AN: So, this is the other thing I've been working on. Or at least, the first part. I was going to post this thing in its entirety, but I vastly underestimated how long this was going to be. This here is about half of what I've planned, and I've got a couple of midterms coming up that I need to study for. So, to avoid getting distracted by the urge to plink away at this thing during my valuable study time, I decided I'm going to post what I've got now so I can better focus on studying. Once my exams are over, and I have free time again, I'll hopefully be able to finish the second half relatively quickly.
So, what is this? Honestly, I'm still trying to figure that out myself. The short version is that this started as a flashback chapter that I was going to insert somewhere in Stupor Heroics. But the more I developed the idea, the more enamored I became with the concept of what was, essentially, a normal episode of The Loud House, but the girls have their powers from Stupor. And, of course, there are also the usual...tweaks, I make to the status quo. I had a lot of fun planning this...whatever it is out, and I became torn. I wasn't entirely certain I wanted this little story to be tied to the Stupor timeline, because I was having a lot of fun with these versions of the characters, and knowing that everything needs to go to shit for them in order for Stupor to happen was putting a damper on my enthusiasm for writing this story. At the same time, however, I can't guarantee that I'll be sufficiently inspired in the future to develop this into its own thing. At this moment, I literally don't even know where I'd go with this setup after I'm done with this particular story. Which, tbf, hasn't stopped me in the past, but it's still a concern.
So the compromise I came up with was to post this as it's own thing. Stupor Heroics: The Golden Age, a story set just after the girls get their powers, but well before all the unpleasantness happens. You guys can treat it as a Stupor prequel, or as a stand-alone thing, or as an AU. And eventually, I'll hopefully figure out which one of those things I want it to be.
Hope you enjoy what I've got so far.
"One-thousand twenty-three!"
"One-thousand twenty-four!"
"One-thousand twenty-five!"
Lincoln Loud knelt in the Loud family backyard, his hands clasped around his sporty sister's feet, ostensibly helping her as she worked herself into a stupor via a flurry of sit-ups. It was a scene that wouldn't have raised any eyebrows under normal circumstances; Lynn exercised the same way that most people breathed. Seamlessly, persistently, and compulsively to the point where they rarely even realized they were doing it, and Lincoln had always held the honor of being her favorite workout buddy. It was a scenario that would have been the height of normalcy for the duo.
Aside from all the stuff that wasn't normal.
It had been several weeks since the fateful camping trip that had forever changed their lives. Lincoln, having received the worst intestinal distress he'd ever suffered, and his sisters having received fantastical superpowers of varying degrees. It went without saying that a period of adjustment had been needed by the entire family, especially once it became clear that this new development seemed to be a permanent one.
Being bathed in the light of that comet had left all of his sisters changed, but none more so than Lynn. Pre-camping trip, "scrappy" had been among the words most often attributed to the brunette. His "big" sister, largely in spirit more than anything else, had been on the smaller side of medium, to the point where people often assumed they were classmates despite being two years apart. In spite of this, or more likely because of this, Lynn had more than made up for this minor physical defect by focusing on the things she could change. Years of hard work had left her with a build that was lean, but hard, capable of seemingly endless stamina and surprising strength. Lincoln had often joked that the girl was superhuman, something right out of his comic books.
Odd, how prophetic that would end up being.
Post-camping trip Lynn was an entirely different animal. Immediately after that life-changing cosmic light show, all of the girls had immediately manifested their new powers in different ways. Lynn's had been inadvertently knocking Vanzilla onto its side by inadvertently stumbling into it. It was an impressive feat of strength, even by her usual standards, but nobody could have predicted how dramatically things would ramp up from there. Not even a day later, the athlete had grown several inches taller, with her already impressive musculature swelling accordingly. Lynn couldn't have been more pleased with the unexpected bonus, taking every opportunity she could for the remainder of the day to put things on, and retrieve things from the highest shelves she could reach. Lisa had tentatively likened the process to a sort of superhuman puberty, a delayed reaction as Lynn's body adjusted to the effects of the comet. She had been relatively certain, however, that the process would stop. Eventually.
