Loonatics: United
Episode 31: The Hunt
The ceiling of the cell was dirty, dark and bland, just as the life of the man that laid on the humid cot below it, condemned, doomed, forgotten, those were the words that the brown furred ferret tended to come up with when thinking about himself, forced to live everyday wearing the same orange uniform, always looking upwards to the barely illuminated ceiling by the hallway's dying lamps. The ferret's ear twitched suddenly when he managed to hear steps ahead of his cell, he moved his head slightly to get a better look, he could only see a shadow behind the cell's bars, then a strange sound came from the bars which just split in several, asymmetrical pieces that stood floating there and blinking occasionally, appearing and disappearing instead of falling to the floor, the prison's alarms activated after that, the ferret got off the bed and took a few frightened steps to the front to see more clearly, then all of a sudden he felt a forceful grip on his neck, which made him to cough, his unexpected visitor had revealed herself from the shadows, who had managed to walk through the glitched bars seamlessly, she was a blue furred panther who wore black boots and fingerless gloves of the same tone, a pair of black cargo pants, a black tube top and a black coat, she was also wearing a purple earring on her left ear. "Phillip, long time no see." The panther said.
"H…" Phillip gasped and coughed intermittently. "Heather, what do you want?" He was trying to undo her grip with both of his hands, with no success.
Heather let out a sarcastic chuckle. "You always want to get direct into business, don't you?"
"I…I thought I had no debts left with you…I paid you them all." Phillip said with continuous struggle to talk.
"Oh really? Then you've must forgotten the game of the Fifth Room gang." Heather replied as she got her face closer to his.
Phillip's eyes widened as he gulped. "That…was a long time ago…I thought you…had forgiven that bet."
"I never forgive!" Heather squashed his neck more tightly with her hand. "I know you well, miserable scoundrel, where is my money?"
Phillip coughed once again. "I…hide cash in the toilet's tank." Heather walked towards the toilet, still grasping Phillip's neck, she put her unoccupied hand over the lid then lifted it and dropped it on the floor, a black, plastic bag was under the water, she put her hand inside the water after letting go off the ferret's neck and took the bag, wet and full of money, she opened it and took out a wad of bills from it, examining it carefully, she nodded at it then put it back in the bag. "This will do." She looked at Phillip who was still struggling to recover from her attack.
Phillip looked at her, scared and thankful at the same time. "Heather, th…" A spiked group of concrete formations had suddenly gone through him from the ground, leaving him lifeless. Heather had her opened hand lifted in front of the ferret's corpse. "That'll do too." She smirked and lowered her arm then started to put the money on her coat's bags.
Heather dropped the empty plastic bag then raised her arm and looked at the bars of the cell, which still had a section glitched, she turned her hand slightly to the right and all the bars started to move randomly while appearing and disappearing from the visible spectrum, moving to the sides at Heather's will to make a sufficient exit. She walked through the aperture she had just created.
As the alarms of the prison were still sounding, she ran confidently rather hurried through the large, dark hallway, she thought she would get out of there soon but all of a sudden she encountered someone on her way.
"Hands behind your head! Now!" Matt was pointing at her with his laser gun, he was wearing the same black uniform The Eye had given to him, only that the A.R.M. initials had replaced The Eye's logo.
Heather backed away a little bit, she looked at her surroundings and decided to manipulate the ambient once again so she moved her hands to the front and focused her thoughts on the concrete walls they were both between of. Matt raised an eyebrow as he noticed the walls were acting in a way he had never seen before on any situation, they started to appear and disappear randomly, showing briefly the inside of the cells behind them as they did so. Heather did a final gesture with her hands and then the glitched structure of the walls changed in a way that it had become a favorable set of platforms for Heather to use, she ran towards the first glitchy platform and started to jump one by one with grace and agility as Matt shoot at her with his gun without managing to hit her a single time, she reached the last one of the rough, odd platforms which was close to the ceiling and right above Matt by holding from it with both hands, she took impulse by swinging forth and back with her arms then let go off the platform and landed behind Matt, she took the opportunity to kick his head rapidly, he growled with pain and fell to the floor, rubbing the back of his head with complaint, he tuned his gaze to the end of the hallway behind him, Heather had got out of his sight.
"Anne, I lost her." Matt said through the comm he had on his wrist while still laying on the floor.
"Copy that, I'll see if she is on my sector." Anne ran rapidly between the walls that shaped one of the many hallways of the prison, she exited to a greater area then immediately ran into another hallway to keep looking for Heather, she then got herself on another general zone, she took hurried steps to the next hallway and saw Heather's coat showing up briefly behind the other side of it, she didn't hesitate to go after her, when she reached the end of the hallway, she saw Heather manipulating a wall that was blocking her way with her powers. "Stop right there!" Anne took her gun out of its holster and aimed it at Heather. "It's over."
