A/N: SAY WHAAAAAT?! What's Nat doing back on this godforsaken website?! :O

Well, I had a sudden combined burst of creative inspiration, nostalgia, and D&D withdraw, so I started writing a good old-fashioned EEnE fantasy story on a whim. And yeah, it kind of spiraled out of control into this whole thing. So here I am, back in the saddle, posting this fluff for all to see. Here's to hoping we can have some fun with it.

Quick heads-up. This story will prominently feature a few fan characters, most notably my hyper sci-fi geek North and Swift's April Ludgate knockoff Demi. If that bothers you, I'm sorry, but I already wrote them into the first couple of chapters.

Anyway, enough wasting time on my rambles. Let's waste some time on the story! ONWARD!

CHRONICLES OF ED

Chapter 1: The Peach Vale Voyagers

The last light of day had dipped beneath the horizon, shrouding Peach Creek in a dense black veil. Rain poured from the overcast sky with a pounding fervor, the din of dripping water striking every surface punctuated by distant rumbles of thunder. The only light to be seen came from the street lamps, each one projecting little more than an orange haze that just barely penetrated the fog, as well as the occasional white flash of lightning peeking through the clouds. It seemed that the town had fallen asleep, hiding away from the storm.

A select few windows were still alight along the humble cul-de-sac of Rethink Avenue, and at least a few residents were still up and about within. Perhaps a few of them were enjoying the ambiance of the rain, relaxing with a book, watching TV in spite of the storm… simply giving themselves a moment to unwind before their day came to an end.

Things were not so calm in one such house. As the light shone through the narrow basement window, tensions were rising below...

Ed stared at each of his friends in turn, teeth gritted, eyes wide with anxiety, sweat pouring from his brow, body barely able to keep still. He could sense that something was terribly wrong, and it was eating him up inside to wonder what it was.

Edd exchanged a worried glance with the oaf. One hand flew to his forehead while the other clutched a handful of papers, his pinprick pupils flicking about as they scanned the documents. He did not like the numbers, especially with the situation deteriorating the way it was.

Jonny bit his lip and stared ahead with an overwhelming sense of dread. He wanted to remain optimistic about the situation, but everything on the line told him that the worst was yet to come. This could go wrong in so many ways.

Demi gripped her fists and narrowed her eyes. Her blood was boiling with anticipation. Everyone knew that trouble was on the horizon, but she was too bound and determined to be scared. By this point, all she wanted was to know for sure what they had coming for them.

North took a deep breath, his expression cold and dire. He looked at Ed, then Edd, then Jonny, then Demi. His eyes flicked downward as he steeled his nerves, preparing for the worst. This was it. The event horizon. No turning back now.

Thunder cracked in the far distance. Static rippled through the air.

"Something's out there. Something big." North's narrow gaze flicked about the room, occasionally landing on one of his companions. "It's hard to tell what it is in the dark, with the storm clouding so many senses. But it's out there. That much can't be debated."

An apprehensive whine escaped Ed's throat. He looked up at the ceiling in fright. "What if it's a dragon, guys?"

"Ed…" Edd raised his hands in an effort to calm his companion down, despite his own shattered nerves. "Perhaps we shouldn't… jump to conclusions."

"Yeah, Ed, don't tempt fate!" Jonny insisted, fiercely gripping the edge of the table.

"I'm not scared of no dragon. I eat scarier things for breakfast," Demi muttered in her typical monotone. Despite her casual demeanor, it was telling how high the tension in the room was when not even Edd commented on her double negative.

"Shh!" North held his hand out, directing the focus back to him. He nervously examined their environment, briefly biting his lip. "It knows you're here. The subtle ambiance of the rain becomes rhythmic as a force just outside your line of sight beats against it. Vibrations course through the stone beneath your feet. The wet, dank smell of the chamber becomes stuffy. The smell of ozone steadily becomes overwhelming."

"I knew it!" Ed hollered, straightening up in his seat, his eyebrow shooting up with fretful electricity. "It's a dragon!"

"Will ya quit yer yelling over there?!"

The quintet's attention momentarily shifted to their sixth guest. Eddy was lounging on Ed's bed, a comic in his hands, an irritated frown directed right at them. After a quick round of sighs and awkward looks, the group at the table returned to their business while Eddy rolled his eyes and buried his nose in the pages again.

Jonny raised a hand. "So what are we seeing here?"

