It was the middle of the night, in the city of Royal Woods, while most people were already asleep, 2 local vigilantes were still awake.
"Lisa, can you hear me?" Asked Ronnie Anne.
"Affirmative" answered Lisa through the earpiece "Did you encounter any criminals tonight?"
"No" Lincoln replied through his microphones "We are going to the jewelry shop and then we will return home."
As the two heroes arrived at the shop, they noticed a group of four people, all dressed in black, entering the shop.
"Guess we will have to head back home later than we thought." Ronnie said as she and Lincoln jumped from the nearby roof and entered the shop.
As soon as the two kids entered the room, the four men stopped stealing the jewels and turned their sight to the two superheroes.
"Alright listen, we can do it the easy way." Lincoln said.
"Or the hard way" Ronnie Anne added, cracking her knuckles.
"THEY'RE THE TWO VIGILANTES! KILL THEM!" one of the robbers said as he took his rifle ready to open fire against the two kids, followed soon by his three companions.
However, before any of the criminals could fire a single shot, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne quickly ran towards them, grabbing their guns and disarming them before knocking them unconscious.
After dealing with the crooks, Lincoln took up one of the guns to inspect them.
"Assault rifles." said Lincoln as he dropped the gun to the ground.
"Do you think they're connected to those robbers who tried to rob the bank a few days ago?"
"most probably." said Lisa "We will have plenty of time to think about this once you arrive home, now it's better if you leave, a police car is only fifteen seconds away from your position."
As Lisa finished talking, the two heroes exited the shop and made their escapes jumping across the roofs of the nearby building.
Although Lincoln and Ronnie Anne were able to arrest the four robbers, something else was happening in the dark parts of the city, unbeknownst to the heroes.
In one abandoned building on the outskirts of Royal Woods two men dressed in trench coat met to discuss a business
"I hope what you have to say it's important, I had to drive for six hours to arrive here." one of the two men said as he leaned against the wall smoking a cigarette.
"We have a new job offer, you did excellent work in Houston, and now we need you to solve a problem for us here in Royal Woods." the man said as he opened a little suitcase "We even have your favorite toy"
The hitman looked into the suitcase, a malicious grim form along his face "Alright, who do I need to kill?..."
The following morning, Lincoln woke up around 9:30 a.m., he had been on patrol until around 2 a.m, he had been doing this night patrol for over a week and the lack of sleep was starting to catch up.
As he got to the bathroom, he noticed two eye bags forming under his eyes, he let the sink run and washed his face with cold water to wake up.
He dragged his body downstairs, and as he reached the end of the stairs he noticed his sister Leni sitting on the couch reading a fashion magazine.
"Linky, you are finally awake." She said as she approached him to give him a hug "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said trying to remain awake.
"You sure, you still seem a bit tired."Leni said in a worried tone.
"Leni, I'm fine." Lincoln said, trying to reassure his sister "I'm just a bit hungry, that's all."
"Well, would you like it if your big sister prepares you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?" Leni said as she put her hand on his brother's shoulder.
"I would like that." Lincoln said as the two of them went into the kitchen.
"So, where are the others?" asked Lincoln as he sat down at the table.
"Well, Mom and Dad went to the hospital to see Lynn, while most of our sisters had their activity" she responded handing Lincoln his sandwich with a bowl of cereal "The only other one who stayed here at home with me is Lisa, she has been in her lab since she finished breakfast" she took a moment to breathe "I wonder what she's doing down there all the time? Maybe she is working on some strange invention that will help Lynn wake up from the coma. Maybe this is how she deals with the situation" Leni said happily, but as soon as she saw Lincoln's tired expression, her smile disappeared, replaced by a sadder expression.
After finishing eating, Lincoln returned to his room to dress up and then he immediately went to the underground bunker in the backyard.
As he entered the secret hideout, he noticed his sister doing some kind of research at the computer.
