Loonatics: United
Episode 80: Deedful Night
Slam did his tornado and rapidly approached the Neo Phoenix, punching it on the neck, making it growl and lay over the floor while groaning and screeching. Slam jumped while still using his tornado and started to punch the ceiling over the monster while spinning, growling and gasping while punching it, cracking it rapidly. The beast started to stand up again, but a huge piece of cracked concrete fell strongly over it thanks to Slam´s efforts. Slam stopped doing his tornado right before the crushed monster, dusting off his hands while chuckling proudly. A pond of blood started to come out from the dead beast under the concrete. Rev got suddenly next to Slam. "Nice one big guy a bit extreme but effective man I mean look at that it looks gross."
Ace started to open his eyes, the blurriness of his sight began to fade away and everything became clearer, he was inside the infirmary, for a moment all he could think about was on the brightness of the lights around him, but then he started to remember as he felt a pain on his side. Ace gasped and looked at his wound, which had been covered with Tech´s experimental, healing gauze, thing he could see right away as he was only wearing the bottom part of his bodysuit, the other part was just loose over the floor, because Ace was actually laying over a pad, next to the infirmary´s actual bed. He gasped and stood up with a great pain and effort, finding it extremely difficult to do so, holding from the edge of the bed, managing to feel the fur of Lexi´s arm, Ace gasped again and finally got onto his feet, placing both hands over Lexi´s arm. She was wearing a hospital gown. Ace got relieved when she opened her eyes slowly, blinking and taking his hand, looking at him with somnolence. "Sweetie." Lexi said with a calm voice.
Ace chuckled suddenly as she was doing better as he had feared. "Hi."
A gasp was heard behind Ace. It was Tech who had just entered the infirmary. "Boss! You need rest!" He approached Ace and placed both hands on his shoulders while trying to get him back over the pad.
Ace placed a hand on Tech´s arm and lowered it down. "Thanks, Doc. But I..." He groaned and gasped. "I´m fine...kind of."
"No, you are not." Tech insisted, grasping his arm gently. "That thing hurt you to death, Ace, same as Lexi." He raised an eyebrow. "And why are you even standing?"
Ace chuckled and looked at him over his shoulder. "It was no easy task, Doc." He gasped and looked back at his girlfriend. "But I needed to see her." He caressed her arm.
"I love you...so much." Lexi whispered while chuckling a bit.
"Those are the sedatives." Tech stated, his eyes widened afterwards. "Oh, I still need to apply yours, by the way, lay down." He pointed at the pad.
"I´m okay, Doc." Ace said with a straight tone, slowly pulling his hand away from Lexi´s arm, rubbing his covered wound while gasping a bit. "I can deal with this." He looked at Tech with a straight face. "Those beasts won´t fall if I stay here, drugged...disabled."
"Well, maybe not, but..." Tech got interrupted.
"I´ve spoken, Doc." Ace said with a conclusive tone.
"Boss, with all due respect...that´s insane, you need to rest, I could barely save your internal organs, you are not at your one hundred, not even seventy." Tech insisted.
Ace was clenching his fist. "I won´t let that imbecile get away with this." He turned and looked at Tech with a straight face. "Are you with me, Doc.?"
Tech looked at him for a long moment then let out a sigh. "You know I always are, boss."
"Good." Ace carefully put the upper part of his bodysuit back on then walked past Tech and exited the infirmary, followed by him.
Right in that moment, Rev appeared before them, with a vanishing red trace behind him. "Good news guys! Oh Ace I thought you would be in the infirmary."
"Yeah, that should be the case." Tech briefly looked at Ace with eyes of disapproval.
"Oh well it happens that me and Slam smashed that thing you know the bird-pterodactyl monster and now it´s just a pile of hash." Rev explained.
Slam entered the lab while grunting arrogantly, crossing his arms and gesturing with presumption while resting his back on the wall.
"Good job, guys." Ace praised. "I think it´s time to change our strategy." He looked at Tech. "We are gonna track him down."
"I can do an exhaustive research on that guy, maybe I´ll find something useful." Tech headed to the main computer and started to type on the keyboard.
"Derek Dune." Rev informed.
"I know, I know." Tech said with annoyance.
"How long?" Ace asked.
Tech sighed. "I don´t know, just give me some time." Ace nodded and started to walk away. "Hey, where are you going?"
