Chapter two, of… Well, I started writing this chapter before I even published the first, so I don't actually know what I'm calling this story yet. I'm leaning towards "A Simple Misunderstanding." But we'll call it "Pants: A Tale of Denim." For now.

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Sliding his foot into his shoe, he knotted the laces up and gave them a tug to make sure they were tight. Satisfied, he stood slowly. Very slowly. It was harder to move slowly than it was to move fast, and that was sort of the point.

"Lincoln!" He tensed for a split second, before relaxing at the sound of his younger sister's voice. "Lola hid Pop Hop, and she won't tell me where she put him!" The ten year old mechanic ran up to him, her eyes watering as she fought back tears. She loved that toad.

Sigh, well… Okay, let's do this. He wanted to already be out the door by now, but duty called.

"Did she tell you why?" That was always the first question to ask, even though it wasn't likely to produce results.

"No…" She muttered, carefully looking away from him. He didn't roll his eyes at her lie, even though she wouldn't see it. That was about what he expected.

"Alright well, let's see what she has to say." They reached the second floor landing just in time to see Lori step from her room, a bag thrown over one shoulder, because of course. Lincoln couldn't help but sigh. Of course she was almost ready. A little faster and he could have left someone else to deal with the twins, but… Sigh… He didn't really feel that way. He was just mentally tired.

"Hey Link, ready to go?"

"In a second, I have to help Lana out first." He nodded to her, but continued towards the twin's room.

Turning the handle, he stepped inside, Lana trailing in behind him. Lori was standing in the hall, apparently having decided to watch. He turned his attention back to Lola and Lana's room, which was currently absolutely trashed. More trashed than usual, even. Usually Lana's side of the room had a certain chaos to it, considering all her animals, but it didn't often extend into Lola's side of the room. So… Lana had clearly been busy attempting to find her toad herself, before she came to get him. Lola lay on her stomach, on her bed. Her knees bent, and her feet kicking in the air as she read a fashion magazine.

"Lola." He carefully picked his way across the room, trying not to step on anything that wasn't the floor. You could never tell what dangers hid beneath a soft covering. "Lana says that you hid her toad."

Huffing irritably, Lola pushed herself up to sit cross legged. "I only did it because her stupid frog-"

"He's a toad!" Lana cried.

"Because her stupid FROG!" Lola said again, emphasizing the frog as much as she could. "Keeps jumping on me while I'm trying to sleep!"

"He only does THAT, because you insulted his stealth training last week!"

"What!?"

"OKAY, STOP!" He silenced them. "Give me a second to think." Tilting his head back, he cast his gaze up to the ceiling.

When he first got his powers, it didn't take him long to figure out that he wasn't actually seeing the future. It was more like a super high speed rehearsal.

Rehearsal Take One:

"Lana," He turned to the young mechanic. "Have you been putting Pop Hop on Lola at night?"

Lana jerked in surprise and immediately flushed, looking carefully away. "No…"

"You've been what?!"

He closed the simulation before things could get too far out of hand.

Take Two:

This time he just spent a few seconds thinking before he tried anything else. An advantage of his power being that he had significantly more time to think things through. Sixty seconds of simulated time fit inside one second of real world time, so he had quite a bit to spare.

Looking down on the pageant princess, he considered which arguments would be most likely to sway her… But… Eh… He could have been more clever about it, really poked at her until he could figure out exactly what to say to get her to give up the toad's hiding spot, but he kind of just wanted to get it over with.

"Lola," So he was going to cheat. "I'll give you twenty dollars if you tell me where the toad is." Putting action to his words, he pulled out his wallet and fished out a crisp bill.

"Okay!" Lola greedily snatched the money from his hand, her face set in a self satisfied expression. "Her frog is under a laundry basket, in the basement."

Closing the second simulation, he took a deep breath and let it out, gathering himself for just a moment. Then he looked down at the fighting sisters.

"Lola, where did you put Pop Hop?"

"I don't have to tell you." She turned away belligerently.

"In the basement, got it."

