Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

A collection of Loud House one-shots

Getting ready for the adventure to come, part one (Plot: Lincoln says good-bye to someone who he had come to regard as one of his closest friends. Meanwhile, Lori and her own close friend Carol, who are both nearing graduating from high school, are prepping to see one last hurrah.)

Lincoln Loud, with a resigned, somber look on his face, watched as the moving truck pulled out of the driveway. The sole Loud boy was not alone, either; standing with him were his friends Clyde, Liam, Rusty and Zach, and behind the boys were Lincoln's (more than a) friend Ronnie Anne and Astrid. The combined seven of those fifth graders came here to wave good-bye to a boy who all of them had come to see as one of the greatest persons to ever live in Royal Woods.

Chandler McCann.

…Don't get me wrong, Chandler is known to have had a bit of a checkered past. But he had long ago come to a sort of understanding with Lincoln and others in the white-haired boy's clique. Not only that, but Chandler, partly inspired by his efforts to secure the affections of Astrid, had tried to honestly become a better person overall. And proved himself he had, as Chandler stood by the side of his friends, by the side of those who were trying to save things from going all to hell. Things may not have gone as they had if it weren't for Chandler.

Sadly, this as a result saw Chandler and his mother, who had just officially divorced from Chandler's father, moving out of Royal Woods, and right out of Michigan as a whole. From what Lincoln got on the matter, Chandler and his mom were moving right to Rhode Island, where some relatives of Chandler's mom lived; they will help the woman and her sole child settle in until they can manage on their own.

Soon enough, the moving van was out of sight. Luckily for Lincoln, he, as well as both Clyde and Astrid, were supplied Chandler's phone number (naturally the red-haired boy would give his number to the girl he was crushing on; Astrid was the first he gave his number to), which they all added to the contacts on their respective phones so that they could text him. That way, some of the kids still in Royal Woods would still be able to keep in contact with the boy who, had he not been there to help, things might not have gone well.

After the moving van that carried Chandler, his mom and all of their stuff was out of sight, Lincoln and the others all turned to face one another. The white-haired boy gave a resigned sigh as he looked down at the grass of what had once been the McCann family lawn, before the moving of Chandler and his mom plus the arrest of Chandler's father, which had played a very big role in all of the wrongness that had almost happened.

"I still can't believe that Chandler is being screwed over for something that he had no part in," Lincoln remarked sadly, "That he has to go away."

Clyde gently shook his head, at a loss on what to do. "Well given what his dad had been up to, it's understandable why Chandler and his mom had to cut him out, see him get arrested, and then they themselves had to move away to escape stigma. However, there's one thing that can be said about Chandler that no one can deny, especially if they knew what all Chandler had helped us all out with a few days ago."

"Chandler is a hero."

The other kids all turned to face Ronnie Anne, as she had been the one to speak up just now. Letting out a mildly irritated groan, the Hispanic tomboy remarked, "I never thought that I would say something like that about the doofus, but given what he had help everyone with, there's not anything I can call him other than a hero."

Lincoln nodded in agreement with his (more than a) friend, as did everyone else who was standing there on what had used to be the McCann family's front yard, instead now it was just the front yard of a house that was totally and utterly empty and unoccupied. It still felt rather on the surreal side of things, knowing that Chandler had moved away. Lincoln knew that it would be something that would take more people than just him to get used to.

Ronnie Anne then let out a resigned sigh as she gently shook her head. "Chandler even helped out with tracking down those crazy murderer guys that were after that one teenage girl whose class from some Japanese high school was here on their international field trip. He and I even tag-teamed one of the killers and helped to keep them from succeeding."

"Well at least some of have his number so we can keep in contact with him," Astrid pointed out, "We can still talk to him, even though he'll practically be a world away." Ronnie Anne and the boys all nodded in agreement with the white-haired girl as they all proceeded to leave the now-unoccupied home's front yard. They had no purpose being there, nor did they have any reason to linger on there.

On memories long past.

"EEEEEEEEEEEE!" Lori squealed excitedly as she and Carol Pingrey, one of her closest friends, were talking to Bobby Santiago, Lori's boyfriend, about something of a rather serious nature as the three of them sat at an outdoor table at a café in the city area of Royal Woods. The oldest Loud sibling excitedly shook her fists as she held her arms closely to her body, right before she threw her arms forward towards Bobby and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, giving him a loving, appreciative squeeze of a hug.

Carol, as she self-amusedly rolled her eyes at the sight of her friend being loving with her boyfriend, chuckled a bit before focusing on Bobby. "You honestly can't blame Lori for being so happy, Bobby. Having you on the team will be an invaluable boon to Royal Woods High's efforts to win the event that we're traveling to Japan for."

