Loonatics United

Episode 72: Loose Ends

Ace and Lexi looked at the unconscious snow leopard for a brief moment, to confirm he had been neutralized. Ace got his arm close to his snout to speak through the comm. "Ace here, we defeated him. All good, team?"

Tech was walking with Slam who was carrying the unconscious raccoon over his shoulders. "All good, boss." Tech replied through his comm.

Duck was dragging the ferret by his foot. "Same here."

Rev got among Ace and Lexi with a rush. "Is it good if I leave her right here?" He asked as he was carrying the unconscious hawk over his arms.

"Uhm, yes, Rev." Ace responded.

"Okay." Rev just dropped her on the floor, a mild hit was heard.

Lexi looked at Rev with rather scolding eyes. "Rev, careful!"

"Oh sorry it's just that Ace told me it was fine so I obeyed his orders as always." Rev explained.

Tech and Slam arrived. Slam saw the snow leopard and the hawk laying over the ground so he raised his shoulders and with a growl he dropped the raccoon, a stronger hit was heard.

Lexi sighed while rubbing her face. "Why do I even try?"

Duck then arrived, dragging the ferret. He got between his comrades and just left the unconscious rival on the ground. "And, what will we do with this pile of trash?"

"First things first, Duck." Ace crouched by Alfons and took the helmet off his head, then he stood up and approached Tech. "Would you do the honors?"

Tech chuckled briefly and took the helmet. "It will be my pleasure…or maybe I could reverse engineer it and u…"

"No, Doc. Destroy it." Ace ordered.

Tech sighed. "Sure, boss." He began to use his magnetic powers, covering the helmet in the green field his ability created, cracking, metallic noises started to be heard, then several cracks covered the helmet until it broke into several tiny pieces.

Ace chuckled and put a hand over Tech's shoulder. "Good job, Tech."

The six heroes stood there, looking at the defeated enemies. "So…" Lexi said suddenly. "Now what?"

Ace sighed while rubbing his forehead. "I…don't know. Who could be in charg..?" He got interrupted.

"Thank you, Loonatics." A red panda said while approaching them, accompanied by a black female cat and a meerkat. The three of them wore gray uniforms, which consisted in glossy, two piece attires with blue straight patterns covering the right ride of the clothes. "We'll take it from here." The red panda said, gesturing at the neutralized criminals, the cat and the meerkat nodded at him and hurried towards them, the cat carried the ferret over her back while the meerkat did so with the raccoon.

Ace raised an eyebrow. "Uhm, sorry, but…who are you?" He looked at the red panda with suspicion.

"Agent Halley, captain of the fourth squadron of the Interplanetary Police, at your service." The red panda said, extending his hand.

Ace shook his hand, still glaring at him cautiously. "Ace Bunny."

Halley sighed with a tone of relief. "I'm so glad you managed to stop these guys, we've been after them for weeks." He walked past Ace and approached Alfons, carrying him, letting out a gasp as he was heavy because of the suit's weight. "Woah…"

"Slam." Ace ordered, without the need to explain more as Slam had understood his boss wanted him to aid the agent.

Slam growled with acceptance then approached the red panda and got the suited snow leopard over his arm.

"Oh, thank you so much." Halley said while approaching the hawk, carrying her with much less difficulty. "Over there." Halley gestured at their ship which was parked at the bottom of the street, so Slam just followed him. The cat and the meerkat had already put the criminals in the ship, so they were just waiting for the captain to board the last ones. The ship was gray and white, with an archaic design, the cat and the meerkat approached Slam and received Alfons then they entered the ship again with the help of the ramp. Halley exhaled briefly. "Alright, that would be it for today." He looked at Slam and bowed his head as a farewell, as he was still carrying the female hawk. "Thank you so much for your help."

Slam growled friendlily and nodded at the agent.

"Say goodbye to your friends for us." Halley walked up the ramp then entered the ship and the automatic door slid downwards.

"Had you ever heard of them, Doc?" Ace asked.

"No." Tech answered. "But I'm not that much into space law so…"

Ace sighed. "I guess we'll have to trust them."

Slam met with his team again, telling them about the captain's farewell with a growl.

"Oh, nice of them." Lexi said. "Thanks, Slam."

"Okay, yeah. So chill those guys. Can we go home?" Duck crossed his arms. "Also, don't forget we left a thief in our HQ."

Ace's eyes widened. "Oh that's true! Come on, team. Our job is done here." He rushed towards the platform followed by his comrades.

Meanwhile, the ship of the Interplanetary Police was flying between the stars and the darkness of outer space. Halley was taking off the uniform, revealing the bodysuit he had been wearing underneath it, which had the same design as Alfons' and company. He went to the cockpit and sat down next to the black furred cat, who was wearing also the same bodysuit, same as the meerkat, who was sleeping on the floor of the ship's brief hallway. Behind him, the still unconscious criminals laid over the ground just as him.

The cat moved the steering wheel slightly then let out a sudden chuckle. "Interplanetary police?" She looked at Halley. "Where did you take that from?"

Halley yawned and got both hands over his nape. "I just made it up." He began to laugh along with her.

"Can't believe they bought that." The cat said.

