14. Loud vs McBride

AN: An original idea. Inspired by the Drake & Josh episode, "Girl Power".

AN 5/4/18: A guest named Briar 4 is leaving reviews on other Genderbent Loud House stories, telling authors to go read my story for inspiration. Briar 4, if you're reading this, thank you so much for your support! With an idea as common as genderbents, I'm flattered to know that you believe mine is the one to look toward to.

Friday afternoon, Linka got a call from her walkie-talkie from Claudia to meet her, Riley, Leah and Zara at Gus' Games & Grub arcade. Linka entered the arcade fifteen minutes after the call, Claudia wave her over.

"Hey, girls!" She takes a seat across from Claudia and next to Zara. The girls greet her in various ways.

"What did you decide to order?"

"Well, Riley already ordered-" Claudia was interrupted by an empty french fry tray landing on the table thrown by the table behind them. Big, dumb laughter follows. Riley peeks over the seat, seeing two homely girls laughing and throwing food at each other. She sits down, scared out of her mind.

"It's Hazeltuckys!" Hazeltuckys are students from a different school district of the same name. There's an unspoken rivalry between them and Royal Woods.

"Hazeltuckys? Are they big? One of them has brown hair and the other one's bangs covers her eyes?" Linka asks. Riley nods in fear.

"Claud, it's those girls we freaked out on Halloween." Linka says, keeping her voice low.

"What do we do?"

"Ignore them. They're just being dumb as always."

About 15 minutes later, the five friends were eating a half pepperoni and half sausage pizza.

"Linka, where were you on Easter?" Leah asks. "You missed my ma's egg hunt."

"Don't you use chicken eggs and not the plastic ones filled with candy?" Zara asks.

"Well, last chap-, I mean! As you remember, it was Easter Fools. So Lane had-" Another sentence interrupted, this time a half full cup of soda, spilling onto the rest of the pizza pie.

"What in tarnation?!" Leah exclaims. Big, dumb laughter follow.

"We paid good money for that!" Claudia asks. "Someone ought to put them in their place!" She stood up from her seat but Linka grabs her arm.

"Claud, don't! You know what they're capable of."

"Nah, nah. I'm capable of holding down my own." She tears her arm from the white-haired girl's hold and stomps over to the bullies' table.

"Dead girl walking." Riley whispers to her remaining friends.

Claudia slams her hands on their table. "Hey! Which one of you threw that soda cup?!"

Both girls stand up. Menacingly glaring her down.

"I did." The brunette says.

"Or maybe I did. What are you gonna do about it?" The one with the bangs says.

"Wait a minute, aren't you one of those fourthies from the Halloween incident?" The brunette points out.

"Yeah, but that's irrelevant." Claudia answers. "Listen, you can't-" The brunette push her down to the floor.

"Payback time, kid!" Both homely girls crack their knuckles. The ginger girls help their fallen girlfriend up before they can throw another punch.

Except Linka.

She takes a folding chair at a nearby table and throws it at the brunette. The head of that chair hits the brunette in her chest area, quite literally, knocking the wind out of her. She holds the table to hold herself up and gasps deeply.

The one with the bangs look back at her friend in fear before growling at the white-haired offender. "You crazy-" She throws her fist back and toward Linka. But Linka caught it with both hands. She twist it behind her back and push her down. Linka bends it the wrong way, not enough to break it, but enough to make her cry. The brunette girl gotten up and was sneaking up on her with the same chair Linka threw at her. But the dumbass was breathing too hard; Linka knew what was coming. Linka jump off the raven haired girl before the brunette brought the chair down, she hit her friend by accident.

"Ow! Why'd you do that?!"

"Sorry!" Then Linka hit her on the back with a different chair. She falls next to her friend.

"Daaaaaaamn!" The gingers drag out, impressed.

"Stay away from us." Linka gives them their first and only warning. The girls on the ground nod fearfully. This is not the same wimp they scared and chased six months ago.

"I'm scared shitless of this kid." The brunette says.

"If you're scared shitless, I'm scared shitless." The raven haired answers.

"Excuse me!" The owner of the arcade, Gus of course, walks up to the scene, annoyed. He was exiting the restroom when he saw Linka hit the brunette with a chair the second time. "All of you better get out of my arcade before I call the cops!"

The five friends run toward the doors, followed the two bullies getting up quickly. The two parties going in opposite directions. The five of them stopped running once they decided they were far enough from the place. Then, they laugh about the whole ordeal. Well, except Claudia.

"Linka, that was crazy!" Zara says. "You handed their asses to them!"

