A/N: Well I've been gone a while. Sorry about that life came crashing in and I had to handle it, but hopefully I'll be able to get back on this grind. Thanks for the patience folks.
As Double D drove through the streets his mind was a million miles away. Eddy always wanted to go with the nuclear option, but guns seriously. That was a bad decision no matter the reason. Eddy was too quick-tempered and with a gun in his hands, he went from threatening to lethal. Double D didn't want to put that kind of power in Eddy's hands, adding on the fact that none of the three were competent in firearms. No there had to be another way to accomplish this job.
Double D had no delusions that this job could be done without a measure of force, but that didn't mean they had to go in guns a blazing. Before he knew it Double D was parking in front of his college's workshop. As he was about to get up he became aware of the pair of arms wrapped around his waist and looked back to see Marie letting go of him. While he'd been lost in thought he'd forgotten Marie had accompanied him from his home.
He wasn't sure what to say after their heated encounter earlier. Should he apologize for what happened, but was he really at fault? Marie took it upon herself to perform fellatio on him. Should he say thank you? Still, it's not like he asked for her to do it, so should he be grateful? Double D shook his head. All these questions were irrelevant at this point in time. He needed to focus on creating something that could incapacitate several adults without causing lasting damage or death. As Double D walked to the shop door he pulled out his phone and pressed it against the pad next to the door.
The pad lit up green and the door unlocked allowing him to passage inside followed by Marie. Double D dropped his bag at one of the long workbenches before turning on the light above the table and sitting down looking at his phone. The majority of the room was still shrouded in darkness but it was more than enough light for him to work with. He was scrolling through incapacitation items. Of course, things like pepper spray and the like came up, but they were nowhere near what he needed. After that, he moved to things such as riot weaponry. He scratched his head as he saw things like tear gas. He gave a hiss as she scratched his head again.
"Come on Edd you can do this." He said before a bright light shone in his eyes. "Marie!" He shouted covering his eyes as he looked in her direction. Marie turned lowering the flashlight on her phone looking apologetic.
"Sorry, I was looking around, but it's kind of dark in here don't you think?" She asked looking at Double D's glazed eyes before he snatched a long piece of construction piece from the roll at the end of the workbench. Double D began furiously sketching.
"You gave me an idea Marie." He said as he sketched out a small sphere and a set of speakers. This was exactly what he needed, inspiration came from some of the most unlikely of places and at the most random times. For once in a very long time, Marie had actually helped Double D in his work rather than hindering it. He looked up from his sketch and gave her a smile. "Thank you, Marie." He said before going back to his sketching.
Marie sat down on a stool across from Edd with a blush and a goofy grin on her face. "No problem." She said watching Edd at work. She never really noticed before how handsome Edd looked when he was in the middle of his creative flow. Before she just ignored Edd when he was at work, but now that she was actually paying attention she found she couldn't take her eyes off him.
A car spilled from around a corner tearing into the space under an overpass as four men got out of the car. "Hurry up we need to leave their cut and get out of here. I don't want to still be around when they come to pick up the car and the cops are definitely still looking for us." The driver said as he walked to the trunk of the car only for several spheres to roll to his feet. "What the fuck, are these marb-?" The spheres opened up with a brilliant white light spearing the thieves' retinas.
"Aaaagh!" The thieves covered their eyes from the searing light only for a shrill sound to lance through their eardrums making them clench their teeth before eventually succumbing to sensory overload. At that point, Ed came from around the corner of the overpass barreling straight to the trunk of the car using his momentum to ram a crowbar into it and using his considerable strength wrenched it open and grabbed several duffel bags. Ed turned on his heels tearing away from the scene of the crime as the mechanical shrieking came to an end and the balls of light exploded.
"And that's how it'll go." Double D said having just presented his plan to their entire group. Marie sat behind Double D on the counter looking at those in attendance. May sat back looking at Ed who seemed to trust the plan, while Eddy was looking skeptical.
"You're telling me you want us to trust that a bunch of lights and sounds will knock out a bunch of dudes so all we have to do is snatch the cash and leave? That's dumb!" Eddy shouted as Double D rubbed his nose. "Eddy sight and sound are the two senses humans rely on the most as such they are quite sensitive. Just think about it. How many times have you walked outside of a dark room into the sunlight and couldn't keep your eyes from nearly closing so as to limit the amount of light that enters them? Or have you ever heard an awful sound like nails on a chalkboard or the squealing of metal on metal and went to cover your ears."
Double D looked at Eddy as he explained this. "With what I've invented all we'll have to do is let them do their job and we can make off with all the money. Trust me Eddy this will work, and we won't have to worry about accidentally killing someone." He said with a raised eyebrow as Eddy scratched his head.
