I don't own Loonatics Unleashed
Enjoy!
At this point, it was better to have a scoreboard set up in the middle of HQ and keep track of the number of wins that the Loonatics had against their opponents. Loonatics four, bad guys zero. After rescuing the Fuz-Zs and sending them back to their own habitat, there hadn't been an alert from Zadavia for days. However, that didn't mean that they were on vacation. The Loonatics were gathered in the lounge as Slam ate a box full of watermelons, Ace and Lexi conversed with one another, Rev and Miranda were playing a game of air hockey, Tech was meditating, and Duck was trying to place an order for a cape and matching boots that he had wanted.
The duck was having a hard time keeping the line connected but when he finally got a voice from the other line. "I'd like to order the perforated suave superhero's cape in robin's egg blue." He was placed on hold before he flipped over to Slam and said, "just trying to jazz things up a bit, give the costume a little flair. Stand out more in front of the Boss Lady."
Over by the hockey table, Rev swung his mallet towards the puck but Miranda was quick to block the puck from going into her goal. She swung her arm and hit the puck as hard as she could and sent it flying into Rev's goal. "Wow!" Rev exclaimed as he saw the puck going in, "that-was-quite-the-hit!"
"You know," Miranda said as she placed her hands on the edge of the table and looked at Rev, "it was really hard not to levitate the puck."
The last couple of games that they had played, Rev had caught her cheating. He didn't know whether it was because she had her eyes focused on the puck and would cause the levitation to occur or if she was doing it just to win. "You-did-good," Rev said to her, "only…I-still-win!"
"Of course," Miranda smiled at the roadrunner, "the undefeatable air hockey champion."
The two aves threw their mallets onto the air hockey table and joined Ace and Lexi, who were looking over at Tech who was serenely meditating.
"He's so into the meditating thing," Lexi said.
"Ever since I showed him how to do it, nothing stops him," Ace said.
Meditating as a technique was not only supposed to relax, but also help clear the mind. Miranda looked over at Tech and got into his mind. She had expected to pick up on technological terminologies, formulas that he used to create devices, or any new ideas that came into his mind. However, she picked up nothing. "Either the meditation technique is working, or he's become very good at blocking my entrance." She wouldn't blame him if he had, even if his mind was stuck on the friend that he had lost. Miranda turned her attention over to Duck who was having difficulty connecting with the representative on the phone.
"This is ridiculous," Duck said, "it's the 28th century! We've got jetpacks, hovercrafts, computer synchronized latte makers but I still can't get a good cell signal on the 134th floor!"
The moment that he said that his cell phone began to ring with the sound of a duck quacking, bringing Tech out of his meditation. The coyote growled but kept his calm demeanor and turned his attention over to the duck. "Duck, shut that ringer off."
"If that was enough to get you out of your meditation, imagine what it's like waking up to it in the early morning," Miranda sighed. It was enough to start the morning with a headache.
"At least the ringer works," Duck said, "the rest of it is junk."
Tech lowered the levitation disc that he was sitting on and looked at Duck. "Have some respect. I'm trying to clear my mind."
"Please," Duck rolled his eyes, "you need a hazmat team to clear the junk outta your head, Tech."
"Actually," Miranda spoke up as she held her index finger in the air, "I couldn't pick up anything in his mind."
Duck's cell phone rang once more, only to get a bad connection. "Hello? Hello?" he said into the phone only to get frustrated, "I've had it! No more technology for me. From now on, I do everything the old-fashioned way."
Lexi and Miranda smirked when he said that. "Yeah right," Lexi said, "no phone? No EMP3 Music Blaster 5000?"
"And no high-tech weapons?" Ace added.
"Who needs 'em?" Duck asked, "my hands are lethal weapons." With that he demonstrated his power orbs to the team.
Miranda tilted her head to the side. "What about those fan e-mails that you send to that weather girl every day? What's her name again?"
