Forbidden Allure

by edward18

When Lucy notices a cute guy at one of her Goth Mic Nights she decides that he'd be perfect to go to an upcoming dance for the Goths of Royal Woods with. The only problem however is how to get him. Knowing better than to ask her sisters for help she gets Lincoln. But are her feelings for the guy she's after or are new feelings beginning to develop for someone else?...

13. Royal War Z

Chapter 13: Royal War Z

A crack of thunder tore across the otherwise tranquil landscape of Royal Woods. Rain poured and winds whirled. In the opening hours of the morning the drops of water blanketed the ground beneath the town's lampposts like a ghastly mist. To those that slumbered it was an atmosphere of ferocious soothing. Of those that had awoken early however, one cackled with glee under the claps of noise that riddled the sky. It wasn't often that her streak of gleefulness was afforded the chance to be masked, and by such fitting sound effects no less. Grinning ear-to-ear, the tiny mad scientist pulled some levers on the ring-like machine she had strung up on the wall of her and her younger sister's room. As it had in the previous tests, an ominous glow oozed forth from the center of the structure's circumference until its structure was fully filled with the swirling light.

Lisa looked the thing over carefully. Though her mouth opened with the uncontrollable spout of laughter every now and then, her body drizzled with a nervous sweat. It was always the most exciting part. The experimentation phase. Already she had picked up a number of different coordinates, some even coming into being as she was making her pokes into the various ones she had been locating. With a shimmering flash, a drone with a recording device wired into it flew out from the portal and whirled to a stop in the center of the room where it took its landing on the floor. Excitedly, Lisa hopped over to it and pulled some of the wires apart. Giddy, she hooked them into her computer and scrolled through the various files that the device possessed. Movie file after movie file flew by, each one containing vaguely familiar paths and and structures within them, but only vaguely. Of the drones that had been dispatched thus far, most had come back with very similar recordings, but here or there something would always be off. Sometimes it'd be different houses, other times it'd be different skin colors, but they'd all have the same general "shape" to their structures and dynamics.

"Fascinating..." Lisa commented in her latest viewing, saliva filling her speech, "All of them are animals...and he's STILL the only boy? How is that even possible after making THAT many offspring?"

"Goo goo?" a younger voice interjected with delighted confusion.

"Yes, he is! And there's like three or four times as many sisters in that one!" Lisa gawked while the footage played out further. Whether or not she even got through the family of rabbits she had no idea. Eventually the footage just became too monotonous as the camera had cycled through the endless supply of siblings from that setting. Pausing the feed, Lisa let out a sigh and skittered back over to the terminal that the portal was connected to. She had dabbled in multiversal tinkerings before, but never had she gotten such a stable connection through the hypotheses that had been presumed. What's more important was that her device's primary feature actually seemed to be working. Lisa focused as she tapped a few sequences into the terminal causing the gate to glow for a moment.

"Assuming my theories have been correct about this whole setup, various different realities are coming into existence constantly through whatever branching means that cause them to form," Lisa explained to her younger roommate. Lily just watched the light on the room's wall happily. "And, if this gateway is doing as I have intended it to, it's feeding back the coordinates to each one as they appear. We can get a real-time update to this nigh-infinite web of expanding universes," Lisa continued. As she looked over the drone on the ground she looked slightly downcast. "I just wish I had better equipment with which to investigate these places. I'd go myself but...well it's always best to get some "help" for the more...drastic test-runs," she murmured, "I mean we don't know just yet what the portal's effects might have on living tissue. It's much safer for something to go wrong with others. I can always fix them back up. Not as much of a chance of doing that to myself depending on what all happens..."

Lisa's mouth pushed towards the side of her face in annoyance. She had to give her full effort not to just dash through the portal sometimes. True, there was likely nothing that would happen from making the journey, at least not from the portal itself, but until she had a way to fully test that aspect she had to remain reserved in her actions. After all, she'd used the last of her test mice a few weeks back in an intelligence-heightening experiment, a dilemma that had resulted in an all-out war against her and her family from the mentally-endowed critters. That had earned the refusal of the animals from pretty much the entire household for a generous length of time. If a younger sibling had her way however she wouldn't have needed another test subject. Lisa sprang to life upon seeing Lily, free from her crib, crawling towards the portal, delight on her drooling face.

"No no!" Lisa cried as she leaped at the baby. It didn't take much to restrain her, but the tike wasn't letting up without a struggle. Grunting and groaning, Lisa pulled Lily back to her crib and thrust her in. Lily glared at the captor from behind the bars of her prison but Lisa just gave her the same expression. "Do you have any idea what our parents would do if they found out you'd been vaporized or gotten superpowers or whatever else might happen from that?" Lisa hissed, "I already am not allowed to use the mice for now, I don't need babies marked off the menu as well!" Lily's eyes only narrowed while Lisa turned back to the portal and put a hand on her head. "...but where could I find a viable candidate?..."

---

By the time that the rest of the Louds had emerged from their slumber the downpour in the world outside had dampened to only a mild drenching. As water swam down the windows, the blurred figures within the house rushed around, busying themselves with their preparations for the day. Lynn hurtled through the halls as she went through her exercises for practicing whatever various sports she'd might be sloshing around the muddy field playing. Lori busily showed off the stuffed parrot that she'd gotten for the boy that she was talking with on her video feed, something that Bobby's feathery roommate apparently wasn't too keen on given the squawking, while Leni searched around for their brother in the hallway, seeming a bit concerned about discussing something with him.

The interest might have caught the attention of Lana if she hadn't been trying to make her way towards the line at the bathroom that Luan held the head of, a struggle made possible by the recovering limbs from the battle against her twin the day before. Even in self-reparation they competed as they approached the hallowed chamber at the end of the hall as Luan popped jokes at their pitiable race. Leni called for the boy of the household again as she passed by the other middle children's room. Had she been more observant she might have seen the boy peek out from the crack in the door of the twin's bedroom, but she eventually gave in to the need to stamp her place in the line at the bathroom so that she wouldn't find herself even further behind in its use.

In the dim light that poured through the crack in the twin's door, Lincoln pressed his back against their wall and looked towards the ceiling. The departing night had not been an easy one. The one from the day before had been no sawing-logs, but he almost wished that he'd had the irritable rest from that night in place what he could remember of the surreal dreams that his tainted mind had forced him through. He sighed as he dwelt on the mental glimpses he could grasp. Some had been relatively mild while others had been absolutely exaggerated in their uncomfortableness. But all of them had contained that black-haired youngster that he'd wished so hard for the sleep to expunge from his subconscious. But it'd only made the focus greater.

Under such a warped state of mind, discussions about the outfit that he'd had Leni hide for him were the last thing he wanted to deal with. But like with everyone else he too had need for the restroom. Peeking through the crack in the door he cursed as he saw the taller blond girl standing directly at the back of the line where he'd have to take up his residence. Knowing he couldn't risk a conversation with her loose mouth, Lincoln peered around a couple of times and pulled the door open just enough to slip out into the open. Tip toeing, he looked back over his shoulder every now and then to make sure that Leni wouldn't spot him. The only option he truly had was to wait out the line in the privacy of his room. As his hand touched the knob of its door however a voice spoke to him.

"Lincoln, there you are," an emotionless tone said from behind him. He had to twist his the features of his face to keep from crying out in alarm at the sudden noise. His arms acting on their own, the pulled the door open and slammed it as he darted inside. His heart had flown up into his throat with how fast it had started beating. Panting, he put a hand to his chest and slumped back against his door. Once he'd had time to think through what he'd just done he hung his head. That was just what he needed. To come off as even more suspicious. And to HER of all people. The one that he'd been doing his best to even back out into a stable viewing of. Surely bolting away from her hadn't increased the chances of normality he'd have with her.

He'd done everything he could that morning to calm himself back into casualness. After all, it was just his sister, and with the position he was meant to fill there was no doubt that some weirdness must have been building up from his efforts to viably perform that position's purpose. That's the conclusion that he had come to in the meditations of his rather jittered sleep patterns throughout the night and early morning. It wouldn't fully dispense with the occasional awkwardness that he might feel from the younger girl, but it did help bring his mentality back to a more grounded, and hopefully interactive, level. What would she think though after having the door just shut in her face? Lincoln wouldn't have to wait long to receive a sample of the attitude she had.

"Are you okay?" the voice that had been behind him in the hall asked. Having no one else around, at least that he'd known of until that instant, Lincoln yelped and opened his eyes to see Lucy standing right in front of him. He wished there was a way to reach into his chest and physically pull his respiratory organs back into place. The sight of his sister, once his chances of having a heart-attack had waned, was more copeable than he'd thought it might be, but not more than he'd hoped. Leaving aside the expected impossibility of her just materializing wherever she wanted to, her drooping bangs and pale face painted a visage of unnerving concern. The sympathy towards him was a care he hadn't been prepared for.

"Uh-wh-what?" Lincoln stuttered through a nervous gulp. His eyelids rose as Lucy's face came closer.

"What do you mean what?" she asked, "Ever since last night you've been acting weird. Scrambling out of my room, exclaiming quiet one-word phrases at Leni in the hall, running away from me just now." Lincoln's eyes lifted up towards his head as she listed off the accusations. "Clearly the hypnotism had some sort of effect on you," she reasoned, "Please Lincoln, what's wrong? Edwin's been wondering about you all night, and he's never going to let me die it down if it got botched up." The boy blinked the confusion out of his eyes.

"Edwin? What's he-"

"That's beside the point," Lucy cut him off as quickly as she could. The question was completely forgotten as the girl wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cheek against his neck. "I don't want to get your hurt or anything," she said quietly, "you're the one in the family that-..." It was hard to focus under the blush that his face had become drenched in, but Lincoln did notice the trailing sentence. "That...you...um..." Lucy murmured. Her hands were the only things to remain on him as she loosely slipped away, her grip sliding to his own hands keeping her from falling back entirely. Scratching the back of her head with one, she coughed. "You...actually do stuff with me and...you know...sigh...look, I just don't want to hurt the one I get along with...this much..." Lincoln held her hands in his as he stared down at her equally reddened face. In part the two wanted to look away from each other, but something in the backs of their minds made the understood mutuality of the nervousness clear to them. "...and I still need you for the dance," Lucy mumbled finally willing herself to look downwards instead of at his prying eyes. Smiling half-heartedly, Lincoln looked towards the ground himself and sighed.

"Lucy it's...d-don't worry about it...it's just...I've never had that hypnotism stuff done to me...it's just...shock and stuff is all..." he lied. Lucy peered back up at him. She wanted to believe him, but he still hadn't recovered from the procedure? Even after the entire night he was still jumpy at even the figure of the person that'd performed it on him?

"But-"

"I said don't worry about it," he repeated, this time ruffling her hair and increasing her blush, "now we gotta go get ready!" Though thankful to be done with the unusual exchange, Lucy's head swam with uncertainty. Seeing the open door in front of her once she'd regained her vision, it also filled with discontent. Lincoln had slipped away from her again, albeit more naturally than he had ever since their time together the night before. But he wasn't wrong with the looming threat of school. Tucked away in his next hiding place however, Lincoln was staying true to his declaration. By recovering from his latest encounter with the dreary female. His heart beat with energy under his chest, though not nearly as frantically as it had been in his previous meeting. Be it exposure to the feared presence or having had a chance to talk some things over, he truly had started to regain some composure about his internal dilemma.

Praying that Lucy would just reserve herself a place in line at the bathroom, Lincoln put a hand to his chest and opened his eyes as his back left the surface of the door to the room he'd slid into and shut. Hearing some giggles, he smirked at Lily and waved. She waved back and pointed. Curious as to the glow lighting parts of her face, Lincoln approached the dinosaur-skeleton wielding infant to see a vortex of swirling colors painting the wall across from her, her slightly older sister lost in her typings on the terminal at the side of the device it emanated from.

"Confounded drones!" Lisa spat as she punched the screen on the terminal, "I outfitted you with a personalized micron-shielding component and you can't even withstand a tiny thermonuclear storm? At least send the pictures back without the white-noise you piece of garbage!"

"Lincoln, why are you-"

"AHHH!" the three other children screamed at the black-haired girl that had somehow gotten into the room and stepped up next to the male one. Lily had fallen over backwards in her crib in fright while Lisa looked back and forth between the two older intruders as the eldest backed up a few steps. Lincoln had grown more steady in his standing under Lucy's acknowledgment, but some nerves stilled remained shot, especially with such a frequent reunion.

