User blog:Heronimbus/On the Run: A Loud House Story - Chapter 7

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What Lincoln didn't know was that his sisters and Chandler had gotten up around the same time as he had -- and they were still searching for him.

A few hours after they left the motel they had stayed in that night, "Southern Nights" began playing on the radio, and Luna and Luan sang along out of boredom.

"Lincoln's still missing, y'know..." Lucy blatantly reminded them.

Leni was sitting next to Lori at the front, and she gazed out the window like a dog, letting the wind blow past her face and through her hair. "Ooooh! Look at all the truffula trees passing by!"

"Leni, those aren't truffula trees," Lori tried to tell her.

"Oh, whatever they are, they look really nice."

Lana and Lola were playing rock-paper-scissors on opposite sides of Lisa, who was trying to read the newspaper they had just received that morning.

"Twins, move your oversized hands so I can read," said Lisa.

"What?" Lana questioned her. "We can't even play a game without your nerdiness messing things up?"

"I'd take nerdy over dirty any day, to be honest." Lola dusted her gloves to clean off Lana's dirt as she said this.

"Well excuuuuuse me, princess!"

"Try me, you little rat!"

The twins got caught up in a whirling cloud of dust as they started beating each other up, and Lisa was stuck in the middle of it.

"Nice job, twins!" Lisa yelled. "You ripped up the newspaper!"

"Guys, calm down," Lori reasoned with them. "I'm trying to drive here."

"I'm trying to sing here!" Luna cried out.

"We're trying to play rock-paper-scissors here!" Lana shrieked.

"I'm trying to gaze out the window here!" Leni screamed.

"I'm trying to sit here." Lucy sighed.

"Poo-poo!" Lily babbled in the booster seat.

All the other sisters started screaming and yelling at each other, and Lori groaned with annoyance. Even Chandler rolled his eyes as everyone else argued.

Suddenly, they found themselves pulling too close to a Jeep. Lori swiftly turned the wheel to the other side as hard as she could so they didn't run into whoever was in the Jeep.

They all got out to confront the Jeep riders -- who turned out to be Jay, Shelly, Norman, and Gator.

"You almost ran into us, girl!" Shelly exclaimed.

"Well, these people were distracting me!" Lori retorted.

"It wasn't my fault!" said Lola. "Lana here was getting her dirt all over my dress!"

"Hey, you asked to play rock-paper-scissors!"

"Now hold on a minute." Jay tried to calm them all down. "What are you guys doin' here anyway?"

The Loud sisters all gave each other glances, trying to think of a response that wouldn't attract too much attention.

Chandler had a solution. "We're going to a birthday party."

"Oooohh, a birthday party, huh?" Jay responded. "I love birthday parties."

"I had my 12th one two days ago."

"You serious? I had my 27th that same day!"

"Huh. Well... happy belated birthday!"

"Same to you, man."

"OK, so anyway..." Lynn tried to get to the point. "We're going to pick up one of our, uh, relatives to take to the party. He's got white hair. Have you seen him... y'know, maybe walking around town?"

"A white-haired kid..." Jay glanced at Shelly and Norman, who seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Yeah, I think I've seen him around here."

The Loud sisters were getting excited, knowing that they were now one step closer to finding Lincoln.

"Do you know which way we should go?" asked Luna.

"Uhhh, yeah... he went over there to the right, I think."

"Let's go, guys!" Lori called them back into Vanzilla, and they took off.

The girls all cheered and sang along with the last lines of "Southern Nights" as they kept rolling down the road. Chandler just shrugged and crossed his legs, putting his hands behind his head as he left everyone else have their fun.

Something tells me stuff's gonna happen that tears them all apart, he thought.

"Wait a minute, guys," said Luan. "Where's Leni?"

Leni had left Vanzilla and wandered out into the woods while her sisters were talking to Jay. She hugged a tree, smelling its fresh bark.

"Aaaaahh, such a precious truffula tree," she said softly.

Then she heard the crunching of leaves.

"You do realize they weren't actually going to a birthday party, right Jay?"

"Eh, I figured as much. We better find the kid before they do."

Jay, Shelly, and Norman were looking through the woods for Lincoln. Leni knew she had to act fast.

