MT: Chapter 13

Wednesday morning had finally arrived in Peach Creek; it was currently 6:30am. We could see Double D exiting his house, locking his door behind him. He decided to get up early to go to Eddy's house to ask him a question, 'I hope he's awake right now,' he thought. Double D did not want to call Eddy this early in the morning, he would probably yell at him for waking him up.

Double D went towards Eddy's backyard, gently knocking on the back door to his room. A minute passed by without hearing anything inside, "Must still be asleep," Double D sighed as he reached into his pants pocket, pulling out Eddy's spare house key.

After unlocking the door, Double D opened it and started to peek inside, "Eddy?" Double D called out.

He could see Eddy still sleeping in his bed, but also a lot of pillows that were facing his back. It was when Double D entered the room and closed the door behind him that he noticed that there was someone sleeping on the other side of the pillows away from Eddy. It was Zoey.

It took Double D a few seconds to process what he was looking at, then jumped to what this could possibly mean, widening his eyes more and more, 'Wait… They didn't, did they…?!'

Without hesitation, Double D went over to Eddy and started to shake him awake by his shoulders, "E-Eddy! EDDY!"

Of course, that woke Eddy up, with him groaning a bit in sleepiness, "Huh, what?"

"Care to explain to me what's going on here?!" Double D asked in a whisper to Eddy with panic in his voice.

Eddy blinked in confusion at his friend for a moment, "What're you talking about?"

Double D pointed behind Eddy to Zoey, who was still asleep on the other side of his bed, behind the wall of pillows that separated them.

That was when memories came back to Eddy, remembering that Zoey stayed with him for the night. He widened his eyes a little, realizing why Double D was in a panic, "W-Wait a minute! This isn't—"

"I-I honestly cannot believe you two would do this!" Double D started to yell louder, "Do you have no shame?!"

Double D's yelling was the noise that made Zoey start to wake up with a small yawn, 'What's going on now?" she muttered, propping herself up into a sitting position.

Zoey then noticed that Eddy was not alone. Double D was tapping his foot with his arms across his chest towards them both.

"… Oh."

Double D made a heated sigh to them, "Now that you two are awake, PLEASE tell me what's going on right now!"

Eddy and Zoey looked at each other before explaining to Double D why she was here in the first place. From their late meetup last night, about the news Zoey had to break to Eddy along with the aftermath of the news, and the decision for Zoey to stay here for the night because it was so late at the time.

Once they finished explaining their story, Double D sighed a little in relief, "So, nothing actually happened?"

"Nope," Eddy replied, "That's what this wall of pillows and the extra blanket was for."

"Besides, even if he tried to do something, I would just punch him," Zoey laughed.

"H-Hey!" Eddy retorted to her, "I already told you that I would never do that!"

Zoey chuckled to him, "Don't worry, I know."

Double D could only smile at the two teens, think about how wonderful it was that Eddy found someone to have some sort of affection for.

"… Hey, wait a minute. I just realized something!" Eddy started to say, turning to Double D, "What're you even doing here this early in the morning?"

"… Oh, right!" Double D gasped, "I came over to ask a question about today's plans; I didn't exactly want to call you on the phone to ask because it's so early…"

Eddy groaned in annoyance, "Really? That was it? You could have waited till we all met up to ask that."

"Yes, I realize that now, my apologies," Double D replied with a small bit of embarrassment.

"… Well, with all that out of the way, I think I'll go walk back to my aunt and uncle's house now," Zoey stated as she got up from the bed, walking towards his back door to leave, "I need a shower and a change of clothes."

"W-Wait!" Eddy gasped to her, making her stop in her tracks, "Your folks said they'll come pick you up in the afternoon, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I got an idea for something we can all do before they get here!" Eddy started to say with a big smile, "We'll meet up at the playground like usual."

"O-Okay…?" Zoey replied with a small bit of confusion before continuing to walk to his back door, "Guess I'll see you two later."

"Goodbye," Double D stated as Zoey then left the room, closing the back door behind as she did, "So, what was your plan for today, Eddy?" he asked as he turned to his friend.

"I was thinking of visiting the candy store," Eddy stated, "I realized we haven't been in a while, and both Jennifer and Zoey haven't been there at all."

