Hello everybody! After one weekend without uploads, CoR: DR is back, and this time with weekly updates on Sundays! Assuming I can keep up with that, that is, but let's focus on the positive for now! Like the reviews:

1) MCR29: I'm glad you're happy about the return of this fic, and that's an interesting bit you got there.

2) Finnjr63: It totally will, bud!

3) animehero1000: Yeah, they've had some bad days. Don't worry, though, they're gonna have worse days eventually! XD

4) ChernoMan: Yeah, figured there was no reason to keep it secret for long AGAIN, so instead it was told from the beginning.

5) Omega Ultra: First, I'm not a native English speaker. Two, the pacing was already a problem in the original fic, and I'm trying to fix that as best as I can. Just be patient, please.

6) Nobody245: Hope and I have tried out something to fix it, don't worry.

7) Observant Guest: Yeah, the pets... they will play a role eventually, alright.

8) MasterCaster: Interesting.

9) Guest: Well, this will hopefully be better than the last, hehe.

10) Yeah, subverting cliches is good once in a while. And again, gonna try and fix that problem.

Anyway, onto the chapter!


Episode 3: Let's Train! Time to Discover Our Superpowers!


Back from where we left off, Lori, Leni, Lily, Clyde, Ronnie, and Lincoln stood at the sidelines while Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lola, and Lana were getting ready to kick their hologram counterparts' butts to test their powers, at the same time, mind you.

"Okay, so, what exactly are our powers, Lori?" Lynn asked, shooting a smug look at her oldest sister. "Betting my caste is super strength, but since your the all-knowing sister and stuff-"

"Actually, my caste is the one with super strength," Leni casually pointed out, catching the jock's attention. "Lynn, your caste's power is super speed, which you can totes access by focusing your energy on your birthmark. It's a way to activate our powers, you see-"

The athlete immediately chirped up. "Super speed?!"

"Now you can run away from failure even faster!" Ronnie Anne scoffed from the sidelines, chuckling as she got an angry look from the athlete.

"You know, Lynn? That sounds like the perfect use for super speed in your case," Lola added, also earning a glare from Lynn as she swayed her hair to the left. "Unlike moi, who always faces up against the competition even in the chance of defeat. Granted, I always win, but that's not important."

"Then stop bringing it up!" Ronnie casually shouted.

And it was in that moment that Lincoln decided to interrupt, "Ronnie Anne, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to spice things up." the tomboy shrugged with a little smile. "No one finds training fun in the comics. All talk and no act-"

"You may want to stop that, though," Lincoln interrupted again, basically ticking off the tomboy. "I've read enough comics to know that superheroes train better, without any spontaneous commentary."

"Yeah. Besides if you keep it up, you're going to regret it," Clyde added, with Lily nodding in blind agreement as he continued. "It's one thing to taunt a bunch of elementary school kids, but doing that to people with untrained superpowers? Sounds like an accident waiting to happen."

"Okay, stop getting sidetracked!" Lori called, getting everybody's attention. "We got a schedule to follow, so who will test their powers against their hologram counterpart first?"

"I'll do it!" Lynn stated, before getting ready to sprint just as her birthmark started to glow. "I've always wanted to try bum rushing someone at lighting speed!"

"I bet she'll lose her footing in an instant," Ronnie casually stated.

"I bet the resulting friction will set her on fire," Clyde nonchalantly added.

And before Lincoln could say anything, Lynn ran off at such high speeds she left after-images. However, once she leaped and tried to butterfly kick her holographic doppelganger, she got a grim reminder: the hologram wasn't corporeal, so she just phased through her and crashed into the fence, and down to the floor, feeling her skin get warmer for a moment in the process. Probably because of friction, the jock thought.

"Okay, Lynn, good work for your first try, but you'll have to work on your inertia and braking capabilities," Lori stated before turning to the remaining sisters. "Okay, Luan, you're up."