In Lincoln's mind, it wasn't at all weird to say that Lynn had previously been a very pretty girl. It was just an objective observation of fact, one that anyone likely would have come to. But now, she was...something else entirely. Today, Lynn stood nearly twice her original height, almost as tall as Lori, and was considerably more robust in most other respects. And, to her continued delight and amusement, she still showed no signs of stopping any time soon.
In spite of the dramatic physical changes, she'd gone through, day-to-day life hadn't changed too much for Lynn. She'd quickly outgrown all of her clothes, and to buy her replacements had quickly proven pointless as she almost immediately outgrew those too. Pragmatism, an old family friend by this point, had led their parents to conclude that buying Lynn new clothes before her continuous growth spurts stopped would just be throwing money away, so she'd been forced to make do with a combination of hand-me-downs, and whatever Leni could whip up for her, which left her with a fairly limited wardrobe. Fortunately, Lynn had always been the type who dressed for function above all else, and since all of Lincoln's sisters had been indefinitely excused from school while the family figured out what to do about this new hand of cards they'd been dealt, she only needed to make herself presentable for hanging around the house.
Which...to Lincoln's distress, was part of the predicament he now found himself in.
Without school, and more importantly her sports teams, Lynn was severely lacking in ways to burn off her excess energy. She could only spend so much time sitting around and watching tv, and so without much else to distract her, she'd resorted to working out even more than she normally did.
The funny thing, on paper, was that if Lisa's analysis was correct, it literally wasn't doing anything for Lynn. As best the young scientist could determine, Lynn's increased strength and size was the result of her now superhuman metabolism, which broke down whatever she ate, and converted it into biomass, most of which went into her muscles. The actual exercise was a formality, something to pass the time between the incidents that cropped up so frequently at the Loud House, but Lynn kept to it regardless. And naturally, that included dragging her favorite workout partner along. In clear defiance of the fact that Lincoln was already basically useless to the old Lynn, and was now even more so now that his sister had superpowers.
"One-thousand sixty-two!"
In theory, Lincoln's job was to anchor his sister's feet while she engaged in an excessive number of sit-ups. In practice, the simple fact that Lincoln was still sitting there, holding onto his sister, was proof that he was completely superfluous to the process. Each of Lynn's legs, though shapely and feminine (distractedly so, in fact), were about as thick as Lincoln's torso, and significantly more sturdy. If Lynn kicked, he had no doubt that he'd probably end up in orbit. The fact that he was still here spoke to the incredible discipline and control his sister had over her own body. Which naturally begged the question, "Why him?"
Seeing as how he was stuck here, this was the thought experiment that Lincoln had presumed would occupy his thoughts. However, reality apparently had other ideas.
Lynn couldn't wear much, her parents had been very clear that she needed to be presentable enough to answer the front door without freaking out potential visitors. Whether she was able to achieve that, was a matter of deliberation on a day-to-day basis, and today was no exception. Today's outfit was a pretty typical result of Lynn doing what she could with the materials available to her. Shorts that had presumably once been pants, belonging to one of his older sisters, or more likely his dad, which clung so tightly to her waist that they may as well have been painted on, and terminated almost immediately upon reaching her powerfully built thighs. And what could generously be deemed a tank top, but in practicality was little more than a sports bra on the still-growing girl. To save on materials, Leni had a tendency to skimp on the alterations when she suspected that Lynn was on the verge of moving up another size, and the brunette had been on the verge of doing so for a few days now.
"One-thousand ninety-three!"
"One-thousand ninety-four!"
This left Lincoln in the perilous position—
"One-thousand ninety-five!"
Where he was forced to sit there, watching his scantily clad, overly developed sister, emphatically jerk her body in a manner that caused her glistening, shapely frame, to bounce in all kinds of distracting ways—
"One-thousand ninety-six!"
Specifically, he was positioned so as to have an amazing view of the girl's chiseled abs and her magnificent breasts. The latter, in particular, launching forward like twin pistons with every rep—
"One-thousand ninety-seven!"
Fully capturing his attention as they jerked to and fro—
"One-thousand ninety-eight!"
