5. Chapter 5 - Leni Arc

AN: And done. Thank you for your patience, dear readers. I would have gotten this done sooner but I was in the middle of a story arc for my other story, Gigant, when Auto approached me about doing this collab. And while I was happy to agree, I'm not the kind of person who can work on multiple things at once, I need a nice clean stopping point before I can shit gears and start on something else. So Auto was to handle the first arc of this story while I finished up my arc of Gigant. But the dope worked way too fast, and got those four chapters out in a ridiculously short amount of time. Hence the long delay between chapters.

Now I'm all done with Gigant for the moment and will be focusing exclusively on Archetypal until the next story arc is complete. Dunno how long that'll be exactly, but probably somewhere between 3-5 chapters, we'll see how things shake out. Also, while I have been working with Auto behind the scenes on this thing the entire time, this is the first chapter I've actually written for the story, so the writing style is gonna be different from what you've been seeing so far. But this is being posted on my account, so presumably most of you are already here for my stories, and this chapter will represent a much welcomed return to form for you. Regardless, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I continue to be amazed at how positive the reaction has been to this weird little story a couple of dopes cooked up for fun. Hopefully you guys keep on enjoying what we have in store for you.

...uh, I gotta wait till Auto gets back to me before I can actually post this thing. So...I guess I'll address some reviews.

Devumaru: Hey man, glad you're enjoying the story. Yours was one of the first stories I read back when I first joined this fandom in 2017 or so, and I really enjoyed it. Was really happy to see that you'd started posting updates again. Haven't had a chance to catch up, but I fully intend to now that I've cleaned up my writing slate a bit.

godfkaifsifsi: Uh, maybe? We'll see how things go. Auto is a renown porn lord in this fandom, after all.

Mr. Haziq: Physical limitations are meant to be creatively worked around. Plus, Linc has other stuff going for him too. Things that may or may not come up in this very story arc.../foreshadowing?

dogbertcarroll: I think that thing you mentioned about the girls loving him would be super fun, and wholesome, and also only the sort of development that only really smart and cool people could come up with. Note: the aforementioned statement is not to be taken as any form of /foreshadowing. Because Auto is also writing this thing.

nuuo: Yes, Lori's costume is basically Power Girl's. Because I thought it would look good on her and be a fun concept for her character, and Auto's not strong enough to stop me :)

bennet001: Always happy to see you enjoying my stories dude. Lincoln's powers will not be purely supportive, which is all I'm at liberty to say at the moment. Also, we'll probably get to explore that in more detail during this story arc, if all goes well.

I should probably just stop there. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

Lori blasted forward towards her foe, impossibly fast even by her own ludicrous standards. Whitney, her beautiful face twisted into a hateful scowl, had left herself open. The villainess was too preoccupied with her own, petty revenge, so much that she failed to register Lori's presence until it was far too late. A fatal mistake.

POW!

A single blow was all it took, the force of her strike igniting the air as Lori sent her opponent flying. A lesser foe would have been obliterated by such an attack, but Whitney was made of sterner stuff. She'd be well enough. Eventually. Probably.

"Lori! You did it! You saved everyone!"

The heroine smiled as she turned towards the sound of the all too familiar voice. Her little brother Lincoln, gazing upon her magnificence with undisguised hero worship, as was proper.

Lori decreased her altitude, landing lightly on her feet as she permitted herself to touch the ground. She held her arms out wide, and gestured towards Lincoln, beckoning the young boy to come to her, and was delighted when the pale-haired boy took her up on her offer, leaping into Lori's arms with much enthusiasm. Lori held the boy close to her ample chest and allowed herself a brief moment in which to enjoy the sensation. Her Lincoln. So sweet. So soft. So wonderfully...weak.

"L-Lori?" Lincoln squeaked as she tightened her grip on him, arms like steel encircling his young frame, trapping him in an unbreakable prison of flesh.

