I sincerely apologize for taking so long with this chapter. It's because one of my older brothers attempted suicide by overdosing on pills, and we went to visit him a few times in the hospital. But he's on the road to recovery now, so that enabled me to get this chapter up! Enjoy!


In an urban area, we see a tall building with its name across the top: "ECONO INC." Up in one of its offices, Freddie Kanker is sitting at his desk while talking with his assistant, who appeared alongside him at the end of "Return of the Eds."

"The layout for the new facility has been decided thirty minutes ago, sir." Freddie's assistant gives him the blueprints for their new Econo facility.

"Excellent! Now go make sure that the demolition and construction workers have been notified." Freddie orders, and his assistant goes to do so while Freddie contently puts the blueprints inside his suit. Looking at his wristwatch, he pulls up his sleeve to reveal a second watch, a stopwatch to be exact, that's showing a countdown.

"Six days, seven hours and twelve minutes to go!" Freddie says with a wide grin. "Lord Benedict, Peach Creek has been reclaimed!"


Back in Double-D's house, in Morgan's office, Nazz and Jenna are aiding Double-D in deciphering the code. Nazz is looking at the code numbers with Double-D's magnifying glass, Jenna is looking for the words the numbers correspond to, and Double-D is writing them down.

"The next two words are the twenty-third and twenty-fourth one on page 349." Nazz tells Jenna, who finds the words in the book she's currently searching through and relays it to Double-D: "Won back."

Double-D writes down "won back" into his notebook. Down in Double-D's living room, Eddy calls the Kanker trailer. May picks up: "Hello?"

"May, listen up. This is about your uncle." Eddy begins.

"Who? Freddie?" May asks, then Marie tries taking the phone: "FREDDIE? GIMME THE PHONE, I'M GIVIN HIM A PIECE OF MY MIND!"

"LET GO!" May shouts as Eddy hears her and Marie fight over the phone, with Eddy having a "what the hell's going on" look on his face. Lee comes, smacks her sisters away, and takes the phone: "Who is this?"

"Eddy." Eddy answers. "Double-D got this letter about your uncle Freddie from his parents, but it's written in code."

"A code about Freddie?" Lee asks. Eddy answers "Yeah, and we're crackin it right now. But Double-D said it'll take a while."

"How long will that 'while' take?" Lee asks, but Eddy answers "... Beats me, but I hope it ain't long."

Nazz, Jenna and Double-D continue to decipher the code well into the nighttime before stopping around midnight, as shown by a clock on the wall. They continue working on the code the next day.

"The ninety-eighth word on page 117." Nazz tells Jenna, who looks into the book being searched through. She relays it to Double-D: "Ripped."

Outside, all the kids and teens except Rachel are waiting outside on Double-D's lawn. Eddy and Kevin enter through the front door. Eddy shouts up to Double-D, Nazz and Jenna: "YO, GUYS!"

"IS IT DONE YET?" Kevin asks. Jimmy warns "It isn't wise to rush them."

"Yeah, Mom told me that rushin could stress dudes out." Kyle adds. Back in Morgan's office, Nazz tells Jenna "The fifty-second word on page 296."

Jenna searches another book for the word, and she relays it to Double-D: "Copies."

Double-D writes "copies" in and continues until nightfall again. They continue the next day, but some of the teens and kids outside are growing more impatient. Kyle stops Sarah from leaving, and she complains "Why not call them again? It's been another damn hour."

"But you and the rest were rushin those three all day today." Kyle reasons.

"Yeah, your yelling ain't helpin either, Plank." Jonny scolds Plank.

"What's taking em so long?" May asks while sitting with Ed, and Rolf agrees while laying on the ground near them: "Yes, Rolf too wishes for the decoding to finish today."

Lee and Marie are impati'ently tapping their feet while having their arms crossed, then Paul asks while taking out his phone "How long is that damn code?"

Sarah snatches Pauls phone after he dials, and she yells "HURRY UP, SLOTHS!"

"FIVE DAYS, GUYS!" Ed yells desperately.

"THE CLOCK'S TICKING, LADIES!" Kevin yells into his phone, causing Marie to give him a mean look: "You did NOT just call Double-D a lady."

In Morgan's office, Double-D is sweating under the pressure, and he slows to a stop because of it. Outside...

"That's it, I'm gonna go rush em. I don't care about stressing em. Time's of the essence here." Eddy says as he goes to open Double-D's front door, but Jenna slams it open from inside first, squashing Eddy against the other side. Jenna looks furious.

