Sometime after his faction's downfall, thanks to Lynn Junior's betrayal, Viribus wandered the back alleys and quiet streets of Royal Woods in a hoodie that somewhat concealed his identity from casual bypassers.
One afternoon, he walked over to a part of the sidewalk where somebody had carelessly left a newspaper lying on the floor, where the headline caught his attention.
"SPY FAMILY AND MAD SCIENTIST AT LARGE - PRISON ESCAPE"
He then quickly took cover in the nearest alleyway as he heard sirens coming from the distance. He gazed as the source of the sirens whizzed past. They were just a pair of ambulances.
He then continued reading the paper. He paid special attention to a particular paragraph in the story:
"Doctor Carol Linnaeus created a device that artificially enhanced the physical capabilities of its host by at least tenfold, which she used to give to a rambunctious teenage girl, Babs Bestie. They plotted with the Miller family to rig the events of the Astonishing Quest last week in order to steal the prize money. It is suspected they intended to use this money to further their nefarious schemes (more on page 2). When questioned by the police, Doctor Linnaeus defended her actions by saying that they were 'for the betterment of our entire race.' She was charged with multiple crimes, including..." and at that point, he ceased reading and flipped over to the next page.
"So, there's someone with the vision, ambition, and moral flexibility in this town who might be both able and willing to work with me on achieving my goals," he confirmed to himself as he emitted a sinister grin.
The Loud's Finest Hour
Chapter Seven: Settling Scores
With no time to lose, Lincoln tried to figure out how to free his family from the hallucination machines.
"Okay, Lincoln. It's time to get your David Steele head on!" he thought as he turned his mental cogs.
"I wonder if the machines are all connected by a common power source. In other words, if I break into one of the machines and disable an essential component, will it cause the rest of the machines in the building to short-circuit and deactivate?" Lincoln brainstormed silently before pulling something out of his sock. It was his Agent Steele ink pen, fitted with a laser beam and an optional cat toy attachment. "Good thing I never leave home without this," he thought as he pointed it at the machine and cut through its metallic shell.
"And that those idiots didn't think to check my socks for hidden gadgets," he then also joked to himself.
The villains saw him tampering with the machine through the monitor. "Hey! That chump's messing with the doc's big tech thingy!" Hank warned.
"Quick! Everyone get to his room and stop him!" Vic ordered.
"Wait, there are so many rooms and hallways in this place! It's like a dang maze in here! Which room did we put him in again?" Carly asked.
"It was this way!" Morag shouted and pointed as they followed her.
Lincoln messed around with the internal wiring of his machine. He could identify a bright blue and bright red wire amongst the rest of the messy cabling. "It's got to be one of these two!" he muttered to himself before deciding, "Screw it!" and cutting both of them with his laser device.
The machine shut down, and a red alarm warning siren went off across the entire complex. The villains stopped in their tracks as the flashing red lights and sirens caught their attention.
"What has that little brat done now?!" Joyce questioned.
Lincoln's prediction was correct. The machines were all interconnected. Once Lincoln compromised his machine, a domino effect ran across the building, causing the other machines to malfunction.
"SYSTEM FAILURE! HALLUCINATION MACHINE POWER NETWORK BREACHED! MACHINES NON-FUNCTIONAL! ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS PARTLY COMPROMISED!" the alarm system loudly announced.
"Oh great! Now, the others will wake up!" Guy moaned.
"Well, don't just stand there! Everybody split up and find them! Remember the plan: no Louds are escaping tonight!" Jeff told everyone as the villains split up.
Some of them grabbed the same phosphine blasters they had earlier. Some of them opted for more lethal laser weapons that were lying around in Linnaeus's lair. Some of them preferred to beat them back into a submissive state with their bare hands, but they were all ready to have a showdown with the Loud family.
All the Louds were, in fact, waking up from their horrible nightmares. They were all dazed and confused from their sudden awakening, as well as a little traumatized from what they had just endured. But they quickly started to remember where they were and the predicament that they faced. They knew a large ensemble of villains was targeting them, and the only way out was to fight.
They quickly disconnected themselves from their machines and departed from their rooms, but they would have to be cautious as enemies awaited them around every corner.
