Duck’s eyes shot open. He looked around and then vanished with a sizzle.
“Dat’s just great,” Ace said. “Might ‘twitch a bit,’ you say. Tech, can you get dis stuff offa us?”
“Not without my lab tools,” he said, pulling at the sticky mass. “What an inconvenient time for Duck to hit his targets.”
“Well, da ship won’t take off with the airlock busted.” Ace worked his way to the control panel just as Lexi came in through the shattered airlock.
“Omigod, what happened in here?” She looked at the airlock and the glowing masses of goo. “Did Duck explode?”
“If only no he just went nuts after Tech saved his life by giving him the adreno pill and you shoulda seen him he like leaped up off the ground and was spraying his eggs everywhere I tell ya it wasn’t easy to dodge ’em and then he just looked all crazy and poof he quacked outta here and we haven’t seen him since so now we hafta figure out how to get this ship home cause we hadda destroy the airlock to get Duck here in time to save his life and now of course the ship won’t take off any ideas Tech?”
Rev had been darting around the ship and stopped in front of Tech. The coyote grinned at him, remembering a time not too long ago when he’d have wanted to slap the roadrunner after that kind of outburst. Now Rev was giving him an expectant look and he wanted to meet those expectations. “I could levitate the ship back to base, but we’ll have to stay low so we don’t get depressurized. If the rest of you want to take your backpack flyers back, I can manage the ship.”
“Dat’s okay, Tech,” Ace said. “I don’t feel like bein’ seen like this.” He had been hit along the left arm, which was now pinned to his side. Poor Slam had been hit directly in the face and was now trying to chew his way free, with little success.
“All right. Get in your seats, then.” He strapped himself into his own, and focused on lifting the whole jet off the ground. It took enough concentration that he didn’t think about anything else until they were back at the base, though he did see Rev and Lexi standing in the open airlock waving to gawking onlookers as the ship floated past, and thought he should tell them to be more careful, but it was taking most of his concentration to keep the ship from smashing into buildings. Rev zipped over to his side at one point and asked if he needed anything.
The roadrunner’s hand on his shoulder gave him confidence. He grinned up at the anxious bird and shook his head. “Thanks.”
The task got easier as they neared the isolated tower, and the other buildings seemed to fall away from the ship. Ace worked the locks and Tech floated the ship into it, letting it down to the floor a bit harder than he’d intended and then sinking back into his chair. His whole body ached.
“Nice job, Tech,” Ace said.
“You can say that again Ace who else coulda gotten us back to base safe like that amazing job Tech you rock.” Rev grinned, running from Tech to the airlock and back, and then out into the base.
“Jeez, settle down, bird,” Lexi said, stepping out around the red blur into the hangar.
“Hey Tech tell me what you need from the lab and I’ll bring it back so you can get degooed I know what your workbench looks like so you just need to tell me what drawer it’s in and I’ll have it back here faster than you can say ‘Hey Rev could you get the stuff I need?’”
“That sounds great.” Tech didn’t really want to get up, between the goo weighing him down and the fatigue from levitating the ship. “The solution on the second shelf in the green jars, and the magnetic protein destabilizer in the third drawer down, left side.”
“You got it buddy.” The last word faded out as Rev tore off to the lab, returning a second later with his arms full of the supplies. Tech used the destabilizer to get rid of the goo, and the cleaning solution to wipe traces off their uniforms.
“I wonder where Duck disappeared to,” Lexi said, just as they returned to the common room.
“The question is,” Duck said from the center table, “where did all you disappear to?” He had his arms folded, and overrode their attempts to answer. “I mean, there I am risking my life against this crazy gunman and I take care of him all by myself and it must have been a terrible strain because I blacked out and woke up here at the base and all of you were gone! Didn’t anyone consider how that would make me feel? You people are so wrapped up in yourselves. We’re a team, though you wouldn’t know it from how I do all the work.”
“Duck,” Ace said, “shut up. You’re starting to sound like Rev.”
“Yeah you really need to take a breath once in a while and anyway you got shot and Tech got the needle out of you and brought you back from the dead so you should be thanking us instead of goin’ on about how we don’t do anything for ya cause that gets old after a while not to mention you shot up the ship with eggs and we busted the airlock getting you back on board so Tech had to levitate the whole ship back all by himself and that wasn’t easy let me tell you so just pipe
