A/N: Last time, the Safety Patrol's investigation turned from a dead end to a possible end when Kady, the head of the bake sale committee, was found to have the empty envelope that the money was in, in her locker. Is it case closed or is there more to this story? Find out on the case's conclusion, right now!

Universal Runners Investigations: United Cases

Ocean's First Wave

Act III: The Mystery is History

Back at Safety Patrol HQ, Kady was being held in the interrogation room being questioned by Fillmore and Ingrid. The others were outside waiting.

"Man, Kady Cooke? Never would have guessed," Anza said in awe.

"I know. But that's the thing about these cases: sometimes it's the last person you'd ever expect," Vallejo said.

Fillmore and Ingrid exited the interrogation room.

"She sticking to her claims that she didn't steal the money and doesn't know how the envelope got in there," Fillmore informed everyone.

"But all we can tell is that right now everything points right to her," Ingrid added.

"No. Kady's not the thief," Ocean said with determination.

"Hey, what makes you so sure that she's not?," O'Farrell asked.

"Even though we found the envelope in her locker, my -Scenario Puzzle- isn't pinging about it and the puzzle for this case is still incomplete."

"But the envelope was in her locker, and she knew the combo to the suitcase lock…," Vallejo pointed out.

All of which is circumstantial and could have be planted or arranged to look like she did."

"Look Waters, we got her dead to rights. This case is over and–," Vallejo said, starting to get annoyed.

"THE CASE IS NOT OVER! KADY'S NOT THE THIEF AND I'M GOING TO PROVE IT!," Ocean snapped angrily.

"Okay, that's it, Waters! I-"

"WILL YOU QUIT IT?!"

Everyone turns around to see River is also angry.

"If you berate or suspend him, he will do something reckless and whatever you do to stop him will not work," River told them. "Because...he's the same with our Dad when he's dealing framed suspects."

"What do you mean the same?," Tehama asked.

"Well it's a long story…"

"Which we'd all like to hear," Ingrid said.

"While we were little kids my dad's police partner and our mom were framed for orchestrating a major robbery at the jewelry store where my mom worked. Part of it was that our mom, who had been working late, let my dad's partner in after hours to pick up a necklace he'd bought for his girlfriend. She left shortly afterward, and just an hour later, the place was robbed. Since she and Dad's partner were the last people in the store, they were considered the prime suspects. Dad became very angry with this, and he worked on solving who the real robbers were non-stop. He even tried using his ability to solve everything he can and even when he reach his limit on how many mistakes he could make, he kept going. But when he finally exhausted his limit, O.C. stepped in and tried piecing everything together, and exhausted his limit too. By that time, Dad had finally recovered, and after finding O.C. about to pass out, O.C. was able to tell him the true scenario and thief. After that, my Dad caught the criminal who framed our mom and his partner, who as it turned out was a jealous ex-co-worker, who'd been fired for being rude to fellow employees and customers. But as he was being arrest, the crook swore revenge, saying: "One day I will find you and everything you love and care about, I will destroy!"

"Dawg..." Fillmore said, shocked at the story

"That's right. Ever since then, my Dad worked hard both on his cases and his ability to ready himself in case the criminal who framed Mom and his partner were return," And also since then, O.C. has always vowed to keep any case going when things don't fully add up against a suspect, no matter how it may seem to others. He's even gone as far as to ignore warnings and punishments from superiors and peers to do this.

"Wow, that's deep," O'Farrell commented.

"Exactly. Which is why I'm not stopping until I solve this puzzle and find out the true thief," Ocean said.

"Wow, I haven't seen this much dedication to our kind of work since you, Fillmore," Vallejo said.

"Me neither," Fillmore said. Suddenly, Folsom burst into the office with VP Raycliff, looking worried.

"Where is she? Is she here?," Folsom said. "You guys had better not have done anything to cause her emotional distress."

"Relax, Principal Folsom, she's fine," Ingrid said with some assurance.

"I heard you found the money stashed in her locker."

"Just the envelope it was kept in. Money's still unaccounted for," Fillmore said.

"Meaning she probably stashed it elsewhere, or like Ocean said, someone's framing her," Anza pointed out.

"Well, I certainly hope for the latter," Folsom said. "Kady Cooke is one of our best and brightest."

"Straight As, an achiever in many clubs, a cheerleader and student council Vice President for 6th and 7th grade," Raycliff detailed her profile.

"One of the biggest staples this school has. I refuse to believe that she would do something as heinous as this. And I want you to cover every inch of this case until you can't cover anymore."

"Don't worry, ma'am. I, for one, intend to do just that," Ocean said.

