The Loud House: Future Love Run Amok!

by TotCall720

Three years into the future and things are going to be shaken up, big time. New forbidden relationships emerge as Lincoln struggles to find out what's going on with the nature of the older Loud sisters still at home, and with himself. The ball gets rolling with Luna, and spirals from here. Potential Harem in the future. Reviews, PM feedback and critique strongly desired. Thank you!

8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Operation: Quest for the White-Haired Boy in the Storm! Part 1/2

Sunday October 27th, 2019

2:15 PM

As all the sisters cuddled and got control of their crying around Luna, Luna suddenly shot straight up with a rigor of pure-blooded, dogged, determined intensity.

"I gotta find him…bring him back!" Luna said loudly as she delicately broke off from the group. She ran over to the coat rack and quickly pulled on her heavy-duty purple jacket and slipped her boots on.

"Luna! Hold on! I…I don't think he's gonna wanna be found anytime soon," Luan said, all the sisters nodding, even though they all did not like or agree with the sentiments; they knew it to be true.

"We can't just let him roam around out there!" Luna choked out, looking outside their window, seeing wind speeds and gusts pick up with the heavy rains.

"I want Lincoln back," Lynn weakly said, "we…we gotta apologize to him. We gotta find him…but where the heck could he have gone?"

"I have a couple of ideas," Luna said quietly.

"We need to make sure he's safe. It's bad out there," Lucy opinioned, all sisters agreeing, particularly Leni who nodded heavily.

"I'm going out there for him…even if I have to walk the whole damn neighborhood in this weather to find him!" Luna sternly said, wiping her face, prepping herself.

"Can we say we're done with this fighting business? I hate it…I hate that I got everyone involved…got you two going Leni, Lynn," Luan sulkingly said to the two, both coming over to hug Luan profusely.

"I don't wanna fight anymore. I want my sisters back…I want our brother back….I WANT LINCY BACK!" Leni cried out before covering her face with her hands.

"We…we should at least talk about it…later maybe, when things cool down and settle," Lucy said, all concurring too.

"We should include Lincoln too…if he still wanted to be involved," Lynn said, all the other sisters concurring, until Luna spoke up.

"I wished we included him from the get-go. I should of included him from the get-go…I was in charge…I-"

"I'M GOING TOO!" Leni blurted out loudly, then erratically running over to Luna to hold on to her, "I'm the oldest…I should go too! I should have been better at watching over everyone, instead of making you watch over me," Leni whimpered to Luna, Luna smiling gently at her, wiping a tear from Leni's face.

"…alright…the oldest go for Lincoln… get ready quick," Luna said, Leni proceeding to sprint up the stairs, before a thunder blast outside caused Leni to shriek out and jump. Her whole body shivered as she jogged upstairs for weather-appropriate attire.

"Crap…that damn fear of thunderstorms of hers…" Luna thought to herself, hopeful that Leni would be able to cancel that out for the sake of finding Lincoln.

"It'd be good to have her in case he might be unwilling to talk to me," Luna thought…the possibility depressing her greatly.

"I'm going too," Luan spoke up, Lynn and Lucy standing up as well signaling their drive to want to go help find Lincoln too.

"Sorry guys, you gotta stay in case he comes back…most importantly," Luna said, walking up to them as they gave defiant expressions, "…Leni and I are the oldest…we're the adults, technically, and will be taking responsibility…me mostly since I was in charge. You're Leni and I's responsibility, and we need you to tell mom and dad what's up…what happened."

"…you realize mom and dad might ground you something serious for letting this happen, right?" Lynn asked tepidly, Luan and Lucy nodding in concurring agreement.

"Especially with how things are outside," Lucy said, pointing to a scene where a street sign normally down the road was wiped right into their front window, wafting harshly in and out.

"That's a chance I'm…Leni and I are, gonna have to take. LENI, YOU DONE YE-"

"Ready," Leni suddenly said out of nowhere, in a heavy duty aqua green heated rain jacket with aqua-green and white rain pants and tan crème color boots. Leni still had her sunglasses on still comically, the other sisters seeing and slightly laughing given how dark and dreary it was outside.

"W…what?"

"Nothing Leni. You ready?"

Another thunder blast rocked the neighborhood, everyone squeaking, but Leni in particular, her eyes going completely wide and white, her face losing color for a moment, before the thought of her brother being out there quickly wrangled her back into some semblance of fearful bravery.

"…ready. It's times like this I wish we had cars of our own," Leni opinioned, Luna, Luan and Lynn all agreeing, Lucy too even though she was the youngest and was way far away from the possibility of driving.

"Gonna suck walking through all that," Luna said, kicking her boot bottoms on the carpet and checking the tread, then tightening her hoodie around her head, Leni following in suit, the lenses of her sunglasses poking out partly.

Luan, Lynn and Lucy walked over and hugged them, wishing them luck, and to keep their phones on full vibrate and full volume blast, just in case. As they headed for the front door, Leni suddenly screeched, "WAIT!"

"What Leni?" Luna asked perplexed. Leni looked over to Luan, Lynn and Lucy.

"Girls…when mom and dad get home…when the others get home…when they see the washing machine, they're gonna like, totally freak out over that. Tell them…I did it."

"WHAT!?" Lynn cried out in exasperation, Luan and Lucy not believing what they were hearing.

"I don't want Lincoln getting into any more trouble than he's gonna be in. Just say…I dunno…I saw a big ugly poky spider on it and freaked out, or something. They can't know Lincoln did that…during his…mad-thingy. Tell them I'll buy them a new one after this is all over."

"Ye…yeah…they'd believe that," Luan said, thinking they'd buy that with Leni's still present arachnophobia.

"You're losing about a week's worth of mall shopping, you know that, right Leni?" Lucy asked, humbled by Leni's willing sacrifice in her pocketbook from her job just to cover Lincoln's path of destruction.

"I owe him that after my part in this…it's the least I could do," Leni said silently, "…but, just make sure mom and dad know it was me, totes?"

"Huh….totes Leni….sigh," Lucy said lowly, "…we all owe him…we need to think of something for him…make this up somehow."

"Agreed," Lynn and Luan said in unison.

"Alright dudettes…this is it…"Luna said with reserved hope, "…Operation: Quest for the White-Haired Boy is a-go!"

As they walked to the front door, they saw vanzilla pulling right up to the driveway, with what looked like terrified faces on the family, all eagerly getting out of the van at lightning speed.

"SHIT! THEY'RE HOME!" Luna squealed in horror, grabbing Leni and heading for the kitchen.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Leni asked innocently, "we can ask to borrow the van."

"NO DUDE! THEY'RE NOT GONNA LET US GO OUT THERE IN THAT STORM! AND I DON'T WANNA START OUR GROUNDING TILL AFTER WE FIND BRO!"

"WE GOT YOU COVERED," Lynn yelled out, her, Luan and Lucy diving in their various operations.

Luan quickly escorted them outside to sneak out through the backyard to man the extra variable of the family pets and stray siblings that could run around, while Lynn and Lucy took front door duty, making sure the family got corralled into and only into the living room. As Lily, Lisa, Lola and Lana, Rita and Lynn Sr ran inside the house, Lynn Sr comically locking the door in what appeared to be overblown panic, Luna and Leni snuck out the back door, Luan giving a military "hut," then a gentle wave.

"Good luck…please…find Lincoln….please," Luan lowly pleaded, before locking the backyard door, then, in quick reaction, locking the basement door too.

"That should buy us a little time," Luan thought.

"Boy howdy, did you girls ever luck out! How have we been so busy during a weekend like this honey?" Lynn Sr. asked loudly while pulling the coat off Lily, Rita's and then his own, all while Lisa, Lola and Lana collapsed onto the couch exhausted.

"Good lord…if it wasn't for these multiple supercells in the area, I'd be in my mandated hour nap," Lisa lisped, before pulling out a clipboard and doing what looked like meteorological-type differential equations and fractal operations as she doodled with drawings of extreme thunderstorm models and cloud structure diagrams on the side.

"…figures….curse you Patchy Drizzle…last time I get my figures from your weather station's instruments. They've seriously underestimated this storm system…it's only likelier to get much…much worse."

"How much worse?" Lana and Lola both asked in a unified, terrified voice. Rita and Lynn Sr looking scared, waiting for Lisa's response, Lily just wobbling over sleepily to the TV, putting back on Wizard of Oz, as her eyes got droopy.

"What's going on?" Lynn asked, Luan poking out to hear the commotion from the periphery of her hearing as she tried to by time for Luna and Leni by wiping up a surprise huge can of chicken noodle soup.

"Lisa's gonna tell us how bad this storm is going to get sweetie," Rita said, waiting on pins and needles like the others, Lynn and Lucy following in suit, Luan now on her toes.

"…we should expect a near ninety-five percent likelihood of this system producing moderate to strong tornadic activity in the Detroit Metropolitan Area…in other words…we should expect tornadoes…possibly lots of them."

Lola and Lana panicked, each running a hundred miles an hour and shooting to their room, Lola grabbing various pieces of pink clothing and tiaras, Lana wrangling all her reptiles and frogs, then the rest of the pets spread around the house. Both ended up at the kitchen, ready to go down to the basement.

"COME ON!" Lola and Lana gasped at the same time to everyone, Lily pulling out her Wizard of Oz DVD, Lisa running upstairs to her room to grab something presumably, and Rita and Lynn Sr grabbing their financial items and important documents. Luan, Lynn and Lucy stood in their respective thoughts, each one lost in the horrific proposition that Lincoln was out in this mess…add to it, now Luna and Leni. Each shivered, hoping that the five percent Lisa mentioned would be what happens today.

Lana tried pulling the door open, it not budging.

"Open….open you stupid….OPEN NOW!" Lana panicked, now pulling out a screw driver and quickly jostling the lock forcefully until she got it open.

"Got it!"

"Great…LET'S GET THE HECK DOWN THERE!" Lola screamed, her and Lana about to book it, before Luan skidded right in front of them, blocking the entrance with a manic, quivering presence. The rest of the family assembled around the twins, Lily cuddling up to Lynn Sr and Rita, Lisa still not in site, while Lynn and Lucy stayed towards the back and awkwardly joined in, though not looking like they wanted to go down there.

"QUIT FOOLING AROUND LUAN! WE NEED TO HUNKER DOWN AND PROTECT MY PAGEANT AWARDS AND TIARAS!" Lola yelled out terrified, before everyone looked at her with glaring eyes.

"…and keep us…my family safe," she obviously tacked on in a sickeningly sweet tone, no one buying it.

"AND I NEED TO MAKE SURE THESE GUYS ARE SAFE!" Lana yelled too, pointing her head towards her gaggle of pets in a pile.

"Hold on guys….I….I got something I wanna tell ya," Luan said with a nervous smile, trying to come up with something. She wasn't the type to usually be lost for words, even in a stressful family situation like this.

A thunderous bang echoed from outside, causing everyone to jump, Lynn Sr, still holding Lily, comically jumped into Rita's arms, her giving a sarcastic, "this is my brave husband?" look to him.

"Um…uh….Lynn…help me out here," Luan harshly whispered over to Lynn as she tried just doing some vaudeville dance slapstick on the spot, everyone huffing in a pained groan.

"We've seen that a million times Luan! Now MOVE OVER SO WE-"

Lynn suddenly ran in the front in between Luan and an angry, terrified looking Lola and Lana.

"WAIT! WATCH!" Lynn screeched, pulling two empty two-liter bottles out of the recycle bin and filling one up with water, then putting some pink food coloring in the empty bottle and blue coloring in the full bottle. She pulled some duct tape from a drawer and taped them together haphazardly, mixing the water and colors into a lilac color that spun, doing a whirlpool motion back and forth with the two-liters, seemingly distracting the family in front of them.

Lynn suddenly handed it to the twins to hold, motioning everyone to look at her. She brought out a basketball, putting it on the ground, putting both her feet on it and balancing on it.

"Spsst…Luan, follow my lead!" Lynn whispered over. Luan obliged, randomly pulling out several items from the cupboard and doing a juggling act. Starting off with three, Lucy then ran over and threw into the mix several apples and oranges, Luan struggling but keeping pace.

Lucy then put herself in front, pulling out her black leather journal and reading poem after poem as fast as she could.

"Kids…what are you doing?" Lynn Sr asked astounded, the twins mesmerized by the two-liter whirlpool sloshing the food colorings, while Lily was giggling at Luan and Lynn's surprise acts.

"This…is oddly entertaining," Rita said, giving a little smile to the rather random and bamboozling nature of what was transpiring in front of them.

"Yes! Classic misdirection! Works almost every time," Luan smiled, hoping they could buy a bit more time.

Lisa suddenly walked into the kitchen, her face alert but neutral to what was happening to her.

Luan, Lynn and Lucy rotated to her direction, Lynn switching to balancing on the ball with her hands and doing reverse vertical pushups on it, Lucy reading a gothic poem about the pointlessness of science to distract and possibly rile up Lisa, and Luan still juggling the menagerie of items, her arms getting tired but knowing Lisa would be the hardest sell.

"…for whatever purpose you three are performing these asinine stunts I have no clue, but experience and certain anomalies in the housing unit predispose me to deduce that this is nothing more than an attempted reallocation of my mental faculties to present circumstances at this time."

As the family looked dumbfounded at Lisa, Lucy paused to try and break this one down, Luan stumbling and causing all her items to hit her on the head one-by-one, Lynn accidently causing the basketball to blow a hole and slowly deflated, in a rather comical way the escaping air sounding like the deflating minds of the entire family glued onto Lisa's comment.

"….goodness…the whole of humanity is doomed…let me rephrase this; you're doing classic misdirection, and it might work on these five, but it will not on me," Lisa dryly lisped, before clearing her throat.

"…damn," Luan, Lynn and Lucy thought.

"So…after doing a quick double-check of my figures and a search on my meteorological equipment I've had set up throughout the area…and some recent reports by local storm chasers, there are two tornadoes on the ground in the Detroit Metropolitan area as we speak."

Everyone's eyes went wide.

"Crap…they're gonna panic again," Lynn thought.

The twins rushed through the opening left to the basement.

"CRAP! THEY'RE GONNA SEE IT!" Luan screamed in her head as she saw them running down the steps. Rita and Lynn Sr gave worried expressions, looking longingly at their home, as though mentally prepping to not see it again.

"What's also interesting to note," Lisa continued, "…and this is a familial and personal worry…I seem to count a total of two parental figures, mom and dad obviously, and six siblings. Including myself, that's seven. So, let's misdirect the focus to a relevant question…where are Lincoln, Luna and Leni?"

Lucy, Lynn and Luan all had "oh shit" expressions, each trying to mumble something incoherently out.

"They were not in their respective lodgings, so I can only presume they are either somewhere else in the house, down in the basement, or…not here in our domicile."

"…damn it Lisa," Lucy weakly thought in her mind.

"HOLY CRUD STONES!" Lana yelled out.

"MOOOOOOOM! DAAAAAAAAAAD! SOMEBODY DESTROYED THE WASHING MACHINE!" Lola roared out.

"WHAAAAT!?" Rita and Lynn Sr yelled out in unison, Lily holding on and going for the ride with a low frown. Both power-walked down to the opening of the basement, going step-by-step down the stairs, each thud a dwindling amount of time till it'd be truth time….semi-truth time.

