November 17th, 2026

Lily kept running in the maze of woods. She stepped on leaves and branches, making a clear pinpoint path to her location. No one was literally around to hear her cries for help. "Lincoln!" Lily was growing out of breath, but was still pushing herself to keep moving away from the metallic beings that kept closing in on her. "Lynn! Luna!" She had to stop eventually, despite giving every ounce of fiber in her body a boost. "Someone! Anyone?!"

She slowed down, and placed her hands along a tree. The army of footsteps behind her drew closer to her, and she tried to regain some of that lost energy right then and there. "Linc-" She inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. "Help."

No, she wasn't sure how she got there, but upon seeing them, did she run like hell, and it was the only thing she was able to do. Lily paced for another jog this time, but actually tripped over something hidden underneath the fallen, dead leaves that covered the ground like a toasty blanket. "Oomf!"

A shadow dawned right over her, which made Lily freeze from trying to get up again. Then, a wall of silhouettes formed before her, visible in the leaves scattered at both sides. "G-get away... Please!"

The scared blonde tried to crawl away, but she found herself unable to; whatever tripped her had a mind of its own. She looked back to see it was actually a hand that gripped onto her shoe. "L-LINCY!"

Lily snapped out of her dream, being shaken awake by none other than Luan. "Hey, what's wrong? Nightmare?"

"W-was I-"

"Shouting and kicking at the bed, yeah." Luan joined the youngest Loud in the bed. "You need some company?"

"I- Yeah. I'm sorry," Lily yawned.

"No, there's no need for that. I'm a bit surprised that no one's had them earlier, with all the... You know." The comedienne coughed intentionally. "I'm going for another prank video soon, if you're up to help me set it up."

Lily smiled widely and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like fun!" She hugged the tall brunette and sank back. "I love you, sis," she softly said.

"I love you too, Lily." Luan snuggled onto the child, comforting them both. Linka and Lucky, the other two in the room, were still sound asleep on the hard floors. Most of the Louds were, actually, save for Lincoln, Lynn and Luna. Within seconds, the room withdrew to its silence once more, and Lily felt safe again. Whatever the nightmare was, it was probably nothing to worry about.

Morning

At this time of the year, the coldness was noticeable, so much so that the streets were dense with fog. Unfortunately, there wasn't any ice or snow around to make it into fun days for the family.

Lynn was comfortably lying over her snoring brother, when Luna knocked repeatedly on her door. "Dudes, we're going for a hike. Twins investigated the area and found a good place."

Lynn, being Lynn, jumped to her feet, storming out for a shower. "Oh, I could use a good run!"

Lincoln groaned out, feeling chilly after Lynn brushed away the covers. "I'll join you guys."

"Cool, then that means we all are!" Luna threw a fist into the air. "Meet you down, bro!"

One floor below, Liby and Lacy were both taking turns making the fun redhead child float around. Just like any other little boy, Lucky was throwing a laughing fit composed of fun that the two clones endorsed. He had called it magic, and hadn't, if he'd ever, grown weary of the same act.

Luna made a hard leap down in front of the stairs. "Lynn and Lincoln are getting ready. How about you guys go ahead? Lola or Lana, one of you are gonna have to-"

Lola was quick to raise her hand. "I'm not eager to get dirty, and plus, it's Lana's territory. She should take the others..."

Lana would have agreed to this wholeheartedly, but the weird shaking that her body now fully had her emit was enough for concern, and not just for Lana, but for the both of them. She didn't want to be their constant ride, what with this going on. But, it could have been nothing. She wasn't medically trained or an expert in the human system, so how could she, or they, know what was gonna happen?

"Alright, yeah, we'll meet you there," she said in a worried tone.

"Hey, we'll figure this out," Lola assured.

"Hmm? Figure what out?" Luna asked.

"She's... Going through her period," Lola quickly answered.

"Oh..." Luna gasped. Then, her face changed. "...Ohhh..."

"Yeah, it's what you think it means." Lola jerked her head down, clearly implying herself as well. She watched as Lana took off with the clones, Lily, Luan, and little Lucky, who hadn't adjusted to the zooming ride yet.

Thirteen minutes passed when Lincoln had finished his shower. "Ugh, could you be any slower?!" Luna growled.

"What's the rush? We have all day," Lincoln hissed back. This time, he had a new, different attire that wasn't a black suit. It was a navy blue beach shirt and green cargo shorts. "Ready to go."

"Well, thank goodness for that!" Luna grabbed onto Lola, when suddenly, a huge rumbling sound made its auditory debut. "Wh- Is it gonna freaking rain today?"

Lynn checked out the window, not seeing gray clouds or dropping rain in the distance. "Uh, no? It doesn't look like it, although it sounds like it will soon-" Two fiery objects in the sky passed through, putting the sporty sister off-guard. "Uh, guys?"

Another thunder cry broke the silence that refilled after the first one. Lynn's rushing out was followed by the other three, who were astonished by an atmosphere of multiple unidentified bogies flying in the same direction.

"What the fuck is- What the fuck is that?!" The smell of burning smoke had reached below to them. Luna retreated back inside, as Lynn and Lincoln covered their mouths. "What the hell is going on?!"

Lola deserted the remaining three, yelling out Lana's name midway.

"No, come back! Come-" Lynn raised and dropped her arms, defeated.

Luna switched the tv on for quick answers. The current channel was depicting;

Meteor Shower Expected to Land in Bay Area Spots

"Dudes, check this out!" There was only a blurry angle, presumably by the cameraman just running to safety as he or she was delivering the emergency news. "Oh, my God!"

"They're not crashing here, but let's hope they don't where the others are!" Lynn cried.

