Chapter 4: Drone

A week after the Liena was found in the box and new house blueprints were shown to the family, construction workers arrived. Lynn senior handed them house schematics. Only the basement and the road-facing side of the first floor were to be modified according to construction plans. The entire family then went to 2-week road trip to South Carolina with Vanzilla and their hatchback.

When the family returned, the construction was in full swing. After seeing the scene, they soon regretted not supervising the construction. Turns out that Lynn Senior had made critical errors when drawing his schematics and hadn't specified various details. First, he had drawn the basement rooms much bigger, resulting a large plot of land to be dug out in front of their house. In addition, the basement was extended to the sides as well.

It also turned out that the blueprints of the first floor handed out by Lynn Senior were mirrored, resulting that the location bathroom with a toilet room to be the left side of the entrance room and one of the bedrooms on the right side of the entrance room. As they were part of the porch, these rooms weren't the problem. What were the problems were the rooms not part of the closed off porch as they completely blocked off the path to garage for cars. As Luan remarked, these rooms were built oppo-side of where they were supposed to be.

The family was rather upset but until Lynn senior stated that it's better to look positive sides of the mishaps and work around the new 'features'. The family decided to thank workers for making the basement rooms bigger and stating that cars won't belong in garages in those days anyway. Troubles of the family weren't over though. Excavated dirt still had to go somewhere and they decided to just surround the house with it. That did result basement floor to be buried entirely underground, leaving it with no windows. Only Lucy approved.

When construction was complete, the internal migration begun. Lisa, Lana, Lucy, Lincoln and Luna moved to the basement, Loan and Liena moved to the new rooms on the first floor, Lily moved to Lincoln's former room and Leni moved to former Lisa's and Lily's room.

After everybody finally got their own room, the children felt that something inside the house was rather different. The house didn't feel so loud. It somehow became much more bearable living there, queues to bathrooms were often missing or significantly shorter and overall things didn't feel as chaotic as they used to. However, some siblings missed the old times a bit, often visiting and having sleepovers in each other's rooms. Family also decided to paint the doors of the second floor rooms to combinations of favorite colors of those who lived there before with Lincoln's former room being painted plain orange.

When the next school year started, Lincoln decided to get homeschooled as taking care of his kids took a lot of time for Lincoln.

When Luna turned eighteen, she started touring around the country with Sam, the rest of the band, and Chuck. Her room was often empty because of that.

Lori turned out to be a bit too strict mother, allowing Loan only one hour of screentime per day whenever she was present inside the house. Lincoln worked around that by letting Loan play video games with him when she turned three.

Things with Liena's turned out to be much better than expected. Her muteness made taking care of her much easier during her infant phase. After purchasing an ultrasound microphone, it turned out that Lisa's hypothesis was correct and she indeed could make ultrasound. Some siblings exploited this by making her cry to get rid of some of the pests infesting upper floors. Lana did not allow Liena in her room due to some of the pets not approving Liena's voice. Liena did get a certificate for highest human voice in the world.

Liena's condition has made Lisa conduct research for speech impediment cures. She managed to find a permanent one for herself and now all her unwanted "th"s became "ss"s. She had to tolerate some of her siblings calling her snake for a few months though.

The clothing store delivery marked the point when serial breeders got more creative in their baby deliveries to the point that they weren't doorstep babies anymore. On a positive side, several months after Liena, it seemed that the breeders got their gene editing right and now the designer babies did not show signs of major physical or mental retardations. Luna felt easier because of that.

More than two years had passed since Liena saw the light of day. It was a nice and sunny autumn day. Rita, Lynn Senior and two eldest sisters were at work. Luan was practicing her pranks, Lola reading gossip magazines, Lincoln playing video games, Lisa doing research, Luna being out of town, the usual. Lucy was teaching Liena some words in morse code that Lucy considered important, and also a few gestures of sign language. Liena was a quick learner.

Lana and Lynn were playing ball with Lily and Loan in the backyard. Lynn readied her soccer ball and kicked it as hard as she could. Lily caught the ball with her hands, but she went flying with the ball. After Lily got up and the ball war returned, Lynn looked at her other victim.

"Your turn, Loan!"

"I'm scared."

Loan was shaking as Lynn started running towards the soccer ball. Loan crouched just at the right moment, making ball to miss her and it hit the back fence instead.

"Ease up, Lynn! She's just four! Hey, Loan, let's play catch instead!", said Lana.

Loan suddenly noticed something flying in the distance: "What's that, aunt Lynn?"

