I don't own Loonatics Unleashed
Enjoy!
Acmetropolis had been quiet for the past couple of days. With the temperatures getting higher the citizens were doing everything that they could to keep themselves cool from the sweltering heat. Being inside HQ and having access to a high-tech air-conditioning system was worth it. The Loonatics were enjoying their leisure, unaware that a great iceberg had erupted from the depths of the waters and was spreading all over the city. With the speed of the ice spreading, many people were frozen into place except for Rev Runner who quickly headed into a pizza shop and zipped back towards HQ, unaware of what was happening.
"Got your pizza!" he said as he plopped the box right in front of Tech. After the talk that he had with him the last couple of days, he had not forgotten about the situation but was slowly beginning to feel more at ease then before.
Tech opened the box and looked at the ice-covered pizza. He took a slice and bit on it. "Now that is cold!" he exclaimed, "where did you get this from? Iceland?"
"Actually-no-I-got-it-from-the-pizza-joint-downtown-but-if-you-want-me-to-go-and-get-it-from-Iceland-I-can-do-it-in-four-point-two-seconds-but-that-is-just-an-estimation," Rev said before he had a pizza slice shoved into his beak.
At least that got the roadrunner to stop running his beak. "That was a question that didn't require an answer," Tech said and then looked over at Ace who was meditating. "Oh Ace!"
Tech's voice did not break Ace out of his concentration. He calmly opened his eyes and gave the coyote a knowing smile. "On it, Tech," he said as he shot his pair of laser beams towards the ice frozen pizza, causing it to crisp up and melt the cheese.
"Extra crispy," Tech commented, "Pizza, Duck? Miranda?" he asked the two of them.
"Don't mind if I do," Miranda said as she took her magazine and walked over to Tech, taking a slice.
Duck was too busy looking at his reflection in the mirror with the blue cape that he had bought last week. He had been obsessing over a different alias that he wanted to be referred to until he had finally settled for one. "Are you kidding?" he asked Tech, "I already had my protein shake. It is important to maintain a good physique because you can't be flabby when you're the Duckinator."
Tech rolled his eyes, Miranda face palmed, and Ace coolly reminded him, "yesterday you were calling yourself Super Duper Duck."
Duck shrugged a shoulder and looked at his reflection once more. "Wasn't really rolling off the tongue. Besides, I need one that will fit on the costume."
"How about…Duck?" Ace suggested.
"Or Drake," Miranda said, "to what a male duck is called."
Duck looked from Miranda and then at Ace with a stoic expression on his face. "Very funny," he commented before adjusting the collar of his cape. He was bound to think of something that would fit, even if he had gone through fifty names already. "So, if I'm a drake what would that make you, Miranda?" he then turned around and asked her, "a hen?"
Miranda gave him a cool look before she flung the magazine towards him, causing Duck to dodge.
"Hey, hey!" Ace said, "remember what I said about temper?" After all the training that he had done with her when she started, one of the many issues that he had touched upon were controlling one's emotions. She had been doing good, up until the moment.
Miranda took a deep breath and nodded her head to Ace. "Sorry Ace," she apologized as she walked over to the spot where the magazine landed.
Sure, apologize to Ace and not to me! Duck thought.
"And I'm sorry Duck," Miranda said, reading his thoughts as she placed a hand on his shoulder before walking away.
Suddenly, the doors of the lounge opened as Lexi came dancing into the music that was playing on her headphones. "Tech, did you order more than one pie?" she asked.
"No why?" Tech asked.
Her ears picked up a noise coming from the other side of the room and a smile formed upon her lips. "Cause Slam is in the house." When the doors opened, Slam stood on the floor frozen with ice dripping from him.
The Loonatics looked at him before the intercom rang and Zadavia appeared in the middle of the round table. Once she had appeared, the Loonatics gathered around the table and listened attentively to what she had to say. "Loonatics we have a problem."
There could only mean one thing. With the pizza being all ice and Slam returning to HQ in a frozen-like state, Ace intuition told him to head out and see what was going on in the city. The moment the palm of his hand touched the window, he felt the brisk cold traveling throughout his body. He cleared the window and looked outside to see Acmetropolis covered in ice. "You got that right Zadavia. We have a serious problem." He removed himself from the window and headed towards the table, "so what's up Zadavia? Certainly not the temperature." Not the time to be making jokes, but he couldn't help but keep the issue as lighthearted as he could.
The rest of the Loonatics felt the cold making its way into HQ. It was like the weather went from one extreme to another.
