July 24th, 2030 - One Hour After Clone War

An ambulance had arrived, picked up the body from the orphanage, bagged and tagged in a black body bag and placed in the back, shaking about while the stretcher rattled about as the vehicle drove at a regular forty back to the hospital. Male driver, female passenger, and the third staff unit, male, handled the stretcher, ensuring it didn't go smacking against the sides or make a mess around.

"Sheesh," the handler in the blue-green uniform frowned to his co-workers, "this poor kid, what kind of barbarian shoots a child like this?"

"Rumors going around that this is the work of phenos," the woman paramedic shared like gossip. "Friend at the precinct told me some packing units dressed like SWAT units were driving around Royal Woods hunting for someone. I'd get it if it were Feds, but not Rhode guys, and there's even some footage online. These things they drove around in, they're unlike anything I've ever seen."

"You had me at phenos, Kayla," the driver laughed. "Phenos in Royal Woofs, that's funny..."

"Do you two watch the news?" The backseat medic asked firmly. "We'll?"

"I work so much overtime, barely enough time to feed my young," the woman named Kayla groaned. "Might as well tell me, Kevin."

"The twin girls, the fast-moving phenos in New York are legit... Both born and raised right here in Royal Woods. There's not just that, but more out there, more about their family. There's a blog that contains every piece of knowledge-"

Something rammed into the ambulance, causing it to sway out of control. The driver tried to center it back on the road, doing his hardest to steer straight, and when he couldn't do that, he applied the brakes hard. "HANG ON!"

The ambulance skidded sideways, and then flipped on its right, scraping along the road for several feet before screeching to a halt. "Kevin?!"

"I'm- I'm fine, Mike!" Kevin huffed. "Head's bleeding, but not too serious!"

Mike recovered, sitting up cautiously while rubbing his own head. "Agh, that fucking hurt! Hold on, I'm gonna get you out-"

"Man, that's wrong! Call for backup!"

"Uh... Right-" Whatever had knocked the heavyweight vehicle on its side came charging back, ramming right into the ambulance. This made the downed emergency vehicle skid ten feet more, knocking poor Mike back down once more, falling over Lupa's bagged body. "SHIT!"

Very briefly, he had heard glass shatter as the ride had begun again, adding to his natural fear. Once it was over, Mike got real spooked to get up. "Hey, Kev! Kev, did you see anything?!"

"N-n-no!" Kevin replied from the front, shaken up. "It's an animal, gotta be!"

"Bullshit-" Mike went dead silent when thumps went off from outside. No, above their heads. Soft, but clear clanks against the cab.

Kevin looked to the side mirror on Kayla's side, making out a silhouette that stood on the ambulance, moving graciously closer. "Oh, God! M-M-Mike, I see someone! There is someone there!"

"A person?! Hang on, don't move-" Mike felt a nefarious force in the air that he couldn't explain. The essence reeked of foul play, detectable by his holy sixth sense. "I'm pulling out my-"

"He- He just disappeared..." Kevin slowed his breath to listen outside. The footsteps went dead, no figure reflecting on the mirror. "Kayla? Kayla-"

The force outside yanked off the passenger door off its hinges, it now fully visible to the driver. The figure was concealed under a long, black cloak from head to toe, a good hiding the being's face, with a comedy theatrical mask in white, the eyes and mouth painted bright red. This was a dark entity of the supernatural world, a practitioner and sorcerer of the darkest magical arts, the malevolent Mister Madness, in all his creepy, unsettling glory.

"MIKE!" Kevin let out a terrified scream, flaring up the sadism in the vicious fiend. Mister Madness dropped down, reaching the two front paramedics like a shroud of shadows coming down, touching upon their skin and engulfing over them. Mike shuddered his breath, frozen stiff and unsure what to make of it. In seconds of losing visual of them, sounds of flesh being sliced, with quite a few muffled screams, had made his heart jump out of place once it had gone beating to the max. The feat paralyzed him, keeping him a statue. The looming shadow went away, leaving behind a mess of gory chunks of human remains in his wake, and the decapitated head of the female paramedic rolled its way to Mike through diabolic means, stopping right at feet's length. And it began to talk to him.