"Sorry," Lucy apologized to the room with a bow before focusing on Lincoln again, "I was just wondering why you came in here-"

"How-you-what-I just-where did-" Lincoln sputtered alongside the motions his hand tried to illustrate for the passing thoughts. Realizing his confusion at her presence, Lucy rolled her eyes, though to the onlookers it just looked like her hair flopped around.

"You have to do better than that to get away," Lucy told him, "you obviously weren't in line, and this room's one of the few before I'd have gotten there. You wouldn't have had much time to get into many others." Lincoln stared into space and slapped his forehead. Lucy put an arm behind her back and rubbed the other bashfully. "Look I...sigh, I just wanted to say...you know that I'll listen to what you want to say right? If you have anything bothering you, I-blah blah blah...blah blah...blippity blah...bligh..."

"Lucy, I blah blah. You blah...blah bloo..."

"Lincbluh blah blah."

"Blah blah blah."

As the two older children droned on about whatever meaningless drivel they were discussing, Lisa rubbed her chin. Out of everyone in the household, perhaps the most dependable member was standing right in her room. Looking the boy top to bottom, a wide grin began to form across her face. After all, she had been needing to get a proper specimen to test the device out, and it wouldn't take more than a few minutes at most. Noticing the expression on her face, Lily gave the thinking child a suspicious glower from where she watched in her crib as her roommate approached them.

"Really Lucy, it's nothing to worry about...yeah it had to do with the hypnotism but I'm FINE. Tell Edwin to stop worry and-"

"Oh dearest brother, might I inquire upon some assistance by chance?" a more spitting voice interrupted. Lucy and Lincoln looked down to see Lisa next to them.

"Help?" Lincoln asked. Grinning, Lisa nodded. "Lisa, if you've forgotten the dinitrotoluene again-"

"No-no-no!" she chuckled. Pittering back over to the terminal at the device she grabbed a phone-like device. "No, this has nothing to do with my usual fare of exercises," she informed them as she journeyed back over, "Normally I wouldn't even ask for help from someone of such intelligence when journeying into this delicate of a new endeavor, but I absolutely must get information of the travels that can be made with a human body, and since, well, I have a ready one here..." Lincoln cocked his head back some at the train of thought that the young scientist presented. Surprising himself, he looked to Lucy for input, but she herself had been caught off-guard by the odd proposition. About the only one with a truly negative reaction was the infant, who had taken to glaring at the scheming girl.

Lincoln shook his head. He already had his dealings with Lucy going on and now the tinkerer of the house wanted to wrap him up in her antics? Thinking back to the mishaps with her previous inventions he winced. Granted the latest had nothing to do with her handling of them, but even so they had been no easy trials to overcome. He knew full well the, potentially lethal, hardships that could come with the accidents of her endeavors, and she was asking if he would just willing participate in one. Was he ready for that? Would his mind even humor the idea while he already had what he did on his plate? The answer was likely a firm "no".

"Lisa...can't this wait until later? We gotta get ready for school..." Lincoln grumbled trying to excuse himself. The small child put on the best lower-lip that she could as she dashed over and hugged his leg.

"Please Lincoln! It's for science! SCIENCE!" Lisa cried. Wildly Lincoln tried to shake the clinging munchkin off, but to no avail. She stuck to the appendage like superglue. As Lincoln proceeded to hop around the room on one foot Lucy's eyes caught sight of something that his struggle skipped by. It was shadowed and tucked away beneath a bed, but Lucy could make it out clear as day. A large book. Her book. Or rather, Great Grandma Harriet's old spellbook. But that had been in the attic. Lucy had that confirmed now. So how then was it also in the youngest siblings' room? As she thought of the, probably impossible, explanations, Lincoln's hopping lap around the room jolted to a stop and he attempted to yank the short girl off of his leg.

"Alright fine!" he yelled grunting as he hit his hands onto his hips and glared down at her. In an instant Lisa's distraught face sprung to life with a gleeful grin. She practically threw the phone-like device into his hands and started pushing him towards the portal.

"Now you just need to use that to record some footage of where you end up," Lisa told him. The closer that Lincoln got to the humming portal, the more the heels of his feet ground into the floor in protest.

"Hold it, hold it, HOLD IT!" he yelped as he managed to get a good enough grip in the floor to scrape to a halt. Lisa looked up at his back and blinked. "You aren't just going to throw me in there are ya? What even is this thing?"

"Of course I'm not," Lisa scoffed. Lincoln fell backwards as she let go of him and scurried over to the control panel at the terminal on the portal's side. "I need to set the coordinates first. I was just getting you into position for departure was all," she told him while Lucy helped him back to his feet.

"Departure to where?" he muttered as he rubbed his butt.

"To another universe," Lisa replied. After a few more clicks of her fingers into the keyboard of the console it beeped at her, "Ah there we go."

"Another universe?" Lincoln almost gulped. It may have been a dream but he did not want a repeat of the memories of his own "universe hopping". Had he seriously agreed to this? On a school-morning? Lucy could see the tension building in his face. However fantastic the notion was, he was not enjoying its premise.

"Indeed," Lisa nodded. A couple of more clicks and the portal flashed into a different hue of light causing the two at its base to take a step back. "I've experimented with such subjects before, but this machine allows me to see new realities as they come into existence, and with their discovery, I've also been able to find the proper means to tear into the interior of their realms. But, with this device at least, I haven't yet tested any organic subjects for data collecting. And it'd just be easier to keep all of the locating and traveling contained to this one device rather than having to cobble together another one to go along with it for proper travel." Lincoln looked down at the recording-device in his hand and sighed.

"...so I just walk through, take some pictures-"

"Video."

"-videos, and leave?" Lincoln asked. Happily, Lisa nodded from her terminal. Lincoln looked up at the portal and shook his head. As he began to step however he felt something grip his arm.

"I'm going with him," Lucy said pulling him back to her side. The declaration sent a startled look to her from the boy, but a nervous smile from her dipped it towards a more questioning glance. "I can't exactly chance you getting stranded in some other universe before the dance ya know," she said quietly. Lincoln gave her a bemused smirk while Lisa put a finger to her mouth.

"Even better," she shrugged at the new volunteer, "it'd definitely be handy to have backup in case something happens to him." Lincoln gave her a suspicious glance.

"Something like what?" he asked.

"Let us not dawdle on the possibilities. Now is the time for progress my rats-s-s-affiliates!" Lisa proclaimed. Dismissing the trivial concerns that the subjects had about their well-being, Lisa motioned the two forward. Lincoln and Lucy eyed each other and let out a verbal "sigh".

"This better just be a minute," Lincoln grumbled.

"At least if anything happens I'll be there to help you into the coffin," Lucy assured him. The older boy rolled his eyes at her grin.

"Unless it just destroys both of us when we step through," he proposed.

"Then I'll at least have company when I haunt her," Lucy joked laying her head on his shoulder.

"The dismal fate does provide some activities to look forward to I suppose," Lincoln agreed in a dull, yet amusing tone which made the girl's smile get smaller with the heat it spread onto her. Though Lincoln inched his head away from her's slightly, he couldn't help but feel some pride at the successful flirt. At least he was still viable for the role he was supposed to fill even with the iffiness that had been trying to strangle him throughout the night. The touched expression to the quip didn't feel nearly as discomforting as it would have a half-hour earlier.

"Sometime before school if you don't mind," Lisa commented from her terminal. Jumping at the voice, Lincoln and Lucy straightened themselves back out. The sentences had just worked so well off of each other that their current audience had started to fade into the background. Lincoln coughed a couple of times while Lucy brushed off the front of her dress. Though wary on if they should do so, Lincoln allowed Lucy's hand to grip his as she prepared to march. Lincoln however had one last question.

"We're going someplace that's not like...mega-dangerous or anything right?" he asked. Lucy looked up at him for a moment as the question passed through her head and caused her to look towards the young scientist. It was a rather justified inquiry with the types of schemes she liked to orchestrate.

"What? Of course it's not dangerous!" Lisa assured them. Somewhat annoyed with the stalling, she hopped away from the terminal and walked closer to them, "it's just a universe that one of the drones showed as having grass made of macaroni and rivers made of liquid chocolate." Unseen by the boy, Lucy's mouth dipped into an "O" at the bottom of her face. Lincoln had to admit, it did sound interesting.

"And you're sure this isn't going to hurt-"

"Absolutely, it's fine," an answer came, though from the girl that was holding his hand rather than the one that'd been talking to him. Lincoln gave her a confused gape. He thought she'd been more hesitant, but suddenly she'd been onboard with it? Lisa was pleased with the turn though. Whatever got them through the portal faster was acceptable to her. From her crib, Lily reached for the two older siblings, both out of envy for the supposed treats and fear of what the giant swirly wall might do to them.

"Lucy, are you sure?" Lincoln asked quietly.

"Of course," she said, not even looking at him, "the more time we waste the less chocolate we'll have to relax any before we have to leave for school." Lincoln blinked at her a few times before lowering his eyelids. It took a few seconds, but, realizing the mistake she'd made, Lucy started again. "The less CHANCE we'll have to relax any before school..." The blatant correction only flattened Lincoln's face further. Hoping to ease the reaction to the priorities, Lucy put on an innocent grin. Lincoln just shook his head and tugged at her hand as he started to walk. Unbeknownst to the group, the smallest member in the dwelling had successfully climbed over the railing of the crib and dropped to the ground below where she started hobbling towards the exiting duo. As they vanished into the dizzying colors ahead, Lily increased her speed.

"Bah! Ba ba buh!" she cried. The color-whirlpool-monster had eaten them! Lisa had successfully tricked them into its mouth with snacks! And she wouldn't even let her try to rescue them! Just as Lily had gotten within five feet of the portal, her roommate, having spotted the speeding baby, had tackled her to the side. "Ga ga poo poo!" Lily cried as she fought to free herself from the mad scientist's clutches. But it was no use! Lisa's toddler arms were just too strong!

"Lily! We've gone over this! You don't go in there!" Lisa lectured.

"Gyah ga! GYAH GA!" she whined pointing at the portal. Lisa growled as she got back to her feet. She really needed to develop a proper security system for that crib. Having followed the trail of the younger Loud's finger to the portal in her absent-mindness however, she did notice a cause for alarm, though not for what the infant might have been conflicted by. The portal had started...glitching. Every few seconds it would tear and distort into an array of static. Looking to the ground, Lisa realized what must have been the cause of the error. In her clamor to restrain Lily, her foot had hit the space-guidance-module for the portal and torn it from its position. Her pupils shrunk and Lisa practically threw Lily into the crib before diving to the ground at its socket.

Whether or not she had figured out how to get it back into place before too much damage had been done, it wouldn't have mattered. Within the glowing aisle of light that the older siblings had disappeared into they had felt something. Ripples. At first it had been a normal stroll into the blinding tunnel, but as their eyes adjusted it had become more manageable to traverse, almost pleasant even. There had been a calming warmth to it that neither had been ready for but that they were more than welcoming towards. But suddenly a chill had washed across them. It had only been for a moment at first, but another wave had caused their bodies to tense up and they'd looked at each other, each with an unspoken worry on their tongues.

Squeezing each others' hands for reassurance, they continued, but as more ripples vibrated through them they found it becoming increasingly more difficult to the point that they had had to almost stop entirely in their journey. Even without the commotion it had been taking longer than either had expected. In their near-stillness though they had noticed something. They were still moving. Or rather...the tunnel was. Looking around them they could see the streams of light swimming by them faster and the strange air that the tunnel began turning into a wind. Their walk came to a stop entirely as Lucy jerked her feet to a halt. Lincoln gave her a worried look but only received one back when she pointed to the hand she wasn't holding.

Looking to his free one, Lincoln's eyes bulged. It was coming apart! His hand was disintegrating! Not only that, but his arm as well! The decomposition was spreading across his figure like an infection! Realizing the danger he looked to the shocked girl at his side to see what he had feared. She too had begun coming apart! Once he had directed her gaze to her own body the two shared a brief moment of awe before turning and darting back as fast as possible in the opposite direction. But the view of Lisa's room was nowhere to be seen! For all they could tell they were trapped in the destructive tunnel of light. As the bits of them that broke off were sucked into the direction that the wind was picking up speed from, Lincoln wrapped his arms around Lucy, an embrace that she joined in once she realized the futility of their escape. She had at least expected to get to the world they were traveling to before they met their end. How was she supposed to haunt anything within that illuminating void?

