The idea of the L-ementals was originally collectively created by AxelGripp, Khalalat, juribelit, Bry-Guy-1996, and Syfyman2xxx.
The cover image belongs to AxelGripp on DeviantArt and is used with permission.
This story is co-written with dubb1.
Chapter Six
"You ready for this?"
"Bring it."
In the ethereal realm, just outside the town of Nowhere, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne were in a prairie partaking in what had become a pastime of theirs, sparring.
"Sky Fist!" Lincoln said, turning his arm into wind and throwing a punch towards her from a distance.
"Slime Punch!" Ronnie Anne retaliated by stepping to the side and extended her own arm, turning it into purple sludge.
During the course of experimenting with their elemental states, Lincoln got the idea of naming his moves like an anime protagonist. Ronnie Anne believed that calling out your attacks in a fight was dumb, but over the years she couldn't help but participate with him in it.
Lincoln rolled to the side to avoid the attack, but Ronnie Anne's arm whipped around to ensnare him.
"Sky Shield!" He got up and spun around, creating a tornado barrier that stalled her from reaching him.
Ronnie Anne smirked and let her legs melt a little, which she then sent out in a stream towards him to sneak under the wind. Lincoln saw it and jumped up, turning his lower body into a cyclone to propel him.
'Ah good, she's less mobile. Now's my chance.' He thought, diving down. "Sky Dive!"
"Slime Wall!" Ronnie Anne recalled her slime trails and created a wall with it. Lincoln went over it with a gust, almost knocking her over. Once behind her he tried to get a hit in on her, but she spun her head around 360 degrees and spewed out purple slime, prompting him to back off.
"An Exorcist move, nice surprise." Lincoln praised, wiping off some slime that had gotten on him.
"That's not the surprise." Ronnie Anne remarked with a grin.
Confused, Lincoln was suddenly ensnared by slimy tendrils that came out from the rock underneath him. They wrapped around his arms, legs, neck, and waist. He struggled for a bit and she rushed in and tapped his forehead.
"I win."
Lincoln sighed. "Yep, you won this one. I would have won if we didn't have that 'no full body transformation' rule this time. Still, using acid to dig underground and sneak attack from below was a brilliant move. What do you call that one?"
Ronnie Anne withdrew her slime and became full flesh again. "Thank you. I'm thinking of calling that one Underground Acid. You up for more?"
"Not yet, let's check on Leslie first."
The two walked over to Nowhere, seeing a feature that had been added to the town over the last few months. There were stone walls ten feet high all around it, the only way in or out being a tall wooden door like what you'd see in a castle. Said door couldn't stop wind from going over it or slime from seeping through the gaps.
Once inside, they walked through Nowhere, which hadn't changed since they got here but unfortunately had gotten quieter. When the initial wave of infection had occurred, around half of the town managed to get to safety uninfected. When everyone settled down, Lincoln had explained what the disease elemental was, as far as he knew, and the townsfolk did not take it well. The idea that an elemental could infect them, potentially in a fatal way, made them naturally terrified. What made it worse was the fact that Dr Pine wasn't a medical doctor so he couldn't cure them, and the apothecarist wasn't among them so if there was a way to treat this illness they had no one to do so.
As a result, the town resorted to barricading itself. After having Lincoln and Ronnie Anne drive the infected outside of town, then the townsfolk avoided it to let any lingering sources of infection die off before they went back inside. Even so, despite Dr Pine using his converter to create what they needed to create the stone wall to keep the infected from coming back inside, no one felt safe. Nowhere felt less like a home and more like a prison for the healthy.
The need to escape and get back to Royal Woods was never higher.
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne waved to a few of the residents as they walked past them, but the sentiment was not returned. Ronnie Anne's harsh truth to the pastor's wife last year and gotten around and as a result most people seemed to be less friendly to the elementals. Being told that the two weren't gods planning to bring them to a utopia had made people go from being courteous to just being tolerant. Like they were simply waiting for the chance to leave and then say goodbye to the elementals.
