OCWaGH: Chapter 7

A few minutes passed by in Peach Creek after both incidents happened on the two separate sides of town. The 'monsters' that people claimed to have seen came and went, along with the strange people who fought and defeated them, leaving behind some damage and a few unconscious folks, but also no clues as to why this occurred. It looked like everyone who was attacked by the monsters was okay, but they all felt very tired and lethargic when the police tried to get information out of them; some of them almost sounded like they could not emote properly as well when being interviewed.

Anyway, we soon came across Ed's group, who were walking down the sidewalk after going grocery shopping before noticing the commotion going on nearby at a fast-food place where one of the incidents occurred. Ed was handling most of the groceries with a few bags obscuring his vision, while Haruka and Michiru had a few in their arms as well.

"Huh, I wonder what happened over there?" Usagi questioned aloud.

It was Michiru who noticed the bent streetlight and the ring of a fire that had faded away on the ground, "Haruka…"

"Yeah, I see the circle there," Haruka stated with a small frown, also noticing several people who looked to be out of commission, "An attack must have happened while we were in the store. Looks like it's been taken care of by the others, thankfully."

Hotaru soon saw a police cruiser parked near them. A police officer came out from the driver's side, along with a passenger who was sitting in the front seat. The passenger that came out was a seventeen-year-old boy who had short, slightly bushy black hair and light blue eyes. He wore something akin to something like a detective, despite his young appearance; a dark tan coat that went to his knees over a black shirt, beige pants, and brown shoes.

"Detective Everhart, the scene of the incident happened right over here," the officer with the teen said to him, gesturing to the direction of the bent streetlight and ring of extinguished fire.

It was as the teen was walking down the sidewalk to the scene that Ed had walked a little further ahead, not exactly realizing about the scene up ahead before… Bonk!

"Oof!" / "Ouch!"

Ed ran into the teen boy from the back by accident, surprising both the teens; thankfully, Ed did not drop any of the bags he was carrying, "Uh oh! Was someone there?!" Ed asked with a small yelp.

The teen did not fall, but did stumble a little before turning around to see Ed, along with two of his four companions rushing over to them, "Are you two alright?" Usagi asked.

"I'm just peachy like Peach Creek, Usagi!" Ed said with a big smile.

Hotaru looked at the teen Ed ran into, approaching him to see if he was okay, "Sorry about that. We just finished grocery shopping…"

"It's not a problem," replied the black-haired teen, looking at Ed, "Seems like he had his hands full, so I don't blame him for bumping into me."

He then noticed Hotaru and the other girl with Ed, "It looks like you all just moved here from elsewhere, that's neat to see," he said with a smile.

"Robin, sir. Please…" the officer that drove him here started to call out to him, "We need to focus on the scene."

"Oh, right. Sorry for that," the teen named Robin stated before beginning to walk off, but not without waving a small goodbye, "I hope you enjoy your time here!"

Haruka and Michiru walked over to Ed, Usagi, and Hotaru, "We should get going too," Haruka stated, "As much as I would love to stick around and find our own set of clues, the police shouldn't get involved with Guardian business. It always makes a mess of things."

"That's true…" Hotaru muttered before looking back to the teen that left.

The group walked past the scene, only glancing at it for a moment as they did. The teen named Robin also glanced at them when they walked by, more so with curiosity than suspicion, 'The four girls there looked to be Japanese. I wonder if the two younger ones are exchange students for high school this school semester?'

It was when the group could no longer be seen that Robin heard a small clink, like something sort of small and metal had hit the ground somewhere close to him. He looked to see where he heard the sound, only to see something on the ground a little further away, close to where the teen boy from before ran into him. Robin went over to the place he was at before to pick up the item he saw; it was a purple medal with a strange symbol on it, the symbol of Saturn.

"Huh, did they drop this just now?" Robin questioned as he looked back to the group, who was now out of his line of sight. He looked back at the medal in his hand, 'The symbol kind of reminds me of a currency I saw in a video game once, I think the currency was called Macca. You'd usually see something like this with a cult… Weird.'

Robin turned his attention back to the scene, pocketing the purple medal as he did, "I'll try to investigate this symbol when I get back to HQ. I can't be standing here when I just got my dream job; part-time assistant or not."

Author's Note: The next two scenes happen around the same time as each other before converging at the end of the chapter.

Hermes, Mercury, and Jupiter had dashed and jumped away from the scene that happened outside of the library, transforming back into their normal clothes afterward in an alleyway further away as they did. Double D panicked for a short moment, instinctively seeing if his beanie was back on his head, which it was, thankfully.

Makoto made a sigh, "Seems like the enemy ran away for now," she stated.

Ami looked back to Double D, who was still a little shellshocked from what happened, she could see his hands could not stop shaking. Even though Hermes did not fight with his powers this time, she could see he was not prepared for how intense the situation was.

Ami placed her hand on Double D's shoulder, "It's okay Eddward," she started to say to him, "I know it's a lot to handle right now, but you need to persevere; just take things slowly."

