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!

9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Operation: Quest for the White-Haired Boy in the Storm! Part 2/2

Sunday October 27th, 2019

Across the city, Luna gunned the Packard recklessly going south along I-75, close to eighty miles an hour on the slick roads with intermittent vehicles parked on the sides, people opting unwisely to hide under the overpasses.

Leni was loudly playing on her cell phone current news. It was Patchy Drizzle giving one of his most unbelievable, terrifying reports on the storm…and Leni and Luna could actually see the huge rolling wall of shrouded clouds on the ground behind them, headed right towards them from the distance. Luna heard, as Leni watched and listened.

"La…ladies and gentlemen…anyone on the road needs to seek shelter now…I…moments ago, this tornado has…officially broken several records. It is now both the largest…and strongest EF5 tornado ever recorded…you heard that right… the largest, strongest tornado ever recorded. Our Doppler has been consistently recording winds in excess of 320 miles per hour around its mid-section, breaking the record held by the Moore 1999 tornado…and is now officially the widest tornado ever observed…at a maximum of 2.9 miles wide…the 2013 El Reno Oklahoma tornado was the prior record holder at 2.6 miles…and this tornado has shown no signs of decreasing in strength…it…anyone in downtown and the surrounding areas within two miles, get as low as possible. You have another ten minutes…and the majority of you in skyscrapers, apartment buildings or dormitories in the metro area, go to the lowest level or the most interior part of the building you can find. Avoid elevators and stay away from windows."

Leni's eyes seemed lifeless in the sheer terror of this gigantic wall of god-like power headed right towards them, now more powerful, much bigger than anything or anywhere yet seen. The footage showed it less than a mile away, it's huge, unholy swath of destruction carving not just a scar on the surface of Earth, but outlining a graveyard. The sirens blared in the background all around them from all directions, warning at the last second to take cover and hide.

Leni shook as she looked back and forth, still trying to retain her sanity and control her fears…she was near the cracking point. Then another bulletin came up.

"Uh…to our viewers, we've just received word of another tornado that formed right in the Detroit River and struck parts of downtown Detroit. This one, estimated at EF3 strength…what? Reallly? Folks, I'm getting word that an affiliate news network has footage of it. We will play it momentarily," he said, Patchy's voice in severe shock at just how horrific and apocalyptic this storm system was turning out to be. He took a nervous swig of his coffee, bags and stress coated in the seconds of air time, his white collared shirt sweat-stained and his expression almost permanently stuck mortified.

"Lu…Luna? Did you hear that?"

"I…I heard. I think we still got a good ten minutes…five maybe…Lincoln's down there somewhere."

Luna turned off the exit, almost skidding off the ramp in the progress. Several police cars came screaming down the turnpike in the opposite direction, them not taking any head to Luna's driving. They looked like they were heading right towards the tornado head-on. Now speeding down Gratiot Avenue into downtown, Luna and Leni saw an armada of erratically driving cars like herself and people fleeing in terror. Intermittent car accidents, t-bones and fender-benders peppered the intersections to their destination as emergency vehicles scrambled all over the place, looking to take cover to prep and ride out the coming event…hopefully to survive and be on standby for the aftermath.

Above them they saw a black military jet fly above into the storm system, disappearing into the top of the large mass of clouds…several orange and red flashes followed subsequently, then a loud explosion blasting out of the side of the tornadic rain ban…only for it to reform and produce several erratic vortices dancing on the ground and sides, before disappearing inside the rainy winds surrounding these greater vortices. The jet didn't pass out the other side.

"Did…did they just…?" Leni asked, before the road around them got even more blustery and chaotic, mists of fog and air streaming along the asphalt at faster velocities, all flowing violently towards the distant behemoth approaching them. Rain suddenly poured down even harder and harder.

Then the footage of the smaller rope-like tornado popped on the screen with narration by Patchy.

"This tornado started as a waterspout several minutes ago, then touched on land momentarily by the Cobo Arena. As you can see…it struck a series of semi truck trailers parked in an open space around it, throwing and wrapping one of the trailers around the monorail tracks… then travelled along the local People Mover monorail track. It…then struck the People Mover…flipping a car and tossing the other off the tracks onto West Jefferson Avenue…before the tornado dropped a semi truck trailer onto one of the cars…god I hope no one was in there…"

Leni could sense Luna's heart almost giving out.

"LENI! YOU SEE HIM!?" Luna yelled out at they got to the spot the Route 498 bus would be, along Monroe and Farmer.

"N…no Luna…maybe…you think he was in…that?" Leni said, pausing the footage of the crushed People Mover monorail car.

"No…NO NO NO! HE COULDN'T HAVE BEEN!" Luna begged in a sob as she shook violently.

The footage continued of the waterspout travelling all the way to the center span of the Ambassador Bridge, causing the central span to rock. The real damage came when it passed directly over the giant traffic jam on the bridge, causing many vehicles to get flipped and pushed around, the vortex knocking over the light posts and causing sparked-flashes. Some cars were even tossed off the bridge into the waters below, smashing into the waters like hitting a concrete surface one-hundred and fifty feet below.

Luna turned the corner and double-parked along the sidewalk curve adjacent to a cement support beam for the People Mover. She ran up the steps to the Cadillac Center station, Leni following suite. Both looked around and screamed for Lincoln…he wasn't there.

"LINCOLN! BRO! ARE YOU HERE!? DUDE! WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!...LINCOLN LOUD! GET OUT HERE NOW!"

"Luna…he's not here…we…we gotta get over there…he might be hurt…really hurt…" Leni said with a whimper, grabbing Luna's hand as Luna looked blankly at the station, feeling now that Leni might be right…but dreading the most dreadful, sickening possibility of all….if Lincoln was in those People Mover cars that got flipped and smashed by that twister….it made her gasp out horribly in a cry. Leni wrapped her arms around Luna, pulling her hard and fast back down the steps of the station to their car.

The sirens got even fiercer along with the winds and rain all around, now small debris flying all around them; signs, paper, random little objects and branches breaking off. Trees bounced voraciously back and forth. In the distance, probably a half mile away, they saw the outer parts of the mammoth tornado enveloping one of the older neo-classical styled skyscrapers, flashes and what looked like its sides disintegrating into it, before the building was enveloped.

Luna punched it hard, avoiding the sporadic set of people and cars running madly to and fro, all trying to find shelter, ambulances seemingly heading towards the same area they were.

As helicopters from multiple news stations flew over the city, getting the last aerial glimpses of the intact cityscape, Leni and Luna heard their cellphones blare on warnings. The radio, if it was working would probably be blaring out emergency announcements. All the while news networks on every major network nationally and worldwide were following this storm to a tee, the tornadic system being a major source of ratings and viewings right now in the country and globally.

Luna's cell phone suddenly began to ring. Luna tossed it to Leni. Leni involuntarily answered it without checking who it was.

"LUNA! WHERE ARE YOU AND LENI! DID YOU FIND YOUR BROTHER YET?" Their father roared out in concern and fear on the other end.

"Luna…it's dad."

"I heard…" Luna said.

"Oh goodness, you don't know how happy I am to finally hear your voices. Had to go down every house and check almost every cell phone and land line to get a hold of you. Lincoln is still not answering girls-"

"Daddy…we're both okay…we're looking for Lincoln right now."

"Where at? Don't you know there's a bunch of tornadoes out right now, and one gigantic tornado going through the city?"

"We know pops!" Luna yelled out, Leni putting the cell phone on speaker.

"We…we're sorta in downtown looking for Lincy right now," Leni said.

The line was silent momentarily.

"….….YOU WHAAAAAT!? HOW'D YOU EVEN GET DOWN TH…NEVER MIND! FIND SHELTER IMMEDIATLEY GIRLS! THIS TORNADO'S KILLED THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ALREADY!"

"…thousands?" Leni repeated as she shuttered.

"YES! AND YOU NEED TO FIND SHELTER NOW! YOU ONLY GOT ANOTHER FEW MINUTES BEFORE IT'S GONNA HIT DOWNTOWN! GET IN A BUILDING, GO TO THE CENTER AND WAIT IT OUT! I'M COMING FOR YOU!"

"NO DAD! WE GOT A CAR RIGHT NOW. A FRIEND IS LENDING IT…WE THINK WE KNOW WHERE-" Luna paused when Leni's cellphone news coverage from Patchy gave some…haunting but hopeful narration.

"I…I can see someone crawling out of the People Mover…he's wearing a grey hoodie and jeans…he looks young, like a teen…and he's pulling something out…it's in a large black baggy…I…I think there's an arm sticking….CUT THE FEED! JACKIE, CUT THE DANG FEED! Folks, we…uh…for matters of decency, we would advise viewer discretion…it appears this young man is hauling a…a body from the wreckage towards the West Jefferson Avenue tunnel…and it appears several people down there are running to his aid to help him."

"Luna….LUNA! THAT'S HIM! THAT'S LINCY! THAT'S GOTTA BE HIM! HE'S OKAY!" Leni shrieked out in ecstatic joy.

"N...no way...IS THAT REALLY HIM!?" Luna yelled out, trying to look at the aerial footage of the disaster scene on Leni's cellphone.

"DAD…WE GOTTA GO! WE MIGHT HAVE FOUND HIM!"

"NO, NO LUNA! LENI! DON'T HANG UP! DON'T HANG U-"

Luna ended the call.

"Uh oh….he's gonna be really, really mad at us," Leni said.

"Let him…we're getting Lincoln! HEY! Wait a minute…are you sure that's him Leni?" Luna asked as she tried looking at Leni's screen again, slowing the car momentarily to not crash it.

In the aerial footage, a powerful gust of wind blew along the streets below, and the hoodie on this young man was pulled off, revealing a white-haired boy with freckles...it was Lincoln.

"IT'S HIM! HE'S ALIVE!" Luna blared out in a choked cry of joy as Leni teared from happiness.

Luna sped up and shot across the middle island, pushing the Packard's axial integrity to its limit. Turning down to Griswold Street, they past under part of the monorail track leading to the Cobo Center, which in another block came to view. One last turn right, she was now on West Jefferson Avenue, heading right for where the aerial footage of Lincoln was taken.

She made a sharp turn around the wreckage of the People Mover on the ground. Luna couldn't believe how much of a miracle it was for him to survive that wreck they passed. Avoiding a slew of people running around the wreckage, they kept as right from the wreck as well, before Luna had to slam her brakes for various people evacuating to the supposed safety of the underground avenue under the Cobo Center. Both she and Leni saw several people jumping down from the upper road area above the tunnel, some looking like they broke their legs from the jump, to which they were helped along into the tunnel by other fleeing people.

Dozens upon dozens of people with their cars parked inside haphazardly, trying desperately to form some kind of blockade around a group of people huddling down from the increasing intense winds and debris streaming through, families and children terrified beyond belief that they were about to be among the tens of thousands already struck by this goliath of a twister...mortified by the prospect of ending up like the thousands of others killed by the storm. It seemed safe inside, but the winds seemed to pick up even higher, like the underground tunnel was acting like a sort of wind-tunnel. As uncomfortable a thought this was, Luna pushed it in the back of her mind.

She was terrified out of her mind. Leni was terrified out of her mind. Yet they still pushed onwards. Getting midway, they saw others scared out of their minds, yet several citizens took on the role of corralling this panicking collective into a tight formation as close to the center of the tunnel as possible...one shouted out there was only minutes till it reached their part of the city.

As Luna and Leni drove further in, they could not see Lincoln at all.

Leni hopped out of the car and frantically searched the groups of people and cars huddled in the bunch as Luna continued down the tunnel, passing through the smaller groups of people still huddled around the sides of the cement tunnel and supports. A third of the way down she saw the bag of the body Lincoln had pulled out...the arm looked like it belong to an elderly black woman, only her upper body visible...the legs and lower torso looked like they were missing.

As Leni began asking if they had seen a young white-haired teenager...even in this most urgent of times a hard sight to miss, they all confirmed that they saw him.

"Yeah! That young man said he survived that one twister that destroyed the People Mover up there where you passed...and brought out in a bag what was left of an old woman that was killed on it," a white-collar business man said to Leni. She shuddered at the thought of Lincoln having to go through such an ordeal like her and Leni.

"He went out again to help a group that was still struggling with a bunch of kids," a young Latino guy with lots of tattoos added on to her.

Leni thanked them and ran back to the Packard. She banged on the window for Luna to park and get out with her to search back near the entrance. Luna parked it with the group, right in front to two large SUV's.

"Their vehicles might be bigger…but mine's heavier," Luna thought with a minor smirk.

Luna and Leni ran back to the entrance area. They couldn't see Lincoln anywhere along the ramp, deciding to jump the median to the other side to see if he was there. They didn't see him…but to their left, now only blocks away, they could see what was coming right at them; the giant wall cloud of death and destruction. Casting an apocalyptically dark shadow over the skyline, filled with debris, concrete, cars…people…the tornado was now gradually encompassing the major part of downtown Detroit as it still continued to enclose all the surrounding landscape, all within a near-three mile width of the downtown area. A bus was hurled from the interior into a smaller building. Giant flashes and booms momentarily pierced the innards of the gigantic wedge vortex. The Penobscot building, an art-deco styled skyscraper was suddenly being enveloped. The metal spire at its top was ripped right off, and chunks of the top most floors crumbled right out into the air, before seconds passed and the whole building was no longer visible. One of the many sirens suddenly gurgled to a smashed-halt, probably destroyed by the tornado. It didn't matter. Everything around them was loud…the tornado was louder than a freight train or a jet engine…the sound was utterly god-like in scale.

"LINCOLN!" Luna yelled out as loudly as she could.

"LINCY!" Leni yelled out too.

"BRO! DUDE! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"LINCY! IT'S US!"

They looked all around them…nothing…no one was around except the violent winds, pounding rains, paper and debris falling around them…and the coming onslaught, now only less than two blocks away.

"…LINCOLN! LINCOLN!"

"LUNA! WE…SHOULD CHECK BACK INSIDE THE TUNNEL! WE MIGHT HAVE MISSED HIM!"

"NO! YOU GO BACK! HE'S OUT HERE…SOMEWHERE!"

"LUNA! COME ON!"

"NO!"

"LUNA!"

"GO LENI!"

