Loonatics Tower, Acmetropolis, California, June 10, 2772.
It had been three months since we had become The Loonatics and the first few days were rough because the public was afraid of us and our new powers. To the police, we appeared dangerous due to our new powers, so to earn their trust, we provided humanitarian aid for the public and helped the police put away anyone trying to take advantage of the chaos. We saved people that were still trapped in rubble and helped the police and the Military regain order, and we also assisted in the reconstruction of buildings that were badly affected by the shockwave. With the combined efforts of everyone and our powers, the city was quickly repaired and we were thanked by the Mayor, the Governor, and the public for our efforts. After the initial crisis was under control, the Mayor and the Governor made us a deal-we would let the police deal with the small time criminals and they would let us handle any major threats from others who had developed powers like ours but chose to use them for crime. The seven of us agreed to the deal and for the past three months, we had handled some seriously dangerous threats to the city and as a result, people now saw us as heroes.
Even though it had been a pretty brutal heat wave these past few weeks, today it had suddenly gotten pretty chilly. I was sitting in a chair in the living room, typing on my holographic wrist computer while everyone else was doing their own thing. Ace was sitting in a lotus position on a floating disk, meditating with his eyes closed. Lexi was out jogging to keep herself in shape. Slam was also outside but I didn't know where he had gone. Daniel, otherwise known as 'Duck', was admiring himself in the mirror with a blue blanket tied around his neck to look like a cape. Rev had just come in carrying a pizza and put it down on the table. Tech instantly helped himself to a slice and took a huge bite.
"Brr! Jesus, that's cold! Where'd the Hell did you get it? Iceland?" Tech asked sarcastically.
"Actually no. I just picked it up from the nearby pizza joint, and I must say it's abnormally cold outside for this time of year, but if you really like the pizza they have in Iceland, I could go and get some and be back in 4.2 seconds but of course, that's just an estimation because you really don't know about traffic-" Rev rambled on before Tech shoved the pizza slice into his beak to get him to stop.
"That was one of those questions that didn't require an answer," Tech remarked while he was poking at the rest of the pizza in the box, then he looked at Ace and he held up another piece, prompting, "Hey Ace."
Then Ace opened his eyes and smirked."On it, Tech," He said and he shot lasers beams at the pizza, heating it up and making it edible again.
"Extra crispy. Pizza, Duck?" Tech offered to the mallard, who was still admiring himself in the mirror.
"Are you fucking kidding? I've already had my protein shake. It's vitally important to maintain a superhero physique, because you can't be flabby when you're...The Duck-inator," Daniel said dramatically, and I let out a slight groan of irritation.
"Yesterday, you were calling yourself 'Super Duper Duck'," Ace pointed out.
"Yeah, it wasn't quite rolling off the tongue. Besides, I need a name that will fit on the costume," Daniel said, shrugging.
"How about...Duck," I offered, causing Tech and Ace to chuckle.
"Very funny, asshole," Daniel grumbled sarcastically.
"Well, if you don't stop coming up with a name for yourself every five seconds, I'll name you "Mud" and see how you'll like that," I remarked dryly.
As Daniel and I glared at each other, the elevator doors opened and Lexi walked inside with headphones on, bobbing her head to the music.
"Hey Tech, did you order more then one pie?" Lexi asked, as she was taking her headphones off.
"No, why?" Tech asked as he took a bite of his slice.
"Cause Slam is in the house," Lexi stated, gesturing to her glowing ears. Tech and I groaned, knowing what was going to happen next.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with Slam at all. It's just that he eats so Goddamn much that there's barely anything left for the rest of us to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The elevator doors opened and a frozen Slam stumbled in shivering, causing all six of us to stare at him in bewilderment.
"That's not good," I couldn't help but comment, feeling shocked that the temperature had dropped that much so quickly.
Suddenly, we all heard Zadavia's alarm and we turned to see her holographic figure appearing before us in the center of the living room.
"Loonatics, we have a problem," She announced urgently.
"You got that right Zadavia," Ace said, walking over to the fogged up window and wiped a circle and peered outside, continuing, "I'd say that we have a serious problem."
I walked over to the window as well and could see that the entire city was becoming covered in ice. This was really bad. If we don't find out what's causing this, then things were not going to end well. The seven of us went to the meeting table and sat in our respective seats and looked at Zadavia for answers.
