Spider-Man, and the others, are owned by Marvel and Stan Lee.
Loonatics Unleashed, and the others, are owned by WB.
Chapter 7:
Going underground!
"Time to put on the old trusty Spidey jammes." Peter said after he got out of bed. He walked over to his closet opened it, and saw both: his Spider suit and his new Loonatic suit. 'How did it get there; I thought I was wearing it.' He thought in a nanosecond after seeing it, and that is another thought was added, 'Right I didn't want to sleep in it so I hung it up.' As he was standing there in a white sleeveless shirt with blue boxer shorts trying to decide which suit to wear the solo female animal of the team headed over to his room.
"Hey web-head, the guys are wanting some Chinese want to give me a hand with the pick-up." She said to him while feeling a tad embarrassed seeing a human in his underwear. He turned away from his two piece selection and saw her.
"Sure. After all I do need an excuse to break in my team costume, right." He said to her and got a nod as the answer. Lexi thought it best to shut the door since almost all heroes were in the buff when they put on their hero threads. After three minutes he walked out, wearing the Loonatic costume. The two of them started walking and as they walked he decided to ask a very useless question, "Why me and not someone like Danger Duck?" She could have sworn that there was some jealousy in his question but she let that pass.
"Please, Duck is too busy idolizing over his Misty Breeze collection to be troubled by little things such as food." When they reached their launch-pad the web-head had to offer his opinion.
"What do you think your doing, bunny-girl?" He question after she had a hand on her pack.
"Using my pack to get to New Chinatown." She answered back to the arachnid in an, isn't it obvious tone. With a shake of the head he answered back to her.
"Nah. We'll use another method." He raised his right arm and smiled. In that moment she understood what he meant. The two of them headed over to the edge and he looked at her. "Grab on to my back and hang on tight." He said while thumbing over to his shoulder. She did as she was offered and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist; he then leaped out of the sphere and began swinging.
"This is amazing." She said in complete awe as she watched the ground below. The rest did use jet packs for flight, but this had its own amazement to it. She then heard the sounds of the town that they were wanting and saw the lights and decorations. With one last strand of webbing the two made it to the ground.
"Cool enough for ya." He said to he with a confident smirk as he glanced over at the rabbit for an answer.
"That definitely was interesting." She answered back to him and added, "Maybe Tech should add those shooters to our suits too. He was about to answer back with a, follow the trend, but she pointed over to a nearby restaurant. "Over there." The two then entered that selected food place.
"Alright Lexi, we have the food can we head over to H.Q. now." Spider-Man said after the two of them got out with several small take-out boxes. He looked to the rabbit for an answer on a good reply.
"Chill Spider; it isn't a trip downtown without getting a little take-out." She said back with a smile on her pink fur. Parker knew full well that the China shop specializing in strange dishes and that is when his sense of humor struck again.
"Frankly I get bad vibes around places that serve BBQ Tarantula in Tabasco sauce as a Supper meal. If anyone starts drooling you're going to have to find another web-slingin' ride home." He said to her and he saw her roll her eyes at his statement.
"Whoa. Here comes Duck's girlfriend." Lexi said, changing the subject in hopes of making the spider not come up with another joke. He turned into the direction and saw a green and yellow dragon costume roll on past them.
"Geeze, and here I thought I was the comic comment maker." He said back to here before listening to the crown while watching a juggler and a purple dragon. There was an unknown sound that caught his friend's attention.
"Shh! Did you hear something?" She questioned after tapping into her super-human hearing power. He looked at her and just raised an eyebrow to that question.
"No offense, but how can I hear anything over this racket. I mean you'd need superhuman hearing just to…" He drifted from his comment when he turned and saw that she sported a smug smile and that is when the knowing of who had what came to mind, "I knew that." He muttered under his breath.
"Come on let's check it out." She said and started to walk over to the source of the sound. Spider once again had to use his sense of humor again.
"Hold it, cottontail." He started, which she actually stopped at that comment so he decided to continue, "Ace is the field boss-man of us seven, but right now I would just like to say: I want be the leader." The last part came out as a mock whine which she had to smile about. He started to walk until a shake occurred, but that didn't matter since his sticking power even worked on the ground but he was still hit with another box. "Remember my comment about the Tabasco?" He questioned to her.
"Yeah." She answered simply and then she saw what he was getting at, and almost busted a gut.
"I like to change it to Orange sauce." He stood there slightly depressed hunch, bummed that he dropped the food when some was flung onto him. He was so down that his powers did not save him when another shock happened so he ended up stumbling around the sidewalk; he was grateful that his Spider reflexes were keeping him from bumping into people; since he was blind he did not know the crack in the ground that was beginning to form. The downside was that it did not save him from being attacked by a run away cart and slammed a second time, but the quake stopped soon after that.
