A/N: Sorry for all the delays with this fic. My muse had left for a very long time, as I pursued other fandoms. However, I am encouraged by those kind enough to review me or alert me—you guys and gals are the best!—and so, here is another chappie.

This chapter picks up from where the last left off. To summarize, Sedusa is doing something wicked to the Women of Townsville and the Powerpuff Girls. Let's hope someone can rescue them before it's too late.

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything. PPG belongs to Craig McCraken, Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and all partners and subsidiaries. I'm still collecting absolutely NO profit, and this is a labor of fun.

CHAPTER FIVE

Previously: In the Powerpuff Girls' bedroom, Bubbles screamed wildly, "Professor, HEELLLPPP!"

Buttercup added, "You've gotta do something! Quick!" The menacing hair slammed the door on the hapless scientist.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Outside the girls' room, Professor Utonium started to run to aid his daughters, forgetting that he was still clutching the phone.

"Ullppp!" He exclaimed when the phone cord jerked him back slightly.

"Professor? Professor, are you there?" A shrill, high voice asked. The dark haired scientist remembered that the Mayor was on the other line.

"I'm sorry, I'll have to call you back!" the scientist shouted, hanging up the phone.

He pounded on the door to the girls' room, calling, "Girls, girls! Can you hear me? Are you all right?"

He pressed his ear to the door and heard a lot of muffled noises; then, a high voice cried, "Professor, help! We can't pull the hair off of Blossom!" And then he heard a slightly lower pitched, "If we don't get this stuff off of her, Blossom's a goner!"

Utonium concentrated for a moment. He knew he had to act fast. Heading toward his lab, he hoped he'd be able to find something. On the way, he heard the newscaster say on his TV, …"and women's hair is going absolutely wild! Every policeman has been dispatched, but the emergency is so wide spread that they are unable to contain the menace! In other news…".

"Oh my goodness!" Utonium yelled as he entered his lab. Looking around at the chemicals he bought, he didn't see what he was searching for.

"Not one product for hair care…" he muttered. His eyes darting back and forth, the scientist also realized one more thing. "And, I don't even know what's causing this!"

XXXXXXXXXXX

In the girls' room, Blossom tried using her cold breath from under her binding tresses to freeze some of them. For a moment, all was peaceful.

"Bubbles, see if you can laser the frozen part of my hair off of me!" the oldest Powerpuff girl shouted.

"But, Blossom," Bubbles started to protest, "that would make you have uneven hair again!"

"Yeah, and you'd be whiny all day!" Buttercup put in, earning a glare (even though she couldn't see it) from Blossom.

"I only froze the bottom half, so the rest would be still here, and we can worry about styling later!" Blossom said.

"Well, okay…" Bubbles replied, still dubious. Her eyes glowed, then grew brighter. Suddenly, the red haired girl was enveloped in a laser with a bluish tint.

"Hey, are you all right?" Buttercup asked after she and Bubbles saw the hair fall off.

Blossom laughed as they saw the hair twitching like a snake. "Yeah," she said, giggling. "It tickles!"

Bubbles joined in, commenting, "Oh, it's a joy to have you back!"

"Yeah, for awhile, you were acting so dorky!" Buttercup shouted.

"Was not!" Blossom yelled.

"Was too!" Buttercup bounced back.

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"NOT!" Blossom said, while Bubbles sighed, wondering when her two sisters would stop arguing. None of the girls noticed the twitching hair slithering up the bedpost.

"TOO!" Buttercup said, as the hair got ready to leap.

"For the last time," Blossom cried at the top of her voice, "I was not a—gulp!" The severed hair had reattached itself the hair on Blossom's head and was wrapping itself around her again.

"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry, Blossom!" Buttercup said, really feeling guilty. "Okay, Bubbles…pull!"

But, try as they might, each tug made Blossom gasp all the more. The two girls were at a loss. They didn't know what to do.

XXXXXXXXXX

Miss Bellum tried as much as she could to leap over to her bedroom (or at least what she thought was her bedroom since she couldn't see). When her hair protested that move, she dropped to the floor and slithered over to a large open space. What little she was able to smell told her that she was in her living room, with its picturesque windows that were open. She knew that her pool was outside from the scent of the chlorine.

