Loonatics: United

Episode 16: Vital Frolic

Ace laid over his improvised bed, the sun was still barely doting the cloudy and gray sky with light, it was bright enough to wake him up, along with the help of the soft cold of the morning. He got into his feet slowly; he stretched and yawned before exiting his cave and approaching Slam to wake him up. "Slam." He mumbled and kicked his big friend's shoulder gently. "I need your help."

Slam groaned and looked at Ace with subtle anger, he had expelled him from a deep sleep, then he sighed and stood up. He growled with question.

"Today we'll get resources, can you wake everyone up?" Ace asked.

Slam raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms while lowering his head.

Ace nodded. "Yes Slam, all of us, or tell me you aren't hungry."

Slam's stomach betrayed him as it roared heavily. Slam snarled and nodded, then he raised his fists and punched the rocky ground with strength, making the cave place to shake as some small rocks and dirt fell with the movement. Almost instantly, Slam and Ace heard the screams of everybody as they got out of their respective places in a hurry, while Tech had just fallen from his hammock after he gasped.

"Quakes, just what we needed." Duck gazed at his surroundings attentively.

Tech stood up as he rubbed his head and noticed that the cave place had stopped shaking. "And very brief ones, it seems."

"Relax, it was just Slam."Ace explained.

Duck frowned as he took a few steps towards Slam. "You again! I thought we were in good terms!"

Ace stopped Duck in his way by putting his hand over his head. "I asked him to do so; I need all of you to work today, we have to get food."

Duck removed Ace's hand off of his head. "Fine! I'm starving, but don't you dare do that again, both of you!" He pointed at them warningly.

"And him?" Anne asked, she and Matt were at Adam's sides while he was already able to stand on his own.

"I don't know, depends on him, how are you feeling bud?" Ace inquired.

Adam stepped a few times right where he was standing. "Uhm." He nodded and looked at Ace. "I think I'll be fine, and I want to help."

"Good, but still, you two will go with him, just in case." Ace commanded.

"No problem." Anne said, Matt just growled in silence and nodded option-less.

"Alright." Ace glanced at Lexi. "You'll go with me, Lexi, the rest of you are doing another group." He then noticed Rev's indifference as he was just leaning over a wall. "Am I clear? Rev?" He ignored Ace's question. "Rev?!"

Rev growled. "Yeah, yeah, boss, food, get in groups, oh wait!" He disappeared from their sight after a red blur and then returned with them by the side of a great pile of fruit. "It seems I've already done my part." He gestured arrogantly and went back to his cave.

"Rev…" Ace got interrupted by Lexi, who just walked towards him.

"Leave him alone, Ace." Lexi said. "We have work to do."

Ace sighed. "Okay, then." He looked at everyone else. "Get going, guys, gather everything you can carry."

Matt, Anne and Adam were inside of a place covered with foliage, full of small, semi-transparent fruits, with some blue on their center, Adam was the first one who noticed them and took a pair to keep them inside his clenched hand. "Look guys, do you think these are edible?"

Matt took one and studied it briefly, then he smelled it and put it in his mouth, his eyes widened as he munched it. "Oh my…" He said with his mouth still full.

"Spit it out then!" Anne said worriedly.

"No…" Matt swallowed the fruit. "It's amazing! Give it a try!"

Adam ate one as he handed Anne the other fruit he had left. Anne ate it doubtfully, but then she reacted the same way as Matt did. "Oh my…my taste buds won't be the same ever again."

"We should take a plenty of these things." Adam added.

Matt was showing his undershirt; he had taken off his jacket and folded it in a way that it served as a bag, which had allowed him to keep a lot of that fruit. "Presto!" He carried the jacket turned a bag over his shoulder.

Meanwhile, Slam, Duck and Tech were gathering more fruit from a tree with the help of a long stick Tech had found. "Come to me, don't be afraid." Tech said as he hit the green fruit of the top of the tree with the tip of the stick, then he managed to hit three of them and made them fall, Slam reacted fast and caught them all.

"What are you? Some sort of weird, fruit whisperer?" Duck asked jokingly.

"What? Everybody talks to inanimate objects like if they are people once in a while to focus." Tech argued.

Slam shook his head and growled with doubt.

"Yeah Tech, no one does that." Duck said.

"Tell that to my article about confidence and object humanization in stressful situations in Acmetropolis' Science and Research Magazine!" Tech replied.

