Alright guys, I had a question so let's get that out of the way…
A reader was confused on how Duck has a sister because he was the only kid in his adopted family and he grew up in an orphanage…my answer to that, read chapter 15 of My Name is Fear. That's where Marina is introduced, Duck's past is explained in detail and it all ties together. Also, please note that "grew up" was used EXTREMELY loosely in the show. One could argue that he grew up with his adopted parents. So where I'm extremely glad that you were observant enough to pick up on that, please also enjoy the story for what it is. I don't go against the show, any show, when writing fanfic, although mistakes do happen…not here though. If you see any other problems or mistakes or issues please let me know ;D
P.S. please excuse the end half of last chapter…I didn't really proof read that portion because I forgot lol I was sooo tired whenI posted it. Not to mention the little ***'s didn't appear…I don't know why that was…hopefully they'll appear in this one…if not…just listen whenever you think it should start….or just ignore the game if it's easier that way…I'm beginning to think that this was a very stupid idea anyways XD
Oh well, ON WITH The STORY!
Song: Anything But Love by Apoctoliptica
Ch. 11: Head to Head
"If they laid one finger on Slam…" Lexi was fuming. She was still wound up from her little show down with Massive andTech was secretly starting to fear her a little. Just a little mind you.
"I'm sure he's fine, Lexi." He assured her as they walked through yet another door.
"Where the hell are we going?" she asked, trying to figure out if the door they had just passed through was a new one or one they had gone through before. "This is stupid. Can you bring up a map of the building or something?"
"I don't have the right device for that on me." He confessed in a shamed voice.
"You carry a whole arsenal of technology with you all the time but you're saying you don't have a simple mapping graph? You're joking."
"I'm not joking, I don't have one. We're just going to have to keep track with a marker or-"
She blasted a whole in the door. "That works." She said before walking forward.
"Lexi, are you going to say what's going on with you or am I going to have to suffer your PMS'ing the whole time we're rescuing Slam?" he asked her.
She turned around and glared. "Did you seriously just ask me what's wrong?" she demanded. He looked startled. He hadn't realized till now that he had never seen Lexi truly pissed before.
"My so called 'dad' hasn't just been stalking me whenever the hell I decide to go out for some fresh air, he's been spying on me…while I AM SLEEPING! These freaks don't know when to give up and instead of just coming straight for us to get revenge they go through all this shit to mess with our heads! They warm up to Marina, somehow knowing that she's Duck's sister and use her to get under Duck's skin to the point he willingly gave himself to them. They kidnapped Slam and who the hell knows what they've been doing with him! Duck's been in here for only fifteen minutes and we don't even know if he's still alive or not! We don't know what they're doing with Marina! We don't know how Ace and Rev are fairing in their fight. If they've managed to find Duck and Marina or not. Our communicators for whatever reason are being jammed."
"I told you, Mastermind has sent out a signal cancelling out the frequency our communicators are on. It's a brilliant move, but an unfortunate one as well."
"And on top of it all we've had two blumbering morons follow us since we split with the others." She continued ranting as if he hadn't said anything. "So, forgive me Tech if I'm a bit stressed."
Tech stared at her. He reached out and wrapped her in his arms firmly. "Calm down." He whispered. "It's all going to be okay. Ace and Rev know what they're doing. They'll get Duck and Marina to safety before we even find Slam, you know they will. You don't have to be stressed, Lexi, it'll all work out."
"Stressed? My little girl is stressed?"
Lexi tensed, still in Tech's arms. She gritted her teeth and her hands balled into fists. Tech looked over her head and saw a blonde haired, blue eyed, gruffy looking man leaning against one of the many door ways, arms crossed, a sleesy smile on his unpleasant face. "You know what my suggestion's always been of getting rid of stress is, Hanna."
"No." she whispered, tears jumping to her eyes. "No, please, tell me that's some holographic illusion or something."
