Ah, February is here at last. And of course Valentine's day is fast approaching behind it. So why not begin another episode with a plot to celebrate the occasion. Now, before we start, I want to get a disclaimer out of the way. Despite how this may look at first, this isn't just some scape goat for me to right more ship stuff (I'm doing something like that separately ;) ). There is an bit of a message that I hope to spread by this episode's end.
Now, I'll see you all at the author's note at the end of this chapter.
HIT THE THEME SONG!
Duck and dodge and push and shove
That's the way they show their love
Raining justice from above
Heroes of the Loud House
Sound Barrier!
Rising up against evil, taking villains on
Lori, Leni Luna, Luan, Lynn and Lincoln
Lucy, Lana and Lola, Lisa and Lily
With each other they discover their destiny
And rise!
SOUND IT OFF!
Duck and dodge and push and shove
That's the way they show their love
Raining justice from above
Heroes of the Loud House
Sound Barrier!
Growing up in Royal Woods, Michigan, a quiet town
They uncover all the power that's been hiding all around
The city needs heroes when there's trouble on the prowl
One brother and ten sisters rise to take the villains out!
Duck and dodge and push and shove
That's the way they show their love
Raining justice from above
Heroes of the Loud House
Sound Barrier!
With Mom and Dad to guide them, together they find their fate
With each adventure, yeah, they've gone from green to great
No matter what the problem, their choice will be the same
They'll stay a family and put the bad guys to shame
Royal Woods' Loud kids throwing down!
Duck and dodge and push and shove
That's the way they show their love
Raining justice from above
Heroes of the Loud House
Sound Barrier!
Episode 10: The ultimate power.
[PART 1]
Leni was roused from her slumber not from her alarm clock, but rather from something else. She felt a bizarre feeling of happiness and bliss from all angles. Her eyes fluttered open and she let out a long yawn. As Leni sat up, she saw Lori laying on her bed, belly down and still in her pajamas, texting away on her phone with a large smile on her face. "Morning, sis." Leni greeted as she got out of bed and walked over to the closet, looking for an outfit to wear. Leni received no response from her sister, who didn't even look up from her phone. "Lori, I said good morning." Lori still didn't acknowledge her.
Leni tilted her head to the side. "Lori, can you hear me?" The ditzy blonde gasped in horror. "Oh no. Have you gone deaf? Am I mute!?" Leni panicked and grabbed her sister by the shoulders. "Lori, please tell me if you can hear my voice!" She commanded. As Lori was shook around sporadically, Leni finally got her attention.
"Huh? Oh, hey Leni. When did you wake up?" She asked completely clueless.
"Forget that. Like, why didn't you answer me?" Leni asked.
"Oh, I was literally texting Bobby. My sweet Boo Boo Bear was showing me an Ice sculpture he made me." Lori showed Leni her phone and the picture on the screen showed an ice sculpture of Lori. "Isn't it beautiful? Ah, Bobby is so romantic." Lori swooned. Her phone began to play a little ringtone and Bobby showed up on the caller ID. Lori let out a high pitched squeal and answered it immediately. "Hi, Boo Boo Bear! Yes, I did see it." As their conversation began to pick up, Lori once again began to forget Leni was standing next to her.
"Uh, okay." Leni backed away and grabbed one of her dresses from the closet. "I'm just going to go take a shower." Leni stated as she walked out of the room.
…
A few minutes later, Leni had finished her shower and gotten dressed. "Ah, much better. Now I just need to fix my hair." Leni thought out loud as she grabbed a hair brush. "I mean, it doesn't look broken. But better safe than sorry." She reasoned. Leni had only gotten a few strokes with her brush in before there was a loud pounding on the bathroom door. Leni flinched as it was accompanied by an immense sense of panic. "Uh, just a second." Leni pleaded. Unfortunately, her request fell on deaf ears as the door was busted open by Luna with a shoulder tackle.
"No time, dude. I invited Sam over for a jam session and I need to look my best." The young rocker exclaimed.
"Can I just finish my hair first?"
"Sorry, but I am in a big time rush!" Luna quickly dismissed as she grabbed Leni by the arms and practically flung her out of the bathroom. The door slammed shut and nearly flung Leni off her balance. The ditzy blonde struggled to readjust herself and pressed her hair back down into place.
"Yeesh, no need to be rude." Leni complained. As she dusted herself off, the lights in the house began to flicker and turn on and off. The disturbance was accompanied by the sound of arguing from the twins' room. "Oh no." Leni muttered as she saw the door giving off a frightening electrical charge. Taking a deep breath, Leni walked over and opened the door with her powers to avoid getting shocked from the electricity. Just as she was expecting, she saw Lana and Lola in a heated argument with lightning flowing all around them. Their hair was standing on end from the static in the air.