"NO! I'M NOT GONNA LOSE YOU LUNA! I'M STAYING WITH-"

Suddenly a black shuttle bus came screeching past the People Mover wreckage, skidding to a side. Out from a side angle in the air a large yellow school bus clipped the corner before it too smashed into the People Mover wreckage, tossing and turning into a mangled mess before smashing into the right concrete side wall. The clipping caused the shuttle bus to crash out of control at an angle into the concrete wall, though it merely bounced back, still on its wheels. The whole front was destroyed, but the doors opened quickly and several people came rushing out hauling a multitude of children, all around preschool age looking scared beyond belief, shouting and crying out loudly.

There were a lot of them…so many jam-packed inside the vehicle…and the outer winds began encompassing the farthest sides of the Crowne Plaza and the 150 West Jefferson…there were only seconds left…

"LUNA!" Leni yelled out, pulling a defiant Luna over to the trashed shuttle. Leni and Luna helped carry preschool kids over to the tunnel as the kids screamed in terror. The tornado was beginning to destroy glass windows on the framework of the Crowne Plaza building while sanding away the 150 West Jefferson skyscraper, its windows shattering out too. Broken glass shards by the billions were being whirled and shot in all directions all over the place.

Luna looked back outside the tunnel.

"LINCOLN! LINCOLN!" She screamed out in forlorn agony…no sign of the white-haired teen anywhere.

Luna's heart was on the verge of staying out there…now feeling like Lincoln didn't make it. As she silently teared up, she began unconsciously slowly walking outside, Leni unaware while trying to help buttress the preschool kids behind the parked vehicles.

"…Lincoln…I…I can't do this…not…not without you…please…bro!"

As she looked up, she found it difficult to remain standing on her feet as the tornado was less than a block away. She could only stand because the concrete wall next to her shrouded a good chunk of the direct upflow winds…the tornado loomed in closer to her left as she stared into it.

"You…you took my brother away from me…my family…my love…didn't you?"

The loud monstrous growl of the 2.9 mile wide tornadic behemoth seemed to return a louder roar…as though it was confirming Luna's worst dread.

"YOU DID! YOU FUCKING….YOU…KILLED MY BROTHER! MY LOVE! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU TO FUCKING HELL! SO!? GO AHEAD!" Luna roared at it with tears of a broken heart, opening her arms and backing up to see a chunk of it enveloping the 150 West Jefferson skyscraper completely, "…GO AHEAD…KILL ME! IF LINCOLN WAS TAKEN BY YOU…I'M GOING WITH HIM TOO!"

Various smaller vortices erratically formed and danced violently on the sides of the megatwister like tentacles on an octopus, rotating in the sky high up, now approaching Luna. They were trailing down lower and lower towards her, as though the tornado understood her request and was about to absorb her in its apocalyptic wrath and heed her death wish.

"SEND ME TO LINCOLN! I WANNA BE WITH LINCOLN! I'M GOING TO HIM! DO IT! DO IT YOU OVERGLORFIEID PIECE OF SHIT WINDSTORM! GO AHEAD AND TAKE ME YOU MOTHERFU-"

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw motion inside the black shuttle bus. A body inside was moving…pulling other smaller wiggling bodies…then out the door, running out with two young preschool girls…was Lincoln.

"….Lincoln? LINCOLN!" Luna roared in unparalleled joy, unable to hear herself over the roaring tornado.

"…go fuck yourself," she said over to the tornado as she ran behind Lincoln, him totally unaware of her. As she kept up, one of the young preschool girls dropped a stuffed elephant. She cried out as Lincoln still held onto them. Several people ran over to the entrance to help grab the kids. Luna grabbed the stuffed elephant as the young girl cried out for it, Lincoln turning back…only to be stunned to see who it was.

"L….Luna?" he muttered under his breath. Luna gave a small, tear-laden smile, pointing to the corner by the vehicles. Lincoln looked and saw Leni helping push what looked like a stalled car, one of the bigger ones, towards the front of the shielding of cars. She looked over and saw him as well.

"LINCOLN!" she cried out in joyful waterworks.

"BRO…" Luna said loudly as Lincoln gave a confused but soft smile to both of them. Luna threw Lincoln the stuffed elephant, to which Lincoln threw it to another man who just grabbed the preschool girl who dropped it.

Lincoln and Luna suddenly found themselves staring into each other's watery eyes, in a trance, as though they were trying to mentally mend a broken bridge without words.

Suddenly a city bus dropped onto the avenue right behind them, a small piece of blunt metal flying off and striking Luna right on the head, knocking her off her feet onto the ground.

"LUNA!" Lincoln roared. He suddenly found out they had, in unfounded stupidity, stayed like statutes right near the entrance.

The winds and rains suddenly got violent, an incomparable gust flowing along the asphalt road. Luna regained her footing, only to be knocked down…beginning to be dragged out precipitously faster and faster out of the tunnel by the tornado's outer winds coming at them.

"LUNA!" Lincoln cried out, Leni seeing this and crying out for her too, trying to run over before several people tackled her down, trying to prevent her from getting sucked out as well.

"LUNA NOOOOO!"

"OH SHIT! OH FUCK! OH SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCK!" Luna screamed out, trying to grapple any kind of irregularities in the asphalt and hold on for dear life. She was going to get sucked right out into the tornado any second. She could already feel minute tiny glass shards pummeling her legs as they were being lifted up.

Lincoln ran over as fast as he possibly could and grabbed Luna's arms, wrapping his lower body around one of the concrete piers supporting the tunnel…it was the one closest to the entrance to the tunnel, totally exposed to the whirling winds. He pulled her closer, his body now wrapping around hers as they dangled like leafs with frail stems trying to hold on to a branch.

They heard the skyscrapers all around them moaning with warped girders and shattered concrete. Lincoln held onto Luna with whatever power he could muster and manifest from the extra adrenaline he could dish out, Luna doing the same to hold on.

"LUNA! DON'T LET GO!" Lincoln screamed as loud as he could, both now wafting into the winds that seemed to poor out of the opposite side of the tunnel like a wind turbine. Luna saw the cars huddled around the people rocking violently back and forth from the wind tunnel effect, still heavy enough to brave this wind, but closer to the entrance, would have been sucked out by now.

Luna was feeling Lincoln's grip slipping. If he could hold onto the concrete pier, he might survive…but if he kept on holding her in such an awkward position…if he kept this up…he'd be sucked up along with her.

She came to an unalterable conclusion.

"LINCOLN! BRO! YOU GOTTA LET GO! YOU'RE GONNA GET SUCKED UP TOO!"

"WHAT!? NO! I WON'T LET GO!"

"YOU GOTTA LINCOLN! WE'RE BOTH GONNA DIE IF YOU DON'T! I'M YOUR OLDER SISTER AND I SAID SO!"

"YOU'RE ALSO THE LOVE OF MY LIFE! NO WAY IN FUCKING HELL!"

"GOD DAMN IT DUDE! LET GO! I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE BECAUSE OF ME!"

"NO! I LOVE YOU! I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU GO! EVER AGAIN! I'D RATHER DIE!"

Leni struggled as violently as she could, dishing out some of her most vicious rage, terrified if she didn't try and go for Lincoln and Luna, they'd be sucked right out, any second.

"LET ME GO NOW YOU MEANIES! THEY'RE MY FAMILY! LET GO!"

"LINCOLN! I'M SORRY, BUT-!" Luna roared out, trying to loosen her grip on him, Lincoln refusing to let go.

"NO LUNA! DON'T LET GO! I'M SORRY!" Lincoln roared out in a choked cry as well.

Then, the tornado really came at them, winds now north of 300 miles per hour outside the tunnel making Lincoln's determined efforts be all for not. Lincoln, still holding onto Luna for dear life…both holding their arms together…were sucked right out into the monstrous tornado.

Leni's soul…her heart…her very being…felt like it died on the spot.

"LINCOLN! LUNA! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Leni rocketed up out of the pile of people trying to stop her, and as she sobbed her heart out, she did something she thought she would never, ever be brave or foolhardy to do. As the terrified people huddling down watched in horror…Leni ran straight out into the tornado barreling right over them…all the people seeing her rapidly disappear out of sight just within seconds of contact within the violent air mass.

As Leni did this unspeakably unsettling act of kinship, Luna and Lincoln were roared together high up in the vortex over the cityscape, violently pelted with glass shards, metal, paper and all manner of debris. They're eyes locked shut for protection; it was like sand being pelted on one's eyes…and the air was near-impossible to breath in. They couldn't see anything…they couldn't hear anything…they were at the complete mercy of atmospheric chaos and random chance…but they were locked together…and if they died, at least it would be with one another. Their grip together was stronger than the tornado could pull apart, but their arms were dangerously close to being broken and shattered as they were flown high up in the air, their strength barely able to hold out.

Suddenly a semi truck trailer, one of the few intact ones from the earlier tornado, was flying like a feather in the vortex, it's back open. Luna and Lincoln saw their coming death…killed by the impact with the trailer…just like Mary Lincoln thought.

Then the trailer rotated violently on its side, turning at a severe angle and dipping down, its back doors open. Luna and Lincoln, still holding on, found themselves in a slower pocket of the tornado as they dropped straight into the semi truck trailer.

They both crashed into it, their smashing buffeted by the surprise that this trailer was hauling pillows and mattresses. If it wasn't for the angle with which they crashed, they'd have broken their necks and backs whether the pillows and mattresses were there or not.

The back doors suddenly slammed back shut, miraculously locking itself up. Lincoln and Luna were now being thrown in the air, inside a flying semi truck trailer, waiting their coming deaths. The trailer seemed to maintain a relatively smooth flight as Lincoln and Luna both realized they were still alive…for seconds more probably.

"Are…are we still alive?" Lincoln asked.

"Dunno!?" Luna said, "…I think we landed on...what are these…pillows and mattresses? So… are we in heaven?"

Then the trailer flipped at an angle, Lincoln and Luna being tossed at an angle with the near-hundred pillows and dozens of mattresses smashing to one side, encircling them in a random ball of protection from the erratic motions.

"NO! NOT HEAVEN! Oh god! I'm gonna be sick!" Luna whinnied.

"Luna! We're alive….HOLY FUCK WE'RE A-"

Then the trailer smashed into something, rocketing Lincoln and Luna forward into multiple mattresses and pillows caved onto the locked back doors. Luna smashed body-first, Lincoln slamming into her, his face plowing right into her derrière.

"Uh! Typical!" Lincoln moaned out, before nearly all the erratic motion of the trailer stopped…they crashed into something. Lincoln fell backwards onto a set of pillows before Luna fell ontop of him, the wind nearly knocked right out of her.

"….OWWWW…..dude….bro….LINCOLN! YOU…YOU-"

"I'm… alive…barely!" Lincoln winced.

As the trailer's frame waxed and wailed from strain, Lincoln and Luna got their bearings again, trying to rattle their ear drums that were barely able to hear. It took them a good thirty seconds to reacquire any semblance of decent hearing. As both got on all fours trying to figure out what was exactly going on, Luna found herself quickly throwing up inside a pillow cover. Lincoln almost lost his lunch, but managed to hold off…for a few more seconds till he keeled over and barfed inside a plastic bag of sheets. The rocking motion of the trailer didn't help any.

They wiped their mouths of the putrid stomach acid and gnarly taste with other pillow covers.

"…better?" Lincoln asked.

"…bloody better bro."

With their stomachs still on the rocks but in better shape than before, they found that the interior was almost dark, save for two small sturdy red lights illuminating several pillows. Lincoln pulled them off, revealing a dark red light, the types found on the ceilings of these kind of semi truck trailers. It took only moments for Lincoln and Luna to realize that the whole trailer was upside down, tilted downwards with doors facing down. They noticed little streams of water bubbling through the cracks and sides of the trailer, slowly but surely increasing in volume and rate.

"I…I think we got a moment…I can't believe we survived that," Lincoln huffed while trying to recuperate his breathing regiment.

Luna looked over to him, trying to check him over for any injuries…he looked as well as one could be from surviving the innards of the scariest, biggest tornado they'd ever seen.

"Lincoln…are you hurt anywhere?"

"No…I mean…yeah, I'm frickin sore…more than I've ever been…but I'm intact. You?"

"Th…the same…my skin feels numb, but everything hurts. Lincoln…I…I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" She roared out, punching Lincoln hard in his shoulder.

"OW DAMN IT! WHAT…OW… WAS THAT FOR?"

"YOU…you should have let go bro…then you wouldn't have let yourself been sucked out with me…you should have run to Leni…OH MY GOD…LENI! She must have saw us…she probably thinks we're dead…OH GOD!...how the fuck is Leni going to-"

"LUNA! LET'S FOCUS ON US RIGHT NOW! And for starters…there's no way in fucking hell I'd ever let you go…EVER…although in retrospect we should have backed into the tunnel a little more….okay, a lot more. We screwed up…I…I've been doing a lot of that lately," Lincoln said with melancholy in his voice.

"I know bro…I have especially…so have the others back at home. That's…that's why Leni and me are out here."

"Yeah….YEAH! HOW THE HELL DID YOU FIND ME!?"

"Memory, tracking, neighborly help, guts…and a fuck ton of regret bro. Look," Luna said, getting on her knees and looking down towards the mattress with shame, "…we…we really messed up back home. All of us…me, Leni, Luan, Lynn, Lucy…we realize that sister-fight-protocol is fucked…it's beyond fucked…cause you get thrown under the bus…all too often cause of us…the older sisters…and all the others…excluding Lily. We really pushed you dude," Luna quivered, Lincoln looking a bit dumbstruck by her admission in the middle of a life-threatening situation.

"Uhh, Luna? Maybe we should save this for anoth-"

"No Lincoln…we…we let you down…we pushed you when we needed you…when you were trying to help us…AND WE WERE ALL TOO FUCKING WRAPPED UP IN THE FU-…I…I let you down bro. I…I don't know if we…if I really can truly say sorry for what we put you through…and I think I ruined what we had going, you know," Luna choked, wrapping her arms around herself.

"I…I understand if…if you wanna end it…us."

"Lu…Luna? I…I d-"

The trailer suddenly began rotating again, flipping twice and rocking Lincoln and Luna violently back and forth, both now a bit more prepped to wrap themselves in pillows and mattresses to cushion the coming impacts. They ended up back to being upside down, Lincoln and Luna finding themselves rolled onto each other with mattresses pinning them down, him on top of her. Both blushed as they pushed hard on the surrounding mattresses to get them off.

"Dang…we almost always end up like this," Lincoln said lowly, Luna nodding with a placid but minor red face.

