A/N: Well, semester finals snuck up on me, kidnapped me, and chained me to my desk yet again. I never see them coming until one of my teachers says a day or two before break "Oh, yeah, by the way, finals are Monday, good luck." DX The good news is, I'm back, and I bring a ridiculously long chapter. I had originally planned for this to have the same content as it does now, but be about the same length as a regular chapter. 16 pages and 7,100 words later, that didn't happen. (And here I thought I swore off stupidly long chapters like this…An hour and a half of editing is just nuts!) I did want to get this out before Christmas, though, so consider this a gift from me to you! And if you don't celebrate Christmas, then have a random present! Happy Holidays everybody!

So, this chapter has little by way of action, but a lot of development and a TechxSive part. This could've technically been divided into two or three chapters, but I got to page 10 in typing it up and thought, "Screw it! I'm late, anyway!" No Rev in this chapter, but a lot of other stuff. I hope to have another chapter up before break is over, and it shouldn't be as unwieldy as this one, so until then, enjoy!

Thanks to Molly Grace 16, Halloween Witch, Candlestic, Luna 246, and Angelus Draco for all of your kind words. Happy Holidays to you all!

And on a side note, Slowpoke Rodriguez only appears in two Looney Tunes episodes, "Mexicali Schmoes" and "Mexican Boarders" to the best of my knowledge. If anyone knows of any other appearances, please share your knowledge! (And if you watch them, you'll see how canonically accurate I'm being!)

Ace, Duck, and Tech flew up over the treetops, taking an aerial shortcut to where their trap had been set up. Tech had set the net so that when it was pulled free of its ties on the lamp posts that suspended it off the ground, it would activate sensors that would send an alert to his comm. It was essentially an all-clear signal. They had immediately left the building when it went off, leaving Lexi and Slam to continue scouting for anyone inside the studio.

Duck, quacking far ahead of his teammates, got there first. Inspecting the empty net and the equally empty pathway with a critical eye, he activated his comm. "Uh, Tech? Is the net supposed to be empty?"

"...What?" came the less than enthused reply as the now thoroughly disgruntled coyote cleared the trees, landing nearby the empty net. The wire was thin enough that they could barely see it, only able to make out a little of the metallic netting that reflected the dim light of the street lamps above; the fact that it was empty, however, was clear as day.

"I don't get it," Tech growled, his tone matching his frustrated look as he inspected all parts of the trap from the suspension system on the lamps to the limp netting on the ground before repeating the process. "This plan was foolproof; simple yet elegant. Unless he saw the net- which he didn't, seeing as it was tripped- then nothing should have gone wrong!"

"Maybe Sive ran into it by mistake," Duck suggested bitingly. "You're not the only one who's been off your game lately."

"Dat also applies ta you, hot shot," Ace cut in as he gently landed on the path, purposely moving slowly seeing as he wasn't really paying attention to flying; he was still trying to clear tar off his ears and face from a poorly thrown egg in their earlier brawl with the thief.

Tech looked as though he was about to fire off a snappy retort, when something about what Duck had said resonated with him. The coyote turned away from his teammates, taking another, more frantic look round the area. This time, though, he paid no attention to his failed contraption; Ace noticed the change, but Duck did not.

"Tech, nothing's changed since last time you looked," the mallard deadpanned, looking at the inventor like he'd suddenly gone completely nuts. "Your trap still didn't work."

"No, it's not that," Tech replied, only partially paying attention to the mallard and not taking any notice of the stinging comment. Finding no trace of what he was looking for, he turned back to the other two, worry painted all over his face. "Where's Sive?"

xoxoxoxox

She was prepared for the sudden drop and ready for the distance of said fall. The uneven landing surface, however, took her by surprise; one foot landed at a slightly different level than the other, resulting in her slipping off of the higher surface and landing on her rear.

"Well, at least it's not a sewer..." she muttered to herself, grateful that the ground was dry as she got back to her feet and dusted herself off. Sending a small amount of electricity to her hand, allowing it to leave her body and arc between her fingers to act as a flashlight, she turned to inspect what she had fallen over.

"A subway?" she asked herself, inspecting the rusty rail on the ground. She could only think that a train would use rails like that, and the tunnel locale meant that it had to be part of the subway system. "Old subway," she corrected herself, spotting another equally rusty and slightly cracked rail a few feet away from the first. If the dilapidated rails themselves weren't an indicator, the fact that there were two of them was a dead giveaway; everything train-related had gone monorail a while ago. On top of all that, there was a fine covering of dust and dirt over everything, and no illumination at all in the tunnel aside from her hand. The old cement walls were cracked, and looked to be covered in mold in places; some roots had even managed to grow their way through the ceiling and slip in through cracks, pasting themselves along the walls. Old lamp covers, dusty and broken from disuse, were placed high up on the wall; some had more strange plant life growing out of them. Something just out of the range of her limited light scurried away noisily.