"Good morning Lisa, what are you working at?" he said with a still tired voice
"Well, brother unit, today I decided to research the weapons the criminals at the jewelry store used, and they are the same as the Jhonson brothers used to rob the bank."
"So you're telling me there is someone who is funding the criminal of Royal Woods? But why?" Lincoln asked perplexed.
"Unfortunately I can't answer this question"
"Did you find anything about the model of the rifle"
"I was able to find the model of the rifle." Lisa said while showing the images on the screen "It's an M4, sadly it's one of the most used rifles in the U.S.A. so it will be pretty hard to find who bought one of them"
"Well it's still worth a try." said Lincoln while gently rubbing his sister's back
After the two siblings separated from their hug, they heard someone knocking on the door of the bunker.
As the metal sound was heard in the room, Lincoln went to the entrance while Lisa hid their research on the computer. Fortunately, it was just Ronnie Anne.
"Hey lame-o, how are you doing?"
"I'm fine, thank you for asking. You know, maybe the next time you come it would be good if you give me a call." Lincoln said as the two of them went downstairs into their hideout.
"Ah Ronnie Anne, what a pleasant surprise, may I ask the reason behind such a sudden visit?" Lisa asked as the two young heroes arrived at the bottom of the stairway.
"Nothing special, I just thought it may have been good if we had a bit of training to improve our fighting skills early today." Replied while stretching her arms to reinforce her point. "What do you say Lincoln?"
"I think it's an excellent idea" exclaimed, as he was eager to improve his fighting technique
"Well, since both of you are so eager to train yourself, you will be delighted to see the new upgrade I made to your training robot." As the genius of the house finished talking, she activated the robot who went to the center of the room, ready for the fight. Lincoln and Ronnie Anne quickly dressed up and threw themself into the combat.
The two heroes immediately went on the offensive, charging at the robot with all their strength, Lincoln tried to hit it in the face while Ronnie went for its leg; unfortunately, this double-focus attack wasn't enough to catch it off guard the machine which not only managed to dodge both of the attacks but was even able to counterattack, rapidly throwing its punch at the two kids.
"I have got to say Lisa, you surpassed yourself with this robot." Lincoln said still trying to figure out a way to land a blow to the robot
"I'm happy you find this invention of mine useful dear brother, but I suggest you stay focused on your training." Lisa remarked.
After a few minutes of keeping throwing punches and dodging incoming attacks, the two kids stopped attacking, understanding the futility of their strategy.
"Ok Lincoln this would be a good time for a new plan"
"I have an idea but I don't promise it will work, you will try to distract him by hitting him in the face, then I'm going to hit him in the chest and hopefully this will put him down"
Having devised a plan the two heroes were confident in their victory, Ronnie Anne quickly dashed trying to hit the robot's leg, the robot immediately tried to kick her but, in a few seconds, Ronnie blocked the attack and threw a punch in the robot's face.
After Ronnie Anne's attack, Lincoln ran towards the robot ready to put it out of the fight. The machine, still disorientated from the earlier attack, tried to block the incoming blow.
As Lincoln's fist made contact with the robot's arm, a loud sound of cracking metal was heard and the robot was sent flying to the other side of the room.
After the robot was defeated, Lisa started analyzing the data, regarding their speed, strength, and agility, which the robot had determined during the fight.
"So Lisa, is our training showing any sort of progress?" Ronnie questioned, eager to see how much she and Lincoln had improved.
"Well, since the first time you two had started training, your agility has been boosted by nearly 7%. While Lincoln's strength increased by nearly 8%, you have reached your second highest peaks."
"Cool." Lincoln rejoiced "Wait, seconds? When did I reach the highest?"
"On the first day, when you destroyed my robot." Lisa added.
"Yeah I remember it"
"If you desire to improve, I suggest you understand how you did it and learn how to control it."
As the 4-year-old finished speaking, the computer's alarm turned on. Lisa immediately started searching for what activated the alarm, and she noticed that it was a notification, three small shops near the center of Royal Woods were being robbed.
