32. Heroic Warfare(1)

A/N: Although Lincoln is starting to realize that he has a talent like his siblings, he still needs to face one major crossroad that may determine whether or not he'll eventually see things for what they are and not be blinded by his fear. He already got a glimpse of it after seeing Lynn for the first time in weeks, and while they are unaware of it, the girls did succeed in drawing Lincoln's attention. One can only imagine what their state will be in if he tries to seek them out. However, that will only happen if Lincoln manages to summon the courage to interact with them.

But first, a long awaited battle is due to take place. For the next several minutes, you may feel like you're reading an entirely different story altogether. But at the end of the day, it is just the vivid picture of a boy who wishes to find a way to solve his problems. You can also count this as a special for Syn's second anniversary since that's coming up in two weeks.

WARNING: The following may depict scenes too graphic for young children.

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING from the Loud House.

A pair of steeled, yet wary eyes peered through a pair of high tech binoculars, scanning the streets and alleys amongst the buildings for any sign of hostiles. Ace lied prone on the roof, just barely poking over the its edge to give him a direct view of the street below. The last thing Lincoln remembered before he went to sleep that night was reading an old Ace Savvy issue. While he grew aware of how much his dreams were different from the real thing, it still felt as if he was living a different life parallel to his own. As uncomfortable as it was, he eventually decided it was better to just roll with it then waste time questioning it.

To most citizens, the pitch blackness of the streets having the lamp posts as the only source of illumination (along with the eerie quietness) would make them extremely cautious at the possibility of getting robbed, kidnapped, murdered...or having a nice little beatdown after having too many drinks. Ace Savvy was used to all of these, knowing few criminals would risk doing anything in broad daylight as it'd make them easy targets. Plus, he had the displeasure of breaking up fights by subduing the brawlers. Many times had he taken these nights in stride, waiting for these violators of the law to show themselves so they can face justice.

But tonight was going to be anything but ordinary...

Wild Card Willy had planned a heist for sure. It wasn't a bank robbery or jewelry job as he would typically do; One-Eyed Jack traced him to this lumber factory just outside of a residential area. What Willy would need with a bunch of wood was anyone's guess, but that wasn't what occupied Ace's focus right now. Instead, he was looking for any his former team, The Full House Gang. The boy knew his sisters enough that they would take any reported tips on potential crimes seriously, especially if it involved one of their archenemies. Without his guidance however, Ace couldn't help but wonder if they picked up the same lead Jack did; after all, the two of them were typically the guys who had to find out what their foes were up to the most since the girls were less likely to find out what was happening until a police report came in via radio. Then again, as Ace inwardly groaned, they had someone like Card Counter running management. Or co-management; he wasn't dire who took up the mantle after being outsed. She would have used her sensors or whatever high tech equipment to achieve the same effect, which was something Ace secretly frowned upon.

Not that the 4 year old's gadgets weren't useful, but it couldn't beat old-fashioned ingenuity and tracking in his opinion; especially if one were to find a way to jam her electronics.

Looking up from his binoculars, Ace peered across the rooftops, spotting Deuce and Mad Bomber not too far away from his left. To his right, he saw Wrangler, Mirage, and Jack on another, likely conversing with themselves given their movement. He split them into small teams to keep the element of surprise, which earned him a few suggestive teases given who Ace was paired with. While Ace knew he wasn't alone, he couldn't help but feel a little vulnerable at having everyone so spread out. While it was strategic, the 11 year old was very much aware it was a double-edged approach. Keeping out of site was one thing, but if someone from the Full House stumbled upon his or his friend's position, getting to them would take time and opened the possibility of their allies being baited into a trap.

A shiver ran up Ace's spine as he started to feel precarious about his own position, noting the distance he had between the other two groups. Hearing a set of footfalls behind him, the boy tensed his shoulders as he whipped his head around. He gave a light sigh of relief upon seeing Ace-sassin climbing onto the roof. "Did you see anything?"

"Sort of. I saw that old van you guys use a couple blocks away, but I don't know where they took off to." The sharpshooter replied before she knelt down next to him.

Ace huffed slightly, looking back through the optics. "At least we know they're here."

"This is sooooo BOOORING! Can we go yet?" Came the annoyed voice of a certain demolitionist on the radio.

"Shut up!" Deuce's voice followed in a sharp whisper. "Card Counter might be monitoring all the frequencies!"

"Well if she was, she definitely would've heard us a while earlier." Mirage added, seemingly as bored as the shorter redhead. "And speaking of which, why couldn't WE get some scopes too?"

Jack gave a nervous smile. "It was only meant for just me and Ace?" The eye-patched hero gave a frown in return for the one Mirage was giving him. "Don't look at me like that. It's not like we expected to have this many people in our hideout."

"Explains why the fridge was near empty." Wrangler chimed in, giving a small burp.

Ace-sassin put a hand to the receiver in her ear. "She's right though. We still don't know what those guys are capable of doing, so keep quiet."

"Yeah yeah-wait, hang on..." The line was silent as Mirage paused for some reason. With the trio, the trickster was squinting his eyes at what looked to be a silhouette on the roof of the main building. However, without any proper visual aids, he couldn't tell what it was. "There's something on the roof, near the windows."

Everyone else raised their brows in confusion. Ace brought up his binoculars and looked to the spot Mirage was talking about. Spotting 3 dark figures on near the window, there was something giving a bright glint right in front of a window. Zooming in, Ace flinched a little as he watched Queen of Diamonds working to cut a hole into the glass surface. Using a few shards like a buzz saw, it created a bright light that illuminated her form for seconds at a time. Royal Flush and Card Counter waited patiently with her; well, at least Card Counter was. Royal Flush was moving her mouth and gesturing towards her pipe wrench, no doubt wanting to just smash the window. However, Queen gave her twin a glare before saying something that Ace could only guess was about her finishing her work. Seconds later, the jewel lover popped a large piece of glass from the window and paused for a moment to gloat, wagging it in front of the plumber. Card Counter then muttered something to them both before going in, the twins exchanging mean looks at one another before following suit.

Putting a hand on the receiver, "That was Queen, Flush, and Counter. If I had to guess, they're planning on surrounding Willy's group before they start a fight."

Deuce tapped the tip of a rocket in her hand to ensure the warhead wasn't damaged, then turned it sideways as she gave it a casual inspection. "So what do we do now?"

"I'm somewhat thinkin' of blowing the whole place up." Mad Bomber chuckled. He quickly felt a sharp pain to the back of his head, promptly turning to glare at the 7 year old while rubbing the sore spot.

"We're not doing that!"

"Oh come on! It'll be fun. Plus, splintered wood makes for a good defense."

"We can hear you both, you know." Jack's voice cut in.

"No one asked you Jack." Both kids said in unison.

Ace scanned between the buildings again as he weighed his options, hoping to spot any other members of the Full House sneaking around. One idea was to let the girls take on Willy and his crew before Ace's group moved in to deal with them. Wild Card Willy always had a lot of henchmen under his control, what with being usually easy going or whatever his standards were. While Ace didn't doubt the Full House's ability to handle themselves, he hoped that if this meeting did lead to a brawl, their opponents would have less stamina to deal with someone up to their caliber. However, this may not make much of a difference as Willy's goons never were much of a challenge to begin with. Even someone like Deuce (without her launcher that is) could mop the floor with them and still have plenty of energy to chase down their boss.

Unfortunately, every time the gang managed to Willy behind bars, they learned why he called himself 'Wild Card'. At some point during his sentence, he'd escape custody one way or another. Sometimes it was a few hours, then a few days, a week or so at best, but never a month. And every time it came up on the news the guards had a different story as to how it happened. Ace didn't know whether the stories were true, or the guards were trying to save their own butts, but he started to think that no prison could hold that man. It even became a little game for Ace and Jack where they'd make bets on how long it'd take for the old man to bust out again. The rest of the Full House shared their frustrations about this, but Ace figured he could always catch him later, right?

And yet, it was that line of thinking that led up to this moment. The girls wanted a more permanent solution to the city's problems, and given how badly beaten Card Shark was, Ace didn't have any doubts that they intended to do the same to Willy.

