by Fahrenheit 451, Smasher and GummyWorm
Back at the MBL Headquarters:
Flintlock: "Smasher, aren't you supposed to be training us or something? I don't see how feeding you all these grapes and being used as a footstool is beneficial."
Lava Dust: "Yeah, my back is killing me."
Smasher: "Hey, turn the TV to CNN."
Lava Dust: "But the remote is right there."
Smasher: "I said turn the TV to CNN."
Hero went over to the TV and changed the channel.
Smasher: "Not snowy TV again! Hero, go on the roof and fix the satellite."
Hero: "But it's starting to rain..."
Smasher: "Hero!"
Hero obediently went on top of the roof. While on the roof, Hero saw a mysterious person running with a red ball in his hands.
Hero: "Hmmm..."
Hero returned inside. "Hey, guys! I just saw..."
Smasher, interrupting, said, "Quiet! The news is on."
Anchor: "Reports are coming in about a mysterious person with a red ball. Still unknown if he has any connection to riots in the major cities."
Hero: "Hey, I saw that person outside. I know it's him. It's one of my powers."
Flintlock: "TO THE GENERAL LEE!"
Smasher: "But wait... I'll end up missing Larry King... don't go!"
The new MBLers, Hero, Flintlock, and Lava Dust, hopped into the General Lee and raced off after the mysterious person.
Hero: "He went that way."
The MBLers approached him.
Lava Dust: "Excuse me, sir?"
The person, panting, said, "Not again. Will Fleetfoot ever be able to rest?"
While the new recruits of the MBL, led by Hero, were following the mysterious man with the red, glowing ball, still in the MBL Headquarters was Smasher.
The new recruits were gone. Smasher smiled, gave an evil laugh, and morphed into one of the Boull, an ancient alien race of shapeshifters. The Boull agent began speaking to someone on a screen in an alien language.
"The coast is clear... the only ones still in the MBL Headquarters are the drunken and the hurt. I have captured the one known as Smasher, and I will proceed to the other two. Then our master's plan can continue..."
"Good. Now hurry up! The hologram of the psycho with the red glow will not keep them distracted for long!"
A match was lit in a darkened corner, briefly illuminating a familiar face: the Worm, the former MBL member once known as Grow Worm.
"Bloody hell," he said in a cloud of cigarette smoke, "I lose my stretching powers and decide to go back to paranormal investigations with the EPS. I hear about some cosmic virus mess and come to warn my old team. Instead, I find a bunch of yahoos I never met, most drunk or broken, and a squidgy alien git."
The hero formerly known as Grow Worm reached into his trench coat and pulled out the boiled skull of Johnny Monolith. Holding it up toward the alien, he muttered something arcane, and the Boull fell to a puddle of ectoplasmic goo.
He flicked his cigarette butt into the puddle and left the skull on the T.V. with a Post-It note on it reading: "You're gonna need this."
The Worm disappeared into the shadows, whistling The Piano Man.