"Well that figures…"Lisa sarcastically said, before she too headed calmly down in the basement, pulling out a small laptop with the NOAA weather service primed for meteorological updates and footage of the Detroit area playing.

"GOOD LORD! WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR WASHING MACHINE!? WE JUST HAD THE DING-DANG DARN THING FIXED A MONTH AGO!" Lynn Sr cried out.

"LENI! LUNA! LUAN! LYNN! LINCOLN! LUCY! DOWN HERE NOW!" Rita roared out in quick succession.

All three, still upstairs, had completely defeated expressions on their face.

"Crap…we did the best we could guys…time to go face the music," Lynn weakly said, before all three slowly got downstairs.

The twins were inspecting the mangled washing machine in the corner, Lily joining them now too. Lisa just sat on the ground towards the stairs tracking the news feeds of a series of rather diminutive tornadoes forming far north of them in the Pontiac and Troy outskirts, each EF1's. She let out a Lucy-like sigh from Patchy Drizzle's overly-optimistic prediction that these would be the worst of this storm, Lisa shaking her head slightly back and forth.

"Oh does humanity never cease to disappoint me…Patchy, did you get your meteorological degree from a diploma mill? That prediction is as laughable as it is out-right dangerous and negligent. Shame on you, Patchy" she spoke harshly to the screen.

"Alright you three, care to tell me why our washing machine is on its side, and probably beyond repair on the other side of our basement," Lynn Sr said seriously.

"And where are Leni, Luna and Lincoln? I called for them too! We're coming down here until this storm outside settles," Rita added on in a serious tone as well, Lisa lowly saying, "now they're on the same page."

Luan, Lynn and Lucy looked to their respective sides, trying to not directly look into the pissed-off looks of their parents.

"Well? Any takers, or am I gonna have to revoke some allowances and start some groundings?" Lynn Sr sternly asserted.

"Dad….mom…we can explain the washing machine…being all the way over there now," Lynn weakly said, until the washing machine suddenly moaned out, then the side metal on a corner giving out, it now falling apart into complete shambles in a metallic bang.

"…all that hard work," Lynn Sr said sadly, lowering his head into his arm as Rita patted his back while giving a "explain" look to the three.

"Look…this is what happened…we didn't wanna tell you cause…well…we didn't want Leni getting into trouble," Luan said with reserved confidence.

"Leni? Leni did that?" Rita asked in surprise.

"You're telling me Leni did that to the washing machine? Well I am just shocked! Shocked I say! Absolutely shocked...well, not that shocked," Lynn Sr trailed off.

"Nor am I…kinda within Leni's abilities. Although, why did she toss our washing machine around like that?" Rita asked.

"It was her arachnophobia…she thought she saw a big ugly poky spider crawling on one side towards her, and she freaked out," Lucy told them.

Rita and Lynn Sr ruminated on that proposition.

"I can totally see her doing that. She's got one gnarly case of spider-fear…but…my washing machine," Lynn Sr said wantingly, going over to the pile and screwing with a few nuts and bolts well beyond their prime.

"I remember the day my dad bought this thing," he huffed out,"…I was five years old-"

"Leni felt so bad guys…she said she'd give all her mall money to buy a new one for us as an apology," Luan added, Lynn's spirits rocketing happier now.

"Well… who needs this old hunk a junk?" Lynn Sr said jovially while kicking a metal panel over.

"AND THAT'S FOR RUINING MY COLORS IN ALL MY CLOTHS WHEN I WAS TWELVE!"

"Well that's certainly nice of Leni, but where is she girls? She should be the one to tell us this herself, not you," Rita asked.

"Yeah, where is she anyhow? And where are Luna and Lincoln? I haven't seen them since this morning when I checked up on them," Lynn Sr added on. "Last I remember was sister-fight-protocol being called up, and your mom and I taking the younglings out for a bit to avoid the whole situation. Luna was in charge of you three."

"You girls sort this out? I bought more for each of you so this wouldn't happen again," she said, specifically eyeing Lynn and Luan. "You should really try and talk to one another and reason these kinds of things out like Lincoln," Rita added on.

"In hindsight, we wished we did," Lucy said lowly.

"Well…in a way yeah…but it didn't really go like the sister-fight-protocol intended," Lynn weakly said with guilt, rubbing her neck and looking sadder now.

"You see, mom, dad…and this goes for every one of us girls in this family…except you Lily," Luan began, before a tinge of hurt from playing back Lincoln's comments…the ones she heard after getting the visceral shock of staring into the eyes with reflections of brooding, dancing flames of someone close in her heart, arguably and secretly the closest, who was shot down and made into a hurt, angered and bitter mess from just trying to honorably follow their protocol he so vehemently despised…till it was too much.

His expression was still planted in their minds as Luan played back Lincoln's last words.

"That's how I feel about your sister-fight-protocol….how I feel about this brawl in the family...that's how I feel…when you change into that blithering fighting mess I'm disgusted to have to call my sisters. So you know what? Have fun tearing each other's throats out. I'll be doing what I'm obligated to do. I'm out!"

"The sister-fight-protocol as we know it blew up in our face…Lincoln blew up…we pushed him too far," Lucy stuttered in a watery tone, their parents, the twins, Lily and Lisa now listening diligently.

"Mom…dad…we pushed him to his limit…and he snapped…he's out," Lynn cried out hard, Rita and Lynn Sr walking over to a shaking Lynn, trying to comfort her.

"He's ashamed of us…what we put him through…how we made it worse and worse over the morning and afternoon….Now…he's madder than I've ever seen him before. He's out in that storm, and Leni and Luna are out there trying to find him and bring him back," Lynn weakly sobbed out vulnerably.

"He…he hates us," Luan stuttered out in a cry, covering her face as the twins and Lily came over to try and comfort the three.

"Sweetie, whatever happened between you girls and Lincoln, he would never hate you. That's not Lincoln," Rita said with nurture in her tone, hugging Luan tightly.

"You weren't there mom…he said when we change into that fighting mess…he feels disgusted to…to have to call us his sisters," Luan croaked.

Rita and Lynn Sr stood silent with severely alarmed expressions.

"I'm calling him right now; anger or no anger, he's not going to be out there endangering our family," Lynn Sr sternly said, now seeing Luan and Lucy tear up. Lisa just tried to separate herself from the situation, but she too was being affected by this rather startling news.

"All three of them out there…definitely not good news," Lisa lowly lisped.

"I thought this might happen," Rita weakly uttered out, "…your father and I tried to not take sides…we thought it might work, this sister-fight-protocol, with the two dinners, and things like that, but my gut was telling me otherwise…we should have actually talked openly about any conflicts."

"Darn it! His phone is not in service. Boy probably forgot to charge it," Lynn huffed, now looking out the basement window and getting truly afraid for the family still out there, Rita doing the same. Lucy got a horrible feeling in her stomach, thinking that she may have improperly put Lincoln's cell phone back on its charger, and Lincoln's battery was dead on his cell phone.

"Letting you girls do this sister-fight-protocol…yeah…not our grandest parenting hour, and that's partly our fault for not putting our foot down with you girls and your sister-fight-protocol. But seriously? Kicking Lincoln out of his room, taking his bed covers and telling him that you solved your problems by him leaving?" Lynn Sr asked the main three with anger, this diluting down to Lisa, Lola and Lana.

"What? They said what to him?" Rita asked in exacerbated surprise.

"Yeah…Lincoln told me this a while ago. That's what they told him; if he'd butt out and leave them, they'd solve their problems on their own."

Luan remembered how she was the one to say that, her own words like a knife in her heart twisting around like a bayonet of regret.

"Whenever SFP's active, his room is up for grabs to be hijacked for whatever needs. It's what they called a "sister thing," and the he wouldn't understand."

"Oh really?" Rita asked angrily, looking down to all the girls now, excluding Lily, "Ladies, you did not mention that when you first told us about your sister-fight-protocol. And from the sound of it, it looks like Lincoln was not at all informed. It sounds like you told him to stay out of your quarrels, only to be dragged right back in, then tell him to butt out. What's the term we use to call that again?"

They all looked sad and awkward towards her drilling eyes.

"Hypocrisy…and possibly sexism, just because your brother is a boy. And new family rule; no more sister-fight-protocol. We're going to resolve these matters like a family. Understood?"

Lucy, Lynn and Luan nodded their heads, as did Lola and Lana in curiosity, not knowing why the sister-fight-protocol should be put into retirement. Lily bubbled a mumble, Lisa merely nodded ever so faintly.

"And…I rather do regret telling Lincoln in those harsh words "by leaving," accurate as they were, it was not the best way of describing our collective thinking," Lisa said with a tinge of guilt in her tone, but still trying to play unaffected. "I misperceived his mental reaction to our elaborations."

"From that whole Lori-Leni dress deal a few years back…I promised I'd keep it to myself, but boy-howdy, Lincoln took it pretty personally girls. He came to me all distraught one time, totally unsure whether his gut disagreeing with this would let him follow through on it. I told him to be the better man, compromising to you guys…a, girls I mean…goodness was I seriously wrong. You girls should have been better to your brother…we should have listened…huuuhhhhh…yeah, this one is on us, but for now on if a fight isn't resolved, we talk about it until it's resolved, or your mother and I will make it resolved…or Lincoln, whichever comes first…point being, it's gonna get resolved and not let fester and build under the surface, no matter how much you think sister-fight-protocol is useful, understood?"

They all nodded, before Lynn Sr raised his voice higher with a roar.

"IS THAT UNDERSTOOD!?"

"Yes dad," they all said in unison.

"Call up Leni dear, we need to let them know to be extremely careful out there," Rita said over to Lynn Sr.

"God this is a nightmare; my angst-ridden hormonally-stressed out son rambling out during a tornado warning, and now two of my eldest girls are out there searching for him in that...this is totally unlike the Lincoln I know...he's gonna be in a whole world of trouble...all of you," Lynn Sr growled out, the focus square on Lucy, Lynn and Luan, severely implying Leni and Luna would be on the chopping block as well.

"Now honey, I think they've gone through enough," Rita said to Lynn Sr, trying to calm him down. "What Lincoln did was entirely irresponsible, as were their actions...I'm talking to you girls," Rita said looking square at the three, "...and that includes Leni and Luna, and they're going to get a talking-to as well, but they are adults, and are taking the responsibility to go after him...even under the worst possible circumstances. And this is a one-off for Lincoln hun. Don't forget, we let this whole protocol business continue on our watch...we basically encouraged it, and this is how it ended up," Rita commented, reminding Lynn Sr in a calm, thoughtful manner.

While they were deliberating and each respectively taking the parental blame for the situation blowing up, Lucy slyly pulled out her cellphone and put it behind her, letting Luan sneak out a text warning to Leni.

"Parents know, about to call any moment. Find Linc FAST!"

Lucy then handed off the cellphone to Luan, Lynn getting in front of Luan to try and hide the sight as Lucy backtracked to the corner where Lisa was tracking the progress and direction of the thunderstorm.

"Lisa?" Lucy whispered lowly, just barely grabbing Lisa's attention.

"Lisa...SB-129."

"…seriously Lucy? At a time like this? That's a completely reckless and ignorant thing to request. You of all our siblings should see that."

"Just trust me. This is for Leni and Luna's sake...for Lincoln's sake. Besides...you owe me still, big time."

Lisa huffed in mortified defeat.

"...alright...but I want it firmly on the down-low record that I was entirely against this, and any fall-out or subsequent events and consequences post this procedure, are entirely on you," Lisa sternly lisped.

"Dually noted and accepted, now please..."

"Very well...begrudgingly and against my better judgment, though I am a scientist of her word...SB-129."

Just as Lynn Sr. was pressing the green call button under Leni's logo on his cellphone, Lisa pressed a button on her laptop, then quickly got her NOAA and Detroit weather map sites up, her eyes gradually widening.

"Come on...come on...DARN IT! The call isn't going through honey! Lines are all jammed up!"

"Let me try," Rita said, all the others except Lisa and Lily, giving it a go.

"Lines are all busy for me too," Lola said, Lana nodding a similar result.

"We'll try Luna and Leni," Lynn said, her, Lucy and Luan doing so, hoping in some degree of mixed grace she wouldn't pick up. Their phones had busy line signals. Suddenly the signal changed from being busy to all signals being down.

Lucy then gave a sly nod with her head, motioned it backwards towards Lisa.

"I bought Leni and Luna at least fifteen minutes. Hope they can find him by then," Lucy quietly whispered into their ears.

"In fifteen minutes, out in that Lucy? That's like trying to find the pointed end of a basketball," Lynn whispered harshly.

"What choice do we have? We gotta put our faith in them and hope it all turns out okay," Luan quietly added as all three see the entire family frantically trying to call Luna, Leni and Lincoln.

"GOSH DARN IT ALL TO HECK! I'm going over to Grouse's to call the police. We can't have them in that. They need to take shelter somewhere for the time being with the authorities, Lincoln principally...Leni and Luna should know what to do...darn how I wished I bought them that car now so they wouldn't be totally exposed out there," Lynn Sr said.

Lisa gave an "as to be expected" expression while Lucy, Lynn and Luan made a "holy shit" expression, Lucy in particular, knowing that whatever Lisa did, it only affected the Loud house residence. A phone call from Mr. Grouse's from their dad would escalate the situation severely, and she, Lynn and Luan did not want their folks barking down Luna and Leni while searching for Lincoln. Lynn Sr hugged Rita and the others, letting him know he'd be right back.

"God I hope this all has a happy ending," Lynn weakly said with guilt. Lily suddenly ran over to the three, tugging at Lynn's shirt.

"Lucy, Lynn, Luan? Please come over...I don't want da tomato to suck you out da window."

"Awe...it's gonna be okay Lily," Lynn said in a low but encouraging voice, Lily jumping up in Lynn's arms and putting her hands out wantingly for Lucy and Luan to join in. They wrapped themselves around Lynn and Lily, the twins running full force to hug them, followed by Rita and Lynn Sr.

"Don't worry kids. Leni and Luna are adults," Rita said encouragingly before Lynn Sr interjected.

"Well, maybe Luna...I don't know about Leni yet," he said open-endedly, getting a slight punch from Rita in his shoulder, before everyone lightly chuckled.

"Alright dear...Luna and maybe, on a technicality, Leni..."Lynn Sr conceded comically.

"Right, and Lincoln may be in a bad mood right now, but he'll know what to do if the worse comes, so will Luna and Leni. You all know how resourceful your brother is at getting out of tight spots and situations. He'll be fine, your sisters are gonna be fine. Everything is gonna be fine," Rita said nurturingly, the nerves on everyone's bodies being slightly relaxed by her soothing words. It even calmed down the hyperventilating Lynn Sr.

Lisa then walked over with a rather alarmed expression.

"Coming to hug it out with your family Lisa?" Lynn Sr asked warmly.

Lisa just stood with a wide, placid, worried expression before a bright flash outside the basement window lit up everything, followed by an immediate thunderous roar that rocked the entire soundscape. Everyone huddled together tighter, Lisa now grasping onto the twins and her folks.