The white-haired hero grimaced a bit as he was disgusted with the thought. It was often said that you can't be a good hero unless you have principles, and Lincoln had three:

1. Never harm the innocent.

2. He would never kill anyone.

3. He refused to badly injure the elderly.

Card Shark was in his 20s, but Willy was old enough to be Lincoln's grandfather. It just felt too immoral to beat the old man's teeth in, which was why Ace opted to just catch him with hope that eventually someone would find a way to keep him contained; Willy doesn't put up much of a fight once you corner him anyways. It was also that second moral that left him at odds with Ace-sassin when they first crossed paths-

Ace jolted a bit when he felt a soft punch to the shoulder. "Come on Lame-O, it's still your call." Ace-sassin chided.

"S-Sorry..." The boy quickly replied. Ace narrowed his gaze before giving a heavy sigh. "I have one idea, but it may not be the best one."

"How so?"

"Cause I don't want to give the Full House more of a reason to paint me as a villain. But at the same time, I can't let them pounce on Willy like they did with Card Shark. Plus, I think they might kill him if we don't intervene."

"Not that it would be a bad thing..." Ace-sassin muttered. She smirked a bit at the scowl Savvy was giving her. "Oh come on, I'm joking. He's a bit too fun to have around and isn't that much of a threat. Besides, I already know about your moral code, since you kept breathing it down my neck back then."

"I'm just not comfortable with it, you know? Especially after..." Ace paused, trailing off as he gave a solemn stare at the street below. "That day at the mall..."

Ace-sassin dropped her teasing attitude at the mention of that incident. She remembered that day clearly, as not only was it on the news for weeks, her mom was working double time treating those injured. It seems like every once a year or so, some nutjob decides he wants to shoot a bunch of people for the supposed 'wrongdoings' they were given during their lives. Lincoln still doesn't know how that equates to 'kill a bunch of innocents', but he didn't dare try to question the thought process of a madman as he knew he wouldn't ever understand them.

Officially, the event was referred to as The Black Friday Massacre. Many adults and children looking to get the best deals on what was offered suddenly found themselves fighting for their lives as a couple of former military guys with PTSD (after having lived a life full of hardships and trauma) came in with automatic weapons and started gunning down people left and right. Among the chaos was Rita, Lynn Sr., Lincoln, and Lily. The rest of the girls were either with their friends, busy, or had ordered stuff online to avoid the hustle at the mall, but Lincoln wanted to get some discount merchandise and Lily needed to be looked after since no one would be home.

The sole male Loud flashed back to the moment where his life changed forever. As they ran for cover, Rita took a bullet to the back and almost fell over on top of her infant daughter. Lynn quickly ushered their children to safety before trying to do the same for his wife. Unfortunately, he took a load of bullets to the chest for his trouble. Lincoln immediately screamed for his father whilst Lily cried in his arms, only to witness one of the killers walk up to his crying mother and promptly silence her with a bullet to the head. The kids would've met their end as well, if it hadn't been for the timely intervention of a SWAT team member shooting the killer in the back of his vest and forcing him to run. The Loud parents were just two out of the 98 people killed that day, which included 19 children.

"...I know my other sisters took it pretty hard when they found out, but they weren't in the middle of it..." Ace spoke in a whisper. Gazing up at the dark sky, "I wonder how my parents must feel, seeing their kids fighting like this, and not being able to tell us to knock it off..." He drew a heated breath as his eyes furrowed. "For a while after that day and after child protection failed to separate us, I was scared and uncertain about what would happen from then on out. I know SWAT killed one of the murderers, but the other...the one who killed them...was still out there."

"And then he got caught after 2 months, and was sentenced to life in prison. We both know that." Ace-sassin replied, taking a seat on the edge of the roof. "You also told me how you wished you could kill the guy while he was still in holding." She gazed at his prone form. "But you didn't want to in the end, did you?"

"No..." Ace blinked a stray tear away. "I decided it might be better to just let justice do its thing. Like you said, he was given a life sentence, which made me mad...but then I heard someone stabbed him in his head only a week into his sentence."

"Yeah, he had it coming anyway. Even then, you started doing your job as a hero a while before then. You were willing to kill him back then, but you never did say why you stopped thinking like that."

Ace looked directly into the girl's eyes. "It's because I realized I've seen enough bloodshed to last a lifetime, and I just can't stomach doing that to someone else. Why do you think we had a rocky start because you kept encouraging it?"

"And the reason why you're ok with it now," Ace-sassin upholstered one of her pistols within a second, twirling it by the trigger hole until it before stopping it when it pointed to the clouds. "Is because I punish the guilty. There are loopholes to those morals you have you know; just cause you may not do the same thing doesn't mean others will."

Ace nodded slowly. "The Full House used to follow the same moral code I had, but they already broke two of them recently. I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for Clyde and Lily," The boy gave a hardened glare at the main building, "And I'm not gonna let them break the last one..."

"You ok there partner? Been quiet for a couple a minutes." Wrangler called up.

"I'm fine..." Ace took a brief pause. "Now listen closely guys: my sisters have abilities that may either give you an advantage or make fighting them next to impossible. So, before we spring our trap, I'm gonna assign who gets to deal with who."

"You sure we can't just talk this out with them?" Jack questioned nervously.

Ace gave a heavy sigh. "If it was that easy, then we wouldn't be doing this...and I have a good feeling they'd do the same to me if I just showed up out of nowhere."

Ace-sassin pulled the barrel back, making sure there was a round chambered. "What a fun night this will be." She half-joked before putting the safety off.

Wild Card Willy held a grin underneath his facial mask as he watched his minions carefully disassemble important pieces of machinery before hauling them to the trucks parked near the back of the factory. Just beyond the double-wide steel door, several tracer trailers had their cargo holds open for transport; with the pace they were going, Willy hoped they could grab what they needed before the Full House showed up. They always had a bad habit of ruining his schemes, those darn kids...

But, the thought of his enemies wasn't what was drawing his ire; it was a pair of grunts clumsily floundering about with a particularly large saw machine.

"Careful with that merchandise boys! I want that new cabin to look like a mansion instead of some rundown motel when those contractors get their butts workin' on it!"

"Easy for you to say!" One of them spat in a pained retort. "This thing is heavy!"

The grunt's partner decided at that moment to shift his position a bit to ease the strain on his fingers. This immediately caused their hold to become unbalanced, forcing the two to run around the floor in an attempt to keep the heavy device steady. They nearly collided with a few other flunkies trying to move their own equipment before finally coming to a halt with one grunt all but smashed against a wall.

"What did I just say?!" Willy yelled out.

"Yeah yeah yeah..." The grunt pulled the device towards him to free his partner.

"Remember, I ain't payin' ya to git yourselves killed." The boss uttered in distaste.

"Maybe I should've just went back to college." One of the grunts near the main door muttered.

"Same here Mac." Another added.

Right as they were about to exit, the heavy door suddenly came down, slamming shut with a deafening sound.

"Hey, what's with the door?!"

"Wasn't me!" Shouted a grunt at the controls. He moved the lever, but for some reason it wouldn't budge. "Darn thing is stuck." He then tried other controls, only to have the panel short out. "Now the stupid thing is fried!"

Turning his attention towards the rear, "What did you idiots do now?!" Willy shouted.

"Hang on a sec." The grunt replied as he banged the console with a wrench. It started to flicker back to life, and which he pulled the lever down.

The door slowly creaked open as the grunts picked up their equipment. Once the door was fully open however, they were met with the a certain musician with her guitar and speakers at the ready. Behind her, several goons lied unconscious in various positions. "Congratulations. You dudes get a front row seat to the encore!"

Before the two could do drop their load, Night Club played an extremely loud riff that blasted them several yards into the facility.

"What in tarnation?..." Willy muttered as he watched the two lackeys fly into a conveyor belt. Looking back at the door, his face went from confusion to a dull look. "Oh great, it's one of you brats..." He turned to the others, "Don't just stand there, get her!"

The rest of the grunts took notice and immediately began to pull out guns or whatever metallic pieces of machinery they could use as weapons. Night Club wasn't the least bit intimidated, waiting for her prey to get close enough to force them to risk permanent hearing damage. She played another metallic riff, forcing even those attempting to draw a bead on her to cover their ears. As some of them came to a stop, unable to bear the assault on their ears, a fashionable heroine swung in with a cheer, kicking those closest to Night Club into the wall. Eleven of Hearts then swung back around for a second swipe, forcing more to evade and run into each other.

This proved to be an effective distraction that left their rear guard open, allowing a mechanic-skilled six year old to sneak around and locate a main water pipe by the wall. Tapping it with her wrench, Royal Flush ginergly probed it for a weakspot; she grinned wickedly when she felt a dull thud in the metal.