"Why can't you just knock it off and mind your own business?"
"Me? You're the one who needs to keep your thoughts to yourself!"
"Oh, you always use that one! Honestly, can you think of anything original?"
"That's it!" The twins soon started throwing physical strikes and created a cloud of dust as they began fighting. Leni narrowed her eyes and raised her hands upward as she tried grabbing the two with her telekinesis. Leni then separated them and lifted them both off the ground.
"Hey, stop fighting!" She commanded as they struggled to reach each other and hovered in mid air. "Like, what is the problem?" She asked. Lola scoffed and pointed at Lana.
"The problem is that Lola keeps thinking about this dirty boy and rolling around in some slimy mud pit with him." She explained. Lana growled and point back at her twin.
"Like you're one to talk. You keep fantasizing about some spoiled rich kid. Someone with teeth that white is not normal." Lana remarked, earning a growl from Lola.
"Those flawless teeth are par of what makes him so dreamy!" She countered as she tried to reach over and strangle her twin. Leni shook her head in disappointment.
"Why are you making such a big deal about this? Who care if your thoughts get a little mixed up from time to time, just focus on your own crushes." Leni said as she set them down. Lola rolled her eyes and looked in the opposite direction.
"Easy for you to say. Your thoughts are always mixed up."
"Exactly." Leni stated cheerfully before the insult started to sink in. "Hey, wait." Leni was about to continue when she was distracted by the sound of laughter. Lola jumped and put a hand up to Leni's mouth.
"Wait, that sounds like Lincoln and Ronnie Anne." Lola gasped in delight. Leni and Lana's faces lit up as they followed Lola into the hallway and pressed their ears up to their brother's bedroom door.
"Do you think they're doing another vlog? Or doing something else?" Lana asked.
"We won't know unless you shut up!" Lola shushed as the girls became silent and listened closer. From beyond the door, they could hear Lincoln speaking.
"So Bobby did alright on that test?"
"Yeah, though it took a while to make the replica of the Mercado counter." Ronnie Anne replied as she finished her story. Lincoln let out a small sigh.
"That's what I love most about you. Despite your strength, you're also very sweet."
"Aww, you're pretty kind yourself, my Lucky Lincoln." She cooed. "I wish I could come over, but with Bobby running the Mercado and everyone else older than me having plans, someone has to watch my younger cousins."
"It's okay, we can still talk to each other." There was a slight pause before Lincoln spoke again. "Cualqier momento que estemos juntos es el cielo." The romantic quote was met with Ronnie Anne letting out a long sigh. The three eavesdropping sisters pulled away from the door, completely awestruck. Lana was the first to speak.
"What did Lincoln say?"
"I don't know exactly, but it sounded super romantic." Leni added with a giddy smile. Lola soon began bouncing up and down in excitement.
"Yeah, not to mention they were very- WAIT!" Lola suddenly stopped bouncing and her enthusiasm was replaced with skepticism. "Something is wrong here. Lincoln and Ronnie Anne have never done this when we spied on them before. Not to mention they hate all that mushy gushy stuff that Lori does with Bobby." Lola recalled. The other two sisters gave the point some thought to Lola's point, Lana being the first to chime in.
"Now that you mention. They never go farther than an 'I love you', a hug, or a kiss. Not to mention that nickname came out of nowhere." Lana agreed. "They must be messing with us." She reasoned. Leni bit her lip and glanced to the side.
"I don't know. Linky sounded pretty serious back there. And I felt this powerful emotion from him when he was talking to Ronnie Anne." Leni poked her chin and started to think for a moment. "Actually, I've been feeling that same thing all day. Not to mention Lori and Luna were acting, like, really weird. Almost like they were under some kind of shell." She recalled.
"Spell, Leni. You're thinking of spell." Lola corrected. "Plus, I think you're overreacting a bit. It may be a little out of the norm, but it's not anything we have to panic about." She reassured in an effort to remain calm. Just then, everyone heard their watches beeping frantically. The screens flashing red, signaling an emergency.
"Should we panic about that?" Leni asked. Lana tapped on the screen of her watch and let out a sigh of relief.
"Nah, just a bank robbery." She remarked in a tone that sounded a little bored. "Still, we should probably go see if we can help out." The child reasoned. Lola and Leni nodded in agreement as they walked back into the twins' room. Lana began to follow them, but stopped when she saw Lynn start to walk down the stairs. "Hey Lynn, me, Lola, and Leni are going to stop a bank robbery. Want to come?" She asked. Lynn shook her head in response.
