A few days later, after another long whirlwind tour of playing sold-out concert, and busting bad guys, The Impossibles returned to Megatropolis, happy to be back in their hometown for awhile.

"These long tours are killing me," Fluey said.

"All in the line of duty, Fluey," Multi said, petting his pet puppy (and the group's mascot), Skittles, who was sound asleep.

"That's true, but it's good to be back home," Coiley said.

"I guess you're right," Fluey said, shrugging. "Hey, man, swing by Doc Phelps's place before we head on to HQ, I've got to drop off those shot glasses Jamie asked me to pick up for him."

"Gotcha," Coiley said.

Jamie collected shot glasses, even though he was too young to drink. Since he hardly ever went anywhere exciting, he had asked Fluey to pick a couple up for him every time the Impossibles went on tour. Within minutes, Coiley pulled up to Dr. Phelps's house, and Fluey got out, went up to the door, and knocked. Jamie answered it a few minutes later.

"Hey, Jamie," he said. "I got those shot glasses you wanted."

"Great, thanks," Jamie said, a little unenthusiastically, as he took the wrapped glasses.

"Hey, what's up?" Fluey asked. "You look kinda nervous about something."

"Well . . . . ." Jamie said, a little hesitantly. "I'm not sure if I should tell you . . . . . it's kind of involved."

"What, does your dad think you're actually using this shot glass collection of yours to drink or something?"

"No, it isn't that. It's . . . . . do you think the three of you can come inside for a minute? I kind of don't want to talk about it standing here."

"Yeah, sure thing, Jaim. Hang on a sec."

And with that, Fluey went over to the Impossi-Mobile to tell Multi and Coiley what was up. Skittles began whimpering. The boys knew that was a sure sign something wasn't right. She immediately jumped out of the Impossi-Mobile, and ran up to the Phelps' front door. She began whimpering while pawing at Jamie's leg, until Jamie picked her up, and began scratching her behind the ears. The little super pup knew she needed to administer some of her "Cuddle Therapy" to him. Once the Impossibles reached the door, the four boys went upstairs to Jamie's room.

"So what's going on?" Coiley asked.

"It's been all over the news around here," Jamie said, running his hand through his hair.

"What has?" Multi asked. "We just got back into town about half an hour ago."

"My friend, Billy Bradley," Jamie continued. "We were at the arcade in the mall a couple of days ago, and he was talking about running away to Hollywood to become an overnight star. I didn't think he'd actually do it, though!"

"But he did, huh?" Fluey said.

"Yeah, he did," Jamie said. "See, his mom died four months ago, and his dad started drinking, and all Billy ever does is fight with his dad, and his sister . . . . . he said he wanted to get away from all of that. His dad and his sister didn't even notice he was gone until he didn't come home two nights ago, 'cause Billy's done this sort of thing before, but he comes back after a day. And when he does leave home for awhile, he always comes here. And I haven't seen him since that Saturday at the mall. And his sister found some of his clothes were gone, as well as his bike."

"What do you guys think?" Coiley asked, turning to his bandmates.

"Sounds like a classic runaway case if I ever heard one," Fluey said.

"You think you guys can help?" Jamie asked.

"We'd really like to, Jamie, but we can't," Multi said. "They changed protocol on missing persons at HQ. The police department was getting tired of the SSHQ 'hogging' everything that came up, so they called around, and the result was the government restricted our assignments."

"What does that mean, exactly?" Jamie asked, confused.

"It means unless it's a high profile person, we can't do anything about it," Coiley said. "If Billy were royalty or something like that, it'd be different. We're not even allowed to tackle bank robberies anymore, unless the police department can't handle it themselves."

"Oh," Jamie said with a sigh. "Yeah, that's right. Dad was talking about that the other day. I guess I forgot."

"Maybe we can talk to Big D," Multi said. "Hejust might let us get involved in this, now that I think about it. I remember reading in the newspaper that two other teenage boys went missing from around the area."

"You really think so?" Jamie asked.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to ask, anyway," Fluey said, shrugging.

Coiley and Multi agreed to that, and the trio (quartet if you include Skittles) left to get to headquarters. Once they arrived, they went into Big D's office to check in, and they told him about their conversation with Jamie.

"Since I read about this sort of thing going on in the newspaper, I thought maybe we should do some investigating ourselves," Multi said.

"Unfortunately, boys, I can't allow you to," Big D said. "It's just not high profile enough."

"Man, just because the mayor gets into a snit about us taking care of crime and there not being enough of it for the police department . . . . ." Fluey grumbled.

"They've been dependent on you boys for even the smallest offense for far too long," Big D said. "I need you boys on call for bigger assignments."

"Right," Coiley said, nodding. "Stuff like crooks making off with a million bucks to finance evil plots that could destroy the world, and like that."

"Yeah, and lately, all we've been called in for are small potato capers," Fluey said. "I see what you mean, chief. But you think maybe we can do a little snooping around, anyway? You know, for Jamie's sake."

"Well . . . ." Big D said, thoughtfully. "All right. I don't see what harm that would do. As long as you remain on call, that is."

"No problem, Big D," Multi said.

"Yeah, thanks, boss-man!" Fluey shouted, and the trio left the HQ building and headed for the Impossi-Mobile. They planned to rendezvous with Jamie at the arcade at the mall.

Once the boys arrived, they met Jamie at the entrance to the arcade.

"So basically, this is where you last saw Billy," Multi said.

"Yeah," Jamie said. "We were playing some of the games, then Billy got ticked off when I beat him at air hockey three games in a row, then he took some frustrations out of one of the pinball machines, and then we left, and my dad dropped him off at his house."

"That's all, huh?" Fluey asked.

"Pretty much," Jamie shrugged.

"Normally, I'd say this was a typical runaway case," Coiley said. "But judging by what Multi told us earlier . . . . . hey, Fluey, what are you looking at?"

"This guy at the arcade entrance," Fluey said. "I'm not sure, but I think he's staring at us."

"Well, you guys are famous," Jamie said, shrugging. "I thought you'd be used to it by now."

"Yeah, I know, but I'm getting really creeped out here," Fluey said.

Multi and Coiley looked over at the man in question. He was on the tall side, with dark hair, and wearing sunglasses. But the two Impossibles found they had to agree with their team mate on this one. He was pretty creepy.

"Come on, let's blow this popsicle stand," Jamie said.