Duck looked at her with a stoic expression before he took a deep breath and said, "Misty Breeze. I can write to her the old-fashioned way."
Miranda raised an eyebrow at Duck's words before she smirked at him once again before Tech jumped into the conversation. "You couldn't go one low-tech week without high-tech stuff."
"Oh really?" Duck challenged him, "well I'm not you, Mr. Techno Geek."
Tech stood up on his feet as if he was seizing up Duck. The team members looked at one another, thinking that a fight was going to break out against them, but Tech calmly said to Duck, "make you a bet. If you can get through one week, I'll buy you that new cape myself. And if not, you buy it for me."
"I want the matching knee-high boots," Duck pointed out to him.
"No problem," Tech cordially answered and shook hands with Duck, "by the way, I'm a thirteen…wide."
Miranda couldn't help but chuckle at that. "You'd better break out your paper and pencil, Duck." She couldn't help but tease him. She knew that when Duck really put his mind into something, he was willing to do it, but technology was a different story. Ever getting that cell phone, he had been obsessed over it that he was spending more time with that than with his teammates.
Duck turned his eyes and looked at her. "Whose side are you on anyway?"
"I'm always on your side, hon," Miranda smiled to him, "but when it comes to you and technology, I'm rooting for Tech on this one."
Tech smiled at her. "Thanks Miranda."
Lexi suddenly looked over to the round table after her ears picked up a static noise coming. "I bet that's Zadavia calling. Come on guys," she said to the team as they gathered around the table and waited for the woman's hologram to appear.
The moment that the Loonatics took their seats, Zadavia appeared. "Gather round Loonatics. We have a major crisis. Besides Duck's new costume request," a snicker came from Miranda when she said that, "begin the holographic imaging feed." A screen came up on Tech's side of the table as he bought the imaging feed of Shadow Creatures running amuck in Acmetropolis. "Moments ago," Zadavia continued, "someone calling herself Black Velvet, stole the Acme Doppler Series-5 Radar System."
Tech slowly shook his head at that. How could someone be so vicious enough as to do something like that? "That system directs all air and space traffic in and out of Acmetropolis."
"So much for our weekend getaway at Acmepulco," Lexi spoke up, shaking her head that something like this ruined their plans for a fun weekend.
"I'm afraid it gets worse," Zadavia said, "they've also taken the Acme Supercomputer."
"That's the most advanced system on the planet. I should know, I built it for them," Tech stated.
Seeing that as his chance, Duck pointed at Tech, "see what happens when you rely on technology? Utter chaos! I am so going to win this bet." Upon him saying those words, Zadavia harshly told him to pay attention and Miranda gave him a punch on the arm. "OW!" he yelled and rubbed that sore spot that she had hit. "What did I say?"
It was like dealing with children, but Zadavia tried her hardest not to deviate from debriefing the Loonatics about their mission. "I am uploading security footage, now."
The footage showed the Shadow Creatures storming inside the radar system. "Get us a closer shot on those raiders, Tech," Ace said as the screen zoomed into the other side of the raiders running into the radar system and then the figure of Black Velvet floated with the rest of them.
Once her imagine appeared, Slam couldn't help but hoot at how beautiful this villainess looked.
Lexi glared at the screen. "Come on, she's not that pretty."
"Naw," Ace spoke up as he looked at the screen with admiration for the villains, "he's right. She's hot."
"Keep your eyeballs in your head," Lexi scolded him. Pretty or not, it was important to be focused on this mission and she couldn't believe that she had jumped at Ace like that. She hoped that he wouldn't read too much into her reaction but it had come out naturally for her.
"Attractive or not," Zadavia said, "she's bad to the bone and you have to figure out what's she's up to. Good luck, Loonatics. Zadavia out."
Ace stood up from his chair and looked at his team. "Alrighty gang, let's jet!"
