Sometime after Viribus and Doctor Linnaeus captured and imprisoned Asherah, the two were able to obtain what information they wanted from her.

"Well, the girl was resilient, but now we have the intel we need," Linnaeus said to her partner as they spoke in the roundtable room.

"So, you now know how to perform travel between different worlds and timelines?" Viribus asked.

"That's correct. With a mind like mine, we could make the multiverse our playset!" Linnaeus bragged.

"That's good. Because I have a plan to make that a reality. You remember when the girl mentioned that she came from another timeline where she and the people of Royal Woods stopped a plan of mine to conquer the world by eliminating all the adults and converting the survivors into mechanical soldiers?"

"Yes, I recall her mentioning that she had visited others where your plan had actually succeeded. Quite a few of them, in fact."

Viribus grinned as he told her, "Well then, it sounds like all we have to do is pool our resources. We have allies from beyond the stars, from across the voids of existence… we just have to bring them here to our world. Then conquest will be all too easy."

"Well, that does sound like quite a promising plan, but I suspect there may be a problem," a skeptical Linnaeus replied.

"What is it?" Viribus questioned as he picked up on the scientist's sense of doubt.

"You seem to be overlooking one crucial factor in this strategy of yours," she clarified.

"Oh really?"

"Yes. The Loud family still poses a threat to our plans!" she insisted.

"Come on, Carol! Not this again! How much of a threat could one family of idiot children possibly be?!" Viribus argued. "Besides, they don't even know about what we're doing!"

"I assure you, they are far more of a tenacious and formidable group of foes than they sound on paper!" Linnaeus claimed. "And I'm sure they'll discover our plans one way or another. It's just like them to find themselves involved with matters that don't concern them!" she then remarked bitterly.

Viribus then sighed and played along. "Alright, I'll go along with your advice. So, doctor, what do you suggest we do about them?"

Carol then pondered to herself for a moment before thinking of a suggestion. "These Louds... they have made many enemies in their time. I am but merely one of them."

"So?"

"So... perhaps if we could form an alliance of sorts. A legion-like faction comprised of the Loud family's greatest adversaries, all united against them!" Linnaeus proposed.

"So that this so-called threat can be neutralised once and for all!" Viribus caught on.

"Or, at the very least, provide a necessary distraction that keeps them busy, allowing us to carry out our plans without issue."

"Alright then, doctor. I take it you know some of these enemies of theirs?"

"I'm sure I could track them down and convince them to work alongside us," Carol bragged confidently.

"Good. Then let's get on with it. After all, the sooner we take care of this pack of degenerate brats, the sooner I can achieve my perfect utopian world and expand across the universes!" Viribus ambitiously said with conquest in his sights.

The Loud's Finest Hour

Chapter Eight: The Bigger Picture

Lucy watched her brother take down the two thuggish jocks, wearing a rare expression of joy on her face.

"Phew," Lincoln huffed as his burst of anger and violence really took it out of him. Exhausted, he collapsed to one knee, prompting Lucy to rush over and help him remain standing.

"Thank you, Lincoln."

"It's nothing, Lucy. I just couldn't stand there and watch those two jerks attack you like that."

The two siblings stared down at a bruised and battered Hank and Hawk.

"Aww man-*cough*-how did this happen again?!" Hank asked.

"I can't feel my legs…" Hawk muttered.

"Okay, Luce. Let's get these jerks tied up! Then we need to find the others," Lincoln ordered. "They must be close by."

A familiar voice suddenly rang out, "LINCOLN! LUCY!" Recognizing the voice as Lori's, the two turned in its direction. Even though the red emergency lights did not provide a lot of vision, the Loud children were immediately able to make out the rest of their family running for them.

Meanwhile, Lynn was taking quite a beating of her own, thanks to the enhancements that Babs had brought to give herself a distinct advantage. After a nasty kick to the ribs, a winded Lynn fell to her knees in pain.

"You-*cough*-jerk! Can't beat me by yourself, so you use that dumb thing again! *Cough* You're a coward!" Lynn spat.

