Loonatics: United
Episode 66: Plans In The Dark
Midnight had come, Acmetropolis' innumerable lighting was exposed by the darkness. Ray had the suit on, he was climbing the Loonatics Tower with a special function of the suit's gloves. Still, he was very scared by the height he had already reached, with his eyes closed and trembling a bit. "Great idea, Ray. You could've just used the elevator." He told to himself then opened one eye and gasped when seeing the immense distance between him and the ground. He let out a sigh of courage and looked upwards. The electronic map that the face shield displayed on a corner showed he was not too far from the Loonatics' HQ. "Just a few more stories, Ray. You can do this." He kept advancing hand after hand and foot after foot, taking each step carefully.
The lab was only illuminated by the skyscraper's lights from the outside that entered the large window, and from the inside, the rather dim green lights of the lab's main aesthetics diminished the darkness of the night a little bit. Ray finally reached the story that the map was displaying. He rested his head over the glass to have a better look of the inside, being impressed by the lab's look. "Neat." He said and looked for a helpful function on the face shield. "No…no…" He continuously discarded the options he was discovering. "…wait." Ray had found the kind of tool he was looking for. "Laser Cutter." He nodded at his discovery with approval. "Sounds good." Ray chose the option with a quick eye movement, then the tip of the index finger of the right glove began to glow a dim blue. Ray unattached his hand from the glass and looked at the blue tip, he then got his finger close to the glass, but he stopped suddenly. "Alarms." He murmured when guessing the Loonatics should've been wise enough to use those security measures. He sighed and kept browsing the suit's many options. "I don't even know what that means…" He said when discarding a function. "Wait…" He saw an icon with the word 'EMP' on it. "...that could work." He selected the option and the left glove began to tremble. The face shield started to show a five second countdown, Ray gasped and adopted more firm position, maintaining his left hand placed over the glass. His glare was focused on the countdown before his eyes, and when it reached zero, his left hand trembled stronger and emitted a brief but strong blue light that illuminated the glass and partially the lab's inside. The dim green lights of the lab's designs had went off, that's when Ray knew the electromagnetic pulse had worked. He now put his index finger over the glass and started to feel the vibration of the cutting functionality going through the glass cleanly, making subtle noises while cutting it cleanly. Ray began to move his finger to the right slowly, intending to cut a circle shaped entrance.
As the Laser Cutter worked smoothly, it didn't take long for Ray to reach the quite elliptical shape's starting point. After making a brief noise, the elliptical piece of glass fell down towards the far ground below. Ray looked at its fall for a moment then looked back at the lab. He entered with careful steps then deactivated the Laser Cutter and the gloves' climbing functionality. Ray activated the face shield's night vision and began to explore the lab, walking by its many consoles and workstations, glaring at the central table, the monitors, the black floor and ceiling. He approached one of the closets and opened it, finding only chemicals, flasks and other stuff of that type. He let out a sigh and kept searching with his steps and gaze. "I wonder why this suit hasn't an x-ray function." He whispered to himself while walking by the table, stopping his steps for a moment, resting his arm on the table. "Hmm." Ray kept studying the place, looking at every corner of the lab. He raised an eyebrow when noticing the large automatic door at the other side, which had been opened by the EMP. Ray sighed and resumed his steps. "Oh, well. I got all night anyway."
Ray walked towards the lab's warehouse. He walked in and started to explore the first corridor between the wall and the first line of racks, stopping his steps recurrently to observe the stuff that was there in order to spot what he was looking for. Ray approached the corridor's end, turning and beginning to explore the next one and so on. It wasn't until he walked through the last corridor when he finally found the jetpack. It was on the last rack, he crouched to take it as it was on the shelf before his feet. He dusted it off with a few pats on its gray, metallic surface. It was lighter than he thought it would be, he turned it a couple of times to study it, finding out it had two compartments at its sides, he opened them gently by taking out the hanging lids then pulled out a pair of large, adjustable straps from the jetpack's inside. Ray took a look at the two propellers, nodding at his finding. "Okay…I guess…" He put the jetpack on as if it was a regular scholar backpack with the help of the straps, adjusting them to set them tightly against the exosuit. A message appeared on the face shield, which said 'New device detected, wish to synchronize?" He raised an eyebrow and selected the 'Yes' option with an eye movement. The jetpack emitted a beeping sound and rumbled for a couple of seconds, a new message then appeared on the face shield. 'Device synchronized, initiating input process'. The message also displayed a live simulation of the glove's movements, Ray tested it by waving his left hand and snapping his fingers with his right hand. Several points of the gloves started to glow either on the simulation as on the real thing. A list of commands, imported from the jetpack's systems appeared on the right side of the face shield, with blank spaces next to each command, described as 'Gestures' at the top of the list.
