Flat on his back, the panting Chester lies on the secret base floor in a pool of his own sweat. "Suffocation...No breathing." "Hey," says Amy's voice from the bedrooms above, "At least you can walk around shirtless." Chester leans up from the floor, leaving a wet outline where he laid. Only Amy's hair can be seen over her cubicle wall. "No one said you couldn't," he jokes with a grin. "Haha!" A pink  Konia phone rings on the computer desk. Lajon runs out the bathroom with a flushing sound and flips it open to answer. "Vee?" "Op-...tele-...nel!" "Uh, you sound garbled." "Jus-...pen-...tunn-..." "I'm gonna open the teletunnel."

Pulling the red lever on the desk activates the spiral of multi-colored light once more, allowing the muddy Vee to fly out and faceplant on the floor. "Whoa!" shouts Lajon, kneeling down to her, "You alright? Where'd you find mud?" Vee growls, "Look up Stonehold on the computer!" Caught off guard by her rage, the tall teen stands back up and leans on the mechanical keyboard. "Stone...hold? Huh, he was a wrestler." Chester's head pops up between theirs with stars in his eyes. "STONEHOLD!? Man, he was my favorite growing up! Had a wicked costume that made him look like this huge rock monster!"

Lajon scratches his chin while reading the screen. "It says here, Mack Mann thought he was hiring a person in a costume for his wrestling show, but he was caught a few years ago and confessed to being an alien from Mudvaynia?" Chester shrugs and says, "That's actually less confusing than the backstory Mack Mann gave him." Vee slams her metal fists together with sparks. "I don't care what his story is! Show me where I can find him, so I can crush him to pebbles!"

From the cubicles above, Amy emerges in a pink tank top and shorts. "Wow! Vee, I think you need to cool down." "I'm totally cool!" Vee says, "Arctic cool!" A gentle hand touches her shoulder; Lajon's. "Vee, take a shower. We need to plan something out before you try to fight him again." Vee's furious breathing slowly calms and ends with a sigh. "You're right. Sorry for...being a butt." Lajon laughs and says, "Shower, and you won't smell like one." "Hehe, ok."

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Evening sets in over a lifeless quarry sight. What vehicles were left behind by crews appear rusted and coated in dust. Inside the large central warehouse, two masked goons from the bank robbery count money in bags. "I deserve a bigger cut for holding more hostages." "Nah-ah!" the other replies, "You got knocked out first." Chains hanging from the ceiling rattle, as heavy footsteps fastly approach. "No one gets paid, unless Stonehold says so!"

With a furious finger, Stonehold points at his minions. "Next time we see that Knight Vision wannabe, there's gonna be some punchin'! WHAT!? Some crushin'! WHAT!? Some-" "Boss," says one of the goons, "Why do you ask 'what' all the time if you're just gonna answer yourself?" The sound of rumbling rocks proceeds the monster's yell, "DID STONEHOLD SAY YOU COULD TALK!?"

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Two hours had passed in Murder Machine's base. With the sun beginning to set, Chester and Amy thought it best to take Cutie out for a walk and stay under the shade of the Salt River Bridge. Lajon and Vee remained indoors, sharing a seat at the base PC and staring up at the giant screen. The teen girl's hero uniform was freshly washed and dried; her black and white hair still damp from the shower. "You smell better," Lajon said with a grin. "Was it really that bad?" "Oh yeah."

Last to clean, Vee wipes her mask with a rag and asks, "Did Chester ever fix the AC?" "Nah," Lajon says, "He said he was gonna wait 'til you got back with the money." A wave of nervousness comes over the girl now, causing her fingers to fidget. "Oh, right...Do you think it's fine to get money for doing hero stuff?" Lajon continues to type while answering. "Sure. If people feel generous, let 'em be generous...Is it bothering you?" Vee looks away and says, "Maybe...I-I don't know. What have you found out about Stonehold?"

Clacking of keys is ended by a click of the mouse. A bulky handheld device on the desk whirs and blinks as Lajon says, "I did some digging in your dad's criminal database. Stonehold's body is controlled by his head. Seperate that from the rest of him, and he'll be immobilized." Vee stares at the device plugged into a slot perfectly shaped for it and asks, "And what does this thingy do?" "This will track the rare mineral in his head in a 100 mile radius...or it's supposed to. I haven't fully figured out this old tech."

Once the whirring sound ends, Lajon unplugs the handheld and pushes a few of its buttons. Vee nudges his shoulder and says, "Nerd." "I'm not a nerd," says the embarrassed Lajon, "I just know how to work a computer." "You have all five movies of Galactic Battles on VHS." The nerd's eyes widen. "The second trilogy finale comes out in three years! Uh, I mean-" "Nerd," says Vee, poking his nose. She glances at the handheld's screen. "Tracker's showing a red dot south of Tempe." "Then I'll open a teletunnel to the nearest exit," says Lajon with a fading blush. As the tunnel lights up for the third time today, the masked girl stops to look at her friend. "Thanks, Lajon." "Be careful, Vee." "I know."

In the midst of a dark alley, a manhole shakes. *rumble* *rumble* With great force it pops up into the air, and out flies Lil' Miss Steel with a scream. The unsuspecting teen belly flops on the dusty ground with a thud. A second later, the lid flips back down perfectly over the manhole. "Fake sewer grate?" she says facedown, "Dad thought of everything." After standing and brushing herself off, Vee pulls out the bulky tracker from the back of her belt. Nothing happens, until she smacks it a few times. "Blip is...south by southwest. Not far." As Vee wanders into the abandoned quarry, a single police car parks just out of sight. Behind the wheel, Chief Sting flips open his phone and says, "Hey, Eddie. I got something you'll want to see."