Loonatics: United

Episode 11: The Cat With The Hoodie

Matt´s and Anne's turn to surveil the city had come, they were just killing time as nothing remotely dangerous was happening, Anne had took a sip from the cup of tea she had bought from a shop, she was walking along with Matt across the boulevard. "Do you think Hill would be upset if he finds out we are actually just chilling out instead of doing our job?" Anne said.

"Nah, he is to busy searching for more weird threats that could compromise Acmetropolis, so we should be fine." Matt munched the last bit of the hot dog he had been holding. "Besides, things are pretty calm these days." He threw the envelope on a nearby trashcan.

Anne nodded. "Yeah, but don't you forget you still have to practice your fight moves, or should I say, my moves?"

"That doesn't bother me at all, specially with you as my instructor." Matt chuckled.

Anne smirked. "That's what friends do, we help each other."

"Yeah." Matt sighed. "Friends." He said subtly.

"Sorry?" Anne gazed at him.

"Oh!" Matt scratched the back of his neck. "Nothing." He made up a chuckle. "Yeah, friends, good stuff, then, well I, forget it."

Anne raised an eyebrow. "Okay…I'll just pretend you didn't act randomly weird all of a sudden."

"Sorry, it's, uhm, the weather?" Matt blushed a little bit.

"What is going on with you today?" Anne asked.

"I just…" Matt sighed. "It's…" He glanced quickly at his surroundings to find something to get away from the conversation. "Hey, see that guy?" He pointed at a cat who was walking a few meters ahead of them, he was wearing a hoodie.

Anne nodded "Yeah, what's up with him?".

"Uhm, he looks suspicious." Matt argued.

"Why?" Anne crossed her arms.

"I don't know, it's my instinct." Matt said.

Anne grinned with disbelief. "Your instinct? What is going…" She couldn't finish her phrase as Matt took her hand and ran towards the cat.

"Hey mister!" Matt asked while getting closer to him.

"Let go!" Anne shook her hand and freed it from Matt's grip. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Mister!" Matt got more closely to the cat with the hoodie, he patted the guy's shoulder to get his attention, then all of a sudden the guy moved fast and shot a plain black line of codes from the palm of his hand, throwing Matt away from him and making him to hit the ground.

"Matt!" Anne turned to face the guy, whose hoodie's cap had fallen and his face got revealed.

"Leave me alone! I don't want to hurt you!" Adam backed away a little bit from her.

Anne growled. "You are far away from that already." She approached him and wrapped her arm around his head, then she jumped and used her own weight to bring him down.

Adam gasped while Anne was holding him over the ground. "Please, you don't want to do this!"

"I'm the one who decides that!" Anne replied and started to clutch him more tightly.

Matt stood up rubbing his head, then he took a laser gun out of his holster and ran towards them. "Surrender! Now!" He pointed the gun at them, with the intention to scare Adam more than to actually hurt him.

Anne got into her feet slowly while still holding Adam. "I got him, Matt."

Adam yelled. "No! You don't!" His eyes turned green and then a black wave came from him and hit the two of them, making them to fall again.

Anne groaned while trying to get up. "Who the heck are you?" She said as she got in one knee.

"I'm Adam." Adam's normal clothes had morphed back into the red striped bodysuit he wore originally, he was just standing in front of them.

"I don't…" Matt coughed as he stood up again. "…care who you are."

People crowded around the scene and began to take pictures, Adam noticed it and lifted his hand towards the crowd, then their devices stopped working. "The less you know about me, the better." Adam said, then the confused people started to leave.

Matt shot Adam without any warning with his laser gun, he hit his upper arm which made Adam to scream with pain. "You like that?!"

Adam groaned as he placed his hand over the wound, then he removed it and watched the blood that had painted the palm of his hand. "That felt..." He gasped and put his hand back on the wound. "Not good at all."

"It's called a weapon you dummy! Now surrender or the next one will go straight into your head!" Matt ordered as he kept pointing the gun towards him.

"Leave me alone!" Adam made a pyramid of codes to appear from his other hand, then he threw it at the ground and it exploded like a grenade, destroying the concrete and leaving a cloud of dust and smoke over the hole the improvised bomb had created.

