Author's Note: Okay, before you all tar and feather me for creating a "No Such Luck" story, allow me to explain: I know that the internet is lousy with these stories, but when one is inspired, it's like an itch under the skin that can't be scratched. The only way I could satisfy this itch was to get it on paper. So I hope you'll give it a chance.
This story is heavily influenced by Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight," and Wild Card is definitely inspired by the Joker. I hope you enjoy this, and I welcome any comments and criticism you have.
And don't worry, Powerless will be updating soon.
"He has to be out here!"
Lynn held her flashlight aloft, clutching her jacket against the cold autumn wind. Her voice was hoarse from shouting her brother's name, desperately trying to pick up his trail. She could still remember the feeling of her heart sinking into her feet when she finally went to let him into the house, realizing that he wasn't there. She had searched the entire yard and neighborhood, and now the greater part of Royal Woods, but he was nowhere to be found. With each passing hour her dread grew, and she knew deep down this was all her fault. She couldn't believe how stupid she had been. If she hadn't threatened him to come to her game, if she hadn't called him bad luck, if she would have just taken her loss in stride, they wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.
"We've been out here for hours," Said Lori, trying to keep in stride with her younger sister. Despite the fact that she was taller, Lynn was much faster, having developed a keen speed due to her obsession with sports. "No one has seen him."
"We have to find him!" Shouted Lynn.
"We will," Said Lori, trying to comfort her manic sister. "But we need to get the police involved."
Lynn stopped dead in her tracks, looking directly at Lori. "And just what are you going to tell them?" She asked. "Our brother is lost because we kicked him out of a house over some dumb prank? Do you have any idea what they'll do to us?!"
Lori didn't answer. Contacting law enforcement was the last thing that she wanted to do, but things were looking grim. The situation had already spiraled out of control, more than the family could have ever anticipated. At first, when Lynn lost her game, she really did believe that Lincoln was bad luck. As they noticed more and more things started to break around him, Lori put two and two together and realized he was doing it on purpose, in an effort to get out of coming to more events with them. She met with the family, explaining to them the situation, where they all agreed to pull a little prank on him to teach him a lesson. They all began to feign belief in his bad luck, and started banning him from attending fun events as well. However, after a while, Lori noticed things started to get out of control. The family locked him out of the house one night, and fed him his cereal through a doggy door the next morning. Several of the sisters voiced concern about taking this prank too far, but they agreed to continue for now. After Lincoln confessed, Lori thought that would be the end of it, but then Lynn decided to continue the charade, and everyone seemed to follow suit. She later explained that she wanted to make an impact on him, and would let him in later that night and explain the whole situation. But when Lynn had come out to check on him, he was gone.
Lynn was in tears when she came back in the house, shouting that Lincoln was gone. The family had begun a frantic search for him throughout the neighborhood, enlisting the Santiagos, Mr. Grouse, the McBrides, the Pingreys, anyone who could help. The search went on for hours, and there was no sign of him.
"I don't want to face it either, Lynn," Said Lori. "But we're out of options."
"It's my fault he's out here," Said Lynn, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. "I never should have said he was bad luck. We never should have done this. What kind of family are we? What kind of a sister am I?"
Lori put her hand on Lynn's shoulder. She wanted to say something, anything, to comfort her, but she had no idea what to do. She felt just as lost as the rest of them. Though she put on a brave face for the rest of her siblings, she just wanted to go back to her bed and cry. Just then, her cellphone rang. It was Bobby. "Boo Boo Bear?" Said Lori, answering the phone. "Please tell me you found him!"
"Babe. . ." came Bobby's voice. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears.
"What is it?" Said Lori, fear beginning to creep into her heart.
"I think I found lil' bro," Said Bobby. "You need to get here now."
Ten Years Later
Lynn stood solemnly over a single gravestone, placing a bouquet of flowers at its base. It was a place she frequently visited. It was the only place she could come to see her brother. She felt tears returning to her eyes as she recalled that terrible night, the night it all went wrong. The night he disappeared, their search stopped when Bobby came across something horrible: a single finger, found in the street a few blocks from their house. It was too conspicuous to be a coincidence, especially considering Royal Woods had one of the lowest crime rates in all of Michigan. With no other options, the family called the police. After recovering the finger, it was taken for forensic analysis, comparing DNA from Rita and Lynn Sr. After what seemed like an eternity, the results came back a positive match. The finger belonged to Lincoln.