"Well good, because if you guys fail to find the true thief, this Safety Patrol office would make a good storage room for our textbook shipments! Get the picture?!"

With that, Folsom and Raycliff left the HQ, leaving the officers stunned.

"Does she always make threats like that?," River asked Fillmore.

"You'll get used to it," Vallejo replied.

Later on, the quartet returned to Kady's locker to look for more clues. They were stunned to see Lucas back there too.

"Oh, hey officers," he greeted them. "What are you doing back here?"

"Trying to clear Kady's name," Ocean answered.

"Hope you do. I don't believe for a second that Kady would do such a thing."

"Neither do we. And what are you doing here?," Ingrid asked.

"Well, after that jerk Griffin stole my baseball, I had to go get a new combo lock from the office. If that guy has my combo he could changed the lock on me, then he would have been able to get to my stuff at anytime, while I couldn't.'

Hearing this, Ocean realizes something.

"What's the matter?," Ingrid asked.

"I might not have photographic memory like you do, Ingrid. But I do remember something," Ocean said.

Suddenly in Ocean's mind, the puzzle cards, -Kady's Former Locker Combination: 42- and -Kady's Sudden Locker Combination Change: 20-,combined each other, creating a flash of white light in Ocean's mind.

THIS IS IT!

After checking on his ability, Ocean approached Kady's locker, which it had a great big glittery poster of pop star Justin Timberlake on it.

"What is it, O.C.?," River asked

"I remember, as I was going to my introduction earlier, I noticed Kady's locker with the lock set at the number 42. It was hard to miss with this poster on it. But when we came here to give Lucas his ball back, I noticed that the last combo number on the lock was 20."

"Are you saying that she changed the combo earlier that day?," Fillmore asked.

"Not the combo, but the locks themselves. If I'm correct, someone switched them after putting that envelope in her locker. That means..."

"Kady was framed," Ingrid said in realization.

"Exactly. And that's the reason why is my scenario is still incomplete. The other scene of the crime is this very locker!"

"But the question is how can we prove it?," River asked.

"The main office always assigns lockers and locks to new students," Fillmore said. "Maybe if you could see which numbers are Kady's and whose are the thief's…"

"We'll know who the thief is! Excellent, I'll head the main office!"

"And we'll head back to the kitchen," Ingrid said as she clicked her walkie-talkie. "Tehama, meet us back the school kitchen in five."

Later, in the kitchen, the three officers were investigating at the graffiti with Tehama.

"Judging from the smudge on the grafitti, I'm guessing that a small person could have leaned in here," Tehama analyzed.

"Since you figure it's a small person, I'm guessing that the thief must have their whole shirt stained, along with the hip area of their pants," River theorized.

"Well, they probably got a change of clothes or something," Fillmore pointed out. "It'd be too suspicious to just wonder around with fresh red spray paint on your clothes like that."

"Right, so if we find the clothes, we find the thief. But who's he smallest on the committee?," Ingrid said.

River thought for a moment before she realized...

"Sydney! She's the smallest, she's a locker neighbor with Kady…"

"And she knew the combination to open the suitcase. Disco!," Fillmore said in realization, before turning to River. "We gotta tell your brother."

"Speaking of which, where's O.C.?," Tehama as she looked around for him.

"At the main office. Let's go find him," River said as the officers left the kitchen.

Meanwhile, in the main office, Ocean was looking through the records of the locker and lock assignments of the students. Finally, he came across Kady Cooke's.

"4-32-20," Ocean read the lock combination. "So the lock from when we found the envelope was her lock. So whoever has the last number of 42 is the thief."

He then coincidentally pulls out Sydney's file and looks at the locker code.

"17-0-… 42! Oh my-"

At the same time, the rest of his friends joined him in the office.

"O.C.! You never guess what we found!," River said.

"I was about to say the same thing, but since you said it first, what do you got?," Ocean said.

"According to Tehama, a small person leaned on that the freshly sprayed graffiti at the time the profits are stolen," Ingrid said.

"I'm guessing we're going to find out once we get to the culinary arts classroom, where the committee is. And maybe on the way, we might able to solve this case once and for all."

"Then let's get to it!," River said. With that, the quartet left the office for a final confrontation with the thief.

Meanwhile, in the culinary arts classroom, the other committee members were meeting with Kady.

"I don't believe for one second that you stole that money, Kady," Ernie said.

"Me too," Pepper added.

"Me three," Lucas threw in.

"And us four," Fillmore said as the Safety Patrol officers entered the room.

"Officers!," Kady exclaimed with slight worry.

