Townsville…
There is the city skyline.
"The city of Townsville!" The narrator said, looking at the subdivision. "Pokey Oaks County! A sleepy suburb of the city of Townsville."
Outside Pokey Oaks Kindergarten…
"Pokey Oaks Kindergarten! A school in Pokey Oaks County, a sleepy suburb of the city of Townsville." The narrator said.
(Jared's POV)
Pokey Oaks Kindergarten / Kirito and Asuna's home…
Ms. Keane in the classroom. I am in Kirito and Asuna's home in Floor 22 of New Aincrad, in ALO. I'm sipping on my tea and snacking on some pastries, making sure the girls are safe and having fun today at school.
"Ms. Keane! The teacher of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, a school in the sleepy suburbs of…" The narrator said, while Ms. Keane glares at the camera as if to tell the narrator 'Enough already'. "I'm—oh, I'm sorry."
"Okay, kids. Now continue working on your projects, and I will take roll call." Ms. Keane said, turning her attention back to the class.
"I'm glad I have access to the security cameras all over Townsville." I said, hearing the sound of paint or glue being applied liberally. "Otherwise, I feel like I was left out."
At the head of a long table; the kids are working with Popsicle sticks and paste. Ms. Keane is seen from the shoulders down.
"Julie? Julie Bean?" Ms. Keane asked.
"Here." Julie Bean said.
"Harry? Harry Pitt?" Ms. Keane asked.
"Here." Harry Pitt said, along a table.
"Oh. I get it. Because it's a hairy pit." I said, laughing a lot.
"Wes? Wes Goingon?" Ms. Keane asked.
"Yeah?" Wes Gonigon asked.
"Bubbles?" Ms. Keane asked.
"Here." Bubbles said, happily.
"Blossom?" Ms. Keane asked.
"Present." Blossom said, smiling.
"Buttercup?" Ms. Keane asked.
"Yep." Buttercup said, as the other end of the table is just out of view.
Two of the boys are identical twins.
"Oh. Look. Twins." I said, tossing a macaron into my mouth.
"Lloyd Floyjoydson?" Ms. Keane asked.
"Huh?" Lloyd Floyjoydson asked.
"Floyd Floyjoydson?" Ms. Keane asked.
"What?" Floyd Floyjoydson asked.
"Mitchell?…Mitchell Mitchellson?" Ms. Keane asked.
"It's Mitch! And yeah, I'm here, okay?!" Mitch Mitchellson exclaimed.
"Ooo." I said, knowing Mitchell, or Mitch, is a troublemaker. "He's in trouble."
Buttercup smiles and giggles at Mitch's outburst.
"Elmer? Elmer Sglue?" Ms. Keane asked.
A squishing sound causes all the kids' eyes to pop open. At the end of the table and there is a jar of paste in the hands of the kid sitting there. He digs out a handful and packs it into his mouth. He wears thick glasses and a smear of paste around his lips. When he speaks, his voice is very timid.
"Here." Elmer Sglue said, and his response is accompanied by a burp and spray of mixed paste and spit.
"Ohhhh!" Mitch yelled, disgustedly, pushing Elmer to the floor. "Paste eater!"
Most of the class laughs at this. From Elmer's end of the table, Mitch wears a black T-shirt with the words 'MITCH ROCKS' on the front. He also sounds quite a bit like Popeye when he laughs. Blossom and Bubbles are stunned into silence, but Buttercup is enjoying the moment. Ms. Keane, meanwhile, is shocked at this behavior.
"Not to the glue that holds a whole school down!" I said, picking up another macaroon and tossing it into my mouth.
"Elmer!…Mitchell!" Ms. Keane yelled.
Mitch looked up, as Ms. Keane continues. Buttercup is laughing, but Blossom and Bubbles glare angrily at her, not happy with her behavior over Elmer's mistreatment by Mitch.
"Mitchell Mitchellson, that was a terrible thing to do!" Ms. Keane said, while she kneels over Elmer. "Elmer—are you okay?"
Elmer still has the jar in his hand. When he opens his mouth, the first thing to come out of it is a large white glue bubble.
"Yes, Mrs. Keane." Elmer said, sadly.
"Ewww!" The kids said, at the same time.
Ms. Keane sets Elmer upright as they laugh.
"Okay, now, children, behave…" Ms. Keane said, as the laughter stops. "…especially you, Mitchell."
Ms. Keane walks away. Mitch looks down at a rough figure of a person in front of him. It has a large glob of paste on one corner. He picks this up.
"'Ooooh! My name's Elmer!'" Mitch said, scraping up paste from the table, sticking it on. "'And I like to eat gooey paste! 'Cause I'm stupid!'" He sticks the creation squarely onto Elmer's forehead. "D'oh!"
