I got the idea to do this particular one shot back in February when the power went out on me and thought of how the Loud children would handle the situation. I would like to thank Von the Unstoppable for Beta reading this piece.
Lincoln sat on the couch waiting for the commercial break to pass, his head propped up on the arm rest. Outside was overcast and dreary with intermittent rain and gusts of wind, the perfect environment to watch Arghh! It was surprisingly quiet considering that the storms had caused some of his sister's activities to be canceled.
The commercial break came to an end and Lincoln perked up. The screen went dark, then showed Hunter Spector standing at the porch of a decrepit building.
"Do you believe in ghosts? Join me, Hunter Spector, specter hunter, leader of the Academy of Really Good Ghost Hunters, or ARGH! as I explore this abandoned asylum for the spirits!"
Lincoln rubbed his hands together in anticipation. He had been particularly excited for this episode since its announcement and now it was finally here.
"This should be fun."
Lincoln jumped and saw that Lucy had sat down next to him without him even knowing.
"How can you do that?"
"It just comes naturally."
"More like supernaturally," he thought to himself. "Wouldn't you rather be watching Vampires of Melancholia?"
"I would but their in the off season and Lynn's all wound up from her games being rained out. But this looks to be a promising substitute."
Now convinced his TV time wasn't going to be interrupted he gave his full attention to the screen as the doors to the asylum creaked open.
Lisa ran around her room tidying things up in preparation of a video conference that was about to begin. Any mess's in camera sight were quickly rectified; test tubes and microscopes pushed to the sides of the desk and Lily's bed straightened out.
She was about to give a funding request to a group of representatives from both major farming conglomerates and the Federal Department of Agriculture for one of her inventions. The money would go towards actually releasing her idea, then she would sell it off for a higher price which would then go to her family's financial situation; College tuitions, home repair, paying for damages from the occasional over the top shenagin, the usual.
She hopped back onto her stool where Lily was standing just out of sight holding her flashcards. "Could you pass me the cards?" Lily passed them on to her and she did gave them a quick glance, statistics and other scientific jargon she already knew by heart.
She set them to the side and folded her hands on the table, waiting for the meeting to begin.
Luna cut open the tape off the cardboard box and flipped the top open to reveal its contents; a brand spanking new guitar amplifier. She flipped the box over twice and pulled it up revealing a sleek purple cube. She tossed the box away and ran her hand over the dials.
"Sweet," she murmured. Now it was time to see just how good it was. She plugged it in the outlet and hooked up her guitar. She thought of a tune to strum to and raised her hand over the strings.
Then the whole house went dark. Lights stopped flashing, fans stopped turning and the TV went silent. A collective groan of, "Dang it," echoed around the house and the Loud's all gathered in the living room.
"Help! I'm blind!" wailed Leni.
"You're not blind, the power just went out," Lisa corrected her.
Leni let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness."
"No, not thank goodness! I spent a dozen gig's worth of money for my new speaker and now I can't try it out."
"I can't watch Arggh!"
"I can't acquire funding for my projects!"
"Kids! Powers out!" Dad called from the kitchen.
"We know," they all called back. They went to see what he was up to and found him and Mom stuffing food from the refrigerator into boxes. "Uh, what are you doing?"
"We're taking the refrigerated food over to the restaurant and keeping it there until the power comes back on. We'll be back in a bit."
"But what do we do?" Lynn asked.
"Yeah! Without the power there's nothing to do!" Lola added on.
"Oh, it'll be fine, I'm sure you kids can work out something," Mom reassured. "Have fun!" They both walked out the front door, got into Vanzilla and pulled away leaving the rest of them watching from the door.
"Maybe we can go outside?" Lori suggested. Once the words had left her mouth it started raining, going from a light drizzle to a full on downpour in a matter of seconds.
"Dang it," she muttered and went back inside. The rest of them followed suit with Lincoln closing the door. He walked up the stairs back to his room. He pulled out a deck of Ace Savvy themed cards and started passing the time by building a house.
He was applying the final two cards when the sound of a commotion outside caused it all to come crashing down. He sighed in annoyance and dropped the cards he was holding before cracking open the door to see what was going on.
Directly in front of his door Lola and Lana were doing donuts in the princess car around a crying, unattended Lily sitting in the center of the hall. Beyond them was Lucy climbing up into the attic with Lynn trying to tackle her but missing and flying down the stairs. And then further on Luna with her face covered in a smashed pie chasing a cackling Luan with her guitar and Lori and Leni arguing at their door.
