Chapter 1: The Hanger
(October 10)
(Already the protocols of disintegration are apparent in the local inhabitants. According to the previous cycle notes, the intended requirements for world liquidation and re-integration procedures have been met by the change of behavior after the last keynote event. I fear the short term memory loss and remission to old behaviors without transition gives me less time than I hypothesized to finish the operation with minimal unnecessary damage or casualty. Already I charmed some of the inhabitants and laid defensive algorithms for the area but there is still much to do.)
Autumn is in full swing in the small town of Peach Creek. The cul-de-sac is bustling with after-school activity. Kevin was going through his daily rounds on his bike. Rolf was explaining his old country's tradition of the changing leaves to a very confused Nazz. Jimmy was building up leaf piles for inevitable collapse. And Johnny was waiting in the bushes with his wooden block friend Plank. Waiting for the opportunity to ambush the unsuspecting compost heaps.
"Now is the time Lieutenant Plank the targets are sighted," Johnny whispering like a general behind enemy lines. "On my count, one, two," He charged out of the bushes into the open battlefield. "Charge!"
"Sarah!" Jimmy yelled. "Johnny has shown himself! Let him have it!"
"Eat this Fat-head!" Sarah responded jumping out of the pile of leaves with a water hose. She opened fire on the unsuspecting general. The hose was surprisingly high pressured noted by the force of the impact to Johnny's right leg which caused him to fall to the ground.
"I'm hit Lieutenant Plank, it's an ambush!" Johnny yelled rolling out of his fall. "Roll to freedom Plank!" He proceeded to roll away from the water cannon, unintentionally rolling to the street and into the path of Kevin's bike.
"Hey! Out of the way!" Kevin barked narrowly dodging the hazard. The momentum of the swerve sent him off balance and caused him to run into a mailbox. Kevin recovered and charged at Johnny creating a fistfight that caught everyone's attention. So much so that they didn't notice a fit of laughter broke out, its apex was Ed who climbed out of a crawlspace under his house with his friends Eddy and Edd in tow, dirt and sweat clinging to every surface of their clothes.
"The worms will feast your innards no more civilians!" Ed yelled in salute to the confused kids. Double d's panting providing the only response.
"Ed you idiot! Why did you stop!" Eddy responded wrenching out of Ed's right armpit. "We almost reached it!"
"Eddy surely there is a much safer way than relying on the assorted cracks in your house's foundation for breathing apparatuses." Double d said gasping like a fish.
"But we almost got there! We just need a few feet more," Eddy said climbing Ed again who squatted down and grabbed the side of the hole crushing the loose soil.
"ED DIG!" Eddy commanded.
"MOLE-MAN ED DIG I WILL!" Ed yelled as he drilled back under Eddy's house. Double d stayed outside to catch his breath some more.
"Ed! You need to re-phrase that sentence!" Double d yelled trying to educate over the construction project.
"What are those idiots doing?" Sarah asked Double d as she entered ground zero. Somehow Johnny getting pummeled didn't amuse her as much as she thought it would.
"Oh-uh-let's see now-uh," Double d stalled. "Eddy made a claim that there was an object on the other side of the forest left to him by his brother in case of dispute, and-well he also claims that the way to get to the hiding place of said object is under his house; so explains the hole."
"Does he now," Sarah said uninterested.
"HOLY SMOLEY!" Ed yelled out the gutter.
"Oh dear, Ed! Eddy! Are you alright down there?"
"Double d you have to come down here! We hit the mother load!" Eddy yelled excitedly.
"Excuse me Sarah," Double d said cautiously entering the hole.
"Big Brothers are stupid," Sarah muttered under her breath.
When Double d looked into the hole he realized that in two minutes Ed drilled a hole eleven feet lower than the one he came out. Double d calmly jumped into the hole. His uncharacteristic calmness was on the account that he thought ahead and placed a small mattress before he resurfaced. He landed with a thud and was instantly rushed into a small tunnel by Ed. At the end of this tunnel was two tall rectangle sheets of cast iron with remnants of a two lateral bar locking mechanism. Two huge grey cogs and latches were thrown to each side. No doubt an Ed related achievement.
"What is that?" Double d said awestruck at the spectacle.
Eddy was even confused, "A vault? My brother had a vault and never told me?"
"It's so shiny!" Ed yelled and gave the iron door a hug.
"Wait! This is a sign! My brother left me his entire gold stash and he kept it here just for me to acquire it as my own!" Eddy said getting more excited. "The dream must have led me to riches!"
"Let's not jump to conclusions Eddy there could be more valuable relics stashed in something as intricate as this," Double d said.
"Yeah right, what's more valuable than a gold stash?" Eddy looked at his intellectual friend in bewilderment.
"Antiquities Eddy, the priceless windows of times long past," Double d explained. "It could be-"
"Times long past doesn't help with us get jawbreakers of times long now," Eddy interrupted returning to his lock pick. "Lumpy will you do the honors?"
"You get nothing!" Ed yelled as he rammed into the door causing it to buckle inwards and swing in releasing a torrent of cool air over the sweating Ed-boys. Inside the vault door was a mile long room more resembling a WWII air hanger than a municipal bank. On the ceiling under the support beams was 10 huge electrical generators was pipe of a water-like fluid rushing around them like vines in the rainforest canopy. The large generator was powering huge circular fans sitting side by side on the side walls behind the wire mesh wall cover. The floor looked more out of place in this hanger, which was really saying something. Contrary to the fortress of metal the floor was plush red carpet which covered the whole floor in an unusual furriness. What the hanger was for sort of scared Eddy and surprised Double-d.
"Books?" Eddy yelled. The sense of eternal wealth he felt before the unveiling vanished into a simmer of anger.
"Oh happy day!" Double d said in joy as the view of bookshelf after bookshelf of tomes reached far back into the horizon. He raced past Ed into the vault. Eddy face contorted into a scowl. "Endless bookshelves of literature!"
"My brother has a library," Eddy growled.
"Master of pulling your leg huh Eddy?" Ed giggled. Eddy was about to strangle him when Double d gasped.
"Japanese wording? Ink tapestry? All these books are japanese comics!" Edd called out in anguish. The word 'comics' triggered an immediate response from Ed.
"Comics?" Ed asked his brain's gears starting to turn. "Comics!" Ed raced into the vault.
"My brother has a comic library," Eddy growled sulking into the vault.