TUoC: Chapter 7
Today was Monday, August 5th, and it was another late afternoon here in Peach Creek. All the current teens living in the Cul-De-Sac were standing out in Jennifer's front yard, waiting for Layton to arrive with the lapel pins he talked about yesterday.
As everyone was standing around, Eddy noticed that Zoey was acting odd; she occasionally kept putting her hands to her ears for a short moment, as if something was bothering them. When he tried to ask her about it, she brushed it aside, telling him they were getting a very bad headache. Eddy remembered what happened to Zoey yesterday, she would have kept walking toward the woods nearby if he did not forcefully stop her. Something was going on, but he did not know what it was or why it was happening.
The group of teens soon see Layton drive up in his rental car, parking it in Jennifer's driveway. He got out of the car to greet the teens, "Hello again."
"Hello, Mr. Layton!" Serena greeted with a wave to him.
Layton opened the trunk of the car to grab out a somewhat small box, "I have the lapel pins I mentioned right here," he stated as he walked over to the teens with the box, "You don't have to wear them on your clothes if you want, but make sure to at least keep it with you in your pockets."
"W-We will," Matthew stated as everyone took a pin from him, all of them except one person put it in their pockets to hide that they had it. Zoey decided to hide the lapel in her right sock, even if it felt a little uncomfortable despite how thin it was, 'You can never be too careful,' she thought.
Layton looked at them with a smile before turning to Double D, "I need to speak with Eddward and the twins for a moment if you don't mind."
Everyone besides Double D and Jennifer seemed a little surprised but only nodded their heads before walking back toward Jennifer's house so the others could talk. Jennifer looked back at them with a bit of a worried expression before going inside.
"Umm, what do you need to discuss with us?" Double D asked, even though he had a small clue on what it could be about.
"After you texted me the information that you remembered, Eddward, we were able to look up and find who was responsible for all of this, along with a few other things," Layton started to say, "The culprits for all of these kidnappings are two scientists named Vergil and Rita Bishop; they are the twin's parents."
The twins stood there for a moment before the information sunk in, "Our… our parents are responsible for this?!" Serena gasped in horror.
Layton nodded his head. He then began to explain some of the information he could find about the scientists to them, hoping that telling them about it would help jog their memories. The twins could only stand there in shock after he finished talking.
"B-But… why would they even do this?" Matthew asked Layton. He was clearly shaken up by what he heard.
"Now that is something I don't know the answer to, unfortunately," Layton sighed.
Serena held her hand to her forehead to think for a short moment before she widened her eyes in realization, "Wait…" she turned to Double D next to her, "You… You're—"
"It's nice to see you again, Rini and Matt," Double D stated with a smile to them. He lifted his beanie off his forehead a little to show them his scar; to show that it was him, "I'm really sorry that I forgot about you two after all this time."
Both Serena and Matthew made a face of disbelief before Serena started to hug Double D like she used to do; making sure to not touch his skin, "Big brother!" She cried to him; a few tears started to form in her eyes.
Matthew stayed silent from shock for a moment before saying, "W-We thought you died! They both told us your powers made you turn to ice, and you melted away."
"Wow. That's… extremely disturbing," Double D stated as Serena let him out of her hug, a bit unnerved by what Matthew said, "But no, I'm alive. My adopted mother and father rescued me from that place, and I've been here ever since."
Layton smiled at their small reunion before making a small sigh, "Eddward, about your parents…" he started to say to him, "We were finally able to contact the FBI yesterday. They told us that two of their officers had gone missing and never reported back in… They were assigned to track down the twins and their parents."
Double D looked at Layton before his face started to grow pale, he put together what he was trying to say, "That was their past job? Working for the FBI?! A-And now they're…" he could feel himself fall to the ground; his knees gave out at the thought he had.
"We don't know for certain yet, but it is very likely they were killed by Vergil and Rita, trying to help Serena and Matthew escape," Layton stated to him.
Double D flinched at what he said before looking down to the ground in sadness.
"… B-But you don't know that for sure, right Mr. Layton? They could STILL be alive!" Serena started to say, trying to give Double D hope, "They might be stuck there, and we can go help them!"
"Yes, that is still possible," Layton replied with a nod, "We will do our best to find them, as well as the missing teenagers. Everything will be fine."
Meanwhile, inside Jennifer's house, we could see Jennifer looking out the window to her front yard, watching Layton talk to Double D and the twins outside. She saw Double D fall to his knees for a moment before he rose back up, the sight of him doing that made her very upset. She thought about rushing outside to ask him what was wrong but forced herself not to do it. Whatever it was they were saying, it was probably for the best to not get involved.
'I wish there was something I could do to help him,' Jennifer thought to herself, 'I know Eddward said being with him is enough, but I want to do more than that!'
Eddy glanced at Jennifer, making a sigh at her, 'She's really worried about Double D, huh.'