Hearing the news the two heroes immediately exited the bunker and rushed towards the center of the city to try and catch the robber.
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne arrived at the scene of the crime a few minutes later, the shops' windows were destroyed, and the walls of the building were marked by signs of flames and broken walls. The two heroes watched as the police entered the buildings.
"Guess they won't allow us to enter the building." Ronnie Anne playfully said.
"Lisa, do you have any idea where those criminals might have gone?"
"Most of the cameras near the shops had been damaged, but a camera in an abandoned area a block away caught a man covered in black; it may be nothing but I would suggest you inspect it."
As soon as the two vigilantes finished speaking with Lisa, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne immediately rushed to the scene to try and catch the suspect, but there was nobody there.
The two kids started inspecting the area to try to find any possible track, but their search was cut short by a metal sound coming from the back of the alley.
The two kids turned their sights to where the sound came, slowly getting closer and closer, raising their guard to be ready to fight any possible menace. After they took a few steps forward a shadow started approaching them.
As the figure stepped toward them, it became clear he was a young man not older than 28, covered in a trench coat, his face only partially lightened by a cigar.
"Well well well, the voices were true, two kids who don't know when it's Halloween decided to fight crime." he said while smoking his cigar.
"WHO DID YOU CALL KIDS?!" Ronnie Anne screamed, enraged by the criminal statement.
"Woah seems like someone is pretty irritable."
"What do you want?" Lincoln asked.
"me? nothing in particular but you two made the wrong people angry and they want me to take care so..."
"Sorry to break it to you, but we won't give up without a fight" said Ronnie Anne proudly.
The criminal laughed a bit upon hearing Ronnie's statement, he took his cigar out of his mouth and stomped on it, turning it off.
"I was hoping you would say it" As the man finished speaking, he took off his trench coat revealing he had 2 arm prosthesis.
The two young heroes charge head-on at the criminal, but this wasn't like the criminals they had previously fought. This one was faster, being able to dodge a parry most of the punches they threw at him.
After a few minutes of keeping missing their target, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne were starting to feel tired.
Seeing his opponents weren't able to keep up with the pace of the fight, the criminal soon switched from a defensive strategy to an aggressive one.
The two vigilantes, who by now needed to catch some breath, couldn't dodge all of their enemy blows.
After a few minutes of fighting, the opponent disengaged from the fight.
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne were battered, they were able to rest a bit, but they would have to come up with a new plan or they wouldn't be able to win the fight.
"Lisa" Lincoln said as he tried to call his sister through his headphones "Lisa can you hear me."
"I hear you loud and clear." said Lisa
"This criminal is pretty strong, do you have any suggestions that might help us?"
"May I suggest you retreat?"
"Another one?"
"As I can see from the cameras he has a robotic arm, try and destroy it, this might make him unable to keep fighting."
After finishing speaking with his younger sister, Lincoln turned to Ronnie Anne.
"I might have a plan."
"I'm all ears."
"Do you remember our training this morning?"
Ronnie quickly understood what her friend had in mind and with a nod of her head, she quickly ran towards the criminal, trying to distract him, she succeeded and she made him lose balance for a few seconds, enough time for Lincoln to attack.
As the criminal realized what was happening, he quickly raised his robotic arm to try and block Lincoln's punch. The impact of the blow resounded in the alley.
Unfortunately, it was Lincoln who suffered the worst. The impact sent the kid flying toward the wall, if it wasn't for the helmet and his suit, this would be a fatal blow.
Lincoln was on his knees, trying to catch enough force to get up and keep fighting, but as much as he tried the pain was too much for him to bear. Ronnie Anne quickly approached him, trying to defend him from any possible attack that would come.
"Well, I have to say I'm kind of disappointed, they said you would have given me a good fight but I guess they overestimated you." The criminal mocked them as he approached them as he was about to finish the fight.
