Reminder:
Regular text takes place in the story they are writing.
Italicized text takes place in the real world.
"Okay, we'll split the chapter up, but just this once." Lincoln said.
Clyde had a feeling though that this wouldn't be the last time.
"Man," he said, "the creative process sure is unpredictable."
Back over at the house, Rita came back into Luan's room with the freshly heated soup.
"Th-thanks mom," Luan smiled weakly, taking the bowl.
"Now then", her mom said, sitting on the other end of her bed, taking out the electronic thermometer, "Let's take a good look at you."
Rita stuck the device into her daughter's ear and waited for the beep. Once she heard it, she took a look at the LCD screen, and raised her eyebrow at what she saw.
"That's strange."
"What?"
"You don't seem to be warm at all. Actually, your temperature is pretty low. It's at 78.5 degrees. No… wait, now it's 76.8 degrees…"
Luan started to look very confused and concerned.
Rita looked as the numbers continued to change. It had now dropped down to 73.1. And it was still dropping. It was dropping fast!
"Are you s-sure that thing's working right?" Luan asked, repairing to dip her spoon into her soup.
But then she felt the spoon tap against something hard. She looked down at the bowl, and it seemed to be frozen solid.
"What the?" Rita muttered in shock, "I swear I just took that out of the oven!"
"Mom- M-mom… wha- ahh… aaahhhh…. AAACCCHHHOOOOOO!"
She let out a massive sneeze, but instead of snot, what shot out of her was an icy mist that shot across the room and covered a pot of flowers in ice. Leaving the two of them completely speechless.
Downstairs, Lynn Sr. left Lisa alone in the living room to check on Lily. While he was out of the room, Lisa quietly took out her notepad to do some quick calculations regarding last night's event, and the bizarre events with the lightbulb. She knew she was technically grounded from doing anything science related, and normally she would honor that, but that shockwave clearly did something to her, and whatever was happening to her, must be happening to the rest of her siblings as well. It would explain the strange symptoms they were all experiencing this morning. As she wrote however, her hand was starting to feel more and more shaky, making it hard for her to write legibly. It was as though a surge of excess energy was growing within her. Whatever this was, it seemed to be accelerating!
Lynn Sr. entered the kitchen, expecting to see his baby daughter. However, when he came in, all he saw was an empty highchair and Lily's discarded diaper on the floor.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me!"
Lynn Sr. looked all around the kitchen, but he could find no trace of the baby. She couldn't have gone far though.
Upstairs, Rita was tapping the frozen flowers, confirming that they really were frozen solid.
"Rita!" She heard her husband call from downstairs, "I need your help!"
Rita turned back over to Luan.
"Luan, just stay in bed until I get back. Just use as many blankets as you need to, and I'll see if there's any issue with the air conditioning."
When Rita left the room, Luan tried to grab one of the blankets, but as soon as she touched it, ice spread from her hand across the fabric, freezing it solid like she did with the flowers. Now completely freaked out, she looked at her hands and saw that her skin was beginning to turn into ice itself!
Rita made it to the kitchen.
"Honey, don't get mad. But I think I misplaced the baby."
"What, what do you mean you misplaced her?"
"I don't know, she's just not here," he said, showing her the diaper, "are you sure this was where you left her?"
"I'm positive."
So the two parents got to work searching the house for their missing baby daughter.
"Lily!" They both took turns calling out, "Lily, where are you!?"
The two of them came up to the second story hallway, taking a look in the bathroom. As they did though, behind them in the hallway, a strange twinkling body of light, in the shape of a smiling Lily, phased out from one wall and then phased through the other. The two of them heard her giggling, and turned around just after she had completely phased out of the hallway.
"Lily?" Rita called out, "I can hear you!"
The two searched the entire hallway, and each of their children's rooms, sans Luan's, but there was no sight of her.
"I could have sworn I heard her up here," Rita said.
Just then, they heard her from downstairs.
"Wait," Lynn said, "How…?"
The two made their way back downstairs, continuing their wild goose chase.
In the backyard, Lola was still relaxed on her lawn chair. Or at least she would be if she didn't feel itchy all over.
"Luan better not replace my Shampoo with itching powder again!"
"Maybe you need a mud bath!" Lana called out, "That could relieve your itching!"
"Lana, I told you," Lola responded, diving back into her magazine, "a high class girl like me only bathes in high quality mud formally approved by the Vanity Council!"
Lola was expecting some sort of retort from her older twin. But such a retort never came and all she could hear from the mud pit was silence.
"What? No comeback? Once again, I prove that I inherited all the good genes."
Still no response, which Lola was finding strange.
"Lana?" She called out, putting down her magazine.
There was the mud pit, but Lana was nowhere to be found. Was she trying to mess with her or something? She set her magazine down and got out of her chair. She must have been laying there for quite a while, because her joints felt as brittle as bark. She walked up to the vacant dirt puddle, occupied only by Hops.
