Luna just stared at the boy in front of her, a boy who looked a lot like Lori did a few years ago. But there was no way this was Lori, none of them had the skills to create this good a disguise. Even Luan and Lola, arguably the most talented of the sisters in terms of applying makeup and other accessories, couldn't pull off a look like this. But did that mean that this… boy, actually was a male Lori?
If so, then that meant only one thing.
"We're not home." Lincoln said, voicing all their thoughts.
"I said who the hell are you? And why do you look like Luke?" The male Lori demanded.
Uh… this is the Loud house, right?" Luna asked.
"Duh. Now tell me who you are."
"Luna, I think I know where we are." Lincoln said, making his sister look towards him.
"You do?"
The male Lori glanced towards the white-haired boy, raising an eyebrow. "Will someone please tell me who the hell you are? Because I'm about to call the cops on your asses."
Lincoln stepped forward. "I got two questions, do you have nine brothers and one sister?"
The male Lori crossed his arms. "Yeah, what of it?"
"And is one of your brothers really really smart?"
"Yeah, that would be Levi."
"We need to talk to him. Tell him it involves the multiverse and variants, and if he wants proof, we have it."
The male Lori looked unconvinced and mostly annoyed.
"Your sister is named Linka, isn't she?" Lincoln asked. "Don't you find it weird that I look like her?"
"Very, but you could just be some creep crushing on her."
"Just get your Lisa, or whatever their name is here." Luna insisted.
The male Lori frowned at her before closing and locking the door. Luna pounded, but then slumped in defeat.
"Lincoln, what was that about?" Stella asked, with the others looking interested.
"Years ago I had a weird dream, where I was in a world where all my sisters were my brothers instead. It wasn't all that great honestly, then it got to where I was the one girl in the family. I don't remember all the details, but there's a lot I still can."
"But that was just a dream. It can't be real." Sam argued.
"Actually, in an infinite amount of worlds, there's bound to be a couple that just so happen to mirror our own dreams. Maybe it's just a coincidence, or perhaps when we dream we enter a whole new state of consciousness and actually see into other worlds." Lucy theorized.
Sam blinked. "So does that mean in that dream where I'm running through a forest naked trying to escape a killer clown, somewhere there's a world where that's actually happening to me?"
Stella gasped and blushed. "Oh shit, what about those dreams where we show up to school naked? Admit it, we've all had that one."
Everyone shuddered at the idea of that being a reality for them.
"Why are we here in the first place?" Luna asked, coming back to them. "I thought we were supposed to go home, not to another world."
"I thought so too." Haiku added, with Jigglypuff nodding.
"Lisa did say that after the first world we would be brought back to our own." Lincoln noted.
"She also said that if we missed the timer we might never get back. But when the hour was over we stayed a little longer and could still leave." Lucy added.
"Did we screw up already? Are we ever going to get back home?" Luna asked.
Lincoln took out the remote and checked the screen. It wasn't that different from a digital watch, with a time display counting down from two hours and four icons, one in each corner. Top right had a battery icon, which looked a little over half full. Top left had a letter G on it. Bottom left had the number 063 shown. And the bottom right had what looked like an infinity symbol on it.
"Hold on, I remember this looking different a bit ago." He said. "I can't remember exactly what, but there was something else here when we were about to leave Sonic's world."
"What does it matter? We're stuck here for two hours and we have nowhere to go." Luna groaned.
The door unlocked and creaked open, drawing their attention. They saw a four year old boy who looked like he took fashion advice from Dexter's Laboratory. And who had an expression like he was judging everyone in his field of vision.
"Judging from the looks of you, I'd theorize that you all have gone to great lengths to perform some tomfoolery on par with my comedic sibling unit, or you are actually telling the truth about multiversal variants. I shall give you one chance to give me reason to conclude which hypothesis to stick with."
Luna rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, that's Lisa if she was born a boy for sure. No doubt about it."
"Levi Loud, could you take a look at this and see what's wrong with it?" Lincoln asked, holding out the remote.
