Buzz closed his eyes and concentrated, he turned into a praying mantis with a tiny purple jumpsuit right in front of their eyes. It had Buzz’s head and human feet on the ends of its legs, but it was a praying mantis just the same. Ian said, “Cool,” in a voice that was clearly filled with admiration and amazement. Nick jumped back a little, but no one seemed to notice.

“Usually, Rube Goldberg machines take a lot of steps that you don’t need to do something easy but, in your case, you need to take all the steps or else the simple job will never get done."

What Maniac Mike Mullins did not know about was “The Ones You Call When Everyone Else is Busy.” He didn’t know about them because no one did. They had kept their crime fighting skills a secret for as long as they had been together. This was partly because no one ever needed their help in Middleville and partly because they didn’t think they were good enough to fight crime.

“Have you been rudely ridiculed? Have your schemes been seen as silly and simple? I’m starting a new nefarious network. Please join me and together we will wage wicked war and start senseless scandals.”