Double D widened his eyes to Ami, feeling a little nervous from her touching his shoulder, "I-I understand," he replied, trying his best to hide the blush that was forming on his face. The alleyway they landed in was dark, so Ami could not see his face clearly, "I'll, umm, do better next time."

Makoto went over to the exit of the alleyway to see if anyone was around, "It doesn't look like anyone is around here. Let's go back to the apartments for now."

Double D and Ami nodded their heads before walking over to Makoto. The three teens walked out of the alleyway, walking down the sidewalk with Double D leading them back to the location of the apartments, "It's not that far away from here," he stated.

As they were walking down the sidewalk, Double D glanced over to a business that was on the other side of the road, it was the candy store he and his friends usually frequent. The store seemed unusually busy right now. It was while he was looking in that direction that Double D did not notice someone coming out of the building in front of him until… Bonk!

"Eep!" / "Oh!"

Double D ran into the person in front of him by accident, making him fall to the ground while the other teen only stumbled slightly.

"Goodness!" Ami gasped as she and Makoto went over to Double D, "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes, I'm just fine," Double D replied, rubbing his head a little as he did.

The person he ran into also regained his footing before looking back at them. He was a sixteen-year-old boy with somewhat short, dark red hair and light brown eyes. He wore a red hoodie with a green T-shirt underneath, a pair of blue jeans, and green, grey, and white tennis shoes.

"Oh geez, are you okay?" the red-haired teen asked Double D, holding out his hand to help him back up.

"I'm okay, thank you," Double D replied to the teen as he took his hand to help get himself up from the ground, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention to the path in front of me, and—"

"It's all good," replied the red-haired teen before noticing who was in front of him, "Hey wait, your name is Eddward or something, right? From Peach Creek High? I think I've seen you before around the school; you're always hanging out with your two friends or at the science labs."

"Oh, y-yes I do go there," Double D stated with a nod, "I'll begin my sophomore year next week."

"Cool, that's the same grade as me," stated the teen. He turned to the two girls beside him, "Who are your friends?"

"Oh! H-How rude of me," Double D gasped before turning to Ami and Makoto, "This is Ami Mizuno and Makoto Kino. They are, umm…"

"We're exchange students from Japan," Ami stated, picking up where Double D trailed off, "We'll also be going to the same school for the semester as sophomores."

"That's really cool!" the red-haired teen said with a smile, "My name is Erik, by the way. It's neat to see some new faces in town. Everyone usually goes to Savannah or Atlanta for those kinds of programs…"

Double D looked at the building that Erik had come out of; it was a place for people to practice playing various musical instruments if they did not have the space at their homes, 'I wonder what he's learning to play here?' he thought.

Ami looked at Makoto, noticing she was silent the whole time. She could see the dreamy look in Makoto's eyes, 'Oh no, not again…' she thought.

"Well, I guess I'll see you all later when school starts back up," Erik stated as he walked off in the direction behind them, "Bye for now!"

Double D and Ami waved back to Erik as he left. Double D looked at Makoto, only to see the same look that Ami noticed before, "Umm…"

'He looks like the upperclassman that broke my heart…' Makoto thought to herself.

"… Makoto?" Double D waved his hand in front of her face to get her attention.

Makoto snapped out of her thoughts, looking back to Double D and Ami, "Is everything alright?" Double D asked.

"I'm fine!" Makoto smiled brightly, turning to the direction they needed to go and walking ahead, "Let's get back to the apartments!"

Double D had a look of confusion before he heard Ami make a small sigh, "Don't worry about that. I can explain it to you another time," Ami stated.

Meanwhile, back with Erik, he paused for a short moment before remembering something, "Shoot, I forgot to grab my notes!"

He turned back around to see the three teens start to walk away as he came back to the building he was in before. He was about to walk inside the music building when he heard a small clink noise behind him. Erik turned around to see something on the ground behind him; it was a green medal with a strange symbol on it that he did not recognize; the symbol of Jupiter.

"Hey… where did this come from?" Erik asked himself before looking back to the three teens who walked away, "Did one of them drop this?"

Erik shrugged his shoulders before pocketing the green medal into his hoodie, walking back into the building as he did, "I guess I can ask them if this little thing is there when I see them again at school."

Ares, Mars, and Venus had run and hopped away from the incident near the fast-food place towards a nearby park with many trees around it, transforming back into their normal clothes as they did within the woods.

Minako made a big sigh to herself before making a small groan, "Geez, I thought we could have a few minutes of peace. I guess not."

Rei looked back to Eddy, who began to sit on the ground where he landed. It looked like he was trying to calm himself down from what happened, taking in several deep breaths as he did, 'I guess the adrenaline of the moment was too much for him to handle,' she thought.

"Phew! That was intense!" Eddy stated before managing to calm himself down.

Rei felt a jabbing poke on her shoulder, turning to see Minako beside her, "Rei, I believe there's something you need to say to him, right?" Minako said to her with a small glare.