Elsewhere, the majority of the gang were around dusty, dark red benches at a sloped edge that was cut off by a beautiful lake. The gang had not started the hike in the center of the woods yet, and had no longer the patience to wait for the others. Lupa kept shaking up the current in her boredom, while the others, except Linka, had been active on a game of tag for the new kid.

Linka was the only one sitting, avoiding the commotion made of laughter and "tag, you're it" going back and forth. She spectated Lupa doing her thing, silent. "You're not supposed to do that in public," she curtly told the emotionless clone.

"Yeah? Who says? There's no one around," scoffed the uncaring girl. She raised water and then began to spin it around. "Katara who?"

"I know, but I'm just saying."

"Girl, I get you, you're beginning to worry about them, and frankly, I've been as well, but we can't block out our humanity to fully focus on taking care of each other. That was something Lincoln neglected to remember, and he knows it too damn late. But not you, Linka. You don't have to be like him in that aspect." Lupa made a smiling face with the water and closed it in on Linka. "We're safe, anyways. None of us will be hurt ever again..."

Speaking of, the participants froze in the game as the first meteor had hit over a hundred feet away from them. Lupa let the water plop to the ground and looked into the sky that had already began to darken. "What the-"

A batch had begun to crash around them, either making heavy landings on the ground or water. Luan motioned the group to circle together. "You three, shield us!" Lupa looked straight up, eyes peeled for danger coming directly at them, as did Liby and Lacy, taking note from her.

Lily held onto the shaking Lucky, who was whimpering. "I want my mommy!"

Much of the area around them was being vastly reduced to smoke and crumbling debris consisting of shredded tree bark and branches. Mostly flying dirt was performing the lead act in this unnatural spectacle.

"Ack! My eyes are burning!" The black smoke that spawned was only just rising, but did some irritation to the gang. Lupa was squinting now. "Its too damn hot!"

"Keep eyes open!" Linka yelled. "Walk it off later!"

Liby and Lacy covered their noses away from the burning stench. "Talk about a bad barbecue!" Liby joked.

The barrage of asteroids had ended as Lupa broke away from her glaze. Her eyes grew to a red color, going to an itcy state. Lupa wiped them away repeatedly with her sleeves. "This is worse than poison ivy!"

Luan and Lily inspected the inflicted damage to mother nature. Only several trees had survived the slamm catastrophe. The dense smoke had blocked out everything that was visible the moments before impact. "What was that?!"

"Something exploded?" Lupa wondered.

"No, there's no debris of anything. Those looked like meteors to me." Linka looked back in the lake, in which the nearest one had landed. The huge, black rock, size equal to a Prius, was floating almost in the middle. "Someone's gonna get fired at NASA."

Then, the meteor sank down under the blue, making Linka curious. "Why didn't it sink before?" She stepped foot onto the lake, getting more wet with every step she took. Linka dipped her head to spot the big black rock. There was no prepping herself for what came next.

A silver hand seized her by her throat and rose above as a metallic being emerged. At first, she thought it was that damn robot they faced back awhile ago. Her hands immediately acted to try and break free, but the hand was cold and made up of some kind of metal, despite the being looking and moving about like a humanoid. It was also tall enough to be seven feet long.

"LINKA!" Lacy was the first to see her clone sister in trouble, and held up both hands to split them both up. Liby and the still irritated Lupa noticed the trouble, and were about to join in Lacy's aid, until other silver entities had begun to reveal themselves from the black fog around. One of the beings surprised Lacy by only putting its long, silver hand over her head. Lacy was paralyzed, no longer being able to act. Her arms were forced to her sides and was tossed down on her back.

Lupa tried to finish what Lacy started, but went through the same phase as Lacy. Liby stuttered, looking at the two. "Wh- Aw, geez..."

"RUN!" Luan picked up Lucky into her arms and ran from the closing-in silver entities. Lily followed pursuit, but Liby was instantly subdued as she ran. Linka had other plans; on instinct, she lunged herself down while still being choked, going for a nice headbutt after a high jump. She placed it where she believed the abdomen was, but it hurt like hell for her.

"Damn it!" She rubbed her head, and wondered if another move would work. "What the hell are you?!"

"You'll find out soon enough."

Linka didn't see a mouth or eyes on it. In fact, it didn't seem to have a face. "Let go of me!" She stuck both of her legs together, bend her knees and went for a strong kick. "Ha! Take-" This attack did nothing to the entity, but it kinda hurt her legs. "What the fuck?"

Lily overpassed the comedienne, who struggled with her load while running. Liby made it out of the clearing, which by then had she remembered her dream- the very same one that she then realized was a vision. It was happening again, only this time it was real.

"LYNN! LUNA!" Lily was far away from Luan, but wasn't aware of it. She ran until weariness reached out to her. There was no point in calling out to the ones who weren't there, but she did so anyway. Loly was scared enough at this point.

She tripped over the shiny hand concealed under the leaves she crunched by. "Oomf!" The hand seized her by her shoe, rendering her unable to get away. "L-LINCY!"

"Lincoln will not be able to save you. In fact, he is why we're here."

Lily was lifted upside down, squirming around as the blood rushed to her head. "Lincy..."

"Sleep," the being spoke. Lily fell into a trance of sleep, and was set down gently by the being.

Luan and the little boy were surrounded by three of the silver beings. She couldn't run anymore, so she allowed them to have whatever it was they wanted with her. "Okay, don't hurt me, please!" Right now, she could use that power suit she once used when the Louds broke into Lisa's main Vial Corp facility. "What do you want?"

The three silver humanoids lifted each a hand that made Luan shiver in fear. "What are you doing?" She covered the boy within her arms more tightly, and then shut her eyes, prepared for possible death.