She stuttered in a nervous lisp, "I'm sorry to report that there are two EF2 rated tornadoes touching down in Royal Woods as we speak, and more comparable…possibly stronger ones are expected."

Everyone went dead silent, before they heard a louder, howling freight-train-like wind coming from outside. All the lights went out suddenly, a transformer down the street sounding like it exploded.

"I...I have to go to Grouse's and check on the girls. I hope to God they found Lincoln. Watch the kids hun," Lynn Sr said, hugging Rita tightly as she returned. He turned to everyone else.

"I'll be right back in a flash. Listen to your mother, understand?"

"We understand," they all said in unison.

"I love you all...like I said, I'll be right back."

Lynn Sr headed upstairs as fast as he could. The back door to the backyard opened for a second, followed by a huge howling wind, then the door closing with a slight thud, but detectably from human hands...it wasn't the wind they thought, in relief.

As the family cuddled together in the corner, the three in the know, Lucy, Lynn and Luan, all huddled together hoping the escapades from earlier would not be the indirect cause of getting Leni, Luna or Lincoln hurt out there...or worse.

Luan checked her time.

2:52 PM

"Leni...Luna...Lincoln...please come home...safe...and alive."

---

2:28 PM

Earlier, while Lynn, Lucy and Luan were helping Leni and Luna escape undetected, Leni and Luna hopped into and huddled under the breezing bushes out in their backyard, adjacent to Mr. Grouse's back yard chain link fence, hunkering down until they got a good view of the interior house to make sure they could slink by without being noticed.

Luna looked over to vanzilla.

"Shit….should'a found a way to get the keys from dad…probably would have kicked me out if I did anything that nuts," Luna joked, thinking how their search might have been easier if they were able to drive around and look for Lincoln, a later follow-up to Leni's earlier comment on wishing for cars of their own.

"You were right. We need cars of our own Leni, or at least one for you, me, Luan and Lynn to share…or maybe we could get two and take turns."

"I like that idea Luna," Leni said with a shiver, the cool breeze splashing a sporadic chunk of rain on them.

Luna and Leni then quickly hopped from the bushes and jumped over the dividing chain link fence into Mr. Grouse's backyard, dropping back down to the dirty lawn. Crawling low in the muddy grass, Leni groaned from the amorphous muddy detritus and fall leaves plastering onto her new rain jacket, pants and boots, Luna ignoring the dirty crawl they were undergoing to sneak pass the residence.

As they crawled towards the front of Mr. Grouse's residence, on their left they saw a huge pile of firewood logs cut down into smaller timbers under a huge wafting blue tarp. The pile was dropped off earlier that week, and Mr. Grouse hadn't got it cut yet, nor was it covered. Now...it was both cut and covered.

"Wow...that pile wasn't like that earlier," Leni commented, "...it's all...smaller, a bunch more smaller pieces."

Both now smelled the pungent aroma of freshly cut wood wafting past them hard by the strong erratic winds. One big log on the ground though still had an axe sticking out of it.

"I saw it all still uncut before all this went down," Luna said.

"Mr. Grouse couldn't do all that work that quickly, right?" Leni asked Luna.

"No...no, his leg's messed up right now. He can't do that, that fast, even if his leg wasn't hurting."

"Who do you think did?"

"...I have a hunch...come one," Luna said, motioning Leni to stand up as they got next to the front-face of Mr. Grouse's yard. Now crouching, they moved to his front door and knocked on it several times. Leni then blared the door bell at least twelve times, Luna giving her a frown and grabbing her hand to halt her.

The door suddenly flung open.

"...-CAN HEAR YOU IN THE OTHER ROOM CONFOUNDIT! DON'T NEED TO-"

Mr. Grouse's flustered triage abruptly ended when he saw Luna and Leni, cold and muddy, shivering at his door step.

"Oh...well, hello Louds. What can I do ya fer…um, how come both of ya are out in this weather? Shouldn't you be at home?" Mr. Grouse asked worryingly. He ushered them in from the howling thunderstorm from outside, both kicking their boots hard on the cement step before entering in. Both shook like little Chihuahuas shivering for the sake of shivering. Mr. Grouse's home was still the same as it ever was, the biggest change being his curtains a la Leni, and Mr. Grouse himself, ever since he became more of an old-school neighbor and acquaintance to the Loud family, gradually turning into a good family friend, particularly for Lincoln.

"Mr. Grouse, we're sorry for bugging you at a time like this," Luna said, coughing up some random leaves that accidently flew into her mouth. Mr. Grouse proceeded to shut the door and try and help them with their coats.

"Oh, thank you Mr. Grouse, but no thank you. We can't stay long," Luna said with a smile as Mr. Grouse gave a puzzled look.

"We're looking for Lincy…Lincoln, I mean Lincoln. Did you see him Mr. Grouse?" Leni asked childishly.

"See him? Boy, how couldn't I? I never saw the kid more miffed in all my years," Mr. Grouse said with a slightly comical but concerned timbre.

"Was he here? Is he still here?" Luna asked, hoping with all her might he'd be with Mr. Grouse somewhere, maybe ruminating in another room.

"Ah…I'm sorry girls. Ya missed Lincoln by about…oh, I'd say ten minutes…a little more maybe."

"…dang it," both said in unison.

"Yep. Ran over during that huge thunderstorm a little under a half hour ago. Knocked hard on my door and asked if he could chop all my firewood. Thought it wasn't a really good idea, but the boy had this…look, haven't seen him ever look like that before, so I let him cut the pile earlier, hoping whatever was buggin him, a little physical work would…you know, work it out of him."

"You mean," Leni asked tepidly, "…Lincoln cut that huge stack of firewood all by himself, in how long?"

"Oh…well he did it in less than fifteen minutes. Normally he takes about an hour, but, that kid had some serious anger and energy to release. Mighty impressive what that kid can do with an axe when he's like that…a bit scary. Boy's never that intense when he cuts my timber."

"…thought so," Luna uttered depressingly, both her and Leni knowing that Lincoln must have been seriously venting his rage by cutting down that entire pile of fire wood in a ridiculously quick period of time. That would have been a massive personal physical feat for him…if he at all probably cared.

"You…you don't think he was pretending the firewood was us, do you Luna?" Leni whimpered out.

"No…bro may be more steamed than he ever has been at us, but he's not like that…I know him…you know him…even Mr. Grouse knows him. Wait a sec…Mr. Grouse, is this the first time he cut your firewood?"

"No, not exactly. Getting old ain't fun, and being cold and old sure is one heck of a low deal, so Lincoln comes over when he has time and cuts up the firewood I have delivered here, and I give him fifteen bucks. Been doing it for a while now, and your folks don't seem to mind since that's the only time he seems to do anything physical besides that wrestling and fighting stuff he learned with ya other sister. Why ya ask?"

"…no reason," Luna said, her and Leni suddenly thinking how Lincoln kept such a good figure and abs, all while hardly doing any workouts save for the occasional spare with Lynn. Leni blushed, while Luna tried to refocus on her thoughts to Lincoln's next possible place he'd go.

"Well girls, I…you know, I tried to send him back to his home, but he just kept on cutting and cutting in some kind a mental mode, or some kind a state. When he finished, I gave him his usual fifteen dollars, plus an extra five just for how quick and earlier than usual he did the job. Gave me a nod, a quick smile, thanked me for the ability to let loose…then started taking off down the street. Thought something was up, especially for him to be doing something like that in the middle of a huge storm like this. Say…you girls know what's up with your little brother?" Mr. Grouse asked with an arched eyebrow, his years of experience letting him grasp a figment of what was going on.

"Mr. Grouse…we all sorta got into a fight today," Leni said, before Luna interjected and corrected, "…well, we, the sisters, got into a fight, and kept Lincoln out of it. All he wanted to do was help, but he kept himself out, until we were all at each other's throats and dragged him in it-"

"IS THAT WHAT I WAS HEARIN TODAY? YOU…sorry girls, but I was hearing that over the storm. You put the boy through that again?"

"Well…he was trying to avoid us, like we told him…we didn't make it easy, especially when we try and control our fights with a system, and…he-"

"Hang on girls…let me guess, this "sister-fight-protocol"?"

"How…how'd you know?" Leni asked, both her and Luna astounded he knew.

"Well, my hearing ain't use to be what it was, but I remember him calling the logs he was chopping that, sayin "THIS IS WHAT I THINK OF YOUR SISTER FIGHT PROTOCOL," Mr. Grouse said in a slightly shrill, put-on Lincoln-like voice while doing a pseudo violent chop with an imaginary axe, "…and what not…think I heard a little profanity from him, but, I ain't an angel on that front, so who am I to judge. But the boy had blood in his eyes…oh boy, did he ever have blood in them."

"Do…do you know where he went next Mr. Grouse?" Luna asked with a watery inflection.

"Apologizes girls, but Lincoln didn't really say a word to me. All I knew was that he was heading down our street, towards town…don't know where though. Then again…"

"What Mr. Grouse?" Leni asked.

"Well, this may seem nothing to ya, but I saw him quickly glance through my Royal Woods Bus Schedule Booklet on the counter while I counted out the money for him...saw him leave off a little mark on the page. I only remember cause some small hunks a wood fell onto the page and made a dark blotched mark...maybe that's his route, but I didn't wanna disturb him. My bad girls," Mr. Grouse said with a tinge of guilt, wishing he held Lincoln over his house for just a little longer, at least until his family went for him.

Luna and Leni smiled warmly to him, even with sad faces, and gave him a big hug, him hoofing in surprise for a moment, before giving them slight hugs.

"Alright...alright, enough of this sensitivity stuff. Come with me girls."

Mr. Grouse hobbled over to the kitchen, Leni and Luna recalling that under his pants was a cast on his leg from some unknown happenstance that caused him this condition.

At the kitchen table they saw some of the tiny bits of wood still on it. Leni and Luna each grabbed a piece, looking at their respective slivers of wood sadly and wantingly.

"Alrighty...okay...were the heck did...oh yeah, here it is girls...Luna, Leni, right here," Mr. Grouse said, now flipped to the page, showing a highlighted road, Woodward Avenue heading southwest from Royal Woods through other cities and municipalities, straight into downtown Detroit.

"The 498 bus route?" Leni asked openly.

"Huh, maybe it's a coincidence that he's going in the direction of downtown, or something might be along the way over there," Mr. Grouse remarked as Luna closed her eyes, trying to think hard why Lincoln would seemingly take this bus route, or take a bus at all...assuming this was a correct deduction.

"Bro...why...why would you be taking a bus down there, that direction?" Luna asked herself pensively. She noticed a spot near Woodward Avenue; it was roughly about three miles from Pop-pop's retirement home. Leni seemed to have noticed too, Mr. Grouse now just looking at the map and bus route times rather sporadically and unintelligibly.

"Maybe Lincy is going down to see Pop-pop?" Leni asked with some hope that'd be what was up, until in untypical fashion, Leni gave a follow-up thought to her own thinking, something she wasn't commonly known for.

"But...if Lincoln was going to Pop-pop's, he would have told us, even if he was angry...or texted it to us at least...called us...well he would have made it clear he was going to Pop-pops. Pop-pop would have called too, right?"

"Good point Leni. We should definitely call Pop-pop up to see if Lincoln's heading towards his place...but I got this gut feeling...I dunno, but I don't think he's going there," Luna said, trying to unscramble her thinking, a filed memory in the back of her mind not being easily found for some reason as she scanned her internal memories, but getting a vibe that it was all important to figuring out where Lincoln could be going. She tried associating things with downtown Detroit and Lincoln...things he liked down there. Maybe a comic-con to take his mind off of things?

Luna did a quick search of comic-cons for Detroit; nothing scheduled. And any comic book stores around or near the avenue would be closed, since apparently as Lincoln found out all comic stores closed for Sundays in Royal Woods.

"Well, I'll let you girls think on it for the time. Storm's getting worse out there, much worse," Mr. Grouse remarked. Leni looked at the bus schedule time tables, seeing what time he likely left.

Then she looked over to the clock.

2:41 PM

She looked back again at the scheduled pick-up times again.

"I...I think Lincy got on the bus, right around 2:40PM. That's the one that takes him that direction...where ever he's going," Leni said.

"That means…HE'S NOT THAT FAR AWAY!" Luna said happily in realization, her mind jumping at the idea of seeing Lincoln again…even though she retold herself he may not be looking forwards to such a meet-up.

"But, how do we get him? He's gotta be miles away by now, and we can't walk to Detroit," Leni said, wiggling her boots, "…that would hurt too much, and taking the same bus as Lincoln would take really long."

"What about a taxi?" Luna asked.

"Are ya kiddin!?" Mr. Grouse roared out, "-I've tried getting one of those yellow wussies to come over and pick me up to drive to and back the grocery store once…ain't no way you can rely on taxi's; sons a guns never shows up, and when they do, the driver's higher than a kite on Mt. Everest. Some people-movers they are."

"Huh…people movers," Luna thought, the phrase having a some hidden meaning to it.

"Why does that seem important? People…mover…people mo-"

Then the memory knocked Luna right out.

"THE PEOPLE MOVER!" She yelled out ecstatically, Mr. Grouse and Leni looking at her with shock.

"Leni! I remember all of us taking that monorail that runs through downtown Detroit! You remember? The one we all went on for my big rock show in that arena place? The uh…uhh…..dang it…..the Cobo Arena!"

"Oh! That time!? That was like, so embarrassing for you when you ripped your pants on stage," Leni horsely laughed with a goofish snort, Luna giving a slight frown to her.

"…didn't need to bring that up…but yeah, I could remember…what, a few years back? We were taking vanzilla, it breaking down in downtown, so we had us push it into a huge parking garage while we all hauled my stuff over to the arena in the monorail People Mover. Dad stayed behind to get the thing fixed for sure on the spot while we went to my concert-"

"And your pants ripped," Leni squeaked in a controlled laugh, making a goofy grin to Luna while biting her lower lip.

"I can live without you brining that up again…but don't you remember the trip to the arena and back to the garage?"

"What about it Luna? I thought that air-train thingy was boring."

"I agree with the air-head; ain't nothing special about it, other than being a waste of my tax dollars," Mr. Grouse said.

"Thanks Mr. Grouse…I think," Leni replied, Luna sighing.

"You don't remember? When we got back to the garage dad said we had another twenty-five minutes till vanzilla was going to get its axial aligned right for the last time. While all you guys hung out inside vanzilla, Lincoln asked me if I could ride with him on the monorail. Pulled me up to the very front little window and had me go around it once around the city with him. Lincoln loved it! I don't know why, but he loved riding that thing, staring out the windows, seeing the cityscape…something about it clicked for Lincoln. Maybe he found it relaxing, exciting…I was kinda meh on it, but after he and you guys saved my buns on stage like that, I thought I owed him something…didn't realize how much he liked that…kinda wish we could go on it…together."

"Luna?" Leni asked in concern, seeing Luna's eyes watering up again, before Luna quickly wiped her face.

"…he's going there…downtown Detroit…he's gonna unwind and relax on the People Mover…I feel it."

"Are you sure Luna? Maybe we should call up-"

"No! Leni, I know Lincoln…I…I do. If he's all pissed as hell at us and needed to enjoy himself in the middle of all this, and with his determination and ingenuity…yeah…he's gotta be going there."

