I just realized that I haven't written the titles to the previous chapters... I'm kinda dumb sorry...
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c1crafordbrian17: dude... Is everything all right over there?
Jim Darney The Weird Fictionis: I'm glad you think so about my written English, I put a lot of effort with my translations and when I don't do a good job translating this shit I hope you help me to improve, remember I'm open to constructive comments... or comments in general...
FanFiction have an option to translate the stories? lol i didn't know that
04-. Responsibilities
"Okay... THAT WAS EPIC!" Lincoln exclaimed in amazement at the escapist maneuver. Thanks to the enhanced intelligence of the champion's body, he knew that the throne was connected to one of the many spiritual realms that existed, so what he had just seen was truly the most stylish suicide in the history of suicides.
Now that he knew how the champion's powers and had the rest of the afternoon free, two priorities formed in his mind: the first was to show off his abilities to a friend and the second was to find a new name that didn't belong to any publishing house... one that was suitable for the best superhero in history and that wouldn't bring him any lawsuits for copyright infringement.
The problem was that his best friend now hated him and he did not have such a good relationship with his others friends that he would trust them with a secret as serious as this one. A single name was drawn in his mind, he was certain that a visit to Ronnie Anne would serve to fulfill both priorities, plus he would use the occasion to impress his "lady friend".
He followed the instructions the sorcerer had left him:
«Lincoln, you can always travel from anywhere to the Rock of Eternity whenever you want, just remember that you must first be underground. The shortcut also works to travel from the Rock to any location you wish... but you will always arrive at the nearest underground location. »
So he focused on Ronnie, on her home, on her family... on her face. He closed his eyes and shouted "SHAZAM!" when he opened them he was a kid again. He was inside a subway car one station away from arriving at Ronnie Anne's building. To his surprise, he was alone in the wagon. He looked at his wristwatch, it had only been ten minutes since he escaped from the mall!
How would be the best way to show his powers to her? Could he arrive transformed and knock on her window to invite her to fly around the city? No, that idea was too cliché and it would surely make her feel uncomfortable if he arrived too suddenly and unannounced at her house. There was also the option of introducing himself at his friend's apartment as himself, relax the atmosphere a bit with small talk, and when they were in confidence convert into the champion in front of her eyes, yes! She would surely have a lot of good and original ideas for a new superhero name. It was decided then.
He prepared in his mind a flattering phrase to greet her when he saw her opening the door, Ronnie always said she didn't like those details but Lincoln was very aware of those little blushes that she tried to hide every time he paid her a compliment, he remembered that Mrs. Rosa called that "chivear".
Doing a bit of an effort he managed to get off at the crowded subway station that left him a few blocks from the house of his girl... friend. In front of the box office window, which acted as a mirror, he tried to comb his unruly locks. And just as he was coming out of the subway station, he bought a whole pack of chewing gum from a peddler.
He was walking confidently down the sidewalk, chewing two sticks of mint-flavored gum and repeating in his mind his greeting "Hi Ronnie, I was nearby and I wanted to see you..." when the smell of burning plastic and smoke reached his nose. With each step he took, the stench of fire became more pronounced. His heart jumped into his throat when he caught a glimpse of a thick of column black smoke above the buildings ahead of him, running the last stretch of the way he came across the building where his friend lived engulfed in flames. With his mouth open, he felt his hair recover its original distribution, almost as if it were a spring.
"Somebody, call for help!" he shouted in desperation in chorus with others as he helped the people on the first-floor escape from their premises, Lincoln was so frightened that he almost forgot that he was the help that was so desperately needed.
Retreating a few steps, he hid in a nearby alley and shouted his word. A great flash of lightning hit him right in the chest, the boy felt full of power again, it was so much that he felt himself bursting. Running in his new form he was back in a jiffy to the burning place, if anyone noticed his appearance they didn't stop long to ask him questions.
His first impulse was to enter through some door or window and help the few residents to get out one by one, just like in the movies. Luckily Solomon's intelligence acted before instinct.
With his bare hands, he snapped in two the bundle of wires that provided electrical power to the building.
