Duck! I wanted to expand his character past "silly egomaniac" and give him some REAL depth. Hence, this direction for him!
-Duck isn't just egotistical or a show-off...he also happens to be very cynical. He doesn't like the current state of the world nor what's being done about it. But unlike everyone else who's given up, he's not going to just stand around and do nothing about it.
-That happens to be one of Duck's greatest qualities...his determination. He will stop at NOTHING to get what he wants and being told he can't do something is the quickest way to get him to try (even if out of spite at first, he will genuinely try). He's basically like a second Wile E Coyote in that regard.
-Duck chose the name ‘Danger’ himself. When he arrived at the orphanage, he had no name so everyone referred to him as just ‘duck’ or ‘the duck’. He didn’t WANT to be called Duck forever so he just a name he thought was attention grabbing and cool. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
-Duck ONLY allows the Loonatics (and Zadavia) to call him Duck. He would prefer for anyone else to call him ‘Danger’ or ‘Danger Duck.’
-Duck is very defiant and rebellious by nature. It clashes with Ace’s need for control, which is why he fights with Ace so much.
-Duck is an activist at heart. He HATES the way certain conditions are for the Gutters of Acmetropolis and has absolutely taken part in protests in the past before he became a superhero. He uses his position as a way to subtly encourage the Gutters to rise up and fight for their rights.
-Duck was very isolated during his time at the orphanage before he met Pinkster. Literally nobody wanted to be his friend and this affected him more deeply than he’d like to admit it.
-Duck’s “adopted” parents in canon (they were ACME Grands) only adopted him so they could brag about “giving a gutter a better life.” Behind the scenes, he was really treated more as a servant and meant to take care of ANY needs his so-called “parents” had. Eventually, Duck couldn’t stand this treatment and ran away.
-Duck worked several odd jobs before the meteor hit…all at the same time. The lifeguard job was his most recurring one before the meteor hit.
-Duck is a lot more sentimental than you’d think. He’s very nostalgic at heart and deeply cherishes the memory of every physical object and memento given to him as a reward for his superhero work, no matter how worthless they appear at first glance.
-Duck is VERY into genealogy. The real reason he is? So he can find who his parents are and ask them why they gave him up.
-To everyone’s surprise, Duck himself is an EXCELLENT researcher. When he’s genuinely interested in a topic (like history or finding old documents) Duck can pull up practically anything, even if it’s buried or deleted.
-Duck also happens to be a great archivist. He quickly takes note of which things are going extinct and keeps notes and records of them for future usage.
-In general Duck is VERY curious about the past. He genuinely wants to know what life was like before ACME was around. Hence he does everything he can and in his power to find out.
-Most likely canon (best shown in the episode Sypher) The problem with Duck is that he’s focused more on himself and showing off (like Daffy and Plucky). If he actually chose to focus on the task at hand? He’d be the most effective and scary member of the team, hands down. This HAS popped up on rare occasions…mainly when Duck isn’t kidding around.
-Duck has the most latent Toonforce in him. It’s how he’s able to survive things that most others can’t without having Tech’s regeneration factor. (like Lexi’s brain blasts when she’s annoyed at him not truly hurting him. Or Ace’s sword blasting him in “Secrets of the Guardian Strike Sword.”).
-Out of all his teammates, Duck gets along with Tech the best. Having been a victim of the system itself, Tech genuinely LISTENS to his ideas and plans for change and quietly supports him.
-Duck also gets along well with Rev. Rev's naivety and chatterbox nature can get on his nerves but Duck knows Rev genuinely means well so he tries to teach Rev as best as he can about the system and what it's been doing to other people.
-He is NOT a fan of Tweetums and sympathizes with Sylth Vester over the injuries Tweetums has given him (as Duck has received them himself). He only listens to Tweetums "orders" as his so-called "royal knight" because he doesn't want Zadavia or worse, Ace giving him hell for it.
-Duck is surprisingly, the biggest believer in reformation. He genuinely believes things and people can be changed if given enough time and effort. He's a BIG believer that villains such as Sylth Vester and Pinkster Pig can change if given time and effort. He's especially a believer in Pinkster's possible redemption.
This one was a doze-y to do! (22 minute read. Also on AO3!)
