This story is written in collaboration with Von the Unstoppable. I tweaked it a bit, but the prompt was still his.
Chapter 1
Lincoln was a sixteen-year-old high school junior when the crime wave hit Royal Woods. A kingpin that had been driven out of Detroit had found a new home for his gang, and they robbed, molested, dealt drugs, and outright destroyed wherever they could. They corrupted the police force, too, so the authorities were ignorant at the best of times and supportive at the worst. For the safety of their loved ones, the Louds expanded Lisa's bunker to shelter themselves and a few other families (fortunately, Lori and the Santiago family were safe and sound in far-off Great Lakes City).
Slightly before these incidents, Lincoln managed to find himself a girlfriend, a dark-skinned Thai-American girl named Jenny. He loved her very much, and was an amazing big-brother figure to Darcy, Lisa's best friend and Jenny's younger sister. He swore that he'd give his life to protect her. Now, a year later, it seemed like he'd get to make good on his promise.
...
Seventeen-year-old Lincoln and his friends Jenny and Clyde were all in their biology class at school when gunshots were heard coming from down the hall. Being fiendishly clever, he had prepared for a situation like this. While everyone else scrambled for a hiding spot, he calmly drew a small plasma blaster (made by Lisa) from his waistband. The idea was to buy enough time for his classmates to escape out the windows without getting hurt or killed in the process.
"Everyone out the windows. I'll hold them off," he said, turning off the blaster's safety and crouching within point-blank range of the door. A man that was armed to the teeth came into view, and a loud zap was heard as Lincoln hit him in the forehead with a red bolt of energy. A second soldier was right behind, and Lincoln dropped him, too. The second soldier must have called for backup, because more and more started coming. Before long there were too many, and Lincoln was forced to fall back just as the last student slipped out the window and onto the lawn.
Lincoln jumped out the window himself and fired several shots as gangsters began to pour out the main doors. The blaster's battery clip ran out of juice soon after, and Lincoln resorted to Lynn's martial arts lessons, delivering blows with deadly accuracy. Despite his slender frame, he was far stronger than he appeared at first glance, and used that to his advantage. Having thus perceived him as the biggest threat, most of the attackers switched their attention to the white-haired demon that was seemingly dropping their men with little effort. Lincoln made sure to keep close enough quarters to make their firearms useless, sometimes using his adversaries as human shields against the ones that were farther away. A scream made him turn his attention to Jenny, who lay flat on her back, pinned under a man that was trying to tear open her clothes. Slashing the throat of his current foe with their own combat knife, Lincoln hurled the weapon hard enough to pierce the temple of the man on top of his girlfriend. Running to her side, he pried the dead man off of her and pulled her to her feet. Bullets and other projectiles whistled past as they ran into the woods to join the others.
These gangsters (or whatever they were) were a strange bunch. The majority of them had guns, but many preferred hand-to-hand combat and were also armed with knives, machetes, axes, and short swords. A few even had crossbows and makeshift spears. Clyde ran up to Lincoln and Jenny just as they reached the clearing that was the designated meeting place.
"The teleporter's ready. Let's go!" he said. In the middle of the clearing sat a glowing blue circular pad that was also of Lisa's invention. The surface was about a foot off of the ground, and the sides were covered in hoses, wires, and diodes. The rest of the class stood on the pad and cheered their friends on. Lincoln, Jenny, and Clyde all jumped onto the surface of the pad just as a computerized female voice began the countdown.
"Cross-dimensional transportation commencing in ten...nine...eight...seven..."
A man armed with a fisherman's harpoon gun ran into the clearing and took aim straight at Jenny. He pulled the trigger right as the countdown finished, enveloping everything in a blinding blue flash.
...
Most of the class had been sent to smaller but identical pads in their individual homes. Lincoln, Jenny, and Clyde, however, landed in the bunker that was their new home. Expanded into a system of tunnels that undermined the whole block, it gave shelter to the Louds, Pop-Pop, Gramps, and the families of their closest friends.
"Boy, I thought that harpoon was gonna hit us for sure!" Clyde exclaimed. "Good thing the teleporter activated when it did, right, Linc? Linc?" Lincoln's only response was a series of gasping, choking sounds. He was bent double, facing away from Clyde and Jenny. When he straightened up somewhat and turned around, his face was the same color as his hair, and the shaft of the harpoon protruded from his stomach. With looks of shock and horror on their faces, the other two teens rushed forward and caught him just as he collapsed. They dragged him away from the pad and propped him against the wall. "Stay with him. I'll go get Lisa," Clyde told Jenny before running off.
"Lincoln, stay with me. Please," Jenny begged with a sob, caressing her boyfriend's face as he shuddered from the trauma.
"H-he was aiming f-for you. I-I h-had to," Lincoln coughed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
"No no no no, don't talk. Save your strength," Jenny told him, her tears flowing freely. "Lisa's coming. She's gonna come, and she's gonna use one of her gizmos, and-" Jenny stopped when she felt Lincoln's hand on her cheek, brushing away her tears with his thumb.
"Jenny, listen to me...I don't think I'm gonna make it. I think the harpoon went all the way through me. If not, then the barbs will do more damage if you try to pull it out," he struggled to say. "If this is the last time we talk, I want you to know that I'd die for you all over again if I could. In fact..." He slipped his other hand into his pocket and pulled out a pair of plain silver rings. "I made these with some jewelry wire that Lisa helped me smelt. Jenny Helmandollar...will you marry me?" Too choked up with emotion to speak, Jenny simply nodded her consent. Clyde and Lisa arrived on the scene just in time to witness Jenny and Lincoln exchange rings and vows, with Lincoln growing weaker with each passing second. "I now...pronounce us...man...and wife..." Lincoln murmured at last before his head slumped to the side and his eyes misted over. Jenny placed one last kiss against his lips, ignoring the coppery taste of the blood in his mouth.
When she pulled away, Lisa walked over and placed two fingers against Lincoln's neck to check his pulse. She gave a sad sigh and used the same two fingers to slide Lincoln's eyelids closed. She turned to the two teenagers and shook her head.
Lincoln was dead.