Loonatics: United

Episode 51: Toxicity

It was midnight, HarmNix Pharmaceutical had its factory at the center of Acmetropolis, it occupied several blocks, its outside was gray, made of metal and concrete, with rows of huge solar cells on the ceiling and glowing energy pipelines that connected them, which ignited a yellow light. On the inside, HarmNix had several stations, two hyenas were cleaning the bridge over the big, cylindrical containers that stored green, glowing chemicals, bubbling and throwing vapors. The two siblings mopped the bridge together, which was just a narrow, metallic grid that passed over the containers, dangerously close to the substance. They were not wearing any special protection, only plasticized, gray suits, which didn't help at all, and they knew that.

Dan whistled a song while mopping the stained metallic surface, occasionally soaking his mop in the bucket at his side. He then looked at his sister. "You're done with your side?"

Darcy sighed and glared at him, stopping her mopping. "These stains won't come out, there's that…" She lowered her head a bit to look more closely at the grid. "…sticky…something."

Dan chuckled. "Sticky something?"

Darcy giggled and shook her head. "Shut up."

Dan let out another brief, subtle laugh. "Maybe we need something stronger."

"But the box said anti-stain, I've already checked the warehouse, this is all we got." Darcy sighed and rested her hands on the mop's stick, laying her head on them. "Oh we're definitely not sleeping today."

"Like yesterday and the day before?" Dan said.

"Yeah…" Darcy said with a lazy voice.

"Did you check twice? The warehouse?" Dan asked.

Darcy sighed then yawned. "Why would I? It's not like different stuff will show up each time I check."

"But one always checks twice, sis." Dan stated. "That's quite a rule, well not like a rule but…I'll just check again."

"Oh, so you don't trust me?" Darcy joked.

Dan chuckled while walking to the opposite side. "Of course I do, why do you always have t..?" Dan gasped when his left foot slipped with the still wet surface, he fell but managed to hold from the bridge with his hand. "Darcy!" He looked down and glared at the bubbly, green substance below his feet.

"Dan!" Darcy hurried carefully to help his brother. She got over one knee and grabbed his arm then tried to lift him up but he was too heavy for her. She gasped by the effort she made.

Dan gasped with fear, constantly looking down. "Darcy, hurry!"

"I'm trying!" Darcy kept pulling her brother's arm, still being unable to lift him. She started to inhale and exhale with desperation, as she was also glancing at the hazardous chemicals that threatened her brother's life. She let out a gasp of frustration. "Dan, you are too heavy!" She began to get tired. "I…I can't…"

"Darcy, please!" Dan breathed in and out fearfully. "Please!" He tried to bring himself up, moving his legs desperately.

"I'm trying, Dan! Just stop moving o…" Darcy gasped when her right foot lost balance by the weight she was trying to lift, she screamed when Dan's weight brought her down, the two hyenas let out screams of fatal fear then they both fell in the green liquid.

Inside the tank, their screams couldn't be heard by the liquid they were floating in, they felt the substance entering through their fur and skin. Their suits merged with their bodies. Their faces showed pain, deep and unmeasurable. A green glow started to surround them, then a reaction made the tank to explode with them inside of it.

The substance spilled all over the station, exiting through the several openings that the tank now had. Dan and Darcy exited from one of them, brought to the floor by the flowing substance.

The two siblings laid there for several minutes, unconscious. The alarm was sounding, a noisy, long beep that repeated itself, the rotating emergency lights had turned on. Dan coughed, spitting a bit of substance, he then got over his knees and looked at his sister, noticing her suit had merged with her body, same as him. They looked like if they were wearing bodysuits, with cracked lines of intermittent glowing green over them. But that was not all, their fur was now green, and it glowed with the same tone. "What in the world?" He noticed she was still breathing and approached her. "Darcy?"

Darcy opened her eyes, blinking a couple of times. "Dan." She tried to stand up, her brother helped her to do so then they both got into their feet. "We…survived?" She gasped when seeing her brother's new appearance. "Dan, you're…"

"Green? Glowing?" Dan inquired. "Yeah, you too."

Darcy looked at herself, gasping when looking at her hands, green furred and glowing. Her voice broke when noticing her change. "Dan, what happened to us?"

Dan covered his face with both hands then shook them downwards with frustration. "I don't know!" He glared at her, seeing she was very frightened. "I don't know, sis." He gave her a hug. "But there's only one we can blame for this."

The automatic gate opened a few meters behind them, Dan broke the hug and looked over his shoulder, seeing the white trucks with HarmNix's logo painted on them. The three vehicles approached them, Dan covered his face with his arm as the truck's lights dazzled him. Several black armored guards with the company's icon on their uniform went down the vehicles. Gerald Nix, HarmNix's owner, was the last one to get down, he was a lion who wore a white suit and a green bow tie. He gasped when seeing the two hyenas, gesturing at the guards to stay away from them, walking towards the siblings. "Who are you? And what are you doing in my company?!"

"We work here!" Dan exclaimed.

Gerald raised an eyebrow. "I…I don't recognize you." He lifted his foot a bit, a few drops of the green substance fell from it, he then looked at them and the broken tank at the left. "What happened here?"

"We fell in the tank." Dan walked towards him, lifting his hand, showing its glow to him. "With no protection."

Gerald sighed. "And? Oh, now you sound like the syndicate, boy." He turned and gestured at the guards, who hurried towards the gate and pressed the panels next to it, then the gate closed.

Dan gasped. "What are you doing?"

The guards walked by Gerald, getting in front of the hyenas, taking out their guns and aiming at them. Darcy gasped and turned, but more guards had gotten behind them, leaving them cornered. She approached her brother and hugged him. "Dan, what are they gonna do?" She said with a broken voice.