What?!" She turned to stare at him, her eyes open wide and her mouth gaping. "How did you know?!"

"Call it brothers intuition." He smirked tiredly and turned to leave, Lana following happily after him. Honestly, the twins should know better than to lie to him by now.

Back down the stairs they went. Into the dinning room, and down the stairs to the basement. They found Lana's toad croaking unhappily from under a basket.

"Pop Hop!" Lana pushed the basket over and embraced her pet. "Thanks Lincoln!"

"Hey Lana." He waited until he had her full attention. "Stop putting him on your sister, when she's asleep, okay?"

"What?! But I… How did you know?"

"Call it brothers intuition." With that, he turned and climbed back up the stairs again, to find Lori waiting for him.

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah, alright." Nodding to her, they made their way into the front hall, where he picked up his own backpack and followed her example by slinging it over one shoulder.

Leaving the house, Lincoln allowed Lori to guide their destination. Would they be walking to the city, or taking the bus this time? Lincoln was idly curious. He always preferred to walk, but Lori didn't have his literally endless physical stamina, so he always let her choose. They stopped at the bus stop, and Lori leaned against the wall. Lincoln, opted to crouch and stand, and crouch and stand, and do a few hops, before repeating himself. Because if you legitimately never got tired, why not work out all the time? Not like it was hard.

"Could you stop?" Lori sighed, handily answering the question of why he wouldn't work out all the time. "It's making me tired just looking at you."

"Sure." He exhaled, but stood straight.

A few minutes more of comfortable silence, and the bus pulled up. Getting on, they were quickly in the city. Stepping down to the pavement, Lincoln picked a random direction and began walking, Lori following along behind him.

The sounds of the city washed over them, but Lincoln was thankful for the peace. Walking for a few more minutes, Lincoln felt the stresses of the day drain away. If anyone had been aware enough to ask, they might have wondered why. These trips into the city were supposed to be patrols. Looking for trouble to take care of in the moment, and suspicious things to investigate. Realistically, it was also stress relief.

Living in such a big family, Lincoln was cursed to be an introvert. Not that he didn't love hanging out with them. Not that he didn't have a lot of fun. But if he didn't get some time to himself… Well, no. He glanced at Lori, walking peacefully beside him… If he didn't get some time when nobody needed him, he'd begin to fray. He always wished to have the energy to keep up with all of his sisters. Now he did; his powers assured that, but it didn't change his personality. Exhaling explosively, he stood a little straighter, and drifted closer to his older sister.

Things in the city were more stable than one might think. Yeah, there was crime happening all the time now, but it was more… It happened it bursts. It was weird. In movies, when the setting was a crime ridden city, muggers were everywhere. People were barreling through the streets, going through red lights, and hurling molotov cocktails around. He got that real life and movies weren't the same thing, but movies usually had seeds of the truth in them. The tropes weren't based on nothing. So it just felt a bit strange that crime happened in waves around here.

The facts remained that while he always made sure to keep an eye out for trouble, he could mostly relax. Mostly nobody needed him in the city, outside of a few specific circumstances, so he could just chill until he didn't need to anymore.

Still, he did have a job to do. Stopping in front of the alley between a clothing store and a convenience store, he turned.

Rehearsal Take One:

Immediately the sky became black above him, even though he could still see. It was one of the things that tipped him off that he wasn't seeing the future. If he made his way to the edges, the dome of blackness extended all the way to the ground. Anything pushed into the blackness was lost, because he wasn't actually seeing the future. He was, as far as he could tell, taking a snapshot of everything that existed within a certain radius of him, and simulating what would happen next, in absence of anything outside it.

Taking a step into the alley, he held up a hand to keep Lori from following him. There was a doorway a ways down, which he stopped in front of. Then, because he didn't have to be subtle, he kicked it in. The door slammed back against the wall, and bounced back halfway, and all two of the ordinary convenience store workers stared back at him.

He cut the simulation. That's what happened most of the time. He'd only stumbled across an actual crime in progress once. But he figured that as long as he had the ability to investigate these things, without doing any real harm if he was wrong, he might as well.

