AN: Hey look! I finally did another one of these!
If your kneejerk response to that revelation contained even the slightest amount of glee, even ironically, then I'd like you to direct your gratitude toward Catspeaker and FicAlthusserist. A few days ago I stumbled upon their story, Without Sin: All Star Edition, and devoured it in a manner not too dissimilar to how LJ devours meatball subs. It's a good story, and given the numbers it's sporting, I don't think it needs any help from me to attract eyeballs, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try, so check it out if you're of a mind to do so.
The relevant part is that the story deals with similar ideas regarding a future where Lincoln becomes estranged from his sisters to the ones that I had wanted to explore in this story, just without the superhero stuff. Which may be a benefit or a detriment, depending on how you feel about such things. And at the risk of sounding egotistical, enjoying that story gave me a bit of an inch to revisit my own story on the subject. And the turnaround on this chapter ended up surprisingly quick, all things considered, so I was clearly riding high on inspiration.
I dunno when the next chapter will be out. I'd like to get at least one more out before my summer session starts, but I'm still in the process of trying to beat jury duty, so we'll see how that plays out. Until then, enjoy. Or don't. Whatever floats your boat.
Lincoln reckoned at this point that he'd had enough experience dating superhuman women that he could write a fairly helpful book on the subject. Not that he would, as the revelation that the subjects of his impromptu studies were also his sisters would be the least of his troubles. Even without the incestuous component, publicly outing himself as a perfectly viable instrument for anyone who'd been antagonized by Lori or Lynn to get back at said girls, just seemed like a really bad idea on the face of things. Still, it was hard not to feel like he'd amassed some valuable wisdom on the subject.
At this moment, for example, he was locked in the tender, yet iron-clad embrace of his eldest sister as she furiously tried to make full use of what little time was left. The sweet, delicate touch of her lips upon his own contrasted harshly against the way she used her womanly charms to thoroughly invade his personal space.
As Lori held him against her soft, shapely body while doing her best to claim every inch of his mouth for her own, Lincoln was able to clinically detach a very small part of his consciousness (the one that wasn't currently occupied with more interesting pursuits), and gently remind himself that when dealing with an amorous girlfriend who is much, much stronger than you, the most important thing to do is to stay calm. It was human nature to, when held fast in a vice-like grip, such as the one Lori unintentionally employed when in the throes of passion, to struggle, in an ill-fated attempt to free oneself. He'd learned that this was an extremely poor decision under these circumstances.
For one thing, it just wasn't going to happen. Lori's grip strength was measured in units that made heavy-duty construction equipment feel inadequate, and Lynn's was magnitudes even beyond that. At best, trashing around wildly was more likely to surprise his partner, and result in light to severe bruising. At worst, it was far more likely that instead of freeing himself, he'd simply tear his own arm off. Forcing yourself to keep calm avoided the myriad of terrible things that could inadvertently happen when you upset your super-powered partner. More importantly, however, it was also a waste of oxygen, which was a valuable resource in these situations. Being intimate with a woman possessed of both super strength and endurance was very much a marathon, rather than a sprint. You took it slow, you adapted to the ebb and flow of the situation, and you filled your lungs when the opportunity presented itself.
Another trick he'd always found helpful, was to avoid looking down. This was far more valuable with it came to Lori specifically, as while early into their relationship Lynn's extreme height advantage could occasionally cause him some vertigo, even at her most excited he was still guaranteed to remain a set distance from the ground. Lori, on the other hand, was a floater. When she was...sufficiently stimulated, she floated. She couldn't help it, his eldest sister had always been a very emotional person, and many metahuman ability triggers were tied to the emotional state of the subject to some degree. At this point in her career, Lori Loud had long learned to master her abilities in most other respects, but apparently, her little brother's affections were something that she just couldn't defend against. It was something of an embarrassment to the older girl, a chink in her otherwise impervious, superhuman armor, but Lincoln was always beyond flattered that he could get such a (literal) rise out of a girl who was so far out of his league, that she may as well have been a different species entirely. He just wished she could control it, at least a little better. Particularly when horizontal movement became involved. It was cute and weirdly romantic that their amorous activities could start at one end of his apartment and end several rooms away (plus or minus a few walls), but the motion sickness that could result wasn't fun to deal with. Keeping his eyes on the prize(s) was a good way to mitigate those frustrating side effects.