"So far, nobody can figure out where this iceberg came from," Zadavia explained to them, "I don't have to explain of what will happen if the temperature keeps dropping."
Duck clicked his tongue. "I knew it, we're gonna lose cable."
Miranda rolled her eyes and shook her head, feeling that secondhand embarrassment. She was aware that Zadavia had been losing her patience with Duck and it was not the time for him to be humorous.
"Perhaps I do need to tell you," Zadavia's voice changed dramatically when Duck said such an absurd response. "The entire planet could be facing a new ice age."
Lexi let out a groan when she heard that. "Oh great, those winter sweaters make me look chubbo."
Now's not the time to be thinking of fashion trends, Lex Ace thought as he looked from the female rabbit and over to Zadavia as she continued to debrief them on the issue. It was interesting to hear how the effects of the meteor that had affected them and the city many months ago could be related with the iceberg. "I think we can handle one iceberg," Ace jumped into the conversation.
"That is why Acmetropolis is counting on you to stop this. Zadavia out," she said as she disappeared from the intercom, leaving the Loonatics by the round table.
Lexi broke the silence between them, "when she goes out, where does she go? The movies?"
"That sounds like a good idea right about now," Miranda spoke up, "movies and a hot drink."
"And some cuddles," Duck perked up and threw his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.
She would have pushed him away after that 'hen' joke that he made, put she just melted into his touch and snuggled close to him.
"Let's keep the PDA to a minimum you two," Ace said and then looked over at Tech, "Tech, we need some toys to melt this ice cube."
Now that Ace had been handpicked by Zadavia as the leader of the team, a selection that she had done a week ago, Tech couldn't help but correct him on that. "Excuse me chief, they're not toys. They're precision hand-crafted alloy instruments."
Ace stood up from his seat with a smile, ready to get into on the action as the new leader of the team. "We'll take those too but first the toys."
The Loonatics gathered into Tech's laboratory as he presented them with a newly crafted device, which he coined as the Retro-Fire Master Blaster. He handed one to Rev and instructed for him to squeeze the device twice, causing the device to wrap around his arm and shoot out fire. Slam had an unfortunate issue where he stepped on the device and it sent him flying from one section of the laboratory to the other.
"Uncurl your toes!" Tech instructed for him to do so and when he did, the device went back to its original state.
"You gotta love the toys," Lexi smiled as she approached Ace.
"Time to crush some ice, let's jet!" he called out to the team as they prepared their jetpacks and headed out of HQ and into the cold city.
The Loonatics flew towards the giant iceberg that was situated in the middle of the city. Rev became engaged in commenting how big the iceberg was until Ace pointed out that he was about to slam into. Rev immediately swerved around the iceberg, thankful that he didn't smash right into it. All seven of them surrounded the iceberg and set the Retro-Fire Master Blasters onto their arms and directed the weapons towards the iceberg, with no result.
Ace let out a groan when he saw that the weapons were ineffective against the iceberg. "No dice. Cease fire!" he called out to the team as they stopped.
Tech was disappointed. "It didn't work!"
"No worries Tech," Ace assured him, "there's always Plan B."
The Loonatics landed on the ground in front of the iceberg. Miranda directed her eyes towards the iceberg, hoping that she would lift it in the air but the thing was too heavy from her to do so. "Ugh," she groaned as she placed a hand over her eyes, "too big."
"Okay, Plan C. Slam you're up buddy," Ace said to the Tasmanian devil.
Slam spun around, creating a mini cyclone, and headed towards the iceberg. With the heat from the jetpack and his speed, the iceberg was beginning to melt and causing the temperature in the city to rise to a reasonable degree.
As the rest of the Loonatics observed, Duck was unimpressed by what he saw. "Chipping ice isn't a superpower. Quacking is a superpower, observe," he stated as he teleported away from the team and wound up inside the iceberg. "You can stop observing now." He fell from the iceberg and onto the puddled ground as Slam continued to melt the ice.
Lexi's ears perked up as heard a faraway noise. "Hold on guys," she said, "Mother Nature may be done but I'm picking something up."
"Perhaps a high-pitched dog whistle," Duck sarcastically said, earning him a punch on the arm by Miranda. "OW!"
The iceberg chipped to the point where it broke and fell onto the pavement. With the breaking of the ice, a large ship appeared in the middle of the city and a group of armored looking Vikings jumped out of the ship and landed in front of the Loonatics.
Ace looked from one person, if they even were one, to another. "Boy are you guys lost." It wasn't long before the leader of the group jumped in front of them. "What's up, doc?"
"I am Gunnar," the leader of the group introduced himself.
