The idea of the L-ementals was originally collectively created by AxelGripp, Khalalat, juribelit, Bry-Guy-1996, and Syfyman2xxx.

The cover image belongs to AxelGripp on DeviantArt and is used with permission.

This story is co-written with dubb1.

Chapter Four

Four years.

It had been over four years since Lincoln Loud and Ronnie Anne Santiago had arrived in the town of Nowhere. Time didn't really matter in this hub realm, but everything did age, and people did at least try to live with a schedule and calendar. Fortunately, most universes had twenty-four-hour days, so keeping track of time hadn't been hard as long as someone did that part.

After taking a bath, Lincoln looked at himself in the mirror. He had become a taller man now, 16 years old, and looked normal as far as he was concerned. He was in shape; if Lynn were there, she'd probably compare him to a boxer. It hadn't been easy to do that, but the results spoke for themselves.

With a quick change, Lincoln became air, removing most of the excess water off him before returning to normal. He still needed a towel to remove the rest, but he didn't mind.

"I gotta say, being an elemental sure does have its advantages." He said to himself, covering himself with the towel and walking into his bedroom. Going to the closet, he pulled out some clothes that reminded him of what Marty McFly wore in Back to the Future 3, though his outfit at least had some orange still in it and was more minimal. Turning into living air meant he had to discard his clothes each time he changed since Dr. Pine still had yet to create clothes that could change with him, so why wear a whole bunch that just had to be regathered later?

Dressed, Lincoln went to the kitchen, where he saw Ronnie Anne sitting at the table, helping herself to some leftovers for breakfast. She noticed him and smiled. "Good morning, Lincoln."

Smiling, Lincoln went up to her and pulled her into a kiss. "Good morning, beautiful."

"What did I say about acting like we're Bobby and Lori?" Ronnie Anne asked though she kept her smile.

"Oh please, if I were acting like Bobby, I'd be calling you some cheesy nickname and telling you how perfect your teeth are or something."

Ronnie Anne chuckled. "Still, thank you."

The years had been nice to Ronnie Anne as well. She had gotten taller, too, but was shorter than he was, wearing her hair in a long ponytail, and she had grown into what Lincoln liked to call a dancer's body. The kind that Lola would surely love to have when she becomes sixteen. Ronnie Anne saw herself as similar to her cousin Carlotta; however, she had bigger breasts and a smaller waist. She was proud of her sexy figure, though there was one detail that currently stood out more than the rest and made her feel less sexy. That being her swollen stomach.

"Please tell me you at least saved some for me," Lincoln asked, gesturing towards the plate of food.

"Hey, it's your fault I'm always hungry. At least you can turn into the air and eat ether. I'm stuck in my human form and eating real food until our daughter is finally born." She replied, sticking her tongue out playfully for a moment.

"We don't know for sure that it's a girl yet." He pointed out since the medical doctors around here lacked the ability to determine the gender beforehand.

Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes. "Your family is all the proof I need."

Lincoln shrugged but couldn't disagree with her; while he went to the icebox and got out some leftovers for himself.

"Ooh." Ronnie Anne said happily, rubbing her belly. "She's been pretty active lately."

Smiling, Lincoln came over and rubbed her stomach, too, feeling a kick. "Getting excited about being born, aren't you? Yeah, we're ready to see you, too."

"I'm sure ready to get her out of me. I never thought I'd actually miss the taste of poison." Ronnie Anne remarked. During her pregnancy, she couldn't seem to access her elemental powers anymore and had been stuck in her flesh and blood body for the past nine months. And that meant she couldn't eat poison anymore. Dr. Pine theorized that her body froze herself to protect her unborn child. Some foods and drinks were acidic and helped fulfill that craving, such as lemonade. At first, she didn't mind, but being a toxic elemental was something she had gotten used to, and having to go almost an entire year without it was like not having legs anymore.

There was a knock at the door, catching their attention. Lincoln went and saw Erin, who had a smile.

"Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, I've got good news and bad news."

The blue girl had grown up, too, over the years, obviously. She wore her blonde hair down in a way that reminded Lincoln of Leni with Lana's bangs, and despite being the pastor's daughter, she did not dress as expected. She preferred to wear a red shirt under blue overalls and blue ribbons tied around her arms under the elbows. She looked more like a farmer's daughter than anything, which made her family unhappy. Regarding her figure, she was less endowed than Ronnie Anne but not lacking in appeal.

