AN: Sorry for how spaced apart these updates were. I've been busy lately, and on top of that this chapter ended up being a lot more difficult to get down than I'd anticipated it would be, which is always frustrating. Hopefully the next one comes out at least a little more smoothly. Also, I don't know if anyone else is having this problem, but I haven't been getting notifications from ffnet for at least a month now. If you're also having that problem, and want to be notified when I update my stories, also I cross-post everything to AO3, so following the stories there would probably be the best way to do that.
Maloche: Always nice to hear from another Sentinels fan. Yeah, Lynn was playing Haka. I figured his pump and dump mechanic would gel really nicely with her. In my head, Lori plays Legacy and Stella plays Skyscraper. Lincoln tries to fill in with whatever the group needs for a particular fight.
Paperman0: Thank you, I'm happy to hear that bit clicked with you. I've found myself wishing these last couple of seasons that Lynn and Stella had a chance to interact in the show properly, so it's been a lot of fun to write them here.
Lincoln Loud was a subject that was never far from Sam's mind.
Despite having lived the majority of her life in the pre-meta world, the new normal had shifted so violently, and definitively since then, that it could often be difficult to remember what things were like back then. Nevertheless, she remembered Lincoln Loud.
She remembered that he frequently wound up orchestrating the misfortunes of himself and those around him. That he could be brash, selfish, and incredibly short-sighted. But at the end of the day, his heart was usually in the right place. That was the Lincoln that Sam had known. The Lincoln who had, in his own bumbling way, endeared himself to the girl to such an extent that she had quickly stopped seeing him as her girlfriend's little brother, and instead as something of a surrogate sibling to herself in his own right. She'd quickly found herself invested in Lincoln Loud, she wanted to know him better, be there as he grew up, chased his dreams, maybe even found love for himself. Lincoln's life had been full of possibilities, and Sam had been happy to know that she'd be there to witness them.
And suddenly, she wasn't.
The family dynamic at the Loud House had deteriorated rapidly once superpowers had been thrown into the mix. As much as they loved each other, the Louds had always been a chaotic powderkeg, forever on the cusp of igniting, and a sizeable chunk of the family suddenly gaining superhuman abilities ended up exacerbating things far beyond what any family could be expected to deal with. Literal explosions became far more commonplace, and far more violent than they had been previously, the aftermath of the frequent infighting between the siblings often left the house and the surrounding area in disarray, and on one occasion Sam had been personally abducted by a small army of surprisingly vicious stuffed animals, and a squad of self-styled "Murderbots" in the same afternoon. She'd later found out that both sides had actually been looking for Leni, which Sam had chosen to take as a compliment. Her decision to eschew her frequent visits to the Loud House had come shortly after, and with Luna's full support. It wasn't an easy decision to make, the Louds were basically family to Sam at that point, and their absence had left a noticeable void in her life, but in the interest of her own continued well being, it just made sense to give the Louds some space in the hope that this whole thing would blow over.
Needless to say, it had. In a far more definitive way than anyone could have imagined. And when the metaphorical dust had settled, Lincoln Loud was gone. A pleasant, but all too fleeting memory, which could have easily been lost amid the avalanche of others that were soon to follow as the world rapidly became far more complex than she ever could have anticipated.
The search for Lincoln had started as a pragmatic affair. The fight between the Louds had proven to the world just how dangerous meta abilities could be in the wrong hands, and the government had quickly stepped in to address the situation. They'd made the Louds an offer: submit to the training and oversight being provided by the newly formed entity that would eventually become the Department of Metahuman Affairs, and no further action would be taken against their family. Most of them, still shaken by the consequences of their reckless actions, had agreed with little complaint. Luna, on the other hand, when asked to conform to the system that had taken her little brother from her, had expressed her feelings in the most succinct way she could manage. She'd packed her things and gone, a large hole left in the temporary housing unit she'd been assigned serving as a fairly conspicuous indication of her departure. Sam, for her part, had wholeheartedly supported that decision, and despite Luna's insistence that Sam leave her to her own devices, Sam had instead chosen to join her. She had chosen love, because as far as she was concerned, there was no other choice.
But rebellion was not sustenance, at least not in the long term, and the thrill of thumbing their noses at authority could only last for so long. Luna, in spite of her fantastical abilities, was still a young girl who'd lost nearly everything she'd loved in a frighteningly short amount of time, and the loss of her brother remained the rawest of her wounds, the one she refused to permit to heal. It wasn't at all surprising when one night on the road, deep in her thoughts, Luna had finally confessed to Sam the guilt she felt. The continual shame she experienced at contributing to the affair that had broken her family. And then, in the depths of her self-loathing, the truth of the matter. The tender, passionate, extraordinarily un-sisterly feelings she'd had for her wayward little brother. Truth be told, Sam hadn't actually been all that surprised. There had always been a bond between the pair, something ephemeral that tied them together, to a point where she herself had occasionally felt like an onlooker peaking in on something private, something personal, even when it was just the three of them sitting on a couch together. She wasn't certain she'd ever have been able to put a name to the nature of the relationship without Luna's confession, but once the secret was out everything had sort of just clicked into place. And she had quickly realized that so fundamentally a part of Luna were those feelings, that Sam couldn't even bring herself to be angry. Because on some level, she just felt like she'd always known. Birds fly, fish swim, and Luna Loud loved her brother. It was just the nature of things.
