Loonatics Unleashed:

"Reasonable Commands" part 1

(This story is post "Going Underground.")

Not sure of rating. Chose T for reading level, not content.

Disclaimer: Loonatics Unleashed and related Characters and Elements are trademarks of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Lexi walked into the Loonatic's open living room that connected loosely with the kitchen and dining areas, ruefully rubbing her hypersensitive ears. The nearly sub-aural rumble that had been reverberating throughout the tower since far too early in the morning was making her long, rabbit ears positively ache! She had her EMP3 Music Blaster 5000 with her, but it didn't block out the added noise. "WHAT is Rev doing?"

"I'm-not-doing-anything." Hearing his name, the roadster zipped over from the adjoining kitchen area carrying the remains of his breakfast with him. Rev came to a sudden, vibrating stop in front of his female teammate. "Nix-nada-nothing. Not-that-I-don't-plan-on-doing-something-later-unless-of-course-I-should-be-doing-something-now-in-which-case-I-must-have-forgotten-it. Should-I-be-doing-something-Lexi?"

"Well, if the music isn't yours and it isn't mine," Lexi complained still rubbing her ears, "then who's is it?"

Ace wandered in from his early morning workout. Overhearing the discussion, the yellow and black clad bunny made a detour from getting his own breakfast to join in. Before the Loonatic leader could ask what was going on, Slam 'tornado-ed' through, trailing a purple glow behind him and leaving a more or less unidentifiable mass of donut in Ace's hands. "Uh, t'anks, Slam . . . I t'ink." Then Ace shrugged; breakfast was breakfast after all. He lightly blasted the donut with his laser vision to heat it and took a bite.

"Rrhhng ppptttt kkrrngblaa nothin'," Slam garbled in Tasmanian.

Danger Duck executed a hand spring, athletically spring over the back of the couch to land suavely on the cushions. The mallard hooked his hands behind his head. "Slam's right, toots. I don't hear anything either. Are you sure you're not just picking up the satellite again?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Lexi grumbled. "That was the first thing I checked."

"Eh, my guess is dat it's Tech." Ace did a quick nose count of his team. "He's da only one not here. Ya t'ink we should check up on our coyote? He probably pulled another all-nighter."

Rev gulped the last of his super booster pick-me-up shake breakfast, and acting on Ace's unspoken command, dashed out to check up on his best friend. The speedy roadrunner was back before most of the group even knew that he'd gone. The speedster could have used his internal global positioning to find Tech, but where was the fun in that? He'd rather run. "He's-not-in-his-lab-his-room-or-even-in-the-basement-which-is-really-odd-since-he-said-last-night-that-he-wanted-to-check-the-foundation."

"Well, den gang, da only way ta go," Ace replied with a cocky grin, "is up."

Yellow Triangle.

As the five Loonatics neared the highest level of the spherical, blue glowing 'hamster ball' that hovered atop their headquarter tower they began to feel deep, rhythmic vibrations coming up through the floor. Every once in a while the vibrations would cease for a few minutes before starting up again. By the time they reached the apex hanger where the Loonatics kept all their vehicles, they could actually see the doors vibrating.

Ace placed a hand on the closed doors, the vibrations tingled up his entire arm. His piercing blue eyes locked briefly with Lexi's green ones. The poor girl, with her extraordinary hearing it was no wonder that her ears hurt. "What IS Tech doing in dere?"

Eye's widening in mock alarm, Danger's hand darted up and clamped Rev's beak closed as the hyperactive roadrunner opened his mouth to answer. "That, was a rhetorical question."

"Gblch ppptttt gblaa kkrrnpppttttrrhhnggblaa means?" Slam cocked his head at Danger, humor glinting in his crimson eyes.

"Yeesh, Smart Alec. Of course, I know what 'Rhetorical' means." Danger folded his arms indignantly across his chest. He continued muttering. "You don't hang around 'Mr. Big Words' in there for this long without being corrupted by some of it."

"So, uh, do we go in?" Lexi asked hesitantly. The bunny wasn't really anxious to get her ears blasted anymore than they already were.

