Author's Note:
Hello all you wonderful people of the worldwide internet, it's me, TheCrazyJackalope, here to regale you with a story that you'll hopefully won't hate to hell and back. Say hello to A Certain Gifted Neighborhood (1)!
Wait...1?
Yes, this is the first in a line of volumes I'm calling Neighborhood. A series with an as-of-now-undetermined amount of volumes (maybe 7 or something, Harry Potter all up in here) that features Ed, Edd 'n Eddy walking down the metaphorical path with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in hand, starting post-Big Picture Show and during the first half of Iron Man. Oh, and it's also being co-written by one of my Discord friends called boomstick64 (except for this chapter, this one's written solo).
Keep in mind, while this is, at its' core, an EE'nE/MCU story, it has borrowed some aspects from a certain famous novel series. I'm giving you three guesses on what it is. While it has some features inspired by the book series, it won't change the story too much besides a detail here and there. (It's kind of an excuse to give the cul-de-sac kids superpowers honestly.)
Each volume will have two movies in it, standard being with two kids from the cul-de-sac (though exceptions can be made) being the main focus of that volume. For this volume, Eddy and Kevin's going to be the stars of the show, so strap on your seatbelts cause this ride is on an one-way road to insanity, explosion, tears and laughs, and the shift stick is on full throttle forever.
So with all that being said and done, here we go!
Prologue: Peach Creek (Rethink Avenue)
Welcome to Rethink Avenue. Or more broadly; Welcome to Peach Creek. A town where more than 65% of the general population are children and/or minors, and where at least 95% of that 65/100 number has literal, honest-to-goodness psychic abilities and superpowers. Well, by all definitions, they are psychics, but their official classification is Ability User.
Of course, since most of those psychics are, by all definitions, children and minors, they opted for the less mouthful name and the rolls-off-the-tongue-easier name.
Esper.
And there's over 25,500 of them in total.
Peach Creek wasn't the only town populated with Espers, oh no. Lemon Brook and Cherry Falls also had their own fill of Espers, each with similar numbers. 8,500-ish, if you're curious.
Of course, these aren't your typical, run-of-the-mill mindreading and levitating Espers. No, they all have unique, and admittedly, mindboggling abilities. Ranging from the standard Telekinesis and Telepathy, to the more quirky Teleport and Nature Down, to the outright bizarre such as Float to Eleven and Antinomy, capable of twisting the laws of physics to their mercy.
Of course, they weren't always been like this naturally from birth. If they were, they would've been called something else. Just a couple of weeks ago, a certain well-known philanthropist known worldwide as Tony Stark had made his triumphant flight away from Afghanistan where he had been held captive by a terrorist group, known as the Ten Rings.
While he was there, he and a sadly-now-deceased fellow scientist, Ho Yinsen, had pooled together their collective know-how with machineries to craft a suit of iron, steel and metal to aid in their escape from their captives, though unfortunately, Yinsen was killed in the ensuing chaos after their abductors had quickly realized what they were trying to do.
Tony quickly put the suit to good use and had immediately fled the terrorists' lair in an instant, but not before paying his respects to a dying Yinsen and destroying whatever Stark Industries' weapons they had somehow acquired.
Now, days after the incident with the terrorist group, Tony had nullified the weapons department of Stark Industries and did something that had now changed the path of fate subtly but irrevocably, whether for good or worse.
He had opened up the Power Curriculum Program—a program that allowed ordinary people to gain and develop psionic powers—to the public, exclusively to Peach Creek, Lemon Brook and Cherry Falls.
The whys is an honestly complicated matter to talk about, so that's a topic best left to talk about for another day.
But right now, the primary focus is Peach Creek, a town where the more noteworthy characters of this tale resides. A town where seven of the strongest Espers reside in. A town where our heroes of the day live in.
In 220 Rethink Avenue, a small and yellow-clad boy is currently concentrating intently on a metal spoon in his hands.
"C'mon...! C'mon!..." Eddy puffed, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. An outsider looking in from his bedroom window may found it rather foolish and amusing, but a few moments later would be found jawdropping.
The top half of the spoon started to slowly bend down to Eddy's hands, without any of his hands forcing it down, though this is hardly an easy feat as one may thought.
Eddy's cheeks were now a bright burgundy red in hue; this was extremely challenging to pull off in comparison to lifting a single penny, and even that has proven to be a difficult feat all in its' own, actually bending a far larger spoon with a noticeable weight difference is an entirely different matter.
The best analogy would be an inexperienced weight-lifter attempting to lift 100 pounds first and immediately moving on to 175 pounds.