"So, what's up Zadavia? Certainly not the temperature," Ace commented. On the holo-screen, there were images of a large iceberg that had crashed into the docks.
"So far, nobody can figure out where this iceberg came from. I don't need to tell you all what will happen if the temperature keeps dropping," Zadavia informed us.
"I knew it, we're going to lose cable again," Daniel complained to Lexi, prompting me to Gibbs-slap him in the back of the head for his stupidity.
"Ow! You asshole! What the Hell was that for?!" Daniel cried out, glaring at me and rubbing the back of his head in pain.
"You fucking dumbass! I think we have more important things to worry about then losing cable television," I said sternly, glaring back.
"Ethan is right. If this isn't stopped, then the city could be starting a new ice-age," Zadavia agreed, giving me an appreciative nod.
"Oh great, those winter sweaters always make me look chubbo," Lexi groaned in annoyance.
"When the meteor hit the city, your super powers weren't the only after effect. This iceberg could be related," Zadavia said.
"Eh, I think we can handle one iceberg," Ace assured with a confident grin.
"Acmetropolis is counting on you all to take care of this, Zadavia out," She said and her holographic image disappeared.
"When she goes out, where does she go? The movies?" Lexi asked.
"Maybe she goes out to monitor the city for dangerous threats. It's what I would do," I suggested.
"Anyways. Tech, Ethan, we'll need some toys to melt this ice cube," Ace said. Tech and I sighed in irritation at hearing Ace call our inventions "toys."
"For the love of God. Excuse us Chief, they're not "toys," they're precision hand-crafted alloy instruments," Tech informed him testily.
"We'll take those too. But first, the toys," Ace said, not really listening.
"He just said they're...you know what, forget it. Follow us, Tech and I have the perfect thing to melt that iceberg," I said, and we all stood up and headed to the lab.
Inside the lab, Tech and I handed each of them a small circular disk. Ace and the others examined the disks in confusion.
"Introducing The Retro Fire Master Blasters. All you need to do is to hold them in the palm of your hand and squeeze twice. Go ahead, try them out," I said proudly.
Rev squeezed the disk twice and it turned into a massive arm cannon.
"Cool!" Rev exclaimed excitedly, aiming down the cannon's sights.
Slam was fiddling with his disk when his hand slipped. He fumbled for the disk as it fell to the ground and he accidentally stepped on it, making the cannon form on his foot. Slam looked up at us in a panic.
"Uh oh," Slam grunted as the cannon started firing randomly and he was sent flying all over the room screaming and bouncing off the walls like a ping pong ball.
"Oh shit! Get down!" I yelled in panic, and Tech and I dove out of the way and took cover next to the desk.
"Uncurl your toes! Uncurl your toes!" Tech shouted frantically.
Slam did so and he stopped flying around and fell to the floor as the cannon turned back into its circular disk form and dropped to the ground.
"Jesus, that was close," I thought, getting up and brushing myself off.
"So, what do you all think?" Tech asked everyone as he stood up.
"You gotta love the toys," Lexi said gleefully.
"Time to crush some ice, let's jet," Ace agreed and we all raced to put on our jet packs. Rev could fly without a jet pack, so he headed out immediately while we geared up. We headed out to the iceberg and when we caught up with Rev, he started talking to Tech and me.
"Holy Hell, would you look at that thing?! It's gotta be the biggest iceberg I've ever seen and I've seen some doozies, do you think that we should have put more juice in the blasters? Not that I doubt your expertise or anything but that is one giant-" Rev said, not paying any attention and about to crash into the iceberg when he was cut off by Ace.
"Hey Rev! Watch where you're talking!" Ace alerted him. I saw Rev had a look of panic on his face and he frantically flew upwards just in time to prevent himself from crashing into the iceberg. He quickly flew back and hovered beside us.
"Okay, what wise guy moved Mt. Everest?" Tech asked humorously and I didn't blame him for asking that. The iceberg did look like Mt. Everest.
"Alright, snow cones for everyone," Ace said. We all fanned out into a circle before he continued, "Set your blasters to thaw."
We activated our disks, forming them into large cannons and fired at the iceberg with constant beams of heat.
After a minute, I exclaimed in disbelief, "What the Hell?! Why are they not working?! Hey Ace! This isn't working! We need to try something else!"
"Son of a bitch, he's right. Okay! Cease fire! Cease fire!" Ace ordered, and we shut our weapons down.
