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 was co-written with dubb1.
Chapter Thirteen
Lincoln moved before Carol could react, swooping down and punching her in her molten face. He wasn't expecting it to hurt her much, hell if anything he'd probably take more damage, but he had to see how she'd react.
To his surprise, his hit did seem to at least phase her. Though that was probably more due to where he hit her. Carol toppled over and clutched her nose, yelling in pain. Lincoln wasn't spared, he felt his hand burning and turning to steam.
'Sucks that I'm air and still feel pain. But at least I know they can too.'
Lincoln turned and moved for another hit. Unexpectedly, Margo stepped in his way and just stood there defiantly. The hole in her torso kind of detracted from the image, but she acted like it didn't exist. Lincoln ignored her and kept going, expecting to hit her too.
And yet he missed.
'Huh?' He thought, flying past the rust and magma elementals. 'I know I was aiming right for them. How could my trajectory have been off by so much?'
He turned around and tried again, by once again he missed a lot. Except this time he tumbled into the dirt and came to a stop.
"What's going on Lincoln? How are you so bad at this?" Lynn asked, still trying to get up off the ground. But she felt like she had a skyscraper on top of her.
Carlitos attempted to ambush Margo from behind. Surprisingly it worked and he enshrouded her like a swarm of bees.
"What the hell? Get off me!" Margo shouted, batting her arms trying to drive the dust elemental off her. She could barely see a thing. But then all of a sudden Carlitos was thrown away and crashed into Luan.
"What was that?" Carlitos asked, regrouping himself into human form, though he looked dizzy.
"What happened? I thought you had her." Luan asked the dust boy.
"I don't know. It's like all of a sudden I just couldn't help myself. I was spinning around her and then I went the wrong direction?"
'What is her new power?' Luan asked herself, staring at the rust elemental. She wasn't the only one.
"Something's not right. I could hit birds made out of smoke back in Nowhere. I don't know why I'm missing her."
Lucy came up beside him as he hovered in the air. "These guys somehow got new powers. Haiku was magnetic and Scott was like a plant Venom or something. And I think Carol was doing something with gravity. Maybe Margo has some kind of power over aim."
"Elementals with extra powers, eh?" Lincoln summarized, rising back into the air a little. "Just like the Millars."
"Lincoln, if that's you, we can stop fighting." Carol claimed, rising up and standing beside Margo, holding her hands up to call for a ceasefire.
To everyone's relief, they weren't pressed to the ground anymore. So they rose back on their feet, but not without stretching and soothing their sore bodies.
"Why? Are you getting bored?" Lincoln asked, lowering to the ground but still hovering above it. Lucy joined him, and all the gathered members of the Loud group joined them in solidarity.
"We never wanted to fight any of you. We just need one thing from you all, and then Chandler will let everything go. Lisa will be released and your pasts will be pardoned. Lincoln, take your sisters and daughter and go back to that castle you have in Scotland and enjoy your lives without keeping up this meaningless fight anymore." Margo told him.
"And what do you want that would make you let us go like that?" Lincoln asked.
"Just some blood. Chandler needs some blood from every elemental, and when he has it they can finally create a vaccine against the L-Virus. Society can finally begin to get back to normal after that." Carol explained.
"So by refusing to give blood, you're dooming the world to an endless plague until everyone ends up dying anyway. Please, this is the heroic thing to do." Margo insisted.
Lincoln hummed and put his hand on his chin.
"Lincoln, you're not actually thinking about doing it, are you?" Stella asked.
"I thought Chandler already had a cure. That's why he's in charge of that city in the first place. Was that all a lie?" Lincoln asked.
"It's not a perfect cure. It's like aspirin, you take it to get rid of a headache but that doesn't mean you'll never get another headache ever again. He has saved people, but as long as the L-Virus exists people can get sick all over again. We need something to get rid of this disease once and for all." Margo explained.
"And how is our blood going to do that?" Lincoln asked.
"Elementals so far are the only thing immune to the L-Virus. Surely there's something in our blood that can help others." Carol added.