"Lovely," she dryly concluded, temporarily deactivating her light to turn on her comm. without electrocuting the system. "Can anybody hear me?"

Static. Of course, since she was underground and surrounded by a few yards of cement, it was expected.

She rolled her eyes and huffed in frustration, reactivating her light with more power as something else skittered away. "Saw that coming..."

The ceiling was too high up for her to be able to jump up and phase through back to ground level, and there was nothing else that looked even remotely like an exit that she could see. She knew she had to get out quickly; she wanted to tell her team what she had found out about the thief- or, rather, thieves. Plus, she figured they'd be worried.

Knowing that the old tracks met up with the new ones in many places, but having no idea where any of those places were, nor where in the system she currently was, she extended one hand, pointing directly in front of her, closed her eyes, and spun around for a moment. She stopped and opened her eyes to find that she was pointing down one of the two dark tunnels open to her. Shrugging her shoulders and increasing the power of her light, she started walking.

xoxoxoxox

"Sive, can ya hear me?" Ace asked again through the comm. Again, he only received static.

"The tracer in her comm. isn't even sending a signal," Tech stated, angry at himself. He could figure out for himself what must have happened; the trap would have worked, capturing the thief, but he had completely forgotten about the thief's ability to wipe memories, and had subsequently not warned Sive of this possibility. She had probably been wiped of all memory of the thief, and then it would have taken little work to cajole Sive into freeing him. God knows what may have happened afterwards.

"How's dat possible?" Ace asked, waving a signal to keep looking to Duck as the mallard passed overhead, having completed another aerial circle around the area in his own search for the wayward coyote. "I thought the tracers had stronger signals dan da communications?"

"They do, but if it's damaged, it's worthless," Tech explained, not even bothering to consider the possibility of it being out of range. There wasn't much the tracer signal couldn't get through, and he couldn't think of anywhere in the area Sive could've gone in that short amount of time that was able to block their signal.

"No reason ta think da worst, Tech. Out of all of us, Sive's da one who works best on her own," Ace reasoned. However, just because he said that didn't mean he wasn't worried; he always felt somewhat responsible whenever anyone on his team was hurt. Missing could be even worse.

Tech was about to share his reasoning on the matter with Ace, their comms. pinged. The coyote had never moved faster to take a call, not even checking who it was. "Sive?!" he asked frantically.

"Uh, no, it's Lexi," the bunny replied, sounding slightly confused at the odd behavior from the coyote but brushing it off quickly. "Something's up over here at the studio. We found some workers, but they seem…off."

"How so?" Ace asked, continuing the call as Tech signed off and continued to fiddle with his comm. system, trying to locate the missing coyote.

"You'd need to see it." Lexi replied.

"Alright, I'm on my way," Ace replied, deactivating his comm. "Tech, you and Duck keep lookin'. Me, Lex, and Slam'll join ya when we can."

"Right," Tech replied, taking off into the air with Ace to join Duck in his search.

xoxoxoxox

The old, rusty door blended in so well with her dark and dank surroundings, Sive would have missed it had another unseen critter not squeaked, drawing her attention in that direction. No mold grew on the old metal, which was the only reason it stood out enough for her to take interest in it. A door normally would have been a welcome sight in that situation, but based on its condition- it looked as though if she pushed hard enough, its hinges would disintegrate and it would fall over- it didn't seem like it would lead anywhere helpful. However, it was the first sign of anything she had seen in a while, so she used a small burst of electricity to make a mark in the mold on the wall on the side of the door closest to the tunnel she'd just come out of, telling her where she'd been in the event she was forced to come back, before phasing through the door, holding the phase until she was well away from the rust billowing outward like dust bunnies.

It was just as dark in the new tunnel as the old tunnel. When she turned her light on again, she found that it was just as big as the old one, too, however there were no tracks in this one; just old pavers and concrete walls that had seen better days. A set of stairs led upward, and having nowhere else to go, she followed them, phasing through another old door and ending up in another similar looking tunnel. There was only one major difference, and that was all she took notice of; the noise coming from one end of the tunnel. It looked promising, she decided, so she followed it, phasing through clumps of cobwebs and locked, rusty gates as needed.

