Hello all, and welcome back to another exciting chapter of Injustice Syndicate: The Rise! Now, last we left off was when the other kids of the Cul-de-sac were infected by a new form of the Joker's 'Joker Venom' that was disguised as a strand of the chickenpox virus with the Eds being the only ones unaffected by its deadly infection. Harley Quinn also walked out on the Joker, having had enough of the deranged clown's murderous ways and finally drawing the line. Just what is going to happen in this chapter? Let's see…


*I don't own Marvel, DC Comics, or Ed, Edd, n' Eddy!*


An Ed-Boy's Withdrawal!


While the Joker was silently plotting how he should kick off his plan as he waited for the Joker Virus to take effect on weakening the grown-ups of the Cul-de-sac, Eddy and his friends were sitting around trying to think of something to do. They've had no such luck as Eddy just layed down on the ground while Double Dee sat on his back and Ed drew circles in the dirt with his finger. After what felt like hours, but was really just ten or fifteen minutes, Ed stopped what he was doing.

"Oh! I got an idea!" he announced.

Several minutes later, the Eds were playing a game of kick the can at the lane. Well, Ed and Double Dee are doing all the playing. Eddy just couldn't get into it as he watched the can fly back and forth between his two friends who share his first name. The can landed in front of him and slowly brought his leg back in preparation to kick.

But Double Dee beat him to it.

"Hey! It was my turn!" exclaimed Eddy.

Growling in ever growing frustration, Eddy stomped on the can before he proceeded to jump on it several times, effectively flattening it beneath his feet before kicking it away. And from the sound of it, he hit a stray cat.

"Your turn." grumbled Eddy as he walked away.

Ed and Double Dee watched with mild concern for their friend. Sure, he's always been loud and rather abrasive, but he's never acted like that before now.

"Is Eddy okay?" Ed asked getting a shrug from Double Dee in return.

Unknown to the Eds, Joker, who is now disguised as a cactus, is watching this whole thing go down. If he's being honest, this is really catching his interest. He figures he'll watch this whole thing go down then proceed with his plan.


A little later, the Eds are once again doing things normal children do. And this time, it's arts & crafts.

"Watch closely, Ed." Double Dee instructed.

The beanie wearing Ed-Boy started moving his hands and fingers in all directions as quick as a flash, looping the strings between his fingers in intricate ways, while Eddy just continued to pace about. Once Double Dee was done, he held up his hands to show Ed that he'd created a knotted image of the Eiffel Tower. Much to Ed's amusement.

"Cool! My turn!"

Ed held up his hands which have similar strings between his fingers. He moved his hands in a similar way that Double Dee did before showing his work… only to reveal that nothing's changed. This confused Ed, as he was sure he'd made at least one knot. He tried again, but found himself tied in his own strings and falling to the ground. Eddy stopped pacing long enough to glare at his two friends who are currently not doing anything that he thinks is productive.

"Oops!" Ed said.

He and Double Dee laughed at his mishap while Eddy's glare worsened and he grit his teeth. Once Ed was freed, he and Double Dee found themselves staring down at Eddy, who had walked up to them with that same glare.

"You two ARE BORING ME!" he all but screamed before rounding on Ed who tried to sneak away. "Where're you doin', Monobrow? Yeah, that's right! You have one eyebrow! And no chin!"

Feeling self-conscious about his appearance after Eddy spoke about it like that, Ed glanced up at his one eyebrow and back down to his nonexistent chin. And being the peaceful fellow that he is, Double Dee tried to reason with his friend.

"Aw, come on, Eddy-"

But he was cut off when Eddy got up in his face and then climbed up on his back, gripping the top of his beanie in the process.

"And you! What's with the hat? What! Are you! Hiding!?" Eddy demanded.

He tried to pull Double Dee's hat off his head to see what's underneath, but the smartest Ed-Boy held strong and kept it on his head. After a few seconds, Eddy lost his grip and fell to the ground. Ed, Double Dee, and the disguised Joker looked at Eddy as though he's lost his marbles. And that makes Joker feel both a little threatened at no longer being the insane one, and a little bit proud that he may soon have a Joker Junior to carry on his legacy.

"Oh, okay, I know! Let's change a lightbulb-" Ed tried to suggest.

"BOOORRRIIING!" Eddy screamed to the heavens. "Your ideas are boring! Someone! Anyone! I need a sucker!"

Eddy place his face in his hands, desperate for at least one kid to scam so he, Ed, and Double Dee can buy jawbreakers, but he knows that all of the kids are sick this day. And his intelligent friend is the one who has to remind him.

"Boy, Eddy, face the facts. No kids…"

"No scams…" whined Eddy before realization hit him like a ton of bricks. "Huh?"

"Let's go change that lightbulb." Double Dee said.

As he and Ed started leaving to do just that and enjoy the rest of their day off from scamming the kids of the cul-de-sac, even if Eddy's not on board with the idea.

"Hey! Wait, guys!" Eddy called managing to stop his friends. "C'mere, watch!"

