Loonatics: United

Episode 69: A Sudden Trip To Darkness

The team was reunited at the lounge, standing between the couches. Tech was explaining the situation to Ace and the rest of his comrades. "Ray wanted to be cured so those guys offered him that, in exchange of the suit and all the other devices he stole." Tech sighed. "Wrong or not, I think our target has changed."

"Of course." Ace concurred. "Any idea on why this 'Chaos Warriors' wanted the suit so badly?"

"He was rather ambiguous, but, guessing by his words…" Tech glared at Ace with a straight face. "…nothing good."

"I mean, the name pretty much tells everything, if you ask me." Duck opined.

Ace nodded at Tech, ignoring Duck's observation. "Bring him here. We must know how to reach those guys before they cause more trouble." Tech nodded at his boss' command, leaving the lounge while heading to the lab.

"What are we gonna do with the lemur, then?" Lexi inquired. "Ill or not, he still did what he did."

Ace sighed while rubbing his head. "He'll face justice, that's for sure. But for now, we need all the help he can give us."

"Now I get what the 'C' and the 'W' of that ugly ship stand for to be honest I think their name is kind of childish I mean 'Chaos Warriors' it sounds as if it was taken from an old action slash comedy cartoon or something." Rev said.

"Well, our name isn't that g…" Duck was interrupted by Tech's arrival, along with Ray, who was looking at them rather ashamed.

"Doc. told us everything." Ace said, crossing his arms while looking at Ray with a straight face. "You're gonna help?"

"I guess." Ray said with his head lowered while rubbing his arm.

"Cool." Ace said. "Then tell us, how can we locate those friends of yours?"

Ray stood silent for a brief moment. "They should be on space already." He let out a sigh and glared at Ace. "It's useless."

Ace chuckled with confidence. "You know how many times we've gone there?"

"Too many in my opinion." Duck said.

Ray started to think, scratching his nape while glancing down. "Uhm, we were in contact for quite a while, but only by encrypted video calls."

Tech expressed confidence after Ray's answer. "Then this will be much easier than I previously thought."

"Something in mind already, Doc.?" Ace inquired.

Tech looked at Ray. "Your IP Address, do you know it?"

"Like, of course." Ray crossed his arms rather offended. "Who doesn't?"

"Yeah, who doesn't?" Duck replicated, with no remote idea on what an IP Address actually was.

"But, why? Do you nee..?" Ray's eyes widened all of a sudden then pointed at Tech with concur. "Oh you want to..."

Rev interrupted the lemur. "...control your computer right from here I mean remotely from this exact place so we don't have to go all the way back to your weird home I'm sorry but that's my perception still brilliant plan though that way we'll reach those bad guys in no time."

Tech chuckled and looked at Ace with a confident glance. "What he just said."

Ace nodded. "Alright, I like it." He opined. "Just let us know when you're done."

"It won't take long, boss." Tech looked at Ray and gestured at the lab's door, he then left, followed by the lemur.

Lexi sighed. "I'm gonna take a nap if you don't..." She yawned. "...mind, guys."

"Sorry, Lexi." Ace approached his girlfriend and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We must get ready for the mission."

Lexi emitted a sound of subtle complaint. "Five minutes?" She looked at him with pleading eyes.

Ace thought for a moment then finally yielded, letting out a brief sigh. "Alright."

Duck yawned and began to walk away towards his room. "Awesome..." He said while yawning. "...See you in t..."

"Five, Duck..." Ace spoke with a rigid tone. "Five." He reaffirmed. "Then we'll put on our exosuits, get the jet up and running and wait for Tech to do his stuff, am I clear?" He looked at the rest of his comrades.

Duck sighed angrily. "Okay, five. Five it's fine, enough to get in REM." He made a quick gesture of disdain. "Yeah, like if that's even possible." Duck finally entered his room, still displeased.

Rev raised an eyebrow. "Wait, did Duck actually say something scientific?"

Slam growled with doubt and ignorance.

"Oh you don't know what REM is? It's simple, REM is when you e..." Rev noticed everyone heading to their rooms, having not heard him, or at least not caring at all about his explanation. "O...okay there's no time for that now we are on a mission yes I understand maybe another d..."

"Get some rest, Rev." Ace advised from his room, speaking loud for his comrade to listen.

