Inside the training room, Future Lincoln held the meteorite's core in his hand as he presented it to his younger self. Young Lincoln hesitated at first, not knowing what would happen once he touched the stone. He grabbed it carefully with both hands and waited for something to happen. But… nothing did. He figured just touching it would be enough to make it work, but he didn't feel any different.
"So what do I do with it?" he asked.
"The core responds to passion," Future Lincoln answered. "Focus on what drives you. What inspires you to be a hero?"
Following his older self's instructions, Lincoln closed his eyes and concentrated on his passion. He imagined himself as a big and strong superhero flying around the city, rescuing people in distress and defeating super villains with a single punch. He imagined the citizens cheering his name and girls swooning at the sight of his smile. The mere thought of it all was intoxicating.
All of a sudden, he felt a surge of energy and warmth coursing through his body. It was as if every cell in his body were being supercharged all at once. He found himself bathed in a bright red aura and floating off the ground. It filled him with a sense of excitement that he hadn't felt since he and his sisters' powers had first emerged.
"Holy cow! It worked! I can't believe it!" he exclaimed.
"So how do you feel?"
"I feel… invincible!"
"Great. What do you say we try it out?"
"Let's do this."
Adult Lincoln left the room and activated the training sequence. Over a dozen robots appeared and came after Lincoln. He thought about what to try first. Should he go with an energy blast? A speed run? Or maybe laser vision? Then he decided to start slow with a simple power punch. He flew straight towards one robot and with a single sock, sent it flying into the wall, where it exploded into a million pieces. Lincoln was filled pride as he clutched the meteorite in his hand.
"Whoa! I've never been able to do that before! Let's see what other new tricks I've got."
Lincoln spent the rest of the afternoon fighting robots and unlocking new powers. He was flying faster than they could attack, firing energy blasts, punching opponents through walls, melting them with heat vision. It was absolutely exhilarating.
Eventually, nighttime began to fall and Lincoln started to tire out. It had taken at least a half hour of training before he'd actually broken a sweat, but after a whole afternoon, he'd finally decided he'd had enough for one day.
"Dude, you're a natural," said F.L.
"Thanks," Lincoln said with a proud but tired smile. "But I think I'm ready to call it a day. It's getting late and kicking so much butt really works up an appetite. But I can't wait to get back to it tomorrow."
"Believe me, Link. At the rate you're going, Infrared isn't gonna know what hit him."
For the next few days, Lincoln spent most of his time practicing with his new powers under the supervision of his future self. He only stopped to eat, sleep and go to school. Even there, though, he kept practicing. When no one was looking, he would practice levitating rocks on the playground at recess. Fortunately, there were very few emergencies in town that required the entire L-Force to pitch in. Even Infrared had stopped showing up. But even the missions that they asked Lincoln to come along on he kept blowing off for more training. Even his parents only saw him at meal times. His sisters had to keep making up cover stories for him and they weren't sure how long they could keep it up without their folks getting too suspicious.
At the same time, they'd been keeping up their efforts to track down Infrared before he struck again. Without much success, though. Aside from their own encounters, there were no other reports of Infrared showing up anywhere in town. It was as if he had just disappeared off the face of the planet. Wherever he was, he was keeping an extremely low profile.
One day, Lori and Luna were watching Lincoln train. They saw him fight the robots with a confidence and ferocity that they'd never seen in him before. They were both proud and a little scared. Then something occurred to Lori.
"You know, something's been bugging me," she said.
"What's up, sis?" Luna replied.
"Future Lincoln said that Infrared came back in time to destroy us. So why hasn't he done it yet? I mean, he's literally attacked us twice, but he let us live both times. Doesn't that seem weird to you?"
"Yeah, you're right. Plus, he never really went after Lincoln either. Last time, he just strapped him to the jungle gym and let him watch from the sidelines while we got our butts thrashed."
"Exactly. Something is definitely not right here. And I get the feeling Future Lincoln isn't telling us everything."
"Well, let's go see if we can get some answers."
Lori and Luna approached their not-so-little brother as the younger one continued to practice. "Glad to see he's improving so much," Lori said. "And in such a short time no less."
