Loonatics: United

Episode 43: Cataclysm (part 7)

Author's note II: I had to republish this chapter, while I was writing the next one I found out a continuity error, there were two jets, one in space and the other on Acmetropolis, and I had to correct that, so the Loonatics just head to Quantal with their jetpacks instead of the jet, that's pretty much what I changed, nothing substantial. I'm sorry for that, I have to pay more attention while writing.

In the Loonatics HQ, at the lounge, Matt and Anne were sitting on the larger couch that faced the television, while Peyton was sitting on the one at the right, next to Slam. She occasionally looked at Anne, trying to apologize for the discussion they had in their own headquarters, but she feared that Anne could be still too upset with her. Finally, she decided to break the silence in the room. "Anne." She made her to look at her. "I…" She rubbed her arm while glancing a bit away. "I'm sorry."

Anne stood silent for a second, then she glared away from her and kept a straight face. "Okay."

Peyton lowered her head, knowing that her friend indeed was still angry, Slam noticed this and patted her back reassuringly. Matt had his eyebrow raised, he looked at his girlfriend and put a hand over her shoulder. "Is something wrong?" He murmured.

Anne shook her head, crossing her arms and letting out a sigh. "Not now, hon."

Peyton was resting her head on Slam's arm, almost falling asleep, Slam just looked at her, trying to figure out the feelings he was experiencing.

In the lab, Tech was taking the three newly made bracelets from the printer over the workstation, he then approached Ace and showed them to him. "They're ready."

Ace nodded and took the bracelets. "Good job, Doc." He said. "We are leaving now."

"You are forgetting something, boss." Tech walked towards a chest of drawers and from the first drawer he took three more bracelets, the ones they used back when they confronted Mourn. He approached him and handed him a bracelet. "Now, we are good to go." He smirked while putting on his own.

Ace smiled back. "Thanks, Doc." He put on his bracelet and turned to glance at the lab's door, ready to go on the mission. "Let's do this." He spoke with hope and a renewed confidence.

Everybody had put on their respective bracelets, the two teams were in the HQ's hangar, discussing the mission. "As soon as we arrive, we'll reach the castle and take them out of there, by any means, understand?" Ace commanded.

"Understood, Ace." Matt confirmed, then Peyton, who was listening from the chopper's pilot seat, turned on the flying vehicle in wait for her boss and Anne to hop in. "We are all good to go."

"Alright, then." Ace said. "Slam, Tech." He looked at his teammates. "Let's jet!"

The teams passed above the city's innumerable buildings, heading to the desert zone where Quantal was. The sun made the black, metallic surfaces of A.R.M.'s helicopter and the Loonatics' jetpacks to shine while en route to their destination, which was already getting in their sight.

"We'll reach the castle first." Ace told Matt through his comm. "Can you land your chopper on the mountain?"

"No problem, Ace." Matt replied.

"Alright, get prepared." Ace cut the communication, and after a couple of minutes, they were already flying at the city's airspace. Ace and Tech were looking at the disaster that the villains had made there, seeing the dead soldiers and the destruction. He sighed and shook his head while contemplating the scene. "Too much mess for just three people."

Tech nodded. "But not for long, boss. Not for long." The three Loonatics landed over a white and blue rooftop, it was not a tall building so the castle was still at a great height of distance.

"Come on." Ace commanded, who was hesitant about activating his jetpack, as an old fear was bothering him. Tech glared at him, ready to go.

"At your signal, boss." Tech said.

Ace let out a brief sigh. "Sure." He activated his jetpack and headed to the castle, then Tech and Slam followed him.

After a short flight, they reached the top of the mountain and landed there along with A.R.M.'s chopper, just in front of the castle's facade. Matt and the rest got down their vehicle and met with the Loonatics, glancing at the castle's aperture. "Woah." Peyton expressed, amazed by the castle's architecture, having now the chance to look at it more closely. "This is beautiful!"

"I gotta admit." Matt said. "Adam has talent for these things."

Anne rolled up her eyes. "Yeah, it's awesome, can we just fight already?"

Slam grolwed with concurrence and let out a monstruous growl, throwing punches at the air.

Ace nodded with a straight face, his eyes locked at the abrupt entrance that the villains had made. "We fight now." He said with a determined voice and walked decidedly towards the entrance, followed by the rest. They all entered the castle and saw the three villains expecting them, Magnus was frowning at them while floating between Heather and Quentin. Ace smirked mockingly at Magnus. "It seems you've found a replacement for your power." Magnus growled with anger and tried to attack him with his mind, but nothing happened.

Tech chuckled. "We have bad news for you." He crossed his arms. "Those are old tricks."

Quentin frowned at them, staying where he was. "You won't take away what is mine by right, Loonatics."

From the distance, Anne spotted the cage that kept Adam captive in a corner at the bottom of the throne room, she gasped and immediately tried to rush towards there, but Magnus attacked her with an energy sphere, she groaned by the hit and smashed onto a wall then fell to the floor, hurt badly.

Quentin glared from the scene to the heroes, smirking with confidence. "Maybe not that old."

"Anne!" Matt yelled and hurried rapidly towards her in order to aid her, but Heather glitched the floor below his feet and raised it, throwing him upwards and making him to fall painfully to the floor. He groaned while trying to overcome the several aches he felt.

Ace growled and readied his laser vision, he ran towards Heather followed by Tech and she started to throw spikes of glitch at them, Ace and Tech dodged them successfully, both of them confronted her and Ace began to shoot his laser at her but she knelt down and made a shield of glitch, which blocked Ace's continuous attack. Tech raised his hands and started to gather metal pieces from the outside, from scraps and bolts to cans and posts, all of that metal entering through the aperture and gathering in a sphere shape above Tech.