"Don't worry, sweetie pie..." It was her, in her normal voice, but only colder and calmer. "He will make it fast... He will kill you-" The head opened its mouth wide, emitting a black cloud that flooded out, as well aa through the eyes, which also send blood leaking from all three exit points. The cloud itself formed a face, the face of the deadly menace, theatrical mask forming clearly in view. And the voice changed from the woman's to that of the devil himself. "Very fast!"

Mike's only scream inside would be the last one he'd ever let rip in the air before the maniacal Mister Madness slaughtered him. Now there was no one left to tell what had occurred tonight, and the body of the dead clone, which had an aura of supernatural presence around, never fading, had now belonged to the sinister fiend for the taking. This corpse, he knew the smell of, and it was one such smell hw would not ignore. It seemed Lucy Loud, the young girl under his rival's wing, had either a sister or a daughter, definitely one of those. The blood was the same, the chi was the same, and when he ripped the body bag to see Lupa's face, it was equal to Lucy's own, save for the hair color that wasn't black. And if anyone could resurrect and pit this unknown girl related to Lucy, it could only be Mister Madness.

Act III: Further Into Darkness, Chapter VII: The Expelled

July 25th, 2030

Lucy tracked a couple of devilish little runts known as the Hellves to a steel mill at the edge of a rural town in the northern part of the state Ohio. The murders these ghouls left behind fit all the right markings to only be them. Ripped up body parts, a weird acidic formula left around at the scenes, and tiny bite marks on specific areas, serving as natural Hellve tradition, and what was more, the eyes on all victims were nabbed and used as playthings.

So when Lucy came across a fuckton of eyeballs scattered among the catwalks of the mill, she knew she was in the right place.

The Hellves certainly loved their preferred choice of housing; cold and ancient, and if whenever possible, vacant. This specific steel mill went abandoned since the sixties, locked away from the public and never put in its intended use, apart from a couple of folks coming down every now and then, years at a time.

Hellves, tiny demons of three feet long, green skin, nasty claws and sets of teeth, pointy ears and eyes a very cold yellow. These imps were troublemakers, all laugh and insane strength, possibly to compensate for their height. The only one way to kill them proved a hard way; their only weakness ever to date happened to be destroying their eyes, proving to be fair game for sharpshooters, and Lucy could... If the clowning demons weren't so hyperactive and jumpy.

But tactics were unlimited on her, and being a demon hunter for a few years had made her past a recruit. She came here with a carton pack of beer bottles, only, they weren't just ant random beer bottles. The huntress had brought Molotovs to the party. She placed one down in separate catwalks as she made her way upward. Hidden underneath her black cloaked attire was a rope attached to a hookline. From there, she attached it to the railing of the highest catwalk, throwing the rope over the side.

The place was dark, only dimly visible, and if she could barely see, then so could the Hellves, not that she knew how their eyesight worked. To top it all off, Lucy pulled out her two trusty handguns, heavy Desert Eagles out, and for one of them, she cocked the gun twice, with the first bullet sliding out of the chamber, falling out and disappearing below. It made a clank, echoing through the area, bringing out the stirring of the devils, all ready to play with the source of the sound emitted. Plan was simple enough; lure them to the Molotovs, rope down and shoot them off as she returned down. Easier said than done.

The Hellves behaved just like monkeys in the jungle, prancing around as if they were doing a ritual, gathering on behalf of the bullet. A total of up to twenty of them by what Lucy had been able to tell, enough to make it quite a task tonight.

"I smell blood...!"

"Terrethian flesh! Terrethian among us!"

"PLAYTIME, PLAYTIME!"

Multiple voices, all high-pitched and squeaky just enough to be cartoonish at most. Then, things kicked off as Lucy heard them climbing up as a mob. "Up there, I sense a plaything!"

"Bottle! Bottle?"

Lucy aimed for the closest Molotov on the ground when four of the monsters approached it and explored their curiosity. She missed, but her second round had hit the explosive, blowing up and setting the four ablaze. They screamed, cries of terror not like a human, but something along the lines of a cross between an elephant and a balloon deflating, going all over the place.

If that didn't get their attention... "Up here! Come and get me!" Lucy continued unloading her handgun before she emptied out the clip. Dropping that gun, she replaced it with the one her left hand occupied, and climbed over the railing, roping herself down as enough of the remaining monsters reached her traps. Lucy hated this part, where her hand would meet friction and burn a painful hot on her palm. It was necessary, no matter how painful it would be. Lucy signed up for scars and injuries, even being around some nasty potions and enchanted objects here and there.