"I can't let you go." Gerald sighed. "I'm sorry, the press must not know."

"You are a liar! You promised us safety! Insurance! And now you want to kill us just like that!" Dan exclaimed with rage, frowning at Gerald.

"Yes, just like that." Gerald put a straight face. "As I did all that was necessary to start this company, to make it the giant it is now. Just like that."

Dan was clenching his fists, his glow started to get brighter. "You can't do this!"

"At my signal, boys." Gerald said, the guards loaded their weapons.

"Dan…" Darcy closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder.

Gerald waited a moment to give the order. "Fire!"

"No!" Dan exclaimed, right when the lasers came out from the weapons, a glowing green cloud of vapor came from him like an explosion, the strange phenomenon hit Gerald and his guards, their screams of death were heard briefly, they all fell to the ground, lifeless. Their bodies were steamy.

Dan had his eyes closed, he slowly opened them and then he gasped when seeing the dead guards and his boss. He looked at his sister, who still hugged him and trembled with fear. "Darcy."

Darcy opened her eyes hesitantly and glanced leftwards, her eyes widened when seeing the scene. "What?" She slowly broke the hug. "Dan, what happened?"

Dan looked at his hands. "I'm not sure." The glow on them got dimmer. "I think I did it." He glared back at the fallen men, chuckling a bit. "And maybe…" He looked at his sister. "You could do it too."

Darcy lifted her hand before herself, turning it while studying its glow. "But…how did y…" When aiming the palm of her hand frontwards, a green, glowing liquid came from it, which reached some machinery that was several meters ahead, the machines melted rapidly, generating dense, green colored fumes.

Dan gasped and looked at his sister with a smile. "Sis, you know what this means?"

"That we need to see a doctor?" Darcy inquired.

Dan chuckled and approached her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "No…we got powers." He lifted his hand and willingly made it to glow. "We have power now."

Darcy looked at the melted machinery. "Power."

Dan began to walk in circle, thinking, rubbing his chin. "This can't be all, sister." He stopped walking, nodding at his own thought. "We can make it bigger." He looked at Darcy. "Much bigger."

"I don't get you." Darcy raised an eyebrow.

Dan sighed. "Do you know for how long this company has abused of its workers?"

Darcy rolled up her eyes. "Don't tell me."

"Exactly." Dan said, chuckling and rubbing his hands, looking upwards. "I know how to end it."

"Oh, now I get you." Darcy made her hands to glow. "We can destroy the company."

Dan smirked and shook his head. "No, Darcy." He approached her. "Instead of destroying." He raised his hand and clenched it. "We can build. Share these powers with our comrades, and free them from their suffering once and for all."

Darcy raised an eyebrow. "Like, an army?"

"That sounds a bit…aggressive." Dan chuckled and glared away, thinking about her sister's comment, nodding at the idea. "But I quite like it."

"I think we got a little problem with that." Darcy stated. "How are we gonna do it?"

"We just need the right mind, the right hands, sister." Dan responded. "And I know where to find them."

Darcy smirked at him with a frown of commitment. "You mean, the employee list?"

Dan nodded. "You just hit the spot, sis." He started to walk away. "Come on, we must go to the archives."

In an annex building, on the second floor, a security guard, who was a middle aged dalmatian, rested against the door that led to the archive room, he wore the classic blue shirt, black pants uniform. His ear twitched when hearing quick steps at his right, he glared that way and gasped when seeing the green light illuminating the hallway's end, he placed his hand on the holster of his gun and blocked the way, standing with a daring stare. Dan and Darcy ran towards him.

"Hey you!" The guard took out his gun and aimed at them. "Stand back or I'll s…" Dan aimed his hand at the guard's chest, the acid he shot went through the guard, he didn't even had the chance to scream. The dalmatian fell down.

Dan chuckled. "…shoot?" He looked at his sister while reaching the door. "I bet that was what he wanted to say." He readied his hand and held the knob then he melted it, turning it into a green and black liquid. He gently opened the door by pushing it. "After you, sis."

Darcy entered the room, looking at the desks, racks, files and computers where all the archives of the company were stored. "I imagined it bigger."

Dan turned on the lights, revealing a big monitor at the room's bottom. "I guess that's the master system." He walked towards the computer and pressed the enter key, getting in the OS, sitting down on the swivel chair. "Okay." He said to himself, Darcy got behind him.

"I wonder what of all these files could be." Darcy said when her brother opened the folder of the drive.

"Alright, let's click 'Search' and…" Dan typed the word 'employee' on the search bar that showed up on the window. "Oh yeah." The 'Employee List' text file appeared on the results. He glanced at his sister. "Who's the best? Sis?"

Darcy chuckled. "Good job, Dan."

"Alright." Dan opened the file. "Hmm…let's see, uhm…" The employees' names were organized as a table with several categories, Dan scrolled sidewards and found the 'Scientists' category. "Oh, what do we have here? They're ranked." He thundered his fingers and pressed the 'Ranking' section, which made the names to switch from alphabetical order to the amount of points they had, in descending order. "Who's our number one?"

"Dan, why are you talking like that?" Darcy raised an eyebrow.

"It's fun." Dan replied. He scrolled back to the beginning of the list and found the scientist who had the highest rank. "She is the right one."

Darcy got a bit closer to the monitor to read the name more clearly. "Susan Sanders?"

"If there's anyone that could help us with this, it's her." Dan smirked and looked over the desktop, he found a digital notepad and started to type on it, copying the data of Susan's bio, including her address. "It's your lucky day, Ms. Sanders."