"I saved you, Linky." Lori cooed, capturing the younger boy's lips with her own as she drifted back into the air, her speed gradually building until they were high above the clouds, the boy's inescapable prison suddenly becoming that much more inescapable. She broke the kiss and gave her little brother a dazzling smile. "And now I'm going to take my reward."

"I-I don't think we should, Lori." Lincoln stuttered, looking uncomfortable. "This doesn't seem right."

"I don't see why you'd think you have a say in this, Linky." Lori scoffed, chuckling condescendingly as she reached for her little brother's pants. "After all, it's not like you can stop me..."

"GAH!" Lori screamed as she jerked back into consciousness, her body drenched with sweat. She quickly glanced around, taking comfort at the familiar sights around her. She was home. She was in bed. And she wasn't sharing it with her adorable little brother. A dream then, she concluded. "Or something." Her brain snidely supplied.

"Lori?" Grumbled a very sleepy Leni from the other side of the room. "Can you keep it down? I'm trying to get my Leni sleep."

"Sorry," Lori whispered, flinching as dream Lincoln's terrified face flashed through her mind. That had been...unsettling to say the least.

She turned her attention to their bedroom window and groaned, quietly so as to not disturb Leni any further. It was way too early for this, with only the barest hint of sunlight beginning to illuminate the sky outside.

Strictly speaking, Lori didn't actually get "tired" per se. Not physically at least, according to Lisa, it had something to do with the way her body processed energy far more efficiently than the average human, the same reason she was able to stay in such fantastic shape even though it was nearly impossible for her to get a proper workout. However, she was still very susceptible to mental fatigue, which is why it was so important for her to get a proper night's rest. People were so fragile compared to her, and keeping them safe frequently called for fast and accurate judgment calls. She couldn't afford to screw up. Ever. Especially if Lisa was right about her getting stronger...

Lori gave her head a violent shake. This was dumb. Worrying about not getting enough sleep wasn't going to solve anything, clearly, she needed to actually try getting some sleep. She could worry about all that...other...stuff, some other time. Much, much...other.

Thus decided, Lori laid back down and closed her eyes. She tossed and turned a bit, but finally, she found herself drifting off to sleep once more. "Tomorrow would be better." Lori thought to herself as her consciousness began to fade, visions of her and a pale hair boy soaring through the sky together bringing a smile to her face as sleep finally took its hold.

Lori quietly stalked into the hallway, one eye twitching furiously in silent irritation. She turned around and gently pulled the door to her bedroom shut behind her, so as to not wake Leni. Then, finally alone and in no danger of disturbing anyone else, she let out a long, frustrated sigh.

Lori did not have another nightmare that night. Quite the opposite, she'd slept like a baby! Best night's sleep of her life! The problem was that she could still very vividly remember the imagery that had lead to such peaceful slumber. Lincoln and her standing in line for the movies together, arms locked, and cheeks flushed. Lincoln and her sharing an ice cream cone, their faces covered in sugary cream and joyful smiles. Her and Lincoln laying on the beach together. She, straddling her little brother, gazing hungrily into his love-filled eyes as he reached for her bikini strap and—

CRUNCH

Lori's hand twitched erratically, crushing the doorknob still held in her grip into a tiny, misshapen ball of metal. She took another deep, shuddering breath, and tried to regain control of herself. Then she turned once more and began to shuffle towards the bathroom.

Lori Loud could not be in love with her brother. Screw what Lisa had said, it was literally impossible. An Archetype didn't change who you were, it was something you were born with, and having it officially identified by the Index was more for ceremonial purposes than anything else, everyone knew that.

She flinched, suddenly remembering the way those people had been yelling at her little brother. Well, everyone should know that, anyway. Regardless, Lincoln didn't suddenly become a supernaturally skilled ladies' man following his Indexing, he was the same doofy little dork he'd always been. Likewise, her feelings for her little brother hadn't changed in the slightest, she felt exactly the same way towards him that she always had.