Coming so close, that at times, shameful though it made him feel—
"One-thousand ninety-nine!"
Lincoln experienced a powerful urge, to reach out—
"Eleven hundred!"
And...touch...them?
Lynn had bellowed her last rep with a ferocity far beyond anymore, and her upper body jackknifed forward with force to match, resulting in an impressive display of flexibility as the girl very nearly managed a full 180-degree sit-up. A path that would have taken her straight through the space currently occupied by her brother.
Lincoln stood, frozen, as the wall of Lynn rushed at him with the speed and force of an oncoming train. Inside his brain, a committee was formed for the purpose of determining how to best avoid becoming a creamsicle-colored splatter across the athlete's torso, with the duties of that committee quickly being delegated to a number of subcommittees who were scheduled to present their findings within a period of six months or so.
Unfortunately, this was all happening in real-time.
As Lynn's upper body careened towards him, Lincoln's mouth swung open in what he assumed to be in preparation for one final scream of...agony? Or perhaps defiance? Hopefully the latter. But just as it seemed that his all too brief life was about to come to an end…
...it didn't.
Lincoln's world went dark, and with it, all sense of the passage of time. He couldn't say where he was, or what that where might be. It appeared as if he now existed in a place beyond such things. Deprived of all sensory data, it seemed that he may have transcended his very existence, left behind his earthly body for something far grander.
Then, a single sense came back. Touch. A softness, the likes of which he'd never known, settled around the area where he believed to be his head, and with it came warmth. And as if emerging from a dark cave for the first time, those sensations brought back others. In a flash of insight, Lincoln once again understood what it was to be alive. To be human.
And then...he was unceremoniously yanked forward.
"Eleven hundred...and one!"
FOOM
Lincoln's stomach lurched as a powerful force yanked him to the ground.
" Eleven hundred and two!"
FOOM
And back again.
"One-hundred thousand and three!"
FOOM
And back...again.
Three reps later, Lincoln was fairly certain he understood what was going on, and the comforting warmth that engulfed him now paled in comparison to the raging inferno that now engulfed his cheeks. Panicking, desperate to free himself, Lincoln's arms swung upward, hands grasping for purchase—
" Eleven hundred and ei—OH!"
—which...they found. So...much...purchase.
"H-hey! What's the big...oh shoot! Lincoln!"
Stars burst in the boy's eyes as darkness gave way to light. He could feel his body slipping, tumbling earthward. But strong, powerful arms wrapped around him, holding him fast. The world gradually came back into focus, and the first thing he saw...was her. Eyes wide with concern, lips trembling, demonstrating an uncharacteristic degree of weakness. It was...strangely cute, to his oxygen-deprived brain.
"H-hey, Lynn." He wheezed air gradually ticking into his shriveled, desiccated lungs. "G-good workout."
"Lynn, I'm fine! Seriously!"
Lincoln would have stood up to prove it, maybe done a little jig for emphasis, but Lynn had been hovering over him (with certain parts of her hovering more than others), and no matter which way he tried to wriggle, she was determined to stay on top of him.
"Are you sure, Linc?" She asked, her brow creased with worry. "It looked like you weren't breathing for a bit there."
"I'm fine, Lynn!" Planting his hands on the ground, Lincoln managed to shimmy backward just enough so that he was able to push himself upright and scramble to his feet.
"I was just….stunned, a little," He said, dusting himself off. "Honest, I feel fine."
"Well, alright." She looked unhappy, but she kept her distance. "Just...speak up if you're feeling lightheaded or anything. Alright?"
Memories of his sisters' numerous, well-intentioned, but horribly executed attempts at nursing their brother to health before getting their powers flashed through Lincoln's mind.
"I will...definitely remember to do that," He muttered, absentmindedly feeling at his wrists and finding them bare. "Hey, do you have the time?"
Lynn's response was flexing her bare arms, to which were attached wrists that no watch could hope to accommodate.
"Right, stupid question. But you could have just said 'no'."
"A picture's better than words." She chuckled, flashing him a cocky grin. "But why'd you ask?"
