Ace, Lexi, Layla, and Luna were in the training room, practicing together and coordinating with one another.
"Since you're not used to fighting, maybe you can try to go on the defensive until you find an opening," Lexi suggested as they were in fighting positions.
"So, I have to look for a moment when they're wide open?" Layla asked. She stood a little stiff and not as confident as Lexi did.
"Yeah. You don't always have to be dodging. It's good if you do because of reflex, but you have to dodge right or you could end up unbalanced. For example." Lexi punched straight at her a little slowly, Layla stepping back and leaning away instinctively. Lexi smiled and pulled her hand back, going back into a starter position.
"That's good! Okay. Another way you can dodge is that you move to the side and push their punch away. Try it." Layla nodded and did a slow punch at Lexi. Lexi easily tilted to the side and pushed her arm away. "See?"
Layla and Lexi continued like this, Lexi teaching Layla different defense and offensive techniques while Luna and Ace stood further away from them, both in offensive fighting stances, legs apart and arms up. From Luna's arms being close to her body and protecting her face and her legs apart by just a bit, it almost looked like she was in a looser fighting stance.
But Ace knew better. He remained on guard as they circled each other slowly, being cautious and waiting for Luna to make the first move. In a quick motion, Luna stepped in and went in for a right hook at him. Ace quickly dodged and aimed to strike her core. Luna struck her arm down and diverted his attack away with a swipe away from them, grabbing his wrist and aimed for a quick strike to the face. Ace quickly stepped to the side and grabbed her wrist as well, leaving them almost at a deadlock.
However, Luna quickly kneed Ace. it struck true and he let go of her. She took advantage and tried pulling him forward to land another strike. He twisted her grip and used it to let go of him while he rolled out of the way. Luna held on a little tighter, instead, and fell down to the ground. He quickly took advantage and twisted her arm so that she ended up on her stomach with her arm pulled back. She groaned in pain and tapped the floor with her free arm.
"I yield."
Ace let go of her arm and got off her back. "You're not too shabby, Luna. Those were some pretty good moves."
"Thanks. Though I think I'm still rusty."
She started to get up with a small groan, her hair moving aside to reveal part of a strange mark at the back of her neck peaking out of the uniform.
He saw this and raised a brow, extending a hand to help her up. "You have a tattoo on your neck?"
Luna stiffened a bit and hid it with her hand quickly. "Uh, no. It's just an ugly birthmark." She took his hand and stood up.
"Didn't know that. I guess dat's why you have hair long enough to hide it."
She nodded her head and moved her hand away. "You were good too, Ace. Guess that makes sense since you're the leader of the team." Luna smiled a little to him.
"Eh, I already knew some moves before joining. Afterword, it was just having to train and get better at it. From there, we all just got better at fighting and incorporating our powers. From how you looked like yesterday and today, it looked like you already know how to." It wasn't easy to forget the small details of how he saw her controlled her moves and powers were to not harm anyone or destroy the room. Especially how he noted her grabbing for a sword.
"Well, when I found out about my powers, I tried practicing a few times with it at home or where no one was around. It's very hard to control too and make sure I don't hurt anyone. It's wind, so it can do more harm than good if I'm not careful." She started to walk away to get a bottle of water from the benches.
Ace followed after her and grabbed a towel. "That's true. I remember when we all got our powers scrambled and we ended up with another's powers. And boy, was it hard to fight. I ended up with Duck's powers and he ended up with mine."
she chuckled a little. "I can just imagine the chaos that happened." Luna took several big gulps of water before capping it. Ace thought about the boss man and how he seemed to imply what he knew about Luna's predicament.
How is she connected to him too?
"Hey, I know we asked you before what kind of trouble you got yourself involved in, but I have to ask...what was your boss like and what was his name? Maybe we can track him down and turn him in to the police." He noted how Luna tensed up a bit as she put the bottle down.
She shook her head as she grabbed a towel for her. "It won't work...at least, I don't think so... I looked up the guy's name online and he didn't come up anywhere, not even the organization they had me sign for." She sighed as she wiped off a bit of sweat around her neck.
"We can at least give it a try. We have more access and connections that we can look through to help bring dis guy to justice." Ace leaned against the wall as Luna sat down, both facing the other two girls practicing. Luna looked down at the ground while Ace looked at her expectantly.
"...If you say so. I think his name was-"
A sound of loud cry of pain interrupted Luna. She and Ace turned quickly saw Layla was on the ground.
"I'm so sorry!" Lexi apologized and helped Layla sit up. "Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?"
"It hurts, but...I think I can get over it." Layla slowly started to get up just to be careful. "I hope I don't get a concussion."
Ace went over to them to check on Layla, Luna standing up too. "I don't think you will, but we can always go check just in case. Don't want you hurt when trouble comes, right?" Ace stood next to Layla and helped her keep her balance.
Layla nodded her head a bit. "Right."
"I'll go take Layla to the lab. Maybe Tech can check on her." Luna went over to guide Layla to the lab. "It shouldn't take that long, right?"
