Loonatics: United

Episode 57: Recompenses

Susan was sitting on the cold floor of the lab, a few meters away from the furnace, looking down, with her hands interlaced, reflecting on the crucial decision she had taken time ago, moving to Acmetropolis. It was an advantage in many aspects, her life was good in the colony of Alumia, but there were more interesting chances in Acmetropolis, and the most interesting of them all for her was to be with the one she loved, and she took that chance and made it grow. She never regretted that decision. Now Susan was a hostage, tortured and forced to do something terrible, but the thought of going back to Alumia after all the matter ended didn't even went through her mind.

Dan was walking in line on the other side, scratching his chin while mumbling, Darcy was just watching him, sitting on a chair the other way around, resting her crossed arms on the support. She let out a sigh. "I'm so bored." Darcy yawned and rested her head over her arms. She looked at her brother after getting no response. "Dan."

Dan's ear twitched, he glared at his sister over his shoulder. "Well, maybe you could help me with my speech."

Darcy raised an eyebrow. "Speech?"

Dan turned to face her. "We have to convince them, sis." He walked towards her. "I'm sure there'll be some resistance, but I know how they think."

"And how they think?" Darcy inquired.

"They are fed up, sick…" Dan placed his hands on her arms, looking at her with a smirk of conviction. "…they're done…" He glanced at Susan from the distance. "…they only need a chance to get out of the hole they live in." He said. "Not the one HarmNix offered them, no." He lifted his hand, pointing upwards with his finger. "The one we're giving them, for free, that's what they need." He started to walk away from his sister then suddenly stopped his steps, nodding at his own thinking, Darcy looked at him with confusion, yet having understood his words. Dan kept mumbling. "Now, you have the power…" He raised his arms, with his hands facing frontwards. "…And now...you have the power…"

Meanwhile at 'The Station', Hanson Baxter was dancing over the dance floor with quick, precise movements that amazed the spectators around him, his turns and jumps were giving him many points, the DJ served as judge, carefully studying his performance.

Ace and Lexi were also astonished by the skill of the otter, Tech on the other hand, was very nervous. After the music ended, the otter finished with a pose, pointing at the crowd, whose applauses and praises came right afterwards.

Tech gulped, clapping anxiously. "There's no way I can beat that."

"Yet you'll try, right?" Lexi inquired. "You know…" She pointed at herself and at her boyfriend. "…for your friends?"

Tech grunted slightly. "I'm not in position to choose, yeah, you've established that well." He glared at her and his boss with subtle annoyance and after a sigh of resignation he got on the dance floor hesitantly.

"Oh, it looks that we got a challenger for this night!" The DJ expressed, waking the crowd's screams. Tech walked towards the DJ's board. "Your name?" He got the microphone close to Tech's snout.

"Tech." He just answered.

"Alright, Tech." The DJ put a new song on the console, also synthwave, with a fast rhythm. "Let's see what you got!"

Tech turned and got in the middle of the dance floor, closing his eyes for a moment, relaxing his arms with gentle shakes. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes then finally started to dance, moving in synchrony with the synth music, taking some steps over the dance floor and complementing them with moves that subtly emulated a robot, Tech jumped and ended in a crouch position with one hand over the floor, the crowd yelled and clapped, just as Ace and Lexi. "Yeah, show them, Doc!" Ace exclaimed with support.

Tech chuckled briefly, now more confident of his skills, he remained the same way for a moment then after giving it some thought, he jumped and flipped, landing safely over his feet with his arms raised, the crowd yelled louder and clapped even stronger at him.

Lexi's eyes widened. "With this…we should ask for two months of wings, Ace."

Ace nodded, sharing the same face. "Maybe three."

The furnace beeped repeatedly, signaling the serum was ready. Susan gasped and looked at the furnace, thoughtful and anguished. "Ms. Sanders." Dan said, making her to gasp again by the tone of his voice. She lowered her gaze and started to stand up, thinking about what she was about to do. Susan walked towards the furnace with slow, unsure steps, she reached for the handle and remained there, just holding it. "Ms. Sanders! Is it ready?!" Dan exclaimed, taking a few steps towards her.

Susan gasped again, getting a lump in her throat, looking at Dan, who pointed at the furnace angrily. Susan let out a broken sigh and finally opened the furnace's door with hesitation, taking out the container with the serum. She closed the device's door rather strongly, then she crouched and opened the doors under the bar, looking for a particular device.

"Now what?" Dan approached her. "Need something else?"

Susan grunted. "I'm looking for a…" She managed to find what she was looking for, a black cylinder shaped device, with a small transparent chamber inside, the last thing she wanted to do was to take it and put the serum there for Dan and Darcy to execute their plan, but she had no choice. Susan took the device and then closed the doors. She got fully into her feet and put the cylinder on the bar, sliding the chamber's cover. "…a diffusor." She replied tardily. After opening the container, Susan dripped the serum in the diffusor's chamber, then when the container got fully emptied, she closed it and slowly put it over the bar, then she sealed the chamber by sliding the cover back. "It's…" Susan took the diffusor and handed it to Dan, who had gotten closer to her. She lowered her head and shook it, looking down with shame. "…ready."

Dan raised an eyebrow while studying the diffusor with his glare and tact. "How does it work?"

Susan delayed a bit to provide an answer. "The blue button. It will disperse the serum in a thirty meter radio. They must inhale it to get your powers."

Dan thought for a moment, looking at the moving substance inside the diffusor's chamber, he then nodded and smirked at her. "Thanks, Ms. Sanders." He lowered down the diffusor and put a hand over her shoulder, patting it. "We couldn't have done this without you."

Susan's glare was down. "Are you…" Her voice was broken. "…letting me go now?"

Dan looked at her for a long moment. "That was the deal, right?" He said, getting no reply of her. "But...not before we achieve our goal."

Susan gasped. "What? But, you said…"

Dan silenced her, putting a finger on her mouth. "We can't take any risks, Ms. Sanders." He slowly lowered down his hand. "And I'm pretty sure you're one of them." Suddenly, he held her and covered her mouth with his glowing hand, she screamed and struggled, trying to undo his hold with no success. "I'm sorry, Ms. Sanders. You'll have to wait a bit more." Her struggle began to get weaker before she got totally unconscious.

Dan lowered Susan gently over the floor then he took the diffusor and walked towards the lab's door, exiting the place followed by his sister. He left the door open as he had ruined the lock system of the handle anyway. "What if she wakes up?" Darcy asked.

"She will, of course." Dan said, then he looked at Darcy. "But it will be too late for her to do anything." He started to walk towards the staircase at the end of the hallway along with his sister. "We are reclaiming…what is ours, sis." Dan expressed with a chuckle of confidence. "No one will stop us."