Hey everyone, just wanted to let y'all know that I revamped the first chapter since it felt a bit too...crude in a sense. So if you want, you can check that out. Also had to change the rating for... reasons. You'll find out soon enough. Now without further ado, let's get on with the story!

"Meow..." Cleopawtra said while wagging her tail.

The tan-orange feline was sitting on the ground. She readied herself, set her hind limbs against the floor, and shot her body forward. She landed straight into her owner's lap. Clyde McBride was trying to finish his homework, which was very overwhelming for the young preteen.

"Man, the school needs to cut some slack." "Now hold on Cleo, I need to finish before I can play with you okay?" He said while alternating between looking at a page and writing something down.

The cat purred in response and jumped down from him. She coiled on herself, and closed her eyes. To the boy's left was a planner that helped keep him organized. The page that it was open to contained a 'To-Do' list. In it was written:

-History: Read, go-over chap done today. Then solve Q 1-6 of the worksheet given yesterday. (Done)

-Geography: Quiz on Mon. Topic: Major Rivers and Lakes (Done)

-Math: PEMDAS Q14-20 All parts (Done)

-Science: Circulatory System Qs to be done: Q1, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q7, Q10

-English: Summary of 'A Wrinkle in Time' [URGENT! OVERDUE.] (Done)

The lone child of the McBride family continued to work on his math problems for an additional half hour. He then closed his notebook and textbook and put them in his backpack while breathing a satisfying sigh.

"Finally, I've done it. Now I'm free to work on the science project. But first, I'll take a quick breather outside." As he opened the door, his face met with a cool breeze. On looking at the sky, the sun, now red, was sinking in the horizon. The orange sky of dusk was fading into dark blue, then purple, and finally black as it merged with the looming summer night. One could admire the fleeting twilight, as it sunk deeper and deeper down the sky, finally disappearing into the blankets of the earth.

Pleased with the scene, the boy returned to his room. His father Harold had come back from work an hour ago and was in the kitchen making supper. His other dad Howard would come later because of some work in Royal Woods General, where he was employed. Clyde had two dads, who were a great couple together. They had been together for over twenty years, and adopted Clyde 8 years after they met in high school. After knowing what happened to the poor child's parents, it would be cruel to leave the child in an orphanage. They decided not to tell Clyde what really happened, feeling it would be too overwhelming for the young boy. It is much fitter to tell him when he became more mature, and would be able to handle it better. For the story was unbearable even with stone-hearted people.

Melissa and Terrell were a recently married couple. Both of them had stunning features, and looked like a perfect match for each other. Terrell worked in the accounts department of a local logistics company while his wife was a florist in a small flower shop. A few months after their wedding, they were delighted with the news of their own child, and like many other new parents, they wanted to know the procedure to take care of it. They were on the way to the hospital to visit the counsellor once again. This visit would to be the fourth one so far, and the last since it would be only a few weeks until it the baby would come out. Terrell was driving his black sedan with Melissa sitting in its backseat. They both were happy and excited for the day that will bring their creation into the world. Unfortunately, it seemed fate had other plans for the duo.

They had stopped at an intersection near the health center. When the light turned green on their side, Terrell started to move forward. A truck, whose breaks had failed, was speeding uncontrollably on the road that they were crossing. The driver shouted and honked his horn to try and get their attention, but by the time the voice reached their ears, it was too late.

The lorry rammed into the side of the car, causing the windshield to crack and the windows to shatter upon impact. Glass and debris flew everywhere. The car whipped right into a pole, causing it to fall as well. The father managed to crawl out of the wrangled sedan through a broken window, the glass tearing into his skin as he moved. He was severely wounded with some bones piercing his outer epidermis and others penetrating into his internal organs. He looked at the vehicle and saw the car which was now a heap. The truck had hit the potion between the bonnet and the driver's seat from the side, and the pole jamming into the back passenger seat's side, and so the car now looked like a distorted 'Z'. The truck itself had flipped to its side on the main road and its contents were spewed all over the road.