"I don't get it Ethan, how the Hell could our Retro Fire Master Blasters not work?" Tech asked me as our cannons reverted into small disks.
"They just need a few adjustments Tech. Not every invention starts out successful," I reassured him before I looked at Ace and asked, " So what do we do now Ace? The blasters don't work,"
"Not to worry Ethan, there's always plan B," Ace said as we were flying down to the dock. We landed and Ace looked up at the iceberg before looking at Slam.
"You're on Slam buddy," Ace told him.
Slam spun into a miniature tornado and started zooming around the iceberg, which quickly began to melt.
"Holy Hell. Slam's certainly fired up today," I commented in slight disbelief.
"I know, right? What did this guy have for breakfast?" Ace agreed, while the ice melted and the temperature began to rise.
As it began to get warmer, the ice encasing the people around us began to melt, setting them free from their icy prison. One man began cheering as he was freed, "All right Loonatics! You rock!"
"Slam, you are nothing but a glorified zamboni! Chipping ice isn't a super power, quacking is a super power. Observe." Daniel said arrogantly before he teleported out of sight, only to instantly appear inside the ice.
"You can stop observing now," Daniel grunted weakly.
"Ha! Serves you right, you dumbass!" I exclaimed, laughing at his predicament.
Once the ice was completely melted, Daniel was freed from the ice and the temperature had risen to 78 degrees.
"Good guys: one, Mother Nature: nothing," Ace declared, smiling victoriously.
Slam was panting hard, trying to regain his breath after working hard to melt the iceberg. Just when I thought things were over, Lexi's ears started glowing.
"Hold on Ace. Mother Nature may be done, but I'm picking something up," Lexi informed us.
"Perhaps a high pitched dog whistle?" Daniel asked sarcastically.
"You smartass. If it was a dog whistle, Tech would've heard it," I said, as the remains of the iceberg started to hiss and give off steam before breaking apart. We all moved a safe distance away down the dock as the falling ice landed into the water, causing large forceful waves to splash up near us. When the steam cleared up, we saw an impressive silhouette of a ship and we gasped in astonishment at the amazing sight. Suddenly, a mechanical door opened up on the ship's hull and honest-to-God robots that looked like Vikings came jumping out and landing all around us.
"Boy, are you guys lost," Ace said sarcastically before another robot Viking with a different coloring then the others landed right in front of us. Judging by how different this one looked, I guessed that this was the leader.
"What's up Doc?" Ace inquired to the robot with blue and white coloring.
"I am Gunnar," The robot with white armor declared himself.
"Gunnar what? Gunnar go to a Viking convention at the Civic center?" Ace quipped.
Ace always did this. Whenever we came across a threat, he would always taunt the enemy to piss them off so that it would be easy to take them down. The only time Ace didn't use humor was when we were dealing with a serious threat that could actually kill us.
"No. We are here to take over your world," Gunnar growled.
"You know, you frosted flakes might as well go back to where you came from, 'cause this is a 'no invasion' zone," Ace quipped again.
"We will conquer your world by any means necessary!" Gunnar exclaimed.
"No you won't," Ace told him.
"Yes we will," Gunnar argued back.
"No you won't," Ace said back.
"Yes we will!" Gunnar thundered in frustration.
Then a mischievous look crossed Ace's face and he said, " Yes you will."
"No we won't conquer your world and that's final!" Gunnar declared.
"Have it your way," Ace said, shrugging.
I knew that if Ace's ancestor Bugs Bunny were here to see this, he would be proud.
"Ohhh, I'll enjoy killing you slowly, rabbit!" Gunnar threatened in a menacing tone before raising his sword and swinging it down at Ace to cleave him in half. Ace jumped out the way.
"Oh yeah, like that's ever gonna happen," Ace stated sarcastically, pulling out his sword and attacking Gunnar. After several seconds of a dramatic performance of swordsmanship, Ace jumped over Gunnar with an acrobatic flip and landed in front of us.
"I can keep this up all day," Ace stated to Gunnar. One thing about Ace is that during combat, if you gave him the chance, he would most definitely be able to keep up against you all day.
"Taste my cold steel," Gunnar declared and pushed a button on his sword, which began to emit a white electric light.
"Time to chill out, bunny!" Gunnar roared and a beam of light flew toward us from the tip of the glowing sword.
