Chapter 21 – The Reveal
Ace runs as fast as he can to where the jetpacks are kept, on the ground at the feet of one of the tables. Once Rev sees what Ace is trying to do, he dashes across and hands everyone a jetpack before Ace can even turn around.
"Is this building collapsing?" Lexi asks in a slight state of panic.
"Yes! Everyone, to the roof!" Ace commands. They all run towards the stairs, leaving everything behind in fear of their lives. As they reach the bottom of the stairs, a second explosion followed rapidly by a third. They all climb to the top and take off once they are in clear, unobstructed air. The Loonatics fly at top speed briefly because Ace has stopped about 100 metres from where they took off. He's stopped to watch the building's concrete columns give way at the base where the explosions have done their damage. The bottom levels are crumbling and thudding against the ground as the building tilts slowly but violently to his right. The others stop and look behind them, powerless; these superheroes are powerless. Looking up to the spire, it casts a faint shadow in the dim light over to the adjacent building which grows bigger at an exponential rate until it snuffs itself out by crashing down with a sound like a giant stomping on the ground. The kinetic energy of the building levels its companion without a single cry for help. Once the sound radiates out far enough that they can hear themselves, Ace goes into overdrive.
"Whoever just did that is going to get it." Ace scowls ferociously, almost like he could laser the culprit no matter how far away it may be.
"But what are we going to do?" Duck asks fearfully.
"We could start by getting rid of that." Lexi points out in the distance to a stealth black VTOL ramjet the size of a medium cargo plane; the only difference being that it's from the air force. So there are a lot of weapons of different capabilities on board. It slowly hovers up slightly higher than it's tiny opponents.
"That's a VT70 Mk 2." Tech announces. "Multiple targeted missile launchers on each wing. 4, 8 barrel miniguns at 10000 rounds per minute."
"Great, but how do we stop it?" Ace asks. before he can get an answer, he sees the tiny concentrated jets coming out the back of numerous small missiles shooting out from under the wings heading in their general direction. Ace doesn't need an answer anymore. He looks straight back at the missiles and lets out a laser burst from his eyes which go straight through all the missiles on one side of the plane as they were all clustered together. The other group of missiles continues on from the other side. Ace looks across to see if anyone else is following his lead. Sensing the pressure of the situation, and being the only other one who could intervene, Lexi shoots out an energy burst which has a more explosive effect than what Ace did. Tech meanwhile is worried as to the reason why the military has turned up at their doorstep. This seems like a disproportionate response even for someone who has given himself access all areas in the military, but Tech is still worried nevertheless. The thought of suppressing this idea or reminding them constantly battles behind the natural response that comes when threatened.
"Surrender now superfreaks!" A booming male voice echoes from a speaker mounted somewhere on the planes fuselage. It's loud enough to be heard over the roaring ramjet engines that blast searing air downwards to keep the plane hovering in position.
"You're not going to stop us!" Ace instinctively shouts back.
"I don't think he can hear us." Duck comments just loud enough to be heard. A larger missile comes out from the underbelly of the plane and launches towards a building behind them to the right. Ace follows the missiles path with his laser beams. As he turns his head, another flurry of missiles head their way.
"Everyone protect yourselves!" Ace commands. It spurs everyone else to do their part in saving each others lives as well as their own whilst Ace tries to shoot down the fast moving missile but he can't turn his head quickly enough before it careens through the centre of skyscraper before exploding a nearly perfect sphere of shrapnel which cuts the building in two, destroying it entirely. Ace looks back in shock but changes to rage in an instant, he can somewhat feel his own powers increasing in strength from his own anger.
"If you don't surrender now another building will go down!" The plane shouts back. A few seconds later, several missiles come from above the clouds aimed straight for the top of the plane. Just as the plane is about to hit, EMP countermeasures are released, cutting the power in a 3 block radius and shutting off the guidance systems on the missiles, sending them into the ground rather than into the plane. The momentum of the missiles themselves craters the road and damages buildings.
"Where did they come from?" Tech asks himself quietly, whereas Ace is the opposite. He angrily fires his lasers right at the plane's front, however, the damage is only cosmetic from what he can tell.
"Everyone push forward!" Ace commands, wanting to lead an offensive. As soon as he's ready to push, the minigun barrels begin to rotate, spooling up for the inevitable rapid barrage of bullets. Ace sees this and knows who can protect them from this.
"Tech, use your magnetic powers to deflect the bullets!"
