Loonatics: United

Episode 86: Burning Blue

It was a calm night in Acmetropolis, the moonlight illuminated the tall buildings dimly and the traffic on the streets was moderated. Sigma Park was located near the city´s downtown, it presented a mix of dark and phosphorescent colors, same as the rest of Acmetropolis, only that the light blue color was predominant. The park hadn´t any vegetation, it was all made of metal and concrete, just as the benches and the lampposts as well as the sculptures that served to give the place some life, thing that the citizens and the tourists found quite interesting.

Several groups of friends and couples were sharing words and food at the outdoor dining area of the park, talking about experiences, expressing words of love and friendship, having some soda and fast food they had bought in some place nearby. The night stayed that way for several hours until a loud, deranged scream was heard. Some of the people stood up from their concrete seats, looking around. Silence prevailed and the youth just resumed their activities until a male skunk covered in blue flames ran towards them, screaming with madness. He was wearing a dark blue bodysuit. "Why don´t you just die?! You blot!" The skunk started to burn everything in his path by shooting flames from his hands, the ground, the benches, the seats, the sculptures and advertisements burned in blue flames. The young people ran for their lives, some of them managed to escape, but others just couldn´t avoid the skunk´s large, burning flames.

"Please!" A young male tiger and a female one were laying on the ground, trying to back away from the menacing skunk. "Please! Don´t hurt us!" The male pleaded. There were tears of hopelessness running over the fur of the tigers´ faces.

The skunk´s face only showed anger and impetus. "Don´t hurt me, daddy!" The skunk started to laugh maniacally. "P...p...please daddy." He kept laughing while backing his flame covered arm. "Don´t hurt your little baby!" He started to shoot the flames at them, burning them unmercifully, seeing how their clothes, fur and skin blazed aggressively, hearing their screams of agony. The skunk started to make out crying noises. "It hurts, daddy! You see?! It makes me feel sad!"

The firefighters and the soldiers of A.R.M. arrived at the scene. The firetruck was a huge flying vehicle that just landed on the park. The soldiers arrived in their normal, wheeled black trucks, getting off the vehicles in pairs. The skunk stopped burning his victims, having turned them into mere ashes. He turned slowly and his eyes widened when seeing several wolves of A.R.M. pointing at him with their rifles. "Hands behind your head, freak!" A soldier exclaimed.

The skunk screamed with fright, obeying the soldier, rapidly getting his hands behind his head just as the wolf commanded. "I did it, daddy! Can I have my pri..?" The skunk suddenly started to fly up, getting off their sight rapidly.

One of the soldiers took off his dark glasses, looking into the sky with an eyebrow raised. "What the heck..."

The captain of the wolves sighed and took out his rugged phone, getting it next to his ear. "Well, boys. It seems this is out of our reach...literally."

"Oh, you´re gonna call, well, them?" A young soldier inquired.

"Heck yeah I´m calling them, rookie." The captain replied with a straight tone.

Meanwhile, the skunk was flying randomly in the star filled sky, leaving a blue trace behind him. "Gah! I´m gonna be so dead! But I´m still alive right now!" He laughed and cried at the same time. "I´m gonna die! Yippee!" He started to move his arms backwards and frontwards, slowly finding out how to control his flight, gaining more direction and balance. "This is not too bad, is it, daddy? Maybe...mom is gonna like it! Oh she doesn´t! Dang it, not again! But I do! I love this!" The skunk laughed incessantly while flying way more gracefully with the aid of the blue fire that surrounded his entire body. "I´m like a sh..!" He felt a hurting burn on his shoulder, not provoked by his flames. "Gah! That hurt, daddy!" He stopped flying and just stood hovering in the sky looking over his shoulder, widening his eyes when seeing Ace Bunny flying behind him, from a slightly higher altitude.

"There´s more where that came from, Sparky!" Ace said menacingly while aiming at him with his laser vision activated.

"That´s not my name, daddy!" The skunk raised his hands hostilely. "I´m your beloved son! Right?!" He let out a sudden laugh, mixed with weeping.

Ace raised an eyebrow. "Hey, I want you to...uhm...turn off those flames of yours and come with me."

"Turn off my flames? Oh, daddy! You´re so smart, these things around me! This hot things around me, right?! My new friends!" The skunk laughed while crying. "Pacey´s little friends!"

"Is that your name? Pacey?" Ace knew something wasn´t right with the burning skunk.

"Yes! Daddy! How could you forgot?!" Pacey let out an aggressive growl. "How could you, daddy? You old stupid man!" He gasped and sobbed afterwards. "No, I´m sorry, I´m sorry..." He cried deeply. "Don´t bring the cable! Please...don´t bring the cab..." His crying was so bitter and loud that his words couldn´t be understood by Ace. "D...d...a…w..why...y..." Pacey started to breathe in and out rapidly, frowning while looking at Ace.

"Hey..." Ace raised his hands as a sign of peace, finding out the skunk´s mind wasn´t lucid at all. "I don´t want to hurt you, pal. Just tell me something."

