AN: Liam is dead to me now. I like the guy well enough most of the time, but The Really Loud House gave him a mercifully short-lived crush on Luna, and given how many Lunacoln and Sunacoln stories I've written, I feel personally attacked by that plotline even existing.

Something something, angry shipper rant, rawr.

Ok, I feel better now, enjoy the chapter. And if you haven't seen it yet, go check out the new chapter of Archetypal we posted a few days ago. Hero did a great job with it.

Wolvenstrom: Stella is still made of flesh. It's just really malleable flesh that she can manipulate on a molecular level, albeit mostly instinctively since the intricacies of manipulating your physiology to that extent would probably drive someone insane. At least, that's the comic book science explanation I'm going with. But there is a reason I chose her to be the one to confront Luna, yeah. And also, yes, despite her quirks, Stella is a professional hero. She's just held back by inexperience and her own idiosyncrasies. But when she's not bumming around Lincoln's apartment she is out and about fighting crime and whatnot. She just needs the right motivation to be that way in the place she normally considers to be a safe space.

"It's...not...a kidnapping!" Luna hissed through her grit teeth, fighting the urge to cry out in pain a Stella maintained her vice-like grip on the musician's arm. She glanced over her shoulder and shot an imploring look Lincoln's way. "Tell her, Linc!"

"Um...yeah," Lincoln blinked in surprise at the sudden return of his voice but then began to nod emphatically. "Strictly speaking, a kidnapping needs—"

"Ass," Sam supplied, the satisfied smile on her face conveying that she genuinely thought she was being helpful.

"...Asportation," Lincoln added. "Which means the victim needs to be moved. So, technically, we're not quite there yet."

"Oh." To Luna's surprise, the animosity instantaneously vanished from Stella's face, her expression instead turning thoughtful as she seemed to consider Lincoln's words. After a few moments, she nodded in agreement, and immediately the pressure being applied to Luna's arm was dramatically reduced, to the point of barely being noticeable. "That makes sense."

The brunette breathed a sigh of relief under her breath. She wasn't too relieved, however, seeing as how she was still very much in the heroine's literal clutches.

"You just...accepted that?" Luna asked, cautiously. Still wary of the harder edges that had poked through the other girl's amicable facade.

"Of course," Said Stella. "Lincoln's great at that law stuff. I'm always consulting him about things that come up with my hero work, and his advice is always right on the money."

"I don't give you legal advice, Stella!" Lincoln shouted, with a suddenness that sounded instinctive. "Remember?"

"Right, right," Her tanned cheeks darkened a few shades. "I just...say stuff around him, and Lincoln...uh, randomly responds with legal facts and observations that just...coincidentally happen to be relevant to my problem?"

That statement didn't sound like it should have been a question. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lincoln give the tall girl a thumbs up, and that gesture provided the context she needed. As did Stella noticeably exhaling in relief.

"I can't wait till he's an actual lawyer," Stella added, lowering her voice. "Then I can just have him say all that squirmy-wormy law stuff for me."

Lincoln was...studying law? Despite her predicament, Luna found her gaze drawn back to her little brother. There was a brief flash of melancholy, that nugget of information serving to underscore even more emphatically just how much time they'd been apart. How much time they'd lost. But beyond that, there was an undeniable feeling of pride.

The kid had been devastated when his boyhood dream of being a superhero had seemingly been snatched away, and then given to his sisters as an extra spiteful twist of the knife. His desire to help people, and make a difference, trampled on by an indifferent universe, and being forced to watch that opportunity instead being given to a bunch of immature kids who immediately set about squandering their new abilities on selfish indulgences and petty infighting, herself very much included. But he hadn't given up. He'd found his own way, just like he always did. And if that ringing endorsement was any indication, he was apparently pretty damn good at it.

Just like she always knew he'd be.

"Right on, little bro," Luna said, softly, a smile blossoming onto her face as she felt her heart swell with pride.

"Waaaaaait…"

Luna turned her attention back to her captor, who was now staring at her, visibly confused.

"What?!" She asked, her smile twisting into a scowl as her good mood immediately dissipated.

"Are you actually his sister?" Stella asked.

"Of course I am!" Luna shouted. "Why would I lie?"

Stella raised a single, incredulous eyebrow.

"...Why would I lie about that," Luna corrected herself.

