New Kid On The Block

Chapter 17 – A Man Down

Hey everybody! Welcome to chapter 17 of New Kid On The Block. Hopefully I haven't taken TOO long to get this one out. As a treat for you guys this is a pretty long chapter, the longest so far in the story I think! As usual thanks for your reviews, they mean a lot :)

Loonaticslover13 – Once again thanks a bunch for your review, I love reading them. Oh really? I didn't know that :S do you know the name of that story? Or even just the name of the author so that I can let them know? I'd really appreciate it :). Yeah I know right! Writing the rest of this story is gunna be so weird without Tech! Im gunna miss that lovable mutt ;) And u will have to wait and see! Your guesses are very good though if u catch my drift ;) and im glad u like the AcexLexi moment, I know how much you love your Acexi! :D And thank you so much! Coming from you that means a lot :)

Sooo when we last left off the Loonatics had just been assigned a new mission to uncover the mystery of the missile and the anonymous planet. Sounds easy? Far from it! Not only is this mission clouded in mystery but our favourite anthros are a man down. But the show must go on for the Loonatics.

Enjoy guys :)

Rev looked sadly at Tech as he took his place next to his best friend. Tech was still in a deep coma, and although his health had been stabilised, the doctors still didn't know if the coyote would ever wake up. Rev and the others were trying to keep positive, but as the roadrunner gazed at his friend miserably, in his lifeless state, with various tubes and fluids running into him, the possibility that he might never see the coyote open his green eyes again seemed ever more likely as the days went by.

The toilet flushed in the bathroom not far from Tech's bed and there was a short pause before the door opened and out stepped Blaze. "Hey Rev…" he began as he looked around the room to see that Ace and the others were missing. "Where have the guys gone?" asked the tiger.

"They needed to head back to HQ… You know… To prepare for the mission…" replied Rev in a lacklustre tone. It wasn't often that Rev spoke at normal pace, it easy to see why this time though.

Blaze looked at his teammate sympathetically as he sat down next to Tech on the opposite side that Rev was. Blaze wasn't very good at the whole comforting words thing, but he figured that he needed to at least try and make his friend feel better. "Uh… you know Rev… I know Tech would want ya to be fired up before a mission… Not sad…" the tiger mentally slapped himself, probably wasn't the best thing he could have said.

Rev smiled at Blaze weakly. "Thanks Blaze." Thanked the roadrunner, still at a normal talking pace. "It's just… This is gunna be the first time I've gone on a mission without him…" the roadrunner continued as he gestured at the unconscious Tech. "It's not gunna feel right…"

Blaze nodded understandably at Rev's admission. They were both quiet for around a minute before Rev asked Blaze a rather painful question: "Have you ever had someone that you're so close to… Who you see as your family… And suddenly they're gone?" asked the hurt roadrunner, not even attempting to hide the fact that tears wear forming on the brims of his eyes.

This question took Blaze completely by surprise and for a while, he didn't know what to say. But then he looked down at the ring that hugged his middle finger. He read the name engraved on the golden band as he had so many times before: Kyra.

Blaze's mind was flooded with images of the girl who, growing up had been his best friend, and his first love. "Yeah…" was the tiger's short answer. Blaze smiled to himself as he remembered the beautiful tigress' gorgeous smile, her captivating icy blue eyes and messy brown hair done up into a ponytail with a light blue ribbon. But his fond memories turned to sad ones as he relived the last time he had seen Kyra.

There was silence in the room as both anthros were deep in thought. Blaze now spoke right from his heart: "Well…" he began, hesitating slightly. "From what I've experienced Rev…" he continued and Rev suddenly looked up to face him. "The best thing to do is to try not to think about it… I know it sounds hard to do, but you're not gunna feel any better by thinking about it the whole time… So just try to forget about it…" concluded Blaze. The anthro tiger realised that although he had said those words to Rev, he had mainly said them to himself.

Looking up, Blaze saw that Rev's head was bowed in sadness once again. Forgetting about the person he cared about may have been his way of dealing with the pain, reasoned Blaze, but it wasn't Rev's. The tiger now got up from his seat and made his way around to the depressed roadrunner. "But I'm sure Rev…" he began as he crouched down so that he was level with Rev "He'll be awake when we get back."

