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{Chapter OST}
TRANSFORMERS (2004) - Starscream Battle Theme
Chapter XXI: On the Run, Part II
As Vanzilla roared down the near-empty 3 o'clock road, several of the occupants sitting in the back rows continued to watch the massive column of gray-black smoke that billowed into the sky where their old house once stood, coupled with licks of orange flame, a reminder that any hope they had of remaining under the radar from anyone discovering their powers was now completely destroyed. It was almost too surreal to believe that just a few moments ago, they had watched their beloved home explode into little more than burnt timber, taking with it the only bastion of safety that they had in Royal Woods, and pretty much anywhere else in the entire state. Shock, disbelief, and even horror were written on their faces as they got further away, more so on the younger members of the family.
"It's gone," Lisa somberly whispered, more so to herself as she slumped back down to her seat, "All of my equations, my inventions, my history... it's all gone."
Lisa's words instantly resonated with the rest of the children once it began to sink in that their childhood home was now gone forever, taken from them in a crushing blast. Lola had to bite down on a frozen finger to stop herself from crying, one of the few times where she didn't want to be the center of attention. Lana plucked her hat off and clung it tightly to her chest, eyes clenched while she muttered a prayer hoping that at least one of their beloved pets had at least made it out safely before the fire consumed their home. Lynn and Lucy shared a look of terror and confusion on their faces. This was not how today was supposed to go, not like this.
They wanted answers, anything to give them a clue on where to go, but not at this high of a cost to their family. Having seen their home annihilated, the one place in the entire world that they considered safe, swiftly became the point of realization that any hope they had of trying, for once, to not be a source of trouble was now utterly gone to the wind. Right now, it was now just the ten of them. Ten children alone against a world out to get them.
"W-What just... did that just happen?" Luan sputtered, still in shock as she watched the rising column of dark gray smoke blow up to the sky where her house once stood. The comedienne simply could not believe what she had just witnessed, her mind too overwhelmed to make any kind of trademark joke, and she could barely register her own words once they came out of her mouth.
"I-I... we gotta call-! Should I call the cops?" Luna tried to find a solution with her phone in her shaking hands. The Loud musician would have never gone to the immediate help of the police thanks to her and her crew's run-ins with the fuzz, but at that moment it was the only thing she could think of.
"The cops?! Our frickin' house just got blown up, Luna! What do you think calling the police is gonna do?" Lynn loudly pointed out to the rockstar. With how distraught she was feeling at the moment with the loss of their home, and the deep-rooted guilt she felt in playing a part in it, her response carried a bit too much force than she wanted it. She did not mean it, but she could not help it.
"I don't know dude! Something! Anything! Our house just... i-it just..." Luna could barely finish that sentence before she bit her lips as the tears began to flow, hiding her face as she tried to keep her weeping low. Lisa's words had cut in her deep. All the memories they made and the treasures they held were gone. Luna could only guess as to what happened to her prized guitars, albums, and many other precious items she cherished deeply. Luan went over to comfort her sobbing roommate, putting an arm around her shoulders to try and calm her down.
"We just - we just left mom and dad behind." Leni softly whimpered as the tears uncontrollably flowed down her face before another horrifying fact came to her. "And Lily! Oh god, Lily." Leni openly sobbed at the thought of her defenseless baby sister still stuck in that inferno, left to die in the flames and smoke.
Back in the driver's seat, Lori peered through the review mirror to get a better look at her siblings. On the outside she may have been calmer than her siblings, but internally was a different story. Like them, she was anything but alright at the moment. Watching her house explode had rocked her senses and soul both figuratively and literally, but her duty as the oldest sister, the one burdened with the responsibility of making sure her sisters and brother were safe, remained unwavering. Even as she drove away, leaving what was possibly the last time she and her siblings would have a normal life, Lori knew that she had to be strong, strong enough for her to swallow down that need to break down and give in to her emotions.
It took a considerable amount of inner strength for Lori to not break down and cry, no matter how much she wanted to. She at least knew that their mom and dad were still alive, taken away by the agents who were no doubt responsible for the destruction, and she had seen Lily outside as well before the explosion, so she could draw some hope that nobody in her family had truly perished. But with the way things were going for the Loud family, Lori prayed that it was not a matter of when, rather than if.
Yet the one person in the van who Lori had trouble seeing through the mirrors was her brother Lincoln, only managing to spy the top of his snow-white hair hiding behind the seat in front of him.
"Lincoln? Lincoln, are you okay?" She softly said, hoping to see his face.
"I'm fine, Lori. I-I'm fine." He managed to say, but Lincoln knew that it was a lie, and it seemed that everyone else knew too with the way he was talking. His once-proud voice was little more than a hoarse whisper, his mind plagued with a single stinging thought.
This is my fault.
Everything that had gone wrong over the past several hours was all because of him, and he knew it. His choice to play secrets with his family had now left him and his sisters paying the price for his choice. It was not hard for Lincoln to draw to such a heart-wrenching conclusion after remembering what happened beforehand. The old house that once stood strong on Franklin Ave had gone up in flames after some sort of attack. His innocent parents now in the hands of a powerful government agency that knew their secrets, and now he and his sisters were fugitives, on the run from the same agency that had more than likely found them out, all thanks to him.
Lincoln felt like he was being torn apart on the inside from the sheer guilt he we feeling. A cold grasp filled his stomach as reality cam crashing down on him. The young boy knew that he had screwed up in a way that would never be fixed. He never wanted this to happen, not to his beloved family. All he ever wished for, ever since the first day that his powers first appeared, was to chase that dream and become a world-renowned superhero alongside his sisters, just like the ones he had idolized since his youngest years, and now he could not shake the irony that he was now living in one, just not the one he wished for.
It was Lynn who first noticed the silent emotional shift in her brother. She could sense it, as an older sibling would with their younger ones. In a silent act of kindness, she gently placed a warm hand on her brother's thigh to let him know that it was going to be okay for them. Lynn could only guess how her brother must be feeling at the moment, already wracked with wrongfulness as he was before.
"Um, guys? I hate to be a real bearer of bad news," Luan worryingly said as she peered out the window behind her, "But do you remember those agents that were at our house? I don't think they're done with us yet!"
Hearing Luan's words, everyone in the van turned their heads to see what she was talking about. Not far from where their house formerly stood, headlights blared and sirens wailing, half a dozen black SUVs filled with government agents the very same ones that had taken their parents and youngest sister, were gunning towards them.
And they were gaining fast.