"Finally!" Eddy panted, staring at bended spoon in satisfaction before drooping down slightly, "Should probably unbend this spoon later before Mom notice anything, though."
The stocky boy shrugged and tossed the spoon behind his head carelessly, and hopped onto bed and snatched up a candid magazine. But seconds before Eddy could flipped to the—ahem—juicy and eyecatching sections of the magazine, his back pocket vibrated harshly and Eddy whipped his phone out with a mildly uninterested glare.
A text message from Edd.
Eddy? Are you there?
What do you want, Sockhead? Kinda in the middle of something here.
Apologies, but can you please hurry to my abode? There's some rather surprising news you might wish to see.
Do I have to come now?
Trust me Eddy, this is something you do not wish to not know.
Whatever, fine, just gimme half a hour then I'll be there. Probably. No guarantees tho.
Thank you; it'll be worth your time, I promise.
It better be.
Eddy stared at the phone in slight curiosity; what could be so important that Sockhead had said he didn't wish to not know?
Magazine left on the bed now forgotten, Eddy bounced to his feet and slipped on his red sneakers. Tapping the nose of the shoes one, two, three times, Eddy opened up the door and marched right through the doorway and out to the sunny afternoon.
The scent of grass quickly invaded his nose and made him sniffed deeply at the air, exhaling in a satisfied manner; it's simple moments like these are what made him really appreciate his childhood, not that he'll tell that to anybody.
Eddy walked around his backyard with a cheerful smile and out to the cul-de-sac with hands shoved down his pockets. Before...
"Eddy!"
"What the—agh!"
Eddy screamed before he was suddenly thrown back onto the grass, with a very heavy lump on his chest that had effectively pinned him to the ground. A freckled and dimpled face popped out from beneath the bump and smiled toothily at him.
"Hi Eddy!"
"What the—" Eddy choked, "Get off of me, Monobrow!"
With a small burst of strength, Eddy tipped the larger boy off of his chest and scrambled-rolled to his right, huffing more from surprise than exhaustion.
"What the heck, Lumpy?!" Eddy said stoutly, "Why were you on me?!"
"I teleported Eddy!"
"Gesundheit," Eddy snorted sassily.
"No, I'm serious, I really did teleport! I just learned I can from the letter from the Flower Curriculum Program people!"
"It's Power Curriculum Program, numbnuts. And why teleport on me?"
"Um, I haven't teleported yet but I saw you and got excited and next thing I know I'm on top of you!"
"Well give me a headsup next time! I could've had a broken spine if you weren't careful!"
"But you didn't!" Ed's borderline-shiteating grin transformed into something more innocent, "So it's okay, right?"
Eddy slapped his forehead angrily, "You better not do it again or so help me I'll find a way to take away your powers!" Eddy hissed evilly.
Fwu~ish! Without any further prompting, Ed vanished away from his side and appeared some distances away, only to disappeared again out of his line of sight.
Sighing in a strange mix of annoyance, exasperation and affection, Eddy propped himself up to his feet and dusted the dirt off himself before walking off the front yard and to the cul-de-sac, where he had a good view of everyone and what they were doing.
Most of them were minding their own business, whether it was simply playing out in nature, or to do chores or simply even viewing out nature, though Eddy had spotted the younger pair of Jimmy and Sarah toying with their powers, signified by a few snowflakes out of season in the middle of summer and a few pebbles suspended in midair without any type of support, clearly enjoying employing their abilities and seeing it in action.
"Hey, Shortstack." Eddy's hairs rigidly sprang out of shape as he turned away from Jimmy and Sarah and to the cheekily grinning Kevin on his bike.
"Can you not, for a single day, call me that?" Eddy asked stiffly, fingers twitching. Kevin shrugged idly.
"It was either this or Dorky, so take your pick."
"And here I thought Pipsqueak was embarrassing." Eddy grumbled under his breath. Kevin adjusted his slightly windblown hat back to its original position.
"So where're you're going? Two-Dees' house?"
"I didn't even told you anything. Seriously, how did you know?"
"One, you came out of your house and I don't think you came out just to play or set up any scams or anything. Two, I saw Ed tackled you and teleported away from you, so you definitely didn't came out to hang out with Ed—at least, I don't think so." Kevin summarized. Eddy stared blankly at him.
"Okay, I may have read your mind with my Esper powers." admitted the slightly sheepish Kevin. Eddy shook his head, annoyed and started to walk towards Edd's house. Kevin quickly rode up to him.
"Can I come withcha?"
"Give me two good reasons why."
