Last time, on Chains of Reality, some of the Loud sisters decided to go to school in order to try and explain Lincoln's absence, but they were in the middle of an exam the Louds themselves couldn't take! An exam presumably done by the defense forces themselves! And not only that, but after spending some time in the original reality, Maggie and Lindsey suddenly returned back to the new reality!

That's about it, really.

What will happen next?! Find out now, on Chains of Reality!

Chapter 38: The Results Are Up! Welcome to R.W. Defense Academy!

Thursday, the Santiagos house...

It was the day after the exam, and Ronnie Anne, alongside Bobby, sat on the couch as they waited for their mother to return. She was currently at the school to get the result of Ronnie Anne's exam, just like the parents of every other kid who took the test-exam-thing.

"Nie Nie, if you're worried about the results of your test, don't worry about it," Bobby said as he put a comforting hand on Ronnie's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll get good results. Remember, the way the test was set up, there's no real way to fail it."

"I'm not really worried for the results," Ronnie answered, looking strictly at the ground. "I'm more worried about the purpose of that test. After all..."

Ronnie's flashback...

The tomboy-now sitting in Cristina's spot at Lincoln's classroom, for some reason-took a look at her test questions with an incredulous look.

"Some of those questions..."

Three of these surprising questions were:

Do you prefer martial arts or weaponry?

Would you rather fight on the air or on the ground?

Would you be willing to go other dimensions?

"They were really... Disturbing."

Back in the present...

Ronalda narrowed her eyes as she continued, "Whether because they talked about weird subjects, like bearing Lincoln's child, or something more fitting for someone in the military, like what type of weapon I thought I could use best."

Then, she couldn't help but ask, "Bobby, did you take the exam too at your school?"

"Well, here's the thing, since I don't go to the same school you do, I had to take the test online," the young man answered, scratching the back of his head. "However, my results won't come out until much later, and according to the principal of your school, the tests are the same whether they're done online or not."

"So you saw the weird questions, right?" Ronnie inquired, earning a nod in response. "What do you think about them?"

Just as Bobby got ready to answer, Mrs. Santiago suddenly kicked the door open and stated:

"We're going to Royal Woods' School!"

The siblings didn't really react that much, besides asking "why?" in unison.

"Listen, I spoke with the principal, and he thought it would be much better if all the students gathered around to see what they got," Mrs. Santiago answered, putting her hands on her hips. "And they're not going to wait for anybody, so you better get ready, and fast."

Upon hearing that, the brother and sister duo exchanged looks and sighed before getting ready to go out.

Sometime later, at the school grounds...

Ronnie and her mother walked to the school grounds, where several of the students-both teeens and kids-had gathered around to get their results. An odd feature was that there was a stage right in the middle of the grounds, a fairly grand one as well, probably more fitting for some theatre or drama rather than anything school-related. It also had a large monitor hanging at the top of it.

"Wow, there's so many people gathered here," Ronnie remarked as she took a look around. "Although, I still don't get why you told Bobby to get ready to go out if he could just see his results online."

"I was telling him mostly to get him ready for work early, you know how he has a bad habit of getting ready for work at the last minute," Mrs. Santiago sighed. "Now, stay here and don't cause any trouble, alright? I'll go reunite with the teachers."

The woman and daughter waved goodbye, and Ronnie was soon left alone along the crowd of students, although it wasn't long before she spotted a pair of familiar figures: A kid rockstar with a purple highlight, and a roller skater with pink roller skates, who seemed to notice her as well.

"Polly?!"

"Ronnie?!"

Both girls squealed as Ronnie ran towards Polly, followed by her leaping and being caught by the roller skater, who hugged her as tightly as she moved from left to right.

All while Tabby just watched them with a smile.

Once she noticed her, Ronnie raised her palm and smiled as Tabby said, with a deadpan tone:

"Nice to see you too."

Polly put Ronnie down, and the duo waited for Tabby to give Ronnie the high five she was expecting, but she did absolutely nothing. Rather, she put her hands on her pockets and said with a stern tone just as Ronnie started to grow nervous:

"We're not friends yet, remember?"

Upon hearing that, Ronnie put her hand behind her head and scratched as she nervously tried to laugh it off.