"So." Reaching out, he gave her a small push and she stumbled half a step. "I hear the first episode-" Swaying back, he dodged her retaliatory swipe. "Of the new season of Dessert Storm is showing tonight."

"Yeah." She smiled, even as she lunged forward and tagged the center of his chest. "I've been looking forward to it." Spinning to walk backwards, so she could keep him in her sight, she hopped back when he tried to lunge too. "The new season is supposed to be about desserts from around the world."

"Oh," He pretended to lunge again, and took three long steps forward when she reacted, tagging her again. "You planning to fight Lynn for the couch than?"

"Now that…" She paused to take a look behind her, eyeing up the end of the sidewalk as it got closer. "Would be unfair." Lincoln chuckled, until he was forced to stop by Lori stopping as well.

With a smirk, she began walking towards him instead, her arms stretched out on either side.

"Oh, come on, that's cheating." Ducking, he made a few aborted attempts to get under her arms.

"You'll know when I start cheating. Or, actually, I guess you won't." Her smirk widened, and Lincoln smiled despite himself. He glanced at the road, briefly contemplating going around her, but she used the opportunity to tag him before he could react. Then, spinning on her heal, she ran for the end of the sidewalk and threw her hands in the air, in exaggerated triumph. "I win! Woo."

Heh. He chuckled quietly as he came up beside her, and she followed him across the street.

"I thought Dessert Storm was supposed to be a British baking show." He'd watched it with her before.

"It is." She nodded. "I think they're doing it to boost ratings." Shrugging, she continued. "I'm not complaining."

"Hoping to get new ideas?"

"A little…" She looked to the side in thought. "But I honestly don't think I'm good enough to really get anything out of it."

"Having tried your food, I think you're being too hard on yourself." Turning he directed them down a street they'd never been down before.

"Thanks, but I think you're literally overestimating my skill."

As they continued to walk and talk, the building around them became less familiar. They were more worn. Some of the shops had cracked, or extremely dusty, windows. A few of them were boarded up, and looking around… Well, it didn't make Lincoln uncomfortable. No… Looking down an entire line of boarded up stores, it just made him… kind of… sad. He couldn't really figure out why though.

Rehearsal Take One:

They weren't that close to the main shopping district, so the backs of the stores weren't just the fronts of other stores on the other side. There was actually an empty lot behind.

The backs of the stores didn't look that different from the fronts, just as run down. He'd check anyway. He rattled the knob to the back door of the first store in the line, and it drifted open with no effort at all. That didn't mean nothing was wrong, and… It was sort of an example of something being wrong in and of itself. It wasn't really the type of wrong he was looking for though.

Stepping into the building, he swept the inside with his eyes, before stepping back out again and moving to the next one. Same story as the last, and same with the next one as well.

The fourth door was locked… Huh… That felt… Wrong, somehow. A slight ache formed behind his eyes, marking the sixty second point, in simulation.

He closed it, because he didn't really want to deal with the migraine. Still, that was something. Getting Lori's attention, he led her around to the back of the store with the locked door.

Take Two:

Lining himself up, he stepped forward and smashed the sole of his foot into the door, over the lock. Stumbling back as the door completely failed to open, He narrowed his eyes incredulously. Another kick served the same results.

That was suspicious. Why would a boarded up store have such a sturdy, and more importantly working, lock. It was one thing for the store to have had a sturdy lock at some point, but surely somebody would have ransacked the place by now. If the broken locks on the other stores were anything to go by, anyway.

"Lori, can you open this?"

"What if someone see's." She looked around worriedly.

"… Don't worry about it." Yeah, he wasn't telling her that she was a simulation. The last time he did that didn't end well. It wasn't a huge deal, as he'd just had to reset the simulation, but seeing her freak out still made him uncomfortable.

Taking a breath, she stepped up to the door and Lincoln found it suddenly a lot harder to focus on her. What was he doing? Oh, right. He shook his head, watching as Lori pushed the it open with very little apparent effort. The metal shrieked as it was shorn away from itself, and the barrier fell inside.

