Metaphor

by Jamocha101

"A rose by another name would smell just as sweet."-Anonymous. When a devastating failure causes Rev to question his worth to the team, Ace endeavors to communicate.

Had another writing prompt: "metaphor." Was at a complete loss, so I looked up a list of examples for such a literary device, and came across a list of clichés. Found one in particular that I really liked. Also, I like to play it safe, so Ace's accent is not written out to a 'T'. But it's still there. If you would like me to accentuate his brogue in the future, let me know, and I will do my best. Once again, another story focused solely on character development.

Disclaimer: Loonatics Unleashed © is owned by Warner Brothers.

Rev felt aimless. He felt accidental. He wished more than anything that he could just be somewhere else, be somebody else. He had never felt so unsatisfied with himself since before he had been affected by the meteor's radiation. This kind of disheartening feeling brought back memories that he hoped he could abandon, memories from when he was still growing up with his parents and couldn't satisfy them to their hearts' desires despite his protesting yearn for their approval. He made a resolve to never disappoint superiors like he had disappointed them before he was able to change his act around for their sakes back in that day. He was never bad...he would never even fathom being deliberately so. But his parents-particularly his father-always expected so much of him, always wanted him to do exactly what they wanted him to do. After a while of coming to this conclusion, it was automatic. Automatic to juts smile and do what you're supposed to do, and don't screw up. Automatic just to be useful whenever possible. It had worked for a time; but tonight had him severely questioning just how "useful" he was.

He jeopardized the mission. Now thanks to him, they had failed, and there was no spell or tool that he could promptly utilize to go back in time and erase himself from the equation. Success on tonight's endeavor was near crucial, Ace had made that extremely clear to each individual member of the team, and Rev threw it all away. He had proved to be of no use when it was most important; rather, he was liability, just a stooge that tagged along and was only noticeable when he was being held under a gun. He should have been able to resist. He should have been able to fight back. But he was too weak. Weak-minded, he would never be as smart as Tech. Physically weak, he would never be as strong as Slam. Never as powerful or cunning as Ace and Lexi. His powers, that he had now deemed worthless, didn't even add up to Duck's, who could at least throw something if he needed to be on defense. Rev had virtually no experience in hand-to-hand combat; he couldn't even throw a punch if he wanted to. Beyond that, he never really did want to. He didn't have the audacity for it because he was so feeble.

Everything felt wrong, deceiving. For as long as the Loonatics were a team, Rev had been just a fall guy that stood in the background, but he was only able to make this revelation in the most dire of circumstances. It made him feel stupid among everything else. I'm nothing, he thought, his head throbbing in consequence to his mind which was impossibly more industrious than it had ever been. Nothing but an easy target for the bad guys. I have no focus. No direction. No worth. I'm just a goof that nobody cares about. This team would be better without me. What's super speed? It means I can run away faster.

Rev looked below him, watching as he mindlessly dangled his legs over a relatively shallow abyss; he had charged out of the HQ, just to get away, and found himself buzzing unintelligibly around until he came across a forsaken woodsy setting in Planet Blanc's unfamiliar wilderness. Full of rocks and uneven terrain, Rev slowed his pace to a walk until he came across the somewhat diminutive cliff with which he expeditiously perched himself on. He just needed to try to slow down and think for once. If he had stayed in the HQ any longer, he would have surely gone mad from just having to see his other teammates, cold and downtrodden from the shortcoming, all by his doing. Ordinarily, his mind would be perpetually full of infinitely churning notations, but now he just wanted it all clear. The feeling of heaviness, of burden, of stress and remorse...Rev hated it. He loathed it, rued it. He wanted it gone, but he knew he didn't deserve happiness now. The Loonatics' operations were now at a stalemate, and he was to blame. The bothersome thoughts were staggering to say the least, but no matter how much he desired for them to be gone, they remained like a loyal dog. It only added frustration to the onslaught of blitzing emotions.

