34. Chapter 34

New chappie, the same day my pal Auto posts his own, officially authorized "fan-made" chapter of Aces Wild, Aces Wild Chapter 16.5 Go check it out on his profile, it's good stuff.

Before this chapter begins, I feel the need to preemptively establish that the term "Trump Card" has been used in the English parlance for something like, 500 years, and refers to something with a quality that renders it inherently advantageous over something else. It has nothing to do with a certain American family or their administration. Because I know somebody was going to make that stupid joke.

MindMedulla: Dude, I saw that pic and it looks fantastic. A friend of mine had actually shown it to me on discord a little while back, and I went "Huh, you know I did a chapter of Aces that was sort of like that, what a weird coincidence." I had no idea your pic was actually inspired by that chapter. It looks fantastic and I love it, you did an amazing job :)

NotHoldenMcNeil: Well, Aces was partially inspired by an idea AberrantScript was going to use for one of his stories, where Lincoln had become an Ace Savvy fanfiction writer. The story didn't really have anything to do with that, this particular idea was part of the premise for a specific scene he'd wanted to write, and he never got around to actually writing it, but I really liked the idea of Lincoln being a content creator for Ace Savvy. Given how big of an Ace nerd he seems to be, it kinda seems natural that Lincoln would eventually fall into making fan content for his favorite superhero (that's essentially what his comic book was, after all). So it occurred to me that it might be funny if there was a story where Lincoln continued making his own fan comics.

The second component was this screenshot I took from Racing Hearts. It was Sam and Luna figuring out one of the scavenger hunt clues, and I managed by pure happenstance, to catch Sam in this weird transitional movement, where she was smiling with her eyes, half closed and she was pointing to Luna. That would become the inspiration for how I chose to write Sam. I showed the pic to my friends, joking that she was proposing a three-way with Lincoln, and then the wheels started spinning. I took that original idea I had about Lincoln making fan comics, and decided it might be funny to do a short story where Sam actively ended up shipping Luna and Lincoln based on her being a fan of Lincoln's fan-comics. Aaaaaand things just kind of progressed from there.

I had no clue the story was going to blow up as big as it has, naturally. My first story, Once in a Blue Moon, got pretty lukewarm reception. Dibs did much better, but it was a short little comedy thing, so I kinda figured that Blue Moon was going to be more indicative of the kind of reception my stories would get. So I was shocked, and a little terrified when I posted my dumb idea for Aces, and immediately started getting requests to write more of it. I'm glad I did, I've made some great friends, and I've had a lot of fun making this thing. And it's getting pretty close to hitting 100k views, which is all because of you guys. So thanks to all of you, for pushing me to keep working on this story. I've had a lot of fun with it, and I hope the rest of the story doesn't disappoint.

And with that little trip down memory lane, here's the new chapter.

"Okay..." Lincoln began, after a semblance of order had been restored. Sam was still waving her exposed cleavage around, presumably trying to elicit a reaction from him. He refused to the blonde the satisfaction of knowing it was working.

"When we left off, Card Sharp had broken off her pursuit of Strong Suit, and..." He cleared his throat "Apprehended Ace Savvy." Sidelong looks from the group, directed towards the girl in question, some more amused than others. "With Card Sharp sufficiently distracted, Strong Suit was able to meet up with the rest of you, and together you collectively retreat back to the Fortress of Solitaire to regroup.

"I assume you're still rampaging, Sam?" He asked dryly

"I am." She affirmed, cheerfully. "Me and my new boy toy are gonna see the sights!"

There was a sharp cracking noise. Lincoln reached for his supplies, fished out a pair of fresh pencils and handed them to Lori and Lynn.

"Right." He continued. "Now since Sam's character is away from your group, she really shouldn't be hearing this part. I'm just not entirely sure how to..."

"Got you covered, bro." Luna pipped up, producing a set of heavy duty, noise cancelling headphones, seemingly out of thin air. With practiced ease, Luna loaded up a playlist on her phone with one hand and slammed the headphones over her girlfriend's ears with the other. Sam opened her mouth, seemingly intending to protest this treatment, but her expression immediately shifted to one of delight, and she began silently headbanging to the music only she could hear.

"Nice job, Luna." Lori congratulated the girl, mildly impressed.

"Sometimes I need a little 'me' time." Luna replied, shrugging.

"...Right." Lincoln resumed his recitation. "Once back at the fortress, you spend the next few hours resting up as you plan out your next move. Fortunately, Card Sharp is seemingly more concerned with enjoying herself than actually destroying the city." Sidelong glances at the girl in question, who was now fiercely shredding on her air guitar.

"So...what are our options?" Lori asked.

"Are you asking me what you should do?" Lincoln replied, only the barest hint of smugness in his voice.