"True. If you're hurt, then don't push yourself, okay?" Ace watched them carefully.
"You got it." The girls walked out of the training room and headed to the lab. As they walked away, Ace and Lexi watched them.
"Duck's right...they look a lot like twins," Lexi said, placing her hands on her hips.
"Eh, I think they act more like sisters. At least so far." Ace crossed his arms.
"I wouldn't blame them. If I saw a girl who looked like my twin, I would bond with her right away and become best friends." Lexi looked up at Ace. "You've been acting tense around them. Is something up?"
"It's nothing. Just curious about them is all. Don't you feel like they're hiding something?"
Lexi put a finger to her chin in thought, looking up curiously. "Well, not really, but I have noticed something weird. Sometimes Luna seems to trip on some things or she ends up bumping into the edges of walls sometimes. I think she's a bit of klutz, but that's it. Though...she does look like she's staring into space a lot instead of focused when talking to us."
"Yeeaah, that sounds like she's a bit of klutz is all. Nothing really big."
"Hey, what if you take them to go on patrol today? That'll help them know what we do on the field."
Ace put a hand on his chin and thought about it. "It doesn't sound too bad...alright. Rev and I will take them on patrol later. Make sure Duck doesn't get any bright ideas, okay?"
Lexi pouted lightly to hear she wasn't joining. "Aw. I wanted to be part of it too."
He smiled and rubbed Lexi's head playfully. "But if I don't leave you in charge, then who else will be my second-in-command? You come up with some pretty bright ideas, you know."
Lexi blushed under her fur and giggled a little, punching his arm lightly. "Alright alright. I'll stay. Just bring dinner when you come back. I'm sure pizza will be just fine."
"Now you're sounding like the boss," Ace teased with a smirk. He pulled his hand away and started to walk out of the room.
Rev, Ace, Luna, and Layla walked the streets of Acmetropolis, showing the girls the streets to patrol and what to look out for.
"Sometimes when we're out, we buy some food to take back to the team for lunch or dinner," Ace explained.
"Sometimes-when-we're-out-we'll-actually-come-across-a-crime-happening-and-we-can-take-care-of-it-quickly-or-sometimes-trouble-looks-for-us-and-we-end-up-in-these-crazy-chases-to-get-the-criminal," Rev went on.
"That's interesting. Are you guys always prepared to get into action when something does happen?" Luna asked curiously.
"We have to in order to get the bad guys quickly. That means stop what we're doing and prioritizing that," Ace added.
Luna nodded and looked around, as did Layla, taking in the street names and the area.
"Do you guys sometimes take a detour when you find something that catches your eye?" Layla asked innocently.
Ace chuckled a little as Rev stepped in, walking backward a bit. "Sometimes-we-do-but-usually-we-try-to-not-be-very-distracted."
They continued to walk and talk, sometimes Ace and Rev would sign autographs for people who asked for it or take a photo with some. Minutes turned into hours before they made it back to the tower, getting within a few blocks of it.
"My feet are killing me. Do you guys seriously walk that much every day?" Layla complained, relieved to see their destination ahead of them.
"Sometimes. We usually walk the areas closer to da tower and use hovercrafts and jetpacks for places dat are further away. And even then, we do take a few rest stops. We took some more today for both your sakes."
Layla groaned a little as she still seemed to not like the idea of walking so much either way. Luna seemed to just go with it, noting her personality was sometimes go-with-the-flow like right now. As they got closer to the entrance, shadows started to move, alleyways and rooftops seeming to no longer be empty. Ace put his guard up as his smile turned into a serious look.
"I think we've got some company," he said softly, trying not to alert their enemy that he noticed them. He looked at the other three and noticed Rev was already working out the numbers while Layla and Luna looked on their guard too, looking around discreetly to see where they could possibly be attacked.
Looks like they're both more experienced than they let on.
He slowed down his pace as the others followed. "What's the status, Rev?"
"About-34-in-total-11-on-the-roofs-11-to-the-right-and-12-to-the-left-moving-quickly-through-the-shadows," Rev responded in a calm tone as well, following Ace's lead.
"Quite the number against two veterans and two newbies," Luna pointed out analytically with a hint of a purr, which he didn't expect.
They quickly went into fighting position once blurry figures came out of the shadows and started to surround them, the ones on the roof remaining at the edge and alert.
"So you guys finally showed yoselves," Ace said, taking in their enemy. All of them were a bit dispersed but remained surrounding them. They all had masks on their faces, wearing completely black suits. Dark red color lined their loose clothes that almost looked like ninja garb. However, they had weapons on their hips and hands, some going barehanded with knuckle-busters nothing at all. The area around their eyes had a dark lens that spanned over them like motorcycle helmets did, concealing who they were and their gender. One, in particular, stood tall at the front, his clothes lined with silver instead of dark red like the rest.
"Give us the girls and we won't have to battle," the head ninja announced, their voice garbled to hide their identity, but still maintaining a deep tone in an attempt to scare them.
