{Chapter OST}
[PINK FLOYD] Dark Side of the Moon - On the Run
Chapter XX: On the Run, Part I
"YOU DID WHAT?!"
The sheer volume behind Lynn's voice made Lincoln and Lucy wince. Despite after what had happened between her and her brother and sister, from Lucy's dark magic to their shared, equally strange dreams, Lynn was still beginning to find out just how many times she could be caught completely by surprise in a single day. And now it was going from slightly annoying to catastrophic so quickly it made her head spin. With Lucy's prophetic warning that their entire family was now in mortal danger, by some sort of unknown force that was attracted by their superpowers, it was now up to the three of them to try and stop the tides of fate as best as they could.
It also did not help that Lynn was immediately curious about what Lucy had discovered while she was swimming inside Lincoln's head. Needless to say, she was far from happy with what her goth sister had told her what she saw buried in her brother's mind. At the moment, Lynn's brown eyes now alight in a fiery red-orange as she glared down at her brother.
"Lynn, I-"
"No! You don't get to weasel your way out of this! You blew our cover, after all that we went through?!" Lynn yelled, pointing a finger at her brother. "We all agreed on one thing, Lincoln! One thing! Hell, even you said that we need to control our powers as best as we can! And then you do this?! And for what, so you could brag how powerful you were over the rest of us?"
"Of course not! I'd never do that!" Lincoln argued, horrified that his sister would think that of him. "It was a mistake, Lynn!"
"Oh, a mistake? A mistake?!" Lynn sarcastically spat as she continued to lay into him without remorse. "I'll tell you what a mistake is, Lincoln! A mistake is catching a foul ball! Going to baseball practice while you're exhausted! Sleeping in a park on a weekday! What you did wasn't a mistake! It was just plain stupid of you!"
"Lynn, that's enough." Lucy spoke up. The witch eased a gentle hand on to her older sister's shoulder, feeling the warmth of her superheat beginning to flare. "We need to get moving. This can wait. Right now we have to warn everyone else and get home, quickly."
"Get off me!" Lynn yanked her shoulder from Lucy's grip. "I ain't done!"
"Yes, you are." Lucy, ever calmly, said back. "You need to cool off before you do something you'll regret."
"So what? You're taking his side now!?"
"I'm not taking anyone's side. I'm just as disappointed as you, but this isn't the time to do this, not now."
Lynn let out a snarling growl, her air around her beginning to distort from the heat she was emitting. The fact that Lucy was talking to her about calming down, like she was the villain in all this, only made her even more mad. With the way her sister was talking, Lynn felt like Lucy was trying to save Lincoln's skin from a well-deserved verbal beat-down. He deserved it, and it only made her angrier that she would take his side of all things, no matter what the goth said.
"Lynn, please listen to me." Lincoln suddenly pleaded, trying his best to calm his fiery sister down from her rage. Lynn whirled to him at the sound of his voice, but by some manner of good grace she allowed Lincoln to speak, which he immediately took as a sign that she was listening to him for however long she let him. "I never, never wanted this to happen. You know how much my power means to me, but I guess - I guess I got so caught up with what I wanted to do that just forgot about everyone else. You're right, it wasn't just a mistake. I let you down, the both of you."
Lincoln's eyes went downcast, and the more he spoke, the more shame he felt. Shame at himself for being so arrogant to believe that he could get away with such a lie, for putting his beloved family at risk from something that he could have prevented if he had made the conscious decision to play by the rules just for once. Lucy watched the spectacle, while Lynn continued to glare hard at her brother while he spoke.
"And you're right, this is my fault," He continued on, gesturing to himself, "It's my fault that we're in this mess right now. I took a risk behind everyone's back and screwed up, big time. Now we're in serious trouble because of me, and saying I'm sorry isn't going to fix it."
"Damn right it ain't." Lynn hissed, crossing her arms.
"Lynn."
"No Lucy, she's right. Words aren't going to help us. Which is why I need your help if I'm gonna make things right and get us out of this mess. I can't do this alone. I need you, so will you please help me do this?" Lincoln pleaded, hoping to find some sympathy from his sisters.
All he got from them was silence, but the looks they were giving them told a different story.
As much as she wanted to stay disappointed at him, and rightfully so, Lucy knew that Lincoln was speaking both realistically and honestly. His actions that he may have set in motion have not only drawn just him but all of the Loud family into something far more serious and dangerous than ever before. These were dark times for them, and while Lucy would have preferred to embrace such an atmosphere of fear, she recognized when her brother was trying to correct his mistakes. If he struck out on his own with his powers, Lucy sensed that Lincoln would only go so far before falling, but with all of his sisters working together, there might just be a chance. That, and Lincoln was never one to back down from doing the right thing when it came to righting his wrongs for his family.
He needed them, just as they needed him. And their family didn't abandon their own, no matter what. Lincoln's error might have lead them all down a dangerous path, but Lucy believed that it was bound to happen either way.
"I will help you. You screwed up, but then again, don't we all at one point?" Lucy said, a soft smile growing on her face. The young witch flexed an open hand to the sky, and appearing in a puff of black-purple sparks came her magic staff, which had been stylized to her liking. A large amethyst crystal lay embedded at the top, a gift from a local gem store, and the once-gnarled bark had been smoothed down to a fine black wooden rod. The young witch might not have liked what she saw lurking in her brother's head, but she wasn't going to let tackle this one alone. "We shall face this newfound threat together, as a family."
"Thank you, Lucy." Lincoln graciously said, ever thankful for his goth sister.