"Lana!?" She called out across the backyard, "You're not seriously offended are you? Just come on out!"
Once again, nothing.
But then, she heard a strange noise coming from the dirt and mud Lana was playing in. She looked down at it and noticed something weird. Being her, she felt very iffy about going anywhere near dirt, let alone digging through it. But she took a deep breath and begrudgingly sifted through the filth with her hands, turning her head away in disgust.
"Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew…!"
She finally finished digging and looked down, only to gasp in terror. What she found was her older twins' empty clothing, shoes, and hat.
"LANA!?" She cried out. Picking up her filthy clothes and looking at them, not caring anymore if she got dirty.
"Oh no…!" She said to herself, "The Mud Monster! It ATE HER! And then it's going to eat ME!"
"OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOD!"
After searching around the downstairs, the Loud parents ended up back in the kitchen. They once again heard Lily's laughter. This time though, it seemed to be reverberating from every direction, confusing the exhausted couple.
"You don't suppose she's trying to crawl through the vents like Lucy do you?" Lynn said.
"Well," Rita said, "When all else fails, there's always the last gambit."
Rita and Lynn looked at each other, smiled and nodded.
"Bribery," they said in unison.
Lynn went over to the pantry and took out a jar of cookies, removing the lid and taking one out.
"Oh Lily!" He called out, holding the cookie up, "Does somebody want a cookie!?"
Just as he finished that sentence, a bright streak of light zipped across the room, and the cookie seemed to vanish from Lynn's hand. Both of their jaws had dropped.
"Wha…?" Rita muttered.
"Um…" Lynn said, taking another cookie out, "that was-"
But just as he did, the light streak flashed through again, taking along this cookie as well.
"Lynn…? Wh-what is happening!?"
"I-"
Before he could even begin his sentence, the light returned again, and this time the entire jar vanished right out of his hand.
The two of them were at a complete loss for words.
"Rita… You don't suppose Grandma Harriet really is haunting this house do you?"
But then, they heard the sounds of cookies being crunched coming from their bedroom. The two of them stared at each other then went over to the room, where they witnessed bright lights seeping through the cracks, making them almost a bit scared to open the door. When they did, they shielded their eyes and the light blinded them. WHen their sight readjusted though, they had no idea what to make of the sight before them.
Floating just above the bed was Lily, with the jar in her lap and munching on a cookie, but she wasn't quite the same. Her entire body was composed of flashing and twinkling light, and had glowing yellow eyes.
"L-Lilly…!?" Rita gasped.
Seeing her mom, Lily dropped the jar and zipped all around the two of them, disorienting them a bit and laughing all the way, before stopping in front of her mom's face, aimlessly rotating through the air. Rita reached out and took hold of her. She couldn't quite describe what it felt like holding her in this state.
"Lily!" Lynn gasped, "what happened t-"
He was caught off by a shrill yelling from the backyard.
"DADDY!"
Lynn looked toward the door.
"Oh, what now!?"
She looked over at his wife and at their "bright shining baby", and went off to go see what was wrong.
RIta was life in the room, trying to make sense of what she was holding in her hands. Then it occurred to her, she really should go back and check on Luan. And she headed back upstairs.
Lisa was still working out all the calculations and factors regarding her and her siblings symptoms, and any possible effects that the shockwave may have had on them. It was becoming clear to her that it may very well have affected their body chemistry. As she was writing, she was really struggling to keep her hand, or really any part of her body from shaking or even vibrating, her breathing was becoming faster, her hair was beginning to stand up more, and even her heart rate had accelerated, increasing her stress and level of urgency. Finally, after eliminating several possibilities, she was left with one shocking hypothesis.
"Sweet Nostradamus…"
At the bottom of the page, circled and double underlied, was written in all caps, "TRANSMUTATION".
In the backyard, Lola was still crying out in fear holding Lana's overalls in her , when her dad ran out to her.
"Lola! What's wrong? Where's your sister?"
"Th-Th- mo-mun… mon… Lana- dirt-clothes-eat…!"
"Sweetie, just calm down. What is going on?"
"Th- The Mud Monster! It got Lana!" She cried out
Lynn Sr. simply sighed and chuckled a bit
"Has your sister been trying to scare you again?" He said, kneeling to her level. " I'm sure she's just trying to mess with you."
He figured that the older twin was probably hiding out here in the bushes naked watching Lola freaking out. He looked down at the dirt pit.
"I promise you, there is, no, Mud Monster."
Just after he finished that sentence, a pair of dirty eyes shot open in the mud, causing the Loud patriarch to jump like a cat which had been frightened by a toaster going off, and screaming like a woman.
After stumbling onto the ground, he sat up and witnessed what happened next. From the filthy crevice, all the dirt seemed to move as though it had a mind of its own. In the center of the puddle, a form seemed to rise up, and it started to take the shape of a human arm and hand. It was like something out of a zombie movie, when the hand would burst from the earth. By now, the father and daughter were holding each other tightly, shaking like a leaf in the wind. More on that later.