Tech's growl was all she needed to know that the man was really there, in flesh and blood, and she was really caught in an endless maze of doors with him.
"Come on, Lexi. This way." Techgrabbed her hand and led her into another room to their right.
"Are you really going to force me to chase you, Hanna? You know what happens when you run away from me." He called after them. Tech and Lexi ran, randomly choosing different doors to avoid him. They landed in one room that had a glass floor, starirs leading both down and up.
"Okay, I think we lost him." Tech panted, bent over, and gasping as Lexi choked back sobs.
"Why…why the hell is he here?" she managed to whisper.
"I think he's working with the bad guys." Tech stated obviously. "That must be how he found you to begin with. We should've seen this coming. I'm an idiot."
"No," she said, "but you are out of shape." She wasn't panting, but tears were falling down her face.
"I'll be sure to work on that once we get back home." He promised gruffly, finally straightening up and taking her hand once more. "The doors are down stairs, come on." But they hadn't gone a dozen pases before a door beneath them opened and Dale walked through, as calm as you please, arms still crossed and that damn smile still on his ugly mug.
"There you are." He said, walking up the stairs. "Can we stop playing cat and mouse and just get down to business?"
"Who told you where I was?" Lexi asked, her frightened eyes three sizes wider than normal, Tech pushing her behind him as he conjured up a molecular shield.
"Good Grief, Hanna, two years of college and you're still as dumb as you were when you were a snot nose brat." He chuckled. "Massive, who else?"
"I'm going to say this one time." Tech growled. "Go back to that run down dump you call home and never come near her or the team again."
"Or what?" snarled Dale. "You'll kill me? Turn me in? Hanna already knows telling the cops wont work, don't you little hopper."
She flinched as he used his old nick name for her. Tech turned a questioning eye to her.
"I tried calling him out on the murder of my mom." She said shortly. "They never even arrested the bastard."
Tech turned his attention back to Dale, understanding hitting him. "You prick." He said.
"You know what puppy dog," Dale snapped, "this is between me and my daughter so if you don't mind, kindly go fetch a stick or something."
Tech growled even more menacingly. Lexi faught back a groan. If there was one thing you didn't do, if you were smart, was call Tech a 'dog'. Though technically he was a canine, it always seemed to piss him off for some reason. Dale obviously wasn't smart because he didn't just call him a dog, he had called him a puppy. This was going to get ugly, well, more ugly then it originally would've gotten.
"What exactly is between us?" she stammered. "If I remember correctly, I told you I never wanted to see or talk to you ever again."
"Hanna, I know you didn't mean that. And I know you know you didn't mean that. We just had a misunderstanding. All families have them. But that's over and done with now so you can come home. I forgive you. Come on, it'll be like old times."
She shook harder as these words hit her. She wasn't sure how much more she could take.
"She's not going anywhere with you and you're going to go straight to hell if you make one move." Tech snarled, his blaster now out In front of him, his powers ready to pull the trigger if the slime ball so much as blinked.
"You've grown so violent, Tech. I'm a bit disappointed."
Tech's head jerked so violently he almost snapped his neck. There, standing off to his right was a mouse anthro, his big brown eyes boaring a cold, blank stare into the coyote. He was wearing a pair of ripped jeans, a green t under a yellow flannel shirt that ung off his thin shoulders as if he had shrunken since the last time Tech had seen him. Peeling sneakers covered his feet, leveling his legs out so you couldn't tell that one was shorter than the other. But Tech knew. He knew the mouse had been in a fender bender with a drunk driver years ago, back before he even knew him, and it had taken it's toll. The leg hadn't been the extent of his scars, but without the shoes, it was the most noticeable until you studied his arms and face. He was wearing the same outfit he had been when Tech saw him blown to bits. He had no idea what the hell was going on, but it was freaking him out to the extreme.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"What? You don't recognize me? I'm hurt." But Tech just shook his head.
"I know who you're trying to imitate, but Zippy Gonzalez has been dead for the last four years. So, I'll ask again. Who are you?"
