Act IV: Bloodier, Chapter VIII: Blood War

August 6th, 2030 - Washington, D.C.

"These select four have underwent physical and mental evaluation, out of a hundred young phenos who had surrendered themselves to our many Korp facilities. They will receive the proper training needed to-" McMahon suddenly winced, moustache twitching the very second he caught sight of Dylan Blood, right there im the crowd, exposed and in the open right underneath the noses of his incompetent agents. "-Combat the rising threats as seen on the television when regular authorities are incapable to fight, even with the issued anti-pheno weaponry that has come to be."

Dylan narrowed his eyes.

"If this team would be so kind as to introduce themselves- This is a perfect opportunity to gain the trust of the public, to see that they have no reason to hide their identities. Meli?"

The girl of Mexican heritage in a gray sweater and yoga pants, came up to the mic, swinging her pig tails about gorgeously, spoke into it in a calm but stone-like manner. "Hello, I am Meli Ramos, and I am a pheno-"

Look at these present four, just merely subjecting themselves to the puppet roles without a single fact, an idea of who exactly Peter McMahon is... Ignorant children accepting to play the good guy role. Arrogance! Dylan set his left hand to his side, feeling around the precious revolver he'd have kept throughout the start of his deadly solo campaign, making sure McMahon could see him act upon.

"-Can make a diplomatic change-" Meli continued.

McMahon had stepped next to the three boys and yanked out his walkie-talkie, giving an order that alerted the pale madman on instant. Only four security agents and four phenos, and six rounds in the chamber. Odds stockpiled against him- but his secret weapon had yet to be drawn into the open. And rather than let them draw first blood, Dylan exposed his firearm and took aim just as the agents started mobilizing from the podium. "Fire! Deadly force is authorized!"

One headshot. Two headshots. "Nrghhhh!"

The assailant took one in the shoulder, flipping to the side. He was fast to remove his finger off the trigger to not waste out any such bullet- and when he focused again, right down from the diagonal stance he took, Dylan fired away at the last two, trying to hit them wherever he could, and ended up wasting all his rounds in pure desperation in the end, a flaw that he had to punish himself for in the later. He got them anyway, but- "Damn it!"

The various newscasters had moved away from the scene, some still taping it live while the rest had shut gone dark to avoid the graphic nature of the firefight occurring here.

"Go on!" McMahon commanded the new pheno team, "Do what you've been assembled to do! Make America proud!"

The group of teenagers jumped right into the dispersing crowd, making their way towards Dylan, all of the circling him like wolves ready to make their collective kill. From left to right, Meli Ramos, the telekinetic; Chad McCann, a redhead hardass with an ugly shape-shifter ability, being apparent to Dylan when the pheno transformed into his own skin; Leland Callaghan, a scrawny, short-haired fellow with one of those bug-eyed features, his whole physique turning moist white, a true close look at it revealed the entire body to be made of ice; and the last one was Benny Harrington, a zoomer in the making.

Phenos... Phenos who will let it get to their heads... The time for his last resort was now. Tucked in his sleeves were only two dampeners to cancel out their abilities, and the other two in the pockets of his black jeans. "Come on!"

Chad moved in first, his complexity and style compelling him to have the shooter all to himself. "This is what I live for! The fights, the endless violence!"

Dylan only feigned being injured to the point he was downed, a feeble assailant due only being secured, but it didn't work for Chad that way, the brutal teenager wanted to beat the shit out of something, but the only issue was that it was not allowed to be, and not specifically with the force of nature that lied in Dylan. He brought one dampener out and tossed it like a frisbee in a delicate manner, having it strike against Chad's black AC/DC shirt. It did its job and reverted him back to his own form, stopping him dead in his tracks in pure confusion. "Sorry, pal, but there can only be one!"

Dylan struck Chad with the butt of his revolver.

Skidmark, the thug-affiliated brand Anthony Dermont accepted, had fallen back from the aftershock of Dylan's retaliating hand. The toughest son of a bitch around these yonder parts was one step to being dominated, put in his place by the blood-boiled shorty. 'Why you-!"

Of course, this was the first time it had happened for Dylan, and neither he could figure out what to anticipate next. A firm punch landed, a strong one at that, and it was hin lucking out, but he feared that it was just a one-hit wonder, nothing more than that. He frantically breathed, arms and legs shaking about unevenly. His young heart had raced past the hundreds, rendering him immobile and dead-on scared. Scared of what could have been coming if he didn't stop.

If he didn't stop.

The two were in the boys' locker room, right after a slow and tiring class of physical ed had ended, and Skidmark had done the same shit, sung the same song in the beat and melody once more, but not unto Dylan this time. Skidmark, without his cronies, had picked on Nicholas Cromwell, the rich snob with a dirty drug addiction that everyone knew about- and the very same one being kicked out by his parents for temporary extensions that served as punishment.

"Dylan, I don't need your help!" Nicky grunted out, recovering from his own pain, back being shoved right into the lockers. "As for you, Anthony-"

"You both are as good as dead," Skidmark vowed, setting the center stage for his killzone. "You two-,

Dylan sprinted right into Skidmark, pushing him back down again with the built-up momentum he gained rather quickly, making him trip on himself hard. "Not today, you son of a bitch."

"Watch your mouth if you know what's good for you, maggot," Skidmark warned, turning to his side to pick himself up.

Only, this would not be allowed by the radical, scrawny brat.

The beasts of the world are none other than ourselves. We are the very monster we fear, we are the creatures of the night, the ones that lurk within that endless abyss of the darkness. Since the very beginning, the cavemen, the Neanderthals, the earliest examples of homosapien are depicted as the violent nomad, the brutal hunter of the ravenous nature of old times. In a world of kill or be killed, it was only ever so simple, be the predator... Or be the prey.

With this in mind, you can surely make the connection that I am not a firm believer of the one you call God. I never saw the point in it, and I don't care to bother. Tell you what, if that concept was a real one, would things be the same as it was now? I don't think so, I truly do not. The only thing I've ever understood, in the earliest days of my life, was the inevitable existence of bloodshed. Violence. War. Segregation. Hatred to the core.

The notion of peace and civility is the grandest of lies, a mere folly of a game that has no true purpose but to keep us all in chains, mentally drugged and enslaved away from our true, triumphant nature. You are what you've been for centuries past, a devil in human skin, or maybe a true human in a masquerade. As much as it pains me to say that I dislike a certain type of beast human, the suppression of all is an act intolerable, a sort of crime against nature. An outburst is treated like a disease when it's posted on social media, you have to understand it's regular human nature. We don't always have control over our actions, it's not exactly rocket science. No, this isn't to justify the actions of people who have committed crimes while under such influence, but what is their sentence? Surely it isn't the right hospitality assistance, but jail time. They want you off the street rather than help you because, well, they don't care about you. They don't care about you...

