Updated ages:
Lynn -18
Oliver -19
Ronnie and Lincoln- 16
Lisa and Olivia- 10
The Shapeshifting Twins- 16
The night was dark and thundering, rain aggressively pelting the world below it. It was a horrible rain that made anyone consider staying inside.
Lynn Loud just wasn't anyone, however, but rather she was a Loud sister and was currently scaling a privately owned high-rise building with enhanced technology and planning to break in to steal some highly classified information from Python.
Naturally, All her gear was crafted by her lovely genius little sister, with blueprints, schematics, and concepts, all stolen from Python, of course, and enhanced with her genius intellect and genius.
Now they stand a fighting chance against Python, unlike two years ago…
Lynn remembered the early days like it was yesterday, it was during their first few months away from home and these Cyborg things were just beginning their chase and they ended up captured for the first time cause they didn't know what they were doing just yet…
-Then-
Lynn gritted her teeth as she fiddled with a bobby pin on the pair of handcuffs she was locked into.
She couldn't believe she fell for such a trick, Python had left breadcrumbs of her brother's location for her and Lisa to follow and they fell for their trap like a fish getting tricked by the same lure twice…
"I gotta get out of here and find Lisa… It can't end here…" She said as she felt a few tumblers in the cuffs clicking, before feeling the cuffs loosen.
"Yes!" She whispered to herself, she was about to get up until the door in front of her suddenly slid open, all futuristic-like, she stayed in place, acting as if she was still restrained.
The boy from the morgue walked in, the extremely fast one, and a danger to her escape.
"Hey, Lynn was it…?" He said, grabbing a chair and taking a seat in front of Lynn, "I wanted to talk to you, I didn't get a chance before… Well, before you escaped from the Morgue..." Oliver said with an amused look about him.
"What? Wasn't me taking you out like a sack of garbage not enough for you?" Lynn asked with a scoff.
Oliver smiled and leaned forward on the table, resting his head in his palm.
"No, it wasn't… Call me intrigued…" He said with an odd smile that Lynn found… Suspicious…
"Intrigued? What? You into that stuff, weirdo?" Lynn asked.
"Yes, I love a woman who can beat my ass," He said rather simply before standing up suddenly from his chair and leaning against the table in front of him, "I just want to know how much of a fighter you are…"
Lynn blushed brightly at his words, not understanding where he was getting at.
"What the hell are you talking about…?" She asked.
Oliver suddenly tossed aside the table, it smacked into a wall.
"I know you picked the lock on those cuffs, didn't you find it weird that you were restrained with normal cuffs when we have so much technology?"
Lynn was silent as she leaned back in her metal chair.
"Maybe you're just confused, but I'm just a sports star from Royal Woods and-"
CLANG
Lynn had suddenly hit Oliver over the head with the metal chair.
He stumbled back before stabilizing and giving her a wild smile, touching the side of his head, and pulling it back, seeing his darker than normal blood on his fingers.
"That won't work two times in a row, sports star… After seeing how easy it was to knock me out, the good Doctor's assistant installed more… Durable material in my head…" He got into a boxer's stance, "Now give me your best hits... You're going to need to if you want to win…" He said with a smile.
Lynn couldn't help but continue to blush at this psychopath's tendencies… She found herself getting into a boxing position.
"Fine… If it's a fight you want…" She said softly, putting up her own first, "I didn't win the state championship for nothing…" She whispered.
They stared each other down before jumping towards each other, fists raised.
-Meanwhile-
Lisa was currently in a cell.
Already having picked her cuffs, also the fact they couldn't exactly fit right on her in the first place, she was now looking around the area she was locked in.
Looking around the room, she saw that no cameras or anything was watching her. The doors had a handprint sensor, but she also saw those teenagers just walk through the door without touching it, maybe because the computer detected them walking through… What were they? Cyborgs? Androids? Maybe they were superhuman… Or the product of some weird science experiment? It honestly could've been anything…
She opened up her jacket and began to look for something, the one thing she had on her when they ran away from home, it was a nice feeling to know you couldn't return to your home at the cost of your life at only the age of 8. Happy birthday to her by the way. It was yesterday, and she spent it getting kidnapped by Python while chasing a false lead.
Lisa found what she was looking for, a tool kit, a bunch of prototypes made by her. Honestly, it could be compared to a spy kit if she were being honest with herself.
She pulled out the pen, clicking it and a blue blow torch lit at the end. Carefully, the Loud Sister traced the Blow torch around the panel, using her tiptoes to reach the edges, as she was still very short.
The panel popped out, connected by a great many wires.
Lisa smiled, ripping off the panel from the wires and began to fiddle with said wires, connecting them and crossing a few others.
"Python thinks they're so high and mighty…" She whispered, connecting green and blue.
"It's too bad that they're dealing with me…" She said with an evil smile as she twisted another pair of wires.
"They'll know not to mess-" The wires sparked at her as a warning, but she continued, "-With Lisa Loud…" She whispered as she carefully touched the red and black wires, holding them in place.
There was a wicked spark before the wires she crossed earlier began to smoke before a small flame appeared. She jumped back as the entire panel began sparking dangerously and suddenly blew.
"Did it… Work?" She asked, hoping she didn't trap herself in here indefinitely.
Suddenly there was a much louder boom, the distant sound of generators powering down could be heard in the distance. Then the power to the entire facility began shutting down before Red emergency lights turned on, flashing as the door to her cell slid open.
"Well…" Lisa stood up, dusting herself off, "Not my intention but it's just as good," She poked her head out and looked around, no one was guarding her cell… They probably didn't think much of her and Lynn to guard their cells.
A mistake that Python would come to regret.
She quickly left the cell and began to look around for Lynn.
Lynn panted as she spits blood between her feet, wiping the blood out of her eyes as she looked up at Oliver, giving him a bloody smile of determination.
She had been bruised up something bad, black right eye, and spotted bruises and cuts all over her body.
She swore that one of her teeth was somewhere in the room, she wasn't keeping track of it, considering this fight was rather tough and Oliver wasn't holding anything back on her…
Just… How she liked it…
Lynn couldn't understand why, but she was getting rather excited by this hard fight. She wasn't weird, she swore to herself… It's just that, no one could match up to her in a fight. Not in boxing, kung fu, karate, etc. It had become boring, it was why she had moved onto sports from Martial Arts, there was more challenge in it playing against an entire team trying to stop her…
Even then, it had started becoming boring…
But Oliver seemed to be at the same level as her…
Oliver panted, smiling back at Lynn, and not nearly as bruised or cut up as Lynn.
Python had decided that their operatives shouldn't be able to show weak spots such as that, it also rendered most people in Python without the ability to blush.
But he could certainly guarantee that he was feeling the same amount of pain as Lynn, also coughing up as much of his dark blood.
Python took him in at 15, he's been fighting and completing missions in their name for two years now… He's been one of their best operatives, with a practically spotless record and zero casualties under his command. They called themselves unbeatable for the longest time…
Everything… Was so easy… And became so boring, even playing with targets to get some kind of enjoyment out of it.
But this girl… Lynn Loud… The Sports Star…
She was a challenge, an actual fight for him, someone… He hadn't even used his abilities against her, it wouldn't be fair, and he craved a fair challenge.
"God, I haven't felt this kind of challenge since fighting Omega…" He whispered, laughing as he got into a new fighting stance, one taught by Python for decades…
Lynn silently mimicked his stance, making slight adjustments until it was perfect and mirroring his perfectly.
This confused him.
"What are you doing? Mocking my stance…?" He asked, "What do you gain from that?"
"I've never seen it before, is all," She said simply, "I've had many sensei be impressed that I learn so fast, just from watching them fight and demonstrate… So if you're using it, I can learn it…" She said with a pant, giving a smug smirk, wiping away more blood from her forehead.
Oliver smiled, his fists charging with that green lightning of his.
"We'll see about that, Sports Star…" He whispered, returning the smirk.
Suddenly the lights went out.
"What the-" They both said in unison.
Suddenly the door slid open, and a red light turned on, flashing the darkroom.
Lynn's eyes widened.