Yes, she wanted to spend time with him, as any sister would. Yes, when he smiled that cute, bucktoothed little smile of his, it made her want to snatch him up and pepper him with kisses, but that was perfectly natural when you had a little brother as cute as him. And yes, maybe sometimes she'd think back to the way Lincoln used to sneak into her bed when he was little and had a bad dream, and occasionally find herself wishing that, just once, he'd find his way back to her bed again. And then, while they were under the covers together, he'd climb on top of her, cup her face with one hand, then trace the other one down the contours of her body until he found her—

POW

Acting on impulse, Lori had wound up and punched herself in the face as hard as she could. It was...a strange experience, to say the least, the unstoppable force that was her fist meeting the immovable object that was her nigh-invulnerable body. A shame Lisa hadn't had the opportunity to see it, there were probably all kinds of sciency things she could infer from the way that event had shaken out. Regardless, she was in control once more. And...slightly sore on one side of her face, but it was totally worth it.

Okay, so...maybe things weren't as hunky-dory as she'd thought. But that was fine, it was fine! All she had to do was find some time to herself, so she could sit down and work out these weird...feelings...of hers. Totally fine. But it would probably be for the best if she avoided running into Lincoln for a little while. For his sake—

"Yaaaaaawn."

Lori's ears twitched as her enhanced hearing homed in on an all too familiar sound coming from the far end of the hallway. She knew that yawn. Well, she knew everyone's yawn, actually, but that one was particularly distressing in these specific circumstances...

Sure enough, the door on the other side of the hallway opened up and out stepped Lincoln. Adorably sleepy-looking, and...only clothed in his underwear.

Lori's face turned bright red, her jaw rapidly opening and closing as she looked upon her little brother's nearly naked form. Why was Lincoln dressed like that? Granted, it was a great look for him, he totally pulled it off with his slender, but surprisingly toned frame, but it was just so out of character...for...

Lori's movements slowed as she noticed smokey ripples on the edge of her vision. The telltale indicator that she'd activated her x-ray vision. She took a deep breath and focused, willing her vision to return to normal, and sure enough...it did. The house snapped back into focus, and Lincoln, though still sleepy, was fully clothed once more. F-funny how that...she gulped, how that had happened. Totally by accident...

Lincoln shuffled forward, eyes half shut, clearly not having the ability to register her presence yet. This was her chance! Lori could still get away before they had to have any sort of awkward, totally platonic and/or familial interaction! She'd just dash on over to the stairs and hole up in the kitchen for a—no, that was no good. She'd spent so much time reciting the plan to herself that she'd missed out on the opportunity to actually do it! Thanks, brain!

"You're welcome, Lori." Said her brain. Lori thought she detected a hint of sarcasm. Which...under these circumstances, could mean she was being astute or insane in equal measure. Regardless, Lincoln had made it past the stairs and was coming right for her.

Lori glanced around, looking for another route. Her other sibling's doors were all closed. The bathroom was likely Lincoln's destination, so that was out. And she couldn't just retreat back into her room, because then she'd wake up Leni! She looked upward, towards the suddenly very welcoming ceiling, and seriously considered just flying straight through the roof. Her parents would be furious, either next time it rained or when they saw the shapely, Lori-sized hole in the house, whichever came first, but it was looking more and more promising than the alternative...confronting her cute, and disappointingly clothed little brother.

"Linky!"

Lori's vision swam as a bright green blur blitzed passed her vision. She closed her eyes and she let out a small sigh of relief. Good, Leni was up. The situation had resolved itself. Deeply relieved, Lori opened her eyes once more...and let out a loud shriek of surprise.

Lincoln's face was buried in Leni's generous cleavage, his pajama'd, orange-sleeved limbs sticking out to the side being the only indicators that he was even there. Leni in turn was nuzzling her face into the small amount of snow tufted hair that managed to rise above her feminine valley. It looked so lewd. It looked so comf—wrong! It was wrong!"

"Leni!" Lori shouted exploding forward with a burst of speed. Quicker than the human eye could register, she yanked Lincoln out of their sister's grasp, paused to gently stroke the very dazed boy's cheek, put him down on the ground, and then retreated several feet back, making sure to position Leni between Lincoln and herself.

