Loonatics: United

Episode 83: Swift Solace

Tech was holding Derek Dune´s arms while walking him towards a pair of officers from the AHP that had just parked a block away. "Hey! Careful!" Derek complained by Tech´s strong grasp, struggling and groaning.

"No can do, madman." Tech replied with a straight tone.

Derek began to chuckle. "Madman..." He shook his head. "If only he had let me work in peace and protect the city in the process...things would be so different."

"The city has its guardians already, Mr. Dune." Tech walked a bit faster, forcing Derek to do so as well.

"Oh, you?!" Derek chuckled again. "You´re just a bunch of freaks that people have placed on a pedestal, nothing more."

"Walk." Tech squeezed the cougar´s thin arms.

"Gah!" Derek groaned. "You can´t stop it, you can´t kill my baby, oh no, he has surpassed you..." He looked at Tech with an aggressive and arrogant glare. "...I have surpassed you!"

Tech finally reached the two feline officers from the AHP, who were wearing their traditional green uniforms. He pushed Derek, making him to fall before them, hitting the concrete strongly while groaning and chuckling. "Take this scum with you, he´s the responsible for all this."

"And I won´t deny it!" Derek started to laugh stronger, still laying over the ground.

Tech growled and kicked his back, making him stop and groan. One of the officers lifted him off the ground and the other one cuffed him. Tech nodded at the two officers. "Thank you."

"Maybe I´ll rot in jail, you know?! But that doesn´t matter! My baby will kill you all! It´s unstoppable!" Derek shouted while struggling from the hold of the officers.

Tech activated his jetpack and flew towards the snake, which was battling his comrades several blocks away. "That´s about to be seen." He murmured.

Duck was standing over the edge of a building, throwing his orbs the fastest he could at the beast´s scales as well as at the rings that surrounded its long body. "This slug is indestructible!"

Rev was running over the body of the beast, trying to find any weak points. He reached the head and stopped using his super speed. "Maybe this..." He carefully approached the zone of the eye and started to punch it extremely fast, with his blurry fists constantly hitting the rock solid eyeball of the snake, making no reaction at all.

"Rev! Giving it an eye massage won´t solve anything!" Duck kept throwing the orbs at the beast.

Rev gasped. "I´m hitting the hardest I can, man!" Rev stopped punching as he had gotten tired, rubbing one of his arms and hovering away from the monster with the help of his jetpack.

Slam was traveling over the beast with his tornado, trying to perforate its scaly buddy, with no results at all. He growled and moved away from the beast, flying with his jetpack while heading to the top of the building where Rev and Duck were standing, then he landed among them, stating the scales of the monster were impenetrable.

Tech arrived with his jetpack and landed next to his comrades. "Any progress?"

"Don´t you see?!" Duck pointed at the snake, which was charging strongly against a set of buildings while throwing fire randomly.

Tech sighed with frustration while looking at the disaster the snake was making, also noticing that the workstation on its head had gotten damaged. "We´ll need something extremely powerful to destroy it." He scratched his chin.

Duck rolled up his eyes while placing both hands on his waist. "Like what? A bomb?"

"Actually..." Tech looked at Duck. "Yes."

Duck´s eyes widened. "Oh..." He crossed his arms and looked away with arrogance. "Of course, it´s the most logical option."

"But how?" Rev inquired. "We are too far from the desert region."

"And?" Duck asked then his eyes widened suddenly. "Oh, the buildings, right...and the people, yeah, I understand."

"We´ll have to bring it there." Tech glared at the snake, which was roaring and flying just above the street, charging against the vehicles and debris. "That´s a task for you three...and for Ace, if he gets better."

"And what will you do?" Duck asked rather upset.

"The bomb, of course." Tech replied with a straight tone.

"Oh, cool." Duck said with some embarrassment.

Tech nodded at his comrades then activated his jetpack and hovered upwards. He turned and looked at them over his shoulder. "Stay in touch, I´ll meet you there when I finish the bomb!" He finally accelerated, flying away from them, getting lost from their sight between the skyscrapers.

"You´ve heard him guys." Rev was glancing at the monster. "How can we get this thing´s att..." He looked at his surroundings. "Uhm, Slam...where´s Duck?"

"Yoo-hoo! Slug!" Duck was hovering a few meters before the beast´s ugly, reptilian face. He was trying to bother the monster doing some silly faces. "It happens I need a new belt! Do me a favor and let me take that ugly skin of y…" The snake threw fire all of a sudden, Duck gasped and teleported rapidly to a further spot, still facing the snake´s head. "You missed! What a surprise!" He started to fly away towards Acmetropolis´ desert zone. The snake began to follow him, enraged and committed to kill him.

Rev chuckled while activating his jetpack. "There ain´t no better man for this job than him." He accelerated along with Slam, following them.