Aren't you saucy?" She said after walking over to him. She once again tried not to laugh out loud of his appearance. The good news was that Spider-Man knew how to use anything to his bad jokes.
"I am pretty tasty, but Marinara tastes way better on me." He said while scraping some of the extra sauce with his finger and tasted it. Another rumble but with his powers Spider just moved with the earth.
"Aftershock!" She said with a wide eyed expression. She then began to be lowered; this allowed Spider to play the part of the idiot.
"Oh no, I'm turning into a giant." He said now with both hands on his head. She did not find it funny so she was able to answer him back all calm like.
"You keep dreaming, bug." Even with the ground growing up she was still able to see a few things such as another cart heading for her partner. "Incoming!" She shouted while pointing behind him. The spider saw what it was and knew right away how to deal with it.
"Not this time." He said while putting his hand on the edge and jumping down to meet up with her. He then ducked, for the food, since the ground was at the point that the cart could treat his head as a speed-bump. The two of them looked up and saw that the small section of city was still going up.
"What's wrong with this picture?" Lexi questioned her friend before another carry out was dropped on his head. Parker lifted the container off of his head and was still in disbelief over what was happening.
"Either this Mushu Pork has messed up my eyes or downtown is sinking to a whole new low." He answered back, in hopes of making her laugh or at the very least make her less freaked. Unknown to them that once the section of city made it to the top in caved into the new mountain. One of the buildings that were buried soon was broken into by a short bald man.
"The Jade Serpent, at last!" He said after reaching a solid green rock with a dragon design on it. "Get ready, Acmetropolis there's going to be a whole lot more shaking going on." He said after he had the rock in his hands followed by an evil cackle.
"This mountain just grew outta nowhere. Just like that?" Ace said to the two when they came back and told them of what went happening. Six of the seven were in their conference room (Lexi, Slam, Duck, and Rev were sitting. Ace stood, and Spider was hanging on a web-line) looking at one of the monitors which showed the instant mountain.
"I'm pretty certain it wasn't there before." Duck said with his head resting in his palm with a board expression on his face. He may not have been there but he just wanting to get in his comment before Spider-Man could say something.
"Yeah, weird, huh? But now we can go skiing anytime we want without ever leaving downtown. And if we work up an appetite on the slopes we can get some Chinese take out on the way down. Man, Acmetropolis has everything!" Rev said to them, turning his head to them for a moment then back to the screen. He was obviously looking on the bright side of this development. After the master tongue-twister spoke the green member came in with a hovering platform.
"I've gone over it again and again, but I can't find out what could have caused that kind of geologic instability." Tech said pushing his model so the others could see it.
"Oh, I don't know maybe something like, a giant meteor hitting the Earth. Hmm? Ring a bell." Duck said to the coyote with plenty of sarcasm. This time the web-head had to open up his mouth.
"No way Duck, it wouldn't be that: Mole people that's the key term here." He told them, but both statements were not getting on Tech's good side.
"Perhaps if I did a more time to make a more detailed model I did it during my break; total rush job." He said to them while looking down at his scale model of that portion of the city.
"Tech, the little elevated trains are actually running…" Lexi said and held off on her compliment before checking the clock built into their suits and finished, "and on time." The wall-crawler picked up on the fact that the pink one often kept track of train and bus schedules; which was good.
"Okay, now normally when there's tectonic activity the plates in the Earth's crust moves like this." He explained before pushing a rectangular red button which caused the model to shake. He then continued, "No matter how many variations I try there's just no accounting for this." When he finished a large mound of what the others assumed was dirt stood before them. The devil licked his lips before he took a finger worth of the stuff into his mouth.
"Chocolate." Slam said while he was chewing.
"Uh…Slam I believe that's mud your eatin`." Ace said, while feeling disgusted that his friend ate some earth.
"Actually I ran out of soil so I used hot fudge." Tech informed their field leader of his true ingredients of his demonstration. After hearing what it was made of Lexi scooped some up at the base and tossed it into her mouth with zero mess.
"With nuts." She added after swallowing her piece. She saw that Peter followed her lead of trying some as well. They all soon heard their boss' voice.
"Speaking of nuts, this attack was caused by one Thaddeus Dare." She said to them and two monitors, one to each side of her, showed an image of a man with gray hair and glasses.
"Thaddeus Dare. "Nut" is an understatement." Tech said already knowing of his work.