Then, this being the first time he flew, he soared up to the top of the construction, hitting with his hands and feet he made some holes scattered all over the roof, after removing some debris that got stuck on his legs and forearms he carried on his shoulders the large water tank that supplied water to the entire building and carefully poured its contents, trying to fight the flames from above.
The improvised maneuvers worked very well; most of the flames had been extinguished or reduced, and now he could get the trapped tenants out.
He found only six people still inside: four guys in black tuxedos and sunglasses that Lincoln had not seen ever before, the cousin of Ronnie Anne's with syndrome, and María, his friend's mother. With tears in his eyes, he left her directly in one of the ambulances that had just arrived, since Mrs. Santiago looked badly wounded, when Lincoln found her she was unconscious and part of her body was on fire. Her nephew had barely been touched by the fire, the fat boy had locked himself in the bathroom with all the water faucets on.
He was searching with his eyes for Ronnie's face among the hundreds of faces that had gathered in the street to see or mourn the tragedy, doing so was difficult with so many people moving continuously. In the end, he managed to recognize a few faces, some of which were the uncles and cousin of Anne, but there was no sign of the girl who mattered most to him.
He would have stayed to look for her had it not been for a question that CJ had thrown at him and had been taken up by the other people, who kept repeating it louder and louder and surrounding him in a tight human circle "Who are you?"
They repeated more and more insistently the same question until Lincoln was forced to answer, in the distance he caught sight of a billboard of protein and sports supplements.
"Call me... Thunder".
-o-
He eventually had to fly away from the scene before he could find Ronnie, as the firefighters and police placed more importance on questioning and arresting him rather than finishing putting out the fire or helping the injured.
He had certainly not imagined the afternoon like that, in the morning he only planned to steal some money from one guy... maybe two, buy a present for his baby sister and that was it. Not even in his craziest plans was there anything about getting superpowers and saving a whole building on the same day.
The sky was already beginning to darken by the time Lincoln reached Franklin Avenue, he was tired both physically and mentally. Perhaps he would lie down for a while before preparing dinner for eight sisters.
Hiding between two large garbage cans, he spoke the wizard's word and returned to his true self.
As he unbuttoned his coat he knocked on the door with a beat that his grandfather had taught him, a minute later Lucy opened the door only to immediately slam it in his face. Annoyed by his younger sister's rudeness he knocked again, this time without a tune.
No one opened the door.
Almost on the verge of a tantrum, Lincoln was about to kick the door down if necessary when his sister Luan peeked over the edge. The white-haired man almost hit her forehead by accident.
"Hi Link, come in," with a smile she opened the door fully as she turned to scold the goth. "Lucy, there was no scary man at the door, only our Linky."
"I'm sorry brother, I thought I saw someone else... please excuse me," Lucy said goodbye, letting out another of her emblematic sighs. "Sigh."
With a literal and grateful sigh, Lincoln crossed the porch and entered the warm home. At last, some peace, he could enjoy it for a few minutes until his sisters told him they were hungry. He left his cap and snow boots by the door, hung his coat in its assigned space on the coat rack, and as he was putting a barefoot on the carpet, his joker sister stopped him.
"Lincoln, come to the kitchen for a moment, Luna and I want to talk to you."
"Lu, right now I'm a little tired, can we talk later?" The white-haired man already imagined that it was another talk about cutbacks and monetary deprivation, he was very tired of those talks.
"COME TO THE BLOODY KITCHEN, NOW!" Luna's shout cutting off Luan's answer, the problem should be pretty serious if the always permissive and relaxed Luna was yelling at him like that.
Without wasting any more time, both siblings headed for the kitchen. Before Lincoln crossed the dining room, he realized that the three of them were the only ones on the ground floor of the house.
Nervously, Lincoln walked over to the small circular table in the kitchen and sat down next to Luan, their older sister standing with both hands resting on the sink did not turn to see them.
"Lincoln, what did you do today?" asked the rocker seemingly on the air.