Not very long later, she came upon a dead end. The wall and floor were constructed as though there had been an open archway where there was now wall. That section in front of her stood out; it was made of bricks, and while it didn't look recent, it was definitely newer than the rest of the tunnel by a few decades, at least. On top of that, the noise was loudest here; she could make out train engines moving away, and what sounded like lots of people.

The old and new stations were probably open together at some point, she reasoned. They must've closed off the entrances to the old station after closing it down. That means this'll probably lead me to the current subway...

Knocking on the walls to make sure, she did find that the brick wall sounded hollow in comparison to the concrete. Backing up with a sigh, hoping she wasn't making a mistake, she ran at the wall, not giving herself time to think as she jumped and phased through at the last moment.

She had wisely shut her eyes before leaping; the bright light of the subway tunnel probably would have blinded her after exiting the comparative darkness. Landing lightly on her feet, it took her a moment for her eyes to adjust to realize that her suspicions had been right; the old tunnel had led right to the modern Acmetropolis Monorail Subway System. She had ended up in the middle of the brightly illuminated platform, ticket vendors and stairs standing on either end and dozens of people in between. Most were too busy with their morning commute to take notice of her sudden appearance, but one little girl nearby was desperately trying to get her mother's attention, pointing at Sive in shock and awe.

Sive took a moment to smile and wave at the astounded child before running away, up the stairs to the equally busy city streets above. She immediately turned to her comm., but found that it was still searching for a signal to reconnect to. With a huff of irritation, knowing she really didn't have time for this, she took off down the street on foot, knowing better than to try taking off on her jetpack in such a busy area.

She made it to a much less populated side street before stopping and fiddling with her jetpack, intent on taking to take to the skies to figure out just where the heck she was, when something slammed into her from behind.

xoxoxoxox

Ace flew in through the open window he'd left from earlier, allowing him to reach Lexi and Slam in only a few minutes after leaving the park. They were in a recording room a few floors down from the vault. The bright lights reflected off of the advanced equipment and soundproof glass separating the two areas of the room. All occupants were gathered near the equipment; along with Lexi and Slam, four men were congregated there. One had a large set of headphones around his neck and was fiddling with some equipment; he was shaggier in appearance than the other three. Two looked very official, both in suits and radiating an air of better-than-you-ness; both were on their phones and too busy to deal with the new arrivals. The third was somewhere in between in dress, but much better looking than any of the others by far.

"Hey, Ace," Lexi greeted, striding forward with a look of confusion. "Where are the others?"

"Sive's MIA, dey're lookin' for her," Ace replied quietly, seeing no need to alert the people they were supposed to be helping that they had lost track of one of their own. "I'm sure she's just fine, Lex," he reassured upon seeing her look of worry. "Duck and Tech are lookin' for her, let's deal with dis and we'll join 'em."

"Alright," Lexi conceded, her tone telling him just how much she would rather look for her friend. She shook it off quickly, though, and turned back towards the other occupants of the room; the sooner they were done there the sooner they could find their missing friend. Of course, this issue didn't seem like it would be an easy fix…

"Ace, these guys were the only ones in the building at the time. They were recording some new material when the robbery took place. The thief would have had to have passed them to get to the vault, and yet they claim not to have seen anyone. On top of that, when I told them what had happened, they didn't react at all to hearing about their most prestigious award being stolen."

"Interestin'," Ace concluded, approaching the group with Lexi. "Anythin' else out of da ordinary?"

"Yes. It seems minor, but I think it's probably related to this," Lexi said, walking up to the good looking man. "Ace, I'd like you to meet Hunter Davis."

"Hey, it's the team leader himself!" Hunter exclaimed in a smooth voice; Ace concluded that he must have been the one there with the singing talent. "I'm a huge fan of what you guys do; keeping the city safe for us and all that. Hey, think we could do a publicity shoot later?"

Ace gave him a skeptical look. "Uh, sure, we'll have your people talk ta our people."

"Great!" Ace wished he could see the expression on the young man's face when he realized that the Loonatics publicity "people" was Duck; he was the only one of them even remotely interested in major publicity. One of the guys in suits called him over, and he left without any other acknowledgement.

"And da significance of dat was…?" Ace began.

"Did you see his eyes?" Lexi asked.

"I wasn't really payin' attention ta dem. I don't tend ta pay much attention ta other guys' eyes," Ace deadpanned.

Lexi rolled her eyes. "Humor me, Ace."