Upon those words, the team quickly strapped into the flying vehicle and headed into the skies to find this woman. Ace steered the flying contraption but didn't go into the direction of where the Space Port was located. He had taken notice of a dark cloud encircling the skyline and thought that going there was the right direction to where all the action was. "Check out the skyline," Ace said, "just like it was before the first attack."
"That's right over the Acme Tech University," Tech stated. He couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic about the years that he spent there where the university had become his second home and all the projects that he done.
"Which is the ancestral homeland of geeks, dweebs, and brainiac nerds," Duck said.
"I went to school there," Tech spoke up.
"Oh, there's a shocker!" Duck rolled his eyes.
Miranda who was sitting next to Duck, looked over at him with a smile upon her beak. "Does your arm still hurt, Duck?" she asked him.
"No, why?" Duck asked but the moment that he saw her raising her fist, he teleported away from her attack. "Ha!" he yelled as he appeared on the other side of the flying contraption, "missed me."
"Duck, get back in your seat and Miranda stop hitting him," Ace said to the two ducks as Duck did as he was told and Miranda folded her arms in annoyance. "We gotta focus here guys! Does this puppy have a hyperdrive?" he then asked as he felt the speed of the flying vehicle increase in the sky, "I'll take that as a yes."
The closer they got to the Acme Tech University, the darker the clouds were and lighting struck out of the sky. Ace parked the flying vehicle outside of the university as him and the team jumped out to see what was happening. On top of the building, a zeppelin appeared and dark orbs flew out of the aircraft and into the grounds of Acmetropolis, causing a blackout to occur. The dark orbs transformed into the Shadow Creatures as they began to corner the Loonatics.
"Someone turned off the lights," Duck said as he clung onto Miranda, "failed again by technology."
"Now's not the time to afraid of the dark, Duck," Miranda said as she wiggled herself out of his grip and kept her eyes on high alert in case one of these Shadow Creatures was to jump out at them.
Ace was grouped with Tech and Rev as he kept his eyes peeled for the Shadow Creatures. "Any thoughts or suggestions, Tech?"
"Right now," Tech said, "Rev's gotta be our eyes."
Rev's eyes turned a red color as his internal GPS showed him where the Shadow Creatures were. "Watch-out-Lexi!-You-got-some-at-45-degrees-46-degrees-47-degrees-48-degrees!" he counted off.
In all the directions that the Shadow Creatures were running in, Lexi flipped away from their attacks and subdued them with her kicks and punches until they were on the ground and unable to fight.
"Slam they're right in front of you!" Rev shouted at Slam, who turned into a mini cyclone and spun towards the Shadow Creatures, knocking them out from both sides. Due to the dark and the quick spins, Slam bumped right into Tech and both Loonatics were thrown off their feet. "Miranda you have some coming right behind you!"
Miranda was unable to use her telekinesis in the dark if she couldn't see the objects coming towards her. She tried to use her telekinesis, but there weren't living creatures that she could get into their mind. She focused her mind and heard the series of footsteps that were running towards her. She jumped, flipped, and kicked as much as she could, hoping that she had at least gotten some of them.
"I can't see them, but I can smell them!" Duck said, almost attacking Ace when they bumped into one another.
The fighting suddenly ceased when they heard a voice coming from above. The Loonatics looked over and saw a woman in a dark cape floating above them. "We have what we came for," the woman, known as Black Velvet, that Zadavia had warned them about, "I see dark days ahead, Loonatics." She laughed as she headed towards her zeppelin with her Shadow Creatures. Some of the Shadow Creatures ran towards a tower and began to chip away at the metal with their weapons while other Shadow Creatures surrounded the Loonatics before disappearing into the skies.
Once the Shadow Creatures were gone, the light in Acmetropolis came back and the Loonatics looked at their surroundings on what had happened. They suddenly heard the noise of the tower starting to crumble behind them and ran out of the way. Duck remained planted to the ground before he teleported away last minute before the tower crushed him.
"Duck!" Ace yelled.
"Oh no!" Lexi shouted.
