Lincoln's team was having a miserable time with Margo. Apart from the certainty of his recent distress call somehow reaching to Great Lakes City, the Silverio Gospel was just too powerful. All throughout the night, Margo led them on a wild goose chase before coming to the parking lot of the Royal Woods mall, and somehow managed to remain stationary for five whole minutes without taking substantial damage. Every single attack thrown her way was either blocked or countered. When she did react, it was at the last minute, when Lincoln's fists, Lynn's staff, Clarissa's sword, and Strong Suit's paddles simultaneously hammered onto Margo, when she blocked them all with her arms and wings.
"Arrgh!..." Clarissa grunted as her sword caught onto the Gospel's wing joint, "I have herrrr!..."
"Alright, that's enough!" Margo shouted and released a visible energy aura that literally blew everyone away.
Except for Clarissa. She was able to shrug off the energy aura and ram her sword into Margo's side. Margo quickly grabbed onto the blade and used her wings to pressure Clarissa into letting go. Clarissa maintained her grip and tried to swat Margo away, but there came a point where she had to let go and reach for Margo. And that's when Margo was able to take control of the VT sword.
"Hey, Chi-goo-yu!" Strong Suit jumped back in to lend Clarissa some assistance, sneaking in several hits while Clarissa was tanking against Margo's fury.
Lynn and Lincoln broke through the glass windows and hit the inside hard. Lincoln was knocked out.
But Lynn skidded across the floor and plowed through several stands until she crashed into a giant steel column, "AAAAAGH...ugh...my arms...I can't even..." She saw Strong Suit land several hard smacks on Margo before being swatted away, just in time to see Clarissa reclaiming the sword and slash Margo once again. "No...no!...We have to stop-ow! Agh..." She tried to get back up, but every single movement she made felt like a needle ripped through her muscles, "Dangit...can't I do anything?!..."
Just then, the glass ceiling above her collapsed. Steel bars and glass shards were plummeting towards her and anyone near her. She tried to move, but the pain paralyzed her. Luckily, Lincoln swooped in with a giant circular metal plate and blocked all the glass from hurting anyone.
"Whoa! Lincoln?!" Lynn winced, "Is that really you?!"
No, it wasn't. The lookalike girl had once again hijacked the Savvy Suite the instant Lincoln hit the ground.
"Dangit!" She screamed after donning her VR gear in subspace, "Can you do nothing, man?!" She made the Suite fly up and ram itself into the fight outside.
The Suite blasted through the ceiling and found itself right into Margo's fists. But it grabbed hold of her arms and started pelting her with card bombs.
"What's wrong with you?!" Margo screamed, "Why are you still fighting?!" Just then, she saw Clarissa and Strong Suit leap up for another combination attack. She started to charge her wings, and that's when the Suite locked Margo in a chokehold, "GACK?!...Why are you..."
"Because grudges make you look hideous!" the lookalike girl taunted, "FACT!"
As soon as Clarissa was within striking range, Margo's IS momentarily acted on its own, firing and energy ball behind her while grabbing onto the Suite's arms and crunching her body upward. This resulted in Strong Suit's strike being deflected right at Clarissa; and Clarissa's sword completely missing Margo, and instead hitting the Suite square in the gut, emptying its shield energy and sending it into Mandatory Unlock. All three crashed through the parking garage until they hit the first floor. Strong Suit had finally fizzled out of existence. Clarissa's VT system had reached its limit and caused her IS to revert back to its original state.
But the Suite was immobile. The girl couldn't get it to move no matter what, "No, no no no no no! Don't do this to me now! Do I have any more items?!" She waved her hands out, and an empty screen popped up, "Oh...well then..." she took off her visor and screamed into it, "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!"
"Ah!" Lynn suddenly felt a surge of energy moving her body upright, away from the crowd of people trying to help her.
"Where are you going?" Someone asked.
"I gotta help him!" Lynn said.
"In your condition?!" A department store manager protested, "No, you need a medic!"
"Yeah! If you go, you'll get hurt!" Someone else shouted.
"And if I don't, he'll get killed!" Lynn didn't listen and blasted out of the mall.
Margo had found where Clarissa and the Suite were located and descended upon their spots in the garage. "Well, well, well," Margo taunted, "How's it hanging, you two?"
Things were going badly in the IS subspace. The girl flailed frantically, "It's hanging! It's literally hanging!" She ran to Lincoln's limp body, "Wake up, albino! There is evil afeet!"
Clarissa was struggling to move her IS, "It's going well, thank you..." She was able to move only her railgun, which she kept firing, even though Margo swatted all her shots away.
"Oh, it will be," Margo nodded, "Once I am through with you two." She started to gather energy around her wings.