After taking a couple seconds to acknowledge her named was called, Luan slowly started moving towards Leni with a face mixed with doubt and anxiety. Picking up on this Leni started moving towards Luan.

"What's wrong, Luan. Like, are you still worried about Maggie?"

"No Leni, that's not what I'm thinking about right now," said Luan as she looked at her fashionista sister. "I know I went out here with everyone, but I still can't believe what Lori said inside. Original reality? Lincoln being a god? super powers? sounds like something from one of Lincoln's games or those movies that he likes to watch."

"I know it sounds totes crazy, but look at what Lynn can do." said Leni as she pointed to Lynn practicing with her super speed. "That has to make you believe what Lori told you guys is the truth. Now how about we like show you what kind of powers you have."

Leni's beaming face and what she just said made it hard for Luan to say no, so she took a deep breath and asked "Okay what are my powers?"

"Alright, you may, like, find this to be a no-brainer, but you have the power to weaponize puns: If you say a particular pun with a particular context, you'll be able to take that context and use it as a weapon."

Though confused at the explanation for a moment, Luan soon got an idea and quipped while her birthmark glew:

"Water you talking about?"

The comedian raised her arms, and a pair of water balls materialized above them. She then controlled them and threw both water balls at her holographic counterpart, who spazzed for a moment before blowing up. Then Luan put a hand on her hip and joked, while her birthmark was still glowing:

"Huh, looks like she was quite explosive about her loss."

A lit bomb materialized on Luan's lifted arm, and so she freaked out and threw it at Leni, who immediately slapped it into the sky hard enough to send it... into Carol herself, who remained stoic as the bomb blew up, covering her in a soot.

"Okay, you can clearly literally handle this by yourself, but we're going to have to work on both your ability to say puns, and activating and deactivating your powers manually," Lori said, only to add once she thought about it more, "Mostly your puns, though."

And as the training continued with Lucy being the next trainee, the smoke bomb covering Carol dissipated, showing the blonde had a disappointed look on her face.

"So, your teaching methods haven't changed, huh, Lori and Leni?" she said as she watched Lucy generate a pair of light arms from her back, which she used to punch her hologram counterpart into oblivion. "Those lessons can't work for everyone."

Carol smirked. "And I know just how to prove it."

The teenager put two fingers on her forehead and somehow teleported out of the... skies, just as Lola caused a blinding flash of light down below. And naturally, everybody had their eyes closed when that was done... except for the hologram, who blew up afterwards. And as Lola decided to do a little victor dance, she narrowly dodged Luan's fight with her own hologram, prompting a complaint from the diva:

"Hey, watch it!"

Then she turned to face Luna, who was standing next to Lori and Leni. "Luna, are you sure we can't take these fights elsewhere?!"

"Sorry, Love, but Lori and Leni said we have to train in the backyard," the rocker answered, shaking her head. "For now, we'll just have to deal with it."

Lola groaned and muttered "fine" as her hologram counterpart materialized again, this time heading off to fight her right away.

Meanwhile, with Carol...

The young woman reached her destination: The entrance to a large building, with an "L" symbol standing above it, with stylized images of a white haired boy hanging at the sides in tapestry.

But the thing that caught Carol's attention, was the fact that there wasn't anybody guarding the door. This greatly struck a nerve to the girl, who kicked the doors open and stomped her way inside, before snapping her fingers and somehow closing the doors in an instant.

As she walked around, another thing caught her attention: The lack of anybody else in the building. It almost seemed deserted, if it weren't for the choir that she could hear in the background.

"I'm assuming most of these "followers" are busy with choir practice or in their rooms," Carol remarked, scanning her surroundings. "Whatever, that's none of my business, I need to find the door that'll lead to HQ."

Carol continued to walk around, and eventually, she managed to find the door she was looking for: A large door, depicting six symbols; A paw, a diamond, a crescent moon, a five-leaf flower, a fist, and a skull, and inside each of these symbols was a spades symbol, colored white.

