Loonatics: United

Episode 25: Blurring Delirium

The Loonatics were hanging out in the mall, yet using their suits like always to be prepared for anything, Ace had gone with Lexi to accompany her while she did her shopping, Tech and Rev were in the electronics shop while Duck was just walking by the stores and Slam was in the gastronomic zone of the mall. "What do you think about this?" Lexi showed Ace a pink dress as she held it in front of him.

"Uhm, yeah, if you like it." Ace felt somewhat uncomfortable at being at a shop of women's clothes.

"Ace, I need your opinion." Lexi insisted.

Ace sighed, then tried to do his best to review the dress. "Well, maybe those little white dots are a bit too much."

Lexi shook her head. "Clearly you don't know anything about fashion, I think I'll bring this home."

Ace raised his eyebrow. "But you asked for an opinion."

"And I have discovered that yours doesn't count when it's about this kind of stuff." Lexi went to the checkout counter to pay for the clothes she was willing to buy.

"I'll wait for you outside." Ace said and left the shop then sat down on a bench that faced the place. He liked to spend time with Lexi even if it meant hours of shopping and pain on his feet, that sense of normality made him hopeful.

Lexi got out of the shop with a couple of bags full of new clothes. "Okay, now is your turn."

Ace stood up from the bench as he smirked at her. "My turn? I am not the fashion-type, you know." They just started to walk. "Besides, I don't get to use, normal clothes that much." He looked at her. "Now that I think about it, neither do you."

"What do you mean?" Lexi asked.

"Come on, we are trapped in this suits forever, not that I complain I mean it's a pleasure to save the city and all but it was a long time ago when I realized we are not destined to a normal, civilian life." Ace responded.

Lexi thought her answer for a moment. "I actually have lots of clothes with the tag still on them in my closet, kind of sad, isn't it?"

"No, I mean you actually help me a lot with that." Ace said.

"By buying clothes?" Lexi inquired.

Ace sighed, then nodded. "I like to see someone in the team who still manages to do normal people stuff."

Lexi smiled at the comment. "You know what? We'll check some stuff for you, what do you think?"

"Really? Because I saw a neat holo-soccer jersey of the Acmetropolis Forgers back on the sports store." Ace responded.

Lexi rolled her eyes. "Oh my…are you?" She let out a sigh. "Alright, just let me be the judge, okay?"

Ace chuckled. "Sure, why not."

Meanwhile, Tech and Rev were discussing about a product on the electronics store. "Trust me, Rev! This is a game changer!" Tech said as he held the box with the device.

"But don't you forget it is known data that this company often makes mistakes with the ventilation system remember that case of the poor family's home." Rev argued.

"It was just a slight incident, the only one registered by the way." Tech replied.

"Oh come on…" Rev received a transmission from Duck.

"Guys, you gotta see this, some kind of mad woman is doing, weird stuff, I'm next to the car agency." Duck warned to the team through his comm.

Ace was about to try on the jersey on the sports shop. "Duty calls." He hung it back and hurried towards Duck's location followed by Lexi.

Tech and Rev were near of the zone already, so they just got out of the electronics shop and met with Duck. "Who the heck is she?" Tech asked.

"Oh like if I knew man!" Duck argued.

Ace, Lexi and Slam arrived with them, a female fox was floating above the floor a few meters in front of them, all that could be seen of her was her silhouette, black like a shadow, her white eyes and her long fleck covering half of her face and a black cloud behind her. The crowd that tried to run away was thrown suddenly to the floor by a gesture the mysterious woman did, they started to scream and shake over the floor.

Tech used his powers and attracted several metallic benches and trash cans of the shopping mall to his front then threw them towards the fox, the woman didn't show any visible reaction but the metallic objects he had thrown at her collided with an invisible barrier that protected her.

Rev tried to break the barrier by running at full speed towards it with his fist clenched, he clashed onto it then fell on his back groaning.

Slam tried to get to the woman from the sides but he found out that the barrier surrounded her completely as his punches couldn't get through.

Duck had been throwing orbs with no rest at the barrier; the fox saw him and frowned then threw an invisible impulse at Duck with a thought, making him to gasp and end in the floor.

Ace ran towards the floating woman and shot his laser vision at her but the barrier blocked the attack, the woman laughed and made Ace to kneel down before her with a gesture. "You are no rival for me." The woman said with an echoing voice and made Ace to lay over the floor, she focused her gaze on him then he started to scream in agony all of a sudden, he moved like if he was having a seizure and tried to cover his ears but he still couldn't control whatever was happening to him.