"Lisa…" She whispered, "I need to hurry,"
She suddenly charged, using the flashing red light to her advantage… Maybe she could get the drop on him…
Oliver was quick to go on the defensive, blocking every punch with a second before they landed. His form never moved from where he was standing, his feet ever so slightly changed.
Flash, the lights went.
Punch went Lynn.
Block, Oliver responded.
It was a stalemate…
Flash…
Punch…
Block…
Flash…
Kick…
Block…
It happened repeatedly…
Lynn hit him with everything she could've, every kick, punch, jab, haymaker, etc. she knew… But with every red flash, she learned something new and committed it to her memory… The many changed stances he took, all effective and blocking everything that she threw at him… It was a perfect defense with no way to land a hit…
The lights then came back on, the backup generator turned on, and it was now her turn to take the defensive and apply what she learned from watching him in the partial dark.
He went for a punch, but it was a feint, he threw a right kick at the last second.
'Catch with your left hand, throw the foot back…' She repeated what he did.
She caught his leg, gripping it before pushing him back.
Oliver stumbled and regained composure.
'What… Happened…?' He asked himself, 'No way that she just copied my defense… From just watching…? I need to know more…'
He cleared that distance she made and went for an uppercut.
'Tilt head back, catch fist and push down then jump back, don't engage...' She told herself.
Oliver's eyes widened as she tilted her chin out of the way, catching his fist and pushing his fist back down, bouncing back.
Oliver smiled, it was an impressed and crazed smile.
"Sports Star, you are incredible!" He shouted, jumping at her, "Let's see what else you can do!" He then began to throw a variety of blows, kicks, and punches.
Again and Again, Lynn copied his defense, and the more she defended, the more she became a natural in the defensive stance.
Lynn hated to admit that it was highly effective and better than what she was used to…
Oliver was so entranced into Lynn's ability to mimic his defensive style, one that Python took years to drill into candidates, one known to have a hard time even getting through its basics, he knew that freshmen would take entire years getting it down and still not know how to use it properly and here was this Loud.
Not only doing it perfectly, but was now even beginning to incorporate counter-attacks, weaving under his latest punch, and driving a palm into his chest, knocking him back.
He gave a yell as he threw a wild punch in slight frustration from suddenly being on the losing side.
Lynn caught the fist, clenching his fist tightly with a rather strong grip.
"Gotcha…" She said, twisting his fist and bringing him to his knee.
Oliver watched in amazement as she drove her shin into his jaw. He swore that she dislocated his jaw as he fell back onto the floor.
Oliver groaned as he brought his hand up to his jaw, rubbing it.
Lynn stepped over him, placing a foot on his chest.
"Loud– 2, little Olly – 0," She said, pressing her foot into his chest.
He groaned as he leaned his head back, looking up at her.
"You truly are amazing… Sports Star…" He whispered, stars in his eyes and an amazed expression.
Lynn blushed at the compliment before rolling her eyes, pressing harder against his chest.
"Flattery will get you nowhere," She said with a scowl.
"Are you sure? I thought it worked on all the cute girls?" He asked, groaning suddenly at Lynn pressing harder.
Lynn's entire face was red at this point.
"S- Shut Up!" She yelled, "And tell me where you're keeping Lisa!?"
"Only if I can get your number after I tell you," He laughed.
"What the hell is your deal!?" She yelled, picking him up by his shirt collar, practically screaming in his face.
"Sister?"
Looking up at the door, Lynn saw Lisa. She was holding…
"Lisa, is that a sniper?" She asked.
"It's fine, it's only loaded with tranquilizer darts," Lisa replied simply, reaching around, and pulling back the bolt of the rifle, ejecting a spent round.
"I suspect that these are the same darts used to kidnap our brother," She said, realigning her glasses.
"We can talk about that later Lisa," She looked down at Oliver, "Got one for him?" She asked.
Lisa smiled, aiming the gun.
"Gladly." She said, firing a shot directly into his neck, actually piercing his hardened skin and injecting him full of the paralyzer.
He smiled at Lynn as his eyes became droopy.
"Nice fighting you, Sports star…" He said, head falling back with a thud.
Lynn sighed as she stumbled back and used a wall for support, feeling all the pain hitting her at once and the adrenalin leaving her muscles, she grunted, coming off the wall and placing a hand on Lisa's shoulder.
"I'm so happy you're safe but… Where did you get that and how do you know how to use it?" She asked, concerned.
"On the way here, their idiotic emergency protocols opened the armory doors as well, I entered and came out with this," She said, presenting the rifle, "And please, it was easy enough to figure out in our crisis, simple, even, If I'm being honest." She said, pulling back the bolt handle and ejecting the spent round, and even reloading the gun. "And aiming it is a matter of simple math honestly, you see when you-"
"We don't have time for all the nerd stuff, let's get out of here," Lynn said, grabbing her hand and pulling Lisa into the hall.
The sight she was met with was shocking, to say the least.
"Wow…" She said, amazed.
The sight was, simply, countless amounts of Python guards, dressed head to toe in armor, all having assault rifles and high-level gear… All knocked out and on the floor.
"Geez, Lisa, did you do this?" Lynn asked, picking her up and running over the unconscious bodies. She saw many red darts sticking out of their necks and chinks in their armor plates or between the fingers of their gloves.
"Partly, it was easy to sow the seeds of chaos when they couldn't see what was shooting at them… Most of them just shot the people around them looking for me… Wait, search that one," She said, pointing at a guard who was dressed differently. Probably a commander.
"Who even are you, sis?" Lynn asked, searching the person's body.
"A genius who had a horrible birthday…" Lisa said as Lynn put her down to search better.
Finally, she found what she thought she was looking for.
A pair of keys and a keycard.
"This?" Lynn asked.
"Yes!" Lisa quickly snatched them both and quickly ran off.
"Wait up short stack! Where are you even going?" Lynn called out, following after the excited devil, discreetly taking a vest of one of the guards, putting it on. Even grabbing a pistol. Hey, it was a life and death matter, it could be useful.
Lisa ran up to a door, skidding to a stop, she swiped the keycard and entered with Lynn on her tail.
The room seemed to be an unattended computer room.
"Haha! Yes! I saw this on the way here!" Lisa ran up to a computer, climbing onto a chair and beginning to type at it, using the keycard to get access to the computer. "What kind of idiots use keycards as a password to their sensitive intel…?"
"Lisa, what are you looking for? Better question, what are you doing?" Lynn asked, standing over her and looking at the screen.
Lisa was clicking through so many programs and tabs she couldn't even keep track of what she was doing.
"Don't worry about that, I'm looking for something," She then tossed Lynn the spy gear she used earlier to break out of her cell, "The disk, put it on the tower," She said, still typing away at the keyboard.
"Tower?" Lynn asked, confused, as Computers weren't exactly her thing. Sports, blood, and mud were still her bread and butter.
The Computer, Lynn! This thing!" Lisa said quickly, knocking on the computer tower next to the computer, "We don't have much time, you know this!" She said, refocusing on the screen in front of her.
Lynn opened the bag and pulled out a disk-looking thing that had knobs and buttons and a small screen as well.
"Press the green button and it'll activate," Lisa said.
"The things you make, Lisa, are incredible…" She said, bringing the disc to the tower, it flew out of her hands and slapped onto the tower, it was magnetic it would seem. She pressed the green button and it beeped at her and a digital timer appeared, displaying 5 minutes.
"It says five minutes," Lynn looked up at her sister, "Five minutes to what?" She asked.
"Five minutes to download everything off the server!" She said with a smile before slamming a finger on the enter button on the keyboard.
The timer then began to beep, the countdown has begun.
"What the heck do we do for five minutes!?" Lynn asked.
"Die a horrible death is a good idea."
Looking up, they both saw the little girl who was with Oliver from the morgue, Olivia.
Lisa quickly reached for her rifle, but it flew towards Olivia, hovering above her outstretched palm.
"Using guns, how dull…" She said before the gun began to creak as it bent and folded under her power, "You may not understand how things work around here, but you two aren't walking out of here alive…" suddenly, metal began to rip off of the walls and ceiling, beginning to circle round the young girl dangerously as she walked towards the Louds.
"Wait, we can talk about this-" Lynn attempted.
