A/N: Yah, I figured this one would be late, but not this late. Sorry about that, but these past few weeks have been both busy and weird, in a depressing way, and I haven't really felt like writing much. :/ I just wasn't feeling up to it. Not much of an excuse, but it's all I got. The good news is, the large delay gave me time to edit it over and over until I was happy with this, and that took a while (which is why I shouldn't write what's supposed to be happy parts when I'm feeling sad.) Plus I had two potential endings for this, and I really wanted to use both of them, but I would have had to do something with the other one in my next story and there's nowhere to fit it in, so I had to go with this one.
So, anyway, if I tried finishing the story in this chapter, you all would have to wait another week with nothing, so I decided to get this up now (it's already ridiculously long as it is, anyway,) and put up the short conclusion chapter in the next week or two. Since it's going to be fairly short, (probably,) I hope to have it up at the end of this week, but I have no clue how my schedule will be and AP Finals are rapidly approaching, so it's all up in the air. I have lots of time off next week, though, so odds are it will be up by then at the latest. The good news is, I'm not ending on unlucky number 13.
Thanks to Molly Grace 16, Candlestic, Halloween Witch, iwolf208 (thanks again for being my translation editor on the last chapter!), Luna246, and Angelus Draco for your reviews! It's the only thing my muse accepts as payment anymore!
Sive wondered why Tech relied on his gadgets so much; he could probably take over the city with his magnetism alone if he'd put his mind to it. Of course, supplying him with so much ammo by being on an active construction site was only exacerbating the issue. But, she only had herself to blame for that one.
Noting how random shots from friend and foe alike were flying fast and frequently, and how Tech wasn't exactly in his right mind, and how any one of their nearby teammates could be chosen by the coyote as an alternate target at any time, Sive had thought it best to draw Tech as far away from them as possible. The only way she could do this was by making sure she consistently had his attention, constantly getting in his way and quasi-attacking him (with no intention of actually hitting him) whenever he tried to stray.
She had been able to draw him to the other side of the semi-constructed park before running into an issue; namely, the area where the workers stored tools and building supplies. As a result, Tech was running the show, forcing Sive to dart around and perform great gymnastic feats to avoid being pelted by anything metallic that had been lying around, which consisted of more or less everything that had been lying around. She could only hold her phase for a limited time, after all; less than a minute before the customary tingly, sleeping-limb feeling of using that power spread and increased to the point where she would black out, a natural safety feature so the phase wouldn't spontaneously stop when she was halfway through something. It had only happened once, not long after she'd gotten her powers, but her phase hadn't worked right for days afterward; she wasn't too keen on a repeat performance, especially when faced with a turncoat teammate and two dangerous mice.
Hence why she couldn't really do anything but take a tool to the face as she simultaneously jumped over a long bit of pipe and ducked under some fancy steel part she couldn't identify; the wrench was the more preferable of the three.
Growling in pain and frustration, she ducked below what looked like an emptied toolbox, rolling to temporarily take cover behind a large tube structure; she could only pray it wasn't magnetic. The lack of movement suggested it wasn't; hypnotized or not, Tech was never one to waste much time when pursuing a target, Sive mused as she tenderly fingered her injured cheek, not too surprised to find red on the tips of her fingers. Shaking her hand and scowling, she didn't spend too long grousing over her most recent minor injury; any moment not spent on avoiding being killed was one spent on trying to figure out how to snap the other coyote out of the trance.
Remembering what they did for Ace wouldn't apply as well to Tech; being as smart as he was, Sive knew she would never be able to say something convincingly shocking enough to snap him out of it. Considering how she was practically dancing around to avoid being skewered by passing screwdrivers, doing something shocking seemed out of the question as well; everything she could think to do, anyway. They were out in the open, and his attention was fully on her; no surprising him.
It hadn't escaped her notice that the group still fighting Slo-Mo was having even more issues than before; now that he was utilizing the full range of his abilities, they had even less opportunities to attack, spending more time dodging than retaliating. Though they no longer had to do as much dancing around each other, the loss of Tech's support proved to hurt more than help. Duck, too, was having trouble corralling Jet on his own; every time he quacked, he would lose track of the speedy mouse, and have to spend more time searching for him before quacking to catch up to him and repeating the process. She wasn't going to check right then, but Sive figured that there wasn't much ground left to cover before the two mice met up again.