Unless you have money.

I have multiple grievances with a whole lot of things, please bear with me.

I'd love to give in to my nature when it most pleases me, without judgment or eyes on my back. Rest assured, I am not planning to commit crimes that paint me on the same threat levels as those Freights. I'm sure you know about them, you've gotta have learned. They had the right idea but the wrong prey was chosen as their target. Had I control of such a terror group, I'd sic them onto the rich. Steal from the rich, give to the poor to balance it out. The odds must be evened, the elites...

Those elites, the scumbags of Wall Street, the entrepreneurs relaxing in their castles, the tallest buildings of New York City. The penthouses in Seattle. Million dollar estates. All that money they spent to fatten themselves rather than the suffering homeless, those poor orphans, the veterans of every war made from a mess, a transgression from one side or the other, perhaps both.

Case in point, and this is how these two arguments are connected; the rich can do as they please because of money, while we can't. We, the middle class and below. I am middle class scum with a family that just barely makes the cut, and I can expect no financial help from the top dogs, cause that isn't how it works and it won't be how it will. Not unless the game can somehow change, and you know what?

That's why I'm here. I will be the new face of modern revolution.

Dylan gained the upper hand, kicking Skidmark repeatedly, striking at his stomach, his face, making him so dreadfully cry and moan once he had been reduced to nothing. Nicky himself had backed away from this scene, scared shitless of this explosive scene of unrelenting, destructive violence that could have been avoided.

No, no, it could not have.

Now

Chad McCann had fallen first of the four, but the fight hadn't ended for the regular human.

Teenagers... Teens of Justice... What a joke. Dylan moved past the downed Chad, rushing towards the ice-skinned pheno, running into his next fight.

"Arrogant psycho!" Callaghan smirked cockily, displaying a light example of the power he possessed by simply raising his hand out, magically emitting beams of cold air that froze Dylan's left leg upon contact. "That ought to hold him! Hey, senator, we've caught the criminal!"

Meli went over to take a look at Chad, pressing her fingers on his jugular vein. "He's only knocked out."

Dylan held on to the one dampener still in his grasp as he pretended to break his leg out of the ice. He focused his eyes on Callaghan, making an angry face to prod him into coming over, which he did. "See that? That's the power of the Snowman, babes!"

"Snowman ain't shit compared to me," Benny Harrington scoffed, running literal circles around him.

Dylan twitched upon seeing Harrington show off. Another zoomer douchebag...!

"Oh, I've certainly heard of you, seen you in action," Benny began. "You killed those two girls everyone loved. Then again, what can you expect from a pair of girls, especially blondes" wielding that power meant for hardened men?"

"Oh, so pheno powers are meant for the worthy, strong men?" Meli had shown some disgust and directed it down Benny's throat. "Piss off with that, I've got just as right- Jeez, Chad is heavy!"

"You were saying?" Leland snickered, emitting cold breath from his mouth. "Need help, princess?"

"Ugh," Benny moaned, approaching Dylan, bending down to defrost his leg via super friction. "This might be a little hot."

Dylan found his chance; the very second Benny had burned through the ice and liberated Dylan, the pale-skinned killer pulled out the small dampener and slammed it against Benny's head, quickly disabling his powers. "Gotcha!"

Benny threw up his arms in an attempt to distance himself from the man, but instead receiving a shin right to the face, smashing and breaking his nose so easily. Benny fell back, beaten already by Dylan when Meli and Leland had seen him go again. Leland dropped the unconscious Chad on Meli, challenging her to handle the big boy. "How-?!"

Dylan saw his only opening towards McMahon while the senator had been watching atop the podium. "QUIT CLOWNING ABOUT AND GET HIM!"

"PETER MCMAHON!" Dylan screamed in rage, picking up a gun from one of the fallen agents, taking aim at him. "PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES!"

"FUCK-"

"BACK TO HELL WITH YOU!" And Dylan Blood fired the rest of the club's bullets at McMahon, taking down the mastermind tyrant behind the genocide agenda, satisfied only when McMahon fell. By then, Leland, the self-christened Snowman, grabbed and froze the handgun, breaking it into bits in the madman's hands. Dylan dropped them and set one down his left pocket, yanking out the third dampener to use on this ice-cold pheno. "Bullseye!"

"What is this?" The Snowman character returned to normal, baffled that his abilities were canceled out before the fight was over. "No!"

"Oh, yes!" Dylan placed his hands on the pheno's ears, locking on tightly for a powerful headbutt. And then again, just to be on the safe side. It couldn't have killed the Snowman bastard right away, but the ears would be left to bring about pain when he woke up.

Meli was the last one standing of this pheno team, but Dylan used Leland as a shield. "Don't you dare-"

"Stay back or I break his neck!" Dylan warned. "The man I want here is McMahon only, don't be a hero!"

Meli wiggled her fingers, still assessing the situation. "You criminal scumbag..."

"From where I'm standing, you're the one aiding and abetting one!" Dylan protested. "You and these brainless leeches answer to the man in league with James Shepherd! The one just above Shepherd, for that matter!"

"Y-you're lying! He took us and saw our potential-"

"Potential to be ignorant!" Dylan mocked. "Don't be absurd, he couldn't ever possibly come to care about you all."

"RAMOS!" McMahon wailed, voice pitched higher. "YOU KILL HIM! DO IT NOW!"

"S-sir, he's got a hostage- Callaghan's in danger!"

"DO IT, OR HE GETS AWAY! WHAT'S ONE LOSS MEAN OVER THE DEFEAT OF THIS LUNATIC?!"

"B-but..." Meli's hazel eyes widened with grief. "I can't hurt him."

"MELI!"

"Is that the man you wish to serve?!" Dylan spat back out at young Meli. "Giving you orders to off me at the cost of this young pheno?! His life just to ensure I fall is an inhumane example to be set! Sacrilege, not sacrifice!" Dylan moved backwards, still holding Leland in a hold, advancing slowly to the podium. "Be smart about this, girl, I have no real incentive to bring about harm-"

"And yet-" Meli looked towards the reporters and staff who stayed around to film the entire scene live, even with the display of bloody ruthlessness in range. She displayed her power, forcing the many cameras she could into the air, lining them up around Dylan's space. "You're showing the entire world what you really are!"

