Loonatics Unleashed:
"Faux Hunt" part 2
(This story is prior to "The Music Villain.")
Rated T for reading level.
Disclaimer: Loonatics Unleashed and related Characters and Elements are trademarks of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Red Triangle
Rev slapped the opening mechanism for the apex garage bay door. The quickster hadn't so much tracked Tech to the hanger housed in the top of the tower sphere as deduced that the slower coyote would head for something to boost his speed. Sure enough there was the rotten sneak just clipping on a jet pack. Clamping his beak shut so as not to give away his presence to to his prey, Rev eased the safety off his rifle-like launcher and took careful aim.
"Rrhhnggblaa, kkrrn caught up!" Slam exclaimed. The rest of the Loonatics stumbled into the hanger bay behind the irate roadrunner.
Tech looked up, frozen in surprise like a deer trying to stare down the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. The electronet shot for the coyote, but missed him, slamming instead into Ace's yellow zoommatrix next to him. The parked ground and air cycle toppled domino-like into Lexi's pink one next to it with a tremendous clatter that echoed in the domed garage. The rest of the team's bikes soon followed.
"Oh-this-is-just-great! Tech-created-a-defective-gun. This-stupid-thing-can't-even-shoot-straight. At-least-this-time-it-didn't-discharge-in-my-face-or-smash-me-through-a-wall." Rev muttered a stream of curses to himself. The red hued roadrunner clicked off the net, then dropped his weapon and dashed forward in an attempt at damage control.
Taking advantage of the roadster's distraction, Tech again made for the door. The inventor paused, his gaze snagging on his newest criminal stopping gun lying on the floor. He couldn't just abandon it. Scooping up neuron net ionizer and making a few quick mental calculations, Tech pulled out a small 'corkscrew' threader to score spiral grooves in the gun barrel, rifling it to make it shoot straight. The energy net itself didn't need the twist in its flight path, but apparently the targeting nodules did. Setting down the gun so he could operate the jetpack two handed, Tech blasted through his teammates clustered around the door.
"Hey dere, doc, no flying in da house!" Ace called after him.
The speedster looked up from uprighting the Zoomatrixes. Rev's annoyed expression hardened, his eyes narrowing until the red glow of his activated powers showing through only as angry red slits. His internal GPS was still being blocked. With a sharp slap, the roadrunner activated his wrist communicator, connecting into the team frequency. "You-can-hide,-Tech,-for-a-while!-but-you-can't-run-forever!"
'No,' the coyote's voice coming back over the communicator agreed. 'But there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start.'
"Give-it-up,-Tech," Rev demanded, knowing that he had the coyote on the run. He picked up the contested gun again. The roadrunner just had to figure out where the desert wolf holed up this time. "It-won't-go-easier-on-you,-but-it-will-be-over-sooner."
'In your dreams, Rev . . ..' The sound of Tech's jetpack cut off as somewhere lower in the tower the scientist came in for a landing. A telltale thrum took its place. The coyote's voice continued barely audible over the comlink as Tech continued muttering, obviously not intending for the others to overhear. ' . . . and in my nightmares.'
Rev smirked, an evil glint coming to his normally innocent, emerald eyes. He recognized the background hum of the generator core coming over the intercom with the coyote's voice. "Gotcha."
Ace shook his head as the quickster sped past trailing a line of fire behind him. "C'mon, gang. Rev seems ta know where Tech's at, but we'll never catch up to dem now."
Slam grunted a reply and the four Loonatics made their way back to the main living area of their headquarters.
"You said it, Slam." Ace and the others kept their wrist communicators tuned into the Loonatic frequency to keep audio tabs on their feuding teammates. "Like his ancestor, Wyle E. Coyote, Tech displays an abysmal lack of wisdom. Not only is da genius continuing on with dis chase, did ya see him still working on dat invention of his at da same time?"
'No-more-hiding,-Tech.' It was easy to guess from the sounds coming from their wrist communicators, that Rev not only caught up with Tech in the reactor core, but the roadster also managed to break the coyote's signature scrambler. Tech's lament over the loss of his 'baby' was cut off with a crash.
"Near terminal lack of wisdom, you mean." Lexi winced as another loud boom crackled over the comlink. "Good thing he has molecular regeneration."
"Yeah," Danger added. "For such a smart guy, Tech sure can be dumb sometimes."
The teams' comments were cut off at a shout from Rev. Evidently the coyote got the upper hand.
'It's very dangerous firing energy nets near a reactor core.' Tech's voice chided over the airwaves. The four remaining Loonatics didn't need to see in order to know that the experimental weapon once again misfired on the roadrunner. Nor did they need to see to know that Tech was once again fiddling with the device instead of making his getaway. 'Let's see now, adjust the rheostat so to lessen the energy impedance . . . then tighten up the webbing of the net so . . .. Yipe!"
A clatter followed the coyote's yip. The chase was on again.
Yellow Triangle.
This time as Ace, Lexi, Duck, and Slam settled into the living room, both Tech and Rev barreled through, running them down. The foursome all cringed as the speeding duo jetted for the command center door without slowing down. The door slid open barely in time as Tech was about to plow into it. Though the coyote made it into the command room, he failed to attain his lab on the other side. With an extra burst of flame-trailing speed, Rev cut him off, diving at the scientist with a high speed tackle. They both skidded across the floor, Tech's jet pack sending up sparks as bits and pieces of it broke off and were scattered in their wake. The two feuding friends came to a jarring stop with Rev cratering in on top of Tech as they fetched up against the raised, circular dais where the Loonatic briefing table sat. Rev shakily got to his feet as Tech groaned and wrapped his arms around his ribs.