"Alright fine we'll do it your way Double D." Edd breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.
"Ok good now that, that has been settled we should probably head to the drop-off point and set up. Ed, I'll need you to place the speakers around the underpass. I'll tell you where to place them to get the biggest effect." Ed stood up and cracked his knuckles.
"Sure thing Double D," Ed said heading out to go and load up said, speakers. Double D checked his pockets making sure he had the light spheres. He'd been able to make five of them last night in addition to three speakers. He scratched his head. This was the bare minimum to accomplish his objective. In a perfect world, he would have four speakers and eight spheres. With that number, he'd be able to knock the crew out in several seconds rather than the full minute he'd need with this setup.
"Eddy I need you to be the lookout letting us know as soon as the car in question appears. Marie, May you'll be on the lookout to make sure that no one approaches the operation." Eddy shook his head in agreement. While May gave a thumbs up and Marie shrugged but gave no opposition. "I just hope it's enough." He said as the five of them left his apartment. Double D was the last to leave as he grabbed a large duffel bag and placed a device in the bottom. "Alright with this any electronics put inside this bag will be destroyed. Even if the money is electronically tagged they won't be able to find it." He said with a satisfied nod.
Tyler sat in the passenger seat looking at the bank across the street. It was a small branch bank recently set up a few months ago. Tyler would know he, used to work there before he was unfairly fired. The bastards! He'd only missed like a few days every week nothing crazy they didn't need to fire him over it, but now they'd pay. Tyler may not have been in there as often as he should have been, but that didn't mean he didn't notice shit. Such as the guard shift changes and that the code for the vault was cycled between three different codes all of which he knew.
Tyler looked back at his three mates. "Alright, shift change is in five minutes which means the guards are on their last leg. We go in fast take out the guards put everyone on the ground and I'll head to the vault. Once I'm inside we load up as much green as we can and get the fuck out alright. Pete keep the engine running." He said before pulling on a Major Glory mask and throwing open the door to the car followed by two of his compatriots. Mike in a Monkey mask and Victor in a Val Hallen mask. The three rushed to the door throwing it open and firing on the two guards in the room.
Tyler shot three rounds into one guard's chest while Victor and Mike fired on the other. The two guards slid down the wall leaving thick blood smears as people began to scream in terror. Tyler shot into the air twice. "SHUT UP!" He shouted before leveling his gun at the clerk as he hopped the counter and moved to the vault. Mike and Victor began to bludgeon people with their guns.
"GET ON THE GROUND FACE DOWN! DON'T YOU FUCKING MOVE!" While Victor and Mike got the crowd under control Tyler went up to the vault and entered the code considering it was June the code was the third one before being changed to the first code next month. As he thought the vault swung open and Tyler dashed inside dropping a bag at each wall of the room and began filling them with money. "Monkey help me out!" He shouted as Mike appeared in his Monkey mask raking his arms across the shelves and knocking all of the money into the bags.
Once the bags could hold no more Tyler picked up two and ran for the vault door. "LET'S GO, LET'S GO!" He shouted as the three bolted through the door opening them to hear sirens in the distance. The three bolted for the car slinging open the doors as the car began to speed off with them only partially inside. Tyler slammed his door shut and gave a loud whoop of victory followed by his friends. "Like fucking clockwork!" He shouted as peter rounded a corner nearly putting the car on two wheels as he ran a van off the road causing it to slam into a Buick.
The four laughed loudly as Peter slammed down on the gas pedal driving them to the drop-off point. After they were nearing the outer city Tyler, Mike, and Victor tore off their masks. Their faces were drenched in sweat and their hair plastered to their skulls, but all wore a wide grin as Peter parked under the overpass. "Alright boys dump some of the loot in the trunk and we walk away. Remember this never happened." He said eying his friends as they all stepped out of the car.
Unbeknownst to the robbers, they had fallen gracefully into Ed's plan. As they had been speeding by they didn't notice a blue-haired youth take out his phone and shoot a text to his compatriot. Double D received Eddy's text a moment before seeing the car pull under the overpass. "Right on schedule." He said as he then texted Ed from his hiding spot behind a car letting him know to get ready to start the countdown on his phone. As soon as the robbers exited the car Double D pulled out what looked like a crossbow made of junk. Double D hefted the weapon and lined up his shot and fired.