"The boy is my insurance from you, from that!" Dylan one-handedly pointed up to the cameras. "I'd never trust the likes of you to wield such a power, even with this "proper" training McMahon claims you've gone through! I'm only acting in the true desires for America! We don't need phenos, and we don't need you! Stand down and get yourself a neutralization agent for your sickness!"

"Sickness?! I never asked for this!"

"You planned to keep it out of a sense of superiority!" Dylan exposed. "It's not that complicated and neither are you! Otherwise you would not be here right now, would you?"

"Get out! Get out of my head!"

"What's wrong, understanding what the painting looks like now?!" Dylan pushed Leland's mug towards the camera. "The Teenagers of Justice have now been defeated by me! They, your beloved country-runners, put their belief in the weakest of phenos rather than keeping their dangerous ones on the payroll. The Patriots had the right idea, but failed massively in bringing in the ex-Freight! At least the government goons know what to do in that aspect, but we cannot afford to put these pathetic excuses for defenders on the frontlines of our wars. We already have soldiers, we have the Feds! Cops, even, if you believe in them! There will not be a change in society if I have anything to say about it! Yes, I took the lives of Velocity and Momentum on public, that was nothing more than to show that they can be killed, and they will all be if they dare go against me!"

Meli opened her mouth but no words flowed out.

"I've made my statement, I will no longer use words to talk! I am Dylan Blood-" He wound up snapping Leland's neck right before the multiple rows of cameras, then letting the body plummet. "I am the Pheno-Killer! I will be the face of this anti-pheno revolution, follow me! Take to the streets and murder or neutralize all the phenos before they take over your world! The world belongs to the commoners, it is to be of balance! Wear my mask, spark the fire, and-"

Meli forced the cameras towards Dylan in a fast-thinking attack, prompting the speech-giver to fling out his last dampener and throw it onto Meli's face. The cameras fell around him, and he picked one up to make another such example out of her. "How rude, not letting me finish, you little girl" you-,

He picked up a camera with one hand, pointing it down at Meli as he descended. She flicked her hands repeatedly, terribly confused as to why she had lost her telekinesis. "No!"

"I win!" And he swung the camera like a bat, delivering it right into Meli's head.

"RAMOS! C-CALLAGHAN!" McMahon rasped, lying on his back, bleeding out from the gunshot wounds on his shoulder and leg. "DAMN YOU, YOU CURSED CHILD!"

"Not today, my good man!" Dylan merged victorious here, but could it possibly go his way a little while longer? Now that he had his big target cornered, it was due time to retrieve this special package and return to the Black Network. "You've done your best, but to tell the right people where the base was would risk you being exposed as the criminal you are... Just as I assumed, right?" He met the older man lying weakly on the podium, fists stretched out against the floor.

"Son of a bitch- You motherless son of a bitch!"

In all my years of living- and I'm quite young for my age yet- I've seen it all. I've seen various figures, self-proclaimed as entitled, important over any other. False kings with monstrous egos. The Karens. The snobs. The piece of shit politicians, the powerful and rich, the stuck-up. Infections, they are all infectious to society because...

They be.

They are in terms of people, just like I am able to be. The more I begin to see, the more I understand that no such person is innocent. No such person is innocent, so ask yourself this;

What the fuck are you doing to make a change? Don't you dare stay in your seat and scroll past this rant and rave of mine. Surely you have a reason to live, right? Mom and dad fucked and gave birth to you, and in natural terms, you exist, therefore you are! But why do you breathe? Why do they when they don't wish to contribute to the well-being, the positivity, the health in the good cause?

The way I see it, all humans are greedy, selfless and violent. For this reason, we are all unworthy to be. Hitler had the right idea but targeted the wrong group. The entirety of the world must be destroyed for perfection of peace. I am Dylan Blood, and I believe in a new world order.

"I've got you on the end of your rope!" Dylan declared, meeting McMahon close enough to deliver the hard knockout kick with his foot. "Me!"

The scene stood idly silent, perfect with the weather. No winds that emitted it as a breezy, noisy place, yet the stillness was the thing of dread. The onlookers, those witnesses of the news outlets were frozen in place, quite distant from Dylan and the very fighting arena that made it dangerous for everyone around. The phenos four presented by the false good guy would wake up too late, find their master gone and to be left feeling how they should have been; as failures and the useless teens they were beforehand.

It was over, and before he could get an idea to preach to the media, to these witnesses, the back-up law enforcement would soon be on their way, so he'd have to return back. "It's time to go, old man!"

Elsewhere

Lori, Lincoln and Darcy were crammed in an old pick-up truck, driving to their main destination. Lori, concentrated behind the wheel, kept her face locked on the road, silent while Lincoln and Darcy were locked in chat.

"It's just one person, as far as I'm aware of," Lincoln mentioned. "But that doesn't mean he'd be the only opposition to face. McMahon's probably sent his men there, if he hasn't already. Some clean-up crew to tie up this loose fucking end."

Darcy merely nodded, agreeing without thinking much about it. "That makes sense from all that I know. Geez, Lincoln, you really fell deep into someone's political bullshit."

"It's just another massive headache on my part," Lincoln grunted, annoyed. ""All of it, right down to the core. Goddamn it-"

"What's with the irritated nature?" Darcy could only see the outcome being in their favor yet. "Holding something back?"

"It's the cycle is what gets me," Lincoln began to explain. "We've just jumped from one target to another, and the issues are already getting out of hand. All of this... I hate to say this, but this mess-"

"You realize it now, little brother?" Lori would have been proud if the shit wasn't this feral. "You're finally seeing that you can't simply shoot the enemies anymore, not like this. Not when the real enemy here is an idea."

Lincoln grew quiet, but Lori could tell that he was seething inside.

"That hurts my head," Darcy interrupted. "I mean I get it, but it just... Yeah, okay."

"It's too damn late to keep a lid on everything now," Lori believed. "Phenos exist, people will want to contain them, others will want to weaponize them. Not everyone sees them as the people they were before Lisa got to them, which makes it all the more sadder for them who never asked for it. Some of these phenos are undeserving of this, especially the young ones."

"When you put it like that..." Darcy readjusted herself in her seat.

"Then, as we've all seen earlier, there are those who only see them as menaces in society are going to act out against them. Well, they have already but to this level? A public message live on air? It truly takes an irrational person to do such a thing, and if he did this, then what could the next person do?"

"Hmmm..."

"This is the true nature of the world today, all these problems and our increasing inability to be the solution."

"Thanks for that pep talk," Darcy sarcastically peeped. "I can only help so much at Lincoln's request, but I have a life, I've got friends, I don't want to be roped into it further than what I've signed up for."