When the horror dawned upon the accountant, he limped as fast as he could to the car door where his wife should have been seated, not caring nor acknowledging the excruciating pain streaking across his body. With little strength he had, he desperately tried to open the door, but the pain worked against him. Knowing that his strength was limited, he looked around for anyone that could help him. He saw two pedestrians standing nearby, looking like a shell-shocked soldier in a brutal war. Seeing this as the only way to save his wife and unborn child, he started to slowly crawl towards them. When he reached, none of the two reacted, until his next sentence, in which one could feel the pain, despair, and desperateness in his tone

"P-Please, M-Melissa... in the back seat... s-she's 8 months pregnant...p-please..." He begged while coughing up blood.

This statement seemed to snapped them out of their stupor. Both men rushed to the sedan, and tried to pull the door off with all their might. With great effort, they succeeded in prying off the piece of metal and looked inside...

...and found a truly disturbing sight.

The woman's right leg was snapped into two, with a few slivers of flesh linking the two pieces. The arms were lying limply on the sides, with bone sticking out and flesh dangling from one of them. There was a wound on her head, likely caused due to whiplash from the trauma, from where blood dripped onto her face. The most terrifying part of it all was a shard of...some metal dangerously jutting out towards the bulge in her midsection, which held another life within.

One of the men swore at the sight, while other quickly dialed 911. By now a large crowd had begun to gather. Both roads were main ones, and as a result traffic had started to pile up on both of them. In almost no time at all, paramedics arrived, and carefully took her out of the heap that was once an automobile. They put the woman on a stretcher and loaded her into an ambulance. The father was unconscious by the time the door had been opened, and was wheeled in the same ambulance as his spouse. They admitted both in Emergency under the 'immediate' classification of triage, where they were able to remove the baby in an operation theater with a Caesarian Section. After the operation, two surgeons discussed about the situation while sanitizing themselves.

"Alright the baby's safe, even if it is premature." One said while changing his blue surgical uniform.

"Yeah. But I can't say the same about his mother..." The other, who was washing his hands, stated. He had a stoic, almost uncaring expression. The other doctor, who had joined the hospital not long ago, asked him,

"You think she won't make it?"

"She has a cerebral hemorrhage due to trauma, from which blood loss was very high. The compound fractures only add to that. It appears the wound was caused by a whiplash to the side. She might survive, but the odds are unlikely. We will do our best to save her, and the rest is on probability or God, whichever you have faith in."

After changing, both doctors headed out to the hallway, and walked to another part of the hospital.

"What about the father?"

"Time of Death: 4:05 PM. Excessive blood loss. He experienced more trauma than his partner, and ignored the pain that his body was giving him. Though knowing the reason, it is understandable why he would." He continued to walk, not a hint of emotion on his face.

"This job sucks." The young surgeon's hand balled into a fist as he continued to walk.

"It's what you signed up for, did you not? You mustn't fret over such trivial matters in with the position you are in."

"How is this trivial? The father never saw his child! What are doctors for if they can't even save people?" He grew agitated. The other doctor stopped and looked at him with a serious expression, with glare from the lights obscuring his eyes. He adjusted his glasses, and said,

"The most vital part of being a physician is making the right choice. You can't save everyone who comes in this building. Saving a ton of people did not make me the head neurologist at this hospital. Wise decisions, even if they seem wrong at first, are better than those made emotionally. Say for example we have two patients, one with a better chance of being saved, while the other having a lower one. You only have time for one. What do you do?"

"W-Well I would try and save them both-" He fumbled.

"Wrong. Now both die due to your incompetence. The right answer is to save the one with the higher chance of living." The man interrupted.

The newbie raised his voice. "But do we not promise to the patient's family and the public that every patient will be alright? How can we give up on one of them!" This angered the head surgeon. In a rare show of emotion, he said,

"Who the heck are you making promises that every patient will be alright? What bullcrap! You ever see me making promises? The promise we make to the public is that we will try and save whoever we can, not everyone that is dying! From where did you graduate? Stupidtown University?"