"Peering through your only window to the outside world…" North continued ominously, "…against the endless grey of the stormy night, a black shape is approaching."

"NOT A BLACK DRAGON!"

"We are so screwed, guys!"

"Bring it on already!"

"Fellows, please, let him finish!"

North nodded to Edd, then he cast a dour glare at the table. "For one fleeting moment, all the noise in the world seems to be muffled. A dark shroud covers the sky, the rain silently sliding off in a blinding mist. And then… you hear it… HHHRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUURRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!"

Almost everyone lurched in their chairs as North rocketed out of his, eyes closed and fists clenched as he roared at the top of his lungs. He raised a hand. He slammed it down on the table. When he pulled it away, he revealed a large, intricate game piece staring down the four smaller ones already set in place.

"The ground shakes and the air is filled with the stench of sulfur as you find the cavernous entryway blocked by an enormous red dragon!"

"AAH! RED! RED DRAGON BAD FOR ED!"

"Oh dear, oh dear, I don't have the armor for an encounter of this nature!"

"SO SCREWED! SO SCREWED!"

"I glare daggers at the beast like I'm its mama ready to deliver a whoopin'!"

North leaned over the table with a maniacal grin, affecting a deep, gravelly voice. "'Fools. Thieves. Filthy vermin! You have the gall to intrude upon the domain… of the great Voarexinuthrax?!'"

"'You're the one who left the door open, chump,'" Demi flatly retorted.

"'Oh, mighty red wyrm!'" Edd pleaded to the little red figurine in a ridiculously faux English accent, simultaneously progressing the story and admiring North's craftsmanship. "'I assure you we had no intention of pilfering any of your treasures. We are but humble travelers attempting to cross the mountains, seeking shelter from the storm.'"

"'It's no use, my friend!'" Ed declared in the barely-altered voice of his warrior character. "'Red dragons cannot be bargained with!' I draw my sword! 'There is only one way out! Tonight we fly or die!'"

"Heck yeah, bring it on," Demi insisted, snatching up her d20. "'Bout time we saw some actual dragons in this game."

"Oh boy, this is happening!" Jonny piped up, simultaneously excited and scared as all get out.

"'You would raise your blade to me, little one?'" North snarled through a toothy smile, following this up with a low, rumbling chuckle. "'Your friend is wise to beg. It would seem the rest of you haven't the brains to comprehend the challenge you're in for. Well, if it's a fight you want, then give me your best! It's been centuries since I had a fair fight!'"

And with that, North gave the party a knowing nod. "Roll initiative!"

Demi's die was already rolling halfway through the command. Likewise, Ed scooped up his d20 and chucked it across the table with entirely too much flair and a mighty cry of "SHABANG!"

"Ed, I keep telling you not to be so forceful when rolling your dice!" Edd lectured as he followed suit in a much less dramatic manner. "Don't you remember what happened during our first session?"

"It's okay, Double D!" Jonny cheerfully offered. "The bruises finally went away earlier this week."

"Natural twenty!" Ed decreed, raising a fist with triumph as if this had been an attack roll and not an initiative count. "I shall be the first to strike yonder monster with my mighty blade! Do not pass go! Do not collect two hundred dollars!"

"Oh, brother…" As the action started kicking into high gear, Eddy could only grumble under his breath. He wasn't sure why he kept coming over for these Lizards & Wizards sessions. He had no interest in actually playing; he felt like a big enough geek simply acknowledging the game's existence. Maybe it was his natural apprehension towards being left out, but if he was just going to sit on the sidelines anyway, he was starting to wonder why he didn't just do it at his own house with his own magazines. At least they didn't contain the same kind of fantasy drivel he was actively attempting to avoid. Stupid Ed and his stupid comic books…

Lowering the printed nonsense away from his eyes a few inches, Eddy glared down at the foot of the bed, acknowledging his fellow wallflower. Ever since Jonny joined the campaign, Plank started hanging around by extension. Like Eddy, though, Plank never got directly involved in the game, instead sitting propped up against the wall with his vacant, crayon-etched eyes staring into an open novel. According to Jonny, Plank reasoned that if indulging in fairy tales meant trusting beloved characters to a dice roll, then it wasn't worth expending his imagination on. Eddy never thought he would see the day when he and the hunk of wood agreed on something.