A slight creak of unevenly balanced metal alerted her to the incoming threat; instinctively rolling forward, she pushed back to her feet just in time to see a long, heavy piece of steel rebar vertically bury itself into the ground where she'd just been.
"Well that would've hurt," she stated to herself, turning to the other coyote and phasing as a round of poised screwdrivers attempted to turn her into Swiss cheese.
Springing to her feet to avoid a hammer assault, she used the sparse trees and larger machinery to her advantage, occasionally launching a small, concentrated electrical burst at any unavoidable, particularly dangerous projectiles. One shot had a little too much energy to it, impacting its target yet still having enough force behind it for smaller sparks to continue and pelt Tech with harmless, yet annoying shocks.
Sive winced sympathetically, not having meant to do that, but was nevertheless grateful for the momentary reprieve. It gave her a chance to think over the options Tech had presented them with Ace. All things he'd dubbed "psychological shocks" were already out. That left scaring him- already discarded- sudden loud sounds- if her thunder hadn't done that already, nothing would- and pain. Normally she wouldn't even consider it; she'd been going well out of her way to avoid hurting him as it was. But it was her last option. Electricity was painful. It moved fast enough that she would undoubtedly be able to land a hit. And Tech could regenerate.
Sighing in defeat, she gathered an ample amount of charge before darting out from behind a tree. Tech had lost track of her following her accidental attack, but immediately moved to restart his barrage once she appeared again. She was quicker.
"Sorry, Tech," she murmured before turning and launching one, strong bolt of energy right at her friend.
Hypnotized or not, Tech's reaction time was still admirable. He immediately dropped everything that had been levitating with his magnetism, collecting that energy around himself instead and concentrating it into a shield. Sive knew that the bolt she'd released was more than strong enough to break through it; the fact that Tech didn't seem to put her on edge. This thinking was only reinforced when her electrical bolt inexplicably veered drastically off course when it neared Tech's shield, angling left and blowing a large hole into the side of the large pipe Sive had used for cover earlier.
Her facial expression must have been hilarious if she managed to get a smirk out of Tech while he was hypnotized. "Basic physics: magnetism can deflect electric current," he stated, making Sive really regret never getting more than most of a grade school education.
Cursing profusely in her head, their previous round of target practice restarted, Tech bringing his magnetic arsenal back up and between him and Sive. This time, though, his attacks were more fast-paced and frequent; he could tell that she was tiring. She was moving much slower than she had been, and relying more on her phase.
Sive knew it, too; she would be unable to continue after long. Though she was built to be a runner, she was tiring fast; the tingles from her phase were spreading to alarming levels; and at the rate Tech was firing at her, she couldn't keep up with everything flying through her. Black spots started appearing in her line of vision; something had to give. Tech was determined that it be her.
With all that was going on, it was a miracle that Sive noticed Tech's attention change at all; some of the flying tools dropped as the coyote's magnetic focus turned elsewhere, and the ones left in the air almost imperceptibly slowed. She felt that the energy spent on phasing would have been a good investment; indulging for only a split second, she allowed what seemed to have become the secondary attack to whirl harmlessly about her like a swarm of flies as she looked for the primary.
Tech had been aiming for a quick end; Sive was only just able to react fast enough to bend her knees and lean her upper body back to avoid the pointed end of the jackhammer he'd attempted to use to run her through with from behind. However, she was far from being in the clear; if anything, she was in more danger, as she only realized when the sharp hammer clipped her shoulder when she couldn't twist back fast enough, tearing through her shirt and breaking her skin. With a feeling of despair, she realized that her phase had failed right before the extended handlebars crashed into her so far uninjured shoulder, resulting in a hard impact on the ground.
Dazed from both the blow and the overextension, Sive didn't see as Tech, focused only on eliminating the perceived threat and unable to think of anything else, brought the hammer back around.
Fortunately, he never got the chance to use it.
A loud rush of wind was the only warning Tech got before being more or less tackled by a blue blur that moments later materialized into a familiar face.
"Tech-what-the-heck-are-you-doing-what's-wrong-wit h-you-why-are-you-attacking-Sive-SNAP-OUT-OF-IT!" Rev shouted into his friend's face, hands planted on his shoulders and vigorously shaking the thunderstruck coyote. Tech, not prepared in the least for the aerial attack, let out a high pitched yelp of surprise and jumped back as soon as he was released, looking at Rev as though he were a ghost and positioned as though ready to run away.