"Peril makes for interesting company," Luna uttered with a low smile.

Murky muddy water began seeping in through larger cracks and rips in the metal haul, water filling in rapidly.

"Aw shit. We must be in the Detroit River," Luna said.

They realized that the trailer was quickly sinking. Both huddled together, looking into each other's eyes.

"Luna…before anything else happens, I wanna let you know tha-"

Several large explosions blasted around them, sending them slamming into an unpadded part of the trailer, then into the increasing height of water around them.

"Damn it! This water is seeping in fast," Lincoln yelled, before Luna grasped onto Lincoln, him now holding onto her…both waiting for the inevitable.

"Dang it…maybe slamming headfirst into the concrete would have been a quick way to die," Luna thought, Lincoln giving a mortified face.

"Well bloody hell bro! It would have been over within a second. We're gonna drown now…all thanks to me."

"…no….NO! No we're not. We got too much to look forward to. Screw dying. We should of died several times today, and I'm not about to let this be the one-off! Luna, wait here," Lincoln said with gruff confidence as he dove into the waters towards the locked doors. She got up and walked over, ankles in the dimly light red waters due to the red light casting red shadows. She could see Lincoln's form messing with the door for a few seconds. Then he came back up, gasping for breath.

"…dang it…thought I had it."

"What bro?"

"I was gonna jimmy open the door. It might be locked, but it's damaged all the hell. A good twist in the lock mechanism and a swift kick might get us out. But there's so much weight on the other side of the door, and I can't get it open."

"Hey…HEY! I think I might know a way," Luna yelled out happily, Lincoln looking at her surprised, then smiled.

"Bro, I learned this in my Intro to Geology class, stuff about disasters from a video they had us watch. It's like this; if you're in a car or something on a bridge, and it falls during an earthquake and junk, you can't try and get out of the car off the bat! You need to let the car fill up completely for the pressure inside the car to be the same pressure outside the car.

"Okay…so what you're saying Luna is that…we gotta let this whole trailer fill up with water in order for us to pry open the damaged doors?"

"Uh…yeah. It sounds and looks more fucked up than ya think though. We got at least a minute of air while this thing fills up…what else we got?"

"…you know what? That's the best plan I've heard yet," Lincoln said, the water level now rising much more rapidly than before, to Luna's chest, Lincoln now shuffling pillows and mattresses under his water-logged feet to keep afloat.

The dark, cold, opaque waters slowly drowned out the reflective little red lights under them; they'd have to go under water and maneuver through the huge number of floating pillows and mattresses to have a light source to see the lock mechanism. The bubbling waters gradually encircled them as their air pocket got smaller and smaller, both now having to swim in place to not drop completely under the water column.

"L…Lincoln…this is it bro…" Luna struggled through the splashing foam of waters around her.

"This is it…it's either this…or bust," Lincoln said, now not really able to see Luna…the red light all but disappeared, the motions of the trailer, its groaning sounds and seeping water ruffling up his hearing.

They reached their hands together and held on, giving one last, desperate hug in case the worst happened…the air pocket was now about to fill up…it was do or die time.

Both breathed heavily several times, before taking one giant breath and diving underwater. They luckily positioned themselves within a few feet of the back door. Lincoln jimmied with the lock, using some of the tricks he learned from Leni with a bobby-pin…somehow he ended up with one in his pocket before he left the house…it miraculously came in handy. Lincoln's effort failed the first time, but with the pressure equal on both sides, water everywhere and all sides, Lincoln managed to jam the lock open. Now they had to push the doors open. Lincoln poked on Luna to join him in kicking open the door.

After several semi-quick underwater jabs and kicks, the doors gradually floated open, revealing an underwater landscape of sinking debris from the urban surface world slowly sinking down to the river depths; vehicles, wood, signs, glass panel shards, twisted metal…even bodies…so many bodies…

Lincoln and Luna, now able to see with low cloudy light penetrating the surface to their depths, looked back behind them where they came from. It was their upside down trailer, sticking out of the flipped over top of a sinking river boat, the Detroit Princess Riverboat, it's stacks ripped, its haul pierced by various rips, metal support beams and girders and vehicles besides the trailer. Dark smoke rose out of its opposite side, pooling out and blending in with the surrounding waters. A couple underwater sonic booms could be felt by Luna and Lincoln from internal explosions inside the flipped riverboat.

As it sank deeper and deeper by many inches per minute, the trailer sticking out of it was gradually crushed under it, the last tiny pockets of air in the back bubbling right out of the fracturing sides of the underwater wreck…had Lincoln and Luna waited just a bit longer, they would have been crushed to death underwater…their spines chilled and rippled from the potential trauma.

As they headed feverishly towards the water surface, they saw several large fish swim past them towards the surface, only to try and attempt swimming back down. They were stopped midway within three feet of the surface, before they were rapidly sucked right out of the water. They noted the water was rippling and unusually sporadic above the surface in spiraling erratic motions.

The tornado was still barreling right above them over the waters…it'd be certain death risking a breath…and it'd be certain death to try and hold their breaths for minutes more down here.

Lincoln and Luna grasped each other, their cheeks puffed out, their lungs slowly failing. The choice was dwindling down to drowning…or back to the tornado? They held onto each other for as long as they could, hoping the tornado would leave their spot above the water. They only had a few more seconds of air and another few more seconds of lung endurance left.

A city bus suddenly dropped into the waters right above them. They quickly moved out of the way, seeing it slowly sinking towards them. By how slow and buoyant it bobbled, it looked like it had a bit of air in it still. Luna then swam over to a side window and kicked it open, pushing Lincoln in first, then herself. They clumsily splashed into the center aisle, both gasping for breath in the large air pocket inside the sinking bus while it now began to rapidly fill with water and sink now.

"OH…HUUUUUUUUUUU…..OH MY GOD LUNA! THAT WAS…UNBELIEABLE!" Lincoln heaved as he sucked in giant lungful of air. "Quick thinking sis!"

"HUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHH…..no prob bro,"Luna gasped, holding her chest. The bus slowly tilted towards the front, causing Lincoln and Luna to slide backwards on the watery center aisle to the front of the bus, its windshield surprisingly still intact.

As Luna landed into the gap of space for the stairs, Lincoln rolled backwards into the gear shifts. Looking up, he saw someone in the driver seat still...the bus driver…impaled with several pieces of jagged metal. Lincoln gasped as he realized from observing what was visibly left of the interior; it was the Route 498 bus he took over to downtown a little while ago…with Mary. Same bus driver…same interior, and the sign above the bus entrance still glowed with the moving digital readout, "Route 498…Monroe, Downtown to Grand Circus Park, at Woodward and Adams."

"Holy shit….Luna…Luna?"

"Ow….damn gummy slippery bus floors…what's up dude?"

"Luna…this was the bus I took to downtown…this is…so surreal…" Lincoln uttered quietly, almost in complete shock from how random and coincidental this was…just like a lot of things for them today.

"Really bro? Ohhh….fuck…good thing you didn't decide to come home then…the driver bro…was he yours?"

"Yeah….he's long gone," Lincoln said lowly, trying to numb himself from any pain…Mary's passing still rather raw on him.

"Well…nothing we can do for that bloke Linc. Take another big gulp of air. I see the waters near the surface looking calmer now. Tornado's probably gone somewhere else by now."

She was right. Lincoln looked out of a window towards the surface. Fish were tepidly swimming near the surface, and they were not being sucked up. Tiny bits of debris rained onto the surface, but since they were so close to the river boat, they figured if they stayed near the sides, it could offer some degree of protection.

Lincoln leaned a bit towards the window, but as he placed his hand down on a corner of a bus seat, he felt a searing pain rip right through his hand.

"OWW! DAMN IT! OW! WHAT THE-!?" Lincoln yelled out, seeing now that he wrapped his hand around a jagged piece of metal sticking out of the opposite side of the seat. He winced as he pulled his hand off, a huge gash in his left palm now, bleeding profusely.

Luna delicately hobbled over and tore a chunk of her pants off, wrapping it around the stinging, touchy pain. She wrapped it so delicately.

"Dang bro…that's gonna leave a scar. Can you move your hand?"

Lincoln wiggled his left fingers, then the thumb by itself. The laceration was just around his thumb in his palm.

"Yeah…oh fuck me that hurt…stings more than it hurts actually."

"We'll put some hydrogen peroxide on that when we get home, okay bro?"

"Home…huh…." Lincoln trailed of, Luna noticing his reserved contemplation before Lincoln asked, "Don't…don't you need to go to the hospital? You got dinged in the head pretty badly back there in the city."

"Nah…I'm a rocker. We got hard heads…kinda goes with being a rocker," Luna said with a smile, Lincoln smiling back.

"Alright Linc…let's try this again love. Ya ready?" Luna asked, now a bit more calm and confident before now that they knew they could do this together."

"Ready Luna…let's do this!"

Lincoln and Luna took two big breaths, before on the third they held it in, diving under and leaving the temporary underwater safety of the city bus, now a permanent grave to its driver. It had filled up faster than the trailer, but the practice in an ever worst tight-spot made this maneuver much easier for them to do.

As they swam out the windows of the bus, Lincoln first, Luna second, another great loud boom from above rocked them. A fire truck smashed into the water, sinking extremely fast with its chaotic lights and blaring sirens still going off, even underwater. It struck the city bus as Lincoln and Luna tried swimming as fast as possible. The bus was violently tilted, causing it to rotate around, its whirling suction pulling in Luna back towards the main entrance. A chunk of thick metal stuck in the door dropped, wrapping itself around Luna's leg as she frantically tried with all her might to pull her leg out of the tangle of metal.

She couldn't do it.

Luna tried grappling with it, but it was stuck around her leg too tight. As it pulled down faster and faster, the bus rotated from another underwater impact with the fire truck, another random piece of metal dropping down and striking Luna hard on her head.

Luna was slowly losing consciousness, before inadvertently exhaling all the air she had out, now without air, sinking down below, unable to get out of this as the last few bubbles escaped her.

She struggled hard. It was painful…so painful, one of the most painful things she's ever felt in her life, with no more strength to try and fight back. She gasped as water seeped into her body, now totally unable to breath, the pain even worse now. No headway came from the uncontrollable movement of her arms and one loose leg, nothing helping…then the fading.

Her body slowed down, the blurry images of the waters and various assortments of objects all around her where she could barely discern became even more muddled. Her mind was shutting down. The cranial impact was now taking its toll, causing her to lose consciousness, before another random piece of debris collided with the side of her head. As she saw the fuzzy image of Lincoln swimming down towards her as frantically as possible, the bus and fire truck landing together on the riverbed in a muddy thud. Luna's last conscious thought wilted in her mind.

"…Lincoln….I love you…."

Luna's mind drifted off, her mind shutting down…no longer aware. Dark-blue and purple colors surrounding a single white fuzzy image were her last visual sights.

As Luna's body gently wafted in the depths, eyes glassy and half close, her face still locked in fear, but at the same time, acceptance, Lincoln lost all feeling, lost all awareness of the pain in his body and lungs; Luna was drowning. Luna was dying…one of his worst fears in life was manifesting in the blurry waters before him.

"HOLD ON LUNA! HOLD ON!" Lincoln screamed in his head, trying to woefully contact her telepathically. He got to the metal wrapped around her leg near the bus entrance. The metal was unyielding and torque-laden. Lincoln tried pulling with more effort, still nothing.

His hands loosened automatically, an instinctive reaction to avoid the pain from being cut from the jagged sides…but he bit the pain. He pushed. With his greatest bit of endurance yet, Lincoln wrapped his hands around the metal and tried warping it as much as possible, the metal re-opening the gash in his left palm, a new big one forming in the other. It stung, but he told himself the pain was just temporary…Luna was everything.

With one more pull, the jagged metal chunk warped slightly to the right, letting Lincoln rip Luna out of the spot and proceed to swim her back to the surface as rapidly as he could, now feeling himself undergo the onset of drowning symptoms. His lungs and blood screamed at him to hurry…he screamed at himself to hurry for Luna. He swam harder and harder, ignoring the biological instinct to swim to the surface himself and come back for Luna…this was it…losing breath for the sake of Luna, or gain breath for himself at the risk of losing Luna.

It was a stupefyingly easy choice for him.

Closer to the surface, he rocketed Luna towards it first as his muscles and body ached even more so than before from the tornadic ride. He kept up the fight against the burn and pain.

Then he rose out, seeing Luna bobble up and down in the waters…lifeless. He roared in a huge breath, then pulled her head up, trying to shake her awake, his mind not being able to articulate any words from the shock of seeing Luna like that. He gagged and coughed as he dragged her over to the overturned Detroit Princess River Boat. Part of its upper deck roof was just above the water level.

Lincoln found his breath and lungs.

"Lu…LUNA! WE'RE UP! WE'RE UP!"

Lincoln choked rapidly for breath again, his lungs still fighting for oxygen as he slid her up onto the upper deck ceiling that now doubled as their temporary dock.

Lincoln climbed up and sees her still motionless, not breathing air at all.

"….no…..NO….NOOOOOO!"

Lincoln pulls her in his lap, trying to look her over, trying to figure out what to do to revive her.

"C….CPR!"

Lincoln lied her down and tries pumping her chest repeatedly, then blowing air into her mouth in the required intervals of time as much as possible.

"COME ON LUNA! WAKE UP! WE'RE ALIVE!"

He keeps at it, going through the motions again for another forty frenetic seconds.

"LUNA GOD DAMN IT! DON'T DO THIS! DON'T DO THIS TO ME!"

Lincoln slams her chest hard, now pounding away erratically in lament, trying in vain to wake her up…still nothing. Her body was cold…turning pale.

"NO LUNA! NO! NOT LIKE MARY! I CAN'T LOSE YOU! I LOVE YOU! MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER KNOW! DON'T FUCKING LEAVE ME LIKE THIS!"

Lincoln keeps slamming his arms down harder and harder, her body rocking from the force of his punches…nothing.

"No….Luna…..Luna," Lincoln whimpered, tears rolling down in full force as he still keeps up his efforts. No matter how hard, how technical and how methodical he tried…nothing was bringing her back.

"No Luna….no," Lincoln whimpered as he cried into her chest.

Lincoln defiantly tried again, even putting more force into the presses against her chest… and again…still nothing. He keeps going and going, crying louder and louder for her as he tries to bring Luna, the tabooed love of his life back to the living.

