Excursion
It had been nearly a week since the end of the Michigan Flu crisis in Royal Woods. Many had fallen ill to Bill's bioweapon, and a handful of patients were brought to the brink of death. Lucy Loud, along with her younger sister Lana, and older sister Leni, were amongst those few. If a cure hadn't been found in time, thanks in part to the effort of other extra-dimensional travellers, the results would have been far more grave. When all was said and done, Lori Loud announced that there would be a sibling meeting at the end of the week, after everyone had recovered. Every single Loud sibling could guess what the topic would be. In the aftermath, Bill managed to regain physical form and was on the loose once again, an outcome everyone wanted to prevent. The night before, Lucy was finding sleep hard to come by.
Even though everyone had absolved her of any guilt, she still felt responsible for the whole mess. After all, it was she who found Bill's wand and used it to invoke terror under the guise of the Dread Mistress, which in turn empowered Bill enough to unleash the plague in the first place. When Lucy finally did go to sleep, she had a very strange dream. Again, she found herself in Edwin's castle, a prominent location in her favourite TV show, but instead of Bill greeting her, this time, a figure that looked like an older version of herself appeared instead. Lucy recognised her straight away.
"Great-grandma Harriet? What are you doing here?" Lucy asked.
"You know how your siblings are going to vote in tomorrow's meeting, right?" Harriet inquired.
"I do. They'll probably want to fight," Lucy guessed. Ever since the siblings fought off Bill with the help of Rosa Casagrande, there was much talk about formulating a plan of action. Lola, in particular, was eager for a second round with the newly reborn demon sorcerer.
"Do you really think that going after him will assuage your guilt? Or that you could even carry out the deed should you find him?" Harriet probed.
"Maybe not, but it's better than doing nothing," Lucy reasoned. Harriet sighed heavily.
"I see I am not going to be able to convince you or your siblings away from this rash, reckless act. So, the least I can do is prepare you for the threats you'll face. There are many spells in your arsenal that will prove useful in your quest," Harriet informed.
"Absolutely not. I never want to touch magic again," Lucy rejected.
"I can understand your aversion to the magical arts, considering your recent experience, but ask yourself this; what would've happened had you faced Bill without Mother Rosa's assistance?" Harriet posed. Lucy thought about this for a moment.
"I have to admit, without her, Bill would most likely have wiped us out," Lucy admitted.
"Precisely. Magic must defeat magic," Harriet responded.
"But how do I use it? I'm not the Dread Mistress anymore," Lucy pointed out.
"What would be the first thing your sister Lisa will tell you about energy?" Harriet quizzed. Lucy did not know how to answer that. "I see someone needs to pay attention in science class. She would tell you that it can neither be created nor destroyed. Magic operates in much the same way," Harriet explained.
"Meaning?" Lucy asked.
"When Bill first approached you, he didn't just transfer some of his own abilities to you, he also revitalised the dormant magic already inside you," Harriet finished.
"What dormant magic?" Lucy inquired, her curiosity now piqued.
"It's time for you to learn the family secret. You see, the Louds are a magical bloodline. All of your siblings possess the ability to wield magic on their own," Harriet confessed. Lucy had a hard time believing this.
"Is this one of Luan's jokes?" Lucy asked.
"Have you never wondered how Lynn could achieve feats even the most seasoned of athletes could only dream of? Or how Lana could eat the grossest of things and not end up in the ER? Or how Lisa could be as smart as she is?" Harriet probed.
"I put that all down to natural talent, or in Lana's case, pure luck," Lucy replied. Harriet scoffed at that last remark.
"We in the magical community know there is no such thing as luck," Harriet remarked.
"OK, say I believe you. How come we're not all flying around on broomsticks, waving magic wands or brewing potions?" Lucy asked.
"Do you remember the family recipe for baby formula?" Harriet directed.
"Yes, Dad says it's healthier than the store brand," Lucy answered.
"What he doesn't know is that it's a binding potion, my own special blend, passed down for generations because I didn't want my family put in danger by a magical lifestyle, one my Sisters have learned to embrace," Harriet replied.
"But you had no sisters," Lucy responded.