"O-Oh right, I completely forgot about that! Sorry about that!" she sheepishly said before turning to Polly. "So, what brings you guys here? I didn't see you in my classroom."

"Yeah, since we don't go to the same school and our own school refused to do the test, we had to do it online," Polly answered with a shrug. "And of course, once we did it, we had to wait until they called us to show us our results, and here we are now."

"In my case, I came here by Sam's request," Tabby added with a tired sigh. "And by coming by her request, I mean that I was literally dragged here because Sam wanted to seem my results too."

Speak of the devil, and she will send one of her minions instead, for Sam walked up to the trio soon afterwards.

"Hi Tabby! Hi Tabby's girlfriend! Hi random weirdo I've never met before!" Sam cheerfully greeted her sister, Polly, and Ronnie, respectively. "Are you as excited as I am for the results of the test?"

"I think the real question is why you're excited in the first place," Tabby pointed out, with Polly nodding in agreement. "I mean, if I remember correctly, you were complaining the whole time we were walking back home yesterday."

"Hey, to be fair, that partially had to do with the fact that I found out Maggie had come back, and wasn't going to be sent to jail straight away," Sam pointed out, with bitter disgust rather evident in her tone. She then turned cheerful as she continued. "And I'm excited because Mrs. Johnson told me that, if we passed with the results she expects, then we would actually end up going deeper into the school, into a location most people don't even know about!"

"Thanks for letting me know, I'll be sure to hide there whenever you want to hang out with me," Tabby scoffed, rolling her eyes.

Ronnie and Polly laughed out loud as Sam got back up and took a deep breath before muttering, "Just, try to get yourself hyped for the results, okay? This is going to be something big!"

"Yeah, like a big waste of time," Ronnie added, putting her hands on her hips. "Or perhaps even a big joke made by the teachers?"

"No, I asked Mrs. Johnson about that, and she said the test was completely real," Sam turned back to the stage. "She told me we had to wait until today to find out what it was for, though. And judging from the large crowd, we're not the only ones in the dark."

Ronnie took another look around, and soon noticed something that made her feel nervous, which Polly soon noticed. "What's wrong, Ronnie?"

"I didn't notice it before, but several of the people here look like the lincolnists we faced before," Ronnie said as Polly and Tabby soon joined in her scanning. "In fact, I can even see some of them! The sweater girl, the baker duo, the three bikers, I don't see Paige though, but I'm not really going to complain about that."

"Are you talking about the same people that were marching a while ago?" Polly raised her eyebrows in amazement. "You mean Lincoln has this many followers?!"

"Even if this isn't the whole group, good lord," Tabby remarked, with slight pity in her tone. "I thought my dad was popular with the ladies, but Lincoln has him beat by several dozen, maybe even a hundred. Then again, dad's popular with actual ladies rather than little girls, so..."

And then, Polly took one quick glance at a particular girl, who made feels of both resentment and anger surge within her. This was a certain buck-toothed brunette, one that Lynn had the bad idea to reveal she replaced her with.

It was Margo.

"Polly, Love, listen, I know the events of the intervention must still be in your memory, but hear me out, don't fight her," Tabby told Polly once she realized how angry she was getting. "You're going to get us into much more trouble than we need to!"

"I agree with Tabby," Ronnie added as she helped restrain the tomboy. "With so many people surrounding us, there's no way you can get away with fighting Margo! We could probably get detention."

Polly's anger soon turned into confusion.

Tabby took this as her growing disappointed, so she said, "Polly, I know you want some sweet revenge, but-"

"Are you guys looking at her?" Polly asked.

The trio turned and saw Margo's face was changing expressions: First angry, then confused, then worried, and so on and so forth.

"She seems to be in some sort of facial performance," Polly added, folding her arms. "It's honestly creeping me out. Somebody needs to do something about that."

"I know! I could go get popcorn so we can watch the show!" Ronnie chirped before turning to Tabby. "Do you prefer normal, buttered, or candy popcorn?"

The rocker just nonchalantly replied, "You mean house, movie, and everything else?"

