"Uh, well…" Luan tried to find an answer.
"You don't know it, do you?" Lincoln asked.
"Uh...no." Luan confessed.
Lincoln sighed.
"Hey, come on, it could be worse." Luan said, optimistic.
"We. Are. Floating. In. The. Middle. Of. Nowhere. How could this be worse?"
"Well, we still have our devices, and we can still breath." Luan pointed out. "I'd say those are great pros."
"Why did you even dragged me here?" Lincoln asked, annoyed. "No, better, why did we came here in the first place?"
"I don't know why we're here. Though the fact I didn't type the code to my reality may have something to do with that."
"So you're telling me you entered a portal without even knowing where it would lead?" Lincoln said, angrily. "And why you brought me together?"
"Lincoln, hear me out. I didn't had the time to set up properly. I just had to get out of there before I lost the chance to bring you with me."
"But why you had to bring me with you?"
"White haired brother-"
"Technically, I'm not your brother." He interrupted.
"Fine, Lincoln." She said, a bit annoyed. "Fact is, there may be versions of our siblings out there, maybe with situations similar to our own. We both know how bad it feels sometimes."
"Well, yeah, but sometimes we have to deal with it."
"I'd normally agree, but this is not a normal situation." Luan explained. "Or you're telling me you're not known only as the 'white hair sibling' or the 'best helper' or something like that. Well, maybe also the only boy, in your case."
"Yeah, I've already heard something similar, but that doesn't mean-"
"Lincoln, we have to contact the rest of them."
"What?" Lincoln said. "Why would you want to do that? How are you even going to do that?"
"Because this cannot stay the way it is, Lincoln." She said. "I can't simply live thinking there are others in the same position, or who know, even worse. In our family, in a sort of way. We have to help them."
"They could be in better situations as well." Lincoln argued. "If my Lisa was correct, there could be an endless supply of different version of us."
"You don't get it, do you?" Luan asked. "We can make a difference on some of those life's for better."
"But if there are so many different versions of us, it would take, literally, forever to meet them all."
"But why if there aren't?" Luan asked.
"What do you mean?"
"What if there's only one of them like us out there?" Luan supposed. "What if we're just…mistakes of the multiverse or something?"
"Luan, I think you're not making much sense right now."
"No, imagine. When Lisa showed me how this device work, a few minute ago, I thought of something. There's a code of ten numbers you input on it-"
"And a different set of numbers leads to a different reality, yeah, she explained it to me as well. It was by typing something wrong that I probably ended in your reality in the first place"
"Yes, but there's something I've noticed."
"What is it?"
"I noticed that we only type a total of ten numbers."
"Okay…so?"
"Do you have the code for your own reality on your device?"
"Yeah, Lisa kept the most important ones saved in this." Lincoln said. "Yeah, here it is. 6."
Luan faces her own device. "The ten digits of my own reality are exactly the same, except the last one is 4"
"Yeah, so? It can all be just a coincidence."
"I don't think so." Luan said. "Maybe this one last number is what defines someone like us present in the universe, alongside other things?"
"But how? When I typed your number." He went towards the other codes registered there like it was a cell phone contact list. "I was only supposed to change the 1 for two, it still ends with the number 4." He explained. "And there should be a way to automatically select these codes, instead of having to type them manually every time." He muttered.
"What if, by each different number you type, what comes next defines something different? Like, the other numbers before define what the next number can indicate?"
"Well…"
"What was different in the reality you should have gone in the first place?"
"Easy. All boys from my reality are girls, and the same the other was around"
"Maybe, when you changed the 1 on that code to 2, that four is changing something else, maybe not even something noticeable. But when you keep all the numbers, changing the last one, we find a different version of one of our siblings?"
"I think you're taking things over the edge. A lot" Lincoln was thoughtful. "However, your point might not be totally wrong. How did you even have time to think of all of this?"
"I asked my Lisa about it, before leaving." Luan said. "So, will you help me?"
"Well, uh…" Lincoln felt that the person he was speaking with was being very over dramatic, but he couldn't say that she didn't had some length of truth on her words. "I guess so?"
"I knew you'd see it. Guess you're smarter than I thought"
"Can we just try to get out of here?" Lincoln asked.
Suddenly, a green light shines on his device. "Guess we're good to go." Luan said. "Now let's go back to my reality."
"Wait, why your reality?"
"Because I'm saying so. I'm your oldest here, you gotta do what I say."
"That's not how it works. This is my device, so I choose where we go. Besides, you were the one who put us here in the first place."
"But your sisters will probably hunt me down if I show up there. I mean, sure, they might have their reasons-"
"Might? You kidnapped me!"
"As I was saying, they might have their reasons. But nobody from my reality, except Lisa, knows you exist. It will make things easier."
"How so?"
"Just trust me. It will."
