Good to see you all here today! Hope things have been going good for everyone, especially with the holiday season coming up.
Things are going great for the fic at least, if nothing else. Things are slowly coming up to some particularly juicy parts and I can't wait to get there, even if it will be pretty angsty. Then again, that's what some of you are here for.
Anyway, I'll see you all at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!
Nazz knew this wasn't the greatest lead in the world, but it was the only one they've gotten in weeks. Clair had been really helpful in talking about what she knew, even if it wasn't much by at all. Other than the visit to the store and an apparent talk* that led nowhere afterward, knowing they passed through here.
Now what to do about actually knowing where they headed next…
The clattering of a food tray shut her thoughts down, causing her to focus her attention back on Kevin. He apparently did find the one Chinese place this mall's food court had, though it didn't have a wide selection.
"Bon Appetite, babe. Place looked half closed, but we actually got some decent orange chicken for once." Kevin snatched up an egg roll, not bothering to dip as he took a bite out of it. "Any idea on where you wanna go next?"
"I'm not sure if there is a next here. I think we're actually pretty close to finding the Ed's this time." Nazz put down her phone after updating her notes on their "investigation." If it had been a physical copy, it would've been a lengthy book at this point. "I know I've said that before, but I think it might be true this time."
"Are you sure? Things got pretty quiet after that New Orleans thing and we've only found small stuff until then." Kevin shrugged. He was just as invested in this but having been on the road so long was making him weary. Not to mention his extension on their "school project" was starting to run out. "I know we said we'd find them, but those dorks are apparently really good at covering their tracks."
"That just means we need to get better at finding them. Just because they're good doesn't mean they can't hide forever." Nazz sighed, picking out an eggroll for herself, making sure to actually use dip. Despite the determination, she was starting to get tired of this too. "I swear this'll be the last time. We just need to get to them here and we can head on back home."
Kevin frowned before shaking his head. He didn't say anything for a few moments before getting the courage to speak his mind. "You really think they'll be happy to see us?"
"Probably not. Doesn't mean we can stop now." Nazz wasn't expecting a happy conversation when they finally got to them, but it was worth the risk. "They deserve to know, especially Eddy. Maybe we can even convince them to come home if we can."
"Yeah, good luck with that. Ed might be good to have during football season, but he ain't coming back for that." The biker grabbed the soda he picked up, taking a long sip. "Any idea when that cousin of yours is going to get here?"
Nazz's phone buzzed, answering the question for her. She barely looked at it before getting up to wave over a couple milling about in the distance. "Lagoona, Gil, over here!"
Kevin gave a passing glance to the two that came up, noting nothing particularly abnormal. Lagoona, like the sporty blonde she was, ran up to hug Nazz with a smile while Gil hung back a little. The biker gave him a nod before getting back to his food, letting Nazz do the introductions.
"Been a real long time, Nazz. I keep telling ya' that you can call me, but you never do." Lagoona patted her cousin on the back, separating the hug with a playful frown. "Seriously, start calling. I'm going to start thinking you don't want to talk to our side of the family."
"Hey, I keep trying, but cell service is pretty spotty in Peach Creek." Nazz got them both to sit down, waving at her boyfriend. "Sorry we didn't get you anything. We didn't know when you'd get here. Anyway, this is Kevin~."
Kevin brought up a hand, waving slightly to keep up his cool streak. "Sup. Nice to meet you two."
"Ah, so you're the biker that got Nazz's attention." The girl grabbed his hand before he could protest. A surprisingly strong grip nearly took his arm off with it. "Been hearing good and bad about ya' mate. I'd threaten ya' to be good to her if she it wasn't for the fact she'd be able to take you down herself."
"She's been pretty excited about this." Gil luckily had a nicer grip, especially in comparison to his girlfriend. "First time they've talked in a little while."
"And from I can tell, it sounds like you're in need of a favor." Lagoona's accusation caused the two to falter, making her nod in grim resignation. "Figured. Must be something important if you're coming out this far for it."
"We're looking for some people. I highly doubt you've actually seen them, but it might be worth a shot." Nazz pulled out the picture with the Ed's again, moving it in front of the two. "If you haven't, we can still hang out anyway. We'll just have to bug out later, though."