"A reclusive and rather old scientist, but brilliant nonetheless, Dare was convinced that one day he would control all forms of rock." As she said this images such as a 3d model of him, stuff he was working on, and even an old reel of the project she had just told them.
"Say wha-? Control rock? Hello, wacko party of one." Duck said, swirling his left finger around his head, interrupting her, but she was unfazed since she kept on talking.
"He was hideously disfigured when the meteor crashed. He went crazy and his rock experiments grew more reckless. He was finally banished by the scientific community and disappeared." The images were that of the meter's landing and Dare with a 'no' sign in front of him.
"Let me guess, a guy that into rocks went underground, right?" Ace said hoping that what he said might give them a leaf of where to start looking, but still gave her a confident expression.
"Deep underground. I believe he's preparing to take his revenge on the world that rejected him, and he may have found the ultimate means." She told them and presented images of the new him and a glowing green rock with a dragon imprint.
"The Jade Serpent Crystal." Tech said, since he gave off some time in researching that thing too.
"Yes, this crystal that was housed in the Science tower that sank underground today." She said with pictures of the chosen purple building and that it and several other building fell into the mountain.
"What's so special about this nugget?" Ace asked the question that they all wanted the answer to. She could see this and decided to continue with her show and tell.
"It is an ancient gem that has a unique atomic structure. Said to contain untold energy. If Dr. Dare somehow harnesses the power of the crystal there is no telling what he might do. You must find Dr. Dare and stop him, Zadavia out." She said while showing the structure within the stone; when her transmission was done the lights, which often turned off when she spoke, turned back on.
"All right, gang, let's jet!" Ace said to the others and they all headed out all but one that is. "Hey web-head, times a wastin." He said after realizing the arachnid of the team was staring at the mountain of chocolate.
"I'll catch up; I just have something important to do." He answered back with a sly smirk. Lexi already knew what it was that he was planning and decided to intervene.
"Come on Pete, let's go." She said while grabbing the collar of his uniform and dragged him to the others. He did not know which hurt him worse: not getting anything to eat yet or that Lexi was dragging a guy that could bench-press as much as Slam. Eventually he was able to walk on his own then he and the others got into a different group vehicle.
"This new toy of yours is a great way to beat the traffic." Ace said as the drill based ride was tunneling them downward.
"Ha ha! Yes!" Tech exclaimed aloud, not really listening to the praise from the yellow hare. He proved that he was having fun with the invention as he was turning this way and that causing all but him to say 'whoa' in unison.
"Quit doing that!" Danger exclaimed having his fill of Tech's driving.
"Don't worry." He said to Duck and continued with a calm tone, "I've been working on my Mobile Magma Mower for a while now. I just needed a good excuse to take it for a spin." With a laugh of confidence he said something that worried Duck, "Good thing I got almost all the kinks worked out."
"I'll say. Wait. Did you say almost?" He questioned while him and the others were experiencing a transporter without shocks before turning to Lexi, "Did he say almost."
"Guys, heads up!" The female exclaimed while pointing forward. The image of what the seven saw even freaked Spider-Man out and he lived in New York.
"The city's upside down, or is it my stomach." Duck said while holding the said body piece.
"So that's where the buildings went." Ace said in a serious tone as they passed by the topsy-turvy city chunk. Despite seeing the Tech tunneled into another wall of stone.
"Hang on. Goin` down." Tech said in a still calm tone.
"And we're how many miles beneath the Earth's crust." The duck had questioned when there was nothing but rock around their window.
"Not to worry, this thing is built with Ultra-Titanium double shielding. Trust me: nothing can stop us." He said and just as soon as he said that he jinxed himself since the whole ride just stopped.
"What was that?" The mallard questioned with a freaked out expression. Ace got out of his seat and answered the bird.
"A lot a nuttin`." He looked at the window before looking at Tech who was baffled at how his latest invention had been stopped.
"I don't understand it. This baby should be able to smash through any kind of rock." Tech said aloud while pushing the controllers for a response unaware that something appeared while he was talking.
"And what if the rock smash back?" She questioned with a freaked expression on her face since she was the first to see this unknown visitor.
"Huh?" He said back to her since what she had said made no sense. Then more and more of those creatures began to appear.
"Tech, get us outta here." Ace commanded with a touch of fear in his voice.
"The sudden stop must have short-circuited the engine." He said to him of why it wasn't moving anymore. The leader walked over to the driver and decided to offer a different solution.
"Hey, uh, Tech could you reverse us outta this hole." The others saw them crowding the window and were getting nervous.
"Yeah, as in back up now!" Duck practically screamed at the canine who was still moving the steering wheel.
"Well I would if I could." He said to his friends of one of the problems he still needed to handle.