"Hey uglies!" She called out, making the grunts within earshot glance back. "Thought you look thirsty!" Flush struck the pipe with great force, busting it open and letting a torrent of water gush from the breach. The torrent continued until the lack of pressure caused the water to become nothing more than an eve, steady flow. Several grunts were floored by the flash flood, but those that weren't affected by the flooding trained their guns on the lone hero. The smirk on Flush's face dropped upon realizing the dangerous position she put herself in.

Seconds before they started shooting, Strong Suit dropped down with a slab of concrete twice her size, jamming it into the floor as bullets failed to penetrate the makeshift barrier. The six year old recoiled instinctively, only relaxing when she realized none of the bullets were hitting her. "Thanks."

"Try not to get shot this time." Strong Suit smirked before tearing a piece of piping out of the wall and flattening it into a disk.

Then, she tossed it like a frisbee; the metal object was like a flying buzz saw at the speed it was rotating. The grunts immediately ducked to avoid getting decapitated, although their guns weren't so fortunate. Each one was cut at the middle like a hit knife through butter, and the disk kept going until it stuck itself into the side of another machine. No longer under fire, the athletic heroine performed her signature charge attack, bowling over any enemy that was in her way.

Strong Suit made a cheesy grin as her enemies flew every which way as if they were weightless. "Oh yeah! Ain't nothing that can take down Strong Suit!" The brunette cheered as she started doing a little victory dance.

Due to this, the strong-armed hero didn't realize there was a grunt speeding towards her with a forklift. The mook laughed evilly to himself, thinking he'd get an easy kill. And yet, such acts of tunnel vision are what usually wind up getting you killed yourself. One jewel-powered six year old stood on one of the catwalks above the production line, frowning at the scene below her. Crossing her arms in an X formation, Queen of Diamonds closed her eyes as multiple shards formed in front of her in a circle formation. Once she was certain she made enough, the Queen locked her eyes on her target before thrusting her hands forward, sending the shards accelerating towards the unsuspecting flunkie. As soon as he got within 20 yards of Strong Suit, the shards impaled the engine compartment as well as 2 tires, forcing the forklift to spin out of control. Didn't help the door was still partially flooded from Flush's stunt.

Strong Suit stopped her self-praise just in time to see the vehicle fly past her and smash into a 30ft compressor. A steady stream of air leaked from the damaged machine while the driver was passed out at the wheel.

"Stop showboating you idiot!" Queen yelled from above.

The young teen just gave a shrug. "I'm not apologizing."

Upon noticing they were getting surrounded, the large group of grunts dispersed to deal with the threats; a tactical error for what was to come. They had to yet to notice a few more members of the Full House were unaccounted for, only to find out the hard way when several mooks fell into a pre-dug pit in one direction and a few more were smashed into the floor by a massive, well-placed jack-in-the-box hiding behind a massive pile of logs.

Willy, who kept himself hidden from the skirmish, couldn't help but bring a hand to his forehead in frustration. "And this was supposed to be an easy job." He gave a little shrug. "Eh, I'll find some new recruits soon enough." He turned tail and made a beeline for an exit.

This didn't go unnoticed by the ever watchful eye of Card Counter, who was monitoring everyone's position through the security cameras on shown on her tablet. From her position on a separate catwalk high above the main floor, she could also call out any enemies that were out of the cameras view. Her tablet was connected to a control panel, where she then traced her fingers over the circuit breakers that controlled the individual lighting circuits of the building. "High Card, Willy is making a break for the western emergency exit."

"Don't worry. He won't get far." The oldest member spoke in a firm tone on the mic.

Willy managed to make it to a large storage room filled with various cutting tools, spotting an exit door just on the other side. Smirking to himself, he knew he'd once again be able to make a clean getaway before those brats even realized he was missing. While he was a bit sore at having to put his vacation home plans on hold, at least he could find another time to enact his scheme; hopefully without interference. Having a ton of mooks to cover your ass sure had its perks. Plus, he didn't even need to pay them anymore now that they were certain to get jailed!

When Willy got halfway through the room, the lights suddenly cut off. Confused, he slowed to a stop. "What in the-" Was all the man got out before receiving a swift blow to the jaw that sent him to the floor. Seconds later, Willy felt his arms being bound behind him with what he assumed was cable from one of the shelves. Then, by e felt himself getting dragged over to a wall and unceremoniously slammed into it. Although he couldn't see who he was dealing with, he he a good guess as to who.

"Very clever, Ace Savvy." Willy spat venomously. "Waitin' til I try to mosey on out before ya spring the trap, eh?"

A dark chuckle that didn't sound anything like the person he was expecting greeted him. It sounded much older, and feminine. "Please. That little traitor will stay in hiding if he knows what's good for him."

The lights suddenly flickered to life, temporarily blinding the old man. Once his vision was corrected, Willy stared back at a grinning High Card, who was fiddling with a machete in one hand.

"High Card..."

"The one and only. Now," Her eyes became heated behind her mask. "What were you planning to do with all those machines? I doubt it was for some 'little project'."

"What? An old man like me can't build a nice home for himself to get away from all you crazy people?"

"Or, to build a new hideout in secret. But, it doesn't matter now though since you won't be seeing it anyways." The teen began to twirl the blade in her hands.

"So, what? You just gonna hand me over to them coppers?" He stifled a laugh. "Haven't y'all gotten it through them young heads a yers that no prison can hold me forever?"

High Card nodded. "True. You can cheat the system..." She repositioned the blade before forcibly tilting Willy's head upwards. Then, she moved the machete to be an inch from his neck. "But can you cheat death?"

Willy gulped in fear as High Card started to press the sharp edge on his neck. "N-Now hold on! I thought you folks didn't kill no one!"

"What can I say? We literally had a change of management." The teen grinned evilly. "You've been too much of a problem for far too long Wild Card, so it's time for you to fold. Permanently!"

As they were talking, neither High Card or Wild Card notice a lone figure drop in from the skylight. Just as the blonde was about to draw blood, a young, masculine scream yelled from behind before High Card suddenly found an arm constricted against her throat. Gasping from the sudden cut off of air, the heroine was forced to remove herself from Willy as she thrashed around to get her assailant off. Having free reign of his own body once again, Willy snapped his head down to see an odd sight: Ace Savvy was clinging to High Card's back, holding onto his chokehold position as the older hero grew angrier by the second.

"Huh. I thought them rumors about Ace turnin' screwy were a bag of farts." Willy muttered to himself.

High Card could feel herself beginning to suffer from oxygen starvation, so she started doing everything she could to loosen her attacker from her neck. She tried to reach behind her to stab her attacker, but her assailant quickly grabbed the machete and banged her hand against a shelf, forcing her to drop it. With her main weapon gone, High Card resorted to crashing back first into the shelves. She could hear her attacker grunting in pain, but they refused to give in as the person tightened their hold on her neck.

Willy watched as the two collided into the wall next to him, which happened to have several saw blades hung above. His eyes widened when one fell loose, aimed directly at his head. The old man shut his eyes tight, thinking this was the end for him as he heard something being cut. Instead of the feeling the searing pain one would feel when having their head cut open, he felt his arms slacken a bit with no physical pain to himself. Opening an eye, and deducing he was still alive seeing the two Full House members fighting each other, Willy instinctively moved his hands to find the cable was cut cleanly in two.

Doing a quick spot check, the old man whistled to himself awkwardly as he excused himself from the scene. The two combatants never noticed him walk right out the door.

High Card started to feel her vision become clouded and dark, but she still had enough fight in her to pull one last ditch effort. Lowering her chin just enough, she could feel fabric just inches from her lips. Opening her mouth, she bit down hard on the arm, making the attacker cry out in pain. The hold slacked a tad, just what she was looking for. Wretching the limb from her neck, High Card flipped her adversary over her back and slammed them onto the floor.

The blonde took in deep breaths as she massaged the skin of her neck. Looking down, her face became partially red with rage. "You!"

Ace moaned in pain as he sat up, holding the bite marks on his costume. As he turned to face his sister, a boot kicked him directly in his chin, making another cry escape him. "You just had to get in the way, didn't you?!"

Rubbing his jawline, "I had to High Card...I couldn't let you kill him..." He gagged a little as High Card grabbed by the neck, hoisting him into the air so he could see the intense burning in her eyes. "It's not the right thing to do!" Ace choked out, trying to pry her hand loose. "Y-You know that!"

