Meanwhile, at Rusty's place, he, Aaron and Gina, were in the backyard with Rusty's little brother, Rocky, who was just messing around with some sports stuff, toys, balls and clubs, and all that. There was one thing that Gina found a little nice, and it was the fact that three out of four of them had orange hair.

Gina:"You know, I think it's nice that we have orange hair."

Aaron:"Well, you guys do."

After hearing that compliment, Rusty took this as an opportunity to flirt with the girl he was looking out for.

Rusty:"I guess some may say that it's fate. Wouldn't you agree?"

Both Gina and Aaron by what that meant, but didn't think too much about it as Rocky then through a blue rubber ball at his brother's head.

Rusty:"Ow! Hey!"

Rocky:"You're gross. You know that, bro?"

Rusty:"Says the kid who thinks blood and gore is cool!"

And then, Rocky threw a red toy car by Rusty's head, missing of course. Both brothers glared at each other, but Gina butted in before this could escalate any further.

Gina:"Okay. Cool it, you too."

Aaron"This is much like Avis and Erica back in the orphanage."

Rocky:"And who are those too?"

Aaron:"Right, well those two are orphans back where we live. Avis is always so snobbish and arrogant, treats other people lowly, and Erica is usually the one who deals with her the most. She also likes to take charge and make sure no one else gets in trouble. I could see her officially working there someday."

Rocky:"Well, that's cool."

Less than really interested, Rocky went back to playing around, deciding to practice his mini gold. Something that Gina found interesting.

Gina:"You know, if you like, I can help you out with that."

Rocky:"Really? How?"

Standing up, Gina helped Rocky by showing him how to hold the club properly and to put enough force into the ball so that it landed into the target perfectly...but then, she put in a little too much force and the ball winded up shooting too fast and breaking something offscreen. There was a bit of an awkward silence until Rocky spoke.

Rocky:"That vase was a Mother's Day gift. (chuckles)"

Rusty:"Maybe we should head inside."

And that, they do...

Back at the Orphanage, Lincoln, Erica, and Avis were looking at a part of the orphanage that seemed worst for wear, the entrance. It was damaged more than the rest of the place, severely in need of repairs. They started off around the doorframe, which was damaged due to cuts and scratches around it. But she could barely get her fingertips to feel around the top.

Avis:"Dang it."

Lincoln:"Need some help?"

Avis:"No, no. I can get it. It's just-"

But then, she found herself being lifted...by Lincoln, now perching her at his shoulder like he was superhuman. This was surprising to both girls present.

Lincoln:"(strained) I gotcha."

Erica:"Um, Lincoln? Isn't she a little too heavy for you?"

Lincoln:"(struggling) Nope! Totally good!"

Both girls glanced at each other at the sight of this, but Avis didn't think much of it after that as Avis continued to look around the damaged doorframe.

Avis:"Yeah, something clawed its way around this thing. Erica, do you mind bringing over a spare beam, so I can fix it?"

Reluctantly, Erica did so, taking the beam while also trying to get her out of the way so that it wasn't tangled. Lincoln notices this and takes notice of it for later as he continues to hold up Avis as she replaces the damaged frame. It didn't take long and Lincoln was able to put her down after a few minutes. He had built up a sweat just by lifting a 160-lb girl, and he was only 11 years old!

Lincoln:"So...what else can we do around here?"

Erica:"Well, one thing's for sure, we don't want you to do so much heavy lifting."

Lincoln:"Oh, I don't mind."

Erica:"Perhaps, a few sets of traps should do for now around here."

And that, they did, setting up bear traps while they slowly got to work on repairing the section. As well as a large, wooden wall with spiked tops that was set up at the front perimeter of the orphanage. Stephen and Glenn helped in setting them up, doing the pulling on ropes while Lincoln, Erica and Avis were pushing them up right. Regina also helped as well, taking a break from the crossbows and just making sure that the walls were at the right angle.

Regina:"Keep going. You're good, you're good, you're good. And stop. There we go. It's perfectly aligned."