"Well hey, you were able to clear it with Principal Butterbean to let Lori come along on the trip as well," Bobby replied, "I can't think of a better way for Lori and me to end our time in high school than to go on an international trip a bit before graduation." A hint of worry crossed the Hispanic young adult's face as he added, "Oh, you said that expenses will be covered, right?"

Nodding assuredly, Carol said, "Rest assured that the only thing you will have to worry about when it comes to paying will be souvenirs. Things such as food and boarding will be covered by the budget that had been shored up."

Bobby nodded a few times in confirmation, trying to commit what Carol was telling him to memory. Leaning forward to face Lori and Carol closer, Bobby asked, "So girls, who all had been gathered for the team aside from Carol and myself?"

Lori, as she counted off on her fingers, replied, "We literally got Leni's friend Fiona, your cousin Carlota, me and Carol's friend Trixie, surprisingly I was able to get my sister Luna to agree, and after Luna agreed to it her girlfriend Sam agreed to pitch in as well." Lowering her hands to rest them on the table, Lori said, "That means we only have seven so far. Principal Butterbean says the team needs ten people, so we're going to have to rustle up three more people to put in."

"Oh, dude!" Bobby exclaimed as he clapped his hands and then pointed to Lori, "You should totally try to convince Allison to join! Given what the team is being thrown together for, I have no doubt that Allison would be more than eager to join the team!"

Lori and Carol both had looks of surprise on their respective faces as they turned to look at one another. The two blonde girls both exchanged curious looks before they turned back to face the Hispanic young adult. "We…never thought about asking Allison," Lori admitted, "I mean, Carol and I literally never thought that she'd be interest in going on a trip that would take her over to Japan, despite how she's half-Japanese."

"Then again, it's not the half of her heritage that she's into," Carol added, a hint of knowing dryness in her tone.

With an assured nod, Bobby remarked, "Just tell Allison what all the event will be about, and what all she'll be asked to do. Believe you me, if what my bud Aggro tells me about that twin sister of his is true, then Allison will literally beg to join the team."

Carol, with a bit of an amused smirk, turned to face Lori. "Well look at that, Lori. Your boyfriend has you beat in the sense that, unlike you, he knows how to use the word 'literally' in a sentence." Lori, understanding the joke, gave a laugh as she playfully punched Carol in the side of her left arm. After the girls were done, Carol turned her attention back to Bobby. "So Bobby, do Lori and I have your assurances that you'll be willing to join the team?"

Bobby picked up his cup of coffee he got at the café, held it to the girls as if he was toasting them. "Yeah, Carol. You and Lori can go ahead and put me on the list." The two blonde girls were more than happy to write Bobby's name down on a list that, above his name, already had the names of Carol herself, then following that the names of Luna, Sam, Carlota, Fiona and Trixie. Carol also added Allison's name under Bobby's, but added a question mark after it.

The girls needed to see if the female Ace twin would, as Bobby was predicting, be willing to join the team that they were trying to throw together for something that their high school was getting ready to do.

Later that day, after Lincoln and his friends had seen Chandler off, the boys went to Gus's to hang out for a bit, play some of the arcade games as they relaxed, while Ronnie Anne saw to getting Astrid home. Lincoln and Zach were casually hanging near an arcade game that Rusty was trying to get the high score on. "Come on, come on…" Rusty begged under his breath as he mashed away at the buttons.

A buzzer that indicated a game over sounded, making the red-haired boy cry out in annoyed frustration. "Dang it!" Rusty complained, "I couldn't even make it onto the scoreboard! This is the hardest game in the arcade! It has to be!"

Lincoln, as he cracked his neck a bit, handed his drink over to Rusty. "Hold my root beer," the sole Loud boy said while handing over his root beer, "Ima give this game a go." After Rusty backed up and Lincoln put some quarters into the arcade game, he proceeded to play the game, going with the flow as if he were some pro. Lincoln ended up playing that one go a lot longer than Rusty had played his; by the time Lincoln got a game over, he not only got his score onto the scoreboard for the game, but he got into the top ten.

Turning to look at Rusty, Zach said, "Well now Rusty, it looks like Lincoln had just proved you wrong on this game's difficulty." Rusty was a bit annoyed with the looks Lincoln and Zach were giving him, which he knew translated to 'get good, scrub'. As Rusty wallowed in his total and utter humiliation, Clyde and Liam came walking over, to see what the other guys were up to as they were at the skeeball games.

"So how did it go?" Clyde asked.

"I was reminded how I'm a scrub," Rusty replied, equal parts sad and bitter.

Patting Rusty on his shoulder, Clyde said, "Oh come on now, dude. I'm sure it can't be that bad. You're probably just having a bad day is all." As the five boys were talking, they were surprised when they heard a familiar younger male voice. Turning around, they saw that they were being approached by Rocky, the younger brother of Rusty. The younger Spokes boy was accompanied by Lucy, Lincoln's younger sister who is in t he same grade as Rocky.