"Luna….I can't….I can't be happy without you…I'm begging for you Luna! I need you to know…I'm sorry! I'm sorry for telling you those horrible things back at the house! I forgive you and the others for sister-fight-protocol! I love you! I always will! I'll always love you, no matter what, sister or girlfriend. NOW WAKE THE FUCK UP! PLEASE LUNA! I CAN'T DO THIS! NOT WITHOUT YOU!"

Lincoln kept on pleading…this was the longest six minutes of his life. This hell…this was hell, seeing not only just a sister, but the woman he fell for of all people, lifeless, and through all his efforts and pleading…Luna didn't respond.

"…please….I can't be happy without you….you mean everything to me…"

Nothing.

Nothing.

No response. Luna Loud was morbidly pale…unresponsive…lifeless.

"…I…I won't let you go…not unless…unless I come too."

Lincoln broke down as he cuddled up to the form that was Luna, holding her tightly as he did something he thought he was about to never think he'd ever do.

It would involve leaving Leni back in the tunnel…leaving his friends...Clyde…Ronnie Anne…Mr. Grouse….leaving his sisters he loved dearly…leaving his parents…leaving Pop-pop…but if there was a snowball's chance in hell he'd be with Luna…he was willing to sacrifice himself for the one his value-set most cherished.

"Who….whoever I'm talking to…I'm sorry…about this…but please…send me to Luna….I wanna be with Luna," he cried out as he pulled out his pocket knife still on him, hidden behind his belt…and flipped it open. He pulled it close to his throat, ready to be with her…but before that, he gave one last, powerful squeezing hug to Luna.

"I love you Luna…I hope I'll see you again…and if I don't…know I always loved you."

He squeezed harder around her frame, constricting her in the tightest, warmest hug possible, and as he winced when pulling the blade close to his trachea…a jet of water shot out of Luna's mouth.

Luna roared right up, coughing mouthful after mouthful of water in spastic episodes. Lincoln jettisoned up in unfettered joy and helped her, holding her back as she choked out all the water that drew itself, little as it did since her lungs closed up on her.

"LUNA! OH MY GOD! LUNA!"

For a good minute Luna coughed up, the first few rejuvenated breaths gigantic in scale so her body could recoup the oxygen. Eyes wide open, body drenched soaked like Lincoln's, her physiology was recharging itself back online from the drowning episode.

Getting her mind back in order slowly while Lincoln held her up with a gigantic but melancholy smile, Luna looked over to him.

"Uhh…..hi bro….you….you saved me. Lincoln….you sa-"

Before Luna could finish, Lincoln found himself uncontrollably breaking down into Luna's shoulders as he grasped her and held her close.

"Don't….don't ever do that….again! I…thought I lost you," Lincoln cried out in lamentations of traumatic joy and suffering. Luna patted him on his back gently.

"Ssshhh….it's okay bro…I'm back…I'm still here…I got you," Luna cooed in a stressed voice, Lincoln curling himself into Luna as much as possible.

"I got you…I…Owwww…bloody puss-spewing hell….my head….feels like I got hit by a truck," Luna winced as she rubbed her head, feeling several large bumps on the sides.

"Crud….hope I didn't lose any of my noggin…or brain cells…I need to still be able to play my jams and do basic math still," she joked, Lincoln smiling slightly and giving a tear-laden laugh.

"Luna…I'm sorry…"

"It's okay bro…but-"

"No Luna! I…this is all my fault…you almost died…twice today cause of me…I never meant for you…or Leni…to be put in harm's way! My emotions got the better of me! All because of me not liking sister-fight-protcol! I-"

"Hold up bro! It may have been foolish of you to go out like that…but I know what it's like to not be in ya right mind…it's cool bro…let's just-"

"No Luna…I said horrible things back at the house…to all of you…but it was directed to you the most…I'm not ashamed of you…you're my world Luna!"

"Lincoln-"

"You don't sicken me! If anything, I'd be sick the rest of my life if you died…I couldn't go on…"

"Lincoln…bro…even if the worst happened to me…you better move on wi-"

Luna gasped as she saw down by Lincoln's side…his knife…still primed and ready.

"Bro….you…you weren't…," Luna nervously asked, pointing towards the knife…Lincoln stayed unresponsive in teary choked sobs.

"Why...why do you have that knife Lincoln?" Luna asked, her voice rippling in shock.

"Why is it out? What...what were you going to do with it?"

Lincoln looked down in shame.

"Bro...answer me..."

"Lu…Luna...I...I-"

"LINCOLN!"

"I...I thought...I thought you weren't coming back...and I didn't wanna be here without you, so...I was..."

Luna choked hard on a blurted, wet cry.

"W...what were you thinking...WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING LINCOLN?!"

"I WAS THINKING ABOUT HOW MUCH I COULDN'T STAND BEING ALIVE WITHOUT YOU, ALRIGHT?"

"No….no Linc…dude," Luna trembled, now herself having tears of dismay, shock, anger. She reached out for the knife and put it in her own soaked pocket, looking at Lincoln with the most devastated eyes possible.

"Lincoln…don't…don't ever-"

"I'm sorry Luna…I…I just couldn't help myself…I couldn't stand the thought of not being with you…I'd feel…empty, like life wasn't worth it…"

"Bro…if anything does ever happen to me…like what could of just happened…hopefully not in a long, long time…you can't…you can't just live for me…you gotta live for yourself…and think about the others…your other sisters…losing me would be hard enough, but you?"

"What about you Luna?"

"Huh?"

"You'd…you'd be able to move on without me, right? If I did die and you survived in that tornado, you'd have to move on too…you'd be able to, right?" Lincoln asked, Luna's expression blank, yet slowly looking defeated.

"…uh..I…it's not the same bro."

"It's totally the same Luna!"

"I'm older! I'm an adult!"

"Say you could move on Luna…" Lincoln said weakly.

"Bro…I-"

"Say it Luna!"

Luna looked away from Lincoln.

"SAY IT!"

"I CAN'T! ALRIGHT! WHEN…when we got to the tunnel…people said you went to help some kids…we didn't see you…then the van…you never came out…I…I thought the worst happened…and I was ready to…to let the twister get me…I WAS GONNA TRY AND BE WITH YOU! ALRIGHT! HAPPY!? I'D LET MYSELF GET TORN TO SHREDS IF IT MEANT BEING WITH YOU!"

Luna curled her arms to her side and silently wept as Lincoln wept.

"Wow…we were both gonna…take our lives if the other was not alive…" Lincoln articulated in a hiccup.

"…and I don't really even believe in that heaven crap anyways…but if oblivion meant being with you, then I wasn't going to hold back," Luna lowly said. "You…got that feeling…for me too bro?"

"…always had it…to protect you guys…but you especially for some reason Luna. And…maybe we did jump-the-gun on that…but I still wouldn't regret it…and it sounds like you would have done the same…"

"Well…we should try and not mention this for a while…let's mull this over later, okay bro? What's important…is that we're both here…together."

"Uhh…yeah…I agree…together…that's why I…and you…but Luna?"

"Yeah Lincoln?"

"I do really love you Luna…more than I can say…I don't want us to take a break…or break up…and whatever happens…I'll go to you…anywhere…"

"Same with me dude…I love you too."

As Luna and Lincoln leaned in, parts of a huge billboard rose out of the water like a cork shooting out of a glass of water, landing at an angle on the flipped Detroit Princess River Boat, covering and shading Lincoln and Luna from the exposed, windy and devastated world all around them. They were shielded out of sight now completely.

"Oh….wow…we almost did that out in the open…this is our cover dud-" Luna said, before Lincoln filled the gap and passionately kissed Luna as long and hard as he could, holding each other close, wet, soggy, bodies stressed and injured, but their minds beginning the process of mending their bond…now more spiritually powerful and valuable than ever before.

A white and green stripped life preserver floated under the darkened area they were melding together in. They'd have to eventually return back to mainland.

Luna broke from the passion to tepidly fish it out of the water.

"Care for one more swim Lincoln?"

"…only if you hold on to me…and I swim for you…you need a break."

"Sure bro…and I hope Leni won't be in too bad a shambles…" Luna opinioned.

"At least she'll be overjoyed to see us again."

As they crossed the river, Lincoln having Luna hold onto him and relax her body while he did the work of crossing them, the wreckage of the entire ordeal beyond their drama came into undeniably breathtaking perspective. Lincoln paddled with intensity but care to not bump into the clogged waters all around them. The Detroit River turned into a depository landfill for the destruction swept up by the now dwindling monster tornado. Debris of untold variety stuffed the upper waters and lower depths all around them.

In the far, far distance by Belle Island, the tornado had degenerated into a rather pathetically puny, frail rope, now on the chopping block to wither away to non-existence like it did to so many other people…and almost did to Luna and Lincoln.

While Lincoln was focused on his task of swimming the last few dozen yards, Luna glared at the tiny rope that was dancing its last life, struggling with whip-like wisps, trying to keep its figure.

"Fuck you…that's what you get, and it's a bloody shame you're not a living being…otherwise seeing you squirm out and suffer like that'd be so much more rewarding."

Luna huffed heavily as this dark thought crossed her mind…including other ones regarding hers and Lincoln's actions…the realization between both of them that…through this whole ordeal, when the worst of the worst came to view, they were each ready to take their own lives…just to be in some metaphysical sense, with the other.

It made her skin crawl…yet, as self-destructive and annihilative to their very being this might have been, the intent was the purest possible. It may have been just the emotional consequence to their deep bond…possibly to the point of autonomous termination…whatever it seemed, it opened a whole other world between Lincoln and Luna…one they did not seem ready for. The implications alone from this entire ordeal and such self-sacrificial stirrings…Luna shuddered. It still, beyond her reasoning…warmed her that Lincoln cared for her that much…to risk this reality for the sake of a potentially and metaphysically false one, just on the gamble to be with her.

"I know you're cold Luna, but we're almost there," Lincoln said, feeling Luna shuddering and assuming it was Luna shaking from the cold waters and air. It was partly that, as Lincoln shook himself, but Luna's were more metaphysical in nature.

On shore, Luna climbed out to the riverwalk decking, pulling Lincoln up. Her body was getting its physical bearings back.

As Lincoln and Luna stayed close along the riverwalk shoreline, the most surreal, unearthly sights of all came to true perspective…the skyline and all nearby urban surroundings within miles of them; Detroit had been virtually leveled.

"…bloody hell," Luna weakly said as she held onto Lincoln, him too bewildered beyond belief. As mortifying and unreal the sights were…they were very real, all around them…nothing but destruction and devastation on a magnitude they only read about in school, watched online or on TV, or saw pictures of in ancient objects of yesteryear called Encyclopedias.

A single low, gentle airy wisp danced around them. Tinges of glowing lime blue, dark purples, blood red and brilliant oranges all pitter-pattered the dense but intermittent dark grey clouds above. The cloud banks of the supercells were spreading and dying down, revealing the components of a coming sunset many minutes away.

The entire landscape of destruction was deathly quite as their ears readjusted to the sonic lay of the land. Slowly but surely they begin to hear the faintest of emergency vehicle sirens in the far off areas of the downtown area. Then one lone helicopter circled over downtown, presumably getting unparalleled footage of what the city was reduced to.

Closest to Luna and Lincoln behind them was the GM Renaissance Center. Much like the initial sights of the downtown skyline, there wasn't a single glass windows left in any of the towers. In fact, one of the towers was leaning inwards on the main central tower. However, when they began travelling through the Phillip A. Hart city plaza, they noticed the utter lack of any of the landmarks that dotted here and there the plaza area; the Horace E. Dodge and Son Memorial Fountain, The Transcending, the various other statutes and memorials…Luna and Lincoln saw their respective spots on the ground, the cement and granite boulders ripped from the foundations. All that was left of the plaza were the multitude of ripped trees and limbs warped beyond viability. A huge pile of downed trees circled them as they kept onwards towards the Cobo Center…hopeful they could get past the wreckage without any mishaps or hang-ups and meet up with Leni in the tunnel with the Packard.

"I can't believe what the tornado did to our city bro," Luna said in horrified amazement, "Detroit's never gonna be the same after this. Who know how long it's gonna be to-" Luna paused, Lincoln poking her shoulder to look straight at downtown.

They saw many skyscrapers and buildings still standing, but just as former shells of their glorious selves. Nearly all were severely damaged, huge plumes of smoke flowing from the streets below, electrical blasts illuminating every few seconds in a mid-floor opening. The skyscrapers…the newer, more modern ones faired the best, as their sides looked like they went through a grinder and lost every window in sight. The older buildings…not so much. Quite a few of the Art Deco, Gothic style and Neo-Renaissance were depressing skeletons, chunks of these buildings missing on all sides, the upper floors degraded to steel skeletons and…whole sections of the tops of buildings blown right off.

Lincoln saw the mangled remains of People Mover sticking out of the steel skeleton that was the Crowne Plaza...and whimpers, the memory of Mary drilled in the back of his mind.

"You didn't deserve that Mary," Lincoln uttered quietly.

"What's up bro?"

"N…nothing…I…I'll tell you later when we get home."

Towards the end of the huge pile to downed trees wrapped around one another, Luna saw a curious pair of sunglasses sticking out…white with black shades…Leni's type.

"Nah…nah…they couldn't…" Luna mumbled, before walking over to the bottom of the pile and picking them up, inspecting them with diligence. Lincoln broke his pace and walked over.

"Luna?"

"…these are Leni's dude…she must have lost these when it hit."

Luna folded them into her pocket and pulled Lincoln onwards. As they were about to keep up the pace, rustling from the tree branches caught them off guard. Spooked by the aching of the tree limbs, Lincoln shot in front of Luna, mentally prepping himself for any debris that might shoot out in their direction. Luna pulled him down to a squat position instead.

The tree limbs flicked open, broken and torn to bits as someone was rustling out of the collapsed canopy of leafless branches.

"Hello?" Luna asked while trying to keep Lincoln calmed down.

Then, to their complete and utter shock…Leni crawled out with a whimper out of the downed tree pile, cuts and bruises all over her body, her hair in a crazy mess, but she still looked in one piece and not visibly hurt too bad. One random log dropped down on her shoulder, only for her to nonchalantly grab it one-handed and throw it hard, all the way into the Detroit River.

Luna and Lincoln did not know what to make of it…worst of all…Leni was bare naked…all the clothing on her ripped right off…even her shoes and socks were gone.

