There were a number of things Lincoln was ready for this morning.

Having a boring day at school as always.

Getting hit with a pop quiz from his history teacher.

Having some trouble with his sisters again.

This however?

This wasn't something he was ready for.

The white haired teenager rolled out of the way again as several cards nearly collided where he was. A small explosion took place, causing him to wince slightly. Shaking his head slightly, he looked up towards the roofs to see the two girls engaged in battle.

The brunette jumped from rooftop to rooftop, firing card projectiles at the black haired girl. Following her was the dark creature that seemed to be controlled by other girl as it attacked with claws and bites.

'What the hell is going on…?' Lincoln thought with an amazed yet confused expression. He looked around the area, observing the damage the two were causing. 'Where is everyone? Why are these two even battling in the first place? Scratch that, where did they come from?! They weren't there ten minutes ago!"

Warning bells in his head went off again as he noticed a bit of debris come falling towards him.

"Shit!" Lincoln rolled out of the way once again before dashing towards a house and hiding behind it as he attempted to catch his breath.

Not knowing that he was heard…

"Hmm?"

Maggie Granger raised an eyebrow as she looked towards the street. Her dark eyes glared towards the ground before a battle cry caught her attention. Looking back, she saw several cards come flying towards her.

"Tch. Yami." On cue, the dark shadow that had been doing her fighting for her appeared in front of her and crossed it's arms in an X in front of it. The result was a small explosion that pushed Maggie back a few inches but she showed no further signs of damage.

Nor did the shadow creature as the only signs that an attack took place was the dirt that appeared on it's arms.

Maggie let out a sigh, looking boringly at the other girl. "Is that all you can do? It's starting to get old."

The brunette twisted her mouth seemingly in frustration as she pulled out several more cards from her sides. "Shut up! It's not like you managed to do much damage either! Not to mention, your monster is doing all the fighting!"

'She sounds like a little kid…' Maggie simply sighed once again before pointing at the girl. "Yami. Get her."

The creature once again rushed at the girl causing her to jump back to create some distance. She sent several more of her cards at the monster, but it simply maneuvered through them and appeared in front of the teenager, much to her surprise. With a large grin, it struck the girl sending her crashing to the ground.

Maggie watched before hearing a cutting through the wind noise, causing her to look behind her as she noticed the cards from earlier come racing back towards her.

"Crap, Yami!" The emo teen called her monster as it came rushing back to intercept the attack as another explosion took place. Though it succeeded in doing so, the resulting force sent Maggie flying back and off the roof into several bushes.

The black haired teenager groaned as she pulled herself out, wincing as she had felt a few thorns cut into her skin. She hadn't been prepared for the cards to be heat seeking of sorts.

'That's what I get for letting my guard down…' Maggie berated herself as she brushed a few leaves out of her hair. Looking up, she saw her opponent pick herself up off the ground with a wince of her own.

"You're not bad." Maggie commented, a small smirk forming on her face.

A smirk appeared on the other girl's face as well. "Thanks, you're pretty good too. If you weren't attacking me, I'd almost ask you to join my group. Especially since we need more people."

"Heh, well sorry, but I prefer to be a solo act." A shadow rose up from behind Maggie once again. "Now… let's get back to it."

"Now you're speaking my lang-" The brunette suddenly stopped as if a thought just came to mind. "Hey, do you know what time it is?"

Maggie raised a perplexed eyebrow. "You're asking the person you're fighting what time it is?" Getting a sheepish look in return, Maggie simply pulled out her phone. "It's… 8 am."

The words seem to process through the card wielding girl as her eyes widened. "Oh… crap! I'm going to be late!" She grinned sheepishly at Maggie, holding a hand up. "Sorry, but if I get more tardy, I'll get detention for sure!"

Before Maggie could even attempt to respond, the girl ran off before disappearing into thin air. The emo teenager blinked before sighing with a shake of her head.

"And just like that…" She looked up with a tired expression. "The magic was gone. Well no use complaining about it. Return Yami."

