Cops! Ah, the police! Well, that's not an area that's black and white per se, but you get the idea. For me... The concept of an authority that says it serves the public but will nitpick the minorities from the whites, picking the wheat from the chaff. You've probably seen an insane amount of videos of police brutality at work. They don't serve us in actuality, they just try to jail everyone they can, it's almost some bigger conspiracy at work. And let's talk about the fact that they park in hidden spots among the roads and freeways while we're at it? Can someone explain why that fucking fat Blue Scout is put on anti-speeder overwatch instead of their deputies, their sheriffs assigning them to some serious issues? Best bet here is that they just want to ticket you to take away the money you worked so hard for. That's their funding when tax dollars aren't doing it justice anymore. The police forces are incompetent and a modern failure, a joke, if not crooked pieces of shit who turn a blind eye for sweet, sweet blood money. I'm telling you now, I'm voicing it now, this is not the law enforcement we need in the world of today.
My brothers and sisters, go up in arms and stand together to make this world right again. America was founded on freedom, so take that freedom and shove it right back your government's wrinkly, fat, pasty white fucking ass. Depictions of them on social media lets us see that they are biased and racist, picking out the minorities over the common white male and female. I understand that people of color have more of a probability to be some... Well, you know, a bad guy, but it's automatically preset to that default. Of course not every single person of color is some thug or gangster. Hard-working citizens are not limited to the pure Americans, if anything. And yet, these cops are cuffing people for even eating breakfast at a fucking BART station. Where is the justice in that? These are not the people fit to serve, nor are these the type of training I'd feel safe in knowing, and it should not be well with you! This is Dylan Blood concluding statement. Long live.
August 6th, 2030
What an irrational message... Lincoln had fished out any linking information on this interesting character who'd given his name and face out in a ballsy move. It was real cocky of the guy, or just plain stupid. Either way, Lincoln had gotten an idea that this new opponent, the killer of the twins, was as arrogant as he was deadly, at no doubt feeling high and mighty enough to have told the world who he was exactly. Him and these interesting articles- the rants and raves of some free-thinker who believed too much in what he might have just seen in those fictional movies. Maybe the man was just too childish as well, who could really say? But it was that danger and willingness to cause harm that the albino decided he'd be just another target to cut down to size. Another dead body that fell out of sights of whatever Lincoln would use on him. This for his young twin sisters, the fallen heroine zoomer duo who've had their identities revealed to the world. His guess was that it was through the leaks that got him close enough to harm then. Not that he knew, but when he came up to meet Blood in the battlefield, Lincoln vowed to get the info out.
Right now, he, his sister Lori, whom he had an estranged relationship at the moment, only reached a mutual get-together to try and save the others, and Darceline "Darcy" Holmandollar, the youngest ex-member of the cynical "anarchist" group the Freights, also one of the first pair of phenos who roamed free with a superhuman set of upgrades. Well, these three young folk just happened to be phenos, but if things played put differently, if Lincoln just might've trusted Lori a whole lot more, they'd have the same abilities and Darcy wouldn't have been here.
Funny how things worked out, and even now, when every road they've walked since they've separated had led them astray, and towards new, unconventional paths. Here they were, back again, an alliance that had to be made in the meantime. That didn't close out the obvious hatred Lincoln and Lori shared for another, and the idea of Lori having to throw in with them both while Lincoln was out of the Patriots, which he could have very well blamed Luna, and knowing him, he was bound to. Who made her and Lynn the top dogs of the gang, anyway?
"Luna first?"
Lincoln took his eyes from the screen, tending to both girls standing at either side. "That's a given, we need to round ourselves up a team and charge the Black Network. Right now, I can be certain that Lynn is safe in the hole she's in, unless McMahon has some plans for an execution. I'd like to get ahold of Link-A right now, she's the one who can acquire the coordinates."
"Right, the SCX device, that's what they were calling it," Lori shared. "Maybe she could pick up a trail-"
Miraculously, the sentient intelligence christening itself LinKAPACITY forced entry onto the computer Lincoln was on. The screen glitched out for a second, going black before it cleared, followed by a pure white screen. And then, the black text formed;
Linka and Leven are currently out of harm's way, but they are heading to the Black Network to finish Dylan Blood before anymore damage can be dealt unto the Louds.
"L-Link-A?!" Lincoln re-read the text. They already know...?!
"What the hell-? Who's hacking?" Darcy asked, shaking and looking around.
Lincoln pressed on the keyboard buttons, seeing that he could write a response, and he did so; Sorry, who are you?
I am LinKAPACITY, an artificial intelligence constructed during the rem sleep of the one you know as Link-A. She subconsciously uploaded a virtual mainframe version of her brain, so I am her minus the insanity, which derives from having the SCX chip's residue infect her cerebral infrastructure until she can no longer fuction effectively.
She can... No longer function- Lincoln responded again;
What do you mean by that?
Link-A's lifespan is of a short expectancy. The chip will shut down her brain and she will die within a few weeks, I estimate. The signs have already been showing, it is only just a matter of time until she dies.
