I'm back!

I was going to post this three weeks ago, but unfortunately I've became a victim of the greatest evil of all time: the blue screen.

Luckily, I had a backup. XD

Recently, I received some PM's, and I'm happy to finally see that there are people paying attention to my references. Especially Imagaco's review in the last chapter. Seriously, I try to put at least one per chapter, and with the number of views this fic had, I was almost convinced that no one was paying attention.

DATE: MAY, 2, 2015, GUS' GAMES AND GRUB, ROYAL WOODS, 16H43M

Lincoln found himself in front of one of his favorite places in the Royal Woods, but this time he was not there to enjoy a good time.

He and Ronnie were waiting for Clyde and his friends, he standing at the door and she leaning against the wall, her hands in the pockets of her hoodie. They were waiting for almost ten minutes, getting more nervous as time passed.

"Did he suspect about me?"

But before their worries could grow even more, they saw four boys approaching, and Clyde was among them.

They immediately recognized two of the boys, confirming that Rusty and Zach were Clyde's friends. The third boy was slightly shorter than Lincoln and had light orange hair in a bowl cut ; he wore a striped shirt with two shades of blue, light brown shorts and sneakers so mud-soiled that it was impossible to be sure of the color.

The four of them approached the young heroes, and Clyde immediately greeted Lincoln.

"Good to see you, man." Clyde exclaimed, turning to show his friends. "These are Rusty, Zach and Liam, my best friends." He turned to the boys, pointing at Lincoln. "Guys, this is Lincoln Loud."

"Wow... I can't believe it's really you." Zach exclaimed, being the first to shake Lincoln's hand.

Rusty then approached, looking at Lincoln with some curiosity.

"Hey! You were at the science fair, weren't you?"

"Oh… yeah! I... I was there. You know, my dad had an appointment and thought it would be nice to take the kids with him."

"Heh! I understand very well." Rusty spoke nonchalant, starting to boast. "My father also likes to involve my brother and me in his work."

Lincoln looked at Liam, surprised at the boy. Not only was he wearing his dirty shoes, he looked tired, as if he were about to go to bed.

"Are you alright?"

"What are you talking about? I'm great." The boy exclaimed, before yawning. "I'm ready for anything."

The white-haired kid raised an eyebrow and looked at the other boys, who were a bit embarrassed. Clyde then approached and began to whisper in his ear.

"We've seen him like this before, and he will never tell you what happened. Liam lives on a farm on the edge of town, and sometimes he can't play with us because of some last-minute task."

Lincoln just nodded, leaving the subject aside.

They seemed to be a normal group of friends ready to play at a normal arcade, and although Lincoln doesn't want to be mean, he couldn't help but think they were the typical bunch of common kids that stay together trying to look cool. Maybe this would work better if they had a fifth friend in the group.

"Ahem!"

At that moment the five turned, looking at an irritated Ronnie Anne.

"Oh, man." Lincoln facepalmed, feeling stupid for forgetting his best friend. "Guys, this is Ronnie Anne, my best friend. Her family came with mine."

The boys immediately stared at her, wide-eyed.

"A girl?!" Clyde, Liam and Rusty thought, jaws dropped.

"The girl from earlier?" Zach thought, terrified.

Ronnie just rolled her eyes at the boys' reactions.

"What a bunch of lame-os."

As the three boys recovered from the initial shock, Liam and Rusty tried to look more confident and smile at Ronnie, which only made them look even more silly.

And that only frustrated the girl even more.

"(Sigh) Are we going to stay here all day or are we going to play?" Ronnie rolled her eyes and turned, entering the arcade without ceremony.

The boys swallowed and soon followed, Zach behind his friends and Lincoln and Clyde last.

But before they entered, Clyde poked Lincoln's arm. As soon as the boy looked at him, Clyde got a bit embarrassed, but he asked the question he wanted.

"Sorry if this sound intrusive, but what about your parents? They're not bothered that you're here?"

"Well, you don't have to worry." Lincoln smiled uneasily, trying to look away. "You could say they have a lot to deal with."

Meanwhile, at the school...

After being sure no one was watching, Pym and the Loud parents went to the office.

The room was quiet, and there was no sign of anyone inside. Still, Pym was careful and looked around before putting a small device in his right ear and placing his hand close to the lock.