"We told him not to get closer!" Lexi paced. "Now who even knows where he is, and whatever this leads to!"
Chapter 3: More the Curiouser
Even as they were trying to think up a plan on how they were going to deal with this sudden technicolor rift that sucked their hyperactive friend in, Tech continued to sleep away peacefully… They were too busy to notice he seemed to calm down after a brief nightmare.
And if any of them were paying attention to him, they would've caught him quietly gasping in his sleep just a minute ago, as if he realized something in his dreams that his real body picked up and reflected.
Slam was watching the cloudy rift like a curious child before briefly looking at sleeping coyote, only to discover Duck was trying to shake him awake.
"Wake up, Laze E. Coyote!" The mallard demanded. "I'm going to bring out the big guns if you don't wake up RIGHT NOW!"
Slam swiftly, firmly yet gently enough scooped up the duck before he could even think of trying to slap his teammate back into consciousness or anything worse, a weird feeling told him to stop the mallard before he could wake him.
"Hey! What's your problem Slam?! I'm trying to get Tech outta dreamland here!" Duck squirmed.
"No, no! No do daa!" Slam hesitantly warned, his gut was doing most of the talking.
"Than WHAT am I supposed to do than?!" The mallard protested.
As the duck tried to free himself from the Tasmanian devil's gentle yet firm grip, Ace tapped onto the panel on his suit's right arm; once the screen lit up he selected the red triangle that belonged to the bird that was pulled into the portal.
"Rev, Rev, are you dere? Where are you?" The rabbit spoke into it, trying to call him. "Come on, Rev… Pick up! We're worried about ya!"
There wasn't a signal… No sign of the road runner… Now that he thought of it, he wasn't even wearing his suit to begin with when he was sucked in, so he probably wasn't even going to get a signal regardless.
The swords-bearing rabbit looked up at the portal, there wasn't any other option…
"Looks like we're gonna hafta go in dere and fish 'im out ourselves." Ace concluded.
"Rraah wooz gonna sta here?" Slam asked. "Wii ca'ant lee Tek here all-onn, whaii sommthe happez to hee?" He looked at Tech with slight worry.
"I'll stay here and keep an eye on him." Lexi volunteered.
"Alright 'den! The rest with me, let's jet!" Ace was the first to leap in the cloudy rift, with Slam and Duck following shortly after.
Lexi took a seat on a bean bag not too far from the coyote, watching the rift as the trio soon vanished into its melting colors.
Rev still couldn't believe he had an encounter with a literal nightmare, not a metaphorical one like the Stomper or even someone like that superpower hungry narcissist Sypher, an actual nightmare that wasn't even his.
He couldn't really blame Tech for that one; recalling the day she got her mitts on him, put him under her spell and had him make something Black Velvet would've gotten away with plunging Acmetropolis into permanent darkness with if it wasn't for Duck's obnoxious excuse of a ringtone.
Tech himself held his own shoulders, hardly believing any of this himself. He knew Rev was the only one real here while everything else, that Black Velvet and himself included were constructs of his subconscious.
"Hey… How are ya feeling after... All of that?" Rev broke him out of his own thoughts.
"I… I can't really put it into words." Tech answered. "I just don't know how to begin describing what I'm feeling."
The coyote looked to the golden stars in the sky, slowly letting go of his shoulders to gently grasp his elbows instead.
If this was a dream, maybe he could really dip his foot in the water by transforming into something less… ex-college kid? Something a little more… Him?
…….
… Oh, who was he kidding? He was going to do exactly that!
A deep breath in… Raising his hands up to his shoulders just above; that glittery magic that was once encompassing his arms reappeared and swiftly spread to them, changing the threads he had on into a emerald light.
And with a just a flick of his wrists and gone was that dorky college getup he had, instead a suit of that vivid light took its place even if temporarily. What he had in mind was going to be sweet.
Swiftly taking that suit of lights place shortly after was a whimsical single breasted top with long sleeves that had golden sparkles on the left side, with a cute four pointed star on each cuff and another being enough to close the top by itself, a pair of emerald wide legged paints that looked like they were made of nylon, an elegant pair of black boots with slightly elevated heels, and at last a golden cord that hung like drapes with such elegance that finished the look while being convincing enough for a decorative belt.