"Aw shit, you're right!" Lynn exclaimed as she stuck her head out the window to see for herself. Panic immediately began to set in with the Loud children.
"I don't want to go to jail!" Lola wailed, grabbing on to her twin for dear life.
"This can't be happening, dudes!"
"Lori? What do we do?"" Leni anxiously asked her older sister, hoping for some guidance.
Yet the troubled Lori had no answer for her. For once, the eldest sister of the Louds had nothing to say. A rare sight indeed. But Lori knew that she would have to make a choice, and quickly. Two options weighed on her mind. First was the logical answer: pull over and get arrested for their own good, reunite with their parents and hope to whichever deity is listening that they won't be harmed. Should she stop and surrender to these people, knowing that it could spell the eternal end of her family? They already had her mother and father along with Lily in their hands. How long could they keep going, and if they were agents of the government, then it might only hurry the inevitable if she stopped. Perhaps it might simply be for the best for them, the safest, already her foot absent-mindedly resting on the brakes waiting to drop.
But another look though the mirror was all she needed to see to change her mind, thanks to the bold stare of affirmation that Lincoln was giving her. She knew what it meant, and what it entailed. Despite everything that happened, Lori still placed her trust within Lincoln. And here again, one single act between the two of them, like they had before weeks before. And it now seemed that everyone began to realize that their fate ultimately rested in Lori's decision. It was in this moment, with all the lives of her siblings in the balance, that Lori knew whole-heartedly that she dared not stop the van, not for the same people that had tried to take the rest of her family away from her. Here, in Vanzilla, was all that remained of the Louds: nine sisters and a brother in one car, running for their lives on a brand-new, dangerous adventure. She would protect them, and they themselves would protect her. And she would not trade that for anything else.
And so, looking back to witness a silent nod from Lincoln to forever seal their fates, Lori clenched her fists around the steering wheel and slammed her foot on the gas, taking off with peeling rubber as fast as Vanzilla could let her.
"Everyone, hang on!" She cried out underneath the roar of the van's engine, her siblings clinging to their seats as she put the petal to the metal.
...
"They're not stopping, Major. Should we engage them on the road?" The radio in Vassallo's vest crackled to life, but the man could see it for himself in the lead van. He had to admit that there was a surprising amount of power hidden in that jalopy they were driving. Even his SUVs with turbocharged engines were finding it difficult to keep up.
"Negative, negative! Not yet! Get perimeter on them and diverge our forces! We'll try to box them in outside the neighborhood!" Vassallo yelled into his radio. The last thing he needed was to cause a bigger commotion in the suburbs with a bunch of his own vehicles. Too many civilians that could be caught in the crossfire, and too little room for him and his agents to secure a clean capture. If they could just get them to some flat open ground, such as the outskirts of Royal Woods near the farms, then snagging the kids would be significantly easier.
An idea came to mind.
"Send word to perimeter. Aim for their tires!"
"Roger that, Major. Bandits on standby."
-Midtown Royal Woods-
"...ongoing reports of a large explosion that occurred just some time ago in Royal Woods. In other news, there are more ongoing sightings of numerous strange black vans with no discernable plates appearing all over town-"
"Yo, Clyde!"
Said African-American managed to tear himself away from his phone screen once he heard Zach cry out his name through his heavy headphones, along with a heavy nudge from the conspiracy theorist. The young lad was so enwrapped in the latest news feed on his phone that he had completely toned out what his friends were talking about, and Zach had taken upon himself to bring his friend back to reality.
"O-Oh, were you guys saying something?" Clyde wondered, taking off his headset.
"Uh, yeah, if you were listening to us! You know that explosion we heard earlier when we were down the block?" Zack asked, jutting backwards with a thumb.
"Everyone in town knows, Zach." Rusty plainly interrupted. "Heck, I'm pretty sure the whole state heard it."
"Duh, Rusty. I'm getting to that. Anyways, what do you think it was? It was loud as heck, man. Liam thinks it's a gas leak from a silo. I say it's a weapon experiment gone wrong, or maybe it's - oof!"
Had he been watching where he was going, Liam may have noticed that there was someone in front of him on the sidewalk. Because he was so preoccupied with talking to his friends, he wound up walking head-first into the person's leg. Said person instantly whipped herself around to see who had bumped into her, revealing a blonde teen with a teal streak down one of her larger tendrils wearing a patch-covered jean jacket and torn pants.
"Who the-?!" Sam Sharp yelped, nearly jumping out of her skin. She had been trying to get a hold on her girlfriend before she felt someone impact her right thigh. Sam spun herself around to see who the culprit was, only to see some slightly familiar faces. "Oh, hey. Wait a second, aren't you guys Lincoln's group of friends?"
"Yep! The best there is!" Rusty eagerly gloated.
"And you must be... Sam? You're Luna's girlfriend, right?" Clyde guessed, and Sam gave a nod.
"Yeah, and I've been trying to get a hold of her for the past ten minutes but she ain't picking up. C'mon, Lunes. Don't you start ghosting me now." Sam muttered down to her screen which displayed her love's contact info, along with all the missed calls that she had tried to connect. An idea suddenly came to her. "Um, I hope it's not rude of me to ask, but could I borrow Lincoln's number from one of you? Maybe I can get him to get me to Luna."
"Sure thing. Anything for my best bro's sisters." Clyde shrugged. The boy was just about to offer his best friend's number to Sam, but caught wind of the incoming sound of several wailing fire engines speeding down the road. It would not normally grab his attention so strongly, since fire engines were quite common to see around Royal Woods at any time of day, but considering that there was some sort of explosion that happened nearby, Clyde and his friends continued to watch as the engines kept going further westwards.
And sure enough, Clyde was finally able to spy the tower of black smoke rising into the sky above Royal Woods that was once hidden behind the houses and buildings he walked past. He wasn't the only one, as many other townsfolk had come out and stopped to see what was happening. A sinking feeling began to bubble up in his gut, because from where he stood in the neighborhood, that direction and that area of the town led straight towards Lincoln's house.
That horrid, ice-cold pit in his gut only grew as he, his friends and Sam were all beginning to have the same dark idea growing in their heads. Sam went so far to look back down at her phone again.
"Y-You guys don't think...?" Stella began, though found herself unable to finish.
"How? Maybe? I mean, Lincoln left school the same time we did." Zach tried to convince himself that it was just a coincidence, but even he was beginning to doubt it.
"I mean, that direction does go to Lincoln and Luna's house. And, well, that smoke tower does seem to be in that same neck of the 'burbs." Liam reasoned with some trepidation.