Rev, satisfied that his friend had sufficiently snapped out of whatever had been possessing him, left him in favor of zipping over to help Sive to her feet as she shook off the hit. It took her a moment to realize just who was assisting her, but once she did, she shook her head and blinked a few times to make sure that Rev really was there and not just a result of a head injury. It would have been an odd way to picture him, though; he looked rather disheveled, and was still in his natural blue-purple coloring. His clothes were another story; he'd obviously been in a hurry, judging by the scorching on the back of his once nice dress shirt and the edges of his sleeves and pants. She processed all this while Rev pulled her to her feet.
"Tech-looks-like-he's-back-I-think-but-are-you-oka y-Sive?" Rev asked quickly, not fully facing her as his gaze darted around between the two coyotes and two fights with the mice that was rapidly becoming one, taking in everything around him and trying to fill in what he'd missed.
Sive dumbly nodded, still trying to figure out what was going on as Rev, satisfied that the situation with the coyotes was cleared up, zipped off to where he was really needed with the mice. Tech and Sive, however, needed another moment to collect themselves and figure out what had just happened; Rev's whirlwind way of doing things left them with little time to ask him.
Sive, just to double check, looked over to Tech and was glad to see the yellow gone from his eyes. "If you're not hell bent on attacking everyone anymore, we should probably go help the others. The sooner we do, the sooner we can know the story with Rev."
Tech slowly nodded in agreement, forcibly stopping himself from reasoning out any more possible scenarios regarding Rev's presence; they were still in the middle of a battle, after all. Catching sight of Sive, though, he paused. "Uh, you alright?" he asked, noticing all the little cuts and dings about her person, and feeling immense guilt when he realized that it was him that had done that.
Sive thought for a moment, as though considering just how bad off she was, before experimentally kicking at the ground, pleased when her toes successfully phased through after the short reprieve before standing straight again. "Yep, I'm good," she replied, running off to join the others.
Tech rolled his eyes; that hadn't been what he'd meant at all. But, he didn't really have time to argue with her, and she would just brush him off anyway, he mused as he followed after her. Besides, now that Rev was there, he knew of a way to beat the mice.
xoxoxoxox
If things had been going downhill before Tech got hypnotized, they were drilling themselves into the ground after the fact. Slo-Mo had pulled out all the stops, throwing everything he had at the Loonatics; he even got a few opportunities to get some shots off at Duck. The mallard himself was having trouble keeping track of Jet; with how fast the mouse moved, he found it more and more difficult to throw eggs accurately, meaning he was unable to throw the miniature miscreant off course as often as he would have liked. Every time he quacked was a chance for Jet to quickly vacate the area while the mallard couldn't see him; having to avoid the laserfire from Slo-Mo only gave the speedster more opportunity to cover more ground. One more offensive from the two mice was all it would take for them to meet up again.
Of course, getting closer to each other had its disadvantages for the mice as well. Their proximity allowed Ace and Lexi to occasionally take potshots at Jet, and it was the same with Duck and Slo-Mo. Slam, too, was doing more to help Duck than with Ace and Lexi; he wasn't too keen on being forced to run into them again, and distancing himself from Slo-Mo made that less likely to happen.
Slo-Mo still stood more or less where he'd begun in the middle of the stone pathway, only occasionally taking a step to avoid being hit. Ace and Lexi were skilled enough to stay out in the open to combat him; Lexi, with her inherent gymnastic ability, was able to artfully dodge with flips and rolls, almost looking as though she were dancing some of the time; Ace, on the other hand, used his agility to dash out of the way for most of the shots, and the Guardian Strike Sword for the rest, doing his best to avoid his teammates while deflecting anything.
Slo-Mo had been favoring his slowing ability for the last leg of the fight, hence why Slam had stuck with Duck for the most part. Lexi and Ace, on the other hand, were forced to dodge each other's brain blasts and lasers as the mouse intermittently slowed them almost to a stop and released them back to full speed at no notice once an unfortunate rabbit had stepped into its range.
"Duck! Incoming!" Lexi shouted at the mallard as one of Ace's earlier shots was released, going over Slo-Mo's head and almost into Duck's; with Lexi's warning, he had enough time to hit the deck, the laser only just singing the feathers on the top of his head. This gave Jet a chance he'd been waiting for.