Lincoln shook his head. "Actually that's not true. Where I've been I've seen other elementals catch this disease too."
Carol and Margo's eyes widened. "You have?"
"Seriously?" Lana and Lola asked, just as surprised.
Lincoln nodded. "Did you ever consider that this isn't a virus? But a disease element with the power to infect others? And has been doing so to conquer the world all this time?"
Carol and Margo looked at each other.
"That… that actually makes sense." Margo noted.
"But then, who is the disease elemental?" Carol asked.
"I dunno. But rather than fight each other we should be looking for them." Lincoln claimed.
"Why not do both?" Luna asked, hitting her palm with her fist.
"Yeah, why would we trust them again?" Lynn asked, glaring at Margo while cradling her rusted arm.
"I'm getting honest vibes off them. They actually don't want to hurt us." Adelaide stated.
"Besides, what if I told you I already had a vaccine?" Lincoln asked.
Carol and Margo's eyes widened, and even the Loud group looked surprised.
"You do?"
"Yes, but I'm not telling you what it is."
"And why not?" Carol asked, getting angry.
"Because I don't trust Chandler. Frankly I don't believe he wants to fix the problem, not without being able to take the credit for it anyway. If he knows the cure exists, he'd steal it and keep it under lock until he knows how to make sure it'll work only on his terms."
"C'mon Lincoln, Chandler may be a bit of a brat but he's not some supervillain." Margo protested.
Lincoln crossed his arms. "Then go back to your city and tell him the Louds can cure the L-Virus. See how long it takes for him to try and put a stop to us."
"You're just going to let them go?" Rusty asked, aghast.
Lincoln looked at his old school friend. "There are more important priorities than kicking butt right now. Like keeping my parents safe."
"He's right." Liam agreed.
"We can't go without your blood." Margo told them.
"But I have a working cure, so you don't need it anymore." Lincoln countered.
"Prove it works." Carol insisted.
"Would you if you were me?" Lincoln asked back.
Grumbling a little, Carol unthawed Scott who shivered, and the trio left the area.
"This is not over Lincoln." Lynn warned. "They know where our last base is now. They could kill Mom and Dad if they want to."
"Something tells me they don't want to." He replied.
"But Chandler would." Sam remarked.
"So, Man with the Plan, what next?" Lola asked.
"Keep Leslie safe from Chandler, that's my top priority and it's non-negotiable."
"Where's Lily?" Lana asked, looking around.
Haiku had been flying and just barely able to outpace Lily all this time. She moved into the upper atmosphere where auroras naturally occurred and thus gave her some extra fuel to keep going. But Lily could feel off all the light she could too, thus any real advantage Haiku gained was minimal at best.
'I can't outrace her forever, nor can I wait until her anger fizzles out. I have to lose her, or trap her.'
With that, an idea came to her and she changed her trajectory, with Lily following. Lily could have attacked from behind, yet for some reason wasn't. Either she was too angry to do so, or she wanted to catch her prey personally.
Haiku very quickly reached a place that she had only been to once before in the past, ironically thanks to Lily back when they were on the same side. It was the town of Loch Loud, changed to include barrier walls that protected the village from the infected. It was possibly the last safe zone in Europe, and right now Haiku's only chance of losing Lily.
Lily saw the town and felt a tug at her heartstrings. She still had a soft spot for this place, and due to her ability to travel she had been the only Loud to make repeated returns to it. Though that did come with a few problems in recent years. Right now though, she tried to ignore it and focus on her enemy. But that didn't mean her hulk form diminished just a little.
Haiku flew to the castle, praying that she could pull this off. She went inside and at lightspeed checked everywhere she could, knowing she had mere attoseconds to do so before Lily caught up to her.
She found her target, appearing frozen due to the speed difference, but Haiku actually needed it that way.
'I have to time this perfectly or else it won't work. I won't get another shot at this. But how? Think Haiku, think.' She thought, looking around. One option came to mind and she went for it, not chancing coming up with a better one.
