36. Chapter 36

Glad to see people are still enjoying this story. I guess I never got around to mentioning it in one of my updates, but this story broke 100k views not too long after I posted chapter 34. It's a little distressing that so many people apparently have nothing better to read, but I'm still grateful all the same :)

Gonna take a moment to plug a couple of things, seeing as I have a sizeable congregation of Sunacoln fans reading this story. The latest chapter of gabeclone's one-shot collection, Gifts Given Graciously, is a Sunacoln story based off the events of Aces, and its really good. I think it's pretty common knowledge that Gabe's a great writer, but he did a fantastic job with preserving the characterization of the main trio. You'd think it was an actual chapter of Aces, if it wasn't for the fact that it's written so much better.

Second, frequent reader, reviewer, and fellow Sunacoln fan, Zeobide274 has his own story, The Digi-Loud Adventure, which as the name implies, is crossover with Digimon. I'm not a fan of the show myself, but I've found it to be an extremely enjoyable story regardless. He's got a great handle on the Loud girls and he's put his own spin on Sam, which makes it a fun story to read. Also, the most recent chapter took a turn for the Samcoln, so if you like Aces, you'll probably like what he's done there.

Finally, Flagg1991 has been putting out chapters of his own Sunacoln story called Deviant Desires. Flagg is already a celebrated author in this fandom and needs zero help from me, but I really like what he's done with that story so far, and his take on the Sunacoln dynamic. So if you somehow aren't already reading that story, check it out. It gets my Sunacoln seal of approval, for whatever that's worth.

"Why are there so many sentry guns?" Luna seethed, slamming her fist against the table.

"You can contemplate that while you try to dodge the hail of gunfire coming your way." Lincoln intoned, his lips twitching erratically as he tried to refrain from smirking. There was an art to pushing a player's buttons, and a smart game master avoided directly drawing a player's ire for as long as possible. Speaking of...

"By the way, Carol." He turned to address the blonde as Luna sullenly reached for a fistful of dice. "You can activate Delta Protocol whenever you're ready."

"Oh." Carol fumbled with the notes she'd been given. "So that's the one where..um..."

"Page six, subsection G." Lincoln helpfully supplied. "Its after the section on deathtraps."

"Dude!" Luna hissed as she made her roll. She glanced at the result and flinched.

"What? Also, mark off 20 points of damage, Luna."

"We're getting our butts whooped!" Luna grumbled as the made made the adjustments to her character sheet.

"Well, you should have known better than to charge around a blind corner."

"She had to." Lucy retorted. "Or she would have been fried by the flame thrower hidden in the water fountain."

"And Luna only tripped that one because she was running from the scary doggies." Leni added.

"Bees, Leni." Luan corrected her. "The dogs were on the first floor."

"No, that was the fifth floor." Lori said with a sigh. "This one is dogs that shoot bees out of their mouths."

"You guys are assaulting a super villain who had plenty of time to prep." Lincoln protested. "There being defenses to overcome should be assumed!"

"Yes, Lincoln." Lucy replied in a slow and cautious manner. "But Carol only keeps turning these things on because you're telling her to."

"Meaning, what, exactly?"

"That maybe you should stop holding Carol's hand so much!" Lori interjected with a growl.

At her outburst, Lincoln and Carol turned bright red, nearly in unison. Slowly, perhaps in some naive attempt to avoid drawing attention to the act, the pair each withdrew one arm that had been concealed under the table, and with as much nonchalance as possible, casually draped it over the tabletop. Lincoln's sisters simply watched the process in stunned silence.

"I...uh..." Luan began, glancing at her older sister. "I don't think Lori meant that...literally, Linc."

"No, I didn't!" Lori agreed, twitching in irritation. Carol's face brightened at that, and she began to withdraw her arm from the tabletop once again. She didn't get very far before four murderous glares stopped her in her tracks, causing the girl to visibly flinch. Don't you dare! They seemed to say.

"Lincy, I think Lori's saying that maybe you should let Carol play the game for herself." Leni pipped up, both she and the white haired boy oblivious to the antics of the other players.

"What? D-don't be silly!" Lincoln sputtered, shooting a worried glance at Carol. "This is Carol's show, one-hundred percent! I'm, I'm just..." He trailed off as he felt a gentle touch upon his shoulder. Turning, he saw Carol smiling at him patiently.