"Adios, tonto!(1)" Jet exclaimed, jumping up surprisingly high and using Slam's head as a landing platform to completely leap-frog over the bamboozled Tasmanian devil. Once he landed, he ripped away at full speed for his cousin.
Duck, fortunately, was only distracted for a moment; quacking into a different position, he launched an egg directly at Jet from the side. The mouse saw it coming and cut a quick U-turn, but Slo-Mo, too, acted on the attack meant for his cousin by hitting it with his slowing ability, the green light enveloping the egg and almost stopping it in mid-air. The quasi-impact broke open the egg in slow-motion, revealing that it was either a magma egg or one of the ones that just exploded.
Ace had noticed all these details, and wondered what Slo-Mo was doing; his cousin had been clear of the attack, and there was little to no chance of hitting a Loonatic when that particular projectile with that particular trajectory was released. It was fortunate he'd been paying attention to that little detail, or none of the Loonatics would have seen the danger. Almost at the same time as he stopped Duck's egg, Slo-Mo had released one of Lexi's earlier brain blasts, and only Ace noticed as it continued on its original course- right into Duck's egg.
"Look out!" he shouted, grabbing Lexi next to him and pulling her down to the ground. Duck, hearing his shout, instinctively quacked away; Slam, having been left behind after Jet vaulted over him and as such being slightly more out of the way than the others, felt that ducking behind a nearby bulldozer was safe enough.
The explosion from one of Duck's eggs normally wasn't much; coupled with a brain blast as a catalyst and the momentary containment of Slo-Mo's ability, it wasn't necessarily more powerful, but much more widespread, scorching the ground and emitting a bright, lasting flash of light. Though Slo-Mo had been the one to launch the attack, both mice had both somehow been prepared for it; the Loonatics had not. When all was said and done and they had collected themselves, Jet was sprinting for his cousin, little more than a brown blur in his bid to ensure their victory. Slo-Mo, taking into account just how fast Jet was moving, jumped at the right moment so as to land on his cousin's shoulders and take off. None of them would have been able to act fast enough to stop them.
Just as the two were about to reconnect, a blue blur entered the scene, clotheslining Slo-Mo in mid-air and tripping up Jet, sending Slo-Mo flying one way with the force of the newcomer's speed and Jet flying the other way with the force of his own, resulting in more ground being lost than they had gained in the last scrimmage. The Loonatics picked themselves up as their mystery helper came back around, stopping between the two mice to ensure that they would remain separated.
"Rev?!" Lexi exclaimed, voicing the collective disbelief of all her teammates as they took in the new presence.
"Hi-guys-sorry-I'm-late-but-you-know-how-it-is-aro und-here-traffic ," Rev said jokingly, waving his hand on the last word for emphasis.
"What are ya doin' here?" Ace asked him as the others caught up to the roadrunner, Tech and Sive not too far behind. "I thought your parents wanted ya ta quit?"
"Yeah-they-did-but-they're-not-right-in-their-acti ons-or-their-thinking-and-were-being-more-neurotic -than-usual-about-it-and-I-got-really-mad-and-blew -up-and-left-so-I'm-back!" Rev explained rapidly, sounding and appearing ecstatic at the prospect of returning before sobering. "That-is-I'm-back-if-you-guys-will-have-me-because -I-was-wrong-to-leave-in-the-first-place-because-y ou-guys-are-family-too-and-I-shouldn't-have-just-l eft-you-behind-when-you-really-needed-my-help-and- I'm-sorry-it-took-me-so-long-to-realize-it."
Lexi, of course, teared up at the display, wrapping the despondent roadrunner into a tight, comforting hug, and Slam quickly followed, not wanting to wait and simply sweeping them both up into a bone-crushing embrace. "Rev," Sive began, "we have all but gotten killed while you were gone; if you want to be back, then of course we're taking you- forcibly, if need be."
"Yeah," Lexi gasped out as Slam finally released them. "You can't just call us family and then expect us to kick you out!"
Rev looked like he was about to cry. "You-guys-are-great-you-know-that?"
"As much as I love hearing about how great I am," Duck interrupted, "we still have two mice to deal with."
Everyone immediately snapped to, some facing one mouse and some turning to the other. "I'm thinkin' we should revise our plan, seein' as da last one didn't really work," Ace suggested, gaze shifting between Jet, who was still trying to fully collect himself, and Slo-Mo who was taking an agonizing amount of time getting to his feet. "Got any new ideas, Tech?"