"Today? Well, I went to the arcade for a while…" Lincoln got a little more nervous as he tried to remember the excuse he had told his older sisters to let him out this time "I had already told you I was going out with Clyde to play…"
"We know you haven't spoken to Clyde in quite a while," his big sister still wouldn't look at him. "Howard told us a few months ago, only Luan and I hadn't made a big deal out of the comment."
"That's right," Luan said, "Then we thought, 'So what? It must be because of a new friend that Link doesn't want to introduce us to yet.'"
"Well... you see... I haven't gone out with Clyde 'cause..." the sisters had taken him by surprise, and his mind was failing to find a pretext.
"I saw you at the mall today..." For the first time, Luna turned to look at him. "And I know what you were doing, or at least what you tried to do."
The brunette's eyes were a little bloodshot and watery, looking as if she would cry at any moment. Startled, Lincoln turned to his side to see his other sister, and although Luan had not made a sound, two tears were already trickling down her cheeks, causing Lincoln's heart to squeeze at the sight of her like this.
"Listen, kid, I don't know what you were thinking at that moment, or maybe you weren't thinking at all, I don't know and it doesn't matter anymore," Luna was struggling not to break down, "but as the authority in the house I forbid you to try doing it again, you don't help us at all by getting into trouble by stealing from people."
Luan did not speak, but to show that she supported that decision she nodded several times silently.
"I didn't want to get in trouble, that thing you saw at the mall is something I do from time to time... but you're right, I won't do stupid things like that anymore."
And he meant it, he would never steal again. Now he had a safer way to get money; as a superhero, he would ask for some bills after helping in some emergency or simply selling pictures of himself once he achieved a certain level of recognition and popular admiration.
Luan, who had been with her hands folded over her chest the whole time let out a sigh of relief and loosened her pained expression at his brother's words. Luna's expression relaxed slightly before she allowed herself a moment of weakness and went to hug her little brother. After all, the boy only did those stupid things because he was trying to help.
A tangy, pungent smell reached her nose as soon as she wrapped Lincoln's shoulders in her arms. Again uneasy, Luna held her brother's head with both hands to smell his hair.
"Dude you smell like smoke... boy, how many cigarettes did you smoke?"
"I what?" Lincoln's hand unconsciously squeezed the pack of cigarettes that rested hidden in his pants pocket. "No Luna, I don't do that, I'm too young to smoke."
"Hey Lunes, don't overextend your role as a responsible big sister either," Luan joked, "remember, we share a room and I've already lost count of the times I've covered your back every time you do things much worse than smoking."
"It's not that, Luan, come to smell, Lincoln stinks and a lot".
Luna had not let go of her brother's head, the pressure of her fingers on the boy's scalp was starting to hurt. With a few taps on the back of her hand; he asked her to stop squeezing his head. Luna didn't let go until she saw her fingertips turn white from the force with which she was holding Lincoln, by way of apology she tried to accommodate her brother's hair with her hands.
Luan didn't need to get that close to smell the smoke.
"Iugh... it's not cigarettes you smell like, you stink like a chimney Lincoln," Luan let out a nervous laugh before looking his younger brother in the eye, the boy's face slightly paler in the scar-free places. "Maybe... maybe some bum lit a fire in the street and Lincoln just passed by, right Link?
"Liam's grandmother asked me to help clean her chimney... since I'm kinda skinny it wasn't too hard," said Lincoln as he cracked his neck trying to get the circulation back to his head. "I... think I'll take a bath."
The albino took advantage of Luan's growing doubt to save himself from scolding. Getting Luna to finally let go, he started walking back towards the dining room and towards the stairs.
"Okay, but make it a quick one, we're starving bro."
As he ascended the stairs, Lincoln overheard Lucy talking with Lisa. Lately, it was very common to see those two spending time together; they had become very close, almost as close as the twins after Lori left for college.
When he reached the second floor he could, for the first time in years, see Lucy sneaking behind the half-closed door of Lisa's room, the dark corner that formed between the wall and the door was the ideal hiding place to scare him. The black-haired girl crouched down held her breath, and as if she were a big feline, jumped from her hiding place to scare her older brother.
