Hero

by Jamocha101

In the aftermath of a mission, Rev realizes why he does what he does and what it means to be a hero.

Inspired by a scene from "Fireproof," an excellent and touching film, which I highly recommend. Along with the themes of other fanfictions I've posted recently, this one focuses solely on character development. Also my first K+ story. Ohhhh boy.

After I got through the first few paragraphs, I could already tell that this was going to be a "long" one. It's strategically broken up into short intervals in case you don't want to read it all at once. And, look, if you're the kind of person that doesn't want to get through all of the introductory build-up stuff, I get it. If you want to just skip to the point, you're best bet is to start reading at the fourth interval. I don't recommend this, but whatever will get you to read. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Loonatics Unleashed © is owned by Warner Brothers.

Thinking; he had been doing that a lot, lately. Just thinking. Entertaining multiple thoughts at once and continuously having his head in the clouds, floating on the bed of his perpetually expanding mind, was ordinary. It always had been, even before the speed at which his brain functioned was rapidly increased by the obtaining of his superpowers. Thinking was something he had always done as a makeshift way to escape ominous depths of boredom, among other things, but the subject of which he contemplated usually never maintained position in his head for very long. He had a habit of switching subjects on momentary spurs, inevitably without intention, and that often resulted in his incoherent rambles. Before, it never bothered him as long as he was able to escape reality with his imagination. Lately, however, the obliviousness that customarily came along with his habitual daydreaming had mysteriously been forsaken, to the extent that Rev was hardly able to focus on any but one thing at a time. One particular thing. And the change in his psyche had come completely without warning.

It felt exceedingly odd, having that one thing on his mind that wouldn't go away. One particular thing that kept rearing itself at him, kept making him question himself and his team, and even his circumstances. Never had he entertained these notions before; never had he doubted it all-what was happening.

Why he was who he was.

It was multiple questions, but Rev knew they all pertained to the same subject. Questions that made Rev grow progressively more uncomfortable, sometimes made him physically squirm when he couldn't reach a conclusion to satisfy this relentless curiosity.

"Why?" It was a voice. And Rev wasn't sure if it was his own. "Why? Why do you do what you do? Why are you saving people every single day, for what purpose? Why are we here, now?

"What does it mean to be a hero?"

He sometimes felt like he was schooling himself, like he was a kid back in his third-grade class, receiving a mandatory writing prompt that he didn't know how to respond to. If nothing else, he yearned to know why these thoughts had suddenly come up and presented themselves unwelcomingly into Rev's head. He wondered what had brought them on, and why they were powerful to the extent that Rev couldn't shake them away, to the extent that they latched on and gave Rev ideas that he didn't want. He didn't like worrying; he didn't like having anything pressing on his mind, at least not for too long an interval of time. But this certainly defied that standard of his.

Perhaps, he thought, perhaps it was the move to Planet Blanc. Perhaps it was the fact that their responsibilities had been increased tenfold, had been turned up enough notches that every day they were reminded of how imminent their circumstances had grown; the whole universe in their hands. It amazed Rev that he had come so far from being just a ditzy delivery kid that got walked on like a doormat. Now he was protecting people. Now their lives were in his hands. Now everybody knew his name. Now he was a hero.

But why? There was no actual goal in doing this. No end in mind, no purpose. There never was, he realized, never was since the beginning, it was as if they were running around aimlessly helping people because their mutations automatically deemed them worth nothing else. At least, that's what everyone seemed to think.

It bugged him endlessly; that being a superhero was his only identity, and according to the majority of the universe's population, he was absolutely nothing beside that. Nothing. He wasn't a friend, a brother, a son, a teammate to anybody but just those aforementioned. At first, just being a superhero was totally fine, if not absolutely extraordinary to him as he presumed it would be to anyone else. That's another things that made the change of mine so bothersome.

How stupid, he thought, upon contemplating it for what was probably the thousandth time, over and over again like an annoying song on replay. How stupid are they...everybody. They don't think of us as actual people. They think that we came straight out of a comic book-fictional characters that only live in one world with one intent in mind...to help people who are capable of taking care of themselves, but can't seem to do that.

They don't know who we are. They just want us to be there, like dogs upon their whistles. They take us for granted. They don't know that we cry, too. That we get sick. That we have families.

They don't care.

They don't appreciate us.

And yet we still have no choice but to provide them endless services.

Frustration; anguish; remorse; sadness; confusion. Rev wasn't sure which of the emotions from the onslaught that these dark thoughts brought on was strongest. It scared him, how unlikely it was of him to even consider something that seemed so selfish, but if he was in control of it, he would have banished the thoughts before they came. Again and again, they presented themselves though, and with as much swarming complexity as they took with them, it actually brought tears to Rev's eyes in the worst of times. It was an embarrassing trait of his, to want to cry when he was mulling over such conflicting thoughts.

That almost never happened, though...he almost never had to deal with this before. The knot that tightened in his throat that came along with the want to shed tears, Rev knew, was a result of frustration-frustration from not knowing how to answer these questions. And frustration from not knowing why he was asking them in the first place. Maybe it was just that he had been a superhero long enough to realize a certain pattern in his work-that he would save people and later realize that those people truly mean nothing to him, and he means nothing to them. That nothing in return came to him for the life he lived.

Rev knew that this inner unrest was even going so far as to affect his behavior; if he hadn't noticed it at first, his teammates certainly had.

It surprised him earlier, when Ace, Tech, Lexi, Slam...even Duck, had approached him in one way or another and asked something along the lines of, "You sure there's something you don't want to talk about?" or, "Anything on your mind?" It was an unspoken fact known among everybody that Rev usually loved to talk about anything and everything that he was thinking, everything from movies and sports to science and philosophy. There was hardly a subject that didn't receive elaboration off the tongue of the avian, but he hardly wanted to confront any of his teammates about this, even if he considered it once or twice. He was aware that he was thinking selfishly-and he didn't want for the others to be aware of that, too. He didn't want for them to think he had changed. He didn't want to think he had changed.

And yet, he couldn't help but think about the way nobody he ever saved would ever think about how terrible he felt right now. Or even care.

What does it mean to be a hero?

Through all of this thought on this particular occasion, Rev had been sitting in the lounging area, playing with something in his hands; as lost as he was, he wasn't even sure what it was. Looking at him, you might have assumed that he found some intriguing interest in the wall opposite to him, for his eyes would be blankly glued to it whenever he entered this state of mind. At first, his teammates were concerned about the trances, so to speak, but after about a couple of weeks, they had gotten gradually more used to Rev's distance from everybody. Even still, not hearing his voice chattering around the base for one reason or another never ceased to be unnerving. It was quickly learned, notwithstanding, that attempts at effective confrontation were futile.

The only other person in the room with Rev at the moment was Duck, slumping still and lazily in the couch, mindlessly watching the various moving pictures on the television a couple of yards across from him. He looked and felt lethargic; all day, the entire team had been on their feet, running around the entire base trying to put the finishing touches on their new headquarters-moving things out of the last remaining boxes, shifting around furniture, inspecting, installing security software, climbing ladders, nailing panels, cleaning floors, painting furniture and walls, organizing drawers and cabinets, making beds, checking operations, and a million other things that mallard didn't even want to think about.

Interestingly, moving from one planet to another felt significantly more tiring to him than any mission he'd ever been on. Late in the evening, when Ace told everybody to call it a day, he made a resolution to personally make sure he got first dibs on the TV; everyone else was likely in their rooms or inevitably some other part of the base, but Duck couldn't care less about it. Rev had joined him in the lounging area for unspoken reasons, although Duck assumed it had nothing to do with keeping him company.

The mallard wasn't sure why-he was too tired to think about anything he was doing-but about fifteen or so minutes of watching the musings of athletic professionals mull over sports he didn't even care to try to comprehend, he had turned his head slowly to look at Rev for the first time since the latter walked into the room. He cocked a brow at him, even though Rev hadn't looked back-predictably, the avian was staring unreadily at the wall, rolling, flipping, and twisting a coin in his hand.

Duck squirmed. "Hey, uh," he awkwardly said, still not one hundred percent aware of what he was saying or why he was saying it. "You, uh-you wanna watch something? I'm not really enjoying this, anyway..."