Double D smiled at the idea, "That sounds like a wonderful idea."

He then started to walk back to Eddy's back door to leave, "I'll see you again in a few hours."

"… Hey, Double D."

"Yes?" Double D asked as he turned back to Eddy.

"Don't say anything about Zoey staying here last night, okay?" Eddy stated to him, "I don't want anyone else to get the wrong idea; heck, even you had the wrong impression at first."

Double D stared at Eddy before making a smile, "Of course, I wasn't going to say anything anyway. I had a feeling you would want to keep it private."

"Good," Eddy replied with a sigh of relief.

It was now late in the morning; currently 12pm. We could see four of the six teens hanging out around the playground, waiting for Zoey and Marie to show up. Eventually, Zoey and Marie arrived, about a minute apart, weirdly enough.

"Alright, now that we're all here, I got a good plan for today!" Eddy started to say, "Let's go visit the candy store!"

"There's a candy store nearby?" Zoey asked in surprise, "I didn't know that."

"Yes, you just turn left at the entrance of the Cul-De-Sac and walk down the sidewalk until you can see it," Double D explained, "It's about fifteen minutes away by foot."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Marie stated, "It's been a while since I went there."

It was then that Jennifer noticed someone who was now missing from the group, "Say, where did Ed go?"

"Geez, he must have run ahead when I mentioned the candy store," Eddy sighed, "I wouldn't worry that much about him, he knows the way."

Meanwhile, we could see Ed dashing towards the candy store, a smile plastered on his face at the thought of visiting it again. As he was running to his destination, he heard a weird sound that sounded like an engine from a car, but not as loud. Ed looked up above him to see a very small drone flying towards him, stopping in front of him for a moment. Ed widened his eyes at the drone. He could see that the drone started to do something strange, like it was scanning him from head to toe. Before he could think about what happened, the drone then flew off and upwards into the sky, leaving behind a baffled Ed.

Ed stood there for a moment before jumping to his own conclusions about what happened, "Was that a UFO?!" He gasped in excitement, "I gotta tell everyone about it!"

He then started to run back towards the Cul-De-Sac, not exactly realizing what the drone was doing.

Elsewhere, in a hidden location, we could see a man with dark red hair in a white lab coat watching a monitor that had the view of the drone previewed on it, he also had a remote control in his hands, which was controlling the drone.

"Well shoot, I didn't mean to get that close to that kid. My hand slipped too much there," the man grumbled to himself before looking at something that was being printed off to the side, "I got their data, at least."

The man then got up to see he results of what was printed out, "Hmm… Seems this boy has outstanding physical strength but doesn't seem compatible with what we need. That's a shame. His strength would have been helpful."

The man then went back to his chair in front of the monitor, flying his drone towards the Cul-De-Sac. It was then he noticed five more teens below him. Without them even noticing the drone above them, the man began scanning the five teens as they walked down the sidewalk. As he was scanning the teens, one of the teens suddenly stopped walking, kneeling over a little in pain, clutching his forehead.

"Double D?!" questioned his friends in surprise as they turned to him, "Are you okay?" Jennifer asked with worry.

"I-I'm fine," Double D replied, still clutching his forehead, "A sudden pain just hit my forehead, I don't know why."

"Well, that's a bit concerning," Zoey stated.

The man that scanned them noticed the teen that reacted to the scan looked very familiar. He widened his eyes, "Wait a minute…"

He then turned to the printer, which had just printed out the data he had just scanned from the teens. He quickly got up to look at the results, only to see that two of the teens from that group were compatible for their future project, the boy with the ski hat and one of the girls. But the thing that really got his attention was the teen boy with the ski hat. His data was remarkably like the data they had in the past, of someone they lost.

The man took his cellphone out of his lab coat pocket, calling his wife on the other line, "What is it, darling?" she asked.

"You should come to the lab for a moment, my love. There's something you need to see," her husband stated back.

It only took a minute for the wife to enter the lab. She also had red hair and wore a lab coat like her husband, "What did you find?" she asked.

"Take a look at this data I found," the man stated as he handed her one of the teens data he printed out.

