At that very moment, Tony, Penny, and the rest of the Super Stars are in their training room perfecting their teamwork skills.

The Toon Town palace actually had several training rooms, each one suited for a different type of training. The royal guards and palace foot soldiers shared a large training room located one floor under the main part of the palace, next to the guards' quarters and the armory. The stone walls were covered in weapons. If a person started right at the entrance and walked all the way around the room back to the door, they'd be able to see the evolution of the weapon beginning with the steel swords and shields from the Middle Ages right up to laser cannons and energy weapons far more advanced than anything the Sci-Fi channel ever saw. A few targets at one end of the room provided target practice for the less powerful projectile weapons, like the crossbows and pistols. Lasers, cannons and such had to be used outside.

The Super Stars had two training rooms all to themselves. The walls in one room (called the Soft Room) were covered with thick cushions like the type used in public school gym class when they did gymnastics. The fighting style of the Stars tended to involve a lot of jumping, flipping, flying, and tossing and the cushions helped to keep injuries at a minimum. Behind the cushions were steel walls three feet thick. One other thing the Stars did in battle was use plenty of powerful energy blasts and their training room had to be able to stand up to that.

The Star's second training room, located in Acme Labs, was much more hard core. It resembled the X-Men's Danger Room and thus it was dubbed the Deadly Room. Steel walls even thicker and tougher than the walls in the Soft Room created an almost airtight environment. There were hundred of concealed compartments in the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling. Within those compartments were steel tentacles, laser cannons, machine guns, killer robots, flying swords, swinging axes, retractable spikes, and dozens of other hazards. In the center of the ceiling was a glass globe that was the control center for the Deadly Room. Different training programs could be entered into the Deadly Room computer which would activate certain hazards that the Super Stars would have to either avoid or defeat. The room even had a holographic projection system so the setting of the combat could be changed. The Stars could train in any environment, including the frozen tundra of Greenland or on the sand beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

Today, the Super Stars were working in the Soft Room. They were all wearing jogging pants or shorts, short sleeve shirts and sneakers. Jim, Tom, and Mary were standing off to one side as them watched a blindfolded Tony facing Penny – at least he assumed so.

Penny was lecturing Tony on the purpose of today's training. "This is a trust exercise. You're going to let yourself fall forward and I'm going to catch you."

Tony was just a little apprehensive about it. "This isn't going to be like when Lucy helps Charlie Brown with his football kicking practice is it?"

"Tony, you've got to learn to trust your teammates," said Penny. "Trusting your friends in battle will keep you from getting killed."

"But not trusting them right now may keep me from getting embarrassed," retorted Tony.

Jim, Tom, and Mary all put their hands over their mouths to hide their snickers. Penny shot them one dirty look before addressing Tony again. She was very impatient with anyone or anything that disrupted training.

"Just do the exercise, Tony. Fall forward and I'll catch you."

Tony closed his eyes out of reflex, even though he already couldn't see. Slowly, he started to lean forward, bending a little at the waist. He raised his heels until all his weight was resting on this toes. Tony had to use a lot of willpower not to throw his arms out for balance. Finally, taking a deep breath, he pushed with his toes and felt himself falling rapidly. He had no sooner started falling when two arms grabbed him around the chest and kept him from hitting the ground.

"There, that wasn't so bad was it," said Penny as she pushed Tony back on his feet. She waved at Jim who tiptoed over to Tony's side. The mats on the floor prevented Tony from hearing Jim's approach. "Let's try it again. This time I want you to fall to the left."

"But, you're still…"

"Ah, ah, ah. Tony. You must trust me," admonished Penny.

Tony looked like he was going to say something, but then relaxed and nodded. Again he started to lean, this time putting his weight on his left foot for just a second before slightly raising his right foot, shifting his weight, falling over, and landing with a dull thud on the floor mats. Tony rolled onto his back and pulled his blindfold off to see Penny rolling her eyes at him and Jim laughing hysterically.

"I meant MY left," said Penny, as if it was Tony's own fault he was on the ground.

"That was perfect," said Jim through his laughter. Tom and Mary were also laughing at him.

"Yeah, really great," said Tony as he picked himself up. He held the blindfold out to Penny. "Okay, your turn. You fall over and I'll catch you."

Penny gave Tony a What-am-I-an-idiot? look and said, "I think that's enough trust for one day. It's time to practice some battle moves."

"Great! I love practicing moves," said Tom, jumping up and down. "Ooh, ooh, can we do number 14?"

"We can't do number 14. Pineapples are out of season," said Mary. "How about number 47?"

"Oh, no," said Jim, shaking his head. "Last time we did number 47, I nearly got a hernia carrying that stupid cow. Let's just do number 24."

"Fine," said Penny. "That's one that really needs some work anyway. Get into position."

