I don't own the Loud House.

Welcome back to another chapter of this amazing story. This chapter marks the start of Ace's Backstory. We will be exploring his past for the next couple of chapters and you will see what drives him to succeed in his seemingly impossible mission. There is a reason why he pushes the Loud sisters so hard and it's because he doesn't want them to die again.

Also, I will be sharing one piece of art on my twitter of what Bobby looks like in his hero suit. Justiceman basically looks like a power ranger mixed with Kamen Rider. I should have Dana's costume done by next week but don't hold me to that.

I know I keep mentioning this but if you haven't already, go and check out Siege's Stupor Heroics which is what I based my story off of. I loved that story so much that I asked him for permission to write this prequel of sorts from an alternate universe. Also go and read Gigant, that's a great story too. Enjoy!

Stupor Heroics: Incursion

Chapter 5

Lori knocked on Ace's door. She had just gotten back after she helped with what she could during the hurricane but even she couldn't fight Mother Nature. There were other heroes with better powers and training already there and she was just there for immediate evacuations. Upon returning though, Lynn had come to her and informed her of what had happened on her mission.

Out of all of the Loud Sisters, only Lori and Lynn remained in the base to help train any new recruits. Lori did it because she knew what was coming and Lynn stayed because she didn't want to go back home and be reminded of how their brother was no longer around. The others either went back home or in Luna's case, were on the run. Lynn had sought her sister out because what Ace had done had not sat well with her. And Lori had promised to talk to him in order to appease her sister.

As she finished knocking, Lori heard Ace tell her to come in and Lori did so. When she entered, she was surprised to see the masked man standing by his table while shirtless. He was performing first aid on himself and Lori couldn't help but sigh.

"Here, let me help you." Lori said as she made her way over to him.

Ace nodded and allowed her to help. "I think I know why you're here."

"Oh?" Lori questioned as she applied the hydrogen peroxide to his wounds. To her surprise, Ace didn't wince or even make a sound of pain.

"Lynn wasn't too happy that I killed that alien scout." Ace said. "She said that a hero isn't supposed to take a life."

"Isn't that what you taught us?" Lori asked but she wasn't judging him.

"Yes." Ace nodded. "But I was never a hero."

Lori paused what she was doing. "You never told me that you were." She conceded.

"I'm a soldier." Ace said before sighing. "An old soldier but still a soldier. I was never a hero and I won't claim to be one."

"Do you…think we should tell Lynn?" Lori asked as she bandaged his ribs. "It might help."

Ace shook his head. "No. I only told you, Lori, because I felt like I could trust you." Once Lori was done bandaging him up, Ace put on his black shirt. "The more people that know about what's coming, the greater chance there is that the public will find out. Even the teams that do the clean up for the battles don't know the full story. They only know a small part."

"Well, if we don't tell her then she's going to think that you're a killer." Lori pointed out.

"I am." Ace nodded. "I'm a soldier. There's plenty of blood on these hands, kid, and I'm only going to bloody them more when the war starts."

"If that's the case then what's going to happen to us?" Lori asked. "With you here in the past, or at least your past and my present, will we have to take lives in order to protect our planet?"

"Maybe." Ace admitted. "But just so you know, the enemy uses mainly robotic soldiers. Only their elite are organic since they're the ones who lead the armies."

"Is that why they want our planet? To make more robots?" Lori asked, recalling that Ace had told her the invasion happened because they wanted Earth's natural resources.

"More or less. I never really stopped to ask them what their goals were." Ace shrugged. "They were too busy shooting at me."

"Tell me, what made you want to be a resistance fighter?" Lori asked as she sat down on his bed. "You've never told me anything about your past before."

Ace stared at her for a moment before he leaned against the wall. "That's because I can't."

"Why? It's not like me knowing is going to change the future any more than what you're doing, right?" Lori asked him. She noticed that Ace seemed uneasy and she guessed that it had something to do with his sisters. "Does…does this have anything to do with your family?"

"Lori…" Ace said with a warning tone.

"No, please, I mean, I'm sorry if this is painful but I've known you for almost 3 years now and all I really know about you is that your code name is Ace, you're from the future, you're old, and that your family died." Lori said as she got up from the bed. "I'm not asking you to tell me everything but…" Lori sighed as she slumped her shoulders. "Just forget it…"

Ace watched as Lori began to make her way towards the door and he called out to her. "Wait."

Lori glanced over her shoulder and raised a questioning brow at him.