But at that moment, sirens of police cars were heard approaching them.
Not wanting to risk getting caught, he decided to escape leaving the two defeated heroes behind him.
Ronnie Anne helped Lincoln get up, the two kids were able to climb on top of the roof of the building, and escape to another alley, before returning home in their civilian clothes.
Once back home, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne received some medical treatment from Lisa.
"I don't want to say you should have retreated as I told you but, you should have retreated." Lisa said as she handed Lincoln some ice.
"I know, I just thought we would be able to catch him." said Lincoln as he put the ice on his head.
"Don't worry lame-o, we will be able to beat him the next time." Ronnie Anne trying to cheer him up.
"Well that might be true, but right now you two should return home." Lisa said as she started turning off her computer.
Once outside the bunker, the two kids separated from each other and headed to their respective houses.
As Lincoln entered his house he found Leni and Luna resting on the sofa, the first one reading a magazine while the second one was playing with her guitar.
"Hi Linky."
"Sup dude" his two sisters greeted him.
"Hi girls." Lincoln said as he headed towards the stairs.
"Wait" As Lincoln started to climb the stairs, he heard his sister Leni calling him.
His sister got up from the sofa and approached him.
"How, how are you feeling?" Asked the second oldest loud.
Lincoln was taken aback by his sister's question.
"Well I'm pretty fine, a little bit tired, but I'm fine." Lincoln replied, trying to put up a smile as he got upstairs.
As Lincoln left the room, Leni turned to her younger sister.
"Do you think Lincoln is fine Luna?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"I don't know, it's just like he's always away and when he is here he barely speaks with any of us. I'mjust scared he may do something dangerous and…" She stopped speaking as tears started forming in her eyes.
Hearing her sister's worries, Luna put down her guitar and walked to her to give her a hug.
"Leni, I know you are worried for Lincoln, he is going through a tough time, but believe me he is going to be fine. He is stronger than we give him credit for."
Hearing Luna's words made Leni calm
"Are you completely sure?" Asked Leni still a bit unsure.
"I'm more than sure" responded Luna, putting her hands on Leni's shoulder.
After their little talk, the two sisters headed back to the couch.
'I hope you will be fine' thought Luna, as she wished for her brother to be fine.
It was around half past eight and Lincoln and Ronnie Anne met again at their secret hideout, trying to understand how to capture the villain who had defeated them in the morning.
"Lisa, do you have any bright ideas that might help us take down that cyborg?" Asked Ronnie
"Unfortunately for you two, I still don't have a clear understanding of the robotic arm functioning, but I have made some gadgets that I think will be pretty useful." the little girl said as she showed two sets of metal balls to the young heroes.
"These on the left are some emp prototype, they will deal with that arm for a few minutes while here on the right there are tracers, in the case he will escape again you can put them on him and we will track him down more easily."
"It won't be necessary, we are going to defeat him tonight." Lincoln said as he and Ronnie Anne put on their costumes.
"I have only one question, how are we going to find him." Ronnie Anne asked Lincoln as they exited the bunker and the Loud residence.
"That criminal wanted us dead." Lincoln said as he activated his suit. "It will be him to find us." Having pronounced those words, the young Loud departed from his friend and started to jump from rooftop to rooftop.
Ronnie Anne was left paralyzed on the spot for a few seconds "THAT ISN'T AN ANSWER ¡CABRON!" She shouted irritated as she ran towards him
As the time passed and the hours followed, the hope of finding the criminal started to become smaller.
Right now the two kids were inspecting a street on the outskirts of Royal Woods. Although it wasn't the first time they had been on patrol, the lack of hours of sleep was catching up on both of them. The first one to feel this was one to resent the effect of sleep deprivation was Ronnie Anne who started to yawn
"Feeling a bit tired?" Lincoln asked sarcastically.
"A bit" Ronnie Anne answered "Hey Lincoln, wouldn't it be better if we took a break for tonight?" Asked Ronnie Anne.