"No, I meant the Sisterhood of the Shining Light, the organisation I founded. I held the title of First Mother. Long ago, I started the Sisterhood as a first and last line of defence against beings like Bill. When I had a family of my own, I knew they would be endangered by that life, so I bound the powers of my children to keep them safe from harm. When Bill empowered you, it undid that potion's effects. Now, you are very much the sorcerer I was in my youth," Harriet exposited. Lucy initially had a hard time believing all of this, but she knew Harriet well enough to know she was no liar.
"But how?" Lucy probed.
"I can't tell you that right now," Harriet shot down.
"Why not?" Lucy asked.
"Because you're waking up," Harriet replied. True enough, a different voice started echoing around the halls.
"Hello. Earth to Luce, you there?" probed the familiar voice of Lucy's room-mate, Lynn Loud. Lucy then woke up in her and Lynn's bedroom.
"What?" Lucy said in a very tired voice.
"Lori called a sibling meeting. It starts in five minutes. Get the lead out," Lynn urged. Lucy wanted to go back to sleep really badly. She got the feeling that there was more Harriet needed to share.
"This had better be good," Lucy remarked to herself. As soon as she could muster the strength to get out of bed, she made her way to Lori and Leni's room. Although Lisa's cure for the sickness did its job, those affected were still weak for days after the initial infection. Consequently, Lucy, Lana, and Leni spent a lot of time in bed getting their strength back. When Lucy arrived, everyone else was there waiting for her.
"OK, let's not beat around the bush. We all know why we're here," Lori began the meeting.
"How to deal with Bill. Look, I, along with everyone else here, want a piece of him for what he did, but what you're proposing seems a little drastic," Lincoln observed. Lincoln had his reservations about what Lori proposed prior to the start of the meeting. She put the idea forward that, since Bill retreated to another world, that they should follow him and put a stop to whatever he had planned. Leni, however, was on Lori's side.
"But Lincoln, what if Bill does the same thing in another world as he did to this one? Wouldn't you feel compelled to help?" Leni argued.
"Curing diseases is one thing, fighting demon wizards is quite another. Besides, how will we even find him? He could be in any realm. Are we supposed to go world-hopping until we run into him?" Lincoln reasoned.
"I believe I have the answer to this predicament. My inter-dimensional pen pal should be able to provide adequate assistance in this matter," Lisa replied.
"This friend of yours ever deal with stuff like this before?" Luna inquired.
"Not this specific scenario, but he has had to deal with his fair share of villains in his dimension," Lisa responded.
"It's a start. Beats searching blindly," Lori concluded. Everyone nodded in agreement. "All in favour of asking Lisa's friend for help, say 'aye'," Lori added. Everyone said 'aye', even Lily, which got Lincoln's attention.
"Sorry, Lily, but you can't come with us," Lincoln said in a sympathetic tone, which earned a non-verbal cry of objection from the baby.
"Lincoln's right. Where we're going is too dangerous for you, Lily. You have to stay here," Lori agreed. More cries from Lily indicated the meeting was finished. Lori then turned to Lisa. "We'll wait until she's asleep, then we'll leave. It'll give us time to write our farewells. We may not be back here for a while," Lori advised.
"I'll get my inter-dimensional gateway ready. When I give the signal, everyone sneak out of their rooms and meet me in my bunker," Lisa instructed. Later that night, after Lily had been put down for the night, Lisa texted everyone to meet her in the bunker. Once everyone was assembled, the gateway was brought online. Lincoln then turned to the readers.
"I think you all know what happens here. Our journey begins. It'll be hard, but we can't just sit around doing nothing while others do the fighting. We want to do our part, no matter how small our contribution may be," Lincoln addressed the readers. He, along with his sisters, minus Lily, stepped through.
The Loud family arrived at the laboratory of Lisa's inter-dimensional pen pal. It looked like Lisa's, except bigger and with more space to work. The others could see why Lisa would want to spend time here, as there were experiments and analytical equipment stretching across the room. Bizarrely, no-one was home.