"I don't know!" Stella shot back. "Why would you kidnap your own brother!"

"Because his legs aren't working!"

"Hon?" Sam called out, laughing nervously. "Maybe you don't want to draw attention to that part!"

"I—" Luna cut herself off by slapping her free hand over her face. She exhaled loudly as she slowly allowed the limb to droop down until eventually, it was swinging limply at her side. Now, she was all business again.

"Look, kid," She said. "I know you're doing your job, and I know you think you know what's going on here, but you don't. This is a family matter. Let me go, and walk away."

"What? No!" Stella shouted indignantly. Luna gritted her teeth as the pressure began increasing on her captive arm once more. "Let him go. Then we'll talk about what I'm doing with you!"

Luna's expression hardened as she slowly brought her dangling hand up, bending it 90 degrees at the elbow.

"Last chance, kid," She hissed, fighting through the pain.

"You're! Not! Taking him!" Stella growled, her eyes flashing with fury.

Luna's fingers curled inward, her thumb and middle finger pressing tightly together. "Fine. Have it your way, Hero…"

"Luna, ST—!"

Lincoln's cry came a hair's breadth too slow. A crisp, clear noise sliced through the air, rapidly swelling in volume and intensity at an unbelievable rate. Within the span of a single heartbeat, the sound had grown from loud—

SNAP

To deafening, exploding throughout the apartment, windows, and glassware shattering as Luna's sonic assault spread across the relatively small expanse of space. All accomplished with a single, seemingly innocuous motion. And yet, it was only collateral damage.

Wedged into the adjoining wall to the apartment entrance was Stella's body, suspended against the wall in clear defiance of gravity's hold. As the moments began to blend into one another, the body slowly began to sag, slowly sliding off, and down the flat surface, until it rested limply upon the ground. At the point of impact, visible cracks in the wall, crimson streaks marking where the body had previously been.

"STELLA!"

Lincoln squirmed furiously in place, trying to wriggle free from Sam's grasp. It was, of course, to no avail, the blonde had an advantageous hold on him, and her two perfectly good arms were more than a match for his still-deadened legs.

Nevertheless, he still managed to muss up her hair something fierce.

"D-dude!" Sam protested, as a few errant strands of hair drooped down past her eye-line and over her face. Needing her hands to hold onto her prisoner, she had no other option but to try and blow her rebellious locks out of the way.

"Hey! Quit it!" She whined, between futile puffs of air and didn't accomplish much beyond moving the hair around.

"Let me go!" Lincoln growled, now struggling twice as hard. "STE—!"

"Calm the hell down!" Luna barked, turning to face the pair. In spite of himself, Lincoln flinched, his eyes instinctively squeezing shut. He was very much aware that in Luna's hands, words could hurt in a very tangible way. However, on this occasion, they were just that. Words.

Gingerly opening his eyes, Lincoln found himself face to face with his formerly wayward sister. In spite of the harshness of her tone only a few seconds earlier, she didn't look angry. She just looked...tired, her posture sagging, eyes lidded. It was very much at odds with the girl he'd just seen in action.

"Do you really think I'd waste some dumb kid who was just trying to do her job?" She asked, wearily.

"I...I don't know what to think. Luna," He replied, numbly, her name coming almost as an afterthought. To his surprise, now she was the one who flinched, a soft hiss escaping her lips as if he'd been the one with the power to wound her in such a manner.

"That's...fair, I guess," She admitted, sighing. "But for what it's worth, no, that wasn't a kill shot. I didn't want her dead, just out of the way for a while."

Lincoln looked to the form of his fallen friend, at the cracks that now adorned his wall. At the colored trail that marked her descent to the ground.

"I just winged her," Said Luna, exasperatedly to his unasked question. "If that had been a direct hit, we'd be picking bits of her off the wall now."

There was a beat of silence as Lincoln tried to formulate his follow-up question.

"How would you know—"

"Don't," Luna interjected, sharply cutting him off, "...ask questions you don't want to know the answer to."

Her expression became pained, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.

"Please, Linc," She pleaded with him. "If nothing else, just trust me on this. As soon as we get out of here, I swear we'll put in a call and get her some medical attention. She's a hero, as long as we mention that she'll get preferential treatment. And if we leave now, they'll get here in plenty of time to make sure she—"

"Uuuuuuugh."

