Lucy approaches you from the darkness, "We are either alone in this universe, or we are not." Lucy then grabbed her face and pulled it off revealing herself to actually be a reptilian alien.
"Both are equally terrifying!"
Invasion of the Parent Snatchers
Lincoln, Liam, Rusty, and Stella were hanging outside Gus's Games and Grub waiting for Zach while pondering some of the greater mysteries of our time.
"How do you think Plankton can afford all his inventions?" Rusty asked.
"Maybe he jus' sells what he doesn't use?" Liam pondered.
"Or he just recycles parts from the inventions that he's already used." Stella remarked.
"Or, you know, he probably stole money since he's a villain and all." Lincoln added.
"But he can't even steal the formula from Mr. Krabs! How's he going to steal money from a bank or rich people?" Rusty asked.
"He coulda just applied for a grant and used the grant money for his own gain. That's kinda like stealing." Liam offered.
"I'm sticking with him recycling his old inventions and probably even digging parts out of the trash since they keep falling apart and all." Stella remarked.
Considering the show keeps recycling plots and digging ideas out of the trash, that sounds the most plausible.
"Is Clyde still uh...unavailable?" Liam then asked.
Lincoln nodded, "Yeah, he uh...he's still recovering from his ordeal. He asked me not to talk about it."
"Well, we hope he feels better soon." Stella told him. Rusty and Liam nodded along.
Rusty pulled out his phone, "Let's do something fun when he's better. Does he still like ARGGH? I heard they're starting a new show with-"
"Aliens!" Zach shouted as he ran up to the group.
"Hey Zach, what's the latest conspiracy?" Lincoln asked.
Zach grabbed onto Lincoln and shook him, "Conspiracy? This goes BEYOND conspiracy, Lincoln! Aliens took my parents!"
Rusty grabbed Zach and pulled him off, "Whoa dude! Calm down! What's up?"
"Did y'all get into that edible slime again? I told ya not to eat that stuff." Liam scolded.
Zach took a deep breath, "Look, this morning I woke up and saw my parents...and they weren't my parents!'
"Uh...maybe they were still waking up? My folks aren't themselves right when they get out of bed in the morning too." Stella suggested.
"No way, my parents wake up with BOOM Energy drinks first thing in the morning!" Zach countered.
"That explains a lot." Rusty quipped.
"Well, are ya sure yer weren't mistaken?" Liam asked.
"Have I ever been mistaken before?" Zach asked.
"Yes." Lincoln told him, "Sorry Zach, but we're gonna need proof to believe your parents were replaced by aliens."
The rest nodded in agreement.
"Okay, fine, I'll just have to prove it to all of you! Follow me!" Zach headed back to his home.
"Are we really doing this?" Stella asked.
Rusty shrugged, "Eh, why not? I like seeing Zach's mom."
...
Meanwhile back at the Loud House, Lucy looked over her notes again.
"The Children of the Night are obviously vampires. The King of the North either means something to do with Canada or Scandinavia or...nah it couldn't be Santa. That just leaves...The Calamity from the Sky...hmm..."
Lucy set her notes down and left her room. She headed up to the attic where Grim was remodeling with Lana.
"I'm telling ya Grim, I could install a toilet and shower up here easily! It wouldn't take too much to connect the plumbing with ours either!" Lana offered.
Grim folded his arms, "And for the last time, I am a skeleton. I usually don't need to use a toilet or shower. Unless of course, I do it for fun."
Lucy approached the two, "Grim, can I ask you something?" she asked.
"No, you cannot use me scythe." Grim firmly told her.
"I just need some information. You've been around for a long while, right?"
"Lucy, I have been around since before Time itself...actually me and that old coot are still wondering which of us is older..."
Lana whistled, "Well, this talk is too much for me. I'll go get your lumber Grim, have fun talking about you being old."
"I'm still young at heart!" Grim called after Lana as she went downstairs.