Ace obeyed, thankful for his excellent vision as he furtively peered at Hunter from across the room, easily able to make out what Lexi was talking about; the whites of his eyes were yellow. "I guess dey look a little yellow, but dat could just mean he smokes or drinks a lot."

"I can guarantee that he doesn't, Ace; all the magazines say so," Lexi stated matter-of-factly.

"Magazines?"

"You have no idea who he is, do you."

"None whatsoever."

Lexi groaned, giving an exasperated look at the ceiling before turning back to her celebrity-challenged boyfriend. "He's the lead singer for the band Wing Morning, one of the most popular bands in the world. There's a feature article about him in some magazine at least once a week, not to mention all sorts of TV interviews. I've seen and read them all, and I can guarantee that his eyes aren't usually that color."

"It could be airbrushing or color contacts or something'," Ace reasoned, mentally rolling his eyes at his girlfriend's obsession.

"It could, but what are the odds that all four of these guys have the same eye problem?"

At that, Ace quickly scanned the other occupants of the room, most of which were now talking with a befuddled Slam, confused because of their complete lack of reaction to anything. Lexi was right; all four of them had yellowed eyes. If they found this odd about each other, though, they weren't saying anything, but the odds of finding a group of people who need to keep an image with that kind of naturally occurring issue were slim.

"Dey wouldn't happen ta have cameras in here, would dey?" Ace asked Lexi, hoping to find a way around speaking with the unaware targets of robbery.

"Slam and I asked, and the taller one in the suit said no. He apparently owns the company, and the building," Lexi explained.

"Who're de other two?"

"The frowzy one works here as a recorder, but the other one is Hunter's agent."

"Ah." Ace then approached the group, feeling as though he should see the memory lapse issue for himself. Before he could get the chance, Duck suddenly quacked in, appearing over the chair in front of the equipment and taking a seat, paying no attention to the startled recording men.

"Sive's beacon went off; Tech's picking her up," the mallard stated without preamble. "What's going on over here?"

"We were just about ta find out," Ace replied before turning to the employees of the company, all of which were now paying attention to the Loonatics. "So, what were you all doin' at da time of da robbery?"

"We were robbed?" the company owner asked. He sounded as though even if Ace said yes, it wouldn't bother him much. Slam privately made the cuckoo hand motion from behind the oblivious victims.

"Yeah, not even half an hour ago," Duck deadpanned, talking as though it were to a small child. "You know, your Centenni-whatsit?"

"Oh! The Centennial?" The man paused. "When did this happen again?"

"What were ya doin' half an hour ago?" Ace asked, trying a different tactic.

"We were practicing some new stuff with Hunter in here," the agent answered. "And then… I don't really remember."

"Were you all recording at the time?" Lexi asked, peering at the high-tech equipment and tentatively poking at it. "It would be a big help if we could listen to it. It could give us some clue as to what happened."

"Don't mess with that!" the scruffy employee exclaimed in a rough voice, diving between Lexi and the equipment. "I have this all specifically calibrated for work with Hunter! It took me hours to do!"

"Plus, that's all copywrited, yet-to-be-released material," the agent added with a withering look at the Loonatics.

Ace met the glare with a hard look of his own. "We could always just get a court order. Dat recordin' does qualify as evidence in a robbery, ya know."

"What robbery?" the company manager asked dumbly. Duck shot the older man a look that was somewhere between disbelief and exasperation, but didn't say anything.

Ace sighed and was about to go through the whole routine again, when Hunter interrupted, shooing the scruffy equipment manager out of the way. "Now, now, there's no need for that; they can hear it if they want to, Jordan," he interrupted. The agent, apparently named Jordan, didn't look happy at all with this development, but seemed to think better than to argue with the young musician. Ace almost thought better of the arrogant young man, until he continued with, "Yeah; no reason to deny my adoring fans a chance to listen to my awesome vocal skills!"

"Uh, yeah, whatever you say, Doc," Ace allowed with a roll of his eyes, deciding not to argue seeing as he was allowing them to listen to the tape. Of course, this meant that they had to sit through a little over ten minutes of him singing bits of random songs; it was quickly apparent that he was the type to rely on autotune. He was off-key in many places and for long lengths of time, his voice cracked a lot for someone his age, and he was just overall not pleasant to listen to.

Lexi, with her super-sensitive hearing, was slightly cringing, but doing a great job of hiding it; Duck was staring at the speaker systems with increasing horror; Slam, from his spot from behind everyone else, was able to get away with covering his ears; Ace chose that time to practice his poker face. However, his relief a couple of minutes in when his comm. went off was obvious.