His teammates' reactions were mixed, somewhat difficult to analyze. Rev played over their faces, their expressions, what they said-he played it over and over again in his head and tried ineffectively to make different interpretations of them, almost seeking a relief, if perhaps they had room to forgive him. It was like unraveling a complex drumbeat from a heavy metal song. His readings were least of all focused on Duck, only because he was well aware of how small-minded the mallard really was and his childish accusations, thereof, didn't bother him nearly as much as judgments from the others did. But the aforementioned judgments were teasing him more, the more he thought about them...Ace, Tech, Lexi, Slam...what did they think of him now?

His thoughts were beyond cloudy as he looked back, the rate at which he was thinking uncontrollably fast. It was a habit. Not always a beneficial one, at that. Maybe if he had stopped to use his head more effectively tonight, he wouldn't have screwed up so terribly.

"Sometimes things just don't go as planned," Ace had said shortly after the mission was aborted. But, he said it heatedly. In fact, Rev wasn't sure if he remembered ever hearing Ace say something so low and full of ambiguous hostility. The yellow-clad bunny's remark was more full of acrimony, in fact, than he probably even intended. But it was there, nonetheless, and Rev knew without question that the blame for his source of malice was put squarely on his shoulders.

The night was bitterly cold-the weather on Planet Blanc was so drastically different from Acmetropolis, where certain regions endured altering weather patterns. Here, it was warm all day and cold all night everywhere on the planet; Tech elaborated by confiding that it was the neutral position in correspondence to the sun. The further into late hours the night grew, the colder it got until the exposure of the celestial body would start to make its way over the horizon, two hours earlier than it would on the Loonatics' home planet. The dropping temperature didn't matter to Rev, though. Like his own silly demeanor, the shivering and his hugging himself to guard against the weather was merely automatic.

Rev's vision suddenly shot forward, his posture perking just as abruptly. Somebody was coming; he could feel it from a mile away, even further had he been less far off in his own thoughts. His internal GPS had grown with him to become more of a sixth sense than a superpower; he could always "activate" it, of course, when need be, but otherwise it always somewhat active on its own accord. And with the feeling that the unidentified 'somebody' was coming his way, he promptly triggered the power to its full extent to identify exactly who it was; if he weren't in an abandoned woodsy spot in the dead of night he might have thought it could have been anybody. Granted the circumstances, however, he reasonably presumed it was one of his teammates and the thought made his head swim. He wasn't sure if he was looking forward to a confrontation. Not now.

The avian's eyes glowed red as he leisurely continued his analysis; the bogie in question was arriving in one of the Loonatics' compact hover cars and was a mere hundred yards away from him now. He didn't look back, though...he couldn't. At a loss, he deactivated the GPS and felt his head germinating a pulsating headache immediately afterwards, an unfortunate consequence to thinking so hard and using his powers in such a short interval of time, Rev assumed. He was quickly distracted from his pain, however, when a gentle wind picked up from the landing of the hover craft and the opening and closing of its door echoed softly off the trees. A pair of feet crunched the dead foliage that blanketed the forest floor once the driver jumped out, and the footfalls continued until they were feet away. Exactly eight feet and nine inches, if Rev's instinct was completely accurate.

"Rev!"

Rev didn't move in correspondence to hearing his name called. Although, his heart beat a little faster with unwelcome apprehension.

Apparently, his teammate was unfazed by-what Rev assumed-was his allusive lack of acknowledgement. "Are you crazy being out here right now? It's freezing."

Rev wasn't sure whether or not this statement surprised him; he hadn't predicted anything in particular, he didn't want to, but of all things to be reprimanded on tonight, he didn't anticipate it concerning his being out in the relatively hazardous weather. Just the same, the voice that made this unforeseen inquiry was gruff and cold enough to make Rev realize how low the temperature had dropped, and the thereby increased tension only inclined what he assumed was a maximum sorrow. As much as he probably wanted to flood himself out and confess every last apology he could possibly allow his voice to convey in one breath and beg forgiveness, not even his fast-working brain could provide any kind of response, verbal or otherwise.