"What is it, Erin?"

"The good news is Doc says he's finally got the ride ready."

"Really? About time." Ronnie Anne said, watching up to the door.

"What's the bad news?" Lincoln asked.

"He wants to test it out, make sure it works, but he says even if it does, he'd rather wait until after Ronnie Anne has the baby for you to actually leave."

"What?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Actually, that kind of is a good idea," Lincoln replied.

"Excuse me."

"We were turned into elementals the first time. What if that happens again? What would happen to her if she's still in you if you turn back into living poison?"

Ronnie Anne put her hands protectively over her belly, imagining the worst. "Alright, we'll wait until she's born. But that means there's still a chance she'll be an elemental when we bring her home."

"She's our girl, that's already a risk. But as long as we can avoid hurting her, I think we can wait until she's a little older."

Ronnie Anne nodded. "Just like how we had to wait to get married."

"That was your idea."

"Yeah, because I want our families to be there. And I want to fit into my dress."

"C'mon lovers, let me show you the ride." Erin told them.

Lincoln and Ronnie Anne nodded and gathered a few things before following Erin outside and down the street during the residential portion of Nowhere. The streets were barren, save for a couple of kids playing on homemade skates and skateboards, which Ronnie Anne had introduced to the townsfolk and had Dr. Pine build years ago.

"I knew the kids here would like those. Remember when we showed them how to use them the first time?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Yeah, I do. I also remember how you nearly crashed and literally splattered against a wall. The owner sure wasn't happy you damaged the wood." Lincoln joked, pointing to a house where one wall was clearly different from the rest of the building.

Ronnie Anne huffed. "It's not my fault I never had to skate on wooden sidewalks before. Besides, you had to go cloud to avoid getting hurt, too."

Lincoln chuckled and put his arm around her, and she leaned into his embrace. Erin gave them a look that seemed happy yet envious for a moment before speeding along, taking them to the farm fields. Numerous adults and teens were gathered there, moving things around.

"Hey Iris." Erin said happily, going up to a girl that was helping others carry a large tarp. "Let me help you with that."

This was Erin's only friend in Nowhere aside from Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, a girl named Iris Ivy. She was a genuine beauty, with long, shiny purple hair and golden eyes, and she favored a black dress with a white belt. To Lincoln, she looked like a combination of Lucy and Lola, and after getting to know her, he could safely say she had a personality closer to Lori and Lana blended together.

"Oh good, you're here" Dr. Pine said, coming up from a wagon being pulled by some men. He hadn't changed much over the last four years.

"Of course. I sure hope this works." Lincoln said, eyeing everyone spreading out the tarp over the field.

"Who would have thought it would take us this long just to make a balloon?" Ronnie Anne remarked.

"Honestly I'm not that surprised. Sure we knew the design, but not the mechanics or physics. Building one from scratch, especially not knowing what materials would work best, was bound to take so long."

"Imagine how long it would have taken to build a plane." Ronnie Anne joked.

Lincoln laughed. "We'd probably still be working on the engine, let alone the body."

"Lincoln, can you help me move the converter? It's back in my lab." Dr Pine asked.

"Sure thing."

"You still can't make a lighter version?" Ronnie Anne groaned.

"Be grateful I at least know how to make an internal power source, unlike those heathens that stole my prototypes and changed them."

The two men headed off to the lab, leaving Ronnie Anne to watch everyone set up a makeshift hot air balloon. She felt like she should be doing something to help, but of course everyone would just tell the pregnant lady to not overexert herself and let them handle it. So she just sat down and watched.

"Ah, hello Mrs Loud." Erin's mother greeted as she came over to Ronnie Anne, sitting beside her too. She was dressed in a satin pink dress with a bonnet, and she often presented herself as a proper lady.

"I'm not a mrs yet." Ronnie Anne corrected, wondering why this woman was talking to her. Over the years there were still some people in Nowhere that didn't trust her or Lincoln, thinking they were here to do something unpleasant to the town. At times Mrs Chick seemed to be a holdout, not sure whether or not she agreed with that sentiment. Sure, due to her husband and Erin she had never been openly hostile towards the two elementals, but she had never been welcoming either. This was literally the first time she had spoken to Ronnie Anne in four years without her family there to start the conversation.

