TUoC: Chapter 6

It was now the early afternoon in Peach Creek. We zoomed in on the Peach Creek Police Department where we could see both Professor Layton and the lead detective for the department, Nicolas Wells, looking over the text messages that Double D sent to Layton through Jennifer's cell phone. Nicolas finished typing out the texts word-for-word in a document to print out for reference; one for him and one for Layton.

"So, do you think Eddward's dreams could lead us to any clues on this case?" Nicolas asked.

"It could be very possible, yes," Layton replied, looking over the text messages again that they printed out. He noticed a text message that stood out from the others, "It seems Eddward mentioned someone's last name; a woman named Mrs. Bishop. Maybe we can start from there by looking up anyone in town that has the same last name."

"I was thinking the same," Nicolas stated before handing Layton some sort of card, "This keycard will let you access the records stored on the second floor; the room is mostly used for storing cold case files and missing people reports, but we also have a computer there that has the names of all the registered people in town."

Layton nodded his head, "Thank you."

He then leaves Mr. Wells's office to go to the second floor of the building, arriving there a few minutes later. He swiped the keycard on the lock to open the door to the records room. As he turned on the lights to the room, he could see so many files around the room, a lot of them stacked on shelves and stored in labeled cabinets. Even though the room was still a little dusty, he could see the room had some recent visitors, probably due to the recent missing cases.

Layton walked towards the computer that was still online on the other side of the room, sitting down in the computer chair as he did. He went to the program that had the names of every registered person living in Peach Creek and began to type "Bishop" in the last name search. Surprisingly, he did find a few results, with two of them being the top results, but not in the way he anticipated.

He could see the two adults that popped up on the screen; a married couple that disappeared 15 years ago. Their names were Vergil and Rita Bishop. He could see the pictures on file for what they looked like; they both looked like Serena and Matthew, having red hair and dark green eyes. Layton narrowed his eyes a little at this, 'They must be the twin's parents,' he thought.

He then opened the file for the missing case of the couple to learn more about them. Apparently, they were both scientists who were working for a pharmaceutical company called Alpha Corp. They were both working on an experimental drug that was eventually rejected by the FDA for being too dangerous for anyone to use. A few days later, they both disappeared, along with the experimental drug they were working on. A lot of people began to think they took the FDA's rejection very personally, so they ran away somewhere to keep it secret.

Layton then saw that there was an annotation on the page, he clicked on it to see that it pulled up a page to another missing person's case. A woman named Erica Meadows also went missing at the same time as Vergil and Rita Bishop; she was their lab assistant. It was reported that she was 7 months pregnant when she went missing and her fiancé, a man named Vincent Peters, spent many years trying to find her, but could never find any leads to where she went, eventually having to give up, much to his sadness. Layton pulled up a picture of both Erica and Vincent, only to see what he feared; Erica had very light blond hair and Vincent's eyes were very bright green. These two were Double D's biological parents; he had more of his dad's features than his mother's looks.

According to what Double D texted him, he said the woman named Mrs. Bishop told him they kept him around to help raise the twins despite not being able to develop his powers correctly. He also said that the twins mentioned needles and shots while going through some sort of daily pain with their powers, as well as not being able to leave the place they were in.

'I don't like this one bit,' Layton thought with a frown, 'I certainly hope this does not mean these children were experimented on… but it might just be the case. How horrible.'

Layton grabbed a nearby notepad and pen to write down the information he learned. He then got up from the computer chair and left the room, heading back to Nicolas's office to tell him what he found out.

Meanwhile, back in the Cul-De-Sac, we could see everyone still hanging out around Jennifer's house for this afternoon. Ed and Serena were both reading Ed's stacks of comic books he brought with him, along with talking about what they were reading. Matthew and Marie were in Jennifer's kitchen, trying to find a snack to eat (with Jennifer's permission to go through her pantry).

Double D was sitting on the couch, reading a book that Jennifer had on her coffee table; it was a very detailed and heavy book about the lore of the game she was always playing; Final Fantasy XIV's Encyclopedia Eorzea, 'This might be a neat book to pass the time with, since I forgot to bring one of my own books,' he thought. He also noticed this book was only part one out of three, with the other two heavy volumes sitting nearby.

Eddy had just finished playing some Mario Kart with both Kevin and Jennifer as Nazz watched all of them in amusement. He looked around the room, only to notice something out of place; Zoey was nowhere to be seen. He looked out the window nearby, only to see Zoey sitting in Jennifer's front yard with her right hand up to her head and to her ear.

"… Hold up a moment, I'll be right back," Eddy said before he got up from where he sat to go see Zoey. Both Kevin and Jennifer looked on in confusion before shrugging their shoulders and going back to playing Mario Kart.