Levi took it and examined it. "Hmm… it doesn't look like a store-bought toy, the material is too high quality. Ah, I see a charging port. If I connect this to my computer, I should get a better idea of what this is."
"Can we come inside?" Lucy asked.
Levi looked her over as if studying her. "Very well, I suppose my brothers and parents will find you all fascinating, or at least entertaining."
"Careful guys, remember this is a house with ten boys in it. It's not going to be as clean as our home was." Lincoln warned, recalling the time in his dream he saw the bathroom.
Luna and Lucy shared a look, hoping he was exaggerating, but at the same time admitting he did have a point.
The six people lost from their world went inside, and the first thing they noticed was that this Loud house was indeed a lot less clean and had a bit of an aroma to it. Air fresheners were around quite literally everywhere, but there was an underlying scent of body odor. As if whoever lived here showered much less than they were supposed to. The house itself was also a little messy too, sure it wasn't like their home was spotless but no one had ever left their shoes and socks sprawled around the living room like they actually threw them off once they got inside.
"Hello, welcome to-" Mrs Loud greeted from the kitchen where she was washing dishes, but she froze when she saw three people who looked a lot like her children.
"I did not see this one coming." Lincoln said, just as shocked.
Mrs Loud was not Rita Loud, but Lynn Loud Sr as a woman. The hair was longer, the body was female, and there was lipstick on the lips, but otherwise they were a dead ringer for the Lynn Sr they knew.
"You're not Rita Loud, are you?" Sam asked.
"No, I'm Linda Loud, and you are?"
"Sam Sharp."
"Are you related to my son's bandmate?" Linda asked, glancing at Luna. "And why are you dressed like Luke?"
"Mom, remember when I explained to you about what a multiverse was?" Levi asked and his mother nodded. "It's possible that these six are from another world. Presumably a world where everyone is the opposite gender to what they are here."
Linda looked like the dots connected. "Oh, I see. So this girl here is Luke, but if Luke was born a girl."
"You're rather accepting of this." Stella noted.
"You're standing next to a Jigglypuff. If this is a joke, I'd say Lane has outdone himself this time and I want to see where this goes."
"Jigglypuff?" The balloon pokemon asked, afraid it had done something wrong.
A few others came into the living room. The male Lori had come back, and with him must have been the male versions of Lucy, Luna, and Leni. Along with must have been Linka, the female version of Lincoln.
"Holy cow." The male Luna said, looking at his girl counterpart.
"Geez Luna, looks like this you is more of a punk rocker." Sam noted.
Lucy stared uncomfortably at her own variant, who returned the stare in silence.
"These are my children, Loki, Lars, Luke, Loni, and Linka. Boys, this is… what are your names?" Linda introduced.
Each of the travelers gave their names. Luke gave Sam an odd expression, clearly surprised, Linka did the same with Stella and Lars did the same with Haiku.
"You're telling me that you guys come from a world where everyone is the opposite gender?" Luke asked.
"Not only that, but it looks like we're a little older too." Lincoln said, looking at Linka and seeing that she clearly wasn't a teenager.
"This is, like, so weird." Loni exclaimed.
"Why are you here?" Lars asked.
"We're trying to get home, but there seems to be something wrong with our machine." Lucy answered.
"Well if anyone can do something about it, Levi can." Loki claimed.
"Dinner won't be ready for a few hours, how about you boys take them for a walk around the neighborhood or something?" Linda offered.
"I'm down." Lincoln said, with his sisters nodding.
"Jigglypuff, can you stay here and wait?" Haiku asked.
The balloon pokemon looked unhappy.
"I'll stay here, keep them company."
"Alright, let us know if Lisa, I mean, Boy Lisa figures anything out." Lucy said and her friend nodded.
Loki shrugged and went for the door, opening it and allowing everyone to step outside.
"The neighborhood looks the same." Luna said, looking around.
"Not quite, a couple of colors are different." Lucy countered, seeing a house that was painted green here but she recalled being more of a faded dark blue in her world.
"Wait, if everyone's the opposite, then does that mean Barbie is a man in your world?"
