Ch. 11: Wanted

Where was he? He heard loud sounds of battle; felt the warm blood trickle down his head; felt the cold stone beneath him as he lay there; but none of it made any sense. He opened his eyes a crack and saw an unconscious figure slumped against the wall next to him. He gritted his teeth. He knew who it was, and he knew this was his chance to reclaim what was his. He reached out his hand and took a hold of Syfer's limp wrist. He immediately felt his powers flowing back to him; but just as the reassuring warmth entered his body he sank back into darkness.

"Any last words, Loonatics?" a voice cackled. He opened his eyes again. All of them were huddled around him, glaring at the four grinning fiends advancing. Mastermind and Sykes were holding some sort of blasters. This is it. He thought as he gave a sideways glance at the others; Ace was holding Lexi tightly, Slam had his eyes closed reading himself for death; and Tech had Rev in his lap, holding on to him. Well, it's about time those two figured it out. But as happy as he was for them, he couldn't help feel that it didn't matter. They weren't going to be able to spend any time together, truly experience any love or anything. And Ace and Lexi, they barely had been together for two years; they too had so much time to spend with each other. And with love aside, there was still future battles they needed to fight in order to protect the city. He mentally kicked himself. He was once again just sitting back while the others were still fighting. They were all on their feet, staring death in the face and where was he? Face down on the ground, out cold for most of the fight. How heroic was that? It was clear now, no more doubt that he was the most pathetic member of the Loonatics. The others were right, he didn't deserve, wasn't worthy to be a part of the team. They all were a hell of a lot more stronger and braver than he was. He knew what he had to do. The others needed to have an upper hand to beat these freaks. They needed to survive in order to win. He was disposable, worthless. No one would miss him. If anything they all would probably do the cha-cha on his grave.

He closed his eyes. A small pop that was unheard; a flash of orange light that was unseen; and a warmth as the energy beam pushed him back into the darkness.

"It's over, Slam." Lexi's voice came through the dark. Where was she? What was over? He heard loud crashes, felt the ground shaking. He knew the cave was collapsing and he knew they were trapped. He felt hands on him and so, praying they were all connected, mustered up all of his energy (which wasn't much) and pictured the island outside of the volcano. A sense of warm air hitting his face told him he had succeeded; then he once more slipped into nothingness.

"Ya sure, beyond sure, absolutely positive he's alive?"

"There's a heartbeat. It's faint, but there nonetheless. We won't know if there's any brain damage or not until he wakes up, which probably wont be for another week or more."

"This is Duck we're talking about, how much more damage could his brain undergo?"

"Tech, it's okay. I'm sure he's fine."

"He's not brain damaged! He can't be! He won't be!" Ace's voice was shouting, shaking from the strain of holding back uncharacteristic tears.

"(He was hit pretty hard on the head, but you know him. I'm sure he'll pull through. We're talking about a guy who's so thick headed that he keeps going after Misty Breeze's autograph despite her throwing whatever he hands her at his head; even though he has saved her ungrateful life on multiple occasions.)" Slam grumbled softly.

"He betta be okay." Ace grumbled almost in a dark tone.

"Let me know how he's doing later, I'm off to check up on Rev."

He heard a door open and then close as someone exited the room. Now that it was quiet, he could make out the beeping sounds of whatever machine he was obviously attached too. The unmistakable smell of the hospital reached his nose and he mentally cringed. He hated the hospital, his stomach couldn't handle the smell of sick and sometimes… death.

"Ace, come on. You need to get some sleep."

"No, I'm not leav'n him. I'm gonna be here when he wakes up."

"(Come on, Lexi. Let's go see if we can't get something to eat.)"

There was a short pause, but finally a sigh from Lexi and once again the sound of the door opening and closing. He knew that Ace was the only one left in the room now. He tried to open his eyes but they were still too heavy. All he could do was lie there and listen.