"Wait…" Ace began with a sigh. "You have to understand that I'm keeping things from you because…well, my past isn't pleasant. I come from a future where humanity is enslaved. Those of us who were free lived in ruins, barely scrounging to survive. I don't tell you because it's better to forget that the future ever existed."

"But there must've been good things, right?" Lori asked, turning around to face him. She walked back towards him and looked at him expectantly. "You have to have had something worth protecting, right?"

Ace nodded. "I did…I…had a family." He admitted wistfully.

"A family? Like a wife?" Lori asked, surprised that he had someone.

"Wives, actually." Ace chuckled sadly.

"Oh?" Lori questioned, surprised once more. "That…sounds progressive…"

Ace sat down on his bed. "More like a lack of options." Ace chuckled.

Lori sat down beside him. "What do you mean?"

Ace didn't speak for a long time. She couldn't see his face due to his ever present mask but she guessed that he was thinking about his past. She didn't know much about him but she could only assume that his family must've not made it if he came back to help them.

"I wasn't always a soldier…I had been captured by the enemy when I was still young. I was enslaved for almost ten years before Shadow saved me during a raid."

"Shadow?" Lori asked, wondering who that was.

"That was her name…not her real name, I won't be telling you that." Ace said and she could hear the grin in his voice.

"Stingy." Lori said as she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Shadow broke me out of the slave camp, took me back to her hiding spot, and together with her sister, nursed me back to health." Ace turned his back towards Lori and pointed to the base of his neck. She could see a strange tattoo on there that she had never noticed before. "That was my prisoner number while I was there. I keep it there as a reminder that I was once a prisoner."

Without thinking, Lori reached up and gently traced the mark on his neck. It felt strange on his skin, it was branded on him. A foreign mark that should not be there, a mark of enslavement.

"Over the years, I grew closer to Shadow and she helped me get back to my old self. As we continued to fight against the enemy, we eventually had a child together. And she wasn't the only one who grew close to me…"

"Wait, you had a kid with this Shadow?" Lori asked, focusing on the part that mattered most. "What was their name? What happened to them? Why did you leave them!?"

Ace stared at her for a long moment before he spoke. "Shadow called her her little Moonbeam."

"You won't even tell me her name either?" Lori asked, her expression one of disbelief and annoyance.

But Ace just chuckled. "I won't tell you any of their real names, Lori, just their nicknames."

XXXXXXX

"What I'm about to tell you is the story of how we rescued Lisa…and when I lost Shadow." Ace began.

"Wait, Shadow died?" Lori said, shocked to hear that his wife died.

"You should know that the only reason I'm here and they're not is because I was the only one left who could come back…" Ace's tone told Lori of the deep pain that Ace felt. It was a loss that she couldn't even fathom since she had never lost anyone like that. Even not being able to see Lincoln anymore didn't compare because at least he was safe and sound.

Ace looked around the corner of the hall that he was in. The alarms were blaring overhead and the whole facility was on full alert. Their entrance hadn't been subtle but Ace hoped that their response would have lagged just a bit. On the bright side, if they were this quick to respond to an attack then that meant that there was something valuable there. Something that they could use.

With no one in sight, Ace rushed down the hall with his weapon ready to fire. The blaster rifle that he held was state of the art tech, stolen from the enemy a few months back. If you wanted to fight your enemy then you needed to use similar or better technology so as to not get wiped out quickly.

As Ace ran down the empty corridor, he ignored all of the closed doors. They were sealed and even if he could breach them, which he could, he didn't want to waste time bothering with them. A facility like this held its most valuable secrets at the bottom level, near its power source. Ace's mission was to infiltrate the building, head to the power source, plant the charges, and get out. If there was anything of value that could be removed then he was to take what he could. But only if it didn't slow him down, they couldn't afford to waste time. The Empire would send a response team soon.

As he turned the last corner, he found the double doors that led to the power room. They were sealed with blast resistant doors and an encrypted keypad. But Ace had come prepared. He reached the door and placed a small device on the keypad. He pressed a button and after a moment a beep came and the doors hissed open. Thank goodness Techna had developed a universal key to open such doors. As he walked inside, he found the standard alien power source, a large jagged crystal that glowed and seemed to vibrate with power. They were powerful but also incredibly unstable and a small blast could set them off. Which is what Ace had planned. He went about setting the charges when he heard a croaking voice call out to him.

"I-It can't be…"

Ace spun around and aimed his weapon towards the direction of the voice. And when he saw who it was, he nearly dropped his rifle. "L-Lisa?" He asked in disbelief.

