Lincoln headed to his room to read an Ace Savvy comic book, or at least he was before he spotted Lisa nearby, who was playing some chess against a wall.
"Hi Lisa," he greeted as he walked to the little prodigy, catching her attention in the process. "What are you doing?"
"Stuff that a simple-minded civilian like yourself wouldn't understand, Lincoln," Lisa condescendingly answered, adjusting her glasses. "You see, I'm practicing some chess, a game only played by the most dedicated of smart people!"
"Oh hey, I play that every once in a while," Linc nonchalantly remarked.
This caused Lisa to burst out laughing for a while, before she calmed down and said, "That's a good one, Lincoln. There's no way someone of your IQ level could ever be able to appreciate the game that is chess."
And then, Lincoln sat on the opposite side and gave Lisa a smile. "How about we put that to the test?" he suggested.
"Fine, but you'll soon come to regret challenging me," Lisa cracked her knuckles with a determined smile. "Get ready to face the wrath of the Chess Queen!"
One game later...
Lincoln swiftly defeated Lisa, who shivered and looked at the chess table with a look of complete shock. "I... lost... to you?" she muttered, giving Lincoln a confused look. "How?"
"I told you I knew how to play the game," Linc shrugged.
But the small prodigy didn't respond...
Nevertheless, Lincoln just shrugged it off and got up. "Well, that was a nice little game of chess," the boy remarked while stretching. "It was fun! Let's play some other time."
And as Lincoln leisurely left the room, Lisa looked at him with a furious look, with her breathing growing more and more heavy and animalistic before she flipped the chessboard and started to trash it. This was loud enough to catch Lori's attention.
"Lisa, what's go-" she hissed.
And then the smart brunette hissed at the teenager like an animal.
A small shock later, Lori stated, "You, me, my bedroom, now."
Later, at Lori and Leni's bedroom...
The little genius walked back and forth as she finished explaining a bored Lori why she murdered the chessboard. "And that's what happened!"
"Don't you think you're giving this a little too much thought, Lisa?" Lori asked, crossing her arms.
"As the smartest Loud in this household, It's up to me to help maintain the intellectual balance of the house," Lisa explained, folding her arms. "Having another Loud be smarter than me in something, specially Lincoln... it's troublesome."
Lori, however, just raised an eyebrow. "Yes, it's clear to me what I must do now!" Lisa proclaimed, adjusting her glasses. "I have to restore the Loud balance before it's too late!"
"You losing to Lincoln didn't unbalance anything!" Lori growled.
"You're lying and you know it!" Lisa snapped, pointing at the teenager. "In this house, the balance depends on us Louds from being in perfect harmony: I'm smart, Leni's dumb, Luna makes music, Luan makes jokes, and you... are just there, while Lucy is poetic, Lynn is athletic, Lola and Lana are self-explanatory. Lily isn't old enough to influence the balance, but when she gets older-"
"Get to the freaking point!" Lori barked.
"Okay, fine," the prodigy took a deep breath before explaining: "Almost all of the other sisters believe that I'm the best at chess, because as a game played by smart people, someone needs to have the brains to win chess. And I'm indeed the smartest Loud around, but with Lincoln having beaten me so... easily, I need to discover how he did it!"
Lori quickly suggested, "Well, what if Lincoln is smarter than you?"
Lisa laughed for a couple seconds before calming down. "Wait, are you serious?"
"I'm just spitting out your weird sense of logic back at your face," Lori stated. "If only smart people can play chess, then Lincoln would be among the smart people you speak off. And besides, it's just a game of chess, right? Who cares who wins or loses?"
"You know, Lori, maybe you're right," Lisa said, smiling as she got an idea. "I have to make this more... official."
A little while later, at the living room...
Most of the Loud siblings watched some TV when Leni arrived. "Hi everybody!" Leni chirped.
"Hi Leni, what's up?" Luna asked as Leni approached Lincoln.
"Lori told me, that Lisa told her, that Lincoln faced her in a game of chess," Leni remarked, crouching down to her brother's height. "Is that true, Lin-coconut?"
"Well, yeah," Linc nervously answered.
The remaining sisters gasped and immediately went to Lincoln's side to comfort him. "Don't worry, bro, it wasn't your fault for doing something so dumb for once," Leni said, brushing Lincoln's hair as she tightly hugged him. "Now tell us, how long did you lasted before Lisa defeated you? Maybe you had better luck than most of us."