Suddenly, a memory hit her, as she remembered her recent fight with Sedusa. She had overpowered the temptress by flinging her into the pool. That had rendered the villainess's tensile tresses inoperative.

As the memory faded, Miss Bellum had a terrible feeling. Could Sedusa be behind this hair-gone-berserk escapade?

But her perfectly organized mind told her that no, Sedusa was in jail. Of course, she could have been released, or she could have escaped. If that was true….

Frantically, Miss Bellum tried rolling toward her glass door. When she found it, she slowly worked her body so that it gained momentum, then toppled over into the swimming pool.

If she was right, maybe her hair would break free of its strangle hold. For a moment, Miss Bellum felt the cold water overtaking her.

NO! She told herself. I'm not going to the angels tonight!

Struggling to break free, she felt her hair float away from her slender body. Working her way to the surface, she gulped in great breaths of air. But, before she could climb out of her pool, her red tresses steeled themselves for another fight. They grabbed her and they were about to pull her down to her watery demise, when….

Miss Bellum felt herself being pulled up by a pair of strong hands. "Miss Bellum!" she heard a familiar voice cry. More gently, the voice asked, "Are you all right?" The Mayor's assistant felt herself being set down by her lawn chair.

She reached up and wiped the traces of pool water out of her eyes. For a second, she couldn't open them against the burning. But, as her blue eyes adjusted to the dim light, she looked up. Seeing a man in a lab coat, Miss Sara Bellum knew that could only belong to one person.

"Pro—" she coughed, then said, more clearly, "Professor Utonium? What are you doing here?"

"I was coming to your house to see if I could borrow something for my girls. They're in trouble, and well…I wouldn't leave them without good reason, but I couldn't find anything in my lab that could help them, and then I thought, since you're a woman and our friend…" He babbled, finishing with, "You might have some hair products I could borrow."

Despite herself, Miss Bellum thought that he looked positively adorable. She might have gotten a better look, but her hair was starting to go wild again.

"Professor!" She cried, then she was silenced by her hair stuffing itself into her mouth.

"Oh, my gosh!" He exclaimed. "Bedroom…?"

Miss Bellum managed after great difficulty to free one arm from the wild hair. Pointing to a room behind them on the left, the Professor looked with regret as he realized that, like his girls, he would have to leave Miss Bellum where she was for a moment.

He rushed into the bedroom, looking at various hair products and make up products. Her room was neat and tidy; her red dresses all lined up in her walk in closet. Black and brown belts to cinch her waist were hanging next to the office apparel. He could see a bottle of Ecklipse perfume, and next to that, a bottle of hairspray. But, it was the familiar blue bottle on the dresser that caught his eye.

Turning it around, as he suspected, he saw the bottle that had been in the girls' room.

"Rapunzit!" He exclaimed, grabbing the bottle. The scientist remembered the nice girl who had shown him the product. Ima Nicegrl, her nameplate had read. Then, he recalled Miss Ima Nicelady, the woman he'd fallen for recently; the woman who turned out to be…. "Oh, no! Sedusa!" He shouted.

Miss Bellum managed to grab the bedroom door handle. The Professor was standing in stunned amazement that he had managed to be duped by the seductress again. She leaped toward her dresser; then, spying a bottle that was small and brown, Miss Bellum sprayed her hair. It became straight, still covering most of her face.

"Professor?" She asked. Ever the scientist, he plucked the brown bottle from Miss Bellum's hand and was studying it.

"Amazing!" He shouted. "What is this?"

Shrugging, the Mayor's assistant said, "Hair straightener. I sometimes use it when I want to abandon my curls for awhile."

"And, it may be the key to our problem, if I can make more…" the Professor said, asking, "May I borrow this to use some on a common foe of ours?"

"Of course," Miss Bellum said, pleased that she could help. "But what's this all about? Does it involve Sedusa, somehow?"

"Does it ever! Come on," he said. "I'll tell you on the way!"

"I'll change then meet you at your car," Miss Bellum said. After a few minutes, she had put on a dry dress and, her hair swinging like Veronica Lake's, they went to his vehicle and took off.