It wasn't an especially hard rule to adhere to either. Lori was easy on the eyes at the worst of times, and when she turned on the charm she was positively radiant. Looking anywhere else when she was determined to make him the happiest guy on the planet would place him among the most heinous of villains, somewhere between the alien warlords who had ravaged the planet during the Incursion, and Dr. Malifica.
On this occasion, Lori was wearing her Luminary costume, and it was causing...problems. The costume was a rare accouterment when he and Lori were physically demonstrating their love for one another because it needed to be. Lincoln, of course, wished otherwise. Luminary's outfit was scientifically designed to take Lori's raw, natural-born, overwhelming sex appeal, and take it even further beyond. It admittedly bothered him, more than he was comfortable admitting, when he'd see her on tv, or out in public while wearing it. The knowledge that other people were seeing this woman, this vision of beauty as he would see her, even had she been wearing only rags, triggered something...primal within him, a possessiveness he was unused to feeling. On the other hand, when she wore it for him, it was...a gift. A blessing from the veritable goddess, an acknowledgment of the love they shared, hidden though it must remain. And it had become plainly obvious that Lori could tell what the sight of her in uniform did to Lincoln, and very much appreciated the effect it had on him. But there was a simple, practical reason why they chose not to indulge in this manner on a more frequent basis. There would undoubtedly come a time when Lincoln needed to be around Lori in the public eye, and it wouldn't help their long-term deception if merely being around one of the most prominent superheroes on the planet visibly aroused him.
... any more than it already did, that is.
But Lori was leaving, and they were in the process of saying their goodbyes. And while he hadn't intended for the simple goodbye hug and kiss he'd offered to his beloved sister to be anything other than simply that...things had sort of just...progressed, in a natural and probable manner. And now here he was, head only inches from the ceiling of his apartment as he dealt with a face full of Lori.
It couldn't be helped that she just happened to have been wearing her costume at the time.
"Linky!" Lori gasped, as she came up for air. Her smile was breathtaking as always.
"L-Lori," He responded, filling his own lungs with precious, life-giving nutrients. A combination of the blonde's heavy breathing, combined with the erratic motion of their flight had set her bountiful bosom to bouncing. A quirk of her lips told Lincoln that Lori knew he'd noticed, which was only reinforced when she took one of his hands in her own, and very deliberately pressed it against her breast, holding it in place, so as to remove any ambiguity from her intentions.
"You're...leaving," He gasped, trying to articulate his concerns with the limited amount of oxygen that had managed to make it to his brain while the pair had been saying their extended goodbyes.
"I...should," She admitted, haltingly, before flashing him another dazzling smile. "But...it might be okay if I was just a little...la—HEY!"
Lori's yelp of outrage was sufficiently sudden as to break the spell that had ensnared Lincoln. He blinked slowly, shaking his muddled head to clear his thoughts, and when he was done, he opened his eyes to see Lori glaring at a long, wooden shaft that was floating just next to her head. With his eyes, Lincoln traced the shaft to its origin and found that it was being held in the hands of one very irate Lynn.
"No more!" Lynn shouted, jabbing Lori with the broom handle a second time. "I've had to put up with this crap for ten minutes now! Hurry up and leave!"
"You're supposed to use the other side of the broom, Lynn!" Lori yelped, as the rod struck her again.
"Please. Like you can't take it!"
She wasn't wrong. At this point, even without factoring Lori's energy absorption ability into effect, the elder girl could likely take a supernova to the face and barely flinch. The broom handle had been chosen purely for the damage it would inflict on her pride—
"Lynn! Quit it!"
—which was clearly working.