"What's that?" Lynn Sr. asked, whispering.

"It's a modest version of my helmet." Pym began to concentrate, and soon ants emerged from the sleeve of his lab coat and entered the lock. "I'll have the ants open the lock and then-"

Click!

The door opened.

"You can do it this fast?" Rita exclaimed in surprise.

Pym looked sad, picking up the ants as he stared at the floor.

"Actually, it looks like someone left the door open. (Sigh ) That was so disappointing."

The couple just rolled their eyes, not expressing their opinion. They did secret missions for years, and to them an unlocked was welcomed.

As they entered the room, they quickly closed the door and looked around.

The room was not very large, having only one table for the secretary and two doors. One of them had a square of glass with letters that said 'Principal Huggins', and the other had a label written 'Records', conveniently making the job easier.

Just out of curiosity, Pym went to the door and tried the handle, staring wide-eyed at the unlocked door.

"What the hell is going on here!?" He exclaimed, not worrying about the volume of his voice. "What kind of school have such an important room unprotected?!"

"Pym, I don't want to offend you, but I think you're missing the point here." Lynn Sr. took a serious tone, looking at the hero with some concern. "Our priority is not this school, but to find out who's the boy that Lincoln and Ronalda are with."

"He's right, Hank." Rita took a worried tone, looking straight at the hero. "Let's find out what's going on in Royal Woods."

Looking at the parents, Pym realized that there was no use in persisting. Sighing, he groped the wall until he found the switch and turned on the light of the room.

The room had several cardboard boxes and metal files with four drawers. Everything was just thrown into the room, as if no one had organized the documents for years.

"I'm hating this place more and more with every passing moment."

Pym turned, looking at the Loud parents with a deadpan expression.

"Well, we'd better get started. This may take some time."

Back to Gus'...

"Dude, this grub rock." Rusty exclaimed as he served himself another slice of pizza.

"Yeah, Gus's pizza is the best." Clyde agreed, drinking soda.

The six were at a table near the games, two extra-large(almost by half) pizzas before them. After a few games, the group realized that Liam was too tired to play, and Lincoln suggested to take a break and have a little meal before continuing. At the insistence of the Loud boy, he himself paid for the meal, surprising the boys by revealing his credit card (one of the advantages of having a rich dad).

The meal was not only invigorating for Liam, but it also helped everyone to get along. Thanks to that, the young heroes now knew that the boys had known each other since first grade, when they started their friendship. Not only that, but they were also a powerful guild in the Battleworld, being known as SquadronSupreme8571.

They talked a lot about how they liked electronic games, but what surprised the young heroes was knowing that they too were unbeatable on dodgeball. Apparently, they had developed what they called 'snake formation', which prevented them from being hit by any ball.

As for the young heroes, they didn't give much information, though the fact that Lincoln had eight super sisters generated a long discussion about what it was like to live like this. Except for Rusty, of course. He was interested to know if any of them were looking for a date.

Although everything looked good, Lincoln eventually noted that the group seemed to hide something. He could try a more direct approach with one of them, but he had to be careful while choosing whom. Clyde would certainly notice if Lincoln asked very specific questions; Rusty talked a lot, but little of what he said was worth to listen; Zach looked like the kind of person who was easily intimidated, but he was likely to froze in fear.

It was then that he looked at Liam. The boy was still tired, and that would certainly help question him. He looked at Ronnie quickly and winked, showing her that he had a plan. He then stood, looking at Clyde as he pointed to one of the machines whose record he held.

"Hey, Clyde. What do you think of a match of 'Mega Fish Brawler II' against the current record holder of the house?"

"W-what!?" Clyde was surprised, but then he smiled "Sure, I'm in."

As soon as Clyde got up, Rusty and Zach followed, eager to see their friend play against the famous Lincoln Loud. It left Ronnie alone with Liam, who was still making up for his tiredness with food.

As soon as the young spy saw that the others were far enough away, she decided to attack. Pretending an interested glance, she propped herself up on the table with her left elbow and brought her hand up to her face, using it as support in an attempt to pretend to flirt with him.

"So~... you always come to play video games tired?"

The boy blushed at the way the girl looked at him, almost choking on the pizza.

"N-No. I promised the guys that I would come today, and I always keep my word."