The kids laugh again; Elmer is mortified.
"Children!" Ms. Keane said, angrily.
"You eat paste!" Lloyd and Floyd said, pointing at Elmer, in sing-song voices. "You eat paste! What a doof!"
The twins trade high-fives.
Blossom and Bubbles take no part in the ridicule, but Buttercup is still laughing, and enjoying the whole thing.
"Buttercup." I said, rolling my eyes. "Don't enjoy this. At least Blossom and Bubbles are behaving."
"Now that is just about enough!" Ms. Keane yelled.
"You're gross!" Harry said, as Buttercup looks eagerly toward him.
"Yeah, you look like a dummy!" Julie said, and Buttercup looked at her.
"Ha-ha! What a sick habit, man!" Wes said, picking his nose.
Buttercup is laughing at each successive insult.
"Glue-ber!" Mitch said, angrily.
"Paste-head!" Floyd yelled.
"Tacky!" Lloyd said.
Buttercup finally decides to really drive home the point herself. She scoops a wad of paste off the table and stands over Elmer.
"EAT THIS, PASTE EATER!" Buttercup said, letting the paste fly, and the chunk sails down the table in slow motion and finally splatters all over Elmer's face.
Blossom gasps, Bubbles moans, and Ms. Keane gasps as well. All three are quite shocked and dismayed by what has just happened.
"Buttercup." I said, dropping my tea cup and it landed on the hardwood floor of Kirito and Asuna's log cabin, spilling the tea. "Why?"
Elmer's mouth is wobbling, and he is sniffling and doing his best to keep from crying. As he loses the remains of his composure, Floyd and Mitch smile cruelly; finally, he breaks down crying. Buttercup, still standing on the table with paste in her hand, loses her gleeful expression when she sees everyone staring at her. She looks across the class; Blossom and Bubbles continue to silently look daggers at her in fury over her disrespect of poor Elmer.
"Oooooooohhhhhh!" The kids said, taunting.
At the end of the table again; Ms. Keane glares at Buttercup.
"Buttercup! I am surprised at you! You know better than that! Now apologize right this instant!" Ms. Keane said, angrily.
"But, Ms. Keane…" Buttercup said, sadly.
"Little lady, apologize to poor Elmer."
Buttercup ponders the paste in her hand for a silent moment, then sucks in a quick breath, "But I didn't mean to, and Mitch started it, and…"
"Buttercup!"
Realizing she can't talk her way out of it as Ms. Keane won't let her say anything else until she hears those two words out of her mouth, Buttercup sucks in another breath and groans slightly before trying again. Within two seconds, it becomes painfully obvious that she is out of her element.
"Elmer… I'm, uh… oh, but… um… I… why did you have to… I mean… I'm s-s-s… I'm s… I'm s-s-s… aw, you shoulda ducked!" Buttercup said, and the bell rings.
"Whoo-hoo! Recess!" Mitch said, running off.
The other kids are heard doing likewise.
Buttercup looks back and forth, and after a moment, she charges out after them.
Ms. Keane bends over Elmer and begins to wipe his face, "I'll deal with her later. For now, let's just get you cleaned up. Elmer—what those kids did was wrong. But you know it's really not good to eat paste."
"W-W-Why?" Elmer asked.
"Well, for one thing, it's an imitatible act. If the other kids were to see you doing it, they might want to do it, too." Ms. Keane said, pulling stick figure glue from Elmer's forehead.
"Ewww!" The kids said, looking in from the window. "No way!"
"Children!" Ms. Keane said, looking at the kids.
The kids duck out of sight.
"I can't help but feel bad for the kid." I said, switching the camera view to that of Ms. Keane and Elmer. "He didn't deserve that from Buttercup."
Elmer is still holding the jar of paste.
"Now you give me that…" Ms. Keane said, taking the jar away. "…and go outside and play with your friends."
At the end of this, the kids' heads are poking up over the windowsill again. Elmer hangs his head and walks slowly past Ms. Keane.
Outside Pokey Oaks Kindergarten / Kirito and Asuna's home…
Elmer is sitting under a tree on the playground. It is clear he's still sore over Buttercup having not apologized to him and the bullying he received from Mitch and the Floyjoydson twins.
"Stupid Mitch." Elmer said, sniffling. "Buttercup thinks she's all cool just 'cause she has powers." He pulls a jar of paste out of his coat and starts to open it. "I'd be cool if I had powers. She's not so cool." He starts eating one handful after another from the jar. "I'd be cool."