"ALRIGHT!" Lori shouted, angrily, a brief burst of energy adding a bit of dramatic punctuation to the cry. Lincoln, being well within his sister's protective embrace, was completely unaffected by the blast, but Lynn's hair was now mildly mussed.
"Fine," Lori muttered, her expression softening as she turned her attention to Lincoln once more, and gingerly placed one hand upon his cheek. "A-alright then...Linc, I guess I'm...going."
Lincoln mirrored the motion, his hand gently brushing against Lori's golden mane as he did so.
"You're...coming back, right?" He asked, haltingly.
"Of course!" He'd immediately felt embarrassed upon asking the question, but the enthusiasm with which Lori replied, combined determined look in her eyes dashed those feelings, leaving warmth, and relief in their place.
"Trust me, lil bro," She said, softly. "There's nothing out there that could possibly keep me away from what I've got right here."
They exchanged one, last, brief hug, both of them knowing that it was all they were going to get for the duration of her trip. And then, as if by some unspoken understanding, they parted.
"Here, Lynn," Said Lori, floating a short distance downward to put herself at eye level with the younger girl and handing Lincoln over to her. "Take care of him. Please."
"Of course," The brunette replied, taking their brother with one hand and tucking him under her arm, as if for safekeeping. She took a moment to smile at him, and tousle his hair affectionately. Then, to everyone's surprise, with lightning speed she reached out with her free arm, wrapped it around Lori's waist, and yanked the still-floating blonde into a side hug, eliciting a yelp from the older girl. Before she could say anything further, Lynn lifted her up so that they were speaking directly to one another.
"Look," She said, matter of factly. "I'm only gonna say this once, alright?"
Her expression making it plain that she had no idea where this was going, Lori simply nodded her head.
"I...thought…" Lynn began, frowning in concentration. "I...had thought, that the only thing missing in my life was Lincoln. That all I needed to get my life back on track was to get him back. And I did, and...well…"
She paused, to spare another smile for her brother before continuing.
"But I've learned, through these last few months, that...having a big sister again is...actually pretty great. So, you'd better come back, alright?"
"Not just for his sake," She said, lifting up the young man in question as demonstration, eliciting a yelp of protest from him. "Though, I would track you down and drag your sparkly butt back here even if it was just that. Linc has...pretty taste in women, aside from yours truly, obviously. But he deserves to be happy, and I'll do whatever it takes to make that happen."
"Thank you, Lynn," Lincoln interjected with a quiet murmur, throwing his arms around his biggest sister.
"Of course," She replied, quickly planting a kiss on his lips. "I know you know who's number one."
"But aside from that," She continued, directing a stern glare back at Lori. "I like what we've got going here. So, I need you to come back. For both of us. And then, once you do…"
"Yeah, Lynn," Said Lori, placing one hand on the brunette's broad shoulder. "I've got you, and I've already put some feelers out. Once I've got this taken care of, and I can focus on us again, we'll work on getting them back. All of them."
"...Cool."
Feeling like nothing else needed to be said, Lori threw her arms around the brunette, and the pair shared a short, yet surprisingly intense embrace. The moment passed, and they released each other. A nod of mutual understanding passed between the pair, and Lori began to drift away from her still-enjoined siblings.
"We're...gonna have to buy him a much bigger bed. Aren't we?" Lynn asked, again proffering a very perplexed Lincoln.
"Stranger things have happened. But...probably." Lori replied with a laugh.
"What...are you guys talking about?" Lincoln asked. To his surprise, both girls looked back at him through lidded eyes.
"Nothing," They said in unison. And for a moment, Lincoln found himself wondering if this is what it felt like to be Leni. He quickly concluded that, no, it couldn't. After all, he didn't feel especially beautiful, or fashionable.
"Right then," Lori said. She took a deep breath, spared her siblings one last smile, then rocketed out of the window, her shining form streaking across the sky like a comet.
For a time, the remaining Louds stood there, staring after their sister. Waiting, perhaps, to see if she might come back.
"So…" Lincoln began, breaking the silence. "I...guess you're gonna have to head off to work yourself. Right?"