"Hmm, that's atypical. Usually, around this time, he'd be working on some big projects. Or maybe he's delving into some space travel to study some extra-terrestrial anomaly," Lisa observed.
"Your pen pal goes into space? Just what sort of brain box is he?" Lincoln asked.
"The kind that can help us track down Bill and work with some dangerous substances, so please don't touch anything," Lisa cautioned while Lincoln was itching to grab one such invention. It was at that moment that he took note of the plaque on the laboratory wall. The inscription said:
'This laboratory and everything in it is the sole property of J. I. Neutron'
"The initials stand for James Isaac, but he usually goes by the name Jimmy," Lisa informed.
"Well, it doesn't look like he's here right now. Maybe we should go out and try to find him," Luan suggested.
"Agreed, although we should keep contact with the locals to a minimum. I have his picture on my phone, so finding him shouldn't be too hard," Lisa concurred. She showed the family out of Jimmy's lab, using the guest exit.
Speaking of the boy genius himself, Jimmy was busy with an investigation of his own. He had been contracted, and by a phenomenon, they meant drafted, by the BTSO, or Big Top Secret Organisation, to get to the bottom of a phenomenon that saw other-worldly beings coming into this realm. Jimmy had been monitoring these events for some time before the BTSO even got wind of these happenings, something Jimmy wasted no time in telling them. When he got to the co-ordinates of the phenomena, which led them to a secluded part of the woods, he had noted that it was identical to the others he had seen on other planets.
"That's the third one this week. Where do these lesions keep coming from?" Jimmy asked himself.
"Who cares, let's just seal it like the others and be done with it. I need to get some sleep," Sheen rebutted. It was true what Jimmy said, he had seen two other inter-dimensional lesions similar to the one they were about to seal now. From what he could gather, they were rifts in the space-time continuum which could allow beings from other worlds to traverse the barriers between dimensions without the aid of a gateway. Most times, this happened by accident.
"Rough night, Sheen?" Carl asked.
"I had this really bad nightmare where I got into one of Jimmy's rockets and flung myself all the way to this no-where place called Zeenu, and you were some slug thing," Sheen recalled.
"That must've been terrible," Carl consoled.
"Yeah. Well, good thing it's over now," Sheen replied. After taking some readings with the help of his trusty robot dog, Goddard, Jimmy led the others further into the woods.
"Apparently, this rift leads to the Gorlock homeworld, and that a group of them passed through here not too long ago," Jimmy outlined.
"Wasn't that April girl from Gorlock? You know, the one that was really into you," Sheen recalled.
"Yes, but she knows I'm officially off the market. We're just good friends, that's all," Jimmy dismissed. Between his encounters with the buck-tooth boy in pink with the fairy-like computer programs and some coaxing from Nick, Jimmy finally did pluck up the courage to ask Cindy if they could do away with their 'love-hate' thing and become an official coupling. To no-one's surprise except Jimmy, Cindy agreed, although the two were still yet to go on their first date.
Bringing the group back to the task at hand, they could hear what sounded like a hunting party getting closer. They barely had time to move before the Gorlocks surrounded them. At their head was one Jimmy recognised. It was April.
"Jimmy, this is a nice surprise. I never thought I'd see you again after dealing with Meldar," April greeted.
"It's nice to see you, too. But we have no time for cozy chit-chat. We need to get your group back through the rift before my people come through here with weapons. The rift you came through isn't the first one that's cropped up," Jimmy explained.
"That will be a hard sell. There's not a lot here bigger than the Gorlocks. On Earth, they'd be the top of the food chain," April advised. Just then, the Huntmaster addressed Jimmy directly.
"You, child. I recognise you. The way it is told, without you, there would be no Gorlock. You have the eternal gratitude of my people for your heroism that day," the Huntmaster acknowledged.
"Jimmy, meet my dad," April introduced.
"Charmed, but you really must lead your people back through the rift to your home. Our government has taken notice of the intrusions and they will be here soon," Jimmy pressed.
"We do not wish war with your people, and the hunt here poses little in the way of challenge. Very well, we will depart. Give me five minutes to gather the party," the Huntmaster resolved. Jimmy then turned to April.