Seeing that the first step had worked, Ronnie used her powers to lightly change her eyes, making them look deeper and brighter, like a deer in the headlights.

She then altered the intonation of her vocal chords, following Pym's training. According to him, an intonation like this would be able to sedate a person, leaving it on effect similar to the serum of truth. The only downside was the temporary damage on her vocal chords, but she was willing to use that trick at the moment.

"Ooh~… a man of his word." Ronnie brought her other hand up to Liam's hand, slowly sliding her finger down his skin. "That's impressive."

The boy was sweating now, not knowing what to do. Never before had a girl acted like this with him, and the way her eyes and voice seemed to have changed made him wonder if his brain was working right.

"You know, I realized that you, Rusty and Zach seem to depend a lot on Clyde. Is he a good friend?"

"W-What do you m-mean?"

"Well, you saw how Lincoln is, didn't you? He's generous, funny and a great player."

"C-Clyde, too."

"Really?"

"Y-Yes. He p-plays very well, a-and almost always pays the tokens when we go in the arcade."

"Wow. He must have a huge allowance." Ronnie stopped touching her hand, sitting against the seat and folding her arms. She then placed a finger on her chin and looked up, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I wonder what his parents do."

"They work for the Louds!" Liam said anxiously. He had no more control over his body, totally submissive to her interrogation. " "They spend most of the day working, and Clyde always does whatever he wants in the meantime."

"Whatever he wants?" Ronnie raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear that. "That includes doing something... wrong?"

"No. I mean, he buys a lot of things in Battleworld, but his parents never complained, even when he buys something for someone else."

Bingo! Now he was talking about what she really wanted to know.

"So, his friends think he's using his parents' money? That sounds very convenient." Without losing the intonation of her voice, she looked around to make sure no one was listening and continued. "Does he do it very often? I mean, buy things for other people?"

"He didn't, at first. But since Battleworld started, he's willing to do anything for our guild to be the most powerful. He buys several items for all allies of our guild, in return for their loyalty. Thanks to this, we rarely lose, and if this happens, he calls for a rematch and equips the team with better items."

Ronnie was thoughtful.

As Pym had said, it seemed that the hacker was just a smart kid taking advantage of his abilities without worrying about the ethical question of his actions. As much as Clyde was committing a crime spree, he didn't seem to have any bad intentions.

Still, she couldn't sympathize with the target.

"Interesting. Has he done something like that lately?"

"Yes, today. While we were coming here, he said he bought several things in today's sale, most of it for our friends."

"Hmmm. Okay. I think that's enough. Thanks for the chat."

Getting up, the girl left the redhead still in a state of stupor, pulling the phone out of her pocket and making a call.

"I hope they have did their part already."

Meanwhile, in the school records...

The three adults were having the worst experience of their lives.

They had emptied almost every box, and the papers reached their knees. No matter how much they searched, the files seemed to be out of order, as if people were just throwing the papers into the room.

"Argh! This is not getting us anywhere!" Lynn Sr. exclaimed, painfully clutching the hair he still had.

"Honey, you need to be patient." Rita tried to smile, despite a slight shudder in her eye. "At any moment we'll find what we need, am I right, Hank?"

Rita turned and was shocked to see that the hero had disappeared.

"Pym?!"

They looked around and realized that his part of the files were totally messed up, like he finished and then left the room without being noticed.

"I am here!" His voice answered, coming from another room.

The two then left the room to see where their accomplice was.

As they left, they noticed that the door to principal's room was open and the light was on. As they entered, they saw that the hero was sitting across the principal's table with his legs crossed, looking at an open folder.

Behind him was an open vault, as well as a picture of a forest on the floor, which was probably hiding the vault. There were several papers and folders in the vault and around Pym, indicating that he had been spying for some time.

Most impressive was the folder in Pym's hands. There were several pages in it, and as Pym turned the pages, he seemed to be more and more impressed.

The parents looked at each other and then stared at the hero in complete disbelief.

Pym left his concentrated state, staring at both parents with some embarrassment.

"I'm sorry I left you guys, but I had to follow my instincts."

"You… you really broke into a safe?" Lynn asked, incredulous.

"What's wrong? Technically, we are on a secret mission to the government. Besides, I found what we were looking for."

"You... did!?" Rita asked, raising an eyebrow.