Lily caught up and found a room in the castle filled from roof to floor with swirling colors. This was a camouflage technique of Haiku's, flooding the area with lights to make it more difficult to spot the elemental herself. Lily herself had done this tactic before when fighting their enemies in the past, but in her current state of mind she couldn't quite figure out how to find her target.
There was a flash in the middle of the room, and like a moth to the flame Lily came for it. This proved to be a mistake, for once she got there she saw a swirl of rainbow colors. She paused and looked around, seeing nothing but color in all directions. It was like drowning in melted skittles.
Lily's anger began to be replaced with fear, and as a result she turned back to her humanoid form.
"Where am I?" She asked, firing beams of light all around. She hit nothing but the colors began to fade and she found herself in a strange place. A sky that wasn't blue, and had no stars or sun but multiple moons. Below her was a vast landscape with the ground appearing to be made of pink soil.
"Seriously, where am I?" She asked, wanting to fly off but having no idea where to go.
Back in Castle Loud, Haiku dismissed the colors all around and sighed in relief, finally allowed to rest. With the colors faded, the room became more visible, as well as the only other person still in it.
"Huh? When did you get here?" The other person asked, jolting upright out of their bed. They were confused, but quickly startled by the sudden appearance of the aurora elemental.
"Sorry for this, Miss Morag, but the good news is I brought you Lily Loud. She should be trapped in your void right now." Haiku said.
Morag blinked then closed her eyes. For a moment she saw nothing, until she could see a single light floating in an empty space. This made her smile.
"Well well well, I finally caught you, little girl." She said, her face appearing in the sky in front of Lily who glared back at her. Her face wasn't solid, if anything it was ghostlike. Like a mirage that could laugh at you.
"Let me out of here!" She demanded, firing some more light beams. But they just went through Morag's face like she wasn't even there.
"Fat chance of that you little brat. You're stuck in my personal dimension forever. And the rest of your family will soon join you." Morag taunted before fading away, leaving Lily to scream futilely.
Morag opened her eyes and smiled. "You've done well, now please leave. The deal with Chandler means I get Loch Loud all to myself. No other elementals allowed, and it's the middle of the damn night."
"Alright, at least now I can take my time getting back." Haiku said, stretching her ethereal limbs. For a moment she considered informing Morag of the return of Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, but decided against it. Morag wasn't exactly her favorite person, so why do her any favors? And so, she flashed out of the castle and left Scotland.
Morag peered outside the window of her castle, gazing down at the town of survivors who were required by law to make no noises outdoors or else. She knew they were miserable, but she didn't care. She had her peace and quiet, and if they didn't like it, they were welcome to leave and join the infected outside.
"Hmm… I wonder if I should pay the Louds a visit, and take them all." She mused, in no real hurry to actually do so. Like she said, it was the middle of the night and she needed her sleep.
Haiku flew at a more sedate pace, not wanting to exhaust herself further. She did reenter the upper atmosphere and feed off the electromagnetic field a little to recharge herself, which made her feel better. And yet she for some reason felt sick to her nonexistent stomach.
'What's wrong with me? Why do I feel like punching myself?' She asked herself, descending and going over the ocean. She saw some dolphins jumping out of the water playfully and went over to them, hoping this would make her feel better. Instead the dolphins left her.
'Sheesh, even they think I suck.' She thought, looking at the water. 'Auroras don't exist underwater, maybe I should drown myself. Ugh! Why am I thinking that? I did what I had to do! Lily and I are on opposite sides now! She would have done the same thing to me if she could have!'
This did not reassure her or make her feel any less horrible.
Land came into view and to her surprise it showed signs of civilization. It must be one of those few remaining settlements that had survived despite not being a safe zone. Great Lake and Loch Loud were, to her knowledge, the only places on the planet anymore that were actually protected from the L-Virus. So many cities had collapsed over the last five years because once the L-Virus got in nobody could get it out. Any place that still housed people pretty much lasted this long due to luck, but how they managed internally was anyone's guess.
