Chapter 11: Cocoon


When the next calendar year arrived, construction started yet again.

The expansion also provided an opportunity for Lisa to test out her another permanent invention: The super tunneling machine. Some of the family were concerned about the cave-ins as there was quite a bit of the house above the sub-basement. They didn't have to worry as only one square meter of basement hallway collapsed and that only because the super-tunneler ran out of concrete. After the rooms finally got carved out, the walls were strengthened. Lisa made sure that walls of her laboratory, her room, her closet and especially another small room that Lisa's room led into, were reinforced with steel, uranium and numerous exotic materials she managed to get her hands on.

As Loan and Lisa moved to the sub-basement, Leia begged to have a bedroom in the basement, just like Lupa had. Lola wanted to make her daughter happy although she herself was against it at first. That was probably because anyone who tries to like a queen is usually not living in mother's basement. Lana, meanwhile, moved to the third floor with Lizy.

The planned 'recreational center' complex was also added to the basement. Obviously, sometimes there were disputes when the recreational center should be set to 'spa', 'sports room' or 'plain' configuration but usually things were resolved relatively quickly. Sometimes even anyone unnecessarily getting wet or stuck in retracting architecture.

Lola wanted to make sure that the basement floor wouldn't look like a basement so she started decorating the hallway and painting the basement hall in pink color. Lupa and Lucy didn't approve of this. Eventually, after some disputes, they decided that the part of the hallway that's closer to the extra bedroom would become pink while the part closer to sub-basement stairs would become black with the center, the area near Lincoln's door would be painted orange.


Lori's and Loan's relations improved as Lori realized that she might have been too harsh of Loan in the past.

Dr. J. Was allowed to write a science paper about what she did. A few months after the arrest, a paper titled "Breeding humans from somatic cells. Methods and results." was released. A physical copy of that paper was printed out which ended in Loud family history cabinet. With the exception of abstract, introduction and conclusion section, the paper was difficult to understand by anyone other than Lisa.

Obviously, Lisa took a close look at it, writing down all the necessary details she found interesting. And so, her research shifted by putting this knowledge to use. In the kitchen, she started making various mixtures and letting family members taste them. Often, she even used spices in a rack that were marked with skulls, radiation symbols or biohazard symbols.

Kids often ran to the sub-basement to see what kind of stuff Lisa had invented. Laboratory was a fun place to play in and by Lisa's behavior, she didn't really mind. In fact, it seemed that them being in the lab was just part of her experiments. Invention of penicillin was an inspiration for Lisa as penicillin discovered by accident so Lisa tried to deliberately set up conditions for incidents to happen. Sometimes she even succeeded.

Lisa also didn't mind anyone entering her 'small room for personal experiments' room that had even more warnings than her own and laboratory's room. Anyone other than Lisa who tried to take a look, shut the door quickly after seeing various appendages, eyes, and other things facing them. It was one of the ways Lisa got entertainment.


It was a beautiful day in late summer about one and a half years after Lizy was extracted. Liby, Lily, and Lemy were in the tower, enjoying the fresh air and the view of the sunset, Lyra and Lola were on a roof terrace, drinking tea and having a chat. Lacy was running around in the neighborhood. The rest of the family was in their rooms. Lincoln was drawing a picture of the house he was living in.

Lisa knocked on Lincoln's door and entered his room.

"Sup, Lis."

"Greetings, older sibling."

"So, what worries you today?"

"Nothing. I invite you to take a sneak peek of my personal and hopefully permanent experiment."

"Another one?"

"This is not an ordinary experiment. After numerous years of preliminary research, my experiment has finally progressed to the point where it is relatively safe to reveal it."

"I don't have a good feeling about this."

They left Lincoln's room and walked down the stairs to the sub-basement. The sub-basement corridor, while narrower than hallways of other floors, was still wide enough to let two people pass each other. At the end of the winding main corridor, there was Lisa's room. After entering Lisa's bedroom, Lisa announced.

"I shall be revealing you the result of Project Lulu."

"Lulu? Wait a minute...Four letters and it starts with L...I think I know what this is about. Let me guess: That 'Lulu' is my daughter and your daughter?"

