YAHOO!
Finally I got to write the chapter I've been waiting for! I worked a little extra on this one so please pardon my tardiness with updating. (LOL "Tardiness"…XD) I really don't have much to say here in this author's note except to tell you that this is probably gonna be my favourite chapter, but it isn't the end yet. Things will go nuts soon! Oh by the way, I noticed that the story summary did not totally match the story's progress now, as originally the plan for this story was a little different. So I changed the summary a little. If you had been a die-hard fan of this story, which I doubt but will be totally ecstatic if you told me you were, you'd see that the main summary and the one in chapter one have been altered. Okay? Now…
Review reply time;
Loonaticlover13: I'm glad you're excited! But things won't go too fast. And do not swear please! Even if they're censored, seriously! Sorry, but I don't like swearing…. But oh well, since you're such an awesome reviewer, I'll ignore it. Thanks for reviewing again! ^^
starskulls: Thanks thanks THANKS for all those compliments they made my day when I read them! I am so happy you loved the fight scene, especially since this chapter is almost all fighting(LOL), and glad you liked the end! I did my best to make it as cliff-hangy as possible! Sorry, I both love and hate cliff-hangers so much. I can literally hate writing them yet love reading them at the same time, as well as the opposite. THE SUSPENCE IS AWESOME! XD
CheckAgain: It's alright, I can't force anyone to review, though I just wish you all would because it kinda makes me happy as well as motivates me more. Hey, I gotta write like, at least 2000+ words for you guys and the least I'm hoping for from you is one word. Okay now I'm ranting. Sorry. Don't worry about reviewing too much it's fine. And it's not Crystal Ace it's Chaos Ace! But well, you're right, Chaos Ace had caused the leg problem but he wasn't in control yet. He officially entered the story in chapter 6, when Tech found out.
DONE! NOWPLEASE READ! AND YES I MUST USE CAPS!
PART TEN: ACE VS ACE
"I'm surprised ya know..." Chaos Ace said, still looking unnaturally smug as he healed himself of Ace's kick, "Ta t'ink ya woulda used my powers ta create separate bodies fer yerself and me. I gotta admit, it's an impressive move."
"Playtime's over. Let's dance." Ace responded, ignoring most of what Chaos Ace said, and without further hesitation he launched himself at the fake copy of himself. However Chaos Ace froze him in mid-air and the Loonatics leader found himself suspended in front of his evil copy, unable to move with the Guardian Strike Sword over his head. Chaos Ace moved out of the way to avoid getting hit easily.
"Ya made a huge mistake ya know," Chaos Ace told him, his eyes flashing like prisms, and a smile of entertained malice on his face, "separatin' yerself from me removed the problems I was havin'. Now I'll have no problem killin' ya before I move on to yer friends."
"Yeah?" Ace replied, suddenly smiling a little himself, "I'm not tat stupid. When I forced ya outta me, I took some of yer powers. We're even."
Once those words left his mouth, Ace glowed a bit and he was able to move again. He did a front flip to land on the ground and turned to look at his copy in the eye. Of course, Chaos Ace was not so happy anymore, though somehow his twisted smile did not waver for even a second.
"Ya took my powers eh?" He said as his tone started to deepen to something much more sinister. "Not bad at all. Not bad at all. But ya do realize tat by doin' tat, ya practically let yerself turn in ta me."
"True," Ace responded, his determination and resolve not at all affected, "I've already accepted tat. Ya were me da whole time, and as much as I hate ta use these powers, if it means defeating myself and make sure my friends are safe, I'd gladly do it."
Chaos Ace blinked with surprise, then, he started laughing. Quietly at first, then it became complete malicious amusement. Ace narrowed his eyes. He had always hated the laughing the most. To think that he could actually hurt his friends and laugh about it in such a way. It was something he could never forgive, especially since that one laughing was himself. He remembered everything surprisingly clearly. Since he first lost to the Chaos version of himself. His friends were arguing in ways he never wanted to envision. They hadn't gone too far then, but he had when he nearly shot them with the laser eyes. He had done it, not Chaos Ace. He had to get them to stop, but the pain of it all got to him at that moment, and Chaos Ace took over.
