"Lana? Are you there?" Lincoln ran back to Lynn and Lana's room but found no sign of the little tomboy.

"Oh, no…." he muttered under his breath anxiously.

"Luan?" Lucy came into her and Luan's room but found the comedian to be absent as well.

"No? Not her too?" Lucy said in disbelief. Why would they call Luan to their meeting? They were all mad at her?

"Lisa?"

Lastly, Lincoln rushed towards Lisa's room but was halted at the doorway by Fenton, who was holding a stop sign and had a mute siren light rotating on his head.

"Master Lisa must not be. Disturbed. Anyone who wishes to. Do so. Will be terminated."

Lincoln glanced over the diminutive bot and saw Lisa sleeping on her desk with her translator helmet standing next to her. He saw a blanket covering her and a cup of hot cocoa to her left. It was easy to guess who had put them there.

Lincoln figured that it was a lack of sleep (again) that did this to Lisa, but it played into his favor.

"Fine. Fine." He stepped back in agreement. "Just make sure no one else disturbs her. Okay?" He told Fenton.

"That won't be an issue." Fenton's left hand morphed into a buzzsaw but Lincoln didn't see it, as he was already off to find Lucy. They ran into each other in the middle of the hall.

"Have you found her?"

"No, she must also be in Luna's room by now." Lucy answered, a frown of disbelief forming on her lips. She couldn't believe that Luan would do this…but then again, Luan was just as mad at their parents as the others.

Noticing this, Lincoln tried to reassure her. "Don't worry, I'm sure she and some others might have been pressured into it?"

"I won't pass judgment until I see the evidence." Lucy said stoically. She knew the differences between optimism and naivete. Actually, she hardly believed in the former.

"So what do we do now? I'm sure their room is locked?"

"I'm on it." Lincoln was typing numbers on his phone and pressed it to his ear. "That's where Ninja McGee and his new partner come in."

He waited, and waited but Lynn didn't pick up the call, the beeping just went on and on.

"Uggh!" he looked at his phone in irritation. "Where is she? They should have been back by now?"

"Maybe they stopped to kiss?" Lucy suggested and immediately felt nauseous thinking about such stuff.

Lincoln shuddered but quickly dismissed it. "No way! Lynn wouldn't just forget about her mission, not under any circumstances. Something else must have happened?"

"So what now?" Lucy asked. "Someone has to get to the bottom of this, and there's only you and me left."

"I'm thinking." Lincoln paced.

"How about the vents?" Lucy pointed up, causing Lincoln to stop with a screeching halt.

"Good idea, Luce!" he smiled. "C'mon, I'll give you a boost."


"Maybe we should just tell mom." Lucy whispered as she crawled behind her brother in the air ducts.

"We need evidence, it won't do us any good if it's just their word against ours." Lincoln replied.

That's when she saw him holding up a tape recorder. "But even then, we have to be very discreet about it. The last thing we need is for our sisters to go on a snitch-hunt to vent out their rage."

"Point taken…" Lucy muttered. She preferred being ignored over being the target of her sisters' petulant wrath.

Much to their frustration, they found Luna's room empty, so they had to crawl through the air ducts for even longer until they finally heard their sisters talking.

"What's she doing here?"

"Oh, I dunno? Why are you here? Ain't it nappy time for you!"

"Lana! Luan! Shut the hell up!"

"It's them." Lincoln grew alert and shushed the goth. "Be quiet now. We need to hear this."

They were above Lori and Leni's room. Lucy crawled up next to her brother as he started playing his tape recorder. They looked through the slits of the vent and saw Lori pacing in the middle of her room, surrounded by Leni, Luna, Luan and Lana, the former two seated on Lori's bed and the latter on Leni's.

"Why am I even here?" Luan said crossly. "I thought I was dead to you guys-"

"Will you shut up!" Lori told her flippantly. "This is not the time for petty squabbles!"

The irony, not to mention the utter hypocrisy of that statement was not lost on Lincoln and Lucy, or anyone really whose name wasn't Leni.

"She's right, Luan." Leni smiled stupidly. "Sisters shouldn't fight each other."

"And you say my jokes are bad." Luan scoffed and glanced aside. Lori gave her a death glare.

Lincoln and Lucy feared that she would snap at the comedian, especially given her current state, but surprisingly, Lori managed to reign in her temper and exhaled slowly.

"I called you in, because you deserve to hear this…" she said evenly. "And I do mean all of you. This is an issue that concerns us all."

Once more, she sounded less than genuine and even the youngest sister in the room picked that up.

"Really? Since when did you give a hoot about what I did?" Lana asked suspiciously.

"I second that." Luan scoffed. "And why didn't you invite Lucy then? And Lincoln?"

"And Lynn?" Lana added.

"And where's Lisa? I don't see her?" Leni added, only now realizing the genius's absence.

Lori was clearly agitated. Her left eye was visibly twitching and she pursed her lips, but once more, she managed to keep her cool. Barely.

"I would explain all of that, if you girls would just let me do it…" she said passive-aggressively.

Luan and Lana gave her scolding glares but seemed willing to listen. For now at least.

"Lisa is sleeping in her room…" Lori started "…and we couldn't wake her because? Eh…what was it you saw again, Luna?" she turned to the rocker.

"That…bug-eyed robot-thing she built wouldn't let me in." Luna explained, once more adopting a shell-shocked demeanor. "It had like…lethal weapons coming out of its hands and such? I wasn't gonna poke another crazy beast, man! I don't want to go back to the darkens-"

"That's enough!" Lori raised her hand to shut her up. "She's unavailable, that's what matters. And Lisa didn't seem all that upset with our punishments anyway, so I doubt she will be of much help. She's never been interested in family affairs anyway."

"Like you're any different…" Lucy muttered only to be shushed by Lincoln again, who pointed at his recorder. They needed a clear and audible admission of guilt.

"As for the others…" Lori crossed her arms and adopted a disdain-filled tone. "Let's face it! They are a liability and you all know it. Don't act like you haven't noticed it. Ever since they called for that weird siblings' meeting, Lincoln and Lynn have been acting…..off. I don't know what their deal is, but they've been acting like mom and dad's lapdogs ever since. Asking us to do chores during summer and all that bullshit. Can you believe that?"

She threw her arms up while shrugging. "Maybe they are trying to butter them up for some reason. Maybe Lincoln desperately wants some new game box, maybe Lynn is eyeing some expensive new hockey stick, something that would make them play parent's pet. Whatever it is, they can't be trusted now."

"That's not it." Lana spoke up. "Lynn told me it was because mom and dad are under a lot of stress, and we've been driving them crazy."

"Yes, you already told us that at nauseum." Lori rolled her eyes. "But-"

"Yeah….I've noticed the same thing." Luan agreed but then frowned. "I told you I wouldn't be doing my April Fool's tradition anymore. I swore it off precisely because it landed dad in a lot of trouble with mom and made him look like a cowardly traitor."

"And maybe they are right that mom and dad might split if we continue to cause trouble?" Lana elaborated while shifting nervously and rubbing her arms. Lincoln smiled upon seeing the two standing up for their cause.

"Will you let me have a word! I called this meeting!" Lori interjected before exhaling again to calm herself and pressed her hands together.

"Luan?" she looked at the comedian, trying to smile affably.

"I think I speak for everyone in this family when I say that we very much appreciate your "sacrifice". We are glad that you've seen the error of your ways in regard to your April Fools terroriz-eh tradition." Luan looked at her impassively, trying not to let that "compliment" get to her.

"And Lana?" she turned to the tomboy. "I don't know what crawled into Lynn's head and gave her that awful idea, same with Lincoln, but mom and dad are not going to divorce, that's so absurd it's literally laughable."

Lana frowned. "But Lynn said-"

"She's exaggerating things. You do know what "exaggerating" means?" Lori cut her off. "Yes, maybe mom and dad are stressed, but that's normal for adults. Many of my friends talk about how their parents are always busy with work and stressed-out, but none of them ever divorced."

"Look, I'm not saying that it's a bad thing that you want to make mom and dad's lives a little easier, but look at it from this perspective. You've both been behaving, neither of you had caused any trouble ever since Luan's delayed Prankmageddon."

Lincoln and Lucy saw the comedian visibly wincing upon hearing that word. Both suspected that was the reason Lori stressed the word. She needed to coerce her sisters into working with her, and Luan and Lana were so far showing resistance.

"You've both been good, and so have the rest of us." Lori continued. "We haven't done anything bad. Have we?"

Lincoln frowned with contempt but then remembered that his sisters were suffering from amnesia. None of them sans Luna recalled Lori's unauthorized house party, but Luna obviously wasn't in the soundest state of mind right now, as she was still shifting nervously.

"And how do mom and dad repay you for this?" Lori asked. "They leave you all behind with a sadist babysitter that torments you for days, and then have the audacity not to believe a single word from you when you complain about being tormented and then, to top it off, they punish you for being tormented. No, not just you two, but all of us. Me as well. They punished me, like it was somehow my fault that some thug stole mom's car, and yes, I crashed mine into a tree, but that would not have happened if the two of them hadn't been badgering me while I was driving!"

The room went quiet and all the sisters seemed to be contemplating.

"Luan? That wretch that babysat you? She tied you up and left you in a closet? Lana, she gassed you in your own room? Luna? Leni? She locked you up in the bunker with no food, water or even a bathroom and left you there to rot even after you served your time?"

"She did that?" Leni said in shock, but Lori ignored her.

"After all of that, you think it's fair that you got punished for a crime you didn't even commit?"

