I don't own Loonatics Unleashed
A/N - Three things that I would like to say:
First of all, thank you so much for the reviews!
Second, Duck may be a bit OOC in this chapter and others to come, due to a future plan I have for him.
And third, I honestly forgot that Mr. Leghorn even existed as a character and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw him. Like, what's up with this show humanizing Looney Tune descendants? I get that Mr. Leghorn and Pierre Le Pew are parodies of their Looney Tune counterparts, as some websites state, but at this point, I'm making it canon that a confused rooster and skunk got into Otto's and Ringmaster's circus and used the genetic manipulation device and became human. They loved it so much that they set out to be businessman, one good and bad, after that and they're living on Easy Street. So there goes Charles Darwin's theory of evolution out the window. In any case...
Enjoy!
The past couple of days, Duck had mostly been keeping to himself. The conversation that he had with Zadavia was still fresh in his mind and he felt that he had been walking on eggshells around his team. Why did he suddenly feel that whatever sentence was going to come out his mouth, Zadavia was going to suddenly appear and reprimand him for it? It made it so hard to him to find his words when he was so used to speaking the way he normally did. Out of all his teammates, the only one that had noticed this change in his behavior was his fiancée and she had been questioning him about it.
"Man," Miranda said one day, after she had a conversation with him about that informal meeting he had with Zadavia. "She really scared you with that, didn't she?"
"She didn't scare me," Duck immediately answered and shook his head, though Miranda knew better. "I just don't want to be suspended." Just when he knew he was finally making a name for himself and was finally becoming important in the eyes of others, it had to almost be taken away, just because someone was too sensitive on his mistakes.
If he was to be suspended from the team, then the team would fall apart. He was just as powerful as the rest of them were and the powers that he had been blessed with were just as important in stopping villains. If he didn't think about this fact, which would be a huge surprise to Miranda and everyone else, then what was the point in continuing? "I think you've locked yourself in here for far too long," she said as she took a hold of his hand and lifted him off the bed. "You need to be out there with the others or outside for some fresh air."
Please Duck thought none of them have bothered to check in on me or even ask. Some teammates they are.
Miranda didn't blame the rest of the team for not checking in on Duck. Duck was acting like the whole world revolved around him and that everyone should stop what they were doing and console him. She couldn't believe how childish he was being. However, a part of her understood that maybe a one-time check in from the group wouldn't have hurt. The team not doing that made Miranda realize that perhaps they believed that Duck could take care of his own emotions. Try living with the guy for a full year…that would be a different story.
Finally concluding to leave his room, Miranda and Duck joined the others who were settled in the lounging area. Slam had settled himself by the television and was watching the Basherball Semifinals and Duck decided to go ahead and join him. Perhaps watching this showdown would remove his thoughts from the previous couple of nights.
Thank goodness Miranda thought when she saw Duck joining Slam. At least he wasn't as upset as he told Miranda.
"Hey," a familiar voice said to her as she turned around and saw Lexi Bunny approaching her, "is he feeling any better?"
None of the team knew of Duck's reasons for being distant from the team. The only thing that Miranda could think of was horrible migraines from having his DNA manipulated by Otto and the Ringmaster those couple of days ago. "He's getting there," Miranda said to Lexi with a slight smile upon her beak. At least she was glad that the team respected Duck's privacy with the meeting that he had with Zadavia.
"That's good," Lexi said as she leaned against the kitchen counter and took a sip of her carrot juice that she had prepared earlier. "I was getting kind of worried. It's so unlike him to not be like…well…Duck."
"I think it's a surprise to all of us," Miranda chuckled.
The semifinals were suddenly interrupted as Zadavia's hologram came up on the screen. Both Lexi and Miranda stood straight upon their boss's appearance as they and the rest of the team approached the screen. "Team, we have a problem," she said to them.
And just when the game was about to begin after Mr. Leghorn's interview. Couldn't it have waited until half-time? Duck thought, extremely glad that Zadavia couldn't read his thoughts. He flinched when he heard Miranda loudly clear her throat as he gave her a little glare for getting into this head.
"What's up, boss?" Ace asked as he slid towards the group and looked at Zadavia attentively.
