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Chapter 5

“Leggo of my hand you little yellow monster!”

Tweetums was clinging to Duck’s hand so tight that when the mallard waved it about he wouldn’t budge. Ace came over and gently removed the prince and let him sit in his hand. “Be nice, Duck. Be glad anyone is that happy to see you.”

“Wise crack.”

Zadavia raised a stern voice. “Can we please get back on track?! This is serious!” She turned to Tech, who was just starting to recover a little, though he still looked tired and shaken. “Now Tech, please tell us what your theory is.”

Tech tapped away at his main computer and a scan of Icy’s skull came to view, along with her brain. “At first I thought she was unstable from her traumatic experience over the past three years. It’s very rare for someone to go through that kind of thing and still contain their sanity. But then I took an x-ray after Tweetums knocked her out and found this.” He pointed to a tiny blotch at the back of Icy’s brain x-ray. “At first glance it looks like a tumor, which scared me, but then I took a closer look and found something even worse.” The pictures suddenly turned into a 3D image and it turned toward the back and to its side. The image enlarged and the tiny blotch became a square shape.

Rev felt a lump rise into his throat s he tried to gulp. He had spent too much time with Tech in the lab not to know exactly what it was. “She-has-a-chip-in-her-head!”

“Exactly.” Tech said solemnly.

Ace’s dark blue eyes widened. “That means…. She’s being controlled?!”

“But by whom I don’t know.” Tech explained. “At first I suspected it could have been Mastermind but this technology is beyond even me. I was hoping Zadavia might know what it is.”

Zadavia leaned in closer and examined the design of the chip the x-ray showed. The Loonatics gulped as they literally watched the color drain form her face. Zadavian stepped back and took a breath. “Well……”

There was a long pause and the Loonatics had to urge her. “Weeeeeell?”

Zadavia sighed. “Zacheon.”

“Zachie-who?” Duck raised his eyebrow.

“One of the richest men in the universe and nothing short of a genius.  He’s also one of the most twisted criminals ever know. He’s completely unstable. A mad man. He was caught kidnapping people to test his scientific experiments on. He had researched on the black holes of the universe and found a myth that he had taken a belief in. Legend has it that if you managed to capture one hero from each planet and throw them into a black hole simultaneously you would gain all the power in the universe and immortality. The people of my court tracked him down but unfortunately he was accidently thrown into a void in the process. We believed he was dead…”

“And now he’s come back from the dead and trying to do the same thing!” Ace slammed his fist on the table.

Lexi  held her chin. “But wait… Icy said she was rented out…by Mastermind. If he was collecting one hero from each planet why would he just hand her out like that. If he’s as rich as you say it’s not like he needed the money.”

“You’re right, Lex.” Tech nodded, deep in though. “There’s still some pieces missing to this puzzle.”

Ace pointed at Lexi and Slam. “Hey, could you two go down to miss sunshine and see if you can get some answers out of her? Rev, Duck, and I will go down to Mr. Herald’s mansion and see to that burglar that broke into his house. Um…. By the way Tech, where did you put Icy?”

Tech swivled his chair to face him. “I put her in the second containment room.”

“Wait, hold on!” Duck snapped. “You put my cousin in a cage?!”

Tech shot back defensively. “She has stuff in there to make her comfortable enough! Might as well be her bedroom!”

Duck squared his shoulder and was able to over look Tech since the coyote was in a chair. “Can she get out?”

Tech stutterd. “Well… no…”

“Then it’s a cage! You’re as bad as Zachi-freak!”                                                                                                                                                                  

Tech stood, towering Duck and his fur on end. “Don’t compare me to that phycho-path! I put her in there so she wouldn’t hurt herself or anyone else!”

“Oho! So now your girlfriend is dangerous?!”

“She is with that chip in her head and she’s not my--!!!”

Ace got in between them. “Okay! Okay! Break it up! We’re all in a knot about this situation but we need to cool down. Now let’s get down to that mansion.”

Rev bit his lip as he left the lab room with Ace and Duck. He stared at the mallard. He had never seen him like that before. Deep down he was as worried as everyone else, though he tried so hard to hide it with snide remarks and his constant whining. But in a way, he was right.  The last thing Icy needed was to be locked up.

Duck suddenly looked down at his foot. Tweetums was riding on it. “On second thought, Tech, could you throw Tweetums in with her?”

Rev rolled his eyes. Just like that…..

Icy lay in a beanbag chair staring up at the ceiling. Thoughts rushed through her head like a river. The ghosts of what had happened after she blacked out slowly started to come back. Bit by bit the nightmare formed. She attacked Ace and nearly killed Tech.

“What the hell is wrong with me!?” Icy cried as she gripped her head between her hands, hot tears streaming down her soft, furry cheeks.

“Why are you crying?”

Icy gasped and looked up to see a little yellow figure standing before her. She sniffled and wiped her eyes. Tweetum’s frowned with a sorry innocence in his features. “If it’s because I shocked you I’m sowwy.”

“No, that’s okay. I’m actually glad you did.” Icy tried her best to smile.

Tweetums ****ed his head. “Are you Miss Fox?” Icy nodded. The canary held out his tiny hand. “Im Pwince Tweetums!”

Icy giggled and gave him her finger to shake. “So, what did Tech say?”

Tweetum’s scratched his head. “Somethin about you having a potato chip in your head.”

