New Kid On The Block
Chapter 18 – Into The Unknown
Hello fellow fanfictioners! It has been a long time! But I have returned! Aha, anyway hey guys, sorry that it's been a while, classic case of life having to take precedence over hobbies I'm afraid. But anyway, on with the story! It's long overdue, but here's chapter 18 of New Kid On The Block. Hope you enjoy! :)
It had been 3 days since the Loonatics had set off into space once again from Acmetropolis, not knowing where they were really going. It had been an uneventful flight, with the Loonatics just finding things to do to pass the time. That combined with Ducks constant whining and complaining had made the time go agonisingly slowly. But according to Rev, they weren't far away now…
"Guys… I'm gunna KILL someone if I don't get off this ship soon!" screeched Duck in an agitated voice as he paced around the ship.
"SHUT UP DUCK!" came the unified response of his teammates.
"I swear if I hear one more stupid complaint from you Duck, I'm gunna seal that beak shut with super glue!" threatened Lexi angrily as she pulled her ears. Slam glanced at the doe, a slightly frightened expression spread on his face. And Lexi wasn't finished "Just stop being such a baby before you turn the rest of us crazy as well!"
Ace grabbed Ducks shoulders and gave him a firm shake. "Duck, how many more times will we have te tell ye, we will be der SOON!" assured Ace. But Duck just looked away grudgingly.
Ace then wandered over to Rev –who was piloting the ship in Tech's absence- and sat down next to the roadrunner. "Seriously do Rev… We'll be dere soon right?"
Rev briefly examined the readings on the computer in front of him. "Should-be-skipper! If-these-readings-are-correct-and-theres-no-guaren teeing-that-they-are, we'll-be-at-those-co-ordinates-in-3-to-4-hours." was Rev's reply.
"Good." Ace scratched his chin thoughtfully "Den we'll finally see what all de fuss is about…" he thought to himself out loud.
Blaze unexpectedly then slumped into the chair next to Ace and gave a large yawn "Mornin' guys… Or is it evening?" he chuckled light-heartedly. Due to it always seeming like night in space, Blaze could never tell the difference between night and day.
Ace grinned, understanding his friends' confusion. "Good sleep?"
Blaze nodded "Best I've had in 3 days." The tiger admitted "Would've been longer too…" he added cheekily before giving Lexi a quick glance.
It took Ace a couple of seconds to realise what Blaze meant. "Yeah, she was having a go at Duck for moaning about not bein' dere yet."
Blaze smiled at this while stretching "Sounds about right!" he beamed. "For once I can sympathise with Duck though, I could do with getting off this ship now too." He added admittedly.
Ace nodded in agreement "Same here mate, same here. But since none of us have de power te fast forward time, we're stuck here!"
-o-
The ship was silent for a while as the minutes slowly ticked by. But the calm was suddenly interrupted. Across the room, the microwave went ding! and everything suddenly vibrated as the gang heard a familiar word uttered from a certain Tasmanian Devil: "PIZZA!"
The floor shuddered as Slam padded towards the smoking appliance which contained his prize. He fiddled with the controls for a moment before the microwave's door popped open. Slam's senses melted as he deeply inhaled the heavenly cheesy aroma that greeted him. He reached in and pulled out the steamy pizza, grabbed a piece, and shoved it into his mouth.
Lexi stared at her large friend bemusedly. "Uh… Slam?"
The Tasmanian Devil slowly turned to face the doe, his mouth stuffed with pizza. Lexi chuckled at his innocent expression. He looked like a mouse that had been caught stealing cheese from the fridge. "That's your third pizza in like 2 hours! Everything okay big guy?" she asked amused, but also slightly concerned.
Slam gulped down the contents in his mouth before trudging over to sit down next to Lexi. "Yebi, Iba joh babydi." He mumbled to his friend with a sigh.
Lexi nodded in agreement and patted her teammate on the shoulder. "I know Slam, I'm bored too…" admitted the doe. She gazed into space out of one of the ships large windows. Why can't time go faster?
-o-
3 hours later…
"Checkmate!" chided Lexi coolly as she moved her Knight into position.
Blaze examined the chess board for a few moments before throwing his arms up in resignation. "I give up! You're just too good Lexi!" he admitted with a puff.
The pair had been playing chess for 2 and a half hours now, each game being longer than the next. The first few games hadn't even been a contest as Lexi had wiped the floor with Blaze. But the last few rounds, the tiger had been a worthy opponent and Lexi had had to work hard. But the winner had still always been the same.