"Things change Ace, and clearly, you still haven't learned from your mistake..." High Card tightened her grip a bit more, with Ace kicking his feet wildly as he started to gasp for air. "You know, we already lied to the media about you turning into a villain, but when they hear that you helped Wild Card Willy escape," The teen grinned smugly at him. "I'm sure they'll have a nice little cell waiting for a little bastard like you."

Ace would've taken huge offense to that, but he couldn't help but feel something was...off...about Lori's eyes. The iris was noticeably different in color, almost yellowish instead of the typical blue. It was somewhat faded, and it was like you could tell Lori was still there...but at the same time, she wasn't.

High Card's grip tightened a bit on his neck as she activated her comms. Her lips curled into a frown. "Card Counter, Willy got away," She grinned wickedly at the 11 year old, "But I got the boy responsible."

"Understood. I had a feeling he might show himself...anyway, the rest of Willy's men have been dealt with, so bring him out, please." Card Counter stated.

Ace did his best to clear his throat after having loosened High Card's grip a little. "I-Is this what you really want Lori?!" He spat heatedly, catching the teen off guard by the use of her real name. The white-haired hero didn't want to pull this card, but felt he had to. "Do you think mom and dad would be proud of this?!"

The boy watched as Lori's eyes brightened up for a few seconds, as if she was contemplating his words. However, they faded back to their original state, and brought out an angry teen with it. Bringing him close, "It doesn't matter what they think; they're long gone now..." Her voice carried a hint of depression for a brief second. "But I don't believe mom and dad would be happy knowing their only son turned to a life of crime..."

CLICK!

"Why don't you take a good, long look at a mirror your highness?" A voice spoke behind them.

Turning, High Card was greeted with a card-themed Hispanic girl pointing a pistol at her. "I'm only gonna say this once: drop him. Now." Ace-sassin ordered.

The blonde gave a confused and uninterested look in return. "And just who the heck are you?"

"Welp," The sharpshooter shrugged. "I asked nicely." Before any of the Louds could react, Ace-sassin pulled the trigger; the bullet bore through High Card's forearm before making a clean exit out the other side. The teen gave a shrill scream as she dropped her brother, holding onto her injured limb.

Both kids seized the chance to run deeper into the factory, as that gunshot likely alerted everyone else. "Guys!" Ace panted, rubbing his throat. "We're gonna need some backup!" He turned to Ace-sassin with a glare, "And did you really have to shoot her?!"

"We both know she wouldn't care who I was and just treat me like an enemy. Besides, I gave us a head start!" Ace-sassin retorted.

High Card glared in their direction as she fought back a few tears. "You two are literally dead for this!" Her voice carried after them.

On the moonlit roof, Deuce gave a wide grin after hearing Ace's call. "Thought you might say that."

The 7 year old was situated in a prone position as she peered through a skylight, carefully lining up any of the Full House in her sights. A few of the girls started moving towards the back to investigate, so Deuce figured she'd have to act fast in order to keep the separated. Through her scope, the rocketeer spotted Queen of Diamonds cautiously walking on a catwalk a couple stories down.

"Hope you enjoy this present, sister..." Deuce uttered smugly before pulling the trigger.

Queen of Diamonds flinched upon hearing the sound of a motor running, with it getting louder by each half-second. Twisting around, the six year old was met with the familiar sight of two green-colored rockets flying directly towards her. Knowing what was going to happen, "NoooooOOOOOO-!" Her screams quickly were replaced by fits of coughing and gagging as a cloud of gas enveloped her. Queen stumbled on the platform, trying to find a way out, only to tumble over the railing. "AAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Eleven of Hearts turned towards the screams, nearly letting out one herself as she saw her sister in free fall. "Don't worry! I'll get you!" Flinging a sash outward, it wrapped around a steel beam on the ceiling. Tugging it to ensure it was secure, Eleven swung in a path that would allow her to intercept her teammate. Just before she could reach Queen though, she felt her rope line lose all tension as a loud explosion rocked the facility. Eleven screamed as she fell to the floor, her yells being cut short as she slid on her stomach a couple feet before coming to a stop. The 16 year old then felt all of the air she had leave her chest as Queen landed on her back.

"Thanks for the save..." The younger blonde groaned out.

"No...problem..." Eleven wheezed, watching the end of her sash come down. To her dismay, it had some burn marks on it; one look at the ceiling showed a few residual fires on the beam she tried to use. Her brows knotted together as rage began to overtake her initial shock. "WHO BLEW UP MY SASH?!"

"There's plenty more where that came from." Mad Bomber chuckled to himself, lying adjacent to where Deuce was positioned.

"Are you two alright? What happened?" Card Counter's voice echoed through their comms.

Queen growled as she touched her receiver. "Deuce just blew me off the ceiling!" She yelled, to with the 4 year old cringed a bit. "When I find that poop-throwing philistine, I'm gonna shove one of those rockets down her throat!" She got off Eleven and started making her way back to the upper levels.

"Right...well be as it may, be advised that Ace is loose in the facility with an unknown accomplice. Should you encounter them, subdue them quickly." The prodigy finished, swiping the screen of her tablet as she checked each camera. "Should also find whoever is the hooligan that caused that explosion..." Card Counter muttered the last part to herself.

"Did you make that noise, Night Club?" Joker asked over the comms.

The musician shook her head as she responded, holding her guitar in one hand. "Nah sis, but I kinda wish I did." She half-joked. Suddenly, a metal rope came flying from the door behind her. It silently wrapped around the neck of her guitar before the owner tugs it violently towards them.

Feeling her weapon leave her grasp, "What the?!" Night Club turns to find her axe in the hands of some kid dressed like a cowboy.

"Evenin' ma'am." Wrangler tipped his hat towards her.

"Not cool dude!" Night Club growled, stomping over to the young man. "Give me back my axe!"

Wrangler gave a smug grin under his facial bandana. "Y'all didn't say please."

The 15 year old narrowed her eyes as she stepped just outside the main door. "It wasn't even yours in the first place!" The musician then felt something heavy drop onto her back, forcing her face-first into the ground. She grunted in pain as she felt one of her arms being folded behind her back. Lifting her head a bit, Night Club caught the sight of an eye-patched individual she knew all too well.

"Sorry about this Night Club, but it's for your own good." One-Eyed Jack stated firmly, pushing her arm up further.

"Get off me you useless lackey!" Night Club shouted as she started to thrash around, kicking her feet out every which way while rolling to get Jack to release his grip.

Once she rolled onto her back, Night Club used her feet to push herself along the ground in order to grind him off. However, she couldn't move too much before Wrangler threw his lasso at her feet. With a heavy pull, he stopped her momentum all together; this allowed Jack to reverse the position and plant her flat on her stomach once more while shoving her face into the dirt.

Jack shook the soil out of his hair, not caring too much that his glasses were out of alignment. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be Night Club. We don't want to have to hurt you!"

"That's a shame, because I don't share those sentiments..." A monotonous voice called out, spooking the two boys of them.

Wrangler looked behind him just as a spade was swinging towards his face. He yelped and ducked at the last second, his hat getting swatted off his head. Eight of Spades swung again, forcing the cowboy to lean back to the point he fell onto his rear. "Woah there!" The 8 year old then jumped to deliver a heavy hitter, making Wrangler release his lasso to scoot backwards. The head of the spade impacted the ground with a small dust cloud. "Easy with that thing!"

"Just hold still. It'll be quick." Eight spoke evenly, giving her weapon a small twirl before raising it again. Wrangler moved his leg just a few inches as the shovel dug itself into the dirt. When she swung down a second time, Wrangler managed to catch it before growling through his teeth while attempting to wrestle the shovel out of her hands.

Night Club didn't know what was going on outside of hearing Eight's voice, and she was getting sick of having to eat dirt for the last few minutes. Lifting her head, the rocker spotted her guitar lying near one of the trucks. Turning her head slightly, she saw that Jack was a little preoccupied watching Wrangler and Eight fighting over her shovel. Newfound determination overcame the rocker as she bucked unexpectedly, managing to bop Jack off her back. Quickly getting to her feet, Night Club started bunny-hopping towards her weapon, only to yelp as she fell to her stomach again due to her feet being pulled from under her. Jack was holding onto the rope that partially immobilized her, but Night Club was proving to be stronger than expected; she slowly clawed her way towards her instrument, hoping to settle the score once and for all.

Meanwhile...