"I got dis," he said quickly, watching as Duck leapt for the same chance and missed. The bunny completely ignored the mallard's if-looks-could-kill glare as he left the room.

xoxoxoxox

Tech continued to glance fervently at the small screen on his comm., watching as Sive's signal got stronger and stronger without really moving much. All he knew was that she had suddenly appeared a couple of miles away from where they'd started, and figuring he could reach her quicker than letting her signal get strong enough for communications to come back online. His earlier suspicions were confirmed as he watched the tracer signal start moving quickly in the exact opposite direction of the park.

Judging by how fast he caught up to her signal, he figured she was on foot; it didn't take too long to find her dashing down a busy city street after that. He was grateful when she turned down a relatively quiet side street, giving him plenty of room to land before following her. She thankfully wasn't running at full speed, otherwise he never would have caught up to her; however, he wasn't prepared for her to suddenly stop and start fiddling with the controls of her jetpack, resulting in a surprise coyote collision.

"Ay dios mio!" Sive shouted in surprised Spanish, arms flailing in an attempt to keep upright with her sudden loss of sure footing. Tech, however, was slightly more prepared than she was; he managed to wrap his arms around her waist and tip himself back enough to keep the both of them from falling over.

Sive quickly twisted around in his grip, intent on slugging whoever-it-was who either meant some sort of harm or had a strange perception of a hug, but stopped short when she came face-to-face with Tech.

"Sive!" he exclaimed louder than he needed to, his panic evident as he moved his grip up to her shoulders to hold her in place. "Are you alright? What happened?" Though he didn't really know what he was looking for, he closely inspected all of the younger coyote; she seemed to be just fine…

"…Are you alright?" Sive asked slowly, not really knowing how to react to Tech's…odd behavior. He wasn't known for panicking, nor did he ever express…well, anything as much as he was then. It was a little unnerving.

Tech would have given her a disapproving look for her inopportune humor had his mind not been elsewhere. "Sive, please be serious and listen; you remember the thief we've been dealing with?"

Sive arched an eyebrow. "The guy who's been wiping the floor with us every chance he gets for the past few weeks? Yeah, I might know him. Better than you, actually-"

"Sive! Serious, please," he interrupted. "You remember how he can wipe memories?"

"Yes, and coincidentally-"

"Sive!" he exclaimed sharply. "I'm pretty sure he brainwashed you at the park, so this is really serious."

Sive's face went slack. Tech thought it was from shock; Sive was mentally facepalming, seeing as Tech wasn't giving her enough room to actually carry out the action. Well, that accounted for his strange behavior…sort of…

"Tech," Sive began calmly, putting one hand up in his face to silence him as he tried interrupting again, "I'll admit, the one guy tried it, but I got away before he could. Apparently, there's an old subway track below the path in the park; I phased down there to avoid being wiped and have been wandering around looking for a way out for the past half hour, not wandering around mindless and confused."

Tech's train of thought screeched to a thought. That did account for where she'd been and why they couldn't find her, and wasn't the immediate worst-case scenario he'd thought it was. "You're sure he didn't wipe you?"

Sive nodded. "Positive."

"Then how did he escape from the trap?" Tech asked, giving the younger coyote a critical eye. At her are-you-serious look, he defended himself by saying, "I just want to make sure. And also, I'm curious as to how it failed. Did the net just miss or something?"

"No, it got him. Well, not so much 'him' as them…" At Tech's questioning look (whether it was her words or her sanity he was questioning, she didn't bother pondering,) she continued. "Ace and Lexi were right; they're anthros. The only thing is, they're mice; one standing on the other's shoulders to get to your estimated height. It's not a split personality thing, either; the speedy one is, naturally, the one with the speed, and he goes by Jet Torres. The other one, however, is the one who's both pistol-packing and mind-wiping. The other one called him Slo-Mo Rodriguez."

Tech winced. "The fit through the net, didn't they?"

"It's not like you could've known we were dealing with two pint-sized perps instead of one big one," Sive said reassuringly. "Don't beat yourself up about it. As smart as you are, there's no way to prepare for everything unexpected."

Tech sighed, looking as downcast as he always did when hearing that he wasn't omniscient, as if that was a surprise and major disappointment to the genius. "Yeah, I know. It doesn't mean I'm not going to feel at least a little responsible for this, though."