"Gonna what? Go to a Viking convention?" Ace teased him.
"No! We are here to take over your world!" Gunnar emphasized.
"You frosted flakes might as well go back to where you came from, because this is a no invasion zone," Ace said to them.
"We will conquer your world with any means necessary!" Gunnar insisted.
"No, you won't," Ace said.
"Yes we will," Gunnar shot back.
"No, you won't."
"Yes we will."
"Yes you will," Ace quickly reversed his sentence and smirked at the Viking.
"No, we won't conquer your planet!" Gunnar said.
Miranda shook her head at this back and forth bickering. Of course, Ace was doing what he could to stall them but they would have defeated them by now.
"Have it your way," Ace coolly said before Gunnar bought down his sword towards him, but he was quick enough to jump out of the way. He took out his own sword and began to fight against Gunnar. He felt how strong his opponent was, but his sword fighting skills were not a match against the powers that they had. "I could keep this up all day," Ace said. The moment that Gunnar pointed his sword towards the group, Ace deflected it with his laser beam. Eventually, one of them was going to have to tire out and he didn't want to be the one.
Gunnar's team raised their hammers in the air and banged them against the ground, causing a sheet of ice to spread towards the Loonatics. Ace slipped on the ice as the rest of the team surrounded him and placed all their strength onto the rabbit to not give up. It wasn't until the rest of Gunnar's team surrounded the Loonatics and froze them into place, leaving them incapacitated.
"Let's put the rest of this city on ice," Gunnar laughed as him and his team disappeared into the depths of the city.
Duck didn't know how long he had been inside the iceberg once he teleported out of there. He was freezing! "I'm out!" he yelled and then looked over at the iceberg where the rest of his teammates were trapped. He knocked onto the iceberg and walked around it, thinking how he would be able to get them out. Wait, with Ace being in there and him being out, it could only mean one thing. "That makes me in charge!"
Upon that exclamation, the mini iceberg began to quake and Duck was thrown off his feet. Slam stopped spinning as the rest of the Loonatics escaped. "Nice work there, Slam," Ace shivered.
Hating that the spotlight was taken from him, Duck walked towards Ace and Slam. "I would have busted you out myself if you'd have just given me time to think."
"We had seconds, not hours Duck," Ace said.
Duck glared as the rabbit walked away from him. "I liked you better as a snow bunny." He reached out when Miranda walked past him, grabbing her by the wrist. "You okay?" he asked her.
"J-Just a bit cold," she answered him with a shiver.
"I would have teleported you out myself but you were right across from me," Duck said, "next time, stay close. Come on, let's follow them."
He didn't even give her a chance to answer as he pulled her towards the group. Miranda shot him a glare and pulled her hand away from him. All this overprotective nature was beginning to get to her and she had put up with a lot of Duck's issues in the past, but none had been as worse as this.
Ace looked from one building to another where it was covered with ice. "I love what they'd done with the place," he commented.
"And snow drifts are very trendy this year," Lexi pointed out.
A ring came from a video landline as Lexi walked towards it and pressed onto a button, causing Zadavia's hologram to appear.
Zadavia explained to them her assumptions as to how these mutant-Vikings had wound up coming to Acmetropolis, due to an interdimensional portal and them being trapped inside the iceberg from their own dimension. "But now that they're released and in Acmetropolis—" Zadavia was saying until Ace jumped in.
"They can freeze and paralyze the world so it would be easy for them to take over," Ace said.
"Precisely," Zadavia said, "but right now you have bigger problems."
She couldn't finish her sentence when an iceberg crashed in front of the Loonatics, causing them to fall on the ground from the impact. Ace and Duck were the first to get up from the ground, "I didn't get the last part, what are the bigger problems?"
Lexi picked up a noise that was coming from behind them. She turned around and saw the skeletal-like creature from the front of the ship shoot out icebergs towards them. The Loonatics jumped out of the way and Duck quickly teleported out before the iceberg hit him. Every single section was hit with the iceberg and the buildings, road, vehicles were covered in ice. The Loonatics grouped together and hid behind a building as they saw the ship floating from one section of the city to another. "If their trail leads into the city, why are they on a boat?" Lexi asked.
Ace walked forward. "Maybe they didn't want to miss the dinner show. "Gunnar on Ice." Let's jet!"
As Ace was about to take the lead, Duck beat him right to him. "Ready team!" he yelled as he activated his jet pack, "one…two…." His jet pack only sputtered with no result. "Three?"
Everyone took off their jetpacks and looked at them. "It seems the ice short circuited our jetpacks," Ace said, "got a backup plan Tech?"
