Care? Care? Why on earth did I say Care when the word was Café?

-Blind Author

(Skip if you just want to read the story)

Ever since I've been reading these fanfics, I was enjoying the content each author put out on their creative works and finding more like it was painful so I decided to be like the others who were previously in my sort of predicament and put out more content for other people to fantasize about, however as my life progressed slowly but surely through high school, I realized that I was too late to jump on this sort of idea since it was months before the more important chapters of my life started to clump themselves together and I'm having a difficult time coping with these rapid changes that would I wouldn't even usually be fazed about. And as my education demanded more of my time along with friends and my very own software application development (Practice for my future career) I was drifting away from tlh (the loud house, just in case it hadn't come to you as yet) without even realizing it. Heck I was looking for a story to read when I saw someone posted a fanfic about TLH movie! What a terrible way for a fan to discover that it exists and by then it was already old news.
So that at least you understand what I'm trying to portray I summarized it for you, most of my fav authors stopped updating... I'm in college so it's hard for me to not be like them and try to pick up the slack. Nevertheless, I am going to try my best so don't feel too bad if I take long to update because these stories will NEVER be dropped until I make that statement.

Life has been so great to me, who would have known that my brother was a cool and brave hero in the shadows! Well, he was more of an antihero if you took his icy personality into consideration but best of all. I became a superhero as well! Err, well something like that, so we're called ability users, that's pretty cool but the number of known ability users can be counted on fingers. We're supposed to keep our identity a secret and I'm on board with that, you get cool powers and beat down monsters to save others like us? What's there to not like about this job? Well, except for the fact that you could die.

As I ventured down the sidewalk, some adults were looking at me strangely since it was past my bedtime, but I paid no mind to them, the lights at the corner got stuck at red so I used my newfound time to think about past events.

It had been over two weeks since Lincoln bribed the principal to form that club, which gave me an awesome idea but then he insisted that I don't take advantage of the poor guy, just when I thought about getting rid of my math teacher. I'm getting much better at using my powers now, at first Lincoln zapped me with a joy buzzer set to max which hurts a lot, reminds me of our family's doorbell. The object was later switched to a taser set on 10,000 volts. While 240 volts from the house would no doubt fry my insides, 30,000 from the taser just burns a lot. Lincoln said that it had something to do with the number of amperes in the different electrical sources, I would try to understand it later, for now all I needed to know was that I'm getting stronger since a regular person would be paralysed or twitching uncontrollably. The taser still hurts though... The initial rod training Lincoln had instituted me to follow, had developed into a different kind of training since taser hugging helped me to develop resistance and discharge electrical strength. This new kind of training involved extending my range capabilities, my task was simple, stand between two copper rods and connect electricity to them like a wire.

No trouble had come about for the past two weeks, and Lincoln was starting to predict their presence? I'm not entirely sure what his ability is about or how he is able to use it, but he doesn't answer me if I bring up the topic.

Based on idle chitchat I've been doing with him lately, I managed to find out that he had been fighting weaker versions of the creature I had seen behind the café he used to work at. He told me that in all his encounters, he never met any of the creatures that he had to actually use his ability against, which worries me now that they show evidence of getting stronger. But at the very least... Today was my first official mission! I may not be as powerful enough to take down those creatures but I could easily knock out a human so what was the difference? The newcomer hadn't exactly gain full control of her powers as yet so that's a bummer, for her of course! I get to hog all the action to myself!

After calming my excitement, I entered the bar to meet Lincoln, (he really lets me come and go as I please doesn't, he ever worries what might happen?) it was a casual Saturday night, which meant a lot of people were drinking their lives away or trying to play pool better than the other. As I evaded the different individuals trying to dance better than the 80s guy on TV, I managed to arrive at Lincoln who was working behind the stick.

"I don't think you should be in this kind of atmosphere at nights." Lincoln spoke to me while pouring a glass of Hennessey with his eyes closed.

"I can handle myself, besides, tonight is the big event remember?" I prompted him to remember the promise he made to me last week.

"Yes, I remember, we'll be closing in an hour or two, so I'll have to work my position in the meantime." He then slid a full glass of water to the woman who was talking about her divorce. It must be tough listening to everyone rambling on like that under the influence of alcohol. "I figured this might happen Lily, I got you a little present for your 'night trip', try not to become an eel and fry the circuits." What seemed like a hearing aid of some sort was given to me, afterwards, Lincoln had adjusted an identical headset in his right ear which I had barely noticed.

"You were wearing that the whole time?" I asked him a little bewildered since I hadn't seen him make any movements to put it on in the first place.

