The next few days passed as a blur to Lincoln. The police had questioned each of the Loud children individually, trying to get each piece of the story. As if there were multiple pieces, Lincoln thought; it was just a stupid explosion caused by Lisa finally flying too close to the sun, getting her whole family burned as a result.

Look at a rock from a thousand different angles; it's still just a rock. He knew they were only doing their job, but that didn't make it any less annoying.

With the house ruined, the Lincoln had been worried they'd be out the streets. Royal Woods was a small suburban community with virtually no crime or homelessness, making their situation even more humiliating. Fortunately, Royal Woods had a local chapter of the Salvation Army, which had quickly stepped in to offer temporary shelter at some of their transitional housing.

On top of that, once news of the incident had spread across town, calls of support and well wishes had flooded the Army's inbox. Donations, both monetary and material, had followed close behind. Lincoln had smiled so hard it hurt when the latest issue of Ace Savvy arrived in the house's mailbox, with a note attached.

The news said you're a big Ace Savvy fan. Me too! I bought this issue a couple days ago, but God knows you need it more than I do. Hang in there, and stay strong!

Sincerely, Kevin

Lincoln would reverse his family's situation in a heartbeat if he could, but watching an entire community come together to help fellow citizens in need was an extraordinary experience, and it genuinely warmed his heart.

Nevertheless, whatever feelings of gratitude and humility Lincoln felt, the fact remained that his family's house had, you know, exploded. The total damage estimate ended up being somewhere between 65,000$ and 100,000$. Lincoln's parents had practically fainted when they heard it.

Lisa, however, eager to make up for her mistake, had volunteered to use some of her inventions to drastically speed up the reconstruction process. Most of his sisters had been adamantly opposed to the idea.

"We're gonna let Oppenheimer over here try and rebuild the house that she blew up!?" Lynn blurted furiously, "What next? Are you gonna let Jackson Pollock do the repainting?!"

The Louds were currently gathered in the living room of their assigned transitional home. It was the largest one the Royal Woods Salvation Army could offer, attempting to suit the thirteen-person Loud family as comfortably as possible.

Rita and Lynn Loud eyed their daughter sternly, "Your sister made the mistake of a lifetime." Lynn Sr. said, "If she wants to use the doodads that caused this disaster in the first place to help fix it, then I don't have a problem with it."

He shared a look with his wife. "Also," he murmured, scratching the back of his head, "she's saving us a hundred grand in repair expenses, and I'd rather your mother and I have to work triple shifts for years on end to pay back the insurance company."

Lincoln couldn't deny that he empathized with Lynn, but he wanted to be back home sooner rather than later. The faster everything was back to normal, and they could pretend this whole saga never happened, the better.

Unfortunately, while the Salvation Army may have been able to lend a hand to people suffering from destroyed homes, it was powerless when it came to something far more terrifying: returning to school. Since all the Loud children had gotten clean bills of health from every doctor who'd examined them, both physical and mental, there was no legal excuse to keep them out of school for any longer.

All of the kids had been apoplectic. Lana had tried rubbing some of her mother's lipstick on her face to convince the medical personnel that she had developed some kind of burning rash from the explosion. Luan simply tried pranking her assigned practitioner till he cracked and made up an ailment for her out of fear. She was successful, but her parents still refused to budge.

Lisa, at least, was true to her word. Lincoln had no idea what kind of Star Wars-type contraptions she had, but the Loud house was back up and running within two weeks. It was surreal, pulling up to the newly refurbished driveway.

His genius little sister had included every crack in the wall, creaky board, loose doorknob, and squeaky doorframe in her replica. "I had originally planned on an art deco style minimansion with self-repairing titanium-vanadium walls and prototype solar panels for unlimited, free energy. And a bowling alley.", Lisa had explained.

"But I decided that nothing could be more satisfactory, to you or myself, than to have our beloved, poorly-constructed domicile back to exactly the way it was." She looked uncharacteristically warm, "I may not yet have perfected time travel, but this is the next best thing."

The rest of the siblings had appreciated the gesture. Lynn, Luna, Lola, and Lana were still giving Lisa dirty looks the rest of the day, but Lincoln could tell they were coming around. He had gone upstairs and reacquainted in his own room, which was strange given how it was also his old room. He'd only been sleeping in a different bed for the past few days, yet collapsing back on his old (new?) bed was the best feeling he'd had in a long time.

