The van dodged and weaved in the air, trying to avoid the turtle monster that swatted at it like a pesky fly.

Omar clung onto his arm rests for dear life. "What IS that thing?"

"Whatever it is, we must vanquish it!" Orla proclaimed, dramatic effect spoiled by her stumbling back and forth trying to get to her seat. "The people of this fair city are in grave danger!"

The only one happy about the situation was Opal. "Yes! This will make SUCH a great fanfic!"

The monster's paw struck a glancing blow which sent the van spinning through the air.

"MAYDAY! MAYDAY!" Van Computer's robotic voice echoed through the cockpit. "WE'RE FALLING! MUST COMPENSATE AND REGAIN CONTROL!" The van spun in the air and swung from side to side until it finally righted itself, touched down on the street, and braked to a stop. "VAN STABILIZED." There was a pause as if taking a deep breath. "I'M JUST GOING TO REST HERE FOR A COUPLE MINUTES..."

Oswald was hyperventilating. "But this is Metropolis! Superman should be fighting that thing! Where is he?"

Then they heard a snarky, snarling voice behind them.

"An astute question, my freckle-faced little fireplug!"

The team turned to see a small, wizened, wiry little man no taller than they were floating cross-legged in midair. He wore a strange orange and purple spacesuit-like outfit, with a matching purple derby tilted at a jaunty angle on his balding head.

Oswald gasped. He reached behind his back, pulled out The Essential Superman Encyclopedia, consulted it, and gasped again. "It's Mister Mix-yell-pick!"

"That's Mxyzptlk!" The little man shouted back. "It's spelled the way it sounds! Why can't you Third-Dimensional types speak English?"

"Oh yeah," Omar nodded. "He's that elf-guy who's always using magic to cause trouble for Superman!"

"Hah!" Orla struck a pose. "I have encountered elves before! None have been able to stand against me!"

"I AM AN IMP, NOT AN ELF!" The little man screeched. "A Fifth-dimensional imp, to be precise! And nothing can beat my magic! I'll..."

A bellowing roar from outside reminded everyone about the problem at hand.

Opal nodded to the monster outside. "Your work?"

The imp smirked. "Yep! Pulled him off of a movie poster and set him loose!" He cackled. "As it happens, Supey's off on a space mission with the rest of the Justice League! So I'm cooking up a few surprises for him when he gets back!"

Orla unbuckled her seatbelts and stood. "If this city's hero is not available to battle that monster, then we must do so in its stead!" She strode to the van door. "Come, my young compatriots!" She glared at Mxyzptlk. "We will deal with you later, elf."

"IMP! I'M AN IMP!"

"Whatever..."

Orla opened the van door and climbed out. The other three agents followed with varying degrees of reluctance.

Mister Mxyzptlk teleported outside to join them.

"I don't know what you four brats think you're gonna do..."

The agents nodded to one another and produced gadgets from behind their backs.

"I mean, I made that thing powerful enough to fight Superman and if Superman can't stop it, there's no way a bunch of kids are..."

"FIRE!"

They fired their gadgets at the turtle monster. It blurred and faded away.

The imp stared. "Huh?"

"We did it!" The agents cheered.

"We have saved fair Metropolis from the monster!" Orla struck a pose. "And now, we can resume our .mission..."

"NO NO NO!" The Fifth-dimensional imp raged. "That's impossible! Nothing can defeat my magic!"

He gestured. Worm like tendrils erupted from the ground, twisting in all directions.

"See?" He gloated. "You'll never be able to stop..."

The team fired their gadgets again. The tendrils crumbled into dust and vanished.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! WRONG!" Mxyzptlk screamed with frustration. "I'm Mister Mxyzptlk! My extra-dimensional magic is unstoppable! It is! Didn't you people do any research at all?"

Oswald shrugged. "Well, our gadgets seem to work against it..."

"BUT THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO!" Mxyzptlk waved his arms, causing a plethora of rocks and pebbles to fly at the agents. They quickly zapped them, causing them to fall harmlessly to the ground.

"NO, NO! HAVEN'T YOU READ ANYTHING ABOUT ME?"

Oswald handed the book over to the others to read while the imp yelled at them.