"You are absolutely correct."

Lincoln sighed.

"Oh well. What kind of an abomination have you created this time?"

"A very versatile one. I will open Lulu's chamber. No need to stay alarmed. Any excess creatures have been cleaned out." Lisa pointed at the door that led to the mysterious room.

"Lulu's...chamber? So that's what the small room was for instead of your monster storage?"

They opened the door to Lulu's room.

"What is this...thing?"

What Lincoln saw was a white cocoon that had been opened. On the floor, he saw a human baby...at least she looked like a human. She had already been dressed up and given a pacifier.

"Hello, Lulu! Your paternal unit is here to observe you."

Lulu leaped on Lincoln's chest.

"Aaah!"

To say that Lincoln was a bit scared, would be a slight understatement.

"Lis...um...I'm a bit of afraid of her. That's not what newborn babies usually do. Or, in this case, newhatched baby."

"Lulu, retract your claws! This is your father, Lincoln Loud. Lincoln just wants to take care of you from now on and he poses no danger to you."

Lulu retracted her claws and her hands looked normal again.

"What have you done to our...daughter?"

"Nothing major in particular. For now. At least nothing major that I am aware of. Just a few appendages, glands, organs, metabolism changes and so on. There may be some other alterations but I haven't done research on that. And do not worry about the claws either. These are just baby claws."

"They looked rather sharp for baby claws."

"But she at least didn't scratch you this time."

"This time?"

"She could develop a tendency to scratch various textures during its first major life stage, if not properly trained."

"It just gets better and better..."

"Anyway, now that you have seen a preview, I have to prepare her for the next day. I chose this date to show her to you as tomorrow the entire family unit is at home."

"Well, Lulu left me quite an impression."

Lisa grabbed Lulu again. "Anyway, thank you for visiting. Lulu, wave goodbye!"

Lulu waved at Lincoln. This time with no anomalies. Lincoln nervously waved back at her and left the room. When he started to leave, he saw Lisa starting to work on an ear tag. Lincoln went upstairs to the basement again, shaking almost as much as Loan.

At night, when Lincoln went to sleep, he said to himself: "Oh dear! What have I gotten myself into?"


The next day, Lisa called the rest of the family to gather in her room. Needless to say, Lisa's room was rather packed.

"As you all are aware of, on average, Dr. J's experiments were rather uninspired. Nine of her two hundred and twelve examples are in this room right now."

"My kids are not uninspired!" protested Luna.

"Anyway, the entire offspring unit inspired me to prove that significantly more superior organisms by combining DNA of sibling units can be created."

Lori wasn't that impressed. "Another...inbred kid?"

"Technically you are correct. In fact, I did not alter our genes at all aside from a few disease immunities. I did add a few chromosomes. And did some other Non-DNA modifications. So, now that the introduction is over, let us begin. Lincoln, open the door."

Lincoln opened Lulu's chamber door and Lulu crawled out of it. This time she was wearing an ear tag that said "12".

"Awww!" was heard.

"Say hello to Lulu Loud. Our newest member of the family unit! She's my daughter and Lincoln's daughter."

"She's crawling already? That's not what newborn babies do."

Leni asked: "Why does she have a large ear thingy that says 1 and 2? Is she, sort of, like, Lynn and Lacy?"

"That? This simply means she's the twelfth iteration of Project Lulu."

Lana was a bit worried. "So...what happened to the previous eleven?"

"About that...well...I decided not to let them go to waste so I just merged them with the current one."

"It just gets worse and worse."

"I have made several improvements to the ordinary plain homo sapiens. First, Lulu is capable of vertical and upside-down surface locomotion. In layman's terms, she can crawl on walls and ceilings."

Lisa picked up Lulu and placed her on a wall and indeed, Lulu didn't fall down. Instead, she started crawling on a wall. The family was a bit scared.

"The adhesives that I used on her suit also made it onto Lulu."

"But...what if she goes into places where we can't reach her?"

"Ah, we just use a simple biscuit to lure her back. Anyway, second improvement: Her food digestion efficiency is one hundred percent. In simpler words, you do not need to change her."

"So, basically, your digestion pill supercharged?" asked Lily.