Lagoona did raise an eyebrow at this, pulling the picture up to give it a cursory look. She visibly paused, though, brow furrowing as she looked over it again.
The air around the table got a little awkward until the blonde put down the photo, grabbing Nazz's hand. Lagoona stood up, giving a strained smile to Gil before heading off with Nazz in tow. "We'll be right back."
Kevin didn't exactly know how to respond to that, and it looked like Gil didn't really know how to either. The two looked at each other before shrugging awkwardly and started to make small talk.
The two girls on the other hand, moved into the bathrooms. Nazz hadn't fully registered what had happened until Lagoona had already taken her hand off hers, going through her iCoffin.
"I'm going to guess that this is a yes?" Nazz really hadn't expected two confirmations in one day. Especially not from Lagoona. "What's going on? Did-did you really see them around here?"
"Yeah, and unless Kevin is as good at hiding as your dad, he ain't gonna be able to follow you in finding them." Nazz noted that with the shaky words coming from her cousin, her disguise was fluctuating. The girl checked to see if anybody would notice blue scales appear on the other blonde's body. "Look at this."
Nazz had the iCoffin shoved into her hand before she could respond, the unfamiliar device almost fumbled. She was able to catch it, listening to the video of a Legend broadcast. These facts only made her even more confused.
"Good morning, listeners, Blondie Lockes here." The girl on the screen started, a bear shaped mic in front of her face. "It's been nearly a week after the Hellscream debacle and things are slowly getting back to normal as people are being allowed to mingle more and classes start up once again."
Nazz raised an eyebrow, looking up at Lagoona to check if this is what she should be watching. The sea monster moved for her to continue, which she shrugged and did.
"While some concerns over the issue are still up in the air, it has been determined to be put to rest for now." Blondie was soon replaced by several pictures of Hellscream being taken in by Monster policemen. "Hellscream has said to have had his memory wiped completely of not only the prior incident, but any and all memories related to Monsters and Legends alike. It is unknown what effect this will have on his mind."
Nazz debated just turning this thing off and handing it back to her cousin before several pictures made her heart nearly stop dead.
"While all students involved in stopping Hellscream and freeing Bloodgood from stone have not said much on the encounter," Ten pictures, three of them being the Ed's themselves, splayed out onto the screen. "They are considered heroes by both student bodies. What they plan to do next, however, is unclear."
Nazz opened her mouth before shutting it again, her brain trying to catch up with the images she was just shown. The video continued to play, showing some clips of what looked Eddy using magic, Double D moving around on some kind of weird octo arms, and Ed- oh god, where did he get those tentacles?
"Y'know, I have to admit something here," Lagoona chuckled, causing Nazz to look up. The girl hoped that her face was showing the confusion and shock appropriately. "You really got some scary friends there. Surprised you didn't say anything about them."
Looking back down at the video, Nazz wondered why she didn't either.
"Princess, I don't know what exactly you're bringing us out here for, but there's easier ways to hide our bodies if it's murder." Eddy raised a couple of fingers. "There's magic, there's chemicals, whatever you can find online. Better than in the woods."
"Why do you always go for the grim thoughts, Eddy?" Apple tried to ignore the mental imagery going through her brain, putting one foot after another. Being in the Enchanted Forest used to be a nice thing, too. "I take you out for a nice walk in the woods, and you assume I'm going to murder you?"
"I'd murder him in the woods if anyone was wondering. Well, I'd have him murdered." Cleo did her best to avoid any icky parts of the woods, stepping around roots carefully so not to trip. "Make up an alibi while one of the Anubis guards does it. That way nobody can connect me to it."
"How would you get your Anubis guard to bring him in and disappear without being seen, though?" Raven asked before shaking her head quickly. Dammit, Queen, that's your mother talking, not you. "Never mind. What are we out here for again?"
"We're checking out the spot Cerise found for us. Maybe get some ideas for decorations while we're at it." Apple checked her MirrorPhone to see if they were going the right way. They were, thankfully. "Maybe talking with Cupid about what to do for True Hearts Day will help you all stop making weapons."