"No reverse?" Duck questioned, hoping that he was wrong and that Tech DID install a reverse switch. As they were working on that one of the creatures three fingered hands tore through the ship and grabbed the pink one.
"Oh, no." Ace said in alarm as he and the others were watching their friend being carried off.
"Guys…a little help." She said before leaving the same way the hand came in.
"It's got Lexi!" Ace exclaimed before opening the door that they used to get in before adding, "Let's Rock!" while Spider-Man provided a different way: he leaped through the same hole and instantly fired a line at the ceiling of the cave.
"Your not going anywhere." He muttered darkly to himself as he followed the fleeing boulder. In the process he saw that the other Ben Grimm's in training were around the drill device, but he knew that that they could take care of themselves.
"Let go Rockzilla." Lexi yelled as she struggled to get free from the stone grip. She was so focused on getting out she failed to see that Spider-Man had let go of one of his lines and was dive-bombing with one fist right at it. The creature stopped when it felt something on its head.
'Whoa, guess I must be in a REALLY bad mood.' Peter thought when he saw that his fist caused several cracks in the beast. He then finished it all up by landing in front of the minion. "That's no way to treat a lady, pal." He said with his voice mixed with anger and humor. Just as the rock was about to attack Duck quacked over to them and started to shoot eggs at him. 'Might as well help.' The arachnid thought and fired impact webbing as well.
"Thanks guys." Lexi said to the two once she was released from a member of the enemy. The three knew that it wasn't that easy to take down a rock so Danger decided to give the word.
"Let's go." As Spider-Man and Lexi swung or ran off to find a new opponent Duck stayed with the one that they were fighting. "Oh, missed. So sorry missed again. Oh, strike three your out!" Duck exclaimed to his foe as he used quacking three times to dodge its punches. Slam, in a different part of the cave, used a leaping tornado leg punch on one of them and then for the one behind him blocked a double fist with his hand and tossed it: instantly killing both; he brushed the dust of his hands in a gloating fashion.
"Excuse me, hi, would you come this way, please? Thank you so much! Hey, how abou` you come here as well: That's right!" Rev said as he used his superhuman speed to go around seven creatures he then stood and waited for them to get to him. Slam on the other hand who was still proud over what he had done was caught off guard of a new challenger.
"What the?" Slam grumbled after hearing something from behind him. A section of the wall behind him gave way revealing a rock creature easily twice the size as the others. Slam saw the beast and could only garble out an, "Uh-oh." He did what he did before and used Tornado Legs to body check the creature through the hole that it had made earlier.
"3-egg omelet comin` up!" Danger exclaimed as he prepared and fired his eggs at the same rock creature. Spider-Man was in luck that these creatures had limited intelligence as he tried something he saw off of a cartoon.
'That's right a little closer.' He thought as he stood with his heels at the edge of a chasm. Two of the various stone critters charged at him, both had their arms raised, but in the last second he shot one of his arms up and fired a web-line to the ceiling and reeled himself upward. "Now that those guys are taken care of I can do what I did back home." He said before pulling a camera out from a hidden compartment on his left arm and swung around. The first thing that he saw was Rev waiting for five Stone-heads to attack him.
"Gather round, guys. I know this is sudden and I'm sure your wondering why I called this meeting." He started and waited until all of them leapt at him after using his speed to get away added, "That's why!"
"Hey, Lex, you're up." Duck warned the agile bunny of the gray guard about to punch her from behind. Luckily she dodged it and decided to ask it a question.
"Don't you ever lighten up?" Her answer was of the creature ripping a piece of a stone column off and throwing it at her. "Guess not." She added before Brain Blasting it into dust. Ace was fending one off with his optic blast, with no avail, and after getting some distance he decided to talk with the speed creature who stopped by.
"Fast work, Rev. I'm goin` after Slam." He then ran off to find the purple member. The devil in question had just punched his enemy through a wall and was about to land an aerial double fist attack, but was swatted away. He eventually was slammed into a wall.
"I'm stuck!" He mumbled after opening his eyes. He was then assaulted by a headbutt from the thing he was fighting, which stuck him deeper into the rock. After a groan of discomfort the muscle found himself picked out of the hole in the wall and being crushed by the same creature he was fighting.
'This won't be a good pic.' Peter thought and snuck away from that spot, knowing that Slam was not going to stand being caught like that for long he went for Lexi instead. That bunny was still playing defender against her opponent; she even gave the stone thug a fair warning.
"You're getting on my nerves…" She then dodged the attack, but her back was against the wall yet she was not scared, "And you don't want to see me mad." She finished with a Brain Blast to the stalactites which a few fell right on the boulder she was facing. On the plus side she was able to dodge them and said in a comical tone, "I warned you."