Lincoln didn't like the idea that after being neighbors with someone for five years, said neighbor would expect him to do them a service and then disappear from their lives once it was over. It felt like something Chandler would do just for kicks.
Putting the thought out of his head, he returned to his home where Iris was waiting for them both, and she wasn't alone.
"Mama!"
Ronnie Anne saw her daughter waddle towards her with her arms stretched out. It had been a year since Leslie was born and she had of course gotten bigger and more active. She had short white hair and her mother's face, wearing a pink shirt with a blue skirt over a cloth diaper.
"Were you a good girl sweetie?" Ronnie Anne asked, scooping up her child. She of course made her slime as harmless as possible.
"Goo!" The young girl said with her limited speaking ability.
"Is she trying to say 'good' or is she referring to what you're made of?" Iris asked.
"I prefer to think it's the first one."
"Oh, good news came while you were out." Iris added. "Dr Pine said we finally have enough material to make enough balloons for us all to leave."
"About time." Lincoln said.
The goal of making more balloons had to be delayed for various reasons. Fewer people to do the actual work, readjusting how the town worked with fewer people in it to do the daily jobs, Dr Pine being a little more cautious with his converter now that getting more fuel was going to be unlikely, overall the balloon project sort of became a lesser priority. Even with it being their own chance to get out of this once and for all. But it wasn't ignored entirely.
"So now we just have to make the balloons and then get them stocked, and if your sister can keep up her end, we can finally go somewhere safe." Iris claimed.
"Yeah, a world where there are no elementals." Ronnie Anne said, looking over her body briefly. "I gotta admit, I'm going to miss this."
The two were semi-certain that because the trip to this world had turned them into elementals, the trip back would return them to normal. It would be an adjustment, especially trying to get their old lives back, but at least they'd have their homes and families again.
"So we just gotta get everyone together, make the balloons, and hopefully by this time next week we'll be outta here." Lincoln said happily.
"Has it been long enough?" Iris asked.
"Lisa said she needed a year or so, and it's been over a year since that day. After all, that was the day Leslie was born."
Hearing her name made Leslie coo and reach out asking for more attention. Lincoln obliged by patting her head with his cloudy hands, making her giggle.
"All I was is for it to just be one trip. If I have to ride those things one more time, it better be just the one time." Iris noted.
"Trust me Iris, this time will be the last." Lincoln told her.
The next day people got to work making more balloons so they could finally leave this world. Fewer people meant they'd have to work in shifts, as well as gather supplies, so Dr Pine recommended no less than forty balloons to make sure they had everything they wanted to bring with them. Needless to say, despite Lincoln's enthusiasm it was going to take more than a week for the objective to be met.
Lincoln was okay with this, the thought of going home and reuniting with his family was helping him through this final part of the wait.
"I can't wait for everyone to meet Leslie." Lincoln thought out loud while flying around. "I wonder how everyone will react to what we have to tell them about where we've been all this time. Or how I spent all this time as living wind and Ronnie Anne as living slime. No way they'd believe that."
Lincoln slowed down and sort of just floated in the air like a cloud, laying back as if on some invisible beach chair, looking up at the sky and the many moons spread out. The one he knew led to his home world off in the distance, so close and yet so far. He wasn't doing this because he was bored, but to relax after a hard day's work.
Like everyone, Lincoln had needed a job to survive without his parents. Thanks to being pushed into the role of lackey or helping hand by his sisters, he had acquired many skills, so he offered himself as a jack-of-many-trades to the town, doing odd jobs to anyone willing to pay him to do it. Being a wind elemental had proven helpful more often then you'd think.
But then his popularity in town took a dive. People lost their faith in him to save them, and there was resentment from being unable to stop this plague from taking so many away from them. Sure, he was still useful in keeping the infected away and doing odd jobs, but now it was like the times his sisters had felt entitled to take him for granted and overwork him. The fact that Lincoln had a family to support meant he couldn't get away with saying no, so times like this were among the only times he could just relax and decompress. And once again, being a wind elemental made it so much easier to do.