The only thing that stayed as-is was that beautiful emerald scarf.
"Woah-hoHO you transformed like a magical girl!" Rev's eyes widened at the sight of the transformation.
"It's my dream, right?" Tech asked with a smile on his face. "I'm sure I can do something like that?"
Rev nearly giggled, mainly at himself for not expecting his fluffy friend to do something normally impossible in reality, yet the audacity caught him by surprise anyway.
That was when Rev had an idea, a curious but perhaps insightful idea.
"How about we explore this place?" Rev suggested.
Tech thought for a moment and then took the roadrunner by the hand, he just felt where he was going with that idea.
"Maybe we could find our answers on how or why this is happening!" Tech answered "Come on! Let's get to it!"
"Well, 'dis is new." This wasn't exactly what anyone would've expected to end up in.
"Okay, what happened in here? Did a herd of unicorns blow up?!" Duck sarcastically asked out loud
Slam had already swam ahead; poking around this strange and unusual space like a curious, humongous child while the gray rabbit and duck tagged along not to far behind him.
The gentle giant twirled around, he swore he heard someone but… Maybe it was just him, or it could've just been a sound that just bounced off of something. He simply just pressed ahead, innocently assuming Rev must've done so too.
Just to the right, one of them swore the blobs of color were more… Coherent? But still not enough to tell what blob was what.
And if that wasn't weird enough; They could hear faint voices.. A pair, in fact.
"Are you hearin' that too, guys?" Ace asked
"Hear what?" Duck wasn't paying any attention to them.
"Raaahhaamiimii…" Slam was trying to figure out what those voices were… He swore they were… Familiar?
Without much warning something pulled the trio deeper into the realm, falling straight into yet another cloudy rift that blocked their vision with its fanciful fog. It felt like an eternity, like somehow something in it made them lose all sense of time but eventually they could see something ahead… Or rather, something below them.
"Oh, you GOT to be kidding me…!" This was probably going to hurt.
The fall from the rift wasn't something acrobatics couldn't soften for Ace, who landed like a movie pro, as Duck tried to simply teleport himself to the ground but… Strangely he only appeared where he would've been if he hadn't thought about 'quacking' as he named it; he fell face first anyway.
Mild embarrassment aside, Duck soon got on his feet and let out a smug 'HA!' out of defiance of any serious injury.
"TAKE THAT, GRAVITY! YOU HADN'T-" Duck's triumph was cut short when Slam landed on him. "Kill me already…!" He whined instead.
"Ow..!" Slam got himself up, not realizing who he squashed until the second after "Whoopsie! Sorii!"
"You could've killed my spine, Slam…!" Duck held his beyond sore back. "Now, where are we…?"
Besides the oddly not cold snow just beneath them, what was ahead of them was a tall, Victorian styled building that was about big enough to be an mansion with pastel rose vines that bore beautiful purple blooms climbing the walls.
"I'm thinkin' dat place was like… Some pathway to other worlds." Ace theorized as he approached the place.
"Daa diidii eepaah da raahhazz." Slam added.
Creaking the door open just a crack, what was inside was a tidy entrance room lit up by vintage sconce lights with a warm amber color, a walnut bookshelf just to the left gently filled with seemingly iridescent books and a small, cute marble figurine in one corner. And Just below them on the wooden floor was a tidy pale navy carpet with a antique white border.
"Helloooo?! Rev? Are ya in here?" Ace called out.
Silence… Besides their footsteps inside. Even if they wouldn't find Rev in this building that could easily be an academy, at least they wouldn't freeze to death or get lost out there in the snowy landscape.
The temptation of splitting up to investigate by themselves was strong but… The assumption of the chance something or someone could be anywhere to ambush them was enough to keep them together as a group, not to mention anything strange and unusual either.
"Oh come on! I'm sure I could hear anything that might try and ambush us!" Duck protested. "What's wrong with going solo here?"
"Duck, we've been through 'dat before…" Ace gave him a stern look.
"You staa wiiv rahh." Slam backed up.
The initial exploration of the building seemed to be rather ordinary; there wasn't anything abnormal they could've seen besides the iridescent books and the dreamlike mulberry night sky outside.
