Hey guys, here's chapter 14 of Neon Flash.
It was another day in the Loud house. Rita was sitting on the couch with her daughter Luna, discussing about a certain white-haired boy in their lives.
"So, let me get this straight. You want to spend time with Lincoln to get to know him better?" Luna asked.
"Correct" Rita nodded in confirmation.
"Even though you had all these years to do so? I think you might be a little late for that, mom" Luna raised an eyebrow with her arms crossed over her medium sized chest.
"Luna, please. I just want to get to know my son" Rita pleaded to Luna, a hint of sadness in her voice.
"Why do you need my help?" Luna asked.
"Out of you and your sisters, you're the one that closest to Lincoln. C'mon, please?" Rita asked pleadingly, her hands clasped together.
"Hm. Well, we are close like Starsky and Hutch…" Luna said, looking down in thought. "Alright, I'll see what I can do. No promises though" she told her.
As fate would have it, the white-haired teen himself was walking down the stairs, hands in his jacket pockets. Luna glanced at Rita, and then to her younger brother as he approached the bottom of the stairs.
"Hey Linc, aren't you supposed to be at school?" Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, today's Staff Development Day, so students don't have to go to school" Lincoln told her.
"Oh. Cool" Luna replied before being nudged by Rita, "Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't you spend the day with mom?" she suggested, gesturing to her mother.
"You want me to the spend the day with her?" Lincoln gave a quizzical expression, pointing at the blonde older woman.
"Mom and I have been talking and we think you should give her another chance" Luna told him.
"Ugh…" Lincoln groaned, rolling his eyes.
"Lincoln, I know we've had our differences in the past… but I think some time together will do us some good" Rita spoke up.
Lincoln crossed his arms, giving her a skeptical stare.
"C'mon, Linc, she really wants this" Luna said.
Lincoln looked down in thought. He had remembered what Pop-Pop had asked of him the other day. He had made Lincoln promise to give his parents a chance, which probably included spending time with them. The white-haired teen looked back up at Luna, and then to Rita. There was a short pause before Lincoln released a sigh.
"Ok, fine. I guess we can spend the day together" Lincoln said, rolling his eyes.
"Thank you, Lincoln. You won't regret it" Rita walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
'Yeah, whatever" Lincoln said, taking his mother's hand off him. "So, what'd you have planned?" he asked.
"How about we grab a bite to eat to begin with?" Rita offered with a part nervous, part hopeful chuckle.
Burpin' Burger…
Lincoln and Rita were at Burpin' Burger, the best burger joint in all of Royal Woods. The burgers here were so good, they were tasted twice as nice when someone burped.
"This is nice, huh? I remember this being your favorite burger place growing up" Rita said.
"Uh-huh" Lincoln glanced to the side, his arms crossed as he leaned back, a leg raised on his seat.
"What would you like to eat?" she asked.
"Get me whatever. I'm not that hungry" Lincoln replied, only for a loud grumble to come from his stomach. He turned to his mother who gave him a playful smirk, and then back to away.
"I'll go get our food" Rita said as she stood up and went to order their food.
Instead of going to counter and giving their order to an employee, she went to a machine that allowed to go through the menu and make and customize the order themselves. Now going to employees to make their order was optional. But when you could do it yourself, why would you? Meanwhile, Lincoln was looking at his mother out of the corner of his eye.
"So, after all these year, she chooses now to spend time with me. Alright, let's see how far you're willing to go with this, Rita" Lincoln thought to himself.
"Ok, I ordered our food. I got us the triple bacon cheeseburger combo" Rita said, sitting back in her seat.
Lincoln simply looked back at her in silence.
"Alright, Rita, time to break the ice…" Rita mentally told herself, "So… how's school?" she asked.
"Meh" Lincoln replied with a shrug.
"Anything interesting happen lately?" she asked.
"Not really" he told her.
It was only a half lie though. Nothing interesting usually happened to Lincoln as a civilian, but as the hero of Royal Woods, Neon Flash, interesting stuff happened him on a weekly basis. Not that anyone ever knew it was him doing that stuff. Well, as far as he knew anyway.
"How was your day with Pop-Pop?" Rita asked.
"Cool. Gran-Gran was nice" Lincoln said casually.
"Seems he likes Myrtle already. After one day, he's already stated calling her Gran-Gran" Rita thought to himself, smiling. "I heard Neon Flash saved the day when you were there"
"Uh, yeah… he did…" Lincoln replied.
