I don't own Loonatics Unleashed
Enjoy!
Ace had wanted to dedicate a couple of hours of training per day to see the agility of hus teammates. Sure, their powers were just as important but knowing how to move and manipulate those powers were just as important. Two of teammates that stood out to him the most were Slam and Lexi. Coming from a professional wrestling background, Slam seemed to have gotten a hang of his powers and knowing how to manipulate that mini tornado that he formed. As for Lexi, she had quite the flexibility and was able to dodge whatever attacks were thrown her way. Ace couldn't take his eyes off her. She was remarkable and he wondered where she had gotten all those skills.
Lexi flipped in the air as she dodged an attack from the opponents in the simulation room. She exuded this confidence with every action that she took. As she gave one of the opponents a quick swipe with her foot, the opponent flickered and then disappeared. "Ha!" she triumphantly laughed and put her hands on her hips, "this is too easy!"
"Wanna dial it up a little bit?" Ace asked her.
"Oh yeah!" Lexi nodded her head, "give me all you got!"
Ace dialed up the level of the holograms. In the beginning, he had started her off on the easiest level and then day by day, he had changed it to a higher level. With each level, there were some things that she could improve on but she still managed to defeat the holograms. He wondered how she would be able to handle a level ten.
Lexi waited as the room around her changed into Acmetropolis but in this level, the city was burning and citizens were running in fear. The ground quaked beneath her feet as she looked up and saw the mightiest creature that she hoped they would never face. One of the nice things about this type of training was that the worst-case scenario could be presented. With this level, she wondered what sort of cyclops looking creature with eight tentacles could exist, but with the meteor strike, anything was possible. Now was not the time to critically about this! She immediately jumped out of the way when a balled-up tentacle flew towards her. She immediately jumped out of the way and backflipped in the air, only to have another tentacle grab her around the waist.
Not today! she thought as she karate chopped the tentacle and flipped in the air once again. She jumped onto one of the buildings and the dodged a laser that escaped from the monster's eye. "Oh, come on," Lexi said, "that's not fair!" She dodged another attack and then scrunched her eyes at the monster. "You wanna play tough? Fine! Time for some brain blast!"
The pink ball formed in the middle of her ears as she unleashed the orb towards the monster's eye. "Bullseye!" she cheered and the monster screeched in pain and writhed its tentacles in the air.
Enraged, the monster began to shoot out its tentacles from one direction to the next. As Lexi dodged them, she felt one of the tentacles hitting her right on the stomach as she was sent flying into a building. "Ugh!" she groaned as she fell on the floor. Man, that hurt! she thought as she placed a hand on her stomach and tried to get up from the ground.
Everything around her suddenly disappeared and she was glad that Ace came to the decision to close the level. She heard his footsteps coming her way and felt his hand around her arm. He supported her on her feet. "You okay?" Ace asked her, "it was getting really intense in there."
Lexi sucked in her breath through her teeth and nodded her head at Ace. "Never better," she answered him. "I think I was a little too confident in that one."
"Nah," Ace said to her, "you did good."
"Considering that I lost?" Lexi asked him.
"Ya didn't lose," Ace said to her, "I shut down the program…before you lost."
He was such a trickster but that made him even more comedic to be around. She raised an eyebrow at the male rabbit and placed a hand on her hip. "And you think you can defeat it?"
"I've only gotten up to level nine," Ace said, "so you're way ahead of me."
"Wasn't I on level eight a couple of days ago?" Lexi asked him, "why did you bump me up today?"
Ace looked at her with a smile that Lexi couldn't interpret. "Because you got potential Lexi," he said to her, "I was thinking, whoever gets to be chosen as a leader they also need a second in command. You got my vote on that one. Whomever becomes the leader by Zadavia's choice, would sure be lucky to have you as a second-in-command."
Lexi was glad that the color of the mask was able to hide the blush that creeped up on her cheeks. If her friend was here, she would have been hooting and cheering at the 'chemistry', as Andrea would put it, that was going on between them. Lexi didn't want to confuse that with their partnership. "Thanks Ace," she thanked him for his kind words. She wondered who was going to get the spot as the leader. Two of her members that crossed her mind were Tech and Ace. Tech had potential. He was very smart but the inventions that he built seemed to backfire on him. Whereas for Ace, he was both smart and was very strategic.