Dale gave a loud burst of laughter. "You're not as smart as they give you credit for." He cackled. "Look again, fur face, that is your old pal. He's changed a bit, but it's him nonetheless."
"Tech, what does he mean?" Lexi asked, trying to keep control of her body and prevent it from fainting in pure terror.
"I'm not sure." Tech whispered. He stared hard at the mouse; at his blank stare and his rags. He had a theory, but that was impossible. Zombification was pure science fiction. No matter how advanced technology got, the laws of physics and nature still applied. Every scientist knew that. But, if he wasn't a mummy, then what was he?
"He's an android." He announced, his voice gruff with fresh growls. "That damn mother fucking bitch dug up his brain and shoved it into a fucking machine that looks like Zip. She, in some small way, gave his brain a re-bute and brought him back. But that wont last."
"An android?" Lexi asked, her terror filled eyes looking from him to the thing that was supposed to be his old friend. "What do you mean it wont last?"
"Mallery studied the function of the brain in school. She knew every micro-electrode that ran threw it. She pioneered a project that allowed anyone's brain to be dug up and placed inside a device that hooked it up to a visual screen, allowing us to 'see' what it processed. The brain would be 're-buted' using a nurological stimulator. We found that there's a tiny patch of the brain that, if shocked into commission, could bring up memories, personality traits, and in theory the actual person. She called it 'REBIRTH'. It was a marvolous discovery, but because it was so tempromental, it was only used in extreme cases. Bringing back a murder victim to see if they could tell who killed them, or bringing back anyone to straighten out issues with their will. Situations like that. There's been countless arguments over weather the information obtained by 'Rebirthers' can be taken seriously or if their answers are manipulated by information that could be entered into the neuron stimulator. But this," he jabbed his head in Zip's direction, "this is something entirely new. Along the lines of Frankenstein. It wont last because it was discovered that even though the brain could be re-buted, without blood flow, it can't maintain it's living form. The tissue still dicades as it normally would."
"That's demented." Lexi said with a small shiver.
"That's modern science." He replied. "But what I wanna know, is why she brought him back."
"She's giving me a second chance." Zip answered. "She told me who killed me."
"Yeah, she did." Tech said, a feeling of dread rising. Not every murder victim knew who killed them. Especially if their death had been sudden and unexpected like being blown to smithereens.
"Don't even try that little mind trick, Tech." Zip snarled. "I know it was you."
"Me?" he asked flatly. "That makes scense. I kill the only one who ever gave a damn about me. Even dead you should have more logic than that, Zip."
"Did you ever once thank me?" Zip asked.
"What?"
"Did you ever once thank me for helping you get so far? No, you just took off and never looked back."
"I visited you once a week you senile rat." He snarled. "Did Mallery erase your memories, or something?"
"You only came by once, to tell me you were dropping out to fight crime. We had a fight and you killed me in the struggle, now I'm back to repay the favor."
"Man, she really did do a number on you, didn't she. That bitch has a lot of hurt coming her way when I get my hands on her." He growled softly.
"Excuse me." Dale said lazily. "But I'm trying to have a conversation with my daughter. If you two could just let us go home, we'll leave you to your fight."
"Get the hell out of my life!" Lexi shouted, hiding her face into Tech's back, still shaking. Tech felt her tears start to soak the back of his uniform.
"Lexi, it's alright, I'm not going to let him hurt you." He whispered under his breath but knew she could still hear him. She tried to mentally slap herself and pull herself together. She knew Tech would fight tooth and claw, if it came to that, to keep her safe. But nonetheless, she wanted Ace to be there. She wanted him to come in and blast this guy full of lazier and then hide her away until Dale was, beyond a doubt, dead.
"Zip, I didn't kill you, and you're not going to kill me. Dale, you're going to walk out of here and never look back before I send you straight to hell like I said I would."
"My, my, Hanna, the company you keep." Dale said shaking hishead sadly. "We're going to have to get you a better circle of friends, sweetheart."