Lincoln processed it, the words of this thing. Lori and Darcy also studied it, with Lori lightly gasping at the news. She, in turn, took over the keyboard and thought to toss in her own question;
Tell us, is there any way to save her?
Lincoln raised an eyebrow to Lori. "Save her? What, did you lose your own brain? I've seen you both go at it as if it were you and I-"
"It was like that, yes, but..." Lori exhaled, closing her eyes. "We don't have to be hating each other, or trying to kill each other. Plus, she's not- Well, those clones aren't with McMahon, so I know that they're allies-"
"No," Lincoln denied. "They've fucked up and made their choice the second they decided to give the world special instructions on world destruction. To hell with them both, I know how I'm going to save them."
Lori scoffed at his bloody implication. "Always the monster, huh, little brother?"
"Says you, you hairball piece of-"
Do not be fighting in my presence! Not only can I see you three, but I can hear through the phones of the people around you. This is no time for dinner family turmoil, get your act together and race to the Black Network! Do not worry about Lynn Loud Jr, she is imprisoned but has received no harm at of yet, held in Site Prime in San Francisco, California.
"Site Prime..." Lincoln read.
Luna Loud and Samantha Sharp are roaming close around the New York area. Link up with them and back the clones up before they end up dead.
"I don't need advice from-" Lincoln was silenced when the white screen went away, reverting back to the page he'd been on before it glitched out. "Hey- Fuck."
"That clone is..." Lori shivered. "Dying?"
"No sympathy," Lincoln berated, getting up after closing the tab. "No mourning either, not until this shitfest is over. God, the twins... My sisters-"
"Ours, Lincoln," Lori corrected, following him out the door. "They were our sisters, don't you forget that I've got just as much to lose as you do!"
"Oh, so suddenly you're about family now, huh?" The albino man stopped, turned and glared hard at Lori, sending daggers flying at her. "The very thing you turned your back on, me included-"
"That was different, damn it!" Lori excused. "It was different and you know it!"
"Do I, really?" Lincoln shook his head to disagree with her statement. "Don't act like they've forgiven you, Lori. With how things are, I'm sure they'll look past that when you side with them just this once. Luna, Lynn, Luan. It's down to the five of us now, but will they consider you part of the circle?"
"I'm a Loud-!"
"You stopped being a Loud when you ran off!"
"Yeah?! Well, so did you!" Lori spun back. "Don't you dare anger me, Linc. You are being immature and hypocritical-"
"It goes both ways, don't you think?"
Darcy got in between them when Lincoln closed the distance, repelling them back away from one another. "We don't need the damn attention! That virus thing told us to get to New York! I'm sure that- Whatever it was- Will give the others instructions just as it did us! Maybe it'll help the others!"
"Yeah, I guess that's true..." Lori pulled away from Darcy's reach, crossing her arms. "Fine, I'm not gonna start being a bitch right now."
"We'd better get going, then," Lincoln surmised. "And try to keep your mouth shut, Lori."
"Tsk..."
Act IV: Bloodier, Chapter VII: Blood Hunt
Elsewhere
Linka and Leven rode cross country in the stolen pick-up truck Linka had accessed with the SCX chip implant, racing away to the Black Network as quickly as possible. "You know what?"
"Hmmm?" Leven had assumed Linka was still sleeping at these are hours of the morning. "That sleep is a good thing?"
"No..." Linka opened the window to rid herself of her morning breath that overwhelmed her nose. "Dawn's going to end after this act for us, and anything can happen. The thinking is going to stop after chapter ten."
"The what- Dawn is..." Leven was just as confused as the next person. "You're out of it, please try to get some rest."
The plan here was to get to Blood fast before anyone else did, and with Linka's special chip installed in her as if she was a program, they had a grand advantage. McMahon could wait, he would have never suspected they'd have known, but the window was closing considering Allie's body would be bagged and tagged, reported on the news. Covered up, perhaps. "I don't feel like it."
"Why's that, you've got stuff on your mind?"
"Well, sure buddy," Linka admitted. "You know, there is some guilt going around with the leaks, and maybe..." She focused her eyes outside of her window. "For all we know, we were the ones who enabled Blood by giving him what we tossed into the wild. And... Maybe- Maybe I do feel guilty just as much as you've let it be known."
"Linka..."
"Don't be mopey now," Linka hissed. "I just wanted to get that out there. Besides, I think it was time I gave it out before... Anything bad happened."
"Nothing's gonna happen, sister," Leven vowed blindly. "Nothing bad at least, we'll be safe."
"Safe..." Linka would have loved to believe such a credulous thing. "Friendly reminder that Lincoln is going to try and kill us, you know? Even when we're on the same side-"
"Then we won't let him, Linka. We won't let him."
"I'm not going to be running forever, big brother," Linka shared. "I can't, I haven't the drive-"
"Haven't the drive?" Leven wondered if this was the actual albino clone he'd been roaming around the earth with. "You don't sound like my Linka."