On the meantime, Ace was in an alleyway, sitting down over the dirty ground while laying his back against the wall, looking down, breathing in and out slowly, trying to calm himself down to get rid of the extreme anxiety he was feeling. "I can do this...I just..." His breathing got faster, the pressure he felt in his stomach increased, he felt the drips of sweat wetting his snout. He let out a growl of impotence. "Get out!" Ace screamed strongly, the echo of his voice went through the noise of the ambulances, the sorrows and the exclamations of the fearful, the wounded and the bereaved. He started to cry in silence. "Get out..."

Between his sobs, Ace started to hear steps coming towards him, but he didn´t give it too much importance until he felt a small hand pulling the cloth of his suit, on the shoulder area. He opened his eyes and looked at the kid before him, a red furred fox who wore a green T-Shirt and blue shorts. The glare of the little kid expressed amazement and request at the same time. "M...Mr. Ace?" He patted Ace´s shoulder. "Why are you crying?"

Ace had his gaze locked on the blue eyes of the little fox. "I..." He battled his broken voice. "...I don´t feel well."

"But a monster is destroying the city, you must get up and beat it." The kid responded. "Your team needs you."

Ace stood silent for a moment, then he extended his hand. "Help me." The kid took his hand and helped him get up, then let out a gasp of effort. After the kid recovered his breath, he kept looking at Ace with pleading eyes.

"Do you feel better now?" The little fox took Ace´s hand again and started to walk him out of the alleyway.

"Hey..." Ace expressed. "Where are your parents?"

"On Yxon, for work...I think." The fox said with little certainty. When they got out of the alleyway, the fox released Ace´s hand. "Now go!" He said with excitement.

Ace sighed. "I want to..." He looked at the kid and got over one knee, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I really do...but..." He gasped with anger and impotence. "...right now, I´m not in the best of conditions, you know?"

"How?" The little red fox tilted his head.

"I´m just..." Ace tried to find words that the kid could understand. "I´m scared, okay? Like...in a very strong way." He let out a sudden sob. "So strong, so...ugly, that it takes away all of my strength." He lowered down his head. "I really want to kill that stupid thing…" Ace shook his head. "But this...fear inside me, this illness...it just won´t let me. Not right now."

The little fox was looking at him with confusion and empathy, then he gave him a hug, making Ace to hug him back. "It´s okay, Mr. Ace. I´ve been scared too, like, now, for example. I can´t do anything." Ace kept sobbing. "But you can, you have laser vision and a jetpack and cool moves and..."

"I know, kid." Ace sighed. "But sometimes...that´s just not enough."

The kid stood silent for a moment, patting Ace´s back. "Please Mr. Ace, you are my hero. At least try, ike Mrs. Longhorn always tells us."

"Mrs. Longhorn?" Ace inquired.

"Oh, my math teacher." The little fox replied. "Please, please, Mr. Ace. You can do this, you always can."

Ace started to breath in and out slowly, feeling rather relieved by the kid´s caring hug. "I don´t know if I´ll make it...what if it beats us?"

"Well...at least you will have tried." The kid insisted. "We need you, Mr. Ace."

Ace let the hug last some more moments, then he slowly broke it, subtly smirking at the kid. "Okay." He stood up and looked at the kid with a grateful glare. "What´s your name?"

"Alec." The kid responded with a smile.

Ace nodded at him. "Thank you, Alec." He looked away briefly then back at Alec. "Go seek refuge..." Ace smiled at him with confidence. "...this won´t take long." He chuckled.

"Yes, Mr. Ace!" The kid jumped for joy and hurried away, and after a last glare of thankfulness, Ace looked into the sky and activated his jetpack, flying upwards.

When Ace got at a sufficient altitude, he just stood hovering between the tall edifices, managing to see the gigantic snake flying towards Acmetropolis´ desert zone from the distance. "Get ready, nasty..." He wiped off the tears of his face with his arm. "...this is gonna hurt." Ace accelerated towards the scene, with his gaze completely focused on the snake, managing to spot his friends hovering around it.

Meanwhile, Tech was inside the lab, standing at the central table, building the bomb that would be used to destroy the monster. He was attaching several electronic devices to the cylindrical shaped tube over the table, which had a blueish liquid on the inside, using a soldering iron and a screwdriver to do so. He installed a pair of wires that interconnected some of the attachments, then he walked towards a chest of drawers that was right next to the infirmary and opened the first drawer, he then took a small, white colored remote with a black button on the middle and closed the drawer then headed back to the table.

Tech placed the remote next to the bomb and then pressed a small button on the explosive device while pressing another tiny button on the remote. The bomb made a brief beeping noise. "Paired." He smiled while nodding. "Alright..." He held the bomb against his side with one arm and took the remote with his hand. "...let´s see what you´re made of, baby."