AN: I'm back at school now, but summer session is looking a lot more mangable than last semester was, so I'm pretty confident that it won't be impacting my ability to write between now and Fall. Which means that my ability to update will mainly be limited by how inspired I get to write. We'll see how that goes.
Guest: Carol and Becky generally make it into my fics in one form or another. The real question is whether they'll show up here or in Golden Age first. Given how both stories are progressing, even I can't make that call at this point.
nuuo: Luna wasn't officially part of the resistance, but it's pretty difficult to escape a war that encompasses the whole planet, and she still did her part. And yeah, that's a pretty accurate description of Luna's combat capabilities. She hits hard, but she's as fragile as any normal human. Also, I really didn't need more experience from jury duty. I'd already made a career out of legal writing long before I started attending law school, so I've seen more than my share of trial proceedings. Also, it was a civil trial, so it wasn't an issue of guilt, but an issue of liability. Those are two very different concepts. And the case was novel, academically speaking, but not particularly interesting.
Aquarius231: Honestly, I didn't intend for that to be a recurring thing. But it's easy to ship Lincoln with basically anyone, and I think he and Paula would definitely make a cute couple. Maybe someday I'll come up with a story where I can actually explore that. But I agree. While Lynncoln is obviously the superior ship, I'm surprised that there isn't more fan content of Lincoln and any of her friends. I think he'd make a cute couple with any of them.
Dragonkeeper10: We're not quite at kidnapping yet, as Lincoln will explain. At best, it's false imprisonment. Though there's definitely facts to support an attempted kidnapping charge.
"Wait, Luna!" Lincoln protested as he wriggled in place, trying to get his rebellious legs to obey the frantic commands he was sending them. "Let's talk about this!"
"I wanted to talk first!" The brunette replied. "And afterward, you were going to walk out of here with us. But thanks to quick-draw over here, we had to spend way too much time sitting here with you zonked out. So now there isn't enough time for that."
"How long are you going to hold that against me?" Asked Sam, pouting.
"...Well," Luna drawled, rolling her eyes at the other girl. "Considering that now I've got to kidnap my little bro? At least a little while longer. Few hours, tops. Now help me with em, would you?"
"Nononono!" Lincoln interjected, flailing his cuffed arms as best as he could. "Right now it's just false imprisonment. It doesn't become kidnapping until you've detained the victim and—URK!"
Partway through Lincoln's impassioned plea, Sam hopped to her feet, wrapped her arms around Lincoln's midsection, and with only a slight grunt of exertion, flung the young man over her left shoulder.
"Sorry, Linc," She said sweetly as she turned to address the half of Lincoln that was currently propped up on her shoulder. Which, presumably by sheer coincidence, happened to be his lower half. "Didn't mean to interrupt you. You were saying something about detainment and…?"
"A-as...portation," He murmured absentmindedly, as he now found himself face to face with the Sharp girl's well-toned derriere.
He cleared his throat. "Asportation. Meaning movement. Through...force...or fear. Wow, you are...weirdly strong, Sam,"
"Aw, thanks!" She said, flexing her free arm. "You can't really see it through the jacket, but I do try to keep in shape. Gotta stay fit to keep up with Luna, after all."
"His eyes are down there, babe," Said Luna.
"Yeah, I know. Hey!"
Ignoring her girlfriend's protest, Luna stepped in, and after some minor adjustments, Lincoln was now slung across Sam's shoulders in a fireman's carry, with his head now resting alongside Sam's.
"Well...this is a little less fun," Said the blonde, sniffing indignantly.
"Good," Luna nodded approvingly before turning her attention back to her captive brother, her features softening as she placed one comforting hand upon his cheek.
"This...really isn't going the way I'd planned, little bro." She said softly, her eyes silently imploring him to believe her. "But I promise, this is all for the best!"
"But Lu—MRPF!"
Before he could finish articulating his latest protestation, Luna leaned in and pressed her lips to his, ensnaring Lincoln in a passionate kiss. All complaints abruptly ceased as the siblings stood there, unconventionally, but undeniably romantically intertwined, until finally they parted once more. Luna stumbled backward as the connection was broken, breathless, if her heaving chest was any indication.
"S...sorry, about that," Luna panted, looking equal parts tired and elated. "I've just...been...waiting...a long time...for that,"
"Murble furble," Said Lincoln, equally breathless and looking slightly dazed.
