Being mayor was a time consuming job. There was always paperwork, events, and delegations to worry about.
When Frederick Jones wasn't busy with his mayoral duties he was doing research for possible locations of the Planispheric Disc. He'd been searching for ten years and was no closer to finding other pieces than he was when he started. Despite this, he wouldn't hesitate to look for ten more years if it meant finding the treasure. It was his life's work and passion. Nothing was more important.
"Dad!". Frederick couldn't help but let out a long, slow sigh when he heard his eight year old son shout for him as he slammed the front door. It apparently didn't matter how many times he told the boy no shouting in the house, Fred would always forget.
At this point Frederick didn't see the point in trying to enforce that rule anymore. This just seemed to be one of those things that didn't stick in his son's head, like how he shouldn't talk so much about traps, or that he shouldn't talk back to authority.
Fred was a good boy, but he was energetic and opinionated. If a thought came to his head, it was as though Fred had no choice but to speak his mind.
Frederick Jones hid his research and notes in a secret compartment in his desk drawer. One good thing about Fred's noise level was that the boy rarely ever snuck up on him. Frederick had plenty of time to put his things away before seeing what menial and useless thing had caught his son's attention this time.
Frederick left his office just in time to catch Fred by the shoulders before the boy ran right into him.
"Sweet stars, Fred, what's the rush?" Frederick gave his son an unimpressed look. Fred seemed to not even notice his dad's annoyance.
"Look!" Fred shoved a partially crumpled paper towards him. "We're going on a field trip."
"Oh?" Frederick took the paper and boredly looked it over. "Where are you going this time?"
"Destroido Corp." Fred said. Frederick frowned and started to read the permission slip in his hands instead of just glancing it over. The name sounded familiar. It was a relatively new, yet successful, business. But something was bothering Frederick about this.
There was a voice whispering at the back of his head, quietly but insistently. It demanded that he tread carefully. Frederick was very familiar with this voice, as it was the one that told him to get to the treasure before anybody else could.
It was the voice that told him to kidnap Brad and Judy's infant child even though he had no good reason for doing so.
Frederick folded up the paper and put it in his pocket. "When is the field trip?" Frederick asked. He needed to know how much time he had to dig deeper into this company.
Fred seemed to pout, but he answered. "Next Thursday." Nearly a week. It wasn't enough for a deep and thorough search, but it would do.
"I'll look into it and get back to you." Frederick said to his son, using the same tone he might use to talk to the press when they were pushing for information that he just wasn't ready to give them yet.
Fred sighed but didn't whine. He was used to this kind of thing. While Frederick wasn't the most present and caring if parents, he was protective of him. He'd taken Fred for a reason, even if he didn't understand what that reason was.
Crystal Cove was a nice town, but hidden under a thin layer was a place of greed, resentment, and manipulation. Far too many people were willing to take things too far when they felt slighted. As a person in a position of power, Frederick Jones knew that he was a target, and his son was even more of one.
As such, Frederick didn't allow his young son to go anywhere or spend significant time with anybody until after he had done some research on them.
The research wasn't always very thorough, even when it was important to do so. For example, it should be very important to do all the work when looking for a babysitter for Fred. However, when Frederick had seem the way that Angel Dynamite, one of many potential babysitters for Freddy, had been able to calm and comfort the boy when he got overwhelmed and shut in on himself, he had hired her on the spot.
Frederick knew that he should look more into his son's babysitter than a single field trip destination, but he had a bad feeling about this place, and the DJ had never given off such feelings.
Frederick spent a few hours with his son, making and eating dinner, halfheartedly playing a few games, stuff like that. He didn't really like it, as there was so much more he could do with his time, but Frederick had his reasons.
For one, it gave him the chance to keep an eye on his son. If Frederick was with Fred, then he knew that the boy wasn't getting into trouble.
Second, Frederick was always paranoid that the truth of Fred's parentage would come out and the boy would be taken from him. Frederick hoped that if he went out of his way to at the very least pretend to spend meaningful time with his son then Fred wouldn't accidentally say something that caused others to look more into their little family.
Third, a reason that switched between being the most important thing to barely worth consideration, Frederick just wanted to spend time with his son.
