And boom! Another Loud 10 chapter is in the bag

I always thought of this episode of Ben 10 as a classic, and the fact that the villain is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz is also a huge plus.

So not much to say here so just enjoy!


"You know, it has literally been too long since we all hung out together like this," Lori said as she leaned back in her seat as she took a sip from her drink. "Just us siblings hanging out at the mall,"

"And don't forget meeee!" Ja'Orre let out in a sing-song voice as he pressed his face right up to Lori, much to her intense irritation.

"Yes…and…Ja'Orre…" Lori gritted her teeth as her eye violently twitched. "Because of course…"

Currently all 11 Loud siblings, as well as a disguised Ja'Orre, were doing something they really haven't done in quite some time. Spending the day at the Royal Woods mall, specifically they were in the food court at the moment. "I know right!" Lola stated as she tossed a fry into her mouth. "I can't even remember the last time I went on a shopping spree. I'm starting to get rusty, I almost picked out…leg warmers! Ugh!"

"Oh no, soooo awful," Lana rolled her eyes at her sisters' typical behavior. "But it is nice to hang like this again, you'd think we'd end up doing it all summer."

"Yeeeeah, but I think it's safe to say this summer hasn't exactly been a normal summer," Lincoln awkwardly explained as he held up the Omnitrix to show everyone. "But at least we can't say it was never boring, that's for sure,"

"We certainly can't say it was safe either," Lisa stated bluntly, though she'd be lying if she say she didn't like all the action that happened especially since it involved learning about the existence of aliens and a secret organization involved with those aliens. "Although on the brighter side staying away from the mall for awhile has given it the position to grow."

Sure enough just as Lisa said, the Royal Woods mall had certainly gotten bigger. It almost felt like a whole new building with how large it was. Heck it felt like an entire neighborhood to the point where the group had almost gotten lost a few times, lucky there were also a ton of new maps around to help people get their way around the large mall. "I know right! It's amazing!" Leni squealed in excitement as she held up a pamphlet that explained all the stuff in the new mall. "A bunch of new movie theaters! A dance studio! Over 100 new stores! It's like I've died and gone to mall heaven!"

"Poo-Poo!" Lily let out while in Luna's arms.

"It's totally rad dudes! You should check out the new and improved music store now!" Luna grinned as she held up a bag with the logo of the store she had mentioned. "It feels more like an entire music emporium now!"

"And the sports store has just about everything! I even got this racket for Pickleball!" Lynn said as she pulled out a racket with the end of it being in the shape of a square. "I have no idea what Pickleball is but I can't wait to try it,"

"Think that's something Pop-Pop plays with his friends at the retirement home," Luan pointed out to Lynn, the athletic sister quickly frowning after hearing that. "Guess that means you're in a real pickle now huh? Get it? Hahahaha!"

"…I get it!" Ja'Orre yelled out after a brief moment of silence.

"Shut up Ja'Orre," Lori told him as she took a sip of her drink.

"K." Was all the plump alien-ghost said.

CRASH!

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Suddenly everyone's attention was brought to a loud alarm that was going off nearby. Lucy was the first to investigate as she walked towards the rail of the currently floor they were at and looked down. "Sigh, I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later," Lucy looked to everyone and pointed down at the lower floor. "We got trouble,"

Everyone walked up next to Lucy and saw that a jewelry store on a lower level had been robbed. Two cloaked figures has crashed out of the window with handfuls of jewelry with the mall cops on their tails, "Yep…literally should have expected this," Lori sighed out as she ran a hand through her face. Why couldn't they have just one peaceful day where nothing happened? Was that really too much to ask. "Guess with more stores there's more stuff to rob,"

"Yo Linc, you're up man!" Lynn told her brother who nodded as he quickly went under the table they were at to hide.

"Alright, who to bust up some petty thugs with?" Lincoln thought as he swapped through icons on the Omnitrix before coming across his most recently agreed transformation. "Hm, guess it couldn't hurt to get some practice in with the new guy! Alright, it's hero time!" Slamming down the core, Lincoln was enveloped in a green flash as he started to change. White fur started growing all over his body as his eyes turned red, canine features sprouting up all over him.

"Hombrehowler!" Leaping right from under the table, causing it and the nearby chairs to go flying, Hombrehowler landed on the lower floor. Although the thieves had left his sight, he could still sniff them out. "Alright, let's give this thing a real test drive!" Hombrehowler then sped off on all fours in the direction of the thieves sent, meanwhile people were gasping as they watched and tried to take pictures of the new alien hero.

With the thieves, they were currently walking around in the darkness of the malls new parking complex. They had managed to lose the mall cops due to the parking complex being almost like a maze. They were silent as they looked at the jewelry in their hand, thinking they were finally in the clear.

SLASH!

"Not so fast!" Hombrehowler yelled as he managed to catch up to the thieves and slashed at them, ripping off their cloaks and making them drop the jewelry they had stolen. Hombrehowler then used his tail to scoop up the stolen items and pull them away from the thieves as he tossed their cloaks to the side. "Fraid you're gonna have to go back and pay for that,"

The two thieves then got up…revealing themselves to be an elderly couple. They stood up and stared at Hombrehowler blankly, like there was no emotions going through them. When they stood up they showed very odd behavior for people of their age and showed off some kung fu moves, getting in a battle-ready position.

"Ok…didn't think humans that age could do that,"

"They shouldn't…" Hombrehowler stated as he narrowed his eye at the old couple. "Somethings up, so let's not let out guard down." The two old people were the first to attack as they ran up to Hombrehowler at rather impressive speeds and both tried to kick him but the white wolf was able to cross his arms in an X formation and blocked the kicks.

Growling, Hombrehowler swiped his arms to push the old couple back before running up to them and smacking them with his tail and sending them to the ground. But the two managed to land on their hands before back flipping away to gain some distance. The old man then jumped onto one of the pillars of the parking structure and used it to jump towards Hombrehowler with his foot aimed at the white wolfs face.

Hombrehowler was able to block with his arm again but this game the old lady a change to rush up and punch Hombrehowler right in the muzzle. Hombrehowler whelped as he pushed the old man away before trying to slash the old lady with his claws. The old lady jumped back as the old man tried to karate chop him, but Hombrehowler stepped to the side before punching the man in the gut. The old lady then tried to spin kick the Loud boy in the face only for Hombrehowler to duck down and wrap his tail around the lady's leg and toss her right at the old man.