Behind her, the dark creature nodded before sinking back into Maggie's own shadow. Maggie let out a sigh, stretching her neck as she looked down at her hand, clenching it into a fist.

'It's still not enough… I have to get stronger.' She glared intensely at seemingly nothing before turning to her side and calling out. "Hey! I know you're there, so you can come out now."

She heard a small curse before slowly, a teenage boy around her age stepped out from behind a house with his hands raised in the air.

Two teenagers stood in the middle of what appeared to be an abandoned street. One slightly nervous and confused, the other seemingly apathetic.

Lincoln gulped slightly, not sure of what to say in this situation nor what to even do. One moment he was walking to school as normal, the next thing he knew he was watching two girls have a battle he could only think of in a fantasy setting.

It also didn't help that Maggie was giving him a look of which he could not discern. Her black eyes seemingly studying him. It unnerved him out a bit, and he remained on guard.

Finally after a few moments of silence, Maggie finally spoke. "You're Lincoln right? Lincoln Loud? Lucy's big brother?"

"Um… yeah?" Lincoln was curious as to why Maggie knew his eleven year old sister and as well as why this was her way of remembering who he was. However, knowing the two of them have never really interacted before it really shouldn't be that much of a surprise. "You're Maggie Granger right?"

Maggie's eyes narrowed, causing Lincoln to think he might have angered her before she spoke again. "So I am right…" She placed a hand to her chin. "How did you get here?"

Lincoln laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Uh... I was hoping you'd know the answer to that. One minute, I'm walking to school as normal and the next minute I see you and…" Lincoln thought it over for a moment. "Renee fighting."

"I see…" Maggie closed her eyes in thought for a moment before holding a hand to the sky. "We need to get to school, so we'll talk about this later at lunch."

Before Lincoln could respond or question her, Maggie shouted.

"ID Barrier! Break!"

And the world returned to normal.

"Now as you can see, if you carry the two…"

If there was one thing Ronnie Anne Santiago was sure of, it was that she hated Algebra.

The sixteen year old latina sat at her desk staring out a window in the classroom, a bored expression across her face as she barely listened to the lecture going on. She idly blew a loose strand of black hair that fell in front of her face away.

'Maybe I should have worn my hair in a ponytail today…' The girl thought in slight annoyance, continuing to stare out the window as her thoughts began to wander.

"Ms. Santiago."

The teenage girl perked up at the sound of her name as she looked back towards the board to see the teacher glaring at her with his arms crossed.

"Just wanted to make sure you were back on Earth with the rest of us." His expression turned annoyed. "If not, I could always stop. Wouldn't want to waste your time."

Ronnie Anne flinched, waving her hands in front of her frantically. "Oh! No Mr. Smith, you weren't boring me! I was just thinking about something is all!"

"Is that so? Well, I advise you to think about the class material at the moment. Midterms will be here before you know it." Mr. Smith looked at the rest of his class, with a stern glare. "That's for all of you. I know you kids are excited for the Sadie Hawkins dance coming up soon but instead of doing as you youngsters do and 'get jiggy with it' I suggest you all study instead."

A chorus of "Yes sir." came in response, though quite a few of them winced at the teacher's attempt at slang.

Ronnie Anne was one of them, her eyebrow twitching. 'Get jiggy with it? Does anybody even say that nowadays?'

Before she could further question her teacher's vocabulary, the classroom door opened up as a teenager with white hair walked in.

"Ah, Mister Loud nice of you to finally join us." Mr. Smith said, tone dripping with sarcasm. "I hope you have your tardy excuse.

Lincoln scratched the back of his head with a nervous smiled as he pulled out a small white slip from his pocket. "Yeah, here you go Mr. Smith. Sorry, got lost on my way here because I wanted to try out a new route."

"Yes, yes, just remember to be more careful next time." The teacher placed the note on his desk before returning to the board.

Lincoln shook his head before approaching his desk, which was right next to Ronnie Anne's. The latina smiled at the sight of one of her best friends, leaning closer to him so she could speak in a whisper.