"I don't think so!" Ace exclaimed defiantly and fired his laser eyes at the beam. There was an explosion of yellow light where laser beams met sword glow, and Ace and Gunnar struggled to overpower each other as they came closer together.
"Hammers of Frost!" Two Vikings shouted as their war-hammers began glowing.
The two Vikings slammed their hammers on the ground, and ice spread out along the ground and ran under Ace's feet. As Ace slid back toward us, we caught him and held him up as he continued to fire his lasers against the Viking sword's light.
"Their weapons seem to be charged with a sub-zero hydrothermal liquid solidification energy, that when fired can freeze-" I started to explain but was cut off by Ace.
"Yeah, I got that part figured out," Ace grunted out.
Just when things couldn't get any worse, the rest of the Vikings fired freezing energy at us from their weapons..
We all yelled in alarm as the ice imprisoned us. As for me, everything went black when the ice fully covered us.
Next thing I knew, Slam had destroyed the ice and we were all shivering and trying to warm ourselves up.
"N-N-Nice work there Slam," Ace praised him through chattering teeth.
"H-H-Holy s-s-shit, that's c-cold," I said weakly as I shifted my body into the form of an anthro timber wolf covered in heavy winter clothes to warm myself up even faster.
"Are you going to be okay Ethan?" Tech asked me in concern.
"Yeah, I'll be fine Tech. I'm warming up already," I said and shifted back to my human form once my body temperature was back to normal.
"I would've busted you all out if you've just gave me the time to think," Daniel complained.
"We had seconds, not hours Duck," Ace remarked before walking away.
"I liked you better as a snow bunny," Daniel grumbled bitterly.
"He's right Duck. By the time you came up with a way to get us out, we would've been dead. Except for Tech and me, since he has the power to regenerate from anything harmful, and I copied his ability to heal up from any form of damage or death," I explained.
As we began walking, I saw how frozen the city had become. Looking at Ace, I saw that he was looking around too.
"I love what they've done with the place," Ace commented.
"Snow drifts are very trendy this year," Lexi pointed out before we heard a familiar alarm coming from a phone booth.
"Sound's like Zadavia's ring," Ace said.
All seven of us arrived at the phone booth and Lexi pushed the on switch and said, "Hello?"
A holographic screen that had Zadavia's face on it popped up and she commented, "I guess you all know by now that these are no ordinary Vikings."
"Yeah, they didn't even sound Scandinavian," Ace agreed.
"I believe the iceberg slipped in through one of the inter-dimensional portals that opened up after the meteor hit. These mutant techno Vikings must have been frozen inside during an ice storm in their own dimension, but now that they're here in Acmetropolis and released..." Zadavia trailed off and my eyes widened in realization.
"Then they'll freeze and paralyze the entire world so that it will be easier to take over. Oh God help us," I finished.
"Precisely, but right now you all have bigger problems," Zadavia said, and before we could ask her what kind of problems, all seven of us were sent flying onto our backs when some kind of large ice ball struck the phone booth, completely destroying it.
"Argh...is there a day where we aren't knocked onto our asses?" I thought in pain and picked myself up again.
"I didn't get that last part. What are the bigger problems?" Daniel asked, then I saw the Viking ship's head firing another ice ball at us.
"Fucking Hell! Incoming!" I shouted in panic and we all scattered, except for Daniel, who simply teleported out of the way.
"If their trail leads into the city, what are they doing on their boat?" Lexi questioned as we stared at the three Vikings that were manning the dragon head ice-cannon.
"Maybe they didn't want to miss the dinner show, 'Gunnar on ice'. Let's jet," Ace declared.
"Right. Ready team? 1,2,3," Daniel said, but when he tried to start up the engines of the jet pack, it just simply coughed out smoke.
"Ah, son of a bitch, the ice must have short-circuited the jet pack's systems. Luckily, Tech and I have a back up plan. Tech, you want to do the honors?" I asked him with a knowing look.
"I thought you'd never ask Ethan," Tech said with a grin and he pulled out a remote control from one of the small pouches on his belt and pushed a button. Almost instantly, seven black motorcycles to sped up to us and screeched to a halt.
"Presenting the Zoomatrix. How about it Ace?" Tech said.
"Let's show these Vikings how to fly," Ace said as he got on one of the bikes, put his motorcycle helmet and drove to the ship, followed by the rest of us.