"Eh, going to have to pass. There was this cute boy I met on another softball team, and I was hoping I could go meet up with him in the park." The young jock answered. Lana blinked in astonishment.
"Oh. Uh. Okay, have fun I guess." Lana answered before going into her bedroom and closing the door behind her. As she approached her twin and older sister, she couldn't help but find Lynn's behavior a little unusual. Nevertheless, she shoved it out of her mind and walked over to her bed. Reaching behind it, she hit a secret switch on the wall and made the floor open a hidden trap door. The three girls activated their watches and turned into their hero personas as they jumped in and went down a slide.
As they rocketed down the chute, Elexa looked over at some other nearby slides. All of them were empty. "Hey, are we the only ones going down into the lair?" She asked out loud. Empathy thought about the observation and began tapping away at her watch, trying to contact their family. Unfortunately, she got no answer from any of their siblings. She shook her head solemnly as they reached the bottom of the slide. Protona and Elexa landed on their feet, but Empathy wiped out on her belly.
"Fine. They can blow us off if they really want to." Protona pouted as she walked over to The Sonic Vroom. "The three of us can handle a simple bank robber." She proclaimed. Elexa and Empathy simply nodded as they ran inside the vehicle as well. Empathy hopped into the driver's seat and the twins sat in the row of seats behind her. Empathy narrowed her eyes and started the engine.
As the car roared to life, Empathy gripped the wheel and looked ahead with determination blazing in her eyes. "Girls, I only have one thing to say." Empathy paused as the twins gave their older sister their attention.
"I just remembered I can't drive." Empathy confessed in an upbeat tone. The twins paused before both of them did a face-palm.
"Are you serious? How are we going to get to the bank then?" They jinxed before crossing their arms in irritation. Elexa soon broke out of their unison when a thought dawned on her.
"Oh, wait. I just remembered something." The child then climbed forward and pressed a button on the car's dashboard. A small screen then rose up from the floor, and displayed a map of Royal Woods. "Lisa and I put in an auto-pilot with GPS a while back. You don't even have to touch the steering wheel." Elexa bragged as she tapped away at the screen. "Just gotta select the bank as the place to go, and we're all set." With one final push of a button, the car started to move forward through a series of underground tunnels. "Pretty cool, huh?" Elexa asked.
"This is totes amazing, Elexa." Empathy congratulated with awe in her voice. Elexa reclined in her seat proudly.
"Eh, like I said, Lisa helped out with the computer stuff. I just made sure all the parts were working right." She admitted. Elexa then paused and gripped her head, groaning in disgust. "Will you please stop with your stupid prince charming fantasies? They're making me sick!" She shouted in anger as she turned to Protona. Her twin shook her head and stuttered.
"Well you're one to talk. Daydreaming about that you and that little mud ball doing oil changes together. Honestly, it's all giving me a migraine." Protona retorted.
"Make-up obsessed clown!"
"Class-less mud jumper!" As the twins flung insults at each other and The Sonic Vroom emerged from he tunnels, Empathy grew nervous and turned around towards the backseat. Empathy grabbed both girls and fastened them in tightly with the seatbelts of the car. "HEY!" They both jinxed.
"This is no time to be fighting each other, you two." Empathy chastised. "If you argue like this during a fight, the bad guys could hurt you. You need to put all your problems aside and focus. Otherwise, you could get hit out of nowhere." The older sister warned.
Then, out of nowhere, The Sonic Vroom came to a sudden halt. The loss of momentum caused Empathy to fly forward and have her face smooshed against the windshield. "Are you okay?" the twins asked as Empathy pried her face off the window.
"Yeah. I think so." She reassured. Empathy's face brightened up as she saw why the car stopped. "Oh good, we're here!" She celebrated. As Empathy recovered and got out of the car, Protona noticed something strange.
"Uh, where are the police?" She asked as she brought the absence of police cruisers to their attention. Elexa shrugged.
"Maybe we just got here first?"
"You know what? It doesn't matter." Protona dismissed as she went up to the bank's front door. "Let's show this creep what happens when they mess with our home." She cheered as she kicked the door open and did a stylish pose. "Fear not everyone, the heroes are here to save the day!" She exclaimed. Her dramatic entrance unfortunately fell on deaf ears as she heard no response from anyone. Her demeanor quickly went sour from the lack of attention. "Uh, excuse me. Super hero here to defeat the bad guy! Why is no one listening?" Protona complained. Emapthy and Elexa caught up to their sister and were perplexed with what they were greeted with.
