Bobby McCall sat at his drawing board brushing cookie crumbs off his pencilled artwork for an upcoming issue of SHMUMBERMAN.

"Dude," he smiled. "Righteous."

He took a swig of banana-papaya-strawberry juice, one of an enormous assortment of Shmumbers Juices sent in a gift basket to SHMUMBERMAN COMICS' current star artist and fan favorite. And his high school art teacher had told him he'd never amount to anything.

Admiring his work, he adjusted the sunglasses he habitually wore at all times as part of his artistic persona. Admittedly, wearing them indoors wasn't the best idea, especially when he was drawing, but he felt they enhanced the coolness factor of his art and accentuated his trademark scratchy style.

He'd just finished a five page fight scene and four panels of dialogue was next, if he remembered correctly. He loathed doing dialogue scenes. He had to leave room for word balloons and he hated the way the stories interrupted the fight scenes. But he figured if he concentrated on giving Shmumberman really HUGE muscles and an ENORMOUS chin and stuff, that'd help maintain his interest. It was a struggle sometimes for him to remember boring stuff like legs and feet. Fortunately, he had assistants to do the backgrounds for him. Drawing cars and furniture and buildings and stuff was hard.

He turned to the script and...

The script sitting on his drawing board was pristine, with crisp white pages. And it was closed. And the typeface was different.

"Waitasec! This ain't my script!"

Something sharp pressed against the back of his neck.

"It is now."

The voice was unfamiliar but female, which excited him. He turned to discover a very tall, almost bald woman with just a topknot of golden hair springing from the top of her head and cascading down one shoulder in a long braid. There was an ornate tattoo with some sort of bizarre quasi-exotic writing from her shoulder all the way down the entire right side of her body. She wore a steel bikini, high heeled leather boots, a velvet cloak, and a sneer as she pressed a sword to Bobby's throat.

She held the sword almost casually in one hand. With the other, she disdainfully tossed the actual comics script to the ground, the papers scattering on the floor.

"I... What?" He blinked under his sunglasses and attempted his best charming smile. "Who are you?"

"I am she who is called Barbarianette," she responded, her lips curled in disgust. "I am told your people created me. I care little for gods. And I care less for you!"

She jabbed the sword against his Adam's Apple, drawing a pinprick of blood.

She indicated the script she'd given him.

"You will draw that script. Or you will die!"

#

Some distance away, Octavia and Orchid emerged from the tube entrance near their local comics shop.

Octavia was checking her purse. "I hope I have enough money. I really need to pick up my pulls soon..."

Then she noticed the screaming. A panicked crowd of townspeople ran past her.

"Uh... what's going on?"

"THAT, Sherman!"

Orchid struck a pose and pointed to the long-haired, bearded man in the bizarre costume taking thirty-foot strides with either end of his enormous and elongated handlebar mustache.

"HAH! Run, you fools! Flee in terror at the fiendish vengeance of Van Dyke The Visigoth!"

He hung in midair, arms folded, legs dangling, as the ends of his gigantic mustache moved like spider-legs, stepping over the two girls and heading for the same comics shop they'd been en route to.

"Yes!" The Visigoth's beard lengthened and thickened into a post of hardened hair that supported him. The hairs of his mustache waved like tentacles. "And now... Time to destroy this... 'Craig's Comix and Sports Cards Emporium!"

"Hey!" Octavia ran over to stand in front of the store. "You can't do that!"

Van Dyke smirked. "Outta the way, girlie, or I'll stuff those pigtails down yer little pink throat!"

"THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK, SHERMAN!"

Orchid blindsided him with a flying tackle, slamming into the dangling man's midsection and knocking the wind out of him. They both fell to the ground. Orchid somersaulted to her feet and reached with both hands behind her back.

"Very cute, munchkin!" Van Dyke roared, his mustache tentacles converging on Orchid. "You've just earned yourself a..."

Then he saw what Orchid wielded in either hand.

"No! NO!"

Brandishing the twin set of scissors, she set to work snipping the hairs of his mustache, clipping away at one tentacle, then the other, in a whirlwind of tonsorial fury.

"NO! NOOOO!"

When The Visigoth's hair was short enough, Orchid produced an electric razor and finished the job. Presently, the formerly furry fiend was shorn and helpless.

"You're... unthinkable! Inhuman!" Van Dyke felt his clean-shaven face. "What kind of monster are you?"