Then, he laid eyes on his backpack in the corner, and his mood crashed.

And that was how he'd gotten here, standing miserably in front of Royal Woods Elementary School, staring at the big, white letters over the entrance as if he could melt them with heat vision. He sighed.

He'd heard his classmates say they hated school before. Try coming back just a week after you've been fumigated.

"Lincoln!"

Lincoln turned around. Clyde was running up from behind him, his fathers' car speeding away in the distance. Lincoln's heart warmed. Clyde and Lincoln always took the bus to school, but after Lisa's experiment, the loud children were dropped off by their parents. Clyde had no doubt known about this and gotten his parents to drive him to school just to be able to see Lincoln quicker.

Lincoln smiled, his first one in the past week. "Clyde! Man, it's good to see you." Clyde rushed up to him, engulfing Lincoln in a hug before Lincoln could react. Lincoln returned it in an instant, both boys laughing like they hadn't seen each other in years.

"There wasn't a lot of information we could get out the newspapers. What happened?" Clyde asked, releasing Lincoln, "Was it, Lisa? Is Lori Okay!?"

Clyde abruptly fell to his knees. "She's gone, isn't she?" He sniffled, "I wasn't there for her, and now she's gone!" He raised his fists toward the sky, "IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!" He bawled at the top of his lungs. Lincoln was taken aback by the sudden emotional transition.

"Clyde! Relax! Lori's fine, okay. She's fine."

Clyde shot back to his feet in an instant, "Ha! I knew it! My dream girl wouldn't let a little explosion shake her. Her beauty's too powerful!" Lincoln rolled his eyes. Good old Clyde. Some things never change.

"And, by the way, yeah, it was Lisa." Lincoln clarified, walking toward the entrance. Clyde followed him.

"I hope she's getting a good spanking! My dads used to do that to me when I was little. It makes sitting on a chair to play on the computer almost impossible." He shuddered, "On second, maybe that's a little too harsh."

The two boys walked through the doors and into the boring tiled hallway of the school's foyer. Clyde turned to Lincoln. "Oh, by the way, I think I should warn you, your house blowing up is all anyone been talking about since it happened. You should probably prepare to be swamped."

"Lincoln scoffed, "Come on Clyde, I'm sure they don't care- "

"THERE HE IS!" Someone screamed. Lincoln jumped. "Huh?" Before he knew what was happening, he and Clyde were immersed in a tidal wave of students. Lincoln couldn't keep track of all the questions.

"Oh my god, Lincoln, how did your house blow up?!"

"Did you get any cool scars?"

"How did you survive?"

"You know, you can come stay at my house if you want..."

"Hey, is your sister Luan single?"

Lincoln was totally overwhelmed, getting pushed back up against the hallway wall.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Clyde doing his best to push back the mob, shouting something at the top of his lungs that Lincoln couldn't make out. It was no use. The onslaught of students continued unabated, their myriad questions coming at such a rate and volume that they started to blend together in one continuous noise.

Lincoln had occasionally dreamed of what it would be like to be a famous actor, surrounded by adoring fans and photographers. This wasn't what he had in mind.

The swarm of questions, faces, and hands continued. A mix of mortification, frustration, and just plain anger started to build inside Lincoln. Just as he was about to explode, a high, shrieking blare split the air; a whistle.

"Alright, children, that's quite enough! Give Lincoln some room to breathe!"

The crowd parted abruptly. Ms. Johnson stood in the center of the hallway with her hands on her hips. Clenched in one of her hands was a referee's whistle; Lincoln recognized it as one of Coach Pacowski's spares. Apparently, their break-up wasn't as bad as he and Clyde thought.

"I see that your all eager to welcome Mr. Loud back to school," she said, her stress of the word "welcome," "obviously implying air quotes, "but I have a few things to speak to him about first."

Several children grumbled, upset that they would not get to hear the great tail of "Lincoln Loud vs. the Exploding House." The students milled about for a moment. Mrs. Johnson raised her chin, "I'm quite sure you all know where your classes are." Her tone implied that she was not in the mood for disrespect. The students immediately dispersed. Clyde moved to go with them.

"I'll see you in class, buddy. Welcome back." He gave Lincoln a quick pat on the back before setting off after the crowds.

In a matter of seconds, it was just the three of them in the school foyer. Lincoln broke the silence first. "I' don't know why they're all so interested," he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders, "It was just a big explosion and a lot of smoke. I didn't actually see anything."