"You might as well be." Mrs Chick said, offering her some lemonade which she accepted. "So this flying machine is how you'll give us a new home?"

"Only if it works." Ronnie Anne pointed out.

"Oh, it will work. Though we will need more than one of these things to carry us all."

"Let's just make sure this one works, then we can worry about making more." Ronnie Anne told her. "Besides, you do know that if we actually bring all of you to my home, there will still be problems for you there, right?"

"What do you mean?" Mrs Chick asked.

"You all will need a new home, new jobs, and there's no record of any of you so the government will be suspicious. You'll have no money, no property, and you'd have to adjust to our way of life if you can't find a place of your own to live. Honestly, you might be better off staying here."

"Surely you and your husband will be able to help us." Mrs Chick insisted.

"On our world, we're not angels, we're just ordinary kids who haven't been home in years. There's nothing we can do to give you a home that your daughter can't do too."

"You've been saying that for years. Surely you're just being modest Mrs Loud."

Ronnie Anne gave the teacher an annoyed look. "What do you want? Do you really think that all I have to do is wave my hand and there will magically be a new city for you all to call home in a new world? I'm not an angel, I'm a person. A person like you and everyone else here. I can't give you anything I haven't already given you."

Mrs Chick looked at the Hispanic girl in shock, as if she was trying to find some way to deny her proclamation. Ronnie Anne however shook her head and stood up.

"If that's what you've been hoping for this entire time, then you really are better off staying here waiting for real angels to come give you what you want."

She then walked away, seeing Lincoln come back helping Dr Pine carry the ether converter. So she went over to them, unaware of Mrs Chick getting up and walking away to talk with some other women.

Everyone got the converter over to the basket, which was made from plywood, and Ronnie Anne opened the door to allow them to put it inside.

"Gee, I hope I didn't overexert myself doing that." Ronnie Anne teased, making Lincoln smile and roll his eyes.

Several people fastened the balloon part to the basket as well as installed the open air lantern that would heat up the air inside.

"Now that I'm seeing it, I'm starting to wonder if this really will do the job." Lincoln commented.

"Which is why we need to test it." Dr Pine assured the white-haired boy. "The big problem with getting you two home so far has been the converter itself. As pointed out many times by you all, it's heavy and I can't make it lighter. So Lincoln carrying it up to his universe's gateway isn't an option. And while flying machines may be common in your world, we cannot build them here. Fortunately, last year Lincoln gave me an idea. A balloon."

Ronnie Anne nudged her fiance. "Would it have killed you to think of that sooner?"

"You didn't either." He nudged back.

"Materials were easy to make, construction was a little harder, but the true problem was power. How to make a balloon big enough and strong enough to carry the needed weight? According to Lincoln, heating the air helps, but the balloon needs to be huge and there's also the descent to take into consideration. I had to go through a lot of prototypes to find a design that worked."

"Hopefully this time you didn't have those stolen too." Erin joked, making the others laugh.

Dr Pine did not look amused, but he couldn't argue. "Anyway, after a year of work putting everything together, I believe I finally have a working full scale model that should be able to carry you two along with the converter high enough to reach your goal."

"And if it doesn't work?" Ronnie Anne asked, picturing the balloon crashing with her inside.

"It'll be okay, we're not going to ask you to risk the baby with this. Iris will go in your place to substitute your normal weight." Dr Pine assured her. Ronnie Anne sighed in relief.

Dr Pine and Lincoln loaded up the converter into the basket while several people connected the basket to the inflatable portion of the balloon.

"Okay Lincoln, now we need your ability to make this part easier." Dr Pine said.

With a nod, Lincoln turned into air, dropping his clothes, and began moving air into the balloon, inflating it. It was slow work, but the results were there. While he was doing that, Dr Pine set up the furnace and got it going. Lincoln got the balloon over the furnace and so the air inside began to heat up.

"Tie down the basket so it doesn't get up ahead of schedule." Ronnie Anne told them

"Good idea." Erin said before she and several others took some extra rope and anchored the basket to the ground like a tent.

"Okay, Iris, get in." Dr Pine said to the purple-haired girl, who nodded and got inside the basket. "To go higher, you need to increase the heat. Decreasing will let you descend. But be sure not to do either too fast or else you'll compromise the integrity of the craft. Understand?"

"Sure thing Dr Pine."

