On a starlit winter night, when the moon is shining bright and the howling wind pierces one’s ears, what better way to spend an evening than watching cartoons? But as everyone knows, getting a hold on good old fashioned cartoons is a little hard in the year 2773, which means that if anyone were to come across any, they would be very lucky to be able to see such high quality stuff.

Therefore, two brothers knew exactly what they were doing when they just sat about in their living room, watching the most recent cartoon they had started to like. They sat in separate chairs, with a coffee table between them, and looked at the huge screen in front of them, admiring what they were seeing.

“You gotta admit, they do have style,” said one.

“True, very true,” said the other. “But I still like to think that the coyote is the best.”

The first one scoffed. “Are you kidding?” he exclaimed and rose a bit in his seat. “Rev is way cooler than he’ll ever be!”

“Hey! We promised we wouldn’t fight about favorites tonight!” the second one warned, and waved a finger at his brother. “Remember, we’re here to look for some trivia!”

His brother folded his arms and plumped down in his chair, frowning. “Yeah, well… we’ve only been watching this for about a week, and I for one still haven’t found anything that interesting…”

“Just relax, bro,” said the other. “I’m certain that we’ll see a light some day.”

“Some day… Some day… Dude, that’s what you said years ago, and we still haven’t found any that are like us!” The first brother was beginning to raise his voice, getting a little angry with that reminder.

“Look, I’m not the one in charge of what happens in the world, okay?” the other one replied. “All I’m saying is that we will find them some day, and that’s a promise.”

“That’s what you say all the time!” the first one yelled and expanded his arms to show off his minor rage. He then dropped them back again, one landing safely in his lap; but the other sharply on the coffee table between the brothers. It hit the remote control that was lying there, which caused the program they were watching to skip a large amount of scenes.

“Now look what you did!” said the second one and rose in his seat to reach for the remote. He had just picked it up when his brother suddenly gasped. He looked up. “What now?”

The other brother just stared at the screen with wide eyes, and then slowly, shakily pointed at what he was seeing. “L- Look…”

The second brother rolled his eyes to the screen, and almost dropped the remote when he saw what was making his brother so shocked. The two of them stared at the screen for the longest time, both wearing the exact same shocked expression.

Luckily, it was a final scene of an episode, so when it faded out, they managed to get out of the staring fit. They both blinked a few times to moist their eyes, and then shook their heads. They looked at each other, and then both shot up from their chairs.

“We found something!” they both exclaimed at each other, dancing around the living room like a bunch of wackos.

“How could we have missed it?” the second brother stated and slapped his forehead. “It’s been right in front of our eyes this whole time!”

“Took us long enough, right?” the first one had to comment, and then punched the air in excitement. “Oh man! After all those years, we finally found something worth our trip!”

“And what a discovery it is…” said the second one, and turned the television screen off. “The Loonatics… are practically coven copies of the Looney Tunes…”

HEIRS

Chapter 1 – Tourists

Beauty is pain.

Whoever thought of that phrase had to have been in Lexi’s steps at least once. Being a superhero, with all the crime fighting, butt kicking, and battling that follows, while still trying to be a pretty little bunny really was a major pain. Sadly, having to be on a team, which almost only consisted of boys, kept reminding her of it.

“Speaking of a reminder…” Lexi said out loud to herself as she found yet another bloodstain on her fur. She had been in the shower for at least half an hour, and the blood from the giant blood beetle they had been fighting still hadn’t come off. Once again, Lexi rubbed and scrubbed her whole body, trying to get rid of any trace of it.

Finally, when she was certain that all the blood had come off, she turned the water off, and watched it go down the drain for a moment, along with the blood she had just washed out. She shook her head and ran a hand up her face, and down her ears. They immediately sprung back up to their normal position. She opened the shower door and stepped out, water still dripping from her wet feet. She picked up the towel she had prepared, and started drying her body and face.

Lexi had a look at herself in the mirror, and couldn’t help but snort at the sight of her fur being all wet and flat. Luckily, she was the only one who ever saw her like that – and ever would. She kept drying her fur, rubbing the towel on all wet places on her body.