Icy’s ears perked up at this. She had a chip in her head? That would explain a lot but she didn’t remember….Zacheon. Zacheon had implanted it before he handed her to Mastermind. Tweetums suddenly jumped up onto her lap and sat down. He looked up at her necklace with sparkling eyes. “Ooh! Pwetty necklace! Where’s you get it?”

Icy came out of her train of thought with a jolt. “Huh? Oh, this? Tech and Rev made it for me a while ago.” She blew on it and it suddenly turned into Kiki. The little bot squeaked and hovered down next to Tweetums, rubbing its head on his side and purring.

“Wow! That’s wealy cool!”

“Kiki turns into other things too. Game systems, a microphone…”

“Micwophone? Are you a singer?”

Icy shrugged. “I’m okay I guess.” She whistled softly and Kiki squeakedas she tunred back into a necklace. As the fox fixed her necklace back on, Tweetums climbed onto her shoulder and elbowed her cheek.

“You know, Mr. Coyote and Mr. Runner really like you.”

Icy turned her head sharply and blushed. “Wha?”

Tweetums winked. “Yeah! You haven’t noticed?”

Icy blushed even redder, her cheeks becoming feverish. “No, you have it wrong. We’re all just good friends. We’ve known each other since second grade.”

Tech watched from one way window as Icy and Tweetums chatted. He hated seeing her so upset. Duck’s words bore into him. But before he could think the matter any further, Icy looked straight toward where the window was. Tech raised an eyebrow. He knew Icy was smart but there was no way she knew he was there. The window was disguised to look like the rest of the wall. He leaned against a chair laughing as Icy came up to the window, pressed her face to it, and puffed her cheeks up while crossing her eyes. He pressed the button for speaker. “Okay, you found me. Come on out and meet up stairs for breakfast.”

A door slid open on the other end of the room. Icy bowed comically, picked up Tweetums, and ran out. Tech chuckled quietly to himself. At least she hadn’t lost her sense of humor…

Ace carefully inspected the claw marks on the windowsill. “And you say this thing was a giant lizard?”

Mr. Herlad nodded. “Yes. It was large and in a way, human like. I won’t forget those glowing red eyes…”

“What exactly did it steal again?” The leader rabbit asked.

“An artifact from Old Earth. It had been dug up just years before it was evacuated. The red stone in the center is told to give it’s user different, supernatural abilities. Here’s a picture of it.” Mr. Herlad handed Ace a picture of a round, red clay object with a red, crystal lie, stone in the center. There were strange hieroglyphics carved around it.

Ace handed it over to Rev. “Can you track this, Revster?”

Rev took a good look at it and then shut his eyes tight. While Rev concentrated, Ace answered to the message coming in on his arm piece. “Yeah Lexi?”

The female bunny’s voice sounded frantic. “Ace! Mastermind has escaped!”

“What?!” Ace’s eyes widened. “How?!”

“I don’t know! We tried to grab her but she got away! And she’s kidnapped Icy!”

Rev hadn’t heard over his GPS and he suddenly looked up quizzically. “Hey Ace, my GPS can’t track it. It’s nowhere on this planet.”

“Not the hot issue right now Rev! Mastermind kidnapped Icy!” Ace turned to Mr. Herlad. “I’m really sorry about this Sir, but a member of ours is in trouble! But we’ll be sure to catch this burglar and get your antique back.” With that he ran out the door with Duck and Rev on his heels.

They got on their bikes and were riding downtown toward HQ when there was a large explosion. The force from the blast sent Rev flying into a back alley dumpster and Ace and Duck off their bikes. Duck moaned and slipped his helmet off even before he decided to get up. He lay there to take a breath for a second and to slow his heart down from that last shock when his arm violently tugged at and he was yanked off the ground.

Before Duck could cry out his bill was clamped tightly shut and something was tied around his wrist’s so tight it started to cut off the blood flow in his hands. “Try ‘Quaking’ out of that, cous.”

Duck gulped in disbelief. “Icy?!”

The fox snarled. “Shut it and do what I say or Ace and Rev are gonna be cut down…”

Ace sorely sat up and removed his helmet. He wondered to himself why the heck they decided to use the bikes instead of their jet backs. Ace looked behind him and called to the Roadrunner. “Hey, Rev? You alright?”

Rev poked his whirling head out of the trash with a banana peel draped over his beak. “More-or-less-but-what-the-heck-was-that?!”

“And where’s Duck?” Ace looked around.

Duck waved at em form across the street at the corner of an alley entrance. “Whoa! Hey guys! I just saw Mastermind run into that gameshop!”

“Why that little—Let’s get ‘er!” Ace and Rev ran for the building, quickly opening up the game shop that was put up for lease.

Duck’s breath caught in his throat as he turned. Icy still had a blaster to his head and the ‘Quack’ proof cuffs behind his back. Mastermind came out of the shadows and nodded. “That went well.”

“Okay, they’re out of sight. They won’t follow us.” Duck snapped. “What’s this all about?”

Icy was about to reply when she suddenly gripped her head and moaned. Mastermind rolled her eyes when she spotted her necklace. “So that’s what the problem’s been all this time!” She tore it off her neck and tossed it to the ground. “That device has been mucking up the reception of the chip.”

Icy snapped out of her headache and glared at Mastermind. “Thanks…”

Duck looked from one to the other. “What?! Icy! Why are you doing this?! Is it the chip?!”

Icy smiled mockingly as she held up a little remote. “Nope. I’m just having some fun.” With that she pressed a button and the whole gameshop exploded.”

When Duck's butt freezes over. That's when the next chapter will be on.

Try to figure that out.