It wasn't long until the arm was followed by an even larger form, about the size of a small child. It dragged itself toward the edge of the puddle, and it began to take a humanoid shape. Finally, it molded itself into the shape of a six year old girl. But not just any six year old girl.
"L-Lana…!?" Lola muttered, still scared out of her wits.
"Hang on a second," the now entirely earth-composed older twin said, before holding her stomach and covering her mouth. She then vomited up a torrent of mud onto the ground., freaking out Lynn and disgusting Lola.
"Okay… I'm good."
"EUGH!" Lola shrieked, disgusted, holding out her tongue.
"Lola!" Her dad called out, "What's wrong with your tongue!?"
"My what?" She asked, keeping it out and looking down at it, causing her heart to nearly stop. It was no human tongue, it was a lot longer, green, and it had a few leaves all over it.
It was a vine
"Wow Lola" Lana said, pulling herself from the mud, "did you eat magic beans?"
Out of curiosity, the little mud kid took hold of her tongue, and as she pulled on it, it seemed to extend far out of her mouth like tape measure. When she let go, it snapped back into her mouth. Now scared out of her wits, a bizarre and overwhelming feeling was overtaking her, and she stepped back a bit.
"Daddy…" She muttered, "I don't feel so good…"
After seeing the strange creature Lana had emerged from the ground just a few seconds prior, Lynn sat speechless and helpless as the youngest twin went through a change of her own. All over her body, leaves were starting to grow out of her skin, causing her to scream in terror. She tried to pick them off, but more just kept growing in their place. Soon, all the growing leaves, weeds, and twigs were making tears in her dress. Even her hair changed from its blonde smooth shape, and changed into a green leaflike material, followed by the very skin on her body. FInally, her dress was torn to shreds, so that everyone could see in full what Lola had become.
Whereas her older sibling had become some sort of humanoid dirt creature, Lola was now made entirely of leaves, grass, weeds and twigs.
"My dress! My beautiful dress!" She cried holding the shreds of her clothing in her green hands.
Lynn's mind was spiraling. Clearly, whatever happened to Lily wasn't just an isolated incident.
"Aaaauuughhhhh!" Lola cried out in despair, "I'm a monster!"
"This might be the best day of my life," Lana said to herself.
Upstairs, Rita made it to Luans room, with her altered daughter still in her arms. But as she approached the door, a chill came over her. When she tried to turn the knob, it looked as though it was completely frozen. There was even ice around the ridges. After a few frustrated attempts to turn the knob, she set Lily down on the ground and threw herself against the door a few times. Finally, she managed to barge it open. Once she was inside, it felt absolutely freezing, and the look of the room matched the temperature. There was frost everywhere, and the windows were completely fogged up. On Luans bed was a figure that had kept itself completely wrapped up and covered in blankets from head to toe.
"What in the… Luan!?"
"Oh um… hey mom." came Luans voice from the bundle, trying to sound as unbothered as she could, but her nervousness seeped through, "I'm feeling a lot better now."
"But- I- then why are you completely wrapped up in there?"
"I- It's a good old fashioned wrap party… Get it?"
"Luan, please let me at least see your face."
Luan shifted a bit under her bundle, and opened up just enough to reveal only a pair of eyes. They seemed different though.
"See? I'm alright"
Her mom gave her a stern look and approached her. It seemed to become colder the closer she got to her.
"Luan, It's practically snowing here, and just a few minutes ago you couldn't stop sneezing, and now you're fine? Please just let me see you."
There were a few seconds of silence coming from the blankets.
"P-please don't get mad…"
"Luan, it's okay, I just want you to feel better."
After some consideration, Luan started to shift her blankets away and emerge from her self-made cocoon. If Rita hadn't already seen what had happened to Lily, she would have fainted at the sight of her 14 year old daughter, though she was still left wide eyed and breathless.
When Luan revealed herself to her mother, her entire body was made of solid ice. Surrounded on her bed by the wet shambles of all her clothing.
"L-LUAN!"
"Yeah… I know…" Luan responded, holding her braces in her icy hand, "the orthodontist is gonna be pissed…"
Rita didn't have much time to ask questions (though what could she possibly ask) before she heard Lily giggling in the hallway, she turned and looked over, and saw the baby flash and teleport out of the hallway..
Downstairs, Lynn ran back into the house.
"Rita!? Kids!?"
Rita came down and met up with her husband.
"Lynn, you're not going to believe what's happened to Luan!"
"If it's anything like what I just saw the twins turn into, I think I have a fair idea!"
"What's wrong with the twins!?"
They were interrupted by a familiar lisped voice.