Their attention then went to Lynn, who opted to remain silently judging while Lincoln and Lucy made up. Her scowl remained, with her arms crossed over her chest. If they looked closely, they might have seen the air distorting around her as her heat kicked in.
"Lynn?" Lincoln whispered.
Even with her mouth shut, Lynn's mind was stuck in a raging storm. The jock turned her head away while she thought to herself, putting some distance between her and her siblings. To Lynn, it wasn't just the fact that Lincoln had used his powers behind their backs without them knowing, that she could forgive. She had done similar things in the past before they got superpowers. What really burned inside of her was that after all he and her had gone through, and the promises they made to each other, he had gone and lied to them for this long, putting everyone in their family at risk. He should have told them the truth. He should have been honest with them, but instead he decided to keep his mouth shut and put them all at risk for his own sake.
But then again, as much as she wanted to rebuke him and tell her brother to solve his own problems, Lynn could understand that this was now something that they all, she and Lucy and Lincoln and every other sister, had to deal with now. Whatever was coming was bigger than he could handle alone. She also remembered all the times that Lincoln had rushed to their aid when they were stuck in trouble one way or another, and rarely had he ever been angry at them for it. Lincoln was far from vengeful, and egos be damned, neither was she.
"Fine." She huffed out as she went to face her brother again. The sudden elation on Lincoln's face was quickly snuffed out when she went on to say more, "You get one chance to prove yourself that you can fix this. One. And that's it. And you come clean and tell everyone what you did too. No more lying behind our backs, Lincoln."
"Deal." Lincoln understood what she meant. That was one promise he was going to keep for sure. His sisters deserved to know, even if it made him seem like the villain. He stuck out his hand, a sign to make peace between the two of them, to which Lynn quickly grabbed with a clenching hand and shook, hard.
"With that out of the way," Lucy said, "What should we do first, Lincoln?"
"Yeah, it's your call, Mr. Man-with-the-Plan."
Lincoln scratched his chin for a moment, deep in thought, before he got an idea.
"We need to call Lori."
...
-The Loud Residence-
"I deeply apologize for the sudden introduction Mr. and Mrs. Loud, but my job demands that I make the absolute most of my time." Major Antonio Vassallo said in a professional manner to the Loud parents as he made his way inside the home. The two agents that arrived with him, Fulton and Clancy, were already taking pictures of the house interior with cameras in their hands. The Starwatch field commander stepped aside once he was done speaking to allow several more of his specialized agents to enter the Loud home, much to the surprise and disbelief of Lynn Sr. and Rita.
"H-Hey, wait a darn second here! This is a gross invasion of privacy! And don't you need a warrant to search my home? I'm an American citizen!" Lynn shouted, astonished by the flippant attitude of the man before him as Vassallo's men and women lugged in some heavy-duty equipment of unknown purpose into his house. At first the man thought this was just some elaborate prank, or something along that line. However, the seriousness of Vassallo and the sort of stuff that these people were equipped with told him that this was very real. The agents carrying the large steel case eased it into the middle of the living room, where it opened up with a hiss to reveal a swarm of four-rotor micro-drones that began to buzz around the room. Rita shielded her eyes after one of the small robots aimed its circular teal camera to her and took her picture with a bright flash.
It was one thing to invite a sudden guest, but an entirely different matter for him to allow his cohorts to do whatever they pleased in their own place.
Through one of the kitchen windows Lynn was able to spy more agents snooping around the property, some carrying more tech that he had never seen before. It was obvious to both parents that these men and women were looking for something, or someone.
"This is my warrant, Mr. Loud," Antonio countered, holding up his wallet to reveal the chrome and ruby badge of Starwatch stitched inside, "And I assure you, that this is not an arrest of any sort."
"Well, if this isn't an arrest, what is it?" Rita asked, deeply curious.
"I'm afraid that's classified."
"What do you mean, classified?" Lynn incredulously shot back at the Starwatch agent's dismissive answer. "And just what are you people doing here, anyway? I've never even heard of Starwatch in my life!"
"And I doubt you will again."
"Sir," One of Vassallo's agents piped up next to him, giving a head nudge towards the baby once he looked over, "Maybe we should tell them what's going on. For their sakes, and our own."
Vassallo hummed to himself as a response while keeping his eyes on the young Lily Loud, who was looking right back at him while playing on the couch with her toys. Like her mother and father, Vassallo could understand that Lily was wondering what these strange men and women were doing in her home. The agents inside were giving her space, mainly to protect themselves and her if need be. And if their research was correct, then there was a good chance that she was also infected with the alien pathogen, secretly harboring supernatural powers unlike anything ever seen. At least not for Vassallo and the Starwatch agents that accompanied him. The parents, on the other hand, more than likely didn't even have the slightest idea of what was going on with their own eleven children.
It became clear to him that this mission would require more care than he had anticipated. With this thought in mind, the Major knew that the only way to have any sort of cooperation with Mr. and Mrs. Loud was to ease them in on the situation at hand, and be as mostly honest as possible for the time being. Such information was still classified, after all. Plus, getting the help of the parents could yield some potential benefits for the Starwatch major, such as reigning in the rest of the kids once they were found. They were still kids after all, and good kids listened to their folks.
"Would you two step outside with me for a second?" Vassallo politely asked Rita and Lynn. "I'd like to explain what we're doing here, if that is alright with you."
"Glady, if it meant getting some darn answers," Lynn responded, easing his way out the door while Rita followed him. However, mid-stride she realized that she had left Lily alone in the living room with a bunch of strangers. She turned around to grab her baby was stopped by an outstretched arm from Vassallo.
"Ma'am, this will only take a minute."