"There's a thief at large committing robberies all over Acmetropolis," Zadavia explained to them.
"A thief?" Lexi echoed, "isn't that beneath us supertypes?" Ever since they had formed this group, never had they had a mission of something so trivial.
"Not if he's a super-thief," Ace stated, "let's jet!"
And the action for the day commenced. The Loonatics hopped inside the Loonaporter and headed over to the location where Zadavia had sent them the coordinates. "The Acmetropolis Museum," Ace said as they got closer to the building, "it figures that a thief would want to go to a place like that." He looked down at the ground and saw visitors fleeing from the area.
Once the Loonaporter was parked on the ground, the superheroes jumped out and headed inside the building where they noticed the security guards glued to the floor. Tech didn't have the time to figure out what was keeping those guards on the floor, for the team knew whom the culprit was. Right next to an artifact that was shaped like an egg stood a muscular man who was ready to steal the priceless object.
"Okay doc," Ace said as he looked at the thief, "step away from the egg."
The thief moved away from the egg and smirked as he approached the superheroes. "The Loonatics, huh? Interesting. It appears Massive's popularity is growing."
Miranda looked at him up and down. He was massive alright but he's popularity was going to go downhill real soon if he continued with this crime spree.
"How about I give you a choice instead?" Massive offered a compromise, "save this one trinket…" he used his powers onto the egg artifact, "or save yourselves. Don't you know the cost of being heroes is rising?"
The lifted his hand with the addition of his powers and the ground where the Loonatics stood on began to rise in the air. With his other hand, he tore a section off the roof of the building and was going to bring it down upon them. "Now for a hero sandwich."
Miranda flinched when he said that. "Ugh, I'm getting tired of these puns!" she directed her eyes towards the section of the roof that was coming upon them. She was able to hold the section of the roof until she felt her eyes starting to get tired from the weight of the object. "Tech," she said to the coyote, "a little help here."
"On it," Tech said as he held his arms out and helped Miranda in levitating the section of the roof from squishing them any further.
Massive took the opportunity and began to levitate objects towards the Loonatics, that Ace, Lexi, and Duck were able to destroy before it hit them. Seeing that his strategy was not working against them, Massive went ahead and grabbed the artifact before floating away from the museum. The moment that he reached the doorway of the museum, the used his powers to tear away sections of the building causing it to tremble against its weight and starting to crumble from inside.
Lexi looked down at the floor and noticed that the guards were still glued to the floor. Rev didn't hesitate and immediately zipped over and started to move one of them away from the falling debris.
"We gotta get these people out," Ace said as he used his laser beams to tear off a section of the ground where the guards were lying. The moment he finished, Slam grabbed a hold of the section of the ground and used all his strength to lift it in the air and evacuated them from the building.
As the Loonatics were making their way out of the building, Ace looked over his shoulder and noticed Duck standing there not knowing what to do. "Duck!" he yelled at him, "don't just stand there with your hands in your feathers, grab something!"
Not knowing what he could save, Duck grabbed a random artifact from the pedestal only to get hit by a laser in the tailfeathers. He immediately ran away from the laser when it began to intensely fire at him. As he ran, he grabbed as many artifacts as he could to save from the rubble and teleported out before the building fell onto him.
"You okay?" Miranda asked when Duck teleported next to her with the bag in his arms.
"Never better," Duck said as he shook the excess debris that had fallen onto him.
Once the debris cleared, Ace looked at the deconstructed building of what used to be the museum. "Well guys," he said, "looks like Massive skipped."
"How does someone that big skip?" Lexi asked.
"Who cares?" Duck said as he reached into the bag and pulled out a mask, "I risked my tailfeathers to save this!" he looked at the mask from one section to the next before inquiring what it was.
There was no time to debate the origin and the type of mask that Duck had saved from the museum. "We need to pick where the next fight goes down, get the home court advantage."
"We could set up a sting," Zadavia voice come through the telecommunicators on their suits. The Loonatics held up their arms and the frames combined to show Zadavia's hologram. "Lay out a trap for him," she said to the team. "What is the one thing Massive wants the most?"