Carol smiled and went through the door, and found herself going up a long staircase that lead her to a large castle, with the same symbols as the door. As for what was on the background, nothing too important, just several colored portals hanging around in the sky.

Once she reached the building, the lady went inside and found herself in the living room, where she saw six masked beings: a blue one, a pink one, a purple one, a yellow one, a red one, and a grey one, all relaxing at a table.

Or rather, they were discussing something there.

"We need to send more of the breaker units to the Swag dimension!" the red masked being snapped. "Just because that dimension has a purple seal doesn't mean it can't be broken by any of the breakers!"

"Except that's exactly what it means," the purple masked being retorted. "The color of the seal designates the caste that can break. If the seals could be broken by anybody, we would've gotten a whole lot more done by now. And that's clearly not the case. Not to mention, most of my breaker units, which could break the dang seal, are busy elsewhere."

"Still, we need to break that seal somehow, that's literally our only job here," the grey masked being remarked, scratching their chin. "There must be something we can do that doesn't need Purple's breaker units."

Carol whistled, and caught the attention of the masked beings.

"Look who we got here, if it isn't Carol," the pink masked being scoffed, earning a glare from the teenager. "What brings you to HQ? Need to get a pep talk from the dear mothers again?"

Carol blushed with rage, and snapped, "I'm just here to show you something related to the Louds, that's all!"

"You do realize you're supposed to bother the Sister-Keepers or Brother-Keepers when it comes to stuff related to the Louds, right?" the yellow masked being asked. "What do you have to show us that you can't show the keepers?"

"Damn, I knew I was forgetting something! Eh, I'll deal with that later." Carol thought, then took a deep breath. "It's a status update on the Louds, but it'll be better if I show you, rather than tell you about it."

Carol slightly unbuttoned her top, until her cleavage was exposed, also exposing her birthmark. However, this birthmark looked rather... peculiar.

The first segment was a rectangle, which then became rounded in the middle, allowing the second segment-a spiraling circle-to spiral towards the final segment, a spades symbol.

The first segment was turquoise, the second segment was light blue, and the third segment, wasn't orange, but cyan.

But back to the important stuff, Carol focused her energy on her birthmark, and projected a rectangular screen from it, which showed the Loud sisters still training.

Speaking of Loud training...

Lana cracked her knuckles before swinging her left arm up, somehow sending a wave of earth at her hologram counterpart, who briefly blew up before reforming and going to face off against her immediately.

"Okay, Lana now knows how to use her caste's terrakinesis, to an extent anyway," Lori recapped before turning to Luna and putting a hand on her shoulder. "That means the only one left to train their abilities is you, Luna."

"Alright then," Luna nodded and went to face off against her holo-counterpart, making sure to dodge the other hologram vs original fights. "Hey, dudes, what are my caste's abilities anyway?"

Leni got ready to speak, but Lori quickly covered her mouth with her hand and whispered to her, "Luna's abilities require her voice, and seeing how she sounds kinda hoarse, I'm afraid she may get hurt. At least our other sisters have a way to avoid it, but I can't see Luna using her abilities first time and not losing her voice for the rest of the day."

Then, she got an idea. "How about you tell her about her other abilities?"

"But those other abilities are not exclusive to her caste," Leni pointed out telepathically. "What if she starts getting suspicious about-"

"Hey, dudes!" Luna called, immediately catching the duo's attention. "I know you have a lot of abilities to remember, but could you please hurry up a little? We don't have all day."

Lori and Leni exchanged looks, a nod, then Lori released Leni's mouth and the fashionista explained:

"Luna, your caste has the ability to channel their energy into weapons. You just have to focus your energy on a weapon you want to make, and the rest should be done by your mind."

Though she was slightly confused by the explanation, Luna promptly nodded, closed her eyes and focused her energy on her birthmark, which began glowing. Shortly afterwards, she opened her palm, and part of her energy surged through it and came out before materializing itself into a pink-lavender-blue guitar axe.