Duck rolled his eyes. "Whatever, mad genius." He crouched and tried to lift two of those green fruits from the ground. "Come on…" He struggled to stand up while carrying the weight of the fruits.

"Uhm, why don't you simply teleport yourself and the fruits to the cave?" Tech crossed his arms.

"Oh." Duck nodded, then he disappeared from their sight.

Tech chuckled and shook his head, then he grabbed more fruits from the ground. "Come on Slam, let's take this to the cave."

"Maybe we shouldn't take that one." Ace pointed at the big, red and spherical fruit that Lexi was looking at as she was crouching before it.

Lexi ripped a piece from the fruit. "Why?"

"It looks, dangerous." Ace replied.

"Well, Tech is a doctor." Lexi stood up with the piece of fruit on her hand.

"Yeah but…" Ace sighed. "Fine, but, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Okay." Lexi opened her mouth and just before she could put the red piece of fruit inside, Ace took it away from her. "Ace!" She looked at him with confusion.

"Let me do it; I don't want anything bad to happen to you." Ace said.

"My hero." Lexi said sarcastically.

"Okay, it's just a weird, odd looking fruit from another planet." Ace had his gaze locked on the piece of fruit he was holding in front of his face, hesitant to even open his mouth a little bit.

"Come on Ace, you are braver than that!" Lexi complained.

"Okay! Okay! I was just…okay." Ace finally ate the red fruit, his eyes widened almost instantly. "Oh…"

"Is it good? Let me…" Lexi couldn't finish the sentence as she saw Ace spitting out the fruit aggressively and trying to clean his tongue with his hands.

"Nope." Ace coughed. "Discarded."

Lexi couldn't resist and started to laugh right in front of him, pointing at him as she laughed strongly. "Your face!" She dropped herself to the ground as her own laugh was too much for her. "Was it?" Her laugh started to fade into intermittent chuckles. "Spicy, bitter?" She cleaned a tear from her face and got into her feet with a smile. "I'm glad you had it instead of me."

Ace coughed one last time. "Yeah, enjoy watching the poor guy with a sour mouth!"

Lexi chuckled again. "You must admit that it was very funny."

Ace shook his head. "Forget about it already, at least we now know this isn't an option." He started to walk away and then was suddenly hit with the fruit on the back of his head. "Ouch!" He turned his gaze towards Lexi. "What was that?"

Lexi took the spherical fruit and started to bounce it over the grass. "Maybe it's not for eating, but for playing!" She threw it again towards him and hit his face.

Ace groaned. "Do you want to play? Well…" He took the fruit from the ground and returned her the hit. While they kept playing with the fruit turned ball and moving across the place, they didn't notice they were already playing inside of the pool at the center of the haven. They laughed and threw the ball with no care in the world, not noticing that the rest of the team was looking at them a few meters away.

"Uhm, they are throwing a fruit, on the pool, not working." Duck said.

Tech raised an eyebrow and smirked. "It looks kind of fun, though." He approached the pool and dived in the water, then he swam to the space between them and jumped towards the ball over him and intercepted it.

"This cannot be! Come on we are stranded! We are adults, and we have no time for silly games oh who I'm fooling that looks fun as heck!" Duck exclaimed and teleported to the pool to join them.

Slam had gone to a little cliff over the pool; he took impulse and ran fast towards the edge as he growled with euphoria, then he jumped and dived in the pool like a cannonball, making a huge amount of water to splash over everyone.

"My suit!" Anne said as she shook her arms to get some water off them.

"Come on!" Matt dropped the bag with fruit and took her hand to take her to the pool, but she refused to move.

"Matt! No!" Anne warned and gazed at Adam, who was just looking curious at the drops of water falling from his hands."We have to watch over him!"

Adam gazed at them both then he looked directly at her. "Go, have fun." He smiled. "I'll be right here." He sat down over the grass with his legs crossed.

Anne glanced at the pool. "Are you sure?" She looked at Adam again.

"Don't worry, I am fine." Adam replied.

"O…kay then." Anne began to walk towards the pool, as Matt followed her, he turned his gaze back to Adam, who nodded at him with a smirk, Matt smiled and returned the nod, then he continued his way to the pool.

While everyone played and laughed together, Adam looked at them with peace, and joy, not the same as Rev, who was on the cave place, glancing their game from the distance with his arms crossed, a part of him wanted to join the party, but his pride didn't let him go.