A/N Hey all and welcome to the newest chapter of Loud inFAMY! This will be the last chapter before the new year, but I'm hoping to be able to upload more frequently when the new year starts. That being said I did my best to come up with an in-universe explanation for some of Lincoln's new powers, such as being able to sense sources of electricity and the signals from Dead Drops. Hopefully I did them some justice. Anyways I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it! Until next time!
After jumping through the trapdoor, Lincoln found himself balancing on a series of scaffolding and pipes beneath Savino Bridge. He looked down at the river dozens of feet below him and gulped. One misstep and he would be swimming in no time. And considering how much water was down there he knew it'd be enough to short out his powers and potentially kill him.
Lincoln began looking for a clear path to get back into the city when a loud chirping noise got his attention. Pulling out his phone, he was surprised to see the name 'Moya' flashing on the screen.
"How the hell did she get my number?" he muttered to himself as he answered the phone.
"Because of the Riot topside, this is the only path back into the city." came Moya's voice. "Given the state of our new…'partnership'..I've taken the liberty of cloning your phone's cell signal."
While she spoke Lincoln noticed some pipes he could knock loose to provide a path to the next bit of scaffolding.
"I've got a lock on your GPS locator and I can hear every word you're saying." Moya continued.
Well that ruins any plans to bitch about her. Thought Lincoln as he shot an electrical bolt at the pipes to loosen them.
"That's…super." He said out loud. Lincoln then hung up his phone and placed it back on his belt before he began leaping from pipe to pipe, once again thanking his parkour training and Lola's balancing advice as he began to make his way back towards Great Lake City.
About halfway back to the city, Lincoln was shocked when he heard gunshots and several bullets whizzed past his head. Looking up in alarm he saw two Reapers standing on a platform beneath the bridge where some electrical panels and water mains were located. The platform was split in half by a chain link fence that the Reapers clung to for extra balance.
Because of his shock, Lincoln misjudged one of his jumps causing him to slip as he landed on one pipe. Acting quickly, Lincoln shot out an arm and grabbed onto the pipe as he fell leaving him dangling by one hand.
The Reapers quickly took advantage of his predicament by shooting at him more than before. Lincoln grimaced as several bullets tore into his flesh, but he remained calm. Even as he clung to the pipe for dear life, he took aim and shot several bolts at the two Reapers. The Reapers leapt to the side, stopping their assault as they tried to dodge his bolts.
Crap! If I can't take care of them soon, I'll be toast! He thought as he tried to disable his attackers. It was then that he noticed several spare propane tanks on the platform behind the Reapers and he changed his tactics. Ending his attacks on the gang members, Lincoln took careful aim and shot some bolts at one of the propane tanks.
A large blast went off as first one, then two, then all of the propane tanks exploded in a fiery shockwave, sending the now burning Reapers plummeting into the river below. Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief as he carefully clambered back onto the pipe. Checking to see if the explosion had ruined the integrity of the bridge, Lincoln quickly but carefully made a leap and rolled onto the platform formerly occupied by the two Reapers.
Lincoln stopped to rest for a moment when he noticed one of the electrical panels that the Reapers were messing with. Limping towards the panel, Lincoln extended a hand and absorbed some electricity to heal his wounds.
"Superhuman durability or not, getting shot fucking suuuucks." he said to himself. Once his injuries were healed Lincoln noticed something odd. Embedded into the metal of one of the bridge supports was a blue-glowing, jagged shard of metal. Reaching his hand out towards the shard, Lincoln was surprised when he absorbed whatever energy was making the shard glow. Immediately he felt even stronger than normal as if he had suddenly been given a power boost. He looked at the shard once again but saw that it was no longer glowing.
Regardless, Lincoln pried the shard loose and put it in his bag for further study. He might not be as smart as Lisa but he was confident that he could sus out whatever this strange shard was.
That done, Lincoln looked at the platform he was on and realised that the only way past the chain link fence was to balance on a pipe that wrapped around the bridge support. Taking a deep breath Lincoln pressed himself to the bridge support as he balanced on the pipe. Shimmying as carefully as he could, Lincoln began to make some progress. He had to stop a couple of times due to some steam vents along his path, but he made it past them by timing his steps. He rounded the corner of the support but was suddenly brought to a halt.