"Grim, have you heard something be called The Calamity from the Sky?" Lucy asked.
Grim shrugged, "Can ya be more specific? That description matches many things in the world's history like every time humanity bombed one another, or natural disasters like Pompei...that city used to be a really nice place to vacation..."
"Okay...how about a Calamity that's...Otherworldly in nature?" Lucy narrowed down.
Grim rubbed his jaw, "Well, there was the Late Devonian Extinction."
"I don't know what that is."
Lisa popped up into the attic, "The Late Devonian Extinction happened approximately three-hundred-seventy-five-million years ago, during the Late Devonian period. It wiped out approximately seventy-five percent all life on Earth, which at the time was mainly marine life. At the end, four-legged life-forms started to appear."
"Thanks for the infodump, Lisa." Grim remarked.
"I'm just trying to get some screentime." Lisa told him before going back down.
"So... that extinction was otherworldly?" Lucy asked.
Grim nodded, "It was a lot of fish to reap, but hey I'd take those over insects. Anyway, the cause of it was something else, it was from some sort of sphere of darkness that shot out of the sun!"
"...really?"
Lisa popped up again, "The precise cause is unknown, but sure, let's go with a sphere from the sun since Grim was apparently there for that."
"You know, you could come up here and join us, Lisa." Grim told her.
"I rather not, I'm very busy myself but I just can't pass up the chance to spread knowledge." Lisa then left. She quickly popped up again, "Also it smells of death up there."
"I take offense to that!" Grim told Lisa as she left again. A moment later, Grim quickly sniffed under his robe, "Woah...maybe I do need a shower up here."
...
Zach led the group of friends to his house. He stopped before they reached the steps to the door, "Okay, the aliens have taken over my house and my mom and dad, so you all need to be ready for anything, any questions?"
Rusty raised his hand, "So, if I started dating your mom, would we still be cool?"
Zach gave him a bewildered look, "Rusty, my parents are still together."
"Not what I asked."
Liam smacked the back of Rusty's head, "Get your head out of the gutter, boy."
Lincoln groaned, walked right up to the front door, and rang the doorbell.
"Lincoln, what are you doing!" Zach cried out.
"I'm getting to the bottom of this." Lincoln told him.
Stella walked behind Lincoln, followed by Rusty, Liam, and Zach shivering at the rear.
The front door opened and out came Zach's mom, Mrs. Gurdle. She smiled at the group, "Well, hello Zach and friends! Enjoying this lovely day?"
"We sure are Mrs. Gurdle, and you're looking as lovely as usual." Rusty flirted.
Liam stomped on his foot, and Rusty grunted in response.
Mrs. Gurdle giggled a bit, "Lively as usual, shouldn't you kids be running around?"
Lincoln smiled, "Well, you see, Zach forgot something in his room that he wanted to show us. We'll just be a few minutes and be on our way."
"If that's no trouble." Stella added.
Mrs. Gurdle got out of their way, "No trouble at all! Just don't take too long, you don't want to waste such a gorgeous day!"
Lincoln and friends entered the house and made their way to Zach's room. Zach quickly shut the door and covered it with his small body.
"What did I tell you all? Aliens have taken my mom's body!" Zach cried out.
Lincoln groaned, "Zach, we all just saw her, she was fine."
Rusty nodded, "Yeah, I'd recognize that pear-shaped figure anywhere."
"Why are you like this?" Liam asked.
"Hey, I can't help it if I got a great taste in women!"
"Guys! None of you know my mom like I do! That was NOT my mom! Not once did she suspect any of you were aliens and she let you all in without scanning you! She does that to ANYONE who enters the house!" Zach told them, panickily.
Stella patted Zach on the shoulder, "Okay Zach, you got a point. None of us really know your mom. Heck, I only met her three times, I think. But don't you think you're jumping the gun a bit? Your mom could just be in a different mood today."
