Chapter 4: Bargains
What the—? Ace was bewildered. Then he remembered. Lexi's date, the one who kissed her hand. She had met a bad guy? Smooth move, Lex.
He looked over at her, and she was as white as a sheet of paper. Apparently, she hadn't known either. Hmm, maybe he could cut her some slack this time. But, still…
"Okay, team, let's get this guy and bring him down," He commanded. Everyone rushed to their rooms to change into uniform. They met up in Tech's lab, and when they were all there, Ace said, "Let's jet!" and they did.
They flew above the city, searching for the enemy. What was his name anyways? he wondered, when Tech asked the same question out loud.
"Pierce 'Rabbit'," Lexi supplied, a murky look on her face. Duck saw this, and cooed, "Oh a lost love from Lexi's dark past? Oh how tragic!" Ace saw her eyes glow pink, then return to their normal green. Duck had hit a nerve, that was for sure.
Was there something she was hiding?
Lexi felt cold and frozen on the inside. When the screen had shown Pierce, she remembered exactly who he was. And not just from today, but from years past…It hurt too much to think about it, so she steered clear of that train of thought.
"Look!-Look!-there-he-is!" exclaimed Rev, pointing frantically towards the ground at a shady figure moving quickly. They all dived down, and surrounded him. He halted, then laughed as he pulled back his hood from his cloak. Pierce turned in a circle, surveying his situation. He laughed again.
"All right, all right, you win," he chuckled, putting his hands up. "Go ahead and cuff me, get it over with."
Tech moved forward, but Lexi shouted, "Stop! Don't get any closer to him!" Pierce swiveled around to face her, and grinned. "Oh, dear Lexi, don't you want to see justice be done?" He took a step closer to her.
She ignored his comment, instead taking a step backwards and saying, "Don't come any closer to me." He chuckled, and kept coming. "Seriously, Lexi, I thought we were friends? And I've missed you so much…"
In her hurry to keep away from him, she had tripped, and he made a move to grab her. Ace intervened, blasting Pierce with his laser vision. He helped Lexi back to her feet, and stood in front of her, protecting her.
Pierce got up, and brushed the dirt off himself, snickering. "Okay, buddy," he said to Ace, "I suppose that was a fair shot. But…" he pulled out a panel from his cloak. He held it up for all to see. "This sucker here? Yeah, well, it detonates all the explosives I've placed around this here area. If you don't want half your city going up in smoke, I think you'd better do as I say." He waved the little piece of metal with its knobs and switches in the air, turning to look all the Loonatics in their faces. Ace's eyes widened.
"What do you want?" he asked of the enemy, who turned to look at him. Pierce smiled wickedly, and said, "Why, that's simple! All I desire, is her," pointing to Lexi.
No! The gears in Ace's head were turning. How could he fix this? There wasn't any way he could give Lexi to him, yet he couldn't have the guy blow up Acmetropolis. There had to be another way, something else they could do.
Before he had a chance to ask for a change, Lexi piped up from behind him. "I'll go with you," she said strongly as he whipped around to stare at her, astonishment written all over his face, "if you'll defuse the panel and give it to them." She indicated the rest of the team with her hand. Pierce smirked, and started taking the wires carefully out. When he was finished, he picked it up and walked over to Ace. He held his arm out for Lexi, and when she made her way over to him, he gave the now-useless panel to the leader.
Ace was still stunned as he watched his enemy wrap an arm around the love of his-Ace's- life, and disappear in a puff of blue smoke. He dropped to his knees, and the tears came.