The pipe had ended far short of his goal. Thinking quickly, Lincoln noticed a cable above his head that led to another platform on his path. Lincoln grabbed the cable and gave it a hard tug, testing to see if it would hold his weight. Satisfied that it didn't detach, Lincoln grabbed it with both hands and began making his way down its length, his feet dangling below him.
His heart leapt into his throat when, once again a loud chirping noise sounded from his phone. Hanging by one hand, he quickly pressed the speakerphone option on his phone before regaining his hold and continuing along the cable.
"Lincoln." came Moya's voice, "The water pressure has dropped in the main running under the bridge. What's going on down there?"
"Well hello to you too, Moya." Lincoln said as he dropped onto the next platform. "There were a couple Reapers down here messing up the plumbing."
"Interesting…" said Moya, "I'll see what I can find out. You just worry about getting back into the city."
"Fine by me," said Lincoln. He then began making his way down the rest of Savino Bridge, blasting loose some pipes as he went to make sure he had a clear path back to land. At one point he noticed another pair of Reapers messing with some more pipes but a couple quick shots from him and they fell to the river below, completely unaware of the white haired man.
Finally Lincoln found himself on the last set of pipes before he was back on dry land. He blasted a couple more pipes but before he could continue, his phone chirped again.
"Geez Moya." he said, annoyed at the constant interruptions, "Give a guy a break will ya?"
"Don't forget who's holding your leash, Lincoln." Moya threatened, "You find Lisa and the Ray Sphere, and I get you out of there, no questions asked."
"Yeah I got it the first time you said it."
"I'm going to ignore that, but if you double-cross me, or do something stupid, and I will throw you and your family in a hole so deep that you won't even know which way is up. Got it."
Lincoln frowned, not happy with the tone Moya was using with him, and even less happy over the threat to his family.
"Got it." he said after a few moments. A loud click was the only indication that Moya had hung up and with a groan, Lincoln began leaping across the last remaining pipes before he finally made it to dry land.
To his surprise, just as he touched down, a soaking wet Clyde came rushing towards him.
"Lincoln!?" Clyde cried, "Man it is good to see you in one piece!"
Lincoln quickly embraced his friend glad to see he was unhurt after his fall into the river.
"Dude are you okay?" Lincoln asked his friend as they separated, "That was one hell of a fall!"
"Yeah, the impact knocked the wind out of me, but I managed to recover enough to swim back to land."
Clyde then began to check over Lincoln, his face concerned at first but quickly became relieved when he didn't find any wounds on his friend.
"How did you escape?" Clyde asked, "Last I saw you had told your family to run, and then bullets were flying all over the place. I thought you were a goner."
Lincoln's smile was strained as he debated how much to tell his friend about Moya, the Ray Sphere, and Lisa's involvement with the FBI. After a moment's deliberation, he decided to be completely honest with his closest friend, but he wanted to wait until they were somewhere safe.
"Let's head back to Lori's. I'll fill you in on the way."
With that the two friends began making their way back towards their shelter, glad that all that craziness on the bridge was finished. Hopefully nothing else will happen today.
He could use a break from all the crazy for a bit.
-=o=-
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN LANA AND LUCY ARE MISSING!" yelled Lincoln, causing sparks of electricity to arc off his body in a wide area.
"I already told you!" Lynn yelled back, doing her best to shield the rest of the family and Clyde from the energy Lincoln was letting out. "We lost track of them in all the chaos, and they haven't come back to the shelter!"
Lincoln began breathing heavily, doing his best to rein in his powers, but panicking at the thought that two more sisters were now missing. His only solace was in the fact that they had powers of their own to keep themselves safe…somewhat.
As Lincoln struggled to regain his composure he was quickly brought to a grinding halt when, first Leni, then the rest of his sisters brought him into a group hug, doing their best to calm down the white haired man.
It took a couple minutes but soon Lincoln was able to calm himself enough that his powers were no longer a danger. Taking a deep breath, he looked around at the rest of his family and Clyde, before noticing that someone else was missing from the group.
"Wait, if Lana and Lucy are the only ones missing then where is Lori?" he asked, almost afraid of what the answer was going to be.
"Lori's fine bro." said Luna, "She just went to see the Casagrandes to let them know about Lana and Lucy and maybe get their help to look for them."
"Great, and just when I got some information about Lisa," he grumbled. It was then his turn to flinch as his family shouted in unison
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, INFORMATION ABOUT LISA!?" they yelled as Lincoln covered his ears.