"You're positive Luna?"

"I'm as positive as I believe I know Lincoln…and I know him really well, so…honestly, I don't know for a fact that's where he'll be, but…I gotta try. He's either not answering anyone or his phone is dead…things are bad out there…and I want him home."

"I do to," Leni said in childish agreement.

"Mr. Grouse? You mind if we borrow this?" Luna asked him, picking up the Royal Woods Bus Schedule Booklet.

"Go on ahead. I don't rightly need it. Then again, how and why would you wanna use public transportation to find your brother? That's like me using my chemotherapy to get a haircut…and you see my bald spot lately? Lost my last two hairs," Mr. Grouse joked, bending over slightly and cracking a gruff giggle, the girls giggling a little themselves.

"No…it's Sunday, and buses are the worst this day of the entire week…so…let me ask ya two something…you both got your driver's licenses?"

"Yeah! I got mine two years ago," Leni said happily.

"Got mine a year ago," Luna added.

"Well…since you got your license first Leni, you must know how to drive a stick, right?"

"Drive a stick? Sorry Mr. Grouse, I've never drove trees before," Leni replied back innocently, "but I've driven lawn mowers before."

Mr. Grouse face-palmed, then looked over to Luna with a frown on his face.

"Ye…yeah, I can drive stick," Luna replied, him giving a relieved expression.

"Good…let me grab something up," he said, hobbling over to a folder on the kitchen table, pulling out a laminated note and handing it to the ladies.

"So girls, this here note means that I can have anyone I want with a license and insurance use my car if it's regarding personal business or family matters…government disability crap, but basically, if ya getting my meaning, I'm tasking you with finding a family friend who's lost out there…you both know who…keys," Mr. Grouse said, throwing them over to Luna, both looking at him with awestruck, watery eyes.

"M…Mr. Grouse…dude…you lending us your car…to look for Lincoln?"

"…and while you're out, pick me up some salt and vinegar chips…and whatever else you gotta do…white-haired products, that kinda thing. Tank's full, top it off before ya bring it back. I…I'd go with you, but my leg's still sore, and I ain't goin out in that hell-storm out there. You girls on the other hand…you got moxie for goin out in a storm like this," Mr. Grouse said with a wink, both now going to him and giving him big hugs.

"Alright…ALRIGHT! Sheesh, don't make me regret it Louds! Packard's in the garage."

"Packard? Like a card from the mail?" Leni asked.

"Packard's a type of car Leni…a really old car," Luna replied, wondering how far and how reliable the car was gonna be, even though it was better than nothing. At least they'd be shielded.

Mr. Grouse opened up his garage door and showed them a white 1958 Packard Hawk, an old sporty version of Packard automobiles. It was a bit dusty but not lacking in use. It was still classic looking with added modern amenities, air bags, seat belts, FM radio, typical things old cars had amended. Luna got in the driver's seat while Leni scooted in the passenger's, getting a feel for how it would sit and feel.

"Comfy, ain't it? Like a pillow," Mr. Grouse gloated. "Seen some things, been through some things, seen some serious action over the years since I got it boy howdy. Among the fastest of the Packards before they went belly-up."

"This is so super comfy Mr. Grouse! It's like lying against a cloud of whipped cream," Leni said with a happy sigh as her body slightly sunk into the fabrics. Luna just sat as erect and alert as she could.

"Mr. Grouse…how can we ever repay you dude?" Luna asked with a humbled heartfelt tenor.

"…ehh…don't lose that laminated note or the cops will take you in, don't wreck my car, get my bag of chips…oh, and find your brother if ya got time," he said with another wink.

"This is gonna be tough Luna. I don't know if we can follow all those steps," Leni said, Mr. Grouse and Luna slowly shaking their heads back and forth.

"…good thing you're cute Loud, otherwise….well, just get goin!"

As Luna was about to turn on the ignition, they all heard the faint, furious banging on Mr. Grouse's front door.

"Whoa…could that be Lincoln?" Leni asked, Luna and Mr. Grouse spooked. Mr. Grouse ushered them to wait there with the door to the garage opened.

Leni and Luna waited for several seconds, looking at the opening until Mr. Grouse furiously hobbled back to the garage and closed the door, then pressing the garage door opener and ushering out Leni and Luna as ferverently as he could.

"GO! GO!" He mouthed sporadically.

Luna leaned over to the passenger seat and started asking, "Wh…what's goi-"

"GO! YOU'RE DAD'S HERE! GET GOING!"

"…oh crud, oh crud, oh crap, oh crap, OH CRAP!" Luna escalated in her dread, Leni beginning to hyperventilate.

"I'M HOLDIN HIM OFF! GO NOW!"

Turning on the ignition and windshield wipers on, then the lights, then shifting into the gears awkwardly, Luna slowly moved the car before getting a good read on how it was going to drive, then took off like a bat-outta-hell down the other side of the street, down Lincoln's alleged path.

"…dang. That rock-girl's got some know-how. Most in her generation don't know how to drive I stick. I remember that was the only way ya drove any kind of vehi-"

"Mr. Grouse!" Lynn Sr suddenly said behind him, freaking him out momentarily.

"DIDN'T ANYONE EVER TELL YOU NOT TO SNEAK UP ON OLD PEOPLE LOUD! Meh…lucky I even let you in the front door in this storm."

"And you don't know how many muffin's I'll bake for you…no walnuts of course…but why's your garage open, and where's your Packard?"

"Oh…uhm….hey, why ya asking me questions in my own home that ain't even any of yer business?"

"Sorry…can I still use your phone?"

"Eh, go ahead if ya wanna try. Line's have been going down with that windstorm blown out the neighborhood. Won't be surprised if we don't get a little twister from this."

"Actually Mr. Grouse…there's two in Royal Woods right now."

Mr. Grouse stood silent in shock…not because of the news of tornadoes somewhere in Royal Woods…but because he just let his neighbor's daughter's take off in the middle of it all in his car…totally unaware of what was waiting for them out there.

"…and if ya must know Loud, I got my Packard in the shop, and I wanted to air out my garage. What better time than to have the storm blow and pull out all that musty, moldy old smell in there."

"Oh, well that makes sense. Now please excuse me while I try to call Lincoln…and my girls next," Lynn huffed in an alarmed yet furious tone, leaving Mr. Grouse alone. Mr. Grouse was about to close the garage door, when he began to stare into the stormy neighborhood through the still open and extremely windy garage. He was now a cog and accomplice in this whole complicated situation…he allowed two young women to drive an old early edition vehicle in a horrific storm to find their brother, lost somewhere in it.

"…ahhh shit."

2:53 PM

Only a couple of blocks away Luna got the gist of how Mr. Grouse's car worked. Once they were on the streets, they could see just how bad this storm really was.

Tree branches and limbs scattered here and there, paper and trash all over the place, roof shingles gone off roofs, signs and anything not held firmly to the ground wafting away in the strong howling winds. The treeline danced dangerously at warped angles all around them, the dying orange and red leaves easily being picked off one-by-one in large messy flurries. Halloween decorations went streaming all over the place; false spider webbing, pumpkins, monster decorations, plastic skeletons, hay and straw, all sorts of items. A couple of big hairy plastic spiders flew onto the car window. Leni shrieked at them.

"AH! GET THEM OFF!"

Luna just let the windshield wipers get them off, to which Leni thanked Luna.

"Still strong with the arachnophobia Leni?"

"...agroculture what?"

"...never mind."

As they turned from Caltapa Drive to the main Woodward Avenue, they both kept extremely alert of all the bus stops to their right and left, watching every bus that moved in their vicinity. Luna accelerated a little faster than the speed limit on the road, 35 mph, to just under 45 mph, hoping to cover some ground in case Lincoln's bus was feasibly within distance.

"Leni?"

"Yeah Luna?"

"Try calling Lincoln again please."

"Okay."

Leni dialed for Lincoln and put her cellphone on speaker. Then a message popped up.

"The number you are dialing is temporarily not in service."

"Did...did you hear that Luna?"

"Yeah I did, thanks Leni...shit!"

Traffic down Woodward Avenue was extremely light, thanks to the extreme weather happening outside, a majority of the populace looking like it chose to wait it out indoors. It looked as though Luna, Leni and Lincoln were going to be among the exceptions.

The only exceptions were the random motorists, few buses still doing their services, and the fleets of ambulances, police vehicles and fire engines crossing in sight, past them going down the opposite road, or some combination of both. There were an enormous amount of emergency vehicles in the area, and they seemed to only increase in number and frenetic speed the farther along they went down southwest.

Leni then noticed on her right, parallel to Woodward Avenue a slew of oak trees, bare to the bark, dancing unsettingly with their limbs, wily shapes and angles casting shadows along the trunks, forming menacing faces in the dark bark, some scowls, mostly maw roaring looks. The creepy, ghoulish stand of horrific opaquely-lit oaks deeply unsettled Leni as she let out small terrified shrieks.

"Whoa...you good Leni?" Luna asked cumbersomely as she navigated the windy chaotic streets full of debris.

"...sorry Luna...I hate what storms do to trees...they make them look really scary."

"Still scared of storms I guess Leni? It's okay, this storm is really frickin...COME ON ASSHOLE! YOUR CAR COMES EQUIPPED WITH A GOD DAMN GAS PEDAL!"

Luna floored it and zoomed past a minivan going slow and safe on the road.

"...I hate them. I hate them I hate them I hate them. I hate thunderstorms," Leni quivered, now seeing the clouds above get even darker and darker, no more grey, but only dark and really dark grays...some clouds looking almost black. Luna leaned over and rubbed Leni's shoulder, giving a gentle smile to her.

"Look on the bright side Leni? At least we're inside a ca-OH SHIT!"

Luna swerved to the left as a large tree in front of them crashed onto the road, them getting out of the way just in time while the minivan was blocked off from the entire street. The tree took several power lines, spraying sparks all over the slick soaked road. Several cars behind them skidded and collided into one another, horn blasts and crashing metal fading way behind them into the storm's bellowing background.

As Leni's face was froze petrified Luna hyperventilated, wheeling the steering back under control with a horrified, "we almost got killed" laugh.

"Before...anything else happens...Luna, I love you."

"I...I love you too Leni...whatever happens, I'll always love you."

"You think we'll find him?"

"I hope we do. I mean, I know we're gambling on a really rough and probably incomplete picture...and I ain't exactly a detective, but I just got this feeling...I understand if you don't believe or trust my judgment Leni."

"Are you kidding Luna? If anyone knows Lincoln the bestest, it's you. You...you're the closest one of us all to him," Leni weakly whimpered, her mind and soul feeling like it was just grabbed and violently shaken till the life was near drained out.

"I wish I was the closest to Lincy," Leni said very quietly.

"What was that Leni?"

"Oh...just mumbling...anyway, if you think he's going to that sky-train thingy, then I trust you uncoordinatedly."

"...unconditionally Leni?"

"That's what I said, right?"

"...gosh you can be so cute Leni; sometimes I just wanna eat you up," Luna giggled, before her mind went to the last statement's sensual implication. Leni giggled as Luna took her eyes off the road and let them wander over the frame that was Leni.

"She's...really perky...and really...really beautiful," Luna's thoughts wandered, before she got herself to focus back on the road.

"Uhhg...forget those thoughts girl...Lincoln's priority number one!" Luna thought, before saying to Leni, "...forget I said that."

"Why? I think if I was gonna be eaten and junk, I'd taste like one of my shakes… maybe… pineapples and ice cream…snickerdoodles…coconuts or cookie dough!"

"Huh…and junk…yeah...I'll bet you do...damn it," Luna softly said under her breath in muddled, slightly stressed lust.

Leni suddenly turned the radio on, trying to switch on a station. Bubbly beats and bright sounds popped up, Leni perking up and smiling, just as Luna gave a wicked growl and frown to Leni.

"Come on Luna! I never get to hear this! It's one of my favorites."

"This song makes my ears bleed Leni! This is the kind of music you torture Lucy with."

"Please! Pretty please!? You use to like it."

"When I was like ten years old, before I saw the light and got rock n roll!"

"PLEASE PELASE PELASE!?"

Luna put her right arm out with her hand slightly curled.

"Roshambo Leni. Two outta three wins."

"Row your boat…what Luna?"

"Rock, paper and scissors Leni."

"OH! Okay!"

On the first try Luna won, her paper, Leni rock.

Second try Luna lost, her scissors, Leni still rock.

The third time, Luna thought Leni might try for rock again, but might change it up, thinking Leni would expect her to shake things up.

Luna did rock, as did Leni yet again, so that turn got stalemated.

On the tie-breaker, Luna switched back to scissors, only to see Leni yet again do rock.

"Ah crap…I hate this song," Luna complained as Leni soaked up the song.

"You gotta do the guy parts, okay Luna?"

"…no promises Leni."

Leni began singing with the song.

"Now the funny glare to pay a gleaming tare in a staring under heat…involved an under usual feet…And I'm not only among but I invite who I want to come, so I missed a million miles of fun."

She looked over with a big grin and said, "take it Luna!"

Luna begrudgingly sang her parts, "…I know, it's up, for me," before Leni and Luna did their respective parts.

"If you steal my sunshine."

"Making sure I'm not in too deep."

"If you steal my sunshine."

"Keeping versed and on my feet."

"If you steal my sunshine."

"OKAY! That's enough of that," Luna coarsely said, before switching it to another channel, Leni giving a pouty face to her.

"OH ROCKIN! KANSAS!

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Luna…in fact…I think we don't live in Kansas at all. Isn't this that state near the country with the maple syrup?"

Luna got lost in the music as she felt it course through her veins while she watched the road like a hawk, singing with each motion of activity happening outside, both her and Leni still looking for the 498 bus.

"I close my eyes…..only for a moment, and the moment's gone…..all my dreams…. pass before my eyes, a curiosity."

"Luna! This song makes me feel sad!" Leni whimpered out.

"….Dust in the wind…all they are is dust in the wind."

"Alright…you get a little longer, then I'm gonna change it."

"Same old song…. just a drop of water, in an endless sea…..all we do…. crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see."

Luna then began reflecting on the last sentence in the lyrics as she continued singing.

"All we do…. crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see…I…I hope I didn't break things between Lincoln and me…I…I might have. What we were building…crumbled to the ground…just, dust in the wind."

Luna then sobbed out, "Dust in the wind….all we are is dust in the wind."

"Luna!?" Leni asked in alarmed surprise as new tears formed in Luna's eyes.

Luna suddenly began choking out restrained sobs, trying to hold them back. Leni leaned over to Luna with tears in her own eyes, rubbing Luna's back as Luna sniveled and coughed, trying to compose herself from her outburst.

"…I, I miss him too Luna. I know he's mad at us…and it's scary out here…I…we'll find him. He'll be okay. I promise," Leni warmly said to Luna, Luna giving a small smile, grabbing a hold of Leni in her right arm and holding onto her as she drove.

Leni and Luna smiled as Leni snuggled up to Luna, before the song cut off.

"HEY! WHAT THE HELL!"

"I didn't touch the radio Luna! I swearsies!"