The family divulged the entire situation to the police, and the results were devastating. Rita and Lynn Sr. were immediately arrested and charged with child endangerment. Knowing if they were put into foster care the chances of them staying together were slim, their Grandfather Albert moved out of his retirement home and into the Loud House, taking over temporary legal guardianship of the siblings.
Eventually, the parents were found guilty of misdemeanor child endangerment. According to Michigan state law, they were sentenced to a year in prison. In an effort to ensure their children's futures, the parents had taken a plea deal offered by the prosecutors, taking full responsibility for the situation in exchange for immunity for the rest of their children, something the siblings were horrified about. They tried to convince them not to take the deal, but the parents would not budge. They did not want to see any more of their children suffer when they should have put a stop to this situation before it started. This left the Loud siblings with no parental figures in their life but their grandfather. When Lori became of age, she took over legal guardianship of her siblings and immediately got a full-time job. Bobby had broken up with Lori and moved to Great Lakes City with his mother and sister, which had devastated her severely. He had completely lost trust in her due to her involvement in the incident, and their relationship could not be salvaged. The worst part was that Ronnie Anne, who had been a close friend to Lincoln, placed the blame squarely on her, and had nearly scratched Lori's eyes out when confronting her, causing Bobby to have to restrain her.
The McBrides had also packed up and moved. Lincoln's death that rattled them to their core, especially considering how close Clyde was with him. The pain of losing his best friend had sent the child into a spiral, and it took years and several therapists to bring him out of his trauma. Last the family heard of the McBrides, Clyde was attending graduate school for psychology in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Once the Loud patriarch and matriarch were released from prison, they immediately set out in an attempt to set things right, but were quickly reminded how little sympathy the world has for ex-convicts, especially those who abandon their children. Finding work was extremely difficult for the two of them, causing them to rely on the support of their children, who had all managed to find jobs to help keep the family afloat. Eventually, Lynn Sr. was able to find a job as a cook in a local eatery, and Rita was able to secure work at Flip's Food and Fuel as a gas station attendant, as his own dubious nature allowed him to not be picky about who he employed. Lori was finally able to attend college after putting it off for over a year, but due to her family's reputation, she soon found that her dream college of Fairway University was barred from her. Eventually, she was able to attend a state university, where she developed an interest in law and political science. After years of hard work, she graduated at the top of her class in law school, and went on to pass the Bar Exam, eventually working as a state prosecutor. After two years in the District Attorney's office, her charismatic nature and leadership skills allowed her to become the youngest Mayor ever elected in Royal Woods. Ironically, it was the disappearance of her brother that helped propel her into office, as she vowed to use the situation as an example to set things right for children across the city, never to let someone set the same fate as he did.
Despite finding his finger, Lincoln was not immediately declared dead. For years both the police and family searched for him. Their grandfather, Albert, who used to work in the military, even called in favors from his old contacts who were now private investigators and the police. Time and again the trail turned cold. Eventually, over the years, the family began to give up hope. When Lincoln was officially declared was the final nail in the proverbial coffin. Albert had died a year later, heartbroken at the disappearance of his look-alike, and the rest of the family tried to move on.
Leni worked as an assistant manager of a department clothing store in the mall during high school. After graduating, she became full manager of the store and would marry her high school boyfriend, Chaz. Eventually, the couple took over ownership of the store and had been working there ever since. Initially, news of her involvement in Lincoln's disappearance was a strain on her relationship with Chaz, but she was one of the sisters that voiced strong concern against locking him outside, but due to her gullible nature she was convinced to let it go on. However, since that happened, she had tried to redeem herself by volunteering at local charity organizations, especially those aimed at children. This proved to Chaz of her sincerity and allowed them to rebuild their relationship.
Luna took Lincoln's disappearance very hard. She was one of the closest to Lincoln out of all her sisters, and often took it upon herself to look after the sole male child in the house. She considered his death her greatest failure. She dropped out of school and ran off to Detroit with her girlfriend Sam Sharp, eventually starting a rock band, which garnered her moderate success in the Indie music scene. However, the trauma from losing her little brother continued to take a toll on her, and she began to abuse drugs and alcohol, landing in and out of rehab regularly until finally being served an ultimatum by Sam and the band to clean herself up or leave. After that, she got the professional help she needed to break her addiction and come to terms with her brother's death, and the band started to gain more traction after that, soon touring several states around the country.
