Lynn returned home one night after spending another evening learning about the way of the world from her mentor. She slowly opened the front door and saw her brother playing video games in the living room. She immediately thought to herself that her brother should start following in her footsteps.
"Hey, Lincoln. What are you up to?"
"I'm playing the new Ace Savvy game. It's really good." he said as he pressed a button and clobbered an enemy on the screen.
"Eh, video games are for wimps. You should come outside with me and get some real action!" she told him.
"No thanks, I'll pass."
But Lynn decided this attitude was unacceptable. After all, she didn't want her brother to remain a wuss for the rest of his life...
"Look bro, I know you think things are fine in your life right now, with your nice little elementary school and everything, but the truth is, life isn't a bed full of roses. It's time I taught you about the real world." she said.
"What are you talking about, Lynn?" he asked, a little weirded out.
"If you don't step up, people are going to take advantage of your weakness. It's like the jungle out there! You have to dominate them, or else you'll get eaten alive!"
"Are you listening to yourself, Lynn?!" he asked her concerningly. "I don't know what's been with you lately, but this is starting to worry me! Maybe you should see a doctor or something." he then suggested.
"Enough chit-chat! I said we're going outside!" she replied harshly.
"And I said I'll pass!" he sassily responded as he tried to remain focused on his game.
But Lynn wasn't having any of it. She roughly grabbed hold of his arm and tried to snatch the controller away.
"Hey, let go!" Lincoln cried.
"You're coming outside with me whether you like it or not!"
"Get away from me, Lynn!" he tried to fend her off.
Lincoln then glanced back at the screen amidst his struggle and saw himself lose a life as an enemy struck down his character.
"Lynn?! You made me lose a life!" he told her off.
"Doesn't matter! This is more important!" she said.
"Why do you want me to go outside, anyway?! It's getting dark and I'm going to bed soon. I'm too tired for all this!"
"Because you need to be prepared for the real world! So, I'm gonna teach you some self-defense moves!"
"What for!?"
"Because one day, you might need it!" Lynn insisted through gritted teeth as she started to get angry.
"I'm not in the mood for this. Why don't you just go and play with your basketball set in your room or something?!" he said, ticking off the jock even more.
Lynn then suddenly tackled her brother and wrestled him to the ground. "Hey, get off!" Lincoln yelled, but to no avail.
Lynn then did the same thing she recently did to one of Viribus' followers during their recent sparring session, and trapped Lincoln in the camel clutch. "Now pay attention, bro! This is the camel clutch, it's a good move to subdue a guy with!"
The older sisters rushed into the room at that moment. "What's going on in here?!" Lori asked, before seeing her sister manhandle her brother. "LYNN!"
Lori, Leni, and Luna, with combined effort, were just about able to pull their brawny sister off him.
"What the heck, dude?!" Luna shouted.
"What?! I was just teaching this chump how to handle himself! He might need it one day, you know?!" Lynn argued.
"Really, because it looked to me like you were just roughing him up for the fun of it!" Lori told her off.
"Yeah, you're just being a bully!" Lincoln shouted at her.
"You take that back!" Lynn yelled. "I'm just trying to help you!"
"Enough!" Lori ordered loudly, before lowering her voice in an effort to de-escalate the situation. "Lynn, you've always been a little, erm... rough."
"And competitive, dude." Luna followed.
"But even by your standards, this is going too far. You could have hurt him. He's not as strong as you." Lori reminded her.
"Yeah, and whose fault is that?!" Lynn turned and said to her brother.
"What is your problem?!" Lincoln then angrily asked her.
"I just want to know when you're gonna man up, bro!" she replied. "The world out there is a harsh place, and you either have to dominate it, or deal with getting victimised by it." she then told him before walking upstairs.
But Lori was quick to get another word in before Lynn went away. "Lynn, ever since you started middle school, you've been acting different. You've been away most evenings, you've barely been talking lately, and now you suddenly go and do this? Just tell us what's going on." Lori requested to hear.
But Lynn declined her request. She instead carried on walking away in silence, unwilling or unable to share her recent experiences with even the people closest to her. She could hear them still talking about her after walking away. "Wow, I've never seen her act that aggressive to one of us before..." Leni was saying from downstairs as Lynn walked into her bedroom.