"And getting my baby will only take a minute as well." Rita shot right back, but Vassallo didn't budge. "Get your arm away from me."
"I can't do that, Mrs. Loud."
"Give me one good reason why." Rita said, ready to shove the agent aside to get to her child.
"Because your children are the reason why we're here." Vassallo responded, leaving the now-stunned Rita to take in what he said. "I know how it sounds, and believe me if there was another reason if we were here, I'd gladly let you take her. But for my agency's sakes, and your own, we have to make sure to take extreme precautions for the safety for my fellow agents on the job. All will be explained if you follow me. We will not touch your baby, I promise you."
Rita didn't want to believe him, but a quick look back into the living room revealed that Lily was still in her spot, keeping to herself with her stuffed animals while the agents around her minded their own business. Her motherly instincts were screaming at her to tell the man to shove off, grab the dawdling Lily and never let her go, but she also noticed that every agent around her, including Vassallo, were armed. Vassallo himself carried a pistol on his belt, while she spied the female agent that first accompanied him had a submachine gun slung along her shoulder. There was no telling what sort of reaction she would get out of these people if she tried to do something that they didn't want, and the last thing she wanted was to start a gunfight with her baby girl in the middle of it.
Albeit reluctantly, the Loud matriarch relented to the Starwatch major. She needed to know why they were here, and what they wanted from their kids.
"One minute." She said to him. "But after that, I'm getting her. Kapeesh?"
"Gladly." Vassallo nodded, and then offered Rita the door. "May we?"
Rita left, but Vassallo stayed behind for a moment to speak to Clancy and Fulton regarding the baby.
"Watch her, and investigate their rooms if you can."
"Aye, sir."
...
At the same time, some distance away, Vassallo, Rita and Lynn were being watched by a certain hunter. Both of the extraterrestrial visitors had left their undersea ship some time ago as the final preparations for containing the children were made, and as the afternoon sun began to dip down, the hiding spot he had taken on the upper floor of a long-abandoned factory offered a great spot to catch in on what was going on at the home of their human targets. The shadows shielded him from being seen clearly, with only his biolights giving any sign that someone was there. His partner had flown to another area as well, making sure to keep out of sight and get an angle on the action, same as he was doing.
Right now, he was watching the scene in great detail, using his orange-yellow optics to enhance and magnify what was happening. He had initially hoped that the human agency had not been so keen on chasing down their unknowingly shared prey, giving them at least enough time to grab them before any contact with human governments were decidedly made. It would have put the odds in their favor, but it was now anyone's game, and the advantage was towards the humans.
He hoped to change that very soon.
"Can you see anything interestin'?" His partner radioed in.
"The agents have both of the parents outside." He responded, his optics going into a clear scan of the house to reveal one of the infected girls still inside the old home. "And the youngest of the daughters is still in the house. I'm seeing at least two dozen of the human agents, with half of them inside as well. We'll need to wait before we can move in, and then we might be able to grab the child before the other humans realize she's gone."
"Then let's get in there and grab 'er! We can take a few stooges!"
"Of course we can, but not right now. These humans are not our priority." That, and the matter that there was only one of the eleven children currently at the house. Where the others were, he had no idea. But he had a hunch that they would be arriving soon. A plan would be needed if they were to successfully evade the human forces and capture the many children this family had.
But he knew that they didn't have much time left. This was no longer a hunt, but a race. One that he intended to win.
A plan came to him then. It would be risky, but with the right moves and timing, it would give them the edge to officially kickstart their latest Earth campaign.
"Wait for my mark," he informed his partner, who he could hear bristle with glee, "Then we make our move."
...
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around this," Lynn said, sounding as desperate as he looked around to take in the sight of so many agents walking around his property while he talked to his wife, both parents now outside and waiting for the head agent to arrive as well, "I mean, a government agency comes out of nowhere, marches themselves into our house because they think there's something wrong with our kids? I feel like I'm on some sort of reality TV prank show!"
"This is nothing of the sort, Mr. Loud." Vassallo said, getting himself ready by straightening his jacket. "And I understand that your children are rather... famous around these parts of the state. So please, do humor me for a moment."
"I can't tell if that's an insult or a compliment."
"Take it as you wish, Mrs. Loud. Now," Vassallo reached into his jacket to pull out a small notepad along with a pen, flipping to a clean page before he spoke again to begin this soft interrogation, "I'd like to start off with some basic questions about your family, if you don't mind. Have any of you seen any unnatural behavior from your children? Any sudden changes that you know of in their moods, their health, any relationships that they have?"
"No. Not really. They don't seem any different than normal." Rita answered, a little troubled by what Vassallo was asking them.
"Well, they have been hanging around with each other more often nowadays, but I don't think that's any cause for alarm." Lynn admitted. He began to mentally recall that over the past several days, he had noticed that his son and daughters were acting kinder, and getting closer together, either going out to places as a group or simply meandering in their rooms doing things. This didn't raise any concerns with him as far as he knew. His kids were merely getting along more often, and that was it. But with how Vassallo was speaking to him, he was beginning to wonder himself as maybe there really was something going on under their noses.
The Major tacked what Lynn said with great importance in his notepad. He knew it would be important later on.
"Of course not. Your family gets along well, I presume? That's good." Vassallo gave a slight nod as he jotted down more notes. "And you haven't seen anything out of the ordinary besides that? Nothing at all?"
Both Rita and Lynn Sr. shared a look.
"No." They both said, and the Major believed them.