"It's okay Linc." She said, giving him a reassuring squeeze. "I've really appreciated the help. But I think I can handle things from here on out."

"You sure?" He asked, his voice laced with uncertainty.

"Absolutely." She tousled the younger boy's hair playfully. Lincoln cast his gaze downward, both pleased and embarrassed at the attention.

"Cough." Said Lucy, reminding the pair that they weren't alone. Lincoln quickly withdrew from Carol, noting that the atmosphere at the table had become significantly more dour. Leni looked particularly unhappy, one hand tightly cluched around a 20-sided die, occasionally twitching, as though it longed to send the polyhedron flying. Clearly they were impatient to resume the game.

"Alright." He turned to Carol. "So, Protocol Delta?"

"Actually..." Carol said with a grin. "I think I'll skip right to Protocol Epsilon."

The Loud girls exchanged worried glances.

"What's that mean?" Luna asked, guardedly.

Lincoln glanced at the relevant portion of Carol's notes, and snorted in amusement.

"Suddenly, a portion of wall silently slides open, revealing a hidden compartment. From within, you can hear the angry buzzing of robotic bees intermingled with the harsh, guttural growls of robotic dogs..."

"Congratulations, guys!" Lincoln cheerfully announced. "You've made it to the rooftop! Lucy, you'll need to take three points of burning damage each round until you successfully manage to put out the fire."

"Bees shouldn't explode." The young girl grumbled, dutifully marking off the damage on her character sheet.

"Lincoln!" Maggie's head popped up from beneath the table right between him and Carol, causing Lincoln and his players to start in surprise. Lucy, in particular, let out a rare and genuine gasp, rather than her usual verbalization of the action. Apparently realizing what she had done, Lucy abruptly clamped her hands over her mouth, and slid down a little in her chair.

"Lincoln!" Maggie repeated, seemingly unconcerned with the affect her sudden appearance had on the other players. "The nearby battle has caused debris to rain upon the rooftop. You should check to see how it affects the remainder of the Full House Gang."

Lincoln let out a short sigh of exasperation before forcing a smile on his face. "Thank you, Maggie, I'll get right on that." The older girl nodded curtly, then vanished under the table once more.

Lincoln shook his head, reached for the appropriate dice and made his roll. "Looks like the debris isn't concentrated enough to do any real damage, to you guys. But you are showered with dirt and small bits of gravel." He paused, considering. "Actually, I guess that would probably help put out your fire...Lucy?" He turned to address his little sister, but found that she had vanished. Questioning glances to his other sisters was met only with bewildered shrugs.

Lincoln turned towards the far end of the table, where the remainder of their group had relocated. The girls had apparently procured another one of Lola's dolls, this one brunette (great, he was already on a payment plan for the first one...), and Lynn and Sam were enthusiastically engaged in making them fight. It looked less like a proper, by the rules fight, and more like when he and Clyde would play with their action figures. Nevertheless, Maggie stared intently at the mock battle, diligently scribbling into a small notebook. Just as Lincoln was about to call out to the group, with the intention of asking if any of them had seen Lucy, all three girls suddenly shrieked in surprise, with Maggie's being especially loud.

Lincoln turned back to his own group, suddenly not especially surprised to find Lucy back in her seat, a small smile gracing her pallid face.

"Just reestablishing the pecking order." She replied to his unasked question.

"Alright." Lincoln announced, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Time for the final showdown. The Full House Gang—"

"Kiyaa!" Lynn's cry cut his speech short, the volume causing Lincoln to wince.

"Hey! Hands off my boyfriend!"

"Lincoln! Ace has suffered an additional 15 points of crushing damage!"

"...well, most of you, anyway." He amended with a roll of his eyes. "Versus your arch enemy, the Trump Card!"

"Greetings, Full House Gang!" Carol began, gesturing grandly to the group. "I welcome you to—"

"I rush her." Lori said, flatly.

"Me too." Luan added.

"Lining up my shot, little bro, first opening I get I'm gonna shoot to thrill." Luna growled.

"Hiding in shadows." Said Lucy.

"Um..." Leni squinted at her dice. "Which one hurts Carol?"

"G-guys!" Lincoln sputtered in indignation. "You're supposed to let her finish!"

