I don't own Loonatics Unleashed

Enjoy!


Four of out of seven of the Loonatics were gathered at the lounge area. Slam kept himself occupied by watching an episode of a wrestling match, remembering the days when he would participate as one. Rev was sitting next to him as he watched the two wrestlers going after each other. It was quite the brutal sport in the roadrunner's opinion.

"Ooh!" Rev flinched when he saw one of the wrestlers, who had been a champion for the past couple of years, throw his opponent on the ground, "that's-going-to-leave-one-big-mark-until-the-next-month!"

From the kitchen, Ace surveyed any essentials that they needed for the remainder of the month before he and Lexi headed on their date for the night. From the horror film that they watched in the cinema, tonight they were going to head over a drive-in movie and he couldn't wait to experience it.

"Anything that we need a order?" Lexi's voice approached him in the kitchen. She held an electronic notepad in her hand along with the pen and waited to write anything that Ace told her.

Ace surveyed the fridge once more before closing it. "We got everything we need. But just in case, add two more bags of carrots in there."

Lexi breathed the air through her teeth as she made a note on the inventory of the electronic notepad. "You're pushing it a little with these carrots, Ace. It won't be too long until Zadavia decides to pay a visit about this," she joked as she clicked send in the notepad. One of the great things about this is that once the request was delivered, the package would arrive in seconds. Perks of upgraded technologies and being superheroes.

Ace gave her a playful shrug. "Eh she'll get used to it," he said as he leaned next to the fridge and looked over at Lexi with that infamous smirk of his, "she's gotta know that this rabbit needs his Vitamin C."

"You're quite the daredevil," Lexi chuckled as she placed the electronic notepad on the table and mimicked the same action as Ace did. "I'm looking forward to tonight. What's the movie that's playing?" she asked him.

"Definitely not a horror film," Ace answered her, hoping that she didn't desire to see another horror flick. "It's a western film. Cowboys and all that."

Well, that was quite the random genre but to Lexi, it wasn't the movie that mattered. What mattered was that she was going to snuggle next to Ace in their vehicle as the movie played. "You know what?" she said to him, "we may just meet Andrea and Hunter there." She didn't know how much her friend's boyfriend was into movie drive-ins but it would be quite the nice surprise and that they would be having a double date.

Ace was relieved that Lexi didn't question his movie tastes. With this film, of course there was going to be a bit of violence involved, but nothing where there would be jump scares. Also, it was out of Ace's control, for the movie had already been picked. "I'm already lookin' forward to it," he stated to her and received a smile from her in return.

Just then, the floor shuddered beneath their feet as Ace and Lexi exchanged a look with one another. "Looks like it came from the stimulation room," Ace said as he and Lexi took off to see what was going on. Once they reached the door and entered, they noticed Tech's form that suddenly disintegrated to the floor before he regenerated himself.

Duck looked up to see Ace and Lexi standing by the doorway and shook his head at them.

"What happened, Duck?" Ace asked as he approached his teammates.

Tech wobbled towards a chair and sat down as he tried to catch his breath. "There was a glitch in the system. Miranda wanted to crank up the level in the stimulation room and before I reached to the highest level, I was hit by electricity."

"Yikes," Ace said as he looked from Tech and over to Miranda who was breathing heavily in the stimulation room. "Why did she want to crank it up to the highest level? She ain't ready for that yet."

Tech let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes. "I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen."

"And why didn't you say anything, Duck?" Lexi asked as she looked over at him, who was being awfully quiet.

Duck took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Same as Tech. I was about to jump in there, but she pushed me out the room." He looked over and saw her finally sinking to her knees as she tried to catch her breath. Duck couldn't understand what could have come over her to act out in the way that she did.

Lexi took a deep breath as she looked at the fatigued Miranda. Even with superheroes, there was a limitation to things. However, she felt that she knew the real reason as to why Miranda was acting the way that she did. "I'll get her out of there," she said as she proceeded to walk towards the stimulation room.

Tech was glad that Ace and Lexi came in at the proper time. Otherwise, he would have felt responsible if something that had happened. He glanced down at his watch and almost jumped out of his chair when he noticed how late it was. "Oh my!" he exclaimed as he jumped to his feet, "I have a meeting with Amber and I'm late!" The day when he had met with this wolf, it had taken a lot from Rev to get it out of him. He had this look on his face that Rev was able to pick up on and he had asked him constantly on whom his new friend was until Tech gave in and told him. The last thing that he needed was a double date with Michelle involved. Of course that was a fact that Rev couldn't keep quiet about. He talked about her as if they were already married.

Ace had been made aware of Tech's new…he would like to call her 'lady friend.' He gave the coyote a nod of his head before saying, "go on Tech, we'll take it from here."

Tech was grateful for those words as he headed out of the room to meet with Amber. Ace then turned his attention over to Duck, who looked in the stimulation room as Lexi tried to console Miranda from whatever she was going through. "What's goin' on, Duck?" he suddenly asked the mallard. "What caused her to blow up?"

Duck could hear the disappointment in his voice. After all the hours that Ace had put in training her in controlling her anger, it was all for nothing. It was like she had slipped back to her usual ways. "She's been trying," Duck defended her.

