Loonatics Revamp Rise of the Loonatics Episode 1 (Saved)

Chapter 3

Danger Duck was certain his life was cursed.

There was no doubt in his mind someone up there had sworn to make his mere existence a living hell. Every day, he dreaded what was about to come; would he stumble across some threatening gang in the depth of the city as he walked back home on his own two feet? Would he have to face yet another angry boss who would fire him within only a few days of work? Or would he find himself once again bankrupted and struggling to gather the money to pay for his apartment's rent?

Yes, that was Duck's life. A pitiful, sad excuse of a life, unfortunately.

It all began when he was only a baby. An orphan found in the middle of nowhere, with no explanation of how he ended up all alone, crying for food and warmth, and who was handed to Acmetropolis' orphanage when it was clear his parents were nowhere to be found. No one knew what could have happened to them or who they could be. The only clue was a golden-like pendant with the name "Danger Duck" engraved in it, and they gave the baby this name, thinking it was his, to begin with. Although he preferred to just be called "Duck" because he thought his first name was weird.

He grew up with many other children who all ended up there for different reasons. Some, like him, because they lost both parents. Others...had more sinister stories. He became friends with a lot of them, and he had been happy for them when they finally find their new families. A thing Duck never had the luck to experiment with. Instead, he had been from foster homes to foster homes and none of them decided to keep him. He always pretended he didn't care – if those people didn't want him, then he didn't want them as parents either. It was fine; he could go on without a family. From what he heard from other children, parents could be strict, a bit controlling even. And siblings were an annoyance, getting their noses in your stuff and never leaving you in peace. So, yeah, he was fine on his own. Everything was fine.
And yet... he was curious about what a life with loved ones could be.

Staying an orphan, unfortunately, wasn't his only problem. Unable to reach good grades, and because he couldn't stand his high school environment, he dropped out of it. For two years then, he tried his best to earn money in any way. He worked many part-time jobs, whether in fast-foods, in rich families' wards, or even as a delivery guy to pay for food, clothes, and his studio apartment's rent. But his misfortune kept following him everywhere. Today, it struck again.

At the very beginning of the week, he had been hired to work in a pretty well-known restaurant of Acmetropolis as a janitor. The restaurant also delivered breakfasts, meaning there could be customers starting from eight in the morning until late in the evening. Duck needed to work from six o'clock until half-past ten in the evening, with only two pauses; one between half-past ten of the morning and twelve o'clock, and one between four and six in the afternoon. Although he could have asked to work in shifts with someone else, Duck decided, despite those monstrous schedules, to do all the job by himself. He was, after all, only paid 10 dollars per hour, and he really needed to make as much money as possible if he wanted to keep his apartment. He already had been late to pay for the rent last month and Johnny, the landlord, certainly wouldn't give him another grace period to gather the money needed. So, ignoring the 13 hours and 20 minutes of work every day, the tiredness in his muscles from bending in weird positions to clean all the mess in the kitchens, and the lack of appreciation from his colleagues who were the ones dirtying their workplace, to begin with, he worked and did his best, hoping he'd keep the job this time and not screw things up.
And it actually started well; maybe because he was so determined to prove himself and because he ignored the voice in his head that kept telling him it was worthless anyway. He thought he bested that "curse" because, hooray, the week was almost over and he was still there!

Of course, that didn't last.

That morning, Duck came to work as usual, but the long hours spent cleaning the kitchens and the dishes were finally taking over him. Part of his mind tried to stay awake, but most of it only asked for sleep. His whole body was aching, his eyes were half-open, and most importantly, he was moody. The lack of good sleep only worsened the way he felt.
He rubbed in an automatic way the dirt off the tile floor with a brush and a bucket full of water mixed with some bleach when a kitchen helper, busy with peeling the oranges and preparing the fruit juices for the morning orders, asked him to fill the coffee machine with water. Duck simply nodded with a yawn and headed toward the machine, not realizing he had taken the bottle of bleach with him.
What happened in his mind was still a mystery for him. Maybe the still sleeping part of him thought he was filling yet again another bucket to clean the floor; but instead of water, he emptied the bottle of bleach in the machine. His colleague, too far away from him, didn't see him do it. The worst part was that he didn't realize what happened until the first few clients entered the restaurant. That's when Duck, still scrubbing the floor, heard someone order a coffee from where he was working that he abruptly stopped, suddenly realizing what occurred earlier.
He had poisoned the coffee.
He had put a deadly chemical product instead of water if the coffee machine.
The wave of panic he felt awoken him completely and he quickly stood up and searched for the client who ordered the coffee. He found her at the other end of the room: it was a fifty-something lady, alone at a table, and her drink had already been served. The world around him seemed to go in slow motion as she lifted the cup toward her lips, ready to take a sip...

"NOOOOO!!"

His scream was heard in the entire room as he jumped toward her table, arms lifted before him, and in a compulsive movement, Duck sent the drink flying elsewhere, leaving no time for the lady to at least taste it. However, the hot dark liquid was also spilled from the cup and spread everywhere; on the table, the floor, on the black duck's hand, but worst of all, on the lady's face and her clothes. The burning sensation sent her screaming with both horror and pain, and maybe the bleach also had something to do with that last part. Everyone was looking in shock, wondering what the heck had gotten into that man, and before Duck could react, another employee came running with a bottle of fresh water and toilet paper to clean the coffee from the customer's burned skin. The poor woman was now sobbing, her morning totally ruined and the pain only slowly subduing. Duck was mortified.

That accident, of course, sent him straight to his boss' office. Unable to hide the truth, he had to explain the whole truth; and when he was finished, his boss' face was so red with anger he was certain it would explode like a volcano. In the end, the guy threw a pink paper with Duck's name on it and yelled at him to never put a step on his restaurant either again, not even as a customer. That couldn't be clearer; the duck was out of there as fast as lightning. And so, there he was now, an hour after being fired from yet another job, with a new pink paper to add to his collection, wondering what he was going to do now.

He didn't take the bus, opting for keeping as much money as possible, even if his legs were pleading for him to stop walking. After about what seemed like an eternity, he reached his neighborhood. It wasn't the most pleasant place in Acmetropolis; the buildings were old, in bad shape, and some gangs were slowly forming, mostly composed of youths who had nothing better to do than harass others. Only people with low income lived here; Duck was one of them, and he wished he could go elsewhere, but with how little money he had right now, he had no choice but to stay in this quite threatening environment. It was always better than being homeless.