Rei glared back before making an irritated sigh. She turned back to Eddy, who was still sitting on the ground, extending her hand out to him, "Here, let me help you up."

Eddy looked at Rei with disbelief, 'What the heck? I thought she hated me!' he started to think to himself as he grabbed her hand to get up.

The three teens stood there for a second before Minako shoved her elbow to Rei's side, "Come on now! You know what to say."

"Be quiet, Minako!" Rei hissed slightly before making another sigh, "Listen, Eddy. I wanted to apologize to you for giving you the cold shoulder this whole time."

Eddy widened his eyes in shock.

"The past week hasn't been good for us, you know. It's put us under a lot of stress," Rei continued to say, "I guess the stress I was having went towards you when I didn't mean for it to. I'm sorry."

Rei extended her hand out again, this time for a handshake, "Want to call it a truce?"

Eddy stayed silent for a short moment before replying to his handshake, "Yeah, no hard feelings!"

Minako stood on the sidelines, making a mischievous smirk to herself; time to properly play the matchmaker for them, "Good! Glad we got that out of the way…" she started to say before looking around, "But, uh, where are we?"

Eddy looked around before seeing through the trees, "I guess we're at the park that's located nearby," he said, "There's a lot of fields here for people to play sports games, though I don't really come here that often."

The three teens left the woods, only for them to see a baseball field nearby, with Eddy walking a bit ahead to guide Rei and Minako. It was as they were walking close to the baseball field that Eddy was turning around the corner before… Bonk!

"Ack!" / "Gah!"

Eddy ran into someone who was walking around the corner near the field, the teen was carrying a lot of things in his arms. Unfortunately, almost everything the teen had in his arms fell onto Eddy, making him fall to the ground, accidentally burying him underneath a lot of baseball equipment.

"Oh, oops!" yelped the teen that Eddy ran into as Rei and Minako walked/ran over to them.

The teen was a sixteen-year-old boy. He had very short, light brown hair and dark green eyes. He wore a light orange T-shirt with a horizontal white stripe across the front, a pair of beige khakis, and some gray and black tennis shoes. It also looked like he had a small scar on his cheek, right near his jawline. The teen looked like he had just changed into these clothes a moment ago, probably after he was done playing on the field beside him.

"Sorry about that, dude," the teen said to them as he began to pick up his stuff off Eddy, "I didn't see you there."

"Yeah well, just watch it next time," Eddy grumbled as he got up from where he fell. He looked at who he ran into, "… Hey wait, aren't you one of Kevin's buddies that's in our school's football team or something?"

The teen stared at him for a second before replying, "Oh, yeah, I am. Kevin's a good captain for the football team, but I don't consider him that close of a friend or anything. We only hang out during practice or sometimes when practice is over," he flashed a big smile, "The name's Scott, by the way. I'm the captain of the baseball team. And your name's Eddy, right?"

"Huh?" Eddy had a small look of shock on his face for a moment before asking, "Let me guess, Kevin's said stuff about me to you?"

"Yeah, mostly negative things, but I don't care about that kind of gossip," Scott replied, "I'd rather meet said person first before deciding if they're a golden egg or not."

"… Don't you mean a good egg?" Rei corrected.

"Oh yeah! That's how that phrase goes," Scott chuckled before noticing the two girls beside Eddy, "Huh, I didn't know we were getting foreign exchange students this year."

"Oh! Uh, yeah! That's right!" Eddy said with a bit of a jump, not expecting him to enquire about his company.

"My name's Rei Hino," Rei began to introduce herself before turning to Minako, "And this is my friend Minako Aino."

"Hello! ~" Minako replied with a small peace sign and a wink, "Feel free to call me Mina or Minako!"

Scott stared for a second before saying anything, "Haha, nice to meet you two!" he then proceeded to start picking up the stuff he dropped, "I gotta get this stuff back to the locker room."

"Do you want any help on that?" Minako asked, "That's a lot of stuff you dropped."

"Nah, I got this covered. You can go and leave if you're busy," Scott replied to them before looking back at them, "So, I guess I'll see you all later at school!"

"Bye!" Minako waved as she and Rei walked away along with Eddy.

"Geez, just when I thought I was done with Kevin for the day…" Eddy grumbled to himself before making a sigh, "At least Scott doesn't seem as bad as he is, thank god."

Rei could sense the unease with Eddy when he and Scott were talking about some guy named Kevin, "Hmm…"

Scott continued to pick up the baseball equipment he dropped before noticing something strange. There was an orange medal with a strange symbol on it lying on the ground, the symbol of Venus.

"Wait, I'm pretty sure I didn't drop this… Uh, whatever this thing is," Scott stated as he picked up the orange medal. He examined it for a short moment before putting it in his back pocket, "Maybe one of them dropped it. I'll ask them about it when I see them at school."

Author's Note (January 20th, 2024): Whoa, an update to this story?! Well then. Also, SURPRISE! If you thought the Eds were the only boys on the team, well you're wrong!

Expect this to have more chapters as well... Once I get to writing them.