12. Chapter 12

AN: This chapter marks the end of this particular story arc. Meaning that Auto will be taking over for the next few chapters. Genuinely surprised as to how positively people took the whole Tuxedo Linky thing, I'd decided to go with that as the initial demonstration of Lincoln's powers pretty much entirely because the idea of Leni calling him "Tuxedo Linky" amused the hell out of me. But I still wrote this scene with as much seriousness as I write anything else (that isn't a comedy scene, obviously) so hopefully it satisfies the desire to see Lincoln kick ass while looking spiffy, because apparently that's a thing :).

NoSoul01: It's neither leaching nor copying. It's more like Lincoln is temporarily taking on aspects of his partner's Archetype. You can find harem protagonists in a wide variety of settings and genres, so he's basically weaponizing that inherent flexibility of his archetype.

"Leni?" Lincoln queried as he looked himself over. "What the heck am I wearing?" Before she could reply, the blonde's expression of delight abruptly changed to one of distress.

"Look out behind you, Tuxedo Linky!" She shouted, jerking one arm towards him. She needn't have bothered; Lincoln was already aware of the oncoming danger.

He still wasn't sure what it was, exactly, that had happened to him, but one thing that had immediately become apparent was that his senses seemed to have been greatly enhanced. Sight, smell, hearing; Lincoln's brain was processing an innumerable number of environmental data points he'd been incapable of perceiving previously, leaving him acutely aware of his surroundings. Such as, for example, the staggered, heavy foot-falls approaching from behind. In a single motion, Lincoln stepped forward, lifted his sister into a bridal carry, and sprung forward. The leap wasn't as impressive as anything he'd seen Lori perform, or even the similar feat he'd seen Leni perform only a few minutes earlier, but sailing into the air as easily as he had seemed remarkable for a boy who had been mired in mundanity all his life. He felt lighter, more agile, and as he touched down only a few feet away, gently placing Leni down upon the ground once more as he spun around to face his foes, it occurred to him that carrying the older girl as he did hadn't slowed him down in the least.

As thrilling as that bit of demonstration of physical prowess was, however, he now found himself facing three Husks. He'd managed to put some distance between them, but the monsters pressed forward, completely unphased by his stunt.

"Now what?" Lincoln rhetorically muttered to himself, not entirely sure how he was actually supposed to deal with the threat. Fortunately, his body seemed to know what it was doing. Following his instincts Lincoln gestured with his left hand, in a manner not too dissimilar from that of a stage magician, causing a small, black cylinder to fall out of his sleeve and into hand. Giving the item a little flourish caused it to expand, greatly increasing in size, and before his eyes the tiny accoutrement quickly transformed into...a cane?

"The heck?" Lincoln uttered, dumbfounded, as he looked over the new accessory. No mere walking stick, but rather a dress cane, the type one carried with the intention of making an impression. About three feet in length, made of solid, black, lacquered wood, and topped with a stylized, curved, silver grip for a head, it certainly looked impressive. However, what it did not look like, was a weapon.

"Linky!" Leni's cry of alarm pulled drew Lincoln's attention to the fact that a battle was incipient, but to his surprise he found that he was already mid-response. Lincoln went low, ducking under the outstretched arms of the nearest Husk, one part of his brain nothing that the creature seemed to be moving far slower than he was used to. In the midst of his evasion, Lincoln gave the cane an artful twirl and thrust forward with it. To his surprise, the tip of punched straight through the body of his foe, as easily as if he'd been wielding a sword, rather than a simple length of wood. Sensing that a second Husk was upon him, Lincoln whirled around and swung the cane horizontally, carving a deep gash in the creature's chest cavity. Finally, he lashed out with one leg, sweeping it along the ground, and grunting in satisfaction as he felt it connect with and up-end the third husk. As the monster toppled over, Lincoln quickly closed the distance, gripped the cane by its head with both hands, and stabbed downward, shiskabobing the creature before hit the ground. One heartbeat later, all three Husks dissolved to ash in unison.