When the two third graders came over, Rocky looked up at his older brother. "I assume judging by the look on your face that your were just reminded by your friends that you aren't as good as they are at the arcade." The dry tone, combined with dry expression, of Rocky helped to hammer in to Rusty just how inadequate he's been as of late.

"Rocky, with all due respect to your older brother," Lucy began when she turned to face him, "My younger sister is more accomplished than him."

The younger Spokes boy, arching a confused eyebrow when he turned to face Lucy, replied, "Which one? You have four."

"Yes." After the gothic Loud sister gave her replied, she pulled a honey bun snack cake out of the bag she had on, unwrapped the snack, then proceeded to eat it.

As Lucy ate her treat, Lincoln said, "Lucy, I'm pretty sure that you and Rocky didn't come here just to bust Rusty's chops. Is there something that either of you two need?"

Holding up his hand a bit, Rocky said, "Actually, my mom sent me to find Rusty since he must have turned his phone off." Turing to look at his older brother, Rocky said, "Mom wants you to one, turn your phone back on, and two, come home. She's getting dinner ready."

"Well alright, I'll come home now," Rusty replied, "But I don't know what mom means when she claims I turned my phone off." Reaching into one of his front pockets on his pants, Rusty went on, "After all, I never turn my phone off unless I-" Rusty suddenly had a horrified look on his face as he continued to feel around in a pocket that was not supposed to be empty but it was. "…My phone's not on me."

As Rocky and Lucy, plus the boys aside from Lincoln, all proceeded to chuckle a bit at Rusty's expense, Lincoln felt his phone go off. Reaching into his pocket, the sole Loud boy pulled his phone out, and saw that he was getting a call from Chandler. "Hey Chandler, what's up?" the white-haired boy asked.

"Lincoln, dude," Chandler began in a mildly curious and confused tone, "My mom and I just stopped at a motel in Cleveland to rest for the night before we continue, and mom opened the back of the moving van to check to see what had been making some sort of ringing noise all the while as we were driving along on our way to Rhode Island. You aren't going to believe this, but Rusty, when he was helping with loading stuff into the moving van, had left his phone in the moving van by mistake."

Lincoln hummed along in acknowledgement and in a casual tone. "Well since you don't have his address but you do have mine, just mail it to me and I'll get it to him." After Lincoln had worked out the details of the plan with Chandler, they said good-bye before they both ended the call. The sole Loud boy turned to face Rusty. "I got good news and bad news for you, Rusty. Good news is that your phone's been found."

Pumping a fist into the air, Rusty exclaimed, "Well alright! Now mom won't bust my cho-"

"Bad news is that Chandler is the one who found it."

Rusty was too defeated at that point to even continued, so he slunk away with Rocky, going back home to await whatever punishment that the Spokes matriarch would give him. After the two Spokes boys left, Lincoln turned to look at Lucy, who had just finished eating the honey bun she got out. Lincoln then watched as Lucy pulled a single, but fairly big, wrapped cookie out of her bag before unwrapping it and eating it.

Arching a curious eyebrow, Lincoln pointed to Lucy and said, "Uhh, you might spoil your appetite if you eat a lot of snacks before dinner, Lucy."

"I doubt it," Lucy replied dryly, "Me and Rocky got this new teacher in our class who is incredibly shallow, as she's trying to force all sorts of weird rules to make everyone in class look visually appealing and meet her standards." Gesturing to her cookie, the gothic Loud sister explained, "To protest my new teacher, I'm deliberately gaining weight, as the new teacher says that excess weight is the height of being ugly."

This time, Lincoln arched an eyebrow out of surprised confusion. "Seriously?"

"I figure that reaching double the weight that I am at the moment will be sufficient," Lucy replied, "Other kids in my class are deliberately going against many of out new teacher's very shallow and various standards, such as wearing certain styles and using certain products, but I'm the only one who's protesting by gaining weight. I told Lisa about what all everyone in my class is doing, and she says she wants to do a case study on all that we're doing."

Lincoln could not help but shake his head internally at the state of chaos that the third grade year over at Royal Woods Elementary is in, especially since said chaos had also gotten one of his little sisters caught up in it. Two of them, if you count Lisa wanting to do that case study on what all Lucy and her classmates are doing to protest their incredibly shallow new teacher.

Later after he and everyone else had left Gus's, Lincoln was able to meet up with Ronnie Anne at the park. The two of them sat on a bench, and Ronnie Anne respectably kept quiet as Lincoln went on about what all he had experienced since he and the boys broke away from her and Astrid earlier. The purple pain burst out laughing when Lincoln told her where Rusty's missing phone had been found, requiring Lincoln to stop talking until his (more than a) friend had settled down.