Besides those two things were fairly ignorable, at best that was just completely cosmetic and nothing more… Right?
The scent from a pair of chamomile teabags that were doused in near boiling water did nothing to calm Lexi.
Surely, Tech was so far doing alright although impossible to wake, and that rift was at least partially to blame but the rest of her suspicion was on that pastel pillow that was under the coyote's head, this whole bizarre mess might've been different or completely avoided if Tech didn't take a…
"Come on, Tech…" She spoke quietly. "Let me in there."
A theory came to her; putting her cup on the counter to let it cool a bit as the tea continued to seep, she came back to the coyote and sat back on the bean bag next to him.
Deep breath in… Maybe this would let her get at least a little insight to what was going on… Lexi then closed her eyes as pink rings encompassed her ears and gently levitated them up.
At first, the only thing she could see was just darkness behind her eyelids; that evolved into faint blotches of color that she couldn't exactly make out but one of them was figure shaped with some blue…
Could that be… Rev? Was she beginning to see whatever's going on through Tech's eyes? She had to be peering into his dreams, from what she was starting to see more and more clearly.
It was… Some older place?… No, maybe something from a Victorian novel? It was a bit dark on her end but he must've seen everything clearly.
"At least let me see what you're seeing…!"
Her ears soon picked up something, but not from the vision; rather in reality… The sound of a hologram activating.
She knew what that meant. She opened her eyes and stopped right there to see the projection of that woman manifest in the middle of the living room.
"Gather around, Loona—"
"It's just me right now." Lexi awkwardly interrupted. "… Technically." She looked back at Tech.
"What do you mean by that, Lexi?" Zadavia questioned
"Umm… Well…" Lexi took a few steps away to reveal the strange rift behind her. "This happened."
There were still no sightings of that road runner.
The brave trio swore that they occasionally went in a loop for a brief moment but got out by just taking a different route, either it was just a coincidence or something that would've been home in a curious labyrinth.
If it really did play like a record one accident away from becoming flat trash, than that was… Something to check out later. They were here to find Rev, not possibly go on a Scooby-Doo chase.
"Daah raah reelee weirr." Slam looked behind him.
"Lemme guess, we're in that Winchester house or whatever it's called?" Duck assumed.
"Don't jump into conclusins just yet, Duck." Ace reminded. "We don't know if the confusin' rooms are the least of our problem-os!"
As they continued to explore the building, some tables they saw had things on them move completely by themselves, books turned pages, scribbles drawn…
"Daahz moovii on izz own!" Slam huddled next to Ace, fearing it was ghosts.
"What's moving on it's— own?" Duck turned to see that very book Slam was talking about turn another page by itself.
He didn't believe it was a ghost at first, simply picking up the book on the table for a closer look; there wasn't anything out of the ordinary other than some drawings of crates, with one having 'A sheep's in here. :)' written right next to it.
"Maybe it's just some technology quackery!" Duck closed and put it back down, annoyed at Slam's fright over it. "See Slam? No ghost!"
Slam was still eyeing the book with concern… And like haunted clockwork, the book opened itself up again like someone invisible was sitting there, turning to a fresh page.
That… Wasn't normal, especially since it was absolutely a magnet free book from what Duck could see. Confusion and perhaps worry soon came to Duck.
"Uhh… Ace, this book's drawing on itself?" He turned his head back to the rabbit.
"Uh-huh! Uh-huh!" Slam agreed.
Slam walked over to try and get Ace to see for himself in case he didn't believe them, but a glance to the wall showed him the shadows of some people chatting, walking about, even a long haired girl right where that table was drawing away it seemed.
And even stranger was the fact that there wasn't anyone there where the shadows would've cast from, was there really invisible people that could only be seen with their shadows? Or were they shadows oblivious that they were affecting their side?
Duck felt a slight tap to his back but a look behind showed him there wasn't anyone right there. Maybe it was just his imagination or a misstep on his end, he just stood where the book was just dumbfounded that it was seemingly doing this without anyone sitting here.
When he felt like turning to gesture to Ace, the bird was meet with a swift kick to his butt.
"HEY!" Duck turned around to see whoever did it.