Lincoln shut the door silently so as to not bring any attention to him. It had been less than five minutes since the power outage and things had already devolved into chaos. And they still had a whole day to go. He would wait until things cooled down out there before trying to figure out how to have their life's go on without the power.
He put the cards back in its container and when he was done it seemed that things had quieted down. He peeked through his door again and the hallway was empty, save for Lily who was still sitting where she had been.
He stood up from his chair, walked out and picked up Lily. "Hey Lily, what're you doing out here by yourself?"
She didn't answer, instead wiping her face dry on the sleeve of his orange shirt. He patted her back and put his hand on the door to her and Lisa's room and opened it.
"Go away, I'm busy!" Lisa yelled at them without turning to face them. Lincoln ignored her and put Lily down into her crib before turning her attention to Lisa. She was hunched over her desk tinkering away at something with a laptop at her side. His curiosity getting the better of him he got closer to see what she was working on.
"What's that?"
"It's a temporary power source for the router," Lisa explained. "Now please vacate my quarters!"
Unperturbed by her outburst he kept asking questions. "Is there something wrong?"
"Yes, something is definitely wrong! This confounded power shortage has interrupted an important conference with my scientific benefactors!"
Lincoln blinked trying to figure out what she had just said. She rolled her eyes in frustration and put it in similar terms. "It has canceled a meeting with the people who give me money for my experiments."
"That doesn't sound too bad-,"
"But it is! Without that funding my scientific endeavors will grind to a halt! Do you know what that would mean?"
"Uhh… no?"
Lisa sputtered before composing herself. "I turn my findings into patents which I sell to corporate entities and the government which goes to pay for our expenses!"
"Really? That much?"
"Yes, that much. A thriving restaurant, dentist and a prolific writer only goes so far in paying for a family of thirteen, with the occasional mess we usually find ourselves in."
"Okay, I see your point. It's important that you get that money. But, you're not able to get it today."
"But-,"
"Think about it. If the power's out for you, the powers probably out for them, right?"
"Yes, I can see your logic but-,"
"That meeting's not happening. There's always tomorrow but you should just enjoy today," he said as he closed down the laptop and pushed Lisa's device further down the desk. Lisa didn't stop him, instead mulling over what he had said.
"After some careful consideration, it seems that your logic is sound." She slid the laptop into the drawer and shut it. "I'm off to utilize this free time." She continued working on the device.
"Uh, Lisa?"
"Yes?"
"You're still working on that."
"It's not for powering the router. It's for something else."
"Well if you say so." Confident that Lisa had been sorted out he left their room. Two sisters down, only eight more to go.
He went to find the Twins, which wasn't too hard; he just had to follow the tracks and the sound of furniture tipping over. He tracked them to the dining room when they came barreling through from the kitchen.
He yelped and jumped onto the table before they ran him over. They circled around the table knocking over the chairs before pulling to a stop in front of Lincoln.
"Hi Lincoln!" Lana said.
"What are you two doing!?"
"What does it look like? Driving around in our car."
"But why?"
"We couldn't agree on what to do. I wanted to have a tea party-,"
"And I wanted to make mud pies but wanted to have a fashion show-,"
"And she wanted to dig around in the trash-,"
"So we decided on doing what we both agree on; racing this beauty around," Lana finished, patting the pink hood of the car.
"Can't you do that outside?"
"And get my dress soaked and muddy? Pass!"
"Normally I'm all for getting down and dirty, but I'd rather keep the dashboard nice and shiny."
Lincoln formulated a plan for them to be able to drive outside. "Lana, you wouldn't happen to have any duct tape on you?"
"Allways!" She unhooked the roll from her tool belt and tossed it to Lincoln. He catched it before looking at Lola. "Now Lola, just hold tight for a bit," he said as he got down from the table.
"Okay, but hurry up! I feel the need for speed!"
Heeding her advice he quickly rushed into the living room looking for the coat hangers. He pulled out an umbrella and gestured for them to follow him. He opened the front door and Lola drove the car out onto the porch. Lincoln opened up the umbrella and taped it onto the roll bar.
"There, now you can drive around as much and fast as you want while remaining perfectly dry!"