Rita was among the first of the family to regain herself and muster the strength to leave her room. She entered the hallway, desperately trying to find her loved ones.
"Honey? Kids? Can anybody hear me?!" she called out loud, and someone did answer…
"Hello, Mrs. Loud."
Though not someone she wanted to see, but rather a voice familiar for all the wrong reasons.
Rita turned around to see Morag standing behind her. "You!" Rita angrily shouted at the woman who once tried to murder her son before Morag quickly pulled a weapon out on her.
"Guess again, Loud! Now step away if you know what's good for you!" Morag warned her as she pointed her laser pistol at the mother of eleven. "You're going back in your room, right now!"
"Why are you even doing any of this?! What benefit does watching us all suffer like a pack of starved dogs give you?" Rita asked her.
"You're kidding, right?! What about how much I suffered at the hands of you and your insufferable little brats?! Honestly, a little mental torture is the least you all deserve. I was actually all for killing the lot of you, but some of the others didn't want to take it that far."
"Oh, so my kids make a little noise and mess, and for that, we all deserve to bite it?! Are you out of your rotten little mind, Morag?!" Rita argued.
"Pfft! Don't act all innocent and righteous with me, Loud!" Morag brushed her off. "Besides, it doesn't matter. I'm the one with the power here. Now put your hands up!"
Rita initially played along and raised her hands, luring Morag into a false sense of security.
"Now get walking!" she told her.
Rita obliged, letting Morag guide her back to her room. "Morag?" she then asked.
"What?"
"I know that Lynn, my children, and I can be a lot to deal with sometimes. I just wanted to say that... I'm sorry."
Morag was actually caught off-guard by Rita's apology. She never expected the Loud mother to say those words, especially after all she had done to them. "Wha... what?" she muttered in confusion and surprise.
But that was Rita's chance.
"Hi-yah!" she shouted as she suddenly turned around and quickly kicked the gun out of Morag's hands.
"HEY!" Morag shouted, but was immediately tackled to the ground by the angry mother.
After a few seconds, Rita successfully managed to subdue Morag with an arm lock, trapping her.
"But that's no excuse for the things you've done!" Rita then sternly told her.
Morag then pouted in defeat, as she clearly could not overpower Rita.
Lisa exited her room urgently, only to find her even younger sister stumbling down the hallway outside.
"Lily!" she cried in relief.
The two youngest siblings then ran over to each other and hugged. "I was worried sick about you!" Lisa rejoiced. "Now come along; we must locate the others!"
But the sinister Miller family confronted them before they could get very far.
"Stop right there, little ladies!" Carly ordered them.
Lisa and Lily stopped in their tracks as the three Millers held them at gunpoint with some laser blasters of their own.
"You know? The doc has a lot of weapons kicking around in this lab of hers," Ryan admitted.
"Yeah, and we can use them to rid ourselves of you wretched Louds once and for all!" Jeff said.
"I guess it's just too bad your smarty pants brain can't get you out of this one!" Carly mockingly told Lisa. "Or that you don't have any weapons of your own!"
"But I do!" another voice suddenly shouted behind the Millers.
"Huh?" Ryan muttered.
"Who's that?!" a surprised Jeff asked.
"Drop your weapons and put your hands up where I can see them!" the new voice commanded.
The Millers obeyed the young, feminine voice and dropped their weapons to the ground. They knew whoever it was could quickly attack first with whatever they had.
"Thanks," Lily said.
"Yes, thank you for your assistance," Lisa expressed. "Though I don't mean to sound ungrateful, I have to admit I share the same curiosity as Mr Miller... who exactly are you?"
"My name is Asherah. I've been held prisoner in this fortress by Lord Viribus and Doctor Linnaeus for some time now. I just managed to escape my cell, thanks to an electrical fault in the building that opened the door lock and deactivated the electrified walls."
"So, that must be how we got free from those machines," Lisa deducted. "I can only conclude that one of my kin has managed to tamper with our enemies' plans."
"Yes, that would be the most rational explanation. It would seem that one of you has managed to outwit these twisted villains yet again," Asherah pondered.
"Yes, it would appear so," Lisa proudly concluded.
"Anyway, come back with me. Somebody else here is willing to help you and your family, though it might not be someone you're expecting," Asherah then informed them.