"WHAT!?" Lincoln shouted, in a mix of confusion and disbelief.
"I mean we searched nearly all of the city and it's a quarter past midnight. Shouldn't we take a break?"
"Listen, Ronnie if you want to go home it's fine, I'm just going to search a little bit longer" After finishing speaking, Lincoln continued controlling the streets.
The Latina girl was left speechless.
"And what would you do if you found that guy? Fight him? All alone? We couldn't defeat him together" Ronnie shouted, clearly irritated by her friend's answer.
"I don't know, I will think of something." Lincoln shouted back.
"Why do you have to be such a knucklehead? Would it cost you so much to go to sleep? WHY CAN'T YOU REST?"
"BECAUSE THAT GUY MAY HURT AN INNOCENT" Lincoln snapped.
"What?" asked Ronnie Anne, her voice filled with rage, now full of compassion.
"If we don't find this guy he may hurt innocent people and I couldn't forgive myself if I let this happen, not again."
Ronnie Anne was left shocked by her friend's words, the near death of his sister had motivated him more than she had previously thought, and even if she couldn't see his face because of the mask, she knew he was holding back his tears.
She got close to him and put her hands on his helmet.
"Look at me, we are going to search for that criminal for another 30-40 minutes, but if we don't find him we are going home and will continue the search tomorrow, ok?"
Hearing the girl's proposal, Lincoln shook his head in agreement.
Ronnie Anne then put her arms around the white-boy head and hug him
"We are going to catch that criminal and we aren't going to let him hurt any innocent"
After separating from the hug, the two kids began their search to find the criminal, but not long after, they were interrupted by a flying trash dumpster that was thrown toward them.
"What the heck was that!?"Ronnie Anne shouted.
Down below in the street, there was only a figure dressed in black.
"It's him." said Lincoln before jumping down the street soon followed by his partner
"Well I have to give it to you, you must be pretty stupid to come here to fight again." the criminal said while laughing
"You may have won the last tie but now it's time for round two." said Ronnie Anne, trustworthy in her and Lincoln's ability.
"Well, in that case, BRING IT ON" the criminal shouted before charging head-on.
The two heroes and villain clashed with each other, trying to land as many blow as possible, although they were keeping up with their enemy, the fight was unmatched and, if the criminal was doing fine, the two young heroes were already feeling their breath running low, but they kept on fighting no matter how tired they felt.
After a few minutes of fighting, Lisa called his brother.
"Lincoln I would prefer not to disturb you but this would be the perfect time to activate our plan."
"I agree with you Lisa." Lincoln said before turning his head to Ronnie and with a nod giving her the signal.
Ronnie Anne immediately created a diversion, she managed to dash towards her adversary and even land a few hits and, when the criminal tried to hit her, she quickly dodged the blow and was able to place some of her EMP on the right robotic arm.
When the EMP turned on, a huge jolt of electricity traveled through the arm immobilizing it and causing great pain to the villain.
Seeing him in a position of disadvantage Lincoln charged head-on, helped by his partner.
The two heroes were now landing blow after blow left, right, up, and down and the criminal was starting to lose ground, but as the two kids were about to land the final blow, a strange sound was heard coming from the arm.
Not wanting to lose momentum, Lincoln threw another punch, but this time, the criminal was able to block it with his right arm, which had been reactivated, and grabbed the kid's arm.
Lincoln tried to break free from the grip, but it was all in vain. The criminal raised Lincoln in the air and started to throw punches to his abdomen and, when Lincoln couldn't take anymore he threw him, sending him flying across the street.
Ronnie Anne quickly ran towards him
"Lincoln, Lincoln can you hear me." she said, her voice a mix of fear and worry.
The criminal stood firm, not minding the two kids, and he started to inspect his arm, the hand was still a bit damaged but all in all the arm was now working.
