17. Chapter 17 - Luna Arc

AN: Hey guys. Siege here with another chapter of Archetypal. Which means I'll be doing the next couple of chapters too. Dunno if I'm going to work on them straight through, or if I'll alternate with other things, I do have a few different stories running concurrently right now. Guess it depends on how inspired I am, we'll just have to see how it works out, I suppose.

dogbertcarroll: Bruja does have negative connotations, but it also has the advantage of those connotations being known by a relatively small number of people. In a primarily English-speaking community, not a whole lot of people are going to know what those connotations are :)

nuuo: Luan has methods of fighting Soulless, which will come into play during her arc.

Guest asking about Owl House Fics: I enjoy Owl House quite a bit, but nooooot enough to write fanfics for it at this time. Also, my dance card is quite full right now, in terms of fanfics. But Auto's a big fan of Lumity, so maybe he'll write something some time. :)

Aerkry: We haven't really hashed out the details for Lana, but right now my headcanon is that her archetype imbues mundane objects with special abilities. So to other people they're just flowers or leaves or whatnot until she gets her hands on them. Though I'm undecided if other people can use them, or just her.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Lincoln Loud shot up in his bed and took a swipe at his alarm clock. Hard enough to silence the infernal device, but not so hard as to knock it off his nightstand, which typically just added extra, sorely unnecessary steps to the silencing process. Finally, peace had been restored. At least, it should have been. So why was it that he felt like he was in imminent danger—

"Liiiiiiiiiiiincoooooooooln..." Hissed a voice from behind him. Instantly, the Loud boy sprung into action, tossing aside his blankets and leaping off the bed in a single, fluid motion. Landing lightly on his feet, Lincoln pivoted in the in the direction the sound was coming from...and blanched, equal parts terror and distress.

Standing in the doorway was a very irate, and bedraggled looking Lori, shaking with barely suppressed fury. The older girl placed on hand on Lincoln's door, presumably to steady herself, and immediately tiny cracks began to appear in the aged wood. That...was a very bad sign.

"Lincoln." She repeated, seething. "It's literally Saturday. Why did you set an alarm?"

Lincoln's face momentarily scrunched up in confusion. Then, it hit him. Super hearing.

"Shoot." He winced, genuinely abashed now. "Sorry Lori. I've got stuff to do today, and the alarm thing totally slipped my mind. I didn't mean to wake you."

The older girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath, causing her night-shirt to expand in a manner that proved to be extremely distracting, even with how harrowing the current situation was. Then, to Lincoln's relief, Lori exhaled, and as she did so she gradually seemed to calm down. By the time she was finished, she had regained her composure.

"It's fine during the week because I have to get up before you anyway. But on the weekend I'd really appreciate it if you'd use the silent alarm, okay Lincoln?"

"Got it." He nodded emphatically. "Won't happen again. I promise."

"Good." Several heartbeats passed, during which Lincoln's anxiety began to grow once more...then, a small smile appeared on Lori's face.

FOOM

There was a short gust of wind, and suddenly his eldest sister was standing right in front of him. Before Lincoln could react, Lori snatched him up off the ground and pulled him into a side hug.

"Lori!" He protested, trying to fight down the urge to laugh as his big sister man-handled him in an oddly Leni-like manner. He didn't mind, exactly, but it'd look weird if someone were to walk in on them.

"That's what you get for waking me up." Lori growled playfully, leaning down and giving Lincoln a quick peck on the cheek. "Fortunately for you, I actually do have someplace to be."

"With Carol?" Lincoln asked, an image of the leggy, typically half-dressed blonde briefly superimposing itself over his sister in his mind's eye. Lincoln shook his head violently to dispel the illusion. That was...strange. God forbid Lori ever find out...

"Yeah." Lori affirmed, giving Lincoln one last squeeze before putting him back on his feet. "The city's still kind of antsy after the attack at the mall, so all top level heroes have been asked to put in extra patrols. Carol and I have this morning, so I'll be heading off in a bit."

"Alright. Good luck out there!"

"Thanks, little bro." Lori favored Lincoln with one last smile before turning to go.

"Oh, and tell Carol I said 'hi'". He called after her. Much to Lincoln's surprise, Lori immediately froze in place, one leg extended mid-stride.