He may have kidnapped Fred for nefarious purposes years ago, but he had come to care for the boy. Fred was smart, kind, and he deserved so much more than Frederick knew he could ever give him.
Frederick really did enjoy getting to know the child that wasn't truly his, even if his work and passion caused him to push Fred to the side more often than he probably should.
After putting Fred to bed, Frederick returned to his study. He started to do research about this Destroido Corp. In only a minute he had found what he was looking for, and it made him want to grab either his piece of the Planispheric Disc, or Fred, and leave Crystal Cove before his treasure was taken from him.
Ricky Owens. He was the owner of Destroido Corp. He was back in Crystal Cove, and Frederick hadn't even realized it. How long had he been here? What was he doing? Obviously he had to be looking for the treasure, but why create and run a company? What would that accomplish?
Frederick had to know. Once he got over his shock he ran into the hall and checked on his not yet sleeping son. After telling Fred that nothing was wrong he went to his own room to make sure that his piece of the Planispheric Disc was still there.
Even Frederick couldn't say the exact reason why he had checked on Fred first? Was it because his room was closer? Was it because he was more worried about his son than the Planispheric Disc? Frederick didn't know, and that scared him.
Once he was sure that everything was fine for now, Frederick returned to his office and started doing deeper research.
He needed to know exactly when Ricky had returned to Crystal Cove. He needed to know exactly what his company did, and why. If it had anything at all to do with the treasure, it needed to be shut down.
Frederick wanted to just chase Ricky away, but the other man must have a plan in place to deal with him, and Frederick couldn't risk being unmasked. Not now. If he could do this without pulling out the Freak, that would be preferable.
Frederick researched all night and as much as he could when he found time the next few days. He did just enough mayoral work to not draw suspicion to himself. He barely spent any time with Fred, mostly just making sure that he had food and was in bed on time. Frederick didn't even spend time looking for the other pieces of the Planispheric Disc. At this moment, Ricky and his company took priority.
Finally, the night before Fred's field trip, Frederick had to admit that he found nothing of concern. Alright, that wasn't necessarily true. Destroido Corp was a mess, and seemed to go out of its way to be as ethically questionable as possible. But Frederick found no reason to believe that this company was giving Ricky the resources to search for the treasure, and that was good enough for now.
If Ricky was any other member of Mystery Incorporated, Frederick wouldn't let go of this so easily. But it was just Ricky. He'd always been too soft and scared to do things on his own. Without his friends or Pericles, Ricky wasn't a threat.
So Frederick signed the paper, told his son to be careful during the trip and to not wander off on his own, and called it a night.
Frederick had been so busy looking into Ricky Owens and Destroido Corp that he had work that lay forgotten on his desk. If he'd bothered to look at it he would have seen the report from the Crystal Cove Animal Asylum for the Criminally Insane.
Frederick didn't see the papers explaining that there had been a breach in security and one if the prisoners had been able to escape.
Frederick never would have let Fred go anywhere near Ricky Owens if he knew that Professor Pericles was out.
Fred liked field trips, or at least he liked the thought of them. He liked going to new places, and he liked that field trips were usually more visual and easier for him to understand than the endless talking in school. It was also fun to be able to walk around.
But field trips were stressful. The schedules were weird, and he hated riding on the bus, and teachers were so much more mean on field trips.
So Fred was excited about the field trip to Destroido Corp, right until they got there. That was when everything got loud and hurried and crowded.
Fred found it hard to move. He would shuffle along, but whenever another kid would brush up against him he would whine and freeze up for several seconds before he was able to move again.
Fred had started their tour at the front of the groups near the teachers, but as he lagged behind he soon found himself at the back of the group.
This was where the loud and rowdy kids were. They were laughing and pushing each other around. Fred didn't like it. Despite the fact that his legs were stiff and it felt like he was moving through mud, Fred sped up and tried to move past the other kids.
Fred was almost free when one of the kids pushed another into him. Fred's breath got caught in his throat as he stumbled and tripped to the ground.
The other kids were still laughing as they moved past him. Nobody so much as looked at him. Fred didn't know if they were laughing at him and ignoring him to be mean, or if they were just having fun and hadn't noticed him at all. He didn't know which was worse.