"You mean, the entire city?" Clarissa countered.
Margo raised an eyebrow, "What? Royal Woods? This lot of backwater boonies?"
"And the people," Clarissa grunted, "Look around you. Look at how much you've destroyed. Look how many people you've injured, how many you've possibly killed. Does that not matter to you?"
"I've already given up on everyone else," Margo said as her wings reached full capacity, "It's just me, myself, and I."
Margo let out an all-powerful laser right then and there. Clarissa and the Suite tried to salvage what little energy they had left to muster any type of movement, but they were helpless against the raw power that was hurtling towards them at Mach speed. The laser was on its way to finishing them off.
And it would've...
-THOOM!-
"What th-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH~~~"
...had Lynn not suddenly appeared out of nowhere to take the hit for them.
"No! Lynn!" Clarissa attempted to use her wire daggers to pull Lynn out of the laser's wrath, but they were immediately disintegrated upon contact.
The lookalike girl saw the entire thing from her VR headset, "No! No no no no no! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
And by the time the laser blast was finished, Lynn had already ran out of energy. Once the laser was gone, Lynn's IS exploded. Her body rolled out of the giant puff of smoke and onto Lincoln's body. That forced Lincoln's IS to retreat into Standby Mode.
Clarissa saw the scene unfold and lost all hope of anyone surviving, "No...no...it can't be..." She withdrew her IS, causing her to feel a sharp pain the moment she landed on the floor, "AARGH! Ugh...We can't...go out like this..." she limped over to giant puff of smoke that engulfed Lincoln and Lynn, and pulled out a gun, "Don't make me do this, Margo...don't make me regret...huh?..." When she was inside, she saw Margo, still floating above Lincoln and Lynn, wings and arms completely drooped. She shot at Margo, but she got no reaction from anyone. "What...what has happened?..." she gasped, then looked around, "Strong Suit?! Strong Suit, where are you?!" Nothing. No response anywhere. She tapped her earpiece, "Come in, AAdsz. We have an emergency."
"I've already alerted the city," Chandler commed over to her, "Police, medics, and fire should be turning into the parking lot now."
"Verstanden," Clarissa said before she fell to the floor, completely exhausted, "Where...Why...Commander, we failed...we couldn't do it..."
Unbeknownst to her, all three small town pilots had been pulled into IS subspace. And Lincoln was the first to wake up-
"AAAH! HOLY MACKEREL WHAT IN THE MOTHER OF-glup?"
Lincoln did three double takes just to verify his sanity. When he finished, he was suddenly flat on his back, on a hospital parking lot. "Oh, it's this time of mind, eh?" He muttered, "Margo was pretty strong, so I guess we're gonna get a pretty messed up backstory?"
Just then, he heard an older man's echoing voice, "His bipolar is getting worse."
"Ope, that's my cue," Lincoln got up and ran inside the building. He followed the echo until he found the office it came from, then had a peek inside. He saw a doctor with a mother, a boy, and what looked like a younger version of Margo.
"I'm gonna start increasing the dosage of the medication," the doctor said, "Make sure he takes it before every breakfast and dinner."
"And what about the neural surgery?" The mother asked, "The more his disorder worsens, the worse the bullies act around him."
"Can it cure my brother?" Margo asked while hugging the boy.
"It's possible..." the doctor solemnly nodded, "...but experimental... and costly."
"Dangit!" The mother exclaimed when she saw the price, "We can't afford it, even with insurance!"
"Then, you'll just have to settle with the medicine," the doctor said, "I've already spoken with the surgeons...they won't do it without payment."
The mother whimpered, while little Margo placed her head on her brother's shoulder, "It's ok, Kenneth...We'll get through somehow..."
"Whoa..." Lincoln whispered, "Did it start here?" He saw Margo exit the office in tears and followed her out of the hospital. But when he left the main door, he found himself on a playground with some older kids, and what looked like Margo's brother, the same person he saw before. Only, he was surrounded by older kids.
"Come on, Big K!" One kid jeered, "Do it again!"
"No, I won't!" The boy protested, "You can't make me!"
"Wanna bet?" Another kid started pushing him into another. And another started pushing, and then the kids started taunting him:
"What's wrong, Kenny? Gonna let your little sissy save your ass?"
"Turn into that freakish windmill you always act like!"
"Look at him! He's so scared, his alter ego's pissing his pants!"
"Maybe he was too nice for his own good!"
"Let's take him into the cleaners and teach him how to be a real man."
They all laughed at that notion. Except Kenny. He suddenly snapped without any time given to prepare. He just grabbed the nearest bully's hands and reeled him in for a knee to the chin, and several punches to the face. But it didn't last long.
