No Such Duel

Chapter 16: Siblings Reunited!

One Week Later, the Day all the Loud Sisters got released,

Lincoln, along with Lily, and their two uncles and Aunt Rachel, were situated in front of the Loud House. Apart from his sister's rooms, it had been cleaned out over the summer, "Well, here comes the bus from the Juvenile Facility," Randy commented, seeing the bus coming towards the Loud House.

"Hopefully, Junior has learned to behave herself," Rachel commented, as the bus pulled up to the curb. The doors opened, and out came the five, formerly incarcerated Loud Sisters, now free from the yellow marks on their faces.

"Welcome back, girls," Ross said, as the three adults approached them, "I trust that you all learned your lesson?" he asked.

"We have, Uncle Ross. We were foolish to take part in what we did," Lisa replied.

"And dumb," Lola added.

"And stupid," Luan added.

"We're never going to be overly superstitious again, for our sake, and the sake of those around us," Lori added.

"Good to hear," Ross said, as he turned his gaze to Lynn, "Junior, have you learned your lesson, too?" he asked.

"Uh... yeah, I have. I'll cool it with the good luck rituals from now on," Lynn said, hiding one of her hands that had her fingers crossed.

"You'll have to give up the good luck stuff altogether. After your Duel with your brother, a new court order was issued all over Royal Woods, banning all lucky charms and rituals from every sporting events," Randy stated.

"Really now?" Lynn asked, acting surprised. In truth, she was furious. She couldn't fathom why no one was allowed to bring any good luck to the home teams anymore. Just then, Rhonda pulled in with her Jeep. Out stepped Luna and Lana.

"Hey dudes," Luna greeted, Lana quickly ran up to Lola, and scooped her twin up in a great big hug.

"It's been way too long, Lola!" Lana exclaimed.

"Likewise, Lana! And... you're clean?" Lola said, surprised at seeing her normally filthy twin neat and tidy.

"Yeah, I guess you could say I was forced to clean up my act, in more ways than one," Lana replied.

"No puns, Luan?" Luna asked.

"Eh, too easy," Luan replied.

"We just need to wait for the bus from the Mental Institute, then we can begin one last family meeting before cleaning out this house," Ross stated.

"What do you mean?" Lola asked.

"This house is to be condemned due to being totally unsafe, but before it is, we're going to move out everything in each of your bedrooms, and any other rooms in the house," Ross replied.

"But I thought Lincoln would've sold all our stuff the same way we sold his," Lori commented.

"Lincoln opted to be the bigger man, and chose to only sell your parent's stuff. But we'll discuss more once Leni and Lucy arrive," Rachel replied. No sooner than she said that, a car pulled up to the curb. Stepping out of the car from four different doors was one of the Doctors from the Mental Institute, as well as Leni and Lucy.

"Hello there. You must be these two girls' guardians, am I right?" the doctor asked.

"We are," Ross replied.

"Excellent. I have much to go over with the four of you, so we can discuss the details of their treatment while they catch up with their siblings," the Doctor said, as Leni and Lucy joined back up with their sisters.

"I guess this means we're still going to be separated once we're done here?" Leni asked.

"I'm afraid so. Uncle Ross said that the house is being condemned due to too many safety violations," Lisa replied.

"Uh, what does 'condemned' mean, exactly?" Lana asked.

"It means that the house is no longer fit for anyone to live in. More than likely, it'll be torn down some time after we leave to live with our aunts and uncles," Lisa explained. Just then, Lily waddled up to the sisters, giggling happily at seeing them again.

"Hey there, Lily! Did you miss us?" Luan asked, picking up the infant. Lily giggled some more, before reaching out towards the house, where Lincoln was still sitting on the steps. The nine (well, rather eight, since Lynn still sees Lincoln as a jinx), sisters felt pits in their stomachs. The last time they saw Lincoln face to face was when he went berserk on them, and nearly sent them to the Shadows during the match with Night Hawk.

"Uh... hey bro. How was your summer?" Luna asked cautiously. She and her sisters, sans Lynn, learned the hard way that Lincoln was just as dangerous as each of them are when angered.

"It was quiet. Enjoyed hanging out with my friends," Lincoln simply replied. What was unnerving to the eight sisters was their brother's tone. They couldn't detect any sort of hostility, and were assuming he was going to blow up at them at any moment.

"Lincoln, it took what happened before the start of summer break for us to realize that we screwed up worse than we have ever screwed up before," Lori began.

"And now, we're going to try to be better sisters not only to each other, but to you as well," Lucy added.

"Right. I'm going to hold WAY back on my pranks for April Fools Day from now on," Luan stated.

"I won't blackmail you or anyone else again," Lola said, holding up both hands to show she wasn't crossing her fingers.

"I will cease from all of my inhumane experiments," Lisa added.