"Don't you dare have any second thoughts," Lincoln warned, trying to not come off as threatening. "I understand your concerns, this is all I need your help with."

"Alright, Lincoln," Darcy accepted. "I'm happy to help you, if it means saving pheno lives."

Black Network - Hours Later

"-Up?" Dylan snapped his fingers, waking and startling special guest Peter McMahon. "I need you to be awake for this grand day!"

"Uh-" When he tried to move, the aging senator had found himself bound to a chair, tightly tied into it with rope. His glasses were no longer on his face either. "Boy, how dare you-?" He came to find that his sounds were still aching, but Dylan had stopped the bleeding by taping up rags to the holes. Still, the poisoning was in effect.

"You're the big catch of the day, now I want to know all that you know."

"What-" McMahon remembered the team of mercs he had deployed to the base. "Death squad- How the living hell did you know?"

"I didn't know who exactly you'd send but I worked up traps inside and outside," Dylan openly shared. "The radius, up to twenty feet up there, it's rigged with landmines and claymore. They came from the north, wandering right into the landmines. As for the claymores, I hope no poor animal gets the hand of misfortune to set one off. Someone or sometime will, eventually, that's inevitable."

"Then...?" McMahon began to feel his triumph over this matter dwindle down. "No... There's no way I could have lost to such a child! You, some miserable brat-"

"Accept it, no matter how much it hurts your ego, your reputation."

The senator shook violently in the chair, trying to bust out of his prison. "Bastard child- How could you possibly know about me? About all this?! You're just some nobody, a damn maniac-" The man seemed to have gotten on his nerve; Dylan dragged him backwards to the floor by his entire head. "Ackk!"

"Can a nobody come here? Get to this point?" Dylan kept him down, stomping his chest. "Did you really believe that no one would look your way? Is that the problem here?"

"Why did you show up now?! Why didn't you put yourself on the fucking radar?!"

"And give myself away?" Dylan laughed. "Ha, don't be this stupid, McMahon. It had to be this way, with my movements being oh-so undetectable. I've come at the right time, and look at you now! Everything you, James Shepherd and Lisa Loud sought to accomplish, I will cut out off before it can happen again! I will destroy all Kapacity Korp facilities for harboring the many accessories to your crimes! Anyone with such a funny idea is simply another body on the steel table at the coroner's."

"Crimes?!" McMahon rasped. "Ignorant boy, America runs on illegal activities! The bodies of our dead military members are cut up to transport heroin, that is how the CIA is funded! We start these endless wars to profit from them! We'll never stop sellijg guns! We'll never stop enabling, advertising everyday violence! The nation- The world, it gets overpopulated! Of course we rely on mass shootings to cut down on population! The forefathers will see to it that all agendas, regardless of what public opinion is, are kept going! This is how it's been for so long, and it'll never stop!"

"Maybe, maybe not, but today, I know what I can dismantle! The legacy of Vial Corp is to be tarnished! After all..." Dylan looked to the doorway, a faint smile forming. "This is the perfect place to change the game."

Lyle, moving on all fours, peeked his head in like a mindless predator, his mouth slobbering out drool. He growled about, stunning McMahon enough to stutter.

"My war is about to begin."

August 7th, 2030

Linka and Leven ventured into the woods area on foot, trying to locate the entrance of the Black Network. They managed to stumble on the right track when they came across the dead bodies of McMahon's hired hands, stopping to check on one of their pulses. "Dead," Leven declared, grabbing one of the rifles. "The place was rigged with explosions, so this Blood guy isn't just all show and tell. Watch your step-"

Linka fucked it and frolicked right through ahead, humming happily like it was nothing.

"Ahh, Linka, be cautious of your steps!"

"We ain't gonna die, fam," Linka sang. "We gonna fly high. Hee heeeee!"

"Dare you get blown up-" The snapping of a twig stopped him, making him face towards the south's direction. "Shit-"

Linka froze in place, turning a non-stop 360 angle. "Boog? Elliot? Is that you?!"

"Linka, refrain-" Leven distracted himself in trying to warn Linka to duck that he missed the charging beast of green stampeding in his direction. The Superbeast of Dadetown didn't expect to find the clones here, but to have them running around with no supervision, especially after what they've done in the Patriot Division would not have been acceptable by Luna's standards. Leven was swept off his feet, falling sideways, losing the rifle in the process. "LUNA!"

"LUNA?!" Linka raced back to the fallen Leven- and let herself be struck down by Luna. "Oh, hi!"

"Have you come here to fix your mess?" Luna growled out.

"We've come to avenge the almighty twins!" Linka cheered. "Nice to see my virtual child brought you here!"

"What the hell happened to the both of you anyways?!"

Linka picked herself up, stretching out her legs. "Was that really necessary?"

Luna transformed back into her human form, shrugging her body off after the change. "It might have been my lizard instincts, sorry."

"Where's the lava girl?"

"Oh- Sam!" Luna yelled out, leading Sam to peek from behind a tree.

"It was McMahon," Leven filled in. "The three of us walked into a trap, Luna. He had us in a cage."

"Shit..." Luna shook her head. "I had a second thought whether or not we joined in, but it would have risked- I mean, I figured it would have put you three more at risk. Damn it..."

"Speaking of three," Sam realized, looking around, "Where's the Asian girl?"

Linka exhaled through her nose, sounding off as done and unable to do easily reply. Luna and Sam both looked to Leven, who just solemnly shook his head in silence. "She didn't make it, she's dead."

"Dead-" Luna let out, then silencing herself. "Bloody hell, that's..."

"Well, geez," Sam peeped. "I'm not gonna ask... I'm sorry."

"It was McMahon who murdered her," Linka rolled out, her chest hardening in anger. "Right there, right in front of us, to mock us-" Her fists formed when her hands folded. "I'm here to get this over with, and then the fuzzy-lipped motherfucker will get what's coming to him."

"Do not," Luna started to warn, "Do not suggest what you're thinking! I won't have that, not from Lynn, not from Lincoln, and not from you this time!"

"Coward!" Linka accused, pointing her finger out at Luna. "McMahon and Blood must be executed! I am all for stabby and shooty, I was hoping that you'd see some sense! Don't you want to avenge your twin sisters?!"

"Not like this!" Luna declared, keeping her ideals. "I've taken life, I know that, but-" She paused, taking a long sigh of defeat. "But I'm wrong! I've been wrong and I can correct it by not giving into that! I don't want it, I don't want to turn into what they are! Nothing like Lincoln, nothing like Lori! That Lynn, she backstabbed me and tossed her old ideals out the trash by siding with him! I want to believe that..."