"I'm Mister Mxyzptlk! The Fifth-Dimensional imp! I can use my magic to create whatever I want and the only way to defeat me is to trick me into saying my name backwards!" He folded his arms. And I'm not gonna let you do that."

"Hey, man," Omar tapped him on the shoulder. "You're a big jokester, right?"

"The biggest!" Mxyzptlk turned to face him.

"Then you oughta like THIS!" Omar smashed a whipped cream pie in the imp's face.

"Whuh...Plaugh!" Mxyzptlk sputtered and swore, wiping the whipped cream from his eyes. "How DARE you? I'll have you know I'm one of Superman's most powerful foes and I won't..."

Omar smashed another pie in his face. Choking and coughing, the imp raged while Omar nodded to Opal. Opal trained a gadget at Mxyzptlk just outside his line of vision.

"WHY, YOU... YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" Opal fired the gadget. "M'I Retsim Kltpzyxm dna I..." The imp's eyes widened. "Ho on..."

He immediately vanished, drawn back to his homeworld.

"Reversinator." Opal brandished the gadget.

The team high-fived. A much friendlier voice came from above them.

"Great work, kids!"

"Thanks!" Oswald retrieved his book. "We... YAAAARGH!"

He'd looked up, expecting to see Supergirl or maybe Wonder Woman. Instead, crawling down the wall of a nearby building towards them was a strange creature with the upper body of a beautiful red-haired woman in a yellow and black costume and matching harlequin mask and the lower torso and legs of a giant housefly.

Orla grabbed her partner's shoulders. "Fear not, Oswald! What ere this strange creature is, we shall defeat it!" She produced a gadget and brandished it like a sword.

"Guys! Guys!" Grabbing the book back, Omar flipped through it until he found the information he needed. "It's okay! That's Insect Queen! She's a good guy!"

The creature spread its fly wings and flew down to join the OSMU agents. "That's why I don't use this secret identity very often." She transformed back to fully human form. "I mean, the powers are handy but it's so embarrassing having to go around in insectoid form..."

"Oh yeah..." Taking the book from Omar, Opal read the entry about the character. "It says here you're really Lana Lang, Superman's girlfriend from Smallville, and you get your powers from a ring a space alien gave you..."

"Guys!" Oswald took his book back and disappeared it behind his back. "Don't you know anything about proper superhero etiquette? You're not supposed to announce people's secret identities!"

"No, it's all right," Lana assured them, removing the mask. "I revealed my true identity years ago. And I haven't really been an active super-heroine since I was a teenager. But Superman's away on a space mission and when I saw Mxyzptlk was on a rampage..."

"...You just thought you'd steal some glory and try to impress Superman!" A dark-haired woman in a purple coat, pillbox hat and matching gloves stormed over. "Too bad for you Odd Squad stopped your little plan before it could even get started!"

The agents looked at one another as the two women argued.

"That's Lois Lane!" Oswald explained to the others. "She's usually really great! It's just our luck we got stuck with the Silver Age version!"

"Well, somebody had to do something!" Lana shouted back. "It's not like you have any special powers!"

"Oh, really?" Lois doffed her coat, revealing a colorful costume underneath. "When I saw what was going on, I ran to my collection of Superman mementos and took a Kryptonian power pill! For the next twenty-four hours, I'm Super-Lois! And I'm more than a match for you, 'Insect Queen!'"

"That's what you think!" Lana transmogrified again into another half-human, half-insect creature. "In case you forgot, I can turn into Kryptonian insects too!"

Oswald looked around nervously. "Maybe we should go..."

Orla stood firm. "But if these two should engage in battle..."

"Trust me, we don't wanna get into the middle of it." Opal grabbed her friend's arm. "I've got an uncle who's WAY too into those stories. Come on, we've got to..." She looked around. "Where's Omar?"

"Here I am!" Omar hurried over from across the street. "I just went to grab a souvenir. There's this crazy store across the street, it sells paintings and busts of those two ladies..."

"Oh, I don't even want to think about it!" Opal grimaced, leading them all back to the van. "Let's get out of here and try somewhere else! There's gotta be some way we can get a halfway decent fanfic!"

Omar rustled through his shopping bag. "I got a poster..."

"Later..."

#

TO BE CONTINUED...