After the brief, yet longer rest than the previously agreed, the five Loonatics put on their black exosuits then met Tech and Ray at the lab. Tech was standing in front of the main computer, rapidly pressing the keyboard and the annex buttons of the large console while looking at the monitor attentively. "I'm in Ray's computer already." He explained while opening the window of a program that showed a map of the near space. "I just have to duplicate the identifier of the last connection." Tech copied a large number from another window then pasted it on a blank space of the program with the map. Several smaller windows with ongoing lines of code appeared for a moment then on the space image, a red dot appeared. "And…it matches." Tech chuckled by his success then pressed a key with the 'Sync' word on it. "The course is set." He looked at Ace over his shoulder.

"Wow, that was fast." Ray praised.

Tech chuckled arrogantly while pointing at himself. "I have my moments."

"Put on your exosuit, Doc." Ace commanded. "Ready the jet." He chuckled rather ashamed. "We were supposed to have it ready but…I kinda did a 'Duck' a little while ago."

Duck raised an eyebrow and looked at Ace. "A 'Duck'?" He frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?" He inquired with annoyance.

"Never mind." Ace patted Duck's shoulder to chill him out. "Loonatics, let's jet!"

"And what about me?" Ray said. "Also, do you always say that before a mission?"

"You stay here." Ace pointed at Ray with warning. "We'll deal with those guys then..." He delayed a bit to complete his phrase. "...then we'll see." Ace concluded rather ambiguously and before leaving the lab along with the rest, he looked at Ray over his shoulder, with a friendly smirk. "Let's say...I'm quite used to it." He responded Ray's second, less relevant question.

Tech was sitting on the jet's pilot seat with his exosuit on, getting the vehicle online. "Everyone good back there?"

"Wait!" Duck exclaimed with an exaggerated voice of alarm, then he rapidly put on his seatbelt. "I'm good!"

Ace sighed, adjusting his while looking at the rest of his team, seeing they were all good to go. "We are ready, Doc!" He replied.

"Understood!" Tech finally got the jet hovering and accelerated towards the hangar's gates, which opened automatically as always. After getting out of the HQ, Tech activated the course he had synced back in the lab, starting to follow the console's directions, lowering the steering wheel all the way down. The skyscrapers soon disappeared from his sight, the blue sky and the white clouds started to darken, the exosuit prevented him and his comrades to suffer by the pressure and altitude they were reaching. After a couple of minutes, the Loonatics left behind the last of clouds, the sky ahead Tech's sight was pitch dark and the first stars appeared. When noticing they had left Acmetropolis' atmosphere behind, Tech got the steering wheel to normal and just followed the blinking dot that slowly moved on the map that was being displayed on the console's monitor. He pressed some buttons and pulled a pair of levers then the jet began to move faster.

"How long, Tech?" Lexi asked from the backside.

"Not that much, uhm..." Tech did some calculations in his mind while seeing the map. "Five...maybe ten minutes." He chuckled. "And Rev said it was useless to install a dynamic overclocker on my bab..."

"Thanks." Lexi said with a straight tone, making Tech to stop talking.

"I didn't say 'useless'..." But Rev wanted to clarify on his opinion as expected, thing that made Lexi to sigh with annoyance. "...I said it was redundant, it's not the same I know that overclockers can be helpful in these situations but we already got a superb, and I mean superb engine working here so I don't s..."

Lexi let out a sudden growl. "Rev!" She exclaimed. "Please..." Lexi breathed in to calm herself down. "Silence, okay?" She requested while exhaling. "Just for now."

"Uhm, sure, no problem, I'm gonna stop talking…now." Rev did as he said, to Lexi's relief.

Ace placed a hand on her shoulder. "All good?"

Lexi stood silent then looked into his eyes with a brief, fake smile. "Yes." She spoke softly.

"Sure?" Ace wrapped his arm over her shoulder.

Lexi was still thoughtful, she then let out a sigh. "Memories, that's all." She explained, with her gaze locked on the black patterns of the floor. "The first time we went to space, it was like..." She chuckled a bit. "...exciting."

Ace stroked her back. "Sure it was. It was our biggest mission in that time."

"Yeah." Lexi responded. "It was good, so far. We won after all, but…there's always that horrible feeling."

Ace raised an eyebrow as he wasn't sure what she was talking about. "What feeling?"

Lexi really didn't want to talk to anyone at that moment, she just didn't feel like it, not even with her boyfriend. "I'm fine." She looked at him with a smile. "Don't worry."

Ace had his glare locked on hers, trying to decipher what could be troubling her. He gave up as nothing clear came to his mind, he only smiled back at her and caressed her cheek. "Okay, Lexi." He said reassuringly.