"Wow." He quietly exclaimed as he inspected the cane once more. "Apparently I was wrong. You are a weapon. Kind of."

"And it totes matches your outfit!" Leni called out from where he'd left her.

Uwooooo

A chorus of moans served as a reminder that the battle wasn't over. Looking up from his examination, Lincoln could see that a fresh group of Husks were shambling forward, eager to take the place of their fallen brethren.

"Alright..." He muttered to himself as he gently pulled his cape forward and reached inside it. "What else do you have for me?" Finding something solid, Lincoln pulled it forth with a small flourish, producing a single red rose.

"Oh Linky! You shouldn't have!"

"You have got to be kidding me!" Lincoln growled, ignoring his swooning sister as glared down at the clearly insolent suit. He could grudgingly get behind the cane. After all, once you got past its posh appearance, it was a nice, hard length of solid wood, perfect for the application of blunt force trauma. But there was no possible way that a flower of all things—

Uwooooo

Without thinking, Lincoln gave the rose a little twirl and flung it at the nearest Husk, stem first. To his surprise, it punched straight through the creature, and three more standing beside it, each dissolving to ash as the deceptive little projectile passed through their bodies.

"I stand corrected." He grumbled, reaching back into his pocket and this time producing a fist full of roses.

"Throw them over here, Linky!" Leni called to him, waiving her arms around and trying to get his attention.

"They're weapons, Leni!" He called back. "Apparently!"

"I don't care! It's not fair that they get flowers and I don't! Gimme!"

Lincoln shook his head in bemusement, carefully took aim, and let fly with the improvised projectiles. Some of them struck true, shredding the unlucky recipients of his gift as the previous one had, but several of them veered wildly off course. To his surprise, rather than missing the mark entirely those errant roses instead ended up ricocheting off whatever surfaces they landed on, sending them flying right back at the horde from entirely new angles. Moments later, a score of husks fell to pieces, dissolving into ash before they could hit the ground. But however impressive that little display had been, it only subtracted a relatively minor amount from the greater mob that continued to stagger towards him, rapidly consuming the remaining distance between them.

"Flowers should not be this deadly." Lincoln grumbled to himself, withdrawing another rose from his cape. Rather than fling this one, however, he flipped it around and grasped it in one hand, petals up, his cane in the other. Thus armed, he charged into the Husks.

Lincoln descended upon the Soulless like a sharply dressed whirlwind, cane and rose lashing out independently of one another in a display of ambidexterity he'd never known himself capable of. Any Husks who ventured too close to the tuxedoed dervish quickly found themselves cut down in short succession. Moments later, Lincoln found himself clear of foes in his immediate vicinity, and after a brief bit of contemplation, he bounded towards the next group, pressing the attack. Lincoln raise his cane high, intending to sweep his newest foe off its feet, but a brief flash of insight implored the boy to stay his hand. Instead, he spun around, keeping his center of gravity low, tucking his cane against his body while punching his other hand upward—

CLANG

Causing a wholly inappropriate, metallic clash to ring out as supernatural rose met the withered, claw-like fingers of the Husk that had been creeping up behind him. With a grunt of exertion, Lincoln shoved the creature with his rose hand, causing it to reel backwards, suddenly unbalanced. Then, without hesitation he delivered the coup de grace, thrusting his cane into the monster's core. As soon as the Husk began to stiffen, signaling that its semblance of life had come to an end, Lincoln drove his rose backwards, plunging it stem-deep into the Husk he had originally planned to engage, following up the attack with another thrust of his cane for good measure. Withdrawing his weapons from where they were lodged within the creature, giving each a satisfied twirl, Lincoln marveled at his ashen coated surroundings, marveling at the havoc he had wrought. Time flowed in pitched combat, but it couldn't have been all that long ago that he had been a scared, helpless civilian, bystander in all but name, creeping amidst the monsters whose remains were now strewn about his feet. Now he wasn't just holding his own.

He was winning.