Lexi tried to attack her with a brain blast, but it didn't have any effect on her. "Why do they have to be weirder each time?!"

The woman laughed with mockery. "You may call me Mourn, your doom and fall." Mourn waved her hands downwards and a dark purple wave hit them and sent them to the ground.

Lexi groaned then quickly dragged herself towards Ace who was still under the effects of the previous attack. She put her hand on his shoulder, and he gasped as if she had scared him. "Ace, Ace I'm here, it's me, don't worry." She helped him to stand up as he was still screaming and shaking repeatedly, she had got into her feet while she prevented Ace to fall by carrying his arm over her shoulders. "Tech! He is very bad." She approached the team that had already recovered.

"Then we must retreat." Tech replied.

Rev got before them rapidly. "What about the floating gal?" He pointed at the place where Mourn had appeared, there was no sign of her. "Uhm, where is she by the way?"

"Better not to know now, come on, back to the HQ!" Lexi commanded and they flew out of the mall with their jetpacks, she was carrying Ace on her way to the HQ.

Ace laid over the lab's large table, trembling and breathing rapidly with cables connected to his suit, sending signals of his state to a screen that showed the diagnosis. "His mind is, disturbed, Lexi, I have tried many formulas to stabilize him but nothing seems to work." Tech said.

"What is exactly happening to him?" Lexi asked as she looked at Ace with worry.

"It is hard to explain, but by seeing this diagnosis I could say his troubled mind is caused by constant panic attacks." Tech stated.

Lexi sighed. "Maybe there is another solution; we need him back."

Tech scratched his chin. "Well, in theory, your brain blast could bring him back, the complexity of its waves shall stabilize his uneasy thoughts, but is just a hypothesis."

"Yeah, and that shall fry his brain too." Lexi argued.

Tech shook his head. "Not with a modulator."

"Modulator?" Lexi raised an eyebrow.

"A helmet, connected to an inner system of energy storing panels that will contain the quantity of waves we don't need." Tech explained. "There is no risk at all."

Lexi nodded. "I'll do anything for him, just promise me this helmet won't ruin my hair."

Darkness, sounds of emptiness and uncertainty, Ace couldn't guess where he could possibly be, maybe it was a dream or a nightmare, maybe something else. "Hello?!" Ace yelled, his voice echoed on the dark, empty space he was in. "Lexi?" He struggled to recognize who was the person ahead of him that was laying on the reflecting, non-existent floor. He walked towards who he thought was Lexi laying over her side, he recognized her ears and bodysuit, he leaned closer to her and patted her shoulder confidently, there was no reaction. "Lexi?" He moved her slightly to see her better, he gasped with fright when he saw her halted eyes, the pallid color of her face's fur and blood coming out of her opened snout. He kneeled down next to her with pain and disbelief in his eyes and got her closer to him with both arms, he hugged her and started to cry with unrest. "I'm sorry, love." He began to cry out louder. "I'm so sorry."

"Ace." The blood stopped coming out from her snout all of a sudden, her eyes showed light again, a shine came from behind her, Ace's perspective changed and he felt the steel of the lab's table, as soon as he noticed it had been all an illusion he leaned forward and embraced her strongly, crying with happiness. Lexi tried to reassure him. "You are back, Ace, I'm here with you, don't worry." She looked at Tech with concern, the same look he had on his face.

A/N: Hello! I don't tend to write notes at the end of the stories but this time I just felt the need to do so. I want to thank all of you for your persistent support to this saga, which I decided to write because of my love for the show and its characters and I'm glad to know that it still has a present fanbase. As many of you may have noticed, I usually post a new chapter every Saturday, it's been that way pretty much since I started the saga and that's the whole point of this note, these last weeks I haven't had enough time to work on the future chapters of the story because of some projects I've been focused more in, so it will be difficult for me to provide updates to the story in the regular lapse, but that doesn't mean I won't be updating the story anymore, just less regularly, that's all and I will try to update it at least once a month, there are lots of new villains and arcs that I can't wait for you to know! So guys, thanks again for everything and I'll see you on the next chapter, where things will get even weirder with this mysterious entity. See you soon!

Also, I would like to know who is your favorite character from the original show, mine is Tech, with no doubt.