Lisa raised her eyebrow in curiosity, wondering who Asherah was referring to.
Luna and Luan had found each other and were walking around the building until they eventually ran into one of their other sisters...
"Leni!" Luan called out to her.
"Luna! Luan!" Leni called back as she rushed over and hugged them. "Where are the others?"
"I don't know, dude. That's what we're trying to find out." Luna replied.
"Well, let's get going before we run into any..." Leni tried to say, but paused mid-sentence as she turned around and saw exactly what she was about to say standing right behind her. "Trouble," she then finished awkwardly.
The three sisters were confronted by the trio of bus bullies that Lincoln and his middle school peers had to deal with. Taylor was quick to try and intimidate the Loud sisters. "You three dorks better get back in your rooms if you know what's good for you!"
"Yeah, we're not above hitting girls, you know?!" Anderson threatened.
"Hey, wait a second, I know these guys!" Luan recalled.
"Yeah, sis. I know them, too. Especially her!" Luna denounced as she pointed at Taylor.
"Wait, who are these guys?" Leni asked.
"They're a bunch of jerks!" Luna replied. "Taylor and I used to hang with each other back in middle school, we were both into rock music and shared a similar punkish style."
Taylor just dismissed her trip down memory lane with a disinterested scoff.
"But Taylor flunked all her grades and was held back a year while I moved on to high school. I'm guessing Anderson here did the same. That's why they hang out together and pick on all the younger kids!"
"Yeah, I remember them from when I was in middle school, too. They flunked again when I was in eighth grade! Although I don't remember you," Luan said as she looked at Pablo.
"What's your story then, brah? You were a nerd who thought it was better to be their lackey rather than their victim, so you joined these guys in picking on the younger kids?" Luna asked.
"Biding your time, hoping that you'll pass the eighth grade and they'll flunk again so you can ditch them for high school soon?" Luan then deducted.
"Weak, dude," Luna condemned.
"Yeah, that's so pathetic I can't even tell a joke about it!" Luan added.
"Why are you guys so mean to all the younger kids?! It's not their fault you failed middle school twice!" Leni argued.
"Shut up! You chumps have made the mistake of getting us mad, so now we're gonna force you to go back into your rooms... our way!" Anderson barked menacingly as he cracked his knuckles.
"Yeah! We're gonna do it our way!" Pablo added.
"He already said that!" Taylor told Pablo, who then felt awkward for a moment.
"You know what? Let's see you try to pick on someone your own age, Taylor!" Luna challenged.
"Ha! If you want a beating so bad, pixie, I'll be happy to give you one!" Taylor replied before the two girls aggressively charged at each other.
Lynn also wandered the corridors of the villains' lair after getting free. She wasn't quite sure exactly where she was going. She made her way into a dark room, where she asked, "Hello, is anybody in here?"
"Hey, shrimp!" announced Ham Hand.
"Hey, aren't you that guy that fought Myrtle? You tried to ship us off into space!" Lynn angrily recalled.
"And now I'm going to smash you, little brat!" he threatened as he rammed his hammer into his organic hand aggressively, showing her that he meant business.
Letting out a battle roar, the behemoth charged at Lynn and took a swing at her with his hammer… but she was strong enough to grab it.
"Huh?" he asked, surprised and shocked that a girl so small could block his hammer attack like that.
In an impressive demonstration of her physical prowess, Lynn then swung the much larger Ham Hand around like he was a 20-pound soft toy.
"WOAH! WHAT THE?!"
Lynn then let go and sent Ham Hand plummeting face-first into the wall.
*SMASH*
As Lynn walked over and stood above the knocked-out and defeated villain, she delivered a cocky one-liner, "Ham Hand? More like Ham Sandwich. Chump! Ha!"
However, her triumphant state of mind didn't last very long. Just as Lynn finished with him, an even more sinister presence took its place behind her.
"Loud!" she called her out, causing Lynn to turn around.
"Oh, hey Babs. What are you doing here?" Lynn casually asked her as she saw her red-haired friend/rival standing before her with her arms folded.
"I'm here for you!" Babs venomously replied before leaping towards the other girl.