After a moment of silence, the ignoring seemed to sink in; Rev heard a long, unhappy sigh escape from behind him.

"Look, Rev," Ace said, edging closer with his fists cupped around either one of his biceps in a futile attempt to recede the cold. His tone was edgy, somewhat impatient, or maybe unsure. Without looking at Ace's face-something that Rev still really didn't want to do-he wasn't sure exactly how to register anything his leader was saying. The following inquiry, as brusque as it was, made Rev wonder even more exactly what the chief was thinking.

"Are you really out here because of what happened? I know it was bad, and I know we didn't exactly take it that well...but you can't just be holdin' on to it like this, to the point of leavin' without communicatin' to anybody and sittin' in the middle of nowhere when it's Arctic weather out here..." his voice trailed off, and there was a pause, as if he had run out of things to say.

"...It's not like you," he added lowly.

Rev was hardly in control of himself with as out-of-character as he was feeling. He hardly noticed it as he uttered a quiet response, "I-guess-it's-not-'like-me'-to-mess-everything-up-either...But I did."

Ace hung his head and let out another sigh, feeling a swift, bitter wind pick up and blow through his ears and the fur on his face. At once he thought he felt a wave of guilt splash over him with way more force than he would have anticipated after being so angry before. It had taken a lot of his gradually-built self-control to not reprimand Rev in the form of telling him exactly how he felt about the way he interfered with the seemingly flawless plan he had worked so hard to lay out. But he now realized it was easily his body language and that of the rest of the team that did it. He probably threw a glare at Rev, or maybe was short of him ever since they aborted the mission, but he didn't really remember, not with how clouded his judgment was at the time.

Entertaining the reminisce, it donned on him that he probably shouldn't have acted in such a way despite his frustration, though, not with the leadership role he was supposed to assume. Not with always keeping a keen sense on his shoulders. Not with having the responsibility to take what comes and work it out no matter what. Not with the need to forgive in order to render an effective team. Not when he knew how childish and sensitive Rev could be; with as happy and obedient as he usually was, Ace might have managed to forget that he had feelings. Or maybe he never forgot and really wanted to hurt them, with as frustrated as he was with his avian friend. However, the very thought of that made the bunny grimace. Had he really felt so hostile?

"Rev..." he started, although he wasn't sure where he was planning on going with it. Sucking in some air, he moved closer until he was right behind the slouching roadrunner and tried again: "So...you came up short this time. It happens-"

"Not like this. I-mean-I-really-did-it."

A bitter pause intruded.

"...Help me out here, Rev. You know-I don't even get why this is bothering you the extent that you're willin' to sit out when it's freezin-cold...I mean, can't you just forget about it? It's okay, we'll figure something out, it's over."

Rev suddenly looked up at Ace with a surprising escalation of animosity that nearly made the latter jump. "But it's not over, Ace!" he cried, a clear pain radiating in his voice. "It's never going to be over! You've seen me in battle...I can't fight. I can't shoot at the bad guys. I'm defenseless. I'm an easy target, I don't contribute anything!"

The two simply exchanged lingering glances, neither knowing what to say, neither expecting the outburst. The moment of wordless interaction ended, however, when Rev suddenly turned back to face forward as soon as he felt moisture building up in his eyes; the last thing he wanted to do was cry. At a time like this, shedding tears would go beyond his own definition of embarrassing for him, especially when the last thing he wanted was more proof towards the fact that he was easily the weakest member of the team.

Ace bit his lip, but felt the unsteadiness of his teeth against it as they started to chatter along with the rest of his body against the cold. He almost felt his anger pick back up at Rev's resistance, but only forced himself to ward if off after rationalizing how little it helped just earlier today-when it was warmer. He recalled to his senses that it would be best to handle this situation with tact, something he remorsefully wished he had done when the opportunity presented itself hours ago. Hanging on to that notation, he quickly accepted that he wouldn't be returning to base ideally within the next five minutes.

