A/N: I was inspired to write this after watching the first season of Supernatural. Similar themes, different story, though, I promise. I've always been an Urban fantasy fan and when you throw in as many characters that exist in The Loud House, the possibilities for fun characters turned epic monsters are endless. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it. I don't own the Loud House. Cover photo by Javisuzumiya,as per a request. Check out his stuff it's amazing!
The flames engulfed the back wheel of my harley, as I sped away from the trailing wall of fire and into the abandoned junk yards gated entrance. Even through my helmet, I could smell the burnt rubber coming off what was left of the tire, and to my dismay felt the hog I was riding start to wobble, the sudden lack of tread causing the bike's balance to falter. The bike tilted sideways and I dropped my weight along with it, its metal frame skidding along the gravel, me sliding behind it. I curled myself into a ball and rolled against the sudden drop in speed. Out of my tumble, I pushed myself to my feet and continued to lure the monster chasing me on foot.
Ripping off my helmet, I pressed the button of my ear piece for an update on my partners status.
"Tell me you found the right spot!", I asked her while sprinting.
"I have. It's on the east side, in the right corner. Keep moving."
I barely avoided the second wave of flames as I turned right, down the wall of crushed cars composed of various makes and models. While running for my life I couldn't help but note the irony in the fact that the first sister I decided to take on in my journey of returning my friends and family to normal was the one that turned into a dragon. Pretty sure there's an unspoken rule that says dragons are the final boss in any story and you're supposed to fight them last (see the Hobbit and Mario Bros for examples.) But I had more incentive to start with her, seeing as she was one of the few sisters I had that wasn't actively hunting me back, and in the more extreme cases, trying to make me one of them. Granted, she was a dragon, so the only things on her mind ranged between what she was going to eat in the next few hours and where she was gonna get her next golden object to add to the treasure she kept in her cave. That was me and my teams 2nd incentive: nab the treasure.
Everyone has to start somewhere. The only reason she couldn't fly at me and get it over with was cause her metabolism was in the middle of digesting a roasted pig I packed with MME'S two hours ago. Enough to slow her down and reduce her mobility, but not enough to knock her out. Any more than what I gave her probably would have put her in a coma or even killed her. And I wasn't trying to kill her. I was trying to save her. Her stomping purple talons were sounding closer and closer behind me as I made my way to the east wall of the junkyard.
She was gonna catch up with me with or without the ability of flight. I needed to slow her down.
"Hey, remember that old Marvel movie?!". I asked through my earpiece, "Civil War? The airport scene, with Hawkeye vs Iron Man?"
"Already on it."
True to her word, flattened cars on their piles began to drop to the ground behind me, crashing either on top of the purple beast or in front of her, slowing her pursuit. She bellowed in pain, and running faster, I prayed my other sister's magic was careful enough to not knock a car down in front of my path, crushing me as well. I squeezed between a narrow clearing of two walls of debris and entered the two hundred square ft of open space, where she indicated the trap was laid. Crossing the space, I spun on one heel, and turned to face the oncoming freight train of muscle bounding my way.
"LUCY! NOW!", I shouted.
The dragon jetted through the walls, sending debris flying everywhere. Right before she could nab me in her opened mouth, the black chains that lay all around her came to life and snaked around her van sized purple body, pulling it to the ground with an earth shaking thud. Her jaws snapped at me and I reeled back expecting her to blast me with another jet of her breath, but another chain constricted around her jaw and snout, keeping any from coming out. They slithered up and down her whole frame, trapping her thrashing legs and tail. The spiked links dug into her rough, scaly skin, blood dripping from where it caught the most resistance. It's a damn hard thing to pierce dragons skin, but these were chains forged and engraved with celtic runes, specifically made for cutting the creatures of the night that were the hardest to cut. A glance to my left and I saw my witch little sister on top a burned out bus, working her tattooed arms in circular patterns like she was tying an invisible giants shoelaces. With a final gripping motion of her hands, the remaining chains that still held slack, pulled taught. The dragon was trapped.
"Next time...you're the bait." I told her through ragged breaths, each one hanging in the cool night air.
"I'm the only one of us with magic, genius. I can't afford to be the bait."
Eighteen-years-old now and Lucy's sense of fashion hadn't faltered once, the goth persona emitting stronger than ever. Though it was more for practicality, the cargo shorts and fishnet leggings she wore complimented her black tank-top swimmingly. Her shoulder length raven hair was kept under a gray beanie and I still wasn't used to seeing those uncovered icy blue eyes of hers, after having them absent most of our childhood. The boots were the same as mine, steel tipped and made for more than just turning tail.
