"No, I’m saying that they’re watching you guys arguing." He nodded at the camera, and winked again.

"Yeah, I heard you. You got a twitch?"

"No!" Gray Zombie took a deep breath and said, "My eyes are fine… and with that camera on, they can see and hear that my eyes are fine." He gave a long wink.

Amon understood what Zombie was saying. He looked at Anime, and said with a wink, "Don’t you get it? The camera is letting them know exactly what we say and do…"

Anime blinked, saying, "I got it!" She walked over to the camera. Coyly putting her hands behind her back, she smiled demurely at the camera, and stood on her tiptoes, laying a wet *kiss* on the lens. There was a shower of sparks and smoke as it fell to the floor in a heap. She smiled back at the men. "What can I say? I have a way with a camera!"

Gray Zombie smiled. "Ok Cappers… it won’t be long before they fix that. I don’t have much time, so listen close…"

*

Miglionicco say behind his desk, looking at GlitterRock. "Well, Mr. Rock, what do you think you can bring to the Cadre?"

"Dude, like I gave you the Cappers!"

The Baron nodded. "Hmmm. Yes. Double-dealing is a trait I admire, I must admit."

"But I thought I was in!"

"Oh, no! Since I took over this group, I instituted a series of criteria that all potential supervillain members must meet—"

His office door opened, and The Evil Cheese poked his head in. "Baron, good news! My Limburger idea has woken up Darth Binks!" He closed the door.

Miglionicco sighed. "Admittedly, there are a few members of the Cadre who fall below those criteria." He reached over and shook GlitterRock’s hand. "Welcome to the Cadre, Mr. Rock."

"Like, cool, man!"

"Quite!" He handed over a folder to him. "Inside contains your membership packet and card, dental and medical coverage information and your parking space in the cadre reserved parking lot."

There was another knock at the door. It opened, and Mr. Sneer came in. "Baron," he sneered, "the Cappers have knocked out the camera in their cell. What should we do?"

Miglionicco held his chin in contemplation. "Well, perhaps you could start a recycling drive? Or offer to take meals to the elderly. Or perhaps… REPLACE THE BLOODY CAMERA!!!" He shook his head in disgust. "Sneer, you’re so incompetent, you’d cock up a jaywalking."

"Hey, Baron," GlitterRock said, "like let me do it! Imagine the expression on their tired old orbs when I come in…"

The Baron smiled a thin smile. "They’d be reminded of your betrayal of them! It would sting like a thousand scorpions! It would build bile in their bellies and extinguish all hope in their hearts! I like it." He picked up a small notebook, and made a note. "Keep this up, and you could be employee of the month, Mr. Rock."

Glitter got up and collected his guitar. The Baron said to Mr. Sneer, "Go with him. Perhaps you’ll learn something about being a supervillain."

*

The cell door opened, and GlitterRock and Mr. Sneer entered. Sneer held a new camera, and moved to put it up on the wall. Glitter said to the Cappers, his hand poised over his guitar, "Stay where you are, or you cats will dig a new tune I’m working on called Hit Your Head In The Wall Till You Can’t Stand It, Y’all."

Anime repeated, "Y’all? Country, Glitter?"

"I’m looking into branching out…"

Amon snapped, "I can’t believe you betrayed us, Glitter! Doesn’t everything we’ve been through mean anything to you? Remember how we took down Dr. Thing and his Machine of Evil?"

Anime added, "And what about when we defeated the Lord of Ooze?"

Gray Zombie said, "And Space-Hitler?"

GlitterRock said, "Yeah, but you know something? I wanna be rich! Even if I have to take orders from a dude like the Baron to do it."

Mr. Sneer had put the camera on the wall. "’Even if I have to take orders from a dude like the Baron?" He sneered, "What do you mean?"

"Well, he ain’t exactly trustworthy, is he?"

"But he’s a supervillain. Bu our very nature, we’re an untrustworthy sort."

"But he doesn’t seem to think very highly of you guys." He coughed under his breath, "*Incompetent!*"

Mr. Sneer gave the camera a tug to make sure it was on tight. He sneered under his breath, thinking, "Hey… he called me incompetent…" He looked over at Glitter. "Come on. Let’s get out of here."

As they left, the Cappers looked at each other and winked.

*

Mr. Sneer barged into the Baron’s office. "Hey, boss! I didn’t like the way you’ve been talking to me!"

Miglionicco crossed his arms. "Ah. Which way? The way I ridicule your intellect by thinking that a toothpick has more sense than you do? Or the way I utterly disrespect you by giving you only the most menial tasks to perform?"

Mr. Sneer looked blankly at him. "What was the question again?"

Miglionicco sighed. "Get out, Sneer."

*

The door to the cell opened, and The Evil Cheese, Ms. Iree and Darth Binks came in. They looked smugly at the Cappers. "Miglionicco wants us to interrogate you three."

Amon asked, "Why?"

"Standard reason. Find our your secrets. Bend you to our wills. You know, same old, same old."

The Cappers looked at each other, nodding with a wink.

*

The Evil Cheese circled Gray Zombie, the hero strapped to an electric chair. "Now, Zombie… you’re gonna tell the Baron what he wants to know, and you’re gonna tell me now."

Zombie looked at him. "Don’t you have any questions of your own, Cheese?" When the villain didn’t reply, he shook his head in the restraint. "No wonder the Baron thinks you’re a dim bulb."

"He doesn’t think that!"

