It was a pleasant afternoon in Royal Woods; the heat of the summer sun was mitigated by a mild wind.
In the park, the residents of the city were enjoying the second week of summer while the kids were happily celebrating their summer vacation by spending some nice quality time in the park.
"Come on Lincoln, you are almost there."
Well, most of them.
In contrast to any other day, in which Lincoln would have spent the afternoon at the local arcade or reading comics, today he was exercising with his sister Lynn.
"Come on little bro you can do it." Lynn said as she tried to get him on the last lap of the park.
Once he arrived at her Lincoln sat on a nearby bench without any more breath.
"Give…me…give me one…second." Lincoln said, trying to catch some air.
"Come on Lincoln, I thought you wanted to get in shape this summer." Said Lynn with a smirk on her face.
"I know, I know, but I would like to be alive by the end of summer".
Hearing her brother's comment made Lynn laugh a bit so she decided to give Lincoln a 5-minute break and she sat on the bench near him.
"If it can help you, you are making huge improvements."
"Really?" asked Lincoln in disbelief hearing his sister making a compliment regarding his sport skill.
"Yeah, well you are not as good as me but you are not total trash either." She said with a grin on her face causing Lincoln to roll his eyes in response.
For a moment, the only male son of the Loud family just sat there contemplating the scenery. At that moment Lincoln was feeling a sense of calm, he hadn't felt this way so in a long time.
Not only because he suffered no stress because of school but he was also spending some time playing sports with his sister without needing to be threatened with a bat.
But every good moment needed to end, and Lincoln was brought back to reality by his sister who informed him that they had to head back home.
As they exited the park, Lynn turned around and asked her brother if he wanted a flippee and Lincoln gladly accepted that offer.
Flip's Food & Fuel was a Royal Woods gas station owned by Phillip Phillipini for the friend "Flip".
Saying that Flip was miserly was an understatement; he was a smug opportunist and would do anything for the maximum profit, which additionally includes selling his flippee at an exaggerated price.
"thief" mumbled Lynn under her breath as she paid for her and his brother's flippee.
"Well, at least this food is not expired." Lincoln said, trying to calm his sister while taking a sip of his drink.
Lynn was a bit uncertain, but she decided to drink whatever was in her cup, and, as soon as she finished it, she started to suffer intense pain in her stomach.
"Speak too soon, sorry Lincoln, but I need to go to the bathroom" and, before even finishing her sentence she ran out of the gas station.
After Lynn had exited the building, another man entered; he was wearing a small black coat and blue trousers.
He approached Flip, who was behind the register, and put some jewels in front of his eyes.
"So, how much are you willing to pay for this?" the man asked.
"I told you before" Flip responded in an irritated tone of voice "I am not a pawn shop."
"Aw come on man I need help to arrive at the end of the month."
Flip rolled his eyes, he looked at the man for a brief second and then at the jewels in front of him.
"30 dollars each"
"WHAT" the man shouted outraged. "That is not even $300 come on man, at least give me $70 each."
"NO sir, I am willing to give you $40 each only because you are a friend."
While the two of them kept fighting, Lincoln got curious and decided to go and see the jewels the man had brought.
As he watched them, his eyes were caught by an orange jewel. It had nothing special but for some reason, Lincoln wanted it.
"Excuse me sir, but how much do you want for this one?" Lincoln asked, pointing at the source of his interests.
The man looked at Lincoln unsure if the kid really wanted to buy it and simply asked how much money he had with him at that moment.
Lincoln searched in his pocket for the money and managed to raise a sum of fifty dollars.
At first, Lincoln was hesitant, he had been saving that money for more than a month and he intended to use them for buying some comics and some video games.
But at that moment there was nothing else he desired more than that jewel and, without hesitation he bought it.
But, as soon as he put his jewel in his pocket a masked man entered the gas station.
"I finally found you, you piece of shit." Said the masked man pointing a gun at the man that came to sell the jewel "you owe me a lot of money."
"Slow down man, try to stay calm. I was going to repay you."
But before he could finish his sentence, the robber pointed a gun at his temple.
"Oh, then you don't mind if I take this with me." He said while taking the jewels that were in front of them.
At that moment Lincoln was in a state of complete panic. Not only was he in the middle of a robbery but the masked criminal clearly expressed he wanted the jewels the other man had with him, and less than a minute ago he had bought one of those. In that moment Lincoln was on thin ice but at least things couldn't get worse for him.
"Lincoln..." or that was what he thought.
Everyone in the gas station turned their face to the entrance from where the voice came.
It was Lynn who had returned from the toilet, now making Lincoln not only worried about himself but also about his sister's life.