"Correct, there quite easy to hide judging from their size, I would get us the molar microphone, but the military doesn't exactly share products like that. We can use this in the meantime, it has a wave range for up to two miles so our operations will be done a reasonable distance from each other, that way I can come get you if anything goes unplanned, maybe in the near future I can get Lisa to make some adjustments to it."

Things were starting to get even better, now we could stay in touch and operate like field agents! Then I guess this would be my first deployment! Lincoln could operate at work like the handsome and peaceful bartender, and I would be kicking butts at his command! Now that I thought about it... Did they have butts? That would be a strange need for a monster made from stone or some other solid material.

"The devices also contain location trackers in them, so I'll be able to mark your destinations with ease."

"Got it, when do I start?"

"Now of course, head behind the store through the alley and I'll relay the task to you."

These monsters that we're dealing with are extremely dangerous when you think about their combat potential, good thing they didn't know how to use it. Nevertheless, WOOHOO! MY FIRST MISSION!

I ran excitedly through the alleyways and earned a few hisses from the stray cats but at least they were too tired to do anything other than that. The clearing behind the building was sort of a depressing sight to behold, the space allocated between the apartments and store was barely larger than Lincoln's old room. Just then I hearing a slight buzzing noise inside my ear, was this how the microphone was supposed to react?

"Lily, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear Lincoln. As a superhero team we need some hero names. What do you think?"

"Sure, whatever you can come up with. We're about to have a rematch with someone you met a while ago so open the lid to the sewer and stand back."

"He's in the sewer? He followed us all the way here through the sewer?" I'm not sure if that's the same monster or what happened but if he really had followed me all the way here then something tells me that I won't have to do much searching in the future. "So, I'm not too much of a girly girl but there is no way I'm getting in the sewer."

"Enough said, I didn't think you'd fancy yourself in a sewer anyway, so we'll wait for him to surface one he catches your scent."

Catches my scent? A rock monster can smell stuff? It did because it crawled out the moment I backed away from the sewer. I took the first few seconds of this encounter to get a better look at the monster. Compared to our last meeting, he looked a lot more... stable? The last time I remember trying to bash its head in, its odd, shaped body composed of rocks were quite unstable and didn't even look as though it was an actual creature, except for the fact that it was moving on its own I suppose.

"Looks like you had some upgrades since the last time... So did I! Get ready to eat lightning you freak! And this time, I'm going to finish everything we started!"

As the customers began leaving the one after the other, I gained more focus on Lily's task while pouring a few drinks for myself, it was my bar , not like if anyone was going to tell me how to operate my own business.

"You shouldn't drink while on duty boss."

Except for her of course, I went over her files and records countless times to really try and get a good idea of why she wanted this job in the first place.

She wasn't even legally allowed to work at this kind of place but her 'real' identification card made it so, not like if I was going to argue since we got extra hands-on deck for a cheap cost.

"It's virgin, isn't it? You really don't know much about this job and I'm starting to arrive at a conclusion as to why you're working at my bar. I never advertised so how did you even find this place?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, I came here because I need money, just like every other hard-working individual."

Tsk. She was dodging my question, even if I did state why she came to find me, she would just deny it since I didn't have enough evidence.

"I know what your mental conditions are and coincidentally your age." I smartly replied to her, but I knew I wasn't getting anywhere with someone more wrong in the head than this.

"I'll just cut to the chase Loud, I'm here because I saw-"

"Hey! Can someone get me a beer over here!"

Another customer called her over to their table, she cursed under her breath, something I never knew about her before. She gazed at me one more time as if to warn me of an unforeseeable danger to come before leaving to take the customer's order and for the remainder of the night, she never brought it up again.

Getting back to the task at hand, I let my updated creation struggle to leave the sewer as Lily started her encounter dialog, it was a good effort but I'd rather her but back on some words and use that time come up with a plan since most people would know that earth was sort of lightning's weakness, right?

I wanted to try a new feature I had instilled on the four-legged failure of an art project to give it a more intimidating appearance.

At my command, the creature opened its makeshift jaws, the shape of its mouth was the very definition of crooked but the time I invested on its sharp fangs was nothing to joke about at all. I could even see drops of sweat forming on her face when she caught a glimpse of its newly developed feature.

"Woah, didn't know you could do that." She whispered to herself. Was this too much? Was I taking things too far for her first day of operation? I thought this much was reasonable enough, though most of it was against her favour... A little help would do.

Face to Face with her deadly opponent, Lily Loud decided that a ranged battle might be better than ending up insides it's jaws.

