Chapter 8
Kelly was now lying on the couch, pouting.
Sophie stroked her to keep her calm. "Come on, sweetie, it wasn't that bad."
"Oh, really? Tell that to Carly Meyers from Acme Texas, who HATES ME!"
Rita stormed up. "Kelly Coyote, I am not gonna let you lie on this couch, drowning in self pity for the rest of your life and miss seeing your new cousins."
"Aunt Rita, I'm not—what?"
Tech looked at his sister for a second. "You're pregnant?!"
Rita nodded, smiling widely as she put her hand on her womb. "Two months now."
"Does Sebastian know?"
"He's the one who found out first. I figured you guys ought to know, but I was hoping to tell you under better circumstances."
"Uh…guys?" Wendy then came in with a laptop and placed it on the table.
"So what you're saying, doctor," the TV host was saying to the child psychologist, "is that if this is the Loonakids…" He held up a picture of the team. "…and this is the hearts of children everywhere…" He held up a picture of a heart. "…then this is what Kelly Coyote has done." He put the two pictures over each other and tore them both apart in one swipe. "Join me tomorrow when our guest will be Becky Evans, founder of MAL—Mothers Against the Loonakids."
"Enough of this!" Sophie slammed the laptop shut. "We can't put up with this. We've gotta get back out into the world! Go bowling, pizza, movies—something!"
"Right!" Kelly said, "Let's go to the place where everyone hates us. Or that place where everyone hates us. Or we can go to the place with the really good cinnamon pretzels…where everbody hates us!"
"Guys, you can't let fear rule your life, especially with jobs like yours!" Nellie snapped, "You need to get out there and show everyone that you're still as much in the biz as ever and not gonna quit keeping this world safe any time soon."
"Got that right!" Ace said.
"I mean, take your parents here for example. They never let it get in their way."
"Nuh-uh!"
"I'll bet you they'd go out there in two seconds if they were needed!"
"Uh-uh!"
"Did you just 'uh-uh' me?!"
"Yeah-huh! We're not going out there again!" Ace crossed his arms at them, Lexi, Tech, Rev, Duck, and Slam taking his side.
"Oh, so you're one of those 'do as I say, not as I do' daddies?" Lucy snapped.
"Hey! Don't you 'do-daddy' me!"
"Forget it, people!" Kelly cried, "We're not going out there again now! And clearly we're not alone on that." She then stormed off to her room.
That night…
The kids were now arranged in the living room, watching TV.
Nellie, Patrick, Rita, and Sebastian then came in with the triplets and joined them on the couch.
"We can't find the others," said Patrick.
"Where could they be?" Sarah asked as she changed the channel.
Suddenly, a breaking news broadcast appeared onscreen.
The newscaster was panicking as he watched the live footage of what was going on downtown. "Breaking news! A terrifying monster is attacking the downtown area even as we speak! The Loonakids are nowhere to be found—wait…is that what I think it is? It is! The Loonatics are coming to the fight!"
They all froze.
Sure enough, they recognized the six suited vigilantes working to tear apart the monster.
"Found them," Patrick commented.
Downtown…
The Loonatics fought like crazy. Ace and Lexi respectively laser-blasted and brain-blasted the monster. Duck threw all the eggs he could. Slam threw tornadoes. Tech threw everything metal. Rev circled the monster to distract it and draw fire to the concrete he ran over instead of the innocent bystanders.
Suddenly, the monster actually hit Rev—not hard enough to injure him, just knock him over. Then got a hit in on Tech.
Tech landed on the sidewalk.
"You OK?"
"Fine, just—" He looked at the person who'd said so and smiled. "Hey, Kelly."
"What are you doing here?" Kelly asked her father as she helped him up.
Tech just smiled again. "We've been telling the people we love not to let fear run your life. About time we started living by our own words."
Kelly smiled back. "Are we too late to help out?"
"Never. Come on." He led her back into the fight.
The two teams set to working together.
"Alright," Ace said, "Rev, Slam, keep it distracted."
"Nadine," Benny said, "Michael, Ryan, search for weak spots."
"Tech, Duck, keep them covered."
"Lucy, Robert, Sarah, try to subdue it."
"Lex, you and I are gonna take it out."
"Kelly, Jack, and I keep watch and keep innocents out of the way."
"GO!" both leaders cried.
And everyone set to work on the fight.
Rev and Slam circled it to keep it distracted. Lucy, Robert, and Sarah used their powers in every way necessary to keep it down. Kelly, Jack, and Benny kept innocents off the streets. Nadine, Michael, Ryan, Tech, Duck, Ace, and Lexi just bought their time…until…
Nadine noticed something… "HIT IT UNDER THE HEAD!"
Ace and Lexi quickly went with the plan.
It worked. The monster's head was severed and it turned to goo. Which, unfortunately, exploded all over Jack and Duck.
"That figures," Jack groaned.
"Some welcome back," Duck groaned.
The two teams landed and reveled in their victory. They were back in business.
THE END…?
WAIT!
