Off-duty Shane Gang

Mario and Junjie

"No more, I'm done," said Eli, he was lying with his back flat on the floor and breathing heavily.

"Same here," said Kord who was next to him and also in the same state of fatigue. In front of them Junjie was standing with a confused expression on his face.

Ever since seeing him easily lift up a barbell (chapter 6), Kord and Eli had tried to participate in his daily physical regimen. Though even Kord struggled to keep up with him.

"Calling it quits already, Shane?" he teased as he stood before Eli, with his hand open towards him. Though Eli didn't have the energy to reply back with any witty comment and simply accepted the help getting up.

"I take it you guys are done finally?" asked Trixie who stood at the entrance of the weight room eyeing the duo on the floor as she sipped from her cup of coffee. Unlike the others she gave up on competing with Junjie and had no interest in trying.

"Yeah, we're done. Though still no luck keeping up with the Eastern Champion", said Kord as he got up and put an arm around Junjie's shoulders.

She chuckled as she took another sip of her coffee, "can't say I'm surprised" she said as she went out into the hall to take a call.

"Agh rubbish!" shouted Pronto from the kitchen. He came walking back to join the others in the weight room with a sour look on his face.

"Kitchen troubles, Pronto?" asked a curious Junjie.

"It looks like someone used up the remaining milk, and thought it would be a good idea to put an empty milk carton back in the fridge." Pronto eyed Trixie, who was still on the phone, and Eli, the resident cereal addicts of the Shane gang.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to grace you with my molenoid special today, Junjie," he said with a defeated look on his face.

Junjie was looking forward to trying Pronto's specialty, he'd heard a lot about it, though it was mainly from Pronto himself. He had not realized how lucky he'd been today. The other members, who had already been victim to Pronto's cooking skills let out a silent sigh of relief.

"Sounds good", Trixie said before ending a call on her phone and coming back around.

"I believe a solution to our food shortage has been resolved, turns out Ricochet's Pizza is going to close for a few days for some renovations. So I invited Mario over since he barely gets a break from the restaurant. He said he'll bring over a couple boxes" said Trixie.

"Oh great, I don't think you've met Mario before! He's a crazy good slinger and won a bunch of awards for his trickshots back in the day. He even taught me a couple moves," Eli explained to Junjie.

"And let's not forget his help in freeing the great Pronto from the confines of the SlugTerran Express when I was wrongfully imprisoned."

It was Junjie's turn to speak now, "What? You were...imprisoned before?" he asked with a look of alarm on his face. "What did you... do?"

"Um...actually that might have been my fault...a little," said a guilty Trixie. "I pulled a small prank on Pronto with some gum, and it turns out the judge of that town was some psycho who thought Pronto deserved 50 years in prison for spitting it out on the sidewalk."

"All in all, without Mario's help we would've lost an important member of our group," said Eli.

"Well Mario definitely sounds like quite the legend, I can't wait to meet him," replied Junjie.

As if on cue, the doorbell to the hideout rang. "Helloo! Anybody order 3 steaming hot pizzas with a side order of a former slugslinging pro?" Mario said from outside.