Act 3: End of the Line

Tara chased down her neighbors backyards trying to lose Ed and the Safety Patrol. The chase went on across a croquet game, a swimming pool, and a badminton field. It was there that they finally caught her.

"Hey, Tara!" Ed called out. "What do you call ten in reverse?!"

"What?" Tara asked distracted enough to get caught in the badminton net. Fillmore, Ingrid, and Ed surrounded her.

"The answer would be 'net'." Ingrid said.

"Fine. I did it, okay." Tara admitted. "I was just trying to teach Ralph a lesson. I didn't mean to wreck the whole convention."

"Well, I guess you should've thought of that before you sabotaged Ralph." Fillmore said.

"He deserved it. Last year, Ralph put a 1914 water tractor on a farmland. The layout was from 1912. Toppling that thermometer was the only choice I had."

"Thermometer?" Ed asked. "What about the train tracks? The controller messed with them, not the thermometer."

"What exactly did you do, Tara?" Fillmore asked.

"I rigged a fishing line to Ralph's thermometer so it'd fall and he'd get kicked out of the club. But I didn't even pull the line. I changed my mind at the last minute. Something must have tripped it out."

"Well, debris was flying everywhere." Ed said. "Anything could have tripped it out."

"Dog." Fillmore exclaimed. "Looks like we just came up empty again."

"You mean it wasn't my fault?" Tara asked hopefully.

"No." Ingrid said. "You can go home."

"But I'm still guilty of conspiring to destroy the world's biggest model thermometer."

"Look, something destroyed a whole convention room. Compared to that, a thermometer doesn't mean much." Ed said. "Look, you're already cleared. Just take the win and go home."

Tara chuckled embarrassingly. "Good point."

After returning to X Middle School, the trio was surprised to see a familiar face in the Safety Patrol headquarters that wasn't an officer.

"Kyle Rayner?" Fillmore asked spotting the comic artist standing beside Danny O'Farrell's desk. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, your friend, Danny, didn't want to take pictures of the crime scene. He apparently gets sick." Kyle said.

"No! I just… got distracted." O'Farrell denied.

"So he asked me to draw out the crime scene and bring him everything when I'm done." Kyle continued handing papers of drawings to the photographer.

"Wow. These are really good." O'Farrell said looking over each of the drawings. "They're so realistic, I almost got sick again… I mean, if I could, which I'm not since I'm a seventh-grader. How come you can draw these in perfect detail, but when it comes to people, you can only do stick figures?"

"Who can say?" Kyle answered with a shrug.

"Uh, O'Farrell," Fillmore said, "You do know that drawings aren't as incriminating evidence as actual photos, right?"

"They're not?" O'Farrell asked before frowning. "Oh, man."

"Cheer up, buddy." Kyle comforted.

"Thanks." O'Farrell said. "Hey, check out what I made." He pulled out a set of different fishtanks connected by a tube. "I'm working on the first goldfish 'habitrail' for Chow Yun and Chow Yun 2 and 3."

Kyle chuckled. "That's nice. Mind if I make a drawing of it?"

"Sure." O'Farrell said.

While Kyle began drawing, Fillmore, Ingrid, and Ed looked at each other sharing confused looks and shrugs before heading to the desks.

"Hey, Fillmore, I got you something." Ingrid said.

"Ingrid, I already told you, I don't want another goldfish."

"It's not a fish. It's a book." Ingrid said passing a book to her partner.

"Young Grief?" Fillmore asked reading the cover. Curious, he opened it up and read the pages aloud. "'Causes of grief. Number one: losing a pet. Number two: moving to a new town. Number 3: toys that break.'"

"Well, I think that last one's a little outdated." Ed said. "I mean, you saw the Speedy Mite 2000 at the convention. It was a real wreck."

Kyle, who was listening in, stopped drawing and turned to them. "I'm sorry. What was that about a Speedy Mite 2000?"

"Oh, somebody rigged a Speedy Mite controller to mess with the train tracks and wrecked the convention with it." Ed said.

Kyle widened his eyes. "Hold on. I've seen a Speedy Mite at the convention. The actual car."

"You have?" Ingrid asked. "When?"

"Give me a second." Kyle said before going through his past drawings. He stopped at once in particular. "Aha! This is one of the drawings I made of the convention BEFORE everything fell to pieces. Take a look."

Everyone looked at the drawing and examined the familiar setting. It was Oscar's metropolis layout. There, a yellow RC car was resting on the tracks before getting knocked away by the train.