As she entered her room and lay on her bed, she realized how much of a jerk she had been, but she wasn't able to admit it. She just continued to lie there, thinking away to herself about who she was becoming...
The Loud's Finest Hour
Chapter Four: Say Goodbye
The Loud family prepared their luggage, hopped inside Vanzilla, and made their way out of their hometown. They still weren't sure exactly where they were heading, but they knew that they had to get out of the area as soon as possible.
Other than the unfortunate yet fitting eerie music playing on the radio, not a sound was being made inside the van. All the Louds were too weary and on edge to engage in conversation. All of them frequently looked around in all directions, constantly looking over their shoulders as they knew they had to suspect the presence of an enemy at any instant. All the pedestrians and other vehicle drivers they were passing on their journey... any single one of them could be an associate of their enemies, or even one of their adversaries in disguise trying to sneak attack them. The Loud family could only be vigilant and alert as it tried its best to sneak its way out of town without running into any trouble.
Eventually, only after the van passed the sign stating 'You are now leaving Royal Woods' did one of them finally muster the courage to say a word...
"So, where are we actually going, anyway?" Lola asked.
"Anywhere we can be safe!" Lori insisted.
"Yeah, but specifically, where are we going?" Luan then asked her.
"I don't know, kids." Lynn Sr admitted. "We just need to find somewhere to lay low for a while. Somewhere those jerks won't find us!"
"But where?" Luna questioned.
"Maybe Great Lakes City. I'm sure Ronnie Anne and her family would be willing to put us up for a while." Lincoln suggested.
"No way! I'm not risking Bobby Boo Boo Bear's life! If those rotten villains do come after us, they'll be in danger, too!" Lori objected.
"Hmm, Lori is most probably correct. We need to reside somewhere that our close friends and/or relatives aren't. Otherwise, we put their well-being at risk as well as ours." Lisa stated.
"Then where should we go?" Lucy asked.
Back at the villains' hideout, Viribus briefly spoke with Babs...
"I've called another meeting between us, so we can discuss greater plans going forward. It's time the others here understood what we're really trying to accomplish."
"That's cool." Babs replied. "I'll make sure I'm there."
"Good." Viribus said. "Also, Doctor Linnaeus informed me you followed her instructions and handed that little leaflet over to the Louds?"
"Yeah, I gave it to that one in the red cap and the overalls."
"Well, since it's been a few hours since our 'talk' with the boy, he and his family are probably leaving Royal Woods right about now. Maybe you should drop her a little reminder about the 'resort'." he suggested. "Timing is everything, after all." he then followed with as he looked at his watch, which revealed that he was tracking Lincoln's movements at that very moment. No doubt an opportunity he and his allies seized when they had the boy in their grasp earlier that day.
"Right. On it." Babs replied as she pulled her phone out.
"Oh, and just one more thing..." Viribus added. "He didn't see you with the others earlier today, right?"
"I don't see how he could have. He was in a sack when we captured him at Dairyland, he had another one over his head when we were in the van, and I stayed inside the van when the rest of you confronted him on that farm." Babs said.
"Good, then there's no way he can suspect a thing." he replied with a sinister tone.
Lana got a text message at the very moment the Louds were debating their destination. She looked and saw it was from Babs. It said "Hey, Lana. Don't forget to tell Lynn and the others about that thing I gave you yesterday. Oh, and tell her I'd still kick her butt." Sure enough, it seemed like something Babs would usually say, and in Lana's mind, it was the right message that came in at just the right moment.
"Hey, guys!" she shouted excitedly. "I think I know where we can go!" she then told them as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the brochure, before waving it in the air for everyone to see.
"Oh yeah? That resort place." Lola remembered.
Lincoln then swiped the brochure out of his sisters' hand and took a look. "Hmm, Ensnared? That's a weird name for it." he said, though his attention was immediately redirected once he observed the resort's advertised features. "Oh, it has an indoor pool!" he said excitedly, before Luna took it.
"*Gasp* And it has evening rock band performances, dudes!" the young musician said ecstatically.
Lola then took it off her. "And it has an all-day spa facility!"
"And the spa has a mud pool in it!" Lana said as she pointed at that part in the brochure.
"And it has a stand-up comedian!" Luan said as she also took a quick peek.
Lisa then squinted as she took a closer look at it. "Hmm, as appealing as all this is, perhaps we should take a moment to reflect on the fact that we're a wanted family collective. This could all be part of an elaborate trap."