"We've been approaching these two backwards; what we really need to do is go for numbers on Jet to overwhelm him," Tech stated. "Rev is the ideal candidate to target Slo-Mo; he's fast enough that Slo-Mo won't be able to get a lock on him, and he'll be able to land some hits. I'll help him since Slo-Mo won't be able to do much with my abilities to trip up Rev. The rest of you, try to corner Jet; it won't be possible to physically hold onto him for long, so trapping him somehow is best."
"We'll figure dat part out," Ace replied, before some unspoken order was issued and the two teams simultaneously split up, rushing their respective targets. Jet, seeing the oncoming attack, jumped to his feet and attempted to circumvent the group; Duck appeared in his path as a deterrent, and Slam took off after the mouse in his attempt to flee. Lexi and Sive monitored, ready to launch an attack to keep him off his path when needed; with so many eyes on him, Jet had no escape unless he could miraculously clear a path through all of the Loonatics at once. Ace, meanwhile, looked around, searching for a way to trap the speedy mouse; like Tech had implied, holding onto him would have been like trying to hold onto a smaller and slower but still dangerously fast Rev when he didn't want to be stopped. It didn't take too long to spot something.
"Hey Sive, Lex!" he called, catching the girls' attention. "I got an idea!"
Jet was panicking. The success of their whole plan had revolved around the absence of that roadrunner; he could outdo them in speed by leaps and bounds. Considering how his cousin relied on having targets slow enough that he could keep up with, and how he himself relied on being faster than everyone to save his own hide, that one roadrunner could and would completely foil them; on top of that, they were still separated, a possibility they hadn't even considered. Now he was stuck with much more than he could deal with in the form of five-sevenths of the Loonatics' team, and his cousin was in just as deep with the remaining two.
Swerving to avoid the randomly appearing Duck, he almost ran right into Slam; as it was, he ended up running close enough to the purple tornado that the resulting wind made him almost lose his balance. Fortunately for him, Ace called the Tasmanian devil away before he could try doing anything while he was tripped up, only for him to run into Duck again; however, the electrical bolt that came up just short was the real problem, sending him tumbling back.
"I am really wishing I'd listened to Slo-Mo and got myself a gun!" he angrily grumbled to himself as he somersaulted once more to get to his feet, entering retreat mode and zipping away; for now, at least. He'd have to go back for Slo-Mo at some point, or his aunt would kill him herself. The Loonatics, however, had other ideas.
Quacking into his path yet again, Duck threw eggs at him as fast as he could make them, forcing Jet into a hard turn to the left. However, Ace was there waiting for him, giving one great swing with his sword to deter him from heading straight and a few lasers to force him left again. Sive and Lexi were there that time, putting him under so much fire, despite not wanting to go where they were leading him to, he had no choice but to make a hard right- only to have to break hard enough that the soles of his shoes started smoking to avoid running into a parked bulldozer.
With his stature, climbing over it wasn't an option, and turning around, he found that Duck had quacked in to help the girls form a wall, and Ace was rapidly approaching as well. He was stuck, but they didn't have him yet, and he figured they wouldn't get him like that; they would still have to physically catch him to stop him, and even then he could generate enough momentum to break any hold, even the Tasmanian devil's. Once they made a move forward, he could do like he did earlier and jump over them and weave between them to trip them up; it wasn't their style to land kill shots unless absolutely necessary, after all.
"You think you have me, don't you?" he asked, warily eyeing the Loonatics as he waited to make his move. "Well, you're wrong! No one can catch Jet-!"
Before he could finish his line, Slam, who had been standing on the other side of the motor, had climbed over to the right side of the bulldozer and trapped the small mouse inside of the barrel of the empty cement mixer Ace had told him to fetch earlier.
"Hey, who turned off the lights?!" the disgruntled rodent shouted, jumping around in an attempt to get the heavy piece of equipment to tip over so he could escape. It didn't look like it would work, but Duck quacked over the barrel and landed so he was sitting on top of it, just in case.
"Finally!" Lexi sighed in relief now that they had at least one mouse under wraps. "I was beginning to think we'd never catch him!"
"Yeah, but dere's still one more ta catch," Ace reminded her as they all turned to the still ongoing fight with Slo-Mo.
xoxoxoxox
The majority of the team ran off after Jet split, leaving Tech and Rev with Slo-Mo, who still didn't seem to want to move much, disinterestedly watching as his cousin ran off before shifting his gaze to the remaining Loonatics.
