Disclaimer: I own nothing and probably never will. I do not own the copyrights to The Loud House, GTA 5, WoW, Pokemon, Final Fantasy X, Resident Evil, Mass Effect, Dishonored, Saints Row, Grey's Anatomy, or any of the music mentioned in the story.
Authors Notes:
"This is talking."
'This is thinking.'
'This is a spirit.'
"This is singing."
Review:
Lincoln talked with Lynn Sr., Rita talked with Luna, Lisa revealed some stuff, Lincoln went shopping with Leni, and Deamon's Minions stormed the mall with a kidnapped Lily.
Let us see what happens next. Raise the curtain.
Chapter 16: Staring Down the Barrel
Lincoln made his way up the stairs to his next destination, Let's Pretend. "Now some of you are probably wondering why I am headed to a cosplay store." Lincoln said softly falling back into his childhood ways of breaking the fourth wall to calm his nerves. "Well this specific chain of cosplay stores has everything you need to really get into character, including bullet proof, military grade armor."
Lincoln reached the correct door and peeked inside. Two armed men were just entering the store and heading straight for the dressing rooms, Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Lincoln aimed the crossbow, fired, aimed again, and fired again. The first shot took the man on the left in the back of the neck causing him to fall forward into the dressing room and hit his head on the bench seat. The second shot, sliced a nice size gouge just under the Adams apple as he turned to watch his partner collapse, his hands went to his neck and blood poured out of the wound. Lincoln quickly shot a third time to put the man out of his misery. Oddly enough the store sells body bags as part of the police costume set, so Lincoln grabbed two and put the armed men inside them.
"That's twenty minutes, you have forty minutes left before we decide to have fun with our little hostage. So the sooner Link and or Lincoln come forward the sooner everyone here is safe." The leader's voice came over the intercom. Lincoln swiftly dressed in as much bullet proof armor as he could and still move quickly. He quickly reloaded the crossbow to max capacity of ten bolts, and loaded two of the pistol's magazines and placed them both in holsters on the costume. He strapped the daggers to his belt, and placed a helmet on his head complete with two way mirrored visor.
Lincoln did math in his head thirty two armed guards left thirty seven minutes left just over a minute a guard, if they worked in teams of two that's sixteen stores to search. Lincoln tightened his grip in the crossbow and quickly moved back to the hallway. There are twenty-four stores in the royal woods mall twelve on the first floor, twelve on the second, six on each side of the thoroughfare. Lincoln moved like a ghost opening the door peeking inside, taking out the guards and or moving on. When he had checked all the stores on both floors on one side of the mall, the intercom came on again.
"Only fifteen minutes left I guess you don't care about the little girls innocence." The man taunted.
Lincoln saw red, threw the crossbow in the duffle bag, and drew the daggers in a reverse grip. Lincoln abandoned stealth and dashed for the security office as fast as he could. Guards that saw him would shoot at him but the armor he wore wasn't just for show. Four guards moved into a firing line in front of Lincoln when they heard the other guards shooting at him.
Lincoln swung out with his right blade catching one of the guards diagonally from hip to shoulder. Then he followed the slice with a round house from the right leg kicking the eviscerated man away. Using the momentum of the spin he brought up the left blade digging into the leg of another man going bone deep, before being swiftly followed by a hard stomp from Lincoln's Left leg. The man screams out in pain as Lincoln use his destroyed leg as a springboard. Lincoln front flips over the two still standing guards, and buries the daggers in their backs, twisting for good measure. Lincoln takes off running again getting closer and closer to the security office. The Boss watching this on the security feeds sneers, and roughly grabs Lily and moves them both out into the thoroughfare and aims his gun at her head. His second in command following him out.
"Drop you weapons or I'll kill..." The boss said to... no one.
Two quick 'phit' 'phit' sounds are heard and Lily stumbles forward being released from the mans grip. Out of the darkness of a closed store Lincoln steps out into the thoroughfare and lifts the visor so Lily can see his face. "Daddy!" Lily shouted in joy and ran to him. The two men lay on the floor bleeding from gunshot wounds to the head. The second in command may live as the bullet only tore through his frontal lobe in the forehead and out just above the ear. The boss however took a bullet right between the eyes and out the back of his skull.
Lincoln picked up Lily and covered her eyes as he carried her back into the security room. He walked over to the intercom. "I have taken control of the security office, there are twenty permanently incapacitated men in the mall currently. If the rest of you surrender and agree to be handed over to the police, I will cease all hostilities, however if you continue to threaten my adopted daughter or my sisters again I will show no mercy." Lincoln stated firmly. He looked around for what ever was jamming cell and radio signals, he found it in the corner. It looked like a generator with a miniature Tesla coil in a glass case on top. No sooner then he shut it down did the phone ring.