"Yeah, well, the kid's got real talent. If I do say so myself," F.L. bragged.
"Oh, totally," Luna agreed. "But it kinda begs the question, shouldn't we all get to use the core? I mean, with all of our powers cranked up to eleven like that, Infrared wouldn't stand a chance."
"True, but you guys are already so impressive, I just figured I - I mean Lincoln needed it more."
"Um, excuse me?" Lori challenged. "We have gotten our butts kicked twice by that guy. The way I see it, all of us need all the help we can get."
"I know, but… Look it's hard to explain, but trust me, it's a lot more complicated than it looks."
"Really? Because it looks like you're just playing favorites and selfishly trying to keep the one thing that could help us stop the super-powered lunatic who's trying to kill us all to yourself, just so you can make yourself look like the big hero."
"You're one to talk about being selfish, Lori."
"What are you talking about?"
"You think I don't remember how you tried to hold me back by sabotaging my training even though you knew how much it meant to me?"
That caused both sisters to recoil a bit in embarrassment before Lori regained her nerve. "I was just trying to protect you."
"Well, that's what I'm trying to do now. Maybe I am giving my kid self an advantage, but maybe I'm just trying to help him reach the same level as you guys. Maybe I'm just trying to make up for lost time."
"Are you saying that after all this time, you're still miffed at us for not letting you out in the field sooner?" Luna challenged.
Adult Lincoln took a moment to ponder what to say next. "Okay, listen. Here's the deal," he said. "You wanna know why Infrared hasn't attacked your Lincoln yet? It's because he doesn't think it's worth it."
"What? Why not?" asked Lori.
"Well, don't get me wrong. I am a much more competent and experienced hero in the future than he is now, but I'm still just barely able to keep up with the rest of you. Infrared knows I'd never be able to stop him on my own, so he thinks there's no sport in fighting me. But now that I've been introduced to the core's power at such a young age, I can finally give my sisters the extra boost they need to take down Infrared for good."
The girls both exchanged looks that expressed a mix of worry and confusion. They both still thought it would be better if all of them got to enhance their own powers with the core as well so they could have more of shot at defeating Infrared, but if helping Lincoln catch up to the rest of them was really so important to his older version, then they figured they might as well drop it. After all, Lincoln's abilities and fighting skills were obviously improving at a very impressive rate and he did seem rather happy with himself as he celebrated his victory over the last of the machines.
"Aw yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" The white-haired boy cheered. "Nobody can touch the WORLD'S GREATEST SUPERHERO!"
Suddenly, the three young Louds all got emergency alerts on their communicators and looked to see what it was about. "Hey 'World's Greatest Superhero.' Do you think you could pull yourself away from your training for a moment and take some time to actually act like a superhero?" Lori asked sarcastically with a commanding undertone.
"Well, I suppose it has been a while," Lincoln admitted before turning to his futuristic mentor. "What do you think, F.L.?"
"Go for it, Linc. Give the whole town a chance to admire your new talents," F.L. encouraged.
"You're right! Time to show everybody what the new and improved Link can really do!" Lincoln agreed confidently. "Hey, you wanna help us out?" he asked his older self.
"Sure. That sounds great. With Infrared not showing up anywhere, it's been a while since I last got to kick some super villain butt."
"Fine by me," Lori agreed.
"Well then let's get cracking already, dudes!" Luna said, eager to get this emergency taken care of.
So the four heroes quickly met up with their remaining sisters and went out to get to work.
The jewelry store was being robbed by the L-Force's youngest and 'coolest' nemesis Ice Queen and her legion of ice soldiers. The young villainess had ordered her hand-crafted minions to gather as many diamonds and jewels as they could carry, which they were currently in the middle of doing while the store clerks were frozen to the wall. She was sure that this time, she would come out on top. That is, until the last people she wanted to see arrived on the scene.
"Hold it right there!" Tailor shouted, getting the cold-hearted little girl's attention.
"Robbing a jewelry store, Ice Queen? Seems a little passé, don't you think, honey?" Princess judged.