"Well, to be honest, I panicked. Lynn said if you're ever in a fight, throwing a chair should be your last option. Because all hell breaks loose when you do. Yet, it was my only option!"

"Don't be so modest." Leah reassures. "Who knows what could have happened to Claudia if you haven't stepped in."

"Yeah, she could have been twisted into a Human Garlic Knot if you haven't intervened!" Riley replies.

Claudia scoffs. "Riley, shut your dumbass up!" Linka almost gasped. That was one of the rare times Claudia has cursed out loud.

"No need to be defensive. I'm just stating facts." The tall redhead defends.

"So, that's it?! You think I can't take care of myself? Maybe, if Linka haven't intervened, I could have thrown a chair!"

Linka scratches the back of her head. "Claud, you're not exactly the toughest person I know. Usually, when we do insane shit, it was my idea."

"You didn't give me time to get up!"

"For what? So those bullies can harass you again? Do you except me to apologize for stepping in to help my best friend!" Linka was getting annoyed.

"Get off your high horse. Saving me in a fight does not make you tougher than me, ok!"

"Try to slap me across the face."

"Excuse me?"

"Did I stutter? Slap me!"

Claudia furrows her eyebrows. "Fine!" She raises her hand to backhand her but Linka grab that hand with her right hand and slap her with the left hand.

"Ow! Ow!"

"Should we break them up?" Leah asks. The three were watching from the sidelines, surprised but amused.

"Nah, let's see where this goes." Zara says.

"I'm sorry, but I had to prove a point." Linka says. "I'm tougher than you and that's that. So, can we put this thing behind us?"

"No! This is far from over!" Claudia decides. "There's only one to settle this."

"And what's that?"

"You and I are going to fight."

"What?" The four other girls say together.

"Yeah, we're going to duke it out. You'll see that I'm just as tough, if not tougher, than you!"

"I'm not going to fight you!"

"Ohh, now you're scared to go up against me!" Claudia sneers.

"Ooooooooo." The gingers exclaim then laugh.

"More like scared for you, dude! You know what happens when you mess with a Loud! You'll be knocked down in seconds."

"Ooooh really? Want to make things a little more interesting? First person to knock the other down for three seconds wins. Winner gets bragging rights and the loser buys the winner's lunch of their choosing for a week."

"I accept. I can't wait for a week of free pizza and buffalo wings. May I choose the fighting style?"

"Sure."

"Kickboxing."

"Fine." Claudia answers immediately, even though she hasn't kickboxed a day in her life. Little did she know, Linka didn't know how to either.

"Perfect. Tomorrow night, my house?"

"Hell yeah! Wait, I can't. I have an appointment with Dr. Lopez."

"Damn. Well, we can't do it on a weekday, cause of school."

"True." Both girls ponder before looking at each other knowingly and shaking hands with determined nods.

"Next Saturday." They say simultaneously.

Linka walk home alone and immediately goes upstairs; but not toward the direction of her room.

"I don't know why I said kickboxing, I don't even know how to! But not to worry, readers, in a family this big, there is always someone who can help you out in virtually any type of situation." She open Lars's and Lynn's bedroom door. The latter laying against his head board, tossing his basketball into the hoop attached to the wall in front of him.

"Lynn, you got a minute?"

"This better be important. I only did 283 free throws in a row."

Linka takes a seat on his bed and explains what happened prior to coming home. After she finished, Lynn sits up and drops his ball, looking at her skeptically.

"So, let me get this straight. You made a kickboxing bet with Claudia, even though you don't know how to, to see which one of you is the toughest?"

"Basically. The fight's next Saturday, so I only have that amount of time to have you train me. What do you think?"

Lynn exhales annoyed before answering. "Morally, I think it's a stupid idea. You and Claudia have been friends since you were little kids. It's shameful that you let something as fragile as your egos get in the way of that."

"I know, I-"

"But I'll train you. Because Claudia crossed the line; she had the audacity to challenge my little sister. Put on some sweatpants and meet me the weight room."

"What weight room?"

"The basement."

Later, Lynn and Linka changed into sweatpants and accumulated in the basement. Lynn comes down here sometimes to work out. The weights from their parents' exercise-crazed phase were still here.

"Key word of kickboxing is "kick". So, obviously, we need to build some muscle in your legs. Now sit down on the Leg Press." Linka positions herself on the inclined machine.

"What you're going to do is push the platform up and down with your legs." Lynn explains and carries two 25-pound circular weights to place them on both sides of the machine. "Let's start with 50 pounds." He blows on the whistle around his neck. Linka unlocks the machine and pushes her legs up and down with ease.