"Definitely money," Miranda spoke up. It didn't take a genius to figure out a thief that stole from the bank and then from a museum what he desired the most.
"And that egg that he stole was worth one hundred fifty quasarlinium," Ace said as Miranda let out a low whistle at the amount of money that it cost. "I'm a little short. Got any pennies in your piggy bank, Zadavia?" he joked.
"I have a little set aside for a rainy day," the woman answered as she continued the joke, "do you have an idea?"
A thief with a desire for money needed to be attracted with more money and Ace felt that he had the perfect plan up his sleeve for this situation. "Yeah," he said as he gave Zadavia that infamous sly smirk, "what if we make a public investment?"
"I trust your instinct on this, Ace," Zadavia said, "please keep me debriefed on this. Zadavia out."
The moment that her hologram disappeared; the group gathered around Ace as he began to tell them of the plan that he had thought of. "We need to find the place that needs the biggest investment…any ideas?"
The team remained quiet for a second until Tech perked up. "The Luxury Rocket Industry," he said to the team. "They have been wanting to get funding for some time now."
Ace let out a small groan. "I hate having to use them as a diversion but it's the only public place that popular enough for this. Think you can make us some quasarlinium?"
Tech gave him a nod of his head. It was a child's play invention and he was going to have it ready in less than ten minutes.
"And we need the investor," Ace said. The only person who loved money more than Massive in the team was none other than Duck. The team turned their heads towards Duck and Miranda as they had a smirk upon their faces.
Duck looked from team member to the next. "Why are you guys looking at us?" he asked.
After the team ran their plan over their heads one more time, Duck called the Luxury Rocket Industry for the investment that he was going to 'contribute.' It had been an extremely fast paced set up of the event for they were willing to meet up as quickly as possible. Word traveled fast and there was a large audience that had formed at the Luxury Rocket Industry. The Loonatics got into their disguises where they tried to blend with the people. Over at the podium stood Duck in a white suit and monocle and next to him stood Miranda with a white fitted dress and gloves as both ducks gave off a rich flair around them.
"Today is a glorious day for the luxury rocket industry," the announcer said on the podium, "please join me in welcoming our newest investors, Mr. Mallard Megabucks and his wife Melinda Megabucks."
From a girlfriend, a fiancée, and then a wife? Even though they weren't officially married yet, Miranda didn't know how to feel about that title. She hoped she wasn't getting cold feet. As the applause subsided from the audience, she followed Duck as he took his place by the podium and she stood next to him.
"Thank you, thank you," Duck said to the audience, "I am happy to invest two million worth of quasarlinium bars to build more of these crazy rocket doohickeys. Naturally, I'd like the next model to have my face on it so I'm—" he stopped talking as Miranda elbowed his side.
"Stick to the script," Miranda whispered to him and got the thumbs up from Ace in the audience.
"So in closing," Duck continued his speech as Ace's voice came through the telecommunicators, ensuring that everyone was in their positions. While he and Lexi were in the audience, Slam was backstage, Rev was the usher as he helped the audience to their seats, and Tech was disguised as the food vendor.
Suddenly, a large figure descended towards the crowd. "Well, well, well," Massive said as he finally joined in the party, "what have we here? Massive amounts of quasarlinium and massive amounts of me."
The crowd panicked as they saw whom the villain was. They leaped off their seats and scrambled away from the event for their safety. Having heard those puns being made, Miranda rolled her eyes and shook her head at the villain. "Let's quack outta here," Duck said as he grabbed Miranda's hand and they teleported away from Massive who was making his way towards the quasarlinium.
As Massive was close enough to the quasarlinium, Ace grabbed his attention. "Yo, mean and green! Didn't your mother ever tell you the money can't buy you happiness?"
"She did," Massive answered him, "that's why I'm stealing."
Now was the perfect opportunity to attack. Ace used his laser vision towards the man only to see that it wasn't having a full effect upon him. "My body's so dense," Massive said to him, "I'm invincible."
Ace took out his weapon and tried to attack him with his sword. The sword didn't have any effect on Massive as he punched Ace away from him and he plummeted to the ground. Slam twisted his way towards Massive and used as much force as he could to push the man off the ground and send him flying towards the wall.