No one else in the group would be swayed by Eddy and Plank's defiance, of course. Ed and North were already such cloudcuckoolanders that they naturally jumped on the Lizards & Wizards hype train in a heartbeat. Edd was enough of a nerd to pick up on the mechanics of the game, and eventually what started out as an attempt to appease Ed somehow turned into genuine enjoyment. Jonny… well, much like Ed and North, he was already an oddball, so seeing him pretending to be a magical forest gnome wasn't especially surprising. It was a little strange at first to see cynical, grim, deadpan snarker Demi join the campaign, but given this game's penchant for monster goring, she fit right in with the boys in no time.

And so there Eddy sat every Sunday night, watching from across the room, wondering what these dweebs –the "Peach Vale Voyagers," as they called themselves– were getting so worked up about. It wasn't like they were being cornered by a real dragon. There wasn't even a life-sized model to interact with. They were rolling dice and issuing commands at a three-inch game piece sitting on a table, counting down the numbers and biding their time until North decreed that the monster was vanquished.

An hour of theater-of-the-mind combat felt like several in Eddy's head…

"Edvard, you're up!" North announced.

"Great Mage Edvard!" Ed gleefully proclaimed. "How best to strike down this archnemesis of all fire trucks?!"

"Oh, gracious, I have so few spell points left following that encounter with the goblins…" Edd fretted, looking over his character sheets once more.

"Just do a charm, save the bigger stuff," Demi suggested with a limp shrug. "That's what I do."

"Very well," Edd agreed, conducting a quick scan of his spell list before finalizing his decision. He inched his playing piece a few squares forward, then announced, "I cast Proper Offense upon the dragon, so that I may attack with advantage upon my next turn. Then I'm going to retreat back behind this corner."

"Smart boy," North conceded, tapping his head. "That brings us back to the top of the round! Edmundus!"

"YOUR MOTHER IS A HAMSTER!" Ed hollered as he rolled to attack. He leaned two inches over the die as soon as it came to a halt in the center of the table, spending a good ten seconds just trying to do the counting in his head. Then he cheerfully sat up straight again and declared, "Natural one!"

"Ouch."

"Ed, that's a ten on the die," Edd graciously corrected the oaf. "With your attack modifier, this means you rolled a nineteen."

"Ohhh, that's better, right?" Ed naively questioned.

"Significantly better."

"Yeah, you just barely hit him!" North laughed. "What kinda damage you dealing this time?"

"Keep rollin' rollin' rollin'!" Ed chimed as he gathered his hit dice, tossed them high into the air and let them rain all over the room, much to Edd's continued protest and Jonny and Demi's amusement, vocal and silent respectively.

"ACK-!" Even Eddy was not safe from the hail of dice in his anti-nerd zone, rubbing his head where an errant d6 struck him. "Watch where you're throwin', Sir Lumps-a-Lot!"

"Sorry, Eddy!" North warily offered as he scrambled about to help Demi collect the fallen dice. By this point, a common practice of the campaign was to tally up Ed's attack rolls regardless of where the dice fell. "This one's a six!"

"Five… three…" Demi set the dice down on the table, taking care to set them upright in the position she found them in, rerolling the single die that landed on a one as was the standard practice of Ed's character class.

Ed was bouncing in his seat with anticipation. "What'd I get, what'd I get?!"

"I count eighteen."

"Totalled to twenty-three!" Edd concluded, marking down this latest addition to their foe's damage tally. Another standard practice was for Edd to keep track of enemy hit points. On top of him being able to do faster math in his head, it kept their Grand Wizard from having too many things to focus on. "This dragon has accrued two hundred and twenty-three points of damage."

"And he is still standing!" North laughed, half impressed, half diabolically.

Ed let out a stiff grunt and clenched a fist. "'Your donuts are numbered, Venom-anthrax! Prepare to meet your maker!'"

"Oy vey…" Eddy fell back and let his head plop atop Ed's oily, crusty pillow.

"We come to Drusilla!" North exclaimed, turning to face Demi. "What do you do?"

Demi smirked and rolled her d20 around in her palm. "I'ma shoot him with another Vile Blast."

"How did I see that coming?" North chuckled.

Eddy rolled his eyes at the ceiling. Even he saw that coming. If he had a quarter for every time Demi said "Vile Blast," he could buy the whole candy store and still have enough money to retire.

Two attack rolls later, Demi nodded to North and prepared her hit dice. "Dirty twenty and twenty-one."