Eddy opened Jennifer's front door to walk over to Zoey, approaching her from behind as he did, "Uh, Zoey?"

Zoey visibly flinched a little before replying, "Hey there Eddy."

"What're you doing out here?" Eddy asked as he sat down next to her.

Zoey stayed quiet for a moment, "I needed some time alone for a moment, sorry."

Eddy could tell something was off, she seemed distracted by something. Suddenly, Zoey put both of her hands against her ears and lowered her head as if she were in pain, much to Eddy's shock, "Zoey?"

She then got up from where she sat, not saying anything to him. She started walking in the direction of the woods nearby. Eddy got up as well to walk over to her, "Are you okay?!"

Zoey said nothing in response; she just kept walking towards the woods. Eddy felt in his gut that something was very wrong. He ran over to Zoey and forcefully grabbed her right wrist to make her stop walking, trying to pull her back to Jennifer's house, "Zoey, snap out of it!"

That was when Zoey gasped in shock as she stopped walking, "Huh? What…?" She then noticed where she was and that Eddy was holding her wrist, "What happened?"

"You started walking towards the woods like some sort of zombie!" Eddy stated, "You didn't even say why you got up and left."

Zoey was quiet at what he said, she looked very worried, "I-I don't remember that. I was sitting on the ground when that weird sound started ringing in my ears again."

"… A weird sound?"

"Y-Yes!" Zoey started to explain with a small bit of panic, "It's been giving me a major headache for the past few hours. It looks like no one else can hear it but me, but it keeps getting louder!"

Eddy looked at her with worry; he could not hear whatever she was hearing, "Uh, well, if you have a headache, maybe you should go home and take something for it."

"… Yeah, you're right," Zoey replied to him with a smile, "Sorry, maybe I should go rest back at my house."

She turned towards where her house was, which was now right next to them, "I'll see you tomorrow, Eddy."

"Okay, see ya, Zoey," Eddy replied as he made a small wave to her. She entered her house, leaving him outside.

"… Something felt off there," Eddy stated to himself, "I hope she feels better later…"

He could feel his chest tighten and his heart beating more and more suddenly before a thought crossed his mind for a split moment. He widened his eyes at his thought, he should do something to cheer her up, to show her that he cares!

Eddy walked back over to Jennifer's house and approached Double D, "Hey, Double D!"

"Hmm?" Double D hummed as he looked up from reading Jennifer's book, "What's the matter, Eddy?"

"I was gonna tell you that I need to step out to the candy store for something," Eddy started to say to him, "Just wanted you to know that's where I'm at if you're looking for me. I'll be back before everyone leaves, okay?"

Double D looked at his friend in confusion but only nodded his head, "Okay, but please be careful."

"I will, thanks!"

Eddy then darted out of Jennifer's house and ran off towards his house to get something from his brother's wallet that he had left behind.

Back at the police station, we could see Layton showing the information he wrote down on the notepad to Nicolas.

"Hmm, seems like you might be onto something, Mr. Layton," Nicolas stated before making a small sigh, "But that still leaves the big question; are these two scientists really behind the missing teen cases? If so, where are they in this town?"

"I'm certain they are the ones behind this," Layton replied, "We just need to try and find them…"

"M-Mr. Wells!" called a voice from outside the office as one of his rookie assistants came over to him in a rush, "The FBI finally contacted us! They want to speak with you!"

They widened their eyes, "I see, please direct their call to my office phone!"

"Yes sir!"

It only took a minute for Nicolas's phone to ring, he answered it and put it on speaker so Layton could hear, "Hello, this is Nicolas Wells, alongside Professor Hershel Layton from the UK."

"Hello, Mr. Wells! We have finally received your calls about what's been going on," stated the voice on the other line, "It seems that something or someone has been purposely blocking our communications with each other until a moment ago. All your previous attempts to contact us came in all at once and it was very startling."

"I-I see," Nicolas muttered with a heated sigh, "I knew something felt off with the phones, but couldn't figure out what."

"Anyway, please give us more details on what's been going on."

Both Layton and Nicolas explained to the FBI officer on the other line about their situation, as well as the information they dug up a moment ago thanks to Double D's statement.

"… So, it really is Vergil and Rita Bishop that are behind this," stated the FBI officer with a sigh, "We had two of our finest officers tracking them down for months; they willingly came out of retirement to help with this case personally, even going to London to find and stop their black-market suppliers. Later, we found some intel that the scientists relocated back to one of their old bases in Peach Creek. They went to go find and arrest them, but then we lost contact with them both."

"… These two FBI officers you mentioned, would they happen to be named Aiden and Wendy Johnson?" Layton asked.

"Yes, it is! That's them," the FBI officer replied, "Did you happen to see them?"