"Hey guys, I got great news!" Jenna begins: "DOUBLE-D CRACKED NOT THE CODE, BUT UNDER THE FUCKIN PRESSURE YOU IMPATIENT ASS-WIPES PUT ON HIM! HE CAN BARELY WORK ANYMORE NOW! WE WERE TRYNA GO AS FAST AS WE WERE ABLE TO AND DOUBLE-D TOLD YOU ALL THAT IT WOULD TAKE A LONG TIME! AND HE'S RIGHT, I DO WONDER WHY NOBODY LISTENS TO HIM! YOU GUYS AIN'T THE ONES CRACKIN THE CODE! HE, ME AND NAZZ ARE, BUT NOW IT'S ONLY ME AND NAZZ BECAUSE OF YOU GUYS RUSHIN DOUBLE-D OUT WITH YO GODDAMN CALLS AND YELLING! WAY TO FUCKIN GO! WE WOULD'VE FINISHED THE DECIPHERING TODAY IF IT WEREN'T FOR YA'LL; INSTEAD, YOU JUST EARNED YOURSELVES ANOTHER NIGHT OF WAITING! CONGRATU-FUCKIN-LATIONS!"

Jenna then slams the door and stomps back upstairs to Morgan's office. Those outside look at each other guiltily, except Marie who enters the house to help her stressed boyfriend, who's laying face-down in his bed.

"It's... it's too much." Double-D tells Marie, his voice muffled by the pillow. Marie sits and puts a hand on his shoulder: "Jenn shut everyone up. Now you rest for a while, then you can get back to that code."


Night falls, and the next morning, the code is completed and Double-D calls over all his friends to his living room. Eddy asks "You got it done?"

"The deciphering is complete!" Double-D answers, with Nazz and Jenna standing at his sides. He explains it: "My parents have a knack for making things very wordy and extended, so that's why the deciphering took so long. I'll explain in a shortened summary. Forty-seven years after Lord Benedict Kanker took ownership of Peach Creek in 1705, it was won back when a farmer named Samson McGee, one of Eddy's ancestors, led a successful rebellion against Benedict's son who inherited the land after Benedict passed away."

So wait, Peach Creek DOES belong to my family?" Eddy asks, jumping off Double-D's armchair.

"Correct." Double-D confirms and continues explaining the message, the events of which are shown as flashbacks: "My parents were working with the Econo and they met with Freddie several times. From those associations, my parents learned that Freddie was bitter about the Kankers losing ownership of Peach Creek in 1752. He felt that it's the perfect place to build the new Econo industrial complex and make more money, so he sent some of his loyal subordinates to find the Peach Creek history books and dispose of the pages detailing the McGee rebellion and all related articles. But Mother learned of this while eavesdropping on Freddie, so she and Father went to get the books before Freddie's subordinates did. They failed to defend the pages and were unable to contact police because Freddie's men were on their tails from then on, but just in case that happened, Father secretly copied the McGee rebellion pages and hid them inside a combination-locked safe in his office at Econo Inc in Orange Harbor while the originals were burnt. He and Mother then returned here as Freddie's men chased them, and Father wrote the message for me moments before he and Mother were captured and taken away."

Everyone is silent for a moment, then Kyle responds: "... Duuuude, that's just low."

"Real low." Paul adds.

"... Y'know, Mom said that Uncle Freddie always played his cards to make sure he always got what he wanted." Lee says. "But to play cards like this?"

"Mom's gonna flip!" Marie says, then Lee takes out her cellphone: "I'll tell Rachel about this."

"We can't let Freddie tear down our home." Kevin tells his friends while clenching his fists. Sarah and Zoe crack their knuckles, with Sarah suggesting "We maim him next time he shows up."

"So wait, if the copies are at Econo Inc, doesn't that mean it's right under Freddie's nose?" Jonny asks. "Double-D, your parents had to be freakin ninjas to pull that shit off."

"Whatever their means, I'm glad they succeeded." Double-D replies. "Father left me his Econo card key along with the letter, and the backside of the letter itself has a map of the Econo Headquarters. So I'll look up directions to the headquarters, print them out, then Ed, Eddy and I will set out to go there this afternoon."

"Why must it always be you three only?" Zoe asks in protest. "I wanna go and have a taste of the wickedness, too!"

"Sorry, Lady Nutjob, but we're the series's namesakes. Now if it were called Ed, Edd, Eddy n Zoe, then we'd take you along!" Eddy tells Zoe, who pouts and crosses her arms.