Rev had to admit that the offer from his arrogant friend surprised him almost as much as it did Duck, but he could only throw his friend a non-convincing smile and a "Oh, no thanks," before he couldn't care less to allow his eyes to return directly to the wall, still fooling around with the coin. He wasn't sure where he had gotten it; it was probably sitting on the end table next to the couch when he sat down. Wouldn't be surprising, with as much of everybody's junk there was lying around, still not put away.

Duck slumped back into his seat and snorted in what he interpreted as Rev's lack of appreciation for his efforts to be friendly. "Whatever."

The lounging area went on as such in silence, nothing but the quiet drone of the television's flashing images raising any kind of acoustic phenomena. The air was still and calm, growing moreover peaceful as the hours of the evening progressed, but the uncustomary lack of stirring through out the domicile could only last until a series of shrill beeps sounded over speakers that had been installed in various spots along the ceiling's border rail. With as big as the building was-even bigger than their old HQ back in Acmetropolis-Tech had the mind to establish a series of intercoms around the base, a mechanism design especially for Ace, Tweetums, or Zadavia to use in the event that the Loonatics weren't all gathered conveniently in one place at once to hear an announcement. Which, with as chaotic as things had been, needless to say, was rather common.

Rev and Duck instinctively perked at the sudden sonance, tuning in their ears to hear the verbal statement that usually followed the collection of beeps.

"Loonatics," Zadavia's voice bounced off the walls via the booming intercom, "Report to the conference room immediately."

The roadrunner and the duck turned their heads to exchange eye contact after registering the notably demanding announcement, neither knowing exactly how to accurately read each other's blank faces. The conference room, a vicinity in which the Loonatics used to discuss and promptly depart for missions, hadn't been used once since the move. If Zadavia was calling them there in order to relay news of an upcoming rescue attempt-and neither Rev nor Duck couldn't imagine any other scenario-this would have been their first actual assignment since they established their new base on Planet Blanc. After a couple weeks of idling among other small things, like everything that concerned moving from one planet to another, an execution called on so suddenly was unexpected at best. Both turning these thoughts around in their heads, Rev and Duck continued to look blankly at each other for another short moment before the former zoomed out in a trail of flames, proceeding the latter whom popped out in a flash of light.

---

By the time Rev and Duck simultaneously appeared in the vicinity, Ace and Zadavia were both already present, neither looking as austere as Rev had anticipated, but both having an anxious glint in their eyes nonetheless. Zadavia was standing with her customarily rod-straight posture in front of the long conference table, whilst Ace was sitting down at the aforementioned table, his hand folded loosely together to form a bridge that held his resting chin. His eyes were slightly narrowed and fixed on the table's surface, as if concentrating on the shiny metallic material. He hadn't noticed, or at least didn't acknowledge, when his two teammates entered the room, obliviously taking their seats whilst they waited for the remaining three Loonatics.

Lexi, Tech, and Slam followed in shortly afterward, all seemingly just as unmindful of the potential conflict as Rev and Duck had been.

"Loonatics," Zadavia spoke for the first time after the entire team was seated and listening. Nobody had time to say a word to one another before she had already begun her statement. "We have a problem. Ace and I just received a message from Planet Blanc's core militia, calling an urgent situation to out attention."

The team all stared with eager eyes, save for Ace, who continued to gaze down at the table. Rev squirmed in his seat somewhat; he almost felt impatient to receive the plan of execution so they could go out and just get it over with.

"There have been reports of a bomb planted in the city's Capitol Hall merely moments earlier-"

"A bomb?" Duck abruptly vociferated, disregarding a look of warning that quickly spread over Zadavia's face. "We are a team of powerful, admirable, gallant superheroes. We don't do bombs. Shouldn't that be, I don't know...up to the police to stop it from going off or whatever?"

To the mallard's surprise, an uncomfortable pause blanketed the air.

"...It already went off," Ace quietly retorted, animosity evident in his dangerously low tone. It inevitable that his tolerance for Duck's lack of etiquette was extremely low at this point.

Duck surely was chagrined, as his fallen face and posture immediately indicated how humbled he was; his teammates would have found it humorous enough to laugh had it not been for the severity of the situation and the gloominess of the atmosphere.

Zadavia proceeded to state what everyone's suspicions had been set on. "This mission is not about rescue," she explained, her face and tone somber, "Your assignment is to be present. As a team that is here to serve this planet and its neighboring societies, we have this opportunity to establish our compassion among Planet Blanc's residence by paying our respects those who suffered at the consequences this tragic incident."

Lexi blinked, her hands folded neatly on the table and her vision pasted respectfully to Zadavia's shifting eyesight. As much as she understood the reasoning behind this potential course of action, she couldn't help but wonder how justifiable it was when it had come on so fast; after all, the Loonatics had just barely become adjusted to the new environment itself, much less the natives that lived in it. Not since their first mission here, anyway, when afterward they had spent all of their hours on Planet Blanc adapting to the very atmosphere themselves. The pink-clad bunny was all for helping and being compassionate to those around her, of course, but she would have at least wanted to get a more precise gist of the situation before she and her friends suddenly stormed into action. This assignment, for a first, seemed to be an odd one.

"Excuse me, Zadavia," she politely broke in, obliviously raising one her hands. "But don't we have any information on this crisis at all? They don't know who attacked, or why they attacked, or anything?"

Zadavia's expression remained unstirring and unreadable. "Like Acmetropolis and every other civilization, Planet Blanc has a history," she stated. "Nations are enemies of one another here, likewise in many other cases. While the mystery to the bomb is not yet completely solved, it is reasonable to suspect that it has nothing to do with the adversaries we have come accustomed to pursuing."

Tech had been narrowing his eyes in curiosity the entire time. "So what you're saying is, an explosive device went off in the capitol of Planet Blanc somewhere, and so far they don't know who planted it, or when or how? What kind of security do they have?"

Zadavia's brow furrowed and she drew out a quick sigh as if the oncoming inquiries frustrated her. "Any number of executions could have been made in order to accomplish the attack in the capitol. With as convoluted as modern technology is, and how rapidly it is expanding, an organization with abundant cunningness could have inevitably found a way. Considering your personal history with certain acquaintances of yours, Tech, I would expect you to understand."

The coyote lowered his eyes, but made no further acknowledgement.

Zadavia continued. "In any event, now is not the time to make personal judgments on the situation at hand. I expect all of you to cooperate and perform this simple good deed with the utmost respect and dignity. We are to act like heroes today. Understood?"

The Loonatics had agreed with various forms of confirmations-nods, salutes, "yes"'s, or in Slam's case, a good blubbering remark that probably translated to something like, "you got it, boss!" Nobody noticed, however, when Rev let his hands slip slowly from the table into his lap, his eyes quickly furrowing as he allowed his line of vision to fall down with them. He hastily could feel his entire posture sag like a deflated balloon, further accentuated in limpness when he had let out a sigh that he was grateful no one picked up on.

What Zadavia had said bothered him; everything prior to it was just fine, in fact, it provided a merciful distraction for the bitterly short time that it lasted. But her last add-on, that one remark brought all the disturbing thoughts back faster than Rev ever recalled them rearing in his head.

"We are act to act like heroes today." Of all things to say, and of all times to say them, Zadavia had say that and now. Just like before, just like all the weeks prior to the present, Rev felt the perpetually frustrating onslaught of confusion blast out all other thoughts.

Act like heroes. But, Rev wondered for the billionth time, what is a hero? What does being a hero mean, how are they supposed to act? Brave, and handsome, and gallant, and strong? Rev knew he wasn't really any of these things, at least, not to the extent of all the characters he had read up in comic books. Those kinds of superheroes reminded him more of Ace, or Tech, or even Lexi. But him? He was just a delivery boy. A delivery boy with a younger brother, two overbearing parents, emotions, friends, and a personal story that was just about as average as any other kid we would have remembered from school.

But, the same thought came up like it had uncountable times before, nobody cares. Nobody thinks of you that way. Nobody wants to know or care about your problems, your feelings, your sentiments. To them, you're just a superhero whose only mindset is to take care of them like dainty plates. To them, you never cry. Never get tired. Never get sick. You're labeled.

What does it mean to be a hero? It means what it means to everybody else.

It means you're just a fictional character.

"Rev?"

Upon hearing his name, the roadrunner was suddenly forced to return to a better sense of reality, although the bothersome notations were still as loud as ever. When he looked up from his lap, he found that he was the only one sitting at the conference table; apparently, he hadn't noticed when everybody else had gotten up to leave on Zadavia's command. If he could blush through his feathers, he would have. He looked behind, towards the source of the voice that said his name, to find Ace standing expectantly in the doorway, a less than settled expression sprawled over his face. Rev was usually the first one to spring up and out of the base...at least, before the strange behavior began.