"Aw, come on, Eddy." whined Ed.

Eddy grabbed his tongue and stretched it out of his mouth, then in a burst of speed wrapped it around his head until he made himself a tongue turban. Ed and Double Dee are not amused. Even the disguised Joker doesn't think that's funny.

"Nah, Eddy, we've seen that before. Now you're boring us." Ed said as he and Double Dee walked off.


Sometime later, Joker was still disguised, but once again as a mailman. He watched as Eddy scuttled around the cul-de-sac in a desperate attempt to find kids to scam out of their money. With no success, I might add. Just the sight of this happening to Eddy like it is is enough for Joker to feel glee at the boy's misery. (I didn't mean for that to rhyme, it just happened.)

"Johnny!"

Eddy looked in the direction of Johnny's house and saw nothing but quarantine signs stuck all over his front yard.

"Rolf!" Eddy tried again only to get the same result. "But… but…"

Eddy looked around more and saw nothing but quarantine signs as far as the eye could see. In his mind, this shouldn't be happening. There should be loads of kids out here to scam while playing around. On a day like this there should be Rolf hanging laundry or doing some other work at his house, Kevin fixing his bike, Nazz would be lounging, and the twerps, Sarah and Jimmy, would be playing blocks.

Did I mention Nazz lounging?

"Check this out!" Eddy called.

Placing his nondominant hand at his underarm, Eddy started doing musical armpits. But where there should have been fart noises, pig noises were being made instead. But Eddy's awkward smile faded as he realized nobody was coming. He ran to the nearest house while the Joker snickered in the background. He's amazed at just how addicted to scamming this Ed-Boy is.

"Come on, people!" Eddy cried as he ran from a house he tried to get into. "Kevin!"

"SARAH!" he practically screamed as he knocked on Ed's door. "Oh… oh no! I'm calling on Sarah!"

Eddy slid down the door as his eyes widened. A deeper examination of his mind reveals that his brain is beginning to make popping noises until a small hole opens up and popcorn flies out. On the outside, Eddy's body is spontaneously bouncing about as thought it were a jackhammer. Falling on his back and flopping like a fish two times, Eddy sat up, and started running around in circles with his tongue sticking out. He was cackling like a maniac as Ed and Double Dee watched the whole thing go down, having just finished changing that lightbulb.

"Eddy's funny!" laughed Ed.

Eddy zipped past him and Double Dee in a fit of crazy. Ed laughed as he watched until Double Dee revealed the sheer magnitude of the situation to his dimwitted friend.

"Oh dear… this is not good, Ed, this is serious! Without kids to scam, he's gone crazy!" exclaimed Double Dee.

Ed started shivering out of fear and grew nervous at the thought of what was happening to his little buddy known as Eddy. And Eddy himself is still laughing himself silly as though he belongs in a funny farm. The two remaining sane Ed-Boys quickly steeled their resolve, knowing that it's up to them to stop Eddy from causing any further damage to the cul-de-sac. And to himself. But it's not going to be easy by any means. After all, he's already a slippery little weasel as it is.

"We have no choice, Ed! For Eddy's safety we'll have to capture him!" Double Dee declared.

"Yeah!" Ed agreed.

While the two remaining Ed-Boys ran off to try and stop their currently mentally challenged friend, the Joker started to slip into a new disguise. This time, he's dressing up as a police officer out on patrol. Complete with a nightstick and a glazed donut. The donut's not really part of the costume, Joker just wanted something sweet to munch on. But that's beside the point.

Joker fumed upon witnessing just how loopy the three-haired Ed-Boy has turned out from his little Scam Withdrawal. In his honest opinion, there's only room in the world for one crazy psychopath, and that's supposed to be him! But he does think that this will be a good way to weaken these three kids, who are somehow immune to his airborne Joker Virus so he can finish them off at his leisure. So for now, he'll tail the kids as they go about the day trying to get their friend back to normal. And once that's done, Joker will swoop in and destroy this entire cul-de-sac and everyone in it!

It make the Clown Prince of Crime so giddy just thinking about it!


"I see you!" Eddy said as he peeked into someone's mailbox.

Looking around, Eddy made sure no one was watching, and proceeded to crawl into the mailbox. Quite literally as a matter of fact.

"Oh yeah!"

Eddy snickered as he stuck his head out. Unfortunately for him, the base of the mailbox cracked causing it to fall over. Looking up, Eddy grinned upon seeing two familiar faces.

"Hi, Plank! Hi, Johnny!" Eddy greeted.

But what Eddy doesn't seem to realize in his insane state of mind is that 'Johnny' and 'Plank' are in fact Ed and Double Dee wearing masks of the two cul-de-sac kids. Eddy got up out of the mailbox and started to mingle with the two, causing Ed to snicker at how easily Eddy is falling for this trick.

"I'd invite you in, but I just shampooed the rugs." Eddy said.