"You had no problem being the bait when we went up against those vampires!", I told her.
"You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"
"Sorry, the image of Silas getting ready to plow you is now forever burned into my brain!"
Lucy opened her mouth to defend herself, but a new sound amongst the dragon's continuous thrashing garbbed our attention: the sound of a chain snapping in two.
"These won't hold her. It's now or never." she told me tossing the metal seal that would return her to human form.
My heartbeat quickening, I circled the beast and used the chains that bound her like rungs on ladder to climb on her back. I crawled up to her right horned shoulder blade and placed a hand on her scales to keep my balance. They were rough, grainy and hot to the touch, like touching a plate fresh from the dishwasher. Unsheathing my own rune inscribed Kukri machete, I proceeded to slice the line separating two of her scales. Her outer layer was too thick to be affected by any sealing magic so I had to get a piece out of the way and make contact with the tissue underneath.
She felt nothing at first, but as I got the pointed tip under, her thrashing intensified. She was snarling with rage, probably never having been the victim of this kind of mistreatment before: always the predator, never the prey. More chains started to uproot from the ground and it took all my strength to maintain my grip on the machete's hilt. My body rocked back and forth and the Kurki was doing an abismalt job as an improvised saddle horn. All our months, all our research and planning was about to go down the pipe if I couldn't pry that stupid scale off and place the seal on her. I had only one last trick in mind. It worked in the movies, and I was about to be tossed off like a ragdoll so what harm could it do? I called her name:
"LILY! STOP! IT'S ME! LINCOLN!"
Her thrashing paused, her snarling turned into quick labored breaths and the cat-like slit of her right pupil shifted to look at my sweaty face. She understood me. Fuck me, it actually worked. I thanked whatever Gods there were, gripped my magically endowed blade and pried off the rest of her scale. I found my opening, tossed the kurki aside and slammed the seal onto the exposed tissue. White light erupted from underneath the seal, her thrashing resumed and this time I had no blade to hold onto. My body flew sideways and I started rolling in the gravel, kicking up dust with every tumble. The chain binding her jaws was now free and Lily threw her head back in one last act of defiance spewing fire from the pit of her stomach into the star-filled sky. Her head lolled and the rest of her body fell limp to the ground.
The seal took...and her van-sized body started to shrink, steam rising, the scales receding into her flesh and turning light pink. The color of a human. Now on my feet, I stepped around one of the wrecked cars to see her on her stomach, her head covered again in its light shoulder-length blonde hair, and a dragon's tail hanging out from above her rear. One chain lay draped over her, but her accelerated healing was already taking care of the gashes. Ten seconds passed, me just taking in the sight before me, and too tired to do anything else. Tears began to leak from the corner of my eyes. It's not that I didn't think the seal would work, but it was a hell of a feeling to be now standing on the other side of the massive canyon we just jumped over.
She began to stir and lifted her head, taking in her surroundings with squinted eyes, until she found me and Luce. "...Li...Linky...Lucy...what happened? Where am I?" she asked pushing herself to her knees. We ran, and me and Luce pulled her into the first hug either of us had given her in three years.
"Guys...where are we?" Lily looked down and discovered her own nudity.
"AH! Where are my clothes?!", she panicked and tried to stand up only for her legs to give out beneath her. I shrugged out of my leather jacket and pulled it over her trembling shoulders. She was crying now, more in confusion than in fear. Me and Luce stepped into our roles as elder siblings and began to ease her panic.
"It's okay, sweety...it's okay…" Lucy cooed, rubbing her back.
"I...I can't stand up..I..."
I quickly picked up her eleven-year-old body, bridal style, and started to make my way back to Vanzilla, which was parked outside. Lucy began gathering her chains, telling me she would meet me in a few minutes. I would be back myself to collect my own equipment. The whole time, Lily wept and I just assured her that everything would be alright and that I would explain everything...as hard as that was gonna be.
She may have been naked, disheveled, and covered in ash, but to me, the sight of my baby sister in human form again was the most beautiful thing in the world. As beautiful as the first time mom placed her in my arms the day after she got back from the hospital. I got her back. We got Lily back.
One down….many more to go.
A/N: *deep breath* sooooo….I figure there are two ways I can take this story; 1. I make it linear with fleshed out and interesting characters in every chapter (this means a fight scene won't happen in every chapter), or 2. I can literally just make each chapter going forward a scene with Lincoln and co. throwing down with one of his monster sisters/ friends/ enemies. I'd like your guy's input on what you'd prefer. Thank you for reading, following, faving and of course, critiquing.