But this just angered Babs even more, who prepared to finish the fatigued Lynn off with one final onslaught. However, just as she was about to advance...

*SMACK*

Suddenly, Babs was knocked to the side by a surprise kick from a third party. It was one of Lynn's friends, arriving just in time to fight by Lynn's side.

"Maxie?!" she asked, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"That message you sent made me suspicious, so I tracked your phone down to this swamp area, and that's how I got here. Anyway, explanations can wait; it looks like we've got our hands full!" Maxie responded as he raised his fists and prepared to fight against the powerful and hostile Babs.

"Okay, so it looks like I have two weak chumps to pummel? I guess that should make it double the fun!" Babs gloated as she advanced at the blonde bruiser.

Elsewhere in the lair, the other now-reunited Louds had gathered all their defeated enemies in one room. They had them all tied up just beside the large roundtable.

"Good job, everyone!" Lincoln congratulated.

"Yes, it looks like our enemies have all been neutralised," Lisa stated.

"Now we're gonna call the cops and give all of you what you deserve!" Luna told them.

"Hey, wait a second! We're not all here," Lana pointed out.

"Yeah. Where's Lynn?" Lola asked.

Maxie may have been tough, but even he struggled to hold his own against an artificially enhanced Babs. After she ducked one of his haymakers, she came back with a nasty shot to the kidneys, then followed up with a brutal uppercut that was powerful enough to knock the boy off his feet and flat on his butt.

"Oof! Dang, she's tough!"

"Yeah, she is." Lynn agreed. "But it's also because she's wearing some kind of power suit that ramps up all her strength and abilities! It's totally unfair!"

"So, that's her secret, huh? Then I guess we've got to destroy her power suit and bring her back down to our level."

"Yeah, but that's gonna be easier said than done!" Lynn pointed out.

But Maxie then observed his opponent and noticed something else quite interesting: a small metal earpod in one of her ears. "Or maybe we just have to smash that thing!" he told Lynn as he pointed at the redhead's ear.

"But how?" Lynn questioned.

"You take her head on, and I'll flank her!" Maxie planned as the two then surrounded Babs from opposite sides.

"Quit yappin' you two, and fight me like men!" Babs told them.

Lynn accepted the dare, charging at Babs and throwing a series of punches and kicks. Despite Babs being able to counter and avoid them all with relative ease, they distracted her enough for Maxie to advance at her from behind undetected. He then grabbed her by the waist and used his greatest strength to hold her in place.

"Ungh! Lynn, make it quick! I can't hold her long!" he urged, desperately struggling against the redhead's enhanced strength.

Lynn sprinted to punch Babs in the ear, but the big girl spotted her and kicked Lynn away. She then elbowed Maxie in the face, causing him to release his grip. Babs grabbed Maxie and executed a mighty hip toss, knocking the wind out of him as he collided with the ground.

However, Lynn used this to her advantage. She quickly ran up and used her boyfriend as a step, jumping off him and leaping towards Babs. Acting fast, she jabbed her thumb into the other girl's earpod, breaking it and successfully cutting Doctor Linnaeus's hold on the bruiser's mind.

"Woah!" Babs muttered as she began to feel groggy and dizzy. "Where am I?" she asked before being knocked to the floor by a head hook from Lynn.

Maxie stood back up, criticizing, "Erm, Lynn, I don't think you needed to do that."

"Yeah, but it dang sure felt good." she joked.

"Fair enough," he replied as the two shared a subtle fist bump.

"Wait, what are we doing here?" Babs then asked the two.

"Doctor Linnaeus and the others mind-controlled you and forced you to fight us. We kicked your butt, of course." Lynn bragged.

"Okay, if you're gonna tell lies, at least make them sound realistic." Babs returned the banter.

"Anyway, we've destroyed that stupid earpod, so now you can help us find Lynn's family and get out of this dump!" Maxie said.

The Louds' discussion on absentees was still active in the meeting room.

"Also, I've noticed not all the bad guys are here. We haven't got Babs," Lincoln noted.

