Lynn was alone in the hideout of Viribus, just about able to hear the sound of sirens going off in the distance. She also heard furious footsteps making their way upstairs.
She had just done something very daring and brave, but that action seemingly was about to deliver her consequences.
"YOU!" the man himself shouted at her upon entering the room, much more outwardly angry and aggressive than ever before. His previous calm and collected front dissipated, and he appeared very intimidating to the little pre-teen girl. "You did this!"
"I just did what was right!" Lynn fired back.
And with that, Viribus did not respond with any further words. He instead violently lunged towards the petite girl with fury and intent to harm. He grabbed her and pinned her against the wall. "After all I did for you, and you betray me!? Why?!" he questioned. "I befriended you; I helped you, I made you into what you are!"
"You turned me into a monster, that's what you did!" Lynn said angrily, doing her best to suppress her emotions and not show fear.
"What are you talking about?! I taught you about the way of the world! I taught you that you need to be aggressive and show all the little specks out there that you are superior and not to be messed with!" he argued. "And in return, you do this to me?! The others have all been taken in by the police! YOU ratted them out!"
"I just told them what you guys were planning, and they seemed real keen to get to know more about you from your little buddies."
Viribus then aggressively but passionately asked her, "Why?! Why did you turn on me?!"
"It's real simple. I turned on you because you are an insane, demented monster, and you need to be stopped!" Lynn answered, though this only served to make him even angrier.
"Do you know what happens to people who cross me, Loud?!" he said as he viciously applied pressure to her throat.
But just then, a saving grace presented itself for Lynn in the form of a familiar sound; the sound of much louder police sirens.
"Ha, you're screwed now, buddy!" she cockily said as she regained some of her bravado.
"I still have time to..." Viribus tried to threaten, but was cut off.
"Really? Because the way I see it, you've got moments before they get up here and take you in, buddy. If you do me in right now, they'll double down on the manhunt and you'll never escape! Then all your plans will be flushed down the toilet forever!" Lynn told him.
Viribus looked at her angrily. He wanted to punish her severely for her betrayal, but he knew she was right. He had to escape immediately, and exterminating her would likely only exacerbate an already hectic situation for him. "This isn't the end, Loud. Sleep with one eye open!" he said with a surprisingly calm and reserved tone of voice, but nonetheless, he made it clear that he was out for her blood.
He then quickly made his escape out the window, allowing Lynn to catch her breath and regain her composure. As the police made their way in, Viribus was gone, and all that remained in the room was a slightly dazed, scared Lynn Loud.
"I'm fine... *Pant* I'm fine." she told them, doing her best not to show how terrified she really was.
"Where is he?" one of the police officers asked.
"He got out through the window." Lynn answered.
Two officers went to look out the window for any sight of the escaped madman, while one of them stayed with Lynn Junior.
"We need to get you home."
"Nah, it's cool. I'll walk myself home." Lynn insisted.
"Look, kid. Don't you think your parents need to know about what happened?"
"It's probably better they don't know about any of this." Lynn claimed, believing it would be better for everyone if she just buried this whole experience deep in her subconscious. "Besides, it's over now."
But even she didn't truly believe that deep down. She looked out the window. She couldn't see him, but she knew he was still out there somewhere. Hopefully, he would get far out of town in order to evade capture... but she couldn't be sure that he'd never return.
The Loud's Finest Hour
Chapter Six: Personal Struggles
The messy-haired blonde teen, Maxie Cooper, was roaming around the swamp trying to find his 'friend'.
"She's still not answering. Good thing her phone is at least switched on, so I can track her down."
But his effort was futile as the phones of the Loud family had been taken from them and were being smashed up by the alliance of villains at that very moment...
"Okay, let's smash up these babies!" The Bulldog said gleefully as he picked up a sledgehammer.
*RING RING*
"That one keeps ringing!" Morag said. "Destroy it first! We don't want anybody using it to trace the Louds' whereabouts."
"Dang it!" Maxie shouted as he saw the dot on his tracking screen marking Lynn's phone's current location vanish.
Fortunately for him, since Lynn had left her phone on until that point, unlike the rest of her family that went radio silent, he had already managed to track her down to the swamp. Although he now no longer had a tracking device to assist him, he was able to see a large building just sitting there in the middle of this massive swamp area, about a mile up ahead.
