Kylun looked up from where he was feeding Widget a pile of old mechanical parts. The emergency light was blinking!

He ran over and activated the communicator and the familiar face of Dai Thomas appeared on the screen. "Jinkies! Inspector Thomas ... can we assist you?"

"Yes," Inspector Thomas said. "There are massive power failures all over the British Isles! We need your help!"

Cerise flew in the room, having overheard the conversation. "Well Kylun, this looks too big for us to handle all by ourselves!" She pressed the button which sent out the general alarm. "I guess we have to summon ...

THE EXCALIBUR FRIENDS!"

The greatest heroes of the age!
Captain Krypton!
Black Knight & Squire!
Meggan!
Prince Namor, the Aqua-Man!

in ... "The Master Menace of Mastermind!"

The heroes assembled in the Lighthouse of Justice. "What seems to be the problem, kids?" Captain Krypton asked.

Cerise said, "We got an emergency call about a series of blackouts. It looks like some evil foe is trying to take out the UK's electrical system."

"I have an idea," Black Knight pondered. "Kylun, will you display on the viewing monitor an overview of the affected areas?

Built into the far wall was a large monitor that looks to be at least 30' by 30'. Kylun walked over to the keyboard and punched up the necessary information. As a grid-map of the country's electrical system was displayed, the heroes saw that the power failures trace out the definite pattern of the letter 'M'.

Squire said, "Holy initials, Black Knight!"

"By Cerridwen's cauldron of knowledge!" Meggan said, "Good thinking, Black Knight!"

Kylun asked, "But ... what does it mean?"

"It can only mean one thing," Captain Krypton said, "the return of my arch-enemy, Mastermind!"

Cerise said, "Who?"

"This was long before your time, Kylun and Cerise," Captain Krypton said, "he was last seen in the Excalibur Friend's early years ... back before those Earth teens Kitty and Kurt left the team. As you may know, I was actually born centuries ago, and my father was King Jorel, who ruled England from the Pentagram Table in the legendary castle of Krypton."

"We know that Cap," Kylun said, "but where did Mastermind come in?"

"When King Jorel realised that Krypton was going to fall, he decided he could at least save me. His advisor, the sorcerer Merlin, gifted me with the combined powers of all the knights of the Pentagram Table, and set me to sleep in a magic casket to be awoken when England would have need of me. He set his three super-powered familiars -- the dog Krypto, the cat Streaky, and the mouse Ikky -- to guard me. He also created a sort of mystical computer to watch over us all and determine when the proper time was for me was to be reborn ... that computer was called Mastermind."

Cerise said, "Jinkies!"

"One day in the early years of my career as Captain Krypton, Mastermind came to me, saying that he was unhappy with his intangible existence. I transferred his identity into a solid, holographic body ... but because the technology was so complicated, the resulting body appeared completely hairless. He accused me of making him bald so that he would never be able to fit properly into human society, claiming I was jealous of his genius, and turned against me. He has been a dangerous enemy ever since. And now ... it looks like he's back for revenge yet again."

Namor looked thoughtful. "I can ask my underwater friends, Cap, if anything unusual has been spotted."

Black Knight said, "I can investigate Thames Electrical's central computer and see if we can find where it's been hacked into."

"Squire and I can scout out the countryside in my Invisible Plane," Meggan nodded, "he's been after me for pilot practice for a while now, if you don't mind, Black Knight. With all of us working together, we can track down Mastermind in no time!"