Loonatics: United

Episode 75: Callous Joust

The six heroes walked through a bright hallway in Acmetropolis´ General Hospital. A nurse was leading them. "He is badly injured, I don´t think he´s gonna make it." The male tiger said, he wore a blue lab coat.

"What´s his name?" Ace inquired.

"Charles Foster." The nurse replied.

Tech scratched his chin. "That name sounds me familiar."

After walking a bit more, they reached the door of the room where Charles was. The nurse opened it slowly and let the heroes enter first. "Please, be quick." The tiger closed the door and left.

Charles´ gown was stained with blood and half of his face was covered with bandages, also stained red. He was looking directly at Ace. "Loonatics." He spoke softly, Ace walked towards him followed by his comrades, standing before him by the side of the bed. "I know who did this." Charles let out a dry sigh. "That thing..." He began to close his eyes and lower his head, but he made an effort and looked at Ace again. "Derek...Dune. He was my partner at NovaLabs."

Tech nodded. "NovaLabs, right." He murmured to himself.

"But...he wanted me to fund these monsters of him." Charles´ voice began to break, a tear was forming in the corner of his eye. "I couldn´t do that."

Ace got closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You did well, Mr. Foster." He nodded at him. "You did well."

Charles moved his arm effortfully then grasped Ace´s arm. "apotheosis07." Ace raised an eyebrow as well as his comrades.

"What´s that?" Ace asked.

"Password. For my computer..." Charles took a deep breath then exhaled rapidly. "...at NovaLabs." He looked at the rest of the team. "There you´ll find information...about what´s coming next."

Ace felt rather dismayed with his words. Lexi took the word this time. "You mean, more of those creatures?"

Charles looked at her in silence for a brief moment, then he nodded. "You better hurry, Loonatics..." He looked at the ceiling and slowly closed his eyes, loosening his grasp on Ace´s arm and laying his arm over the bed.

Ace and the rest stood in silence for a moment, knowing Charles was still alive as the monitor at his left displayed, but feeling unsettled with the idea of more monsters attacking the city. "Tech." He looked at his teammate.

"apotheosis07." Tech replied. "I got it." He briefly poked his own forehead.

Ace nodded. "Okay." He gave a final glare at Charles then started to walk towards the door, followed by the rest of the team. "Let´s go."

The heroes flew with their jetpacks over the city´s skyscrapers, under the blue sky and the still early sun. "So, you know this place, Doc?" Ace asked Tech.

"Absolutely. They make the best thermoreversible polymers in the market." Tech answered. "Been there a couple of times for study."

"Is there, like, any moment when you´re not nerding around?" Lexi said jokingly.

Tech chuckled. "Not a single one, Lexi."

After a few minutes of travel, they arrived at NovaLabs´ complex, landing before it. It was a tall and wide building, with black and white patterns and the logo of the company being displayed through the dark glass. A large stairway received the six heroes. "So, we just walk in?" Lexi asked Ace, who just shrugged his shoulders.

"Uhm, I guess." Ace looked briefly at his comrades then just walked up the stairs followed by them.

Inside the lobby, the secretary, a gray furred female fox, who wore a white dress and sat behind a round, black wooden desk, was attending a call on her phone. "Yes. I´m taking care of that, trust me." She sighed. "Don´t worry, it´s a shame what happened to him but it´s not my fault. Give me till´ eight, okay? Right?" She ended the call then hung up the phone with frustration, covering her face with both hands.

The Loonatics entered the lobby through the automatic doors, looking around the modern, aesthetically appealing inside of the place, with the same black and white tones. They approached the secretary. She was still covering her face, so Ace just spoke to get her attention. "Miss."

The secretary gasped and her eyes widened when seeing the Loonatics standing right in front of her. "Oh my..." She arranged her fur a bit. "You´re those guys, right?"

"Excuse me, not ´those guys´ pretty. We´re the Loonatics, the greatest heroes of Acmetropolis!" Duck put his hand over his chest.

The secretary blushed. "Oh, right..." She scratched her nape. "Sorry, I don´t watch a lot of TV." The vixen stood up. "Mr. Foster told me you were coming." She grabbed an access badge and handed it to Ace, who put it on with the help of its small, plastic chain. "Area five, second floor. Room 5B" She smirked at him. "That´s that way." She pointed at her left.

