It had been a long day, with the stranger coming and all. After the little upset at the café, Markus drove off to sightsee and to take a drive out in the open country. Everyone had agreed to keep their eyes on the visitor as much as possibly without it seeming like they were spying on him. If Markus was to pose any sort of threat to anyone, they were to report it to Sheriff immediately. As much as he hated to, the old police car let Markus off with a warning instead of bringing him in for speeding. But Sheriff wasn't going to admit that he was hoping and waiting to catch Markus doing something else that he could really slap him in the impound for. Somehow he knew deep down that he would soon have his fun. He didn't trust Markus to remain in Radiator Springs without causing another upset.

When Lightning McQueen wearily pulled up into the lot of the Cozy Cone, it was already night. Mack and Mater slowly followed behind him. Sally had just finished the windows McQueen was supposed to have done and placed the squeegee into the bucket of dirty, soapy water. She sternly glared in McQueen's direction as he pulled up beside her.

"I suppose you've returned to finish up these windows."

Lightning smiled sheepishly at her. "I can explain, Sally."

"Yeah, I bet you can."

"No, he's right. He can explain." Mack said with a yawn.

"You see, Sally, we have a new visitor in town."

"A new visitor? Great! Will he be staying here?" Sally's face beamed with excitement.

"No, no, Sally, you don't understand." McQueen sighed. "Believe me; this guy will be better off sleeping out in the open. He's a total snob and jerk."

"He had the nerve to pull up at the café today and start calling everyone names! Even my buddy!"

"Flirting with Flo too." Mack added.

"He got everyone flustered and nearly started a huge fight right there." McQueen fought back a yawn.

"Did he give his reasons?" Sally asked.

"Nope." Mater shook his head. "Only that he'd been driving out in the heat too long and it fried his mind."

"He didn't put it in quite that way." Mack turned to the old tow truck. "He said that the hot sun does funny things to your mind."

"Well if you ask me his mind was fried."

"Anyway," Lightning cleared his throat. "To make a long story short, Sheriff wanted all of us to help keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't cause anymore trouble. Sheriff's already got enough to slap him in the impound because of his speeding through here. But Sheriff wants just one more thing before he does that."

"What if he doesn't do one more thing?"

Lightning shrugged. "Beats me."

"And his name is?"

"Markus T. Bird, but he just wants us to call him Markus. I'd be alert in case he happens to come by here. He's a black Thunderbird with red stripes down the sides."

"Don't worry, I'll watch out for him."

"Sorry about the windows."

"That's ok. Don't worry about it." Sally smiled. McQueen held her gaze and then turned to go.

"I guess I'll be getting to bed."

"Good idea." Mack said, with another yawn.

Sally made a kissy face at McQueen. "Good night, Stickers."

Too late though. Lightning had already turned his back on her and followed Mack out to the main road.

The time was around three in the morning when Lightning McQueen was jolted awake in his trailer by a woman's screaming. His trailer was positioned just around the back of the Cozy Cone, a few feet away from the nearest cone. At first he didn't know what had awakened him. He sleepily and groggily glanced around his surroundings. He stood perfectly still and listened. He didn't hear anything except for Mack's snoring just outside, but then another scream came. He raised himself up on all four wheels and listened. It had been faint, but he was sure that it was Sally's voice. He quickly slammed his wheel down on the button to let down the trailer's ramp and proceeded to back out. Once outside he glanced around to see what it was that was going on. Everything was silent and still, as it should be.

Another loud snore came from Mack, causing McQueen to jump and look in the truck's direction. Mack was half leaning up against the side of the trailer, his mouth hanging open enough to make disgusting snoring noises.

"Mack." Lightning whispered. "Mack, wake up."

The truck continued sleeping, totally oblivious as to what was going on or that McQueen was even trying to get his attention. Getting frustrated, Lightning drove up in front of Mack and revved his motor a couple of times.

"Just five more minutes, Ma." Mack sleepily mumbled before jerking awake. "Oh! McQueen! It's you!"

"Shhhh!" McQueen shushed. "There's something going on around here."

"What?"

"I don't know, but it's not right. I heard someone scream and it sounded like Sally."

At that exact moment, another scream sounded through the night.

"There it is again! C'mon, Mack, let's go!"

Mack straightened up and began to slowly follow as McQueen softly and silently rolled forward toward the Cozy Cone. When both had stopped beside one of the nearest cones they could see Markus restlessly driving around in circles in the Cozy Cone lot. Sally was nowhere to be seen, however.

"What's he doing here?" Mack whispered.

"I have no idea, but this easily explains why Sally would be screaming. But the question is, where is Sally?"

Lightning and Mack peered around at the cones, careful not to let Markus see them. Everything was as silent and quiet as it should be except for the restless pacing that Markus was doing. McQueen noticed that Markus's attention was focused on one certain cone; number three. As he looked closer he could see fresh dent marks in the door. Looking even closer, he spotted someone inside. It was Sally!

"You go away!" The terrified voice of Sally came from within the cone. "Don't you come near me."

"Not until you give me a room. And I'll come near you if I please!"

"You aren't getting a room here. I have the right to turn away guests, especially if they cause trouble."

"You aren't going to turn me away, sweetheart. You're too scared to come out here and face me!" Markus broke into an evil laughter before getting up speed and ramming himself into the door of the cone again, knocking over one of the potted plants setting near it. Sally screamed again, this time sounding more terrified than ever.

"McQueen warned me about you."

"Oh he did, did he?" Markus rammed the door again.

Mack and McQueen exchanged glances.

"He's got Sally trapped in there!" Said McQueen frantically.

"What is wrong with him? Is he crazy?"

"C'mon, we've got to chase him away so Sally can come out."