But Lola just emitted an annoyed "Uhh!" before replying, "Leave it to Lisa to be a buzzkill."
"Still, maybe Lisa has a point. I mean, it does feel a little convenient that Lana would just happen to have a leaflet to a place like this right now." Lincoln then pointed out.
"I think Lisa is right. It feels like a trap." Lucy suggested, prompting some members of the family to think to themselves about it. A few audible "Hmms" were heard in the car interior.
"My point exactly." Lisa agreed.
"But I don't get it. If this is some elaborate trap that they're setting for us, why wouldn't they have just kept me in their clutches and lured you to them with me as bait?" Lincoln then brought up, still feeling indifferent and considering both sides of the argument. "That would have been easier. So, it doesn't add up."
"That's a pretty good point, bruh." Luna said.
"A fair counterargument, but I still maintain my pessimism on this." Lisa argued.
Lori then turned to Lana and asked her, "Where did you get that thing from, Lana?"
"I got it from Babs."
"Yeah, I was there when she came over. So quit it with your paranoia, Lisa!" Lola then barked at her.
"I was there, also, sister. But you must admit, it seems somewhat peculiar that Babs came all the way over to our residence just to give us a pamphlet." Lisa argued.
"Yeah, that does seem a little odd…" Lincoln then weighed in, before changing his mind. "But while Babs can be a little rough, her heart is in the right place, and she's certainly become a much better person since that whole quest business. Besides, she couldn't stand Doctor Linnaeus or the Millers, so I doubt she's aligned with them again."
"Unless those scoundrels have managed to brainwash her." Lisa said.
"Brainwashing!? You and your science mumbo jumbo, Lisa!" Lola argued.
"To be fair, mind control is far from the craziest thing our family has seen." Luan noted.
"Yeah, but still, dude…" Luna replied.
"She probably just wanted to do something kind for us by giving us the pamphlet." Leni generously claimed.
"Yeah. I mean, she seems pretty cool with us now. Besides, she wasn't with those bad guys when you were on Liam's farm, right?" Lana then asked her brother.
"No, I didn't see her there." Lincoln confirmed.
"Well, there you go! Now can we just go to this place? Because I'm certainly not spending the next few days cooped up in this van!" Lola moaned.
"I'm still cynical of all this… but given we're low on destination options, I suppose I should show trust in someone who, by all given evidence, is no longer an adversary of ours." Lisa gave in.
"Finally!" Lola said in response.
Lynn Sr and Rita then looked at each other and simply shrugged their shoulders before the Loud father spoke up. "Okay, kids. It sounds like this place has a lot to offer, and it's the best we've got. I guess if we have to lay low somewhere for a while, it might as well be at a place we can enjoy."
"YES!" Lola shouted in excitement as she folded out the leaflet and looked at the map that was on it. "Step on it! Twelve miles that way!" she pointed as the van made a left exit towards the destination.
As the van made its way further out of town, Lincoln took a moment to glance over his shoulder. His normally very loud, outspoken, and boisterous sibling Lynn was unusually quiet and had been the whole ride. "Lynn? Are you okay?" he asked.
But the little jock just sat there with a blank expression on her face, as if her mind was completely elsewhere. He could tell the presence of this Viribus character was deeply troubling her, but he wasn't quite sure what he could do to fix that.
Meanwhile, Pop-Pop and Myrtle were about to take a dip in the pool at the retirement home, when suddenly the police burst their way into the building...
"Hey, what the...?" a confused Pop-Pop muttered as he tripped into the pool.
After climbing his way back out, Myrtle ran over to help him up as one of the officers approached him.
"Sir, I'll have to ask you to return to your room."
"Why?" Pop-Pop questioned.
"We have reason to believe that you are the intended target of an attack!"
"WHAT?!" both elders shouted.
Leonard Loud was giving a tour to a group of young pre-teens at Camp Mastodon at around the same time...
They were on a boat when Leonard spotted a sturgeon in the water. "Okay, kids. Now I'm gonna show you how to catch a giant sturgeon!" he said as he prepared to dive into the water, but then a couple of police boats quickly approached his. "Hey! What's the meaning of this?!"
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to escort these kids off the water, tell them to leave the camp, and then stay confined to your camp house. We've been informed you may be the target of an attack!"