"Both hit!" North declared. "You strike the dragon's face with two unworldly blasts of force!"

"He takes thirteen points of it."

"Man, you're on a roll tonight, girl. He's still up. Jedwick, we come to you!"

Jonny eagerly raised a fistful of dice. "I call upon the raw forces of the storm and summon lightning! This fella needs to make an agility save!"

"Ni-hi-hice!" North laughed, giving his own d20 a toss, pausing to scrutinize the tiny number the die landed on and do the quick math in his head. Numbers were at least a little easier on his dyslexic brain than letters were. "Uh… Fourteen! That does not make it, right?"

"Right!"

"Well, he's gonna expend his last Mighty Endurance to make that a success."

"Ahh, you stinker," Jonny sighed dejectedly, rolling his hit dice. "Well, he still takes half of… ten, eleven… twelve points of lightning!"

While Edd added six more points to their total damage, North prepared to roll for the dragon. "First let's see if his breath weapon recharges…"

A quick glance at the die and a wily smirk told the players everything they needed to know.

"Let's see… Edmundus, Jedwick and Drusilla, he's gonna breathe a cone of fire at all three of you! Gimme some agility saves!"

The three targeted players made their saving throws, announcing them in turn. Ed failed ("Oh no, extra crispy!"), Jonny and Demi succeeded. Once North rolled for damage, he couldn't help but let out a low snicker and cast the others a coy grin. "You guys are so lucky. Ed, you take twenty-seven points of fire damage, Jonny and Demi take thirteen."

"Oh boy, guys, I'm looking rough and I'm outta potions!" Jonny warily stated, looking over his character's now single-digit hit points.

"'You call that a fire?'" Demi snidely spoke on behalf of her witch. "'I've seen hotter fires spat in the theater.'"

"Snrk…" What? No, Eddy didn't laugh at that. Of course he didn't. He wasn't even involved in the game.

"'You deign to mock me, lowly drow?!'" the dragon growled through North's gravelly impression. "'Every word you speak serves only to extend the pain and suffering of your demise!' Edvard, back to you!"

"Well, seeing as how I have attack advantage this round and am well within range for this particular spell without the need to compromise my safety," Edd stated, picking up his d20, "I choose to expend my last remaining level two spell point and cast Acidic Arrow."

"Do it, Double D!" Ed was on the edge of his seat as he watched Edd's die clatter across the table twice.

Edd, on the other hand, was very visibly nerve-wracked. "First roll is a three… and…"

Once the second roll landed, however, Edd was struck with wide-eyed shock that quickly spread to most of the other players. "Natural twenty!"

"WHOO! DOUBLE D!"

"RIGHT ON!" Jonny was astounded by the odds. "Double D gets that sweet, sweet double damage!"

"Yeah, man, roll those 4d4!" North squealed with an equal amount of joy. It wasn't often that Edd got a chance to attack with this level of fervor.

Against his better judgment, Eddy craned his neck and looked up to watch Edd plop his little numbered triangle on the table four times. He still had no idea how people actually rolled that die. It looked less suited for tumbling across a flat surface than it did creating a hazard for some hapless sucker's bare foot.

"Now let's see…" Edd counted up the damage dealt by his attack with each toss of the die. To his continued awe, even these numbers were coming out strong. "Four… seven… ten… fourteen points of acid damage, bringing the total to… two hundred and fifty-six!"

North's jaw dropped, completely stupefied. Then he let out an airy chuckle. "Oh my Lord… Double D, you wanna describe it?"

A mile-wide smile spread across Ed's face. He knew exactly what that meant. "DOUBLE D SLAYED THE DRAGON!"

"AWW YEAH!" Jonny very nearly fell out of his chair as he reeled back in a joyous jump.

"Oh, gracious!" Edd had quite clearly not seen that coming. Rarely did he deliver the killing blow, and he certainly hadn't anticipated concluding a battle against a dragon of all things. Once he got over the initial surprise, the early celebration did start to rub off on him, prompting the youth to smile and conjure up an elaborate scene for his cohorts…

"Well then… From behind the stony barricade, Edvard feels the heat of the dragon's magnificent fiery breath. He watches and waits… and then, as the wall of flames separating him from his dear companions dissipates, he leaps into the clearing, his ornate visage visible to the great wyrm for little more than a split second. With practiced ease, Edvard weaves his spell, and with a wide swing of his arm, he flings this ethereal, acidic projectile through the open air. It plunges deep into the dragon's throat. Smoke billows from the wound and the dragon's open maw as he unleashes a bloodcurdling roar of agony, every fiber of its being alight with searing, caustic pain. He stumbles back, his muscles gradually going numb, his shriek lessening into a mere sickly gargle."