"Alright listen kid" the villain spoke as he cleaned his face from the blood that was starting to drip from his nose "It was fun and all but now it's time to end this"
Hearing those words, Ronnie Anne turned her head, her eyes full of rage. The girl quickly charged at her opponent throwing punches left and right, not giving the criminal any chance to react.
As the fight carried on, Ronnie Anne started to lose momentum, and, sensing an opportunity, the criminal blocked one of her blows and grabbed her by the neck, he raised her into the air as his grip around her neck increased.
"Lincoln, Lincoln can you hear me?"
Lincoln slowly started to reopen his eyes, he felt like his head was being beaten by a hammer, and the world around him felt strange.
"Yes Lisa, I hear you"
"Brother, I know you are not gonna like it but you and Ronnie Anne need to return home immediately."
Lisa's statement made Lincoln realize a thing, where was Ronnie? He remembered her by his side, he turned a bit to his left and saw his friend getting choked by the criminal, her hands trying to get free from the grip and her legs frantically moving in the air.
The blood in his veins froze, and the memories of her sister laying on the ground started to come back, he couldn't stand the idea of someone else getting hurt because he was unable to fight back.
Without thinking he got up and started running towards the criminal who, seeing that the kid wasn't going to back down, dropped Ronnie Anne and prepared to attack.
As Lincoln closed the distance, his emotions started to increase, anger, hate, fear, sadness, between all those emotions Lincoln knew a thing, this time he was going to protect the ones he cared about.
This thoughts ignited something inside of him and as he charged forward his fist started to be engulfed in blue flames, at first it was just a few sparkles but with each step, he took the flames became brighter until his fists met the metal arm of the villain.
As the two fists clashed with each other a huge blue light was emitted as the sound of cracking metal was heard all over the streets, this time it was Lincoln who prevailed and the criminal was sent flying straight through a brick wall, his metal arm reduced to dust.
Lincoln stood still for a few seconds, the flames slowly fading.
"Was this what Lisa was talking about this morning?" A voice said behind Lincoln.
The young hero turned around, seeing Ronnie Anne slowly getting up. Lincoln quickly approached her to give her a hand.
"Ronnie Anne, are you ok?" Lincoln asked worriedly.
"Relax lame-o, I'm fine." the Latina replied, smiling and trying to not show any sign of pain.
As the two kids were celebrating their victory, the criminal started to recover from the blow he had received and was about to escape if it wasn't for the quick intervention of Ronnie who, seeing him, landed a kick in the back of his leg.
After blocking the criminal on the ground Lincoln grabbed him by the collar and asked him
"Who sent you? For whom you are working?"
Hearing the kid's question, the criminal simply laughed
"You're stupid if you two think you can defeat them, they will send someone else after me and then another and another until they achieve what they want"
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne wanted to ask him more questions, but the police were arriving soon so they had to leave.
Somewhere else a man was walking across the hallways trying to find the words to explain the situation to his boss. As entered his boss's office, the man found the latter drinking some wine while watching the scenery from his window.
"I hope you have good news Steve" the man exclaimed
"Unfortunately it seems like the two vigilantes will be a much harder problem than we expected, they-they were able to d-de-defeat our associate."
Hearing Steve's words the boss put down his glass and sat down in his chair still facing the window.
"I have already compiled a list of possible candidates that may be a good second choice"
"It won't be necessary." his boss affirmed. "As we have seen, if we want to solve this problem rapidly, we can't rely on this criminal scum, we have to call professionals. I already have the man in mind. You may go Steve."
As Steve exited the room, his boss started to digit a number on the phone and, after a few seconds, someone answered the call
"Hey big boss, how are you doing?" the voice said
"I need you here in America, we have a little problem here in Michigan. How fast can you be here?"
"Give me a second" As the voice finished speaking, a loud explosion was heard in the distance "I will take the first plan there is and in one or two days I will be ready, in the meantime, send me all the info we have regarding my target."