Much to Lincoln and Lucy's dread, Lori's words were starting to take effect, like a magic word opening the sesame.

"She's right…" Luna started, taking on a slightly bolder tone. "I'm too old for a babysitter anyway and the only reason Renee punished me was because that crazy bloke wouldn't let me, a 14-year-old, same blinking age as her, go to a concert because she doesn't like rock n roll music!"

"She treated all of us like crap and we probably would never have been punished in the first place if she hadn't decided to go all mopey at the last second, just when mom and pops arrived!"

"That's what I was saying, Luna!" Lori wholeheartedly agreed. "You call this justice! That's ridiculous! What mom and dad did was nothing short of disgusting! Not believing their own children and punishing them on a whim because they happened to be in a foul mood."

"No…" Lana said in a small voice "…Lynn said that happened because we lost their trust. She says it's because we've been bad before-"

"Oh, this again! "Lynn says this", "Lynn says that"!" Lori snapped. "Has it ever occurred to you, Lana, that Lynn is full of shit? That she's only saying that because she has become such a lapdog to our parents?"

Lori spat in disgust. "And to think that I once thought that wannabe-boy had some spunk? Sure, Lincoln is a spineless coward, but I thought Lynn at least had some guts, but I guess I was wrong. Everyone has their prize."

Lincoln felt his blood boiling, but Lucy had it worse. Hearing Lori spout that ignorant slander against her brother made the goth want to use her as a sacrificial lamb in a satanic ritual. If even the devil wanted someone as vile as her?

Lincoln saw Luna carrying a sullen expression as she sighed.

"I hate to say it…but you're kinda right. I asked him to help me sneak out of the house but he refused, even though he knew how important this concert was to me and Sam."

Lucy gripped the bars of the vent. The way her sisters were trying to rationalize their selfish behavior was infuriating. "And what did you ever offer him in ret-"

Lincoln shushed her once more, holding up the recorder.

"Hey, none of you answered my question?" Luan cut in. "Why wasn't Lucy invited! I refuse to be here if Lucy isn't allowed."

Lucy felt an enormous amount of relief hearing Luan standing up for her.

Lori facepalmed. "Because the little creep is even worse than Lincoln!"

"Don't call her that!" Luan scowled. "I'm leaving if you're just going to insult her."

"I'm not insulting her, I'm just saying the truth!" Lori adamantly insisted. "Don't act like it's not true? If Lincoln is a lapdog for mom and dad, then Lucy is one for Lincoln. She trusts him way too much. Whatever he says, she'll blindly buy into it without a second thought."

"That's not true, you don't know her at all!" Luan shot back and got to her feet. "That's it! I'm out of here!"

Her path was blocked by Lori's arm, who grew a nervous expression. "Alright, I'm sorry!" she said hastily. "I should have expressed myself better."

Luan grabbed her arm and glared at her. "I think you expressed yourself quite well!"

"Will you just let me finish! We've gotten way off topic! Can you please just sit down and hear me out!"

Groaning, Luan sat back down and crossed her arms, her expression remaining the same. "This better be good."

"Look, the point I'm trying to make is that what mom and dad did was NOT fair. And I heard you loud and clear, Lana." She cut off the tomboy as she drew a breath to speak.

"But Lynn is wrong and this is why. Have you never heard of "innocent until proven guilty"? What evidence did mom and dad have that you were acting badly or that you abused Renee? Did they seriously not expect her to be at the very least utterly exhausted after babysitting all of you for over two days?"

The others didn't speak up, not even Luan or Lana. "I know the real reason why they did it, because I was there with them this whole time!"

"The only reason they assumed the worst and gave us such a harsh and unwarranted punishment was because they were pissed! They were pissed because they got carjacked and then went through a vehicular accident the very next morning. The long and frustrating police interview in-between probably didn't help."

"If those things hadn't happened, then I guarantee you, they would have been far more reasonable. I don't blame them for being mad, but does that justify them venting out their anger on us and not believing a single word we said?"

Once more, nobody commented. "Of course it doesn't! And this is the main reason I called for this meeting, to figure out a way to convince them to lift this unjust punishment and give us our stuff back…. non-violently of course."

"You're a hoot?" Luan scoffed. "And how do you propose we get them to change their mind?"

"We could ask them nicely?" Leni suggested but was promptly tuned out by everyone. "Maybe say "pretty please"?"

"I don't want to make things worse by causing more trouble." Lana added.

Luna shifted, evidently also having second thoughts. "Dude, you do mean non-violently? They did us dirty but I….I don't want to cause them like…serious grief? Especially not after what they went through?"

"Who said anything about harming them, are you guys insane?" Lori said indignantly. "I was merely talking about finding a way to convince them that they were wrong and that they should give us our stuff back. Persuasion and steering someone in the right direction ain't the same thing as causing trouble."

Luan looked at her suspiciously. "And how are we going to-"

"First things first, are we all on the same page?" Lori asked them. "Do you all agree that we should do something to get my ph-eh I mean our stuff back, fair and square?"

The others talked about it between themselves. Lincoln watched them anxiously. They all seemed reluctant but not exactly opposed to the idea.

"Good." Lori happily jumped ahead. "Now that we have settled that, we can properly discuss our plans at a safer location."

"Safer location?" Lincoln thought.

"Wait? You still don't have a plan, bra?" Luna asked.

"Of course not! I can't just pull a plan out of a hat, this is a delicate procedure." Lori told them. "Plus…"

Lincoln and Lucy flinched as Lori's gaze turned towards the vent for a few seconds but fortunately, it didn't linger there and she surveyed the entire room. "….we can't discuss such matters while snitches might be lurking around."

"Lincoln wouldn't snitch on us?" Lana said innocently.

"I don't know, man." Luna shook her head sadly. "I don't know who to trust anymore?"

"There's no time to think about that." Lori told them with clear urgency in her voice. "All of you, just think of an excuse for why you need to leave and meet me at Burping Burgers, I will wait there with my car. Then I'll take you to our secret meeting place."

The others exchanged glances.

A confused Leni spoke. "But Lori-"

"Go! Now." Lori demanded. "Get your butts out of here and met me at the rendezvous site! Now get out of here!"

Lincoln and Lucy grew nervous as Lori pushed the others out of the room, seeming to be in a big hurry. Lincoln feared that Lori was on to them.

"Come on." He whispered to Lucy and they crawled away as quickly and discreetly as they could.

After fumbling their way towards the best possible exit, which Lincoln figured would be the basement, they opened the vent there and Lincoln was the first to jump down some seven feet, barely sticking his landing and feeling the impact in his feet. But before he could move, Lucy landed on top of him, crushing him under her weight.

Realizing she was sitting on his back, the goth quickly got up. "Ops! Sorry, Lincoln." She helped him up. "Did you save the recording?"

The place was poorly lit, but they could make out that it was filled with the siblings' various belongings, including Lana's pets, who started vocalizing upon being disturbed, especially the snipes.

"I did…" Lincoln grumbled while straightening his back. "It's vague, but maybe if we showed this to dad and Pop-Pop, they ought to take our side."

"Then why are we still standing here? Let's go." Lucy told him and they ran towards the stairs, but someone turned on the light switch and they halted from the blinding light.

"I'll be taking that!"

The two gasped as they came face to face with Lori, who swiftly grabbed Lincoln's recorder and pried it from his grasp, pulling him forward.

"Hey!" Lincoln cried as Lori pressed her palm against his chest, preventing him from trying to reach for it.

"Nice try, twerps." Lori smirked while holding the recorder above her head. "But I've been using that route before you two were even born!"

With that, she pushed Lincoln back, making him collide with Lucy and hit the floor. Lori turned around and ran up the stairs. "Sayonara, losers!"

"No!" Lincoln cried and tried running after her, but once he reached the door it was closed and he heard a lock. He started twisting the handle but the door wouldn't open.

"No! No! No!" he tried to open it in vain. "Lori! Let us out!" he started banging on it. "You can't do this to us!"

"Oh, contraire monfrair. Aren't I doing it right now?" she huffed smugly before getting serious. "Now listen up, twerps. I'll only tell you this once, so listen good! I'll let you out under the condition that you get your heads straights and cooperate."

"Cooperate?" Lincoln asked as Lucy joined him. "On what?"

"Don't be coy with me, you little sneaks!" Lori retorted. "I'll let you out if you first tell me where Lynn is-"

"You think we'll fall for that!" Lucy snapped.

Lori grimaced in disappointment. "Doesn't look like it, pity then." She shrugged and turned around. "It was worth a try."

"Hey! Come back!" Lincoln banged on the door again. "We'll tell mom and dad!"

"And I'll tell them that you two were spying on me." Lori huffed in return. "It will be your word against mine. So think about that! Ba-bye!"

Lincoln grew a despondent look, knowing they were trapped.

"What do we do now?" Lucy asked him.

In response, Lincoln picked up his phone, desperately hoping his call wouldn't go unanswered this time.


"Where are they? They gotta be here somewhere?" Hank ranted as he and Hawk were surveying the area around a dumpster, next to an intersection.

The two saw a sign next to a traffic light with two arrow marks, pointing towards two different streets. Below the left one, Hawk spotted a red cap lying on the pavement.

"Look, Hank! It's the little creep's hat!"

Hank grabbed it and crushed it in his hand. "Must have dropped it." he growled.

"What are we waiting for?" Hawk asked him. "Let's hunt him down!" he pointed at the road ahead of them.