Stepping inside himself, he suddenly knew why the door had such a sturdy lock. Stacked up on the floor, and every available surface, were tightly plastic wrapped white packages.

He closed the simulation, leaving himself back outside with Lori.

"Yeah, we're going to be coming back here later."

Broccoli

As her car rolled through the mostly empty streets, Lori couldn't help but cast a wary eye around. Why were they even taking her car?! What was that! She twisted just in time to catch a squirrel dart out of an alley. Exhaling heavily, she turned back the the road, flexing her gloves over the steering wheel.

"Calm down." Her eyes flickered up to the rear view mirror, taking in her brother's costumed form, reclining in the back seat so that nobody could see him through the window.

"Shut up." Because it clearly wasn't enough that they were going out into the city to pick up a… pallet? Just a ton of drugs. As if that wasn't enough, they were going in costume, because it would be weird for Lincoln and Lori to pull up to an abandoned store and load hundreds of pounds of cocaine into her trunk, what if someone Saw them?! Oh, no! It's not like they had super powers that would prevent that from being a problem. No, they clearly had to go in costume.

"I already explained why we were doing this." Like hell he had!

"No, Lincoln-"

"Queen." She choked over her own words as he cut her off. She wanted to feel angry at his interruption, because she was entitled to feel this way, but she didn't. Self directed irritation mixed in with her righteous anxiety, because he was right and he'd talked to her about it before.

"No, King." She corrected, because they were in costume. She couldn't call him Lincoln when he was dressed as King, and he couldn't call her Lori when she was dressed as Queen. The possibility that they might slip and give out their secret identities was too high, if they did. "You explained why we couldn't just call the police." It was admittedly a weak attempt, when she tried to convince her brother to let the police handle it. They were best called only when the option to fix it yourself wasn't available. They were too slow to respond, and too likely to mess things up when they got there. Taking a breath, she took a moment to gather all her frustration, and anxiety, and concentrate it into her next statement. "You didn't explain why I had to drive there, as Queen, in Lori's car." Her breath was thin in her lungs, and her body was tensed so much that she had to forcibly relax her hands so she didn't crush her steering wheel.

"Well, we couldn't take the van." He answered, as if that was what she was actually asking about. Heh… They couldn't… It was kind of funny. Her diaphragm heaved, as she squeezed the most pitiful of hysterical laughs from her tightening throat. She probably sounded sick. "And," He continued, probably sensing her growing distress. "We don't have another car." That was true, but it didn't make her feel better. "If we leave left it for another few days, who knows what would have happened?" Another good point, but still not helping.

"But why?" She rasped out, even as she edged around the corner of an intersection, and rolled down the next road, at speeds that she hoped wouldn't draw attention. "Am I driving Lori's car?" She could turn around right? If she just turned around, they could go back and she wouldn't have to do this… She heaved a sigh, because that wasn't true… Even if she didn't drive him, her brother would find a way to do it on his own… Breathing, she gathered herself enough to continue. "This is Lori's car, surely I-" She cut herself off. "She," It was hard to remember to talk about herself as though she were someone else. "Shouldn't she be the one driving it?"

Finally arriving at their destination, Lori pulled into the lot behind the stores and parked. Sitting up, Lincoln stepped from the car and stood beside her.

"Well…" He hesitated. "This is the first time we've ever run into something like this, and I never really expected to… So this was the best idea I could come up with on such short notice." He gestured to her car, or more likely the mud that now caked the outside. It was the least of her worries, at the moment, but she still couldn't help but be irritated by the sight. That was going to be a pain to clean up. Still, she had to admit that it didn't look much like her car anymore. "We'll have to find something else to use, in costume, for next time."

"Right, and how are we going to do that?" Car's were expensive, and she didn't have that kind of money.

Her brother didn't respond for a minute, as they prepared. "Tandem bicycle? He threw out, and she choked on a laugh, coughing painfully, as her eyes watered. In that one moment, she felt all her tension leave her and she bent over, clutching her stomach, as she heaved for laughter. It rang out into the silent city around them, until she calmed down enough to stand straight again, and wipe away her tears. "I could peddle us forever, and we could use you for speed." She shook again, with silent chuckles.

