Episode 2: Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

I

Conspiracy! Deception! An evil mastermind lurking in the shadows! Dark times were upon a galaxy calling out for a hero! And they would have that hero in the form of the astounding-

"Ace, please have a seat," Fensley said through an exasperated breath as he fiddled with the many wires hooked up to his laptop.

Ace took one of the many available seats in the briefing auditorium, wading through memories of afternoon matinees in Kokaua Town, where he often had a whole screening to himself. He watched as the stringy, green-skinned officer wrestled back the spaghetti of wires that prevented him from delivering his briefing more promptly. Ace felt relieved; it meant he wouldn't notice his knees bobbing, his fists clenching, all desperate to get out there and gets his hands on the VILLAIN who tried to hurt his cousins.

"Alright, that should do it," Fensley finally sighed, hitting a key on his laptop that made the screen behind him flicker to life.
"Yes, definitely in HDMI this time…" He whispered. "Now, your assignment…"

The screen lit up with an image of a little octopus staring back at Ace from the safety of a vast water tank held aloft by a horde of wirey mechanical tentacles.

"This…" Fensley said. "Is Dr. Tyr Zorek: Nyelian scientist specializing in engineering and biology. Our most recent intel says he's orchestrating a plot against the Galactic Federation. Having gained control over the inhabitants of his world by implanting their brains with computer parts, he now intends to do the same to all those working directly for the Federation."

"Such a little guy…" Ace said, practicing the glare he intended to give the real Zorek on the photograph. "To cause so much trouble for so many people."

"That's why we're calling you in," Fensley said. Before he could move to the next slide, Ace spoke up again.

"Look at the way he's staring."

Fensley did. "I, um… Yes, he does seem quite, um, focused."

"He must've already done some of it by the time this was taken," Ace said, leaning forward, eyes narrowing.
"And he has the gall to look like that - like he hasn't done anything."

"Yes, well, um…" Fensley hurriedly brought up the next slide; this one depicting another octopus like Zorek, but with a stare which seemed much more earnest.
"It seems that Nyelians possess some latent psychic abilities. The full extent of these abilities is as yet unknown, but it seems Zorek, at least, is powerful enough to temporarily alter others' perceptions of reality within a close radius. This was how he tricked our agents into capturing a civilian instead of him. We currently have Vel, a Nyelian florist, in our custody, held behind an anti-telepathy field and awaiting medical examination to determine if Zorek's alterations to his brain can be reversed."

"Let's cut to the chase, Officer," Ace said. "What exactly do you need me for, if it's not to fly down to Nyele right now and rip Dr. Zorek out of that walking tin can?"

"We, uh, aren't cleared for that yet, I'm afraid…" Fensley sheepishly adjusted his glasses.
"You're being tasked with uncovering any more traces of Zorek's plot within the Federation. Due to the severity of this situation, you will be permitted to recruit any agents you like and request permission to investigate any member of staff. We'd also recommend speaking with Vel-"

"In case we can find out anything about this procedure from him," Ace said.

"I, uh… I see you're anxious to get started, Ace."

"Anxious?" Ace stood up from his seat, levitating a few inches off the ground. "Officer, this creature has done the most vile things to his kind I can image. He tried to do the same to my cousins. I am not merely 'anxious.' I am ravenous for bringing this so-called doctor to justice as soon as possible… And I know just who can help me ensure that happens!"

II

Slushy thought he was used to standing still. He'd learned long ago, in his old taekwondo classes, that being comfortable with remaining still was a valuable skill. He thought he could stay still for eons for even the most indecisive of visitors to his ice cream stand. However, standing there, looking into Vel's murky grey eyes behind the anti-telepathy fielded glass, he felt as if he were looking at more than an indecisive customer. It was a customer who already knew that they didn't want any ice cream, that they despised the very notion, but were determined to stand there all the same, stewing in their venom.
Slushy felt grateful that he hadn't been sent here alone.

"Don't be sad, cuz," Finder said, removing his fedora and holding it tenderly against his red-furred chest.
"We're here to figure out how to fix ya."

Vel only blinked at the promise.

"Not a talkative sort, is he?" Clyde said.

"Can he even talk with that giant invisible tinfoil around him?" Bonnie asked.

"If he wishes it." Dr. Stryzen, a broad-chinned, green-furred tiger in a white lab coat, stepped out from behind the Experiments and pointed out a speaker embedded into a higher section of the glass tank.
"Mr. Vel's telepathic communications will be heard through this speaker."