The motorcycles transformed into hover bikes and we flew over to the ship where the Vikings spotted us and started shooting ice balls at us.
"Ha, you bastards think you can shoot me down? I once designed and test piloted Mach 1 fighter jets for the U.S. Air Force," I taunted, while I performed evasive maneuvers.
Daniel was almost shot down, but Lexi and I shot the ice ball and Daniel flew at us.
"Daredevil Duck, thanks you," Daniel said with a salute before driving away.
"Oh for fuck sakes! Pick a damn name already! God, he's starting to aggravate me!" I yelled in irritation, feeling like I wanted to strangle him.
"I agree, that is very annoying," Lexi sympathized with me before we separated and kept dodging ice balls.
I had formed my hands into mallets and I was smashing any ice balls that got too close to me. I passed Slam, who was still punching ice balls that were being shot at him and met up with Ace.
"How long are we going to let them use us for target practice?" Lexi asked once she was right beside us.
"Until they run out of spit wads, which should be right about...now," Ace said and just as he finished, the ship's head stopped firing ice balls at us.
"Let the fun begin!" Ace said excitedly.
"Aye Aye, Skipper," Lexi said with a salute.
"Loonatics unite!" Ace ordered, and we all flew away from the ship and went through a blanket of fog. As we flew, our motorcycles connected and transformed into a boat and we came out of the fog.
"Tech, Ethan, you've outdone yourselves," Ace praised us.
"You can say it, we're geniuses," Tech and I said together.
"Launch the torpedo," Ace ordered.
Tech pushed a button and a torpedo flew toward the ship.
"So long assholes!" Daniel taunted at the ship.
Just when it looked like the torpedo was going to hit, the ship literally rose up and started flying away.
"Well, that's unexpected," I commented, feeling shocked and annoyed that those big bastards had a ship that can fly.
Slam grunted to Ace and our leader said, "Yeah Slam, didn't see that one coming. Flying Vikings?"
"You know, I could say that I have officially seen everything but I get the feeling I haven't. And besides, they won't be flying for long," I said.
I pushed a button and wings slid out from the sides of the boat and we took off into the air and flew above the Viking ship.
"Ethan, take them out," Ace told me and I obliged.
"Engaging Ionic de-stabilizing gravity disks," I said and pushed the button, only to be confused when nothing happened.
"What the Hell? The modulators are not responding. Why is it...ah fuck! I can see what the problem is," I said in irritation, seeing ice covering the mechanisms.
"What is it?" Ace asked me.
"The launching mechanism has been completely frozen over. Somebody is going to need to do this by hand," I explained. I looked over to Slam and said, " Slam, I'm going to need your help for this one."
Slam nodded and went over to the explosives, grabbed them and ripped them out of the launching mechanism, then he headed over to the edge of the boat before dropping the explosives down onto the Viking ship, which exploded and plummeted into the water. Tech flew us down and we got onto the ship to see if there were any Vikings left.
"Ethan, Tech, with their ship down, do you think the big freeze is over?" Ace asked us as we were examining one of the Vikings with our scanners.
"Fascinating. It seems that all of their power is coming from the horns on their helmets," I informed Tech.
"Anyone else on board Rev?" Ace asked him.
"All clear starboard, bow, and no spit wads," Rev said as he zoomed around the ship and came back shaking his head.
"So where did they all go?" Lexi asked in confusion.
"Oh Hell's bells. I know what this is." I said, realizing what had just happened.
"What is it?" Tech asked me.
"All of this, this whole game of Battleship, it was all just a distraction so that Gunnar and the other Vikings could head to their real target without any resistance," I explained.
"You're right Ethan. Hey Rev, can you get a reading on these Nordic nut-jobs?" Ace asked him.
Rev nodded and his eyes started glowing before a holographic map of the city projected from the upside down triangle on his suit. The image zoomed in to show us Gunnar and a few Vikings heading to the city's power grid.
"They're heading for the city's power grid," Lexi said.
"So this is what Zadavia was trying to tell us," Ace said.
"Not to alarm anybody, but if they freeze the city's power core..." Tech started uneasily.
"Then basically, the entire city will become a frozen wasteland. Yeah, screwed doesn't even begin to describe on what will happen if we don't stop them," I finished gravely.
"Then let's make sure that we do stop them. Let's jet," Ace said, and we headed out to the power grid.