"This is kinda fun."

"Do 10 more, sis. I'll be back." Linka does that then locks it. There's a burn on her upper right thigh but she's doing fine. Lynn comes back and places two more weights on each side of the machine. "Do it again."

Linka unlocks the machine but she's taken back by the new weights, the platform falls. Her upper thigh are caught in a rock a hard place, or this case, the platform and her chest.

"How much did you add on?" She breathes out.

"50 pounds on each side."

"That's 150 pounds all together!"

"I know! This isn't supposed to be fun! It's supposed to be work! Now give me 20!"

Linka pushes up with difficulty. "O-One. Ow!" She screams when she lets it drop.

"Come on, woman! I can push up 200 pounds easily! Faster!"

Later, Linka was on one knee because her left leg gave up on her. She had on a pair of boxing gloves. So does Lynn.

"Get up! I have to teach you the basic punches. First, is the Jab. A straight punch from the front hand, to either the head or the body. Like so." Lynn throws a jab at Linka's chin. "Hey!" She grabs it in pain.

"Next, is the Cross. A straight punch from the back hand. This usually works in conjunction with the Jab. Observe." Lynn throws a Cross punch at Linka's chest before throwing another Jab at her shoulder.

"What the hell?!"

"Now, you try. On this punching bag." Lynn hides behind a red punching bag hanging from the ceiling, holding it in place. Linka glares at him.

"Now, Jab." Lynn demands. Linka throws a Jab at the red punching bag. Lynn barely moves from place.

"Weak. Cross." Linka Cross punches the bag.

"Jab."

"Cross."

"Jab and Cross."

"Come on, Stinka! Loni packs a better punch than you! You want to lose that bet, you loser?!" Linka lets out a war cry, and punches the bag so hard, it causes Lynn to stumble back a few inches.

"Woah! That's good, channel your anger! You're going to need it throughout the week. Let's work on Overhand."

At the McBrides' home. Claudia was doing a workout routine of her own. Claudia sits at a pulley system machine. To work out her biceps and Latissimus Dorsi muscles. The nerd was sweating bullets and was tired, but had a look of determination on her face. She hasn't been this set on working out since the time she and the Louds thought Bebe was cheating on her beloved Loki.

"Claud, sweetie, it's time for bed!" Harriet tells her daughter.

"Ten more minutes, Mom. I'm working out! Like you always tell me to do!"

"Alright! Don't strain yourself!" Claudia gets up and practice the kickboxing kicks she looked up online. The Side Kick and Round Kick.

In the following days, Claudia and Linka carried out their own workout routines for their big match.

Linka runs laps around the neighborhood with Lynn.

Claudia runs on the treadmill, then lunges.

Linka learns the Front Kick and Side Kick as she's sparring with Lynn. She also learn how to use her knees in a match. She accidentally knees her brother in the family jewels.

Claudia is just learning the Jab, Cross, and Uppercut punches.

Linka does arm curls with a hand 20 pound weight, then 20 push-ups.

Claudia practices the Semi-Circular Kick, by hopping off the ground and kicking her bag.

Linka chokes down Lynn's protein shake, then puking it into the toilet.

Claudia eats more meat and less sweets.

Virtually, anything that they thought were of use to them in training. They never spoke of the fight at school; the only time they did was on Friday afternoon at lunch.

Claudia calmly sips her juice box and asks. "So, Linka, how's your training?"

"Fine." She says, aimlessly stabbing her chicken nuggets with a spork. "How's yours?"

"Great. We'll see on Saturday."

"Yes, we shall." And that was the end of it.

On the day of the fight, Claudia called her on the walkie-talkie that she'll be arriving at the Loud residence at noon. So, five minutes from now. Linka is currently wrapping her hands in bandages on the living room couch. A brand new set of orange boxing gloves on her right that she and Lynn picked out the night prior. She is wearing orange boxer shorts and a sleeveless orange hoodie.

The doorbell rings. "Lynn! The door!" Linka calls out, strapping on the right glove.

"I got it." Lynn says, walking down the stairs. Instead of his usual sporty red attire, he has on a t-shirt with vertical white and black stripes. Claudia is on the other side dressed the same as her opponent but in her favorite color, yellow. Over her shoulder, were matching yellow boxing gloves.

"Thanks, referee." Lynn greets her back and goes to help her sister put on her left glove.

"Hey, bestie." Linka says in a snarky matter.

"You know, I'm glad we did this. Now, you'll see that some girls are tougher than you."

"I don't believe that you will be saying that when I win the bragging rights and the free lunch."