"Na uh, not yet." Ace waited until the vibrations stopped again before popping open the hanger bay doors and stepping in.

Tech was standing in the center of the Loonatic's garage with a large, sound cancellation headset over his long ears. The emerald glow shining in his eyes and emanating from his hands encased one of the zoomatrix bikes as he moved it to a pre-marked spot on the hanger floor. Once the land-and-air cycle was positioned, the coyote powered down his magnetism and checked one of the holographic computer displays hanging in the air in front of him. He talked quietly to himself as he typed on one of the holographic keyboards of his palmtop computer, obviously not aware that he was verbalizing his thoughts. "Acoustic parameters, check. Sound bafflers, check. Resonance frequency, calculated. Alright, just one more test and my baby's good to go."

The rest of the Loonatics looked around, baffled, at the garage. Tech had pulled away everything from the walls and completely rearranged the vehicular landing pads. Even the jetpack shelves were now freestanding. There was also a towering monolith in the center of the domed room pointing out the opened triangle exit hatch and there was a newly mounted receiving dish on the tower's top-most anti-gravity spike. The light blue sphere that made up the main living quarters, training areas, and labs of the Loonatic Headquarters hovered between two such anti-gravity generators, one above, and one beneath, suspending the globe in the eye of the tower's three spike-like spires. The main body of the tower was taken up in in its power core and vast information conduits as well as ancillary bays and armature encasements.

"Wow-it-looks-like-he's-building-an-enormous-resonance-chamber-like-an-inverse-megaphone. I-mean-man-o-man-you-could-do-all-sorts-of-neat-stuff-with-a-set-up-like-this!" Rev exclaimed excitedly. "Unless-of-course-Tech-is-actually-practicing-the-ancient-Chinese-art-of-feng-shuri-to-create-a-harmonious-surrounding-to-enhance-balance-of-yin-and-yang-and-improve-the-flow-of-chi-by-rearranging-all-the-objects-in-the-hanger."

Unaware that his friends were in the hanger with him, Tech typed in the activation code once more. His olive green eyes flicked up to watch the graphics rise on one of his holographic computer screens, but they flew wide in horror as he saw his teammates through its translucent data. Instantly his eyes and hands glowed green again as he magnetically ripped off his sound cancellation headphones and flung the headset to clamp over Lexi's sensitive ears.

A deep, sonorous blast threw the unsuspecting Loonatics back. They sailed out the still open bay doors and smacked in a clump against the far wall of the hallway. Tech, however, was caught in the epicenter of the cacophonous maelstrom. Driven to his knees, Tech clamped his still glowing hands to his ears, covering his entire body in a shimmering emerald glow. It did no good. The magnetic field could not keep out the damaging sound. The coyote's agonized howl was swallowed up in the din.

Finding herself somewhat insulated from the assault by the headset, Lexi, kicked against the wall, somersaulting out of the tangled mass of her teammates. Her movement dislodged Ace as well, but the sound pounding them from the adjoining room kept the Loonatic leader out.

Lexi made her way back into the bay, but pushing against the heavy vibrations in the air was like fighting against the incoming tide. The floor was also vibrating in time with the exceedingly loud sound, making it hard to maintain balance. Her stomach clenched as her green eyes caught on the tortured form of her coyote friend, and she was glad she couldn't hear his pain. How could she stop the noise? Lexi didn't dare brain blast the devise. Many of Tech's devices were volatile and she didn't want to risk a major explosion on top of everything else. With all the equipment in the hanger, she could bring down the entire sphere. She tried typing in on the control pad, but couldn't figure out the deactivation code. Starting to panic, she quickly looked for a failsafe or even a self destruct button, but couldn't find one. Not knowing what else to do, Lexi fought her way over to a thick power cord leading to Tech's invention and yanked. When it didn't come free, she gave it a half twist and yanked again.