"Congrats, Big K," one of the bullies locked him in a chokehold, "You're finally a real man." He loosened his grip on Kenny, if only to enjoy the croaks and gasps for air bellowed after each blow his other friends landed on Kenny.
"No...no!" Lincoln finally realized what exactly he was seeing, "STOP!" He instinctively charged at the bullies to try and free Kenny, the same instant Margo saw what was happening and tried to intervene. But the instant he ran into them, they evaporated. "RAAAGH-Huh?! Where did-" SMACK! "BLUGHUGHooooohhh..." He smacked into a brick wall. When he shook his head, he saw that he was inside a school. An empty one, save for the same kid he saw earlier, the same bullies he saw earlier, his mother, and Margo.
And a man who looked like the school principal, "Young man, do you have any idea what you've just done?"
"But they all came onto me!" Kenny protested, "They were gonna take me to the cleaners and-"
"I don't wanna hear it!" The principal cut him off, then patted the person Kenny beat up on the shoulder, "This student was supposed to go to the UIL Finals, but you prevented him from doing so. I hope it was worth it, because you are hereby suspended."
"How can you say that about him?!" His mother tried to say something, "Do you have any idea what he's been through since he came here?! Have you done anything to-"
"If you mention anything about his so-called "bipolar disorder" one more time," the principal growled, "I will expel him."
"Wha...wha..." the mother was crushed.
"Bottom line: we have done everything we can to help him," the principal said, "everything from special education classes to weekly therapy visits. None of it is working, and his behavioral snaps get worse week by week."
"What about the doctors' notes?" Margo asked.
"That doesn't matter," the principal said, "What matters is that we have a serious case of assault on our hands, and until further notice...you can't come back, Kenneth."
Lincoln gasped at what he heard. No person in their right mind would every say anything like that, let alone throw out a "IT DOESN'T MATTER" at a doctor's note note. Only two possibilities made sense in his mind, based on what he's seen: either the principal and the bullies were in on the act, or the principal was simply too enamored with his own reputation to expose the problems of his school. Either way, Lincoln assumed that the principal did receive the notices and just trashed them. His suspicions were raised even further when he saw the looks on the bullies and the principal's faces after Margo's family left. The principal phased through Lincoln and walked out wiping the sweat off his brow, as if he had just avoided a major catastrophe. The bullies were smirking, as if they have just gotten rid of a major stain on their pride.
Lincoln wanted to get back at them, but then he realized where he was and knew that he couldn't do anything about what had already happened. He followed the family out of school and into a time skip, where he was suddenly taken into a living room at nighttime. He waited until he heard some boxes being pushed to move further into the house. Then, he walked into the kitchen, where he saw the family having one last meal there.
"I don't get it," Kenny said while staring at his plate, "Of all the places we could go to, why Royal Woods?"
"It's a small town that has a home owners association," the mother said, "As long as we can get a good mortgage down, we don't have to worry."
"But it's right next to Hazeltucky," Kenny said, "How's that any better than-"
"Because we won't have to deal with those rotten people anymore," Margo said with her eyes closed, "They hate people who harass others...or so I heard."
"Honestly, I hope that's true..." the mother said, "These people..." before throwing a box full of family photos to the ground, "Just because my husband's gone doesn't mean that they can come on us like this! I mean, don't they have any respect for us anymore?!"
"Mom! Mom! Don't!" Margo tried to stop her.
"I barely make enough money for myself anymore! How do they expect me to raise a-"
"MOM! DON'T SAY IT!"
"Wha?!..." the mother was taken aback by Margo's sudden outburst. But then, she realized what her two children had just heard and ran to hug them, "You're right...I shouldn't be looking back like that...We just have to keep looking forward."
Kenneth walked up some stairs, into his room. It seemed like a normal room, except the mirror on his dresser his several indents and scratch marks that he made. "Dangit..." he cursed, "What did I do to deserve this?... Why did I have to be the problem child?..." The moment he thought about that, he suddenly snapped and went on a rampage. He went back inside his closet and spent a solid minute thrashing his shelves and hangers until he suddenly calmed down. He re-emerged from his closet a very changed person, as if he had just seen the light. "Ok, Kenny," he said, "Gotta go down and sort everything out." And he made his way downstairs and joined his two kin in preparation for the move.
Which creeped out and disgusted Lincoln, "Ok... I don't know what personality disorders he really has... but I'm gonna go on a limb and say that he way in the wrong place at the wrong time."
He left the house and suddenly found himself in another house, this time in Royal Woods. It was a one story house, but it looked much nicer than the previous one. Just a block away, he could see his family playing in the front yard of his house of years ago. He saw Margo and her brother walking past the house.