The teenagers grabbed their weapons from a rack on one side of the room. Jim took his green staff which could extend to any length he desired. Tom had a mace which could be used like a club or the spiked ball could pop out and swing around on a chain. Mary's pair of sai may have been short, but they were as sharp as any sword. Tony, of course, had the Toon Sword: the ancient golden shortsword which let him tap into the vast powers of every hero in the Toon World.

Before grabbing her own samari sword, Penny stepped over to a small console on the wall near the door. There was a small screen on this console as well as several black buttons. Penny pushed one button and a circular hatch opened up in the middle of the floor. A wooden dummy with no face rose up from the opening. The dummy wore black armor which was old and dented from hard use. There were bull's-eyes painted on the dummy's shoulders, chest, knees, back, and head and each one had multiple cuts, burns, or bangs where the Super Star's aim had struck true.

"Everyone, ready?" asked Penny. She was on the dummy's left facing Tom who was on the right. Jim and Mary were both at the back of the room standing behind Tony who was directly in front of the mock enemy.

Jim spun his staff in his right hand. "Ready." None of them had transformed; they usually didn't in the Soft Room. Transforming multiplied their normal physical strength and the training in the Soft Room was meant to enhance that normal strength.

Everyone looked at Tony to give the signal.

"Super Stars GO!"

Jim threw his whirling staff right at Tony. At that same instant, Mary starting running right behind the staff and leapt into the air. When she landed on the very center of the spinning staff, it would give an extra boost so she could jump even higher and strike the enemy. However, she landed on the front edge of the staff and lost her balance. Her foot pushed the staff and sent it spinning back to plow Jim in the stomach. He doubled over, unable to breathe. Mary fell to the floor. One of her sai spun from her hand and sunk into the floor in front of Tom, who was now running towards the dummy with his mace raised. He didn't see the sai and tripped over it. As he hit the floor, the spiked ball on his mace shot out and hit Penny who was also running toward the dummy. She went down too. Tony was the only one who managed to keep his footing and deliver his strike right through the dummy's wooden skull.

After pulling his sword out of the wooden head, Tony looked at his fallen teammates. "Were we supposed to be doing number 24B?"

"No, we weren't supposed to be doing number 24B," said Jim in a high mocking voice. "Ninja girl over there screwed up her jump. This is her fault."

Mary scowled at Jim. "Your throw was late. That staff wasn't where it was supposed to be."

Penny pointed at Tom. "And your mace misfired and ruined my charge."

"I slipped on Mary's sai."

"See, it is your fault."

"No it's not."

"Whoa, before Jerry Springer has his final thought," said Tony because his friends were about one second away from blows, "how about if we calm down and try the move again?"

But, after a half hour of practice, the Super Stars still couldn't seem to pull off the battle move. They were all sitting on a bench gasping for air and sweating up a storm.

"Man, what is our problem today?" asked Tony.

"It's not YOUR problem, Tony, it's OUR problem," said Mary, indicating Jim, Tom, Penny, and herself.

"It's true," said Tom. "We are not really very good at working together."

Tony was truly bewildered. "How could you guys not be good at working as a team? You were fighting Claw long before I came along."

"No, we've been losing to Claw long before you came along," corrected Jim with a grimace.

"We told you before, Tony," said Mary. "Without a Toon Master, we didn't have much success against Dr. Claw and his M.A.D. agents. We were little more than a holding action and that's being generous."

Jim's voice had turned bitter and self mocking. "The royal army was needed here at the palace to ward off any attack from M.A.D., so it was just the four of us and whatever troops could be spared."

Mary tried to keep her voice level though it threatened to crack in grief at the memory of those horrible losing battles. "The other Toon heroes tried to help, of course, but most had problems on their own worlds. Claw was laying siege to several of their planets, plus there was the everyday villains to fight. All in all, we just didn't have the strength to win."

"We didn't win," said Penny harshly, "because we didn't spend enough time practicing and mastering our moves."

"No," said Jim, jumping up and stalking over to Penny. "We didn't win because we practiced too much and were too tired when it finally came time to battle."

"I thought we didn't win because I got my head stuck in that banister," said Tom from the floor.

"That was only the reason for that one battle, Tom," said Mary.

"Those three battles you mean," said Penny, rolling her eyes. "He was stuck in that thing for, like, a week."

"Yeah, that was uncomfortable," said Tom seriously. "I couldn't go out for pizza, I couldn't see the TV and I had to go to the bathroom by…"

"Upp, upp, upp," said Tony, holding up his hands to forestall Tom. "There is absolutely no need to go into detail." Tony rested his chin on his knuckles, thinking hard about his team's lack of teamwork. "I just don't get what the problem is, especially after all the teamwork and trust building work you guys must have done."

There was utter silence. Jim, Tom, Penny, and Mary all looked at each other with looks of confusion mixed with a little guilt. Tony looked over when he realized no one was agreeing with him. "You guys did do all that trust building stuff before I came along, right?"