"Wait, what?!" he blurted out in shock.
Meanwhile, at the residence of Lance, Sharon, and their three children…
Lance was working out with a pair of heavy dumbbells in the living room while his family was watching Dream Boat, much like their cousins would often do. However…
*RING*
"I'll get it." Sharon said.
She walked over and opened the door only to find two police officers standing there.
"Um, hello?" she asked them.
"Good day, madame. Is this the home of Lance and Sharon Loud?"
A curious Lance suddenly dropped his weights and approached the door.
"That's right." Sharon replied.
"What's all this about, officers?" Lance questioned.
"We have reason to suspect your family might be in danger."
"WHAT?!" the three children then suddenly blurted out in unison.
At the same time, some more police knocked on Aunt Ruth's door...
She walked up and answered. "Hello, what is it?"
"Mam, I'm going to need you to stay inside until further notice. I've been told that you're the suspected target of an attack!"
Ruth simply maintained a stoic expression and replied, "Eh, I wasn't planning on heading out today, anyway." before closing the door and returning to her TV screen.
Meanwhile, the villainous faction discussed matters at their hideout. This time, they were accompanied by their esteemed leader.
"I still say we should have finished off that obnoxious little brat when we had him in our clutches!" Morag said.
"I'm with her! I thought that's what all this was about!" Jeff said.
"Yeah, this whole 'lure them into a fake vacation resort' plot seems needlessly elaborate. Why don't we just deal with them the old-fashioned way?" Joyce asked, only to earn herself a facepalm from ALT-Albert and a sigh of annoyance from Dr Linnaeus.
"Seriously, how are you people not getting this?" Linnaeus then loudly asked the group as Viribus stood beside the round table and generally expressed disinterest in his new allies' queries.
"What are you talking about, quack?!" Guy bluntly replied.
"Yeah, why don't we just do this the simple way?!" Carly followed. "It seems like you're just treating the Loud family as an obstacle rather than the enemy."
"That's because beating the Loud family is not our primary goal here! It never was!" Linnaeus responded.
"Pfft. Speak for yourself, doctor! That's the only reason I'm here!" Morag argued.
"US TOO!" most of the other villains, minus Babs and ALT-Albert, all shouted in unison.
Finally, Viribus approached the table, tilted his head downwards at his seated allies, and simply told them, "You lack vision."
"What?" Morag asked.
"All of you, what exactly are your ambitions again? Remind me." Viribus then proposed. "Aside from destroying the Louds." he then added.
"To destroy all the cherries in Michigan!" Jeff answered.
"To make money by ranting on people's cooking... and manipulating them to fight each other on TV for ratings!" Guy Grazer followed.
"To get some peace and quiet AT LONG LAST!" Morag declared. "...and to rule Scotland with a fire-breathing dragon." she then awkwardly added.
"Hey, we just wanna let those babies know their place!" Taylor said as Anderson and Pablo sat on either side of her and nodded.
"Us, too!" Hawk also claimed as he and Hank smashed their fists into their palms.
"And we just want to make successful careers for ourselves in the music business... even if it means stepping on a few toes." Doug said as Michelle nodded with him.
Viribus did not show a very impressed look on his face as he heard these answers. It was clear their ambitions were not quite up to his standards. "Really? Is that all?"
A confused Jeff then replied, "I thought that was quite a lot."
"Yeah, if we destroy all the cherries, we'll cripple the local economy!" Ryan tried to hype it up.
"You think the economic stability of an entire state or country is dictated by the mere presence of one single mediocre fruit? I mean, come on! Destroying all the cherries in Michigan is your grand plan? Really?" Viribus then berated the Miller family.
"HA!" Morag pointed and laughed at the Millers.
"And you? Gaining possession over a dragon and taking over a town in Scotland... just so you can get some quiet time? All that power and that's all you seek to gain from it?" Viribus then berated her, too.
He then walked around the table and talked down to every single one of the petty villains around him. "All you wanted was a promotion by busting a dam and creating a big lake out of Royal Woods? Well, looks like that didn't turn out too well for you, did it?" he said to Joyce, who was visibly ticked off by what he said.
"And you, a sleazy, cheating conman serving under a local politician?" he then said to Vic, before finishing with, "Only to be outed by the activities of a bunch of little brats."