"No doubt she's fighting Lynn somewhere in this place," Luan replied.

"Maybe we should go and find them in case Lynn needs help," Luna suggested.

"Good idea." Lori agreed.

"Also, where's Chandler?" Lincoln brought up, staring sternly at the tied-up villains. "I'm sure he was part of this group."

"Ha! That little dork probably made a run for it!" Taylor commented.

"Yeah, he was such a little pansy!" Hawk followed.

"I doubt he even had the guts to stand and fight with the rest of us!" Anderson grumbled.

Sure enough, unlike the other enemies of the Loud family, Chandler was, in fact, too cowardly to confront them head-on. Instead, he made a run for it. He had made his way out of the lair and outside where the Loud's vehicle was parked. The morning sun was bathing the swamp in enough light for him to see and navigate.

"Ooh, it's Lincoln Lame's family van, huh? Looks like that Viribus guy roughed it up," he commented on the slashed tires and punctured fuel tank, from which an iridescent liquid was spilling and pooling on the asphalt below. "Well, I never like to leave empty-handed. Let's see if they've left any goodies in here."

Chandler grabbed a nearby sharp rock and thrust it onto the back passenger-side window. The car alarm sounded in response, trying to warn about the break-in, but Chandler figured no one would answer it. He reached in through the shattered glass and lifted the lock, allowing him to open the door.

"Like stealing candy from a baby," he smirked before looking inside and noticing that a bunch of animals were all in the van, and they were all growling and grumbling fiercely at him.

Charles, Walt, Cliff, Geo, Hops, and all of Lana's other animal companions were present, and they weren't too happy to see this unfamiliar face breaking into their family's vehicle.

"Uh oh," he muttered to himself before the Louds' loyal pets attacked him, engulfing him in a violent fight cloud. "OW! OW OW! GET OFF ME!"

Lynn, Babs, and Maxie rendezvoused with the other Louds in the roundtable room, Babs carrying the still-unconscious Ham Hand over her shoulder.

Not one of them heard a shadow mutter "Unbelievable" at the sight of the strong henchman out cold.

"Lynn! You're okay!" Lincoln exclaimed in relief.

"Yeah, I'm cool. I totally kicked Ham Hand's butt back there," Lynn boasted. "Also, we got rid of Babs' mind control; she was brainwashed again."

"Now she's on our side," Maxie stated.

"Yep, and I've got one more for the pile," Babs confirmed as she dumped the big man's body on the ground, which Lori and Luna then added to the tied-up group of defeated villains.

"And I've still got this!" Babs then asserted as she showed everyone her power vest. "They'll pay big time for giving me back this thing."

"That will aid us considerably," Asherah claimed.

"Actually, that's another thing. Who are you?" Lola then asked the mystic-dressed girl.

"My name is Asherah. I've been trapped in this place for a fair while now. Viribus and Doctor Linnaeus captured me and imprisoned me for information."

"What information?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, I..." she tried to explain but was suddenly interrupted when Chandler busted his way into the room.

He was all bruised up, his hair was ruffled, and his clothes were torn. He rushed towards Lincoln and hugged his leg. "PLEASE! HELP ME! Please, I give up! Just keep those savage beasts of yours away from me!" he panicked and pleaded as his cowardice was on full display for everyone to witness.

Lincoln just smirked as he and the rest of his family found it hilarious. Charles and the other pets ran into the room and continued growling at the boy, but Lana just signaled for them to calm down, so they finally stopped attacking.

Maxie and Babs then grabbed the puny boy and tied him up alongside the rest of the faction of defeated villains.

"There, boy," Lana said as she stroked the dog. She also welcomed Hops to jump back into her pocket.

The other sisters also walked over and embraced the other pets. "Thank goodness you guys are all safe, too," Luan smiled.

"Yeah, we're lucky none of those jerks did anything to hurt them," Lori added.

"Nah, though the same can't be said about your van," Chandler mentioned.

"What?" Lincoln replied.

"What did they do to Vanzilla?" Lynn Sr nervously questioned.