"Don't worry Kady, we're not here for you," Ingrid said. "We know you didn't steal the bake sale money."

"But it seems one of the committee members did," River said.

"What?!," Kady gasped with shocked. "Wow, I guess some friends really can't be trusted."

"Yeah, unfortunately Kady, in this case, I'm afraid family members aren't to be trusted either," Ocean said as he then said in a serious tone. "Sydney, you need to come with us right now."

"Come again?," Sydney said with surprise.

"Nobody knows the lock combo of the briefcase except the committee members and Sydney happens to be in fact one of them," River pointed out.

"Wait, my own little sister–the thief?!," Kady gasped in shock. "No way! I don't believe you!"

"Yeah, that's impossible!," Sydney protested.

"Oh really?," Fillmore said as he showed them the lock combination records. "We figured the only way that anyone could've planted the envelope in your locker was if someone pulled a double switch on your lock."

"Your last combo number is 20. But for to Sydney lock, it's 42. Ergo, this is the last combo number of Sydney's lock," Ingrid said. "Which Ocean noticed when he passed by that locker twice today!"

Sydney, getting angry at the accusations, snapped, "Ergo your butt! I didn't steal anything! I was at the lockers all this time with my big sis during the theft!"

"Really? Wouldn't that be the perfect position to be in when you carried out your plan?," Ocean asked.

"Ugh! Why are you so stubborn?! Look, our lockers aren't that far away from the cafeteria! If I was the thief, wouldn't Ernie have seen me duck out through the cafeteria doors?, huh?! And wouldn't he have heard the doors squeak?!"

If I was the thief, wouldn't Ernie have seen me duck out through the cafeteria doors?, huh?! And wouldn't he have heard the doors squeak?!

THINK AGAIN!

"Huh?!," Sydney asked, shocked at Ocean's outburst.

Just then, Folsom peaked in the room and said angrily, "Waters, may I remind you there is no shouting in the hallways?! It's giving me a headache."

She then ducked out again as Ocean continued, "Sorry for shouting, ma'am. But for you, Sydney, I'm afraid there is no sorry because you just made a very big mistake!"

Sydney, now even more shocked, asked, "WHAT?!"

"First off, the thief didn't use the cafeteria doors, but the kitchen doors to escape. Second, you just gave yourself away by telling me about the squeaking doors, which I didn't even mention!"

Sydney became shocked as she realized that Ocean now had her right what he wanted her.

"True, the squeaking kitchen doors normally would've given away the thief's location. But the thief lubricated the hinges of the kitchen doors to escape, while using the counters as cover from Ernie's view. And that same someone had to have known about the squeaking doors in the first place!"

"Come on. Those squeaking doors are no secret! Just about everybody knows about them," Sydney pointed out.

"So, you think that I'm lying?"

In his mind, Ocean waves his arm to line his current puzzle cards in front of him.

"Then it's time to see how this all went down."

With those words, the cards then combined each other, re-creating the whole cafeteria scene around him in his mind.

Flashback/Scenario:

"During my introduction and the Patrol Induction Ceremony earlier, Ernie stopped by the cafeteria to call to the other committee members, but not before leaving the briefcase on the counter."

In the kitchen, Ernie set the case on the counter before using the phone to call the other committee members.

"With Ernie ignoring the briefcase due being on the phone, you made your move and used the combination to unlock the case and steal the envelope with the money inside it. And to prevent leaving clues and evidence, you wore gloves on and booties so as to not leave foot or fingerprints."

Erine is still on the phone with the other committee members when a shadowed figure grabs the briefcase behind the counter, opens it and takes the envelope with the money.

"Then, fearing that the squeaking sound of the door will give away you location, you lubricated the door hinges before making your escape. And since the counter was blocking you from where Ernie was standing, he couldn't see you."

After that, the figure returns the briefcase to its original place, lubricates the kitchen door's hinges with oil, and then ducks through the door.

"After stealing the money, you figured you could get away clean. However, you unknowingly left some clues for us to follow as you escaped. Your sweater got caught on something, and in pulling yourself free, you ripped your sweater, leaving behind a piece of its fabric, and smeared it on some recently sprayed graffiti, courtesy of Joey Griffin."

With that, the figure then sprints to the exit of the kitchen, only for their sweater to get caught by a meat fork. They try to pull it off, but pull too hard and end up ripping the sweater and backing into and smearing it on Joey's recently sprayed graffiti.

"But before you did all that, you offered Kady to help with her textbooks, and as you did, you quickly and discreetly switched her lock with your own."