Quentin was hiding behind one of the thrones, watching the battle. "You can deal with them, sweetheart. You can do it." He murmured.

Meanwhile, Slam was fighting with Magnus, dodging his purple, energy peaks with his tornado, he let out a cocky growl when getting right before Magnus then jumped slightly with a tornado impulse and punched his face, only managing to hurt him a bit, even if he hit him with all of his strength. Magnus laughed and formed two dark purple spheres over the palms of his hands, smirking evilly at him. "You are weak…inferior." He backed his arms and then threw the spheres at the floor right in front of Slam's feet, destroying and cracking it and sending Slam far away from him.

With several hits, Slam growled and bumped until he almost reached the castle's entrance, where Peyton was taking cover behind a column. She approached Slam, who was laying on the floor. She got closer to him to help him stand up, only managing to lift his arm. "Slam!" She said, Slam groaned and used her help, getting up quite effortfully. "Oh, that guy…are you okay?"

Slam growled jokingly, stating he didn't recognize her, but his subtle chuckle evidenced him.

Peyton sighed. "That's not funny, you know this is a life or de…" She gasped again when seeing Magnus approaching them fast, floating with his fists clenched, Slam snarled and got in front of Peyton, protecting her.

"Fall before my power!" Magnus yelled and tried to punch him with both fists, but Slam caught them with his hands and put resistance, frowning and grunting at Magnus while resisting the increasing strength.

Heather was defensive as she was still taking cover behind the glitched shield she held, crouching and giving small steps backwards while Ace shot his laser. Ace sighed with frustration and decided to jump on the shield, action that caused Heather to fall to the floor, gasping and laying there, dropping the shield, Ace landed next to her with his power ready, he focused on her shoulder and began to shoot at it, making her to scream by the intense pain.

"No!" Quentin stood up and exited from his cover, hurrying towards Ace, who didn't see him coming and got tackled. They both fell to the ground, Ace stopped using his power and rapidly freed himself from Quentin's hold by kneeling his stomach, making the fox to groan and stay on the floor. Ace stood up rather quickly but Heather had recovered, she was standing in front of him, covering her wounded shoulder.

"You'll pay for…" Heather groaned. "This…bunny." With her free hand she glitched the ground under Ace's feet and from it grew transparent, irregular structures which she used to cuff Ace's legs and Arms, only leaving free his clenched fists.

Ace moved uselessly in his sudden prison, gasping and frowning at her. "Tech…I could use some help now!" He turned a bit to look at his comrade.

Tech let out a gasp of effort when finishing constructing the big, metal sphere he was forming. "Almost…" He opened his eyes and looked at Heather. "Done!" He screamed when using all his strength to throw the metallic sphere at Heather, which hit her directly on the face, she hit the floor several times until reaching the wall, bumping her head on it and getting stunned by the hit.

Quentin finally got into his feet, rubbing his aching belly, then he gasped when seeing Heather resting against the wall, with her eyes almost completely closed. "Love!" He rushed towards her.

Tech walked towards Ace, still controlling the huge, metallic sphere, he stood in front of him and backed his arm along with the floating object. "I'll get you out, boss." He smirked. "Just don't move."

Ace put a straight face but then grinned a little bit. "So funny, Doc." He instinctively closed his eyes, then Tech began to hit the transparent prison with the sphere, breaking it into several pieces of glitch until Ace got completely free. Ace dusted off his suit and Tech dropped the ball on the floor, making a big hole on it by the sphere's weight. Ace gave him a thumbs up. "Thank you, Doc. I'll help Slam with Magnus, you take care of Matt and Anne." Tech nodded, then turned and went for Anne first.

Slam groaned constantly as Magnus hit him with energy spheres, he was starting to get tired, Peyton was hiding behind a column, trying to cheer him up. "He is not rival for you Slam! You beat him before!"

Slam growled in response when crouching to dodge an attack, stating it was a different case. He managed to approach Magnus, he didn't hesitate to jump and try to punch his face, but Magnus grasped his neck. Slam coughed and tried to get free with his tornado, but Magnus' grasp was very strong. Magnus smiled and looked at him with his white eyes.

"Is this how a fallen hero looks before the end?" Magnus began to choke him even more fiercely. "Pathetic."

Ace arrived and shot his laser at Magnus, hitting his side. Magnus growled with an echo and let go off Slam, who fell down over one knee, then Ace and Peyton approached him then helped him to get up. "Come on, big guy." He gasped when managing to get him over his feet. "We can beat him, together." Just after that, Tech met with them along with Matt and Anne, who had almost recovered but stood with his aid.

"Ace." Tech looked at Magnus' eyes of fury. "We need the others."

Ace nodded. "I kn…"

"I'm not done with you!" With the help of Quentin, Heather stood again before them, with both arms aiming at the floor between her and the heroes, who were just in front of the aperture. She moved her hands towards them and made a wave with the castle's floor after glitching it, the wave moved fast so they couldn't evade it, they all gasped when getting hit by the strength of the wave, the attack was too strong that it send them beyond the surface outside of the castle, which also merged with the wave Heather had created and with that the chopper also started to fall just as them.

The three Loonatics rapidly activated their jetpacks while falling and each one of them grabbed a member of A.R.M., Ace held Anne, Tech grabbed Matt and Slam carried Peyton, then they headed to the rooftop of the building where they had landed before. The chopper had gotten totally destroyed. They landed on the rooftop safely and Tech glared at the castle over the mountain, just as the rest. "I insist, boss." He looked at Ace. "We really need the others."

Ace stood silent for a moment, looking at the castle with a glare of defeat. "I know, Doc." He replied. "We are heading back to the HQ."

Author's note: Again, sorry for the delay. You may still expect weekly-ish updates from now on but maybe not in a precise day, but don't worry, the updates will continue.