"Ya so crazy, Duck, ya know d'at?" Ace told him quietly. "I don't know if ya can hear me, buddy, but I've read somewhere's d'at a coma patient can hear da voice of d'ose who talk ta d'em, so I'm hop'n ya can. Besides, I'd ra'da tell ya d'is when ya can't ans'a me back cause it ain't someti'n I'd like ta tell ta ya face. I know I pick on ya a lot and everyti'n, but I hope ya know d'at it ain't noti'n but teas'n. I mean, I don't really t'ink ya dumb or noti'n, Duck. Ya slow as hell, and ya more anoy'n t'an Rev at times, but ya a good fighter, when ya mind's in da right place. And ya ain't d'at bad of a guy afta a whiles. Ya my best friend, Duck, almost like a bro ta me. What ya did, savi'n us twice in da condition ya was in, d'at was not only amazi'n, but ya also almost scared me ta death. I was sure, we all were, d'at ya was a gon'a. If it hadn't been for ya groan'n out my name, scar'n me so bad I almost dropped ya in da riva, ya wouldn't be here right now. I've been t'ink'n bout ya reaction when we were locked up ta'getha in d'ose cells and I wanna apologize. I talked ta Tech bout it and he said d'at he figured out what ya fear was, ya know, what ya dreamed when big head injected ya wi't d'at serum shit. He said ya had a look of determination along wi't da fear and he wasn't able ta make out why, but after hear'n bout ya outburst he figured it out. Ya feel like ya ain't wanted, like ya useless or someti'n. Duck, ya such an idiot it ain't even funny at times. Ya should know d'at d'at fear's totally crap. Ya ain't worthless, and ya ain't unwanted neitha. Ya one of da most important members on t'is team. If ya left, we'd lose almost every battle. Ya not just wanted for the fight'n neither, like I keep say'n, ya completely stupid at times, but ya have ya moments. And ya kinda grew on us. We all need ya, specially Lex, ya her best friend, and Slam was bout ready ta kill ya for pull'n d'at little stunt in da cave. What I'm try'n ta say, buddy, is d'at ya family, and d'at means we need ya round, so ya better get d'at t'ough ya t'ick skull and hurry back ta us."

Here Ace stopped talking. It was obvious, even to Duck who was having trouble making sense of his words, that he had succumbed to tears.

"Duck, ya can fight t'is." He said as he gained control again. "Ya stronga t'an ya t'ink; and a hell of a lot brav'a too."

Duck felt a hand squeeze his. And he was exuberant to discover he could squeeze it back.

"Duck?" Ace said hopefully. But the mallard didn't answer, he couldn't. All he could do was lie there and hold onto Ace's hand as a life line back to reality.

Ace sighed. He whipped his eyes on his sleeve before gently releasing his hand from Duck's slight grip. "I'll be back, buddy." He said. "Just gonna get someti'n ta eat, 'kay?" he patted Duck's shoulder before turning around and walking out of the room.

Across the hall he saw Tech sitting next to Rev's bed, holding his good hand tightly.

The last few hours was nothing but a blur to him. They had arrived at the hospital just in time. Duck's heart was almost to a complete stand still when Ace handed him over, carefully, to a medic who came rushing out with a gurney to meet them. Rev's pulse was also slower than usual, a lot slower. His arm and leg were swollen and were sticking out at odd angles do to the broken bones beneath the skin. He had his head resting on Slam's chest as the devil laid him on a second gurney. Lexi was half supporting, half carrying Tech. He was semiconscious but was still trying to walk on his own. The light of his regeneration powers had vanished completely about two minutes before they had reached the city docks. All three team members were rushed to the OR, each one coming out at different times.

Tech was the first one to come out. His powers had restored most of the damages so there wasn't really anything to do but strap him to a bed and force him to rest. He wanted to go and assist with Rev and Duck but the doctors told him that where they admired his devotion to his team he would be in worst shape if he did so. He needed to regain as much energy as he possibly could in order to recharge his powers so that they could heal him properly.

After about two and half hours Rev was shoved into the next room, his arm and leg in casts and elevated. He also had bandages around his ribs which were cracked and an upper arm band on his good arm do to some splintered bone. He was asleep when they wheeled him out of surgery but was awake before Duck came out.