"I still don't get it," Kenneth said, "I thought mom said we could afford the mortgage, but..."
"The cost of living is surprisingly cheap around here," Margo said, "And the townsfolk don't seem to mind us."
"But there has to be a reason it's so cheap," Kenneth thought, moments before he turned to his right and saw the young Louds playing rough. The two oldest, the blondes, caught his glancing and returned a pair of worrisome looks to him, then to each other.
"Who is he, Leni?" The older one said, "I've never seen a boy literally that scroungily dressed before in my life."
"Look at him, Lori," the younger one pouted, "I totes wanna hug him and give him a makeover!"
"Eugh, forget it, sister," Lori waved her hand, "You're never gonna find him anywhere near me. I bet not even the fleas would mourn him."
Kenneth misread what they were mouthing and assumed that the rumors about him have already spread, "Look at them, Margo. They're already talking, just like the rest of them."
"Maybe because you're too dressed like a hobo drunkard on a rampage against air," Margo quipped.
"Hey, come on!" Kenneth wailed, "I don't look that shriveled up!...Do I?..."
That's when Margo yanked his arm and dragged him to the local clothing store.
Lincoln tried to catch them, but then he saw Lori whisper something to Lynn, who then whispered something to his younger self. And that's when his memory was further triggered, "Whoa...my head...ugh..." he wobbled a little bit, but then he regained his senses when he heard the younger Lynn say:
"Careful around that guy, little bro. He's really nasty trouble."
The little Lincoln simply nodded.
"Nasty trouble?!" The real Lincoln yelled, "I just saw him take a societal punch to the throat! How's that even...ugh, I don't know what to believe anymore..." Lincoln rattled his head and went to a nearby water fountain to clear his head.
As soon as he calmed himself down, he soon found himself inside a bathroom, "GOOD NIGHT! WHAT?!" He immediately ran out and into what looked to be Royal Woods Middle School, the cafeteria at lunchtime. "Hey, wasn't I supposed to go here?"
He walked around the bustling cafeteria, students unknowingly phasing through him. He eventually found younger versions of Luan and Luna shooting a breeze with a group of friends at one table.
Then, he saw Kenneth enter the scene, with brand new clothes seemingly bought. He took in a massive deep breath and exhaled, "Ok...So far so good...just have to keep a level head..."
Lincoln thought Kenneth would do ok. New clothes and a positive plan were always a good call for a safe day...that was, until a younger Lori walked in. Then, he realized that this was the moment that Margo referred to, the moment that started the madness, "Oh no...am I gonna see what I think I'm gonna see?..."
He saw Kenneth sit down beside some random kids who didn't seem to mind his presence.
Until Lori showed up and said, "Well, I didn't think you had it in you."
"Huh?" Kenneth turned around and recognized her, "You...you're that girl..."
"You can buy all the designer clothes you want," Lori taunted him, "and it will change literally nothing."
"What's your problem?!" Kenneth snapped back, "Why are you so grating on me?!"
"Ohohooo," Lori was slightly offended by Kenneth's remark and decided to join Luna and Luan at the lunch table, "Hey, girls. You-know-who's back."
Luna just took one look at Kenneth, before she narrowed her eyes, "Eugh...the new Hazelnut..."
"Wow," Luan quipped, "And I thought Ms. Bitterns was the Hazelnutcase here."
"Hey-o!" One of Luna's friends high-fived her. And then, the entire table started talking weird rumors about him.
Lincoln watched in horror. The thought of Lori ruining someone through mere words was always in the back of his mind, no matter how much he denied it. He never thought it would start so soon, and with the brother of his sister's future best friend. He saw Kenneth turn the other way, thinking that Lori would have thought nothing of it. But he saw a mean smirk on her face, meaning that she was fully locked onto him as a target for her antics. He ran out of the cafeteria and into a giant hallway, where he saw Kenneth walking with his head down, trying to avoid the many peering glances of the students around him. But they all got to him. They were all staring at him while whispering rumors and weird tales about him.
And he just couldn't look away. He saw those same eyes before. Eyes of the students at the IS Academy. And those same stories and rumors he heard...
"I bet his mom bites whale bubbles."
"I heard his sister keeps having to bail him out."
"Why'd a scrub like him have to come here?"
"No one likes a rough tumbler."
Lincoln whispered, "How long..." When Kenneth left the hallway, the whisper became a wail, "HOW LONG HAS SHE BEEN KEEPING THIS FROM ME?!" He covered his ears and eyes, and crouched down, "What else has she not told me?! How many more secrets am I supposed to uncover BEFORE SOMEONE STARTS TELLING ME SOMETHING?!"