"Python does not negotiate with its enemies," Olivia said, pushing her arms forward, sending sharp sheets of iron towards the girls.
Lynn quickly grabbed Lisa and threw themselves out of the way of the attack. The screen Lisa was looking at was destroyed but the computer tower was still running perfectly. 4 minutes left…
"Sister, we need to survive for 4 more minutes!" Lisa said urgently, she was now on Lynn's back, her arms wrapped around her neck to secure herself.
"I don't think we can survive another 30 seconds!" Lynn said as she ran around the chaotic computer room, sheets of metal were flying in all sorts of directions, and she swore that she was only surviving by the skin of her teeth with every dodge.
"Stand still!" Olivia shouted, getting aggravated with the dodging Loud. She's only just received this mod, at the request of her brother… She still didn't have the hang of it yet, so there was still a pretty large margin of error that she didn't have time to figure out. She did, however, get a few lucky shots in.
Lynn gave a yell of surprise as a shard of metal slashed her across her cheek, another cutting her ear and narrowly missing her head. She gritted her teeth as she saw that the timer was now only on three minutes.
Screw this…
"Sorry, Lisa!" Lynn shouted, running towards the disc, "But we're leaving!"
"But we can't! We could find Lincoln with the info we got-" She protested.
"WE CAN'T FIND HIM IF WE'RE DEAD!" She shouted, "Now hold on!" She silenced her and ran forward, jumping over another shard of metal. She picked up a rock and tossed it extremely hard towards Olivia.
On instinct, she made a shield of metal to block the rock, using this distraction, she reached out and grabbed the disc off the tower, just in time as it was suddenly pierced by Olivia's metal. Effectively destroying it.
"I won't miss twice," Olivia said with a smile as she sent more metal in her direction. Lynn quickly used a stray desk to hide behind, the sisters watched as the metal sailed over them, before Lynn quickly ran forward, straight towards Olivia, surprising her greatly.
"W- what the hell are you-" She didn't finish that sentence as Lynn had driven her entire foot into the young girl's stomach.
Olivia felt all the air leave her body as she gave a loud gasp in surprise, she felt her entire body go into shock at this feeling.
She fell to her hands and knees and in seconds, had thrown up the entire contents of her stomach on the floor below her, coughing roughly.
Lynn didn't wait to see what would happen next, quickly running away down the hall and turning the corner.
Lisa was in shock at her sister's actions.
"Lynn-"
"I don't want to hear it," Lynn said, still running with her sister on her back, knowing what her sister was going to say.
"She was 8,"
"She was trying to kill us," Lynn said as she took another turn in the hallway.
"You couldn't have just knocked her out or something!?" Lisa asked.
"I'm sorry I couldn't think of a better, more humane, way to take her down, she was throwing literal sheets of metal at us! Besides, no way she's getting up from a kick like that!"
"Where are we even going?" Lisa asked, rolling her eyes.
"I have no clue." Lynn admitted, "This entire base is stupidly massive."
"Here," Lisa then handed Lynn the keys she had stolen earlier, "Take a few more right turns and then head straight and down the stairs. That's where the garage is."
"How do you know?" Lynn asked.
"I memorized it when we were being dragged to our cells."
Lynn smiled, thanking God for giving her a genius sister, and got to move around the facility before they finally came upon the garage. Entering, it was full of black SUVs and sedans, all with no license plate to be seen.
Lynn was more interested than she should've been in all the covert cars.
"Sister, please-"
"Give me a second, sis, if we're going to be stealing a car, I want to at least choose which one it is."
"Not so fast," A pair of voices said this time.
Looking, it was those weird fraternal twins that looked exactly the same. The ones that posed as Lincoln and Ronnie, acting as their corpses to get the government and police off of Python's tail.
"You two aren't-" Eli began.
"-getting away so easily…" Ellie finished.
"…" Lynn stared at them. "I'm sorry, but which one is the girl and boy?" She asked.
"Why do you ask?" They both asked, "I'm Eli and that's Ellie…" They said, pointing at each other.
"You see, those names are pronounced the same way," Lynn said as she took a few steps back towards the black sedan.
"No they're not, it's Eli," He said.
"And Ellie." She said.
"But which is which?" Lynn asked again, Lisa took the keys as her sister continued to distract the Twins.
"It's not that hard to understand, why are you so confused-" He said.
"About which one of us is who?" She asked.
Lynn rolled her eyes and lifted her hands.
"Listen, no need to get angry over this obvious confusion, let's just relax and-"
Suddenly the Twins lifted both of their arms and pointed them at Lynn. Orbs of energy began to gather, glowing with a green color. It appeared that this was this team's colors, huh?
"Die." They both said in perfect unison, holding hands as they began to fire at Lynn. Lynn ducked and grabbed Lisa once again, rolling out of the way of the energy blast.
"What the hell is that!?" Lynn shouted, hiding behind a car, "I thought you were shapeshifters or something!?" She asked.
"That would've been horribly inefficient, as operatives of Python. Besides-" He said.
"-We're not one-trick ponies." She finished.
They walked forward and aimed at the car, firing a collection of energy blasts. Lynn saw smoke rising from the engine and dodged rolled out of distance as it exploded. The sisters quickly hid behind another car. A green mustang.
"Alright… I've seen enough Dragon Ball Z to know that they can't just keep firing those things willy-nilly without it draining their energy…" Lynn said as she poked her head out to see the Twins moving through the smoke, still holding hands and looking around for the sisters.
"That seems about right sister… Those blasts must be coming from somewhere in their cores if I had to guess…" Lisa then began to pat herself down, before finding what she was looking for, "Here, use this…" She whispered, holding something out for Lynn.
Taking the item, it looked like a flash grenade in design. It was a long blue cylinder that had several holes in it, as well as a handle and a pin.
"What the hell is this?" Lynn asked.
"An AOG…" Lisa whispered, peeking her head over the car, The Twins were just blowing up cars looking for them at this point.
"What's AOG mean?" She asked as she carefully fiddled with the thing.
"Anti-Operative Grenade… I guess Python isn't as held together as these fools make it seem… An entire canister of these things, all for the sole purpose of disabling their operatives…" She said.
"Got it…" Lynn pulled the safety pin, jumping over the hood of the car, releasing the handle as well, and throwing the grenade in the Twins' direction.
It clinked and rolled in front of them.
Eli stared at it, confused, and going to reach for it but it began to spark with blue electricity.
"Get away!" They both shouted, jumping back and away but it was too late to escape the blast radius.
A giant dome of blue lightning surrounded the twins. They felt what was comparable to thousands of volts of electricity coursing through them in an instant.
Just as quickly as it happened, it ended.
The Twins fell to the ground, bodies smoking as they struggled to hold onto consciousness.
"Brother…" Ellie asked, "I can't feel my core…"
"Neither can I… They used an AOG, I think…"
"We're not going to die right?"
"Let's hope not…" With that, they both passed out, still holding hands.
Lynn sighed as she and Lisa exited their cover, dusting themselves off as she looked at the car in front of her.
It was a green mustang with a license plate that said "Py7h0n" on it.
Lynn whistled as she trailed her fingers over the car.
"This is a nice car…"
"Is taking a bright Green car such a good idea?" Lisa asked.
"Hey, I can handle whatever they throw at us," She said, placing her hand on her hips with a bright smile, "These are bruises and cuts of victory you know, four for four wins!" She said in triumph, flexing her arms as if to show off.
SWOOSH
THUD
Everything was dangerously silent for a moment. They only saw a sheet of metal fly pass for the briefest moments and heard… the arm fell to the floor with a loud thud...
"JESUS CHRIST!" Lynn shouted in intense pain as she held the stump where her right arm once was, holding back the blood that was pouring out, falling to her knees in pain, "M- My arm!" She shouted, just staring at the arm that was now in front of her.
Lisa's eyes widened in utter shock and terror at what had just occurred in a matter of just seconds. Her mind blanked on what to do and she remembered… She was still only a kid, secret organizations with biotech and superpowers, she was already out of her league…
"I told you that I don't miss twice…" A voice cut through the parking lot, looking, the siblings saw Olivia approaching, holding her side in pain as she advanced, metal dangerously spinning around her and picking up speed.