The old couple rolled on the ground a little bit before standing up and seemingly unfazed from the battle, their expressions completely unchanged. The old man took a deep breath through his nose before getting into another position again. "Let's just get this over with," Hombrehowler then split his muzzle apart, took a deep breath and, "HOOOOOOOOOOOWWWLLL!" Hombrehowler then unleashed a sonic howl that sent the old couple all the way to the opposite end of the floor they were on, crashing into the wall and falling onto the floor seemingly unconscious.

"Little much don't you think?"

"I'm…sure they're fine," Hombrehowler scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "At least we stopped them,"

Just then Hombrehowlers ears twitched as the sounds of police sirens got louder. Suddenly a few mall cop ATV's drove up to Hombrehowler with the mall cops being quick to aim their guns at him. "Look! The thieves let loose some sort of…overgrown dog to cover their tracks!" One of the mall cops said as they closed in on Hombrehowler.

"Hey, don't you know a hero when you see one? Besides I'm the one who stopped…huh?" Hombrehowler pointed to where the old couple was…only to find them gone. Vanished without a trace. "T-They were right there I swear! Well…at least I got back all the stolen jewelry!" Hombrehowler then pointed to the stolen goods which were thankfully still there.

"Hmmmm…everything looks accounted for." One of the Mall Cops said as they looked over the jewelry. "But that still doesn't explain-hey! Where'd he go!?"

As soon as he had the chance, Hombrehowler took off. Not wanting to risk turning back at the moment.


Later that day, the Loud siblings and Ja'Orre were seen simply randomly roaming throughout the mall. The jewelry had all been returned to the store but the jewelry shop was now closed up for a while to make repairs as well as upgrade security. "Well so much for a relaxing day at the mall," Lori sighed out as she crossed her arms behind her head. "Should have known something would happen around us, it always does."

"Just, like, chill out Lori it's not a big deal," Leni tried to reassure her big sister, putting a hand on Lori's shoulder. "It was just one little robbery, and all it did was close down one store. That still leaves the rest of the mall for us to explore."

"Sides, not like anything exploded this time," Luna pointed out.

"Or was smash," Lynn added.

"Or set on fire," Lucy added as well.

"Or all the above," Ja'Orre finished listing things.

"So hey, we had our little scuffle for today and now we can just relax and hang," Lincoln said with a smile. That seemed to brighten everyone's mood as they smiled and just kept going forward. As they continued to walk through the mall, they saw a small stage set up along and in front of it was a board that showed who would be preforming. "Hey guys check this out, The Amazing Sublimino, Masster of hypnosis, last day? Hey that sounds pretty cool, should we check it out,"

"Couldn't hurt checking out," Lana shrugged, which seemed to be most of the sisters answer.

"Oh please, hypnosis is always misunderstood by everyone," Lisa rolled her eyes, being quick to call this so called "master of hypnosis" out before they even saw him. "What hypnosis actually is, is a type of therapy that's used to help people gain heightened focus and concentration. What people do on stage with 'hypnosis' and getting people to do ridiculous things is just a hoax,"

"You said the same thing about aliens and look how that turned out," Luan pointed out as she pointed to Lincoln.

"…Touche," Lisa reluctantly admitted.

"Aw come on guys, it's not like we gotta pay to get in," Ja'Orre encouraged as he wrapped his arms around a few of the siblings and pulled them in close. "Let's just check it out and see if we can get some fun out of it!"

"Alright fine," Lola said as she released herself from Ja'Orre's arms. "But it better not be boring!"

And so the Loud siblings and Ja'Orre decided to take their seats and watch the show. As the minutes passed by a few other people came to sit down and check things out but most seemed to simply have a bored look on their face. "Ladies and gentlemen," Finally things started to go somewhere as a voice spoke up to the audience. "Presenting Sublimino, the Master of Hypnosis."

A puff of purple smoke and sparkles appeared on stage and emerging through it…in a bit of a clumsy manner was a Caucasian dwarf with pale skin, blonde hair with a bald hair with two haired comb over, sideburns and a curly mullet. He wore a red ringleader coat, a white dress shirt with a red tie and a black dress vest and white dress pants. He also wore large rounded purple sunglasses with his right eye having a large going from the top of his forehead to the bottom of his cheek. After recovering a bit from his entrance, Sublimino cleared his throat before walking up to the microphone. "Behold! Sublimino!" Sublimino introduced himself, not getting a single reaction from the crowd. "I am about to take you on a journey through that mysterious realm known as the mind!"

"This is the master of hypnosis?" Lynn asked as she looked over the tiny man with a raised brow. "I'm pretty sure Lucy's taller than him."

"You're not so tall yourself Lynn," Luan pointed out with a bit of a smirk. "Lincoln's taller then you,"

"Pfft, no he's-" Lynn then looked to the seat next to her where Lincoln was sitting…and found herself looking up at her brother by a little bit. "No way when did that happen?"

"I'll need some volunteers!" Sublimino requested.

"My brother volunteers!" Lynn yelled as she grabbed Lincoln's hand and rose it up.

"Lynn!" Lincoln deadpanned at his sister.

"Hey, you're the one who wanted to come here so bad," Lynn shrugged, speaking in an innocent tone. "Besides come on, it'll be fun. I heard about what you did at the magic convention and it seems like you're a sucker for attention."

Lincoln stared at Lynn for a moment before smiling and sighing. "Alright, I guess you got me there," Lincoln relented and stood up, heading for the stage. "I volunteer sir!"

"Yes, yes, good," Sublimino nodded as he pointed to spot. "Line up next to the other volunteers."

"Sure thing," Lincoln nodded as he stood where Sublimino told him. But when he looked at the other volunteers he was meant with a rather familiar surprise. "Woah no way! What are you guys doing here?"

The three other volunteers consisted of people Lincoln knew from school. There was a girl with light brown haired tied into a braid known as Girl Jordan, a boy with a red sweater with a single horizontal black stripe named Artie, and a girl with a purple beret known as Chloe. "Oh wow, hey Lincoln!" Girl Jordan greeted her friend with a big smile. "It's been way to long! How've you been?"