Several spheres were lobbed from the improvised weapon flying toward the car before hitting the ground and rolling to a stop. Tyler looked down as he saw several baseball-sized orbs roll towards him. "What the fuck?" He asked leaning down to pick one up as across the street behind a car Double D pressed a button on his phone and the spheres immediately opened up beginning to flash brilliantly and erratically. "Aaaagh!" The three criminals screamed only for their voices to be drowned out by what sounded like a car alarm only sped up and ten times loud. Tyler fell to his knees covering his ears as he closed his eyes still seeing spots on the back of his eyelids as the lights continued to go off.
Mark, Victor, and Peter also dropped to their knees their loot forgotten as they tried to block out the painful noise and blinding lights. Standing above the overpass Ed hit the timer on his phone before throwing a rope down and sliding down it to the ground. He hit the ground with a heavy thud and immediately sprinted for the car. Ed was wearing noise-canceling headphones invented by Double D as well as thick near blackout goggles. The goggles were invented by Double D and tinted to the point that in regular daylight the person would be blind, but thanks to the flashing orbs Ed was able to see just fine. Ed ran over to Tyler snatching the heavy sack of cash before moving over to Victor and Mark stealing their bags as well and then making a run for it.
Once Ed was safely on the ground May dressed in a grey hoodie with her blonde hair stuffed into the hood on her hair and blue jeans began pulling the rope back up to the overpass and stowing it in her backpack before walking quickly to where she was supposed to meet up with Ed.
Peter from where he was behind the car caught sight of someone taking their ill-gotten goods and shakily raised his gun and fired before falling unconscious.
From across the Street, Double D watched as Ed did his part perfectly. As Ed rounded the overpass and got out of sight Double D pressed another button on his phone causing the spheres to glow even brighter before overheating and shattering apart leaving nothing but broken bits of metal and glass where his inventions used to be. Double D broke down his crossbow and stowed it in his backpack before receiving a text from Marie saying that people were coming to see what the noise had been.
Double D nodded as he slipped out from his hiding place and made his way to Marie who was waiting with his Moped. He hopped onto the Moped and sped back to his apartment where he would meet up with his friends and May. Double D and Marie were the first to arrive getting into the apartment just as Eddy arrived. "Are Ed and May here already?" He asked clearly eager to see what they had accomplished. Double D shook his head.
"Not yet, but I did tell Ed that he should take a long way back avoiding major streets if possible so it might take him a while to get here." Double D said as the three of them entered his apartment.
"Alright, Sockhead man I didn't think the shit you built would be all that useful, but damn that was crazy. I could hear that shit from a block away!" Eddy shouted as he collapsed on the couch. Double D smiled as he dropped his bag. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, and like I said no one got hurt." Double D felt immense pride in being able to keep his word while also achieving Eddy's goal. This was what he craved as an inventor not only meeting but exceeding people's expectations of what he could make. He could feel his blood still pumping through his veins.
As everyone congratulated Double D on his creations they were interrupted by a frantic banging on the front door. Double D turned to look at the door as Eddy immediately took up a position near it. "Hurry and open the door! Ed's hurt!" May's voice rang out from the other side of the door. Eddy opened the door as May helped Ed inside. Immediately everyone could see the problem. Ed's left arm was dripping blood out of its sleeve. Ed was covered in sweat as May helped him inside hefting the heavy bag over her other shoulder.
Marie and Eddy just stared at their bleeding companion. Double D was the first to come to his senses as he began giving orders. "Eddy help her!" He shouted goading the shorter man into action as Eddy shut the door before grabbing Ed's side helping to maneuver him to the couch. "Marie go get my med kit from the bathroom." Double D said as he began vigorously washing his hands. After drying them on some paper towels he moved over to Ed. "May take off the sleeve I need to see the wound." Double D instructed as May gingerly began to slip Ed's sleeve off as the large man groaned in pain at the slightest jostle.
Marie rounded the corner just as May slipped off Ed's sleeve revealing the wound in his arm. Double D looked at the bleeding wound. He moved around trying to get a complete view and build a model in his mind. "This is going to hurt." He said before lifting Ed's arm eliciting a groan from his friend. Double D looked at the bullet hole and gave a small sigh. "It's a through and through." He said as he reached for an antiseptic and sprayed it into and around the wound before wiping away the blood. "Ok, it didn't hit an artery that's good." He said as he spread some antibacterial gel around and in the wound. Ed flinched as Double D began to probe his wound "This is the hard part. I need to seal the wound."
Double D pulled out a medical stapler and sighed. "Eddy, May, Marie hold him still." He ordered. The three individuals looked at each other before throwing their full bodies onto Ed. Double D took out several tongue depressors and wrapped them in tape. "Bite down on this." Double D said as he began to staple Ed's bullet holes shut. Each click of the stapler was met with a slight movement from Ed as May, Eddy, and Marie did their best to keep him still. Eventually, the stapler went quiet as Double D placed pads on the now-closed wounds and wrapped them in gauze.