"Well, looks like I'm close, anyway. Thank God the tracker didn't die sooner." he said as he made his way towards the building in sight.
Lincoln was running around in the endless void that surrounded him, hoping to escape from the infernal sound of maniacal laughing that was coming from all directions.
"Who are you?!" he asked, terrified as he briefly had to stop to catch his breath.
But the voice just continued to cackle menacingly. But then he started to figure it out. He could tell the voice behind the laughter...
"Wait a minute... are you?"
Meanwhile, Lori's psyche was still being plagued by a sinister and hostile incarnation of her past self.
"It was your responsibility to help Mom and Dad raise our siblings so they could become stable and responsible individuals with self-control! But you dropped the ball there, didn't you?"
"What? No, I didn't!" Lori argued.
"Oh, please. This past year or so, you've gone soft!" past Lori said. "You started letting your siblings get away with doing whatever they want, and now that you've left them high and dry for Fairway, they're out of control!"
"That's not true! Leni is taking care of it."
"Oh, you think that idiot can handle the responsibility? Ha, that's a better joke than anything Luan's ever come up with!" past Lori harshly stated. "We were supposed to be strong, and domineering, so we could control those little twerps! But you... grugh! You let the whole family down! You started getting all soft and easy-going on the others, and now our house is like a dang zoo!"
Lori scoffed and insisted, "Come on, they're not that bad." She then followed up with, "And like I said, Leni's got it covered. She's more capable than you think."
But her past self just adopted a livid and scowling expression on her face as she harshly stared down her present-day counterpart.
"You are a complete failure, Lori Loud! You let down our whole family! There's only one way to be a good big sister, and that's to rule over the others with an iron fist! You go over to them and tell them no music, no mud pies, no video games, no phone calls... AND NO FUN!" she fiercely shouted as she then pulled out her golf club, which she used as a disciplinary cane of sorts, and smacked her current self in the arm with it.
"Ow!" present Lori yelled as she rubbed her arm in pain.
Lori then looked on as she saw her former self laughing maniacally. After a moment of getting over her own anxieties, anger became the dominant emotion in her mind. This was Lori's chance to finally tell her former self what she thought of her...
"You know what, erm... me? Maybe our siblings can be a bit of a handful sometimes, but that doesn't change the fact that you, uh, WE were total jerks to them for a long time!"
"What?!" her past self angrily objected.
"We bullied and scared them into submission and constantly treated ourselves as superior! Always acting like we were better because we were born first! We always put them second to our own needs and towards our affection for Bobby. Don't get me wrong, I still love Bobby Boo Boo Bear, but he's not the only thing that matters to me! Anyway, face facts! You were a bully and a bossy, condescending jerk to the others... and to be honest, I'm glad I'm not the same person as you anymore!" present Lori told off her past self.
However, her drill sergeant counterpart did not take those words lightly. Her past vision then growled before pouncing on her, attacking her as they tumbled to the ground. "Hey! Ungh! Let go of me!" Lori cried as she literally began to wrestle with herself.
"I don't get it. I thought you were happy with me as your employee, Miss Carmichael." Leni defensively said as she was still being interrogated by her colleagues.
"You, Leni Loud, are a complete and total idiot! I never should have hired you! That was my mistake!" her boss harshly told her.
"Yeah, you're the worst!" Miguel added.
"A complete simpleton." Fiona dryly remarked also.
"Hey, stop saying that!" Leni argued back. "I know I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, but I get by! Besides, if I'm such a terrible worker, why did you make me the temporary manager when you went away?" she then pointed out.
"A moment of delusional weakness. I won't be making that mistake again." Miss Carmichael responded. "The truth is, Leni, you might be good at talking to customers, but when it comes to everything else associated with business... you're clueless."
"What? But everyone says I'm a fashion expert!" Leni tried to insist.
"Who told you that? You're loser sisters!?" Fiona asked.
"Like they'd know a single thing about fashion!" Miguel followed. "I've met your sisters; they wouldn't know what fashion is if it started invading their wardrobes."
"Hey, don't talk about my family like that!" Leni shouted back.
