Loonatics: United

Compromised system

Episode 156: Black and white

Edison had taken Akinyi to a safer spot, the facade of a small building, crouching behind a short wall next to her. "Oh babe you're hurt badly." Edison said as he gently placed a hand on one of the long, bleeding scratches she had on her face.

Akinyi grunted and got his hand away from her. "I'm okay, Ed." Akinyi looked at him with a straight face, barely bearing the pain on her face. "They aren't that deep." She got onto her feet, forcing Edison to do so as she was holding his arm.

"Baby…" Edison got interrupted quickly.

"Ed, I'm fine! Our friends need help!" Akinyi pressed her wrist and then jumped on her hoverboard. "You coming or what?" She cleaned some drips of blood that had gotten on her eyelashes. Edison kept looking at her with that worried gaze for a bit, then let out a sigh and also got over his board, hovering next to her and taking her hand, giving her a hesitant nod.

On the meantime, Slam and Vale were fighting the monstrous tiger in an abandoned monorail station, still with the systems on but with technological and architectural debris laying everywhere. "Show me what you got, whatever you are!" Vale challenged as he stood before a wall, with a defensive position, the tiger rushed towards Vale with rage and jumped at him, going through him as it wasn't really him, but one of his copies, so the white tiger hit the wall strongly with his head, breaking the concrete and leaving some blood on it.

The beast roared by the pain and when he turned to look for Vale, Slam approached him and grasped his neck strongly, then threw him towards one of the many monorails that were at the right. The tiger broke the windshield of the long vehicle, landing over the cold metallic floor on the first wagon. Vale was taking cover inside what had been a ticket office. He activated his comm as he poked his head out, looking at Slam rushing towards the monorail through the office's broken window. "Ace, Lexi, Slam has him trapped in one of the monorails!"

"We're a bit busy with Bambi here!" Ace said from the other side of the line, destructive noises could be heard from the speaker.

"Yes but Ed hasn…" Vale saw Edison and Akinyi just arriving on their hoverboards. "Nevermind, I'll call you later." Vale ended the communication and exited the office. He got over his board and flew towards the monorail along with Akinyi and Ed. "Aki, could you go aid Lexi and Ace? We'll be helping Slam here."

"Got it." Akinyi nodded, winking at her boyfriend and leaving quickly.

Edison sighed, then he and Vale kept flying towards the wagon and got in, barely entering through the broken windshield. They jumped off their boards, landing gracefully on the floor as they stored themselves over their backs. The tiger threw a blow at Slam, making him bleed from the face and snarl with rage. Edison rushed towards the tiger and threw a flying kick right at his snout, hitting it hard and making his nostrils start bleeding. The monster fell down but got up right away. "I'm not done with you, come o..!" The monorail began to move at full speed all of a sudden, making them all to fall and hit the wall violently, falling down between gasps and groans.

Slam was the first to stand up, just in time as the tiger had tried to punch Edison and Vale's heads with both fists, which Slam held effortfully as he pushed forward, looking into the tiger's eyes with hate and fury, roaring beastly. Vale helped Edison stand up so both of them could help Slam.

Meanwhile, Randy was rushing continuously from corner to corner in one of the city's suburbs, not having found anyone alive yet. He stopped using his super speed for a moment, walking normally in what had been a public playground for kids, looking at the swings, handrails, slides and other many fun amenities for children. "Hello?" Randy spoke loudly. "Anybody there? We…we are here to save you." He walked between a pair of tall walls that were covered by dead creepers, over a path made of tiny white rocks and artificial grass at the sides. Randy arrived at a small courtyard, with benches, tables and a grill. "If anyone's hiding here, you can come out, it's s…" He gasped when seeing a dead body on the ground, in a corner of the courtyard, with debris and broken pieces of concrete around it. "…safe." Randy walked towards the small body hesitantly, it was charred but still with a distinguishable anthropomorphic shape, the small feline ears could be seen, as well as the tail, but the face was completely destroyed, black and torn apart as the clothing, which appeared to had been a pair of jeans and a jacket. Randy brought a hand to his snout as a tear ran down his face and a lump formed in his throat instantly.

Randy's comm activated. "Randy, found anyone yet?" Rev's voice sounded from the other side of the line.

Randy waited a bit to answer, taking a deep breath and exhaling quickly. "No, nothing."

"Hm, alright, same here. Duck said he found a family or something, he took them to a basement under a shoe-shaped building, that's how he described it to me at least. We'll meet there, alright?" Rev said.

"Mhm, okay." Randy ended the communication, then gave a last look at the corpse and left in a rush with his super speed.

A couple of raccoons were sitting on a couch inside a poorly lighted room, along with their children, a little boy and a baby who was in his mother's arms. The lady wore a pink shawl over a green sweater and a long light pink skirt. The husband wore a blue shirt and a pair of gray pants, he was holding his wife's arm tightly. "Thank you so much…" The woman said while crying softly and rocking her baby.

"It's just my job." Duck laid his back on the wall with his arms crossed, looking at the open door with cautious eyes.

"We wouldn't have made it to a place like this on our own, so many of those flying things patrolling." The man said.

"You were so brave, confronting them and…destroying them with those, uhm, things." The woman praised.

"Energy orbs." Duck replied coldly.

"That is so freaking cool!" The boy said while approaching Duck.

"Watch that mouth, Ethan…" The lady warned.

"Oh, sorry mom." Ethan looked at Duck with amazement. "What's the coolest thing of being a superhero?"

Duck thought for a long moment and then looked into the kid's eyes. "Honestly, I don't know."

"Stop bothering him, Ethan, come here." The mother scolded.

"It's okay, ma'am." Duck looked at her and smirked very subtly. "I'm not something you see every day." He chuckled arrogantly and jokingly at the same time, ruffling the fur on the kid's head playfully.

Rev arrived, closely followed by Randy, both leaving their respective red and blue traces behind them. "Hm, this place looks suitable."

"Woah, more heroes!" Ethan approached Rev and Randy, looking at them with awe.

"You couldn't find anyone?" Duck inquired while raising an eyebrow. "Guys, you have super speed, come on."

"It's not that easy." Randy said rather impulsively.

"Oh, okay." Duck replied coldly and with annoyance.

Rev sighed. "It's just trash and debris, man, I'm so glad you managed to find these people."

"Well of course I did, I know where to look, I don't need super speed to do that." Duck boasted then let out a sigh. "I'm gonna call Ace."