Tech growled but before he could do anything he was knocked sideways by Zip who apparently decided that it was time to start fighting.
"I made you into who you are and I can sure as hell tear you down just as easily." He snarled, his blank stare turning into one of pure animalistic rage. The two wrestled and tumbled all the way to the ledge of the glass floor.
"Tech!" cried Lexi as she saw the two fall down to the bottom floor. She ran over to the edge and looked down. Zip was crawling away and getting back up a few feet away from him. Tech was face up, looking like at least he had a few cracked bones if not full out broken ones from the angle of his arm and the flattened, pained look on his face. There was a flash of green light and he was sitting up, looking a tad dazed but other wise healed.
"I'm okay, Lexi, you knock out that low life while I take care of this heap of metal and then we'll grab slam and hook up with the others."
"Can we switch?" she asked, not daring to look behind her where Dale still stood.
"Lexi, you can do this." He whispered so no one but her could hear him. "He's just another slime ass freak who needs to go down. You have enough juice to give him one good blast and end him once and for all. Go get him girl."
She took a deep breath and nodded, half to him and half to herself.
"Yeah, you're right." She called down to him. "Thanks." She turned, preparing to give Dale the biggest head ache of his life.
"Hanna," Dale said warningly, "you know you only make it harder on yourself if you try to fight back."
She stopped. Memories of him saying that exact phrase rushed into her head. Memories of her struggling to break free and he saying those words, right before slapping her or worse to subdue her. She felt more tears come to the surface. She couldn't fight him, she couldn't. She wasn't strong enough to.
"I'm giving you one chance, you son of a bitch." She said hesitantly, uncertainly, "leave me the fuck alone or I WILL blow your mind up so bad you'll wish it had killed you."
He busted up laughing. "Hanna, you might be able to fight some of these freaks with help from your boyfriends, but we both know there's no way you'd ever be able to truly fight me. Now, stop this foolishness and just come home already."
"I mean it, Dale, leave me alone!"
There comes a time in every threatful situation like this where you stop talking and start backing up your words. Lexi, knowing this fact, ignored it and continued to huddle by the edge and shouting useless threats at him. Dale sighed.
"It looks like I'm going to have to convince you the hard way." He started walking forward, pulling out a weird gun looking device from under his jacket as he did so.
"Stay away from me." She stammered, scrambling to get to her feet and run out of his way.
"Come on, Hanna, you remember what happened the last time you forced me to play tag with you? Do you really want to break your leg again?"
"I'll break more than your leg if you lay one finger on me!" she cried.
"Lexi, fight back." Tech called, still fighting the mouse below them. He was holding his own, a second blaster in one hand and his shield held up with the other arm, Zip trying to avoid the beems shooting at him and simultaneously shoot Tech with his own mini blaster.
"Stay out of this, dog, you have your own furry hide to worry about." Dale called down.
Lexi heard Tech growl but knew he couldn't do anything to really help her. He was right, she needed to start fighting back. She gathered up her energy and was once again preparing to shoot a huge brain blast at him but once again, she didn't release it.
"Hey, Lexi, can you toss down that extra blaster? This one's just about empty." Tech called out, trying to keep Zip from leaping on him, his shield held out to catch the mouse as he pounced. He looked up just in time to see her fall to the floor. "LEXI!" he flung Zip off his shield and raced up the stairs. He passed Dale's laughing figure and hurried over to Lexi. He took her head into his arms and looked closely down at her. She was alive, thank the stars, but what had Dale done to her?