"You comin'...?" the bunny asked unsurely.

Rev let go of one more deep intake of air before nodding weakly and exiting at what he hadn't realized was an uncharacteristically lethargic speed. Although he hadn't taken another look at Ace's face on the way out, he could feel the latter's worried eyes staring him down from behind.

---

"So, um...What'd you guys think?"

Lexi had interrupted the silence that was thickening among the Loonatics, all sitting wordlessly in the confides of the team's hovercraft. Nothing but the sound of the purring motor produced a stir in the atmosphere, and for an unidentifiable reason, the tension seemed to be gradually volumizing. Lexi presumed everybody had been mulling over the cause for this perverse "assignment," and the moods consequentially were uncomfortably low...uncomfortable to her, at least; try as she might, she was unable to read the faces of any of her teammates. Particularly Ace had seemed off even before they had left for the mission, his chin always resting in his intertwined fingers, his eyes turned down...he looked exceedingly deep in thought, and it was a rare thing to see his sense of humor so imperceptible. She thought she may as well try to break at least some of the friction that was kicking up in an endeavor to lighten the foulness.

Everybody's eyes turned toward Lexi after the latter's vociferation, but Tech was the only one to respond; "What do we think about what?"

Lexi turned her eyes up in contemplation, as even she wasn't completely sure what she had meant. "Well, I don't know," she said with a shrug, "About everything, I guess. Being here...how far we've come, where we're going...you know, just 'stuff.' We haven't really talked to each much since we moved here."

Duck snorted. "Women. Always wanna talk about 'feelings' and stuff. Gross."

Lexi instinctively narrowed her eyes, but hadn't a chance to be snarky before Tech saved the argument from fueling; "Well, I think it's pretty great. I mean, Planet Blanc's technology has a lot of alternative resources to what we used on Acmetropolis. I never realized how vast the universe's various fuels were and how efficiently we could have utilized them. I have a lot in mind to experiment with some new inventions...once the lab is completely set up," the coyote finished, glad to answer generously. As reclusive as he always tended to be, ever since he was young, he still preferred a friendly atmosphere over a gloomy one; silence was nice, but not when it was filled with as much friction as it was now.

"So, you're going to start being a completely antisocial hermit again?" Duck sourly chimed in.

"Not exactly. I'll probably be spending a lot of time in the lab at first, but I don't plan to go back on the improvements I've made with using my powers over weapons. Besides, I'll only be applying the same methods to my studies as I have before, it'll just be altered by what I've picked up on with my studies of Planet Blanc's functions. It's not really like new technology...more like...new technique."

Lexi smiled warmly at Tech, grateful for his openness. The latter also donned a grin, and after a short exchange of nonverbal interaction between him and the pink-clad bunny, he turned his eyes toward his roadrunner comrade, who was sitting in silence, fumbling with his thumbs.

"I don't plan to do it on my own," Tech invitingly said, hoping to gather his friend's attention. "You'll be ready to help me out, right Rev?"

Rev looked up at Tech, for all of a second before his thoughtful gaze went directly back down again. "Mm-hmm," was his only, timid response.

Tech's positive attitude was discouraged somewhat by the uncharacteristically, although predictable, lackluster response. With a his brow thoughtlessly furrowed, he and Lexi exchanged similar unsettled glances.

Lexi was reluctant, despite her concern, to let the feeling in the atmosphere sink back down to what it was. Lifting her facial expression, she took a look at Ace, only just realizing how dismayed he appeared. "What about you, Ace?" she enthusiastically inquired, aspiring to snap him out of his reverie.

"Hmm? Yeah, it's all great."

Tech cocked his head. "What's the matter, cheif? You seem kind of...down..."

Ace leaned back to look out the window before leaning forward again to respond. Granted it was quiet and hesitant. "It's a shame, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"This, Lex. This situation."

"Well yeah, bombs aren't exactly the cheeriest of happenstances...but, I mean, we've dealt with way worse..."

"No," Ace's nearly incoherent murmur was the only response. It's ambiguousness left Lexi without a reply.

Slam, who had tuned in to the conversation since the beginning, shyly scratched the back of his head in contemplation to his leader's remark. "Ohhhhh, tablooh lebunga?"

"Yeah, Slam, that is what's bothering me. I ain't gonna hide it from you guys. I can't stand the thought...I mean, we're used to seein' bad guys doin' bad things...but we're always on top. Now, we're supposed to be protectin' Planet Blanc along with the rest of the universe. We've been here for all of two weeks, idlin' around, and then Blanc's very capitol was put in danger. And did we help it? No."

Everybody had perked up to listen to Ace's statement, and all eyes were turned on him as a result.

"But, Ace..." Lexi stammered, feeling a remorse for her anguished friend. "How could we have known? The people of Planet Blanc aren't even used to us yet, they probably wouldn't have even thought of calling us for something that their own forces would handle. And if they didn't spot it, did anybody expect us to? I mean...what happens happens."

"You're right Lexi," Ace concurred, although his tone was low and so were his eyes. "Everythin' you said was true. So I don't know why this bothers me so much. Maybe it's just that...everythin' on Acmetropolis was so...orderly with us around. And all of a sudden we start livin' on Blanc, and there's this terrorist attack or somethin', and it just went completely over our heads? It's just weird, I guess. And...sad. Not to mention...I can't help feel like they did expect us to...to know. Expected us to stop it."

Rev's head reeled. Because they don't care that we have limits. Because our best isn't good enough for them.

An unwelcome grim film put the Loonatics in more ill spirits once Ace had finished stating his contemplations and returned to his sunken state of mental preoccupation. Everyone had leaned back in to their seat, their thoughts wandering off once again into various directions of their own. Nobody could think, or wanted to try to think for that matter, of a response suitable enough to bounce back the topic of discussion that Ace had introduced. At the time, a direct response didn't even seem completely warranted, as if it was strategic that the ambiguous remark was let to hang.

"Eh! Uh...guys?"

The silence shattered.

Everyone looked up abruptly at the unanticipated vociferation, courtesy of Duck, whom had been staring out the window with widened, frantic eyes. His neck was craned at what appeared to be a painful angle, as he desperately tried to get a view of an unidentified phenomena outside.

"What is it, Duck?" Ace half-heartedly asked.

Duck squirmed and looked back with genuinely unnerved eyes. As often as it was that the mallard's proclamations weren't worth considering, his teammates couldn't help but feel a tug at their interests with how frantic their orange-clad friend appeared to be. "Okay, um...When Boss Lady said there was a bomb issue in the capitol, and we were supposed to show up to honor dead people and stuff, I don't know about you guys, but I was kind of under the impression that she meant that the bomb had already went off."

A string of confused faces suddenly germinated before the mallard, all of which spoke for themselves.

Duck sighed, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes in response to his teammates' unspoken curiosity. "Look," he simply commanded, moving back into the awkward position he was in prior to point at whatever it was that had gripped his interest. His teammates, albeit quizzical, obeyed somewhat hesitantly, looking in Duck's general line of vision as they adjusted with difficulty to peer out the same window. As suspicious as they were with Duck's judgment, they immediately came to the realization that his being shocked was well warranted.

Although several hundred yards away, the altitude of the hover craft provided a clear view of what appeared to be the spot of their destination, slowly growing larger with the moderately closing distance. While patches of blanketing vegetation and clusters of buildings that marked places of urban life mostly took up the view of Planet Blanc's surface outside the craft's windows, a disturbance was evident several meters away. Over the sheet of trees and a valley where the capitol city would be seen, a billowing, dark grey-nearly black-cloud was rising slowly from the ground, as if an angry storm was brewing and getting ready to flood out the civilization. The source of the continuously uprising smoke was small in itself as though it was only coming from one or two buildings, but the foggy substance had risen and spread to the point of hanging over the entire width of the city and onward, filing around trees and dulling the sky as well.

After a few passing seconds of analytical silence, everyone's eyes had widened, but Slam was the only one to vociferate. "Whoa," he had muttered.

Tech cocked his head absently, before squirming away from the crowd of his bungled-together teammates. "'Whoa' is right. I have a bad feeling about this."