Pym then closed the folder and handed it to the couple, who looked curiously at what was written in the folder.

McBride, Clyde - Confidential

The parents were speechless.

"How did you knew it was here?"

"It was not this hard." Pym came down from the table and sat down in the principal's chair, putting his feet on the table and smiling victoriously. "After examining that paperwork, I realized that someone who could fool me would have to be very clever, and someone so clever would catch the principal's attention. So, I went to his office and I tried to open the door, and I was happy to see that it was locked, indicating that..."

As Pym continued to describe his 'grandeur' to the couple, Lynn and Rita focused on the file they had in hand.

In the various pages they had in hands was all the information from the last five years, and the information was surprising. The boy had notes that would make any parent proud, and this taking into account that the Louds had a genius at home. In addition, he had a perfect attendance at school, and a note saying he was going to the library if the classes were canceled.

"... and then I removed the painting, confirming the existence of the vault. After that, I discovered the password through..." Pym went on, not realizing that he was being ignored.

Something even more admirable in Clyde's records was that he had never been involved in fights or had trouble with bullies. It seemed that the boy was too good to be true, and it was then that the parents realized that something very suspicious was in the records.

Not only did the kid never miss a class, but he never went to the infirmary. No injuries, no accidents, not even a flu. It was as if the boy simply existed without being noticed by anything or anyone.

"… few files compared to the records' room, confirming that some records are too important to be placed in that room."

Lynn and Rita kept looking at the file until they came across the information about the student's family and they immediately went pale.

"This can't be happening!" Both said, catching Pym's attention.

It didn't take a genius to realize that they heard nothing of what he said, but their state called the scientist's intent.

They were pale, looking at the files as if they had found a ghost.

That means...

"You know something, don't you?"

Her hands trembling, Rita picked up the page she was looking at, handing it to Pym. He took it and sat down correctly and began to look at the paper, slightly puzzled.

On the page were information that Pym had hoped to find.

Legal Guardians:

Harold McBride (father), in case of emergency, call 555-Loud telephone extension 17;

Howard McBride (father), in case of emergency, call 555-Loud telephone extension 17;

"Judging this contact phone, it's clear that I was right about the hacker being related to your employees." Pym raised an eyebrow, very intrigued. "Since both parents are men, I expect the boy to be adopted. That would justify them not knowing about his abilities."

"Actually, I think we have a bigger problem." Mr. Loud said, sweating with concern.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Harold and Howard are our best scientists at Royal Woods, and we let them in charge of the compound." Rita sat on one of the chairs at the principal's table, feeling short of breath. " We always trusted them, and so we made some changes to their contracts."

"What changes?" Pym asked, taking a serious tone and placing his hand over his chin.

The parents looked at each other. They knew they would be judged by the hero.

"Well, it's kinda funny when you stop to think about it." Lynn rubbed the back of his neck slowly and looked up at the ceiling, feeling very embarrassed. "Our employees can work on private projects as long as they don't use company's equipment or facilities for this. With the McBrides, though..."

"You allowed them to use your equipment on personal projects?"

"In fact, we gave them a secret lab to do that sort of thing." Rita exclaimed, smiling sheepishly.

Pym just stared wide-eyed at them, not knowing what to say.

The couple admitted giving the McBrides freedom to do anything they wanted to do, and it seemed that only now did they realize that this was a bad idea.

"(Sigh) And I suppose that's not all."

The couple looked at each other again. Rita then held her husband's hand and continued.

"Well, from here it's just speculation. When we moved to New York, they were working on some projects we asked for, but most of all, on their personal project." Rita picked up her cell phone and started looking for a file. As soon as she found it, she showed Pym, revealing the blueprint to what looked like a childish version of a Terminator. "They were always good at working with mechanics and synthetic materials, and were determined to create an artificial life form. Or, as they liked to say-"

"A synthezoid." Pym finished, already certain of what was happening. "So you think this kid is a machine that emulates a human being? It is not at all impossible, especially considering that the boy's records seem to profile a false identity."

Pym got up and began to put the papers inside the vault, seemingly without any concern.

The couple was puzzled to see how Pym dealt with the situation. As he closed the safe, Lynn Sr. rose as well, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"And what will we do now?"

