While the match between Laura and Lincoln was underway, Rin was spending time in Arena 3. She had in her mind to work on her long range accuracy to try and drown out something Lincoln said...

("I'm fighting Laura after school today!")

("Oh, I got that covered.")

"Ehhhh, I'm sure there's a moral in there somewhere," she scratched her head, not knowing whether he would rage out or not, given the current talk of the school, "or a cruel gotcha message..."

"What's this?" Cecilia walked into the floor area, "A bit of after school tutoring? And here I thought I would be the first one to arrive."

Rin saw a golden opportunity to distract herself and settle a tiny grudge, "I'm just getting a little extra training so I can beat losers like you in the tournament. What are you doing here?"

"The same as you actually, except I'll win."

The flames have been lit.

"You wanna back up that fat mouth?" Rin said, "Why don't we just see who's the best out of the two of us, right here and now?"

"Fine by me," Cecilia taunted, "but if you're in the game of a contest of strength and elegance, I do believe that I outrank you in both arenas."

"Uh-huh, and are you sure you're not going off of your overly huge monstrosity of a haircut?"

"Tarty, tarty, is the maiden of the ironing board."

'Ohhhh, so this is what he meant,' Rin thought as she was spiked with a surge of rage from Cecilia's remark, "I guess I should thank you."

"What for?"

"For giving me the fuel I need to beat your stale ass!" Rin shouted as she deployed her Shenlong, which prompted Cecilia to deploy her Blue Tears.

Back in the main buildings, Ichika and Charles were having major difficulty warding off some of the whispering. No matter what he told the other students, the response was always the same: that he should just accept that the bet is on. And maybe pretend to throw the match...

"My hearing is a lot better than they think," Ichika groaned, "Man, I dunno what's going through their brains..."

"Maybe we should give them time to cool off?" Charles suggested, "You know how high schoolers are with gossip."

"What's gotten them so bored that they need to gossip everyday?..."

Just then, a couple students ran past them:

"Three Representative Contenders are having practice matches right now!"

"Yeah! I can't wait to see that German girl mop the floor with that albino!"

"I think the match between Fan and Alcott would be more interesting."

Ichika smacked his forehead, "He really went through with it..."

"Let's offer our strength to him," Charles suggested.

"Good idea," Ichika grabbed Charles's hand and ran them off to Arena 4. He happened upon the spot where Houki and Kim were sitting, "Houki? What's happening?"

"I don't know..." was all she said.

Ichika wondered what exactly she meant, until a huge shot misfired and hit the barrier in front of them. That drew the crowd's attention to Lincoln, who flew towards Laura while flinging as many card bombs as he could at her and shrugging off a shot to his shoulder.

SAVVY SUITE — SHIELD 84/137%

Lincoln kept throwing cards at Laura from a distance until he saw a chance to sneak in a CQC scuffle. But no matter how many cards or punches he threw, none of them connected. All his cards were either swatted away or outright avoided, and all his close-up assaults were met with extremely fierce resistance, either by prolonged struggle or a quick German martial art demonstration. But for all of the five minutes of wasted effort, he never got hit with her railgun, nor did she once use her wire daggers.

Not that it mattered, because Lincoln was just rolled back out of her CQC range after another saber-based takedown, and was immediately bombarded with railgun fire which he barely managed to avoid, "SON OF A RAILGUN, WOMAN!"

SAVVY SUITE — SHIELD 64/137%

"Strange," Laura muttered while firing at him, "The Savvy Suite was not built for this kind of combative vigor. And yet..."

"I gotta throw her off someh-UGH!" Lincoln mumbled, opening up the perfect moment for a stray shot to hit his foot, causing him to spin uncontrollably and spray card bombs everywhere.

This, Laura couldn't completely avoid. She briefly strayed left and right before using her wire daggers to counter several incoming cards. Then, she immediately caught his spinning kick, but had to let go of him because of a narrowly avoided card bomb that flew in under his leg. She sent her wire daggers after him, but he successfully avoided being tangled in their grasp. He closed ranks again and tried to throw a couple punches, but she slashed at both his arms and returned a kick, only to have that blocked. He readied two cards and aimed for her neck, but she caught him in her wire daggers and knocked him back with a saber attack. He skidded backward and landed on one knee to avoid completely collapsing.