"I wonder if this is how Lori feels?" Lincoln mused to himself, readying himself the next wave. His blood surged, adrenaline pumping through every fiber of his beeing. He felt invincible. He felt unstoppable. He felt—

"DODGE!" Screamed every one of his enhanced senses. Lincoln dove sideways, so strong was the feeling of impending danger that he didn't particularly care where he landed.

KA-THOOM

Lincoln managed to turn his dive into an impromptu shoulder roll, coming up weapons ready...only to see the space he'd been previously occupying only moments earlier now occupied by an enormous blade, the very ground he'd been standing upon split in twain.

GWAAAAAAAOR

Oh...right. Lincoln gulped, feeling considerably less enthusiastic about his prospects now. He'd forgotten about the big one.

"Okay..." Lincoln muttered to himself as the Corrupted pulled back its bladed arm. As if by some unspoken signal, a new group of Husks shambled forward and formed ranks around the creature. That small bit of observable cohesion was strangely unnerving.

"It's fine." He continued, trying to reassure himself. "You just have to take down the thing that gave Leni, of all people, the shakes. And that'll be a piece of cake, seeing as you're armed with..." He held up his rose, frowning dubiously at it. Yes, these strange plants the came with his outfit were surprisingly deadly, but Husks were barely held together by whatever strange force had animated them. The Corrupted was distressingly hearty by comparison, and he had a sinking suspicion that throwing roses at the terrifyingly large, armored creature, would play out—

With a flick of his wrist, Lincoln sent the rose flying towards the Corrupted, where it proceeded to land squarely on an unarmored patch of the creature's chest, sinking deeply into it's rotting flesh, and...proceeded to do nothing more. The monster didn't even seem to react to the attack. So yeah, apparently it would play out exactly like throwing roses at a terrifyingly large, armored creature. Clearly, a different approach was needed. Especially because the newly reformed mob was making their way towards him, considerably faster than the previous one had been, the Corrupted trailing only slightly behind, its slower strides made up for by how much ground it's inhumanly long legs could cover.

"Yeah, that went about as well as I thought it would." Lincoln grumble, as he began fumbling with his cape. "Come on, there has to be something in here with a little more...punch?" After a moment of fishing around in his cape, Lincoln had found something that felt considerably bulkier than what the garment had been producing this far. Buoyed by the fact that, whatever it was, it definitely felt a lot heftier than another rose, Lincoln gave the mysterious object a good yank, pulling forth with a dramatic flourish.

"...You have got to be kidding me." Lincoln uttered, dumbfounded as he beheld his newest armament. He's been correct, it was heftier than a rose. What Lincoln now held in his hands was a dozen roses, all bundled together in an artful bouquet. The pale haired boy took a deep breath, intending to vent his frustrations as vocally as possible...when his ears clued him in on one very important detail he'd managed to overlook. The bouquet was ticking.

"S-hoot." Lincoln stammered, instinctively raising his arm to fling the bundle as far away as possible, only managing to stop himself at he very last second. It occurred to him, that there was a more elegant solution to this conundrum.

"Tuxedo Bomber!" Lincoln shouted, tossing the bouquet to the Husk at the front of the pack. There was a brief, borderline comedic moment in which the shambling horror caught the item in its hands and paused, staring down at it, confused, in a manner which seemed almost human-like. Lincoln didn't have time to appreciate the strange occurance, however, as the tuxedo-clad boy was already diving to safety.

KABOOM!

True to Lincoln's hastily thought up attack name, the bouquet exploded, the Husk and everything in its immediate vicinity being consumed by fire, smoke, and oddly enough, the pleasant smell of freshly cut flowers.

Lincoln stood on the balls of his feet, warily watching the thick, black cloud of smoke that had enveloped the group of monsters for any signs of life. Hoping that the rather sizeable explosion had been sufficient to revolve the fight.