"You tell `im sister." The mallard said in praise after quacking to her side with his, just like the others eyes were glowing.
'Man, she is something else.' Parker thought as he took a few shots of her strategy and the end result. He was just about to see if Slam was doing okay when his Spider Sense went off, preventing him to taste the stab of stone that was at the spot he had just been on. "Just wondering, does the name Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mean anything to you?" He questioned down to the thrower and just got another ball of stone as an answer. "Touchy subject." He whispered before attacking it; he remembered of Raphael's story of the training with the Ninja Tribunal. The Tasmanian was doing just fine after startling his captor with purple lightning then tore off his arm and hit it with it.
"Ha, ha, ha." He laughed after seeing it make a line drive to the wall. His celebration was cut short when the golem got back on its feet, slammed itself into the wall, and after a green glow got a new arm. "Uh-oh." Was all Slam could say after witnessing the repair work. With one swing the rock monster nearly destroyed its old arm, but that still left Slam with an idea; he tossed the rest at him, but it was blocked. The creature returned the favor and turned the hero into a line-drive, and not wasting any time grabbed the Loonatic and slammed him into the ground a couple of times before it was interrupted by Ace Bunny.
"Yo, what's up, rock? Drop the devil and back away." He said while seeing that Slam had come to with his eyes REALLY showing their purple glow. He struggled for a bit, but after using his lightning for a second time he was able to get free. The stone soldier began throwing rocks at the both of them: Ace deflected them with Martial Arts and laser vision while Slam caught one boulder and blocked with it; problem was that he was loosing ground. Soon Slam's shield was reduced to dust, leaving him to fend off the barrage of rocks on his own. He was then led to a deeper chasm and fell in. "SLAM!" Ace shouted and followed with shooting the creature with nothing but his Heat Vision; he really poured it on when the golem was tittering over the edge, and when he went to see the remains after it fell he saw that the biggest chunk move. "Oh, man." Was the only phrase that came out of his mouth before spotting his big purple friend right underneath it. "Hey ya, Slam are you okay?" He asked his friend while he dug himself out.
"Peachy." He said back in grumble form.
"Ho ho! I'm sorry about dropping a rock monster on ya there, buddy." Ace said back with a look of embarrassment on his face.
"Duck, any sign of Dr. Dare?" Lexi asked her comrade before she aimed and fired her Brain Blast at another creature.
"No, Hey!" Duck answered back before being grabbed and carried off. While the monster was holding the mallard, watching him squirm was not prepared for a combination of quacking out of his hand and planting a big egg that once exploded only left the legs; when he reappeared he rubbed his right handed fingers to his chest and congratulated himself, "Wow. I even impress myself." He then added under his breath, "I got to remember how to do that." After seeing that they weren't doing much damage the yellow member decided to contact green, who was still in the drill.
"Yo, Tech, what do ya got?" He questioned into his wrist communicator after returning to normal eyes. The long eared egghead answered back while typing at one of the stations.
"My scanners are picking up a strange energy around them." The screen showed one of the guards with something around it. He then continued to speak to the leader, "It's a high probability that they're being controlled by the Jade Serpent Crystal."
"The hot issue isn't how they're working." He said back before dodging an attack and added, "It's how we're gonna beam `em." He glanced up at the window and asked, "We got ta find a way to even the playin field; Tech, can ya jump-start that thing." The coyote walked away from the window and went over to a piece of ceiling of the vehicle that was labeled 'danger'. He pressed a button that opened a hidden stepping stool.
"This might work…" He said after stepping on to the stool. He then opened up the panel which held a glowing green panel with slits in the center circle. "If I can just reroute the power reserve to the front thrusters." He said while thinking over what his next move should be. He then got off of the stool, grabbed a coiled extension cord which was under a table, and stretched it out to the slits. "Come on!" He complained whiled shaking the cord; he then added in defeat, "Ohh. Fine." After accepting his mistake he looked at the cord then his ears: he cupped his left hand over the end of the cord and his ears into the slits; after a scream of pain he turned to dust instantly while still staying on the stool. In a second he was reformed and said while getting off the stool and slowly walking to his chair while still smoking, "There's got to be an easier way of being a hero." The drill was soon active and he went to work by putting his ride into gear. The drill started to move and the thrusters showed life he then pushed it forward, "All right, rock on!" He shouted in victory.
"Hey buddy have you heard the one with the drill and the rock garden." Spider said after seeing the drill heading for him. When he did not receive an answer he fired a web-line at the ceiling and pulled himself up. When he was safely on the top he looked down and said with a sigh, "Yeah, me neither."