Heather smirked and looked over her shoulder. She snapped her fingers and Anne's gun suddenly got surrounded by a glitched space of the environment, the attack had caused pain on Anne's arm which made her to drop the weapon with a gasp, then Heather raised her hand up and turned it slightly then Anne got surrounded by the same phenomenon Heather had made moments before, Heather moved her hand and smashed Anne onto a nearby wall with the help of the glitched environment that had been holding her, Anne screamed by the pain then fell to the ground. Heather grinned again then glitched the wall before her and made an entrance for herself, she entered the room she now had access to then turned around and closed the entrance with another glitch product of a gesture of hers.
Anne got into her feet slowly while rubbing her arm, she walked towards the wall Heather had previously manipulated. "Matt." She gasped. "She is on the machine room." She said through her comm.
"Then she doesn't know what awaits her." Matt said from the other side of the line.
Heather spotted a staircase that was on a corner at the bottom of the room, she hurried towards it without hesitation but then stopped running as she found herself in front of Ace Bunny. "Going somewhere, darling?" He said as Tech also revealed himself from the room's shadows.
"You are done, Heather, you got nowhere left to go." Tech stated as he readied his magnetic powers.
"I'm the one who decides that." Heather moved her hand towards an engine that was next to them then manipulated it and divided it into several pieces, she then threw them towards the two Loonatics, Tech reacted and held the conglomerate of metal pieces on the air with his powers before it could hit them then returned it to her with strength, the pieces hit her and sent her to the ground.
"As we said." Ace turned his eyes red as he was preparing his laser vision. "You are done."
Heather stood up with struggle then looked at the pipelines that were on the ceiling, she waved her hand and they divided in two separate blocks of pipeline covered by a glitchy layer, she then threw them towards them, Tech managed to stop the pipeline from hitting him with his powers but Ace couldn't and got hit by the piece of pipeline on the head, he gasped and got on one knee, he rubbed his head then got into his feet and shoot the laser at her, she reacted and formed a shield of glitch in front of her which protected her from Ace's response, Tech threw the glitched pipeline at her but she divided it in many individual pieces then made them to go after Ace and surround him, he couldn't move and Heather started to glitch the prison-like armor to hurt Ace who started to scream with pain as she separated the palms of her hands slowly.
"Boss!" Tech exclaimed, then activated his integrated jetpack and flew towards Heather, he punched her and made her to hit the wall with her back, he quickly deactivated his jetpack and started to fight her, he had thrown another punch but Heather managed to avoid it, she hit his stomach with her knee then used her elbow to hit Tech's neck, he gasped and got over his knees.
Ace had freed himself from the prison with his laser vision, he tried to approach her but she glitched the environment again and made a part of the floor to lift her up and get above Ace then she jumped from it and landed behind him, she threw a kick towards the back of his leg and hurt him enough to stop him from chasing her, he looked over his shoulder while having one hand on the floor along with a knee, he noticed Heather had gone upstairs.
Heather was now on an attic, which was full of shelves with files and papers, she tried to look for a window or something she could use to escape but was suddenly hit by a force she couldn't distinguish at the moment, she got hit again and gasped with complaint then got hit again and ended on the floor, she looked up and saw a red blur a few meters ahead then it vanished and revealed who was her attacker. "Too fast for you tough girl?" Rev said then ran again towards her, she dodged him with anticipation by rolling to the right then stood up quickly, her arms got cuffed all of a sudden from behind by a rival she hadn't seen.
"Nice moves." Lexi said while struggling to keep her arms cuffed with her own. "But not nice enough, though." Heather hit her shin with her heel which forced Lexi to let her go, Heather tried to use her power on her but noticed nothing was happening, she touched her ear and let out a subtle gasp of worry as she discovered she had lost her earring, she gazed at the floor but found nothing. "Are you looking for this?" Lexi had recovered from the previous fight, she was holding the earring in front of her.
"Give it to me!" Heather ran towards her and threw a punch at her but Lexi blocked it with a kick then hit her side with her knee, Heather groaned then tried to take the earring from her hand but Lexi raised it and threw it to the other side of the room.
"Rev! Catch!" Lexi said.
"Got it!" Rev said as he managed to take the device after a quick rush.
Heather tried to go after him but Rev easily went from place to place in a blink so she knew it was impossible for her to reach him, she detected the running pattern Rev was using so she took out a knife from her belt and threw it to the place she knew Rev was going to appear in, the knife went through his leg so he stooped running immediately and ended sitting down on a corner, screaming by the pain he was feeling and trying to get the knife out of his leg, he had lost the earring which was on the floor a few meters next to him.