These comforting words had an immediate impact on Rev as he picked up his head and looked at Tech happily. "You're-right!" the avian exclaimed happily -his usual rapid tone returning suddenly- before turning to look at Blaze. "Thanks Blaze… You're a good friend" Rev admitted.

That was the first time Blaze had ever heard those words about him. He unleashed a cracking smile at his teammate before giving a curtly nod of acknowledgement. "Don't mention it mate… Now whadaya say we go and ace this mission?" Blaze suggested as he stood back up.

Rev sprang up from his chair, full of life once again. "You-got-it!" came his enthusiastic reply. "We'll-see-ya-when-we-get-back-buddy!" he added as he turned back to face Tech for a second. Both anthros then got up and left, but Rev had one last look back before leaving the coyote alone in the room.

-o-

CRASH!

"Slam! Ya clumsy oversized cushion! I told you to stop!" shouted Duck in his typical drama queen fashion. He and Slam had been shifting some new high tech gear (courtesy of Tech) from the coyote's lab to the ship. But lack of communication between the pair had resulted in them dropping the expensive gear.

Slam angrily stomped over to the mallard and looked down on him threateningly. "Hejida blubi raha utije li!" grumbled the Tasmanian Devil inaudibly.

"Whadaya mean I dropped it without warning you?! I said: "STOP"" retorted Duck as the argument heated up.

"No je dijint!" denied Slam.

"Yes I did!"

"NO JE DIJINT!"

"YES I DID!"

Ace had heard the two bickering like and old married couple and had come to see what the fuss was about and thankfully, he interrupted the two warring anthros before it came to blows. "Man, it's a good ting dat Tech aint here or you'd be dead meat Duck!" said Ace as he examined the dropped gear before eyeing Duck with a devious smile and cocked eyebrow.

Duck's beak dropped wide open, turning to face his leader in disbelief. He tried to defend himself but no words formed in his throat. He glanced nervously back to look at Slam, who was grinning at him smugly. There was only one thing for Duck to say: "You're all despicable!"

Ace chuckled to himself while shaking his head as he left Slam and Duck and carried on towards the large door leading to the hangar. He poked the entry code into the tab on the door and it flew open vertically. He wandered into the large hangar, which was full of pretty much all the Loonatics' transportation such as their bikes and a few ships. As he directed his gaze towards the ship they would be taking on this mission, he caught sight of Lexi who he knew was loading the ship with the supplies and gear. "Everyting going ok Lex?" asked the male bunny as he approached his friend.

Lexi looked up at her leader as she picked up a rather large food crate and instantly felt the effect of its weight. "Oh… Hey Ace… Just… Ugh!" she stuttered as she tried to get a firm hold of the giant box.

"Here lemme help ye with dat." suggested Ace as he reached out to help his struggling teammate.

But Lexi wasn't having any of it. "No no… Im fine chief!" she beamed as she finally got a solid grip on the crate and strolled up the ramp leading to the ship's cargo hold.

Ace watched her go, eyes full of fondness. How is she so damn amazing? He thought to himself. Lexi's feistiness and determination to prove that she could do any of the physical tasks the boys could was one of the biggest reasons why Ace had fallen so helplessly in love with the doe.

There was a loud thud followed by an "I'm okay!" from Lexi before she re-emerged and wandered down the ramp back towards Ace. "You know, it's insane how picky we've all become with our food!" she began with a laugh "Duck's obsessed with protein shakes, me and you love our fresh veggies, Blaze adores his chicken and mushroom pies (just like his creator ;)), Rev has to have about 20 different types of nuts and Slam… Well Slam will eat anything to be fair!"

Ace chuckled at his friend's observation. "Meh… Well considerin' dat we're saving the univoise almost every day, I tink we're allowed to be picky!" replied the buck with a wink which was met by a cute giggle from Lexi. "So, how's de packing goin'?" asked the leader.

Lexi had a brief glance around. "Looks like that was the last crate to go on." began the doe. "All that needs to be loaded now is that gear that Slam and Duck are bringing from Tech's lab, although by the sound of things, that's not going so well!" She observed as, with her excellent hearing, she picked up the sounds of the mallard and Tasmanian devil, still arguing.