"Well, Regina. They don't call me 'The Faker' for nothing." Halley smirked cockingly.

"Oh, for real?" Regina inquired.

Halley chuckled. "Nope." Regina made up a growl and hit his arm with her elbow, chuckling briefly along with him.

Alfons began to wake up, the strong white lights of the ceiling made him to blink a couple of times before slowly getting into his feet. He looked at his comrades for a moment, who were still deeply unconscious, then let out an upset sigh and looked at himself, remembering what had happened, so he started to torn apart the suit, starting from the legs, taking off the metallic pieces and throwing them with rage. He kept doing so until he got rid of it completely. Alfons walked towards the cockpit and got between Halley and Regina, placing both hands on their respective chairs. "Where to?" He asked with a straight tone.

"Your welcome for saving your guts." Halley said.

Alfons grunted. "I asked you something…"

Regina sighed. "We're heading back to Badek, maybe there we can find m…"

"No." Alfons interrupted. "Alumia. There's where we are going."

Halley turned his gaze at him. "Boss?"

"As you heard." Alfons replied coldly.

Regina started to interact with the touch screen on the console, setting the course with hesitation. "And…done." She turned the steering wheel almost fully to the left then straightened it rapidly, following the directions of the digital map.

"Good." Alfons said.

"But…the suit." Halley said. "We needed it for the job."

Alfons stood silent for a long moment, with his sight locked on the screen showing their way to Alumia. "We'll manage." He finally said, with a firm tone of conviction.

Meanwhile, the Loonatics were arriving at Acmetropolis, the sunset covered the surfaces of the tall, innumerable buildings. The jet entered the hangar after its doors opened automatically then closed the same way.

After getting off the flying vehicle, the team hurried towards the HQ. Ace and Lexi looked for Ray at the lounge while Duck and Rev did so in the kitchen. Tech and Slam looked for him at the lab. Ace was even looking under the couches, thing he immediately knew was kind of dumb and sighed with frustration, sitting down on a couch while rubbing his face. He stared at the table in the middle of the lounge and his eyes widened when seeing a letter resting there, he took it and began to read it.

Sorry, I couldn't stand it anymore so I decided to turn myself in, I confessed everything and they gave me fifteen years. But I'll probably die in the next one so it doesn't matter. Thank you for going after those guys, I feel better knowing they won't deceive people like me anymore.

Your friend, Ray.

Ace got very thoughtful after reading Ray's words, not having noticed that Lexi was standing behind him, resting her hands on the couch's support. "Now, that's something I didn't expect." Lexi said.

"Me neither." Ace said, standing up while putting the letter back on the table. "Team! Come here!"

His other comrades met with them. "He turned himself in, didn't he? Tech intuited.

"Yes. But we gotta make sure." Ace walked towards the button that opened the windows and pressed it.

"Do we all have to go? I'm kinda tired." Duck said.

"We are all going, Duck." Ace walked towards the edge of the room and jumped while rapidly activating his jetpack, then he flew en route to Acmetropolis' Prison.

Duck sighed while walking towards the open windows, followed by the rest. "No nap time, then." They all activated their jetpacks and followed Ace to the prison.

Ray was inside his cell, reading a book about mechanics while laying over his cot. "Robson." A male voice said from the other side of the bars, it was from a guard of the area, a white furred wolf. "You got visit."

Ray raised an eyebrow and left his book over the bed, he stood up and his eyes widened when seeing the Loonatics. "Oh…uhm…hi guys."

"Can we..?" Ace pointed at the cell's inside, the guard nodded and opened the cell's door, letting the six heroes enter, then he closed it again.

Ray exhaled deeply and sat down on the edge of the cot. "Look, I had some time to think about, well, everything." He looked at them with a confident glare. "It wasn't hard to discover what was next for me. So, here I am."

The team was still silent, then Ace decided to speak. "You did the right thing, Ray." He said.

Ray sighed. "I know. It was the least I could do, I mean, I'll be here just for one year, maximum, so, it won't be that bad." He chuckled subtly.

"Yes, uhm, about that..." Tech said, getting Ray's attention. He smirked at him.

"What?" Ray's eyes widened slightly.

"It happens that my girlfriend has many contacts in Alumia." Tech explained. "I called her, and she managed to get you a full treatment. You'll be cured, Ray."

Ray's eyes began to get tearful. "Ar…" His voice broke instantly. "…are you serious?" Tech nodded. "I…" Ray gasped, trying to control the lump in his throat. "Th…" No word could come out through his greatly broken voice, so he just started to cry of happiness, standing up and hugging Tech strongly. His grateful tears moved the team's feelings so they all joined the moment and surrounded them with a group hug.

Author's note: Well, it seems this won't be the last we know about the Chaos Warriors (spoiler alert: they'll show up in a future arc, maybe the weirdest, craziest arc of the entire saga, that's all I'm telling you for now). Thanks again for your continuous support, it means so much and it has kept this story up and running for almost three years. From now on, the updates will be published every two weeks, starting from today (24/04/2020), that means the next chapter will be available in 08/05/2020, and so on (fridays). Again, thank you so much for being here, and take care, stay home. God bless you.