"R-right." She said, her voice quavering ever so slightly. "I'll do that."

FOOM

And just like that she was gone.

"Huh." Lincoln said to his now empty room. "Wonder what that was about?"

Lincoln glanced at the clock. 9:00am, read the digital display. Perfect, that gave him a bit of buffer time to get his room back in order. Thus decided, the pale haired boy set about making his bed.

Today was a pretty big day. It was Saturday, for one, and that in and of itself was reason to celebrate. Lincoln's first week at the academy had certainly been interesting. Bit of a rocky start, what with longtime friends dedicating themselves to making his life far more annoying than it needed to be, finding new ways to embarrass himself at his newfound Archetype abilities refused to function on command, and most noteworthy of all...Chandler had been strangely inoffensive. That last one was especially troubling, by dint of how out of place it was, if nothing else. On the flip side, Lincoln verifiably had an archetype now, which was a pretty big deal, and it even had some nifty perks attached to it. He'd also made some new friends, some more eccentric than others, to be certain, but they seemed like nice people regardless. And he even belonged to a school club...of sorts. All things considered, the future was looking pretty bright, and he was confident that the good would eventually outweigh the bad. But, that said, it was certainly nice to have a little time off from the rigors of schooling.

But academy woes were of little concern right now, because this was the day that Luna was coming home!

Smiling at the thought of seeing the Loudest Loud once more, Lincoln grabbed his phone brought up the rocker's latest series of texts, which had only just come in the previous night.

Luna: Hey bro! Guess what? I'm coming home! Sam too!

Luna: Won't bore you with the details but our tour got cut short, and we decided we wanted to spend some time with the fam.

Luna: Flying back right now. Plane should get there in the morning, and then we're heading straight home. See you then!

Naturally, Lincoln had been delighted when he'd gotten the news, as had the rest of the family when he'd passed on the message. Like Leni, Luna and Sam were Support Archetypes, and their job was to put on shows and help keep the general public happy. When they were younger, this was accomplished by performing locally, but about two years prior the academy had decided that their talents were needed elsewhere, and the girls began going on tour. First to neighboring regions, which quickly expanded to nation-wide tours, and now The Sirens frequently found themselves performing their music all over the world. Legally the situation was a bit tricky, as the girls were still academy students even now, but apparently some sort of arrangement had been worked out, because the girls were typically on tour for months at a time. And when they were back home, their time was usually spent either recovering from the most recent tour, or preparing for the next one. Lincoln couldn't be happier, of course, Luna and Sam were living their dreams, but he always ended up missing them dearly while they were gone. Fortunately, the feeling seemed to be mutual, Luna made it a point to call him whenever their schedules would allow so they could catch up, and when they couldn't she and Sam both texted him frequently. Rarely a day went by without him hearing from one or both of the girls in some capacity. Speaking of which...

Lincoln navigated away from Luna's message chain to another one that had started coming in around the same time.

Sam: Hey Lincoln! Luna's been staring at her phone for a while now, has she been messaging you? I mean, it's either that or she's cheating on me! Ha ha! (jk)

Sam: Not that it's cheating if it's you.

Sam: That came out weird. Luna's allowed to cheat with you.

Sam: Time wise, I mean. That's Sam time she's using, but it's okay as long as she's spending it on you. Naturally, I get equal rights, I'm basically your big sister after all.

Lincoln swiped at the screen to speed things, up. Sam had a tendency to ramble, and she'd gone on like this for some time.

Sam: —and so to salvage the situation, I told the drunken pirate that we both just so happened to be dating a guy named Lincoln. I mean, it's basically true, right? (JK?)

Sam: Anyway, the point is, we're going back to Royal Woods!

Sam: Luna's probably too embarrassed to tell you, but she decided to cut our tour short.

Sam: We heard about the thing at the mall, and she insisted that we pack up and head home right then and there.

Sam: Corporate wasn't happy, but it's not like they could stop her.

Sam: Like, literally couldn't stop her. Luna was PO'd. It was pretty hot. I think one guy lost a finger.

Sam: Naturally, she has my full support. After all, we've gotta make sure our favorite dude is okay.