"Parental Units…"
They turned around to see Lisa enter, but she looked completely restless, her hair was an even greater mess than usual, and she couldn't stop jittering. She held up her hands and looked at them, seeing little sparks and bolts beginning to emanate from them. It became more and more intense, coming from other parts of her body as well. The lights around the house began to flicker, appliances began to turn on seemingly by themselves, and the tv started rapidly changing channels.
"I believe it may be in your best interests to stand back…"
Finally, the energy within her reached a crescendo, and she spread her arms and legs out, and yelled in discomfort bolts and rays of electricity blasted from her head and arms, almost like a certain time lord when they regenerated. The parents covered their eyes at first, then watched as their 4 year old daughter changed right before them, her clothes starting to come apart and her glasses shattering to pieces.
Outside the house, the bright flashing lights flashed through every window of the house, creating quite the light show.
Back at the field, Lynn and her team were preparing to practice another play.
"Alright team," Lynn said, "This is the play which will either make or break our game. This play is the product of months of study, calculation, exercise, and a lot of stretches. The Dirt-Dive Aerial Shot! Who here is ready for a test drive!?"
The rest of the team cheered.
"Then let's move it people!"
The team all took positions, while Lynn's friend Margo went up to her.
"Ready to pump some iron into their wills?" Lynn said.
"You know it, Lynn!"
So the two of them fist bumped each other, making a loud CLANK sound.
"Yow!" Margo said, "Not so hard."
As Margo took her position, Lynn took a close look at her fist.
"Huh…" She said to herself, brushing it off and taking her position.
"I'll go first to remind you all how the maneuver is performed!"
WIth the blow of the whistle, everyone set off to try and get the ball from Lynn. As she kicked the ball across the field, she managed to dodge everyone who came after her. This was the kind of moment she lived for, and to her, it was worth every drop of sweat. But she wasn't sweating, in fact, normally she'd feel a little bit out of breath during an intense play like this, but this all just felt even more effortless to her than usual. She was too caught up in the moment though to care. She didn't even notice that her white knuckles were taking on a more silver color.
In the middle of the field, one larger player stood in her way, blocking her path to the goal and seemingly giving her nowhere left to run. But the ever-persistent athlete didn't slow down or change direction. She only ran faster, while shining metal slowly spread from her shoes up her legs.
Once she was mere inches away from her opponent, she made her move. She kicked the ball up in the air at a high angle over the other player, then dropped and slid across the grass between their legs. When the ball fell back to the earth, Lynn quickly hopped back up, just in time to deliver a powerful kick to the ball, straight to the goal.
But even she couldn't have expected just how powerful her kick was, sending the ball flying at inhuman speeds. The goalie managed to leap out of the way just in time when she made her goal. But the net didn't stop it, and was left with a hole. Still going at breakneck speeds, it broke through the metal fence, past just in front of a moving car, causing it to brake, which in turn caused it to get rear ended by the car behind it, through a billboard, into a kitchen where it destroyed a freshly made cake just as the chef was putting on the final touches, through a pane of glass two guys were carrying, into a bowling alley where it scored a turkey for someone, and kept going.
Back at the field, Lyyn, and everyone else simply stood there stunned, looking at the path of destruction, while the coach made a few notes. 'From now on, urine tests are mandatory.'
No one was more surprised at the outcome here than Lynn. Had she really underestimated her own strength? It was impossible… Her underestimating herself.
"Lynn!" She heard Polly call out.
"Wh- Wha..?"
"What's wrong with your legs!?"
Lynn looked down at herself and gasped, seeing that her legs had become solid steel. She lifted up her shirt to see that it was also spreading up her body. Dropping the shirt back down, she stood there in panic while everyone watched. The rest of her body transformed, she yelled in discomfort and shut her eyes, tearing away her clothing with her hands. Finally, when it was over, the girl's entire body had turned into stainless steel.
Lynn opened her eyes, and saw everyone looking at her in either awe, fear, confusion, ect. Lynn looked down at her metal hands, turning and flexing them to see if what she was seeing was real. She observed the rest of her body, tapping her metal finger against her metal face, making a clicking sound, as well as looking down at her body, and lifting up her feet to get a good look at them.
Lynn couldn't believe it, she had just transformed into some sort of living breathing iron girl. She wasn't sure if she could even call herself human anymore.
She was an abomination…
An inhuman freak…
A crime against nature itself..
…
…
…
"WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!" She shouted out, holding her fists up in the air celebrating.
Back at the mall, Leni's friends were waiting for her outside the restroom. Inside the bathroom, Leni was washing her hands, trying to shake off a drowsy and watery feeling that was growing stronger and stronger
"Dang, girl," Becky called through the door, "That's the fifth time you've had to pee in the past hour."
"If I didn't know any better," Dana said, "I'd say you had a bun in the oven."
"What?" Leni responded, "of course not. I know better than to leave anything cooking in the oven when I leave the house."