"Correct. Third improvement: she doesn't make unpleasant high-pitched noises when in need of something. Basically, she doesn't cry."

"That's a relief. But how do we know when she needs something?"

"That leads us to final main improvement...well, an improvement that I know of. She has appendages to help her perform various activities and signal various needs. Lulu, open your mouth and show me."

Lulu removed her pacifier, opened her mouth and showed her tongue to reveal that it could split into three. Some screams were heard from the crowd.

"Don't worry. This tongue is still in the developmental stage. "

Leia hugged Lola. "Mom, I'm scared."

Lisa tried to calm the rest of the family down. "No need to be scared. The current orifice and jaw configuration seems to be less unusual than the previous one. Two days ago she had a tongue that had four small fangs at the end. It seems her appendages do alter from time to time."

"That doesn't sound very comforting."

"It is almost certain that she has many other unusual appendages that even I am not aware of yet. I also expect her to grow additional ones."

"That...does not sound very comforting either," said Lincoln.

"So...anyone wants to hold Lulu?"

The family gave her a pass.

Lucy unexpectedly said, "I'd love to!"

"Here you go. Be good now, Lulu."

Lulu climbed on top of Lucy's head and sprouted a lot of small tentacles from hair, making Lucy look like she had medusa hair.

"Wicked! Lulu is turning out to already be a great servant of darkness."

Lisa also watched it in interest. "Interesting. I did not know that she could do that."

Lisa took out a clipboard and write a few notes. After she was done, she asked: "Does anybody else want to hold her?"

"Can I?" asked Lacy. Lucy handed her Lulu.

Lisa warned. "Just be careful not to pet the back of her head. She has extra eyes developing under her skin."

"Eek!" Lacy threw Lulu back at Lisa who clung onto her. After Lulu retracted her claws, Lisa asked:

"Anybody else?"

"No thanks," said Lynn senior.

Lyra was shivering but still managed to speak. "Umm…I have a question. How can she already do things you tell her? Isn't she just born?"

"That's probably because of the previous iterations of Lulu have been merged with the current one and because of a small artificial intelligence chip to make sure she learns the basics of our world more quickly during her first month out of the confines of her chamber."

"That's gonna be some horrorcore stuff. I bet she could inspire me to write another song. But...not today." said Luna in response.

"Anyway, can you all stay with Lulu a bit longer? She needs to identify all the subjects when it comes to consumption."

Liena came up as an excuse. "Umm...I have to make food.". She started tapping various items of food on Morse code with both hands.

"I...I'm afraid I might get hurt", said Loan, shaking as always.

"I need to go and buy some snacks for my daughter Loan."

"I need to gather myself," said Rita.

Liby also tried to come up with an excuse. "I need to...decouple...umm...the noodles."

Most of the family started to leave with various states of urgency. A few even exited through Lisa's closet. Only Lincoln, Albert, Lucy, Lana, Lupa, and Lizy stayed in the room with Lisa and Lulu.

Lisa stated: "I just wanted to inform the family unit that Lulu needs to identify the subjects she is not allowed to consume for nutrient gains."

"She is cool!" said Lizy who was still a baby.

Lupa agreed. "Yea! Also, she will cause lots of chaos I bet." She laughed. Lulu noticed that and started making circular motions with her left arm.

"Why is she doing that?" asked Lana.

"That means that Lulu got... 'inspired'. Probably by Lupa's canine teeth."

"What does 'inspired' mean exactly?"

"She probably wants to have those teeth at some point."

Lupa gave a thumb up. "I like her more and more already."

Albert was a bit paranoid. "What's next? Lulu's gonna go through walls as well?"

"Well, not at the moment but thank you for your feedback. I'll see what I can do."

Albert sighed. Watching Lulu who was now crawling on the ceiling made him realize that never in his youth expected to have a great-granddaughter like Lulu.


In the late afternoon, the family had gotten over initial surprise. Most of the family members were inside a living room, discussing Lulu. Lola had ordered a baby book online that was delivered via drone.

"At least this time the baby book didn't come with another baby. Anyway, what would Lulu's baby book say?"

"It's going to be a weird birth story here." agreed Lori.