Sheesh… "Overkill" was not a word Eddy generally used to describe Edd's flowery vocabulary, but this was really pushing it.

"At last, with the titanic force of a felled ancient sequoia, the dragon collapses onto the cave floor. A final puff of smoke erupts from his mouth as he chokes out his last breath. And then… all goes still and quiet."

Granted, the awestruck silence didn't last for long.

"HUZZAAAAAH!" Ed launched onto his feet, his arms raised with triumph, his chair clattering across the concrete floor. "DEFEATED IS THE DRAGON!"

"GOOD GOLLY, WE DID IT, GUYS!" Jonny raised a hand himself, silently awaiting the high-fives, eventually receiving one from Edd. "AND NO ONE EVEN DROPPED TO ZERO!"

"Well, yeah. 'Cause we're ballers," Demi chided, leaning against the table with a coy, satisfied smirk.

"Well done, ladies and gents!" North chimed in, folding his arms and smiling at the players. "You've defeated the dreaded red dragon Voarexinuthrax and reached Level 10!"

"GRAVY!" Ed was immediately sitting again, hardly deterred by the fact that he missed his relocated chair altogether and instead plopped onto the floor. All he cared about was updating his warrior's character sheet. "We are unstampable, guys!"

"It is a marvel that we were able to accomplish the feat of conquering an adult red dragon at Level 9…" Edd agreed. "North, you certainly have a penchant for thrusting the most daunting tasks at us."

"Hey, that just makes it more rewarding when you win, right?"

"Yeah!" Eddy sat up and offered the group a somewhat aggravated grin. "Makes ya wish having a social life was that easy, huh?"

Edd let out a beleaguered sigh. "Eddy…"

"You're still here?" Demi intoned, raising an eyebrow at Eddy. "I thought you left like five minutes ago. You don't have to keep taking up space if you're not gonna try to have fun."

"Demi…"

"I don't have to explain myself to you, Staples!" Eddy retorted. "Excuse me for not wanting to prance around in your fairytale world!"

"Oh boy, here we go again…" Jonny mumbled anxiously, already packing away his books and papers in anticipation of the session's abrupt ending. Likewise, Ed looked up from his character sheet and warily glanced at each of his friends; even he could sense the growing tension.

"Guys, guys, chill," North anxiously insisted, raising his hands. "We've been over this. Eddy doesn't have to play if he doesn't want to."

"And I don't need you defending me!" Eddy continued to shout, pointing at the bespectacled young man. "You don't see anyone here getting up in arms because the hunk of wood doesn't wanna play!"

"Yeah, well, Plank doesn't constantly antagonize us about it either," Demi flatly stated.

"Fellows, please." Edd stood up and asserted himself, frowning at his bickering cohorts. "Must we argue about this every weekend? Eddy, I understand that you feel left out. I can empathize with that. But that's no excuse to spoil everyone else's enjoyment. Likewise, Demi, we needn't put Eddy down simply for his lack of interest."

To that, Demi merely shrugged.

"It'd be really fun if you did wanna play, Eddy," Ed meekly offered, hugging his character sheet to his chest and offering Eddy a big, cheesy grin. "You'd like it! You could be a hunter or a mage or a knight or…"

"Or a thief!" Jonny gladly suggested. "You'd make a pretty good thief, I'd say!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Eddy questioned skeptically, only slightly joking about it.

"Er… Well…" Jonny sunk in his seat, acknowledging the foot he had firmly planted in his mouth. "It's just… the thief class is really neat and… you could probably do some cool things with it."

Eddy folded his arms and lowered his chin a few inches. "Call me a party pooper if ya want, but if I'm gonna spend my Sunday night pretending I'm in some magical fantasy world, I think tossing dice around and doing a whole bunch of number-crunching would kinda kill the vibe for me. Isn't fantasy supposed to help us not think about math?"

"I can understand your reservations, Eddy." Edd stepped closer to his friend sitting on the bed, his expression gentle. "It could be quite enthralling if you were to participate, but we would think no less of you if you relinquished your role as a spectator and spent your evening elsewhere. We don't want you to believe we're excluding you out of spite. After all, we have every other day of the week to enjoy our summer alongside you."