"It's a quadcopter drone! It's flying towards us."

"Why?"

"Because it's carrying a bag! Or something."

"Why?"

"Because it needs to deliver something."

"Why?"

"Because...I don't know! Stop asking "Why? So often!"

"Why?"

Lana was curious. "Why do kids at that age say "Why"? a lot?"

Before they could realize, the drone had flown over them and the house, descended, dropped the package at the front door and was starting to fly away.

"It's for us! First one to open it is a winner." Lynn quickly ran to the front. Others followed.

What she discovered that that the bag was actually a single piece of cloth. On that cloth was a now-familiar type of baby blanket. And, as before, there was a baby inside a blanket with a familiar-looking note.

Lana, Lily and Loan also arrived. Lana looked at the new present.

"Another baby? I bet it's Lincoln's and Luna's kid! And it is! And it's a girl again!"

"Lynn, why don't our babies come from mother's belly?", asked Lily.

"Well, because I don't know! Someone is a horrible person."

Lana noticed the extraction date. "Hey! This one is fresh! She was 'extracted' today!"

"What's 'extracted'?", asked Loan.

"I wish I'd know."

Poster on the living room wall came to Lana's mind. "Time to initiate Operation Sin Kid!"

"Okay, Lana! Get Linc and rest of the dwellers! I'll get the ones upstairs. Lily, can you go to the living room and watch over the baby and Loan? We'll inform Luna after the doctors pay a visit."

"Alright!" Lily picked up the baby. "FIRST!"

Lynn was a bit upset. At least Lynn felt a bit better when she entered the house before Loan, Lana and Lily.

Lincoln was playing video games in his room. In about an hour, he decided to switch up things by planning to play with games with Loan instead, after she was done playing outside. The plan was interrupted when Lana opened the door.

"Lincoln! We have some news for you!"

Lincoln jumped. "You seem in a hurry. What worries you today, Lans?"

"There was a gift for you and Luna."

"Should we wait for Luna to return tomorrow to open it?"

"It was already open."

"Who opened it?"

"Well, it arrived open. Go to the living room. Ready your phone. You'll see why."

Lincoln picked up his phone, left the room with Lana, ran upstairs, through the kitchen and dining room and into the living room. Lily, Loan, the baby and Lynn were already there.

"There she is! Lily, can you hand her to Lincoln?"

Lily handed the baby to Lincoln.

Lincoln sighed.

"Another one? So this one I had with Luna?"

"Precisely!"

Lana ran outside again. Ever since she started to live in a basement, she preferred to use the backyard door to enter the basement rather than running through the dining room and kitchen, a habit picked up during house expansion.

Lynn returned from upstairs with Luan and Lola. After they admired and held her, Luan asked:

"So, who found the baby?"

"Loan spotted it first but Lynn, Lana and Lily were also there."

"How was the baby found?"

"You know those old illustrations and children's books where a baby was delivered by a stork? Replace stork with drone and that's how she was delivered to us."

Luan was lost in thought for a few seconds and then opened her mouth again. "We could say that whoever did this had a...stork of genius!"

Loan laughed, rest of the people in living room groaned.

"See? Loan got the joke! Anyway, I'll inform parents, doctors, police, Leni and Lori and Luna."

"Wait! Let's call Luna after doctors have examined baby's health. Then we won't have to keep her anxious." said Lynn.

"Alrighty!" Luan then started calling.

"So, another lost soul, never getting to experience the warmth of the mother?"

"That's right, Lucy. Also, thank you for making me jump only a little this time."

Liena had also arrived with Lucy.

Lynn was worried. "How are we going to explain Loan all that? I could understand if she had to witness a live birth but, seeing that freakish delivery? This is going to be really tough to explain."

"I bet Lana was disappointed. She would have loved to see live birth instead of a delivery.", said Lola.

Lana agreed. "Kind of bummed out on how our sister's children are born."

Lisa arrived from downstairs.

"So it has occurred again. Good news, the camera remained intact and the footage of the delivery was recorded. I have disclosed the front door camera footage on timestamps 15:30 to 15:31 and copied it to Lincoln's phone."

"You act it like it's a routine thing by now."

"I have practiced getting used to it."

Lincoln got out his phone and watched the disclosed camera footage. The rest of them gathered around him to watch the footage again. Then they watched it again, in slow motion, stopping at certain frames.

Luan finally finished the calls.