Linka had noticed the meaning in those words, and was somehow spooked visibly. "Nyahhhh... I is! I is your sweet babu sister- Yes, babu, not baby- Of white hair! I'm cute and cuddly and I'll stab you to death! Erm, just like I will that bastard McMahon for her, for Carly..."
"That girl didn't deserve that, no," Leven threw in. "Anything else you wanna get off your chest?"
"No-" She hesitated but did so too fast, too soon that it never bypassed Leven's radars. He knew. And also, Linka could read these sentences, a perk to 4th wall breaking. "You fuckin' with me, D?"
"Calling me D now?" Leven asked. "Crazy girl-"
Linka sighed out and then nodded. "I do, I've got something I've gotta get off, and I'll start it off by saying..." When she blinked, she saw the corpse of the mutated girl leaning against the tree. That girl that had resorted to the extreme by subjecting herself to that special chemical Medi-Sin, properties of which they were unaware of as of yet. It was the fact that it proved to have given hwr a boost- yet had helped kill her in such a disturbing way. And to Linka, it showed her that death was possible to even then, the clones with superhuman tendencies who were still able to bleed as proven countless times prior.
It scared Linka. "She turned into a pheno, Lev. She turned and got herself killed..."
"So I've seen," Leven stated. "Just cause she was on our level and got killed doesn't mean anything."
Linka still didn't listen.
"Hey, look at it this way- That girl was only real young, that means little to no experience under her belt, less in comparison to Lincoln, and we know all that he knows, that means memories, too. We're more wired for combat, have been. That makes us more stronger than Allie-"
"Yeah, but..." Linka lowered the window all the way down and punched thw side mirror to obtain a shard, and brought it close to her left arm which she held out, proceeding to inflict a deep cut. "Look! I can bleed! I've been shot! That automagixlaly means we can die! We can regenerate but we can't grow back lost limbs-"
Leven was caught by surprise, braking the truck hard to a screech. "We... What? How do you know...?"
Linka had done an oopsie and put herself in front of the cameras. No way out of this, no way out of weaseling her way out of admitting the hidden secrets she kept from Leven. "I- Oh, geez..."
"L-Linka..." Leven pulled over to the side. The tone in his voice had changed drastically against her. "Did- Did you lie to me...?" How silly of him, it hadn't ever once occurred to him that Linka was being sneaky around some crucial facts. "You hid-"
"S-so I might've!" Linka blabbed. "What's the big deal? It's nothing- I swear it on Treyarch!"
The truck's engine flipped off, leaving them in cold-blooded silence. Leven gave her all of his undivided attention, grimly staring down on her for the right answers. "That's not something small that you just don't keep away from me, Linka! What else don't I know?"
"Leven-" Linka closed her eyes and dumped her head underneath his chin. "I love you, big boy Linclone."
"Damn it-" He grabbed her by her shoulders and separated her from him, her face depicting some fear when their eyes connected. "I need to know everything about the both of us if you have critical information."
Linka jerked herself free. "That fact applies for all of us, Leven. I'll humor you by confirming that-" She looked away and dropped the mirror shard, seeing her cut already healed. "Secondly, i learned something about myself, something I was going to wait a little longer to tell you, so don't even try to say I had to right away."
"About yourself...?" Leven opened his mouth a bit. "Well, go on."
"Okay... Leven... I'm dying."
June 4th, 2030
"Good... What is it, afternoon?" Linka greeted. "Link-N, huh? No... How about... Leven?" She released them all without anyone's permission, and that landed her in hot water with Shepherd and Lisa. Lori and the furball freaks were around to lay witness to the new artificial generarion, which started with the bloodthirsty, maniacal and crazy clone Link-A. Linka Loud, the one who first offered her hand out to the only male clone of the five.
She then blinked idly and began bleeding from her nose, freezing in place as Leven came forward, interested in the guards behind Linka.
Clone No. 1 is the opposite gender as the original subject, just as the outcome predicted. SCX chip implanted in clone's head has confirmed for success, but the clone has taken cranium damage post-discovery, furthermore, the trial simulations have confirmed that there is a 78% chance that the SCX chip will likely disconnect or deteriorate Link-A's brain once it emerges from stasis. As of yet, there is a wide search to find the counter to prevent this outcome.
Regeneration capabilities are a success, sim runs suggesting that she can rapidly curate a bullet wound even, but the con is that the clone cannot regrow missing limbs. Extension to the next four clones in Project Link will replicate procedures to add upon these abilities as upgrades are found.
I'm... I'm going to...? Linka snapped out of it, blinking back to life. Die?
Then, she recognized the humor in that, falling to her knees, placing both hands on her head and spurging out in uncontrollable, sickening laughter. Crazy world, crazy outcomes. Always.
Now
"Y-you found out when-" Leven pieced together. "L-Linka-"
"Even before that, I just didn't want to accept it before, but..." She stared out thw window. "I'm starting to, especially when death is lying in every corner. The twins, that girl,, Carly, and maybe even that Lemy boy, too. It's gonna be me soon, Lev. I'm going to be dead, and I won't even make the obituary!"