"Rev!" Lexi exclaimed and approached him to try to aid him with the wound.
Meanwhile, Heather took the chance and reached the earring, she took it and put it back on her ear. She pointed her hand towards her knife which was still on Rev's bleeding leg, she glitched that area to recover her knife which hurt Rev even more, the knife disappeared from his leg then appeared in front of heather floating with the help of the hold of the glitched environment, she took it and put it back on her belt then raised her hand up and clenched her fist then started to lower her arm slowly, she made the ceiling to open and formed an improvised staircase with its structure then just started to climb it to get to the rooftop.
Lexi looked over her shoulder while having her hand on Rev's wound to prevent more blood from coming of it, she noticed they had lost her. "Ace, Rev is injured, badly, and Heather is on the rooftop." Lexi said through her comm.
"Take care of him then, meet us there in brief." Ace responded through his comm as he helped Tech to get into his feet.
Heather was on the rooftop, she sealed the exit she had made with a gesture, making the structure she had manipulated to rearrange in one piece, she turned around as she started to hear strong steps that made the roof to tremble, she looked upwards and saw a big figure that had jumped and was almost covering the great moon that night was offering, the figure landed in front of her with both fists on the ground, then growled and took a few steps to the front, Slam was her next rival.
Heather lowered her shoulders. "You gotta be kidding me." She sighed then ran towards Slam, he snarled beastly and mimicked her action, they were rushing towards each other until an orange sphere hit Heather on the face, which pushed her to the side and left her with the face on the ground.
"And it will just get better, sweetheart!" Duck said as he walked towards her.
Heather growled and stood up with her fist clenched, she waited for Duck to throw another attack to her, he did so in no time and Heather then pointed her fist towards the upcoming spheres and glitched the ambient around them to hold them in the air, she then waved her hand towards Slam and attacked him with Duck's spheres, they hit him along the glitched layer that surrounded them and exploded right on Slam's face, he growled and hit the ground several times as he bounced by the strength of the attack, he almost fell off the building but reacted soon enough to hold from a side of it with one hand.
Heather grinned and looked at Duck with a confident look. "Now it's just me and you, little bird!"
"You are wrong again!" Ace said as he, Tech, Lexi and Rev were hovering in front of her with their jetpacks, except for Rev who was being carried by Lexi. Ace and Lexi started to shoot their powers at her, she covered her head then started to run across the rooftop, the building's end didn't stop her to jump to the next one. Duck and Slam activated their jetpacks and joined the team on the chase that was taking place, Heather dodged Ace and Lexi's attacks with instinct as her gaze was still locked on the buildings ahead, she began to run faster to get enough speed to jump to the next building safely, thing she accomplished as she landed gracefully on the rooftop then kept running.
As the attacks started to get closer to her, she decided to stop running and turn around. "Enough!" She exclaimed at the Loonatics, who had just stopped moving forward and stood hovering over the building instead. "I surrender!" She put both hands behind her neck.
"Wise decision!" Duck said.
Tech tried to lower himself with his jetpack's assistance towards the rooftop but Ace grabbed the cloth of his suit to stop him. "Wait." Ace mumbled.
Heather lowered her head, then moved both of her index fingers behind her nape, she smirked and began to lower her arms. "Or not." She said as she gazed at them.
Lexi noticed her jetpack was malfunctioning, it was emitting odd sounds and all she could see when she looked over her shoulder was her jetpack trapped on a glitchy space of the ambient. "What the…!" The jetpack's propellers exploded all of a sudden and Lexi started to fall down towards the rooftop along with Rev, she hugged Rev to avoid him to get more hurt and they both landed violently on the rooftop's surface, the rest of the team couldn't express their concern because the same thing happened with their jetpacks a moment later, they all began to fall down towards the rooftop while leaving a trace of smoke behind them, they were unable to brace themselves from the impact so they ended laying on the rooftop hurt and with considerable pain.
Heather smirked for a last time then ran towards the next building and jumped, while being on the air, with her feet above the alley, she put her hands together then separated them, she deconstructed the structure of the building that was ahead of her and made an exit on the wall, she got inside the newly made aperture then closed it from the inside.
A black helicopter was flying over the situation, it was being piloted by Peyton Pussycat, A.R.M.'s newest member, she moved the helicopter a bit to the right to get a better look of the building as the smoke didn't let her see well through the lateral window, she gasped after managing to see the Loonatics struggling to get into their feet inside the great amount of smoke. "Ace! What happened!" Peyton said with worry through the helicopter's comm.
Ace groaned while dragging himself towards Lexi and Rev, who had managed to get in a sitting position. "She destroyed our jetpacks." He gasped. "We lost her." He said through his comm.