"Wait!" Hank stopped him. "He's trying to trick us! He dropped his hat there on purpose to make us think he and his loud-mouthed pal went left when they really went right!"

"Are you sure about that?" Hawk asked.

"Of course I am! It's the oldest trick in the book, you dummy! But I'm too clever for that!" Hank insisted while tapping his head, before motioning for his brother to follow. "Get moving! We got him now!"

They ran off and a few moments later, Ryan laboriously slid out from behind the dumpster, his face and clothes sticky, dusty and with flies buzzing all around him. Lynn followed him and pulled their duffle bag along with her, both of them looking no better than Ryan.

"Told you that would work." Ryan chuckled awkwardly.

"Nice job, Einstein!" Lynn snapped at him while swatting away flies. "Now we can add those two oafs to our list of problems!"

"Hey, get off my case!" Ryan shot back. "Those meat-heads wanted to pummel me to a bloody pulp, I had to do something to get out of there!"

"And you had to write "Dumb" and "Dumber" on their bellies." Lynn snorted bitterly.

"Oh, like you're one to talk about being a sore winner, Lynnsanity." Ryan scoffed.

"Doesn't change the fact that what you did was stupid!"

Ryan pursed his lips. "Alright, maybe not my brightest idea, but you didn't help matters by trash-talking them. You seriously thought you could take on those two shaved gorillas?"

"Whatever, we lost enough time as it is." Lynn gave in, knowing it was useless fighting now, and pulled out her phone and turned it on. "We gotta check back on Linc and-"

As if on cue, her phone rang and the caller ID showed just the person she was meaning to call.

"Hello, Lincoln?" Lynn asked.

"Lynn, where are you!" her brother's voice was filled with panic, but she was too frustrated to notice it.

"Where are we? We would have been back a lot sooner if you hadn't called us and blown our cover!" she snapped, much to her brother's confusion.

"Ain't that a classic?" Ryan rolled his eyes. Their first hiding place had been a lot more sanitary.

"Blew your cover? What are you talking about?"

Lynn deflated and sighed tiredly before glaring at Ryan. "Never mind, we got sidetracked. I'll explain to you later."

"Sidetracked?"

"Told you." She heard Lucy's voice too.

"Eh…I don't think I want to know." Lincoln responded back to the jock, making her flush in irritation.

"That's not what happened, you moron! Get your mind out of the gutter!" she yelled before sighing and grumbling. "Those two big, dumb bullies Ryan crossed came out of the blue and tried to beat us up for it, that's what happened!"

"I was defending myself." Ryan insisted indignantly.

"Oh….the two that got fooled by Lyle?" she could hear the relief in her brother's voice.

"Yes, those two, but forget them. What's the status back home?"

Upon hearing that question, a sense of panic returned to Lincoln's voice. "Bad, very bad. Lori's plotting something. She wants to force mom and dad to give us all of our confiscated belongings back. It doesn't sound like she'll give up easily. But it doesn't seem like she had a clear plan on how to do it."

"Figures…" Lynn groaned. "And where are you two now?"

"Lori caught us in the act and locked us in the basement."

"She did what!" Lynn blurted, her blood already boiling. "Ugh! I'll kick her ass when I-"

"Don't worry about us, we'll get out of here. We just need to build a stack so we can reach the vents, but you and Ryan need to track down our sisters! It seems like everyone but Lisa went with her."

"What? Everyone? Even Lana?" Lynn's face fell in disbelief. Lana wouldn't do that?

"Yes! I mean…we don't know for sure how many of them left with her, but all of them but Lisa were at the meeting. All we know is that she told them to meet her at Burping Burgers so she could take them to some disclosed location to further discuss her plan, if she even has one at this point. That's all we know. You can't waste any more time."

Lynn's face hardened. "Fine, we'll try to find them. Try to get out of there as quickly as possible. Good luck, you two."

"You too."

Lincoln hung up and Ryan asked Lynn, "So I take it the two got caught snooping?"

Lynn looked around and saw an empty construction site across the road. Grabbing the duffle bag with her right hand, she grabbed Ryan's arm and pulled him along.

"Care to brief me?"

"Lori found them in the basement and locked the door. He told us to find her. Seems my sisters have some kind of secret meeting away from home. They are plotting to get their stuff back."

"Locked them up?" Ryan frowned. "You do realize this means war? Blondy crossed the line there."

"No, duh." Lynn didn't disagree as they entered the partially-constructed building. "But we'll get back at her later." She explained as she knelt down and grabbed one ninja suit from the bag and gave it to Ryan.

"Now suit up!" she told him while grabbing her own and heading towards a wall.

"Right behind ya." Ryan followed but was stopped by the girl.

"Separately." She told him sternly, stressing the word, causing him to blush in embarrassment.

"Right…right…separately." He chuckled awkwardly and pointed over his shoulder. "I'll be over there."


"I don't see anything." Lynn grumbled impatiently.

"Calm yourself." Ryan told her coolly. "Patience is the biggest ninja virtue."

Lynn gave him a nasty look. "Yeah, yeah. Patience is cool and all, but in case you've forgotten, we're running out of time!" Annoyed, she stabbed her dagger into the bark, making Ryan flinch a bit.

Both were decked in their ninja suits and perched on an oak tree across the street from Burping Burgers, but so far there was no sign of Lynn's sisters. Lynn was growing more anxious with every passing second.

Ryan narrowed his eyes and surveyed the area. "They have got to be here somewhere? Unless….unless, since Blondy knew Lincoln was spying on them, maybe she intentionally gave the wrong-"

"Bullcrap!" Lynn interjected. "No way she's smart enough to do that!"

Ryan gave in. "Alright. I just hope you're right." They resumed surveying the area.

"Uh! I know." Ryan suddenly exclaimed.

"You spotted them?" Lynn asked hopefully.

"Eh…no. But I think I figured out the right code names for us while we're undercover." Ryan explained, much to Lynn's annoyance.

"I'll call myself Dagger." He explained as he pulled the dagger from the tree. "Because I'm a master knifeman! And you, dear partner…" he looked at her for dramatic effect.

"You'll go by Jinx. Because of your superstitions and all."

"I am not superstitious!" Lynn insisted.

"Eh, chill…" he shrugged. "I think it's also the name of that ninja chick from G.I Joe, it's legit."

"Ugh…whatever." Lynn gave in, for she didn't have time to argue about such trivial crap. Not at a time like this.

Her annoyance melted away and was replaced by sorrow. She knew Lori could be crafty if she wanted to, but it was only ever so often that she pulled herself together enough to use cunning instead of whining. And Lynn realized there could be other reasons why they couldn't find her sisters.

"Maybe…maybe we're too late and they already drove off?"

Noticing her subtle but clear distress, Ryan tried to think of a solution to their dilemma. "There can't be many places they could have gone to? Maybe Blondy asked a friend of hers for help?"

"That's it." Lynn agreed. "But who? Who does Lori trust enough to…Bobby! That's who!"

"Nah." Ryan was quick to remind her. "He and his family are still in Great Lakes City, remember?"

"Oh, right?" Lynn deflated, once more losing hope. Things once more became quiet.

Lynn continued pondering, while Ryan scanned the area, trying to spot any clue. Then, his eyes widened.

"Shhhh!" Ryan turned to her. "Look."

"What?" Lynn looked ahead and to her surprise, saw Luan walking past Burping Burgers. Or more precisely, she was angrily storming past it.

"Finally!" the jock smirked under her mask with renewed hope. "The tide has turned."

"I still can't believe she would go along with this?" Ryan said skeptically.

"Luan doesn't remember the ninja thing, right?" Lynn asked him a little too eagerly.

"Huh…eh no, she doesn't." Ryan answered. "Only Lucy does."

Lynn's eye twitched. "What? You jerk, I thought this was our special-ugh, forget it. Let's just get her!"

She grabbed the nearest branch and swung her way down. Ryan did the same and ran after her.

"The nerve!" Luan ranted as she angrily stomped along the sidewalk. "The nerve of those…those…ugh! They thought I would be okay with it! I should have known better!"

Little did she know that she was being shadowed by Lynn and Ryan, who were running along on the roof of the building.

They stopped momentarily to hear what she was ranting about. "That lying, two-faced bitch of a sister!"

"Defiantly talking about Lori." Lynn told her partner.

"And I have a hunch she was kicked out of that meeting." Ryan deduced. "Or she left on her own-"

"Doesn't matter, she'll tell us what we need to know!" Lynn told him, and continued running along the roof. "Once we grab her!" she declared while pulling out her bow staff that was strapped to her back, as she neared the edge of the building.

"Grab her?" Ryan asked as Lynn used the staff to vault herself over to the next building, stuck the landing and resumed running.

Grumbling, Ryan used his staff to do the same and eventually caught up to her as she stopped at the edge of the new building. Looking down, Ryan saw that they had gotten ahead of Luan, who had been halted by the traffic at the intersection.

"What do you mean with "grab her"?" Ryan asked Lynn, receiving an irate glare in return.

"I mean grab her, as in, we'll grab her, restrain her and interrogate her."

Upon noticing the uncertain look in his eyes, an annoyed Lynn jabbed him in the chest with her finger.

"Don't you get cold feet now, you hear me!" she barked. "I thought you were cool with drastic measures?"

"I am." Ryan insisted while pushing her hand away. "It's just…just…" he faltered, causing Lynn to roll her eyes. She couldn't afford to bicker with him now.

"Forget it. I'll do it myself!" she pointed at herself and started running when Ryan grabbed her arm.

"Wait a second!"

