Maggie stared agog at the grainy, CRT monitor before her. Ordering the QT's to split up had been a good idea, ordering this particular one to "go to the top of that building" had, somewhat predictably in hindsight, been a mistake, given their penchant for taking instructions far too literally. However, frustration had miraculously turned to serendipity.
"Fiona!" She shouted excitedly. "Number 3 found Lincoln!" Maggie took a moment to steady herself. She was elated, which was a very unusual emotion for her to feel, and she couldn't let that interfere with the operation. She needed to play it cool. Now reasonably calm, Maggie leaned down and spoke into the mic.
"QT3." She instructed the minion. "Walk over to Lincoln and give him a big hug. Then, look deep into his eyes and—"
"Belay that." Fiona grumbled, shoving the younger girl out of the way and taking her place at the monitoring station.
"'Belay'?" Maggie asked peevishly, rubbing her now sore arm. "What are you, a pirate?"
"As weird as it is to find him here, we're not nabbing the twerp this time. Him being here is entirely incidental." Fiona took a moment to study readout on the device. Whatever they were looking for was definitely here. Which meant it was either Lincoln, or the...really strangely dressed girl. Like, seriously, Fiona herself was occasionally required to parade around in skintight spandex for her job, and that had nothing on the monstrosity before her. So many frills. So much pink. So much...skin. Yikes. That girl had to be like, twelve, thirteen at most.
"Maybe Lincoln's the thing we're looking for." Maggie insisted, shooting Fiona a pleading look. She almost dismissed the younger girl's suggestion outright. When Darkness had given them this particular assignment, Lincoln was almost certainly still in Royal Woods, whereas the energy signature they were currently hunting for had already been in Great Lakes City. It was highly unlikely that he had anything to do with the mysterious energy, which left the fashion disaster as the likely suspect. On the other hand, Lincoln Loud had repeatedly proven to be a thorn in their side. Constantly thwarting their plans, seemingly always having a counter measure in place for whatever Darkness threw at him. It seemed...unwise, to leave him to his own devices. Let him go and they might quickly end up having to deal with one or more of his sisters, and at a time when none of the QTs were packing dark seeds to even the odds. No...neutralizing him might actually be the smarter play.
"Fine." Fiona sighed, trying very hard to ignore the look of glee that spread across Maggie's face. It just seemed so...out of place, on the normally dour girl. "We'll both of them. Just to be on the safe side."
Maggie sidled up alongside Fiona and moved to grab the mic, but Fiona slapped her hand away, firmly grabbing hold of the device for herself.. "QTs 1 and 2, converge on Number 3's position. QT3, keep those two busy in the meantime." Fiona let out a small chuckle, rubbing her hands together eagerly. "Violently, if necessary."
Ronnie Anne slid forward, trying to put herself between Lincoln the the intruder without drawing too much attention to the fact that she was doing so. She was upset, and the two of them still needed to have a long, long talk about what had happened with Sid. But this girl had just busted through the rooftop like it was made of paper, seemingly no worse for wear from doing so, and she didn't want to see what kind of damage someone like that could do to someone as fragile as her pale haired friend.
"Lincoln?" She asked, trying to sound nonchalant. "Probably a dumb question, but do you often have your life threatened by..." She trailed off as she looked the new arrival up and down. "Pornstars? Streetwalkers?
"She's not human." Lincoln replied. Ronnie couldn't see his face, but he sounded remarkably calm, given the circumstances. "They're...uh, robots, I think? Or possibly some kind of alien monster? We're not totally sure, to be honest, but we called the last one a 'QT'. Apparently there's more of them."
Ronnie spare a quick glance, puzzled glance over her shoulder. "QT?"
Lincoln shrugged. "Luna's girlfriend came up with it." As he said that, Lincoln peered upward and his face took on a contemplative expression. Minutes passed, and he said nothing further, seemingly frozen in that position.
