Chapter II: Abnormalities

"Bro, that movie was awesome!" Rusty shouted to the skies above, spilling some of his leftover popcorn. The five friends had just left the theater after seeing the movie, and they were feeling the rush. So much action, story, and plot twists they never saw coming, it brought what each of them wanted to see in a highly anticipated crossover movie that they never thought they'd see in their lifetimes. More people funneled out of the theater as the credits rolled, the boys being some of the last to leave.

The afternoon sun had turned to the night sky, a testament to just how long the crossover movie was. For them, it might as well have been too short.

"You ain't lyin' there, Rusty! That space chase scene gave me goosebumps!" Liam said as he shuddered.

"Did you see Lincoln's face during that? I'd thought his eyes would pop out!" Zack laughed, slapping the white haired boy's back.

"Duh, could you blame me? Seeing my favorite characters going all out fighting each other, that was the best movie I've ever seen!" Lincoln excitedly said, remembering what Zack was talking about. It was the climactic first battle between the heroes and the villains in a brutal warzone inside an asteroid belt that brought Lincoln, his friends, and pretty much everyone else in the theater to the edge of their seats. For action junkies like the five boys it was total fanservice galore. They'd be talking about this movie for weeks at school and at home, probably until it came out on DVD and Blu-ray. Then they could watch it over and over again as much as they wanted to.

The small group walked and chatted as they made their way to their bikes, locked up to a chain link fence near a lamppost.

"So what are you guys doing tomorrow?" Rusty asked, unlocking his bike and getting ready to head home. It was nearly eleven at night and they were all feeling a little tired from all the excitement that happened today. "Anyone up for some Super Mario Party?"

The guys all cheered for another hour of fun, but Lincoln knew better.

"Sorry guys, I don't think I can," Lincoln somberly said, making his friends all groan. "It's Sunday tomorrow, that means Chore Day."

Rusty visibly cringed, "Can we get a big yikes for Lincoln here? Poor guy has to do chores for the family."

"And you've got ten sisters!" Liam pointed out as he strapped on his helmet, "I wonder how much junk they gotta toss every week. Cleanup's gotta be brutal."

"Yeah, don't remind me," Lincoln said as he hopped on his bike, "I've got to get home or else Lori will have my butt if I accidentally sleep in on Chore Day. See you tomorrow!"

"Bye Lincoln, and tell Lori I said hi!" Clyde waved his farewells as he and the rest of the friends went one way and Lincoln went the other. It had gotten pretty dark as Lincoln biked his way though the neighborhood. The orange-yellow streetlights illuminated the sidewalks, and very few cars were on the road, giving the white-haired boy a safe trail back home. When he turned the corner towards his house, he saw that the lights were on and Vanzilla was parked in the driveway. Either someone was staying up to wait for him to arrive home, or his family was having another late-night fiesta.

As he locked up his bike in the garage and headed for the back door, he could hear people talking. From the distance and pitched voices, it sounded like some of his older sisters were still up. His younger ones must have already retired to bed. Lincoln entered his home, just in time to hear a commotion going on in the living room. Lynn was there, along with Lori and Lisa, which surprised Lincoln since the little scientist was definitely not someone who stayed up late at night often.

They kept on talking, either ignoring or haven't heard their brother making his entrance.

"So let me get this straight," Lori's voice cut through the air with a commanding tone, "You said that while you and your friends were practicing some baseball at the park you literally straight up melted your metal bat? That's impossible, Lynn."

"I'm not kidding Lori! It just went pbbblt! right in my hands!" Lynn argued back, sounding very desperate. She jut out her hands for extra emphasis too. "I was practicing for my home-run swing for the big game this Friday and then all of sudden it goes all jello-like!"

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Lincoln asked as he entered the room, getting the attention of his sisters, "Lynn melted a bat?"

"Uh, yeah! My lucky bat!" Lynn said to her brother. "And nobody here believes me!"

"That's because the melting point of the object of which you speak about, which is made of aluminum, is approximately 1,221 degrees Fahrenheit, or 660 degrees Celsius," Lisa explained to Lynn, pushing up her glasses as she talked, "The average human body temperature is only a mere 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or 27 degrees Celsius. To claim that you melted it by yourself is ludicrous at best. Unless you have proof."

"Oh yeah? Here's your proof!" Lynn reached down to the duffel bag at her feet and brought out the main subject of her ire: her bat. Or what used to be her bat, it was so horribly warped it looked like someone had stuck a handle to a slab of metal lathered with burnt plastic wrapping. Everyone stared at it with wide, shocked eyes. Lynn had been telling the truth after all.

"Oh my." Lisa said, taking the bat in her hands as she closely inspected it, "That is, eh-hem, quite strange."

"Alright Lynn, you melted it. Mind telling us how this happened?" Lori pressed on, trying to figure out what was going on with her little sister.