Although he had already seen her, Lincoln could not stifle his scream, since for a moment he thought he saw his little sister enveloped in a gray, intense smoke, her skin completely black, as if she was the one who had just come out of a fire.
"Classic," Lisa commented, poking her face around the door frame with a smile as, with some embarrassment, she held up a hand, so that Darcy, who was behind her, could give her a high-five. Soon after, Lucy joined them in celebrating the joke.
Lincoln blinked several times to try to ward off the strange sight. A smell of sulfur hit his nose, as the wizard had told him that was an unmistakable sign of residual magic.
"Lucy!" Lincoln used all his willpower not to scold her in front of the visitor for almost giving him a heart attack. "You'll make me start growing white hair!"
The sisters and Lisa's friend laughed good-naturedly at Lincoln's comment, while in the albino's mind Luan's voice rang out «You should always leave your audience laughing.»
-o-
With a little guilt, Lincoln came out of the bathroom, it had taken a little longer than usual but he really needed a shower. The warm water hitting his back gave him a feeling of security and peace that he would try to stay with for the rest of the day.
"LINCOLN!" The scream of the local diva burst her bubble of harmony, as well as her eardrums. Because of the surprise, he almost dropped his towel.
Slightly irritated by the high-pitched tone his sister insisted on continuing to use when speaking, he turned around to face the blonde.
What he discovered certainly came as a surprise, for in addition to seeing, as usual, the pink menace with crossed arms and a scowl, there was also Lily standing next to her older sister. Both blonde girls shared an annoyed expression and pose.
"It was twenty minutes in the bathroom Lincoln, that breaks our agreement regarding showers, doesn't it Lily?" Lily feeling part of her older sister's games let out a happy smile before nodding effusively, again with a frown. "So if we want to avoid punishment for breaking the rules stipulated at the last sibling meeting, I recommend that you help a certain lovely blonde girl finish her biology homework or else..."
Lincoln already had an ace up his sleeve prepared for when his sister became unbearable, though he had nothing planned to earn Lily's silence. He would have to improvise with her.
"I agree with you Lola, it would be very unfortunate if the drawings that 'a certain lovely blonde girl' made mocking her reached, Mrs. Teodora" Lola's smile twisted a little.
"You have no proof... there are no such drawings."
"Do you want to see the pictures? I keep some on my cell phone, although you'll have to wait a bit to see the ones that will really infuriate your teacher because those are backed up in the cloud," Lola seemed to cringe at the idea. She wouldn't risk her reputation, after all, she had just entered the fourth grade, she had barely been in the group for four months and she didn't want to turn the teacher against her for the next eight months.
"I... I didn't see anything, Lincoln..."
"Good that we understood each other, Lola, and don't worry, I'll make sure Lana helps that lovely blonde girl with her biology homework," he gave her a little tap on the shoulder, "what kind of brother would I be if I didn't care about my sisters?"
Lola gave him a shy smile as she headed back to her room. Well, that was one problem less, now he would have to ensure Lily's silence.
"And you, my Lily-bug, would you seriously delate your favorite big brother?" Lincoln clasped his hands together and made scolding puppy dog eyes, Lily didn't change her expression.
"Yes, you took too long in the bathroom!" Crossing her chubby little arms in front of her little body, Lily turned her back on her older brother. She was annoyed by the little whisper her older siblings shared excluding her.
"My baby girl, don't be like that with me, maybe a little present will convince you..." Lincoln found himself facing his little sister's back. Lily was applying her cold shoulder nicely, "please baby..."
Lincoln began to feel his throat close up. He was more hurt by the indifferent attitude his little sister was taking towards him than the possibility of her tattling on him, he felt on the verge of tears for losing his baby's love.
"... Maybe I won't say anything if I help my daddy prepare tonight's dinner..."
"Oh, of course, anything for my little sunshine! But first, let me change and we'll get started right away," Lincoln regained his smile and a bit of his calmness when he found his little sister's blue eyes looking back at him. "Tell me, what do you want for dinner?"
"Your macaroons are very tasty," Lily wiped a tear from her favorite big brother's cheek with her little hand, "and they're cheap, too."