"I called Leni first as I know she could leave early. Considering how eager she is to fulfill shopping requests, she's already buying supplies. Doctors said they will visit soon. I informed the police and promised them that we can release the footage within a day. After the doctos have checked the baby's health, we inform Luna."

Leni arrived before doctors and parked the hatchback. She ran out of the car, carrying all the necessary stuff. One thing you could always count on Leni when it came to doing shopping.

Family greeted her and showed her the new baby in a living room.

"Wow! She looks totes cute! Even has brown hair like her mom! I can't wait to see Luna's face when she finds out."

Liena tugged Leni's dress.

"If it isn't my daughter, Liena! So what did my baby learn today?"

Liena smiled, and moved her index finger across her throat.

"Sigh. Liena, you need to look serious, not smile during cutthroat gesture.", said Lucy.

Liena tapped "Sorry" in Morse code on a wall.

Ambulance car arrived and doctors emerged from it. They had to double-check the address as the house looked different since the last time they visited. Lincoln and Luna came to greet them.

Lincoln looked a bit embarrassed when he waved at doctors. "Hello. Me again."

"So, you got hit for the third time?"

"Yup. This time with my third eldest sister, Luna Loud."

Luan was starting to shake one of the doctor's hand. "Hello. I'm the..."

One of the doctors suddenly went "OW!"

"Sorry. I forgot to remove the "hand defibrillator" prepared in just case of a new baby's heart was out of order". Luan removed her joy buzzer and continued explaining.

"What I meant to say that Luna is not present and we...umm...can't contact her at the moment. I'll be acting on her behalf. I'll call her when I can."

"Over eighteen and yet here you are, making pranks even in serious situations."

"Anyway, step in."

Luan led the doctors inside. Lincoln followed as well.

The same procedure occurred as last time. One of the doctors started examining the baby to look for any obvious health issues. Other plucked a few of her hairs for DNA samples, Lisa followed the doctor and received the data. Family was nervous but kept fingers crossed.

After doctor finished examining he said.

"After the initial health check, I can say that there are no obvious health issues! She seems to be in perfect health!"

House was filled with "yay!"s and "phew"s.

After the doctors left and Luan jokingly yelled "See you soon! Love, Luan!" as the ambulance drove away, Lincoln called Luna.

Luna was currently wrapping up up her tour with Sam, rest of the band members and Chuck. This time they were doing Michigan tour, less ambitious than some of the other tours their band had been on. They were currently in Great Lakes City, making preparations for their last concert of that tour.

Suddenly, her phone started to ring. Luna looked at the phone.

"Excuse me. It's from my bro Lincoln!"

Luna picked up the phone.

"Hey! Wassup, bro?"

"Hi, sis! How are you doing?"

"Tour has so far been great! Almost no problems! Number of bottles thrown at us could be counted on only one hand...full of raisins...that have been shrunk a bit. So why did ya call? Missed me?"

"Well, yes but there's someone else who might miss you, aside from those who throw bottles at you. I'll do a video call."

"Ok, bro! What'cha wanna show me this time?"

"Well..." Lincoln activated the camera.

He pointed camera towards the baby.

"Luna...well...serial breeder was at it again and you...err...now have a daughter with me, just like Lori and Leni do."

There was a bit of silence.

"Bro...Lincoln...dude..."

Other band members gathered around Luna to send condolences.

Luna opened her mouth again. "How do ya feel?"

"I wanted to know the same from you. Well, as for me, at this point I am kind of...accepting my fate. So how about you, sis?"

"To be honest...I...kinda...prepared for it. I know that day would come. It even was close to the year I expected it to happen. So, again, it's a girl?"

"Yup." Confirmed Lincoln.

"Then...does Lyra have medical issues?"

"Lyra?"

"I had prepared the name just in case."

Lincoln thought about the name a bit.

"Hey, sis! That's a great name! By the way, the doctor said...Lyra is in perfect health!"

"Really?"

"Yes! No 'legally mute' stuff or something like that!"

Luna felt relieved! "That's amazing. Dude, you don't know how happy I am! So where was she found?"

Luan interrupted Lincoln.

"Well, Luna. How to explain it? Guess it's time for 'the talk'. You see, when a brother and sister get along well and someone wishes that they both had a child together, then that someone somehow gets the DNA of a brother and sister, grows a baby out of that DNA somewhere, takes it on a drone ride and delivers it to a brother and/or sister. You get it when you're older!"

Luna, her band and a lot of people in the house chuckled.

"So...in summary, a drone delivered her? Did you catch the drone?"