"Now, we're going back to your house." Pym put the painting back on top of the vault and turned, looking at the parents with a carefree look. "Let's wait for the kids' report, and tomorrow we'll pay a little visit to the McBrides."

"Pym, I don't think it's that simple." Rita exclaimed, folding her arms and taking on a serious expression. "We can't just show up at their house and accuse them of creating a fifth-grade hacker robot."

Pym was confused for a moment, until he realized what she meant and clapped a fist in the palm of his other hand.

"Oh, you thought I meant WE! Haha. Sorry, I should have expressed myself better. I meant WE, the Avengers."

At that moment, the parents looked at each other in concern.

"This looks even worse."

Back with Lincoln...

"Why don't you give up, Lincoln?" Clyde tried to tease his opponent, without taking his eyes off the screen. "It would be less shameful."

"Don't celebrate yet, Clyde." Lincoln answered, an arrogant smile disguising how nervous he was. "I have not shown my best yet."

Behind them were Zach and Rusty, who were cheering for their friend. If that was not enough pressure, around them there were more than twenty kids and teenagers, all impressed by the ability of the two boys.

What they didn't know was what was really going on.

It had all started as a distraction to keep Clyde away from his friends, who ended up having only a third of success. Now, it was almost a matter of life or death for the white-haired kid, with his reputation on Mega Fish Brawler II at stake.

"Come on, Lincoln! You can't let him win."

Even with all his skill, the kid had to admit that Clyde had proved to be a valuable opponent. They had decided that the first to win ten times would be the best, and as they continued their competition, the audience increased even more.

In the first match, the fight seemed balanced, but when Lincoln won, something seemed to wake up in Clyde. He fought the next one with great effort until he was able to win. As a result, he was very confident in the next match and lost again, and the cycle continued like this for almost an hour.

In the last round, it seemed difficult to say who would be the winner, and, as if by irony, both were knocked out at the same time, persisting the tie and shocking everyone, since never before had they saw someone draw in that game.

For the final fight, both of them had chosen the character of their closest affinity: Lincoln chose Muscle Fish, while Clyde chose the Turtle Samurai, which was one of the slowest of the characters, despite having a powerful defense.

To make the fight even more challenging, they have decided to fight in the most dangerous place of the game, the singularity.

The background showed a gigantic purple spiral, sucking everything around. Thanks to this, there were totally random effects of gravity, increasing or canceling it completely, making the characters float like astronauts. If this weren't enough, random objects appeared out of nowhere, from things to be thrown at the opponent to various power-ups. The whole thing was crazy and nonsense, but considering it was a game about mutant sea creatures, that was not so absurd.

The fight was nearing its end, Lincoln with just over a quarter of the second life bar and Clyde nearly twice as much, and the only thing that seemed to be disrupting Lincoln was the arena itself. No matter how hard he tried, it seemed that the changes in gravity were always worse for him.

But it was in one of those moments that he was floating without control that everything changed.

As his character floated uncontrollably, one of the random items appeared right on top of him. It was a sea urchin made of metal, and when it looked like it would be impaled and die, it erupted in a whirlwind of bubbles, recovering his health to 40% and giving enough energy to trigger an ultimate move.

Everyone was perplexed.

But no one was more shocked than Clyde.

"Y-You found a-an ultimate charge!?"

Lincoln himself was jaw-dropping, not believing his luck. There were rumors and even videos on the internet about this power-up, but he always thought it was a prank. As soon as he recovered from the shock, he smiled triumphantly, looking up at Clyde.

"Well, it looks like it ends here."

Clyde was so shocked that he didn't have time to react when Lincoln pressed the buttons to activate the ultimate move.

The game started to show a video, showing Muscle Fish sinking in the water with his dorsal fin out of the water, like a shark. He circled Samurai Turtle and then pulled him underwater, then began to attack him from all sides, ending with a powerful punch in the chin that sent him out of the water.

Many began to shout, thinking that the victory would be Lincoln, when they realized that Clyde still had 3% life, thanks to the damage reduced by the change of gravity added to the shell of the turtle.

Once he realized that Clyde was still not defeated, Lincoln made the fish dash with all speed, but it was too late.

In an act that shocked them all, Clyde began to press the buttons quickly, generating a surprisingly complex combo move. After completing the sequence, giant letters in the style of monster movies appeared on screen.