"What?!" she glared at him. "Look, Ryan! I won't compromise my mission, just because you-"

"Be quiet, and look." He shushed her and pointed down. "Looks like a new player has entered the game."

Glancing down, Lynn saw her sister walking below them, when she got stopped by a familiar black girl. The passing cars made it hard to make out what they were saying until Luan loudly shouted, "Leave me alone!" as she shoved the other teen aside and stormed off.

"Well, Lynn? Talk about a breakthrough." Ryan chuckled gleefully. "I think we've found Blondy's secret benefactor and caught ourselves a squealer to boot."

"We did?" Lynn was confused and watched Jenny follow Luan, then it dawned on her. "Wait, Kathleen?" she blurted.

Ryan nodded but then realized something. "Oh, shit. This is worse than we thought?

"No kidding?" Lynn grumbled and leaped into action. "C'mon! We can't let her get away!" she jumped and used the rain gutter as a sliding pole. Ryan followed suit.

They landed in the dark alleyway below but before they could get a move on, they heard Jenny coming back to them. Watching her from the shadows, they saw her wearing a "Teens of Tomorrow" shirt and mumbling to herself nervously.

"Kathleen's not going to be pleased with this." Jenny muttered to herself as she passed by the alleyway, so caught up in her own thoughts that she remained oblivious as Lynn emerged from the shadows and snuck up to her from behind.

Before she knew it, everything turned dark for Jenny as a bag was thrown over her head and she was grabbed in a headlock, gasping in shock and squirmed as she was dragged into the alleyway.

"We bagged ourselves a beta bitch." Ryan snickered and pumped his fist as he and Lynn dragged their captive away. What they were doing was very much illegal, but that's what the classy ninja disguises were for.


"Mphpmph!"

Running up to a wooden fence, Ryan pushed one loose board aside and saw the abandoned old caffe he was looking for. Gesturing for Lynn to follow, they slid through the weathered old fence and ran towards the building, carrying a tied-up Jenny along like a piece of luggage, with their duffle bag strapped to Lynn's shoulder.

Putting Jenny down, Ryan used a hairpin to tamper with the lock and the creaky door opened. He walked in and Lynn followed while dragging Jenny by the collar of her shirt, only for Ryan to get caught up in spiderwebs as he led the way in. He grumbled in irritation, while Lynn tried not to laugh.

"Mmmmmph!" Jenny was left on the cold floor, as Ryan peeled the sticky cobwebs off him and Lynn took a moment to observe the dark place.

"Wow? How did you know about this place? I've never been here?" Lynn asked him. "How do you know so many dark and dingy hiding spots?" She then snickered. "Oh, wait? Forgot who I was asking."

"Your words wound me, Jinx." Ryan snorted. "Lyle showed this one to me, or at least he would have in a month or so."

"So, how are we gonna get her to talk?" Lynn walked up to him, creating some distance between them and the squirming Jenny.

"You didn't give me much time to think, but I don't doubt that she's a squealer. The hard part will be extracting the right info." Ryan explained.

"What do you mean?" Lynn asked.

"We can't simply ask her what we want to know, that might tip her off. We got to extract the information in a roundabout way. We got to be sure your sisters are in cahoots with Kathy, and just where their meeting place is. With Kathy, it could be anywhere in town. But what we are doing ain't exactly legal, so we gotta make good use of these disguises. As far as she will know, we are two total strangers."

Lynn grimaced under her mask. She knew what they had done was scummy, to say the least, but then again, she assumed that there was a bit of moral leeway when it came to kidnapping bad people, and cheerleaders certainly fit that criteria.

Putting on a hardened tone, she said, "I thought you said that one needs to get their hands dirty in order to get shit done?"

"You're learning how to play ball." Ryan quipped wryly.

"I learned it before I could walk." Lynn said proudly.

"Then lead the way, partner." Ryan politely gestured at their squirming captive. "This was your idea."

Lynn pulled a flashlight out of the duffle bag. "Wait a sec? How exactly are we going to do this without letting her know who we are? If we can't straight up ask her-"

"I gotta do everything…" Ryan shook his head patronizingly.

"We'll improvise. As we usually do." He explained as he snatched the flashlight from her. "Trust me, once you got them scared, they'll tell you far more than you need to know. Just remember to start the interrogation being all vague and mysterious, let them assume the worst while simultaneously telling them nothing, then let them sing while searching for the perfect angle."

Lynn cocked an eyebrow. "Wait? How many times did you-"

"Lots of times." Ryan adopted a familiar smarmy tone. "Remember, scare her good."

"I think getting captured by ninjas did half the job." Lynn snarked and found a chair, pulled it up to Jenny, and then lifted her and placed her on it. Right then, a flashlight was cast on them, which shook back and forth as Ryan was tying it to a lamp on the ceiling with a piece of rope while standing on a table.

The bag was removed from Jenny's head, allowing her to see. Her hair was a mess and she sweated bullets as her eyes darted in all directions frantically. "Mmmmmphph!"

She turned silent as she saw a masked figure emerge from the darkness, clad in black and red, and….wielding a dagger!

Lynn was trying not to enjoy this too much, but a part of her couldn't help but do. If only they had Kathleen herself tied up and at their mercy. As she had predicted, the costume did half the job, Kathleen's patsy looked petrified.

"Be vague and mysterious…find an angle." Lynn told herself.

Adopting a raspier tone to disguise her voice, Lynn spoke threateningly. "Now listen carefully. We can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way. So I'd advise you not to waste our precious time and start singing."

Grabbing the bandana, Lynn lowered it, but the moment she did that, Jenny screeched at the top of her lungs, making Lynn cringe and shield her ears, while Ryan lost his balance on the wobbly table and crashed to the floor. A few windows cracked as well.

Acting fast, Lynn pulled the bandana back up to silence her, before growling in irritation and leaning uncomfortably close to her with the dagger in her hand.

"Be quiet, or I'll cut out your freaking tongue!" she snarled before being grabbed by the shoulder and yanked back into the darkness.

"Wow, take it easy with the knife." Ryan whispered to her in a strained tone, trying to ignore all his newly acquired bruised.

Lynn tried to jerk her shoulder free, but remembered to keep her voice down. "I wasn't going to stab her." She said indignantly. "I was bluffing. I was trying to scare her like you told me-"

"I know the drill." Ryan grunted irritably as he grabbed the handle of the dagger and wrestled with her over it. "But you need lots of practice threatening someone with a knife if you don't want to cut them by accident."

Lynn swallowed a lump and grew goosebumps, before willingly allowing Ryan to take possession of the dagger.

"Also, you need to ease your victim into the situation with simpler threats." Ryan continued, in a snarkier tone. "Or else you run the risk of making them faint, and then there are of no use to you."

"Alright, Mr. Expert, how about you do it?" Lynn asked curtly, unwilling to admit her foolish and dangerous approach.

"With pleasure." The boy nodded with a cocky tone.

Without another word, he walked past her and towards Jenny. Unlike Lynn, he didn't feel a shred of pity. He figured that if Kathleen's two patsies were even half as bad as her, they deserved worse than this. Bracing himself, he spoke in a more cordial tone, or as cordial as you could be while holding someone hostage.

"Now then, Miss….eh…." he looked down at her nametag that came with the shirt. "…Jennifer Sinclair? Please excuse Jinx over there. He gets a little too excited with the interrogation thing." He explained to Jenny, also deepening his voice.

"He?" Lynn scowled irritably. But they needed to keep their identities a secret and Ryan sure knew how to mislead people by peppering his dialog with trivial lies, much to Lynn's chagrin.

"But as he said, you better be quiet if you want to avoid any unfortunate accidents." Ryan chuckled evilly while fiddling with his dagger, his taste for theatricality ever-present.

"To make a long story short; we are junior Yakuza agents and we are just dying to meet your filthy rich friend, Kathleen Tisdale."

"What's a "yakuza"?" Lynn wondered.

"Now, I assume you can guess why you are here? So start singing." Ryan said ominously as he lowered her gag.

Jenny's eyes welled up with tears and she cried. "Please don't kill me! I have nothing to do with her! I swear! You got the wrong person! She won't pay a cent for me! She doesn't care for me!"

Ryan grew excited, as Jenny just offered him a ton of opportunities to get the desired info from her.

"Eh…yes! We're holding you ransom." He improvised. "Being a close friend of Ms. Tisdale, you should make a great bargaining chip. Unless of course-"

"I won't! You gotta believe me! She doesn't care about me! We're not friends! I'm just an expendable pawn to her!"

Both ninjas squinted.

"Really now?" Ryan chuckled. "I could have sworn you were best friends, given how much time you two spend together, but I guess your relationship is more…professional? I assume the same is true for that Amber girl?"

"Yes. Please leave her alone, we're just humble social-climbers trying to uphold our ranks in the middle school hierarchy." Jenny cried. "That means bowing down to the resident tyrant. But we have no sway with her."

Lynn was growing quite intrigued. "Tyrant? You mean the same girl who has been organizing all those charity events." Ryan gave his partner an approving look, she was learning fast.

"She did that because she got into trouble with her dad. I don't know if she means what she said, about being reformed and all. She never tells me or Amber anything unless she wants to." Jenny whimpered. "But she doesn't care about us, she never did."

"Oh, then who does she care about?" Ryan inquired. "How about that new bunch of groupies she had taken to her hotel? They are all siblings if I'm not mistaken? What was their name?"

"How do you know so much? Have been spying on Kath-"

"I asked you something?" Ryan said in a sing-song voice while letting his dagger reflect the light.