And as Ronnie, Lincoln, Clyde, and Lily all looked in awe at the energy guitar, Luna opened her eyes, and it only took one look at the object to bring a smile to her face.

"Wow, sweet!" Luna then turned to her hologram copycat and proclaimed. "Okay, holo-me, I'm ready to cut you down, look sharp!"

The rock star dashed to her counterpart, and with one swift swing of her energy guitar, Holo-Luna was split in two, exploding shortly afterwards. Then she reassembled herself, and dashed towards Luna with a holographic energy guitar of her own. Not to worry though, the musician managed to block the attack, and so, the fight continued.

A fight so loud, it apparently could be heard underground.

Underneath the Loud house, Lisa's Laboratory...

The young prodigy put the finishing touches to a small model of her Royal Woodroid 5000 idea, with what could be presumed to be the full version resting behind her, covered by a giant white sheet. However, putting said finishing touches became harder than she thought thanks to the sound of the fights above her, which did nothing but hinder her concentration.

Nevertheless, she managed to finish the robot model... and just in time for it to bring a very unpleasant memory to her mind.

Lisa's flashback...

The scientist was showcasing a small model of her "Royal Woodroid 5000" project to Darcy, who just looked at the little robot with confusion.

"And that's exactly why I need your help in finishing this thing!" Lisa said before extending her hand towards Darcy. "So, what do you say?"

The toddler glanced between the robot, then Lisa's hand, and gently lowered the hand as she answered:

"I'm sorry, Lisa, but I'm not into robots. And besides, I couldn't even understand half of what you told me."

The scientist's smile remained, but her eyes spoke for themselves. "W-What are you saying?"

Darcy sighed, "I'm not going to help you."

Lisa's smile slowly turned into a furious glare, to the point that she looked like she was about to blow up. And she did, with one simple question:

"What!?"

Back in the present...

What came afterwards wasn't something the prodigy wouldn't like to relive: Basically her biggest hissy fit since... actually, possibly her first truly immature hissy fit in general. It was a thought so unpleasant, it left a bad taste in the prodigy's mouth.

So much so, in fact, she simply knew she had to apologized. So she went to the nearest phone in her lab, and called to Darcy's house number.

It wasn't long before a familiar voice answered:

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mrs. Homandollar," Lisa greeted with a calm tone of voice. "Sorry if I got your surname wrong. Anyway, is Darcy home?"

"Sure, I'll get her here in a moment."

Lisa waited for some moments, and yet again, it wasn't long before she heard a familiar voice:

"Lisa?"

"G-Greetings, Darcy," Lisa nervously greeted, scratching the back of her head as she continued. "Listen, I... wanted to apologize for my earlier behavior, back at your house. I didn't mean to overreact like that."

"I don't know what you mean by "behavior" or "overreacting", but you were being mean and scary back then," Darcy replied, sounding slightly upset. "You even left before I could ask you why this giant toy robot you showed was so important to you."

The prodigy flinched right in that moment, but quickly got an idea when she turned to look at her incomplete Royal Woodroid 5000 model.

"W-Well, why should I tell you, when I can just show you?" Lisa replied. "If you wouldn't mind, could you, maybe, come to my house next weekend? I got something I'd like to show you."

This prompted Darcy to ask an innocent question, "Can I get mad and scary like you did at my house if I don't like it?"

The scientist couldn't help but feel embarrassed by that fact, specially when she compared herself to Darcy. Simply put, she was a prodigy who was used to acting in a stoic manner, and had "nerves of steel", so to speak, so she theoretically shouldn't have taken Darcy's refusal to work with her as badly as she did, valued friend or not. It didn't seem odd for Darcy to throw a hissy fit, but if Lisa was in the same situation, she probably would've gotten quite a few odd looks from her peers.

"Sure, you can do that," Lisa answered, forcing a smile. "But I need you to come, please."

