Loonatics: United

Episode 70: Off-World Matters

The red dot on the console's screen became more and more closer as Tech rapidly advanced with the jet, maintaining the steering wheel straightened, switching his gaze between the map and the window. The dot suddenly stopped moving, making Tech to raise an eyebrow while slowly backing the steering wheel to reduce the speed. "Boss." Tech said. "You might want to see this."

Ace took off his seatbelt and stood up then entered the cockpit, standing behind Tech. "Any trouble?"

Tech sighed. "Not quite sure, but we might have been detected." He pointed at the static dot on the map while looking at him.

Ace rubbed his chin while glancing at the dot. "Just keep moving. We are ready for anything." He commanded.

Tech nodded with subtle hesitation. "Okay." He slowly moved the steering wheel to get the jet on full speed again. Ace stood there to stay updated on the situation.

"Are we there yet?" Duck said, more to get into Ace's nerves than to actually get an answer.

"Well technically we are not after a place we are after a group of smugglers, bandits, mercenaries or whatever those guys could be." Rev responded.

Duck rolled up his eyes then raised his shoulders. "I think the word you're looking for is 'losers'."

A much bigger, green colored dot appeared on the map. "Doc., what is that?" Ace asked.

"It could be just an asteroid." Tech thought for a moment. "Or maybe a station."

"Station?" Ace inquired.

"You know, those places where the travelers go for fuel, supplies…" Tech began to snap his fingers. "…they have another name but…"

Lexi had heard the conversation from the backside. "Tollers."

Tech nodded by Lexi's response. "Tollers, yeah." He began to slow down the jet's speed.

"What is a 'toller'?" Ace inquired.

"Well, what I've just said. A place for travelers, not so different from Acmetropolis' energy stops." Tech responded. "But we still gotta be careful. Those places have gained popularity among space gangs. I could bet these guys are one of them."

Ace raised an eyebrow. "Doc, how do you know so much about this stuff?"

Tech chuckled. "Susan. She frequented these places back when she was doing one of her many research projects."

"I see." Ace replied while looking at the window, narrowing his eyes as he started to see a structure. "Uhm, Doc…"

"Yes, boss." Tech pressed a few buttons over the console to add some extra speed. "I see it."

They began to get close to the structure, enough for Tech to confirm his supposition. "A toller, indeed." The place was quite big, it was a floating set of platforms with buildings attached to it and a path that looked like a street where the main stores and services were located. Some ships were leaving and others were arriving just as theirs. Ace and Tech could already see some people walking and shopping for supplies, food and other stuff over the street like path. Tech got over a platform and slowly landed the jet there. He turned off the jet's systems and glared at Ace in wait for orders.

Ace studied the place rapidly with a quick glance, then nodded at Tech. "Alright. Let's go." He went to the backside of the jet and looked at his comrades, gesturing at the exit door which Tech just opened from the cockpit. "Come on, guys. They are here."

Slam, and Rev took off their seatbelts and stood up, Lexi was the last one to do so, Duck had fallen asleep so Lexi walked towards him and gave him a not so gentle bump on his head to wake him up. His helmet didn't cushion the hit.

Duck woke up with a gasp and a grunt of annoyance. "Ouch! You could've just told me!" He sighed and took off his seatbelt, standing up while looking at Lexi with a frown.

"Would that have been enough?" Lexi crossed her arms while looking at him with a straight face.

"No, but it's still more mannerly." Duck argued.

Tech approached them, without his exosuit. "We won't need the suits here, the artificial atmosphere is as breathable as Acmetropolis'."

Duck took off his helmet immediately, breathing in deeply. "Oh what a relief, I sweat big time with this thing on."

"Impossible." Tech pointed at himself. "They have a cooling system inside that obviously I designed so that can't be true."

"Well, it doesn't work for me then." Duck replied.

"Leave your discussion for later." Ace hurried them up, having already taken off his exosuit. "We got something to retrieve."

After they all took off their exosuits, the Loonatics got off the jet and started to walk towards the 'street' over the metallic grid that led there. Lexi suddenly grasped Ace's arm. He looked at her. "You okay?"

"Yes, it's just…" Lexi looked up, almost not believing they were walking in the darkness of outer space without their special gear.

Ace chuckled softly. "Weird, right?"

Lexi lowered her head a bit. "Yes." She looked into his eyes with a made up smile. "Weird." A different word came up to her mind, but one that meant fear.