"Ronnie Anne hasn't said it yet, but I know she's got the same thought as me. What if when we go home… we're still like this?" Lincoln said, holding up his hand to stare at it. "What if back home we're both still elementals?"
For a moment he said nothing, then scoffed. "They'd be freaked out at least, but I know everyone would accept us eventually. And if I'm honest, I don't want to give up flying."
Lincoln spent so many years as an elemental losing these abilities would feel like losing a part of himself, but if it meant going home he'd be willing to give it up, though he hoped he wouldn't have to. Lincoln began imagining flying over Royal Woods seeing everything he missed over the years, but enjoying that feeling of being home.
He flipped onto his stomach, imagining he was above Royal Woods instead of an empty wilderness full of elemental animals, flying like a superhero. However, something moving under him drew him out of his fantasy. Something lumbering in the direction of Nowhere. Something that looked like a person.
"Oh please, not this." He groaned, flying down to get a better look. Sure enough, he saw a single infected person, covered from head to toe in off-color brownish gunk. Walking like someone pretending to be Frankenstein. The amount of gunk made it hard to get any features on the person underneath, but they looked oddly thin.
Lincoln sighed and palmed his face. "Guess I gotta fight this one off." He reeled back his fist to make an attack, but then he stopped.
The infected person saw him, and then waved his arms frantically as if trying to get his attention. He also bellowed and moaned in a way that implied he was trying to speak.
"Wait, is this one… trying to talk to me?" Lincoln asked him. None of the infected who got this bad ever acted this way. Curious, but cautious, Lincoln came down and floated just above the ground like a ghost.
"Can you understand me?"
The infected person nodded.
"I don't believe it. Does this mean you're getting better?"
The infected person shook his head then made coughing sounds.
"So… you're getting worse?"
The infected person nodded, gesturing to his heart. Then he leaned down and put his hands on the ground. From his hands goo seeped out and formed words.
'Need cure'
"Need cure? Sorry, we don't have a cure. We've tried, but nothing we have works. How long have you been like this?"
'Don't… know…help…me!'
"I'm sorry, I'd love to help, but I don't know how."
'More… coming.'
Lincoln's eyes widened and he looked around. "Where?"
'Everywhere.'
Lincoln gulped then took a deep breath. "If you can promise to keep your hands to yourself, I can take you to someone who might be able to do something. That clear?"
The infected person nodded.
"Lincoln, are you out of your mind?!"
Outside the walls of Nowhere, Lincoln had gathered together Ronnie Anne, Dr Pine, and Erin, though Leslie had been brought along. They were standing there looking at the infected person with a lot of fear. Fortunately he was standing far back, though Dr Pine kept his converter handy.
"Do you really think I would risk Leslie's health if I thought this guy would harm her?" Lincoln asked back. "He's different. He can talk to us… sort of."
Ronnie Anne eyed the infected person suspiciously, armed wrapped around her daughter tightly. "Even if he can, why would you bring him here?"
"Doctor, if you had a willing patient, could you maybe make a cure?" Lincoln asked.
Dr Pine thought it over. "I can't make that promise, but then again I haven't had much to work from in the first place. Perhaps if we could at least learn how this disease works we could figure out a way to fight it off better while we're still here."
"All we know is it spreads by touch and people become mindless the longer it lasts." Erin summarized.
Lincoln turned back to the infected person. "You said more like you were coming here." The infected person nodded. "Why?"
The infected person spread their mucus over the ground again.
'Hunting.'
"They're hunting?" Lincoln repeated. "Why?"
'Everyone is dying.'
"So this disease is fatal. What does it feel like?" Dr Pine asked, his scientific curiosity rising.
'Like being eaten. Mind is hazy.'
"Are you from here?" Erin asked, hoping this wasn't a former neighbor.
'Royal Woods.'
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne gasped. This person was from Royal Woods?
"How is that possible?" Ronnie Anne asked.
Lincoln snapped his fingers. "That disease elemental that came through last year. This must be him. This guy right here, he's Patient Zero."