"Thank you, doctor," Slushy said, stepping closer to the glass. "Mr. Vel… I can't imagine how you must feel right now. You know you're not in trouble, right?"

Vel's cloudy eyes drifted in his direction. "Where are you from?"

Slushy exchanged confused glances with his detective cousins. "Kaua'i," he said, "an island on Earth-"

"Before that," Vel said, his voice soft but urgent. "You aren't Earthlings. Which world created you?"

"Not one in particular," Bonnie said. "The guy that made us came from Turo, but he borrowed bits and pieces from all over."

"And he sure wasn't hanging around the place anymore by the time he got to our series," Clyde added.

"Then you come from nowhere," Vel said. "And… Everywhere."

Slushy felt a chill dart down his spine. It stopped when he felt Finder's hand on his shoulder.

"Like my associate told you," Finder said. "We come from Kaua'i. Question is: what's it matter to a florist who, frankly, has much more pressing things on his mind… If you'll, ah, pardon the expression."

Vel's chalky brow furrowed. "It… Doesn't… Matter to me."

Slushy felt something strike his gut harder than any blow he'd ever received practicing taekwondo.
"Of course it doesn't," he said. "But it matters to him."

"Wait, hold on," Bonnie said. "Did Dr. Tyr make him ask that all the way from home? The range on that must be insane."

"Too bad he took the evil genius route," Clyde said. "Think 'a what he could do for communications, mail-"

"He has," Vel said. "My home was a travesty before he took charge. We were a broken-hearted mess of a people, ravaged by generations of civil wars and revolutions. His ideas, his inventions, brought us together, kept us happy and safe."

"And how do we know that Zorek isn't just making you say that?" Slushy said.

"Because…" Vel said. "I always wanted to be a florist."

The Experiments stared at him. His eyes quivered as if he were about to cry, but he shed no tears.

"I think…" Slushy whispered to Finder, "I should leave this to you three."

"Why?" Finder asked, his gaze never breaking from Vel.

"I don't do this - interrogations and unraveling conspiracies. That's what you and Bonnie and Clyde are for."

"Ace asked you to help us, yeah?"

"I have no idea why."

"Because he knows that we need all the help we can get for a problem like this. We need every perspective. You studied fighting and worked at a place where people can never tell which one out of fifty-and-a-half flavors they want. You're patient; I need that."

Slushy felt a little warmer.

"Bon," Finder said, "you and Clyde got more of Jumba's tinkerer genes than I did. You think something like this chip would leave any kind of trace that it was there?"

"Maybe," Bonnie said. "Not sure; sounds like Tyr's got a much different setup than anything we might know about. But if I had to guess - it's in the brain, so ya might see it anywhere that leads there. Maybe in their eyes?"

Finder squinted at Vel. "In their eyes…" He sat there for some time, hoping he would eventually live up to his name.
"Like a little red glow?"

"Somethin' like that," Bonnie said.

Slushy squinted as well, finding the faintest of red glows around the border of Vel's eyes. He doubted he'd ever have seen it if he hadn't been looking for it, but now that he had, he couldn't lose track of it if he tried.

"Okay," Slushy said. "This is good news - it means we have a way of telling for sure if somebody's-..."

He trailed off as he turned back to Finder, Bonnie, and Clyde. They each looked back from pale faces stiffened with shock.
And each black eye shone faintly with a red border.

"Yeah," Finder said, returning his fedora solemnly to his head. "That we do, cuz."

III

"You alright, Ace?" Sparky asked.

"Of course I'm alright. Whatever could give you the impression that I was anything but alright?"

"Your face, for one thing."

"What's wrong with my face?"

"It looks like this…" Sparky twisted his golden face into a stern, sour grimace. "It used to always look like this." He put on the most dashing, heroic, toothy grin he could muster.

"That was before I heard about Zorek," Ace said.

"Sure," Kixx said, leaning down over Ace's shoulder to follow his strict gaze. "So remind us why we're taking it out on the lunch room, then?"

"Because our first suspect is here."

"Uh…" Heat regarded the bustling cafeteria as a weary jogger would regard a steep hill.
"Are we just gonna ask all of these people if Zorek's gotten a hold of them?"