Miranda's hands flew to her beak as she and the Loonatics jumped into the pile of rubble and began to dig him out.
Duck appeared a couple of inches away from the rubble and proudly said, "missed me!"
The nerve of this guy! Lexi thought as she gave the duck a deathly glare for scaring the whole team into thinking that he was crushed.
As Miranda, she didn't know whether she ought to run over to him to hug him, punch him, or both. Before she could pick a choice, Black Velvet's voice came from above. "Catch me if you can Loonatics."
"Come on," Ace said to the team, "we can't lose them now!"
The team ran back to their flying vehicle and took off into the skies to catch up with the zeppelin. Ace put in as much as he could into the vehicle, in hopes that they could get closer to the zeppelin as quickly as possible. "Picking up anything, Tech?" Ace asked the coyote.
Tech looked at his tracker and shook his head. "They must have employed some sort of cloaking device."
"Anything Rev?" Ace asked the roadrunner.
Rev had his eyes on the tracker and shook his head. "No-trace-no-sign-no-mark-no-trail-no-heat-no-scrap-no-lick-no-speck-no-particle-no-nothing!"
"I hate being left in the dark," Ace said. However, the moment he said that all light in the vehicle was turned off and the Loonatics yelled within one another as to what had happened. Once the lights came back, the seat next to Duck was empty.
Ace's eyes widened when he saw the empty seat. "Where did Tech go?" he asked.
Lexi's eyes shot up at the sky and she pointed. "Look!" Tech was unconscious and trapped inside a black and velvet orb that carried him inside the zeppelin.
Upon seeing that, Ace gritted his teeth and scrunched his eyes. No one messed with his team, no matter who it was. "Alright Loonatics," he said as he kept his eyes towards the zeppelin that had disappeared with Tech, "she's got something to learn. You take one…you take us all."
Lexi looked over at Ace when he said that. She had never seen him so angry before and she hoped that he wouldn't let his emotions interfere with the mission and saving Tech. She reached over and placed a hand over at Ace's shoulder before saying, "we'll get to him. We must."
"Ace!" Rev's voice rung out, "I'm picking something up straight ahead!"
Once they got out of the clouds, Ace spotted the zeppelin and increased his speed. The zeppelin headed deeper into another set of cloud and they suddenly had four spacecrafts coming after them. "Four bogies at twelve o'clock, take evasive action!"
Their aircraft spun around in the sky, trying to shake off the spacecrafts from coming after them, but they were hot on their trail. "Can't you shake these things?!" Lexi yelled, getting a bit of a headache from the acceleration of the aircraft and the spins that it was going through.
"Alright Slam," Ace said as quickly thought of a plan that was going to stop these aircrafts once and for all, "they leave us no other choice. Prepare for maneuver one eighty!" As Ace moved the aircraft in a one eighty direction, he looked over at Slam, "fire!"
Slam pressed a button and four missiles fired from underneath the aircraft and towards the attack leaders. Seeing this as an advantage, the attack leaders headed towards the zeppelin.
"The attack leaders are going back into the zeppelin," Lexi pointed out, "Tech's up there!"
"Then we gotta stop those missiles now!" Ace said as he got closer to the missiles before they got to the zeppelin. "Can you brain blast them from here, Lex?" he asked the female rabbit.
"Not from here," Lexi said to him.
"First one is yours Rev," Ace said as he opened the hatch of the aircraft and the roadrunner jumped out and flew towards one of the missiles.
"Here's my chance to rip onto some technology!" Duck said as he was bought over close to one of the missiles. Once he was close enough, he teleported out and onto the missile.
"I got my eyes on one of them," Miranda said. "A little closer Ace," she said to the rabbit as he bought the aircraft over to one of the missiles. Miranda kept her focus on the object and a blue highlight was wrapped around the object, causing the missile to hover in the air.
Rev flew towards his missile and gave it a kick. The missile changed course and headed towards the one that Miranda was hovering in the air. Once the missile contacted the other, they both exploded in the air. "He-shoots-he-scores!-Back-to-you-Charlie."