“Well, now that that’s over…” she said as she threw the towel on the floor, and reached for her clothes. As much as she liked the latex Loonatics suits, she preferred to dress in casual wear. After all, that was the only way she could show off her real blonde fur. When she was done dressing, she had one last look at herself in the mirror, and blew a kiss at her reflection.

“Lookin’ good as always, Bunny!” she said and chuckled. She then unlocked the bathroom door, making it open up when the sensor felt her walk over it. Brushing some hair from her eyes, she began walking into the living room, where the boys seemed to be arguing over what had just happened. All of them were already clean and dressed, and they were holding up their usual latex suits for one another, talking about something.

“I still say Rev’s the one who should pay for the new suits,” Duck commented, his flat bill giving a little smirk at the blue roadrunner standing beside him.

“Who? Me?” Rev replied in his usual fast-talking way. “Why should I do it? I mean, it’s not like I had anything to do with us getting caught up in that stupid beetle fight, and just so you know the minor details of this case, Duck, it was Ace’s idea to go out to fight it!” Rev gave the team leader a look, though not letting go of his slightly hurt expression from Duck’s comment.

“Hey, I just did what Zadavia told us to do!” said Ace. “Besides, Tech’s the one who blew it to smithereens! I think that’s basically what made it gush so much.” Ace’s eyes trailed over to the coyote sitting in the sofa, still somewhat examining his suit.

“Don’t look at me, chief,” he said, not taking his eyes off his own suit. “Slam’s the one who wanted to ‘smash the bug’.”

The large Tasmanian devil pouted and folded his big arms, and grunted something totally incoherent, though the word ‘duck’ was unmistakably there. Lexi couldn’t help but crack a small grin at the sight of her teammates. She couldn’t remember the last time they had been blaming each other in circles, but she knew that she loved when they did it. It was one of the many funny things about those boys.

“What’s all this racket about, guys?” she asked as she walked to the scene, pretending that she hadn’t witnessed what had just happened.

Ace turned around to face her, still holding his torn suit. “Oh, not much,” he said and shrugged. “We were just discussing who’s gonna be the one to pay for the new suits. I mean, they’re pretty much unusable right now…”

“You don’t say…” Duck said sarcastically. He then threw his suit away and plumped down on the yellow sofa, making Tech jolt a bit upwards to the sudden movement. “Well, I for one am not picking up my wallet for something like this. I have better use for my cash.”

No one even bothered to ask Duck what he’d rather do with the little amount of money he had; mostly because they knew he’d just reply with some witty comment like: “You really don’t want to know.” Instead, the whole team joined Duck’s lazy move and sat down on the long sofa (by that time, Tech had given up on examining his suit). They all threw their mangy suits away and sighed, equally glad that the fight with the blood beetle was over.

“Have you guys noticed how ridiculous our enemies have become?” Lexi had to say, just to break the silence that was starting to form.

“What do you mean by that?” Ace asked.

“Oh, well, you know,” said Lexi, and started counting on her fingers. “First there was the snot-dragon; then there was the big talking skeleton; then the huge octopuses; then a giant fire-breathing pair of scissors; and now this blood beetle!” She lowered her hands and raised an eyebrow at the boys. “I mean, seriously. I feel like I’m in a silly kids’ cartoon with a bad writing department.”

Tech chuckled. “She does have a point, you know,” he said, and relaxed his arms on the back of the sofa. “Normally, we’d be fighting something pretty sinister, like, say, a mind-controlling alien; or an evil mastermind planning to take over the universe; but all we get nowadays are some cheesy one-shot monsters.”

“Yeah, I wonder what’s up with that,” said Ace and scratched his head. “You don’t suppose all the bad guys have given up on us? Or they finally realized that we’re better. Or maybe…” Ace’s eyes almost glowed, “Maybe they’re all staying in a little secret hideout planning to attack us all at the same time!” As serious as this sentence was, Ace’s voice actually had a sound of excitement in it.

