Chapter 6: Snooping Around

The next morning started just like the previous one. They all got dressed and had a good breakfast because they knew heavy training was waiting for them when they got to Basketball Court Number Four.

When they arrived, Marc was already waiting for them, seated on one of the benches. He was holding a sheet of paper in his left hand which had the different exercises they would all be doing during the training, written on it. After trading good mornings, he told them to start their warm up exercises.

When he deemed them ready, he split them into two teams of six and had them play against each other, to see what they could do with the ball. One team, with Ace as the Captain, had Duck, Patricia, Tech, Rev and Pinkster. The second team, with Slam as Captain, had Mimi, Lexi, Sylth, Swift, and Tweetums.

"Okay, folks! The rules are simple; the team that scores the most baskets will be the winner." He told them gruffly, tossing the ball to Ace. "We're only going to use the main court for the time being. I think you're not ready to play in the holographic mode as yet, but believe me; you will have to learn it. The real game will be in that mode and it won't be easy. Anyway, let's get started! Show me what you got!" Marc barked then blew his whistle shrilly to signal the start of the game.

Immediately, all the Loonatics focused on their main goal, stealing the ball from the person who had it. The game was very well contended and it was difficult to see at first who would win it. Using their natural abilities combined with their powers, all of them played well, and in the end, Ace's team won by two points. Marc applauded all of them, as he blew the whistle to end the game.

"Not bad… Not bad at all! You guys are remarkably fast learners, not only in your game skills, but also in the way you use your natural abilities and powers to play the game and take the upper hand in a tight situation. It certainly doesn't hurt you having excellent team work skills as well." Marc said, with a pleased smile on his face.

"Well, thanks. We have to admit, it's not been easy. We're giving a 110% to getting the training done as quickly as we can but we hope to do even better with time." Ace said, pleased as well at their progress.

"I'm glad to hear that, Ace and I hope you can give me 200% real quickly since we really don't have a lot of time left before the game." Marc told him.

Ace just nodded in agreement then Patricia asked him a question.

"Marc! I was wondering… will we be able to see the Crushers training? It would help if we could see what we are up against." She asked. Her voice so sugary and sweet, it left no doubt just how much she was in love with Marc. Her team mates had to fight the snickers and looks of amusement from their faces so they wouldn't embarrass her.

"Oh, you are going to watch them practice just not yet. I don't want you to see some of their crazy stunts and get depressed. It's bad for the spirit. When you're more skilled, you'll be able to watch them with an impartial eye." He said plainly. "Now, I'm going to get a soda. Why don't you all take a quick rest then we'll get back to work even harder this time. Be back in a minute." He said, as he walked off toward a cooler he had on the sidelines.

When he moved out of hearing range, Ace signalled everyone to come closer. He had a plan in mind.

"Listen guys! We don't have much time before Marc comes back, so here's the plan… Rev is going to do a fast speed look around for anything suspicious. Tech is right; the amount of blood they took from us could be used to do something underhanded against us by Swackhammer." He said grimly. Looking at the roadrunner he said, "Check out Swackhammer's office first, that is the most likely place he'd hide his plans. Make it fast, Rev!"

"Roger, Ace. I'll be as fast as lightning. I just have one tiny question. How are you going to hide the fact that I'm not here, while I'm snooping around? I'm fast but if I'm delayed because I've found something, then you have to cover for me." Rev said cautiously.

"I have the answer to that, Rev." Tech responded, taking something from his pocket and holding it out for everyone to see. "I call this device a 'Holocube'. It will create an exact duplicate of you that can interact with us just as if you were actually here. The only problem is it will only last about twenty minutes but at the speed you move around that shouldn't be a problem. I'll activate the moment you're gone." Tech said proudly.

"Wow! That's so cool!" Rev exclaimed.

"Very impressive, Tech, but will that little old thing really work?" Tweetums asked, a little doubtful.

"Of course it will, Tweetums. Just you watch. Better take off Rev." Tech said preparing to activate the device. "Remember to keep an eye on the time. Check your watch! It's 12:03… mark!" Tech said looking at his watch.

"Got it! Rev said matching his watch to Tech's then taking off running faster than a blur.

The instant Rev disappeared, Tech activated the cube. Instantly, a perfect replica of the road runner appeared. If the coyote hadn't told them it was a hologram, they would have believed it was the real Rev who was standing right in front of them.