She gripped the rope hard while repelling down, shooting at the remaining Molotovs planted, taking down groups of Hellves, sending them back down to planet earth, screeching inhumanely. Lucy unloaded the rest of the clip onto the stragglers, wounding them. Feet set on ground, and Lucy had taken down eleven of the insidious creatures, bringing the remaining ones back down. "Here!"

One-handedly, Lucy brought a survival knife to the party, holding it in front of her. One Hellve came at her like a cannon, but not too fast to be missed by her knife swings. She slammed the hideous goblin to the ground, stabbing it in both eyes. After this fast kill, the final batch of the demons came jumping down, surrounding Lucy, closing in on her. Last resort being played here, Lucy set her hands behind her, moving back slowly. She pulled the pin on the grenade, let it cook before she rolled it forward and threw herself further back.

The grenade caught the Hellves in range and obliterated them in one fell swoop, quickly ending the chain of deadly murders in the area. Lucy looked over and saw the burning remains, then carefully got up. Apart from her hand, she had not been injured gravely, a new personal best for her. She was happy for herself, and just as it had started, there was a very special guest to take it away from her.

Mister Madness, a deadly force whose name was whispered under the dark of night, in the coldest places, with fear marinated into the voices of the troubled souls familiar with the fiend. There he was, in a long, dark cloak and the mask the handsome Ray Robertson had described to Lucy. Her meeting him now, on this night made her feel pretty stupid, considering she was out of weapons, dependant on only the survival knife stained with Hellve blood.

"The legendary demon huntress came to play..." The cloak he bore distorted and stretched out of place, proving the fact that it had a mind of its own. "So..."

The wiggling, sentient cloak shot forward, expanding to reach Lucy. It grabbed her arms and legs, tightly binding her. Lucy strained hard, throwing grunts around in her valiant effort to break free, but her new opponent proved stronger than her, and no way in hell could she beat him here. She waa disarmed of the blade in her hand, only to have it returned to her, lodged right in her chest. "Urgh!"

Mister Madness lunged forward, dark robes opening up like a large sheet. One second, he was a human-shaped shadow, and in a mere blink of an eye, he became a floating blanket of some sort, rushing to wrap around her.

Lucy tightened her body and face, prepared for a hellish storm. She closed her eyes, teeth gritting away hard as the fire from her Molotovs were blocked out, placing her right in the sinister fiend's net. If the world wasn't dark enough...

Elsewhere

Lucy swam upwards from what she assumed was an ocean somewhere during the nightly hours. A light illuminating over a small opening paved the way for her exit. She wasn't a great swimmer, but found that diving upwards was easier for some off reason. Coming out of the ocean, Lucy looked around to see that she was in the middle of the road, and she had just surfaced from an actual puddle. Climbing up and taking breaths of air, Lucy noticed her surroundings; the world was barren in the most depressing way, everything gray of different tones. The sky wasn't that of a raincloud-gray, but of a dusty, smoky gray, as if a thousand explosions had gone off and blotted out the sky with its rising layers of dust. It was a dead place Lucy did not want to be in, such a place where she was in the middle of nowhere, except for the narrow road and an old house in front of her.

Not just any house, but a deader version of the old house on Franklin Avenue, the one and only Loud house. The house that greeted her by opening its front door to her, welcoming her in the most unsettling way possible. Lucy had arrived with no weapon to this place, which made her feel somewhat naked and vulnerable. Most of her had the right thoughts, telling her to turn the other way and run like hell, and that tiny piece that didn't was saying that the house would literally be the only thing in miles from what she could be able to tell.

And she ran, turning tail to a hard run, only to see the house somehow appear the other direction, and looking over her shoulder to the original place, the house had indeed teleported. "Fuck."

Again, the house opened up its door, giving Lucy no choice but to wander inside, venturing into the unknown territory. She climbed up the porch steps, casually entering the old house with no fear on her, not just yet. Her footsteps made and left a trail of creams until she passed through the doorway, coming into the living room, set the way she could barely remember. There was the couch on her left, coffee table in front of it, as well as the flatscreen right next to her, perched in the same place it had always been. The nice round carpet in front of the stairs, just like old times. Even the fireplace from the chimney, all was there. All of it, and yet, it was empty. No living soul, no signs of anyone of the Loud family. Not until she looked up the stairs, noticing a sudden shadow swoosh from left to right. She didn't jump, but stopped to look closely. "Hello?"

