Loonatics: United
World of Chaos
Episode 103: Recovery
A couple of days passed, the team´s mood was stable, Ace and Lexi were getting better at a considerable speed, but there was still a long way to go. It was morning, the couple had gone outside, they were standing on the sidewalk, Ace wore a pair of black shorts and a white sport shirt while Lexi wore her pair of white shorts and her pink tube top. "We´ll start slow, okay?" Ace told Lexi, having his hand placed on her lower back.
Lexi exhaled. "Okay." She looked at her boyfriend then gestured forward. "Let´s go."
Ace nodded and then started to walk, calmly and rhythmically over the sidewalk, supporting Lexi at all times. "You´re doing great, Lex." He said with encouragement.
"Uggh." Lexi groaned. "Shoot." She mumbled with anger,
Ace stopped walking. "Wanna stop?"
"No." Lexi said with a straight tone. "Just keep going, no matter what, alright?"
Ace looked at her with worry. "Alright." He said hesitantly. They kept walking, Lexi groaned and gasped several times in the way.
"Gah!" Lexi exclaimed and stopped walking abruptly, getting over one knee while letting out a groan of extreme pain. "Damn it!"
"Hey." Ace crouched next to her and began to stroke her back compassionately while placing a hand on her bent leg. "This is a process, Lexi, step b..."
"Step by step, I know, I know!" Lexi exclaimed with her broken voice. "This is so damn hard..." She covered her face with her hand. "...so freaking hard."
"I know." Ace caressed her hair tenderly. "But you´ll make it, don´t worry." He kissed her cheek. "We should call it a day." He smirked at her empathically.
Lexi sobbed. "Okay." She cleaned some tears off her face with her arm while Ace helped her stand up.
"I´ll carry you." Ace said.
Lexi sighed. "Yeah." She replied coldly.
Ace carried her in his arms, then he started to walk back to the apartment. Lexi began to cry on his shoulder while embracing him tightly. "We´re gonna sit down on the couch, have some ice cream." He tried to distract her from her feelings of impotence and defeat. "I´ll have chocolate and I´ll serve you vanilla as always. With some coffee, that sounds good, doesn´t it?" He kissed her head lovingly. "We could take a nap later, cuddle and have a dream together." Lexi´s crying began to fade away slowly. "I´d like that." Ace kissed her head again. "What you think?"
Ace and Lexi were back at the apartment, and as Ace had proposed, he served two cups of ice cream, chocolate for him and vanilla for Lexi, as well as two cups of coffee. They sat down on one of the couches in the living room, close to each other, sharing a calm, silent moment while enjoying their desserts. Ace took a sip from his coffee while looking at her, she looked back at him and smirked, blowing a kiss. Ace chuckled and placed his cup on the table then caressed Lexi´s hair gently and brought his lips close to hers then he started to kiss her. "I´m here, baby." Ace mumbled then kept kissing her. "You know that, right?"
"Mhm." Lexi kissed him. "I know."
"I will never leave you." Ace gently brought her head close to his chest. He stroked her head with love and compassion. "We´ll be alright, Lexi." He kissed her head. "We´ll be alright."
They finished their ice cream and coffee after a while, then they went to the visits room to take a long nap. They laid down on the bed, looking into each other´s eyes. "Sweet dreams, Lexi." Ace got closer to her and kissed her. They cuddled sweetly, holding onto each other with peace and love. They began to get sleepy after a few minutes, then they fell sound asleep.
The sudden sound of the door opening woke them up, after having deep, joyful and vivid dreams. "Hey." Tech smiled at them as he entered. "How you guys feeling?"
Ace yawned while stretching. "Pretty nice."
"Good." Lexi said drowsily.
"I´m glad to hear that, guys." Tech said. "Uhm, Susan made lasagna. Better hurry before Slam eats the whole thing." He winked at them and exited the room, closing the door afterwards.
