"Where does it come from? This quest, this need to answer life's mysteries where the simplest of questions can never be answered. Where do we come from? What is the soul? Why do we dream? How does one get rid of a wart? No seriously, I have this wart on my foot, it's starting to get all gross, and it's starting to hurt. I've tried everything I can think of. Maybe I should see a doctor."

The next morning Lincoln woke from an intense nightmare. He sat up and wiped the sweat from his face.

After breakfast, Luan met up with Lincoln.

"Hey Linc, you got a sec?" Luan asked.

"Yeah sure." Lincoln said.

"So that comic," Luan said. "The one you gave to the writer of Ace Savvy."

"What about it?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, those characters, the ones you based on us," Luan said. "I've noticed they've become a cannon part of the Ace Savvy universe and umm... Well I've been thinking about my character."

"What about her?" Lincoln asked.

"Well I was wondering if you could, you know," Luan said. "Change her name."

"Why, what's wrong with her old one?" Lincoln asked.

"Lincoln, you called me Joker." Luan said.

"Well yeah," Lincoln said. "We all got card themed names. You like to joke around, so I called you Joker."

"You do know the name Joker was already taken right?" Luan said. "And by a bad guy! I don't want people to think I'm a villain. Especially not one as twisted as the Joker. The guy carves smiles in the bodies of his victims. And I keep having people quote that dumb Joker movie to me."

"Hey, I liked that movie." Lincoln replied.

"Well I'm sick of people coming up to me and saying, you get what you fucking deserve." Luan said. "Like, I get that's what he said in the movie, but it still sounds like a threat. And it's creepy."

"Well what do you want your character to be named?" Lincoln asked.

"I don't know," Luan said. "Just, something other than Joker."

"Well I would have to jump through a lot of hoops," Lincoln said. "I don't even own those characters anymore. I gave the rights over to the comic book company."

Luan sighed.

"But for you, I'll see what I can do." Lincoln smiled.

Lily was sitting on the couch drawing in her sketch book.

Lily was now 4. She had short blond hair and a light purple dress. The day she became potty trained was one of the best days ever in The Loud House.

"Hey Lily, what are you drawing?" Lincoln asked.

"Uh nothing I uh..." Lily stammered as if Lincoln had just caught her doing something very naughty.

"Wait is that me?" Lincoln said.

The picture Lily had drawn, was a dark grizzly image of what looked like Lincoln. He was cloaked in shadow, with fire behind him. His eyes glowed red and his hands extended into sharp vicious looking claws, like that of a bear, or a werewolf.

"Um maybe." Lily said.

"I look like some kind of monster," Lincoln said. "Why would you draw me like that?"

"I don't know, I just kind of saw it." Lily explained.

"You saw it?" Lincoln said. "Like, in a dream?"

"No, I just opened my sketchbook, and this image popped in my head, so I drew it." Lily said. "Are you mad?"

"No, of course I'm not mad." Lincoln sighed. "It's just a drawing. I gotta get to school."

...

While Lori was off for the summer, the high school still had a few more months to go.

With Clyde on vacation until that coming Monday (it was now Friday) Lincoln was stuck in science class without a lab partner.

"For today, how about you work with Chandler." Lincoln's science teacher Mr. White, suggested.

"Uh, yeah sure I uh... Whoa!" Lincoln was shocked at what he saw when Chandler sat next to him.

Chandler had developed a really nasty looking rash on his neck and the side of his face.

"Dude, are you ok?" Lincoln asked.

"Yeah I... I think I'm allergic to something." Chandler said while anxiously scratching himself. "Just kind of sprung up overnight."

Lincoln started to back away from his itching classmate.

"Oh, don't worry dude, I'm sure it's not contagious." Chandler said, scratching the side of his face. "Ugh, damn I can't wait for lunch, I'm fucking starving."

"You think maybe you should go to the nurse?" Lincoln asked.

"I... I don't know maybe." Chandler replied. Then he started to violently cough.

...

Later that day in gym class...

"Alright we're running the mile today." The gym teacher said. "I don't wanna hear any complaining."

The class groaned. Lincoln sighed. Lincoln was not the fastest kid in the class, as a matter of fact he was one of the slowest. Everyone in the class hated running the mile, but Lincoln was often one of the last ones to finish, and he found it humiliating.

Each student was to pick a partner. One partner would run laps around the gym and the other would time them. Then once the first partner had run a mile they would switch.

Lincoln had picked Stella as his partner.

...

Lincoln huffed and puffed; he had finally finished his final lap.

"Holy cow Lincoln, that was amazing!" Stella cheered.

"That's fine Stella." Lincoln said, gasping for breath. "You don't have to make me feel better. I know I'm lousy at this. I'm just glad it's over... until next year anyway."

"No Lincoln I'm serious!" Stella said. "You're the first one done!"