Leven stepped up right to Linka's space to make sure she played fairly.

"I want to believe that all life is sacred and worthy, and by extension, that means that you five, all of you clones, have a right to walk among us! Maybe you weren't created for that reason, I know that, and maybe you were here to be human weapons, but there's more to you! You don't have to be some psycho killer! You don't have to be wrapped up in these messes!"

Linka opened her mouth to say her piece- and her piece wasn't there to be said.

"You, girl Lincoln, I don't like that you carry his ideas, his demented viewpoint and personality, but I wouldn't wish harm your way. For all of you, and I'm thankful you aren't with the bad guys-"

"We're both here to right our wrongs, Luna," Leven assured. "We might have had a hand in adding to the flame, enabling people such as Dylan Blood, but we'll correct it, and we will do so together! The four of us-"

"The five of us!" Lynn arrived, leaning against a tree, crossing her arms like she was made of cool. "Don't count me out just yet."

"Lynn..." Luna greeted with some resentment in her voice.

"Hey, welcome back to the fic!" Links clapped. "Haven't seen you since Act III! You won't believe the crazy off-country adventure we had in Afghanistan! Oh, it surely doesn't feel canon too much, but I have a feeling I'm not done seeing those guys!"

"You guys are all battle-ready as I am?" Lynn crackled her knuckles, leading front, having her back to them as to avoid Luna altogether.

"Hey, Lynn," Luna was not so quick to avoid the elephant in the room, "We're going to have words after this."

So you say, Luna... So you say.

"It's five against just the one," Leven reminded the group. "Be wary, we have yet to see how he fares in battle with phenos, considering he managed to capture the twins and bring them back here..."

"That means..." Lynn slowed down to a T.

Luna placed a hand to her stomach. "Their bodies... We're-" Sam locked and held onto Luna's hand for support.

"Linka and I will clear out the rooms first-"

"Uh, hello?" Lynn snapped her fingers like crazy. "Zoomer girl here!"

"Not advisable, you'd be cutting yourself from us, susceptible to running into a trap!"

Lynn flashed a salute, smirked at them, and then broke away from the group, running further to find the entrance. "Later, gator!"

"Lynn!"

Leven and Linka both broke into a run, chasing after her. "She'll give us all away! Hurry!"

"Amazing quality writing! She just forgot she'd come across the bodies right after you mention that we'd have to be clearing the rooms! L-O-L!" Linka broke into heavily laughter of the maniacal tone. "There's not a strong thought in that head!"

Leven came across the hatch and jumped down, sticking the landing after rolling forward, rifle pointed forwards when he stood back up. Linka slid down the ladder, still snickering to herself. "Boy, good times, eh, Leven?"

"Fucking Lynn ran down further ahead-" Leven moved in deeper into the dimly lit base. "Eyes on."

"Read ya loud and clear!" Linka stayed behind Leven as they both moved in.

Meanwhile, Lynn had already accessed six of the many rooms in the long base when she heard a faint metal scrape further down. She stopped running it and pranced in her sneaky footsteps, carefully and cautiously. No telling what she could find here, but she knew the very person lying in wait around here, the murderer of the twins. Just maybe, this was all easy.

Maybe it wasn't.

She heard it become louder, frequent- and then slower the more she came towards the source. It led her to a room on the left, and she leaned to cover before she entered, peeking her head right into it.

Dylan smacked the dampener right into her face, having it stick on her long enough for it to suppress her speed for the time being. "It's great to see you again, Lynn."

Lynn jumped back and removed the small object from her face. "Shit, it really is you!"

"I can't begin to imagine how funny this is..." The pale-skinned young man pulled out his signature weapon, the silver Magnum revolver, out to play, taking aim at Lynn. "Don't even try to disarm me-"

Lynn moved, trying to run at her unnatural speed- and he shot her left foot with perfect precision, which had her fall over in agony, leaving her in pain, confusion and, worst of all, defeat. "DAMN IT!"

"I told you!"

"C-CLONES!" Lynn screamed into the long corridors. "LUNA!"

"...What?" The first word surely got his attention. "The clones are here?"

"It's- It's over, we have won!" Lynn claimed. "You're about to become mince meat!"

Dylan kept the gun to Lynn's head, but moved out into the hallway, looking down both ends. "So, you're not alone, I see. Granted, I should not be surprised, I've led you all to me, and now it can end here. Good, Good, the five clones I've gotten McMahon out of are next."

"Coward! Why won't you fight me like the man you re pretending to be?"

"That's childish, Lynn," Dylan believed. "Surely you can understand that."

"Monster!" Lynn flipped herself on her stomach, dragging herself to him to strike against his legs. "My young sisters didn't need to die! They were good girls, heroines with a reputation! Beacons of hope!"

"Beacons can be extinguished, and in this case, they were!"

"Y-you said McMahon- You've reached out to him?!" She had stopped attacking him when he moved out of her range. "Uf!"

"He didn't see me coming, that's the greatest advantage in any war."

"What are you planning, huh?!" Lynn demanded to know. "What's your goal here, to kill us all?!"

"Extermination of the phenos, for one thing," Dylan responded truthfully, disappearing out of the room. "Jefferson, Sweetwater, playtime!"

Lyle, still controlled by the special concoction Medi-Sin, came crawling out of his room like a real dog, coming to his master's aid. "Rghhhhhh... Whooooo necksssssssst?"

"We've got intruders!"

Lindsey, also amped with Medi-Sin, joined Lyle and Dylan. "Oh, joy!"

"Earn back your lives by protecting me!" Dylan ordered them. "Get to it, capture if you must, kill if you can't!"

"N-no, what- What did you do to them?!" Lynn laid witness to Lyle and Lindsey, seeing them in their new, darker forms. "You truly are a coward!"

"I'll send them to die for my cause, but I do not expect them to merge victorious! At most, they can only slow down the enemy! My enemy!"

Leven and Linka were joined up by Luna and Sam after six rooms were cleared out. "Took you long enough!"

"Are you kidding, you guys-" Sam defended, cut off by a hushing Luna.

"Wait, wait," she alerted the crew. "I hear someone coming!"

Leven aimed the rifle down the sights. "Rapid ones?"

"No, not Lynn- Wait..." Luna held her breath for a few seconds, then- "Two different heartbeats! We've got a pair coming!"

"Let's give them the Loud family welcome," Linka snorted, folding her hands into fists. "Strike a pose!"

Luna readied her beastly form, charging without a second thought towards the two- and when Lyle and Lindsey revealed themselves, turning from the corner, she found herself stopping, her eyes widening in shock and surprise. "Th-the kids-"

"Oh, my God, it's th-those two," Sam stuttered.