Leni looked into the mirror. It seemed like she was once again sweating excessively, but now, it was growing far beyond just wet armpits. Trinkles of water trinkled increasingly down her legs, and off her arms. Not only was her dress starting to get drenched, but her hair was damp and dripping. She even seemed to have tears running from her eyes and down her face. Was she sad about something? She didn't feel sad.
"You okay in there?"
Leni tried to respond, but as soon as she opened her mouth, more water sprayed out of it, causing her to quickly shut it. That didn't stop it though, and it simply shot out of her nostrils. WHen she pinched her nose, It began to spray out of her ear. It was like a human fountain. But she already had a job.
Now freaked out of her limited wits, she looked at her reflection, and saw herself begin to change. She looked down and saw her hands melting into pure water! This spread all over her body, until even her face had become liquid.
Leni couldn't believe it, she had just turned into some sort of water girl! And worse, she was starting to leak out of her own clothes.
Outside the bathroom, the girls heard a loud EEEEEEKK from their friend. They figured she must have seen a spider, but they ran in to see what was wrong anyway.
"Leni!?" Becky shouted, coming into the room with the rest of her friends.
But Leni was nowhere to be seen. All they found was her soaking wet clothes on the bathroom floor, as well as a water puddle that seeped and poured down the bathroom floor drain.
"...and though he walks in the valley of the shadows, we feel his presence until we ourselves are taken by the weeds," Haiku finished up her Uncle's eulogy.
Once she finished, the rest of the club clapped their hands, maintaining their vacant expressions.
"Very punctual, Haiku," Lucy said, "and when your uncle does die eventually, I'm sure everyone else will be moved by it."
Satisfied with her peers' critique, Haiku once again took her seat.
"Next on the bucket list," Luna announced, "Morpheus will go over the production costs for our public dramatic reenactment for the burning of Joan of Arc."
Morpheus sat up and began reading from his list.
"352 pounds worth of oak wood, fire retardant clothing, about 70 meters of rope, gasoline, matches…"
As the rest of the group listened, Lucy suddenly began to seemingly lower from behind the desk. However, this was not deliberate. Noticing the irregularity, she looked down at herself confused, before sinking below the table's sightline completely.
"...And finally," Morpheus concluded, "We are still yet to receive permission from the Royal Woods city council."
Once he was done, the group noticed that Lucy seemed to have completely vanished. The group went up to her spot and observed the spot where she was. It was typical of her to decide to vanish into thin air without warning. What wasn't normal was her leaving all her clothes discarded on the floor.
The group simply looked at each other with their blank faces.
"This is most concerning," Haiku said, "and I am quite alarmed."
Boris picked up her clothing from the floor, revealing the most peculiar sight. The shadow it left behind stayed put.
"Let the record show," Haiku stated, "That a supernatural event occurred at Royal Woods Library occurred at 11:42 A.M."
She approached the shadow and stood straight.
"Spirit! You have made your presence known, and we welcome you to the land of the living. Now please, release our friend, for she is the co-leader of our coven, and she's the only one who knows the combination to the snack jar."
The shadow gave no response.
""Most curious," Dante said.
Haiku knelt down at the shadow, observing it closely. She reached her hand out and slowly touched the floor which it inhabited. As soon as her finger made contact, the shadow fluctuated in a violent and jerky motion, and it flew across the floor like a bat. It made its way out from the bottom of the door to the private room and into the public areas, frightening a few patrons. The club followed it out of the room, watching it travel across the floor, walls, and ceilings.
"Persephone!" Haiku said, "What are we dealing with?"
"Let me see…" She said, taking out a book titled 'The Idiots Guide to Demonic Entities, flipping through the pages, "banshee, djinn, lamia, babadook, changeling, timeshare agents…"
As she looked through the book's contents, everyone in the library saw the entity come to a stop on a large wall. Its shape started to change into a human shape, which the club recognized as a silhouette of Lucy. One frightened boy threw a book at the shadow, but before it hit its target, Lucy's shadow flew right off the wall through the air itself, straight toward Persephone, who, with little time to react, helped out the book in front to shield herself. The shadow shot into the pages and the book shut. The group surrounded her, looking at the book, which still had some shadow residue floating around it. WHen they looked up at each other, then back at the book, it suddenly started shaking, causing Perephone to drop the book. Once it hit the ground, it opened up by itself, and the pages rapidly flipped until it landed on the page the shadow got trapped in. When it did, beams of shadow and darkness emerged, causing the lights in the library to dim. The group witnessed a pair of glowing white eyes open in the dark vortex of the book, and a shadowy hand reached out and slammed on the floor, leaving some scratch marks. The darkness kept emerging and grew bigger until it poured completely from the book and once again began to take the shape of Lucy.
"A little something for the horror freaks," Lincoln said.
When she completely emerged, she was composed entirely out of pure darkness and was on her hands and one of her knees, seemingly disorientated from whatever just happened. All the rest of the people inside the Library screamed in terror at the shadow girl and all ran out the door, and a few of them even jumped out the window.