Sive rolled her eyes, but was too glad to have the usual Tech back to make a sarcastic comment. It was right about then, though, that she realized that Tech was still gripping her tightly about the shoulders, and holding her much closer than was socially acceptable.

"Uh, Tech?" she began, sounding as awkward and uncomfortable as she felt. "Now that you know that I'm in my right mind and all, can you let me go?"

Tech appeared confused for a moment, as though unsure of what she was referring to, when he also realized just how close they still were. "Oh! Sorry!" he started as he quickly released her and took a step back, just as careful to avoid meeting her eyes as she was meeting his. Both were glad to be anthros and the moment; fur was very useful for hiding red cheeks.

The lead-like silence continued for a few long minutes, neither really wanting to say anything. Sive cracked first, nonchalantly asking, "So, where's everybody else?" as she turned back to Tech, attitude and tone suggesting that nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

The other coyote was grateful for the out, and quickly adopted the same act. "They're back at the studio building, I think. Lexi called Ace in, saying something was weird, and Duck followed when I came after you. We should probably tell them that you're okay, actually…"

"Then you're going to have to be the one making the call," Sive stated, peering at her comm. and finding that it still hadn't reconnected to the appropriate signal after her trek underground. "I still have to connect to something."

"I'll probably have to recalibrate that," Tech informed her as he sent the call to Ace, putting his system on speaker. "It took me forever to get our comm.s working again after the Doctor Dare incident. They're not meant for prolonged underground use."

Ace's voice came in then, sounding surprisingly relieved as he said, "You're timin' is impeccable as always, Tech."

"Do I want to know?" Tech asked, not even bothering to wait for the negative answer as he continued with, "Sive's fine and still remembers everything. And she apparently knows who the thief is."

"Thieves, Tech," Sive corrected. "They're two mice, so they were able to fit through the net. I had to make a creative escape; sorry for the disappearing act."

"So long as you're still alright, dat's fine," Ace replied. "So, who are we dealin' with?"

"They called themselves Jet Torres and Slo-Mo Rodriguez. Guess which one has which personality," Sive deadpanned. "Jet carries Slo-Mo on his shoulders; it's why they're both so fast. Slo-Mo seems to have all the brainpower and firepower between them, though."

"Sounds like dis Slo-Mo guy is da one we've gotta look out for," Ace concluded. "You two go back ta HQ and run deir names, figure out more about our miniature miscreants. Da rest of us'll finish up over here and meet ya later."

"Got it, Ace," Tech responded as he shut off his comm. Both of the coyotes then activated their jetpacks and took off into the air, heading for home.

xoxoxoxox

Ace reentered the room, displeased to find that the ear-splitting sound apparently known as 'music' was still loudly streaming from the speakers. Strangely enough, the two suits and company employee seemed unaffected; on the other hand, Duck looked ready to crawl out of his feathers, Slam looked more miserable than anyone had ever seen him, and Lexi was being as polite as she possibly could with her overly-affected super hearing while Hunter, hearing her earlier comments and knowing that she was already a fan of his music, was avidly looking to her for compliments. Upon seeing Ace walk back into the room, though, she quietly excused herself and rushed over to Ace, pushing him back outside the room to talk.

"Okay, that was painful," Lexi stated quietly enough that there was no chance she'd be heard over the ruckus back in the room, pulling down her ears and soothingly petting them as though it could help ease the abuse they'd just gone under. "I knew he used a lot of voice editing, but I didn't know he needed it so much."

"It's hard ta find someone dese days dat doesn't," Ace commented wryly, before turning more serious as he got to his point. "Dat was Tech; he found Sive. She's fine, and figured out who we're dealin' with."

"Where was she?" Lexi asked relievedly, glad to hear that her friend was okay as she released her ears and turned to Ace. She kept one ear trained on the sounds from the recording room, though, just in case something out of the ordinary did come up in the tape.

"I didn't ask," Ace replied with a shrug. "But accordin' ta her, we've got two guys ta deal with."

Lexi looked skeptically at Ace. "Two? But I thought that Tech reviewed the recordings, and even found an approximate height of the thief."

Ace shook his head. "Dey're mice; one on da other's shoulders. We were right in sayin' dat dey were anthros. Tech and Sive are headin' back to da lab ta run deir names, see if anythin' comes up."

Lexi nodded in understanding, and looked as though she were about to ask more, when her attention was diverted. The iconic pink rings flew up her ears, signaling that she was intently listening to something other than what was right in front of her. "Something's changed in the recording."