"Louds! They are called the Louds!" Jenny blurted in a blind panic. "I know that name sounds ridiculous, but that is their last name." Lynn seethed with annoyance.

"But I doubt she cares about them either, they are a pack of weirdos and freaks, nobody likes them."

Lynn trembled with rage and barely held herself back from punching Jenny's lights out.

"But maybe she does? I don't know, she seems very insistent on hanging out with them. I don't know why, but she does." Jenny whimpered. "She seems to like Lola, the little one who always wears a tiara and pink dress. She doesn't seem to be a weirdo like most of them."

"Oh, is Ms. Tisdale with them right now, pray tell?" Ryan asked. Jenny nodded fearfully.

"Well, spit it out!" Lynn snapped impatiently. "Where can we find them…so we can grab her for ransom? The brat or Tisdale herself! Whatever works?"

"The clubhouse! Kathleen said she'd meet them at the clubhouse!" Jenny blurted. "They must be there right now!"

"Clubhouse?" Ryan remembered that place. He had stink-bombed it once, in another timeline that is.

"Yes! Yes! It's right next to Tisdale Mansion! Kathleen is probably there right now with them. One of them, Luan, didn't want to go there because she has an ax to grind with Kathleen, a lot of people do, but Kathleen asked me to convince her to reconsider, that's why I was following her, PLEASE JUST DON'T KILL -umph!"

Lynn clamped her hand over Jenny's mouth, once more getting fed up with her shrill whining. "I think you said more than enough. We're ninjas, not serial killers. We have class."

"That's right, my dear." Ryan nodded at their captive. "Our…eh…clients want money, they have no use for a dead girl."

"So you're saying she's good to go?" Lynn asked her partner smarmily and removed her hand from Jenny's mouth.

"I think that's all we need to know, she's of no further use to us." Ryan shrugged before turning back to Jenny. "Just one more thing."

Jenny looked at him fearfully and her pupils shrank. Getting the memo, Lynn leaned in closer and chuckled gleefully.

"You can go, but a little word of advice. You better keep quiet about our encounter if you know what's good for you. Otherwise, I will make good on my threat! Capiche…..eh…sweetcakes."

Her mouth hanging wide open, the terrified teen nodded obediently. Ryan leaned towards Lynn and whispered something to her. Lynn rolled her eyes, but nonetheless liked the idea.

"Thank you for your cooperation." Jenny's eyes widened as Ryan lifted his dagger and swung it at her.

She squeaked in terror and closed her tear-filled eyes, only to feel the ropes around her waist fall off and hear them hit the floor. Tentatively, Jenny opened her eyes and found herself free of her binds and all alone in the dark, abandoned building. Her kidnappers were nowhere to be seen.

Panting heavily and with her heart racing, Jenny didn't waste a second. She fell out of her chair and crawled on all fours frantically before finally gaining her footing and running out of the building. Ryan and Lynn watched her while crouching down behind the counter and stood up once they were sure she was gone.

"Huh, did you hear what she said?" Ryan asked.

"What? That she doesn't care about-"

"Exactly, people tend to show their true colors when they think someone might slice their throat." Ryan explained. "And Jenny there just spelled out middle school mentality in a nutshell, everyone bows down to the resident tyrant. Plus, she confirmed to us that Luan is very much innocent. Blondy probably never told her who their host would be."

Lynn let out a low growl, annoyed that she was wrong, yet at the same time felt somewhat relieved. "Well…..I'm sorta glad I was wrong. I may not like her, but I'm glad to see that she ain't a self-serving bitch, unlike some relatives I could mention. Too bad Jenny didn't know more about whatever Kathleen's game is?"

"Too true." Ryan chuckled. "But speaking of your other sisters? In hindsight, it's no surprise Kathleen got involved, considering who she took home with her last night."

Lynn grimaced. "Of course, figures Lola is in on this too. She's been with Kathleen this entire time and mom and dad did say that they were punishing all of us, they have no reason to cut her any slack."

"Especially since she pushed Renee out of a window." Ryan's tone changed to one of cold contempt.

"Actually, Lucy brought that up but they didn't believe us." Lynn told him. "But it doesn't matter, it's a no-brainer that the second Lola heard about her punishment, she would have agreed to work with Lori in a heartbeat."

"Having that spiteful little beast be part of this conspiracy is to horrifying to imagine." Ryan snorted sardonically. "Both of them actually."

"So I guess we're breaking into Tisdale Mansion now?" Lynn figured and rubbed her eyes. She felt unusually tired, but then remembered her lack of sleep.

"Yeah, sort of." Ryan said slyly. "I hope you're up for a game of "Dodge the dobermen"?"

"Dobermen?" Lynn gulped.


Lynn had never seen Kathleen's home before, especially since until recently (in this case a month or two down the line) she hadn't even known of her existence and the last thing Lynn ever cared about at any point in her life was to hobnob with rich snobs. She knew Ryan had been here at least once, and just like now, he had been an intruder in the guise of a ninja.

The first thing she saw was a large gate surrounded by towering brick walls, behind them she could make out the roof of what she presumed to be the Tisdale Mansion, but Ryan had told her that this wouldn't be their target. Once they were there, Ryan had led her to a patch of bushes lining the eastern side of the wall.

"So what do we do now?" Lynn asked, both of them crouching within the thicket.

Ryan tapped the wall with his fists. "If memory serves, it's here somewhere?" Finally, he found the loose bricks he had been looking for and moved them one by one until there was a hole big enough for one of them to squeeze through.

"So you've been here before? Jenny said Kathleen and the girls would be in her…clubhouse? Not the mansion?"

"Yup. She calls it a "clubhouse" but it's really more of a slightly less expensive mini-mansion. It sure is no treehouse made with duct tape and chewing gum." Ryan said casually. "But firstly, we need to get past Kathy's poochies."

"We've faced One Eye, how bad could this be." Lynn tried to sound brave and tapped the nunchucks tied to her belt.

"One Eye's a whole different beast, but the real danger is them exposing us." Ryan told her as he squeezed his way in. "And besides, I'm not wasting my last pair of nunchucks."

Lynn followed him and they found themselves in another patch of bushes. Peeking out of it, they spotted a huge, luxurious mansion in the distance, with a vast cobbled road leading up to it, with a huge three-tier fountain in front of it, along with palm trees and neatly trimmed hedges and lawns surrounding the building.

"The worst people always get to live a cozy life." Lynn grumbled to herself, though she understood the hypocrisy of that statement. Then again, there was a huge difference between "cozy middle-class life" and "Bill Gates-rich", so she had every right to be envious.

"The big mansion is of no importance, we gotta get into the little one." Ryan diverted her attention to the smaller building standing in front of them. Said building was still a huge, two-story house with a pool next to it, and behind the pool, they saw a familiar car, whose front half was noticeably dented and misshapen.

"That's Lori's car." Lynn's eyes widened. "They're here."

"Yup. And there's one of the angry guard dogs." Ryan said casually, causing Lynn to snap her head to her right and find a large doberman strolling on the lawn and heading towards them.

"Oh, shit…" Lynn grumbled as she pulled Ryan into the bushes. "Now what do we do?"

"Hmmm….if I had known we'd be heading here, I would have brought some doggy treats."

"This ain't the time for joking!" Lynn grew frustrated.

"How about another touchdown?" Ryan shrugged. "Worked on One Eye?"

Lynn hectically looked around for something to throw.

"How about this?" Ryan quipped as held up a dirty, chewed-up bone. "Guard dogs are still dogs?"

Lynn gagged with disgust but took it. Rearing up until her head and torso were above the bush, she adjusted her aim and waited until she was certain the dog was looking away from her. Once the perfect moment arose, Lynn threw it with all her strength. It flew over the doberman and landed into one of the hedges. The rustling alerted the canine and he ran towards it, eventually disappearing from view.

Ryan stood up next to her. "Now, shall we?"

Lynn nodded to him and they both cartwheeled their way towards Kathleen's clubhouse. They crouched beneath a window but found the interior obscured by curtains.

"Can't see nothing. So what do we do? We get through a window or climb-"

"Oh, I thought you loved a challenge?" Ryan told her as he was suddenly holding a rope tied to a grappling hook.

"Fine by me." Lynn shrugged. She did love a challenge, even if she was feeling popped.

"Just gotta warn you. What you're about to see might make you hurl."

"I just touched that mutt's nasty, slobbery, rabies-infested chew toy, I think I can handle it." Lynn insisted.

A few moments later, they were on the second floor, Lynn wanted to hurl as they tried to pass through Kathleen's "dress closet", or more specifically a whole room filled with half a dozen closets, and even they couldn't hold all of Kathleen's old clothes, leaving an entire sea of them covering the floor.

"Ah! All the fashion accessories!" she winced. "Lori and Leni would die from joy if they saw that."

"What can I say, she's a hoarder?" Ryan joked as he held up a cashmere sweater that was half the size of Kathleen's regular wear.

Lynn snorted with disdain. "Funny? It never occurred to her donate all of this useless junk to charity? What's she gonna do with a sweater she wore when she was Lucy's age?"

"Hmmm….almost like Kathy never reformed and is just pretending?" Ryan said sarcastically.

"Really? Aren't you the insightful one?" Lynn scoffed as she walked past him. "Let's get out of here quick. It's a hazard zone filled to the brim with teenybop germs!"

"You're right, I wouldn't want you to get infected." Ryan joked. "Heaven forbid I have to date a nagging, phone-obsessed prima donna like Blondy." A denim skirt was thrown into his face in response.