"I've been doing good," Lincoln told them with a big grin. It felt really nice to see some familiar faces here. Now that he's thought about it…how long has it been since he's seen his usual friend group other than Clyde? "Been busy over the summer,"

"Nice, which I could say the same. Mines been pretty average so far," Artie explained before looking over Lincoln's outfit and nodded at it. "Sick new look by the way,"

"Thanks, it's a Leni Loud original," Lincoln adjusted his jacket as he took on a proud tone before turning to Chloe. "What about you Chloe? How have things been?"

"Pretty good, been spending the summer working on my painting and baking skills," Chloe said with a grin. "You should come over to my place sometime so I can show you."

"Alright children, get ready to clear your minds," Sublimino then spoke up again, interrupting their conversation. "Now then, I won't you to do nothing but focus on this pocket watch as it swings back and forth." Sublimino then pulled out a pocket watch a string out of his jacket and held it in front of all the kids. The kids followed his instructions as they focused on the watch as he swung it back and forth slowly. "Your eyelids are feeling heavy. You are falling into a deep sleep."

"…You guys feeling anything?" Girl Jordan asked with a raised brow.

"Nope, not me," Chloe shook her head with the guys also showing no affects.

"It's like I said," Lisa said from the crowd as she crossed her arms. "Totally phewy."

Sublimino frowned a bit…before putting the pocket watch back into his jacket and pulling out a new one that looked almost identical to the old one. The only difference was a single button on it and suddenly waves of energy came out of the watch and surrounded the kids and before any of them realized it, they all feel right to sleep standing up.

"Woah," Lana let out as Lisa's eyes widened. Now the crowded started to get more invested.

Sublimino now started to pace back and forth in front of the children. "Now you are in my power, when you open your eyes you will all become newborn babies." Sublimino smirked as he snapped his fingers. All the kids opened up their eyes and, following what Sublimino said all of them started to cry just like they were babies.

This caused the crowd watching to start laughing. Even people walking nearby who took notice of the show started to take interest and sat down to watch. "So hypnosis is fake huh?" Lynn taunted Lisa a bit while chuckling at the display, looking at her little brother sucking his thumb. "Oh this was so worth the stop!"

"Hehehe!" Lily giggled…before putting her thumb in her mouth.

"I am so playing this at his wedding." Lori snickered as she recorded the whole thing on her phone.

"You are now a bunch of chickens in a barn!" Sublimino provided a new order to the hypnotized kids. The four of them then went from crying, crawling around, and sucking their thumbs to acting like chickens. They all started making clucking sounds as they scurried around the stage, sometimes trying to peck at the floor.

"Well this just seems foul!" Luan punned before laughing at her own poor joke.

"Hehehe, now we just need to cover them in tar and feathers!" Ja'Orre laughed as he looked to Lisa. "Just like in that book you lent me Lisa."

"…Ja'Orre did you get to the end of that chapter?" Lisa asked in a blank tone.

"No I was saving it for tonight why?" Ja'Orre asked curiously.

"You'll find out," Lisa then looked forward, grateful for the small distraction from what should have been a scientific impossibility.

Sublimino then snapped his fingers and brought the kids out of their current trances. Walking in front of them, he gave them each an induvial order. "You are now a ballerina!" He told Girl Jordan who immediately began to dance around the stage. "You are a cow!" He told Chloe who proceeded to get onto all fours and begin mooing. "You are a rabbit," He ordered Artie who also got on all fours and began to jump around. And last but not least he walked in front of Lincoln. "And you my boy are now an alien."

But with Lincoln, he decided to take his orders more seriously as he rolled down his sleeve…and activated the Omnitrix. "Uh-oh!" Leni let out as she and the rest of her sisters as well as Ja'Orre gasped in horror. If Lincoln transformed in front of this whole crowd that was it for his secret. "Shows over!"

"I got it!" Lola was quick to run up to the stage and tackled Lincoln through the curtain right as he was engulfed in a green flash.

"Hey!" Sublimino looked through the certain and glared at Lola as she hid something behind her back. "You are ruining my performance you brat!"

"Uuuuuh, sorry," Lola smiled nervously at the man who was barely taller than her. "My brother had to go to the little aliens room, hehe…" Sublimino merely growled a bit at her before closing the certain and going back on stage.

Lola let out a sigh of relief as she looked at the tiny gray alien she had in her hands. "Take me too your leader," Gray Matter told Lola in a robotic sounding voice.

Back at the Loud House, Lincoln was deadpanning at Lola as Lori showed off a particular video she recorded with her phone. "Lola…I can't believe you made me do this," Lincoln said in a blank tone as he watched the video of himself as Gray Matter tending to Lola's every need while in his hypnotized state. From hand feeding her grapes to combing her hair. Thankfully when Lincoln eventually turned back to normal.

"Hey, I saw an opportunity and I took it," Lola shrugged, not feeling an ounce of regret in her. "And it's not like you said no or anything~"

"Uuuuugh…" Lincoln groaned loudly as he held his head back. "I regret ever suggesting going to that show…"

"I sent that video to Wendy by the way," Lori said with a smirk. "As well as the one of you on stage,"

"…I hate all of you," Lincoln planted his face on the back of the couch as all of his sisters giggled.

"Whelp, I'm of to the retirement home!" Suddenly Ja'Orre came into the room wearing a pink nightgown, a big gray wing, and a large thick pair of glasses. "It's bingo week and I ain't letting Scoots win this time!"

"Ok but…why are you dressed like an old lady and not an old man?" Lana asked in a confused tone.

"It's called broadening your horizons Lana! Duh!" Ja'Orre adjusted his wig before heading out the door. "See you all in a few days!"

"…You know what, he's earned that." Lynn said before turning to the rest of her siblings. "Welp, it's getting late so I think I'm gonna hit the hay,"

"Yeah same here," Lincoln said as he stretched out his body while letting out a loud yawn. "Feeling really tired for some reason. See you guys in the morning,"

"Good night!" All the siblings told each other before they all headed off to bed themselves.


THE NEXT DAY

"Lincoln, you ok dude?" Luna asked her little brother in a concerned tone as, once again, the Loud siblings were all spending time together at the mall. But things were going a bit more rocky then yesterday. Specifically with Lincoln who only looked half awake as he walked a bit behind all of his sisters, looking like he could collapse at any moment.