Matt and Anne had fortunately got far enough from the explosion to remain safe from it, they had just covered their heads against the little rocks that had been thrown towards their spot by the explosion's wave. "Where is he?" Anne mumbled.

"Maybe he…" Matt gasped after Adam appeared behind him from a shine of light and kicked his back. "I spoke too…" He gasped again as Adam carried him with both arms, then he threw Matt upwards and surrounded him with a conglomerate of codes which simulated a cell, then he lowered him down and left the cell floating over the ground with him inside.

Matt punched the inside of his strange cell with both of his fists. "What is this trick?! Get me out of here!"

"I'm sorry." Adam said.

"You'll be more sorry after I give you a lesson!" Anne approached him again and punched his face, he gasped and began to shoot denser code lines from both of his hands onto the ground, he had positioned his hands in a certain way to let the uncanny, materialized code bars lift him off the ground, on a few seconds he was floating over them.

"You can't beat me, so consider yourself fortunate! As I'm not your enemy!" Adam said with confidence just before the code lines that were exiting from his hands started to fade, he lost balance when they vanished completely and fell down.

The cell that had Matt trapped faded away too, getting him free. "Right on time!"

Anne kneeled down next to the beaten cat, who was laying on the ground. "It seems you aren't that powerful after all."

Adam ignored her, he was looking at the blue sky, confused and shocked. "I'm limited?" He chuckled. "I'm limited! I'm not whole!" He looked at her with a smirk. "I am not whole."

"You what?" Anne rolled her eyes. "Why is everyone, like, crazy today?"

Matt went with them. "I've contacted Hill, he shall know what to do."

"So do we." Tech said as he walked towards the three of them with the rest of the Loonatics. "You actually managed to handle this." He looked at Adam, who was trying to get up.

Matt pretended to laugh modestly. "Oh it's nothing, you know we must be prepared for any kind of…" He was interrupted as Anne stood up.

"The guy seems to have run out of his, power, or whatever." Anne said.

Matt sighed. "Yes, and that."

Ace helped Adam to stand up. "Come on, you should have a good story to tell us." As he managed to get him up, he gasped after recognizing his face. "What?"

"Ace! He is the cat who was kidnapped!" Lexi said with amazement.

"Am I? More correctly, I was." Adam said. "Spencer is dead."

Rev ran and got right in front of him. "Who is Spencer?"

"The girl said it, the cat she mentioned was the previous owner of this body, now he isn't anymore." Adam coughed and started to rub his wound.

"Great! A nutty one!" Duck exclaimed.

"Ace, I think he may be telling the truth." Tech stated.

Ace raised an eyebrow as he looked at him. "Excuse me?"

"It could explain all the technological equipment we found on Quentin's apartment, I've read about this on my scientific magazines, there are theories that say that consciousness can be transferred from a body to another, I guess Quentin managed to do such a task." Tech explained.

"Indeed, my father is a very slick person." Adam added.

"Okay, now that is something I don't understand." Tech said. "Are you two actually, like, father and son? I mean, who would kidnap his own son? That sounds pretty ridiculous, well technically you are another person, but..." He sighed. "Brain pain, long time no see."

"Spencer was no son of him, but Adam very is. My consciousness is not real, it is a simulation that my father had made on a computer, he then looked for a host for my abilities to be exposed to the world, and now I'm here." Adam said.

Ace was thoughtful, he was trying to process Adam's words. "Well, anyways, you must come with us."

Adam nodded. "As long as you don't attack me like these people did."

"Hey! You started it all!" Matt argued.

"It's fair to say it was both's fault." Anne commented.

Adam and Matt sighed at the same time. "Right." They both admitted, only that Adam did so with a more solemn tone.

"Stand where you are!" Hill said as he got down of his carbon colored truck and aimed his rifle at Adam along with his army.

"Calm down, calm down, we got this under control, you can leave." Ace said as he walked closer to The Eye's soldiers.

"Move away, Ace, we must take this fellow with us for preventive isolation." Hill said.