"Specially me," Lynn muttered. "She beat me in 4 turns!"
"Actually-"
"Lincoln Loud!"
Everybody turned around and saw Lisa standing victoriously at the door, her hair blowing in the wind as a bored Lori stood besides her. "In order to reclaim the honor you have horrifically stained with your victory over me, I challenge you to a game of chess!" the little genius exclaimed, giving Lincoln the pointer finger. "Will you accept another chance to face against the Chess Queen?"
"No thanks, I'm not in the mood," Linc answered.
"Oh come on, Linc, we really want to see you and Lisa play some chess!" Luna told her brother with a reassuring tone.
Linc didn't buy it.
"Well, more specifically, we want to see how long you can last before Lisa destroys you," Lynn explained. "It's going to be something fun to watch."
"Alright then, if you want a rematch, you'll get a rematch," Linc stated, giving Lisa a determined stare. "But only on the condition that you let me rest before asking me to play chess again!"
"Oh, trust me, Lincoln, after I defeat you, you'll never want to play chess again!" Lisa spoke, and it was very clear she was bluffing. Maybe. "Now come on, let's set things up and get this game started!"
So the Loud siblings worked together to set up a simple chess board, with Lincoln and Lisa sitting at opposing sides as the siblings watched, with Lori looking like she knew who was going to win.
Lisa started her game by moving her pawn a couple squares up, followed by Lincoln doing the same. Then, as Lisa chuckled to herself, she moved her rook up a couple squares, but Lincoln simply moved his other pawn two squares as well.
"You look a bit angry, Lincoln," Lisa giggled. "Do you feel your luck is up?"
"No, I'm just annoyed that you decided to challenge me again when we played not too long ago," Lincoln explained, giving his sister an annoyed glare. "I mean, why do you even want to fight again? It's just a game!"
"A game for smart people, and not for people of your intelligence!" Lisa slammed her fist into the board. "Last time was a fluke, but this time, there's no way you're winning!"
About 18 moves later...
Lisa stood paralyzed as Lincoln nonchalantly performed a checkmate, winning the game. And Lisa was certainly not the only sibling impressed, for everybody else was absolutely caught off-guard... except Lori.
"I called it," the teenager said as she went to Lisa's side. "Listen, Lisa, I saw Lincoln play chess at the park, and trust me, unless you can literally create a machine capable of predicting his next moves, you're never going to win against him. Then again, you wouldn't win anyway, since the machine would win it for you."
And then, as everybody left, Lisa got an idea. A devious idea.
Lily and Lisa's bedroom...
Lisa chuckled to herself as she worked on something covered by a large sheet, thought she had to stop when Lily woke up soon afterwards. Who would have thought that loudly working on something with a baby in the room would lead to them waking up eventually?
"Lily, before you ask anything with your psychic baby powers or whatever, allow me to explain," Lisa said as she went to Lily's side and helped her calm down. "Lincoln has soiled my divine right as the chess queen by defeating me not once, but twice, in a game of chess. And I must reclaim by honor by creating
Lily tilted her head. "I know what you're trying to say," Lisa took a deep breath before putting on a cockney accent... or something. "Yo Lisa, I hear' from mah sisters that yah lost to Lincoln in a match of chess, so yah really thin' it's a good idea to build a machine to win the game for yah?"
And the baby raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, I just can't help but believe you will sound like that when you're older," and then Lisa handed Lily her blanket and continued to work on the machine. "Anyway, time to get back to work!"
Next day, at the park...
Lincoln sat on a bench and enjoyed the day out when Lisa, watching from the bushes, chuckled to herself like a 90s villain. Then, once she saw the opportunity, she jumped out of the bushes and caught his attention.
"Lisa?!" Linc was certainly not happy to see the little genius again. "Ugh, listen, I'm not in the mood to play chess! Quit trying to force me to play it!"
"Well, maybe you can beat me, but can you beat this!" Lisa taunted.
And then she revealed a remote control, and with a simple push of a button, Lisa's machine was summoned: a large amalgamation of chess pieces with multiple arms and a couple wheels for movement.
"I present you, the Lincoln-Defeater X!" Lisa proudly proclaimed. "There's no way you will ever defeat this little baby!"