(Open POV)
Townsville…
There is a pool of some noxious liquid, with a pipe discharging into it. It is actually a waste containment pond outside a chemical processing plant. The sign out front gives the company name: 'INDUSTRIAL CHILDREN CHREAL CORD'. A hazardous-waste truck pulls up at the plant; and a sign hangs from the ceiling inside an observation room: 'Marshmallow Toxic Filter Site'. Large vats of bubbling liquids can be seen through the windows of this room. There's a bank of levers and switches—this is a control room—and a technician with his feet propped up on the counter. He is eating a bowl of cereal and humming to himself. Near his feet is a rack of test tubes labeled 'Toxic Samples'; a recycling bin sits on the floor across from him.
The man is looking down at his feet. He moves his foot and knocks one of the tubes lose; it tumbles to the floor and breaks. The contents glow green on the tiles.
"Oh!" The technician said, leaning over and soaks up the mess with his napkin, causing it to change appearance from white to the sickly green of the spilled contents from the test tube, which he then uses to wipe his face.
The technician is left with glowing spots on his cheeks; his eyes go wide as he realizes his mistake too late, and after a moment, tentacles grow from the sides of his face.
"Whoa, that's definitely no good." The technician said, throwing the napkin into the recycling bin, rather than disposing of it where it wouldn't cause more problems after seeing the effects firsthand on himself.
At the front of the plant, a worker picks the bin up and empties it into the waste truck. Inside, among the piles of garbage, a fly buzzes in through the hatch as it slides shut. After a moment, the insect lands on the glowing napkin and sucks up some of what it carries. Suddenly it grows several new pairs of wings, a couple of extra mouths, and quite a few additional eyes. It also increases in size and begins to glow.
Outside Pokey Oaks Kindergarten / Kirito and Asuna's home…
When the hatch opens again, the truck is parked outside Pokey Oaks Kindergarten. The mutant fly makes its way out and starts to weave erratically through the air, its wings flapping in fits and starts. Finally, its forward motion stops, and it plummets down.; a splash of white rises into view, and a splattering noise is heard. At Elmer's jar of paste, the fly is stuck at the surface. His hand descends into view and scoops up another load, fly and all as he lifts it to his mouth and eats it. He takes no notice of the addition.
Elmer's entire face has shadows fall across him.
"Get up." Mitch said, looking down at Elmer.
Elmer swallows hard as the reflections of Mitch, Lloyd, and Floyd appear in his glasses. Pull back to the entire group. He stands up and is promptly pushed down again by Mitch.
"Get up, paste eater!" Mitch yelled.
"Yeah! Get up!" Floyd said, angrily.
Lloyd laughs as Elmer starts to do so.
"Oh, they don't know what will happen with Elmer today." I said, switching the camera view to that of the girls. "It's going to be crazy."
Buttercup laughs at the spectacle while her sisters watch from the background, still angry that Buttercup won't stop teasing poor Elmer.
"When will he ever learn?" Buttercup asked.
"I'm tellin' Ms. Keane!" Blossom said, crossing her arms.
"What?! I didn't do nothin'! Oh, I'm always getting blamed." Buttercup said, annoyed.
"You're not Buttercup." I said, switching the view to the four boys.
Elmer gets to his feet again and coughs, spitting out glowing green sludge and moaning. A faint rumbling is heard.
"Boy…" Mitch said, in a mock pity. "…you don't look so good. Maybe you'd better…" He pushed Elmer away. "...sit down!"
Mitch and the twins laugh. They do not immediately notice that the shove has left residue on his arms. They stop laughing once Mitch notices.
"Hey, hey, hey, what the—?! What is this, man?!" Mitch exclaimed, disgustedly.
Elmer's body has turned to glue. His glasses and mouth are still visible.
"Ohhhh, is this your snot?!" Mitch exclaimed, disgustedly.
At the end of this line, I have my security camera focused on Mitch and the twins and pull back with the zoom lens. A large shadow falls across them as Mitch continues.
"Get it off, man! Get it off! Ohhhh, you're gross!" Mitch yelled.
"Hey, dude…" Lloyd and Floyd said, at the same time, softly.
"What?!" Mitch exclaimed.
"Dude… dude…" Lloyd and Floyd said, transfixed in frozen terror.
Mitch looks up once he notices the fear in the twins' voices; there is a towering glue creature with Elmer's hairline and glasses. He roars, sounding nothing like his timid former self, and Elmer looks himself over, realizing what has happened to him. He blows a glue bubble from his mouth; when it pops, globs of glue fly everywhere on the playground. Mitch and the twins scream and run. Elmer smiles wickedly and slams his fist down on the lawn, leaving a large, sticky puddle behind. The kids avoid this hit as they all begin to run around in terrified panic, but he counters by reaching down with outstretched fingers and trapping one on each. He holds his hands up to his face and wiggles the fingers back and forth as the kids scream in terror. He soon singles out the ones he stuck Mitch and the Floyjoydson twins to.
