Can't believe I still have time to write during the day. It's summer and by this time of the year I expected to be totally swamped with things to do. But thankfully I'm not which means more writing, which also means more chapters. Enjoy!

"Nice dodge! But it won't be enough to get away from Doctor Claw!" Clyde chanted.

Him and Lincoln were battling it out in one of their favorite video games.

Lincoln scoffed, "Dream on! If you think Doctor Claw can beat the new Ace Savvy in Road Fighter IX then you got another thing coming!"

Both of the friends were rapidly tapping a different button each second. Whipping out a thousand different combos. Both going back and forth, no stable ground on who was winning for sure. But suddenly a black door opened up in the game out of nowhere.

"Wait Lincoln! I heard of this!" Clyde said halting his friends next upcoming combo.

"What?" Lincoln questioned.

"That's the door to the secret boss level! You can unlock it during a fight and fight with or against the second player at the same time." Clyde explained.

Both their characters walked into the door and the screen turned to black, two options popped up on the screen reading: "CO-OP or VS"

The two looked at each other with smiles. "Co-op!" They said in unison.

Clyde pressed 'yes' for the option and the screen cut to a purplish cave background. A floating smiley face bigger than their two characters floated in the air.

"That's the boss? That's just a helpless smiley face." Lincoln said laughing.

As if on cue, the smiley face morphed into an angry face and spat a fire ball at Lincoln's character.

"Look out! Clyde said.

Both characters jumped out of the way instantly as the fireball splashed on the ground leaving a dark ashy spot.

"Lincoln, use Ace Savvy's unique combo!" Clyde urged.

Lincoln pressed a number of buttons and his character simply stood up straight and smiled. His teeth were so shiny that they sparkled and blinded the smiley face boss causing it to lose a little less than half of its health. The battle went on with the boss spitting fireball left and right at them. Both of them managed to dodge the blasts and band together. They collided their ridiculously long combos and managed to beat the monster to near submission. A button prompt hovered onto of its head. Lincoln's character was the first to get there but had to wait since it was co-op. Clyde's character got there second and that initiated a team attack that finished the boss.

Both boys cheered and woo'd in victory. "High five!" Lincoln said turning to Clyde.

Clyde didn't hesitate to oblige and he met his friend with a hard collision of hands. Lincoln hissed in pain and held his wrist after it. Clyde instantly became aware of Lincoln's wrist. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! Are you alright?!"

Lincoln nodded, "It wasn't you. It's just my sprained wrist."

"Oh." Clyde said. The light-hearted fun tone the room had diminished without another word said. The boys were both thinking the same thing.

"Hey Clyde. You think if I tell my parents what happened, that Lynn will start talking again and everything will go back to normal?" Lincoln asked.

Clyde shrugged. He knew just as little as Lincoln did on how their parents would react.

"You think she'd be mad at me?" Lincoln asked genuinely.

"Well first off, she doesn't have the right to be mad at you. Second, it could go either way, honestly." Clyde replied.

"I just want this whole thing to be over." Lincoln said laying back on the couch. Lincoln brought his mind to an old flashback before this all happened.

FLASHBACK 1 year ago…

"Hey Linc! Wanna play some football?" Lynn cheerfully asked tossing a football back and forth in her hands.

Lincoln was busy reading his new Ace Savvy comic. "Nah. I'm busy reading."

Lynn held the ball slightly bummed out. "Cmon Linc, you're the only boy in the house. You're supposed to like sports."

Lincoln put his comic book down and looked at his sister, "Just because I'm a boy doesn't mean I need to absolutely love sports."

"No one else wants to play football with me." Lynn said.

"Maybe if you played more video games with me I would consider playing sports with you." Lincoln said.

"No way! Video games are lame!" Lynn said with a stinky face.

"Sports are lame in my opinion." Lincoln replied looking down at his comic book again.

Lynn thought to herself. She had to devise a plan if Lincoln was ever going to agree to play any sport with her. But what could she possibly do? Devising plans was mainly their parents and Lisa's thing. But that's when she had an idea. "How 'bout a bet?" Lynn asked.

Lincoln looked up in curiosity. "What kind of bet?"

Lynn looked around the room first. Nothing to bet on. She peaked out the door of his room. She spotted Lily crawling in the hallway aimlessly. Lynn felt as if a lightbulb lit up over her head.

"I got one." She said.

"Ok what is it?" Lincoln asked.

"Lily's gonna choose." Lynn replied walking out the door to grab her little sister.

Lincoln stared at her still confused. "What're you doing?"

Lynn placed Lily on the floor on the side of Lincoln's bed. "I'll put my football in front of Lily, while you put your comic book in front of her too. Whichever thing she touches first is what we do." She explained.

"So if she touches your football we play football, and if she touches my comic book then we play video games?" Lincoln asked.

"Yep. Shake on it." Lynn said holding her hand out.

Lincoln eyed her hand suspiciously. "Why?"

Lynn rolled her eyes, "Because if you shake on it then you can't back out of the bet."

Lincoln contemplated on whether this was a good idea or not. He could lose and end up having a painful experience, or he could finally get Lynn to play video games with him. He shrugged and shook her hand. "Deal."

Lincoln and Lynn instantly placed their items in front of their baby sister. They waited in anticipation to see which one she chose. Each time she would lean to either side they would both hold their breath to wait on if she touches it or not. After what seemed like eternity, Lily leaned and grabbed Lynn's football.