All he could see was a note saying "KICK ME!" in some elegant handwriting, and some disembodied shadows on the wall… AND one of them was seemingly laughing at him!
"Alright, buddy! What was that for?!" Duck stomped his foot.
The shadow put its arms behind its back with such a playful demeanor; with the mallard's rage getting to the point he "punched" it in the gut even if he was only punching thin air on his side. It recoiled like a real person would.
"Yeah, you like THAT?!" Duck smirked. "That's what you get, you shadow of a—"
"What's 'dis about a book drawing on itself?" Ace came over with Slam in tow.
"FORGET about this book! That shadow kicked me in my—"
"What are you talkin' about? Shadows can't physically hit you!… Most of da time, anyway."
"Theerz shabluu peepo on raah whaa! Aah ooh aa thee kikked Duck!"
Of course he wouldn't believe this. disembodied shadows? Maybe that's just some special effects. But one of them kicking Duck in the butt like it was physically right there? That was utter nonsense!
"But… But… But!" Duck protested.
"Come on, let's go." Ace gestured them to get going.
Okay, maybe if it was a one time thing, perhaps avoiding that part would keep it as such. Duck was still grumbling about that disembodied scoundrel when they reached a short balcony… And it was clear they stumbled across…
The.
Dreaded…
DEAD END! DUN DUN— okay, it's not that horrific.
There was a higher balcony just above them that would've been a few steps away, except, there weren't any stairs, just the railing. Which really was bizarre and an OSHA nightmare waiting to happen.
"Reey raahlee nee to fix raah." Slam commented.
"I'm sure dere's another way…" Ace looked around to see any alternative routes they could take.
Duck crossed his arms, already fed up with all of the nonsense that happened to them. He just wanted to find Rev, get out, and hopefully not deal with anything else for the rest of the day.
Idly looking around, what soon caught the mallard's eye was a peculiar looking book on the floor; one that had an iridescent silver spine and a half filled circle on the cover, the rest of the book was a deep, somehow complementary walnut brown.
He looked at the nearby bookshelf to see if there was any empty spaces to put it in, originally believing it simply fell or was knocked over. He didn't see any right away so maybe while the other two were still looking; he'd just take a peek, just out of curiosity?
When he opened the book and turned the very first page… There was absolutely nothing on the pages. Not any scribbles, words… Just pale pages, and maybe it was just him but strange fairy dusty like particles came from it too.
"What kind of book is this? There's nothing OOON—!?" Duck was sucked into the book before he could finish.
Both rabbit and marsupial ran over to the abnormal book, the duck was gone without a trace.
"Da boo aee hii!" Slam blurted out in shock.
"What was 'DAT?!" Ace felt the same.
On the wall, Slam could see a shadow that strikingly looked like Duck simply closing a book, before just putting it to the side.
"Duck?" Slam asked, and it responded by looking at them.
"Uhh… You… Uhh…" Ace couldn't put what he was seeing into words.
The disembodied shadow glanced at its own hands and nearly jumped, swiftly looking all over its body in just seconds. Then it looked at the stunned rabbit and marsupial before soundlessly banging on the wall, trying to be let out.
"W-Woah 'dere!" Ace tried to calm him. "Maybe if ya find anotha weird book you can get out?"
The shadow held his hips and from the language of his body, he was probably giving out some fine sarcasm.
"How about…. Ehh…" Ace looked to see if he could spot anything of interest, but didn't see anything…
Slam inspected the dissonant railing… And looked back at their disembodied shadow, pointing up the railing.
"Here!" Slam commanded.
The shadow looked ahead; well, its ahead of course. And at first looked back at the gentle giant with body language of "Are you kidding me?!", Slam preformed a quick demonstration with just his fingers, "walking" them up the railing.
It decided to follow that, and marched up the railings shadow exactly like a ramp that was both ornate and functional.
"Woah, dat's… Oh, how did I not think about 'dat!?" Ace slapped himself across the face. "He's a shadow, DUH!" He laughed.
"Gahehehe, gooohh idea?" Slam smiled.
"'Dat was genius, Slam."
And shortly after, Duck was spat out of an identical book up on the balcony that some stairs would've easily lead to.
"… And that's why I don't read!" Duck blurted.