"Like, maybe their too focused on each other?" Empathy suggested as she pointed forward towards the crowd of civilians in the main lobby. Every one of them was together in a pair, and each pair seemed to have their attention fixated on each other with goofy smiles on their faces. Curiosity grew as Empathy approached a security guard that was talking to a woman who seemed to be laughing over something he said. "Excuse me, is something wrong?" Empathy asked as she tapped on the guard's shoulder. The large man glanced behind him, catching Empathy in the corner of his eye.
"Huh? Oh, nothing is wrong. Unless you count this lovely young woman being the most beautiful thing in the world as a problem." He responded in reference to the woman, who smiled and blushed from the compliment. Empathy turned to the twins and gave them a confused shrug.
"Well, I guess if nothing is wrong, we should just head home." She reasoned. The three heroes turned back towards the door and began to walk out, but Elexa stopped in her tracks as something caught her attention.
"Wait. Do you here that? It sounds like whistling." She noted. The others looked back towards the opposite end of the building as the whistling grew louder and a large, feminine shadow grew from around a corner. Eventually, a mysterious woman emerged carrying a brown bag full of money. Her outfit was a white one-piece with red markings on the legs and arms. She also had a large red heart on her chest, and a red masquerade mask. Her hair was a shinning, golden blonde. And her lips flared with a deep crimson.
But what really caught their attention was that the woman was bare foot, and her feat were exposed with a bright pink toenail polish. She looked at the three heroes and stopped whistling. "Strange, I wasn't expecting to see any of you here." She mused. Protona stepped forward and sent a cold glare the criminal's way.
"Okay mam, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." She threatened as she raised an arm up and made a fist that was crackling with electricity. Elexa joined her sister and struck a battle pose of her own as lightning crackled between the both of them. Empathy grew nervous as none of the civilians seemed to show fear over the super villainess staring them down.
"Everyone, you need to leave. You could get seriously hurt."
"They don't care, my dear. Every single one of them have better things to care about." The woman countered. The heroes didn't know much about the woman, but they were smart enough to piece together that she was responsible for the strange behavior of the citizens.
"What did you do?"
"Who are you?" The twins asked rapidly. The woman chuckled a bit before answering.
"I am Kiss, The Queen of Hearts." She put her hand to her chest and pink mist began to generate from it. "As for what I did, allow me to show you!" In an instant, Kiss thrust her hand forward and a pink cloud surrounded the girls. All three of them began coughing and sneezing from it as Kiss began running past them. "I hope you enjoy my little present. Have a nice day." Kiss teased as she ran out the front door with the bag still in her grip. However, she felt a powerful, burning sensation surge across her back. Turning her head back around, she saw the heroes looking at her, with Protona and Elexa having their arms raised upward with electricity crackling around their fingers. "What? How?" She managed to get out as the twins fired another bolt of lighting at Kiss.
"It's going to take more than pink smoke and a headache to beat us!" Elexa bragged as she and her twin shot more electricity at Kiss. The mysterious woman quickly tossed up more mist, which took the shape of a heart and solidified into a shield, blocking the lightning before breaking apart into little pieces. Kiss then began to run away again, but she felt herself stopped in place as Empathy caught her with her telekinesis. Kiss groaned while being dragged across the ground towards the heroes.
"No. I can't lose. I have to keep going." As Kiss monologue, she was soon surrounded by the same pink mist. "For my beloved, I will not fall, I will… not… FALL!" In an instant, the pink gas around her surged forward in a cyclone and ignited into a wave of fire. Empathy screamed as she quickly released her hold on Kiss and redirected the flames upward. The heat of the literal fire wall forced the twins to back away. Slowly, the fire died down and left behind a thick cloud of ash.
"Are you okay?" Empathy asked.
"Yeah, we're fine." Protona admitted bitterly. The ash faded and revealed that Kiss had escaped. "She got away."
"And with the money." Elexa added before sneezing. "Ugh, my head. What was that stuff she was spraying us with?" She asked while rubbing her forehead. Leni couldn't help but look back at the bank, seeing a couple hugging in the doorway.
"Let's just go home and figure out how to find her again." She suggested. The twins both groaned and followed Empathy back to The Sonic Vroom, but as they walked, a question lingered in the back of Empathy's mind.
'Why didn't anyone care about Kiss robbing the bank?'
Phew, good thing I got this started in February. I definitely didn't want this to be so late beyond the deadline.
So, The Sound Barrier has met one of their new enemies today. Kiss! I bet you're wondering why I chose to have a villain like her and her partner from the prologue rather than someone who hates love for a Valentine's Day theme. Well, I was looking at the "Power of Love" trope in media, and I asked myself. "How come the good guys are the only ones allowed to use it?" One thing led to another and boom: The King and Queen of Hearts were born!
But what is the secret to their power? And how can The Sound Barrier possibly combat it? Find out next time!