KAIJU MODE UNLEASHED

The zoom of the game changed as Muscle Fish was now facing what appeared to be the turtle cousin of Godzilla. Because of the distance, Lincoln couldn't deflect the powerful green fire that came out of the creature's mouth, incinerating his fish.

PLAYER 2 WON

For a moment, total silence.

But then...

"Yeaaaahhhh!" Everyone shouted in chorus, celebrating Clyde's victory.

Everyone was euphoric about the boy's victory. Two teenagers even came up and held him in their arms as he felt like the king of the world.

Everyone was so intent on celebrating Clyde's victory that they didn't realize that Lincoln was still staring at the screen, not believing what had happened.

"How… how he did it!?" He didn't stop to repass the thing inside his head, not in anger, but in complete disbelief. "He shouldn't turn into Kaiju mode inside the singularity! That's impos-."

At that moment, his eyes widened, realizing what had happened.

Although it was not possible to use this skill in the singularity, it was a known fact of several players that a famous guy who had his own machine had reprogrammed the game to do various things, among them to modify what happened in the singularity.

Taking into account the fact that the effects that should have been random seemed to benefit Clyde, and that he had done something that should not occur there, there was no doubt that Clyde was the hacker, and even worse, it was his power. Now it made sense what happened when he called Clyde: since the boy was focused on talking to Lincoln, he was not concentrating on using his powers.

Lincoln was clenching his fist, taking a menacing stare. He turned quickly, watching the way everyone congratulated Clyde.

An expression of pure hatred appeared on the boy's face.

"You're going down, you damn cheater."

.

DATE: MAY, 2, 2015, LOUD HOUSE'S DINNING ROOM, 19H34M

One of the biggest advantages of the Loud house in Royal Woods was the dining room. Due to the large space in the dining room, the table could accommodate up to forty people, although less than half of it was present at the time. The chairs were at some distance between each other, and Lynn Sr. sat on one end of the table while Dr. Pym sat in the other.

Everyone had already finished their meals, and now all savored a delicious ice cream cake prepared by Larry. The dessert had seven layers, each with a different concentration of cocoa, and chocolate frosting with chocolate sprinkles. The robot had baked seven cakes that yielded ten huge slices each, and four of them had already been devoured.

Being assumed chocoholics, it was no wonder that the Loud sisters were eating a lot of cake, but it was scary how Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lana, and surprisingly Lisa ate ravenously, the athlete already on her fourth slice.

"I know what my next project will be." Lisa exclaimed, her eyes wide and her lips trembling from the level of chocolate she had ingested. "I'll make my own robot cook, and he'll be even better than Larry."

The robot immediately turned at her with an angry face in his screen, but before he could say anything Pym gesticulated with his hand, showing to Larry that he should ignore her.

The scientist then looked at Lincoln, who still looked very down. Everyone had shared information before dinner, and from that moment he felt awful to know that he had been defeated by a machine.

A cheating machine, but still a machine.

"Are you still sad, Link?"

The boy was surprised to see that someone was talking to him, and even more so when all eyes were on him.

"(Sigh ) I 'll be fine." He said, looking at his plate.

"Sweetie, you shouldn't take this personally." Rita said, looking at the boy gently. "This... boy... may not even know what he's doing."

"Your mother's right, Lincoln." Lynn sr. said. "It's impossible to determine what's going on in this kid's mind."

Everyone was slightly surprised that the subject had returned.

None of them expected the culprit to be a robot, much less that their parents were partly responsible for the creation of this robot.

"Dude, I still can't believe it." Luna exclaimed, a huge brown stain around her mouth. "I mean, even with what has happened with us before, it seems, I don't know..."

"Literally surreal?" Lori said.

"A bad joke?" Luan said.

"A tale full of twists?" Lucy said.

"A preposterous science fiction plot from a 1960s comic book?" Lisa said.

"I was not thinking of any of this, but I think it's something close to that." Luna said

"I really want to punch his face." Ronnie exclaimed as she clenched her fist in the palm of her hand, but then realized that was not a good idea. "Though, if he's a robot, his face must be very hard."

Everyone laughed at the comment, then commented on what they thought of the situation. They just didn't realize that, despite not being intentional, the comments only made Lincoln even more upset.