Ace looked at Duck. "Yeah? Well she could have hurt herself," he bluntly said to him. "What caused her to act like this? If this is the way, I'll personally make sure that she doesn't come to any missions. I ain't getting Zadavia involved with this." The last thing he needed was another grudge to be formed between them and there was no point of any drama in the team.

"I don't know," Duck answered him, "I was telling her about what happened with Optimatus before you guys came and she just…snapped."

Come to think of it, Ace never found out what had happened with Duck…mostly because Duck kept it to himself. "And what did happen?" he asked him.

"Other than getting my butt kicked by the rest of the villains and Optimatus before I was thrown in prison? Nothing," Duck answered him. "I didn't have my powers and I needed to defend myself somehow. It wasn't until they used all their powers against me and almost fried me to crisp."

That imagery sounded brutal. At least those villains stopped before Duck did. "Geeze," Ace said as he shook his head at the duck, "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Why?" Duck asked him, "none of you bothered to ask."

Oh here we go Ace thought to himself and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. What did he want? An apology over something trivial? If Ace remembered correctly, Duck didn't even say a simple thank you to the team after they had saved his tail feathers from Optimatus. However, Ace was not going to bring that up for he knew that it wouldn't end well.

Duck folded his arms across his chest as he looked at Ace. "No comment?" he asked him, "wow. I didn't think I would leave the Ace Bunny, leader of the Loonatics speechless."

Ace was grateful for his nonchalant temper, otherwise he would be the one meditating for hours to lower the anger. He couldn't understand what Duck's problem was. He had his moments, but they weren't as terrible as this. The last thing Ace wanted to do was to kick him off the team, because he was just as important as everyone else was. "There ain't nothin' else to say Duck," he simply answered him. He looked down at the hardware system and pressed a button to hear what was going on in the stimulation room.

A sigh from Miranda was heard as he saw her shaking her head. "I know I overstepped," she said to Lexi, "but I needed to get it out of my system."

"I understand," Lexi said to her, "but you can't just go above and beyond your abilities. It could be dangerous, not just for us but also for you. You know that you can't go any higher than from what you already know."

"I know, I know!" Miranda said, impatience slipping in her voice. "I just needed to get it all out. I couldn't hold it in…after what they did to Duck."

Ace was going to have to fill Lexi in on those details but they were spending too much time in there and Miranda needed her rest. He pressed a button on the system and spoke in the microphone. "Get her outta there, Lex," he said to her and he watched as the second-in-command bunny obliged to his orders.

The moment Miranda came out of the stimulation room, her eyes were cast on the ground as if she was already ashamed of her actions. Ace didn't want to be too hard on her, but this was just too much. "Duck," he said to the mallard, "take Miranda outta here and to her room. Make sure that she rests."

Duck was surprised at that request, but glad that Ace was lenient on her. "Come on," he said as he reached over and grabbed a hold of her arm. He pulled her towards him causing her feet to stagger forward as they got out of the room. The two of them quickly walked into Duck's room and he slammed the door shut. "What were you thinking?" was the first thing he asked her.

Miranda tried to keep her emotions at bay, as well as control her breathing. "I need to be strong!" she said as she looked up at him. "If you haven't noticed, I'm the weakest link in this team! I can't even levitate heavier objects!"

"And you think that playing the highest level of the stimulation game is going to help you?" Duck asked as he flung his arm in the air, "you could have gotten hurt!"

"By a bunch of virtual ninjas?" Miranda shot back at him, "those are child's play considering what we have been through!"

"Look!" Duck exclaimed, "you were suspended once for sending glass in the air—"

"Don't you dare," Miranda said as she shook her head at him, "don't you dare use that against me when I was trying to save you!"

"That's not saving Miranda," Duck said to her, "that's revenge and it's not good!" In his mind, he regretted for even telling her what had happened to him before the team came and saved him from Optimatus. He didn't know that she would react this way.

"So what if it is?" Miranda asked him, "you could have died!"

"And what if I did?" Duck challenged her, "you getting your revenge would bring me back?" He watched as she looked at him with a shocked look upon her face. "Or would you be satisfied that they got a taste of your wrath?"

He waited for her to react when he said that. Her face changed from shock, to sadness, and then to anger directed towards him. Duck was quick to react as he grabbed her wrist and hold it to the ground before the palm of her hand contacted his face. "Control yourself before you hurt both of us!" he commanded.

He was long overdue for a good slap for all the nonsense that he had said in the past, but Miranda suddenly realized what she had almost done. Not only would she hurt Duck but she would also lower her integrity. "I'm so sorry," she apologized as she looked at Duck, pleading that he would forgive her for almost slapping him.

Duck looked at her and the change in her eyes was enough to show him that she had managed to calm herself through all of that. "It's okay," he answered her and he pulled her close for a tight hug. He felt her fingers dig into the back of his suit as she clung tightly onto him, as if she was hanging onto him. "I only want what's best for you," he said to her. "I don't want to lose you anymore than I already have."

Miranda squeezed her eyes as she buried her face into his neck. She didn't want to lose him either, but she knew that she couldn't be there every time that he was on a mission. She just had to trust that he was going to be alright.