"I thought we'd taken care of you…" Slo-Mo mused to himself as he took in Rev's presence. His statement didn't get past Tech and Rev, both immediately wondering what that had meant. "No matter… I'll just have to deal with both of you before hightailing it out of here, si?"
Both Tech and Rev ducked behind a partially built reflective metal wall as Slo-Mo raised his gun and began firing at his unbelievable pace once again. "Uh-Tech?" Rev began as he finally began to get caught up with the situation. "Has-it-crossed-your-mind-yet-to-oh-I-don't-know-disarm-him?!"
"I tried, it's not magnetic," the coyote replied in a hurried voice, knowing that they could only sit idle for so long before Slo-Mo's seemingly endless patience ran out, "and we haven't been able to get close enough to take it from him."
"I-guess-I'll-have-to-do-that-then," Rev observed, preparing to run. "He-won't-be-able-to-keep-up-with-me-with-his-reac tion-time."
Tech's hand shot out, catching Rev's arm before he could dash away. "Yes, that's true- to a point. He can shoot fast enough that even you won't be able to react fast enough once you get close enough to him."
"You're-right," Rev agreed, taking note of how fast he'd been shooting at them earlier while relaxing his stance. "So-that-means-he-can't-see-me-coming-or-at-least- not-until-I'm-close-enough-that-he-won't-be-able-t o-react-fast-enough-to-do-anything."
"I could hold up some of these loose plates in front of us as the two of us approach him," Tech suggested, gesturing towards some of the plates for the wall that hadn't been welded in yet. "They could act as a shield, and you could jump out at the last minute."
"No-the-time-it-would-take-me-to-get-around-the-pl ates-is-enough-for-him-to-get-a-shot-off," Rev replied, immediately falling into their customary back-and-forth routine of the labs as though he'd never left.
"Then I'll just do that and hold up the other one as a dummy while you come in from behind."
Rev took a quick inspection of the plates before shaking his head. "They're-way-too-thin-to-offer-you-much-protection -and-whether-or-not-you-can-regenerate-it's-no-rea son-to-get-shot-up-but-you-have-something-with-me- flying-in-we-just-need-some-kind-of-distraction-so -he-won't-see-me-coming."
Tech nodded. "I could still use these plates; put them up around him, make a wall, move them around. It'll be like a house of mirrors. If I keep them moving, he'll be too disoriented to react when I lower the plates so you can fly in."
Rev nodded, preparing to run again, before pausing and looking back to Tech. "You-know-I-really-missed-doing-that."
Tech paused as well, smiling and momentarily clasping a friendly hand on Rev's shoulder. "Me, too. Sive's good, but she's no you."
They sadly did not have the time to have a moment, and Tech made as if to detach himself and run back out into the fray, when something occurred to him. "One quick thing- remember how we had thought that one of them could wipe minds based off of the bank security footage?"
Rev nodded. "Yeah-I-do-is-it-this-guy-should-I-watch-for-that? "
"Yes, it's Slo-Mo, but it isn't what we thought. It's why I was attacking Sive earlier; he can essentially hypnotize people just by looking at him. If you see a yellow flash, look away, get away, something, just don't let it get to you. It turns your eyes yellow and you don't act like yourself, and it can be incredibly difficult to snap someone out of it. Trying to catch you would be near impossible."
Rev nodded in understanding as Tech ran off, but he didn't immediately fly off. He felt as though he should have remembered something, something important… There was no time for that now, he concluded, rocketing out of their hiding place opposite from where Tech had gone and taking to the sky, making a wide arc before doubling back to give Tech plenty of time to distract the mouse.
The coyote, meanwhile, ran out of hiding and magnetically took all of the loose metal- more than a dozen 5x3 reflective steel panels- with him into the fray. Slo-Mo, who had begun to slowly walk towards the other Loonatics pursuing Jet, stopped his painfully slow trek and turned on the coyote, drawing his pistol and firing at him. Tech rolled to avoid the first couple of shots and sacrificed a panel to stop the last few, acknowledging how Rev had been right about their build as it almost instantly shattered like glass, melting around the points of impact, but altering the laser's trajectory enough that he escaped unscathed.