As soon as he shouted that, the noise around him stopped. He opened his eyes and found himself back in Margo's new house. This time, the dinner table was fully set, and the family was enjoying themselves. Almost...
While Kenneth was staring blankly at his food, Margo was happily slurping her spaghetti, "I just met this preppy girl named Lynn, and we are hitting it off big time!"
"Oh, that's good to hear!" Her mother cheered.
"Wait, what?!" Lincoln said, "That's not at all what Margo told me!"
"She's really into sports, so I'm hoping to see what kind of tricks she can teach me!" Margo wolfed down her meal.
"That's exciting! I can't wait to see you in action!" Her mother tussled her hair, then turned to Kenneth, who was still staring at his food, "Kenneth?"
"Huh! Oh? Oh..." Kenneth snapped out of his trance and turned to his mother, "Yeah?"
"You're time in middle school is hard?"
"Yeah, I mean, I never thought I'd be hit with so much homework," Kenneth lied,
"I know it's hard now, but you just have to keep going at it," the mother encouraged, "There is a support group that can help you throughout this time. Just think about giving them a chance."
"I guess," Kenneth said without trusting her. Back in Hazeltucky, he found a support group that turned out to be the exact opposite of what he had hoped for. He wondered how this time would be any different.
Lincoln watched with great concern. Margo said that Lynn stole everything from her, and yet here she was complete stoked about what she was going to learn from Lynn. "This doesn't add up...At all..." he rubbed his eyes, "What about her was easily warped into this giant mental blob monster of a brain?..."
He watched Kenneth go back to his room and take a double dose of his medicine.
He got his answer as soon as he turned behind him. Kenneth was walking to the flagpole, waiting for his ride home, when several boys suddenly surrounded him.
"Hey, guys..." Kenneth greeted, "Is something wrong?"
"Yeah!" One kid shouted, "You! Smelly!" And pushed him.
"Excuse me?!" Kenneth exclaimed.
"You're gonna cause up a nasty stink around here!" Another kid said, "Why don't you just leave already?!"
"He can't, dude. His mom?" Another kid nudged, "You should hear what she does!"
Lincoln winced, "Oh, no. No, no, not this!" On instinct, he ran to put a stop to the harassment, but just like before with Laura's past vision, he can't influence anything here. "Hey! Margo! Lynn! Femme me!" He screamed, "Anybody! Make it stop!"
His screams did nothing. The insults just kept coming until Kenneth bowed his head and curled his fists.
"Look at him! He's so shook!" A kid nudged him.
"Come on! It's no fun punching a bag," another taunted, "Fight back, limp noodle!"
"Freak."
"Slut moth."
And the names just kept coming, and coming...until...
One of the kids made a fatal mistake, "What's the matter, midget? You're not gonna-" CRACK!
Kenneth snapped. He lashed out at the biggest of the group; he uppercut the person's chin, knocking him out instantly. Then, he stomped on that person's stomach, waking him back up and causing a small vomit of phlegm to leak out.
The others recoiled in horror; their de facto leader has been one-shot by a victim of their antics. Lincoln froze when he saw what had become of Kenneth's eyes. Before he came across this sight, there was a slight glimmer in those eyes, hinting at some kind of hope for his humanity that he was still clinging onto. Now, those eyes have gone completely dull. They're staring at the hands that repelled the bully that was on him. And they were scanning the very kids that used to scorn him.
Kenneth moved his fist up, and they flinched. He took one step forward, and they all backed away. Kenneth had never felt so intimidating before. His eyes changed to a glimmering sheen, one that was unrecognizable even to Lincoln.
Kenneth decided to take a stand, "Who else wants some?!"
No one moved. No one dared draw close.
Except one person, "Hey, man...sorry. We just wanted to make-"
"Just wanted to mess with me?!" Kenneth shouted, "Lori's long gone, and you're still on her antics like some pinup pimps?!"
"I mean...well, it was...at first-"
Then came Kenneth's next lines, the very paragraph that sealed his fate, "Not anymore! You're not gonna mess with me anymore! If you ever try to mess with me again, I'll blind you!" When the bigger kid tried to wake up, Kenneth pounded his fist in his head.
Lincoln had no idea how vicious middle school was. He had no idea how bad Kenneth had it, not did he have any idea just how far they were willing to go to make his life absolute hell. If this was the effect that one person had on another's life...
"No, no no no," Lincoln slapped himself, "Margo and Kenneth are way too young. There's no way Phantom Task could've planned this early..."