"Lincoln?" Ronnie leaned over and snapped her fingers in front of the boy's face. Much to her relief, Lincoln immediately jerked back to life, blinking rapidly as he refamiliarized himself with his surroundings.
"You...didn't see any of that...did you?" He asked, hesitantly.
"Nnnnnoooo." Ronnie replied, slowly, now growing genuinely worried about her friend's mental state.
"Right. I forgot other people can't see my flashbacks. So..."
Several days earlier...
I don't think I get it." Luna confessed as she strummed her guitar. It was her day to hang out with Lincoln, and she'd decided they'd spend that at Sam's place. Partially because there was a strange sort of...completeness, that she only felt when she was with both of her significant others, but mostly because she knew Sam wouldn't let her hear the end of it if she bogarted their Lincoln. To that end, they were hanging out in Sam's room, she and Lincoln relaxing companionably upon the blonde's bed, while Sam stood a short distance away, pleading her case.
"Because she was cute." Sam replied holding up her hands and cupping the air a good distance away from her own, already ample chest. To ensure there were no illusions as to what she was talking about, she also wiggled her ass in a very exaggerated manner, eliciting a blush from Lincoln. "A 'cutie'. Hence, QT." She looked down and began to feel up her imaginary boobs, chewing her lower lip contemplatively. "And she was thicc. So...Thicc QT."
There was a moment of silence as Lincoln and Luna pondered this.
"It's a little dumb." Said Lincoln, shrugging apologetically.
"Super dumb." Luna deadpanned. "I want a divorce."
"You can't divorce me until you marry me!" Sam protested.
"Fine." Luna rolled her eyes. "Then marry me so I can divorce you."
"Fat chance!" Sam bounded across the room in a surprising display of agility and snatched Lincoln off the bed, holding the younger boy against her chest. "I'll be too busy marrying Lincoln and pumping out adorable white haired babies! And I'm not sharing!"
"The...kids, or my little bro?"
"Yes!"
Luna tossed her guitar aside and leapt to her feet with a growl. "Oh now you've—"
"Lincoln! I have zero context for any of this!" Shimmer Sparkle Rainbow Princess, Magical Ron-Ron angrily interjected, interrupting the pale haired boy's story. "Why do you casually hang out and talk about aliens...or...robots, or whatever, and why are you being hit on by lesbians?"
"Oh...right." Lincoln let out a nervous titter. "I guess that would sound weird if you weren't around for this stuff. You see..."
Before he could continue, the woman in yellow suddenly began to move, settling into a combat stance as she cracked her knuckles, menacingly.
"...on second thought, I should probably just answer your question. Yes, this kind of thing happens a lot."
"Fantastic." Ron-Ron deadpanned, rolling her eyes. She gripped her weapon in both hands and turned her full attention to the rather imposing woman standing across from them. Lincoln took, what he perceived to be an unspoken instruction, and took a few steps back, hoping to avoid getting in.
"So..." He ventured as the pair squared off. "Do you have a way you typically tackle this sort of situation? Do you transform into your combat form? Do you summon your giant robot? Do you have a squad of color coded teammates you can call in to back you up?"
I bet they don't double up on colors. Seven muttered. Fortunately, it seemed that the heroine had failed to hear the embittered machine.
"Usually I hit people." She said. "With this." She jiggled her rod for emphasis. If her goal was to reassure Lincoln, it wasn't working.
"With your...uh, wand?"
"It's a rod!" She shouted, peevishly. "My...Ribbon Rod." Again she gave her weapon a wiggle, drawing Lincoln's attention to the small length of ribbon attached to it, presumably the item's namesake.
"It's very nice." Lincoln replied as diplomatically as possible.
"S-shut up!" Ron-Ron turned back to him, her face bright red with anger. "If you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it!"
Lincoln paused to consider the situation. "As a matter of fact, I do." He raised his voice. "Hey, Sid? A little help?"