"Yep! Not much of a surprise dere!" joked Ace. Suddenly his mind was drawn to other things and his mood changed. He began to wander around the hangar, deep in thought.

Lexi took note of her leader's odd behaviour. "Everything okay chief?" she asked sceptically.

Ace nodded in reply, without looking up.

Lexi had known Ace long enough to know that he wasn't okay. She walked over to intercept him in his aimless wandering. "C'mon Ace, you know you can tell me anything. What's bothering ya?" she asked.

Ace remained silent for a moment, but finally spilt the beans. "It's just… Everyting about dis mission feels wrong Lex…" he began as the doe listened on intently. "De missile, de fact dat apparently dis planet doesn't exist, a couple of us are still injured from de last mission… And we don't have Tech…"

Lexi knew exactly how Ace felt, because she felt the same. It was too soon… They weren't ready for this mission…

Despite his doubt, Ace's sense of leadership returned as he noticed Lexi's worried expression. "Oh well… It's probably just me bein' paranoid. We'll be fine… After all we're de loonatics right?" encouraged Ace, trying in vain to banish his doubt and ease Lexi's obvious worry.

Ace had so much going on right now, and as his second in command, and the person that cared about him more than anyone, Lexi wanted to try and help ease his discomfort as much as possible. "Exactly!" she assured, trying to keep a straight face.

There were a few awkward moments of neither of them knowing what to say. "Whadaya say we go help the guys?" suggested Lexi, breaking the deadlock.

Ace smiled at his friend. "Good plan." And with that, both the bunny's wandered off to join their teammates.

Late that night…

A large bead of sweat ran down the side of Blaze's face before dripping off his jaw and landing with a silent splash on the training room floor. The tiger made somersaulting look easy as he dodged a cannon blast with a backflip. Around a dozen simulated robots ran at him with mindless suicide and with a furious flurry of deadly punches, kicks and swipes, all of them were destroyed.

Blaze inhaled deeply, regaining his composure as his heartbeat slowed back to a regular pace. Although he should've been sleeping considering that the mission was tomorrow, Blaze was still recovering from his ordeal in space and he wanted to make sure he was in as good a shape as possible. He was about to call it a night when suddenly the training room door opened and both Ace and Lexi strolled in.

The two bunnies didn't notice Blaze at first but Lexi's super hearing picked up Blaze's footsteps coming towards them. Startled, she darted around to face whatever it was that was coming towards them, expecting an intruder of some kind but she relaxed as she caught sight of Blaze. "Jeeesus Blaze you scared the hell outta me!" admitted the doe as she chuckled light-heartedly.

"Haha my bad." apologised the tiger as he joined the two bunnies. "I just wanted to do a couple of hours training before tomorrow." He admitted as he opened the training room's fridge and pulled out a bottle of juice. He twisted the cap off before thirstily gulping down half the contents. "Looks like you guys had the same idea."

Ace nodded. "Me an' Lex aint great sleepers when dere's a mission de next mornin'." The male bunny clarified as he took out his Guardian Strike Sword and inspected the ancient blade.

Lexi continued Ace's explanation herself. "And so we usually train for most of the night, it actually gets us really psyched up for the mission right Ace?"

"Sure does! As if we didn't kick evil's butt enough already!" the leader of the Loonatics joked in response.

Blaze smiled at the two bunnies. It was great that the two of them were so dedicated to what they did, thought the tiger. I guess the fact that they're mad for eachother kinda helps he reasoned humorously. "Sounds like a good plan!" he smiled before finishing off his juice and flicking the bottle into the bin. "Anyway I'll let u guys get on with it." Blaze said as he picked up his towel and wiped his sweat covered face.

Ace and Lexi looked at eachother and nodded. "Do you wanna train with us Blaze?" suggested Lexi.

"Na you guys go ahead" he told reassuringly with a smile. "I've been training for the last two hours anyway."

"C'mon man! It'll be fun! We can do round-robin duelling." argued Ace, trying to persuade the tiger.

Blaze stared at Ace with utter confusion. What the heck is that? He thought to himself.

Lexi read his face like a book. "Round-robin duelling means two of us go head to head, first one to land a hit on the torso or face, stays on and faces the next one of us and the cycle keeps repeating." clarified the doe.