Smiling, Elmer flicks them off in all directions, revenge for their teasing and bullying. The twins are plastered against the side of a passing airplane, while Mitch ends up glued to the top of the flagpole, face locked in gritted teeth terror and fear. At its base, Buttercup is watching the action.
"Hey!" Buttercup yelled, taking off.
"Huh?" Elmer asked, in an adult-like voice.
"Not so fast, paste eater!" Buttercup said, angrily.
"Buttercup." I said, letting out a sigh. "You had to piss Elmer off."
Elmer tenses up and begins to bubble, his anger towards Buttercup being the worst of his classmates who bullied him manifesting in his new mutant body. He swings his arm at Buttercup and knocks her into the wall of the school, next to where Blossom and Bubbles are sitting. The glue holds her to the masonry; she struggles to pull free, but without success. Her sisters look on with half-satisfaction, half-disgust over Buttercup's fate for her teasing of Elmer.
"Hurry! You gotta help me stop him!" Buttercup said, looking between Blossom and Bubbles.
"No way! You and those bullies deserve what you get for picking on poor little Elmer." Blossom said, scoffing.
Ms. Keane screams and she is being lifted into the air by Elmer. Elmer makes it as if to hit her.
"Well, is she a bully?!" Buttercup exclaimed.
"Ms. Keane!" Blossom and Bubbles said, at the same time.
Elmer raises one gigantic foot, its shadow falling over the other kids.
"Whoa…" The kids said, while the foot flattens the building. "Yaaaay!"
"He's gone crazy!" Blossom and Bubbles said, as they take off.
"About time." Buttercup said, annoyed.
Elmer goes into a windup, preparing to pitch Ms. Keane like a fastball, as the girls approach. He pulls back and launches the still-screaming teacher—and his entire fist—at them. They slam on the brakes and back-pedal as hard as they can, but the fist slams into them before they can get out of the way. It hits the remainder of the wall where Buttercup is trapped; now all four are in the same predicament. Elmer forms a new arm, then chuckles and stomps off toward Townsville.
The captives struggle against the glue holding them down, but are unable to break free. After several seconds, Blossom rounds on Buttercup.
"None of this woulda happened if you'd just apologized in the first place!" Blossom said, looking at Buttercup.
"He's going to destroy Townsville! You've got to stop him!" Ms. Keane said, worried.
"But…we're hot-glued to the wall!" Bubbles cried.
"That's it! Heat ray!" Buttercup said, aiming her eye lasers at the glue and sweeps across.
After a moment, the glue dries and cracks, and the girls succeed in freeing themselves; Ms. Keane, though, is still hanging around.
"Yeah!" The girls said, excitedly.
"Come on! Let's stick it to him!" Blossom said, looking at Bubbles and Buttercup.
They girls take off.
"Good luck, girls." I said, happily. "You'll need it."
"Yay!" Ms. Keane cheered.
Townsville / Kirito and Asuna's home…
On a city street, glue is splattered everywhere. At the spire of a building, Elmer reaches into view and tears it loose after a few seconds of hearing it crack from the strain. It is set in place in front of a group of other spires and columns, like a set of bowling pins; Elmer forms a large ball in one hand. He pulls back, takes a few steps, and rolls this like a bowling ball. It barrels down the street and plows into the building pieces—a clean strike.
"Yeah!" Elmer said, stopping and sniffs the air for a moment, before looking at the sole of one foot, where he finds a screaming man looking up at him. "Oh, man!"
He wipes his foot on the sidewalk, scraping the man off and leaving him pinned there. A school bus is picked up next; as the bus follows it on the way up to Elmer's face on the next line.
"Whoooooaaaaaa…radical!" The bus riders said, excitedly.
"Hey!" Blossom said, and the girls are in flight. "You'd better stop it!" Elmer grunts and holds the bus out in front of himself; surprise registers on their faces. "Watch out! Swerve!"
Blossom and Bubbles turn away.
"What?" Buttercup asked.
The others avoid the bus, but she crashes into it and falls out of the sky. Blossom and Bubbles, watching from overhead, do not take this well.
"That's it! Now you've done it. Blood is thicker than glue!" Blossom said, angrily.
The girls rush in.
"Come on, girls." I said, making myself another cup of tea. "Figure it out."
Elmer does nothing as they approach him, except smile wickedly. When they hit his chest, though, they get stuck fast, with only their heads above the surface.