Glenn:"Thank god fur that."

Regina:"Welp, this should hold off against most home invaders."

Avis:"Even the people who attacked us in the first place?"

Erica:"It might not be enough. Perhaps, we could get the Headmaster to get a bigger wall set up."

Regina:"What's one with the one we have now?"

Lincoln:"Wait. You guys already have a wall now?"

Said wall was only low baring, barely Lincoln's height. It was no surprise that the intruders were able to get passed that if they could jump over it.

Lincoln:"Now, I'm wondering why we didn't just build up this wall instead."

Erica:"We could probably do that now, if you want."

Lincoln:"We're gonna need more help."

A few minutes later, they got some other orphans to work on the wall in order to make it bigger and weaponize it. The wooden barricades was set up right in the middle of the wall, in front of the gate of the grounds.

Erica:"Well, that should hold off, for a while, at least."

Lincoln:"Yeah...Say, Erica. I noticed that you've been pushing your hair away a lot."

Erica:"Yeah. It's been giving me a bother for a while now."

To demonstrate, Erica shook her hair a bit, and wound up getting shook in Avis' face.

Lincoln:"If you want, I could help you a little with that."

Erica:"You can do that?"

Lincoln:"Yeah. Sure. Why not?"

Overjoyed by him asking, Erica lead Lincoln back indoors and to a room where they could work on her hair. Standing on a stool that was about Luan's height, Lincoln got a good look at Erica's hair. Digging his hand into it, he was trying to figure out where to start.

Lincoln:"Remind me, how did you get so much hair?"

Avis:"I let it grow out. It was also curly and it was hard to style, so I just let it grow."

Avis:"Maybe we should shave your head, just to be on the safe side."

Hearing that urged Erica to want to punch Avis, but she was held back by Lincoln.

Lincoln:"Let me just help out with this."

Erica:"Why is she even still here?"

Lincoln:"Because, I'm working my butt off to help this place, and I want to see to it that you guys work together."

Both girls glance at each other when he said that as Lincoln got to work, using several black hairbands to tie up the hair and make it into one poofy ponytail.

Lincoln:"There. How does that feel?"

Erica:"Hmm...different."

Avis:"Oh please, just say it feels good and give the kid some self esteem."

Erica:"Huh?"

Avis:"I mean, you gotta let the kid feel good if he wound up screwing it up. Afterall, you do like your hair big."

Erica:"Well, I'd say Lincoln did a very good job."

Lincoln:"Yep. I've had tons of practice."

Erica:"Because you have ten sisters?"

Lincoln:"Exactly."

They get a chuckle out of that. Meanwhile, we find Hilary outside the room, peaking on what's happening while having important imformation to tell them. Perhaps, the time was now as she opens the door and they soon notice her.

Avis:"Hilary?"

Lincoln:"Hey. What's up?"

Hilary:"I have to tell you something."

Lincoln:"Okay. Come in."

Due to the size of her gown, it was too big to fit in the door and she wound up getting stuck.

Hilary:"Oh dang it. Not again. Little help?

Lincoln:"Uh, sure."

Avis:"(sighs) We gotta talk about those dresses, Hil."

Avis takes hold of Hilary's arms while Lincoln pushes down the width of the dress to make sure it gets through the door without ripping it.

Hilary:"Ugh. I blame Antoinette for this. She keeps pushing me to make my dress bigger."

Avis:"Well, I told you it was a bad idea."

Hilary:"Well, you know how Antoinette is when we tell her now. Her and her hissy fits."

While they were talking about that, Lincoln's arms were dug pretty deep into the fabric of the dress as he managed to press it close enough for him to get it through the door's wedge. It was enough for Hilary to be pulled through and fully enter the room, her dress poofing up and taking a lot of space again.

Hilary:"Okay. I came here to talk to you about something I found in the orphanage. I think it may be connected to the attack that happened recently."

Lincoln:"What is it?"

Hilary:"It'd be better if I show you. Come on."