Lucy stood up and looked toward her group.
"Guys..?" She said.
"Lucy," Haiku said, "Are you a demon?"
Lucy looked down at her shadowy hands, "I don't know…"
"If you're going to drag my soul to hell," Dante spoke up, "May I offer my stepdad's instead?"
"...You make me feel, INVINCIBLE!" Luna and Sam finished singing, giving off one last riff from their guitars.
"Alright!" Luna said, "That was a BOSS take!"
And it only took them two hours and 14 broken guitars.
"Hey uh, does anyone have any hand lotion?" Luna asked, removing the guitar strap, "My hands are feeling really irritated and crusty."
"That was a pretty exhausting take huh?" Mazzy said.
"I guess," she said, but the feeling was beginning to spread throughout the rest of her body.
Not only that, but the stiff feeling was coming back, with a vengeance.
"Huh," Sam said, looking at her skin, which was looking almost rocky, "playing the guitar for any amount of time shouldn't cause dry skin. Let me see that guitar."
Sam tried to get the guitar from her, but it didn't seem to budge.
"Lunes, you can let go now."
"I, I can'!"
The two of them looked at her arm once again, and it looked as though it was now completely petrified in stone.
"Okay, THAT'S not normal!" Sam said.
Luna kept trying to move her rocky hand, but it didn't seem to budge. Sam felt her arm, and it felt almost exactly like solid rock. She even tapped her knuckle against it and it made the sound of tapping rock. She then tried to open up her hand and pry the guitar out, but she only ended up breaking her entire arm off, causing Luna and everyone else in the room to scream in sheer horror.
Did Luna just get her arm torn off!? She didn't even seem to feel any pain. Sam sat up and looked wide-eyed at the guitar with Luna's stone hand still attached. There were also bits of rocks and pebbles spilt on the floor. Her arm really WAS stone!
Luna felt the strange feeling in her feet now. She took off one of her boots and saw that her foot was turning into stone, and spreading up her leg, as well as her other leg. It continued up her body, and began tearing her clothes apart.
"Sam!" She cried, as the rest of her torso solidified into rock, as well as her still attached hand, "Help me! Somebody do something!"
Finally, it spread up to her head, and soon her entire body was solid rock, and the rest of her clothing gave way. She could easily be mistaken for a still statue. Sam, still scared out of her wits, ran up to her statue of a girlfriend, looking at her face which was stuck in that scared face.
"Luna! Can you hear me!?"
"Oh my god!" Sully yelped, "Sam! Is there a Medusa in your house!?"
"What? No! Just help me get her into the car! We need to get her to the hospital!"
"C'mon Lame-o," Ronnie said to Lincoln while they checked out the rest of the fair, "Don't you remember what happened last time you thought you were dying?"
"Yeah, I remember. It turned out to just be mayonnaise stain on the X-Ray, but it's not just the scale. Ever since that explosion, I've been feeling increasingly lightheaded and bloated. It feels like if I let it happen, I'll just drift apart completely."
"I get that feeling," Clyde butted in, "every time I see Lori."
"Clyde…" Lincoln muttered, "seriously…"
As the group continued bantering with each other, the plush Lincol had won earlier somehow slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.
"Hey Lincoln, you dropped your cow."
Lincoln looked back over at the plushie resting on the ground and went to pick it back up. But he couldn't. It felt as if his hand was passing through thin air. He looked down to discover that actually, it was the toy that was passing through thin air. A white smoke to be precise, where his hand used to be.
"Whu-whut!?" Lincoln muttered, reading his hand back up to his face. His arm had completely evaporated into a cloudy gas, and his arm was starting to follow, blowing away with the wind.
The rest of the group witnessed this and immediately dropped whatever conversation they were in the middle of.
"Lincoln!" Ronnie gasped.
Clyde fell over into Stella's arms, almost fainting.
Lincoln looked over at his other arm, which was beginning to go through the same startling process.
"Wh- What's happening to me!?"
His clothes started to look less and less full, as though his body itself was vanishing. This wasn't too far from the truth, as more cloudy air seeped from his clothing. It wasn't long until Lincoln's head began to dissipate, causing him and everyone around him to panic.
"Clyde! Ronnie!" He shouted, before his entire head turned to air. Finally, his whole body was transformed into puffs of air, being carried away through the sky by the wind, leaving his clothes to drop down to the ground.
Everyone left in the group looked speechless and helpless as what was left of their friend blew away from the fair, and looked down at his discarded clothing. Clyde was terrified that something bad may have just happened to his best friend, and began to hyperventilate.
Ronnie meanwhile picked up his clothing, trying to comprehend the fact that her "not-boyfriend" just minutes ago was inside of them, and now he had completely vanished in a puff of smoke.
"Oh my god!" Zach said, excitedly, "Lincolns an alien! And to think, this whole time I suspected Clyde!"