An enormous grin spread across Blaze's richly coloured face. The competitive fire in his heart started to rage at the thought of this game. "Let's do it."

Blaze sat down for a moment to regain his breath while Ace and Lexi stretched. "You guys go first, I need a rest!" he said breathlessly.

Both bunnies nodded at him and moved to middle of the room to take their fighting stances. "I'm gunna smoke ya Lex." joked Ace with a cheeky wink.

Lexi giggled. "Not a chance chief!" she answered light-heartedly.

Both bunnies remained frozen in their stances smiling evilly at eachother, eyes locked, daring the other to make the first move. Ace broke the deadlock, taking a step forward before launching a vicious sideways kick at Lexi's torso. The doe blocked the attack with her forearm and counter attacked, rushing forwards and aiming a punch at Ace's chest. But the buck dodged out of the way, regained his balance and swung another kick. This time it was aimed higher at Lexi's head, but the pink coloured bunny was too fast. She ducked and rolled sideways in one brilliant and athletic movement before putting distance between her and Ace by doing a series of backward summersaults, credit of her history as a cheerleader. She landed as gracefully as a dove and grinned at her leader mockingly. "Oh come on chief! I know you're better than that!"

Ace smiled at her coolly. "You aint seen nothin' yet… doll!" he taunted playfully, using the one name he knew Lexi HATED being called.

Lexi's eyes suddenly turned pink. "Oh no… You did NOT just call me that Ace!" complained the doe, playing along with the banter. "You realise of course this means war… Doc!" she retorted mischievously.

"Oh it's on now!" chuckled Ace as his eyes turned yellow, he sprinted full pelt towards the waiting Lexi.

Blaze watched intently as the two bunnies battled it out, trying to land a hit on eachother. They were so evenly matched noted the enthralled tiger, there was hardly any difference between the two of them. I guess that's what happens when you train together almost every day…

Blaze noticed that despite the fact that they were extremely similar in skill, both Ace and Lexi had their strengths. Ace was stronger, and could throw a bigger variety of moves at Lexi because he had been doing martial arts all his life. But Lexi was faster and more acrobatic because she was a dancer. It was these strengths that eventually had to be the difference between the two bunnies reasoned Blaze.

After a couple of minutes of fast and furious fighting, the critical first blow was finally struck. After two minutes of intense combat, Lexi started to notice that Ace's swings and strikes were getting slower and less frequent. He's tiring! Thought the doe jubilantly. This was her chance…

All Lexi needed was for Ace to leave himself vulnerable and she would strike, and that moment finally came… Ace suddenly stumbled backwards in apparent fatigue as he pulled back for a heavy swing at Lexi. The doe pounced on this moment of weakness, lunging forward with a deadly fist aimed between Ace's eyes. But as she lunged, Ace suddenly and miraculously regained his balance and grabbed her fist with his own hand. Lexi's eyes opened wide in shock and realisation. He tricked me!

Ace flashed his white teeth with an evil grin, he had her now. Lexi was completely stunned with shock at having been fooled; she was in big trouble…

Ace finally ended the brilliant duel by yanking Lexi towards him by the fist he had caught, pulling her off balance and at the same time, he drove forward with a powerful punch, smashing into her stomach.

Lexi felt the air rush out of her lungs as Ace's fist connected. She gasped as her legs buckled and she collapsed to the floor, but before she could hit the ground, she was scooped up by Ace's arms. The buck helped her to stand back up as their eyes met. "Nice duel dere Lex, ya almost had me a few of times!" commended Ace, impressed as ever at how skilled his female counterpart had become in the two years he had known her.

Lexi took a couple of seconds to compose herself and allow oxygen to flow back into her lungs. "Yeah nice one chief." she smiled happily. "Clever trick you did there!" she said admittedly. Although disappointed that she lost, Ace was the one person she didn't mind being beaten by. He was the one that taught her all she knew after all, and although she was basically his equal now, she still viewed him as her superior… just. Training with Ace was one of the things she enjoyed most, ever since her life had been changed by the meteor.

Ace smiled at her compliment. "Danks Lex. You've gotten so good dese days, I have ta improvise!" he admitted proudly.