"Welcome home, Lucy!" It sounded like Lynn's voice, unmistakable by the pitch and tone. Lynn, or what was a creature playing as her in disguise, lured Lucy upstairs. "Hey... Hey, baby sister, could you help me clean up?"

The front door shut on itself, and when Lucy turned to look, she found it barricaded by a brick wall. This place did not want her to leave, apparently. She prepared for the worst, focusing back up the stairs, finding a skeleton version of Lynn right in her face. It gave Lucy enough of a fright, knocking her off balance. The empty eye sockets of Lynn's skull had a centipede move about from one to another. The white bottom jaw on her was loose, barely able to weld shut. "Hi, Lucy... We miss you."

"Lynn-" Lucy shook her head, taking a gentle step away from Lynn-Skeleton. "No, you can't be-"

Lynn-Skeleton blew up, blinding Lucy with a nice spray of red blood to her eyes. Lucy choked on the blood and quickly wiped her eyes, squinting carefully when she opened them. And where the dead Lynn had just been, only a pile of bones remained. Lucy stuttered and bent down to grab the skull, picking it up firmly. She stared at it, hoping to actually hear Lynn's voice, for her to talk again in this body-less state. Nothing, Lynn-Skeleton said nothing.

Lucy looked away, letting the skull drop back down. She could never find herself saying it, but to hear the jock's voice again, it was wholesome and nostalgic. "Lynn..."

"Is this pain in your heart I can smell, huntress?" Mister Madness appeared atop the stairs, descending towards Lucy. "Do you long for it? Do you miss your filthy family, my sweets?"

"Where am I?!" Lucy charged at the demonic sorcerer. "Get me out!"

The cloaked figure swooshed down and sent her flying back hard to the ground. "Where do you think you are, girlie?" He pinned her on all fours, mask poking her pale, angry face. "Are you riled up yet?"

The theatrical mask suddenly began sticking to her as if it had turned into a form of sticky, oozing substance, blending with her face and horribly inflicting a burn to the skin it made contact with. Lucy wailed out with blood-curdling agony, drowned out by the covering of her mouth. The mask had formed over her face, silencing and blocking her air passageway. Her limbs reacted by flipping around, frantic ij those final moments of her life when it had become too apparent that she was dying mercilessly at the hands of Mister Madness. "Mmmm$! Mmmm! Mm mm..."

"You are in my world now..." The maniac snapped out of her, jumping away with the mask peeling off her entire face, creating a faceless Lucy with her flesh visible, blood dripping down to her neck. "I'll take that."

"Y-YOU BASTARD-" Lucy felt like she received a series of bee stings, followed by a violent blizzard that kissed her face. It irritated her like crazy, driving her to touch it and start the pain cycle anew. "AGH!".

Behind him, a pair of silhouettes came to his side. "I think its best to introduce me to your folks, wouldn't you say?"

The burnt corpses of her late parents weren't recognized right away until they both spoke. "Honey, who is your special guest?" This was Rita Loud talking.

"He seems like a real stand-up guy," the fake Lynn Loud Sr added in.

"Heh..." Mister Madness was awfully enjoying himself, happily feeding off Lucy's traumatic past. "Such good parents, it's almost quite a shame they died."

Lucy whispered, "No," hissing away to get through the nasty face gore. "G-go fuck-"

Her parents shrieked repulsively, suddenly turning into mindless beasts, stampeding at Lucy. They had become literal zombies, leaping on their demon huntress of a daughter, knocking her down ans sinking their rusty nail-like teeth into her face and devouring. It felt too real, too vicious in the sensation, and Lucy broke like this. Broke with the image of her parents actually attacking and eating away at her flesh. And then, while her flesh was being picked apart, she focused on what was real, snapping out of it. They weren't her parents, and the Lynn she met wasn't the real Lynn. Everyone was dead and there was no changing that. "This isn't real..."

"Oh, is that so?" Mister Madness chuckled.

Again, Lucy screamed it out. "THIS ISN'T REAL, JUST LIKE THEY AREN'T!"