"Sure he does! He thinks you’re all jokes! Why else did he change the name of your group from the Conglomeration of Evil to the Cadre?"

Evil Cheese thought a moment. "It had something to do with the ‘dre,’ I remember." He shook his head. "Ah, you’re bonkos! Miglionicco thinks we’re great!"

"That’s not what Mr. Sneer was telling GlitterRock in our cell…"

*

"Heeza say dat?"

Amon nodded. He was chained to the wall, arms outstretched. Darth Binks stood in front of him with a red-hot poker. "Yeah! The Baron seems to be the kind of a guy who’d cut you loose as soon as he got what he wanted."

Binks’ helmet shook. "Nooo! Heeza ay-one good-bad-guy! Heeza taka good cara uz! Givza da maxi-evil orders!"

"Well… maybe. But what’s he done for you? I mean, has he ever done anything that made you feel special? Feel trusted? Feel… loved?"

Binks thought to himself. Then he began blubbering tearfully. "Wahhhhhhh!! Da Baron makez funnada way meeza speex!"

"What?" Amon said with mock outrage, "That’s horrible!"

"Izza twue!" Binks sobbed, "Noboddy luvvz Dar-Dar!"

"I remember when you guys were the Conglomeration. You guys hung together through thick and thin. You all seemed pretty tight, then."

Binks nodded. "Uh-huh! Uh-huh! De Kongomlerashun! They wuz bombast-palz, for shur!"

Amon shrugged. "But, the Baron got rid of the Conglomeration…" He looked at Binks suspiciously.

Darth Binks tossed the poker to the floor with a clatter. He extended his tongue through his helmet distastefully. "Meeza hatez da Baron! Maxi-hatez! Heeza runed everyting!"

*

Ms. Iree buried her face in her hands, sobbing. Animebabe was chained to a table, a pencil-thin laser crossing up a gold table towards her.

Ms. Iree said, "I mean… I try to do my best! To be a great supervillainess!" He pointed at her chest. "Why else did I buy these?"

Anime nervously looked down at the laser slowly inching up towards her. "Uh… decoration?"

"Exactly! That’s my schtick! I use my sexual wiles on men to get what I want, and then I kill them!" She swiped the air with her sharp talons. "I really thought the implants would help my career..."

The scent of burning-gold reached Anime’s nostrils. "I hear ya, girlfriend! The Baron’s stifling your creativity!"

She pointed at her chest again. "And stifling these, too!" She sighed. "I wish he’d never shown up!"

Anime felt the heat of the laser reaching her inner thigh. "Uh… Ms.? Do you mind?"

"What? Oh, right." She pulled a lever, and the laser shut down. Anime let out a sigh of relief. She looked at Anime. "But I mean… we accepted the Baron as our leader. What can we do to get rid of him?"

Anime said, "Well, you never know… you might think of something…"

*

Major Antagonist was talking with Mr. Sneer when the Baron called him to his office. He found Miglionicco talking on the phone. "… no, no, no. Make that two cases of caviar. What? Of course, imported!" He saw Antagonist, and put his hand over the phone. "Tell the rest of the Cadre to get ready. The Mayor’s handing over control of the City to me."

"Striking!"

"Whatever! I’ve insisted on a large ceremony in front of City Hall. He’ll hand over the city to me, I’ll make a speech declaring my superiority… blah blah blah… you’re all less than dust beneath my feet … blah blah blah… "

"What about the Cappers?"

"Kill them." He thought a moment. "No, wait! Bring them to the ceremony! After I’ve declared my rule, we’ll kill them in front of the masses. It’ll add a nice air of desolation to the event. Now, go." As the Major left, he talked on the phone again.

"Where was I, now? What? Birthday party? No, I’m taking over the city…"

*

Darth Binks said to the others, "Deeza is reedikilus!"

Mr. Sneer sneered, "I agree. Remember the good old days in the Conglomeration? We never took orders from anyone!"

Major Antagonist said, "And Dark Nemesis’ New Year’s parties were striking!" They all nodded in agreement.

Ms. Iree said, "But what can we do? If we try to take out the Baron, he’ll just use that thing on us, and vaporize us like he did Lady Die and Nemesis!"

GlitterRock spoke up. "Cats and kittens, you need to take him off guard! Maybe you should ask the Cappers to help."

"Outrageous!"

"Unthinkable!"

"Thassa maxi-stoopid!"

"Strike that man!"

The Evil Cheese said, "We’d never ally with the Cappers!"

Ms. Iree said, "Well, except for that Crisis when the anti-matter universe guy tried to destroy our universe."

"And when that all-powerful entity kidnapped us, and took us all to that planet for that Secret War."

"Yeah, and when that telepathic being unleashed that Onslaught on us, and sucked us into that parallel universe, and we lived out similar lives, but slightly different. And we finally Returned."

"Yeah," Darth Binks said, "and da time dat deeza time guyz tried to taka over de world and bombast de whole heestory…"

They all looked blankly at Binks. Mr. Sneer said to GlitterRock, "You see—we only team up with the Cappers once a year, GlitterRock! That way, when it happens, it’s special. Anymore times than that and it just gets boring. You should know that!"

Glitter said, "Well, it was just a suggestion. I mean, if you want to get rid of the Baron bad enough, I’d think you’d do just about anything!"

The Evil Cheese snapped his fingers. "That’s it! That’d work!"

"What do you mean, Cheese?"

"Don’t you see, I