Finally finding the door, they walked into the hallway, which was covered by a red carpet and much to Ryan's delight, there were no windows here, finally offering him and his partner some shadows to hide in. Ninja suits weren't very practical in daylight. Almost immediately, they heard people talking on the lower floor and the two snuck up to the stair rails juxtaposed to the hallway, kneeling down and listening.

"Now this is the life I was meant for." Lori sighed in pleasure, clad in a bikini and relaxing in a jacuzzi in the luxurious lounge below.

Lynn and Ryan saw Leni, dressed in a teal bathrobe, with a towel wrapped around her head and wearing a facial mask and cucumbers over her eyes, lying on her back on a massage table with a hunky, 20-something masseur in a tight white polo shirt working his magic on her feet. Next to her was Luna, clad in a purple bathrobe and lying face down on her massage table, her head nestled in the face cradle, with another hunky masseur using the tapotement technique on her. She probably needed the therapy more than any other Loud sister at this moment.

"Uhhhh….ddduude….I ttthink I'm regggainnning my sannnnity…" she said in delight, her voice vibrating.

"The bimbo squad seems to be having a good time." Ryan snarked in a hushed whisper but noticed that Lynn was looking away from him.

"What's she doing here?" Lynn grumbled. They both saw Lana sitting on a purple fur chair next to a coffee table. Unlike the others, she was wearing her regular clothes and looked uneasy and confused while watching the tray of sweets that had been placed on the table in front of her. She grabbed a cupcake and munched on it.

"Being in on the conspiracy, it seems. Kathy's exploiting her sweet tooth." Ryan shrugged, though he too had expected better of Lana. "How disappoint-"

"No, there must be more to it." Lynn insisted. "If Luan was pressured into it, then she-"

"I told you girls to stick with me!" They heard Lori bragging. "I doubt any of you are regretting it now."

"Nnnooo rrregretttts….brrra…" Luna gave her a lazy thumbs up.

"Don't give yourself too much credit, Lori." A familiar and very annoying voice entered the conversation. "You wouldn't be here without moi."

Lynn watched slack-jawed, while Ryan suppressed a snicker as Lola entered the scene, decked out in a sparkly pink dress and gloves with sparkling diamond rings on almost every finger, a large feather boa and numerous pearl necklaces, sunglasses and perhaps most extravagantly (which was saying something), her blonde hair had been molded into a towering beehive with a few locks hanging down.

"What the…" a dumbfounded Lynn drawled.

"I bet five bucks that if she grins, she'll have diamonds implanted in all of her milk teeth." Ryan quipped.

Lori looked at the pint-sized wannabe-starlet and rolled her eyes. "Careful, Lola. Any more glitter and you might give us all epilepsy."

Lola huffed. "You're just jealous because I look absolutely fabulous."

"If by "fabulous" you mean looking like cotton candy wrapped in a sparkly towel, then sure." Lana snorted from across the room, talking with a full mouth.

Lola raised her nose and sneered disdainfully. "Who let that unruly yokel in? I thought this was a meeting between civilized ladies."

"Chew on this, powderpuff!" Growling, Lana threw the half-eaten cupcake at her twin, but Lola dodged it and then blew a raspberry.

"You just proved my point." she said haughtily.

"Kiss my butt!" Lana yelled, stood up on the chair and grabbed the straps of her overalls as she turned around.

"Lana!" Lori stood up in the jacuzzi and gave her a scolding glare. "Don't you dare!"

Ryan sighed nostalgically. "Ah, she makes me think of the good ol'days when I used "butt" as an unironic insult."

Lynn looked aside and covered her mouth as she couldn't help but snicker a bit. Not the most classy show of defiance, but Lori and Lola definitely deserved a good mooning.

"She started it!" Lana cried.

"I don't care who started it, I'm finishing it!" Lori declared as she stepped out of the jacuzzi and wrapped herself in a towel. "You promised us! No fighting with Lola!"

Lola snickered gleefully but soon shut up as Lori's glare was diverted at her.

"And you. Quit acting all self-important. For your information, Kathleen is mine-eh….I mean our friend as well, not just yours. We would have been here with or without you. Leni and Luna already had her on speed dial, so you contributed zilch to this meeting. The only reason you're here is because we're facing a mutual dilemma. Got it?"

Lola lowered her shades and glared daggers at her, but her anger quelled as she was given a stark reminder of why they were having this meeting in the first place.

"Wait? Wait? You're not serious about mom and dad punishing us?" she started freaking out.

"What? You were expecting special treatment, princess?" Lana laughed bitterly. "You were the one who pushed Renee out of the window!"

Lori rolled her eyes. "Oh, not that crap again-"

"Oh, I can attest, it's no tall tale, Lori. They are speaking the truth." A new voice entered the conversation.

Ryan and Lynn grew keenly alert as Kathleen emerged from the other room, her hair down and wearing a golden bathrobe. All eyes were on her now, including Luna and Leni's, the latter lifting one cucumber off her left eye. Kathleen was carrying something in her arms, a tiny, bug-eyed dog with long, beige hair.

"I hope your accommodations are to your satisfaction?" the rich girl asked her guests as she walked up to Lana. "And, Lana? I brought somebody I would like you to meet."

She handed the dog to the 5-year-old, who placed it in her lap. "This is Chloe. She's a gift I got from my dear aunt Audrey from Paris."

"That conniving wretch." Lynn lamented. "Exploiting her love of animals."

"Is she okay?" Lana asked as she noticed how Chloe was twitching and squeaking nonstop.

"She's a paragon of health, as the best vets in the state can attest." Kathleen assured her. "She's a chihuahua. They're always twitchy."

Kathleen turned to Lori. "Pardon my curiosity, but tell me? How did you get away with such a relatively light sentence, considering Renee's nasty "accident"?"

Lori gave her an odd look. "Alright? What's everyone talking about? I literally saw her, and besides her horrific hair and lack of fashion sense, she looked fine to me?"

"Fine?" Lola asked, partially confused but also partially hopeful. "You mean….she was all healed-up? Really? Don't toy with me! How?!"

Kathleen raised an eyebrow. She looked at Leni and Luna, but they looked just as baffled as Lori, while Lana awkwardly held on to the chihuahua, being the only one who actually had an answer.

"I must side with Lola." Kathleen eventually broke the silence. "Is there something the rest of you ladies aren't telling us? I was there, I saw her fall out of the window. Admittedly, I felt partially responsible for that unfortunate accident, which is why I offered you to work with my charity group and pay Renee's bills."

Lori, Leni and Luna blinked at her. "Oh, right? You three weren't there. Where were you anyhow?"

"The darkness!" the question spurred Luna into having PTSD flashbacks.

"I was in Paris with Chad!" Leni beamed. "I never saw your aunt though? What a pity."

"I know how it happened." Lana finally spoke in a small voice. All eyes were on her now.

Lola narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean "you know"?"

Lana glared back at her. "I just saw how all of you were confused, so I just wanted to clear things up."

"What are you talking about?" Lori asked her incredulously. "Don't….don't tell me that story about you pushing your babysitter-"

"Yes, it is true! But it was all Lola's fault!"

"It was an accident!" the princess cried defensively.

"Now, now, no pointing fingers." Kathleen said calmly and approached Lana again. "Now, is there something you want to share with us, Lana? Don't be shy."

"No, no, please don't…" Lynn grumbled inwardly as she saw the tomboy shifting nervously. Kathleen did not need to know about Lisa's "hobby".

"Maybe we won't be needed after all?" Ryan told her. "I'm sure this will derail their conspiracy for a few dozen hours?"

"It was Lisa, alright." Lana finally spilled it out.

"Lisa? You mean the little one?"

"Yes, her. When we came back home from visiting Pop-Pop, she and her robot cooked up some potion that could heal anything….or something like that?"

Kathleen took a step back, confused. "Robot? Potion?"

"Yes, you met him. Fenton, the fox-robot." Lana tried to explain.

Kathleen blinked in confusion but then heard Lola exclaim. "Of course? Now it makes sense!" She said like it was the most sensible thing in the world, only further confusing the rich girl.

"Wait? You're saying you really pushed someone out of a window then?" Lori asked the princess, looking alarmed.

"It was an accident!" she snapped at her. "How many times do I have to say it!"

"Anyway, Lisa put that stuff in a dart and injected herself and Renee with it, then they got all better." Lana shrugged. Up above, Lynn facepalmed.

"Wait? So you're saying mom and dad never learned that Renee got pushed out of a window?!" Lola grew a big smile, but it then dropped into a nasty frown. "And they STILL punished us!"

"Okay, I'm officially lost." Kathleen said and looked at the sisters, clearly looking for an explanation. It finally dawned on the rest of them that their youngest sibling wasn't exactly "normal".

Lori grew embarrassed and said, "Oh, that? Eh….it's nothing important. Lisa is just a bit of a….scientist who makes all sorts of crazy inventions."

"Lisa, the 3-year-old?"

"Yeah, her." Lori rubbed her neck. "But not like we associate with her much, the little twerp spends most of her time in her room, inventing and doing science stuff. We hardly talk to her, especially me."

Kathleen blinked and glanced at Leni and Luna.

"Eh, yeah? She's telling the truth." Luna nodded. "Lisa is like….a child prodigy. A science wiz."

"She's very smart. That's why she uses big words all the time, most of which we don't understand." Leni smiled stupidly.

"Hans? Klaus. Please leave us. You'll receive your paychecks by mail." Kathleen suddenly told the masseurs, who nodded respectfully and walked out of the room.