"That reminds me, you have those rubies I sent you, correct?" Cleo poked at Eddy, nearly toppling over after almost tripping on a root. "I'd like to have most of those come back, if you can."
"Transmutation isn't an exact science, Queenie. But I think I should, just as long as I got the measurements right." Eddy kicked a pebble with a shrug. "All it really depends on is getting some of them cursed just right and not messing with the staff too much."
"It's supposed to go into the cat heads eyes, right? Seems like it would." Raven shivered, imagining the staff being completed. "If that things as powerful as you say it is, I'm terrified to see it in action."
"We're here!" Apple stopped, waving at a large cottage that obviously hadn't been used in a while. "Raven, how about you and I check out the inside. Eddy, Cleo, you wouldn't mind checking out the perimeter, would you?"
The princess didn't really wait for an answer, grabbing Raven's hand and heading toward the cottage. The sorceress saluted sarcastically at the two.
"Wish me luck." The two Legends disappeared into the house as she said this, leaving the other two alone.
Eddy rolled his eyes, turning to start checking through the brush. Cleo followed behind reluctantly, muttering to herself about the filth littering the landscape.
"Why do we have to spend so much of our time outside in the forest? Can't we do this in a nice, insulted building for once?" Cleo complained to herself. A heel landed in some mud, forcing her to stifle a squeal. "Enchanted or not, nature is so disgusting."
"You know I can hear all of that, right? Not like I want to be here either, Queenie." Eddy tilted a branch out of his way, letting it whip out behind him. He smirked as he heard another squeal come from the mummy. "We'll be out of here in no time. Just need to check out the place and make sure nobody could find it to report to Grimm."
"Still, why do people come out here?" Cleo attempted to get the mud off from her shoe, scraping it off onto a tree before continuing forward. "I get that princesses are attuned to forest animals, but they wouldn't actually do anything out here, right?"
"I don't know. Camping is a pretty popular thing for some reason." Eddy only shrugged, moving through the brush carefully, noting that it was thinning a bit. "Some like the animals out here. Hell, maybe if find a good place, you can even have a…"
Eddy moved a few more branches, only to be greeted by the sight of Hunter and Ashlynn having a picnic. It even looked like Hunter was feeding Ashlynn a piece of cake.
"…A picnic." Eddy looked between the two with a raised eyebrow, not expecting to see this today. "Ashlynn Ella, Hunter Huntsman. Am I interrupting something here?"
"What? No, of course not." The princess practically slapped Hunters had, the fork clattering away deeper into the forest. "Hunter was just helping me, uh, check on some forest critters! Some of them have been a little sick lately."
"Doesn't look it. Looks like you two are having a little get together." Cleo crossed her arms, tilting her head to show she wasn't falling for this. "What is this really?"
"They're getting busted, that's what."
The four turned to see some girls dressed up as a ballerina walk out of the bushes not far from them. Her own MirrorPhone was recording the scene in front of her.
"Duchess? What the heck do you want?" Hunter's irritation was obvious, though it seemed only equal to the amount of nerves he was showing as he looked at the phone pointed his way. "We were just hanging out!"
"Doesn't seem like that to me, Hunter. It looks like you and our resident Royal here are gallivanting off and defying both of your destinies." Duchess Swan waved the phone again, a crooked smile on her face. "Meaning that they're up for the taking. I'd say I hope you don't mind if I decide to go for yours, Ashlynn, but it looks like you wouldn't."
Eddy did not the panic on the princess's face and couldn't help but roll his eyes. Great, a damsel in distress, along with her beau. All in the midst of some high school drama too. Just what he needs to deal with today.
The boy didn't bother thinking, snapping his fingers so a zap of his magic went out to hit the phone in Duchess's hand, causing it to fry immediately. A part of him gleefully watched as he watched her panic as her blackmail went up in flames.
"Woops, sorry about that. Sometimes my magic can go on the fritz when I'm not holding back." Eddy laughed, waving it off like it was a tiny mistake. "Hope you have good coverage for that."
"I'd suggest leaving before you get your feathers plucked, Swan." Cleo dangled a tiny amulet between her fingers carefully. "Far away, preferably. I would suggest staying out of my sight for the rest of the day."