"Hm. Smart kids." Vassallo mumbled underneath his breath as he tucked his notepad away back into his jacket. In his mind, his hypothesis regarding the Loud family was correct: the parents were completely unaware of the change their children had undergone, and were either clean of the infection or had no idea they were bugged as well. He had expected this, hence the reason why he had brought them outside. Out here in the open, surrounded by his fellow Starwatch agents, Vassallo held a strategic edge if they truly knew what was going on with their kids. That, and when the bottom line came, he was certain the parents would become a problem he would have to deal with. He had a sinking suspicion that they will not come quietly once the containment processes began.
"Alright, before you throw any more questions, can I just ask what the heck is going on here?" Lynn exasperatedly said to the Major. "You're asking stuff like you're a doctor or a therapist, not some government stooge! Er, no offense."
"None taken." Vassallo replied, deciding to take off his shades in the meantime as he leaned in, his tone shifting to a gravely serious manner as he prepared to tell them why he and Starwatch were on their front door. "Sir, ma'am, what I am about to tell you is considered highly classified, and a matter of national security. Under no circumstances are you allowed to tell anyone of why we were here. For the good of our country, I suggest you listen closely. Your lives might depend on it."
"Hold on, hold on, national security?" Rita gasped, eyes wide and voice full of fear at what Vassallo just said, the same going for her husband. "What does that have to do with our kids?"
"SIR!"
The three of them turned their heads towards the front door at the sound of a voice calling for the Major. There stood Fulton, who was holding something in his hand.
"Agent Fulton. You found something?"
"Yes, sir." The younger agent said as he approached the trio, and a closer inspection showed that the object he held, lime green and covered in stickers, was familiar to Lynn and Rita.
"That's Lisa's notebook!"
"Clancy and I found this while we were searching around the kid's bedrooms. I think you should take a look at some of these pages." Fulton said, handing over the notebook to the Major. Most of the pages he found were full of nonsensical stuff on equations and experiments, but the pages that Fulton showed him revealed a far different story. On it were detailed descriptions of every single ability that each of the Loud children wielded, and what appeared to be notes on visible mutations on cells taken from bloodwork, and further ideas for experimentations that the toddler had written down as well. To Vassallo, this was nothing short of a literal goldmine of evidence.
"Thank you, Fulton. Keep sweeping the rooms, and put this with evidence. Kimberly will be happy to take a look at this when we get back to Washington." Vassallo handed the notebook over to the agent, who responded with a silent salute before heading back to the house to find any more.
"Hey wait a minute, you can't just take our kids stuff!" Lynn shouted, but his cries went unheard.
"Sorry sir, but orders are orders. We'll reimburse you for whatever property we take."
"But we forbade Lisa from doing any more experiments on the family!" Rita argued. Their genius toddler of a daughter might have done some unethical stuff, but nothing warranting a response such as this.
"We already know of your second-youngest and her achievements thanks to her contacts at NASA, AAAS and NASEM. She's quite brilliant for a four-year old, but we do know this isn't her fault. And as for your question earlier, Mrs. Loud, I'd like to explain in full of what I'm doing here." Vassallo said as he shifted his attention back to the Loud parents, now ready to give them the full story for why Starwatch had paid them a visit. "About fourteen days ago, one of our search and recovery teams stationed here in the Midwest managed to uncover some kind of... unknown object, a piece of wreckage that crash landed here in the forests of Michigan, right next to your home town."
"What does that have to do with our family? Our children?" Lynn nervously asked, already beginning to fear what the man might say back.
"We believe that your kids may have come in direct contact with this object, and what it was holding inside of it. When we salvaged the single piece that was left and took it back in our labs at the Pentagon, we discovered that the device itself was in fact an incredibly advanced storage container carrying an unidentifiable pathogen unlike anything we've ever seen. At the moment, your children might be unknowingly infected with a dangerous, powerful virus, and we're here to make sure it hasn't spread to the point of no return for the safety of you, your neighborhood, and your kids." Vassallo evenly responded, utterly stunning the two parents.
It was more or less a half-truth, one that he was satisfied with himself for creating on the fly. Leaving out the part where the kids might have also grown supernatural abilities was more likely for the best as well.
Both Rita and Lynn were, at the moment, lost for words. What this agent was saying sounded so far out there it was almost too ridiculous to believe, but with how serious Vassallo sounded when he was speaking to them, there was no doubt that these people knew something they didn't.
"A-Are you certain it's our family? Surely there has to be some sort of mistake! Our kids are fine!" Rita cried out, horrified at the prospect of her beloved children being afflicted with a potentially deadly virus.
"We already checked our findings and our research on the matter, Ms. Loud. All signs point straight to your kids. I'm sorry." Vassallo gently replied. He had hoped to have eased the parents into the situation with a little more finesse.
"Oh, god..." Rita felt like she was going to cry as she covered her mouth with an open palm. The man sounded dead serious, and with the amount of people he brought along, there was no telling that he was telling the truth. Her babies were sick, stuck with something dangerous inside of them. Lynn, sensing the despair from his wife, softly rubbed her shoulders. Even Vassallo, who knew that this part of the mission was going to get heavy, recognized that these were two responsible parents gravely concerned for their children's health.
"Where did this thing come from?" Lynn asked. He at least deserved to know that.
The Major let out a sigh before he dropped the other bombshell he knew they either would not like, or would not believe.
"We don't know." Vassallo whipped out his phone, revealing an on-screen picture of the Shard. "Our metallurgists over at the Pentagon can't even identify the metal its made of. We ran some tests on what little remained, hoping to find out if it was some sort of yet-discovered alloy, but it came back with nothing. At least, nothing that exists on Earth. It's another way of saying that it's not from this world, and neither is the pathogen it carried inside." Vassallo said to them, putting his phone away.