"Yeah, with all those bags your eyes are carrying you look like you did more shopping than us! Hahaha!" Luan joked and briefly laughed before looking at her brother in concern. "But seriously, are you ok?"

"I…I don't know…" Lincoln yawned out as he rubbed his eyes. At this point he was afraid he might just fall face down after just blinking. "I remember going to sleep last night but…but it felt like I didn't get a wink of rest last night…"

"Did you have a nightmare or something?" Leni asked in a worried tone. "Maybe that could be why,"

"I don't think so," Lincoln tried to remember if anything happened last night, whether it actually happened or if it was something he dreamt. There had to be some reason why he felt like he stayed up all night. "I can't even remember dreaming last night."

"Hmmm, perhaps I could look into this a little bit," Lisa suggested as she circled around Lincoln and examined him. "Perhaps we could hook you up to a brain scanner of sorts and see if anything is going on."

"U-Um…" Lincoln's eyes widened in response as he suddenly felt wide awake. "You know what I think I'm good! Feeling a lot better now!"

"Hey? What happened over here?"

"Someone stole the engine to the train ride."

"Huh? What's going on over there?" Leni asked as she and her siblings passed by the malls train ride. Similar to everything else in the building the ride received an upgrade and now stretched much farther through the mall. But by the looks of things it wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon as the front engine had been ripped apart with the actually engine being gone. "That's weird, who'd steal the engine of a kiddie ride?"

"The security cameras didn't catch anything, in fact after midnight they all seemed to go out," The security guard explained to the person dressed as a train engineer, most likely the person who runs the ride. "The only thing we could find was this,"

What the security held up greatly surprised the Loud siblings. In his hand…was a crystal. Not just any crystal, but a crystal that could have only come from Diamondhead. "Lincoln…" Lucy turned to her brother with a small, worried frown on her face. "What's going on?"

"Wait, you all don't think I did that right?" Lincoln turned to his sisters in disbelief. Did they actually think he stole the engine from the train ride? Sure he's taken stuff that wasn't his before but he never shop lifted! Much less use his alien forms to shop lift! "I'd never do something like that!"

"Then why did that guard say that crystal, which is clearly from Diamondhead, was found at the sight?" Lola demanded an answer as she gave her brother a suspicious look. "Trust me, I know gems when I see them."

"Ok everyone let's all just calm down," Lori quickly clapped her hands to get all attention on her. Sure it was…odd to say the least but she wasn't just gonna let the rest of her siblings accuse Lincoln, at least not without giving him the chance to defend himself, "Look say Lincoln did steal the engine, where would he even keep it? It's not like there's any place in the house he could hide it,"

"Yeah that's true…" Lana admitted as she took her hat off and scratched her head. "And I definitely didn't see anything like that in the garage this morning,"

"See, I told you guys I didn't steal it," Lincoln crossed his arms at his sisters. Sure he was mildly upset at them for blaming him for stealing…but still, Lincoln was a little weary of things. The apparent lack of sleep sure didn't help him either. "Besides, it could have been another Diamondhead alien that did it. Remember that Tetrax guy I told you about? There are probably more like him out there in space,"

"Oh yeah I remember Tetrax," Leni smiled as she through back to the day they were chased by those alien bounty hunters. Is it weird she thought fondly of that day…and pretty much any day they almost died during the summer? Eh probably but she didn't care. "And, like, that does make sense. All those aliens in the watch gotta exist out there somewhere."


THAT NIGHT

"Ssssh, be quiet Lola! They're gonna hear us!"

"Me be quiet? You're the one bumping into everything!"

Currently the two six-year-old twins were sneaking down to the kitchen in the middle of the night. Their goal, grab some of the triple chocolate chip cookies Lynn Sr brought home the other day. Sure they were supposed to be shared by the whole family…but they really wanted some more for themselves. Just when the two managed to reach the kitchen…

DING DONG!

In the distance, a loud clock chimed the coming of 12 AM. Along with that, waves of yellow energy seem to spread throughout the town. They even went through the Loud House as the twins were preparing their great heist.

"Hey, did you hear that?" Lana asked Lola with a raised brow as she swore she head something ringing in the distance.

"The only thing I hear is your mouth running which is going to cause everyone to wake up!" Lola whispered through gritted teeth, clearly irritating by the amount of noise Lana was making. Did she want them to get caught! "Just shut up and give me a boost!"

"Ok, ok, sheesh," Lana rolled her eyes as she grabbed her twin by the legs and rose Lola up so that she could reach the cupboard. "Ok they should be on the left side."

"Got it," Lola said as she creaked up the cupboard slowly and-

Step. Step. Step.

"Shoot! Someones coming!" Lana quickly brought Lola back down as both twins heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs. "Hide!"

"I knew you'd wake someone up!" Lola glared at her twin as they quickly hid behind the trash can and peaked out to see who was coming down. Despite it being dark, it was way to easy to make out that head of white hair. "Lincoln?"

If Lincoln heard her, he didn't response as he simply walked out the door. His movements almost seemed robotic. "Weird, what's he doing?" Lana asked as she and Lola decided to see what was up. Heading outside, they saw Lincoln simply standing on the sidewalk of their house staring out into space. "Uh, Linc? Everything ok?"

"…" Lincoln didn't say a word as he brought his arms up and reached for the Omnitrix, activating it.

"Hey! We asked you a question!" Lola yelled as she pointed to her brother. Both were suddenly blinded by a green flash. Standing in Lincoln's place was now Upgrade and, still without saying a word, the transformed alien walked towards the driveway of the Loud House and up to Vanzilla. Merging with the family van, Upgrade quickly drove out of the driveway and hit the road. "Ok...that can't be good,"

"I think he's heading in the direction of the mall!" Lana pointed out as she quickly headed to the garage and proceeded to push out Lola's princess car and jumped into the passenger seat. "We gotta follow him!"

"You sure we're gonna be able to catch up to him in this?" Lola asked as she hoped into the driver's seat of her princess car. "I mean I know this baby's fast but I don't think it can catch up to an actual car,"

"Oh you'd be surprised," Lana gave her twin a smug grin as she patted the hood of the car. "Since Lincoln pretty much completely fixed up Vanzilla with Upgrade, I've had more time to upgrade this puppy and I think you're gonna like it."