Tech feels uneasy but in reality he can't pull out now lest they all die. Without knowing whether he can create a powerful enough and large enough field to save them is unknown. So, the coyote puts his hands out in front of him and thinks about creating such a field. A barrier of green starts to grow from around his hands but he doesn't know if it is wide or high enough. The 4 miniguns fire so quickly it is impossible to hear each individual bullet being fired. All Tech sees are the tiny yellow flashes from the miniguns. He forces himself to hold the magnetic field for however long those miniguns fire for. As soon as he sees them stop firing, he holds it for even longer than needed before resting. Tech is exhausted but turns back to see if he did enough. Everyone is in one piece thanks to him, but he wonders where all the bullet went. Did they stop completely or the more likely outcome that they have flown off somewhere else and hit something else?
"Nice work Tech." Ace duly congratulates. "But we can't do this forever, we have to end this sooner."
Just as he says that, another barrage of missiles rains down from the sky, aiming for the plane one again. The missiles hit their target without interference, decimating the plane, fracturing it into large pieces that fall down and land along with the wreckages of buildings fallen in the first attack. They see the smaller jets descending in a triangle formation, heading away from the situation now that it has been resolved.
"Okay, is the army fighting against itself?" Duck asks.
"I have no idea." Ace replies as they all watch the planes fly away before looking down at the destruction. It's going to take a relatively long time to clear all this up and reconstruct it back to normal; perhaps a month. They all look up again when a bright flash of light appears from the direction of where the jet is going; now they have been obliterated.
"I think Duck may be right, but why would the military be doing this?" Ace asks himself.
"Ace! Look!" Lexi shouts as she hears something coming from the distance; something bigger. She hears amongst the deep roar explosions aplenty doing nothing to stop the crawl of this machine.
"I can't see it." Ace says.
"Something big is here, really big." Lexi replies.
"Like an ACA?" Tech asks.
"What?"
"Aircraft carrier aircraft." Tech answer. "A giant aircraft that holds other aircraft. It's an unbreakable fortress capable of withstanding a direct nuclear attack."
"But can it handle a small team like us?" Ace asks.
"Maybe." Tech replies.
"That's good enough for me." Ace says. "Let's jet."
He accelerates forward along with the other who are slightly reluctant to go head on into a giant firefight of epic proportions. However they all follow because Ace is so committed to the cause as well as the responsibility, of varying degrees, they all feel about the obligations of having superpowers. This is a situation that requires people with their capabilities to intervene. When they catch up to Ace, the noise levels increase but it doesn't stop Ace from doing a team talk.
"When we get there, we head straight for the bridge and stop this thing from doing any more damage." Ace explains succinctly.
"How do we do that?" Duck asks.
"I don't know." Ace replies. "Tech?"
"I'm not sure exactly." Tech replies. "I'll figure it out."
"We get off the deck as fast as possible, okay." Ace adds. They fly up to the height of the flight deck and do exactly what Ace said, but in their way is reinforced steel door. Ace is about to laser cut a hole but Slam wants to get in on the action. He sees the door and lunges forward, hoping to break it down purely with his strength. When he finds that he can't, he pauses. This gives the opportunity for tech to rip the door of its hinges with his magnetism. The door bends into itself and lands on the flight deck. With the damage going on outside, they all head inside the hallways all painted in a very light grey on everything that is not the floor, which is a pale green synthetic cushioning layer to ease foot stress.
"We need to head upwards, that's where the bridge should be." Ace says before retracting his sword to hold it in front of him for self-defence in this close quarters environment. They make their way around in a cautious manner as to not be undetected by anyone on board. Strangely, they come up against no resistance.
"Shouldn't there be people on board?" Lexi asks.
"Most processes are automated, but the statistical probability of not finding anyone…" Tech begins to explain, but he is made to stop by Duck who has had enough with Tech's technical explanation. He could simply agree with Lexi's statement instead of going into the specifics where the explanation is more effort and time than continuing with the job.
"Rev, you find where the control room is." Ace instructs.
"Got it." Rev replies, dashing off only to return half a second later. "It's just up the next set of stairs.
"Anyone in there?"
"10 people."
"Okay, we'll go in there and I'll confront them." Ace instructs before moving out from cover to his right and up the final set of stairs, with everyone following directly behind him in a single file. Ace sees inside the control room and spots several men and women in military uniform staring out of windows or down in screens, analysing the telemetry of the ACA. Ace is surprised that they haven't been alerted or even noticed their presence yet. All of the personnel are facing in the opposite direction. Ace turns back to his team and gives a hand signal to tell them to stay where they are whilst he enters the double wide entrance where the sliding doors are sitting inside their housing, leaving the bridge open. Ace gets halfway into the room where he's only 5 metres away from who he thinks is the commanding officer at the helm, who is sitting in a large chair with a large screen in front of him which controls the movement of the giant hovering beast.