Lincoln swayed a little as an intense pressure began bearing down on the rooftop, the air suddenly growing very heavy. Clearly he wasn't the only one, as Ron-Ron suddenly let out a squawk of surprise and frantically began to windmill her arms, trying to keep her balance. Lincoln stepped forward, grabbed the girl around her midsection to steady her, then took a big step backwards, pulling her along with him.
It wasn't a moment too soon, as only heartbeats later, an enormous white glove descended from the sky like the proverbial fist of God. The yellow clad woman barely had time to react, taking a blind, backwards leap off the rooftop, only moments before the bus-sized fist crashed into the rooftop, effortlessly plowing through the structure and leaving an appropriately gigantic hole in its wake.
"LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!" The giantess thundered, perhaps somewhat redundantly, given that if she'd been successful, there wouldn't be an opponent to obey her demand.
Ron-Ron, still held by Lincoln, leaned her head backwards and glared up at him balefully, inadvertently giving him an unobstructed view down her top, and of her form, at which puberty was clearly very hard at work.
"Not one word." She hissed.
"How the heck did we miss her?" Fiona exclaimed, as only now did the QT Cam manage to catch a glimpse of the blue clad giantess that had apparently been standing out of frame all this time. "She's the size of a building!"
"You told the QTs to beat up Lincoln. They're very literally minded." Maggie shrugged indifferently. "Besides, we didn't miss anything, you're the one who took over this thing."
Fiona frowned, realizing the truth in the younger girl's words, but unwilling to acknowledge it. Then she got an idea.
"You know..." She began, tapping one cheek thoughtfully. "I don't think I've ever seen that girl before."
Maggie shrugged again. "Seems like there's a lot of them. To the point where they've even started doubling up on colors, apparently."
"Point taken." Fiona acknowledged. "But I'm surprised that you're so calm about this."
"Why wouldn't I be? There's only so many colors in the spectrum."
"Not that." Fiona caught herself, forcing her voice to remain level. "I'm surprised you're okay with there being another gigant."
Maggie looked perplexed. "Again, why wouldn't I be? They only ever send out one or two at a time, so the total number shouldn't make a difference."
"Right." Fiona smirked. "But do you remember what those gigant girls have to do to transform?"
"Well, they transform by..." Maggie trailed off, choking on her words as realization seemingly dawned upon her. She looked like a dying fish, her mouth opening and closing in rapid succession while her eyes bulged in surprise. It was delectable. Her pride satisfied, Fiona made to turn back to the control console so she could give QT additional orders—
"That...hussie!" Maggie screeched, her normally pallid skin suddenly flushed with more color than Fiona had ever seen on the girl previously. "How dare she take advantage of Lincoln like that!"
Fiona knew she should let the uncharacteristic temper tantrum run its course. "Didn't you kidnap him by shoving him into your boobs?" But knowing you should do something and actually following through with it are two entirely different things.
"That was totally different!"
"How?" Fiona asked, now genuinely puzzled.
"Because I'm his girlfriend!"
There were a lot of ways to dig at that statement, most telling being that they had almost never seen Lincoln with the same gigant on consecutive occasions, which...certainly implied things about the younger boy. But before she could begin to construct a reply, Maggie literally leapt at her.
"Give me the mic!" She roared, trying to wrest the mic away from Fiona. "QT! Beat her up! Punch her in that stupid whore fact of her's!"
"Belay that." Fiona growled, shoving Maggie to the ground.
"Stop belaying me!"
Fiona rolled her eyes and turned back to the console. "Change of plans QT3, I need you to retreat. Pick a direction and run away as fast as you can."
"But her faaaaace!" Maggie whined, lying prone on the ground.
"So..." Ronnie began. "You going to let me go anytime soon?" She was grateful that Lincoln had prevented her from inadvertently getting pounded like a tortilla, the segment of rooftop that was now missing due to Sid's intervention spoke volumes as to how badly that might have turned out for her. And it wasn't that she didn't enjoy being held tightly against the pale haired boy, but...it was a little embarrassing to be in this position. Especially dressed as she was.