"Face it, Leni. You're an incompetent dolt. Plain and simple." the boss then said, causing Leni to shed a tear.
The trio then laughed at the blonde girl's expense. "Why are you guys being so mean?" she asked as she began to cry a little.
"We're just telling you how it is." Fiona then said coldly.
"Hang on a second! I don't feel sick. I feel just fine." Lana said as she tried to discredit Doctor Queasie's diagnosis.
However, the doctor simply showed her a mirror, and the reflection of her was of a sickly and fatigued girl with green skin, red spots all over her face, and a potent odour emitting from her body. "You don't look fine." the doctor then told her.
The reflection made Lana's heart pound intensely as sweat began to run down her face. This vision terrified her. Up until that moment, she had never really been faced with the consequences of such an unhygienic lifestyle. But now, she was forced to face them head-on...
"Is... is that me?" she asked nervously.
"That is what you are transforming into, young lady. Your unhealthy habits and grotesque standard of hygiene will become your undoing. This is your future, Lana Loud." she ominously told the young girl.
Lana just closed her eyes and shouted, "Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!"
But the doctor then shoved the mirror right in her face and screamed at her. "LOOK AT IT, GIRL!"
Lana couldn't help but closely observe the minor yet gross details on her reflected self's face up close. The disgusting skin, the yellow bloodshot eyes, the dark green mucus running down her nose... it was a gut-wrenching experience.
"Get that thing out of my face!" Lana objected as she swatted the thing away with her hand.
But the doctor wouldn't let her escape facing reality that easily. "Miss Lana, I demand you look at it!"
"No! Cut it out!" Lana yelled as she squirmed against the doctor, who tried to force her to look at her grotesque reflection.
Eventually, Lana managed to swipe it away again, this time causing it to fly out of the doctor's hand and smash on the floor.
"Miss Lana! That is unacceptable behaviour!" Doctor Queasie said. "Luckily, there's more where that came from." she then said with a sinister tone.
Suddenly, several large mirrors materialised from thin air, and forced Lana to look at her sickly reflection.
"AGH!" she yelled as she covered her eyes and tried to resist staring at them.
"Face it, Lana!" the doctor commanded. "You're sick!"
"We're freaks, Lucy. All of us." Haiku said as she approached her friend uncomfortably closely.
"It's true, Miss Loud. We worship the concept of death and decay. We are freakish creatures." Preta's corpse said.
Lucy could only step back and endure the psychological pain that her own hallucinations were inflicting on her.
"Stop it, please." she said softly, just wishing that the visions of her friend and friend's grandmother would go away.
"Face the reality, Lucy. You are a creepy little goth girl. Always trying to see the sour side of life, unwilling to enjoy the brief window of time she has in this cursed mortal realm." Haiku told her.
"That is the true tragedy, young Loud. We wish so very much that the concept of life after death is a reality, because we can't bear the thought of our existence truly ending when our time on this earth is up." Preta said.
"But it is, Lucy." Haiku insisted. "Our mortal lives are all we have. Isn't that so... 'morbid' to think about?" Haiku then asked her as the hallucination continued to prey on her fragile mind.
"Hey, wait a second! We've met ghosts before, so surely that proves that there is life after death!" Lucy argued.
"An exception to the rule, my dear child. Most never get the privilege of existing as an otherworldly ghoul after their passing. Those like myself are a rarity." Preta dismissed her argument.
"Haiku, I thought we agreed that it was okay to embrace the inevitability of death, so that we could honour the passing of those closest to us." Lucy tried to argue.
"What a complete pile of horse manure, Lucy! We both know that's a lie we made up so we wouldn't have to face the hard truth that we're just morbid weirdos!"
"Stop saying that!" Lucy told her.
"Accept the truth, Lucy." Preta said.
Lucy then placed her hands over her hair and eyes and cried "Why are you saying all this to me?!"
"Seriously, Lola. You should just retire, already." Chinah told her.
"Yes, it's honestly embarrassing for you." Claudette said.
"You're not in our league, Lola. Why can't you accept that?" Jackie asked her.
"Hey, it's not my fault! I wasn't born with all your privileges!" Lola argued.
