AN: That took a lot longer to write than I thought it would. I know there are probably people out there wondering why my update schedule inexplicably got even worse. I won't get too into it because you guys are here to read stories about cute superhero girls, but the short version is that I found out a couple of weeks ago that the law firm I work at is going to be closing down pretty soon, which means I'm gonna be out of a job in the very near future. At the time it hit me pretty hard, and it basically killed my creative drive for a while. The situation hasn't changed for the better, but I'm in a better state now, mentally speaking. You can only mope around for so long when life deals you a bad hand, you know? Eventually, you've gotta just pick yourself up and get moving again. So to that end, I'm hoping I can get back to writing again at least semi-regularly while I figure out what comes next, career-wise. Anyway, enough of that, I didn't want to turn this into a whiny blog post, just wanted to reassure you all again that I haven't given up on any of my stories just yet. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Oh, one more thing. It should go without saying, but money's gonna be a little tight for now, which unfortunately means I can't spare funds to commission any more pics for this thing, much as I'd like to. But hopefully, the story is entertaining enough as it is :)

"This is insane," Lincoln muttered, shaking his head at the television.

"Totes." Leni agreed, although Lincoln detected an odd hesitancy in her voice. Glancing her way, he could see the blonde frowning in puzzlement.

"We're talking about Becky." He added for clarification, long accustomed to Leni's tendency to veer away onto her own train of thought whilst in the middle of a conversation.

"Of course." She replied, nodding confidently. "You think I could pull off that look?"

"I...GEH!" An image of Leni dressed in that same skirt/bikini combo popped into his head, and Lincoln was forced to clamp one hand over his nose to stymy the deluge of blood he could feel rushing forth. Quick though his response had been, he could still feel a tiny trickle of the sanguine fluid trickle through the cracks in his fingers. Lincoln glanced Leni's way once more to see if she'd noticed, but the older girl's gaze was fixed on the TV.

"I was talking about her size problem." Lincoln continued, flicking away the small amount of spillage, and discretely wiping his hands on his genes.

"Oh, yes. Becky is supes tall." Leni agreed. "Sometimes it takes forever to find clothes in her size."

"Leni, I'm talking about—" Lincoln turned back to the tv and froze as the news feed cut once more to the giant redhead, now wobbling unsteadily and frantically windmilling her arms.

"WILL YOU IDIOTS CLEAR A PATH?" She thundered at the tiny crowd milling around in front of her. "I'M JUST TRYING TO GET THROUGH! BUT IF YOU ALL CAN'T FLEE IN THE SAME DIRECTION, I'M GONNA—EEP!"

Lincoln's heart lept up into his throat as the giantess began to topple over, the shadow of her titanic frame now looming much more threateningly over the crowd of bystanders. Partway through her fall, Becky pivoted hard on her foot that was still grounded, shifting her weight so that she was able to throw out her one remaining leg and arrest her fall by simply straddling the crowd. Unfortunately, the one remaining foot still had to go somewhere—

CRASH

—and in this case, that somewhere was a small building off to the side of the crowd, now pulverized into rubble under the assault Becky's mighty tootsie.

"That," Lincoln concluded, shaking his head, slowly. "That's what I was talking about."

"Oh, Em, Gosh!" Leni squealed in horror, her hands clasped against her cheeks as the news camera swept over the casualty of Becky's titanic slip-up.

"It's doesn't look like she had much of a choice, Leni—"

"That was my favorite smoothy place!" Leni cried out, sobbing into her hands. "They had such delicious smoothies, Linky!"

"Ah," Lincoln replied, nodding woodenly. "Well, on the plus side, I'm pretty sure nobody was in there. It's Sunday, after all."

"But the smoothies!" Leni wailed, her whole body shaking with sadness as sobs wracked her shapely frame. Uncertain how to respond to his inconsolable sister, Lincoln leaned over and gently patted her on the back.

"There there." He said, trying to keep the incredulity out of his voice. Leni obviously felt very strongly about this, and the least he would do was play along. At least disaster seemed to have been averted, for the moment at least.

"This just in!" Announced Katherine Mulligan as the camera snapped its attention back to her. "In response to the monster's...' unprovoked show of aggression'? Seriously?" She craned her head, seemingly addressing someone off-camera. Katherine's eyes widened, and she held up one hand, seemingly in protest. However, something gave the reporter pause. A few moments later, she slowly lowered her hand and turned back towards the camera, a noticeable slump in her shoulders.

"My apologies." She said, clearing her throat. "As I was saying, due to the monster's unprovoked show of aggression, the city has made the decision to notify the federal government. We are told that the mayor expects that a military response will be forthcoming to...deal, with the threat."

"Spoke too soon." Lincoln groaned, slumping down in his seat.

"What are we going to do Linky? They're gonna attack Becky!"

Lincoln was beginning to get whiplash from how swiftly Leni's emotional state had been changing. But as he stared into her tearful, pleading eyes, his heart went out to her. Lincoln just couldn't stand to see his sisters cry. Even so...

"What do you mean we?" He asked, trying to remain nonchalant even as his eyes darted around nervously. Lousy guilty conscience! "You and I don't even have a car between us. How are we supposed to get downtown, and what are we supposed to do when we get there?"

"Well...I dunno." Leni shrugged. "You're the one who usually thinks up that stuff. You're the Linky With The Thinky, right?"

"I..." He hesitated. "Close enough, I guess."

"And it has to be us because our family gets involved in totes everything that happens in Royal Woods." Leni continued, adopting a thoughtful expression. "Well, now I guess there's also those super girls who started showing up. You know, there's the one that kinda looks like Ly—"

"We're going to do...something."

"Alright, alright!" Lincoln cut her off, desperate to prevent Leni from going down that particular road, no need to make things more complicated than they already were. "Alright. We're going to do...something."