But, before anyone could say another word, they started hearing police sirens coming closer and closer.
'Dang it the old man must have activated the alarm' the robber thought to himself as he rushed out of the station to try to escape before the arrival of the police.
But, as he exited the gas station, he was tackled down by Lynn who was trying to prevent him from escaping.
The robber tried to push her aside and kicked her to try to get free but seeing that the girl still refused to let him go and hearing the siren getting closer the robber took his gun and fired two bullets and hit the head of the poor girl multiple time causing her to pass out.
Lincoln was in complete shock. He rushed out of the building to the body of his sister.
"LYNNN!" Lincoln cried out as he held his sister, blood spilling out of her wounds, the boy could do nothing more than hug her while trying to stop her loss of blood.
Tears started to form in his eyes, he could no longer stop them as they started to flow.
He heard the siren of the police getting closer and closer while his sister's heartbeat grew fainter. Not knowing if his sister was going to live or not the boy just shouted at the top of his excuse
"Lynn, I'm so sorry this is all my fault, please be strong, please don't die, please I need you."
Fortunately, the police and an ambulance arrived on the scene just in time to escort the fifth of the Loud children to the hospital where she was immediately operated on.
When the police arrived on the scene, they found his little brother kneeled in front of her, with tears flowing from his eyes trembling in fear and shock.
The paramedics loaded her into the ambulance and headed for the hospital with extreme urgency with the police car that carried Lincoln right behind them.
As soon as they arrived, Lynn was brought to the operating room with extreme urgency, while Lincoln could only wait outside the arrival of his family with one of the police officers.
The rest of the Loud family arrived at the hospital a few minutes later, and as soon as they arrived, they hugged Lincoln with all their strength.
After a few seconds the police officer took aside the two parents, informing them of what happened and that fortunately the criminal was arrested.
It had been 30 minutes since the Loud family arrived and they were still waiting for news regarding the outcome of the medical intervention.
The whole family was still in utter shock not believing the news they heard, but their sadness wasn't comparable to Lincoln's.
The poor boy was completely broken and hadn't said a single word since the police had arrived, it was only thanks to his sister Leni and Luna, who were hugging and comforting him, that he was able to contain his tears.
Then the door opened and a nurse entered the room, all the members of the family turned their heads to her.
"How is our daughter?" asked Rita and Lynn Sr.
"The operation had no complications, and we were able to extract the bullets."
Hearing this news brought a huge relief to all the Louds.
"Does that mean we can go and see her?" asked Lana.
"Unfortunately it's not that simple." said the nurse causing the family to get worried once again "during the fight your daughter received numerous heavy blows to the head, this injury caused her to fall into a coma and we cannot say for sure when she will wake up."
Hearing this news broke Lincoln, he could not believe his sister was in a coma. When she woke up? Would she ever wake up? These questions greatly disturbed Lincoln, who started to cry intensely.
Fortunately, his family was there with him, they all hugged him trying to make him stop crying but the news they received and seeing him in that condition made this task practically impossible.
Once arrived home Lincoln immediately ran to his room causing his family to get more worried.
"Will Lincoln be fine?" asked Leni trying to lessen her worries, unfortunately, no one in her family could give her an answer.
Two hours had passed since the family returned home and since then Lincoln hadn't calmed down a bit, every time he closed his eyes even for a little bit he saw his sister lying on the ground covered in blood.
At that moment Lincoln was sitting on his bed thinking about the event of the afternoon. Why didn't he do anything? Why didn't he stop her or even help her? Was it because he was just too scared? Did he deserve to lay on that bed instead of her?
While deep in thought Lincoln noticed he had something in his pocket, at first he was confused, but once he took the object out he realised it was the jewels, seeing the object brought back to Lincoln's mind the accident and his fault in that, and he returned to cry.
One of his tears hit the jewel, and this started to glow. Confused about what was happening, Lincoln stopped crying and concentrated on the object which not only had started to glow brighter and brighter, but was now levitating in his palm.
Lincoln, caught off guard by this event, falls back to his bed letting the strange glowing stone to float in the middle of the room.
Uncertain about what to do, Lincoln grabbed the object and rushed to Lisa's room to ask her for help.
The boy entered his sister's room trying to not alert the other members of his family, once inside he walked as silently as possible to not wake Lily.
"Lisa wakes up, I need to talk to you."
Hearing her brother calling her, the 4-year-old girl slowly opened her eyes.
"Dear brother, mayI know why you have decided to wake me in the middle of the night depriving my brain of important time to rest?"
"Lisa, I know it's late but I need to show you something."
"Ok, what is it?"