Lexi smiled shyly at her leader's commendation. "Thanks Ace… I'll make sure I get you next time though!" she called back jokingly as she walked over to where Blaze was sitting.

Blaze glared at her, clearly impressed. "Bloody hell! I can't believe how good you are Lexi!" he beamed as he handed her a drink from the fridge.

"Haha thanks! That's what two years of hard training does to a girl!" she joked as she accepted the bottle from the tiger. "Your turn Blaze." Said the sweating bunny as she took a swig from her bottle. "Do me a favour and kick his ass." She mischievously added.

Blaze chuckled as he stood up from his chair and stretched. "I'll do my best." he promised before making his way over to join Ace.

"Nice fight there mate." Blaze admitted as he chucked a bottle of water at Ace. "Pulling a fast one on a girl though, that's low even for you!" he said sarcastically with a chuckle.

Ace grinned and squirted some of the water into his mouth. "Haha, but Lex aint no ordinary girl so it's fine!" was his defense as threw the bottle on the floor behind him.

Blaze laughed, not only at the humour tinted in Ace's remark but the fact that it had blatantly shown his affection for Lexi. "Okay, you ready?"

Ace nodded with a strange determination. "You bet I am, been waitin' a long time for dis." The bunny admitted as he stretched his muscles. "I still have ta pay ye back for de beatin' ya gave me when we foist met!" he added.

Blaze recalled the events of when he had first met the Loonatics. The worry and the confusion he had felt, the feeling of being backed into a corner with no way out, but most of all he remembered the epic fight he had with Ace. "Oh yeah… I don't think I ever mentioned how much I enjoyed kicking your tail in did I?" he smiled jokingly as he adopted his trademark fighting stance.

"Haha, you're going down tiger…" threatened Ace as he took his own stance.

There was a Mexican standoff as the two male anthros circled eachother, the tension increasing more and more with every passing second. This time it was Blaze who made the first strike. He dashed forwards with lightning speed and threw a punch at the unprepared Ace. The bunny managed to hop backwards just in time to avoid the attack. Blaze was now vulnerable and Ace tried to take advantage of this by going on the attack. He rolled forwards and swiped a kick at Blaze's undefended legs, but the tiger simply jumped to avoid the kick and did a backflip before landing solidly on his feet.

Ace gave Blaze no time to think as he launched another assault, this time with an incredible variation of attacks. Ace hoped that his vast variety of moves would overwhelm Blaze and leave him an opening to land a blow, but the tiger blocked or dodged every single one of them.

Ace eventually backed off as he began to feel himself tire. He took a few tentative steps backward in order to give himself some space, remaining on guard in case Blaze counter attacked. Blaze's biggest strength in combat was definitely his unbelievably quick reflexes. Ace was left flabbergasted that the tiger had managed to fend off every single one of his attacks. I've got te let him attack me now… If I do all de attackin', I'll exhaust myself and then I'll be easy pickings. Ace's reasoning was definitely sound, so he now waited for Blaze to make the next move. The bunny prepared himself for an onslaught as Blaze began running at him…

Off to the side, Lexi watched in complete awe as the duel went on. She was amazed that neither of them had landed a hit yet. They're both so fast! It's making my head hurt! She thought incredulously. It really was a thrilling and entertaining contest. Both Ace and Blaze were constantly sharing the roles of attacker and defender, trading punches, swipes, kicks, and flips all over the place. It could not have been any closer.

The intense fighting raged on for well over 5 minutes, neither of them tiring, neither of them giving in. But eventually, both of them began to feel fatigue kick in. Their punches became more lumbering, their dodges slower, their blocks less efficient, and their breathing heavy. Both of them began to wince in pain as lactic acid seeped into their tired muscles. Even though the two Loonatics were the very definition of the word fitness, it was impossible for their stamina not to dwindle after such intense fighting. The question now, was who would break first?

The answer to that question was finally decided...