"I guess…" Eddy breathed with a limp shrug. "I don't get why you're so into this wizard business, though. Didn't you once call this game… Purell drivel or whatever?"

"Oh, oh!" Ed piped up, still a few paragraphs behind on the conversation. "You could be a minstrel! That's what North is when he's not the Grand Wizard!"

"But then what would North play as?" Jonny laughed, tactfully avoiding the drama.

"He'd be a minstrel! Eddy would be a minstrel! Everyone would be a minstrel! Minstrel party, let's go!"

"Pfft… I am completely okay with that," North snickered as he idly stuffed his books and binders into his backpack.

Edd let out a deep sigh. "Yes, I acknowledge my initial notions towards Lizards & Wizards, but even now that I am an active participant, I am mentally grounded enough not to let the realms of imagination rule my everyday life. The fact of the matter is… it is entertaining to indulge in fiction every now and then. To leave behind the cares and concerns of the real world and pretend to be something greater than yourself. We used to do that all the time, Eddy."

Eddy frowned. "Yeah, but we didn't sit around a table and let books decide how long it would take until the pretend bad guys had enough."

"My point being… I play this game so that I may engage in jovial childlike whimsy while I still have the opportunity. After all…" Edd rubbed his neck and cast a dismal frown at the floor. "…within mere weeks, we will begin our voyage across that ever-important final bridge towards adulthood, and our focus will naturally be drawn away from such juvenile endeavors."

"Yeah…" Eddy's head dropped and a similarly anxious grimace crossed his face. Summer was nearing its end all too quickly, signaling the approach of their freshman year of high school. Taking this into consideration, Eddy genuinely found himself agreeing with Edd's admission of wanting to feel young and free for a little while longer.

North nodded to the duo and cleared his throat, if only to remind them that he and the others were still there. "Can't really fault ya for that kind of thinking. Everyone has to grow up, but that doesn't mean you have to completely stop being a kid."

"Very true, North," Edd agreed.

"Not in my house," Demi grunted, absent-mindedly dropping her dice one-by-one into their case. "My dad sucks all the childlike wonder out of anything fun with all his science jargon."

"Well, your dad's a big ol' grumpy grump!" Ed insisted.

"No argument here."

The new topic at hand earned an actual chuckle out of Eddy. "I dunno, it sounds like he'd get along great with science guy Sockhead."

Edd smirked back at him, responding to the tease with a healthy dose of sarcasm. "Are you suggesting I'm not fun?"

"For trying to explain your enjoyment of fantasy in a non-fantastical way, yes, Professor Double-bore!"

It was a typical jab from Eddy, one that Edd was well accustomed to after all these years. All he could do was respond to it with a small laugh.

"And speaking of, Staples, isn't your dad trying to, like… invent portals or something? Sounds like fantasy to me!"

"Portals?" Ed's head snapped up, eyes wide and completely mystified by the suggestion.

"That's my point," Demi bluntly replied. "Portals should be fun, but he makes them not fun."

"I dunno…" North mused, leaning back in his chair with a finger to his chin. "I may not be fluent in techno-babble, but I could see some real scientific potential in teleportation."

"Oooooh…!" Jonny was enthralled despite Demi's sour tone, stepping away from the table and picking up Plank. "Imagine if he got it working! You could go anywhere you wanted! Wouldn't it be cool to take a portal to Yosemite or Yellowstone, just like that?! Even you couldn't object to that notion, huh, Plank?"

"It would be intriguing, breaking the boundaries of space in such a manner," Edd agreed, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Conducting instantaneous transport between two non-parallel locations… A complicated venture with little documented evidence to support its plausibility, but an interesting one to be sure. I was surprised when I first heard that the Peach Creek National Laboratory was attempting such an accomplishment, but I've learned very little on the matter. Father speaks infrequently of the research he conducts or the projects they engage in there."

"Well, sorry for not informing ya," Demi mumbled. "I didn't feel like talking about it."

"But just think of the places we'd go!" Ed excitedly insisted, joining in Jonny's elation. "Imagine a portal to another world! An alternate universe! A world of elves and orcs, where everyone uses magic, sprites play in the mystical forests, and dragons soar through the wide-open skies!"

"Hm…" Demi's eyebrow perked a few millimeters.