"You're precious. Lynn, can you help me with my gloves?" Lynn turns around and bandages Claudia's hands and straps on her boxing gloves.

"Ok, I set up my wrestling mat in the backyard. And some poles and rope like a real boxing ring." Lynn tells the two girls.

"Ok!" The girls say ecstatically at the same time and goes in the direction of the kitchen, out the backyard door. Lynn follows them.

"Wait! Before you go outside, there's something-!"

"The hell?" Linka exclaim. Outside, the mat was surrounded by the rest of the Loud brothers and guests that nine of them invited over. They're all talking with anticipation as they enjoy the refreshments the Louds had offered them.

"Loki, who are these people?"

"When Lynn told us you were fighting Claudia, we literally had to call up our friends to watch with us. People love a good cat fight." He gestures to his right. "Meet Danny, Winston, and Barry." The teenage boys wave at the white-haired girl.

"My best companion, Darren." Levi pats the back of the other kindergartener.

"You guys are like boxing twins!" He says, smiling a bright and innocent smile.

"And Sam." Luke throws his arm around the blonde rocker, who throws up the goats. "What? This isn't the same Sam I mentioned in chapter two, readers! Ya'll are crazy!"

"Moving on. This is Manny." Lane says. The emo tween gives a small smile before returning his attention to texting.

"Say hi to Wendy." Lexx says. The graceful little girl bows with such poise.

"This is Skye." Leif says. Skye stops eating her chocolate bar and smiles a dirty smile at Linka.

"Meet Chole!" Loni says. Chole says "hi!" in a just as joyful tone as Loni.

"I've brought Haiku." Lars points with his thumb at him. The older goth boy just blinks at her.

"And I've brought my basketball team, the Turkey Jerkies. Miguel, Paul, Andy, and David." Lynn points to each boy in their team's red jumpsuit respectively.

"Don't forget about us!" Riley says, Zara and Leah behind her.

"Nice to meet all of you! Now get out of my yard! This is between me and Claudia!"

"No!" Leon yells from his high chair.

Miguel yawns loudly before pulling himself together. "Your baby brother's right. You can't kick us out!"

"Lynn charged us $9 each to see this fight!" Paul finishes for Miguel, using his right crutch to point at Lynn.

"We paid $10 each!" Zara exclaims.

"$9 and $10?! Shoot, Luke charged me $15!" Sam retorts.

"So why did we have to pay $20 each, Loki?" Barry asks, suspiciously.

Linka leans toward Lynn. "I get a fraction of the money, right?" She whispers.

"We'll discuss that later. Girls, get on the mat!" Both of them go toward the mat and take off their sleeveless hoodies, reveling sports bras in their respective colors.

"Twins!" Lynn calls out. The twins run up to the mat. Lexx put a mouth guard in Linka's mouth and Leif put a mouth guard in Claudia's mouth. They run back to their spots. All eyes are on them at this moment.

"Ok ladies, in respect to your bet, there's no rounds and no points. Aim for the head, the arms, the shoulders, the chest, or lower abdomen. The fight will last until one of you is down for three seconds." Lynn explains.

"Fighter #1, are you ready?" Linka nods and holds up her gloves.

"Fighter #2, are you ready?"

"Call it." Claudia answers. Lynn blows the whistle. Their audience cheers them on. Both girls dance around each other.

"Now Claudia," Linka's voice gurgles because of the guard. "If at any point you're severely injured, just yell Uncle and-" Claudia sends a Jab and a Right Cross to her chest.

"No mercy!" Claudia answers.

Linka glares and Front Kicks her side. Claudia dodges it but Linka kicks her in the side with other leg. Claudia aims punches at her face but Linka dodges it with her forearms, causing Claudia to retaliate with her knee crashing into her stomach. Linka's knee bends slightly at the impact, but Uppercuts Claudia in her jaw. They end up grabbing each other, Claudia's arms around Linka's neck and using her knee again and Linka's arms around Claudia's neck, punching her in the back. Then, Lynn breaks them up.

"No grabbing!"

"Come on Linka, get her!" Loni yells.

"Drag her through the dirt!" Levi yells.

"Pull her hair out!" Lane yells.

"Say what?" Claudia retorts. After that, Linka Roundhouse Kick her in the face. Catching her off guard and causing her nose to bleed.

"Ooh, finally some blood is spilt." Lars says.

"How great is this?!" Skye screams.

"I agree. So worth the various prices everyone had to pay!" Wendy answers.

"Had enough?!" Linka yells at her opponent. Claudia straight punches her in the eye, leaving a nice bruise to form. This quickly leads to Claudia Side kicking her in the hip. This does a number on Linka because she falls.

