Meanwhile, the Nega-Chin watched his recently hired minions renovate his evil lair, relishing the fact that the non-powered goons struggled to move his stuff around.
"Who says that watching the pain and misery of your own minions is no longer fun?" he laughed in a maniacal manner.
All laughter would soon stop just as one of the minions dropped a bust of his chin.
"Hey!" the Nega-Chin jumped in front of the perpetrator and shot him a glare that could give even comic book editors nightmares. "Do you realize what you just broke?"
"A-A weird statue…" the scared minion answered.
"IT WASN'T WEIRD!" the Nega-Chin shouted, his powerful voice causing the entire lair to shake. "It was a representation of how perfect my chin is!"
"S-Sorry, Boss," the minion stuttered. "But it wouldn't have happened if you gave us something to help move all this heavy stuff."
The Nega-Chin opened his mouth to yell some more, but the point his minion made caused him to pause and ponder his response.
"Hm… You make a good point…" the Nega-Chin said.
The minion breathed a sigh of relief before the Nega-Chin punched him out of the lair.
"I hate it when goons make a good point," the Nega-Chin muttered.
Just then, Short-Fuse rolled into the lair with a disappointed look on his face.
"What's with the long face, Fuse? My goody two-shoes and not as good-looking counterpart is gone, meaning that Chincinatti is helpless to stop whatever evil plan we enact," the Nega-Chin said.
"What about Cleft and his reality-warping companions?" another minion asked.
The Nega-Chin casually grabbed the out of line minion and threw him out of the lair.
"We're prepared for that," Nega-Chin replied.
"But what if Cleft had 3 other do-gooders with him?" Short-Fuse brought up.
"You mean other than his canines?" Nega-Chin asked.
The confused super-villian watched Short-Fuse pull out a hologram device and show him footage of Cleft, Quickster, Dani and Ace stopping a criminal from getting away with a van filled with bars of gold.
"Great Jumping Gymsocks! Who issued a crossover?!" Nega-Chin exclaimed.
"And why is there a walking block of cheese with them?" Short-Fuse added.
"Cleft must have spent a pretty short amount of time assembling that team-up," the Nega-Chin laughed.
That is, he laughed until he realized he spoke a word he should not have in front of his tiny colleague.
"Short?!" tucking into his super-villain uniform, the fuse on Short-Fuse's head ignited in front of everyone in the lair.
"Oh boy…" the Nega-Chin mumbled before his colleague detonated.
Meanwhile in Chincinatti…
"Anyone else surprised that these gold bars are secretly canisters holding some weird purplish-black goop?" Dani wondered aloud, her curious eyes glued to the glowing objects.
"The editors are finally making their move!" fretted Cosmo, fearfully looking around the surrounding area.
"The editors have nothing to do with what's going on here, Cosmo," Wanda said in a stern tone.
"Right…" Cosmo smirked.
"There's only one way to find out what's really going on here…" Quickster announced.
At the blink of an eye, Quickster appeared before the apprehended criminal and slapped him.
"What was that for?" the confused criminal asked.
"I'm interrogating you," Quickster casually answered.
"But what about questions?" the criminal pointed out.
Quickster slapped the criminal once more, confusing him even further.
"What was that for?" the criminal asked.
"You asked a question," Quickster replied.
"Let me take a crack at it, Quickster," Ace gently pushed Quickster to the side and shined an ultra-viloet flashlight on the criminal's face. "Alright, why'd you steal… What did you steal, exactly?"
But instead of getting any kind of answer, all Ace received was a skeptical look from the thief
"Playing cards suits…" the criminal's eyes scanned Ace's costume. "Seriously?"
"What's wrong with playing card suits?" Ace questioned.
"Who makes a superhero persona based on playing cards? That's so lame," the unimpressed criminal critiqued.
"Hey!" the insulted hero snapped.
"I thought you said you don't care about other people's opinions," Cleft reminded him.
"That doesn't count when in a comic book world in an alternate dimension…" Ace muttered.
"Okay, let me try," Dani interjected, sporting a devious grin on her face.
She extended her right palm towards criminal's face and ominously flexed her fingers.
"What are you doing?" the criminal asked.
"It's clear that you're not going to talk no matter what we do, so I think I'll get the information out of you in a more invasive manner," Dani smirked.
"W-What are you going to do…?" the criminal stuttered.
"I'm going to slowly phase my hand into your head and just as slowly, maybe even slower, pull your brain out so we can find out what you were trying to do," Dani explained.
"You're bluffing… You wouldn't do that," the criminal said.
"Try me," Dani snickered.
The young half-ghost hand slowly inched its way to the criminal's cranium. While he was clearly nervous on the outside, on the inside he was absolutely terrified. After all, what kind of thief could he be if he didn't have a brain? His fear multiplied as Dani's hand came closer and closer until the tip of her index finger phased into his head.
"OKAY! I'll talk! I'll talk!" the criminal relented.
"Whoa!" Cleft could not hide how impressed he was by Dani's fear tactic. "Think I could get you to do on a few people I know?"
"Timmy!" Wanda shot the 10-year old superhero a stern look.
"So what do you know?" Dani asked the criminal, placing her pointer finger on his sweaty forehead, ready to phase it back in at any moment's notice.
"All I know is that someone paid me to deliver this truck to a certain part of the city. I don't know who it was or why the wanted any of whatever's back there," the criminal confessed.
"That's really all you know?" Dani queried.
"Yeah… That and the fact that the guy who hired me said I wouldn't have to worry about Cleft and his sidekicks interfering because they would be too busy dealing with the crime wave."
"What crime wave?" Quickster wondered aloud.
Just then, the four young heroes noticed that the area darkened and looked up. What they saw was a giant tidal wave headed their way.
"Ohhhhh…. That crime wave," Quickster gulped.
To Be Continued…