Lynn explained: "We were to busy seeing the baby to pay attention to it. Besides, it was already flying away when we got to the front door. However, our security cameras got the footage! Shall I send the footage after this call?"

"Go ahead! Anyway, shame this baby happened when I was away. Not something every mom' can say!"

Luan had an idea.

"By the way, can you start video call with Lola?"

"Why?"

"An...unusual parent photo. Lola, ready your tablet!"

Lola returned with her large tablet. Meanwhile Luna disconnected from Lincoln's phone and reconnected to Lola's tablet. Lola put Luna's face in video call to full screen mode.

"Lincy, hold the baby now." Lincoln did as requested. Lola placed tablet with live footage of Luna's face next to Lyra.

"Now, Lincoln and Luna, smile, or else!". Lola held a phone next to Lyra. Lincoln and Luna smiled.

Luan took a picture with her phone.

"Now that one is family's first. As you have said many times, Wish You Were Here. So what are you gonna do now?"

"Guess we're...gonna celebrate! Yup. This concert will be rockin'! Be sure to watch it live online! We'll give our best. Roooight?"She turned to fellow band members!

"Right!", they said, fistbumping Luna.

"Anyway, see ya after concert! Keep rockin'!"

"We will! We'll be sending you the footage soon." said Lincoln. "Bye!" said everyone. Luna ended the call.

After the call, drummer had a thought:

"Hey, Luna! Imagine if Lyra had been the first one in the family."

"I would have not been prepared, I would have felt disgusted. I would have felt down! I would have been feelin' blue. But fortunately having two nieces helped me to prepare."

Chuck stated: "Sam would have probably felt upset about it if you had a daughter during those years."

"You bet I would!" While Sam and Luna were not as close as before, they were still good friends and still were in the same band.

Luna had another thought. "Sam, imagine if you had been you instead of me having a daughter with my bro during those years!"

"I would have been furious! You probably would have felt sad."

"But what about you with your bro Simon?"

"I would have been both furious and disgusted!"

Drummer had a more absurd thought: "Imagine if both Luna and Sam had a child with both Lincoln and Simon"

"Ok...this is getting too far!"

Despite this, the band continued the conversation, coming up with ever more outlandish scenarios. Soon they saw the footage of Lyra being delivered and had an idea to quickly make a song about it.

Evening came. Vanzilla finally arrived and parked next to the big tree, as they had been had been since the expansion of the house. Parents and Lori got out of the car. After they greeted and held Lyra, Rita asked Lincoln:

"So you all managed to do all that without our help?"

"Yes! Operation Sin Kid was a success! Lynn and Lana informed our family, Leni did the shopping, Luan was in charge of speaking on family's behalf and rest of us followed."

Rita smiled. "I'm proud of you all! Our family has grown up so fast."

Only slight disappointment came from Lisa who completed the DNA modification analysis and found all the modifications to be "boring" as they only increased resistances to diseases.

After the dinner, the TV in living room was connected to the Internet and the entire family arrived to watch live footage of Luna's last concert of that tour on the big screen.

Luna had a blast during concert, jamming with the band more enthusiastically than normal. Considering Luna, that's saying something. After the band had performed Luna's song "Artificial Born Breeder", Sam addressed the crowd as she often had done between songs.

"What an outstanding crowd! As many of you know, the song you just heard was inspired by events how 'serial breeder' affected Luna's family and especially her brother and two older sisters. Well, Luna has an announcement to make."

Luna stepped in front of the crowd.

"Today, my family got hit by the breeder again. And suddenly I'm a mom now!"

There was a mixed reaction in a crowd. Luna continued:

"Come on! It could be worse. At least it was the serial breeder or I'd be playing Jailhouse Rock!"

Luan continued. "Don't you just hate those days when you are informed that you have just become a mom and your baby happens to be in some other town?"

The crowd and Loud family behind the TV laughed.

"I mean, usually it's deadbeat men who are away during their child's birth! Even deadbeat women don't have that kind of experience. Rooight?"

Crowd laughed again.

"However, my bro hasn't been deadbeat yet! And I'm sure he won't become deadbeat now!"

Crowd cheered. Sam stepped in.

"If anyone is interested, we even have got the footage how Luna's child was delivered on our social media. You can watch it online after the concert is over. Well, you can watch it right now as well but what kind of a crowd you'd be if you'd do this and miss the performance? So with this news out of the way, here's our newest song "The Storks Will Go Bankrupt!""