Curiosity got the better of her and Haiku decided to approach this little place, slowly of course. She didn't want to overtly startle them. Odds were they'd freak out seeing any elemental regardless of allegiance.
'Have to be careful.' She thought, rising a little to decrease the risk of being noticed.
To her surprise, some people on a boat doing some late night fishing saw her and waved to her, acting not afraid at all. She waved back, a little uncomfortable, but continued on.
'Who fishes at this time of night? I'm assuming it's close to midnight here, wherever here is.'
Over the town the few people out doing whatever it was they did at midnight saw her too and also waved, with a few clearly trying to get her attention. Confused and a little curious, Haiku came down.
"Oh wow! A real elemental in our home!"
"I never thought we'd get to see one of you guys around here!"
"Thank you for protecting us from the L-Virus!"
As an introvert, Haiku was a little out of her element being quickly surrounded and flooded with attention. It was mostly teens who were clearly breaking curfew and looked at her like she was a visiting celebrity or a theme park mascot. She sort of just stood there watching everyone express their enthusiasm, silently waiting for them to get it out of their systems.
"Relax guys, don't overwhelm our guest." One of the women in the group said, coming over to them. To Haiku, this person sort of reminded her of Luna due to her attire, but her hair was more like Sid's.
"I'm not staying long." Haiku claimed, not sure why she said 'long'.
"That's expected. The fact that you graced our little home with a visit is a surprise." Ohe of the boys in the group replied. He didn't really remind Haiku of anyone specifically.
"Not to be ungrateful, but why exactly?" Haiku asked, as the kids gave her some space.
"Isn't it obvious? You're doing everything to keep us safe from the L-Plague." Another girl told her.
"Yeah, there hasn't been a sick person around here in two years." One of the other boys added.
"Two years? That can't be, they're all over the world." Haiku objected.
"Well we haven't seen any around here since… was it around Halloween or Thanksgiving we saw the last one?"
"Thanksgiving, I remember some of us were afraid to eat after that."
"From what I've heard, the entire eastern coast is finally safe to reclaim and rebuild." One of the boys stated.
'That can't be. Chandler has been telling us that if anything the L-Virus is only spreading more and more. Even uninhabited areas are still infected with the virus waiting to find a host to latch onto.' Haiku thought.
"Will you be able to reestablish contact with other lands anytime soon?" The first woman to talk to her asked.
"That's not really my department, so I can't say." Haiku confessed. "Listen, not to be rude, but I really should get going. But it was really nice to see you all. I'm glad to know you're all doing well."
"Thank you. Tell the other Louds that we're all rooting for you to save us and take down that McCann brat."
Haiku hid her surprise well, but she had to rise into the air to avoid risking undoing that. The teens below cheered her on and told her to come back someday, prompting her to fly off west towards Great Lake City.
'She thought I was part of the Louds? These people, they don't think the Louds are terrorists? But they do think Chandler is a problem? I mean, I know the Louds aren't monsters and Chandler is in fact a brat, but everyone around Lake Michigan thinks otherwise. I wonder how different things are out here, and if this means the L-Virus might be dying off on its own.'
The idea that this dreaded pandemic might be coming to an end on its own shook Haiku a little. In the beginning, victims of the disease lived for about a year or so before fully succumbing to the effects and dying. Studies showed the disease was too complex to simply cure, it was like being infected with every illness known to man all at once. Sure, logically at some point it would run out of victims and die off, but lingering sludge and potential airborne particles existed and still found new hosts. Not to mention that the disease itself could change to be less fatal. So it made sense that the L-Virus still remained and was a sword hanging over all survivor heads even now. But those people on the coastline didn't seem afraid of it at all. How long has it been since they've seen another victim?
But most of all, why were the Louds seen as the heroes when she knew everyone back home saw them as the villains? What wasn't she seeing?
Feeling too many emotions to narrow down which ones were the strongest, Lily began flying all over this strange new place. Going as fast as she did, everything looked frozen in place to her, allowing her to see a lot of the things this 'void' Morag brought her to contained. What stood out the most to her were elemental animals of all different sorts.