The wind became a tornado of a current and its force impacted their movement. Or rather, it rushed past their movement. Somehow or another they were being pushed through the current. But it wasn't their bodies. It wasn't them anymore. No, who they were, their selves and atoms, they were flying down the corridor. Their bodies, if they could even be called that at that point, soared in a speckled trail across the space between space. They whirled through the empty roaring air passing by objects and shapes of all manners and indescribable forms. They flowed through each other. And in the distance, what there was of their senses could make out an opening at the end of the tunnel.

---

"And I thought Leni took long in there..." Lola murmured under her breath as Lynn emerged from the bathroom and walked by, a relieved smile adorning her face.

"But I haven't even gone in yet," the older girl pouted behind the twins.

"She's talkin' about how long ya normally take airhead," Lynn informed her on the way to her room. The blond girl's mouth hung towards the bottom of her face as the young jock disappeared behind her door. Seeing the mistreatment of the older girl, Lola, in a rare show of decency, caved towards some sympathy for her.

"Relax deary, she's always rude," Lola told her.

"Huh?" Leni murmured. She had to think for a few seconds longer than the others would have to understand what she was referring to. "Oh...yeah I'm used to that," she shrugged, "I just don't understand why I don't jump higher than others with how often people call me that." Lola's look of sympathy became one of confusion as she stared at the contemplating teenager.

"Wait, if you're okay with her saying that then why'd you look so down?" she asked. Figuring that the mysteries to her lack of buoyancy could wait til later, she gave the younger blond a dejected look.

"I was just wondering where Lincoln is..." Leni sighed, "I haven't got a chance to ask him about the suit since yesterday." At the mention of the boy's name, Lana allowed a shared glance with her twin. Now she had some investment.

"Suit?" she asked. Leni put a hand over her mouth and looked around to see if anyone else had heard her. Detecting no input from the zero other people in the hall aside from them, she bent down next to the twins.

"Yeah, him and Lucy were at Reininger's yesterday and asked me to hide a suit that they bought. It's supposed to be a secret though so make sure you don't tell anyone," Leni whispered. Completely baffled by the strange reveal, Lola's eyes rolled back and forth across the top of her head in search of logic for the claim. Finding none she turned her attention to her look-a-like who, at the realization of her focus, threw her arms out towards Leni's face and gave Lola an accusing expression with as wide of eyes as she could muster. Scoffing at the implications of her twin's paranoia, Lola rolled her eyes. Thinking on it a moment however, she dared another peek at Lana who added a foot-stomp to her presentation of the informant.

"Ugh, fine. It's weird, but that doesn't mean I'm going to join in on your little tin-foil-hat sessions," she sneered at the less refined child.

"Tin foil hats? What kind of fashion mags have you two been reading?" Leni asked, worry filling her voice at hearing of the scalding clothing-choice.

"Besides, it's just some suit they got. Who knows what it's for?" Lola murmured. Lana couldn't believe how much her sister refused to acknowledge the bizarre nature of their older brother and sister.

"Probably this girl," she said jabbing a thumb into Leni's cheek. Realizing she'd hit the face, Lana pulled her thumb back but Leni hadn't seemed to have noticed. "What'd those two want a suit for?" she asked the older girl. Leni was about to respond but put a hand over her mouth.

"Gosh you guys, they said I was supposed to keep it a secret..." Leni said, more to remind herself than to let them know.

"Come on Len-"

"I got this," Lola said putting her arm out in front of her twin, "Leni, I already heard Lincoln talking with Lucy about it earlier. Just didn't know if I'd heard them right or not."

"You did?" Leni gasped. Lola nodded. Lana just watched in surprise. Was Lola actually...helping?

"Absolutely deary. They'd noticed that I'd heard them talking so they asked me, if they didn't get the chance, to talk things over with you," Lola explained carefully. Leni listened intently to the newfound ally. "Seeing as I didn't know what they were talking about back then though, would you be a doll and let me know what they got the thing for?" she requested fluttering her eyelids.

"Oh, well sure!" Leni said excitedly, "They said they needed it for some Play about Martians at a club at school!" Lola's eyes squinted from the supposed background information while Lana looked to the ceiling trying to figure out just where aliens worked into the whole scheme of things. As they contemplated the puzzle to the components the bathroom door opened, a prompt that would normally garner a frenzy of bodies and limbs clamoring across each other to try and get into it first. What Luan was greeted with however was two of her sisters lost in thought with the tallest of the trio staring blankly into space. In her delayed frame of mind, Leni eventually realized the obvious.

"Oh, the bathroom's open," she blurted. Seeing as how neither girl in front of her had moved she simply strolled by the two young blonds who only realized the fact as she stepped into the room beyond. Once she'd locked the door their bodies hit it with a loud "thunk".

"Boy, you guys really are a dynamic "duo"!" Luan laughed. Lola and Lana groaned, their bodies' aches only heightened by the sibling they'd been left with. "Don't worry. You'll get your turns as long as you don't "stall" next time! " Lola and Lana glared at each other as the older girl laughed. Being sure to fix her tiara, Lola got back to her feet and brushed off her dress.

"NOW do you see?" Lana growled as she got back up herself.

"Honestly deary, no, I don't," Lola replied with disinterest as she closed her eyes and turned to the door. Lana gaped at her. After their whole conversation with Leni she was still feigning ignorance?

"What do you mean you don't?!" Lana yelled, "She just said-"

"That a suit had to do with a play about Martians involving him and her," Lola reminded, her pupils peering through the cracks in her eyelids, "what exactly am I supposed to take away from that baffled mess of an explanation?" Lana puffed out her cheeks, her face red. Was there NO winning her over? Sure, it had been...not that logical of a revelation, but it had still been Lincoln and Lucy! They had done something weird together. AGAIN! Inwardly Lana cursed herself for not having followed them when they were in the mall. She wasn't quite sure what Mars had to do with anything, but she did know suspiciousness when she heard it. And Lola was just turning a blind eye to it when it was looking her directly in the face!

"Come on! You were just now getting the information out of her! Why've you gone back to not caring?" Lana whined.

"Because that was a secret," Lola said flicking her hair at her, "and secrets shouldn't be kept from me." Lana clenched her teeth together in anger.

"But Lucy and Lincoln-"

"Are getting ready just like everyone else," Lola finished. Lana felt like ripping the girl's arms off. As if it wasn't bad enough that her own twin wouldn't get involved, now she was teasing it by helping out for a moment! But perhaps there would be a way to renew the interest. After all, Leni had apparently not been able to find the children in question. How was Lola to know if they were getting ready or not?

"Hey Lynn!" Lana yelled causing Lola to jump.

"Sup?" the sports-nut replied as she popped her head out from her doorway. Lola glowered at Lana as she readjusted her tiara again.

"Is Lucy in there?" Lana asked shooting a smirk to Lola which the more "dignified" twin turned her nose up at.

"Nah. Haven't seen the princess of darkness since I got up," Lynn shrugged. After thinking on that fact for a few seconds her brows lowered and she gave the younger girl a skeptical look. Luan also seemed to be a bit distressed by the news.

"She's probably hanging out in the vents or some crap," Lola said rolling her eyes. The gesture was repeated by Lana before she returned her attention to Lynn.

"And can you get Lincoln out here? He's usually not THAT late of a sleeper," Lana requested. Lynn's thinning eyes slid towards the middle-child's room. Part of her didn't want to check on the offchance that he might actually be absent. She'd finally been able to take some proper rest the past two nights. It had been a luxury allowed by the ease that came from not having to focus on the worry lurking beneath the mysterious undertakings of their brother and black-haired sister. But she knew she had to check, if for nothing else than curiosity's sake. And would she be able to live with herself if she'd thrown away an opportunity to save the rest of the town from whatever forbidden evils those two might be conspiring to spread?

Sighing quietly, Lynn walked over to the door. The three standing in line at the bathroom, though Lola wouldn't admit it, watched in anticipation as the handle of the door at the opposite end of the hall turned in her grasp and creaked open. Even Lola felt suspense crawling across her skin with how long the brown-haired girl had her head inside the opening of the door.

"...Stinkin?" they eventually heard her call. The spell of silence that followed made Luan's heart dip a bit. Lola may have still clung to the hope that he was just well-covered or had fallen out of bed or something, but the legitimacy of those excuses were fading fast. "Yo! Linc! Where are ya?" Lynn called into the room a bit more loudly. When no response came again, Lynn pulled her head out and gave Lana a concerned stare. The younger girl nodded ominously. Lola felt a heat flush across her face as her twin's pupils slid over to her.

"So they're both...missing...s-so...so what?..." Lola mumbled folding her arms over her chest.

"I'll take the vents, you search the basement," Lana told Lynn. The older girl nodded and they headed off in different directions leaving a denial-ridden pageant-queen grumbling to herself.

---

In one bright flash the morning sky tore open. The quiet tranquil landscape of the Royal Woods neighborhood erupted into a gust of wind and energy as the column of force that ejected from it blasted into one of the front yards of the block and with it the various particles and molecules that rode upon its path. As the collection of disintegrated individuals neared the ground they began to reform and upon their reconstitution the black-haired girl and white-haired boy slammed face-first into the ground, their bodies digging a trail through the dirt and grass. Had an onlooker seen them they might have thought they'd have been killed from the impact. As the seconds drew on however, they began to stir. By the time Lincoln had pulled his head out of his crater the chaotic portal he'd been ejected from had sealed up and dizzily he looked around. The first thing he noticed was Lucy who, herself, was trying to readjust her senses. He began to crawl over to her but only made it about three feet.

"Ugh...that...that was...MMHGFHF!" he managed to grunt before grabbing his mouth. Unable to stop himself he turned to the side and threw up. "Ughhh...oh god..I...GFF!" Lucy looked away as she sensed the next upchuck but as she did the twist in her body ignited her own. In agony she clutched her stomach from the violent expulsion and the readied herself for the next one. For about a minute the two lay in the yard dispensing their bodies of the jumbled mess that the travel had made of whatever they had left to digest from the day before. Once they'd finally stopped Lincoln tried to heave a few more times to make sure that it was over.

It was as if he'd been on the most sickening roller coaster ever, only it'd also drained him of his energy. Groaning, he crawled over to the nearby wall of the house that they had crashed next to where Lucy, who had elected to try and just keep down whatever remained in her stomach, joined him shortly after. For what felt like half an hour they lay there slouched against each other, both exhaling away from the other whenever they opened their mouths. In the silence their minds fell into thought upon thought once the sickness had passed. Where they were, what had happened, what time it was, amongst whatever other curiosities preyed upon their recovering subconscious. In the stewing nursing, neither of them paid mind to the welcome touch of the others' body.

"...Lincoln...when we...get back home...remind me to find my voodoo doll of Lisa..." Lucy eventually muttered. The older boy didn't even have the energy to muster resentment towards the statement.

"You want me to look for dad's butcher-knife too?" he offered. A dark smile formed along Lucy's lips.

"Nice choice..." she complimented. Lincoln joined in the cunning smirk. Figuring that they had stayed where they were for long enough, he put his hands against the wall behind him and pushed himself to his feet. The task was easier in his head than once his limbs had actually started to move, their joints stabbed with knives of aching. It didn't hurt as bad as their culprit's Assistant Bot had, but god if it wasn't an annoying sting. Knowing the irritation that awaited her, Lincoln held his hands out to pull the girl next to him up as well. Once she stood erect she fell forward into him from the sudden settling of her position. She hadn't expected the irks in her bones nor the weariness of her form. Still recovering, Lincoln ran his fingers along the back of her head allowing her to nuzzle into his chest. In light of the vicious entry they'd made into whatever world they'd been sent to their previous awkwardness seemed to evaporate. There were more important issues at hand.

Not only weren't they confused about wherever they'd ended up, but something must have gone wrong. He could feel it. Lincoln was sure that their walk through that tunnel wasn't supposed to be interrupted by being torn apart and swept through it. But that had happened, and by whatever miracle they'd survived the disassembly, even if their stomachs hadn't appreciated it. But just where had they ended up? Finally taking a proper look around, the terrain began to fall into place in the boy's head and he was overcome by an uncomfortable sense of remembrance.