"What's up Lame-O?"

Lincoln smirked back. "Nothing but the sky Ronnie Anne. Same stuff as always."

"Whatever…" The girl rolled her eyes, but her smile remained. "So, what's up with being late for class today?"

"Oh that?" Lincoln muttered, scratching the back of his head. "I… got lost on the way here remember?"

Ronnie Anne's expression turned deadpan. "Yeah, like I believe that from you of all people. Who was the one who used to plan all of our trick or treating routes for Halloween again?"

"Everyone makes mistakes Ms. Santiago." A grin formed on Lincoln's face, showing the girl that he was obviously enjoying messing with her. "Can't expect me to be perfect all the time."

Ronnie Anne's reaction was the simply roll her eyes once again with a snort of amusement as she turned her gaze back to the front of the classroom. No need to risk getting in trouble with a teacher she already ready wasn't popular with.

'Still though…' Her black eyes turning back to look at Lincoln as he was pulling out his notebook. 'Something's up with him, he's been acting weird for awhile now. I wonder what…?'

Until then, it was probably best that she paid attention in class.

"Here you go kid."

Lincoln grimaced as what at best appeared to be a slob of meat was placed on his tray. Along with it, was a carton of milk, a cup of red jello, and a sugar cookie.

'And for today's culinary delights, we bring you the Royal Woods High's special." Shaking off his slight disgust, he nodded his thanks to the lunch lady as he moved along the line. As he stood there, his thoughts began to wander back to this morning.

'Just what was going on? Why were Maggie and Renee even fighting?' He didn't know much about Maggie, but having known Renee for several years now, he knew the girl was far from the type of pick a fight.

Then again, until now he didn't know the girl had some superpowers of sorts until now either…

As the teenager pondered over this thoughts, a hand came across his shoulder with a few taps and getting his attention. Turning his head, he looked to see a familiar brunette in a red Ace Savvy shirt smiling at him.

"Hey, it's your turn Linc." The girl said, pointing to the front. Lincoln turned his gaze to see the cashier waiting on him.

"Oh…" Lincoln muttered, running a hand across the back of his neck. "Sorry about that."

A few short moments later, the second eldest of the Loud children walked out to the main part of the cafeteria before stopping and looking behind him to see the brunette from earlier approaching him.

"Finally with us Linc?" The grin on the girl's face held a small amount of playfulness behind it, causing Lincoln to smile sheepishly.

"Yeah, I am. Sorry Renee, just been a bit out of it today." The boy responded, as they began to walk to the table where their group usually sat at. "By the way, can we talk later?"

"Hmm?" Renee raised an eyebrow in confusion. "About what Linc?"

Lincoln placed his tray down on the table. "It's just abo-"

A hand placing itself on his right shoulder caught his attention, as he turned to see a pair of charcoal eyes staring at him causing him to flinch.

"Excuse me, but we need to talk Loud." Maggie turned her gaze towards Renee. "You don't mind do you?"

Lincoln turned his vision to his friend, who held an unreadable expression on her face making him slightly nervous the two would start fighting here and now. However, to his relief Renee simply sighed before nodding as she began to walk over to their friends.

Lincoln sighed as well, turning back to the emo teenager. "You know, considering you were just fighting her this morning, you're pretty direct with Renee."

"Figured she wouldn't fly off the handle and attack me at school or try and open an ID barrier." Maggie answered back with a shrug, leading Lincoln to the back of the cafeteria. "Anyway that's not important, I did say I'd tell you more about what happened."

"Yeah you did…" Lincoln muttered, sitting down at the table as Maggie sat across from him. The girl brushed a lock of hair out from her eyes as she took a breath.

"To keep it simple, the Abyss is an underground hidden from the general public. Not many people know about it, but it does have an influence on world events affecting things like economics, elections, and the like." Maggie started, poking a fork into her lunch and cringing slightly in disgust as it fell over giving a foul smell. Shaking her head, she continued. "It's also just not stationed in Royal Woods, Michigan, or even the United States. It's all over the world in every country, every nation, and every continent."