"And neither were your poems, sweetie..." Rita eerily whispered. "I- I mean, we never liked them. We don't like them. We don't like-"

Lucy gasped, sitting upright as fast as she had broken free from that dark place. Her nose picked up on a disgusting smell, and the surroundings around her told her that she was in the sewers, resting upon one side against the waterbank of nasty sewage. She covered her sniffer, looking behind. Not forty feet away from her, and standing in the middle of the water was Mister Madness. A closer look at him revealed that the painted red smile had flipped upside down, depicting his disappointment of Lucy's miraculous triumph, the maneuver that had bested him. "You may have escaped the Sonno Realm, but can you defeat us?"

"Us?" Lucy tapped her free hand on her chest. Still bleeding... How long was I out?

She didn't know what the sorcerer had meant until she lay witness to a third figure emerge from the sewage, making their presence known. This one was a female in a surprisingly untainted white cloak, and of white, medium hair. The skin tone definitely matched Lucy's own, which she noticed closely, knowing it from too many times looking in a mirror for wounds.

"Kill the demon huntress, my child," Mister Madness commanded the girl in white.

Lucy expected a direct hand-to-hand fight, but the disadvantage was made clear when the opponent displayed telekinesis, slamming Lucy to the wall as the girl came floating towards her. There was no way out of this one, so Lucy accepted that maybe, just maybe, her journey would end here, and she would have failed Ray. This was, had been all for nothing.

"Cease!" A new idea had popped into the maniac's mind. "Bring her to me!"

"Yes, my Lord," the unknown female responded, lifting Lucy up from the ground, taking her towards him.

"I know what to do..." Lucy blacked out, the last thing she had seen was the man's evil mask, and everything went dark again.

Later

Lucy woke up under a pentagram made up of over blood, forehead marked with a cross of Mister Madness' own blood, and her stomach sticking out, having been rubbed with a brown substance she didn't identify, but could feel the cold and thickness of. "What the-?! Hey-"

She turner around- seeing the corpse of Lupa laying over its own pentagram, and under the same circumstances as Lucy. This girl was the exact same one who displayed the telekinesis, but it only brought Lucy lightheaded confusion, mainly why Mister Madness would kill her if she was serving him. And her train of thought concluded with seeing the other girl in white, the actual one who brought her down easily. "Oh, God..."

The copy of Lupa narrowed her eyes at the corpse of the dead clone, confused about it. "Who was she...?"

Lucy tried to move, but found herself stuck as if she was being kept there by an invisible boulder that was underneath her, keeping her tied down. "Hey, what's going on?! Let me go!"

"Ah, she's awake!" Mister Madness returned to the cave, his not-so-humble abode. "Good, I want my brother's puppets to experience all hell."

"P-puppets?!" Lucy was insulted.

"Ray Robertson is still an idiot, sending his sidekicks to die for him. He could do it alone, he knows it, and yet..." Mister Madness shook his head. "Silly, stupid girl. He killed you, not me, I'd like you to know that. I'd love you to know that he sent yet another child to die for him. It is a shame..."

"I'm not dead yet," Lucy pointed out. "Tell me, who the fuck is this? And what's with the body?"

"Oh? You mean to tell me this is not a relative of yours?" The Masked Ghoul approached Lupa's body and fell on all fours over it. "This little piece of human flesh has the very scent akin to yours, and... Don't tell me there is no striking resemblance. Surely you have a sister..."

"Never seen her before..." Lucy tried to break free again. "Son of a bitch."

"Now, now, let's not be too hasty..." Mister Madness bent up again, arms placed on the girl in white. "That girl, whatever she is to you, proved to be useful in her condition. From the body, I created this surrogate person, a slave with the same traits, characteristics, and powers. What a nice surprise to find that she is telekinetic. All the more reason I'm glad I stole the body."

Lucy was in awe. "I... I don't..."

"What I did unto her, I will do the same to you," he promised. "The idea of you two at my disposal... It makes me feel foolish to have slaughtered his past aid. Not this time."

He began the ritual, chanting in an ancient Latin dialect, hands hovering over Lucy. His lines went repeated, the girl in white backing away when the cave began to shake, pebbles dancing around, dust forming. The exposed stomach on Lucy began glowing am unbearable bright white, Mister Madness still continuing the chant. The cross on Lucy's forehead warped about. It had started working, and a black essence came out of Lucy's stomach, redirected to the side by Madness while never breaking the chant. The black essence grew bigger and bigger, forming into one bubbly sphere. Lucy then screamed at the top of her lungs, but Madness had already wrapped up in bringing out the only thing that mattered.