Mrs. Johnson chuckled and took a few steps toward Lincoln, "They're children," she said gently, "Wouldn't you be interested if what happened to you had happened to one of your classmates?"

Lincoln just shrugged. Mrs. Johnson bent over to place a hand on his shoulder. Lincoln covered it with his automatically, not accustomed to such tenderness from his teacher.

"I was worried enough when the news said there was a chemical explosion in Royal Woods; imagine my shock when I learned it happened to one of the kids in my homeroom." The teacher's eyes were doleful, "I was delighted to hear that you hadn't been hurt. Apparently, your sisters came away spick and spam as well! It truly is a miracle."

Lincoln shifted uncomfortably at the term, "Yeah. I've been getting that a lot."

"Ha! I wonder why." Mrs. Johnson straightened up. "I wanted to be here when you returned. I take the wellbeing of my students very seriously, and welcoming you back in person seemed the least I could do." She turned toward the now empty halls that surrounded them, "I'd counted on a little competition, but I didn't expect them to get so rowdy."

Lincoln smiled, the second genuine one he'd had since the blast, he realized. "Thanks, Mrs. Johnson; I really appreciate it." He was surprised, as he said it, just how much he meant it. She just smiled and put an arm on Lincoln's back, leading him toward the classroom, appraising him of the homework and lectures he'd missed on the way.

As Lincoln later found out, the swarm of admirers he'd had to contend with in the foyer was hardly an outlier.

AS soon as he set foot in class, the mob was at the gate. From one class to another, his schoolmates pestered him about the experience; how it felt, what led up to it, who was to blame. Lincoln answered as honestly as he could, or at least, that's what he told himself. For some reason, he refused to say to them just how painful it was.

It seemingly wasn't in his best interest, given how Christina and many of the other girls were had created the image in their heads of Lincoln being some kind of action hero for surviving such an ordeal without a scratch. He would have killed to have Christina making the same eyes at him now just a few short days ago.

But as it was, he stuck to his modified story: His sister Lisa had an experiment go awry. His classmates were well aware of his sister's proclivity for the intellectual; it was hard to hide when she held a teaching position at the local university and went to kindergarten with the younger siblings of many of them.

However, contrary to outward appearances, the explosion was carbon-hydrogen gas mixed with prototype fertilizer elements. Loud and challenging to clean up, but hardly life-threatening.

It was somewhat amusing to watch expressions of his rapt audience deflate as he explained that he, in fact, was witness to more of a farm malfunction than a failed military test, even if he was flushing an immense amount of potential street cred and casanova status down the drain.

By lunchtime, Lincoln must have told his story a thousand times. His teachers had been good about steering questions and conversation away from Lincoln during class time, but it was like ten cats trying to catch ten thousand mice. There simply wasn't any way to nab them all.

"God, I never thought lunch would be the worst part of school." Lincoln groused. He and Clyde were putting their backpacks away in their lockers, preparing to head down to the cafeteria.

"Well, you have to have told half the school by now. And plenty of 'em have different class schedules and teachers than us. No doubt they've already told their friend in other classes. The whole school must know about it by now. They've got no reason to ask any more questions, right?" Clyde theorized, ever optimistic.

Lincoln sighed, "I think you're giving our age bracket a little too much credit."

The boys made sure to hide in one of the bathrooms to avoid the initial rush to the cafeteria. No use subjecting themselves to an onslaught of questioning if they didn't have to. When the rancor and chatter of the passing students died down, they emerged.

A thought struck Lincoln out of nowhere, "Hey Clyde, I never asked, how did Ronnie Anne take the whole thing?"

Clyde opened his mouth to respond, but another voice came out, "How do you think, you idiot?" Both boys whirled around. There, standing in the center of the hallway, hands in the pockets of her purple sweatshirt, stood Ronni Anne Santiago, her expression akin to that of a disappointed mother.

"Speak of the devil," Clyde muttered. Ronnie Anne marched right up to Lincoln and, without a word, slapped him across the face. The sharp crack echoed around the hallway.

"Hey!" Clyde cried. Lincoln looked at Ronnie Anne like she'd gone crazy. "What the...OW! What was that for!"

"For almost dying before I could do this." With that, she reached out, grabbed hold of Lincoln's shirt, and planted a kiss right on his mouth. Lincoln's eyes bulged, before slowly closing in the pleasure of the moment. The kiss lasted for several seconds before Ronnie Anne pulled away, a confident smirk on her face.