Thus began the search. Luna needed something to aspire to, something more meaningful than figuring out where their next meal was going to come from, and Lincoln? Well clearly he needed his big sister back. If Luna was so devastated by her little brother's loss, it pained her to think how miserable poor little Lincoln must have been, particularly in the wake of his sisters' ultimatum to stay out of his life. He would need Luna just as much as she needed him, maybe even moreso, and Sam was determined to make that happen.
It wasn't going to be easy. The world was so very big, and it only got bigger as metas took more and more prominence in society. To find the missing member of their trio they'd need money, skills, and most important of all, connections. None of those were going to come easily, but time was the one thing the girls had on their side. That, and Luna's ability to turn the smallest sounds into military-grade ordinance. Which, as it turned out, ended up making her a very appealing prospect for groups and individuals with flexible morals. Which are, as it happens, the exact kind of people one needs to ingratiate themselves to when you were trying to find a young man being protected by a top level government program.
The fact that he turned out to still be in Royal Woods after eight long years of greasing palms and sucking up to the worst people imaginable was just...a tad infuriating, but she had consoled herself with the knowledge that her task was nearly complete. Soon, she and Luna would be able to make their move and whisk Lincoln away from his gilded cage, and then they could finally be a family. Just the three of them! And in the meantime, they could even catch up with their wayward little dude, however indirectly, thanks to the series of listening bugs, relays, and transmitters she'd meticulously set up. Things were definitely looking up.
At least, that's what she'd thought, before they'd actually started listening to what she'd dubbed, Radio Lincoln.
"Lincoln! Thank God you're home. I need you to take Stella off my hands for a bit."
"Lynn, what are you...WOAH!"
"Nice catch, lil bro. We'll have you doing a pull-up in no time!"
"W-what is wrong with her? Why is she...GACK!""
"Yeah, apparently she got hit by something called a Groovitron? And now she won't stop shaking her groove thang. It was kinda funny for a few minutes buuuut..."
"S-Stella! Cut it out!"
"I caaaaant!"
"Yeah, she, uh, she keeps on doing that. Figured the safest place to stash her was here with you. So just...keep her busy, or something while I find someone who can fix her. Later!"
"Lynn! Come back! Stella! Let me go!"
"S-sorry Lincoln!"
That first listening session had been...surprising, to say the least. And a gross understatement for Luna, who'd lept to her feet, her injuries seemingly forgotten, and nearly stormed off to Lincoln's right then and there. It had taken every ounce of cunning Sam possessed (as well as a LOT of cuddles and hair stroking) to get her to calm down enough for Sam to put what they'd overheard into some kind of rational context. Several hours later, she hadn't made too much headway, simply settling on insisting that there had to be some kind of explanation. They'd poked their noses into a random moment in time, and overheard some candid moment that just happened to sound...well, like something insanely improbable. Granted, yes, Luna had turned out to have romantic feelings for her little bro, but the odds of two people being that perfect for each other, and just coincidentally being born into the same family was absurdly unlikely. All of the Louds loved each other, it wasn't hard to see that, and Lincoln Loud loved his sisters with the same ridiculous intensity that each of them loved him. Which was a lot, if her emotional math held up. But nobody loved her little brother more than Luna Loud. The thought that even a single other Loud sibling could reach that level of emotional intimacy with him, to the point where it would transcend into physical intimacy, was just laughable. Luna was a special, beautiful, statistical aberration. Thus, the only conclusion that made any sense, was that what they thought they'd heard, had to be literally anything other than the thing they thought they were hearing. That said...
"Lynn! Knock it off!"
SLURP! "Nuh-uh. I asked you for a lick of your ice cream, and you said no. This is what you get for being mean to your big sis."
"I'll buy you some ice cream! Just put me down and stop doing that!"
SLURP! "Uh-uh. At first, I was just doing this to annoy you, but now I'm actually kind of enjoying this..."
...whatever was actually going on in that apartment, it definitely wasn't boring. Other people listening to this stuff, people who didn't know that two of the three girls he tended to share his living space with were actuall his sisters, would probably envy and loathe him in equal measure. Because without that very important bit of knowledge, this stuff would probably sound a heck of a lot more...
"Ta-dah! Welcome home, Linky!"
"Oh...wow! Lori, you look...I mean..."
"I can tell you're enjoying it, so I'll take the babbling as a compliment."
"W-what's the occasion?"