"There's more!" Zach told them as he went to his computer with three monitors, he typed in a few keystrokes and one of the monitors displayed "DEFENSES: OFFLINE" he turned towards his friends, "My house's alien defense devices have all been deactivated! Only my parents know how to turn them off, and they're never off!"
"You know, I should be surprised your house has this, but given your garage has an alien lab, I'm not." Lincoln remarked.
"How did you know about that?" Zach asked.
"I live a crazy life, Zach. You don't want to know."
"Can't you...turn them on?" Stella asked.
Zach typed on his computer, "The most I can really do is turn on the surveillance system."
Suddenly, the monitor on the side showed live video and audio feed of Zach's parents in the living room.
"There's y'all's folks now, lookin' completely normal." Liam pointed out.
Zach's dad kept scratching his head, "Hoo-man body itch." He said.
Zach's mom sighed, "I know dear, don't scratch at it. That isn't normal human behavior...I think."
The kids all blinked a few times.
Whatever took the form of Zach's dad stood up, "Mission stoo-pid. Body itch. We leave now."
The thing with the body of Zach's mom stood up too with their hands on their hips, "For the last time, dear, the mission is to blend into human society and learn about them! The knowledge we gain will be invaluable!"
"Okay...yeah...I'm starting to think something is wrong." Lincoln told Zach.
Zach glared at Lincoln, "OH, you THINK so Lincoln? Do you need more proof that my parents have been replaced by aliens?"
"Fine! There's definitely something wrong, and I was wrong to doubt you, Zach!"
Zach pumped his fists into the air, "Alright, vindication! But uh...what do we do now?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Rusty asked as he headed for the door, "We kick some alien butt! RUSTY SPOOOOOOOKES!" he cried out as he opened the door and charged.
"Oh my God, he ran in." Liam remarked.
"Dang it, Rusty!" Lincoln yelled as he charged after his reckless friend. The rest of the group followed in turn, and all five of them ended up facing the couple masquerading as Zach's parents.
"The jig is up, alien scum! Give back Zach's mom and dad and nobody gets hurt!" Rusty told them.
The being with the body of Zach's dad frowned, "They know."
The creature posing as Zach's mom put their hands up, "Now, now, there's no need for us to get violent. I rather not have to destroy human children. Let's just talk this out."
Zach got up in their faces, "We won't negotiate with aliens! Give me back my parents!"
The alien looking like Zach's mom sighed, "They always got to make this difficult..." it then pulled out a ray gun.
The alien looking like Zach's dad pulled out another ray gun and laughed, "HEHEHEHE!"
The two aliens shot at the kids, but missed. The rays hit the TV and TV stand behind them. Both turned into stone.
"Dang, hoo-man body no aim good." complained the alien looking like Zach's dad.
"I told you we should have practiced! Now our M-Rays need to recharge!" argued the alien looking like Zach's mom.
The kids all started to sweat, Liam stated the obvious, "Lincoln, we are in trouble!"
Lincoln put his arms around his friends, "Okay everyone, we are going to have to pull off the Secret Technique."
"You mean?" Stella asked.
"Yup...RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Lincoln screamed.
The kids all made a break for the front door, the aliens in disguise tried to run after them but tripped over their unfamiliar human feet.
The alien with Zach's dad's body glared at the one with Zach's mom's body, "NOT A WORD."
The kids cut across the freeway which caused a car to break hard with the driver shouting "Watch where ya going, you fool!" at them.
Next they ran through the circus tent set up inexplicably next to the freeway and Zach's house. Coming through the other end covered in peanut shells.
Then the kids started to cut through backyards of Royal Woods' suburbs. In one backtard, the group ran past two attractive ladies sunbathing, one blonde in a pink bikini and the other a brunette in a yellow bikini. Rusty quickly backtracked and slicked his hair back.
"Hey there, Rusty Spokes." he greeted while offering a hand.
The lady in pink smiled and shook his hand. The lady in yellow offered her hand.
Rusty shook her hand, "Hey there, Rusty Spokes."
