Scene: the superman board.

In the background, Jerry and Jack are pummelling each other senseless, partially obscured by a rolling cloud of dust, in the best "Calvin & Hobbes" tradition. Z-Mage is standing by, trying to re-categorise his pokeball collection.

In the foreground, the unconscious form that was OzBat! lay still on the floor, as the Mysterie Machine'rs stood around trying to work out what to do.

"I bags the NEB if Ozzie kicks the bucket!" grinned Greg.

"That's assuming there's an NEB left after all this." growled the wolf. "Besides, aren't you being oddly malicious at the prospect of somebody dying?"

"hey! It isn't me for a change! I'm just getting into the spirit of things!"

"I wonder if you're allowed to die twice in the same story...?"

Greg backed away from Fenris slightly, and then jolted as he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. OzBat's body seemed to liquify, splitting into several pools on the floor. All of which shimmied for a few minutes, before solidifying again into wildly varying forms.

There before the mystified mysterie mob were what appeared to be an autobot transformer; bat-mite; an anti-matter blob that magically decided not to blow up on contact with the positive-matter floor; a girl wearing a bed-sheet over her head like a ghost, held in place with green ski goggles; and a World War II Australian soldier.

"I don't get it." said Demonicuss. "More NEB characters? Jerry controls all the NEB characters!"

The aussie soldier laughed. "Not quite, mate!"

Fenris furrowed his furry brow. "Riiiiight... I think I've seen these before, not just on the NEB..."

The hulking black autobot with the green Oz map on its chest leaned down on one knee and introduced itself. "Hi, I'm Sideswipe! And this is BatMite! (the imp wot looked like OzBat! grinned like a cheshire cat), the anti-matter blob (which didn't do anything besides glow a bit), the Phantom Scribbler! (a green ski glove waved out from under the sheet), and the BushWhacker!"

"A bit fond on apostrophes, were we?" whispered Demonicuss to Greg, with a nudge of the elbow.

"I still don't get it." muttered Golden Lion. "How is this supposed to help?"

"We're not just NEB characters. We've all different aspects of OzBat the CBR member - the various names he's used on the boards." The transformer smiled proudly. "I was first, wayyyy back on the Kingdom Come Message Boards. Then BatMite!"

"He changed to OzBat! not long after the boards became the CBR, to avoid copywrite problems with DC when the Pantheon started writing their stories." interjected the Phantom Scribbler. "Spurred on by that, he spent some time switching between original identities like myself, or the anti-matter blob, or BushWhacker! Eventually those ID's ended up in NEB stories, but we existed as part of OzBat's psych before then! We're all different parts of the same whole."

"How... zen!" grimaced Greg.

In the background, one part of the scuffling cloud of dust appeared to be gaining the upper hand. Until the other half belted it in the solar plexus with the DC price guide, eliciting an enormous scream of soul-rending pain from one of the combatants.

"YES!! MWUHHHH-HAHAHAHAAA!" screamed Z-Mage. Before sheepishly popping Pikachu back in his correct pokeball. The battle continued on regardless, leaving the Mystery Crew to turn back to their existential exposition.

"The point, mate, is Jerry can't really control all the NEB characters. A great many of them are really other faces used by CBR members. OzBat allowed himself to fracture into his component identities, in order to remove the purely NEB versions of us from the battlefield." BushWhacker continued. "End result: more ammo for the good guys, less ammo for the bad guys! Got it?"

"ooooOOOOOOooooh!" they all chorused in unison. While privately shaking their heads.

"I always figured Ozzie was a bit of a schizophrenic delusionist, but this is taking things a bit far!" snickered Fenris. Until "BatMite!" dragged out an impossibly oversized ACME ray-gun from under his dishcloth-sized cape, and

*ZAP!*

...fenris was literally standing beside himself. Or rather, standing beside the wolf was a disconcerted and confused wraithe in a green cloak, clutching his "WRATH OF GOD HANDBOOK" nervously to his chest.

"Ozzie, this ISN'T a good idea!!"

"Streuth, wotta lotta rubbish! Ev'rybody, I'd like to introduce you to Richard Spectre, longtime alter-ego of our canine friend from as far back as the KCMB!!"

Fenris looked up at himself and groaned. "At least this means we don't have to face any avenging spirits of God on the NEB now, right?"

"Right. He'll cause more damage right here with US!" muttered Greg.

"I heard that!"

"Now then..." smirked the raygun-toting mischievious fifth-dimensional imp once known as OzBat!, "... who else has a hidden personality we can capitalise on??"

"Just promise me Oz, that you will never use that thing on Fly, okay? The boards aren't big enough to contain the damage!"

Meanwhile, the dustcloud known collectively as Jack and Jerry continued on, blissfully unaware of the change in status on the boards.

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