July 11th, 2026 - The White House
The dashcam footage replayed a third time, finally leaving the U.S. President speechless at its content; the footage was of a few angles of a man in a full-on black suit attacking New York officers. It would have been a normal case of resisting arrest, until the suspect was shot at. It was the fact that he didn't go down after being struck with the bullets. That, and his apparent willingness and intent to kill that made him dangerous in the president's eyes.
The concern from the public about these "phenomenons", as they called them, had been piling up, but nothing was certain, due to the primary sources, which he tried to get under control after the fall of the Agency. President Jordan Leak and his friends did their best to wrap up and place the lid on such beings. Truth was, that was all they were able to do at the moment. That, and deny such supers existed. Whatever was verified by substantial witnesses had been declared terrorist and domestic attacks, or whatever lie was believable.
Funds were needed to restart and relocate for another similar program, which he believed should not include another team of freakshows. He read all the briefings on the now dead Agency, and learned about the Loud family who were selected due to relations with the head of the defunct, maniacal Vial Corporation.
These were the ones who seemed to be very active. No doubt about it that the man in the footage was the same white-haired individual in the reports on his desk. Right before the death of the Agency, the Louds appeared to have cut their ties with them. Did they go rogue? To him, it made sense as he replayed the footage the fourth time.
Yes, they might've gone awry or something. Even if that wasn't the case... The family consisted of dangerous individuals with higher powers and unimaginable abilities, something he could no longer look away from. Menaces running around in public could simply not do. Therefore, it was time to act.
Leak broke the replay cycle, sliding his nice office chair slightly to the left to speak into the intercom at his desk. "Someone book me for a public announcement, as soon as possible, thank you!"
Hammonton, New Jersey
Lincoln was the first to wake up, and headed out for a nice iced mocha. He figured Lupa would want one as well, so he got a spare. The morning was that of a colder one, suitable for him.
As far as he remembered, the previous school mornings were less cold than now. At least if it was like that. There was barely memories of those times.
Lizard stench was crashed on the couch, so Lincoln placed himself leaning against it. He cast a shadow over Luna's face, which in turn woke her up. "Huh? Linc..."
The brother drank away from the bottle, uncaring about waking her up.
"Morning, bro," Luna greeted with crumbs in her eyes. She scrubbed away with one arm, adjusting her uncomfortable position. "Hey, turn on the tv, will ya?"
"Thought you caught up on Dream Boat?"
"No, no, play the news, bro."
"Oh, a local woman, huh?" Lincoln groaned as he got up. "My back is still giving me grief."
"Linc..."
The white haired individual took his sweet time to bend down for the control. From there, getting up was another challenge to him. No, this pain was something else. Something familiar. "Yes?"
"How... How do you do it?"
"Do what?" He scanned for a nearby channel in which news was currently broadcasting.
"You know," Luna wanted him to turn and look at her, but his attention was with no one at the moment. "The... Hate. The... The way you do it all, you're not hesitant to-"
He solemnly turned to her. "Do you know what it is you're really asking for?" His thumb kept pressing the channel button, but he was no longer paying attention.
"Yes, I just... I understand, but we're still... You're- Geez, I can't describe it. You know what I mean?"
"I do, actually. I get it. It's simple, Luna. There is no God, Luna. It's a free for all, and I'm not tied to world systems. You believe in invalid fuckery, but what do we get back for all this? Nothing, that's what."
"Lincoln, we don't need to. Most of us are back, Linc! I'm... I'm glad to see-"
"No, you're wrong. It's not a family, not without-" The surfacing rage guided him to throw the half full bottle of his favorite drink behind Luna. The shatter of glass silenced them for a mere few seconds. "Lucy, Leni, and now Lori. We lost them, and... Linka's been... Goddamn everything!"
"You did that! How does it feel, Lincoln? How does it feel to have failed!?" Luna jumped up, ready for an angry Lincoln to go on the offensive. Then, something behind him caught her eye. "Linc?"
"Don't even try that distraction thing. It's not worked on me for years!"