Ace bounded into the room as the sound died away. Lexi pulled the sound cancellation headset off as he approached and beamed at him. He was surprised at how relieved he was that she was okay. Behind them, Rev, Slam, and Danger Duck slid down the wall to land in a tangled heap. Danger was on the bottom of the pile. Tech whimpered slightly as his molecular regeneration repaired his shattered inner ears. He soon recovered and stood.

"WHAT was dat?" Ace demanded.

"The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo De Silos . . . or more accurately, a recording of their chants." Tech grimaced slightly until finally the residual ringing in his ears subsided. "The chants produce the frequencies that I need."

Ace and Lexi exchanged looks and shrugged. Trust their genius to listen to monks chanting while he worked on his inventions.

"So ya wanna tell us why ya used musty old monks ta turn our flight deck inta a death trap?" Ace studied Tech narrow-eyed, determining if the coyote was healed enough for a dressing down. The Loonatic leader tried to sound stern, but though the bunny took his position as leader seriously, he was having a rough time of it. Ace trained hard, fought hard, and played hard. And he encouraged his team to do likewise. The martial arts expert didn't like discouraging his genius by busting his chops every time an invention went haywire, but Tech's mistakes often had dire consequences!

"Why would you even build something that insanely dangerous!" Danger, however, had no problem voicing his disapproval. He quacked over and drew up to his full diminutive height. The mallard rapped a finger sharply on the coyote's chest. "You nearly blasted us to kingdom come!"

"I was building a frequency generator to broadcast calculated resonance wave modulations down through the length of the tower to test whether the reinforcements on foundation that we installed was up to earthquake code. Since Dr. Thaddeus Dare shook up Acmetropolis with his geokinesis induced subterranean events, I thought it expedient." Tech tapped in a series of commands and a blueprint of the process appeared on the holographic screen hanging in the air. It showed how the hanger focused the sound waves to travel up, out of the hanger bay to be collected in the dish attached to the top spire of the tower. They then would be sent down the length of the tower to its foundation. If it survived the vibrations in tact, it meant that not even the strongest earthquake would rock Loonatic Tower.

Even with the visual aid, Tech met with the blank, uncomprehending stares of his teammates. The coyote genius looked to Rev for a simpler explanation, but the roadrunner was still entangled with Slam out in the hall. Unsure how to bridge the communication gap himself, Tech settled on an apology instead. "I'm sorry guys, I didn't know you were here. With the doors closed, the sound paradigm would have been completely contained."

"Oh, bruddah." Ace murmured to himself. "I can't even understand his apologies."

"Tech, even before your big sonic boom," Lexi interrupted the genius with a bit of reproving in her voice. "I heard you all over the sphere."

"Oh." Tech considered the information. The resident genius annotated a note in his 'to do' file. He should be able to get to it later this week. "Hmm, yes, well it sounds like I need to increase the sound proofing for the base."

"Ya think?" Lexi smiled at the coyote, softening her rebuke. She handed his headset back to him. It wasn't really her color anyway. The bunny rested her hand lightly on the scientist's arm a moment, silently telling him that she wasn't really that upset, but also that he really, REALLY needed to be more careful in the future.

"The one time I didn't build in a self-destruct mechanism, and I should have." Tech sighed heavily, shaking his head. He just couldn't win. If it hadn't been for Lexi unplugging his invention, he might have seriously injured all his teammates—all his friends.

"Tech." Ace place a firm hand on his teammate's shoulder, demanding his full attention. Confronted with the coyote's drooping ears and wide, hang dog eyes, the bunny relented. He turned to check on the rest of the team. "Next time ya decide ta turn our home inta a master blaster capable of deafening da city . . . ehhh, let me know foist."

"Irhhng pppttttnngbl rrhhng gblaa rrhhnggblaa fun." Slam's deep voice cut through the chit-chat. He and Rev reentered the hanger bay.

"'I thought it was kinda fun.'" Danger mimicked, rolling his eyes heavenward. Trust the Tasmanian devil to enjoy getting slammed into the wall. "You would."