"It's the femboy and Lola's competition from the show!" Linka raised and wiggled her fingers to greet them. "You've never looked better!"

Lyle and Lindsey rushed towards the group to fight on Dylan's command without so much as a word.

"Why do they look like that?" Sam wondered, noticing the uglier forms their faces took on.

"It's that same serum the Taggart girl took," Leven pieced together.

"The Taggart girl?" Sam repeated.

"Long story- Luna, be wary, their abilities have increased, I fear!"

"Increased?" Lyle pounced off the wall, forcing himself right onto Luna to attack from the air, roaring violently. "Shit-" Luna swung her arms up to strike him, keeping him off of her. In the midst of her counter, Lyle managed to scratch at her chest- and he fell in between her and the three phenos. He immediately got up and eyed then only for Leven to fire off the entirety of the rifle's magazine into Lyle at full auto. The bullets surely hit and dug into Lyle, but it didn't drop him.

"Oh..." Leven lowered the rifle. "I truly despise this Medi-Sin crap."

Luna came attacking Lyle from behind, slashing his legs and his back when he fell onto his knees, scratching out his blood and flesh through his clothes, and with her tail, she yanked him to the side of the wall with measured force. One second later, Lindsey attacked right when Luna was open and vulnerable, shoving her right into Sam. Leven and Linka moved to the side and dove in, with Linka throwing her punches and Leven using the rifle as a melee weapon.

"Headlock her!" Leven yelled to his clone sister. "We can end this'"

Lindsey knocked Linka down fairly easily, but was distracted for Leven to ram the weapon right into her head quickly and repeatedly. "Grauuugghhhhh..."

"I don't suppose we can unify to revamp the Junior Patriots?" Linka asked.

Leven dropped the empty rifle and tried to pick the young redhead up to pin her down. "Linka!"

"Huh- Oh!" The first clone pounced back up and wrapped an arm around Lindsey's neck from behind as she drove her knee up to the latter's back. "Down, down, down you go, darling!"

Leven stopped striking the weapon against Lindsey and stepped into the side. "Luna, takedown!"

Luna looked up and saw the perfect opening; she knew what Leven implied, pushed herself off the ground with her hands and charged right into both young girls like a quarterback hustling through the rival team. At the last second, Linka let go and did her best to push Lindsey towards the stampeding Luna, but Lindsey still didn't budge until Luna picked up the right momentum to knock her and Linka out of place.

Lyle, stumbling near weakly, moaned and bled, but the fragmented bullets that pierced his skin came exiting out of his body for it to heal. Sam stepped back, feeling scared and powerless. "He's still-"

Luna looked away from the fallen Lindsey, rejoining Sam. "Damn him."

"Red's out for the fight," Leven notified the girls. "Luna-"

Linka looked further down the Black Network. "Leven, you help them! Someone's gotta keep going!"

"What?!" Leven was outraged. "No, we have to stick together! We can fight him off together-"

"There isn't enough time!" Linka pointed to her forehead. "Not with this ticking time bomb in my brain! Leven... I need to."

"Leven, dude!" Luna screamed. "We're gonna need all hands!"

For a clear moment, the clone was conflicted, but this was as tough a call he had to make. "Okay... Okay, you be safe! Be safe, Linka! We'll catch up!"

Linka drew out her hidden piece, staggering off on her own towards Dylan Blood.

Please be safe... Leven prayed.

Lyle came galloping again, going for Sam. The golden-blonde girl barely ducked his quick movements, letting Luna and Leven do the wetwork. "I- I can't bring myself to hurt him!"

Luna swung her hands around at Lyle, but the young pheno ducked her attacks, merely leaping down and springing back up with both arms risen up to punch her chin. It sent her flying backwards- and Lyle was quickly tackled down to the ground by Leven. "Help me out here!"

Luna returned back to the fight, helping Leven hold the amped Lyle down. "Sam! Sam, take him out of the fight!"

And she stood there, unable to act, choosing her morality to remain in its whitened state. "L-Luna-"

Lyle swung his legs up, disconnecting Luna's grip from them, leading Leven to mount fully on him and deliver a nasty headbutt, which didn't fully do the trick.

"No, no!" Luna begged the young boy. "Stay down! Stay down, I don't want to hurt you!"

Lyle bit Leven's arm, shaking and wobbling his head violently to shove him off. "Gruhhhhhhgggghhhh..."

"He's stronger than I hoped he'd be!" Leven frantically stated. "Luna! Sam! The kid gloves-"

"No!" Luna jumped right over the two, dragging Lyle right into the wall when Leven had the gull to let go. "Kid- Snap out of it!"

Lyle kept moving, eager to take down his new prey, non-stop.

"I'm unable-" Leven wearily said. "I can't- Luna..."

"D-don't, there's gotta be another way-" Luna looked to Sam for answers. "Dude-"

"No, I can't... I won't allow myself to hurt-"

Luna brought her hands up to her face, staring deeply into her mutated claws. These claws of death so capable of taking lives with the swing of either one arm or the other. One swing, one jamming- One swing... She met Lyle's nearing face again. There was no way to slow him down except this only way. Luna hesitated, for she knew what it meant, she knew the ugliness of this action. "I- I don't want to! I don't want to do this to you-"

Lyle jumped up to attack Luna from the air.

You leave me no choice! You've left me no-!

Luna connected her claws right into his throat before the sandy-blond boy's feet kissed back upon the earth. The claws moved about within the neck, feeling the cold blood and the flesh from the young pheno's neck- and Luna yanked everything out of it, ripping up Lyle's throat. The gory flesh fell out with the mess Luna made- and she, not wanting to have him as their issue anymore, continued to tear away at his neck. She did so, and she had actually turned her face away from the grisly image she knew she'd see. Sam, too, turned away, leaving Leven the only hard-stomached person to lay witness of Luna's messy attempt to decapitate Lyle in pure desperation. Luna reached the spine, and by then, when she snapped at it, Lyle's body had been moving less, no longer squirming, his hands having lost control and grip of trying his hardest to prevent Luna from killing him.

And she killed him, her eyes closed now. She let the head tumble down onto the cement floor, and even after the this, even after both head and body fell, Luna could not bring herself to see the most bloodiest mess she had ever been responsjble for since the incident in Dadetown.