Well, no, but there was someone who did get to him. Lori first crossed eyes with Kenneth all those years ago. She was with him when he was in sixth grade...which meant whatever rumors she started about him persisted even as she advanced through to high school. And whatever traditions those rumors started have carried over to the next generation in that middle school. The kids that were with Kenneth when the beat down occurred had already picked up on those traditions and attempted to bring him further down the emotional pipes of inferiority.
But they failed. Instead, Kenneth snapped and chose to fight back. And now, he's fully assimilated into the mindset that pervaded Lori's presence.
And Lynn was about to get a taste of it. Lincoln was suddenly inside a huge van that contained a younger version of Lynn, "Oh, criminy jickets..."
"Now, I want you to be on your best behavior," he heard the voice of Rita, "Don't cause any trouble. Understand?"
"Yes, mother," Lynn nodded, "I won't do anything out of the ordinary."
"Aww, you're such a good girl," her mother tussled her hair, "I'll have a nice meal when you come home."
Moments later, the van phased through Lincoln and he was suddenly in front of a bustling middle school, with Lynn. "Oh no," he said, "If this is the first day..."
"Alright, kid," Lynn said to herself, "Make a good impression, friendly with everyone...yeah, I can do this." And she walked in with her head held high.
Completely unaware of who's watching her from the window of a classroom.
"That's her," Kenneth said to his band of thugs, "That's the blonde's sister."
"In other words," one of his friends rubbed his hands in excitement, "It's time to have some fun."
"Oh boy..." Lincoln rushed inside and tried to alter what would come next. But he couldn't. Lynn still got teased in class as Farty McStinkFace, stuck in the worse desk the class had to offer, and got lost in the basement of all places, all thanks to some behind the scenes planning by Kenneth and his gang.
Lincoln couldn't take it anymore and slumped, "Ok...enough...I know where this is gonna go, so just stop already..."
Suddenly, a voice behind him, "No, little bro..."
"Huh?" Lincoln looked behind him and saw his sporty sister, taken back to her pre-middle-school age, "Lynn...what..."
"There's more," young Lynn pointed ahead of her.
And suddenly, Lincoln was inside Lori and Leni's room, where the pair were talking to Lynn about their first days.
"It's like a giant hornet continuously stinging me to no end," Lynn said, "It really hurts...I don't know what to do..."
"You saw a hornet?!" Leni jumped, "No! No, no, no, I'm out. Don't even-"
"Leni!" Lori grabbed her hand, "It's just a metaphor! There is no bug!"
"Geez..." Lynn whispered
"Well, this is all very riveting to be sure," Lori said, "But if you see it as becoming an endless cycle, I suggest you do something you wouldn't normally do."
"And what would that be?"
"Fight back."
"Fighting?" Lynn repeated, "Do you have any idea how much trouble that would land me?"
"It's better to suffer for the moment than risk living an entire lifetime of sorrow."
"Yeah...when you put it like that-"
"Oh, I get it," Leni suddenly chimed in.
Lori sighed, "You're too late with the-"
"No, I mean the moment part," Leni turned to Lynn, "Just say what you need, and we'll toughen you up!"
"Heheh, wow," Lynn grinned, "And here I was, about to ask you for training."
Lincoln was bewildered, "I don't...No, that's not... what?!"
Another voice from behind, "That's only half of it."
"Oh no..." Lincoln winced, "No, no, no, please not this!"
Margo came out and placed her hand on his head, "If you wanna know the truth, you have to."
Lincoln sighed, "Fine...ok...lemme have a look..." He walked out of Lori's room and suddenly found himself in Margo's room, where she and Kenneth were busy with a fighting game.
"So," Margo said, "you've got yourself a new band of friends, yeah?"
"Yeah," Kenneth said, "It's gotten to the point where I didn't need my meds anymore. I've never been more happy in my life."
"Heeey! Bummer vacation made it all worth it!"
"Yeah, I'll say," Kenneth nudged, "It wasn't easy-Flip Kick!"
"Aw, dangit!" Margo grunted, "When'd you get so good?!"
"So, I heard you made a sporty friend?"
"Yeah, but she said she had a rough first day of school. She wouldn't stop going on about how she's gonna toughen up."
"Sheesh...hope things turn out ok for her."
"So do I-FINISHING MOVE!"
"Aw, what-" KO! PLAYER 'Marberts' WINS! "Oh, nuts..."
Lincoln sat on Margo's bed, once again utterly baffled, "I don't know what to think, now. Should I even be thinking at this point? Is it worth it to try and make sense of this?"
"Probably not," Margo suddenly appeared beside him at her normal age, "because that was the first time in a long time my brother and I hung out like regular siblings."
Lincoln watched as younger Margo and Kenneth enjoyed the final fight. He saw them imitating the last few moves and play-wrestling each other. "And, let me guess..." he quipped, "This is the high point..."