"Oh-wow-this-is-so-cool! I-had-no-idea-that-our-flight-deck-was-such-a-good-acoustic-chamber. You-can-hear-everything-no-matter-how-quiet-you-whisper." Rev repeatedly ran from one side of the room, whisper something, then dash to the other side of the room in time to hear it. The roadrunner then dashed back to his friends. "Is-this-what-you-hear-all-the-time?-because-if-it-is-then-man-oh-man-you-must-just-love-your-powers! Oh-and-may-I-borrow-this-just-for-a-minute?"

Rev snatched Lexi's EMP3 Music Blaster 5000 before she had a chance to react to his rapid stream of words. The speedster was over at Tech's hovering computer in a flash. He plugged in the music player and turned it on. Lexi's favorite music sensation flooded the acoustically perfect hanger. Luckily, Rev had thought to turn down the volume to just above a whisper so that even though it filled the garage, it didn't blast them all into the wall again. The roadrunner worked rapidly at the keyboard to program in a complimenting light show into the projector. Colored lights and perfect pitch pulsed through the domed room. "Wow! there-is-absolutely-no-distortion-at-all! Sweet-sweet-sweet!"

"You said it!" Lexi smiled widely. "Our next party definitely needs to be up here!"

"So-Tech," Rev stopped in front of his best friend. "How'd-you-get-the-sound-cancellation-headset-on-to-Lexi-so-fast-without-whacking-her-unconscious-with-it? I-mean-it's-a-really-good-thing-you-did-otherwise-we'd-all-have-to-wear-hearing-aides-for-the-rest-of-our-lives. You-must-be-working-on-fine-tuning-your-power."

"Simple," Tech replied with a slight shrug. "I merely homed my magnetic powers on Lexi's EMP3 ear buds and followed the electromagnetic lines."

The light projector wavered and the tall, elegant form of Zadavia's hologram materialized within its light beam, cutting short all conversation. It was a bit unsettling. You never knew which cameras or networks she might be tapping into at any given time. "Loonatics, gather around. We face a major crisis. Upload city wide surveillance feed now."

Tech moved to comply and soon multiple scenes of mass riots and intracity mayhem shared Zadavia's column of light. One of the screens showed a short, square-built man in a green lab coat. He sported thick, goggle-like glasses and a sharply pointed goatee; his black hair, parted by a streak of violet-grey, flared up into two spikes on either side of his head.

"It looks like Professor Zane escaped and is up ta his old tricks." Ace commented as Zadavia started the briefing.

"Oh, no. Not destroying Acmetropolis with more Fuz-Zs, I hope!" Lexi had initially love the hot new trend of bio-pets, but the chocoholic monsters were definitely more of a headache than they were worth!

"No. Something much worse," Zadavia intoned in her nearly emotionless voice. On one view screen, a maniacally laughing Professor Zane pointed some sort of machine at a crowd of humans and anthros gathered in central park. A prismatic spray of light and cacophonous sound swept over the people. As one, the crowd went berserk. Some laughed. Some cried. Some loved. Most fought, caught in the throws of the entirety of the sentient reality as if every frustration, fear, hatred, and jealousy was suddenly unleashed.

"Hmm, intriguing." Rapidly fiddling with the controls, Tech sectioned off a portion of the picture, magnifying it and replaying it in slow motion to study the people's reactions more closely. The coyote genius pointedly ignored his teammates' shocked, and in some cases indignant, responses to his analytical comment. He focused the picture further to show, not the people, but rather many of their pets that they had been taking for a walk in the park. "Absolutely fascinating. Anthro- and Homo- sapiens alike appear to be affected, but NOT their pets."

Zadavia continued her instructions to the team. "I'm afraid Professor Zane has somehow managed to turn Acmetropolis' citizens against themselves. It is up to you, my Loonatics, to discover how he's doing this and stop him before Acmetropolis tears itself apart. Zadavia out."

"Okay, gang. We know da who and da where. Let's go get da what and da how." Ace hopped into the supersonic transport taking his place as pilot as the rest of the team assumed their posts. "Loonatics, let's jet!"