Before the pair could continue their popcorn discussion, Polly easily-almost effortlessly-freed herself from their grasp and walked towards Margo, who was lost in thought as she continued to change her facial expressions:

"Fantastic, this is just what we needed! First, sister Lily goes missing and the other sisters go nuts because of it, and now, Lincoln decided to play favorites and get angry because we were about to punish Pravuil, Mindy, and Cindy for not giving him any gifts! I mean, I know he's supposed to work in mysterious ways, but-"

And just as Margo continued to get lost in thought, Polly slapped her, immediately returning her to reality.

"Hey, dude, what the heck was that all about?!" Margo snapped at the roller skater. "Why did you slap me just now!?"

"You looked like you were doing some sort of facial performance," Polly answered.

And as she continued to explain herself, Polly pointed to some fellow students who were looking at the pair with confusion, only to focus on other things. "And judging by the people around us, you were acting rather weird."

"Whatever, that doesn't mean you can just slap me like it was your only option!" Margo scolded, putting her hands on her hips. "I mean, couldn't have you called me or snapped your fingers in my face or something?"

"I could have," Polly smirked. "But it wouldn't be nearly as satisfying."

It wasn't long before Ronnie and Tabby got in between Margo and Polly, and just in time too, since both girls cracked their knuckles, ready to dish it out.

"Whoa, there, let's not do anything crazy here!" Ronnie exclaimed, trying to stop Polly Pain.

"You two know we're surrounded by several dozen people, right?" Tabby pointed out to Margo. "If you two end up fighting, someone will tattle on us and who knows how you're going to be punished for-"

"Shut up, British copycat, this is between me and your girlfriend!" Margo snapped, pushing Tabby hard enough to make her crash into Ronnie. "Now step aside before I decided to beat up all three of you!"

Tabby's eyes glowed rainbow as she hissed, "What did you call Polly?!"

"Stop!" Ronnie exclaimed, getting the girls' attention. The lincolnists and Margo in particular. "Listen, fighting won't do any good! I'm all up for a good beating here and there, but this isn't the time or the place to do it! So please, settle down, and let's just put this under the bridge, alright?"

Margo blinked twice as she stared at Ronnie, partially in awe, and seemingly partially with bitter resentment. Though the resentment turned into begrudging respect as she said:

"Once a Sister-Lover, always a Sister-Lover. Not to mention that Cristina did choose you and not Paige to carry on the title, so your word has much more importance than hers will ever have."

Ronnie, Polly, and Tabby tilted their heads in utter confusion, prompting Margo to finish:

"Fine, I'll do as you ask and leave this little issue alone. But next time I meet that steel-chinned brat, she better not inquire my rage, or else I'm going to tear her a new one so big, the entire Royal Woods roller skating team will fit in it!"

Margo left, and as the trio saw her leave, Ronnie took the chance to quip, "Geez, sounds like someone's been hanging out with Lynn, am I right?"

"Perhaps a bit more than she should," Polly remarked, narrowing her eyes. "I really wish Lynn didn't have that sort of effect on people."

"Sister-Lover?" Tabby blurted, utterly dumbfounded. "Ronnie, what is she talking about?"

"I don't have a clue; Paige talked about that Sister-Lover thing as well, but the way she said it implied that I'm supposed to know about that already," the Hispanic tomboy sighed in frustration and put her hands on her pockets. "And before you ask, no, I don't know a single thing about this Sister-Lover thing."

With that said and done, the trio continued to wait for their results. Or at least, Polly and Tabby did, since Ronnie's attention was soon caught by a familiar voice:

"Alright, I'm going to ask you one more time."

Ronnie turned to look at the source of the voice, and found a fairly upsetting sight: Chandler, a popular redhead in school, talking with Clyde, who looked sincerely worried and scared, while the biker trio tried to get the redhead's attention.

"Do you know or not know anything about who got the brilliant idea for yesterday's test?" Chandler asked, folding his arms and taking a deep breath.

"I already told you, Chandler, I don't have any idea of who got the idea to do that," Clyde answered, taking a step back as the redhead narrowed his eyes. "I was caught just as off-guard as everybody else about the test, okay?"

"You should listen to him, Brother Chandler," Pravuil nervously told the freckled guy, catching his attention.

"Have you forgotten Luna's lessons? We're only supposed to refer to each other as "Brother" and "Sister" while we're at the church, we're not allowed to do it anywhere else," Chandler growled, gently prickling the girl's head. "You're lucky none of our fellow "siblings" caught your transgression, or else, you would've paid dearly for it."

