, she would have all of the basic powers of the existing Powerpuff Girls, but the “special” powers that were not shared by all 3 of the Girls were unpredictable, so he would have to wait and see. But another part of Professor Ranium was worried that he may fail, and thus 1 failed superheroine was better than 3. Definitely start small, he thought.

The next morning, at precisely 9 AM, the doorbell rang. Professor Ranium sprinted to the door, and signed off on the several large packages that had been delivered. He opened and sorted all of the items. The Prez had spared no expense. The sugar was the freshest and highest quality available, the receipt listing it as $200 per pound. The spices were also very expensive, being fresh and rare. Fortunately, it all came in pinched quantities, so a lot of them fit in one box. Finally, everything nice was also pre-measured into tablespoon quantities. He carefully transported all of the ingredients down into his lab.

First he added in 2 and 2/3 cups of the premium sugar into the large silver bowl. Then, one by one, he put in 1/3 of a pinch of every available spice. When he was done, he took a breath, and moved on. 1/3 a tablespoon of everything nice was added slowly. When the ingredients were all in, he walked over to his safe, put in the combination, and removed 1/3 of a beaker of Chemical X. As he started to add the chemical in, it dawned on him that he had forgotten to mix all of the ingredients together before adding Chemical X. Whoops. But it was too late. The bowl started to shake as the last of the chemical was poured, growing bright with a white light, and suddenly the Professor was thrown against the wall due to a tremendous explosion. He shielded his eyes from the light until it dimmed and disappeared into the bowl. All was quiet. There was nobody floating above the bowl.

Professor Ranium got up and walked slowly to the table, peeking over the lip of the bowl. What he saw first were two big eyes. Orange eyes.