Ace and Ace-sassin reached a small area adjacent to the main floor, having just heard an explosion as well as a few feminine screams. They stopped behind at a blind corner, to which Savvy took a cautious peek.

"Seems like they're keeping them busy." The tomboy stated, keeping an eye on their six.

"Just a few of them I'll bet. They still have numbers on their side..." Ace clarified, shifting his gaze from left to right. Aside from some goons that were still unconscious, he couldn't see any other members of the Full House. "Chances are they might be heading out to investigate the noise, which should put them in line of sight for Deuce and Bomber."

"And if they dodge, they'll move to outnumber them." Ace-sassin flinched as something sounded like it was being broken in the direction they came from. "Not that we can stick around here either with your ticked off sister somewhere behind us." She looked back at Ace. "So when we do locate the rest, what do you have in mind?"

"We're still gonna subdue them so we can discuss everything. If I knew they'd go quietly, I'd have picked a different plan. Though we'll have to speed things up a bit before they get a chance to organize..." Ace gave a short pause as he fiddled with his comms. "Deuce, do you see Card Counter anywhere?"

Deuce scanned the ground floor, not seeing the person of interest, but spotted Eleven making passing glances to whatever noises were occurring outside. "Just a bunch of passed out morons and one of our sisters. I can pass some gas at her if you want."

"Don't. Me, Ace-sassin, and Mirage will work to keep them divided. Just locate Card Counter and let me know ASAP."

"Got it..." The 7 year old muttered, now focusing her attention on the upper decks.

The rocketeer couldn't see much from her current position, which put her in a bind. She didn't want to risk being spotted and preffered to stick to a supporting role (which was breaking up fights and causing a distraction), but Deuce recognized the need to locate her prodigy of a sister before she could think of a way to ruin their plans. Deciding it was worth the risk, Deuce pocketed her mask and dropped down onto the highest catwalk.

"Now where, oh where could my old roommate be?" She muttered in a sing-song tone.

As Deuce walked around on her level, she failed to notice Queen of Diamonds, who was stomping around on another catwalk a couple levels below. The irate six year old huffed and puffed as she scanned the roof for wherever the rocketeer may be hiding, growing more impatient by the second. Out of boredom, Queen looked down to see if anything was going on, and by chance, she happened to spot Ace and Ace-sassin trying to stay hidden amongst the machinery. They weren't too far from where Strong Suit was located.

A malicious grin formed on Queen's face. Deuce would have to wait, cause there were two targets just begging to be ambushed. Touching her receiver, "Hey Strong Suit, you got some 'friends' near you."

Elsewhere...

With our resident Joker, she opted to remain close to her Jack-in-the-Box due to Ace and Deuce's presence. For one, she wasn't looking forward to smelling like a skunk that combined its stench with a landfill. For another, and Joker hated to admit it, but she wouldn't fare well against Ace and whomever he was with. She just wasn't that well suited to straight up hand to hand combat; not only that, Ace knew just about every trick she could throw at him despite being random in her attacks. But what was the biggest unknown factor to the comedian, was who exactly did Ace bring with him. If it was Jack (which would have been very likely), then CC would've said so. Not only that, Night Club had suddenly ended her call, and it sounded like there was a fight going on outside. But there was a good possibility that it might've been the grunts the musician incapacitated before the initial fighting; not really something worth breaking a nail over.

Poking out of her hidden post, Joker saw Eleven was within earshot as she tried to fix her ruined sash. A sudden tap to her leg made her jump slightly. Turning around, the comedian breathed a sigh of relief that it was only Royal Flush.

"You seen Ace anywhere?" The plumber asked as she started picking her nose. "I look all around back in the storage room and didn't see anything. Well, except High Card, but you'd best stay away from her."

"Why's that?"

"Apparently, someone shot her in the arm." Flush squinted as she stuck her finger deeper, closing an eye as she pulled out a large booger. "She'll live, but she's dead set on finding the guy who did it." Just as she opened her mouth to consume her 'snack', Joker smacked it out of her hand.

"Ew! Gross! We told you to stop doing that!"

Flush glared at her older sister. "Well I didn't get to eat anything since we left the base! And these guys," She gestured to some of the grunts lying on the floor, "Ransacked all the vending machines!"

"Hey Strong Suit, you got some 'friends' near you." Both girls heard Queen speak on the comms.

"Well, guess that answers that." Joker smiled as she elbowed her prized weapon. It folded itself down into a small, handheld box before she picked it up. "Wanna give Strong Suit a hand?"

Flush patted the head of her pipe wrench into her hand. "Oooooh yeah. I was getting really-"

"Hello, ladies." Came a voice with a calm, masculine, and teasing tone.

Both girls looked to their left to see a boy roughly Luan's age, maybe lower, dressed in a black and green tux with a mask and fedora to match.

"Ooooooooooo! A magician!" Flush cheered excitedly.

Joker narrowed her eyes. "Wait a second, why would a magician be out here in the middle of all this? And second, are you even a real magician?..." She folded her arms as she gave the boy a quizzical look.

"Most refer to me as one, but you may refer to me as," The boy covered the lower part of his face with his cape, "Mirage Master."

Joker gave a half-lidded stare. "That sounds so-"

"Cool!" Royal Flush interrupted.

"Did you guys say magician?!" Eleven asked in glee as she came running over.

"Well well well, seems I have quite the audience. I suppose that a show is in order." Mirage grinned, a deck of cards flowing from his cuffs and into his hands.

Now, Joker performed magic acts herself for little kid's birthday parties, and while there was an unspoken rule that a magician never reveals their secrets, she could tell this guy was being corny as all hell. "Card tricks? Really?..." She groaned inwardly.

Mirage closed the deck in between both hands before opening them, revealing empty palms. Both Flush and Eleven were amazed in spite of Joker not being impressed. "Nothing up my sleeves, as you can see." He spoke, tugging the cuffs of the tux down slightly.

Casually walking over, he stopped in front of Joker, who raised a brow in confusion before he reached behind her and pulled out the missing deck. Then, Mirage shuffled the deck a few times before taking off his fedora. Joker stifled a laugh at the site of his curly red hair, growing a little curious to see where this was going. Mirage put the deck into the hat and, turning it towards the girls, a flock of doves flew out and into the air.

Both Flush and Eleven became starry-eyed at the spectacle, with Joker gave a little shrug. "Ok, I guess that is a little impressive."

While both teams were in the midst of sorting things out and fighting amongst each other, all of the grunts were beginning to wake up and were confused as to what was going on. However, recognizing that Willy was no where to be found and the overabundance of heroes, anyone who had awoken decided it was best to leave than risk getting jailed. Those who weren't currently distracted took notice, but did nothing to stop them. After all, they were just pathetic mooks who weren't worth spending energy on. It wouldn't be long until the factory was completely empty; aside from the two groups seeking to dominate each other.

And in the midst of all this chaos...

"Look out!" Ace-sassin quickly pushed Ace forward as a hail of shards came flying at them. The two booked it as more rained down from above, the duo feeling some stings as projectiles grazed their costumes and the skin underneath. They sought immediate shelter under a conveyor belt close to the main floor, panting for breath as their adrenaline started to wan.

"You...you alright?" Ace asked his partner, inspecting himself. A few shards managed to nick him in a couple places where fresh blood leaked out, but otherwise he appeared ok.

"Y-Yeah..." Ace-sassin replied with a shaky tone, taking a moment to remove her mask. There was a shard embedded in the spot where her forehead sat. While the sharpshooter was mostly unharmed outside of a few scratches, that piece of diamond was mere centimeters from piercing her skull. The tomboy pulled the shard out of her mask, before setting it back on her face. "What the heck is this?"

Ace glanced at the object. He knew exactly who made those; but before he could voice his thoughts, the belt itself was ripped off at their position, making a horrible bending noise as metal was torn from its joints. The two tweens screamed in surprise as Strong Suit stared at them with a malicious grin.

"Heeere's Strong Suit!"

Being the first to recover, Ace-sassin immediately drew her pistols and opened fire directly at the teen's chest. To her surprise, although the bullets buried themselves into her skin, Strong Suit didn't appear to be hurt by what would normally be a killing blow. Glaring at the sharpshooter, Strong Suit grabbed the girl by her arms and flung her out of the hole. Ace watched his partner fly out of sight before glaring at Suit, who returned the look and tried reaching for him. He slid under her grasp before grabbing her outstretched arm and yanking her down to the floor. As Strong Suit landed on her face, Savvy took the chance to escape her, knowing very well that he wouldn't be able to match her hand to hand. As he crawled out from under the belt, the 11 year old gave a surprised yelp as he felt a hand grab his leg.