Rita and Lynn shared an astonished look.
"What are you saying?" Rita gasped. "Are you saying that it's-!"
"Yes, ma'am." Vassallo interrupted her. "We have a hunch it might be extraterrestrial."
It took a moment for both of the parents to digest what the man just said. Lynn, at first, simply could not believe what Vassallo was implying; that their children were infected with an alien virus and they were here to try and contain it. Either this was an incredibly elaborate and poor-tasting prank, or the man was completely serious.
"Oh, c'mon." Lynn guffawed. "You seriously expect me to believe that? You must be joking! Some flying saucer thingamabob from Mars decided to crash-land here in our little town and one of their probing experiments got our kids sick?"
Lynn continued to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness, and only stopped once he realized that Vassallo did not share his amusement, his expression unchanged in the slightest. Slowly the Loud father realized that Vassallo was, in fact, taking this seriously. Which meant only one thing as he felt his eyes widen in horror.
"Oh my god, you're not joking." Lynn gasped, feeling like had just been put into the plot of a science fiction movie.
"Would you like to see the monumental amount of hard research our team has done, just to prove I'm not lying? I can send you the details right now." Vassallo plainly said, but Lynn knew that the man wasn't playing around.
"Nope. No thank you. I just," the father of eleven stepped away from the agent, "I need a moment to wrap my head around this. Extraterrestrial? Here?"
"But if our kids are infected, what are you going to do with them?" Rita asked, dreading what sort of plan that these government agents had in mind for her children. Part of her didn't want to ask, but her mind was set on knowing.
Vassallo craned his dark brown eyes to her, and Rita had a sinking sensation that it would not be an answer that she wanted to hear.
...
"I can't freakin' believe you, Lincoln! Of all the dumb stunts you've done over the years, this is one of the worst!"
"For real, dude! You got snagged and didn't tell us? What the hell, man!"
The ride home in Vanzilla was going about as well as Lincoln knew it would the moment he told them what happened to him on that night. It took some gumption from himself and Lynn to get him to admit it. Aside from Lynn, Lucy and surprisingly Lori, his sisters made sure to make their displeasure known as they took turns bellowing at their brother, who was now sitting in the middle row of the van enduring what be one of the worst car rides he had yet. Having two of his sisters chew him out for his secrecy was bad enough, but when he told the rest of them the moment he got in the van, the response was nothing short of thermonuclear. At the moment he sat in the middle seat, with Lucy and Lynn to his left and right respectfully. It felt the perfect spot for him too, stuck in the center of everyone's anger.
Looming behind him was Luan, and in front reaching over the other side behind the driver's seat was Luna, both equally incensed. The other sisters, while just as angry as their older siblings, stayed quietly in their seats for the moment. They too had done and said their part in the backlash against him, which they now left to the two sisters still currently chewing out Lincoln for his lying.
"Okay, I know you're all mad at me. I made a really, really big mistake. I've heard it plenty from these two and everyone else," the boy pointed to Lynn and Lucy, "But can we please focus on what's at stake here? We're all in serious danger and we need to get home as quick as possible!"
"Serious danger that you got us in, dude!"
"I know that, Luna! And right now I'm trying to get us out of it!" Lincoln said back. "You think I wanted this to happen?"
"You don't get it, do you?" Luna's frown somehow grew deeper. "We all trusted each other on doing this, Lincoln! To keep our powers a secret from everyone! I trusted you! Hell, we all did! And now we've got some bad mojo coming our way because you decided that you were more important than everyone else!" She sounded awfully similar to Lynn earlier, and with good reason.
"I never said that! And I was gonna tell you guys, but I never got to it!"
"No, you weren't!"
"Alright, I think he gets it Luna! Now cut it out! And that goes for you too, Luan!" Lori yelled at her sisters to get them to stop yelling at their brother. It was beginning to get on her nerves, plus she knew that Lincoln had already gotten more than enough of a tongue-lashing before. He didn't need any more, the boy learned had learned that lesson well enough. Both Luan and Luna looked up to see their older sister glaring at them through the review mirror, and the rockstar let out an aggravated huff before slumping back down to her seat while the comedian swallowed her anger, but still hung over her seat, keeping a hawk's eye on her brother just in case he tried to say anything else to save his skin.
At same time, Lincoln cast his eyes downward as the disappointment and anger from his sisters started getting to him. He thought he could take it, but the reality of the situation swiftly changed his mind and his mood. The white-haired boy knew he screwed up big-time. Lynn, sensing that her brother was feeling down, eased a warm hand on his shoulder. He looked at her, bracing for more, but saw a small smile of appreciation on her face instead.
She would never admit it, but Lynn was proud of her brother for keeping his word on admitting what he had done.
"Lucy." Lori began to say as the noise finally died down behind her. "You said you literally saw something else when you were in Lincoln's head. Tell us what it was and how we can fix this."
"I told you already, it wasn't something. It was... someone. And it's coming for us. I know it sounds crazy, but I guarantee that it's related to the dreams that we had a couple nights before, the ones that me, Lincoln and Lynn had." Lucy evenly responded, earning her some startled looks.
"You mean when you guys told us about that ring thing?" Lola piped up from behind them.
"Exactly. But it was more than that. It talked to me, like the ring did with me, Lincoln and Lynn." Lucy said back, shuddering as she clearly remembered how small, insignificant, those burning white eyes made her feel inside her own realm. "And it was... it was powerful. By the dark spirits, it was so powerful. I couldn't even look at it. It called me it's beautiful creation, and that it wanted our souls."