Duchess certainly looked ready to fight them on this before remembering who she was talking too. She growled lowly before stomping out for her exit.
"…um, thanks?" Hunter didn't expect the help, the suddenness of the situation catching him off guard. "I don't know if that'll stop her, but at least she doesn't have any video of it."
"That just means you have a limited time to tell anyone about all of this. She did this once and she's going to try again." Eddy shrugged, pointing at them with a questioning look. "I'm guessing this has been going on for a while?"
"Y-yes. What do you mean tell anyone? Do you know how bad this would be for the Royal/Rebel stuff in school if we told anyone?" Ashlynn was already starting to panic at the thought, every scenario running through her brain. "All my friends are definitely not going to like this. Can you imagine how Apple will react?"
"She's a big girl, she'll have to deal with it. Besides, take it from someone who had to go through a really bloody coup once," Cleo put away the amulet, smiling dastardly. "It certainly pays to know who your real friends are. Otherwise, they'll happy put you in a sarcophagus later."
"Besides, wouldn't it be funny to watch her implode if you tell everyone about this?" Eddy gave an evil smile himself. He was admittedly thinking more of the fun parts about all of this. "Spite's a good motivator if I say so myself. Why not give in and make sure she pays for ruining your date?"
"…I'm not sure if I should be taking advice from you right now." Hunter inched away as Eddy laughed some more. "It would be funny, but we'd have to think about it before we try anything. You know, major consequences and all."
"You probably should listen to us when we say that Apple is not far from here." The mummy took a moment to relish the immediate fear those words inspired. "Yeah, you might want to run."
"We'll head to the backup spot." Ashlynn grabbed the picnic basket and put away the food. Hunter got the rest of the stuff as they immediately rushed to get out of there. "Thanks again for the help!"
Eddy waved them goodbye, chuckling to himself as he turned around. The laughter eventually settled as he started heading back where they came. "That's gonna be a nightmare to deal with when they decide to confess."
"That it will." Cleo sighed, following him once again, dreading the ruckus before it even started. "That it will."
The computer lab at Monster High was usually unoccupied by most people when there wasn't a class going on. While none of the computers were low-tech by any means, they were only good for the programs the school let on them and not much else.
The only reason Clawdeen was using them was because she needed some files from the school, and she couldn't get that from another place without raising attention.
"Okay, I'm pretty sure this is all very illegal." Maddie clicked her nails onto the keyboard carefully, doing her best to follow the programs instructions. "Which I normally wouldn't mind, but this could get us expelled if anyone notices."
"We won't get expelled. We're only looking into some stuff." Clawdeen sat next to her, doing some outside research compared. She'd delegated the hacking to Maddie since she had a better head for that stuff. "Just do follow the instructions on Ghoulia's flash drive and everything should go smoothly."
The werewolf had taken one of Ghoulia's flash drives without the zombie noticing, something she did feel a bit bad about. The only reason she took it, though, was because it did have some programs that would get them into the school files. Ghoulia had been hacking since she was a kid, so it was pretty much fool proof.
She'd return it right after this was over. Then there'd be no guilt at all.
"Still, if any alarm bells start ringing, we jump out of that window over there." Maddie jerked a thumb to said window with a shrug. "I'm pretty sure I can stick the landing. Do you think your fearleading training would help you there?"
"Let's not test that just yet." Clawdeen was pretty sure it wouldn't help, but she was open to new experiences. "Keep typing. We should have something before the day is out."
Clawdeen would've been more open to conversation, but she was finally starting to find something worthwhile. She started with Peach Creek and was finding some stuff about them from the occasional news report starting back when they were kids. Other than being nuisances, there hadn't been much other than a few academic accomplishments from Double D, a huge prank of Eddy's, and some community work Ed did.
She'd gone chronologically, which worked for the most part, but was starting to grate on her nerves. She decided to jump ahead to current times, which instantly brought up some interesting results.
"Missing?" Clawdeen narrowed her eyes at the posters shown on screen, the pictures of the boys clear on it. "Why are they considered missing?"
"Clawdeen?"
The werewolf nearly jumped out of her seat at the voice, clicking off the window before anyone could see it. She turned the chair to find a confused Double D and Cerise not far from them.