"Blagrgalagaghlagh… It looks just like Rev!" Slam said in amazement.

"Well, of course, it does, because I am Rev, or better, I am Rev's holographic copy, because I'm certainly not Ace or Duck's copy. I'm really equal to Rev, like two drops of water, if you catch my meaning. There isn't a single difference between the both of us, and I guess you already noticed that, because if I was not equal to Rev, you would probably not be as surprised as you looked when you saw me." The holo-Rev said with the same fast paced speech pattern as the real thing.

"Sufferin' succotash! It even talks just like him!" Sylth exclaimed.

"I made him look just like Rev in every aspect, although I've got to admit, it was hard getting his speech mannerisms just right." Tech said, pleased by their response.

"Great job, Tech. Oh, oh, here comes Marc." Ace warned.

Marc walked back to their side and began training them on dribbling techniques.

Meanwhile, the real Rev was speeding through multiple corridors, always on the alert for security cameras that might detect his presence as he searched. When he found them he had to pause until they were turned away from him before super-speeding past. This, of course, made his progress through the complex take much longer.

"I only got nineteen minutes and twelve seconds to find Swackhammer's office. I've got to find a map somewhere that could lead me to it faster. He kept searching until he finally got lucky. He came to a wall that held a large directional map that detailed most of the important places within this place.

He kept a weather eye on anyone seeing him as he studied the map.

'Now where is Swackhammer's office located?' He muttered to himself. It took him less than ten seconds to finally find it.

He took off again speeding through corridors, avoiding security guards, cameras, and the people that worked here. Soon he found his way to the main lobby where two elevators were located. He paused a moment in thought.

'Though it might be faster, I also risk being spotted faster and I'm sure there are cameras in each car so… guess there's only one way to go.' He thought to himself. He looked for the fire stairs and found them about ten feet away. He quickly rushed to them, pulled the door open and paused again. He looked around and saw a camera up on the next landing. Frowning he made a decision.

'This is really the only way up so I'm going to have to run as fast as I can and hope security thinks it's just a blur on their camera from a glitch.' He thought with a sigh. 'Hopefully, it is only lightly monitored.'

Decision made, he ran to almost supersonic speed up the stairs to the floor the map had said was where he would find Swackhammer's offices. When he reached the right door, he halted and carefully opened it a crack to peer out.

This time he found guards. This floor was heavy with security. Top of the line cameras were mounted or hovered everywhere and added to that were four, heavily, armed guards before a door down the corridor from where he stood.

'Well, obviously I hit the jackpot! A floor this heavily guarded can only be very important.' Rev thought grimly. 'It also looks like I'm not getting in that way without causing a riot.' He thought in dismay. He studied the problem for some moments until an idea struck him. 'The duct work!'

Looking around he spotted an air duct just over his head. He carefully undid the latch and crawled into it, being sure to close it behind him. He couldn't risk moving as fast in here because he might be heard so he moved slowly along hoping he wouldn't miss the locked room. It took him an achingly slow five minutes to finally reach his destination.

The room was, fortunately, empty as he unbolted the protective grid then used a gadget Tech had given him that could detect hidden cameras or other types of sensors in a room. After using it to scan the area below him and discovering it was safe, he pocketed the device and dropped down to the carpeted floor.

As he looked around, he discovered he'd hit the jackpot. It was definitely Swackhammer's office. The room was spacious and decorated with very expensive pieces of furniture and paintings. A couple of bookshelves were on one wall filled with books on economy, law, and advocacy rules. A huge desk dominated one part of the room and this was where the road runner began his search.

It was unlocked and he searched all of the drawers, and then moved to a filing cabinet finding nothing in either area. Searching the room, he finally discovered a safe hidden behind a large portrait of Swackhammer himself.

The safe was rather rudimentary, only equipped with a seven digit code, instead of using voice-identification, retinal scan, or palm-print ID, which surprised Rev. Shrugging; he used his super-speed to find the key code. After a minute or so, he finally landed on it. Opening the safe carefully, he searched the interior.

The safe had three shelves, one held money, the second one held a file of legal papers, and the third had only a small envelope. Frowning, Rev drew the envelope out and pulled out a single piece of paper.