Lynn and Ryan both held their breaths, as things became eerily quiet, waiting for a response from Kathleen. One thing was for sure, they definitely did not like the idea of Kathleen taking an interest in Lisa.

"Well, I might have been presumptuous in giving that little darling nothing more than a passing glance?" Kathleen said evenly as she picked up a cocktail drink off the table. "She sounds like a very interesting character?"

"Oh, that?" Lori tried to brush it off. "You're more than welcome to laugh it off as a joke. It's pretty ridiculous." By her tone, it was clear she wanted Kathleen to think this was a joke. "I mean? Not like we have any freaks in our midst-"

"Oh, but I do believe you." Kathleen smiled at her. "We are friends, aren't we? You wouldn't lie to me, I'm sure. Even about something as absurd as this. Plus…." Her tone became more straightlaced. "How else would you explain Renee's miraculous recovery? People don't just recover from a two-story fall overnight?"

She glanced at Lana. "Say, Lana? Would that imply that Parvana's crazy story about Lincoln and Lisa teleporting in front of her has some truth to it?"

"What now?" Lana squinted.

"Oh, right. You weren't there?" Kathleen laughed it off.

"Oh, shit…shit…shit…" Lynn muttered. "She sounds way too interested."

"No, kidding." Ryan felt shivers crawl down his spine. "If she comes by your home again, we're putting Lizzie under lockdown."

"Roger that." Lynn dully noted. "That spoiled psychopath ain't coming anywhere near her inventions…."

To their mild relief, Kathleen quickly changed the subject. "Well, I can't deny that my curiosity is piqued. I should schedule a meeting with your little sister, but that can wait. We have to deal with your unfair punishment first."

"Right, right!" Lori laughed awkwardly, happy that Kathleen wasn't lingering on their freak of a sister. "I hope this didn't inconvenience you in any way-"

"Far from it, I'm all too eager to help." Kathleen assured her. "I was very moved by your plight. If there is one thing that greatly upsets me, it's seeing innocent people being punished."

"Oh, please…" Ryan rolled his eyes.

"Especially since half of you spent the previous day doing charity work, atoning for what was ultimately an accident, especially you, Lola. You were a model social worker through and through."

Lola giggled impishly, feeling all warm and fuzzy from Kathleen's high praise.

"And you three. Lori, Leni, Luna, you weren't even there when the accident occurred. You weren't even associated with it by proxy, let alone being complicit."

"So do you know how we could get them to lift the punishment?" Lori asked her eagerly. "You're very good at persuading people?"

"Eh….I guess I have a knack for it." Kathleen shrugged. "But getting your parents to lift your punishment won't be easy. Have you tried anything?"

"I tried loudly protesting!"

"I thought you were throwing a tantrum?" a confused Leni scratched her head.

"No, moron! Babies throw tantrums, I was protesting! But mom and Pop-Pop were unmoved and they heartlessly tore my phone away from me and left me to weep without a second glance."

"My, my, sounds like they are serious." Kathleen deduced.

"Can't you bribe them? Give them more expensive gifts?" Lola asked her.

"I already gave them a new van, Lola. Your parents don't seem like materialistic types, but even then, no amount of gifts will change their mind, not as long as they think that what they are doing is for your own good." Kathleen explained. "I should know, but in my case, my daddy did have good reason to punish me."

"But this isn't for our own good!" Lola whined. "If Renee's all better, then they have nothing to punish us for! You ding-dongs didn't wreck the house while I was gone, did ya?"

"Of course we didn't!" Lana lamented. "I behaved the whole time!"

"You're right, Lola!" Lori concurred. "They punished us as a knee-jerk reaction fueled by their own petty anger!"

Kathleen mulled. "The thing is, once parents are ticked off, it's hard to convince them to lift your punishment. After all, they think they are doing what's best for you, even if, based on your story, your parents were motivated by personal anger and a lack of trust more than anything."

"We know that! So how can we convince them that they are wrong for doing it?" Lori asked.

"Yes, that is the million-dollar question? If you'll pardon the expression." Kathleen rubbed her chin and looked at her glass. "What to do? What to do?"

"Hey? Maybe we could just do what we usually do at your place, Kathy?" Leni suggested. "It's only a week?"

"Am I crazy or did she just grow a brain cell?" Lynn asked Ryan.

"Leni, you don't get it!" Lori snapped. "It's not a matter of convenience, it's a matter of justice! We were punished unfairly."

"Your sister is right, by all accounts this is unjust." Kathleen nodded.

"Yes! And did you all forget that we are working on borrowed time?" Lori reminded the others. "Those two little snitches will rat us out! Me stealing their recording and threatening to snitch on them for spying on us is the only thing keeping them at bay for the moment. I hope at least."

"Hypocrite…" Lynn muttered under her breath.

"The audacity!" Lola clenched her fists. "Those two traitors!"

"I can't believe our bro would sell us out like this." Luna shook her head dejectedly.

"You better believe he will!" Lori told her. "I warned you all! He has gone full parents' pet mode!"

"If he spills one word about this, I'll beat the stuffing out of him!" Lola lamented.

"Pfffttt…if only the pipsqueak wasn't such a damn pacifist." Ryan sneered under his mask. "I'd pay him good money if he would just whoop her ass once."

"Forget her, we'll have to shield him from Lori." Lynn told him. "She knows how to hold a grudge."

"Now, we shouldn't be too harsh on him. I doubt your brother did this out of malice but rather out of a misguided sense of obligation to be the dutiful son." Kathleen shook her head.

"Oh, but what about being a dutiful brother?" Lori countered. "He thinks he has no obligation to help his sisters when they need help? The selfish little twerp!"

"Why I oughta…" Lynn reared up and grabbed the rails. Ryan had to pull her down.

"I'm sure he's grown bold after getting chummy with Lynn's ugly boyfriend!" Lola declared. "You all remember that prank the two of them pulled on us? Made us chase them across town like idiots! I bet Lincoln would never have the guts to do stuff like that if he didn't have Ryan and Lynn as meat-shields!"

"Ha! I'm not scared of that puke-faced, smart alec dweeb!" Lori laughed. "I'd flatten both of them like pancakes!"

She groaned. "But you're right! As long as they are there, Lincoln and probably Lucy as well will only get bolder and bolder. For all we know, they might be snitching on us as we speak!"

Luna and Lana grew alarmed. "So we could be in an even bigger mess when we get back home?" Luna asked.

"Yes! And that won't be the end of our troubles, not by a long shot!" Lori raised her voice. "If mom and dad did this once, what's stopping them from doing it again? And again? And again! Once they got the idea that they can just punish us willy nilly for any minor, perceived offense, what's stopping them from doing it all the time?"

The others gasped, except for Kathleen.

"Yes, that does sound like a valid concern." She nodded. "As I said, if they think this is for your own good, they'll have every reason to continue doing it."

"What? That's insane!" Lola freaked out and pulled on her hair. Most of her siblings had already turned on her, she couldn't afford to be at her parent's mercy as well! That was just what she feared would happen!

"Exactly!" Lori exclaimed. "How do you expect to live a normal life if mom and dad are willing to punish you at the drop of a hat? Imagine you having to attend a pageant show, but ops! They hear some unfounded rumor that you've been bullying someone? Boom! No pageant show for you! No fair trial, nothing!"

"No!" Lola cupped her face, sporting a look of pure horror. "That's inhumane!"

"And you!" Lori pointed at Luna. "Imagine your band landing a big gig that might boost your music career, but oh no! They hear that you've cheated on your math test and just like that…." Lori snapped her fingers "….you're on house arrest and have to bail on your band! So much for your big break! No leeway for any of us!"

"Dude, they can't do that!" Luna freaked out. "Music is my life! All my bandmates swore that we would always have each other's back!"

"And you, Lana! Who's to say that if you can't be a perfect little angel 24/7, and accidentally drag some mud into the living room or just forget to flush, they might decide that the only way to teach you a lesson is by taking all your pets to the pet shelter….permanently!"

"No! Not my friends!" Lana covered her mouth with both hands, tears forming in her eyes.

"No. Don't fall for that…." Lynn grumbled in despair.

"What are we gonna do!" Luna asked. "We are running out of options?"

"You have a point, ladies. Time is of the essence. But I think I'm forming the basic outline of a plan?" Kathleen said.

"You are?" the sisters asked.

"Tell me? Have you ever heard the phrase "You don't appreciate something until it's gone"?"

The others nodded, sans one.

"How can you appreciate something if it's not there?" Leni asked Kathleen.

"You can't, Leni. But its absence might make you realize how much it really meant to you." The rich girl explained. "Once you've grown accustomed to something, complacent if you will, once you get the idea that something will always be there and doesn't deserve any care or attention, you stop giving it any."

"Huh?" the blonde was lost.

"What I am saying is that perhaps the best solution to this problem would be to give your parents a taste of their own medicine?"

"Oh, no? I didn't know they were sick!" Leni panicked.

"It's a figure of speech, you numbskull!" Lori snapped at her. "Kathleen is saying that we should teach mom and dad what it's like when you lose the thing most dear to you!"

Leni, Luna and Lana talked among themselves.

"Wait? You're saying we should steal something from them and hold it as a bargaining ship?" the rocker asked, looking genuinely shocked by the suggestion.

"Great idea!" Lola smiled gleefully and rubbed her hands. "That oughta make them-"

"Eh, no." Kathleen gently patted her head. "You misunderstood me, I wasn't talking about material possessions."

"You weren't?"