Since that happened, Ace had been trying to do everything he could to prevent Chaos Ace from doing any more harm. It wasn't easy. He wasn't in control of his body, but whenever Chaos Ace got complacent and used his powers, Ace had found a way to turn that power against him. He had sent Tech to wherever Zadavia had been. He had caused the bank debris to hit the ship while he and Chaos Ace were inside. He had forced his own body to try and destroy itself from the inside. It had all been to stop Chaos Ace, he didn't care if he was destroyed in the process. But now, Chaos Ace had made the team go against each other physically. He had hurt Rev's family and may have seriously wounded Lexi. Now, it was personal.
"Yer interestin' ya know!?" Chaos Ace exclaimed, "It'd be an honor ta destroy ya!"
Chaos Ace flew at Ace, a copy of the Guardian Strike Sword appearing in his hands. Ace blocked the strike and used his laser vision to push Chaos Ace back. He then made use of the crystal's power to heighten his speed, then got behind Chaos Ace. But the copy bunny knew this tactic. He did the same thing and Ace turned out to be the one who was sent flying at one of the warehouse walls in the area.
"What?!" He exclaimed as Chaos Ace appeared in front of him this time, punching Ace in the stomach and then releasing a charged beam of energy from the same hand. The force of it pushed Ace right through the brick wall and he yelped in pain. At once he healed himself and got back to his feet, but his healing speed was extremely slow compared to his copy's.
"Ya may have my powers, but if ya dunno how ta use 'em, yer dead bunny boy." Chaos Ace said as he walked in.
"Huh. Look who's talkin'." Ace answered, and within seconds the two were fighting at high speeds, metal against metal, lasers against lasers. They were evenly matched and neither showed any clear signs of giving in to the other. Once they got high enough, Ace copied Chaos Ace's earlier action, freezing the copy in mid-air, but instead of leaving him there long enough to recover from it, he charged his sword with energy, both its own energy and the crystal's energy, which manifested in a brilliant yellow, unlike Chaos Ace's. Then, he bought the blade down and sent his copy into the ground with a huge amount of force. Chaos Ace let out a shocked yelp of pain when he hit the ground.
"I won't eva forgive ya!" Ace shouted, as he landed on the rooftop of one of the warehouses, "You've hurt my friends too much! As myself, I will neva forgive ya!"
"Oh really? So what?!" Chaos Ace retorted mockingly, as he struggled back to his feet unsteadily, healing himself as fast as possible, though the damage had clearly taken a toll, "I don't care about those pathetic losers, and as fer yerself..."
Ace got careless as Chaos Ace rushed up to him and when the Loonatics leader tried to block the oncoming attack his copy caught his sword and sent it and his arms upwards, which allowed him to send in a kick from below, aimed at Ace's chest. The Loonatics leader was pushed back to the edge of the roof. His chest stung and he was slightly wobbly for a second.
"No matta what, yer too pathetic ta be me, so I'm gonna hafta end ya." The copy bunny said with a sadistic tone, standing in front of him with an enraged smile on his face.
"Yer the one who's pathetic. Ya hurt my friends too much ta be me. So I guess we both know what tat means." Ace replied as he stood again. Chaos Ace grinned.
"D'ere's no need fer two Aces in dis world right?" He asked. Out of his honor as a superhero, Ace nodded with his mood darkening considerably.
"Tat is obvious. Dis fight won't end until one of us is erased." He confirmed, and they rushed at each other again. The sounds of swords clashed echoed as storm clouds began to form in the sky, shifting the morning atmosphere greatly as they blocked the Sun's view, so it wouldn't have to witness such a ferocious battle between two sides of the same person.
"Lex are you alright?" Duck asked as the female bunny groaned as she began to sit up on the medical bed at Zadavia's base. Tech was grumbling about how he should really add a proper medical room in the HQ tower. Slam, aside from Ace, was the only Loonatic not present as he was helping the authorities transport the villains that had popped up in Zadavia's ship to the temporary prison. They acted terrified of the Loonatics when they all regained consciousness, and it had proved to be difficult to calm them down.
"Yeah...I'm fine. But what happened to Ace?" She asked worriedly. Her vision had been awfully blur when Chaos Ace disappeared, so she could only hear what happened, but she couldn't exactly guess the real events based on sound alone. Duck and Rev quickly filled her in, though they excluded the villain-torture Ace had done. She was shocked anyway.
"You mean his powers went nuts and he got sent to some distant planet?!" She exclaimed loudly. Tech flinched at the shrill sound of her voice as he was the only one who wasn't expecting it. Duck and Rev had both been smart to cover their ears beforehand.