Ace stood up from the bed then walked towards Lexi and crouched before her. "Take all the time you need, love." Ace kissed her forehead and after looking at her for a moment, he turned and then exited the room. Ace arrived at the kitchen, being greeted by everyone. "Hey." Ace said while glaring at the large plate with lasagna over the table. "That looks delicious." He sat down next to Tech. "Uhm, Lexi is still sleeping.
"Oh, it´s okay, dear." Sylvia smiled at him.
"Any rest she can get now will be of great help." Tech said.
Ace served a piece of lasagna on his plate. "Yeah, all I want is to see her well."
"Same." Duck took a bit of his lasagna. "I can´t wait to see her kick those guys´ tails."
"Or burn." Rev said. "Well, you know, she could kick their tails but also burn them, with her brain blast. I bet that would hurt a lot more." He drank from his glass of juice. "Just saying."
"Yeah, I´ll be first in line for that." Duck replied.
After a few minutes, they all finished eating. "So, do you guys want to do something later? Here of course, maybe watch a movie or play a game." Susan proposed.
"Sure." Tech replied, standing up from the table, taking his plate and heading to the sink.
"Only if there´s popcorn." Duck said.
"Of course!" Susan responded.
Later on, Ace was at the balcony, laying on the couch while glaring at the sky, thinking about Lexi, about the Chaos Warriors and what could possibly happen next. Duck arrived all of a sudden. "Hey." He was smoking a cigarette. "That´s quite a sweet spot, isn´t it?"
"It is." Ace replied coldly.
"Worried?" Duck inquired. "Uhm, want a cigarette?"
"Not in this life." Ace responded, then let out a long sigh. "What a vacation."
"I get you, man." Duck exhaled some smoke. "These would literally be the best vacations of all time if it wasn´t for those brats."
"Yeah, we´ve been treated like royalty here." Ace opined. "Tech has the nicest inlaws, that´s for sure."
Duck looked at him with conviction. "We´ll stop them soon, man. We just gotta help Lexi all we can so she can recover quicker."
"Oh, she´s got all my help Duck." Ace replied. "There´s no doubt about that."
The days passed with an air of effort and bravery between Ace and Lexi, he took her to walk every day, she stumbled several times, Ace cheered her up with motivating and loving words, every morning, afternoon and night. Lexi went from walking to jogging, and from jogging to running.
The moon and the stars accompanied the couple. "Tired?" Ace said while running next to her, gasping, breathing in and out with effort.
"Not even a little." Lexi replied.
Ace looked at her. "Not a single bit?"
"Nope." Lexi smiled, looking at him with eyes of gratefulness. "Not a single bit."
After a couple of minutes, they stopped running and laid over the grass next to the sidewalk. Lexi kissed him as she laid over him. Ace kissed her back. "I told you, Lex." He caressed her face while recovering his breath. "I told you we could do it." He smirked at her.
"I love you, baby." Lexi started to kiss him, Ace hugged her strongly as he did the same.
The Maniacs
Episode 2: Assault, part 2
The team was inside a small ship, gray and blue colored, which was being controlled by the auto-pilot. They were sitting in the backside of the vehicle, secured with their seat belts. "How will we find that thing?" Akinyi inquired.
"The boss gave me a map of the base." Vale replied.
"And?" Akinyi said.
"I memorized it." Vale responded.
"Don´t you think it could´ve been better if we all saw the map?" Akinyi asked.
Vale sighed. "What for? We´ll be together, anyway."
"Oh, I thought you were the cold and calculating type." Edison said with arrogance.
"Maybe I calculated that you aren´t smart enough to read a map, Ed." Vale replied, looking at him with an authoritarian glare.
"Watch your words, fossa." Edison replied with a growl. "And don´t you dare call me Ed again."
"Who cares?" Vale shook his head and looked away.
Akinyi leaned towards Randy. "What a good start for our first mission." She mumbled. "I´d love to see Edison getting a good beat up, you know?"
Randy chuckled silently. "That´d be nice, yeah."