"I finally found that swimsuit and thought I'd make good on my promise. Funny though, last time I wore this, I don't remember it being quite so snug around my b—"
Immediately the signal cut out, a high-pitched whine taking its place. Discretely glancing to her side, Sam could see what appeared to be Luna, sitting calmly with her hands folded in her lap. However, as usual, the devil was in the details. Her hands were clenched a bit too tight, her lips pursed a bit too firmly, like she'd swallowed something especially sour. There was also this cute little vein pulsating just above her left eye, which meant Sam had, at most, a few seconds before—
Right on cue, the whine intensified to a fever pitch before escalating into a short, soulful screech, and then fell silent. The tiny whisps of smoke that began to leak out of the transmitter's speaker served as the only outward indicator of the device's inner torment. Sam closed her eyes and mentally subtracted the cost of another one of those from their operations budget.
Opening her eyes once more, Sam glanced back towards Luna. Her girlfriend was unmoved, frozen in the exact same position she'd been previously.
"Anyone ever tell you guys that you have kind of a weird relationship with your bro?" She asked. The abruptness with which Luna's eyes suddenly fixated upon her was nearly audible.
"Not you, you guys." Sam corrected herself. "Obviously I know that you have your whole thing going on with Linc, and I support that. But...I don't remember your sisters being quite so..."
She trailed off, trying to find a word to properly describe the strangely intimate nature of these encounters they'd been listening in on.
"Like, I remember you telling me the time Lynn and Lucy got into a fight, and Lynn ended up bunking with Linc for a while." She continued, deciding that she'd probably have more luck if she just worked through her thoughts. "And at the time, I remember thinking 'Well gee, that sure sounds cute.' But, I also remember how Lynn would just randomly tackle Linc for literally no reason, and they'd roll around on the floor a bit. And of course, Lincoln couldn't fight her off, so eventually, he'd just go limp, and the two of them would just kind of lay there until Lynn was done with...whatever it was she was trying to do. Unless Lori saw them, of course, because then she'd freak out and try to pull them apart. I actually remember this one time I saw them doing that in the hallway, and Leni was just laying there next to them, and she had the biggest smile on her face..."
It was at this point Sam noticed that even though her lips were moving, no sound was actually coming out of her mouth. She let out a silent, exasperated sigh, and gave Luna a pointed look.
"Haha", Sam signed at her. "Real mature".
She'd learned early on that being able to communicate non-verbally with your sound manipulating partner was of paramount importance. Luna had tried to teach her the secret language she and her sisters had used to talk about Lincoln without him knowing (another thing that seemed kind of odd in hindsight), but no matter how hard she'd tried, Sam could never pick up more than a few words, let alone convey them herself. Conventional Sign language had ended up being a far more practical substitute, covering all their needs from being able to relay vital information to each other while hiding from dissatisfied clients, to being able to communicate with Luna from a safe distance while a nasty head cold was causing her to sneeze holes into the walls.
Luna pulled her legs up against her chest and plopped her head atop her knees, adopting her favorite sulking position. A moment later, she waved her hand in Sam's direction, which would normally indicate that she'd released her sound suppression. Rather than picking back up from where she'd left off, however, Sam instead opted to hold her tongue, ceding the floor to Luna.
"It's not fair," She muttered, her gaze planted firmly on the other side of the room. "They said we weren't supposed to see him again. That we couldn't see him again."
Sam scooched closer and placed one reassuring hand on Luna's back. At her touch, the brunette uncoiled just a smidge.
"That's why I left!" She continued. "And now that I've finally found him again, I find out they've been...playing house! It's just...I mean—!"
"I know, babe," Sam said, silently relieved that her voice was, in fact, working again. She slipped her arm down, and around Luna's waist, and pulled her into a tight side hug. Luna's posture didn't change, but she did reach out with one arm and return the gesture, the tightness with which she gripped Sam conveying her appreciation.
"Maybe that's enough for tonight." Sam suggested. "We've been listening in a lot over the last couple of days, and it seems like it's been rough on you. We can always pick this up again—"
"No!" Luna interjected, causing Sam to reel a little at the forcefulness of the rejection.
"S-sorry," Luna apologized, blushing slightly. "I can keep going, honest. I'm not going to be able to keep pulling these jobs forever. Eventually, either the work's going to dry up or DOMA's going to come knocking. We need to find our window of opportunity and get out of dodge as soon as possible.
"And?" Sam prompted.
"And...even though it's...frustrating, to hear all of that other...stuff..." Luna's cheeks colored a few shades pinker. "It's also just...really nice to hear his voice again."
Sam stroked her chin thoughtfully, allowing herself a few moments to enjoy the sight of her girlfriend squirming in embarrassment. By necessity, Luna spent a lot of her time playing the role of a badass, disaffected villainess, and even when she was off the clock, the duo usually had some pressing issue to worry about this. Moments like this were just too rare to squander.
Finally, Sam decided that she'd indulged herself long enough. She slid out of Luna's grasp and made her way toward the nightstand.
"You're lucky I bought these in bulk," She said, producing an identical transmitter from her stash. "But you break this one, and I'm cutting you off for the rest of the night."