"M-Maybe it was just one of Lisa's experiments. They go wrong all the time, right? Guys?" Rusty nervously wondered as he tried to play it off without success.
Sam and Clyde shared an uneasy look between each other. The two of them had strong connections to the Loud family. One in the form of his long-time best friend, the other for the love of her life. Both cherished and loved like no other. The last thing either Clyde or Sam or any of them wanted was for anything as grim as a house fire to happen to such a large family and the impact that it might have. Clyde felt his hand clench his phone, wondering if what he was thinking just might be real.
"C'mon, buddy. Where are you?"
"Um, guys? You all seeing that?" Rusty asked, leaning forward with his hands over his eyes like a sun protector. Clyde and everyone else followed suit, and his prayers to see his friend again were seemingly answered as from the same street, further down just over the slight hill, they could spy the incoming teal and white form of the Loud family van zooming towards them at street rule-breaking high speeds.
"Hey, that's Lincoln over there!" Zach pointed out and began shouting at the van. "Yo, Lincoln! We're over here!"
"Wait just a moment there, freckles. Something's not right..." Sam cautiously said, easing herself in front of them to get a closer look. With how fast the van was going, she could not help but wonder if there was some sort of trouble.
And just as quickly as they spotted it, Vanzilla zoomedpast them, kicking up dust and wind as it blew by across the street barely a meter in front of their faces. Zach and Liam were knocked down to their rears from the wind as everyone else covered their faces from the gust. The scene became even more intense once the equally speedy black SUV's rolled by as well, which Clyde noticed were the same ones that had been spotted all over town thanks to the pictures he had seen on his phone. And they appeared to be following, or rather chasing, the family van in a high-speed pursuit.
"Holy shit!" Sam shrieked as she was caught off-guard by the sight of Vanzilla going that fast down urban roads.
"What the hell was that?!" Rusty gasped.
"I don't know," Clyde responded, unsure of what he had just seen, "But I doubt it's anything good."
[OST Start - 0:33]
"That was Clyde and Sam back there!" Lincoln exclaimed, doing his best to check through one of the windows as Vanzilla tore down the road. Luna joined him the moment her girlfriend's name crossed his lips, practically slamming her head against the glass to get the briefest of glances of her.
"Lincoln, Luna! Sit down and hold on!"
The screaming words of his eldest sister rang as powerful as did the rumble of Vanzilla's old engine trying to sustain such speeds, rattling like a drum in the metal chassis of the van. Urgently heeding her command, both Lincoln and Luna reluctantly sat back in his seat and fastened their seatbelts once he and the other sisters in the rear of the van noticed that Lori had just entered the bustling heart of Royal Woods going at least twice the regular speed limit. People, who at one point were minding their own business, either did their best to get out of the way of the speeding vehicles or stand by and watch on, some taking out their phones to record the scene.
Lori did her best to swerve around any car that was in front of her, tires squealing from pressure and drag over the tarmac. The super-sizer's hands clenched around the steering wheel in an ironclad grip, sweat dripping down her arms. Lori knew that Vanzilla was not built for this type of speed or endurance. It would only be a matter of time before the poor engine eventually gave up from such excessive power as Lori pushed it to its maximum threshold. As far as she knew, it was down to how much distance she could cover before that happened. Back in the passenger seats, the rest of the family was too busy clinging on to anything they could for dear life. Handles, seats, even each other as Lori raced through Royal Woods in a desperate race against time.
The smallest bumps and potholes became ramps with how fast Lori was going, kicking them up from their seats. And thanks to it being after school, there were far more people out driving than normal, leaving Lori with few options but to push on and hope for the best as she darted back and forth between traffic, leaving behind the blaring horns of people who were barely able to escape a collision.
At the same time, the numerous Starwatch SUVs and surveillance trucks were right on her trail, they too not slowing down for anything. They were lucky; equipped with flashing lights and sirens, it was easy for them to get people out of their way. The one rumbling behind the rear of Vanzilla carried Major Vassallo, the determined Starwatch agent eyeing the van like a hawk with a loaded pistol in his right hand.
Once he felt like he was close enough for a safe shot, the furious agent rolled down the window and stuck his arm out to try and take out one of the van's wheels himself. A stray rock bumped the wheel underneath him right as he fired, the bullet whizzing by and shattering the review mirror.
"Dammit!" Vassallo hissed as he returned to his seat. It was a risky move he just pulled, but not one he was willing to take again. Not with so many people around. The agent gave a swift look around the area to try and find his support. "Where the hell is perimeter?!"
As if on que, several large ATVs roared onto the road from opposite streets in clean formation. Like the SUVs, they too were a matte black, sleek in design with large off-road tires designed for maximum control over all terrain. Vassallo let out a sigh of relief knowing that they had joined the chase.
"Oh, there they are! All units, pull back and secure an intercept point! We'll try to block them off!" Vassallo commanded into his radio. He would let his perimeter agents, the Bandits, run the kids ragged until he could swoop in for the capture. He remembered one more thing before he left the chase for now, "And remember, we want them alive! Use suppressing fire, but do not kill them! Try to take out their tires and their engine!"
"Understood Major."
"They're shooting at us! They're freaking shooting at us!" Lana screamed in terror, recognizing the sound of a gunshot.
"Where are we going, dudes?! Vanzilla isn't made for this type of race!" Luna also added on, feeling the hard rattling of the van's weary frame.
"I know, I know! AGH!" Lori and everyone else let out a cry as one of the ATVs managed to land a hit on Vanzilla, bumping it close to the nearby sidewalk. Lori managed to regain some control by twisting the wheel to the left as strong as she could, just barely keeping the van on its tires. "Can literally anyone think of somewhere we can lose these jerks?!"
Lincoln, ever the quick-thinker, had just the place to go.
"Lori, go to the factories! We can lose them in there!"
"The factories?! Why there? That place is literally a deathtrap!" Lori shouted back, just barely avoiding a city bus as she continued to swerve between lanes. Lori knew of what Lincoln was talking about. The industrial zone of Royal Woods had once been a powerhouse of the town many decades ago, but had been abandoned for even longer. Nowadays it was little more than a huge, rusting maze of empty buildings and weed-choked parking lots that teens liked to explore, something that Lori was just now beginning to understand why Lincoln had told her to drive there. If there was anywhere in Royal Woods that gave them a chance to lose their pursuers, that place might be it.
"Oh, you little genius."
"Hey, I'm on a roll with that!" Lincoln proudly said. "It might be dangerous for us, but it'll also be for them too!"