"Lisa… How bad do you think it is…" Lynn asked with a laugh, panting.
Lisa turned to her sister and quickly rushed over and crouched next to Lynn, pulling out the blowtorch pen and handing it to Lynn.
"U- Use this to cauterize the wound, stop the bleeding, I'll distract Olivia…" She said softly.
"What!?" Lynn asked, trying to stand but hissed in pain, groaning, "Y- you can't…" Lynn whispered.
"Lynn, I'll be fine, local genius Lisa Loud always has a plan!" Lisa said, her voice trembling as she stood up and faced Olivia.
"Move out of my way, I'm killing you both starting with your sister," She said with narrowed eyes, "Or are you that eager to die first, girl genius?" She asked.
"You won't kill me…" Lisa said, walking forward as she reached behind her back, discreetly grabbing another AOG and pulling the safety pin.
"Is that supposed to be a threat?" Olivia asked, sending a sheet of metal at Lisa. Her eyes widened when she saw Lisa dodge the attack, nearly falling to the ground to avoid it.
"I'm sorry, I meant that you can't kill me…" Lisa said, still walking forward. Her heart was still pounding in her chest.
"W- What?" Olivia sent more sheets of metal but just as before, Lisa weaved through it all, "How are you doing that!?"
"I'm doing it because you telegraph all your attacks. Before you send metal, it shakes, and you always send them in the same pattern. Left, Left, Right, Up, Down, Right, Left and finally up." Lisa said as she ducked. "That was up…" She said, standing again and finally clearing the distance and grabbing Olivia by her shirt.
"We're going to find my Big Brother, Python won't stop us!" She said before presenting the AOG grenade to Olivia and letting the handle fly off. The AOG glowed as Lisa let it drop between Olivia's feet.
Olivia gritted her teeth and made a shard of metal appear in her hands and slashed upwards, slicing Lisa's glasses off her face and cutting the genius across the right eye.
Lisa let go of Olivia and stumbled back, just as the AOG went off, trapping Olivia in a dome of blue lightning. Lisa heard her screams and how loud they echoed in the parking lot they were in. The lightning dissipated to nothing, and Olivia was on her back, eyes fluttering before she passed out on the floor.
Lisa panted as she looked around, being more blind than before it would seem. She crouched and felt around before finding her broken glasses. She put them on and blinked, hissing in slight pain.
"Great, I'm missing my right eye…" She whispered as she turned back to Lynn, who had finally caturized her now stump of an arm, and quickly walked over.
"Lisa, I'm so proud of you!" Lynn said excitedly, trying to hold back the fact she was still hurting, placing her hand on her sister's head, "You were really brave back there…"
"T- Thank you, sister… Let's get out of here and hope this disc has anything useful on it…" Lisa said, presenting the Data Disc to her sister.
"You think it has schematics for a new arm?" Lynn joked, silently wishing for that outcome.
"Or for a new pair of eyes?" Lisa added as they stumbled their way to the green mustang. After this whole fiasco with what was supposed to be a secure Python base, they'd surely get the attention of the entire organization.
"Lisa," Lynn said, as the sisters climbed into the Mustang.
"Yeah, sister?" Lisa asked, climbing into the passenger seat and silently grabbing the gear shift for Lynn, as she only had one hand.
"Thanks… I don't know how I'd do this without you…"
"It's not a problem, Lynn… Now let's go show these snakes what it means to mess with the Loud Family…" Lisa said with a smile.
Lynn smiled and, using one hand, drove out of the Python base.
"Let's do this…" She whispered, "No matter the cost… We're finding Lincoln…"
-Now-
The current cost seemed to be her life apparently, as she was in the middle of scaling a high-rise building with climbing gear, built, and provided to her by Lisa Loud.
Not the only things provided to her by Lisa. Glancing at her right, seeing the cybernetic arm.
It took a lot of work to make, having to break into several Python Bases to find what they needed to finish the arm. But after a good few months of near-death experiences, they got the entire thing finished and working perfectly. It was quite an upgrade, although Lynn did cry about never being able to play a fair game of football or any sport actually, ever again.
"This is LL-10 checking in on LL-5," A small voice said, bringing her out of her thoughts. The voice was easily identified as Lisa.
Lynn rolled her eyes as she put her fingers to her ear, pressing the coms device on.
"This is LL-5 confirming the use of these stupid code names," She said as she continued to climb the building, ignoring the rain, as it only seemed to enhance her state of mind against the rain.
"These code names are important, LL-5, can't have those Python operatives listening in on us," Lisa said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Well, LL-10, think of it like this," Lynn finally paused her climbing at a window, reaching into her bag and pulling out a pen, "Python has been looking for us for the last 4 years, right?" Lynn asked as she clicked the pen and a blue laser appeared, she began to cut a circle in the glass.
"That's correct," Lisa confirmed.
"And we've been running, for like, three years, right?" Lynn asked again, kicking in the glass cutout, and climbing into what appeared to be a server room.
"That's right…" Lisa sounded aggravated.
"And the same group of 3 operatives has been chasing us the entire time, right? Cause we got them in trouble with their boss or whatever?"
"What's your point?" Lisa asked, becoming impatient.
"My point is that, if you were my sister, you would've known to use the new code names, you would've noticed the 3 inconsistencies I said and lastly, Lisa doesn't randomly contact me during a Mission… For high-class operatives of Python, you guys sure are dumb," Lynn said as she began to look around the server room.
If Lynn's communications were compromised, it meant that she probably didn't have long…
"…" The person on the other line was quiet before a deeper laughing was heard, "You know, Sports Star, this game of Cat and Mouse with you has been really fun, it really has," Oliver, the speedster, complemented, "But you know that I can't keep making excuses for you and your sister, I have to catch you eventually. Maybe I can persuade you to join this time? I do remember that you quite enjoyed that night with me in New York," He said with a laugh.
Lynn rolled her eyes, silently blushing, as she reached into her bag and placed a magnetic disc on a large server tower, and activated it. Only a few minutes now…
"I am aware, Olly," Lynn said as she pulled out what appeared to be a dark suppressed pistol, although it had the initials of LL on the side, "I haven't forgotten that night either…" She said as she looked at the Camera in the room and waved at them before shooting it dark.
"Bloody hell, come on, I was watching that," He said on the other end of the line, chuckling, "Is that a sign you want to talk to me directly, hm?" Oliver asked.
There was a sudden sparkling of electricity before the door to the server room burst open and Oliver was standing there, his entire form sparkling with green lightning.
"Cause I'm right here if you want to talk," He said, walking forward, cracking his knuckles.
"I think I'm good, Olly…" Lynn said before lifting her firearm and firing several shots at the Speedster.
Oliver zigzagged past all the bullets but hissed in pain when he felt something stab into his leg, looking, it appeared to be a metal spike. It glowed blue before flashing brightly and he felt his entire leg seize up with an icy frost. He tsked and ripped it out, his entire leg was icy, hard to run with… He wouldn't be able to run for a bit…
"Oh, An Ice spike, so you did put together those schematics you stole from us last month, huh? I guess that saves me the espionage of finding out.." He said as he stepped up to Lynn quickly, throwing several punches at her in quick succession.
Lynn saw the course of the punches easily, weaving past them like she was always able to, but it felt like he wasn't even trying… He probably wasn't, now that she thought about it… It annoyed her slightly...
"I mean, what did you expect?" Lynn asked, beginning to trade punches and kicks with him now, copying his style.
"Did you think we were just going to sell them to some shady government like Python does?" She asked with a smirk, "Lucky for you guys, we don't need the money. Pretty sure we robbed enough of your offshore accounts to last us seven lifetimes, no, we're still looking for our brother and trying to take Python down,"
Oliver smirked, dodging her punches and kicks just as easily, weaving past them before suddenly shooting forward and grabbing her, pressing her against a wall.
"I don't think you even want to take me down, honestly… Especially since we're /-0[]]=[]=]][[[]still using pet names…" He whispered, leaning dangerously close to her lips, Lynn could practically feel his breath.