The creature leaped to her position with its jaws opened wide as it can be, Lily didn't hesitate to evade the creature and reached into her hoodie for her training gear or in this case reliable weapons. She hurled two copper knives into the monster's direction which it quickly evaded by sticking close to the floor, despite its beastly appearance, the creature holds some sort of intelligence towards its own safety. However, hitting the creature was one thing but if it was close to her target, it can be counted as a direct hit.

Judging by the distance between the two of them, connection between the weapons was very well possible and damn well you bet she was about to use it.

"This should do some damage."

Rather than a steady flow of current like she had expected in her usual training, she felt her energy rush through her body as if it were forcefully being pulled by a magnet and shot out a great amount of electrical voltage in a single discharge, the puppet monster barely had any time to react as the bolt of electricity imploded on it body and dissolved upon contact with the copper knife.

"Woah. That was awesome!" The fight had ended way earlier than she had expected and she knew it had something to do with the gift she received from Lincoln for her operations. She had the ability to release a deadly amount of current but with little milliamps and voltage to cover its distance and travel across surfaces with high resistances, but the copper knives multiplied the number of milliamps and voltage present which in turn draws more energy from her body to produce the discharge.

Smiling proudly at her victory, Lily quickly contacted her older brother.

"Overseer, do you read? This is operator Lightning reporting the successful elimination of the desired target. Standing by for further instructions." Lily replied with a practiced tone of professionalism as she observed the scattered mess of her previous target.

"Overseer huh? Is there anything odd about the monster remains?" Despite the successive and mostly unexpected completion of her mission without his assistance, Lincoln felt as if she would lose excitement in this kind of task rather quickly, after all it sort of involved putting your life ahead of others to protect them from monsters that are supposedly dangerous to them? Which is exactly why he decided a reward system would've been a great idea to get things started.

"Um... There's this clear, shiny crystal? Woah! Why is it so heavy!?"

"Really? I haven't seen any of those in a while, make sure to hang on to it and I'll be able to make something useful when you have enough. Besides that, excellent work L11. You can return to HQ once your inspection is complete." Ah yes, the extremely compact glass shard. It's rather irregular weight for its size and appearance was due to Lincoln forcing the material together under immense amounts of gravitational energy. Would he be able to disassemble the material and reform it into some useful? Of course, he could, though it was not as simple as it seemed, that crystal shard had weighed at least 3 pounds and carried a tremendous resistance to damage due to the forces of gravity compressed way beyond the norm. In short, the crystal itself could have passed as a weapon if you were skilled enough.

Lincoln could have already seen a future filled with interesting weaponry fuelled purely by his amazing abilities, if of course, his own unstable inventions didn't accidentally kill him before then. Let's face the facts, he was no doubt a natural artist with a creative imagination for this sort of stuff but the physics behind them? That was Lisa's thing, nothing wrong with having your genius sister design deadly creations to use on even more deadly creations, right?

"L11? What kind of nickname is that? Wait a min- so that must mean you're L06? Do you really want us to go by that dull nickname? Who has ever heard of ranking by age!?" Lily was clearly having a moment there, and it made her realize just how behind the times her brother was on those works of art in the mystery genres. "Eternal Lightning is a much cooler nickname than that!"

"Lily bug it is." Lincoln laughed as Lily kept pouting over their arguments on code names, one would definitely stick later but for now results meant everything.

After a few minutes of pouting and fruitless arguments with her 'superior' Lily had successfully completed her inspection of the would be body if not for the immense electrical discharge, she couldn't deny for even a second that she needed to train with these new weapons gifted to her, because one shot and your out of energy wasn't the best battle tactic for any experienced agent, especially one with super powers. She was also heavily challenged in the zoning area, should her opponent force her to fight from a distance, she would practically be rendered helpless since the weapon wouldn't be close enough to provide enough power to tickle a person. There was lots of work to do...

Later that evening Lily was getting ready for bed. However, sleep wasn't on her mind at the moment, instead her mind was filled the moment she had confronted the waitress at the HQ. From all the various staff hired to help Lincoln run his business, none of them actually had a single clue of the bar's true purpose and it wasn't like anyone was going to accidentally discover the secret basement floor, funny how she even kept forgetting how to get in sometimes. However, she swore that the waitress was investigating them, like what is her deal? Did she accidentally use her superpowers in front of her? Or Lincoln probably did? Taking these theories into consideration made her aware of a certain fact.

'That woman is bad news.' She thought to herself. 'Why do I have the feeling that I know her? Maybe I do but if so, shouldn't I remember?'