"Well, that's why I saw those dumb pets of yours, because I broke into the van. But before I even got there, it looked pretty trashed. Flat tyres, leaking gas tank... totally wrecked." Chandler explained.

"Dang it!" Lynn Sr moaned.

"Now we're stuck in this horrible swamp!" Lola complained.

"Of course we are, guys. That was clearly the plan all along," Lincoln deducted.

"He's right," Asherah agreed.

"What do you mean?" Leni asked.

"This whole thing was a distraction. Viribus knew you were the biggest threat to his plan, so he orchestrated this whole alliance comprised of your greatest adversaries just so he could get you all out of the way with minimal hassle," Asherah told the Louds.

"Okay... but what exactly IS his plan?" Lincoln asked her.

"Actually, yeah. We asked Doug and Michelle, but after Leni tackled them, they felt all bitter and refused to talk," Luna mentioned.

"But they mentioned it was all just a distraction, too," Luan recalled.

"It was. And that's exactly why I didn't join in with this farce of a scheme!" suddenly shouted a familiar voice.

Another old adversary of the Loud family then made her way out of the shadow of the corner of the room. It was none other than the nemesis of Myrtle, Fifi.

"Fifi Doofus!" Leni pointed and shouted at her in shock.

"It's pronounced Du-fu! The 's' is silent." she angrily insisted. "And I wasn't in on this plan for two reasons. One, because I saw right through the plan of that madman, Viribus. I knew that he was just using us as pawns, and this was all really just for his benefit. And two… because I want revenge against you all myself, and I'm unwilling to share it!"

"Wow… petty," Luna replied with a snarky, deadpan tone.

"Petty?! Thanks to Agent 28, I lost my Roofy-Floofy! Then she and all of you went and stopped my revenge scheme! It's not over between me and you!" Fifi angrily replied.

"Hey, your husband wanted to take over the world! Myrtle stopped him," Lori refuted.

"Yeah, he brought it on himself!" Lola retorted.

"You know? Although I haven't seen my Rufus in years, I always held out hope that he survived somehow… until that quack came along and told me otherwise!" Fifi recalled.

"What quack?" Lisa asked.

"Doctor Linnaeus. Yeah, she's in on this, too. She said after you brats sent her into outer space, before she used the escape pod to get herself back to Earth, she just so happened to see another spacecraft, drifting around in Earth's orbit… and she said there was a corpse sticking out the window." Fifi then recollected as a tear came from her eye.

"That wasn't on us, dude!" Luna responded.

"Whatever! Just know that this truce is purely for my own survival. As soon as this is over, I'll take my revenge!" Fifi promised them.

"Yeah, just try it, you old hag!" Lana bravely answered back.

"When she refused to participate, Viribus and the other villains locked her away in confinement next to where I was to keep her out of the way. When you managed to compromise the stronghold's power just for a moment, it gave us our chance to escape," Asherah explained. "You may not like her, but right now, you'll need all the help you can get."

"Okay… that makes sense. But still, what about Viribus's real plan?" Lincoln then repeated.

"Okay, I'll tell you. But you should probably brace yourselves for what you're about to hear," Asherah ominously warned them.

Meanwhile, Viribus, Doctor Linnaeus, and ALT-Albert arrived in Royal Woods and parked their van. After helping the old man back into his wheelchair, the three dastardly characters made their way through the streets. Viribus was now wearing a black hoodie, while Linnaeus wore a coat over her lab outfit, all to blend in with the rest of the town.

That being said, only a few people were around when they strolled through the place.

"It's quiet in this town today," Viribus pointed out.

"Yes, we're now 10:00 AM. I would have thought most people would be awake and going about their daily routines by now," Linnaeus observed.

"Yeah, but it is Sunday, right? I don't know much about this world, but in mine, most people stayed in bed on Sunday mornings," ALT-Albert stated.

"Eh, I'd say there's a degree of truth in that when referring to this world, too," Linnaeus replied as the two engaged in brief small talk.