"Woah!" Lynn cried before jumping out of the way. "What are you doing?!"
"It's time we settled this, once and for all!" Babs told her before throwing a punch.
Lynn ducked the punch and replied, "Look, I'm always up for giving you a lesson in who's number one, but now really isn't the time!"
"Now is the perfect time!" Babs lashed before kicking her in the stomach.
"Okay, if that's the way you want it!" Lynn exclaimed as she started fighting back.
Lynn Sr roamed around another part of the building, also trying to find his wife and kids.
"Is anybody there? Hello?" he called out.
"Hi there, Loud," someone replied, albeit with a level of audible hostility.
The Loud father was then suddenly tackled to the ground by Guy Grazer. "You and those stupid Casagrandes cost me my hit show! Kitchen Combat was canceled after your dumb little peace-making stunt made me look like a jerk!"
"You don't need our help for that, pal!" Lynn Sr sassily replied, only to have his neck painfully wrenched upward by his former cooking hero. "And Kitchen Ambush has been losing ratings, too! Now I'm struggling to stay on the air at all... and to think I actually gave your mediocre restaurant a positive review!"
But just as it looked like Lynn Sr was going to be violently choked out by the aggressive chef, Guy received a taste of his own medicine when he was suddenly knocked to the floor by Lynn's oldest daughter, Lori.
A surprised and startled Guy looked up to see an angry and vengeful, young but strong teenage girl staring down at him.
"Lori?!" Lynn Sr ecstatically yelled in relief as he made his way back to his feet.
"So, you're the chef who was mean to my siblings that one time, right?" Lori asked Guy.
Guy nervously nodded and replied with a soft "Yuh-huh."
"Well, since you like food so much, let's see how much you like it when I TURN YOU INTO A HUMAN PRETZEL!" Lori then roared as she pounced on him and began to manhandle the bitter chef.
"YEOWCH!" Guy screamed in pain.
"Yikes! Now I see why the others were so afraid of Lori all those years." Lynn Sr joked to himself as he watched his daughter exact payback against the chef on his behalf.
The Bulldog, Joyce, and Vic had picked up some of the phosphine blasters they had earlier and searched for the Loud family. "Let's put those dumb Louds back to sleep!" Vic commanded menacingly.
As soon as they made it back into the hallway, they saw Lana and Lola at the end of it, hugging it out at that very moment.
"Oh Lana, I'm so glad I found you!" Lola exclaimed.
"Same here, Lols," Lana replied.
"Ahem!" Joyce spoke loudly, making sure she got the attention of the twins.
"Oh, crud!" Lana said worryingly.
"Crud indeed, girls! You're going right back into those sleep machines!" Joyce told them.
"Like heck!" Lola snapped back.
"Yeah, why are you jerks out to get us so bad, anyway?!" Lana questioned.
"Are you kidding?! You Louds were the ones responsible for costing me my promotion and my job!" Joyce stated.
"Same here! I lost my job as a tour guide for the White House because of you little pests!" the Bulldog then scowled venomously.
"Me, too! Being the campaign manager for Mayor Davis was the best job I ever had! A few more years and I would have made mayor myself! But nooooooo, you and your dumb sister Leni just had to go and screw that up for me!" Vic told them.
"Hey, don't talk smack about our sister!" Lana shouted at them.
"Why not? She's an idiot," Vic stated aloud.
"Well, if she's such an idiot, how come she gave you guys real trouble in the election, huh?" Lola pointed out. "Actually, that's a rhetorical question, I know the answer: I helped her. Actually, in a way, I guess you could say I'm the one who really screwed you over."
"WHAT?!" Vic furiously responded.
"You heard me," she continued. "I helped her pull a lot of those dirty tricks against you and Mayor Davis. Then again, I was only levelling the playing field, after you convinced Mayor Davis to start slinging mud at Leni and us."
"You'll pay for that, brat!" Vic shouted as he prepared to blast them, but Lana suddenly shouted "HOLD IT!"
"What?" Joyce asked them.
"Hey, Lola..." Lana said before leaning over and whispering in her twin sister's ear.
"What are they whispering about?" Joyce asked Vic and the Bulldog.
The Bulldog just shrugged his shoulders in response.