Liam ran back and grabbed Rusty, "Come ON, man!"
"MY PHONE NUMBER IS 616-" Rusty yelled as he got dragged away.
...
Lucy was tapping her chin as she walked down into the living room, "So, something about sun darkness coming to the surface..."
"Lucy can you do your spooky writing in your room?" Lola asked from the couch, "I'm trying to watch TV."
Lucy took a seat on the couch, "Actually, I could use a break, I'm getting nowhere with it."
Suddenly, the television displayed a Special News Bulletin with Katherine Mulligan reporting live, "This is Katherine Mulligan, this just in, a bizarre sinkhole has appeared right here in our little city of Royal Woods! The local road comission has no idea how it formed, or how big it could possibly get, so for now they have closed off the area for traffic and strongly suggest that everyone stay clear."
"Hey kid! You can't be here!" yelled one of the road workers.
Lana was shown on camera being dragged away kicking and screaming, "I CAN FIX IT! LET ME AT IT!"
Lola rubbed her chin, "Huh, I felt that Lana was in a hurry."
...
Soon enough, Lincoln and his friends were hiding under their table at Gus's Games and Grub. Lincoln poked his head out and looked around. He pulled his head back under to address his friends, "Okay...I think we lost them."
"What are we gonna do?" Zach asked again.
Stella shook her head, "I don't know..."
Liam smacked a fist on his hand, "We're gonna need more than good old gumption!"
Rusty pulled out his smartphone, "Okay, my cousin can get us some real firepower, we just need a few thousand dollars."
Lincoln looked through his wallet, "All I got is a few fives."
"Guys!" Stella suddenly shouted, "Honestly, I think we are WAY in over our heads here!"
Lincoln nodded, "I agree, but unfortunately we don't got much choice right now! Zach's parents are just the start!"
Zach nodded too, "Yeah, I've seen this in movies! First my parents, then your parents, then EVERYONE'S parents, and then they take them all back to their planet and feed them to a giant chicken!"
"OH, HECK NO!" Liam yelled, "We're supposed to eat chicken! Not the other way around!"
"Hey uh, are you kids going to order anything?" asked a voice from outside the table.
Lincoln stuck his head out, "Uh, hey Gus. Sorry, but we're having a secret meeting right now."
Gus nodded, "Understood, but can you please keep it down? I already heard one complaint from your yelling."
Liam stuck his head out, "Sorry about that, ya got any specials right now?"
"Well, there's the Pepperoni Spaghetti, it's new."
"We'll take that, thank you." Lincoln told him.
"And water, we need water." Liam added.
"I'm sure you all do." Gus walked away with their order written down.
Lincoln and Liam ducked back down under the table, Stella and Zach were looking at Rusty's smartphone.
"We ordered some food, what did you guys figure out?" Lincoln asked.
Rusty showed Lincoln his phone, "Well, I remembered that ARGGH was starting a new show, take a look!"
Lincoln looked at the phone, "...ARGGH Ghost and...Monster Hunting?"
Rusty nodded, "Yeah! They started diversifying!"
"The good kind." Stella added.
"We wondered if they might be able to help." Zach told him.
Lincoln took the phone, "Well, only one way to find out." Lincoln dialed the number provided, put speaker mode on, and waited for the call to go through.
"Welcome to the ARGGH Ghost and Monster hunting hotline! If you wish to ask for showtimes, press one. If you are looking for a career in ghost and monster hunting or television production, press two. If you wish for our ghost and monster hunting service, press-"
Lincoln pressed "3" and a few beeps were sounded out in response.
"CONGRATULATIONS! I am Hunter Spector and thou art our One-Hundredth caller for Ghost and Monster Hunting! You are entitled to one free hour of our services! How can I help you?"
Lincoln smiled, "Wow! Mr. Spector, I'm Lincoln Loud! Remember me?"
"I certainly do! Thanks to you helping me discover REAL ghosts, I was opened up to a new world to exploi- ER explore! How can we be of service today?"