Ace could feel every fibre in his body aching, but he refused to give up. He had to end it now… He pulled back and shot an arrow straight punch at Blaze. If he had been facing anyone other than the tiger, Ace's punch probably would've connected. But even in his exhausted state, Blaze's lightning quick reflexes didn't fail him. He smoothly dodged to his left as Ace's fist flew by. My turn. In a fast and brilliant movement, Blaze brought his left leg up and smashed his heavy boot into Ace's shoulder, his bad shoulder, knocking his leader sideways. Ace groaned in agony as pain shot up his arm from the blow. Blaze had held back from kicking Ace's shoulder with full force to prevent hurting him too badly, but he still felt bad exploiting Ace's injury. But it was the bunny's only weakness and in battle, weaknesses have to be taken advantage of. Blaze finally finished it by spinning round and using his other leg to deliver a mighty heel kick to Ace's side. The bunny collapsed to the ground, clutching his afflicted shoulder, it was over…

Blaze immediately knelt to the ground to help his leader. "Sorry about that Ace, you okay?" he asked concerned.

Ace chuckled light-heartedly, although the initial blow had hurt his shoulder, the pain was rapidly vanishing. "I'm better dan ok Blaze! Dat was one of de best fights I've ever had!" he exclaimed as he stood back up.

Blaze inwardly sighed with relief, glad that Ace wasn't visibly mad at him for taking advantage of his injury. "Yeah, it was pretty awesome!" He admitted, still buzzing with adrenaline. He had thoroughly enjoyed that fight. Having Ace as an opponent was great because their fighting styles were very similar, and he could push the tiger to the limit of his capabilities. "Sorry about the…" he apologised, gesturing to Ace's shoulder.

"Forget about it." waved off Ace with a smile. "It was a great end to a great fight. Just don't be surprised if next time I kick ya in de balls!" he added jokingly. The two of them laughed as Lexi came over and joined them with drinks and towels.

The three friends continued training well into the night. Even though they were insanely tired, they didn't care because they were having so much fun. By the time they had been forced to stop -because they were literally in pain from all the intense fighting-, they had all won roughly the same amount of duels. They had now been sat down for the last couple of hours, laughing about the night's events and generally talking when the training room door suddenly whooshed and in stepped Slam, Duck and Rev.

"Hey-you-guys! We-were-wondering-where-you-where! Well-to-be-honest-I-kinda-had-a-sneaky-suspicion-y ou-guys-would-be-in-here-but-Slam-and-Duck-weren't -sure-and-while-I'm-on-that-subject-haha-you-two-I -was-right-but-anyway-back-on-subject, here-you-are!" blabbered Rev as all the others just stared at him blankly.

"Jeez have you guys been in here all night? What a bunch of dorks! Why would you wanna spend all night training when you could be getting beauty sleep like me?" asked a smug Duck, his remark was naturally met by scowls all around.

But as usual, Lexi had a witty comeback. "Because number 1: We want to train so that we don't get our sorry butts kicked on this mission and number 2: You're the only one on the team who actually needs beauty sleep Duck…"

Ace, Blaze, Slam and Rev all gave the humiliated Duck a grin that said: "you just got destroyed!"

"Yebiye bablu niada!" exclaimed Slam as he pointed at the digital clock mounted on the wall.

Ace's eyes widened. "Eight thoity nine? Damn we should be up in space and on our way right now! Alright gang, quick breakfast and den we gotta jet!"

They were all making their way towards the door when Blaze sniffed his armpit and grimaced. "Maybe a quick shower might be a good idea too chief!"

Ace sniffed the air and caught a powerful whiff of BO. "Sounds like a plan. Let's move!" he laughed.

All of them filed out of the training room. Rev, Duck and Slam all rushed to the kitchen for breakfast, while Ace, Lexi and Blaze all dashed to their rooms for a much need shower.

So there we go guys! I personally really enjoyed writing this chapter so I hope you folks enjoyed the fruits of my labour. :)

Soo, I'm not really sure when the next chapter will be up, hopefully within the next 3 weeks so please be patient! :)

Pretty pleeease review this chapter guys, I'd really appreciate it. Over the last few chapters my reviews have kinda fallen off a bit and I know that's bound to happen with a long story like this one and I know I should be happy that im getting reviews at all but it really is awesome to hear what you guys think of the story so pleeease leave a review! Thanks guys :)

As a final note I'd like to say a massive thanks to Keeanga for the awesome drawing she did for me of Blaze (Which is now the cover for this story) :D

Thanks again guys.