“Heck no!” Rev exclaimed. “I for one think that even if they were planning something like that, they’d let us know first by sending a subliminal message, or warning us with something; I mean, they are our worst enemies, right? Not just some, if I may use the same phrase, cheesy one-shot monsters that are always pretty easy to beat. Nope, I think that even if they’ve been hiding out in the shadows lately, they’re each trying to come up with a diabolical plan of their own on how to destroy us.”

“Thank you mister optimistic,” said Duck and clapped sarcastically. Rev gave him a small glare, but didn’t say anything back.

“But think about it,” said Ace, who still sounded a bit excited. “What if they’re all gathered in one place, and combining their powers to get back on us? That’d be one heck of a battle!”

Slam let out a laugh, but Lexi frowned. “Ace, you’re saying that like it’s a good thing.”

“Well, maybe it is,” said Ace and smiled wide. “Even if they’d joined forces, we’d still be unbeatable! We’ve been improving a lot lately, so I think we’d be ready for them any day!”

Lexi rolled her eyes, smiling. Ace was a great leader, and supportive of his teammates, but when he got into gear, he really lost it sometimes. Yet, there was always something about that glow in his eyes when he talked about something that involved action…

Suddenly, bright light filled the room, and a familiar voice echoed around it. Lexi snapped out of her thoughts and joined the boys in looking in the light’s direction. “A job well done with the blood beetle, Loonatics,” said Zadavia, who had just called on the hologram. “Although blowing it up may not have been the best solution, Acmetropolis is safe once again because of you.”

“Thanks, Zadavia,” said Ace as he stood up to greet his superior. “We try,” he added and grinned.

“But congratulating you for that wasn’t exactly the intention for this call,” said Zadavia. Before anyone could ask what she meant, the big screen in their living room turned on, revealing a few shots of the Loonatics’ past battlefields. None of them could still really see the point of the call, until Rev spoke.

“Hey, what are those hooded things?” he said and pointed at one of the shots. His teammates had a closer look, and noticed that there were indeed two hooded creatures lurking around the places.

“For the past few days, these creatures have been appearing in the most unlikely places,” said Zadavia. “Various museums have also reported sightings of those two, but sadly, no one has been able to catch them in the act.”

“So, what’s this got to do with us?” Duck asked and folded his arms, leaning back lazily on the sofa. “I mean, it’s just a couple of tourists. Can’t really blame them for wanting to have a look around the place.”

“Yeah, but why our old battlefields?” Tech wondered. “And why go to museums, but never really go in there? This is pretty suspicious if you ask me.”

“Not to me, it isn’t. Just look at them,” said Duck and extended one arm to point at the screen. “They’re not doing anything but exploring. Sure, being dressed in hoods is a little creepy, but hey! Tourists are always creepy!”

Zadavia frowned at Duck. Instantly, the shot of the ‘tourists’ morphed into a close-up of the two. As the Loonatics watched, they noticed just how the creatures were able to move from place to place: by warp. “Tourists who certainly know how to bend the rules of time and space,” said Zadavia. Duck opened his beak to reply, but decided not to.

“Still, this isn’t the most suspicious act they’ve done,” Zadavia continued, and the shot of the creatures changed once more. It now showed one of them looking around to make sure no one was looking, and the other one pulling something out of its sleeve and putting it down on the ground. With that, the warp appeared, and they were out. “As you can see, they seem to leave something at one scene, unlike the others.”

Ace stepped forward a bit, and leaned to the screen, squinting his eyes to be able to see what it was. When he did, he leaned back with a funny look on his face. “Wait… is that a letter?”

Lexi’s ears perked. “Letter? Are you sure? Is it handwritten?”

Tech stood up and examined the picture as well. “No, Lexi,” he said while scratching his chin in thought. “It’s not even a to-do list. I think it’s an actual alphabetical letter.”

“Loonatics, your next job is to find these creatures and find out what it is they’re looking for,” said Zadavia. “They may only look suspicious, but I fear that they’re planning to do something more if they’re not stopped.” The image on the screen changed into an empty spot in the middle of the city. “This is the place where you fought Rip Runner and his Robo-Amigos some time ago. I suspect the hooded creatures to appear there next. Find them, and uncover what is going on.”