"And if I didn't know any better, it seems that my favorite Sports Star is pulling her punches, too, did I remind you that you were in love with me…?" He held her chin, pulling her head to look him in the eye as he leaned forward, suddenly kissing her softly.
Lynn blushed as her eyes widened at the sudden action…
She had to admit, though… It felt nice to feel his lips again… She unconsciously leaned into the kiss, her eyes almost drooping closed before she saw a glint of blue. Her eyes widened again, and her hand moved lightning fast, just as Oliver stabbed her through her mechanical hand.
She lifted her leg up hard, kneeing Oliver in the groin region.
Oliver pulled away from the kiss with a groan of pain, as he took a step back.
"You know, no matter how much Python trains you for that, it'll always get me…" He said with a groan before standing up straight, the pain washing over him quickly.
"You're an absolute prick, you know that!" Lynn wiped her mouth, still blushing brightly. She then pulled the spike out of her hand and threw it at him.
Oliver easily caught it without looking.
"Oh come on, I've done that four times before and you still haven't learned, who's fault is it, really?" He said before throwing the Ice Spike back at her like it was a throwing knife.
Lynn was quick to raise her pistol and shot it out of the air, but Oliver was already in front of her, twisting her hand back and bringing her to her knees in front of her.
"Come on, Sports Star, I said it once, and I'll say it again," He said, suddenly gaining a serious expression about him, "Join Python… You're smart on your feet, a really great body, and even a decent enough fighter-"
"I'd kick your ass again if you just stopped moving around so much!" Lynn shouted, annoyed as she swept her legs across the floor and tripped Oliver onto his back, and was quick to pin him down, pointing her firearm at his temple.
"-And I'm more than sure if you joined, you could see Lincoln again…" He continued, sounding serious, before smiling at her, reaching up and holding her cheek, "Who knows, maybe we can even actually be together… Sneaking around like this can't be good for either of us." He said, "Lying to both our little sisters, such bad older siblings we are..."
Lynn narrowed her eyes and pulled back the hammer of her silenced pistol, smacking his hand away from him.
"Just because we have a… thing going on, doesn't mean that it's enough for me to betray my family and join Python… " She said, pressing the barrel of the suppressor to his temple, leaning closer to his face.
"You bastards have my brother and are a risk to my entire family, I'm not just going to forget that, you bastard… I'm getting him back even if that means going through you, Olly…" She whispered, she went to squeeze the trigger but… It felt so much harder to do than it should've been.
BEEP
Her devices had finished scanning.
"Times up," Oliver said, shoving the gun away from his head and punching Lynn in the jaw, knocking her off him, she stumbled on her backside. He stood up and snatched the device off the server tower.
Lynn gritted her teeth, getting back on her feet, moving towards him quickly.
"I don't understand, are you trying to make me join Python? Or hate you more?" Lynn asked, stretching her shoulders.
"You don't hate me, you hate that you love me!" He shouted with a laugh, getting into a stance as they began to trade blows.
She'd always hate how evenly matched they were for each other, for every punch she landed, he'd respond with a kick and vice versa… A vicious cycle that usually ended with both tired, bruised, and bloody with no victor unless there was outside interference.
"You know I have a duty to Python, hun, they saved me and my sister's lives and gave us a purpose all at the same time. We owe them so much..." Oliver said as he blocked several punches from Lynn, "So I can't just let you have this information, you gotta earn it." He said, holding up the scanner.
Lynn threw a right hook, he Instinctively caught it, she then smacked the scanner into the air and out of his hand.
"Whoops," She said before quickly leaning forward and kissing him, before punching him in the gut and kicking him away. She caught the scanner.
"Oooh, low blow, playing with my feelings like that," He said, standing up to regain his composure.
"Like you didn't do that with me a minute ago when you tried to stab me! It's been fun, but I gotta fly," With that, Lynn ran towards the window, jumping through it and into the dark rain.
Oliver quickly recovered and ran to the window. She was falling through the air before she activated something and a wingsuit appeared, allowing her to glide through the air.
Oliver smiled as he took a few experimental steps, his legs sparked with green lightning. The effects had worn off, finally.
"Two can play this game, sports star..." He whispered before he ran forward and jumped hard out of the server room as well, following Lynn's trajectory.
"Oof!" Lynn gave a yell of surprise as she felt the raven-haired boy jump onto her back, breaking her wingsuit in several places, and causing them both to start falling through the air.
"You idiot! Are you trying to kill us both!?" Lynn shouted, throwing a punch but Oliver tilted his head out of the way of her fist, catching her arm and holding it in place as he pulled himself closer to her face.
"Sorry sports star, but I'll survive the fall, you probably won't, so give me that information, and we'll both walk away, it's your call..." Oliver said, giving her his ultimatum as he held her tightly as they continued to fall through the air at record-high speeds.
"Ugh! Let go of me, Olly!" She shouted, trying to pry herself away from his hold.
Lynn's head started to wrack with solutions. She could activate the backup parachute, but this idiot was holding onto her with an iron grip... They'd be too heavy and plummet all the same...
'Come on, Come on! Not like this!' She thought to herself, using her other hand to try to beat him off her but she was honestly only hurting herself.
She was about to hand over the scanner until-
CRACK BUZZ
The Com in her ear buzzed to life.
"This is Peabody, come in Sherman, realign the potion of your head in a relatively quick fashion if you wish to still have it," Said a calm and small voice.
Lynn's eyes widened as she tilted her head back and away from Oliver quickly.
BANG
Oliver's eyes widened before he pushed Lynn away from him and threw himself backward, a sniper bullet sailing past where his head once was.
"I've seen to have missed, Sherman..." Lisa said with a hum.
"Have we ever actually hit one of these guys, Peabody?" Lynn asked as she continued to fall, ripping off the broken pieces of the wingsuit and pulling a hidden cord, turning her backpack into a parachute. Her fall came to a sudden stop.
"Not recently, no..." Lisa responded.
She watched as Oliver fell through the air, he winked at her and waved goodbye, smiling widely.
"Consider this a head start!" He shouted at her as he disappeared through the clouds.
On the street below, people were walking and minding their own business, trying to get out of the rain before all of a sudden, a man fell from the sky and landed on top of a car, crushing it under his weight.
Oliver wished he could just get up and continue the chase but the targets were in the wind, literally, and he needed to act injured, Uroboros knows how many people saw him crash and burn right now...
He silently contacted his squad through their mind link. Provided by those kind folks at Python.
'Alpha targets are on the move, last seen flying away from our main server building. I've been spotted by the public, assuming injured cover...' Oliver sent the message.
'Understood, I'm already on it,' His sister responded first, 'They're not getting away from me, this time, Olivia over and out.'
Oliver sighed, watching as he saw his sister fly through the air, riding her metal board.
'She relies too much on her powers... She's going to get herself killed and she never thinks ahead…' He thought to himself. Oliver tried to reassure himself that she could handle herself but he knew his sister too well...
He groaned as he pulled himself out of the car wreck, shocking several passersby.
"I'm going to get into so much trouble for not following procedure with civilians..." He whispered before running off, green lightning trailing behind him.
Lynn looked at the many buildings below her as she continued to float through the air.
"Peabody, I thought you were going to contact me later?" Lynn asked.
"I was, but as I was monitoring your vitals and it appeared they were going haywire, so I took to the roofs and saw you and Oliver tussling mid-air, so I decided to intervene," She said.
"You're a real natural with that rifle you made, Peabody," Lynn said with a laugh, "It's unreal."
Lisa gave a laugh and Lynn could practically see her sister pushing her glasses up.
"The Featherweight prototype isn't just a rifle, sister, using Pythons tech and several of their schematics, I've developed a lightweight anti-material rifle with absolutely NO recoil whatsoever, it fires .9 to .50 millimeter bullets, it has three different firing settings and with my new goggles, I could give you a haircut from the other side of Chicago!" She said with a laugh.
"Please don't," Lynn said with a laugh as she aimed the parachute carefully, avoiding buildings, "Where am I landing, Mrs. Peabody?"
"Building right in front of you, I'm on it and so is our ride out of- Sherman, strafe right," Lisa said urgently.
Lynn wasn't one to ask questions so she did as told, harshly leaning to the right and narrowly avoiding a strip of metal going through her side, bringing up certain memories.