"Damn," Laura said, "His compatibility with the IS almost rivals mine..."

SCHWARZER REGEN — SHIELD 95/100%

SAVVY SUITE — SHIELD 39/137%

"C'est incroyable..." Charles whispered.

"What is it?" Ichika asked.

"I didn't think he could hold his own against someone like her..."

"But He isn't," Kim said, "Look closely at his face."

Charles took one look at Lincoln, and promptly turned away, "Eh, I'd rather not..."

"Why?" Ichika asked, "It's not like he-" and he saw it too.

Lincoln somehow conjured a massive wave of anger and allowed it to surge through his body, rejuvenating his willpower and allowing him to get back on his feet with ease.

"Knock him down already!" A student shouted, "He shouldn't be getting back up, so knock him down!"

"What's with these people?..." Kim commented.

"Finish him! Finish him!"

"Maybe I shouldn't be so laid back on them," Ichika thought.

"Just a...little more..." Lincoln thought, "I need that barrier out again..."

"Hmph...to call something with that kind of finishing a third generation is a joke," Laura smirked, "I thought you would have realized by now how pointless it is to deny your place."

"Call me a bit of an idiot," Lincoln panted, "but if I'm already losing, then what's the point of me giving up?" He assumed his signature pose and readied a full hand, "Don't start what you can't finish, amirite?"

"Fine," Laura said, "If that is your wish..." she withdrew her sabers and came at him at full speed, "...then I shall render you impotent and remind you of the difference between us!"

"Why that word..." Lincoln threw his cards at her, forcing her to sidestep the damage and averting a direct assault.

Laura changed course and circled around him while releasing her wire daggers. Lincoln knew what she would do with them and flew after her, ducking under every magenta thing in his way until he was within arm's reach of the Schwarzer Regen. But she was able to lock him down and push him away, after which one of the wire daggers wrapped itself around his legs. She gave him one spin around before she was about to slam him on the ground, but mid spin he was able to grab the wire and yank himself out of a ground collision. The force of the swing provided enough momentum to get him past the rest of the wires and right up in Laura's reach, something she did not expect him to pull off. She was quick to block his punch, but she was being pushed across the floor, so she unsheathed one of her arm sabers to push him off. Lincoln narrowly dodged her strike and flipped under her, managing to slow himself down just enough to plant his feet on the barrier without cracking it. Laura, however, easily regained control of her IS and immediately fired her railgun on him. He jumped off right after touching the barrier and leaped over the bullet, flinging a pair of cards at her before landing.

At that instant, Lincoln's frustration reached its peak. "Fine," He reached behind his back, "Borrow this!" On command, his wing units merged together to form a makeshift shield. When he pulled his arm out, his shield followed it right into Laura's left hook. From then on, Lincoln did his best to stay within her CQC range, waiting for the right moment to call Strong Suit out for a one-combo-kill.

"What is going on with her?!" A student shouted, "Why can't she finish it already?!"

"Are they really that needy?..." Ichika muttered.

"I don't think we should talk with anyone after this..." Charles suggested.

While the other students were calling for the fight to wrap up, one student in particular wasn't too keen on rallying behind the crowd. Hana had snuck her way inside area 4-4, "Um, Akina?"

"Oh, hey, Hana," Akina said, "What brings you here?"

"I heard that Lincoln was taking on a Representative Contender," Hana walked over to her, "so I wanted to see how he was doing."

"Lemme guess...you heard everything the others were saying about him?"

"Yeah."

"Well..." Akina pointed to the open field, where Lincoln and Laura were wreaking massive havoc...Lincoln more so because of the anger he built up throughout the day, "I'd say he's doing fine..."

"Does he get this angry?!" Hana yelped right after seeing him failing to swipe a right hook across Laura's face.

"Nuh-uh."

Houki was tempted to turn away. Seeing Lincoln lash out for this long kept reminding her of how she lashed out at her opponents during kendo practice. The difference between them was that he was powerless against someone who was trained to be a fighting machine, while Houki was a fighting machine who showed those who practiced kendo exactly how powerless they were. But the causes were the same: emotional anxiety.

"Houki?" Kim checked on her.

Houki gritted her teeth and kept silent.

On the field, Lincoln was keeping pace with Laura's movements, but he still couldn't find a good window of opportunity to strike. The wire daggers flung at him again, only for him to yank himself over to Laura's position.