Speaking of which…
"Hey, have you spoken to Tech lately?" Lexi then asked when the coyote crossed her mind.
"I saw him at the lounge area earlier today. I don't think the guy is up for training considering what he's going through."
"Yeah," Lexi said to him, "I can't say that I blame him on that. When I found out that my brother died, I didn't want to speak to anyone or be around anyone."
Whoa! Ace was stunned when she confided in him with this fact. "Geeze, Lexi," he said to her with a shake of his head, "I'm sorry to hear that."
Lexi took a deep breath and hid her sorrow with a light smile upon her lips. She didn't want to cry in front of Ace. It had been such a long time when she had cried her eyes out for her brother that she thought that she wouldn't be able to do it anymore. She answered him with a light shrug of her shoulders. "Such is life," she answered him, "I just feel terrible for Tech." She hoped that was a quick change to the subject. "Has he said anything about a funeral?"
"No," Ace shook his head at Lexi. "He hasn't mentioned anything about that." He knew that Tech was always punctual with his teammates and Ace knew that if he was planning on something, he would tell them. Now that their training had come to an end, he shut down the simulation program and both he and Lexi headed out of the room.
The lounge was occupied with Rev, Duck, Slam, and to their surprise, Tech as they talked with one another and enjoyed each other's company. Ace was glad to see Tech finally out of that laboratory but he could sense that there was still something wrong with the coyote. "I'll be right back," he said to Lexi as he walked over to Tech.
Tech looked up from a manual that he was trying to immerse himself in. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, he couldn't distract himself. He stood up on his feet when he saw Ace standing in front of him. "Do you need me to train?" he asked him.
"More like we need to talk," Ace said to him.
Uh-oh Tech thought this can't be good. Not even that sentence had any pleasant meanings behind it. He followed Ace to the other corner of the room and looked at him. "If this is about me not being present for the past couple of days, I'm very sorry," Tech apologized, keeping his integrity and dignity as a superhero. "It's just been…very hard."
Ace gave him a nod of his head. "I understand that," he said to him, "this is what I wanted to talk to you about? It's been a week and you haven't said anything about there being a funeral. Do you if they're having one? We'd also want to be there to give our respects to your friend."
Tech was silent for a long moment and Ace hoped that he hadn't said anything to hurt the coyote. He took a deep breath before saying, "there already was a funeral. I reached out to her parents and they said that they wanted to do it as soon as possible. Family and close friends only. Apparently, I wasn't a close friend." He hated sounding so bitter. "Quinn's mother but the blame on me for her death."
Ace frowned when Tech said that. "No way," he said to the coyote, "you didn't know that it would happen. None of us did."
"Try telling that to Mr. and Mrs. Wolf," Tech said to him, "I tried to explain it to them but they didn't want to listen. I even asked that, considering their stance towards me, if I was able to come and pay my respects they didn't want me there. Simply put."
Ace couldn't believe how bitter these people were. It was for Quinn, not for them, and from what he understood, Quinn would have wanted Tech to be there. The rabbit took a deep breath and placed a hand on the coyote's shoulder. "It doesn't matter what they say. You gotta keep yourself strong, for her at least."
Tech hoped he wasn't making his feelings about Quinn visible to the rest of the team. However, Rev had been quick to pick up on it. "I'll try," he said to her, "she was a…true friend that I tutored."
Ace offered him a smile. "That's the spirit, Tech," he said to him, "and after today, I don't want you stayin' cooped up in that lab, ya hear? I'm sure you've invented some nice toys in there but we need you just as much as the laboratory does."
His inventions were not toys, but he couldn't find it in him to argue with the rabbit. "Alright I promise," he said to him with a small smile. "And Ace," he then faced him before they joined the others in the lounge, "thank you."
"Anytime my friend," Ace smiled to him, "anytime."