"Lisa probably has written tons of mysterious notes about her. Lulu's birth is probably going to be the most documented one out there if she decides to reveal them."

Lacy agreed. "Hers is going to be the most interesting one."

"And the most devilish one as well," added Lyra in return.

Liby also voiced her opinion: "Lisa is basically creating Mary Sue".

Lisa entered the living room with Lulu.

"Greetings. Now that you have probably get accustomed to the fact that Lincoln's offspring unit has increased to ten individuals, I shall bring Lulu to your view again. Now, Lulu. Look at all the entire family unit again. These beings are not your food."

Lulu looked at each member of the family who had left Lisa's room early before one-by-one. She blinked every time she had taken a closer look at each one of them. Many were nervous, especially Loan. After Lulu was done examining the whole family, she started crawling around the room again.

"By the way, exactly how old is our daughter at the moment?"

"That's kind of ambiguous due to the methods used to create her. Somewhere between seven to four hundred and fifty-five days."

"I have a feeling that her date span of birth will look like she only lived a year."

"With ninety percent probability, her future lifespan is longer."

This made Lincoln a bit worried. "Doesn't sound encouraging"

"Does sound a bit encouraging," argued Lyra but then stopped. "I'm sorry, mom."

"So, Linc, what do you think of Lulu?"

"Well, she's...interesting to say the least. What I've seen of my daughter so far...I should look at the positive side. Guess I'll be raising a superhero!"

Lucy also voiced her opinion. "You seem to be raising a monster! Not that I mind."

"Do you have a video of Lulu?" asked Leia.

"I could release some footage of Lulu emerging from a cocoon," replied Lisa.

"But what would the others say? The Government, the scientists, the public and so on?" warned Lola.

Luan had an idea. "I can just state that this is a CGI video. Then I ask everyone to challenge to find which parts are photoshopped. That would make an interesting prank. "

Lana was anxious though.

"How do you make sure Lulu doesn't eat my pets?"

"Well...excuse me for a minute." Lisa looked around. "Where is Lulu?"

The family went off to search for her. The found her on the second floor hallway.

"Lulu, come down from the ceiling."

Lulu let herself go and Lisa caught her.

"Let me see now if she already has caught someone"

Lisa shoved her arm into Lulu's mouth by almost all its entirety. By looks of it, it seems that Lulu had a bigger stomach than it looked from the outside. Lisa started browsing through her stomach, or stomachs, or whatever she had.

"Hmm…"

She started taking things out of Lulu's mouth. A few marbles, pieces of cocoon she came out of, Lisa's experimental pets...

"Aha!". Lisa had found an iguana and taken it out. "That's Lizter I think."

"That's...mine. Thanks, I guess."

"Ok, Lulu, you can eat the rest of the consumables again." Lisa turned to the rest of the crowd."I will have a harder time teaching her not to touch Lana's pets. That would probably be the first in priority to train her."

Lana agreed.

While Lulu started eating again, the discussion about Lulu continued.

"So, that'll be my last child?"

"Eighty percent certainty. If I ever plan to make another organism like Lulu, I would create it from scratch rather than using human deoxyribonucleic acid. I would also not use human as a blueprint."

"That sounds both good and bad news."


In the evening, most of the family calmed down in the recreational center that was set to 'spa' mode. Meanwhile, Lincoln visited Lily's room.

"Hi, Link!"

"Hello!"

"I just wanted to ask, what do you think of all that?"

"What do you mean?"

"You being the only sister who hasn't had a daughter with me."

"I'm actually...glad!"

Lincoln laughed.

"What's so funny."

"I was scared you would want to have one as well. Considering how things are in our family, it was kind of likely."

After both had a chuckle, Lily continued the conversation.

"You see Linky, I really don't want someone to deliver a child to me. I want to have a daughter in a more...traditional way."

Lincoln suddenly stepped away from Lily. "Hey! Wait a minute! Back off!"

Lily started to laugh. "That's not what I meant! I didn't mean with you exactly. Haha! You should have seen your face when I said that!"

"Even Lulu hasn't scared me that much today!"


This chapter was a bit shorter. Oh well. Guess it's epilogue time next.