"Nice going Slam!" Miranda said as she gave the Tasmanian devil a high-five.
"Quick everyone!" Ace yelled at the team, "while he's down!"
Everyone, aside from Duck who teleported from the group, ran towards Massive. However, Massive got up from the ground and held the palm of his hand towards the Loonatics, causing them to float in the air. "Feeling a little lightheaded?" Massive asked them. He felt a rush mild pain rising in his chest when he was hit by a power orb.
Duck cleared his throat, "forgot about somebody?" he asked him.
"Not exactly," Massive said as he bought the palm of his hand towards Duck. The power consumed Duck and held him onto the ground.
"Duck," Miranda gasped, wishing that she could break free from this trap so that she could go and help him.
"You see, all their weight has to go somewhere," Massive smirked as he turned his attention over to the Loonatics. "I think you all need a vacation. Where to send you? Oh, I don't know, how about the moon? Farewell Loonatics!" he threw his arm in the air as the Loonatics were levitated into the air and towards the skies.
The speed of the orb that the Loonatics were trapped in was increasing and none of them knew how much time they had left until they reached space. Tech looked at his wrist, to see if he could find something to get out of the orb but he only saw how much he weighted. "According to this," he said, "I weigh negative one thousand two hundred sixty-eight pounds. Fascinating!"
"Real interesting Tech," Ace said, "but can you make us heavier?"
"That is, without making us look bloated," Lexi added.
"And do it before we run out of air to breathe," Ace said. He looked down at his telecommunicator and got into contact with Duck. "Duck, can you point Tech's gyro at us?" A small device that he had built to stabilize Massive's powers against them.
"No," came Duck's strained voice from Ace's telecommunicator, "unless I can do it by lying here and not moving."
"We're doomed," Miranda simply said.
"Now's not the time to quote Duck," Lexi said.
"Wait, I have an idea!" Duck said and halted the communication with Ace as he teleported himself inside a rocket that was placed on display during the meeting. He tried to use as much strength against the weight that was pulling him down. He had difficulty as he was slammed against his seat that started the rocket and was catapulted into the sky. He tried to reach in front of him to steer the rocket but couldn't reach it. "Hold on, I'm coming for you!" he said to his telecommunicator, "if I can steer this thing."
Ace looked at the rocket that was coming towards them. "Thanks Duck," he said, "we see you. Everybody hang on," he held the palm of his hand towards Tech as he grabbed on. The Loonatics grabbed onto each other's hands and waited for the rocket to get closer. "Slam, let's hitch a ride!" Ace told the Tasmanian devil.
Slam reached towards the rocket and held onto it as tightly as he could. With as much stability as Slam had, Ace turned his eyes towards the rocket and used his lasers to melt away the metal. Once the hole was big enough for all of them, the Loonatics entered inside the rocket and tried to defy as much of the gravity as they could as they began to take their seats and strap themselves in.
Tech situated himself in the seat next to Duck and pressed a couple of buttons and adjusted the lever to take the rocket ship back towards Earth. "Duck's weight has crushed the controls beyond repair," he spoke up at the team, "it's gonna be a rough landing."
The Loonatics braced themselves as the rocket ship nose-dived into the ground and crashed to a stop. Tech held up his hands in the air and used his magnekenesis as he levitated the food cart towards the rocket ship where the gyro device was settled. "Now to grab the gyro and restore us to normal gravity." The door of the food cart opened and the gyro device levitated towards Tech, "that's right, come to papa." Once he grabbed a hold of the device, he faced it towards the team and a field shot towards them, restoring the Loonatics back to their normal gravity.
Everyone felt their bodies contacting the ground. Slowly they got up from the ground and walked outside and when they noticed that they weren't floating like before, Tech said, "the gyro works! We have gravity!"
As Duck was about to make his way out of the rocket ship, he felt his arm being grabbed and was pulled back. He looked at Miranda in shock as she pulled him close and began to pepper his face with kisses. "You. Are. Amazing," she said as she kissed him with each word. If it wasn't for Duck, they would probably be in outer space by now without any air left to breathe.
