A/N Long time lurker first time poster, I've actually had this written for a while I was just a little worried about posting it (still kinda am). Hope you enjoy (ᵔᴥᵔ)
Lisa Loud was steady at work on another project. Day in day out she always had work, whether it was personal, something for her family, or like right now something for the government. She had recently become known as the smartest person alive and the government "recruited" her. As she sat at her desk she gazed back to her monitor and looked at her email. She reread the message on screen.
"Hey so Lisa we need more serums, could you slave away for a few more days? Thanks xoxo - Pentagon"
Okay it didn't actually say that but it might as well have. It had been like this ever since she refused to give them her formula for human enhancement. She didn't trust them with any of her personal work and stayed true to that. There was another reason though, if made incorrectly the serum could cause some "unwanted changes". It was unclear what could happen, your bones could disintegrate, you could be turned into a puddle of flesh and skin, you could become a superhero. Ha, that last one was a joke, but the risk were serious and the people at the Pentagon weren't the brightest, it could cause a worldwide epidemic.
She rolled her eyes and looked back, she saw her storage unit filled almost to the brim with these serums, this would be the last she would need to make for hopefully a long time. She looked back at the rack of beakers on her desk, inside them yellowish-green liquid sat still. Next to the rack sat a few vials each labeled USE WITH CAUTION. She took a deep breath and put on a pair of gloves and a mask. With the utmost care she grabbed a syringe from the bottom drawer. She put the syringe through one vial and withdrew what was inside.
Sigh
She had done this some many times it was like second nature. Her movement was swift but also careful. She emptied the syringes contents into the beakers liquid and stirred carefully. She repeated this process and was almost finished, all she needed to now was refrigerate them and let the toxins die out if they were exposed to extreme heat, the serum would fester into a gaseous form.
She poured the non-refrigerated serums into a different set of containers. She hummed a tune as she got up to make her way to the storage unit which doubled as a cryogenic stabilizer, street name: Fridge.
She splayed her hands across the table and looked outside. She saw Lynn and Lana playing together in the backyard. Lynn kicked a soccer ball towards Lana and-
"Huh?" Lisa said
The ball came flying towards Lisa's bedroom window. It hit the wall with a loud Think sound and returned to Lynn. She looked apologetically at heard a clatter behind her and turned
Her vials sat in the same spot she left them, good. She picked up the rack and moved it into the fridge. The agents would be by later today to pick up the serums so she had time to kill. She thought about how nice it was outside and decided to go enjoy it. A change of pace was much needed. She left out and closed her door behind her, seemingly not a care in the world.
When the door closed though something sparked on her desk. Earlier one of the vials had cracked spilling some of the toxic serum. Heat from outside and inside caused it to boil and it soon rose into the air and ran through the vent system.
About good two hours had passed since then, Lisa gave them the entire batch including the new one she had created earlier. The CIA came to collect them and unbeknownst to everyone a possible lethal and invisible toxin circulated the vents and duct system. Everyone was sitting together in the living room doing nothing in particular. Luan had sat with Leni giving her the jokes that she'd been working on for a few days, Leni didn't understand most of them but she laughed anyway to be supportive. Lynn played basketball on the indoor net that stood above the door frame
"Dad, it's hot can you please turn on the air?" Lola pleaded
"Yeah, it's like a million degrees in here." Lincoln added
Lynn Sr. stood up and made his way to the air conditioner. He pressed a button and cold air ran through the room. Once the air spread throughout the entire house Lori, Leni, Luna, Lucy, and Lincoln returned to their rooms. The rest stayed in the living room.
Leni and Lori were painting their nails and doing each others hair. Luna had been working on a new song and wasn't really getting anywhere. Lucy went to recite some poetry she had written. Lincoln went to just take a nap.
Not much had happened until it was dinnertime and even then nothing happened. That was to be expected, when you develop a routine you tend to stick with it, whether you want to or not. Dinner took the same pace as always, Dad making small talk, Luan making jokes.
When everyone was finished they put their dishes in the sink and went to the bathroom to clean up before bed. Yet again same old thing, arguing, shoving, not that it mattered. They finished and went to their rooms.
"Lights out guys!" Rita called from downstairs
The lights flicked off and everyone went off to bed. They drifted off into the sanctuary of slumber. Nobody would be ready for what would happen in the morning.
Lincoln's alarm blared a distasteful tune. It can't be 6 already, the night was just here. But sure enough he turned and saw a bright red 6:00 flashing across his clock. He groaned and basically punched the off button. He stood up on weary legs and made his way to his door. When he opened the door he saw a line for the bathroom stretching seven sisters long.