"Not all of them," Ace said. "We're going to start with the one who would be most beneficial to Zorek's operation." He pointed a white-furred hand at a diminutive armadillo of an officer enjoying a cheese-and-jam sandwich.
"Wenda Kazz - Chief Hiring Manager."

"So if Zorek has her already…" Kixx said, "then he can keep an eye on who the Federation's recruiting. Maybe even stack the deck by staffing us with the worst applicants on offer."

"Is that really the best use of his time?" Sparky asked.

"It's not a matter of time," Ace said, his glare never shifting from Kazz as she happily munched away at her lunch.
"If our intelligence is accurate, then Zorek needn't be hyper-vigilant over his thralls. He can send them commands which they obey passively while otherwise behaving normally. It's a much more sophisticated technology than what we saw years ago with Check-"

"So what do we do?" Heat butted in.

Ace glanced briefly in Heat's direction. "First, we get lunch." He grabbed a tray from the stack beside the buffet line.

His allies, after shrugging to each other, followed suit.

"I don't know about you two," Sparky said, serving himself a mountain of mashed potatoes, "but this isn't exactly what I had in mind when Ace told me he was making a team."

"I don't mind," Kixx said, examining the assortment of soups on offer. "I skipped breakfast anyway."

"I'm still not sure how I feel about this," Heat said, picking up and sniffing a chicken salad sandwich before putting it back.
"I wanna help out with something like this, but… I don't know. I'm not used to all this."

"Neither am I," Kixx said. "I'm outta practice."

"Well, I'm happy to get back into practice." Sparky spared a glance ahead at Ace, who seemed curiously content with only the faintest spoonful of fruit salad on his tray.
"But I think Ace is just as out of it."

"Man, I feel bad," Heat said. "All this time's gone by and I still don't really know him that well."

"Neither do I," Kixx said. "Too far before our series."

"Hasn't stopped us before."

"I don't know him that well, either," Sparky said. "I'm not sure many of us do. He escaped the old lab almost as soon as he was out of the tank. Then he was spending most of his time flying around town looking for people to save, now he's always on whatever mission they've got for him up here."

"But he always seemed so happy," Heat said. "I'd always see him flying through the sky and… I never really thought about it, but it always made me feel good, looking up and seeing him smiling like that; like he'd make sure everything would be alright."

"That's what I'm worried about, now that all this Zorek stuff has come up…" Sparky said. "What if he was never really that happy?"

They quickly found a seat across from Ace, who sat beside Kazz as if they were old friends. Only then did they notice Kazz's other neighbor; the mountainous bull of a training officer known as Sergeant Krennoh. At the sight of him, Sparky went pale, Heat's shoulders stiffened, and Kixx discreetly glanced at his bicep.

"Oh, hello Captain Ace," Kazz said with a smile. "What a surprise seeing you here. I don't think I've seen you here at lunchtime before."

"I thought I'd shake things up," Ace said, his once-scowling face snapping like elastic to something resembling his typical heartwarming smile. The sight of it chilled his comrades; it seemed as if a stranger had put on a mask of their cousin's face.
"Variety is the spice of life, as they say."

"I'm not very keen on spicy food," Kazz said. "That's more the Sergeant's taste."

"It's nothing to be afraid of," the Sergeant said before taking a swig from his steel water bottle. It came back down on the table with a resonant clang.
"I should know."

"I didn't realize you were such good friends with Sergeant Krennoh," Ace said.

"Oh, he just likes to be kept up to date on new recruits," Kazz said.

"Does he now?" Ace's black eyes seemed to grow darker, but his smile remained bolted to his face.

Sergeant Krennoh glanced sideways at Ace's colleagues. "I haven't seen this lot in a good long while."

Heat averted his intense gaze. Sparky shuffled in his seat.

"No," Kixx said sternly. "You haven't."

Krennoh looked them up and down; Heat and Sparky struggled to ignore him, but Kixx couldn't stop himself from glaring unblinkingly at him all the while.
"Seems you turned out alright."

Ace and Kazz carried on talking. Kixx barely took in any of the covert interrogation; it took too much of his attention to keep thoughts of his brick-like fist careening into Krennoh's twisted, wrinkled, bitter face.
He was grateful when Ace finally excused them from lunch. No sooner were they out of the cafeteria did Kixx let himself loose.

"Who does he think he is?! A whole year he spent grilling us! Making us sweat and cry and feel like a bunch of nothing! As if we haven't already had enough of that years ago!"