"Uh, Lori! Hello! Remember when I said that I don't know?" Lynn sarcastically answered back, "Still don't! All I can think of was how I suddenly felt like I was on fire. Like I got a heat stroke or something." She pressed her hand to her forehead, leaning back to try and alleviate her frustration. At the same time Lori pinched the bridge of her nose letting out a gust from her nose.

"A heat stroke? Lynn, that makes no sense!"

As they resumed their arguing, Lincoln suddenly felt the pieces start to connect. All this talk about how strange it was for Lynn to suddenly cause an aluminum bat, something very strong and made to hit hard, was starting to jog his memory. Normally this was cause for some sort of alarm, but for the boy it was something else. The talk that they had earlier at breakfast, about their favorite superpowers.

Could it be coming true?

Lincoln understood that what he was theoretically thinking of bordered on the edge of crazy. Superpowers were the stuff of comic books and CGI-animated movies, not real life. But something told Lincoln that this wasn't just a strange event that happened. Perhaps it was the movie's excitement getting to his head. He'd read enough comics to know when someone was developing powers, just like what Lynn was describing what had happened to her today.

Lynn had talked about how her favorites were the athletically-focused super strength and super speed, but she also had a temper, a fiery one at that. Plus her favorite foods were anything spicy, stuff that would make your tongue cry out. Lynn having fire or heat-related powers could make some sense. Before he could just announce that his older sister had spontaneously grown superpowers out of the blue and face endless ridicule he had to have some sort of proof. Not like the bat in Lisa's hands. He needed something a little more.

"Wait a second!" Lincoln shouted, getting their attention, "Lynn, you said that you melted the bat. When you were playing baseball, when did that happen?"

"When I felt like I was having a heat stroke. Why?" Lynn wondered what Lincoln was trying to get at this.

"Call it a hunch. Hey Lisa," He began, "Have you tried to take Lynn's temperature?"

The scientist suddenly looked like she'd been slapped, "I hadn't! Gosh, how foolish of me!" Lisa rushed upstairs to her room, dropping the bat as she did which Lynn put back in her duffel bag.

"What would taking my temperature prove?" Lynn pondered to Lincoln, who was internally hiding his growing excitement.

"Well you were talking about how you felt like you were burning up at one point. Maybe you're coming down with something." Lincoln replied. Something like superpowers, as insane as that sounds. Lisa returned with a thermometer in hand.

"Stick this underneath your tongue, Lynn," Lisa popped in the small device into her sister's mouth, "This will accurately record your temperatures that your body held for the day."

"The entire day?" Lori asked.

"Well, more akin to seven-to-eight hour periods. The human body's internal temperature is more than often very stable unless afflicted with colds, illnesses or worse," Lisa explained, noticing that Lynn's eyes had grown wide with with horror at her sister talking about disease. Lisa was quick to disperse her sister's feelings, "Don't worry Lynn, I doubt that anything serious has happened to you over the short span of a couple hours."

Beep!

"Huh, that was quicker than expected." Lisa said, gently grabbing the device from Lynn's mouth and viewing the small holographic screen.

"Well? Anything weird?" Lincoln asked with a bit of a rush, standing on the balls of his feet.

"What's up with you?" Lori noticed that Lincoln was acting giddy for some reason.

"U-Um, uh," Lincoln sputtered after he was caught, but thankfully he was saved when Lisa decided to speak up.

"Your temperature readout is displaying normal levels, Lynn. This goes for every hour from approximately twelve-o'-clock to six in the afternoon, about the same time your baseball dilemma ended." Lisa explained, wiping the spit-covered part of the thermometer with a clean paper towel. Lynn gave a sigh of relief. No signs of anything harmful in her body, that was a good sign.

Lisa turned her attention back to the melted bat laying on the floor and picked it up, "Though this mystery still confounds me. I will look into this briefly tonight, but not completely. I will have answers tomorrow since it is getting late. As someone of my age, staying up this late is detrimental to my sleep schedule."

"Lisa's right," Lori said, "We should literally get some shuteye. It's nearly midnight."

"Yeah, but I got a question for Lincoln," Lynn hopped off the couch to face her brother, "Why were you acting so excited all of a sudden? Do you want me to get sick?"

"No! W-Well, I mean..." Lincoln rubbed the back of his head, feeling some sweat emanating from his skin as he flushed in embarrassment, "It's silly, really. Kinda stupid. Totally not worth getting into, no no! Heh heh..." He made a big, unassuming smile, trying to desperately cut the conversation down.

It didn't work.

"Right," Lynn raised an eyebrow, and so did her sisters. Lincoln was pretty bad at keeping a lie and it was clearly showing. He had something else on his mind, and now they were interested, "Just tell us what you're thinking Link. Now."