"Mornin Linc." Luan said happily
"You're in a good mood today huh?" he asked scratching his arm
She teetered on her heels and toes. She was in a good mood she just didn't know why. She shrugged and moved up one spot as Leni came out. Lincoln trudged forward and sighed heavily. The line moved slowly but eventually it was Lincoln's turn, he entered the bathroom started the water. He took a deep breath through his nose and had smelled something.. delicious.
"Bacon and Eggs? Bacon!" he said happily
He showered quickly, got out dried off and put on his normal clothes and rushed down the stairs, his nose twitched and he sniffed again. His family was spread across the room. Some in the kitchen, in the living room, and dining room.
He went to the stove and took some scrambled eggs and a good chunk of bacon strips. Before he reached the table though most of the food on his plate was gone already. Just as well, it was time to leave anyway.
The kids grabbed the bags and made their way to Vanzilla. The first stop would be to Royal Woods Middle School since it was the closest, next High School, and finally Elementary. The children made it to the respective schools as their parents headed off to work. It was shaping up to be a pretty normal day… sorta.
Lincoln sat in his period one Earth Science class, his mind wandering as he stared out the window. He looked at the grassy field that was next to the school. Nothing in particular caught his eye until he saw a flicker of movement on the ground. A brown hare emerged from the tall grass. His eyes widened and his stomach growled.
"I just ate, why am I hungry again?" he groaned to himself
He looked back at the rabbit and his mind went haywire.
Hey that looks tasty
Thighs, Legs, Arms
Raw Meat, YUM
Flesh, Meat, Flesh, Meat, Meat, Meat, Meat-
He began to drool, his saliva coating the outside of his mouth and leaking some.
The class turned back towards Lincoln, some sneered, some chuckled, and soon the entire room filled with their laughter. Lincoln chuckled out of embarrassment and hung his head. Clyde tapped his shoulder and looked worried.
"What was that about." Clyde whispered
He shrugged dejectedly as he thought back to the rabbit. He snarled and struggled to hide his anger. He bared his teeth and put his head on his desk. Not the best start to the day, but it'll get better, maybe. Well it didn't get better but it didn't get worse, so that's a plus. He went through his day until it was fifth period, Lunchtime. Only three more classes and he could go home and enjoy his weekend.
He walked into the line and waited for the lunch ladies to spoon a chunk of what was supposed to be Salsbury Steak onto his tray. It smelled like death warmed over but Lincoln found it appetizing anyway. He made his way to his usual seat with Clyde. As he sat down he noticed Lucy and Lynn approaching them. The latter of which walked into a blatantly obvious pole.
"Ouch, you okay Lynn?" Lincoln asked concerned
"Yeah, my right eye's just been killing me today." she said
Lucy looked at her and grinned
"Too many balls to the face huh?" Lucy joked
"Go bite a neck Dorkula." she sneered
"Maybe I will, vampires are cool." she said lifting her arms to imitate bat wings
"Anyway." Lynn continued "I went to the nurse but she thought I was faking and sent me back to class."
"Well hopefully it's nothing serious." Lincoln added
"Pssh, I'm Lynn Loud, toughest person ever. I'll be fine."
Lincoln chuckled as he took a bite of the mystery meat. He seemed to be the only one enjoying it though. He took another bite and looked towards Lucy and Lynn arguing about something. His attention then went to his arm, it had more hair than blinked but didn't give it a second thought.
Over at Royal Woods High, Lori and Leni were in their Home EC class, they were assigned to make a healthy and nutritional meal. Well neither had the most experience with cooking but they gave it a shot anyway, for all of ten minutes. Leni had lost focus and instead studied the classroom "pet plant" as she called it. It was a small potted cactus that sat in the windowsill she named it Frank for no particular reason, she just felt attached to it.
"Hey Frank, it's totes been a long day but I'm glad to see you." she said petting the cactus
She drew her hand back when the small spines from the cactus entered her fingers. She would always do this and she would apologize to Frank everytime she did.
"Sorry, like, it's a habit." she apologized
Lori looked up from her hidden phone over to the teacher who seemed to be on hers as well. She looked over to Leni next and sighed. She continued to have a full conversation on a dress she saw with the cactus. It was equal parts cute and disturbing.
Lori looked on to her table and saw a small spider crawling up the leg. She glared at it and it froze. She had never been afraid of spiders but she could never bring herself to kill them, they were living things and deserved a chance at life just as all other animals did. She put her face in her palm and continued to stare at it.
"Man I'm hungry." she thought
Shortly after it stood at attention and made it's way to the window opposite of the classroom. It crawled down a tree branch and retrieved something from it's web. It returned with a wrapped fly in it's arms. It laid it down in front of Lori and left.
She blinked, strange, maybe it wanted to show it's gratitude for not killing it. She looked back at Leni, she had put some flowers in her hair and continued to talk to Frank. More like talk at, plants can't understand us but Leni looked happy regardless.