Ace smirked at the sight in front of him. "Nice one, Rev," he said, "hit the showers." He got closer to the second to last missile, "it looks like we're running out of sky here, Lex, think you can make the shot?"
"On the count of three," Lexi said and brain blasted the missile, causing it to fall apart.
"Bull's-eye!" Ace cheered.
The contact of the brain blast with the missile created significant light in the sky that knocked out the cloaking shield and caused the zeppelin to appear in the sky. "Great job, Lexi!" Ace said to her, "you knocked out their cloaking! Now where's Duck?"
A missile hovered above their spacecraft and Duck was trying to find a way on how to disable the weapon that was heading towards the zeppelin. Ace let out a sigh, knowing that someone was going to have to get there and get him before he exploded along with the missile. "Grab the wheel, Lex!" he said to Lexi and opened the hatch, as he jumped into the front of the aircraft as he got closer to the missile. He reached out and pulled Duck down, who began to protest.
"A few more seconds and I would have been—" Duck protested before the missile exploded a couple of feet away from them.
"Roasted duck?" Ace coolly said and headed back to his seat, leaving Duck at stare at what would have been a very dismal end.
Miranda stood up from her seat, jumped outside of the hatch, and pulled onto Duck's foot bringing him back into the aircraft. "Don't you ever leave like that again, got it?" she sternly said to him, being just as shocked and afraid as Duck was.
Ace walked towards Lexi. "Check the compartment. I bet Tech packed up something for us, just in case."
"In case of what?" Lexi asked as she pulled out a small box and held it towards Ace.
Ace took the box. "Oh the usual. Mutant Vikings, giant fuzzballs," he pressed onto the button of the box as it turned into a weapon. "The Ningizer 500. And night vision goggles too."
Now that the zeppelin was visible, the aircraft hovered underneath the zeppelin and Slam jumped out of the hatch. He attached himself underneath the zeppelin and tore out a section of the zeppelin so it would make an easy access for the Loonatics. All six Loonatics jumped inside the zeppelin, only to be met by a dark city-like atmosphere.
"Active night vision opticals," Ace said to the team as their eyes turned a bright red color, causing them to see in the dark. "Let's go crush some Velvet!" he said as he and the team made their way to find where Tech was.
Lexi spilt from the team as she came upon a group of Shadow Creatures that were protecting the Light Wave Eliminator that she had stolen from the university, while Slam and Rev went over to the satellite dish.
Duck and Miranda followed Ace's lead as he pointed the Ningizer 500 towards a window and melted a piece of it which was big enough for all three of them to jump inside. The three checked their surroundings before looking up and seeing Tech typing away on a keyboard. Miranda walked closely to pick up anything from his mind but all she got was a bunch of computer codes that were running through his head.
"Anything in there, Miranda?" Ace asked her.
"Just computer codes," Miranda answered, "but other than that, nothing."
Ace and Duck slowly approached the coyote. "Uh Tech," Ace spoke up, "buddy old pal. Let's make like an atom and split."
No answer came from the coyote as the continued to type away on the keyboard.
"He's not answering," Duck pointed out.
"Tech only answered to me now," Black Velvet said behind them, "you three are just in time to watch us usher in the dark ages." She flung her cape out and blue laser beams came out of the flaps.
Ace quickly shot out laser beams from his eyes, hoping that the power of it would push her away but she broke off her lasers. "Not tonight Loonatics," Black Velvet said and fired at them with her mechanical arm.
Ace, Duck, and Miranda jumped out of the way. Miranda looked over to her side and levitated a chair from behind Black Velvet and sent it flying her way, but the woman was quick to notice that there was an object hurling towards her. She turned around and fired at it with her mechanical claw, turning the chair into nothing but dust.