Lola smirked in response as she put on a helmet and gripped the steering wheel. "Let's ride!" Hitting the gas, the twins cheered as they took off faster than any toy car should actually go,"

Although they weren't able to catch up with Upgrade, the twins were able to stay on his tail and followed him to the mall just like Lana predicted. "Lincoln! You gotta stop!" Lana yelled as she and Lola exited the car as Upgrade unmerged with the van and started to travel through the circuity of the streetlights over the parking lot until he reached the roof of the mall. "Geez what the heck is he doing? He could at least talk to us or something?"

"Hmmmm, hold on, I think he's sleepwalking!" Lola's eyes shot open in realization. "That would be why he's acting so…zombie-like."

"Wait how would you know anything about that?" Lana asked Lola with a surprised look. Seems like that stuff would be more up Lisa's ally then Lola's.

"Because it happened to me once," Lola explained as she put a hand to her chest. "Remember when I was sleep twirling to prepare for the Spring Pageant,"

"Oh yeeeeeah…" Lana nodded as she remembered those nights of Lola twirling a baton in her sleep. She then rubbed her cheek as a phantom pain struck her. "You hit hard when you sleep…"

"Yeah sorry about that," Lola apologized with a sheepish grin before putting on a more serious face. "But the point is, we ain't gonna be able to get through to Lincoln, all we can do is follow him and hope he doesn't do anything stupid."

Lana looked up at where Upgrade was and winced. "Yeeeeah, might be too late for that," Lana then directed her twins head to what was going on.

"Halt in the name of mall security!" A freaking helicopter flew over Upgrade, aiming a searchlight down at him before the guns attached to it starting shooting at the transformed Loud boy.

"Seriously!?" Lola yelled out in disbelief. She understood the mall was bigger and needed more security, but to have attack helicopters guarding the complex just seemed ridiculous. "What is this?! Royal Woods mall of Fort Knox?!"

As if on cue, a squadron of police cars arrived on the scene as well as few more attack helicopters. "You really gotta stop opening your mouth," Lana deadpanned at Lola who only face palmed in response.

With Upgrade, a few of the attack helicopters fired at him, the bullets going right through his body and causing the techno-organic being to melt into a puddle. The people piloting the helicopter examined the puddle to make sure the target was neutralized only to find Upgrade quickly reforming and jumping towards the helicopter. The pilot screamed as he quickly ejected himself out as Upgrade merged with the attack helicopter.

Soon the cops and other helicopters were taking heavy fire as Upgrade quickly fired rapidly at all of them causing the other pilots to also eject and for the police to take cover as their cars were destroyed. Once they were all taken care of, Upgrade flew up to the large clock that was set up near the top of the mall and unmerged with the helicopter and quickly merged with the clock.

Pulling himself and the clock he merged with right out of the wall Upgrade, who now made the clock resemble some sort of hovering jelly fish, flew into the distance and out of sight. Landing in front of a warehouse, Upgrade unmerged from the clock as the door to the warehouse opened and stepping out of the shadows was none other than…Sublimino.

"Who are you?" Sublimino demanded to know as he crossed his hands behind his back and looked over Upgrade. "What happened to the guy who looked like a walking chandelier?" However, Sublimino quickly shrugged it off, not really caring about the answer. "Ah well who cares as long as you do what I say. No get out of here before the cops see you!"

Mindlessly obeying his command, Upgrade quickly used the circuitry of the lights to make his way back to Vanzilla, merging with it once more and leaving the premises before he was spotted.

The twins hot on his tail.


THE NEXT MORNING

"Yaaaaaawn…" Lincoln let out a loud yawn as rubbed his eyes while waking. Once again despite getting, supposedly, a full nights sleep he still felt dead tired. "Man what a weird dream…"

"Oh that wasn't a dream bro," Standing in front of Lincoln was Lola and Lana, the latter having spoken with the former having a cup of coffee that she handed to Lincoln.

"Huh? Lana, Lola? What are you two…" Lincoln cut himself off as he looked around and saw he was laying down on the driveway next to Vanzilla. "Uuuuuh, how'd I get outside?"

"Just drink up and listen Linky," Lola told her older brother as she crossed her arms. "It's a looooong story."

"Despite last night's bizarre attack and other burglaries," Currently all the Loud siblings were in front of the TV in the living room, watching the news as it covered the events of last night and Upgrade's attack and thievery. "The mall representative had this to say."

The camera then showed a middle-aged man in a brown suit and red tie, just as the reporter said this was the representative of Royal Woods Mall the person who was essentially the boss of the entire complex. "This was an isolated incident," His tone was calm, and his face showed he didn't seem to be worried about things. "The mall is open for business. Shopper safety is our number one priority."

"While many are questioning this decision, many more are questioning why one of the towns alien heroes would suddenly lead an attack like this," The reporter explained as many pictures of Lincoln's aliens saving people and fighting bad guys popped up. "Was protecting us all a hoax of some master plan? Or is something else going on? All of that and more coming up,"

"Oof, you should see what people are saying online about this bro," Luna winced as she looked through her phone at people giving their various opinions about what was going on with Lincoln's aliens. Some good, some bad…some very bad, some she probably shouldn't tell her brother. "You're getting eaten alive."

"Especially from this dude named Will Harangue," Lynn said as she looked at an article from the guy who certainly had some…things to say about Lincoln's aliens. Not just about what happened last night either. "He really seems to hate you,"

"Well I don't care about any of that," Living with ten sisters has given Lincoln a thick skin. Let people say whatever they want, first amendment and all that, what he cared about was getting to the bottom of his strange behavior while he sleeps. "What I want to know is why I keep sleep walking and stealing weird stuff. First some engine to a mall ride and then a giant clock? How do you connect those together in some way?"

"Well brother unit the answer is rather simple. You can't," Lisa explained as she wrote stuff down in the clipboard she had. "You see when someone sleepwalks, they enter a hyper dream-like state. And in a dream nothing makes sense, it's pretty much the only place where you can't apply logic too. In a dream, anything can happen. Normally sleep walking is hardly dangerous on it's own, but you're a…special case."