"Hmm." Lori said as she looked at the fly
"Why'd it bring me it's meal?" She asked herself again
She picked up the fly to toss it out the window but caught a whiff of it's scent. It smelled... delicious. She tossed it anyway though.
At Royal Woods Elementary it was recess for Lola and Lana. They spent it as they did almost every recess, sitting with each other bickering over the smallest things. Today was no different as they argued over a stone Lana found buried in the dirt. It was fairly large and had a rainbow color.
"You'll just lose it, I want it." Lola cried
"Nuh Uh, finders keepers." Lana said sticking her tongue out
Lola growled and grabbed the stone from her hands. Lana in turn chased after her. They grappled with the stone and fell over each other into the dirt. They kicked up some dust, nobody minded them, this was a daily thing. The stone was lost in the wreckage.
"Great, now neither of us can have it, nice going." Lola said
"It's your fault." Lana replied
They got up and dusted themselves off.
A group of Lola's friends came over and looked at her. A girl with red hair tied into a pony tail stepped up front.
"Hey, have you seen Lola?" she asked haughtily
Lola? But she was Lola, or was she Lana? She pressed her hand to her temples and thought. Memories rushed past her, they were of Lola's and Lana's separately. The girls in front of her stared as she didn't answer yet.
"Hey are you new or something, I've seen you around her." a girl in the group said
"Yeah and what's with that outfit, not to be rude or anything but tacky." another one said
The girl that they were speaking to had blonde hair put into two fairly large pigtails. Their cowlick parted to the left. They wore blue overalls with pink stripes going horizontally across the base of the legs. She wore a purple shirt and what seemed to be the remains of one of Lola's gowns above hands covered by frilly pink gloves. They also had in earrings, one of a tiara on the left and one of a red cap on the right. She couldn't put her thoughts together. She registered only one question
"What's your name?" the red head asked
"Lo-" she stopped"-na" she continued
"Yeah, Lona." she decided
Before anyone else could say anything else the final bell rung letting students know recess was over and it was time to leave. School let out early today so that was good, the only problem was, how would they explain this.
Lisa shrugged into her backpack and made her way to the door when she was met by her best friend Darcy. Darcy pivoted on the heels of her Light Up Skechers, she looked happy, but then again she always looked happy.
"Hey Lisa." she said cheerfully
"Hello Darcy." she greeted "Did you need something?" she asked
"Hmm not really I just wanted to give you something you dropped." she said as she handed her a small composition notebook with notes plastered across it.
"Thank you Darcy, I'm wasn't even sure how I dropped it." she said
Darcy beamed and looked around the room. She held her hands behind her back and looked towards Lisa.
"So Lisa, if you aren't doing anything today would you wanna come over sometime?" the young brunette asked
Lisa hated turning down Darcy and would normally agree to play with her but she wasn't really up to it today. She felt tired and worn out despite only being in kindergarten, possibly due to her lack of sleep.
"Sorry Darcy, today isn't a good day, but tomorrow's a new day." she said
Darcy didn't completely understand what she meant by that but smile anyway. She bounded off to go home and her and Lisa went their separate ways. She waited outside for Lola and Lana so that they could meet up with Lincoln, Lucy, and Lynn.
"Lisa, where are you?" an unfamiliar voice called
She turned around and was met by someone she didn't recognize. She pushed her glasses up and stared at the girl.
"Greetings." she started "Have we met before?" she asked
The girl stopped and blinked. No they hadn't met before, it was strange that she even knew her name. She took her hand and laid it across her head. How could she explain this, she knew this person even though they had never met, her memories were a amalgamation of the two Lola and Lana.
"Look I know we've never met before and what I'm about to say may sound crazy but..." she paused as she thought about how to word this
"I think that I'm a combination of Lola and Lana." she said
All Lisa did after hearing that was remove her glasses clean them off and put them back on her face. She looked at Lona(?) and her face flashed with anger. She pointed a finger at them and looked as though she had to restrain herself from hitting her... them... it, she didn't know.
"Did you two go in my lab again?!" she asked angrily
"No, no, I... we didn't, I don't think so." she said as she held her hands up palms forward
"It's all such a mess right now, I don't remember what happened but I remember who I am... or more like who I'm made up of." she said
Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose and shot Lona a dirty look, she needed to find someway to undo this quickly, if she even could. They needed to hurry home, she would just go straight there but if she turned up with Lincoln it be trouble for everyone.
She waited semi-patiently for their siblings to leave the building and continued to glare at Lona. Five minutes had passed and they emerged from the school. Lincoln followed by Lynn and Lucy. The former had an ice pack across her right eye.