Needing no more of an explanation, Ace headed back into the room, Lexi not far behind him. Everyone's attention was now on the apparatus playing back the tape; even Hunter was able to muster a look that suggested he was paying attention. The lack of earsplitting, sorry excuse for talent was a welcome reprieve, but the sounds of panic and general confusion taking its place wasn't the best alternative. All four men could be heard shouting random things; the recording tech sounded startled and was cursing up a storm; the company owner was threatening to call security; the agent was threatening a lawsuit for interrupting a private recording session; Hunter was screaming bloody murder.

Then the eerie, slow, monotone that the three Loonatics were all too familiar with cut in, not speaking very loudly but with more than enough force to silence all of the others. "You didn't see anything out of the ordinary," he said calmly, as though stating a fact no matter how contrary it seemed. "We were never here. Everything is normal." The tape continued, completely silent, for a solid minute or two before their earlier activities sluggishly restarted. The scruffy employee mercifully paused the playback right before Hunter started 'singing' again.

"…Why do I have no memory of this?" the agent asked before turning to the others. "Did that actually happen?"

"Apparently," the employee deadpanned.

The company owner appeared perplexed, but not too bothered, curiously tilting his head a bit to the side. "How do we forget something like that?"

"This guy has the ability to wipe memories," Lexi explained. "We're not sure how to reverse the effects yet, but the affected memories only seem to be related to the crimes he- er, they commit, so it shouldn't have that big of an effect on you all."

"So long as I can still perform, whatever," Hunter said, dismissively shrugging his shoulders.

The severity of the situation, however, seemed to be finally hitting the two men in suits. "Okay," the agent began, approaching Ace with the other not far behind, "could you explain again exactly what happened? What they took and all that?"

So, as Ace began the story for the umpteenth time, this time starting from the very beginning and including the Loonatics' involvement and plan, the other occupants of the room convened around the recording equipment. Duck peered at the tapes curiously. "So, how exactly is this guy some world-renowned singer?"

"Well, this is just a rough, first-time run-through of some new material," the young musician replied defensively. "I haven't had time to practice it, yet." Slam rolled his eyes, and Duck snorted, but Hunter paid them no mind.

"And I haven't cleaned it up any," the employee stated, shooing Duck out of his chair as he took a seat and pressed a lot of buttons before playing the tape again, quiet enough so as not to disturb the conversation between his bosses and Ace across the small room. Sure enough, Hunter's voice came through sounding passable, almost enjoyable, even.

"Now this is what I'm used to hearing," Lexi stated, looking as though she were really enjoying the new sounds. Slam, too, had his eyes closed and was happily swaying with the music.

"I'm tone deaf, and with all this equipment, I can become a singer," the employee deadpanned snidely to Duck, giving a cross glance at Hunter who was completely oblivious to any bad remarks to his 'talent.'

"You call this music?" Duck asked dubiously as he listened to the remixed Hunter streaming through the speakers. "This is nowhere near the quality that I listen to."

Hunter had to react to that direct remark. "Oh, yeah? Then what do you listen to that's so much better?"

Duck pulled out his iPod Shuffle Micro and turned to the employee with a determined look. "Got somewhere I can plug this in?"

Both Lexi and Slam looked a little dubious as the scruffy man took the little music player and found an appropriate cord to plug it into the speaker system. Their previous experience with his taste in everything from movies to fashion was far from enjoyable, but Duck rarely listened to music out loud; they didn't really know what to expect.

It turns out they were right to be wary.

Without warning, right as the recording tech plugged the small music player into the system, ear-splitting noise erupted from the speakers at a deafening volume. If the overall loudness wasn't enough, what was playing was even worse than the un-edited Hunter; it was like a bad cross between techno, metal, and a dying animal. It only played for about three seconds; in that time, everyone in the room jumped, and the agent even screamed. All quickly moved from shock to disgust upon actually hearing what the loud sound was, and none argued when Slam ripped out the cord with a growl, having had more than enough bad music for the day.

"Heh," Duck laughed nervously, having the grace to look chastened as everyone glared at him, "didn't realize it was playing."

Ace was about to berate Duck for his carelessness when he was interrupted by an anguished cry. All of the Loonatics immediately turned to the source, shocked to find a pale agent and a seriously disturbed company owner. Much to their surprise, Hunter looked to be frightened as well, followed by the employee suddenly starting to tremble.

"It's gone!" the owner continued, having been the one to shout. "So many years of work to get it, and within a month, the Centennial gets stolen! How could this happen?!"