"Or maybe you just don't have that much potential, Lola." Cricket told her. "I mean, I only hang out with you because I feel sorry for you." she then said with such hurtful intent.
"Wh... what?" Lola asked.
"Oh, Please. Why else would an international pageant legend like myself even give a low-level amateur like you a second thought? Sympathy, that's all. Of course, it's worth mentioning that you can't spell the word sympathetic without 'pathetic'." Cricket then harshly joked at the Loud girl's expense.
A now angry Lola responded with hostility. "Okay, Cricket! I'll always have a world of respect for you, but if you don't shut your mouth right now, I'll rearrange your perfect face!" she replied fiercely as she let her fiery temper show. "Same goes for you, ladies!" she then directed at the other three.
"Ah, that's the problem, Lola. Your pizzazz is not genuine." Claudette pointed out.
"Yes. You put on a front of being glamorous and elegant..." Chinah started to say.
"When really, you're a low-class, ill-tempered ruffian at heart." Jackie finished for her.
"And that's a whole other can of worms. I mean, taking a girl like you and putting her in a competitive pageant world..." Cricket then started to say as she chuckled menacingly.
"What do you mean by that?!" a confused Lola then questioned.
"You know what we mean, Lola! You try your hardest to compete with girls who are way out of your league, and as a result, you sacrifice your human decency in the process to relentlessly pursue your hopeless ambitions!" Cricket explained harshly.
"No wonder you're such a dysfunctional little brat." Claudette said, causing Lola to feel even more upset.
"You will never be one of us!" Jackie followed.
"The sooner you accept it, the sooner you can work on not being a bratty little ill-tempered idiot, Lola!" Chinah told her.
Lola's anger dissipated as tears began to form. The visions of her friends were successfully shaming her.
"You're turning into quite the little minx, aren't you?" Lily's vision of Aidan began to strictly interrogate her.
"Shut up!" Lily yelled.
"You're becoming just as violent and wild as your other sisters. I remember the time you attacked me and said you did it for 'fun'. And that's not your only example of bad behaviour, is it?" Aidan continued to tell her off. "You took after your sister Luan, pulling harsh pranks on the rest of your family on April Fools Day, didn't you?" he asked her. "Then there's the time you kept them all awake when you had sleeping problems, is that right?" he continued to interrogate. "Oh, and your friends informed me of the time you used a shrink ray on them for show and tell just to make yourself look great. You almost got them all killed, didn't you?"
Lily could only stand there in shock over the fact that he somehow knew all these things about her.
"I guess it shouldn't be a surprise. Your family is wild and chaotic. I guess it's only fair to expect the same of you."
"HEY!" she shouted back at him before lunging towards the boy and engaging in a fight cloud with him.
After a moment, she managed to knock him down, but the bruised vision of Aidan still got the last laugh...
"See, that's exactly what I'm saying, Lily. You untamed Loud siblings are all the same." he said smugly as he stared up at the youngest Loud sister, who could only look back down at him with a sense of guilt for letting herself succumb to her wild and aggressive natural urges so easily.
"Dang it, Loud! Those little menaces of yours caused me to lose my hair, and my temper!" Mr Grouse continued to berate the father of the family.
"Look! I know they can be a little bit of a handful at times, but that's no reason to..."
"And when no good rotten kids can't behave themselves, you know what I say?! I say the fault lies with a soft, pushover, sappy parent who doesn't discipline their children!" Grouse verbally attacked him.
"Oh, oh, I'm sorry." Lynn Sr then responded sarcastically. "Why don't you try raising eleven kids while managing your own business as a restaurant owner!"
"Well, if you couldn't handle the responsibility, maybe you shouldn't have had so many of the little rascals." Grouse said. "Besides, with so many kids, I bet you can't find the time to give them all the attention they need. Maybe that's why they're all so violent and reckless. They're acting out! Well, nice going there, Mr. Loud!"
"Hey! I won't have you tell me how to be a parent! Have you ever tried doing it, it's not easy!" Lynn Sr told him. "But I do my best, and I'll continue to do my best for them!"
"Sure, Loud! You keep telling yourself that. All the while, you're still failing them." Grouse dryly replied, causing Lynn Sr to form tears that he did his best to suppress as he tried to look strong against his harshest critic.