Rev heard Ace's footsteps increase in volume until the latter was standing right next to the avian, a gesture that desperately made Rev want to scoot away. Even more so when Ace sat down right next to him, hanging his own longer legs over the edge of the cliff as Rev was doing. Not having the audacity to get up and exit like he would want to, however, Rev merely looked away, refusing to allow his eyes to meet with his leader.

The rabbit looked at his downtrodden teammate, beckoning him to return the glance, but no such expression was made. Feeling somewhat at a loss, Ace looked down below his folded arms at his lap and blew some warm air that he hadn't realized he had been holding. Going back on the regretful notions he had been contemplating moments earlier, the yellow-clad bunny knew that an apology to his friend was in order. An apology for rendering his teammate effectively useless in sorrow on his own accord, and moreover an apology for not handling this situation like he, as a leader, should have. He promptly inhaled to express this thought;

"I'm sorry."

Ace heard the apology, but was surprised to find that it wasn't his voice that it germinated from. Quickly, his eyes snapped back up at his teammate, who was still looking away, although Ace could see that his brow was furrowed from the small corner of Rev's face that was in his peripheral vision. Looking at his friend and registering his apology, Ace felt the guilt come back at full blow, making his eyes abruptly turn back down to his lap. It was just like Rev, he supposed. Just like Rev to act like this. Like a little kid who got in trouble for knocking over glass.

"Don't be sorry," Ace quickly responded, still staring down. "It's me who should be sorry. We all should be sorry. Yeah, you were kinda outdistanced this time. But, it could have happened to anyone-"

"But that's what you don't get," Rev countered with the same repugnance he had when he threw Ace a glance the first time. "It-wouldn't-have-happened-to-'anyone'-because-nobody-is-as-weak-as-I-am. You-and-Lexi-and-Duck-and-Slam-and-Tech...you-all-have-great-powers. Mine-just..." Rev unfolded his arms to momentarily glance at his palms, as if there was something severely dismaying about them. "...They-don't-add-up."

"Your powers are just fine, Rev."

Rev shook his head. "You-have-to-say-that. You're-the-leader. Pep-talks-are-your-thing."

The extent to which Rev was being malapropos both frustrated Ace, and gave him a progressively more uncomfortable headache. He drew his thumb and index fingers to his eyes, massaging them gingerly as he tried to conclude the wisest choice of action; the best response. If they continue at this rate, there was no way he was going to snap Rev out of this groove without him having to become demanding, and at this point, that inevitably felt like it was the wrong direction to go. Especially when he was fully aware that if the way Rev was behaving was any indication, anything could easily backfire and accentuate the severity of the situation. All of the discord was dreadful, Ace knew, but he wouldn't have thought so much of it if Rev wasn't being so abnormally stubborn.

"We all have strengths and weaknesses, Rev," Ace said, keeping his voice low and gentle, but making a note to add authority. "Defense isn't your thing. So...you didn't come through tonight. But the things you add to this team-"

"-Are-nonexistent."

"-Are priceless. Rev...Look me in the eye, would ya? I feel like I'm talkin' to the wind."

Rev didn't respond, still keeping his gaze scrupulously in the opposite direction. This time, however, Ace wanted to reach out to his teammate to at least try to leave an actual impression, if it would do even the slightest bit of justice. Not taking no for a nonverbal answer, he loosened his tight hug around himself to reach out and lightly take hold of Rev's arm, pulling the avian towards him with the ever so minimal slight. Rev felt the ginger beckoning, and finally obeyed the request for eye contact, turning his head reluctantly to look at the bunny. Doing so, peering into his leader's pained eyes hit Rev like bricks; had he really been the cause for all of this? All of this grief?