"And you? A pathetic, loud-mouthed little Gordon Ramsay rip-off? What a joke." he said to Guy.
"Oh, and Bulldog, is it? You're here just because the Louds screwed over your tour guide job at the White House? Honestly, that's pathetic." This remark made the Bulldog mutter angrily, but this didn't concern Viribus.
"Then we have you two. What are you guys again? A couple of idiots trying to make it big in the music business at other people's expense?" he then turned towards and asked Doug and Michelle. "Considering you're both here, I bet that's been going fine lately, right?" he sarcastically asked them, much to their chagrin.
He then stared sternly at the likes of Hank, Hawk, Chandler, and Taylor's gang. "Just a bunch of run-of-the-mill thugs and bullies, huh? You're lucky I'm even associating myself with you low-life cretins at all!" he then venomously spat at the young teens.
"Hey, man! Watch your mouth!" Anderson shouted back.
"Yeah, don't think we won't kick your sorry butt!" Hank threatened.
"I wouldn't advise trying that. Not only am I a fully grown adult man, but I am far more highly trained and skilled than any of you." Viribus responded calmly.
"Oh yeah? I'd say five teens going up against one 'old' man...?" Hawk said mockingly. "Should be fun!" he then claimed as he, Hank, and Taylor's gang all stood up and approached Viribus.
But Babs was quick to stand in their way...
"Bad move, red!" Anderson told the girl before throwing a sucker punch, but Babs dodged it and struck him hard in the gut, winding the taller boy and causing him to collapse on his knees in pain.
"Anybody else?!" Babs then aggressively asked the other teens, who all backed off in fear.
"Subject 927 stood in your path for your own good. None of you would have stood a chance against Viribus." Linnaeus stated.
Just as Dr Linnaeus said this, the Bulldog approached Viribus from behind and let out his familiar dog-like growl as he prepared to attack him.
*"GRRR!"*
However, the unfazed Viribus simply retaliated with a quick but powerful punch to the face, knocking him to the ground, all without any visible effort.
Now that the opposition had been neutralised, Viribus calmly continued his 'lecture'. "You may not like what I have to say, but deep down, you all know it's the truth. Your ambitions and plans have been underwhelming, pointless, and pathetic. Beating the Loud family was never the primary objective of our alignment. Our teamwork has been orchestrated simply so they can be distracted long enough so that we can execute our true plans without any meddling!"
"And what are our 'true plans'?!" Morag questioned.
"Allow Doctor Linnaeus to demonstrate." Viribus said as Carol pulled a remote from her pocket.
She pushed the button, and a portal began to open before all the villains' very eyes. They were shocked and flabbergasted by the vision they saw. ALT-Albert in particular looked very impressed with what he was seeing. "Wow!" was all he could mutter in response at first. "You said there was a much bigger plan going on, doctor, and you weren't wrong!" he then said ecstatically.
"What is that?!" a mystified Ryan asked.
"Yeah, what kind of trick of this?!" Vic demanded to know.
"This is not a trick. That mechanical construct you are observing through this portal is what we are working to achieve." Viribus answered.
"You see, the same technology that I recently perfected that allowed me to extract Albert from his universe and bring him here..." Carol began to explain.
"...allowed us to seek a method of changing the world as we know it!" Viribus continued.
ALT-Albert knew what they meant and was excited by it. "This is exactly what I always wanted."
"Yes, and now it can be a reality. I have allies from beyond your wildest imaginations that will help us conquer this entire planet and remake civilization in our image." Viribus stated. "What I am offering all of you, if you perform well that is, is a senior position within my new empire's ranks."
"All we need you all to do is keep those wretched Loud brats busy here until our plan is in motion!" Linnaeus said.
"Of course, if you don't wish to be a part of this, just say the word..." Viribus then told the other villains, with a slightly threatening vocal tone.
ALT-Albert and Linnaeus had already made their willing allegiance to his strategy clear as crystal, while the other villains just nervously nodded in agreement. They knew they were in no position to defy him if they planned on keeping their heads.
"Good. Now that we have your willing cooperation, I would like to show you our intentions for the Loud family. Follow me." Linnaeus instructed.
The corrupted lady of science brought the other villains into a hallway with multiple doors on each side.
"What is all this?" Michelle asked.
"This is where we will give those pesky Loud worms exactly what they deserve!" Linnaeus claimed.