Then he caught a glimpse of Ronnie, who threw a furious glare at him, which prompted him to turn back to Clyde and growl, "Eitherway, I don't have time to waste with you."

Chandler promptly left both the dark-skinned geek and the biker trio, all while they waved to Ronnie Anne, clearly grateful for her subtle help. And yet, Ronnie could only focus on Chandler as he left.

"Infamous C," Ronnie uttered in disgust. "So he took the test too?"

"Ronnie, why are you looking at that guy?" Tabby inquired, getting the tomboy's attention, though she kept glaring at Chandler. "Do you know him?"

"He's a bully known as Chandler," Ronnie answered, gritting her teeth.

"A bully, huh?" Tabby raised an eyebrow and jokingly asked, "What, are you two friends or something?"

"Tabby, you know it's not nice to make such an assumption," Polly told her friend as she gave her a look of disapproval. "Just 'cause Ronnie knows who he is and that he's a bully doesn't mean the two were friends or anything."

"He's also known as The Infamous C," Ronnie continued, which immediately caught the duo's attention. "Ever since an incident at Gus' Games and Grub, he's been going from building to building, from arcade to arcade, driving employees into debts by tricking random, stupid people into doing things for him."

"Oh, you mean the guy who had his birthday party at the sewage plant?" Polly blurted, snapping her fingers. "Yeah, I've heard of him too. He's apparently a jerk."

"Polly, him being a jerk isn't a possibility," Ronnie narrowed her eyes. "It's a fact."

"Are you sure you two didn't used to be friends?" Tabby raised an eyebrow, still not convinced there was nothing between the tomboy and the redheaded jerk. "I can totally see you and him having been friends at one point."

Polly shot a glare at Tabby. "Seriously, Ta-"

"No, Polly, let her speak," Ronnie sighed, going from anger to regretful in a moment. "Truth is... She's sort of right. You see-"

"Hello? Is this on?"

Everybody turned to look at the stage, where Mrs. Johnson was talking on a microphone while Mrs. DiMartino, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Santiago, and several other teachers standing at the stage.

"Sorry for the delay, students, but the results will come out soon," the redheaded woman said, clasping her hands as she added, "We just need to wait for one more teacher to arrive, and then, we'll let you know what your test results actually are."

"There's another teacher?" Clyde asked in confusion. "Well, who could it possibly-"

"Here! I! Come!"

Suddenly, a yellow ball of what seemed like energy fell down and crash landed right on top of the stage, with the ensuing crash causing the entire ground to shake, and everybody to try to keep their balance.

Once the dust dispersed, it was revealed that Mr. Universe-alongside Lindsey, who was sitting on his shoulder, and oddly enough wearing Maggie's sweater-was standing on the spot had crashed at. He was also laughing, but this wasn't any normal laughter; it was a laughter of pure joy.

"I have arrived!" the muscular blonde man exclaimed, before pointing at the girl on his shoulder. "With my daughter!"

"Mr. Universe?!" Sam exclaimed in disbelief.

"He's the new teacher?!" Clyde shouted, utterly dumbfounded.

"Who is he?" the trio of Polly, Tabby, and Ronnie asked in unison.

"Hmph, I figured people of your kind would have no idea about this man," Chandler scoffed as he approached the trio, instantly earning looks from them. "Mr. Universe just so happens to be one of the most well-known and popular beauty contest participants in the whole world. Ever since his debut a decade ago, he's been the undefeated champion of the Royal Woods beauty contest ever since he and his family moved into the city.

"And exactly how do you know all this stuff about him?" Ronnie asked, folding her arms and secretly hoping

"Because I just so happen to be friends with his daughter, Lindsey Sweetwater!" the boy revealed with a smug smirk.

Ronnie's jaw dropped to the ground and Polly flinched in disbelief, while Tabby just shrugged and acted fairly indifferent to this statement. And as Chandler walked up to Lindsey, she explained why:

"Listen girls, whatever this guy says, we got nothing to worry about. I may not have a high opinion of Sam, but when it comes to people who wants to hurt, I can always count on her to protect me, and I'll make sure she protects you too," then she turned to her sister. "Right, Sam?"