In Rachel's house, Rachel sits with Nikki in the kitchen: "Hey Mom, Lee called me just now about the message."

"What did it say, dear?" Nikki asks...


Later on after noon, Double-D and Eddy, who has the map directions to the Econo Headquarters, go outside and into Double-D's retro van. Inside, they see Ed and May making out on the waterbed.

"Ed, this ain't the time for that." Eddy tells Ed. May apologizes before going out the van's back doors: "Sorry, ehehe! Just some last-minute lovin!"

"Hold onto the map til we get off the highway at Orange Harbor." Eddy gives the map to Ed before sitting shotgun. Double-D puts on his seat-belt and starts up the van. All the others except Rolf watch from Double-D's lawn, then Rolf rushes up to Double-D's side with three bags.

"For the journey ahead, Rolf has taken the liberty to make stuffed squid sandwich dinners with special sea cucumber sauce for you, lacking-neck Ed boy, and heavy-browed Ed boy!" Rolf passes the bags to Double-D, who takes his and passes Ed's & Eddy's to them.

"Be careful, guys!" Nazz tells the Eds, and Marie adds "Yeah, cuz none of us will be coverin yer backs."

"Ed's a one-man army, so we'll be fine!" Eddy reassures. "Double-D, LET'S ROLL OUT TO ORANGE HARBOR!"

"COME BACK IN ONE PIECE!" Paul shouts as the Eds drive off. But as they go, a man watches them from inside a parked car, and he dials a number on his cellphone:

"Freddie sir, we got three boys heading over to the headquarters. It seems one of them is Morgan's and Phoebe's son." the man tells Freddie.

"Heh, I knew something was forgotten when Mr. and Mrs. Hart were captured." Freddie replies, the screen shifting to him at his office desk: "They'll without a doubt take the highway since that's the fastest route to here, so I'll have my boys cut them off there and capture em before they even get close!"


Double-D is driving the van along the highway, passing the exit to "GREEN ALMOND RILL (which was mentioned back in "Betroth-Ed")." Ed lays on the water-bed, studying the map Eddy gave him.

"Can't you drive faster, Sockhead?" Eddy asks.

"I'm not allowed to exceed the speed limit of 65 miles per hour, Eddy." Double-D answers as they go under a bridge going over the highway. "It's no real problem either. Calculating from our current speed, we should reach Orange Harbor in no less than four hours."

"Geez, could we at least fast-forward through those hours, or do we got some stupid cliche obstacle comin?" Eddy asks in a complaining tone. Double-D's eyes bug out after seeing nine Econo SUVS on the highway's opposite lane. They exit onto the bridge the Eds passed under to go back around onto the highway again, behind the Eds!

"I believe it's the latter, Eddy." Double-D shows Eddy and Ed the Econo SUVs in his rear-view mirror. They freak out, and Double-D shouts "It appears they found out about us somehow!"

"FLOOR IT!" Eddy yells, but Double-D protests "But the speed limit-"

"GAH!" Ed floors the van with his stretched-out fist, speeding up the van and it passes several cars. But the Econo SUVs easily keep up. Double-D maneuvers the van past several more vehicles (including a red-&-blue truck resembling Optimus Prime's alternate mode) in a zigzag pattern to throw off the SUVs, but only two are left in the dust. One of the remaining seven SUVs catches up to the van, and one of its occupants, sitting shotgun, whips out a camera and photographs the Eds. The SUV then passes ahead of the van while another parallels it, forcing the Eds to the right.

"DOUBLE-D, TURBO!" Eddy yells, but Double-D again replies "I CAN'T! IF I SHIFT TO TURBO, IT'LL CONSUME TOO MUCH FUEL AND I WON'T BE ABLE TO STEER!"

The SUV paralleling the van opens up one of its doors, and one of its occupants opens Double-D's door to try grabbing him. Double-D shrieks and slams his door on the man's arm, making him scream and squeeze his arm back. Double-D then points Eddy two yellow buttons on a panel of colored buttons on Eddy's side: "PRESS THE LEFT YELLOW BUTTON!"

Eddy presses the left yellow button, making Double-D's left front wheel extend a mechanical clawed arm that latches onto the right front wheel of the paralleling SUV and twists it off. This makes the SUV spin out and crash into two other SUVs, allowing Double-D to swerve left. But the SUV ahead of the van keeps Double-D from getting past it by swerving in front of him each time he tries doing so.