"You're not gettin' away that easily Stinkcoln!"

The boy's glare wavered a little as he noticed Lynn's eyes looked similar to Lori's, only the yellowish tint was much more visible. "Try me!" Was his response as he kicked her in the face. The 13 year old screamed a bit as she held her nose with both hands, giving Ace the seconds he needed to run. Strong Suit growled loudly as she crawled from under the belt and gave chase.

Ace-sassin cried out as she rebounded off a support beam and slid onto the floor, her pistol sliding in next to her a second later. She arched her back upwards as she brought her hands to the sore spot, giving a loud hiss as pain coursed through her body. "Dang it...forgot those sissy rounds don't work on her..."

Ace-sassin then heard the familiar sound of a small object cutting through the air at subsonic speeds. Her eyes widened as more of those diamond shards were flying towards her, and immediately rolled along the ground to dodge the attack. There was a brief pause in the assault as Ace-sassin got to her feet, which granted her enough time to track where the shots came from. Spotting a small silhouette on one of the catwalks above her, the tomboy drew out her second pistol and dumped both magazines at that spot.

Mirage's performance was interrupted by the hail of gunfire, to which everyone turned to the noise and spotted Ace-sassin shooting at a particular spot. Looking up, Joker caught the distinct silhouette of a crown, a gasp escaping her upon realizing Queen was in danger. Furrowing her brows, Joker reached for her prized weapon, only to discover the emptiness that sat in its usual place.

"What the..." She dug into her other pocket. "Where's my-" Joker paused when she pulled out a few low end playing cards. Her eyes widened when she remembered Mirage had taken his deck from her.

Joker's face formed a red hue as steam came out her ears. "You little thief!" She shouted, to the confusion of the other girls. "Give me back my Jack-in-the-Box!"

"Um..." Mirage gave a long pause, trying to think of something. "I plead the fifth?" He smiled sheepishly. Joker wasn't in the mood for playing around, for she reaches behind her back and pulled out a mallet roughly the size of her entire body. Mirage's pupils shrank as sweat began to run down his forehead. "Wait! I have one last trick to show you!"

"Like, what?..." Joker fumed, now standing in front of him and holding the mallet above her head.

Mirage didn't speak, but did a few hand movements before taking off his hat. He then pointed the bottom of the hat towards the girls before Joker was thrown backwards as some kind of seeds blasted out of the headwear like water in a high pressure hose. The other two girls barely got a scream out before they were practically buried.

Flush lifted her head out of the pile first, spitting out a few seeds. She chewed one that was stuck between her teeth, savoring the taste. "Is this...bird food?" Joker and Eleven burst out of the pile, giving murderous glares the redhead.

"Yep." Mirage looked at his watch. "Just give it a sec."

The girls raised a brow at that statement, before looking up as multiple shadows obscured the light provided from the ceiling. The doves Mirage set free earlier had been roosting on the upper levels of the building; having smelled the bird seed, they immediately started diving towards the heroines. All three of them let out another scream as they struggled to get out of the pile, but it was too late. They were completely surrounded by the flock as they made feeble attempts to shoo the birds away.

"I can't see anything!" Flush cried.

"Ow, ow! Make it stoooop!" Eleven shrieked.

Mirage began to whistle a tune as he shoved his hands in his pockets, turning around to leave the girls to their fate. "YOU!" He paused midstep, giving a side glance backwards. Joker managed to free herself from the swarm with various cuts marring her costume and face. Mirage gave a nervous grin before taking off like the devil was after him; then again, have you ever seen Luan when she was pissed?

"GET BACK HERE!" Joker yelled, now brandishing a mallet twice her size as she chased after her prey.

Back with Ace-sassin, she watched as some of the bullets missed by impacting the roof, beams, and the floor of the catwalk, but the rest had hit their mark.

Or so she thought.

A bright flash occurred as if some of the bullets were deflected off a pink surface. Ace-sassin grew confused for a moment, before she heard a young feminine voice yelling, "Why you little!"

The figure jumped off the catwalk, revealing Queen of Diamonds encircled in a bubble. The little girl herself had murderous intent etched on her face, no doubt it was about the holes her dress received from the wall of bullets sent her way. Ace-sassin jumped to the side as Queen crashed into her former position, a sizable hole forming in the ground.

"You're going to pay for ruining my gown!" Queen shouted at Ace-sassin as she prepared more shards.

"You're going to pay for nearly killing me!" The tomboy retorted. Believing that her regular bullets would have little effect, she holstered her glocks while exchanging them for the much larger Desert Eagles.

"And you're going to pay for shooting me..." A mature voice cut in behind the sharpshooter. As Ace-sassin turned, a fist collided with her cheek, sending her tumbled back until she fell to the ground. Gritting her teeth, Ace-sassin wasn't too surprised to see High Card with her fists ready; her bleeding arm was hastily wrapped in gauze, which was now partially red as the wound hadn't fully healed.

A few stories up...

As the chaos continued below, Deuce continued her search for Card Counter. She went down a couple levels to get a better view of everything going on; it was so strange, yet kinda sad. She spotted Mirage keeping 3 of the girls distracted with a couple tricks, which may have explained the birds she saw. Near the massive loading door, Deuce caught a glimpse of Wrangler chasing Eight of Spades around with her own shovel. Suddenly, sparks started shooting around Deuce, making her flinch and nearly fall to the floor. Looking down, she saw Ace-sassin shooting at a certain spot close to where she was. It was then that Deuce finally noticed Queen of Diamonds, who projected a barrier around herself once the pageant winner realized she was being shot at.

"Why you little!" Deuce heard her shout before she jumped down.

The 7 year old watched her go, nearly landing on the sharpshooter who immediately pulled out a different set of pistols. Then, to her shock, Deuce watched as High Card came from behind and sucker-punched her. Narrowing her eyes, the 7 year old knew it wasn't going to be a fair fight. The blonde started gritting her teeth seconds later when she caught sight of Strong Suit chasing after her brother; the athletic heroine was now throwing random objects at Ace who constantly bobbed and weaved to avoid getting hit.

"Seems I need to even the score..." Deuce gripped her launcher tight as she lined up a shot. She only had two rockets left in the tube, but she figured just one would be enough. Hopefully her teammates won't mind being gassed.

BZZZZZZT!

Deuce froze when she heard that sound, along with something behind pushed into her back. "Drop the launcher, Deuce." A familiar, nerdy voice with a lisp ordered.

The 7 year old glared into space as she refused to comply, which earned her another poke, this time to the base of her skull. "I said, drop it..."

Deuce gave a frustrated sigh as she let her launcher fall to the floor, after which Card Counter kicked it out of easy reach. The rocketeer kept her hands raised, hoping her sister didn't decide to just shoot her then and there. As she turned around, Deuce saw Card Counter had some sort of blaster in one hand with a tablet in the other. Judging by the amount of electricity that was charged in the container at the center, Deuce had to guess it was her Tesla Gun.

"Nice to see you, sister..." The blonde spat with venom in her tone.

"I could say the same to you, traitor..." Card Counter returned the sentiment.

Deuce gave a low chuckle. "It's funny how you call me a traitor when you're the ones who decided to try and kill our brother. And for what? Over a bad streak?"

Card Counter gave a light sigh. "Still naive you are Deuce. We didn't have a choice; we were willing to let Lincoln go quietly, but he decided fighting would've been a better option."

"Obviously, because he was following the principles all of us agreed to. What you guys did was basically spit on them and tell Lincoln that you guys were going to do things your way, not caring if it was right or wrong!" Deuce retorted.

"And he didn't understand that those principles we set up aren't working! Why do you think we decided to teach Card Shark a lesson he wouldn't forget? Even tonight, we would've been free of Wild Card Willy's shenanigans, but you dunderheads ruined that!" The 4 year old countered.

"And who said it's our job to kill people?! I can't even..." Deuce bit her lip as hot tears appeared at the corners of her eyes. "Even if it were our job, I couldn't do it. We're supposed to help others by showing we can keep them safe, not getting rid of anyone whose bad."

"And yet, there's some masked vigilante who murders those who committed heinous acts on the innocent." Card Counter lowered her weapon a bit. "Just face facts Deuce. Things need to change. All of us grew up mentally at an exponential rate after the passing of our parents. Sad as it may be, but this is what we must do." Deuce stared at the ground with a depressed look. "Don't you believe our parental units would've approved what we're trying to do?"