"Leni!" She repeated, irritably snapping her fingers at her sister. "You can't do that to Lincoln!"

"But why, Lori?" The younger blonde asked, puzzled. "That's how I say 'hi' to Linky every morning."

"S-she does, Lori." Lincoln agreed, a slight hitch in his voice. He suddenly looked very awake. "That's just how Leni says hi."

Lori had wanted to lecture her siblings on the impropriety of essentially forcing one's sibling to get to third base with them, but the words wouldn't come. Leni and Lincoln were confounded by her behavior, and they were right to do so. This wasn't new, Leni manhandling Lincoln like that was just part of their daily routine, a perfectly normal part of their lives that had been going on for years. A fact which Lori was perfectly aware of, and which wouldn't have bothered her in the least. Until today...apparently...

"Uh..." Lori droned, desperately trying to think of something that could make her look at least a little less crazy. Suddenly, she cocked her head to the side. "Oh no." She said, robotically. "Someone's in trouble. I'd better go."

"I don't hear any—" Leni began, but before any actual questioning of her strange actions could begin, Lori dashed around her siblings, down the stairs, out the front door, and into the sky as fast as superhumanly possible. Several very long nanoseconds later, and looped around, slipped back into her bedroom via the window she always left open for this very kind of emergency and quickly changed into her costume before soaring into the sky once more. That...could have gone better, but it was fine. She'd just get a head start on her day. Everything would be...fine...

"Here you go, little girl," Lori said, leaning down and handing off the furry little animal she was holding.

"Thank you Miss Lori!" The impossibly cute child shouted, giving Lori a big, gap-toothed smile as she took back her cat, and ran off with it. Hopefully, she'd take better care of it from now on.

Lori allowed herself to stretch a little, carefully glancing around first to make sure there weren't any onlookers to see her. The last thing she needed was a rash of "Sexy Lori Stretching Pics" to make their way onto the internet. Again.

Things were...fine...totally fine. She'd thrown herself into her work, and she was feeling pretty good now. It had been a slow day to be sure, cats in trees, minor traffic accidents to avert, that guy in the rabbit suit who'd needed directions to Albuquerque, but doing good felt good. And now she definitely felt good. So good, in fact, that she hadn't thought about Lincoln once since she'd left the house.

Buuut now that the subject had come up, maybe it was time to check in on her little brother. As any normal sister with superhuman senses would, naturally. Lincoln was her brother above all else, and his safety was paramount to her, so there'd be no harm in checking up on him, right?

"Absolutely."

"Shut up, brain!" Lori grumbled as she drifted back into the air. Classes wouldn't start for a few days, so there was a pretty good chance that Lincoln would still be at home. Especially after...after yesterday. With all that excitement, her little bro probably wasn't in the mood to do anything too adventurous.

Lori activated her telescopic vision (her "Supervision", as Luan tended to call it, after their parents had realized early on that Lori's power set made her an excellent babysitter) and turned her superhuman gaze towards her family home. As expected, she found Lincoln, and Lori immediately had to fight down the grin that was threatening to spring onto her face. "Focus, Lori" she admonished herself. Yes, Lincoln was home and perfectly safe. In fact, he was with Lynn, one of the few people Lori would implicitly trust with their little brother's safety. There they were, playing together in the backyard. Rolling around on the ground. Lynn clambering atop her little brother, pinning him down. Lowering her face towards his, the distance between them rapidly disappearing as she...

"Gaaaaa!" Lori heard someone's panicked screaming. An instant later she realized it was herself. And that she was rocketing towards home, heedless as to the effect her speed had on the world around her.

BOOM

Lori flinched as she inadvertently broke the sound barrier. Maybe she'd get lucky, and nobody would pin that on her...this time...

"Get off of him, Lynn!" Lori shouted as she landed in the Loud family backyard. Not one of her better landings, but hopefully Lisa could do something about the small crater that now adorned their property. Not waiting for a reply, Lori dashed over and yanked Lynn into the air by the back of her trademarked qipao.