An employee came to their table and placed their order in front of them before walking away. It consisted a triple bacon cheeseburger, large fries and a milkshake.
"How're things with your sisters?" Rita asked.
"They're fine" Lincoln replied, eating his fries.
"What're your relationships with them like?" Rita asked, taking a sip of her milkshake.
"They're… decent. Depends on the sister" Lincoln gave a simple reply, taking a bite of his burger.
Rita gave an upset expression. She was trying to communicate with Lincoln, yet he seemed to be giving her the cold shoulder. Well, seeing as how small talk wasn't working, maybe it was time to bring out the big guns.
"Listen, Lincoln, I know we don't have the best relationship. But I really want to try to make this work" Rita told him. That got Lincoln's attention and made him look at her, "I haven't been the greatest mother in the world… at least, not to you"
"That's putting it mildly" Lincoln thought to himself.
"The day you got sent to juvie was one of the worst days of my life…" she began, "The fact that you were sent there after that argument we had made me realize our parenting methods with you were wrong. It was even worse when Luna thought how you'd might turn out when you got back"
Lincoln took a sip of his milkshake.
"I've felt bad for the way I treated you. So, I was hoping this would be a nice start of making it up to you" Rita told him.
Finishing the last of his food and milkshake, Lincoln slammed his cup on the table. He gave a low sigh before gazing into his mother's eyes.
"While the food was good, you have 16 years to make up for what you've done" Lincoln told her, folding his arms, "Taking me out to eat isn't going to cut it" he added.
"I had a feeling you'd say that…" Rita said, looking down. That's when an idea popped into her head, "Hey, since we're done eating, why don't we head to the arcade?" she suggested.
"Sure, whatever" Lincoln shrugged, facing away.
Royal Woods Arcade…
The Royal Woods Arcade. The place where kids and teenagers go to play retro games, from Pacman to Street Fighter to Mortal Kombat. There were even a few modern games like Mario Kart, and a few games that weren't video games like Skee-Ball and Basketball.
"I've seen you play video games a few times, so you might like this place" Rita said, "So, what do you want to play first?" she asked they stood in the middle of the place.
"A fighting game" Lincoln replied, heading to one of the nearby arcade machine.
"Mortal Kombat? Isn't that a bit violent?" Rita raised an eyebrow.
"Exactly" Lincoln placed a coin in the player one slot.
Giving a shrug, Rita walked up to the machine and inserted a coin into the player two slot. Lincoln chose the ice ninja, Sub-Zero while Rita chose the Edenian princess, Kitana. Suffice to say, the match didn't last that long. When it was all over, Lincoln stood as the victor and performed Sub-Zero's fatality which involved the ice ninja ripping his opponent's head off, taking their spine along with it.
"Aw, gross! Blood's still dripping from her spine!" Rita gave a disgusted look.
"That wasn't much of a challenge" Lincoln commented.
"I don't normally play fighting games. I'm more of a racing girl" Rita told him.
Rita looked around the arcade to see what kind of racing games they might have. They had had quite a few, from Gran Turismo to Mario Kart 8 and a few others. Rita decided they'd play Mario Kart since that was probably the most recognizable racing game they had. The matriarch motioned for her son to follow him. They took their seats in the driver chairs and inserted coins into their respective slots.
Unlike the previous game, this game had a different outcome. This time it was Rita that came out the victor and Lincoln as the runner up.
"See? I told you I was a racing girl" Rita said with a smirk.
"Whatever you say, old lady" Lincoln thought, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye
Royal Woods Park…
After blowing all their coins on several arcade games, Rita had the idea of relaxing at the park. She remembered how all her kids loved going to the park to have fun, even Lincoln. Or, at least, that's what she figured.
"This is relaxing way to end the day, isn't it, Lincoln?" Rita asked as they sat on a bench. The white-haired teen replied with a nonchalant shrug.
"Excuse me while I go use the crapper" Lincoln said as he stood up and head to the nearest bathroom behind them, leaving Rita to sigh in disappointment.
Upon entering the bathroom, Lincoln headed straight for the urinal and unzipped his fly, sighing in relief as he released the warm, golden liquid within him. When he was done, he flushed and went to the sink, pouring foam soap into his hand and running the hot water. As he lathered his hands and ran them under the water, he began to think about what to do about his mother. She was trying, he couldn't blame her for that. And it was kind of cool that she knew two of the places he liked.
