Loonatics: United

Compromised System

Episode 142: Distress call

Ace's focus was locked on the tiny looking skyscrapers below, as he and his comrades were in free fall, their polarized goggles made the light of the intense midday sun more tolerable to their eyes. "What's the bet this time, guys?" Ace's said through his comm.

"You clean my dishes, how about that? One month." Duck said.

Ace chuckled. "Alright, just don't cry like the last time."

"Hey! A burst sent me up! I was gonna land first!" Duck argued.

"Whatever you say man…" Ace replied. "One…two…three…deploy!"

They wore wingsuits, gray with black details. As they extended their arms, they started to glide, approaching the tallest skyscrapers of the city, which had halo shaped constructions attached to their structure. "Here we go, guys!" Ace lowered his arms and fell faster towards the first halo, extending them again as he went through, yelling with excitement.

"Are you sure you fit, sis?" Duck looked at Lexi and smirked at her jokingly.

"What the heck are you talking about?!" Lexi inquired with anger, frowning at him, to which Duck just laughed out loud.

"I'll see you on the other side, losers!" Duck went through the first halo, as gracefully as Ace had done.

"You can have your competition guys, I'm just gonna enjoy the ride." Tech said.

"Hm, as you wish, grandpa." Lexi chuckled and followed Duck.

"I'm barely older than you gir…" Tech sighed. "What's wrong with enjoying the scenery, am I right Sl..?" Slam and Rev were already going through the second halo. "Hey! That's rude!"

The room was dark, with just some blinking, blue lines around the Maniacs, all of a sudden, a squad of flying drones appeared around them. "Ladies first." Edison said.

"Thank you." Akinyi smirked cockily and jumped towards the drones, which began to shoot at them. Akinyi turned into smoke and got in the inner mechanisms of the drone, starting to mess with them.

"Over here!" Vale said through one of his copies, the drones began to shoot at it. Vale then approached one of the drones from behind and got over it, starting to punch it.

Randy rushed with his super speed over the room's walls, then he jumped towards a drone and with a flying kick, he destroyed its optical lens, the drone started to fly blindly all over the place until it collided with the floor, exploding and vanishing afterwards.

Edison evaded the quick laser shots of one of the drones gracefully. He landed with both hands touching the ground, with his gaze focused on the target, and as it began to shoot at him again, Edison rushed towards it while avoiding the shots and then slid over the ground and looked up, staring right at the drone's bottom, he then let out a strenuous roar and disintegrated the drone.

"Watch out!" Tech yelled as Duck almost got hit by a guy riding a hover bike.

"Woah!" Duck flew backwards, managing to avoid the vehicle, looking at the driver with a frown. "Get some eyes you idiot!"

"Duck!" Lexi scolded as she and the others flew gracefully around the building.

"I don't care." Duck replied.

Ace got his arms on his sides and inclined himself forward, gaining speed while approaching the last halo. Duck's eyes widened as he knew he was close to losing, so he did the same. Ace got through the halo first, Duck did so a couple of seconds later. Ace extended his arms for a brief moment, then he got them on his sides again and landed on a platform, dusting off his hands while glaring at Duck arrogantly. "It seems I'm not washing my dishes tonight."

Duck landed before him. "A brainless driver almost hit me, man!"

"So?" Ace chuckled while shaking his head. "You never change, pal."

A couple of moments later, the rest of the team landed among them one by one. "So, Kepler's?" Lexi said.

"Yeah, baby." Ace was stretching his arms. "What's a skydiving day without a nice burger?"

All of the drones had been defeated, the room got illuminated by a white dazzling light afterwards. "Good job, team." Vale praised.

"I still can't believe how realistic this is." Akinyi opined.

"Well, Tech made it after all, it's no surprise." Vale replied.

"Maniacs." Jeremy's voice sounded loudly from the room's speakers. "You have to see this."

The room turned dark again, then a video started to play in front of the team, displayed on one of the walls. After some static, a female sheep appeared on screen, who was wearing a gray jacket, the image was shaking as she appeared to be grabbing the camera with her hands while recording herself. "Loonatics, Maniacs, we need your help immediately." Her voice trembled, sounding desperate. "Rojus is under attack, some kind of terrorists arrived about a week ago and they're decimating the entire planet! Please, h…" The sheep looked away all of a sudden, widening her gaze and gasping with fear as the loud noise of machine guns and shotguns started to sound, as well as screams of death. The video stopped right afterwards.