"You fucking bastard, what-" he looked up just in time to see Dale raise the same gun that he had pulled on Lexi to his own temple. "Don't!" Tech cried but it was too late. Dale had pulled the trigger and he, like his step daughter, fell to the floor, unconscious. Tech peered down at Lexi and pushed her bangs aside. There, in the center of her forehead was a small metal disk. He knew instantly what Dale had done. Both he and Lexi were now trapped, connected wirelessly, in Lexi's mind. Their consciousness were beyond anyone's reach now. Tech knew that only one of them would be coming out sain. He prayed to anyone, anything, that Lexi would gather her courage and blast that demon straight to the lowest pit of hell. He looked up as Zip clumbsily climbed the stairs. Lexi was on her own with Dale now, and so was he with this metal thing pretending to be his old friend. He growled as he lowered his team mate gently back down to the floor.
Lexi blinked as the sunlight hit her. Where was she? Had she been hit with another batch of that fear syrum? She looked around as she heard voices coming up behind her.
"What made you decide to bring me here?"
Lexi's eyes widen as she saw herself and Ace walking up a stone path. Flowers were everywhere and they were holding hands.
"I'd d'ought you'd like ta see d'a gardens." He was explaining to her. "Give ya a break from all d'a boy stuff 'n evil monsta's."
"You're sweet." She said, giving him a radient smile.
Lexi smiled softly to herself as she watched her past self and Ace walk through the Butanicle Gardens of Acmetropolis. She remembered that day, it had been her favorite date he'd ever taken her on. It had been the first time he had kissed her. They had just saved the city from Zadavia's brother and the whole team was experiencing a rare moment of peace that had lasted about six months. He was smart that bunny, taking advantage of the resting period to capture her heart like that.
"Nice boy." A voice said behind her. "What made you trade him up for the dog? Or do they share you?"
She spun around as her past self and Ace walked right by, not giving any sign that they could see or hear anything out of the ordinary. Dale was learing at her, his arms crossed and an evil light in his eye.
"How-"
"It's a useful little device Mastermind developed. I can't explain it right,"
"You never were that smart." She whispered to herself. A shadow passed over the old man's face.
"I'd watch my tone little girl, if I were you."
She shivered, glaring at him all the hate she could.
(**********)
"Are we dead?" she asked him.
"No." he said, a small smile playing on his lips. "You're unconscious and I'm being projected into your head. All that you see is just thoughts and illusions, anyone you see can't hear or see you. It's like being injected into a movie, unable to cry out for help or prevent the hero from walking into a trap as it were." He cackled.
"You're in my head? You're not just some evil monster already living here, but the real Dale?"
"You got it, sweetheart."
"GET OUT!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that." He told her, mock sadness in his voice. "You see, I want you to come back home with me. You, for whatever reason, are refusing. This is the last thing I can do to try and convince you that you need to come back."
"No matter what you say, I'm NEVER going back to you, EVER!" she yelled, tears falling down her face. "WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT!"
"A parent never gives up on their child, Hanna, never. Your mother abandoned you, I won't do that. Why can't you see that I'm only doing what's best for you?"
"She didn't leave me, you killed her!" a high wind was starting to come up, blowing the beautiful scene of summer and flowers and love away. "You never cared for either of us, you sick prick. We were just another object for you to use and abuse." They were standing on the docks, Dale was kneeling down at the end, holding her mother's head as the female bunny tried to fight and gasp for air and her life.
"Hanna,
this might seem like a real memory to you, but trust me, honey, your mother had a lot of problems that you didn't know about. This was just a bad dream you had. I remember you telling me about it. I'm just a step father, so you got it into your little head that I drove your mommy away. But, Hanna, she ran away, I didn't kill her." Another wind came and this time they were standing in an apartment, small, dirty, her mother lying unconscious on the floor. Cries of a little girl were coming from a door that stood a jar of to one side. Lexi shivered, she knew what was happening. This had been the memory that had resurfaced when the Evil Kenevil gang shot her with that damn syrum. This was a memory of her so called 'father' raping her.
"You can't deny this." She growled. She needed him to admit what he had done, needed him to confess to his crimes.
"Hanna, I don't know what this is." He said. She stared in horror at him.
"LOOK!" she cried, jabbing her finger to the bedrrom door where sounds of a child being tortured were heard. "Go and see for yourself you son of a bitch."