However, before the crime, the thief sees Kady at the lockers and offered to help her, leaving it unknown to her that the thief has their own agenda.

"And when the deed was done, you opened your sister's locker with your own lock, planted the empty envelope and switched the locks back. So when she opened the locker, you made sure we found it and successfully framed her as your scapegoat."

Then after stealing the money, the thief returns to Kady's locker, opens it with their own lock, plants the empty envelope, and then switches the locks back to normal, before leaving.

After the scenario, Ocean then confronts the shadowed figure in a black area of his mind, revealing to be...

"Is that your true crime, Sydney Cooke?," Ocean says in a serious tone as he points at the culprit.

As he says this, the negative colored barrier in front of Sydney quickly breaks down when a mysterious force shoots it down, causing her to scream in terror.

After she's done screaming as Ocean went back to reality, everyone is shocked at this revelation.

"It was you, Syd?," Lucas gasped.

"How could you do something like this?," Pepper asked, stunned.

"My own sister…framed me?!," Kady asked, absolutely shocked, as she asked Sydney, "Why, Syd? Why?"

"I'm telling you, you've got it wrong," Sydney said, still refusing to confess.

"Actually, we've got enough to prove it right," River said. "We have a witness, what you just told us, and we had some officers search your locker and they found this."

She then holds up a sweater with a spot torn and red paint stains, and pants with red paint stains as well. Everyone gasped

"It seems you noticed that the spray paint from the graffiti was on you and you didn't want to attract attention, so you changed your clothes, and stashed the stained ones in the locker."

"And they also found the money in a small jar in your locker too." Ingrid pointed out. "All $6000. We got far more than enough evidence to absolutely prove that you're the thief."

"It's over, Sydney," Fillmore said. "Now, like Ocean said, you need to come with us."

Sydney, realizing she'd been nailed, changed her demeanor to angry and rebellious.

"No…it's not over…not by a LONG SHOT!," she snapped as she threw some papers from the desk in the four officer's faces. With that, she ran off to escape.

"Go, go, go!," Fillmore shouted as the quartet of officers run after her.

Sydney ran through the halls of the school with the four officers on her tail. She saw some men wheeling a paper maché sculpture on a cart, and knocked the sculpture over as she ran past. The four officers simply jumped over it and kept going.

Sydney then burst out one of the schools entrances and continued to run down to the softball field, with the SPs still after her. She saw a pitching machine and ran to it, quickly fired it up, and shot baseballs at the safety patrollers, who quickly ducked for cover.

"What do we do?," River asked.

Fillmore saw a rock the size of the baseballs. He quickly picked it up and threw it at the machine, clogging the spout. The machine began to overload, and Sydney noticing this, ran from it just as it blew up, scattering baseballs everywhere. One rolled near River, who saw Sydney trying to make an escape again. She quickly picked it up and threw it at Sydney's foot. Sydney, trying to run, slipped on it and fell to the ground. The four patrollers quickly grabbed her as the rest of the bake sale committee caught up with them.

"I said it once and I'll say it again: Nice shot, Riv," Ocean complimented his sister.

"No problem-o," River said with a wink at her brother.

"You don't understand! This wasn't about the money!," Sydney said desperately.

"Then what made you steal it and frame your sister in the process?," Ocean asked.

Sydney sighed in defeat as she said, "Because of the pressure, the pressure of my sister's reputation that caused me to do of all this!"

"What do you mean?," Kady said

"You've been one of the best students this school has ever seen: Straight As, queen of nearly all of the clubs, co-head cheerleader and Student Council Vice President. But me, I'm a more reserved person, with a B & C average, and not all that big on social matters. But ever since I started here, everyone's been expecting and pressuring me to be just like you and live up to your reputation. I mean, every time I'd just have a little chatter with my classmates during class, my teacher would say that they never had that kind of trouble from you, and I should care to follow in your example. And every time I'd get a B or C on an assignment, my teachers would tell me that you got an A when you had that same assignment, and I should really look at myself and take a page out. And those clubs, the members are always hounding me everywhere I go, trying to get me to join and do stuff I have no interest in, just because you're in them, or were in them. Everyone wants me to be just like you, when I just want to pave my own path through school, and I'm sick of it!"

Kady, stunned and somewhat saddened at her sister's confession, asked, "Wow. Well, why didn't you tell me this?"

"I tried to, lots of times. But every time I tried, you would cut me off while talking on and on about you were planning this or how you had accomplished that. You never let me have a word in."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Sorry to say this Kady, but you do have a habit of doing that," Lucas said.

"Yeah, we often have to yell at you to get your attention again," Pepper agreed

"Oh, wow. I-I didn't know," Kady gasped in realization.