Lexi beamed as she began to replace all the pieces to their starting positions. "You're definitely no slouch though Blaze!" She commended.
Blaze used to play a lot of chess when he was in the orphanage as a kid, he had become very good and despite being rusty, he had been confident when Lexi had asked him to play. But nothing could have prepared him for the skill and co-ordination that his female teammate had brought to the table.
"Thanks Lexi." he smiled at her flattery "I'm clearly nowhere near as good as you though! How the hell did you get this good?"
Lexi shrugged "The result of playing chess for hours and hours with Tech!" she replied as she stashed the board back in the cupboard. "As you can imagine, he's amazing at it! I just kept playing and playing him, refusing to give up until I beat him!" she continued on as she sat back down on her chair and put her legs up. "And then one day I finally beat him! Although I'm pretty sure he let me win, no matter how much he denies it!"
Blaze cracked a smile at Lexi's story. "That's awesome! I'm gunna have to get Tech to teach me when…" Blaze stopped mid-sentence. The others were once again reminded of the fact that one of their friends was millions of miles away in the other direction in a coma. The general mood in the room became tinged with sadness. Blaze tried to lighten the blow by changing what he was originally going to say "Uh… When we get back…"
-o-
Up until now, Tech hadn't been on Rev's mind that much as the roadrunner had been focussed on being the ships pilot, but now his thoughts returned to his stricken best friend. But Rev's attention was suddenly drawn away from Tech when he noticed a red and yellow flashing on the computer in front of him. Rev's eyes widened as he read it aloud to himself: "Unknown-Planet-Identified…"
The others all spun around to look at Rev, wanting to make sure they'd heard the roadrunner correctly. "Uh… I-think-we're-in-business-guys!" he called as he leaped out of his seat slightly.
The rest of the team rushed over to join Rev, so they could see for them self what the flashing writing said. "Bingo! Dat's it team!" confirmed Ace. They all shared sly grins; their 3 day wait was over.
Behind them, Duck jumped into the air with gusto. "FINALLY!" he cried. The others had hardly ever seen the mallard so happy before, but they understood how he felt.
"How long 'til we get a visual Rev?" inquired Ace.
Rev frantically tapped the keyboard in front of him "2-minutes-tops-chief!" rambled the roadrunner, looking more alive than he had in days.
"Right, let's buckle up guys!" came Ace's order, which was immediately obeyed by the rest of the team as they ran to their seats.
Duck hopped into his seat like a child getting on a ride at the fair. He couldn't contain his joy that something out of the ordinary was finally happening. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh b-″ Duck suddenly stopped when he realised that his teammates were all staring at him, with raised eyebrows.
Ace carefully scanned out in front of the ship, but he could pick out nothing except the countless number of stars dotted all around.
"See-anything-chief?" questioned Rev as he joined Ace in staring out at the endless reaches of space in front of them.
Without looking away, Ace shook his head. "Nuttin' but space and stars…" he admitted with an irritated edge to his tone. "What're de readings sayin'?"
"We're-very-close… Unless-the-readings-are-incorrect-which-I-really-r eally-really-hope-they-aren't, we-should-be-able-to-see-this-place-by-now…" replied Rev as he monitored the screen in front of him.
-o-
The moments ticked by but there was still nothing. The same as the others, Blaze's attention was fixated on searching the stars for anything unusual, when he suddenly heard a light tapping coming from somewhere.
"You hear that Blaze?" asked Lexi who had turned to look at him. Her super hearing had clearly picked the tapping up too.
Blaze silently nodded to her. He was about to question what it was when the tapping started to become louder and more frequent.
The others had picked it up too now. They looked around, confusedly trying to find the source of the noise. "Hey-guys-look!" called Rev, surprising everyone. He was pointing at the ships windows, little chunks of something were showering into the thick panes of glass.
"Ikie!" grunted Slam.
Ace nodded in agreement. "I tink Slam's right. Dey're ice particles…"
"Rrrrright!" called Rev vibrantly "Which-means-only-one-thing! We're-entering-the-gravitational-pull… Of-a-planet!"
Realisation hit them all and they once again looked outside the ships windows, scouring around for any sign of a planet. But there was still nothing… What the heck is going on they all wondered.
Duck turned to Rev and gave him a very sour look. "Ya wanna clean your specks over there Rev ol' buddy? Cos I don't know about you but I don't see no planet!" the mallard was clearly fed up.
"Give it a rest Duck" retorted Lexi, lightly slapping Duck's arm.