The balloon portion was essentially full of air and just needed to be heated up, so Lincoln came down and gathered his clothes before disappearing into the lab. Moments later he came out human and dressed, and looking tired.

Ronnie Anne went up to him and gave him a kiss. "Good luck, come back to us safely."

"Will do." He assured her before getting into the basket. Everyone untied the ropes, and the balloon began to ascend. Everyone on the ground waved, while Lincoln waved back.

"Could you… keep an eye out for… anything?" Iris asked, keeping ahold of the edge of the basket while she sat down, looking very panicked.

"You're afraid of heights? Then why did you agree to come along?" Lincoln asked.

"Erin asked me to, and said it was either this or deal with my family trying to set me up with one of the farmer's sons. I'll take my chances up here in the sky." Iris answered, trying her hardest not to look outside the basket.

"I understand, just keep your eyes on the furnace and try to think happy thoughts. I'll focus on piloting this thing."


Back on the ground Ronnie Anne was spending time with Erin while they waited for Lincoln and Iris to return. Since it was around noon, they went to Erin's house where she prepared lunch while Ronnie Anne decided to do some sweeping. Erin's house just so happened to be the town church, so keeping it clean was kind of important. At the moment she was inside the main room where the sermons were held.

A sudden pain made Ronnie Anne wince and hold her stomach for a moment. "Ow, I really hope that was just a big kick. I would hate to go into labor as soon as Lincoln is away for who knows how long."

"Excuse me."

Ronnie Anne looked to the entryway, seeing Erin's mother and a few of the local women accompanying her. "Hello, do you need me for something?"

"We want to talk. Listen, about what was said earlier, are you certain that going to your world won't give us a new home?" Mrs Chick asked.

Ronnie Anne put aside the broom she had been using. "Yes, I am. I'm not saying it's impossible, but what exactly are you expecting to happen if you follow me back to my world?"

"I thought we'd be able to have a town much like this one, only more room to expand." One of the women said.

"How? Were you planning on bringing the buildings with you?"

The group of women all looked at each other, looking a little off put but at the same time a little ashamed. Perhaps they had thought they could go just that.

"I'm sorry, I know you all see me as some kind of god or angel, but back home I'm just an ordinary person. I mean, would a god willingly endure nine months of this?" She asked, pointing to her stomach. "If this town follows us to our home, it will not be a paradise. There will be problems, like the fact that none of you have any records or identification. You will have literally appeared out of thin air to everyone else, with no way to explain how or where you came from."

"Is that really important?"

"Do you remember how concerned you all were when me and Lincoln first showed up here? Imagine millions of people feeling that way about you."

"But we're not elementals." Mrs Chick pointed out.

"Do you really think it will matter?" Ronnie Anne asked back.

No one said anything, and then Ronnie Anne winced and sat down in a pew, rubbing her stomach. Naturally a couple of the women came beside her to check on her.

"I'm fine, thank you. She's just being active today."

She then felt a sudden sensation of wetness between her legs that kept growing.

"And I think she's going to be even more active now." Ronnie Anne remarked, getting back up. "Tell Erin I'm hurrying home."

"Is something wrong?" One of the women asked.

"I'm in labor."

Right away the women forgot their previous conversation and helped Ronnie Anne make her way home.

'Lincoln, please come back quickly.'


The trip up was slow but so far the balloon was holding up. Lincoln had to turn into an elemental to try and push the balloon in a specific direction, pausing to snack on some aerial ether along the way. A bird made out of flames came their way but Lincoln managed to fight it off.

By the time the sun was close to setting, they reached the moon that was the gateway to Lincoln's world. It was still recognizable by that big blue spot that never went away. The balloon shifted when gravity changed, nearly dropping Iris out. She screamed and held onto the basket, while the converter was safely secured. Lincoln quickly saved her and got her balance back as the balloon descended.

"I am not doing that again!" Iris insisted as they landed. Right away she got out and practically hugged the solid ground below her.

Lincoln turned back into flesh and put his clothes on while she wasn't looking. "We'll be prepared next time."

"Next time?" Iris repeated, panicked.

"We still have to get off here."

Iris paled, looking like she was about to throw up.

"C'mon, let's set up the converter. The doctor said using it by the blue spot might be the most effective."

Iris nodded and slowly got on her feet. The two unhitched the converter and turned the furnace to minimal since they couldn't tie it down here. Then they moved the converter right to the edge of the blue spot.