"She means, what's available to our characters." Lucy pipped up, a ghost of a smile (by her standards) on her face. "The Full House Gang works closely with Ace. It stands to reason that our characters would know about his resources. Tech, contacts, contingency plans, and so forth. Lori's asking what our characters would know that would potentially help us."

The table went silent, save incidental noises made by the deafened blonde off to the side.

"...Y-Yes. That is what I meant." Lori agreed, straight faced. She then discretely fist bumped her little sister under the table.

Lincoln looked mildly impressed. "Look at you, already metagaming."

"I've been studying." Lucy replied, shrugging.

Lincoln shook his head in amusement, choosing to ignore the blank looks on his other sisters' faces.

"As it happens..." He continued, "You do have a plan. Sort of."

"Gotta love that confidence." Luna drawled.

Now it was Lincoln's turn to shrug. "Short notice."

"Anyway." He went on, "Shortly after you return to the fortress, you're contacted by presiding members of the Global Taskforce Squad, 'GTS' for short, they're the organization tasked with responding to the current crisis. Turns out that Card Counter has been collaborating with a number of prominent think tanks as of late, primarily for the purpose of designing and building a matter recombinator."

"A what?" Lynn asked.

"It, like, recombinates matter, Lynn." Leni offered, drawing looks from her siblings.

"I mean...she's not wrong." Luan chuckled.

"She's not." Lincoln agreed. "It's a machine that takes apart matter at the subatomic level, allowing for those individual components to be altered, then reassembled."

"Poppycock!" Lisa called from the doorway, looking nonplussed. However, once it was apparent that nobody was paying attention to her, she stormed off, grumbling about science-fiction frivolity.

"So how does that help us?" Lynn pressed.

"It's still in development, but the eggheads on staff believe they've been able to modify the only existing prototype into an ad-hoc shrink ray." Lincoln replied. "They've now got a few cat-sized gerbils and gerbil sized-cats, which leads them to believe it'll probably work well enough."

"I love all those things!" Leni squealed in delight.

"I don't love the 'probably'." Luna opined, frowning.

"Well, do any of you have a better idea?" Lincoln asked.

Silence fell upon the group.

"I thought I'd punch Sam while she was distracted." Lynn offered, cracking her knuckles.

"You're going to need a pretty big stepladder to make that happen." Lori deadpanned.

"Didn't say it'd be in game."

"Alright, it takes a few hours for GTS to deliver the prototype to the fortress. But that gives you enough time to rest up and restock your supplies, so make sure you update your character sheets accordingly. Once the team arrives, your all given a crash course in how to use it. Then, you load it up in the van, and head back to the city."

Lincoln flinched as a sharp, rhythmic rapping interrupted his exposition. Right, he'd forgotten about Sam, who had commandeered one of Luna's pencils, and was currently drumming on the table. Admittedly, the beat was pretty sick, but it was about time to bring her back in anyway.

"Luna, why don't you take the headphones off now." He suggested.

The rocker followed suit, plucking the headphones off the blonde in a single fluid motion. The second the music vanished, Sam's delighted expression was momentarily replaced with one of profound sorrow, one lip quivering as her world went silent. Then, she seemed to remember where she was, ambient noises of the world around her presumably filtering back in, and she regained her typically upbeat expression.

"Hey girls." She chirped, beaming at the Loud sisters. "Luna." She gave her girlfriend a roguish wink. "Llllincoln." She purred, smiling Samishly at him. She ignored the grumbling from the remainder of the table. A thrown, teal colored die, now lodged within her blonde mane, was somewhat more difficult to ignore, but she soldiered on.

"Welcome back, Sam." Lincoln responded, trying to fight down his own bemusement. "Now, since your character has been on her own for the last few in-game hours, I'd asked you to annotate each action Card Sharp's been taking."

"Right here, Linc." She produced a small pile of flash cards, and slid them over to the boy.

"Let's see..." He murmured, looking at the first card. "So apparently y-you've been..." He trailed off, his eyes bugging out in surprise, face initially paling, then blushing bright red. Sputtering, he quickly flipped to the next one. Then the next one. And so forth, becoming increasingly flustered as he made his way through the pile. About half way through, he gave up, throwing down the card he was holding, and glaring at the grinning teen.

"I'm not reading this, Sam." He growled indignantly.

"Want me to come over there and help you?" She asked, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"Nope." He punctuated his flat refusal by grabbing the pile of cards and flinging them over his shoulder, not even bothering to look where they landed.

"Party-pooper."

"What happened to Ace-Linky, Linky?" Leni queried, looking concerned.

Lincoln coughed in embarrassment. "He's suffering from...severe blood loss."

"Yeah he is." Sam interjected, grinning broadly. She held up one hand, and Luna immediately high-fived her.

Lincoln shot the pair an embarrassed glare, before turning back to Leni. "Yes. Blood loss. And you need to save him. Right now."