"She has 16 years to make up for how she treated. It'll take more than a day of food and video games to make up for that…" Lincoln muttered to himself as he pulled out a few paper towels to dry his hands.
"AHH! MY PURSE!" he heard his mother scream. He ran out of the bathroom to his mother.
"What happened?" Lincoln asked.
"That person stole my purse!" Rita yelled, pointing the direction that the thief ran in. Lincoln saw the person in question was wearing a grey hoodie.
There were too many people around for the white-haired teen the change into his superhero alter ego. Looks like he'd have to do this as Lincoln. The young man then began to chase down the hooded thief. Unfortunately for him, the thief had a head start. Lincoln maneuvered around the people in his way as well as around certain obstacles like stumps and rocks. However, the thief was too far ahead of him. Lincoln narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
It was in that moment he felt a sudden boost in speed. Confused, he looked down and saw that he was channeling some his neon power into his feet, increasing his speed a bit. Lincoln soon found himself catching up to the thief. When he got close enough, he tackled the hooded person, the two tumbling across the ground. When they came to a halt, Lincoln was on top of the thief, straddling them. He then snatched the purse out of their hands and drew his fist back.
"No, wait, stop!" The thief said. They then removed their hood to reveal a young woman with messy blonde hair.
"The hell?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow of confusion. He then got off the woman.
"I'm sorry, I just needed some money to buy food. I don't have a place of my own" she told him.
Lincoln checked her out, looking up at her body. Judging by the messy hair, torn clothes and dirty face, he could tell that she was a homeless woman. She appeared to be around her late twenties to early thirties.
"Well, if you're so desperate for money, you could've gotten some by begging for it, or try doing some odd jobs like washing the windows of people's cars" Lincoln lectured her, making her hang her head in shame. "Look, I don't normally do this, but…" the white-haired teen took out his wallet and pulled out a twenty, "Here, buy yourself something to eat"
"You sure?" the homeless woman asked, Lincoln replying with a nod, "Thank you" she smiled, taking the money into her hands.
The white-haired teen then stood up and walked in the direction he came from. A few minutes later he met back up with Rita by the bench and handed her the purse.
"My purse! Oh, thank you, Lincoln!" Rita said gratefully, holding her bag close to her chest.
"Look, about that second chance that you wanted…" Lincoln began.
"Yes?" Rita asked.
"I'm willing to give you one. It'll take more than one day fix this pathetic excuse of a relationship that we have" he told her.
"I know… but I hope it's a start" Rita replied with a small hint of hopefulness in her voice.
"A minor start" Lincoln said with a shrug.
"Don't worry, your father and I won't let you down" Rita said, a smile crossing her face.
"Hold it, Rita" Lincoln folded his arms, "I said I'd give you a second chance. I never said anything about Lynn Sr." he said, "He and I will never have a good relationship…" he thought.
"Ok, fine. But can you at least call me mom?" Rita asked, placing a hand on her hip.
"That's a title you'll have to earn" Lincoln said before making his way back to the car.
Rita sighed, "Well, it's a start. A bitter-sweet start, but a start" she muttered under her breath before following Lincoln to the car to head home.
And this is the end of this chapter. This chapter was made with the help of my friend MrNonsense.
This chapter marks the first time Lincoln's saved the day without being Neon Flash… however minor the deed may've been. And it looks like he's gained a new power, superspeed… despite him only using an extremely small fraction of said power.
Should the homeless woman appear in a future chapter? I'm seriously thinking about it.
As usual, if you have ideas for a villain to be an enemy of Neon or a hero to be an ally of Neon, let me know in a review or a PM. I've gotten ideas for villains, and I'm still taking ideas for those, but I now also take ideas for heroes as well, so tell me what you've got.
Also, I'm going to need ideas for a scientist, one that is into stuff like cloning, messing with DNA, creating androids and cyborgs (and yes, there is a difference between an android and a cyborg), stuff like that. They can be good or evil and feel free to submit more than one. I know I could use Lisa, but I'm saving her for something else.
As of the posting of this chapter, I have no idea what I'll do for the next chapter, but I'm sure it'll come to me.
Remember to Read, Review and Favorite/Follow.