"L…LENI!?" Luna and Lincoln shouted in awe and shock from seeing her emerge from the devastation, Leni turning over to them with at first a plain expression, then one that gave them a small smile.

"Hey guys…I didn't know heaven would have so many branches to climb through," she said with a tired but innocent tone.

"He…heaven Leni?" Luna asked, Lincoln not knowing how to handle the situation…opting to cover his eyes while he blushed severely from seeing Leni so…revealed…and it looked like she wasn't even aware of it herself.

"Right! We…we are in heaven, right? Or….oh no….the other place?"

"Uh…Leni? We're still on Earth," Lincoln said, shock still in his voice, his face flushed still as Luna's got colored. He turned around and found random articles of clothing by his feet…a dark brown baggy sweater and grey jeans, throwing them over to her while his eyes were closed. They only got halfway, but Leni walked over and grabbed them.

"So…we're like, still alive?" Leni asked naively.

"Yeah Leni…and how'd you end up out here?" Luna asked.

Leni looked all around her with an inquisitive expression, trying to figure her surroundings…only for the state of Lincoln and Luna, add to it the view of the devastated skyline of downtown Detroit to bang her memories back online. Lastly, she felt the fabric of the clothing in her hands, letting the touch and sensations re-correct her thinking.

"Clothing…fabric…" she mumbled. She was indeed alive…and this was Lincoln and Luna in front of her…alive…a state of being she thought she saw them last when they were sucked in by the tornado.

"…I'm…alive….you…you're both alive…LINCOLN! LUNA!" Leni screamed out in joy, now breaking down and running frantically over to Lincoln and Luna, waiving the clothing in her hands haphazardly. Lincoln and Luna began running over to her, when suddenly an intact red barn crashed down right on top of Leni, the red barn frame still intact but collapsing inwards slightly.

"HOLY FUCK! LENI!" Lincoln shouted, Luna's voice lost from how ungodly and random this was.

They both frantically ran over to the amazingly still intact but badly damaged barn. As Luna and Lincoln struggled trying to part the most broken red boards, the caved-in red doors pushed wide open. Leni suddenly popped out in a daze, looking totally unscathed but shaken.

"Ow, my head...that kinda hurt," Leni whined, rubbing the back of her head, the clothing still in her hands, now torn up and hole-ridden. She sees Lincoln and Luna's astounded expressions.

"LINCY! LUNA!" Leni shouted, totally ignoring the barn and running right towards them, still in her birthday suit. She grappled them into a monster bear hug as she sobbed into both of them, Lincoln and Luna hugging back dearly but trying to not touch anything too personable on Leni.

"LINCY! LUNA! I THOUGHT I LOST YOU! I SAW YOU GET TAKEN BY THE TWISTER! I…I…-"

Leni broke down even more as she fell backwards, pulling them down with her as she cuddled up to both of them, Luna slyly taking the clothing from Leni, wrapping it around her bust and groin areas. Luna started tearing up, as well as Leni.

"Leni…we're sorry you had to see that…it was-"

"I don't care about that! I thought I was never going to see you again guys…I tried to grab you, but the twister took you faster than I could reach you when I ran out-"

"Wait a minute…YOU RAN OUT? INTO THE TORNADO!?"

"Uhhhh….yeah…I wasn't thinking about myself…like, you two were the only things I could think of…that…and it was windy," Leni said in a tiny, wet voice.

Lincoln and Luna hugged tighter on to Leni…astounded that she survived a head-on intentional run-in with the most powerful tornado of all time.

"I don't know how I ended up here guys…but…it was really, really windy…and I saw you go up high…high up…then I lost sight of you…I…I NEVER WANT TO DO THIS AGAIN! LINCOLN! PLEASE DON'T RUN OFF INTO A STORM AGAIN! PRETTY PLEASE! WE ALL PROMISE; NO MORE SISTER FIGHT PROTOCOL!"

"It's okay Leni. It'll be all-"

"It's all because of that stupid fight…we could have died…I didn't think…I SUCK AT THINKING LINCY! I'M SORRY! I PROMISE…no more fights like that…just…don't run off again…please…" Leni quivered, still holding onto Lincoln as she sobbed into his soaked hoodie jacket, Luna caressing her back and trying to make her feel better.

"…p..pl…please?"

"Leni…I would love to see you girls strive for that…but it'd be foolish of me to think there'd be no more fights that occasionally happen from time-to-time. We're a big family…these things happen. What I'd like for us is to be able to resolve them without too much heartache…does that make sense Leni?"

"A…a little…I can see that," Leni whimpered.

"Bro's forgiven us Leni…we got some serious perspective now after what we've seen," Luna added on, wiping tears off of Leni's cheeks.

"Leni…I promise…let's just do something…together, alright?"

"…alright Lincy…anything," Leni sniveled.

"Let's go home now. I think they're worried sick about us."

---

Luna temporarily ushered Lincoln to the side so she could dress Leni up in the torn up pieces of fabric Lincoln found for her. The brown sweater and grey jeans were traditional nightmares in fashion circles to Leni, but she managed to find a way to make them halfway decent looking on her…it was probably her hourglass frame. The pants were torn all to hell along her thighs and ankles, and the sweater had tiny rips peppered all over it, with one gigantic horizontal gash exposing a huge bit of her breasts, making her cleavage the most pronounced from the flaws in the fabric's integrity. It didn't help either that the clothing was a size too small for Leni, conforming to her body a little too well in all the right…or in Lincoln's case…wrong places…with Luna taking note too.

"God damn…even in shitty torn clothing with messed up hair…Leni somehow rocks that look. How the fuck does she do that?"

With Leni giving a whimpered "ready," they started down the rest of the plaza, Luna and Lincoln trying to carry Leni a bit, before Leni said she could still walk. Several steps forwards, she winced a bit in pain. Luna looked down and saw Leni had stepped on a big piece of angular glass. Worst of all she was totally barefoot, now bleeding on her right foot corner.

Lincoln tore off some of his hoodie and gave it to Luna to wrap around her foot. It didn't hurt Leni too much, but the sight of blood freaked her out a bit.

Luna saw some tarps lying on the grown. She bundled them up and made two temporary wrapped bundles, got some random string on the ground and wrapped them around Leni's feet so she wouldn't risk getting cut again. Leni frowned from the distasteful fashion statement, but grimaced and accepted so as not to be cut again.

Lincoln felt inside his zipped hoodie pocket, adjacent to the area he ripped off.

"….whoa…no way," he thought, unzipping his pocket and finding his IPod and earphones in the baggy still. The earphones were destroyed, the IPod had a slight crack, but he turned it on. Somehow, the baggy didn't get sucked off of him, and it didn't get ripped, or touched by a single drop of water. Lincoln smiled slightly from this odd happenstance. Though…he felt horrible now about giving Mary's cellphone to another stranger…he felt he had to have taken some responsibility for the role in contacting her family…but the situation was well beyond his control in the midst of the chaos, and his mind and emotions were broken beyond his usual rational thinking.

Passing a white building to their right, the Uaw-Ford National Program Center that was half its original height next to the shredded Cobo Arena on its left, they heard several large explosions come from downtown. They cautiously walked around the littered metal and concrete wreckage up Civic Center Dr back to tunnel. Subtle sounds of rumbling could be heard. Looking up to downtown they saw upper parts of the Guardian Building collapse onto the streets below. Huge plumes of dust-laden clouds rolled over the vicinity around the weakened structures. Clothes, paper and dust flew around everywhere…and more muffled screams in the far distance.

Car alarms slowly become more noticeable. Sirens of emergency vehicles were even more noticeable. With dust clouds barely just settling, they saw more of the skyscrapers...many having the upper floors reduced to steel skeletons, others having huge chunks missing out the tops and sides, floors totally exposed and dropping debris profusely on the ground.

They huddled closer as they maneuvered over the downed remains of the People Mover monorail track, collapsed onto the West Jefferson Avenue below. Staying together and holding hands, they traversed the tracks along the collapsed span of the monorail, Luna jumping down to help Lincoln and Leni. They were now extremely close to the outskirts of the tunnel. But multiple cars and trucks were mangled and wrapped around the entrance to the tunnel.

They had to travel over, under and through the car wreckage of buses, sedans, GM, random debris, sometimes even having to squirm within the mangled interior of a car.

After minutes of moving through the junkyard, they saw the tunnel's concrete piers; a white sedan was completely looped around the pier Luna and Lincoln were holding on to.

"Wow…in a way…maybe it was a good thing we got swept up by the tornado…otherwise…" Luna thought, seeing the concrete smashed around the axial frame of the sedan…right were Lincoln and Luna were holding on to for dear life.

None of the lights were on in the tunnel. It was still lit, but just barely lit to about a hundred feet inwards…otherwise the dark was encroaching from all sides now. Leni scooted between Lincoln and Luna, trembling from fear of the dark as they got deeper into the tunnel. Further inwards, Luna noted how deep they had to go. It wasn't until they saw a glossy surface… Mr. Grouse's white Packard hawk, all by itself parked to the side; this was one of the vehicles used to act as a front from the storm. The only thing visibly wrong in the near-dark with it was a few tree branches and signs covering it, but otherwise the vehicle was in perfect shape still. It looked like the people that hid in the tunnel throughout all this had made it…since none of the other cars remained.

"Getting the hell outta dodge…don't blame them," Luna said, her voice slightly echoing in the tunnel.

Luna opened the Packard doors, finding by surprise the keys still zipped up in her back butt pocket…she recalled how it hurt more than usual when Lincoln collided face-first into her butt back in the trailer…also how a small bruise the shape of a key was on Lincoln's face.

"…no more keys around my back pocket, doi!"

She ushered Leni and Lincoln to scoot right in, Leni first, Lincoln second. Luna then got in, turned the Packard on and turned on the headlights full blast, glowing the interior concrete landscape all around them; minor bits of debris, branches and other objects dotted the interior…but every car, every person on the road down here was gone. As strange as it was for light to be seen from both ends of the tunnel exits, add to it the full blast of the headlights…it still felt uncomfortably dark and small inside…it had to be the lack of lights on in the tunnel.

"W..wait a minute girls," Lincoln said, hopping over Leni and exiting the Packard, running over to the far left corner concrete medium. Lincoln gently got to his knees and looked at the asphalt below him.

"Bro?" Luna asked out the car window, before exiting with the lights still on. Leni came back out too.

Luna remembered the spot…the black bag covering and holding what were the remains of the old black woman…the asphalt spot was just a partly bloodied patch…with a tiny remnant of the human being there…one of the ornamental flowers that decorated her dress.

Leni remembered too seeing the quick footage of Lincoln haul out a body of some sort out of the smashed People Mover car…she couldn't believe her brother had witnessed death like they did…they didn't know the horrific details…they didn't understand…yet.

Lincoln held the flower in his hand delicately, putting it close to his heart momentarily, then saying, "…coming for…to carry you home…Mary."

"Lincoln?"

"Lincy?"

"Nothing…nothing guys…let's go."

All hobbled back into the Packard, and as Luna started driving down the lit but still spooky tunnel environment, Lincoln wrapped his arms around Luna and Leni…trying to make their presence last for as long as possible…ready to hold onto the rest of his family as close as possible when he got home…Leni and Luna too.

Luna drove slowly as the other side came to view. Then, like a 2x4 plank going through a brick wall in a tornado, Luna realized that after their journeys…none of them had working cellphones…Leni's was gone completely. Luna pulled hers out…it was shorted out from the water. Lincoln did his as well…it too short circuited. He found it ironic how he didn't baggy his cellphone, but bagged his IPod.

All huffed out in collective defeat, not able to call the rest of the family. They were all probably worried sick and thinking they went to the area the goliath tornado was projected to go...and now might not come back. Their dad knew they were in downtown when it hit, and probably told their mom, which meant everyone else would find out too. Luna thought how it would be a wet, cry-laden but well-earned reunion with her family.

But, even if they had their cell phones and could call or text, there was no guarantee that they'd even be able to reach them. The system was probably overloaded with emergency calls by the tens of thousands in the area alone. They prepped their eyes and souls for the coming sights as they entered back on the main strip of road outside the tunnel.

The world morphed from dark and claustrophobic…to exposed and apocalyptically destroyed.

The concrete transit structures around them mostly survived, but the damage of warped vehicles, signs, asphalt, debris and chunks of concrete by the millions...was overwelling. As they kept on slowly down the turnpike, then onto the John C Dodge Freeway, they found it to be unusually bare and lacking any other vehicles except the occasional speeding ambulance, fire truck, police cruiser, or a new coming site, squads of military Humvees and trucks hauling manpower and supplies to the many, many people in the area in need. Armadas of large helicopters circled the area while jets and other planes flew low west to drop off enormous amounts of supplies to the Detroit Airport.

No matter how much help it looked like was going to be poured in, the long, arduous ride home through wreckage of city indicated that all the help in the world was not going to help the city's wounds. Shocked time and time again from destruction and chaos...and bodies with horror and pain still chiseled on their faces...death was everywhere it seemed.

One college campus they passed, ripped completely apart and collapsed had what looked like over four-dozen yellow body bags with deceased occupants in them...college students probably around Leni and Luna's age killed in their dorms, and they were still more bodies in bags being loaded in that open zone of space from the wreckage from scrambling recovery operations in the area.

The Packard radio suddenly shot back on working again, some unknown reporter giving a terrifying live ground report.

"...being called the worst natural disaster in US history. The tornado broke several records...it's thought to have reached three miles in width, surpassing the original estimates, while also firmly establishing the new fastest wind speeds recorded on Earth for a storm yet, with consistent wind speeds over 320 miles per hour, and still unconfirmed Doppler measurements recording up to 335 miles per hour, unheard of for even the strongest recorded tornadoes in recorded history. The...the death toll is estimated to be over ten thousand, and if model predictions are correct, the death toll could even exceed fifteen thousand for the greater Detroit Metro region. This would make it the deadliest tornado and deadliest single day natural catastrophe event in US history. This would also make it the deadliest tornado in world history as well..."

"Oh...my fucking god," Luna said quietly, Lincoln listening on edge, Leni just balling up and snuggling with Lincoln. Luna flicked with another local station; the same kind of report.