For the second time that day, a fourth voice abruptly joined their conversation. However, given the circumstances, this time their reactions were somewhat more...exuberant.

"WHAT THE—?!"

"HOLY CRAP!"

"WAAAH!"

...Truth be told, Lincoln honestly couldn't remember which one had been him. One moment he'd been having a heart-to-heart with Luna. The next, everyone was screaming. And the moment after that, which his brain was now vaguely recognizing as the present, Lincoln and his two captors were now several feet deeper into the apartment, frantically looking around for the source of the voice, with Lincoln himself now being cradled in Sam's arms. Like she was a frightened child, and he was a trusted stuffed animal. Which was impressive, given that he was several inches taller than her. Before he could vocalize any sort of protest, Luna abruptly backed into him, leaving Lincoln sandwiched between the two girls. Words failed him as his brain abruptly rebooted.

Which allowed him to witness the extremely disturbing sight of Stella's body lurching upward off the ground. It stiffened, and straightened, filling the air with the sound of bones crunching as it did so, setting Lincoln's teeth on edge. Mercifully, it did end, though the Loud brother could honestly not say how long he stood there, watching the macabre scene. But when it ended, the thing that had looked so very much like his friend's corpse was now sitting upright, and leaning against the wall.

"Oooow!" Stella moaned, wincing in obvious pain. "That hurt so much more than the glass!"

"What the hell are you?" Luna asked, wonder, revulsion, and just a tiny bit of fear intermingling in her voice. "That attack kicks like a gunshot!"

"We call it a 'Snap Shot'," Sam whispered into Lincoln's ear.

"No! We don't!" Luna protested, briefly turning a baleful eye on her girlfriend. "I don't name my attacks. That's what those morons playing cops and robbers do!"

Lincoln was barely paying attention to the exchange. Luna's movements were causing her plush posterior to grind against his crotch, and it was taking all of his willpower to avoid embarrassing himself further.

"And on top of that!" She continued, turning her attention back to Stella. "I beaned you with the friggin' wall! You should be out cold from the impact alone!"

"I'm a...polymorph," Stella wheezed, sucking in lungfuls of air between words. "Means I'm...pretty tough. And I heal good. See?"

Wincing, she twisted to the side. There was now a large, horizontal tear in her costume, the fabric that had once been there now gone, exposing a tantalizing glimpse of the heroine's shapely hip. The skin that was there was now bright pink, standing in stark contrast to her normally tanned skin. Which seemed to suggest that it was freshly grown. But true to her word, aside from the damage to her costume she looked otherwise unharmed.

"Wow," Said Lincoln, marveling at the feat of superhuman resilience. It may have been his imagination, but it seemed like Stella sat a little straighter after his utterance.

"It also means I can do...THIS!"

Which a fluidity completely at odds with the slow, halting movements she'd displayed moments, earlier, Stella jerked one arm forward as if she was throwing a punch. The limb extended to its full length, then continued, launching towards the trio, extending across the room with alarming speed. Lincoln was barely able to register the movement before Stella's over-extended fist had crossed the halfway point, and in the next moment, it was nearly upon them.

It was a bold bit of misdirection. But it wasn't enough.

With surprising reflexes, and an ease that bordered on contemptuous, Luna batted aside the fleshy missile with one hand, a loud WHUMPF accompanying the initial contact. For an instant the two limbs remained in place, locked in mid-parry, but in the next Stella's arm suddenly careened off course and slammed into the far wall of Lincoln's apartment, eliciting a cry of pain from the heroine.

"Nice trick," Said Luna, smirking as she rubbed her palms together. "Here's mine."

She drew her arms back, and then slammed them together, causing a cacophonous explosion of sound and force to erupt, bits of floor and ceiling crumbling away as it tore across the living space and slammed into Stella. For the second time that day, the girl was flung against the apartment wall. But this time, she crashed straight through it, the impact shattering what little remained of the wall and sending the girl flying out into the hallway.

"It's always my wall," Lincoln groaned. "Also, STE—Woah!"

Lincoln was cut off mid-shout as Sam unceremoniously threw him over her shoulders once more, shooting the younger man a dazzling smile and affectionately ruffling his hair.

"Don't think I forgot about you, cutie."

"Remember to grab your case, babe." Said Luna, peering out into the darkened hallway.

"Got it right here," Sam affirmed as she snatched up her guitar case, apparently fully capable of managing both it's weight and that of her passenger. "You think she'll stay down this time?"