A couple seconds of silence passed... and then Darcy answered:

"Sure."

The prodigy chirped up and answered "Thanks, Darcy, you won't regret it!" before hanging the phone. This was followed by the Royal Woodroid 5000 model spontaneously falling apart, making the prodigy rub her forehead in annoyance.

"I should better get working on a more stable model," Lisa muttered. "And fast."

Meanwhile, above Lisa's lab...

The quartet remained sit down and watched the girls' continued struggle against their holographic counterparts. And though they weren't having that much trouble with their counterparts, the fact they didn't have a big arsenal of powers on their hands, plus Lori having complete control over the holograms' strength-or so the girls thought anyway-it almost felt like they would be utterly helpless in a real battle.

Not that this kept Lincoln from trying to stay positive:

"Keep it up, girls, you're doing really good!"

"You'll beat your counterparts in no time, and with style to boot!" Clyde added.

Lily giggled and clapped her hands, and then Ronnie Anne said, just as the sisters decided to take a break from fighting the holograms:

"Are you guys seriously fine with this?"

The boys, baby, and bunny plush toy turned to the tomboy as she added:

"Just staying at the sidelines, watching everybody else fight? Are you really okay with that?"

"I don't see the problem of just staying here for now, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln shook his head. "Lori and Leni did say they would train us after they were done training... most of our other sisters."

"Yeah, Ronnie, you just gotta be patient," Clyde said, with Lily nodding in agreement. "There's no point in rushing anything."

"I'm not questioning whether Lori and Leni are going to train us or not, Phone-O should know by now that I hate it when people lie to me," Ronnie sighed. "I asked if you guys are okay just sitting on the sidelines like this, waiting forever for our training to come. I mean, after what the others can do, don't you want to know what sort of powers we have too?"

"We're not like you, Ronnie Anne," Clyde bluntly stated. "We can actually wait."

"I can wait too!" the tomboy whined, folding her arms and looking away as she added, "I'm just finding it hard to do because we're seeing all this exciting stuff!"

Suddenly, Lincoln got an idea. "How about we go inside and get something to eat? We don't have to stay here, we can just wait inside until my sisters finish."

"Huh, that actually sounds like a good idea," Ronnie remarked. "I'm surprised it took you this long to come up with a plan like that, though, Lame-O."

"I'm not," Clyde patted Lincoln's back. "After all, even if he takes his time, he's the man with a plan, and I'm his best friend to the very end!"

Ronnie tilted her head to the right. "Then what am I?"

Clyde shrugged. "Uh... a bully who's unruly, I guess?"

With that said, Lincoln and Clyde got up and walked back inside, making sure that they continued to hold Bun-Bun and Lily as they walked into the house. As for Ronnie, she remained on the ground to process what was just said to her, until she frowned and somberly repeated:

"Bully?"

Meanwhile, back with Carol and the masked beings...

The blonde young woman continued to show the training sessions for a little while before stopping channeling her energy, making her birthmark stop projecting the screen. And as she caught her breath-apparently projecting such a thing was pretty tiring for her-the masked being just remained sitting down, apparently unimpressed. That, or just having no reaction to the video.

"Okay, so, from what we could gather from the video, Lori and Leni finally to their siblings a part of the truth, and they're training them to use their powers," the pink masked being recapped, folding her arms and crossing her legs as she finished, "I still don't see what you need from us."

"Just because the Louds are learning to use their powers doesn't mean they're threats to us right now," the blue masked being added. "In fact, judging by what we saw, they still have a long way to go before they'll be anywhere near close to use their powers effectively."

"What I need help with, is actually put the Louds through a realistic battle simulation," Carol got up and turned to face the masked beings. "Lori's holograms stay still until they blow up, and even when they started moving, they didn't pull off any moves that the Louds couldn't easily counter or see coming. In a real battle, a single slip-up could cost the Louds dearly, but in Lori's training, there's no peril for them at all!"