Relief washed over Leni's face. She leaned over and pulled Lincoln into another hug, though this time surprisingly subdued compared to her usual bone-crushing fare.

"Thank you, Linky." She murmured, favoring him with a peck on the cheek and a grateful smile. Try as he might, Lincoln couldn't help but feel embarrassed at the gratitude radiating from the girl.

"What, just like that?" He asked, trying to keep his voice level. "I haven't even come up with a plan yet."

"No." Leni agreed, giving him another squeeze. "But you will. You always do."

Well, at least there wasn't any pressure. Still, it's not like he was without resources.

"Hey, Leni?" He asked, surveying the room to make sure they were still alone. It seemed the coast was clear. "Would you mind scooting over a bit? And maybe...uh, putting your fingers in your ears and humming or something for a bit?"

"Sure." She agreed with zero hesitation. The blonde promptly scooched to the far and of the couch, jammed her fingers in her ears, and began singing loudly to herself.

"In the Loud House! In the Loud House—"

Lincoln suffered a full-body wince as his sister's off-key singing filled the room. Apparently, Luna's musical talents weren't genetic. As he reached into his pocket to fish around for his phone, he made a mental note to share that tidbit with Lisa. The young scientist was always eager for any information, no matter how minute, that might help her puzzle out the...puzzle, that was their family.

After retrieving the device, Lincoln scrolled through his contacts until he finally found Lynn (cute idea to have 11 kids with L-names, Mom and Dad) and jammed the Call button a little harder than was absolutely necessary. True, at this point his own skills were largely limited to zapping things with lightning, which didn't seem like the kind of thing that would be particularly helpful in calming down and extracting the rampaging redhead, but the girls' own power sets had much more practical usage. He was pretty confident that if he could get Lynn back here, they could but their heads together and—

BZZZZT!

Lincoln's heart began to sink as he heard that distressingly familiar buzzing noise. The sound of a phone set to vibrate. Slowly turning his head, Lincoln's gaze landed upon the culprit. Lynn's phone, there on the coffee table. God knows how many miles away from where ever Lynn and Lucy might be...

"Lynn, I may only have a fourth-grade education from a substandard public school system—"

"Go Roosters!"

"But I'm pretty sure we won't find Europe out here in the cold, unfeeling vacuum of space. Which, to be fair, I'm growing increasingly fond of."

"You're just saying that because I'm totally winning this race!"

And, of course, Lucy's black, bat-wing adorned phone was right next to it. Equally useless, and rendering both girls impossible to contact for the moment.

"Good thing I made backups." Lincoln muttered to himself, scrolling up to Luna's number. He discretely glanced Leni's way to make sure she was still occupied.

"Trapped inside this tiny space! May sound bad but ain't the case, in the Loud Houuuuse!" Yep, still singing. And getting way into that weird song of her's. Good, now he could give Luna a call...

"Ta-dah!" Sam announced, proudly throwing her arms wide to indicate the area around them. "Well? Do you love it?"

Luna scrutinized the room her girlfriend had dragged her to. "It...kinda looks like the music room at school, babe. Which, not gonna lie, I kinda suspected from the way you dragged me to school, on one of the few days where we don't have to be here."

"Obviously it's the music room." Sam grumbled, shaking her head in annoyance. "But I made it better! And specialer!"

"...How?" Luna queried, after another moment of trying to spot whatever it was she was supposed to be looking at.

"By making it super-duper soundproof!" Sam replied as if the answer should have been obvious. "I got some stuff from Lisa, and now its even more sound proof than before! We could scream our heads off in here, and people standing right outside would never hear us!"

That...actually did sound like it'd be pretty helpful.

"Right on, luv." Luna nodded appreciatively. "That's gonna be great for our rehearsals."

"Also that, yes," Sam said quickly, a cat-like smile spreading across her face. Then her expression grew contemplative. "Actually, Lisa said there might be some side effects. Something about interfering with cellular signals, or something?"

"That all? Don't see what harm that could cause."

"And Sam's is also going straight to voicemail," Lincoln grumbled, flinging his phone down. "What are the odds that my entire team would be out of action?"

"Something wrong, Linky?"

The pale-haired boy started in surprise at the sound of his sister's voice. Leni was looking at him, fingers held up to her ears, but no longer plugging them.

"I ran out of songs to sing." She said, apologetically, lowering her hands and folding them in her lap. "How's the plan going?"

"Not...as well as I'd hoped." Lincoln grudgingly admitted, and immediately regretting so. Red hot knives of guilt stabbed into his heart at the distraught look the older gave him, such was the power of a Sad Leni.

"Is...is there anything I can do?" Leni asked, pleading. "Becky needs our help, Linky!"

Lincoln shrugged, helplessly. "Not unless you can point me at someone qualified to be a superhero."

"How about Lynn?" Leni asked eagerly. "She's always saving you from stuff. Um, though I guess she sometimes...causes, that stuff. Oh, but she'd look great in a cape!"

"I don't think—" Lincoln began.

"And maybe...tights? No! A skirt!"

"Not Lynn." Lincoln cut her off. "Besides, she's not even around, remember?"

"Oh, right." Leni sunk down, her shoulders sagging dejectedly. "Well, I dunno, Linky. All I know is that I really want to help my friend. And I'd do anything to save her from those mean old army men."

Lincoln paused to consider the distraught fashionista. "Anything, huh?" He murmured to himself, a familiar electric thrill running through his body.

"Are you getting Thinky, Linky?" Leni asked, rapt at attention once more, the unmistakable sound of hope in her voice.

"I'm thinking," He said slowly. "That sometimes when life gives you lemons, you make Leniade."

"Oh." Said the blonde, her eyes crossing in confusion. "'Kay?"