Loonatics: United

Episode 79: Edge Of The Feather

The night had arrived, Derek was inside his lab, looking at his new creature, standing with pride, admiring it from the distance while it rose slowly over the green lighted platform, grunting softly yet monstrously, moving its long, red feathered pterodactyl head with effort, maintaining balance over its eagle feet, surrounded by the darkness of the place. "My beautiful, lethal, Neo Phoenix, are you the one? The one who´ll get rid of those pests?" Derek started to frown while clenching his fists. "Tonight, we´ll show them, they will pay for the death of your brothers." Derek turned and walked towards his workstation, where one of the monitors displayed a live feed of the Loonatics tower. Derek let out a sudden giggle. "No one will get on my way...not even you, Loonatics."

It was two in the morning, the six heroes were sleeping, with a rather peaceful and silent night, then all of a sudden, a thunderous noise was heard, Ace´s ear twitched and he woke up with a gasp then he immediately got off his bed. After putting on his bodysuit, he exited his room and began to hear the loud beastly screams coming from the lab. His teammates got out of their respective rooms and met with him, all suited up already. "It´s coming from the lab, come on!" Ace commanded and headed there followed by his comrades.

The six heroes arrived at the lab, sharing looks of fear and wonder when seeing the winged creature throwing fire and screaming, finding out it had broken in by smashing the window, as a lot broken glass was covering the floor. "It´s burning everything!" Tech exclaimed with great worry. "Sprinklers...now!" From the lab´s ceiling, a set of sprinklers appeared and started to soak the lab, managing to neutralize the beast´s flames, making it furious as it screamed greatly.

"Take it out!" Ace began to shoot his laser vision at the Neo Phoenix, trying to hit its thighs, as they were one of the weak spots Tech had found on the model. "There we´ll deal with it more easily!" He actually managed to barely hit one of the thighs, making the monster to scream with pain and fly backwards instinctively.

"Now´s my turn!" Lexi did a cartwheel followed by a somersault in order to get right in front of the beast.

"Its thighs, Lexi!" Ace reminded.

"Or..." Lexi shot at the neck, causing even more pain to the Neo Phoenix, the creature screamed again and backed away even more, then began to flap violently.

"Nice shot, girl!" Duck praised.

Suddenly and without any kind of warning, the beast flew directly towards Lexi, aiming at her with its beak. Lexi gasped then the beast pierced her side, leaving her stuck against the wall, screaming with great pain. "Gah!"

"Lexi!" Ace ran towards her then the monster backed away, sticking its beak out of her side, making Lexi to fall over the floor while groaning and bleeding. The monster flew out from the lab. Ace crouched and helped her rest her back against the wall, she covered her side with her hand while looking at her boyfriend. "Don´t worry, Tech will help you out, okay? You´ll be fine."

Lexi kept gasping and groaning. "Ace..." She started to close her eyes, blood began to slowly come out from her mouth.

Ace gasped by the anguish he started to feel. "Tech!" He yelled desperately. "Tech!"

Tech approached them rapidly and crouched, carrying Lexi with both arms. "I´ll take care of her, you guys go there and kill that brat!" He had noticed that the infirmary was undamaged. Ace nodded firmly at him while standing up, then he glared at Duck, Rev and Slam, gesturing at the outside afterwards, he activated his jetpack and exited the lab that way, followed by his teammates.

The monster was fluttering outside of the tower, looking at the four hovering heroes with its penetrating red eyes. Duck was the first one to attack. "This one..." He had cooked a pair of orbs. "...goes for Lexi!" He threw them at the monster´s face, they exploded and their intense heat and light blinded the monster for a moment, it screamed and growled with desperation while throwing fire randomly.

Rev flew towards the beast´s neck while dodging the fire breath with precise turns, then he backed his clenched fist and right when he got in front of the monster´s neck, he punched it while using his super speed at the same time, managing to give it a strong, impactful hit. The beast screeched loudly, coughing several times while it´s breath turned into intermittent smoke. "You wan´t more? Cause there´s more, oh that´s for sure!"