"They're just training, there's nothing to worry about there," the red masked being pointed out as they folded their arms. "If you really want to teach them a lesson, or give them a harsh introduction to reality, then you can go do it yourself, we're too busy at the moment."

It was in that moment that a devious idea entered Carol's mind, bringing a wide, sinister smile to her face. She then turned around and folded her arms before she spoke:

"You're right, clearly, I can't count on you to help me deal with the Louds."

"Carol, it's not that you can't count on us," the yellow masked being interrupted. "It's just that, from the way you're talking about it, the situation doesn't sound like something you'd need our help with, you could probably do it on your own."

Carol chuckled. "Again, you're right: Compared to me, all of you are nothing more than bench warmers, people who just exist to cover space and nothing more. Or perhaps, you're more like couch potatoes?"

This statement caused the pink masked being to uncross her legs and stand up, hissing, "What did you call us?"

"I called you bench warmers, and then couch potatoes, both of which is what you really are," Carol shrugged and shook her head. "After all, what else do you call a group of people who spend most of their time, which isn't spent barking orders, sitting on their butts and watching their "underlings" do their work of them? At least I go out on occasion, but you guys?"

"We go out on occasion too, during breaker missions!" the pink masked being snapped, stomping the ground. "We both know that our jobs are different: Your job is to watch over the Louds and lead the breakers when we can't do it, and our job is to act as the progenitors' second in-command, and lead the breaker units into the sealed dimensions!"

Carol slowly turned to face the masked beings, and asked, with a smug smile, "How does that change the fact you spend most of your time wasting it in this building, until your minions report to you?"

And though the pink masked being almost attacked Carol right then and there, she was stopped by the blue masked being, who said, "Carol does have a point: It's been a couple of days since we got the last report from our minions. Maybe we could pay the Louds a visit?"

And then the red masked being added, "Besides, one of the progenitors' goals is to make sure the Louds don't get too cocky. And we all know how overconfident people can get after they first find out they have superpowers."

"They did seem excited to use their powers for the first time in the video," the grey masked being added suddenly. "In order for them to not let it get over their heads, however, they need to see they still have a lot to learn, and the best way to do that is for us to show them what those powers in the hand of experienced people can do."

Finally seeing reason within their comrades words, the pink masked being looked at the ground, thought about it, then turned back to Carol and stated:

"We're going to go teach the Louds a lesson, but you're coming too!"

"But of course," Carol turned back to the beings. "Somebody has to keep Lori and Leni busy, otherwise, the fight will be over in an instant! So-"

Just then, the grey masked being blurted, "However..."

"What is it?" the yellow masked being asked.

"What if the progenitors find out about this little endeavor of ours?" everyone else flinched at the question. "After all, they prefer it when we do things they order us to do, rather than things we decided to do on our own."

"B-But, the progenitors want the Louds to keep a healthy ego, which is what we'll end up doing!" Carol argued. "Why would they be upset about that?"

"Carol, you have to remember that the progenitors... have a special way of thinking," the purple masked being finally spoke as she stood up and walked towards the blonde. "A train of thought that even us, their closest followers, can't even come close to comprehending. What we see as being something they'd enjoy, could be seen by them as something they'd hate, and so on and so forth."

Carol narrowed her eyes as the being continued, "We need to end the fight quickly, otherwise, the progenitors may step in to attack the Louds themselves. They may hold back, but still... we want the Louds humbled, not traumatized."

The blonde took a deep breath and nodded, "You're right, we'll strike the Louds, and make sure to end the fight quickly so as to not get the attention of the progenitors. Until then, we can only wait; if we go too soon, Lori and Leni may be able to work together with their sisters to kick our butts."

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure your butt has a reservation for them alone, right?" the pink masked being chuckled.

Carol groaned in fury, but managed to calm down herself quickly enough to join the rest of the masked beings as they waited for the right time to strike.

Back with the main trio...