"I thought you said the bomb already went off!" Duck suddenly snapped, his head jerking to exchange eye contact with his wordless leader. "I didn't know we were supposed to be playing fire-fighters."

Ace's eyes narrowed, both out of his thoughts industrializing, and his tolerance for Duck lowering yet again. "It did go off! We were told that the sight had been cleaned out and taken care of already...I thought that implied they had snuffed the fire."

The sliding doors that led to the pilot's portion of the hover craft slid open before any further response could be made.

Zadavia had hardly walked in the doorway before making an overwhelmingly familiar remark. "Loonatics, we have a problem."

"What's goin' on, Zadavia? It looks like there's a fire-"

"There is. I've seen the smoke myself. I contacted the capitol's authorities."

"And?"

"And it seems that the explosion's wrath was not entirely distinguished. While the buildings within a mile's radius were destroyed in the impact of the explosion, property beyond that appeared to be virtually unaffected. However, one of them unforeseeably caught fire from the inside, and it spread quickly to adjacent structures."

Tech quizzically raised an eyebrow. "One of the buildings caught fire that was that effective before anybody spotted it?"

"The buildings were completely evacuated, and focuses were on the destructed contingencies of the crisis. It has been suspected that an ember made its way inside and landed on something flammable." Zadavia turned away ever so slightly without another word, before sourly adding on, "Now is not the time to be analytical. We will be landing in a few minutes, but do not engage the fire. Planet Blanc's protection services are working to handle it." Turning her body completely to face away from her team, the female commander retired stiffly from their presence.

---

Stepping out of the hovercraft was like stepping into another dimension; an eerie, unsafe one at that. They had alighted yards away from the building, restricted from going further from feet upon feet of cautionary tape acting as a fence in front of the lit-up structures. The smoke that poured out of either one seemed to reside comfortably in the air, hanging there perpetually and only getting thicker, if not anything else, although the thick mist was nothing compared to the sun-blocking puffy cloud that expanded towards the sky.

Ignoring the uncustomary overcast, however, authorities that the Loonatics presumed was Planet Blanc's version of "firefighters" buzzed around the premises, barking commands at one another and using several water-spewing mechanisms, endeavoring to extinguish the raging flames. The yellow fire warped and flapped like flags outside whatever windows there were, casting a yellow tint on nearly everything in sight. There were virtually nobody else but the firefighters around; mostly everyone had been, or was being, evacuated, leaving the expanse feel forsaken. The very environment was even grimmer than the situation.

Lexi looked down her line of teammates, all standing with their backs rod-straight, looking forward at the sight of catastrophe. She examined their faces...some were wide-eyed and quizzical; Slam, Tech, and Duck...Ace and Rev looked virtually indifferent. Next to Rev, at the end of the opposite side of the line, Zadavia stood with the most erect posture of everybody, her face too, ambiguous. All concealed by the vizards of their gas masks that they were strictly advised to wear as soon as they had stepped foot on the ground. Aside from the scrambling of firefighters, the only noise about the air was the infrequent gasps and roars of the fire.

The pink-clad bunny turned back to face forward, her vision being set once again, on the burning domicile before her. She had seen plenty of these kinds of scenes on TV and in movies and everything, but never had she seen such a disaster in real life. It was an odd, perhaps obscurely enriching sensation. She wondered if her teammates were as naive as she was.

"Loonatics."

Lexi broke away from her reverie and turned towards the source of an unfamiliar, masculine voice along with the rest of her team. Not disappointed, they beheld the approach of a perhaps middle-aged man, fully clad in his firefighting attire, his facial expression invisible underneath the visor of his helmet and his snuggly-fit mask. He walked stiffly and somewhat verbosely, his stride taken in small bounces and his arms held a little ways from his sides, as if they were too inflexible to rest.

"Glad that you showed up," he continued, shaking Zadavia's hand when he managed to close the distance with his odd gait. "It's an honor to meet you."

All the Loonatics wanted to laugh at how Zadavia looked standing next to the man, whom they realized was probably only slightly taller than Duck; she towered over him.

"Thank you sir," she responded as their hands disconnected. Her face wore the slightest of smiles. "We are terribly sorry about the crisis that has plagued your people. Please know that your well-being is in our better interest, and we will do all that we can to endeavor prevention of this situation in the future. According to your measures of course."

Ace had been standing inches away from Rev; out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the roadrunner's face tighten for just a second. As if he had cringed.

"Thank you, Miss Zadavia. We really appreciate your continued interest in us as well as others. And, uh, if there's anything that you should be informed of, I'll-"

Rev had tuned out by then, just in time to turn back to the fire and stare at it with hardly any life in his eyes, minimally focusing on the sight before him despite its extravagance. "Please know that your well-being is in our better interest..." Zadavia's voice quote sent a repugnant chill down Rev's spine. As if he needed anything to reignite the unfriendly flames that burnt those thoughts into his brain.

He expected to hear that dreadful voice plague his mind as it had been doing, but he was surprised to find that that's not what his mind rendered. In fact, for a split second his thoughts completely halted.

It was a scream that triggered his momentary shock-a high, feminine, shrill, frightened scream that made him instinctively twist around toward where he seemed to think it had come from...and it wasn't just his insane mind that conjured the vocalization, as he quickly saw his teammates had jumped and whirled around as well. Their eyes wide and apprehensive, although ready for defense.

"Please, somebody help!" a hysterical woman cried, not making it a few more strides before two firefighters promptly restrained her. About ten yards from the Loonatics, she struggled violently in the men's hold, her eyes red and watery and her face flushed from exertion. She looked pleadingly at the line of anticipating superheroes. "Please! Please, my daughter...! My daughter is in there! Look-she's-oh, please! Oh, please let me go!" Tears streamed down her face as she whirled and jumped in vain against stronger arms.

It was a simultaneous instinct, a frantic surge of energy as all those within earshot urgently looked at the building, scanning each individual window.

Ace's mutated eyesight never failed him. "I see her!" he exclaimed. It was a faint indication, he knew. A small, wavering silhouette lurking among the flames, back and forth between what he could make out in a window frame. But he knew it had to be a small human.

Rev could feel his skin flush with excited heat, a striking sensation he hardly remembered experiencing before...except for any time he thought Rip was in danger, years and years ago. The same, enraged, protective, must-do feeling. His thoughts surged madly.

Rev left himself in a still, shocked state for just a moment before he felt as though his mind completely detached from his body. He didn't want to. These past few weeks, he never wanted to. Didn't want to serve people who didn't appreciate it. Who never thought of him of anything but a Loonatic. No, he didn't want to serve anybody. If he had his way...he would have remained in his spot and let the firefighters handle it...but he didn't feel in control of anything he thought or did. Not right now. But, doesn't he like helping people? Isn't that who he is? Shouldn't he be the bubbly, amiable, helpful roadrunner?

Rev shook it away and became aware. His teammates to his left, chattering excitedly at what Ace had spot. Firefighters running around the property like frantic rodents. Nobody was really doing anything. Just being excited. And that little girl...that little girl...she was still...

The only thing he wasn't aware of was his own voice.

"Ace," he had said, zooming over to his leaders before thinking about it. "Where? Where did you see her?"

The yellow-clad bunny's eyes glowed faintly and were planted firmly on his targeted sight. "...The second floor, it looks like to me, doc. Right there in that third window-Rev! What are you doing?!"

The rest of the team's eyes widened, and the incoherent vocalizations came out at full blast. Including those from firefighters whom had shouted things along the lines of, "Hey, get him! Don't let him do that!"

Rev had no sooner began jogging away from Ace before he became a quarry to several of the firefighters' pursuits. The avian, however, had utilized his uncanny speed before any endeavors to catch him could have been successful; in a trail of flames, he had shot up like a bullet to the side of the burning house, paused to squint smoke-induced tears out of his eyes, and extend either of his arms, flying up to the window in a blur.

Everything after that seemed to go equally as imperceptibly quick. Perhaps it was the adrenaline, maybe the confliction...but everything Rev was doing seemed to be thoughtless to him, everything on impulse. Almost as if he wasn't seeing from his perspective; instead, just watching himself do everything and indifferently waiting to see what would happen next, a thrilling science-fiction movie.