"Wait then what's been going on back home!?" asked Ronnie Anne.
'Can't remember. Like in a dream. But not good.'
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne looked at each other, worried. What was happening back home?
"Are there more like you back home?" Ronnie Anne asked, hoping he'd say no.
The infected man nodded.
Lincoln gulped. All this time he had been certain that whoever came through the portal had been turned into an elemental on the way through like he had. But if there were disease elementals back in his world, then what did that mean for everyone they were trying to get back home to?
"What's your name?" Erin asked.
'Bud.' The infected person wrote before he began coughing a lot more, spewing out some ooze. Everyone stepped back.
"This can't be good," they thought
Leslie made some sounds and held out her hand as if to try and touch the now-named Bud. All of a sudden, the air began to shimmer like it would in a hot spot.
"Lincoln?" Erin asked, seeing the shimmer.
"It's not me."
The infected person stopped coughing and blinked a lot, standing up straighter. "I… I… feel…"
"Holy crap! You're talking! Actually talking!" Lincoln exclaimed, pointing at the sickly man.
"The infection, it's easing. I can feel it! I'm actually a little healthier!"
"How is this possible?" asked Erin,
Leslie began happily clapping her hands causing the shimmer to become stronger and for Lincoln to realize who was causing it,
"Leslie?"
"Is she really doing this?" Ronnie Anne asked, staring at her daughter.
"I knew your kid would have powers like you two!" Erin declared.
The two parents were speechless for a moment, looking at their daughter who seemed excited by what was happening. Lincoln glanced at the gunk-covered man, seeing some of the gunk melt off and expose pale deathly skin underneath for a moment before covered up again.
"Ronnie Anne, bring Leslie closer to him."
"No freaking way Lincoln!" Ronnie Anne protested, stepping further back.
"Look at what's happening. What if Leslie is the cure? What if she's some kind of medicine elemental?"
"It's too convenient for that to be real! We've been dealing with disease zombies for a year and now you expect me to believe our baby just happens to be a living cure for it? That's the kind of thing I'd expect to see in a bad episode of the Twilight Zone or something!"
"I know but if there's a chance that she can cure people we have to take it, our baby might be the key to saving people back home including out families,"
Ronnie Anne was still reluctant but Leslie started reaching out showing even she wanted to try. After a moment, she looked at Bud.
"If you do anything to my baby I swear I will melt you to the bone and then some."
She turned one of her hands into purple slime for emphasis.
"I'm not the best with kids, but I'd never hurt one on purpose." He defended.
Turning her arms to slime, Ronnie Anne stretched out Leslie towards the infected man, bringing her close enough for Leslie to touch him, but she could pull her back in an emergency. Bud turned his head to cough away, making Leslie stall for a moment. Then like any child exposed to something new, she reached out and touched him.
The shimmer condensed on the infected man only, making the gunk turn a brighter color, almost pinkish, and started melting off him by the bucketful. Bud wobbled, as if his balance was being thrown off by the sudden loss in weight, and then he collapsed on his rear.
"You okay?" Lincoln said, getting closer while Ronnie Anne pulled her arms back.
The slime melted away into a puddle of goo, notably smelling a lot better than before, and now a man was seen where the disease elemental had been before. Said man looked elderly and caucasian, but terribly thin and discolored. His skin was turning a pale charcoal gray and looked so wrinkled you'd swear it was already necrotic. Not only that, he was completely bald, missing even eyebrows.
Yet with a cough, he sat up and looked at himself, acting as if he was seeing his skin for the first time in years.
"I don't believe it. I'm me again." Bud said in awe.
Lincoln smiled, with Leslie mimicking it. Ronnie Anne, Dr Pine, and Erin looked on in amazement.
Off in the distance, a roar could be heard.
"What was that?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"Oh no, I know that sound." Lincoln said.
"Me too." Erin added.
"Everyone inside!" Dr Pine ordered.
Lincoln helped the now cured man to his feet. He stood like he was still adjusting his balance, but he had some hussle in his weakened body and followed them into Nowhere. They closed and barricaded the door behind them then Erin went for the town's alarm and set it off.