The blob took shape, rendering into human form. Human form... Becoming the copy of Lucy Loud, and not like Lupa was made as. This one, a girl taller than Lupa and the girl in white, came out in a dark cloak and pigtails in the back of her hair. Lucy was bewildered by this scene, mouth left stupidly agape at the sight of the girl in black.

The expelled.

"Say hi to your daughter," Madness snickered hideously. "What should we call them? How about... Lilith for the black one... And, Lumi for the white one?"

"What the hell is a supernatural clone of me going to do to you? Wearing my face, wouldn't that-?"

"Maybe... But she is no Lucy Loud, huntress!" Mister Madness sliced her stomach, leaving a cut on Lucy. "I've got what I wanted, now we don't need these two anymore! Girls, kill them!"

Lumi hesitated, unsure of what to do. It had been easier until she had seen what she was, and what she was proved to be ugly and abominable than she could ever know. She was no Lupa, and ahe was no Lucy either. It begged the question, who was she, and was there a way to bring back the one true Lupa? The person she'd been extracted from? It felt less right to have been taking and accepting the orders of this evil man, with an aura of negativity aa strong as his will. Lumi acted fast and pushed Lilith away from Lucy, quickly jumping to her aid to free her by breaking the blood pentagram. "Go! Go, run!"

"LUMI!" Mister Madness' smile flipped on itself again. "NO, DO NOT-"

Lumi broke Lupa's corpse free, picked it up and ran further into the cave with Lucy. "Go, go!"

"LILITH, HUNT THEM DOWN AT ALL COSTS!"

No Lucy Loud... Lilith narrowed her eyes, choosing to give chase to the other girls, led by the one wearing her face. Supernatural clone...

Lucy and Lumi spotted a faint light from far ahead. "Where's that-?"

"The way out of here, yeah!" Lumi huffed and panted with Lupa's body. "I want you to tell me everything when we get out of this-"

"Ha! I ask the questions around here!" Lucy cemented her status as the main demon killer, telling Lumi who was the better of the two. Then again, Lucy was without the telekinesis. "You listen to me at all times, or we'll be fucked."

"F-fine... Hey, take this!" Lumi offered Lucy the luggage in her arms. "I can't use my power unless you-"

"Right, you have a point..." Lucy took the dead Lupa in her arms, eyeing closely at the corpse with wonder. "I don't know who the hell this is..."

"Really?"

"Just keep running!" Lucy barked. "Are you strong enough to cause a cave-in?"

"I... I don't know until I try!"

"HEY!" Lilith, armed with a rock in each hand, caught up to them. "NOT SO FAST!"

Lumi put herself in between Lucy and Lilith, blocking the newly-created enemy from an offensive attack. "Don't move!"

Lilith had no idea about the albino girls' gifts, simply shrugging Lumi's bark as nothing else than a bark. "What can you do, other than get scared you'll turn white?"

"D-do it!" Lucy instructed. "Drop it on her!"

Lumi waved her hands, spreading them apart, disrupting and shaking the cave from inside. Lilith tilted her head up, concentrated on the changing state of the cave. She broke away rather quickly, aiming and throwing the rocks at Lumi, only for then to be deflected easily. "No fucking way-"

A large portion of rocks broke away from above, falling in between them as Lumi continued on. Lucy hightailed it out of there, running rapidly on her short, little legs. It didn't help that Lupa played a role in weight, which proved to have slowed her down enough. "What did you eat?"

Lumi brought the cave down more, letting the place rain with rock and dirt- and she left herself for an opening when Lilith, concealed among the messy cloud of dust and dirt, jumped out and threw a few body punches that led up to her face. It certainly brought her down, but the rumbling of the cave did not stop. "Okay, now you will keep me safe while I-"

Mister Madness thundered past them, plowing right though Lilith. "Every person for themselves!"

A boulder fell out, dropping right at Lilith, prompting her to shield herself and brace for the pain. Lumi stopped it, saving the girl in black. "I got it!"

Lilith looked up, seeing her heroine smile nervously back at her. Then, she faced the fleeing Madness. "YOU SCUMBAG!"

Lucy made it out alive, putting Lupa's body down the second she made sure there was a clearing. Mister Madness raced out of the cave, flying into the early morning's dawning skies. "LUCY, WE'LL MEET AGAIN!"