"The kind that's gonna be a hairdresser when she grows up!" She twirled her scissors in either hand, then tucked them behind her back. "I have lots of practice keeping my buddy Obfusco's mustache trimmed!"

Octavia zapped the now-powerless villain with the handcuffinator. "Well! I guess all that's left for me to do is call Owen's guys to pick this palooka up, then get my comics..."

"Don't bother!"

A boy's voice came from an assortment of comics floating in midair.

Octavia smiled. "Oz! I was wondering where you'd gotten to!"

"I got a call on my badge phone!" the invisible agent explained. "Seems there's an epidemic of villains attacking comics stores! I figured I'd better run in and grab your pull before anything happened to it!"

"Good idea!" Octavia accepted the comics from him. "If they're that keen to keep us from reading the latest issue of SHMUMBERMAN, we'd better find out why!"

"Yeah!" Orchid closed her own badge-phone after completing the call to Owen. "I just hope the other agents can save the other comics shops!"

#

Meanwhile in Seattle, a dour, middle-aged man in a dark suit, a slouch hat, and a cape opened a box. Dozens of mechanical spiders about the size of a man's hand crawled out, plopping one by one to the ground.

"Yes," he purred. "Yes, my pretties, my fiendish creations, my brethren! Invade the Hammer and Tong Comics Shop! Let your deadly pincers and flame-jets loose upon its customers!"

The steel spiders scampered across the sidewalk toward the unassuming little store.

He stood, adjusting his black wool gloves and smirking malevolently. "They will learn and fear the name Doctor Pandrakos Logos!"

Then, to his bewilderment, he heard... tapping. Rthymic tapping.

"Tap-dancing?" He clutched his cloak. "What...?"

Presently, he saw the source of the taps: A boy in a sparkly purple suit, long, fanlike eyelashes fluttering as he danced out of the store and across the walk-way, stomping and crushing the little robot spiders underfoot.

Pandrakos Logos gnashed his teeth. "No! No!"

Spiders all crushed, the boy pirouetted and dropped into a crouch with jazz hands. "YEAH!"

Pandrakos Logos seethed, staring in disbelief. "Absurd! Ridiculous! Impossible!"

"All the things Odd Squad does best!" The boy smiled up at him.

"Meddlesome brat!" Doctor Logos produced a ray gun from a pouch in his cape. "I shall eliminate you for good!"

He fired. The beam bounced off the boy's sequins, radiating harmlessly in all directions and dazzling the fuming villain.

Seattle Mister O nonchalantly disarmed the incapacitated villain with a high kick, then motioned for his security people to lead him away.

He unclipped his badge phone. "Hello? Yes, I was able to stop him." He straightened his tie, turned on his heel, and headed back into the shop. "Now I have the latest issue of X-Men to get to!"

#

And in a coastal town, an enormous tidal wave cascaded down a suburban street, completely unconnected to any nearby body of water. The wave rolled down the road, an improbable image, knocking cars and pedestrians aside, a caped, masked, costumed man riding a surfboard at its apex.

"Now where...? THERE!"

Sighting The Comics Box, the villainous figure steered the wave toward it.

"Now, little shop," the masked man laughed, "Prepare to be flooded by The Wave Master!"

He gestured, shooting a jet of water from each hand.

Before they could hit the shop, however, a beam came from nowhere, freezing the water into ice, which shattered and fell to the ground.

"Huh?" The man looked at his blue, scalloped gloves, then at the shards of ice on the street. "How'd that happen?"

From nearby came a voice. "Like this!"

Another beam froze the wave the villain was riding on solid. The Wave Master found his surfboard and his boots stuck fast.

Two Odd Squad agents emerged from hiding.

"Good job, Orana!"

"Thanks, Oliver!" They high-fived. "Lucky thing we were on vacation Stateside!"

Grimacing and growling, The Wave Master struggled to free himself from his frozen perch.

"You little..." He gestured at the two agents. "I'll get you!"

Another jet-blast of water shot from the villain's fingers, only to be instantly turned to ice by the agents' freezeinators. The Wave Master was now helpless, his feet encased in a frozen wave, his arms sealed in long ice tubes too heavy for him to lift.

"Help!" He hunched over, a pitiable figure on his entrapped board. "Someone get me out of this!"

"Nice work, Oliver!" Orana told her partner, smiling cheerfully. "Now all we have to do is turn him over to the authorities!" She unclipped her badge phone. "Do you happen to know their number here by any chance?"