"You're not one to fight with this much vigor," Laura muttered mid battle, "What brings you this much power?"

"Oh, this ain't my power," Lincoln grunted, "I borrowed it from them."

Laura locked elbows with him, "What do you mean, borrowed?"

"You should've heard some of the things they said about me," Lincoln swatted away, "They said I spoiled the school rotten!...that I spited my family!..." his attacks kept getting blocked "I hear talk that I stuffed my sister in the costume in the summer sun!" And he was thrown back out, "And that's just in the IS Academy!" He flung his shield at her and used the momentary distraction to get back in her CQC range and engage in another scuffle, "Imagine all the nasty gossip back at home! Or when they're not in your face! Or worse!" He was so caught up in the fight that he actually caught her arm and unleashed a blitz attack, "Hearing your own family ridicule you for taking the fall on their behalf!" And somehow he was able to get in a couple punches and a shield uppercut. But Laura flipped over to his back and kicked him away from her.

SCHWARZER REGEN — SHIELD 89/100%

SAVVY SUITE — SHIELD 28/137%

"I need to do something..." Houki stood up and left the arena, but she couldn't bring herself to take her eyes off the fight, so she fled to area 4-4.

"A nonlinear thinker who relies on emotion," Laura muttered, "I would call you a fool," as she prepped her railgun to fire again, "but you have already proven you cannot be underestimated!"

"What the-" Lincoln caught his shield just in time to block several of her shots, each one backing him further away from Laura. It wasn't until the seventh shot when he decided to make his move. The moment he took off after her, the wire daggers came after him, "GET YOUR TENTACLES OFF ME, PAGAN WOMAN!"

"You lose yourself in the fight," Laura noted, "Instead of attempting to control it, you merely guide its current towards its destination without the least bit of tension!"

Lincoln managed to knock all the daggers away and tried to spin slam his shield against her, but Laura easily knocked it away and pinned him against a wire. But she didn't try to slam him down. Instead, she simply threw him on the ground skidding out of her reach, and threw her right hand behind her. Her AIC barrier was projected again.

SAVVY SUITE — SHIELD 11/137% (WARNING)

And it suspended Strong Suit.

STRONG SUIT — SHIELD 14/15%

"Aw man!" Strong Suit yelled, "I didn't even get a swing or a miss!"

Back in the stands, Ichika's group was at a loss for words with what they just saw.

"No way..." Ichika said, "How did she stop her from moving?"

"That's an AIC!" Charles exclaimed.

"AIC? What's that mean?"

"Active Inertia Canceller cancels all Inertia. Any object the user projects that barrier on will cease all movement."

"Oh..." Ichika nodded, but then an unsettling thought crossed his mind, "Wait, why hasn't she used it earlier?..."

"... I don't know..." Charles looked on as the fight was brought to a temporary halt.

Strong Suit was quite literally hanging from a bar, "Come!...On!...Get!...Off!..."

Lincoln was dazed from the previous hit, but he was conscious enough to see how helpless Strong Suit was. He felt a new wave of emotions surge through his body. He used that energy to grab his wings and fly over to Laura.

"Clever of you to try and exhaust me..." Laura aimed her railgun at Strong Suit, "...but insufficient."

"NO!" The moment Laura fired, Lincoln was directly in front of her. The bullet bounced off his wing shield and exploded back on her face.

("Clyde, get help! Get everyone here!")

SCHWARZER REGEN — SHIELD 71/100%

SAVVY SUITE — SHIELD 5/137% (CRITICAL)

But that didn't stop him or his sporty sidekick. The split second that dazed Laura was all they needed.

"Two of a kind!"

Strong Suit loaded up a 1000-lb barbell and swung at Laura twice, upward to buy Lincoln time to separate his shield back into wing units, and downward to disable Laura's evasion. Lincoln then rushed a punch and a kick, then threw several card bombs and her, allowing Strong Suit to clock destroy the railgun.

"Double trouble!"

Laura was swept off her feet, right into a pounding from the back and a hammer kick on the front. She was bounced upward, giving her time to send her wire daggers after them. But Lincoln and Strong Suit stood their ground and yanked the wires down, reeling Laura to them.

