Loonatics: United

Episode 63: Wrenched

The pain of the rays that were hurting the six heroes was fading slowly, some people just passed by but others were approaching them to aid them. Their groans and complaints got more intermittent and silent. Ace was the first one to finally get over his feet, helped by a young lynx who wore a black tracksuit. "Thanks." Ace smirked at him after a last, brief groan.

The rest of the Loonatics also began to stand up after the electricity was gone, also being aided by some pedestrians, who just walked away after the heroes' thankful gestures. Duck groaned and stretched a bit. "I hate electricity."

"Everyone good?" Ace looked at his teammates.

"Not good, good…but yeah." Lexi responded.

Tech snarled and shook his head. "It toasted my jetpack." He said while trying to activate his with no success.

Ace tried to activate his own, getting no results, sighing. "Same here. What about you guys?"

Duck, Slam, Lexi and Rev tried to turn on their jetpacks a couple of times, without response. "Mine doesn't work either I told Tech to put an extra protection layer to them but he said that was too much an…" Rev was interrupted by Tech's sudden snarl.

"Alright, I get it, Rev!" Tech sighed. "I gotta check them out first." He pointed at Rev with a frown. "Then…you will apply those layers."

Rev lowered his shoulders, letting out a sigh of resignation. "Well… My beak betrays me again."

"Okay, Doc." Ace said, looking away. "I should just ask for a hover-cab."

The lemur was walking in an alleyway, between two old buildings, not too old to stand out from the city's general architecture, but the time markings gave them away. He stopped walking and turned to face an electric door made of steel. At the left side, a numeric keyboard was attached to the wall, he approached it and entered the password, then the door opened, like a normal one. He entered the place and then the door closed automatically behind him. It was his home, a medium sized building, which was never meant to be used as a house as it was a warehouse for several years. But he reconditioned it, led hanging bulbs illuminated the white painted walls, which were complemented with dark blue lines and dots, same as the floor and ceiling. A large worktable was at the corner at the bottom, with a desktop computer that had many hand-made peripherals and gadgets connected to it, emulating an advanced console. His 'room' was built over a metallic platform a few meters below the ceiling, a stair of the same material led to it. It was just a drawer, a bed and a small bathroom, yet with all of the basic commodities.

The lemur let out a sigh of relief and then walked towards the worktable, stepping carefully by the heaviness of the suit. He stopped walking next to the table and then he pressed the 'on' button of the suit, the face shield's screen asked him for a confirmation and with a brief eye movement he accepted. The suit started to open slowly, then he got enough space to exit from it. The exosuit then closed again, automatically, returning to its original shape. The lemur just left it there, next to the worktable. He sighed and let out a chuckle of success. "You nailed it, Ray." He spoke to himself and sat down on the swivel chair, laying a bit with both hands over his nape, looking at the ceiling, with a smile on his face. "Exosuit…" He gestured with his hand as if he was drawing a checkmark. "…done." He chuckled again, but then a sudden cough exited from his throat, followed by another, louder one, then a couple more came. Ray started to cough more violently, getting up and keeping coughing, covering his mouth with his clenched fist, each cough hurt, so he was coughing and groaning at the same time. The pain made him to get over his knees and put both hands over the cold floor. Drips of blood now came with each cough, staining the floor. After about a minute, Ray groaned and let out a final cough, the most aggressive of them, bigger drips of blood splashed over the floor.

Ray took a moment to breath in and out, trying to reduce the headache he was now feeling. He slowly started to get into his feet. His gaze was locked on the blood over the white surface of the floor. Ray sighed and walked towards the locker on the opposite corner, opening its doors, it was really old, made with aluminum and with deteriorated dark green paint. He took out a mop, a bucket and a cleaning solution inside a plastic bottle, then he just closed the door again, discouraged, lowering his head and letting out a long sigh.

Meanwhile, at the HQ's lab, Tech was checking the unattached jetpacks, which were arranged over the lab's central table. He was carefully checking their circuit boards with the help of a magnifying glass, occasionally writing the things he noticed on his digital notepad. His ear twitched when hearing Ace entering the lab. "How bad is it, Doc?" Ace asked while approaching him.

Tech sighed. "So so, boss." He replied, putting down the magnifying glass and the notepad, glancing at Ace. "The motherboards are intact, but they rebooted with the shock."

"Which means?" Ace raised an eyebrow.

"The reboot time will last long, six hours at the least." Tech explained.

Ace sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Alright." He exhaled. "Then we'll have to go old school with this guy."

"You want me to ready the bikes, boss?" Tech asked.

Ace nodded. "Please, Tech."

"Sure." Tech walked away from him, heading to another area of the lab.

"Uhm, Doc. The hangar." Ace pointed backwards with his thumb.

"I know." Tech was crouching before the open, metallic closet from where he was taking out several metallic bottles with chemicals in them. "But we don't want him to toast our vehicles too, do we, boss?"

Ace crossed his arms while trying to figure out what Tech could be planning, he then just raised his shoulders and began to walk out from the lab. "Alright, Doc. Just do it quick."

"No problem." Tech said when Ace had already exited the lab.

Ace arrived at the lounge, where the rest of the team was waiting for him, sitting down over the couches. "I got good news and bad news." Ace said while sitting down next to Lexi.

"The good news?" Lexi inquired, resting her arm over his shoulders.

"The jetpacks are fine…" Ace sighed. "We just have to wait several hours for them to fully work."

"O…okay." Duck said rather relieved. "Then we just wait." He laid over his side of the couch.

"No. We'll use the hover-bikes." Ace said.

Duck let out a grunt of complaint. "Take it easy, Ace, what could that lemur possible do in a few hours? Tell me."

"Well he has a super suit and he can electrocute people with ease that I know and you know and everyone in this room and man that hurt, that really hurt. So I agree with Ace we should go get him." Rev opined, getting a grunt of concur from Slam.

Duck sighed and rolled up his eyes. "And…where will we go? We lost sight of him."

Ace chuckled. "Rev…"

"Sure Ace just give me a minute." Rev took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Duck raised an eyebrow, adopting a sitting position again. "Like, what is he doi..?" His eyes widened. "Oh…yeah…I always forget he can do that." He laid again.

"Hush…I need silence." Rev said. "Alright…" He opened his eyes and from his chest, an holographic feed projected on the center of the lounge. "Look." He pointed at Ray, who appeared to be hiding in an alleyway, with the exosuit on. "He is a few blocks away from AMRI." Rev stopped displaying the images.

Duck gasped. "AMRI?! No!...what's AMRI?" He asked.

Lexi sighed while rolling up her eyes. "Acmetropolis Military Research Institute."

"And I'm sure he is not there for the tours." Ace said.

Duck made a gesture of disdain. "And what could he steal from a place full of secret projects and advanced weaponry?"

Ace got into his feet followed by Lexi and the rest, Duck being the last. "Whatever he wants to get from there, we can't let him."