"Rusty's phone is over in flippin' Ohio right now?!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed during a moment in which she had caught some of her breath.

In Ronnie Anne's defense, Lincoln could see why Rusty's phone being in the moving truck that Chandler and his mom were taking with them to Rhode Island would be so funny. Worse yet, at least for Rusty, he would have to wait until Chandler got to Rhode Island before his phone could be mailed to Lincoln who, after he got it, would bring it to Rusty. Ronnie Anne could not believe how utterly ridiculous some of her (more than a) friend's other friends can be.

In Ronnie Anne's defense, Lincoln can't believe how utterly ridiculous they can be either.

Even so, not all of the white-haired boy's friends are ridiculous. There is, of course, Clyde, who Lincoln had been thick as thieves with for the longest time. Zach was also a level-headed guy who Lincoln could count on, and Liam was also not anywhere near as prone to truly cataclysmic levels of sheer misfortune as Rusty. And the level of dependability that Chandler had displayed cannot be argued by anyone.

Indeed, Lincoln was lucky that he had so many friends that he could count on. Chandler even more so, which is all the more reason why Lincoln had wished that his red-haired friend, who had once been an enemy, did not have to move. He had proven himself as good, had proven that he was not, nor would he become, who/what his father was. It was nothing short of injustice that Chandler was, in a way, paying for a crime that he had no part in at all.

Seeing that Lincoln now wore a somber look on his face, Ronnie Anne tried to cheer him up. "Hey, you're still bummed about Chandler having to move, right?" After Lincoln turned to face her after she had spoken up, Ronnie Anne went on, "But it's not a permanent good bye. Hell, I bet he can do computer video chats with you and the others, much like how you and I did those back when me, Bobby and our mom still lived in Great Lakes City before we all moved back here to Royal Woods."

The white-haired boy considered the idea, figuring that they would be able to work it out so that he and Chandler could do video chats. Heck, the idea of chatting over videos on the computer gave Lincoln the idea of video conversations that superheroes do when they're miles away from one another, or if a police commissioner is video phoning in for help.

The idea was appealing to Lincoln.

"You girls want me to do what now?" Lori and Carol had met up with their friend Allison Ace over at the local dog park, where the female Ace twin was walking Fenrir, her Tibetan Mastiff. Allison arched a curious but wary eyebrow at Lori and Carol were explaining themselves to her. When Carol had mentioned that the trip that she and Lori were talking about would see the lot of them go to Japan, Allison held a hand up to cut the former homecoming queen off.

Lowering the hand she had raised, Allison gave Carol and Lori a serious look. "Even though I do claim half of my blood from the homeland that my late father's side of our clan comes from, tis not the half that I align with. Apologies girls, but I do not have any interest in visiting Japan."

"Oh come on, Allison," Lori said, "The team literally needs you!"

The female Ace twin shrugged her shoulders indifferently in response. "Apologies again, but I have no desire to cross the vast ocean just to be part of some golf team that Carol and you are throwing together for the school's golf club so we can take part in some tournament over on the other side of Midgard. Besides, who else shall be here to keep an eye on my kin if I take such a leave of absence? I would figure that-"

"It's not a team for a golf tournament."

Allison stopped short in the middle of what she was saying when Carol spoke up. The former homecoming queen gave off something of a pleading look as she and Lori looked to her. "And it's not so much you as Allison that the team needs. The team that Principal Butterbean and I are trying to throw together needs Asgardian."

All apprehension in Allison's expression was washed away when Carol referred to her by another name that she went by. The female Ace twin, her interest now captured by what Carol and Lori were getting at, wore a look of intrigued amusement on her face. If a passerby didn't know any better, then they would have sworn that they saw a small trail of golden electricity run across the right side of Allison's face, horizontally a few centimeters under her right eye.

There was a smirking look of hunger on Allison's face, a hunger that was not the kind that could be solved with food. "…So, that's what it is then, huh? Heh, well why didn't you girls say so in the first place." Allison straightened her back a bit as she went to her full height, giving off more of that Viking warrior vibe that she's been known for ever since she first came to Royal Woods so many years ago.

"All I need now is to know what is needed of me in order to take part in the battle that I'm being offered."

END

Author's notes;

…It's been a while since I had updated anything Loud House, huh?

This is the first of three chapters for this story (chapters eighteen and nineteen will be the other two) that will see a background event where Lori and Carol are gathering the last few people for a team that they're trying to throw together for something for Royal Woods High, as a last hurrah before they graduate. As of the end of this chapter, the recruiting of Allison brought the team for RWHS up to eight members, with Lori and Principal Butterbean not counting. The other two will be recruit over the course of the next two chapters, but after that is taken care of, the good people of Royal Woods will take their first steps onto the international stage.