"PAIR OF CLUBS!" They slammed their fists at the black IS, only to be blocked by its sabers. Lincoln knew better than to stop, as he snuck a card to Laura's right thigh.

("What are you-Are you crazy?! You'll get hurt!")

Strong Suit knocked Laura off her feet, giving Lincoln a clear opening to launch his special attack.

"Pick a card!" He pelted her with the first barrage of punches, "Pick 'em all!" He kicked her upward and sent two of his cards to her mounted sabers. When he saw them break, "52 CARD PICKUP!" he flung the remainder of his deck at her, pushing her beneath the floor and making a small crater in the center of the arena.

SCHWARZER REGEN — SHIELD 32/100%

The entire crowd was stunned. They just witnessed a scary moment in history. In just one very...very swift maneuver, the youngest pilot in the world managed to take away more than half the shield of arguably the strongest pilot in the first-year class. And he did it using their own words... their own condescending rumors.

"Ugh..." Lincoln himself was drained, physically and emotionally. He floated back down to the floor and collapsed on all fours. He had the displeasure of fighting through yet another flashback, one that revealed to him something that was unnecessary, borderline repulsive to him, "What was that?...Did I take a bullet before?..."

Strong Suit ran to him and tried to hoist him up, "Hey! Get up, man! We're not done!"

"Suit..." Lincoln panted, "Did we get her?..."

Suddenly, Laura hovered a few inches above them, losing her hardened demeanor and going back to her unemotional side, "Are you finished?"

Strong Suit panicked, "Uhhhh...I'm gonna say yes to both questions..."

"Well, then," Laura sent her wire daggers after the both of them, "My turn."

("And if I don't, she'll get killed!")

Lincoln knocked Strong Suit out of the way, unintentionally rendering her unconscious. The wire daggers that went after her changed targets to where he took all 6 wires.

STRONG SUIT — SHIELD 11/15%

Lincoln was brought before Laura, his limbs bound to the black IS. She took a moment to examine him in all his weariness. Then, she proceeded to beat the ever-loving-crap out of him. Just a few punches in, and she had drained whatever was left of his shield energy, and it looked like she didn't plan on stopping.

SAVVY SUITE — SHIELD 0 (EMPTY) — EXTENDED DAMAGE INCURRED; IS MANDATORY UNLOCK HAS BEEN ACTIVATED

"THE MATCH IS CONCLUDED. THE WINNER IS LAURA BODEWIG."

"Sacre bleu! What is she doing?!" Charles shouted.

"I think she's got a grudge against him," Ichika thought, "Why else would she..."

"His IS Mandatory Unlock has already kicked in!" Kim ran to Ichika's side, "If the damage doesn't stop, she'll kill him!"

"I think it might already be too late..." Charles worried.

"Dangit..." Ichika ran to the barrier and banged on the solid plasma screen, "Laura! Stop!"

Laura didn't hear him. She just kept pummeling Lincoln until his body armor, gauntlets, and leg guards shattered. And even then, she wouldn't stop. It took a stray card that materialized without the use of a hand. The moment she finished a punch and wound up for another, he prepped a card. He let it drop only when she punched him again; Lincoln was able to get enough distance between him and Laura to where the card's explosions wouldn't reach him. Laura on the other hand was reeled backwards, and Lincoln kicked her back further, forcing her to withdraw her wire daggers for the moment. But it was only for a moment because she got him again with the AIC, before he could get off his knees.

"So naive," Laura taunted, "And here I thought you would be more than..." she released the daggers on him again "...a mere dog."

Just when he was about to get caught again, a 100-lb dumbbell flew by him. It passed directly through the AIC barrier and slammed into Laura's gut, sending her flying halfway across the floor.

"Huh?..." Lincoln breathed, "Who... was..."

"Yo..." Strong Suit limped over to Lincoln looking more injured than usual, "I get why, but maybe gimme a warning next time..."

"What happened to you..."

"I had to get help."

STRONG SUIT — SHIELD 3/15% (CRITICAL)

NIGHT CLUB — SHIELD 4/18% (CRITICAL)

HIGH CARD — SHIELD 4/20% (CRITICAL)

Indeed, because right after that line was said, Laura was back on her feet, blasting towards the pair. But an obnoxious electric guitar sound halted her flight and sent her backward. When the sound stopped, she was suddenly bounced upward into a girl in purple. Laura tried to project her AIC, but it was disabled by a flashlight from another girl's cellphone, leaving her wide open to a sonic boom slamming her back in the ground, and a guitar pounding her deeper before recoiling the player off her.