Ace fired the Ningizer 500 towards Black Velvet but she was quick to deflect his attack with her cape. She fired at the Loonatics with her mechanical claw and trapped Duck inside a bubble. Ace ran towards Black Velvet but was knocked off his feet when she shot the laser beams from her cape. "Duck!" he said to the trapped mallard, "maybe you can deal with her friends!" he said to him.
With the bubble that he was trapped in, Duck directed towards the Shadow Creatures and ran towards them, striking them out.
As Miranda was about to throw another object towards Black Velvet, she was surrounded by the Shadow Creatures. Now that was able to see them in the dark, thanks to the night vision opticals, she hovered one of the creatures in the air and sent it flying towards the group, knocking the others down as if they were dominoes.
Duck stopped and used his power orb within the bubble, escaping and went over to help Miranda deal with any Shadow Creatures that she had missed.
"Miss Velvet," Tech suddenly spoke in a monotonous voice, "your Shadow Caster is ready."
Ace was dodging the attacks that Black Velvet was throwing at him with her mechanical claw only to tie him in place.
"Activate the Shroud Caster now!" Black Velvet said to the coyote.
"TECH!" Ace yelled at the coyote, "come on buddy boy, WAKE UP!"
A group of Shadow Creatures ran towards Ace and Duck threw a powered orb towards them. All three of them looked at Tech who was about to activate the Shroud Caster and an idea came into Duck's mind. "Wait!" he yelled and held up his cell phone, "this will wake him!" He pressed onto a button of his cell phone and the annoying noise of a quacking duck filled the room.
Tech suddenly came out of his trance the moment that noise made it to his ears. "Ugh! That annoying phone!" he yelled.
Miranda gasped. "He's back! Duck you're a genius!" she said as she threw her arms around him.
Ace struggled against the ropes that he was tied in. "A little help here, Tech!" he called over to the coyote, who immediately activated his night vision and broke Ace out of the ropes with the Ningizer 500.
Even if Tech was out of her control, Black Velvet was going to accomplish her plans. "Too little, too late!" she said as she jumped towards the keyboard, "darkness was my curse. Now it will be yours Loonatics." She pressed onto the button and activated the Shroud Caster, which activated into the satellite dish, and caused a blackout in Acmetropolis.
Ace didn't need to wonder why Slam, Rev, and Lexi hadn't gotten the chance to reverse the polarity of the satellite dish. Those Shadow Creatures were keeping them very busy. He could hear from his telecommunicator of the kick and punches that Lexi flung towards the Shadow Creatures until she finally reached a lever and pulled it down, "got it!" she yelled.
The moment she pulled the lever, the head of the satellite dish changed direction and was pointed directly at the zeppelin. The light that was cast, hit directly into the ship and towards Black Velvet as she threw her cape over her eyes to shield her eyes from the brightness.
"I think it's time to get out of Dodge," Ace said as he, Tech, Duck, and Miranda ran out of out the room and met with the rest of Loonatics as they fled out of the ship.
The light from the ship was consuming itself from within as it sucked in the Shadow Creatures and everything from the City of Darkness. The zeppelin tore apart and the Loonatics were lucky enough to have gotten into their aircraft and fly away from it as quickly as possible.
After defeating Black Velvet, the Loonatics returned to HQ and waited for Zadavia to debrief them on their successful mission. Rev played against himself with air hockey as Slam and Miranda watched him. No one could ever match the energy that Rev had. "Would you look at that?" Miranda said after Rev had scored a point, "you're even undefeatable against yourself!" Her eyes caught sight of Duck who stormed over to Lexi and Ace who were playing a game of pool.
"Has anybody seen Tech?" he asked them, "I think he has something he may want to say to me."
Tech appeared in front of the team, sporting a robin's egg blue cape with matching knee-high boots. "Thanks," Tech said to him, "I went ahead and ordered them. Nice, huh?" he said as he showed the cape to his teammates. "They're sending you the bill."
A nerve was struck. "But those are mine!" Duck pointed as he walked towards Tech, "you were supposed to buy those for me!"