"And we'll start to appreciate the things that you do for us more than ever," Lori added.

"Hey Lynn, aren't you going to say something?" Luna questioned the sporty sister.

"Oh yeah. Lincoln, I was way too full of myself to take the blame for that loss that day. From now on, I'm going to cool it with my superstitions," Lynn lied, 'Or at least until I can prove to everyone that I was right about you, and get you shipped off somewhere far from civilization.' she thought.

"Well, given the fact that you girls have recognized your mistakes, as I did with mine for lying about being bad luck, I'm willing to bury the hatchet this ONE time only! I doubt this will ever happen again, but if it does, then you're on your own," Lincoln stated.

"Duly noted," Lori stated. The rest of the Loud Sisters, sans Lily, whose just a baby, and Lynn, who still felt she was in the right for her actions, all shared similar comments.

"Great! Now that that's out of the way, let's head inside, so we can give you kids a run down on how things are going to go down," Ross said, as they all entered the house. Inside, the living room and dining rooms were all stripped bare of all the furniture that once filled them. The sisters saw inside their parent's bedroom to see that it was empty as well, "Alright, here's how things are going to work. As per the conditions of the court sentence, custody over each and every one of you will be split among the four of us," Ross explained, motioning to himself, Randy, and their two sisters.

"You all may choose which of us you can go to live with, but understand that each of us will enforce rules both similar and different between each of our homes," Rachel explained.

"For instance, if any of you has an event that's coming up, you are only allowed to invite the rest of your siblings. Under no circumstances are you to threaten, blackmail, or guilt trip them into coming. If any of your siblings have a reason they do not wish to attend your events, then you are to respect their wishes," Randy added.

"That being said, you're not to abuse this privilege! You should at least make an attempt to try and make time to go and support one another," Rhonda added.

"And we expect NO dishonesty of any sort from any one of you!" Ross added.

"We understand," Lori replied. Her siblings all gave their sentiments.

"Good. Now then, while these rules are in place for all of you, each of you will have your own rules that you'll have to follow. Lori, you are NOT to use your age as an excuse for special privileges. It's first come, first served, NOT first born, first served," Ross stated. Lori nodded, "Leni, we understand that you like going to the mall, but we want to ask you not to go every day. And no using any curtains or other household decorations for fashion," the detective added.

"Ok," Leni said.

"Luna, you are to try to keep your music a bit more quiet. The neighbors you'll be moving next to might not take too kindly to have rock music blasting at all hours of the day," Rachel stated.

"Sounds doable," Luna replied.

"Luan, your Pranks-Giving is no longer allowed. You can do small pranks like whoopie cushions and what not, but nothing over the top or life threatening," Rachel said to the resident prankseter.

"I'll do my best to hold back," Luan replied.

"Junior, you are not to turn everything into a competition. It was that kind of behavior that got the family in trouble in the first place, and NO blaming others for your failures!" Randy said to the sporty sister, who was fuming on the inside.

"Ok," Lynn replied. She couldn't understand why her Aunts and Uncles refused to see why she needed to be number 1 in everything, or why she was right for blaming Lincoln for her loss that day. But she did her best to retain her composure, for she had a plan to get even with Lincoln.

"Lucy, since you hardly act up, we don't really know what to do, other than recommend that you try to be a bit more upbeat. Also, none of that sneaking around shtick that you do," Randy said to the gloomiest of the Loud Sisters.

"I understand, but can't guarantee anything," Lucy replied.

"Lana, from now on, you are going to be taking baths regularly, and no bringing home any wild animals!" Rhonda exclaimed.

"Ok," Lana replied.

"Lola, there is not to be any more blackmailing your siblings to get your way," Rhonda said to the pink-clad twin.

"Ok," Lola replied.

"Lisa, you are not to perform any unethical science experiments or surgical operations on your siblings without their full consent and OUR approval," Ross said to the genius sisters.

"I have more than learned my lesson about human experimentation, and will refrain from it the best I can," Lisa replied.

"Next up is addressing the issue about your fights. From now on, there won't be anymore of this 'Sister Fight Protocol' nonsense. WE will resolve any arguments you kids have with one another the way we see fit," Ross added.

"But we came up with it to make managing our fights more easier," Luan pointed out.

"Yeah, we read the details about the protocol. There are far too many holes in it for it to ever be effective," Rhonda countered.

"Well, for now, we'll be splitting custody of all 11 of you among the four of us accordingly. Lana and Lola, you two will be staying together, so don't you worry," Randy said to the twins.

"But we'll decide who goes where AFTER you girls pack up your belongings," Rachel said.

"We put storage tubs in each of your rooms. Use them to pack up your things. Meanwhile, the four of us are going to get some moving trucks to make moving in with us easier for you," Ross said, as the four adults left.