He felt Heat's hand on his and instantly felt a warm wave wash over him, bringing him down.

"I'm okay," he said with a deep breath.

"Booj," Heat said, "it's okay if you're not."

"... I am. I promise," Kixx said. "It was ages ago."

He glanced at Ace, who stood with a finger under his chin, lost deep in thought.

"Did, uh… Did he catch any of that?" Kixx asked.

Sparky and Heat shrugged.

"If Kazz has been corrupted…" Ace finally said, "then we won't be able to tell just by talking to her. I think we should follow her, see what she does when she's not put on the spot."

"And how do we do that?" Sparky asked.

Ace's hand landed on his shoulder. Sparky regarded it with confusion for a few moments before he perked up, his antennae sparking with the same idea that Ace had.

"Oh, right!" He chirped. "Alright, I'll find you guys again when I've got something. Don't wait up!" With that, he leaped up in the air, reaching for a light on the ceiling, and vanishing through it in a flicker of lightning.

Once he was gone, Ace walked to a nearby window, directing his stoic gaze to the star-dotted blackness outside.
Heat and Kixx exchanged exasperated glances.

"So, what's the plan, Ace?" Kixx asked. "Do we just hang out 'till Sparks finds something?"

"I don't know," Ace said. He sent a white-furred hand down his face, resting it pensively over his mouth.
"I just don't know…"

Heat and Kixx stood on either side of him, resting a hand on each shoulder.

"We'll get him, Ace," Heat said. "We've taken on worse than him before-"

"No, we haven't," Ace snapped, practically freezing his two comrades. Then, softer, "... That's what worries me."

At that moment, the light flickered, sending the corridor into darkness for all of a second. When the lights returned, a panting, pale Sparky stood where he was only seconds ago.

"What did you find?" Ace asked, stepping forward as tall as ever before Heat and Kixx could even get a word in.

"It's Kazz," Sparky said. "She's on a pod with the Sergeant. I barely caught sight of their coordinates - they're heading Zorek's way!"

IV

Standing in the bustling medical wing, Slushy felt like he was trapped in a wrecked car with the airbag pinning him against his destroyed seat. Everywhere he looked, from doctors and nurses bustling to their next patient to visitors strolling to or from their loved ones' rooms, he saw eyes flickering with the faintest shades of red. He couldn't even turn to his cousins to vent his fears; he'd only find the same sinister shade there.
The four of them walked down the corridor with agonizing slowness, as if one toe out of line would alert Zorek's unwitting agents of their suspicions.
Bonnie ended up being the one brave enough to speak first.

"So…" she said, "should we catch up with Ace and the others?"

"Yeah…" Finder said. "Why not?"

Slushy spotted a bathroom sign out of the corner of his eye.

"I'll catch up with you guys," he said. He gathered enough courage to glance at their tense faces nodding in agreement.

As soon as he was in the washroom, tears escaped his eyes. He racked his brain, wondering who he could tell, and couldn't think of anyone.
He wasn't sure if he could even go back to Earth.
He looked up into the mirror. He wasn't used to the sight of himself crying. He liked looking happy, or at least calm and controlled. This wasn't what he'd been taught; he'd been taught to find solutions, to take control when others tried to take it from him.
He should've at least had the chance. Zorek could've given him that much.
He willed himself to look at his broken face. It was his truth, his reality, and he knew he should face it head-on, as he did with everything. It was devastating, it was humbling, and it was… Familiar?
Finder, Bonnie, and Clyde had looked at him like this only moments before. Why would they, unless they had seen what he had; everyone around them with the red eyes of Zorek's corruption?
But they couldn't have, because his eyes, for all their tears, were as black as they ever were.

"Hey, cuzzes!" He dove out of the washroom, calling out to them down the hall and not caring who stared at him for it.
"Get in here! I need to show you something!"

Bonnie and Clyde looked at each other with even more fear in their eyes than before. Finder simply raised an eyebrow.
Once Slushy had the three of them in front of a mirror, he asked them to tell him what color their eyes were.

"Black," they each answered.

At that, they turned to look at each other, seeing only black. They cheered and leaped into a hugging mound.

"I knew it couldn't be true," Finder sighed. "I just knew."

"Hold on," Clyde said. "How could that have happened just now unless that Vel guy did somethin' to our heads?"

"Which he shouldn't have been able to," Slushy said, "because of the anti-telepathy field."