The monster screeched one last time and looked directly at Ace, flying towards him, intending to use the same attack he had hurt Lexi with, Ace was focused on the tip of the beak, he moved slightly rightwards after the monster got close enough to him, he closed his eyes and gasped briefly, managing to grasp the beak with both hands, unharmed while the beast kept flying forward, Ace turned off his jetpack while the monster transported him. He was looking directly into the beast´s eyes, enraged and committed, he then briefly looked over his shoulder, noticing they were about to hit a building, heading to its large windows. Ace looked back at the monster then closed his eyes.

The impact was strong and violent, Ace screamed when hitting the glass of the windows, breaking them completely, letting go the monster´s beak, falling over the floor, hearing an impact at the distance. He gasped several times while trying to stand up, looking at his surroundings, noticing the floor they broke in was under an early stage of construction. He rubbed his back while effortfully getting over his feet. "Where are you, stupid beast?" He stood there, looking into the darkness. "Show yourself!"

Ace started to hear distant growls, discovering they were coming from ahead, he got over one knee and waited while the growling got louder, he started to see the shape of the creature, dark, except for its eyes, which retained that red tone of theirs, he kept waiting and then began to distinguish the beast´s red feathers. He slowly raised his knee off the ground, getting in a crouching position. Finally, the Neo Phoenix approached him, growling loudly with its large, open beak. Ace jumped over the monster, flipping backwards, spotting its nape briefly, there he activated his laser vision and managed to shoot directly at it. He landed gracefully on the floor, straightening right after so, then looked over his shoulder, seeing how the creature was shaking and screeching over the ground. Ace turned and ran towards the beast, readying his laser vision. Before he could try to shoot again, the beast turned its head at him and started to throw fire, Ace gasped and rapidly got on his stomach, feeling the heat of the fire just above him, he turned over himself then stood up when reaching a safe spot.

The beast, which had recovered and was flapping again, kept throwing fire at Ace, he dodged it repeatedly with jumps, crouches and flips, counter attacking with his laser vision, having a hard time hitting the right spots, all of his attempts just collided over the creature´s modified feathers. The Neo Phoenix was determined to burn Ace down. "Improved vision, huh?!" Ace was starting to get tired so he decided to activate his jetpack, flying around and over the beast to keep dodging the intense fire breath. "I don´t buy it!" He flew forward to position next to the beast´s side, he then shot his laser vision at the beast´s neck, managing to hit it this time. The monster roared beastly and flapped with desperation, stopping throwing its fire, screeching and looking at Ace with even more rage. "Prepare for the final blow, birdie!" Ace deactivated his jetpack and ran towards the monster once again, determined to end the fight. The Neo Phoenix drew back its leg and when Ace got close enough, it pulled its claws even further and strongly pierced his side, between the waist and the hips. He screamed loudly while grasping the claw, seeing how his blood slowly came out from his side, gasping and groaning. The monster was raising him right before its long, pointy beak. Ace looked into the beast´s eyes again, now unsure about the possible outcome of the battle.

Suddenly, a glowing, orange orb hit the monster´s face, making it to scream with rage, but not releasing Ace from its piercing claw. That was until a red blur appeared all of a sudden, jumping briefly and giving a strong punch at the beast´s thigh, hurting the monster even more. Rev landed in a crouching position then straightened quickly. Duck flew towards Ace with his jetpack and placed a hand on his arm then teleported, removing him from the beast´s claw, taking him to a spot further away from the monster, still in the same floor, laying him down for a moment while looking at his severely wounded side. "Oh man this isn´t right, should I take you back to the HQ or you still feel like fighting that thing?"

"Duck..." Ace gasped after looking at his comrade with a quite straight face.

"Oh, to the HQ then." Duck kept grasping his arm and teleported back to the headquarters, as Ace clearly wanted and needed.

On the meantime, Slam and Rev were finishing the job, Slam using his tornado, continuously surrounding the beast while jumping and punching its weak spots, the same thing Rev was doing with the help of his superspeed. Then both heroes stopped for a moment, next to each other and several steps away from the beast who yelled and screeched loudly and with great suffering. "Wan´t to finish the play, Slam?" Rev inquired.

Slam growled with concur, responding with another sport reference while thundering his fingers and walking towards the Neo Phoenix, which was now barely standing over its feet.