Puzzled at the contents, he nonetheless decided it was important enough to take a photo of. He quickly laid it on a nearby table, took out a special miniaturized camera Tech had incorporated in their communicators, out of his pocket and took a picture of the paper then put it back in the envelope returning it to the safe.

'I'd better get out of here. This information is probably what Ace was looking for. Can't go back the way I came in, too chancy. Guess it's the most direct route then.' He sighed to himself. He closed the safe then made his way to the window past the desk. He carefully opened the window and fixed it so it would close behind him then stepped out holding the sill for a moment before turning and racing down the side of the building at super-speed.

He arrived at the basketball court just behind Marc. He got Patricia's attention. She distracted Marc as she signalled Tech that Rev had returned. Tech deactivated the cube and the holo-Rev vanished to be quickly replaced by the original road runner.

Though anxious to know what Rev had found, the others knew it would have to wait so they concentrated on their training. By six o'clock they finally finished for the day and Marc released them. He warned them to get some rest because training was going to get harder each day.

Exhausted, they made their way to their quarters. After having a shower and a light meal, they all took a seat around the dining table and listened attentively as Rev gave his report. He covered every detail he could remember of what he'd seen.

"So Swackhammer's office is heavily guarded, heh?" Sylth said, more to himself than anyone else.

"Yeah, seems strange to have that much fire power and security for an office. Besides the guards, there were surveillance cameras, which had gravitational devices which allowed them to hover from one side to the other. I tell you, if it wasn't for my speed and expertise in capturing small details with my vision, I would probably never have found a way to get inside. And let me just say that entering through the air ducts was pure genius on my part." Rev smirked proudly, sounding a little like Duck when he made on of his pompous speeches.

"Hmmm, very interesting… you're right Rev; it's likely he's hiding something very important to him there. So what did you find in his office that might have warranted that much security?" Ace demanded to know.

"After searching the room, desk, and file cabinet and finding nothing of interest, I finally located a safe behind a portrait. The strange thing was the safe wasn't a very good one and I was able to open it without too much difficulty. When I looked in it there wasn't much there. A lot of money on one shelf, some legal documents and an envelope with one small piece of paper in it. This was the only thing of interest. I took a photo of it and put it back like I found it then closed the safe and got out of there by the window. Now let me show you what I found." Rev said pressing the button on the special camera which immediately displayed a holographic image of the paper.

"It says, "Project: Prometheus" and N.G.L. Does anyone know what N.G.L. stands for?" Sylth asked in puzzlement.

"Only one way to find out… Tech, you think you can find out what N.G.L. stands for, by using your computer research program?" Lexi asked the coyote.

"Already ahead of you, Lexi." Tech said his attention on his computer. "Unfortunately, that abbreviation stands for a lot of things, from fast food chains to libraries, all over thirty galaxies. Let me just try and tighten my search parameters a minute and see what I can come up with." He muttered distractedly.

While they waited for Tech to find something, the others continued to study the message. No had an idea what this meant but they knew they had to find out quickly what Swackhammer was up to. After several long minutes, Tech finally discovered something.

"Guys, I think I found it, and unless I'm wrong, which normally doesn't happen, the monogram N.G.L. stands for Nerdluck General Laboratories." Tech said with certainty. He accessed the website and was soon reading it to his team mates. "It's one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies on Nerdluck, and it's also the most important research laboratory in all Nerdluck. They have one of their branches right here, on Swackhammer's Colossal Sports Moon."

"But what does that have to do with Swackhammer? I mean, it doesn't make sense! Why would Swackhammer have a paper with their monogram on it, anyway?" Mimi asked in frustration.

"I don't know… but the technicians that took a sample of our blood could have been working for them, Mimi." Lexi said thoughtfully.

"You're absolutely right about that, Lexi. According to this, they are responsible for drug and steroid control in basketball players in all Nerdluck." Tech said.

"W-W-Well, at l-l-least, now we k-k-know who t-t-they are a-a-and w-w-what t-t-they do." Pinkster said with a shrug.

"But that still doesn't explain what "Project: Prometheus" is, folks." Patricia declared. "It could be anything!"

"She's got a point, guys! Whatever that project really is, it can't be good, or legal, because that Nerdluckian grease-ball would not hide it so well, from everyone, in a place with so much security, if it was no big deal." Duck said shrewdly.