"How are we going to chase Markus away? You've seen how much of a bully he can be."

"I'm going to take care of Markus. You're going to go get Sheriff and bring him here."

"Ok, McQueen. I hope you know what you're doing." Mack began to drive off and around the back of the cones and towards the main road so Markus couldn't see him.

"That makes two of us." McQueen breathed to himself as he started forward. He revved up his motor, trying to make as much noise as possible, and sped into the lot, carefully swerving around the office. Markus's eyes widened when he saw where the sudden noise was coming from. He quickly moved out of the way just in time before McQueen could slam into the side of him. The red race car zoomed on by and out into the street, came to a sudden, screeching stop and turned around. He glared in Markus's direction and squinted his eyes. Revving up his motor again and squealing his back tires, Lightning sped off in an attempt to ram Markus again.

Unknown to Lightning, this time Markus wasn't about to move. He stood in one spot and dared the speeding car to run into him. McQueen braced himself for impact. He was so sure that Markus would move, but he didn't. McQueen slammed head on into the old Thunderbird, knocking the wind out of himself and sending Markus skidding and almost slamming into the Cozy Cone office.

McQueen didn't notice too much after that moment. He sat still for a few minutes and groaned in agony.

"Lightning? Are you ok?" He soon heard a familiar voice ask him. "Oh no. Stickers, speak to me."

"Is he alright, Sally?" He heard another voice join the first. The second voice sounded a lot like Mater's.

Poor McQueen wanted to open his eyes, but the throbbing pain in his head prevented him, not to mention the pain he felt everywhere else.

"Doc's on his way." He heard Sheriff say. "Mater, grab that troublesome brute and follow me to the impound. I've had just about all I can stand."

McQueen heard the clanking of Mater's tow cable hitch itself to Markus's rear. At this point he made an effort to crack one eye open enough to see what was going on. What he saw was a badly dented Markus, eyes closed, being pulled away by Mater with Sheriff leading the way. A satisfied smile formed on his lips as he closed his eye again.

When McQueen, again, opened his eyes the sun was warmly shining through the window of the cone he was in. The only explanation was that he had passed out. He moved up on all wheels and then groaned. He felt much better than he had felt when he rammed into Markus, but his jaw was still sore. He looked down and noticed that his red paint was badly worn off around the area that was sore. He groaned again and forced himself to press the button that would open up the door. Rolling outside, he soon found out that he was a tad dizzy too and leaned up against the doorframe to steady himself. In front of him were Sally, Doc Hudson, Sheriff, Mack, Mater and Ramone. They were all crowded around the office looking at something and appeared to be in a deep discussion. After a few minutes of fully waking up, McQueen spotted what they were staring at and what possibly was the center of the discussion. One of the windows of the office was totally broken out with shards of glass scattered all over the pavement. He could only imagine what the damage was inside.

"Hey! Hey, everyone! He's awake!" Mack suddenly and happily blurted out. Everyone's attention turned toward McQueen. Sally was the first one to drive up to him.

"I'm so glad to see that you're alright." She said in a relieved tone. "You had us all worried."

"How are you feeling, son?" Doc asked in his usual calm voice.

"I'm feeling much better now than I did last night." McQueen winced. "But my jaw's still sore. Ow! I feel like I was hit by a train. What happened anyway?"

"Either you're the bravest car I know or you're just plain crazy." Sheriff laughed.

"He's the bravest car you know, Sheriff." Sally smiled lovingly at Lightning. "Because he's certainly not crazy, at least he's not if I have anything to say about it."

"Boy, I would have given my back tires to see you in action last night!" Mater grinned.

"Would someone mind filling me in?" McQueen looked at everyone, confused. "I know I rammed Markus, but what started all of this anyway? What happened to Sally's office?"

"I was inside taking care of some paperwork." Sally began. "And I saw someone drive up. I figured it was just another traveler so I went out to see if they needed a room for the night. But turns out it was a car fitting the description you told me a few hours earlier. I approached with caution after I saw that it was indeed Markus. From the very moment I approached him, I didn't like the way he stared at me. And then," Sally's eyes started to water. "He started towards me. All the time he kept flirting with me and trying to push himself on me. I started to get scared so I quickly drove into the office and shut the door. But he kept coming. Before I realized it, he had picked up something and tossed it at the window. Glass went everywhere. I screamed, hoping someone would hear, and then I ran outside and just barely made it to one of the cones before he went totally insane. I thought he was going to follow me in, but the door shut before he could and he slammed into it."

"That guy is just insane!" McQueen shook his head.

"Then you came and stopped him." Sally smiled again. "You passed out a little while after it happened. Doc fixed you up during that time and we placed you in one of the cones for the rest of the night."

"What about Markus? From what I can remember seeing he looked pretty bad."

"He was." Said Sheriff. "I think he got the brunt of the crash. It took Doc two hours to fix him up and even now he's missing a lot of paint."

"I see you're missing paint too." Ramone drove up to Lightning to examine the damage. "But not to worry, I can fix that in no time."

"Thanks." McQueen smiled. "So what's going to happen now?"

"It's clear that Markus is going to spend some time in the impound." Sheriff said without hesitation. "He's caused way too much trouble. And he's proven to us that he cannot be trusted."

"And he's going to fix my window and the door to that cone he wanted so bad to break into." Sally added.

"Just for kicks, we're gonna make him pull Bessie around just for fun." Mater laughed.

"You serious?"

"Nah!" Mater nudged McQueen playfully. "You know I'm just kiddin'."

"Eh, if you ask me it probably wouldn't hurt him any." Said Mack. "If you ever put up a vote for it, I'm in favor."

Everyone burst out laughing.