"Can you help us hunt aliens?" Zach asked.
"We unfortunately do not as the United States Government considers Criminal Aliens a protected species."
Lincoln shook his head, "No, we mean space aliens! From outer space?"
"Oh, those we can hunt! The government doesn't care what we do with them!"
"Okay, so, we got space aliens in Royal Woods, we were hoping you could help us out with that!"
"Sure! I will arrive with the best monster-hunter in- wait, Hoss Delgado is on vacation in the Bahamas. I will arrive with our SECOND-best monster-hunter- wait, he is in the Bahamas with Delgado along with the third best and the other one...well one of our best hunters will arrive very soon!"
The call ended, Stella wasn't impressed, "I'm starting to see why nobody has been using this service."
Lincoln shrugged, "To be fair if these are the types of creature they tend to deal with I would also take a vacation in the Bahamas."
"Are you kids still here? I got your Pepperoni Spaghetti." Gus asked from above the table.
...
Half an hour later, Lincoln and his friends were in the countryside.
"Are ya sure this is where we're supposed to meet 'em?" Liam asked Lincoln.
"It's where the text said to go." Lincoln answered.
Stella tapped her chin, "I guess we're just waiting here for the moment...by the way, that was a great spaghetti, but I still prefer my family recipe"
Rusty shrugged, "Really? I thought that one was too sweet; have to admit, never thought of putting hotdogs in spaghetti before."
"Or having it with Fried Chicken," Lincoln added in.
Stella sighed, "It is an acquired taste, I guess."
Sorry, my bro wanted an excuse for Stella to wax about Philippine spaghetti.
Just then, the group heard "La Cucaracha" blare out from a truck horn. It came from a massive monster truck that was headed right for them. It made a skid as it stopped, the monster truck was painted black and green with an "ARGGH!" decal on the doors which opened. The driver and passenger jumped out and landed in front of the kids. Hunter Spector was one of them and the other was-
"No way, it's Rip Hardcore!" Rusty cheered.
Rip Hardcore smiled, "In the flesh! Oh, hey Lincoln! Haven't seen you since we fought those zombies!"
"Y'all fought zombies without us?" Liam asked.
"Or without me filming it?" Hunter asked.
"That doesn't matter right now! Listen, we have aliens to deal with!" Zach told them.
Hunter smiled, "We're one step ahead of you, in fact, we caught several aliens on the way here!"
"You... you did?" Stella asked.
Rip nodded and pulled out a big bag that held things moving inside it, "Yeah, get a load of these freaky space aliens!"
Rip pulled out one alien with green skin wearing a pink top with an odd pink backpack, black boots, an obvious shark fin wig, and eye contacts.
"I am not an alien invader! I am Zim! A regular human worm baby!" Zim lied.
Rip frowned, "Oh, sorry about that. You can go."
Rip set Zim on the ground, and the alien invader laughed, "HAHA! ZIM IS FREE!" He pressed a button on his backpack which produced a jetpack and flew away.
Hunter raised an eyebrow, "Huh, he had a jetpack-backpack!"
Lincoln nodded, "Yeah, those are getting cheaper."
"He kinda sounded like my dad." Rusty remarked.
"What else do you guys got?" Stella asked.
"Well, we found this tentacle alien." Rip pulled out a green squid-like alien creature with tentacles and its brain encased in a glass dome on its head.
The alien smiled its big alien mouth, "Oh, hey puny Earthling dudes! I'm Mark, what's up?"
"Wow, didn't expect aliens to sound like that." Liam remarked.
Zach pointed at him, "Are you with the aliens that took my parents?"
Mark frowned, "Huh? Wait dudes, I'm not into abducting humans. I mean, I tried eating human brain before, but it's way too flavorless and small for me dude."
"You eat brains?" Rusty asked.
Mark waved a tentacle, "Relax dude, I've gone vegan! The veggies and compost you humans make is way better than what I usually get!"