"Barbie? Oh, you mean Bobby. Yeah, he's dating our sister Lori." Lincoln told him.
"I don't know if I like that mental image." Loki shuddered.
"What's the name of my counterpart here?" Stella asked, looking at Linka.
"I don't know who you are." Linka replied.
"Oh, I guess he hasn't moved here yet." Stella noted.
"Hey, if you're me but older, did we make it as a band?" Luke asked Luna.
"The Moon Goats? Yeah we're killing it, and we're trying to make our official demo tape."
Sam nodded happily. "We could give you and your Sam some ideas. Ooh, how is he? Is he called Sam too? Have you had your first kiss yet?"
Luke froze, and his siblings looked at him, confused.
"What does she mean Luke?" Loni asked.
Luke looked very uncomfortable but also angry.
"Are you into Sam?" Loki asked, sounding like this bothered him.
"Lay off me!" Luke declared, defensive.
"You're gay?" Lars asked, stunned.
"What, do you guys have a problem with that?" Lincoln asked.
"Of course we do! I don't want to share the bathroom with someone who's thinking about my dick!" Loki almost shouted.
"Oh get off your high horse Loki! If I was going to be into incest you sure as hell wouldn't be the brother I'd go for!" Luke argued.
Loki looked offended and disgusted. "You admitted it! I can't believe my own brother's gay!"
"I'm bi!" Luke defended.
"You're into dicks, you're gay! Period!"
"Suck the fuck up!" Luna spat, stepping up to the male Lori looking ready to punch him. "I can't believe you'd be such a homophobe!"
"Since when does not wanting to be raped make someone a homophobe?" Loki argued.
Luke looked deeply hurt by this, like his own brother had just tried to shoot him.
Luna however swung a fist and slugged Loki in the face, knocking him on his rear.
"Hey!" Loni, Lars, and Linka interfered, going by their downed brother.
"You bitch!" Loki cursed, rubbing his jaw.
"You fucking narcissist! You really think that every gay man in the world wants to have sex with you?! Even your own brother?!"
"Shut up!" Loki defended, getting back on his feet.
"No, you shut up!" Lincoln interjected, standing beside his sister. "My sister's right. Luke is still your brother. How could you possibly look at him and see a monster now?"
"He's no brother of mine anymore. He's just a pedophile waiting to strike and I'll be damned before I give him a chance to go after the rest of us!" Loki argued.
"Fine, be that way Sir-Farts-A-Lot!" Luke shouted, looking like he was restraining himself from hitting his sibling.
Loki on the other hand had no such restraint and moved to assault him. Lincoln went in and punched the blonde boy in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Loki fell to his knees clutching his gut and trying not to vomit while catching his breath.
Lincoln saw the dirty looks that Loni, Lars, and Linka were giving him, but none of them moved to retaliate.
"Stay the hell away from our house! All of you!" Loki hissed while his brothers helped him up, except for Luke.
"When we get our remote back, gladly." Luna spat.
"Until then, you're stuck with us." Sam added, crossing her arms.
Loki scoffed and headed back into the house, with the others following. Luke stayed outside, fuming, then went up to this world's Vanzilla in the driveway and kicked the side door.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He screamed, turning back to the visitors, making them jump back.
"Dude, we're sorry. We didn't mean to out you. We thought you were already out." Sam said, genuinely sorry.
"You should never assume!" He spat, then sighed. "Still, thank you guys for defending me."
"I can't believe the Lori here is such a jerk. Does this mean our Lori is the same and she just hid it?" Lucy asked.
Sam blinked. "Luke, call your Sam. Your brother might be angry enough to out him to his parents or bash the both of you on social media while he can."
Luke got worried and checked his pockets before realizing he didn't have his phone on him. Looking at his house for a moment, he went to go in, only to be stopped by Haiku and Jigglypuff practically being forced out.
"What on earth happened?" The goth girl asked.
Luke went past her and into the house, where he saw his mother try to talk to her firstborn son who was still in a mood. Ignoring him, Luke went up to his room and grabbed his phone. Then he went to Levi's room.
"How close are you to figuring that thing out?" He asked.