"Okay, fine," Lincoln slapped a hand on his forehead, mentally berating himself for being such a dork. He explained himself, preparing for the worst, "I-I thought that, y'know, since we had that conversation this morning, a-and you kind of turned your bat into a puddle, plus the whole heat thing, that you were getting a superpower."

Lynn didn't even bother reacting. Either it was too late and she was tired, or it was so expected of her comic book-loving brother that she wasn't surprised at all. Lori on the other hand burst out laughing and Lisa simply made a frown.

"Superpowers? Really Lincoln?" Lynn pressed with a high amount of sarcasm, "Those movies are messing up your brain dude."

"Hahaha! Oh Lincoln, you silly goose," Lori finished laughing and rubbed Lincoln's snow white hair, "Was that why you were acting so excited about? You thought Lynn was growing superpowers? That's literally the funniest thing I've heard all day."

"Perhaps you should take a break from intense science fiction fantasies, elder brother," Lisa said, "Or maybe you're just tired. Either way, now would be a good time to head to sleep."

"Same," Lori stretched out her back with a yawn, grabbing both Lynn's and Lincoln's shoulders as she ushered them up the stairs with Lisa closely behind them, "C'mon comic boy and power girl, time for bed."

"Ain't Power Girl an actual character?" Lynn asked.

"Yeah, she's the Supergirl of Earth-3. She's also kind of like Superman, plus she's also got the biggest-"

"Go to bed, Lincoln."

...

As the night continued, the house had finally settled into a slumber. The hallways were as quiet as can be, except for the occasional snore coming from one of the rooms. Yet Lynn Loud felt no such rest. Ever since she had put on her pajamas and wished her brother and sisters a good night, she had been tossing and turning in her bed. She hadn't caught a single wink of sleep, and she was getting frustrated. Her body felt like a furnace, and the cool temperature of the room wasn't helping her at all. Right now all she wanted to do was catch some z's but this nightly hot-flash that she was getting prevented her from doing so.

"This is stupid," Lynn growled, as quiet as she could to not wake Lucy from inside her coffin. Right now she'd discarded her blankets to try and sleep in the open, but that still hadn't worked. She hopped off her bed, wiping away the sweat from her cheeks. As quietly as possible she tip-toed to the bathroom, not wanting to grab attention. Thankfully the coast was clear and she made it inside, locking the door.

Lynn twisted the cold handle on the sink as far as it could go, letting the bowl fill up before she splashed her face with ice-cold water. Still this damnable heat would not go away. It was like she was burning up, but she didn't have a fever as far as she knew. Lisa had made sure, right?

Her mind brought back to what Lincoln had blabbered about not too long ago. Sure, she loved her brother with all of her hard heart, but sometimes he could be a real goof. The thought of her growing a superpower just made her get even more anxious, and annoyed. The last thing she needed keeping her up at night was Lincoln's voice telling that she had a superpower now. It was getting on her nerves.

Yet something was nagging at the back of her head. What if her brother was right? There was the whole melted bat issue that happened yesterday and she was pretty sure that fevers don't liquefy aluminum objects. The small factor that maybe Lincoln was indeed correct was only helping to amp up her anxiety. She knew that if she thought too hard on it then she would definitely think that it was true. Lynn doused her face with more water, faster this time to keep those thoughts out of her head to calm herself down, that this was nothing to be scared about. Lynn looked in the mirror to see her cheeks flushed in red both from the heat and some anger.

"Stupid Lincoln and his stupid comics," Of course Lincoln had to go see that movie with his friends. Now he was probably all hyped up that his sister now had some ability that he thought was cool, that darn nerd. Lynn swore if she heard anything more about superheroes or any of the sci-fi junk she was gonna knock some sense into Lincoln all the way till next week.

Lynn was tossed out of her inner thinking when she heard the doorknob wobble. The sporty Loud nearly jumped out of her skin. The last thing she needed right now was to get spooked this early in the morning.

"Hello?" A soft voice that Lynn identified as Luan said through the door, "Is someone in there?"

"Luan?" Lynn opened up to see Luan standing about, looking a little scared herself, "What are you doing up so early?"

"I'd ask the same to you," Luan made her way into the bathroom, "Had another nightmare?"

"N-No, not really," Lynn made sure to lock the door again so they wouldn't get interrupted, "I've been having hot flashes all night and I can't sleep."

"Well you're looking pretty heated up," Luan quipped with a soft giggle, "But seriously, are you coming down with something?"

"No, I don't feel sick," Lynn said back, "I just feel like I'm burning, like I'm standing in the middle of the desert. Lisa already took my temperature and didn't find anything, so I don't know what's going on with me. So what about you? What's gotten you so scared?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Luan answered, and it was then Lynn noticed that something was off about her sister. Ever since she walked in she had been hiding her left hand behind her back. Lynn could only imagine that Luan was going to prank her, but she'd never do it this early in the morning. So what was she doing here?