"Yeah..." Margo nodded, "It's the last time I'd ever play with him..."
The instant she finished that sentence, Lincoln found himself on the bench in front of Royal Woods middle school, "Whoa...oh no... no, not again..." He saw Kenneth do handshakes with his friends when Lynn burst out of the front door.
"Hey, fickle knuckles!" Lynn shouted, plucking a piece of gum from her hair, "I ain't done with you!"
"Well, lookie here," Kenneth taunted, "You never learn your lesson, do you?"
"Neither do you!" Lynn threw that piece of gum right at Kenneth. Then, she made her case in one phrase, "What's it gonna take for you to leave me alone?!"
"Know your place, freak!" One of the bullies yelled, "Go back to the locker room and stay there!"
"Only if you wanna feel my fist in your ass!" Lynn countered.
Kenneth smirked, "...did I hear that right?...Did...did you just..."
Lynn maintained her glare. Even as Kenneth pointed to his two friends right beside him. Even as she was being surrounded, she still did not waiver. She got into her fighting stance and prepared for a fight.
"You're not gonna apologize...are you?" Kenneth asked.
"Never," Lynn growled.
"And this is the converging point," Lincoln grunted.
One of the kids tried to rush Lynn, but she was able to punch his jaw and down him. The other tried to swing a few fists, but she easily countered them and pinned him down. Kenneth grabbed Lynn's hair and forced her to release her hold.
"AAAAGH!" Lynn screamed, "OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW-" THOOM! "-BLUGPH?!" She was silenced by a knee to her gut.
"Wanna keep talking back to me now?" Kenneth gnarled. Lynn gave him a sucker punch to his chin, but it did nothing. Kenneth became enraged and sling several good hits on Lynn. From there, they toyed with her. They hit her, they let her try to get back up, and just when she was about to stand up, they beat her down again.
Lincoln resisted the urge to come to her rescue, due in large part to what he knew would happen next. A younger Lincoln had already ran past him in an attempt to intervene.
All the while, Kenneth was having fun stomping on Lynn, "Hahahahaha! Where's the tough girl now?! Where?!"
Lynn could only gasp. She was already struggling for air, but each blow caused her to scream.
"I think it's time we end this," one of the bullies giggled.
"Yeah," Kenneth nodded, "Let's." He wound up for a brutal punch. But the instant he let his fist loose-
THUD!
Lincoln saw his younger self literally take the punch for her. He saw himself collide with Lynn, making a crater on the grass.
Lynn was released from her captors' grip just long enough to see her brother go down and out. There was nothing she could say to describe what she was feeling. "Huh?...Lincoln..." she weakly pleaded for him to get up, "Why...why did you..." She was halted by her bullies laughter.
"Oh no," Kenneth grinned, "Some wimp got in our way."
"Heheh, better go get him," his friend urged, to which Kenneth happily cracked his knuckles and started walking. But just as he was about to land the final blow-
"There they are!"
Kenneth stopped, "Who the-"
Lori came and tackled him to the ground, "WHAT DID YOU TO THEM?!"
Kenneth saw Luna and Luan take down his two friends, Leni rush to Lincoln and Lynn's side, and Clyde enter the scene with a swarm of teachers and a couple of police officers.
"You!" Kenneth screamed, "YOU'LL PAY! YOU'LL ALL PAY-UGH!" before being taken away by the police, "LET GO! LET ME GO!"
"No can do, son!" The policeman dragged him to the car, "Your mother will want to hear this!"
And somehow, Margo saw the entire thing from inside the classroom. "No...no, this..."
"Margo?!" Kenneth flinched when he saw her in the window, then turned back to call for help, "Margo! I don't know what's happening!"
"Kenny...why..." Margo gasped. She felt something wrong with her chest, so she ran out of the now empty classroom...
...leaving Lincoln behind to ponder over everything he was shown. He no longer had the fortitude to stand, so he laid himself across the teachers desk. When he turned his head, he saw Lynn leaning against the window, overlooking the chaos outside, and Margo sitting on the floor behind him. "...Welp..." he muttered, "I wondered why we were all pulled into this nutty subspace..." he sat down and covered his face, "...Now, I know."
"Lori...it all tied back to her..." Lynn groaned, "I don't know what was inside of her, but it got control of her..." She looked at the police car driving Kenneth and and thought back to the image of that first encounter with Kenneth at the sidewalk, "Maybe it's fair to say that she relinquished control."
"Or maybe she was just a victim of the mental puberty maturation," Margo joked halfheartedly, "The transition period from middle school to high school tends to turn your brain into goo."