"...you...might not have to wait til we get back to our world to get your doll..." Lincoln murmured. Lucy looked up at him in confusion. As Lincoln moved his body to push her's into view of the sights, she too saw what had prompted the claim. Not only was the yard familiar, if a bit overgrown, but from where they stood against the wall of the house they were at they could see another house in front of them. Mr. Grouse's house. After taking a moment to look at each other, Lucy and Lincoln turned their heads to the one behind them and their eyes trailed upwards. They were standing right in front of their home.

It took some time before their sight lowered back to each other, but when it did they looked to the front door. It was odd. In all their time since their arrival they had not seen a single person. Not a soul wandered the street nor a dog barked in the distance. Even the rowdiness of their own home was at a standstill. Somewhat cautiously they approached the entrance and turned the handle. It wobbled loose as though Lana hadn't tightened it in ages. The weakness only showed further as it popped off the door and bounced along the ground a few seconds later. Lucy and Lincoln eyed each other and peered into the crack that the door had obtained in its creak from the fiddling. It was hard to see at first, but within they could make out shapes. The couch, the stairs, the television. Everything looked to be present...except for the inhabitants.

Lincoln had his reservations, but contrary to the oddness of the outside world, their own abode, no matter how quiet, still seemed inviting on some level. But he was no idiot. Delicately he grabbed Lucy's hand and slipped through the crack, his feet springing him along in a silent stride. Noticing how they were moving, Lucy joined in on the quiet movements and took the lead directing him over towards the fireplace. With her experience in lurking she knew all the best places from which to observe and she knew nobody ever checked the fireplace. Lincoln didn't dare let out a sound even if the sudden tug into the cramped quarters surprised him. For Lucy it was a natural fit. Her body instantly melded into position, but for Lincoln it was less common territory, and rather...awkward territory with how claustrophobic it was for one person, let alone two.

Lincoln bent and fidgeted around however he could, but no matter the position he always seemed to press up against the other resident in a rough manner. Lucy hadn't realized how the space would be utilized until the unexpected rubs began, but, though her cheeks warmed, the friction felt easing in the ominous environment. Lincoln's trials were obvious however, and Lucy attempted to reconstruct her own position which only increased the bizarre game of twister Lincoln had been playing. The boy though seemed to take it as an invitation towards how he should settle and figured that if it were appropriate, he didn't have much choice other than to accommodate the position. Lucy felt her mouth lift towards her nose as Lincoln's arms settled into place around her body from behind and his legs slid onto either side of her's. Her nose twitched as his pressed into the hair at the top of her head from which his perched to gaze out into the darkened corners of their living room.

Lucy would have joined the watch if her pupils hadn't stopped focusing on the world they looked at. Though they continued to gaze forward, their sense of acuteness had been lost to the squeeze of the body around her. Even on death's cold doorstep she hated huddling, but from the way her cradle had draped over her it gave a sense of support, and in such an unknown environment her tensed body craved it. Hardly thinking on it, Lucy wriggled deeper into the embrace. The rustle of their clothes against each other was barely audible, but Lincoln's coloring reacted more to the passing of the cloth across his skin than to the noise of it. He spared a look down at the girl under him but soon returned his attention to the main part of the room. He should have known better than to divert his analysis. But as the minutes passed so too did the alertness. No matter how quiet they were nor how intently he listened, Lincoln and Lucy, once her mind had settled back into the perceived effort, couldn't hear anything. Not a peep or creak from anywhere. The two stayed holed within their cramped dwelling for what felt like ten minutes until a final shuffle from the body beneath his goaded Lincoln's exit from the fireplace.

It's not that he didn't enjoy the snuggle, but with what stuck in his mind of their time as Ace and Eight made the pressure just uneasy enough that it'd been the push he'd needed to give a more interactive investigation. After all, they weren't making much progress staying cooped up in that little hole in the wall. Lincoln stayed as quiet as he could at the spot behind the couch that he'd rolled to, though his movements moved more carelessly than when they'd entered due to the lack of noise that they'd encountered. That's probably what made his call come as quickly as it did.

"Hey Lynn! Dad's making meatball subs!" he yelled. The words still echoed through the halls as Lincoln dove back into the fireplace, Lucy's limbs wrapping around his body as he rolled to the back of it. Yeah...after such potential stupidity he didn't mind the returning tense embrace. But, as predicted, no response came. The duo stayed in their hiding spot for the usual amount of cautious time, but, with the sneaking-period over, their curiosity proceeded to draw them out into the open. Once they had actually taken the time to stay upright within the living room for more than just a moment it took no time at all to acquire the confirmation of the hollowness of the household. "Oh my gosh! Leni! There's a spider on this dress down here!" Lincoln exclaimed as he cupped his hands around his mouth and aimed his face towards the stairs. Instead of the clamor from the frantic fashionista, he was only met with silence, a silence that was soon disrupted by the loud crash of the lamp from the end-table next to the couch shattering on the wall that the staircase formed. With his eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room, the boy looked from its crumbling remains to the girl that had thrown it and gave Lucy a bewildered shrug.

"If that didn't garner parental attention or peeks from the others I doubt much else would," Lucy deduced, "Also the spirit of an electronic's repairman has been trapped in there for ages. If not in our world I can at least let them free here." Lincoln's eyelids lowered and he shook his head. There was little that she seemed to not find a spiritual connection in. With his sight lowered however, his own figure became of interest. While it was true that most of the contents of their innards had been deposited into the yard outside, he himself still hadn't quite finished getting ready for the day back in their own world, and his body made sure that he was aware of that.

"...dibs on the bathroom!" he hollered and bounced up the stairs once he'd noticed the opportunity. Instantly Lucy was on his tail, her own organ's vibrations igniting at the declaration. Thankfully there were apparently no other siblings to compete with aside from her companion, but that didn't seem to make much difference in their race. With Lincoln's closeness to the stairwell and his more readied start he had little in the way of his victory. Even so, Lucy slammed her fist against the wood of the door once it had shut in her face.

"Lincoln! Let me in! This isn't fair!" she yelled emotionlessly. She hoped that the prodding might allow for some welcoming, but the rare moments of privacy within the normally chaos-filled building swayed those fantasies.

"Oh did I hear somebody?" the boy's muffled voice asked from beyond the doorway, "I'm sorry, I can't her anything over this SPACIOUS ABANDONED BATHROOM." Putting her ear to the door Lucy could hear the flow of the sink and whimpered in her throat.

"Maybe Lisa's isn't the only doll I'm gonna get out..." she growled at the door.

"Ladee doo! Dadee da!" Lincoln's voice sang through the object only gurgling the vocals of her throat further. Muttering something under her breath Lucy turned around and leaned back against the door, her arms folded over her chest in irritation. Of course they had somehow wound up in a completely vacated version of their house and she still had to wait her turn. It did give her the chance to dwell on the setting though. While their destination had certainly been odd, it did hold some semblance of their own world, just as Lisa had calculated on. Just what world they were on however did not at all seem to be the one she had described. Yes, there would certainly be retribution for they're being lied to or her messing up their trip.

Looking the hallway over however it seemed as though the Lisa of that world may have already received her comeuppance. Lucy was used to the disheveled nature of the residence, but the state of the path she viewed was like a hurricane had swept through it. Leni's dresses lay in tatters at her doorway. Lily's toys and Lisa's contraptions decorated the floor near the rooms of the younger inhabitants. Perhaps most foreboding were some of Lana's larger and more dangerous tools which had somehow buried themselves into the walls in parts of the hall. Whatever had transpired within the desecrated halls had long since passed leaving the abode tranquil in its aftermath. It were as though Lucy had been blessed with a peacefully ominous Halloween. But she was no fool. There'd obviously been something of urgency that had occurred, and she could think of no better means of preparation than her usual standby.

Still hearing the toilings within the bathroom, she walked over to the middle of the hallway and pulled down the staircase to the attic. A foreign sense of dust filled her nostrils. It was more expected than in the corridors of the house below, but even at its peak the house rippled with disuse. Compared to the calamity that she'd stepped through on her way to and from the bathroom, the attic was pretty accommodating. There were a few toppled boxes here and there, but most everything was still in its place. Being sure to keep an eye on the environment, Lucy made her way over to her trusted box of resources. The source from which she could always derive some sort of solution. Great Grandma Harriet's trunk.

Undoing the latch, Lucy flung the lid off of the object and bent over into it. As excitedly as she allowed herself to be she dug through the trinkets within. Potions, ghastly figurines, scrolls. Only one tried and true relic was what she sought however. As she pushed past the others her eagerness seeped away. It was...missing. The girl pulled away parchments and flasks but she couldn't find page or binding of the old tome. Great Grandma Harriet's Spellbook was gone.

"Confounding humph," Lucy said to herself as she pulled herself out of the trunk. After taking one last look into the shadowing interior she hopped down in front of the container and shut it. Folding her arms she looked to the side. She had been surprised that she'd been able to see as well as she had within the trunk, but as she looked at the wall she could see why. A hole had been burst open near the trunk. Whatever had happened that world's version of her must have taken it for precautions herself. That was the only explanation. Taking a peek through the hole she was surprised to see someone outside. It was far off so she couldn't quite make out any features, but it was most certainly a person. At least she now had confirmation of life.

The only "life" that she cared to pay attention to for the time being however had just exited the bathroom by what she could hear, and in conjunction with the vacancy of that room she flew back down the attic steps and dove into it, Lincoln only avoiding impact by his expectancy of the rush. Grinning at the disapproving frenzy, he strode casually to his room. He hadn't noticed the state of the hallway in their scramble for the bathroom, but even with the odd placement of ruin decorating it he still had preparations to attend to. Figuring he might as well go the full mile, Lincoln slipped into that universe's version of his room and looked for some fresh clothes.

He was surprised at the pristineness that awaited him. Compared to the utter travesty of the hallway he'd come from his room was The Garden of Eden. It wasn't the most pure example of cleanliness, but it at least looked like a normal room. His sheets were still on the bed, his video games were filed, and (upon taking a look beneath his bed) his Ace Savvy comics were all present and accounted for! He had to admit, he'd expected those to be gone. He couldn't imagine wherever that world's version of him had fled to to have just willingly left the things behind, especially with how remnants of Lola's own tiara collection had clearly been trying to make their way towards the staircase. Lincoln did his best to straighten out the wrinkles of the shirt with his hand, but the fabric seemed to want to keep its musty creases. In all honesty the peacefulness of his room was rather eerie with how thrashed the corridor outside seemed. At least if they were stranded though they had one decent room to operate from.

Lincoln tilted his head up. Were they stranded? After all...the room of the one that had torn them from their world was only next door. Assuming that it was the same date as in their own world...would this one's Lisa not have attempted her own inter-universal experiments? Bubbling with hope, Lincoln ducked into the room over and looked around. It was dark, but the hum of some lightly glowing chemicals within their containers in the corner provided some amount of dim illumination. To his dismay however, the place seemed to be as war-torn as the rest of the upstairs did. If there had been any inventions to play with they were long gone. That stupid robot he'd had to fight the previous week wasn't even in its corner.

"Sigh, just as ruined as my room," a voice scoffed causing Lincoln to yelp. He gave Lucy an annoyed glance but she smiled. "Consider that payment for making me wait," she told him, "but seriously, this world's me either let Lynn just practice sports everyday with no attempt to keep things clean or some animal got loose and chased everyone away."

"Yeah, it is a bit weird but my room's fine at least," Lincoln shrugged. Needing confirmation herself, Lucy popped her head through the door to his room and glowered as she looked back at him.

"Hey, I can't help that I'm the only decent one in this world," he smirked making his way towards the steps. As he headed down them however that smirk faded. The isolation of his words dug at him as he went. The ONLY decent one. "So...I was just seeing if Lisa might have any way to get back from her room here but..."

"Nothing," Lucy finished, her footsteps joining his. Lincoln nodded.

"And no telling if anybody even exists in this world with how empty-"

"I saw someone down the street while I was in the attic," Lucy told him. Lincoln stopped and stared at her. Basking in the victory, Lucy earned her own smirk. "I can't help that I'm the only observant one," she gloated as she brushed off the front of the dress that she'd gotten from that world's version of her room. Grinning, Lincoln punched her shoulder lightly.

"Well, okay, now we're getting somewhere," Lincoln said in unspoken congratulations, "so we go ask someone what's happened, find this world's Lisa, and get her to get us sent back home."