"Sorry to keep you waiting Lis." Lincoln said
He noticed a girl behind her that he didn't recognize. He outstretched his hand to greet her. She accepted reluctantly. Her grip was strong, a little too strong. Pain shot up his arm and he recoiled, pulling his hand away
"Uh hey, are you a friend of Lisa's?" Lincoln asked
"Yeah, my name's… Lona?" it came out as a question despite being a response
Lona looked towards Lisa and whispered something to her. Lincoln didn't hear what they said but it seemed important. Lona opened her mouth to speak but shut it when she couldn't find the words.
He looked around and noticed something missing from their group
"Lisa, where are the twins at?" he asked
Lisa sighed
"Lincoln, she is the twins." Lisa said gesturing to Lona
She waved meekly. Lincoln looked confused at her statement. Lisa understood that this was a possibility, she would need to hurry and find the cause before this became permanent.
"Look long story short Lola and Lana may have gone into my lab and done something to themselves and I have to run some tests to figure out how to reverse the effects." she said as she pulled Lona by her arm and lead her
"Hey wait up." Lincoln called out as he run up to them
Lynn and Lucy followed also not understanding the situation.
When the reached the house Lisa wasted no time rushing to her lab with Lona behind her. She prepared a table for them to sit on. She reached into the cabinet and retrieved a needle. She would need a blood sample in order to understand the situation properly, she'd also need them to take an x-ray
Around three hours of boring tests later Lisa had sighed in relief despite the situation. She had realized that Lola and Lana had some of the non-purified serum in their lungs that spread throughout their body mainly in their bloodstream, the miracle was that not only did they survive they seemed to have mutated into something more.
"Well the good news is, you didn't do anything wrong and you won't die... the bad news, I don't know how to reverse the effects." she said
Lona's face dropped and she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Lisa went to comfort her in the best way that she could.
"It won't be all bad, just a little different, changes are happening not just to you but to our entire family, we'll need to be strong and adjust." Lisa said looking at a chart
The gas had spread throughout the house yesterday evening, it was highly likely that it afflicted everyone. Speaking of which she'd need to call a sibling meeting, she couldn't let this get out of hand. A few minutes later they were all gathered in Lori's room.
"I call this sibling meeting to order." Lori said using one of her pumps as a gavel "Since Lisa was the one who called this meeting, she has the floor."
She stood up and moved to the middle of the room gathering her thoughts. How would they react to this, knowing that there is a toxin in their blood and nervous systems that will or already has changed and malformed their molecular structure. She steadied her nerves and began to speak.
"I have gathered you all here today to let you know about your bodies, they're changing."
"Yeah we know, it's called puberty." Luan said
Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose, she'd just have to be direct with them and say it, no matter how they'd react this would be for the best... she hoped.
"Not like that, you've been exposed to a lethal toxin that I have created, I'm not sure how it leaked out and to be honest it doesn't matter as of now. The fact that you are all alive means that you've mutated.
Everyone looked at Lisa the same, skeptical, a typical reaction given the nature of her siblings. She went over to the edge of the room and retrieved Lona. She brought her back to the front and pointed a ruler at them
"She is living proof of your situation, this girl used to be two completely separate people, but as you can see now she's one."
"They've changed drastically, now I'm not expecting the results to be as similar to hers but within the coming days or maybe even hours you won't be yourselves anymore." she said
"Now I am taking full responsibility for this and I have two things to let you know, I am working on finding a permanent solution and you will not die."
The room felt heavier now, like a weight had just been put on them, taken off, and then put on again ten times heavier though. A question came up that sparked concern, Lori raised her hand.
"What about Mom and Dad, do they know about this?" she asked panicked
"No and I plan to keep it that way, they were exposed but I've taken tests (without their knowing) and they seem the same from some reason. Their immune systems completely killed off the toxins, it's just us.
"Well how did you explain... her-" Luna gestured to Lona "to Mom and Dad."
"I simply told them that Lola and Lana were sleeping over at a friends house and had forgotten to call them, and that Lona was here for a project." she said
Afterwards Lisa moved to a chalkboard she had set up early and took a ruler to navigate it. She explained how the serum was supposed to work and the effects that it could cause if not admitted properly. They were an unknown case though, they had the toxins planted directly into them but were okay more or less.
"The changes will occur within the next 48 hours." she repeated I recommend staying home tomorrow, I'll need to run more tests on all of you." she said "And myself."
"That is all." she said as she stepped down and walked to the bed
"W-well, you heard her, meeting adjourned." she said halfheartedly banging the makeshift gavel
They all got up and went to their respective rooms, their brains wracked with nerves. That night it would be almost impossible to sleep as they lie awake in their beds nervous about the future but hoping for the best.