Duck was caught off guard the moment she held his cheeks in her hands and showed her admiration for him. "Okay, okay Pepé Le Pew enough," he joked, thankful that she didn't punch his arm, as he tried to push her off him, but she able to sneak in one last kiss. As they both made their way out of the rocket ship, Duck was glad that he was wearing a mask because underneath he was blushing profusely.
"Massive Two, good guys zero," Lexi said to the team.
"So, we know his power is all about give and take," Ace said to the team, "making something lighter or heavier then vice versa. Maybe we can figure out how to use that against him."
"Got that right," Lexi said, "it's about time for us to throw our own weight around."
"He stole a hundred million from the bank," Ace counted off, "the egg was worth one hundred fifty, and we set him up with two hundred million quasarlinium."
Lexi raised an eyebrow at what Ace was saying. "He keeps one upping himself. So, what's more worth than that?"
The team had chased this villain around so much that they haven't had any luck in catching him. "All this chasing is going to make us miss the Basherball game at the World Drome," Duck said, finally recovered from the surprised make-out session. "I wanna see who's gonna win this year's trophy."
Ace's eyes widened at what Duck had just said…and he was onto something. "That trophy has been all over the news and I bet it's pretty expensive." Another plan had formulated in his mind and Ace knew that it was better to be one step ahead than to wait for the opportunity to strike. "Come on team, let's jet!"
After stopping at HQ, so that Tech could create a pair of gauntlets that would neutralize Massive's powers, the Loonatics made their way to the Mondo Bowl where they were able to get a couple of seats for the game.
Miranda didn't understand the hype that Acmetropolis showed for this game. What was the point of watching two opposing teams throwing a ball and scoring a point? Big deal! "Wake me up when Massive comes," she said to Duck as she snuggled her head onto his shoulder and shut her eyes.
As the game continued to unfold in front of the audience, the ball suddenly began to hover in the air. "He's here," Ace warned the team. He watched as the ball crashed on the ground and Massive hovered from within the crowd and into the air. "Let's move!" Ace said to the team the moment his eyes caught sight of Massive.
The audience began to 'boo' at Massive for interrupting the game as he continued to hover above the field. He looked over at the guards and using his gravitational powers, one half of the guards were levitated in the air and the other half were held to the ground. In the meantime, the Loonatics had gathered at the field below Massive as he levitated the trophy into the air.
"You'd think for the price of the ticket, we'd get a better halftime show," Ace said to the team and his eyes looked over at Slam. "Take him down!"
Slam twisted into a mini cyclone as he used all his energy and flew towards Massive. He slammed towards the villain as the trophy flew towards Mr. Leghorn and the interviewer and Massive fell to the ground.
"Rev, go!" Ace said to the roadrunner.
"Okay-so-now-I-can-give-this-guy-a-taste-of-his-own-medicine!" Rev said as he sped over towards Massive and gave him a strong kick on the back, sending him to the other side of the field. "Let's-see-how-you-like-it-when-you're-being-punched-around-big-guy!" He ran to the other side of the field and kicked him again. Rev sped to the other side of the field but before he could execute the same action, Massive used his gravitational force and pulled Rev down making him unable to move.
Slam power cyclone-d towards Massive but he felt his weight becoming lighter as he was levitated off the ground. Tech flew towards Slam to use the gyro against the gravitational field but he felt his hand becoming heavy when Massive shot his powers towards him. Ace ran towards Tech and took a hold of the pair of gauntlets.
After Tech fell to the ground, Miranda jumped towards Massive and sent a large piece of debris towards him. He smirked at her feeble attempt as he held out his hand towards the debris and sent it flying towards her at full speed.
"Quack it in," Duck teleported towards Miranda and took her in his arms, "and quack it out!" He teleported away as the debris made contact in the place where she stood.
"Fire!" Lexi yelled at the two teams as they sent a couple of balls towards Massive. Lexi brain blasted the balls as one of them hit Massive straight in the chest. "Score one for the home team," she said before quickly adding, "and to you guys" for the opposing team.
As Massive was about to attack Lexi, who was quick enough to leap out of the way, Ace blasted him in the back with his laser beams. "Game's over Massive," he said to him.