"Right. I remember that." Ed said. "Guererro set up an RC car to be run over as a symbol of model trains over remote control cars."

"And check out the label on the car." Ingrid said. "It's a Speedy Mite 2000."

"So if Oscar had a Speedy Mite car, he must have been the owner of the controller." Ed realized. "He's the one who rigged the convention to be destroyed."

"Why would he do that?" Kyle asked.

"I think I know." Fillmore said looking back at his book. "Number two on the grief countdown is moving. Oscar was moving."

"Ah, yes." Ed said with a smile. "It all makes sense now. And I think I know where he is now."

Guererro's Train-a-Topia was packed with a long line of kids reaching out far from the store's entrance. Fillmore, Ingrid, and Ed took notice of all the kids as they passed by them. They stopped when they saw Oscar happily serving his customers.

"There you go, Josh." Oscar said handing a kid a bag full of model train parts. "This model's better than last year's anyway."

"Thanks, Oscar. I don't know what I'm gonna do once you guys are gone."

"Didn't you hear?" Oscar asked. "Looks like we're not moving after all."

"Well, isn't that convenient." Ed said as he and the others approached the front desk confronting Oscar.

"What is?" Oscar asked.

"Model train wrecks." Fillmore said. "Bad for people, but good for business."

"You didn't happen to make sure of that, did you?" Ingrid asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Oscar denied.

"I'm talking about a Speedy Mite 2000 controller used to cause the train wreck." Ingrid said making Oscar look more nervous. "You knew the schedules, the layouts, and had the guts to a Speedy Mite. Everything you needed to rig the whole crash."

"Supply and demand." Ed said. "After all, who benefits the most from a convention full of broken model trains? The answer: the guy who makes a living from fixing or replacing them."

"And bringing enough business to bust up the move to Dakota." Fillmore said. "Oscar, we'd like you to come with us."

"Well, the thing you have to consider is…" Oscar started to say before reaching up for a banner hanging over his head. He pulled it down over the trio before running away.

"Seriously, what does everyone think running will accomplish?" Ed asked. "We go to the same school! We'll bust him anyway!"

"Better now than later." Fillmore said.

The three went after Oscar, who ran to a play area with a miniature train for kids to ride in. He jumped on top, but Fillmore and Ed landed on the same train confronting him. In the meantime, Ingrid followed at top speed.

"You're too late." Oscar said. "My plan worked, you see. My dad just renewed the lease on the store for another year. We don't have to move. Nothing has to change."

"You're wrong about that." Fillmore said. "You may still be in town and you may still have the train store, but things are gonna change."

"When everyone hears what you did, they'll stop going to your dad's store." Ed said. "Not to mention, you'll lose your credibility as a model train celebrity. Everyone will turn against you. Sure, if you did nothing, you'd move out of town, but at least you'd still have your dignity and the love of your fans. But you just threw it all away because you're scared of a new town."

"I'll figure something out." Oscar said before stepping into the engine car. "Now, I believe this is your stop." He decoupled his engine car from the rest of the train separating himself from his pursuers.

Ed stared confused with Fillmore. "Uh, do you think he realizes…"

At that moment, the engine car made it to a tunnel that was too big for Oscar. He didn't see it coming, so when he reached it, he hit his head on the tunnel and fell to the ground.

"No. He didn't." Fillmore said jumping from the train with Ed.

Ingrid grabbed Oscar and held him by his shirt. "End of the line, Oscar."

"You don't understand." Oscar said. "I couldn't move. I had a life here."

"The thing about life is, you can't stop it from changing. And you can't make it turn right or left with a battery-operated control." Fillmore said. "Hobbies change. Model trains get replaced by RC cars. Goldfish die. You gotta be willing to move on, man. Ingrid, Nygma, can you take Oscar in? I have business to take care of.

Ingrid and Ed noticed Fillmore turning his attention to a pet store. They smiled and nodded before turning away.

"Just one question left." Ed said. "Guererro, do you know anything about a survey in an envelope with a symbol that looks like a green lantern? I hid one in the space-themed train layout before the convention was destroyed."

"I don't even know what you're talking about." Oscar said.

Ed sighed. "Fine. It was a long shot anyway. Let's get going."

"Hey, Fillmore," Vallejo said as his best officer returned to the office with a package, "Nice work on the derailment case. Folsom wants you and Third back on the beat.