#

The ash-colored woman with the corona of flame and the bright red and orange sequined mini-dress posed on the roof of Boomer's Retreat Comics and Games.

"Time for this grubby little shop to feel the touch of Pyre!"

Fire erupted from the woman's skin, swirling wildly around her. Before she could set the store alight, however, a metal ruler cut though the air, whirling end over end and striking her on the head. The flames snuffed out and she staggered back, falling unconscious into the dumpster behind the store.

The ruler turned like a boomerang, flying back into Agent Octavius' hand.

"Nobody burns books on my watch!"

He stuck the ruler into his sweater pocket and shifted his Golden Age Wonder Woman Omnibus under his other arm as he used his badge-phone to call Odd Squad Security.

#

And elsewhere, Last Planet on The Left Comics was being approached by a floating, billowing figure. From a distance, it looked like a woman in a hoop-skirted ball gown. If one looked closely, however, one noticed the tentacles writhing around where her feet should be and realized the 'skirt' was actually a huge jellyfish-like construct, the upper half of a woman mounted on top in a monstrous amalgamation of human and sea beast. She waved her arms about like a ballet dancer, her movements mirrored by the tentacles, which crackled with electricity.

"And now," she half-spoke, half-sang, "this world shall experience the wrath of Princess Perilous!"

She flew through the air like a jellyfish swimming through the water, descending toward the comics shop, tentacles crackling, ready to attack.

Just as she was hovering over the shop, a lasso caught the strange being around the neck.

"Whu... GACH!"

A twist and Princess Perilous found herself choking.

"HRUH... HRUH... ERK!"

Another twist and she flew through the air sideways, slamming hard into a tree. Her skirts deflated and she fell to the ground, stunned.

"Sorry lady," Todd growled, standing over her. He loosened the lasso just enough to allow her to breathe before tying her to the tree. "But I ordered some Secret Six trade paperbacks and they just came in. And NOBODY gets between me and my Secret Six comics!"

Princess Perilous hissed weakly, her tentacles twitching and sparking. Todd turned and went into the store.

Eventually, someone thought to call the police.

#

"Another villain defeated?" The robed figure stormed about the villain meeting hall in the lost volcano on Shmumber Earth. "A fleet of the most powerful and dangerous super-criminals I could find... defeated by children armed with TOYS ! This is preposterous!"

"I tried to warn you," The Evil O leaned against the entrance. "They're Odd Squad. Preposterous is their stock in trade."

A minion dashed in. "Sir! Ultra Velvet is down!"

"WHAT?"

"We sent him to North Carolina. He was felled by a girl who struck him in the head with a golf ball."

The robed figure raged. The minion fled.

"And they have an extra-dimensional transporter too now," The Evil O reminded him. "Once their scientists get hold of it and learn its principles, they'll be able to come and go at will!"

The robed figure buried his head in his hands. Then inspiration struck.

"Very well," he hissed. "I may not be able to defeat the Odd Squad in the real world... But HERE... HERE I am a GOD!"

He turned and placed his hands to his temples, concentrating.

"And I know precisely how to stop Otto, Olive, and The Little O from using their extra-dimensional transporter! And I'll slow OSMU and the Shmumber heroes as well!"

"Grand!" The Evil O dropped her cloak. "And I'll take care of Olympia and Otis!"

#

The three Odd Squad agents in question were in a park near a convenience building. They'd sent Professor Straw on her way and were in the process of regrouping.

"There!" Olive ran her badge over the dimensional transporter in Otto's hands. "We should be able to scan this and send the schematics to Oscar and the other scientists..."

"That way, even if this one gets ruined, we'll be able to make another one!" Otto smiled. "Or Oscar will. Or that one girl, what's her name? Uno?" He shuddered. "She's got scary eyes, man..."

Little O was talking on her badge-phone. "Okay, you and the Shmumber Squad are gonna try to track down the head villains..."

"Here," an elderly woman vaguely resembling Orpita hobbled out of the shadows and grabbed the phone out of her hand. "Lemme talk to 'em! Okay kid, whachu gotta do is... Never mind who this is, you just shut up an' listen!"

"Huh? Hey!" Little O tried to grab her phone back. The old lady held it out of her reach. "Give me that back! I need that!"

The old lady patted Little O's head. "Never you mind, baby. You just let your old Gran-Gran take care of everything. Now you needs to call in the air support... Well, you better get some air support, boy..."