Back over with Lori and Bobby, the two were still walking side by side enjoying their time together, while Lori had a corn husk in her hand that Bobby had just bought her. At least that doesn't melt. They passed by a farmhouse, where they failed to notice that the thermometer near the door was rising up so full that it began to leak.
"Hey Lori?"
"Hmmm?"
"There's something I need to talk to you about."
"Yeah?"
This was not a conversation Bobby was looking forward to having, and he was starting to get very anxious. With the end of senior year coming up, he was working on college applications. There were 3 universities in the Great Lakes Area, and so far he has received rejection letters from two of them and was still awaiting a response from the third. Lori had been accepted into Fairway University, which was located near Great Lakes. He was going to have to break the news to her sooner or later that there was a very real possibility that College would take them even further away from each other. Was this really the best place to tell her though? The last thing he wanted to do was ruin this moment. Of course, if he brought it up during a sour moment, It would probably just make it worse. At least here they could remind themselves that their relationship would still be worth fighting for.
Bobby stood in front of Lori and looked her in the eye, with his hands folded.
"Lori. I- I was going to wait until after the fair to tell you this but… I think now might be as good a time as any."
"Bobby, you're not breaking up with me are you?" Lori asked, her stress levels rising, as well as her body heat, "I already had Lucy pick out a dual coffin for us!"
"No! No, of course not."
Lori felt immediately relieved.
"You see, Lori…..Lori….. Yo… You're hot."
Lori simply smiled and blushed.
"That's what you wanted to say to me? Not exactly the most detailed words, but I certainly love the sentiment."
"N- no! Lori! You're smoking!"
"Oh, Boo Boo Bear, flattery will only get you so far with me, but still pretty far."
"HOLY SHIT! LORI! YOU'RE ON FIRE!"
"And so are you my darling."
"NO! REALLY! LOOK!" He pointed at her with a terrified expression.
At that moment, Lori could smell the better scent of burning smoke.
"What the-"
Then she felt her hair and realized, IT WAS ON FIRE!
She screamed in pure terror. Then the fire began to spread across her arms, and down her legs. All the while, the corn she was holding started popping and shooting out in all directions as popcorn.
Panicking, looking around, and thinking, Bobby saw a pail near the river.
"HANG ON LORI!" He yelled, sprinting to save her girlfriend.
"OMYGODOMYGODOMYGODOMYGOD!" She panicked, flailing around trying to put herself out, but the fire spread all throughout her body, burning her clothes to a crisp, catching the attention of some of the other visitors. Although she didn't seem to feel any skin burns.
At breakneck speeds, Bobby ran back to the fiery girl and splashed water all over her, creating a thick hiss of steam. Bobby coughed a bit and tried to clear the smoke. When it cleared, Lori was nowhere to be seen.
"Lori!?" He cried out, looking around.
Just at his feet, he noticed a small flame down on the grass. He was about to stomp it out, but then it suddenly grew bigger, causing Bobby to fall backwards. He sat up and scooched backwards, watching the flame continue to expand, as though it had a life of its own. Once it grew to about his size, the fire started to take on a human shape. Finally, there stood Lori, who opened her eyes to reveal two shining yellow eyeballs..
"B-Babe!?"
Lori shut her eyes and shook her head, changing her eyes to a light reddish color with dark red iris, looking freaked out of her mind. She looked down at her hands seeing the fiery form they had taken. This couldn't really be happening, it couldn't be, not to her. She looked over to the river. She didn't want to look, but she had to. She ran over, leaving some steps of smoldered grass, and looked at her reflection in the mirror. It was her face, but it wasn't the same. It was fire, she was all fire. All she could do was cry out in absolute despair.
She looked over at Bobby, who looked absolutely fearful for his love. Before he could say anything, they heard a few screams coming from the other groups. Lori looked over at all of them. They all looked terrified. Even some of the kids were holding on to their parents tightly in fear.
They were all afraid of her. That realization stung worse than any sort of college news.
"Lori…" Bobby began to say, getting up and approaching her, trying to put his hand on her shoulder. But as soon as he did, it burned his hand.
"YOW!" he yelped quickly, retracting, shaking, and blowing on it.
Lori, mortified by the thought that she just injured her Boo Boo Bear simply by being touched by him, took off running, crying the whole way.
Bobby was going to chase after her, but he found himself overwhelmed by a flock of ducks which descended to the ground to get a taste of some of that freshly popped popcorn.
"I'm telling ya," Rusty said, talking to the others who were all sitting at a table, trying to comprehend what just happened, "It was like that scene from The Last Jedi."
"But-" Ronnie Anne said, "but this doesn't happen in real life!"
"Guys," Clyde said, "We have to find Lori!"
"But how do we find her?" Liam said.
Stella then saw something out in the distance.
"Found her." She said.
The rest of them looked to where she was looking, and saw newly mutated teegange fireball fleeing in terror across the pasture. They were all left with stunned expressions on their faces. As if this day couldn't get any weirder.
