Questor Two, with Race Bannon at the controls, flew over the position where the plane had been found with Tod not aboard. Studying the positioning of the plane, Benton calculated its trajectory in reverse, to work out where it must have been when it started to crashdive. He directed Race Bannon to fly Questor Two accordingly, back tracking the plane’s movements as best as Benton could estimate. Then they flew very low, and at last understood why the area had remained uncharted.

“There’s such a thick mist that nobody could make out what’s below,” said Jace.

“My advanced scanner on Questor Two can,” said Benton, “It will look through that fog like an X-ray.”

“Jonny calls it the Quest-ray,” laughed Race.

Doctor Quest adjusted the scanner, while Jan accompanied him at the view screen.

“It looks like there’s some sort of unexplored valley down there, and the ground is far deeper, far lower than it was at the spot where we found the plane,” said Jan.

“If someone parachuted into that, Doctor, is it possible he could have survived but been unable to climb out?”

“More than possible, most likely,” said Benton, “He could still be alive, and since no conventional aircraft performing previous searches could see through the mist, its pilot and crew couldn’t expect to go any lower than we are now without blindly crashing into something. We can see how far down the ground really is, and we can use Questor Two’s vertical landing jets to go down slowly through the mist. I’ll have to guide you from the Quest-ray scanner, Race. So go slowly.”

“Maybe we should go down ahead of you on our rocket packs and look out for any hazards,” said Jace.

“Okay kids, but no fancy flying. Just a slow descent only a little ahead of Questor Two,” said Race, opening the side door.

Before Race or Benton could object, Blip turned on his own rocket pack and followed them out.

“Perhaps he always goes with them regardless,” said Benton, “It makes me think about the risks we’ve taken with Bandit along in the past.”

He’s been happier to stay back at headquarters since we subscribed him as a taste test subject for that new dog food coming out on the market soon, and overstocked on it. What was it called again?”

“Scooby Snacks,” said Benton, “If the test dogs like it, they’ll be putting it in stores next year.”

(Well Tom and Tub’s sea otter wouldn’t have eaten it).

Jan and Jace had tuned their uniform radios to Questor Two, rather than the Phantom Cruiser or Space Ghost’s uniform, back at Intelligence One headquarters. When they reached the ground, they located a clearing for Questor Two to land in, and then joined Race and Benton as they alighted. Both Race and Benton armed themselves with rapid fire weapons, and Doctor Quest’s own version of the rocket packs, which his team had used before, and led the kids on a trek through the dense jungle that surrounded the clearing.

Suddenly an enormous reptilian dinosaur charged into view, roaring viciously.

“I don’t believe it! Not in this century!” said Race.

“We have seen surviving pteradactyls before,” said Benton.

Race let off several rounds, but they didn’t phase the beast.

“Bullets are too small to do anything to that guy!” said Race, “Let’s hope it can’t fly. Jet up, kids, Doctor!”

They narrowly avoided a lumbering swipe made by the huge animal, and then flew out of its reach.

“Hey look!” said Jan, “There’s a boy and what looks like a caveman down there riding on ….”

“From my studies, it looks like a small brontosaurus,” said Doctor Quest.

Unable to get at the four flying humans and Blip, the menacing dinosaur turned to the Brontosaurus and its two human passengers. Then the boy raised his club and shouted out an unfamiliar word: “Mightor.”

Before the eyes of the hovering onlookers, the boy turned into a man with a primitive super hero costume. The Brontosaurus turned into a fire breathing reptile and charged the dinosaur. The super hero knocked the dinosaur over with one punch, and then picked it up and flung it way off into the distance, where it fell with a painful thud onto a rocky cliffside and passed out.

“How about you join me on the ground,” said the super hero, and led them down, “My name is Mightor, but only since I found this club.”

He raised it above his head and turned back into the boy. His face was an exact match for the photo that I-1 had been given of Tod, the missing boy from the plane.

“This is Bronty, and my friend Ugh,” said Tod, “We had to get by on my old club and a lot of running until I found this one in a partly underwater cave. It turned out to be completely fireproof when we once tried to burn it for emergency wood. Then Ugh remembered a legend that had been passed down for thousands of years of a caveman super hero named Mightor with a power club. When I held the club above my head and tried saying the name Mightor, the way Ugh had heard of, it turned me into that super hero that you saw. I’ve been Mightor ever since.”

(The Mightor power club, that the elderly Rok had dropped into the raging river thousands of years earlier, had been found by Tod, who had then changed his pseudonym from Dino Boy to Mightor.)

“And boy are we grateful,” said Race, “If you hadn’t stopped that dinosaur before it got to Questor Two, we might never have been able to fly out of here with you.”

“You brought a plane! Did you hear that, Ugh! I can go home now.”

“Ugh miss Dino Boy, but Ugh happy Dino Boy have friends from Dino Boy home,” said the Caveman.

“We came to rescue a boy, and instead we’re bringing back the latest successor to the world’s earliest super hero,” said Jace, “You and Young Samson will have a lot in common.”

“I’d like to study that club and see if I can help you learn more about its powers,” said Benton.

“Now I wonder….” said Dino Boy, “If I leave Bronty behind, then he won’t get his fire breathing powers anymore when I change to Mightor.”

“We thought the Brontosaurus could always breathe fire,” said Benton, “Are you saying that it only happens when you become Mightor?”

“Yes.”

“If you remain as Mightor until we’re far out of this Lost Valley, then your changing back to Tod might not affect Bronty’s powers. He could keep them permanently and help keep Ugh safe.”

“It’s worth a try,” said Tod, raising the club, “Mightor!”

They all flew back to Questor Two and then Race flew them back to I-1 headquarters. Finally Mightor changed back to Tod.

“Somewhere I hope Bronty is still toasting whatever Ugh finds instead of marshmallows,” said Tod.