"You don't have a lick of humanity in you, do you Lisa?" David asked the Loud prodigy.
"No, she doesn't." Darcy harshly answered for her.
"That's not true!" Lisa tried to argue.
"Yes, it is!" Darcy shouted. "You spend more time with your robots than you do with us!"
"So? That's just because they're good assistants in the lab."
"Oh, what lab? Oh right, you mean your bedroom?" David teasingly pointed out. "So, even at home, you're still all work and no play?"
"That's not true, either! I engage in plenty of playful activities. I have pillow fights with my siblings, I indulge in chocolate and candy as much as the next little girl, and I..." Lisa tried to say but was aggressively cut off.
"Those are the exceptions, Lisa! Not the norm!" David said.
"Yeah, you're an unfeeling, weird girl who only thinks of science and robots and stuff! You're wasting your whole childhood on stuff you could do in your adult years!" Darcy added. "Because that's all you care about, right!?"
"Can I help it if I developed an early interest in science?" Lisa argued. "Besides David, I believe it's worth noting that you also have gravitated towards scientific pursuits at a remarkably early age."
"Yeah, but at least I don't think giving someone the heart of an animal is some kind of romantic gesture!" David retorted. "Also, is it not true that you once tried to leave your family so you could focus more on your scientific pursuits?" David asked her.
"Yes, I did, but I quickly learned that it was wrong to do that." Lisa replied. "I'm not normally one to metaphorically wear my emotions on my sleeve, but I'll say with pride that I love my family!"
"Sure, you do. You just love science more!" Darcy accusingly stated.
"That's not true!" Lisa argued back.
"Stop denying it, brainbox! You're soulless! An ice-cold and clinically-minded girl who's as robotic as the things she builds!" David said as Lisa found herself on the back foot of this heated debate. Every defensive argument she could provide was met with an even more scathing retort.
"Sam... *Sniff* Why?" an upset Luna asked her partner.
"Because we just are! Okay?!" Sam told her. "It's over, and that's that!"
"But I don't get it, dude. We're so good together."
"But are we?" Sam questioned. "Other than liking rock music, we have barely anything else in common. Can we really have a relationship based on just one thing?"
"So what? I thought we both agreed it doesn't matter! We LIKE each other, Sam. We like spending time with each other. Who cares if we're not exactly the same? Surely there are more important things when it comes to love!" Luna argued.
"Sure, it sounds really awesome when you say it like that, but..."
"But nothing! Sam, listen to me..." Luna said as she rushed over and grabbed Sam's hands, trying to convince her to stay. "Ever since I met you, I knew there was a special spark between us. You mean the world to me. Please, don't go..." she pleaded as tears filled her eyes.
Sam looked sorrowful, but she still released her hands from Luna's grip and turned away. "I'm sorry. I've made up my mind." she then said as she slowly began to walk away.
Luna needed to think of something to say, and fast. In her mind, the girl she loved was leaving her forever, and she didn't know what to say or do to change that. The pressure was on.
She finally ran after her and desperately shouted, "SAM, DON'T GO! I'M SURE WE CAN WORK ALL THIS OUT!"
But her efforts were useless. As she reached her, Sam suddenly faded back into the darkness, leaving a teary-eyed Luna all alone in the black void that surrounded her.
Luan was dealing with a similar kind of pressure from her own boyfriend, Benny, and their employer, Andre.
"Honestly, Luan! When I convinced Andre to hire you to work at the Burpin' Burger with me, all you had to do was drop the dumb pranking, comedian act for five minutes and take something seriously! Was that really so much to ask?!" Benny told her off.
"What? We made it work, didn't we? I mean, I've taken to that sign throwing job like a natural." Luan defensively pointed out.
"There's always an excuse with you, isn't there?" Andre asked her. "When are you going to learn that life isn't just one big joke? I take my job at the restaurant very seriously, and I expect all my staff to do the same!"
"That's right! We all do our part to keep the place running smoothly, while you just goof off and crack jokes to all the customers!" Benny then said.
"What? Some of them love my jokes." Luan argued.
"Yeah? Well, a lot of them HATE your jokes!" said Andre.