"...You and I both know that this isn't completely about what happened earlier today. Not everybody on a team has to be able to throw punches and shoot webs from their wrists. Besides giving us great advantages like your speed and tracking...there's never a time when we don't need your personality. You're fun, happy, always excited about everything...can't you imagine how boring it would be without you?"

To Ace's dismay, Rev's eyes shifted around before his gaze fell down to his lap. Limply, he shrugged. "Comic-relief. Great. Besides-it-didn't-come-in-handy-today,-did-it? I failed. Myself and everybody."

Ace sighed. "I wouldn't look at today as a 'failure'...more like...a learning experience..."

"A-rose-by-another-name-would-smell-just-as-sweet."

"...What?"

"I-said-a-rose-by-another-name-would-smell-just-as-sweet. You-could-call-a-dangerous-hurricane-a-'happy-playtime-sprinkler'...but-if-you-stand-in-the-middle-of-it, it'll-still-kill-you. It is what it is. Euphemisms-will-not-change-what's-happened. And-what's-going-to-happen."

Ace blinked absently. Certainly, now he felt dumbfounded. "Well. Uh..."

Rev both shamefully and triumphantly shook his head, and Ace caught it out of the corner of his eye.

The bunny wore an incredulous look on his face. "Just give me a sec."

"Sure."

"Think you got me?"

"Yes."

"You're wrong."

"Yeah, right."

Ace stiffened and enlarged his lungs by inhaling far more air than he thought he ever could take in one breath. Following the intake, he let it all out in a breath that was so outrageous, Rev couldn't help but allow Ace to gain his attention, turning to the yellow-clad bunny and looking at him with curious eyes.

"Alright!" Ace suddenly exclaimed, louder than he had all night, with an extremely inevitable resolution in his intonation. "Fine. You know best. But if I can't say anything to convince you that you're wrong, at least let me say this. Sittin' here and freezin' to death ain't gonna help ya out, doc. What you're doin' isn't makin' anybody feel better about what happened, includin' you. In fact, what you're doin' is feeling sorry for yourself. Bein' reactive instead of proactive."

"But, Ace-"

"I didn't finish, doc. You can't control what powers you have, so you might as well be happy about what you have now, and for the love of Acmetropolis, stop broodin', because you're makin' it worse. There have been many times in the past that your speed and other powers have come in handy, and there will be many times in the future where we're going to need you. Both you yourself, and the powers that you possess, whether or not they can be used to shoot an aluminum can at a carnival. Now You can think for the rest of your life that you're useless and don't add anything to your relationships with your teammates-or anyone for that matter-but you'll be livin' a lie, and that's that."

"It's not a lie. It's something that I have reason to believe-"

Rev paused, because to his surprise, Ace sneered and interrupted. "A rose by another name would smell just as sweet."

The bunny wanted to laugh at his friend's confounded expression. "...What?"

Ace proudly maintained smirk on his face. "I said-"

Rev joined in to say it with Ace in unison, as though it only just donned on him then. "A rose by another name would smell just as sweet."

Ace wasn't sure if it was between both of them, but he thought that the look they shared immediately afterward must have meant something; Rev's green eyes glistened, even in the dark, his mouth twitching up almost imperceptibly. After that moment, though, the roadrunner looked ahead at the rugged terrain of forest that stretched for miles beyond his vision, and Ace promptly did the same.

A few quiet moments past, the only noise in the atmosphere being the whistle of a small wind.

"Ace?"

The rabbit looked to the owner of the innocent voice that said his name, anticipating. Rev had his eyes locked onto Ace's.

"Can I..." he paused and fumbled with his hands, searching for the correct word. Or perhaps hesitating from pure timidity. "...redeem myself?"

Ace flashed him a genuine smile for the first time that night. "Tell ya what. You can redeem yaself, only if you agree to haul your scrawny tail outa these freezin' woods, and get the heck back to HQ."

Rev squirmed.

"I don't know..."