He had been in surgery about four hours before they even considered moving him to a room. He had needed some blood transfusions do to all the blood he'd lost from his head wound. They had also needed to bandage his head since he not only had a nasty concussion but also a cracked skull. How he had managed to do any of what he did with that injury alone was beyond any of the doctors' guesses. Ace knew it was pure will power and the love for the team and the city, and the determination to prove he could do something right.

The doctors also explained that they had to bring an extremely high fever down. His temperature had been 107. The blast had raised his temperature and done some pretty nasty damage to his insides. They said he was just a few degrees away from becoming a Chinese dinner entrée. They had managed to do some transplants and restore some of the damages, but their real concern was whether or not if he had suffered any brain damage. He had flat lined on more than one occasion but they were able to bring him back every time. But with the head wound and the added few minutes of no heartbeat or oxygen going through his system, the odds of him suffering some sort of brain loss was high.

"Ace." He turned around. Lexi and Slam were heading up the hallway towards him. "You okay?" Lexi asked as they stopped right in front of him.

"Corse." He told her, trying to come back to the present and his right mind again.

"Why'd ya leave Duck? I thought you were going to stay with him." She was looking at him closely, she knew, somewhat, what was going through his head.

"Uh…" he had to think a moment before he could remember. "Oh, I was hungry." He explained in a slow manner. He looked over at Tech and Rev again. Tech was kneeling next to the bed with his arm around Rev, who had his head on Tech's shoulder. His eyes were closed and he was gripping Tech's hand tightly as Tech rested his cheek on Rev's head, speaking to him softly.

"I'm so happy for them." Lexi's voice broke through the haze of thought and Ace looked over at her.

"It's about time they figured it out. I was ready to shove them together myself if they didn't do it on their own soon."

"Err…right. Yeah, I'm happy for t'em too." He said trying to sound like he knew what she was talking about. He did in a way, he was happy that they were happy. But he was a little too distracted to really participate in a conversation with anyone.

"Ace, you really need to get some sleep, you're exhausted." She said, taking his hand in hers. He squeezed it gently.

"I'll get someti'n ta eat and t'en catch some Z's." he told her. "Why don't ya and Slam head back ta da tower, Zadavia's gonna wanna know what's go'n on." He kissed her forehead before heading to the cafeteria.

Lexi, with a worried glance after him turned to Slam. He gave her a kind smile and patted her shoulder gently. She returned the smile. She knew he was telling her that Ace and the others would be okay and that they better head back to HQ before Zadavia gets too worried.

"Let me say goodbye to Duck real quick first." She muttered and he nodded as she dashed into Duck's room.

"Hey, Duck." She whispered as she approached his bed side. "Listen, Slam and I have to get going before Zadavia has a fit. I don't know if you can hear me, but…" she sat down and clutched his hand firmly as tears started falling down her cheeks. "You better come back soon, or you'll have me to answer to. You were amazing, you know that? And you better get over this 'poor, pity, me' stage. You're just as important to this team as Ace is. You're annoying and can be a complete moron at times, but you're still an attribute to us. Keep in mind, Zadavia choice you to be part of the Loonatics. She knows more than any of us what to do and you know she'd never pick anyone to be on the team who wouldn't be useful. Tech explained your fear to all of us, and I guess we are a little to blame for that. We get so wrapped up in teasing you we sometimes forget to give you the credit you need. I'm sorry for that. But you better know that we wouldn't trade you for the world."

Slam tapped the glass to tell her to hurry up. "Okay, I'm coming." She told him before turning back to Duck. "We have to go now, but we'll be back. You better be awake then." She leaned down and kissed his forehead before getting up and followed Slam down the hall and out of the Hospital.

"(He'll be fine, Lexi.)" Slam told her softly as she whipped the remaining tears away.

See? I told you! He's going to be alright...sorta...we still don't know about his brain damage and all...but at least he's alive...and the others obviously care about him a lot more then they've ever let on...specially Ace...so I'm not going to get slaughtered...right? well...keep reading...there's two more chapters before we get to the juicy TechxRev love scene...a lot can happen in two chapters so just keep reading and see what else happens ^^;