Duck was right though. There was still absolutely no sign of any planet…
A minute later…
Ace had left his chair and was wandering around the ship aimlessly, trying to make some sense of the situation. The others were milling about in their seats, unsure of what to do when the ship suddenly jerked violently. Ace was flung like a rag doll across the ship and slammed into one of its solid metal walls.
The other spun around, alarmed by the abrupt crashing sound. Ace groaned loudly as he got back on his feet to see the others looking at him.
"Uh… You okay Ace?" Blaze asked on behalf of all of them.
Ace made the OK sign with his hand. "Tink a few of me vital organs might have switched places do…" joked the buck as he trudged back to his seat. "Okay, so what de heck caused dat jolt Rev? questioned the bunny once he had fastened himself back into his seat. The expressions of the others showed that they were equally puzzled.
"Well… You're-not-gunna-believe-me-guys…" began Rev "But-I-think-we-just-entered-the-atmosphere-of-a-p lanet!" added the roadrunner.
"Oh for crying out loud Rev! There's no planet around here! Look out that window! Do you see a planet? Cos I sure as hell don't!" ranted an unimpressed Duck.
"I'm-serious-Duck!" Rev retorted "These-readings-show-a-temperature-rise-of-almost- 1000-degrees-and-still-rising!" he said as he tapped the computer screen. "The-only-logical-cause-of-such-a-temperature-rise -is-that-we've-enterred-a-planets-atmosphere!"
The others were unconvinced but Rev had to have been right, because what other cause was there?
Lexi scratched her head. "It makes no sense though… Is this some kind of invisible plan-″ but she was cut off by happened next…
-o-
Like the snap of a finger, the endless blackness of space disappeared and was replaced by an incredible sight; beautiful, crystal clear water stretching out in every direction and in the middle of it, a large landmass, covered in rich greenery.
Jaws dropped like a sack of potatoes and eyes sprung out of their sockets as the alarmed Loonatics took in the breath-taking sight.
"Okay… sooooooo what the hell just happened?" asked a mesmerized Duck, but his question was met with no answer as his teammates were too shocked to form any words in their mouths.
"Heji da bugeba?" mumbled Slam.
Ace shook his head "Meh… I don't tink dis is heaven Slam…"
-o-
A couple of minutes passed as the Loonatics continued to stare in disbelief at what they were beholding. "Okay… so it looks like we are on a planet after all…" reasoned Lexi, who had snapped out of the trance.
"Seems dat way…" agreed Ace. "Whadaya tink Rev?"
But Rev was still captivated by this new world that had appeared out of nowhere. Blaze lightly slapped his arm. "Rev! Wakey wakey pal!" the tiger called.
The roadrunner finally came back to them "Hu…Wh…Uh-sorry-what?"
They all deliberated on what had happened for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do next. "Okay… I tink it'll be a good idea if we start by landing dis ting, stretch our legs and den start sniffin' around a bit." Suggested Ace. The others all seemed to be in agreement. "Right, how's about we try te land on dat Island down dere Rev." said the buck as he pointed at the large landmass, thousands of metres below them.
"Gotcha-chief!" obeyed Rev enthusiastically. He now switched to the manual controls and put the ship into a dive down towards the island. But not long after he had done this, disaster struck…
Out of nowhere the ship juddered vigorously, shaking everything and shutting off the engine, as well as the rest of the electrics.
"Uh-oh…" said Slam, for once saying something understandable.
This wasn't good…
"Eh… Rev? What just happened?" inquired a worried Ace.
Rev was frantically hitting buttons on the panel in front of him. "The-ship's-engine-and-electrics-have-completely-s hut-down. I-don't-know-what's-going-on-guys!"
"Can't you get it going again Rev?" asked Lexi as she joined her friend in tapping buttons on the control panel.
Rev simply shrugged his shoulders, seemingly powerless to do anything. "Nothing-is-responding-at-all, for-some-reason-the-electrics-have-completely-died !"
This wasn't good at all… They were thousands of metres in the air, diving fast, and with no power… They needed a plan…
"Okay guys, dere's only one ting for it." said Ace as they all turned to face their leader.
Duck's eyes widened. "Don't you DARE say what I think you're gunna say Ace!" the mallard reacted, shaking his head rapidly.
Ace nodded "We gotta jump…"
They were all taken aback for a moment, but realised that jumping was better than staying on the ship and crashing! "Oh great…" Duck moaned with disdain "Guess I'm gunna be a scrambled Duck!"
