Mr Mxyzptlk was back again, and normally for Superman that meant he had the mischievous being from the fifth dimension causing bother for him with others caught in the crossfire. And this was to be no different an occasion. Except that rather than Superman, Mxyzptlk  had accidentally found Superboy.

Superboy, Robin, and Impulse, to be exact. The three young heroes had been at the Metropolis Museum of Art, where the shapeshifting Clayface had been seeking to steal valuable treasures by disguising himself as the curator.

None of this mattered to Mxyzptlk. What did was the idea he had upon seeing the mudman battle the trio. In their fight, the four had damaged a number of exhibits, including a bust of Caesar.

"Vandals..." Mxyzptlk commented, before snapping his fingers. In an instant, the three heroes froze into place. Clayface then noticed the newcomer.

"Mudman. How would you like these three out of your way for now?"

The hulking mass of clay looked at the trio, frozen where they stood, stiff as statues, frozen with grimaces on their face. Only their eyes still moved, dashing back and forth in confusion.

"What did you do to them anyway?"

"Just paralyzed them. I've got an offer for you though. See, I came here to play with the big blue guy, not the little one and his two friends. He's around somewhere and chances are he's going to show up if his three little friends go missing, so I have an idea. It means Superman will still come after you, but he'll have a distraction. You can hide your loot, I get to have my fun with Superman."

The mudman considered this.

"Fine with me. What's your idea?"

"Well, these three smashed up a lot of these busts in here. I notice a lot of these heroes these days, all they ever do is smash up everything around them. I'm going to have them turned into replacements, and make Superman find all of them before I go back home." Mxyzptlk explained.

"How do you plan to do that?"

"Well, one way is I just say so." Mxyzptlk noted, and in an instant, the frozen form of Robin twisted and changed on the spot into a perfect likeness of the now damaged Caesar bust. A second later, it reverted back to the frozen Boy Wonder.

"There are other ways?"

"Yes. How about you engulf Superboy by the feet and absorb him? Just his arms and legs, take them into you as mud and carry them around."

Clayface was puzzled.

"I can't do something like that. I can only absorb whole people."

"Well, now you can." Mxyzptlk said.

Clayface decided to humour the strange being, and began to engulf Superboy. First the mud went over the legs, swallowing them. Superboy's eyes darted back and forth in panic as he felt his immobile limbs be absorbed into Clayface. As the mud spread up, where his legs had once been, a plinth-shape emerged in the mud. The mud went up, and the frozen arms of Superboy melted into his torso, sliding down and folding into the mass of mud. He now looked like an armless bust caked in mud from the neck down.

"Start on the others if you like."

Clayface did so, absorbing the legs and arms of Impulse as well before moving to Robin. The three frozen heroes were helpless as Mxyzptlk reached out and with a touch, converted the portions of plinth and Superboy in the mud into the same materials: both became Marble.  Their own forming plinths and altering bodies began changing too. Clayface retreated once he had absorbed parts of the first two while still removing Robin's arms into himself. The stone wave of transformation, now spreading up just the bodies of the trio, had already converted most of Superboy's face to stone, locking his grimace in place.

It didn't take long to finish. By the end of it, the three young heroes were gone, replaced with their likenesses in armless, legless marble atop plinths.

"Good, now you can take your loot. I've got to hide these three to make Superman have to look hard for them."

Clayface nodded, leaving with the pile of stolen items.

"Hmm. Now, you three need to go to more suitable places."

In an instant, Robin's petrified bust-form was sent to a Gotham museum. Impulse found himself in Keystone City, while Superboy stayed where he was.

Almost on cue, Superman arrived.

"Mxyzptlk! What do you want this time?" Superman exclaimed. He had only expected Clayface.

"The usual. A little game. Look here at this bust. Recognise it?" He said, pointing at Superboy. The man of steel glared.

"I was told he was here with Robin and Impulse. Where are they?"

"That's the game. I want you to find all of them  and bring them back here. Once you have them all back in one piece, I'll change them back. Here's a hint, most of them are in obvious places." Mxyzptlk said, not revealing the true extent of his trick.

Superman flew off.

'Obvious places. Robin is associated with Gotham, and Keystone City is associated with The Flash and other speedsters, so those seem the likely places to go.' Superman deduced.

Sure enough, he arrived in Gotham and startled patrons by swooping in and grabbing Robin's bust and plinth.

'All in one piece... He obviously hopes I drop them and break them.' Superman thought, carefully carrying Robin back to Metropolis at speed. Arriving with the bust unharmed, he then went to Keystone City.

"I wonder if I should tell him about Clayface holding onto your arms and legs..." Mxyzptlk pondered.

A few minutes later, Superman returned with Impulse's bust.

"That's all of them. Change them back." Superman said bluntly.

"Nope. You still need to find their limbs..." Mxyzptlk said.

"What?!"

"A friend I met has them. Bring all of him here too."

"Clayface..." Superman realised, flying off.

"I wonder how he hopes to bring Clayface back here... " Mxyzptlk wondered.