"Huh?" Lincoln looked to see the other kids were still running.

"I've never seen anyone run that fast, Loud." The Gym teacher said. "I think you might have broken a school record."

A confused look spread over Lincoln's face as he watched the other kids finish running.

"Wait ago Linc. I didn't know you had it in you. When did you get so fast?" Where some of the comments from the other kids.

"Well I guess it's my turn." Stella said, as the rest of the first half of kids finished running. "Wish me luck."

Lincoln looked at his time, puzzled.

Stella finished with an average time. She wasn't as shockingly fast as Lincoln was, but not bad either.

"How'd I do?" Stella asked after finishing her final lap.

"Pretty good." Lincoln said.

"Not as good as you though," Stella said. "How did you even do that? Have you been training or something? Going on runs with Lynn?"

"Uh no, I just... ran." Lincoln was still confused. "I didn't even know I was running any faster than normal."

Stella put her hand on his shoulder. "Hey, you should be happy, you did really good."

Lincoln looked at Stella's hand on his shoulder. "Uh Stella, I think your finger's bleeding."

"Oh sorry," Stella pulled her hand back. "I cut myself by accident in shop class. I guess my band-aid fell off."

"Ew, you got blood all over my shirt." Lincoln tried to wipe Stella's blood from his shoulder.

...

Lincoln washed his hands in the sink of the bathroom in the boy's locker room.

"Fastest time running the mile." Lincoln said to himself with a smile. "Now that's pretty cool. Hey what the?"

He looked at his hand to see that the, otherwise pale Caucasian skin on his hand had somehow darkened to a chocolate brown.

He studied his hand. His fingernails had changed too. The nails on that hand somehow looked more, feminine than usual. It looked as though he had someone else's hand.

Suddenly the dark skin color started to spread up his arm like a rash. As the dark color spread across his body other changes happened too. His hair grew longer and turned black. His blue eyes turned brown and even changed shape.

Within moments the face Lincoln saw in the mirror was not his own. Rather the face looking back at him was... Stella.

He heard a knock on the door.

"Hey what's going on in there?" a voice from the other side of the door demanded.

"Uh, just a minute." Lincoln said. Then he covered his mouth immediately in a panic. The voice that came out of his mouth was Stella's.

Even his body had morphed into Stella's hourglass figure.

"Dude, why do you sound like a girl?" The boy outside the bathroom asked.

"Uh... soar throat." Lincoln said, trying to make his voice as deep as he could. He looked down at his pants.

"I don't even wanna know." He mumbled to himself.

He close his eyes. "Change back into Lincoln, change back into Lincoln."

He opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief to once again see his own face in the mirror.

Lincoln opened the door.

"She's all yours." Lincoln said to the boy who was anxiously dancing around trying to hold in his pee.

"Ah gross dude!" A voice came from elsewhere in the locker room.

Lincoln hurried to where the voice came from.

Chandler stood in the isle of lockers with his shirt off. The rash he had from earlier seemed to have spread.

A large patch covering his chest and back had turned red and was covered in bumps and boils.

"Dude that is sick!" one of the boys yelled.

"Is that contagious?"

"Stay the hell away from me man!"

"It's, just a rash guys!" Chandler said. He was starting to grit his teeth and a vein was popping out in his neck. "Would you quit being a bunch of babies."

Lincoln cautiously stepped toward Chandler. "Chandler? Are you ok?"

"I'm fucking fine!" Chandler snapped. "How about everyone just minds their own damn business and leaves me alone!" He scratched his face vigorously. Some sort of boil on his cheek popped, squirting puss and blood on a nearby locker.

"EW!" A group of boys yelled.

...

Lincoln sat quietly with his group of friends at lunch thinking about what had just happened.

"Did you guys hear what happened to Chandler?" Stella asked the group.

"I heard he started to turn into a zombie." Zack said.

"I heard he exploded." Rusty pointed out.

"Chandler?" Lincoln said. "Nah, he just got a really bad rash or something. I saw it. He eventually agreed to see a nurse." As weird and gross as Chandler's rash was, Lincoln wasn't really thinking about that. After all, it was just a rash. What happened to Lincoln, now that was creepy. He literally turned into another person for a few moments.

Then Lincoln wondered. If he had turned into Stella. Did she turn into him? Like some sort of body switching thing. If so, she hadn't mentioned it.

"Hey Stella?" Lincoln asked. "Did anything strange happen to you in the locker room?"

"What kind of strange?" Stella asked.

"You know, like something weird happening with your body?" Lincoln asked.

The table went silent for a moment as the others starred awkwardly at Lincoln.

"Are you asking if I had my period?" Stella asked. "Because that's none of your business."

"WHAT?!?! No I was just uh..." Lincoln blushed. "So uh, yeah that thing with Chandler was super weird huh?" Lincoln tried to change the subject.