"Everyone, raid alert!"
Everyone who had been outside rushed into their homes and barricaded them from inside too. A few were missing the days when the nomads were the worst things to be afraid of.
Everyone went to Dr Pine's lab, sitting down and taking several breaths when they got inside.
"That sound, they sounded mad." Lincoln noted.
"They did." Erin agreed.
"What was that?" Bud asked, wheezing like he had asthma.
"The other people who were as sick as you."
Ronnie Anne got up on her feet. "Why did you go around spreading this disease?! People's lives are being ruined because of you! What were you thinking?!"
"I'm sorry. It's like my mind has been stuck in a dream for so long I no longer remember what it's like to be awake. The last thing I remember clearly is being attacked by some people covered in sludge. At first I thought it was the neighbor kid playing a prank for the hundredth time, but then I got sick to my stomach and after that… it was like my body wasn't mine anymore. After that, it was like…"
He paused to cough, but at least it was a normal cough.
"Ronnie Anne, maybe Leslie can help him more."
Reluctantly, Ronnie Anne brought her baby close enough to touch the skeletal man again. There was a pink shimmer around him, and while his weight didn't change his skin at least looked less rotten but still discolored.
"I've been sick for a long time. Even now I feel like my body's about to give up." He said. "Listen, where I'm from, there was an explosion. After that, people all over town started to get sick, then the next town over and the next. People started spewing slime from everywhere, and they acted like they had to spread it to everyone. Soon it was everywhere, the entire world was infected."
"And it all started in Royal Woods?" Lincoln asked.
"Yes."
"The portal that brought us here, what if it released a disease elemental in our world?" Lincoln asked his unofficial wife.
"What if it released more than just that?" She asked back.
There was a scream from outside, prompting them to look outside. Lincoln turned into wind and checked, immediately seeing the cause. The infected were climbing over the walls.
"No! No no no no!"
Wanting so badly to be wrong, Lincoln flew over to the wall and looked over. At the base were dozens if not hundreds of infected people swarming Nowhere like frantic piranhas. They were piling up on each other, climbing bodies until they could get to the top of the walls and climb over, dropping into town and hammering at the doors.
"No, this can't be happening! Not now!" Lincoln cried, feeling so overwhelmed. They were so close to getting back home, only to find out that his world was just as infected as this one. He finally had a glimmer of hope that things would go back to normal, that he could settle down and have a normal stable life again without people treating him like he was in the way, and now he saw the zombie apocalypse of this world barging at his front step in full force.
He trembled in midair, like a cloud desperate to release some thunder and lightning but for some reason couldn't. Why couldn't he get a break? Why did things always have to get more difficult for him?
"I… just want… to go… HOME!"
Lincoln roared in a way that could easily be mistaken for thunder, except it didn't stop there. The wind around him began to howl and surge, and even go inside him making him expand and grow. But as he got bigger, Lincoln began to look less and less human, until finally he resembled some kind of living tornado with arms and eyes. Once he settled into this form, all Lincoln could do was glare at the sickly horde breaking their way into the place that had been his home for the past five years. With the fury of someone finally having a target to take their anger out on, he came down on the masses like a storm sent by the gods to cleanse the world of the wicked.
The gale of violent angry wind swallowed up countless infected and spun them around, as if he were going to send them to Oz and make them hate every second of the trip there. Many saw this but none seemed concerned, they just pressed on as if they would will themselves to invade despite this new defense. Lincoln pressed on with unrelenting fury, gathering them up and spewing them out from the top of the tornado, letting them land wherever they could, taking whatever damage they got when they landed. In the process he was also ripping the defensive walls out of the ground and destroying many of the residences and businesses of Nowhere, inhaling the uninfected along with the infected.
Throughout it all, Lincoln heard nothing but the sound of his own howling, until something actually caught his attention. His eyes swerved until he saw he had gotten deeper into town without noticing, and there, by the rubble of a building, was Ronnie Anne holding a wailing Leslie. The air around her shimmering like before, but her cries magnified to him.