"There's someone!" Viribus pointed as he spotted Flip working in his Food 'n' Fuel store.

"Ah, that looks like the freakishly deformed and mutated sub-human that I experimented on a while back. He's the reason I became enemies with the Louds in the first place!" Linnaeus recalled.

"Well then, let's pay him a little visit," Viribus ordered as they made their way inside.

"Hey there. You're my first customers all day. What can Ol' Flip do you for?"

"Your first customers, you say? Do you have any notion as to why that is?" Linnaeus asked him.

"In other words, where is everybody in this backwater town?" Viribus requested to know.

"Ah, Flip might have a clue where they are, but er... I might need a little memory boost, if you catch my drift." Flip reached his hand out, motioning he would accept a cash bribe.

But Viribus didn't have time for that nonsense. He simply reached over the table and grabbed Flip by his shirt. "Don't toy with me; I haven't got time for that today! I'm about to transform this whole dung heap of a world! Now tell me where everybody is! I intend to have an audience when I reshape history."

Now nervous and afraid, Flip gave in and told them. "Mayor Davis called a town meeting and everybody is attending. I think they're holding it in the parking lot at the mall. Apparently, there's some kind of big plot going on right now. But I decided to give it a miss. I thought I might get some sales if I was the only store open in town."

"Well, that didn't work out too well for you, did it?" ALT-Albert weighed in.

"Obviously not," Linnaeus snarked.

The three then walked out as Flip finally figured something out. "Hey, aren't you the crazy science lady who held me prisoner for experiments?!" he directed at Linnaeus.

But Linnaeus just continued to walk away, responding with a backhanded comment. "Yes, and you're fortunate someone actually cared enough about a low-life waster like yourself to save you."

Shortly after, Viribus, Linnaeus, and ALT-Albert made it a few hundred yards away from the mall.

Viribus quickly took the time to offer his two allies a final injunction. "Well, here we are, about to make history. I sure hope you're both still on board with this."

ALT-Albert then tilted his head up towards Viribus and agreed, without a hint of doubt or regret, "Sir, I've spent my whole life working towards the very kind of thing you're setting out to achieve today. I had the use of my legs taken from me years ago as a consequence of war, not that anyone ever thanked me for my sacrifice. I've always aspired to live in a more mechanical and efficient world, and now we're about to finally make that world a reality. I'm all in on this!"

"Good," Viribus replied.

"And I think it's clear that I am also in full support of your plans, Lord Viribus." Linnaeus declared. "I'm a woman of cold, clinical science and the accomplishments it can deliver. Personally, I've always seen humanity as a weakness, as something for us to move past. That is the natural process of evolution, after all. I've spent my life being shunned by my peers for my 'ruthless' and 'unethical' methods of achieving success, and quite frankly, I'm sick of it! I think having us all become robotic will be beneficial all around. It will certainly be beneficial for me. Think of how much further I could advance my experiments with a stronger and more durable test subject range!"

"Yes, I'm glad to see that you're standing by me and my ambitions. Well then, I guess the only thing left to do now is take this world by force!" Viribus plotted.

"Besides, shouldn't the gift I gave you serve as concrete proof of my loyalty to your cause?" Linnaeus then reminded him.

"Fair enough," Viribus replied. He then removed his hoodie and pressed a button on his vest underneath. The same robotic power suit he wore when he previously fought the gods then materialised around him: a shell of almost indestructible metallic armour and a helmet of bulletproof glass.

"You really outdid yourself with this, doctor. I must say." Viribus complimented.

"The old, inferior model I gave to Subject 927 was already an impressive enough piece of technology, but I don't mean to brag... well, actually, I do... but this new design I've created for you is vastly superior in every respect." Linnaeus openly boasted.

"Yes, and not only does the suit provide my body with physical enhancements, but now that the machine to break down the barrier between worlds has served its purpose, I can reuse the power of those so-called gods to further amplify its capacities." Viribus then revealed as the suit began to emit a red aura of energy. "Once our victory is complete, you will be among my new empire's ranks as its lead scientist."