"I know you didn't Leni. The song just cut off, for like no apparent rea-"

Suddenly an annoying buzzing sound, followed by a message filled the airwaves as they drove down the chaotic street…it was an emergency announcement, the alert sound that chilled their spins more than anything before.

"The National Weather Service in Detroit has issued a tornado emergency for the following counties; Macomb, Oakland and Wayne. At 2:49 PM Central Standard Time, National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated severe thunderstorms in the area have the ability to produce multiple tornadoes in the Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties. All residents are strongly advised to-"

The emergency alert then cut off.

"Holy crud Luna…tornadoes in the area…I didn't think that was possible."

"Neither did I…Jesus I hope Linc's okay. I don't know how we haven't caught up to him by now!"

"Maybe-" Leni was cut short by another broadcast…this one even more electronic and unsettling, the voice louder and more synthesized.

"...TORNADO EMERGENCY FOR WAYNE COUNTY...A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5:00 PM FOR ALL WAYNE COUNTY RESIDENTS...AT 3:10 PM...MULTIPLE TORNADOES WERE LOCATED OVER ROYAL WOODS...MOVING ROUGHLY EAST-SOUTHEAST AT 35 MILES PER HOUR. THIS IS A TORNADO EMERGENCY FOR ROYAL WOODS. THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. TAKE COVER NOW! HAZARDS...DEADLY TORNADOES. SOURCE...LAW ENFORCEMENT CONFIRMED TORNADOES. IMPACT...YOU ARE IN A LIFE-THREATENING SITUATION. FLYING DEBRIS MAY BE DEADLY TO THOSE CAUGHT WITHOUT SHELTER. MOBILE HOMES WILL BE DESTROYED. CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE TO HOMES... BUSINESSES...AND VEHICLES IS LIKELY AND COMPLETE DESTRUCTION IS POSSIBLE. LOCAL UPDATE….ONE TORNADO, RATED EF1, WILL BE NEAR NORTHERN ROYAL WOODS...SIGHTED INITIALLY AT 2:49 PM. ANOTHER TORNADO, RATED EF2, WAS SIGHTED IN THE HUNTINGTON OAKS RACKHAM GOLF COURSE, APPROACHING THE DETROIT ZOO."

Static suddenly plagued the radio, then everything went off…no more radio.

"Luna…where are we right now?"

Luna looked all around her, then the large green road interchange guide sign on Woodward Avenue instantly told them where they were heading.

"…the Detroit Zoo," they both weakly said.

"…crap, crap crap! Leni, you see anything?"

"I…I don't know! I've never seen one of those long ropey thingy's before. They're like ropey windy things, right?"

"Yeah Leni! Tell me if you see anything on your right! I'm a look on my left and drive…WHOA!"

Another tree just came down to there right…luckily it was smaller than the other one. And…what the hell?" Luna asked as she saw parts of a house's roof fly right above them, then fall on the opposite side of the street in a big woody pile.

"Oh shit…we're near it!"

Leni suddenly popped her head out of the window, her hoodie dancing violently in the wind as her face was stretched by the veracity of the turbulence, soaked by rain, while her sunglasses surprisingly enough did not fly off her head into the winds. She looked to her right looking upwards. She did this several times, popping her head in back and forth as though she were a turtle trying to process some gigantic complicated math problem, before she rolled her window up nonchalantly and double-checked her seat belt. She then checked Luna's.

"What is it Leni?"

"...big ropey thingy..." Leni whispered.

"Wh...what!?"

"...BIG ROPEY THINGY! IT'S A TWISTER! IT'S A TWISTER!"

Luna instantly looked to her right and saw a long, skinny twirling cloud coming straight out from the trees in the right, ripping up the branches and tossing shingles and gutters all over the place. The buildings on their right suddenly blew apart, the tops of the roofs lifting right off and being twirled chaotically overhead, into the trees and sprayed all over Woodward Avenue.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"LUNA! FLOOR THE GOD DAMN CAR!"

"...did you just cuss Leni?"

"FUCKING FLOOR IT! FLOOR IT NOOOOWWWWW! BOOTS FROM THE SIXTIES! GO GO! GOOOOOOOO!"

Luna pushed the car from thirty-five to sixty-five miles per hour, the tornado impeding their acceleration with the downdrafts hitting the car and making it veer to the left. The tornado moved out its parallel path to them, immediately shifting course and now started chasing right behind them, twirling multiple parked cars on their sides in rapid fashion, the ones that were just behind them seconds ago. As it roared monstrously behind them, the Detroit Zoo came into sight.

Suddenly the tornado doubled in width and veered to their right again and passed them up as they feverishly jammed, Leni and Luna looking up the terrifying rippling vortex of whirlwinds, the car almost flipping along Leni's side due to the air suction rapidly being assimilated into its rotating column of fury.

They kept the gas punched as it veered into the rightmost part of the Detroit Zoo, then seconds later back into the Detroit Zoo parking lot, tossing around the dozens of cars still in the parking lot. Luna saw several tractors tumble across the road, collectively crashing to a halt as she slammed the brakes, the tires locking and the whole Packard Hawk skidding to the right along a right-leaning road under the Detroit Zoo parking garage. Before they went inside the parking garage road that lead out the other side, Leni saw the tornado striking the Detroit Zoo water tower, seeing several semi trucks being smashed into the metal girders supporting the structure. She saw it wobble slightly before the sight disappeared, brick and concrete walls her only vision now.

Luna continued speeding out along the road under the parking garage, when the metal lining roof of the water tower flew right over them onto the highway bridge, then smashing into the lower highway turnpike. Then a huge wave of water bellowed right over the top of the parking garage, the water splashing out of the opened tower, nearly uptaking the panicking Luna and Leni as they swerved from the onrushing wave that coursed in one huge river right over the road bank into the turnpike below. Their leftward turn onto the opposite moving side of West 10 Mile Road was a purely lucky one as the tornado blew right over the parking garage, flipping cars off left and right and shifted right, crisscrossing the turnpike and causing more mayhem for anyone down there still. They both looked up to see the Detroit Zoo steer, its bovine ends black, its mid-section white like an Oreo cookie being wafted across the vortex into a bare branchy tree, it smashing through the limbs but the branches acting like cushions for its fall back to earth. It got up quickly and shook off its violent ordeal, running off back towards the zoo.

Luna thankfully drove fast enough to avoid the Packard being swept up and whirled around. Leni, her body pumped with as much adrenaline as the Twister event, turned around as her fingers dug into the dash board. She saw a bus stopped at an angle on the other side of the road along Woodward Avenue…with Leni's keen eyes seeing the digital read-out screen, indicating it was the 498 bus.

"LUNA! I FOUND LINCY'S BUS! IT'S OVER-"

Then, as Leni watched in powerless horror, she saw the tornado engulf the city bus, it just rocking violently back and forth before the twister knocked it on its side and caused it to roll and skid along the road backwards down 10 Mile Road, windows shattering from the vibrations. It smashed into a pole in the street, bringing down the large interchange road guide sign on it, the heaviest parts of the metal sign structure crashing into and caving inwards on the roof area of the bus…directly onto the space where the passenger's upper bodies would be.

"No….no…no no….NO NO NO! LINCY!"

"LENI! WHAT THE-"

"GO BACK! GO BACK! THAT WAS LINCY'S BUS!"

Luna skidded to a stop with her brake, seeing first the tornado continue along its path of destruction across Woodward Avenue, then shift to their left eastward in the other direction towards the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood. She then parked the Packard next to the bus, a pit in her heart now forming…despair, fear and terror to what she might see…seeing what looked like Lincoln's bus, on its side with its roof completely smashed inwards by the metal interchange sign.

There it was, the digital reader in Luna's sights still blinking…bus 498.

"OH MY FUCK! LINCOLN!" Luna traumatically screamed as she ran out of the car, Leni following in suit as the rains and winds howled around them, both keeping guard of everything around them.

Luna kicked in what was left of the bus's windshield as both her and Leni crawled into the small confined quarters of the pulverized interior, roof smashed inwards by the pole and windows shattered aplenty.

What they saw caused their skin to boil over in horror, Leni puking her guts out all over the sideways seats as Luna cried in terror; what few people could be seen, their heads were caved inwards, that or their bodies suffered extreme fatal trauma. This was stuff akin to the Red Asphalt driving education video they both saw during their driving school classes...only this was real...this was actual, live gore.

Leni and Luna didn't see anyone moving inside.

"...no...NO! NO! LINCOLN!" Leni and Luna both screamed at the top of their lungs, squeezing and passing up the human wreckage, trying as hard and as fast as they could scanning the interior for their brother in the bloody mangled grave that was bus 498.

Leni sobbed at the sights, Luna sniveled but pressed inwards, trying to emotionally lock her focus just on Lincoln...trying her damndest to believe Lincoln would be okay...the environment was telling another story.

"LINCOLN! DUDE! LINCOLN SCREAM! CALL OUT! BRO!" Luna begged out as she maneuvered over another motionless body, hobbling nearly all the way back to the bus. Leni stood back in catatonic shock with tears running down her face.

Of all the bodies on the bus, none looked like Lincoln's.

"Luna...they're...they're all-"

"Leni! I...I think bro's not in here...he's...he's not on this bus...not this 498 anyways."

Leni gave a whimper of joy, before the grueling and horrific environment pulled her back in crippling shock as she felt another body under her foot.

"ARE THERE ANY SURVIVORS? HELLO!?" Luna shouted out, getting no responses at all. Towards the back, she saw the bus driver and a young black woman...motionless as well. Then, Luna began hearing...crying.

"He...hello?"

Luna called out again, looking between the bus driver and young woman's bodies; in a bundle with multiple pitch-white blankets was wrapped inside them a baby girl, less than a year old. The infant looked over to Luna, hearing and seeing her. She began crying out vigorously.

"This baby…that's…that's gotta be the mom…oh no…"

Luna delicately picked her up and cuddled her in her arms.

"H…hi there…you're a cute little dudette," Luna whispered weakly.

"Leni! Call 9-11 now! I found a baby!"

"A baby? Why don't we just find the mothe-" Leni paused, Luna shaking her head lowly as she pointed to the young black woman's body on the ground. Leni sniffled loudly as she got her cell phone out. Just as she was about to call 9-11, their dad, Lynn Sr, was calling them.

"Luna! It's dad…should I answer?"

"Not now Leni! Pops is gonna have to wait till we get this shit done…when we got a second. Fuck knows how much longer bro's luck is gonna hold out."

"LUNA! Don't cuss in front of the baby!"

"That's the least of this little babe's worries...and ours."

Leni reluctantly denied the call from their dad and dialed up 9-11, waiting and waiting…and waiting.

"It's no use Luna…all circles are busy, and it'll probably be a while till they get around the circle to us," Leni sighed in extreme disappointment.

"…circuits Leni," Luna whispered lightly before she harshly said, "GOD DAMN IT!"

Luna looked down and saw what looked like the baby girl's bag and the woman's purse.

"Come take the baby for a sec Leni…need to get this stuff for her and her family."

Leni whimpered momentarily, still trying to meander a body around.

"NOW LENI!"

"ALRIGHT!"

Leni hobbled into the space and took the baby from Luna as Luna grappled with the items, grabbing the strap to the baby bag while she looked into the woman's purse. She looked into the wallet and took a look at the photo ID.

"…Chivonn Booker Jemison…you…you look barely older than me…you shouldn't have had to die like this…you didn't even get to see her grow up," Luna uttered to herself as she tried to look for a cell phone. She found it, and pulled her own cellphone out to take a picture of the cell's number, including the two listed contacts on the cell phone…numbers for one named LaShawna…the other named Grammy Jem.

"….hi baby," Leni sniffled out as she cuddled and cooed the baby close to her, trying to nurture and distract her and herself from the surroundings. She babbled to the baby, the little infant responding with reserved babbling of her own. Luna motioned for Leni to backtrack out of the bus, Luna now holding the baby bag.

Leni wrapped the blanket around the sides of the infant's head to shield it from the rains and winds piercing the broken windows of the bus, but in Leni's mind, mostly to shield the baby from seeing the human wreckage all around her.

They exited the bus and ran back to the double-parked Packard, Luna dropping the things on the ground momentarily for Leni to scoot in with the baby in tow, then throwing the baby bag in between them as Luna ran back around to the driver's seat.

As they collected themselves and regained their breathing, Leni cuddled close to the baby as Luna rubbed her forehead, trying to figure out what to do next.

"Gl…glad we found you when we did little dudette…but what the hell are we gonna do now? We can't go looking for Lincoln with a baby. That'd be fu-"

The answer came with a huge squad of ambulances, police cruisers and fire trucks heading straight for their vicinity, most of them branching off to the turnpike area where most of the unseen carnage was probably taking place below when a huge column of oily smoke and fire began gushing from the rainy windy landscape.

Luna leapt out of the Packard and ran towards them, waving violently, trying to catch their attention.

"Hey! HEY! OVER HERE! DUDES!"

One lone police cruiser broke from the squad and braked hard next to them. Out popped a tall, lanky old black cop with extremely grey hair, still looking primed and physically fit to do his job. He jogged over to them.

"You ladies okay? Tornada's around here, and you should-" he started with a gruff tone, before seeing the upturned bus with its smashed in roof and interior.

"Uhh…you ladies were in that bus?"

"Officer! We just saw that bus get struck by that tornado going east now," Luna replied.

"The one down in Pleasant Ridge? That one is dissipatin right now I hear…suppose to be a really big one forming west of us though…it's getting close, and you gotta get outta-"he paused, looking into the Packard and seeing Leni smile sheepishly towards him, then focusing back onto the baby.

"…you driving this?" he asked curiously to Luna, "cause…ain't you a bit young to be driving a Packard this type? And…if I may say, what a lovely little girl you got there miss," he nodded to Leni.

"Thank you sir," Leni replied quietly, before Luna interjected.

"Actually officer…my sister and I…we were…we're still looking for our younger brother Lincoln Loud. We thought…he'd be on this bus…he wasn't, but…but…" Luna stuttered.

"Yeah…go on child," he encouraged as nicely as he could with his gritty voice.

Leni suddenly let a crying choke out.

"They're dead! They're all dead," Leni cried out to the officer as she snuggled onto the baby with more tenacity, the officer looking at her with a mortified face.

"…my lord," he croaked.

"We went inside the bus sir…the baby and the mother were on it, and when we found them, both were huddled around the baby…they didn't make it either, but she did," Luna said, pointing to the infant.

"You…you ladies were mighty brave to go into that bus…you girls are heroes," he said with a pat on Luna's shoulder, then looking inside to look at the baby.

"It's a blessed miracle ya survived that twister sweetie-bell. You're such a cute little peach cobbler baby-girl. Lucky these two found you when they did…otherwise…" he stuttered, clutching onto his dark brown wooden cross on a dog chain necklace.

"Ladies…if ya looking for your brother still, it'd be hard for you to find him with a baby on board, especially with these twisters hittin our city…you shouldn't even be on the road right now!"

"Twisters? How many have there been?" Luna asked, Leni looking at them now.

"This one of course, the big one forming several miles away, one in Royal Woods-"

"ROYAL WOODS!?" Luna and Leni replied back in horror.