He then turned to Zoey, who was standing a bit further away. She was still clutching her head with her hands to her ears from time to time; the sound that only she could hear seemed to be getting more frequent and louder.
Eddy got up from where he sat to walk over to Zoey, "H-Hey."
Zoey turned to him, "Yeah?"
"Don't you think you should go home if you're still not feeling well?" Eddy asked.
"… You're right," Zoey sighed, "Maybe I should do that. Thanks."
Zoey started to walk away before Eddy stopped her for a moment, "Wait, mind if I ask you something really quick?"
"Umm, sure," Zoey stated as she turned to him, "What is it?"
"Do you mind if we can meet back up later today at the playground?" Eddy asked, "I, uh… I have something I wanna give you."
Zoey looked at him in confusion before making a small smile, "Okay, I'll be there."
She then walked out the front door to head to her house, waving to Layton and the others before walking to her house next door. Zoey remembered hearing from the others that Eddy ran to the candy store yesterday after she went back home, 'Knowing him, he must have bought a jawbreaker or something to cheer me up,' she thought.
Layton soon calls everyone to come back outside for a moment, "What are your plans for today?" He asked the teens.
"I guess we'll stay here and play some games," Eddy replied with a shrug of his shoulders, "Not much else to do right now if we don't wanna go far away."
"… Actually, I kind of want to go to Double D's house to ask some questions," Matthew stated, much to everyone's surprise, "I want to know more about your parents and how you grew up when you left," he whispered to him so no one else could hear.
Double D stared at him for a second before making a smile back to him, "I see. I guess we can do that for a moment before coming back here with everyone else."
Everyone else and Layton went inside Jennifer's house; Layton wanted to make a call to Nicolas to inform him he gave them the lapels. This left both Double D and Matthew outside. They were about to walk away when Matthew turned towards Zoey's house, only to see something unusual.
"… Uh, Double D?" Matthew started to say, "Zoey's walking away from her house."
Double D turned to where Matthew was pointing, only to see that what he said was true. Zoey was running towards the woods for some reason, "That's very odd."
He then looked above her by chance, only to see something that made his eyes widen, the drone he and his friends saw last week was flying very close above Zoey, almost like it was following her; or she was following the drone.
"… I have a very bad feeling about this," Double D stated, "We should follow her."
"O-Okay!" Matthew nodded his head. The two teens ran off towards the direction that Zoey was heading towards.
Double D and Matthew continued to run after Zoey, only to lose her when she went deeper into the woods.
"Oh dear, this is not good," Double D uttered with worry. They both had to stop running to see if there was any sign of Zoey nearby, only to see greenery and trees around them.
Suddenly, they heard a loud yell nearby them. They ran over to where they heard the yell, only to see that Zoey was now in some sort of net trap hanging high up in a tree.
"W-What the hell happened?!" Zoey yelled, trying to squirm herself to get down from the trap, "How did I even get here?! Help!"
"Zoey!" gasped Double D and Matthew as they ran over to her.
The three teens heard a feminine chuckle, "Well now, who would have thought you two would willingly come back here on your own, along with a brand-new test subject?"
Double D and Matthew both started to grow pale in the face while Zoey narrowed her eyes in anger. A red-haired woman wearing a lab coat came forward to them from deeper in the woods. It was Serena and Matthew's mother.
"Who the hell are you?!" Zoey shouted to her as Double D and Matthew remained silent.
"The name's Rita Bishop," the woman replied to her, "My husband and I are the founders of a future group of mercenaries called the Chaos Union. But we can discuss all of this in detail later. For now…"
Matthew heard Double D yelp as he saw him fall to the ground, he had been knocked out by a red-haired man in a lab coat wearing a pair of gloves, Matthew's father.
"Let us go back home, Matthew," Rita said as she went over to cut the trap that held Zoey in the tree, making her fall to the ground with a little thud, "You don't want your dear friends here to be killed, do you?"
"… N-No, of course not," Matthew muttered with a defeated sigh.
Vergil picked up Double D over his shoulder while Rita dragged Zoey, who was still trapped in the net, much to her dismay. Matthew could only follow behind them in sadness.
"Vergil dear, make sure to check their pockets for any tracking devices," Rita started to say as they continued to walk to their base, "We do NOT want anyone to follow us."
"I'm on it," Vergil replied as he searched Double D's pockets, only to see the lapel Layton gave him, "Seems like the failure had one on him."
Rita turned to Matthew with a glare, "I assume you also have one. Give it to your father, now."
Matthew sighed as he took out the pin he had in his pocket, handing it to his dad. Vergil threw the pins on the ground and stomped on them a few times, breaking them into pieces to potentially making them stop working.
"Now, what about you, young lady?" Rita asked as she looked at Zoey in the net, "Do you also have a pin?"
"Ha, jokes on you, bitch! I don't have one!" Zoey said with a smirk, hoping by saying this bluff that they would only check her pockets and not her socks or shoes, 'Thank god I thought ahead on that!' she thought.