"Hey, stop it!" Leven repelled her back to his arms. "We'll fix you, Linka! We can take that chip out of you-"
"Not yet!" Linka hoped to finish the job before this was to be considered. "Not until we get Blood and McMahon!"
"This is serious-"
"AND THIS ISN'T?! YES, MY LIFE IS ON THE LINE, AND YES, I HEAVILY FEAR DEATH BUT WE HAVE TO PUSH FORWARD TO THE END! I'M NOT A VEGETABLE YET, LEVEN!"
He gulped, shifting his head as if he had no idea on what to do. That's cause he didn't this time. Options were running out. "Jeez, Linka, I can't believe this..."
"You best believe it, man!" Linka rested herself back on the seat. "I need this thing inside me when we do our rescue mission, then we'll find some surgeon to remove it! That should be able to spare me from death before it's too late. I mean, it has to, right?"
"We don't know for sure, but if we don't try..." This was him taking a risk in it, accepting that brain surgery to remove the device had to be done. "We'll do it, Linka, right after we dismantle the incoming genocide and this new guy."
"We will, big brother!" Linka triumphed. "Black Network here we come!"
Leven hugged his younger clone sister when she wasn't expecting it, patting and rubbing her back with his warm, loving affection. When they had nothing else, and no other Loud, they had each other, but only had each other for so long, the calm before the storm. "We'll save you, Linka! I promise it on my heart! I promise!"
"I promise..."
Elsewhere
The house stirred as it usually did, the live-in patrons, the family of three, seated where they usually sat, breakfast platters still to be finished. This was the home or the Henderson family, consisting of the balding man of forty-two years, the ginger wife, taller and more meaner than him, of thirty-Six, and their young child, the twelve-year-old boy due one more year of grade school before moving onto high school. And their special guest, the fourth person seated right next to Jim Henderson, with the silver revolver pointed onto the side of his head, was none other than Dylan Blood. To the outside world, this was an ordinary family with great financial stance and support from the lord of this manor. But Dylan pulled the rug out from underneath, already having connected the aging Jim to some questionable moves played in his time in one of the Kapacity Korp facilities.
This paticular person was he who had been snuck into the workplace right out of Vial Corporation with a clean slate just like the many countless others who bypassed the law and hid well. Actually, not so well, and not safe from the punk-looking madman. "I've been lucky to have found one of you, and that scared look on your face..."
The young man of messy, spiky hair could almost relish the savory taste of the Henderson man's fear, but without having this ego to show, without getting drunk on this feeling of perfect triumph, he focused in on the current objective of the long-running campaign to remove the predators from the field. The lord of the beasts, the ravenous creatures of all sorts, moving in all directions.
For instance, he labeled the crooked elites who banded together to police and kill off the phenos out of fear of some revolution, an uprising that would leave them at the bottom of the adapting food chain, and then there were the illegitimate politicians, that meant Peter McMahon and his friends, whoever they were, the entire criminal faction under the Vial Corp banner, a majority of them still in the wild, and under McMahon's command within the innocent employees of the corporation prior to the madness, and then there were the final persons of interest; the mutated beings dubbed phenos, the victims here with the real, scary potential to form a society if they so wanted to and decide whether or not those who seemed them as hostiles, the bad guys, were worth going to war with. It was ugly, and it was naturally beautiful at the same time, and then neither way. These were all the threats, and the thread that held everything from falling apart in this entire web could only be cut so easily, with little to no effort when someone made the wrong move when there'd already been a series of first strikes in all fronts. Not that he helped keep it from happening.
Right now, the best targets to neutralize were the phenos and the McMahon board, mainly the man himself and the entire shutdown of Kapacity Korp entirely as well. Still...
...Superior Human. That concept idea still circled his head. All those poor souls, either killed or turned into phenos so that the key ingredients to keep humanity alive for more centriues- It hadn't gone away. There had been something missing, something that was not in any of the files he'd accessed and read. And even still, the five chambers of a golden make added to the mysteries yet to be uncovered. Five creations, five missing files, what was being hidden? What had been buried underneath that surface of thick ice?
"Have you ever stepped foot in the Black Network?" Dylan pressed the barrel down harder on Jim's head. "I need to know what was inside that group of chambers- That is to say you were roaming in there with an all-access pass, and frankly, I am unaware of how things operated among it."
"I- I don't know what this Black Network is-" Jim huffed.
"No?" The revolver pulled back from contact. "No! Of course you don't, but surely there were people who did- Or..." He got up and circled the shaking family members, gun pointed at them all. "You see, you're lying about something at the minimum. I didn't come here for lies, mister."
"H-hey, you leave my wife and son out of this!" Jim demanded, trying his hardest to keep it together. "You want me-"
"What I want is the answers I so desire!" Dylan struck Amelia Henderson with the butt of the revolver, sending her falling sideways onto the floor with a frantic yelp.
"Amelia!"
"Don't move!" Dylan warned, centering on Jim again. "You, or her... Which one gets it?!"