"Sigh, and just when I was getting used to the doom and gloom," Lucy murmured halfheartedly. Lincoln lifted a brow at her causing her smirk to lengthen.

"Alright Ms. Despair, don't worry. I'll handle the asking-people-how-to-get-home parts," he told her.

"What a gentleman," Lucy cooed wrapping her hands around his arm. Pursing the lips beneath his reddened face, Lincoln coughed and pulled the arm back. Lucy felt the same awkwardness that he'd displayed in the aftermath of the hypnosis from the night before, but they had more important issues to deal with. Besides, such teasing had to expect some chance of embarrassment. Why then did he feel so...distant in the dismissal? Lucy wouldn't have long to ponder on the nature of the boy's actions. Almost as soon as he'd opened the door they were greeted with figures that had been nearing the house. Hope crawled beneath their skin. As they neared they could even make out just who the people were. But as they did their skin crawled for another reason entirely.

Though normally a source of sheer (if sometimes annoying) happiness, the adults of the Yates household that approached them wracked the two Loud kids' spines with shudders. Gone were Jancy and Bumper's permanent grins and in their place were hanging jaws that groaned with starved desire. The desire for the life that had so willingly stepped out into the world before them. Moaning, the taller woman drug a limp leg with her hip, the appendage's structure torn and rotted away while teeth swung from the deteriorated left portion of her lower jaw. Her husband meanwhile rocked his head about loosely on the shoulders it clung to, the inner structure that supported it seemingly shattered and an eye dangling in its flops.

Unable to process the scene initially, Lincoln and Lucy just watched as the two ruined bodies trudged towards the steps of their house. Even the mistress of the night had to process the unbelievable scene and the implications it brought. Either due to fright or instinctual survival, Lincoln grabbed Lucy's hand and pulled her over the side of the porch where he took off into a run. The younger girl's legs eventually caught up with his pace as they broke out of their stupor. The two leaped over the crater they'd left in the yard, but the maimed couple showed no signs of letting their newfound meal get away. They may not have matched their prey in speed, but their drive was unwavering. Neither child could believe that they'd just waltzed out into the open of some unknown world unarmed. Seeing that their own house would be a bit risky to fall back to for supplies with their pursuers between them and it , Lincoln pulled Lucy towards the one next door. After all, if a "changed" version of its resident was still there they'd meddled with him often enough to have a good understanding of how to subdue him.

As they reached the door however their enthusiasm died. The doorknob rattled, but not far, and the door itself wouldn't budge. The thing was locked! Looking back over her shoulder, Lucy could see the Yates having turned towards the door themselves. Desperately Lincoln tugged and twisted at the knob but it wouldn't give. The entrance remained stuck as though it'd been built into the wall of the house! Hearing the growling, Lincoln pulled harder. Soon Lucy was grabbing at it as well, rare tension showing on her face. As the zombies got to the doormat of the building Lincoln and Lucy's rattles on the door had turned to bangs from their fists in a futile attempt to break the thing down. Just as they heard the inner distortions of the couple's throat's nearing their ears, another noise sounded. The air around them changed to that which escaped from the door they'd been pounding against as it swung open. Even the rotted faces of the Yates looked up at the older mustached man who stared at the scene on his doorstep. Looking more annoyed than anything else, Mr. Grouse pulled the kids inside and grabbed a shotgun from behind his door.

"My yard my property!" he yelled at the undead couple as he aimed it at their faces and pulled the trigger.

---

"Alright so we've searched the attic, the basement, the kitchen, living room-"

"Dog house," Leni interjected in the list that the younger blond was listing off. Lana looked at the ceiling. She was surprised she actually hadn't thought of that one but was thankful there was someone sensible enough that had.

"Dang it, this is just great," Lynn Sr. groaned as he folded his arms over his chest, "It's right before everyone has to leave and one of them-"

"Two," the younger Lynn corrected.

"-TWO of them vanish," the father finished in a mixture of annoyance and worry, "Where would they even have gone? Lincoln's usually pretty good at explaining where he'll be." Though the search had long since ended, the older Louds would still occasionally look into whatever rooms they were near. Luan sometimes caught and exchanged worried expressions with her roommate in their vain seeking. If anyone could scare her it'd be Lucy, but normally not in such a concerning way. Her style was more direct fright than the fear of the unknown. And she doubted that the loner had been feeling dejected enough to pull such a worrying disappearance. After all, whenever she'd seen her around Lincoln as of late she'd been in whatever slightly higher moods that her body could muster than she normally was. Luan rubbed her chin. No, whatever was going on...they were doing something together...she just wished she knew what it was... Almost as if to address the pondering, Lana stepped forward.

"Alright guys, I think it might be time to consider the worst case scenario," she sighed. Lynn nodded as the two girls looked at each other.

"Oh em gosh! Rats ate their clothes and they're hiding so that we won't see how unfashionable they must be dressing now?" Leni exclaimed. Most of the hall's other inhabitants shook their heads.

"No Leni," Lana grumbled, "What I mean is this is Lucy and Lincoln...now I don't know about you all but-"

"Oh here we go," Lola scoffed as she rolled her eyes. Her twin shot a rather nasty look at her, but the pageant-queen ignored it.

"As I was saying..." Lana stated with some degree of force to recollect the attention, "Lately those two have been-"

"Where's Lisa?" Leni asked. Lana was about to give her the same look that she'd given Lola but, after realizing that the older girl probably wouldn't even know why she'd be making the expression, Lana joined the rest of the family in a shared stare of disbelief. How had none of them noticed the absence of the youngest siblings? Acting as one mind, they all turned towards the closed door that they had passed over in their search and Lana approached it. Her eagerness only matched occasionally by Lynn, she put her ear to the door and listened. The scrunched faces that she made only furthered the suspense towards what might be happening on the other side.

"You hear blood-sucking?" Lynn asked quietly as she popped up and smacked her fist into the palm of her other hand.

"You hear dumbasses?" Lola asked only slightly louder.

"Gosh, if they're at the Martian part tell them that the suit's ready in my room," Leni requested. After processing all the questions, Lana looked at the door and gave them a confused shrug. She wasn't sure just what was going on on the other side, but whatever it was it was noisy. A slurry of bleeps and boops mixed with the odd yelp from the brown-haired scientist that dwelled in the room. Lana put her hand on the doorknob and lifted three fingers up on the other one. As she lowered the digits down to two the rest of the family got ready and as the final finger bent they rocketed forward. The door nearly blasted off of its hinges from their combined force against it. In the room that they entered the infant jumped, but her older sibling continued her frantic twists and pulls on levers and switches at the terminal that she operated from. The intruders darted their heads around, their brief moment of hope diminishing at the realization of the middle childern's prolonged absence.

"Come on come on! It was just one little accident!" Lisa whined as she toiled away. Every movement she made at her station altered the swirling vortex of light on the wall of her room. The odd portal gained quite a bit of attention with the energy that the search had been draining out of its participants, but the adults, the female one at least, stayed undeterred from their goals.

"Lisa honey," Rita interrupted. The young girl jumped and nearly hit the roof of her terminal. She hadn't heard any of the guests enter with how caught up she had been in her efforts. Spinning around she backed up against the controls of the terminal at the sight of the congregation that had collected in her room. What were they all doing in there? "Lisa, we're sorry to interrupt your work, but it is getting pretty late. You really should get ready for school," the mother reminded. Lisa nodded her sweating face shakily. "Before you do though we're all looking for Lucy and Lincoln. They seem to be missing. Have you seen them?" the woman continued. The shine of Lisa's complexion glistened evermore. She tried to speak. She fought desperately to operate her vocals, but the nerve just wasn't there so instead she creaked her head back and forth. Those that were paying attention to her turned their heads downwards at the disheartening response, but Lola had her own questions.

"What is this thing?" she asked jabbing her thumb at the portal, "can you shrink it down and let me wear it to the next pageant? The other girls would just die if they had to compete with such shimmering beauty.

"N-no, th-th-that's just a p-p-portal to other u-universes..." Lisa managed to stammer as the eyes began to turn from her, "n-now p-please all of y-you...exit. I w-will get ready and be d-d-downstairs m-momentarily...I h-have much w-work to d-do here before I c-can l-leave..." Luan was the only one preoccupied enough with the glimmering gateway to not come to a stop when she tried to leave. The rest of the family jumped out of their hopelessness in surprise at the sight of the youngest Loud blocking their way out. Lisa bit her lip once she realized who was glaring up at them and tried to shrink back against her console.

"Lily, what's wrong? We have to like try to find Lincoln and Lucy before school starts," Leni explained. The baby peered daggers around the side of the group at her roommate who hesitantly shook her head at her. Only narrowing her eyes, Lily stepped back in front of the family fully and slumped over as she brought her hands up and started pulling on invisible objects in front of her eyes, a frown on her face.

"Aw that's Lucy!" Leni cooed.

"Yeah, we're looking for her," Lola said the baby, "she and-"

"Lincoln brah!" Luna said pointing at the infant, her upper teeth now pushed up over her lower lip and her fingers sticking up on a hand that she'd put to the back of her head.

"Wow, you could really "rattle" the audience with that act!" Luan commented as she slid in from the side. Lily repeated the imitations a couple of more times to make sure the family had registered the routine. Once she knew that they understood who she was acting out, the little Loud held up two fingers before showing her impressions of them again and clasping her hands together as she waddled towards them with an oblivious smile. The family looked at each other as understanding slowly sifted through them. After enough had realized the pantomimed journeying partners, they looked back down at Lily who pointed at the portal. One by one the family was overtaken by varying degrees of expressions, none of them pleasant. Lisa gulped as they turned to her.

---

The streets of Royal Woods lay silent save for the roll of the tires wheeling a rather weathered vehicle through them. The citizens that the boy and girl within were used to seeing causing a commotion across its pavement now dotted the landscape with a new drive, that for their hunger. For many their vocal chords had withered away long ago leaving nothing but the sift of their feet through the overgrowth that blanketed the yards of the town's houses. As the car passed numbers of them turned their attention to it, but did little with the prolonged infection that hampered their chases. Of the one that did manage to grab hold of the vehicle and hang on, the driver simply rolled down the window and smashed his elbow into it sending bits of brain and an eyeball flying from the falling hitchhiker.

"So...this all really just happened...overnight?..." Lincoln stuttered. He still shook from the sights that were given to the newcomers but much less so than he had in their journey to get to the old man's car when it'd been in his driveway. His skin still crawled from the snap he'd heard when Mr. Grouse had carelessly broken a zombie's knee with the butt of his shotgun when it'd tried to enter the yard. Lucy had remained silent for most of the time they'd been driving, though her brother couldn't tell if that was due to adjusting to the world they now traveled across or if she was relishing in the morbidity of it all. The few squeezes she'd given to his arm when "obstacles" had leaped at her window however suggested the former.

"Well to be frank I'm not entirely sure Loud," Mr. Grouse said from the front seat. He didn't even flinch as the corner of the vehicle slammed into the side of an unresponsive stumbling woman, the impact ripping part of her abdomen away from her unaware body. Lincoln sucked in a hiss of air and snapped his eyes away from the brief glimpse he'd gotten. Whether it be by something ushering her from her side or a response to his movements, Lucy cuddled up against him and nuzzled her face into his neck. The blob of hair his face rested in made it difficult to pay attention to the driver. "Like I said, it was a few months back. I was busy watchin' my stories when all of a sudden I hear this crash. Next thing I know half the neighborhood's trying to get into my house. Took some help from that sports-nut sister of yours but we got em handled."

"Sigh, of course it's the rest of the family that gets to experience the beginning of this haven of desolation," Lucy mumbled through Lincoln's shirt.

"Ugh, tell me about," Mr. Grouse spat from the driver's seat, "the little blond one can scream her throat out. And not in the "help, save me!" kind of way, I legitimately think she was using it to fight the folks that'd just moved in down the street with when they tried to break in." The older man rubbed the inside of his ear a few times.

"Yeah...that sounds like her..." Lincoln murmured sharing a proud look of embarrassment with the other passenger. Of course it'd be Lola that would injure the opposition with her whining.

"Eh you can ask her yourself in a minute," Mr. Grouse grumbled. Their attention had turned towards the horizon. Though it'd been growing over the crest of the land for a good minute or so, the features of where the mall had stood had grown defined enough for the children to make sense of what they were looking at. What had been simply a locale for shopping had been completely transformed. What bits of it that they could see had chunks missing from along the sides and corners of it for perceived snipers. Most of the building itself however was obstructed by a large makeshift wall that had been erected around its perimeter with shorter barriers growing outward from it until a measly trail of barbed-wire lay at the furthest-most defenses from the gates that they were approaching.

