Finally the next chapter! I really hope you enjoy it!
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Loud House
Lincoln flew to the treehouse holding a black briefcase on hand. He had marked a reunion with the Mysterians on their HQ on the lunch break. He went back home to retrieve the briefcase and was on his way.
On the treehouse, Liam, Rusty, Zack and Stella were waiting for Lincoln. The ghost boy popped out of the wall. "Hey Guys!" He announced as he did it. This made the kids shout because the jumpscare.
"Holy, Lincoln!" Rusty spoke with his hand on his chest. "You're becoming less careful in not scaring people!" Lincoln made a little smile as he lifted the briefcase.
"Guys, the equipment I requested Lisa for you is finally ready!" he said as he laid the briefcase on the floor, the kids all sat around it smiling like small kids on Christmas morning, ready to open their presents. "But before, guys.." Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "I have a announcement for you." He said with a slight melancholic tone. The other Mysterians traded concerned looks.
"What's it buddy?" Asked Clyde, who was sitting by the right of Lincoln.
"I... Decided that it's time for me to retire from our ghost hunting crusade." The kids gasped in surprise and shock.
"But why Lincoln? Did your parents grounded you for disappearing yesterday?" Asked Zack
"No! Well yes, but I was already planning in stopping for some time... I was just waiting for the equipment being ready to fully stop." Lincoln explained rubbing the briefcase.
"But this was your idea!" Rusty spoke.
"Yeah, and we can't do it without y'er help!" Liam spoke. Lincoln made a proud smile.
"No guys. You can. You proved that you don't need my help. And with these items... You'll have a true fighting chance. More than ever." Lincoln spoke firmly. His voice made the kids feel better. They could truly tell that he was being honest.
"Well, if it's your decision, we can't do much." Spoke Stella with a smile. "But we'll still miss you!"
"Oh, come on guys! I'm not saying that we're not going to see each other anymore! We still can hang out! This place is still our HQ, and we still are the Mysterians!"
Those words made the kids feel better. He was right, it wasn't a big deal, and to be totally honest, the ghost cases were becoming more far between, they had already delt with most of the ghost in town anyway.
"So, are you ready for your new toys?" Lincoln said with a smirk placing his hand over the case. The others smiled and nodded as Lincoln opened the briefcase.
"All right, the first is for Zack!" the red head with glasses smiled, as Lincoln pulled off the briefcase a pair of goggles with round deep green lenses, they were copped colored and had a band that made it able to be used with Zack's regular glasses comfortably. Lincoln handed the goggles to Zack, who immediately put them on, finding that they had space for his glasses inside it.
"Wow!" Zack gasped as the lenses lighted up. "This is so cool!" He spoke looking around with the goggles.
"I call these the Specter Speckles! With it, will have a bunch of different vision settings." Lincoln explained.
"Night vision, infrared, ultraviolet, super zoom, thermic vision, ohh! Meat vision!" Zack said switching between the modes with the wheel on the right side of the goggle.
"But the most important setting Zack, is the last." Lincoln spoke as Zack switched to the last setting.
"wow, everything is like, gray!" He spoke looking around untill he looked at Lincoln. "Save for you Lincoln, you're glowing green."
"Yeah! This is the Ecto-vision setting! Thanks to Lisa's discovery of The Ectoplasm atom, she was able to find a way to trace the signature of it. You will be able to locate traces of ectoplasm based organisms. In other words, you can see ghosts even if they are invisible!" Lincoln explained the kids were impressed, and Zack was smiling.
"This is so cool! Can you, like, become invisible? So I can test it?" He asked. Lincoln nodded and disappeared. Zack lifted the goggles up to see the missing Lincoln in front of him, and put the goggles back, seeing the green silhouette that was Lincoln. "It works! This is so cool!" Zack said repeatedly lifting the goggles up and down.
"All right!" Lincoln spoke finally. "The second is for Rusty." The boy smiled as he rubbed hands in anticipation. "I didn't knew exactly what to give you, so me and Lisa decided to play safe, I know how much you like playing tennis, so..." Rusty raised a eyebrow.
"Wait, I never played..." Rusty stopped speaking when Lincoln pulled from the briefcase a pair of rods, roughly 20 inches in length with safety straps in one of the ends and deep green segments in the other end. The ghost boy gave them to Rusty.
"Oh ho ho! I like these!" he said swinging the rods lightly in the air, before a loud noise made him jumped frighten as the green section glowed and emitted little sparks. "What is this?"
"These are the Ecto-battons! Those green segments are emitting a energy that affects ectoplasm in molecular level. If them, you can make some real damage to ghosts." The Loud boy explained.
"How do you know that it works?" Rusty asked.