Lincoln nodded, processing the information. "So basically an underground that's hidden from the whole world right?" He placed a hand under his chin. "So… what's up with those abilities you and Renee have."

"We're what you call Natural Ability users. To put it in simple terms, they're people with special powers." Maggie started, gesturing with her hands. "No one really knows how you get them, but we can do things out of the ordinary like summoning a monster out of your shadow."

Lincoln snorted at that, but let Maggie continue.

"People like us rule the Abyss. Sure, there are people who don't have abilities that hold some type of power here, but they have a strong influence or deep pockets. They often surround themselves with strong people, using the Abyss as a way to grow more powerful here and outside."

"Huh… sounds dangerous."

"It is, people get killed here or can suffer a fate much worse than death if they're not careful." Maggie's gaze hardened slightly as she stared at Lincoln. "Trust me when I say this Loud. You don't want to get involved in the Abyss. Forget everything you saw today and go back to living your life."

Lincoln stayed silent at that as Maggie stood up from the table with her tray in her hands. As she walked past him, he called out to her. "Then why are you involved in the Abyss?"

Maggie remained silent for a few moments, not a word being said between the two of them.

"Because…" Maggie almost whispered in a soft tone. "Because I'm trying to find someone. Someone very important to me and that's all you need to know. We're not friends Loud, don't get it twisted. You're on your own from here on out."

With that Maggie walked away to discard of her lunch as Lincoln sat at the table in his own thoughts. Eventually he sighed as he placed a hand to his temple.

"Dang it, what do I do?"

The second half of the school day just seemed like a blur to Lincoln. He could barely remember what he went over in the lectures as his mind continued to wander back to the conversation he had with Maggie.

'What do I do?' The teenager tapped his pencil against his cheek as he stared off into space in thought.

The smart thing to do would to do as Maggie said and forget everything that happened this morning. He didn't know anything about the Abyss. Why should he risk his life in it for no real reason? Just because he had a Natural Ability that turned his life into a video game? That was stupid!

But.

But… he couldn't explain it but some part of him wanted to get involved. It was as if a part of him called out to this type of challenge in front of him. He wanted to get involved. He wanted to get stronger.

He just didn't know why…

The boy sighed, watching as his Biology teacher went over her lecture using PowerPoint slides. It wasn't the most interesting subject, but as long as he passes he didn't really care. Not to mention, there were times she wasn't the greatest teacher.

'Still…' Lincoln placed a hand under his chin in thought. 'If I wanted to get stronger, how would I even go along with that? I'm only level nine at the moment. Sure I work out from time to time, but if I want to get near Maggie's and Renee's level I need more than doing exercises and pushing my body.'

He sat there thinking, trying to come up with solutions to his problem. As far as he knew, he was a blank state character in a video game. The possibilities for him are endless, and the sky was the limit.

'If I'm going to get stronger, I'm going to need grind. Problem is, how can I do t-huh?'

A small blue screen popped up in front of him, grabbing his attention. He looked around, making sure no one was paying too much attention to him before he read the text.

Congratulations! You have begun your first steps down the path of getting strong through a strong desire. To help you reach this goal, we will now grant you access to the Item World, where you can grind your equipment level while also getting stronger yourself as you proceed down floors where enemies get stronger each time!

Lincoln blinked. "Item… World?"

"Mr. Loud?"

Lincoln jumped slightly noticing everyone turning their gaze towards him. His teacher in particular had a perplexed look on her face.

"Is something the matter Mr. Loud?" She asked once again.

Lincoln blinked again before holding up his hands and grinning nervously. "Oh! No it's nothing Ms. Yates!"

Ms. Yates simply stared at him for a moment before returning back to her lecture, as a sigh of relief escaped Lincoln's lips. While everyone's attention was away from him, he quickly closed the screen with a tap of his fingers.