As a few shots sounded from the structure to incapacitate some of the company that the car had been attracting Lucy nuzzled further into her brother's warmth. The complete and utter despair with bullets passing judgment and her favorite person to go on escapades with. It was almost heavenly. Sure the initial exposure to the undead landscape had caught her off-guard, but the longer she had dwelt in it the further she'd grown enamored to the realized fantasies.

"You know...we don't...HAVE to find a way back..." her quiet voice suggested. Lincoln looked down at her in shock. "Look at the world...death everywhere...people holing themselves away in the bleakness of the inevitable...we could meet a decent end here..." Lincoln noticed her grip on the arm she was hugging getting uncomfortably snug and he pulled away red. Lucy dropped her arms as she looked at his retreating figure before turning her face towards her lap. She knew that Lincoln wasn't the most tolerable when it came to fright, but he had been making progress with how he'd displayed knowledge of some of the reading material she'd given him. And everyone knew her books weren't the most tame of fiction.

Lincoln however had more personal reasons for the rejection. He'd been coming to terms with the unwelcome feelings that his memories of their time together as heroes had brought and Lucy's...proposition was not helping him in the passing of them. He knew he had to be able to "flirt" given his role, but how she had suggested the notion had felt a bit too...close...

"Lucy you...you know I... "love" ALL of you...right?" he sighed from where he was watching the third wall pass by his window. Lucy tilted her face back up to him, unsure of just what he was addressing, though curious towards his words. Lincoln himself chanced a look towards her which sent his red face back towards the window. "Think of what it would be like if we never got back..." he told her. Lucy looked back down at her lap. It was only typical that she'd have to have guilt thrown at her about her fantasies. No matter how she might be ignored by most of the others, she was still obligated to care on some level. "And besides...if we never made it back how would we get to the Ball?" Lincoln reminded. Her head perked up at the mention of the more important dilemma. Of course he was right...but that pull away from her, the way that he kept his eyes off of her. There was something...distant about his actions.

"I'm not sure what all this "love-the-family" "get-to-the-ball" stuff's about, but we're about to see em," Mr. Grouse told them. That broke the kids from their turmoil. Having slid away from the setting at-hand in their conversation, Lucy and Lincoln looked around frantically as the car wheeled to a stop.

"Garage is around that way Mr. Grouse!" a black-haired man hollered from his post at the top of the gate when he realized the car had stopped.

"Oh shut it Kotaro," the older man shouted back, "I'm just here to drop off some brats." The familiar guy scrunched up his face at the visitor and watched as the passengers opened their doors. He really did not care for the older man's nonchalant grumpiness. But as his cargo emerged his face shifted from annoyance to disbelief. His jaw almost fell off his head as the black and white-haired children looked up at him equally as startled by the raggedy clothes and makeshift armor he wore.

"...oh my...god..." he said.

"Come on Kotaro, ya can't get distracted. We're supposed to keep an eye out for people looking for shel-" Coach Pacowski said from the station at the other side of the gate's roof before going quiet as his eyes drifted down to the boy and girl that had just arrived. "...holy shit," he gawked. Lucy and Lincoln fidgeted in their spots, unsure just how to react to the startled attention they were receiving. Mr. Grouse rolled his eyes at the baffled guards and looked around the camp-ground-turned parking-lot.

"Hey! Any Louds around here?" he yelled from his window. Lincoln and Lucy could hear murmurs from a few of the people resting in the small community that'd been set up at the exterior of the mall, mostly about the annoying old man that they didn't seem too keen on having returned. A few more excited ones however seemed to be about they themselves from people that had noticed them. One such person was soon to be the taller orange-haired kid that had begun approaching the car.

"You didn't come all the way out here just to get their dad's lasagna again did y-y...you?..." Rusty asked, though his words quieted as they neared the sentence's end. His hands fell from his hips once he spotted the kids Mr. Grouse had brought. It took a few seconds before he did anything, but Lincoln's eventual wave seemed to be what caused Rusty to rub his eyes and gawk at them more intently. Feeling the stares around them, Lucy slid as best she could back to behind Lincoln. With how long the viewing was taking, Mr. Grouse grumbled to himself and honked the horn of his car.

"So you gonna-" he started to growl at the kid. As he talked however his voice became lost in Rusty's.

"LOUD FAMILY!" he cried as he ran towards the entrance to the mall. Lucy peeked her head out over her brother's arm to look up at him in their shared unease of the building suspense. With the anxiousness that had surrounded them in the car ride they hardly had time to ready themselves for the reunion they'd been driving towards. Now that they had arrived they felt like aliens. With how tight-knit the community could be, most seemed aware of who the newcomers were and shared in the shock of their state and arrival. They looked like they hadn't even come into contact with any of the undead with how cleanly they were dressed. As Lucy scanned over the faces she noticed a few from the Morticians Club who seemed to be caught up in a hushed discussion about her debut. Most of the others focused on the more community-invested of the two, but one pair of eyes that did hang on her she could see was from the brother of the boy that had run off after seeing them. Though just as in awe as the rest of the inhabitants, Rocky waved to her and joined in her reddened smile once he'd noticed her stare.

Having made the delivery, Mr. Grouse was ready to shift his vehicle into reverse and depart when a low rumbling started. The people stationed near the entrance of the mall looked to the interior and jumped to the side as a cloud of bodies swarmed out and drifted towards the new arrivals in thunderous excitement. Through the blur of dust that was kicked up in the stampede's path Lucy and Lincoln could make out dark shapes. Mr. Grouse contemplated whether he should just evacuate, but to his possible worse fortune the crowd turned out not to be zombies as their figures became detailed by the light breaking through their dissipating cloud. He wasn't sure what made him stay, but for whatever reason he allowed himself the sight of the rest of his next door neighbors making their greeting to the family member's that he'd brought to them.

"LINCOLN!" most of the sisters cried as they threw themselves into a hug around him. Lucy wriggled helplessly in the embrace that she was suspended in the air with as they bypassed her body to entangle the brother. She cursed not realizing just who had been approaching them nor the affection they would douse them with.

"Luce! Y-you're alive!" Lynn cried rubbing her cheek against her former roommate.

"Yeah, talk about a "resurrection"!" Luan laughed as she mashed her face into her black-hair, another bout of undesired attention.

"Like oh my god, where the hell have you two been?" Lori cried, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Yeah! And where's your gear? Normal civilian clothes are like half-a-year ago," Leni added being sure to address their fashion choices. The mother of the family shared the wetness of Lori's eyes as she watched. Mr. Grouse cranked the shift of his car backwards as he saw the father approaching but couldn't get his foot pressed down in time to get away before the man's arm hung on his window.

"You're not leaving already are you neighbor?" Lynn Sr. asked, "you can't think that you're house is any better than out here."

"Loud there's quite a few things I can think of better than this," he grumbled at the sickening scene, "now get your blasted arm off my car."

"At least stay for some congratulatory lasagna!" Lynn Sr. requested. Mr. Grouse's brows lifted at the mention of his reward, previous conflicts evaporating.

"Well...maybe just a few bites..." he mumbled to himself.

"LAME-O!" a voice screamed. The family jerked their heads towards the entrance they'd come from just in time to avoid colliding with the girl that had been charging at them. With a force that nearly popped Lincoln's eyes from his skull, he was tackled to the ground beneath a familiar Hispanic girl. Once his viewing organs had resituated in his head they focused on the face in front of his and he pressed back against the softness pushing against his lips. Both of them blushing, Ronnie Anne pulled her lips back and gave him a sheepish grin. A wider one was worn by a number of the sisters around them. Lucy though, who'd been broken out of her stranglehold in the assault, did not. She was pleased with the reunion, for however much she may not show it, but her face hung. That embarrassed smile Lincoln wore as Ronnie Anne helped him to his feet sent an isolating chill across her body. Lucy was happy for the family and friends that greeted them, but something inside of her gnawed at her anxiousness at the sight.

"What are you doing here loser?" Lincoln asked in happy confusion at the appearance of the former Royal Wood's citizen. He felt the air squeeze from his lungs as yet another display of affection coiled another set of arms around his torso.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!" Clyde cried, "I thought you were DEAD!" Lucy was at least happy that her own face was allowed to return to its normal coloring at some point. Nervously, Lincoln patted his childhood companion on the head while a few more familiar faces approached, having followed Ronnie Anne.

"Dude, do you think we'd just let you guys get eaten?" Bobby laughed putting an arm around Lori.

"Even if we wanted to, there'd have been no stopping Ronnie Anne running away to help," their grandmother told them. On cue Ronnie Anne turned her grinning face to the sky and folded her arms over her chest.

"Kill the zombies, kill the zombies!" a brightly colored parrot repeated as it flew around the group.

"It wasn't that bad at first," Ronnie Anne and Bobby's mother said, "but the closer we got to Royal Woods the more there were. By the time we got to a shelter we'd used up practically everything we'd armed ourselves with from the bodega."

"Even the bunion scraper..." their grandpa sighed. A lighter-skinned girl around Ronnie Anne's age rubbed his back sorrowfully as he looked towards the ground.

"Wait...how far has this thing spread?" Lincoln asked. The families looked between each other startled.

"Uh...it's gone everywhere," Lola stated flatly, "Where've you two been anyhow? We looked all over for you until we couldn't hold out at the house anymore. How don't you know what's gone on after all this time?" Lincoln tugged at his collar as the eyes turned back to him. Lucy felt some itchiness crawling on her arms.

"Well um...ya see..." Lincoln mumbled as he scratched the back of his head, unsure just how to explain their situation "We uh...we..."

"We're not your Lincoln and Lucy," his companion helped. Lincoln blinked his eyes at her from the bluntness of the statement, but it at least got the point across. Though the relief of the reunion remained, he felt the height of the meeting's warmness passing from what Lucy had just divulged. They could practically see the uncertainty spreading throughout the group in the looks that they gave them and each other.

"Uh...what are you talkin' about brah?" Luna asked as she leaned forward on her spiky guitar, "You two are Lincoln and Lucy right?" The two in question grimaced at each other. They didn't want to ruin the mood but...they couldn't exactly lie to them. It wouldn't have been right, no matter how much it might disappoint them. The family, hell, the whole world they were in weren't in the best of shape, but they had their own problems to attend to. In the silence however, some of the eyes of the crowd began to narrow as assumed dishonesty pricked at their minds.

"You got some nerve to come in here pretending to be them!" Lana growled taking a step forward with a rather vicious looking wrench. A few of the other sisters followed suit with threatening weapons of their own, though Leni's barbed scarf simply wrapped around her head as she tried to whip it causing her to fall over. Lincoln and Lucy grabbed each other fearfully.

"Woah woah! No! It's us!" Lincoln exclaimed.

"Likely story! You just said you're not them!" Lola barked.

"He said they're not OUR Lincoln and Lucy," Ronnie Anne reminded, though in spite of her aide concern could be seen on her face. Lola however wasn't so easily swayed.

"And just what the crap's that supposed to mean?" Lynn Jr. spat putting a hand on her hip as she slung her blood-crusted bat over her shoulder, "For all we know that's just them feeling sorry for impersonating them to try and get in here!"

"Why would someone try to do that brah?" Luna asked, "It's not like you need a Ticket to Heaven to get in here."

"No it's them," a younger voice interjected. The sisters turned to look at the younger orange-haired boy that had spoken from the people at the camps around them. Nervously Rocky gulped. Looking to Lucy he received a smile from her only heightening his nervousness, but for a different reason as he smiled back.

"Yeah it's...it's them alright..." Ronnie Anne murmured as she kicked the ground, her face blushing as she glanced at Lincoln's own glow.

"Course it is, the little spooky one nearly gave me a heart attack when I came back to the living room to give em some drinks and saw her standing at the doorway after I turned back around," Mr. Grouse grumbled as he walked towards the entrance of the mall, "now where you got your food-place set up Loud?" Ignoring the older man, the group persisted in their suspicious stares but Lincoln and Lucy at least felt less endangered than they had seconds before.