'I've never seen elemental animals before, except for our so-called hulk forms. I've traveled the earth dozens of times and never saw anything like this. That means I'm either at a place I've never been to, or I'm not on Earth anymore.'
Panic seized her heart for a moment, making her flicker like a dying lightbulb.
'Oh no, Mom! Dad! I have to get out of here before their pods die out! But how do I get out of here?!'
Frantic, Lily sped up and went everywhere she could as fast as she could, looking for anything that gave her a semblance of an exit door. Literally anything. If there was a cave, she went in and didn't come out until she hit every reflective surface inside. If there was a mountain, she spun around and around it like a firefly corkscrew. She even checked the moons, finding something on them except for one.
'What the heck? Is that a hot air balloon?' She asked herself, slowing down on a moon to see a basket and deflated balloon tethered to it. 'Wait, that means there are people here. They must know something.'
Resuming ludicrous speed, Lily returned to the ground and continued her search, this time looking for signs of intelligent life. To her surprise, she found it.
'It's a town.' She thought, happily, seeing some walls and signs of a road going in and out. She went right for it over the wall, and stopped and gasped at what she saw.
The town was decimated, with the buildings utterly destroyed. A few remained standing but they were quite damaged too. Oddly enough there were no dead bodies anywhere, but she could see puddles of a familiar sludge on the ground.
'The infected came by here. Even this place isn't safe. Did everyone get sick? No, I'm sure at least one person got out of here, but where would they go?'
Lily looked around for any signs of recent inhabitation, and to her surprise she found something that stood out. Some wreckage that looked unique to her.
'This building, it's damaged, but the wood is scattered differently than the others. Almost like after whatever happened here, someone dug through it.' She thought, hovering over some broken wood. 'If I'm right, that means that after whatever disaster happened in this town, someone survived and decided they wanted something that was inside this building. But why? What was in here they wanted?'
Lily gave in to her curiosity and moved some of the wood herself. She found damaged furniture, torn clothes, and broken kitchenware, implying this used to be a residence. There was no food inside, so maybe that was what the pillagers were after. She got uncomfortable when she saw a damaged crib.
'A family lived here. Are they still alive? I haven't seen any puss or blood yet.' She thought, checking by the crib to ensure there were no signs of attack. On the floor she found a large piece of paper with a tear across it, and she picked it up and turned it over. Seeing the other side made her gasp and drop it.
It was a drawing of Lincoln and Ronnie Anne with a younger Leslie.
'This… this is where Lincoln has been all this time! This is that world he was telling us about! And that means there is a way out of here!'
Hope renewed, Lilly rolled up the drawing and resumed her search for people.
"We Louds don't stay down forever!"
"It's no use guys, if Lily's not back now she's not coming back." Lynn said with a sigh as she sat down.
"We just have to keep searching." Lincoln insisted.
"We've been searching and calling out for her for the last half hour. Even if she can't hear us, Lily can travel at light speed. Wherever she is, there's no way it would take her thirty minutes to get here." Lynn argued.
"Unless she was unable to get back." Lucy added grimly. "I haven't seen Haiku for a while either. I think those two went on a long chase, and if Lily isn't back that can only mean Haiku won."
"But if Haiku won, does that mean Lily is trapped like Lisa?" Luna asked.
"We have to consider it."
"What now? Without Lily, the generators will work maybe a day and a half at absolute best. Even moving some of the solar panels above ground will buy us minutes." Clyde claimed.
Lincoln got scared. "Are you saying that if we don't find Lily in the next twenty-four hours, my parents could die?"
Everyone had a somber expression, but no one said a thing.
Lincoln made a fist. "Then we have no choice, we storm Chandler's stronghold. Tonight. And free them both or die trying."
"That won't do you any good."
Everyone looked up and saw Haiku floating above them. And everyone got a glare in their eyes at this sight.
"You!"