"I don't think we're going to be doing that." She shook her head, even though she knew he wasn't serious. She appreciated the release though. She didn't feel good, but she felt much better than she did before.

"Alright, give me a second." King stepped up to the locked door, and she took the moment to think about other things.

Their family was waiting for them back home. It was approaching dinner, and she hoped they'd be done in time for it…

"Kah." King grunted five seconds later. Groaning, he slumped in on himself and brought two fingers, on each hand, up to massage his temples. "Oh, man… Ow…" She recognized the signs. Her brother spent too long in the simulation. Like her, if he worked too hard he'd get a migraine. She often felt jealous of his ability to get over them so much faster than her, though. "Okay…" He took a few, deep, breaths. "Unless someone was already coming in, from more than four-hundred feet away, we have at least five minutes to load the drugs up and get out of here."

That wasn't incredibly reassuring. "And if they were coming in from more than four-hundred feet away?" She'd learned quickly enough, mostly because he'd told her, that Lincoln's power didn't actually let him see the future. If it did, she'd probably be less worried about him… She'd still be worried though. Nothing would prevent her from being worried about him. Nothing.

"Yeah," He let out an irritated huff. "Look, if they wanted to get here in five minutes, they'd have to already be coming here. Unless these hypothetical people have super speed, they'd need at least a couple minutes to get ready and get in their car. And nobody, already in my range, came to check."

Tilting her head to the side, in thought, she considered what he said… Alright, it didn't cover for if the people who came to investigate sprinted in from outside his range, but it was better than nothing. Nodding, she stepped up to the locked door, and opened it. It was as easy as that. As easy as shearing an inch thick bolt of steel in half, because the door wasn't not going to open when she pulled on it. Door didn't do that anymore when she decided she wanted them open. During her first week with powers, she accidentally broke into Carols house.

Stepping into the room beyond, they made quick work of loading the packages into her car. Her trunk wasn't big enough to hold all of it, so they had to load some into her back seat too, but it honestly went much more smoothly than she would have thought.

As they drove away, and nobody stopped them, she allowed herself to relax just a little. As they crossed the city line, and the view out the window began showing the country side, she allowed her tension to leave her completely. She let out a tired sigh, and parked the car on the side of an empty stretch of road.

Climbing out, she and Lincoln set about piling the packages up on the ground, some distance from the street. Once they were all stacked up, King returned to the car and came back with a can of lighters fluid, and a long match. The flames danced merrily, but they didn't stop to watch for longer than a few seconds.

Then finally, She pulled off her hoodie and mask, stopped being Queen, and became Lori again. She glanced to the side, when Lincoln, not King, climbed in shotgun.

"Alright," She sighed. "Let's go see what's for dinner."

I remember once, back when I first started writing, I wrote a chapter so long that FFDotNet wouldn't let me post it all as one.

In the chaos of the Loud family dining room, as her sisters churned around her, and sound crashed over her senses, Leni stayed calm. Not because she wanted to, but because she had something she had to do.

Lori and Lincoln went out into the city again… Well, they went out again. She didn't know they went into the city for sure, but they never seemed to go anywhere else. They were gone for less than two hours, in the evening…

"And the worst part." Lynn finished a story that Leni didn't catch the beginning of, "Is that nobody caught it on video. I was like "Come ON! REALLY?"" She swept her arms through the arm, to show her frustration.

"So, who do you think is going to be eliminated tonight?" She caught Luna ask Lisa, on her other side.

Pushing up her glasses, Lisa hummed in thought. "Hmm, Bonnie appears to prefer the company of calmer men. I'd estimate that she'll dismiss Brant, he's been pushy since the beginning."

"Huh, what about Brick, than?"

"See," Across the room, Lincoln was leaning back against the arch, talking to Lori with his hands in his pockets. "I have a theory." At their older sisters nod, he continued. "Lisa thinks that Bonnie is an introverted intellectual type."