"What? It's just a bunch of doors!?" Hawk said, only to earn himself a whack over the back of his head from Babs for his ignorance. "OW!" he cried.
Linnaeus then opened one of the doors to reveal a small room with some mind-controlling apparatus attached to a machine by the wall. "This is where your efforts will prove useful." she said to the Millers and Morag. "When you collected that information from the Louds about their weaknesses and vulnerabilities, we programmed all that data into our hallucination machines."
"So, what? When the Louds get here, the plan is to subdue them and then place them in these things?" Vic asked.
"Exactly." Viribus said. "I knew some of you would be a little uneasy about going the extra mile and outright killing them all."
"Not me!" Morag said.
"But if it's to hurt, humiliate, and torture them that you want, then I think this will do the trick." he insisted. "Place them in these things, and then they'll be stuck inside the worst corners of their own minds for hours, forced to face their inner demons in such a way that it should traumatize them. Will delivering that fate upon them satisfy your urges for revenge?"
And he was right. While some of the group, mainly the younger ones and those who were not outright evil, were a little uncomfortable with the thought of outright murder, pretty much all of them were in agreement that this was a good way to make the Loud family suffer for what they had done to them. The entire group smiled sadistically at the thought of forcing the meddling Louds to endure such a harsh and mentally painful experience.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Morag replied.
"Yeah, that'll teach those Louds to mess with my plans!" Joyce said.
"And ours!" the Millers followed.
"Good. Then we're all on the same page." Linnaeus said.
"And while they're subjected to all that, I'll be free to act on my strategy without risk of interference. Everything is falling into place." Viribus said devilishly as he could see all the pieces of his plan coming together. "Now, I suggest you get ready for a visit. Thanks to our good friend Babs here, our guests should be arriving very soon." he said as he looked at the tracking device on his wristwatch, which showed the Loud family was on its way.
Vanzilla made its way to its destination. "Make a left turn here!" Lola instructed her father as she was now using a satellite navigation app on her phone to direct him. "Let's not get any more wrong turns here." she then harshly remarked.
"Well, we wanted somewhere secluded and hard to find... I guess this fits the description." Rita stated as she looked around and saw that they were driving through a giant swamp.
"Oh… this doesn't look suspicious." Lisa sarcastically remarked.
"Shut up, Lisa!" Lola told her off.
"Okay, kids. We're almost there. Now, I've heard something about being able to track people down through their cell phones." Lynn Sr said aloud. "So, before we get to this place, need I remind you that we're probably going to be staying there for a little while until we can be sure we're safe. So, if you have any calls or messages you want to make before we go radio silent, now is the time." he instructed his family.
And with that, the Loud siblings got typing away on their phones, alerting those closest to them outside of their immediate family of their absence...
Lola texted to Cricket: "Cricket, I know you're in town for a few days, so I was hoping you could tell everybody at the Michigan Fair Lady Pageant later this week that I can't be there. I'm going away for personal reasons for a little while. Goodbye, and see you soon."
Lana texted her friend Kayla: "Hey, I know I said I was going to your sleepover party this weekend, but I can't make it. Sorry, but my family's out of town for a few days. Bye."
Lisa sent a public e-mail to her scientific colleagues: "Dear fellow researchers, due to unforeseen circumstances, I will not be available for video discussions, lectures, or presentations until further notice. Apologies for any inconvenience. Regards, Lisa Loud PhD."
Lucy texted to Haiku: "Haiku, you're my dearest friend this side of the underworld. Just letting you know I won't be able to make our Mortician's meeting this Thursday. You're in charge."
Leni texted Miguel: "Please tell Miss Carmichael and Fiona I'm sick. I can't make the next few shifts. Really sorry." She then followed it with a 'sick' emoji.
Lori texted to Marisa: "Could you tell the guys at Fairway that I might be a little longer at home than expected? Something pretty big has come up." She then flicked through her phone and found Bobby's number as she also had to inform him of the situation before doing something she found really hard... turning her phone off.
Luna texted to Sam: "Tell the band I was really stoked about our next gig, but I might not be able to make it. Gotta go, talk soon." But she was immediately met with a reply from her partner: "Lunes, what's up?" Not that Luna really knew exactly how to explain the situation at that moment.