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
"Big man!" Dylan swung a roundhouse kick down Jim's way, kicking him right in the chest, making him tumble backwards with the chair. "You've had your shot, but such a slim one if anything-"
This time, Jim swung his burly, big arms at the punker's legs, only for the madman to throw back with kicks and stomps to the older man's arms and face. "Agh!"
"You're only wearing yourself out! Let me help you!"
Behind him, Amelia, bleeding from her head, had come back up and crouched behind him, moving like a predator stalking within the tall grass. She got close enough and placed her grip on the gun-toting psycho, arms around his neck, putting her effort to push him down. "JIM!"
Dylan lost control, heavily choked by the likes of this stranger of a woman. "Rgggh!" Gun still in his hand, he took aim right where he mentally calculated her foot would be, firing away as Jim rebounded and came lunging for punches. Amelia shrieked after the fourth round shot out, and the arms had loosened from Dylan's neck, but he fell when Jim struck a full swing effectively.
Fucking hell-!
"Come here, you bastard!" Jim angrily growled, moving fast.
As fast as he had lost control, Dylan reverted it back to his way, flipping himself on his back, taking aim and firing the last two rounds from his signature murder weapon, striking Jim in the chest and head, instantly killing him. When the corpse fell, Dylan broke its fall with his feet and directed it away from falling on him. "NO! NOO! NO, NOT THAT!"
"JIM!" Amelia was downed with a bullet right above her left foot, trying her hardest to crawl her way to him, ignoring the recovering Blood. The young son had excused himself from the chair and stood before both parents- slowly accepting the hard fact that his father had just been killed by this pale young adult. Dylan himself had been rather unhappy how things turned out, and when he went back to see the dead man's wife console the corpse and the boy just silently watch what death looked like, right close and personal, there was some sort of guilt to feel in that. "Hey, kid-"
"D-DON'T- DO NOT TOUCH MY VINCE!"
"Vince..." Dylan repeated, getting on one knee to Vince's level. "Your father was a criminal, I had to-"
"VINCE, VINCE- COME OVER TO ME!" Amelia violently pleaded, arms still connected to the body.
"Don't you dare venture down the path I walk on..." Dylan raised a finger and tapped it right above Vince's heart. "Not if there is hate in here, okay?"
If there was some sort of indicator of hate in Vince's own green eyes, which had gone roughly red, Dylan could not detect it whatsoever.
"Repeat after me..."
Vince blinked.
Dylan formed a wide, silly grin as if nothing had happened. "Long live my revolution, kid. I will save this burning nation from the conspirators."
Years Ago
"Get him!" Anthony Dermont, better known as Skidmark to his group friends, was it again with the bullying, commanding his friends to corner and deliver their common beating on Dylan Blood. His lackeys were mostly of the casual Caucasian type, one or two of them being skateboarder punks. It was Peter Peppers, Jordan Straum, Salvatore Ferranti, Eugene Jameson, Brandon Burton, and the only black member of the clan, Isaiah Johnson.
They kicked him down, held him the way he was, feeble and unable to move- and even worse-
The monsters of all shapes and sizes start off wearing human disguises. They look like your friend, they look like your neighbors. They are everything and everyone, do you- No, wait... Could you ever think that you truly know someone underneath the surface? Do you know what they think? What they believe? How they really act?
"Dylan!" Anthony took pleasure in the bullying, got off on it at no doubt. And it didn't end until the poor sucker Blood was living up to his name, bleeding in general places while they stripped him of whatever money he'd have, the certified bonus to prove that bullying paid off. "You scrawny, little shit-"
Back then, things were different. He was different. Back then... He was still human.
This world does not save you.
Dylan could not fight back, and so it was that he forcibly allowed himself to submit to the violence. He was only young, short and defenseless, a perfect target for the unstable evil.
This world is unfair to you, remember that- and don't even think about sugarcoating it. It's not, and I know this all too well.
"Let's go!" Anthony and crew broke away from him and ran out of the alleyway. "Fuck that maggot!"
One of them laughed at his expense, sounded like Salvatore's- Either way, it was a done deal, and they were gone when he dared open his eyes.
Teen suicide rates have increased to 71% by the end of 2027, back when, at the end of the 10s decade, it had gone up to 56%, so what does that tell you? It's not rocket science to know why, these poor teens are the victims of bullying, it's sickening, it's nasty and despicable. Silenced, weakened, etc. I can only imagine their pain, and that's because, well, I was one such person to have been bullied back in my high school days. Nothing at all in grade school. Not a damn thing. Pretty sad if you ask me, pretty sad. It's painfully clear that less and less people are doing anything about it. Issue isn't their mental health, it's those vulgar runts who get away with it. I want to see the tables turned, the eyes to be averted, the rise of the underdog.
I am the underdog.
Now
Luna had been rather exhausted of walking, and jogging, and running- the days expanded longer this past week alone, and without anyone else other than Sam keeping her company, well, what could Luna do but be paranoid and worrisome about their fates? For starters, she and Sam had been made aware of the new player and his declaration of war against the phenos. And they were phenos, not to be sugarcoated.