"Lily isn't in Chandler's domain. I…" Haiku started, sounding somewhat regretful. "I led her to Morag in Loch Loud. She's trapped there."
"Morag?" Lincoln repeated, not liking the sound of that.
"And you expect us to believe you?" Stella shouted.
"I merely said the truth, it's up to you whether or not you believe it."
"Even if what you're saying is true, how are we supposed to get to Scotland?" Lincoln challenged.
"You're the wind, right? Fly like it." Haiku said before vanishing in a flash. Several members of the Loud group expressed frustration at not getting the chance to attack the aurora elemental.
"Can you believe the audacity of that?" Jordan asked.
"How dumb does she think we are?" Rusty added.
"Who here is the fastest?" Lincoln asked.
Luan blinked. "Bro, you're not taking her seriously, are you?"
"Lily's not here, we can't take that chance. I've never gone that fast before, but I will if I have to. Who here can keep up?"
"I can." Adelaide spoke up. "I'm basically living thought, and that means I can move as fast as electrical signals if I really have to, but unfortunately I can't always control where I go."
"Darkness is balanced by light. I may not go that fast when it's bright out, but at night I'm unstoppable." Lucy added.
"Okay, that's three. We go to good old Scotland and call Haiku's bluff while everyone else charges Chandler's castle." Lincoln stated.
"Actually Lincoln, I think I know a better way to buy us some time." Lana said.
"What's that?" He asked.
"We find Lori and bring her here."
Lola nodded. "Yeah, she can take Lily's place until we free her."
"Were you two hit in the head?! Lori's who knows where and even if we actually can find her by tomorrow, I highly doubt she's going to come back if we just ask her to!" Lynn all but shouted.
"But what if it's Lincoln doing the asking?" Lana asked.
All eyes turned towards the air elemental.
"Do we have the data on where she's supposed to be?" Lincoln asked.
"Let's double check."
Ronnie Anne stood outside, wanting a little space from her family. As glad as she was to be with them again, five years essentially on her own had changed her tolerance for a full household. It would take some time before being surrounded by everyone felt like home again.
'If it ever does. I mean, Lincoln needs to reunite his family, but after that, what do we do? We need to find a new place to raise Leslie, and she'll need more family in her life too. But which family? Mine or his? Mine feels more stable and rooted compared to his scattered one, but at the same time I don't think mine is ready to accept me and Lincoln as adults. The Louds at least will give us the freedom to make our own choices, but they need to solve their own problems first. What do we do?'
She was broken from her thoughts when she saw someone walk towards her family house, and with it being dark she couldn't quite make them out. But she didn't worry, in this place what were the odds that this stranger would be a threat?
"Room for one more, mija?"
Ronnie Anne blinked and the stranger came closer. His hair and beard had a lot more grey in it than it used to, but she recognized him immediately.
"Dad?"
Leaking poisonous tears, she embraced Arturo Santiago in a slimy hug, which he returned.
"Where have you been?"
"Waiting for your mother and her family to have their fun with you, I figured once you came outside I was fair game to have my turn."
"I was worried you were still stuck in Peru, or worse." Ronnie Anne said, hugging him a little tighter.
"Sweetie, not to be rude, but could you ease up just a little? My skin is starting to burn."
She released him immediately, seeing some redness on the exposed areas but nothing he couldn't heal from. "Sorry, I didn't mean to."
"Hey, at least you're not tar like your cousin."
"Speaking of which, how did you recognize me? I'm not exactly…" Ronnie Anne asked, struggling to come up with the right word.
"You're my daughter, I'd recognize you whether you were made out of goo or salt." Arturo assured her.
"Here." She said, returning to flesh form. "This will make it easier."
"You can change on command? But no one else can." Arturo asked.
"I think Lincoln and I have some advantages the others don't, thanks to where we've been."
"Speaking of which, you must tell me everything. Where were you? How did you get back? And has that boy been respectful or do I need to throw him into a bull pit?"
Ronnie Anne chuckled. "You answer my questions and I'll answer yours. But first, there's something else you really need to see."