"Damn it!" she cursed under her breath, hoping he would have been buried alive, just like- "Aw, damn it!"

There was Lumi, walking back casually with Lilith, as if nothing had happened. "Hey-"

"What is this?!" Lucy was quick to point fingers at them. "That thing came out of- You, what are you doing?!"

"I'm just as confused as you are..." Lilith shared.

"Can't you reverse this?" Lumi asked the huntress. "Do you know how?"

"No, I never learned magic... Damn it, I have no experience!" Lucy bent down to Lupa. "But I do know something... You, white-hair, come here!"

"Yes!" Lumi jumped over opposite Lucy. "What now?"

Lucy ran her fingers across her flesh wound, staining them with her blood. "Cut yourself."

"Huh?"

"Cut yourself!" Lucy raised her voice. "I need your blood! You do have blood, don't you?!"

Lumi found a rock with a sharp edge, jamming it into her hand. Blood spurred out of it, enough for Lucy's quick thinking. "Ow, fuck- Okay!"

"You," Lucy guided Lilith, "no funny games! Lift up her clothes, we need her cheat exposed!"

"Yeah, alright!" Lilith bent down on her knees to pull Lupa's top clothes upward.

"Listen," Lucy guided Lumi. "Whatever I do, you do it in parallel contrast to me, like a mirror, got it?"

"Of course!' Lumi readied her blood finger.

"And stay silent, I mean that to both of you. No word, I will be pulling off a resurrection chant I've only seen a few times."

"R-resurrection-" Lumi stammered.

Lucy started with a circle, and Lumi followed, mirroring her finger strokes, initiating her chanting. They both did lines, drawing curves, making a complex drawing in red right on Lupa's bare chest. Lucy had her eyes close, surrendering all her focus and hope for the ritual. If something was supposed to happen, neither Lumi nor Lilith could sense a sign. Lucy pulled her finger off, and then Lumi's as well, motioning her to move away, and then covered Lupa again after taking over Lilith. The three of them backed away from Lupa on Lucy's signal, silently staring for the magic to kick in. And for a long period, going at over a minute, nothing happened.

"Is she-?" Lumi stepped forward, hand reaching out.

"It- I did it right-" Lucy explained, trying to figure out what she did wrong. "No, I needed answers from-"

The lodged bullets in Lupa's head were pushed out, repelled by the body. In those mesmerizing seconds of quietness from the three, Lupa opened her blue eyes, gasping out loud. "Lynn! Luan!" Instead of the clones, she found herself surrounded by three girls, one of who she identified right away as her original. "Lucy!"

"Yeah, who the hell are you to be calling me that so formally?" Lucy brushed the dangling her off her face. "Your face, that's mine..."

"How- How- Where-?" Lupa slapped her own face. "Agh, blahhhh- I was in Royal Woods, is this still?"

"No, we're all in South California," Lumi dropped.

"What?!" Lupa inhaled the shock.

"South..." Lucy trailed off. "C-Califuhhhhh..."

"Idiots, what the fuck is going on-?"

"This is Mister Madness' doing," Lucy sighed. "He teleported me halfway across the world."

"I have to get back to Royal Woods..." Lupa fueled up in rage. "Ugh, fucking hell, how convenient of him-" Lupa paused and read Lucy's expression. "Oh..."

"I wanna know how you fit into all of this..." Lucy motioned her hand to Lumi and Lilith. "These girls here are clones of the both of us, that's also his doing."

"Wait a min- Did you just say...?" Lupa stood up and studied Lumi. "Clone? You?"

"Hi, mom," Lumi joked.

"No, not today..." Lupa shook her head in denial. "This is so fucked up..."

"Hey, are you gonna answer me?" Lucy set her hands on her hips, awaiting for Lupa's tale to tell.

"Okay, but I'd rather..." Lupa grabbed Lucy and pulled her away from the two other girls. "Listen, things are complicated on the outside world. I was hoping I would bump into you, because... Well, listen, I need you to believe me, and to do that with a heavy head."

"Just to be clear, I didn't mother you, did I? Not mine through supernatural means?"

"No, no, I'm not..." Lupa laughed, but it was a cringy, awkward laugh.

"Go on..."

"Okay so... Heh... I am a clone of you, Lucy..."