"Ow...calm down Lexi." He said, shaking his head as his eardrums pounded. Lexi had been pretty close to him as the computer he was using was right in the medical room. "Ace is still on Acmetropolis. I've managed to get a lock on his signature, but there's something strange..."
"Strange-what-else-could-be-strange-I-mean-Ace-has-already-gone-completely-mad-and-he's-possibly-the-cause-of-my-Ma-and-Pa-and-Rip-disappearing-to-who-knows-where-which-is-making-me-real-worried-not-to-mention-the-fact-that-he-beat-up-our-old-enemies-so-bad-they-became-scared-of-us-I-mean..." Rev said at high speed, and as usual, was cut off by someone.
"He did what?!" Lexi exclaimed, again. This time, no one was prepared, and Rev mentally slapped himself for mentioning the part about Ace beating up the villains. As if they were all not traumatized by that enough.
"Calm down Lexi," Tech told her, again, "Ace probably did that yesterday, when you guys were busy rounding up the escaped prisoners. He was under the effects of the crystal, it wasn't really him."
"But he beat up those guys that way?! That's too much!" The female bunny exclaimed almost hysterically. She was starting to get a full-blown headache from everything and it was scaring her to no end. She had already believed Tech when he first told them about Ace being the culprit behind all the collapsing buildings, including the prison, but after actually seeing such an evil look on the Loonatics leader's face, for some reason, it made things way harder to believe. She didn't want to know that Ace was the bad guy they had to beat. She wished everything was a crazy dream she got from eating some bad pizza and would easily wake up from if someone slapped her hard enough. But even after she was thrown into a wall with a force equivalent to that of a speeding truck, she still didn't wake up. It was real. Ace was their enemy and no amount of wishing was going to change that now.
"Lexi it isn't his fault. The crystal is controlling him, and there's nothing we can do." Tech said, looking like he wanted to say something encouraging but could not. Lexi hugged her knees and sniffed.
"It's not fair. If it's not his fault why do we have to take him out? Why must we be the ones to do it? Why did all this have to happen?!" She exclaimed, mentally cursing the universe for its unfairness. The others looked incredibly upset as well, but they all knew they had to accept it. Duck put a hand on her shoulder.
"You know Lexi, if it really bothers you, you can just sit out." He suggested. Lexi's head jerked up, her eyes filled with shocked disbelief.
"Duck's-right-if-you-really-don't-wanna-fight-him-you-don't-have-to-we-can-take-care-of-everything-and-get-back-to-you." Rev added, and the two birds were backed up by Slam's supporting growls. Tech said nothing, but he also looked like he wanted the female bunny out of this particular fight. If Ace died she would hurt the most, and the guys weren't sure if they could live with themselves if they let that happen.
Lexi looked back at her uniform boots. She considered it. She really did. If she sat out, she wouldn't see Ace die and she wouldn't be the cause of it. She wouldn't be part of the reason he disappeared.
But then, she thought about how she would feel if it was her possessed by the crystal. She wouldn't want Ace or any of the others to see her killed, much less see that they were the ones killing her. But at the same time, she would want to know that they cared enough for themselves, for Acmetropolis and for her to carry out the deed of stopping her. Whether she liked it or not, she wanted Ace to know that she at least cared about him, and she wouldn't ever be able to do that if she sat out. And besides, Ace got possessed when he was protecting everyone else, her included. It was partly her responsibility as Ace's friend ans one of the people he saved. She stood up.
"No," she told the others, her mind made up, "I'll go. Ace isn't just my friend, he's yours as well, so if you have to be the ones to kill him, I have to do the same."
"But Lexi..." Tech started to say.
"No buts. We're a team, and all of us are Ace's friends. We'll all stop him as just that. I don't like it, but we all know we have to do this together." Lexi said, her voice full of false confidence, but it was enough to convince the rest. No one smiled liked they usually would, but then again, they weren't going up against just anyone now. They were going against one of their own. Despite that, all their eyes held fierce determination. They would get through it all as a team. Then Duck remembered something.
"Hey Tech, what was with Ace earlier?" He asked, "For a second there he didn't seem all evil-mode."
"I'm not sure, I'm not even sure he heard us supporting him then, but we better not get our hopes up. We don't know what was happening." The coyote replied. Then Lexi frowned.