Avis:"Maybe after you change into something a little more casual."

Lincoln:"No offense, Hilary, but your dress is one of the biggest I've seen."

Hilary:"Yeah...I think it's time for a change."

Later, Hilary was with the three, now with a new casual attire, being a purple sweater dress with a mustard yellow tank top underneath, an emerald green skirt, dark brown leggings and navy blue slip-on shoes.

Lincoln:"You look nice like this."

Hilary:"Thank you. It feels much better than the gown."

She points to the gown she abandoned, which was pretty much a heap of fabric where it lay.

Hilary:"Now, to show you what I found."

She brought them to the foyer, where there were some blueprints by the stairs and she opened it to show it was of the Manor House, where the design for a secret tunnel was shown, looking to be connected right underneath where they stood.

Hilary:"I believe this may be how they attacked us before. And some of the orphans found a giant hole 50 feet away from here, at a clearing in the woods."

Lincoln:"Something doesn't make sense. This place is all be destroyed. Did they use the entrance or not?"

Erica:"Sounds like one heck of a mystery."

Avis:"So...this secret tunnel must be right here!"

Lincoln:"We should find the entrance to this tunnel outside. Maybe it could lead back here, but we don't know if we don't look. Can't wait to see what it looks like."

That was gonna have to wait, since meanwhile, at Zach's place, he was with Kelsey and Archie at his house, his parents thankfully away from the time being as they were in the living room, watching television, while Zach was reminiscing about one of the humiliating situations he and his friends put themselves in.

Zach:"And while I was suffering through temporary baldness due to a crappy product, my other friends weren't so cool at the party either. Rusty's face pucked up like a balloon from something sour and Lincoln and Clyde wound up losing their clothes from Jordan's Dog. Not one of our better nights, to put it simply."

Archie:"And your friend, Liam?"

Zach:"Oh, he had his own plans back at his farm. He invited us, but we were stubborn about looking cool rather than having fun with him."

Kelsey:"Well, at least you learned that lesson. So what is it that you usually do by yourself?"

Zach:"Me? Well, I usually have an interest in aliens. I keep an eye out for them, check out any sightings that there are. In fact, follow me an let me show you something."

He led the two up to his room and that is when he showed them all kinds of alien-related stuff that he had around, including a citation belonging to his dad about trespassing on a remote military base.

(Don't ask.)

The rest of the stuff were Alien/UFO toys, clippings of alien sightings, an actual handheld UFO detector, and of course, a giant telescope that was leaning outside his window. The two orphans he was watching over were pretty amazing by this.

Archie:"You some kind of crazy Alien conspiracist?"

Zach:"Well, it's mostly my folks who got me to take an interest in this. Mostly, my dad who's the conspiracist."

Kelsey:"We know someone back at the orphanage who's much the same. Has an interest in aliens like this."

Archie:"Yeah. The two of you might actually get along."

Zach:"I bet. I also got Lincoln and Clyde into Aliens, to be honest. I wonder how Lincoln's doing right now."

Archie:"If he's lucky, he may have uncovered a few of the orphanage's secrets by now."

Zach:"Secrets?"

Kelsey:"Yeah. The orphanage was built with secret mechanisms in the wall some decades after the original owners passed away."

Archie:"We tried asking about them, but we were always shot down."

Zach:"So then, how did you find out?"

Kelsey:"We managed to find some original blueprints regarding who built the things."

Zach:"Interesting. Very interesting...Hey! You guys wanna hear about the time me and the others scored dates? It was all thanks to Lincoln, I can tell you that..."

Speaking of Lincoln, he and the others were ready to uncover the entrance to the hidden tunnel that was right under their feet in the foyer. With Stephen, Glenn, and Valerie in on this discovery, they move around the spot, which was covered by a wooden lid, which Stephen works to move away and see that the hole led to a tunnel that was about 2 1/2 feet wide. At first, all they saw was darkness, but then, they could see a faint light deeper within.

Valeria:"So, uh...how deep does it go?"