"You used your phone Duck," Ace said, "we all saw you."
"But I—I used my phone to save him!" Duck said, "if it weren't for me, he'd be still walking around, 'Whatever you say, O Velvety One.'"
Miranda had overhead the commotion and walked towards the group. "I have to say, Duck has a point."
"I do?" Duck asked before insisting, "of course I do!"
"There just wasn't any other way for us to get Tech out of that mind control," Miranda added.
Mind control? Tech thought as a sudden memory suddenly came into his mind. He shook off the memory before the dwelled on it any more than he should.
"A bet's a bet," Lexi answered to Miranda with a shrug of her shoulders.
Zadavia's hologram appeared in the middle of the round table as she congratulated the Loonatics for their efforts. "Good work Loonatics, despite Black Velvet's disappearing act, the Shroud Caster has been dismantled and all the parts have been returned." Her vision suddenly caught something in a different color as she turned her head and looked at Tech. "Oh my, Tech. Don't you look heroic."
"Why thank you Zadavia," Tech proudly stated and placed his hands on his hips.
"Very impressive, indeed," Zadavia said.
Duck looked from Tech and over to Zadavia. "But—but—" he spluttered but Zadavia's hologram disappeared and he ran over to where the hologram was. "Wait! Come back! I picked out the cape and the matching boots! I'm the heroic-looking one! Be impressed with me!"
"Maybe you can call her back on your cell phone," Lexi suggested.
"If you can get a signal," Ace teased.
Duck clenched his hand into fists and turned around to look at his team. "You know, you're all despicable."
Even though Tech had been the one to win the bet, he couldn't believe that he had let himself fall prey into being mind-controlled by a villain. He thought back on that day that it happened, where those Shadow Creatures had taken over their aircraft and he was the one that had been attacked. He couldn't remember what his mind had gone through and he tried to remember what he could but it all came out as a blank slate.
Letting out a sigh, he tossed the cape into his closet to use it, perhaps, for a rainy day. He wasn't going to flaunt it in front of Duck any more than he already had, for he knew well how much he had wanted it. Now that the past couple of days, after their victory from Black Velvet, he had caught himself not feeling the pleasure at being kept busy by building his devices. He had tried to push himself into making something, but he felt that there was no focus. The number of times that he had zapped himself that resulted in regeneration, had made him quite exhausted. He felt that he needed to clear his head and coming to that conclusion he got out of HQ, by letting Ace know prior, and out into the streets of Acmetropolis.
He let out a sigh when he didn't see many people, especially fans that would want his autograph. He walked down the street, which his hands behind him and kept his away glued to the pavement. He didn't know how far he walked but the moment that he felt a change in the atmosphere, he looked up and saw that he had reached the Acmetropolis Cemetery. "Hoo," he let out a puff of air as he looked at the cemetery and spotted someone familiar in a black and pink outfit. He approached and was surprised to see, "Lexi?"
Lexi perked up when she heard her name being called that she turned around and saw Tech coming behind her. "Tech?" she asked as she got up on her feet, "what are you doing here?"
Tech gave her a sheepish smile. "My feet led me here," he answered her, "after what happened the past three days, I couldn't spend a second in my lab. I needed to get out."
Lexi gave him a nod of her head. "I get it," she said, "it was quite the mission and you were the one that went through it way more than we did. How have you been?"
"It gets better by day," he said as he smoothed his forehead of the slight incoming headache. "I just felt helpless being mind-controlled. Thank God nothing happened to you guys, otherwise I would never forgive myself."
"Hey," Lexi gently said, "it's not your fault. You were under her control."
A small smile came upon his snout. "I hate to admit it, even though Duck lost the bet, he was the real winner in it."
Duck had more moments of being exasperating to the team than being helpful, but Lexi had to agree. The only reason why she didn't agree with Duck was to show him that not everything needed to go his way, regardless of there being a bet.
Tech then looked over at the headstone where Lexi was and he motioned to it with his head. "Who are you visiting?" he asked her.