Unfortunately for Ed, his snickering and shaking body caused the string holding his mask to his face to snap. Eddy looked down at the mask with a blank face as Double Dee facepalmed. So much for THAT brilliant plan.

"Johnny…! You dropped your face…! I'll get you a new one!" Eddy said with a stupid grin.

He zipped off to do who knows what as Ed and Double Dee just watched. Even the Joker was dumbfounded by just what he was seeing. And yet, at the same time he's finding this to be inexplicably humorous. It's just too bad the old Bat Chump's not here to see it so the Joker can rub it in his face.


A little later, we see Eddy in the forest just outside the playground playing a sort of gambling game with a squirrel of all things. He was swiftly rearranging a set of three cups, one of which has an acorn underneath it, while the squirrel is supposed to decide which cup has the nut under it.

"Hey, find the nut! Where's the nut? Here's the nut! 'Round she goes, here, what, are you sure you wanna?" Eddy asked the squirrel before rearranging the cups again. "Okay, here we go! Can't see, don't know, time's up, gotta go! C'mon, c'mon! Pick, pick!"

This went on for awhile as Eddy won against the first squirrel and proceeded to win various different nuts from other squirrels. Ranging from acorns to peanuts to pecans to walnuts. Eddy gathered up all of the nuts he'd won, holding them to his chest as though they were pieces of precious treasure. And in his currently damaged state of mind, they are.

"Suckers!" he snickered gleefully.

"Hey!" exclaimed Double Dee, getting Eddy's attention. "Drop those nuts!"

'Oh my…!' Joker thought lewdly at the unintentional innuendo.

But both he and the Eds watched slack-jawed as Eddy stuffed all the nuts he won from the squirrels into his mouth like squirrels and chipmunks do before running off. Ed and Double Dee followed and tried to stop him, but they were too slow to prevent him from jumping into the trees. They could only watch and plan as Eddy swung away like a monkey using the vines as a set of monkey bars.

'I've heard of people going nuts before, but this takes the peanut brittle!' Joker thought to himself upon witnessing what Eddy did.


A little later, Eddy was in town where the kids go to buy jawbreakers at the candy store. He was looking around when he spotted a fire hydrant. But to his damaged mind, it doesn't look like a fire hydrant. Instead, it looks more like a…

"Jawbreaker!"

Yeah, one of those.

With a surprising amount of strength from the normally physically inadequate Ed-Boy, Eddy ripped the fire hydrant up from the ground causing a pillar of water to gush up from the underground pipeline. Using his large and long, green tongue, Eddy slurped up the fire hydrant and sat down on the sidewalk, never noticing Ed and Double Dee sneaking up behind him with their newest plan already in motion.

"This is good." Eddy said to himself as he sucked on the fire hydrant as though it were a real jawbreaker.

Double Dee and Ed tip-toed up to Eddy with a toilet plunder that has a rope tied to it. Their newest plan was to immobilize Eddy long enough to get him into an isolated area where they could snap him out of his craze. Just a little bit closer now…

"NOW, ED!" shouted Double Dee.

Eddy turned around just in time for Ed to stick the plunger on his head with a scream. The force of it caused Eddy to spit out the fire hydrant and the nuts he'd won from those squirrels earlier, but it also sent Eddy into a panick.

"AMBUSH!" he screamed.

"There he goes." Ed said as Eddy ran off.

Double Dee grabbed the rope, which proved to be a big mistake on his part as Eddy started dragging him along for the ride.

"Double Dee!" cried Ed.

Eddward screamed as he was pulled through garbage cans and cardboard boxes as Eddy ran for his life. Ed and, unknowingly, the Joker were right behind them as they tried to keep up, but for totally different reasons.

"WAIT! WAIT, I WANT TO RIDE, TOO!" exclaimed Ed.

"EDDY! AHH!" screamed Double Dee.

This time he was pulled through a small, incomplete fence and a bramble bush. He groaned as he got thorns stuck in his skin for a little bit due to the bush, and yelped as Eddy made a sharp turn around a corner. He screamed at the top of his lungs for a few more feet, then BANG! He crashed head first right into a street light!

"My turn, my turn!" exclaimed Ed.

"Who!? What!? Where!?" asked Eddy as he got away.

"You have all the fun!" complained Ed as he caught up with Double Dee.

He picked his friend up by the beanie, revealing that his spine seems to have telescoped. Thus giving him a squashed appearance. Double Dee wordlessly held up an arm in an 'idea' gesture. And this time, his plan IS going to work.

'Hoho, this is better than cable TV!' Joker, still in his disguise, thought to himself as he munched on donuts. 'It almost makes me feel bad that I'm going to destroy this place and kill everyone in it. Almost.'


***To Be Continued…***


Okay, this wraps up this chapter. If you enjoyed the chapter, be sure to favorite the story and follow it and myself so you stay up to date with everything I do. Also, please be sure to leave a review for this chapter, if you so desire. After all, reviews are the lifeblood of all of my stories. And as always, I'll see you in my next update. Buh-bye now!