"Hey, you two! What are you yapping on about?!" Vic demanded to know.
"WHAT?!" a now furious Lola suddenly blurted out.
Lana then continued to whisper for a few more seconds, before Lola's face finally turned red with rage.
"Wait, what is she doing?" a surprised and intimidated Joyce asked herself as she, the Bulldog, and Vic were suddenly slightly afraid.
Lola then roared fiercely as fire started to come out of her eyes for a few seconds. She then charged at the two adults with such speed and ferocity that they didn't even have time to react.
Lana looked on proudly as a brief fight cloud ensued before the action dissipated... and the mighty pageant girl stood on top of the three defeated villains.
Lola then finally calmed down and backed away from the three adults. "Way to go, Lols!" Lana congratulated her.
"How did she do that?" a bruised and confused Joyce asked.
"Oh, Lola's really strong when she's that mad," Lana explained. "You see, we know each other so well, what with us being twins and all."
"Let's just say we have a 'twin code'. We can even smell where the other one is at any time," Lola continued. "And Lana knew exactly what to tell me to get me that ticked off."
"What?! That's ridiculous!" Joyce objected.
"If all that's true, then tell me... what did you say to her to get her that angry?!" the flabbergasted Vic asked them.
"Oh, you don't want to know," Lana replied.
Meanwhile, Leni, Luna, and Luan still had their hands full with the bus bullies. Luna and Taylor engaged in a fight cloud while Anderson approached Leni.
"You know? It'd be a shame if I were to hit you in your pretty face. So I'll tell you what? I'll just beat the heck out of the body instead!" Anderson snarled.
"Are you sure we can't just talk this out?" Leni tried to convince him.
"Ha, sure, we'll just hug and forget all about it," he sarcastically replied.
"Really?" an oblivious Leni asked.
"What do you think?!" he bluntly responded as he raised his fists.
Leni's peaceful demeanor vanished at that point, making way for anger. "You've mistaken my kindness for weakness, sir. If you insist... I HOPE YOU LIKE THE TASTE OF FLAND!"
A confused Anderson simply muttered, "What?" before getting tackled to the ground by Leni.
"Ungh! Get off me!" he shouted as she managed to wrangle him into submission.
Pablo also approached Luan, who dealt with the confrontation in her usual jokey way.
"Look, there's no need for violence. How about we just shake on it?" she said as she reached out and grabbed Pablo's hand, giving him a mild shock as she was wearing a buzz shocker.
"Ugh! You were never funny, you know that?!" Pablo angrily complained as he threw a haymaker, which Luan avoided.
"You look tense. Maybe a little water will help cool you off," she then quipped as she squirted some liquid out of her flower straight into his eyes.
"AGH! That's not water!" Pablo cried.
"Nope. That was hair lotion diluted in onion juice! It's a real stinger! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
As Luan laughed, Pablo rubbed his sore eyes to regain his vision. "Quit clowning around, Loud!"
"Okay, if you want good old fisticuffs..." Luan replied seriously before socking him in the jaw.
Meanwhile, Taylor managed to pin Luna up against the wall. Luna tried to break free, but struggled to overcome her opponent.
"I heard you started playing for the other team. You going out with that dorky Sam chick?" Taylor teased.
"Hey, don't knock Sam! She's super cool... and smokin'," Luna told her.
"Really? Well, after I'm done kicking your scrawny butt, maybe I'll pay her a visit. Then she won't be 'smokin' anymore!"
"Oh, it's on now, dude!" an enraged Luna replied before breaking free of Taylor's grasp.
There was no stopping Luna now as she quickly let out one heck of a fury. She dished several uppercut punches to Taylor's gut, winding her and making her back off. She then gave her a few haymakers to the head. Taylor tried to fight back, but Luna was too pumped up with adrenaline and rage to feel the punches by much. Luna finally managed to take Taylor down with one last head hook.
"OOFF!"
The three Loud sisters stood beside each other after neutralizing the bus bullies. "And that's what happens when you mess with the Loud family, bruhs!" Luna warned before high-fiving Leni and fist-bumping Luan.
But the three sisters then turned around only to see Doug and Michelle pointing laser pistols at them.
"Aw, crud!" Luna huffed.