So that's what they're after. Probably from that organization Luna's running from, but why would they want Layla?
"Sorry, doc, but we ain't gonna do that." Ace unsheathed his sword and got ready to fight.
"So be it." The man gave a signal by closing a raised hand. His minions moved in right away, attacking them without hesitation. Ace started to dodge and push back those that had longer weapons like swords and spears while Rev took out a few who had shorter weapons, going so fast they didn't see him coming. Layla and Luna quickly took action and started to disarm some that came at them, easily dodging one and bouncing off the other to attack another. Luna would push several of them away with her wind before going in aggressively and punching several on the head or the diaphragm. As Ace took in their enemy's positions, he saw the ones left on the roof pulled out guns and aimed it at them.
"Rev! Take out the ones on the roof!" Ace grunted out before he started having trouble with being surrounded by five enemies with swords and chains.
"I'm-on-it!" Rev quickly rushed to the roofs and took the guns away from them while tossing them away. "No-need-for-guns-fellas-when-you-can-just-join-the-fight-going-on-below."
That's when things took an unexpected turn.
Instead of disabling the enemies as they had been doing, Luna went very aggressive and started to break arms and tearing out limbs. Layla kicked one down and stomped on his neck. Ace was horrified to see how the girls suddenly went straight to murdering their enemies.
"What are you two doing?! Those are people!" Ace yelled at them before kicking one of the goons that struck down at him.
"Look closer, Ace! The ones down here are just robots!" Luna threw one of the arms at another goon that tried to strike at Ace from behind. Her aim hit true and he fell back several feet away. Ace got a closer look at what she threw and could see cables coming out of the socket area.
"The only real people are the ones above and their leader!" Layla added as she was starting to have to dodge more and knock the enemies down than do final strikes to finish them off.
The leader caught on and quickly went in to strike Ace while he was pinned by another of the goons. He unsheathed a katana and was about to stab Ace while he was unprotected from above. Just as he was close to getting on top of him, Ace zapped the goon in front of him with his laser blast before rolling out of the way. In his action, he didn't see that the leader was hit on his shoulder as if an invisible knife had stabbed him, making him scream. Ace turned to see what happened and saw the blood start to darken the already black garb on the leader. The leader turned to Luna and gave a dark chuckle.
"Never one to lighten up your attacks. It looks like your true colors are starting to show, Gibbous Moon," the leader said, getting ready to fight even if his left shoulder was limp. Luna glared at the leader before rushing at him and looked ready to strike him with an open hand, her nails looking...elongated and sharper than before. The man quickly jumped back to get out of the way as Luna's strike hit the ground, making the cement crack and break. Ace was shocked by how much power was in that move, as if...
"Luna, were you trying to kill him?!" Ace asked astonished. Luna remained silent as if ignoring him, her eyes staying focused on the leader.
"Looks like you didn't even know what she really is, Bunny...what both are...I suggest you ask them nicely before you decide to hand them over," the leader commented cryptically. He sheathed his sword and raised his hand before pointing behind him. The minions that were left standing saw the signal and started to retreat, taking the others by surprise. Layla was already panting with her stance sagging from being tired and bruised. Rev went back to them, though he kept his guard up in case their enemy tried anything.
Ace looked between the leader and Luna, his face hardened though he was confused by the interaction and how brash her actions were.
"Ace Bunny...I suggest you do your homework before you go defending monsters...," The leader paused and glanced over at Layla, who was glaring back at the man. "...and thieves." Luna gave a low growl as the man retreated as well, falling into the shadows and disappearing. Ace turned to Rev, his serious expression not easing.
"Rev, any that stayed behind? Any traps they left for us?"
"Not-a-single-bogie-or-trap-or-snare-or-even-a-hidden-ninja," Rev responded.
"Were there any innocent people around when they attacked?"
"None-not-even-news-reporters-it-looks-like-they-were-almost-evacuated-or-it-was-just-perfect-timing-that-no-one-was-around-when-they-sneaked-up-on-us."
"Good." Ace looked back at Luna to see the claws were gone and she looked more composed now. "We need to talk...you two are hiding stuff from us. That didn't look like a simple attack to try to take you back. And you didn't hold back on them even before you said dey were robots."
Luna remained silent as she looked at Ace. "...it was a set-up and you know it..." she commented coolly.
"And they did a good job at it. I was already suspicious of you two and this just did it. I'm sorry, but we're gonna have to question you two back at HQ. And don't try to escape. This time, we can track you down for sure." Ace started to walk with his back straight and fumes could be almost coming out of his ears. Layla and Luna looked at each other calmly before they followed him back, Rev watching their interaction in disbelief. Ace clicked on his comms and waited for Tech to answer.
"Did something happen, chief? I picked up on our radar that there were enemies close to your location," Tech worried.
"They retreated for now. I need you to set-up two cells for interrogation."
Tech caught on to Ace's tone and how serious he was, making him on guard as well. "I'm guessing you decided not to beat around the bush anymore. I'll go set them up right now."
"Thanks. Over and out."