Linnaeus smirked as she replied, "Perfect."

"So, shall we make our way inside? It's time these worms were made aware of the new order of things!" ALT-Albert suggested.

"One moment, Albert. I have one quick check to make first," Viribus replied.

Back at the villain's lair, Asherah had just finished explaining everything to the Louds, who were shocked by everything they had just heard.

"Okay, okay. Can you just tell us that again? Maybe a quick, easy-to-understand version?" Lincoln requested.

"Yeah, that's a lot to take in," Lori puzzled.

"Even for me, and I'm a certified genius," Lisa claimed.

"Very well. In short, I'm a girl from another timeline where Lord Viribus, the guy you're dealing with right now, tried to conquer the world by removing all the adults with a machine before converting all the remaining children either into zombie servants..."

"Yeah, that sounds pretty gross," Lola cringed.

"...or in the case of those he deemed worthy enough, into robotic beings. He almost succeeded in his plan until I and the versions of you guys from my reality led the surviving children of Royal Woods in the final battle. Defying all odds, we defeated his army and ended him for good. Like everyone who turned 16 in our timeline, I briefly vanished from existence after that. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of our world's very own Lisa Loud, everyone was brought back, including me."

"Woah, that's pretty heavy, dude," Luna commented.

"Indeed. Anyway, after the adults returned, I developed technology that allowed me to travel between different universes, timelines, and corners of creation..."

"Wait, so which is it?" Lola asked. "Are you from a different universe? Or a different timeline? Or what?"

"Yeah, it's pretty confusing," Lana followed.

"In this context, the terms are fairly interchangeable," Asherah answered. "Look, multiverse theory is a really complicated thing. It's best we just leave it at that."

"So, you decided to initiate a voyage across the different realms of reality?" a curious Lisa questioned her further.

"That's right. As it turns out, there were many different timelines where Viribus attempted his 'take over the world by getting rid of adults' plot, and sadly, in most of those scenarios... he won," Asherah grimly revealed.

"Oh," a sympathetic Lincoln responded.

"I tried to save some of those timelines from their ensuing demise, but only in a few did I really make a difference," Asherah explained.

"So, is that what he's trying now in this world?" Luan asked her.

"Perhaps. Although I don't think he needs to in this case. This version of him has become aware that he won in many other timelines, and I think he plans to use that to his advantage."

The rest of the Louds then gasped in horror as they understood what Asherah's words implied.

She then continued, "Across the different timelines I've visited, he's tried a number of different strategies. In one, for example, he didn't manage to obtain as much power or influence, so in an act of desperation, he held a school hostage."

"Yep, that's pretty desperate," Babs commented.

"He's also tried to corrupt your minds across all those different realities. Usually, his two biggest targets are you, Lincoln Loud, and you, Lynn Junior."

"Yep," Lynn replied sadly.

"Why us?" Lincoln asked.

"Because you were bullied and mistreated by the world, Lynn Junior, and you wanted to dominate it to feel safe, just like him," Asherah explained. "As for you, Lincoln, you also have some similarities with the man."

"Like what?"

"Like constantly being in a position where you feel like you're outnumbered by everyone else," she pointed out. "The difference being that while you handled it maturely, Viribus flipped out against the world in retaliation and decided he would force them all to bend to his will... one way or another."

"And seeing as we were similar to him in some way, he thought he could mold us into his followers," Lincoln figured out.

"Exactly. Thankfully, you always managed to see him for the evil madman he really is in the end," Asherah told them.

"Madman, you say?" a voice suddenly spoke.

The Louds and friends then looked up at the large monitor in the room. The previously inactive screen now showed the faces of Viribus, Doctor Linnaeus, and ALT-Albert staring down at them.

"Since all of you have escaped confinement, I can only assume our underlings have failed in their objective," Viribus chided as he glanced over at the villains, who were all tied up and defeated.

"Ugh! Typical, you cretins can't do anything right, can you?" an irritated Linnaeus snarked. "I can't believe I actually recommended your assistance to Lord Viribus!"

