Loonatics: United

Episode 60: Treed

Tech was hovering over the several workers that constantly shot at him with acid, he dodged the shots with rapid twists and turns, flying between the pipelines, tubes and structures of the zone, which were being damaged by the acidic attacks he was managing to avoid. The workers intuited his targets were Dan and Darcy, so he was finding it difficult to reach them.

The situation was not different to Ace, as he was also being attacked by several workers from below. A shot of acid almost hit him, but he reacted soon enough to fly up and turn backwards, being upside down for a couple of seconds then back to the normal hovering position. He let out a sigh of frustration and activated his comm. "Tech, I can't reach them."

"Same here…" Tech's gasp was heard on the comm. "…I'm afraid we'll have to counter-attack."

Ace sighed. "Affirmative." He activated his laser vision and began to shoot at the workers, burning them with the heat of his power, they screamed with fear while getting hurt by Ace's burn, they began to dissipate and hide from the laser. Tech, on the meantime, was tearing apart some tubes and metallic grids from his surroundings, he manipulated them and turned them into dozens of little metallic rocks, then he backed his arms and moved them fast towards the workers with a gasp of effort. The rocks flew as projectiles towards them and they began to get hit by Tech's improvised and effective attack, some of them fell down unconscious by the strength of the hits and others kept shooting acid at Tech despite of the falling rocks, which were also damaging the ground's concrete. Ace and Tech had almost cleared two paths completely. "Rev." Ace said through his comm. "The road is clear."

Rev was using his superspeed, passing by several buildings while punching the workers he encountered on his way, managing to knock down a considerable number. He lifted his arm to get his comm close to his beak. "What road?" He rapidly looked at his sides. "I don't see any road I don…" He then noticed there weren't many enemies between him and the targets like before. "Oh…" He now understood Ace's phrase. "Oh I get it now it's easier for me to reach those guys and start punching and kicking and j…"

"Rev!" Ace exclaimed at his comm, same as Tech.

"Okay, okay, got it…" Rev ran rapidly towards the few workers that were still standing, he punched the ones he got close enough from and evaded the ones who laid over the floor, then he reached the backside of the warehouse and ran over the wall upwards, he then arrived at the rooftop in a blink, stopping right behind Dan and Darcy, with a red trace fading slowly behind him. "Hello?" Rev poked Dan's shoulder then rapidly got away from him and hid behind a vent on a corner of the rooftop.

Dan turned and his eyes widened when seeing no one, he raised an eyebrow and growled, raising his hands menacingly and making them to glow. "The fast one…" He certainly recognized the heroes who were ruining his plan. "...you think you can hide from us…" He backed his arm, raising it a bit more. "Well…" With no more warning, he shot at the vent where Rev was hiding, destroying it, making it to melt. There was no one behind the fumes of the melted vent.

"Hey, over here!" Rev said from the opposite corner, standing there while dusting off his shoulder with mockery.

Darcy ran towards him and jumped with her hands ready to shoot, but then she got kicked by Ace as he landed with his jetpack over the rooftop, getting over one knee next to her. "Hey, sorry about that!" Ace stood up and offered her his hand. "You surrender now?" Darcy growled and while standing up, she took his hand and pulled him frontwards, making him to turn over. Ace fell over his back with a groan. Darcy stood up and got before him, readying her raised hand. Ace gasped and pretended to chuckle. "I had to try." He shot his laser vision at her shoulder, Darcy let out a scream of pain and got over her knees while rubbing her wound. "Dan!"

"Darcy!" Dan exclaimed while seeing her hurt, smoke was exiting from the wound on her shoulder. He got suddenly hit by the last of Tech's metallic rocks, he yelled by the pain and fell down, rubbing his head. He looked at the palm of his hand and noticed the green blood on it. He groaned and stood up effortfully, rubbing his head again. Tech landed behind him. Dan felt cornered as Ace was in front of him and Rev at his left, all of them just watching him.

"Surrender!" Ace walked towards him. "There's nowhere to go!"

Dan lowered his gaze, glaring at the rooftop's concrete. He chuckled and made his hands glow then shot at the ground around his feet, melting it and falling into the warehouse's inside. As it wasn't a great height, he fell over the ground without too much pain or trouble, he groaned while getting into his feet, looking at the racks, boxes and all type of tools, machines and equipment that were kept there. Dan looked at his side and saw a small space between the racks and boxes so he crouched and started to drag himself towards there to hide from the Loonatics.

Ace walked towards the hole cautiously and looked at Tech and Rev, gesturing at the warehouse's inside, they both nodded and jumped in there followed by Ace, the three landed gracefully on the concrete floor. Ace studied the place with his glare while walking, same as his comrades. Dan was looking at them from behind a rack, being covered by stacked, black boxes. He had his hands glowing, ready to attack.

Darcy was groaning and trembling, rubbing her arm with pain. She slowly began to get into her feet, between gasps, groans and a great effort. She looked at the hole and started to walk towards there.

Meanwhile, Lexi was fighting a group of workers hand to hand, dodging their rudimentary fight moves and replying with precise kicks and punches, crouching and gradually dispatching the rivals that surrounded her, jumping occasionally to avoid their sudden acidic shots. Duck was throwing orbs at them, some of them hit the workers directly and others exploded over the ground, with their expansive wave being enough to bring the enemies to the ground. Slam was attacking them with his tornado, moving rapidly among the hordes and sending the workers far away from him with a single hit, with screams of fear being briefly heard. He stopped using his signature ability and decided to combat them hand to hand, running at the ones who were shooting acid at him and failed by his reactive dodges, he approached them and just started to throw strong punches at them, neutralizing the hostile workers with ease.

Lexi defeated two enemies with a single flying kick, gasping as she was getting tired, she then looked at Duck, who was still throwing orbs at the workers with casual evasive teleports that helped him avoid their shots. "For how long you th..?" Lexi punched a worker who tried to confront her, getting him instantly unconscious. She maintained her combat position. "For how long you think we'll have to distract them?"

"Don't ask me!" Duck cooked and threw orbs rapidly at the enemies that tried to attack him.

Lexi sighed, activating her brain blast again. "Alright, then." She looked at the front, seeing more workers heading towards them.

Author's note: Hi! Thank you so much for the support you've given to the story, I really appreciate it. This saga has turned two years old, it's just too awesome, it started as something very casual and experimental but it has become something much bigger, a chance that God has given me to share new adventures with you and these fantastic characters, I repeat, it's just so awesome, a blessing, as all of you readers, there are many years ahead for Loonatics: United, I'm sure the next year will be a blast! Keep in touch. Merry Christmas!

God bless you

Grant