"But if you're not... "our" Lincoln and Lucy...then...who's are you?" Ronnie Anne continued as she peered at them, "and how did you get...here?" Lucy and Lincoln looked to each other. What all explanations they'd give would likely lead to only more questions. But there was an answer that they knew would cover a majority of the issues. Glares on their faces, the looked to the shortest Loud that could walk causing her to take a step back.

"...what?" Lisa asked.

---

Steam poured out from the cracks of the plating that the small child tore open. Every moment that passed her heart seemed to pound with an ever-unfathomable worry. Not even caring about the danger, Lisa pulled the series of chords she'd selected from their sockets spraying bolts of electricity all over the inside of the chamber. Her face stung from the currents that rippled onto her skin but she paid the pricks of energy no mind. She couldn't afford to. Not after how the rest of the family had left. More sweat formed along her brow as she thought back to the unspoken threats that they had departed with. Leni had only had the linings of anger, probably due to her obliviousness to the extent of the situation, but others like Lori had had their glares flooded by the emotion, to say nothing of the disbelieving shouts and yells they'd thrown at her once they'd realized what had happened to the missing children.

With Lincoln and Lucy's absence it was impossible for her to waste time spent away from her search at school, but that would only matter if she achieved results. There was no telling how long she'd be grounded if those two were lost to the depths of space and time. She had given some thought to the idea of possibly just taking a Lincoln and Lucy from another universe to stand in for theirs until she could find them so that the punishments might not be as severe, but she knew it would have only been a matter of time before the others realized that they weren't the ones that belonged there. And what would that have done to the reality that she would have plucked them from? There were too many variables that could go wrong. And so she continued her tinkering. Every now and then she felt that she had found the pair, but each time it had turned out to be a misunderstanding, be it due to other multi-universal mishaps, or that universe's version of them having gone off on some meaningless adventure of their own.

Pulling her head back in a moment of rest, Lisa looked towards the crib at the other end of the room and glared. It was all her fault. If her little sister had just kept to herself she might have found someway to pass off the disappearance and her need to stay home without anybody noticing. But no, instead the rest of the family had to find out and leave her trembling and panicked, thus decreasing her chances of success. And what did they know? They clearly couldn't comprehend the good the experiment could provide for science! Creatures went missing everyday for the sake of advancement. What was the hurry in the retrieval? It's not like they'd been confirmed dead or anything. The sacrifice of a day or so away from school could lead to advancements not even dreamed of!

Lisa groaned as she closed her eyes. The strain of worry for her safety was getting harder to bear, but as she searched the darkness of her eyelids she could make out an image beneath them. A darker skinned girl around her age. Her brows were furrowed as the lids lifted back up halfway. She sighed as she remembered what she'd learned with her.

"Not everything's for science," she muttered to herself irritably. With a unwanted renewal to her motivation, Lisa got back to modifying the chords she'd unplugged.

---

"So you're telling me...my Inter-Universal Traversal Unit hypotheses are actually correct?!" the young scientist exclaimed.

"I think you're kinda missing the point here..." Lincoln muttered. His flattened expression did little to curb the girl's excitement. "Can you get us back?" he asked. Lisa's trembling fingers stopped and she slumped into her seat at the table they had gathered around in the "command-center" of the mall.

"Technically yes...I could..." she replied, "but the equipment I'd need to perform such a task with would be back at the house and, well...we're not really getting much done with those zombies everywhere. Not to mention, I don't think we can really get to your issue before our own."

"You've made a pretty good fort out here. Seem to be surviving okay so far," Lincoln complimented.

"Oh yeah, like we literally want to live like this," Lori grumbled.

"Speak for yourself," Lynn said swinging her bat around, "this lets me put my pro skills to good use!"

"Gosh Lynn, is that another ruined pair of apocalypse shorts?" Leni ridiculed towards where the younger girl had gotten up on the table displaying the rips and tears of her clothing.

"Bottom line, it ain't happening without the zombies out of the way for me to work. I got the basic components together at the house, but no way to get everything combined with the life-threatening interruptions that'd be around us," Lisa told them. The table went quiet. There was little pleasantry to be had by either party involved in the discussion. And still further foreboding hung in the air.

"Brah...if you guys are from another universe...then what happened to our version of you?" Luna asked. Lincoln was surprised to hear the quieter visitor reply to the question.

"I've been thinking about that," Lucy told her. Some jumped at the response having forgotten that she'd been sitting there while others looked to her with anticipation. "You said that this zombie-plague started around Royal Woods Cemetery and spread out from there right?" Lucy asked. The others nodded.

"Yeah brah, it was like just this gnarly wave of despair that swept over the world," Luna said.

"Sigh," Lucy said, "such vivid beauty." A few of the people around them inched away from the morbid fascination leaving her with an uncomfortable blush, "Um...that is to say...that's where we're gonna find our answers." Those that had scooted away allowed their legs to fall back into position as the group whispered with interest.

"Our answers?...at the...cemetery?" the mayor asked from the head of the table. For such an unnatural reunion, quite a number of more authoritive staff within the massive refugee camp had been sure to divert some of their time to conversing with the other-worlders and hear the news they might bring. Lucy nodded.

"If we can figure out what all happened to start the outbreak I may be able to reverse it," she reasoned. Most that had stayed stationed at their jobs within the strategizing chamber turned from their terminals at the claim. The whole room trained their eyes on the pale girl, be it for hope or skepticism. Lucy didn't care for the attention, but she was confident in her statement.

"Well...she is pretty gifted with the...mystic stuff..." Lisa admitted.

"But that's like...the HEART of Zombieland. There's no telling what you're gonna encounter out there," Clyde told them. The others gave varying looks of worried agreement. The black-haired girl remained unmoved. In such a world she was at home and in her element.

"Then we encounter that stuff," Lucy shrugged.

"Lucy-"

"Lisa said it herself. The only way we're getting back is with the zombies gone," she reminded Lincoln. Gently she slid her fingers through his and gripped his hand. "Now are you with me?" Lincoln stared into the strands of hair that blocked the girls eyes searching for some sign of giving up on the proposal, but if she had any she did not show it. All he saw was a steadfast expression of seriousness. Allowing a sigh of air from his nose, Lincoln lowered his brows and nodded.

"WHAT? Dude's that's suicide!" Luna yelled.

"Yeah! You're gonna "lose your heads!"," Luan warned as seriously as her act would allow.

"It's hardly the first time we've snuck around that place," Lucy told them as she got up. She pulled Lincoln only an inch or so towards the door of the room before bumping into the girl that was directly older than them.

"Guys, seriously. I'm the best there is so believe me when I tell you, those things will fucking kill you," Lynn said jabbing her bat against the younger girl's chest.

"...you're free to come if you're worried," she told her. Lynn backed up about a foot at the invitation. Now the eyes locked on her, interested to see how the normally overconfident jock would respond. Sweat dripped towards her clenched teeth as she looked around the room. In her gut she knew the reply she had to give, but that didn't make it any easier to think about what the alliance would entail. If they were right though...

"...you're really going to do this...aren't ya?" Lynn sighed. Lucy nodded. Lincoln's nod was a bit more hesitant. Squinting her eyes, Lynn shook her head. "Then yeah, of course I'm coming. You two ain't dying alone," she gave in.

"Woah, hey, none of you are going anywhere without me! Do you know how much crap I'd get from mom and dad if you guys got killed?" Lori growled as she came over to them. The intimidation was lost on the smiles they gave her which she soon gave back.

"Babe you are not just leaving me here," Bobby said sliding in next to her.

"And you're going to need someone to fix your hair on the way," Leni told her pulling out a comb to attend to the latest ruffling Lori had received from an excursion into the high school earlier that day.

"Not like you can trust Bobby with handling stuff on his own in these times," Ronnie Anne added. Lincoln grinned at the punch she gave his arm. Before long practically both of the families along with Clyde and his dads had joined in on the burgeoning team.

"Alright alright," the mayor called from the door turning everyone's attention to her, "listen, I'm not sure if you're all crazy or if this could actually work. You two aren't even from our world apparently." Lincoln looked to Lucy but she remained as stern in her stance as she had when she'd initially started towards the door. "...but you are a version of the creepy one," the mayor nodded, "so if we do have a shot at this...I'll call some troops together to accompany your transports." Though some still held their reservations about the operation, none of the staff could do much to veto the decision of the mayor. All they could do was watch as the hopeful band sifted through the doors.

Silence wrapped the Loud and Casagrande families as they made their way towards the garage of the mall. Every now and then a comment would be heard from one or another, but for the most part they walked quietly. While many of the siblings and parents may have put on a brave face in the command-center, the truth that no wanted to speak was that they were scared to death. All that anyone could tell was that the outbreak had started at the town's cemetery, and they would be driving RIGHT INTO IT. If not for the sense of responsibility towards the visitors none of them would be making the trip. But Lucy and Lincoln were Louds, even if they weren't their's. And most had confidence in the young mystic's abilities, at least after having had to live in the hell that they walked for the weeks that they had. If there was a chance to be done with it, most were eager for it to be taken.

As they made their way through the food court Lincoln looked in sullen fascination over the state of the residents. It seemed as though a number of people had formed their own little communities that they stuck to. Those that weren't huddled around fires or televisions that had been hooked up to whatever syndication Lisa had devised for the devices in the mall either stuck to themselves or were gathered at tables discussing plans or eating. But the prevailing element of it all was the hopelessness. There were no smiles to be had. There wasn't a jovial throng of kids running through the halls of the once lively establishment or cheers coming from some event being held there. Just ominousness. People that he recognized wandered the corridors without arms. Young children walked parentless. It felt like a scene from a dream.

And what of the girl at his side? What was it that she felt? The forever lover of fear, continually enrapturing herself in her stories of terror. Did she allow the sympathy to overpower her lust for the dark? Judging by the way her hand tightened around his when they passed drug store-turned-medical-bay she did. After all she wasn't heartless, no matter how much she may enjoy the thoughts of mortality. The squeeze however brought his eyes to their hands. He was about to pull away, but in the setting they were in it was hard to do so. Did he truly wish to break away from his only true companion in such an alien environment? And would she want that? Of course not. That warmth of support was something that any soul would crave in the situation they were in.

He knew that the environment itself wasn't the issue though. It was them. It was him. That damn hypnotism he'd had done to him the day before. His undying curiosity about what he'd forgotten was what was driving the divide he insisted upon. But it was necessary...for his sake...right? He needed to do what he could block those debarred sensations he'd expressed in his drugged stupor. The more he insisted on the resistance though, the further his inner self fought back. And it was that part of him, that...care, be it for worry for her feelings or for her herself, that kept his hand intertwined in the appropriate support they required in the situation.

"Now don't go getting yourself killed out there! I didn't save ya for nothin'!" Mr. Grouse hollered from the food court, "and be sure you bring your dad back in one piece! I need his recipes!" Some of the group smiled at whatever they assumed Lynn Sr. had said under his breath as they passed into the garage. Once inside Lincoln and Lucy took a step back. They had expected changes sure, but the vehicle that the family congregated over to was a bit of an edit for Vanzilla. Lining the sides of it were rows of bladed spikes with what looked to be launching-devices of some sort along the rear sides of its walls. At the front were lined somewhat sophisticated yet deteriorated guns of varying shapes and sizes. The spiked bumper at the front was browned with the remnants of the bodily fluids that it'd no doubt had washed over it time and again throughout the course of the outbreak.

While the citizens that the mayor had requested to help them buckled into vehicles around them, the Louds that had managed to get seated noticed the two foreign ones still outside, just staring at the van. Smiling, Lana shook her head and leaned out the door.

"It's okay, it's not gonna attack," she assured them, "well...not you guys. Now come on! Let's end this thing already!" Blushing with embarrassment, Lincoln and Lucy skipped over to the vehicle and clamored in. "Yeah, we upped the ante a bit with the ol' girl," Lana explained, "threw in some more cylinders, attached some nitro, modified the steering-"

"-connected a fusion reactor, equipped it with state of the art Mass Drivers, implanted piercing laser-rounds," Lisa added. Lana glared at the competition as the doors to a chamber beyond the normal mall garage opened allowing the vehicles to start passing into a caged perimeter.

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but ya gotta have the basics of motion first," Lana stated as the doors closed behind the van once it'd pulled through. The assistance that the mayor had requested seemed to be staying in front of the Loud, McBride, and Casagrande vehicles probably for defense for when the gates of the cage opened up to let them through, which likely wouldn't be until the snipers above were done dispatching with the undead clusters that were trying to tear their way through the doors of the cage.