"No, Lincoln, look!" Luna pointed to the television.
Lincoln kept an eye on her, but raised the volume. "Let's hear it..."
"...Are proposing a new act that comes from the U.S. President himself. According to potential sources, what this act proposes is the capture of these so-called individuals known as Phenomenons, in which their activity has gone noticeable to-"
"Holy-" Luna blurted out.
"...Shit," Lincoln ended.
"They're... It's here, isn't it? The last straw?"
"Quiet," Lincoln scolded.
"As you can see, this unknown individual, one of many, was seen attacking several police officers." Edited, blurred out footage of Lincoln's assault on the officers played on-screen. "And this isn't even the recent attack." From there, it changed to a shaky cam POV of an orange beam of light, followed by flying cars.
"These 'heroes' as you would simply call them, have no legal jurisdiction running around punching whoever they deem as criminals. Take for instance those two speedsters who are not always often on patrol. And why not? It's not their main job. Take into consideration these are inexperienced clowns with freakish abilities. Are you going to put your life on them rather than the proper authorities? You know, the ones who have given years of experience down the line? With that said, my opinion on this act should be-"
"Damn..." Lincoln remarked, dropping the remote.
"They're gonna come after us now, with pitchforks and everything, aren't they?" The whirring of helicopter blades alerted Luna. She dashed out of her couch-bed, smashing her face against the window.
"No, they're not going to..." Lincoln looked up the stairs, slowly moving his way up. "Because they already are."
Multiple military grade birds took the sky like a stampede. Luna was already concerned enough, but with this huge foreshadowing of things to come, she grew alarmingly uneasy. Talk about quick results.
An event of this magnitude was not out of the question for him; Lincoln had sensed that something like this could happen, only it would've rather been a manhunt for the final Freight. Nothing like this, and certainly an unimaginable ordeal that involved his sisters. A manhunt... No, that wasn't even the right word. And certainly not what they'd use.
He went from room to room, shaking awake most of the siblings, save for Lily. Linka, and the clones were also left out of this emergency meeting, left alone to their sleep. Surprisingly, all of them were undisturbed by the parade of whirring above.
"What's this about, Lincoln?" The still drowsy Luan moved along the cluster of sister right behind the brother.
"We have another problem," he sternly said. "Long story short, it seems like the day has finally come when the world is saying no to us. They're not taking our shit anymore, especially with the recent events around the area. Witch hunt's started, and we're not safe."
Lupa forced herself up to hear what the commotion was about. "You're interrupting my fucking sleep."
"Um, excuse me," Lola began, "But that just isn't possible. Lana and I have built a great rep for ourselves, and no one has ever really-"
"Well, that was then, and this is now, Lola. And due to our connections with the Agency, of course everyone's gonna know about the Louds, if they don't already. You've seen the damage we've let happen, and no one can pin it on the regulars now, can they?"
"Wait a second, how do you know this?" Lupa dove onto Lincoln's back, now bought in the talk. "Did I miss something?"
"Turn on the tv, why don't you?" Lincoln grunted. Lupa turned and blinked this time, no longer needing to lift or raise her hands.
Everyone was now caught up in the news. Lola and Lynn were basically bitching about the secret battles they fought not just for themselves, but for the world. The family of phenos were not something of a villain clan, but the point most of them missed, minus Lincoln and Lupa, was that this wasn't a black and white thing; their abilities were destructive in nature, and therefore...
"At most, they'll put us away, and can even kill us if they so inclined. It doesn't matter what we did for them in the past, because they want to guarantee a future that doesn't mean destruction. Yeah, we weren't subtle or tried to minimize any destruction of property. We're responsible now for the deaths of all civvies in the crossfire, even if it wasn't us who killed them."
"No, but, can't we-?" Luna was all for some sort of peaceful conference or something, whatever the proper term she didn't know was, and maybe, just maybe, she believed there was another chance for them. Maybe they could go off-grid, in trade for no longer getting involved. "We can fix this, can't we? We have to explain ourselves, we aren't the bad guys."