His little moment of hype was cut short by another, far stronger impact on the rear of the van by another one of the ATVs, followed by the gut-wrenching sound of the engine sputtering away with a loud clang. Everyone inside lurched forward from the collision. Lori tried to press down harder on the accelerator for a miracle, but the aging Vanzilla could no longer keep up as she saw the speedometer slowly get lower and lower.
"No no no no, don't you die on me now!" Lori pleaded, but no matter how many times she slammed her foot, the engine kept getting weaker. "C'mon!"
"We're slowing down! Why are we slowing down?!" Lola screeched.
Another hit, this time from the right side. The ATV remained at on Vanzilla's side, paint and metal screeching as the two vehicles scraped each other. Lori managed to swerve a little and get the SUV to back off, but the damage was done.
"Lori, what's happening?!"
"It's the engine! That last big hit must have knocked it out! I literally can't get it to keep going!" Lori exclaimed in a panic as she still kept trying to find a little bit of power from the dying Vanzilla, repeatedly putting her foot on the gas.
At the back of the van, the mentioning of power made Luna glance down to her clenched fist and the small bolts of lightning that jolted out of her hand. She remembered the words that Lisa had said about her superpower, how it was a constant current of extremely powerful energy that came from inside of her, one that she could control just like her siblings. Just like Lincoln had done. A rather innovative idea came to Luna, a gamble on her part that just might be the solution they needed. If Vanzilla needed more power, then her family need look no further than their rockstar sister.
"Guys! GUYS!" Luna shouted as she managed to shove herself forward to get between Lori and Leni. "Don't you dudes remember? We've got powers, and we can use them! And as for that little problem we've got, just count on me!"
Luna raised her right hand, coated in that purple-white static of her's, and slammed it into the van's dashboard followed by a loud thundercrack. Amazingly, Luna could feel the lightning-like energy coursing through her flowing into the heart of Vanzilla straight to the van's aged engine, giving it all the juice it needed and more. Unfortunately, the energy output of loudest Loud proved to be a bit too much power that she had given. The moment the old van's engine came back to life, fueled by the newfound energy of Luna's hypercharge, Vanzilla blasted forward in a burst of unbelievable neck-breaking speed. The van itself lurched up slightly like a hot rod, tires squealing against the tarmac as the now-superpowered Loud family van easily left the many Starwatch ATVs that were chasing them in the dust, both literally and figuratively.
If they looked outside, they may have noticed that Vanzilla's wheels were also covered with the same lightning that was coming out of Luna as it slammed back down.
"Um, did everyone else see that?" One of the befuddled agents behind the wheel of an ATV wondered into the radio.
"WOOHOO! Nice one, Luna!" Lynn cheered.
"Awesome lightning there, sis!"
"Sweet! We're losing them!" Lana looked behind to see the shrinking images of the Starwatch vehicles.
Not everyone was as joyous, however.
"Significant obstacle incoming at twelve-o'-clock!" Lisa managed to shout over the engine and her sister's cheers.
"LUNA! Cool it! We're going too fast!" Lori struggled to maintain the power as she saw the speedometer beginning to push the triple digits. Thanks to the increased speed they had reached the abandoned factories far quicker than she was prepared for, easily bounding over untouched roads. Adding to Lori's horror, they were coming up on a sharp bend with a rusted glass pane in front of them and no guardrail to stop them. Lori considered using the brakes, but she knew it would be useless to try.
"O-Oh shit!" Luna ducked behind the dash once she noticed the wall of glass in front of them.
"Oh my god, we're gonna crash!" Leni shrieked, shielding her eyes.
Vanzilla smashed through the glass like a bullet, leaving behind a multitude of thin scratches along the screen and gaining a split-second moment of airtime before landing on the floor of the factory. Lori nearly smacked her head on the steering wheel but managed to keep the van steady. She sharply spun the wheel to the left, letting the van spin around in a long U-turn to get out of the factory and back on to the road, the wheels of Vanzilla peeling out on the tile floor in a cloud of white smoke.
From the same entrance hole came the ATVs, still on the trail of the Loud kids. They just narrowly missed colliding head-on with the van, which was now going the opposite direction from them at high speed. They quickly turned around as fast as they could, some smashing into old rotting containers as their tires kicked up smoke and dirt.
"Ooh, that was close!" Lincoln whistled.
"C'mon Lori, let's go!" Luan added on, hoping to invigorate her sister.
Racing between steel beams, the van busted through a chain-link fence, emerging back into the outside world as Lori continued to drive through the weed-strewn pavement of the factory line, still pursued by the relentless forces of Starwatch behind them closing the distance. The sound of a helicopter rushing overhead got their attention just in time to see a small black chopper line itself up with a helmeted agent sitting on the outside door wielding a heavy-duty sniper rifle, which was aimed right at them.
"They've got a freaking helicopter now?! Who are these guys?" Lynn shouted as she tugged on her hair.
"Take the shot! Aim for the driver!" Vassallo's voice echoed through the man's helmet radio. With no civilians around, shooting was now fair game. The agent squeezed the trigger and fired several shots, each one easily piercing through the van's already weakened front window.
"Take cover!" Lori shouted as she leaned down as far as she could as the bullets whizzed past them. Her siblings did the same, with Lisa noticing that one of the "bullets" had dropped below her seat, only to find out that they were not bullets at all. She reached down to grab it, giving a quick scan with her eyes to reveal its hidden contents.
"They're not shooting us with bullets, these agents are using tranquilizer darts, loaded with powerful sedatives! They're trying to capture us!" Lisa shook the dart in her hand as Vanzilla sped underneath the helicopter onto another road with the ATVs still behind them.
"Oh gee, Lisa? Really! I didn't know that!"
"Um, guys?" Leni worryingly said as she plucked out a dart that had managed to hit her shoulder. "I-I don't think... I..."
That was as far as Leni got before the sedatives kicked in, eyes rolling back and closing as the second-oldest Loud child fell straight into a deep slumber snoring like a log.
"Oh no, they got Leni!"
...
"Those agents are hunting our prey faster than we are!"
"Not for long."
As the sounds of the chase echoed below, his words were followed by the powerful rumble of a supercharged turbine engine and the flash of bright white headlights from somewhere deeper in the abandoned factories. If the humans wanted a chase, then he would give them one that they would surely remember. The time for stealth was over.
The time for hunting was now.
...