Liam smiled, "Why, thank ya! Y'all can come down to chow on some leftover compost anytime."
Stella turned a bit green and rubbed her stomach, not sure if it was the compost or the brain-eating that upset it, "I think that spaghetti is coming back with a vengence..."
Rip let Mark go and reached into the bag again, "One more, this one says he's an actual martian!"
Out of the bag came a small charcoal colored alien with a red body suit, green Spartan-like helmet, green combat skirt, and white shoes looking oddly like sneakers, "This makes me really angry." he spoke curiously without a mouth.
"Martian? The body snatchers came from Mars?" Zach asked.
The Martian glared at Zach, "What? Body snatching? That sounds more like the works of the Mercurians, you know, from Mercury? Martians are more into destruction, far less complicated!"
Rusty put his hands on his head, "Oh man, that's worse! You get how that's worse, right?"
Lincoln rubbed his chin, "So...I guess we're dealing with aliens from Mercury? Where would we find them?"
"Probably in that Mercurian ship over there." the Martian pointed at a spaceship that looked oddly enough like a corn silo.
Liam scratched his head, "...huh, you know, that silo did look mighty suspicious. Especially on account it just showed up the other night."
Stella pointed at the ship, "Looks like we're all going to have to investigate that if we want a chance to beat those aliens!"
Suddenly, a beeping noise rang out and Hunter looked at his watch, "Sorry kids, looks like your hour is up. Do you have fifty dollars?"
The kids all checked their wallets and came up short.
Rip groaned, "Forget the money, Hunter! There are people in danger! We need-"
The Martian pointed towards the nearby town of Hazeltucky, "Oh look! Ger-kons are attacking!"
A giant two-headed alien monster was indeed destroying buildings and eating cars in Hazeltucky.
Because why not at this point?
"We're getting requests all over the county, Rip!" Hunter yelled.
The duo got back into their monster-hunter truck and drove away, leaving Mark and the Martian behind.
Lincoln turned towards the other aliens, "I don't suppose you two want to help us?" he asked.
The Martian shook his head, "I rather not start another war with the Mercurians."
"And I'm more a live and let live kinda guy." Mark added.
"Do y'all at least got anything useful?" Liam asked.
The Martian reached down into his bodysuit and pulled out a bunch of ray guns, "Well, I always carry a small arsenal."
"Wow, all that and you still got captured?" Stella asked.
"DON'T REMIND ME! Are you willing to trade?"
"Well, how much do you want for it?" Lincoln asked.
"Earth's soil!" declared the Martian.
Zach made an "X" with his arms, "No way! We aren't selling the Earth for weapons! That's something only stupid and evil people would do!"
Rusty nodded, "Yeah, like politicians."
They're all bad, doesn't matter the political alignment. They're all opportunists selling their souls to the highest bidder.
The Martian groaned, "Uh, no, I meant literal soil. Dirt. What this planet is NAMED after? I could use some to power my ship."
Liam smiled, "That's all yer after? Why, there's soil all around us! Good soil too! Heck, you can take some from my family's farmland over there!" he pointed at a field not too far away.
"Perfect! Enjoy your new weaponry, Earthlings!"
Lincoln and his friends grabbed up the ray guns and rushed for the Mercurian ship.
Mark waved his tentacles, "Later puny human dudes and dudette! Don't like, vaporize yourselves with those things!"
The Martian chuckled a bit, "Oh you, do you really think I sold them functional weapons?"
...
The group of kids with ray guns reached the Mercurian ship and banged on the doors, "Open up! We know where you live!" Rusty yelled.
Curiously enough, this got the doors open, and a ramp extended out to let the kids in.
"Hold on, are they just letting us in?" Liam asked.
"Don't ask questions! Just demand answers!" Zach yelled as he ran in first.
The others followed in turn and they all ran up the ramp which led to an elevator. They all got in, and the ramp followed after them with the doors to both the space ship and elevator closing.