She wandered randomly, with no clear destination, and it wasn't like Sam had a plan either. Not as it stood, anyway. They were silent, this coming from Luna's anger and pain that hadn't died off as of yet. The recent event had her back to square one, making her feel at all places that led away from home, away from perfect, peaceful sanctuary. The heart of hell that showed her just how powerless of a nobody she was, even with her unnatural pheno abilities. A mere special human incapable of saving her sisters. Incapable from stopping Luan, from not doing better to shut down Lincoln, and a hell lot more that could have been shifted her way.
Not at all.
"Lunes..." Sam had also been weary of this as well, moving around in her "special condition" aimlessly. "I can't keep this up."
They walked through a shallow neighborhood, an empty, suburban one that was currently dead- and they knew not where they were, the sad fact behind it.
"I can't carry you..." Luna had already been past the point where her feet gave her such grief, but had slowed down and moved to the curb, standing over it. "Okay... Okay..."
"I know this is necessary but it's-" Sam crossed her arms and sighed, giving in to defeat. "It's too much, and we're not doing anything. Those two albinos are gone, and your sisters-" She closed her eyes, stopping herself from striking a nerve in Luna. "We're just walking in circles, lost already-"
"We need to keep moving is what we're going to do, just like we've been," Luna reminded.
"Yes, I'm on board with that, but you're pushing for it faster than I can take it," Sam explained. "Luna, I'm getting tired and not just from walking."
"What-?" Luna sat down and took her words into account. "Sorry, you'll have to explain that to me-"
"Luna-"
"Because I have no idea what the hell you're talking about!"
"We didn't have to move-"
"Dude, we might've been compromised for all we know," Luna reasoned. "That evil man had to have tortured the twins-" Her breath became unsteady. "The twins..."
"Don't, Lunes, don't go there..." Sam dropped onto her knees and placed a soothing arm on her fair lover's shoulder. "I don't believe that they talked, Luna. They were stronger that that and to doubt them- I mean, you should know that they were."
"Maybe..." Luna attempted to believe, neutrally agreeing with her woman. "Just maybe, but I can't afford to take those chances, not with..." Lynn's betrayal hurt Luna more than she could ever say, if anything. The concept of a sister, deteriorating underneath the very ground she stepped on. Lynn the traitor, Luan the escapee, Lola and Lana, the prime examples of the phenos' fates as a whole. And then there was the devil brother. Lincoln Loud, the Ungodly Stormbringer. "Everything that's happened, Sam. I'm alone again, left behind by my own family."
"No, Luna, that isn't true," Sam fought. "They love you, I'm sure of it!"
"No... No, I don't," Luna believed. "How can I know for sure when...-?"
Luna squirmed, fighting the grip from Lynn's hold as the latter girl dragged her back, her legs scraping against the ground, shouting and crying in that drunken state she was in again. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, the very thing that got her kicked out of the house, the perfect conformity of it. Aunt Rinn Reagan had more than enough incentive to boot Luna out, to cut one girl from the pack when the resources were scarce with one caretaker of a parent as it was.
The very reason Luna had set this off, pushed both Aunt Rinn and sister Lynn to this limit was because Luna took a beer bottle to Luan's head, and the comedienne's bodily reaction was clear and apparent; she toppled over onto her side right on the floor, bleeding from wherever exactly it struck and caused injury, with the bystander girls of the collective Loud reluctantly watching in pure horror. Lynn was sure as hellfire stronger than Luna, so taking her outside and throwing her right onto the grassy lawn wasn't too hard for her. Luna staggered about as her knees struck on Mother Nature's skin, followed by the rest of her body. "Yeow!"
And Lynn had taken out the trash, not looking back as she went back inside. But right before entering the doorway, right before she closed the doors to Luna, there was a pause, a freeze that made her think something, and Luna had taken glimpse of it when she tried to get up in her drunken state, legs still wobbly. She expected Lynn to say some words, a voice of hostility, but she offered no such advice fot the punk rocker, nothing at all.
It was too late to turn back, to retract her actions, and Luan paid for her sins.
"I can't ever stop feeling the way I did back then," Luna sobbed. "The way I do at this very second..." She blamed herself for the fractured relationship she had with Lynn and Luan, and that was before considering that maybe the twins might've had some secret fear of her that carried over in the long run. That, and anything else she had yet to find out. "Did I do this? Did I make Lynn side with him because... Because she hated me more?"
Sam tugged at her shoulders and wrapped hands around her. "No, stop trying to think it! You didn't make anyone do anything, they chose where they wanted to be, you didn't make anyone's call!"
"How can I know?"
"I refuse to believe that, and so should you..." Sam kissed her lover once on the cheek. "She had to have different reasons, but this isn't what I'll accept."
"I'm- I'm sorry, I'm slowing us down."
"Don't be, sweetheart," Sam lovingly assured. "You're hurt and I understand it. I'm sorry that you're going through this, I don't have the right words to soothe you, but..." And she locked hands with Luna. "I'm here, I'll be here when you need me and we'll face your issues together."