"Our souls? That's encouraging." Lana quipped.
"So this entity wants to capture us, for what?" Lori continued to keep questioning her little goth sister.
"I don't know. I wish I had more time to understand what it wants, or what it is."
"This is pure hogwash! Surely you can't be basing your portents of doom on some sort of vision you saw, even with your so-called magic!" Lisa suddenly interjected. The young scientist just could not take any more talk about these topics, even more so on stuff that they had already supposedly debunked beforehand. Hearing this mockery of science was enough for the toddler to be at her wit's end. "Lucy, even though I admit that your abilities of the arcane are quite phenomenal, I beg of you to please ground your theories on our shared reality!"
"You weren't there, Lisa. I'm telling you, whatever Lucy saw, it's the truth." Lynn responded to her laser-eyed sister. The scenes of the woods going dark still played out in Lynn's mind, which made her a now firm believer in Lucy's ability to foresee the tides of fate.
Lisa threw her hands up and scoffed.
"I still say it's a load of bunk."
"Alright Lisa, we heard you. And Lucy, now would be an excellent time for you and Lincoln to create with a plan to stop this doomsday thing. You did at least come up with something, right?" Lori asked as she turned a corner, just a minute or so away from their house. Lucy looked to Lincoln, as he was the one that created the plan, and the boy leaned up before he began to speak.
"I've got an idea," Lincoln said, "but you're gonna have to trust me."
"Trust you?! After what you did? Why the hell should we trust you?" Luan raged at her brother.
"Because it's our only chance of getting out of this." He said back, plain, simple and utterly foreboding. It was not so much as to scare his sisters into compliance but to have them recognize the danger that they were all now in. Such a statement was not what his sisters were expecting to hear. Luan, caught off-guard, felt her anger dwindle down as her brother's words were made clear. And sure enough, it seemed to calm the rest of the family as well. Several startled, anxious looks were shared between the siblings. Lola and Lana found themselves holding hands out of instinctive reflex, and Leni tugged on her blouse, unintentionally causing several strands to wrap around her fingers thanks to her fabrication powers.
And as much as they wanted to stay mad at Lincoln for what he did, and righteously so, they all knew that sticking together is what made their family strong. With that, Luna let out a hefty sigh of what little fury was left in her before she turned to her brother. It hurt that he had lied to them, but she knew that he was at least trying to right his wrongs. Luan, albeit slower than her sister, had also calmed down as she realized that he meant every word he said.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, it sucks hard what you did, little bro. Lying is for chumps. But, if the last couple days are any hint, you tend to know what you're talking about. So let's hear that great plan of yours, Lincoln. For our sakes." Luna said, hoping that he had created something clever. Everyone diverted their attention back to the white-haired lad to listen to what sort of scheme he surely created.
"We need to get mom and dad and tell them what happened to us. Which means telling them that we have superpowers."
Luna's face instantly fell. So much for that.
"We're doomed, ain't we?" Lola moaned, slapping a hand over her face.
"We're not doomed, Lola." Lincoln argued back as he stood up from his seat. "It's the right thing to do. I know that we all promised to keep our powers a secret from them for our own sakes, but if there really is something out there coming for us, then we'll have to protect them. Mom and dad don't have powers like we do, guys. They deserve to know, and we need to make sure that they're safe. Can we all agree on that, at least?"
Lincoln's words seemed to work well with his sisters. Their parents were the last people on Earth that they wanted to get in trouble, or hurt. Without powers, their mom and dad were practically defenseless against any serious threat. But with their eleven kids, each with their own superpowers, then they might have a chance.
"We can't have mommy and daddy get hurt because of our powers! No matter what!" Lana shouted from the back.
Even Luan seemed to be on board.
"Ah, you've got a good point there, Lincoln. Can't have a family without our parents. Let's go get our folks."
"See? I told you guys. I got our family into this, now I'm gonna get us out. So pedal to the metal, Lori! We've got parents to save!"
"On it, Lincoln!" Lori shouted back as the light turned green, and sped off in a cloud of dust and gas. As she did, Lincoln mentally prayed to himself that they would get there swiftly, hoping that they weren't too late.
If only he knew...
...
"No. No, no, no, please! There has to be another way!" Rita frantically shook her head, hoping that the agent was pulling her leg.
"Ma'am, it's the only option we have. It's for the safety of both you, your children and everyone else in Royal Woods."
"You're talking about taking away our kids to some government blacksite! Don't you know how you sound, man?!"
Of course he knew, but Vassallo also knew that this was going to be one of the hard parts of the job. Getting the cooperation of the parents was a pipe dream at this point in time, and telling them the solution that Starwatch had planned for the eleven children certainly did not improve his chances. In Vassallo's own words, under the jurisdiction that Starwatch was given, the Loud kids were to be transferred over to their central containment facility either in Washington, D.C. underneath the Pentagon, or sent to one of their many unlisted buildings scattered around the country. It all depended on how this operation would end either on a good note or a bad one.
"I know how this sounds, Mr. Loud." Vassallo evenly replied to the incensed man. "And I wish there really was a different solution, but there isn't. If your children remain here, there's a high probability that the pathogen will continue to spread until containment will become nigh impossible. We don't have a choice."
"W-We can take them to a doctor! Keep them home until they get better!" Lynn pleaded. The man was desperate for a solution that didn't involve getting his family separated.
"Mr. Loud, if it were that simple, I wouldn't be here." The Major plainly said back. "Look, I get it. You want your kids to be as happy and healthy as possible, and I want to make sure that everyone else around this town and the nation is safe from an uncontrolled pathogen. So you tell us where your kids are, and we'll be able to give them the best treatment we can to try and fix them. Starwatch employs a good number of the world's brightest scientists."