"Do you like these? We just pinched them out of Carol's lab." Michelle cackled. "We thought the phosphine blasters wouldn't cut it this time."
"So, if it isn't Luna Loud," Doug called her out.
"Or is it Lulu?" Michelle asked.
"Nah, dudes, just Luna. Always has been, always will be," the Loud rocker replied.
"That's too bad. You could have been such a huge success if you just stuck with us, Luna," Michelle complained.
"Instead, you choose to stick around with your loser punk rock bandmates in this backwater part of the States!" Doug berated her.
"Sure, I'd love to be famous, but not if it means I can't be happy," Luna stated.
"And she's happy here with her friends!" Luan added.
"And us!" Leni followed.
"You cost us so much when you sabotaged all our big plans for you!" Doug growled.
"Now we'll give you what's coming to you!" Michelle told her as she prepared to shoot.
But Luna bravely decided to call their bluff. "Really, guys? You might be pretty ruthless people in the music biz, but do you really have the guts to take a life?"
Doug and Michelle both looked at each other, unsure of what their next actions would be. They internally debated for a brief moment if they truly could pull the trigger.
"You see, I think that's the fatal flaw with all this, brah's..." Luna began to explain.
"Yeah, this Viribus guy got you all together with the intent of taking us down, but the truth is, most of our so-called enemies are just petty jerks, bullies, and losers who don't have it in them to finish us off for good," Luan deducted.
"That's why you did that whole mind-warping thing instead of just killing us earlier!" Luna added.
"Well, that's not quite the whole story..." Doug revealed as he and Michelle slowly started to lower their weapons.
"Yeah, we were actually brought together to provide a distraction. This whole thing was orchestrated just to get you out of the way," Michelle admitted.
"Wait, what?!" Luna and Luan asked.
"Well, you see..." Doug then went to say, but was cut off when a fired-up Leni suddenly tackled both him and Michelle to the ground and the three engaged in a brief fight cloud.
A few seconds later, Leni stood on top of the two adults and proudly declared, "I hope you like the taste of floor!" She then got excited as she realised something. "Hey, I finally got it right!"
Luna and Luan then kicked their pistols away and the former ordered them, "Start talking!"
"Yeah, if all this was just a diversion tactic, then what is this Viribus guy's real plan?!" Luan interrogated them.
Meanwhile, Lynn still had her hands full with Babs, as the two brawled it out in one of the many rooms of the large complex...
Lynn fought through a vicious gut punch from Babs and countered with a jumping kick to the face. A now angry Babs came back with a nasty hook to the head, but Lynn returned the favour with a powerful hook punch right in the face.
Both girls breathed heavily as they once again found themselves in a stalemate. "You're impressive, Loud. A girl your size holding her own this well against me..." Babs begrudgingly admitted.
However, Lynn's anger turned to fear once she saw Babs partially lift up her black shirt... to reveal she was once again wearing one of Doctor Linnaeus' power vests.
"Uh oh," she gulped.
"While I'd love to battle to the end with you, Lynn, I don't have that luxury today. My warm-up is over, it's time to end this!" Babs told her as she turned her power vest on.
Lynn remembered what happened the last time she fought a technologically amped-up Babs... but she still couldn't bring herself to back down. She was fighting for her family, after all.
"Bring it on!" Lynn beckoned as she tried to maintain a brave face and continue her battle.
Lucy, the last to leave her room, had found herself quickly ambushed by the aggressive duo of Hazeltucky Hockers.
"Well well well, look at what we have here," Hank said menacingly.
"It's that creepy goth kid. After we're done with you, Loud, you're gonna have even more to be sad about!" Hawk threatened as he cracked his knuckles.
Lucy slowly stepped backward as she feared for her well-being against the two advancing thuggish teens. However, she could see something, or someone, in the distance...
Her one and only brother, Lincoln, stood at the end of the hallway, searching for his family members.
With that, an opportunity had presented itself. Lucy knew exactly what she needed to do.
"ARGH! GET AWAY FROM ME!" she suddenly started to shout. She spoke louder than she ever had done before.
Of course, these unusually loud words from the family's quietest member were quick to grab the attention of her white-haired sibling.