"Pssh! Make fun of me all you want," Ice Queen replied, brushing off Princess's insult. "The fact is that I'm about to strike it rich here and this time, you're not going to get in my way! Finally, I can afford to buy my palace! One fit for a queen!"
"Well I hope that palace comes with a dungeon, because that's where you're going!" April Fool quipped as she and the team got into fighting position.
"We'll see about that," Ice Queen said, undeterred. "Guards, seize them!"
On their queen's order, the ice soldiers dropped their gems and charged right at the L-Force, swords ablaze.
"L-Force, attack!" Control Freak ordered as the team sprang into action.
The team was outnumbered five to one, but that didn't stop them from putting up a heck of a fight. Princess blasted her way through three soldiers in a row, the heat from her power melting the remains into puddles. Athlete shattered the arms and legs of one of them, each with a single punch, and used the torso as a baseball bat of sorts to shatter three more. Brainy shifted her nano-bots into a pair of giant mallets, which she shifted and waved all around as she destroyed several more soldiers.
April Fool and Housepet teamed up on three of them at once. As the ice soldiers came charging at them, April Fool extended her leg, allowing Housepet to grab it and pull it all the way across the street on Charles's back. This caused the soldiers to trip over her leg and shatter into pieces on the ground. One of their heads was still intact, though, so Charles went over to finish the job… by peeing on its face and melting it.
"Good boy, Charles!" Housepet said as she praised her big canine companion. April Fool, on the other hand, was not quite so impressed.
"Eww! Do not eat the yellow snow. Am I right?" she said before laughing at her own joke, which even Housepet thought was kind of funny.
The others managed to fight off the rest of the soldiers with relative ease. Night destroyed a couple by making them fall into a portal she'd cast on the ground and then dropping them out of another one much higher up, causing them to smash to pieces on impact. Rocker shattered them with her sonic blasts while Control Freak simply levitated them and smashed them onto the ground or into each other.
Tailor, however, seemed mostly pre-occupied with crafting sweaters for all of them. The soldiers seemed to like the sweaters when they put them on, but it didn't seem very helpful at first glance. But then, the drawbacks of wearing sweaters while made of ice became clear as the added heat caused all of them to melt into water, leaving behind nothing but soggy sweaters.
Link and his adult counterpart had managed to destroy quite a few as well, but right now, they stood back to back against the advancing ice soldiers, unafraid and full of confidence. "You know, in the future, Ice Queen can conjure her own giant ice dragon that breathes its own ice!" Future Link informed his younger self casually.
"Really?" asked the younger one, amazed at the idea of such a creature possibly existing.
"Yeah. She's calls it Hypothermia. In fact, one time, it actually gave Lynn-"
WHACK!
Unfortunately, due to him being distracted, one of the ice soldiers was able to sucker punch F.L. so hard that it sent him flying all the way down the street.
"F.L.!" Link shouted before growing enraged at the frozen golems. "That's it! You are so gonna pay for that!" As his anger grew, his red aura became even brighter and he rose even higher into the air. His sisters all watched as he unleashed a bright and powerful burst of red light from his whole body that surrounded the area, instantly shattered all of the ice soldiers and melted the remains.
Ice Queen watched in horror as her beautiful creations were reduced to mere puddles.
"No! My precious servants!" she cried, before turning her fury on the young hero responsible. "Oh, that does it!" The young villainess then used her powers to conjure a large ice bazooka and aimed it directly at Link. "Time to freeze your assets, hero boy!"
Link glared right into the barrel of the bazooka, eyes burning with power from the meteorite core in his possession, ready to take whatever blizzard she was about to blow his way. With the bazooka aimed and ready, Ice Queen fired an icy blast in Link's direction, which he quickly countered with a strong energy beam of his own from his hands. At first, it seemed that both of their powers were at a stalemate, until the young white-haired hero cranked up his own power even more. This allowed him to easily outmatch the little ice witch and force his power through her ice beam, thus destroying the bazooka and knocking her to the ground.
Ice Queen had been defeated, clearly lacking the strength or will to keep fighting, but Link wasn't done with her yet. He used his powers to levitate her off the ground as she looked at him with fear in her eyes.