-o-
"Lily, here we have the boiling water for our special dish," the little girl handed him two boxes of pasta that she had taken out of the cupboard, "which will be... bow-ties? Lily, you asked for..."
"Daddy Link, we've used the last box of macaroni," Lily nibbled greedily on a cookie. She didn't really help in the kitchen but she loved to hear the way her "daddy" talked alone when he was really focused on something.
"Well... I guess I can still improvise something tasty for you," it took him just a few seconds to adapt his father's recipe in his mind. "Sometimes I overcook anyway."
The sisters, and Darcy who had asked permission to sleep over, had gathered downstairs to watch the boy cook. Lincoln really knew how to hold the attention when he spoke, almost as if he were inside a popular TV show.
"We put a little touch of salt to the pasta and let it boil for only five minutes" although he was not aware of having an audience he kept talking out loud, he always talked to himself, "then we remove all the water, Lily you must be careful with this step, this is very hot."
"Yup, I'll be careful daddy," Lily, like all the girls hiding in the dining room; was on the edge of her seat, salivating with anticipation.
"We prepared another pot with some butter... well there are quite a few of us so I'll use a GOOD amount," exclaimed Lincoln emptying the whole 500 grams package into the big pot, "I recommend using the unsalted kind, Lisa doesn't like us to eat too salty things."
Steam and a pleasant aroma filled both the kitchen and the dining room, Lincoln was really taking flight.
"Luna loves Worcestershire sauce so here goes a splash," Lincoln poured almost half a bottle into the pot as the butter continued to melt over low heat, "and we'll add... what are you doing Lily? Well... I guess just a cup of Milk will do."
Lily had wanted to accompany her cookie with some milk, and although she had barely been giving it sips she had already emptied almost half a carton.
"What are you doing now daddy?"
"This? It's a trick I learned from Dad, these spoonfuls of flour help thicken our base and make it more manageable, although now I have to stir everything very well to avoid lumps," grabbing the pan with one hand wrapped in a cloth and with the other firmly gripping a kitchen shovel, he began to whisk for almost ten minutes.
A little tired and almost out of breath he carried Lily to see the resulting mixture.
"Iugh, Linky looks like grease," Lincoln smiled and put the girl down.
"And finally, we poured our 'macaroni' together with the cheese in the same pot and…" Lincoln let out a sigh, which made all the sisters feel bad, "I'm sorry Lily, the cheese should be cheddar, but there isn't any so I'll try grated cheese, after all, it's a combination of different cheeses, sorry."
The little girl had to hug her brother to get his mind back to the kitchen. They both let a few tears fall, Lincoln for feeling so limited, and Lily for seeing him so affected.
"And now, all you have to do is to season it to taste..."
"Uh-huh... remember that Luan and Lynn are quite fond of pepper."
-o-
The dinner had been delicious, the ten people gathered at the table momentarily forgot about the monetary problems they were going through as well as the empty chair that should not be empty.
One by one, each sister left the table to go to her room and get ready for bed; in the end, it was Lynn who had to stay last to wash the dishes after losing in rock-paper-scissors to Luan.
Lincoln had already tucked Lily in. Ensured that Lisa, Lana, and Darcy brushed their teeth properly. That Lola didn't go to bed with her earrings in. And that Luna and Lucy removed their makeup properly.
When he finally returned to the room he shared with Lily, the white-haired man discovered that the little girl was already asleep. For the first time since he left the bathroom, he allowed himself to express all his tiredness, his body ached and his joints felt stiff.
Fed up with the limitations they were living under, he lay down on the bed without getting into the covers.
He heard his remaining sisters coming up the stairs.
"I'm sure you cheat every time we play."
An energetic laugh was the response to the no longer so energetic athlete.
"My dear Lynnderella, it's impossible to cheat at rock-paper-scissors. It just so happens that I'm so good at the game."
The characteristic silence of the night returned to the Loud house after a few minutes.
PLS write only a little review on this fanfic, don't do it for me, do it for all of those bilingual dumbass all over the world who write some strange fanfics and are ignored...