"To the training room." Ace answered and left the lab.
Tech sighed with frustration while shaking his head. "Man is he stubborn."
The darkness of the simulation room surrounded Ace, who was clenching one fist as he was rubbing his side with the other hand, he breathed in and out slowly as his ear twitched. He closed his eyes and got in a battle position, then he started to hear several beeping noises which then turned into loud mechanical sounds, the ones of hovering, round drones that started to fly above, he jumped instinctively after the rapid lasers began to come out from the drone´s barrels, coming from all directions, he dodged them with several jumps and crouches until he ran towards the wall and used its surface to jump at one of the drones, punching it strongly while letting out a loud gasp, disabling the drone that then fell over the ground. He landed safely and groaned by the pain he felt on his side, standing up quickly but with a lot of effort. The remaining drones grouped and started to shoot their lasers at him again, Ace started to run away from them, being chased by the drones. After giving a couple of laps inside the area he did a somersault leftwards and activated his laser vision, aiming directly at the drones, shooting without hesitation, hitting all of them successfully.
Ace kept rubbing his side while seeing the drones exploding and vanishing into mere pixels. The lights went on and Ace took a moment to recover his breath, then he exited the simulation room through the automatic door, entering the general area of the training room, heading to the hand to hand combat area, getting his feet over the red mat and starting to hit the punching bag right away. He threw quick, rhythmical punches at the bag, which moved considerably with each precise hit he gave, he also hit it with his knees and feet, maintaining his set of kicks and punches in a homogeneous manner. Ace gasped and sighed stronger as the minutes passed, without missing any single hit, maintaining the rhythm, refusing to give in to the tiredness. The pain on his side was very strong, but that didn´t stop him either, his gasps became louder while he increased the speed of his kicks and punches, keeping the bag always moving.
Ace had Lexi in his mind, her green eyes and blond hair, her smile and laugh, her yellow fur, although he knew she was doing fine in the infirmary, it always pained him exceedingly when something or someone hurt her, and this time was no exception at all. The gasps gradually turned into screams and the punches became stronger. The pain on his fists was no greater than the one on his side or on his heart. He kept punching and kicking, almost having lost his breath, letting out screams of battle, of anger and impotence, until the bag fell from where it hung by a critical punch. Ace just stood there, breathing in and out, gasping and sighing while looking at the punching bag, rubbing his side. He didn´t bother to put the bag back on its place as he just walked away from the area then exited the training room.
Duck was watching TV at the lounge, as usual. Ace approached him and sat down next to him, almost laying over the couch, not even looking at the TV but glancing at the ceiling instead. Duck raised an eyebrow while looking at his comrade. "Uhm…you good, man?"
Ace sighed. "I don´t know." He stood quiet for a moment. "How´s your arm?"
"Better, but it still hurts." Duck replied, turning his glare to the TV. He heard how Ace groaned all of a sudden. "Shouldn´ t you be, well, resting and stuff?"
"Yes." Ace replied while closing his eyes. "I should."
Duck nodded casually, raising an eyebrow as even he knew Ace´s wounds were delicate. "Maybe we could take care of this matter while you heal, man, because I mean, Lexi is going to stay." He sighed. "I was afraid as well, man, she is also my friend, so...you are. We can handle this, you know, me, Tech, Slam and the chatterbox, is fine. Your health is important and none of us wants you to risk yourself out there." Duck nodded intermittently, his gaze was still locked on the TV, but he wasn´t paying attention to it. "Yes, you want to be the same tough leader you´ve always been, I grant you that, even if that makes me crazy sometimes. But man, I´ve taken rests in the past, you should do the same, let us take care of it all, you know what I´m saying? Maybe eat some junk food, play a videogame...read...ugh, I don´t recommend it but is your choice, pal." Duck exhaled deeply while still nodding at his own words. "Doesn´t sound bad, does it?" He waited for Ace´s reply, his eyes widened when hearing some subtle snoring, Duck looked back at his comrade, adopting a straight face when noticing Ace had fallen asleep, snoring peacefully while resting his head over the couch´s support. "Or you could just fall asleep during my unexpectedly friendly talk, ignoring everything I said..." Duck sighed and returned his attention to the TV show he had been watching. "That works too, I guess."