Lincoln shook his head. Usually, he could brush off several impactful events, but he couldn't brush this off. None of them could. They all saw the exact same thing he did. They were all forced to confront their past. Margo was forced to admit that she fabricated the story she told Lincoln. Lynn was forced to admit that she was involved in Kenneth's arrest.
And Lincoln...he was forced to witness the truth that had been kept from him. And now, he had to get answers to that truth.
"Quick question," Lincoln said to Margo, "Did Lynn really steal your thunder? Were you really a rising star before we...did that?"
"No," Margo looked down, "I just...I wanted to get away from my life. I can't imagine what Kenny is going through right now. And my mom..."
"She's having massive issues resurfaced?"
"She's a complete wreck. She may look composed on the outside, but she is gonna crumble on the inside."
Then Lynn butt in, "Whereas I've crumbled on the outside."
"What the heck do you mean?" Margo stood up.
"I mean, this is the IS subspace. This place is in our head," Lynn sat down on a desk, "As soon as we're out, I'm gonna be a cripple."
"Lynn? You?"
"Well, unless the IS can operate from my mind and heart...but who'd wanna be a walking health hazard?"
"Oh right...that laser..." Lincoln stared at the ceiling, "That one powerful enough to tear the metal off your cuffs..."
After that, awkward silence. It wasn't until five minutes later that Lynn spoke, "So...what's the big takeaway here?"
"Well," Lincoln responded, "I know I won't come home for the holidays...what about you?"
Lynn didn't bother to look at him. She just kept staring at the window, her facial expressions changing from stoic and stern to sorrowful. She knew that he would isolate himself from her after everything that's happened. She knew what was coming, and yet... "I don't know...I guess...what goes around comes around. Karma. It gets payback..." she turned to Margo, "...no matter whose fault it is."
Margo looked down. She was already able to comprehend the entire situation, but she still found herself in denial, "My brain's a feeble one..."
Lincoln and Lynn glanced at Margo. Then, they glanced at each other. They wondered how they were supposed to comeback from this.
Lynn decided to end the grudge on her own terms. She walked over to the chalkboard and faced Margo directly.
"What?" Margo pouted, "Come to take your last revenge before we wake up from this dream?"
"Actually..." Lynn answered, "Quite the opposite."
"Come to an understanding with me?" Margo scoffed, "Don't make me laugh. You're the only family within a hundred miles with 11 destructive siblings, all so tightly knit together. The only thing I have is a grief-wracked maternal person. Tell me, what could you possibly think to understand about me?"
"Can't I try?" Lynn asked, "Did you really become my friend just to outshine me? Was any of the time we spent together fake?"
Margo didn't look up.
"I can't claim to understand what you're going through," Lynn said, "but that doesn't mean we can't talk about it, can we?"
"There's nothing to talk about. I tried to do away with the both of you. What else is there? We can't change any of that."
"But we can change how we react to it," Lynn put her hand on Margo's shoulder, "I dunno what words to say... but I'd like to find out...with your help."
Margo looked at Lynn's hand, then at Lynn. She was stunned by Lynn's admission. She thought Lynn would grow a hatred for her, but she saw in her eyes. Lynn still thought of her as a friend, "You're serious...you...after all I..."
"Yeah," Lynn nodded, "I forgive you."
Lincoln turned away. Those were the same words that he said to his family before he was pulled away from Royal Woods. He had no idea how Lynn was able to say that to Margo, despite knowing what she knew. He couldn't stand hearing them. "I shouldn't have said that..." he grunted, "I really shouldn't have said that..."
But just as he finished pondering over his words, a different voice entered his head.
Heeeheehee...I think it's time we had some fun.
"Huh?" Lincoln sat up. He felt a disturbance in the room.
Margo was starting to incur painful headaches, "Ugh...oww...owwwww!..."
"Margo?" Lynn panicked and carried Margo's head, "Margo, what's wrong?!"
Lincoln got off and looked around for any slight changes to the room, but couldn't find any.
Then, his female lookalike suddenly burst in, "Somebody's made the Gospel go berserk!"
"What?!" Lincoln froze, "But that would mean-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGHH~~~" Margo's pain has grown immensely. She collapsed and convulsed violently.
"No, no, no, Margo!" Lynn tried to massage Margo's head.
"LYNN?!" Margo screamed, "WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?!"
"Her mind is going into shutdown!" Lincoln rushed to their side, "We'll get you out of there!" Too late. The moment he touched her body, he was instantly shocked, "AAAAAAAAAAAGH~~~"
"No!" Lynn tried to pull the two out of the room, but a blinding flash of light engulfed the room.
Seconds later...everything and everyone was gone.