SCHWARZER REGEN — SHIELD 26/100%

"High Card! Night Club! Surround her!" Strong Suit ordered.

Laura steadied herself back on her feet, only to find herself surrounded by four people.

"Your choice, LaBo," Night Club growled, "Get out of our face, or go head first into the ground."

Laura examined each of the three girls, and then Lincoln. They were all still raring to fight, despite the beat down he received. Him especially, because he had two hands of cards ready to go should she choose to continue. She just scoffed and floated back to area 4-2.

"*SIGH* Thanks for the heads up, Suit," High Card relaxed.

"Anything to get us out of this game," Strong Suit scratched her head.

"Speaking of, where's Ace?" Night Club walked to the pair, "Why didn't he call us sooner-" Just then, they heard two thuds coming from Lincoln. "Oooh, that's bad."

"Yep," High Card said right before running to him, "Hey! We need some help here!"

"I have him," Akina floated down in a training IS and grabbed Lincoln, "You hanging in there, champ?"

"I'm hanging by a moment 'cuz a moment's all I got..." Lincoln groaned, right before his three sidekicks fizzled out of existence.

"Come on," Akina airlifted him out of the arena, "There's a nice cold milkshake waiting for you..."

Fifteen minutes later, Lincoln had been placed in the infirmary, and his team was sprawled out across the cold metal floor of holding area 4-4 while the Savvy Suite was taken into a repair dock.

Akina had just finished chugging a sports drink, "*GLUG*GLUG*GLUG*GULP* Ahhhhhhh... I tell you..." She leaned against the wall, "Nothing beats a good workout like an ice cold replenisher."

Meanwhile, Houki was shivering by the door, outright shook. Never had she ever seen two perfect representations of raw anger and violence clash against each other in mortal combat. It was like seeing two sides of herself fight for control of her body, and the bad side had infected the good side to the point where she couldn't tell the difference between the two. She didn't want to believe that she could have turned out like either of them, but seeing Lincoln thrash at Laura to no avail really made her forget about winning, forget about Ichika. The real question was whether she would give into her dark side when she faces off against a fellow student.

She couldn't even talk to one of his acquaintances, "Um..."

"Yo," Akina sat down beside her.

"Why aren't you in the repair room?..."

"Maya's working on it right now. She can fix it better than me."

"Oh..."

"I'm more interested in why Linc didn't call his posse until the absolute last minute."

"Maybe he has some kind of struggle within himself..."

"See, that's the closest reason. I could've sworn he got over it before he came here. Pftt, lo and behold, he keeps getting dragged back to square one. I can't claim to know what he's going through... but, goddamn...some days, I wish he could just forget. Forget it all. Can't feel emotionally constipated if you don't know why you're emotionally exhausted, right?"

"What...That's not how it's supposed to work..."

"Hey, it's just wishful thinking," Akina noticed Maya walk out of the repair dock, "So, Uh...how bad is it?..."

Maya shook her head, "The damage reading on his IS is far beyond level D; it's the worst this Academy has seen. I'm afraid it'll be a couple weeks before the Suite is fully repaired."

"A couple...like two weeks or three?"

"Hopefully, two. If it's three, then he may have to sit out this tournament."

"Yikes..." Akina winced, "Maybe I should break the news to him-"

"No, allow me," Houki stood up and walked out, "There's something I need to give him."

"Um, ok, sure...just...Ichika and Charles will be with him, so..."

Houki walked out to find Lincoln. She racked her brain trying to come up with what to say to relax him, when she happened upon Rin and Cecilia-

"I did not lose!" -contesting the practice match that was Rin's loss, "I just felt sorry for you not having a childhood friend, so I went easy on you!"

"Please, your attempts to over exaggerate your meager abilities thus far have been for naught," Cecilia flaunted her hair, "I cannot possibly imagine any other result, though I'm sure you inhaled some kind of polluted-"

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! Quit your stupid rambling! No wonder Ichika couldn't understand a single word you said!"

"As if your "feelings" were of any help to him. Or you, for that matter."