Lincoln:"Hmm. There's nothing here about that on the blueprints."

Erica:"We're just gonna have to go in and see for ourselves...who's first?"

They all look at each other before Lincoln, along with Hilary, decides to make the trip first, jumping down first into the hole. The others followed soon after, with Erica going last. But upon doing so, the top bit of her ponytail wound up getting stuck, bulging over the lip of the hole like a muffin top.

Erica:"URCH! (sighs, and starts struggling) GRRRRR... (Hair pops free) GAAHH! (lands) OOF!"

Avis:"You okay over there, Repunsel?"

Erica:"Shut up. At least Repunsel's hair isn't too curly like mine."

With that, they continue down into the tunnel, with Lincoln and Hilary leading them. Lincoln was actually given a ride on Hilary, sitting on her shoulder, as they continued to move forward and look at the blueprints while closer to the light.

Lincoln:"I'm surprise you're letting me do this, Hilary."

Hilary:"I just figured you could use a better view of the place and angle for the map."

Lincoln hid a blush while continuing to look. As it turns out, based on the tunnel itself and the image, it only seemed to be about a five-minute walk from the point A to point B here, give or take the metric system. Nevertheless, they see that the other end is up ahead, natural light coming from up above as they also see climbing ropes and gear attached. 1 by 1, they all started climbing out and finding themselves outside, and like before, Erica got stuck with her hair caught in the edges of the hole, so she nearly lost her balance and had to struggle to pull her hair out. It still hurt and forced her to adjust it as she gave another sigh.

Erica:"Maybe I should get a haircut."

Lincoln:"No way! Your hair is perfect, just the way it is."

That was enough to make Erica give a smile with a small blush as the other looked around. They saw that they were quite a distance away from the orphanage, about exactly 50 meters as they were in a clearing within the woods and could see their home from afar. There was also a lot of leftover equipment from whoever built that tunnel, including generators that powered the lights below.

Stephen:"We could probably use this stuff."

Glenn:"Aye. Whoever left it wilnae mynd if we tak' it fur ourselves."

Avis:"We already have the place rigged with tons of traps. What good would this stuff do?"

And that is when, even from where they stood, did they hear some screams of pain and cries for help coming from the orphanage, and quickly rushed back there to see what was going on. Inside, it seemed that a trap that they didn't commission had been set up and set off by the girls, Cathy and Hilda, who were rubbing their heads in pain in front of toy trains and trucks that seemed to be dropped from an overhanging box, and Siara was also there, having sprained her ankles in an attempt to break up whatever fight was going on between the two. Lincoln and the others arrived in shock to see what had happened.

Avis:"What the heck happened here?"

Siara:"Cathy and Hilda were at it again while setting up one of their own traps."

Lincoln:"Hmm...(to Cathy and Hilda) Girls, maybe you should leave the traps to other people here. I have some plans for the equipment we found out there."

Cathy & Hilda:" (in sync, (sighs)) Fine..."

A little while later, some other orphans picked up the toys and cleaned up the mess while Lincoln talked with Siara and Valerie. They were talking about something that was very important...

Lincoln:"(to Valerie) So...do you really keep your hair in a ponytail sometimes? I mean, it's pretty big."

Valerie merely smiled as she brought out a hair tie just to show him. Despite all the hair she has, she was able to get it done herself as her hair is now in a long and bushy ponytail.

Lincoln:"Huh. That actually looks really nice on you."

Valerie:"Thanks."

She then wraps Lincoln in a hug, which surprises both him and Siara, but Lincoln enjoys it so.

Siara:"Uh...(clears throat) You really are a nice guy, Lincoln."

Lincoln:"Thanks. You know, you're pretty tall. How long have you been here?"

Siara:"A few years, but I'm younger than I look. I only just got my growth spurt around the same time."

Lincoln:"Interesting. Are there any things that you are interested in?"

Siara:"I do have a knack for sowing and construction."

Lincoln:"Really? So, you're good at building things?"