Looking behind her, Lynn's eyes widened at the sight of Olivia, riding a metal surfboard and moving towards her, shards and strips of metal floating around her dangerously.
"Peabody, it's Olivia, she looks angry," Lynn was quick to search herself for the homemade AOG that would disable her Abilities.
"When isn't she…" Lisa responded with a tired sigh.
Olivia shot a shard of steel at Lynn, aiming to decapitate her in one blow but another bang was heard as and the metal exploded into small pieces she couldn't control that fell through the sky.
"I'll cover you, find that AOG," Lisa said, Lynn could hear the gun reloading before several more shards of metal were shot out of the sky.
Olivia gritted her teeth.
"Fine, if you want to play that game, we'll play..." She lifted both of her hands high into the air, the metal at her control began to spin at high speeds before she fired them all at Lynn, her control having greatly improved these last two years.
Even Lynn knew Lisa wasn't going to be able to shoot them all out the air. She quickly undid her parachute and fell out of the way of death, watching as the shards of metal tore through her parachute, turning it to shreds.
Luckily enough, there was a building directly below her that she fell onto.
She rolled to a halt and groaned slightly.
"Great idea Lynn, falling a few buildings away from our target so that I can get a clear shot. Genius," Lisa complimented.
"Yup... Totally the plan..." Suddenly a shard landed next to her head, missing it by a few inches.
"Christ!" She shouted in surprise, moving to the side to avoid more shards. She pulled out her suppressed pistol but it was hit out of her hand by another shard.
She hissed, looking down and seeing a deep gash on her good hand.
Olivia finally floated over her, looking down at her, unimpressed with the Loud.
"I can't believe we've been chasing you for two years... I'll make sure that I take more than an arm this time..." She said before willing the shards forward.
Suddenly, there was a firework of sparks as what sounded like a machine gun fired, all the bullets hitting Olivia's metal and the board she was standing on.
"Lynn! The AOG ! Now, I don't have many bullets!" Lisa said on her end of the comms.
Olivia was quick to defend herself, not wanting to become Swiss cheese.
Lynn took the opportunity presented to her, searching herself. She pulled out a long blue cylinder that had several holes in it, as well as a handle and a pin. She pulled the pin and handle and tossed it towards Olivia.
The cylinder began to beep as it flew through the air, increasing in its intensity.
Olivia's eyes widened as she came face to face with the AOG. She blocked as an electric explosion went off all around her.
"No no no no, my metal, wait- NOOO!" She screamed as she fell through the air, just as her brother had.
Olivia panted heavily as she tried to catch anything to try to stop her from falling, but she was falling down the side of a building so there wasn't anything solid to grab.
"Come on, come on! I don't want to die like this, please!" She shouted, tears flying out of her eyes as she tried to make her board fly towards her but it wasn't responding.
There was a sudden spark of green lightning before she was suddenly in the arms of her big brother, Oliver.
"I got you, Sis, you're safe..." Oliver whispered, holding the 10-year-old close to his chest.
Olivia panted as she held herself close to him.
"T- thanks…" She whispered into his chest.
"Any time…" He said. Oliver ran up the building, feet cracking the glass under him with every step before he jumped up and landed on the roof, looking for Lynn.
"Hey, Olly!" Lynn èce d'imbécile
Turning, the siblings saw what appeared to be Lynn piloting a small helicopter, Lisa sitting on the passenger seat with a pair of goggles on.
"We stole this from you guys a few weeks ago! Nice personal helicopters! Tell that Uroboros guy that he's a smart dude!" She waved, "See ya later!" She said before quickly beginning to fly away.
Oliver whistled, slightly impressed.
"See ya later, Sports Star..."
"Oliver!"
He looked down at the angry sister.
"What?" He asked.
"They're getting away!" She said, walking to the edge of the roof and holding her arms out towards the helicopter, trying to crush it midair but her abilities were still deactivated and even then, it was out of her range anyways…
"I saw, let them, they can't have got anything useful from the servers anyways," Oliver said, stretching before pulling out his phone, Python provided of course, and placing a call.
"Ellie? Eli?" He asked, "Mission failed, they took to the air instead of the roads,"
"Boo," Eli said with a groan.
"We were hoping to get to test out this bad boy too," Ellie said, sounding disappointed.
"Next time," Oliver said, "Get back to the server room, we gotta find out what they learned this time before we make our next move."
"I miss destabilizing nations and causing wars," Eli said with a sigh.
"Well, we won't get those missions again until we catch these Sisters, over and out…" He hung up the phone before looking forward, looking forward, seeing the helicopter flying away in the distance.
"Olivia, go on ahead, your powers should be back by now, that AOG wasn't one of ours, homemade by the sisters. Not nearly as strong as ours, didn't even knock you out."
Olivia tested, seeing her metal board floating back over to her.
"What are you going to do?" She asked as she "stretched" her powers, just floating multiple things of metal around her to get her powers working properly.
"I gotta make a call…" Oliver said seriously, "Gotta report what happened to our handler..." He said before sighing, "She's not going to be happy to hear about this…"
The little sister seemed to understand, nodding before throwing her board forward and jumping on it.
"Got it… See you in ten," She said before flying away on her board, making sure to fly high above the civilians. They saw enough already...
Oliver waited, watching her go before pulling out a second, burner flip phone, and dialed a number.
"Hello…?" The person on the other end asked.
"Hey, Maddison, sorry to bother you from this side of the world but… Let's just say that the switch happened perfectly, she never even noticed that the discs were switched… The sisters have Mother Base's location... "
The other end was silent before a silent giggle was heard.
"Finally… Good job, Oliver… Destroy this phone and number," She said before the line quickly went dead.
Oliver scoffed.
"Please, like I don't know how to destroy a burner…"
He hung up the call and stared at the phone in his hand before he pulled out the SIM card, holding it in a clenched fist. It sparked with green lightning before his fist began to vibrate violently for a few seconds. Opening his fist, he saw that the sim card was dust now. He let it be blown away by the winds before he crushed the phone to pieces.
"Finally… Please don't mess up Sports Star…" He whispered to himself before his form sparked and he disappeared in a flash of lightning.
-Meanwhile-
Lynn was currently piloting the helicopter, with relative ease. She's flown a helicopter a few times already, they were all different but all flew the same… Most of the time… She didn't want to pull up her crash record...
"Let me see your hand," Lisa said, putting her rifle down next to her and looking at Lynn.
"Oh, here," Lynn said, presenting her cut hand.
"No, No, your other hand, I saw that it had a hole in it, I want to make sure that we won't need to use any extra parts at base…" Lisa said, pointing at Lynn's cybernetic arm before grabbing it herself and looking it over.
"I'm sure it's fine, can't even feel it," She said with a nervous laugh.
"That's because you turned off the nerve endings," Lisa said blankly, pressing a hidden button.
Lynn's eyes widened at the sudden rush of pain that entered her brain. It took every ounce of her willpower not to scream and lose control of the helicopter from the pain of being stabbed in the hand finally registering in her head.
"Why would I ever want it on during a mission?" Lynn asked, sighing as Lisa turned them off again, much to her relief.
"So you won't become reckless and let yourself get stabbed like this," She said, holding up the damaged hand, "The fear of pain is a human safety measure, and these parts are hard to come by, so leave the setting on, you being scared to lose an arm again will save us some time and effort…" She scolded before reaching up and undoing the straps to her goggles.
Lynn rolled her eyes.
"Like you're any better, you and that new eye transplant you gave yourself a year ago, I think you enjoy being able to see miles ahead of you. Or able to inspect something by looking at it…"
Lisa carefully removed the goggles, resting them around her neck, and looked at her sister, revealing the mismatched blue right eye clashing with her other brown eye. The blue eye gave a low glow of blue light, inspecting Lynn's arm before it died back down.
Lisa groaned, rubbing her eye slightly.
"Yes, It's great, but I certainly don't enjoy having to deal with the constant headaches that come from using it, that's why I made these goggles in the first place, remember?" Lisa asked as she put the goggles back on. They acted as a pair of half-glasses as well, if you were curious, as only one of her eyes was healed of her visual impairment.