"Yeah I really hope he's ok." Stella said.

"Psh, who cares man?" Zach said.

"Yeah, Chandler ain't exactly the nicest fella around." Liam agreed.

"Oh come on guy's." Stella said. "He's a frie... We know him... He's a kid just like us. And I bet he's really scared right now."

"Well there's nothing we can do for him now." Lincoln said.

"Yeah I guess." Stella said.

...

Later Lincoln caught up with Stella in the hallway.

"Hey Stella. I need to talk to you." Lincoln said.

"Uh... sure." Stella said.

"About what I said at lunch today." Lincoln said. "That question I asked you."

"Uh... can we just forget you said that?" Stella said. "Please."

"I wasn't trying to be a creep." Lincoln said. "Something happened to me after gym, in the locker room."

"Something happened to you?"

"I know this is going sound insane but." Lincoln said. "I sort of... turned into you."

"You turned into me? I don't get it. What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I literally transformed into you." Lincoln said.

"You transformed?" Stella raised an eyebrow.

"I... I thought that maybe, if I turned into you. You might have turned into me." Lincoln explained. "Like maybe we switched bodies somehow."

"No, I didn't turn into anyone." Stella said.

"Then it was just me." Lincoln said.

"Maybe you have superpowers." Stella suggested. "Like a superhero from one of your comics."

"So, like, shapeshifting?" Lincoln said. "I guess that could be pretty cool."

"Honestly I'm having a bit of trouble believing this." Stella said. "Do you have any proof this happened? Can you do it again?"

"Well I don't know if I can do it on command." Lincoln said. "And what if I can't change back and I get stuck being a girl."

"Whatever Lincoln." Stella rolled her eyes. "I gotta get to class."

...

The School day had ended and Lincoln was walking out to the bus stop. There he spotted another one of his classmates, Jordan walking into the street. She had a pair of headphones on and was listening to music.

Then the bus came speeding down the road.

"Out of the way!" The bus driver yelled out of his window. "My breaks are out, I can't stop!"

Lincoln saw the bus was heading right toward Jordan, about to crush her. Unfortunately she couldn't hear the cries of the bus driver over her music.

"Jordan Look out!" Lincoln ran to the street.

Just in the nick of time he pushed Jordan out of the way of the speeding bus. Unfortunately, Lincoln got hit instead.

The bus slammed into Lincoln's side. To say it knocked the wind out of him would be an understatement. Lincoln's crimson red blood coated the yellow grill of the bus. He fell to the ground and the tires of the bus rolled over his body.

His body rolled on the ground like a ragdoll as the tires rolled over him making a sickening spat sound. The bus turned and fell onto its side.

"Lincoln!" Jorden shrieked at the site of the white-haired boy lying lifeless on the ground.

The entire school gathered at the site.

The bus driver climbed out of the wreck. He walked over to Lincoln's body and fell to his knees. "Nnnnnoooooo!!!!!!"

Jordan cupped her hands over her mouth as tears flowed down her face.

Lincoln's friends pushed their way through the crowd.

"No..." Stella said softly as tears filled her face.

"I... Is he?" Liam said.

Stella whipped out her phone. "I... I should call Clyde." She stammered.

"No." Rusty said. "He'll find out when he gets back Monday."

Stella again looked at Lincoln's lifeless corps. "Yeah, I'll... let him enjoy his last few days of vacation."

Jorden was on her hands and knees, clenching her stomach as she sobbed.

"This is my fault." Jordan sobbed. "I'm so sorry."

"Muh..." Lincoln began to stir.

The crowd gasped as Lincoln slowly got to his feet.

Lincoln calmly got onto one foot, then the other and stood up. He brushed the dust from his red Ace Savvy t-shirt and blue jeans. He let out a couple of coughs but showed no sign of destress. He looked around and noticed the burning bus.

"WHOA!" Lincoln stepped back. "What happened? Did anyone get hurt? Wh... why is everyone looking at me?"

"You... That bus just ran you over." Jordan said, her voice trembling.

"It did?" Lincoln said. "But I don't feel like I got hit by a bus." Then Lincoln looked down at his feet to see the ground covered in blood.

"Lincoln." Jordan smiled. "You saved my life."

...

Lincoln sat in the back of an ambulance. An EMT shined a light in the boy's eyes.

"Are you in any pain?" The EMT asked. Putting the light away.

"No, I'm fine." Lincoln answered.

"Can you remember anything from the incident?"

"I don't know." Lincoln scratched his head. "It all happened so fast. I just saw that bus speeding toward Girl Jorden. Um... Jorden. There are two Jordens in my grade, a boy and a girl. So, we call her Girl Jorden. But anyway, I saw the bus wasn't slowing down. So, I don't know, I just reacted."