'Oh no!' He thought, afraid he had put his own daughter in danger without knowing it. His frustration and despair vanished and his storming slowed until it stopped entirely, returning him to his normal cloudy form.
"Ronnie Anne? Please tell me you two are okay?" He asked, getting close and seeing they were afraid of him, making him stop.
"What the hell was that?" Ronnie Anne asked. Leslie was still crying, but now she was quieter and the shimmer a lot weaker.
"I… I don't know. All the disease elementals, they were climbing over the walls by the ton, and I just… I couldn't take it. We're so close to getting home, and now this happens. I… I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me."
Ronnie Anne came up to him and pulled him into a hug, with Leslie trying to pat her dad. Lincoln sighed and put his arms around them too. Then he remembered something. "Wait, where are the others?"
He looked to Dr Pine's lab, only to see the building demolished. He gasped, feeling tremendously guilty, and broke from his family to search for his companions in the rubble. Ronnie Anne grew two extra slime arms to help him.
It didn't take long for them to find three people, none of them in good condition. Dr Pine was on top of Erin, as if he had tried to protect her, and off to the side was Bud. Erin and Dr Pine were breathing as if in pain, but Bud was silent. More familiar with the other two, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne went to help the former out from under the rubble.
"What… what happened?" Erin asked, sounding like she still had a hard time breathing.
Lincoln was hesitant, but spoke. "It's my fault. I wigged out and attacked all the sickly, destroying the town in the process. I nearly killed you. I'm so sorry."
Dr Pine groaned, moving his head enough to show it was bleeding, but he remained unconscious. At the same time more roars from recovering infected people were heard, along with screams of townsfolk unable to get away.
"What do we do? Leslie can't cure them all, can she?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"No, don't bother. Grab the one balloon and… get out of here." Erin told them, coughing a little.
"We can't just leave." Lincoln said, feeling too responsible to do that.
"What do you think people here will do if they find out you did this? Even if it was an accident?" Erin stressed, flexing a leg but unable to stand up. There was some swelling and discoloration, so maybe she broke it. "Save yourselves. We'll get out of this without you, and if we're lucky, we'll see you in your world."
"But-"
"She's right." Ronnie Anne told the white-haired boy, grabbing his shoulder despite him being air. "Once everyone finds out what you did, we'll never be welcome here again. We have to get back home, today."
With a regretful sigh, Lincoln nodded. "Then come with us."
Erin shook her head. "I'm staying. To make sure everyone here still has a chance to escape too. And maybe we can cure this without your little girl. Maybe there's another medicine elemental out there waiting to be found. Go, grab the converter, get the balloon, and get out before someone comes for your head."
"Good luck." Lincoln said to the blue-skinned girl before going into the rubble again, finding the ether converter. It had been under a table so nothing was damaged. He paused for a moment to check on Bud, seeing him unmoving and silent. Not even his chest was moving. Lincoln went in closer to check and tried to perform CPR, but it was no use. The now cured man was gone.
"Maybe I can at least tell your family what happened to you." Lincoln said, reaching into the man's pockets. It was filthy, but he found a grimey wallet inside which he opened. As expected, he found a faded and discolored ID, but it was readable.
Bud Grouse.
"Holy crap!" Lincoln exclaimed, looking at the corpse of the skeletal man by him. "Mr Grouse?"
"Lincoln?!" Ronnie Anne called from a distance.
Giving a quick silent prayer, Lincoln took the wallet and left Mr Grouse's body behind. He found Ronnie Anne by the supply shed, which was leaning but still standing, and she was pulling out the hot air balloon. So far it still appeared intact.
Lincoln turned briefly to look at Nowhere, seeing demolished and ruined buildings with several gunk-covered zombies were roaming, hunting the citizens of the town trying to get away. This was a day that would haunt him forever, he just knew it. This was a disaster where if his family chose to barricade him out of the house, he'd honestly believe he deserved it this time.