Lyle was dead, and the liquid remnants of him forever stained not only Luna's clothes, but her soul. "Oh, God- S-Sam... I didn't-"

"L-Luna..." Sam was truly disgusted and dismayed at this. "You- You just killed that boy-"

"I didn't want to- I didn't want to," Luna tried to justify, "B-b-b-"

Leven pressed his hands on Luna, trying to lead her away from the scene. "Come-"

For about less than ten feet did she walk with him until she fell purposefully on her knees, slamming her hands on the concrete floor. "No, no, no, no! I can't- I can't believe-"

Sam only watched, not approaching Luna despite the Loud woman beginning to uncontrollably burst into tears, dreadfully being in such anguish and despair of her own actions. "Clone, you should go ahead."

Leven left it to Sam and scurried further in to catch up to Linka...

...Only to find Linka's headless corpse lying down after a few turns, and some reddish ice fragments where her head once was. And nothing made sense anymore, for some maniacal, twisted reason. "No, no, not you- L-Linka..."

And he instantly remembered the promise he made her, the one where he vowed to get that cursed SCX chip out of her head so that she could live. So that she could have a life, a future among earth. And here, the very man who killed the twins, who quite possibly tricked them all into coming here, had done away with Linka, and by the looks of it-

Dylan Blood popped out of the corner of one of the rooms, holding a black microchip-shaped device in between his fingers. "All of that trouble for this little thing, can you believe it?"

"Why?" Leven simply asked, so coldly angry and devastated to have his clone sister stripped away from him. "Why her?"

"Are you dense?" Dylan wiggled the chip again. "I wanted this, Link-N, so I killed that clone to acquire it! And I don't regret a single thing."

"I'll make you regret everything!"

"Let's make that into a wager, shall we?" The Pheno-Killer tucked away the chip in his pocket, disappearing into the room. "You can't hurt me when you've seen my leverage on you Loud people!"

Leven picked up the fallen gun Linka had dropped, running after Dylan. "Don't think you can hide from me! You're cornered, there's no way out!"

"Let's not get so cocky, clone!" Leven peered into the room, having the Pheno-Killer surrounded only to find him, a badly-beaten Lynn lying on the floor, and Dylan having his revolver drawn out to the unidentified person sitting uncomfortably tied to a chair, with their face concealed by a burlap sack. "I have the advantage here!"

"Who the hell is that, huh?" Leven demanded. "No, these are obvious mind tricks, they won't save you-"

Dylan pressed his free hand upside the head of the mysterious person. "I pull this off, and I want you to take a good look, I want you to see that this is no trick!"

Leven kept the gun pointed. "It always is."

"I didn't warn you for shits and giggles!" Dylan repeated again, and removed the sack off from the figure's head.

And Leven gasped.

August 8th, 2030

Lincoln and Lori entered first, and Darcy maintained a lookout. Ten minutes in and out, and anything longer meant trouble, which meant Darcy's cue to jump in and provide aid. It was just the two siblings wandering about. "Just like old times, huh?"

"Stop talking," Lincoln wished, slowly moving ahead of Lori. "Talk later."

"Hm," Lori let loose, before she stopped and began sniffing away. "Stop, I smell- I smell way more blood here than outside."

The two went further in, quickly finding the corpses of both Lyle and Lindset and a gruesome mess of flesh and dried blood having stained the ground. Lori held her breath at the sight of this, feeling the need to vomit. "Dear God-"

Lincoln recognized the pair quickly, but he noted the weird "make-up" on their faces, wondering what that was all about, making the assumption that this was Dylan Blood playing psycho killer in here. "Keep moving."

Next, they were more astonished to find Linka's headless body, another victory of the madman. Lincoln didn't express his one feelings over this one, but for sure, this was inevitable, this was fated; he told himself he'd be the one to destroy the clone, but someone beat him to the punchline, and by extension, someone superior to him.

"Jeez..." Lori bent down to the body and moved its hands onto its chest. "I don't like this..."

"Neither do I, but we knew it'd be ugly."

Lori closed her eyes for a moment of silence. "Yeah..."

And they went down, right to the end of their journey. Right where Dylan Blood awaited them, he who was kept accompanied by Leven, Luna, and Sam, the three of them perfectly still on the left side of the room, leaning on the wall. Dylan had his revolver drawn to them, and a closer look upon the three told Lori that their powers were neutralized, as each of them held out a hand that contained an active dampener. "Guys-"

"Say nothing!" Dylan forced upon them, standing in between two figures sitting tied to chair, both of them having their faces concealed. "Oh, perfect! Absolutely perfect, the brother and sister who were affiliated with the Freights! Welcome, welcome to my funhouse!"

"Who- Who are those?" Lori asked.

"This..." Dylan pointed to the one on the left, the bigger one by size, ripping off the sack to reveal Lynn. "This is your zoomer sibling, rendered immobile by yours truly. As for this one here-" Dylan patted his hand on the other's head. "One of the clone girls I've caught in the corner of my eye, as to which one it is- Well, that's dealer's choice, but you get the idea!"

Instantly, did the pale-skinned man reveal a survival knife, dropped and kicked it to them. "Everyone can live, right here and right now if one of these two die! Lincoln Loud, or Lori Loud, make your decision!"

"Subjecting us to games with human lives, punk?"

"A taste of mere morality!" Dylan gave them incentive, taking aim at the three. "Third choice is to not make a kill, a rather smart move, but that means I will be the one making a random selection! No matter how you look at it, someone has to die, that is the rule!"

"You make it that rule!" Lori berated. "You're the bloodthirsty one here! I've seen you kill those three-"

Luna squeaked out of guilt.

"Those three?" Dylan repeated. "I've only taken the albino girl's life! Those other two, the phenos- They were all Luna's doing."

Lincoln directed his eyes at the brunette. "What- You did that, Luna?"

She stayed silent, bobbing her head down.

"Enough squabble! Thirty seconds or bang!"

Lynn opened her eyes slowly. "L-Linc- Lore... Me- Me..." Lynn was fatigue, so terribly weak, but she begged them for it to be her.

"Silence, Lynn!" Dylan suggested. "It is of their decision!"

Lincoln picked up the knife, eyeing down the concealed clone instead. Whichever one it was, whichever one Blood had caught in one of his traps, Lincoln wouldn't fret it, wouldn't be so damn haunted by killing one of the clones. None of them were ever real people in his eyes, so maybe-

Lori stopped him just as he moved. "He says it's a clone, but what if it's not?"

"What?"

"What if it's not, Lincoln?" Lori theorized.

"Twenty seconds!"

"Of course it's one of them," Lincoln accepted. "Nobody else he'd be interested in. My only hope is the other albino bitch."

Other albino bitch...? Dylan did his best not to make a funny face.

"Linc-" Lori felt some tiny incredibly off about this. "There's fine print-"

"Shut up, Lori!" Lincoln shouted. "For one damn second, just shut the fuck up!"