"I can't show you here. We need to go to your bunker."
Lisa was a bit concerned about her brother's request but, remembering what he had passed in a span of a few hours, she just decided to do as her brother asked her.
"Woah, Lisa I must admit you did a pretty good job renovating this place, new furniture, the new computer you even add a laboratory here"
"Well after much consideration, I realised that a space of such small dimensions simply couldn't be used as a bunker for a family as big as ours for a prolonged period so I decided to expand the bunker"
"You needed a place to conduct your experiments without mom and dad knowing it."
"...yes." Lisa hesitated a little "Well what was the thing that you wanted to show me so much you awoke me in the middle of the night?"
"This." Said Lincoln showing the stone to his little sister
"A fake jewel?" asked Lisa with a frustrated voice
"It's not a fake jewel. I swear some minutes ago this thing was glowing and floating in the middle of the room."
Hearing her brother's statement didn't convince Lisa at all.
"Mhmm ok, Lincoln look, I know this day was a rough one for you but let me assure you that that rock didn't fly in your room and whatever thing you think you saw was just your imagination. Now, if you excuse me, I would like to go to bed and I suggest you do the same."
"Wait, just give me a moment." Said Lincoln as he saw his sister going for the exit of the bunker, in that moment of frustration, the white-haired boy just threw the rock on the ground but, before the object could hit the ground it started levitating again.
"LISA COME HERE" screamed Lincoln trying to get his sister's attention.
"What is the matt-" said Lisa as she was turning around but, before even finishing the word she noticed the strange stone. "Brother please move away from that object, it could represent a danger for mine and your safety."
Lincoln gave a little chuckle hearing his sister's last statement.
"Don't worry Lisa. I'm pretty sure it's completely safe."
After saying this, Lincoln reached out to grab the glowing object, but, as soon as he touched it with his fingertips, the stone emitted a great light that engulfed the entire room causing the two siblings to become blind for a moment.
"LINCOLN, LINCOLN." Lisa shouted as she started regaining her vision.
"I'm fine, a little bit stunned but I'm fine."
"Do you suffer from brain damage, do you have the slightest idea of the danger that thing represents, we col-... Lincoln, would you care to explain to me what are you wearing?"
Lincoln was confused by his sister's question, so he decided to take a look at himself. He was wearing an orange suit, black boots, and black gloves with orange thunder on them. The boy also noticed he was wearing a black helmet with orange bolts on it but the strangest thing was a belt to which the stone was attached.
Lincoln was more confused than ever about what was happening, he took a few steps backwards but in doing so, he tripped on his feet. But, before he could hit the ground, he flipped backwards and landed perfectly.
The two siblings were shocked to see Lincoln's physical performance.
"What just happened?" The boy asked, seeking an answer from his sister.
"It seems like that stone has increased your agility, I suggest we conduct further studies to see what other aspects of your body have been modified."
After saying this Lisa pressed a red button near her, which caused a little door to open on the other side of the room from which came a robot.
"Lincoln, I want to introduce you to one of my latest inventions. I originally built it to help Lynn in her training but now it can help us understand your new ability."
Lincoln looked at the robot, it wasn't that different from the robot his little sister had already built, but, in contrast to the other, this one had two big boxing pads in its hand.
"Would you be so kind as to proceed with the experiment and give it a punch?" said Lisa while she started analysing the Incoming data.
Lincoln wasn't sure this was a good idea but decided to go along he started to throw punches left and right, at the beginning they were slow and Lincoln seemed unmotivated but, as he kept punching the robot, the memories of the evening came back to his mind, giving him more motivation and he started to hit the robot harder and harder until, at one point, his fist was engulfed into flame and, as he punched the robot he pierced thought the metal object.
In the room, the two siblings remained silent as the robot crashed to the ground.
"These data are incredible." Said Lisa full of enthusiasm while analysing the results of the experiment "Lincoln that rock not only has increased your agility but also your strength, and your stamina. We need to do other experiments".
Lincoln ignored his little sister's last statement, still thinking about what had just happened, then a thought crossed his mind.
"Lisa, I appreciate your enthusiasm but I think I know a way to use these new powers."
"May I know what you have in mind?"
"I want to use them to fight crime."
Lisa was shocked to hear her brother's idea.
"Lincoln, are you crazy? Do you understand this is the real world and not a fictional one like the comics you read? And if you understand this, why in the world would you want to put your life at risk like this?"
"It's because of Lynn."