"By any chance, are the matrix generators I gave you causing these rifts?" Jimmy inquired. April showed Jimmy the generators she kept on her at all times. Jimmy looked them over and found that they were not responsible for the anomalies.
"I haven't found a way to use them since you gave them to me, nor would I wish to. Are you sure you don't want them?" April asked.
"Positive. They're in good hands with you," Jimmy answered.
"Alright. I'll be sure to send you a message should another rift appear on our planet. Maybe next time you'll come to us," April invited.
"That would be fascinating," Jimmy considered her offer. As the hunters all gathered up to venture through the rift they came from, April waved goodbye one last time before going through herself. Jimmy then proceeded to seal the rift using another one of his gadgets.
"Time to go home, gentlemen," Jimmy indicated.
"About time, I need a nap," Sheen replied.
Back at the Neutron family back yard, Cindy and Libby were approaching Jimmy's lab. Cindy had a brilliant idea for a first date. Retroland was offering a two-for-one deal as a promotion for their newest attraction. Funnily enough, it was a video arcade with games that all had the same plot; save Retroville from being destroyed by any one of Jimmy's inventions.
"So, your idea of a first date is playing games that retell all of your beau's screw-ups?" Libby probed.
"I want to see how they dramatize it, plus it might make Jimmy think more about what he's inventing and the damage it can cause," Cindy replied.
"Wouldn't a movie or a dinner date have done just fine?" Libby asked.
"Those are so overdone. I want to be the kind of girlfriend that does something unique, something that all those other girls that had their eye on him couldn't imagine in their dizziest daydreams," Cindy answered.
"And by 'all those other girls', you only mean Betty and the green chick. One, Betty's already backed off, and two, you made sure Jimmy made it clear you were his. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous," Libby teased.
"I am not jealous!" Cindy denied.
"Sure you aren't," Libby replied sarcastically
"I'm not! What would I have to be jealous of? It's not like there's a line of girls coming out of Jimmy's lab," Cindy remarked, flustered. That was when Libby saw something that made her mouth shoot open. "What?" Cindy probed when she saw this. Cindy turned around and saw a line of unknown girls come out of Jimmy's lab, all of varying ages, by the look of them. The oldest looked to be in her late teens, while the youngest was clearly in kindergarten. There was even a single boy with them. One of the girls began to speak.
"So, the plan is to search this town of a couple hundred residents for one boy genius. If we're going to search for a needle in a haystack, I'd like a magnet," Lana outlined.
"He usually frequents the eatery known as the Candy Bar or retreats to the local library to think over his latest invention. We should split up to cover more ground," Lisa briefed.
"I call the Candy Bar!" Lola immediately volunteered.
"Don't get chocolate sprinkles. They're really ants," Lisa warned, which made Lola almost gag, while Lana was salivating in anticipation. Finding the will to speak once again, Cindy made her presence known.
"Can we help you?" Cindy asked, more annoyed than curious as to their presence. Lisa turned to face the girl who spoke up and examined her closely.
"Hmmmm, blonde hair, green clothing, volatile temperament, you must be Cindy Vortex. Jimmy mentions you very frequently," Lisa noted.
"Oh, I'm sure he does, and I don't have a volatile temperament!" Cindy yelled, which caused Libby to step in.
"Chill, girl. I'm sure there's a rational explanation for this. We'll just call Jimmy here and you can kill him when he arrives," Libby reasoned.
"Please don't. We came here to ask him something. We can't do that if he's dead," Leni pleaded. Everyone collectively sighed.
"If you could summon my fellow scientist, it would really be a big help," Lisa requested.
"Great, just what this town needs, another genius. I'll call him," Cindy agreed.
"Don't mind her, she's really a sweet girl. It's just her and Jimmy only just recently became a thing and seeing a load of girls come out of his lab puts all kinds of crazy thoughts in her head," Libby attempted to defuse the tension.
"We literally get it. But our visit is important, and we really do need Jimmy's help," Lori replied.
"In the meantime, I love what you've done to your hair," Leni complimented Libby's hair.
"Thanks, it's an Egyptian style. If we have time, I could show you, girl, and maybe then you could show me how you rock those sunglasses," Libby responded.