Lori found herself now racing on a long, wide straight-away road that was built between two large buildings on either side of her. The helicopter that had tagged Leni was gone for now, but those damned ATVs were relentless, even with Vanzilla's newfound speed they still kept on the chase. It only made Lori even more scared as she peered through the review mirror, still seeing the glimmer of their headlights behind her. These people were entirely dedicated to capturing them, no matter what. At the moment, she had a good space between her and the Starwatch vehicles by around a hundred feet or so.
That didn't stop some of them from still trying to take out their tires, bullets ricocheting over the cracked tarmac and shattering some of the windows as well. Lynn made sure to protect Lucy and Lincoln from the shards of broken glass before the tomboy's frustration boiled over at being so helpless.
"Alright, I'm sick of this crap!" Lynn suddenly shouted, eyes ablaze with red and yellow energy as she prepared herself to bring the fight to Starwatch. "I say we show these frickin' losers who they're dealing with!"
"Lynn's right! Let's kick their butts!" Lana eagerly said as well with fists clenched.
"No! Lana, Lynn, stay in your seats!" Lori instantly countered. "We can't risk using our powers on the road! You might wreck the van!"
"Screw that! These guys aren't backing down until we make 'em!"
"LYNN!"
"Lori, listen! They have a point!" It was Lincoln that spoke this time, now at the behest of probably his entire remaining family. "They do, and they're right! We can't just keep our heads down and hope for the best! This isn't about fighting them, it's about saving us! With our powers, we might have a chance, and you know it!"
Lincoln's words seemed to resonate deeply with the eldest sister, who looked to see that all of her sisters sans the sleeping Leni were all apparently eager to heed Lincoln's idea to defend themselves from their government agent foes. Her instincts were telling her to command him to shut up and sit down, but her heart sung a different tune. He was right, that much she knew, but the thought of losing anyone else in her family made her stomach churn.
But her little brother had a bold spirit, and so did his sisters.
"Lincoln, I-"
Unfortunately for the Loud family, and for Starwatch, something else decided to give them an answer.
[OST - 2:44]
Blasting from the upper floor of the abandoned factory to their right and landing right behind Vanzilla emerged what appeared to be a strange, sleek car of some sort, scaled down to a smaller size that caught everyone off-guard. This newcomer was shaped in the form a hybrid between what looked like a heavy-duty coupe and a hot rod, colored a myriad of metallic grays all over and built sleek for sheer speed with a sloping back end, and at the rear emerged a pair of what could only be short, conical booster exhausts. The angular front bumper showed no plate, and a thin lightbar between the bumper and the hood shined so bright that the Loud kids who were watching the rear had to shield their eyes. While the front wheels were slick and likely made for pavement, the back wheels were larger and more rugged, making it lift slightly upwards at the rear.
Even the agents of Starwatch were left completely surprised by this third party interloper, with the drivers of the lead vehicles putting their feet on the brakes, giving the sedan/hot-rod thing a good amount of space out of sheer shock. Neither side could have ever suspected that their would be a third party.
"What the hell is that?!" One of the agents cried out as the unknown car's boosters kicked in, letting out a column of blue-red flames under a screaming engine running at full power, lurching upwards at the front like a drag racer. Once it had covered some distance, putting itself between the van and the Starwatch cars, a back panel opened up at the rear of the newcomer, and from it spewed out black serrated caltrops, perfect for shredding bulky tires.
"Shit, shit! I can't stop!" Even as they tried to swerve around them, many of the Starwatch ATVs were going too fast to avoid the little metal traps. Several of them found their tires instantly ripped open upon impact. With their tires gone, many of the stricken ATVs were sent careening into the adjacent buildings and other structures, their drivers unable to control their steering as they smashed at high speeds.
"Augh, dammit! We can't get near the kids with this thing in the way!" The lead agent smacked her steering wheel in utter frustration as she and the remaining Starwatch vehicles skidded to a halt. "Everyone, pull back now! And someone get Vassallo and tell him what's going on!"
With Starwatch temporarily retreating to lick their wounds and retrieve their wrecked comrades, it was now just the Loud kids and this strange newcomer in the form of a scaled-down car in the race. And unlike the ATVs, this new vehicle was able to close the gap to the Loud van in a matter of seconds once Starwatch was gone, much to the horror of the children inside watching it. From one enemy to another, it seemed.
But to Lincoln, this was feeling eerily familiar, as this would mark the second time he was chased by a vehicle in smaller size. And if he were able to look closely, he might have seen the exact same pair of glowing yellow dots just barely managing to peek through the crystalline front window.
"Luna!" Lori shouted as she watched the car-thing through the review mirror. With that thing's speed, she needed her younger sister up and ready.
"I'm on it, dudes! Hold on to your butts, 'cuz it's gonna get wild!" The rockstar put her hypercharged hand on the dashboard again, Vanzilla rocketing to life in a blurr of white-teal speed.
But it was of little use, even with Luna's superpower helping them out. The car that was chasing them matched their pace. As Lori steered the van around a long bend in the industrial park, tires skidding loudly across the even pavement as they returned to regular empty streets on what could only be the other side of town, the car remained totally fixed on their tail. Thanks to its smaller size, it was far more nimble compared to the old and blocky Vanzilla. All Lori could do was try to keep the van ahead of it, using the van's size to block the car from getting in front of them by any means.
She swerved back and forth, hoping to stop its path. There was a part of her that knew if it did manage to somehow pass her, it would mean the end of this chase and the end of her family. Suddenly, as if it were now frustrated, the hood of the car parted open to reveal two long barrels, which were in fact cannons aimed right at the van. They fired, only not bullets but long, barbed harpoons that cleanly pierced the back of Vanzilla like a hot knife through butter. The black barbed hooks also punched through the back seats, nearly slicing Lola and Lana who let out shrieks of terror at nearly getting impaled.
"We've been hooked!" Lana shouted, earning several startled gasps.
The moment they latched in, a pair of large metal hooks emerged from the rear bumper of the vehicle and slammed them into the pavement, along with it braking just as strongly. Everyone inside the van felt the sudden slowdown, and dirt and rubble were kicked up in a heavy spray as the hooks plunged deeper into the tarmac. The moment those hooks came down, Lori saw Vanzilla's speedometer's needle slowly inch downwards, something that made her blood go cold.
"Guys! Cut those things loose! We're losing speed!"
"We're on it, Lori!"
