Cheryl was pleased.  She’d had a very successful afternoon of shopping in many of the various Parodyverse stores.  She only regretted that she’d neglected to bring Visionary along.  He always made a good packhorse.  And good company, of course.  She was now on her way home, carrying a good many bags and packages.  As she walked up to the door of the condo she shared with her husband, she attempted to reach into her pocket to retrieve her keys.  Realising that this was futile, she reached for the doorbell.  Before she could ring the bell, though, the door exploded open.  Cheryl was knocked to the ground, her purchases flying everywhere.  There was a strange little man with a crazy look in his eyes clutching her leg, and spiffy and Banjooooo were running as fast as they could away from her home.  There was a horde of… they looked like some kind of rat chasing them.  She sighed, being used to the activities of her husband’s friends by now, and focused her attention on the gibberish-spewing little man on her leg.
   “And who might you be?” she asked.
   “Eh?  Me?  I be Elsqueeeeeeevio!  Scouuuuurge of beeeeeeevers!  Kill all!  Meheheheheheh!  Beaverbeaverbeaverbeaver…”
   “Yes… Adam!” she called into the house.  Visionary came rushing out.
   “Oh, Cheryl!  You’re home! Ah…” he said, looking at the packages strewn everywhere, “Let me get those…”
   “Not just yet, honey.  Who’s this man on my leg?” she asked, gesturing to Elsqueevio.
   “I didn’t catch his name… they went into the closet right away…”
   “I am Elsqueeeeeeeevio!” he shrieked, somewhat insulted.
   “Okay, he’s Elsqueevio,” Visionary continued, “He came with spiffy and Banjooooo.  I think he kills beavers.”
   “Oh, dear.  I think you and I, Elsqueevio, are going to have to have a little chat,” she grabbed him by the leg and dragged her behind him through the door.  As Visionary went to follow, she continued, “And Adam, honey?  Pick up my packages.”
   “Help Elsqueevio…” Elsqueevio whimpered.

   “Here’smynumbercallmeI’mreallycool!” spiffy yelled, tossing a piece of paper at a rather attractive teenage girl as he ran.
   “You’re pathetic,” Banjooooo commented.
   “Yeah, well… pant… you’ve got… Elyse… it’s tough to… get a girlfriend… these days… ah…”
   “My other friends don’t seem to be having this much trouble.”
   “Want me to… tell Elyse… you’re mocking me again?”
   “Actually, she thinks it’s funny.”
   spiffy opened his mouth to spout out a witty retort, but realised that he didn’t have one.  Instead, he looked over his shoulder.  The beavers were still there.  Looking ahead again, he realised that Banjooooo was no longer in front of him.
   “What… the…” he began, before being grabbed from behind.  The breath was knocked out of him, and he stood still for a few seconds before taking in his surroundings.  He was in an alley, with cardboard boxes and garbage cans strewn everywhere.  The beavers were gathered at the entrance, glowering at them.  The lead , hard hat-wearing beaver spit at them.  It landed on spiffy’s foot.  “Ew…”
    “Why aren’t they following us?” Banjooooo asked.
    “Wha…oh, um… that is odd.  Guess they don’t like alleys.”  As if in response, the beavers turned around and waddled away.  “Okay… oh, crap, where’s Elsqueevio?”
   “Oh…  I dunno.  He’ll be fine, he’s a professional beaver-wrangler.”
   “You sound like Visionary.”
   “Oh God, I do?  Ahh…”
   “Speaking of Vizh, he’s probably back at the condo still.  We should go get him.”
   “Yeah, okay.  Just gimme a sec, I’ve got something sticking into my back.”  The giant sea monkey reached behind him and plucked something out.  He was about to toss it away, but then stopped.   “Eugh… it’s a thumb!  Gahh…”
   “Why did you have a thumb sticking into your back?”
   “How should I know?  This is sick!” Again, he was about to toss it away, but then stopped.  “What the.. there’s something written on it.  It says: spiffy, large fish, this is my thumb.  I am being held at… this part’s smudged.  But it’s signed ‘Bubba.’”