"Ah, sorry about that. Clawd told us that you were in here and we wanted to check on things." The human smiled awkwardly. Looks like he could tell how tense she was and wasn't sure how to proceed. "I'm guessing you're doing some research. I'd be happy to help if you wanted."
"It's nothing too big, don't worry." Clawdeen tried waving them off with an awkward smile, looking between the two worriedly. "Just doing some stuff on the side for a personal project. Maddie's plenty help already."
"Looks like you're stressing out about it more than you should. Are you sure you don't need any help?" Cerise raised an eyebrow, looking the other girl over. She could practically see every muscle tense under the question. "Maybe you should take a break. I know things have been stressful, but we can't exactly do that while burning out."
"We'll be fine. We just need to finish up some things here." Maddie smiled halfheartedly. It was clear the guilt of lying to them was taking a bit of a toll on her. "You don't need to worry; we'll be in tip top shape when True Hearts Day comes around."
Cerise and Double D gave each other a brief look before deciding to give up on this. Cerise just nodded before heading off to an exit in a huff. Double D didn't seem happy to do this, but he started to follow closely behind.
"My offer's always on the table if you need it." Double D's strained smile almost tugged on their heart strings a little bit as he left. "Feel free to call."
As soon as they left, Clawdeen sighed in relief, moving back into her seat, and bringing the windows back up. Her eyes dully went over the information with a lot less zeal then there was before.
"What's True Hearts Day again?" The werewolf moved her seat next to Maddie's, deciding to watch her work for a bit. "I've been kind of out of the loop lately. Can't have anyone thinking I'm slacking off."
The question earned her a weird look from the pinkette, meaning she should've known this for a while now. Maybe she really was letting this take over too much of her life right now.
"It's a day to celebrate true love, from Cupid told me. We're all doing it to help get over our recent trouble with Hellscream." Maddie put in the final line of code that would let them onto Bloodgood's server. She leaned back, giving Clawdeen a once over. "Maybe you should take a break from all of this. Focus on the party. Cerise and Double D are right, you are really stressed."
"I'll be a lot less stressed as soon as we figure out some things." The werewolf shook her head, resting her head onto the chair. She smelled chamomile as Maddie scratched behind one of her wolf ears. "Too many questions to answer, so little time."
"Clawdeen, I've gone with you on this with very few questions. The least you can do for me is keep yourself healthy." Maddie sighed, pulling her hand away. "I don't know where you gained this fear of Double D from, but it's starting to scare me."
"I'm not afraid of Double D. I just… learned a few things about him that I feel the need to check." The computer dinged, Clawdeen nearly jumping at the sound. "Looks like we're in. Let's check it out before Bloodgood's antivirus kicks us out."
Maddie frowned but moved to get back to it. Thankfully, the headmistress kept her files in order, making it easy to find a file on the Eds. It looked like she had their full history at their old schools, but nothing incriminating seemed to pop up.
"Doesn't look like there's much here other than grade histories." The hatter narrowed her eyes, noting a particularly big word document that she clicked on. "This might be something, though."
As soon as it was opened, pages upon pages of detail was brought up on the screen, causing both girls to wince. They scrolled slowly, noting a few details.
Turns out, the lotion scam wasn't the only one they'd participated in. Lists of fake tourist tours, souvenirs, and the occasional pyramid scheme stood out the most. Notes about how often scams would start in areas with higher food and gas prices stood out. An afterthought that Bloodgood had written out caught their attention.
"No violent criminal history but running from home for some reason." Clawdeen said carefully, leaning back into her seat with a frustrated expression. "But what the hell are they running from?"
Ghoulia kept an eye on a printer as she typed out the algorithm that would determine where the author of the Ghostly Gossip was moving to. Invitations to the True Hearts Day celebration kept printing out easily, which gave her plenty of time to work on it.
She heard a door open and close quickly, the movement causing some papers to ruffle. The zombie barely looked up to see Ed, hiding to the side of the door, look out into the hallway with narrowed eyes.
"I'm guessing you got the invitations out already?" The zombie laughed to herself as the boy jumped at the sound her voice. "Sorry. It looks like you haven't been found by our local gossip just yet."
