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It’s another ordinary night in the cul-de-sac. So quiet one can hear stars gleaming in the sky. Most are off adventuring in their dreams. The Eds? They spend it not by partying but in comfortable, blissful silence.
Music plays from an old radio, a trinket they rescued from a junkyard. Double Dee delightfully sips on a fizzy strawberry soda and snacks on onion-flavored salty chips. Crickets chirp. Owls call from the woods behind Eddy’s house. They weren’t ever invited to any parties but that’s okay. One finds fun in moments like these. And it hurts less being labeled a loser and an outcast when you’ve got feel-good snacks slushing your psyche.
Edd is lounging on a lawn chair, his mind wandering the silky darkness. Pearls and diamonds seamlessly stitch together a rainbow-colored universe. “I should’ve brought my telescope,” Double Dee muttered while sinking further into the chair. “What a true showcase of the sophisticated cosmos on display!”
His limbs feel sluggish and tingly. A lopsided smile scores Edd’s face. He stares starry-eyed at such beauty. Lost forever on a road of shimmery celestials. Double Dee is a mere thing, a mere object, crafted like them, just existing like them. Unimportant and free.
A click and a slam sends Edd crashing back to reality, although briefly. He turns his head to see Eddy exiting the house, blunt in hand, and a folded seat tucked under his other arm. Ed waddles behind and the two of them take a seat by Edd.
“You okay, Double Dee?” Eddy askes with an amused smile. “You wondered off during our movie night.”
“Sorry,” he waved at the sky above. “Found this. S’pretty.”
“Sure is,” Eddy nodded.
The three sit there, gaze lost in faraway universes. Time passes. How much? They don’t know but to them, the world is going by slower than a snail. Eddy’s voice is like a siren suddenly blaring in yawning silence. “Wonder how many worlds are out there?”
“Our world is so boring,” Ed tore a chunk of chocolate bar and ate it. “No magic, no cyborgs, no zombies or fun adventures.”
“You think other Eds are doing cool stuff out there?” Eddy asked.
Friends’ voices sounding distant, Edd drifted off. His eyelids are heavy and they fall, fall, fall before shutting close.
When they open he finds himself in a psychedelic world. No ground or ceiling just endless scenery of swirling colors. Triiiippppyyy. Is Double Dee dreaming? He takes a step –will he float, fall, or stand on an invisible floor?
Double Dee sinks. But if he keeps walking, he’ll stay at the same height. He wonders if anything will show up.
Is he going to be walking forever?
Oh? No. Looking ahead he sees a single taxi sign. But there are no cars, no traffic, no roads. Double Dee looks closer and finds something scribbled on the back. Need a ride? Show off your best moves.
Deserting the mental capacity to reason this strangeness, Double Dee shrugs his shoulders and dances.
A bright yellow taxi outfitted with jet boosters swerves and parks by the sign. The driver is wearing flashy shades and gave Double Dee a smile. “Lost?”
“Sort of? But I don’t know why, I am in my mind.”
“Everybody gets lost now and then, even inside their own heads. I’m Benni.”
“Edd –but friends call me Double Dee.”
Benni bobs his head, turns the dial, and music plays from a radio. “C’mon, let’s get you out of here, Double Dee.”
They arrive at Brink Terminal. A busy city painted in puke-y greens and sappy yellows. He thanks Benni for the ride and departs. At least he’s hit land now. But this is a place he’s never seen. A borough of New Amsterdam. Futuristic but somehow familiar. There are people in new fashion and cyber alterations. How do I get back to Peach Creek? Am I even on earth?
No, Edd isn’t on earth. Luckily, he finds his friends here too. Eddy’s yellow shirt is glaringly obvious and so is the irritation in his hoarse voice.
“Hey! Put us down you tin can!”
A robot with a backwards red cap imprisons Ed and Eddy in a tangle of stretchy tube-like arms. With inhuman speed the robot flees out of sight. Double Dee tries to follow (hearing Eddy punching metal echoes loudly through Brink Terminal, helping him track their movements) but miserably loses them. Taking big gulps of air, Edd curses his lack of cardio.
“Whoa, look! A time traveler!” A golden-haired woman saw Double Dee collapse in a heap. Her friends (one with a puffy red jacket, another with a red cyberhead) follow and help Edd up.
“He isn’t dressed like us –he’s got no tech. I think I’ve seen fashion like that in a museum.”
“Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Edd wheezed. “But some robot took my friends. I don’t know where they went.”
The woman shook her head. “That’s no good. You won’t be able to get anywhere in the boroughs only by train. You’ll need to skate!”
“And have a jetpack like us. If you help us out, join our crew –the Bomb Rush Crew, and we’ll help you find your friends.”
One can’t ask for a favor without exchanging something in return. Edd nods. “I’ll help you.”
The man smiled. “Great. I’m Tryce, the leader. This is Bel,” he raised an arm to the golden-haired woman. Double Dee is reminded of Nazz. “And this is our Cyberhead, Red. We’re writers of New Amsterdam. We do tricks, tag art everywhere, and are trying to make it to All City.”
“And find Red’s missing head,” Bel chimed in.
“That too. What do they call you?”
“Double Dee.”
“I like that!”
“Yeah, it’s totally rad.” Seriously, did Edd find Nazz’s missing twin?
“Let’s get back to our hideout and we’ll explain everything there.”