"Sheesh! Calm down a bit and I'll tell you." he said as he tried to alleviate the ringing in his ears.
What do you expect? Came a thought, We're called the Loud family for a reason.
Lincoln then began to explain to his family and Clyde about his meeting with Moya, Lisa's involvement with the FBI, and finally the Ray Sphere.
"...And it drains Neuro-Electric energy," he said as he finished his tale. The Louds and Clyde sat in stunned silence as they processed what Lincoln had told them.
"So let me get this straight.." said Luan, "You help this Moya lady find this…Ray-Sphere thing… and she'll get us all out of the city?"
"Yeah, that's about the gist of it." said Lincoln. The Louds looked at each other with a renewed sense of hope while Clyde looked like he was deep in contemplation.
"What about this group Lisa was infiltrating?" he said after some time. "What were they called again?"
"The First Sons." Lincoln replied. He then looked at his family. "Any of you heard of something like that?"
The Louds looked at one another before turning back to the white-haired man with a shake of their heads. All except for Lynn Jr. who immediately ran to the tent that she and Lucy shared.
"You know something LJ?" asked Lynn Sr. as his daughter brought out Lucy's bag and began digging through it.
"Yeah, I think I remember Lucy telling me something about a group with that name while we were waiting for Luna's concert to start."
After a couple minutes, Lynn pulled a thick black book out of Lucy's bag and handed it to Lincoln.
"I think she was reading this when she said that."
Lincoln looked at the book in his hand, turning it around and glancing at the title.
"Secret Societies of the Occult," he read. He opened the book and began flipping through it until he came to a small section about the First Sons. It was barely more than a paragraph of information, hardly the fount of exposition he wanted, but he would take what he could get.
"The First Sons were a secret society dedicated to the advancement of humanity by transhuman means." he read out loud. "Not much is known about them but the history and records of the First Sons date back to Medieval Europe, where they were seen by the public as either witches or in league with the devil."
"Why would Lisa work with a bunch of freaky magic people?" asked Lola.
But she received no answer as each of the Louds and Clyde began to wonder the same thing. It seemed that every time they found some clue as to what Lisa had been doing, a dozen more questions would pop up.
Lincoln sighed as he closed the book and handed it back to Lynn. He could feel a pounding headache coming on and he felt like he needed to relieve some stress.
"Alright," he began, "Let's put that aside for now and focus on looking for Lucy and Lana."
He looked off down the street from their shelter before turning back to the Louds.
"I'm going to go see if I can find some trace of them near the bridge. If they come back while I'm out then message me on my phone."
He then turned to Clyde.
"Do you think you could ask whoever you got your gun from if they heard anything? I figure someone who would do something shady like that would probably have some kind of information network."
Clyde nodded then quickly headed down the stairs back towards the streets. Lincoln looked at his remaining family members before running and leaping onto the next roof as he began heading back towards Savino Bridge.
Please be careful, Lincoln. they all thought as they watched him leave.
-=o=-
Lincoln quickly made his way back towards Savino Bridge, keeping his eyes open for any sign of his missing sisters. When he got a couple streets away he was once again startled when his phone chirped on his belt. Expecting it to be Moya bothering him once again, he quickly hit the answer button and was surprised to hear Clyde's voice coming over the line.
"Hey Linc." said Clyde, "Just letting you know that my contacts haven't found any leads towards Lucy and Lana's whereabouts."
Lincoln sighed in frustration. "Thanks anyways Clyde. I'm almost to Savino Bridge, so I'll let you and my family know if I find anything, okay?"
Clyde was silent for a bit, but just as Lincoln was about to end the call he spoke up.
"Hey. When you find that Ray-Sphere thing…" He said, "Do you think we could use it to give me some powers?"
Lincoln came to a sudden halt as his heart leaped up his throat.
"Clyde," said Lincoln. "Why on earth would you want to use that thing? You do recall what I said about it killing people right?"
"Well yeah, I remember." said Clyde, "But I was thinking about maybe looking to see if we can fix it so that it doesn't kill the people it drains energy from."
"Clyde, no! I'm not doing that. Hell, I'm not even comfortable giving that thing to Moya. If anything, the Ray-Sphere should be destroyed before it causes even more damage."
"Are you sure? Come on! It kinda sucks not having powers while you and some of your sisters do!"