Lincoln, Lynn, the twins and Lisa readily went to work on the harpoons to free themselves. Lola and Lynn were the first to use their powers, with the pageant girl attempting to break them with her ice in the form of an armblade while Lynn grabbed one and used her heat to melt it. Though try as they might, the metal sticks would not budge nor break as Lola found out when her blade shattered after several hits. But the kids were persistent. Lynn and Lincoln then attempted to wedge them back out the same way they came in, but there was no moving them. Lincoln nearly sliced his hand on the serrated barb, and Lola and Lana were even less successful than their older siblings.
"Move aside, siblings units!" Lisa shouted, shoving herself in front of them to deal with the harpoons herself. Her eyes glowed a soft lime as she fired equally green laser beams at the harpoons, hoping to try and slice them down to size in a small shower of sparks.
"C'mon Lisa, you can do it!" Lana cheered on her younger sister as she intensely worked. Lisa gave a grunt as she poured more of her energy into her laser-eyes. Small sparks flew where her lasers touched the gray-black metal, and Lisa felt a bead of sweat dribble down her temple.
The harpoons suddenly yanked themselves backwards, taking with it the entire rear section of Vanzilla, shredding metal and shattering glass as a large chunk of the family van was torn right open like a can of worms. At the same time, the now-freed hooks that were once lodged in the back of the van cleanly dislodged and retracted back into the strange vehicle's cannons as the scrapped piece of van was thrown aside. Lori and Luna, still up front, hung on as Vanzilla's front wheels were momentarily lifted off the ground from the force of the harpoons. While Lynn and Lincoln were able to hop back over to the middle row, Lisa and the twins barely had enough time to grab hold of something close by, lest they were turned to roadkill.
"What was that?!" Lori shrieked. Luna glanced back to check out what happened.
"Our car's been busted open, dude!"
"LISA!" Lincoln cried out as he looked on to see Lisa clinging on to the floor of the van for dear life. "Lisa, hold on! Someone grab Lola and Lana!"
"Rescue would be most appreciated, dear siblings!"
"HEEEELP!" Lola wailed as she and Lana held to the remains of the back seat.
"I've got them!" Lucy emerged from behind the sole brother with staff in hand. With a wave of magic, two circles made of purple light wrapped around the torsos of Lola and Lana and quickly levitated them towards the safety of their siblings. Once they were close enough, Lynn grabbed Lola while Lana was snagged by Lucy. At the same time, Lincoln reached as far as he could to grab Lisa's tiny outstretched hand.
"Thank you, thank you Lucy!" Lola gasped as she hugged her older sister.
"Almost...! There! I got you, Lisa!" Lincoln said once he was able to grab Lisa's hand with his own. With a strong yank, he was able to safely bring her into his arms and out of danger. "You good, Lisa?"
"I've had worse days." Lisa calmly said with a smile on her face, relieved that she was rescued by her brother.
Their relief, however, was about to be short-lived.
In the rush to save their siblings, the superpowered children had almost completely forgotten about their vehicular pursuer, who had now been graced with more open and clearer view of the Louds after the rear of the van had been torn open. From where it was, just under twenty feet away or so, a scan of the damaged van and its occupants showed several good targets to choose, primarily the three youngest at the back who were currently preoccupied with trying not to fall. For now, they would be the best options. Once the harpoon guns were retracted back into its armor-plated hood, another larger cannon shifted up from the hood, this time at the center just below the cerulean glass window. It was wide and blocky, coupled with three targeting lasers on the tip of the rectangular barrel.
And those three lasers were aimed directly at Lisa, the youngest of the group.
Once they were aligned with the back of the youngest sister the cannon fired, this time instead of a pair of harpoons, out came a bulky, lassoed metal claw with four heavyset fingers ready to catch its desired prey. Lisa felt something big and heavy hit her, followed by the claw immediately wrapping its clunky fingers around her juvenile body, and then yanked her away from Lincoln, the claw-lasso slinging her through the air to the shock of her family.
"LISA!" They all shouted.
"Help! Somebody help me!" The youngest screamed, flailing her little limbs as the claw retracted back to the vehicle. More metal shifted around the midsection of the vehicle and the glass panel retracted backwards to reveal that it created its own internal holding cell, filled with bright lights and small screens. All they could do was hopelessly watch as Lisa was taken inside, the poor girl slammed down on the warm metal interior with little care. Try as she might, her strength could not save her, nor could her powers as well after a bolt of red lightning struck her in the chest from a front panel. She let out a soft grunt from its swift sting, and she could feel her great powers start to ebb once it was over.
To Lisa, it was more chilling evidence that whoever or whatever this was had come prepared, knowing full-well of the fact that she had superpowers. And as quickly as she was taken from them, the metal and glass began to steadily shift back into their original positions, leaving the last thing for her to see was the horror-stricken looks on the faces of her siblings. Lisa tried once again to free herself, but to no avail.
With one last, desperate cry before the car fully enveloped her, Lisa called out to the one person she trusted most of all.
"LINCOLN!"
The glass window and metal plating finally returned to their original shape, shutting off Lisa from the outside world and her family in a mix of darkness and neon light. With the little scientist now secure in its metallic clutches, the vehicle's powerful engine gave another roar as it sharply veered to the right and took off down a dirt trail, now abandoning the chase with its human bounty as it left the remaining horror-stricken Louds in a cloud of dust and smoke.
"What's going on! What happened?!" Lori shouted to the people behind her.
"It took her! That thing took Lisa!" Lola shrieked an answer, still utterly stunned. Up front, Lori felt her eyes widen and her stomach drop as another one of her sisters had been stolen from them, and she was helpless to stop it.
"What do you mean it took her?!"
"Lisa's gone! That car shot out a claw and it took her, Lori! We need to go back for her!" Lincoln scrambled up closer to the eldest sister. "Turn the van around!"
"Turn around, are you crazy?!"
"We can't just leave her to that thing! What if it hurts her? She needs our help!" Lincoln felt like he was on the verge of tears. Having his sisters taken from his was one thing, but hearing her cry out for him as she was kidnapped was another that hurt him on a very personal level. Lori was no different, but as much as it hurt her, she could not risk going back for Lisa. Not without putting her other sisters and him in danger.
"Lincoln, you can't just-!"
[OST - 4:01]
From out of nowhere, something big and heavy smashed into the left side of Vanzilla, shattering glass and crumpling the aluminum driver's door of the van. Caught completely off-guard, the poor kids inside who were still reeling from the loss of one of their own were knocked around from the impact, with Lincoln landing on Lynn's lap while Lori spun the wheel as hard as she could, doing her best to regain control of the speeding van from spinning out of control. Vanzilla clipped the sidewalk, knocking down a parking meter and a phone booth before Lori was able to course-correct just before she hit a parked truck.