"Well…," said Jim. No one else ventured an answer.

"I guess that's a 'No'," said Tony.

"Our training consisted mainly of tactics, weapons, and studying Claw's weaknesses," explained Penny. "Those were the most important things."

"What about when you weren't training?" asked Tony.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what did you guys do when you weren't training or fighting? You must have had some free time."

"Precious little, but yeah, we had some," admitted Jim.

"Well, what did you guys do then?"

Jim answered first, "We all had our own hobbies. I fixed up old cars and battle vehicles and I volunteered sometimes down in the local auto shop. Remember Speed Buggy's Garage, Tony? That's where you helped me fix up that old Mach 3 engine."

"I love to walk down along the beach and just watch the waves for hours," said Mary dreamily. "It's so calming. You know Tony, I think that sand castle we made last week is still standing."

Tom thought for a second. "I'd usually be down in the gym or in ACME Labs. They gave me my own corner laboratory after I blew up six other ones. And, Tony's been helping me with my ongoing experiment to see how many times I can hit my head against the wall without blacking out. My current record for a steel wall is seventeen times."

Tony looked expectantly at Penny. "Well? What did you used to do, Princess?"

Penny hesitated before abruptly spitting out, "Oh, this is silly. I can't see what this had anything to do with…"

"Penny?" said Tony, his voice rising threateningly. He wasn't going to accept that evasive answer. Of all the Super Stars, Penny was by far the most distant with him.

"Well…," said Penny. "As you know, I'm into computers and robotics and…and I like music. I've been trying to learn the guitar." She seemed almost embarrassed to admit it.

"See, now that wasn't so hard," mocked Tony. "Now, do you guys do these hobbies alone?"

"No," said Mary at once. "We spend time with you, Tony."

"…but not each other?" asked Tony with a sad smile. Tony's friends, at first confused by this question, soon came to realize that they had indeed spent very little time together outside of training and battle.

"Well, maybe we haven't hung out with each other to much, but what's your point?" wondered Mary.

"That is exactly my point," Tony responded with enthusiasm. "If you're not friends with each other, how can you possibly trust one another? I know John and Crystal back home have always got my back, no matter what."

Penny stood up and turned her back to the others. "Yes, well, if we ever need to steal gourmet chocolates from a teacher's lounge, we'll be sure to call them."

"No can prove that was us," said Tony. "Besides, you're missing the point."

Penny acted like she hadn't heard him. "Come on, let's try Number 24 one more time." Jim, Mary, and Tom wearily got up off the bench, but Tony stayed sitting for just a moment. He knew the Stars still didn't completely trust each other, so the move still wouldn't work right. Nonetheless, he slowly got up and took his position in front of the practice dummy. He barely had a chance to yell "Go!" when there was a call from the Soft Room door.

"I'm afraid practice time will have to wait kids." Standing in the doorway was Penny's father, King Magnus of Toon World. He was a tall, middle aged man with flecks of grey in his hair and a short white beard. His robes of gold and red looked totally out of place in the gymnasium. The light sparkled off the jewels in his gold crown. "We've had an urgent distress call from Arus. The Voltron Force has suffered quite a serious defeat and I understand that Voltron is badly damaged. You need to get to Arus before there is another attack."

"Let's go Stars," called Penny as she lead the way out of the training room, Tom, Jim, and Mary close behind. Tony was the last one to head for the door, but he stopped when the king called him back.

"Don't be too hard on them, Tony."

Tony just blinked at the king. "Wha?"

"You can't become close friends overnight. It's going to take time."

Recognition flashed in Tony's eyes. "Your Magesty, how much of that conversation did you hear?"

The king shrugged. "Enough. You have to understand, Tony, the Super Stars were thrust into this war much sooner than they should have been. We had expected the previous Super Stars to train them for a few more years before they went into battle, but after the final confrontation at MAD Mountain years ago…" The king trailed off and seemed to gather himself before continuing. "…well, that obviously wasn't an option anymore."

"I don't think it's their lack of skill that's the problem," argued Tony.

"I agree," said King Magnus. "Just be aware that the Stars have not had the benefit of the relatively carefree childhood you have enjoyed. Each of them has suffered serious personal losses and each of them deals with that pain in their own way. Give them time."

Jim's voice drifted down the hallway. "Tony, are you coming or what?"

"Yeah, I'll be right there," Tony shouted back. He stepped through the doorway, but turned back to look at the king. "I'm sorry Your Majesty, but they've had lots of time before I got here. They're just going to have to get over this hump and learn to be friends whether they like it or not."

Tony ran down the hallway to catch up to his teammates leaving the king standing in the Soft Room. "Well, Tony," said the king, hopefully, "I hope you're the one who can give them the push they need."