"That one guy had a gun, man," Hunter said, sounding as though he were going into shock. "I could have died."

"We all could've, numbskull," the employee added to Hunter, but sounding too floored to put any real malice into it.

The Loonatics all exchanged glances, all reaching the consensus that if they weren't nuts before, the recording people were now. They went from no memory to complete and utter shocked realization in seconds; Ace had only just started explaining what had happened again when it suddenly seemed to click, and not just for the ones he was talking to.

Ace was the one to catch on first. "Deir eyes aren't yellow anymore," he observed, remembering Lexi's earlier comment and finding that the strange discoloration was no longer present. If he wasn't certain earlier, he was now; the eye color was an indicator of memory loss.

"How did that happen?" Lexi asked. Slam looked at each man individually before seeming to reach a conclusion, that being no conclusion at all as he shrugged and shook his head, making an "I don't know" sounding grunt.

The owner, however, was quick to reach his own conclusions. "You!" he exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Ace and approaching in what might have meant to have been a menacing fashion. Ace met the gaze, and didn't move an inch. "You said that you're people took it to keep it from being taken, but it didn't work! You're the reason my award was taken!"

"Now hang on a second," Lexi interjected. "We don't know that."

"Yeah; Sive never said anythin' about it," Ace agreed, activating his comm. "Cool your jets, doc. We'll get dis all cleared up no matter what happened." Noticing that Sive still appeared to be offline, he called Tech instead.

"Hey, Tech," Ace greeted, "can ya put Sive on for me?"

"Sure thing."

There was some rustling on the other end, no doubt Tech either struggling to put it on speaker or detach it from his wrist to hand it to Sive. Either way, the younger coyote's voice rang through the line a moment later. "What's up, Ace?"

"What happened to dat award dat ya pilfered? Did da thieves get it?"

"Technically yes, technically no," Sive replied, not even waiting for a questioning reply before continuing. "Head up to the vault and I'll explain."

The owner took off as though he were shot out of a rocket, the scruffy employee and other Loonatics following at a more leisurely pace. Hunter and his agent remained where they were, both still slightly in shock and muttering indistinct goodbyes to the departing Loonatics.

All made their way to the vault a few floors up, stopping before the very empty Centennial Award's pedestal. "Alright, Sive, start explainin'," Ace ordered through the comm.

"Are you standing facing the Centennial's spot?" she asked. Receiving a positive answer, she continued. "Do a 180. You should see that the wall is lined with similar looking gold records-"

"Those are all plastic!" the owner interrupted, sounding furious and angrily stomping his foot, resembling a five year old throwing a tantrum.

"I am aware," Sive deadpanned. "Look for one directly across from you. The band name has something to do with a Blaze or something. Remove the record and flip it around; careful, though, it's really heavy."

After a minute or two of looking, the employee found it; Brush Blaze, winning a gold record in 2689 for their album Fire Trail. He reached up to remove it from the wall, but practically dropped it on the way down, struggling to set it on the floor without letting it fall. For all the effort he put into it, he may as well have been moving a lead weight. The owner looked on anxiously as the employee turned the heavy record around, revealing the word CENTENNIAL embossed across the front.

The owner squealed, knocking the employee aside as he dove to actually hug the thing. The Loonatics concluded that this one was nuts for sure, Ace ignoring Sive's question as to what the squeal was as he thanked her and signed off. "Well, since no damage was done, I think we should take off and follow our lead," Ace said, more to the employee who was actually paying attention than to the owner who was still very involved with his award. "Da police will be by shortly ta take official statements and whatnot."

"We'll be here," the employee reassured, rolling his eyes at his boss' antics. "Thanks for the help."

"It's what we're here for," Lexi replied, following Ace and Slam out of the vault.

Duck was about to quack after his teammates, intent on being the first one out of the nuthouse, when a hand landing on his shoulder stopped him. He turned to find the scruffy employee, handing him a CD case with a completely serious look. "It's a mix of some of our top hits," he explained, handing it to Duck. "On the house. You need it."

Duck looked very miffed, and was about to give a snappy retort, when Ace called after him. With a parting glare, he quacked off after his teammates, critically inspecting the disk on his way out.

A/N: That took a while to read, didn't it? XD The next chapter should be up sometime before January 7th, which is when I go back to school, so look forward to it! I'm…actually not sure where I'm going with this next (there's a fuzzy area in my outline,) but it'll get done!

Enjoy whatever holidays you celebrate, or just have a nice week!

I celebrate Christmas, though, and I'd love some reviews from readers as a present! XP