"Hold on…" Ace had an idea from that. "If you could end up over 'dare with 'dis…" He opened the book on their side, changing into a shadow on the wall and went up there where Duck was before turning back there.
"…Then we could use 'dese to get around 'dis place!" he smiled.
Their search for the road runner seemed to only get better, even if stranger with... Whatever this was with certain books and traveling through shadows, but it really was a huge help. Even a little fun, even more so than they wanted to admit.
A few thoughts of maybe seeing the bird from above came along, or maybe even his disembodied shadow running about?
Shadows to light… Up and down… There wasn't any evidence the road runner was even in here it seemed.
"Maybe Motor Mouth isn't in here at all!" Duck complained as they got out of yet another shadow phase.
"Raahh eefi go baatoorah por-tall?" Slam suggested. "Miibee wii can fii Rev sommaelz?"
"'Dat might not be a bad idea…" Ace thought about it as he took the grand stairs back to the ground floor.
At least they hadn't run into any annoying supervillains or worse besides the whole strange thing about being able to phase through shadows, and the figure that apparently kicked Duck in the butt for real.
"Come on, guys." Ace turned around to gesture to the four of them to come along. "We're gonna hop back in 'dat portal and see if we can land ourselves where Rev is!"
"But chief, he's right here!" a scarf wearing coyote answered.
"Yeaaah NO. We looked everywhere!" Duck dismissed. "He's clearly not here in Nerdvill—"
…
Wait a minute…
The bunny, duck and Tasmanian devil turned their heads one by one and… They weren't imagining things; who seemed to be Tech wasn't just here with them, but Rev too!
"What 'da— TECH?!" Ace nearly jumped
"BIRDBRA— I mean, REV?!" Duck shouted.
"Rahh deehii gii here!?" Slam was more confused.
"Oh MAN it's good to see you guys again I mean this is gonna be a super weird but super good story to tell ya guys!" Rev chirped.
"Lemme guess, did you three get sucked into the portal too?" His coyote companion nonchalantly asked.
The duck took the opportunity to examine both the road runner and coyote from all sides; Rev was exactly how he looked from before he was whisked inside and his everything else screamed he was the real deal…
But Tech? Not exactly.
"Something's wrong… Tech's fur was Espresso, not American Bronze!" Duck pointed out. "Not to mention it's not that long or good looking!"
"Forget about his looks, Duck!" Ace interrupted. "How's Tech here if he's sleepin' back home?"
"Well, that would be because I am asleep back home." The scarf wearing canine answered with familiar sass.
Ace and Slam blinked, briefly looking at each other before looking back at the birds and coyote, maybe for once Duck was actually on to something? But… If this guy really was an imposter; he probably would've done something by now like try to silence them or flee, but that simply wasn't the case.
And that wasn't mentioning that this guy was somehow aware he was asleep back home, which only added more questions than answers.
"What did you do to our techno-geek?! Did you put him in a coma with that pillow so you could masquerade as him?!" … That had to be the most absurd accusation they ever heard.
"Duck…" Rev tried to interrupt. "He's really—"
"He's really an obvious PHONY!" Duck summoned some fireballs "I say we beat him up RIGHT N—"
Slam instantly scooped up the mallard, forcing the fireballs to vanish with just enough strength to allow him to breath yet not break free. Even shushing the black bird.
"How could you be Tech if you're asleep back home?" Ace questioned.
"I really am him. Just… not the real one." This scarf wearing lookalike answered.
"HA! You even-" Slam swiftly shut Duck's beak before he could say anything else idiotically conclusive or not.
"I'm more like… His inner self, as you can put it?" The coyote continued. "Or… I dunno, how I see myself in my dreams?"
Ace raised an eyebrow. "Whadda mean by dat?"
"Hhmmm?" Slam tilted his head.
This scarf wearing Tech lookalike twirled around with a small smile on his face, he wanted to just do something he wouldn't be able to do in reality like say… Color Duck in some ridiculous colors or even phase through something like a ghost…?
… On second thought, he knew what might prove himself.
"Well, can you explain to me that time you stole the credit for one of my babies and for capturing the Stomper?" The coyote inquired to Duck.
"Oh please, you could've easily gotten that from the press!" Duck rolled his eyes with a smirk, managing to warp out of Slam's grip.