"Why are you so incapable of dropping your clownish antics for even the shortest time, Luan?! What is actually wrong with you?" Benny asked her.
"I... I... erm..." a now defensive and under pressure Luan struggled to construct a response. This was always a subject that was sensitive for her to address, and now she was being forced to do so by one of the people in her life she loved most.
"What? No quippy retorts or funny one-liners to snap back at us? Have I touched a nerve, Luan?" Benny cockily said. "Is the pun master caught in a tongue twister?" he then joked.
"Why would you say these things?! I thought we were an eggcellent pair, why spoil that?"
"Ah, see?! Even now, you can't help but crack a pun every other minute, can you?! I swear, puns are your primary language, Luan!" Andre said.
Benny then shook his head disapprovingly and remarked, "I really don't know what I ever saw in a buck-toothed weirdo like you." In response, a now genuinely hurt Luan gasped loudly.
Meanwhile, Rita was still being confronted by her boss...
"I mean it, Jesse! Take back what you said about my kids!"
"Oh, that's it, Rita. Prove me right. Prove the world right. After all, everyone thinks of you and your family as a bunch of wild, out-of-control misfits! Why not prove them right once and for all and sock me right in the mouth!?" the vision of Jesse goaded her as she pointed at her jaw and encouraged Rita to take a swing.
Trying to rise above her base instincts to violently pummel the woman slandering her children, Rita hesitated and backed off for a moment. "And maybe I won't play along with your little game." she said triumphantly.
"Ha! It's sad how insecure you are, Rita. Both you and your husband have done such a terrible job raising those little brats. If you couldn't handle the responsibility, why did you have so many of them?" she then insultingly asked the mother of eleven.
"Don't act like you have a clue! You said it yourself; you don't even have kids!" Rita pointed out. "Besides, me and my husband do a perfectly good job raising our kids! No, we're not perfect, but we do our best to take good care of them and raise them up in the right way."
"Oh, really? I'm sure there are a lot of people who would beg to differ." Jesse then pointed out, causing Rita's external confidence to shatter as she began to doubt the truth in what she was saying. "Especially all the pool lifeguards in Royal Woods." she then joked.
Lynn did her best to courageously stare down her own reflection, which was quick to try and mentally toy with her psyche...
"So, how have things been since you started middle school, huh?"
"Why are you even asking that!? I thought you were me?!" the real Lynn questioned.
"You know what I mean? You've changed, LJ. Over time, you've become more and more aggressive. Not to mention competitive, insecure, mean..."
"What's your point?!" Lynn angrily demanded to know.
"You can pretend you're different from Viribus all you want, but when it comes down to it, you're just like him." her reflection teased.
"That's not true! I'm nothing like that monster!"
"Interesting choice of words. A lot of people would say you are a monster. I mean, you do go all 'beast mode' on packing day. Then there's the way you act whenever you lose a family board game. That's pretty wild." the reflection continued to mock her. "Oh, and shall we go on about the time you threatened to beat your brother with a baseball bat if he didn't attend one of your games? That was pretty low, wasn't it? The fact is that you go throwing your weight around on others all the time because you're scared that if you don't, they'll do the same to you."
"UGH! JUST SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Lynn shouted as she covered her ears and tried to ignore her.
"Is that all you can say?" the reflection asked. "Thought so." she followed as she emitted a devilish grin. "Face it, kid. You're an inhuman monster..." the reflection then said as it forced its way out of the mirror, before it began to grow and morph.
Lynn then watched as the reflection transformed into a nightmarish version of her old 'mentor'. "JUST LIKE ME!" the monstrous vision of Lord Viribus himself then lunged towards her and roared.
"AGGHHHH!" Lynn screamed in terror as she closed her eyes and wished the vision would just go away.
Meanwhile, Lincoln was finally confronted inside his own mind.
The entity laughing finally revealed itself to him. It was a vision of himself, much like Lori's, that was ready to prey on his insecurities.
But Lincoln just maintained a stoic and serious expression and replied, "Is that it? I'm not impressed."
"Surprised to see me, Lincoln?" the vision of himself asked him.
But Lincoln just raised his hand and signalled that he wanted quiet for a moment. "Let me think... hmm, the last thing I remember before waking up here was..." and then he had his eureka moment.