"Oh no!" Leni turned to the eldest Loud. "Go-go boot, Lori! Hurry!"

"You heard her, little bro." Lori affirmed, smiling warmly as she gave her younger sister a reassuring pat on the head. "Full speed ahead."

"You arrive at the city in relatively short order. The mass evacuation is long over, and the freeways are mostly clear. Save for the odd abandoned vehicle, which High Card easily avoids."

"As you reach the city limits, your greeted with significantly less destruction than you anticipated. The city is largely intact, structurally speaking, though there are enormous footprints littering the area, flattened cars and..." Lincoln double checked the card he was holding "...the words 'Sharp Rules', crudely scrawled across main street in various colors of paint."

"I've heard of painting the town red..." Luan began.

"I floor the accelerator." Lori dryly interjected.

"You certainly try." Lincoln corrected her. "But both your action and Joker's joke are interrupted by the ground shaking."

"Small miracles." Lynn murmured.

Luan turned to her. "Don't you mean..."

"Lincoln. Accelerator. Please?" Lori pleaded.

"The van lurches forward as High Card finally finds the accelerator." Lincoln intoned ("Hey!") "Fortunately, you don't need to go very far to find the source of the disturbance, because only a short distance away, you find Card Sharp..." Sam slid another flash card to Lincoln, which he picked up suspiciously. "...break dancing?"

"I wanted to rampage in style." She said, shrugging off the questioning looks sent her way. "Now..." She leaned over eagerly. "Do I see those pipsqueaks, Linc?"

"Nope." He replied, popping the 'P' with great relish. "You're too busy dancing."

Sam seemingly realized, too late, that she'd dug her own grave. "Curse my own stylishness!" She wailed, hanging her head with profound sorrow. Luna, with some trepidation, reluctantly gave her girlfriend a comforting pat on the back.

"...Well, that was easy." Lynn proclaimed. "Let's unload the gizmo, and—"

"Not so fast, Lynn." Lincoln interrupted, a smile on his face, and not a particularly nice one. He pulled out his phone. "Just gotta send this text really quick."

Lynn looked at him in confusion. "What's that supposed to—"

"Welcome to your doom, Full House Gang!" Boomed a voice from the far end of the room.

"Gasp!" Lucy exclaimed, unintentionally narrating the reactions of her remaining teammates.

"Guys!" Leni called out. "It's Lori!"

Carol Pingrey strolled across the room. She reached the table, gave the group a small wave, then slid into the chair next to Lincoln.

"How'd I do, Linc?" She asked.

"Fantastic." He reassured her. He turned back to the group, intending to explain what was going on, but was surprised by the naked hostility that was being directed towards his end of the table.

"What's she doing here?" Lynn growled, frowning at the older girl.

"Is this a joke? Because if it is, I'm not laughing." Luan grumbled.

"And how can Lori be in two places at once!" Leni complained. She turned to her glowering sister. Then back to Carol. This process repeated itself a few times before Leni seemed to catch on.

"Ooooh." She gasped, seemingly coming to a conclusion. Then, she manually rearranged her features into a frown.

"...Leni sort of has a point." Luna ventured, as Leni's situation seemingly resolved itself. "Why are you dressed like High Card, dude?"

"Lincoln told me to come in costume. And this is all I had." Carol replied, blushing slightly.

"I think it looks great." Lincoln and Sam opined simultaneously. They glanced at one another in surprise, then shrugged. Hardly the weirdest thing that had happened, even at this table.

"Which brings us back to the real issue. Why are you here, Carol?" Lori asked. She looked significantly less happy than Lincoln would have expected.

"I invited her." Lincoln confirmed. "Carol's going to be my special helper."

"How?" Lucy asked, suspicious.

"Well, that's got a bit of a layered answer." Lincoln replied, straightening his notes. "Let's work through this point by point."

"First things first, you come across the gargantuan Card Sharp, currently break dancing in the middle of the city. No need to demonstrate, Sam!" He directed that last bit at the blonde, who was already in the process of climbing to her feet. Thus thwarted, she pouted, and returned to her seat.

"Seeing her thoroughly distracted, you all hop out of the van and begin to enact your plan. But you're interrupted by a mysterious figure, who suddenly appears on a nearby rooftop." He turned to Carol.

"Mwa, ha, ha?" She supplied, uncertain.

"Nicely done." He congratulated her, causing Carol to beam with pride.

"Showoff." Luna grumbled.

"Everybody make a knowledge check." Lincoln instructed, waiting patiently as sounds of dice rolling took place around the table.

"Think I've got it." Lucy said, perusing her character sheet.

"That'll work." He confirmed. "You remember from your time going through Ace's database, mentions of a new up and coming villain, who's been making waves in the criminal underworld. Putting two and two together, you're able to realize that this mysterious person is that very villain, now standing before you. The Trump Card!"

Carol waved at the group.

