Chapter 5: Testing a Concept

"Hurry Ed-boy we have much to do!" Rolf yelled valiantly. The dark walls blurring around him as he ran. What the search party didn't realize was that the hallway was actually a large network of sewage pipelines that led in all sorts of directions.

"Buy one get one free!" Ed piped following close behind.

"Wait up Lump!" Eddy called winding around the caravan of the cul-de-sac with Edd in tow. Who was trying to keep his shoes from scrapping the metal floor.

"One side Dork!" Kevin yelled angrily as Eddy rammed into him to pass a support beam. Johnny was not far behind.

"Oh dear, sorry Kevin!" Double d said. "Eddy please calm down."

"Ed! Batter formation!" Eddy yelled in rage as he finally reached Ed.

"Oh Goody! Goody!" Ed yelled happily raising his arms to a 180 degree angle.

"Eddy! Please reconsider!" Double d pleaded but was interrupted.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures Sockhead," Eddy said latching his hands onto Ed's jacket. "Now grab on."

"This is not good," Double d worried. With shaking hands he grabbed Eddy's ankles.

A gleam of light appeared at the end of the tunnel.

"Ed!" Eddy commanded. "Do exactly as I say! My brother have laid traps at the end of this thing!"

"Traps?" Double d yelled. "Eddy I thought you were over your brother's ruses!"

"Go!" Eddy yelled.

"Eat this ringworm!" Ed yelled as his running speed increased to a fever pitch.

The Batter-Ed boomed out of the hallway and into a large chamber. The room was filled with thousands of steel pipes dripping with green sewage and assorted trash like tin cans, dead fish, truck tires, and other objects that need to be labeled a biohazard. The bottom floor was nothing but a stagnant vat of what used to be water. It didn't have a specific color and the smell could kill a bull elephant. The apparently-failed sewage collection system had a wire mesh platform that covered the diameter which was loosely supported by a long steel pipe which was moved by rotors that made the whole apparatus spin in a slow clockwise motion. Far above the apparatus was a crudely drawn X over a rock edge which was certainly out of place in a sewer.

Rolf stopped before he reached the mesh, mostly because of the smell. "What trickery plagues this waterhole? this smells worse than pig livers strawn out to dry in the heat of the noon," He pondered out loud while clasping his nose.

"Rolf! Look Out!" Double d warned as the rumble of Ed's charge reached Rolf's ears.

"Hello?" Rolf asked confused. He looked behind and saw the three Eds barreling at him. Panicked he ran out into the basin yelling in his foreign language causing a side of the mesh he touched to tilt down. Ed charged into the basin with his friends in tow causing their platform section to tilt which was conveniently opposite of Rolf's location. Because of Ed's momentum he slam into Rolf causing him to fly up over Ed's head which led to Ed staring into the abyss below the platform. In an effort to keep Eddy, Double d, and himself from swan-diving off the edge of the mesh Ed instantly grabbed the platform and held on tight. The excess momentum caused Eddy and Double d to flip over Ed and catapult Rolf up to the shelf of granite. Rolf flipped and landed on his back with his head slamming onto the edge knocking him out. The platform under the weight of the formation continued to tilt until it made a vertical line. With Ed still dangling, the platform broke through the pipe support and barrel-rolled downward, with the echoing sounds of its screaming occupants. The upside platform splashed into the murky vat.

"Eds! Rolf!" Johnny yelled into the basin after a plume of muck drenched the pipe walls. "Guys!" He was about to give a command of rescue when he turned and realized nothing was behind him except the rustic hallway. What did respond was a grunt which sounded like a muffled bark of a dog.

The cold slime caused Ed to loosen his grip on the mesh, which caused the platform to re-align itself and pin both him and Eddy against the wall. Double d was under the platform gasping for breath in the muck. The platform started sinking into the muck along with its two prisoners. In a panicked state, Double d tried pushing the grating up. From where the platform used to be blue outline appeared, three grey blocks fell out of this hole and plummeted the 100 ft and clanged onto the opposite side of the grating. Causing it to tilt and free the pinned Ed-boys. The blocks fell into the muck and the platform re-aligned again this time slamming into Ed and Double d's head, briefly stunning Ed and knocking out Double d. The blow to his dome caused Ed to start thinking. He looked around the muck and saw a little pipe. Ed grabbed his passed out friends and jetted deeper into the stagnant pond. Ed squeezed into the 6 in. hole and wormed through into a heavily packed clump of trash. He felt a hand grab his foot and pull him back through the pipe. The trash in the vat obscured the appearance of the intruder but before Ed lost consciousness he saw a flurry of blond, blue, and red hair.

(October 10)

(Time: 1hr 15min)

(Rooks inbound, intruders located

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