"Yeah not every shop lifter can say they have an army of aliens at their disposal," Luan pointed to the Omnitrix.

"Which means we have to do something about this," Lucy spoke up, getting all eyes on her. "If your gonna go alien everytime you sleep, then we need to find some solution to this problem before things get worse."

"Agreed, I don't feel like going on any more midnight joyrides," Lola spoke up with her arms crossed.

"But how exactly?" Leni asked as she put her hands on Lincoln's shoulders, a concerned expression across her face. "We can't, like, exactly keep him awake forever can we?"

"Well what choice do we have until we can figure out what's going on?" Lori didn't really like the idea either, but they didn't have much of a choice. Lincoln's never slept walk before so, add in the Omnitrix and that just made this problem even harder to solve. "Look, Lisa, try and see if you can find a solution to this. The rest of us have to keep Lincoln awake and away from people so this doesn't happen again.

SQUIRT!

"Ah!" Lincoln whelped as, right as he was about to doze off, milk was squirted right at his face. "What the heck?!"

"Hehehe," Lily giggled as she aimed her baby bottle right at Lincoln's face.

"Heh, I guess Lily's got first shift," Lana and the rest of the sisters laughed at the sight.

And so throughout the day, the sisters each took turns looking after Lincoln and doing whatever they could to keep him awake. From plugging his nose as he was about to sleep, stuffing ice down his pants, and blowing an airhorn in his face. All the while Lisa tried to figure out what was going on with Lincoln. She had a sneaking suspicion it may have been Ra'ad but why start stealing stuff now? And why stop controlling Lincoln's body after a certain amount of time and not just stealing it like he intended to do before. Just didn't make sense.


THE NEXT DAY

"Yaaaawn…" Leni woke up and rubbed her eyes. "Good morning everyone…" Leni grunted a bit as she stood up, her back feeling a bit stiff. Wondering why that was the case, she looked at where she was sleeping and saw that she was on the couch. In fact Lucy, Lana, and Lola were also sleeping on the couch and scattered throughout the living room and sleeping on the floor were the rest of her sisters except for Lynn. But the snoring coming from the kitchen made it obvious where her athletic little sister currently was. Now the only one missing was Lisa, who was likely in her room, and-

"Lincoln!" Leni found herself wide awake in an instance as she quickly started clapping her hands as loud as she could to quickly make everyone wake up. "Everyone! Quick! Wake up now!"

One by one her sisters woke up, groaning and rubbing their eyes as they sat up. "Ugh what the heck dude…what time is it?" Luna asked as she rubbed her eyes in an arm.

"I need more beauty sleep…" Lola complained as she stretched her body out.

"Enough of that! Where's Lincoln!" Leni's question began to make her siblings wake up. They were a bit slower then her but they slowly realized Lincoln was no where to be seen they begin to realize they might have failed at there job. "Who was in charge of watching him last?"

"Um…I think Lynn was?" Luna rubbed her head as she struggled to remember the events of last night. "I told her to watch Linc and then I think I just conked out…"

"I hear her in the dining room," Lucy said as all the sisters made their way to the dining room and sure enough Lynn was sleeping in one of the chairs with her face flat against the table. "Big surprise there,"

"Lynn! Wake up!" Lori was quick to grab Lynn's shoulders and start shaking her awake. "What happened to Lincoln!"

"A-Ah! I'm not shorter than my brother!" Lynn stuttered in her sleep before snapping awake and meeting with the irritated face of Lori. "Oh, hey Lors, what's up?"

"What's up is that you were literally supposed to be watching Lincoln last night to make sure he's didn't fall asleep," Lori explained to Lynn while glaring at her. "Now where is he!?"

"Oh relax sis," Lynn rolled her eyes as she gestured to the chair next to her. "Lincoln's right…" Lynn blinked a few times before realizing that Lincoln wasn't there. "…Oh dang it,"

"Dudes! I found Linc!" Luna's voice came from outside and the rest of the siblings went to see her dragging their sleeping brother back inside. "He fell asleep again."

"Great…" Lori sighed as she rubbed her still tired eyes. "Well let's wake him up and turn on the news and see what else he stole…"


"This was an isolated incident. The mall is still open for business. Shopper safety is our number one priority." Just like Lori had said, after waking Lincoln up she had turn on the news and sure enough there was a story on that showed footage of Heatblast robbing the malls hardware store. Similar to yesterday's story, the news team had question the Mall's representative about the incident and he simply gave them the same answer he gave yesterday…in the exact same way and tone.

"First an engine, then a big clock, and now some stuff at a hardware store," Lincoln listed off as he rubbed his head. This just continued to make less and less sense. "What the heck is going on with me?"

"I can't seem to make any reason or sense of it either," Lisa chewed on the end of her pen as she looked over all the data she recorded on her clipboard. She just couldn't find any sort of reason to it all. "While it's true that dreams don't have to make sense…these robberies your committing are clearly connected. It all involves the mall and based on your actions from the recordings, it feels like your more in some trance then sleepwalking. With sleepwalking you would normally follow a pattern you, such as getting dressed or making something to eat. You are preforming far more advanced actions then the average sleepwalker."

"A trance…" Lucy put a hand to her chin and closed her eyes in thought. Something about those words Lisa spoke seem to ring a bell with her. But why? Lucy tried to think back to the last few days. What could have caused this level of sleep walking? What happened to Lincoln recently that spurred this on? "Some sort of trance…THAT'S IT!" Uncharacteristically, Lucy shouted as her eyes snapped open. "Lori, do you still have that recording of Lincoln from the other day?"

"Uh, yeah? Why?" Lori asked as she brought up her phone and brought up the recording of Lincoln and the other kids getting hypnotized by Sublimino. Lucy quickly took the phone and scrolled through the timestamp to reach a specific moment.

"Look I get you girls like embarrassing me but is now really the time for it?" Lincoln deadpanned as Lucy showed off the recording to everyone.

"No that isn't it Lincoln," Lucy shook her head as she pulled up the part of the recording where it had Sublimino waving the watch in front of Lincoln and the others that were on stage with him. "What if you are in a trance. A hypnotic trance!"