Rev groaned a bit to the memory of that battle, but Ace covered it with his reply. “We’re on it, chief!”

“Zadavia out.” With that, the hologram faded out, and the image of Zadavia disappeared.

“Geez… speaking of weird enemies…” Duck commented, referring to the conversation they had had earlier. “A bunch of creepy guys wondering around our old fields. That’s a job for the cops, not us!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Duck,” said Ace. “All we gotta do is find out what they’re doing. Besides, I wanna know what’s up with the letter.”

Slam stood up and grunted something excitedly, while Rev nodded and smiled wide. Lexi shook her head, and decided to join in as well. “Whatever you say, oh team leader,” she said.

Ace laughed a bit, but before he could shout his catchphrase, Tech interrupted. “Uh, guys, you do realize that we have to go out without our suits on, right?”

“Bah, so what?” said Duck and patted Tech on the back. “It’s not like anyone’s gonna judge this duck’s fabulous looks!” He flexed the arm that wasn’t patting Tech and smirked.

Tech sighed and rolled his eyes. “All I’m saying is that it may look weird if we’re seen looking like this,” he said. “People are used to our superhero outfits, and they won’t know it’s us if they see us.”

“Even better!” said Duck. “Then we’ll fit in better with the tourists!”

With nothing else to say, Tech brushed Duck’s hand off his back. Ace found his cue, and posed. “Alright guys,” he said. “Let’s jet!”

--

Despite the fact that it had been attacked countless times, Acmetropolis wasn’t exactly the quickest city in the world to repair itself after a blow like that. The Loonatics always thought so, and were proven right once again when they arrived at the scene Zadavia had pointed out to them. The buildings were still busted; glass was still scattered everywhere; cars were still piled up; the streets and the buildings still had marks after the giant Robo-Amigos stomped and punched them; heck, even the giant Robo-Amigos were still lying in a ruin-pile in the middle of a street.

“Man… they just can’t keep the place clean,” said Ace as he stepped over yet another burned piece of rock. “How long’s it been since we were here? Six months?”

“Probably, could be more,” said Rev while carefully trying not to step on tiny particles of any kind. “I just wish they’d start it already, I mean, if it’s been so long since we battled, they should’ve at least taken all this junk off the road. And besides, having all this here just keeps reminding me of that day, and it really grinds my gears.”

“Yow!” Duck suddenly yelped. He hopped around on one leg while holding the other, seemingly trying to get something out of it. It was a piece of glass, and when he finally got it out of his foot, he threw it away with an angry expression. “Sheesh! That’s the fourth time already.”

“You should’ve just worn some real shoes, Duck, and not those sandals,” said Lexi and chuckled. “Besides, you getting hurt lets me know which places to avoid,” she added, because she was basically following Duck’s tracks, knowing that he’d end up getting at least a little bit hurt anyway.

“Oh, ha-ha…” Duck said plainly and glared at Lexi.

“Come on, you guys,” said Tech. “Let’s not forget why we’re here. We have to focus on finding those hooded things. They could be anywhere around here – this is such a big place.”

Ace rubbed the back of his neck and had a little look around. He then slapped his own forehead, and laughed. “Oh, brother… I’m so caught up in finding out about that letter, I completely forgot!” he said, and turned around to face Rev. “Rev, you can tell if they’re here, can’t you?”

“Well, sure Ace! No problem!” Rev replied. With that, his eyes began to glow a weird-looking bright pink, and he scanned the area around him. He saw broken houses, ruins, busted cars; almost everything but what they were looking for. There were no traces of another letter, or the hooded creatures. When Rev was certain that nothing was to be found, the pink glow faded, and he shook his head.

“Rats…” said Ace, and his smile leaked off his face. “You think they’ve already been here?”

“I highly doubt that,” said Tech and kneeled down on the ground to pick up an oddly shaped rock. “But even so, I think we should stick around for a while, just in case they decide to pop up.”

Lexi growled. She had been listening to the conversation, and she knew that the hooded things weren’t near, but she had been holding it in for too long. She just had to let it out. “Duck!” she exclaimed, surprising everyone (Tech jolted up so fast, he almost threw the rock in Slam’s face).