"It's...it's an utter nightmare out here...no...no words can...in Highland Park...good god, there is no more Highland Park, not within a two mile radius of me anywhere...it's just...so...so much...I see no homes...there are no homes around me standing...just devastation... mangled cars...bodies being covered and accounted for...crying...survivors unable to figure out what to do, there's nothing left of this neighborhood...nothing but the stumbling survivors lamenting and finding supplies for themselves and their surviving families. Some homes don't even have their concrete foundations anymore...they're gone...there's just holes in the ground. I'm...I'm looking into the remains of a basement on the lower level of a home...it's completely bare. It seems so cruel that, a corner wall of the house is still standing while this safe space seemed to have been utterly rendered useless. God I hope the people down here made it."

"Tu…turn it off Luna…please?" Leni asked with a whimper.

"Hold on…I think we got one station with some kind a-"

"…catastrophic…apocalyptic…few words are able to describe the total and complete eradication of the city of Detroit and many of its surrounding cities and suburban areas…there's virtually nothing left of the neighborhoods of North End, New Center Midtown, the Eastern Market, Lafayette Park…downtown Detroit is a mangled mess of its former self…the…the hospitals are overflowing with the maimed everywhere, injured and dead…there's so many injured in the remains of the metro area and main city…most are taking the injured to the destroyed remains of the Henry Ford Hospital and Medical Center…thousands are parked outside the hospital around the surrounding parking lots, streets, clogged within many many blocks away as we speak, and there's such a huge shortage of viable medical supplies and personnel…the hospital is doing all it can with what little remaining resources are left undamaged, but this is hell…hell I've never seen, and these nurses and doctors, many who don't know if their own families made it through the tornado, are sacrificing their time to help the tens of thousands injured…what's worst and ironic in this whole ordeal was that hundreds seeking medical attention earlier were killed when gathered in a parking area east of the half-destroyed main center of the hospital…it was structurally unstable, and collapsed eastwards onto hundreds of others down below…if there's one grain of hope, FEMA and the military are sending in personnel and supplies by the thousands…but…citizens in Detroit …have never seen anything like this before…and we may be on our own for a while. This will arguably go down as one of the most devastating events in our nation's history."

"This is gonna suck guys…buckle up," Luna said to Lincoln and Leni, now making their way into the arduous ride home through the wreckage of the city.

Luna kept on Interstate 96 going north, trying at all possible costs to keep as far away from the damage path the tornado took as possible. It was trial and error, but luckily the tornado seemed to only graze this side of town with its peripheral winds. Yet in the far right distance, a surreal and unsettling sight caught all their eyes; way past a billboard sign that was knocked down on its side, perhaps half a mile away, a large badly damaged brick building, roughly eighteen too twenty stories high just…came down. It just came down in the far background, no warning, nothing at all. They couldn't hear it, they couldn't feel it fall, but it came down like a demolition implosion from the inside.

"We…we all just saw that…right?" Lincoln asked nervously, Luna and Lincoln nodding in confirmation.

For a good solid thirty minutes, Luna drove Interstate 96. There were very few drivers on the road, and the few that there were drove frantically…most probably a family member trying to traverse the city. Luna wanted to punch the gas on the Packard so badly to get everyone home, but she had to begrudgingly keep the speed limit down due to all the erratic and dangerous debris lying everywhere. Even this far from the tornado's wrath, the damage rained and pattered the surface everywhere.

Up ahead a ways they had to eventually turn off from the freeway when a monstrous traffic jam came within sight. There was some kind of damage on the road ahead, so she put the Packard into reverse and drove backwards a good fifth of a mile, taking the first available exit. Going down the road that went parallel to the freeway, they passed what was causing the traffic jam; parts of a high school were splattered from one end of the freeway onto another.

"Jesus…good thing there's no school on Sundays," Luna thought as her, Lincoln and Leni seemed to be getting gradually more desensitized from the sights… that seemed like the only way to deal with even being in the outskirts of the tornado's path…not including ever driving through an area affected in the neighborhood by it. They still kiddy-cornered the outskirts of the damage path, taking several back streets all the way to one seemingly untouched part of the neighborhood along Wyoming Avenue.

Luna turned on the one available radio station that had no discussion of the events that unfolded that day…the classical music station, ironically playing Mozart's Lacrimosa and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

The neighborhood seemed dead of any activity. Instead of emergency vehicles, shocked frantic people…the surroundings seemed deathly silent and void of any life or activity. The residents were probably too terrified to come out of their homes, all arguably hobbled down in terror if another storm would come through their part now.

Far, far off miles away to their right in the east, around the Highland Park area, huge plumes of flames and smoke columns bellowed on the horizon. What the tornado hit that could cause such a gigantic fire and smoke column in the distance, no one in the Packard could answer. They just felt…so many mixed emotions right now.

Luna looked into the rear-view mirror at herself, then at a sleepy Lincoln, then at Leni, still alert but plain-faced, all still cuddling with one another. All their faces seemed to have this permeated, secret form of trauma under the surface…they were all certainly traumatized, but their expressions…there was a certain vacant…or more accurately, unfocused sense one could get from their faces. They all looked into the distance around them.

It was like a ghost town, no cars or activity whatsoever.

"…is that what they call the thousand yard stare?" Luna thought.

Leni started shivering. Those clothes of hers were tattered, letting any draft wafting by the vehicle to wisp right in. Leni wanted to put the heater on, but Luna halted her hand, telling her that the heater might cause the engine to go out, and they'd be stranded halfway home with no way of communicating with the family, and run the risk of walking through the remains of a potentially risky ghost town…quiet now, until looting and hell would break loose.

"Linc…your clothes a little dry yet?" Luna asked him.

"Well…drier anyways…why?"

"Leni, sit on Lincoln's lap. His body heat will keep you warm for the time being," Luna said, waiving Leni over to Lincoln, him giving a "what the hell" look to her.

"She's not gonna crush you," Luna said. Leni quickly hopped on Lincoln, her physique hiding a certain tank-like build within her frame. Lincoln winced before his body got use to the weight.

"I'm…I'm like, not that heavy, am I Lincy?"

"Don't worry Leni…bro's just gotta grow up a bit more," Luna slyly said. Lincoln looked entirely uncomfortable, and not because of Leni's surprising weight, or more appropriately, density. Compacted tight, dense muscle mass tends to make on a tad heavier.

"If you need me to move Lincy, I will. But you are really soft and warm," Leni said with a slight airiness in her voice.

"No….problem Leni. It's good," Lincoln said…before his second brain started going haywire from the hard pressing of Leni's frame down on Lincoln's body…particularly her rump and legs.

Luna saw Lincoln's face shooting red…and not because of the weight…he seemed to be trying to cross his legs coyly under the radar to both to halt something going on…going down, or more appropriately…going up.

"Oh…Lincy, are you okay?" Leni asked with a tinge of concern.

"I'm…I just need to reposition myself is all…hold it…wa…could you pop up for a sec Leni?"

"Yeah Lincoln," she said, lifting her cheeks up and pulling her body upwards a bit. Luna looked over and caught a quick peek at the sight; Leni's butt, cuter than Luna had expected.

"Holy fuck…I think that tornado really did fuck me up…or is that m-" Luna thought, before seeing a bump, and for some reason, gunning for it purposely. Leni banged her head up and Lincoln lost some of his previous shifting. Leni landed hard on Lincoln's crotch, and when Leni rubbed around hard unintentionally, Lincoln squirmed.

"Whoa…Lincoln? Are you okay? Did I break anything?"

"His spirit maybe?" Luna said, as her mind seemed to be slowly drifting in and out, her only bits of focus seemingly on what was on the road, and what was happening to the right of her.

"Are you sure Lincy? Maybe the tornado hurt you more than I thought? There's something…hard under me right now. There isn't any metal ticking out of you, right Lincy?"

Lincoln's mortified blush came back to normal as Luna smirked, Leni instead opting to try something else to keep warm.

"Why sit on a blanky when I could be covered by one?" Leni said as though she proudly deduced a complicated calculus problem, jumping off of Lincoln and instead picking him up and placing him on her lap. She may…or may have not intentionally rubbed her midsection and chest all over him like snuggling under a blanket.

"Hmmm….comfy Lincy?" Leni asked, her mind automatically playing certain sequences from her dream last night…and her heart seemed to get flighty and stuttered now.

Lincoln's eyes were shot opened, his mouth glued shut as he froze like a popsicle. All he could do was nod…and try and think of something else…the tornado…that seemed to gradually work, till Leni wrapped her arms around Lincoln's torso, resting below his belly button…dangerously close.

Before Luna's mind started drifting into fuzzy territory, the Packard started drifting unintelligibly to their left. Her mind…her head…was losing some feeling suddenly, and she felt faint.

Her eyes closed momentarily, before the world got fuzzy again. She felt light head, eyes and mind blanking slowly…slowly…

"Luna?...LUNA!" Lincoln shouted, grabbing the steering wheel just in time, avoiding the Packard to run head-on into a telephone pole.

"WHOA! WHAT! WHAT!" Luna shouted in shock, her mind racing in adrenaline, yet her mind still feeling lagged.

"Luna? Are you okay? You sorta…blanked out," Lincoln asked in concern as Luna pulled to the side.

"Luna?" Leni asked nurturingly.

"Bloody-day…my head…sorry guys…my head's all…fuzzy, and my mind sort a…jesus, I hope I don't get brain damage from all this."

"I think you need a break Luna," Lincoln announced. "Leni, can you drive Mr. Grouse's car?"

"Um, I don't know Lincy, it's one of those ones with the weird shift thingys and…wait a minute…how'd ya know this is Mr. Grouse's car?"

"I helped him with some hauling in this. Pretty hard to forget this kind of old dinosaur…" Lincoln trailed off, seeming to want to not talk about it.

"But, can you do it Leni? Luna really needs a break."

"Well…I guess I can give it a shot…"

Lincoln helped Luna to the back seat of the Packard as Leni hopped in the driver seat. Luna laid down in the back as Lincoln positioned her head and upper body on his lap, holding her hand and caressing her forehead.

After several incorrect gear shifts and throttles, Leni seemed to get down the basics of driving a stick faster than any of them expected.

"I'm...I'm doing it guys...I'm actually driving a car that has the stick thingy."

---

5:59 PM

Leni drove with more alert awareness than she had before. With devastation in the horizon, the neighborhoods all around looked spookishly abandoned and lonesome still...that is, until she turned the corner.

The entire landscape of this area was near barren of buildings, trees and what-not...all except a Liquor store that seemed to have survived the twister virtually unscathed.

The Packard's fuel gage indicated it was running on fumes...E, she recalled, meaning empty, not engorged like she use to think.

"Dang it...at this rate, we might not make it home...gotta find some gas."

She pulled over to the Liquor store. Across the street was a destroyed gas station with a semi truck tanker knocked on its side leaking a huge amount of gas on the ground.

"Wow...maybe...I could still use that?"

Leni then pulled out from the Liquor store and into an area next to the gas station. One the ground was a red fuel tank, abandoned on the spot. Leni opened the lid and scooped up about half a gallon of gas with it. She opened the fuel cap and slowly drained the gas into it.

"I hope this is the right kind of fuel; last time I almost destroyed vanzilla with diesel gas...but what if Mr. Grouse's old car takes that? I mean, why isn't gas all the same? It should be. Making it different is silly."

She repeated this about fourteen times, and noticed how dark it was outside. Nighttime was fast approaching the red and lime-blue sunset-soaked skies above, intermittent clouds still tumultuous looking, but bathed in the open rays of sunlight. The major color palate of the clouds started changing though. The large pouch-like clouds dangled above high up, looking like purses and soft fluffy pillows to Leni.

"You can't fool me anymore sky...I know what you can do," Leni said as she frowned at the clouds above her. She may not ever trust clouds and weather again, but they were beautiful, even if they almost destroyed a part of her family...and she noticed an odd feature in them; they were now being saturated in oranges and purples...Lincoln and Luna's trademark colors.

Leni began reflecting on what happened back in the tunnel...and when she thought she lost Luna...and Lincoln.

"I...I don't ever wanna loose you again Lincy...or you Luna...I don't want anyone lost...never...never never never. Never!"

She could feel that soul-destroying sensation take her again...seeing Luna and Lincoln get sucked out of the tunnel as they held on each other for dear life. As tears began forming in her eyes, she reminded herself that she was driving Luna and Lincoln, both alive and well...physically at least. There was going to be fear and trauma probably for a long time after this, but together, they'd get through this...eventually maybe.

All done with topping off the Packard's gas, Leni got back in and saw a cute sight that made her give out a big smile.

"Awwweee...that's so totes adorable I got take a...wait...I lost my cellphone...dang it."

She huffed, but still kept smiling at the sight of Luna drooling into Lincoln's lap asleep, while Lincoln leaned backwards at an angle, holding onto Luna's shoulder with his right hand, both holding hands with the left.

"Oh my god that is so super duper adorable...but they look really danged up...Luna especially. I...I think they need some water and a headache pill...maybe that corner store?" Leni thought, before starting the car and driving to its side. A pack of seven cars were mangled all around each other with a telephone poll and large metal sheets wedged into the driver's seats...there was blood all over them.

Leni shivered as she prepped herself...to take any supplies...even if she had no wallet.

"I...I'll write them an IOU and give them the money back later...that'll be okay, right?"

She looked back behind her and nudged Lincoln.

"Hey...Lincy...I'm gonna get us some stuff...okay?"

Lincoln, with his eyes still closed, nodded, gave a meager thumbs up, and went back to sleep.

"...you're so cute little brother."

Leni locked the Packard up and maneuvered around the mangled cars enclosing the cornerstore...it was a regular market liquor store, and it looked surprisingly untouched inside. It was the kind in the bad neighborhoods with surprisingly no camera surveillance outside and yet had sharp black metal bars on the windows. It looked like the owner had barely enough money to make sure there were bars on the windows, and hadn't placed any cameras inside the store.

As she opened the door, she found various opened packages...a mess to be sure, but the interior was still in rather pristine condition considering a colossal tornado came right over it. All the little snacks, knick-knacks, smoke sections, munchies and the like were still there. The small section for medications, sex pills and other miscellaneous stuff was still there too. Again, no surveillance cameras.

She looked around and saw a bag of salt and vinegar chips.

"Oh...yeah, Mr. Grouse had that list he wanted to follow...well, I have to follow the list."

She grabbed a derelict little piece of paper and wrote down the product names and prices.

"That's one."

Walking over to the medications, she looked at them all to find the headache pills.