Well, aside from school, Lily had her next mission in mind at least. To thoroughly investigate the background of the new worker, after putting her mind off of tomorrow's problems she quickly gave in to sleep signalling the start of Lincoln's movement.

The clock had recently hit double digits signalling his time to swap and shift out the daytime with the late-night employees, Lily was already fast asleep which meant great news for him since he was just about ready to 'escort' his employee home.

As the two trailed down the pavement side by side, not a word was uttered by either party until they came around the corner where other people were least present at that time.

"Sometimes I wonder why they even call you Sweetwater, there is nothing about you that is even remotely worthy of that title." Lincoln began the conversation seeing that she was determined to stay tight lipped.

"..." Even so, she still refused to give a response.

"Fake Ids to get into my business huh? Since when did you even move out of royal woods? And why did you even come to this place huh?" He took a glance at her face.

"..." Straight faced, not even a slight change in reaction, Lincoln definitely had to step up his game.

"Two years ago, you pulled an interesting prank on my sister, which didn't end well for sure. For you of course." Taking another glance at her expression quickly gave him the signal to continue, it was evident, she was struggling to hold on, but she definitely felt those words. "I might actually have to believe you really need this job since fashion won't be accepting you anytime soon."

"Hitting where it hurts, you're a despicable bastard, you're not like what you used to be." She growled at him.

"The old me huh... I guess I was just being a child back then, even though I was viewed as mature, I still did some things to make those around me happy, it's my selfless nature. But you..." He looked at her with a grim expression, her entire background was pretty messy, and she hadn't even hit double digits at that time. "You crushed others for the sake of your own personal gain, of course it backfired many times, but you just never learned, do you? They clearly hate you, don't they? Why do you still do this?" Just as he finished his sentence, she managed to stop right in her tracks, gaining his attention for a moment.

"I- I just wanted to be make someone happy!" She snapped at him with tears in her eyes.

'Wait hol' up, what?' Lincoln froze for that brief moment. He didn't understand where all of this was coming from.

"You are surrounded by people who love you no matter what, and what about me? I'm an only child with a stupid! Drunk! Bastard of a father and a bitch who couldn't care less! Where is the love that I deserve!? D-Don't I deserve a happy ending for all the shit I've been through?" Lincoln had already been shocked from her outburst, but the situation was not turning out in his favour. Soon enough the commotion had managed to gather attention from nosy residents who peeked out through their windows to get a bit of the drama and some burly looking men were giving him weird gazes as they conversed among themselves.

"Hey calm down! I didn't mean to go this far I only wanted to confirm your identity. Look let's go to your- wherever you're currently staying, and we can sort this all out? Sounds good?" He consoled her.

Although unaware of the other problems she had been creating because of her outburst, she did believe that wording her entire life's problems on an old enemy doesn't necessarily ensure success. However, those were just the ones she had to deal with later.

"I live right across your apartment." She answered with a straight face.

"I don't believe it; you've been stalking me the whole time!? You've got some nerve!" He knew something was up with her. But then again...

"I can't name a person on this planet who would even think of stalking you." With this response she had objected to stalking him and indirectly suggested that it was a 'coincidence'

"I've had stalkers before!" On second thought that was not the best thing to reply with.

"You say that with so much pride? No wonder you live alone creep!" With her vicious reactions, Lincoln couldn't understand why she was being so riled up.

"Ha! Jokes on you! I live with my little sis-" Barely stopping himself midway through his sentence he took one look at his surroundings and could tell that something was wrong. The 'nosy' residents had tripled in number with some of them even sitting on the sidewalk listening with keen interest while the burly looking men were mentally face palming at his stupidity. It was only then he realized. 'She tricked me into looking like an idiot, she still knows how to do that. I lost this one... Wait, why are all these people here!?' rather, the onlookers were quite amused that situation escalated from a fight to a lover's quarrel.

"We apologize for the disturbance; we'll be going now." Lincoln quickly grabbed her wrist and left hurriedly from the crowd. "Alright seriously, where are you staying?"

"What do you think I was lying? I live right across your apartment."

After a few minutes of silence, they arrived at the said building, and it really seemed as if she was telling the truth much to Lincoln's dismay.

They entered the rundown looking building across the hotel Lincoln was staying in and not long after settling down did Lincoln began the conversation once again.

"So, this is your place huh, the inside is quite cosy, but the outside appearance is horib- err... Not so good." It took everything in his power to avoid putting more salt on the wound that was dealt to her reputation. What he didn't know is that she couldn't care less about that old life since she ran away from it all... Well, most of it.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in such a case looks couldn't possibly matter." She responded monotonously while pouring a liquid from a fancy wine bottle into two champagne glasses. This caused Lincoln to awkwardly glance at her when she handed the glass to him.