He looked and shook his head. "You really are just like your mother, riddled with problems. Oh, Hanna, come home. I promise I'll get you the help you need. But, if you think that I did that to you, I'm so sorry. I wish I knew where all this was coming from. Maybe this did happen to you, but it wasn't me."
"Then why do I see you!" she was sobbing, frustration and pure, poisonous hate rising in her.
"I know kids project the image of a safe person hurting them as a way of blocking out the actual trauma of it all. I was around most of your life, maybe that's why? Why didn't you tell me this had happened, we would've gotten the bastard and locked him up so he couldn't hurt you."
She stared, wanting to tare that look of faulse concern away from him. "Don't you remember any of the good things we used to do? Hanna, I am not a monster." A wind once more came but it wasn't coming from her. Dale was somehow controlling where they went next. She looked around her.
Dale, her mother, and herself, maybe ten or so, were all walking down a street. They were at a fair, she was holding a big stuffed monkey he had won for her at a game booth. The toy was almost bigger than herself. Dale was holding hands with her mother, both looking happy and like a perfectly normal married couple as lexi ran ahead of them, wide eyed, looking at all the fun fair suroundings.
"Daddy, let's go on that one!" she laughed as her eyes fell on a huge ride that spun around.
"The round-a-bout?" her mother said. "Honey, you're not big enough yet for that one. Why don't you and Daddy go on the fariswheel and I'll hold your monkey."
"Don't you want to ride?" lexi asked her mother.
"No, honey." She laughed. "I don't like heights very much. Go on Mason, take her on the fariswheel."
"I have a better idea." He said, pointing to the Spider. "You want to spin around, that's a great one."
"What the hell is this?" Lexi demanded as she and Dale watched their past selves laugh and ride rides together. She didn't remember this at all.
"This is proof that I never hurt you." He was standing right behind her, whispering into her ear. "This is showing that I was a good father and your mother must have poisoned you against me. But I promise you, Hana, I loved you. I still do."
Lexi turned her hate filled eyes onto him. "You were a good father?" she asked him almost spitting the words out. "You're the fucked up one around here if you think that." She conjured another wind and this time it was stronger. It didn't lead them to a memory, but to a black, cold region. Torches lined stone walls, giving the impression that they were in an under ground dungon.
"This is what you've done." She whispered darkly. "This is what kind of father you were." She walked over and kneeled down in front of a jail door, the bars heavy iron, a rusted pad lock held them closed. "Let him see you." She whispered.
A tiny Lexi, around seven or six came forward, holding a little cloth sewn doll, a button eye missing and dress torn and freyed at the edges. The child's face was grimy, her clothes un identifiable from all the dirt and mud caked on to them. Her bangs were matted and her ears's weren't tied back so they hung down to her shoulders. But what was most shocking about her was the look in her huge eyes; there was none. They were dead, no imotion or light, no hint of there being any soul inside the tiny body. The whites were red from constant crying, the irises dull and cloudy, the pupils dark and distant. The present day Lexi glared up at Dale.
"This is the real me." She snarled. "This is what I became after you arrived. You stole EVERYTHING from me! I've kept her locked up, to keep her hidden from the world so no one would see what had happened and to try to prevent anymore damage coming to her. She pointed to another cage, the door on that one matching the little girls. From the shadows, eyes filled with blue fire glared out and a low demonic growl was heard. "There's the real you. You see what you do? If you care like you claim, then please, get out of my head, get out of my life, and stay away from me."
Dale took in the gloom and then, horribly started to laugh.
"You are a drama queen." He said, whiping humourous tears from his eyes. "Oh, Hanna, are you so desperate to avoid me you'd go to this length to try and get to my good side?"
"Stop laughing." She warned, her hands gripping the bars to tiny Lexi's door.
"Hanna, you're so dramatic. Why are you afraid of coming home with me? Is it that you're afraid of leaving your friends? Too many of them have slept with you? You leave and they loose their little sex doll is that it?"