"I'm happy to report that he liked it too," Sam said, a large grin plastered across her face. "Scratch that, he really...err, really really...um, really, really...DUDE!"
She turned to Lincoln, her face now scarlet, her expression a mixture of befuddlement and wonder.
"Why the hell do you wear jeans?" She hissed, her eyes wide with shock. "Why would you do that to yourself?"
"...I think I'd like to get back to the kidnapping now," Lincoln muttered, his face flushing with embarrassment.
"I missed this kind of stuff," Luna chuckled, smiling in bemusement at her girlfriend and her brother, who were seemingly competing to see who could do the best tomato impersonation. "I really did. But as fun, as this is, we've gotta get moving before—"
CRASH
Luna winced as the sound of shattering glass cut off her warning, which in her experience was almost certain to prove prophetic now. Sighing in annoyance, and immediately feeling the good cheer that had been building within her over the last few minutes drain from her body, she whirled around, hands outstretched, fingers spread wide, fully prepared to confront whatever it was that was trying to ruin her rescue attempt.
She wasn't expecting the intruder to be a fairly large, white sphere, which was resting a short distance from Lincoln's now shattered kitchen window. Bits of glass strewn about on the floor strongly indicated that someone had thrown it through the window. The question, of course, was why, followed almost immediately by—
"What the hell is that?" Luna muttered aloud, giving voice to her thoughts. She had started to turn away, trying to get a glimpse of her companions without taking her eyes off the mysterious object—
"Oooooh…"
—only to start in surprise as it began to moan, causing Luna to instantly refocus all her attention on the increasingly strange intruder.
"S-sorry, Lincoln," Said the oddly feminine voice, slightly slurring its words. To her amazement, the orb began to stretch and contort itself, expanding upward and outward in some places, while stretching and lengthening in others. At one point it had taken on an intensely disturbing-looking humanoid shape, one which brought to mind any number of scary stories shed read on the internet as a child, and she very nearly blasted the thing on principle. Before she could, however, a face emerged from the rapidly shifting matter, one which was decidedly human looking. Despite knowing that looking human in no way ruled out the subject being any number of other things, she stayed her hand. Not long after, where the sphere once lay, there was now a tall, tanned, black-haired young woman wearing white, form-fitting spandex, a bright red starburst emblazoned upon her chest.
With a costume like that, there was a pretty good chance the girl was a metahuman of some variety. With the breaking and entering, her first guess would have been villain, but villains typically didn't apologize for property damage, so hero seemed more likely. She was wearing one of those domino masks, which had never made any sense to Luna. They were extremely popular among both the hero and villain crowds, but all they did was cover up the area immediately around your eyes. How much help could they possibly be in hiding your identity when 90% of your face was fully uncovered?
...She was also cute. Luna hated that was among the first things her mind noticed about the intruder, but the girl's costume left little to the imagination and it was undeniable that she was very attractive. There was a cute, attractive girl standing in her brother's apartment. And Luna hated that.
"Thought your window would be open," The girl continued, wobbling a little unsteadily as she straightened up. "Normally you have it open around this...oh!"
Now she was looking at them. In Luna's experience, this was the point where things started exploding. And objectively, she would have been forced to admit that she wouldn't have blamed the presumed hero for reacting that way, given that Sam was in plain view with Lincoln still slung across her shoulders, and Luna herself was doing her best to look as threatening as possible. To her surprise, however, the girl merely smiled at them. It was strained, with the girl's expression leaving little doubt as to the anxiety she was feeling, but she was clearly trying her best to look friendly, and her stance remained non-threatening.
"You...have...guests, Lincoln," She said, slowly nodding to herself. She turned to Luna and held one hand outstretched. "I don't think we've met. Hi, my name's Stella."
A moment was needed for Luna to process this turn of events.
"STE—" Lincoln's lips were moving, but the sounds that would normally accompany such movements abruptly ceased after a discrete gesture from Luna. The elder Loud paused for a moment, waiting for some sort of reaction from the black-haired girl, but she seemingly failed to notice Lincoln's unexplained silencing. Instead, the girl merely continued to stand there, smiling that unfathomably awkward smile of hers.
"Stella?" Luna asked, looking the girl up and down. This, she noticed, because she noticeably flinched, her cheeks becoming tinged with pink.
"W-well, not when I'm like this," 'Stella' corrected herself. "My hero name is Polymer, and Lincoln's my...f-friend."