"Boo!" Luan shouted.

Carol glanced at Linc, unsure what to make of the fairly lukewarm reception. Then squawked in surprise, barely ducking in time as a teal colored die sailed through the space where her head had been only moments earlier.

"Leni! Stop throwing dice!" Lincoln sharply reprimanded the girl. ("Sorry Linky!")

"Whatever." Luna shrugged. "I'm gonna unsling my guitar and squeeze off a few shots at her."

"Not so fast, Luna." Lincoln smirked. "As you exited the vehicle to start implementing your plan to deal with Sam, you all hear a loud metallic whining noise. Before any of you can vocalize your questions, there's a loud snapping sort of noise. You see a large metallic object launch from the rooftop that Trump Card is standing upon. The object slams into Card Sharp just as she pulls herself into an upright position, striking her directly in the neck, then unfolding and wrapping around her, turning into a makeshift collar. As the procedure reaches completion, Card Sharp suddenly pauses mid-step. She straightens up, then holds perfectly still, eyes glazed over and unfocused."

"Now do I do the thing?" Carol asked.

"Fire away." Lincoln nodded.

Carol cleared her throat. "Card Sharp!" She announced. "Destroy the Full House Gang!"

Silence fell upon the table.

"What?" Sam asked, thoroughly confused.

"The device currently clamped around your neck is a mind control device. Its put you under Trump Card's complete control." Lincoln explained.

"Then why doesn't it go on her head?" Luan asked.

"In fact, Sam..." Lincoln went on, ignoring the dangerously logical question, "Why don't you come over here and sit next to Carol for the time being."

Sam frowned, clearly displeased, but acquiesced, gathering her things and relocating to a seat next to Carol. She glared at the older blonde, looking her up and down.

"Just so we're clear." She growled. "I have to do what you say?"

"A-apparently." Carol replied, slightly flustered.

"But you're doing what Lincoln tells you to do?"

"I-I suppose." Carol flushed, growing increasingly embarrassed at this line of questioning.

"So, essentially, I'm vicariously being bossed around by Lincoln, right?"

Lincoln and Carol turned to each other, then shrugged after a moment of consideration. "I guess, yeah," Lincoln affirmed.

"...Alright." Sam said, nodding in agreement. "I can get behind that."

Lincoln turned back to the rest of his sisters, who were thoroughly perplexed by the exchange.

"Alright girls, you get one action round before Card Sharp is fully under Trump Card's control. Then all bets are off."

"And then stomping time." Sam supplied, eagerly grabbing a handful of dice.

"Battle stations, guys." Lori grumbled. "Was hoping we wouldn't have to do this the hard way."

"...Maybe we don't." Lynn said, her eyes lighting up with mischief.

"Linc." She turned to her little brother. "My character sheet says I've got lightning reflexes, that means I take actions faster than other people, right?"

"To a certain degree, yes." He responded, hesitantly. "Strong Suit doesn't actually have super speed, but her superhuman physique gives her a heightened reaction time. Distance and whatnot is still a consideration."

"Not a problem." Lynn smirked confidently. "We're all crowded around the van, right?"

"Yes?"

"I'm gonna run around the back and throw open the doors. That's where we're storing the fully assembled and ready to go...matter...comby...thing."

"Matter Recombinator." Leni supplied.

"Right." Lynn rolled her eyes. "That."

"You're not going to be able to get a shot off before the turn is up." Lincoln warned her. "And it's not even facing the right way, you're gonna have to turn the whole van around."

"Not a problem." Lynn grinned. "You'd mentioned that the lab techs fixed this thing up so that any of us would be able to use it."

"Right." Lincoln nodded.

"And its already set up to shrink things?"

"Yeeees?" Lincoln nodded again, warily.

Lynn grinned. "Is there a reverse switch?"

The table went silent, all players now looking at Lincoln with interest.

"Uh..." Lincoln coughed.

"You said something before about giant gerbils and tiny cats." Lynn reminded him, growing increasingly smug as his discomfort visibly increased. "That means the eggheads would have installed something that would change the polarity, or whatever, right? And, we've all been instructed on how to use this thing!"

Lincoln sputtered, trying to figure a way to wriggle out of his own stupid flavor text.

Finally, he sighed with resignation. "Yes." He grumbled, clearly displeased. "I suppose you're right."

"Woo!" Lynn whooped victoriously, pumping one celebratory fist in the air. "In that case, I dash around behind the van, yank open the doors, flip the reverso switch..." She liked her lips, relishing her impending narrative victory. "And zap myself."

Lincoln glared back at his older sister, teeth clenched with frustration. "There's a loud whine, and a dazzling flash of light. When the light clears. you all see Strong Suit...now standing roughly equal in size to Card Sharp."

Lynn turned to Sam, a fierce, warrior's grin spread across her face.

"Round two, Sharp!"