Rita scoffed a little at her attitude, "We'll see about that when we get to the base, you brat."
About fifteen minutes passed by, with everyone being clueless about what happened a moment ago in the woods.
Eddy looked out Jennifer's window, only to see Zoey's parents' car drive by, parking in their driveway that was next door, '… Maybe her parents know something about her recent headaches,' he thought.
Eddy walked out of Jennifer's house to go visit Zoey and her parents. He could see her parents coming out of their car, "Hey there, Mr. Wheeler."
"Oh, hello Eddy," greeted Zoey's dad as Zoey's mom unlocked the front door to go inside her house for a short moment, "What brings you over here?"
"I wanted to ask something about Zoey," Eddy started to say, "Has she mentioned anything to you about having bad headaches? She said to me that she's been getting them since yesterday and had to go back home because of it."
"Hmm… No, not that I'm aware of," Zoey's father replied.
"Why, hello there, Eddy," greeted Zoey's mom with a smile as she came over to them, "Is Zoey not with you or your friends right now?"
"… No? She went home a little while ago," Eddy stated.
"Huh… that's really strange," Zoey's mom started to say, "The front door was locked just now, and I didn't hear her anywhere inside the house."
The three stood there for a moment before a sense of dread began to set in.
"Maybe she's in the backyard?" her mom started to say, starting to show a bit of panic before turning to her husband, "Can you check around the house a bit more?"
Zoey's dad nodded his head as the two of them rushed off to their house, leaving behind Eddy where he stood.
"Zoey… S-She's not home?" Eddy stuttered in confusion. He grabbed something out of his back pocket, the promise ring he was going to give her tonight. He looked at it for a few seconds before putting it back in his pockets and running back to Jennifer's house in a panic.
"Hey! HEY GUYS! GUYS!" Eddy started to shout at everyone in Jennifer's house.
Everyone soon came out to see that Eddy was in a panic, "What is it, Eddy?" Ed asked.
"D-Do you have that tracking thing with you, Mr. Layton?!" Eddy asked, "Zoey said she was going to go home earlier, but she's not there!"
"I do have it, yes," Layton replied as he took out his cell phone. He pulled up an app for the tracking device he gave to the teens, showing them where they were on the map thanks to a GPS signal. He could see the signal for the seven teens standing around him before noticing that the other three signals were all in the woods nearby; two of them had been in one spot for a while and were transmitting a weaker signal, while the last one was still moving towards a location with a strong signal. Double D and Matthew had the weak signals, while Zoey was the signal that was still moving. He then saw that the two weaker signals went out completely, the connection to them died while Zoey's signal came to a halt at a single spot.
Layton made a frown at what he was seeing on the app, remembering what the FBI officer said to him yesterday; that Vergil and Rita's secret base was somewhere in the forest, "It looks like Double D, Matthew and Zoey are in the woods nearby. They might have been taken away like the other teenagers."
Everyone widened their eyes in horror at what he said, especially Eddy and Jennifer. Layton quickly started to call Nicolas about what happened. As he was doing so, Eddy was about to run towards the woods on his own to go find them until he was stopped by Kevin, who grabbed him by the back of his shirt collar.
"Hold up! Don't go running off like that, you Dork," Kevin started to say with a heated sigh, "We gotta let him contact the police before trying to go find them."
"Let me go!" Eddy yelled to him as he tried to get out of Kevin's grip, "My girlfriend was just freaking kidnapped! I-I GOT to—"
"Eddy, please! You gotta calm down!" Nazz yelled to Eddy, holding onto his shoulders to stop him, "We WILL go find them, but you also need to stay calm, okay?!"
Ed was stunned that all of this was happening. He looked towards Serena; it looked like she was about to burst into tears, presumably for her brother, "Serena?"
Serena suddenly latched onto Ed's left arm as she started to cry, much to Ed's shock, "M-My brothers! They're both gone!" she sobbed.
Jennifer's whole body started to feel numb from the news before trembling with fright, clutching her chest as she did, "Eddward…"
She felt Marie's hand on her right shoulder, trying to comfort her, "It'll be alright, we'll find him and everyone else. Don't give up!"
Layton soon hung up his cell phone, turning back to the seven teens with him, "Detective Nicolas and the police will be here soon, along with the FBI. I also sent them the coordinates for Zoey's signal in the woods. It looks like she hasn't moved from the spot she stopped at."
"So, we can go rescue them now, right?!" Eddy asked, hoping he would say yes.
Layton nodded his head, "Yes, just stay close to me so you don't get lost, understand?"
The teens nodded their heads in agreement. They all started to run off towards the woods nearby, but not before Kevin grabbed the baseball bat he had with him beside his bike, 'Never know when it'll come in handy!' he thought.
Author's Note (September 19th, 2023): Finally! Things will start happening and it won't stop here! BUCKLE UP!
Chapter 7's Song Title: "Unfinished Business" - Skullgirls