"First alien stuff, now this." Lynn angrily shook his head.
"You're asking us to send our kids away. This is... this is just too much to demand of us!" Rita sniffled, dabbing her wet eyes.
"I know. I know this is hard for the both of you, but this is the only way we can guarantee their safety and yours. Starwatch and I send our utmost condolences, but your kids can't remain here unless you want to cause a national catastrophe in your own neighborhood and even the state. What I'm asking is a great personal sacrifice from both of you to put the lives of your kids in our hands, but doing this will potentially save countless others from danger." Vassallo softly said back. The Major put a hand over where his heart lay. "You have my word that Starwatch will see to it that they are cured, and returned to their lives under your care. You can think of it as an extended vacation for them at a hospital, if you'd like."
"Not helping." Lynn groused at the Major.
"We can also set up Zoom calls and open phone services. We're not cruel. You'll be able to remain in touch with them for as long as you need." Vassallo also added.
Rita knew how this was going to go. As much as she knew that it was her parental right to defend her kids, Rita doubted that there was nothing that she could do to prevent this from happening other than accept Vassallo's demands. Her children were sick, and this man was offering them a way out. The price was heavy, but as the Major said, there was no other way. Either they stayed in Royal Woods and created a disaster that not even Lisa could hope to imagine, or they went with Starwatch to get cured and aren't seen or heard from for god knows how long.
This was not what she wanted to do today. She did not want to send her kids away, and Lynn was feeling the same way. He had seen too many science fiction movies and heard too many conspiracy theories to readily trust anyone from the government, but here he was now.
"Ma'am, there's only one way you know that this will end."
Vassallo didn't have to wait long before Rita gave her ultimate answer.
"They can go." She quietly said, tears brimming in her eyes. Rita could not argue with the fact that her children needed expert help, and Vassallo had given his solution. She knew it was more of an ultimatum, but there was no other choice she could make.
"Rita, no!" Lynn gasped.
"Lynn, please. Don't make this harder than it has to. I just want my babies to be safe." Rita said to her husband, before turning to the Major with one request. "Can we... can we at least say goodbye?"
"Of course." Vassallo heartedly agreed. The man reached into his jacket for his radio. "Clancy, mind bringing the baby out here? We've got the folks on our side. We're taking the kids in for treatment once they're here."
"On it, sir."
While on the outside he remained placid, Vassallo was internally congradulating himself for his performance. Getting the cooperation of the parents was going to be the second-most difficult part of the mission, and that had gone down without a hitch. A job well done on his part. The three of them turned their attention to the front door as they saw Clancy gently holding the young Lily Loud in her hands. Lily herself looked a little confused as to what was happening.
"There you go, nice and steady," Aidan cooed as she set the baby down on the ground next to Rita, "Here she is, ma'am."
"Oh, Lily." Rita leaned down to scoop the baby into her arms. Lily let out a giggle, which only served to make what was going on even more heart-wrenching. Those shiny blue eyes looking up at her. Rita did want to think about when it would be the next time she would see them in the flesh.
"Hey, Major? We've got some good news." The radio in Vassallo's hands cracked to life with Fulton's voice.
"Yes, Fulton? What is it?"
"Perimeter just came in; the kids are almost at the house."
...
"We're almost home." Lincoln anxiously whispered to himself as he leaned over his seat to get a clearer view of the front window. Houses that he recognized zoomed by. While the rest of his sisters were keeping to themselves for the most part, Lynn and Luna kept an eye on their brother. They could tell he was nervous as he could be, with him putting a finger in his mouth and legs fidgeting, telltale signs that they knew all too well.
"Yo, Lincoln. Relax a little bit, please." Lynn said, attempting to get him to sit down by tugging on his shirt. "You're gonna start making me nervous, too."
"I can't help it, Lynn."
"Heh, I know how you feel, Linc." Luna let out a small laugh, patting her brother on the shoulder. "Whenever Sam and I are up on stage for a gig, I always get goosebumps. You just gotta learn how to roll with it. Mom and dad are gonna be fine."
Without warning, Lori suddenly slammed her foot on the brakes, catching nearly everyone off-guard, their heads slamming against windows and car seats from the sudden stop. Thanks to him leaning over his seat, Lincoln fell face-first into the front row next to Luna with a yelp.
"Oh, are we home already?" Leni perked up from her phone screen.
"Hey, what gives, Lori?" Luna wondered why her older sister had decided to stop in the middle of the street. Lori did not answer, her eyes glued to what was in front of her. Sure enough, Luna and Lincoln along with the other siblings wondered what she was staring at. And what they saw made them all gasp.
Parked along the streets were several black-colored SUVs, and surrounding the Loud house were dozens of what appeared to be people belonging to an agency of some sorts numbering in the dozens. Many were clad in dark gray suits while others went around decked out in combat armor, some carrying guns. A number of them were going in and out of the house, carrying various sorts of equipment, with a large black van out in front serving as their mobile headquarters with that large antenna and satellite dish on top.
"Oh no." Lucy whimpered. "I fear we may be too late."
"That doesn't look good, guys." Luna also said.
"They've got mom and dad outside! And Lily too!" Leni hastily pointed to where she could see her parents standing in the front yard, with Lily in her mother's arms. There was also a tall, black-haired man with a buzz cut in front of them who everyone in Vanzilla could immediately guess that was the boss of these agents. Leni couldn't help but cringe at the man's stereotypical agent's outfit. "Oh my, that look is way too grungey for my tastes. Leave that stuff back in the 90's!"