Peyton tried to spot Heather with a quick gaze towards the nearby areas, she managed to see her running through several alleys. "Ace, I am seeing her, near the ACME Motors agency."
Ace was helping Lexi and Rev to stand up. "We are too far and got no transport, we'll hear about her later Peyton, don't worry."
Peyton didn't want to lose sight of her. "I can do it, Ace, I'm going after her."
"What? Peyton, no! Go and meet with your team, we'll get her the next time!" Ace commanded through his comm, he patted it with intrigue as he didn't hear any response. "Peyton?"
"I'm sorry." Peyton said while turning off all of the vehicle's communications. "It is now or never." She pushed the stick all the way forward and the helicopter started to move faster towards the alleys Heather was running through.
The Loonatics had all stood up, they were watching the helicopter leaving. Ace got his comm near to his snout. "Matt, have you gotten out of the building?"
"Yes, we are both here, did you catch her?" Matt asked as he and Anne were under the building's facade.
"No, but Peyton found her, she wants to finish this herself." Ace responded.
"What the…is she out of her mind?!" Matt replied from the other side of the line.
Ace sighed. "Just go help her! She mentioned something about ACME Motors, search in the neighborhood!"
"Understood." Matt lowered his arm and ended the communication then looked at Anne. "Let's go before she gets herself killed." He started to hurry towards the place Ace had told them to go along with Anne.
"I hope we don't arrive to late." Anne added while gasping thanks to the desperate rush they were both doing.
Peyton anticipated where Heather was going to, so she landed the helicopter gently over the rooftop of a small building. She turned off the vehicle's engines and got off the vehicle then headed towards a staircase that led to the alley Heather was approaching. She climbed down the staircase until she reached the ground with her feet.
Heather was running with no stop through the alleys until she saw Peyton standing in front of her. "You…" Peyton said with a subtle tone of fright. "You are going with me." She adopted a combat position.
Heather let out a chuckle of mockery. "Really? Do you have mind control powers or something?"
"I don't need powers to beat you." Peyton replied.
"How cute." Heather took the earring off her ear and put it on her coat, thing that unsettled Peyton. "Bring it on then."
Peyton started to walk towards her then hurried her steps and tried to throw a punch at Heather who just blocked the punch easily with one hand and hit Peyton's belly with her knee, Peyton groaned by the pain then Heather put her against the wall and continued to hit her stomach with the same movement, Peyton was running out of air and couldn't even ask for mercy, her gasps became more and more silent at each hit she received, Heather finally decided to stop hurting her and dropped her aggressively to the dirty ground.
Heather crouched next to her and grasped her snout strongly with one hand. "Poor little thing." She said mockingly and let go off Peyton's snout violently. She stood up and took her earring out of her coat and put it on then left the place in a hurry.
A couple of minutes later, Matt and Anne found Peyton still laying on the ground, they both gasped and rushed towards her. "Peyton!" Matt exclaimed before crouching next to her.
Peyton lifted her head slightly and looked at him. "Sorry." She said with a broken voice.
"What were you thinking?!" Matt tried to help her to stand up but could only manage to leave her sitting on the ground as she gasped with pain.
"Stop." Peyton gasped again while putting her hand on her belly. "This hurts." She managed to get up slowly. "A lot." Her voice was still broken.
"Oh, Peyton." Anne approached them. "What happened?"
"I thought I could do something, that's all." Peyton said then let out a sob. "I won't do it ever again, I promise."
Anne sighed then walked towards her and hugged her with empathy. "The important thing now is that you are okay."
"You could've gotten yourself killed." Matt stated.
Anne broke the hug and stared at Matt. "But she is fine, Matt, she made a mistake that's all."
Matt shook his head as he had his arms crossed then let out a sigh. "Sure." He looked at Peyton. "You got us very worried." He suddenly received a signal from his comm.
"Matt, did you find her?" Ace asked.
"Yes, yes she is okay just a little bit hurt, that's all." Matt replied with the comm nearby his snout, he could hear a sigh of relief from Ace.
"I'm so glad to hear so." Ace said. "We are on the jet, we'll do some patrolling until we receive updated reports."
"Alright, we'll join you in the helicopter then." Matt replied.
"Got it, keep in touch." Ace ended the communication.
Matt lowered his arm then looked at Anne and Peyton. "To the helicopter, now."
The three of them had gone to the rooftop where Peyton had left the helicopter. Anne sat next to Matt on the vehicle's backside, Peyton was preparing the systems on the pilot area. "Are you sure you feel well enough to fly now?" Anne asked.
"It's okay." Peyton responded.
Anne put a hand on her shoulder as she was sitting behind her. "Let the hitting and kicking to us, Peyton, you are a pilot, no, the pilot, we need you here."
Peyton smirked subtly then looked at her. "I understand."