Fred gasped and wrapped his arms around himself. He closed his eyes tight. He felt like he couldn't breathe. He knew that he needed to get up and catch up to the others, but he couldn't move. It felt like his body had stopped working, and it wasn't going to move until he calmed down.
Fred sat on the ground for a long time. He wanted somebody to check on him and fix everything. He didn't want anybody to see him, because he didn't want to get in trouble.
He wasn't trying to be bad, but whenever this happened most adults and even other kids thought that he was doing it on purpose. Only Angel and sometimes his dad didn't blame him.
Fred eventually forced himself to open his eyes and lift his head. Nobody was here. Fred was both relieved and absolutely terrified. His dad had told him not to wander off. He hadn't, but the teachers wouldn't listen to him, and they would tell his dad, and then Fred would get in trouble, and he hadn't even done anything.
Fred fiddled with the scarf around his neck as tears came to his eyes. He knew he needed to catch up to his group, but he didn't know where they were, and he didn't want to get even more lost.
Besides, his body didn't want to move yet. He was able to slowly get to his feet and shuffle to the corner of the dark room, but that was all. Fred sat back down and curled up, making himself as small as he could.
The tears in Fred's eyes started to fall, and he did nothing to stop them. He buried his face against his legs and sobbed.
He didn't know how long he was sitting there. He just cried, even though he knew there wasn't really anything wrong. Because he was crying when he had no reason, he felt guilty and it twisted his gut and made him cry even more.
"Hey, kid," A voice said. Fred stiffened and bit his lip to try to stop his son's. It didn't work. He felt like he couldn't breathe.
"It's okay. You're okay." The voice said. The voice was strained and a little stiff, but they didn't sound mad. "You need to breathe."
"C-c'n…ngh." Fred whined. He couldn't talk.
"Yes you can." The man said almost gently. Fred felt a hand on his legs. It slowly started to pull his legs away from his chest, spreading them out and giving him space.
"Come on, kid, you can do this. I know it's hard. Trust me, I know, but you'll feel a lot better." The man said. Fred took in a quick shuddered breath, and he tried to hold it in just like Angel had showed him. He couldn't hold it for longer than a second before he had to let it out with as much control as he could manage. It wasn't very good, but he just took another breath and tried again.
It took several tries before Fred had his breath under control again and he was able to take a deep breath. He looked at the man who was kneeling in front of him.
He was wearing a yellow and white striped shirt. He reminded Fred a bit of a pirate.
"You okay now, kid?" The man asked. Fred nodded. The man stood up and held a hand out to Fred, pulling him to his feet. "What's your name?"
"F-Fred Jones." The boy said as he wiped his eyes. The man's grip on his hand tightened a little bit before he let him go.
"No kidding." The man looked stunned. "You know, you look like an old friend of mine."
Fred brightened slightly. If this man knew his dad, then he wasn't a stranger. "You know my dad?"
"Oh, I know him well." The man said. Fred didn't know what the tone in his voice meant. He sounded happy, but not really nice. "Your father's not here now, is he?"
Fred shook his head. "School field trip. I lost my group."
"Well, I'm glad I found you." The man said. "My name's Ricky Owens. You know, another friend of mine recently dropped In for a visit. I think he'd love to meet you. Why don't you come with me? My friend will know what to do with you, and we can call your dad and arrange for him to come and get you."
Fred thought that it might be faster to find his teachers, but he liked this plan more. He didn't want the teachers to get mad at him, and he wasn't ready for the noise the other kids would make.
Fred would much rather be picked up by his dad. Maybe he wouldn't even get in trouble. Ricky seemed nice, and he'd sounded worried about Fred when he'd been freaking out. If Ricky was friends with his dad, maybe he'd explain things.
"Okay." Fred said. Ricky chuckled and pulled him to a door that was marked No Entry. Fred was feeling tired and still a little upset, but he couldn't help but feel excited. None of the other kids would get to see this part.
Fred was already feeling better. He felt safe. He didn't have to worry about making decisions, because a grown-up was here to help him. Ricky was even a friend of his dad's. Despite the twisting feeling in his stomach, Fred knew he was going to be fine.