Ace shifted his weight around to swing his legs from their position dangling off the edge of the drop-off and threw himself up, just as quickly slouching over and wrapping his arms around his torso once again. "If you don't get up and go back, I'll carry ya. And you know I can do it."

Rev threw him a quick glance before realizing that he was utterly serious; and recalling past experiences with Slam, he didn't exactly want for anybody to "carry" him unless it was absolutely necessary.

"That's what I thought," Ace mused as Rev reluctantly agreed to relinquish his position on the ground, although there was light-hearted satisfaction in the way he said it.

Rev wasn't sure how he felt, going into the hovercraft with Ace and heading back to their base of operations with what seemed to him to be a rather obscure sense of closure, if there was any at all. However, he couldn't deny the feeling of refreshment from having communicated with his leader the way he had tonight, whether or not he was willing to. If it was anybody, he considered, it would have been Ace, who has proved his cunningness to Rev more than once in the past as far as the roadrunner could recall. Never one to deceive or embellish, Ace had indicated that his kindness and tact in resolving situations as rough as this one was a natural talent of his. Albeit, Rev knew that there was still a bighting feeling down in his chest that translated to a guilt that would probably never go away until the speedster was able to prove himself to his teammates, if that was possible, but having the reassurance that Ace had given to him was probably more than he thought he deserved tonight. It occurred to him that what Ace said was exaggerated, deceptive...he considered that his "feeling better" on this occasion was really just a temporary notion that would be gone by morning. It came to mind because he also considered the possibility that rather than a good personality, he was just a goofy kid.

The ride back to the HQ was quiet and seemingly slow, although as fast as Rev was going before he decided to end his trek to sit down, he had no idea how far it might have been that he wandered away from base. He wasn't sure quite how the atmosphere was in the silence next to his leader, if it was awkward or comfortable, but he could tell that it was at least warmer; Ace put on the heat full blast as soon as he had stepped in and started the vehicle up. Still, though, the atmospheric conditions temperature-wise couldn't matter to Rev while his mind was as industrious as it was.

Had Ace been genuine? Had his confiding in Rev that he was of use to the team completely authentic? Would Ace ever be deceptive, even in a situation like this? Thinking about it added to the tons and tons of confusion that had been piling itself over the avian all day, and it made the ride back to the HQ seem dreadfully long, although he considered the desire to never get back if it meant having to look at his other teammates in the eyes, having to come to the conclusions of what they thought. Were they willing to relinquish their grudges against Rev as Ace had...or would they just go on to hate him forever? Did Ace even let go of his grudge, or was this sense of forgiveness merely temporary? So many questions, and as fast as Rev was able to think, none of them became answered despite his strenuous effort to reach reasonable adjudications.

Despite the mental conundrum, Rev knew he had to face them; Tech, Lexi, Slam, Duck...he had to accept them even if they wouldn't accept him; Ace was right, he thought, brooding would only make it worse. It was a decision he had finalized after realizing how much the rapid mourning and questioning that went on inside his head was hurting more than helping. He know he could have retained every last bit of inner foulness and went on thinking that he would never accept his lack of importance on the team, however existent it was, and he still wasn't sure of that tangibility. But he couldn't go on using the cowardly excuse that his sorrow was merely a result of a fall that he couldn't make his way back up from.

After all, a rose by another name would smell just as sweet.

Once again, the driving conflict of the story, exactly what happened with Rev on the "mission," was strategically not specified because I did not find it important to the overall theme. If you would like to put this story in an aligned continuity with my previous ones, this would have come before "Malaise" and after "There For You."

I got stuck writing this far more than I probably should have. Just happy that it's done. One reason, because it took so long, and also because I literarily have a list of ideas for Loonatics one-shots that I simply can't wait to break out. Wanted to start one without the guilt of knowing that this wasn't finished yet.

I would very much appreciate critique, if you would be willing to take a moment. Thanks for reading.