Lexi rolled her eyes "We'll be fine Duck, we've got jetpacks remember?"
Duck's expression relaxed as he remembered this. "Oh… right. So what are we waiting around for? Let's get outta here!" he panicked.
They all promptly did so. They made their way to the cargo hold at the rear of the ship, but with a lot of trouble due to the fact that the ship was in a steep dive. Once there, they had all strapped on their jetpacks and where ready to go.
"You guys ready?" called Ace as he examined them all. There were nods all around, so he punched the button to open the rear door. There was a loud, crashing roar as the door jarred open and air wooshed into the hold.
But as they waited for the door to open; "Umm guys?" shouted Blaze over the crashing of the air.
The others turned to the tiger and their attention was immediately drawn to his outstretched hand, which was holding the joystick that controlled his jetpack. His thumb was continually pressing the on/off button, but nothing was happening…
At seeing this, their faces dropped and they all started to press their start buttons as well, with the same result. "Great! So the jetpacks aren't working either now?! We're so dead!" screamed Duck, who started hyperventilating.
The others were all speechless, not knowing what to say or do. But thankfully, Blaze had a sudden brain wave. "Ace!" he shouted as the roaring got louder, the bunny looked at him. "Is there anything like some parachutes on the ship?"
Flashback…
Ace wandered around the cargo hold of the brand new ship. Tech had designed and built it all by himself and the result as usual had been brilliant.
"Tech, once again you've out-done yourself!" Ace grinned to his friend.
Tech nodded appreciatively to his leader. "She's the best I've built yet chief. Fast, agile, perfect for accommodating the team and any gear on long flights," bragged the proud coyote "and as solid as a rock." He added as he tapped the wall of the ship.
Ace gave a large smile, ecstatic with his teammate's work. He opened one of the metal cupboards, expecting to find a variety of some of Tech's high-tech gismos inside, but was surprised when he found several plain-looking backpacks hung up.
Ace took one out and examined it curiously. "Tech, what do we need parachutes for when we've got jetpacks?" the bunny inquired, confused.
Tech chuckled as he joined Ace at the cupboard. "Well, I can't believe I'm saying this Ace… But you can't always rely on technology to help you get out of a sticky situation!"
Ace laughed at his best friend's admission as he hung the parachute backpack back in the cupboard and closed the door…
End Of Flashback…
Ace's eyes widened with realisation. "Rev!" he shouted at the roadrunner before pointing at a metal cupboard behind the roadrunner.
Rev obliged by flinging open the cupboard and pulling out a number of rucksack-like bags, which the others guessed were parachutes.
Good old Tech… Always prepared… smiled Ace to himself as he looked at the small backpacks. "Hurry and get dem on guys!" ordered Ace as he grabbed one of the chutes and slung it onto his back. The others followed suit, grabbing one of the bags each. "Okay let's go! You know de drill; report when ye touch down. Good luck guys!" assured the leader.
Lexi, Duck, Rev and Slam all jumped out of the doomed spaceship one-by-one and now only Ace and Blaze were left. "You okay mate?" Ace inquired as Blaze joined him at the large open door, the high pressured wind blowing their fur around wildly.
Blaze nodded determinedly, adrenaline jolting through his body. "I'm good chief."
Ace smiled. "Good stuff. Okay so when ya get down dere, report in through your com so we can group up." He ordered, tapping the communicator on his arm.
"No problem." replied the tiger, who was trying to stay calm even though inside he was screaming with nervousness.
Ace nodded, happy that his inexperienced teammate knew what to do. "Good luck buddy, I'll see ya down dere." He said encouragingly, lightly shaking the tigers shoulder.
Blaze grinned and gave a cheeky military-style salute to his leader, before moving to stand right on the edge of the ship. He closed his eyes. "Okay, here we go…"he whispered to himself. The tiger took a deep breath before disappearing as he jumped out of the ship.
Ace took one last look around the cargo hold, remembering fondly his conversation with Tech. "I'm sorry buddy…" he muttered, before finally jumping out himself, leaving the ship to plunge uncontrollably to its demise.
Okay so there we go! Hope you guys enjoyed this and sorry once again for leaving it so long. I just want to say to those of you who are still reading this story 18 chapters in, thank you so much for sticking with me and for all your reviews, follows, favourites etc. You've made this a really rewarding experience for me. :') 3
So hopefully the next chapter will be up within a few days maybe! (I wrote this one in 3 days which for me, is really good!) This is where the storyline is gunna get REALLY good!
Thanks again guys :) TTFN