Once the trio saw Sam shaking and looking generally afraid, they all agreed in their minds:

"On second thought, we might be screwed."

The redheaded guy ran towards the Lola copycat, who slid down her father's body-phrasing-until she landed safely on the ground.

"Lindsey, I need you and your father's help!" Chandler said once he reached Lindsey. "Yesterday, a bully messed with me and punched me straight in the face-!"

"Assuming they're even here in the first place, were you bullying someone when they punched you?" Lindsey asked with a stern look.

With hesitation, Chandler said, "Yes-"

"Then you deserved it."

The redhead looked at the ground in exasperation as he heard Ronnie and some other girls laugh from afar, though he did chirp up when he noticed Lindsey's sweater. "I like your sweater, by the way."

"Thanks, it's a gift from a friend," Lindsey clasped her hands and eyed her sweater. "The same friend that helped me get back here, in fact, so I really treasure it."

"Now that you mention getting back here, where the heck did you go?" Chandler suddenly asked, scratching his chin. "Your parents and I were looking for you for a week, but we couldn't find you anywhere."

"Well, I don't like to go into detail about it, but let's just say I wasn't really anywhere in Royal Woods," Lindsey twiddled her fingers and rolled her eyes. "In fact, you could say I was in an entirely different world altogether."

"I don't think I follow."

"That's good."

"Alright, the results are up!" Mrs. Johnson exclaimed, catching everybody's attention. "Now, we'll first show you the results, then we'll show you where you're going to go from now on, alright? Good, then let's begin!"

The teachers clapped twice, and the screen at the top of the stage turned on to reveal a list. On this list were four classes: Attacker, Support, Defender, and Gadget.

In order, Ronnie and Polly were in the Attacker class, Tabby was on the Support class, Sam was on the Defender class, and Clyde was on the Gadget class, with several other classmates fairly spread out around the list.

"Attacker class?" Ronnie and Polly blurted in unison.

"Support class..." Tabby deadpanly said, almost as if she didn't care.

"Defender class?!" Sam exclaimed, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Gadget class!" Clyde shouted in joy, jumping up and down.

"If anybody needs a better clarification for what class you were put in, we'll give you a bigger, more clear version of this chart after "For now, we need all of you to follow us into the school in order to show you where you're going to take your classes from now on."

And so, the teachers lead the large number of students into the deeper part of the school building, with the biker trio and Clyde reuniting with Polly and Ronnie as they went inside. But while the trio simply hugged Polly, Clyde actually spoke to Ronnie:

"Sorry to bother you, Ronnie, but I wanted to thank you from before. Chandler may not have been as aggressive as yesterday, but I was still worried he would just up and explode at any moment, you know?"

"So Chandler was bullying him yesterday too..." Ronnie mentally growled in disgust, only to cheerfully answer, "It's okay, Clyde, I just couldn't let Chandler hurt you or the biker trio."

"Well, he didn't really look like he was going to beat me or those three up, but still, I appreciate the-"

Suddenly, Clyde's phone rang.

"Give me a moment, I have to answer this," Clyde took out his phone and greeted with a cheerful voice, "Hello?"

The voice on the other end, however...

"How dare you greet me over the phone, rather than on person!?"

They weren't nearly as happy.

"Nice to talk with you again, boss," Clyde said, only to whisper as he continued, "Lisa, I'm in the middle of something important, could you call me later?"

"What could be more important than my greatest achievemet?!" Lisa snapped from the other end at the top of her lungs. Good thing her whining wasn't hear by anybody else. "Need I remind you of what will happen if you refuse to help me?!"

"Listen, I know how important this is for you, and what will happen if I can't help you," Clyde shivered. "However, if you let me tell you what I'm in the middle of, then you'll agree that it's a much bigger concern than-"

"Fine then, I'll be compassionate for once and give you a chance to explain yourself," Lisa answered, clearly growing impatient. "Now tell me, what is this oh so important matter that is apparently much more important than the ultimate weapon in the defense of Royal Woods?!"

"There was a test yesterday that caught everyone by surprised and we had to do it," Clyde started explaining rather casually. "Today, we're going to get the results for the test."