"Alright, let's hope this works."

Lincoln turned it on and fired the converter at the blue spot. There was a reaction, the blue turning all sorts of colors like psychedelic water.

"Is it working?" Iris asked.

"Not sure, but there's one way to find out." Lincoln said, kneeling down and putting his hand on the rainbow surface. He felt solid stone.

"Huh?" He asked, pressing harder before hitting the ground, getting no change. He then turned his hand into air and did the same, but there was still no change. "I can't get through."

"Then this was all for nothing?" Iris asked.

"Contain it!"

Lincoln blinked. "What was that?"

Iris looked around. "Is someone else here?"

"I need to analyze the anomaly."

'That voice.' He thought, getting right by the star. "Lisa?"

"What was that?"

"Lisa is that you?" Lincoln asked.

"Lincoln? Lincoln are you there?"

"Yes, it's me. What are you doing?"

"I… I've been dealing with a lot of problems, and here I saw my remodeled accelerator create some kind of ball of light. Where are you? Can you return?" Lisa asked, her voice getting fainter.

"That's what I'm trying to do, but it's not enough. I think all I can do on my end is what's happening right now. Can you use your accelerator to open the doorway on your end?"

There was a pause.

"Lisa?" Lincoln asked.

"Lincoln listen, the day you disappeared, my accelerator got damaged. It's taken me four years to repair it just to this point, and I gave it a new purpose. A more important one. I could remake it the original way, but it will probably take me a year to do so. Maybe longer."

"A year? Why would it take you that long?" Lincoln asked.

There was a scream, followed by lots of shouting that Lincoln couldn't make out.

"No! Not now!" Lisa could be heard saying.

"What's wrong?" Lincoln asked.

"There's a crisis here Lincoln, a big one. My priorities are… let's just say nonfrivolous. But knowing you're still alive, the others and I will do everything we can to bring you home. But things have gotten bad here over the past four years, I cannot promise a quick solution."

"How bad?" Lincoln asked.

"Bad enough that words can't convey it. You'll have to see it for yourself."

"Okay Lisa, tell everyone I love them and can't wait to see them again. Tell Ronnie Anne's family she feels the same. We'll be-"

There was the sound of a crash.

"Stop it!"

"I can't hold it!"

"No! Stay away from that!"

Another crash was heard along with a scream, then Lincoln saw the blue surface of the moon start to bubble like it was beginning to boil yet there was no heat. He stepped back, hearing something but it was quite muffled now. Then something came out of the moon, but whatever it was it was not human.

"What the hell is that?" Iris asked, scared.

Lincoln looked at what resembled some kind of person, because it had a basic humanoid appearance, except it had no real features to it. No hair, no face, no clothes, but it did have a set of sunken in bloodshot eyes that looked ringed with crust. Not only that, but this entity wasn't even made out of flesh. If it was an elemental, it was one that Lincoln had never seen before. This substance, it looked like if boogers, puss, and feces were all the same material. Boils appeared all over its 'skin' and popped at random, releasing green goo that trickled down and mixed back into it's slimy mass, with the boils healing and refilling. And it reeked of a foul odor, like someone who hadn't showered in a month.

"Lincoln, that's-!" Lisa started, but the shimmering effect on the blue spot faded and returned to normal. But then the blue spot began to retract, as if shrinking.

"What? No no no no!" Lincoln pleaded, smacking the ground as if to stop it. The blue continued to recede, and the gross person shrilled and ran at the wind boy. Lincoln looked back up and exhaled a strong gust of wind. The creature was pushed back but didn't look deterred, instead it stayed still and looked at Lincoln as if studying him.

A bolt of lightning came towards it, hitting the sludge man in the chest. It screamed like a wounded animal and stammered back, clutching its chest with one arm. Lincoln turned and saw Iris standing there armed with the converter.

"Good shot."

"Did that come from your world? Why was an elemental in your world?" She asked.

Before Lincoln could answer the sludge man pounced at him like a raptor in a Jurassic Park movie, trying to bite him with an oozing mouth that tore apart in its featureless face. The teeth within looked like they were made out of scabs. Normally you can't bite air, but elementals could hurt other elementals so when this thing bit down Lincoln did feel the intended pain even if there were no wounds. He pushed back, shoving the creature off him.