He had paused, if only for a second at the window outside, to shatter tarnished glass in finality with one forceful kick. Vaguely, he could hear the desperate calls beneath him, from his teammates and strangers alike, although he hardly registered their meanings. Even if he had taken the time to, he still wouldn't have complied. There was a little kid who was in need of assistance, and a bunch of running around and yelling, he knew, wasn't going to speed up her rescue. For all anybody was aware, she was already dead.

---

He had zipped into the house, easily fitting through the window frame, after the glass had shattered about the floor. Plunging into the fiery expanse, immediately felt the consequence of an entirely smoke-consumed atmosphere. His sight, hearing, breathing...everything had been put on heavy restrictions, as if he weren't allowed to hear anything but roaring flames, or see past his own beak, of inhale anything even remote to a satisfying breath...even with his gas mask still secured. All around him, the billowing clouds and flames raged, fluctuating and migrating at a madly inconsistent rate. Everything, everything, just looked red. For a moment, the overwhelmed avian honestly believed he had died and went to Hell.

He had to gather himself-the girl was around here, somewhere, and close. He knew it. This had to be where Ace saw her, and in this mess of devilish fire, how far could she really have gotten? He tried looking around and about, but even trying to turn around seemed to knock the depleted air from his lungs; he stumbled backwards, his forearm barred in front of his eyes, now spilling with tears. He coughed, feeling the beginning stages of hyperventilation beginning to occur from within his vizard.

He knew that, if it was any of his teammates that had charged into the house in nothing but their skin-tight uniforms like Rev had, they'd all probably be unconscious by now. This flame saturated air, creating heat to the utmost extreme would have knocked anybody after so much time and burnt at least fifty percent of their body...but the astounding temperatures had hardly occurred to the avian. He dealt with fire all the time, in direct contact; in fact, it usually trails his tail at least once a day. He was fireproof.

Rev recomposed himself, acknowledging his advantages and his disadvantages. Find the girl. Do it now. Then get the heck out.

The roadrunners eyes had glowed their trademark red, the ominous hue blending in with the rest of the environment. He knew where she was; he knew exactly where she was, in fact, she was just under his beak, somewhere among this Hell, in the very same room. He could see her signature within the depths of his tracking psyche. A small girl, on the floor, just to his left, somewhere.

He just had to get to her. But in this place? Among all this flame and chaos? He had wasted so much time already, so much time with just thinking.

He took one last reference to his GPS, and Rev's mind slated, save for three words. "Get the girl." He had to, he knew he had to, now that he was here, now. No other choice; even if she was dead, her body would be taken to her family, whole. The avian attempted his first move forward, only to stumble on his first step. How infuriating it was for him, of all people, to be rendered as immobile as he was now.

"Gotta keep going." he reminded himself. "Be strong. Get the girl." The flames were nothing to him. Every single day, he dealt his own hand with flames and fire. Every day. He was fire, he created fire, right from the soles of his feet. Heck, he could pass for a phoenix if he wanted to. He snarled desperately as he walked on, his arm still up to his eyes, fruitlessly endeavoring to guard them from smoke. The fire flailed around him madly, tickling and threatening him; but he didn't even feel it. He didn't feel anything but the wind that the flames blew off on him. Fireproof.

The next he could tell, he was on his hands and knees, crawling limply over to where his tracking-savvy sixth sense was leading him. It took an excruciating few moments, until Rev finally thought that, even through his blinding tears and rapidly dehydrating eyes, he had seen her. The little girl, lying down, merely less than a foot away from him, right underneath the left of the window. And she was utterly listless, lying motionless on her side, from what the ambling roadrunner could see. He desperately told himself, for a moment, that she was okay. He approached her on his knees until he was kneeling over her.

Everything from then on was confoundedly blurry.

Rev felt a sudden lack of pressure on his beak. He could feel himself taking off his mask, feel his lungs protest violently at the rapid intake of smoke. He could feel himself hacking and the tears staining his face as he no longer had a free arm to shield his eyes. Both were busy trying to keep the little girl alive. If she was a alive.

"Come on...breathe!" Rev choked between coughs, struggling with shaky, adrenaline-pumped arms to get the mask over her own tarnished face. She moved under his jostling attempts like a rag doll. The mask, after several strenuous moments, had finally been forced over the latter portion of the child's face, although there were no signs of life she gave to indicate it. Rev's smoky tears had been sliding from his eyes, drying before they could trail and fall of his beak.

"Get out! Get up and get out!"

Rev had thrust the child, albeit as gently as he could in a situation like this, into the crook of his left arm, feeling himself push upward onto his presently feeble legs, legs that were shaking and felt like fabric underneath the weight of his body. Actually, they practically felt like nothing, whether it was from the adrenaline, or burns that he'd overlooked, or what.

He couldn't believe he felt himself pressing forward, walking with a hunched back, tugging on the weight of the girl in his arms. Walking on legs that felt like they didn't exist-air beneath him. His arms, too, were working their way into the dark abyss of numbness. In fact, everything seemed to be disappearing along with his nerve endings, his vision germinating a black border that faded into the image before him like a tarnished photograph.

"AH!"

He heard the yelp. In fact, it echoed senselessly in his head for moments after he had heard it, and his mind swam around an ocean to try and figure out who it was. It had taken what he decided was a minute too long, but the revelation that it was him who had screamed sent a jolt of confusion and panic down his spine. What had happened? Why did he yell?

Everything was happening too fast.

Even too fast for Rev Runner?

Another overly sluggish moment had passed, but the fogginess in his brain allowed a clear picture, if only for a moment, of his senses. He realized how much they were betraying him, all at once. His seeing, his hearing, his feeling, heck, even his smell and taste was surrendering to the raging flames. It was probably because of the lack of feeling in his appendages that he hadn't noticed the affliction at first, the pain that made him yell like that. Slowly, though, it started to creep along to his awareness.

As well as the awareness that he was lying face-down on the floor.

He forced his head up and coughed out splintered smoke. Straining his muscles, he hunched his back in the beginning stages of picking himself up off the ground, but he found himself struggling more than he anticipated he would...It was just that, he felt so heavy.

Craning his neck, he peered behind him to asses the problem, and thankfully was quick to find the source of his issue. Over his lower back, a thick, heavy structure lay still, flaming along with the rest of the material of its kind. The material of its kind, though, should be on the ceiling, not on him.

"Of course," a third-person voice in his head spoke, "The building is falling down."

The building was falling down. On top of him. Crashes, crackles, pops, thuds, they all collided in Rev's brain as his ears strained to pick up on them. All around, there was lumber. The flames that raged directly on top of him, the fire that curled and waved off of the beam over his back, though, he did not feel. Still, he felt none of the heat. It may as well have been autumn in there. Despite his immunity to the Hell fire, however, Rev still knew that his other, still deteriorating senses weren't apt to be so durable.

Pushing away the thoughts and squirming a little more to check his strength, Rev felt a frustrated groan escape his throat. Sluggishly, he rubbed the ashen floor with his finger, wondering how long it would be until the wood would give away along with the ceiling and he would drop another floor. If that were to happen, he knew he would be pretty much done. Of course, though, people didn't realize that. Oh no, people didn't care about that. He was indestructible, of course. Not a person made out of skin and feathers. A superhero made of indestructible alloy, here to serve wherever and whenever in any conditions for anybody.

The thought of that instinctively lowered Rev's vision to the little girl, still nestled in the crook of his arm, lying down next to him with the mask crookedly over her face.

Everything after that, everything in his head and everything he could have ever perceived, seemed to go by in a third-world blur. As if something had snapped.

Certain, incoherent things came to him in random spurts, like time was lapsed. The short time in between the activation of his wavering senses was blurry and unintelligible. He knew it, for instance, when he could no longer advance toward the window because a load of flaming lumber had crashed down right in front of it. He didn't remember being able to wiggle his way out from under the beam before that, though. Of all the inconvenient places of all the inconvenient times. Between thinking of a different route and moving to maneuver aforementioned route was also blurry to the extent of impossible deciphering. He knew it when he opted to pick himself up completely via flight, but he didn't realize he had followed through until he was actually in the air.

It was difficult to hold his own weight, as well as another person's, in a time like this. His arms just felt so weak. His muscles trembled as he strained to maintain his grip on the girl from under her arms. The unsteadiness affected his control entirely so that his frame, while up in the air, shook a little bit and threatened to send him tumbling. It was the smoke that was doing all of this; it was getting to his head.

"Get the girl out. You have to get the girl out."