Lisa continued.
"And you're lucky nothing important got damaged…" She said before putting on the goggles once again, "None of the servos got damaged, and even better, I have all the parts back at base to make repairs…"
"Yeah, yeah, everything is good and my hand will be fine, but the info we got, is it any good? Python made sure to hide this server building well, they have to be hiding something important…"
Lisa nodded, pulling out a modified PDA-like system, she connected it to the Disc, accessing the files.
At first, it was nothing of interest.
"Blueprints, blueprints, schematics, financial records, government secrets… I knew he was corrupt…" She said, commenting on a piece of info she discovered, before finding a hidden file.
"Oh? What's this…?" She asked, accessing the file and reading the info. Her eyes slowly widened as she read the words "Mother Base" followed by a string of numbers and letters, she recognized it as Python Script, the coding language. Apparently, the programming language was taught to all Python Oppereatives, as it was a good way to send orders and hide secrets in plain sight, through the internet… You just needed the skeleton key to get access to it… Well, the key or a special virus...
Lisa pressed several buttons on her PDA, an image of a laughing skull popped up, it had Lisa's haircut before it quickly deciphered the code for her and revealed a set of coordinates to her.
Lisa laughed wildly, kicking her feet in triumph.
"YES! YES! YES!" She shouted excitedly.
"What? What did we find?" Lynn asked, wondering what could be making her sister act so out of character.
"The Location of Mother Base! It's what we've been looking for!" She shouted, "We have it! The Coordinates are ours!"
Lynn's eyes widened before she gave a wide smile.
"You know what this means, don't you Lisa?" She asked as she tilted the helicopter and turned, beginning to fly to one of their set up safe houses.
"Oh yes… We can finally start Project Viper…" Lisa said with an evil laugh, before pressing several buttons on her PDA, beginning to type something.
"Don't worry Lincoln… We're coming… Just please hold out a bit longer, help is in the way…"
-Meanwhile, across the world-
Lincoln was panting, he was tired and his entire body was lined in many cuts. Looking to his side, the giant fighter, Gawain, and the expert markswoman, Adalene, were also just as tired and bleeding as him. Looking at his other side, he saw the most durable operative, Tenjin, and the sneakiest operative, Mateo also seemed to be on the end of their wick too.
Sensei Kyoshi's ponytail was untouched. Not even a strand of his hair was touched in their constant attacks.
They all seemed to be very very tired...
"Come on, guys…" Lincoln encouraged, holding up his blade, "You can't be giving up now…" He said, getting into stance once again, motivated to keep going.
"Not on your life, Amigo…" Mateo said, readying his stance as well.
"I'd never pass up a chance to show you up," Adalene said with a laugh, coming up next to Lincoln. Her own hair was cut shorter due to their Sensei playing with them.
"Isn't it funny that the Japanese kid doesn't know how to use a Katana that well?" Tenjin said next with a chuckle, before sighing and stretching, "Give me a tanto blade or something man, I'm more of an assassin, not a samurai…"
"Hm… I'm just scared to lose my arms again…" Gawain said simply.
The group all laughed at that.
"Children," Kyoshi was suddenly upon them, in a crouching stance, "This isn't just a test, I am fighting to kill, I advise you all do the same." He drew his sword, slashing it across Lincoln and Adalene.
Lincoln was quick to grab the french girl and pull her out of the way, at the cost of a few of his fingers. His pinkie and ring finger, on his left hand.
He gave a yell of surprise and stumbled back, dropping his blade and holding his hand.
"Geez Sensei, you only got a few fingers instead of the whole hand, you're getting sloppy…" He said with a laugh, feeling his cybernetic body automatically stopping the blood flow to his two now-gone fingers.
"Nonsense, you're just improving," He said with a smile before he dashed forward at Lincoln, raising his blade once again and slashing.
Lincoln was quick to duck, avoiding the slash and sweeping the sensei's legs from under him, and grabbing his katana from the floor, slashing upwards quickly towards the ponytail, but Lincoln should've known better than to think such a tactic would work so easily.
Lincoln watched as Kyoshi changed his alignment mid-air, pulling his ponytail away from his blade, and then using a hand to springboard himself back to his feet, a few feet away from the Loud.
"Impressive, Lincoln, you always seemed to improve the quickest… A good student…" Kyoshi said as Adalene and the rest came up to Lincoln's side once again.
"He's too good… We'll never beat him…" Tenjin said.
"We haven't even landed a cut on him yet…" Gawain said.
"We don't have to beat him, just give him a haircut…" Lincoln said, looking down at his hand with his missing fingers before clenching a fist.
"Maybe it's time we started using our strengths…" Lincoln said, "Adalene, keep your distance, Mateo, do what you do best and disappear, find an opening. Gawain, Tenjin you guys are with me, Gawain, you are leading the line-" Gawain groaned that he'd be leading the fight against Kyoshi, "-Trust me guys, we're not failing… It's time to start working together…"
"Who put you in charge?" Adalene asked, but did as told, slowly starting to move back as Mateo was already gone. Amazing how he did that.
"Me, now be careful... And wait for my signal, tireur d'élite," Lincoln said in french, smiling at her.
"Ready? Let's go!" The German giant shouted with a laugh, running forward at their Sensei, Tenjin, and Lincoln following his lead.
"Oh? Working together, I hear?" Kyoshi asked, sensing and jumping back to avoid Gawain's powerful swings of his blade.
"That's an impressive first, that I've yet to see," Kyoshi commented.
Lincoln and Tenjin suddenly came from either side of the swordsman.
Kyoshi suddenly jumped into the air, and landed on Lincoln and Tenjin's blades, and kicked them both back before landing back on the ground.
"Ugh, thanks, Sensei," Lincoln got back to his feet. "I just realized that it was a group test…" Lincoln said, moving forward along with Tenjin and Gawain, backing the Sensei into a corner, all their swords at the ready.
"And we don't want Linc to have all the glory either," Gawain said with a hearty laugh, gripping the handle of his sword with both hands. While he wasn't as precise or quick as Lincoln and Tenjin, he had a certain amount of power behind his swings. Lincoln was banking on this fact…
Kyoshi sensed something, then felt a breath on his neck…
He ducked, just as Mateo swung where he was standing, the only thing Mateo did cut was Kyoshi's blindfold.
"Now Gawain," Lincoln said quickly, seeing an opportunity for attack.
Gawain simply nodded and swung his sword down hard, Lincoln didn't know what Gawain was thinking. Probably something along the lines of "He can't have a ponytail if he has no head" but it didn't matter, Master Kyoshi was fast, strong, and most importantly- resourceful.
He watched as the Sensei instantly brought up his sword to block the giant's downward strike.
CLANG
The sound of blades meeting echoed throughout the entire room before a loud snap noise was heard seconds later and then-
SHINK
The entire fight came to a halt.
Gawain's sword was deeply situated inside of Kyoshi's skull.
The Master's sword had snapped into two pieces from the absolute force and strength of Gawain's swing. To say that everyone was extraordinarily shocked was an understatement.
"Oh, my gosh Gawain…" Tenjin said, simply just staring.
"Santa maria, amigo, you killed him… Good job," Mateo said, impressed.
"That… Wasn't the plan…" Lincoln with a thoughtful expression, "That was too easy though…"
Gawain, with wide eyes, dropped the blade and let the master's body fall before him.
"Scheisse! I- I swear that I didn't mean to!" He shouted, fearing what Python would do if they found out they actually killed one of their teachers in a test more than the shock of actually killing someone.
There was suddenly a puff of smoke and the Master's body was suddenly gone, replaced with a simple coffee table from earlier, with only the pieces of the broken blade being left behind. Gawain suddenly felt one of his arms be swiftly separated from his body. Earning a scream of pain from him and a string of cursing in German from the boy.
"My, oh my, Gawain, I'm impressed, you forced me to use my ability for the second time this year…" The Master said, walking from behind the Giant and pointing a new blade at the german boy's neck. Revealing Kyoshi, now without a blindfold and a giant gash in his head from Gawain's blade that was now bleeding profusely.