Ray began to configure the gestures one by one, pressing his hand in several distinct ways. He saved the setup and then pressed his index finger with his thumb on the same hand, the jetpack activated after so, the sound of the propellers made him to gasp slightly while starting to hover. He chuckled by the success and the floating sensation. "Awesome." He moved his hands backwards and with that the jetpack took him out of the warehouse, he then flew towards the entrance he had made and exited the HQ. When being outside, he clenched his fists gently and with that the jetpack's speed increased, letting Ray escape more quickly.
Next day's early, still dark morning, Tech was in his room, having suited up, washing his face on the bathroom's sink. He sighed while drying his face with a towel and blinked a couple of times, looking at himself at the mirror. Tech let out a long yawn then exited the bathroom.
After getting out of his quarters, Tech went to the kitchen. He took out his favorite mug and dropped one of his trademark coffee pills in there. The coffee filled the mug to the top, liquid, dark and hot. He took a long sip from it and let out a sigh of satisfaction. Tech stood there for a moment, with his arm resting on the kitchen's bar while taking more sips from his coffee.
Tech finally exited the kitchen, holding his mug, with a subtle smirk on his face. He then entered the lab and gasped when noticing the elliptical hole on the glass and the warehouse's open doors. He frowned with an eyebrow raised. "What the…?!" He threw the mug at the floor by the anger, the coffee spilled over the black floor, almost being unnoticeable, the mug was intact as it was made of steel. He growled and rapidly approached the main computer with hurried steps. Tech turned on the computer and began to press several keys, with his eyes locked on the monitor. "How..?" He said when noticing the jump of time of the security cameras' recordings. A considerable amount of time where the devices didn't record anything. Tech then rushed towards the warehouse and entered, passing through the corridors and glancing rapidly at the racks to see if anything had been stolen. When approaching the last rack, he stopped right where the jetpack was supposed to be, only to find nothing, an empty space between a toolbox and a small laser gun. "That lemur..." He just intuited that supposition, letting out a snarl and getting out of the warehouse in a hurry. Tech got in front of the central table and began to open several programs that he then slid upwards to display them as holographic software windows, arranging them with his hands, he opened the jet's blueprint and started to draw sketchy diagrams over it with his finger. "You feel so safe in that suit, don't you?" He said while making several algebraical calculations over the blueprint with the digital traces. "Let's see how tough you are without that shield." He spoke with determination and placed a hand over the table then opened a program and slid up its window to turn it into an holographic one, being a canvas for three-dimensional models. The polygonal, pixelated lines and shapes over the holographic window reflected on Tech's concentrated eyes, one hand manipulated some functions over the table and the other on the transparent blue window before him. He was designing a turret, dark gray with a wide barrel surrounded by decorative, orange decals. It appeared to be held with a tripod. He switched his gaze from the window that displayed his recently created model to the one that showed the jet's blueprint. Tech moved both windows and placed them one against the other, scratching his chin, he studied the blueprint's data as well as the diagrams, numbers and mathematical calculations he had drawn over its virtual surface, nodding as the idea had begun to come together, but still with a glare of inquiry.
Tech remained that way for a couple of minutes. "It's too much power." He told to himself. "Can't transfer it wirelessly." Tech thought on an alternative, only finding the most obvious one, letting out a rather disappointed sigh. "Back to the elementary, then." He started to draw a straight line, visually connecting the jet to the turret's backside. He started to scratch his chin again, then he nodded with some doubt. "Let's do it." The automatic doors of the warehouse closed suddenly, having been the last thing to get recovered from the EMP. Tech just ignored this and continued working.