"Wait, you knew who Lisa was before you found her?" Lori asked, giving him a questioning look.

Ace mentally cursed for his slip up. "Of course, Lisa was a well known and respected scientist before the invasion." He said with a shrug. "Even as an adult, Lisa didn't really change that much appearance wise."

Lori gave him a shrewd look before nodding. "Okay, continue."

Ace rushed towards the side of the room where the holding cell was. Lisa was much older than the last time that he had seen her. She was an adult in her early to mid twenties and she was dressed in a simple white garb. She was clearly being held against her will and she looked like she had wasted away while in captivity. But despite her thin frame, Lisa's eyes held a fierce determination to fight back.

"Ace, what are you doing here? How are you still alive?" Lisa asked, her voice cracking in places.

"I should be asking you the same question." He pressed the small device from before on the keypad beside her cell. Once her door was unlocked, he walked inside and gave her a tight hug. He was overjoyed to see her and he was even more shocked to feel her return the hug. He pulled away and looked down at her. "Lisa, we have to go now. The place is going to blow in less than ten minutes."

Lisa nodded. "Let us be off them. I'd rather not be here a minute longer than I have to."

Together they rushed back up to the upper levels and along the way they fought through the building's security forces. The Empire used security droids to protect their property and they had no shortage of robots to send out. But as they reached the main floor, Ace stopped when he saw what was happening at the entrance.

The resistance forces that he had brought along with him were being slaughtered by the Inquisitors. They were a group of powerful Metas that served the Empire by hunting down rogue forces and destroying them. There were two Inquisitors at the entrance, an alien from another world with horns on their head. And the other was human, one that Ace was all too familiar with.

"Damn it." He growled as he glared at his hated foe. "Lisa, this is where we part ways." He handed her his rifle and pulled out two handguns. "I'll distract them while you get away. The resistance will have a much greater need for you than me."

"But Ace, I cannot leave you like this. I just got you back." Lisa argued.

But Ace shook his head. "Listen, Shadow is going to open a portal outside of this facility where the power dampeners don't affect her. Once she does, escape with her to safety. The others will be happy to know that you're alive."

"But Ace…I can't…" Lisa began but was cut off as Ace kissed her. She was shocked at first but eventually gave in, it was something that she had always dreamed of doing but never got the chance.

He smiled at her. "I always wanted to do that." He said before pulling away. "Now go."

She watched him for a moment before she wiped the tears from her eyes and ran towards the exit. He was sacrificing himself for her and she wouldn't let that be in vain, she couldn't.

As Ace approached the two Inquisitors, he fired off several rounds in order to get their attention. The alien turned to ace him and raised their hand, stopping the bullets in midair.

"Ah…Ace…we meet again." The Alien said with a smirk.

"Inquisitor Nairobi, I see you got that arm replaced." Ace replied as he stopped twenty feet from them.

Nairobi growled, glancing down at his right arm. The alien was 6ft tall with an additional 12 inches due to the curved black horns on his head. His skin was a dark red and he looked like a devil in black robes. But from the shoulder down, his right arm had been replaced by a robotic prosthetic.

"You'll pay for that, you worm…" He growled menacingly at him.

Ace gave him another smirk before turning towards one of his most hated enemies. The man before him was once his best friend, a brother in everything except blood. He was as tall as Ace and his black hair was hidden partially by his black hood. He had grown a beard in his adult years and there was a look of evil that had never been there in their youth.

"McCloud…" He said simply, glaring at the man.

"Ace…" McCloud replied with a sneer. "I'm surprised you're still alive. Someone with no powers shouldn't be causing problems for the Empire. After all, we wouldn't want your loved ones to pay the price…at least, not again."

Ace lost it. With an angry roar, he charged at the two men, not caring that he had no powers. Firing off the rest of his clip, he closed the distance between them and then tossed his guns aside. Nairobi raised his left arm again and stopped the bullets in midair once more.

"Pathetic!" Nairobi cried as he let the bullets fall to the ground.

"Try this!" Ace shot back.

Reaching in his belt, Ace pulled out a small metallic ball and threw it on the ground. It exploded a foot in front of them and a blinding light burst from it. The two Inquisitors shielded their eyes for a moment giving Ace the chance to attack. Pulling out two daggers from the back of his belt, Ace closed the distance between them and aimed a strike for their unprotected flesh. But Nairobi heard him coming and raised his left arm once more and Ace sidestepped it and rolled out of the way of his force wall. The Alien's powers allowed him to stop anything that came at him directly but it was useless for things that came attacked from the sides.