All of her siblings' eyes widened as they came to the same realization Lucy did. "Woah, woah, wait," Lynn took a few steps back as she tried to process the information. "You think Sublimino is the reason why Lincoln's doing all this weird stuff at night?"

"That might explain it," Lisa rubbed her chin a bit as she really thought about the possibility that this was the case. "You only started do these things after we went to mall, and after you patriated in that show."

"It could also explain that weird old couple that Linc fought the other day," Luna brought up the events Lincoln told them about. How the jewelry thieves were some old couple. "Lis you said hypnosis could heighten focus and junk like that, could it also improve your physical abilities."

"Hmmmm, it's possible," Lisa nodded her head after thinking about it for a moment. "It's possible his hypnosis is so powerful it overrides the limiter the brain puts on the body,"

"Ok but why have me steal all that weird stuff?" Lincoln questioned. If it was robbing banks or stores with valuable objects then it made sense, simply money. But there was something more to this.

"We don't know, but Sublimino does," Lori said with a serious expression on her face. Punching a fist into an open palm, Lori gestured her head to the door. "Come on, we're going to the mall again. We'll see if Clyde's dads can babysit Lily."

And so once again that week all the Loud siblings, sans Lily who was safely with the Mcbrides, made a trip to the mall to get the answered they were looking for. Lori and Leni decided to go see the representative about this and see if he could tell them where Sublimino was while having the others make sure Lincoln didn't fall asleep again.

Though…things could have been going better for the oldest sisters.


"This was an isolated incident. The mall is open for business. Shopper safety is our number one priority." The mall representative repeated to the two sisters…again.

"Oh my gosh…yes!" Lori rubbed her head as she felt a migraine coming to her. "We know! That is literally the third time you told us that! All we want to know is where did Sublimino come from!"

"This was an isolated incident. The mall is open for business. Shopper safety is our number one priority." Yeah this clearly wasn't going anywhere.

Seeing that her older sister was about to lose her temper, Leni grabbed her sister by the shoulders and started leading them out of the office. "Ok, we, like, don't have time for this," Leni told the representative in a blank tone as she pushed Lori a growling Lori away.

When they met up with the rest of their siblings, they saw them gathered around a bench with Lynn and Lana swinging Lincoln from side to side. The only one missing was Lisa. "Well that literally led us nowhere." Lori sighed out, trying to cool her anger before realizing the smartest member of the family was missing. "Hey where'd Lisa go?"

"I'm right here," Lisa then returned to her siblings with a shopping back in hand. "If Lincoln would hold his hands out, I believe I have found a decent temporary solution,"

Lisa then pulled a pair of handcuffs out of the bag, surprising everyone. "Cuffs?" Lynn asked as she took them from Lisa. "Where'd you even by these?"

"Survivors R Us," Lisa said as she pointed her thumb in the direction she went in. "This mall just seems to have everything now.

Lynn simply shrugged as she started to handcuff her brother, Lincoln having an unsure expression on his face. "W-Wait, hold on," Lincoln tried to struggle but the lack of sleep made sure Lynn easily cuffed his hands together. "Dang it,"

"Eh, seems good to me," Luan shrugged, happy with the temporary solution. "Can't go alien if you can't touch the watch. Maybe now you can get some sleep, you look dead tired. And that's not a joke, you actually look dead."

"Lucky," Lucy mumbled.

"I'm not so sure…" Leni was a bit hesitant about this.

"Oh please, what's the worse that can happen," Lola shrugged without worry.

Right after Lola send that, suddenly all the tv screens in the mall showed static. A hatched opened up on the ceiling and from it lowered the large clock piece Upgrade stole the other night attached a giant pendulum. As everyone's attention was grabbed by it, the static on all the screens cleared up and all showed one thing. Sublimino. "Greetings, mall rats," Sublimino gave a wicked grin to everyone at the mall. "I am Sublimino, master of hypnosis. You are all about to take a journey through that mysterious realm known as the mind."

All the siblings slowly turned towards Lola, giving her the stink eye. "I know! I know!" Lola yelled out as she crossed her arms. "I jinxed it!"

"No need to volunteer." Sublimino kept talking as the giant clock began to sway back and forth, no one able to keep their eyes off it. "Now all of you will obey me. Forever!" The giant clock continued to move back and forth as Sublimino attempted to gain control of everyone's minds. "Your eye lids are getting heavy. You are falling into a deep sleep."

"A giant hypno watch?" Lynn questioned before snicking. "Pah-lease! As if that'll ever work!"

But Sublimino held far more power than they could have thought. Yellow energy waves started to shoot out of the clock and when they hit the crowd, they all started to fall down into sleep. "Ok maybe it will…" Lincoln gulped a bit as he and his sisters quickly turned around and started to run away. "Don't look at the clock! Don't look at the clock! Don't look at clock!" Thinking fast, Lincoln quickly jumped into a nearby photobooth right as the energy waves passed by.

Opening up his eyes, Lincoln looked around and grinned as his plan worked. "Sweet!" But Lincoln's smile soon fell as soon as he left the booth and saw all of his sisters on the ground fast asleep. "Oh no!"

"Now arise!" Sublimino spoke up again. "Go about my bidding! Steal all of the mall's riches for me!"

All at once, the people who were hit by the hypnotic waves awoke and started to go about Sublimino's demands. Lincoln watched as his owns sisters stood up and started robbing various stores for cash and other items like common thieves.

"No, no, no, what do I do?" Lincoln tried his best to reach the Omnitrix, but the cuffs made that impossible. "Come on! There's gotta be something to help me get these off!" Looking around, Lincoln checked out the various stores around them as they were getting robbed. It seemed nothing around had anything that could help him…until his eyes came upon the beauty salon. "Hmmmm…maybe…"

Quickly heading inside, Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief at seeing all the various shampoo and soap products remained untouched. "Good thing these aren't considered riches." Chucking his entire body as the wall, Lincoln managed to knock all the bottles of the wall and proceeded to stomp on them, spraying their contents on the floor. "Let's hope this works." He then laid down on all the spilt shampoo and soap, wriggling around in it and making sure to cover his hands and arms in as much of it as possible.