"It's not like updating an app, older brother unit. But I am acquiring intel. My dimensional counterpart must think in a manner similar to myself." Levi stated.
"So can you get them out of here?"
"It's only a matter of time."
"Luke!" Linda called from downstairs.
The male rockstar Loud went downstairs, seeing Loki still in a bad mood and his mother not too happy either.
"Luke, why did you attack your brother?"
Luke jolted in place as if he had just been slapped. "What? I never laid a hand on him! He was the one attacking me!"
"He socked me in the gut and said he's been planning on raping all of us in our sleep!" Loki defamed.
"Mom, he's lying!" Luke countered, gripping the stair bannister.
Linda looked at her children, seeing Loki enraged, Luke offended, and the others all uncomfortable. "Loni, what happened?"
All eyes were on the male Leni, who like the original wasn't a very good liar. "Uhh… what Loki said."
Once again, Luke looked like he had been slapped.
Linda looked at Lars and Linka, who both made it a point to avoid eye contact. Their body language showed they were very disturbed and wanted this to be over with.
"Mom, you're not seriously believing this, are you?" Luke asked.
"I don't know who to believe. I can't believe any of my boys would lie to my face."
"Do you believe that I could be a rapist or not?" Luke asked bluntly.
Linda said nothing, looking like she honestly could not figure out how to phrase the answer she knew she was supposed to give.
Luke grit his teeth. "Fine, clearly I'm not welcome here anymore! Don't come crying to me when you see what a jackass Loki really is!"
"Luke wait!" Linda called, but the rockstar Loud stormed out of the house. No one saw Loki smirk as the door slammed.
The Louds from another world saw Luke emerge and stomp off down the street. Linda came out but stayed at the front porch, unsure if she should follow.
"What happened?" Lincoln asked.
"I… I'm not sure. Loki said Luke punched him and said all sorts of horrible stuff."
"He's a liar. Loki was the one saying horrible stuff." Stella protested.
"And I'm the one who punch him." Lincoln confessed.
Linda blinked. "You?"
Lincoln nodded. "And I'd do it again. Your son is a homophobic jerk."
Linda looked towards the house for a moment, then back to the world jumpers. "Could you please keep an eye on my son? For now it might be best if he not come home. Just until tempers settle down."
Stella gasped. "You're kicking your son out of the house?"
Lincoln scoffed. "Wouldn't be the first time a Loud kicked someone out of the house."
Luna and Lucy grimaced but nodded.
"We'll make sure he's fine." Sam said to sooth the distraught mother, who smiled in thanks. Then the group went down the road to find Luke.
"He must have started running." Lucy said when they got to the end of the block and couldn't see which direction he had gone from there.
"If he's like me, then he's probably heading for Sam's house." Luna commented.
Sam's house wasn't exactly a block or two away from the Loud house, so getting there on foot took longer than they would have preferred. It didn't help that Haiku had to carry Jigglypuff like a beachball the entire way. Sadly, when they got there, they saw Luke and the male version of Sam sitting on the sidewalk. Male Sam had a backpack with him, and both boys looked hurt.
Male Sam looked up when he saw the others come up. At first he looked surprised then smiled a little, but his eyes were a little wet.
"So, looks like Luke was telling the truth."
"What happened?" Luna asked.
"Loki's already on social media saying every horrible thing he can. Sam's parents were alerted and as you can see, they're absolutely chipper about it." Luke replied, overly sarcastic at the end.
Male Sam stood up and came in to get a closer look at his female counterpart. "I have wondered what I'd look like as a woman. I must say, I love your outfit."
"Thanks." Sam said, feeling awkward. Her male counterpart looked very much like her younger self, except with shorter hair and a noticeable lack of feminine curves. The color of his colors were a little darker than she preferred, but the style was essentially the same as her favorite outfit when she was 15.
"So you guys are really from another world?" Male Sam asked.
"Yeah, one where our genders are different and our families are a lot more empathetic than they are here." Luna replied.
"When are you leaving?"
"As soon as we get our remote from Luke's brother."