A laugh escaped the villain's lips as he turned around and looked at Ace. "I told you; you can't hurt me."
"Maybe not," Ace said, "but I plan on making you pretty uncomfortable. Duck, Lexi blast him!" he said to his two teammates.
With all three powers combined, Massive was hit in the chest and was sent flying towards the roof of the Mondo Bowl. He looked down at noticed the trophy lying there and he used his powers to levitate it in the air. He couldn't stop himself from crashing out of the Mondo Bowl roof and falling at the bottom for the ground. The end of the trophy got caught on the edge of the roof as it tilted on its side.
"Okay," Massive said as he got up from the ground, "I've really had about enough of—" his words were caught off as he was hit by Duck's power orb that turned from fire into a chili like texture.
"What's the matter?" Duck asked him, "don't like chili? Of course, it makes you pack on the pounds. That's why you'll never see me—"
"Oh, you want to be lighter?" Massive interrupted him, "fine." Using his powers, he lifted Duck off the ground and into the air. "Going up."
Lexi then jumped to where the trophy was hanging out from and looked out. "Did you get him Duck?" she asked him.
"That would be a no," Duck said to her, "hey, watch out because—" he stopped talking when Massive used his powers on Lexi and bought her towards Duck, trapping them both in one gravitational orb.
Miranda then popped up from where Lexi was and used her telekinesis towards the trophy as she tried to guide it as far away from Massive's proximity as she could. Damn these heavy objects!
"Don't any of you pests know when to give up?" Massive asked as he used his power onto Miranda and pulled her towards the ground, causing her to crash and not move.
Now that he had taken care of these heroes, Massive levitated the trophy towards him as gently as he could. As he had almost gotten a hold of the trophy, he saw Ace swinging from the window with a rope in his grip. Massive used his powers against Ace but he was agile enough to dodge past them. Ace flipped through the air and landed on top of the trophy and used his laser beams towards Massive.
"Bunny's going down!" Massive said as he hit the trophy with his power.
"No, doc," Ace said as he landed on the ground, "you are."
Massive looked up and before he could react, the trophy fell on top of his head and trapped him into the ground. Massive was able to remove the trophy from him and he held up his hands towards Ace but he was quick enough to place the gauntlets onto his wrists. "Here's some bling-bling for your trip to Sing-Sing."
"If you think these things can hold me, you're wrong," Massive said to the Loonatics once they gathered around him, "you can't control gravity."
"You sure about that?" Miranda asked as she used her telekensis towards the trophy and managed to hover it a little bit in the air, "some help here, Tech."
"You got it," Tech said as he used his magnekenesis and bought to trophy towards the group.
With the trophy safe and Massive defeated, the Loonatics looked up towards the Modo Bowl roof as they noticed Mr. Leghorn giving them his praise for the job that they accomplished. "I'd like to give you a reward for saving all these people who paid good money to come into my World Drome."
"But you know we can't accept your reward Mr. Leghorn," Ace said to him. Their job was to save civilians for their safety because it was their job, not because of personal fulfillment.
"But if we could," Duck curiously said, "what type of reward are we talking about?"
"How about a lifetime supply of my own red-hot chili-gurt?" the businessman suggested.
"Too rich for us," Ace said, "but not Slam." He could tell that the big guy was expecting something to eat real soon and considering the large appetite that he had, he would be doing some great business with Mr. Leghorn.
With a smile upon his lips, Mr. Leghorn tipped down a huge vat of chili towards Slam's mouth. "Go to town son," he said as Slam began to slurp down the chili and went down his throat.
Duck flinched at the aroma of the chili as he took a step back. "It's official," he said, "I'm going to be sick." It wasn't long before he was hit in the face with it and felt the chili seeping down his suit.
Miranda swiped her finger towards the chili that was on Duck and gave it a taste. "Ooh, that's spicy," she commented feeling the mild sensation of the heat on her tongue. "And you're in the need of a hot bath."
Duck swiped his hand over his mask and shoved the chili away from him. "Like right now," he said and teleported away from the group before he was hit from the chili once again.
