Ch.7: A Failed Sacrifice

"Duck!" yelled Ace, as he saw his friend fall into the molten metal " No!"

" I can't believe he's gone," said Lexi.

"He sacrificed himself to save us" said Tech " and the world,"

"And what a foolish move it was," suddenly came a familar voice.

The Loonatics nearly jumped in surprise when Nug's body actually reappeared out of the molten metal to reveal a more powerfully built silver-winged wolf. Relishing the looks on their shocked faces Nug laughed.

"Fire only makes me stronger" said Nug " my kind crave for the sweet feast of destruction ever since the day of the Falling..."

(Flashback, Nug's POV)

"...A mericless gang of space pirates invaded are home nearly tearing apart our planet and killed many innocent lives. We craved the for the power to reek revenge on our enmies, and our god granted that wish."

" Permitting us with special powers so we could invest hosts and tear them apart from the inside out. We got our revenge on the pirates but they had caused to much destruction to our planet and made it unliveable."

"So with what we had left of our technology we journeyed to distant galaxies to find a new planet to live on. But the gift we had asked for when we destroyed the pirates also became our curse. For now, we can no longer live without a host."

"The parents of the old generation died, leaving their eggs in care of the only who didn't have to assign himself permanently to host in order to survive. Me!"

(End Flashback)

"...And I will not allow my people to die again!" said Nug.

"To bad pal" said Ace " you messed with one of our own, and now you're planning to destroy the world he was trying to save? Well we're not going to let that happen?"

"Then stop me, if you can?" said Nug.

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Meanwhile, up in heaven, Danger Duck found himself walking through the gates of paradise. An angel was sitting at a desk nearby typing in his cloud computer. A big screen set behind the angel featuring Acmetropolis. Feeling the sign of a new presence the angel looked up to see Duck.

"Welcome Danger Duck," he said.

"What's going on there?" asked Duck, pointing at the screen.

"The future in which you sacrificed your life for" said the angel " behold the future of Acmetropolis,"

Pushing a button on his computer the image on the screen started to change. In the new image Nug was standing tall in the burning ruins of Acmetropolis and eggs had sucessfully hatched and infected everyone in the world. All,except for five. Duck's almost had heart attack when he saw what was next. The Loonatics were dead.

"No!" yelled Duck " why did this happen?"

"It hasn't happened" said the angel " at least not yet. But it can be stopped if you and Ace can tap into the powers of your Ascended Forms,"

" I'll do whatever it takes to stop Nug" said Duck " tell me what to do,"

" Fill out these forms" said the angel, handing over three forms to Duck " and hope you will be able to save your friends in time,"

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Back on Acmetropolis the Loonatics prepared themselves for a facedown with a more powerful version of Nug. Not only now did he possess Duck's powers, but also the ability to shoot flaming tons of molten metal on the Loonatics.

The team managed to dodge these blazing streams, but some building weren't so lucky and set fire almost instantly. Firemen quickly arrived on the scene, but their water hoses felt like a tickle to the burning blaze.

Ace looked desperately around the city to see Acmetropolis literally go down in flames. They had to find some way to beat Nug or else the whole world was doomed.

"Tech!" yelled Ace " you and Rev get back to the tower and figure out how to destroy those eggs, the rest of us will hold him off,"

"Right Boss" said Rev, grabbing Tech " let's go,"

With that the roadrunner raced Tech and himself back to the tower. Nug laughed at the forces remaining.

"The three of you will not be enough to stop my plan" said Nug " in less than twenty-five minutes the eggs will hatch and infect everyone in this city. You don't have the power to stop me,"

"We'll see about that" said Duck from up in heaven " can't you go any faster?"

"Patience" said the angel " my scanner isn't what it used to be,"

Meanwhile Ace, Lexi, and Slam charged at Nug letting loose with their most powerful attacks. However, Nug's silvery skin was soon replaced despite the heavy damage his body had suffered.

Activating the powers he had stolen from Duck Nug launched a briradge of power eggs at the Loonatics. Given the increased size of the eggs it struck it targets with the same force atomic bomb.

One of the eggs exploded near Ace when the Loonatics were making their retreat and sent the rabbit flying into the middle of town square.

Ace struggled hard to get up as Nug came closer, but the poor yellow rabbit was to shaken by the explosion to even stand. And evil grin lit up Nug's face as he witnessed the pitiful struggle of the Loonatic's leader.

"Poor Ace" said Nug, raising one his gaint feet " allow me to end your suffering,"

With that he put his foot down in order to crush Ace, once and for all.