"Can we go with you?" Male Sam asked.
"Really?" Everyone asked. Even Luke looked surprised.
"We both need a break from this place."
"Uh… the thing is right now, we can't promise that you'd be able to come back." Lincoln pointed out.
"Come back to what?" Male Sam asked, gesturing to his backpack.
Everyone looked at each other, unsure what to say.
"I don't mind." Haiku spoke up.
"Jigglypuff." The balloon pokemon added.
"Let's check in with Levi first. I don't think we should agree to anything until we know for a fact that these two can come back if they change their mind." Luna insisted.
"Alright, then let's go back."
"One second." Luke said, taking out his phone and dialing.
"This is not a good time." Levi said after a few rings.
"Any progress on the thing?" Luke asked.
"Some, but not as much as I'd prefer. Give me another hour. I'll wire you some cash from Mom's account so you can buy dinner if you promise to not call while I'm working again."
"Really?" Luke asked, half grateful and half skeptical.
"Consider it a small price to pay for her fencesitting right now. I'll call you when I have answers. Just keep our visitors close by."
Luke nodded. "Alright, thanks Levi. Later." He hung up the phone and put it in his pocket. "Anyone want to get a bite?"
Hours later it was night and the group were back in front of the Loud house with all the lights off. They had gone to Burpin' Burger and had a simple dinner, though Lincoln's group weren't that hungry. While eating, Luke and Sam had to silence their phones. Both of them kept getting messages from various people, some in support and some defaming them. But at no point did anyone from their families contact them offering anything positive.
"I just don't get it. Why was this so different than when my family found out?" Luna asked as they sat on the sidewalk. Right now they were waiting for Levi to come out and tell them what he discovered.
"Boys aren't as empathetic as girls are. In most cases." Lucy offered.
"No, I think it's just that society is more tolerant of same sex pairings when it's two women." Stella objected.
"Both are somewhat true, but it's more than that." Sam claimed. "Bisexuality still faces a lot of prejudice, even within the LGBTQ crowd. They see it as 'cheating' or 'not being gay enough' or 'afraid to admit we're gay'. Lesbians hate bisexual women because they believe she'll eventually leave for a man, and straight women hate bisexual men because they believe he'll eventually leave for a man too."
Male Sam nodded. "Basically people boil it all down to the question 'Do you like dicks?' and if the answer is yes then that's all the answer they need."
"So when Loki found out you're bi, as far as he was concerned you wanted to have sex with a man? Any man? Even your own brothers?" Lincoln asked.
Luke nodded. "Straight men see gay men the same way women see straight men. Perpetually horny and willing to sleep with anything that pops up on their radar. Consent or boundaries be damned."
Lincoln looked at Stella. 'Has she ever thought of me that way? Have any of the other girls I've known? Even my own sisters?'
There was a quiet noise behind them, and everyone turned to see Levi carefully leave the house. Making an effort to not make any noise. They stood up and Levi went up to them all, handing Luna the remote.
"I must say that the technology needed to create this device is impressive. Given enough time, I should be able to recreate it from the schematics and construct my own. But while I don't fully understand how it accomplishes its job, I have deduced the premise and I believe I know what your problem is."
"What is it?" Lincoln asked.
"Let me explain, this machine stores coordinates much like files on a computer. I believe these are ways to distinguish one dimension from another."
Levi then held out a piece of paper with a set of letters and numbers on them. There were ones such as M-616, C-137, and S-750.
"From what I have deciphered, this machine has 24 worlds saved on it. Each listed as such. I have no way of knowing which world is which, including your own. Given the display, I suspect this universe is the one listed as G-063."
"24 worlds? And that includes ours?" Luna asked.
"I suspect so, but unfortunately this means I have no way of knowing which one of the other 23 worlds are yours. It seems the only option you have is to go through the list one by one until you find it, crossing off every world that isn't yours in the process. I'm sorry, but there is no other way for you to get home."
"That's not that bad a problem." Stella claimed.
Levi grumbled. "I'm afraid that's not the problem. Only the synopsis. You see, in examining the setup, I figured out why the remote didn't bring you back to your original dimension in the first place."