"We have to take that exit." Double-D is forced to take the next exit, leading to "GRANNY SMITH RAPIDS." Two of the remaining SUVs follow the van up the exit ramp and onto a forested outer road of Granny Smith Rapids. They again catch up to Double-D's van.

"Damn, they're persistent!" Eddy comments. He looks ahead: "WHOA!"

Double-D, panicking as they're about to crash into a truck crossing an intersection, presses a green button that makes the van's wheels spring up, sending the van high into the air and over the truck while one of the pursuing SUVs crashes into it. The other is forced off-road and it crashes through a gas station, causing a large explosion! Eddy looks back at them as the van lands from its spring-jump.

"That got em!" Eddy exclaims, but then goes "Huh?" upon seeing two more speed up towards them.

"Those are the two I outmaneuvered on the highway earlier!" Double-D remembers, and being on a straight road, he uses finally presses the big red TURBO button. The van blasts off ahead of the SUVs and quickly loses them.

"YES!" the Eds exclaims while looking at the rear-view mirror, but upon looking back ahead, they SCREAM as the van speeds through a railing and off the road at a sharp turn! The van speeds through dozens of trees, denting its hood and cracking the front window, and as Double-D frantically tries to slow down the speed, the van goes off the edge of the forest and down into a gorge.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" the Eds look at each other as they scream, and when Ed & Double-D look at Eddy at one point, Eddy suddenly resembles the devil and laughs evilly! But in the next camera shot, Eddy shifts back to normal and continues screaming with his fellow Eds as the van falls down the gorge. The van lands in a river at the bottom, then Double-D presses a blue button to inflate a raft from the van's underside.

"Neat raft, Double-D!" Ed compliments Double-D's raft while Double-D himself berates himself: "How careless of me to take my eyes off the road."

"How about you keep your eyes on what's up ahead. LOOK!" Eddy points at the rapidly flowing waters ahead. The rafting van bumps to-&-from numerous rocks as it flows down the crazy rapids that Granny Smith Rapids is named after, thrashing the Eds around inside.

"I'M NOT IN MY HAPPY PLACE!" Ed panics as he and Eddy are thrashed around, and Double-D's face turns a sickly green. As the rapids get more intense, the van briefly goes airborne, landing atop a sharp rock that pops the raft and bumps the van into another sharp rock, then another, and another. The van gets torn apart by the jagged rocks and the Eds eventually fall out through one of its torn sides. The Eds are then washed down the rapids along with the van's remains.


Later at sunset, after the rapids, the river slows down and washes the Eds up onto one of its sandbars, which lead up into more forested terrain. The van's remains were washed up with them. Eddy belches up a bullfrog he swallowed in the river, while Ed is giving the unconscious Double-D mouth-to-mouth to revive him. Ed succeeds, and Double-D spews water into his face. Double-D then squeezes the water out of his hat.

"YAY, YOU'RE ALIVE!" Ed happily hugs Double-D, but Eddy points at his van's remains: "But yer van ain't."

"MY VAN!" Double-D runs up to his destroyed van, whose only remaining wheel falls off. Double-D drops to his knees, covering his face in his hands as if about to cry. "All those years of remodeling and enhancing tune-ups, GONE FOREVER-ER-ER!"

Double-D breaks into tears while Eddy climbs a tall tree above the sandbar to look around for civilization, but there's none in sight. He only sees forest for miles around, and after looking at the setting sun, he descends back down.

"Well boys, we better set up a makeshift campsite for the night. We're nowhere near any town." Eddy tells Ed and Double-D. Ed helps up the grieving Double-D so they can get to collecting stuff from the forest for their campsite.

By nightfall, the Eds have made a tent out of branches and leaves, plus a campfire where they're eating the stuffed squid sandwiches Rolf gave them. The sandwiches are grinder-style.

"Ack, how the hell do Rolf and his folks eat this shit?" Eddy asks after taking a nasty bite out of his sandwich.

"Did you add the sea cucumber sauce? It's tastier with that!" Ed exclaims. Double-D fashioned a knife out of a small stone, and uses it to cut his sandwich into pieces. The pieces show the stuff inside the squid, which includes various kinds of meat, fish parts, cooked shellfish, and veggies.

"Well, the Vorliks sure are knowledgeable when it comes to healthy nutrition!" Double-D says before hesitatingly taking a bite out of one of his sandwich pieces. He barely manages to swallow it, and it makes his eyes water. Ed eats his whole.

