I can't stand how lacking the amount of Rev fanfictions are. He's easily my most favorite character from Loonatics, and my favorite superhero of all time, so you could imagine my aggravation to find that the amount of imaginative writings upon him in this fandom took up a grand total of a whopping two pages. Gasp! On top of that, I personally cannot stand OC's, which seems to be particularly attracted by this fandom, and what's this? A lot of them are Mary Sue's. No offense if you are the proud owner of an OC, good for you, but for once I would just love to find a well-written Loonatics Rev-centric fanfiction that does not introduce one. I've found some good Rev one-shots, but the multi-chapters are never finished, which saddens me, because the ones I've read are all epic and stuff. Sob. But, I have to understand. Life makes it hard to finish stories. Le sigh.
This is my first attempt at a Loonatics story, so bear with me, I beg of you.
Disclaimer: Shut up.
The wind mercilessly whipped in his face, bitterly inflicting a biting cold on his feathers, and stinging his eyes until they watered enough that they threatened for tears to fall; but he couldn't close them, he wouldn't dare. They, in spite of the nighttime's brutally low temperature, were as wide opened as ever, staring below at all the sights, staring ahead at the lack of sights, staring upwards at the cloudy black sky until his fear of heights possessed him and the skyward cast made him feel dizzy enough to instinctively snap his eyes forward once again. When he looked down, he could see everything at once, it was nearly overwhelming the way the view showed him things he hadn't observed before and made him feel small, an ant like the rest of them, vulnerable and ready to squash at any given moment.
Below, it was no idle landscape. The tops of building stood as black silhouettes and continued downward until they met the ground, gradually becoming more illuminated by the numerous streetlights beneath it, a yellow hue distorting the conventional color at the very bottom, and the sidewalk was no exception of that either. Round spots of yellow circles beamed over them until the light provided by the streetlamp was no longer in range, and a small black gap formed until the next circle overlapped it. Only in these yellow spots of light could he see the people walking along, some appearing to be running, others walking slowly with their backs visibly hunched against the wind, even from where he was he could see that. They were almost like little dots, some slightly bigger than the others, and the cars never seemed so square, though it was difficult to observe for the little time he could keep their eyes on them before he would have to look forward again so the acrophobia would not take him over and cause him to pass out, plummeting to what very well could be his death.
No building stood higher than him. No building was taller than the Loonatics headquarters, where he ok his stance.
His only vision was provided by the faint illumination of the orb that trademarked the building towards the top, and even the brightness of that did little justice for his eyes as he stood with his back ramrod straight at the very top above it. Sickeningly anxious and unable to move, Rev questioned himself to the core on why he decided to do this, why this had to be the way.
No. He had to stop defying himself. That's what's been holding him back. Ever since the Loonatics had been organized a month ago, everybody had been doing just great with their powers, learning to control and master them, wielding them with great strength and grace; Rev had gained well enough the gist of his GPS powers and accentuated speed, but flying was a different story. He accomplished it once unintentionally for all of a few moments before losing focus and beginning to plummet, lucky to land in the arms of Slam as he zoomed in a tornado underneath him to prevent his un-doubtable fate with the ground. Ever since then, he had been trying to pick up where he left off, running and trying to take off, but the wide cloud that cascaded out of his arms and elevated him to fly would just flicker off as soon as he was able to activate it. No one else was having such difficulty. The frustration in the roadrunner grew with every failure.
His friends always reassured him; "don't worry, you'll get it soon!" and "no one's an expert at first!" but the red-clad superhero had just enough of their false enthusiasm, and when he finally embraced the fact that doing the same thing over again and expecting different results would get him nowhere, the thought of this struck in his head. It was tonight he reluctantly decided to pursue it, and he would do it alone. No one knew he was up here. No one would ever know. The only indication would be that from now on, Rev would be able to fly.
Just jump.
The ground seemed to lure farther and farther away as he continued to look down, the anxiety of every possibility of what could go wrong evaded his mind.
You have to do this.
He knew he was not only doing this for himself, but for his teammates. He couldn't ever be able to help them with his full potential, if not every last aspect of his powers were under control.
Focus. That's the key.
Ace and Tech kept telling him this, and he didn't deny its truthfulness. With as fast as his physical body worked, so did his brain, and to fly, he couldn't get distracted, he couldn't lose focus, he had to remind himself that he was air bound and not become scared. No one knew he was afraid of heights, but he was sure that if he could conquer this task, that fear would wear away. It took every ounce of strength just to come up here. He couldn't have done it just to walk away.
Focus.
Rev exhaled and edged toward to ledge.
Focus.
He looked down just one last time. If he didn't do this correctly, there would be some nice hard pavement down there waiting for him.
Focus.
Rev breathed and bent his knees, clasping the frost-bitten metal of the building.
Focus.
He propelled forward.
Focus.
And before he could think, before he could turn back and call it quits just like he wanted to, before he could plan out his strategy just a bit more precisely, he felt the rush of win gust in his face, underneath his torso, throughout his arms, and he was falling.
Focus.
There was nothing under him now.
Focus.
The ground continued to get bigger, faster.
Focus.
Rev could feel his momentum increasing, feel ever last bit of regret flourish the atmosphere around him, could barely suppress the urge to scream for help.
Focus.
No. He could do this.
Focus.
Rev looked forward , his eyes squinting and tears falling as the bitter-cold air whipped at his face, he sent all his attention inward, breathed controllably. The first thing he had to do was spread out his arms…then he had to clasp his legs together, otherwise he would never be able to control his momentum…he had to gather his thoughts on one thing—he had to fly. He had to forget he was falling. He had to forget he would splatter if he hit the ground, he had to relinquish all worry, all doubt. He closed his eyes. Could he do it?
Focus.
He could feel it, the speed of his fall decrease, the wind slow, he felt his body reposition, hit feet fall directly under him, his back never more straight, his arms like poles sticking out of either sides of his body, he could feel himself slowly come to a stop—in mid air.
Focus.
He opened his eyes, and looked below him; he was still high up, but naturally much closer to the ground than he had been, just barely within equal height of the sky scrapers that surrounded him, and below humans were much more visible, in fact he could them gather and watch him, pointing and whispering and shouting, though he lacked any desire to know what they were saying.
Focus.
This was it. He was in the air, no longer affected by gravity. Now he just had to stay that way.
Focus.
Gradually, he bent forward and craned his neck, tossing his legs in back of him, and in spite of his expectations he could feel flames burst from his feet, and he was off in a trail of fire, soaring through out the air of Acmetropolis, feeling the wind fall behind him, the feathers on his head bend backward in impact to the wind, his hands still balled in fist as he flew, and he forgot nearly everything. The feeling…it was amazing, unlike anything he felt before, to have persevered in accomplishing something he thought he could never do, to fly and continue flying like there was no tomorrow.
You did it.
He did it. And with every joyful thought that swam in to his industrious mind, every element of elation there ever was pervade his body, he didn't even bother to attempt in holding in the laughs, the smile, the "Oh yeah!" and the "I'm doing it!" He did not cease the laughter as he went higher and lower and maneuvered himself around the buildings and obstacles.
He didn't know when he would decide to land, when it was time to return home, but he knew when he did, he would no longer fear heights, doubt flight…he had never been so proud, there was no room for such emotions. And wait until he told his teammates. They might be mad at him for risking life and limb, for doing something so dangerous without permission, for not including their supervision for the endeavor, but it wouldn't stop him.
After all, how many roadrunners have the right to say that they could fly?