Everyone blinked and leaned in. "Really? Why?"
Levi sighed. "It's a problem that is so simple, yet so monumentally stupid that I cannot believe a parallel version of myself would make such a grievous error."
"What is it? Tell us." Lucy insisted.
Levi took a deep breath. "The person who gave you this machine… she left it in what I can only describe as a shuffle mode."
Lincoln blinked and dropped his jaw. "A shuffle mode?"
"Seriously?" Stella and Sam asked and Levi nodded.
"Wasn't this in a Family Guy episode? How could any version of Lisa do something that Seth Macfarlene would make as a joke?" Luna added.
"I cannot unlock it. I tried but it acted as if doing so would delete the coordinates. Then you would never get back home. I'm afraid that for now, you're stuck with the machine as is." Levi continued.
"So we have 23 worlds to go through one by one, with no possible way of controlling or even predicting which world we go to next, and it's just as likely that we'll come back to a world we've already been to before we ever get to the one we're actually trying to get to. Is that the gist of the situation?" Haiku asked.
Levi nodded and handed her the paper. "Use this to keep track of them. I hope you find your world sooner rather than later. And this way, you'll know if you ever do come back here."
Luna looked to Luke and Male Sam. "So it looks like you guys can come back sooner or later. You still up for tagging along?"
"Sure. This will be a blast." Male Sam claimed.
"Having two Sams here is going to get confusing. Can we give one of them a nickname?" Lincoln asked.
"I've gone by Max before, might as well do it here." The male Sam offered.
"Alright Max, Luke, hope you're ready, because I'm in the mood to get out of this place." Luna stated.
"Should we save it for tomorrow morning? I don't know about you guys but I'm tired." Stella said, yawning.
"All in favor of sleeping in the yard or front room?" Luna asked.
No one said yes.
"Then let's hope the next world has somewhere more comfortable to sleep."
Luna held out the remote and pushed a button. A vortex formed in the air above the street.
"Fascinating." Levi said, adjusting his glasses.
"Tell everyone I'll be back someday Levi, and hopefully by then Loki won't be such a jerk anymore." Luke said, winking at his little brother.
"Seriously, don't let your brother be such a hater." Stella added.
Luna and Sam went through the portal first, followed by Lucy, Haiku, and Jigglypuff before Lincoln and Stella. Taking some deep breaths, Luke and Max followed them, and not too long after that, the wormhole closed.
"Now to figure out how to make my own." Levi said to himself. He turned towards the house but paused before going inside. "Still, I can't help but wonder, what if the lock on shuffle mode wasn't a mistake?"
Somewhere in Royal Woods, another portal appeared. No one was there to see it, and a figure cloaked in darkness stepped out. They pulled out a machine and began to scan the area.
"Is the traveler there?" A voice said through a headpiece on this person's ear.
"Scans show no presence, but they do confirm that her remote has been in this world before. If the lock is still on, it's only a matter of time before she returns."
"Then set it up." The intercom voice stated.
The cloaked person nodded and pulled out a metallic cub the size of an orange. Looking around, they saw a tall building and then pushed some buttons on their gloves and shoes, resulting in their palms and soles glowing green. They strolled up to the building and after making sure no one was looking, they climbed up the walls like Spider-Man.
"I wish we could just walk up the sides, but gravity won't go sideways."
Being careful to avoid the windows, the cloaked figure made it to the top of the building. There was a small garden area for people to come up and take a break in, likely the people who worked in the building. The cloaked figure got by one of the corners and placed the cube down, tapping the edge twice before it converted into an antenna of sorts.
"I've got it set up. Hopefully the locals will assume it's for wifi or whatever they use in this world. But the location means that if the traveler returns there could be a delay in tracking the signal and alerting us." The cloaked figure said.
"It's a risk we'll have to take. Just keep moving and planting more. We'll have the traveler cornered soon, and then we'll bring her in."
The cloaked figure nodded and took out their own remote, creating a portal. "We'll find you sooner or later, Lisa Loud. And then you'll pay for what you did."