"Uhh?! I'm stuck!" Blossom yelled.
"Me too!" Bubbles said, struggling to break free of the glue.
Elmer laughs down at them.
"Buttercup!" Blossom and Bubbles said, at the same time.
On the sidewalk, Buttercup starts to come around. She groans softly for some moments before being able to form a coherent word.
"What?" Buttercup asked, jumping up. "No! Okay, pasty-face! You're gonna get socked in the kisser!"
Buttercup takes off.
"No, Buttercup! You'll just get stuck!" Blossom and Bubbles said, at the same time.
Buttercup hits the brakes. The glue begins to envelop her sisters' heads.
"You know what you have to do!" Blossom said, looking at Buttercup.
"And hurry! We're sinking!" Bubbles said, worried.
A tense moment passes while Buttercup tries to figure out her next move, knowing that her sisters want her to apologize to Elmer for bullying him, but she still can't bring herself to do it.
"No! I can fight him!" Buttercup said, charging in and her first idea is eye lasers.
Buttercup blasts Elmer in the shoulder, hardening his entire arm—the one holding the bus—and causing it to crumble away, but he grows another one.
"Huh-uh!" Buttercup said, surprised.
Buttercup looks around herself; and at a bakery, with sacks of flour piled up outside. She flashes into view, and the sky is filled with white clouds. When the view clears, she stands in the middle of the sacks and is covered with flour from head to toe.
"Ha! I'm flour, you're glue. Try to fight and I won't stick to you!" Buttercup said, taking off.
"Go, Buttercup!" I said, placing my tea cup onto the table. "You go girl!"
For understandable reasons, Buttercup's light trail is now white instead of the usual green. She moves in on Elmer and taunts him.
"You can't stick to me! You can't stick to me!" Buttercup said, in a sing-song voice.
Elmer looks at Buttercup as she approaches him.
"Nyah nyah-nyah-nyah…" Buttercup said, as Elmer opens a large hole in his midsection and she flies right through. "…nyah?"
Now Elmer aims a punch in Buttercup's direction; she dodges out of the way just in time, and he smashes away the wall of a building behind her. Inside, an opera singer strikes a high note that lasts for some seconds.
"No…" A singer said, fainting.
Meanwhile, Blossom and Bubbles are still sinking into Elmer's chest.
"There's only one thing you can do!" Blossom said, worried.
"NO! Anything but that!" Buttercup said, and her coating of flour is gone.
"Buttercup!"
Blossom and Bubbles disappear from sight.
"Buttercup. Just say sorry." I said, sadly.
Meanwhile, Buttercup faces a hard decision: Apologize to Elmer for bullying him, or let her sisters drown in his gluey body. Either way, for Buttercup, it's a no-win situation.
"No, no, no, no, NO!…ALL RIGHT! ELMER!" Buttercup yelled.
Elmer stops in the middle of tearing another building apart upon hearing Buttercup below, "Huh?"
"Uh…I-I-I'm…s-s-s-so-s-s-so-o-o…o-o-r-r…r-r-r-ry!" Buttercup said, angrily.
Doubtless, these are the hardest words Buttercup has ever had to say. Her reflection appears in Elmer's glasses; he has been caught completely by surprise. What he says next is not in his more mature, monster voice.
"W-W-What?" Elmer asked, in his normal voice.
"I'm…sorry if I picked on you, and …" Buttercup said, sighing. "…I'm sorry if I called you a…paste eater."
Elmer wipes his eyes with the back of his hand and pulls the other girls out of his chest.
"Thanks, Buttercup. That's all I wanted." Elmer said, sniffling.
The city skyline is now held together with the radioactive glue.
"A reconstructed city of Townsville!" The narrator cheered.
The subdivision and Pokey Oaks Kindergarten are both of which are being put back together with Elmer's help.
"Reconstructed Pokey Oaks Kindergarten. A school in the sleepy suburb of…" The narrator said, and Elmer glares at the camera. "Oh. Uh—I'm sorry."
"All's well that ends well." I said, smiling. "They managed to make up."
With the work, Blossom carries a board while Buttercup scoops some glue from Elmer's arm onto another.
"Thanks for helping, Elmer." Buttercup said, putting the board down; he licks glue onto a third and sets it in place.
"Uh…Buttercup?" Elmer asked.
"Yeah?" Buttercup asked.
"You're cool." Elmer said, laughing nervously.
"Yeah. Let's stick together."
The standard end shot comes up.
"Oh, Buttercup. We love glue. So once again the day is saved—thanks to the Powerpuff Girls!" The narrator said, laughing.