"Glad you asked," Tech said as he pressed a button on his remote and seven Zoomatrixes came forward. During the time when they didn't have a mission, Tech had been kind enough to add an extra one for the team and Miranda had been thrilled by it. No more motorcycle-pooling with the others.
Ace and the others ran towards their Zoomatrixes and the Zoomatrix changed from a land to an air vehicle. It was very amazing how much technology had advanced but also how complex Tech's mind was to create these forms of equipment. As the Loonatics approached the ship, ice balls were being thrown in their directions. Duck was almost thrown off course as an ice ball headed towards him.
Miranda suspended the ice ball in the air with her telekinesis and Lexi brain blasted the ice into small chips.
Duck flew towards the two girls and gave them a salute. "Daredevil Duck, thanks you."
"Pick a name already, would you?" Lexi commented.
"That's name fifty-one," Miranda commented.
Lexi then caught up with Ace and looked at him. "How long are we going to let them use us as target practice?" she asked, seeing that they were mostly dodging the ice as opposed to fighting it.
"Until they run out of spit wads," Ace answered her. "Which is right…now! Let the fun begin."
"Aye, aye Skipper," Lexi smiled through her mask and gave Ace a crisp salute.
"Loonatics unite!" Ace called the rest of the team as they followed their leader away from the ship.
Thinking that the Loonatics had surrendered and fled from them, the mutant Vikings cheered but it wasn't long until the superheroes appeared with a boat of their own towards the Vikings. Out of the time that they had been dodging the Vikings, Tech had been quick enough to build a boat to fight against the Viking's ship.
"Tech you've outdone yourself!" Ace thanked the coyote.
"You can say it, I'm a genius," Tech proudly stated and launched the torpedoes under Ace's command. The torpedo was launched within the water and towards the ship. However, the Viking's ship suspended in the air and was missed by the attack.
"Huh," Miranda said as she looked up at the ship, "there's something you don't see every day." She tried to use her power to keep the ship in place but it was just too big for her to stop it.
"They won't be flying for long," Tech said as he pressed a button in front of him and their boat suspended in the air.
Their boat approached the ship and Tech directed the weapon towards them. Pressing onto the button, a slight panic ran through him. "Something is wrong with the launch mechanism. It won't respond."
When Plan A failed, there was a Plan B and Slam was the one to do it. "Take them out Slam," Ace said to the Tasmanian devil.
Slam grabbed the explosives from the boat and threw them towards the Vikings' ship, seeing the explosions happening one right after the other. Their ship nosedived towards a bridge and into the water, with no movement. Seeing that they had the ship in their grasp, the Loonatics jumped onto the ship to apprehend the Vikings. When they got onto the ship Rev, Duck, Slam, and Miranda separated into one section of the ship whilst Tech, Ace, and Lexi headed to another part of the ship. The three of them came upon a Viking that was resting on the ship as if he was already dead.
Ace surveyed the Viking and then looked over at the coyote, having a feeling that this wasn't just an ordinary mutant-Viking. "With their ship down, do you think the big freeze is over Tech?"
Tech leaned towards the Viking and removed the robotic head from the body. "All of their powers seem to be coming from the horns of these helmets."
Ace then looked over at Rev. "Anyone else on board?"
Rev did a quick survey of the ship and found none of the Vikings within the perimeter.
Ace couldn't help but think that this was a distraction that they had done to deliver the Loonatics off course. "Can you get me a read on them?" he then asked the road runner.
Upon his request, Rev's eyes brightened through his suit and the triangle on his chest shined brightly as a hologram appeared to where the Vikings were headed.
"Seems like they're going to the Planetary Power Grid," Lexi pointed out.
Ace snapped his fingers. "That's what Zadavia was trying to tell us."
"Not to alarm anybody," Tech calmly spoke, "but if they get to the city's power core…"
"Then the city will have a one bad case of frostbite," Lexi finished his sentence.
Without wanting to waste another second, Ace advised his team to jump onto their Zoomatrixes and head towards the power grid. As they flew towards that direction, a power outage struck the city. "Seems like they've already got there," Miranda said to the team.
"We're almost there," Ace said as he accelerated his speed on the Zoomatrix. Once they arrived to the power grid, the team assembled and entered inside where they saw the Vikings surrounding the power grid and the ice making its way towards it. "Eh, what's up horn heads?" Ace greeted them.
Having heard that familiar voice, Gunnar didn't waste a second and ordered his team to, "FREEZE THEM!"