"Sorry." Lincoln released her, and Ronnie instantly regretted saying anything as the boy's comforting body warmth was immediately replaced by the chill night air. Trying not to let her disappointment show, she turned to the boy, who seemed surprisingly abashed.
"I didn't mean to do that." He explained. "You just...remind me of someone, and I guess I fell into old habits. Sorry about that."
"It's fine." Ronnie replied as she straightened her outfit, her indifferent tone decidedly at odds with the hammering in her heart. "But that wasn't exactly a friendly hug. I must remind you of someone...really close to you."
"T-to be honest..." Lincoln's cheeks took on a faint, pink tinge, and Ronnie suddenly found herself short of breath. "Y-you kind of remind me of my sister." Wait, what?
"Wait, what?" Ronnie said aloud. She could feel one of her hands clenching into a fist, and was very tempted to lean into that feeling.
"But she reminds me of someone else, and that person..." Lincoln let out a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, that person is someone I'm really close to. I guess." Well...it wasn't quite what she was looking for, but Ronnie would take the roundabout complement. For now.
Ronnie felt a presence behind her. She turned and saw the enormous, smiling face of Sid, just overhead, beaming down at the pair.
"Something you need?" Ronnie asked, irritably.
"NOPE." She said, very loudly popping the "P" in the word. "I'M JUST ENJOYING THE SHOW." There was an uncharacteristic amount of decidedly non-Sid smug in that reply.
"You know..." Ronnie growled, facing the giant girl head on.
"Uh, girls?" Lincoln interjected, pointing. Ronnie looked in the direction indicated, and was surprised to see that the yellow-clad woman had not only survived her tumble off the rooftop, but was now taking off down the street at inhuman speed.
"Should have known it wasn't going to be that easy." She grumbled. Ronnie moved to chase after her, but was stopped as a giant, gloved hand gently came down in front of her.
"I'LL TAKE TAKE OF IT." Said Sid, winking in a manner that wouldn't have been discrete at her normal size, let alone at 50-feet tall. "YOU KIDS KEEP TALKING."
"You sure about that, Sid?" Lincoln asked, worriedly. "You've got the size advantage, but those girls are pretty tough."
"I'LL BE FINE, LINC." Sid flexed her arm demonstratively. "I KNOW KUNG-FU!"
"No, you don't." Ronnie deadpanned.
"SURE I DO!" The giantess waved dismissively. "AND CHOW-MEIN. AND MU-SHU PORK, AND AT LEAST THREE OTHER CHINESE WORDS!"
"Wait, Sid!" Ronnie called out, but to no avail. The supersized brunette spun on one heel and dashed off, her thunderous footfalls echoing loudly as she gave chase to the alien and/or robot thing.
"Wow." Lincoln murmured as the pair watched her depart, their current vantage point giving them an unparalleled view of giantess' spandex clad backside, the giant girl's movements causing it to undulate enticingly as she dashed off into the night.
"Yeah." Ronnie replied, absentmindedly nodding in agreement. "Something about the size...it's kind of hard to take your eyes off of it." And for a time, the pair simply stood there, joined in a strange sort of solidarity borne from their mutual appreciation for their very attractive friend. Eventually, Sid turned the corner and the spell was broken, Ronnie and Lincoln wincing in unison as the giantess' abrupt turn was immediately followed by a chorus of car alarms blaring in the distance.
"You think she'll be okay?" Lincoln asked, frowning in concern.
CRASH
Ronnie didn't have time to reply before another segment of the already dilapidated roof exploded, two dark shapes unnecessarily erupting from within. When the dust cleared, Ronnie and Lincoln found themselves standing before two more busty, yellow glad women, identical to the one that had been menacing them only minutes earlier.
"...I think she'll be better off than we are, at least." Ronnie grumbled, sighing in resignation as she readied her weapon once more.