"And who told us it was up?" Finder said, tipping his hat to Slushy.

Finder's three co-detectives snapped their fingers, then booked it back the way they came. They stopped at the doorway before Vel's room.

"We gotta be careful about this," Bonnie said. "Can't let Vel - or, well, Zorek - know we've caught on. We just gotta get Doc Stryzen outta there."

"How do we know Stryzen won't just do the same thing to us?" Slushy asked.

"Stryzen's people can't do things to people's heads," Clyde said. "But Vel and Zorek's can."

Finder stood there for a few moments, glaring at the door as if it were an impossible puzzle. Then…

"You know, sometimes I really am too clever for my own good." He knocked twice on the door. An agonizing eleven seconds passed before Stryzen's verdant maw appeared in the doorway.

"May I help you?" He asked.

"Yeah," Clyde's metal arm grasped the lapel of his lab coat. "We wanna have a chat with you, Zorek."

At that, Stryzen's mouth clamped shut.

"Come on," Slushy said. "We found you out, fair and square. One way or another, we'll figure out how to stop you."

Stryzen's tightened mouth curled into a malevolent smile. The detectives glared back at him, but their stern looks vanished when they saw tears streaming down the doctor's green fur.

V

Ace usually loved flying. Most of his cousins couldn't do it, but there was so much more to it than the feeling of privilege. It was the freedom of it, of it being untethered by the laws of physics or gravity or anyone. He wasn't sure, but it may have been what made him decide to leave Jumba and Hamsterviel's lab in the first place. The ground couldn't hold him, so why should these two little men be any different?
Flying through space, clutching Kixx's arms as Sparky piggybacked Heat beside him, all of them donning glass helmets, he felt free again. But only for a few seconds; the feeling diminished as they closed in on the fleeing pod.
He couldn't be free again until he'd dealt with their newest little man.

"Everyone remember what to do?" He asked his comrades. They all nodded back at him.

"Alright then…" Once they were close enough, he threw Kixx towards the pod, where he caught onto a rear wing. Sparky and Heat landed beside him.
Ace, meanwhile, darted to the pod's bow. He extended both hands, letting the vehicle's steel nose press against his palms. Ace held his part of space, his shoulders stiffening, his biceps throbbing as they willed the pod to remain where it was.
This should be easy enough. But then, of course it would be for the Astounding Ace and his friends.
He looked straight ahead, finding Kazz looking back with a terrified expression. But it wasn't the petty fear of a mad scientist panicking at a master plan going awry. It was the fear of an innocent citizen in distress, which Ace knew all too well.
He looked past Kazz, where Sergeant Krennoh's mountainous shoulders overshadowed Kixx, Heat, and Sparky dropping down from the pod's ceiling. Before they even had their bearings, the Sergeant got to work; he seized Kixx and pinned him to the nearest wall, which dented around Kixx's lofty form. Heat and Sparky blasted the Sergeant with their signature elements, but Krennoh gritted his teeth through the pain. He reached out, snatching Sparky's foot as he tried to fly away, then tossing him sideways into Heat.
Ace didn't waste any more time; he flew above the pod, finding the hatch that his comrades had used, and dropped down to join the fray. Before Krennoh could land a punch on the pinned Kixx, Ace's fist careened into his gray-whiskered cheek.

"Enough, Zorek!" Ace bellowed as the Sergeant stumbled, clutching his face as he let Kixx drop to one knee.
"You won't take another one! Not as long as I'm here!"

Krennoh straightened up, rolling his shoulders and spitting some blood onto the floor beneath him. He glared up at Ace as his allies surrounded him, clenching his reddened teeth.

"Is that your best?" He growled. He lunged at Ace, picking him up by the throat.

"No," Ace wheezed. "We're working up to it." He sent both fists into Krennoh's ears. As the Sergeant stumbled, Ace stayed afloat, keeping still as an anchor for Sparky, who put both hands on Ace's shoulders and both electrically-charged feet into Krennoh's chest.

"Hey, we're coming back alright," Sparky said.

"Let me see if I still remember how to do this…" Heat muttered, focusing on the metal floor at Krennoh's feet. The bulb on his forehead glowed orange, and then Krennoh found himself sinking into a puddle of melting steel.

"Hold on," Kixx said, stepping forward as Krennoh struggled. "How long do we think Zorek's had him?"

"We can find that out once we've brought him in," Ace said, "which is only a matter of time now."