However, Slo-Mo did not have a clear line of fire for long. The magnetically floating panels flew in front of Tech, forming a long line of metal that sliced between the mouse and coyote before turning back, eventually forming a circle that continually spun around the mouse, leaving him with little more to look at than numerous broken reflections of himself and occasional views of Tech and the other Loonatics in the distance through the cracks. To make things even more confusing, Tech had some of the panels break ranks, forming two smaller circles that continually spun about Slo-Mo in different directions, showing more confusing images that ruined his depth perception.
Slo-Mo, usually calm and detached, began to panic. He relied on taking notice of everything around him, being able to make predictions of other's movements ahead of time so he could react fast enough. Now, though, he could see nothing, not even himself clearly in the rotating mirrors, and he knew he was in trouble. Left with few other options, he began wildly firing at the panels, trying to clear a path so he could just see. They shattered, and the magnetism stopped affecting them, Tech not sparing the mind power to continue moving the individual shards and instead allowing them to loudly clatter to the ground.
Slo-Mo had three layers of glass to break through, and wasn't thinking straight enough to time his shots correctly to do it quickly; he only broke through out of sheer luck, and the fact that Tech slowed his confusing rotation before laying all the panels flat so Rev could get to him. The roadrunner had seen which way the mouse had been facing from the air, and so had positioned himself correctly to swoop in from behind. Slo-Mo, in his panicked state, turned around much quicker than many would have thought him able, but was still too frazzled to fire at the oncoming roadrunner with any real aim. The shot went wild, hitting the ground before ever actually reaching Rev. It was the only one he could get off before the roadrunner reached him, grabbing hold of the mouse's gun and forcibly taking it. The barrel was still hot from all the use, so Rev had to drop it quickly to avoid burning himself; it landed far enough away that Slo-Mo could never reach it before Tech or Rev intercepted.
Tech stayed out of the way, watching in awe as Rev quickly got the best of the mouse that had been causing them trouble for weeks. Coming back around and traveling at amazing speeds, Rev began spiraling around Slo-Mo as the mouse, running out of options, began trying to lock onto him with his slowing ability. With each futile attempt, the green glow only wrapped itself around an empty space Rev had vacated moments before, getting closer and closer to its intended target but never actually reaching it as Rev rapidly approached. In a last ditch effort, Slo-Mo stopped trying to catch the roadrunner that way and waited, biding his time until he felt that Rev was close enough for his suggestion to take effect.
Unfortunately for the mouse, he was acting too little on his reasoning abilities to judge his timing correctly; the yellow glow had barely begun to spread before Rev finally reached him, grabbing onto one of the ends of his mask tied behind his head and spinning the mouse around by it for a few rotations before finally releasing him and dashing back to Tech, leaving a dizzy, disoriented mouse behind. His mask had displaced itself with the pull, blinding the mouse and rendering his suggestion ability useless, also leaving him unable to see where to aim his slowing ability.
By this time, Jet had been trapped, and the police, patiently waiting for the danger to be cleared, had entered the scene. One of them had taken the girls' spot keeping Jet inside the cement mixer, wondering just how to transport the slippery mouse without losing him in the process as the criminal in question swore profusely in two languages. Others, upon getting the immediate all-clear from Tech and Rev, moved in before Slo-Mo got his wits about him enough to think of loosing his mask, cuffing him as he slowly moved to do so.
"You're under arrest," one cop began, pulling out a pad to go over the numerous offenses the mice had committed.
Slo-Mo didn't bother listening, once he realized what had happened, and shrugged, going back to his apathetic self as he realized that the game was done and that he and his cousin would be going away for a very long time. "Que sera, sera," (2) he said as he was led away. "We will see what the future holds."
xoxoxoxox
The Loonatics were able to step back as the police moved in, and they were grateful for the chance to properly welcome Rev back, now that the shock of his sudden arrival was gone and the danger was no more.
Lexi and Slam both couldn't help but give the roadrunner more hugs, as did everyone else- even Duck gave him a quick, one-armed embrace while muttering about Rev's usual good timing. Tech, too, stoic as he usually was, gave Rev a hug to rival Lexi's in strength, glad to have his friend back. Sive, after giving her own welcome-back hug, questioningly inspected Rev's appearance.
"What?" Rev said defensively, looking himself over. He looked as though he'd just escaped from a burning building, based off his clothes. "These-aren't-fireproof-like-my-uniform-is…or-rath er-was."