"Because, unlike you guys, I still need to go to school," Lincoln replied as he fumbled for his phone. "And...yeah,"
He winced as the time flashed across the screen.
"I've gotta get going. Sorry, Lynn."
"O-oh." Lynn wilted a little, her massiveness suddenly seeming considerably less so. "Alright, that's cool."
Lincoln started off, but his eyes found their way back to his strangely despondent sister. Rather than making a beeline straight to the back door, as he'd planned, his feet took a slight detour, leaving him right back at Lynn. His brain having finally caught up with his body, Lincoln threw both his arms around one of Lynn's. He braced himself as the girl jerked in surprise, reacting to the sudden contact, but to his relief, she did not fling him off.
"I'll see you later, alright?"
"Y-...yeah," She said, softly, giggling as she pulled Lincoln into a side hug, nuzzling her face against his. "Alright. Later, lil' bro."
Lincoln dashed through the kitchen and towards the stairs, trying not to make too much noise as he did so. Since his sisters had temporarily been relieved of the burden of going to school, the chaos that normally engulfed the Loud House during the morning rush had been significantly diminished. Something for which Lincoln was grateful, as he hurried through the mercifully empty house. Since he was in a hurry, he still made an effort to avoid drawing attention to himself, but it was far easier to slip through the house unnoticed than it would have been previously. As he ascended the stairs he made a quick detour to his room to grab his backpack. Then he made an abrupt 180 and tip-toed as fast as he could to the other end of the hallway, stopping only once he arrived at Lori and Leni's door. Instinctively, his hand curled into a fist and raised up, as he prepared to politely rap on the door, but he caught himself just in time. Instead, he took the doorknob in hand, gently twisted the door open, and quietly slipped inside, pulling the door shut behind him.
"Lori!" He hissed, trying to find a happy medium between giving his big sister plenty of warning that he was present, while also refraining from needlessly waking up anyone who might still be asleep. "Loooooor—AH!"
Lincoln's voice took a sharp upturn as he stepped into the room proper, and caught sight of the disheveled figure that lay splayed across his sister's bed. With reflexes born of panic, his arm darted out and grasped hold of one of his sister's golf clubs, and he swung the impromptu weapon into the air, preparing to bring it down upon the beast that had infiltrated his sisters' room—
"Keep it dooooown, Linky…"
Only to stop himself short as a familiar voice cut through the haze of panic, equal parts pained and irate. Keeping a firm grip on the club, he crept closer to the bed, and gasped as he got a better look at its occupant.
"Heeey, little bro," Lori rasped weakly, her arm twitching in what Lincoln eventually realized was supposed to be an attempt at waving at him.
"Lori? What the heck happened to you?" Lincoln asked as he made his way towards his prone sister, discretely sliding the golf club back into her bag as he did so. Now that he was able to get a better look at her, the older girl was definitely not looking her best. Her normally pristine hair was frazzled in a rather severe case of bedhead, and her skin was ashen. From her face, where he could clearly see her eyelids struggling to remain open, all the way...down...to…
Lincoln's face burned as his eyes glided down his sister's form, almost certainly of their own accord. Lori was an attractive girl, and the way she'd splayed out on her mattress did little to hide that. Which wasn't at all helped by the fact that at some point during her rest, one of the straps of her tank top had slid down her shoulder, exposing significantly more of her cleavage than she usually did. If Lori had been in a less distressed state, she'd undoubtedly have been profoundly embarrassed, especially with her little brother ogling her so.
"I f-flew over to Great Lakes City last night," Replied the blonde, the softness of her voice forcing Lincoln to step even closer so he could understand her. "It's still a pretty long trip, even that way, and it was late when I got home, so…"
"So you forgot to plug yourself in when you got home, and now you're out of power," Lincoln concluded, sighing under his breath.
"Bingo," Said Lori, with a short, self-deprecating laugh. "A-any chance you could…?"
"Sure." Lincoln crouched down and reached behind the nightstand that sat between Lori and Leni's beds, fumbling for the outlet that lay behind it. And, more importantly, the charger that was perpetually plugged into it.