"Grrrr..." One of Rin's nerves snapped, "Rematch this weekend. Get up bright and early so I can beat you down."

"I'm more than happy to oblige," Cecilia got in her face, "but I'm warning you now: you will still lose."

"We'll see about that! HMPH!" Rin walked away. When she crossed Houki's path, she dragged Houki down by the collar to her eye level, "I don't know how you can stand this blondie because she is SO DAMN INFURIATING!" She then let go and walked away.

"Uh...huh..." Houki stared at Rin stomping her way back to the dorms.

"Pay no mind to the cheap Twintail over there," Cecilia said, "She's had her pride hurt all over."

"Yeah..." Houki suddenly realized that Cecilia and Rin just finished a practice battle "um, I have a favor to ask."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"I...I wanna battle you tomorrow."

"Well..." Cecilia was a bit taken aback, "that's quite a tall order, even for the Creator's offshoot," until she wasn't, "Are you sure you can hold a candle to me in a training-"

"IT'S NOT THAT!-Uh..." Houki caught herself bursting into anger just in time, "Ahem...it's not that... I just need to get through a battle without...without losing myself in the process..."

"Oh my..." Cecilia immediately deciphered those words, "Did Lincoln put on another vengeful spectacle?"

"Very..."

"And let me guess...he has been sent to the infirmary."

"Yep."

"Oh, alright," Cecilia groaned, "Come along, Miss Houki," and she led Houki to where Lincoln was being held, "If he has calmed down enough, we might be able to convince him to join us. I'm sure he has plenty to say."

"Not likely..." Houki followed her, "The damage is the worst Maya has seen. His IS could take more than a couple weeks to repair."

"Uh...I forget, who was his partner this past afternoon?"

"Laura Bodewig. The girl who tried to slap Ichika twice. And tried to fire a big gun at him."

"Oh, her...well, I hope he was able to at least get a few good licks in."

"He was...he pelted her for more than two-thirds of her shield energy."

For some reason, Cecilia was haunted by that notion. To think that someone could stand a chance against an already established angry bowl of vanity, "...So, that's all..."

In the infirmary, Lincoln was staring at the ceiling contemplating the recent fight. Not only did he burn off every single bit of angry rage burn on a very futile battle, but he did it in front of the group that didn't see him fight Rin. Plus several other students. If he had to gauge his current standing with the rest of the class, he wouldn't have merely thrown his social life out the window; he would've smashed it into dust, ate it, vomited it out, dumped it in the trash bin, and incinerated it.

Not that it mattered to him in the slightest, "I lost myself again...Dangit, what am I gonna do..."

His train of thought was interrupted by the door opening to reveal Houki and Cecilia.

"Oh..." he muttered, "You guys heard the news?..."

"About the sheer vicious rage of the battle?" Cecilia said, "The whispering was enough of a source."

"Miss Yamada said your IS will be out for two weeks," Houki said.

"Two weeks?!" Lincoln freaked out, "What am I gonna do during that time?!"

"You could try something with those people who wanted that bet," Cecilia suggested, "though I doubt they hold a candle to a Representative Contender."

"I'm not worried about that right now..."

"Well, you ought to be. Those girls have designated you as public enemy number one. They're going to do whatever it takes to make sure you don't see the tournament."

"Smart thinking. But I'm a crafty man. I'll find workarounds."

Cecilia chuckled.

But Houki didn't. She really did think his family and classmates back home tried to do him in multiple times. She walked over to his bed and placed an envelope on his belly.

"What's this?" Lincoln asked.

"Just take it."

"Um...ok," Lincoln opened the envelope and found, "Oh...ohohoho, no..." twelve thousand yen, "You didn't actually-"

Houki was gone by the time he opened it.

"What in the..." Cecilia darted off, "You can't run away so easily!"

"Hey-o!" Ichika dodged her dash by ducking behind the door, "Huh... not like her to ignore me..." When the room was cleared of her presence, he walked over to Lincoln, "Did something happen?"

"Houki just gave me 12,000 yen..."

"Really?! The heck did that come from?"

"Fancy seeing you in a hospital bed, Lincoln," Charles greeted.

"This ain't the first time either;" Lincoln laughed, "I think I'm gonna accommodate myself here."

Charles saitndown beside him, "Come now, you cannot keep putting yourself in harm's way for the sake of...info, is that right?"