One of Deuce's eyes twitched as a flash of heated anger overcame her. "No..." Giving a dark look at the short brunette, "I'm pretty sure they would say you guys are grounded until you're 18 for nearly killing Lincoln..."

Card Counter narrowed her eyes as her brows knitted into a V-shape. "I'm beginning to wish you were still a clueless infant..."

"If you didn't have that stupid thing," Deuce gestured to the gun, mustering up a small laugh. "Pointed at me, you'd really wish I was."

No sooner had she finished saying that, all the windows of the factory shattered as an extremely loud guitar riff cut through the building like a hot knife through butter. Deuce and Card Counter were nearly floored once the sound wave hit them, and one glance below would show that everyone else had to cover their ears or risk permanent hearing damage.

As the entire factory shook from the musical assault, Deuce found it difficult to regain her senses. As she steadied herself while trying to block out the noise, Deuce eyed her sister, who was trying to retrieve her dropped weapon. Giving a low growl, the rocketeer did her best to block out the noise as she charged the prodigy. Card Counter only had a few seconds to meet the eyes of an angry 7 year old before Deuce crashed into her.

On the roof...

Mad Bomber gave a light snore as he rested on his stomach, having fallen into a bored-induced sleep a little after he ruined Eleven of Heart's sash. For all the power he had at his fingertips, being the team's demo-man had severe disadvantages: he couldn't use his explosives often due to fear of friendly fire, he might damage the factory too much, and while his crowd control abilities may be second to none, Ace didn't want his other sisters to be maimed for life. Bomber had to admit, the guy still had a heart in spite of what they did to him. With little to do outside of keeping track of potential targets, the boy simply got too comfortable and passed out.

Unknown to most people, this demolitionist was a heavy sleeper. Not even the constant gunshots Ace-sassin was putting out could wake him up. However, that didn't mean he wasn't susceptible to a one-woman rock concert trying to wake up the entire town.

Bomber screamed himself awake as he heard a loud guitar riff being play just below him. His glasses cracked from the constant vibrations that rocked his core, not even registering the distinct sound of shattering glass. Pressing his fingers hard into his ears, he stumbled over to the roof's edge to find out who had the indecency to arouse him from his sleep.

The ringing in Bomber's ears grew louder once he peeked over the edge, finding a displeasing sight. Night Club managed to get to her guitar despite Jack's attempts to stop her, and was venting her frustration at anything within earshot. The demo saw his teammates withering in pain from bearing the brunt of it, along with Eight of Spades looking like she was trying to keep her head from exploding.

Giving an irritating growl, Mad Bomber pulled out his launcher and aimed it directly at Night Club's axe. Ace won't like hearing about a sister losing a hand, or arm, but it wouldn't matter if something doesn't shut her up. Unfortunately, the demo had no clue as to what the sound waves were doing to his equipment. No sooner did he pull the trigger, the bomb that left the barrel exploded right in front of him. Bomber was thrown backwards by the explosion, with soot covering his front and his hair partially alight.

"Well, that was just dandy..." The boy grumbled to himself.

Eight of Spades stumbled over to her teammate, the ringing in her ears becoming louder by the second. The grave digger started to feel some sort of liquid forming in her ears, not sure if it was water or worse, blood.

"Night Club!" Eight shouted when she came up to her sister's side. Unfortunately, the teen didn't seem to hear her, nor was aware of her immediate surroundings. Taking a deep breath, "NIGHT CLUB!" Again, her voice was drowned out by the music.

Growling to herself, Eight took a risk and unplugged her ears, marching right up to the rocker and shoving her to the ground. "STOP PLAYING YOUR STUPID MUSIC!" Eight shouted before going into a small coughing fit; being nearly silent all the time, her voice box can be strained easily if she raises her voice too much.

"Geez sis, what's the deal?!" Night Club retorted, glaring daggers at the young girl. She lost her irritation upon noticing a few spots of blood on Eight's fingers. "You ok brah?"

"I'm fine..." Eight strained as she coughed a bit more, her voice raspy and dry.

Night Club pulled the girl's hood back to check her for injuries, finding it odd that there were no traces of damage on her face outside of a bruise forming on her left cheek. However, Night spotted a trail of blood on both sides of Eight's neck, which started to worry her. Moving a few strands of hair, guilt started to pool in the musician's gut as she was met with the sight of blood flowing out of Eight's earhole.

"Oh...I'm, I'm sorry dude..." Night Club spoke sincerely. "I didn't think it was that loud..."

"...I can't really hear you too well, but you forget that not all of us are resistant to extremely loud noises..." Eight spoke through gritted teeth. She turned her attention to the two boys. "What about them?"

Night Club gave a side glance before giving a warm smile to her sister. "Don't worry sis. " She patted Eight's shoulder. "You just wait here and chill for a while. I'll take care of this."

Jack and Wrangler rubbed their sore ears, trying to dispel the constant ringing as well as fighting back a huge migraine. Jack's glasses were completely broken from the sound waves, leaving him incredibly near-sighted.

"I can hardly hear a darn thing!" Wrangler shouted louder than intended, patting the side of his head as if something was stuck in his ear.

"I can hardly see anything..." Jack replied, squinting his beady eyes. He saw a tall, blurry figure approaching. "That you Mirage?"

"I don't know who 'Mirage' is," Night Club spoke, planting the base of her instrument into the ground. "But if you dudes wanted a mosh pit..." She cracked her knuckles, her lips curling into a wide grin as her brows knitted together. "You're sure gonna get one!"

Wrangler raised a brow. "I don't know what you said, but I'm gonna assume it wasn't anythin' good..."

Jack gave an audible gulp, raising his hands above his head in defense. "Not the face!"

At the center of the main floor...

No sooner did the music stop blaring did all of the combatants resume fighting once more. Ace was doing his best to evade Strong Suit, who was now throwing random junk at him in hopes of impaling him to a wall, Ace-sassin was forced to deal with a 3 to 1 fight against Queen of Diamonds, High Card, and Eleven of Hearts (who joined in once the music stopped); Mirage was still being pursued by an angry Joker, and finally, Deuce and Card Counter were exchanging blows on the upper levels of the building.

Oblivious to what was happening by the loading bay, Bomber wiped some soot off his face before glancing down at all the battles below him. "Man...everyone gets to have fun besides me. Maybe I should've picked a different job..."

"Is everyone ok?!" Ace's frantic voice rang out on the comms.

The short redhead raised a brow before moving along the roof to find another skylight.

"Rather busy here! Ugh!" Ace-sassin replied, apparently taking another hit from someone.

"Dude, your sister can't take a joke!" Mirage came up next, fear evident in his tone.

"I'll show you whose the real joke around here!" Joker yelled loudly from behind him.

"Wrangler?...Jack?...Deuce?-" Bomber heard Ace giving a small shriek before nothing but static echoed over the mic.

There wasn't any response from aforementioned heroes. The redhead figured they had their hands full too; once he found an opening in the roof, the first thing he saw was Deuce and Card Counter rolling around a few levels below with a dust cloud obscuring their brawl.

Growing frustrated at the whole situation, the demo took his bag off and started poking around inside of it. "Come on! There's gotta be something I can use in here!"

Feeling a metallic surface, his fingers curled around it before pulling it out. It was a nearly flat disk with red and white coloring on the surface. Bomber recognized it as one of his flash mines; he chose the color as it reminded him of fireworks on a certain holiday. Originally, Bomber planned to make your run-of-the-mill flash bangs, but found that mines packed more explosive charge and had twice the brightness.

"Mmmmm…think I know just where to put this." The boy grinned, eyeing one of the fights happening below.

Ace-sassin growled through her teeth as she shot round after round at the incoming shards Queen through at her, forcing the projectiles to hit anywhere but their intended target. She was forced to direct her attention upwards as Eleven of Hearts swooped in for another kick. The sharpshooter sent a few bullets her way before being forced to dodge High Card as the teen came at her with a metal staff. Backing away, Ace-sassin shot at High Card's feet to keep her at a distance, only to realize she was sandwiched between both the teen and Queen on opposite sides. Covered in bruises and cuts on various parts of her body, Ace-sassin's breaths were becoming more labored as each minute passed.

Under normal circumstances, the tomboy could handle herself against multiple enemies; the Full House were far more competent and skilled than anything she faced before. The short reprieve she had when Night Club was venting did little to help her regain some stamina, and it was only a matter of time before her reflexes slowed to the point she'd be an easy target.