GWAAAAAAAOR

A hope which was immediately dashed as a familiar looking blade emerged from the smoke, cutting a wide, horizontal swathe with Lincoln directly in its path. He charged forward, sliding under the blade and while bringing his own weapon to bear. Between its own, natural dissipation, and the gust of wind that was created by the creature's attack, Lincoln could clearly make out the shape of the Corrupted, still recovering from the toll of its swing. It was distressing that the monster seemed no worse for wear despite having been right in the thick of the explosion, but Lincoln tried to focus on the positive's. The Corrupted's retinue was nowhere to be seen, which meant that his odds were now...well, not evened, so much as significantly less lopsided. But still.

Gauging the distance between him and his foe, Lincoln sprung to his feet and launched himself forward, picking the nearest expanse of uncovered flesh as his target, and, taking his cane in both hands, drove it as hard as he could into the creature. There was resistance this time, but between his momentum and a strength born of desperation, Lincoln managed to bury his weapon all the way to the gripping point.

Silence, one moment stretching into two, then another, seconds rolling by, quickly outpaced by the hammering of Lincoln's heart as the sole male Loud silently prayed that the monster would fall just like the others had. That it's rotted flesh would dissolve to ash, bringing the fight to a close. However, no such thing happened. Lincoln raised his trembling head skyward and saw the Corrupted staring down at him. The Corrupted, like its Husk brethren, didn't have a face capable of producing expression, so worn and rotted was its flesh. Nevertheless, Lincoln felt like the creature was leering at him. Enjoying the way Lincoln's shoulders sagged, all hope rapidly as his combat high crashed, and the fatigue from his previous engagements finally caught up with him. Lincoln tugged at his cane but it was held fast, trapped within his foe. Another setback to throw onto the pile.

The Corrupted raised one bladed arm, slowly, as if savoring the moment, and try as he might, Lincoln couldn't will his legs to carry him to safety.

Lincoln watched helplessly as the Corrupted prepared to strike, desperately willing his deadened legs to move. He wasn't even certain what he'd do if he could get away. His roses had proven ineffective, and his last, desperate attack had robbed him of the one weapon that seemed to have any effect on the creature, however minute it was. All he knew was that he couldn't give up. Not here, not now.

It became significantly harder to hold to those convictions as the Corrupted took a lumbering step backwards while simultaneously letting fly with it's blade, the creature's natural weapon plunging downward at the would-be hero, impossibly fast and entirely too heavy and sharp for Lincoln's tastes.

And then...the creature stumbled, it's blade wavering, flailing widely off course at the Corrupted fought to right itself.

"Linky! Get out of there!"

Strength returned to Lincoln's limbs, and he didn't hesitate to heed the voice's advice, springing backwards and out of the reach of the monster's attacks. As he did so, he caught sight of a familiar, viridian-clad girl clinging to the creature's back.

"Leave my brother alone!" He heard his big sister snarl as Leni drove her rod against the creature's neck. "Leni Flash!"

The world momentarily blinked out of existence, everything going green as Leni's attack detonated against the Corrupted at point blank range, a sphere of emerald energy erupting from the point of detonation. Lincoln furiously rubbed his eyes, willing his vision to to return. Eventually it did, resulting in mixed feelings. One the one hand, the Corrupted was still standing...metaphorically speaking. The creature had fallen to its knees, looking frustratingly whole. At the same time, however, it was clearly having trouble moving. It looked hurt. More worrying was that Leni was nowhere to be se—

"Linkycatchme!"

Lincoln's body moved without conscious thought, backing up a few steps and holding out his arms. An instant later a shapely blonde female form plummeted out of the sky, directly into his gasp.

"Hey there, Leni." He said, smiling at the beautiful blonde bundle in his arms.

"Hello, Linky." She replied, her voice weak with exhaustion. "Can we go home now?"

"'Fraid not, Leni." Lincoln replied, unable to keep the annoyance from his voice as he gently put the older girl on the ground and helped her to her feet.

"Uuuugh!" Leni groaned, as she glimpsed the downed corrupted, still trying to stand up. "I put everything I had into that attack! How is it still not dead?"

She looked down at him, and Lincoln could see a bit of that fear begin to creep back onto her face, the bravado she'd displayed only moments earlier quickly draining away. "I'm not..sure what else we can do, Linky." She murmured, flinching as a low growl began to emit from the still struggling creature.