"So which one of you had the idea to take over the city. I mean, taking advantage of such dire consequences to establish a military coup." Ace says whilst disappointedly shaking his head. The other five come inside the room to backup what Ace says in a silent show of force and unity. As they all come inside, the sliding doors shut behind them, locking everyone inside. The pilot swings around 180 degrees to look back at these boarders; an older but strong man with customary short grey hair who the Loonatics assume to be in charge.
"That's the lot of you?" The commanding officer asks.
"Turn this ship around now." Ace commands.
"Or what?" The CO replies, unconvinced about his adversaries threats. "This can't be stopped, the trajectory has already been programmed and I'm the only one with access, so if you kill me then there's no hope for you."
"So what is this about?" Ace asks.
"Why should I say?"
"Because I'll make life very painful for your fellow soldiers." Ace replies.
Without warning, the pilot takes out a handgun and shoots dead the closest person next to him without any hesitation or remorse. The other Loonatics half turn away in surprise and shock, even Ace is taken aback by the horrifying apathy of the pilot who seems to be willing to go to any lengths to get this job done. However Ace does not show it visibly, this is ploy to scare them and as long as Ace does not flinch then the others will stay with him.
"How's that work out for you?" He replies. "You can't threaten me."
In a reactionary move, Tech uses his magnetic powers to take the handgun out of the pilot's hand and flings it across to the other side of the room so he can't use it on anyone else.
"Didn't need it anymore."
"You're going to stop this right now." Ace angrily shouts, deafening everyone in the room from his anger. Everyone inside is now focused on what's happening on the inside rather than outside, where the ACA is continually being bombed.
"Think of the greater good, our city is descending into lawlessness and chaos; levels at which the police can't handle and our military can't eradicate because of the government's restrictions on everything. We have these huge machines and now we have the perfect situation to eradicate the city of all criminals so that in the wreckage we can rebuild a better Acmetropolis." The CO explains.
"I don't buy it for a second." Ace replies. Lexi wonders how Ace can simply gamble with untold numbers of lives. "If there was no crime then you'd render yourselves useless and there would be no military. You're shooting yourselves in the foot."
"World peace is a valiant and responsible goal, and it will be achieved in 49 seconds when every criminal will be wiped from the face of Acmetropolis."
"You've got 15 seconds before I cut your head off." Ace replies, readying his sword. The others are wondering what Ace is trying to accomplish out of this. Because unless he has a plan for getting out of this mess, they don't think scaring him is going to yield any results.
"Death on the sword, such an honourable way to die, a luxury in my profession." The CO replies, welcoming death with open arms. "Our work is done."
The other soliders go to work like a pre-rehearsed routine. Each of them stands up and grabs something from their pockets. In the second second, shots ring out everywhere. Ace dives behind a control panel as the rest hit the floor being in no man's land with no nearby cover apart from Rev who can make the distance. Tech tries to deploy a magnetic field but the ordeal is over before he makes one big enough to cover themselves, rendering his efforts useless. When the Loonatics look around, they realise that every officer, soldier or military personnel has been shot. Whether they all took their own lives or took the lives of others is inconsequential for them at the moment. Ace is trying to handle the situation as best he can emotionally whereas others are losing it, especially Duck who has covered his eyes with his hands and refuses to let go. Slam, Rev and Lexi are stunned and in shock whereas Tech is less so, but still paralysed like everyone except for Ace; who is about as fazed as they have seen him so far, whilst is minor drop in his normal emotional state.
"They…" Lexi utters, lost for words.
"Tech! Do you have your keycard from the military?" Ace asks clearly, rushing over to the stunned coyote.
"What?"
"Do you have the keycard from the military?!" Ace repeats.
"Um." Tech fumbles, trying to get his thoughts together.
30 seconds to fire
Ace gives up and quickly rushes over to the dead body of the pilot, hoping he still has his keycard on his person. Ace finds the card cut into three pieces which Ace thinks he has planted on himself to further add misery to their cause. Ace is the opposite of misery, he doesn't let this get in his way. While everyone else is slowly recovering, Ace is quickly working out a backup plan. He grabs the severed keycard pieces and reconnects them on the ground in the correct order. Checking quickly again that it is the right order, he fires tightly focused laser blasts on the joints, attempting to weld the pieces back together so it will be readable again. The job isn't perfect, the card isn't straight or perfectly level and the joints are all a mix of white and dark grey where the liquid plastic has melted and burned.
20 seconds to fire
Ace rushes back over to the console and looks for a place where the keycard needs to go. Every second he can't find this he thinks is a waste because of the pressure placed on his thin shoulders.
"It's over here!" Rev points out on the arm of the seat where a tiny slit looks like a good candidate for where this card fits. By this point, everyone has nervous got their senses back and seems willing enough to help their courageous leader out. Ace slots the card into the reader, just fitting in the slot. Ace looks back to the screen to see what, if anything, will happen.