Lincoln sat on the couch, rubbing Lily's hair and making sure she didn't try to eat Bun-Bun as the pets watched them nearby. But they weren't the only ones watching, for Clyde and Ronnie Anne could see the scene from the kitchen, where they were having lunch. More specifically: Ronnie somberly had lunch, while Clyde looked at Lincoln with a worried look.

Which, no doubt, caught Ronnie's attention.

"Nerd-O, is there something wrong?" Ronnie asked, bringing the boy back to reality. "I mean, I wouldn't blame you if there was something on your mind, but the fact you haven't even touched your food worries me a little."

"Sorry, Ronnie, I just got lost in thought," Clyde ate a bit before adding, "And it has to do with Lincoln, doesn't he seem to be taking everything that's been told to us... a little too well?"

"Now that you mention it, I don't think Lame-O's asked any questions about anything that Phone-O and Ditz-O said," Ronnie scratched her chin. "Do you think he's in denial or something?"

"Either that, or he's coping by ignoring it," Clyde turned back to Lincoln. "I can't think of any other possible explanation."

Ronnie then nonchalantly suggested, "Try."

One quick, unamused glance later, Ronnie decided to remain quiet for a bit, and take a deep breath before asking:

"Clyde, can you be honest with me?"

Ronnie hesitated as the guy turned to look at her with wonder, and a bit of confusion.

"How many people... still see me as a bully, even after all the time that's been since I left?" the tomboy asked, rubbing her arm. "I want to know truth, please."

The geek put on a blunt look and took a deep breath before replying:

"I'm going to be honest with you, but it's going to hurt. In fact, it may be too much for you, because even if you say you're ready, your body language says otherwise. So there's a chance the truth may end up hurting you far worse than anything has done so far. So, if you're really sure you can handle the truth, I'll probably give you the benefit of doubt, but again-"

Suddenly, Ronnie snapped. "For Lame-O's sake, Nerd-O, tell me already!"

Flinching at the sudden display of aggression, Clyde adjusted his glasses and bluntly stated:

"Ever since you left, everybody remembered you as a bully. You acted like a bully since the start of the school year, you remained a bully for most of it, and the only people you even bothered to act decent to were your family and Lincoln, everybody else only ever got to see your "bully" side, and that's all they had to remember you when you left."

Ronnie's anger was slowly replaced with anger and shame, as the geek continued:

"And can you blame them? You just vanished without a trace, with only a few of us learning about it from Lincoln or Lori. And by the time you left, nobody knew about the real you, Ronnie Anne, they only knew about "Bully Anne" and her cruel bullying tactics. And because of them, not only did most people not miss you as well, but some even rejoiced about that fact because they thought they were finally safe from you."

Ronnie then covered her face and cried, "Nerd-O, please stop!"

Seeing the tomboy about to collapse, the dark-skinned boy complied, and rubbed her back in sympathy as he said, "I'm sorry if I was too harsh, but I did warn you beforehand that I was going to be very blunt. And the truth could hurt, that too.

"No wonder Bobby was so hesitant to come back here," Ronnie sighed as she uncovered her face. "He probably thought my "reputation" would cause our family a lot of problems!"

"As bad as you may have been, I don't think it would be enough to drive your family out of the city," Clyde remarked, earning a look that basically told him the tomboy didn't want to be pitied. "But, truth be told, it might be hard for you to make some friends."

Ronnie rolled her eyes. "Right, cuz that wasn't hard enough already. Listen, Nerd-O, you seemed to be worried about Lame-O before, how about you go talk to him while I recover from... that harsh reminder of reality?"

"You know what, Ronnie Anne, that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all," Clyde got off his seat. "I'll go see him right now. And again, sorry for the harsh words."

"Don't worry about it, I've been through worse," Ronnie somberly replied.

And so, the dark-skinned geek walked to Lincoln's side and sat next to him, earning a surprising growl from the pets.

"Calm down, guys, it's just Clyde," Lincoln told the pets, who obliged. "So, Clyde, do you need something?"