Lincoln sighed, "Clyde. Having powers ain't what it cracked up to be. I honestly wish that I had never gotten powers in the first place."
Clyde remained silent so Lincoln continued. "Look, I'm almost at Savino Bridge, so we'll talk about this more later. All right?"
"...yeah, sure." said Clyde before the connection was terminated.
Lincoln shook his head in disbelief over his friend's words. Still, he had a job to do so he continued on his way towards Savino Bridge. Once there, he noticed that there were a lot more guards patrolling the area than before, most likely put in place after the riot.
"Ugh." Lincoln groaned, "There's no way in hell I'll be able to get close enough to look for clues."
Once again Lincoln's phone chirped, causing the white haired man to groan even more. He thought about ignoring the call, but decided against it when he realized that someone might be contacting him about his missing sisters. So once again he answered the call as he tried to think of a way to get closer to the ridge to look for clues.
"I've got a couple leads for you," came Moya's voice, "The coordinates have already been uploaded to your phone. Give me a call when you're in position."
Taking his phone from his belt, Lincoln looked at his map to see a pin stuck to a building not far from the Shelter. With a last lingering look towards the bridge, Lincoln put his phone on his belt and headed towards the indicated location.
Ten minutes later, Lincoln found himself standing at the base of a large office building. With a glance at his map, he noticed that the pinned location was on the roof of the building. With yet another groan of frustration, Lincoln began climbing up the side of the building. Clinging to whatever handhold he could grasp, Lincoln slowly made his way higher and higher up the building until he reached the roof.
Quickly pushing the redial button on his phone, Lincoln waited patiently until Moya answered.
"Hey Moya, I'm in position, what am I doing here.?" he asked.
"We're picking up some weird interference from a rooftop not far from your location." said Moya, "You need to find out its origin and purpose."
"How is this going to help me find my sisters?" Lincoln asked in frustration.
"Don't take that tone with me," said Moya. "Remember, you do as I say and I'll get your family out of the city."
"Fine." Lincoln growled as he hung up the phone. He looked around at the other buildings in the area, wondering which rooftop he was supposed to get to. When his eyes settled on a building next to the one he was on that was much taller than the surrounding buildings, he decided to climb it to get a better look at the area.
Lincoln ran and leapt towards the other building, grasping a window ledge as he began to fall. After securing his grip, Lincoln began scaling the building as quickly as he could. As he did so, he became acutely aware of an odd mechanical noise reminiscent of an old dial up modem from the nineties that grew louder the higher he climbed.
When he finally reached the roof, he immediately noticed a small satellite dish sitting on the otherwise empty rooftop. As he got closer he could tell that the odd noise was coming from the satellite, especially from a small box at the base of the dish. He quickly called Moya to report what he had found.
"I found what looks like a portable audio drive attached to the base of a satellite dish," he said.
"See if you can listen to it with your phone." Moya responded, a slight tone of excitement in her voice.
Lincoln approached the satellite dish and looked it over until he found a small SD card that he removed and placed into his phone. He quickly located an audio file and attempted to play it, but all he could hear was garbled words and heavy static.
"Sounds like gibberish" said Lincoln as he played the file again.
"It must be encrypted," said Moya. "I'm unable to break it. Look around and see if you can find another one."
Lincoln rolled his eyes in annoyance. How the hell was he supposed to find one specific dish out of the thousands of dishes in the entirety of the city? Feeling like he was going to have a panic attack, Lincoln sat down and closed his eyes, trying his best to calm himself down.
Taking some deep breaths, Lincoln slowly began to feel calmer and calmer, when he noticed something peculiar. He began to notice an odd buzzing sensation throughout his body that seemed to get stronger in a specific direction. When he opened his eyes, he noticed that the sensation seemed to remain. When he turned in the direction he sensed he discovered an electrical box just under the rooftops ledge.
Realization dawned on him when he realized he could sense electrical currents, specifically the ones in various electronic devices.
Hmmm, he thought as an idea came to his mind, I wonder…
He quickly approached the satellite dish once again and tried to see if he could differentiate the satellite signal from the surrounding electrical currents. Placing his hand on the satellite he closed his eyes and concentrated. He could sense the electricity running through the device, but he could also sense a small pulsing signal, one that synced up with the odd noise he heard earlier.