Double Dee’s eyes trace the colorful artwork painted on the hideout’s walls. There’s something beautiful about the chaos, the strokes and images all a dizzying display. His flesh is zapped by a laser as Tryce slowly implants a sleek new red-colored jetpack into Edd’s back.
“Just,” zap. “About,” zap. “Finished! Okay Double Dee, all that’s left is finding you some equipment. Do you bike or skate?”
“Rollerblades,” he answered.
Tryce gave a thumbs-up and found a new pair of rollerblades for him.
All four meet up at the center of the hideout and lounge on an orange sofa, playing a few rounds on an old NES system. Bel and Tryce explained about Red’s missing head and their mission to defeat DJ Cyber. “Now that we have a larger crew we can split up and cover more ground. Bel and I will go to Versum Hill. The Flesh Prince doesn’t run that part of the boroughs anymore but he may have info about your friends. You and Red can search Blink Terminal again. It’ll be a good place to practice your tricks.”
“Here,” Bel handed him an old cellphone. “This’ll be useful.”
He’s getting used to the jetpack. He grinds from rail to rail, and jumps with ease to signs and is able to do a few tricks. Edd follows Red, spraying walls along the way. Usually Double Dee is the scardey-cat of his friends, but he can’t ignore how freeing it is to just skate. When he jumps into the air, his stomach gets a giddy feeling, and when he glides across deadly gaps successfully and lands a complex trick, Double Dee is ecstatic.
The two take a break to go get snacks, and they just explore the city on foot. “Your writing needs some work but your tricks are rad,” the Cyberhead said. Before Edd could thank him their phones bleeped.
Bel: Found somethin. Seen robot going 2 Eclipse territory.
Tryce: We’ll meet u there. Gonna get some rep first.
Double Dee’s brows scrunched. “Eclipse territory?”
“It’s in Millennium Square. Let’s go.”
“Do you see them?” Red asked.
Double Dee searches the borough with a pair of binoculars. High above the cityscape he can see a tower. “There! They’re tied up.”
“Sounds like a trap. Should we just run in a save them?”
But of course, nothing is that easy. The Eclipse crew shows up to trouble the pair.
“What’re you two doing here? The stars said that new rivals would be invading our turf.”
“We’re just here to save our friends-”
“Huh! Like we’d believe that. Word is you chased out the Flesh Prince. You don’t have enough rep to challenge us, so scram.”
Outnumbered, Edd and Red fled. Weaving between the buildings and wall running, they gain enough distance to split up.
“I’ll distract them so you can save your friends,” Red said.
Edd circled back to the cylinder tower and started wall running up.
Eddy and Ed’s face brighten up when they see Edd. “Double Dee! You’re here too! Did you scale the tower all by yourself? That’s awesome.”
“Quickly get us out of here-”
Double Dee is sent flying off the tall cylinder tower when a metal arm smacked him. He panics as he flips head over heels, hoping he had enough fuel to use his jetpack. It rattles and coughs, sputtering, but then a burst of fire rights his long fall. Swerving up he goes to attack the robot.
“The Double Dork is going to fight back?” It said. The backwards cap and green shirt reminds him of Kevin. “Kevin Bot is going to destroy you, bleep bloop!”
Double Dee sighed. The robot even rides a bike like Kevin. “Fine then. Let’s get this over with.”
Kevin Bot may have strength and durability but Edd has agility and style to his moves. He lands a lurching blow by kicking Kevin Bot, using the momentum to launch himself up to the tower again. When the robot hit the ground, one of his foot jets broke. Hurling insults at the Eds, he promised to come back and challenge his new rivals again.
The Eds hugged Double Dee, thanking him for rescuing them. “That was so cool Double Dee!”
“Yeah, I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“I can be brave sometimes,” he punched Eddy’s arm and the shorter Ed laughed.
“How’d you get that jetpack?”
Before he could answer, the Cyberhead returned. “We gotta go. Authorities are crawling all over Millennium Square.”
The Eds and Red fled the borough and made it back to the hideout unscathed. Tryce and Bel greet them and welcome the new Eds into the crew. Eddy grabbed a skateboard and Ed a bike. The three of them are outfitted with jetpacks and practice moves until the sun sinks.
Eddy jumps on a sofa and laughs. “What a day! Now this is an adventure!”
Ed agreed, busy beating Bel’s high score on the NES system.
“It is fun, more fun than we had in a long time.” But the question hangs in the air. How do they get home?
Eddy yawned and shut his eyes. “I’m sure this is like, a videogame. We win and become All City and we’ll get to go home.”
“Yeah, home.” Home might be bland but I miss it.
He’s thrown into psychedelic dreams again. This time, Edd has to navigate through dangerous obstacles to get to a door on the other side. After a few tries he makes it and steps through.
“…up! Wake up! Man, you were out cold.”
“Whuh…Eddy?”
Double Dee looks up to see Eddy smiling at him. Did he fall asleep outside? Ugh. The lawn chair left him sore. The light sears his eyes.
“Morning, sleeping beauty.”
Edd snorted but a smile stays on his face. “How long was I out?”
“All night. It’s four in the morning. We’re gonna make breakfast. What do you want?”
“Bacon. Milk. French toast.”
“And waffles, don’t forget that. I’m starving. C’mon.”
“Wait,” Edd grabbed his shoulder and stood up. He and Eddy turned to see something that shocked them. A bright yellow taxi sign stabs the earth right outside the house on the street. There hadn’t been one there before. Eddy and Double Dee exchange a look and slowly, a big smile appears on their faces.