"I see. So you figured if Kady's reputation got dragged through the mud, everyone would stop pressuring you and comparing you to her and you'd be free to follow your own path through school," Fillmore said, figuring out the motive.

"Exactly. I stuck out with the pressure for as long as I could. But I just couldn't take it anymore!," Sydney said as she started to tear up. "I just wanted to live my own life!"

Sydney then broke down crying over the fact of betraying her sister. Kady, realizing Sydney needed her, place her hand on her shoulder.

"Syd, I'm so sorry," she said. "I guess I was just so caught up in my own web, I couldn't see how much it was affecting you. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine."

"You're…not mad?," Sydney, still crying, looked up at her sister.

"No. And I forgive you, for everything. And I'm sorry for being so self-absorbed and insensitive."

"It's okay. I forgive you too," Sydney as she gave a small smile. The two sisters then hugged in forgiveness.

As everyone watched this heartwarming moment, River approaches to her brother.

"O.C., you were forced into joining the Safety Patrol on your first day. If they learn about Dad and his achievements, you might end up like Sydney," she informed him.

"Nah, it doesn't bother me, I want to be like Dad anyway," Ocean said as he turned back to Kady and Sydney. "But pressure is one of the plagues that can shift even the most honest of us towards a life of bad choices and crime. If Kady and everyone else had listened to Sydney's wishes in the first place, none of this would've happened. With the pros pressure gives us, there are also always cons to them."

"Such as making someone want to escape it so much that they'd do or be tempted to do anything, even something bad or hurtful to get away from it all," River added.

"And that's why we're here: to help them choose the right path as they try to deal with the pressure," Fillmore said as he approached the twins.

"And make sure their choices make a good impact on themselves and others," Ingrid added as everyone looked on at the sisters' hug.

Later, the officers were back in HQ as Kady and the bake sale committee sans Sydney, enter.

"Hey, guys," Kady said. "Thanks again for helping us recover this year's profits."

"To be honest, you have to thank Ocean here. Without him, we couldn't have cracked the case as fast we did," Fillmore pointed out.

"So what's happened with your sister?," Ocean asked Kady.

"I managed to convince Principal Folsom to let her give Sydney a light punishment," Kady said. "She's getting three weeks detention and 80 hours of community service to be served after school and on weekends. But she's not upset about it. Because I promised to her that I will be a better sister to her from now on.

"Well, I'm happy to see you guys are patching things up," Ocean said.

"Yeah. Truth be told, I hate seeing brothers and sisters fight," River agreed.

"Don't we all?," Ingrid asked with a grin.

"Well, I might not have any brothers and sisters like you guys, but I do get your drift," Fillmore said.

"Well, thank you all so much for all your help," Ernie said.

"And by the way, that kid who stole my baseball…," Lucas asked, remembering the incident.

"Joey Griffin? If you wanna know, for both the theft and the tagging, he's gonna be cleaning graffiti off school property everyday as part of his two-month detention sentence," Ingrid informed them.

"Good riddance. Last thing I want is him breaking into my locker," Pepper said.

"Well, we best get going. Thanks again," Kady said as the bake sale committee left.

"So O.C., I'm guessing you want to stick around with us a little more?," Fillmore asked Ocean.

"Are you kidding? Getting this safety patrol job is the first step to my detective dream. I wouldn't even think of leaving this place," Ocean said.

"And as long as you're here, I'm not leaving here, either!," River added.

Well it'll be a pleasure to have you both on the force. Vallejo said. The phone rang and Vallejo answered it. "Hello. Yes, Principal Folsom, and thanks, the Waters twins are really a big asset to the Safety Patrol, you were right. What?! A $1450 baseball pitching machine?!

"We better bounce out of here," Fillmore mentioned, knowing what was coming.

"Agreed," the others said as they sprinted out the door.

As they left the headquarters, they cover their ears as Vallejo shouted angrily, "FILLMORE!"

So that's it. That's how my first day in X Middle School was. With my sister and the best officers helping me, I aim do my best to become the Safety Patrol's hope of solving difficult cases. However, this isn't the end of my beginning just yet.

Elsewhere, Universal Legends Online's login screen popped up on a computer screen as someone typed on it.

Because it continues inside Unitas...

As a mysterious force clicked the -LOG IN- button, a portal-like cutscene appeared to the readers.

A/N: So there you have it: Case Closed! But this is only the first in many new adventures to come for the Waters twins. Also, see if you can tell from this last scene hint, where the next episode will take place?

So stay tuned and until the next time, read, follow, fave, and review!