"L-lori?" Lynn shrieked in surprise and embarrassment. "P-put me down!"

"No!" Lori gave her younger sister a good, firm shake. "What do you think you're doing to Lincoln?"

"Sparring." Lori felt a soft touch against her waist, and instantly she felt the tension begin to drain from her body. Turning away from the indignant spitfire thrashing around in her grasp, she saw that Lincoln had joined them.

"Hey, Linky." She said, blandly, unable to refrain from beaming at her little brother. If only she'd been a little taller, or he'd been a little shorter, then he'd have had no choice but to put his hand on her—

"Uh, Lori?" Lincoln's voice brought her back to reality. "Could you put Lynn down? Like I said, we were just sparring."

"Yeah!" Lynn shouted, flailing her arms around. "And I was just about to win!"

"I'll bet you were," Lori growled at the martial artist. Nevertheless, she put her on the ground, though perhaps a bit more roughly than was strictly necessary. She allowed herself a moment of vindication, before realizing that both siblings were looking at her very strangely.

"How did you even know Lincoln might need you?" Lynn asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"It was...uh" Lori fumbled. "My Super Sister Sense, obviously. It alerts me when my siblings are in danger." Lori looked at Lynn with what she'd hoped was a nice, calming smile.

"Is that a real thing?" Lynn pressed. Well, so much for that idea.

"I think so," Lincoln interjected. "Remember how Lori showed up just in time to save Lilly's birthday party when that clown we'd booked canceled all of a sudden?"

"She didn't 'show up', Stinkoln." Lynn rolled her eyes in irritation. "She was there with the rest of us, and she saved the party with her Super Balloon Animal Making."

"Oh, right." Lincoln tapped his chin thoughtfully. "What about the time she saved the academy bake sale?"

"Super Cake Baking."

"How about when she ate all those burgers so Lana could meet her favorite race car driver?"

"Super Speed Eating!" Lynn growled. "Which apparently has nothing to do with regular Super Speed!" Lynn rounded on Lori and glared at the older girl. "Why the heck do you have so many stupid powers? Emphasis on stupid!"

"Wait, wait." Lincoln cautioned, trying to calm Lynn down. "We can figure this out. Let's grab Lisa. Remember? She was making that detailed document of all Lori's observable powers as a gift for the family."

"I do." Lynn gave Lori a sideways glance. "It crashed her private server the day she tried to put it online. Last I checked, she was still working on it."

"Oh look!" Lori shouted, pointing into the distance. "Crime! GottagoguysLynnbemorecarefulwithLincoln!" And with that, Lori Loud rocketed into the sky once more.

TSSSEW!

Lori grunted in satisfaction as one final blast of her heat vision took down the last of the Husks. Another pod down. Pulling out her phone, Lori logged the sighting of the Husks, the location in which she'd found them, and the fact that she'd cleared out the group by herself. A few quick taps later, and the data was sent off to the authorities, where it'd be picked apart by analysts and strip-mined for whatever information might prove to be important.

Despite being an omnipresent part of their lives, there was much about the true nature of the Soulless that still eluded even the most learned minds. However, what was fairly well known was that Husks, the weakest and most common members of the species, had a tendency to crop up in small, isolated areas. Once enough of them had gathered into a large enough group, or "pod", they'd swarm, looking for live humans to feast on and convert into more Soulless. Fortunately, it took a good amount of time for a Husk Pod to grow sufficiently large as to trigger that impulse, so it fell to Combat Archetypes like Lori to patrol the city for signs of new pods and either report them, or destroy them outright if at all possible. Today she found the job to be strangely therapeutic, and she'd hoped she would be able to find at least a few more pods before calling it a day. She still had...frustrations she needed to work out.