Suddenly, Krennoh heaved himself free of the melting floor, leaping into the air and bringing his elbow down atop Ace's head, sending him flat against the floor.
Heat yelped as Krennoh picked him up. He seized the armored arm, which began to smoke beneath his desperate grip. Krennoh regarded the smoke with wide, manic eyes.

"Stop being cute!" He roared. "Why do you think he took me?! Because I can take anything!"

Sparky landed on his shoulders, wrapping his arms around his head, ready to electrify him again. Krennoh twisted, slamming both Heat and Sparky into the nearest window, cracking it and loosening their holds on him.

"I've survived for weeks stranded on the scalding surface of Mercury! I've rescued entire companies lost in space in the worst meteor showers of the past decade! I've trained the best soldiers the Federation has ever seen and fought them all to a standstill!"

Kixx threw a desperate hook at him. Krennoh spun out of the way, leaping off of Kixx's back and bringing his fist down like a plummeting meteor on his head.

"He wants me because I will beat all of you!"

He picked Kixx up, roaring into his face. Ace came up behind him, but Krennoc punched him back down without even turning to look at him.

"Do you hear me, you trogs?! I will beat all of you and then he will make me go back and take more for him! It will happen unless you beat me! Is that what you want?!"

Kixx felt Krennoh's fist meet his cheek again.

"It's always the same with people like you…" He spat. "Isn't it?"

He caught Krennoh's manic eyes. He recognized the old man's battle rage, having seen it enough times during combat training, as all his cousins had. What he didn't recognize were the tears.

"Is that what you want?" Krennoh said through his teeth.

Kixx suddenly realized that he never remembered Krennoh hitting this hard. With that, he reached out, clutching Krennoh's head in one massive hand. He stood up, pushing his weight against Krennoh's, struggling against the mountainous soldier but ultimately winning. He lifted the Sergeant as high as he could, then brought him down into the floor, which dented and screamed in a way he knew neither Krennoh or Zorek ever would.
Once the noise had died down, Kixx realized that he'd been screaming. He stumbled off of Krennoh, who now slumbered with his limbs sprawled about, nestled in the embrace of Kixx's newly-created crater.
Kixx felt a hand on his shoulder; it was warm enough for him to know that it was Heat's. He pulled him close, letting his warmth soothe him.

"I'm sorry you had to do that," Heat whispered.

Kixx sniffed. "I'm sorry that I still wanted to."

VI

Ace couldn't bear to tear his eyes away from the stars out the window. He was fully aware of how silly he must look, watching empty space as if it would eventually do something interesting. It was the fact that it wouldn't which kept his attention.

"They said I'd find you here."

Ace turned to find another old friend smiling at him, one shoulder leaned against the steel wall.

"Oh. Hello, Stitch," Ace said, turning back to the stars.

"I heard about what you and your team got up to," Stitch said. "I wanted to say well done."

"Is it well done? Zorek nearly got the better of all of us. And now we know that he's got one of our best doctors and soldiers."

"At least we know. You've stopped him from using them, which means we're that much closer to finding a way to cure them."

Ace bit his lip. "Right…"

He felt Stitch's hand on his caped shoulder. "And we will find a way to cure them."

Ace clenched his fists. "... Yes. Yes, of course we will. And Zorek will pay for his crimes. I won't rest until he has."

"There you go. Now, why don't you catch up with the others? They were asking me where you were. I think Clyde saved you a parfait."

Ace nodded. "Then I shouldn't keep them waiting." He marched towards the cafeteria door; it suddenly seemed so much easier.

"Ace," Stitch said. "You know it's okay if it's too much."

Ace stopped in his tracks, clenching his fists again. He felt something burning up in his chest, but kept it at bay. He turned, smiled at Stitch, and held out his hand.

"Thank you, Stitch," he said as they shared a firm handshake. "You're a great cousin."

Stitch smiled back. With that, Ace entered the cafeteria, finding his mighty team sharing a table. They raised their glasses at his arrival.

"There he is," Bonnie said. "Mr. Broody, come out to play at last."

Ace grabbed a seat between Kixx and Slushy, pulling them close. "I couldn't pass up the chance to celebrate our victory with all of you. You're the best team any hero could ask for!"

They all raised their glasses and cheered. As they drank, Ace caught a flicker of Zorek's picture in his mind's eye, and felt the burning in his chest again.
This time he didn't fight it; he just let the tears come.