"W- what!? Your ability? But- but I saw you die! How could you even activate it!?" To say the now one-armed blonde was confused would be an understatement.
"Oh that's right, you were having your arms reattached the last time I explained it," Kysohi said with a hum, "My ability is called "Replace" at any time, I can replace myself with an item I can see… And you can't exactly kill a teacher of Python so easily, student," He said, the deep gash healing in mere moments. It was as if the life-ending cut never existed in the first place. Even his hair was replaced.
"Well, that just means we'll have to try extra hard without holding back, now that we're down a man!" Lincoln said, suddenly kicking up all the pieces of their master's broken sword into the air and throwing them all in the swordsman's direction. Kyoshi naturally weaved past all of them.
"Come on, Loud, I know you can-"
He stopped, seeing Lincoln charge at him, furiously swinging his sword with reckless abandon; he, of course, was able to block and deflect every attack with ease.
"Oh this is certainly new," Kyoshi said, surprised to see Lincoln acting so aggressively, "Dare I say that you've taken inspiration from the Tigers?" He asked.
"Not at all, Sensei! Just getting you in a better position!" Lincoln shouted before ducking. Kyoshi watched as Tenjin ran and placed a foot on Lincoln's back. Lincoln suddenly stood, launching Tenjin up into the air.
Tenjin swung his blade downwards as Lincoln dashed forward, both aiming to take that ponytail.
They watched as Kyoshi's eyes suddenly glowed bright yellow and he caught Tenjin's blade in between his index and middle while his Katana blocked Lincolns.
"You'll have to try harder than-" He suddenly stopped speaking when he felt all the wind get knocked out of him, a large foot hitting him in the midsection with untold amounts of force.
Everyone looked in shock at the sight of Gawain, one arm, now using his legs to fight.
"You're going to regret teaching us Muay Thai, Sensei." Gawain kept light on his feet. He wasn't going to let the loss of an arm stop him from helping with this test. "Don't think just because you took my arm, that I'm out of the fight!" He shouted, suddenly twirling in the air before landing another kick into the shocked Kyoshi's chest, sending him flying back.
"Impressive… You all are certainly a promising lot… I believe that Omega will have trouble with your year for certain…" He said, rubbing his chest slightly before getting to his feet and getting into a stance before his eyes glowed bright yellow once again, "But if you can't beat me, then you certainly won't beat him… So be on guard, I will no longer hold back…"
"Il se prononce "en garde", espèce d'imbécile..." A voice said from behind.
Kyoshi suddenly felt several stabbing feelings in his knee, arms and back. He fell forward onto the floor and saw his old Katana hilt stab him in the hand, pinning him down. His eyes widened.
"The Marksman…" He whispered in shock.
Lincoln quickly moved forward and wrapped the blindfold around his eyes, as Tenjin, Mateo, and Gawain held the Sensei down.
Adalene quickly ran forward as Lincoln held up the long ponytail for her to cut. Lincoln then held up the ponytail of their sensei as Adalene straightened her blade and raised it before swinging it.
The world was silent, everyone simply panting from the exhaustion of this hard fight.
Adalene and Lincoln suddenly held up the severed ponytail from their Sensei's head in triumph.
The entire dojo of other Python trainees, who were watching the entire thing, suddenly roared in loud cheers and clapping, even some Sponsors came in to watch the entire thing.
Lincoln smiled brightly as he felt Adalene suddenly release their trophy.
"Take the credit, you deserve it more than me. Without your quick thinking, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have gone anywhere…" Adalene said with a smile.
"Nonsense, my planning was barely even planning, I'm just glad you caught those sword pieces too… I expected that Gawain was going to break a sword eventually…"
"You don't give yourself enough credit, Loud…" Kyoshi said, getting to his feet once again after Tenjin and Mateo removed the pieces of his broken Katana, allowing him to heal the damage done to his body, "You predicted what would happen, thought of a plan, and put everyone's available strengths to use… The makings of a Leader…"
Kyoshi suddenly reached forward and grabbed Lincoln's arm, more specifically, the one with his classification number.
"Under the authority of Uroboros and approval of the General, and to my satisfaction, I promote you, LL-6247, to Commander; First-class…" He put a hand over the classification number and Lincoln felt a slight pain as it turned from an A-1 to a C-1.
Lincoln hissed in pain as he flexed his arm.
"How the hell did you do that? I thought that that was a tattoo?" He asked, looking at the new ID classification.
"Wrong, nanobots that are just under the skin. Why do you think we never remark you lot after losing a limb?" He asked, moving across the others and promoting the others as well.
After he was done, Kyoshi smiled at everyone brightly.
"Congratulations, you all have passed, just as I knew you would. Enjoy the rest of your day, The General and even the Doctor agreed to let you enjoy yourselves today…" With that, Kyoshi grabbed his katana from the floor, wiping away the blood that may have been spilled on it and walking forward, suddenly disappearing in a cloud of cherry blossom petals.
Tenjin scoffed.
"That man is a walking stereotype…" He said with an eye roll before he was tackled by several members of the Fox team, giving him congratulations on his well-earned victory. Although Tenjin had to correct them several times, that it was really Lincoln who did all the thinking...
Lincoln smiled as he looked down at the new classification number on his arm with… What was this feeling… A sense of pride? Pride that his efforts here at Python were getting recognized… His smile suddenly disappeared before it turned into a scowl of sorts.
"Can't forget the goal… Can't forget… I need to get back home…" He whispered.
"Congratulations, LL-6247…"
Looking up, he saw Maddison was standing behind him.
"Oh, thanks, Maddison… I didn't see you there…" He said with a nervous laugh.
"Don't worry about it, worry about the 400 lbs of force that is about to crush you in a few seconds." She said with a laugh, patting his back before stepping back.
"Huh? OOF!" He gave a cry of surprise as he was tackled by Ronnie, Eric, and Zola, who picked all three of them up into a large group hug.
"Linc!" Ronnie shouted, giving him the tightest squeeze, "I'm so happy that you didn't get chopped up!" She shouted, kissing him on the cheek, embarrassing Lincoln and making Eric and Zola laugh at his reaction.
"I remember when the young American couldn't even land an actual punch, this almost brings me to tears… Almost…" Zola said with a smile.
"Aye, this was a hard-fought fight, maybe we should crack open a bottle of the top shelf of oxycodone to celebrate," Eric said, wrapping an arm around his neck with a wide smile.
"You'd use those on something like this?" Lincoln asked with a laugh, "Save 'em, who knows when we'll have to make a trade." He said.
Ronnie then noticed something.
"What's this?" She asked, reaching over and pulling something off Lincoln's back. A note.
Lincoln took the paper, inspecting it, and then reading it out loud.
"Project Viper… Is coming… Stay safe..." He read out loud to everyone in his group, "Help is Loud and on the way…?" He said, finishing the note before looking up at the shocked group.
"Project Viper…? Sounds like a bastard version of Python…" Zola whispered, "Who's it from?" She asked.
Lincoln looked down at the note once again, inspecting it, it was a printed sheet of paper, no handwriting to inspect, it was obvious Maddison planted it but who had sent the message…. He hummed in thought and inspected the words again before noticing-
"The L in Loud is… Capitalized…" He whispered in realization.
"What?" Eric asked, confused, "What does that mean? Do grammar errors make you sick or something?"
Lincoln shook his head.
"N- No… Loud… That's my family… They're… Looking for me… For us…" He said with a wide smile, tears going down his cheek before he ripped up the letter into squares and tiny pieces before putting the pieces into his pocket.
"We're getting out of here guys… That's a promise…" Lincoln then put a fist out, "I think we got a team name finally…"
Zola, Eric, and Ronnie gave a curious look as they all connected their fists in the middle.
"What could it be? Something that'll strike fear I hope…" Eric chuckled.
"Or something Fierce?" Zola asked next.
"No, something cool," Ronnie said next.
Lincoln laughed at all their ideas.
"You guys are making me regret my decision… I was thinking something more… Hopeful… Guys, I'm happy to announce that I'm the new commander of Team Dove…"
And so they were named… But questions remained unanswered.
What was Project Viper? What did Maddison have to do with it and most importantly on Lincoln's mind… Was his family doing alright without him?