"I...think I have an idea." Lincoln offered, hesitantly. "But you're going to have to trust me."

"Of course." Leni immediately replied, without an ounce of hesitation. "What do you need me to do?"

"Hold out your wand, aim it right at the Corrupted." Lincoln instructed. Leni complied, wincing as she took her wand in both hands, and raised her trembling arms towards the creature.

"Now what?" She asked, clearly trusting, but still uncertain.

"You're going to hit it with everything you have." Said Lincoln. "Again."

"But Linky!" Leni protested, craning her head around to look at him. "I already told you! I've got nothing left!"

"Not yet." Lincoln stepped behind the older girl and wrapped his arms around her slender midsection, holding her tightly. "Give me a minute."

"Linky!" Leni protested weakly, blushing bright red. "This really isn't the time for...oh!"

Once more, Lincoln reached out with that strange new sense of his and found his connection with Leni. As he had with Lori previously, the pale haired boy began pumping energy into his big sister, giving her every ounce of energy he still possessed. And much to his amazement, more besides. Considerably more than he'd borrowed from her earlier.

"L-Linky!" Leni squeaked as power began to flow through their connection. "What's happening? It feels weird!"

"Do you want me to stop?"

"I-I didn't say that!" Leni quickly replied. "It just...oooh".

Lincoln couldn't get a good look at the blonde's face from his current vantage, seeing as she'd turned her attention back to the corrupted, but her entire body began to tremble. What he could see was the crackling sphere of energy that began to form at the tip of her rod. It started off slow, but slowly began to grow in size.

"You've got this, Leni." He said, giving the girl what he thought was a reassuring squeeze. Unfortunately, it just seemed to make things worse, as her trembling became more violent and erratic.

"Linky...I can't!" Leni groaned, her whole-body shuddering. "It's too big!"

"You can do it, Leni!" Said, Lincoln, trying to soothe her. "Just take it slow."

"But there's so much!" Leni let out a squeak, and the sphere of energy abruptly quadrupled in size, far bigger than what he'd seen her put out previously.

"You're almost there, Leni!" Lincoln called to her. "Just a little bit more!"

"It's gonna split me in half!" She wailed, nevertheless planting her feet, gripping her wand even more tightly than before as the orb continued to expand.

"Almost..." Lincoln grunted, feeling like he was reaching the end of his reserves. "And...now!" He shouted holding Leni as tightly as he could. "Let it fly, Leni!"

The older girl exhaled deeply. "Leni..." She took a long, shuddering breath. "BEAM!"

An educated guess had allowed Lincoln to predict the enormous beam of energy that erupted from the magical girl's wand. He still marveled at just how tremendous, and majestic the resulting blast was, unable to believe how explosive the end result had actually been.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

Nor had he predicted how much recoil the blast would have. The blast sent both Louds flying backwards, Lincoln clinging to Leni for dear life, who in turn did her best to hold onto the very wand responsible for their current flight, both siblings voices melding into a singular scream of terror. Lincoln felt, just as much as he heard the eventual CRUNCHING noise as their flight was abruptly stopped by him colliding into a surface that was able to inhibit their propulsion. Which carried the unfortunate necessity of such a surface being thick, and very painful to collide with. An instant later Leni collided into him from the front. And as he lay there, trapped between whatever immovable object had stopped him, and his sister's shapely backside being driven into his extremely distressed front side at an extremely high velocity, he was at least able to take comfort in the fact that he had managed to spare Leni the pain of his own collision. Lincoln lay there for an indeterminate amount of time, his tortured body doing its best to hold into his still spasming sister. After what seemed like an eternity, Leni's body finally went limp, slumping into his embrace, and shortly after, the pair began to slide to the ground, no longer being held up by the force of Leni's magical blast. Hesitantly, Lincoln leaned peered around his still trembling sister.

