Summary: No containment contraption ever conceived could hold Mallory Casey, not even the newly reinforced one that Tech E. Coyote built for her. Once again, Mastermind is loose in Acmetropolis, and this time she's going for broke and ready to get Tech right where it counts—his heart. Spoilers for the episode "The Menace of Mastermind" and implied Ace/Lexi and Tech/Rev relationships.

Chapter 1: Mastermind's Back

"Loonatics—we have a problem…"

The six heroes had heard these five little words dozens of times before and each time it meant that Zadavia had another job for them.

"You aren't going believe this one, team. Mastermind has once again escaped her maximum security prison," Zadavia elaborated. The beautiful interstellar princess was mysterious as her long blonde hair waved in some invisible breeze and her delicately shaped blue eyes glowed bright white.

"Apparently it wasn't maximum enough," Ace said in disbelief as he glanced at the video surveillance that Zadavia provided for them. Mallory Casey, the villainess known as Mastermind, slipped easily from her bubble shaped prison cell despite its structural reinforcements additional guards and lack of metal parts.

"How could she do that? I mean she's done it before but that was before Tech rebuilt her prison and wow how do you think she did that?" Rev babbled, making his entire statement in one long run-on sentence.

"Who careth how she did it—what I want to know ith how we're going to nab her thith time!" Danger Duck grumbled.

"The same way we did last time—she may think she knows what I know, but she's got another thing coming," Tech E. Coyote growled.

"Let's jet!" Ace cried. "We're heading for City Hall Square!"

"Good Luck, Loonatics!" Zadavia called as she watched them run from the room. A moment later, she smiled softly and murmured, "Zadavia…out," before she vanished from sight.

As the team touched down in City Hall Square, Mastermind was doing her best to make mayhem out of a perfectly nice summer morning. Droves of her homemade droids were shooting blasts of hot plasma at anything that moved.

"Rev! Can you get these people out of here?" Ace cried.

"I'm on it, Ace!" Rev cried, narrowing his eyes as he ascertained the number of people in the immediate danger zone. He took off running in a streak of flames and Ace turned his attention to his remaining teammates, who had taken to defending each other with their powers.

"Gsdfjrtupuh—batter up!" Slam growled happily, as he spun into a tornado of violently high winds and sent the plasma scattering in the opposite direction. Agile Lexi couldn't seem to stand still.

"Missed me! Oops! Can't touch this! Come get me!" she teased, leading one of the monstrous robots a short distance away before using her powers to brain blast the metallic creature into disrepair. Ace smiled and shouted across the square, "Nice work, Lex!"

"Oh, woe is me! A defenseleth duck in the middle of a terrifying situation! Please don't hurt me!" Danger Duck deliberately shouted, his voice dripping with his customary sarcasm. It worked. The two nearby robots saw him and ran toward one another. Duck waited until he knew that they couldn't possibly stop and then quacked out of the way. The villainous creatures slammed together and short-circuited, crashing to the ground.

Mastermind herself was cackling and screeching with laughter as she rode atop of one of the droids and backed Tech into a corner. If for some reason he wasn't able to escape, he knew that his ability of molecular regeneration could save his life, but he wasn't about to give Mastermind the satisfaction of thinking that she had finally put an end to him.

"Can the little puppy come out to play?" she mocked. Tech bared his teeth and snarled at her.

"Bring it on, bubble head!" Tech growled. Tech was forming a large ball of magnetic energy between his hands when Rev finished rounding up all of the innocent bystanders. He placed them a safe distance from the scene and turned just in time to see Mastermind's robot winding up and preparing to fire on his closest friend.

"Not Tech, Not Tech, Not Tech…NO!" Rev screamed, launching himself across City Hall Square toward the one he loved, gritting his beak so hard he could almost hear it grinding as he ran.

Tech threw his energy ball.

Mastermind fired.

The black and red clad roadrunner vanished as he dashed between danger and the best friend he ever had.

"REV!!!" Tech screamed, sitting up as he recovered from blast, his eyes adjusting to the natural light again. Mastermind fairly screamed with laughter. The stunned Loonatics reinforced their efforts but it was too little too late. Mastermind escaped into the air as her robot army took to the skies.

Not about to let her escape after what had happened, Tech started his jet pack and leaped into the air before something grabbed his ankle.

"Tech wait! We need to have a plan before we go running off after her again! Stand still!" Ace ordered.

"Didn't you see what she did!? She…Rev…I…" Tech was so overwhelmed that he could barely stand. His knees suddenly refused to hold him and even under Lexi and Duck's support, he collapsed to his knees on the ground, hyperventilating in shock.

"I know!" Ace shouted. "But we need to think! We…we don't need to lose anyone else!" Ace fought valiantly, but he was losing the battle to hold back his emotions. Lexi stood up and went to him, winding her arms around him from the back, resting her head in his shoulder blades.

"I don't know if I quite believe it yet…he was there one second and then…" Ace's shoulder's wilted and his head fell forward into his hands.

"Wedsfjpio go home," Slam said, his eyes cast down at the ground.

"Good idea. We're not going to accomplish anything standing here," Lexi said coming to face Ace. She swallowed hard and gently patted Ace's chest with her hand as she leaned into his shoulder.

"Then home it is. C'mon, Loonatics….let's jet," Ace replied, his voice soft with emotion. It would be the longest trip home any of them could remember.