Clyde looked on in astonishment, his jaw hanging open. Lincoln, for his part, looked equal parts surprised and aroused. Ronnie Anne moved in again. Lincoln instinctively puckered up, but was more than a little dissatisfied when he felt her wrap her arms around him instead.

"I really missed you, Lincoln," she murmured into his shoulder.

"I..you... I mean, uh, I missed you too." Lincoln sputtered, his mind still reeling. It took a moment for him to realize that she'd called him Lincoln. Not lame-o. Lincoln. She only did that when she was incredibly angry with him. 'And apparently, when she misses me,' Lincoln thought. Ronnie Anne pulled away after another few seconds.

"But seriously, what the hell happened?" Her voice was sharp but tinged with caring, the voice a mother has when she's asking a child how they'd been hurt. "There's a rumor going around that it had something to do with that lisping goblin of yours."

Lincoln raised an eyebrow, "You mean Lisa?"

"Same difference. So, is it true? Cause if she's responsible, I'm gonna..."

Lincoln shook his head, "Don't worry about her. My parents already laid down the law on her."

Ronnie Anne scoffed. "Oh really? Your parents? Come on, Lincoln, I've met them. The harshest punishment they're capable of giving out is listening to your dad's jokes for longer than five minutes; they're not gonna have any effect on her." She glanced at Clyde, "The only people who dish out lighter sentences are Clyde's parents."

"Hey!" Clyde cried indignantly, "My dads can be super harsh! This one time, they caught me getting food from the refrigerator at night when I was supposed to be on a diet, and they made me scoop out Cleopawtra's litter box two weeks in a row!". Clyde crossed his arms, clearly feeling like a tough guy, "It's not just anybody who can deal with punishments like that, y'know."

Ronnie Anne fixed Clyde with a deadpan stare, "Right.". She turned back to Lincoln, "Look, Lincoln, you can't seriously believe that whatever your parents lay down is going to be enough, right?"

Lincoln clenched his jaw. "Look, I don't really care about it anymore, okay? She's grounded, and she can't experiment at the university anymore. That's going to have to be enough; I just want to get this all behind me.

Ronnie Anne observed Lincoln closely before grunting out, "Fine." She took a step closer, "But," she said darkly, "The next person who almost kills my boyfriend isn't going to get off so easy." She winked.

A warm tingle spread through Lincoln's body, a feeling it took Lincoln a moment to realize was desire.

He smiled broadly, "I'll hold you to that."

Ronnie Anne smiled back, "Now come on, losers," she said, walking down the hall in the direction of the cafeteria, "I'm hungry. Let's go eat."

Lincoln sighed, "Guess I can't avoid being mobbed by the entire lunch period forever."

"Is that what you were in the bathroom for?" Ronnie Anne called over her shoulder, "I'll handle them. My boyfriend just survived getting blown up; I'm not about to let him get killed by paparazzi."

"Man," Clyde bumped his elbow into Lincoln's ribs, "She's a keeper, buddy."

Lincoln laughed, "Yeah, she sure is."

Jesus. Sorry for taking so long on this chapter, everyone, but I got hit unexpectedly hard with some projects and tests this past month. The good news is, my semester ends in a couple of weeks, so I should be able to increase my writing output after that.

This chapter was originally going to deal with these sisters' return to school as well, but after I realized just how long Lincoln's portion of the was, I knew that including any more perspectives would have made this chapter practically a novel, so I'm putting them in the next chapter. Also, I was originally going to put in a little more detail surrounding the Loud's transitional housing and return to the Loud House, but the chapter was taking long enough as is, and the details weren't exactly essential, so I cut them out to reduce completion time.

For those who feel like Lisa repairing the Loud House with her inventions was out of left field, it basically was. I needed the Louds to be living in it since the house itself plays some importance later in the fic, and I never thought about the consequences of Lisa's explosion until after I published the second chapter, so I had to work in an explanation as to how they were back in there so quick. TL,DR, I'm stupid.

Also, apologies for the extremely slow start to this fic. It's about superheroes after all, and most people don't want to read fifteen thousand words before you get to the flying and super strength. Take heart; virtually all of the boring setup is out of the way. I'm planning on having the siblings' powers begin to emerge next chapter.

Also, many thanks to Neverwanting for the lovely review and PM. It's much appreciated.