"Yeah." Tech said with a smile knowing full well that not even rock monsters could stop him. They all met by the side of the drill to exchange notes.
"So, what were those things?" Lexi asked the one question that the others only had theories to. Duck on the other hand had to stick his webbed foot in his bill.
"Reminds me of some of the guys who keep calling you, except the rocks have more personality. Ha ha ha!" While duck was saying that he failed to notice the sly smirk on her face, but he did feel her answer to his comment, "Yeow! Hey, watch the feathers." He added after getting a Brain Blast to the butt. He then saw Peter who had come down on a different strand of webbing was trying not to bust a gut laughing. "Why aren't you defending me?" He asked angrily.
"Simple my butt is still sore from the rug burn from earlier, and I would like to sit down when we get home." He answered back while rubbing his own butt since it really did sting.
"Those rock guys must be the security guards around here, which means we must me close to Dare's lair." Ace said while thinking over which direction to go next. That was until an unknown was heard.
"You're not close. You're here. Just in time to see the power of the Jade Serpent to turn Acmetropolis upside down." The voice of Dare put everyone on alert, Spider-Man was already aware of what was up, before they grew nervous of the falling buildings.
"Tech what's going on?" Ace questioned on his com link.
"I told you he was a crackpot." He answered back while seeing what was happening through the driver's window. "Let's get goin`." The genius said in a serious tone, but they were interrupted by a strange green glow which in the center held their current enemy.
"I hope you've enjoyed your visit down here because it's become your permanent residence. In fact soon all of Acmetropolis will reside underground, and I will leave in peace on the surface." He said his general idea of what he was about to do while stopping for a while.
"Are you kidding me, doc? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever hoid." The swords-bunny said with a clenched left fist.
"Seriously, you need to buy, 'Super villains for dummies' when you hit topside for a better master plan." Spider added to the mole.
"You won't think it's so funny when your buried in stone, BUNNY." He emphasized the child name of their leader's species while paying no heed over what the arachnid had said. He then motioned his staff and the tremors got worse when they saw green shockwaves come from it.
"Take cover." Ace yelled out to them. They all fled into their Magma Mover and got into position while debris came down upon them.
"Sayonara, Loonatics." Dare said while finishing with a maniacal laugh. As he went through the earth very large chunks came down upon their ride. In a few moments there was a big flash of purple and then Slam throwing the boulders as if they were pebbles.
"Nice work there, Slam." Ace said in a congratulatory manner to the muscle of the team when he came back aboard the ship.
"Anytime." Slam answered to the rabbit.
"We've got to get to Acmetropolis before…" Ace said in a rally the troop's style, but the big screen of the drill turned on with Zadavia already speaking to them.
"Before there is no Acmetropolis." She said to get the others attention before taking off her hood and continuing, "Dr. Dare is continuing to turn the whole world inside out. You must hurry. If you do not do something quickly this madman will bury us all." The signal was cut right after she had said that.
"Let's get this mover movin` before we lose power, too." Ace said and they all worked together to get their underground ride to the surface. Spider was getting too angry over the scared civilians as they ran for cover and of the things that they had worked hard for become lost to them. In half the time as diving the team busted to the surface and Ace was the first one to the door. "Nice drivin`, Tech. Looks like we're…" He stopped for a moment to see the people with their hopeless expressions and continued, "A little late."
"It's Acmetropolis." Lexi said after getting an eyeful, and not believing it.
"Talk about an extreme makeover." Duck said before the seven saw a bright green glow at the tallest rock formation.
"Dare's using the power of the Jade Serpent Crystal to turn our world inside out, so we got to use that gem to reverse it." Tech said while signaling the hidden ATV's to come to them. Six of the seven used those vehicles while wearing helmets and Rev, he was using his flight power.
"I couldn't have said it better myself." Ace said to his green furred friend. Despite their best time of getting up there Rev was definitely faster.
"`Scuse me, coming through, I'll just wait for you at the top. How long do ya think it'll take y'all to get up there? Man, you guys are slow!" The speed demon said before coming to a screeching halt at the top. The others landed right behind him.
'Spider Sense, now don't tell me that Dare is going to break from tradition and fight us face to face.' He thought once he felt a familiar tingling in the back of his head. He then saw a few chunks of earth shape themselves into the minions.
"It's the Rocketts again gang." Ace started after they had fully formed. He then added, "Slam teach them how to twist." The Tasmanian garbled in response, spun his leg, and charged at them with one punch. Right when he was about to make connect the target creature changed the style of dirt that it was at the last moment.