"Heck…" North was already on board with the portal concept, but his eyes were lighting up at the idea of a realm beyond their own. "That would be so cool! Real magic? Real dragons? A real adventure for the Peach Vale Voyagers! That beats my fanfiction!"

Edd was thoroughly amused by his friends' quixotic suggestions, but nonetheless took it upon himself not to let the fantasizing go too far. "Perhaps it's best to contemplate one scientific achievement at a time. Successful instant transport from one point on Earth to another would already be a revolutionary feat, never mind crossing boundaries between potential alternate realms."

"Geez, Double D," Demi grumbled, slumping her cheek against her fist. "The guys were finally starting to get me excited about this project, then ya go and spoil it again."

Eddy laughed out loud at the punk girl's complaint. "If that's excited, I'd hate to be the one to hold you back if you get ecstatic!" He finally leaped off the bed and stood up, taking a moment to stretch and brush off whatever crumbs or dander he'd been lying in. "Besides, let's get real here. Even if this portal could take you to some alternate fantasy world, none of you guys would last a day there!"

"Says you!" Ed retorted. "I am a noble warrior trained in the arts of the sword, shield, bow and finger paint, thank you very much!"

"Ed, you're trained in the art of rolling dice and describing how you would beat something up! Some good that'll do ya in a real swordfight! Have you ever even seen a real sword?"

"Sometimes Dad gets a sword in his drink."

"What about my wilderness survival merit badge? And Plank's herbology badge?" Jonny proudly offered. "Those skills would come in handy in a medieval forest!"

Eddy smirked and folded his arms. "Oh, I didn't know the Urban Rangers taught how to defend yourself from ogres!"

"Rolf's teaching methods are very thorough."

"Eddy does have a point," Edd admitted, bashfully rubbing his neck. "Roleplaying is a far cry from genuine medieval warfare or even day-to-day life. Not only would the culture be radically disparate, but the dangers inherent would be unlike anything we are accustomed to, be they local wildlife, brutal confrontations, or even radical ideologies that seem beyond our comprehension of morality. Members of such a society would likely be indoctrinated in the arts of swordplay and the arcane from a young age for the sake of surviving in this potentially hostile realm. These are skills that would be a remarkable challenge to grasp for youths like us who grew up in a comparatively more comfortable environment."

The room grew tensely silent. No one was looking at Edd, having averted their gazes in varying levels of discomfort. Ed stared distraught at the tabletop grid. Eddy tightened his folded arms and scowled at nothing in particular. Jonny exchanged a sad glance with Plank. North unconsciously rubbed his cheek. Demi leaned over the table and blew her bangs out of her face.

Quickly realizing the severe damper he had put on the mood, Edd hastily attempted a rebound. "But this is all hypothetical, of course! At the very least, we can all enjoy the idealistic immersion of fantasy roleplay and take joy in masquerading as the heroes of an epic tale, can't we?"

"Yeah, but…" North stood up, mustered a smile, and lightly elbowed Edd's arm. "Imagine what it would be like to use real magic! Not just pretending that you're shooting ethereal projectiles out of your hand, but actually bending the will of reality to your whims!"

Edd let out a stiff chuckle and gently patted North's shoulder. "Let's not dwell too heavily on escapism, shall we? If we reach too high on these flights of fancy, we'll never want to come back down."

"Ah, lighten up, Sockhead." Eddy perked back up just enough to throw an arm around Edd's shoulders and shoot him a smirk. "Leave it to you to overthink fun. We're just messin' with each other like we always do! We get it. It's not like we're ever gonna leave this boring, non-magical life we live. Doesn't mean we can't ask what if."

"Yeah!" Jonny poked his and Plank's heads between Edd and North. "Plank may not be keen on L&W, but he's not wrong when he says that flights of fancy aren't always a bad thing!"

Eddy rolled his eyes. "Of course the hunk of wood would believe that."

"Well…" With a subtle, deadpan grin, Demi stood up and weaseled her way into the group huddle. "You guys can overthink this all you want, as long as I can spend my evenings pretending to brutalize something and still have people who give a darn about me."

"Aw, we give a darn about ya!" Ed cheered, joining the group and promptly wrapping his arms around all of them, heedless of anyone's reactions to his body odor. "We're the Peach Vale Voyagers! Together, no dragon or giant or income tax stands a chance against us!"

"Ya got that right, Ed!" North cheered in return.