She got up in front of them and asked, "You can help me find him... right?"

Jay smirked. "Oh, we'll help you find him, all right..." He and Shelly grabbed Leni and threw her in the trunk.

"Wh-where are you guys taking me...?" Leni asked as Jay and Shelly guided her into their warehouse a few hours later.

"We're gonna introduce you to our boss," Shelly answered.

They arrived in a small office, where Elijah was waiting. Leni stepped forward. "Uh... hi...?"

Elijah glared at his colleagues. "What did I tell you about bringing more kids into the warehouse?"

"We couldn't find the kid," said Jay, "but this girl seems to know enough about him to lead us to him."

"L-Lincoln?!" Leni yelled. "Why is this guy looking for Lincoln?"

Jay ignored her. "You think she could be a good fit... or somethin'?"

"Maybe..." Elijah pondered it, looking up at Leni every few seconds. "She seems a bit too... nice... but let's find out. Here, take a seat."

Leni sat down right in front of Elijah.

"Now, this questionnaire is gonna help us determine if we're gonna benefit from having you here in the long run. First question... you go to the store and see something you really want, but you don't have enough money. What do you do?"

Leni thought for a bit, then answered, "Leave the store and find ways save up money, then come back and buy it."

"But what if you want it right away? Before anyone e!se gets to it?"

"Oh, I'd ask to borrow my friend's money. I always shop with friends."

"Ugh.... OK, let's say you're waiting to buy a movie ticket and there's an old lady who's taking too long. What would you do?"

"I'd cut in front of them and buy my ticket!"

"Atta girl!"

"...and then apologize to the poor old lady and buy her ticket for her!"

Elijah finally put his head into his hands. "It's useless... she's no good for us. Take her back where you found her!"

"Wait!" Norman called out. "I think I've got something around here that could still be useful!"

He dug through his boxes of inventions, tossing out old creations one by one, until he finally found a strange-looking helmet.

His colleagues stared with surprise -- and so did Leni. "It looks like something from another dimension," she said.

"I wish it was," came Norman's deadpan response.

A while later, Leni was all comfortable in the chair as the helmet lay strapped onto her head. Norman had a switch in his hand as Elijah, Shelly, Jay, and Gator all surrounded him.

"Now guys," he began, "you'll need to be really careful. Because when I flick this switch, the helmet's electrodes will release tons of energy."

"So how does that affect the girl?" asked Jay.

"Well... sources say that the use of technology can rewire a person's brain to an extent. So my hypothesis is: if I can use scraps from a mobile device and connect them to this electric helmet device, I can rewrite her nervous system to make her... smarter."

"Ooooohh!! You're gonna make me smart??" Leni was excited by the mere thought of being more intelligent.

"Alright... you might wanna back away..." The gang slowly stepped away from Leni and the helmet.

Norman flicked the switch.

The energy began flowing through the helmet and Leni started to shiver. "Wh-what's h-h-happening??"

Slowly, metal objects all around the warehouse began to inch closer to Leni. "This thing's energy is so strong it's creating a strange magnetic force," Norman explained.

The fluorescent lights began to flicker on and off. "And now it's affecting the electrical circuits!"

"Are you insane, Norm?!" Elijah was bewildered. "You're gonna kill her!"

"No I'm not! Trust me!!"

They had to grab onto the desk as the magnetic force began to pull them in. The metal was covering Leni from her feet to her neck, and she was getting dizzy at this point.

"Dude!! This whole place is gonna blow!!!" Shelly yelled.

Norman just let out a wild laugh. He knew his creation would not fail him.

As the last bits of metal landed around Leni, a final pulse of energy sent it launching in every direction, and the gang fell down to the ground, apparently unharmed. The helmet, however, had fallen apart into tiny pieces.

Leni stared at them. "Whoa... I feel..."

Then she smirked.

"BAD!"

She jumped out of her seat and gave Elijah and his teammates a high five as they all laughed.

"Leni is so simple-minded that, ironically, it didn't take too much effort to rewire her thinking," Norman concluded. "At least, she used to be. Now she's capable of so much more!"

"Great work, Norm!" Elijah gave him a pat on the back, then stood in front of Leni, giving her his flak jacket. "Alright, Seafoam... lead us to Lincoln!"