"Hello who is this?" Lincoln answered.
"This is the police, we have the mall surrounded, release the hostages and we will negotiate." The Police Negotiator said over the phone.
"Sir, I am Link Louder. The armed men stormed the mall looking for me and my girlfriends brother." Lincoln half lied. "I was going to give myself up, until they brought out a hostage they had kidnapped prior to storming the mall, one Lily Loud."
"Lily Loud is in there?" The Police Negotiator asked. "Can you confirm this? Is she unharmed?"
"She's scared, but perfectly fine." Lincoln said. "If you can promise that she and all the other innocent people in the mall will be kept safe, I will turn myself over to your custody, for the crimes I have committed today." Lincoln finished.
"Very well." The Police Negotiator said in confusion. "We are sending in a swat team. Stay where you are with your hands on your head." Lincoln complied and got on his knees to hugged Lily quickly before putting his hands on his head.
For the next three hours police swept the mall, rounding up the armed invaders, taking Lincoln into custody, collecting dead bodies, and taking witness statements. None of the witnesses had anything negative to say about Lincoln even when presented the number of dead attackers. Lincoln was hailed as a Hero who took down the bad guys and saved the girl. Out of the thirty six men that invaded the mall twelve made it out alive. Lincoln was place in a squad car by himself, while the attackers were moved to a prison transport, that arrived shortly after the police entered the mall.
Lily cried in Leni's arms as the police car holding Lincoln drove away to the Royal Woods Police Station. "Will we ever see Wincoln again?" Lily asked Leni.
"Of course we will luv-bug." Leni replied in hopeful optimism. "Lincy is totes a Hero. Everyone says so."
"Two counts of burglary, twenty-four counts of homicide, one count of reckless endangerment..." The Police Chief read from a folder that he slammed down on the table in the interrogation room. "But most importantly fifty-seven counts of heroism, one of which is my daughter. If this goes to court I'll stand beside you Mr. Louder." The Police Chief said as he unlocked Lincolns cuffs. "Now you wait right here while I go get the JP so we can legally send you home a Hero."
Five seconds after the Police chief walked out of the room a tall muscular man entered. He was wearing a black business suit, shirt unbuttoned at the top, and tie held loosely in his hand. On his face was a non descript porcelain mask. He locked the door behind him. "You are a hard man to track down." The man growled before walking over to the camera and ripping it off the wall with one hand. "I have sent team, after team, looking for the white haired boy who stabbed my best mate. Every team has failed, because of you." The man growled and gripped the tie with both hands walking menacingly towards Lincoln. "I don't care if you're the boy or just a look alike acting as a body guard. I'm gonna take my anger out on you for what happened to my friend and my people."
The man kicked Lincoln out of the chair in a way that caused Lincoln to fall face down. He then pressed one of his knees to Lincoln's back to hold him down and wrapped the tie around his neck. The masked man leaned in close to whisper in Lincoln's ear. "When I'm done killing you, I'm going to go to the boy's house and torch it with everyone inside." The masked man laughed as if possessed, tightening the tie.
Black spots appeared in Lincoln's vision as he struggled to get a breath. Then the man strangling him whisper's in his ear. "When I'm done... I'm gonna go... boy's house and... everyone inside." Lincoln stopped moving all thoughts stopped as his brain processed what he just heard as he faded in and out of consciousness. The grip on the tie loosened and Lincoln took a much needed breath through the nose. Apparently the man was to proud at having successfully strangled the life out of him to notice he wasn't dead, as the weight on his back lifted, and the tie around his neck was removed. The masked man began to walk towards the door when Lincoln rolled over and lashed out with a kick to the groin. The man fell to his knees, so Lincoln climbed to his feet and threw open the door.
"Help!" Lincoln yelled into the hallway before he was roughly grabbed from behind and thrown on the interrogation table.
The masked man aimed a punch at Lincoln's head. Lincoln had flashbacks to his coma dream and a similar punch. He moved his head just enough for the punch to sail past his head and hit the steel table. The masked man cried out in pain, before grabbing Lincoln with both hands and throwing him at the two way mirror causing it to crack. Several police officers rushed into the room weapons drawn.
"You're under arrest." One said aiming his gun at the masked man.
The masked man let out a guttural roar and rushed the police officers, He punched one, grabbed another spun him around and threw him at the cracked mirror, and continued to fight the others, as more cops rushed to help. More and more cops were knocked out and thrown around, enough that the masked man could make his way into the hallway and fight towards the front door. Lincoln checked on the police officer that was thrown near him. He was still breathing but unconscious. Lincoln grabbed his gun off the floor and rushed after the masked man carefully trying not to step on the downed cops. He caught up to the masked man who was bleeding from several gun shot wounds but still standing.