Crowd and family cheered! Luna handed a her guitar to male band member and she herself got behind the synth.

It wasn't a slow ballad as some of the family members feared. It was actually rather aggressive song. Throughout the entire song, Luna soloed on one hand and held down a single note with the other hand.

As the song ended, the crowd and family behind the TV cheered again!

Luan noticed something: "So Luna used a drone in her song. Haha! I get it! Very clever, Luna!"

The rest of the concert went swimmingly! Luna did crowd surfing while standing and performing a guitar solo. She was glad that guitar could work wireless for at least short period of time. She noticed familiar faces in a crowd and waved at them.

Bobby and Ronnie-Anne waved back and cheered!

As Luna got back onto the stage, Ronnie yelled at Bobby through the music:

"That Lame-o Lincoln really gets around!"

"You are fifteen and still using the word "Lame-o"? What's the matter, Nini?"

"Nothing!"

"Are you jealous? Did you want to have kids with Linc?"

"No!"

"I am not so sure about your "no"!"

"I'd rather have a child with you than with him!"

Bobby laughed.

"You are kidding, right?"

"No I'm not OF COURSE I AM KIDDING!"

When the concert was over, the band started packing their stuff.

"Can't wait 'till I see Lyra in person!"

"Does having Lyra mean you won't be missing out on tours?"

"I'll see as the wind blows".

Meanwhile, inside the Loud house, Lynn senior addressed the family.

"Attention! As you know, there are now six people, including me and your mother, living in our house who are over eighteen. Moreover, each one of you, if excluding Lyra, has got their own room now."

Rita continued: "We decided that "lights out" rule has become obsolete and will become just a guideline from now."

Rest of the family cheered.

"Just don't make too much noise during night.".

"I'll use the night..." everyone jumped "...to wake up early to prepare for harsh realities of school in the morning." said Lucy.

Meanwhile, Liena was proudly demonstrating the family that she had learned longer words of Morse code this afternoon, like "darkness" and "suffering".

When night came, everyone went to sleep except Lincoln who was waiting for her. Lyra was taken into parents' room just like previous kids had been during their first night in the house.

Few hours into the night, tour bus stopped in front of 1216 Franklin Avenue to drop off Luna and a few instruments she brought with her. Band members and a few roadies gave Luna a goodbye hug. Luna waved at them. Luna carried the boxes to the garage.

Luna then entered the house. She remained quiet as she opened her parents' bedroom door. Parents and the Lyra were sleeping on their bed. Luna took Lyra, trying to not wake parents up. As quietly as she entered, she left the room and closed the door.

"Mom's here. Finally!". She gently stroked Lyra's hair.

Luna carried the baby to the basement and to her room. She then knocked on Lincoln's door.

"Yes, I'm awake. Come in!"

Luna opened the door. "Hi, bro! Come here, you!"

Luna gave Lincoln a tight hug.

When Luna let go, Lincoln asked.

"So, did you see Lyra?"

"Yes. She's the perfect little angel. She's currently in my room."

Luna took out her phone.

"Hey, let's take a selfie to celebrate us being proud parents?"

She readied her phone, did her now-iconic facial expression with tongue out and also not forgetting to do horn gesture over Lincoln's head. After a photo was taken, they looked at it.

"Luna, do you know that horn gesture symbolizes fertility?"

"Yup. You got three kids already and with three girls, including me! You're a stud!"

"I'm a stud in the most unstudliest way possible. I kind of have no choice."

Luna laughed.

"With this rate, all your kids with us will be pumped out before the age of 35."

"Hey, I don't want to be like our dad!"

"You won't be. Our pops got kids with only one woman."

"It's not what I meant! I'd rather have kids with one woman as well."

"But on the other side, our pops only had mom to raise us all. You got all of us by your side!"

"You have a point."

Lincoln suddenly realized: "Hey, you are a known local musician, you and me got hit by serial breeder, and the footage of your child being delivered is out for everyone to see. What do you think news articles will say in the morning?"

"The news and headlines will be writing themselves!"

"Hey, now that we have a daughter, will you be at home more frequently?"

"You bet, bro! Kind of miss out going on tours. Hey, I might take her on tours when her height starts to blast off!"

They talked for half an hour and then said their goodnights. Luna went to her room, took Lyra in her arms and fell asleep.

Lincoln also went to bed. Despite Luna having been away, everything went much smoother and better than any of them expected, Lincoln thought before he fell asleep. The future looked brighter than he imagined.