Rev looked, still through a layer of moisture, around his environment. Any means of escape, no matter how desperate, would be wonderfully useful this moment. He knew he had to figure something out-he knew he could, no matter how foggy his brain was. At the risk of a human life, the stakes were too high.

Somehow, maybe miraculously, he was able to visual distinctively catch a spot on the floor that was darker than the rest, a big black circle that had probably emerged from exposure of licking flames on the bottom floor, flames that likely hadn't reached the drastic level the flames on this floor had. Granted, most of the floor appeared black, but Rev knew that the spot he was looking at was more burnt than any other flame-induced deterioration. That meant it was weak. For the first time since he had immersed himself in here, Rev thought it may actually be the best possible scenario to fall through the floor.

Through all the thought, he had clumsily flew-or more like went between stumbling on the floor and flying-through the flame and approached what he knew was his only chance of escape before it was all too late. He had begun kicking, leaning back with the weight of the girl still on him, picking up his foot and putting all of his force into stomping the dilapidated wood. He utilized his speed to force his leg unto the floor, otherwise it never would have been enough force. What amazed him was his capability of keeping his balance, even though he was so dizzy.

He managed to pick up on the sound of cracking wood. He managed to feel the foundation beneath him weakening. He received the snap and pop of abused flooring, how ever so weak and echoic his hearing was. None of those sensations, though, compared to when he had reached his goal, and the boards actually gave way.

Rev had screamed a surprised interjection at the sudden weightlessness, feeling himself go down with the severed wood planks. His reactivation of flight, the suspension in air just before he hit the ground below, was instinctive. He nearly lost control with the tugging weight of the girl, still being held under her arms, but the desperate roadrunner remained composed, hauling her up to hold her more securely, his wiry arm struggling beyond superhuman efforts to keep her in its grasp.

---

Rev slowly alighted. The bottom floor was nearly identical to the one he was just on where hellishness was concerned.

The roadrunner bent over and coughed violently, feeling his body wrack. His knees buckled before he could help but perceive his weakness, and he was on his hands and knees, just barely keeping a one-armed grip around his damsel in distress.

He crawled. It wasn't a thoughtful or strategic gait, he just crawled. He just had to force himself to move in some way to get out. He was like a mouse, moving toward its cheese in a maze, not thinking about it, just doing it. Without contemplating the issue, Rev knew he was too weak any more to hold his own weight in the air, let alone the weight of the girl's with him. He didn't know what it was, he didn't know if he had ever felt it before, he practically didn't know anything at the moment with the extent to which his brain was malfunctioning, he just went on. His entire body was numb by now, as was his mind.

So when he had reached the front exit of the bottom floor's main room, he knew he was almost through. As with the utmost convenience, no fallen, flaming lumber had blocked it. Maybe it was God. Or the Force. Or a Guardian Angel. Or an architectural endurance.

Just the same, getting up to stand on his two legs had never been so difficult in his life, for as far back as he could remember. He had hardly ever been weakened to this extent on missions, in fact, he was hardly ever down for more than a minute. This lack of feeling, thereof, was near torturing. He had lay the girl down on the floor, ever so gently, before struggling to rear his full height, or at least, as full as he could get while being considerably hunched over. His entire body shivered. His hand moved dumbly to the handle on the door, not feeling the extreme heat that radiated from the metal. He was fireproof.

He was quick to learn, however, that escape would prove to be much more difficult than he imagined it would at this point. The door, and the handle to it thereof, was not nearly as endurable to this type of disaster as he was. He only realized that the knob had snapped completely off when he had looked down to find it severed in his hand. Throwing it away without looking behind him, he doubtfully tried the other one with similar results.

Rev grunted as he narrowed his eyes at the useless object resting in his palm. With an amount of force provided by frustration, he threw that one behind him as well, looking back on the now sans-handle door as is it were an opponent.

You kicked a hole in the floor. That was simple enough. You can kick down the door, too.

He had already pounded the door with his foot several times before he realized he was doing it. Bearing minimal results, he coughed out the breath he had held as he had taken the course of action and looked down at the child, laying limp as ever at his side.

The door was the only thing separating him from the girl's rescue. A wooden door, made out of whatever Planet Blanc's wilderness provided. He couldn't let it control his destiny. Her destiny.

Shouts of exertion escaped his throat now, one for every speed-enhanced kick.

Crack.

Keep going.

Crack.

Almost there.

Crack.

One more.

Crack!

Rev stepped back, or stumbled back, as if to observe his work. The door, albeit still standing, was about a minute away from collapsing with the damage he had inflicted upon it. The spot which he had struck over and over again was now split between the planks, a long jagged crack indicating the dilapidated state of the abused wooden structure. White light from outside shown through, exaggerated by the built-up water in Rev's eyes. It was a big, snow-white blur, like a portal to another world. Like a strait between Heaven and Hell.

The determined avian ambled a couple paces back to where he had let the girl lay and scooped her back up, using both his arms to harbor her upper body against his chest. It was pathetic, he knew, how much strenuous physical effort he had to put into simply dragging her a few steps, but his strength, which had always been diminutive in any case, was finally close to total depletion.

"N'uugh!" It was a loud cry of raw effort when Rev had, for the final time during his trek, picked one of his legs up and kicked with as much power as he could accumulate, feeling the thrust lose momentum at the connection of its target.

After that, everything virtually went black. It was a confusing sensation. His vision was faded out, but he knew he was conscious. He could still hear, although it was difficult with all of the voices blending together, but he could definitely hear. It was like the noise inside of the flaming building was pretty much inaudible to the medley of shouts and remarks that everyone around him seemed to be making. Sirens, he heard sirens, at least he thought he did. It may have just been his imagination conjuring things on everything he had just encountered, he briefly considered. His ears picked up on other things, too, although it was hard to make them distinct.

His coughs, for one, he could hear, but the perception of them took a minute to become clear. At first he hadn't realized there was coughing, and it took him another moment still to realize that it was him who was doing it. The donning brought with it, the sense of feel that he had lost some time ago, and he could feel his body wrack with the violent hacks and unprepared inhaling of the suddenly fresh air. Notwithstanding, he could breathe despite it being difficult between every other physical obsticle. He could also feel the tears sliding down his face, no longer exposed to evaporating-inducing heat, and he could feel hands on him. Two hands, maybe three or four.

He could feel a weightlessness, but not the dangerous, oblivious kind. Not the kind that he had felt inside when his legs were practically air, or even the kind when he was sensibly engaging in deliberate flight. He just literally felt lighter. Like something had been taken off of him.

The girl. Rev's panic inclined. Sharply. He didn't have her anymore, she had been taken away...or was it actually possible that he had dropped her? That he had left her in the building? Left her in there to die?

"Rev it's okay, you got her out, she's safe!"

The roadrunner's head swam at the sound of somebody's familiar voice, and he knew that he started talking out loud despite his awareness. His vision faded in to a light, blurry depiction of the image in front of him, the image of so many people, the image of his teammates, crouched in front of him. Although, he couldn't really see the looks on their faces...it was all too fuzzy for that.

"He's in shock."

"...Rev, stay with us, alright?"

"The girl is safe, don't worry."

"Tech, what're we supposed to do?"

"Just hold on. Rev? Over here. Follow the light."

"We'll take it from here."

"We'll meet you at the hospital."

"The girl!"

"She's fine."

"The girl is...she's..."

"Help me get him, please."

"She's-"

"Just try to relax."

It was a while before the roadrunner could feel his awareness build, a while after being moved and hushed and other things that weren't quite clear. He had realized that he was no longer in the environment that he last remembered being in after what seemed to be lapsed time, his brain sparking a reassuring speck of discernment that he knew was the steady process of his body relieving the affects of all the drama...Whether it was from some kind of medication, he wasn't sure, but he found his "reawakening" of sorts to be in none other than an idling ambulance truck, a good view of the grey roof that had to first come out of a blurry state of vision. He knew he must have not been in there too long, because the doors near the loading dock were still wide open, and the lack of inertia indicated that he wasn't moving.

There were people, machines, noises, images, confusion, more people...it was all too much of a jumbled mess for a guy who was just coming out of shock.

Rev rubbed his head roughly with his wrist. The misty image of a yellowish figure looking down into his eyes was being made out in front of him.

"Jeez, Rev," it said, after a moment. "Why would you ever do a stupid thing like that?"