Invalid: Corrupted keycard.
10 seconds to fire.
A wave of futility and disappointment comes over them in the realisation that Ace's plan hasn't worked. The crudely refurbished keycard is spat out of the reader in disgust like ingesting some foul tasting food.
"Try taking it out and putting it back in again." Lexi adds, thinking of nothing else constructive to do apart from the building thought that they all have to leave right now. Rev however takes Lexi's suggestion as an instruction and does what she says.
"Come on!" He says in hope.
Access granted.
"Yes!" Rev exclaims.
"I don't believe it." Duck replies.
Slam concurs.
"Tech! shut this thing off!" Ace commands and Tech rushes into the pilots seat, jumping into the seat to allow the momentum to swing him back around to face the console. He looks down at the levers and dials to quickly find something. Unsatisfied, he turns to the keyboard in front of him and begins to manually change the course of the behemoth. This turns out to be a far more successful avenue to pursue as they can feel the ACA slow down into a hovering position but Tech doesn't stop working; the weapons need to be disabled. Going into typing and thinking overdrive, time seeming to hang in the air as Tech works furiously, doing everything that one feasibly could whilst the rest watch, sometimes distracted by the flash from an explosion outside which have repeatedly done close to zero damage to the flight deck of the ACA. Without any sort of screen telling them, Tech stops typing and relaxes, presumably having stopped the machine from killing anyone below.
"Is it done?" Ace asks for clarification. Tech slumps into his chair with sore arms and fingers not from typing itself but because of the nervousness and the pressure that was on him has made him tense.
"It's done." Tech says with a sense of relief, not enough to overpower him to ignore the bigger picture; they have to get off the ACA and then what do they do?
"We should get off this thing." Ace suggests.
"But where to?" Lexi asks.
"Not here." Ace answers as he look towards the windows and blasts out a toughened window that looks out across the flight desk. Ace walks up to the opening and jumps out, using his jetpack to soften the landing. The others follow, each dropping down to the bottom. There is a slight delay, as Slam has to bust out another window in order to make enough room for him to fit through. Slam lands on the ground safely.
"Where to now Ace, we've got no place to go?" Duck asks again.
"The park is right below us, let's get back down to street level." Ace says before running at full speed to the edge before leaping wholeheartedly with the wings of his jetpack extended. They are starting to wonder if they can ever match it with Ace, or whether they should. Regardless, they follow their leader and make the leap off the edge and land in a clearing in the park where Ace is already waiting for them.
"So now what?" Duck asks again.
"I don't know. We find a place to stay, get a hotel room." Ace says.
"I thought you always had a plan." Lexi jokingly replies.
"I do, I just said it." Ace replies as he sees that people are beginning to gather around them. "Right now we should leave otherwise we'll attract too much attention."
"Oh come on Ace." Duck complains. "This is what superheroes do, they bask in the public adoration pose for the cameras. You're an actor, you should love this stuff."
The crowd begin to swell as word spreads quickly as a VTOL craft comes into landing in the clearing on the park, meaning that people begin to move out of the way and the trees sway in the winds of the downward facing jets.
"Are we about to be arrested?" Lexi asks.
"I don't think so, otherwise they would have done so a lot earlier." Ace answers as they watch the rear door lower down to the ground.
"My money's on that… Zadavia, that's her name." Duck exclaims.
"Not a half bad guess." Tech acknowledges.
The door lowers completely and out steps several tall and powerful men who aren't dressed in military clothing but in formal civilian clothing. Amongst the crowd, one person stands out instantly for many reasons. Firstly she's the only woman amongst them, secondly she's shorter than the rest of them, but most importantly is because she is the most famous; the mayor of Acmetropolis.
"This is either going to end really well or really badly." Ace comments. "No in between."
"Let's hope it's the former." Lexi replies. As the entourage gets closer and the people naturally make way, encircling the Loonatics and the mayor's entourage into one small area. The mayor steps out of her security and looks at these eccentrically dressed people who have supposedly saved the city.
"So you are the people my chief of police is talking about." She says. Ace thinks that the policeman he saw must have told his tale of meeting them underground to everyone he could find. "Quite a rumour I thought until I saw this."
She walks up and down to look each and everyone in the eye whilst they look back at her with less conviction than what she does. Each look is like looking into their souls, inspecting them for their character.
"You weren't quite what I was expecting."
Ace senses the opportunity to make an impression.
"Well, we're a new kind of hero. We're the Loonatics."
And just like that, the entire audience was hooked. They demonstrated their powers and they could not get enough. It was at that point when they all knew that this was official, when the masses first adored them with cheers and applause. That is when they knew that they were real, actual superheroes.