"No," Lincoln, countered. "Most of you aren't, but let's not forget my bad history, which will get me locked up. And in any case, we're all equally fucked. They'll put us away or down, regardless of our intentions. We can't go to them, and we can't stay here."
"What? We can't stay-"
"No, we're not gonna be safe here. It's best if we move elsewhere. And safehouses aren't a valid option at this point. But where?" As Lincoln pondered, Lynn formed an idea and smiled.
Half Moon Bay, California
Lynn had finally come to her familiar house on the ass end of the street. It was just like she left it, only there was a shitload of mail in her plain, silver mailbox, untouched in months. The same cold atmosphere offered a chilly welcome.
"Lynn, you've been living here alone?" Luan asked.
The house was just as small as the last one. Both floors had two bedrooms each, and the bathroom resided on the top floor. No attic on this one, but a basement existed within the foundation. Splitting the family members into three rooms was a battle of who was forced to end up with Lincoln, and that was only after the three clones had taken up a room. Of course, there was less of them now, and Luna was sentenced to the couch, had been with her atrocious smell they could no longer tolerate.
"For half a decade, give or take," the female jock answered.
"I see seagulls!" Lily pointed up, laughing a bit.
"We near a beach, dude?" Luna shivered a little in the cold. "Let's just head in, I'm getting cold."
"Go on through the back," Lynn instructed. "Key hidden underneath the third step of the porch."
"You hide your keys around?"
"No, it's a backup. I lost my first one."
"But you didn't lose your ph-" Luna simply rolled her eyes. "Why bother?"
Lily, the only one who was lost, with Lacy and Liby tying for second place, was riding up on Linka's shoulders and patting her soft set of hair. "I can see the ocean!"
The group huddled inside, recuperating good ol' heat.
"So, how long are we going to be here? Or is this a permanent change, Lincoln?" To Luna, Lincoln's seemingly endless amount of survival knowledge and skills was surprising as of yet to her. How much he knew of certain scenarios and exit strategies was unknown to her. Hell, God even knew that Lori had the same information as well.
"We're gonna lay low until this blows over. I mean, if it does. In the meantime, we can all finally get some downtime, as long as we want." Lincoln took the time to have a look around. "Interesting abode. Does it get colder at night?"
"Yeah, only if you're sleeping naked. I have pajamas..." Lynn was embarrassed to share such a fact. Luan and Liby giggled away from her. "Don't!"
"Go on, settle yourselves in, lunch is later." Lana borrowed the flatscreen TV from the house they just transferred from. "You can set it down."
"Linc, I have two already," Lynn commented.
"Then this'll go up on the room I'm crashing in."
Lynn turned red while going up to him. "That would be my room, which has one of them hitched into the wall." She grabbed his hand slowly. The others were merely observing their new abode, wandering away.
"I guess I'm sharing with you, huh?"
Lynn giggled, and leaned her head onto his shoulder. "Yeah, you are!"
Luna turned around, and with somewhat of a scolding voice, she said, "Not now, you two. Do what you want when the little ones are asleep!"
Lynn raised her hands, shaking them. "Have some chill there."
"This is gonna be a long while, isn't it? Stuck with you for who knows how long?"
"Come on, Luna. Don't be grouchy!' Lynn went on to massage the punk rocker. "Excessive beach time for us! The afternoons are a nice time to go out. It'll be fun!"
"I sure hope so," Luna replied without enthusiasm.
"I'm down for some sand underneath my feet," Lincoln added. "We definitely need this, and you know it. I'm gonna throw you in the ocean myself if I have to."
Luna eyed him coldly, but then she burst out laughing. "Oh, you're on, Linc!"
Lincoln gave a hearty laugh. "I guess so, lizard breath!"
And then, they gave in to a developing happy moment that was lost upon the two in so long.
AN: And so it shall be, that in a place far, far away, a hopeful family is seen to begin a long-awaited vacation. But, knowing this fic, how long will the recreational time last? One chapter closer to the ass end.