"Thanks Lincoln!" Lola put pedal to the metal and tore off the porch onto the lawn. Lincoln watched them speed away as he went back into the house to pick up what they had knocked over, starting with the table chairs.
He had just put up the last chair when he heard Lynn coming up behind him. "And here's Lunatic Lynn slithering up on unsuspecting Limp Lincoln."
He turned around too late, just in time for Lynn to tackle him with enough force for both of them to end up on the table. Keeping Lincoln pinned down with her legs she raised her hands up and gave a whoop, "Yes! Another win for Lynn!"
"Man, I just cleaned this place up," Lincoln muttered under his breath as he saw the chairs knocked over again. "Could you let me up?"
"Oh, yeah." She jumped off him and onto the floor letting him catch his breath for a second before shoving one of her Lucha Libre masks into his hands. "Put this on, I want to have a real fight."
"Can't we do something calmer?" Lincoln asked as he reluctantly pulled the green and yellow mask over his head.
"No can do! I have energy reserved for the baseball, football and soccer games that were rained out, and I have to use it somewhere! Three, two, one, go!" She lunged at him, taking him to the floor and began counting down. Lincoln squirmed out of her grip, put her in a headlock and flipped their positions.
"Nice headlock," Lynn congratulated as she tried to worm her way out. Lincoln paid no attention and was instead trying to come up with a way to keep Lynn preoccupied for the rest of the day.
"Times up, you got me!" Lincoln let her go and recompossed himself.
"That chokehold was an ace in the hole!" Lynn said as she rubbed her neck.
Ace. That's it!
"Hey Lynn, you like a challenge right?"
"I love them!"
"Well I have something for you!" He pulled off his mask, wadded it into a ball and threw it at Lynn. "Just take this stuff off first." He ran upstairs and into his room. He put the cards back into a deck and ran back downstairs to the dining room where Lynn was waiting.
"A card game against you?"
"Yes and no," Lincoln answered as he began laying out the cards.
"What do you mean yes and no?"
"It's a card game, but you play against yourself."
"Where's the fun in that?"
"You match up the cards in numeral order, and then you do it again but faster the next time, improving your time."
Lynn's interest was renewed, intrigued by the thought of competing against herself. "You know, that's not a bad idea. Here, watch out." She took a seat and started to arrange the cards. Now that Lynn was preoccupied he was able to pick up the chairs and the other furniture. Now to check on Lucy.
He pulled down the string to the attic hatch and the ladder squeaked down for him. He climbed up and looked around. He didn't see Lucy anywhere so he fully got off the ladder. It was darker than usual and the pitter patter of the rain was louder.
"Lucy, you up here?"
"Yes," came her reply from somewhere in the shadows.
"Where are you?"
"Over here."
"I can't see you since it's so dark."
In response at the far side of the attic a little flame was lit, then used to light a candle revealing Lucy sitting reclined against the wall. In her lap was her black book and in her hand a pen.
"You good up here?"
"Yes; I can write my poems in 'relative' peace up here."
"Okay, just call me if you need anything." He went back to the hatch and climbed down. Shutting the hatch he counted four more sisters to be checked on.
Lincoln went to see if Luan and Luna's fight was over with. He opened the door and a bucket of water fell down right in front of him, the splash only leaving droplets on the fronts of his shoes. A flash of lightning illuminated the room leaving the silhouette of Luans ridiculous clown placed at the window.
"I hope that didn't rain on your parade," Luan laughed without turning away from the window to face Lincoln.
"It didn't. It fell in front of me."
"Oh. Luckily I have a rainy day fund of pies!" A catapult sprung up and lobbed a pie at him, which went right over his head and splattered all over Lori and Leni's door.
"That missed me too."
"Oh come on, that too? Looks like I'll have to bring the storm to you!" She swiveled around and got out of the chair only to trip and fall on a whoopee cushion. She got back up and kept falling victim to her own pranks as she made her way to Lincoln.
When she finally did she smeared with smashed pies, half enveloped in sawram wrap and a swollen eye from a spring launched punching glove.
"It seems I was in the dark when I was setting up my pranks," she chuckled before wincing in pain. "But seriously I was working in complete darkness."
"I can see that."
"I couldn't."
"Do you know where Luna is?"
"I think she's in the garage."
"Thanks." He turned to leave before stopping and looked back to Luan. "You want some ice for your eye?"
"No, I can get it myself." She crawled forward and got her foot tangled in a snare that snapped her up, leaving her dangling upside down.