"That so?" Luna asked, shooting a sideways glance Sam's way. The blonde just shrugged, clearly as bewildered as she was. "Well, I'm his sister. So if you don't mind…"
"Oh wow!"
Luna reeled backwards as Stella was suddenly right in her face. Before she could respond to having her personal space so suddenly invaded (with violence very much being a possibility), the heroine clasped both her hands around one of Luna's and began to shake them vigorously.
"That's so great!" She exclaimed, pumping Luna's stolen limb more and more furiously with each passing second. "Which one? There's like, ten of you, right? Are you the funny one? Or the dirty one? Wait, that came out wrong—!"
Luna's reaction was instantaneous. "None of your business!" She snarled, yanking her hand away.
Immediately she felt bad about it. The spandex-clad girl's face fell, seemingly crushed by the rejection, and Luna was left feeling like she'd kicked a puppy. Which was something she'd had experience with, but in her defense, the puppy in question was part land-shark and had laser eyes. Even so, the level of emotional damage this girl was capable of dishing out was impressive. Assuming it wasn't genuine, she probably could have taught Lola a few things.
Luna sighed. "Look, kid, I'm...sorry. I just...really don't like strangers grabbing me out of the blue like that."
"But, yeah. I'm...Luna," She continued, sidling a little bit further away from the heroine and a little closer to Sam and Lincoln. Already she was kicking herself for giving out her name, but for whatever reason, she just couldn't stop herself.
"Anyway, as you can see, we're kind of in the middle of something here. I haven't seen my little bro in a very, very long time. So, maybe you can go back to doing...hero stuff, I'm guessing, and we can get back to catching up. Sound good?"
Stella lowered her head, her eyes disappearing beneath her bangs. Her shoulders sagged, her tall form slumping, very nearly collapsing in on itself. The end result was a stance that radiated sorrow. It was...strangely nostalgic, bringing to mind a certain sister who lived and breathed such moods. It was becoming difficult for Luna to retain her composure, but she gathered her willpower and forced down the retraction that was threatening to erupt from her mouth. She needed to stay strong. A random, unaccounted-for hero was the last thing she needed mucking up her rescue operation.
It didn't matter that Stella was cute as a button (in spite of having a body that could stop traffic). It didn't matter that this girl was apparently so close to Lincoln, that her brother had seemingly shared details of their family life with her. Which...was certainly irritating. Luna didn't want other girls getting close to her brother, that was her job now! Lincoln wouldn't need anyone else now that she was around! And possibly Sam, which was irritating in its own way, given that her girlfriend was displaying clear symptoms of the condition Lisa had long ago dubbed "Lincoln struck", a phenomenon that had forced the Loud sisters to work round the clock to constantly deter or redirect the seemingly endless number of potential suitors their brother kept inadvertently attracting, forever following him home like lost puppies. Lost, hungry, interloping puppies.
Still, Sam, at least, was an acceptable compromise on that front. If anything, it would probably make their new arrangement run considerably more smoothly, given that the three of them would be living together from now on. And the thought of her best gal on one arm, and her little bro on the other, their own fingers entwining as Luna held them close...that definitely wasn't an unattractive mental image.
So consumed with her inner struggle (among other things) was Luna, that she scarcely registered Stella inching forward, and she was only vaguely aware when the tanned girl reached forward and once again clasped Luna's hand between her own. The rush of fury that normally resulted from such contact was nowhere to be found, replaced instead by a polite notification from Luna's nervous system that she was, in fact, being held. And Stella's grip was...considerably stronger than it had been...previously…
"I don't think so…"
So sudden was the shift in tone, that all Luna could do was blink in surprise. Stella had spoken, audio and visuals had confirmed as much, but her voice was completely devoid of the anxiousness from earlier. It was calm, cold, and utterly devoid of humor. And her own hand was now beginning to strongly protest the pressure that was being applied by the white-gloved hands that were clamped around it.
"Wha—" Luna began, only to be abruptly cut off as Stella's hands suddenly quadrupled in size. Luna silently writhed in pain, utterly convinced from the pressure now being applied to her arm that her bones were being ground together.
"Because it really looks like you're trying to kidnap my friend here," Stella hissed, staring Luna dead on, her gaze without a shred of mercy.
"For fuck's sake, Lincoln!" Luna silently cursed to herself as she received a first-hand education as to what a 'bone-crushing grip' actually entailed. "Why do you always bring them home with you?"