"Uh—"
"And that's called sarcasm," Eddy sassed, "and sure, whatever, you can come. Sockhead never said anything against bringing anyone along."
Eddy then continued onwards towards his intellectual friend's house with Kevin behind him. After the red-capped boy parked his bike and made sure it was secured, the duo proceeded through the front lawn and onto the front door, with Eddy pressing and ringing the digital doorbell.
"Yes, I'm coming!" a feminine, definitely not Edd, voice called out deep from inside the house. Eddy and Kevin glanced at each other.
A few seconds passed and after Eddy tapped the ground impatiently, the door gently swung open inwards and a woman's face stared outwards.
She had blue eyes with wavy brunette locks falling down her head with her facial features locked in a mildly confused expression. Strangely, a single green highlight was found in her hair yet neither Kevin or Eddy worked up the courage to asked why she even had a highlight in the first place.
The woman stared down at Eddy, "Are you Eddward's friends? He told me his friends would be coming here."
"Uh, yeah, we're Double-D's friends, he's Kevin and I'm Eddy. We're here 'cause he said there's something we kinda need to know." Eddy informed.
Almost in an instant all confusion in her system cleared up and she gained a knowing look in her eye, though it was mixed with something that's not quite like excitement.
"Oh, I see." the woman said coolly. She stood up to her full height and allowed the two boys entrance to her house while she shouted, "Eddward, your friends are here! Do you wish to tell them something!"
A moment passed and a loud shout of, "I'm coming, Mother!"
"Wait, Mo—?!" Kevin started. The woman who is Edd's mother nodded.
"Yes, I'm his mother." the woman affirmed. Eddy moved his jaw up and down before he said, "You know, I would never thought you were Sockhead's mom, what with the, um," Eddy made a gesture towards his forehead, indicating her neon green highlight.
"Yeah, no one would expect the mother of the valedictorian student Eddward Crawford would have a green highlight in her hair and a common vocabulary." Edd's mother said in a slightly sassy tone, "But I'm not his mother and one of the heads of one of Stark Industries' department for nothing."
Eddy closed his jaws—since when did he even drop it?—and pinched the bridge of his nose, "And here I thought I learned all everything about Sockhead and his family life."
Before Kevin or Edd's mother could respond to his comment, a familiar voice had beat him to it, "Well of course not, Eddy, it wouldn't be fun if you know every family secret we have to hide."
Edd stood on top of the stairs with a Particle Physics for Aspiring Youths in his hands and an annoyed look in his eyes. Eddy smiled as though he hadn't said a single thing, "Yo there Sockhead!"
Edd's mother ahem'd in an important tone and said calmly, "Eddward, I have important paperwork to sign and write out, can I trust you to tell them without me?"
"Yes...of course," Edd said stiffly as he stood aside for his mother to pass by, no doubt still annoyed by what Eddy had said tactlessly.
Edd and Eddy, after Edd's mother had left, engaged in a silent staring contest, with Kevin awkwardly standing by before Eddy broke the silence, "You know, it's probably a good idea to tell us the news and get this chapter over with; the author kinda needs his sleep and we should hurry up before the spelling mistakes starts to crop up."
"Yes, of course." annoyance now ebbed away to slight excitement, the sockhatted genius gestured towards his two friends up the stairs and to the second floor, on his toes from the excitement. Edd opened the door to his room and waved Eddy and Kevin into the room before entering through himself.
...
"Hi Double-D!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~AAAAAAAHHHH!"
"I'm deaf!"
"I don't think even Fluffy scream that girly even when he sees a cockroach!"
Jack's Notes:
Are you okay with me putting Beyond a Shrine Gate on a short hiatus? No? Yes? IDK? Okay.
Anyways, like I said before, welcome to my new story and the first in the Neighborhood series, A Certain Gifted Neighborhood! If you're curious about its' placement in the timeline, it's 1.5 months post-Big Picture Show and during the first half of Iron Man.
So I hope you like the beginning of the story so far. It's the first story I've written with a pretty developed background and details for the public, along with being the first one I've got co-written. Oh, and just a heads up, This one won't be updated as frequently as BaSG mainly because me and boomstick64 both have a, minimal understanding of the MCU to say the least, so reviews or PMs with information about the movies will help big time.
So that's it, I think. Anything I wanted to say is already covered by the beginning AN and if you have any questions PMs are definitely possible. So please favorite and review! Both are plenty appreciated and it'll really help if you have any tips or constructive criticism or even what you like about it. So, until next update, good night~!
It's Thursday 15th of February when I'm writing this right now.