Ace nodded. "Thank you, Miss." He smirked back and looked at his team then gestured leftwards. The six heroes walked towards the large hallway.

The hallway appeared to have no end until they reached an inner yard, there were several snack bars, lounges and places for the employees to eat and chill. Ace looked at the buildings around it and noticed that they were numbered so he just looked for the one marked with the number five in the upper left corner, which he found almost instantly. "Over there." He said and began to walk towards the building, passing by a few lounges and snack bars, as well as some employees.

"No wonder why you liked to study here, Tech." Rev said. "It feels like a school but without the bullies, the enraged teachers and the weird smells in the corridors."

"It´s neat, I must admit it." Tech chuckled. "But not as good as our HQ."

"Yeah, absolutely." Duck said with a pronounced sarcastic tone.

The heroes approached the door of Area five. Ace brought the access badge close to the scanner in the door´s handle. A confirming beep sounded then the door opened before them and the Loonatics entered the building. They walked through the brief hallway and went upstairs, carefully looking at the numbers of the different doors. "5E...5D...5C" Ace expressed until he stopped walking right before the door they were looking for. "5B." He got the access badge close to the handle again, the same beep sounded and the door opened, revealing a big office, with a lounge, a vending machine, several monitors, plantpots, among other stylish stuff.

Lexi whistled. "Now this guy got taste."

"Focus on the mission, Lexi." Duck said rather jokingly. "We are professionals, we shouldn..." His eyes widened when seeing a silver statue over a small desk, it resembled a male fox with a holo-soccer uniform, with a ball under his foot. Duck approached the table and tried to grab the statue, but Lexi slapped his hand. "Ouch! Hey, I was just looking!"

"We are professionals, aren´t we?" Lexi gave him a look of warning then she followed Ace and the rest to the desk where Charles computer was located.

Duck grunted and rubbed his hand. "Of course, yeah...professionals." He looked at Lexi for a moment, then he rapidly grabbed the statue. "A collectible figure of the one and only Xavier Bale, forward of Acmetropolis´ Forger..."

"Duck, leave that now!" Ace ordered firmly before sitting down in front of the computer. He turned it on and waited for the boot up. The login screen appeared, asking for the password. "Tech." Ace said.

"apotheosis07." Tech replied and Ace started to type the password, then he pressed the Enter key. A welcome message appeared on the screen which said ´Welcome back, Mr. Foster.´ Duck had already gotten among his teammates. Ace started to browse through the files in the blue themed operating system of the computer. He selected the search bar of the file program. "Derek..." He spoke while typing. "...Dune." The program loaded several files of all types. "Okay." Ace looked at Tech. "Doc."

Tech nodded and brought his arm close to the computer then pressed a button on his comm, he then took the mouse, selecting all the files and right clicking, then he chose the ´Transfer´ option, which instantly detected the filesystem in Tech´s comm. The files took a couple of seconds to transfer, a beeping noise confirmed the end of the task. "I got them, boss."

Ace nodded at him then shut down the computer and stood up, looking at his comrades. "Let´s see what this guy is up to."

Meanwhile, inside a dark, dome shaped warehouse, a huge set of interconnected monitors, consoles and workstations dimly illuminated the several tall tubes that held different types of monstrous creatures, floating in a light green, bubbling liquid. The tubes were illuminated from the bottom of their respective platforms. Derek Dune was sitting over the floor with his legs crossed, admiring his creations, focusing specially in the one which development was almost complete, a blue furred sabretooth with red, glowing eyes and spines all across its body. The cougar´s face looked rather emaciated and thinner, his lab coat was dirty and had holes all over it, but the scientist´s eyes showed pure conviction and hate. "So you want to play, huh?" He kept studying the looks of his new beast. "Alright." He nodded several times. "Alright, Loonatics. We are gonna play." He got into his feet with a gasp and some effort. "We are gonna play my game." He began to laugh. "And you will lose! Forever!" Derek kept laughing while looking at the modified sabretooth, confident on his statements.