"You heard the gal, your mission is to go there with the other freaks and attend the matter." Jeremy ordered.

"Excuse me? The 'other freaks'?" Akinyi crossed her arms with annoyance.

Jeremy sighed. "I'm kidding, you know I appreciate you guys so much, I'm like your father."

"No, you're not." Vale said with a straight tone.

"Whatever, call the Loonatics and go with them, people love when you guys team up." Jeremy commanded.

"We've only done that once." Edison said.

"So? The charts don't lie, Ed, people love this, uhm, 'crossover' things, have you seen like, any movie lately?" Jeremy replied then let out a sigh. "Just do as I tell you." He ended the communication.

"So, we're going?" Randy glared at Vale.

"We have no choice, man, you know that." Vale looked at the rest of the team. "Pack your things up, I'll contact Ace."

Ace munched a bit of his hamburger. "Mm. Dang, these things always bring me back to life." Kepler's was a clean looking restaurant, with a minimalist aesthetic, conformed mainly by blue lighting and gray tones. Punk music mixed with synth sounds set the place's ambiance.

"And that you say it, man." Duck ate a french fry from Lexi's plate.

"Dude, what the heck?" Lexi looked at him with a straight face.

"What? You have to take care of your figure, sis." Duck winked at her and chuckled. "I'm doing you a favor, I mean, you're looking a little less fit than before. Just a little."

Lexi growled at him. "You're despicable, Duck."

"Hey, that's my phrase, I charge royalties for that." Duck ate another fry from Lexi's plate.

"Duck." Ace said with a tone of warning.

"Man I'm joking, damn." Duck shook his head and took a sip from his soda.

"No one asked for your jok…" Lexi's ear twitched when hearing Ace's comm beeping.

"Hm." Ace accepted the call, bringing his comm close to his snout. "Hello?"

"Ace, hi. It's Vale, we have a…situation."

The Maniacs and the Loonatics reunited in the HQ, the latter had put on their classic bodysuits, the video that the former had received was being played at the lounge's TV. "Rojus, that's not too far away from here." Tech stated.

"Is it a cool place?" Duck ate from a bowl of popcorn he had prepared for himself. His question got completely ignored.

The video stopped playing, Ace then glanced at the Maniacs. "It seems we're working together again."

"Hurray." Duck expressed sarcastically. "Less space in the Leviathan."

"Levi-what?" Akinyi inquired.

"Oh, I'll get her ready!" Tech said with noticeable excitement and left in a hurry.

Ace sighed and chuckled as he looked at them. "After our jet got destroyed, Tech worked on a brand new transporter for us. It has room for you too."

"Oh, really? Well that was…thoughtful of him." Vale smirked at Ace.

"It was my idea." Ace smiled back at him.

The Maniacs and the Loonatics stood before the huge transporter that laid in the hangar. It had the shape of a three-dimensional guitar pick, with glowing green lights and with a matte dark gray exterior, as well as a polarized window at the front. "Woah, double-decker." Vale noticed so by seeing how the windows of the quarters were arranged.

"Yup, and a full set of firearms just in case, including but not limited to a plasma cannon, a sixth-gen laser beam and a set of machine guns." Tech described proudly while standing among them, glaring at 'Leviathan' with a huge smile on his face. "She's gorgeous, isn't she?" He looked at the Maniacs, waiting for a response.

"It's…uhm, big, yeah." Akinyi said.

"I like her." Randy smiled at Tech. "Or it, I mean you called it a 'she' but I don't kn.."

"The guy's weird as heck, man, don't worry." Duck patted Randy's shoulder amicably.

"I'll just ignore you said that." Tech extended his hand towards the transporter. "Go ahead, make yourselves comfortable!"

-Author's note-

Hi there! Thanks so much for your patience and continuous support! I'll publish a new chapter every two weeks on Saturdays so stay tuned! God bless :D !