Ronnie Anne went inside the new Casagrande house, and moments later emerged with Leslie in her hands.
"Leslie, meet your abuelo."
"Ah-bwa-oh?"
Arturo was caught entirely by surprise, and for a moment Ronnie Anne wondered if his brain had fried.
"Dad, meet Leslie Loud, your granddaughter. And if you do anything to her father, I'll make you go bald."
Arturo took Leslie into his hands and she found his beard fascinating, making him grin and wince a little as she tried to grab it.
"Where is the father, by the way?"
"He's checking on his sisters, we think they might be in trouble right now."
Down in the bunker, a few of them were using the computers as quickly as they could to avoid depleting necessary power. While more worked on trying to move a few more solar panels above ground without disconnecting them. The need to hide their location was gone, right now keeping Rita and Lynn Sr from dying was the top priority.
"Okay, if this is accurate, Leni was last sighted somewhere in Lake Michigan." Clyde told everyone.
"That's a big place. By now she could be in Lake Hudson or Lake Superior." Rusty lamented.
"At least it's not the ocean." Stella noted.
"Why would she stick to these areas?" Lincoln asked.
"Because Leni's a water elemental. Didn't anyone tell you?" Lynn asked.
"Actually, no. No one told me what Leni or Lori became." Lincoln replied. "But if her element is water, then it makes sense why she'd be near large bodies of water. What about Lori? What's her element?"
"Fire. And Bobby is sound. Wherever she is, he has to be too."
Lincoln began to think. "Okay, assuming Lori and Leni are together, then they'd need a place where there's plenty of water, and heat for Lori's element. If Bobby is sound, then the only thing he needs is a place where there is still noise so he can eat."
"With Lori and Leni around how could it ever be quiet?" Luan joked.
Lincoln rubbed his chin. "Hmm… it would have to be along the coast, or maybe an island in the lake itself. Most likely more than one place, since that would explain why you guys haven't found them yet."
He noticed some uncomfortable looks on the faces of his sisters and friends.
"You guys have been looking for Lori and Leni, right?" He asked.
"Not as much as we used to. After the first couple of months, we kind of got the hint that they weren't coming back, so we stopped making finding them a top priority." Luna admitted.
"We did at least confirm that they weren't taken by Chandler." Sam added.
"Does it say where around Lake Michigan Leni was last spotted?" Lincoln asked.
Clyde checked the computer. "Let's see…" There was some more typing and scrolling, then a pause. "Uh oh."
"Uh oh? What uh oh?" Lincoln asked.
"You're not going to like this Linc, but according to this, they were last seen in Japunda."
"Japunda? Mexico?" Lincoln repeated.
"That is pretty far away from Chandler's reach, and is somewhere Bobby would at least be familiar with." Sid noted.
Lincoln sighed. "There's no way I can get to Mexico and bring Lori back here in less than a day."
"You don't have to." Lucy claimed. "I can."
"If I go too, I should be able to help find them. They still think after all." Adelaide added.
"Good luck finding Leni then." Luan said, laughing a little.
"No time to talk, let's get going." Lucy stated with Adelaide nodding. Then the two darted off incredibly fast.
"So what now?" Rusty asked.
"I'm going back to Ronnie Anne and Leslie. I want to do more, but right now that's where I want to be. I'll see you guys later."
"Where are you guys going to stay long term then?" Luna asked.
"That's one of the things I need to talk with her about." Lincoln claimed then went outside, with Carlitos joining him.
"So you're just leaving us? You come back and then leave? Do you think this will make Lori and Leni want to come back?" Lynn argued, with a few of them behind her.
"What do you want me to do? Ignore my daughter?" He asked back.
Lynn looked nonplussed by that.
"I'm not abandoning you guys, but… you know what? I don't need to explain myself. I have a daughter now, end of discussion."
With that, Lincoln flew off with Carlitos following. The Louds and friends stayed there, and after a moment to let this sink in, they resumed resetting the solar panels.