"Sand?" Lexi questioned in surprise at the fact that Slam was trying to pull himself free.
"Who knew?" Ace said back to her before the others and even Spider-Man was blown away by a group sand storm. With his strength Slam threw the creature over his head and slammed him on the ground. After breathing a sigh of relief he heard his name from the male bunny, "SLAM!" The instant that they went over the devil went with tornado legs, flew off of the building, snagged his friend in his cyclone, and dropped them safely back on the battlefield.
"Oh, it's on now." The pink one said and with one Brain Blast sent all of the other soldiers over the edge.
'She must be more ticked off than I am about the missing homes.' Peter thought since he knew full well that power can increase when one in angry. He then heard the field commander compliment her.
"Nice blastin` Lexi. Time to shut that crystal down." The seven then headed inside to face this low-rank super-villain. The moment he got in there Spider could seriously feel an almost mystical vibe to the room and he was not the only who thought so.
"Whoa. Looks like we're in OZ." Lexi said after looking around herself, and that was when Peter opened his mouth.
"Too bad this floating head operator is evil." She got the gist of what he said, but she often wondered why he said such things.
"There's that jade nugget that's been causin` all the trouble." Ace said, pointing to their objective, before him and the others walked over closer to the gem and the machine. Duck went there before the others by quacking there he then pointed at the rock and asked a bone head question.
"So how do we reverse this thing?" They all waited for an answer from one of the egghead's, but the coyote answered first.
"This is just off the top of my head, but I say you can do it with a quanti-amplified charge of intense electromagnetic radiation." Tech said to them, and all but Spider were a little blown by the answer. The spider was grateful over all of the time that he had shared with Reed Richards. Ace was sort of able to understand the last part of it.
"Electro-magga-wagga—wait, wait. Uh, Tech do you mean light?" He question before walking away from the group, mainly in hope of finding an off switch.
"You make it sound so boring." The genius said in an insulted tone. The group was stopped by Dare who was sitting on his throne.
"The Loona-pests…" The team turned to pay attention to him before he continued, "I thought I buried all of you down below." The moment Dare had said that Spider-Man leapt over the machine and landed in front of Ace before spouting off one of his one-liners.
"You know we would have stayed at rock bottom, but there were no decent benefits." Spider said with a smile. The others decided to join in starting with Lexi.
"Haven't you heard, down is the new up." She said while pointing up with her right index finger, even though she wanted to use her middle finger, but she decided to be the bigger person.
"Yeah, we would have called first, but you were unlisted." Ace added to the row of lines while walking around the arachnid.
"And we're going to stop your insidious plan stone cold." Duck said and that was the last one that they could spout as the bald one answered back.
"Stones are my domain duck, but there's no reason you all can't join my little rock group." With a wave of his stone right hand over a panel of gems the crystal went active. It produced several serpents that coiled around the team individually, slowly turning them to stone. Spider stood with his arms across his chest while the others tried to move.
"What's with the rock candy?" Ace asked within grunts of movement. Feeling cocky he decided to humor his prey.
"You'll become my own personal statues, a commemorative of what once was, not that I'm paying tribute to you." They heard what he had to say, but they all wanted him down.
"Ace if we don't shut that machine down now then the whole planet is going-." Tech's statement to his long eared friend was stopped when the rock formed over his mouth, making a stone gag. The main bunny started up his optics and fired at a stalactite which bounced into the Jade Serpent Crystal.
"My lovely Jade crystal! Noooo!" Dare shouted as he saw the stone accept the beam. To his worry the stone transformation stopped and crumbled around the Loonatics. "You'll never catch me." He shouted while trying to make his getaway.
"Hit it Ace, maneuver 2…" Lexi was about to offered but was stopped when she saw Spider-Man leap onto the throne, and then flipped over Dr. Dare; landing in front of doctor.
"Now, Dare, allow me to help force you back under the rock you crawled out from under." The new Loonatic said rather darkly before webbing the man's face with his left arm and then slammed him with his right fist causing the man to tumble down the stairs and right in front of the others.
'What got into him?' Ace thought before pulling out his sword and began to fight him. Dare's staff and Ace's sword clashed after a while Dare threw a kick into the mix, but that did not last long as he was soon on his back.
"Power of the crystal be mine." He shouted at the rock which gave him a little bit more power into his staff. The madman fired a beam which was reflected from Ace's sword, rock ceiling and back onto Dare. "NO!" He shouted before he was turned to stone.
"What a stiff." Ace said humorously while thumbing at the villain. The others joined Spider-Man at the throne to see what they could do. "Well, we got the crystal. Do you think we can reverse it?" He questioned to the canine.