'Well… I guess that answers my question on how I can get stronger.' A small smile appeared on Lincoln's face, excitement starting to bubble in him. 'Can't wait to try it.'

The rest of the class went by quickly and Lincoln grabbed his things as he headed towards his locker with a small amount of excitement but nervousness to his step.

'Wonder if I should head home real quick to grab anything?' He opened his locker, grabbing the books he would need for tonight's homework. 'Hmm, I don't think I need to. I got a few things in my inventory, so hopefully that should be enough. On that note, I should probably wait until I'm in a secluded area before doing this. Don't need to risk disappearing where anyone can see me."

Lincoln sighed as he closed his locker. "Alright, I'm ready."

"Ready for what?"

Lincoln's eyes widened slightly in surprise as he turned his side to see Renee looking at him with a smile. Her arms were crossed as she leaned on the lockers with a small mischievous look in her eyes.

"Oh Renee! Didn't notice you there!"

"I can tell…" Renee breathed out a small laugh as she pushed herself off the lockers. "Getting ready to head home?"

"Uh… yeah." Lincoln said, before noticing a couple of lines of text above Renee's head.

Renee Mason

Level 23 Ace Savvy Fangirl

'Well that's fitting…' Lincoln thought with a deadpan face.

Renee didn't seem to notice as she stepped a bit closer to Lincoln. "By the way, during lunch you said you wanted to talk to me about something. So what was it?"

"Oh…" Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "That? Er… don't worry about it now. It was no big deal to begin with."

"You sure? Your face looked kind of serious back then."

"I'm sure Renee, it's cool!" Lincoln rubbed a hand against the back of his neck with a laugh. "It solved itself in a way you can say."

Renee's mouth twisted a bit in thought before opening. "Lincoln I-"

"Here you are Renee."

The brunette seemed to jump in surprise as she and Lincoln looked behind her to see a bespectacled female brunette wearing what appeared to be a green and white school uniform of sorts standing behind Renee with a slightly stern frown.

The girl tapped her foot slightly in what appeared to be annoyance from Lincoln's point of view as she took another step towards Renee, looking up as she was a bit shorter. "I was just looking for you. Considering we were all supposed to meet up in the Student Council room fifteen minutes ago, and you were the only one out of us four that was missing."

"Oh…" Renee grew a nervous smile on her face. "S-Sorry about that Hazel. I was just talking to my friend Lincoln here about something."

Hazel took her gaze off of Renee to look at Lincoln who simply held a hand up in greeting sheepishly. He chuckled as he shifted his backpack on his back. "Sorry about that um Hazel. Didn't know I was holding her up."

It was then he noticed a group of text above Hazel's head.

Hazel Stresa

Level 21 Student Council Secretary

"Oh no, you're perfectly fine Lincoln." Hazel's brown eyes seemed to shine through her glasses as she glared at Renee. "Renee here is the one who should know better."

Renee scoffed under her breath, which Lincoln managed to pick up. "Sorry mom…"

"Excuse me?"

"N-Nothing! So hey, let's not keep Yuna and Karin waiting shall we!" Renee waved towards Lincoln as she began to walk briskly away. "See you later Linc!"

Lincoln and Hazel both observed as the brown haired Ace Savvy fan started to dash down the halls. Lincoln turned towards Hazel as she sighed in what he could tell was exasperation.

"What am I going to do with these three…? I'm not even the leader." Hazel muttered, before turning back to Lincoln and giving him a nod as she began to walk away herself.

Lincoln scratched the side of his head in confusion. "What just happened?"

Shrugging to himself, he walked out the school with his destination already in mind.

It wasn't a long walk to one of the forests. Royal Woods High was actually pretty close to one, which made it pretty nice when he needed to get away from the public eye. It helped even more that a Burpin Burger joint that recently opened up was on the way there.

Lincoln chewed on the double cheese burpin burger as he ducked under a few branches as he went deeper into the forest. Swallowing, he crunched the wrapper into a small ball before stuffing it into his pocket. Finally approaching a clearing that was surrounded by trees, he smiled as he placed his backpack down on the ground.