"Huh...what's this...goat weed? Well...that figures...they spelled wheat wrong, and why would they be selling goat wheat in a people store? That makes no sense...and...like…really? That's just silly of them, it's Niagara, not Viagra...honestly, even I'm smart enough to know how that should be spelled…keep's elections up for more than four hours, consult a physicist...what does that even mean?"

Leni proceeded to do the store a "favor" and use a marker to write "Niagara" over the product labeling, then cross out weed and put "wheat" on the other product instead.

"Actually…maybe I should return this stuff to a farm; that's probably a shipping mistake. Whoever owns this place doesn't want people to think he sells farm food to people…that's icky."

Leni proceeded to reacquire all the "goat wheat" from their shelving spaces and place them on a separate section. She'd take half-off the price she'd owe to the owner in exchange for doing this favor for him or her.

As she went down the list, she found a red bottle labeled Advil...she didn't know what that was, probably the far-off country it came from, but she read headache on the packaging.

"Wow...they sure ship headache pills far away from...wherever this Advil place is...probably from around Latin Russia…or is Advil a place in Eastern Finlandistan? There's a lot of it here in the city in all the medicine sections of stores, so we must be nice to them if they ship this to us in huge amounts."

Jotting these item's prices and labels, along with a few bottles of water, a black bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide she somehow correctly identified, Leni scooped up the tiny selection. She added up the totals, and somehow did the math right in her head, writing the correct balance on the tiny derelict piece of paper. She then wrote "IOU, from Leni" on it with a little heart and a stylized upper-case X.

"There. I'm not stealing if I let them know I'm going to repay them back...even a little more, like maybe ten bucks...is that right...the interference? Or is that interest?"

Leni added up the total amount of products she'd be borrowing, to $32.07 after tax, and placed the IOU note with the various amounts and little descriptions on the store counter. She then placed the items in little baggies; three bottles of water, two packages of band-aids, two rolls of gauze tape, the bottle of Advil, the "goat wheat" she'd return to their rightful places in the countryside to some goats or a farmer to use them, the hydrogen peroxide, the bag of salt and vinegar chips for Mr. Grouse…that wrapped up her minor excursion.

"Like, those goats or farmers out there will be so totes happy to have this back. Though, I gotta admit, it's really, really strange to have the cover of a man and woman on this goat wheat packaging…at least I'll be making sure this won't confuse anyone else. I wonder why-"

Several sharp metal bangs echoed in the dark interior of the store, freaking Leni out and causing her to knock right over a large soda machine on her right. It smashed, and she could hear dozens of soda cans fizz and spraying inside hard.

"….whoopsiedoodle…."

As she looked around frantically, Leni saw towards the back office of the cornerstore….some movement.

"He…hello? Is…is anyone-"

"Looks like someone's a bit skiddish…made a mess of yourself, did we?"

From the back corner, a voice, wiry, course yet shrilled and demented emanated. In the shadows was gradually revealed a lanky, possibly drugged-out feign with a warped, intoxicated and sunken facial appearance, his body showing the wear and tear of decades from overuse of a menagerie of hard-core drugs, possibly heroin and/or cocaine. His flesh looked like it was rotting from his bones, as he was shirtless, with just a grungy pair of jeans and leather shoes on. He was still in the dark, but even in the opaque environment, Leni was deeply, deeply disturbed by this being's presence.

"Yum yum…mmmmm…..ya look so fuckable….tear that ass up every hour, day after day," he gargled, Leni squirming when she heard him say such horrific things to her. He licked his lips like a komodo dragon ready to pounce on a victim, absorbing Leni's figure into his warped mind.

"That's…not a very nice thing to say to a woman mister," Leni weakly and innocently said. She was getting an impedingly worse and worse vibe from this man.

"Ah, come on. I won't bite. I ain't gonna hurt ya…or your friends…so long as ya do as I say."

"Friends…my…my family?"

"Ya family….that's what they are? Well…ain't they all nice pieces of tail…so, just give up that tang and ass…and take my wang…that'll be the end of it," he said with a maniacal expression.

Leni's nerves pulsated in dread; terrified beyond belief…she was getting a feel for what this man was wanting from Leni. It was more than a regular hug….he wanted her body…to defile.

"Mister…this…this is not, like, nice what you're trying to get from me…what are you trying to get from me?"

"Oh come on ya stupid cock-tease bitch…just close your eyes, get down on your knees….bend down low…all ya gotta do is pretend ya not here…and I might even pull out at the last sec. I'll be real gentle-like."

He inched a bit closer to Leni, his face coming from the shadows a bit more, though his full face was still slightly cloaked in the dark.

"Stop…please mister…I…I'm sorry for taking these things…I was gonna IOU them, I swear. If you're the owner, I promise I-"

"Owner? HA! HAHA! He's…been….taken care of," the man said with an unsettling, hidden smirk, pointing to a corner of the store Leni had not travelled to.

Leni saw it once again.

Death.

The man's body was hidden in the shadows and partly behind a display, but his head was caved-in open, a bloody and tissue-covered crowbar lying next to the remains.

The lanky man walked a bit closer in calculative steps towards Leni, coming into some light that poked out from the ceiling…she saw blood splattered all over his chest and stomach, arms and hands.

"You get what's up, do ya? He put up a fight…didn't turn to his favor, but that brain of his tasted good," he said with a gurgled whisper, before hocking a loogie filled with brain matter.

"You're…you're a horrible…horrible meanie person…."

"And I'm done fuckin around stupid bitch! Bend over so I can fuck the fuck outta ya, or I'm gonna cut you and your entire family up!"

"N…No….NO! YOU HORRIBLE BAD PERSON! NO! NO! NO! YOU'RE NOT GONNA R…RA…DO BAD THINGS TO ME OR MY FAMILY!" Leni shouted at him in a scared but roaring voice. She may have been much taller than him, but his intensity and utter lack of humanity completely crippled Leni.

The man suddenly gave a warped frown, and then a warped smile as he pulled out what looked like a big butcher's knife out of his pocket, pointing it towards Leni. He looked like he was ready to gut her to death.

"FINE CUNT! I CAN STILL EAT AND FUCK ALL THREE OF YOUR BODIES!"

He walked menacingly towards Leni. As she stood petrified, she looked up towards the ceiling; part of a car was poking out of the interior ceiling, held up from collapsing onto the area Leni was in by a single thick wooden pole by the counter.

Leni got the most unusual thing in such a horrific circumstance…an idea. When this idea crystallized in her head, way, way way back in the recesses of her subconscious, Leni herself totally unaware of what was brewing deep in the inner machinations of her mind as her body was immobilized in fear…something happened.

Leni's terrified face suddenly disappeared. Her body, no longer shaking, became reserved and relaxed…stoic in demeanor. Her expression drifted to a rather intense aloofness.

"Hey….HEY! LOOK AT ME WHEN I CUT YOUR THROAT OUT YA CUNT!"

As he pulled the butcher knife up higher, he began walking faster over to Leni, before shifting fast to a crazed running speed at her. Leni was locked in her same spot, staring away towards him. He got within seven feet of her spot…and was temporarily thrown when he looked into Leni's eyes like he wanted…they looked void of life…lifeless…a lifeless, focused trance, staring him down from her much taller height.

"Scream!...SCREAM YOU COCKSUCKING CUN-!"

Leni suddenly pulled on the thick wooden pole, snapping it right in half with no effort at all on her part, causing the car above to tumble down through the interior ceiling above, crashing down below and slamming into the lanky drugged-out man. He was now pinned between the soda machine Leni had previously and accidently knocked over, and the car that came crashing through. It looked like it smashed his legs and trapped his arms as his head and shoulders were poking through. He still wiggled…the drugs pickling his system letting him endure the pain that would naturally cause most people to go in shock.

Leni just looked down at this man…staring at him with that blank, void, lifeless expression, no energy or activity in her eyes as she saw the pain slowly but surely well into the man's nerves again…it took only a minute. A pool of blood trickled down towards Leni.

"Ahhh….AAHHHH FUCK! YOU FUCKIN BITCH! YOU FUCKIN CUNT! YOU…YOU!"

Leni suddenly walked around a counter and pulled out some aqua-green dish soap gloves. She tore them out of their packaging and slipped them on surgically one by one, staring at the man.

"Wh…what the fuck….THE FUCK YA DOIN? YA DUMB FUCKING BLONDE! GET ME OUTTA HERE!"

Leni slowly walked over, eyes still as ever trapped in a lifeless trance, her mind insanely focused for whatever she was locked onto.

She took a gloved finger and wiped the blood from the man a tad, before taking it to her lips and…tasting it.

"YOU…YOU CRAZY FUCKIN TWAT! YOU FUKCING CUNT! THE FUCKIN-"

The man, now getting befuddled and mortified from Leni's actions, saw her walk right next to him, before she placed her hands around his head, getting a firm but gentle grip around his cranium.

"HEY! HEY LET GO YOU CRAZY FUCKIN BITCH! I WASN''T GONNA FUCK YA FAMILY UP LIKE THAT! COME ON! LET ME G-"

Leni suddenly shushed him, before her voice unprecedentedly dropped from her usual self…to something far more sinister…far more spine-chilling…far more disturbing than anything she should be capable of.

"…lots of good people died today….you're alive…you shouldn't be…..this is what happens to those who threaten my family…who threaten…my…Lincy."

Leni's hands suddenly began rotating in one direction extremely slowly, the man's head still in her grasp, her grip getting tighter and tighter with the gradualness of the turning.

"Hey…ow…OWW! HEY! LET GO! THAT FUCKIN HURTS! LET GO! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! FUCK, FUCK NO! PLEASE! PLEASE NO, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! FUCK! GOD NO! I DON'T WANNA DIE! NO! FUCKING GOD PLEASE NO! IT FUCKING HURTS BAD! PLEA-"

A loud series of cracks and snaps came from the man's neck as he gave a curdled cry out…before his screaming stopped. Leni turned a bit longer, snapping more vertebrae, staring down towards the floor with those void-laden, lifeless eyes, not blinking through the whole ordeal…before finally letting the man's head dangle from his maligned neck off the downed soda machine. She bobbled it curiously up and down, then finally letting it drop straight down as it dangled like a huge bag of coins in a small sock.

No more motion came from the man.

Leni then smoothly walked to the back counter and scribbled an extra four dollars and the label for the used aqua-green dish soap gloves, before taking them off and throwing them in a double-layered plastic bag, throwing that one even further into the bags of items she had.

Everything inside was almost dark…just around the middle range of nighttime and twilight.

More of the ceiling collapsed downwards onto the car and body of the man, now completely covered in raining debris and dust.

As she walked over towards the entrance, Leni's eyes…the voidless eyes, suddenly reanimated. Her body became more loose, her body more whim to her typical clumsiness.

"Oh…what happened? Did I get everything?"

Leni looked into the bag, counted all the items and gave a big smile.

"Oh goodie! And the IOU?"

She looked over to the counter.

"So totes…now to take this to Lincy and Luna…and go home…before anything bad happens. There could be strangers around."

She maneuvered her way through the wrecked cars, then walked out to see Lincoln and Luna still curled together in the back, snuggled and sleeping.

"Huh…that's weird…I feel like I went a little…like…lightheaded…wonder if it was the tornado…oh well. I'll give this to Lincoln so he can get Luna fixed up. I wanna go home," she said, looking around the coming sunset-lit surroundings all around her, the destruction and damage even more ghoulish and spooky in the cast of the atmospheric colors.

"It's…not nice out here…there may be bad people out in the shadows."

Leni opened the back of the Packard. It's interior was dark and hard to see, but she could tell Luna and Lincoln were unbelievably exhausted. She nudged them slightly.

"Psst...Lincy...Luna...I gotta get your boo boo's fixed up."

Before Leni started on the groggy, cuddled pile that was Luna and Lincoln, she felt a sharp pain in her foot...recalling the shard that gave her one nasty cut.

"...and my boo boo too."

---

6:34 PM

Leni drove the rest of the way home, using her best honing skills to navigate through the back streets, and then onto the roads she knew a little better. It ironically took her back to the Detroit Zoo, an emergency crew still in the area doing recon and emergency recovery around the area. Surprisingly, when she passed along the West 10 Mile Road heading for Woodward Avenue, she saw the same Oreo-colored steer from the tornado earlier, grazing around the trees and bushes by the front gates of the Detroit Zoo.

"There's no place like home, huh Mr. Moo."

Leni stopped the car, locked it and got out for a moment, slowly walking up to the large steer. She put her hand out with some grass in it. The steer seemed to detect innocence and respect from Leni…and tepidly but proudly walked up to her, lightly nibbling the grass from her hand, then nuzzling its head into her arm.

"Wow…Mr. Moo, you're so cute and nice…you look like an Oreo cookie!"

The steer invited several pets and scratches from Leni. It even got closer to Leni and nuzzled its head into her chest, making a few grunts and moos, before giving a slight moo and wandering off towards the gates again, seemingly waiting around like it had all the time in the world.

"What a nice cow you are Mr. Moo. I need to stop by and say hi to you when I get the time."

Leni got back in the car and began driving again, still haunted by the memories of much, much earlier when she saw the bus from earlier her and Luna had looked for Lincoln on…and found the baby…among other things.

6:59 PM

The white Packard Hawk slowly pulled up along the Loud's street, Leni still behind the wheel. The sign may have been gone, but she still knew the sights, this being the easiest for Leni to remember.

The surroundings were just turning dark outside. The atmosphere above was, ironically, very calm. The clouds had virtually disappeared, save for a few wispy wavy ones way up in the sky. The winds, gentle and cool, flowed around the storm-damaged landscape that was the Loud's neighborhood block.

A block down it looked like a small tornado had uprooted a tree and caused some minor damage, but other than that, the worst damage seemed to be the tree, messed up Halloween decorations, a downed powerline, and branches and leaves scattered all over the place. Their neighborhood good off easy.

Leni slowly pulled up to Mr. Grouse's residence. As she turned the Packard off, a light flickered on. She ushered the groggy Luna and Lincoln out of the back and took the salt and vinegar chips, laminate paper and keys to the Packard, with a scribble note saying she filled the gas in the car and thanking him for let them borrow the car. She rushed these items to his front door and knocked several times, before firmly grabbing Luna's hand, then Lincoln's extremely delicately, pulling them home. They were just passing Mr. Grouse's home when they saw their own front door close shut. A body in the dark curled up on the steps of the front porch.