Sam: Oh hey, Luna's looking at me right now. Neat.

That was when things got kind of weird, and following the conversation required bouncing back and forth between the two chains.

Luna: Hey bro, has Sam been messaging you? I told her I was gonna be the one to tell you the good news.

Luna: Just ignore anything weird she's been telling you.

Luna: So...everything. All you need to know is that we'll be there tomorrow.

Luna: Crazy old Sam. Such a kidder. But that's why we love her, right?

Luna: Why I love her, I mean, obviously you don't. Right?

Then back to Sam.

Sam: Lincoln! Luna says you don't love me! :sad face:

Luna: Sam! I can hear you! You read your texts out loud!

Luna: I didn't mean to write that

Sam: Also told me to stop texting you!

Sam: Wait, does this count? Did that count?

Sam: ...Luna says they counted.

Luna: Don't worry bro, I'm gonna take Sam's phone away so she won't keep bugging you.

Sam: Lincoln! I managed to get away with my phone! But now I have to text and run at the same time

Sam: Lincoln! Dont text and run at the same time! Is danger

Sam: Linc! It's Luna! I cornered Sam and got her phone away from her.

Sam: But now the cops need the phone. Apparently its evidence now. So don't respond to this number anymore. See ya tomorrow!

Then, hours later, there had been a new message.

11234567: Lincoln! It's Sam! I got a new phone!

The Loud boy chuckled to himself as he closed the messaging app and put his phone aside. Those two were...amazing, in every sense of the word, and he couldn't wait to see them again. However, you had to work before you could play, and right now he had an appointment to get to.

Thus decided, Lincoln dressed himself and headed for Lisa's lab.

"Breathe in."

Lincoln complied.

"Just a little longer...alright. Now breathe out."

Again, Lincoln obeyed.

"Breathe in for me once more."

Lincoln allowed his lungs to fill with air once again.

"Good. Now, elevate your appendages as if you were indifferent to the world around you."

Lincoln instinctively began to comply, then abruptly paused halfway through the motion. "Wait, what?"

"Eh, close enough." Said Lisa, eyeing the display before her, then scribbling out an arcane series of numbers on her clipboard. "You can put your arms down and take a seat."

Lincoln let out a sigh of relief, and did exactly that. They'd been at this for over an hour now, and in spite of the fact that Lisa's tests didn't require all that much movement from him, they'd still managed to take their toll on him.

"How's it looking?" Lincoln asked as the diminutive scientist began to pour over her notes.

"Well, elder brother, I can honestly say that after running you through every test currently available with the equipment I have on hand..."

"Yes?" Lincoln prompted, leaning forward in anticipation.

"...We know very little about your archetype, or how it works."

Lincoln slumped back in his seat and groaned under his breath. "Didn't we already know very little? Wasn't that the point of these tests."

"Indeed." Lisa nodded. "But we knew less, before. It's all about perspective, Lincoln. Every minute piece of information I can extract from you adds to our overall understanding of your archetype, and ultimately it is these seemingly minor strands of information that will one day come together to form the complete picture, so to speak."

"I get that, I guess." Lincoln replied. "But after what happened in gym class, I was kinda hoping that would happen a little faster." He winced at the memory and instinctively rubbed his shoulder. "I'm going to have to play dodge ball again at some point."

Lisa tapped her pen against her cheek. "Perhaps it might help if we reviewed what information we do know for certain." She pulled up a chair of her own, and sat down across from Lincoln.

"First off, we know from your outing with Lori, that you have the ability to boost the abilities of other archetypes. Street name, 'buffing.'" She paused thoughtfully. "Have you tried using this ability since then?"

"Just the one time with Lori. And again, with Leni." Lincoln affirmed.

"Hmm. Both times combat scenarios." Lisa mused. "We should look into this more, try to determine if you're limited to enhancing combat potential, or if your abilities encompasses less tangible qualities. Cooking, musical ability, things of that nature. I'll make a note to arrange for appropriate testing equipment." Lisa paused as she began to write furiously.

"Second." She continued, having apparently finished. "And far more interesting, is this Genre Shift ability of yours. In which you seem to be able to adopt characteristics from other archetypes. Temporarily, at least, correct?"