"That was a little twister girls…started strong but got weak, just pulled some shingles off some roofs, took a few branches and downed a couple power lines. Ain't nothin like this one here and the big one west of us. Big one is getting ungodly. But ya need to get to shelter. Only a matter of time before more form."

"More…more of them are coming?" Leni asked with dread.

"Yeah…and ya two being adults, I can't be wantin ta stop you from finding ya brother…where do you think he is anyhow?"

"We…we don't know for certain, but we think he was on the 498 bus going to downtown Detroit…he wasn't on the bus so…we originally thought he'd go on the People Mover…he likes it a lot."

"Huh…people usually hate that thing…at least its got one admirer."

"So officer…we don't wanna drag this baby into our situation…we might be putting her in extreme danger. I don't know if I have the stomach to give the baby back to her family and let them know about her mother…I wanna return her to her family…but we gotta look for ours too."

"Family's gonna need to know about the mama of this girl…I'll take her off your hands if ya need me to."

"You will? Do…do you need us to come with you?" Leni asked.

"I just need another officer to help…gonna have to hold her at the precinct till this weather cools down," he replied, calling his dispatch and letting them know the situation at hand.

While the armada of emergency responders and crew were tackling on an unseen task of mass destruction and panic in the turnpike down below that made Luna and Leni's stomach churn from the menagerie of screaming and crying, another cruiser, a huge black SUV with two officers pulled up. First a short plump Latina officer with a sweet smile and commanding demeanor named Cortez popped out of the driver's side, the other side a blonde buzzed haircut, red-faced middle-aged man who looked like he went to the gym way far too often named Sheldon. They jogged over to the old black police officer, who Luna just noticed was named Carson.

"We gotta go Carson!"

"You got my dispatch right?"

"We did. Chief has a spot in his office all set for the child till we can find her family…thing is…"

"What Lopez?"

"Well…we gotta report to other calls coming from the area too," she replied.

Then Sheldon interjected, "You and Lopez take the child back. I'll take the dispatch request at the Ferndale U-Haul storage facility, a family is trapped in their storage compartment and the only one there is a front desk lady with no way of clearing a truck smashed into the gated entrance."

"You got something to pull it off?" Carson asked, Sheldon pointing to the huge SUV with a huge winch set at the front.

"Okay…ladies?" Officer Carson said, motioning for Leni to hand over the baby to him.

"I'll miss you little baby. I'm…I'm sorry you lost your mommy," Leni whimpered, giving her one last snuggle before Leni handed her gingerly over to the officer, Luna looking at her pensively, putting her finger out, the baby girl putting its hand out and wiggling Luna's…that warmed Luna's heart as Luna gave a weak smile to the infant.

"Lopez, can you get the baby bag too?"

"Got it Carson," she replied, taking the bag from Leni with a nurturing "thank you" expression.

"Ladies…we'll make sure the family knows…about this uhh, your names?"

"Luna and Leni Loud…here's our numbers if you need to speak or contact with us," Luna said, giving them a wrinkled piece of paper with their numbers and address on it. Carson nodded, then he and Lopez went back in the cruiser.

"There's…really no other survivors in the bus?" Lopez asked him.

"Lucky there was one survivor in that ungodly wreckage…good thing the unit 3 squad is just finishing up down in the turnpike…gonna be at least ten minutes before we can get back to this mess," Carson huffed as he held a blanket hovering above the baby's face to block out moderate hail that began falling from the clouds now.

Lopez pulled out a small baby seat from the trunk, and then strapped the baby seat in the back of the cruiser; the old black cop strapping her in and hopping in the back to watch her while Lopez drove, a seemingly opposite case of gender norms and roles.

Sheldon got into the SUV and took off eastward, along the path the twister took.

Leni sniffled as Luna stood outside the old Packard Hawk, being pelted with the hail, lost in her mind. She was out there being pulverized catatonically until Leni pulled her inside the vehicle.

"L…Luna? Luna?"

Luna just stared into the surroundings blankly, her mind lost in the ordeal they were in. Tears dribbled down her cheek.

"I…I don't know…I don't know where Lincoln is…I should know…I should have known…" Luna hiccupped in a cracked voice.

"I'm sorry…Leni…I'm sorry you had to see that…those bodies…I'm sorry we went through all that…I'm sorry I…I can't find bro…"

Leni wiped her eyes and leaned in for a hug.

"We saved a baby Luna…that counts for something…you saved that baby."

"I know…but…but I…we still need to find Lincoln-"

"And we will. We just need to keep looking and watch out for twisters and junk like….hey…wait a minute…Luna? Doesn't Ronnie-Anne live around here?"

"...OH MY GOD LENI! THAT'S IT! HE'S AT RONNIE ANNE'S PLACE! HE'S GOTTA BE! HOW...how come I didn't think of that?"

"Although...he might be heartbroken from their breakup still...I don't know, maybe I'm wrong?"

"Maybe, maybe not Leni. Her place is just five or six blocks away from here...and we...I was wrong about the bus, so...why not check just to make sure?"

"Alright...uhgh...I don't know if I'm gonna get any sleep in the next few nights," Leni said stressfully, putting her face into her hands and trying to recharge herself. Luna started the car and made their way past the windy debris and destruction all around them.

"Neither do I," Luna thought.

Luna continued several blocks down the southern portions of Royal Woods, not far from their Detroit Zoo location.

Leni coughed up an acidic loogie out the window, wincing at doing a most un-ladylike act of expectorating; a remnant from throwing up from the horror of the bus.

"Yuck! Uh, sorry Luna."

"If that was a challenge, then I accept," Luna said with a little smile, Leni rolling her eyes in a sigh.

"Dude...wish we had Ronnie's number so I was certain we would not be wasting a trip down there."

"Hey Luna? What if he is down there...but doesn't even want to come home? Not even with these twistery thingys?"

"I...I don't think he'd be that pigheaded Leni...he's pissed all to hell, and has every right to be...but I don't think...I hope he wouldn't stay mad at us if we simply tell him he was right and we were wrong and in the wrong...and if that didn't work...we could tell him also what you and I went through...what we saw to get him home."

"So...to get Lincy home...we guilt-trip him as a last resort?"

"My last resort...no guaranteeing he'd wanna come back...but hell or come high water, we're his older sisters...I'm just hoping it doesn't come to that, and hopefully he'll accept our apologizes...the other's apologizes, and listen to our willingness to modify or scrap sister-fight-protocol altogether...and let him mediate any fights. Funny thing is...when it's between the ones younger than Lincoln, we don't do sister-fight-protocol...nor do we do it with a sister who's older fighting with a younger...it's generally s older ones that need it...like Lincoln's the cut-off point."

"I...I don't follow Luna...cut off what?"

"Never mind Leni...thinking out loud...either way, I hope to hell if he's at Ronnie's, he'll accept coming back to us."

"He's...probably told Ronnie Luna...think she'll let us see him?"

"Let me put it this way Leni...I don't care if I gotta knock the walls supporting her house down in the midst of these tornadoes to see and speak to our brother...to get him back..." Luna trailed off, rubbing her hand over her heart momentarily and slyly out of Leni's view as Leni still looked out the windows in alarm for any other nearby tornadoes on the ground...the radio seemed to have been knocked out, so they couldn't get any news...luckily Leni had her cellphone set now for the Detroit News Network, which looked like it just started covering this storm with more detail and focus thanks to voluntary work from NOAA...possibly with their sister Lisa's assistance.

"...I have to get him back...I have to...I, I can't lose him..."

"Luna?"

"N...nothing Leni. Oh...we're here."

They parked in front of a modest looking Victorian home. A tree next to the home had all of its leaves gone, a branch downed while a huge puddle was formed along the sidewalk. Leni almost stepped into this, before taking her finger and dipping in to check the depth...it went past her wrist.

"Nope...no wet feet for me," she gingerly said, opting to hop out onto the sidewalk, Luna seeing this and giggling.

"At least she can make me laugh at a time like this," Luna though whimsically, before they both walked up to the front porch. Luna rang the bell as they cuddled in their rain coats, only just now noticing it wasn't as cold before, but the wind and rains were getting worse.

No answer.

Leni knocked hard several times.

Suddenly the door opened quickly, Ronnie Anne quickly taking in both the sight of Leni and Luna.

"Uh…hi Ronnie Anne," Luna said as Leni waived with a small smile. Ronnie Anne looked up to them with a partly scrunched face, then walked over to them, looking back and forth at their expressions.

Then in one lightening fast, absolutely stinging motion, Ronnie Anne slapped them across their left cheeks.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL!?" Luna roared out, Leni next saying, "HEY YOU MEANY! WHAT WAS THAT-"

"THAT'S FOR PUTTING LINCOLN THROUGH THAT BULLSHIT! Desagradables perras estúpidas! YOU GOT SOME FUCKING NERVE COMING OVER HERE PUTAS!"

"Ow…damn…no wonder he thought you were a bully for a while," Luna said coyly.

"Say that again…I dare you!" Ronnie Anne threatened before Leni got between the both of them.

"Ronnie Anne! Please! We know we messed up! We messed up more than anyone has ever messed up in the history of mess-ups! Please…if Lincoln is in there…can you please let us talk to him?"

"And what makes you think I'd let you in if he told me he didn't want to speak to you?"

Luna's temper was flaring uncontrollably now.

"Listen, my sister and I just went through fucking hell out here looking for our bro, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna be stopped by an ex-girlfriend! We need to talk to him, NOW!"

Ronnie Anne just looked at both of them with pitiful eyes.

"…you think he'd wanna talk to you after you put him through that?"

"Why the hell do you care anyways Ronnie Anne? You broke his heart, remember?" Luna said bitterly.

"We're still good friends you ass…pun intended. Even if I've…changed…drifted another way…he's still there for me, maybe not as a significant, but he's still one of the coolest dudes around. And you know what? I never heard him more pissed off…ever girls. You should feel ashamed of yourselves," Ronnie Anne bitterly said back to them, Leni wondering what Ronnie Anne meant by her change.

"We…we do," Luna huffed in defeat. "We put Lincoln through a horrible, horrible ordeal. But…but Ronnie, that's why we're here. We want…we need to apologize to him…everyone else needs to apologize to him…plus, there's frickin tornadoes dropping out of the sky like flies! Tell him we're gonna drop our sister-fight-protocol…it obviously doesn't work for the family if it did this to our bro."

"That's the understatement of the century. You hurt him badly Luna…Leni…the others, I think Luan…Lucy I was surprised by…Lynn, I was not surprised by that one at all…it…it broke my heart to hear him like that…then his phone goes dead right in the middle of our talk."

"Goes dead?" Leni asked, Luna picking up on that recurring theme of Ronnie Anne "hearing" Lincoln.

"Ronnie Anne? Did Lincoln ever stop by here?"

"…well…it seems like you really are sorry…so I'll begrudgingly tell you the truth. I got a text message earlier from him asking if he could crash over. I was busy at the time and didn't get back to him until about maybe thirty…forty minutes ago. We talked for about three…maybe five minutes…then the line cuts off. I try calling him but the line says the caller's phone is no longer able to accept calls…guessing lameo forgot to charge his phone again."

"….and?" Leni asked on her toes.

"…and…that was the last I heard of him. He did tell me that in the off-chance you'd try and get a hold of him, he'd be heading to downtown Detroit to ride that People Mover…I dunno why, but Linc likes that thing."

"Hell yeah! I knew it! So…did he say he got on the 498 bus by chance?" Luna asked.

"How'd you know that? Well…you're almost right. The one he took was actually ahead of schedule and he got on that one, so he's probably almost in downtown right now."

"RONNIE ANNE! GET THOSE GIRLS INSIDE!" Her mother, Mrs. Santiago yelled out, running over to Luna and Leni and pulling them in from the stormy conditions outside.

"Girls! Ronnie told me Lincoln is heading to downtown! Is that true!? Did you see that tornado around here?" Ronnie's mother asked them frantically but with a greeting tone.

"Ye…yeah. We did…and we've been looking for him…he's not answering his cellphone…"Leni said. Mrs. Santiago gasped as she hurriedly pulled them into the basement room with the Detroit News station on full blast. Leni and Luna found Ronnie Anne's family huddled down, watching some helicopter footage blaring on their large screen TV with a meteorologist yelling out over a howling freight-train like wind. His words were of alarmingly narration to the events unfolding. Leni and Luna's souls nearly drifted away when they saw the footage being played and what he was shouting out at full blast.

"IF…YOU LOOK OVER THERE BEHIND ME, THAT'S A, A GIGANTIC TORNADO! YES, A TWISTER IN DETROIT! WE'VE NEVER HAD THIS MANY TORNADOES BEFORE HIT THE AREA, AND THIS ONE GREW IN SIZE AND INTENSITY FROM WHEN IT TOUCHED DOWN IN ACACIA PARK CEMETARY! IT'S A MULTI-VORTEX TYPE, HIDDEN BY HUGE RAIN SHADOWS SURROUNDING IT! THIS…THIS THING IS HUGE, AND IT'S ONLY GETTING BIGGER AND STRONGER! OH MY GOD! THIS THING IS ALMOST ALREADY A MILE WIDE, AND IT'S JUST… IT'S LEAVING A HUGE PATH OF DESTRUCTION IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS DOWN BELOW!"

"What…the….f…fu…fuu…" Luna stuttered as she saw a huge low, dark grey wall, not looking like a regular tornado they just saw, or any kind of tornado she saw in her science textbooks…this looked like a gigantic cloud dropped on the ground rotating violently with these strange spiral vortices spinning off, striking their neighborhood, throwing everything around in its path. Leni fainted when she saw this, Ronnie Anne running over just in time to catch her mid-fall.

"EVERYONE NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND WHAT LOOKS LIKE RAIN SHROUDING THIS TORNADO, THAT'S ACTUALLY THE TORNADO! DO NOT BE FOOLED! THIS TORNADO IS GROWING MORE VIOLENT BY THE MINUTE! IT'S HARD TO TELL WHERE THIS THING BEGINS AND ENDS, BUT THE WINDS DON'T LIE…GOOD LORD, NOW IT'S OFFICIALLY A MILE WIDE AND GETTING WIDER STILL!"

"Jerry, Jerry! Can you tell us where this tornado is passing through right now!?" A news anchor woman called back loudly for him to hear, the winds crackling as the helicopter was rocking violently back and forth, miles away but still being impacted by the winds.

"LORAIN, THIS IS ONE OF THE STRANGEST, MOST POWERFUL TORNADIC STORMS METEOROLOGISTS HAVE SEEN IN YEARS, NOT SINCE THE EL RENO OKLAHOMA TORNADO IN 2013! FOR IT TO BE HAPPENING IN A MAJOR METROPOLITAN AREA THIS FAR NORTH, IS UNHEARD OF!"

"Yes Jerry, but where, where is it-"

Crackling from the audio and a couple of metal bangs later, the feed came back on. Leni came to, her eyes wide in terror from the nightmare unfolding in plain reality…she so wished this was just a really, really bad dream like the one she had last night.