"...Dang it, that really is more important!" the young prodigy whined, sounding like she was about to go into a temper tantrum. "Fine, go and see your stupid test results, but once you're done, I want you to come here right away, no ifs or buts!"

Clyde just nodded and hung up before sighing in a clearly exhausted manner. Whatever business he and Lisa had, it seemed to be draining him.

"Who was that person you were talking to just now?" Ronnie asked in disbelief. "Whoever they are, they sound like a jerk."

Polly and Ronnie exchanged looks and promptly cracked their knuckles as they said in unison, "Need help beating them up?"

"The fact you're so quick to agree to beat someone up for me scares me a little," Clyde nervously answered.

"You and me both, dude," Tabby remarked nearby.

"Attention, everyone!"

Everybody stopped and looked around to see they were now in the middle of some underground facility, with the acronym "R.W.D.A" hanging on the ceiling, and with a large monitor underneath it and above the teachers-and Mr. Universe-who were standing on another stage, surrounded by the dumbfounded and awestruck students.

"We welcome you all to the brand new facility you'll be training at for an upcoming situation!" Mrs. Johnson exclaimed, lifting her arms as she added. "The Royal Woods Defense Academy! Or RWDA for short."

The students immediately started murmuring between each other. Some were excited for this brand new take on school. Some were curious as to how their training would even be done. And of course, there were the ones that thought that this was just some weird joke.

"We had a feeling you'd be filled with questions."

Everybody turned around back to the stage, where they saw Rita and Lynn Sr., the Loud parents, walk towards the podium. They also managed to see Mrs. DiMartino looking angrily at them, while Mr. Universe seemingly scoffed and looked away.

"Questions we're going to answer right now," Rita stated, putting her hands on her hips. "So go ahead, ask away!"

"What's the point of this whole thing?" a random kid asked.

Rita sighed and shook her head. "I figured that'd be the first question, so let's summarize the deal: We're part of one of several realities, which will be explained to you later on. For now, just know that our reality is one of many more, and the makers of this realities are our "children," our daughters and Lincoln. In fact, Lincoln is actually the avatar of a much higher being, the same being that created everything in fact-"

"Wait a minute, doesn't anybody else find it weird so much attention's being given to Larry?" Chandler pointed out.

"His name's Lincoln!" everybody else shouted at the guy.

"O-Okay, his name's Lincoln, I'll try to remember that," Chandler sighed. "Okay, again, is nobody baffled that Lincoln's being presented as this divine being? I mean, is he really worthy of being called as such?"

"Well, he's much more worthy than you could ever hope to be," Pravuil scoffed. "And besides, the only way to find out for sure is to see his godlike power in action. Do you really wanna do such a risky gamble?"

Everybody else went "hmmm?" at the redhead, who quickly got the message.

"Fair enough, let's assume Lincoln really is as important and godlike and whatever other nonsense you wanna tell us," Chandler spat, rolling his eyes. "Why exactly is he so important? I mean if the universe is as big as it is, then why would something attack our city of all places?"

"There's this group of ancient humanoid beings known as the Progenitor Sisters, the mothers of the ones you know as the Loud sisters, of the Loud family. How that makes sense doesn't matter right now, trust us," Rita folded her arms. "What does matter, is that they're planning to invade our reality, and destroy every other existence that there is, unless the guy we know as Lincoln Loud can take them out."

"In order to prepare for this upcoming invasion, we built this facility in order to teach you how to manage several different key factors in the successful protection of Royal Woods," Lynn Sr. added as he continued. "These classes are based on attacking enemies, supporting every other unit, defending significant locations or people, and of course, create that gadgets that will be used to attack the invaders."

"So that's the reason why the tests were done in the first place," Clyde remarked, scratching his chin as he thought about it. "They wanted to know what class to put us at in order to prepare for whatever is going to happen."

"Still, I'm not sure if they needed to tell us about these "Progenitor" sister people," Ronnie sighed, putting her hands on her pockets. "I mean, essentially turning into kid soldiers is stressful enough, knowing about those all-powerful or whatever isn't going to ease our worries!"

"Are you scared of what we're going to be doing from now on?" Polly asked, putting a hand on Ronnie's shoulder.

"It's not that I'm scared," Ronnie looked away. "It's just that I'm feeling overwhelmed by all this pressure being put on our shoulders."