---

"Rev, what you did was brave. However, I cannot condone your putting yourself at risk or the recklessness of running off like that without communication to your teammates...for over a year, I have been trying to encourage moderate reliance and intercourse and no situation bears an excuse to these virtues. Do you understand?"

"I-do-Zadavia,-but-"

"No buts. I hope we can only learn from this experience...and I hope this gives you something to think about."

"Zadavia-"

"I am going to speak with the radiologist. I'll be back momentarily."

The team watched as the tall form leisurely exited the room and slid the door shut, leaving nothing but the six Loonatics in a bed of silence. The only thing cutting through the still atmosphere was the sound of Rev's downtrodden sigh, such a sigh that seemed both apologetic, and frustrated...the reason for the latter emotion, everyone in the room knew, could be because of any number of reasons.

Rev had been conscious the entire ride to the hospital, and even spoke occasionally, but sometimes it was incoherent or inaudible. His senses had been progressively more functional and appeared nearly normal by the time the destination had been reached. However, the regaining of a relatively practical state of mind did not, in any way, abate the exhaustion that the avian only realized he had to endure after almost an hour since he had gotten out of the wreck.

It was frightening, especially to him, to feel so lethargic. He hadn't experienced such a physical brunt since before the meteor strike, and he hardly remembered what living was like before then, really. The medication certainly didn't help recede the fatigue, especially when the medics had used overdose on the roadrunner because his body, they later said, worked too fast internally to respond to a normal dose before it could do its work. He had been laid down at the hospital, the doctors having the intent of examinations and checks, but not before their patient had already fallen into a deep sleep.

The speedster had woken up eventually to a traditional white hospital room and his teammates scattered in different locations of the vicinity-some in the room with him, others roaming about or in the nearest bathroom. They all rejoined him eventually when he had found the strength to sit upright, which hadn't been at all long after he had come to-in fact, within the first five minutes had he insisted in sitting up in spite of Tech's protective protests. The latter was especially insistent when Rev had winced notably upon movement and noted that he was suddenly in more pain than he had been all day despite everything that had happened. Tech had reminded him that both the medication and the adrenaline that subsided the agony had almost completely worn off, leaving the afflicted patient incredibly sore.

The onslaught of questioning from his teammates was nearly just as agitating; everything from "are you okay?" to "why would you do that?". The only thing mercifully interrupting the Q&A barely five minutes later was Zadavia, whom had entered without prior indication, the most unreadable of expressions on her face.

She had said a few seemingly obligatory things; "we're glad you're alright" and "hopefully your pains will wear off soon," but the casualties had only lasted so much time before the lecture begun, and every member of the team's eyes were travelling back and forth unwittingly between the avian and the commander.

When she had finished and begun to exit, Ace had kept his eyes carefully glued on her until the door was closed and she was out of earshot. He wasn't sure why he had taken the precaution-there was nothing at the moment that he didn't want her to hear-but for some reason, it simply felt better if he could exchange his thoughts with only the ears his fellow teammates listening to him. Likewise, he was aware that speaking to the radiologist was probably not the only reason Zadavia had left them alone.

He took a glance at the downcast speed demon; he was sitting on the edge of the bed on the latter end of a semi-circle created by the rest of his teammates. His hands were folded, his vision downward. He was either feeling rather despondent or was perceptibly deep in thought. Or both, although the yellow-clad bunny wasn't planning on taking the time to figure it out.

"So, Rev," he started, watching as Rev's eyes, and the eyes of his entire team, turned on him. "Why don't we communicate a little bit, hm? Something that we maybe should have done earlier?"

The roadrunner's eyes furrowed, his irises rocketing to the ceiling, and his shoulders shaking a little with a nervous chuckle.

Duck didn't hesitate. "Seriously, Rooster Head. What was that? You know what? I do know what it was. You were just trying to steal the spotlight, you attention hog!"

"What?"

The infuriated mallard abruptly stood up. "You're just jealous of me, that's what it is! You want to be like your uncanny idol, Danger Duck. I mean, I guess it's understandable, but still, an act of envy is never heroic! I mean, just look at me, the most heroic hero you've ever seen! And I'm never jealous! Ever!"

A humorously still silence ensued as all eyes were turned blankly on the raging Danger. It seemed he had just realized the magnitude of his rant, as he looked around at his acquaintances confoundedly.

"Sit down, Duck."

"Now that we got through our first temper tantrum," Ace taunted, eyeing the Duck as he made his descent back into the chair, "Let's actually try to talk. Rev, you're usually good with teamwork and communication...why did you pull that stunt today?"

"...It's-just-that...well-I-don't-know-really-everything-was-going-so-fast-I-mean-I-guess-that's-obviously-not-much-of-an-excuse-for-me-but-I-just-can't-seem-to-remember-that-much-at-all-it-was-blurry-and-crazy-and-hot-not-that-the-heat-really-bothered-me-or-anything-but-it-was-distracting-I-guess-or-maybe-not-because-I-was-focusing-on-other-things-obviously-but-it-was-defintely-hard-not-to-let-all-the-crazy-fire-get-to-me-once-or-twice-I-mean-it-all-just-pretty-overwhelming-and-whever-I-try-to-think-about-why-I-did-it-or-what-I-was-thinking-or-anything-like-that-I-just-can't-seem-to-remember-having-an-actual-thought-process-I-just-did-it,-you-know-like-how-you-blink-or-breathe-it-was-almost-like-an-instinct-and-I'm-sorry-that-it-happened-I-know-I-should-have-known-better-than-to-charge-off-like-that-but-it's-just-that-"

"Rev!"

The entire team had unwittingly made the vocalization in unison; the sudden outburst obviously conveyed its point thereof, as the roadrunner shrunk back with another nervous chuckle.

"Rev...I'm not psychic or anything like that...but knowing you, in the past you wouldn't have just ran off like that...without tellin' anybody, or communicatin'...and you've just been actin' weird lately," Ace said.

"I-know...I-mean-it's-just-that-"

Rev faltered, fidgeting with his hands anxiously. He hadn't realized it until now, but the dreaded chain of questioning had ceased in his mind up until this point...up until this point, now that it was back and as nagging as it ever was.

"It's just that what?"

"I-don't-I-" The stammering roadruner sighed. Nothing changed. He couldn't tell them before, he couldn't tell them now.

The room had fallen into a dead silence, just as Rev was falling into his familiar reverie.

"You've been questionin' yourself."

The emerald eyes snapped up, widened, peering up into blue eyes that were staring right back at him. Rev was somewhat familiar with that look on his leader's face-all of the Loonatics were, although it was rare that any of them ever got to see it. It was an expression of analyzing, of empathy that came across on the occasion that Ace was actually in a serious-enough mood to utilize it. Out of every member on the team, the yellow-clad commander was silently renowned to be cunningly intuitive...a suave trait that he seemed a natural at, made him so easy to talk to sometimes.

It almost felt intimidating...although, it may have also been comforting. Rev eventually perched his eyes on his antsy hands, knowing that Ace was patiently awaiting a response. Would he really understand? Would he understand how selfish I am?

"Rev Runner?"

A female nurse stood in the doorway, the sudden break of thoughtful immersion almost startling. She looked around at them with a somewhat embarrassed glance. She must have picked up on the tension in the room.

When nobody had made a remark pertaining to such after a moment, however, she quickly recollected her purpose and wore an obligatory smile to proceed with her unsaid statement. "There is someone here to see you."

She had walked off after a moment, but the eyes of the superhero team had all exchanged glances with one another before she had even fully left. The incredulousness was mutually shared through out each individual, all entertaining similar vague notations- "But we're all already here."

Attention was turned back on the doorway at the expectant sound of footsteps; the owner of them, as they watched her approached, certainly bared no explanation that could spare their confusion.

Nobody indicated that they had remembered or known who she may have been. The curiosity shared between the teammates had been subtle at first, but grew to great concern and a greater incredulousness when they got a look at the woman's face; a red, swollen, and tear-stained face, with more water yet to come as it poured out of her eyes. Her sobs were low in volume but certainly perceptible, her hand covering her lower face shakily as if to muffle the sound as much as she could.

Those bloodshot, flooding eyes fell almost immediately on Rev, a look of immediate recognition. The roadrunner exchanged the eye contact, but his irises shifted shortly as they focused on her, as if restless. And they likely were so, as the wideness of his eyes and the furrow in his brow indicated a powerful curiosity-and perhaps a bit of sentiment, whether or not he knew where to direct it. The way she looked at him...the way she seemed to know who he was so quickly...the way she edged toward him with tottering, weak steps...he was almost guilty for not seeming to know who she was.