And the moment their parents spied them, the agent also turned around to see what they were looking at.
"I assume those would be your kids in that van, right?" Vassallo asked the Loud father as he pointed at the old white and teal jalopy sitting at the end of the street. He already knew all about the ten children, but it was always a good idea to make sure. The rest of the Starwatch cadre had begun leaving the Loud home to see what was going on, and to support the Major if need be.
"Yeah, but... why are they waiting over there?" Lynn wondered, scratching his chin. He opted to cup his mouth and yell down to them. "Kids! It's totally okay! They're here to help you!"
"Did dad just say that they want to help us?" Lana questioned, sounding just as disbelieved as she looked.
"I don't buy it, dudes. Not one bit." Luna shook her head. She had no faith in anyone in this type of service from the Man. One solid question from Lana spoke what they were all thinking now.
"What should we do?"
Lincoln and Lori shared an uneasy look, wondering what they should do next.
...
The entire ordeal now stood on the brink of a knife. One wrong move from either party, the kids in the van, or the agents currently awaiting their arrival, and it might all lead to ruin. But none of them could ever expect that there was a third party waiting for the right chance to strike. And that chance had just arrived. The moment he saw the van pull up on to the street, the hunter knew that the moment he had been waiting for ever since he and his friend had touched down on Earth had come.
To him, it would mark the beginning of one of his greatest hunts yet.
"Get ready," the hunter radioed to his partner, "They're here."
"Finally." She hissed back, and from the echo of his transmission, he could hear the sounds of large, beating wings taking off to the sky.
Once he was done talking his right arm began to change, heavy metal plating steadily shifting over tubes and wires to form another shape. It was not before long its true purpose was revealed as a colossal blaster, with the sinister glow of a cannon flickered to life where his hand once was, an array of targeting lasers giving him pinpoint accuracy for the range he would have to cover. Emerging from a joint came a targeting scope positioned right in front of his optics as he raised his cannon-arm up, using his other arm as leverage as he locked on the home of the children in its red electronic sights.
A couple few tweaks on the scope, the cannon charged up, and he fired.
The shot soared across houses, fields and other structures in a matter of seconds. The only thing faster was the sound of something screeching over the air, to which the Starwatch agents noticed first before they began to scream out in terror as they saw a ball of white-hot plasma speeding right at them.
"MOVE! MOVE!"
"INCOMING! TAKE COVER!"
Rita and Lynn watched, as if in slow motion, a large ball of some sort of energy soared over their heads and smash straight into their house. It went through the living room window before it exploded in a fireball, the shockwave knocking everyone who wasn't nearby on their backs. Windows were shattered near-instantly, and even the wooden Some unfortunate agents who had too close had been blasted off their feet and went flying back, tumbling through the air before crashing down on the sidewalk, tarmac and even their own vehicles. Rita, Lynn and Lily were spared by the actions of one quick-thinking Vassallo, who had grabbed the parents and thrown them to the ground with him on top of them, protecting them from the blast.
And on the other side of the street, the Loud children could only watch in horror as their beloved home suddenly, and out of nowhere, erupted in a shower of flames, glass and burning wreckage. The flash had caused some of them to shield their eyes, but once they lowered their hands, all they could see were fire and smoke.
"Oh my GOD!" Leni shrieked.
"OUR HOUSE!" Lola cried, hands on her head.
In a single sudden moment of panic, Lincoln shouted two simple words.
"DRIVE, LORI!"
The eldest Loud sister needed not be told twice as she slammed the gears of Vanzilla in reverse and floored it, hightailing it out of there on peeling rubber. At the same time, back in front of the burning Loud house, Vassallo shook the stars out of his vision after hearing the roar of an engine, and turned to see the van of superpowered kids turn tail and drive away. The Major felt his temper flaring at what had obviously been an attack on him and his team by the little punks. There was no other reason for this attempt on their lives. He bit back a curse while the rest of the agents slowly gathered themselves back up, with none of them miraculously too hurt. A true stroke of luck that none of them were inside the home before it exploded from whatever had done that.
"Perimeter, the kids are bugging out! We just got hit by something! Pursue them and engage with nonlethal force!" Vassallo roared into his radio as his Starwatch strike team already began hopping back in their SUVs. "They're moving southwest, keep on them at all costs!"
"Roger that, Major." The voice on the other end crackled.
"N-No, no please! They're our kids, you can't do this!" Rita wailed, aghast at the Major's orders as she stood up to face him. He was acting like their children were now a bunch of criminals rather than patients. Vassallo, dusting off his suit, only leveled a simple glare at both her and her husband.
"I can, and I will. Get these two and the baby into the truck and radio for cleanup, on the double. Do not let those kids escape!" Vassallo pointed to his team as Fulton and Clancy grabbed Rita and Lynn by their arms and hauled them into the large van, the two parents letting out a string of pleas as metal cuffs were slapped on their wrists before being pushed into the back of the vehicle. Lily was scooped up gently by another agent, the baby watching with teary eyes as her old home finally came crumbling down into rubble, and with it the memories of her short infanthood.
One of the SUVs had stopped and waited for Vassallo to hop in, the Major taking the passenger seat as he checked his sidearm.
"Let's move!" He shouted, and the platoon of cars roared onwards for a spectacular and dangerous chase through Royal Woods.
Vassallo would not let them escape, for Starwatch, his country, and for his mission.
40,000 views. It's astonishing, and I thank you all! And now here is the beginning of the real story, the one that everyone has been waiting for! Oh yeah, and expect an OST for this story as well. Please leave a favorite and a review!