"Lincy..." Lori rubbed her arm. "I'm sorry I helped make you."

Whether it touched him or not, whether he felt something wholesome, she wouldn't ever know. He pushed on, and with knife in hand, he rammed the blade into the neck of the clone, moving it like a lever, wanting to believe he was killing the young, telekinetic Link-D. Blood flowed right through his hand, pouring down onto the floor. "How do I have your word you'll spare us all? And how do you know I won't try anything funny?"

Dylan let out a cruel laugh. "You asking me what my insurance is? Well..." And he proceeded to expose the identity of the clone to the group. And it was not at all any of the other three clones.

It was Lily.

"Wait-" Lincoln stammered, his eyes widening in horror. The knife in his hand fell out, clanking onto the floor.

Lori cupped both her hands over her mouth, her eyes going watery red with painful tears. Luna flipped her hands to drop the dampener, getting up against Dylan's wishes. "S-son of a fucking bitch-"

"Wait, no!" Lincoln gasped, hysterically applying his hands onto Lily's neck to stop the bleeding. "No, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Lily! Lily!"

"Dare not blame me for this, Lincoln!" Dylan began dissecting. "You were too damn quick to consider the sanctity of my own word! To you all, you see what this mindless monster can do, and you are all capable of being!"

"B-BULLSHIT!" Luna came rushing the orchestrator, only for him to fire and shoot her right in the head, the thunderous sound of the bullet being so fierce in this room of echoes that it stung everyone's eardrums. Dylan booked it out the room as fast as he could, retreating when it seemed, and to him, feeling like they'd be busy with each other after the death of this innocent girl, the youngest one of the family.

Luna had died right off the bat, sending Sam into an emotional frenzy. "LUNA!"

Lori fell onto her knees, submitting to her own broken emotional state. Leven didn't stay around, instead racing out after Dylan. "Lincoln! Lori! We can still catch him!"

He knew rage again, he knew how to put it to good use, and when he stared more at the dead Lily, when he accepted it forcibly that it was too late to patch up the server slashing- he didn't want to- he had to let go and give chase. That he did, only when he delivered a simple kiss onto the sweet sister's forehead, turning around and pushing past Lori. "DYLAN BLOOD!"

Dylan yanked out the wildcard for the chasers to have; the card was the wounded McMahon, forced on his knees right in the center of the hall. "You want me, but how about the next best thing?!"

Lincoln and Leven had caught up to them, both of them bewildered to see the senator at Dylan's mercy. "McMahon!"

"This piece of shit's not going to last long!"

"Make yourself useful and give yourself up, too," Lincoln angrily glared.

"No. No, I don't think I will," he denied. "This is all you get on this day, Loud."

"You mark my words, boy-"

"Oh, hold that thought!" Dylan kicked the senator down on his back, then firing another round onto the floor. "Tell him what you've told me! Go on, give him the reason to make you his current priority!"

"Tell me what?"

"You cursed psychopaths!" McMahon insulted before dropping a revelation. "Okay, the Freights, the Freights were our doing! Garrett Holland, Derek Snyder and Harrison Rains weren't the true founders of the Freight ideology! It was someone higher up, someone in the direct government who proposed this as a means to control population. With the Freights, the big boys established the War of Fire, which helped us by increasing our domestic force, make Americans more paranoid to want to arm themselves! The chaos in that, the money we make from selling their protection, and even at a few points, the three of them were ordered to hit specific targets made to look like mass bombings-"

Lincoln came up and swung his foot down upon McMahon's head. "Scum, all of you."

"You were a pawn in his game the whole ride," Dylan narrowed down. "Freights were what they wanted all along, just to stretch out and expand their security power."

"I want names," Lincoln growled. "Give me at least one."

"T-t-talk to Nathan Tyler Niles..." McMahon moaned out. "He's sure to have the right connections, with all that money he flaunts around."

Dylan unloaded his revolver, emptying out all the rounds but one. "I'll leave this here, this isn't my kill after all. Call it a present."

"You'd better stop-" Lincoln's words did nothing, and Dylan was already walking away like nothing had happened. "Bastard!"

"We'll meet again soon, Lincoln, I promise you that!" And before Lincoln and Leven could give chase, Dylan took exit stage with a Matrix Portal, leaving through the swirling blue oval.

"Damn it!"

"He truly bested us..." Leven realized. "He-"

Lincoln picked up Dylan's gift, cocking back the pin, gun kissing the side of McMahon's head. His back was to Leven, and Leven only assumed Lincoln was concentrated in the execution. "I need you to close your eyes."

Everything went still.

"You albino freak-" McMahon cursed. "Another will rise!"

"I didn't mean you."

Leven drew facial confusion. "Hm?"

Lincoln did a full 180 degree turn and fired at Leven right in the face. It killed him quickly, with no chance to regenerate from that if it were even possible. Wish fulfilled, and the body slumped over like a heavy tree coming down. "Goodbye."

"Y-you- You truly are an abomination-!" Lincoln found new ways to leave McMahon petrified. "You-"

With the empty weapon at hand, Lincoln put it to good use, utilizing it as the killing toy to bash McMahon's brains out repeatedly, right on center cue when Lori and Sam, carrying the injured Lynn, had come walking into the scene, watching the murderer of the Loud brother get to work as he had time and time again, getting himself bloodied up and messy.

Today, on this day, the clones Linka and Leven, the guilt-ridden Luna, the young phenos Lyle and Lindsey, the innocent Lily- which raised in Lincoln and Lori multiple questions- and the sinister senator had fallen. All of them, and the victory wasn't even a victory. The number had cut drastically out of their favor, and Dylan Blood was still on the loose.

"We... We're all that's left..." Lori sobbed. "Just us now..."

"You- You'd better have a good idea-" Sam hoped, sniffing. "I swear to God if you don't-"

"I do..." Lincoln shared. "I do."

And he looked at them in the same way he looked at the clones.

I do.

AN: Down to the last two chapters of this act. This was long to write, but it's here, and I'm glad it is. Luckily for me, the next ones are short. Oh, I hope to have it done before the one-year anniversary coming up real soon. The perfect time to have Act V's first chapter out.

Rest in peace to the fallen in this chapter. I spoiled OddCombo and retracted as a joke, he says he doesn't read this but let it be known it's a lie. Take that, Odd.

Meli, Chad, Benny and Leland will return. Chad McCann belongs to Flagg, and Leland Callaghan/Snowman is one of mine, an OC that predates far before TLH's time. You guys already know Meli and Benny from the show, at this point. I mean, I'd hope so.