"Well, I guess we'd better get to it then," Lori said, as the sisters all went up stairs.

"Hey, Linky, can we talk about your Duel against that Yusuke guy?" Lola asked.

"Sure, I don't see why not," Lincoln replied, as he followed his sisters upstairs. He then went into the twin's old room, "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"Well, one thing I would like to know first is about his monsters. What did the 'D/D' and 'D/D/D' in their names mean?" Lana asked.

"Well, for starters, 'D/D' stands for 'Different Dimension'. The Monsters printed on the cards come from another world. As for 'D/D/D', I can only assume it stands for 'Different Dimension Dynasty', since all of Yusuke's strongest Monsters were some kind of King Monsters," Lincoln explained.

"Which raises a question in my head; how was he able to use four different summoning methods?" Lola asked.

"Well, the various summoning methods can be treated as something like different dimensions, so when you think about it like that, it makes perfect sense that the D/D Archetype can utilize all forms with ease," Lincoln explained.

"'Archetype'? What's that?" they heard Luna ask from down the hall.

"See, while some cards, like Mirror Force and Monster Reborn can work with any monster or deck, some cards only work for Monsters that have a certain name. Clyde's Ancient Gear Deck and Yusuke's D/D Deck are perfect examples of Archetypes," Lincoln explained.

"So what kind of Archetype is your Deck?" Luan asked.

"Well, mine actually has no set Archetype. It's what you would call a hodgepodge of cards that work well with one another," Lincoln replied.

"Next question, and I know this might be serious, but what exactly are the Three Sacred Beasts?" Lucy asked. Lincoln then turned to his spooky sister, an extremely serious look on his face.

"I told you during our Duel... They are a set of 3 one-of-a-kind cards that were sealed away in the original tomb the carvings they were based on were found. They have the power to destroy the world, if in the hands of someone unworthy," Lincoln replied.

"What kind of monsters are they?" Lisa asked.

"Well, their names are 'Uria, the Lord of Searing Flames', 'Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder', and 'Raviel, Lord of Phantasms'. You may think they have funny names, but their power is no laughing matter. As I just said, they have the potential to destroy the world. Thankfully, the tomb they're sealed away in is guarded by the 8 Spirit Keys. And they can't simply be used like that," Lincoln said, snapping his fingers.

"You're saying there's something needed to be done before they can be used, right?" Lori asked.

"Yes. An ancient edict states that the Keys must be won off of whoever is wearing them in a Duel. There's no way around this," Lincoln replied.

"And the keys are kept somewhere safe, I take it?" Lynn asked. She wanted to get as much information as she could so she could get the Forbidden Deck to "restore the balance" between her and Lincoln.

"Yes. Samson, the head of the North American Duel Monsters Division keeps them under lock and key in his office in the main building, which is right here, in Royal Woods," Lincoln replied. Lynn smirked a sneaky smile, which she was grateful went unnoticed by her siblings. She now knew where the keys were, and now she just needed to figure a way to get into the office, and steal the keys.

"Quick question about some of those guys in that Duel from a week ago. What do you think of those Mei-Mei and Julie girls?" Lola asked. The rest of the sisters, sans Lynn, all had mischievous looks on their faces.

"Don't bother. Mei-Mei is focusing on mastering her family dojo's 5000 year old martial arts so she can take over as the master of said dojo. As for Julie, she has a girlfriend," Lincoln quipped.

"Oh," Lola commented.

"But as for what I think of them as people, Mei-Mei is the outgoing, fun loving type, though she can be ruthless when she needs to be. As for Julie, she's a bit hard to read sometimes, and often speaks rather harshly when being honest. As for being fellow Duelists, the two of them are quite strong. Julie's Deck revolves around Crystal Beast and Gem-Knight Monsters, while Mei-Mei's Deck is made up mostly of Warrior Type Monsters," Lincoln added. For the next hour or so, the girls, sans Lynn, continued asking questions, as they packed up their things. And they finished just in time, as their Aunts and Uncles had just arrived with the moving trucks.

"Alright, is everyone packed up?" Ross asked.

"YES, UNCLE ROSS," the girls sang.

"Good. Now then, we've allocated which of you goes with each of us. Lori, and the twins will stay with Randy. Leni, Lucy and Lincoln are going to stay at Ross' place. Luan and Junior will go with Rhonda, which leaves Luna, Lisa and Lily with me," Rachel said, reading off which sibling goes where each of them would go. With that, the sisters loaded their stuff into each of the trucks.

"I'm sure we'll still be able to hangout," Lincoln said.

"I know we will. Our Aunts and Uncles may have been disappointed with us, but not enough so to keep us from ever seeing each other again," Lori replied, as she and the rest of their siblings said their goodbyes, and got into the trucks with their designated guardians and drove off.