"Or I can just hang around," she laughed. Lincoln just rolled his eyes and left.
Lincoln pulled the hood of the rain jacket over his head and walked out the front door. He rushed through the rain to the garage side door. He opened the door and stepped back into dry cover.
"If that's you Luan, buzz off!"
"No need to worry about her. I just checked on her and she's now currently hanging upside down by one of her own traps."
"Oh, it's just you. Serves her right." Luna was sitting on one of her speakers pushed up against the wall holding her guitar dejectedly. Lincoln peeled off his jacket and set it on a table before taking a seat next to Luna.
"Something wrong Luna?"
"Besides being pranked out of my own room?"
"Besides being pranked out of your own room."
Luna looked down at her guitar. "I'm just bummed because I got a new amplifier, the best volume, tone, effects, the whole shebang, and now I can't use it. Can't use any of it," she said as she gestured around to the older ones.
"Ain't really rock and roll without them."
Lincoln looked down at her guitar. "Can I see that?"
"Sure bro." She slid the guitar into his lap. He got a better hold of it and put his fingers over the string. He recalled a tune that Luna had taught him some time ago and began strumming it. When he finished he saw Luna looking down at the guitar.
"Huh. It's been a while since I played without a fancy setup." She pulled the guitar back to her and started playing something that evoked memories of his early childhood.
"That's making me feel nostalgic."
"Are you kidding? You just sent me down a trip down memory lane." She looked past him at a stack of old books. She got up and sifted through them until she found what she was looking for; a dusty collection of bedtime songs.
"I'm going to pour over these again. Wanna join in?"
"I'd love to, but I gotta check on Leni and Lori."
"Okay, see you around Little Bro!"
He put his jacket back on and left as Luna started strumming away.
Lincoln rushed back to the shelter of the porch. He took off the jacket again and shook off the accumulated water before going back inside. Stepping onto the floor mat he saw Leni sitting on the couch reading one of her teen magazines with a rather glum expression.
"Hi Leni," Lincoln said to her as he wiped the mud off his shoes.
"Oh, hey Lincoln," she replied. He put his shoes to the side of the door and sat next to Leni. "How are you doing Leni?"
"I could be doing better. Me and Lori got into an argument."
"I saw. What happened?"
"Well after the power went out I went back upstairs to make a new dress. Well it was dark and I couldn't see what I was doing and I may have accidentally used one of Lori's sweaters."
"Was it blue?"
"Yeah, the one with the wolf. Lori was kinda scary when she opened the blinds and saw that I started using it."
"Don't worry Leni. I'll calm her down." He got up and walked up the stairs. "Good luck," Leni called out. Lincoln went up to Lori's door and knocked.
"What do you want?" Lori yelled.
"It's just me," Lincoln said. "Can we talk?"
There wasn't an answer. He took the risk and opened the door. Lori was sitting cross legged on her bed moping over her sweater. She looked up to cast a glare at Lincoln. "Who said you can come in?"
"Leni just made a mistake-,"
"A stupid mistake! If she was just careful my sweater wouldn't have been ruined."
"Cut her some slack, it's just a swe-,"
"Don't you 'it's just a sweater,' me," she snapped at him, making him jump. "This is my favorite Bobby sweater and Leni literally butchered it!"
"Okay, okay, okay!," Lincoln said, trying to calm her down. "Look, just let Leni try to fix it."
"Fine, but she better put it back to normal." Lincoln nodded and went back downstairs to get Leni.
"Hi Lincoln. How'd it go?"
"I made some progress. Just undo whatever you did so it's back to normal."
"Okay." She got up from the couch and followed Lincoln back to her room. Lori reluctantly handed over the sweater to Leni who took it to her table. Lincoln watched Leni from behind her chair. The sweater had some fragments of cloth attached at the waist.
He expected Leni to remove the strips but saw that instead she was adding on. He gave a quick glance to Lori, who was currently not paying attention. He leaned down next to Leni and said, "What are you doing?"
"Well I was going to remove what I started, but I figured out a way to actually make it better."
"Leni, she's going to turn you into a human pretzel!"
"Have a little faith in me! Just a bit more time and Lori's going to love it."
Lincoln felt the need to press the point but relented. She seemed so sure of it. He just shrugged in acceptance and stepped back to let her work in peace.
"Is it done yet?" Lori asked.