"All right! Dat's enough!" Ace strode into the command center and stood glaring at his out-of-control teammates. The rest of the Loonatics followed their leader in. "Youse two have some serious explaining ta do."
"Well, technically-wise my new neuron net ionizer still had a few bugs in it. Though we've gotten most of them worked out now." Tech groaned again. The green glow covering him faded and the inventor gingerly drew a deep breath, testing his ribs. The debugging had been rather rigorous. Tech pulled off his ruined jet pack. He sighed. Another casualty of scientific advancement. A least it wasn't one of his newer inventions. Tech picked up the launcher rifle that Rev dropped when the roadrunner tackled him. "An improvement over the Gluco-Gel guns, the Neuron Net Ionizer shoots out four cylindrical targeting nodes that generate an electronet that not only entangles the subject, but also renders any powers they might have temporarily ineffectual. I've even installed a thin grappling line that we can hook to the net to reel them in without being drained ourselves. It will make capturing powered villains much easier and without all that messy jell to clean up afterwards."
"And dis was just a test run?" Ace wasn't sure. The 'debugging hunt' looked awfully serious to him. The Loonatic leader glanced over at Rev. The roadrunner still seemed very putout. "Why didn't you say so? We coulda made it a team practice."
A pastel column of light rippled into existence in the center of the briefing table. The Loonatics climbed the dais steps leading to the conference table, automatically gathering as their benefactor and guide's shimmering form appeared.
"Loonatics, as things in the city seem quiet at the moment, I think now would be a good time for you to come . . .." Zadavia stopped, the cloudy white eyes of her hologram widening at the damage wrecked in the Loonatic's command center. "Ace, is everything all right? Has security been breached?"
"Nyaa, Zadavia. Tech 'n Rev are just debugging his latest toy." Though he was unsure that that was all going on between the two, Ace felt as team leader he could deal with them. He didn't need to involve Zadavia in working this out.
Tech cast a small, tentative smile over at Rev that was not returned. A slight inkling that Rev was not playing tried to worm its way up into the coyote's cognitive thoughts. Rev wasn't working on debugging the device? Tech swallowed. Hopefully, Zadavia would stay on the line long enough for him to diffuse Rev's anger . . . at least enough to escape serious consequences.
Zadavia raised an elegant eyebrow and cast a glance at Rev and Tech that she usually reserved for Danger Duck. The Frelengian princess pursed her lips as she studied the two. Perhaps after she signed off, she should keep tapped into the the Loonatic's monitoring system to secretly 'watch' and see how this conflict panned out. Tech had caught her at spying on them before, at which time she extracted his promise to keep it confidential between the two of them. She doubted that the scientist would discover her this time as he was distracted by Rev. Zadavia hoped the two of them would work out their differences without her having to get involved. "I . . . see. When you are finished, clean up your mess, then I want all of you to come to my underwater headquarters for team evaluations. Zadavia out."
"Not long enough." The coyote's undertone was quiet enough that only Lexi heard him. The she-bunny's jade eyes flicked between Tech, Rev, and the center of the briefing table where Zadavia's image had been. She folded her arms over the pink inverted triangle of her uniform, opting to keep her opinions to herself.
Studiously ignoring Rev's scathing glare, Tech busily scavenged an undamaged convector from his demolished jet pack. By acting as if today's antics were just a debugging exercise, Tech hoped that Rev would relent and play along. The roadrunner's smile did not return. The inventor integrated the heat sink into his neuron net ionizer to finish up the handcrafted, precision, alloy instrument so that it would stop overheating. "There!" Tech claimed triumphantly. "Finally finished!"
"Good." Rev snatched the gun and fired it pointblank at the coyote.
It worked well, much to Tech's chagrin. The coyote found himself crushed to the floor by the softly glowing electonet and unable to extend his magnetism. Rev triggered the grappling line. Using his whole weight and a little super speed with it, Rev swung the gun around, netted coyote included. He bowled Tech in the net into the conference room table and chairs, popping their securing bolts and scattering them. Tech tumbled down the raised platforms' steps, the force of the momentum dragging the roadrunner with him. Rev managed to retain his footing, though a little gracelessly.
"Ow! Rev, that hurt!" Tech complained, a touch of a whine in his voice.
"It was supposed to!" Rev grated through his clenched beak. The speedster jerked back on the gun's grappling line tightening the net so the coyote could barely breath, let alone move.
Tech snarled, ready to get it on even though his was trapped in a net. If Rev wasn't playing, then he was through playing as well.
Ace made a false start forward, jerking to a stop again after the first step. Afraid to intervene lest he escalate the situation, but also afraid not to, the Loonatic leader racked his brain on how to keep Rev and Tech from tearing each other apart. Perhaps he should take Lexi's lead of earlier and separate them. Before Ace could send them to their rooms to cool off, however, Slam stepped in, clunking their heads together to get their attention.
"Rrhhnn gblaa make up." Slam grunted. It was obvious that his two teammates were struggling with a bit of role reversal. It was odd that they couldn't see it themselves.
"Of course not literally," Danger cut in. No one wanted to see the two actually kiss and make up. "But you two really should tone things down before you knock the sphere off the tower or something."
"In-your-dreams, . . ." Rev muttered, repeating what Tech said earlier. He resented that his teammates interfered before he could properly deal with his lab partner. " . . . and-in-my-nightmares."
"Why, Rev?" and for once it was the coyote's eyes that were wide with hurt innocence instead of the roadrunner's.