Luan gave up comedy after Lincoln's death. She became cold and despondent. She never laughed anymore and even threw her ventriloquist dummy, Mr. Coconuts, into a woodchipper, and destroyed every last comedy prop she had. When asked about it, she simply said "life has no punchline anymore," and would let it drop after that. Though she would never tell anyone, she carried massive guilt on her shoulders for how much she tortured her family for laughs, specifically Lincoln, who would often take the brunt of her pranks in an effort to protect his friends or siblings. It was because of her susceptibility for finding humor at another's expense was one of the reasons she was on board for locking Lincoln out of the house, and his disappearance taught her first hand how damaging such actions could be, leaving a deep emotional scar. She no longer wore bright colors, instead simply opting for a black turtleneck and khakis. She attended business school and graduated with a Masters in Business Administration. Despite giving up comedy, her experience running her own business at such a young age provided her with enough experience to become an agent for local talent. Eventually, she was able to move to California where she ran a successful talent agency for performing artists.
Upon graduating high school, Lucy had packed up suddenly and moved with her Goth friends to Europe, simply leaving a note that staying in Royal Woods was too painful. She was one of the sisters, along with Luna, Leni, and Lana, who objected to the idea of leaving Lincoln outside for his punishment. Since his death, she had grown even more distant with her family, eventually outright blaming them for the demise of her beloved brother and confidant. The family hadn't heard from her since she had left.
Lana and Lola were still in school, slated to graduate soon. Lana had followed her passion of building cars and was planning on attending the local technical college for heavy-duty mechanics. She had dreams of working in a Pit Crew for NASCAR and maybe one day opening up her own shop. Lola, on the other hand, had taken the guilt of losing her brother strongly to heart, and had given up her pageantry career later that year. Lincoln had been her pageant coach, and she had been one of the strongest supporters for the punishment that got him killed, which was a guilt she lived with to this day. The situation served as a strong wake-up call for her selfish behavior and the pain she inflicts on the people closest to her because of it, something she never truly cared to consider before now. She no longer cared about being beautiful, throwing away all her pink dresses and makeup. Instead, she wore simple outfits and spent most of her time reading books, but rarely talked to anyone. It was when she read books that she felt closest to Lincoln, as he was the one who taught her to read and helped her to develop a love of books and reading. She also would later develop a keen interest in cooking like her father, and the only time they saw her actually happy was when she was experimenting with new dishes.
Lisa, the family's resident genius, had graduated high school at the age of 7 and already had two PhDs under her belt at the ripe age of 14. After Lincoln passed away, she threw herself into her work as a means to escape, his death having rocked her world at the time. She berated herself for going along with the plan to punish him. Despite her intelligence, Lincoln's death was the one variable that she did not account for, and she blamed herself for not thinking it through enough to register it as a possibility. As such, it caused her to close herself off emotionally from everyone around her, and had herself legally emancipated from her family. This act greatly upset the Louds, and they begged her not to go through with it, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. After doing so, she changed her last name and moved away to do research at CERN in Switzerland, and like her sister Lucy, hadn't been in contact with the family. To her, banishing Lincoln to the yard as some asinine form of punishment for childish behavior proved to her that emotional thinking and attachments only brought pain, which she vowed never to experience again.
Lilly was still at home, attending Royal Woods Elementary. Being only a baby when Lincoln disappeared, she wasn't able to remember much about him, only that she loved spending time with him and being around him. Her parents would often catch her looking at pictures of her departed brother, trying to recall those feelings she felt when he was alive. Despite the fact that she never really knew him, she felt a close connection to him when she looked at the pictures.
As for Lynn Jr., she took Lincoln's death the hardest out of all of them. Despite her family's attempt to tell her otherwise, she knew that she was to blame for the entire event happening in the first place. Lincoln only wanted to stay home to read his comic instead of attending her softball game, but she felt personally wounded by the fact that he didn't want to come and support her. She had gotten so angry that she threatened to beat him with her softball bat. It had upset her so much that she was having difficulty concentrating during the game. After her team had lost, instead of taking her loss in stride like a true champion, she instead placed the blame squarely on Lincoln, irrationally calling him bad luck and banning him from the rest of her games. The more she saw things breaking around her brother, the more she believed that he really was bad luck. However, her sisters came together for a conference and actually convinced her that Lincoln was doing this on purpose to get out of attending their events. This caused her to become even angrier. To get back at him, they convinced their parents to go along with the bad luck claim, gradually forcing Lincoln out of fun events until he decided to come clean. When he finally did, Lynn was still angry at him, and felt as if he hadn't suffered enough, and kept the punishment going, convincing her family to do so as well.