"Shut up." She whispered.
"You know, this is why I tried to keep you from other guys. They'll never respect you like I do. Your mother couldn't quite understand me, but I always knew you could. Actually, you're not little anymore, but for some reason, I still want you. For some reason, I can still see the child in your eyes, begging for me. Begging me to take you away from pain and misery, and haven't I done that? Haven't I chased the monsters away for you?"
"NO!" her eyes were glowing pink now. "You didn't, Dale! YOU ARE A MONSTER! If you scared any away it's only because you're the KING of all muther fucking night terrors!"
Fear was in his eyes now but he tried hard to mask it. "You're going to fight now?" he sneared. "Are you really going to try and fight back? You know I'm just going to get mad."
Dale started coming for her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and wrestled her to the ground, getting on top of her. "You're weak, Hanna, you always were and you always will be. It doesn't matter how many villains you beat up, you'll never be able to stand up to the real monster in your life. I control everything you do, everything you feel, everything you desire and fear. You don't have powers, you don't have friends, not even that pissy little yellow flea bitten rabbit. None of them could ever love you, ever understand you. I am the only one you need, the only one you answer to. I am you and you are NOTHING!"
Lexi felt him press into her, readying himself to take her sanity and security with just one thrust. She couldn't let him, she couldn't go back to him, she couldn't be weak. But she was weak, she was a little child and no amount of powers or superhero credibility could change that. A wind came up once more.
"There's no point, little hopper." He hissed in her face. "No matter where you run, I'm still right here. I will always be right here and no shadows from your past, good or bad can prevent that."
"Lex, I'm here." They had landed in a cave, Slam and Duck were trapped in one tube, Duck kneeling beside Slam and talking to him fervently. In another tube, Ace was holding Lexi who was crying into his chest. "Tech and Rev will fight him. Slam will throw him out of the planet and Duck'll even egg him a few thousand times 'n d'at ain't not'n compared ta what I'd do ta 'im. Not ta mention, ya strong'a now. Ya can fight him and d'at ain't count'n ya brain blast. He can't hurt ya, I'm here, we all are." Another wind came and this time they were in her room, her under the covers, Tech sitting next to her holding her hand.
"That's all in the past, now." He was saying gently as she drifted off to sleep. "We won't let him near you and I know you wont let him touch you. With all your spunk, all of us are afraid of you. You're the scariest member on the team and everyone knows it. He'd be a dumb ass to try and take you on head first." Another wind came and she was sitting next to Duck.
"I don't understand." He was saying.
"That's a new one." She said sarcastically." He stuck his tongue out at her.
"Why don't you just brain blast him already? He wont leave you alone, he's there whenever you leave HQ, you've threatened him hundreds of times, it's time to take action girl! You have no problem zappen me and the others, what makes this guy so special?"
"It's complicated, Duck." She sighed, lowering her eyes.
"Only because you're making it complicated." He was glaring at her. "He hurt you in some way, that's obvious even to me, but that should fuel you more to want to kick his ass. You're Lexi Bunny, damn it, start acting like it."
"Do you honestly think all these memories are going to save you?" laughed Dale, looking down at Lexi who was thinking of what her friends were saying. "Pretty words don't change the fact that they're wrong."
"You have five seconds to get the hell off me, out of my head, and out of my life." She whispered, her eyes lighting up.
"I'm here, Lex." Ace was standing next to her head.
"I-am-too." Rev was beside him. Suddenly Slam, Duck, Tech and Zadavia were all around her.
"You can fight him." They said in unison. "We're all beside you."
"Five…four…"
"You're not strong enough." He sneared. "I'm in control." He put a hand on her waist and started fumbling for the lining so he could slip it under her shirt.
"Three…two…"
"Be reasonable, sweetheart, I'll find you, even if you manage to blast me out of your head, I can still find you, no matter where you are."
"ONE!"
(**********)