"I... I just wish I was a better sister, Sam," Luna revealed. "I wish I never messed up the way I did."
"And you will be, Lunes," Sam grinned with content in her voice, "You know your mistakes, that means you've learned what not to do! That makes you better and stronger than the person you were before!"
To this, the brunette nodded, finding the logical reasoning behind the words. "Yeah... Yeah, I guess you're right, I'm sorry-" She sniffed and wiped away at her eyes.
"Oh, Luna..." More and more had the blonde of freakishly red skin develop more romantic attraction for the musical Loud, seeing just how much of a person, and how torn apart her inner character was. "You're too pure for all of this."
"P-pure...?" Luna half closed her eyes. "I don't feel pure."
"You are, Lunes! You care about your family even after all of this, don't you? You want to make amends, that's good. You, you're a good person, you're pure and I've seen it ever since we've met. So-"
Luna had piped up to take in her blonde partner's words.
"You'll make up with Lynn and find Luan! I believe that, Luna, believe me- No matter what happened..."
Luna slammed her frail hands against the door, begging for re-entry. Her voice, garbled gibberish so messily shifted by the alcohol that possessed her, took control of her actions. "Reeek- Puhleash, lot miiiieee eeeehnnnnnn!"
She would go on to do this for the next few minutes, moaning and crying while the inside of the residence had gone eerily quiet, no such sound playing in earshot. None of their voices, no angry, fast yells that sounded like orders being thrown around- and Luna could picture any single one of them trying to call an ambulance, or helping Luan up from the floor. Something, anything.
Anything...
"I want to..." Luna pressed a hand right above her heart. "I want them to know... I want us all to make up, why's that so impossible?"
"I can't tell you, Luna," Sam sighed. "I wish I could, but I don't have an answer for that. But that doesn't meant it's not fixable. We'll find a solution together."
"Together..."
"You will never suffer alone, that's a promise I'll make and keep until my dying breath," Sam proudly stated. "Never."
Site Prime - San Francisco, California
For the hundredth time, Lynn brought her fists against the steel white door, desperate to escape even with such little odds that were against her favor. She tried because she was a persistent woman who did not know the definition of defeat or surrender, not even in her vocabulary. And after that, her hands ached again, going red once more from the relentless strikes. Her cold, hard cell was just that uncomfortable, but not the primary reason to need to bust out of here. Lynn was stuck in the hellhole for days she began to lose count of, and worried had she been for the ones outside.
This place was a prison for captured phenos, operating just like any regular prison, except, and in the obvious state of it, this was a secret, off-the-books facility her captor McMahon had control of somehow. Her initial thoughts was that it wasn't originally a base to "incarcerate" phenos, but maybe it had been a prison before the world of today. Not that she truly cared to know, but it was a nice observation and hypothesis, just another thought to think so that the time could go faster. She was bored in her cell, suffering from the borders of her own mind.
If this was exactly how Luna and all the other captured phenos felt when they received the full Vial Corporation treatment, then Lynn understood Luna in that aspect. The horror. The insanity. The loneliness, lack of companionship behind these tough walls. If it were this easy to capture and contain Lynn, who was to say that Luna and the others...?
No, damn it! Not like this! Lynn outlived her usefulness, it seemed, and there was no greater discouragement that she felt other than this. All of that knowledge received from future, the special zoomer ability she was given by their future counterparts- that could not have been for nothing. No, not a damn way it was all just futile. I told myself- I told myself I'd rescue Margo, Polly and Paula! I can save them! I know time travel is real, so there is a chance! A chance... Out of the impossible... Where are you?
She didn't know what to expect by repeatedly smacking against the only way out, but the desperation was clear as daylight. With nothing else to do... When I get out of here, I swear I will make you all hurt!
Black Network Base
An endless supply of friends alluded to connections of the special variety, and that included paid mercenaries to come and give the defunct base- or what should have been abandoned- a nice thorough sweep from start to finish. It was a group of twelve of them, when McMahon could not make any such noise to bring in the authentic cavalry. Not Homeland, and certainly not even the boys in green, which of course was one of the better decisions if it were possible. Twelve, sporting tactical gear, various full-autos in the rifle of submachine classes, and different masks from one another. They moved separately through the woods, coming closer into the main entry point of the old base.
The only problem that neither client and employer saw coming was the layout had already been booby-trapped, courtesy of Dylan Blood. It started with a claymore concealed right underneath a pile of leaves- a sizeable hole that he dug up and placed the explosive into. Needless to say, it worked for the armed fellow, making him slip and fall, and then fly backwards when the claymore set off, blowing away his leg along with his life before the body even hit the ground.
The remaining eleven froze as one and took aim, checking from their ten to two, scouting ahead for any hostile foot mobiles, but no other living soul was around. "Flank around, flank around!"