"Enough! Your plans are already falling apart, Jake! The Loud family has escaped from your trap, and so have I! We'll soon be putting a stop to you and your wild ambitions!" Asherah barked back. A few of the Louds looked at each other and shrugged, wondering why she was calling him that.

"Oh, and you idiots somehow let her escape, too?! Really?!" Viribus then further berated the other villains before looking over and seeing yet another freed prisoner. "And Fifi, too?! Unbelievable!"

"Yes, and you will pay for locking me up like a common crook!" Fifi cursed him over the screen.

"Hmpf! Hardly. You might be one of their greatest enemies on paper, Dufus, but compared to me, you're just small fries like the rest of those idiots over there!" Viribus replied condescendingly.

"You all might have escaped, but it doesn't matter. All of you are miles away from your hometown, we've completely disabled your family vehicle, and you cannot return in time to stop what we have planned!" Linnaeus pointed out smugly.

"Yeah! Now you rotten Louds are going to feel the way I did when you came to my world and ruined it for me!" ALT-Albert then spoke up.

"Hey, wait a second! I don't remember you!" Lincoln replied.

"Yeah, who are you?!" Luan asked.

"And why do you look like Pop-Pop?" Luna followed.

Lisa then pulled one of her nervous, creepy smiles that she was known for whenever she was poorly trying to hide something.

But then Asherah revealed the truth. "You don't remember because your sister wiped your memories. You visited an alternate reality where your grandfather was an evil businessman who wanted to do something; it's very similar to what Viribus is doing right now!"

The rest of the family then shouted, "LISA!?"

She just replied, "Dang it."

"Yes, and I almost succeeded too! But you meddling brats had to stick your noses in! Well, now all my dreams will finally come true, thanks to my new partners in crime here!" ALT-Albert gloated.

"What? With these insane simpletons? Hah!" Lisa barked.

"Oh, you are so full of yourself, aren't you Lisa?" Linnaeus responded.

"Pfft. That's the pure crystalline boron calling the carbon black!" Lisa sassily retaliated.

Doctor Linnaeus then let out an amused chuckle before saying, "I'm actually a little glad you emerged relatively unscathed from the hallucination trap, Lisa. I am hoping that before this is all over, you and I can settle our dispute of intellects once and for all!"

"Be careful what you wish for, lady!" Lisa warned.

"But I still don't get it!" Rita then spoke up. "If your plan was some kind of big robot takeover thing, then why did you need to trap us?!"

"Yeah, why do any of this in the ding-dang first place?!" Lynn Sr asked.

The tied-up Morag then joined the discussion. "Because you Louds are thorns in the sides of so many! Doctor Linnaeus came to us with a plan to bring you down, and we all gladly accepted!" she told them. "And honestly, letting Viribus turn us all into mindless drones will be worth it if it means you wretched Louds finally get what's coming to you!" she fumed.

"Enough yapping; talk is cheap!" Babs snapped as she faced the screen to confront Linnaeus. "I'll make sure you get a good beating for putting my brain under control, Doc!"

"Ugh! Enough of this pointless chatter. You've served your purpose, Subject 927. You are no longer of any use to us," Linnaeus coldly replied.

"Same goes for you low lives," Viribus told the other villains.

Viribus then looked around at all the people in the room through the holographic projection he was observing. He noticed a certain someone—someone who had been uncharacteristically quiet and reserved for the entire verbal confrontation.

"Ah, if it isn't my old apprentice," he then teased Lynn.

Lincoln and the others then turned back to face LJ, who was standing behind them. Seeing her old master's face again, even if only through a screen, was enough to restore her total sense of fear and dread. "You... you monster," she just barely managed to say as she fought through the intimidation.

"Why? Because I wanted to create a better world? Because I just wanted to help you? BECAUSE YOU BETRAYED ME?!" Viribus roared, knowing he was striking fear into her heart.

"You turned me into a violent bully. I hate what you did to me," Lynn said quietly yet passionately as she did her best to speak back to her former mentor.