Luan texted to Benny: "I'll miss you a waffle lot, I donut want to leave but I have to get out of town for a few days." Even when sending a temporary farewell, she just couldn't help herself.
Lily also pretended to text away on her toy phone as all this was going on... Rita noticed what she was doing and found it a little cute. It was one of the only 'cute' moments that any of them could experience at such a dire time like this.
Lincoln texted to Clyde: "Could you tell everyone that I'm going to be away for a few days, buddy? Sorry this is out of the blue, but my family has to leave town for a while." Clyde also immediately replied: "Wait, what?"
Lynn texted her new boyfriend, Maxie: "Hey, I know I was gonna meet with you, Margo, and the others at Burpin' Burger tonight, but I gotta bail. Just trust me, it's best I'm outta town for a while." But Maxie immediately expressed his suspicion with a response: "Hold on, LJ. Something doesn't seem right. Why are you leaving?"
"Okay, I think it's straight ahead." Lola said as she flipped back onto the app after finishing her text.
"Okay, kids. Just another minute or so and we're there. Turn off your phones. If those no-good villains decide to come looking for us, we don't want to give them any easy means of tracking us down!" Lynn Sr then told them.
Most of them obliged immediately. However, one of them had too much on her mind, and the instruction just went through one ear and out the other...
Finally, Vanzilla pulled over in the small parking lot beside its intended destination. In the middle of this secluded swamp area, the advertised resort stood. And in fairness, it did look like a nice, large, fancy resort-like building.
"And you thought it was gonna be horrible!" Lana said to Lisa.
"Looks can be deceiving… though I must admit, aside from its location, it does appear appetizing." Lisa then admitted.
"Aw, this is gonna be sweet!" Luna said excitedly as she stared at the building.
"I call dibs on the cucumber facial treatment!" Lola shouted.
The family quickly got out of the van and rushed its way towards the building. All but three of them...
A still slightly reluctant Lisa said to her brother, "I'm still not sure about this. I understand that we need a place to lay low, but this whole setup reminds me of that debacle with Vic's motel."
"I highly doubt he has two different motels, Lisa. Besides, we do need a place to stay and keep under the radar, and this place sounds perfect… even if the swamp it's in doesn't exactly give us the best outside view." Lincoln stated. "Besides, if it does turn out you're right, then I say we're not stuck in a building with them, but they're stuck in a building with US! Right, Lynn?" he then turned to ask his sister as Lisa sceptically kept walking.
Lisa then smiled softly and replied, "Banking on our family's peculiar ability to triumph against all hurdles, I take it? Well, I've dealt with worse odds."
Lincoln noticed Lynn Jr was still pretty unnerved about the whole situation. He stopped and told her, "Lynn, it's okay. We're safe now." He wanted to encourage her to ignore her worries, but she just kept walking slowly as her nerves were still getting the best of her.
The Loud family made its way inside what they thought was a relaxing place to lay low... unfortunately, it was quite the opposite.
Author's Footnote:
As I'm sure some of you have noticed, this chapter has had a few notable changes, mainly in relation to the Loud family's dialogue concerning the whole "Ensnared" resort trap. I've had criticisms in the past regarding the original version of this story that say the Louds just fell too easily for the trap set by the villains, with none of them picking up on the signs and nobody even really questioning the fact that it all seemed very convenient and could possibly be a trap. Here I tried to add some extra scenes that show some of the smarter Louds (mainly Lisa and to a lesser extent, Lincoln) raising alarm bells and showing some savviness over the situation. Also, since v2 takes into account episodes and movies that have been released after the completion of v1, there was a little mention of "Doom Service" in there (since it makes sense that if this story takes place after that one, they would remember the event and reflect on the similarity). So, I made these changes to show their thought process where some of them raise their suspicions, they consider all seemingly logical factors and debate the situation, and there is a reasonable explanation that justifies them deciding to go to the resort despite said suspicions, as there is enough argument to claim both that it likely isn't a trap from their point of view (despite the fact that we know it ACTUALLY is), but also that they are short on options since they can't go to any family or friends for refuge (as that would then put THEM in danger).
This isn't just about adding updates and putting in more things. This is also an opportunity to improve on the narrative aspects of the story where necessary. After all, I don't like to deliver anything less than exceptional levels of quality.
Anyway, be sure to favourite, follow, and review this story and chapter if you haven't done already.