Soon afterwards, Clyde put a hand on Ronnie's remaining shoulder, and said, "Ronnie, whatever happens, we won't have to do it alone."

Ronnie exchanged looks with Polly, who nodded with a reassuring smile, and Clyde, who nodded as well. Just as she smiled in relief, though, someone yelled:

"Hey! I got a complaint!"

The teachers-and everybody for that matter-turned to look at Sam, who had her hand held up high. And as she lowered it, Tabby tried to hide behind Ronnie and Polly with a look that screamed "Oh lord, please don't embarrass me" all over it.

"Okay, putting teenagers like me and several other unimportant people into what amounts to military training is one thing," Sam shouted, no doubt earning the ire of any other teens around her. "But why, for the love of everything, are the children being put into danger?!"

"Oh my goodness, Sam is just straight up asking a legitimate question!" Tabby remarked in amazement. "She usually unintentionally embarrasses me before doing so."

"I mean, my baby sister can barely even tolerate getting her ears pierced before screaming bloody murder!" Sam nonchalantly added, clearly upset. "Do you know how traumatized she'll get by being put straight on the battlefield?!"

"And there's the Sam I know and barely tolerate everyday," Tabby bitterly said, hiding once more.

"Ah yes, you must be Samantha "Swagger" Jr, aren't you?" Mrs. DiMartino remarked, earning a slightly nervous nod from Sam in return. "Well, we got several complaints such as yours, from younger people to parents alike."

DiMartino threw a smug look at Lynn Sr. and Rita. "Some more pointless or hypocritical than others."

Rita formed a fist, and only managed to calm down thanks to Lynn Sr. rubbing her head.

"But, to answer your question, think about it like this: We're giving you the chance to defend yourselves against these upcoming threats," DiMartino stepped forward and shrugged. "I mean, would you really rather stand at the sidelines and possibly die, completely defenseless and helpless?"

Then, she formed a fist and raised it high as she added:

"Or would you rather learn how to fight, so you can repel back those interdimensional invaders, and prove to them, that we won't let them destroy our reality?! That if they want to take away our lives, then they'll have to fight for it!"

All the students immediately cheered, unanimously agreeing with Mrs. DiMartino's pep speech. Although, Tabby was certainly cheering in a more subdued and subtle manner than everybody else, which caught Ronnie's attention. However, she waited until the cheering had calmed down before approaching her.

"So, Tabby, sorry for bringing this up out of nowhere," Ronnie blurted, catching the rockstar's attention. "But... Why do you seem so upset today? I mean, I'm not saying you were a happy-go-lucky girl the last few times we met, but you seem rather... Stern and deadpan today."

"Maggie went back home yesterday, but I didn't even manage to spend that much time with her before some police officers took her away. They barged into our house, said something about how Maggie had to be jailed for causing so much death and destruction, and they practically snatched her before she could even defend herself."

Upon hearing that, Ronnie fell silent, not knowing what to say next.

On the one hand, it was obvious that it was a matter of time before Maggie was made to pay for all the pain she caused, possessed or not.

On the other hand, Tabby would definitely hate to hear somebody explain why her sister-a sister she seemed to get along with even-needed to go to jail, and Polly's angry "Don't dive deeper into the issue" look further made her consider doing this option.

However, suddenly, Tabby added:

"That's not the only thing that worries me, though. Maggie came back home, yes, but shortly after she arrived, she started coughing and clutching her stomach."

Meanwhile, at the Royal Woods Prison...

Maggie, shivering and trying to stay composed in her prison cell, coughed violently and clutched her stomach as she started breathing heavily, almost as if she was trying to not lose whatever air she had on her lungs.

"And what's worse is that her coughing and clutching just got worse as the police took her away. And worst of all..."

And then, Maggie coughed a bit more until she spat out blood on the floor, with it splashing the ground-of course-and part of her clothes.

"We have no idea what's going on with her."

-Next Chapter Preview-

"W-What point are you trying to get across?" Lola growled, trying to put a tough facade.

"The point I'm trying to get, Blondie, is that no matter how scary you seem to think you are, there are people much scarier than you!" Lana formed a fist with her rock arm and got ready to throw a punch. "Like for example, a little girl with a freaking rock fist!"