Of course, landmines were dispersed around the entirety of the area, to the point that Dylan had only made one narrow way in and out of the Network in a careful set of maneuvering footsteps. He laid out the trespassers by having them activate the land mines, successfully cutting them down to half of the original number of them. Of course they'd get into the Black Network, but only a few of them, and the misfortunate ones at that.
In the end, after all of the rumbling, after all of the mines had gone off and taken the majority of the paid soldiers serving McMahon, it was down to five of them, cautiously advancing to the entrance of the Network. They found the hatch of the place and opened it, scurrying inside. The real fun began when Lyle Jefferson, once a gentle soul, was now a mindless beast under the control of Medi-Sin. Just like with Allie, Lyle's face was darkened, blue-greenish veins heavily visible, his eyes being white pearls, pupils gone. And he was ready to slaughter this time around.
Near New York
A Tesla had stopped onto the curb before Luna and Sam, blaring its horn to get their attention. The lack of driver had Luna spooked, but she and Sam approached it nonetheless. "Good morning, ladies, I come with peaceful intentions, there is no cause for alarm."
"Who's speaking?"
"Luna, be careful," Sam expressed. "This doesn't happen to you often, does it?"
"Hey-" Luna called out again.
"Please board me immediately, this concerns you and the others. Link-A and Link-N are heading to the Black Network where the killer of the twins has burrowed himself into."
"What?!" Luna thought she misheard. "That guy- That motherfucker is hiding in there?!"
"This feels like a trap," Sam voiced with concern. "I wouldn't trust-"
"This is no deception, Sam. I am to transport you directly to the Black Netwrok, and you are to rendezvous with the two clones on their way to the base. Apart from them, Lincoln has gathered two allies to aid him in this battle, so it is advisable that you all meet up and go in together."
"Lincoln- What, he's heading towards the plsce, too?"
"Yes, they are all eager to resolve the issue before they can move further into McMahon's territory, which has now been uncovered already. I will add the final ally to the group before you get there. Now please..."
Site Prime
Before she knew it, Lynn had come out prematurely, not on the designated time slot she was accustomed to. The entire site had suffered a blackout that left all cells to be opened- the perfect escape was here, with her and all the other phenos around storming the halls, stampeding to freedom, screaming out their triumphant battle cries. Lynn, running among the crowd, had gained back her speed powers the minute she stepped out, racing away through the guarded checkpoints, aiding the mob of phenos to not face any opposition.
This place would soon be overrun as fast as they'd have gotten out.
"LYNN LOUD!" The LinKAPACITY artificial intelligence was catching up fairly quickly to undo the wrongs happening all around. "Luna, Lincoln and the clones are assembling to the Black Network! Head there now! It is of extreme urgency and time sensitive!"
Lynn only stared at the intercom speakers, confused but accepting of it. Not like she had any better plans, let alone an idea of what was happening in the now.
She'd know soon enough.
Washington, D.C.
No answer, they might've run into some sort of problem, or they had been too busy to answer, the perfect implication that it was going his way, and if that were the case, the day started out rather marvelous indeed when in nature, he'd hate it. Coffee in his system, and the sunlight still coming out to brighten another long freaking day, McMahon readied himself when standing right in front of the crowd of reporters and cameramen for different network outlets. This was a special occasion, and a hard one that he called upon to address the current issued he had on his plate, main course being the video and the pointer blame he received by some random punk in a skull mask.
Truthfully, it should not have mattered, but these were words founded on truth, where anyone looking closely at it could very well see who and what his goals were. And he came onto the podium with four special guests behind him and his team of security agents.
"In the recent events that have taken place within our beloved nation," he began, confidently speaking out with his pride and ego, "It has become clear that the pheno menace will continue to thrive and possibly expand out of American jurisdiction. We, as a society, face the consequences of this unprecedented dilemma that continues to reshape our very way of life. We will not stand for pheno criminals or any threats that have their name on it. Secondly, I wish to address this unjust allegation as seen on wide television. I am not in league with the conspirators behind the gruesome chaos responsible for the kidnapping and killings of hundreds of innocents, and to further show my allegiance to the cause, for the good of mankind..."
He stepped back and held his hand out to introduce the four special guests behind him. These select four were mere teenagers at first glance.
These four, three boys and one short girl, standing firmly without so much as a formal smile, hands set behind their backs as if they've received proper mannerisms through vigorous training.
"The idea of a pheno force was misused by the old program the Patriot Division, but it is my humble honor to publicly introduces a reinstated attempt at another. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, O give you the Teenagers of Justice!"
And Dylan Blood was within the crowd, angrily watching from his spot, looking up at the high and mighty McMahon.
AN: The unparalleled Blood War commences in the following chapter, full of blood, violence and death that can only be brought to you by yours truly! Everyone assembles to the Black Network, the clear war zone for the final fight that decides the victors in the end! Who wins and walks out with their lives?! Who will die?!
Next; the heartbreaking conclusion to the Kapacity Korp saga!
Excuse the delay, I've been juggling around this chapter with two future chapters for two future arcs. Timeline X vastly approaches, followed by...
You'll just have to wait for it. I might be inclined to go, ha. Until next time!