"Alright…come on…come on…" Lincoln attempted to pull just one of his hands free from the cuffs. It took a few moments, but eventually Lincoln was able to slide his right hand out of the cuffs. "Yes!" Not wasting any time, Lincoln quickly activated the Omnitrix and began going through his aliens. "Big Chill should be enough to put this operation on ice! It's hero time!" Lincoln then slammed down the core causing his entire being to be covered by a bright green flash.

"Big Chill!" A voice…way to loud to be Big Chill said. Looking over his body, the transformed Loud boy saw that instead of turning into an ice moth, he was now a large bipedal tiger. "Aw man! I mean Rath!" Rath then angrily pointed to the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. "Let me tell ya something Omnitrix! Rath is sick of you not working right…it's not even funny anymore…"

"Better just roll with it. Honestly I'm just happy to be out of that trance with you. Let's just focus on finding that midget and kicking his ass!"

"Now that's something Rath can agree with!" Cracking his knuckles, Rath quickly went on the hunt for the tiny hypnotist. Jumping from level to level, Rath ran around the mall attempting to find wherever Sublimino was hiding.

"Hey you! Tiger man!" Rath stopped in front of a TV store as all the monitors showed Sublimino's face looking at him. "Stop that! Obey me!"

"Hey! Let me tell ya something Sublimino Master of Hypnosis! The only person who can tell Rath what to do is Rath!" Rath yelled out, pointing to himself for emphasis. "And right now, Rath is telling Rath to find you and kick you midget butt into next week! Possibly the week after since Rath might have plans then!"

"…What?" Sublimino's face quickly turned to one of confusion. "Hang on…what's two times 6?"

"Two times…hold on a second…" Rath looked to his hands and started counting his fingers. "One…two…three…uh…four…"

"Oh you have to be got to be kidding me…" Sublimino sighed out as he shook his head, muttering to himself. "This tiger things too stupid to put under control."

"Lincoln! Worry about this later! He just called you stupid! You gonna let him get away with that?"

"He what? No one calls Rath stupid!" Extending his claws, Rath started to smash apart all the TVs with Sublimino's face on them before getting back to the mission at hand. "Just you wait until Rath finds you Sublimino Master of Hypnosis!"

"Quick!" Sublimino's voice boomed throughout the mall. "All of you! Stop that tiger man!"

"Think you can stop Rath? Well then think again!" Rath growled as he continued to run through the mall on the hunt for Sublimino. Along the way many of the hypnotized people tried to get in Rath's way and stop him from swing sludge hammers at him or dropping heavy stuff at him. But Rath easily took it all on and punched, yelled, slashed, yelled, growled, and yelled his way through everything in his path. "You think you can stop Rath!? Well forget it! Nothing can stop the Rath-Train from leaving this station!"

"Less not making sense, more finding that guy!"

The sound of a car engine got Rath's attention as he turned around and saw a car driving towards him attempting to run him over. Rath growled and jumped right on top of the car so he could see exactly who tried to turn him into roadkill. Rath's eyes widened as he saw it was his sister Lynn in the drivers seat and Leni in the passengers seat. "Hey! Let me tell ya something Leni Loud, fashionista sister of mine…how come Lynn gets to drive!?"

Rath simply growled as he extended one of his claws and stabbed it right into the hood, and with a grunt lifted the whole engine out of the car causing it to come to a permanent stop. "We'll talk about this later!" Rath yelled at his sisters before jumping onto an elevator that was heading upwards. Looking up, Rath narrowed his eyes as he saw a security office on the very top floor. With another mighty leap, Rath jumped right towards the security office and crashed right through the window and sure enough Sublimino was inside. Rath growled like a tiger as he stepped towards Sublimino who backed away in fear. "Let me tell you something Sublimino Master of Hypnosis…Rath is about to show you why he is the master of butt kicking!"

Sublimino growled before smirking and snapping his fingers and pointing at Rath. "Quick! Skin this tiger!" Stepping out of the shadows of the office was four mind-controlled people, each holding a chainsaw. Rath simply glared as one of the people swung their chainsaw at Rath…only for the tiger alien to effortless catch it in his hand without getting even a scratch. Sublimino let out a horrified gasp as Rath took the chainsaw away before crushing it in his hand. Extending the claw on his other hand, Rath quickly sliced all the other chainsaws to pieces. "Oh-uh…"

As Rath knocked out the mind-controlled people, Sublimino quickly made a run for it. But he didn't get far as Rath easily caught up and grabbed Sublimino by the back of his collar and rose the tiny man up so he was meeting Rath right at his glaring eyes and growling mouth. "U-Um…nice kitty…hehe…" Sublimino's world then went dark as Rath knocked him out in one swift punch.

As Sublimino fell to the floor unconscious, his pocket watch fell out of his jacket. Rath looked down at it and with one strong stomp, destroyed the watch. This caused waves of yellow energy to once again spread throughout the mall once again and everyone that was under Sublimino's control snapped out of it and were free of his trance.

Once it was all done, Rath started breathing heavily as the Omnitrix started beeping red. "Alright…it's…over…" Rath then fell over onto his back and as soon as he turned back in a flash of red, Lincoln quickly conked out.


LATER THAT DAY

"And so Sublimino was taken into custody and will be facing multiple life sentences for attempting to enslave not only the innocent civilians of Royal Woods, but also its alien defenders," The news reporter explained as she looked right into the camera with a smile. "I don't know about all of you, but I'll certainly be sleeping soundly tonight knowing that are other worldly heroes are still on the side of good,"

And with a click, Lori turned the TV off with all her sisters sitting around her with satisfied smiles. "Well glad that literally worked out," Lori said with her sisters nodding in agreement. "Think we should tell Lincoln the good news?"

"Nah, let him sleep," Luna said as they looked to Lincoln who was curled up in a blanket with his stuffed Bunny gently snoring in the chair next to the couch. "He's more than earned it,"

And so, Lincoln was finally able to sleep peacefully at night once more.


And boom!

Another episode of season 3 complete!

Also before anyone asks, no Sublimino won't be returning for the Negative 10. I know who I'm all bringing in for that arc and I'm quite excited for it, especially after a little something Petrus showed me.

So make sure to favorite and follow so you don't miss the next chapter and leave a review with your thoughts. And stay tuned for the last Loud 10 chapter of the current fic cycle with whats bound to be a super fun one...

"Game Over"