The mallard crossed his arms, he was confident he had him cornered; believing that he was about to fess up, get the stuffing beaten out of and they rescue Rev from what seemed like an obvious imposter…
That near instantly changed when from absolutely nowhere, a cow nearly fell on him which forced a leap into the rabbit's arms and leaving the gentle giant with them flabbergasted.
"IT'S HIM! HE'S BACK! HE'S GONNA DROP ANOTHER COW ON ME!!!" He shrieked.
"… And when you started getting death threats and heavy objects thrown at you from nowhere; you passed the puck back to me just to save your own skin?" The coyote finished with the same smirk he just had.
Duck's eyes widened. "W-Well, I… Uuuuhhhh… You see… I…"
Ace giggled. "Yup, dat's Tech alright!"
Slam didn't say anything, instead coming up and giving both the coyote and road runner the biggest embrace he could come up with.
"S…Slam! A little… too tight…!" Rev struggled to breath.
"Ooops! Sorri." Slam loosened his grip.
Rev finally got his breath back, Tech didn't seem to be uncomfortable by the bear hug for even a second. Slam's arms went from an embrace to holding the two of them by one arm each.
"Wii go hoooh now." Slam smiled, bringing them outside with the other two alongside.
"While we're headin' back, do you have any idea what 'dis place is, Tech?" Ace asked.
"Wasn't it a bit obvious?" Tech answered. "This is rather simply a dream. Mine to be exact."
"A.. Dream?" Ace repeated
All of that nonsense they went through, the looping hallways, the disembodied shadows and the strange books that let them phase through reality and shadow made sense now… Mostly.
"Oh man when we found THAT out Black Velvet who was chasing us down went "Ahhh…!!" and was burned up by this magical light and the world literally shattered into this ghosty look oh man it was weird yet AWESOME!" Rev rambled.
"Wait, BLACK VELVET was back?!" Duck's eyes widened, turning his head sharply.
"Well, not exactly her, it was more so Tech's nightmare of her and she was like SUPER scary and just about everything passed through her like a ghost!"
Duck could feel his jaw drop. And at the same time grateful that he along with Ace and Slam never had an encounter with that one.
"So, what do you think made 'dat portal show up in da first place?" Ace questioned.
"That's what we were gonna find out." Tech answered.
Behold- the most manipulative, morally grey, holier-than-thou politicians in this section of the galaxy. They both suck and want their sibling dead for their "betrayal"- Zadavia just sucks a little less because she protects Acmetropolis, even if her motivation for such start off a bit selfish (she's got a lot of investments and real estate on this planet and she'll be damned if she'll let Optimatus mess with it. It's a little tricky to fight a war and win with no money)
I'm gonna cram so much slow-burn character development into these two it'll make you sick. I'm gonna pull a Dr. Randolph Bell with them, you'll see.
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Random Worldbuilding Tidbits
Optimatus and Zadavia were close as children, though as they grew older, their mentors built a fierce competition between the two
Frelengian's of royal bloodlines are significantly larger than the average citizen
Their powers are considered "gift's of the Royal line" "bestowed" upon them at a young age by the "blessing" the royal crest.
This is technically false: their powers are kick started by Light Pieces* harvested from an ancient artifact known as the Renraw Prism.
These Light Pieces' spark their "potential"* and from there, their abilities can be further trained and refined to a terrifying power. (This can be done by a Frelengian without the prism but is infinitely more difficult)
In their free time growing up, Optimatus and Zadavia studied the Renraw prism and it's (admittedly limitedly recorded) history- believing they could find a better use for it to help their planet
how they wanted to use it however, was a bone of contention between the two (one of many)
during Optimatus' coup, Zadavia attempted to leave the planet with the Prism
in their fight for it, she cracked it and later- when attempting to stop the meteor from destroying Acmetropolis- she shattered it, severely injuring her
most of the pieces were caught in it's container, but several Light Pieces escaped to select new champions
Before you ask... No, in my AU, Ace is NOT the team leader. The leadership roles go to Duck and Tech, as unbelievable as it may seem, and it even seems crazy.
Feel free to ask me any questions about the AU, I'll love to answer them all! ^^