"Man," Zach said, "What next?"
Just then, the soccer ball from before flew into the fairgrounds and crashed into the chicken coop, causing feathers to fly everywhere, and chickens to run loose across the fairgrounds causing chaos.
Up in the air, high above Royal Woods, the cloudy air continued to fly through the sky. To Lincoln, it felt as though his mind itself was being stirred through the air. Finally, once the wind cooled down, it slowed down to a halt, and started to merge and reform into each other, allowing it to reform its shape into that of Lincoln Albert Loud. Once he was back together (more or less) he continued his screaming from before, only now he found himself several feet above the ground.
"AHHH! WHA! I-! WUZZA! RO- WHAT!" he flaided around in the air, expecting to drop to the ground and turn this into an M rated fiction.
But he never did, he just stayed there in the air hovering.
"How am I not falling?" He asked the readers, "And why do I still feel so different?"
He looked down at himself and gasped. His entire body, from head to toe, was still nothing more than the cloud material he had just disintegrated into.
"Wh-What!?"
While he was looking at himself all over, trying not to hyperventilate, heard the sound of a jet engine getting closer and closer. He looked over and saw a commercial airliner heading straight for him.
"AAAAHHH!"
Before he could react, he got sucked into the jet's turbine, and the shredded pieces of cloud shot out from the other end. As the jet flew away, it once again reassembled itself into Lincoln, who was cowering himself like he was still waiting for the impact. But he opened one eye and saw that he was still there. He looked over and saw the tail end of the jet, flying away. That reminded him. He looked down at his feet, nowhere near the ground, but he was up here in the sky, unbothered by gravity.
"Wait a minute… I - Am I… Flying…?"
There was only one way to find out. He looked over to a cloud off in the distance. With the goal of maneuvering himself there set in his mind, he tried to propel himself forward, making more than a few stumbles.
"Wowowoah!"
Soon enough though, he managed to figure out how to glide across the sky and reach his goal.
He did it. He really was flying!
"I… I can fly…" He said, excitement building up within him.
He wasn't done testing the waters yet. He continued flying around amongst the clouds, testing the limits of his flight, not just forwards or backwards, flying downwards as well as upwards. A big grin came on his face, as he was filled up with pure joy.
"I CAN FLY!" He shouted out, soaring through the air with his arms out.
This might have been his biggest and most fantastical dream. Reading his comics, seeing his favorite superheroes defying gravity, he only ever could have imagined what it felt like. But now he was living it.
"WOOOOOOHOOOOO!"
He did a few corkscrews and flips up there. He had never felt more free in his entire life than he did right now. He almost wished he could just stay up there forever.
"Lincoln?" Clyde said.
"Wh-what?" Lincoln muttered, shaking himself away from his little fantasy.
"We really should probably wrap this chapter up soon. I don't think either of us want to separate into yet another part."
"Oh… Alright."
But then he let himself think more critically about this situation.
"How did this even happen?"
Then he looked down and noticed his neighborhood. It sure was surreal, seeing it from a bird's eye view. He decided that his first course of action would be to get home and figure this all out. So he dove downward to his neighborhood, particularly the Loud house. As he came onto the approach of the front yard, he stumbled around clumsily, but ultimately managed to get his feet on the ground.
"Guess I need to work on the landing."
He quickly made his way over to the door. Walking with these new feet felt awkward. He felt more like a balloon being blown across the ground than a human boy taking a few steps. He made it to the door and tried to turn the knob. But he couldn't seem to grab it. His hand just kind of shifted through the knob. Technically, it phased around it. After trying again and failing a few times, much to his frustration, he tried knocking on the door. His arm just blew against the door, not making a sound. Now he was starting to get worried. Could he not pick up or move anything anymore? He may as well be a ghost! First thing's first though, he just needed to get inside.
"Mom! Dad! It's Lincoln! S-something strange has happened to me! Let me in!"
Then from inside the house, he could hear the voice of his dad.
"No Lily! Come Back!"
Just then a shining light blasted through the door, straight through Lincoln's face. Once he rearranged back to its normal shape, he saw that the strange projectile left no hole or any kind of damage in the door. He looked over and saw the light flying all across the neighborhood.
"Lily…?" He muttered, hearing the door open.
"Male Sibling…"
He turned over to the open door, and was left completely speechless by the sight of his 4-year-old sister.
Just like his body was now pure air, Lisa's entire body was pure electricity. She was looking up at him, holding her glasses with the shattered lenses in her hands.
"I believe I have made a critical error…"
"You know Clyde," Lincoln said, "If this were to be an ongoing monthly comic series or miniseries, I think everything we've written so far would make up issue one"
The Loud House and associated characters belong to Nickelodeon and Chris Savino
The L-Ementals Co-Created by AxelGripp, Bry-Guy-1996, Syfyman2xxx, and Khialat
Liquid Leni Created by Khialat and juribelit