"Really, then why are you hiding your hand?" Lynn pointed out, and Luan looked like she'd just been found doing something naughty.

"N-No reason. No reason at all, Lynn." Luan said with a wavering smile. Lynn saw clear through her horrid attempt to dissuade the topic.

"Yeah, okay, show me your hand." Lynn crossed her arms, not in the mood to deal with any more guessing games. She'd had enough for one day and night with her brother and she didn't need it with the resident jokester.

"Okay but," Luan took a deep breath, steeling her nerves, "you promise to not freak out if you see?"

"Luan I don't think any of your pranks can be that-"

Lynn stopped herself cold when she Luan slowly revealed what she was hiding. For the record Lynn had seen plenty of creepy, unsettling stuff as her time, primarily coming from as Lucy Loud's roommate. She'd been dealing with talks of vampires, poems of the eventual end of times, and attempted rituals to summon monsters since they had become roommates. Lynn had thought she'd seen it all, but tonight Lynn was starting to question if there wasn't a single thing over the past day that wouldn't surprise her.

Lynn stared directly at Luan's hand, or rather what was happening to it. Her hand had turned semitransparent, almost like someone had it cropped out and turned the opacity down. It was so strange and so off that it took Lynn a moment to even create a response.

"B-B-Bwuh?" Lynn sputtered, eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"That's not even the worst part," Luan muttered, and reached over with that translucent hand of her's to grab a towel, only to miss. Only she hadn't missed. Her hand had gone through the towel like it wasn't even there, yet her hand remained unaffected despite being changed. Luan did it again, and Lynn felt like she was going to pass out. First her bat, now Luan's hand was passing through something that she should be touching, and it was then that her sister saw something that spooked her as well.

"Lynn, y-your hands are..." Luan pointed a shaking finger at Lynn.

It was becoming a bad omen for the sister's hands tonight. Lynn slowly looked down and saw what was happening. The veins coursing through her skin were glowing red-hot, like little rivers of lava underneath the flesh. She could feel just how hot it was, even if it wasn't even affecting her at all. The air around them was distorting from the heat. That wasn't the only thing that had suddenly happened. The transparent effect that once took over Luan's hand had spread all the way to her elbow, causing her arm to be almost completely see-through.

"Luan?" Lynn whimpered. The anxiety and annoyance that she once held had turned to fear in a matter of moments and it was now reflected in her trembling voice. Luan looked her sister in the eyes when she spoke.

"What's happening to us?"

...

Elsewhere...

The endless rain downcast its torrential deluge over the smooth, soaked wastelands of this cold world. A bolt of lightning struck a rocky outcrop jutting from the earth. It seemed it was pouring ceaselessly for days on end, as if trying to flood the entire region. In the midst of this storm, a scene was unfolding with three unknown figures in the pouring dark.

For today, rain was not the only thing that was pouring.

"That doesn't look good." A feminine voice said from the darkness. "You know you're beaten. People like you should know when to quit."

"I know what you two are doing here." Another voice said, hacking out blood as she talked. She grasped the bleeding wounds with her hand, attempting to stem the lacerations on her body. A pool of red liquid grew beneath her as she tried to stand up and fight, but she had no strength left in her. The two of them had seen to that. Her raven-black hair clung to her face in the dampness of the rain, "After what you did to my friends?! I'll never surrender to the likes of you!"

"I think you are," A third, final voice popped out, this time a male with a deeper, mechanical tone, "Unless you want me to finish the job, starting with your head."

Through the deep blue-black haze of the endless storm she could see a pair of eyes looking down at her. One was a lime green, the other a hellish yellow. The green eyes she could tell were reflecting off of her retinas like little circles while the male's eyes were tiny orbs, glowing from robotic origins. They hung in the rain like fog lights of death casting over her. The male voice reared back his left arm, revealing a serrated blade, and would have thrust it deep into her heart only for him to suddenly stop himself from impaling her.

"What's going on?" The female voice asked as she watched her comrade turn back to face her.

"My ship just picked up a high frequency relay," He responded with a finger on his head, "Containing an encrypted message from beyond this galaxy."

"From who?"

He slowly replied, "From her."

The female voice instantly knew what he was talking about.

"Another hunting job? Sounds like fun." She humorously said.

The male voice let out a hum. "We're done here. Let's go." He said as the two of them began walking away to head back to their corvette hidden in the mountains, but not until the female voice turned back to see their target still there, wondering if they had decided to unintentionally spare her from the same fate as her friends.

"Um, aren't we forgetting a certain someone?"

"No, I haven't." He responded in a bone-chilling tone, and a soft whir came from his right arm, revealing the ominous orange glow of a cannon's mouth pointed right at their target, aimed right at her head. It was bright enough to be reflected off her terrified eyes, knowing it was the end.

It was the last thing she saw before a sudden flash of light, and then darkness.