Feeling a bit nervous, the geek took a deep breath and asked:

"Lincoln, we're best friends, right? We have a lot of trust in each other, right? 'Cause I need to ask you something, but I'm not sure if it may be too much for you..."

Lincoln, likewise, took a deep breath and answered:

"Clyde, you've been by my side through... most of my misadventures, and you've been my best friend since the very beginning. We trust each other and share everything. So if you have something to ask, go ahead."

And after a couple seconds in silence, the guy asked:

"How do you feel... about what Lori told us?"

Speaking of Lori...

The young woman kept Lynn at bay with one hand before snapping her fingers on her remaining hand, causing the holograms to vanish from existence. With that done, most of the sisters took the chance to calm down and rest... except for Lynn, who continued to try and hit Lori.

"Hey, I already got rid of the holograms!" Lori snapped as she grabbed the jock by the neck of her shirt. "Why do you keep attacking me?!"

"Just to be sure!" Lynn smirked.

And just in that moment, both Lori and Leni could feel something was incoming. Or more accurately, someone, was coming.

So Leni promptly grabbed her athletic sister and put her on the ground, before gesturing her sisters to go into the house.

"Alright, everybody, we'll leave your training there for today. Now please go back inside the house while Lori and I deal with..." Leni walked closer to Lori and looked at the sky. "A certain uninvited guest."

Just as the sisters questioned what the heck Leni was talking about, the girl's belly button seemingly glew as she raised her arms, somehow covering herself and Lori inside a light brownish shield.

And just in time too, since not long afterwards, Carol came out of nowhere so fast, she seemed like a blur to the other sisters. Then, she kicked the sphere so hard, Lori and Leni were sent flying off into the horizon, with Carol chasing after them in hot pursuit.

"Dude, what just happened?!" Luna exclaimed in disbelief.

"Nothing compared to what'll happen to you."

The sisters turned to see the sky, where six colored portals suddenly materialized. From those portals came the masked being, each coming out of the portal that matched their own color, who levitated on the air as they took a look around their surroundings, before noticing the sisters.

"Greetings, Loud sisters," the pink masked being greeted as the portals closed themselves out of existence. "It's so good to see you in person."

"How do you know who we are?!" Lola snapped, stomping the ground.

"Um, hello, Lola? The Loud house? Home of the Loud family, one of the biggest families in Royal Woods?" Lana pointed out. "It would've been weirder if they didn't know who we are."

"Even so, who are you?!" Lola snapped at the masked beings. "And what the heck do you want?!"

Soon afterwards, the masked beings slowly flew down to the ground, and the instant they landed, the pink masked being stated:

"We're going to make you learn your place."

-Next Chapter Preview-

"Hey everybody, Clyde here!"

A crash happened at the main street of Royal Woods, followed by Carol, Lori, and Leni talking to each other as Clyde spoke.

"A lot of interesting stuff seems to be happening right now."

Then, Carol formed a pair of energy blades and dashed towards Lori and Leni.

"Somebody attacking Leni and Lori,"

Meanwhile, the sisters fought the masked beings... with mixed results.

"Some masked beings attacking the other sister,"

And finally, Clyde and Ronnie Anne went to try and get Lincoln's answer about his thoughts, only for him to run away. Which, of course, prompted them to chase him.

"But right now, one thing matters the most: Getting Lincoln to tell me and Ronnie Anne his thoughts!"

Back at the main street, Carol got on her knees, and then Lori and Leni flew back home, with Lori carrying an unconscious Carol.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Six pillars of light emerged from the ground, and six humanoid figures came down from the pillars of light as Clyde said the title:

"A Fight That's Impossible To Win?! The Progenitors' Divine Discipline!"

Ronnie Anne and Clyde exchanged angry looks as the tomboy seemed to be threatening the boy.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, Lincoln left his hiding spot, getting Ronnie and Clyde's attention.