"Wait aren't y-"

"There's no alcohol, I still have morals, just not the one everyone wants." She sat cross legged on the coffee table while he comfortably sat in the sofa. She was right about the moral's thing since not a lot of people sits on coffee tables with short skirts.

"Uhm anyway, what did you really find me for? If you don't mind, just speak whatever's on your mind I'm listening." After coming this far, it might not be so bad to help an old friend or partner in crime.

"As you know, I don't exactly have the best relationship with a lot of people and even though it's all my fault I blame it on my parents. For neglecting me when I needed them most so I wanted revenge, something to show them that they would regret leaving me behind! So, I sold everything I had related to fashion and moved away from royal woods ever since fashion rejected me, of course it wasn't done legally and on paper I'm technically not the owner of this house but who cares at this point?"

"That sounds, a bit strange. How did you manage to get income?"

She frowned as the old memory resurged onto her mind.

"As a minor, I had no qualifications to legally partake in a business so I faked my ID and went to work at a night club, these kinds of places wouldn't even care if you looked like 5 or just hit double digits. The pay was below average jobs, but I did what I had to do of course I had to quit after the customers started to make moves on me. Good thing you came, it made getting a job a whole lot easier."

Lincoln knew that none of this was his fault, he couldn't have possibly known about her backstory while hardly even knowing the person himself but for some reason he felt inclined to help her, maybe not with revenge but to at least get her back on her feet.

"Do you really want to go get revenge?" He inquired hoping that she had at least gotten over it by now.

"I have always lived with that pain in my heart but now that I've been struggling through this shitty life, the feeling just went. It's funny how the more I spend time with you the better I feel to be in where I am right now."

They had hardly spent any time together at all but at least he was happy he managed to help.

"I always thought of you as my sister's eternal rival, heck I even helped you that one time. You two could be best friends in terms of personality but I guess that never happened. But you've really changed for the better, maybe you do deserve a happy ending."

"Me and Lola? Never, can't you see the difference in our fashion senses? That would be the one out many things we'll fight over." She laughed at his suggestion

He stood up to wrap up the conversation with his goal already in mind.

"Do you have any family ties left? Anyone you trust or someone you share your troubles with?"

She gave him the most dumbfounded look before turning it into the usual frown she would carry, reminds him of Lucy.

"Did you not listen to a single word said? Of course, not I wouldn't be here if someone had even remotely cared about me."

"R-Right sorry, what I meant was, what's your next move? Are you still trying to get back into modelling or aspire for something greater?"

"I stopped aiming high after experiencing real life, what I wanted before was no more than a pipe dream. I'm fine with working at your place but I understand if you don't want me there anymore... Just like my parents."

The situation was already awkward as it was, but she made it seem as though Lincoln was telling her off when he was trying to make the best out of the moment. Now he had to bring her spirits up again before he made a preposition, but her down spirited mode wasn't so bad either, actually it seemed as though she had completely given up on living. Thanks to this, he was indebted to helping her or perhaps she'll be helping him.

"You don't want fame or glory anymore, that's so unlike you. Why don't you come work for me? You'll make the perfect addition to my future organization, a life in the shadows far exhilarating than anything a rich man will be able to experience."

"Not even a rich man would be able to experience. What are you even going on about? This world is built upon money. I hope you're not talking about true love or some bs like that." She voiced in her usual stoic demeanour.

"Maybe this will change your mind."

Calmly sipping the beverage handed to him earlier, the objects around him began to levitate and he paid no mind to them.

"What the? The hell is going on!? Is this a prank!? How is..." Then it dawned upon her, she looked at him once again. Then back at the levitating objects. "Y-You h-how are you doing this? This isn't re-"

"What do you mean, it's floating isn't it? Your eyes are not deceiving you and this isn't a trick nor some prank, I have nothing to gain from watching you suffer. So how about it? The position is to be a field and scouting agent. Well, it may be too early to decide what position you'll be without an awakening, but we'll see."

She looked at the objects revolving playfully and soon enough she began to hover as well although shocked she clearly understood what he was saying through this action 'this is reality now', she didn't know what was going through her head, she wanted a normal life right? She didn't want to rise up to fame or be passionate about anything anymore because her own feelings had ultimately rejected her and left her at this point but yet? She wanted it, with every passing moment, the incline to accept grew stronger and soon enough it would be impossible to refuse. Giving up the normal mundane life for something extraordinary and strange? Why not?

"I accept."

"Wonderful. Let's see how things will turn out for you Lindsay."