"...I got a bad feeling about this." Lincoln remarked.
The elevator started moving upwards. Some easy-listening lounge music came on.
"Well, at least we're all armed. Even if this is a trap, we can defend ourselves." Stella pointed out.
The kids all prepared their ray guns and suddenly something occured to them, "Uh, have y'all ever used one of these things before?" Liam asked.
"Yeah, there's stuff like this in a lot of video games." Rusty answered.
"How hard can it be? Just aim and fire, right?" Zach asked.
Soon enough, the elevator stopped and above the doors came the words: THE BRIDGE.
The doors opened up and behind them were two blueish blob-like creatures that seemed to change from a solid to a liquid as they moved towards the elevator.
"FIRE!" Zach yelled.
Click. Click. Clack. Clunk.
None of the ray guns worked.
The two blob creatures, apparently the Mercurians, got closer. The two produced human-shaped arms and hands from their blob bodies with one grabbing Zach and pulling him out while the other one pushed a button in the elevator.
"ZACH, NO!" Lincoln yelled.
The elevator doors shut tight and above the doors came the words: THE BRIG.
Beneath the kids, the floor opened up, and the remaining four fell down a chute screaming. They all landed in a small room with high walls and a doorway blocked by laser beams.
Liam was the first to get up, holding his busted ray gun still. In anger, he threw the ray gun at the lasers and they sliced the useless thing into scrap metal. "If I ever meet that swindling varmit again, I will strangle 'em and feed 'em to my pigs!" he declared.
Rusty got up and patted Liam's back, "Dang dude, chill! Nothing we can do now that we're in a...I guess alien ship prison cell? Huh, didn't think I'd be saying that."
Lincoln and Stella got up and looked around, "We gotta find a way out of here or else Zach is a goner!" Lincoln announced.
"What about that?" Stella asked, pointing at a glowing crystal next to the doorway, high up the wall that glowed an odd indigo color.
"Isn't that just a lightbulb or something?" Rusty asked.
"I don't think so...but whatever it is, it's high up." Lincoln noted, he reached for it but it was far up the wall.
Stella reached for it too, but she couldn't reach it either, "Dang it! I'm not tall enough!"
Liam rubbed his chin, "Hold on now! What you need is a stirrup!"
"A what?"
"Rusty, get next to Lincoln!" Liam ordered.
"Hey, if Stella can't reach it, I couldn't either dude." Rusty protested.
"Just do it, gosh darn it!"
"Okay, jeez!" Rusty went over and stood next to Lincoln.
Lincoln smiled, "I think I get it! Rusty, we can give Stella a boost!" Lincoln cupped his hands, and Rusty did as well, putting his under Lincoln's.
Stella stepped on their cupped hands and tried to pull herself up the wall. Liam rushed over to assist Stella's balance. All three boys managed to lift Stella high enough to reach the glowing crystal. "I've got it! I- AH!" she cried out as she grabbed the crystal. For a brief moment, an indigo glow appeared around her body, but it quickly went away.
"You alright, Stella?" Lincoln asked.
"I'm okay...it burned for a second." Stella held the crystal, the indigo glow was gone.
"Hey, the lasers are gone!" Liam pointed out.
The boys helped Stella down and the four ran out of the cell, nearby were a flight of stairs leading up and started climbing it. The crystal being dropped at some point but Stella didn't bother picking it back up.
"At least we're getting our exercise today!" Rusty remarked.
"Shut up, Rusty!" The others told him.
The group made it to the top of the stairs, out of breath. They stopped to catch their breath and looked up to see Zach and the Mercurians.
"Zach! We're here to save you!" Lincoln told him.
Zach shook his arms, "Wait! Guys, everything is fine!"
Stella pointed at the aliens, "You're captured by aliens that put us in a jail cell! How is any of this fine?"
"Jail cell?" one of the blobs asked in a familiar voice, "Oh whoops, wrong button. Sorry kids."