"There's always something new in this job, I guess." Ace opined. "But don't worry, as soon as we deal with the mission, we'll go back home, okay?" He detected the fear on her glare.

Lexi nodded and let out a sigh. "Okay."

The team kept walking over the gridded floor until they reached the main street of the toller, where the floor was also metallic, with symetric patterns which were covered by the layer of dirt that had formed there through the years. The small buildings were modern yet rustic for Acmetropolis' standards, the majority of them also covered with old and new dirt that almost nullified the color of their surface. "Ugh, this place stinks." Duck rapidly noticed the weird smell on the air.

"Yeah…smells like oil and fried onions or something." Rev opined.

Their glares looked cautiously at all they could see there, from strange and antique renewed spaceships parked over the rooftops and street sellers offering all kinds of products of dubious origin. People there weren't as different as the citizens of Acmetropolis, there were felines, canines, rodents, avians, all types of people as in the heroes' city, but their clothing was very different, almost all of them wore dark toned trench coats and industrial boots, some of those people also wore googles, keeping them on their foreheads until they needed to be used. Duck whistled with amazement when spotting a mouse displaying an holographic user interface from his glove. "Man." Duck hit Tech's side gently with his elbow. "You see that?"

Tech raised his shoulders, expressing disinterest. "That's old technology, Duck. I actually acquired one back in my days at college. Pretty cool, I must admit." He glared at him. "Yet impractical."

Duck kept studying the looks of everyone and everything there. "Well, still. This place is cool and awful at the same time."

"There's more people here than I thought. It might take us a bit longer to find these guys." Ace stated while looking around him.

"Unless they find us first maybe they're already hidden somewhere watching over us and we are totally unaware of that." Rev opined.

From a rooftop, laying over the ground while holding a sniper rifle, a female dark blue feathered hawk was doing exactly as Rev was suspecting, her right eye was looking at the Loonatics from several buildings behind through the green colored scope, which displayed some data with yellow numbers and letters. "The boss was right, then." She moved her fringe a bit as it was starting to get between her eye and the scope. Her hair was long and red and she was wearing a red bodysuit with black, rustic designs. She loaded the weapon by rapidly moving the slider, maintaining her aim on Ace's head.

Lexi's ear twitched when hearing that particular sound from afar, she focused on her hearing power to confirm the probable danger, she then began to hear the hawk's careful breathing, even managing to hear the rubbing of the trigger. Lexi focused more and heard the weapon's inner system. Her ability let her discover that the now confirmed enemy was several buildings behind them, it also revealed that the pulling of the trigger was getting started, she figured out all of these things in a matter of seconds. "Get down!" She exclaimed and after brief doubtful glares her comrades obeyed her and rapidly threw themselves to the ground as she commanded, Lexi tackled Ace instinctively as the fear to lose him hadn't gone away. A purple laser then collided on the ground, dangerously close to the Loonatics, throwing some dirt and leaving a hole from where smoke was coming out. The sound of the collision alarmed several people that were walking by, others just kept doing what they were doing as they were kind of accustomed to those incidents, knowing they owed nothing to no one, or at least no one dangerous.

"Dang it!" The hawk hit the ground with her fist. The commotion prevented her from getting another clear shot so she let out a growl and stood up, holding her rifle with determination, getting down from the building with a pair of great jumps, landing gracefully over the ground.

The Loonatics got over their feet, Ace did so with the help of Lexi. "It's them, split, now!" Ace commanded as he suspected the presence of more snipers.

"Wow I almost feel like this is my fault I mean just when I said 'Unless they find us f…"

"No one cares, Rev!" Duck teleported himself to an alleyway while Rev just used his super speed to reach a rooftop. Tech and Slam used their jetpacks to fly towards another set of buildings while Ace and Lexi chose to just run away from the dangerous spot.

"Okay, you go right and I go l…" Ace was interrupted.

"No." Lexi said, breathing in and out constantly by the rush, only giving him a subtle, pleading glare.

Ace stood silent for a moment, still running. He then smiled at her. "Okay, then…" He gestured at an alleyway. "…over there." The two bunnies entered the dark alleyway and stopped running immediately when encountering with a shadowed figure, one Ace rapidly distinguished as its silhouette was the same as the stolen exosuit.

"Going somewhere?" A male voice said while the glow of an electric orb appeared on the suit's glove, it's light confirmed it was indeed the suit. The feline eyes behind the transparent orange face shield revealed by the orb's light also showed them that the person inside the suit was no other than the snow leopard they were looking for.