"Yesh, but that wouldn't do you much good without the firepower," Lisa grinned hearing a successful shot from one of the snipers, her enhancements of their weaponry proving their worth. The slightly older girl just made noises with her mouth as she opened and closed her hand in mimicry. Lincoln and Lucy smiled from the backseats that they had occupied. It was almost weird to see such teasing from such a severely altered version of the family. In spite of the hell they inhabited however they remained the same siblings at heart. Lincoln looked down to his hand again as the van passed through the gates of the caged section and made its way into the streets with its convoy. It was still hooked around Lucy's.

Was he being silly? Was paranoia simply taking hold? So what if he had spoken of such affection for her so normally. He'd been literally drugged and under the pressure of some warped reality device. It's not like the sisters and brother hadn't expressed love for each other before. And who knows how oddly that combination could affect how someone might act. And yet...still. Lincoln squinted as his eyes trailed up to Lucy's face. Thankfully she hadn't caught his stare, but he looked towards the seat in front of him all the same to keep from arousing suspicion. Whether or not the words had meant anything more than the platonic link they held, all that his worry of them had done was make it harder to do the job he'd agreed to.

So why did he focus on them so? Shifting the corners of his eyes towards her he knew the answer. Whether or not it was a dilemma of morality however, could he really afford its interference? That past week and a half, even with all the troubles and hardships that it had brought...it'd been the closest that he'd ever been to the pale sister, and dare he say the closest anyone had ever been to her. He knew she enjoyed it. He could see that on her face as they strategized against Lola and Lana at the Burpin' Burger. And he would be absolutely dishonest to say that he didn't enjoy the company himself. None of the other family members ever partook in his adventures for as long as she had, nor been as symbiotic in partnership. Sure she had her quirks of morbidity, but as he looked over the chattering passengers of the van he knew that none of them came as close to relating to him as she did. Each of them had their own elements that seemed to override everything else after a while, but her? Her's was isolation. Outcast. Being a misfit. That was something that nobody besides them shared. Was that understanding really something he wanted to chance pushing away?

Lucy looked down at their hands as she felt him give it an unintentional squeeze. Coursing with silent feelings of her own, the more stern figure broke from her thoughts. She was unsure of just how much Lincoln had put together about the world they were in, but she knew the gesture likely hadn't been for simple enjoyment.

"Sigh," Lucy said. If she'd been paying more attention she may have noted the alterness at which Lincoln snapped his head. "So...you know where we are right?" she asked. Lincoln blinked, his mind having completely departed from the world they were now in. As Luna chopped a corpse that'd been hanging on the side of the van with her weaponized music equipment his thoughts were pulled back into the situation.

"Oh um-OH! Right we...well..." Lincoln stammered as he tried to get his mind snapped back into place, "well at first I'd figured this world must have been what ours became from us being sent into the future or something and not being there when the zombies happened." Lola and Luan perked up and looked at each other. It was unusual hearing their brother and sister's voices in the van again after so long, but more interesting were the words they were speaking.

"But..." Lucy murmured motioning for him to continue.

"But...this isn't the future..." Lincoln sighed, "the time period seems to be the same as the one we have back on our world. All we did was just get flung into another universe, not flung through time." Lucy nodded. "So...what then happened to us here? Nobody seems to have the answer to that."

"I think I do," Lucy told him. The eavesdroppers' eyes bulged as their face faces pressed together to try and peer through the crack in the seats behind them.

"You do?" Lincoln asked. Lucy nodded. "...well don't keep me waiting," he requested.

"Sigh, you know that time a while back where we went to the cemetery to try and resurrect the dead?" Lucy asked. Lincoln glared at her.

"No, not in the slightest..." he grumbled as he rubbed his arm, the nip he'd received imprinted very visibly in his mind on the limb he stroked, "And I seem to recall it was YOU that was the one adamant about the ritual..."

"Now let's not go pointing fingers," Lucy mumbled as she rubbed her collar. Neither even noticed the slimy organ that streaked across their window as Lynn disemboweled one of the bodies that had tried to force open the one next to her.

"I actually was thinking about that when Mr. Grouse was driving us to the mall," Lincoln confessed, "But...we stopped that first zombie. There was never an outbreak or anything."

"Not in our world," Lucy said, "but this one has been like this for weeks-"

"Which would line up with when you-"

"-WE-"

"-performed the ritual," Lincoln nodded. Luan and Lola's eyes had somehow grown even wider. "And we never told anybody about that excursion before or after we went...but why'd it go wrong here?"

"I think that might have to do with Lisa," Lucy almost growled as she folded her arms over her chest and pushed herself back into her seat.

"Lisa?" Lincoln questioned.

"Lisa?" Lola and Luan asked each other before looking over their shoulders at the young inventor. She didn't even look at the zombie that gnawed at her window until one of her launching devices on the rear of the vehicle ricocheted a ball into it erupting it into an explosion at whichpoint she smirked.

"You remember how her stupid machine is supposed to find alternate realities as they come into existence or whatever?" Lucy muttered. Though confused as to her accusation, Lincoln nodded. "I think SHE caused this one to break off from the path our's took." Lincoln's eyes went back and forth across their sockets as they searched for some hidden answer.

"...why?"

"Because, lately I've noticed that, SOMEHOW, she has MY spellbook in her room, even though I know exactly where mine is. I had no idea how she'd gotten a copy of it until you locked me out of the bathroom when we got here," Lucy explained, though Lincoln was more perplexed by his role in the story, "I looked for the spellbook that this world should have had in case it might help us get back home but I couldn't find it. It was missing." The dots were slowly starting to connect in the boy's head, but the picture wasn't quite formed.

"Okay, so...to make this universe happen...she would have had to...time travel to a point where she knew that she could find the book at so she could...bring it back to our time period...to use as a...step stool..." Lincoln deduced. Lucy's eyes almost jutted through her hair from how large they'd gotten.

"THAT IS WHY SHE TOOK IT?!" she hissed as she pressed her nose up against his. Lincoln gulped as he tried to inch his head back.

"Sh-she...she just thought it was the right size to...um..." Lincoln stammered. Her teeth almost grinding to the point of shattering, Lucy flopped back into her seat, invisible steam wafting from her head.

"I can't believe that little-"

"But, okay, so...the spellbook is gone. Why would that mean all of this would happen?" Lincoln asked. Though still fuming over the thievery, Lucy lifted a brow at him.

"Don't you remember? I needed that to counteract the resurrection when it went wrong," Lucy reminded. In annoyance he looked to his arm.

"Oh...right..." he grumbled. The memory made the part where he'd been bitten that day itch slightly. "But wait...wouldn't that mean we're screwed then? Don't you need it-"

"Please, Lincoln after that I made sure to memorize the spell. I didn't want you to ever get put into that kind of danger again," Lucy told him. A few moments passed in silence before the two blushed and turned away from each other. "I just don't know how to make it effect the most amount of undead off the top of my head...so I was hoping to...get some help from...us..."

"Wait-what? But if we didn't have the spellbook here wouldn't I have at least-" Lincoln's voice became muffled as his seatmate's hand pressed over his mouth.

"...no need to...alarm anybody right now..." Lucy said quietly, "Let's just focus on getting to me so we can see about getting some help before we try to pull this off."

"But...what if you...are..." Lincoln questioned taking the hand away from his mouth. He didn't finish as he worried the hand might return.

"Lincoln, look who you're talking to," Lucy smiled as she put her hand on her chest, "You think I wouldn't have ways around that?"

"Well, your feats do vary sometimes," he told her. Beneath her hair she rolled her eyes.

"You with me or not?" she asked. Lincoln let his eyes drop to the corner of his lower eyelids but nodded. The eyes jumped as he felt her body hit his in a strong embrace. The lingering sense of uncomfortableness fought only for a moment before Lincoln wrapped his own arm around her neck. The bullet-fire from the surrounding vehicles and creaking of the tires were barely audible to them as the van rolled to a stop. It wasn't until the first row of Louds had gotten out that they realized they had halted.

"Hey lovebirds, look alive," Lana called as she hopped out. Blushing hotly, Lucy and Lincoln broke apart and crawled over the seats in front of them to get out once Lola and Luan had gotten out of their way. Lincoln and Lucy brushed themselves off upon hitting the ground and were surprised to see a metallic wall that had begun to form around the collection of vehicles. It only took about a minute for the perimeter to fully circle the group. Carl stole the last zombie within the circle from Lynn as the ceiling materialized and slid into place in segments above them. The cube of defense started shifting and expanding newly-formed compartments outwards, sometimes forming firing structures along its walls for personnel to occupy. While the Casagrande child and the Loud teenager fought over the remains of the final zombie, most of the others that didn't man the turrets that had formed gathered towards the center of the structure.

Through the rear wall Lincoln and Lucy could see the gates of the graveyard beneath the midday sun. In all it wasn't as bad as anyone had expected. Thanks to the laser-fire from the compartments around the main structure the presence of the undead was unable to be ignored, but not nearly as many of the bodies seemed to be wandering around so deep into the infected-zone as they had expected. They could only see about three of them shuffling amongst the gravestones, though more undoubtedly lay deeper within the cemetery.

"The Zombie-Box should hold out pretty easily if this is the amount we have to deal with around the graveyard itself," Lisa told the others. Already she had begun constructing a series of weapons that she started handing out to the troops. "If we take a small platoon in we may be able to carve out a path through however many are occupying the main-"

"No," Lucy said. Even Lincoln looked at her in surprise. What objection could she have to the otherworldly strategies of a Lisa in such a situation?

"...no?" Lynn Sr., Rita, Lisa, and a few of the other siblings repeated. Lucy nodded her head.

"We don't have all the potential information necessary to reverse the zombification yet," Lucy informed. Dismal shock washed over the team.

"We don't?!" Lynn Jr. yelled, "Then what was the point of dragging us out here!"

"I said POTENTIAL information," Lucy repeated, "we might have what we need, but me Lincoln need to head in there first to see if we have everything right on our end."

"We do?" Lincoln gulped quietly. Lucy squeezed his hand.

"By yourselves?" Lori asked.

"Yeah, at least let us back you up!" Ronnie Anne said as she cocked the gun she'd received.

"No!" Lucy said, almost a bit too quickly, "no...y-you...you'd all just slow us down. I know the place like the wings of a bat and Lincoln's been there more than any of you with the ghost-hunting he's done."

"That should mean I'm qualified too!" Clyde boasted. Lincoln looked to Lucy who shifted her head towards him.

"You...haven't been there as much as me though man," Lincoln said, hoping the excuse was good enough, "you-...you've got no idea how often I've been dragged along to "commune with the spirits" and all that. Besides, you don't want your dads to worry too much do ya?" Clyde glowered at him. He knew when Lincoln was trying to get out of something, but he also knew that Lincoln knew that he couldn't just wander off with his dads' fears in his face.

"And what makes you think we wouldn't worry about you?" Harold asked. Clyde grinned as Lincoln received an annoyed jab from Lucy's elbow.

"Listen, again, all of you would just slow us down. Until we know for sure how to properly progress you all should just stay here. It won't be more than a few minutes. Promise," Lucy told them. The group simmered with protests, but there wasn't much else they could say. The two Louds that had come from another world were the ones that had given them hope, and if this was part of their operation...few found a good enough reason to negate their decision.

"At least take some weapons," Lynn said offering her bat. While Lincoln gladly grabbed the sports-equipment, Lucy declined.

"I have my own preference within the grounds," she told them. Lucy waved to the group and turned with a more unsure Lincoln towards the door that had formed on the back wall.

"Are you sure about this?" he whispered.

"Lincoln, you and Clyde beat the shit out of our dads when you guys thought there was a zombie outbreak in our world," she reminded. Lincoln's mouth shrunk slightly at the embarrassing memory. "Just pretend it's like that," she told him. They stopped walking however as Lisa came into view in front of them and pressed her hand against the door.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked. Lincoln pressed his supporting stare of the intellectual girl against Lucy, but she wouldn't budge.

"We will be fine," she assured her. Lisa kept her hand pressed against the door for a good half a minute as she stared the goth down, the rest of the group waiting in doubtful hopefulness behind them, but Lucy remained set in her path. The scientist could see it wasn't a fight she would win. With a sigh she pulled open the door and let the two through. Lola and Luan gave each other a suspicious look.

-end of segment-