"I hate to say this, but Duck's right, this time. If it's that well guarded, it's probably illegal." Ace agreed grimly. "Maybe… "A thought occurred to him. "Tech, can you access their mainframe and see if you can find anything about that project?" He asked the coyote.

"Sure, chief! Let me just see if I can pass their firewalls, access one of the secondary frames to bypass the security system, which can be very difficult…" Tech said while his fingers flashed over his keyboard. "It's done! I'm in." He growled in triumph. "Okay, let's see what I can find out here…" He murmured in concentration.

Searching the files, Tech tried to find anything that could give them a clue of what that project really was. Not finding anything in the main files, he tried to look for ghost files in the drives, but did not find anything there either. He searched every file in the data frame, but it seemed that they had nothing about that mysterious project in their files.

"Nothing! Absolutely, nothing! They don't have a single file referencing "Project: Prometheus", guys." Tech said in disgust.

"Are you sure about that, Tech? There isn't a single fichero in their data base?" Swift asked his companion.

"Positive, Swift. If there's such a project they certainly didn't keep a file on it." Tech said flatly.

"Well, that's strange. Then why is there a paper with the monogram of that laboratory and the name of that project, written on it?" Duck wondered aloud.

"It's possible they've hidden it under a different name to prevent anyone finding it but those in the know or another possibility is one I myself used when I was a Hitman. To protect sensitive data from being hacked, I would break it down into various parts and then store it on different computers making it too difficult for someone to understand it without all the parts." Sylth suggested slowly.

"There's also one more possibility, they never put in a computer file at all but kept it on paper instead." Ace said.

"Ace, this is the twenty-eighth century. Nobody uses such primitive means to keep information recorded anymore." Lexi objected.

"I would normally agree with you there, Lexi, but if I wanted to hide something very important I might just do that because no one would believe I would." Ace said cannily. "If I'm right, then there's something really big going on that they wouldn't risk putting in any computer least someone, like us, were to find out about it. And folks, that's exactly what we've got to do." Ace said grimly. "So our next step is getting into the nearby laboratory and take a look around."

"That's a mighty big if there, o' fearless leader. You're asking us to go into a laboratory on a hunch!" Duck with a snort.

"Also, Ace ! W-w-why would there be any k-k-kind of information about that p-p-project there? R-R-Remember, it's just a branch l-l-laboratory." Pinkster said cautiously.

"I know, but it's a shot we'll have to take, guys. I feel if there is something to be found, it is more likely to be found here on this moon closer to Swackhammer and whatever plans he's got cooking." Ace said firmly.

"There's only one catch, Ace. When could we go? We have practice everyday until the game and we're usually too exhausted to be going off on a mission of this type. We're certain to be missed and you're going off on only a hunch that we'll find something there. I don't like the idea of a wild goose chase. It's not that I don't like going on that kind of chase, trying to catch a bad guy, but we don't really have the time to do it or a certainty that it's the right move!" Rev objected.

"All very valid points, Rev but it's the only thing we have to go on right now. I have a plan that will allow us to snoop and be at practice. Tomorrow, we'll give the excuse there's an emergency we have to attend to but since its no big deal, only half of the team will go while the rest of the team goes on with the practice as usual. The ones going on the spy mission will be disguised." Ace explained his plan.

"Sounds like a good plan. So who's going and who's staying?" Tech asked.

"Well I hadn't got that far, let me think." Ace said staring at them thoughtfully. "Lexi, because she's good with disguises, Sylth, to help us evade the security systems, Swift as point and recon expert to get us into tight spots, Mimi, who can pass as anyone that will help us get past the guards, and finally, if we get into real trouble and need a distraction, Duck and Slam will do nicely." Ace decided.

"Okay, pero! Just one other thing, what if someone gets suspicious of our alibi?" Swift asked.

"Not to worry, Swift. If anything goes wrong, Tech will come up with something, right Tech?" Ace answered, looking at the coyote.

"No problem, I'll just program a scene from our files on one of our battles, update it by putting only the ones on the mission on it then if a question comes up about where you are I'll just pretend I've tuned into our comm. system to get a live feed with you guys when in reality, it will be just a recording. Perfect alibi!" Tech said with casual certainty.

"See, nothing can go wrong, everything's been covered. So, now I think its time we get a little shuteye. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day." Ace said with a yawn, getting up from his seat. The others nodded, stretched and yawned as well as they followed their leader's footsteps.