Lori's powers were very much a double-edged sword. When she was charged up, she was strong enough and tough enough to rival Lynn, and she could also do cool things like fly and shoot energy blasts. The pretty huge caveat that came with those perks, however, was that using those cool powers of hers expended her extremely limited energy supply and she weakened dramatically as her stores drained. To the point where, as she was now, she was barely conscious and more or less immobilized. In a pinch, she'd found she could drain power from anything that ran on electricity, and even batteries if she was desperate. But to avoid the family having to sacrifice their electronic devices to satiate Lori's perpetual, vampire-like hunger for electricity, Lisa had modified one of the older girl's phone chargers so that Lori could, essentially, plug herself in. The family electric bill had gone up considerably, but it was the best they could do under the circumstances, and on a good day Lori was able to police herself to only need a few top-offs throughout the day if she remembered to plug herself in at night.
Finding the charger, and the small metallic clamp that now took the place of its phone port, Lincoln stood back up and attached it to his sister's big toe. The effect was instantaneous.
"Oooooh," Lori cooed, her back arching as her body began to writhe. But any concerns as to whether or not this was out of distress were quickly dispelled by the tiny pleasure moans that began emanating from her, causing Lincoln to once again avert his eyes in embarrassment.
"Whew," Lori breathed, her body finally settling down into the normal, rhythmic movements that accompanied healthy respiration. "Thanks, lil' bro, that literally feels a thousand times better."
"D-don't mention it," Lincoln mumbled, trying not to be distracted by the way Lori's breath still occasionally hitched in her throat. He was about to broach the subject of needing a ride to school, but now that Lori no longer looked and sounded like she was on life support, he was able to focus on other things. Like where she'd said she'd gone the previous night.
"So," He said, sitting himself down on the bed next to his still-prone sister. "You...went to GLC last night, huh?"
Despite still riding her electricity high, Lori's demeanor changed entirely.
"Y...yeah," She said, softly, as her face fell. Lincoln winced as he watched the abrupt transformation. That wasn't a good sign.
"From the way you said that, I'm guessing that means things didn't go well."
"N-no," Said Lori, raising one shaking hand and swiping it across her eyes. "I mean, I think we both knew that this is where things were going. Even before the camping trip, things were getting...difficult, for us, and afterward...it was just more baggage on top of what was already there. I think...even before I went up there, I already knew it was over. But...I still felt like I had to try, you know?"
"I know, Lori. I know."
Lincoln reached out to take his sister by the hand, hoping to offer her some comfort. But, seeing her so distressed, he instead laid down on his side, put his arms around the prone girl, and held her tightly, burying his face in her stomach as he did so. He lay there for a time, counting his heartbeats, waiting for some sign of response. Finally, he felt Lori's trembling arms slide around his shoulders, pulling him close with what little strength she could muster.
Lincoln lay there for as long as he dared. But unable to silence the nagging voice in his head that kept reminding him about the still ticking clock (and privately worried that remaining only hairs breaths away from Lori's breasts would result in him doing something stupid, and profoundly embarrass them both), he forced himself to slowly begin withdrawing. Lori's grip, weak as it was, tightened initially as he began to pull away causing him to delay his departure. But soon her grip began to slacken, her arms falling down to her sides, and the white-haired boy took that as permission to resume his withdrawal.
Sitting upright again, Lincoln glanced down at his sister. The air still hung heavy with her sorrow, but Lori herself looked magnitudes better.
"Thanks, Linky." She said, softly, her lips curling upward into the barest hint of a smile. "Sorry, you had to be here to see that. A-anyway, what's up? Did you need something?"
Smiling gratefully, Lincoln opened his mouth to reply—
"Is that Linky!?"
—only for that endeavor to prove fruitless as a pair of arms snatched him from his spot on the bed and yanked him close, firmly depositing his face into a generous amount of cleavage. Which, his brain noticed, was only barely covered by a lacy, green bra.
"If I had a nickel...for every sister that smothered me today…" He thought to himself, as for the second time that morning, every ounce of oxygen was wrung from his poor, abused lungs.