"Deal," Leni enthusiastically agreed, like she found a new best friend.
Back at the woods, Jimmy had just finished seeing off the Gorlock hunting party when Goddard came running up to him. He then opened up his display screen and it indicated that he had an incoming call. Jimmy pressed the 'accept' option and Cindy's face appeared.
"Jimmy, by any chance, were you expecting guests?" Cindy inquired.
"No, why?" Jimmy replied.
"Well, guess what? You got ten!" Cindy exclaimed. She turned her phone around so Jimmy could see what was happening. He could make an educated guess as to who these strangers were, but he had to be sure.
"Is one of them named Lisa?" Jimmy probed. Cindy then asked the Louds which one was Lisa. She then gave her phone to the kindergartener.
"Apologies for the intrusion, old friend, but an urgent matter has arisen that necessitates us to speak in person," Lisa addressed Jimmy. The other Louds then all tried to get a glimpse of Lisa's friend.
"That's Jimmy Neutron? When you told us you had a pen pal, I was expecting someone a little younger," Luna observed.
"I don't know. I mean he does look like the type everyone picks last in Gym class," Lynn stated.
"Jimmy, who are these girls?" Carl asked.
"Yeah, how come you didn't tell us you had beautiful ladies stashed away in your lab somewhere?" Sheen probed.
"I am going to pretend I didn't hear that," Libby shot back at Sheen.
"I'll be there in five minutes," Jimmy informed, and the three, plus Goddard were in Jimmy's hovercar, heading back to his lab with all haste. What they didn't know was that all the while, a cloaked figure was observing them from the shadows.
"So, that is this world's defender? I expected more," the figure stated. Another anonymous observer then emerged to approach the cloaked figure. This one had a more 'evil scientist' look.
"You wouldn't be the first to go after Neutron. He has a habit of thwarting evil plans wherever he goes," the scientist responded. This piqued the cloaked one's curiosity.
"You know this boy?" the robed figure asked.
"Know him? He's my sworn enemy, and I can tell you he has a lot of those!" the scientist answered.
"Really? Then perhaps we should talk more. The name is Bill, by the way. I'm a new arrival to these parts, but I'm eager to cause some mayhem," Bill introduced.
"Professor Finbarr Calamitous, at your service. Would you care to discuss Neutron at my lair?" Calamitous invited.
"That would be lovely. I want to know everything there is about this boy," Bill accepted the invitation, and the two departed for Calamitous' lair.
Meanwhile, back at Royal Woods, the Loud parents were getting up to start the day, when Lynn Sr. noted that something seemed off. It took a second or two to realise what it was, but when he couldn't hear anything, he came to a conclusion. The Loud House was never this quiet, especially in the morning. He called out to his kids, but when he got no response, he walked into the living room and saw a note on the table. He picked it up and read the contents. What he read terrified him:
'Dear Mum and Dad
By the time you read this, we will have already left. After recent events, we all came to realise that we could not just sit idly by while others did the fighting, not if we could help, in any way. We have gone to find Bill and get justice for what he did to our town, our family, and our friends. We may not be back for some time, and we also fully acknowledge that, in the worst-case scenario, we may not come back at all. But we have to do this. Something told us that we were meant to. We have left Lily behind so that, if something should happen, she can carry on the family line. We love you, Mum and Dad.
The Loud children'
Lynn Sr. passed the note to Rita, who was also shocked at the contents.
"I told them not to," Rita whispered to herself.
Author's note: Here we are, the first story of the New Year. Hope you enjoy it. I had a little trouble coming up with a decent title for this one, and I also had to play catch-up, as I haven't written for the Louds in months. Also, I am one of those fans that really wants a Season 4 of Jimmy Neutron, and please forgive me shrugging off Planet Sheen as a bad dream. I like to keep things in line with the canon of the show, but I really don't want to acknowledge the existence of that train-wreck of a show, so this one time, I am exercising author's prerogative and forgetting about it entirely. The usual disclaimers, I own nothing. Jimmy Neutron and the Loud House belong to Nickelodeon. Enjoy.