"Stop, I won't hesitate to shoot to protect my family." Lincoln yelled.
The man just laughed and continued out the door. Lincoln took careful aim and fired. The masked man's kneecap exploded outwards, causing him to scream and fall to the ground. The Police chief came back at the moment and saw the chaos, the cops on the ground, the gun in Lincoln's hand, and the masked man yelling curses in pain.
"Mr. Louder what happened here?" The Police Chief asked.
"That masked man is the one who sent all those guys to attack me. He came into the interrogation room after you left, broke the camera, and started to strangle me with his tie." Lincoln explained pulling at his collar to expose the red marks on his throat. "He let up when I almost blacked out. I kicked him in the groin and yelled for help, then he threw me into the two way mirror. The police officers rushed into the room to arrest him but he is a beast. He fought his way out here. I grabbed one of the downed officers guns and rushed after him, he threatened to kill my girlfriend and her family. All because of what happened between his friend and my girlfriend's brother."
The Police Chief aimed his gun at the masked man, and kicked the mask off. "My god it's Vincent Falcone." He exclaimed. "Son do you know who you just apprehended?" Lincoln shook his head no. "Vincent here is the only remaining member of the Falcone mob family from the late nineteen eighties. Most were taken down on Rico charges back in the nineties, but Vincent her was just a kid in school so was left alone. He is suspected of several crimes, including extortion, bribery, blackmail, and tax evasion."
"Woah!" Lincoln said in shock.
"Yeah, that's me." Vincent said as he sat up a grit his teeth. "But guess what, my death is meaningless. You are doomed whitey, you and all your sluty whore's family even the boy Lincoln. There is a surprise waiting to be delivered just for you." Vincent growled before biting down hard on one of his molars. "The hour of Twilight approaches." Vincent said before foaming at the mouth and falling over dead.
"Sir, what now?" a police officer who had recovered enough to follow the Justice of the Peace outside to witness Falcone's final words asked the Police Chief.
"We reward the boy, of course." The Justice of the Peace answered. "I declare you cleared of all charges against you from the mall incident. You're free to go son." The Police Chief nodded in agreement. "Just one last question before you go. Have you seen Lincoln Loud? no one has seen him since he was released from the hospital."
"He had an allergic reaction to the mixture of medications he was prescribed. We're all very sad." Lincoln lied.
"Will there be a service?" The police chief asked.
"They already held one it was very private, immediate family only." Lincoln lied again. "The allergic reaction left him horribly disfigured, they didn't want any of his friends to see him like that."
"Ah, I see." The police chief nodded. "That explains why no missing person report was filed. I must have missed the Obituary, well thank you for your time."
"Uh..." Lincoln scratch the back of his head in embarrassment. "Could I get a ride to my girlfriend's place? I'm sure she's worried after what happened at the mall." Lincoln said sheepishly.
"Sure, son. Whose your girlfriend?" The Police Chief asked motioning to a nearby police cruiser.
"Only the most rocking entertainer in Royal Woods." Lincoln replied.
"Oh!" The Police Chief said in surprise. "Surprising, everyone I talked to always assumed Miss Luna Loud was... No offense meant of course."
"None taken, I know all about her... orientation. It's something we discussed briefly." Lincoln replied uncomfortably.
"Sorry for bringing it up." The Police Chief apologized as they drove off towards the Loud House. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pamphlet before handing it to Lincoln. "I don't know what your plans are for the future, but we could use an ace marksman like yourself. Crime has been on the rise everywhere around Detroit not to mention whispers of people in mask like Falcone back there."
"Sure, I'll think about if Chief." Lincoln replied.
"Name's Chris Redfield." Chief Redfield said.
"I'm Link Nevermore Louder." Lincoln replied.
"Really?" Chief Redfield asked raising his left eyebrow. Lincoln produced his fake Identification. Chris looked it over to see if it was counterfeit but judged it to be real. "Well I'll be. Link N. Louder you live with the Loud family?" Chief Redfield questioned.
"Yeah, they took me in after Luna and I started dating. Since I'm an orphan and was living on my own." Lincoln lied.
"Hmm, There's a story there but I won't pry." Chief Redfield said as they pulled up to the Loud House. "You stay safe son, you hear me. And look over the pamphlet considering the skills you showed at the mall, and at the station today you have what it takes to be an officer of the law."
"Yes sir, I'll seriously consider it." Lincoln said with a nod, he waved as Chief Redfield turned around and drove off. Lincoln walked up the front path and headed to the front door unaware that people were looking for him for both good and ill intentions.
Sorry about the short chapter this time.