Rev suddenly pushed himself off the bed to stand up straight. It hurt like mad and he hadn't expected himself to do it, really, before he did, but it was obligatory. He knew it was. If there was protesting from any of his teammates verbal or otherwise, he didn't perceive it.

She had reached him a moment later, merely inches away. For a second, her gaze had been turned down, but had snapped back up once she halted to stair directly at the waiting avian. Their eyes, for the first time, had met on an equal level. Watery brown connecting onto shimmering emerald.

The woman drew her hands away from her face. It was a disregard for normal standards, the standards of the way two strangers would normally interact, a violation even. But, as if the roadrunner were her own son, she had gently took his face in her hands...softly, as if he were made of porcelain, she cupped either sides of his head, turning it upward ever so slightly as if to maintain the levelness of their eyes forever.

Rev didn't appear to mind. He remained rigidly still, waiting.

Finally, her mouth opened for all of about a second. It opened and closed a few times with her gaze shifting around, with uneven intakes of air, as if she kept intending to say something and decided it didn't fit. But after a moment, her brown eyes met up squarely once again, and she uttered the only feeble remark her hoarse, emotion-clogged throat could manage.

"Thank you."

Rev stared. He felt his beak twitch. Smiling?

She faltered, drawing her trembling hands away from the young man's face. "Thank you. Thank you."

Even as she weakly turned around to exit, her head bowed low, she continued to zombie-ishly display her gratitude between sobbing chokes.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

A few seconds passed; the avian, finally tearing his eyes away from their perch on the exit, sunk back into a seated position on the bed as if he had deflated. It nearly looked like a faint with how weakly and suddenly he had alighted. He showed no initial sign of awareness from what the other presences in the room could tell, his eyes turned down on his lap, his hands clutching the edge of the mattress on either side.

"Rev?" Ace was the first one to speak up, his face and intonation indicating a gentle concern. "Rev? Who was that?"

"Her mom."

The response was a mere mumble, just barely decipherable. But it was enough for another thoughtful quietness to take residence in the room.

At least, until Rev broke it. "That's it."

Lexi questioned on behalf of everyone; "What's it?"

"That. I-mean...that-really-is-it."

"Care to explain?" Duck inquired, showing a bit of acrimony, although still evidently curious in a genuine sense.

Rev finally looked up. A renewed gleam in his eyes, accompanied by a humble smile. "I'd-love-to-explain-but-I-wish-I-could-figure-out-how-to-put-it-all-into-words-I-mean-you-know-me-I'm-not-the-kind-of-guy-to-get-all-philisophical-and-what-not-I-usually-don't-delve-on-moody-negative-stuff-or-anything-like-that-or-at-least-I-try-not-to-I-mean-I-always-thought-that-focusing-on-unhappy-things-was-just-a-distracting-like-why-focus-on-everything-that's-wrong-when-so-much-is-right-you-know-which-I-guess-is-why-it's-been-so-hard-for-me-not-that-I'm-exaggerating-or-grabbing-at-attention-or-anything-like-that-I-would-never-intentionally-do-that-but-I-don't-know-whether-or-not-you-guys-can-really-relate-to-me-I-mean-maybe-you-can-but-lately..."

Everybody waited at a surprising mutual patience, for the roadrunner to finish out.

"But-lately-eh...um..."

"Spit it out, Rooster Head."

"It's just...Ace was right. I was...I've-been-questioning-myself. Honestly, I-don't-know-why. It-just-sort-of...it-came-out-of-the-blue. I-wish-I-knew-why-or-how-or-where-it-came-from...I-guess-I-sound-kind-of-silly-right-now."

"Go ahead, Rev."

The runner smiled appreciatively at his leader. "Thanks. Er...I'll-just-get-to-the-point. Have-you-ever-wondered-what-it-means-to-be-a-hero? Have-you-ever-just-thought-about-why-you're-here-now...why-you-help-people-what-you-get-out-of-it? Gosh, it-seems-so-selfish-now-that-I'm-saying-it-out-loud."

Tech, who was sitting adjacent to Rev at the edge of the semi-circle, placed a warm hand on the latter's shoulder and smiled at his with what he hoped was a strong reassurance. He intended to allow his expression speak more clearly than what he could have said in words, something he never remembered being good at.

Rev took the kind gesture gratefully and continued with new reassurance; "Well...that's-it. All-this-time. For-weeks-I-had-been-wondering-what-it's-all-supposed-to-mean. Weeks-of-wondering-why-I-do-what-I-do-and-why-I-am-who-I-am-and-why-I-should-be-doing-this-all-the-time-when-the-truth-is-that-none-of-this-should-really-matter-to-me. I mean, I-never-know-the-people-I-'save.' They-never-know-me-and-they-certainly-don't-regard-me-as-anything-more-than-their-personal-superhero-service. It-was-an-inconvenient-truth.

"...But. I-don't-know-what-is-was. I just...I-think-I-know-why-I-do-this-now. It's-for-that. It's-for-people-like-her. It's-for-the-preservation-of-life,-you-know? I-don't-really-know-exactly-how-to-say-it. I-realized-that-the-one-thing-I-was-forgetting-to-consider-all-this-time-was-the-fact-that-it-may-not-directly-be-affecting-the-perspective-on-me-as-a-person,-but-it-directly-affects-things-that-are-extremely-important-in-other-people's-lives. I-used-think-why-it-mattered. I-guess-for-a-little-while-I-just...

"...Forgot."

Ace nodded and smiled. "Does this mean we'll get our old Rev back?"

Rev returned the smile and looked around at his teammates, all with the same friendly faces. Looking at him expectantly. If nothing else, wasn't being a hero worth it if he could have a family like this forever? "Yeah. I-think-so. Guess-it-just-took-something-like-this-to-leave-an-impression-on-me-after-a-while. Even-if-it-was-just-rescuing-a-little-girl-from-a-fire-instead-of-halting-a-galactic-apocalypse. No...especially-if-it-was-just-rescuing-a-little-girl-from-a-fire-instead-of-halting-a-galactic-apocalypse."

"And look, Rev," Tech had said, "You should never be afraid to express yourself if something is bothering you. We've known each other for a year and a half now, and there shouldn't be any hesitation in saying what's on your mind. We'd never judge one another. Well-I guess except for Duck, but he doesn't count. Nobody cares about his opinion."

"Hey!"

"-And that goes everybody," Ace added. "Tech is right. We're family. And family shouldn't keep things from each other."

"You-know..." Rev timidly began after a short pause. His eyes furrowed somewhat shyly and his hand swept the back of his neck. "I-don't-want-to-sound-too-cheesey-or-ruin-the-good-atmospher-or-something-with-my-corny-remarks-but-I-just-wanted-to-say...today-I-learned-how-meaningful-it-is-to-be-a-hero-and-how-it-means-more-than-just-how-you-as-an-individual-is-affected-and-it-made-me-think-that-" he hesitated, if only for a moment. "-you-guys-are-my-heroes."

Through everything, through the "aww's" and the group hug that followed his assertion, Rev knew that his being a hero was more than a label; it was a privilege, and even if everybody looked at him as nothing more than a fictional character, at least it meant he knows why he does what he does and what it means to be a hero. And at least he gets to share it with the greatest teammates in the world.

Oh my gosh, you're done. Thank the heavens. I can't believe how long this took me; I actually walked away from it and stopped working on it for weeks on end because of both marching band, and five billion projects for school on my plate. I didn't know what to do on this particular Saturday morning, so I decided, "hey, how about I finally finish off this fanfiction and not do my homework?" So yeah. Now I can finally get started on the next one. If you've read my profile or know anything about me, you might know about my "list" of fanfictions that I'm eager to write. Most of them are Loonatics, but I'm not sure if I'll do one for this fandom next. I might. I dunno. But I will publish another one in the foreseeable future, so look our for it.

This was a lot of hard work. If you managed to get through all of it, please review if you are so inclined. It would make me a very happy panda.

I didn't really reread this so much as skimmed it, so there are probably one thousand and one mistakes. Also decided not to split it up into chapters, because reasons. Honestly I don't know. Just though it was fine as a oneshot. If it exceeded fifteen thousand words, I might have thought differently. Sorry about lengthy author's note, carry on.