"Fine." Lincoln said, entering the code for Luan's reality, and a portal suddenly appeared in front of them. They held hands, as to not risk the portal closing and leaving one behind, and floated inside.
When they reappeared in Luan's reality, they found themselves outside of the house. For Lincoln, he couldn't tell in which dimension he was, hers or his own. But before he had the time to think about that, he felt a hand grabbing him, and dragging him inside the garage.
"Okay, you wait here for a little bit. I'll go check if my Lincoln is around, so you don't stumble across him." Luan said.
Before Lincoln could reply, she was already going inside. Without someone to talk, and with his device charging, he decided to just keep glancing around the garage, seeing if he found something interesting to do. There were slight changes to his own garage, but most things were the same.
He noticed a box full of papers on the corner and decided to approach. He was happy to see that those were actually comics. At least his other version of himself shared the same hobby, even if he had never heard of any of the titles as he look over the covers.
Taking a closer look, he noticed something awkward. There were some sketches, without colors or shadows, only the outlines, and some finished books, with details that he wouldn't say are professional, but it's definitely above average.
He spent some good minutes analyzing some of those. He read a couple of them, and he had to say that it wasn't half bad. When he was about to grab the third one, however, he saw Luan coming back into the garage.
"Good news, my version of you is not home, so you can come inside. Ah, I see you saw his comics."
"You took a while- Wait, these are mine? Well, his?" Lincoln was a bit surprised, but taking a closer look to the cover, his name was, indeed, written on it. It definitely looked very good for an 11 year old, and better than the one he did himself. He could say he felt a bit jealous.
"Yeah, every once in a while, he comes up with a new one." Luan explained. "He even got some sort of deal with local publishers and sellers, I'm not sure. Not a huge fan of comics myself, but they do look nice." She told him. "Enough chatting, we have work to do."
"Wait, won't they notice the white hair?"
"Well, you already dyed your hair white a few times. maybe they won't even notice." She said.
"Well, if you say so." Lincoln said, wondering why he would dye his hair white in the first place.
"Okay, so you go first." Luan said. "Just head straight to your bedroom, I'll meet you there soon."
Lincoln nodded, and made his way inside. Even if he knew that wasn't his house, things were quite similar for the most type. The twins were fighting, Lori was on her cell phone, and he saw Lynn playing soccer outside. Nobody seemed to notice him, and things seemed quite similar to how his hose usually was, so he made his way upstairs.
On his way up, however, he stumbled with Luna.
"Oh, hey bro." She said, looking at him, a bit confused.
"H-hey, Luna, what's up?" He said, a bit nervously.
"Really, white hair again?" Luna asked. "It was funny on the first time, dude, but that joke got old already."
"I-I still find it funny."
"You need to be more creative. That joke only serves to annoy Luan." Luna headed downstairs, and Lincoln took the chance to run into his room, before anyone began asking more questions.
His bedroom wasn't really different from his own, only with more paper, pencils, pencil sharpeners, pens, erasers and rulers scattered around, but it was still recognizable as his. He closed the door just to assure nobody would bother him. Not two minutes later, he saw Luan coming inside and closing the door.
"Okay, we are safe for now." Luan said.
"So, what are we gonna do? Also, what's with this white hair joke?"
"Don't even mention it. It's annoying." Luan said, picking up a piece of paper and a pencil, and began writing something. Soon, she had a list with all the family siblings. There was an x after both their names.
"We have two of the eleven of us." She explained. "If Lisa's theory is correct, is only a matter of time before we can gather all of white haired versions of us."
"What exactly do you plan to do when we…'gather' our sisters counterparts?"
"I want to help them, Lincoln. We're constantly taken for granted, just because we're not as talented, like we're their butlers or something. I'm tired of this, and now that I know it's possible-"
"Yeah, I agree sometimes they're a bit annoying, but they are our family-"
"Just like I'm a version of your sister, Lincoln. Think about it, we all know how it's to be like that. We can show them it doesn't need to be that way."
"Luan, you're going a bit too far with this."
"It's just…" Luan sighed, and placed a hand on Lincoln's shoulder. "Lincoln, what happened the first time you came, my version of the family would have helped me, sure. But they don't understand what I feel inside, what we feel inside, and most of the time we have to endure consequences by the lack of a true talent. I just want this to end, I'm exhausted of this. Can you understand that?"
"Well, I think so." Lincoln said. He wasn't sure if her should feel pity or a bit frightened. He decided for the former.
"That's why I wanna get everyone together. Not to keep it that way, but for all of them to know there's people who cares for them, maybe change their lives so they don't have to continue like this."
"Still, isn't that a bit too much?" Lincoln asked. "I mean, yeah, I know most of the times not being so talented is not enjoyable and sad, but-"
"Sorry Lincoln, but this is something I have to do, with or without your help." Luan said. "Though I'd really appreciate you being on my side on this."