"Oh, good. I was starting to wonder if acting like a spy wasn't going to work." Ed only had one invitation in his grasp right now, putting it away into a separate pocket. "How's the programming going? Hopefully, we can catch whoever's posting that before the party starts up."
"It should be ready soon. I'm making something that should determine what kind of schedule the person posting has, and we can determine what to do from there if it works." The zombie finished up one more line of code before putting the laptop aside. She went to work folding up the invitations, joined by Ed shortly after. "If we do get her before the party, it'll be a good way to celebrate. Another media source under our belt to signify the occasion."
"You know, Double D did say that we're acting like a secret society. I thought he was joking, but this really makes it feel like we are." Ed stared into space for a few seconds before getting back to work. "I suggest making up a secret handshake. A lot of secret societies have those, right?"
"I suppose, but we might need to shelve that for later." Ghoulia chuckled. Her pace didn't exactly meet Ed's, but it still helped out immensely in the long run. The more invitations that were sent, the better. "Maybe after True Hearts Day is over, we decide on a name first."
"Works for me!"
There was a companiable silence for a little bit, the sound of folding paper being the only thing to pierce the silence. Ghoulia did stop for a moment, looking at Ed briefly before getting back to work.
"You know, I've been meaning to ask this since we started," Ghoulia started out cautiously, debating on what affect her next words would have. "But have you or your friends been thinking about who you might bring to the party?"
"Not really. None of us are focusing on dating right now." Ed started with the excuse he and his friends had planned in case people started mentioning it. "We don't have a lot of experience with that either, so we're probably going to avoid that for a while."
"Really? I would've thought you and your friends would be pretty popular with girls and boys at your old school." She stopped before adding onto it. "I'm guessing you haven't had much luck there."
"We kinda lived in a small town. People know each other pretty well around Peach Creek, and if anything interesting happened, the whole town would know in less than a day." Ed shrugged, frowning at the thought. "We were seen as pretty weird by everyone, so Eddy was really out of luck."
"What about Double D? And you for that matter." Ghoulia hummed, trying as hard as she could to get some information out of him. "It seems like you two would catch some eyes."
"Yeah, but Double D was focused on school a lot. And, again, I'm a known weirdo." Ed tugged at the collar of his jacket with a smile. "Not a lot of girls in Peach Creek are interested in comics and old movies either."
"Too bad for them. Seems like you'd do just fine here, though." Ghoulia was honestly surprised to hear that. Eddy could be a difficult personality sometimes, but it seemed like the three of them were nice enough to get a date or two. "I'm sure asking someone would result in a pretty quick yes."
"Ha, I wish." Ed really wouldn't have minded asking someone to the True Hearts thing if it wasn't for the human thing. "But we were going through some stuff in Peach Creek and that hasn't gone away here. No matter how much we want to stop it."
Ghoulia thought to question that, stopping her work for a few seconds to formulate the question. Then, a memory occurred to her from a conversation they had before the Gloom Beach.
"Heck, the first time we ran away…"
The zombie mulled over that thought for a few seconds before deciding to accept it with only a twinge of disappointment. Why didn't she think about that when she first heard it? He did mention that he and his friends were the only people that seemingly cared about each other.
A part of her heart twisted at that. What would make them think that?
"Hey," Ed's voice snapped her out of her spiraling thoughts, reminding her that she was in the present. "Why are you asking about that, anyway? You planning on going with someone?"
Ghoulia swallowed down the instinct to answer in the affirmative, deciding this wasn't the time. She was going to have to evaluate some things before coming up with a proper plan.
"No, unfortunately." The zombie smiled ruefully, shaking her head. "I haven't had anyone in mind for a while now."
"Too bad. I think you'd find someone willing to go with you." Ed patted her on the back with an honest smile. Ghoulia felt a lot better at that, even if he wouldn't know why she did. "Maybe next time there's a dance then."
And, ironically, the one lying this time wasn't the scam artist.
Yeah, I will admit that first twist is a bit cheesy and somewhat overdone, but I feel like it would be funny that the Ed's were actually pretty close to the supernatural already without them knowing it. Plus, it's a good plot device when the need arises and that'll get them where I need them to go.
Either way, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you in the next one.