Leni, Luna and Lincoln slowly but surely walked along the sidewalk, tentatively and silently sneaking to their residence's porch, wondering who'd be meeting them.

It was Lynn.

She was huddled up in a ball at the top most step of the porch stairs...crying into her knees, the socks on her knees soaked from tears.

They heard her mumble something that broke their hearts.

"They…they're not coming back…they're….they're….Leni….Luna….Lincoln…." Lynn stuttered, before weeping heavily into her knees even harder than before.

Lincoln walked forward a very quiet step as Luna and Leni hung back a moment. He leaned over the steps with a tinge of pain and gave Lynn a gentle punch in the shoulder.

"Hi Lynn," Lincoln said softly, a little nervousness in his tenor.

She looked up, revealing a face that looked trapped in lament for hours upon hours, eyes red and veiny...her normal go-getter ambience virtually sapped from her.

She blinked at them several times, her mind processing just exactly was...who were staring back at her with smiles on their faces.

"L...Lincoln? Luna?...Leni?"

"Hi Lynn"

"Sup sports star."

"You're...alive...YOU'RE ALL ALIVE!"

Lynn rushed backwards and banged hard on the front door, before flying off the porch and sky-bombing into Luna, Leni and Lincoln, knocking them down into the wet grassy front lawn, Lincoln wedged in the middle as Lynn cried loudly into his chest while holding tightly onto Leni and Luna.

"I didn't know you cared," Lincoln said with a full-hearted jollity and ironic warmth.

"Sh…sh…shut up," Lynn stuttered out in her muffled tears as she gripped harder and sniveled, "w…we…we thought you were goners! Dad….told us you were in downtown when it-" Lynn sobbed out in a teary smile before Luan opened the door.

"…LUNA! LINCOLN! LENI! THEY'RE BACK! EVERYONE! THEY'RE BACK!" Luan screamed in joy as she too sky-bombed into the group pile on the front lawn, followed quickly by the shouting collective that were the twins Lola and Lana, then Lily. Rita and Lynn Sr rushed out, both crying in joy to see the three again.

"LENI! LINCOLN! LUNA!" Rita wailed as she ran over and hugged onto the three like nearly everyone else, Lynn Sr joining them again.

"OWWW…dang that smarts…hi everybody…hi mom, hi dad," Lincoln winced in pain but happy to see his family. They seemed to break down hugging them.

"PLEASE DON'T GO OUT DURING TORNADOS AGAIN LINCOLN!" The twins begged loudly in a cry.

"I MISSED YOU BRO-BRO! LENI! LUNA! PICK ME UP!"Lily said waving her arms up and down in swinging motions.

"WHOA EVERYONE! CHILL! TAKE IT EASY ON US!" Luna yelled out as she rubbed her head.

Leni gave a rebound hug-push against the sobbing pile of siblings and parents, picking them up in one big pile as Luna and Lincoln picked each other off the lawn.

"Careful guys. Luna's head is hurting…and Lincy's sore."

"We're all sore, I'm sure," Lincoln added as they started a bit more at the state Leni, Lincoln and Luna were in; they were alive, but they looked beaten all to hell. Leni was wearing torn, shredded clothing not hers that she'd never ever wear with tarps still on her feet, Luna's head was wrapped up in effectively a giant turban wrapping of gauze tape, and Lincoln had only four fingers on each hand popping out from the gauze Leni wrapped, a la the major cuts het got much earlier. Luna and Lincoln would have to throw away these clothes they were so shredded, water-damaged and unbearably reeking of body sweat.

"…MY BABIES! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Rita cried out, holding them, pulling in the others as she tried reeling in her emotions, before Lynn Sr just comically broke down grasping on them.

"I…thought the tornado got you…when we lost contact…I couldn't get a hold of you for hours girls…LINCOLN! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU…come here," Lynn Sr choked, trying to be angry but totally unable to, instead wrapping up Lincoln in a tight hug.

"Bud! I promise! No more sister-fight-prot-"

"Dad…it's cool. They told me-"

"YOU LITERALLY HAD ME WORRIED SICK TWERP! ALL OF YOU! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?" A roaring, sobbing voice yelled out from inside the house, before none other than Lori Loud, dressed in a suit save for her slip-on shoes, ran out and wrapped up Leni, Luna and Lincoln up in a runny make-up, tear-stained embrace, causing Leni to drop the others on the ground, all moaning slightly from the fall.

"LORI!" Leni, Lincoln and Luna exclaimed loudly in shocked delight, not having seen her in quite a while.

"Don't…ever pull a stunt like that again…twerp," Lori said as she hugged Lincoln and nearly cried, before breaking off to hug both Luna and Leni together.

"The…both of you…you're my heroes for stepping up like never before…I…I literally can't believe you made it…it must have been-"

"Let's…not talk about it Lori. We had a rough time today," Luna said as she embraced Lori, herself tearing up, before Leni just broke down in happy tears, sweeping everyone up, the entire Loud household on the lawn in one giant hug.

"I LOVE YOU ALL! I DO I DO I DO! AND…and we can't…ever do…and I mean ever…like…EVER do sister-fight-protocol again," she said, giving puppy-dog eyes over to the other sisters, Lori not really counting since she was already on her own.

"Yeah…heard about that…I'm really sorry about that Lincoln…that's partly my fault," Lori said, rubbing her neck and looking down in a bit of shame.

"All of us, a while ago, agreed to that without thinking it through," Luan said.

"All of you? Speaking of which," Lincoln asked, counting the bodies in front of him, "…where's-"

"I'm one right here," Lisa said at the front door step, her face looking utterly stressed and morose from what looked like non-stop storm analysis and computation/prediction. She looked very tired.

"Leni, Luna, I'm happy to see you brought our brother home in one piece…torn and scraped as to be expected, but in fully functional homeostasis…and Lincoln…I owe you an apology."

"Lisa? What for?"

"For…what I said to you…long ago after the Leni-Lori dress fiasco. My tactless, rather abrupt approaches can be grating at times, so I apologize sincerely for making you feel like a black sheep."

"Why are you apologizing for that Lisa? How'd…"

"Uh….that's on me son…kinda let loose our little talk," Lynn Sr sheepishly said and smiled, Lincoln looking towards the ground, remaining silent.

"I'm…I'm sorry…for putting our family through this…if I had my damn emotions….dang it," Lincoln paused, pulling out his wallet and giving a surprised Lynn Sr a dollar, him looking uncared by the minor slip of the tongue from his alive son, before Lincoln continued, "…if I hadn't lost it…I put you through horrible turmoil…but worst of all…Leni, Luna?" Lincoln said weakly as he turned around, looking towards them.

"I…I'm sorry. I was fool-hardy…I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings and not in my right mind…I was lost in emotions…intense ones."

"Bro, don't worry about us; we went through this jazz already," Luna said encouragingly.

"And mom…dad? Don't punish him for this! It's not his fault…it was a very, very bad situation for him, and we pushed Lincy-"

"Girls, we know what the situation is. We…we're just so glad you're safe with us back home," Rita said.

"But…there's one more thing I gotta say," Lincoln said, looking for three of his other sisters in particular.

"L…Lynn? Luan? Lucy? H….hey….wait a minute…where's Lucy?" Lincoln asked, seeing her not anywhere in the huddle.

"Over here," a tiny voice called out from the front door. It was Lucy, looking extremely timid and sad, as if waiting for a punishment. She walked up into the pile and stared Lincoln in the eye, brushing her hair away, revealing eyes as red and full of lament as Lynn's were. A quick observation by Lincoln showed the family had sorrowed over what looked like the hard reality that they'd have to endure; possibly losing him, Luna and Leni to the tornado.

"My god…even if I love Luna to death…literally…their faces….oh god my stomach," Lincoln dreaded, knowing full well now what a tiny drop of the collective sadness and pain his family felt from just the very thought of…non-existence, for either him, Luna or Leni, and what it would do to the remaining Loud family members.

He could never put them through this kind of turmoil again. And, he'd never wanna see any of his family members hurting in such an unspeakably soul-crushing manner.

Lincoln's mind subconsciously made an axiom on the spot; to strive even harder to never hurt his family like that again…and to protect them, at all costs…whatever it took.

He refocused as Lucy stayed silent, waiting for the coming derogative vernacular from Lincoln, whatever it would be…in her mind, mostly berating.

"Lucy? I…I'm-"

"We deserve it Lincoln…whatever you have to say to us…Luan and Lynn and I…we were out of line today…we're ready…go ahead…," Lucy said, as though waiting for a verbal beat down like never before from Lincoln.

Lincoln instead wrapped Lucy in a hug, ushering in Luan and Lynn.

"Lucy….Luan….Lynn…I don't know if you can forgive me…on account the things I said to you earlier…they were inexcusable. I…I don't hate you…you don't disgust me…or make me sick," Lincoln choked, now beginning to break down himself as the others watched.

"I…I messed up…I'm sorry…I love you…I love you all," Lincoln said, before he felt Lucy choking extremely hard into his hoodie clothing

"I…I forgive you…and I love you Lincoln."

"We love you and forgive you too Lincoln," Lynn and Luan added as they both smiled, tearing happily into his shoulders, before Lana and Lola wrapped around Lucy, Luan and Lynn, Lily wrapping around the twins, Leni, Lori and Luna wrapped around the back of Lincoln, and Rita and Lynn Sr encircled from both sides in a big family hug. Lisa looked down with a soft expression.

"Normally…human emotions don't faze me…but…what the Higgs-Boson!"

She walked over calmly and hugged onto the pile too. Lori looked over her shoulder.

"BOO-BOO BEAR! COME OUT HERE!"

"S…sorry babe…didn't wanna interrupt the family moment," her other significant half soul mate said nervously by the doorway, a one Bobby Santiago, still dressed in his salesmanship attire.

"Bobby?" Lincoln asked in surprise…happy surprise.

"What's up Lincoln? I'm glad you, Luna and Leni are alright…I think…looks like ya got battered pretty bad though."

"Bobby…come on in…you're family!" Lynn Sr said, waiving him over to join the hug. Bobby walked over sluggishly, before Lori pulled him into the center and slammed him next to Lincoln.

"OWA! BABE!...jeez…how long is this gonna be like this dude?" Bobby asked Lincoln, himself now getting crushed.

"…a while man. It's awesome to see you again…wish we coulda met under a different circumstance…that's what being part of the Loud family for you. But how did you and Lori find out about this?"

"My sister called me and asked if I could take your sister and check up on you guys about an hour and a half ago."

"Ronnie-Anne told you?" Lincoln asked in surprise.

"Yeah dude. She seemed really…concerned I guess…not her ususaly tough self that likes to beat me up every time she hugs me. Yeah… she seemed really…really upset. Moma wouldn't let her out of the house, so I left the dealership, picked up Lori and we came here…it was bad out there."

"Trust me Bobby…I know what it was like out there."

"You mean…you actually saw it…the three mile wide tornado?" Bobby asked nervously as everyone else listened closely.

"I…I…..I….Mary…," Lincoln trailed off, his voice getting weak, unsure….Luna and Leni picked up on this rapidly.

"Mary?" Luan asked curiously.

"Who's Mary?" Lana added on.

"Probably some girl he met out there," Lola teased happily, before making a, "koochie koochie koo," sound and wink…Lincoln looking noticeably more disturbed…and lost in conflicted thought. Luna shook her head over to Lola.

"W..what?" Lola asked.

"Not now dudette," Luna mouthed to her, Lola halting her minor teasing, as well-intentioned and good-natured it was. Lucy, Luan and Lynn, but Lucy in particular seemed to sense that Lincoln saw some…traumatic things, just based on how his expression morphed so quickly.

"Hey dudes? We should go inside. We need some time to wind down," Luna said with perk, trying to redirect everyone.

"Come one everyone. Lola? I need you to help fix me up, then we can make shakes for the whole family and celebrate!"

"O…okiedokie Leni," Lola squeaked, then added, "is it okay if I have pink sparkles in mine?"

"Pink sparkles? THAT'S SUCH A SUPER DUPER IDEA! And Lana? Lily? Would you like pink sparkles too?"

"Blue for me please," Lana tugged, but liked the sprinkles part. Lily waived her head yes, before jumping up and down, running back and forth to give Leni, Luna and Lincoln each their own individual nuzzling hug.

"I missed you too ya little peach," Luna said as Lily grasped onto Luna's fingers.

As they got their spirits up, they heard several large booms in the far, far background echo from the direction of the denser areas of Detroit. Everyone went quite as the far off landscape, dark in the night, but pockets of brilliant fiery infernos and the still continuous wails of emergency vehicles peppered the minute acoustic soundscape, all but almost ruined the landscape. Helicopters, jets and planes soared in the far distance, rattling the ironically clear night, stary sky.

Lily pulled on Luna's hand, then grasped for Lincoln's, trying hard to pull them in the house. Lincoln scooped up Lily and held her in a tight embrace.

"It's okay Lily. I got you. I'm here."

As they headed inside, high, high above them in the starry sky, a comet shot above them, showing a rather strange sight, one few in suburban environments get to see, especially this late in Fall; the Milky Way Galaxy, poking out in the heavens above. It was grand in scale, an arm visible at an angle. The only way they could see this was the lack of light pollution, most of the grid in the region knocked out. If there was one saving grace in this horrible, horrible day, it was a gander at the ever-lasting majesty of the stars above. And the comet still surfed in the void, within the Loud's views.

"Huh…that's strange. There were no Halley-type comets predicted for periodic passage today, or any other this week," Lisa said. "It must be a new one…not entirely unlikely, and one can only surmise the periodic time interval on this celestial object…off the cuff…five…six years? That's assuming a lot of variables."

"It's…so beautiful dude," Luna said as the family stared up.

"It literally is so white and yellow…" Lori said, squinting and making the colors.

"Wow…are there hints of creamy light blush in that comet?" Leni asked, amazed since the only thing she knew about comets was there typical color in photographs in her science books she rarely used.

"Wow…those colors…like her dress…and her little ornamental flowers," Lincoln thought.

"Hey…Lisa?"

"Yes Lincoln?"

"Does…does NASA still owe you that favor?"

"…it's about a dozen, but, ha, who's counting. Why?"

"Would it be possible to name this comet?"

"Well…I'd technically have to log it under the current naming system…but, I can have the guys in the Near-Earth-Objects Program give it a publicly easy, colloquial name. What were you thinking."

"I was…I was wondering if we could name it Mary's Comet."

"I'll see what I can do."