But Viribus just condescendingly shook his head before telling her, "All I did was nurture what was already there. Aggression and dominance are what you're all about, Lynn. Face it, kid. What I taught you... you liked it. You were good at it. You wanted it so badly!"

Lynn just hung her head down in shame as she unfortunately took his words to heart. Lincoln then stepped in for his sister and defended, "Stop it! You've toyed with her enough!"

"Whatever. I'd love to keep exchanging verbal jabs with you idiots all day, but I have more important things to do," Viribus said.

"So, we'll leave you with a parting gift..." ALT-Albert smirked.

"Consider yourselves the first to be greeted by our 'multiversal' guests of the day. Have fun," Doctor Linnaeus then affably concluded before ceasing the transmission.

Just as the monitor switched off, the door to the room they were in suddenly sealed shut.

"What did she mean by that?" Lola asked.

But Asherah was terrified, knowing precisely what they meant. "I need to find something!"

"What?" Leni asked.

"Everyone, take cover!" she warned them.

"Why?" Lincoln asked.

Just then, a red portal opened in front of the Louds. Asherah and the villains knew what was coming through, but the Louds still waited in anticipation...

"Uh-oh," Chandler fretted.

The Loud family then collectively gulped as they could hear loud, metallic footsteps coming from the other side of the portal.

They knew they were in for it now.

"What is that?" Lori nervously asked.

"Death," an equally afraid Morag answered... and she wasn't wrong.

Author's Footnote: I've not actually got much to say here, really. The proofreader's note says pretty much everything that needs to be said here. All I'll say is that while the changes to this story have been relatively minimal so far, the final battle will be where some more notable differences are present.

Proofreader's Note: I have quite a lot to say; it might even rival the author's note in terms of length, but because I have no way of knowing what the author* will write until the chapter is published, it's simply up to how much he writes.

First up, a correction to the previous author's note. There may be a future chapter where I have no proofreader's note to attach, even though the author says that one will be attached to every chapter. If there is a chapter where I have nothing to say, I will attach "Proofreader's Note: (none)" instead, though the author may end up removing it.

I'll also admit to being a bit of a free spirit when it comes to punctuation edge cases. As an example, I often place periods outside of quotation marks instead of inside them despite being American, and I have some hyphenation rules of my own; I nearly hyphenated "previously-inactive" in this proofread before dehyphenating them when Grammarly asked me to.

Speaking of Grammarly, it is one of the main tools I used to help proofread this story. In fact, because I'm in college, my parents bought a paid subscription to Grammarly Premium to help out with that. This gave me additional tools not accessible to most, like clarity, delivery, and engagement suggestions as opposed to just correctness, making Grammarly into an even more powerful tool. The author is pretty lucky to have me by his side.

As another fact, I made some tweaks of my own and some attempts to educate the author on common mistakes. As an example of the former, Vanzilla's windshield was already smashed in before Chandler arrived, but I deleted that detail because the force to crack a windshield would very well be loud enough to wake the pets up. For the latter, I added a warning in the previous chapter about periods ending quotations when there should be commas, and while the author did respect it, I still found a few examples of that error (for example, the comma in Morag's last quote in this chapter was originally a period). Some other fixes were unsplitting certain quotations and replacing as many instances of "said" as I could with synonyms.

I try not to go overboard with my edits, though. In fact, when the author saw some of my mini-reworks, they actually raised my payment to $30, but I talked it down to $25. I spent my first payment on a picture of Amped Luna in her swimsuit design (which actually left behind a $14 commission credit with Alejindio), and I will be spending the rest of my paychecks on commissions I wanted to get.

As a last note, when Asherah mentions Viribus going after Lincoln and Lynn, these are tied to the author's past works under his past account Just Some Guy Online, those works being Pushover or Payback and Two Peas in a Prison respectively. While they do provide some meaningful backstory, they have a lot of story errors pointed out in the reviews, so you'll have to read them with a grain of salt.

*I'll refer to Just Some Ordinary Dude as "the author" from now on since that's much shorter to write.

(Phew!)