"Did you know you would be hit instead of her?" The EMT asked.

"I wasn't thinking about that." Lincoln said. "I just wanted to save my friend."

...

Lincoln was brought to the hospital to have some tests done, including x-rays.

Lincoln's parents and sisters rushed to the hospital as soon as they heard what happened.

"Oh Lincoln! My sweet baby boy!" Rita, Lincoln's mother embraced her son in a motherly hug. His father, Lynn Sr. joined in the hug as well.

"Are you ok?" Rita asked, her eyes full of tears.

"Yeah," Lincoln shrugged. "Just peachy."

The sisters fallowed.

"Hey Stincoln." Lynn Jr. said. "I heard you saved a girl's life today."

"Yeah I guess I did." Lincoln smiled.

"Oh my gosh Lincoln are you ok?" Leni asked in a panicked voice.

The sisters all surrounded Lincoln asking hundreds of questions at once.

"Girls, you're overwhelming him. One at a time." Lynn Sr. said.

Then a doctor walked into the room.

"What's the bad news doc?" Lynn Sr. asked. "Give it to us straight, is my boy going to make it?"

"Uh..." The Doctor said scratching his head. "It's the weirdest thing but... Well yeah. We... couldn't find anything wrong with him. No broken bones, no damaged tissue, not even a sprain."

"Wow! That's great news!" Lynn Sr. said.

"Mr. and Mrs. Loud." The Doctor said. "Your son got hit dead on by a school bus that weighed over 12 tons and somehow came out of it without so much as a single scratch. We've looked at the tests and x-rays over and over again. We've even retaken his x-rays."

"It's true," Lincoln confirmed. "They took x-rays twice."

"I'm not religious," The doctor said. "But this is nothing short of a miracle."

"Or a comic book." Lincoln added.

"Uh yeah, I guess." The Doctor said

Meanwhile in another room at that very hospital...

A doctor walked into the room. He was an older gentleman with grey hair. He had an unbuttoned suit and walked with a cane.

"Chandler McCann." The doctor greeted his patient. A red-haired teenager with a severe rash that was spreading across his body. The teenager was accompanied by two very worried parents.

"My name is Doctor House." The doctor introduced himself.

"Oh well la tee dah. Of course, it fucking is!" Chandler said.

"Chandler!" His mother scorned.

"I have been assigned to your case." House explained.

"Oh gee, have you now?" Chandler said aggressively itching his arms. "I though you were here to fix the plumbing."

"Wow, your son is just a ball of sunshine and rainbows, isn't he?" House said to Chandler's dad.

"I'm sorry man!" Chandler fell to his knees and started to cry. "I'm just... I'm just so... so scared. I'm in constant agony and I don't know why! Please help me!!!!"

His mother knelt down to comfort him.

"Mood swings." House said. "guess we can add that to his list of symptoms." Then the doctor noticed something, he knelt down to look his patient in the eye. "Chandler... what color are your eyes?"

"Uh... Brown, duh!" Chandler said, reverting back to his sarcastic voice. "Are you blind or something? Why are you asking my eye color when you can see them in front of your face?"

"Because one of your eye seems to have turned blue." House replied.

...

"Dang bro, I can't believe you got hit point blank by a school bus and didn't even get a scratch." Lynn said as the family entered the loud house. "You're totally my new hero."

"Thanks," Lincoln blushed. "I guess I was just lucky."

"Or you're an actual superhero." Lynn said.

"Hey Lincoln, can I talk to you?" Luan asked.

Lincoln fallowed Luan into her room.

"What's up?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, about what we were talking about earlier." Luan said. "About my character in you comics. I think I know what I want my superhero name to be."

"Ok, tell me." Lincoln replied.

"How about... Shock humor." Luan said with a faint smile.

"Shock humor?" Lincoln looked puzzled. "Why shock humor?"

"I have my reasons." Luan said, as a light behind her started to flicker. "AH CHEW!"

Luan sneezed in Lincoln's face.

"Ugh! LUAN! Cover your mouth!" Lincoln whipped the snot from his annoyed face.

"Whoops sorry." Luan gave a guilty laugh. "That was snot very polite of me."

Lincoln grumbled at the cheesy pun. "I'm gonna go wash my face off. I'll see if I can get into contact with the comic book company about your character's name."

Lincoln headed to bathroom.

He splashed water in his face and looked himself in the mirror.

"Not again," Lincoln said upon seeing not his own face but Luan's face looking back at him in the mirror. He shook his head and his face turned back to normal.

I touched Stella's blood, then I turned into Stella Lincoln thought to himself. Then Luan sneezed on me and I turned into her. I wonder if this has something to do with DNA.

Then he heard a crackling sound.

He looked down at his hands. Small yellow sparks of electricity were shooting from his fingertips.

"Well that's..." He said. "Shocking."