"Lisa tested this technology on me." Lincoln explained simply. Rusty winced. "All right, using the same technology as Rusty's battons, Liam, this is yours."
Lincoln grabbed from the case a long metallic rope with a lasso in one of the ends, it was adorned with the same green highlights of the battons. Lincoln handed the lasso to Liam.
"But for your safety." Lincoln spoke before Liam could do anything. "You better use these." He handed Liam a a pair of black gloves with silver and green highlights. "Otherwise, you would fry your hands." Liam put on the gloves and held the lasso as it started glowing much like the battons. "It's unnecessary to say that it's the same technology of the battons, you will be able to lasso ghosts, and due to the energy that the lassos emit, they won't be able to escape."
"Yee haw!" Liam said amazed, spinning the lasso over his head.
"For Stella." Lincoln spoke. "As you're our sharpshooter, I decided to Lisa develop this!" He grabbed a small slingshot with small tesla coils on both rods. He handed to slingshot to Stella who looked at it with amazed eyes.
"With the Ecto-Sling, you can shot little energy balls made of the same energy of the other weapons. So, they can just a ghost. And I really mean it." Lincoln spoke with a serious look at Stella. The girl gulped at the implications of his statement.
"And for me?" Asked Clyde impatiently tapping his own elbow with a smile.
"For you Clyde..." Lincoln spoke, putting his hand into his back pocket. "I have the most import thing I have. And I trust only you to wield it." From the pocket, Lincoln pulled the bronze amulet he used to exorcise the ghosts. He extended his hand but Clyde hesitated.
"Lincoln... Are you sure?" The boy asked with uncertainty.
"Clyde." Lincoln spoke. "You're my bestest friend in all the world. You're the brother I never had. The smartest man I know. I trust you Clyde. I trust my after-life on you. You're the only one I trust to wield the amulet." Clyde smiled with a sigh, flattered at what Lincoln said. He grabbed the amulet and looked at it.
"I'll not disappoint you buddy." Clyde ensured. Lincoln nodded.
"I know you won't."
"So, what are we waiting for? Let's go outside test these babes!" Rusty said jumping up on his feet and running to the trapdoor, Liam, Zack and Stella cheered and followed him down the treehouse, leaving only Lincoln and Clyde.
"Ok, let's cut the crap Lincoln." Clyde said becoming serious. "I know why you gave us these weapons!" Clyde pointed to Lincoln.
"You really know me." Lincoln spoke with a sigh.
"If you think that we are going to use these to fight you, you are completely wrong! We'll never fight you!" Clyde said throwing his arms up.
"Clyde, this is the safest option" The white haired boy explained.
"You can't be serious! We're friends! I would never. EVER. Exorcise you!"
"Dude, use your head! I'm becoming unstable! More violent and scary! Just yesterday I scared the crap out of my own family! I'm worried Clyde. For you. The Mysterians, my family... And everyone around me. I don't want to hurt anyone. And as I defeat ghosts, and absorb their powers, I become more dangerous. I'm stopping now that it's not too late. But if I ever go rogue. Please Clyde. You need to exorcise me." Lincoln pleaded.
"I-I... I, I..." Clyde didn't knew how to respond. Lincoln was right. But The boy's heart wouldn't let him speak. Lincoln was his friend. He loved him, he also was the brother Clyde never had. Clyde started to hyperventilate. What Lincoln wanted from him was like he was asking him to kill him. Clyde bit his lower lip, trying to calm down. Tears started to form under his eyes, his glasses started becoming foggy. "Damnit Lincoln. You stupid... Always making your schemes..." Clyde said crying, but he had a little smile. "Let's hope we won't need to do it!"
Lincoln made a small smile. "Yeah... Let's hope." The ghost boy leaned over and hugged his best friend, who cracked down sobbing, hugging Lincoln back.
"Okay sweety." Rita spoke to Luan as she helped her daughter adjust her tied hair. "Remember, be home before 9." She warned.
"Don't worry mom." Luan assured her mother. "Benny is a gentleman, and the show won't be more than a hour and half." They heard knock on the door. "It's him! Bye mom!" Luan said exiting the living room and opening the front door.
Benny Stein was standing there, with a formal shirt and his hair combed back.
"Hey Luan. You're beautiful tonight." He said, making Luan blush.
"Oh, and you also look wonderfeel! Hehe get it?" Benny chuckled, extending his hand.
"Lets go?" he asked.
"Let's go." Luan responded.
As soon as they sat down on the crudely put together inside of the vertical striped main tent, they noticed that the house wasn't much crowded, aside from the two teens, roughly two dozens of people also came to see the circus that night. The circus was on town for a week, and seeing the number of attendantants made they wonder if that circus was good or not. Well, they didn't saw any animal wagon outside, what was a positive.