When he opened his eyes he could sense a similar signal a few buildings down the street from where he was. With a grin on his face, Lincoln ran towards the edge of the roof and leapt, stretching his hand out to catch the edge of the next rooftop, where he then lifted himself up and began leaping from rooftop to rooftop.
As he moved he could sense the signal getting stronger as he got closer to where he sensed the satellite dish. Eventually he reached the rooftop where he sensed the signal and found another satellite dish. Once again he took out the SD card and inserted it into his phone, but was slightly dismayed to hear another garbled message.
"I'm almost done cracking it," came Moya's voice from his phone, causing him to jump slightly as he hadn't realized he was still on a call with the woman. "I need just one more sample, so see if you can find another one of those files."
Lincoln nodded though he knew Moya couldn't see him do so and began to concentrate once more. There, just on the edge of his senses, was another signal. He began moving towards the signal, moving from building to building or on street level if the path crossed the streets.
He soon found himself on top of another building. He could sense the next satellite dish was one building over. When he went to leap the gap between buildings, he skidded to a halt when he saw what awaited him.
There, on the rooftop the signal came from, were several Reapers. Each one was armed with assault rifles, but one stood out from the rest as he also wielded a large riot shield, likely stolen from a member of SWAT.
The Reapers immediately noticed the white-haired man looking towards them and opened fire as they rushed towards the edge of their rooftop. Lincoln ducked behind an air conditioning unit as bullets began to hit the rooftop all around him. From his cover he began to return fire by sending out lightning bolts whenever there was a lull in the gunfire.
Several Reapers fell as electricity coursed through their bodies, passing out from the pain. Eventually all that was left was the one with the shield who continued to fire at Lincoln. Try as he might, Lincoln's bolts couldn't penetrate the riot shield, leading to a stalemate between himself and the Reaper.
"Damn it!" Lincoln muttered, "Looks like I have to get closer."
With a deep breath, Lincoln broke from his cover moving in a zig-zag pattern to avoid as many shots as possible. Sprinting at full speed, Lincoln leapt across the gap between buildings, moving into a roll to absorb some momentum and putting him past the last Reaper.
He quickly turned and fired some more bolts at the Reaper but even close up he couldn't penetrate the Reaper's shield. Switching to hand to hand combat, Lincoln charged up his hands and tried to break through the Reaper's defense. Thankfully, with Lincoln so close, the Reaper was unable to get a clear shot with his gun so he focused on just keeping Lincoln at bay.
Lincoln grit his teeth in frustration, before he decided to switch tactics once again. Pushing out with his hands, Lincoln attempted to blast the shield away with a shockwave, but stomach dropped, when he accidentally blasted the shield (and the Reaper holding it) over the roof's edge and down to street level.
Lincoln ran and looked over the edge of the rooftop, looking down at the broken body below him.
It was either you or him, he thought to himself, you had no choice.
Still, the fact that he had just killed a man left a bitter taste in Lincoln's mouth. In a bid to distract himself from what he had done, Lincoln turned and headed to the final satellite dish and removed the SD card. More garbled voices played through his phone's speakers as he waited for Moya to speak.
"Okay, that's the last one." she said. "Give me a moment."
A minute later she continued. "Okay, I've uploaded a decryption program onto your phone, it should let you listen to the messages."
Lincoln pulled out his phone and looked up the unencrypted audio file. He pressed the play button and was immediately shocked when a familiar voice played through his phone's speakers.
"Against my better judgement, I activated the Ray-Sphere outside Great Lakes Arena." came Lisa's voice. "I managed to teleport a safe distance away from the ensuing Blast and waited for things to settle before I made my next move. I quickly teleported back to the Blast site and quickly retrieved the Ray-Sphere from next to my beloved brother. It..was…heartbreaking to see the amount of damage done to him. I curse the day I ever heard of Kessler, or the Ray-Sphere. I can only hope that after everything is said and done, that my family will forgive me for my actions. Either way, I need help. Now that I've stolen the Ray Sphere, there is no doubt in my mind that Kessler's dogs will come looking for me. To whoever is listening to this, I need immediate extraction."
Lincoln sat down as the message ended, his whole body shaking as he processed what he had heard. He had finally gotten a lead on where Lisa was. He swallowed hard as he made a promise to himself. He would find his sister, and he would make sure that this Kessler person would regret ever hearing the Loud name.
He would make certain of that.