“What?” said Duck, pretending to be offended. “What’d I do now?”

“Cut the act, and stop glaring at me like that!” Lexi went on, clutching her fists and frowning at Duck. “I was just kidding, okay?”

“Yeah right!” said Duck and laughed. “I know you better than that, Lexi. You like to be watched.”

“Oh, so?” Lexi spat, and little sparks of pink formed around her ears. “Don’t make me cross the line with you, Danger Duck! You don’t want to see me angry!”

Duck didn’t reply, but faked a scared gasp and cower before laughing. Lexi frowned even more at him. Duck was a great fighter, he really knew how to use his powers, and sometimes, his annoying nature and arrogance actually came in handy. But when he acted like that, it really got on Lexi’s nerves. It was as if he wanted to piss her off or make her angry at him. She hated it when he did that – it made her feel like he was teasing her for being the only girl, or something.

Before she could sink lower in her hate-thoughts about Duck, however, Lexi’s Sonic Hearing picked up some strange sound she had never heard before. They perked, and her frown shot off into a wide-eyed expression. Ace noticed.

“Lex, you hear something?” he asked and leaned forward in her direction a bit.

“Do I ever,” said Lexi, and kept listening. She heard a loud SHOOP, and then a bright blue light suddenly filled the area they were in. It was unmistakably from a vortex, or some sort of a warp, but since Lexi’s specialty was listening, she didn’t really care which kind it was. As the light faded, Lexi heard a couple of footsteps, and the warp close, but nothing else. In a few moments, everything went silent. When she was absolutely sure that she wouldn’t hear anything more, Lexi relaxed her ears and looked at her teammates, who were still looking at her as if she was telling them an exciting ghost story.

“Well? Did you hear them?” Tech had to ask, curiosity almost beaming from his eyes.

“Not them, no,” said Lexi, and watched as Tech’s, as well as everyone else’s expressions morphed into disappointed ones. “But I did hear the warp open and close, and some footsteps, so I think they should be arriving soon.”

The boys’ moods immediately brightened. Ace fist-pumped the air, and mouthed a small: “Yes!” Slam laughed excitedly, and Rev began rubbing his hands together, repeating: “Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!” several times. Tech merely smiled, but Lexi knew that he was just as excited as everyone else – she was herself. It certainly looked like Ace’s curiosity for the letters had finally spread itself into all of his teammates.

Well, almost all of them.

“I still don’t see what the big deal is,” said Duck and shrugged. “If you wanna see them so bad, why don’t you just go look for them?”

“Weren’t you listening before, Duck?” said Tech, his eyebrows narrowing slightly. “We’re going to stay hidden for a few minutes, and let them find us. I looked through the video shots Zadavia sent us, and I noticed that the creatures never leave the scenes until they’ve explored the whole thing. So we just have to wait for them to get here, and if necessary, we attack them.”

“Give ‘em a break. Would you want to be attacked during a vacation?” Duck commented. Geez… he just wouldn’t give up, would he?

“Well, if we’re going to stay here all night, we might as well make ourselves comfortable,” said Lexi and stretched. She looked around for a place to sit, but only saw rocks and glass. “Somehow…” Lexi stepped over a few piles of old walls that most definitely had once stood upright, avoiding contact with any sharp ends. She then brushed some dust, rocks and glass away with her foot, and sat down on the ‘clean’ spot that formed. The pile of walls lay behind her, and she let her weight lean backwards, lying down on it. The edges of the former walls stung her back a little, so it took her a while to find a decent place to lie on.

Lexi looked up, and saw that her teammates had all followed her move, and she smiled. Where would they be without her? Ace sat down on one of the now dusty and rusty Robo-Amigo’s arm, and kept turning his head in all the directions his spine allowed him to, anxious to find the hooded creatures. He fidgeted with his fingers and toes, trying to calm himself down and hide his excitement.