"-SO DARK OUT HERE RIGHT NOW! MID-LEVEL WIND SPEEDS MEASURED IN EXCESS OF 305 MILES PER HOUR, AND THE ENTIRE WEDGE IS TRAVELLING AT NEARLY FIFTY MILES AN HOUR. TORNADOES USUALLY MOVE NORTH-NORTHEAST, BUT THIS ONE IS MOVING SOUTH, SOUTHEAST. IT'S MOVING RIGHT NOW THROUGH THE OUTER PARTS OF PLEASANT RIDGE, IT'S ENCOMPASSING ALL OF OAK PARK AND FERNDALE, AND IF IT KEEPS GOING, IT'S GOING TO…OH…OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!"

"Jerry? JERRY!?"

"LORAIN! IT JUST PASSED OVER THE M-102 HIGHWAY! THERE'S CARS STILL DOWN THERE! IT'S ENGULFING M-102 ALL THE WAY FROM LIVERNOIS AVENUE TO WOODWARD AVENUE! MY GOD…LORAIN, LORAIN I SEE CARS IN THE AIR WITH THEIR LIGHTS ON STILL…AND ROOFS, ROOFS AND DEBRIS OF SO MANY HOMES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD BEING THROWN AROUND LIKE MATCHSTICK BOXES…OH NO…LORAIN! A HOME JUST GOT LIFTED CLEAR OFF THE GROUND! THERE'S SO MUCH DEBRIS AND DESTRUCTION! IF…IF ANYONE IS WATCHING AND ON THE ROAD STILL, GET TO SAFETY, DON'T GO ON THE ROADS, HUNKER DOWN!"

"Jerry…Jerry! Tell us where's it's going so people in the area can brace themselves and take cover!"

"AT…DAMN IT! AT THIS RATE, IF IT CONTINUES ITS PATH….GOOD GOD, IT'LL STRIKE DOWNTOWN DETROIT HEAD-ON IN LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR!"

Luna's entire world suddenly began to collapse right under her. This monster of a tornado…was heading straight for where Lincoln was. A mental picture of him in her mind suddenly faded away…as though his spirit was giving a preliminary farewell before his permanent departure from Earth.

As Leni grasped the reality of this horror, Luna's mind shut off the entire environment around her, save for Leni as she pulled her to the Santiago's front entrance. Ronnie Anne and her mother ran after them. It was so, so loud outside that everyone had to yell loudly.

"GIRLS! YOU CANNOT GO OUT THERE LOOKING FOR HIM! IT'S NOT SAFE!"

"LUNA! LENI!" Ronnie Anne yelled out in brash but legitimate concern.

"I WILL CALL THE POLICE AND HAVE YOU STOPPED!" Mrs. Santiago shouted.

"THERE'S THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE CALLING THE COPS RIGHT NOW! THEY CAN'T AND WON'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT NOW! THEY'RE PICKING UP THE WRECKAGE FROM THIS THING!" Luna yelled back as she ran down to the Packard. Ronnie Anne suddenly ran down to them and stopped them.

"LUNA! LENI! WAIT!I…I'M SORRY…FOR SLAPPI-"

"WE DESERVED IT," Luna yelled back, before Ronnie Anne gave out an uncharacteristically saddened hug, Leni almost swearing she heard her snivel.

"PLEASE! STAY SAFE…AND FIND LINCOLN!"

"RONNIE ANNE!?" Mrs. Santiago yelled out in astonishment at her, seeing her daughter encourage them on this escapade. The roar got louder as they all looked southwestward.

Straight in the distance, about a mile and a half away, was the huge dark cloaked cloud holding within it a beast of untold destruction.

"LOUDS! GET BACK HERE!" Mrs. Santiago shouted at them again.

Leni looked weakly at the irate and flustered Mrs. Santiago, terrified of the storm around them and feeling like she was on the edge of having a breakdown that would cripple her.

Then the trillion dollar thought blared in her head again; they had no way of contacting Lincoln, and he was in the tornado's path head-on. Her fears and phobia of storms maxed out, she thought what Lincoln would do at a time like this.

"Lincy…he'd…he'd push through, even against these odds…he'd believe in me," Leni told herself.

As Luna started the Packard, Mrs. Santiago pulling Ronnie Anne in quickly as the winds picked up even stronger, Ronnie Anne gave them weak, hopeful smiles, them returning ones back to her and Mrs. Santiago. Luna then took off blazing at nearly record illegal speeds down the street. As they got near a merge lane, they crossed a big grassy field, cutting off several other random vehicles on the road in the process, then jumping onto Interstate 75 going south, both pleading and hopeful that they could get down there before the monster tornado did first.

Each move they made, illegal, reckless and/or downright looking as though Luna had a death wish functioned in cutting the time by seconds, now a matter of life and death for their brother, who was making his way to the downtown metropolitan area.

---

Earlier that afternoon.

2:29 PM

Being the sole passenger on the Route 498 bus, this one ahead of schedule and travelling faster than usual from the lack of stops it had to make, the interior was acoustically active and rattling from the winds and rain outside. Lincoln was huddled in the corner of the back of the bus, feigning the appearance of being asleep. He was quietly yet angrily tearing into his hoodie and grey jacket sleeves, breath and skin hot and moist still from anger, sweat and precipitation, his mood still brooding and emotionally damaged as ever, still licking his wounds and reigning in his mental state. This was the second time over the weekend he found himself on a lone, rainy journey in a severely muddled state.

"...damn them," he weakly let out.

"...god damn them...why'd they have to treat me like that? Why'd it have to go that far...and why Luna? Of all of them...it had to be her I raged at the most...the way they all looked at me...with those looks...and their yelling at me like that, and I...fuck...FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!"

Lincoln cried out in his sleeve, muffling his woes to halt the bus driver looking back at him...trying in vain to buck up, finding it near impossible. It was hard enough hiding his face out of sight.

"If it wasn't for chopping that timber...thank goodness I didn't cut it up yet...otherwise...I might of done something really, really stupid."

Lincoln wiggled out of his hoodie pocket his IPod and headphones he snuck out with him, both in a little baggy to keep from getting wet, though a tiny hole on one side let in the most minimal of moisture; it was nothing to the tech. Slipping his headphones on and connecting them to the IPod, Lincoln listened to some of the most intense, scariest, grandest and dramatic Japanese giant monster music, with the intermittent soothing anime score sprinkled here and there, mentally reveling in the recall of scenes in various anime movies he loved to watch.

With his eyes closed and the music acting as background landscapes to foster his thoughts, his rationale, was gradually returning.

Lincoln knew he'd most likely be getting into some unparalleled trouble with his folks for leaving the house in the middle of an intense storm...and he didn't seem to mind. He seemed fully willing to accept whatever punishment was on his horizon. This storm, his coming grounding, was nothing to him. This was going to be his time to cool off from what he would describe as his sister's incomparably stupid and pointless, pigheaded confrontation and arguments. One side of his brain as telling him he did the right thing; he stuck with the sister-fight-protocol agreement, and hoped to make every one of them feel horrible about it too. He was not in the wrong to leave in that regards...but something felt off...like he should have stayed at the house, and just went to his room, even after the berating. It was such a nagging little feeling that he quelled very well, up until now.

"The berating..." Lincoln trailed off, those fiery feelings still malleable and frothing in his stomach...the rage, the sting and mortification he felt towards them...especially Luna.

All events in the world around him were drowned out by the combination of his muddled emotions, the unsettling, huge monster music blaring in his ears and his copious and continuous contempt for the predicament he found himself in. He did find the one redeemable aspect of this journey slightly encouraging; finally being able to go travel on the People Mover again, only this time...he'd be by himself.

"Dang...I really wanted Luna and I to go on it again...together...just to explore downtown... damn it."

He played back his explosive reaction in the basement from earlier, as though he was a film critic studying the dialogue and feel for a cinema piece. Letting what he said to his sisters slowly sink in, it dawned on him that maybe...maybe he went...a little too far in his volcanic eruption at his sisters, even more so upstairs in the living room.

"I...said ashamed...felt ashamed to be even related to them…I told them they made me sick. Holy heck...I think I may have crossed a line. As wrong and stupid their fight was, and even for how much they threw me under the bus, which was totally uncalled for with their dang sister-fight-protocol...I crossed a line...one a brother never should...ah fuck me..."

As his anger was gradually morphing into the inklings of regret, sadder parts of his movie music playlist came up, most notably the track titled "Requiem" from one of his favorite Godzilla movies, "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah." He hadn't heard it in a long time, but knew it from the very first two seconds. And as he listened on longer and longer…the vestigial elements of anger and rage burnt out, inklings of regret blobbed together into a huge mashup of remorse and self-loathing at what he said to his sisters.

"I needed to be a better brother for them. I should have been cool and composed…calmer… I shouldn't…I shouldn't have said those things to them."

Lincoln felt the anguished, sadden glares from their faces when he recalled his most raucous roaring at them…then their faces when he bitterly denigrated them to nothing more than…regrettable beings.

It kept hurting his heart. His throat felt like it was being constricted, even more than the angry sobbing from a little while ago. He saw their dejected and forlorn expressions. At first he got a sick, horrific kick out of their mortified reactions, feeling like they were more than owed that harsh treatment…he saw the sullen expressions Lucy, Lynn, Luan and Leni, still burned in his head…but…most of all…he saw how he crushed his rocker sister, his greatest secret…his more-than-just-a-sister…his love.

"…Luna."

The one he'd thought he would never and could never destroy in his entire life…how he berated her…brushed her off so coldly, so intently and venomously as though she was nothing more than an annoying little fly …telling her those horrible soul-crushing things.

Lincoln realized something…he gave the unshakable impression to his sisters, especially Luna in his mindless fit of rage and venting, of not wanting to be related or existing with his sisters.

He didn't think he said it like that, but by his temper, by his tone, his inclination and utter look of disdain towards them…they must have taken it to heart…and they were all arguably crushed beyond what Lincoln had ever intended.

"Their…tears…their eyes…Luna's eyes…" Lincoln's voice cracked as he said this quietly, before an even greater series of feelings took center stage in is soul.

"…oh….oh my god…..what have I done?"

As the bus seemed to rock back and forth from a stray band of heavy winds, Lincoln broke down into his knees…feeling regret surge over him like a mega tsunami. It was only reinforced further because the next song on his IPod that came up after his realization was James Newton Howard's "Beauty Killed the Beast" part five, from the 2005 King Kong.

As Lincoln heard this music, it inspired and broke his heart at the same time, knowing he broke his sister's hearts…but most of all…broke Luna's heart.

"No….no…I love you all…I…I'm not ashamed to be your brother…I love you all…Luna…I…I love you…I'm still…in love with you…did…did I destroy us?" Lincoln choked as he balled up even further.

"I…I gotta make this right. I gotta-"

A stray finger pressed his shoulder.

"Oh dear child, are you alright?"

Lincoln lifted his head up to see an old, sweet black lady with a minor hunch, gowned in a light white and yellow rain dress with far too many false flowers decorated on the sides take a seat next to him. He violently coughed and tried to wipe his tears away, but his eyes were a dead give-away.

"Oh dear, dear, deary. Is that hair of yours white? Whiter than a glass of milk; how lovely."

"Uh…th…thank you mam," Lincoln lowly said as she gave a warm smile over to him, now scooting over and patting his soaked shoulders. She saw Lincoln to be still utterly soaked to the marrow still, even if the bus was almost eight-five degrees inside.

"Good lordie hun, why are you soaked? And what's with them tears? Why, you'd give these clouds a good run for their money sweetie. What's eatin ya?"

Lincoln stayed silent, the rains and winds outside seeming to pick up in force and intensity greater than before. She saw Lincoln look outside.

"Oh, don't mind the storm sweetie. Every now and then a big storm hits out city. Nothin ta fright yaself over. Now, what can Grammy Jemison do for you?"

Lincoln hiccupped a little, then mildly chuckled at how forward yet sweet this woman seemed to be, actually trying to care and concern Lincoln's mental state.

"You are very friendly…th…thank you Mrs. Jemison…I…just had a really, really bad day at home and…with my girlfriend."

"We've all had those, but, I sure hope you're not running away."

"No, I'm not. I mean, I left for the day and-"

Suddenly a series of lightning strikes lit the neighborhood up, catching both Lincoln and this older woman off guard in minor shock.

"Oh hoho, that was something! Gonna be a long day in our city. But, you were saying…uh, what's your name sweetie?"

"Lincoln…Lincoln Loud. Nice to meet you Mrs. Jemison."

"Oh please cutie, pleasure's all mine. Now, what would make a young man like you be all out in this weather?"

"Well…hey," Lincoln said a bit playfully, "you know, I could ask the same of you."

"Well Lincoln, I'm not crying now, am I?"

"N…no, you're not."

"And please do forgive the inquisitive nosiness of an old black grandmamma, but I hate to see children in such moods. Here ya go honey," she said, pulling her purse out and offering Lincoln a candy bar called a "Cow Tale."

"Take it sweetie, it'll make you feel a bit better."

"Well, normally I don't take handouts from strangers…but I like you. You're very kind Mrs. Jemison," Lincoln said, his eyes less red, his face less hot, now trying out the Cow Tale.

"Oh…vanilla! And is that caramel?"

"Best candies around. Always brightens my mood."

"I can see," Lincoln said with a gooey sound as the caramel melted in his mouth.

"So sweetie, what brings you out here if you've had a bad day?"

"Well…I was gonna ride the People Mover a couple of times…just look at the city and think. I…I dunno why, but I love that thing, and I figured it might take my mind off things."

"That monorail? Well…to each his own. It's good you're finding something to occupy ya time with, but out in this storm, ya need to be careful. Lot's a stuff happenin now. And does ya family know?"

"Well…not really actually…but a friend knows where I'm going, so she'll probably rely the message for me. My cellphone died so I could let them know where I went…I mean…I don't really want them to know where I'm going."

"And why is that? Sounds like you really are running away, and you're just a baby yourself."

"I'm fourteen, a-"

"Hun, I'm at least that times six," she said with a smirk.

"Wait….84? No way, you're 84 years old? Really? Thought you were like…sixty or something."

"The trick is to love life, love ya neighbor, and try to strive towards being as godly as possible…and walk every day."

"Wow Mrs. Jemison, good on you," Lincoln said, legitimately impressed.

"Thank you. Need to be active and have a purpose, otherwise you lose purpose and wither away. Why I'm so happy to be seein my great granddaughter."

"You're a great grandmother?"

"Yup! My grandchild is bringing her down so we can see her new apartment she got in the downtown area. In fact…I wonder if I took the right bus…this is the 498 bus to downtown, right?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Good, but…strange. Was supposed to meet her and help out with my great grandchild. Ever since my daughter went with God, had to be a mama to her, and now I get to be a grandma again."

"Oh my…I'm…sorry for your loss."

"Don't be sorry. She's lookin down on me right now," she said with a gentle but convinced fervor, Lincoln getting a weird feeling about all this. Was she trying to convert Lincoln to something, or make a religious point? He wasn't much for any of that, especially since he had just began the inklings of what the Bible would consider among the ultimate of sins.

"Well…sweetie, I'm sure you and your family and girlfriend will hit that reconciliation phase. You'll have lots of time before the lord invites you up…wait a minute baby…are you religious Lincoln? Cause I don't wanna be imposing or forcing my ideas on ya if ya ain't, what with you youngins today not into church and all that; that'd be uncouth."