Lexi looked down at the headstone before looking back at Tech. "My brother," she answered.
"Awh, I'm so sorry Lexi," he said to her.
Lexi pushed away the tears that threatened to spring in her eyes. "It is what it is," she said to him, "he's in a better place now."
Tech thought of his own situation when it had happened with Quinn. Looking at the headstone, her brother had passed away two years ago and Quinn's passing was nearing six months. "How does it get?" he asked Lexi, "with time?"
Right away Lexi knew what Tech was referring to and the only way that she could answer was with honesty. "It gets better but you still feel empty," she said to him, "Tyler was not only my brother but he was also my best friend. I feel like I could tell him anything." She remained quiet before glancing over at Tech, " do you want to visit her? I saw that she wasn't too far away from here."
Tech looked at Lexi when she suggested it. "I don't know if I should. Her family may not want me."
"But what about her?" Lexi asked. She knelt towards the bouquet of flowers that she had placed for her brother and took out a small rose. "I'm sure she would have wanted you to visit her." She held the rose towards Tech, "don't worry. My brother doesn't mind sharing one flower."
Tech looked at the beautiful flower as he slowly reached out a took it. He followed Lexi as she led him over to Quinn's final resting place and the moment that he reached her headstone, he felt his legs turning into jelly. Lexi grabbed him by the arm and supported his balance but he felt his knees sinking right in front of the tombstone.
Quinn Wolf
Loving Daughter of Wilford and Rose Wolf
2746 – 2772
God Tech thought as he looked at her name and the dates of when she was born to when her life was taken away. He felt the rose slip from his grip as it rested right in front of the headstone.
Lexi looked at Tech sympathetically as his shoulders began to shake and she knelt in front of her friend and gave him a comforting hug. "Let it all out, Tech," she said as she clung him close to her.
He was glad that Lexi was there with him, otherwise he knew he wouldn't be able to handle this moment by himself.
Over at HQ, Miranda was in her room as she wrapped a blue bow around a box that had been delivered to her. After the whole cape disagreement that had erupted at HQ, she couldn't bear to see Duck angry. It was an emotion that she knew would pass, but three days was just too much and she knew how much had wanted that cape. She took the box in her hands and walked over to his room. "Oh Duck!" her voice sang out as she entered his room.
Duck was occupied reading a magazine and he bowed his head. "Can't you knock?" he asked her before getting into a sitting position. His eyes widened as he looked at the box that Miranda placed on his lap. "What this?" he asked her.
"Why don't you go ahead and open it?" she suggested.
He looked from her and the box. "O-kay," he said. It better not be one of those fake plastic snakes.
Miranda hid a secret smile when he thought the prank that she had pulled on him during the first few months that they had dated. He had been so mad with her but she had gotten a kick out of his reaction.
Duck pulled away the lid of the box and the tissue paper, only to reveal a robin's egg blue cape with matching knee-high boots. "What?!" he yelled as he picked up the coat and immediately tried it on, along with the boots. "When did you get this?"
"Oh, only the day when you found out you lost the bet," Miranda said to him. "I know how much you liked that cape so I wanted to surprise you with it," she said as she watched him stare at his reflection from the front, back, and the side. She smiled for she knew how good-looking he looked in that color. She reached over and adjusted the color of the cape and ran a hand over his shoulder to smooth out any creases, as she felt the light texture of the cape. "Very handsome," she commented.
Duck clasped both of her hands in his and looked at her straight in the eyes. He loved the cape, but not as much as the duck that had bought it for him. "I love you," he said to her, causing Miranda to blush at his words.
"Oh please," Miranda played it off with a chuckle, "you love that cape more."
"If I loved the cape more, then would I do this?" Duck asked as he grabbed the sides of the cape and trapped Miranda with his arms, as if he was a bat. He heard her squeal within his cape and he didn't let go of her until they both flopped onto his bed for a session of cuddles.