THUNK!

Ace-sassin whipped her head towards the noise, seeing an odd-colored mine on the ground a few feet behind her.

"Ace-sassin, cover your eyes!" Bomber's voice warned.

Heeding his advice, the tomboy shielded her vision right before a loud popping sound was registered by her ears. Ace-sassin saw a brief flash whilst the ringing persisted, slowly dying as the seconds passed. Uncovering her eyes, the 11 year old was rather pleased to see High Card, Queen of Diamonds, and Eleven of Hearts rubbing their eyes intensely as they tried to correct their vision. Eleven, who was swinging back around when the flash occurred, deviated way off her intended course, until...

CLANG!

She slammed face first into a large boiler. Her body went limp as her momentum caused her to swing backwards before it came undone, with the teen falling unceremoniously to the ground.

"Ooooo..." Ace-sassin winced. "Well, that's one down..." Eyeing the other two members, Ace-sassin reached into her pockets, pulling out two smoke bombs. After making sure no friendlies were in sight, a mischievous grin took shape on her face. "Time for the other two."

High Card groaned in confusion as the blurriness in her vision started to fade. "What the heck was that?"

"My guess is the same as yours sister." Queen replied, rubbing her eyes before blinking a few times. When she could see more than just her feet, the six year old grew even more confused at the forming smoke cloud. "What is she up to?..."

Enveloped by the smoke, Ace-sassin switched her heavy pistols back to the standard glocks, making sure they were fully loaded. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she began to move in a way that was akin to a ballerina, even twirling on the tips of her toes at an extremely fast pace. Once the tomboy felt she reached the right speed, she extended her guns outward and began unleashing a hail of bullets in all directions.

To say the Full House members were unprepared is an understatement. High Card stumbled about in random directions, only to be grazed at best and catch a bullet at worst everywhere she ran; she managed to find cover after taking quite a few hits, settling in as she hadn't the energy to move. Queen of Diamonds instinctively threw up a shield to defend herself, but due to the hastiness of this action and being under pressure, she couldn't put her mind into making it as strong as it should've been. Bits and pieces of her shield broke off under the storm of bullets, and she soon felt one pierce her skin at the shoulder while another two broke her crown in half. With the source of keeping her powers under control broken, Queen cried in desperation before expelling her shield in a hail of shards going every which way.

Most of the pieces heading for Ace-sassin managed to get deflected, but the tomboy was forced to cut off her attack when one shard jammed itself in her shin and another in the back of her right hand. The tomboy gave an agonizing scream as she dropped to the floor, accidentally exacerbating her hand wound in the process.

Mad Bomber was also caught off guard as several shards flew up at him. He shielded his face with his arm, with one small piece digging into the cloth and piercing the skin. A few other shards slashed the seal of his bag, making him yelp in surprise as a few mines fell to ground level.

"Oh, that's not good..."

The mines bounced off various surfaces as Bomber prayed none of them would explode. One dropped next to where the forklift from earlier crashed into a compression chamber, with the other two landing near cutting materials and among the line production machines respectively. Bomber gave a huge sigh of relief when nothing happened, but unbeknownst to him or anyone else, the impact from the fall caused the mines' timers to active. If one were close enough, they could hear a faint ticking sound...

Elsewhere on the main floor...

Ace dodged another punch thrown by Strong Suit before aiming a counter to her cheek. The athlete grunted a bit before delivering a hard punch to Ace's mouth, sending him flying towards a wall. The white-haired hero reacted quickly by planting his feet against it before sliding down to the floor. He kept a hand up for balance as he took labored breaths.

"Glad you finally decided to stand and fight Ace. I was getting tired of chasing your cowardly butt all night."

"Not like...you would've...given me a choice..." Ace panted, wiping blood from his mouth.

Since the two started fighting, Strong Suit had the upper hand with her increased durability and physical prowess. However, Ace was more cunning and knew to aim for weak spots around her face, as well as the joints of her limbs to force her back. The teen sported a couple bruises here and there, but she was no worse for wear than Ace was. Missing one of his teeth, a sore cheek, hurting chest, and sprain in his lower back were at the top of his list of injuries.

"Well if you went quietly the first go round, we wouldn't be doing this. You're lucky I didn't break your arm, again." Strong Suit chuckled darkly.

"Like I'll just stop fighting crime at the drop of a hat just because you girls say so! At least I still have standards to live by, unlike a certain meat-headed jock who thinks she deserves to be called a hero!"

The brunette glared at her brother. "Says the moron whose failed to catch any criminals for the past month! Ever since you left, we've been taking down crooks left and right, and all you did was hide in the shadows like the baby you always were!"

Ace rolled his eyes. "Oh sure. Stopping a bank robbery or high speed chase is sooo hard." He retorted sarcastically. "Like I could do much with a price on my head, no thanks to you guys! You told the whole town I'm a villain, and yet I bet you could take one look at the mirror and see one standing in your reflection!"

"Takes one to know one, doesn't it?" Strong Suit huffed.

Ace gritted his teeth. "I busted my back day after day trying to track our archenemies down, and you guys lose it over a little bad streak? Why? What did I do to deserve that?!"

Strong Suit grinned, folding her arms over her chest. "Well, since you asked nicely, here's where it all started: back during the middle of our sour spot, me and the rest of our sisters had a meeting while you and Jack were patrolling. We wanted to figure out why we were having such bad luck, thinkin' our enemies were getting brainier or something. We also talked about whether or not you had something to do with it; but at first, we just ignored it. So, Lisa got this idea to go after a few bad guys ourselves to, quote-unquote, test to see which answer was true."

The brunette formed a grin. "We took down every bad guy we came across, probably even faster than when you were running the show. So, with that in mind, we came to you one at a time to talk about changing tactics." Her lips curled down with an accusing stare locking onto Ace. "But you were too stupid and stubborn to realize it. So, we tried again and again to change your mind, but you just couldn't see it." Strong Suit's gaze then hardened into a glare. "Lily didn't either, which is why she's on the wrong side on all of this, no thanks to her good-for-nothing brother..."

Ace opened his mouth to give his rebuttal, but Suit wasn't finished yet. "So, we decided the only way to get it through that thick head of yours was to make you see it our way." She dropped her hands to her sides, gazing at the floor. "We didn't want to do it Lincoln," She locked eyes with him, "But you gave us no choice..."

A pregnant pause filled the void between them, only being briefly interrupted by the sounds of their respective groups fighting each other every few seconds.

"...If that were the case, you girls would've sat down with me and talked things out..." The boy glared at his sister. "But none of you ever did. All I heard was nothing but name-calling and mocking me for my skills. The only person who ever cared to talk things over was Lily, and she understood my methods clear as day." Ace balled his hands into fists. "If you think beating me down to get what you want will change my mind on something important like our duty as heroes, here's a newsflash Lynn: that's not giving advice, that's being a bully. And you know where I stand when it comes to people like them..."

Strong Suit stifled a laugh before it became a dark chuckle. "Well then," She cracked her neck joints. "Guess I'm done talking then."

Within a second, she charged at Ace with her signature ramming attack. Squinting his eyes, Ace waited until she was close enough to use her as a platform to vault over the attack. Like he said before, Suit wasn't giving him a choice on avoiding conflict. He wanted to avoid fighting someone like her since she could take a ton of bricks before going down; but as they say, not all plans are foolproof. That said, Strong Suit may be strong, but there were weaknesses about her he could exploit.

Slamming into the wall, Strong Suit was stunned for a few seconds, giving Ace an opportunity to deliver a few quick punches to her ribs. Suit grunted in pain before she swung at him with a backhanded fist, but the boy leaned back enough for it to pass inches from his face, after which Suit decided to go for a kick. Ace grabbed her leg before spinning her away from the wall, throwing her off balance long enough to go for a jab to the eye. However, Suit grabbed his hand at the last moment, using it for leverage as she decked him across his jaw before digging her foot deep into his stomach. Ace felt whatever air he had leave him before the athletic hero kicked him several feet away. Ace tumbled backwards until he was nearly flat on his back, hissing through his teeth as he fought through the pain. His eyes widened upon seeing the tomboy flying at him with her feet extended, intent on driving him into the floor. Rolling to the left, the ground cracked as dust collected around the area of impact.

"Hold still and take your lumps like a man!" Strong Suit demanded, throwing another punch his way.