"He's right," Ichika said, "Sooner or later, you really are going to do yourself in with this Lightning Rod thing."

"*SIGH...* I guess your right..." Lincoln conceded, "Though if it's any consolation... I found out a lot about that...that, uhhhh..."

"AIC," Charles said, "Active Inertia Canceller. It basically stops anything from moving."

"As in, 60 to 0 in less than half a second," Ichika added.

"If that's the case, then why can I still throw one liners and gun puns?" Lincoln got a small chuckle from the two. And they in turn airlifted Lincoln out of the infirmary and back to 1025.

While Lincoln was being carried out of bed, Lynn was still lying in bed. The night before, she came out of a win which only claimed a spot in the UIL tournament, meaning even more games to come. And yet her teammates never let go of her recent soccer loss. The only reason they dialed down on the ramming was because Lynn had to pull a sacrificial play: she passed the ball to someone else, saw a giant thug blazing down the field gunning for the ball, and ran to take the tackle. Then, after the win, she was notified that the bracket has been set up...with Royal Woods and Hazeltucky on opposite ends.

"I got a huge climb..." Lynn muttered, "Dangit, what am I gonna do..."

But an ear-deafening argument shook the house awake.

Starting with Rita, "YOU USED YOUR OWN BROTHER AS A WHAT NOW?!"

Lola, "It's true! And Leni was dressing him up as a-"

"Lola, you were the one who came up with that crazy plan in the first place! Behind my back! What the hell has gotten into you?!"

And Lori, "Lincoln was drowning us out with his ear bud things!"

"That's not a reason to-no, there is NO GOOD REASON to use him as a foot mop!"

"But, Mom! It was just a-"

"And Lola, your temper has clearly infected the rest of the family! It's always an absolution with you, isn't it?!"

"Abso-wuh?"

"Don't look at me, Lols! This is on you!"

"I'll return a TOUSHY TURN OF A PAYBACK FIST, lady!"

"Both of you, stop! No wonder Lincoln wanted to go to Japan!" Rita could be heard stomping up the staircase, "Lucy! Oh god, where is she?...LUCY!"

"Welp..." Lynn groaned, "Time to roll...Ugh-ooooooh, tingly mingly..." That headache she had since coming home has gotten worse.

Lisa and Clyde suddenly barged in, "Lynn!"

"Oh, hey guys..." Lynn winced at the sound of the door opening.

"Don't "Hey" me!" Clyde griped, "You got volleyball today!" He tried to nudge her out of bed, "You gotta make time and hightail it down there now!"

"I agree," Lisa closed the door, "And we must make haste, lest we-"

"POP, WHAT?!"

Lynn Sr broke the news that Luna and Luan's ventures have been halted.

"It's final."

"You can't do this!"

"I won't have my business halted by some measly punishment! Hahaha-" SMACK! "-AGH!"

"Your little "unspoken" stunt has made its rounds in my workplace! Everyone's out for blood now that he's a pilot! And they're going to blame you!"

"But he chose to do it!"

"Only because you didn't tell him to stop it!"

"But it's unspo-"

"If you say that word again, so help me I will smash your tapes with your puppet!...Never mind...where's Lana?"

Lynn gulped, "They're really letting them have it, huh?..."

"Safe to say, the parental units have the sole escape route blocked off..." Lisa rubbed her forehead.

"Wait," Clyde went over to the small circular window, "Didn't you guys have a-" he lifted up one of Lincoln's posters to reveal an emergency cord behind it. When he pulled down, an emergency escape slide formed just outside Lincoln's window, "Wow. Convenience!"

"Uh, I don't know about this..." Lynn seemed hesitant to duck her parents at this early in the morning.

"We have no choice," Lisa said as she and Clyde hoisted her up, "Please Keep your arms and legs inside at all times."

"Wha-" Lynn was tossed out the window and onto the slide, "AAAAAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaA-Ooogh..." She rolled down to the bottom, "Gonna cake the next-Margo?"

"Hey," Margo helped Lynn up.

"Ugh...what are you doing here?"

"Making sure you get to school in one piece. Sounds like a party in there."

"Understatement of the year...heh, at least tomorrow's a free day," Lynn chuckled as she was dragged away into Margo's family van, where Margo's mother was waiting to transport her to school, and her next trial.