Starting to think about it, they didn't saw any wagon at all. And aside from the ticket booth, the only thing they saw of the circus was the tent where they were. Wasn't this a traveling circus? Were was the trucks and wagons? This was weird.
The lights started to lit down as a immense spotlight shone on the center of the tent. The conversations of the attenders quiet down as the first act was about to begin.
the entrance of the backstage, a tiny car drove off, making circles around the tent, making wheelies and tricks like like driving on only two wheels. The audience cheered the car as it spun around like a old friction you car and stopped on the dead center of the tent, right on the spotlight.
The tiny car's door opened and from it, exited a foot with a big, black clown shoe. It was too big in proportion to the car and next the rest of the driver exited it. The audience laughed, without paying attention to the fact that the man was almost three times bigger than the car.
The clown Had a white make-up, wore a deep purple suit with a turquoise tie. It's body was built like a bowling pin. He had a yellow grin with tooth that were curved and tilted. It used a blue lipstick, a tiny top hat that was comically smaller than his head, and looked glued on. The clown's nose was big and spherical, and looked like a snow globe with a twirling nebula inside it.
"Welcome, welcome everyone!" The clown spoke as he bowed forward, lifting his top hat. As he did it, his pants fell down, revealing a pair of boxers with red hearts stamped on it. "Oops!" Again the audience laughed. This delighted the clown.
"I'm Bonbon! The clown of a thousand tricks!" The clown presented himself. "And this night, you all will die laughing!" The Audience started laughing once again.
Lincoln winced again. His pale skin had several burns and gashes. He was on the bathroom, cleaning his wounds. Sparing with the Mysterians to test their new weapons was a bad idea, now he had to patch himself, hiding in the bathroom from the meddling of his sisters. He really didn't got patience that night.
"Come on Stinkoln! You're already there for 2 hours!" Lynn Said, banging on the door. "What are you doing there? Did you slipped and hit your head or something? You're a ghost, you'll be alright!"
"Just a minute!" Lincoln spoke, putting sanitizer on his last wound. He winced loudly.
"What was that?" Lynn spoke. "I heard you wince!"
"Uh..." Before Lincoln could do something, Lynn kicked open the door, making the boy yelp. "LYNN!"
"OH MY GOD! Lincoln, you're hurt!" Lynn gasped, pointing to the gashes on Lincoln's body. The boy rolled his eyes. It started.
"Hurt?" Luna popped her head inside the bathroom, followed by Lori, Leni, Lucy, the twins and Lisa.
"Oh. My. Gosh! He's hurt!" Leni gasped barging into the bathroom and scooping Lincoln in her arms and poking the wounds, making Lincoln groan with pain. "These wounds look bad!" She spoke, still poking the wounds.
"Leni! Stop poking Lincoln's wounds!" Lori said grabbing Lincoln from Leni's arms. "And grab the bandages!" Leni nodded.
"How did you got this hurt anyway? Another ghost fight?" Asked Luna inspecting the wounds, thankfully for the boy, without touching them.
"No... I was sparing with my friends with the equipments Lisa developed." Lincoln explained. The girls turned to Lisa. Leni started to bandage Lincoln's wounds.
"Lisa, what did Mom and Dad said about creating weapons?" Lori scowled, crossing her arms. The toddler started to sweat.
"I... Uh... You see eldest sibling, I mean, Lori..." Lisa stuttered twirling her feet.
"I requested them Lori." Lincoln spoke up. The eldest Loud child looked back at him. "I am leaving the ghost hunting to my friends, I requested Lisa equipments that would help them. I even gave the amulet to Clyde." Lori sighed.
"We'll talk tomorrow... It's too late for me to get mad." Lori spoke. "Come on, everyone get ready to bed! Now!" She demanded. "Not you Leni." The second oldest sister stopped, as she had abandoned the job of bandage Lincoln. "Finish bandaging Lincoln first!"
"Oh, right!" Leni spoke as she returned to continued bandaging Lincoln as Lori started walking away.
"Did Luan returned from her date?" Lincoln asked. Lori stopped on her tracks.
"Now to think about it... No." She said.
"Weird. Didn't Mom asked her to not be back late?" Asked Lincoln.
"Did she left a message or something? Like, telling that she would be late?" Leni asked.
Lori shook her head.
Lincoln pursed his lips. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"I also have." Lori spoke.
"Lori. Do you know where is the circus where Luan and Benny went?" The boy asked. Lori nodded.
"It's right at the outskirts of the town."
"Then, As soon as Leni finish bandaging me, I'll go see if they're alright."