"Huh? Wait, I know that voice anywhere!" Rusty announced, "That's Zach's mom!"
"...huh?"
...
A bit later, the aliens in the bodies of Zach's parents had returned and used some sort of machine in the ship to swap the bodies of the blobs with Zach's parents so everyone was back to normal.
" ..let me get this straight, you guys made contact with these aliens from Mercury a bit ago and swapped bodies with them?" Lincoln asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." Zach's dad answered.
"It was quite the experience! We've learned so much in such a short time!" Zach's mom added.
"...and you didn't, you know, TELL your son about it?" Stella asked.
Mr. Gurdle rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah...in hindsight that was a bad idea."
Mrs. Gurdle hugged Zach, "We wanted to, but we weren't sure if Zach was ready to learn of their existence, and we were...worried our son would think less of us for well...being swappers."
"Are you kidding? You got to be in alien bodies! That's amazing!" Zach cheered.
Yes, I know, I'm immature.
"So uh...what about the part where y'all tried to shoot us?" Liam asked.
One of the Mercurian blobs sighed, "We were trying to just scare you. You didn't notice that we hadn't chased you?"
Rusty shrugged, "Eh, we were too focused on getting away."
"Hoo-man so stoo-pid." remarked the other Mercurian.
"Uh...why does that one talk like that?" Lincoln asked.
The first blob tsked, "Simple, my other half is just not...well-versed in the role."
The second blob extended a sort of tentacle and waggled it, "Not my fault. Hoo-man talk is mad. Why many similar sounds mean different things but different sounds mean same thing?"
Stella nodded, "Yeah, English is tricky."
The second blob put two tentacles on itself and screamed, "THERE ARE MORE? GET ME AWAY!"
The first blob sighed, "This is why you need to practice with me more."
"YOU NOT START!"
The humans all couldn't help but laugh at the silly situation.
"Well, I think we had enough for one day, let's go home." Lincoln suggested.
The others agreed and headed for the elevator, saying their goodbyes to the aliens as the elevator doors shut.
The first blob took a look at one of the ship's computer screens, "Huh...the humans touched one of our platinum stars."
"Why care?" asked the other blob.
"Well, for one, it means YOU need to rewire the system."
"Fine. I like work on ship."
"Good. Maybe we should see what it did to those humans, it could be-"
"Dull! Hate this place! We go home!"
...
In the Loud House living room, Grim was browsing a magazine for furniture with Leni. "Ooh, how about that?" Grim asked, pointing at a king-sized bed.
Leni smiled brightly, "Oh, that's totes adorable, but it might be a bit too big for you Grim."
"I believe I deserve to sleep like a king, Leni."
"Of course you do, Grim! But don't you think it'll take up too much space?"
Grim rubbed his jaw, "Hm... we'll have to get measurements..."
Just then, Lincoln opened up the front door and came in, "Hey Grim, I'm home!"
"Welcome home, mon." Grim told him.
"Hi Linky! Did you have a good day?" Leni asked.
Lincoln shrugged, "You won't believe this, but we-" there was then a knock at the door, "Huh?"
Lincoln opened it to see Stella outside, "Uh, hey Lincoln...um, is Grim here?" she asked.
"Uh, yeah? Hey Grim, can you come over here?"
Grim came over, "What, you want to loan me out to your girlfriend now?"
Lincoln frowned, "Grim, we talked about this, Stella is just a friend of mine."
"Trust me boy, I have been around the block enough times to see the difference"
Stella went a bit red with frustration and embarrassment, "Can we shift the focus back on me? After our bizarre adventure today, something weird started happening, and I wondered if Grim knew what it was!"
Grim smiled at Stella, "Well, odds are I do. Whatever it is, I'm sure I've seen it before."
Stella showed the two her right hand and it started glowing an eerie indigo.
Lincoln's mouth was agape with awe.
Grim's smile went away, "...I have never seen this before."