"Lucy?!" he turned and asked aloud, as he looked ahead and saw his little sister being cornered by the two bullies. "HEY!" he shouted furiously as he rushed to her aid.
Knowing how to push her brother's buttons and trigger his 'hysterical strength' mode that he had used before, Lucy deliberately exaggerated the level of peril she was in. "ACK!" she yelled as she collapsed to the ground after being shoved over by Hawk. She appeared terrified as she huddled herself up against the corner as the shadows of the two boys covered her.
Lincoln finally caught up to them and momentarily stopped in his tracks as he stared down at his petrified sister, noticing a tear running down her cheek. He began to feel enraged after seeing his little sister cry. He clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and stared down at the ground for a moment as his blood began to boil, and his anger level gradually increased.
"Well, if it isn't the kid who kicked our butts in the quest?" Hawk asked as he noticed the boy standing beside them.
"Forget the girl, I say it's time for some sweet payback!" Hank said.
The two bullies then changed target and strolled toward Lincoln, who was just about ready to snap.
"So, kid? Any last words before we beat you to a pulp?!" Hawk cockily threatened him.
However, that was when the audible thuds began to occur and the beating began. Lucy looked on as her brother exploded in a rage of fury and aggression against the two boys he witnessed terrorising his sister. She couldn't help but develop a strong grin of satisfaction on her face. The whole thing had gone exactly as she orchestrated it. Now her brother was once again laying the smackdown on the two jocks, and she had avoided a vicious beating.
And so, it appeared the Louds were managing to overcome the villains and escape from the trap they had fallen into, but that was only the beginning. They would soon have much worse to deal with.
Far, far away… Punguari still watched over her parents, who were visibly decaying more and more as time continued to progress.
Sisiki's drained body was sleeping while Punguari looked down at her. She wanted so dearly for her mother to wake up and be okay, but she knew the only way to save her would be to retrieve her godly essence. She was just hoping that Viribus would make his move, and therefore his whereabouts, known to her before it was too late.
"Punguari…" softly called out a familiar voice.
Punguari turned around to see that her father had awakened. Barely conscious and still resting motionlessly on the ground, Chipiri used what tiny fragment of energy he had left to communicate with his daughter.
"What is it, Dad?"
"This situation is… dire. To win, you will need… the staff!" he spoke softly.
"What? Do you mean my staff? Or yours?" she asked, confused.
"No… the Staff of the First Gods."
"The what?" she asked in shock, having never been told of this before.
"It is hidden deep underneath *cough* the Mountain… the mountain where the Earthlings put the *cough* Mask of Many Faces in our absence," Chipiri then revealed.
"You mean where I was imprisoned in stone on Mount Punguari?"
"Yes… it is the most powerful Godly weapon of all… used to subdue *cough* the worst forms of evil… use it to stop Viribus… before it's too late."
At that moment, Chipiri's energy ran out, and his eyes closed. He fell back into a state of unconsciousness, leaving Punguari alone once again with her two sleeping parents.
Punguari knew that she needed to do whatever it took to stop this threat, as she and her allies from Great Lakes City may not be enough. She knew she would need to get this staff her father spoke of if they were to have the best chance of saving the world.
Author's Footnote:
The rest of this story is now being given a proof-read by TheEpicness9000 for any spelling/grammatical errors, as well as so he can have an opportunity to point out any other writing quirks he finds with the story. So there will now be an additional proofreader's note at the end of each chapter. I recently explained in a DeviantArt post that my motivation for continuing the story was dwindling due to really not wanting to bother with the proof reading part of the process, so I thought I'd pay somebody to do that part for me. XD
So yeah, hopefully there are no grammatical/spelling errors now.
Also, as mentioned below, I have updated a scene near the beginning of chapter 1 (not the prologue, the first main chapter) that explains the sudden appearance of Ham Hand in this chapter and builds up to it, so there you have it.
Hopefully you enjoyed this new chapter and I'm aiming to get the rest of the story done in the coming weeks.
PROOFREADER'S NOTE:
Ham Hand's appearance may seem sudden, but it is because this story began production before No Time To Spy was released. As JustSomeOrdinaryDude told me, Chapter 1 will be/has been updated, so you should go and read it as to not miss out.