As Lori gazed upon Royal Woods from up high, straining her senses for any hint of a new pod to chase, she glimpsed a familiar sight. A shapely blonde girl roughly her own age, clad in what appeared to be a form-fitting, one-piece swimsuit, but was actually her ancestral battle armor...which, just so happened to look like a form-fitting, one-piece swimsuit. The girl hovered high up in the air, both hands gripping an ornate-looking longbow, the string held taut by her strong, but still very feminine-looking arms. Smiling, Lori drifted towards her.

"Carol!" She greeted, making sure to announce herself without startling the other girl."

"Lori." Replied her fellow blonde, not looking up from her work. Lori noticed that she'd knocked three arrows simultaneously, just before Carol let the missiles fly.

FWIP

FWIP

FWIP

"Showoff." Lori thought to herself, not bothering to follow the arrows' flight. Of course, they all hit their intended targets. Carol was just that good.

"Glad to see you're out of the hospital." She said instead, shooting her friend a dazzling smile.

"No thanks to you," Carol replied, taking aim once more and letting fly another volley of arrows.

FWIP

FWIP

FWIP

Lori winced at the reminder. "In my defense, you said, and I quote, 'hug me, girl'."

"And that's why you're no longer welcomed at our Annual Amazon Blowout." Carol turned to Lori as she shouldered her bow, a wry smile on her face taking some of the sting out of her words. "Guess it was pretty dumb of me to demand a hug from one of the few people in the city who could seriously hurt me."

"Guess we were both a little drunk on the atmosphere," Lori said, tittering nervously, and scratching the back of her head. "A-and also the wine. A bit."

Lori could feel the tension draining away, for which she was glad. As if by some unspoken agreement, the pair of girls began flying alongside one another, eyes peeled for signs of additional Husks.

"Shame you didn't bring Lincoln along." Carol remarked, breaking the silence. "Bet he would have loved it."

"Let my brother hang out with a bunch of drunk, half-naked girls with poor impulse control?" Lori replied sarcastically. "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea."

"Nothing would have happened to him. Becky was there too, as Dana's plus one. You know she thinks the world of Lincoln, she'd have spent the whole night watching over him like a mother hen."

"I'm well aware of what Becky thinks about my little brother, Carol," Lori growled, remembering the glances the statuesque redhead would shoot Lincoln's way whenever she'd come over. "Not gonna happen." She frowned. "Besides, Lincoln's got enough to worry about as it is."

Carol shot Lori a worried glance. "Oh yeah, I heard about his Indexing. Poor little guy, I know he had his heart set on being a hero." She hesitated. "I also heard there was some...backlash."

Lori winced. "Yeah. There've been some...misunderstandings, but Lincoln's a trooper. He'll get through it."

"He absolutely will," Carol said, a dazzling smile appearing on her beautiful face. "Say, he must be kinda down about things, right? Why don't you give him to me for a day?"

"Give you my brother?" Lori repeated incredulously.

"That came out wrong." Carol giggled. "I just mean that you and your oldest sisters are pretty high profile Archetypes, and you're probably too busy with your duties to give Linc much attention. Let me have him for a day. I'll bring him along and let him help me with my hero stuff, bet he'd get a kick out of it."

"No need to trouble yourself, Carol," Lori replied, tersely.

"It's no trouble at all. Lincoln and I get along great. Honestly, I'd love to have him tag along and—"

"It's fine, Carol!" Lori growled, unprepared for the sheer amount of venom in her tone. Both girls stopped abruptly.

"You...uh, you alright yourself, Lori?" Carol asked, eyeing Lori uneasily.

"I'm fine." Lori protested. "Really. I just..." Lori trailed off as an odd moaning began to tickle her ears. A voice far...far too familiar to her to be making those noises. Spinning around, she engaged her super sense and peered across the city towards her family home. There was...Lincoln...sitting in his room with...Lucy. The boy's arms were wrapped tightly around the younger girl, who was busily engaged in passionately sucking on his neck.

"GottagoCarolbye!" Lori shrieked as she rocketed homeward, heedless of the numerous windows she shattered in her wake.

"Uh...o-okay. Later Lori..." Came Carol's distant reply, though Lori was already miles away.

