Art and Sold

By: Mark J. Hadley

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CHAPTER 6

The City of Townsville awoke with the rising sun…birds were singing, and the steep shadows cast by the sun stretched across the land. The people started to go about their daily business as usual, eating breakfast, heading off to work or school…it was just the beginning of another average day for the citizens.

But then, something changed. A huge shape rose up, towering well, over the city and stretching a long ways up in the air. People froze on the spot and pointed at whatever it was, which slowly cast a shadow across the city, blocking off the morning sun. Everyone was frozen in fear…was another giant monster attacking the city? If so, this was a whopper, bigger than anything that had attacked before.

That's when a familiar voice boomed down from above. It was Bubbles, using her powers to amplify her voice loudly enough so that the entire city could hear. "Presenting," she shouted, "my greatest masterpiece! I give you…'The People of Townsville'!" She had completely unfurled the drawing, but it was in shadow because it's back was to the sun…she carried it around to the opposite side of the city, and everyone watched as it came into view.

The absolutely enormous canvas had a very carefully drawn representation of the city of Townsville, much more realistic than her earlier quick drawings. Around the bottom of the drawing were hundreds upon hundreds of people, each of them individually drawn to resemble a person from Townsville. Above the drawn city, a trail of colors showed the Powerpuff Girls flying high above it, smiling down at the people. More so than anything she had drawn before, this one wasn't anything like a simple child's drawing, but instead, a masterwork piece of art.

All across the city, the people ooohed and ahhhed at it. Then an enormous cheer filled the air from everywhere. Bubbles smiled widely as she heard their acclamations. Finally, for once, she felt like she truly accomplished something that no one else had done.

At the Utonium household, Blossom and Buttercup were pressed up against the glass, gazing at the enormous drawing in the distance. "Whoa," Blossom remarked. "Look at the size of it…"

"I take it all back," Buttercup said, impressed for a change. "She did an awesome job at this…I don't even know what to say…"

"Me either," Blossom agreed. "I think we should fly out there and congratulate her, what do you think?"

Nodding, Buttercup said, "Sure!" The two of them left the house and started heading towards Bubbles, who was still holding up the drawing. As they did, Blossom looked strangely at the side of the drawing…Buttercup noticed her stare and said, "What's wrong?"

"Look, it's starting to curl down," Blossom said, pointing to the far corner, which did seem like it was coming down.

"You're right," Buttercup said. "Real slowly though…"

"…or really quickly," Blossom corrected her. "Don't forget how big it is; we're a long ways away from it."

Bubbles didn't seem to notice at first, but then spotted it herself. I don't want the drawing to get all folded, I'd better straighten it out. She let go of the center of the paper and flew over to grab the corner…

"What's she doing?" Blossom exclaimed. Now that Bubbles wasn't holding the center, the other corner started to fold over quickly. Blossom quickly ordered, "Go for that corner, don't let it fall!"

"Right!" Buttercup shouted back, and the two of them flew to the as fast as they could. Once they reached the paper, they saw how quickly it was really falling…they both flew under to catch it, but had a difficult time doing so. The sheer size and weight of the paper was too much for them.

Bubbles lost her grip on it as well, and cringed as the entire drawing started to fall towards Townsville, covering it like a blanket. She tried to fly under to catch it, but it was still too awkward to stop such a large piece of canvas. It was just too big, so the edges around her continued their fall.

A moment later, it slammed into the topmost buildings of Townsville, actually causing big chunks of brick and metal to break off from them. The citizens all ran for their lives as the debris started to rain on them from above. The entire city was now shrouded in darkness as well. As the rest of it started to settle over the city, more pieces of the buildings started to break off.

The girls regrouped in the center above, and Blossom ordered, "Eyebeams! We have to get rid of this thing before it crushes the city!"

"No!" Bubbles said.

"We have to, Bubbles!" Buttercup exclaimed.

"But…but…" Bubbles protested.

Blossom told her, "I know you worked a long time on this, and it means a lot to you, but if we don't, the whole city could be destroyed! Then what good will the art be?"

After a moment's consideration, she bit her lip, then nodded. All three of them fired their eyebeams down at the drawing, slicing it into pieces and burning most of it off. After a short while, the job was done, and all that remained were a few burnt pieces of paper. Townsville was a little damaged, but it wasn't too bad, all things considering.

Bubbles sighed as she looked at the remains…at least the people got to see it before it was incinerated. But this would still be one heck of a cleanup job…

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"I'm sorry all of your money had to be used up, Bubbles," the professor told her as they sat around the dinner table.

"Yeah," Bubbles said, stirring her food sadly. "With all the money I spent on the stuff for the drawing, an' on repairs for Townsville, I don't have anything left…"

Blossom patted her on the shoulder, "Don't feel too bad about it. At least we got to see your real artistic side. You're a true artist, Bubbles."

Bubbles brightened a little, "You really think so?"

"I do too," Buttercup said. "'Course, I think you'd better not make anything like that again for a while…"

Nodding, Bubbles agreed, "You said it. From now on, I'm just gonna stick to plain ol' crayon drawings."

"Still going to sell them?" Blossom asked.

"Nuh-uh," Bubbles said, shaking her head. "The fame was all nice…the money was even nicer…but you were right, I was kinda becoming a little bit full of myself. I don't want the attention anymore, I just want to do my thing an' that's it."

"That's good to hear, Bubbles," the professor said. "I'm glad to see that you've learned a lesson from all this."

Buttercup, in the meantime, was messing around with her food on her plate, arranging a little mound out of the mashed potatoes and sticking vegetables into it. The professor glared at her and said, "Buttercup, stop playing with your food!"

"I'm not playing," she replied. "I'm just expressing my artistic side…" She swiveled the plate around, and revealed the food sculpture she had created. It looked a lot like the professor. The other girls giggled a little, and the professor grinned a little. Buttercup smirked, "Not bad, huh? How much do you think I could get for it?"

"One dessert," the professor offered. "If you eat it." The four of them all laughed at this…as once again, the day was saved, thanks to the Powerpuff Girls!

THE END