Lincoln sighed. She wasn't his sister, technically speaking, but he felt a bit of himself inside Luan's counterpart, and he couldn't deny a part of him wanted to do this. "I have a bad feeling about this. Fine, you have a point, we can help them, but I'll be going back to my reality once we're done, okay?"
"Understandable. Well, I guess we don't have much else to do, other than go after the our counterparts. Are you ready?"
"I wished I could go back to my reality first, just to assure th-"
"Alright, let's go." Luan typed something on her device, and she shoved herself and Lincoln inside the portal before he could say anything against it.
After coming through the portal, Lincoln fell into the ground, not of a house, but rather of an open field. It looked like a park, it had trees, kids playing around, the sun shining. It was a nice day, if t wasn't for the fact Luan was over him.
"Excuse me!" Lincoln called, annoyed.
"Oh, sorry." Luan said, getting out of him, as Lincoln stood up cleaning his clothes.
"Okay, we're not at this reality's version of our house, and we have no clue of what to find here." Lincoln said. "And why couldn't you just let me go to my dimension first?"
"I don't want to be terminated." Luan simply said. "Now, this can't be that hard. I mean, it's all about looking after someone with white hair, that's part of our family. How hard can that be?"
"Considering we don't know where our family is, I'd say quite hard." Lincoln said. "Sure, this looks like the park near my house, but this is a different reality, who's to say we're not in a place from a different city? Or even a different country."
Luan looked around, and spot a blond woman walking near them. "Excuse me, miss, could you tell me in which city we're in?"
"That's easy, it's Royal Woods." She answered. "Why, are you lost?"
"Oh no, it's just my brother over there insisted this was Great Lake city." Luan turned to Lincoln. "See, I told you this is Royal Woods."
Lincoln entered the act. "Fine, you were right." He said, as the woman walked away. "Well, we're still in Royal Woods, but how will we find a counterpart of us?"
"You complain a little too much." Luan said. "Besides, it can't be that hard, we just have to head home, it's the best option we have right now."
"Yeah- wait, you're seeing that?" Lincoln pointed behind Luan, and she turned around. They saw this reality version of Lori walking besides a girl with long white hair, however it didn't resemble any of their siblings. She was around Luan's age, maybe a bit older, wearing a white shirt with a light purple skirt, and a dark purple vest.
"Who is that?" Lincoln asked. "She doesn't look like any of us."
"True, though she looks kind of familiar… Wait, I get it."
"What?"
"Yeah, I recognize her. Though, Luna hasn't dressed like that since she was seven."
A few moments earlier - Lincoln's reality
"...and then she simply took Lincoln and disappeared through a portal." Luna explained. "And we know you're the only one who could make the possible."
Lisa rubbed her chin, as all of Loud sisters gathered around her on the hallway. "As I have, yes, developed technology for multi dimensional traveling, I was not aware of the presence of this counterpart of our fourth oldest sibling."
"Okay, but how we get Lincoln back?" Luan asked.
Suddenly, they heard a noise coming from Lisa and Lily's bedroom. They made their way towards the place, they found a white haired version of Luan, as well as a brown haired version of Lincoln, who was apparently sleeping or knocked out.
"You again?" Luna asked, seeing the boy on her arms. "Stay away from our bro! What happened to him?"
White haired Luan placed him on the ground and backed a bit. "Listen, sorry for what I did earlier. My Lisa was doing some experiments that could hurt people, and he was exposed. I had to take him back so she could assure he was fine."
"And why's his hair brown?" Lori asked.
"Side effect, but Lisa assured he'll be fine, and it's only temporary." Luan simply said. "Again, sorry for taking him without explaining, but we wanted to be sure he wasn't hurt."
"Oh…." all of them said.
"Don't be like that, I'd be angry to if I was in your situation. Lisa said he will wake up soon, so if you could take care of him-"
"Of course we will!" They exclaimed, as Lori went and took Lincoln from the ground into her hands.
"Well, I'd love to stay, but I have to return to my dimension." Luan said. "Wish the best for you all." She said, as she created a portal, and went through it, disappearing.
The Louds were a bit confused to what just happened, but were glad to see their brother safe and sound. In the meantime, Luan made her way back to her reality.
"Okay, now that my Lincoln is gone, I can call the white haired version from the garage." Luan thought. "Oh, this will be perfect, if I can get exchange all of my siblings. No more annoyance, nor be taken for granted, all of us will love it." Luan giggled a bit.
Hey guys, Taka's back, and I'm not dead. Chapter 3 is around, and it seems Luan had a bit of extreme ideas when it comes to the counterparts they're seeking. Not much to say about it, so, like always, let me know what you think about it, and see you in the next chapter. Also, happy Merry Christmas (yes, I'm four days late, I'm sorry) and a happy New Year.