"No, wait! Please! I surrender! Please don't hurt me!" she begged him. But Link was uncharacteristically showing no signs of mercy as he tied up her body and mouth in duct tape. He looked like he was about to do something crazy at any moment.
Luckily, Athlete came forward and grabbed her brother from behind, pulling him down to the ground to look him right in the eye. "Dude, knock it off!" she shouted at him. "What the heck?! Are you out of your flipping mind?!"
"She's a dangerous criminal!" Link said in his own defense as the others came over to join them.
"She's a little kid!" April Fool reminded him. "Seriously, Link, you really need to chill!"
"'Chill?!' I am in no mood for your stupid puns right now, Fool!"
All of the girls gasped at their brother's sudden attitude. "What in the world has gotten into you, Link?" Princess asked.
"I think somebody's letting a certain sudden power boost mess with his head," Control Freak pointed out, knowing full well what the cause was for Link's sudden change.
"Indeed," Brainy agreed. "I for one am starting to deeply worry about the long-term consequences of overexposure to the meteorite's effects."
"Yeah, dude. Maybe it's time you took a break from using that thing," Rocker recommended.
"What?! No way!" Link refused. "Thanks to the core, I'm finally strong enough to keep up with the rest of you and take down a super villain all by myself and you guys wanna take that away from me?"
"We're just worried about your well-being," Night tried to reassure him.
"No! You're just worried about yourselves! You all just want me to be weak again so you can keep treating me like a sidekick. You probably even want me to go back to my computer station so I won't steal your thunder anymore! Well I've got new for you. I don't need you guys anymore! I am NEVER giving this power and I am NOT going to be pushed around by the likes of you or anyone else ever again!"
"Does that include me?"
Suddenly, everybody froze as they new exactly who that voice belonged to. Somebody they hadn't seen for a long time now had finally decided to rear his ugly head once more.
"Infrared!" The girls all exclaimed with a mixture of surprise and fear. The only one not afraid of him right now was Link.
"Oh, I've been waiting a long time for this," he said as he gave a cocky, determined smile to the powerful villain.
"Let's take him down!" Athlete declared as she moved forward, only to be stopped by her own brother.
"No! Leave him to me. You guys should just hang back and… try not to get in the way." He gave Control Freak a sharp glare as he said that last part. A glare that was not lost on her.
Then Link quickly powered up and flew himself straight at Infrared, pushing him back several feet. "Not bad," the villain remarked, somewhat impressed by the boy's new skills. "Looks like somebody's really leveled up. But let's see what you can really do, kid."
"Oh, believe me. I'm just getting started." Link informed him. That's when the young hero began pouring everything he had into fighting this deadly enemy. He started aggressively unleashing energy blasts, speed attacks, telekinesis, everything he had practiced and trained with in preparation for this moment.
Meanwhile, his sisters just hung back and watched the whole thing from the sidelines, bitterly following Link's request to let him handle Infrared on his own.
"Shouldn't we help him?" Tailor asked.
"Nope. He doesn't need us, remember? If he really thinks he can handle Infrared by himself, I say we let him," Housepet bitterly reminded her, which the other sisters agreed with.
"Pfft! I bet he'd accept help from his future self," Night said bitterly.
"Oh, I'm sure he would… if Future Link was here!" Princess agreed angrily as the others realized that she was right.
"Hey, good point. Where is Future Lincoln anyway?" April Fool asked. "He's the one who said he came back in time to stop this guy, so why isn't he, you know, here stopping him?"
"Good question," Control Freak said suspiciously.
Now that she thought about it, every time Infrared has showed up to attack them, her brother's future self, the one who had supposedly traveled all the way back in time to catch this criminal, was strangely MIA. Even though he had been standing right there with them not too long ago. Plus, as she continued to watch the fight going on in front of her, she realized something else very odd. For as much as Link was putting his all into the fight… Infrared didn't seem to be fighting back at all. She was starting to get a very bad feeling about all of this.
Just when I thought I would never have it in my to continue this story, here I am again and I couldn't be happier about it.
So at this point, it should be pretty obvious what's going on here. If anybody out there is still following this story, please comment and let me know what you think.