"Tech, what did you say was strange earlier?"
Zadavia flew on her own, without a ship, to the location of the opening wormhole. She was angry, really angry. Deuce was the one behind it all, he brought the crystal which caused Ace to go berserk. When she found him, she was more than determined to give him a piece of her mind, and then some. In any case, she was not at all going to forgive her former general for such an outrageous act.
The wormhole had opened right where Tech had pinpointed it to. The train erupted from it like a trapped beast which finally managed to escape. A roar of the engines alerted the Loonatics boss of its entrance, and without further hesitation Zadavia dove down to one of the doors. She had brought along one of her brother's old inventions, a portable wormhole creator in the form of a bracelet, just in case the train left before she could finish her time with Deuce. And she was planning on spending a lot of quality time with him.
Once inside, Zadavia walked around carefully, keeping her guard up as she searched for her former general. She didn't bother calling him out, as she knew he would be expecting either her or maybe one of the Loonatics. She wasn't wrong.
"Zadavia how nice to see you again." Deuce said sarcastically, leaning against the wall of the room Zadavia just entered. The Loonatics boss's emerald eyes narrowed with fury.
"Deuce, you will answer me clearly," she demanded fiercely and firmly, though still maintaining her composure, "were you or were you not the one who brought the Chaos Crystal into Acmetropolis?"
Deuce swept a bit of his bright tangerine hair away from his face and chuckled to himself, taking everything as a joke.
"What if I say yes?" He taunted. However, he clearly did not get the reaction he had expected. Zadavia immediately shot him with her energy beams almost before he could finish the "s" sound in his final word. For the first time on her life, Zadavia showed absolutely no sign of mercy as she attacked her former general. Deuce was taken aback, but he quickly got over his surprise.
"Wow, I didn't think you'd have it in you Zadavia." He falsely complimented. "To think even you could get this mad."
"Enough of your jokes Deuce!" Zadavia shouted, enraged but somehow still managing to control it enough not to kill Deuce when he made his last comment, "You have gone too far this time!"
"Thanks, I try my best. Hey, who got possessed anyway?" He asked considerably casually, obviously trying to provoke Zadavia further. The Loonatics boss did not appreciate that at all, and fired another beam at him. He, however, dodged that one and drew a polished bronze sword out of the sheath hanging at his belt. It appeared brand new, and it glowed slightly with an aura of pure power. A perfect combat weapon.
"I see you've been treasure hunting." Zadavia commented, mostly as an attempt to keep her emotions under control so she would not lose focus. Deuce smirked.
"Yeah. I like my trinkets." He replied, and the two were soon locked in a fight of energy beams versus sword.
Both Ace and Chaos Ace had greatly increased their speeds and were fighting faster than Rev could run, which was saying a lot. With their powers evenly matched, the battle between the two of them was proving to be extremely long, far longer than either of them had expected. They were both tiring out, despite being able to heal, as the Chaos Crystal's power could not heal fatigue apparently, though neither dropped speed.
"Yer good, I'll tell ya tat." Chaos Ace said, though his own comment seemed to have dampened his mood further. Clearly, his pride had been hurt by not being able to beat Ace for so long. The Loonatics leader, however, did not even bother with his compliment, letting it fall on deaf ears as he continued to attack his copy fiercely. Chaos Ace barely blocked the strikes.
"How rude of ya." He hissed, then pushed Ace off him. He fired his laser vision at the Loonatics leader and it hit its target right in the chest. Ace groaned as he was recovering from the shock of the swift attack. As he did Chaos Ace used the Guardian Strike Sword copy and sent a series of blue lightning bolts flying at him. There were too many to dodge so Ace called for the real Guardian Strike Sword to defend and it created a shield around him. The bolts were strong, and by the time the last one came into contact with the shield, it was already depleted and had almost disappeared. He released it, but then Chaos Ace came out from behind him and kicked him with an enormous amount of force before rushing in in an attempt to strike his with the sword, charged with energy.
"Ya shoulda given up long ago!" Chaos Ace exclaimed, aiming at Ace's neck, with the Loonatic leader on the ground and unconscious. Or so the copy of him thought.