But it quickly turned into her worst nightmare.
She should have been the one to go to prison. She should have been punished, not her parents. She should have been the one that disappeared that day, not Lincoln. The day it happened, she burned her sports jerseys and sold or destroyed every last bat and ball she had. She came to her various coaches the next day telling them she would be quitting the teams, much to their shock and surprise. Both the coaches and her teammates tried to talk her out of quitting, but her mind was made up. Her obsession with sports is what caused this in the first place, and it no longer had a place in her heart.
Despite the family around her losing hope, she never did. Even after being declared dead, she still held onto the hope that one day he would be found. They never recovered his body, and until she could see it for herself, she promised herself she would never give up, and always held that hope in her heart. It also inspired her to become a better person, so that when she did find her brother, she could spend the rest of her life making up for all the pain and misery she caused him as children.
She started becoming more active in her community. She joined the Big Brother/Big Sister program near her house, and would often spend time mentoring young boys and girls. She regularly spent time at soup kitchens with her father, mother and sisters, and volunteered regularly with local church and charity organizations. Many people would comment and praise her for her dedication to these causes, but she let it wash off her back. She wasn't looking for recognition. She was looking for redemption.
After she graduated, she struggled significantly with figuring out what she should do with her life from then on. It was during this time that her brother's absence was most poignant to her, and she missed him terribly. Whenever she had a problem, he was the first person she would usually go to. Even if she didn't ask him any questions or talk to him, she would enlist him into playing some sport with her, helping her to relax enough to where she was able to work out her problems on her own. But now, the only thing that seemed to give her respite to the pain she felt was regular exercise. It was during one of her morning jogs that she found a flier looking for volunteers to join the police academy. In that moment, it was as if her heart was struck by lightning, and she felt like she had found her true calling. She couldn't fix what happened to Lincoln, but she could at least prevent it from happening to others. After graduating from the Police Academy (as valedictorian nonetheless), she was placed on a beat in the city, near the IT company and dentist office where her parents used to work. And because it was on her way to work, she always made it a point to stop by the cemetery in order to pay respects to her brother. Sometimes, she would simply go there to talk to him. Sometimes, she said nothing at all. But she could see why her sister Lucy always came here when she was younger. There was a serenity here that she felt like she couldn't get anywhere else.
"Hey, Lincoln," She said, taking a deep breath. "Hope you're doing well, wherever you are." She didn't know if she believed in God or an afterlife. In fact, from what she had seen and experienced in her life she began to wonder how a loving God could possibly exist with such suffering in the world. However, there were times, especially when she came here to see him, that she could almost feel her brother's presence, and her hope outweighed her doubts, that she may one day see him again. If there was a God (and many times, despite herself, she found herself praying to one), she hoped He would be merciful enough to her to let this happen.
"As you know, things. . . haven't been great since you . . . left us," Said Lynn, the words catching in her throat. "We still haven't heard from Lucy, Luan or Lisa. Lori is doing well, working at City Hall. She's planning on making a lot of changes, getting more cops on the street. You inspired her to do that. Like you inspired me." She paused for a few minutes, taking deep breaths, trying to steady her voice.
"Lily turns 11 this week," she continued. "When I look at her, I swear it's like looking at you. I know she doesn't remember you much, but her resemblance to you is uncanny, in looks and in personality. A few years ago she found your old Ace Savvy comics and hasn't put them down since. I swear, she's an even bigger fan than you were. . ." She paused again, clearing her throat. "I wish you were around to see her grow up. I wish. . . ." She could feel the lump in her throat return, tears leaking down her cheeks, threatening to break through the floodgates of her emotions. "I just wish you were here, bro. I just wish you were here. I need you. I may not have always shown it, but I needed to have you in my life."
Her alarm on her phone beeped, shaking her from her thoughts. It was time for her to head to work at the police station. She kissed two of her fingertips and placed them on the top of the gravestone, which had become customary for her to do after every visit. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she straightened, took a deep breath, and continued her walk to work. As usual, she was so lost in thought when visiting her brother, she rarely paid attention to her surroundings, and didn't notice the man watching her off in the distance. He continued to stare at her until she disappeared from his sight. Then, he reached into his coat, pulled out a phone and dialed a number.
"It's me," he said once the call was answered. "It's time."