Iris was ready to shoot the sludge man again, but she saw something odd. The spot she had hit it previously was red and dripping, like blood. 'Is it bleeding? Or… did I turn it into blood? A blood elemental? Then why isn't the rest of it turning to blood?'

Lincoln got up and took a few deep breaths, trying to ignore the pain he felt. Where he had been bitten now looked dark and smoky, like smog, with some smoke wisps leaking out like the air equivalent of bleeding. "Listen, you're a person right? So am I. I'm from the same place you're from. We can get you home and get you back to normal. There's no need to-"

The sludge man wailed and grabbed some of the blood on its chest before throwing it at the cloud boy. Lincoln dodged it and came in close, knocking the sludge man off his feet.

"So you want to fight? Let me show you what years of experience does."

Lincoln began to spin around the sludge man, creating a tornado wall that began to create a little bit of a vacuum inside. The sludge man tried to claw at him, but Lincoln made sure to keep some distance and change positions to do so, while occasionally jumping out to land punches at him. Basically he was in constant motion while forcing his opponent to remain relatively stationary, thus an easier target.

Then the sludge man inhaled and expelled an excess amount of vomit and bile, spraying at the wind wall and hitting Lincoln. The sheer surprise and disgust prompted Lincoln to stop and essentially roll on the ground, feeling the gunk seep into his aerial body. He coughed and shook himself, trying to get it off. The sludge man came at him from behind, but Iris zapped it again with the converter.

"Forget fighting it! Let's just get out of here!"

Lincoln nodded and came back over, helping her put the converter back in the basket before starting up the furnace to lift the balloon. The sludge man, who now looked like he was half blood elemental though the blood didn't look at all healthy, tried to come at them. Iris fired a warning shot to keep it at bay while Lincoln encouraged the balloon to take off right away. Once it was up he slumped down sighing while Iris moved away from the ledge.

"What was that?" Iris asked.

"I don't know, I thought maybe it was someone like me who fell through like Ronnie Anne and I did, but they didn't even try to talk to us. I was afraid maybe it was one of my sisters, but-"

The basket shook, making Iris scream and grab hold of the railings. Lincoln looked over and saw the sludge man gripping the bottom of the basket. He must have been lighter than he looked, because he wasn't weighing them down that much. Still, he was slowing them down and trying to get inside.

"Who are you? Why are you being so hostile?" Lincoln asked.

The sludge man responded by vomiting in Lincoln's face. Unlike Ronnie Anne's slime, there was no burning sensation, this stuff was just sticky and gross. Lincoln felt oddly queasy, like he himself now had to vomit, and fell to his gaseous knees.

"I don't feel so good."

"What is it? Some kind of disease elemental?" Iris asked, holding onto the gun part of the ether converter.

"I don't know, but if it's not going to cooperate then we need to get away from it." Lincoln proclaimed, wiping off his cloudy face before looking up. Muttering some stability, he went into the balloon and commanded the air to propel it up and away faster, which worked. The balloon soared away from the moon that served as the gateway to his homeworld, and then there was a shift in gravity. This shift threw off the sludge man's grip and effectively threw him away from the craft, making him fall down to the ethereal plains below.

Iris heard the scream and briefly looked over the edge to check, only to immediately panic and get back inside, shaking and feeling her heart pound like a hammer. "Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea."

Lincoln came down and slumped in the basket, looking exhausted. "I really hope we pass by some ether clouds. I'm worn out."

"The disease elemental is gone. He's the ground's problem now. How long till we get back home?" Iris asked.

"Give me some time to relax, then I'll make us go faster." Lincoln wheezed. Despite his fatigue, he looked back at the moon. The blue spot that signified the tear that brought him to this world remained, but it was now at least half its original size.

"I think now after what we just did, we only have one chance to get back home, or else the doorway will be gone forever."


Lincoln and Iris flew the balloon back to Nowhere, Iris enjoying it just as much as the first time. Lincoln was still in air form to better steer the balloon, after he had gotten some aerial ether to eat.

Since day and night didn't really exist here, the sky was no different now than when they left. But it had been hours for them and by now most people were getting ready to go to sleep. So there was no big crowd there eager to see them return. But at least there was Dr Pine and Erin, though they were keeping themselves occupied with a card game.

The balloon landed just outside the town, and right away Iris jumped out of the basket and hugged the solid ground.

"Everything okay?" Erin asked, coming over to check on her friend.