"No way I'd give up." Ace declared, mimicking Chaos Ace's movements and coming up from behind, as the bunny on the ground disappeared. An energy clone. Ace was the one who made the strike with his sword. Chaos Ace was knocked to the ground and their swords clashed again. Ace pushed down, hoping he could finish his copy off once and for all. He didn't like to kill, he never did, no matter who it was. But he was willing to make an exception, even though it went against all his morals. Everything he believed in. Chaos Ace had gone too far. There was no way he could be given any mercy.
"Dis is da end fer ya." Ace said, but Chaos Ace still had a few tricks up his sleeve. Before Ace could bring the blade down on him, he released a huge flash of light from his sword. It blinded Ace long enough for him to get up and back into his battle position. He smirked.
"Looks like I really underestimated ya," Chaos Ace said as Ace backed away a bit cautiously while not letting his guard drop for even a fraction of a second, "Yer really impressive, but yer only strong because of da borrowed power."
"Ya won't trick me inta givin' up these powers," Ace told him, "I hate them, but I'm not stupid. I'll need them for a fair fight with ya. It's da only way fer me ta get rid of ya."
Chaos Ace suddenly grinned menacingly right after Ace said that. The Loonatics leader was confused, slightly unnerved even, by the sudden spark of cruelty in his copy's prism-like eyes. Then, a certain voice made him understand.
"Ace? Ace where are you?" Lexi called from somewhere behind Ace, and from the extra shuffling sounds and the beeping of some device, the bunny knew she wasn't alone. The bad news was that Chaos Ace had realized it first and knew Ace would be distracted by them. Once he was, he jabbed Ace in the stomach with the butt of the sword, just as the other Loonatics appeared around the corner. Chaos Ace wasted no time in attacking them.
"Nice ta see ya again." He said to them mockingly, before he unleashed a powerfully, deadly multi-colored beam at them.
"NO!" Ace yelled before any of his teammates even had time to register that they were in danger. A wave of fear surged through him and without thinking he used the crystal's power and teleported right in front of the Loonatics and took the attack.
"ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Ace screamed in extreme agony as the attack from his copy burned through him. He dropped the Guardian Strike Sword and felt his energy depleting.
"ACE!" All the other Loonatics yelled in horror as they watched their leader writhing in pain. Chaos Ace however, laughed as if it was the best thing that had ever happened to him, but in a very twisted way.
"I knew ya would try and protect yer little friends. Too bad they led ta dis." He mocked as he stopped the attack and Ace fell to the ground, completely unconscious. "Ya shoulda known betta than ta take me on."
Then, he looked at the other Loonatics, who had rushed to Ace's side. "Oh by da way, I took my powers back. Tell him tat fer me would ya? I'd kill ya now, but I have somethin' more fun in mind."
"Why you despicable..." Duck shouted, throwing a flaming egg at Chaos Ace. However, the copy bunny disappeared, still smirking with triumph, so the egg just hit the ground uselessly. Duck cursed and Slam growled angrily, but the rest had they're attention on their knocked out leader. They all felt guilty, including Duck and Slam, as they all thought that if Ace hadn't tried to protect them there, he wouldn't have lost. It was already the third time. The third time they let their leader down. And that was a feeling they would want to, be never soon, forget.
"We have to get Ace back to HQ." Tech said solemnly. No one disagreed and they had Slam carry Ace to their ship which was nearby. They hopped on it and sped back to the tower, hoping that whatever damage done to their leader this time wasn't permanent.
Okay…
Please do not kill me for a few things, such as making Ace lose here and not extending the part where Zadavia fights Deuce. Let me explain first. Ace losing was necessary for the later chapters, though I hated doing it. It's for something pretty important. Here's a little contest. If anyone can possibly guess what will happen next, though it should be considerably easy, I will either write a one-shot dedicated to you, about any Loonatics Unleashed character and using whatever genre you want, or I will give you spoilers of what is gonna happen next. Just some fun.
Zadavia and Deuce's fight wasn't extended as I wanted to dedicate this chapter to Ace more than anything. There will be a lot more fights with Deuce now though, I gotta make him pay for what he did, but he'll come out fine in the end so he's ready for the final episodes of the show as my attempt to keep the story as real as possible. Know what I mean? He's surprisingly fun to use, although I seriously hate him. Fail…-.- Oh well.
Oh yeah, if anyone reading the story is a Fairy Tail fan like me, I bet you can probably guess where I got the idea for this chapter from. Any one gonna guess? No real prizes, but you'll get a few virtual cookies! (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)! That's all for now. See ya!