"One! Two!" Everyone else counts. But Linka jumps up angry. Despite the shooting pain she feels in her hip. She does an Overhand punch on Claudia's right temple. Claudia loses focus for a second. Then, Linka uppercuts her jaw again. And to top it off, she high kicks her opponent in the center of her face. Claudia falls back against the ropes behind her, hanging onto them. When Linka kicked her, both glasses lenses cracked. She couldn't do anything as the glasses slide off her face from her sweat and falls in front of her. Bits of glass fall out of it.

"Oh my god." She chokes out a sob. "My- my glasses." The whole world is a colorful, blurry mess to her now but she can tell everything stopped because of her.

Linka runs over to her in deep concern. "Claud, I-!"

"You broke my glasses, Linka! I can't see anything!"

"I know! I-" Linka looks away for a moment in shame and removes her mouth guard. "How did we get to this, huh?" Her voice cracks. "Here we are arguing and fighting about something as pointless as who's the toughest! And now thanks to my pride, you can't see!" Linka put her damage, sweaty face in her gloves.

"We're here cause I wanted to prove a point."

Linka looks up at her. "What?"

"Aw, weak! Now they're going to talk about their feelings!" Lexx screams.

"The universal end to all cat fights." Leah replies.

Claudia removes her own mouth guard. "I've always been treated like I can't do shit by myself. They see me as some precious, nerdy baby that needs to be protected at all times." She explains. "By my mothers, Dr. Lopez, pretty much everyone I encountered. Except you, until last week. When you saved me from those Hazeltuckys, I snapped. I wanted to show that I can be independent, I can be strong, I can drop somebody if I wanted too. Not just to you, but to myself. And apparently, to demonstrate that was to be in this fight. So you see, it was my pride that lead to this." Claudia gets up slowly when she's done.

"Claudia, I honestly don't blame you. We want to prove our worth from time to time. Being the only girl in the family, heh, it's something I do on a regular basis. But I think you're the strongest person now! The fact that you're still standing after a beat down like that is amazing."

"Thanks, Link. To be honest, I've never kickboxed in my life."

"Same here." Both girls laugh.

"We're still friends?" Linka asks, hopefully.

"Come here, girl!" They hug with content smiles on their faces.

"That's cute." Loki says. "Lame as hell, but cute."

"Whatever. I paid to see two girls get maimed, not a love fest." Manny retorts.

"Took the words out of my mouth, Emo. Chloe don't like. I want my money back!" All the guests started to agree, demanding a refund from their respective Loud friend.

"Guys, let's not do anything irrational." Loki says, nervously.

The friends at the ring pull apart. "I'm sorry." Linka says.

"I'm sorry, too." Claudia replies. "And, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do. No disrespect, but my mom did always say, "finish what you started"."

"Wait, what?"

Without another word, Claudia hops an inch into the air, turns her body 45 degrees, and kicks Linka's neck with the heel of her foot. The blow causes spit and a loose tooth to fly out. And it must have been at pressure point because she then falls on the mat, unconscious. Not a bad Semi-Circular Kick for a kid who could barely see. The audience is in shock.

"Please tell me someone recorded that!" Riley yells out.

"One! Two! Three!" Lynn yells out and holds up Claudia's arm. "Champion!" The non-Loud crowd cheers and chant her name. Claudia smiles a tired smile. She did it. She proven herself to be tough! She just hopes Linka can forgive her.

"But seriously, the brothers and I will get you back for knocking out Linka." Lynn whispers threateningly to her.

Claudia gulps in fear. Well, nobody is strong enough to take on all 10 Loud Brothers.

On Monday afternoon, A black-eyed Linka, covered in bandages, carries a large container of Gus' Games and Grub buffalo chicken wings and a medium sized pizza that she just paid for back to the table she shared with, an also bandage covered, Claudia. She's wearing contacts (which she hated) until she receives her replacement glasses.

"Readers, the lesson here is to never, ever underestimate your opponent in battle. You never know what they're going to do when your guard's down." Linka sits and slides the food across the table. "Here you go, Claud."

"Thanks. I still can't believe how fast you dropped after my Semi-Circular Kick. It was like, bam!down!"

"Yeah, yeah." Linka bitterly sips her soda.

"Linka?"

"What?"

"The bet didn't say I couldn't share my winnings with you." She pushes the wings toward her. Linka smiles at her and happily accepts one.

AN: You've all seen the background characters in the show. I don't need to list which Genderbent corresponds with which character in the show.