"And I was just about to get pumped for that Pretzel Twisted convention." Fillmore said sarcastically before finding Ingrid and Ed at his desk.

"Just signing my witness report on the Guererro stuff." Ed said. "By the way, don't go for a drink of water. O'Farrell filled the whole gallon with his fish after his goldfish habitat broke apart."

"The model trainers kicked out Oscar and put up a warning about him on all the training news groups." Ingrid said. "His model train career's over. At least that book I gave you is good for something."

"It was good for a lot of things." Fillmore said. He unwrapped his package and revealed what was inside: a fresh bowl of water with a young, new goldfish swimming around.

"Nice fish." Ingrid said.

"Yeah. I decided it was time for a change."

"What are you gonna call him?" Ingrid asked.

"I was thinking about calling him… Chow Yun."

"HEY!" O'Farrell yelled.

"Maybe Miles."

"Well, that's all well and good," Ed said slouching in a chair, "But I still didn't get any answers to the survey. Turns out it has nothing to do with the train incident. Now, I'm back on square one, and I don't know what to make of it. It's so frustrating."

"Well, what was the survey about?" Fillmore asked.

"It was a few strange questions about what I'd rather do or wear." Ed said. "Like whether I'd wear a suit and tie or a spandex outfit. Or whether I'd wear a mask or not."

Ingrid asked. "Wow. Sounds like someone was turning you into a superhero."

Ed's eyes widened. A realization hit his brain. "A superhero. I wonder…"

Once the end of the day had come, Kyle Rayner headed to his locker. Everything was normal until he noticed Ed standing by his locker waiting for him.

"Oh. Mr. Nygma. Hey." Kyle greeted. "What brings you to my locker? I thought your locker was a couple of hallways from here."

"Hmm. Interesting that you'd know that." Ed said. "But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all, anyone who slipped me that survey would know where my locker was."

Kyle's eyes widened and he tried to hide his surprise with a nervous laughter. "What? What survey? I don't…"

Ed glared at Kyle with a knowing look. "I didn't connect it then when I was answering the questions, but I just realized that everything I answered, they were used to describe comic characters. Plus, you were at the convention before the crash. You had the opportunity to find the answers I left behind. And the crash, although unplanned, was the perfect cover for your getaway. Am I wrong?"

Kyle's eyes shifted for a moment. Then, he let out a breath and looked down. "No. You caught me. I've been drawing you as an adult character in a comic book."

"I thought so." Ed said. "Though, there's still one thing I don't understand. You draw object well enough, but you could only draw stick figures. So…"

"That's… a bit of an act." Kyle said. "I know I have a talent for drawing anything or anyone accurately. My skills are pretty advanced, but I don't feel like I'm ready enough to showcase them just yet. So I've claimed to only be good at drawing objects and only making stick figures of people. I had planned on showing everyone the full extent of my talents once I reach either eight grade or high school. Until then, I decided to practice in secret."

"Well, why me?" Ed asked. "Why would you turn me into a comic character?"

"Most artists base their work on people or objects in real life, like the Mona Lisa." Kyle said. "I wanted to base my characters on interesting people in real life, and you're just about the most interesting schoolmate I know of." He then opened his locker and pulled out a sheet of paper which he then offered to Ed. "I hope you don't mind. I wanted it to be perfect."

Ed looked curiously at the paper and took it. He examined the drawing on it and was surprised by what he saw. His drawing portrayed him as an adult with a green-and-black bowler hat and a matching suit with a purple tie that had a question mark on it. He carried a cane in his left hand that had a question mark decorated at the top.

Ed looked at the picture a bit more while Kyle stared nervously. Afte a minute, Ed smiled and looked back at Kyle. "You know what. It's not bad."

"Really?" Kyle asked hopefully.

"Yeah. That's exactly how I'd like to look as an adult. And the question mark cane is a nice touch." Ed said. "Can't wait to see where this goes."

"That's great. Thank you, Mr. Nygma." Kyle said happily. Ed tried to pass the paper back to him, but he pushed it back. "You know what? Why don't you keep it? I've got another copy."

"If you say so." Ed shrugged. "Just one more question. That trademark symbol on your survey, what does the green lantern represent?"

"Green lantern?" asked Kyle. "I was going for an Illuminati edge. Well, i suppose it does look better as a green lantern. Kinda poetic. Okay, thanks." He grabbed his stuff and left.

"No problem." Ed said before looking at his drawing. "Hmm. I do look kinda sharp."