Edd paused to catch his breath to the best of his ability, subsequently blocking off his nose and letting out a small giggle. "Yes, very good. I apologize for complicating matters. As long as we're having fun, I suppose I have no room to complain."

"Not in this lug's arms, ya don't!" Eddy wheezed, squirming out of Ed's inhumanly strong hug. "Sheesh! You'd think we'd be used to the smell by now, like we are with your constant monologues!"

"I suppose it's worth taking comfort in the long-standing truth that some things never really change."

"HEY!"

The jovial atmosphere was soundly interrupted by a high-pitched shout from just outside Ed's room. Even through the closed door, Sarah's voice was as thunderous as the storm. "Are you nerds almost done down there?! We've had a car honking at us from our driveway for twenty minutes!"

"Er, that's probably my mom…" North nervously intoned as he and the rest of the gang were dropped back onto their feet. "Sorry, Sarah!"

"Well, guys, tonight was a real blast!" Jonny happily decreed, throwing his backpack over his shoulder. "Looking forward to what the rest of this crossing will entail!"

"Oh, you better be," North teased as he folded up his divider and packed it away with the rest of his materials. "Anyone want a ride home? I'm sure Mom won't mind."

"Given this torrid summer rain, that would be greatly appreciated," Edd agreed.

"Yeah, thanks," Eddy grunted, sticking his hands in his pockets and smiling at the floor with reserved uncertainty. He hated to admit it, but all this talk about playing games and escaping reality while they were still young had gotten to him. The part of him that was tired of being left out of his friends' fun was gradually starting to overpower the part of him that disregarded these endeavors as kiddie nonsense. He couldn't believe he was about to do this, but…

"Uh… So hey, guys… If it'll getcha to stop nagging me about it, I… could maybe give this game a shot. Try a round, see how I like it."

North looked over his shoulder with a hushed but chipper grin. "Really?"

"YES! YES, EDDY'S GONNA JOIN THE PARTY!" Ed hollered gleefully, picking Eddy up in another embrace that once more squeezed the air out of his companion's lungs.

"Well, I'd be willing to come up with a one-shot for next week if you just wanna do a test run," North offered, already on board with this idea. "Would you guys be cool with that?"

"Yeah, totally!" Jonny agreed.

Demi shrugged. "S'fine."

A warm, knowing smile crossed Edd's face. He nodded once in Eddy's direction. It was indeed comforting to know that their friendship was on that list of things that never changed. "Absolutely."

"Eheh… Great!" Eddy choked uncomfortably through his forced grin. He finally managed a sufficient inhale the moment Ed released him from his bear hug to sort through the piles of books on his desk.

"Here!" Once he'd found the text he was looking for, Ed turned back to Eddy and proudly offered him a Lizards & Wizards Player's Compendium. "This will help you make the bestest adventurer you can be!"

"Uh, yeah. Thanks, Lumpy," Eddy awkwardly grunted, accepting the book with a limp shrug. "But yeah, we better get going before your sister has an aneurysm."

"Smart," North agreed. With the room sufficiently cleaned –as much as it could be, being Ed's room– the Grand Wizard promptly led the way out the door and up the stairs. "See ya later, Ed!"

"Bye, guys!" Jonny chimed, slipping Plank into his backpack as he followed North out of the basement. "Oh, stop whining, ya sourpuss. You wanna get a swollen head from all that rain?"

Demi shifted her bag's strap on her shoulder and silently offered Ed a wave goodbye, earning an exaggerated, full-arm wave from Ed in return before she too disappeared for the night.

Edd and Eddy briefly stopped in the doorway, smiling first at each other, then at Ed. Affecting his character's accent, Edd boldly stated, "Until next we meet, my brothers."

"Farewell to thee, my friends!" Ed decreed, standing up straight and placing his fist against his chest. "And remember! Adventure awaits those with the courage, grit, and maple syrup to seek it!"

"Pfft…" Eddy snickered and shook his head with amusement before beginning his ascent up the stairs. "Idiot… Good night, Ed."

With one last wave, Edd joined Eddy and the rest of the gang on their way, leaving Ed to his own devices for the rest of the evening. Today's adventure, fictitious as it was, had been long and arduous, but the Peach Vale Voyagers plus one were feeling fairly well about themselves despite it, or perhaps because of it. After enduring those battles, they all had earned a long night's rest to prepare them for the journey that awaited them tomorrow.

And oh, what a journey it would be…