"What?!" asked Lisa, still not completely understanding what her brother meant by that
"Lisa, it's all my fault if Lynn is in a coma, at the gas station I was completely paralyzed. I was too scared to do something and now, because of me, Lynn is in a hospital bed and we don't even know if she will wake up. But now, thanks to these new powers, I can prevent someone else from having this experience"
Lisa remained silent, watching her brother's face as tears began to fall from his eyes; the child prodigy was conflicted about what to do, on one end she didn't want her brother to put his life in danger but on the other hand, she knew he would go down that road with or without her.
"I will need some time to think about this, I will tell you my answer tomorrow."
After that, the two siblings returned to their bedroom to try and catch some sleep.
The next day Lincoln woke up pretty late, although the white-haired boy had been in bed for nearly 11 hours, he wasn't able to catch any sleep.
The boy quickly dressed up and went downstairs to have breakfast, in the kitchen he found the rest of his family who were finishing having breakfast.
"Good morning everyone."
"Good morning Lincoln," his family replied.
"Did you sleep well son?" his father asked as he put into Lincoln's plate some pancake and bacon.
Lincoln didn't want to confess he spent most of the night awake although, judging by his family members' faces, none of them had slept very well.
"I slept well, thanks for asking dad."
"No problem son and remember if you need any help just ask ok."
After finishing breakfast Lincoln went to Lisa's bunker where she was waiting for him.
"So do you have an answer?" Lincoln asked, a little bit afraid of what his little sister was gonna say.
"Indeed, after much consideration, I concluded that you will try to become the hero of this city, whether I help you or not. So I think that is better if I give you all of my support."
"So does that mean you will help me?".
"Yes, I will help you, but on one condition."
After finishing speaking Lisa went to the other side of the room where there was a strange object covered by a white sheet.
"If you wish to become a hero then you will have to train" as the 4-year-old girl finished speaking, she removed the sheet revealing another robot "Dear brother, let me introduce you to my latest invention, this robot is an upgraded version of the previous one that you destroyed last night; his strength and his resistance have been increased to resist your punch."
"Lisa, when did you do that?".
"Last night I couldn't sleep so I returned here to clear my mind and took the opportunity to rebuild it".
Lincoln was speechless, he couldn't believe his sister would have done so much for him, so, without hesitation, he rushed to hug her and started thanking her.
"Dear brother, although I appreciate your display of affection, I'd prefer if you stop."
"Sorry, sorry. I was overwhelmed with emotions."
"I understand, you're just a human after all. Now you better start training if you wish to make your first appearance before next week."
Lincoln kept training with Lisa's robot, improving his attack, defence and agility; the training was tiring but Lincoln was willing to keep going no matter what.
As the time passed, Lincoln improvements more and more, until both he and Lisa agree that the time had come to revea himself to the world.
That night Lincoln was on his first patrol, he was checking the street from the rooftop of the building.
"Lincoln, Lincoln, can you hear me"
"Yes Lisa, I can hear you, the earpiece and microphones that you added are working perfectly"
"Did you register any sign of criminal activity?" his sister asked.
"For now, everything has been calm, 5 minutes and I will return home."
After saying this Lincoln started moving through the centre, jumping from roof to roof.
As he was moving, Lincoln looked down and saw a group of three guys trying to rob another one in a dark alley.
Seeing the crime unfolding, Lincoln decided to act, he jumped down from the rooftop and landed right between the three aggressors and their victim.
The three thugs were taken aback by the sudden arrival of the hero but, after some seconds, they realised that the one in front of them was just a child, they looked at each other
"move aside kid otherwise me and my friends will have to teach you not to interfere in other people business"
"I would like to see you try." Said Lincoln with a smirk under his helmet.
Hearing what Lincoln said, the three men started laughing.
"Well you wanted to do this the hard way" said the first one of them, pulling out a knife he quickly rushed towards him; but thanks to his new ability, the white-haired boy was able to rapidly disarm his opponent and knock it unconscious.
The other two thugs were left in disbelief seeing their companion getting his ass kicked by a kid, one of them tried to punch the masked hero, but his fist was blocked and Lincoln counterattacked by repeatedly punching him in the abdomen.
Seeing the scene unfolding, the last of the criminals started panicking and ran away, leaving behind his unconscious friends.
But Lincoln wasn't going to let him escape, he crouched and then leaped to land in front of the thug who was then knocked down by a heavy blow to the face.
After having dealt with the criminals Lincoln returned to the man who was being robbed and who was huddled in a corner.
"Are you ok sir?" asked Lincoln.
The men looked up and noticed that the three criminals were laying on the ground and in front of him, there was the masked superhero.
"Yes, thank you for saving me." the man said.
"No problem it was my duty" after saying this, Lincoln jumped onto the rooftop of the nearby building and proceeded to return home.