"Pal?" Pacey´s eyes reflected a sudden brightness after Ace´s comment. "Yes, pal?" He smiled slowly at him.

"Uhm...why did you kill those people?" Ace gestured down at the park. "You know, with your flames."

"I...I was teaching daddy a lesson." Pacey responded rather calmly then just sobbed again all of a sudden. "But I want him back...and now he is like dust...thanks to my blue friends."

"You mean, that fire around you?" Ace was starting to suspect he would have to fight Pacey despite his efforts to neutralize his hostile intentions.

"Yes!" Pacey started to laugh again. "These friends are always with me! They don´t hate me or call me nicknames!" He looked at his own hands, nodding continuously. "And still they refuse to speak! All they do is burn and burn and burn and only burn!" He screamed and shot his flames at Ace with no warning.

Ace gasped and flew upwards to evade the brief but powerful flame shot. "Hey! I just want to talk!"

"No, daddy, I won´t believe that filthy lie anymore! You want to hit me again, don´t you?!" Pacey exclaimed.

"No." Ace slowly hovered down to Pacey´s level. "Pacey...who did this to you?" The most logical answer to him was the meteor, but he wasn´t sure."

"Don´t hit me, daddy." Pacey spoke with sadness and fear. "I can run from you...yeah!" He let out a laugh. "I can get away from you!" Pacey suddenly flew away from Ace, quick and bright as a supernova, dazzling him.

"Gah!" Ace rubbed his eyes for a few seconds then after a couple of blinks he tried to spot the skunk again. "Shoot!" He could only see a rapidly vanishing blue trace. Ace followed the remains of the trace the best he could, flying fast with his jetpack, but there was no sign of Pacey.

"Boss, status." Tech´s voice sounded from Ace´s comm.

Ace sighed and got his comm before his snout. "I lost him."

Tech and the rest were at the park, looking for wounded and surveilling the area. "What was he?" Tech inquired.

"A skunk. Enhanced, but I´m not sure how." Ace replied and let out a long sigh. "Mission´s over. Go back to the HQ, I´ll meet you all there."

"Understood, boss." Tech deactivated his comm and looked at his comrades. "We´re going back home, guys."

"Oh, so no punching and throwing tonight?" Duck said while crossing his arms with disappointment.

"What was that thing?" Lexi asked Tech while approaching him.

"Ace said he was a skunk." Tech responded. "Enhanced just like us, it seems. That´s all he told me."

"So, we are letting him go?" Duck inquired.

"Don´t make that type of assumptions just like that maybe Ace lost track of him." Rev argued, a red trace was vanishing behind him.

"Yeah, well, that´s exactly what happened, Rev." Tech commented.

Slam growled with anger, stating that the bad guy got away with it.

"Calm down, big guy." Tech looked around briefly. "We´ll get him, we just have to be patient as always."

"As always? You know we´re not known for being the patient type." Duck cracked his fingers.

Lexi grunted. "Speak for yourself, Duck." She crossed her arms.

"Our job is done here for now." Tech sighed and activated his jetpack. "Let´s go home."

The other four Loonatics activated their respective jetpacks and followed Tech, en route to the HQ.

Minutes later, Ace was walking in the lounge, thoughtful and serious. "What´s up with that guy?" He told himself. "Daddy?" He sighed and shook his head. "That was weird." He mumbled, his ears twitched when hearing the lounge´s window open.

The rest of the Loonatics arrived and landed over the floor, deactivating their jetpacks. "What a short mission, don´t you think?" Duck said suddenly.

"Oh no you won´t get me in your passive aggressive comments." Rev warned.

Ace just ignored Duck´s words and approached his comrades. "We have no clue on the origins of Pacey´s abilities, but t..."

"Who´s Pacey?" Duck interrupted.

Ace grunted and frowned at him. "The skunk, the burning guy, he told me his name, okay?!" He took a deep breath and inhaled just as deeply. "Alright. As I was saying, we don´t know how he obtained his powers, but what really matters here is to find a way to beat him. And I don´t think water will suffice, Duck."

"But I didn´t say anything!" Duck replied with anger, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"I bet you thought about it." Lexi mocked.

"Uhm...no comment." Duck rolled up his eyes.

"Boss, we have very little information on this particular subject. I mean, you were the only one who could see him." Tech argued.

"Didn´t you find any data at the park?" Ace raised an eyebrow.

"I tried, but the firemen and those A.R.M. guys got in the way." Tech answered.

Ace sighed with frustration and scratched his nape. "He, uhm...maybe this will be useful, Doc. He seemed to be sick, in the head, you know?"

Tech looked away while scratching his chin. "Now that´s another piece of the puzzle."

"Puzzle? Maybe he is just a mad guy that got messed up by the meteor, isn´t that a possibility?" Duck said.

"It truly is, I must say." Tech looked at Duck with a straight face. "Still, it´s always convenient to scrutinize as most as possible to find the best solution, Duck."

"Oh you and your weird words again." Duck shook his head.

Ace sighed and turned towards his room, looking at his team over his shoulder. "I´m sure we will hear more from this guy soon. As for now, go have some sleep...we all need it."