"Well…my family is not particularly religious, but we do love each other very very much…some a little too much," Lincoln weakly and slyly said.

"What was that dear? Gonna have to speak up a bit child. Hearin aid's a little frazzled right now."

"I…I said, I'm not so sure what I said can be forgiven. When my sisters fight…kinda why I'm here…it shuts the whole house down."

"Oh boy…sisters…I know that avenue quite well. Been one of four, gave birth to twins…my grand baby has a sister…whole bunch of sisters at all levels in my family…though you's a boy, so your experience will be…different. Sorry child, being in the company of a feudin bunch of sisters can really dampen your day. But…"

"But what Mrs. Jemison?"

"You know what? Call me Mary sweetie. So child, I think we all go through some heated moments with those close to us, but as my lord preaches, and what's morally right and decent for non-religious folk, if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you…I'm sorry, paraphrasing Matthew 6:14-15."

"It's alright Mary. That's actually very nice."

"Oh goodie! It's a good thing to keep in mind child."

"Uh…Mary? Please don't take this the wrong way, but you're very delightful and…soulful. I hope that's not stereotypical…is it?"

"Grammy Jemison's always been a soulful spirit Lincoln," she replied brightly.

Lincoln's mood seemed to pick back up with this stranger's comments and interaction…so utterly sweet-natured, it was rather infectious. Taking a moment to further observe this sweet old black lady, Lincoln noted her face had the subtle tales of hardship and variously stressed-derived wrinkles. But her bright, cheery mood seemed to negate their prominence. She was also extremely short, probably only slightly taller than Lucy.

"Thank you Mary. I…I don't know if I go for all that Bible stuff, but that's a wonderful," Lincoln paused, using his hands to make quotation marks, "…paraphrased verse from the Bible."

"It's no trouble sweetie. Nice to see a cute little white boy on a bus from time to time too…so many grouches on these buses nowadays…more wonderful to see in our current times age and race issues fadin away."

"Yeah…I never got the whole age and race discrimination and issues stuff Mary. We go over it in Social Studies…but I just think it's people being stupid and one-sided. I don't get how one could not wanna hang with people of different color or different ages."

"And I could not agree with you more Lincoln. We're all people…all children of god…to me at least. And you got a good head on ya shoulders. Don't spoil it now, promise?"

"I promise Mary," Lincoln said, giving her his first legitimately warm smile post-walkout. She did the same.

They looked outside into the sky; the clouds got even darker and more active and turbulent than before. Looking below they saw downtown Detroit coming into view, Lincoln realizing he was now only ten or so minutes from his bus stop. The modest but pronounced skyline made Lincoln feel…better. It was cool to be in the city, just to walk around and mull things, but his intent was to spend some time on the People Mover and enjoy the sites a few times before he'd face the music and head home.

A few more minutes of travelling, and they were in the dead of downtown Detroit.

"We're almost at my stop Mary. I wanna say thank you very much. You single-handedly picked up my mood and made me feel better…I could not be more grateful."

"Ain't no trouble child. That's what Grammy Jemison's here for. I'm a actually getting off this stop myself and taking the People Mover to that swanky Fort Shelby apartment complex my grandbaby snagged with her roommates. Gonna be a heck of a journey, even if I get off at the" she huffed out, but with a smile.

"Oh! Cool!" Lincoln said, before a thought came up.

"Uh, Mary? If you like, I can help you with those bags of yours if you like? I got nothing better planned than riding the People Mover for a while, so I could kill time by helping you load out some of those bags…if that'd be something you'd like of course. I don't wanna impose."

"Oh thank the lord, you had me at bags! I'll take all the help I can get. Wow, what a sweetie you are Lincoln; like a piece of white southern styled cornbread. If you weren't so young, I'd introduce you to my other grandbaby," she said jovially, Lincoln smiling and blushing lightly at the comment.

As the bus stopped at Monroe and Farmer in downtown, Lincoln and Mary departed off the bus, Lincoln carrying the bulk of her various, large heavy bags, her now carrying her purse and a small baggy.

"Ahhh, what a load off!" She yelled out happily over the war-like winds and pounding rains. A short walk in this tumultuous environment was awarded when they got under a huge overhang concrete structure that lead to the Cadillac Center Station.

Both hobbled inside the interior station parking lot as Lincoln guided Mary to the elevator. In the large, acoustically perfect interior parking garage, Mary started humming a bit, then singing in a heavy, gospel-like tenor.

"Swing low, sweet chariot…coming for to carry me home.Swing low, sweet chariot…coming for to carry me home."

Lincoln started humming along, the tune extremely familiar but couldn't quite put his finger on the name.

"I looked over Jordan, what did I see…coming for to carry me home.A band of angels coming after me…coming for to carry me home."

Now waiting for the elevator to drop down from the top level, Lincoln and Mary matched in unison, him now giving a little light whistle that accompanied her singing. No one was around, so Lincoln felt totally at ease in doing this so publicly. The elevator took a good thirty seconds, them still doing this little musical.

As Lincoln did a solo whistle, Mary choosing to hear him momentarily, Lincoln observed the time clock in the elevator.

3:23 PM.

Mary began her bit again.

"If you get there before I do, coming for to carry me home…tell all my friends I'm coming too, coming for to carry me home."

The elevator door opened to a totally abandoned-looking scene. The winds were rougher, but Lincoln and Mary just pushed on with the repeat verse, just before the last lyrics, Lincoln still picking up the melody on whistle.

"Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down, coming for to carry me home…. but still my soul feels heavenly bound, coming for to carry me home."

Then in extreme unprecedented history, Lincoln sang with a complete stranger, not at all nervous or bashful, or even embarrassed. His mind felt at ease with this little old black lady of amazing soul. He actually sang the last repeated part with Mary.

"Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home… swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home."

As both finished, they paid their respective fees in the coin depository and waited together for the People Mover, Lincoln's mood shot back to a bouncy standard, all thanks to this complete stranger who he truly thanked internally for intervening in his melancholy suffering.

"Very good child. A pretty good whistling on ya."

With his mind temporarily at ease, and the somber thoughts at bay for a bit, Lincoln settled on the personal mission to enjoy this time, to remember that even in the most turbulent, darkest times, there was always a glimmer of hope and peace for the future, however small that glimmer was.

Less than five seconds after getting to the station, the People Mover arrived, red and blue logo-covered monorail cars with designs and advertisements for Fishbone's in Greektown, presumably a restaurant in the area getting publicity via the monorail.

As Lincoln invited Mary on first in a chivalrous pose, he saw no one else on the People Mover. It was probably going to be just these two the whole way.

"Wow…it's been a long time since I rode this…I don't remember it smelling like this before?" Lincoln commented as he observed the interior.

"What'd ya expect a public monorail to smell like child? Apple cinnamon?"

"No…it smells like oranges…interesting."

"Pungent, too much citrus, but pleasant enough. It'll make the ride fragrant," Mary said, taking a load off and sitting at a seat. She pulled out a Cow Tale and nibbled it up with a gummy motion.

Suddenly several loud beeps later the People Mover started going down the rail. Lincoln placed the bags on a seat near her as he walked towards the front of the People Mover, looking out the small front window and seeing the downtown area from the elevated height of the rail system, with the rains and winds still pounding at all sides and ruffling the soundscape. This didn't bother him. He was now slightly concerned that Mary would have a hard time walking to her destination, given how she sang and walked, the short walk looking like it tired her out immensely. Lincoln saw her snuggle in her seat, closing her eyes and lightly humming that same song again to herself. I'd be a short journey on the People Mover till her stop, about seven minutes.

"Yeah…I'm definitely gonna have to help her. All that singing really took it out of her. Wow…even singing looks like it'll tire you out when you get older, even if you're like Mrs. Jemison."

Several minutes into the ride, passing through the menagerie of medium-sized neo-classical, neo-gothic and modern skyscrapers, Lincoln could see the Cobo Center and Cobo Arena to his right. It was the arena that Luna played at all those few years ago. The People Mover stopped at the station just prior to the arena station, at Financial District. No one was at the station, just as abandoned and surreal as the other stations. It looked like no one was in downtown, at least nobody who needed to make any trips around downtown.

Then, some very strange, troubling sounds started piercing the air around them. The sounds sounded…artificially generated…like alarm sounds. Lincoln heard these sounds, like sirens, from his video games with post-apocalyptic settings, natural disasters and other emergencies in the game play.

"Whoa…are those emergency sirens?"

"Hey sweetie? Ya hearin that? Thought it was my hearin aid again," Mary said as she lifted her head slightly but not in extreme alert.

"I hear it Mary…it sounds like sirens are going off in the city. You see anything your side?" Lincoln asked, his nerves slightly rattled, his eyes and senses more observant. Mary still seemed rather lax and numb from the siren sounds.

"Oh, probably just an emergency test child. They do that with their tornado sirens every now and then."

"Yeah…probably," Lincoln huffed. The sirens got even louder and more alarmingly deeper, like something impending was going to happen.

The People Mover started again. Lincoln ran around it, looking through every window possible, trying to map out and observe the outside world for what might be causing the sirens. He saw the arena, then looked above it; an erratic, twirling mass of clouds quickly formed over the waters of the Detroit River right next to the arena.

"Uh…Mary?"

"Hey Lincoln? We there yet child?"

"N…no…not quite. I think those sirens…"

"Just warnins? Nothin happening out there?"

"No…there's a tornado moving on land right now where we're headed."

"…say what now boy?"

Mary looked over her shoulder, Lincoln looking at the phenomenon, mesmerized yet terrified at what he was seeing. The tornado was now a fully fledged water spout, for about fifteen seconds, before it quickly moved onto land, now a fully fledged tornado. Down below adjacent to the shore were several parked semi truck trailers and trees being ripped to shreds. The tornado whipped them around at various angles with no effort, then started moving adjacent along the monorail track, hovering just around the arena area. Suddenly it picked up a semi truck trailer and swung it into the monorail track, it smashing and wrapping itself around the track as the People Mover with Lincoln and Mary plowed horrible through it.

"HOLY CRUD!" Lincoln shouted.

"GET DOWN LINCOLN!" Mary yelled out, before the tornado roared onto the People Mover, violently rocking the entire elevated train back and forth, its wheels grinding and sparking from the new forces. Out of the corner of their eye through the glass, another semi truck trailer twirled around, scrapping the sides of the arena.

Then, in one horrifying, gut-wrenching motion, the tornado picked up the front car of the People Mover, with Lincoln and Mary still in it, and threw it backwards onto the Jefferson Avenue highway that ran led to an underway tunnel. Tossed horribly around and smashing the sides, glass windows smashing and metal moaning and twisting, Lincoln and Mary were thrown around inside the People Mover car voraciously until several tumbles later on its side at an angle, the car stopped, as the car behind them crashed right next to them.

Lincoln found himself scratched, battered, bruised and beaten pretty badly, but on the whole remarkably still intact with nothing broken. His nerves nearly shot, his adrenaline in survival mode, he looked around, his vision still blurry.

Suddenly a huge crash came from his right, him instantly reacting to dive the other direction. Sparks, glass shards, chunks of aluminum metal, bolts and nuts flew out everywhere inside.

When the commotion ceased, Lincoln shook his head, trying to get his bearings straight again.

Then it hit him…besides a scrap piece of metal from the sides.

"…Mary…Mary…where are yo-" Lincoln called out, but paused as he saw one of the most disturbing, unsettling things he's ever seen in his entire life.

Mary was pinned down, her upper body still visible and free to move, but a semi truck trailer had crashed from above into the People Mover car, caving in right through the roof…smashing down onto Mary's legs and lower torso.

Lincoln almost puked, but shook it off to try and help Mary out.

"MARY! MARY! DON'T WORRY! I'LL…I'LL GET YOU OUT!" Lincoln cried out, Mary looking dazed, confused and unable to realize what's going on.

Lincoln looked all around, trying to find something that could help him pull Mary out.

One of the handle bars had broken loose. He pulled it out and tried to wedge it under a part of the semi truck trailer to pull her out. He tried, and tried and tried as hard as he could…but it didn't work.

"Oh…my…god…." Lincoln dreaded. Even if he managed to get her out of there…he could tell just by the weight and how caved in all the metal around her was…her legs were gone…her lower torso was gone…Mary didn't have long.

"Oh no…Mary….Mary, can you hear me?"

Mary winced slightly at Lincoln, offering a faint smile, before coughing up a huge amount of blood. Lincoln rummaged through a random bag of hers and wiped it off her face and chest as gently and quickly as he could.

"Child…Li….Lincoln…" she coarsely whispered.

"Yes Mary?"

"My…I…I feel it…I…I'm a slippin child…lord's comin for me."

"What? WHAT!? Mary, you're gonna be okay! Please! Stay conscious! I'm…I'm going to get help," Lincoln urged, trying his best to ease her.

"Nah baby…I can tell….can't feel a thing past my tummy…and I'm feelin sleepy…"

"Mary…no Mary…please! I'll…get you out, somehow! Just hang in there!"

"Do…do me a favor baby….take my phone in my coat pocket…need ya to let my family know it didn't hurt…"

"Mary? You'll see your family again…I promise!"

"Come on sweetie…do Grammy Jemison a solid?"

Lincoln tepidly but surely took out Mary's cellphone and put it in his hoodie pockets, zipping it up…subconsciously knowing what was coming, but praying in the back of his mind it wouldn't come to this.

"Al…alright…now you gotta do me a soild. Take…take my word that it's not so bad, I…I can-"

"Lincoln…can't fool me. I….I know it's….bad….please….before I go….the song….last part…one more time," she asked weakly, her voice getting less alive by the second.

"Mary…stay awake for me. Come on!"

"Please baby…it's my favorite."

Lincoln…begrudgingly yet gently started to sing to her as nurtinginlgy as possible…while he started breaking down crying.

"S…swing low… sweet chariot… coming for to carry me… home…"

"Ya…doing fine sweetheart…keep goin," Mary said very quietly yet tenderly, her breaths becoming less frequent, her face gradually slowing any activity.

"…s..swing low….sweet chariot…. Coming…. for to carry… me… home."

"…I'm a see ya Lincoln…no more tears please…"

"You're staying here Mary!"

"…now…I'm a see the lord…and be with…my baby up there…now…"

"Mary?"

"…carry…me… home…"

"Mary!"

Then…no more air came from her…Mary's chest stopped moving...and Lincoln saw her eyes still open, but…her pupils grew larger…Mary's eyes dilated.

"…Mary?...MARY!? MARY! WAKE UP! WAKE UP DAMN IT!"

Lincoln pounded his arms on her chest, trying as hard as he physically could to get her to wake up again.

"WAKE UP! WAKE UP MARY! PLEASE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WAKE UP!"

Lincoln's anguished cry for this stranger fell on deaf ears.

Mary was gone.

"…no…I….I'm sorry," Lincoln choked out in a watery cry over Mary's remaining form, tears falling on her white dress. Lincoln looked to her eyes and delicately closed them. He quickly looked out the side and saw the tornado moving in the opposite direction, back into the Detroit River going west. Then he looked up at the warped metal ceiling.

"If…if you're really real…and up there…then you better take care of her...I MEAN IT!" He cried out, before balling up in a tight ball and crying his eyes out into his knees as the sirens got louder.