"So, what are we gonna do in the morning?" Ed asks after eating.

"We'll use the map Double-D printed to get back on track." Eddy answers. A coyote then howls at the moon in the distance.


The next morning, Eddy is the first to awaken, and he wakes up his fellow Eds by kicking their tent down on them. They burst up through it.

"Eddy, do you mind awakening us in a more polite manner next time?" Double-D gruffly asks as he and Ed get up. Ed yawns cartoonishly.

"Chop chop, we gotta move." Eddy pushes his fellow Eds up onto their feet. Eddy then walks away while searching through his pockets: "Now where's that map?... Where's the map? Oh no, don't tell me I lost the map in the river. It has to be there."

Eddy dives back into the river in a vain attempt to retrieve the map. Double-D remembers his cellphone and takes it out from his pocket, but it was too heavily damaged in the rapids and it gives off sparks.

"Crap, my cellphone has been saturated." Double-D worries. "Ed, is yours ok?"

"Right here!" Ed takes his phone out from a zipped pocket inside his jacket. His phone is unharmed and the time reads 10:19 AM. Eddy returns from the river, drenched.

"My phone is dead, and the map's gone." Eddy worries. Ed remembers "Oh I got the map!" and pulls it out from one of his pant's pockets, but the map's ink has been smeared by the riverwater.

"We're fucked, guys. We'll never make it to Econo now." Eddy turns away to sulk.

"Never say never, Eddy! All we have to do is find Lychee Avenue and we'll be there in no time!" Ed exclaims, causing Eddy and Double-D to look at him in surprise.

"Lychee Avenue?" Double-D asks, and Ed answers "Yeah! I memorized the map after Eddy gave it to me, and I think Lychee Avenue is one of the big roads other than the highway that leads to Orange Harbor."

"I LOVE YOU, YA BIG LUG!" Eddy jumps on Ed and gives him a squeezing hug. "NOW WE GOT A FIGHTIN CHANCE! Now to get outta these woods!"

The Eds start moving to find their way out of the forest. After a few minutes, someone calls on Ed's phone. He answers: "Hello?"

"Ed?" May's voice asks. "Are you guys at that business place yet?"

"Uhh, nope. We crashed and Double-D's van... well, it died." Ed explains, making Double-D cry again, so an annoyed Eddy pulls a mushroom out from the ground and shoves it into Double-D's mouth like a pacifier. While this happens, Ed continues telling May, who's in her trailer: "We don't know how long it'll be before we get there. We're lost right now."

"Oh no. Are you boys ok?" May asks in worry.

"Ed, tell her and the others to plan some kinda back-up to buy us time in case we don't return quick enough." Eddy tells Ed, who relays it to May: "May, just in case we don't make it back soon enough, you guys gotta find a way to stall the demolition workers and buy us time."

"Will do, honey bear!" May ends the call, and the Eds continue through the forest. Double-D examines the mushroom Eddy shoved into his mouth: "EDDY, THIS MUSHROOM IS A DESTROYING ANGEL OF THE AMANITA GENUS! THIS COULD'VE KILLED ME IF YOU FORCED IT ANY FURTHER DOWN MY THROAT!"

"Then be glad I didn't!" Eddy chuckles.


Meanwhile at Econo Inc, Freddie recieves a call from one of his men: "Did you capture the boys?"

"We lost them in the woods, sir." his subordinate answers, driving through the countryside. "They got washed down Granny Smith Rapids."

"There's a chance they're still alive, so keep up your efforts until you find them. Nobody's gonna interfere with my plans." Freddie orders. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir." his subordinate answers, ending the call with: "I'll tell the others the same. We have a picture of the boys to identify them with."

The call ends, then Freddie looks at his stopwatch again: "Two days, nine hours and thirty-six minutes to go!"

To be Continued...


Trivia: The scene where Ed and Double-D visualize Eddy as the devil while falling down the river gorge in Double-D's van is an allusion to the comedy movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," and Ed's "Never say never" line to Eddy is a throwback to BPS, where Double-D told Eddy the same thing while inside the LB Gag Factory. My naming "Lychee Avenue" as such is another reference to BPS, which also had a fruit-themed road named "Pear Street."

Ok, now I have more PM questions for you guys! Who are your favorite original characters (the original 12) in this series, and who are your favorite main OCs (ie Jenna, Paul, Rachel, Kyle and Zoe)? And what are your opinions on how I portrayed and developed them? Send your answers via PM, NOT in your reviews.