"Yes!" Lynn cheered.

Lincoln looked disappointed. "Come on Lily."

"I won. Football time." Lynn said.

Lynn and Lincoln stood on opposite sides of the backyard. Lincoln slouching as he didn't have any intention to play.

Lynn held the ball. "Ok Linc, catch!" Lynn said tossing the ball to him.

Lincoln easily caught the ball but still remained drained of energy.

"Do I pass it back to you?" He asked.

"Nope! Now you gotta run!" Lynn said sprinting towards him.

Lincoln instantly panicked as his sister became closer each second. He turned and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Despite how big the backyard was they covered a lot of distance and Lincoln had to loop around it all to get away from his ever nearing sister.

"You got a little faster than last time." Lynn complimented.

Lincoln huffed and puffed still trying his hardest to run, "R-really?"

"Yeah. But I think it's time I stop going easy on you." Lynn replied.

"What?!" Lincoln asked outraged.

Lynn answered by leaping and tackling him to the grass. They slid a couple of feet before stopping. Lynn popped up just as fast as they fell. "Whoooo! Come on Lincoln! It's your turn to chase now!"

Lincoln grunted in pain. He slowly rose up from the grass and saw his sister waiting for him. He grunted in pain again before tossing the ball to her. Lynn already started sprinting after catching the ball one handed.

"Start chasing, bro!" Lynn shouted.

Lincoln was already starting to regret shaking hands. He started jogging after his sister in order to get his baring first. The jog slowly turned into a run, and the run into a sprint. Lynn noticed he was catching up to her but she didn't have trouble keeping distance again. It seemed as though she had endless stamina. Still keeping the same speed for at least ten minutes.

Even though he was massively tired, Lincoln managed to catch up to Lynn despite his fatigued state. He leapt for her legs believing he was about to tackle his sister for the first time. But his dreams were dashed as Lynn sprinted faster and left him falling into dirt again. Lynn finally stopped her running and faced Lincoln who was face first into the grass.

"My turn now." Lynn said tossing the ball to Lincoln.

Lincoln took a minute to catch his breath before taking the ball and standing up.

Lynn stared at him with a devilish grin, "Whenever you're ready."

Lincoln sprinted off and successfully passed Lynn in the process. Feeling good he looked behind expecting to see Lynn with a baffled look. But to his surprise Lynn was hot on his tail. She must've let him pass her, why else would she still have that devilish smile on her face?

Lincoln tried his best to sprint faster, but his tank was empty. He had wasted a majority of his energy trying to chase Lynn down with no progress. He could ask for a timeout. But Lynn never did timeouts. Once she was in pursuit she never stopped. "I'm doomed." Was the only thought that popped into his mind as he hopelessly ran away from his athletic sibling.

"On your left!" Lynn said before jumping at him again. Lincoln was too tired to try to dodge anything at this point. He just let the tackle come to him so he could take a few minutes to rest.

Lynn wrapped her arms around his upper body and used her body weight to bring Lincoln down.
Evidentially to Lincoln's misfortune, there was a bump in the grass a few feet in front of him as he began falling. His knee perfectly slammed against the bump with tremendous force. After tumbling further, Lincoln held his knee in pain.

"OW! Lynn! I hit my knee on something!" He yelled.

Lynn stopped smiling and looked at his knee. "Nothing looks wrong from what I'm seeing."

"No! I hit it really hard! It hurts! It hurts!" Lincoln yelled again crying.

"Lincoln!" Lynn hissed. "Quit yelling!"

"Lynn my knee really hurts! I don't wanna play this anymore!" Lincoln yelled as tears streamed down his face.

"Shhh! Shhh! Quiet down, Lincoln!" Lynn said checking to see if anyone was coming out of the house.

Lincoln tried to quell his pain and silently sniffled. Lynn faced him again with an annoyed look. "If I play that stupid game will you stop crying?"

Lincoln instantly cheered up and nodded. Lynn let out a frustrated moan.

A few minutes later…

"What game is this?" Lynn asked.

Lincoln smiled, "It's a sports game. For football."

Lynn nodded impressed. Despite how bad she was at playing the game she still liked it. "This is pretty decent. I thought they only made video games based off of comic books."

Lincoln shook his head, "There's a ton of other video games out there."

"You know what? This isn't so bad." Lynn said.

Lincoln grinned at her, "I told you that you'd like it."

Lynn rolled her eyes and pushed his head back. "Video games are still lame, bro. This one is the only exception."

Lincoln shrugged. "I have other ones that are about sports that you may like."

Lynn looked at him curiously, "What kind?"

"Hockey, Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, even Rugby." Lincoln replied.

Lynn raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "Really?"

Lincoln nodded, "I guess video games aren't just for nerds huh?"

Lynn sighed, "Touché, lil bro."

End of flashback…

Lincoln enjoyed going back and remembering the good times he's had with Lynn before this happened. It brought him back to a time where the family was a whole.

"Lincoln are you alright?" Clyde asked.

Lincoln nodded still in his thoughts. "Yeah, just remembering the good times."

I really hope this chapter wasn't boring for anyone. I wouldn't be surprised if it was. I don't know if anyone noticed, but when Lynn said "On your left." she referenced the movie Captain America: Winter Soldier. It felt very fitting with the certain activity going on. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to review on how you felt about it, and I will get started on the next chapter pronto!