"Well, she has forced all the outdoorsy guys, except Brick and Brant, to walk the plank." Lori responded, shrugging.

"That's just it, though. I think Brick is going to win."

"Really?" The oldest Loud sister raised an eyebrow in not quite disbelief.

"I think Bonnie is a shy extrovert."

"Hmm, go on." Moving a little closer to Lincoln, Lori stepped from under the arch into the living room and extended her arm out to the wall so that Lincoln would have to duck under her arm, or go around her, to get out of the dining room.

"Oh!" She turned to look at Dad, as he looked up at the clock on the wall. "Honey," Turning to Mom, he stopped washing the dishes and rested his hand on her shoulder. "It's almost time for the new episode, could you…?"

"Fine." Mom huffed in pretend annoyance, and real amusement. Her eyes found Dad's and their lips met for just a moment. "Go watch your show. I'll clean up tonight, but you owe me." There was a… weight, Leni wanted to say, between their eyes. She didn't really know how to describe it. She probably wouldn't have noticed, except. She turned back to Lincoln and Lori.

"So all the other outgoing guys might have been eliminated." She tuned back into their conversation, as the family began filtering into the living room. "But that's just because they're too aggressive."

"That makes sense…" Lori hummed thoughtfully, as she turned to move into the living room, and Lincoln followed behind her. "Wait," She spun around again, placing her palm on his chest to stop him. "Get us some popcorn?" She grinned toothily, as she caught her brothers eyes… There was a certain weight between them. As if… As if… As if their faith in each other was rock solid.

"Sure, but you owe me one." She didn't really get it… And not because of the usual reasons. It was like she… It felt like when she was on the edge of understanding something. She was so close, she just needed to… She wasn't sure.

"I'll save us a seat." She didn't understand yet, but she would.

"That'll do it." He chuckled, turning back to the kitchen.

Ever tried hemp milk? I don't like it. I even mixed in chocolate syrup, and that… Well, it did improve the hemp milk, but it made the chocolate syrup worse.

When the silent alarm went off, Josh rolled out of bed and started getting dressed. He snagged his Glock from his bedside table, and stuffed it in his back pocket. He was just coming down the stairs, into the evening sun, when he saw activity in the apartments across the street. A mud caked car drove past, but that wasn't important. It left his mind almost as quickly as it entered.

He started down the way, until he reached the line of boarded up stores. There wasn't a way in from the front, so he circled around. His… Coworkers, he guessed, finally stumbling out onto the street behind him.

He paused before turning into the empty lot, and pulled out his Glock. He flipped the safety, and looked around the corner… Nobody was there. He stepped away from the wall, and lowered the gun to his side, but he didn't put the safety back on, or put it back in his pocket.

The sounds of his foot steps echoed off the buildings, as he approached the store house… The door was open, and it wasn't supposed to be.

"What the hell?" It was fucking destroyed… The door remained on its hinges, but the lock was somehow both crushed, and pulled apart. Did they use a winch or something?

Taking another quick look around didn't reveal whoever was responsible, but it did reveal his coworkers finally showing up. He ignored them, turning back to the ruined door. Whoever did this didn't seem to still be around… But he couldn't think of a reason why someone would break the door open and then run away. Because they couldn't possibly have- WHAT! THE! HELL!?

He stopped short inside the barren room. No, seriously, WHAT?! He… Uh… Eh…

He didn't even know if he was angry, or impressed, or… Uh… What was the emotion that most closely resembled a computer error?

"What happened!?" He shook himself, as one of his coworkers called out to him. "Are we being robbed?!"

"No." They had already been robbed, apparently. "We're going to need to call the boss." This was weird enough that he felt pretty confident kicking it up the chain.

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Chapter notes:

I don't know how much the average person, reading this story, knows about criminal logistics, but I have a pretty good reason for why everything is the way it is in this story. I just wanted to clarify that, in case someone thinks I'm just making stuff up… I mean, I am, but I'm doing it thoughtfully.