"Vanzilla can't take much more of this, guys! She's not made for demolition derbies!" Lana said as the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree.
Looking over, their attacker was none other than the return of Vassallo and his Starwatch goons in their heavy SUVs, numbering at least half a dozen more. In his lead car, the Major looked more incensed than ever as he glared evenly at the Louds.
"Oh great, our friends are back!" Luan rolled her eyes.
"Not these guys again!"
"Their van's nearly totaled! Finish it off and we can bag 'em and end this!" Vassallo barked another order over the radio. From where he sat, he could see the sheer damage that the van had suffered. Thanks to the hit, Luna was knocked backwards into the middle row, and Vanzilla was now back to normal speeds which Starwatch was already taking advantage of. Another SUV rolled up to the other side of Vanzilla opposite of Vassallo with more agents ready and willing under Vassallo's command. Several of them readied rifles and aimed at the wheels of the van, only to have their weapons suddenly knocked out of their grasps from a strong gust of air. The stupefied agents looked around to see Lincoln leaning out one of the windows, his hand enwrapped with swirling cool wind.
"Nice shot, bro!" Lynn cheered as she followed Lincoln's example and used her own powers as well, unleashing a blast of flame right out of her mouth at the tires of the Starwatch SUV, sending it careening into a ditch.
"Holy-! I didn't know you could do that Lynn!" Lincoln exclaimed.
"Neither did I!"
That was just one SUV out of several, and they had got them by surprise and luck. Lori knew this as she peered through the review mirror, seeing the black trucks and even the helicopter behind her. Already more were gaining on them, and It was only a matter of time before Vanzilla kicked the bucket with them in it, leaving them at the mercy of these agents. One of the SUVs managed to reach the shredded rear of Vanzilla and gave a strong bump to the back. Several lingering pieces and the muffler came flying off, and the engine let out a loud clanging noise.
"That was our line shaft, guys!" Lana shouted, recognizing where that noise came from.
"We're not gonna last much longer like this." Lori said to herself as the van slowly fell to pieces. Another hit like that and she was sure that the van would be totaled with them inside and at the mercy of these agents. A quick peek at her younger brother through the mirror again reminded her that he could fly, which gave her an idea.
"Lincoln, you need to fly out of here! And don't argue with me on this, mister!" Lori commanded. Lincoln looked aghast at what she said, but she continued. "I know this sounds awful, but if all of us stay in Vanzilla then they're literally just going to pick us off one by one until all of us are gone, but if you escape then there's a fighting chance that we can save our family! So please, you have to go! While they're still focused on trying to wreck the van! Lynn, go with him!"
Both brother and sister shared a look. Lincoln knew that he and Lynn were the only fliers of the family, so they had an advantage the both of them could easily use whenever. It felt so wrong of him to consider leaving his family behind, but there was a bit of truth in Lori's words. The agents chasing them only had one helicopter at the moment, and were mainly using ground-based vehicles. If he flew off, it would grant him a serious time advantage, but at the cost of having to put his sisters in more risk.
"But Lori-!" Lynn sputtered.
"Lynn, I'm not asking you. I'm ordering you as your big sister. Now go, both of you."
"B-But... where would I go? How can I find you?" Lincoln tried to argue, but how calmly his sisters were looking at him made them die in his throat. Above all, he wanted to stay with them, to defend his sisters to the end if need be. It was his own fault that they were stuck in this situation in the first place, so it was only right for him to fix it as well for his sake and his family's. But despite them not saying a word, Lincoln knew that they were once again placing their trust and hope in him, and no matter how much it hurt him to leave, he was honor-bound by such strong love. And as he thought it over, Lori was correct. If he stayed, then he was in danger of getting captured himself, just like Lisa.
"The city. Great Lakes City. We'll try to meet you there if we can, no matter how hard the road might get. You can do this, Lincoln. We believe in you." Lori answered ever-softly to her younger brother, her words teeming with grace. She could sense and see the reluctance in him, so a little encouragement might be strong enough to get him going. If Lincoln could make it, then there was still a little hope left for them.
"You got this, little dude. You get out there and spread the word that a storm's comin' their way!" Luna added on.
"The spirits say that this will be your defining journey, Lincoln. I wish you the best of luck." Lucy also said.
"Yeah! Kick some tail, bro!" Lana whooped. Lola opted to remain silent, but had a smile on her face.
Lincoln swallowed his pride once the words of his sisters sank in him. There was no talking his way out of this, and no going back. With one final look at his sisters, praying that it would not be the last time he would ever see them, Lincoln resolved himself to his newest duty. With a good amount of inner strength, the sole brother of the Loud family steeled his wavering nerves and leaped out of the open window with a yup and took off soaring as fast as he could, the air whistling in his ears as he flew. Behind him was Lynn, following her brother in a trail of red-yellow fire that swallowed her lower half as she blasted away like a rocket under the searing thunder of her plasma flames.
In truth, the jock didn't even know that she could fly as well, but apparently Lori either guessed right or knew all along. She counted it as a tiny blessing on this long day as she and her brother flew off to safe grounds, wherever that might be.
[OST - End]
"Major, two of the kids just bailed. One of them was the boy. Should we follow them, or keep pursuing these ones?" The voice on Vassallo's radio asked while the Major kept a sharp eye on the pair that just decided to leave the chase. For some odd reason, he knew the boy was going to be the biggest problem along with that other flying sister of his. These kids weren't just going to lay down and accept their fate, Vassallo knew this well.
"Negative. I'll send an alert to HQ, tell them to send in the big guns. I'll go after those two later with more reinforcements. These kids are far more powerful than we thought. We keep on the van for now." Vassallo evenly responded, reigning in his temper at the moment. The boy and his sister would not get far, not with the reach that the American government had over their own soil, so he had some relief in that. Right now, he would remained focused on the targets that he could manage in front of him.
"So, where are we going now that we're down to just seven of us?" Lola had to ask as she watched her older brother and sister soar off into the distant sky back in the van.
"There." Lori said with a triumphant smile as they turned another corner, avoiding a semi truck.
Before them was the two-lane county bridge connecting Royal Woods to its neighboring town of Hazeltucky, a large concrete structure that spanned the wide and deep blue river below. It was often a good spot the locals used for fishing and other recreational things, but thankfully at the moment it was deserted.
"The country bridge? What for?"
"You'll see. Still got some charge for us, Luna?" Lori asked.
"Got one more in me, mate." The rockstar grinned, flexing a lightning-coated fist.
"Good. Lucy, how strong is your magic?"