"I will," Lynn said, nodding. "Eventually."
Rather than making any move to leave, Lynn shifted her grip on Lincoln, fumbling with the young man until she had him in a princess carry.
"You've got something in mind, I take it?" He asked, smirking up at his looming sister.
"I do," She replied, smiling in bemusement down at her brother. "Emotional wishy-washy stuff aside, I've got you all to myself for the next couple of days. And first things first, I don't think I want you to be smelling like Lori during that time."
She spun around on one leg and took Lincoln deeper into the apartment.
To their bedroom.
Outside two figures sat crouched, concealed among the shrubbery that lined Lincoln's apartment building.
"I think we can safely say that 'Momma Bird' has left the nest," Sam opined, checking her watch. "How do you want to proceed from here?"
"Lynn's gotta head out too," Replied Luna. "We'll wait for her to take off, shouldn't be hard to notice when that happens. And then we'll make our move."
"Seems reasonable," Sam agreed, hunkering down and trying to make herself more comfortable. "She's gotta get to her...heroing, or whatever, right? How much longer could she be?"
"What could they possibly have been doing, for THIRTY MINUTES!?" Sam exclaimed sometime later, checking her watch. "I don't think my legs will ever wake up again!"
Luna twitched irritably as bits and pieces of audio that she'd listened in on from her little brother's apartment life came roaring back to her.
"I can think of a few things," She muttered, her fist involuntarily clenching.
"Oh thank god."
Hearing her girlfriend's relieved sigh, Luna looked out of her hiding spot and towards the apartment exterior. There, striding towards one of those fancy luxury cars the city supplied, was her not-so-little sister, and the sight of her immediately set Luna's teeth on edge. Lynn, was glowing. Not in the same way Lori did when she was punching bad guys, or making an ass of herself on TV. It was the good old-fashioned, pre-emergence of metahumans variety. The kind she'd grown to recognize around college dorms and backstage at concerts. And upon seeing that, it took every ounce of self-control Luna had to restrain herself from breaking cover and blasting several kinds of hell out of her fellow brunette. She did manage, however, to force herself to simply sit there and seethe until Lynn climbed into the back of the reinforced tank of a car, which promptly spun around and drove off into the distance. As the car disappeared from sight, Luna released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding and turned to Sam.
"Right then. It's just about showtime."
"Just let me do a quick equipment check," Sam murmured. Immediately her hand darted toward the guitar case at her side, lingering for a few heartbeats, as if to reassure herself it was really there, and then she began patting herself down, muttering to herself as she took a quick mental inventory.
"Did you bring the...'sleep aid'?" Luna asked, glancing sideways at the preoccupied blonde.
"Right here," Sam replied, patting a small pouch that was attached to her hip. "Though, I'm kinda surprised you wanted me to bring it, given who the target is."
"We won't need it," Luna said, nodding to herself. "We...we won't. I know it. But, I don't want to take any chances if things go sideways. If things get noisy, the safest place for Linc to be, is dreamland."
"Because accomplices normally aren't napping on the job," Sam added. "That makes sense."
Pausing her self-inspection, Sam bit her lip and gave her partner a once-over.
"I know we've only got one 'delivery guy' outfit Lunes," She began, indicating the jacket and baseball cap she was currently sporting. "But...are you sure you want to be wearing that? Your costume probably would have been a lot more discrete here."
"Not a chance," Luna snapped. Against her girlfriend's advice, the former rocker had chosen to wear a sleeveless, skull-adorned shirt, plaid skirt, and boots, all in her signature purple shade. And while it had taken some doing, she'd even managed to secure a pair of paperclip earrings for the occasion.
"Babe, I'm digging the 'Classic Luna' look. Seriously, you've always rocked it."
Sam paused to appreciate the ensemble. Particularly, the ways in which Luna filled out the outfit now, compared to when they had been teenagers. The skirt in particular rode quite a bit higher than the ones Luna typically wore with the modern-day facsimile of her old get-up. Sam suspected her partner had been so dedicated to making the look authentic, that she had even opted for clothing sized for her former self. Which Sam would have absolutely been in support of at any other time.