"Almost," Leni answered. Another minute passed before she exclaimed, "Done!"
"Okay, hand it ov-," Lori stopped mid-sentence when she saw the sweater. A skirt in equally dark blue had been added that covered the upper thigh.
"Leni, I literally said to remove all that!" Lori snapped. Lincoln cringed, waiting for her to explode.
"Oh come on, just try it out!" Leni took the sweater and pulled it onto Lori before pushing her in front of the vanity. Lori opened her mouth to say something but stopped to look at herself in the mirror.
"Huh, this is… actually cute!"
"I know, right?"
"Thank you Leni!" Lori said and they embraced each other in a hug, the tension and conflict from before completely forgotten. Lincoln watched, baffled by what he was seeing. Sensing that the job was done he left without a word.
Stepping back out into the hallway he enjoyed the sound of silence. No arguing, no explosions. He went into his room to pass the time.
Lincoln stared at the hanging airplane models and the ceiling above feeling absolutely bored. He had finally made the card house and had started going through his comics again but the allure they held weared off after reading through a few. It seemed that he would just stay there until nighttime, where he would drift off into sleep.
He perked up when the sound of knocking came from his door. He got off the bed and went to answer. Opening it he saw all his sisters assembled outside.
"Hey guys, what's up?"
"Well we assembled just after lunch," Lisa began.
"And we all talked about how you helped us out," Lana continued.
"So we decided," Lynn added on.
"To thank you by setting up some fun things to do," Lori finished. They all stepped out of the way to show a makeshift mini golf course composed of furniture running down the hallway. Lori handed Lincoln a putter and dropped a golf ball right in front of him.
"Aw, thank you guys!" He lined up his shot and swung. The ball ricocheted off the legs of the tables and went straight into the cup at the door of the bathroom. They all applauded and stepped to the front to have their turns.
When they had all had their turn they reset the hallway and went downstairs to the living room to see how they would finish the day. They all sat down on the couch and each sister brainstormed their own idea.
"I'll make a pillow fort!"
"I'll get the board games!"
"I'll get the flash lights!"
And so they went, splitting off in each direction and coming back together shortly. Lana disassembled the couch and propped up the pillows as walls using spare blankets for the roof. They all piled in, Lynn with an armful of board games and Luan with a box of flashlights. She passed them out as they played each game.
When they were done they all crawled back out for the next round of activities. Using her flashlight to project a glow on the wall Luan entertained the younger sisters with hand shadows as Leni placed glowing stars on the ceiling and Lori grabbed their sleeping bags.
As Luan finished her shadow act Lisa came from the dining room with a jug of milk, cups and a plate full of cookies. She passed around cups of milk to everyone before holding out the plate. Everyone took one and ate.
The twins munched down their cookies and washed it down with some milk. Lana wiped the crumbs off her face with the side of her hand when her eyes widened. "Lola, you're glowing!"
"Why thank you," Lola said, completely oblivious to the fact she was now glowing neon green.
"No, you're actually glowing," Lincoln said before beginning to glow himself. They all started shining, illuminating the room.
"Yes, I have made some more 'gloweos'," Lisa stated. "We will no longer be needing the flashlights."
They switched the flashlights off and settled down for bed. They got into their sleeping bags and fell asleep to the sound of Luna's bedtime tunes she strummed on her guitar.
Beep, beep, beep, beep
Lincoln groaned, the feeling of drowsiness weighing heavily on him. He rubbed his eyes before opening them to see everyone else was being awoken by the noise.
Beep, beep, beep, beep
"It's literally too early for this," Lori yawned.
"Can someone please deal with that?"
"Not me!" They all raised their fingers to the tip of their noses with Lincoln being last as usual. He groaned in defeat and crawled out of the warm embrace of the sleeping bag. He trudged upstairs following the noise. It led him to his room, the culprit being his alarm clock.
He impatiently yanked the power cord out of the wall and went back downstairs and back into his sleeping bag. He had just settled back in when he realized what this meant.
"The powers back on!" He exclaimed. Checking to see if Lincoln was right Luan grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. The screen came to life with an episode of The Dream Boat. They watched with interest though slowly became disinterested.
"Okay, this is boring. Who wants to play Go Fish?"
"I do!"
"Yeah!"
"Me!"
Luan turned off the television and chucked the remote onto the couch as Lincoln began dealing out the cards, all ready for another good time together.
The End