"Very." Lucy accented her point with a flash of blue-purple light emanating from the crystal ball at the top of her staff.
"Okay, here's the plan. The moment I'm halfway Luna, you shock the engine back up and zoom us over. And Lucy, use whatever magic you've got to form a barricade behind us, or something. Anything to stop these jerks cold." Lori said as the distance between them and the bridge got closer and closer. At the same time, Vassallo and his men were steadily inching the distance, just about a hundred feet away. The Major readied his weapon, unwilling to accept a missed shot this time.
"Ready?"
Luna prepared herself, raising her hand just above the dashboard while Lucy hopped over from the middle row of the van to the back and leveled her staff to point it at the Starwatch vehicles with a barrier spell in mind. The befuddled Vassallo noticed this and leaned forward to check if he was seeing things correctly.
"Does that girl have a staff?"
"NOW!"
At Lori's word, Luna drew what little was left inside of her and slammed her palm on the damaged dashboard, sending Vanzilla back up to the triple digits on the speedometer as Lori put the petal to the metal. And at the back, Lucy's staff glowed brightly as she attempted to conjure a barrier of magic in order to stop Starwatch. To her surprise, her magic proved to be slightly too powerful as instead of a wall, a brilliant explosion of purple-blue fire erupted at the center of the bridge, collapsing the central structure and sending chunks of concrete and steel plummeting into the waters below.
"Brake! BRAKE!" Vassallo shouted, and the driver immediately smashed his foot on the brake in a panic. The SUVs skidded along the tarmac until they made a complete stop at the last second, just barely avoiding falling off the ruined edge of the now-ruined bridge. Some of the vans behind them wound up colliding with each other as well. Spooked by the explosion as well, the Starwatch helicopter diverted away to avoid the blast and raining concrete rubble.
Back in the van, Lucy gave her staff a rather astonished look. She knew her arcane powers was strong, but nothing could have prepared her for that. And that was supposed to be a barrier as well. Lucy could not help but internally wonder just how powerful her magic truly was.
"What was that?" Lori wondered, hoping that whatever just happened was a good thing for once.
"Um," Lana scratched the back of her head, "Your plan kinda worked, sis! They're gone! But Lucy might have blown up the bridge by accident."
Fed up and utterly exhausted with the day she was having, Lori simply no longer cared to yell at her sister for doing something so insane.
"Oh, of course she did. Buckle up, everyone. It's going to be a long drive." Lori said as she drove off straight towards the Great Lake City with the functioning remains of Vanzilla and her family. With any luck on their side, Lincoln and Lynn would be there as well.
Meanwhile, Vassallo stomped his way out of the passenger door to watch as the Loud kids made a complete getaway, leaving him and his strike squad in the dust. He had to admit, it was a good plan that they pulled off in using the bridge as a bottleneck and a stopgap, but it still annoyed him greatly that they had escaped. He had promised his men a clean operation, but today had gone anything but smoothly. The home of the Loud family had been destroyed by some unknown means, either by the very kids he was attempting to capture or another way, and he only had one of the children in custody, which was just the baby. One out of eleven.
A rough day for him and the reputation of Starwatch. His fellow agents were also getting out of their cars to talk with each other, wondering what had happened.
"Sir!" One of them stepped forward to hand Vassallo a GPS tracker tablet. "You might want to hear about this, but our bandits got taken out by an unknown assailant during the chase, totaled some of them. No casualties, thankfully. We're rounding them up as we speak."
"Unknown? Are you saying that we're not the only ones after those kids?" Vassallo could not hide the astonishment in his voice.
"I don't know what it was, sir. I don't know."
Alarmed by this newfound fact that Starwatch was no longer alone in this venture, Vassallo stared off into the distant visage of the disappearing van, wondering what else was in store for him and his agency in the coming days. But perhaps he already did, his mind turning back to when they had detected that unknown interstellar object all those weeks before, wondering if there might just be a connection between the two.
...
Further away, Lisa was still as terrified as ever as she was lead away to an unknown location while inside the unknown and unmanned vehicle. She had no idea of where she was going, cut off from the outside world, only feeling the occasional bump in the terrain. This vehicle she was in was certainly advanced, very high-tech as she was figuring out, but it was still a machine in nature, perhaps some sort of remote-controlled robot utilized by the agency that had been chasing her. It did not help that the scant amount of room there was inside of the car was already becoming claustrophobic for the little tyke. She realized struggling was pointless at this point, and decided that it would be smarter to conserve her energy for what lie ahead than waste it by trying to break out of such strong bonds that held her in place.
"Who are you?" Lisa had to ask. "What do you want with me and my family?"
No response, which completely irritated Lisa to no end.
"Answer me! Ugh! I demand that you answer me for such an abhorrent act as to steal me away from my sibling units! I'll have you know that I am fully aware of my rights as a citizen of this country! My name is out there!"
The vehicle suddenly came to a dead stop. Lisa, fearing that she may have angered it, then opted to stay quiet in the face of potential harm. But nothing happened other than the lingering, near-oppressive silence other her own steady breathing. Then she heard it; the sound of footsteps coming from the outside, and they were getting closer too. Boots scraping over gravel. Lisa guessed that it had to have been the controller or operator behind this machine, and so she braced for an encounter.
Lisa had to shut her eyes after the metal hull began to open itself up again with the sun shining in her face. She slowly parted open her superpowered optics to see who it was, and felt a sharp gasp escape her mouth once she was able to see the shadowy silhouette of what appeared to be a person looming over her. Though, upon a closer look, this being was certainly not human by any standards. It was evidently female with those curves and chest, but coupled with glowing green-yellow eyes that stared down at the little girl, and Lisa felt her stomach go cold at seeing the wide grin on her that sported a pearly white array of razor-sharp teeth.
Certainly not human at all. She was something else.
"Y-You're not... w-who, what are you?" Lisa stammered, almost too shocked to say anything.
"Well, well. Look who we've got here, Fell." This feminine entity said in a smug manner, carrying an unknown accent in her voice as she leaned further down, crossing her arms and putting her foot on the hood of the car as she got closer to the increasingly terrified Lisa Loud. From the way she was acting, it was almost like she enjoyed spooking the trapped tyke.
"Hi there, girl. You must be Lisa Loud, then." She said directly to Lisa this time, her grin growing to show off more teeth. "Such a shame your brother ran off. So, it looks like you're our, how do you people phrase it, first catch of the day."
It was right then, at that very moment it dawned on Lisa that everything had gone from bad to so much worse.