Meanwhile, Otto turned to discover a sour-faced, balding man with a scruffy beard and a ratty sweater glaring at him. "And this is what you do with your time? You stand around and hold car parts while a girl takes photographs?"

Otto blinked. "Huh?"

"Your mother and me, we start with nothing, we work hard to give you an education, nice clothes, good shoes, everything. And what do you do? Eat and play, eat and play, work at your Strange Squad..."

"Odd Squad."

"...And listen to junk music. Why are you like this? Why can't you be like your sister? Such a good girl..."

Nearby, Olive found two rambunctious toddlers running in circles around her, screaming at the top of their lungs. A casually dressed woman was nearby checking her purse and tying a scarf around her neck.

"Oh, Olive! There you are!" she said brightly, applying a fresh coat of lipstick. "I've been looking everywhere for you! I need you to look after your little brother and sister while I run to the store for a minute..."

"WHAT?" Olive stared at the two little kids bouncing up and down and jumping at her. "But I don't..."

The woman frowned. "Yes, honey. I know. You're 'busy.' But I haven't had a break all day! I don't think it's asking too much for you to spend a couple hours with your siblings and give me a break..."

The intruders crowded around the three agents, nattering and pestering them incessantly.

#

Not that far away in a flying translucent pirate ship, Oswald was talking into his badge phone.

"Yeah, but we... What? No, we... Look, can I talk to the Little O, please? No, I need to talk to her, it's important! No, I..."

He grimaced as the voice kept going, shaking his head at his teammates.

Doctor Darkendire stood nearby, his long black cloak wrapped around him, glaring balefully around him.

"This world is grim," he croaked in an affected, throaty whisper. "It will try to destroy you. The only way to survive is to be stronger than it. To crush it underfoot."

Osmerelda cocked her head. "Do you need a hug?"

Darkendire's eyes widened. "No! I don't..."

"Cause it sounds to me like you need a hug."

She moved in, the black-clad figure recoiling as she embraced him.

"No! No! I..."

She hugged him tight.

He collapsed into tears, sobbing uncontrollably while Osmerelda rocked with him back and forth and patted him gently.

"There, there. It's okay. Just let it all out..."

Omar stared. "I think she broke him."

Shmumberman looked over. "No, it's fine. That happens sometimes. They just don't show it in the comics because they're worried it'll ruin his image..."

"Hold!" Orla held up her hand, then pointed over the bow of the ship down to the ground. "Something seems to be occurring below!"

It certainly was. Various ordinary citizens were gathering beneath the flying transparent pirate ship, shaking their fists up at the people onboard. Some were carrying torches.

"WE HATE SHMUMBERMAID!" They started chanting. "WE HATE ODD SQUAD!"

"Wh-WHAT?" Oswald looked around in confusion. Then a rock sailed past him, barely missing him by inches.

"WE HATE SHMUMBERMAID!" The people below grabbed stones from the ground and hurled them up at the ship. "WE HATE ODD SQUAD!"

A small voice added, "Especially the Third Season!"

#

And back on Earth Odd, Otis was tightening the ropes on the rope tying Butcher and The Worm back to back.

The two villains struggled and sniped at one another.

"How could you have been so stupid?"

"She tricked me! She took me by surprise! Anyway, you were no better!"

"But I almost had him! If he hadn't... URK!"

"There!" Otis admired his work. "That should hold them until Owen and his guys arrive!"

"I hope so!" Olympia snapped her badge-phone closed. "That was Owen. He said they're really busy with picking up captured villains lately..."

"Then don't worry about it," said a voice and a ray struck the two villains, making them vanish. "I'll just send them back home!"

Olympia's eyes went wide. "A-A-A-Agent OLIVE!"

"That's right!" Olive tossed her hair. She stood there, wearing her modified Ms. O outfit. "Otto and I finished our case, so I thought I'd come here and assist the two of you."

Olympia was almost hyperventilating with excitement. "It-It-It would be an honor, ma'am! Or Ms. O. Or... Would you prefer ma'am? We can call you ma'am if you want, or we..."

Otis mercifully interrupted. "We appreciate the help, Agent Olive."

Beside him, Agent Olympia quietly squeed.

#

And back in Odd Squad headquarters, Oona signalled to Oscar.

"Boss! Something just happened!"

Oscar hurried over and examined the data. "It looks like the person from The Mirror Universe has come back to this world again..."

#

TO BE CONTINUED...