Coming up to his knee, Ace sliced down on Nairobi's calf, making the Inquisitor cry out in pain as he fell to one knee. From there, Ace plunged both of his daggers into his chest but to his annoyance, the daggers only went in partially as the armor halted the attack. Having no choice but to leave his weapons embedded in the alien's armor, Ace quickly rolled out of the way again as McCloud unleashed a torrent of fire towards him. McCloud had the powers of pyrokinesis which allowed him to conjure and control flames.

"Give up, Ace! You're no match for us!" McCloud shouted as he continued to shoot jets of fire towards the dodging man.

"You're going to have to do better than that if you want me to give up!" Ace shouted back.

But as he did, Ace had been distracted enough that he didn't see as Nairobi pulled out the daggers from his chest and created another force wall in Ace's path. Ace crashed into the invisible but very solid wall and was momentarily suspended in midair. And that was all of the time that McCloud needed to finish him off once and for all.

As Ace watched the large torrent of flames rushing towards him, he at least felt solace in knowing that Lisa would survive and be free. As he closed his eyes to accept his fate, Ace waited for the fire to consume him. Only it never did, instead he felt the heat of the fire wash over him but no actual flames touched him. Opening his eyes, he was shocked to see that something was blocking the fire from touching him. Or rather, someone was protecting him.

"Shadow!" Ace cried as he felt himself drop from the force wall that had held him a moment ago. "What are you doing here?"

Shadow was standing a couple of feet in front of Ace, her back facing him. She held both of her hands outstretched as she used her own shadows to push against the raging inferno that wanted to consume them. And as she did so, she was struggling to maintain the flames back since light was her natural weakness.

"You shouldn't have come, Shadow!" Ace shouted over the roaring flames. "You should have let me die!"

Shadow looked over her shoulder and gave him a gentle smile. "You and I know I could never do that, my love."

Just then, the ground shook as the base began to explode from the charges that Ace had placed before. With the ten minutes up, the unstable power source went up with the bomb that had been planted and with it, so did the power dampeners that had been limiting Shadow's powers. But all of that had happened far too quickly giving them all just a moment to react before they were consumed by the explosion. And in that split second moment to decide, Shadow made her choice.

Her shadows moved from the inferno in front of her and wrapped themselves around Ace before quickly taking him from the battlefield towards the still open portal that was quickly closing. The last thing that Ace saw of Shadow were her pale blue eyes glowing beneath her cloak as she gave him one last teary eyed smile before the fire consumed her.

XXXXXX

"She died saving me…" Ace said as he made his way towards his dresser. To Lori's surprise, he reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a bottle with some amber liquid inside. He took a large swig before placing the bottle back. "And not a day goes by when I don't think of her."

"I'm sorry…" Lori told him, not really knowing what to say to him. It wasn't a story that she had actually expected. She knew that he came from a dark future but thinking that you know and actually knowing were two different things. Now she understood why Ace didn't like to talk about his past, it was too painful for him.

"Don't be." Ace waved her off. "All I can do now is hope to avenge them by stopping them before they can take over the world once more."

"You mentioned that the only reason you came back was because you were the only one to survive…" Lori began. She knew that what she was about to ask would probably be even more painful for him but she finally felt like she was learning something about him. And also, Lori couldn't help but feel like she knew who this mysterious masked man was. Something within her was telling her that she knew who he was even if he didn't want to tell her his identity. The only thing left was to continue to collect the pieces to the puzzle that he slowly let slip. And once she collected enough pieces, she'd know who he really was beneath that mask. "What happened to everyone else?"

Ace sighed before looking down at the open drawer that contained his liquor. He took a moment before nodding to himself and reaching in with both hands. He pulled out two cups along with another bottle, one that hadn't been opened yet. "If you really want to know then you'll have to at least share a drink with me." He told her as he made his way towards his small table. "It's not a pleasant story and I find that drinking alone is bad for the soul."

"I thought we couldn't get drunk?" Lori asked as she joined him at the table.

"You can't." Ace confirmed with a nod. "And while I can't either, I can at least still feel a slight buzz if I drink enough before my body purges the alcohol from my system." He filled two cups and handed one to Lori. "Cheers. You're about to hear a story that no one in either timeline has ever heard." And with that, Ace down his drink in a single gulp, his ever present mask not an obstacle to that task much to Lori's continued annoyance.

End of chapter.