"She's just standing there in the middle of the rooftop, right?" Lori asked.

"Well...yeah." Lincoln grudgingly affirmed. "But this is the big moment! There's supposed to be witty repartee! Dramatic twists! The reveal of Trump Card's heart wrenching backstory—"

"Yeah, we're not doing that." Luan grunted, reaching for her dice. "We're too stung to bee friends at this point." She paused for a moment, before sighing in resignation. "Pretend I had one for dogs."

"We're going through a ruff patch?" Luna supplied.

Luan shrugged "Good enough." She gave her sister a high five before turning back to Carol.

"Man, I spent days working on this scene." Lincoln grumbled as he began to set up the battlefield.

"Don't worry about it Linc." Carol patted him on the back reassuringly. "I thought it was great."

"Called shot to the face." Lori spat, one eye twitching with barely contained rage as she made her attack roll.

"Eep!" Carol squeaked, nervously fumbling for her own dice.

"No need for that, Carol." Lincoln said, patting the older girl on her arm. "She misses."

"What are you talking about?" Lori growled, pointing first to the resting polyhedral, then angrily jabbing her finger in Carol's direction. "There's no possible way she could roll high enough to dodge that!"

"You miss." Lincoln repeated. Lori opened her mouth to protest, but he smoothly cut her off. "High Card charges at Trump Card , and delivers a perfectly executed haymaker directly to her face."

"However!" He held up one finger to forestall further protest. "At the last second possible second, Trump Card shifts out of the way, the blow missing her by inches."

"What!?" Lori exclaimed, angrily slamming her hands down on the table.

"Oh!" Carol said simultaneously, eyes widening with understanding.

"My turn!" Luan shouted, making her own roll.

"Also a miss." Lincoln replied, not even bothering to look at the result. "Joker takes a swing at Trump Card with her mallet, and history repeats itself. Just before the moment of impact, Trump Card gracefully slides out of the way." He paused, considering. "Also, you're off balance now, Luan."

"How could I miss her! I don't even like her!"

Carol's face ran through a gamut of emotions. Confused, hurt, confused again, then a sort of hopefulness laced with trepidation.

"G-good one, Luan." Carol replied, laughing nervously. Her face fell as the younger girl only response was to narrow her eyes.

"Lincoln." Lucy spoke up. "I specifically said I was going to spend my downtime at the Fortress going through Ace's files. If Trump Card's this dangerous, it stands to reason that Ace would have information on her."

Lincoln's eyes briefly flickered heavensward."I mean, you would have gotten this information if you'd just played out the scene like you were supposed to. But fine."

He cleared his throat. "Trump Card was born with photographic reflexes. Basically, she can see a physical action, store it in her memory, and then perfectly replicate it at will."

"So she can copy our moves?" Lori asked, one eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"Yes." Lincoln nodded. "But, she's spent the majority of her life learning to leverage this ability to the utmost. In the process of taking every opportunity to observe top level martial artists, soldiers, athletes and even superheroes when possible, giving her a near endless repertoire of skills to call upon for any given situation, Trump Card has become extremely adept at reading body language. This, along with her ability to memorize and reproduce those actions, allows her to both predict and respond to her opponent's movements nearly instantaneously."

His explanation finished, Lincoln waited for his sisters' eyes to light up with understanding. Nearly a minute later, he was still waiting. Finally, Leni raised her hand.

"Yes, Leni." He said, gesturing towards the blonde, not daring to hope for much.

"So, like...Carol can figure out what we're doing, and then move out of the way really fast?"

Lincoln's other sisters looked to the blonde in surprise, then to Lincoln, for confirmation.

"...Yes, Leni." He affirmed, nodding slowly. "That's a very succinct way of putting it. In gameplay terms, Trump Card automatically dodges any attack that she can see within a certain distance."

"That sounds extremely powerful." Lucy deadpanned "Overtly so."

"She's a villain, and its five on one." Lincoln shrugged. "That's how these things work."

"I bet she can't dodge a sonic blast from this far away." Luna said, cackling as she snatched up her dice.

"Probably not." Lincoln said, smirking. "But as you've just reminded me, you said you were going to fire as soon as possible. And Lori and Luan just so happen to be in your line of fire."

Luna winced as her sisters turned their furious glares upon her. "Whoops."