"Of course she didn't, you dumb little kid!" Lori lamented. "They would pin the crime on us in a heartbeat! Then they would ground us until we went to college….wait? Then what were you talking about, Kathleen?"

Ryan and Lynn saw a smirk appear on the rich girl's lips. "This might be a tad melodramatic but what if, hypothetically, you all went missing, at least for a little while. Long enough for your parents to be stricken with grief and worry, and forced to reevaluate their actions?"

Lynn and Ryan's eyes widened, while the sisters all looked at their host with confusion.

"You're saying we should run away?" Lori asked.

"Oh, no. There is no need for that." Kathleen explained. "You're more than welcome to stay with me, but your folks don't need to know that."

"What are you suggesting?" Luna asked, not following her host.

"Simple. I think the only way to convince your parents that they were unfair to you is by getting them to remember how much you mean to them. As I said, you don't appreciate something until it's gone and if you were to go MIA for a while, your parents would realize just how much they really loved you, forcing them to reconsider their parenting style. People are liable to take family for granted, unless they lose them, or in this case, think that they have lost them. Why, I'm sure such a little prank wouldn't just get your parents to sober up, but Lincoln, Lynn and Lucy as well."

"Wait?" Lana jumped out of her chair. "You want us to make mom and dad think that we've gone missing? That's-"

"A stellar idea, Kathy!" Lola, disturbingly enough, was very much on board with it. "How do we do it?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Lori also seemed to find the idea appealing and scratched her chin. "That would be the ultimate protest? The ultimate act of defiance against parental oppression! I dig it!"

"Guys, you can't be serious?" Luna asked. "Wouldn't that…."

"Wouldn't that be really mean?" Lana asked, not at all looking pleased with Kathleen's suggestion. "To make mom and dad worried sick?"

"I know it's not the most ethical way of rebelling against oppressive authority." Kathleen nodded sadly. "But the path to progress is rarely a smooth one. One needs to resort to drastic measures to get results."

Lynn watched in shock, while Ryan cupped his face in irritation. "Oh, don't you dare adopt my motto."

"The end justifies the means." Kathleen elaborated. "If it means getting your parents to rekindle with you, to rediscover their devotion to you, then perhaps it's a risk worth taking."

"That was beautiful, Kathy!" Lola clutched her hands and grew teary-eyed. "You're so smart."

"Now, now, I wouldn't say that." Kathleen insisted. "I prefer to think of myself as…..creative, innovative…

"Conniving….manipulative….a filthy liar…" Lynn was getting worked up and once more had to be held back by Ryan from blowing her cover.

"Who does she think she is….. giving them such a stupid idea…" Lynn lamented, barely keeping her voice above a whisper.

"And I don't get what she has to gain with this stunt…" Ryan noted inquisitively.

The other sisters talked among themselves. As usual, Leni sported a dopey smile and didn't seem to fully register the severity of Kathleen's proposition.

"Picture this?" Kathleen raised her hands in a dramatic fashion. "Someone kidnaps you five, drives you far away from Royal Woods but you make a daring escape and get lost in the wilderness and embark on an epic and dangerous journey to find your way back home. Which would take…..um….two or maybe three weeks? Give or take? I, meanwhile, fund a "search party" and they bring you back home, just in time for a heartfelt reunion, once all hope seems lost." Kathleen explained. "At least that's what I thought off of the top of my head, we can think of a more original and more dynamic tale while you're on the down-low."

"I say we go for it!" Lori raised her fist. "If it means securing a better future…and teaching everyone in our family to appreciate one another more, then who are we to pass up such an opportunity!"

"But, Lori? Doesn't that sound….extreme?" Luna asked.

"And mean?" Lana asked.

"Have you two been listening at all?" Lola scolded them. "It's all to teach mom and dad a lesson and make things better at home! Better for everyone! We are helping our family by doing this."

"Yes, it will all be worth it in the end!" Lori backed her up.

The other three looked at each other, Luna and Lana were evidently conflicted, but Leni looked more confused than anything.

"C'mon, c'mon…" Lynn mumbled. "They can't be that dumb? They can't seriously be considering this?"

"Earth to Lynn?" Ryan snarked. "Blondy and Pinky are all over Kathy's scheme."

Right then, he felt something nuzzling his right arm. Glancing in that direction, he saw Chloe, twitchy as ever, watching him with her dark, buggy eyes.

Ryan's brow furrowed. "Now…now…nice doggy, don't you start barking now…" he said in a placating tone and patted her head as gently as he could. He really regrated not bringing any doggy treats now.

"Oh, no…" Lynn grumbled. "Shoo…shoo…scram…" she tried to get her to leave but the dog wouldn't budge.

The two ninjas jerked back as their ears were assaulted by frantic, high-pitched barking, courtesy of the chihuahua, who uttered it while jumping in place.

"What's that?" they heard Kathleen exclaim as they backed themselves against the wall.

"We've heard enough." Ryan grunted as his hand seized Chloe around her tiny muzzle, silencing her instantly. "Retreat!"

They rushed into Kathleen's "closet", where now there was a path that had been cleared through the avalanche of clothes and Ryan tossed Chloe into the pile. He just hoped he hadn't accidentally suffocated her.

Planting their feet against the wall, they were soon lowering themselves to the ground. Lynn reached the ground first.

"Hurry up!"

"Y'know. This mission was refreshingly low-stake." The boy stated as he scaled his way down. "No life-threatening-"

"Grrrrrrrrrr!" Lynn spun around to find the doberman baring his teeth at her.

Ryan groaned. "Never mind."

The angry guard dog lunged at her and Lynn dodged him and reached for her nunchucks. Pushing his feet against the wall, Ryan vaulted himself and landed on the dog's back, knocking him to the ground.

"Some home security you are." Ryan quipped tauntingly.

"Look out!"

Ryan's was tackled from behind by a second doberman.

"Ryan!" Lynn cried but the first doberman got up and blocked her way.

Snarling viciously, he forced her to back away, while Ryan elbowed his attacker in the face and crawled away before delivering another swift kick to the face with both feet.

Getting up, Ryan grabbed his bow staff with both hands, using it to deflect the dog's attacks by smacking him in the face repeatedly, until the dog clamped his jaws around it.

Lynn, meanwhile, had to dodge her attacker while trying to pull the nunchucks from her belt. Growling, the doberman leaped at her again, causing Lynn to bend backward as he flew over her and she finally pulled her nunchucks free.

Swinging them, she adopted a fighting chance and narrowed her eyes at the dog. "Give me your best shot, Fido!"

The doberman ran at her, only to get uppercut by her nunchucks. Before he could recover, he was struck a second time, yelping in pain. Shaking his head, the doberman, looking dizzy, lunged at her again, but Lynn jumped out of the way and whacked him a third time, this time in the back of his head, causing the doberman to slump to the ground and he didn't get up.

Panting, Lynn chuckled nervously. It would seem these dogs weren't as thick-headed as One Eye.

"Ryan!" she remembered.

"Don't worry! Everything's under control!" he shouted to her, all while being pinned down by the other doberman and barely holding him back with his staff, with the dog snarling and chomping down on it.

"Paws off, fleabag!" Lynn yelled as she tackled the dog, wrapping the chain of her nunchucks around his neck, causing the two to tumble around on the lawn until they plunged into the nearby pool.

Floating at the bottom of it, Lynn could see each small blue brick and the pool steps through the crystal clear, chlorinated water and immediately swam towards the surface and gasped for air. The doberman appeared right next to her, barking and thrashing around in a panic.

Catching a glimpse of the pool ladder behind him, Lynn got an idea and dove beneath the dog, avoiding his thrashing legs and surfaced behind him. She grabbed the handle of his collar and pulled it over the bent rail of the ladder. She swam back as the enraged canine snapped his jaws at her at couldn't reach her.

"Need a hand?" she heard Ryan's voice and saw him reaching out to her. Grabbing his hand, the soaked ninja was pulled out of the pool and to Ryan's surprise, she offered him his nunchucks back.

"I held on to them." She chuckled weakly. "Just so I didn't have to listen to you whining."

They heard the doberman barking, as he hauled himself halfway out of the water on the steps. He snapped his jaws at them but once more couldn't reach them. Angrily, he started chowing down on the handle of his collar.

"So much for being stealthy. Let's go." Ryan lamented as he pulled Lynn along.

"I'm sure Linky will be thrilled to hear what we know." He added sarcastically as they made their way out of there.


Sure is a dumb way of starting a revolt, huh? Well, when you're a spoiled child, that kind of scatterbrained plan might make all the sense in the world for you. Though keep in mind that it was Kathleen who gave the sisters that idea….hhmmmm….suspicious? But that hardly absolves Lori or Lola for being completely willing to go along with it like it's the most sensible thing in the world. Yeah, I know, they are pretty terrible, aren't they? Makes you want to kick their asses? Don't worry, the protagonists feel the same way XD

At least Lola was partially motivated by fear, given how he has lost sway with most of her family and is rapidly realizing how vulnerable she is now, but Lori has no excuse. She's just a spoiled brat and shamelessly used fear tactics to coerce several of her sisters into aiding her with this idiotic conspiracy. But I sure hope Lana can come to her senses and not go along with it, wouldn't want her to undo the progress Lynn made with her in one fell swoop. Though she might be too far gone now, after Lori manipulated her by making her fear losing her scaly and slimy friends permanently.

I wanted to show a bit more of what was going on with Lincoln and the rest back home, but this chapter was running long as it is, so that will have to wait for the next chapter (like what Albert and Lynn Sr. are up to).