The young doctor was stunned silent by his senior's brash response. The surgeon regained his composure, and then said with the same stoic face he wore,

"We may look uncaring and stoic on the outside, but inside we are human. We also feel sorry for people. But empathy interferes with making rational decisions, especially in situations where time is of the essence. If you think this part of the job is bad, it's just the tip of the iceberg for you."

He began to walk briskly. "Come on, the other patient won't check himself."

The other doctor followed his senior, but in his head, he couldn't help but think about the mother of the newborn.

"That woman will live! I know it! She will not only see her child, but will help him grow into a great person just like the rest of us!"

A few hours later, the young surgeon sat in the hallway. A clipboard was on the seat next to him, showing details of the surgery. Next to it was a file, containing information and photos from the accident and the suspect who drove the truck. On top of the file it was written in a black permanent marker: [ND-4]. Even if the hallway was busy, the noise around him droned out. His head was buried in his hands. He let out a dry, humorless chuckle, when he recalled a quote from a video game he played in college.

"The 'Miracle' never happen."

"One-Eyed Jack...*Bzzt*...Come in One-Eyed Jack."

"I hear you Ace...*Bzzt*...Over."

"I need to update the status on...*Bzzt* the operation...You see...*Bzzt*...that we..."

"Lincoln maybe it's better if you call me instead." The boy said in his normal voice.

"...Yeah that's a better idea...*Bzzzt*"

The static stopped. After a couple of seconds, Clyde's cell phone rang. He immediately picked it up.

"You were saying?"

"I got some things figured out about the project." Lincoln responded. "Also did some research about solar cells, the things that capture energy in solar panels. I got two key points of interest to tell you."

"Okay, let's hear it."

"Alright. First off I divided the project into three phases, I, II, and III..."

Lincoln proceeded to briefly explain his phases and what would they do in each of them while Clyde listened intently. When he was done, Clyde thought of something, and responded,

"Linc, your plan with the phases sounds amazing, gotta say. But I see a problem that would kinda mess stuff up. Do your sisters still stick their noses into your affairs?"

Lincoln frowned about the prospect, "They do..." but regained his smile shortly. " But I considered that, and have another plan to thwart theirs."

"Well you ARE 'the man with the plan'." Clyde chuckled. " What's your strat for this one?"

"I've thought of a couple of things. One thing I can do is say I have a project worth a significant portion of my grade. After seeing me doing research and making notes they'll have to leave me alone for a while, cause if they try and disturb me I can threaten to tell Mom and Dad, and trust me no one wants to get grounded for no reason.

"Sounds good. It's not totally a lie, since you are technically doing a project. You think that'll get you away from them for a month?"

His smile faltered. "To be honest, No. Even if its a good excuse, they would leave me alone for a week or two, but no school project is a whole month long. Besides, just because I have a project doesn't mean they will leave me alone. So with that, we will need a second plan. But that would be formed based on the outcome of the first one."

"Linc, I gotta ask. Are you sure you aren't being a bit too paranoid about them?" Clyde said with a bit of concern.

"I guess you could say I'm overthinking a bit." The white haired boy sighed.

"Still even if they do get suspicious about you, there is a way you could know, and act accordingly.

"What's on your mind?" Lincoln asked, confused.

Clyde smirked and replied.

"Espionage."

The Loud boy smirked, and said. "Ah...Right Clyde, how could I forget the one thing we are good at?" He laughed.

"OK, So what was the other thing you wanted to talk about?

"Alright. I did some more web surfing, and I found that solar cells that are used in the making of standard solar panels have only 11 to 15 percent efficiency. That means only nearly 85 percent of the total energy available is lost!" The Loud exclaimed.

Clyde looked up to his ceiling. "Huh. So those solar panels that power up my house are only utilizing approximately one-sixth of the energy given by the sun. That's... not very efficient...Do you have a reason why?"