"I'm not doing that again unless we can guarantee getting through the gate." Iris sighed with a heavy sigh.

Lincoln took the opportunity to become human again and get dressed before exiting the basket.

"Did it work?" Dr Pine asked Lincoln.

"Sort of, the converter got a reaction but we couldn't get through. However, I could hear the voices of my sister on the other side. The one that created the gateway in the first place. I think we need her to open the door on the other side for anyone on this side to get through."

Dr Pine groaned and crossed his arms, but before he could say anything, Erin came up.

"Lincoln, you better get home. Doc can wait for the details. Trust me on this."

"Why are you smiling like that?" Lincoln asked.

"When you see it, you'll know." She insisted.

Confused, Lincoln thanked everyone and headed to his house. "Ronnie Anne!" He called as he went inside, getting no response.

"Ronnie Anne?"

He looked around but saw nothing. But he heard a loud yell from upstairs. He went up in a hurry and opened the bedroom door, seeing his fiancee on the bed with the two people who worked at the local apothecary helping her.

"About time. We've been expecting you." One of them said to him.

"It's time?" Lincoln asked.

Ronnie Anne glared. "No, I'm just practicing. Of course it's time!"

Lincoln went over beside her and used a towel to wipe some sweat off her forehead.

"What took you so long?" She asked, feeling better now that he was here.

"Long story, but now's not the time. I'm not too late am I?" He asked.

"No, she's still in there, but-" She was cut off by a contraction. "Damn, she won't be for much longer. Mom said quick births run in our family, among other things."

"I think they do in mine too. I doubt my mom would have done it so much if each one took so long." Lincoln added with a joking tone.

Ronnie Anne took several deep breaths, then she grabbed Lincoln's hand. "If you turn to air even once during this, I'm going to burn your dick off."

"Yes dear." He replied, not wanting to take the chance that she wasn't joking.

Hours went by and there was a lot of screaming, but by the time people usually began to wake up there was a new member of the Loud family. Ronnie Anne wept happily as she held a young mixed race little girl in her arms. Said girl had a small tuft of white hair and appeared perfectly normal. No elemental attributes at all.

"She's beautiful." Lincoln said, tickling the girl's chin with his good hand, making her smile. "And so tiny."

"Wanna bet on that last one?" An exhausted Ronnie Anne remarked.

"Sorry… what should we name her?" Lincoln asked.

The new mother looked at her child's eyes, and like her own mother had told her, a name came to her. "Leslie… I like that name. Leslie Maria Loud."

Lincoln watched his new daughter slowly close her eyes and nestle against her mother, making him feel like he had regained something he hadn't had in years. 'Leslie, I swear I'll get you home soon.' said Lincoln as he kissed his sleeping baby girl good night. "You've got a big family that can't wait to meet you."


Far away from any settlement, two people who had been out hunting elementals for resources loaded up their wagon and were ready to leave. There was a wailing in the distance, making them stop.

"What was that?"

"Who knows? We should probably just get out of here."

They started to go off, and before long they noticed a rank smell in the air. Like a dead body left to rot in the sun for too long. The travelers covered their noses, gagging a little, and encouraged their mounts to speed up. Though they had to come to a stop.

"You see that?"

There was a man standing ahead of them, wobbling and lurching, like he was having trouble walking or wanted to fall over but for some reason could not. They couldn't see anything on him, like he was silhouetted, and his back was to him, but they got the impression that he was wet, and the source of the foul aroma.

"Hey buddy, you okay?" One of the travelers called out.

The stranger slowly turned around, though the travelers still couldn't see much. Their mounts, a pair of wood elementals that resembled oxen, got agitated and turned away. The travelers tried to get them under control but the wood oxen refused. At that moment one of them felt something wet hit his chest.

"What was that?" The unhit one asked as the wagon got turned completely around and the oxen took off.

The hit one wiped the glob off, at first thinking it was a mudball, but it didn't feel like mud. Nor did it smell like it. Instead, it smelled like…

"Oh gross. Did that sicko throw his own crap at me?" The traveler asked, flinging the gunk off his hand and trying to wipe off the rest of the substance off him. He repressed a gag and then tried to clean off his fingers, feeling so unclean after that.

"Must have been one of those crazy nomads." The other traveler commented.

The traveler then hunched over, as if his stomach was unwell. "I don't feel so good."