Trying to ignore this for this moment, Lincoln went to the shed and helped Ronnie Anne pull out the balloon. She settled Leslie in the basket along witht he converter, and then she got the burner going while he filled up the balloon. There was an unspoken agreement between the two teens to not go back to what had been their house all this time. There was no time for it, and nothing they absolutely had to bring back with them to Michigan.
The balloon drew the attention of healthy and infected alike, all of which clambering their way. Lincoln's work got the balloon filled and starting to rise. A few infected threw some mucus their way, as if to slow them down or something, but Ronnie Anne blocked by using her slime arms as shields. When she had a moment she even extended them to try and push the balloon up from the ground faster.
"No! Don't!" Mrs Chick shouted, running up towards the balloon. It was hard to tell if she was injured or had sludge on her, but Ronnie Anne retracted her arms anyway.
"You can't do this to us!" Mrs Chick roared angrily, unable to do anything else as the balloon rose higher.
"We're sorry, but it's not hopeless!" Ronnie tried to tell her, but she had no way of knowing if the woman below heard her.
Lincoln kept the balloon rising and going until he was certain it could sustain itself, then he rested in the basket. He huddled up in a seated fetal position and cried a little, wisps of vapors coming out of his eyes instead of tears. Ronnie Anne, in full slime form, sat next to him with Leslie on her lap.
"Papa?" Leslie asked.
"It's okay Leslie. We're going home."
"We're here." Lincoln said as they landed on the moon that was the connection to their original dimension. Like before, he had guided it to the blue spot.
"This had better work." Ronnie Anne added as she left the basket, with Lincoln grabbing the converter.
"We should leave a marker or something, in case Dr Pine and the others actually can follow us through."
"We'll leave the balloon, that should be marker enough for anyone who can get close enough to see it." Ronnie Anne claimed, to which Lincoln nodded.
"Home?" Leslie asked, looking around.
"Almost sweetie. We just have to open the door."
"Alright, here goes nothing." Lincoln thought, aiming the device at the ground. 'If there is a god of any kind, please let this work.'
He fired it at the ground, and like last time the blue terrain turned into an aurora of colors.
"Lisa?! Can you hear me?! I really need you!"
There was nothing coming from the other side. Lincoln knelt on the ground and banged his fist on it.
"Lisa! Please tell me you're ready! It's now or never for me! Whatever you have to do, just do it!"
The aurora then slowly changed colors, becoming more vibrant. Lincoln then felt himself sinking.
"I think it's working!" He told Ronnie Anne and Leslie, who got right by him on the ground.
"Let's go home."
They continued to sink slowly, and then the ground just gave out entirely under them as if it had shattered. They fell through, just like what had happened to them years ago, moving as gravity both did exist and didn't exist at the same time. Lincoln and Ronnie anne held hands the entire time, though Lincoln kept his other hand on the ether converter which fell through with them.
As they fell, Ronnie Anne looked at Leslie who was making cries of excitement, like this was a game to her. But what caught the young mother's eyes the most was that her child kept changing colors. Red to green to orange to purple and so on, like a Christmas light display. Outside of that she didn't change at all or show any signs of being in harm.
After what felt like longer than it actually was, the small family landed on solid ground with a thud. They looked over themselves, seeing they were still elementals, and the ether converter was dented but still good. Leslie was normal again, and clapping while laughing. Then they looked around and saw they were in a white room, devoid of all features except Lisa's invention and a camera.
"Where are we?" Ronnie Anne asked.
"I hope this is Lisa's lab." Lincoln said, finding a door with a glass window installed. He tried looking through it but only saw an empty hallway, then he tried to open the door but it was locked from the outside. "Weird."
"Let me." Ronnie Anne said, seeping her slime into the lock to open it from the inside. She soon heard a click and then with a push the door opened.
"Let me check first." Lincoln insisted, making her step back. He went as translucent as he could and crept through the small gap in the door now to check the other side. The hallway was like what he had seen in an office building or hotel before, with doors along the side, but it was devoid of most details. Honestly it felt more like a prison than anything.
Then he heard footsteps approaching.