"Is," Ace corrected, walking up and patting Rev on the shoulder. "I kept your uniform for ya, just in case. Like I said, there would always be a place for ya back at HQ. Speakin' a which, I gotta call Zadavia when we get back."
"After you get fixed up," Lexi asserted, pointing out a few of his minor injuries.
"Yeah," Ace agreed, looking at everyone else's haggard appearances, "we all look like we could do with a patch job. Except you two, of course."
Tech and Rev looked at each other before nonchalantly shrugging. "Regeneration and late arrivals have their advantages," Tech stated before looking around the quickly filling park. Police were still crawling around the area, now with intermingled construction workers and a rapidly growing population of reporters. "We should probably get out of here before we get cornered by the media, or we won't be able to get any medical attention for hours."
"Sounds like a plan. Let's jet, Loonatics," Ace said, leading the group down an alley and around a building to find a less populated area to take off from. However, they weren't expecting to run into anyone along the way.
"…I-know-it-souds-crazy-Rip-but-I-swear-that's-wha t-happened-and-I-don't-know-how-else-to-explain-it -and-I-know-that-it's-no-excuse-for-my-actions-but -it's-all-I-got-son-and-oh-Rev-there-you-are-we-we re-so-worried!" Ralph, only just appearing around the corner with Rip in tow, exclaimed as he dashed forward with a surprising amount of speed for one without superpowers and enthusiastically embraced his son.
"Pa…?" Rev began, staring confusedly at the back of his father's head (which was all he could see from the crushing hug) before looking to his brother for help. Rip, however, looked just as lost as his brother, looking at his father's back as though he were crazy and helplessly shrugging in a wordless response to his brother.
Ralph did not give his son much time for questioning, breaking into his own rapid speed rant only moments later while never letting go of his son. "RevI'msosorrybutIcouldn'tcontrolmyselfbecausewewe rehypnotizedbymiceandpleasedon'tthinkI'mcrazybutht hat'swhathappenedandweweresupposedtokeepyouawayfro mAcmetropolisandtheLoonaticsandthoughwedon'tentire lyapproveofthesituationwestilljustwantyoutobehappy andI'msorryIactedliketheworstparenteverand-"
The rest of the Loonatics, instead of trying to keep up with Ralph, turned to Rip for a translation. The youngest Runner only shook his head in lack of understanding. "After Rev left, it's like something snapped- whether it went into place or out of it, I have no idea. Either way, he's saying that some kind of magic mouse hypnotized both he and Ma into forcing Rev out of the team. If they were the type, I would wonder just what he's on right now." Rip turned to the Loonatics, expecting to see more looks questioning his father's sanity, but the mixed understanding and revelation alarmed him more than anything. "Oh, wait, don't you guys go telling me that he's making sense!"
"Sorry, Rip," Sive said consolingly, "but he is. In fact, it explains a lot."
"Have your parent's eyes been kinda…yellow lately?" Ace asked, drawing a groan from Rip.
"In what world does this make any sense…?" he muttered, frustratedly drawing a hand through his crest. "If I said 'yes', would that support whatever logic you're finding in this?"
"Let us catch you up," Lexi offered, drawing the younger Runner to the side. "And are both of your parents like this, or just him?"
"Pa got like this after Rev snapped at him," Rip explained. "Ma's still acting nutty. Pa has her locked in the backseat of the car right now until we 'figure out how to fix her, too.'"
"We can help with that," Tech stated, feeling very relieved. Knowing that Rev's parents wouldn't constantly dog him to quit the team again would save a lot of future grief.
Rev, meanwhile, was more used to his family's rapid talking rate, kept up with his father's tirade and was shocked to say the least. Gently pushing him away, both to free himself and try to get his father to stop talking for a moment, he was surprised to see Pa looking so upset. He looked hurt by what he supposed was a gesture of rejection from his son, and very self-deprecating based off of his earlier actions.
"…I'm so sorry, son," Ralph said softly, slowly, to really get the point across, slowly moving as though to step away from his oldest son.
Rev stopped him, still holding onto him but loose enough that they could still talk face-to-face, and gave him a soft, forgiving smile. "We-have-a-lot-to-straighten-out."
A/N: Well, that's about all I have to say. It's late where I am. I'm going to sleep now. And I have school tomorrow… Curse you Spring Break, and your inevitable end.
Please review!
(1) Goodbye, idiot!
(2) Whatever will be, will be. (Anyone who knows where this line is from watches good movies!)