"Wait, what are you doing?" the vision asked in confusion.
"I remember now... where I am." he said. "I was surrounded by all my enemies. That was the last thing I can remember before I ended up here."
"What are you talking about?!" the vision asked him.
"That's it, isn't it? This was all part of their revenge against me and my family. Let me guess, they put us in some kind of trance that makes us face our worst nightmares or something. Am I right?" Lincoln asked, before then having yet another eureka moment.
"What now?!" the vision questioned as Lincoln gasped in shock.
"I bet it was a machine that mad scientist lady built, wasn't it? That must be what explains all this!" he then deducted.
"Shut up, kid! You're supposed to be listening to me badmouth and torment you!" the irritated vision then said.
But Lincoln just walked up to himself and made it clear that he didn't sweat him. "Now I get it."
"Get what?!"
"That's what the Millers and Morag did with all that info they gathered about me and my family. They gave it to Dr Linnaeus so she could program it into this machine, didn't they? But the problem is that I shut them down when they tried to collect data on me. That's why you're so underwhelming. They had no decent info to go on when they programmed my nightmare." he said as he chuckled.
"Don't you dare laugh at me!" the vision angrily told him.
"Why not? You don't scare me!" Lincoln boasted proudly.
"Maybe not, but that doesn't change the fact that you're still stuck in this endless void with me!"
"But am I? I'm willing to bet that once someone gains awareness that they're in a programmed dream designed to scare and torment them, the machine loses its grip on your subconscious, and you wake..." Lincoln smugly and confidently said, but before he could finish his sentence...
"Uh?" he muttered as his eyes were wide open, but his surroundings suddenly changed.
There was now colour around him again. He quickly realized that he was in a small lab room, strapped into a machine with some apparatus connected to his head.
He was right. He had woken up.
He quickly disconnected himself from the machine before standing up and spotting a camera in the corner of the room.
Figuring his enemies were watching him, he spoke to the camera with an angry and determined tone. "Guess what, guys? Your rotten little plan didn't work! I'm out, and now I'm about to free my family, too!" he boldly declared as the villains, still watching from one of the hallways in the building, saw and heard him speaking through one of the screens.
"Wait a minute!" a surprised Joyce muttered.
"That boy got out?!" Morag shouted.
"Ugh! Lincoln Lame!" Chandler grumbled to himself.
"And then when I've done that, we're gonna take you guys down!" Lincoln then boldly threatened them.
"Oh, is that so?" Carly said to herself.
"Looks like a showdown's brewing!" Guy said as he and the other antagonists prepared themselves to confront the Loud family.
But while all that chaos ensued back at the villains' lair, Dr Linnaeus was driving her large black van back to Royal Woods, with ALT-Albert in the front passenger seat. Also, Viribus sat in the back as he was having a private 'meeting' with some very close allies of his...
"Well, it's time to make the multiverse ours. Everything is going exactly as I planned. Our enemies are out of the way, and we have all the might and numbers we need to conquer this world, and every other world beyond it."
Viribus was speaking directly into his wristwatch, which projected a holographic image of his face to all the individuals he was speaking with.
He was speaking across universes, to alternate, roboticized versions of himself from other realities where he had already won. Each one of these versions of Viribus had an entire army of mechanical soldiers at their disposal. They were all ready to come to his world and invade the planet with him.
"I trust everything is to your liking. After all, it's only natural that we should all think so very much alike..." Viribus then said to his other selves as he grinned deviously.
He then looked over his shoulder to a large generator machine that was resting in the van beside him. Powered by the energy from two fallen gods, it was working its magic as he spoke.
"With the raw energy of two deities, this machine is powerful enough to fracture the barriers between different universes. Pockets of reality that should never collide are now touching. Everything is ready for your armies to cross into my world… so by morning, we can conquer this miserable planet for good!"
It looked like victory was a certainty for the man... but could the Loud family still find a way out of its predicament and stop him?
Author's Footnote:
Well, we're now halfway through the second version of this story. I'll be back with some more chapters soon. I'll probably give it a couple of weeks or so until I upload the next chapter. I'll just be taking a break for certain time-related reasons.