We arrived at the city's power core to see that the Vikings had almost completely frozen the core and I knew that we needed to stop them now as we entered the building to find them. God knows how many people could die in this city if they succeeded.
"Eh, what's up Horn Heads?" Ace asked as we came across them. The Vikings stopped what they were doing and turned around to look at us.
"Freeze them!" Gunnar shouted, and the Vikings charged at us as a free for all broke out.
"You picked the wrong planet to invade, Pally," Ace said as he jumped out of the way to prevent himself from being gutted by a sword.
I didn't know how long Tech and I were fighting, but we were backing up when we bumped into someone and we looked to see that it was Ace.
"Listen fellas, we need to turn the tables. Make things hot," Ace told us.
"We'll reprogram them, just keep them busy," Tech said, and we all jumped out of the way to avoid being butchered.
Ace took a Viking's head clean off with a powerful kick and I grabbed it in midair. Tech and I ran over to a console, took out our tool kits and started working on the head, but I still kept my senses sharp just in case.
"Tech, Ethan, in position. Please tell me you two are done?" Ace asked us several seconds later with a slight tone of panic in his voice.
"You can't rush brilliance," Tech and I said while we were in the middle of rewiring something.
"No, but you can give it a swift boot in the ass!" Ace said.
"Just keep them busy for a little longer, we're almost done!" I said loudly.
Finally, we finished and plugged the helmet into the console.
"Got it, Ace!" Tech shouted in victory.
We lifted the helmet, feeling proud, until we saw a current of electricity heading straight to us and we looked at each other with a look of dread on our faces.
"Oh crap, not again," I thought, bracing myself for the world of pain that was coming.
Tech and I were hit by the current, causing us to scream out in agony at the amount of voltage running through our bodies. I felt my body melt instinctively to escape the current and the helmet crashed down on top of me. I also heard Tech groaning beside me.
"We did it! It worked!" I heard Ace exclaiming victoriously.
"The energy from the Vikings has recharged the power core," Lexi said.
"Aw Tech, Ethan, I was just about to let them have it," Daniel complained.
"Seriously?! Does this asshole really think that we enjoy playing living conductors?!" I thought incredulously.
"Ugh...fuck. Talk about taking one for the team," Tech groaned in pain.
Suddenly, the helmet was lifted away from us and Daniel peered down at us.
"Tech? Ethan?" Daniel asked in confusion.
We didn't say anything, but just groaned in response.
Loonatics Tower, Acmetropolis, California, June 11, 2772.
Ace was meditating again, Lexi was lounging on a chair, Daniel was still figuring out a name, and lastly, Tech and I were cutting up slices of pizza with our new gizmo. Right on cue, Slam came running into the room, saw the pizza, and charged at it with a look of hunger on his face, only to be stopped when Tech threw our new invention at Slam and it clasped his mouth shut.
"No you don't Slam," I said, wagging my finger teasingly, resulting in him growling at us.
Then, all of a sudden, Zadavia's hologram appeared.
"Loonatics, I just had to personally say to each and every one of you job well done. The ice age is averted, the mutant techno Vikings are destroyed and the city of Acmetropolis is safe. Thanks to you Ace, Rev, Lexi, Slam, Ethan, Tech. Good work team, Zadavia out," She praised us before her image disappeared, only she forgot one member.
"That's it?! How the Hell could she forget me?! I was standing right here!" Daniel exclaimed in outrage.
"Don't worry Danny, You were fantastic," Lexi tried to cheer him up.
"Oh yeah, heroic," Ace said sarcastically.
Storming over to the table, Daniel pressed the button and Zadavia appeared again.
"Yes?" Zadavia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Hello, Ms. Zadavia? Duck here. I was wondering, did you forget something?" Daniel asked.
"Yes, I suppose I did. No more memos about changing your name. Danger Duck is self-sufficient and easy to remember. Request denied," Zadavia said sternly before her image disappeared.
"Glad to know that I am not the only one sick of him constantly trying to change his name," I thought wryly.
Daniel kept staring at the table, looking completely crestfallen when Ace walked over and put his hand on Daniel's shoulder.
"Well, look on the bright side, at least it's better then what she used to call you," Ace told him.
"Fine. Danger Duck, I can live with that," Daniel reluctantly agreed.
"Good, 'cause we like it too," Ace said.
I nodded and walked back over to the chair and sat back down before typing on my wrist computer, feeling happy that we had saved the city again.