"I'm not even going to fight it!" Lincoln hissed in return. "Listen, Lisa, I beat you twice, big deal, but you're blowing this out of proportion!"
"Did you waste hours upon hours of your life to perfect your technique, only to have somebody come out of nowhere and take it away from you?! No! You haven't! Because you're a loser by default, whether in sports, romance, or life in general!" Lisa growled, starting to lose her patience. "And I won't let you take away the one thing I'm good at! Now quit rejecting my challenge and fight it!"
"I'm the loser? I'm the loser?!" Lincoln snapped. "Look at who's talking! You wasted time and effort into building a machine to beat me, all for winning against you in chess! Yes, I did it twice, and I didn't mean to make your hours of practice pointless, but you're the one who wanted the rematch! You're the one who couldn't let it go and accept it was just a game! You're the one who won't stop until her ego has been satisfied! Admit it, Lisa, you're the loser!"
And then, Lisa pressed another button and made the Lincoln Beater X smack Lincoln hard enough to send him crash into a tree. And then, once she calmed down, Lisa glanced at her remote, then the resulting crash, for a while before dropping the remote and going after the crash site... while the Lincoln Beater X looked at the remote on the ground.
Lisa went to Lincoln's aid and helped him get up, all while the boy could see winged chess pieces flying around his head. "Oh my gosh, Lincoln, please tell me you're okay!" Lisa said.
"I'm, I'm okay," Linc replied as he dusted himself. "Lisa, do you really want to beat me that badly?"
The little genius looked at the ground in contemplation. After seeing how hurt her brother got, and could possibly get, Lisa took a decision.
"I... guess it isn't worth it."
But the instant she tried to turn off the Lincoln Beater X, she and Lincoln turned around and saw the machine smash the remote control with a fist and give the duo a determined glare. "Defeat Lincoln!" it exclaimed as it approached them.
"Wow, I honestly didn't see that coming!" Lisa and Lincoln backed into a tree as the machine came closer. "What do we do, Lincoln?"
"You're the one who made that thing, didn't you build it with some sort of weakness?!" Lincoln replied.
And then, Lisa remembered: She did give it a weak point. "On it's back, there's a switch that will turn it off," she whispered to the boy.
"And how do we get there?" Linc whispered back.
The duo shared determined smiles, right before they dashed straight for the machine, who changed it's hands into various chess pieces. "Pawn, detected!" it shouted as Linc and Lisa separated, with Lisa going forward to confront the machine. "Prepare for capture!"
So the machine swung it's chess-arms at Lisa, who simply jumped left and right to dodge them while Lincoln went behind the machine. Then, once he saw the switch and went straight for it, two more arms sprouted from the machine's back and went straight for him. But he quickly dodged them and tricked them into flipping the switch for him.
And once the machine hit the ground and fell motionless, Lisa and Lincoln reunited. "Good thing I completely forgot to make this machine actually put up a non-chess fight," the brunette said before brushing her arms. "And about the whole ordeal, Lincoln-"
"Listen Lisa, I get it; you practiced hard, I beat you like it was nothing and your pride was hurt, but you could've found another way to vent out that didn't involve building a robot designed to defeat me," Lincoln replied. "Just a little tip for the future."
. "Lincoln, I think I know how we can resolve this..."
Sometime later, at the Loud's living room...
Lisa victoriously captured Lincoln's king and raised her fist with pride. "Finally!" she exclaimed proudly.
"Good work, Lisa, you finally defeated me," Lincoln remarked with a smile. "Fair and square, no changes, no holding back, no nothing at all. Third time's the charm."
But Lisa was no Leni, and quickly caught on to the act. "You were holding back all along, weren't you, Lincoln?" she asked, crossing her arms.
"Hey, I'd rather make my sister happy than upset," Lincoln answered. "Besides, I need to take a break from winning every now and then."
Lisa rolled her eyes and the duo shared a hug before starting once again, this time with no holding back...
"One day, Lincoln, I'll be able to beat you. And I gotta say, I didn't expect you to be a worthy opponent. I expected someone to be better than me at chess, but you? Heh, not gonna lie, I'm impressed. But just you wait, Lincoln, I'll get so good, I'll become your chess queen!"
And then she realized what that meant.
"But not like that, geez!"