The Corrupted was gone, nothing he could see even hinting at the creature's existence, which had been extremely provable only a few minutes earlier. The Husks were also gone, at least all the ones he'd been able to glimpse prior to enacting his plan. Also...the mall was gone. Or at least, the segment that had been unfortunate to be standing on the other side of the Corrupted. A large, section of the Mall simply ceased to exist now, giving a clear view of the bright, blue sky outside, looking strangely out of place amidst the crumbling remains of Mall that remained to either side of the new, gaping hole in the structure.

"Holy shamoley, Leni!" Lincoln exclaimed, staring in awe at his sister, now slumped over, breathing heavily from exhaustion. "That was amazing!"

Leni managed, with some effort, to lift up her head. She squirmed, with some difficulty, and managed reorient herself so that she was facing him.

"No, Linky." She rasped, wrapping her arms around the boy and pulling him close. "You're amazing." Suddenly, she pushed him away and gave him a stern look. "But you need to warn a girl before you want to do something weird with her."

"I'm sorry." Lincoln quickly replied. He wasn't sure what he was apologizing for, but something told him is was very important that he did so. Apparently, he made the right call, as Leni instantly adopted her usual, radiant smile, and pulled him close again, her hug now vaguely resembling the bone-crushing variety that she normally doled out. There was something comforting about that.

"Should we go look for Fiona and Chandler?" He asked, his voice muffled by his face being firmly lodged in Leni's cleavage.

"Nope." Came her immediate reply, not loosening her hold on him. "Fiona's too stupid to die. She'll be fine."

"And besides." She added, momentarily freeing him so she could plant a quick kiss on his cheek. "I wanna relax a little, just the two of us."

"Fine by me—" Lincoln began replying.

CRASH!

The instant the words were out of his mouth, sound of concrete being pulverized rang out throughout the ruined section of the mall. Lincoln squirmed in Leni's grasp, trying to peer over his sister's shoulder, worried about what he might find.

"Lincoln!" Lori shrieked, hovering above the ash-riddled mall debris, frantically looking to and fro. "Leni!? Answer me!"

"Dang it." Leni grumbled, giving Lincoln one-last squeeze.

"How did she even find us?" Leni muttered, shooting a look at the caped super-heroine. "And why now?"

"Super Sister Sense." Lincoln replied. "I think."

Leni looked at him doubtfully. "Is that really a thing?" Lincoln could only shrug in response.

"It's honestly kind of hard to—" Again, Lincoln was cut off as a white and blonde blur scooped him out of Leni's grasp and into the air.

"Hey!" The magical girl shouted. Unfortunately for her, those calls went unheeded.

"Lincoln!" The boy in question winced was his face was peppered by super strong kisses. "Lori!" He croaked in protest. Flinching in pain. It was a testament to how distressed Lori had been that she'd lost even that much control, normally the eldest Loud sibling was extremely composed, even under the direst of situations.

"Sorry little brother." Lori chuckled in embarrassment, loosening her grip on Lincoln and holding him at arm's length. "I'm just so relieved that you're..." She trailed off, staring ad him blankly, her eyes going unfocused.

"Uh, Lori?" Lincoln asked, waving his hand in front of the older girl's face. No response. Weird. What could she be—OH! That was when it hit him, he was still wearing that stupid costume. "Listen, I can explain—"

"Buh." The heroine suddenly uttered, loudly and dumbly. "Buh. Buh." Lincoln frowned, concerned, this was getting weird.

"Lori!" A gust of wind announced the presence of another superheroine as Carol Pingrey descended from on high. "I heard you screaming. I take it you found..." History repeated itself as the new arrival took one look at him and immediately adopted the same expression as Lori.

"Carol?" Lincoln asked, now very worried.

"Buh. Buh. Buh." Both blondes uttered in unison.

Lincoln tried to free himself from Lori's grasp, but that proved futile. Even slackjawed as she was, the girl had a grip like a steel trap.

"Leni!" Lincoln called out, looking down at his other sister, still slumped on the ground. "Something's wrong with Lori!" He paused. "And Carol, I think. What do we do?"

"We need to change you back!" Leni called back, visibly sighing in annoyance. "And fast."