"Hell no," Luna scoffed. "You saw how she walked off my first shot. But it looks like healing tires her out, so I'm hoping that second blast will give us enough time to vamoose."

"And since you knocked her right into our primary exit route, potentially reducing it to rubble, you're thinking…?"

Luna sighed. "Plan C."

"Aw, nertz!" Sam groaned, "I hate Plan C."

"I know."

"Uh, girls?" Lincoln asked as the duo began making their way across the apartment, heading towards one of the windows Luna had shattered earlier. "What exactly is Plan—"

"Shhh," Sam interjected, planting one finger across his lips. "Believe me when I say you'd rather I not tell you. But...I've only got one hand to work with here, so you're gonna want to hang on tight."

"Why!?"

Standing in front of the window, Luna cleared the remaining glass with another snap of her fingers. As well as a good chunk of the window frame. And the wall surrounding the window.

"Grab on when you're ready, Sam."

"Righto," said the blonde, hooking her free arm around her girlfriend's waist. "Aaaand...OOF!"

Sam giggled, her voice sounding slightly constricted.

"Yeah, Linc's...Linc's ready too, apparently. Maybe not that tight, sweetie."

"Right then."

And with that, Luna leaped out through the hole in Lincoln's wall that only vaguely resembled a window now, dragging her girlfriend and her brother along as gravity quickly took its toll on the trio."

A lot of thoughts ran through Lincoln's head as he found himself locked in free fall, with the ground rapidly rushing toward his frail, fleshy body, ranging from incoherent terror to deeply regretting the series of events that led him to this particular moment in his life. But chief among those thoughts was "I really wish I'd gotten an apartment closer to the ground!"

The ground, which was, of course, alarmingly close now. It was at this point, however, that he noticed Luna inhaling deeply. And, feeling like he had a pretty idea of what would come next he held onto Sam just a little bit tighter.

Luna exhaled.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

A sonic blast far greater in magnitude than anything he'd previously heard from his supernaturally vocal sister erupted from her deceptively human-looking frame, the sheer force of the blast causing Luna and her passengers to momentarily reverse their movement, and gain some altitude.

And then gravity said "NOPE!" and the fall began anew.

WHAM!

But, mercifully, this time from a height that was significantly closer to the ground. Replaying the events in his head, Lincoln was actually impressed by the ingenuity his sister had displayed with her powers thus far. And much later, once the terror of falling several stories wasn't quite so fresh in his mind, it was likely he would look back on the incident with excitement and even a little humor.

But for the moment, he needed to process the intense, physical pain ravaging his body. The only small consolation his nervous system could offer him, was that in spite of the impact he'd suffered upon hitting the ground, the ground itself was oddly soft, and warm.

"Anyone dead?" Luna's voice, albeit huskier than it usually was, likely due to the stress of pulling off a scream that would have destroyed a lesser being's vocal cords.

"I hate Plan C" Came a soft whimper in reply. Sam, presumably. "But on the plus side...I'm pretty sure I broke Lincoln's fall."

That...explained things. But at this point Lincoln didn't have it in him to be embarrassed anymore, so he allowed himself to sag a little more against the warm, inviting body that had cushioned his fall.

"Hey...guys?" He asked a moment later, his voice muffled by the mane of blonde hair currently obscuring his face. "Anyone else hearing that—"

BOOM!

For the second time in an incredibly short interval, Luna'd had her body flung away from an explosion of force. The problem was, she hadn't created this one. And as her head once again slammed into the soft, but not quite soft enough dirt that had lined her planned escape route, she was reminded that this kind of thing hurt a hell of a lot more when you didn't know it was coming.

She struggled to right herself and climb to her feet, but stumbled, her feet seeking footing, but only finding it considerably lower than the level the rest of her body was at. Biting her lip, and pushing through the dull aching that permeated her body, she rolled onto her back and propped herself up with her arms.

There was a hole now. One which bordered on being a crater, given how deep it was, and she herself was on the precipice. Hence her difficulty standing up.

Far more alarming, however, was the person standing in the center of the thing, right at the point of impact. Someone who, despite currently being located quite a few feet below Luna's current elevation, still managed to exude a palpable aura of menace.

"Hey there, sis!" Lynn Loud called out, cracking her knuckles and smiling a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Long time no see!"