"...But," She continued. "I really feel like you're making yourself a bit too...visible, here. You wear that and Lincoln's gonna spot you coming from a mile away."
"That's the point."
A beat of silence stretched out between the pair.
"I'm...gonna need you to elaborate on that, Lunes," Said Sam. "Mmmmmostly the bit about how it...helps us, for you to look like a wanted felon? Or, more than you...normally do, I guess?"
Luna sighed in annoyance. "I never wanted to be 'The Siren.' That's not who I am. It was always going to be a stopgap, something we could use to get by."
"So...what's wrong with just using it for the one last gig?"
"Because that's not how I want Lincoln to see me!" Luna placed one hand on the skull that was splayed across her shirt. "This, is Luna Loud. This is how I want Lincoln to see me. Not the dumb broad who knocked over liquor stores for spare change, or joined in on stupid turf wars for supplies. I want him to look at me and know, that his big sister's come back for him. And that...she still loves him."
"Well, I don't think you'll have any problem with that," Sam said, smiling fondly at the girl. "I mean, I'm pretty sure Linc would know you no matter what you were wearing. But, you're definitely pulling off the look. He's gonna love it, babe."
"Definitely," Luna said, nodding. "Buuuut that said, you're still going in first."
"Wait...what!?"
Having showered and dosed himself with a bit of over-the-counter pain relief from the local drug store, Lincoln pulled a clean t-shirt on over his head, and gave himself a once over via his mirror. Pants, check. Shirt, check. Hair...mussed, but within acceptable parameters. Deciding that he did not look like someone who had been assaulted by an overly amorous Olympian, he nodded in satisfaction and made his way to the living room of his apartment. As much as he loved having the girls around, they usually made it impossible for him to get any work done. And with case briefs piling up, not to mention some comic pages that were quickly becoming overdue, he intended to use this brief grace period to accomplish as much as humanly possible...
DING-DONG
...just as soon as life saw fit to stop messing with him.
Rolling his eyes at the unanticipated interruption, Lincoln walked over to the front door. And without a second thought, he opened it.
Standing just beyond the door was a figure he didn't recognize. They wore a baggy jacket over a nondescript tee, and a baseball cap pulled low, the brim obscuring their face. The combination made for a pretty solid attempt at obscuring his visitor's identity, but instincts long honed from growing up with ten sisters allowed Lincoln to pick out small details. Soft, feminine curvature, just barely visible beyond the folds of the jacket, and a flash of blonde hair poking out from under the cap in a manner which suggested that it was far too long to be comfortably worn in such a manner, told him that he was looking at a girl. And probably a pretty one. Though, Lincoln would be the first to admit that his existing predilection for blondes probably skewed the results of that analysis, just a smidge.
"Um…"
The almost melodic voice that made the utterance seemed to support his findings. Satisfied with his detective work, Lincoln slid his hands in his pockets and waited.
...moments later, he was still there, standing opposite the strangely silent mystery girl.
"Can I help you?" He asked, hoping that would prompt a response. However, the girl merely fidgeted in place, before raising one hand to her head idly winding a bit of her protruding hair around her fingers.
"...Okay then," He said, feeling fairly nonplussed at this point. "If that's the case…"
He raised one arm, intending to grab the door and politely close it, so he could disengage with the odd person. However, as he did so, the girl violently jerked backward, stumbling as she did so. Without thinking, Lincoln lurched forward and slid his arms around her midsection, trying to steady her.
"Miss?" He asked, trying to sound kindly as he took in her shallow breathing and the redness that was creeping across what bits of her face he could see. "Is everything alright? Do you need me too—"
ZAAAP
Lincoln's body went limp and he fell forward, the last thing he saw being one of the girl's arms wrapping around him, cradling his body against her, while the other withdrew from where it had been positioned at his back, a still sparking, metallic device still clutched in her hand.
And then...blackness.