Siara:"Well, I usually tend to do some repairs around the manor house. But I also helped in making that makeshift tower that we have on the side of the building."

Lincoln:"Hmm...that gives me an idea."

At the damaged part of the Orphanage, not only were repairs underway, but outside, Lincoln, Siara, and the others were gathering tools and supplies for something else they planned to equip the place they needed. Everything there was needed for Siara to build a wooden guard tower, like one from a beach. Lincoln, Erica, Avis, and Valerie were standing far behind Siara, who stood in front of the supplies with a hammer she was clenching tightly in one hand, and a large nail in the other.

Siara:"Alright. Let's do this.

And with that, Siara got to work, a massive dust cloud covering the area while the sound of hammer and nails could be heard. Lincoln and the others walked around the dust cloud as they talked about something else.

Lincoln:"Well, she's definitely working better than I expected."

Avis:"As opposed to all the hard work we've been doing?"

Erica:"We all have been putting in hard working in defending this place, Lincoln."

Hoping that girls weren't taking what he said the wrong way, Lincoln then turn to see the dust clear and that Siara was sitting on the already finished tower.

Siara:"What do you think?"

Lincoln:"Wow. That was fast."

Erica:"Yeah."

Avis:"Okay, that was impressive."

Lincoln:"We should get someone to be the lookout up there."

They went with Susan because of her Archery skills. Later on, Siara was working on her other skill, which was sowing, doing a brown coat that she fitted with a protective fabric, to make it more durable for any attackers of accidental traps set off. She was able to finish the coat in just a few minutes, much like she did the tower. She then showed her work to Lincoln, who was impressed.

Lincoln:"Nice work. This is sure to protect the others from any harm now."

Siara:"Thanks. You know, we've all done so much work today. Why not have us take a break?"

Lincoln:"Sure. I don't mind."

Later that evening, Lincoln called a meeting with everyone who was working on securing the Orphanage present before him in the Grand Hall. After everything they've done, Lincoln felt like some of their efforts were to be rewarded with a long-deserved break. And he had an idea.

Lincoln:"Alright, I know you all put in a lot of effort to make this place a lot safer, in case there was ever another break-in from before. So, not only do you all deserve a break, but I'm thinking that some of you should come with me into town and have an even greater reward. So...show of hands?"

A lot of hands came out.

Lincoln:"Ooookaaayy...definitely can't bring everyone here."

Erica:"I'm already volunteering myself to go with you, Lincoln."

Avis:"Same here."

Lincoln:"Yeah. I figured as much."

Travis:"I wanna go too!"

Regina:"Same here, if you don't mind."

Cindy:"Me too."

Lincoln:"Alright. I'd say this group is big enough for me to handle. The rest of you stay here and take an actual break."

The entire crowd of orphans all went "aww" when hearing that they wouldn't be joining.

Avis:"Will we be going shopping? I hardly get to do that."

Erica:"It's because money's actually an object here. We're orphans. We don't have a cent to our name."

Avis:"Ugh..."

Travis:"What about the others that you said you saved a while back? Will we get to see how they're doing?"

Lincoln:"I'll make sure you guys will, but my friends are keeping an eye on them at the moment. I just hope they're alright."

Travis:"...Can we also get a bite to eat?"

Erica:"Guys, what did I just say?"

Lincoln:"You don't have to worry about that. I can handle any expenses you make...so much as it's not too much. Anyway, I might get you guys set up on Gus's Game n Grub. That place is always nice. Oh, and we should pack a few snacks for your friend, Matthew, in case we see him."

Avis:"Matthew? The little fat kid? He does nothing but eat everyone out of the house and home. Why would we bring him more food?"

Some of the kids in the crowd got a laugh at that. But Lincoln had shut that down real quick.

Lincoln:"Hey! Matthew is a nice kid who is currently under mine and my friend's protection, just like all of you here!"

That did quiet them down fast. And with that, Lincoln decides to take his group and leave the orphanage for a bit. Whatever they'll do in Royals Woods hopefully won't draw out too much attention. But who knows?