As Double D fell back from the procedure Eddy along with Marie pulled themselves off Ed whose breathing was starting to calm down. May stayed at his side stroking his sweat-drenched forehead. "It's ok now Ed." She whispered to him who chuckled.
"Really I couldn't even feel it." He said making May smile. Double D got up from the couch and took the med kit to be cleaned. He walked into the bathroom saw his blood-covered hands and gave them a thorough wash as he did so all he could think was the same thing. No one was supposed to get hurt, no one was supposed to get hurt; no one was supposed to get hurt! Over and over those words echoed through Double D's mind. What could I have done differently? Was there a problem with the plan? They should have all been unconscious what happened?!
Double D mentally berated himself before he felt someone take his hands. He looked up to see Marie standing next to him. "Stop." She said glancing at his hands. Double D looked down at his hands a bright pink and only now did he notice that his hands were burning from the scalding hot water that he'd been washing them in. "Go lay down I'll take care of this," Marie said as she guided him to the bedroom and made sure he was lying down before going to tend to attend to his medical utensils.
Double D looked at her retreating figure as he clasped his shaking hands. "I thought I could do this. I thought I was smart enough to keep anything bad from happening. What an idiot I am." Double D felt himself spiraling deeper and deeper into guilt as he vilified himself for what happened to Ed. Edd couldn't say how long he lay there spiraling before somehow falling asleep. Suddenly he was awoken by pressure around his midsection. He looked over his shoulder finding Marie spooning him. Her eyes were closed revealing her light blue eyeshadow. Double D thought she was asleep until she spoke
"It's not your fault Ed got hurt," Marie said with her eyes still closed. Her arms tightened around his stomach a comforting pressure he wasn't aware he needed. "It was a good plan and honestly it could have gone a lot worse. The best thing of all you were there to fix him up. Everything is fine. You did the best you could and it may not have worked out exactly as you have planned but the thing is we're all here and we got what we came for. If you're going to take responsibility for the bad shit, you've got to do the same for the good shit too." She said nuzzling into the back of his neck.
Double D actually felt some of the guilt leave his body at Marie's words. She was right he couldn't just look at the bad things he had to take into account the good things too. It's not like he was a stranger to failure or anything. He could learn from this and get better. He had to if he didn't want this to happen again. Double D rolled over facing Marie. He stared into her dark brown eyes before kissing her. It wasn't anything serious but Marie could feel his gratitude in it. She smiled as her chest swelled with warmth. Double D pulled back looking at Marie. "Thanks, Marie." He whispered causing Marie to blush.
Eddy looked at Ed as he swallowed a couple of painkillers chasing them with a soda. Ed leaned back on the couch releasing a slow hiss. "Stop staring Eddy, I'm fine," Ed said looking at his friend as Eddy leaned back himself and scratched his head.
"Ugh yeah of course you are, rock solid as always," Eddy said crossing his legs as he looked away from Ed who just laughed. Eddy had never been good at saying what he meant so rather than press him Ed just shrugged and gave a groan as he jostled his arm.
"Fuck I'm gonna feel that in the morning," Ed said with a chuckle as he stroked May's hair and lay across his lap. It seemed the excitement of today was too much for her and she was now asleep. "Hey Eddy instead of sitting on your ass why don't you count our cash," Ed said ribbing Eddy and giving him something else to think about instead of pretending he wasn't worried about him. Eddy's head popped up and a big smile crossed his face.
"Oh, you're right!" He shouted lifting up the duffel and pouring it out onto the coffee table. Stacks of cash thudded onto one after the other. Eddy's eyes practically glowed as he stared at the mound of cash. "Holy shit!" Eddy whispered as he slowly lifted up a couple of stacks of cash. "We actually pulled this shit off, can you believe it, Ed?" Eddy asked his voice dripping with wonder. Ed just shook his head.
"If I'm being honest hell no, I was sure we'd get arrested or the plan would just fall through without us getting a cent, but you were right Eddy, we were built for this," Ed said looking at the pile of money and feeling a tension he didn't know he had left his body. Now he could support his family and make a place for himself and May.
Eddy clenched his jaw as he felt his throat tighten. For so long he'd been a failure, a loser a dork, but now that was all changed. He'd succeeded finally he'd led his friends to victory. Sure they hit a bump in the road, but they still finished first. "We fucking did it!" He shouted.
"You sure did Eddy." Eddy whirled around grabbing the gun he'd kept hidden in the back of his pants just in case their heist had gone deep south, but his finger froze at who was standing there nonchalantly closing Double D's door.
"Hey babe." Said Lee Kanker.