"Alright." The sole son of the Loud family stretched a bit before swiping down and pulling up a holographic screen that contained a portrait of himself along with a number of parameters and other options. "Let's check out this Item World."

Maneuvering through the options, he soon came up to an option that said "Open Item World." With a small breath, he pushed the button as right before him opened up a green portal catching him completely off guard.

"Wasn't expecting that…" Lincoln muttered, approaching the portal cautiously and looking around it. Not seeing anything of obvious danger, he simply took a deep breath before grabbing his backpack and entering the portal.

For the next few minutes, nothing but green clouded his vision as he fell down what seemed like an endless hole, screaming as he flailed around. Eventually, it stopped as he ended up on what felt like solid ground though strangely he wasn't in any pain.

"Okay…" Lincoln muttered as he stood up, dusting himself off as he checked for any injuries. "Really wasn't expecting that."

Finally gathering himself, he looked around to notice what appeared to be a nearly empty space with the exception of the grey tiled floor he was standing on. He looked up to notice that the sky was green without a single cloud.

"Well this is trippy…" Suddenly another screen popped out in front of Lincoln, catching his attention.

Hello and welcome to the Item World! This is a separate space from reality where you can train your Equipment Level which will give benefits and stat boosts to your equipment. Here you will fight a number of enemies on a floor before moving down to the next one when you defeat all of them. Be careful as the further you go down, the stronger they'll get! Don't worry though, if you are killed in combat you will simply awaken back in the real world. However, you will not be able to leave without an Escape Crystal until you clear the floor you are currently on, so be careful! As a gift, we have placed ten Escape Crystals in your inventory just now. Alright, that's the gist of things, so let's begin shall we?

As soon as Lincoln finish reading the next, it disappear being replaced by a countdown from ten.

'Throwing me in fire already huh?' Lincoln got into a fighting stance he learned from his grandfather. 'Well like Pop Pop said, the best way to learn is to just do it!'

3…

2..

1.

As the timer hit zero, a loud buzzing sound sounded throughout the air. On cue, six small columns of data appeared in front of Lincoln causing him to tense slightly. Soon they disappear as in their place came small green monstrous looking creatures equipped with clubs came to life.

Lincoln looked above their heads, observing their title.

Goblin Servant

Level 3 Monster

"Hmm…" The teenager then silently used his Observe skill, taking a look at the creatures stats.

Suddenly, one of them rushed towards him with a battle cry, jumping in the air as it sought to strike him with it's club. A wicked grin was on it's face as it closed in.

"Raa-!"

Faster than it could react, a fist smashed itself into it's face sending it flying back past it's brethren before crashing harshly across the ground. The other goblins looked at their fallen ally before turning back to Lincoln, who was smirking in return.

"So…" Lincoln cracked his knuckles as a glint grew in his eyes as he approached the monsters. A large, predatory grin appeared on his face causing the goblins to take a step back in fear.

"Who's next?"

Whew! Finally managed to get this out. Med School is rough lol...

Sorry about the wait, but life calls and all that jazz so it can be hard finding time to write. Instead of writing chapters or playing games, I'm too busy learning surgical instruments. I haven't even watched most of the third season of Loud House yet, though I'm hearing it wasn't that great. Considering they lost their creator (despite how scummy the things he did was) not too surprising there was that big of a dip of quality. Either way, hopefully the series recovers.

Anyway, I am speeding things up a bit as far as Lincoln's progression goes. I wasn't too big of a fan of how I handled it in the original fic in some aspects so made some changes. Also I'm aiming to make him more of a solo now. There also wasn't appearances by his sisters in this chapter either, but couldn't find too good of moment to add them. I know a few of you guys might be wondering who Hazel is. She's a character from Epic Seven which is a mobile game I've been playing lately. I won't say too much about this yet, but just wait and see. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get the next chapter out.

Anyway please review, tell me how you felt, and have yourselves a good one.

Liexi