   “Bubba gave us his thumb as a clue?  Ick…”
   “He called me ‘large fish?’  What the…”
   “And the most important part is smudged… if he’s gonna give us his thumb, he should at least make sure it isn’t smudged.  Where do you think it came from?”
   “Bubba’s hand.”
   “… after that.”
   “Oh, I don’t know… where’ve we been?  The agency… the museum… Vizh’s condo… here.  Must’ve picked it up in one of those places.  We’d better get back to base and analyse this thing.  Oh… but how do we get by the beavers?”
   “Um… that could be tricky… wait, we can both fly.”
   “Yes, yes we can.”
   “We’re such idiots…” spiffy said, slowly rising into the air.  Banjooooo followed.  But, at the top of the surrounding buildings, spiffy found that he couldn’t go any farther up.  “Okay… well, this’ll do,” he decided, floating along at roof level.  They soon arrived back at spiffy’s mansion, after dropping the thumb off with NTU.
   “What now?” Banjooooo asked.
   “Detective stuff,” spiffy replied simply.
   “Meaning…?”
   “Hardy Boys!” spiffy said enthusiastically, diving for a pile of books sitting on his desk.
   “Hardy… Boys?  My God…” the sea monkey said, resigned.  He joined spiffy, who was already deep into the complicated mystery.   Several hours later, the pair had gone through every Hardy Boys book ever written.  They had discovered that the criminal is NEVER the obvious suspect, they ALWAYS leave lots of clues, and that detectives talk funny.
   “Are you sure this is right?” Banjooooo asked skeptically.
   “Not really, I just wanted an excuse to read Hardy Boy books without looking like a wuss…”
   “And it really worked, too.  So, we should figure out the suspects.”
   “Well, it’s obviously a villain.  It’s always a villain.  Zemo, Moo, evil spiffy, that weird fish guy, Parody Master… one of them.”
   “True, but not all heroes are all that fond of Bubba either.  He stole Lisa from Jarvis… and Donar just hates him for some reason.”
   “No, I can’t see Jarvis or Donar kidnapping him…”
   “Yeah, but you never know…”
   “Oh, geez, we forgot to pick up Elsqueevio.  Better do that, he must be driving Cheryl and Vizh crazy.”
   The duo soared over to the condo, where everything seemed to be relatively intact.  Visionary answered the door.
   “Oh, hey guys.  Need something?” he asked.
   “Nah, we’re just here for Elsqueevio,” spiffy answered.
   “He’s in with Cheryl.  They’ve been talking for hours… come on in!”  They complied, and found themselves waiting in the hall as Visionary went to get Elsqueevio.
   “So… uh… nice closet they have here, huh…” spiffy said, trying to start a conversation.
   “Oh, NO!” Banjooooo cried.
   “Well, okay, my closets are nicer…”
   “No, not that!  I remember… in the closet.  I sat down and leaned against the wall… and that’s where I picked up that sharp pain… the thumb!  It came from the closet… Visionary’s closet!”
   “You’re not implying that… Vis?”
   “Why else would it be there?”
    “You’re right… we’d better do something.”
    Visionary chose that moment to return.  “Here he is.”
    “Beavers are gooooood… beavers are my friends….” Elsqueevio muttered, “Must kill purple… puuuuurple…”
   Visionary shrugged.  “Cheryl figured that killing beavers was inhumane or something.”
   “Enough lies, Vizh!  We know you kidnapped Bubba!  Now where is he?” spiffy demanded.
   “Wha… Bubba was kidnapped?  Why didn’t you alert the Legion?” Visionary asked, confused.
   “We… ah…” Banjooooo stammered, “Shut up!  Where’d you put him?  Why were you sapping his powers?”
   “I… uh… what?”
   “For the…” spiffy began, but then the door burst open.  They whirled around to find a very out of breath NTU.
   “spiffy… Banjooooo… analysed thumb… didn’t find anything… then scanned for energy… found spiffycosmic… and…” he paused.
    “And?” Banjooooo urged him.
   “And… and… thought energy,” NTU finished slowly.
   “Thought energy?” spiffy replied, startled.
   “But that means…” Banjooooo started.
   “Yo!” Visionary said in an anguished cry.