"I think so." Said Lincoln. "I've only managed to do it with Leni that one time, and I haven't been able to change back into...uh."

"'Tuxedo Linky', I believe she called it?" Lisa asked with a small smile.

"Y-yeah." Lincoln reddened slightly. "Leni even recreated the outfit from scratch and had me try it on. But nothing special happened, I couldn't fight or anything."

"Interesting." Lisa murmured. "That seems to support the premise that you're temporarily modifying your own archetype. Magical Girls typically gain enhanced physical abilities when they transform, which seems to match up with what happened to you. They, of course, have a method of inducing that transformation at will, which you seem to lack. So we can rule out the possibility that you actually became a Magical Girl."

"Thank goodness." Lincoln muttered.

"And at school..." Lisa continued. "You tried to Genre Shift with a girl you'd just met, and failed."

"Failed and got pelted by dodge balls." Lincoln added with a slight grimace.

"I see. Then that seems to suggest that there is some prerequisite that must first be met before you can genre shift with someone. Given the intimate nature of your outing with Leni—"

"Wait, what?"

"Calm yourself, dear brother." Lisa said, trying to placate the boy. "Obviously I did not use the word in the romantic sense..." She trailed off, allowing the word to hang in the air while she stared at Lincoln. Seemingly looking for something.

"...Right." She continued at last. "I simply meant that you and Leni have always been close, and your shared experience on that day only drove you closer together. Thus, from our one successful case of Genre Shifting, we can extrapolate that there may be a degree of intimacy required before you can Genre Shift with someone." There was a brief pause. "Non-romantic intimacy, naturally."

"Naturally." Lincoln said, nodding furiously.

"Alright then." Lisa climbed to her feet and put her notes aside. "I would like to try something."

Lincoln followed Lisa with his eyes as she made her way to a supply closet, and produced a lab coat. One that was several times larger than what she would typically wear.

"Try this on, Lincoln." She instructed, passing the garment to him. He stared at it, perplexed.

"Why do you even have this?" He asked. "It's way too big for you."

"A completely unrelated matter, I assure you." Said Lisa, waiving one hand dismissively. Shrugging, Lincoln donned the coat. Strange, it seemed to fit him perfectly.

"Now come with me." Lisa instructed, taking Lincoln by the hand and leading him to a small table full of chemistry equipment.

"Are you feeling anything, Lincoln?" Lisa asked, gesturing at the array of chemicals and glassware on display. "Any urge perhaps, to perform science?"

"Not...really?" He said, hesitantly.

"What if I were to do this?" Lisa asked. Then the younger girl walked up alongside Lincoln and wrapped one arm around his waist.

"Still nothing." Lincoln reported.

"Truly?" Lisa's usually stoic expression began to soften. "What...what about now?" With that, she threw her other arm around his waist and tightened her grip on him, fully committed to the hug. Lincoln looked back at the table...but nothing was forthcoming. No previously unknown knowledge blooming forth in his mind, no desire to perform science. Nothing.

"Sorry, Lisa." He said, reaching down and hugging the scientist return. "I'm just not feeling anything. But I appreciate the hug anyway."

"Drat." She grumbled. Still, Lisa maintained contact with him for a few moments more, before finally releasing her hold on Lincoln. He, in turn, gave the younger girl one last squeeze before doing the same.

"I suppose there must be some other component we're missing." Lisa mused. "Oh well. Back to the drawing board. I suppose that will conclude our tests for the day." She gestured at Lincoln. "You may keep the coat, if you wish. I don't believe I'll have any further use for it."

"How about you hold onto it?" Lincoln suggested slipping off the coat and handing it back to her. "I'll wear it next time you need my help with something."

"T-truly?" Lisa asked, looking between him and the garment now clutched in her hands.

"Of course." Lincoln chuckled. Then he leaned down and tousled her hair affectionately. "And heck, if we can figure out this Genre Shift thing, who knows? Maybe I'll be able to help you as something other than a lab rat." And with that, Lincoln took his leave.

Lisa stared at her brother as he walked away, hugging the lab coat a little tighter, as she felt Lincoln's body heat began to fade from the garment. "I think...I would very much like that. Big brother." She said softly to herself.