Lucy stared ominously, then broke into a hard laugh. "Nice joke, hahaha!"

Lupa rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "Just like you and Lynn fighting over toothpaste."

Lucy froze immediately, then closing her mouth. "Oh, you're not kidding... What, when?! Who the he'll and how?!"

"Our genius sister Lisa," Lupa replied. "She cloned five-"

"Five? Five of me?!"

"No, five of our siblings- Yours, mines, whatever! Lucy..." Lupa cleared her throat. "We were led to believe the others died in the fire, but... They're alive, Luce. I saw Lynn, Luna, Lincoln, a lot of them, for that matter."

A dark cloud settled over Lucy. "Oh..."

"Oh? Hey, isn't- Isn't it great?" Lupa tried to form a smile, but Lucy's next words prevented one. "It isn't?"

"Well..." Lumi and Lilith were eavesdropping on them. "I'd have rather they died..."

Lupa processed her words, nodding slowly. She, too, had shared the same idea. It made everything easier when there was no excess baggage to constantly drag due to the dangerous field work they thrived in. Lucy had never needed to get sidetracked by anything, and if Lupa would follow in her footsteps, one Liby and one Lacy would had to have been put back in the closet where it was safe and sound... Neglected. This had always been Lucy's choice and reason to accept, to assume that the Louds had all died in the fire. No thought, no memory must slow her down, now and forever. Now and forever meaning until she hung it up or until she died.

"Wow... O-Okay then..." Lupa scratched her eyes. "Three edgy five me."

"Curiously, are you also like me, you know, in profession?"

"No, I know everything you know to a certain point in your life, which was up to the first month of this year, but I don't do that. I've landed in my own issues, and I think I'm a permanent part of it..." Lupa tapped on the side of her head where she had been shot. "This was Lincoln's doing-"

"Lincy?" Lucy rubbed her chin. "Huh... Okay well, all of that has nothing to do with me, so... I hope you guys resolve your shit."

"We will... I hope." Lupa looked to the morning sky. "I have a long way to go... Is there anything you want me to-?"

"No messages from me, thanks..." Lucy went back to the two other girls- finding that they had already vanished. "Oh, come on!"

"What?" Lupa had her head facing the ground until Lucy's cry. "Oh, look at that, your babysitter skills are just as rusty as your social skills."

"Meaning what's mine is yours!" And with that, Lucy hurried after them, running down the mountain. Lupa enjoyed the humor in that, staying for a few long seconds to see Lucy hurry after them. Once she disappeared, Lupa floated upwards, taking to the clouds. Next stop was heading back to Royal Woods, to locate her clone sisters and to get revenge on both Lynn and Lincoln for this, even if it would be days to get there. Time had never been on her side, but she certainly had one advantage; the element of surprise.

AN: Lumi (Loud), as previously seen in another fic of mine, is finally born out of the fallen vessel of Lupa Loud, one such OC belonging to my good friend Vale. Originally, Lumi was Lupa's twin sister who died at birth, but... Well, Vale never explained how she kept living and growing despite being a ghost.

Lilith is a Haikucoln kid, owned by Damajics. Well, in all other places not here, I mean.

I wouldn't say thesw two are clones of Lucy and Lupa, but rather a living piece of them, like, it's a fraction of their being, their essence, given the extra life by Mister Madness. And since Lupa is Lucy Mark II, all three of them are literally Lucy's blood and soul, or by Harry Potter lore, sentient horcruxes rendered neutral to the creator. Something among those lines.

Lilith and Lumi are a set among the supernatural field of Dawn, and I'm still going strong in that direction. Now, I decided to test out a wacky idea I had in TLVG, and well, some definite spoilers were tossed into the mix, that's a big oops on my end, but this was awhile back. You really can't share anything either without one person getting antsy as fuck. Sad.

Anyways, Lucy, Lupa and the Expelled, as I'll call them, are splitting up after this. Lupa has a mission, and in no way is she interested in Lucy's job, knowing that there is a Lucy out there, and neither with the Expelled. Too many issues out of her grasp and understanding, and likewise for thr Expelled. Things will be solved, Lucy comes across Mister Madness, the Expelled have their own adventure... But not really alone, and... More.

A special thanks for LoudAutomata for suggesting a little thing that I did not actually explore, but I will LOL.

Next up is flashforwards and explosions; a look into the war-torn future. So, too much death.