Just a few feet from the Robo-Amigos, Tech and Rev – being the best buddies they were – found their own spot on the ground. They had used the same technique as Lexi, but didn’t act as laid back. Rev’s eyes trailed from left to right rapidly, and when Lexi had a closer look, she noticed that he had clutched his fists, and was now clutching them even tighter, as if he was refraining from standing up and running around to look for the hooded creatures. Tech, however, took slow and deep breaths to hold down his excitement.

Across the two friends was a huge pile of rocks that Slam had built for his own comfort. Unlike the others he didn’t sit down, but instead, he leaned back on the pile and rested his body on it. Lexi heard him sigh blissfully before he lowered his head and closed his eyes to relax. He let out a few pent up laughs before completely calming down.

Duck, however, made himself comfortable by Quacking on top of one of the Robo-Amigos and plumping down on them almost instantly. Lexi heard him exhale loudly, just to let everyone know that he had found the best spot. She frowned and leaned her head back on the wall-pile, following Slam’s move by closing her eyes.

Gradually, Lexi drift into her own mind, and almost forgot where she was. Her eyes only saw the back of her closed eyelids, and there, swirls upon swirls danced for her. She smiled, and sighed in relaxation. Even though she was looking forward to meeting the hoodies, as she had decided to call them, she liked it better to just lie back and take it easy. That way, she could have a little moment of her own, and didn’t need to think about having to kick someone’s butt.

The blonde bunny stretched yet again, and slowly opened her eyes. Or, she would have done it slowly if it hadn’t been for the fact that there was another set of eyes right above her own. Lexi’s eyes hot open as she scanned the face she didn’t really see, partly because it was hooded, and partly because the shadows avoided her vision from catching any details. The two of them stared at each other for a couple of seconds before they realized what was going on. In a flash, Lexi shot up from the wall-pile and screamed, while the hoodie jolted backwards and almost fell down, screaming as well.

Right on cue, the boys stood up and hurried to the scene. Duck arrived first via Quack; Rev only a millisecond later, and then Ace, Tech and Slam ran towards Lexi and the hoodie. All five of them had the same bland of excitement, worry and fear in their faces as they looked at Lexi, asking her without words what was wrong.

“Guys! I found a hoodie!” Lexi exclaimed and pointed at the wall-pile.

Duck looked at the pile, then back at Lexi and ****ed an eyebrow at her. “A… hoodie?” he said lamely. “Lexi, you do realize that that is a pile of rock, don’t you?”

“Wait, wait!” said Ace, preventing Lexi from spitting something back at Duck. “Lex, did you see a hooded thing behind the pile?”

“Behind it? The thing was standing over me like a total creep!” Lexi shouted and expanded her arms, still shocked after seeing the hoodie.

Before anyone else could express themselves, the hoodie in question stood up from behind the wall-pile, revealing its long, black Reaper-esque cloak. It didn’t do anything – in fact, it didn’t even move. Ace took a step forward and scanned the image before him.

“Hey, doc,” he said. “Who are you, and what’s the big idea roaming around our old battlefield like this, huh?”

The hoodie didn’t answer, but just stood there completely still, seemingly trying to comprehend the fact that he was looking at the Loonatics, and not someone else. Ace was about to continue speaking, but before he could even think about opening his mouth again, the hoodie took down his hood, revealing a very normal, young, brown-haired human being. He smiled the biggest smile the Loonatics had seen in a while, his eyes twitched, and he started laughing. He then turned around, waving his arm.

“Dude! I found them!” he yelled. “I found them! They’re here! They’re actually here!!”

The six Loonatics all looked at each other, all of them thinking the exact same thing: What the heck? But the fact that the hoodies had been looking for them was a clear sign for them to get ready for battle. They all prepared themselves for the worst, and tried calculating just who the other ‘dude’ was, and where he could pop up.

Lexi’s ears perked once more, and she heard the warp open and close again, followed by the same blue light from before. Lexi, along with the boys, turned their heads to the hoodies’ direction, and saw that they both looked identical, except the one who had just arrived was wearing glasses. The two ‘creatures’ looked at each other and the Loonatics repeatedly before they began jumping around and cheering.

The Loonatics leaked out of their fighting poses, and all gave the two men a funny look. Lexi’s head spun. What in the world was going on?