"You picked the wrong planet to mess with," Ace said as his eyes brightened with his laser beams as him and the group ran towards the Vikings. Ace flipped in the air and hit one of them with his laser beams as Lexi brain blasted the other.
Duck was up against two Vikings and using his teleportation, he tackled one of them to the ground, causing him to get frozen by the other. He then threw two power orbs at the other two Vikings that were attacking him.
Miranda was cornered to the wall by a Viking as he lifted his mace in the air. The moment he was about to bright it down to her, the mace slipped out of his hands and levitated in the air. "Should've had a tight grip," she said as she moved her head and bought the mace down on his head, knocking him out.
Slam went up against Gunnar with but was suddenly subdued as the ice power was more powerful than his cyclone, causing him to crash into the wall.
Lexi dodged as many of the attacks as she could and then looked over to see Ace bringing the Vikings closer to the power grid and Tech reprogramming the Viking helmet and that he pulled off from the ship. Whatever they were doing, she hoped that the plan worked.
Subduing two Vikings, Ace jumped in front of Gunnar who was about to attack him with his weapon. Ace flipped backwards, dodging the ice that flew out of the sword, and sprung away from the wall towards Gunnar and kicking him directly towards the power grid as Tech quickly placed a power cord that was connect to the Viking helmet and into the power outlet.
Once the Viking's body contacted the power grid, his whole body turned red. All the energy that was being extracted from Gunnar, caused the other Vikings to be discharged as all their energy was put into the helmet that Tech had in his grip. The coyote was hit by the electricity as well as anything that was covered in ice.
"Then energy from the Vikings has recharged the power core," Lexi said as she noticed the power coming back into the city.
Duck had been too preoccupied with fighting the Vikings that when he noticed that none of them were moving, he stopped. "Aw Tech, I was about to let them have it," he said as he walked over to where Miranda was.
"I'll take one for the team," a voice came from underneath the helmet.
Miranda looked down at the helmet and lifted it up. "Tech?" she said and noticed a black and green puddle with his defeated eyes staring back at them. "You okay there?" she asked him.
It took a minute to fully regenerate as he staggered to stand up on his feet. He held a thumbs up towards Miranda before falling back on the ground.
Back at HQ, the Loonatics went back to their regular routine. Duck was looking at his reflection again, trying to figure out another name for himself. "Thunder Duck…Dazzling Duck…Dancing Duck…Super Duper Duck, wait I tried that yesterday."
"How about Shut up Duck?" Miranda muttered before she turned her attention to Lexi, "he's already at fifty-four names.
"Power to you Miranda," Lexi said, "I don't know how you put up with him."
"I wish I had an answer for that," the female duck giggled before her attention turned over to the hologram of Zadavia.
All the Loonatics gathered around her as she began to give her congratulations to the team. "I just personality had to say to each and every one of you, job well done. The ice age is averted, the mutant-Vikings are destroyed, and Acmetropolis is safe. Thanks to you Ace, Rev, Lexi, Slam, Tech, Miranda …good work team, Zadavia out."
Duck's lower beak dropped when Zadavia disappeared. "That's it? How could she forget me? I was standing right here!"
"Don't worry about it Duck, you were fantastic," Lexi said and Miranda gave a nod of her head in approval.
"The way you egged those Vikings makes me wish I had your powers," Miranda added.
Ace smirked. He couldn't help himself but tease the duck, "yeah heroic."
Duck glared at Ace and pushed him out of the way. "Nobody disrespects this duck," he stated before contacting Zadavia.
"Yes?" Zadavia's hologram appeared once more.
Miranda gently elbowed Lexi. "This ought to be good."
"Hello Ms. Zadavia, Duck here," he said, "I was wondering, didn't you forget something?"
"Yes I supposed I did," Zadavia said, recollecting her memory, "no more memos about changing your name. Danger Duck is self-explanatory and easy to remember. Request denied."
The moment her hologram disappeared, Ace walked over to Duck and threw an arm over his shoulders. "It's better than what she used to call you."
"Fine," Duck defeatedly said, "Danger Duck. I can live with that."
"Good," Ace said, "because we like it too."
Miranda walked over to Duck and put a hand on his shoulder. "And that includes me. Isn't that what you called yourself when you came to visit me at the hospital? I mean, it sounds a lot better than 'Dancing Duck' or 'Super Duper Duck.'"
"Or any of the other names you called yourself," Ace added, getting a glare from the mallard.
Yes it was and it had been a name that he had thought of even that night when he had helped Zadavia from being attacked. "If you guys insist," he proudly said, deciding to refer to himself officially as Danger Duck.