"There are a few. Size of the panels, shade, weather, orientation, and dust clogging the cells."

"Hmm...dust is understandable. I read a book about electricity once, and the size is probably due to the fact that larger the area, the more resistance, and less electricity produced."

"That's right. According to the net its due to resistance, giving smaller cells some more efficiency, but it's miniscule honestly."

"Yeah. Weather is unpredictable, so nothing we can do about that."

"And shade is a local and not a manufacturing problem, nothing about that either."

"What about orientation?" Clyde asked.

"It's written here that orientation reduces the efficiency since the sun isn't in once place all day. It moves about and hence, there is only a specific window of time in which power can be generated."

"What if it were to move along the sun's path too? Like a radar...sort of."

"That kind of thing exists. They're called tracking solar panels...But they are very expensive."

At that moment, gears in his brain started to turn. The lone Loud boy got the perfect idea for the project.

"Clyde! Clyde! I got it! The best experiment we could do!"

"Really? What is it Linc?"

"We know that tracking solar panels exist, but the problem is that they are too expensive. If we can find a way to make them cheaper, it'll be a breakthrough in the solar space!"

"Not a bad idea. That kind of thing can actually work if we do enough research. So we got a solution to a major problem in solar energy, now all that's left is research, brainstorming, more research, building a prototype, testing it, and writing up info!"

"Cool. We can get technical tomorrow. Have school after all. Maybe find some more books in the library that are suited to our now more specific goal. And I'm sure Lisa will have something or the other on this. Good Night Clyde, see ya tomorrow."

"Same to you. Oh before you go, what answer did you get for question 17 of the exercise given today in math?

"...Wait what?"

"Yeah. You know... the ones Mr. Bolhofner gave today? Along with English, History, Science? I spent all evening doing it. Really pooped me out."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Crap."

The next morning, the Loud sisters were awake and about, filled with the energy for a new day. Sisters being the keyword here. Lincoln woke up groggily. He had stayed up for over three hours after his bedtime rushing through his homework. He groaned as he opened his door, and trudged to the bathroom scratching his head. One of his sisters said something, but it only registered in his half-asleep brain as a low pitch drone. Not bothering to tell whoever it was to repeat what they said, he tried to form an explanation to the person, but all that came out of his mouth were incomplete phrases.

"Stayed up...doing homework...forgot...barely any sleep...tired...leave alone..."

He continued his morning routine on autopilot, with his brain trying to desperately get some shuteye. Any other noise heard was met with the same phrases, although mixed up. Somehow he got dressed and ate his breakfast. After the ride in Vanzilla and taking books from his locker, he began to walk to his classroom, static filling his mind, and not really paying attention. Once he reached his desk he set his bag on the ground, and buried his head in his arms, while everything around him droned out. The next thing he heard was a deep, gruff voice.

"NO SLEEPING IN MY CLASS!"

He jolted awake, and found his teacher looking at him in the eye, with some students snickering. He straightened himself up and tried to pay attention.

"Now I hoped you studied and revised your lessons, cause its time for a surprise quiz!"

Nearly the entire class groaned, while Lincoln slammed his head on his desk with a loud THUNK, catching everybody's attention.

"NO SLAMMING HEADS ON THE DESKS EITHER!" The teacher boomed.

"Sigh. This is going to be a long day."

"A very long day."

Decided to give Clyde a backstory since we don't know anything about his biological parents in the show. Felt a bit heavy writing it, but looks like it turned out good, to me at least... Clincoln McLoud found a topic for their experiment too. Seems its time to get into the motion for the project!

For those of you who didn't get the reference, ND is the legal case classification for Auto Negligence according to the US legal case codes. I put a couple more refs from some shows and games inside. Let's see if anyone can find their source ;)

Stay tuned for the next chapter, where poor sleep-deprived Lincoln makes it through 6 hours worth of school! Don't forget to drop a review if you want to suggest something for the story!

Yanwiz, OUT!