"Get off your brother, Lucy!" Lori roared as she crashed through Lincoln's wall, not even bothering to use the window. She managed to rein herself in just before touching down, thankfully preventing herself from landing too hard and crashing through the floor. Again.

"Lori?" Lincoln cried out in surprise. Lucy was apparently too occupied to respond. Lori stalked forward and reached for the small girl, fully intending to tear her off if need be.

"Wait, Lori!" Lincoln waved his arms around, desperately trying to get her attention. "It's alright! Really!"

"How can that be alright?" Lori asked incredulously, gesturing towards the writhing mass of girl still attached to Lincoln.

"She's feeding." He said, blushing slightly. "It's okay, she asked permission first." Finally, Lucy disengaged from the white haired boy.

"Indeed I did," Lucy added, turning towards Lori and gesturing to the small, red-tinged fangs poking down from the upper part of her mouth. "Lincoln told me it was okay. I didn't even have to use Compulsion this time."

Now that raven-haired girl had removed herself from Lincoln's person (though not from his grasp, she mentally noted), Lori could see the small holes in Lincoln's neck, already rapidly closing themselves up.

"Right." Lori sighed, slapping her palm onto her face. "Lucy, do you really have to feed on Lincoln so much?"

"I don't need to," Lucy admitted, shrugging. "But big brother just tastes so...delectable." She favored Lincoln with a small smile and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Lucille Loud!" All three Loud siblings winced as the bedroom door slammed open and their mom stormed into the room.

"What did I tell you about feeding on your brother this late in the day?" She admonished the younger girl. "You'll spoil your appetite! Now come downstairs and help me with dinner!"

"Yes, mother," Lucy grumbled, sliding off Lincoln's lap and despondently taking her leave.

"And you, young lady!" Rita growled, turning her ire on Lori. Again, came the finger, this time jabbing in the direction of the teen-shaped hole in the wall. "I have told you multiple times to use the front door, or an open window. No impromptu entrances or exits! I don't care how 'dynamic' they are, I've taught you better than that!"

"Sorry, mom." Lori whimpered, unused to feeling so cowed, and utterly powerless. But such was the might of an angry mother. "I-I'll fix it! Right now!"

Not waiting for a reply, Lori dashed off to the garage, returning with a bucket of plaster and a patching trowel within a matter of heartbeats. Moments later, the wall was fully repaired.

Lori noticed both her mom and her brother staring at her in amazement and sighed softly. "Super Wall Repair." She said, lamely, shrugging in embarrassment.

Leni Loud had just finished the last of her sleep preparations, ensuring that she'd wake up from her Leni sleep as beautiful as ever.

"Grrrr."

Because causality has a sense of humor, that was when Lori chose to barge into the room.

"Leni," Lori grunted in greeting as she stomped towards her side of the room. There was a blur of motion as Lori discarded her costume and slipped into her sleepwear at superhuman speed, then she threw herself onto the bed and curled up in a Lori-shaped ball.

Leni frowned to herself. Lori'd been acting weird all day. But that was probably because she'd taken it upon herself to be worried about Lincoln. Between the reaction to his Indexing and that supervillain attack on their day out together, it was possible that the eldest Loud might be pushing herself too hard. That was when an idea occurred to her. A Leni Idea!

"Lori?" She asked. Waiting for some sign that her older sister was paying attention. A short grunt from the other girl seemed like a safe enough sign.

"I was thinking it might be fun if I took Linky along with me tomorrow." She said. "Show him what I do. Maybe it'll help him take his mind off things."

"Sure. Leni." Lori grumbled, not moving an inch. "Knock yourself out."

"Yay!" Leni squealed, clapping her hands happily. "Thank you, Lori,!" There was no further acknowledgment from the older girl, only a loud, rough sound, not unlike the sound of a log being sawed in half. Looks like she had fallen asleep.

Undeterred, Leni shut off the lights and climbed into bed herself. Smiling so hard it hurt, as she thought of all the fun she and Lincoln would have together. It was totes going to be the best day ever!