"No… we think they might be in great danger or worse," Layton stated. He then explained that in the letter the twins had personally requested him to come help the case if something happened to the two of them.

"… I see," the FBI officer stated in sadness, "They both did their job well in saving those three kids, but now we need to find those two scientists before things get any worse."

"Do you happen to have any ideas on where their base could be in this town?" Nicolas asked.

"Well, yes and no," the FBI continued to say, "I remember them saying that it was somewhere in the forest nearby, but they never gave us the exact coordinates. It must be a very well-hidden place if it still can't be found by most people after all these years."

Nicolas made a small sigh of relief, "Even so, knowing a general location to look around in is better than nothing at all. Thank you for contacting us."

"It's not a problem," the FBI officer replied, "We'll be sending out additional help for you to search the forest tomorrow."

"That would be wonderful, thank you," Layton stated, "We also need to give those lapel pins with the tracking device to the teens tomorrow; even more so now because of what we learned about three of them. They could still be targeted."

"Agreed," the FBI officer stated with a sigh, "Either way, we will be seeing you tomorrow. Goodbye."

"Goodbye," Nicolas stated as they both hung up the phone. He made a big sigh to himself, "Finally, we are getting somewhere."

"Indeed," Layton stated before thinking about something, "It could be possible that Vergil and Rita somehow kidnapped all of these teenagers to experiment on them with the drug they've been producing in secret."

"That's… very possible," Nicolas muttered, "But why would they even do this? What is their goal?"

Layton sighed, "That's something we will have to ask them ourselves."

Meanwhile, back with Eddy, he was dashing down the sidewalk towards the location of the candy store that was on the outskirts of downtown Peach Creek. The location itself was only about fifteen minutes away by foot, so it was not that far away.

Eddy eventually arrived at the entrance of the candy store. He was about to go in before stopping himself, noticing the shop that was to the left of the candy store; it was a shop that he never had any interest in going into. But now…

'… Maybe I'll go there instead,' Eddy thought with a smile.

He walked over to the shop beside the candy store, nervously going inside the small business as he did. There were so many things in glass cases around him to look at, and everything was super expensive; he did not even know where to begin to find what he was looking for. Eddy soon saw an information pamphlet nearby that explained the products on display. He looked over it carefully to see what Zoey would like from here, only to see the thing he was looking for was Zoey's favorite color!

He went over to where he could see the product he was looking for on display, only to see one of the things on display in a glass case that immediately caught his eye; it was perfect! Eddy then looked at the price tag for the item on display; he cringed a little at it, but shook his head from side to side, pretending to ignore how expensive it was.

"Umm, hello?" Eddy called out to one of the employees at the store, "I would, uh, like to buy this?"

"Sure! Hold on a moment," stated the female employee as she grabbed a key to the case that Eddy was pointing to. She walked over to him, "You'll have to pay for the ring upfront before I open the display case; just so you don't try to steal it. Jewelry store rules and all that."

"Oh! Uh… okay!" Eddy stated in surprise before taking something out of his back pocket; it was a credit card, "Will this do? I, uh… I got permission to use it for anything I'm looking for here."

"Yes, this will do just fine," the employee stated with a smile. She took the credit card back over to the cashier box to swipe it. Thankfully, the card had enough money in it to complete the purchase! She printed out the receipt before handing both the receipt and the credit card back to Eddy, "Here you are. Hold on a moment while I find a box for your purchase."

"O-Okay," Eddy nodded his head as the employee walked a little bit away to grab a box. He could feel his heart pounding with both nervousness and a little bit of stress.

"… You know, you seem a little too young to be buying a ring like this for someone. It's a very different thing than buying any sort of rock candy," the employee started to say with a small chuckle as she came back over with a box and a smile, "I've seen you and your friends visit the candy store next to this place all the time."

"Uh…"

"Don't worry, I won't say anything about what you bought today. I can tell you're being genuine about wanting to make someone happy, I've seen it many times in other people," the employee stated as she unlocked the glass case that had the ring he bought, "I also won't tell anyone that you used your brother's credit card; I saw the news the other day about both of his separate arrests," she took the ring out of the display and put it in the box she got, "It's not like he will be using this money anymore where he's going, so I'll let it slide that you lied so you could use his card to buy this."

"… I couldn't agree more, t-thanks," Eddy replied with a small smile as the employee handed his purchase to him in the box. It was a silver promise ring with a small amethyst stone on it that was also her favorite color, Zoey's birthstone.

Author's Notes (September 18th, 2023): Oh man! The next chapter is when things start to heat up before the climax! I can't wait to start typing it out.

Chapter 6's Song Title: "Dearly Beloved" - Kingdom Hearts (Just in general)