"We? What's with the 'we'? Yes, I can reverse it." Tech answered back and waved his hand over the gem board just like Dare and after some beam glowing from the Jade Serpent Crystal the town was transformed back to civilization.
"Good job, Tech man. You are so smart. I wish I was half as smart as you. I really look up to you. I really do, except not socially because I wouldn't want to spend all of my free time in a lab it would be really sad, but kudos on a job well done." Rev said to his friend while they walked outside to watch as the beams hit more rocks outside and brought back the buildings. Duck and Slam were near the edge and the mallard was the first to spot one of the best towns.
"Oh, look, I think I see New-Chinatown." He said while pointing before going leaning to the bottomless pit and added, "Egg-rolls on me, Slam."
"Egg-rolls, egg-rolls, egg-rolls. Yes!" He shouted enthusiastically with clasped together hands. They stayed there to watch for a few more buildings, but they soon headed for home.
"We should save New-Chinatown from destruction more often. A year supply of free take-out. Excellent." Lexi said while looking at the buffet table in their lounge room, wondering which to eat first. The whole team was there: Ace and Lexi were checking out the food and the spider was looking at it while hanging upside down. The others were just lounging until they saw the face of their founder.
"The calls of thanks are still coming in." Zadavia said while noticing the grin Ace was sporting when she said that but continued just the same, "I also wanted to let you know that Dr. Dare is enjoying his new life as a statue in Acmetropolis Park." The image of the frozen doc and a dog sniffing him in the park appeared on the screen.
"I'm sure the pigeons are thrilled." Ace said sarcastically which made Pete open his mouth.
"Pretty soon that will be the center of all dog territory." He knew back home a few dogs did do such a thing so why not here. Ignoring Spider-Man's statement or the images that she got of several dogs and one statue she decided to continue.
"And we are receiving reports all over that things are returning to normal." She said to the others, and that eased Spider-Man's temper quit a bit. Ace said everyone of his friends were around the table so he decided to play a true nice guy.
"Hey, uh, you sure you don't want to join us for some Moo Goo Guy Pan, Zadavia?" He questioned while with his arms motioned to the spread.
"It is so sweet that you would include me, and as it happens, I am hungry." She answered back with a soft chuckle. She then saw Duck quack in between the rabbits, and she knew what he was about to say.
"Finally! Some face time with the boss lady. We can discuss some new costumes, a better dental plan, a personal biographer." Duck said while at the same time thumbing to himself with his left thumb. Lexi was sporting a: 'you are so pathetic' look while he was talking.
"But alas I have other commitments. Perhaps another time. Zadavia out." She interrupted him and just like that the screen went blank. Duck felt a little insulted at the fact that she left him hanging so he had to ask.
"Was it something that I said?" For an answer came from the male rabbit who seemed be sarcastic again.
"Who you, Duck? Nah. Since when have you ever said the wrong thing." He and the others were about to go with the food, but Ace had to add, "Let's eat." At that moment the old trusty Spider Sense went active and Spider-Man created a web-shield for himself. Despite the white he did see Slam charge through everything: eating all but the table itself.
"That's despicable. Does anyone have a towel? Slam you got to gorge with your mouth closed." Duck said as he and four others were covered in food remains. When that was all over Peter leapt from the ceiling, onto the floor, and headed for the fridge.
"See ya in the morning guys." He said after grabbing a cold Hot Dog, shutting the fridge and headed to his room. He took off his suit and then looked at the camera. 'Good thing I put you in there the night before. He went to bed and just like the last couple of times he was expecting another suit, but this time was seriously different.
"Hi Pete." The voice was the one person that he could turn to for advice and one person he thought he would never see again.
"Uncle Ben." Were the only words that came out of his mouth.
"That's right and don't worry, this is still your mental plan. Now you know of a few strange suits from a few other dreams right?" He questioned and got a nod as an answer. "Well I decided to cut out the middle man." He added and just like that there were a lot of suits surrounding him.
"I know a few, but not all." Peter said and could not even count them all.
"That's why I'm here. To deal with the whole intro thing all I have to do is this." Ben said before tapping his nephew's forehead with his right index and middle finger. In a rush he knew all of the suits names, weapons, and abilities. "Now, did you get all of that?" He questioned and like last time got a nod. "Good, now you may need those guys to help the team, especially a certain pink member." He added with a coy smile which made the web-head blush BIG TIME.
"Uncle Ben." He shouted so loud that he was surprised he didn't wake himself up. His idol just smiled before growing serious.
"Now Pete, I know your style, but you don't have to fight alone the others will always back you up." Ben said before his dream plane went black.