He already felt like an idiot for trusting Clyde, and now he had doubts about his own powers, since he didn't felt that something bad would happen if he played with the boy.

Pym realized that the boy still felt bad and decided to intervene.

"Actually, I believe our target can be more complex than you all think." Pym said, wiping chocolate residues from his mouth with a napkin. "Although he is clearly committing crimes, this 'Clyde' seems to be a great reproduction of a human being, acting just like a real kid would."

"What!?" Lincoln exclaimed, banging his fists on the table and cracking the wood. "You're kidding, right?"

Everyone was shocked by the boy's reaction, so much so that the parents didn't even dare to scold him.

Pym, on the other hand, only raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the boy's reaction.

"You understand that him winning from you is the least of our problems, don't you?"

"Well, I..." The boy blushed, looking down with embarrassment.

"It's cute, and I know he hurt your pride, but we have to look at that situation from a wider angle. We still don't know to what extent the McBrides controls their 'son', or even if they are involved in this mess."

"Do you think they could be involved in that?" Lynn asked, now eating her eighth slice of cake.

"We can't rule out such a possibility. If this 'Clyde' has such skills, his creators must have given it to him. Plus, their records are as clean as the boy's fake records, and that's something I really suspect."

"Wow, I think you're precipitating now, Pym." Mr. Loud said, looking at the hero with concern.

"Exactly!" Rita crossed her arms, looking at Pym seriously. "We know each other very well, and I believe they deserve the benefit of the doubt."

Pym remained silent, while the others (with the exception of Lisa, who was still concentrating on the cake) looked at each other.

Although everyone shared the same opinion, none of them wanted to run the risk of expressing it. That's until Lori takes a deep breath and starts talking.

"Mom, I don't want to offend you, but I don't think you can give an opinion on that."

"Excuse me?"

"I think our older sister is referring to your involvement with the problem." Lisa exclaimed, not looking away from her cake. "From what has been revealed, I think everyone, even Leni, has come to the conclusion that this robot only exists because you have allowed."

"What?!" Both parents exclaimed in shock.

Looking around, it was obvious that everyone shared this opinion, but they were too embarrassed to say it.

An embarrassing silence formed, the only sound being Lisa and Lily eating cake. When it was clear that no one else had anything to say, Pym coughed lightly and stood up, drawing everyone's attention.

"Well, if nobody has anything to say, I think I'll go back to my Watcher."

"Wait, you're not going to sleep here?" Leni asked, feeling sad. "We've prepared a guest room for you."

"It is not that I am trying to offend your hospitality, Leni, but I must prepare some things for tomorrow. With everything that has happened today, I'll have to adapt almost my whole plan, not to mention the details of the vehicle I have rented. I bet I'll have to pay a very high fee for not returning at the agreed time."

At that moment, everyone was intrigued, looking at the scientist with confusion.

"What vehicle?" Rita asked, almost getting up from the table. "You never mentioned a rented vehicle."

Pym's eyes widened, surprised.

"Had not I… mentioned that?"

Everyone shook their heads negatively, making him uneasy. He then remembered the unexpected events that occurred, and how it affected his plan.

"Well, I forgot to mention it, but the final part of the original plan consisted of using a discreet vehicle for stake out." He scratched behind the back of his neck, averting his gaze as he strode toward the door. "While my team approach the hacker's family, the others would be inside the vehicle to observe everything from a safe distance if anything go wrong." As soon as he stood in front of the door, he smiled sheepishly and waved his hand, trying to sound casual. "Let's just say... this will be an unforgettable experience."

He then left hurriedly, without giving time to be questioned. Everyone was confused, looking at each other with concern. Although no one uttered a single word, they all agreed on the same thing.

"This will not end well."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Note: As for Ronnie's powers to interrogate, I had written this chapter in another way, but after watching an episode of Mythbusters in which they studied sound frequencies, I thought it would be nice to use something slightly similar in this interrogation. Other than that, Liam was tired and inattentive, which would certainly make it easier.

Also, I've discussed about Liam with a friend of mine: he says Liam's shirt has two shades of green, but I think it's blue, so that's how I've described it.

The next chapter may suffer a brief delay, because before that I will update Earth Lewdest Heroes and Fall Of Dragon Domain (I have two chapters of Earth Lewdest Heroes that happen at the same time as Blurry Vision).