She looked over it very quickly before widening her eyes, "Wait, this is—"

"Yes, this is Erica's child. There's no mistaking it," the man stated, "The test subject that was taken from us all those years ago by those damn thieves."

"Why, this is wonderful news!" the woman smiled brightly, "We should try and get them back as soon as we can!"

"No, not yet…" the man warned her, "We still need to prepare for what we need to do, remember? We can focus on them later. No need to rush things."

"Yes, good point," the woman sighed before turning back to where she entered, "Well, I should go back now, the twins need their training today, and it will be rough for them."

"I see," the man replied, going back to his chair, "I will be scanning more teens in the meantime for the project," he then flew the drone away from the teens on the sidewalk before any of them ever noticed it was above them.

"You feel better now, Double D?" Eddy asked.

"Yes, I'm fine now," Double D replied, standing back up from where he collapsed on his knees, "That was very strange…" he started to say, rubbing his forehead a little around where his scar was under his hat.

"Guys! GUYS!" called out Ed from up ahead as he came running up to them, flailing his arms a little trying to get their attention.

"Whoa, hey! What's with you?" Marie asked.

"I saw a UFO just now!" Ed stated with excitement, "It was very tiny, and it flew up to me and scanned me, like it was saying hello! It was so cool!"

"A UFO? Really?" Eddy questioned while rolling his eyes in disbelief.

"It could have been a drone, Ed," Double D chuckled, "Someone must be playing with one nearby."

"B-But it scanned me!" Ed continued to explain, "We need to find it again and say hello back to the aliens!"

The others looked at Ed for a moment, "Does that mean you don't want to go to the candy store?" Zoey asked with a small, sly smile.

Ed thought about that for a moment before replying with a laugh, "Oh, I forgot!"

The other teens made a sigh to him in disbelief, "Typical Ed," Eddy muttered.

"I think we should get going," Double D stated with a smile to everyone, "The store is not much further now."

Meanwhile, in a town further away from Peach Creek, we could see a black car driving down a highway. In the car, we could see a man and woman in the car, with the man driving and the woman in the passenger seat. The man had short brown hair and glasses and the woman had long, curly black hair, they were both dressed up in normal casual attire, but also wearing bullet proof vests. They both had a pistol in the holster to their sides, ready to be used at any time if they needed to.

The woman looked out the car window, "Seems like we're heading towards Peach Creek, huh."

"Yes," her husband replied with a nod, "Seems like that lead we got from HQ is pointing to somewhere there as their new base of operations."

His wife could only sigh, "I kind of hope their intel is wrong for once."

"Whether is false or not, we need to look into it," the man stated.

"I know…" the woman stated. She then opened the glove compartment and took out something, an old photo of a child wearing a black ski hat who was sitting in her lap, reading a book, "Sometimes I think about the twins we couldn't save that day," she started to say, "I hope they're still alive in that horrible place…"

The man made a sigh, "I know, I think of them as well."

There was a minute of silence between the married couple before the husband spoke up, "You know, I've been thinking about this since we left London a month ago. You remember when we met that professor there?"

"Oh, you mean the one that helped solve that Underground London case a year ago?" she asked, "What about him?"

"I think it would be wise to ask for HQ to call for his help, possibly have him fly out here," he stated, "He seems pretty sharp and could give us some insight on finding these mad scientists."

"Huh, I never thought about that," she gasped, "If I remember right, he's famous in the UK, especially around London. Kind of weird since he's not an actual detective."

"Exactly," the man stated, "As soon as we reach the police department, I'll write a letter to the detective there to ask for his assistance."

The woman then looked back at the photo in her right hand, smiling a little, "I do hope he's alright," she started to say, "We've been gone for so long because of this case."

"I'm sure he's just fine," the man said, "He's a very independent kid, you know that. And he has his friends to help him, despite how they act when they're all together."

"I know, but I can't help but worry," the woman started say, "Especially since the intel points to Peach Creek. They could probably find him…"

"… And if they did, we would rescue him without hesitation," the man replied in a serious tone, "He will always be our son, Wendy."

"… Yes Aiden, I know."

Author's Note (June 25th, 2023): This chapter was going to be a whole lot longer, but I decided to split it up because it was becoming too long, even for me. I think the next chapter might be the last one, maybe? I'm not sure yet.